Catacombs of Carthus

The Catacombs is an area where difficulty ratchets up a notch due to the following reasons, among others:

1. Some skeletons must be killed twice for them to remain dead. You can easily spot such enemies by the glowing white orbs in their eye sockets. A Blessed weapon is effective against such enemies because you need only to kill them once by using a Blessed weapon in order to thwart their resurrection. Your most effective Blessed weapon at the moment is your Blessed Caestus. In general, a Raw Claymore+4 is more than capable of dispatching all skeletons at the Catacombs.
2. Some enemies, notably the large skeletons, can build up your bleed bar. Once your bleed bar is full, you would lose a substantial chunk of HP. Consume a Bloodred Moss Clump as soon as your bleed bar is around 50% full or is nearly full. Purchase this consumable from Greirat or farm them from the Lesser Crabs in the swamp near the Crucifixion Woods bonfire.
3. The large skeletons can be difficult to fight, especially if you're using a straight sword. A two-handed R1 from your Raw Claymore is effective at stun-locking them.
4. Traps are dispersed at various locations within the Catacombs. A trap is activated by a pressure plate on the floor. Once triggered, a trap would shoot two volleys of fire bolts that can hit your character and the PvE. Be careful what you step on. Look for protrusions on the ground.

13. Catacombs of Carthus, Dark Souls III

Large skeletons often drop Titanite Shards and sometimes Large Titanite Shards. If you want, farm these enemies for upgrade materials. Be sure to grab the following items:

• Carthus Pyromancy Tome
• Undead Bone Shard. A hooded skeleton is controlling the Skeleton Boulder, inside of which is hidden an Undead Bone Shard. Kill the hooded skeleton, wait for the Skeleton Boulder to smash against a wall, and you should see a shiny at the location where the Skeleton Boulder is destroyed.
• Carthus Milkring. Equipping the ring would temporarily increase your Dexterity by 3. For now, you should have enough Strength and Dexterity to enable you to properly wield the Broadsword and Claymore. Use the Carthus Milkring whenever you want to experiment with weapons that require some extra Dexterity.

You will find Anri at two locations within the Catacombs: once within the first half and the second time near the boss arena. Advance Anri's quest line as follows:

1. Exhaust Anri's dialogue before you head down the long flight of stairs along which a Skeleton Boulder rolls. Answer "No" to Anri's question.
2. The second time you would meet Anri is near the bridge to Wolnir's boss room. Anri would be standing near a cliff, face in palm. Near the bridge is a lever that opens a shortcut. Pull the lever if you want, but after doing so immediately proceed to exhaust Anri's dialogue for a second time. Answer "No" to Anri's question. Talk to Anri again and choose "Say nothing" as your response. If you proceed through the shortcut, Tsorig would invade you as a red phantom. You don't want him to invade you while you run to Anri's location.
3. Find Horace in Smouldering Lake and defeat him.
4. Talk to Anri a third time and choose "Say nothing" as your response.

After pulling a lever and entering the opened shortcut, Tsorig would invade you. He is a tank and difficult to deal with at the moment. Refer to the above video for an easy strategy to defeat Tsorig. Defeating Tsorig's red phantom now means he would be available to co-op with you against a later boss.

En route to finding Horace, you would encounter a mini-boss: a Fire Demon similar to the one you fought at the Undead Settlement. As shown in the above video, an easy way to chip down the boss' HP is to lure it to a mob of skeletons. Let the skeletons and Demon fight each other. In Smouldering Lake, grab the following items:

• Undead Bone Shard. The item is dropped by the Carthus Sand Worm. Use the cheese strategy shown in the video to help you defeat the Worm.
• Shield of Want. To be safe, grab this item after you have defeated the Carthus Sand Worm. While equipped, the shield grants an extra 20% souls from each defeated enemy. The Shield of Want is useful whenever you need to farm souls. The effect of the shield stacks with the Silver Serpent Ring and the Symbol of Avarice.
• As many Large Titanite Shards as you can grab. These are scattered in the area in front of where the Carthus Sand Worm spawns. Be careful of the Ballista firing great arrows at you.

The boss of the Catacombs is Wolnir. The fight itself is a gimmick fight. You are meant to break the three bracelets on Wolnir's arms. Buff your weapon with Gold Pine Resin/Bundle and stack as much physical defense as possible.

14. Sulyvahn's Beast on bridge, Dark Souls III

15. Sirris' quest line: Creighton, Dark Souls III

Once Wolnir is defeated, you must complete 3 tasks before exploring Irithyll:

1. Defeat the Sulyvahn's Beast while on the bridge to Irithyll. Once dead, the Beast would drop Pontiff's Right Eye, a ring that boosts your damage output as long as you continue to spam R1 with your sword. Refer to the above video for an easy strategy. Light the Central Irithyll bonfire.

2. Advance Sirris' questline by being summoned into her world and help her to defeat Creighton. Help Sirris to defeat Creighton, return to Firelink Shrine, and exhaust Sirris' dialogue to receive these items: Blessed Mail Breaker, Silvercat Ring. It's the Silvercat Ring that we want because while equipped the ring would negate fall damage from certain height. Get the ring and equip it immediately if you have a spare ring slot. The summon sign appears near where the Sulyvahn's Beast spawned provided that:

   • You have given the Dreamchaser's Ashes to the Shrine Handmaid and exhausted her dialogue.
   • Sat at a bonfire and warp back to Firelink Shrine.
   • Exhausted Sirris' dialogue while she was at Firelink Shrine.
   • Sat at a bonfire and warp back to Firelink Shrine again to make sure Sirris left the Shrine.

3. Send Greirat on his second pillage mission. Light the Central Irithyll bonfire, return to Firelink Shrine, talk to Greirat, and send him to pillage for the second time. Sit at a bonfire, warp back to Firelink Shrine again, and Greirat should have left the Shrine. Before exploring Irithyll, you should first explore Demon Ruins and defeat Old Demon King. Once Old Demon King is defeated, Greirat should return to Firelink Shrine with an enlarged stock of wares.