The Great Hollow

Quick Reference

Boss	NPCs	Enemies	Notable Loot
none	none	Basilisk Mushroom Parent Mushroom Child1 Crystal Lizard2 x10	White Titanite Chunk x2 Blue Titanite Chunk x2 Titanite Chunk x2 Red Titanite Chunk x2 Cloranthy Ring x1

Description

This is a completely optional area and not required for the normal storyline. The Great Hollow is an enormous hollow tree, descending through the heart of Lordran. Filled with curses and tough enemies, be prepared for a perilous descent. But it's also filled with many treasures, so venturing down is worth a try. There are some pretty large souls to obtain here. The tree is visible from above while in Firelink Shrine.

Connections

• Blighttown
• Ash Lake

General Notes

• This area has no boss, so it's not possible to summon other players or get summoned.
• The Great Hollow is going to be a test of balance and patience. Proceed cautiously, and focus on collecting loot on your second or third attempt once you've become accustomed to climbing the roots.
• Most roots you can travel on will be tan in color on the top, so you can easily drop down to get to the bottom quickly.
• If you want to get all the additional items and catch the Crystal Lizards in here you'll need a lot of patience, as they're all reached via optional roots that you need to jump/roll or drop down onto. This will often result in falling to death. So save at the bonfire, spend your souls and try to get the items. When you do, Prism Stones can be very helpful to test if a fall is lethal or not.
• Sometimes the camera will spin out due to a small root covering the viewport, so pay attention or you may fall down due to this. The camera will twist at times and change your walking path. A recommended way to make this journey easier is to go into your menu options and change Camera auto wall recovery to OFF. This will make it so you do not twist directions when you encounter this issue. This is recommended for the entire game while you are at it.
• If you want to get back without teleporting, there seems to be collision bug that may make it look like you can't get back up. It's after the first ladder, going up the root to a small platform that leads to another root moving further up (along with a Crystal Lizard. It looks like you could walk onto the platform from that root directly, but due to a possible collision bug, you can't! But don't worry, just hug that collision and move left until you get to the other root. You move in the air and it may look like you're going to fall down, but that won't happen!

Important Tips

• If you can, make sure to equip an armor set with high curse resistance (e.g. Dingy Set, Crimson Set, Paladin Set) in order to prevent curses. There are a number of Basilisk lying in wait on your way down, and while not too difficult one at at time can quickly cover most of your area in gas.

• The Basilisks can curse you, and fast; they are more resistant than their counterparts that live in depths, but still attack in groups.

• To go through this area, you cross a narrow path that will cramp your fighting style a couple of notches, to say the least; proceed with caution (but I guess you should be used to it, considering the area you just traversed to reach the Hollow. If the spear is your weapon of choice, good for you).

• Especially if you are cursed, try not to encounter any Mushroom Parents, they will kill you in one hit. also, be aware that they're not alone, as some of their cute lookalike pests can be found near them also. Staggering the fat ones is not easy, and there is a very good chance that they'll stagger you first should you try that.

Walkthrough

The Great Hollow Map

Upon reaching the bottom of Blighttown (ground level) head left toward the large tree which is surrounded by leeches. When down, look around you. you should see a path that looks like a huge tree root, that goes upward. Go there, but mind the larvae-like creatures, hard to kill, simply because your slashes miss them quite often (you need vertical slashing to properly affect them, which is usually done while wielding swords with both hands (doing so, however, is dangerous when dealing with those enemies). The entrance is beyond two hidden walls which can be accessed by going up a large sloping root. (The following video shows how to get to the entrance of The Great Hollow from Blighttown) Once you are up on the roots, you should see a chest (that doesn't eat your flesh, pretty nifty). Behind it is a wall that vanishes when you hit it. Go through and reach the Great Hollow. When you are going down the tree root at the beginning, staying on the first root, you can roll into the hollow tree way below, in the middle, to get a Cloranthy Ring, which gives a recovery boost to the stamina bar. Proceed down the roots along the path. It may take some trial and error, but eventually, you will reach a set of two ladders leading down to a dense canopy of roots. There's a Basilisk down here waiting for you. If you look near the base of the tree, there is a ladder leading down, but also another hole you can drop down to collect a Blue Titanite Chunk. Drop down to the lower level, and be prepared to deal with the 4 basilisks surrounding the trunk quickly. If you survived, head down the large root ramp heading down. Partway down, you will start encountering large Mushrooms to walk on, and soon after some Mushroom Parents. Be careful here, and do NOT engage them if at all possible. The area is very cramped and you will be fighting two of them along with their kids. Not recommended at all. Run past them and enter the fog gate to access the next area. Keep in mind that this is a complex, very dangerous area with no singular route to the bottom. It is impossible to get every piece of loot in one trip, but feel free to collect the loot that you see on the roots and mushrooms further bellow, and either homeward back to the top or continue on further down into the next area: Ash Lake.

Crystal Lizard Locations

Lizards spawn at random but in set locations. Quit and reload the game till the lizard you're after spawns. You can spawn on top of one and often have enough time to kill. Drops are random. Equipping the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring may increase your chances of obtaining better minerals (such as Blue Titanite, Red Titanite, and White Titanite)

Note on all Crystal Lizards: if you can get to where they spawn and you reload your game, you can appear in front of them. If they fall off a cliff and die, the loot automatically adds to your inventory (as of 1.05). All ten lizards have a fairly good chance to drop a Titanite Slab (or chunk of any color, in addition to Twinkling Titanite), as verified with extensive loading of backed up saves till all ten dropped Slabs (decent chance for a slab drop even with no soft humanity or gold serpent ring).

From the starting bonfire, look down into the hollow on the right and drop off to land on an otherwise-inaccessible branch walkway. Follow this branch up around to the wall. From here you can drop to a platform with lizard #1 outside a cave. From the previous platform enter the cave. Lizard #2 spawns at the back. From the branch you dropped to from the starting bonfire, follow it up until it curves. You can drop against the wall to a second branch, then from this branch drop carefully to a narrow ledge. Immediately turn and kill lizard #3 at the cave entrance. From the previous lizard head into the cave until bends, doing an S shape. Towards the end of the bend, just before you exit onto the platform is lizard #4. From the last lizard follow the cave until it lets out onto a large platform overlooking the basilisk cave. Lizard #5, lizard #6, and lizard #7 spawn here, so reload until you kill them all. Below the platform are three basilisks. Lizard #8 is along the main path down, connecting the bonfire and the basilisk cave, very close to the basilisk cave. The lizard hides just below the point where two branches are touching side by side. It can be easier to get him coming up from below. From the first cave with the three basilisks, exit and take the branch leading down on the right. As it winds down you'll pass one platform on the left, then see another below you against the wall. Lizard #9 and lizard #10 spawn on this ledge. If you find the two long ladders leading down to the "ground" with the basilisks, it's the second platform up from there, where the collision error/invisible walkway occurs.

Footnotes

1. Contrary to those in the Darkroot Garden, these attack you on sight

2. Ten in total. Most of them not easy to reach, so look out carefully and take them out with a bow if necessary.