Soul Farming

This page contains different methods of efficiently obtaining standard souls to purchase items, upgrade equipment and level your character.
Rating system to be created by someone else. Information posted might have guidelines. Please modify posts to contain accurate in-game information.

General Notes

  • The Covetous Silver Serpent Ring is highly recommended for ALL farming methods as it increases the number of souls obtained. The Symbol of Avarice is more circumstantial due to the constant health drain but can be used on short runs
  • Overkill is the means of dealing at least 150% of the target's total health in damage and will grant additional souls, perform this where you can.
  • Many enemies will drop items, they can be fed to Kingseeker Frampt afterwards for additional souls.
  • The Homeward miracle is great for cutting times off runs, but if you don't have it or can't use it you can use Homeward Bones at a cost of 500 souls each from Undead Merchant Female, weigh the time saved and the cost of the bone against the number of souls you are generating each run to determine if it is worth using them or running back.

Jolly Co-operation

Using the White Sign Soapstone and assisting other players in killing bosses is a fun and productive way to get souls. You will receive half the souls from the boss and anything killed along the way.

  • Note you must be reasonably close in level, so place your sign in an area you have previously (or not yet) cleared.
  • Place your sign at bonfires as you progress through the game. If you are summoned you will usually get a fast track to the boss (if not then easy souls on the way) and when completed you will be dropped where you were before to continue to your own boss fight.

Area Rerun

Rather than a monotonous grind, you can rerun any area (the higher level area, the better the return) and kill everything you come across. You may find items and secrets you missed the first time and, depending on the area, can return a comparable number of souls. Anor Londo is a good location to start.

Undead Burg Bridge Dragon Fire

555 souls per 0:30; Souls per second: 18.3

This method is useful for new players to get early levels or a few extra items from the Undead Merchant, but you should not spend any great deal of time doing this as in the long run the difference will be negligible.

At the first bonfire in Undead Burg, after the ladder has been lowered, climb the ladder and head up the stairs to the top of the bridge. Take one step into the center of the bridge and run back down the stairs to safety. The Hellkite Dragon should incinerate the 5 enemies on the bridge, earning you 555 souls. Jump back down to the bonfire, rest and repeat. You can watch a video here.

Demon Ruins Larva

630 souls per 0:20; Souls per second: 31.5
SL: 50+

From the first bonfire in the Demon Ruins, use Great Chaos Fireball on the egg-bearers. The bearers don't give out any souls but the larva that hatch after they die give out 18 souls each. The initial blast will kill the bearers and the lava will kill off the larva. With the Dusk Crown Ring you get 6 casts. Symbol of Avarice is useful here as you will be resting frequently.

Note: When the larva hatch some of them might bug out and jump in the air thus not getting killed by the fireball flame.

Demon Ruins Capra Demons

Souls: 4000 per 1:30; Souls per second: 44.44
SL: 45+
Place: Demon Ruins
Requirements: Any high stacked weapon, Black Knight weapons work best.

Leave the second bonfire (the one guarded by the Burrowing Rockworm) and head back up the stairs to the hallway containing five Capra Demons. After you have killed them with your favourite equipment you can drop down back to the bonfire and repeat. The Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring helps ensure that you won't draw too much attention while you approach the Capra Demons, making this task less risky.

Darkroot Garden Forest Protectors

7000 souls per 1:30. (21000 in NG+) Souls per second: 77.77 (233.33)
Recommended SL: 30+

Careful farming of the NPCs past the Crest-locked gate in Darkroot Garden returns a reasonable number of souls. In the Black Forest there is a Mage, a Thief who is almost invisible, a Cleric and a Warrior. From the bonfire head down the stairs to the area they are in. Run right out into the forest on the left to come upon the Mage with a round shield. You can use the trees as cover from the Mage's spells. The next enemy might be the Thief. Although hard to see, you can hear him/her running at you. Enemy 3 is a Cleric. The last enemy is an armored axe and shield Warrior. Kill each then run to the bonfire up the stairs and repeat. Coaxing visible enemies with arrows is a lot safer but with care you can pull each without them.

Darkroot Garden Forest Protectors (Shield Only)

7000 Souls per 2:30; Souls per second: 46.66

Get below 25% equipment weight with a shield (weapon not required). When approaching the NPCs in the forest, run straight past the Sorcerer NPC. He will cast Soul Arrow, but his aim is slow and it should go over your shoulder or hit a tree. As you approach the cliff face, the Priest on the right will notice you and begin to approach. Ignore him and continue straight until the Warrior with the Axe sitting on the top of the Cliff stands to pursue you. Immediately turn right and head back into the woods. Keep the glowing flower on your left, and run straight towards the stairs again (this will aggro the Thief). As you approach the stairs, run to the right of them and push your character into the corner between the base of the stairs and the ledge of the cliff. The AI will walk up the stairs and straight off the edge. Keep your shield up, and face the cliff. If they do land, they will bounce an attack off your shield and fall off. Use the camera to watch for the approaching NPCs. If they get stuck on trees and turn away, leave the corner and run out and circle them again to get their attention before returning. They will always exit the forest area well away from the cliff, thus forcing them to take the stairs as they approach and fall when they reach you.

If you have Homeward you can get their aggro but keep running along the cliff (with it on your left), you should eventually be able to tell where there's solid ground under the ledge since you'll start seeing trees again. Drop down to the right of the leftmost tree and walk left around it and you'll end up on a small ledge. Just like with the stairs spot, the chasing NPCs will go flying right off into the void. This doesn't require Homeward but does not save any time if you don't use it.

Anor Londo Silver Knights

15000 souls per 4:00; Souls per second: 62.5
Recommended SL 50+

In Anor Londo there are 12 silver knights situated in the palace area. if you take the time to master parrying, you can kill the knights with one riposte using a Lightning Spear +3 (mimic drop, Sen's Fortress). Alternatively Combustion and Great Combustion can be used, the higher your Pyromancy Flame the better.

When you first get in the palace there is a bonfire on your left through the door. Start here.

  • Exit room, and go to room across, 1st silver knight (spear), kill 2nd silver knight (sword) at bottom of stairs, past him go through the door to your right for the 3rd and 4th silver knight (spears), then go back out.
  • Run up the stairs and go through left door for 5th silver knight (spear), go back past the stairs and kill 6th (archer), through the door on the right 7th, 8th and 9th (sword wielders).
  • Up the strairs to the top (outside) for 10th and 11th (sword and archer), down the stairs to the right of the stairs where you came up for the12th (sword).
  • Exit that room at the far end and down the stairs to return to the bonfire.

Also, you can kill the 2 giants and silver knight archer in the hall before Smough and Ornstein, as well as the two guarding the doorway to the courtyard were all the gargoyles are. This is especially easy to do with the Hawk Ring and a decent bow. A full run will give 27480 souls with the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring.

Experiment with your own paths to find what suits you best.

Painted World of Ariamis Phalanx

10,000 souls per ~0:40; Souls per second: 250

Phalanx are slow, numerous, have low hp, drop a reasonable number of souls, and are 15s away from a bonfire. This makes them ideal for farming a large number of souls very quickly. Note in NG if you can do at least 503 damage in a single tick of damage you will achieve Overkill for a bonus soul return. This scales up to 986 damage on NG+6. Note that although you can warp to the bonfire, you cannot warp from it so will have to run to the end of the area and then down to Darkmoon Tomb.

  • Recommended Equipment
    • Covetous Silver Serpent Ring - Standard soul farming equipment.
    • Symbol of Avarice - Because each run is so fast you don't have to worry about the hp drain.
    • Ring of Fog will stop them throwing spears at you. If not available, Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring will stop them hearing you, which greatly slows their reaction time.
    • Moderate physical defence and high poise, depending on your method.
    • A melee weapon to deal with three hollows just past the bonfire and/or to clean up survivors.
    • The Homeward miracle can shave a few seconds off your run.
    • Power Within will help you overkill if you are struggling to meet the threshold.
  • Methods
    • Equip an AoE Pyromancy such as Great Fireball (or Miracle such as Wrath of the Gods) and blast away.
    • Fire Tempest with a +9 Pyromancy Flame or higher will overkill in NG for extra souls and clears most of the camp out after a short cast time. Chaos Storm can be used with +11 flame, or Firestorm with +13 flame. High poise recommended so you don't get staggered while casting. For this method you should run past the right of the Phalanx and get behind them to allow your cast to complete. You can watch a video here.
    • A fully upgraded Pyromancy Flame (Ascended), Power Within and Fire Tempest/Chaos Storm will deal over 1,000 damage and thus can Overkill even on NG+6.
    • Equip a Greatsword or Halberd, two-hand it (can use a shield if you want) and do a sweep attack (Run + light attack for greatsword, heavy attack for halberd). You are best off running to either side and attacking their flank as their shields will deflect your attacks, but they turn slowly. Grass Crest Shield is recommended for stamina recovery, and keep your weight under 50%.
    • White Dragon Breath can clear the cluster in 5-6 casts with a few left to mop up. The key is to cast it and then step behind one of the blocks before the cast starts, or you will be hit with enough spears to kill a standard mage.
    • Dex or dex/int builds will find that an enchanted Great Scythe's two handed strong attack (running sweep) will make short work of them all
    • Strength or strength/int can enchant the Dragon's Greataxe with CMW and then use the two handed strong special attack to obliterate everything. AoE hit of 1200 on NG++, What manages to not be killed can be quickly dispatched of then rinse and repeat. Aggro the monsters and get so that as many of them are prone as possible or they can and will block the attack. The attack goes through the central pillar. Start out using heavy armor so your attacks are not interrupted, then get lighter as you get better at it. Can either use repair powders or at the bonfire afterwards.

Anor Londo Sentinels

Souls: 10,000 souls per 7:00; Souls per second: 23.8
SL: 50+ or so.

At the first Bonfire in Anor Londo go either left or right. Either direction has three Sentinels that drop a good number of souls, are very slow, and can be engaged one-on-one. Equip your favourite weapon/pyromancy/spell and have at them. Homeward will make the return trip a bit quicker.

NOTE: If you have killed or angered Lady of the Darkling this strategy is no longer feasible due to the inaccessible Bonfire. You can still warp to it but can no longer use it to recharge your health and Estus, or use Homeward to return to it.

Anor Londo Royal Sentinels

10,000 souls per 1:30; Souls per second: 111.11

Recommend at least 700 health to survive the fall from the bonfire, and Homeward.

Recommend an INT build and will assume this for the guide, use Soul Spear, Crystal Soul Spear and Homing Crystal Soulmass with the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring. If you don't have the Symbol of Avarice, wear the Crown of the Dark Sun to enhance your sorceries.

From Gwynevere's bonfire, jump down to Ornstein and Smough's arena. Heal yourself and run to the first sentry. You should kill it from afar with soul spears without it turning back to you. Cast Homing Crystal Soulmass and cautiously go up the stairs to the right to kill the archer. The second sentry should follow you up the stairs. Kill it while its back is turned as it goes up. Then go to the front door and kill the two regular sentries from afar. If everything goes well, you can kill the first without aggroing the second. Cast Homeward and repeat.

Tomb of the Giants Skeleton Beasts

10,000 souls per 1:00; Souls per second: 166.66

Requires INT build. Equip Symbol of Avarice and Covetous Silver Serpent Ring, recommend Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring and Tin Crystallization Catalyst, and then your strongest spell (Soul Spear works well). Ideally you want to be able to kill a Skeleton Beast with one shot, if you can Overkill them then even better.

Go to the second Bonfire in the Tomb of the Giants. Use Cast Light and proceed to shoot the five skeleton enemies that are in the direction of the boss. You should be able to kill two or three of the last skeleton beasts with one soul spear meaning you can do a run with just the 4 soul spear shots. The enemies shouldn't attack you within range of your spells, so you can do this without risk of being attacked.

Tomb of the Giants Second Bonfire

10,000+ souls per 1:00; Souls per second: 166.66+
Recommended SL: 40+

Go from Tomb of the Giants second bonfire up the spiral ledge. There is a Giant Skeleton and a Crawling Giant Skeleton that give 3,600 souls combined when wearing Symbol of Avarice and Covetous Silver Serpent Ring. If you run along the wall then cut in right between them you should be able to his both skeletons with Firestorm, or use any method of your preference. You can watch a video here.

Tomb of the Giants Skeleton Babies

4000 souls per 1:00; Souls per second: 66.66
Recommended SL: 50+
Additional Drops: Humanity

In the watery area below most of the pinwheel servants, directly before the fog gate that leads to Gravelord Nito, there are skeleton babies that spawn in packs of 5-10. Each baby gives you 121 souls (145 each with the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring) and they respawn about 1-2 seconds after you have killed them.

Ideally you should farm them around a ramp, so you have a quick escape as in numbers they can deal a lot of damage. Due to their very low health, a weapon with a long reach (such as a spear) or with swinging attacks are most effective. Equipping the Ring of the Evil Eye will regenerate your health, eliminating the need to return to a bonfire.

They are also the best source of Humanity without the Additional Content.

The Duke's Archives Pisacas

Souls: 8,000 per 1:30; Souls per second: 88.88
SL: 60+
Additional Drops: Humanity

Highly recommend Homeward and the ability to kill the Pisaca in one hit (or very quickly).

  1. Warp to The Duke's Archives then go up the stairs to the upper left to get back to the prison area.
  2. Rest at the Bonfire in The Duke's Archives - Prison Area.
  3. Run down the spiral staircase (optional: kill the two Serpents) to the room with all the Pisaca.
  4. (Optional) Drink an Estus Flask to top you off.
  5. Run straight in the room, and kill the Pisaca as quickly as you can. Grab any dropped Humanity.
  6. Use Homeward to get back to the bonfire.

Alternatively, keep the gramophone on.

  • This keeps the Pisacas moving up the staircase and splits them apart. You'll end up with batches of them in 2-3 at a time (with a cluster of 4 at the bottom). This makes the runs safer, breaks up the monotony of the journey down, and reduces the risk of Serpents coming up on you from behind while you are on the ground floor.
  • If you shut the doors of the cells containing undead, they will not bother you. You can still kill them through the bars for some extra souls however.
  • Kill the two Serpents going towards the ladder. You have to be quick about it, else they will just run past you. Don't bother if you miss them. Sometimes they end up falling off, anyway.
  • DO NOT use a Homeward Miracle/Bone, as this resets the gramophone. Running back does not take too much longer.

Notes:

  • The Pisaca have a VERY short aggro range. For example, the ones at the back of the room will not aggro while you are killing the ones in front.
  • Their attacks are short range and slow, so simply back away a bit from any attacks from others you have aggroed.
  • Watch for their "grab" move which can take a big chunk of your hp.
  • If you can overkill the Pisaca with the CSSR and SoA they drop 1382 souls, for a total of 10,300.
  • Have 10 soft Humanity to increase Humanity drop rate.
  • In NG, with about 34 [Intelligence and the Sorcerer's Catalyst, a Great Heavy Soul Arrow can one-shot a Pisaca.

The Duke's Archives' Crystal Golems

10,000 souls per 5:00
Additional Drops: Blue Titanite Chunk
SL: 50+

In the forest area before the Crystal Cave there are 10 Blue Crystal Golems. From the bonfire in the library, just go down and kill them all with your favourite equipment (for example Crystal Ring Shield +5 and Lightning Spear +5).

Darkwraith and Ghost

15,600 souls per 3:00+; Souls per second: ~86.66
Additional Drops: Titanite Chunk

Note you have to have drained New Londo Ruins, and that there is no Bonfire so you will have a long trek from Firelink Shrine. Homeward or Homeward Bones are a requirement to make this efficient.

Equip the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring, Covetous Silver Serpent Ring, any kind of long sword or high damage spell. Grass Crest Shield (if necessary arise), and light armor of your choice. Obtaining 10 soft Humanity will improve drops. You will also need Transient Curses or a Cursed Weapon, and the Homeward miracle.

Go down the elevator that lead to New Londo Ruins (step on the button at the bottom before stepping off to send it back up), if you are using Transient Curse use it on the second wooden bridge. Kill the first two ghost after the bridge, the two other up the first stair, then enter the first building, kill the ghost in front of the elevator and head down (the other ghosts can be killed for additional souls and Transient Curses).

  1. Kill two Darkwraiths right after the elevator, one at the other side of the room, and two towards the Valley of Drakes.
  2. Go back through the basement with the first Darkwraith, and face the sixth one in the low level water pool. Right after the pool, there's an illusionary wall in front of you, and another Darkwraith on the other side. You need to lure him toward you since there's only a little ledge in-between you and him.
  3. After that, go up the stairs to the second building and stop on the first slab of the porch. The eighth Darkwraith will come to you, then you can take the ninth in the room. There are also two ghosts you will likely have to deal with here, be on your guard.
  4. Once you've make your way through the building, turn right and the tenth Darkwraith is in the corner behind the building. After killing this one, go to the left side of the door, drop down the edge to the left of the bridge that lead to the Abyss for the last Darkwraith
  5. Homeward back to Firelink Shrine.

Darkwraith Enemy

12,000 souls per 4:40+; Souls per second: ~43
Additional Drops: Titanite Chunk, Titanite Slab
SL: 25+

Actually this is route for farming Titanite chunks and slabs, but one can farm souls here effectively.
On this route you will not fight any ghosts, so you will not need transient curses.
Equip: High backstab damage weapon, Rapier for example.
Shield with high stability to be safe. I recommend Eagle Shield or Balder Shield.
Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring and Covetous Silver Serpent Ring or Covetous Gold Serpent Ring depending on what you prioritize: souls or titanite.
Also you need <25% equip burden so you can run and roll fast.

  1. Start from Darkroot Basin bonfire in the cave. Go down by elevator to Valley of Drakes (don't forget to send it back).
  2. Run past the Drakes to the New Londo gate. (This is actually very easy and have very low fail-rate)
  3. Go to the right side stairs. There will be first Darkwraith.
  4. Go through wooden building. In the end of it there will be second Darkwraith.
  5. Go to hall where you fought one of Mass of Souls. There is 3 Darkwraiths, one of them will aggro on you as soon as you enter the hall.
  6. Go through the hall you're in to the small walkable pool and turn left. There will be another Darkwraith.
  7. Illusory Wall with path way leading to another Darkwraiths and treasure chest with Titanite Chunk. Equip a Throwing Knife and throw one to aggro him.
  8. Go slightly left, up the stairs to the building you fought another Mass of Souls. There will be last 2 Darkwraiths and bunch of Ghosts.
  9. Aggro range of one of them starts right when you enter the building, so you can lure them out easily. Ghosts will also deaggro when you leave the building and go downstairs.
  10. Left of the stairs, and to the right of the well down small set of stair will be the last Darkwraiths
  11. Homeward Bone, repeat.

You can farm this route on very low soul level, because Darkwraiths are backstabbed very easily.
However I recommend to get at least +9 Rapier to kill them in them in two backstabs with base stats.

(DLC) Oolacile Bloatheads

3,000 souls per 0:30; Souls per second: 100
SL: 50+
Additional Drops: Large Titanite Shard

A great method for farming souls if you still have a lot of equipment to upgrade as Large Titanite Shards are expensive to purchase, plus it's straight from a warpable Bonfire, but requires Additional Content.

Equip Covetous Silver Serpent Ring and Symbol of Avarice, plus your equipment of choice. Highly recommend under 25% load (Havel's Ring is almost required) and a weapon with a strong sweep attack such as the Black Knight Sword. Ten soft Humanity will also improve titanite drop rates if you need a lot but a fair amount will drop regardless.

  1. Run down the stairs and immediately right to kill a single Bloathead around the corner. Use a running attack for speed and wait to see if he drops anything.
  2. Run down the next flight of stairs to find four more Bloatheads. If using a melee weapon, running attack the two on the right then dispatch the other two however is easiest.
  3. Run back to the bonfire. Using Homeward is not necessary and may even take longer.

Notes:

  • Bloatheads have a habit of falling through the floor if they are not on the screen when they ragdoll (on the 360, other platforms unknown). If you are after the titanite, keep them on the screen until you have picked up the item or confirmed they did not drop one.
  • Soul gain calculated with above recommended equipment, achieving Overkill will yield more souls.

Online Farming

This requires a friend that can be summoned repeatedly and the Red Sign Soapstone. The players will be arbitrarily labeled Player One and Player Two. Player One should first gather a somewhat large number of souls to start with.

  1. Player One lays down a red soul sign is summoned by Player Two.
  2. Player Two kills Player One, gaining souls. Player One should then retrieve his own souls once back in his own world.
  3. Now Player Two lays down his red soul sign. The process alternates and if the souls are used to level up you will receive more souls per kill.
  4. Alternatively, just invade a lot.
  • If the summoned player kills the summoning player, the summoning player will lose a Humanity.
  • Remember that the area boss in each player's world must be alive to see each other's sign.
  • This method is best performed next to a bonfire. Many bonfires are located in areas where no summoning or invading may occur. Some good locations are the bonfires at Oolacile Township and Darkmoon Tomb, the latter of which might be less prone to interruptions.

The Duke's Archives' Serpent Soldier
up to 5,000 Souls per minute.

This works best with mage builds, with intelligence around 50 and the spell Crystal Soul Spear and whatever armor you can wear while maintaining a light load (any items to max spell damage/soul boosting are useful). In the prison cell bonfire in the Duke's archives, leave the cell kill the two Serpent Soldier (preferably with Crystal Soul Spear but any other method if preferred) then immediately return to the bonfire and repeat.

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