Dark Souls Walkthrough Part 20 – Painted World of Ariamis

Dark Souls Walkthrough Part 20 – Painted World of Ariamis

Head on forward as once you enter this world you cannot leave it until you are finished here. Make your way forward to the first bonfire and rest up. Head up the stairs to deal quickly with three standard zombies. Now go to right and use a bow to cut the rope holding the corpse aloft. It has a Humanity for your effort and arrow. Now go up the nearby steps. You will find a soul of a proud knight a few flights up. You will need to find a few zombies on the way. There is also a new type of zombie for you to deal with, the Engorged Zombie. If they are wielding a torch they will come in close, otherwise they will blast you with fireball attacks. Do note that whenever you kill them they unleash a short stream of poison. This means you need to be on guard against that as well. Just continue to make your way up the stairs. Head into the room on the left. There is a platform on the far side that can be reached with a very tricky jump that has a dried finger. If you continue down you will find a pair of Snow Rats and a Brave Soul in the corner. Now head up and across the bridge. On the other side you will encounter two more engorged zombies, one with a torch and one throwing spells at you. After them is a second pair of zombies but only one is engorged while the other is just a regular one with a sword. Be careful as they can gang up on you easily especially if the one above decides to drop in and join the fight.

Now head outside and to the left. There is a corpse with a Proud Knight Soul guarded by a single zombie. Head back insdie and go up the stairs that are in front of you. Run and jump the gap in the room at the top. On the far side is a corpse with a Brave Soul. Now walk over to the left and go all the way forward. You will find an interesting item at the opposite end of the building, the Egg Vermifuge. Now backtrack to about where you found the Soul and look for a ladder on the left. Take it down to deal with a zombie and a pair of rats at the bottom of the stairs. In the same room as the rats you will find a chest with the Painting Guardian Armor Set. Collect all this then head back up. Now return to where you climbed up the stairs and collected the soul guarded by a zombie. Head to the right.

Cross the bridge and go to the right in the ruined tower. Slide down the slope and go forward to find another Brave Soul. Now head along the left-hand side and drop down. Keep going forward and once again you will find the ladder leading up into the ruined building.

Head through the building, dealing with the engorged zombies. Beyond it you will find a tower that you can see easily from anywhere in this world. Around here there are a number things to find but also some very hard to kill enemies. If you go inside and start up the stairs you will encounter a Crow Demon. These are hard to hit but have low health making them easier to kill. They have a one hit kill attack where they screech and leap at you. The only way to dodge this is to roll forward. All its other attacks are slower which makes them easier to dodge. Going up will give you a Red Sign Soapstone, allowing you to duel other people who access it while human, and a Brave Soul. If you go around the tower to the left, hanging close to the building, and go down the steps you will find some White Light Through it is the courtyard and a passage that leads to Pricscilla the Crossbreed once you find the switch for it. Be wary as entering the courtyard animates a large number of Phalanx, a tough enemy but a good area of effect spell after they gather can be a wonderful aid here. If you go to the left and across the bridge you will encounter an Undead Dragon. This battle requires strict hit and run tactics if you must engage in melee. If you have an absrud amount of arrows you can snipe it slowly. Avoid its poison breath which not only inflicts toxic but it damages you as well. Defeat it for 5,000 souls and a Dragon Scale. Continue along the bridge to collect a bloodshield and a Proud Soul.

Still, just walking or running across the courtyard is not a bad idea. If you open that door it gives you fast access back to the bonfire. From there you may find it is sometimes easier to fight this collection of Phalanx in melee using the cover that is around the area.  Always try to deal with them no more than 3 at a time. Once you clear the Phalanx out there are a lot of items you can gather in the area. To the right of where you came in is a bit of humanity if you shot the corpse down all that time ago. If you head forward towards the double doors but go left down the hill you will find some Torch Zombies and a number more items. The Pyromancy Acid Surge is to the right of the stairs behind a wall. If you head forward from the stairs you will find 3 Proud Souls, one of which is a Large Proud Soul. Now head back into the courtyard and go to the opposite side as the stairs. Take the stairs there  up. Go to the left, walk up to the corpse, then retreat back into the building. This will draw out the nearby zombies so you can fight them without getting too peppered by the arrows shot by the sniper on the left, if you have not killed it from walking around the fortress earlier. Now just head to the left and down the stairs. You will find another room with a ladder. Take it to the area below. Here you will encounter a number of Wheel Skeletons. Take them on one at a time to make it easier for you overall because of their style of attack, rolling at you. If it lands some hits it can kill you quickly. Just keep moving and avoid being in a position to block if possible because of the raw stamina drain. It is best if more than one comes at you to run for the ladder up. If they do kill you, take out only what you need to before retrieving your body. It is very easy to die down here. Once you do clear out the wheel skeletons there are a few souls to be collected here, a Brave and a Proud Soul.

Now it is time to deal with a few more skeletons in narrow passages. Strike the wall to the left of the Brave Soul to reveal a passage. Look to the left to find a lever you can pull. You need to do this to clear the way to Priscilla the Crossbreed. Try to engage them at intersections or lure them out into the large room you were just in. Fight your way right, hitting the odd stone wall to reveal the passage and follow the bend to get the Annex Key. This will give you access to some armor, weapons and a spell back in the courtyard. Head back up to the courtyard and go to the opposite side as the stairs. In the back you will find the door to the Annex.

Go up the stairs. At the top you will have a Engorge Torch Zombie. Kill it then smash the wooden door to your right. Inside there you will find Velka's Rapier. Head to the left and up the stairs carefully as there is another Engorged Zombie that will be throwing Fireballs at you. Also at top are two pairs of Crow Demons. They only appear two at a time which makes your life easier. Just retreat down the stairs and into the room you first arrived in here to make it easier to just kill them individually. At the top you will find the Miracle Vow of Silence. Continue on forward to the tower to collect Velka's Armor Set. Now head down and go on forward. You will encounter a pair of engorged zombies, one torch and one spell caster. Once you kill them approach the frozen blacksmith and collect the Dark Ember from him.

Now head back to the courtyard. Collect what you want then head to the bonfire and heal. It is time to attempt to reach and beat Priscilla The Crossbreed. Head on through the courtyard into the ruined tower and go on through the door you opened below. There are a few Zombie Archers mixed with some Sword Zombies to give it something of a challenge. That is just the first part though. Once you get past where the first archer was four Sword Zombies will climb up behind you. It is important to quickly run back behind them so you can avoid pulling the Heavy that is nearby with its Greatsword.  It will ensure if it does try to engage you have room to back up and likely get it to forget about you for a while. Aside from the just keep pressing forward.

Priscilla The Crossbreed
This is another boss where you can get a weapon if you manage to cut off her tail.  If you manage it you will receive Priscilla's Dagger which is very handy. She is also a unique boss who will not attack you until you have attacked her. This makes it a lot easier to weigh a few more things in your favor for the battle.

Playthrough 1
Focus on getting behind her and going through all your optimal battle preparation. She will begin talking at you so use this time to keep at her and, hopefully, remove her tail. As mentioned it secures you a unique dagger. Once the battle has begun attempt to dodge more than block her attacks. Her slash attacks can inflict bleeding which will rapidly drain your health. Attempt to be at her front when she does her slash attacks as they more cover her sides than there. Another attack to note is her Fairy Dust attack. She takes time to expel a shimmer cloud that will linger on the battlefield. It is very powerful if you get caught in it so keep clear of it at all cost. This attack also gives you a lot of time to move in and attack as it has a significant recovery time. The final ability she has is Invisibility. She will turn invisible then start attacking you. You need to land a few hits on her to get her to drop this obfuscation. The easiest way to do this is to watch the snow below for her footprints. When you do land hits blood will appear on the snow nearby so keep an eye out for it as well. You will want to press the attack and keep fairly mobile for this battle. Dodge rather than block her slash attacks to avoid building up toward the bleeding status.

New Game +
Her attacks have not changed while you have grown more powerful. Again keep an eye on her and start strong, going behind her and just laying into her at the start of the battle. Whenever she uses Fairy Dust be sure to punish her for expelling that cloud. After that, just keep moving and block if you have good bleed resistance.

If you do not want to kill Priscilla, then you can easily run past to the plank beyond her.