Dark Souls II Walkthrough, Part Thirty-Four: The Gutter - Upper Gutter

Ouch. You've taken out a Vanguard of the rat nation, but the hole that sits in the midst of Majula remains permeated with evil. There's a much crueller creature than a rodent in the depths, and you need to root it out of The Gutter - and the viler land beyond - before you can take the final road to the final castle of Dark Souls II.

Grave of Saints

- To get to The Gutter you must first drop down the massive hole in the middle of Majula. The previous article covers the details of this process. You can either go straight down, via a ladder, or go through the Grave of Saints first. This article assumes you made it to the very bottom of the hole.

- Follow the passage ahead until you find a circular chamber with a wooden bridge in the middle. Leap across the gap in the bridge to find a chest containing an Ash Knuckle Ring. In the middle of this bridge is a small, wriggling creature; kill it and its item drop will fall below.

- Drop down into the room below. There are exploding ghouls in the two tunnels to your right and left; fend them off as best you can, rolling away from them if they get too close to avoid their explosions. After they're all gone, check the middle of this chamber for two Titanite Shards, a Large Titanite Shard, and Dark Gauntlets, dropped by the thing you just killed on the bridge.

- One of the tunnels is short, and leads to a skeleton carrying a Great Heal. The other leads to a ladder that ends short, not allowing you to go back up. Yay.

- Take the ladder on your right when you land to eventually find a corpse carrying a Human Effigy. Climb back up and make your way left. Partway down the next section of ladders is a corpse with a Radiant Lifegem. Eventually you'll drop down onto dirt; look around the posts holding up the scaffold to find a chest containing a Token of Spite.

- Go down the tunnel ahead. New area: The Gutter. Woo! Sounds... great.

The Gutter

- Be careful walking out onto the first ledge in this area, as something will hit you with poison. Roll off of the ledge and onto the rickety roof below to avoid this annoying attack.

- Drop down inside the structure via a hole. Wander around in here, tending down the slope, until the floor busts out under you and you land beside the Upper Gutter Bonfire. Light it up. Check this platform to find an urn that hides two Dung Piles.

- There's a bridge to your left. Cross it and you'll smash through the floor on the next building. Inside you'll find four ghouls that are in various states of apathy. Kill them as they come at you, then take out those that can't be bothered to get up.

- (If you come back this way and avoid the smashed section of floor you fell through before, you can find a path that leads to a bunch more ghouls to fight, as well as a Large Soul of a Fallen Soldier and a Lifegem. It's a sizable path that ultimately leads back to the Bonfire, and isn't worth the effort.)

- Look outside this building, past a fallen urn. There are a pair of ghouls on the next platform over, one carrying a torch. Leap over and kill them off.

- There's a ladder on this platform, to your left. It leads to a room full of poison-spitting statues and a locked door. You'll want to come back here when you have the key.

- Straight ahead, across the bridge, is another platform. There's a hole in the middle. You can drop through it to a lower platform; take a left.

- Another rickety building ahead. To your right are several urns that hide a Dark Pyromancy Flame and three Rotten Pine Resins; check inside the building before going after it to fight a weird, crawling thing that would otherwise corner you by the urns. A ghoul is also likely to intrude on the fight. Climb the ladder in this room.

- Two more ghouls in the next room. Keep climbing.

- Three urns wait at the top. Smash them to find a Soul of a Nameless Soldier. To the right of the urn is a ghoul; kill it and skirt around the edge of the building. Be ready to get sprayed by another poison-spitting statue on the ledge. Ignore this ledge, as it leads pretty much nowhere.

- There's a platform near the remains of the urns you just smashed. Leap down onto it, smash the two statues straight ahead, and cross the bridge beside 'em. A swifter ghoul waits on the bridge, and on the other side a doggish creature and a slower ghoul.

- There's a ladder to your left. At the top is a chest containing three Black Firebombs. Stay out from beneath this platform - you'll only get pelted by poison.

- Move towards the torch to your right. There's a bit of a poison shooting gallery ahead, so move to the right and skirt around the area to avoid being hit too many times. Destroy statues as you go.

- Hunt around for a ladder. Climb it and you'll find a torch-bearing ghoul near a bridge. Kill it off and cross. There's another swift ghoul here; watch out for that stupid area of effect attack.

- There's another rooftop platform ahead, and almost straight ahead is a hole that will drop you inside. Go left past the hole first and cross the bridge ahead. You'll reach the edge of the area; to your left is a cave. It's populated by three ghouls, and one more that will rise when you approach the chest inside. Kill them all off and check the chest for a Wicked Eye Greatshield.

- Back to the hole. Hop inside and you'll land on some urns. Kill the doggish beast down here, then smash the urns to find two Black Firebombs.

- There's a small ledge on the outside of this building. Leap from it to an adjacent platform and you'll wind up in front of a ton of statues. If you can, hurl something ahead of you to destroy them so you're not poisoned upon landing. Take a right and continue ahead until you reach the next Bonfire, Central Gutter.