Dark Souls II [Guide]

Prepare to die. But try not to. Hopefully this guide will help you avoid such
grisly matters…

Dark Souls II [Guide]
Written by Dalton “HorrorSpooky” Cooper and Trade
Copyright 2014

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=TABLE OF CONTENTS=
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1. Introduction and Controls
2. Walkthrough

Things Betwixt
Majula
Forest of Fallen Giants
Heide’s Tower of Flame

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1. Introduction and Controls
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2. Walkthrough
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THINGS BETWIXT
==============
At the start of the game, you don’t really have anything or anything much to
do. Instead walk forward from the center and through the tall grass. Go up
the hill and ignore the bones and creatures here. Keep walking forward until
you see a house. Enter the house.

First, you’ll be asked what your name is. Give your character a name. You
will be rewarded with a human effigy item. After that, it’s time to actually
create your character. Edit the appearance of your character however you
wish.

The most important part of the character creation process is not how you
make your character look, but rather which class you choose for your
character. These are the classes that are available to choose from in
Dark Souls II:

Warrior
Knight
Swordsman
Bandit
Cleric
Sorcerer
Explorer
Deprived

The toughest class to chose at the beginning is Deprived, as you start out
with absolutely nothing. Next you’ll want to choose a gift. Here are your
gift options:

Nothing
Life Ring – Increases HP
Human Effigy – Returns Hollowed to life
Healing Wares – Items used to cure poison and HP
Homeward Bone – Returns you to your last bonfire
Seed of a Tree of Giants – A seed grown from a Tree of Giants
Bonfire Ascetic – Raises the strength of nearby foes
Petrified Something – A petrified lump

After you’ve made your choices, finalize the customization process. Are you
sure this is your true self? Probably not. Oh well. Let’s keep moving
forward. Time to break that curse.

Exit the house through the door that you did not enter through, though you
may want to go upstairs and smash the chest for some “rubbish”. Outside you
will find your first bonfire. Activate it. Smash the wagon to get to some
items that are on the other side of it. Then continue through the narrow
gap.

You’ll find yourself in a dark area with a narrow path. There are mist portals
here…multiple of them. Ignore them for now and just keep following the
main path until you see the gorgeous light of dawn.

To Top

======
MAJULA
======
Keep following the path, and a bit off to your left you will see a dead body.
Loot it, then look past it to another entrance. Follow this entrance and you
will find a knight chilling out on the side of the path, saying that a creepy
statue is blocking his way.

Enter this building, but ignore the statue that is guarding the switch. There
are two wooden doors in here, and there are ghoulish creatures on the other
side of them. Open one of the doors and then kill the first creature. Then
open the next door and kill the next creature. There’s no need to fight them
both at once, so just kill them one at a time. You can keep leaving and
coming back here to make them keep respawning to grind pretty easily if
you’d like.

Meanwhile, return to the main path into Majula. Here you will find a small
settlement. There is a man selling armor in one of the houses. You probably
can’t afford anything right now, but you can climb the ladder in his house to
find a treasure chest that you can loot. There is also a house with a talking
cat pawing at the wall.

Go on the outside of the house and you’ll find that the area where the cat is
pawing has a dead body on the other side, underneath a tent. Loot this body
as well. Now there’s a variety of things you can do, but first you should
activate the bonfire near the coast. Speak with the Emerald Herald multiple
times and she will explain some things to you. Whenever you have enough souls
to level up, you need to speak with the Emerald Herald.

Soon we will be heading to the Forest of the Fallen Giants, which is to the
right of the Emerald Herald if you face the ocean, near the lit torch that
you can use to light your own, portable torch when the time comes. There is a
man sitting near a monument that you can speak to if you wish, plus there is
a ruin that leads to the Tower of Flame. You don’t want to go there just yet
though, but if you want to venture in to the beginning parts of the ruin for
some loot, before you actually get to the Tower of Flame part, you can as
there is no danger.

Before heading to the Forest of Fallen Giants, there is still some more to
do in Majula right now. There are two locked houses. The large house near the
big hole in the center of town is of interest right now. There are three
pig like creatures that can be slaughtered for their souls, just don’t let
the three of them gang up on you or you’ll be toast.

In addition, there is a well near the side of this house, with a large rock
on it. Smack the rock so that it plunges into the well. This will lift up a
dead body with an item on it, so grab the item. That’s all there is to do in
Majula right now, so start making your way to the Frest of Fallen Giants.

Loot the chest in the first room of the ruins that lead there, found to the
immediate right of the entrance. Then continue deeper until you come across a
lever that controls a large gate. Pull the lever and the gate will open, though
it will shortly slam shut behind you.

There is a cave system to move through. There is a chest in the center area.
It will be tempting to step out into the water and go after the dead person
that is in clear view, but you will fall to your death. Just note its location
for now and take the path to the forest.

To Top

=======================
FOREST OF FALLEN GIANTS
=======================
A new type of enemy will be here to greet you. They are zombie like creatures
armed with blades, though they are very weak and have low HP. Kill the first
few, but be weary of the archer just across the creek. Use the logs as a
bridge to get to him and kill him after you’ve taken out his buddies, and
then continue.

You’ll come to a ladder. Climb up the ladder. At the top, there will be a
clearing of sorts with a big knight sitting in the middle. There’s a bunch
more of those zombie creatures, at least three, and they will charge you as
soon as they see you.

Head to the right (if you’re facing the front of the big knight), and then
you’ll find another ladder. Climb to the top of this ladder and wait for
the creatures to come up one by one so that you can kill them with minimal
danger to yourself.

When they’re dead, slowly make your way up these steps. There will be two
more of these monsters just up ahead, so kill them and be careful not to
fall off the ledge. Go up ahead a little more and you’ll find two paths. One
goes down and one goes up. Take the “up” path first to find some a healthy
batch of souls. Then take the “down” path to get to a pesky archer. Get rid
of him as well.

Now you can return to the knight and fight him if you want. He’s honestly not
that tough to beat if you know how to dodge his attacks properly. To engage
him in battle, hit him with an attack. He, the Heide Knight, will then start
to fight you.

His attack is that he swings his sword twice in a row, but he does so in a
very haphazard manner that makes him very easy to dodge. Your attacks will
not interrupt his attacks like they may for weaker enemies, so you really need
to focus on dodging. Don’t get greedy with your attacks, and just wait for
him to swing twice and then hit him, retreat, repeat the process.

Before fighting him though MAKE SURE EVERYONE IS DEAD. Some of these zombie
things will get up even if you think they’re dead, so make a run around the
area to make sure you have killed them all before fighting the Heide Knight.

When the knight is dead, loot him for his sword. Now to continue in this area
you’re supposed to move through the nearby mist, which leads to a spooky
cave with more zombies that have axes. But before doing that, backtrack a bit
to the creek.

There’s some loot to get here. If you didn’t notice, there’s a clearing across
the water. Roll across the water and kill the zombies here. Then light the
bonfire that is found here. Lighting bonfires will make the enemies all come
back to life, but this is good. Just an excuse to grind for more souls and
you should be very adapt at fighting these guys by now.

After lighting the bonfire, kill everyone again, making it a point to get rid
of the archer as soon as possible so he can’t do too much damage with his
ranged attacks. Then explore both ends of the river. One will lead you to the
dead body that you saw earlier in the cave. Loot it and be very careful not to
step off the ledge.

The other side of the river will also lead you to a body. You can loot this
one for a precious Life Gem that you can use for healing. When this area
sufficiently looted, return to the area where you fight the Heide Knight. Kill
the enemies here just like you did last time (don’t forget the archer), and
then approach the mist.

As you move down into this cave, there will be a hill of rubble leading into a
room with a zombie. Don’t go there now. Take a left, and then VERY carefully
move around the next corner, but make sure you’re at full health just in case.
A zombie will leap at you, so dodge him and then kill him. Now take out the
zombie that’s in the room you saw before, and smash everything that you see in
here to get some more loot.

Continue down the hall, and you will come to a stronger skeleton enemy that
is equipped with a large sword. Bait him down the hall a bit. Dodge his attack,
kill him, and then slowly move up the steps. You’ll see an archer. Hide behind
the wall to the right as you get up the first landing of the steps. Wait for
the melee-focused zombies to rush down, and then lead them into the caves so
that you don’t have to deal with the archer and his tendency to chuck fire
bombs.

Kill them and then rush up to the top of the steps and kill the guy throwing
fire bombs. Climb up the next ladder and before opening the door, go around
the corner to find a skeleton with a spear weapon. Again, bait him, wait for
him to attack, then kill him yourself.

Now open the doors you passed. Inside you will find a bonfire. Light the
bonfire and then speak with the merchant hag. She has the key to the shop in
Majula, so purchase it for 1000 souls. Also purchase anything else you need,
like life gems or anything else you may want. When you’re done with her, it
may be a good idea to fast travel back to the Emerald Herald using the bonfire
before you continue your adventuring in the Forest of Fallen Giants.

In your return trip to Majula, speak to the blacksmith; he will be sitting
outside the shed that has his tools and things, and it is locked. Unlock it
with the key you bought from the merchant. Loot the chest inside for a free
short bow, then speak with the man again to confirm that you’ve successfully
unlocked his place for him. Use the bonfire to return to the Forest of Fallen
Giants when you are done in Majula.

Now what you need to do is go down the ladder near the bonfire. There will be
some tough halberd-equipped enemies down here. The trick to them is letting
them try to attack twice, then making your move. It will take a few hits to
take them down, but they are not too difficult to kill as long as you don’t
let them corner you.

Loot all the bodies in the area, and then make your way to the next mist. There
will be an enemy in here to ambush you when you go to look at the mist, so kill
him first. Look at the mist and it will open your way to an area with a large
tree branch to climb, so climb it to the top and kill the enemies that come
down to meet you.

Climb the next ladder. There will be some enemies with their backs to you.
Take advantage of this and kill them by surprise. To your right is a ladder.
Don’t climb it. Do kill the enemy that is throwing fire bombs above you though,
preferrably with a ranged weapon. If you can’t use a ranged weapon, then climb
the ladder and knock him down, then quickly climb back DOWN the ladder and
engage him then. A powerful boss enemy spawns up here and you don’t need to
be fighting him right now this early in the game.

Go down the next flight of stairs and quickly roll when you reach the bottom
to avoid the enemy attacking on your right. Lead them backwards and kill them
in an area where you have a lot of space to move around. Then climb down the
next ladder. There will be another short set of stairs with a lootable dead
body right next to them, so take advantage of that before going down the
stairs and moving forward, where you’ll find a hole in the wall to your
right. Ignore this place for now.

Instead go to the end of here and talk with the guy that’s sitting on the
bench for a bit. Now return to the hole in the wall and across from it you
will find a large enemy with what appears to be a large turtle shell on his
back guarding the next room. Kill him. He’s a bit slow, but he has an attack
where he swings his club in a downward angle that can knock you down, which
can potentially be disastrous. If you are ranged, it’s smart to lead him all
the way back to the ladder and just take pot shots at him from above where he
can literally do nothing to you.

If fighting him melee style, you’ll want to take out the enemies hanging out in
the windows above him because they will drop fire bombs on you. To get to
them, enter the area this dude is guarding and take a right. You’ll find a
ladder propped up against the stone wall. Climb it to the top and you will
then get to these enemies. Kill them and then hop out of their window onto
the wagon below and begin your fight.

At any rate, when this guy is dead, go into the room he was guarding. Numerous
enemies will be waiting here to kill you, so kill them instead. Go up the
stairs and loot the body. Then start going up the giant stone sword. About
halfway up, turn around and run back to the room. Two enemies will chase you
down here, and it’s much easier to fight them down here than on the big ass
sword statue that you can fall off of very easily.

Anyway, kill them, climb the top of the sword, and then loot the body at top
for a powerful halberd weapon. Climb down from the sword and then enter the
mist. The mist will lead you to the other side of one of the locked gates you
encountered earlier, down the ladder from the bonfire where the old hag
merchant is located.

Go through that gate (loot the body near the lift, but do not step on the lift
just yet). Climb up the ladder. Rest at the bonfire and also return to Majula
to spend any souls that you may have on leveling up. Go reinforce your weapon
at the blacksmith if needed. Your life is about to get a lot more stressful,
so also make sure you have purchased all possible life gems from the hag
merchant back in the Forest of Fallen Giants at the bonfire there in the
Cardinal Tower.

Once you’re certain you’re ready, go to that lift I told you to walk by
earlier. To get there, climb down the ladder next to the bonfire, then go
through the gate that couldn’t be opened during your first trip down here.
Step on the button that is on the lift and ride it to the bottom.

As you move down the hall, an enemy will be to your left. Kill him quickly.
You have the option to “summon” allies from online if you so wish, though
this obviously requires an Internet connection. To do this, go to the glowing
yellow words on the ground and choose to summon them. You can’t summon allies
when you are “Hollow”; you become Hollow if you die. You also lose a piece of
your health meter permanently until you use a Human Effigy.

At any rate, the mist down here will lead to the first major boss fight in the
game…against The Last Giant.

————————–
BOSS FIGHT: THE LAST GIANT
————————–
This boss is no easy task, but he can be beaten if you have EXTREME patience.
Do NOT get greedy with your attacks here, or else you’ll die. First, let me
go over his attacks and how to dodge them.

The Last Giant has a sweeping attack where he drags his arms and knuckles
across the ground in an attempt to swipe at you. This is very easily avoided
by rolling toward the giant at a diagonal angle so you land near his feet, or
by simply standing behind him so that he can’t hit you with his arms.

The Last Giant also has a tendency to stomp his feet when you are attacking
his ankles. For melee-focused combatants, that is really the only way that you
can do any significant damage to the bastard, so learning how to dodge his
stomps is integral to survival during this boss battle.

His stomps come in two flavors. First, he will just lift his foot up and stomp
once. Sometimes he will stomp once with one foot, then quickly with the other,
and then with the original foot. This attack creates a mini shockwave that
can not only knock you down, but it also causes a severe amount of damage.

Because of this, you need to be VERY conservative with how you attack him,
especially if you are melee focused. Hit him once, then walk away or roll if
you have to in order to avoid being stomped on, as that practically kills you
with one hit.

Then just go back to his ankle, attack, retreat, and keep doing this process.
Sometimes he will get annoyed with this and jump away from you so that he is
facing you and can use his sweeping attack again. Remember, just roll toward
the giant. Hell, you can just go right between his legs if you’d like, that
will work as well.

The giant has another attack that he uses rarely, but it works in your favor
more than anything. It’s where he pulls a Ric Flair style belly flop and just
crashes to the ground in an attempt to squash you. You can tell when he is
about to do this because his limbs will go limp, so get the hell out of there.
Get behind him or far away from him.

Then run up and slash like crazy. This leaves the giant completely vulnerable
for a short period of time, so take advantage of this opportunity. Beat the
living hell out of him, but once he gets back up, it’s time to go back to
the old strategy and DO NOT. GET. GREEDY.

Once his health is less than half, The Last Giant will rip off his arm and use
it to extend the reach of his sweeping attacks. Thankfully, this does not have
much effect on you. Yes, if you do get hit by the attacks, they will do
considerably more damage, but if you just keep using the strategy from
before then you will rarely if ever even get close to being hit by the arm.
It’s still the feet that you need to be the most concerned about here.

Killing The Last Giant is no easy task, but if you tackle him prepared and
with knowing of how he operates, then I assure you that it is most certainly
feasible.
————————–
BOSS FIGHT: THE LAST GIANT
————————–

When The Last Giant is dead, he will give you 10,000 souls. This is extremely
valuable and you don’t want to risk losing it, so return to the bonfire
immediately. Go back to Majula, and then level up your character as much as
possible with the souls. Use the remaining to improve your weapons, buy
supplies, whatever you need to do. Then return to the Forest of Fallen Giants
for some more torture.

The Last Giant also gives you a key that opens the brown doors that you have
probably seen around the area. The first one we’re going to go to is very
easy to reach. Return to the bonfire near where you fought the Last Giant.
Climb down the ladder like usual, but this time cross the bridge that extends
over the pit of fire. There is a brown door here to unlock with the key,
called the Soldier’s Key.

Through that door you will get access to a treasure chest. Pop it open to get
a ring that will constantly heal you throughout the game, albeit very slowly.
This is an EXTREMELY useful item because it means you won’t have to use as
many life gems as before and it is even an option to simply hide from enemies
and wait for you health to refill. This doesn’t make the game THAT much easier,
but you have something less to stress about in regards to not having any life
gems to refill your health.

Now it’s on to the second brown door. Remember the big stone sword you
walked across? Return to that area. Be cautious because the enemies have
returned. You’ll find the brown door here. Open it and go through to the other
side to fight more enemies. Tough shielded bastards, but there is an easy way
to kill them.

Bait them to the top of the stairs. Here you’ll find one last set of stairs and
a small platform to stand on. Trick them into walking off the platform after
you. It will take a couple of seconds for them to regroup, which gives you
ample opportunity to attack them in whatever manner you wish without having to
worry about the possibilty that they will block your attacks.

Anyway, you want to come up here for some goodies that can be looted off of
the dead body up here. Now do even more backtracking, this time going all the
way back to the turtle knight you dealt with earlier. Run by him. Remember that
hole in the wall that I told you to ignore? With the ballistas inside? Well,
now it’s time to go in there because you’re going to have a hell of a lot
easier of time dealing with the multitude of enemies.

Sprint in there and immediately go to the left or to the right to avoid being
hit by the ballistas. Lead the enemies around in a circle and attack them as
they come. If you are feeling especially brave, try using the ballistas to
blast them as you run around in the circle so you thin the herd quite
considerably.

Try to bait the turtle knight in here if he has respawned as well. He can be
killed with one hit using the ballistas. Climb down the nearby ladder. Loot
everything and then climb back up the ladder. We’re not quite done exploring
the Forest of Fallen Giants just yet.

But for now, let’s head back to Things Betwixt. Now that you are properly
equipped and have gained significant experience in battles, fast-travel back
to the first bonfire of the game at Things Betwixt. Remember all those mist
doors I told you to ignore before? Well, start going through them. The enemies
on the other side will be pieces of cake.

Through the first mist door, you’ll find a few enemies. You can read the
stones to learn various basics about the game. Kill the enemies and then you
will come to a torch. There’s a nest up here that demands “silk things”, but
you don’t have that right now. Look down and you will see a dead body with an
item and a ledge you can fall on. Carefully fall off so that you land on the
ledge. Loot the dead body and then you can return safely to the starting area
and go to the next mist door.

This one is a lot simpler. Just kill the enemies, and then at the end, jump
across the gap to get the item on the other side. To jump, dash and then click
in the left stick to get over the gap.

Now return to Majula, and spend any souls you can to level up. Return to the
Forest of Fallen Giants, at the Cardinal Tower bonfire. Exit and then approach
the ledge. Look down and you will see wooden support beams that you can fall
on. Do this. Kill the two enemies here, and then continue. There will be
another ledge you can jump across, this one featuring a body that has a human
effigy on it to collect. Snag the effigy.

Continue along the scaffolding and use the large tree trunks to climb down.
Killing the enemies down here is a good idea as almost all of them have useful
items on them. Once they’re dead, turn your attention to the tunnel with the
fire in it. Step into it a bit, then quickly turn around and exit. Two more
enemies will show up in an attempted ambush, so kill them and then sprint down
the tunnel.

As soon as you see the gate door to your left, open it. The salamander’s attack
will not have an effect on you during the door opening animation. Open the
chest inside for a fire sword. Now backtrack either to the bonfire at the
Cardinal Tower or just go through the Forest of Fallen Giants all the way back
to Majula. I recommend the latter option as it will allow you to re-face
threats you’ve already handled and grind for useful items and XP.

Your journey in the Forest of Fallen Giants is not done just yet, but for now
it is. Time to head to the next major area of the game…

To Top

======================
HEIDE’S TOWER OF FLAME
======================
But first…back to Majula! Do whatever you need to here, level up, rest at
the bonfire, use the merchants here, whatever. Then go to the house with the
cat in it. Just beyond that house is a tunnel that is clearly visible. Go
through the tunnel and you will come across a room with a heavy locked gate.

Go up the steps and there will be a lever to pull down. Pull the lever to raise
the gate. Now you’re free to continue to Heide’s Tower of Flame. The first
thing you’ll see here is a powerful enemy with a shield and a sword. This is
an “Old Knight”, and these guys are the primary enemies in this area.

The first one with a sword will either swing his sword three times in
succession, stab forward, or make a hard slash down. You need to roll to the
side just as he is about to swing the sword in order to roll underneath it,
take a swipe, and then retreat.

An alternative strategy is to bait the Old Knight back the way you came. He
will eventually stop following you, then you can chase him down and attack
him from behind, retreat, and then just keep repeating the process until he
is dead.

Do not rest at the bonfire (located just down the stairs to the right of the
Old Knight), unless you want him to respawn. Continue forward and you will
come across another Old Knight, this one equipped with a big club. His attack
pattern is slightly different. Stand back and watch it. When he is recovering
from a heavy swing, that is when you should strike and just keep repeating
this until he is dead as well. Ranged weapons on this guy will also be a
viable option, as will the baiting technique.

The third Old Knight you come across is exactly like the first one. Defeat
him in the same manner, and then a lever will rise out of the ground. Pull
the lever. If you happen to die, the knight will respawn but the lever will
remain pulled so you don’t have to re-pull it if you don’t want to.

To Top