Ash Lake

Quick Reference

Boss	NPCs	Notable Loot	Enemies
none	Stone Dragon Sieglinde of Catarina Siegmeyer of Catarina	Dragon Scale (x3) Great Magic Barrier	Hydra (does not respawn) Man Eater Shell Mushroom Parent Basilisk (black)

Description

Ash Lake lies at the bottom of The Great Hollow and is an endless expanse of black water. This area is considered to be the absolute lowest point geographically in Lordran and is where all life originated. The shores hold remnants of giants and a Hydra still swims along its banks, killing everything and everyone that dares cross this white sand.

Ash Lake is visible off in the distance when the player reaches the end of the Tomb of the Giants before going into the final cave to fight Gravelord Nito (where the orange fog gate is).

At the end of this area stands a surviving member of the Ancient Dragons.

Connections

• The Great Hollow

General Notes

• There are two bonfires in Ash Lake, one at roughly either end.
• You will find a Hydra here, as well as the Stone Dragon NPC. Pray to the Stone Dragon to join the Path of the Dragon covenant.
• This area is a dead end, but you can get back quickly if you have Homeward and you haven't rested at any bonfires. Otherwise, you will need to head back up The Great Hollow.
• Once you have the Lordvessel, you can warp to the bonfire at the Stone Dragon.

Important Tips

• Be prepared to fight. If you were cursed in The Great Hollow, try and avoid the Hydra as it will kill you easily.

• Watch out for camera problems. Especially when going up tree roots, it can happen (same as in The Great Hollow, where a root may cover the camera, so it adjusts your view and changes your walking direction). This can cause you to drop down and die, so watch out for these parts. Change the Camera Auto Wall Recovery to OFF, and it will not flip around.

• If you want to avoid the Hydra, either equip the Ring Of Fog and move slowly or equip both the Ring of Fog and Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring

• If you intend to interact with the Stone Dragon NPC, you can run through the Hydra entirely without the Ring of Fog or the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring. Most of the time, you can do this without dodging, as the water jet ranged attack of the Hydra often misses. If you angle towards the side of the beach directly opposing the Hydra as you run through, it will leap over the beach and switch sides. Be careful if it does this, as it sometimes can shoot water down on you rather accurately from above (see "Bombardment" on the Hydra page). Interesting to note that the boss can sometimes kill itself when it leaps over the beach, so sometimes running through is advantageous.

Walkthrough

Ash Lake map

Video guide: From Firelink Shrine to Ash Lake

After exiting out of the bottom of The Great Hollow, you will come out of the trunk of a root which comes out to the "ashes" or sand of this lake. After leaving the trunk, you can make an immediate right and travel across a dune towards the first bonfire of the area. (You can't miss it.) You can also make an immediate left from the Great Hollow exit to go towards an outer part of the tree you came out of to get a dragon scale off of a corpse near the water. (again, you can't miss it.) The only path to go from here is to make your way down the path with your only challenge being a few Man-Eater Shells and more significantly, a Hydra. This version is capable of flying over the ash and attacking from the air with its water-based offensive. Because of its movement, it's challenging to get close and melee it, so ranged attacks would be best (plus, if you get to close to the water's edge, you might fall off the edge and die). There will also be another Dragon Scale on a body inside of a lone tree trunk on the right side of the big dune if you were to approach it facing from the exit of the Great Hollow. The Hydra would be to the left in the water. If you choose not to kill the Hydra, it will follow you through the long winding path, but its rather slow and you will probably only take about one hit out of you before you're out of its range and it gives up on chasing you. Before you pass by the second tree on the path (the first tree being the Great Hollow that you came out of), you can travel along the water's edge to find a third dragon scale, but be careful not to slide off the dune and fall to your death if you go past the edge. From here on out, it's a straight and windy path to a third big tree trunk, in which you'll only encounter one more Man-Eater Shell. At the very end, you'll find that a Stone Dragon has made a nest here. He is non-hostile and will stay that way, even if you attack him. You can come up to him where a second bonfire will be, and you can join the Path of the Dragon Covenant by praying to him. (Note: This second bonfire is one of the few that you can warp to through the Lordvessel, so you don't have to worry about traveling through the Great Hollow and the Ash Lake all over again just to come back to the dragon.) A relatively small area in terms of exploration. Before you leave, make sure you cut off the tail of the Stone Dragon by walking behind its nest. Once you cut it off, you get the Dragon Greatsword, which is extremely powerful out of the box but has no stat scaling. It takes 50 Strength to wield with one hand. The Siegmeyer of Catarina storyline also terminates at the first bonfire if all tasks were completed.