DARK SOULS III How to get to the Ringed City early in the game

NOTICE

This guide assumes that you have both the Ashes of Ariendel AND the Ringed City DLCs and that you have beaten both at least once, and are an experienced player. This is not a guide for new players.

First And Foremost

You'll need to go to the entrance of the belltower at Firelink shrine and jump up the tree to get access to Pickle Pee, and extra Estus flask, and the Silver Serpent ring. Trade a firebomb to that birb and you'll get a large titanite shard, of which you'll eventually need 6 of. AND MAKE SURE YOU DON'T USE THEM ON ANYTHING, because they're VERY limited early on in the game. And after you've got your goodies from the ringed city, you can farm them from the Lothric knights behind the Dancer anyway.

What Build To Go For

How to get to the Ringed City early in the game image 5

You're essentially going for a two-in-one strength build, with one setup for regular enemies and bosses, and another for that pesky Sister Friede.

For your regular build, all you'll really need is Vordt's Great Hammer and armor of your choice, and eventually the Grass Crest Shield as well.

The reason for this is because Vordt's hammer is a very powerful weapon early on in the game, easy to obtain, and you can conserve your Titanite for the other build. Use Titanite Scales from the Cemetery of Ash and Farron Keep Perimeter to upgrade it to +2. It's not a waste of scales as they can be farmed fairly easily from the Ringed Knights in the city. The frozen damage it does can also help against npc enemies like Vilhelm and that pyromancer.

Remember you can two-hand Vordt's Greathammer at 20 Strength.

For the second build, you're going to need to rescue Greirat and buy a Bandit's Dagger from him and infuse it with a Heavy gem. As you follow this guide you should get enough titanite to upgrade the dagger to +5. We're not going for a bleed build here, that's just a small advantage. Then go to the Cathederal of the Deep and pick up the Curse Ward Greatshield.

The reason for this build is because Friede has some very quick attacks, but also has very weak poise. Daggers have the fastest attack speed in the game, so they can easily stagger her. The bandit's natural bleed infusion also helps massively during the second phase of the fight, as Ariandel is incredibly weak to bleed; it will only take 7 quick hits to get him to bleed. The shield will also be useful as it can be obtained very easily and has high stability and overall defence, and keeping your shield up is very useful to make sure Friede doesn't gank you by surprise. The weapon skill will also help, but we'll get to that later. Don't bother upgrading the shield, it's not necessary.

Build up your character like this:

Progressing Through The Main Game

You don't really need to do anything special. Just remember to pick up the Silver Serpent Ring for bonus souls and defeat the Cursed Rotted Greatwood to get Vordt's Greathammer.

When you get Farron Keep just take the most direct routes to the 3 flames, killing enemies as you go. You can stop to pick up the Sage's coal, Nameless Knight armor and the Golden scroll if you want.

Remember to kill the Stray Demon to get the soul for Havel's Ring as well as the Crystal Lizards opposite him for Large Titanite Shards.

As for the Cathederal of the deep, progress however you want but you don't need to go past the area with the hollow crossbow archer after the Grave Warden. Remember to pick up the Estus shard, Undead Bone Shard, and Curse Ward Greatshield.

By now you should be around level 40 and have 10 Estus flasks at +3, assuming you knew where all the Estus items were. If not, don't worry about it too much. Also make sure you have 3 Large titanite shards, 1 from Pickle Pee and 2 from Crystal Lizards on the High Wall of Lothric (the other end of where the Stray Demon is). You can pick the rest up later in the painted world.

Getting Through The Painted World. FAST.

The unique think about the Painted World of Ariandel is that you only need to defeat one enemy to get to Friede. That enemy is a toughie, but getting to him isn't so difficult. Just follow this list or watch the video.

From the Snowfield bonfire, head right past the Follower enemies and fall down the snow trap with the Rime-Blue Moss Clump.

Head left, running past all the wolves and tree women, past the area with the giant flies.

Fall down the hall and light the bonfire, then head down the ladder. You don't need to cross the bridge.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you kill the Crystal Lizard after the ladder, as it drops a Large shard.

Run past the followers down the snow slide, through the archway, run past the Corvian knight with claws and up the ladder. The bonfire is in a nearby house as you exit this house.

Run outside towards the crowd of Corvian Settlers (where the Corvian Knight with the rapier jumps down), but head right to the cliff edge before you get to them, then follow the cliff along until you get to a staircase with a puking Corvian. Climb up the ladder.

Head forwards into the tower and climb up the ladder, then follow the path along onto the roof of a building. Jump off and open the gate for a shortcut.

Fight Vilhelm and spank his botty.

If you die fighting Vilhelm go through the gate you opened to get to him quicker. Zigzagging can help avoid the attacks of the Corvian knight.

After you beat him go upstairs, light the bonfire, and do whatever with his souls.

This next part is tricky. You essentially need to keep going right until you get to the snow trap that drops you into a bunch of Milwood Knights, then head left. When you get to the wolves, go right and take the right path up the cliff.

IMPORTANT: After the 2 Milwood Knights, pick up the 2 Large Titanite Shards on the corpse. Kick the nearby rotted tree to open up a shortcut.

Go to the area with all the giant flies (a torch may help if they hit you with their ranged attack) then take the path right and then drop down near the column with the chains to activate the lever. If you die here it doesn't matter too much, as you can just go from the Rope Bridge Cave

bonfire directly to Ariandel Chapel and ignore the rest of this section of the guide. Actually, that might be a good idea.

Run straight ahead into the nearby archway and attack the illusiory wall up the stairs. Take the left path and go into the lit up archway and go upstairs to get to Ariandel Chapel. Get the Chillbite Ring from Friede and celebrate. You're almost ready.

Preparing For Friede

Make sure your Heavy Bandit's Dagger is +5, because damage will be important here, and equip your Curse Ward Shield with it. For rings, equip Havel's ring, Chloranthy ring, Flame Stoneplate Ring, and Chillbite ring. And remember to summon Slave Knight Gael. Even if you're like me and really dislike having another player or NPC help you, swallow your stubborn pride and DO IT. He's an excellent distraction during the 2nd and (if he survives long enough) 3rd phases. You'll also need 1 or 2 Ashen Estus flasks to restore your FP so you're quickstep is recharged for the final phase.

You should be around level 40 by the time you're ready to challenge Friede. If you're not, take a trip to the nearest suicide booth and have a chat with Yoel.

Fighting Sister Friede

Hooooooo boy. I can't really put into words how to effectively defeat her but I'll damn well try.

First phase:

MAKE USE OF QUICKSTEP. Like dodge rolling, quickstep has invincibility frames but has a shorter animation and travels less distance, meaning you can quickstep in after dodging an attack and slash at her.

Don't bother trying to backstab her. The vast majority of the time she'll just dodge out of it; It's better to just attack her normally.

Most of Friede's regular attacks can simply be backed away from. Hold up your shield, just in case.

When she pauses and holds up her scythe, she's going to do an attack with greater range that you can't back away from. This is a good chance to quickstep in and attack.

Friede's spinning attack where she holds her scythe behind her and then spins it twice CANNOT be quickstepped through, but it can be dodgerolled through.

If you attack her after she does her move where she disappears and jumps away, she occasionally does a spinning attack with greatly hightened poise that you can't stagger her out of. Watch out for this, and make sure you quickstep or roll away in time.

Second Phase:

7 hits is all it takes to get Ariandel to bleed, and he also seems to be quite weak to the slashing damage of the dagger. Therefore you should absolutely focus on Ariandel.

Don't bother quickstepping in this phase, as Ariandel is slow and easy to get back to after a roll. Save your FP for the next phase.

Recharge your FP and try to get Gael to focus on Friede, because you're going to want to focus on Ariandel.

Watch out for Ariandel's AoE combo. First he'll scream and not do much, but then he'll attack twice, stand up, and slam his bowl into the ground for a massive explosion. Make sure you're a good distance away when he does this.

If Ariandel starts glowing, Friede is about to heal him. Either make a beeline for Friede and attack her or hope Gael hits her first.

It is possible to stagger Ariandel and do a visceral attack on his head. You'll actually need to be nearer to his right shoulder when he's staggered for the visceral attack to activate, and his stagger phase lasts longer than his animation suggests.

Final Phase:

A lot of the points from the first phase apply here with the exception of that Friede can be backstabbed a bit more easily and she attacks much more aggresively.

Quickstepping can be somewhat riskier in this phase, especially if you're not used to it. If you're having trouble with it considern not quickstepping at all.

Because she attacks more aggresively you can potentially get more hits on her as she tries to hit you, but make sure you don't get too cocky.

Her invisibility move can be harder to pin down because she stays invisible for longer and jumps further distances. It's best to attack her after her first jump otherwise she might be hard to pin down.

Having Gael alive in this phase helps massively but don't panic if he's not with you. Just be patient and you'll be able to win in no time.

When you're done spend your souls on whatever. It doesn't really matter what you spend them on now as long as you keep your character build the same until you get what you want from the Ringed City.

Preparing For The Demon Prince

There's only one important thing you need to do.

BEFRIEND LAPP.Lapp is an absolute tank, and extremely effective at distracting and tanking damage from the Demon Prince. You can progress through the Dreg Heap as normal but you MUST recruit him if you want to beat the Prince easily and quickly. Here's how to do it:

After the Lothric Knights (that you can mostly ignore) and before the worm thing that's controlling the Angels, a part of the tower will collapse and form a bridge.

Go back to the area with the Lothric knights and you'll see an opening to the right has been created. Go to it and cross the collapsed tower to find Lapp. Exhaust his dialogue.

When you first get to the Earthen Peak, warp away and then back again and Lapp will be near the bonfire. Exhaust his dialogue then make your way to the Titanite Slab.

The Slab is in the swampy cave filled with Harald enemies. Make your way there from the house. It will be behind a Harald enemy to the left of the Poison pod enemies.

Go back to Lapp and exhaust his Dialogue and he'll give you a Siegbrau. He can now be summoned for the Demon Prince boss fight. After this, progress through the Earthen Peak as normal. Remember to kill those pesky worm people.

Fighting The Demon Prince & How To Get The "Easier" Prince.

Unlike for Friede, you'll need to be embered to get your summons. Also the summons arrive somewhat later during the start of the fight than other bosses, which in this regard, is a good thing. Assuming you didn't change your build which you shouldn't have anyway, Vordt's Hammer +2 is good enough for this fight. You don't want a weapon that's too powerful because you want the Demon from Below (the orange one) to be alive when the Demon in Pain (the red one) dies.

Summon both Gael and Lapp. Together they can take down one of the lesser demons easily.

As soon as you enter the boss fight, run towards the Demon from Below and get him to follow you away from the entrance. He will be in "fire mode" unlike the other one, so he will run after you whereas the Demon In Pain will only crawl slowly until he goes firey.

With any luck, You should have made some distance between yourself and the Demon in Pain, who will now be aggroed to Gael and Lapp. Don't bother helping them, they can take him by themselves.

There's not much to say about fighting a demon 1 on 1, as their moves are fairly predictable and don't do too much damage. Fight the Demon from Below normally, and you should get him to around half health by the time Gael and Lapp kill the Demon in Pain. Then they will make their way towards you and help you kill the final Demon.

The reason for killing the Demon from Below last is because he has a considerebly easier-to-avoid supermove. While it is possible to stagger the Demon In Pain's Demon Prince supermove, I don't think it's worth the risk.

As for the Demon Prince, I don't really have any pointers to give, as he's pretty much just a straightforward boss who has a LOT of health. Just be patient, try to get to his side as he prepares his supermove and you should have no problem.

That's It!

Now you can progress through the Ringed City as normal and get all those goodies you want.

OR you can run through a LOT of the Ringed City similar to the Painted World, if you want to get those items quickly. Just check where the bonfires are and you'll have no problem running past everything like an ickle babby. When you get all the stuff you want just run through the Cathederal of the Deep until you get to Rosaria, then you can respec your character however you wish.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=916182146

How to get to the Ringed City early in the game