Dark Souls 3: Crystal Sage to Cleansing Chapel

One down. We're on a roll. Let's head straight for the next Lord of Cinder.

Dark Souls 3: Crystal Sage to Cleansing Chapel

Having put down the Abyss Watchers, we're now going to make two comparatively short, mostly linear treks, to reach the main central bonfire of the Cathedral of the Deep zone. That's where the slog starts.

Travel to the Crystal Sage bonfire and exit on the path leading away from Crucifixion Wood. As you advance you’ll hear a Crystal Lizard nearby; you might be able to spot it by peering over the edge. Turn your audio up, sneak as close as you can, and drop down to murder it when you hear the pitter-patter of its tiny feet. Or just run to the ledge and drop immediately if you’re sure of your angle.

With one lizard dead, drop down again to the path below, and immediately turn right to murder another Crystal Lizard. They both drop Twinkling Titanite.

Don’t continue on the path where you hit the second lizard; go the other direction, arriving at a ledge where you can look at the area ahead and plot your approach. There’s a patrolling woodsman and an Evangelist close by, and another woodsman on the other side of the open area. Use your field intel to decide how to engage them; ranged players will have a ball. When everything’s dead, you can collect a Herald set from the area below.

Cross the bridge – any warning messages are just having a laugh – and activate the Cathedral of the Deep bonfire.

Before you move on, here's an optional challenge. There’s a hard-to-see path near the Cathedral of the Deep bonfire; it’s on your left just past the tree as you approach the steps. There’s a nasty NPC at the bottom. His tricks include: kicking to stagger you so he can critical hit you; using his sword two handed to break your guard and stagger you see he can critical hit you; throwing poisoned daggers; being a jerk.

If you don’t have enough poise to endure his assaults without staggering and opening yourself to criticals, you need to roll away from his attacks rather than take them, and be ready to follow up fast. If you're a shield user, you'll want to push your advantage when he’s using twin blades, and keep your distance from his guard-breaking two-handed stance. He's not super fast with the twinblades so look for openings after his combos, and when he throws a dagger.

If you beat him – or lure him out, get past him, and accept death – you can grab the Paladin’s Ashes. Take these to the Shrine Handmaiden to unlock a stack of extra goodies for sale. Worth the pain.

When you're ready to move on, climb the stairs and look for a path to the right; if you’re online, there’ll be a stack of messages. This path leads to the Crest Shield, which is really useful against Dark type damage.

At the end you'll find yourself on a ledge overlooking where you would have been if you'd just proceeded up the main path. There's an NPC here, and you have the chance to cheese or just get in a surprise attack. The NPC drops the Spider Shield, which is resistant to poison; good for exploring Farron Keep if you left any treasure there.

Continue through the gates. A dog will attack you as you move in, and there are three crossbowmen to snipe you – one ahead, and two to your left as you enter this area. Watch out for three more dogs – one in the trees nearby, one on the upper ledge, and one over by the two crossbowmen – as you deal with the ranged threat. When you’re satisfied that it is safe, hug the right wall from the entrance for a path leading up to a Soul of an Unknown Traveller.

The pillars here mark the threshold of the Cathedral of the Deep proper. You need to be very, very careful of the grunts here and beyond. When their health gets low, many of them will burst into flame, and shortly thereafter, explode. If they're right next to you when this happens, you'll take a huge hit of damage. You can either put them down before they have a chance to trigger their self destruct, interrupt them as they cast it (tricky), kill them at a distance - or just run away. They only have a very few moments to live once the flames erupt. As in other areas, passives won't aggro unless you attack them - but unlike other areas, all the passives have a chance of initiating self destruct. Like we said, be careful.

Pass through the pillars and move forward to battle an overseer; yes, he will explode. Since there's a risk of sudden firey death here, we'll deal with the rest of the stuff in this area after we light the bonfire. Open the doors and explore the nice, safe interior; you’ll find a Notched Whip in one corner. Activate the Cleansing Chapel bonfire.

Continue via Cleansing Chapel.

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