Dark Souls Defeating Seath the Scaleless

In Dark Souls, defeating Seath the Scaleless is necessary to obtain one of the souls for the lordvessel in the firelink altar. This will guide the hero in journeying from the Duke's Archives third bonfire, getting through the crystal golems courtyard, going through the crystal cave to the bottom, reaching Seath the Scaleless and finally defeating Seath the Scaleless.

In dark souls, from the Duke's Archives third bonfire, head through the secret passage on the right and down the alcove into the lower levels. Exit through the door and enter a platform that overlooks the crystal golem courtyard. Be wary of the crystal warrior behind you. Take care of this crystal warrior and go down the ladder on the side.

From the bottom of the platform, turn around and look for a crystal looking texture on the ground. There are two crystal golems guarding the entrance to the crystal cave. This should be the area to go to. There will be a golem on the hero's left and one straight ahead as he runs through to the entrance to the crystal cave. It is entirely possible to defeat all these crystal golems before getting to the crystal cave. However, in the interest of saving all those health points and pyromancy spell slots, it is recommended the hero just keeps rolling and running past the crystal golems. Now head into the crystal cave by going down the crystal pillar.

In dark souls, the hero must get to the bottom of the crystal cave to confront Seath the Scaleless. Well, it's not really the bottom of the crystal cave. It's just the lair where Seath the Scaleless lives. The very bottom of the crystal cave is actually quite deep and spells death for the hero. To make matters worse, the hero must transverse some invisible walkways within the crystal cave. Stepping outside these invisible walkways will result in a fall to the very bottom of the crystal cave and instant death. This will guide the hero in finding and walking the right path when on the invisible walkways to eventually reach Seath the Scaleless's lair.

First when the hero goes down the first pillar, he will have to confront another crystal golem. Defeat this golem very quickly and run down the crystal pillar. Then turn right and head down another crystal pillar. At the end of this crystal pillar, the hero will see a Moonlight Butterfly. Do not approach the Moonlight Butterfly unless the hero wants to engage it in a fight. Instead turn around and walk on another crystal pillar to the end. Turn left and notice some ice flakes falling and apparently hitting the ground, except there is no ground. There is only air where the ground is. This is the first invisible walkway. This invisible walkway is straight, so the hero can literally run straight across to the next pillar.

On the next pillar past the first invisible walkway is a golden golem. Defeat this using fire orbs or great fireballs quickly. Now head to the end of this pillar, and turn right to see snow flakes dropping down onto more air. This is the second invisible walkway. Drop down from the ledge where the snowflakes are hitting, and the hero will start at the second invisible walkway. This invisible walkway slopes down and away from the center, so the hero must walk (roughly midway) straight on in between a Moonlight Butterfly on the left and a crystal pillar on the right. At the end of this second invisible walkway, climb onto the crystal platform, and the hero is nearly at Seath's lair.

In dark souls, it is highly recommended that the hero just runs to Seath the Scaleless's Lair from the end of the second invisible walkway. This area is full of maneating clams which can deal lots and lots of damage. If one were to have Pyromancy Flame +5 and use Fire Orbs to destroy all the clams, the hero would have used up all the fire orbs from the first and second pyromancy trainers. To run past these clams, the hero should run along the left side of the wall and then roll at the attack of the final clam. By rolling about three times, the hero will have arrived at the entrance of Seath the Scaleless's Lair. If the hero is approaching Seath the Scaleless the first time, a cut scene will take place. Otherwise this area is blocked by a fog gate. Transverse the white light and the clams cannot follow.

In Dark Souls, the hero should prepare well before entering Seath's Lair to defeat him. Tactics must be well conceived in advance for maximal chance of defeating Seath the Scaleless.

Before embarking on the quest to defeat Seath the Scaleless, the hero should obtain the Cursebite Ring from the New Londo Ruins (it's on one of the many corpses here). Wear this ring for the Seath fight, as Seath can curse the hero with his ground spike attacks. It is not a good idea to fight Seath with half of the hero's health points from being cursed.

It is also a good idea to kindle the Duke's Archives third bonfire to +20 estus flask fillings, so the hero can use all the magic attunement slots for attack spells, and leave none for the Heel miracle. Spells to prepare include the Combustion spell (32 Combustion attempts if the hero had purchased from both pyromancers) and the Iron Flesh spell. It is worthwhile to attune the magical slots by putting Combustion as the first spell, Iron Flesh as the second spell, and Great Combustion as the third spell. This is for easy selection in the heat of battle to defeat Seath the Scaleless. When entering the fog gate, switch to the combustion spell as the main spell.

Now when the hero has passed through the fog gate, just run along the left wall to the end of the cave. Roll when the hero reaches Seath the Scaleless's tail. Keep running until the hero reaches a crystalline structure at the back of the cave. Destroy this with one combustion spell. Without destroying this crystalline structure, the hero cannot defeat Seath the Scaleless.

Now turn around to face Seath the Scaleless. Run and roll for the tail of Seath the Scaleless. When the hero reaches the tail, cast Iron Flesh and now march towards to the body of Seath the Scaleless. Notice that when Seath calls on his ground spike spell, it barely damages the hero. This ground spike spell can still curse the hero though. It's a good thing the hero is wearing the Cursebite Ring. Now switch back to the 31 combustion spells and start spam combusting Seath the Scaleless. Watch with absolute delight as the spam combustion attempts can torch Seath for up to +4000 damage (for Pyromancy Flame +5) after the fifth or sixth consecutive attack. It is imperative the hero keeps combusting Seath. It's a race between who destroys who first. The one casting of Iron Flesh should last this whole attack round. The Cursebite Ring will hold off the cursing until Seath the Scaleless is down.

Using this technique, just keep torching Seath the Scaleless until he is defeated. With the defeat of Seath the Scaleless comes the emergence of the Crystal Cave bonfire. Save and then warp away to the hero's next task.