Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City walkthrough - Earthen Peaks Ruin to Within Earthen Peaks

Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City continues with a stack of treasure, another angel, and some tricky platforming.

This Dark Souls 3 walkthrough begins at the second bonfire of The Ringed City DLC, Earthen Peak Ruins, and continues through to the Within Earthen Peak bonfire, just before the first boss.

If you're just tuning in, our previous episode took us from The Dreg Heap to Earthen Peak Ruins - and if you're back for episode two, maybe revisit that updated page for an important NPC encounter we missed the first time through.

Judging by messages we found in this area and the next one, the path we take through this part of Dark Souls 3 may be the "wrong" one, but it takes in some great treasure and is significantly less horrible than what we found exploring in the other direction, so whatever: we'll come back to the nasty path later one when we've winkled out its secrets.

So who's ready to go? A nice relaxing stroll in t- what the hell is that.

Surviving the angel at Earthen Peak Ruins

From the bonfire, climb over the fallen windmill and look around to find a stack of mushroom beetles. Like many returning enemies in The Ringed City, they’re the same as you remember from vanilla Dark Souls 3, but with more health and harder-hitting attacks. Since you’ve levelled up since you last saw them, they should be no problem. Murder them and grab the black firebombs.

Return to the bonfire. If you’ve died or reloaded since speaking to Lapp in the previous area, he’s sitting on a ledge nearby. Chat to him twice for a hot tip – maybe? Don’t worry about it; if you die a few times before hitting the next bonfire, you’ll notice he moves to standing by the bonfire, and if you talk to him then, he’ll give you the treasure he means – a Titanite Slab.

Now look for some huge twisted tree roots leading off downhill; there’s an item glow on them which we’re not going for right now. There’s a lot of treasure in this area and it is all way easier to pick up in just a few minutes.

Follow alongside the roots and after you top a little rise look further down the slope to spot a sheltered spot you can run to, to avoid the angel which pops up.

Update: as of the latest Dark Souls 3 patch, the Hidden Body sorcery will allow you to sneak past angels - and they deal out less damage than before. Phew!

In this sheltered spot, use the camera to spot a wooden structure ahead. Between barrages, dash to this cover. Wait a little while as the angel fires on two thralls off to one side, usually killing one, then move to the rock before the angel finishes moving into a new position where it can fire on you.

From here, look back towards the bonfire, and then pan the camera to the left until it’s right under the sun. You should see a little gap in some stone ruins. Wait for a break in the angel’s attacks and run for it. Be careful; the surviving thrall (or thralls) is waiting inside, and it’s armed with a blowpipe.

Grab the ember here, but be wary that the angel behind you can hit you through the little window.

Killing the angel to reach the next bonfire

Now, we can just push on from here into the horrible swamp area at the bottom of this tunnel, but if you can handle a very tiny bit of platforming we can avoid the more obvious, horrible main route and go do something way more fun. I managed this first try so probably you can do it do.

What you want to do is stand in the gap where the ember was and find a position where the angel can’t quite see you and remains passively turning. You want to start this next bit when the angel is just finished turning to face back over the wooden structures, for the longest possible period of no detection.

If you peer out the hole in the wall, you’ll see another wooden structure and maybe the item glow by it, which we’re gonna ignore for now. We’re going to run straight for that and pass along its left side. Right at the corner of the structure there’s a drop and if you angle right and roll from the edge you can land on a tree root, taking a little fall damage.

Follow the root around to the right (from your perspective as you land, with the angel at your back) and you’ll see the praying mutant connected to the angel you’ve just been avoiding. Knock it down.

Alternate strategy: if you're confident and have a really good bow, you might want to try moving to the opposite corner of the structure, and sniping down at the praying mutant below. There's a popular message here suggesting this tactic, but I didn't try it myself. I don't think my build could survive long enough to snipe the angel's body before its spirit form murdered me dead. In any case, you'll still want to roll down to the root as described above, but now you can do it in a nice calm atmosphere, I guess.

Grab the ember from the body and proceed up the other tree root here (there’s nothing but bad message jokes at the far end of the root you landed on; don’t risk the fall). When this new root gets as high as the nearby rooftop, don’t be tempted to wander off to the area you can see on your left; it’s a one way trip and we’re very close to a bonfire.

If you want to, though, you can grab the item on the wooden rooftop nearby, and drop back down on the root side to get back on the path - but doing this will spawn an angel in the next area over, with a clear line of sight on you as you top the rise, so decide whether a Divine Blessing is worth it. This angel has an extra attack the others we've met so far haven’t had, which we’ll have to deal with later; for now, just get away from it and follow the root over the fallen tower as soon as possible.

Look for the “take the plunge” message and drop down to activate the Within Earthen Peaks bonfire. Well done! The first boss is very close but let’s go back to the Earthen Peaks bonfire and do some treasure hunting.

Treasure hunting at Earthen Peaks

Start by proceeding along as normal, as if you were still hiding from the angel, but don’t drop down to the first wooden structure – turn left and you can grab an item from a body. I forget what it was; clearly not very exciting.

Next, head to the rock where you sheltered from the angel. Look back towards the bonfire for a path leading between the roots and a fallen tower. Once you’re in this gap you can walk up some roots to end up on the ledge with that item that was visible from the bonfire. The item is Twinkling Titanite.

Go back towards the rock and look past it to spot another wooden shelter. Behind this structure you’ll be ambushed by another two thralls, guarding the Desert Pyromancer Garb.

Go to the wooden structure where you dropped down to the root, and grab the Titanite Chunk from the body.

Look around carefully and you’ll spot a rocky path heading down to below where the angel was hanging. Shoot the thrall to lure him out for a safer fight on solid ground. Be wary of the bleed effect on his weapon. At the very end of this path you can grab the Giant Door Shield.

That's all there is to do here, I think; head back to the Within Earthen Peaks bonfire and we'll have a go at that first boss.