Dark Souls Walkthrough Part 9 – Upper Depths

Dark Souls Walkthrough Part 9 – Upper Depths

Head all the way down the stairs that leads into the Depths. There are a few zombies waiting close to the bottom for you but nothing too bad ... for this game. Double back to the area by the stairs to collect a Large Nameless Soul. Now head forward carefully into the next room. There are a lot of zombies in here that can easily surround you if you are careless. Attempt to lure them to the doorway or stairs to narrow the number you are fighting at once.

Head down the next set of stairs slowly as there is an Attack Dog waiting for you that will launch at you. Use the stairs to your advantage to quickly kill it or at least defend against it. Now at the bottom of the stairs you have a Butcher and another Attack Dog. They will not attack you until you are closer so, if possible, use some ranged for some early damage. Behind them is a chest with a Large Ember inside it. This is a very valuable item that will let you ascend your weapons thus allowing them to get even stronger.

Now head to the other end of the room. There you can drop into the water but stay nearby the stairs. There are a number of Attack Dogs that will come after you but with your reduced speed it could get very difficult to deal with them. Once you have dealt with a few and made it easier to move around without as much fear of attack, head to the left in the waterway. You will find Laurentius of the Great Swamp trapped in a barrel that you need to free him from. Roll into the barrel to ensure his safety. Talk with him to secure his aid then it is time to move on.

Head down the waterway and around the bend. Keep moving forward through this small calm (with one Butcher waiting in ambush for you). Descend the next set of stairs and you will encounter a number of slimes. They are hard to spot in the water so just focus on potential motion and clicking on your lock-on. There are a total of 6 in the long waterway so just keep ready for attacks and keep trying to lock-on to them. At the far end of this walkway you can see a Bonfire through a locked door. To get to it you need to either use the Master Key or the Sewer Chamber Key. The Sewer Chamber Key is found just down to the stairs and the connected corridor. The ladder leads to a shortcut that you need to open from the other side. You will need to fight through a few rats on the way to the Sewer Chamber Key going to the left. Dispatch them and take the ladder down to find the Sewer Chamber key. Now head back to the Bonfire and heal up if you could not already. Now head back along the path to the key and look for a tunnel nearby the stairs. Take this path to proceed.

Move along this path very carefully as there are a number of ports you can fall through and land in an area filled with Basilisk who are very nasty. A well place roll can clear the port but it is very hard to pull off. But it does help as they can inflict Curse which is not easy to deal with and cost a LOT of souls to be cured of. After the potential basilisk, on the far side, are rats. They are usually buffed by the nearby Channeler making them worse than usual (Firebombs are a great idea in those cases).

Once you emerge from these tunnels there is a Giant Rat waiting for you. While its size can work against you, in terms of just engaging it, you can also retreat back into the tunnels if you get into serious trouble. These are also a Ranged Fighter/Spell Caster's best friend as you can lure the Rat to them then just pick it off without too much concern to your health. Just head on past the rat after you kill it (or one could just run past it if they desired) and duck down one of the nearby run-off drains to reach the lower area of the Depths.