Huntsman's Copse

Go to the Rotunda at Majula, exhaust the dialogue of Licia, choose the option "Move Path", and pay 2,000 souls so she would open the passage to Huntsman's Copse. Make your way to Huntsman's Copse and light the Undead Refuge bonfire. Locate Felkin the Outcast near the bonfire and exhaust his dialogue. He is a merchant for Dark Pine Resin and hexes, among other items. Unless you have at least 8 Intelligence and 8 Faith, Felkin would refuse to sell anything to you. You need to stock up on Dark Pine Resin as soon as possible because some bosses are weak against dark. Felkin also sells Dark Weapon, a hex that buffs your weapon with dark for 90 seconds. Plan on levelling up to 16 Intelligence and 14 Faith in order to use Dark Weapon as well as to advance his quest line.

16. Huntsman's Copse Bridge Approach, Dark Souls II: SotFS

The area between the Undead Refuge bonfire and the Bridge Approach bonfire is littered with Undead Laborers and Captive Undeads. These enemies drop the Prisoner's Hood and the Prisoner's Tatters, armour pieces that boost your item discovery. Use these enemies to farm for the Prisoner's Hood and Prisoner's Tatters as early as possible because you want to boost your item discovery as high as possible when the time comes to farm for rare items such as upgrade materials, covenant items, etc. Equip the Watchdragon Parma and pop a Rusted Coin to boost your item discovery while you farm the Undead Laborers and Captive Undeads.

17. Farming Raw Stones, Dark Souls II: SotFS

You should now have the Watchdragon Parma and the Prisoner's Tatters, and optionally the Prisoner's Hood as well. Equip those two (or three) items, join the Company of Champions covenant, and use the Basilisk near No-man's Wharf to farm for a Raw Stone. Start from the Unseen Path to Heide bonfire. Usually if you kill a particular enemy 12 (or more times), the enemy would stop spawning. Being a member of the Company of Champions allows most non-boss enemies to respawn no matter how many times you kill them. Infusing your weapon with a Raw Stone raises the base damage output of your weapon without having to invest more points into Strength and/or Dexterity. You need only to have the required stats to properly wield a weapon.

Notable loots:

• Large Titanite Shard x 3. Dropped by the giant Basilisk at the bottom of a cave.
• Poison Moss. This is dropped by the Great Moths. Farm these enemies to stock up on Poison Moss in preparation for Harvest Valley and Earthen Peak.
• Sublime Bone Dust. Inside a mound, where a Royal Guard is found standing in front of an iron chest.
• Undead Lockaway Key. Found on a corpse. Approaching the corpse would trigger Merciless Roenna to invade you. Defeat Roenna first, then grab the key. Alternatively, make a suicide run to grab the key. You need the key to unlock the Undead Lockaway bonfire as well as initiate the quest line of Creighton the Wanderer. Exhaust Creighton's dialogue and his summon sign should be available to help you fight the Skeleton Lords.
• Estus Flask Shard. Found inside a cave filled with skeletons and Necromancer x 2. Kill the Necromancers first before dealing with the skeletons, otherwise the Necromancers would continually revive any skeletons you defeat.
• Titanite Chunk. Dropped by the Crystal Lizard near where you grabbed an Estus Flask Shard.
• Alluring Skull. Random drops by the skeletons inside the cave. Use Alluring Skulls to distract the skeleton minions during the fights against the Skeleton Lords and the Executioner's Chariot. Ten Alluring Skulls are available for purchase from Sweet Shalquoir. Alluring Skulls can also be farmed from the Undead Citizens found near Straid's Cell bonfire.

Executioner's Chariot

18. Executioner's Chariot, Dark Souls II: SotFS

This is a gank boss. The first part of the fight consists of killing Necromancer x 2 while avoiding the skeletons and the chariot. Kill the Necromancers and let the chariot take care of the skeletons for you. The skeletons are easily distracted by Alluring Skulls. Wait for all skeletons to be killed by the chariot, then pull a lever to stop the chariot horse from racing in circles around the arena. The second part of the fight is to defeat the chariot horse. Buff your weapon with fire or lightning. Aromatic Ooze is OK, but Dark Pine Resin should be a last resort.

Defeat the Executioner's Chariot and light the Undead Purgatory bonfire. Exhaust the dialogue of Titchy Gren, but don't join his covenant at the moment.

Skeleton Lords

19. Skeleton Lords, Dark Souls II: SotFS

Another gank boss where, as soon as you enter the boss arena, you must fight multiple skeletons at the same time. Use any weapon you are comfortable with, preferably a weapon that has a horizontal swing to help you control the crowd. The skeletons are weak against fire. Dark and lightning buff should be OK, but magic buff should be considered a last resort as the skeletons are highly resistant to magic. Summon Creighton to help you deal with the crowd, but you might find it easier to solo the fight. You must defeat three large skeleton lords and their skeleton minions. After a skeleton lord is defeated, it would spawn a number of skeleton minions. The skeleton lord who is in the middle as you enter the boss arena would summon Bonewheel Skeleton x 2 upon defeat. Bonewheel Skeletons can be the trickiest and deadliest enemies in this fight. In general, you should defeat one skeleton lord, wait for its minions to spawn, dispatch of the said minions, then move on to the next skeleton lord. The skeleton minions are easily distracted by Alluring Skulls.

Defeat the Skeleton Lords, proceed to the Poison Pool bonfire, and light it. Find Stone Trader Chloanne sitting on a nearby rock. Exhaust her dialogue, rest at the bonfire, and Chloanne should relocate to Majula.