Undead Asylum

Undead Asylum - first visit

Quick Reference

Boss	NPCs	Enemies	Notable Loot
Asylum Demon	Oscar, Knight of Astora Snuggly the Crow	Hollow Undead Soldier	Dungeon Cell Key Player's starter armor and weapon Estus Flask Undead Asylum F2 East Key Big Pilgrim's Key Demon's Great Hammer

Description

The Asylum is the starting area for all new characters. All undead are corralled here, and are locked away to await the end of the world. This level is reminiscent of the tutorial level from Demon's Souls in that there are several developer messages describing the play controls. You are incarcerated like all Undead in this world and must find your way out. Your adventure begins when a new Undead corpse is unceremoniously dumped into your cell by Oscar, Knight of Astora. The body bears the Dungeon Cell Key, which you will then use to escape your cell, and begin your journey.

Connections

• Firelink Shrine

Walkthrough

Northern Undead Asylum Map

Your cell. The corpse in front of you holds the Dungeon Cell Key, which opens the cell door leading to the greater Asylum. The long hallway has some disinterested Hollows which you could kill for some souls. The water here impedes movement. Not a big deal, but keep that in mind for later. The cowering Hollow will not attack. This ladder leads from the dungeon to the main floor of the asylum. A short walk into the courtyard brings you to the first Bonfire in the game. Activate it if you wish; you can return here after some more exploration. This door opens from the hallway side as opposed to the courtyard side. You can open it later in the level if you so desire. Several tall jars line the courtyard here, none of which contain anything. This is the first time you will see the Asylum Demon. It is easiest to run from it by escaping through the gate that opens to your character's left towards the middle of the wall. If you can defeat the demon with your broken sword, then good for you! You are a better gamer than most, and you will walk away with both the Big Pilgrim's Key and the Demon's Great Hammer - but there is an easier way to obtain the latter from Snuggly the Crow. If you choose Black Firebomb as a starting gift, you can kill the demon quite easily using it. The gate here will close behind you after you cross the threshold. Follow the corridor to the bend. Be wary of the Hollow shooting at you with a bow and arrows while you run to your class shield. Grab it and duck into the small antechamber to your left so you can equip it. The Archer will have run away by now, leaving you time to pick up your class weapon. Be aware that the undead archer will have taken a position at the top of the stairs around the bend. The second floor of the Asylum. Proceed to the ascending stairs and be prepared to roll onto the descending stairs, as the Undead on top of the ascending stairs will kick a flaming iron ball at you. The ball will crash through the wall behind you, opening the chamber which holds Oscar, Knight of Astora. Sir Oscar, Knight of Astora is found inside the newly opened section of the wall. After a short speech, he gives you an Estus Flask and the Undead Asylum F2 East Key. After you walk away, he dies and will give you 100 souls. Follow the path around to the left. If your class has a secondary weapon (bow or catalysts), you will find it here, on the corpse sitting against the right wall. Lure the two sword-bearing Hollow into the open to deal with them more easily, then raise your shield and eliminate the archer next to the white fog. The Undead Soldier at the very end of the hall guards a door that you cannot open yet. Enter the fog to do battle with the Asylum Demon. This door opens only with the Big Pilgrim's Key. Convenient that the Asylum Demon drops it, no? Walk out to taste freedom and take in the gloom of the world around you. Here we find Snuggly the Crow, who will exchange items with you. See Snuggly's entry for more information. For those of us who are Demon's Souls veterans, she's just like Sparkly in 4-1. Head for the cliff where a short cutscene plays. You will resume play in the Firelink Shrine via a complimentary crow flight.

Undead Asylum - revisited

Quick Reference

Boss	NPCs	Enemies	Notable Loot
Stray Demon	Snuggly the Crow (vendor)	Oscar, Knight of Astora Hollow Undead Soldier Black Knight	Peculiar Doll Rusted Iron Ring Crest Shield

Connections

• Firelink Shrine

Description

General Notes

• The return visit to the Undead Asylum features a few more enemies, all are a fair deal stronger than when you last encountered them.
• Going to and from the Undead Asylum without resting at a bonfire will not respawn enemies.
• If the bonfire at the Firelink Shrine is lit, rest there before traveling here to get at least 10 charges of Estus Flasks.

How to Return to Undead Asylum

1. Unlock the elevator shortcut from Undead Parish to Firelink Shrine.
2. Activate the elevator, then face the Firelink Shrine.
3. As the elevator wall facing the Firelink Shrine is broken, you can see a broken roof near the bottom of the elevator. Jump off the elevator and land on the broken roof.
4. Turn right onto the mossy rocks and position yourself directly in front of the beam supporting the neighboring tower.
5. Roll onto the beam and make your way up the steps (they fold back on themselves about halfway up).
6. When at the nest of the giant crow, curl up into a ball and wait. The first time you curl up you may have to wait a little while to be picked up.

Walkthrough

Northern Undead Asylum Map

First things first as you walk forward is to notice the nest to your left, that's Snuggly's nest. You'll most likely come back here later. Now turn your attention to the enemies in front of you, the four Torch Undead. Dispatch these guys as you normally would and move forward through the gates. Depending on if they care or not, two Undead at the end of the hall will come at you, notice how they avoid the center of the room and come at you from both sides, they are avoiding the space when you fall through for the Stray Demon. Kill these two if they attack and then turn right to where you ran from the Asylum Demon the first time you met him. We are going to avoid the Stray demon for now because doing the rest of the Asylum will avoid a few unwanted surprises later when you are wounded from the demon. Through here the bonfire you lit at the beginning of the game will still be up, so rest up and heal anything that got burned. Make sure you prep yourself for the next hallway. Go around the water and through the door to where you got your shield in the tutorial. At the end of the hall, you can see one of the two Black Knights. Once you get within about 20 feet of him he will begin rushing at you, raise that shield and take it or lure him into his attack and dodge +counter. There isn't much room in this hallway to maneuver so the sooner you can get past him the better as the stairs to the left of the end of the hallway are a good way to make a lot of his thrust attacks count for nothing if you stay below him. Another strategy is to lure him into the room where you picked up your shield at the beginning of the game and fight him in there - this way you enough room to circle around him and backstab him. This area is additionally a great place to practice parry/riposte against a black knight, given that the bonfire is so close. You may die several times, but you should have no problem recovering your lost souls and humanity. Mastering parry/riposte here makes other black knights and the silver knights in Anor Londo a breeze. Once finished with the Black Knight you can go back to the bonfire and heal up or down an Estus and keep going. The next person we are fighting is good old Oscar, Knight of Astora. He is relatively easy, but make sure you have a shield with high physical defense and stability because his two-handed attacks will plow right through you should you ever slip up. He wields Astora's Straight Sword, as such, his attacks also do magic damage, so you will still take damage even with 100% physical defense shield. He is sorta slow and looks to be overburdened but he can spin very quickly so getting a backstab will be hard. You can actually lure him into one of the torch undead from the start for an instant kill. Lure him inside the building (be careful not to fall through the floor) then lure one of the torch undead in through the door. Oscar can actually be harmed by other enemies, so get him and a torch undead next to you, and when the torch undead swings, it should burn him to death. Once done with your old friend, head up the same stairs about halfway but then watch out! That damned boulder will come tumbling down again, this time though it will not make another hole in the wall. You can proceed upwards and kill the few Undead up there but since you most likely missed the key to the door on your way in, you won't get very far. Going down the stairs will bring you back into a familiar courtyard and a nice warm bonfire. No, you can't fight the Stray Demon just yet, we are going to take care of a little surprise first. Go back down the hallway to your cell, don't you miss it? No? Well, you'll hate it even more when you see its new occupant. Yep, another Black Knight, this hallway is a little larger so taking care of this one is easier. Once finished go into your cell and get the Peculiar Doll from the corpse and leave back to the courtyard. Finally time to take on the Stray Demon, go to his page for tactics and the such. After that leave by the ladder and thank the stars that Black Knight isn't rumbling down that hall at you. Return to the courtyard and you're done with you Return to the Asylum. Congrats on about 24000 souls and one more demon purged from the world! Praise the Sun! When you do get the Undead Asylum F2 West Key, come back and kill the two Undead guarding the door and go down the broken staircase for your Rusted Iron Ring.