Dark Souls Walkthrough Part 18 – Sen's Fortress
Return to the Bonfire in the Undead Parish. This is very easy to reach from the elevator that takes you there from the Firelink Shrine. Rest up, repair and upgrade your equipment. Sen's Fortress is something different from what you have been dealing with so far.
From the bonfire, head down the walkway, to the now open gate. You will want to walk to either side immediately as there is an arrow trap very close to the entrance. It will only fire 3 arrows but it is better to just avoid. Also in this room are two Serpent Soldiers. They inflict good damage and will rapidly drain your stamina if you just block their attacks. The good news is they will not parry your attacks but you can parry their attacks easily. It is also easy to dodge them if you maneuver the fight into a wider area. Once the pair is down, go to the upper right part of the room to find a Soul of a Brave Warrior. Collect it then head through the nearby door.
In the next room it just gets more challenging. First you have a narrow bridge to cross, add on the pendulum axes and a serpent soldier further down and you have a real challenge in front of you. If possible use magic or arrows to dwindle the number of things on the bridge in your way. There is also a Serpent Mage above you. He will start throwing lightning spells at you a ways into the bridge. Try to avoid them without falling off. Make your way to the other end of the bridge then go up the stairs on the left. You will now be at the same level as the Mage. Either use cover and range to take it down or advance, guarding, through the pendulum axes to reach the Mage. Inside the room it was guarding is an arrow trap so keep your guard up as you enter in. The chest inside contains a large titanite chunk so collect it.
Before you advance there are some items to collect in the area below the bridge you just crossed. Return to the end of it, nearby the stairs you just went up and drop down. There are 3 Serpent Magi but they are very easy to deal with up close. The trio fact does make it a bit harder but that is about it. Before you drop down again, if you have the Rusted Iron Ring, equip it. This will help increase your speed a little as there is a lot of gunk that slows you down at the bottom of this descent. There are a number of Prowling Demons to deal with down at this level but they do give a fair amount of souls. With the ring they become much easier to deal with overall. There are a lot of things to be found down here as well. Kill the demons, collect the souls and the items then make your way upwards.
If you want, you can just skip dropping down and just keep going up from the walkway. If you do, you have another pendulum trapped walkway with a Serpent Mage on the far side of it. Head across blocking to prevent more knockback from the spells then push the Mage back as best you can. This makes it so you will push onto a trap tile but the arrows will hit the Mage, killing it. Head through the room and up the short staircase to the right. Cross the walkway and ignore the sleeping Serpent Solider. Ahead of you is another who will shortly get taken down by a boulder (or two). Now you need to go out to where the boulders are and from there run up to the middle of the staircase. Aim to get to the middle and transverse the White Light. Likely you will need to deal with a Serpent Mage about now but there is a chance the boulders will have weakened it a lot so it makes for a much easier kill. Optionally you can try for the top of the staircase now. Up there you will find a corpse that has the Ring of Steel Protection which decreases how much physical damage you will take.
Now head across the room to the opposite side where the short corridor is but do not cross through it. There is another trap and a Serpent Soldier at the other end. Done properly you can lure it into the small corridor and trigger the trap so it will kill it for you. Otherwise just fight it. Head through the the Serpent Soldier came from and go up to nearly the top of the stairs. Here you will have some more boulders to deal with. However there are a few options in this area. The easiest is to run up the stairs the boulders are coming down and where you see the two close pillars, drop off to the left. Kill the Serpent Mage on the same platform so you can make the next choice easily. Head to the left into the room with the corpse to find a Black Sorcerer Armor Set. Head up the stairs on the right all the way to find a few doors you can open. Keep looking to the left as you will find the passage up to where the boulders are being dropped from. Here you can move the lever so it will not be sending boulders down any of the passages, freeing you up to explore some of them.
First recommended exploration would be the route you just cut across. All the way at the bottom there is a door on the left-hand side. Inside is a small room with a “treasure chest”. Do not open it, instead attack it, this is a Mimic. Attempting to open it will have it eat your character meaning instant death. Keep on your toes and move around as it has a long reach. If you are having some trouble with it move into the corridor to heal or throw a Lloyd's Talisman at it. The Talisman will cause it to go to sleep giving you a few more free hits. When you beat it you will get a Lightning Spear. Now head back out and to the left. You will find another room with a corpse dangling from one of the window ledges. Pillage it to receive the Covestous Golden Serpent Ring which boost your item discovery by 200%! Now head back up to the boulder control room. Rotate it so the lever faces the open door for a few boulders then put it back to the opposite end once you collect from souls. Now head down the newly opened passage. If you have the Master Key you will immediately be able to free the man who is held captive in the cage. This is Big Hat Logan, a Master Sorcerer. Otherwise you need the Cage Key which is found else where. Now make your way back to the Boulder Control Room.
It is possible that the boulders have reset so be sure to move carefully into the corridor that is used to reach it. Now head down the corridor that is attached to this room where boulders will not go. There is a trap here so be careful as you transverse it. Head on through to the narrow walkway. There you must cross without getting hit by any of the blades. Now head to the left but do not go up the stair case. You will likely have to deal with a Serpent Mage and Soldier but it is easy to dispatch them in this area. At the end of this corridor you will find a corpse with 2 large titanite chunks on it. Now back track and head up the stairs.
At the top you will find your way to another narrow walkway. To your left is a Serpent Mage who will start to attack you. If you have any spells or ranged options then use hit and run tactics to kill it easily so you can cross this walkway safely. This particular trap is made of two sets of swinging pendulums so you can stop in the middle to catch your breath before you cross past the next pair. Now if you do not kill the Mage and made it across then head to the left, hugging the wall to avoid setting off the trap that is on the ground. Now you can simply engage the Mage in melee combat and kill now. Now go up the stairs and transverse the White Light. Immediately head to the right. Make your way down to avoid getting fire bombarded to death. You are fairly safe after the first staircase. When you encounter the Elite Undead Knight, you are safe from the Fire Bombarding. Take it down then head down to the next level and go right. There is a second Elite so kill it to get at the Firestone Ring that is in the chest behind it.
Now comes the tricky part. Return to where you entered this area. You will want to start running to the left, up the stairs. If you are hit by one of these massive fire bombs, you will likely die. Dash up to the second terrace and look for a gap in the wall. Use this to drop down to the bonfire below. Rest here and enjoy the break from the bombarding. When you are ready then head down the corridor and go back up the stairs to the left. This time continue all the way up to the final terrace. There is a path you can follow here. Keep at it to engage with a Heavy Knight who has a mace. This fellow is not too hard to deal with but he can be tricky if you are not careful and the nearby sniper is hitting you. Hug the wall as you approach him and keep to the narrow parts to keep it simple to avoid the snipe and back off when it is attacking. Continue along this path, going down the nearby ladder on the right. Cross the narrow walkway and go up the first set of stairs, stopping before the landing. There is a Unique enemy around the corner and he opens firing arrows. Peer around it to lock onto him then start up at him blocking all the while. This fellow loves to parry so only attack when you see an opening. Spell casting is not a bad thing to do here. Now retrace your steps back to where you encounter the heavy knight. It is time to deal with the sniper and get a few more items not to mention visit a merchant.
Run over to the right and start up the passage in that direction. For now just run until you reach some cover to the right. Inside, if you were to go to the left, you would encounter an Elite Undead with a Rapier. If you just go right you can keep moving along toward the sniper. The third and fourth options both have you going back onto the walkway you just crossed. Likely you noticed, or can seee from the safety of the shelter, a break in the walkway. If you drop from the break you will get a Sniper Crossbow and its respective bolt. If you can jump the gap you will find the Cage Key (to free Big Hat Logan if you did not have the Master Key) and a Merchant.
Crestfallen Merchant
Item Souls Item Souls
Black Firebomb 500 Greatsword 8,000
Green Blossom 1,000 Greataxe 8,000
Titanite Shard 1,000 Balder Shield 4,000
Large Titanite Shard 4,000 Tower Shield 8,000
Green Titanite Shard 5,000 Catarina Helm 10,000
Standard Arrow 10 Catarina Armor 10,000
Large Arrow 50 Catarina Leggings 7,000
Feather Arrow 100 Steel Helm 5,000
Standard Bolt 30 Steel Armor 8,000
Heavy Bolt 100 Steel Gauntlets 5,000
Sniper Bolt 250 Steel Leggings 5,000
T. Stoneplate Ring 15,000 Balder Helm 5,000
Spell Stoneplate Ring 15,000 Balder Armor 8,000
Balder Gauntlets 5,000
Balder Leggings 5,000
Once you get everything you want from the merchant head down the stairs you find in the same area. At the bottom you will find a Serpent Mage and a body with the Cage Key on it. Collect the key and later return to where Logan is to free him.
Go back across the gap and make your way up to the top of the of the tower you have been climbing to deal with the Sniper. Just past him, up another flight of stairs is some White Light. Through there you will fight the Iron Golem. If you keep going up you will come face to face with one of the Giants. While they are deadly at range they are not quite as fierce in close. Just keep your guard up and attack in the openings.
Iron Golem
This is another battle where using blocking is useless so just switch to the Two-handed style and leave it like that. Considering just a size difference to begin with, why would try to block anyway? This is a battle that can be won easily if done right. You can get some Summoned aid from nearby so keep some Humanity (and homeward bones) around in case you need the extra help.
Playthrough 1
Switch to two-handed style and close the gap between you and the Iron Golem quickly. This has some risk as two of its attacks can knock you off the narrow ledge thus sending you plummeting to your death. Still, you will find the best chance for success against this Golem by staying up close to it and hailing attacks on just one of its legs. Watch out carefully for the attack animations but its few close range attacks can easily be blocked. Just lay into the leg, moving from its front to back to avoid a few of its attacks. This will be hard to be because of the ledge but it will significantly decrease the damage you would otherwise take. Just keep at the leg until you see the Golem start to wobble. This means it is starting to lose his balance. Keep at it a while longer to cause the Golem to fall from the ledge. This only works on the ledge where the Golem first appears.
Beyond the Golem you will see a Light bloom. Use this light to reach Anor Londo.
