Dark Souls 2: Crown of the Old Iron King - Quicksword Rachel, Scorching Iron Scepter

Use the Scorching Iron Scepter on the minotaur heads as you get closer to the Crown of the Old Iron King.

Head through the mist gate to the right and down the stairs. On the far side you'll find a Spell quartz Ring +3 which increases magic defense. Light the bonfire in the room and make a note of that minotaur head in the main room. You'll need a Scorching Iron Scepter to activate the head, and you can find that a little further ahead of you.

Left of the bonfire you'll find two Magic Stones in the room ahead. Go through the next corridor and down the ladder, preparing a ranged weapon. When you get to the flaming statue at the end you come across two enemies carrying explosive barrels and a Fume Sorcerer. Hit the barrels to do some serious damage or the minotaur head to move it down the corridor where it will kill the enemies as it moves.

Ignore the lever here and go down the next corridor to find another flaming statue. In the left corner is another sorcerer that needs to be dealt with. Attack it up close as it's weaker when it can't use ranged attacks.

Again, hit the flaming statue to move it down the corridor and you'll come across two more Fume Sorcerers. Kill them, then use the lever and use ranged attack to target the enemies with explosive barrels. When all the enemies are dead, enter the room and take down the enemy up the stairs to the right.

You have a few different options here. You'll need to fight a Giant Club Demon further down the corridor but there's no chance to use ranged attacks and there's barely any space to move around it for a close quarters fight.

The best approach is to quickly run to its left and pull the lever there to open the gate. Running back to the the lever to pull that also opens another gate and increases the amount of area you have to move around. The Giant Club Demon will also follow you as you run, taking damage from the flaming statues, and when it attacks it will also hit some explosive barrels in the large room, which also helps your cause. If you time it right you won't have to fight it at all as the statues and the explosive barrels will do the job for you.

Now open the gate it was blocking and go outside. Through the corridor on the left is a room with a ladder - climb it to get a Dried Root then pull the lever, raising the gate. This gate makes it much easier should you die at the boss fight to return later.

Now go back down the ladder and outside and across the large chain and through the mist door. Go down the corridor to the left and kill the enemies crawling along the floor with ranged attacks. Don't let them get close as they explode and catch fire and move even quicker. There are two to being with and then another set of three.

At the end you'll find two Petrified Dragon Bones then go through the doorway and down the ladder. As you do so, dark spirit Quicksword Rachel invades so climb back up to fight her.

Once she's dealt with go to the bottom to face five doors. On the far right is a crawling enemy. To the left is a room with a Recollection and two Twinkling Titanite, but be careful of the Fume Sorcerer that appears as you approach them items.

The other two doors on the left are connected by a hall and have two crawling enemies behind the doors. Th other door is the only one you need to actually bother with but again it has two crawlers behind it. One explodes as soon as the door opens. Back up as soon as the door opens and use a ranged attack on it.

Go through the door and down the ladder. Go down the hallway until you reach a door which has another set of crawling enemies behind it. Use a ranged attack which will set the rest on fire and when they run towards you run up the ladder and they will explode. You can clear the room, killing them one at a time, by repeating this.

Now pull the lever in the room near the furnace for the Scorching Iron Scepter. Through the doorway on the side of the room is a crawler, so kill it and pull the lever at the end of the path to activate a lift. There's a crawler on the left floor, so get well away and hit it with a ranged attack, then go up the lift.

Go down the next hallway and drop down through the hole. doorway ahead is the same one you entered after walking across the chain so back across the chain heading for the minotaur head we mentioned earlier that requires the Scorching Iron Scepter. Insert it and two lifts will spring into action, one on the left and one on the right.

Use the left lift to go up and step into another lift, stepping out of that one to the right and through the door. There's a flaming minotaur statue on the left and an explosive barrel dude further down, with a Possessed Armour right at the end. hit the minotaur, destroying the Armour, and a hit the barrel with a ranged attack. Boom.

All along the right of the hallway are alcoves. Destroy the barrels in the third alcove and you'll get 15 Lacerating Knives. go up the stairs at the end where you'll come across another flaming statue. Send it down the hallway to kill two more enemies, leaving one explosive barrel enemy in the first alcove on the left, three flaming sword enemies, and two Axe Demons.

Shoot the explosive barrels nearby to weaken them and then try to fight one at a time to make it a little easier. At the very end is a chest with four Smelter Wedges, then drop through the hole to land in the hallway with the lifts. At the opposite end you'll find a gated door which can be opened XXXX using the Tower Key, allowing access to the lift beyondXXXX.

On the upper level go to the stairs and wait for the first dark spirit Prowler to spawn. Kill it then go to the Ashen Idol at the top of the stairs and use a Smelter Wedge and gain a Soul of Nadia, Bride of Ash. Through the doorway on the opposite side of the room are four more Prowlers

Go back to the lift and down to the lower floor and fight the four invaders. Once they're all down go to the stairs around the corner to find a bonfire. If you're holding the Ashen Mist Heart, the armour here will glow. You can head into the memory here and fight Sir Alonne by examining the armour although at this point it's optional.

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