Frozen Eleum Loyce

You must have the Frozen Flower to access the Crown of the Ivory King DLC. Open the door to Frozen Eleum Loyce and light the Outer Wall bonfire. The whole area is under a blizzard, some paths are blocked by ice, and various treasures are frozen. Ignore all treasures for now and make your way to the Abandoned Dwelling bonfire.

66. Frozen Eleum Loyce, Dark Souls II: SotFS

Your first objective should be to calm the blizzard so that some treasures are unfrozen and various paths are unblocked. To this end, you should collect the Eye of the Priestess to allow you to see the first boss of the area. The Eye of the Priestess also allows you to see enemies that were previously invisible in the game. Grab the item, make your way to the Inner Wall bonfire and light it, then warp to the Outer Wall bonfire to prepare to fight the first boss, i.e. Aava.

Aava, the King's Pet

67. Aava, the King's Pet, Dark Souls II: SotFS

This boss is mostly resistant to all elemental damage. Aava's highest elemental resistance is dark. The boss is least resistant to lightning so buff your weapon with Gold Pine Resin.

Rescue the Loyce Knights

Defeat Aava and ascend a staircase to light the Grand Cathedral bonfire. Exhaust the dialogue of Alsanna to have her dispel the blizzard, thus unlocking various treasure chests and paths. Start from the Outer Wall bonfire again and explore the area for treasures.

68. Backtrack through Eleum Loyce, Dark Souls II: SotFS

Notable loots:

• Durgo's Hat. This head piece increases the range of bows, great bows, and crossbows. The effect stacks with the Hawk Ring.
• Symbol of Avarice. Found inside a Mimic near the Inner Wall bonfire. The Mimic is located in a room with two deactivated Frozen Golems, among other enemies.
• Ring of Resistance+1. On a corpse near various ballistae. This ring boosts your petrify resistance by 200 points. The effect stacks with the Ash Knuckle Ring to boost your petrify resistance by 600 points, enough to allow you to safely explore areas where enemies can build up your petrify metre.
• Ring of the Embedded. This ring increases your Vigor, Endurance, and Vitality but at the cost of taking approximately 8% more damage. The ring is more useful the lower is your soul level. You gain the maximum benefit from the Ring of the Embedded if each of your Vigor, Endurance, and Vitality is no more than six. At six Vigor or lower, equipping the ring would increase your Vigor by seven points. Similarly for Endurance and Vitality.
• Vessel Shield. Equipping this shield would increase each of Vigor, Endurance, Adaptability, Intelligence, and Faith by one point. The shield also increases each of Strength and Dexterity by four points. Similar to the Ring of the Embedded, the effect of the Vessel Shield is more useful for very low level characters such as an SL1 character.
• Brightbug x 2. Found in a Mimic that was previously frozen.
• Garrison Ward Key. Found inside a cave whose entrance can be opened by lighting the four sconces near the entrance. As long as the blizzard is raging, you can't light your torch. Calm the blizzard first, then visit this area to explore the cave. The Garrison Ward Key opens the passage to the Frigid Outskirts, where you would find the second boss of the DLC, i.e. Lud and Zallen.
• Crown of the Ivory King. Can be collected after defeating the Burnt Ivory King.

69. Rescue the first Loyce Knight, Dark Souls II: SotFS

Your next objective is to rescue Knight of Eleum Loyce x 3. The three Loyce Knights, plus the fourth at the Grand Cathedral, would assist you in the fight against the Burnt Ivory King. On your journey to rescue the three Loyce Knights, you will be invaded by three NPC red phantoms. Castaway Witch Donna invades you on a rampart near a captive Loyce Knight, who is guarded by a Rampart Golem. Like Maldron at Brume Tower, she would try to back away and lure you to the Rampart Golem. Don't fall for this trick. Instead, poison her with Poison Arrows or Poison Knives and try to dodge her sorcery in the meantime. Stay near the general area of the elevator. The second NPC invader is Hexer Nicholai. He can cast hex and lightning miracles so be sure to boost your dark and lightning defense. The summon sign of Sellsword Luet is found nearby, but you shouldn't summon Luet to help you gank Hexer Nicholai. Simply run back to the elevator that took you to the area, ride the elevator up, and wait for Nicholai to return to his world. The third NPC invader is Holy Knight Aurheim. He invades in the area littered with barrels and disguises himself as a barrel.

70. Rescue the second Loyce Knight, Dark Souls II: SotFS

71. Rescue the third Loyce Knight, Dark Souls II: SotFS

You will encounter Maldron for the second time. He uses the White Ring to appear as a friendly white phantom and makes a friendly gesture to trick you. He is not counted as an invader so you wouldn't see a message telling you an invader has entered your world. Before fighting Maldron, ensure you light the nearby Lower Garrison bonfire, have cleared the area of all enemies, and don't pull the nearby lever to open the large metal gates. Like your previous encounter with Maldron, this second encounter is also a cat-and-mouse game where he would run away to heal and lure you to enemies. Sometimes he would throw Corrosive Urns at you to break your equipment. Have some Repair Powders ready. Poison Maldron by using Poison Knives or Poison Arrows. Summon Sellsword Luet to distract Maldron while you get in one or two hits.

72. Frigid Outskirts, Dark Souls II: SotFS

Frigid Outskirts is the gauntlet area of the DLC. When the environment is clear, visibility is high and you should run as quickly as possible to the nearest distinct landmark, usually a ruined building. During a raging blizzard, Ice Stallions would spawn to harass you. Usually one Ice Stallion would spawn during a blizzard provided you are on a straight path to the nearest landmark, but straying off the "right" path would cause more Ice Stallions to spawn. At the start of the Frigid Outskirts, summon these NPC phantoms to help you distract enemies: Head of Vengarl, Abbess Feeva, and Manhunter O'Harrah. To effectively deal with an Ice Stallion, use a strike weapon such as the Great Club, the Old Knight Hammer, or any other great hammer. Upgrade your great hammer as high as possible, infuse it with a Raw Stone, and buff with Charcoal Pine Resin. Equip the Stone Ring to deal extra poise damage to an Ice Stallion. Two-hand your great hammer. Two R2s are enough to pancake an Ice Stallion.

Lud and Zallen, the King's Pets

73. Lud and Zallen, Dark Souls II: SotFS

This gank boss is weak against fire, but lightning is also effective against the boss. Ninety percent of the difficulty is making your way to the boss arena at the Frigid Outskirts. At the start of the fight, only Lud jumps down to the arena to fight you. Take this opportunity to deal as much damage to Lud as possible because after a while Zallen would also jump into the arena, making this a gank boss. Have some Repair Powders ready.

Burnt Ivory King

74. Farming Loyce Souls, Dark Souls II: SotFS

75. Burnt Ivory King, Dark Souls II: SotFS

Before defeating this boss, consider farming Loyce Soul x 50 by defeating the Charred Loyce Knights in the Old Chaos, the arena where you fight the Burnt Ivory King. Use an upgraded great hammer, buff your weapon with Gold Pine Resin, and R2 a Charred Loyce Knight. Have plenty of Repair Powders ready because each R2 can rapidly drain the durability of your great hammer. With Loyce Soul x 50 in your inventory, proceed to defeat the Burnt Ivory King. Buff your weapon with Gold Pine Resin. Then exhaust the dialogue of Alsanna to receive the Loyce armour set as well as the Soul of Alsanna, Silent Oracle.