Crucifixion Woods

In NG+0, farm some souls to level up and/or restock on items before you fight Crystal Sage. The general area around the Crucifixion Woods bonfire is an invasion hot spot. If you don't want to be invaded while farming souls, consider playing offline while you're in the area. Equip the Symbol of Avarice, Silver Serpent Ring+0, and the Blessed Red and White Shield+1 to slightly offset the HP draining of the mimic head. Enemies along this route drop Titanite Shards, allowing you to upgrade your weapon to at most +3. The most annoying enemies in this route are the dogs. An effective way to deal with dogs is to lure one out away from a cluster of enemies, block with a shield, wait for the dog to attack and bounce off your shield, and hit the dog.

From the Halfway Fortress bonfire, make your way down the slopes and kill the 2 enemies who wield pikes and a further 4 pike-wielding enemies. Kill the dog and the nearby sitting enemy; this is near the corpse with a shiny. Proceed to kill the enemy who is standing with his face in his palm and the 3 pike-wielding enemies who are patrolling the shore of the swamp. Dispatch all nearby pike-wielding enemies, the Poisonhorn Bugs, and another dog. By now you would be low on Estus and HP so rest at the Crucifixion Woods bonfire. Continue by killing the 2 pike-wielding enemies who are patrolling, walking away from the bonfire in the general direction of where you would find Hodrick's purple summon sign. Further on near an edge are 2 pike-wielding enemies; kill them, but leave the 2 Lycanthropes alone. Now make your way through the hole in a wall. Kill the enemy who is leaning against a wall. Wait for the lamp-bearing enemy to look away from you and kill him. Proceed to dispatch of the mage and all nearby enemies. Press on your way to the Crystal Sage boss arena, killing all enemies along the way. Be sure to dispatch of the 2 mages as quickly as possible. Each round should yield approximately 8,328 souls.

Farming souls: Crucifixion Woods, Dark Souls III

After you have defeated Crystal Sage, you can reverse the above route by starting from the Crystal Sage bonfire. In one sense this is easier because you can immediately kill the 2 nearby mages. When you get to the room with the 3rd mage, eliminate him as quickly as possible. But this is where you would easily die because the lamp-bearing enemy would screech to attract the attention of other nearby enemies to gank you.

Below are some data on the approximate amounts of souls you would obtain if you use the above route for soul farming in various NG cycles. Note that the route starts from the Halfway Fortress bonfire. The data were gathered while equipping the Silver Serpent Ring+3, Symbol of Avarice, and Shield of Want.

• NG+0: 14,405