Great Belfry
Before heading to the next area, collect Orbeck's Ashes at the Grand Archives. Since you have already bought everything from Orbeck, there is no reason to give Orbeck's Ashes to the Shrine Handmaid. Instead, give the Ashes to Yuria. Answer "Yes" to her question to receive the Morion Blade, an item that will be used to kill a mini-boss later on. Furthermore, ensure you have these requirements for casting Tears of Denial: 12 Attunement, 15 Faith, and the Deep Ring in your inventory. Use the following guide to help you farm enough souls to get the required stats.
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34. Great Belfry, Dark Souls III
Warp to the Dragon-kin Mausoleum bonfire. Locate the nearby Man Serpent Summoner and kill it as quickly as possible, then defeat the Drakeblood Knight. As long as the Man Serpent Summoner is alive, after defeating a Drakeblood Knight the Summoner would summon another Drakeblood Knight. Now make your way to the Great Belfry bonfire, en route to which a wyvern would harass you. Don't fight the wyvern yet. Run past the wyvern, kill another Man Serpent Summoner as quickly as possible, and defeat the Rapier Champion to receive his rapier.
Ensure you grab these items:
- Thunder Stoneplate Ring. This is located on a platform above a Giant Man Serpent. Climb a ladder to access the platform.
- Dragon Chaser's Ashes. This is guarded by a Rock Lizard and a horde of (Giant) Man Serpents. Summon Hawkwood to help you fight the enemies. In case Hawkwood dies, quit to menu, load your game, and summon Hawkwood again. Whatever you do, don't sit at a bonfire, otherwise all defeated enemies would respawn again.
- Titanite Slab. This is guarded by a Havel Knight. Use a poison and bleed strategy to easily defeat the Knight. Upgrade your Poison Rotten Ghru Spear to at least +9. Your Blood Bandit's Knife should be upgraded to at least +7. Use the Poison Rotten Ghru Spear to poison the Knight. Once the Knight is poisoned, switch to the Blood Bandit's Knife, one-hand the weapon, and spam R1 to trigger bleed.
- Great Magic Barrier. Located on a platform underneath where you fought the Havel Knight.
You will advance Hawkwood's questline in this area. Summon Hawkwood to help you defeat all enemies. Next, ascend a summit, use the Path of the Dragon gesture to sit in front of an altar, and wait a while to receive an item. Wait for Hawkwood to ascend the summit as well. He would use the same gesture and disappear after a while. Return to Firelink Shrine and talk to Andre to receive Hawkwood's Swordgrass, an item signifying that you can now access the final stage of Hawkwood's questline. We will postpone the final stage until later on in the game. There's little compelling reason to complete Hawkwood's questline now or later in the game. Complete it whenever you want.
The area boss is Nameless King. During the first phase, you must fight the Stormdrake, which is weak against lightning. Use your Raw Dragonslayer's Axe+10 to hit the Stormdrake's head. The second stage is where you would face-off against Nameless King. Have your Blood Bandit's Knife upgraded to at least +7, get in one or two hits, and dodge his attacks. Cast Tears of Denial as necessary, but do so prior to entering the boss arena. To cast this miracle, you require only 12 Attunement and 15 Faith, both of which you should already have by now. Equip the Deep Ring and the Sunlight Talisman, sit at the Great Belfry bonfire to attune Tears of Denial, stand up from the bonfire, and use the Sunlight Talisman to cast Tears of Denial. Remove the Deep Ring and equip the Thunder Stoneplate Ring in its place. Consume a Yellow Bug Pellet to further boost your lightning defense.
After defeating the Nameless King, you would be in front of a bonfire. Light the bonfire and proceed ahead to grab a Titanite Slab, which can be used to max out the Dragonslayer Greatbow. Farm enough souls to level up to 20 Strength and 20 Dexterity. Have these in your inventory: 50 Dragonslayer Greatarrows, 50 Dragonslayer Lightning Arrows, 30 Onislayer Greatarrows. These will be used to snipe the wyvern mini-boss. You only need 50 Dragonslayer Greatarrows; the other great arrows are backups in case you miss most of your shots. Travel to the location shown in the video below to snipe the wyvern. Equip the Red Tearstone Ring and the Morion Blade in your right hand. Decrease your HP bar low enough to trigger the effects of these two items; use the Symbol of Avarice as necessary. Once the effects of the Red Tearstone Ring and the Morion Blade are active, remove the Symbol of Avarice (if you have it equipped), equip the Dragonslayer Greatbow in your left hand, equip Dragonslayer Greatarrows, and snipe the wyvern's snout.
35. Wrap up Great Belfry, Dark Souls III
Use the same strategy to easily defeat Hawkwood, thus completing his quest line.
