Grand Archives

In the base game, the Grand Archives is the best area for farming souls. Enemies in this area drop Large Titanite Shards and Titanite Chunks. The Lothric Knights drop Lightning Gems, the Winged Knights drop Blessed Gems, and the Scholars and Thralls drop Crystal Gems. By the time you reach this area, you should have a +10 weapon. In NG+0, consider using a Lothric Knight Greatsword+9 and a Lightning infused Lothric Knight Sword+9 when you farm souls. You might find that Rapport can immensely help you to kill the Lothric and Winged Knights. Even if you have only 10 Intelligence, equipping the Scholar Ring would give you an extra 5 Intelligence for a total of 15 Intelligence, enough to use Rapport.

From the Twin Princes bonfire, kill every enemy on your way to the 3 Winged Knights. Fight the Winged Knights and then head down to the Grand Archives and kill every enemy on your way to the Grand Archives bonfire, fighting as many gargoyles as you want.

Cast Rapport on 2 of the Lothric Knights outside of Lorian's boss room so the 4 knights would 2v2 amongst themselves. Lothric Knights are vulnerable to lightning and stun lock. Use an ultra greatsword having a thrust R2 and do a fully charged R2 to stun lock a Lothric Knight. Each Winged Knight is vulnerable to frostbite and backstab. Equip a medium or great shield and use the Irithyll Straightsword. Once frostbitten, hit the knight with a fire weapon and switch to the Irithyll Straightsword for frostbite again. A lightning infused Lothric Knight Sword is also effective against the Winged Knights. You can also cast Rapport on one Winged Knight and let him fight a nearby Winged Knight. Once Rapport is cast on an enemy, you can still hit the enemy. Rinse and repeat.

The following ultra greatswords can be used to stun lock Lothric Knights: Astora Greatsword, Lothric Knight Greatsword, Cathedral Knight Greatsword, Fume Ultra Greatsword, Profaned Greatsword, and Lorian's Greatsword. Un-upgraded versions of these weapons were tested on the greatsword wielding Lothric Knight near the Twin Princes bonfire, at NG+7. The Lothric Knight Greatsword deals the most damage when buffed with Gold Pine Bundle. The Fume Ultra Greatsword has the longest reach.

My preferred route is to kill the 4 Lothric Knights near the Twin Princes bonfire, followed by the 3 Winged Knights. I would then head down to the level that has a ladder shortcut, the ladder that must be kicked in order to activate the shortcut and near a wax basin. On that level, I would kill the 2 Thralls, one Lothric Knight, and one Scholar. Next, I would descend the ladder shortcut and kill all 4 Scholars, run to the Lothric Knight standing near an edge and kill him, jump off an edge that is near a Crystal Lizard and kill the Lothric Knight nearby, kill the 4 Scholars in front of a wax basin, and finally kill the 4 Thralls nearby.

Farming souls: Grand Archives, Dark Souls III

Below are some data on the approximate amounts of souls per round, including the percentage increase relative to the previous NG cycle. In addition to the other soul increasing equipments, I would use the Mendicant's Staff only for the fight against the 4 Lothric Knights near the Twin Princes bonfire and the 3 Winged Knights. For other fights, I would exclude the Mendicant's Staff. Some enemies can be one-shot such as Thralls and Scholars who don't have burning wicks. One-shotting an enemy would yield more souls than if you kill it with multiple hits.

• NG+0: 258,309
• NG+1: 516,618 (100%)
• NG+2: 573,090 (11%)
• NG+3: 586,114 (2%)
• NG+4: 619,959 (6%)
• NG+5: 632,848 (2%)
• NG+6: 645,765 (2%)
• NG+7: 658,675 (2%)

Near the Grand Archives bonfire is a shortcut elevator you can use to reach the 3 Winged Knights. Each Winged Knight is very strong, but killing all 3 would earn you a huge amount of souls. One way to effectively farm the Winged Knights is to equip Rapport and use a weapon with lightning damage, such as a Lightning infused Lothric Knight Sword+9. Trigger the Winged Knights, cast Rapport on the knight who wields twin axes, and let him fight the nearby knight. In the meantime, run close to the 3rd knight, cast Rapport on him, and then eliminate him with backstab and/or R1 spam. After 2 knights are dead, kill the remaining knight with the same method. Below are some data on the quantity of souls obtained during a given amount of time for each NG cycle. The data were gathered while equipping the Silver Serpent Ring+3, Symbol of Avarice, and Shield of Want. For each NG cycle, the number in square brackets is the average number of souls per minute and the number in parentheses is the amount of time in minutes spent farming.

Farming souls: 3 Winged Knights, Dark Souls III

• NG+0: 758,160 [50,544] (15)