Undead Settlement | Dark Souls 3 Wiki

Click here to go to the Speedrun Walkthrough. Click here for Lore and Speculation on this area.

The Gargoyles will drop you off at the top of a tower, where the Foot of the High Wall Bonfire is waiting to be lit. Take the stairs down to the first landing, and follow along the ramparts to the left to another broken tower to find a corpse with a Large Soul of a Deserted Corpse. Continue down the stairs, the group of hollows wandering about the stone roadway are non-hostile. To your direct front, a waiting enemy will raise the portcullis and loose a pack of undead hounds to ravage you and the hollows. The gate will lower after the hounds come through, but a nearby lever will raise it. With the portcullis at your back, proceed down the stone roadway towards the archway, you will find dogs behind an overturned coach chewing on a corpse. Kill them and loot the Alluring Skull 2x.

You Only Live Once

Continue towards the group of pilgrims gathered at the end of a broken street, petrified in a dead prayer in the direction of the High Wall of Lothric. One of them is still alive, and you can overhear his pleas for death. He is Yoel of Londor, and speaking to him will result in him offering his services to you. Upon accepting, he will disappear and can be found at Firelink Shrine. He performs merchant services as well as providing the player with the means for the Hollowing mechanic. At the end of the broken road, you can loot Homeward Bone 2x.

Making Your Way Into The Settlement

Return to the closed gate and pull the lever to open it. Deal with the enemy that released the dogs on you. In a small hut on the right, light the Undead Settlement Bonfire. From the small balcony behind the hut holding the Undead Settlement Bonfire, you can observe, far in the distance, a Giant atop a tall tower firing a Great Bow onto the valley below. He is reachable later in the level.   

Go straight and towards a ramshackle house, where you will encounter two hat-wearing hollows with pitchforks. Head into the house where you will see several hanging bodies. Cut the glowing one down to loot a Small Leather Shield. Continue ahead being mindful of the hollow here, and descend the stairs to the lower level. To the right before the opening in the wall, loot the corpse here for Charcoal Pine Bundle 2x. Step on to the balcony outside and cut down the hanging corpse sack. You may loot it later for Loretta's Bone. Around the corner, there is a pitchfork hollow and behind it a corpse with Repair Powder 2x.

Return inside and descend the stairs to the next floor where you will find a short pointed hat wearing hollow. There is a corpse near with Charcoal Pine Bundle 2x. Another 2 short hollows are nearby and may attack while you loot the corpse. Step down into the room of barrels and head outside. To your left will be a corpse you cut down earlier with Loretta's Bone 1x, which you can give to Greirat. A gang of hollow enemies stands beyond. It is advisable to lure these one at a time, being careful with the larger caster. Once the enemies are cleared, loot the corpse in front of the blazing fire for an Estus Shard 1x. There is another corpse behind the fire you can loot for an Ember 1x.

To the right of the bonfire near where you exited the building you can cross a wooden bridge to another settlement. Enter the house to take on 2 hollows near the entrance. Another 2 pitchfork hollows will rise from the stalls here. On the left side of the room, you will find a Large Soul of a Deserted Corpse.

Continue on to the next building where a thrall will drop from the ceiling and attack. Open the double doors. You can backtrack to where you first crossed the bridge and take a path to the right of the first building you went through. Down this path, you will encounter several thralls on the path (be wary of ambushes) as well as some firing projectiles at you from the rooftops. Here, you will find a corpse with a Fading Soul. There is a ladder near you can take up to a rooftop to dispatch the thralls. On the other side of this roof, you can loot a corpse for Homeward Bone 2x. You can traverse the rooftops here, eventually dropping down to the ground where you can find a Caduceus Round Shield in a corner along the cliff, near the double doors you opened. Near these houses, you can also find a caged hollows NPC. You can loot a corpse near him for a Plank Shield.

On the right side of the rooftops, you can drop down onto a ledge where a large red-cloaked hollow with a cage on his back patrols. He's non-hostile so long as you have NOT reached the Curse-Rotted Greatwood boss's second phase. Approach him from the back and you will have the option to teleport to the Mound Makers Covenant area. This is the area you will fall into during a later boss fight. During the fight, you will inadvertently kill the NPC which gives you the covenant. If you don't take the covenant now, you will have to wait until you've beaten three Lords of Cinder to gain the covenant.

Also in the area where the hollow with the cage patrols, there will be a body hanging from a tree with the Flame Stoneplate Ring. Striking it will send it plummeting into the ravine below, near the area where Eygon is waiting.

Freeing Cornyx of the Great Swamp

Past the now opened double doors, you will cross a stone bridge. If you drop down to the right onto a ledge, you will encounter 2 pitchfork hollows and a corpse at the dead end with a Titanite Shard 1x. Continue along the ledge and into an arched entrance to a room where you can find a bonfire. Exit through the opening and go right up the stairs, up the roof. If you look up you will see a hanging corpse which you can shoot down to obtain a Partizan. Continue up and around the stairs where you will find 2 more hollows and a third on a short ledge. On this balcony area, you will find a corpse with a Hand Axe. There is a cage here, where you will find Cornyx of the Great Swamp. Speak with him and now freed, he will teleport to Firelink Shrine to teach you Pyromancies.

If you go back to the broken portion of this balcony, you can drop down to the roof below and then to the ground. On a wooden torture platform here you can find a Soul of an Unknown Traveler. Behind this platform is a half-broken wooden bridge, where at the end is a corpse holding a Fire Clutch Ring. Be wary of a basket wielding large hollow walking through here. Head through the archway from where the hollow came to find some mindless hollows sitting around in distress. Around a corner to the left, you can find a corpse with a Large Soul of a Deserted Corpse and a short gremlin hollow. Continuing forward you will come to a large stone staircase with a mallet wielding hollow, pitchfork hollow and some undead dogs. The large double doors at the top of the stairs cannot be opened from this side.

Getting to Irina of Carim

Turn around and head straight back. There will be a dog on your left, guarding an Ember; keep going until you come to an opening into sewers on your right. An undead dog will be just inside the entrance on your left. Take the ladder down and head left into the sewers where you will encounter some rats, the big rat will drop the Bloodbite Ring. There is a corpse in this sewer hallway with a Caestus. On the left, a locked door can be opened by purchasing the Grave Key from the Shrine Handmaid. It will lead to Irina of Carim. If you have the key, head through the door, and make a right to the end of the hallway to find a Loincloth and a statue of Velka the Goddess of Sin to whom you can request absolution from sin.

Go opposite the hall and to the left you can find a Red Hilted Halberd to the left. At the end of the hall, make a left through the doorway to a room where skeletons will animate and attack. There is a corpse here with a Soul of an Unknown Traveler. Continue to the next room to find more skeletons and exit the doorway where you will see a Crystal Lizard to your right. Beyond to the right, you can loot a Titanite Shard 2x. Be careful as hollow enemies will drop down as you loot these. Go back to where you exited and continue down the path. Look up and shoot down the corpse to get a Blessed Red and White Shield +1 which is pre-infused with Blessing. On the left, you can enter a room with rats and a corpse with a Saint's Talisman. Climb the ladder here and go up the stairs. To the left, you will find Irina. Speak with her several times until she agrees to join you and returns to Firelink Shrine. Open the grated door to exit where you will encounter Eygon, be sure to speak with him as he will join your cause as long as Irina of Carim is safe. If you head to the large double doors and enter them into the building where you will find a lift and meet Siegward of Catarina.

The Sewers and Siegward of Catarina

If you did not obtain the Grave Key yet, continue down the sewer where a large rat and a few smaller rats will attack you through the mist. Defeat them and reach the ladder and ascend. Open the door here to unlock a shortcut to the wooden bridge that leads to a bonfire.

Back at the original entrance to the sewers take the stone bridge guarded by pot wielding enemies up to the church entrance. There is an NPC named Eygon of Carim that warns you of the champion. Open the church gates and meet Siegward of Catarina. Activate the lift, but don't ride it, a second lift will appear. Take this one to the top of the tower. Here you find the giant that shoots at you by the white birch. If you become his friend, he will help you and only shoot at the enemies when you are down by the white birch. If you kill him, he drops the Hawk Ring.

While taking the lift down again you can hear Siegward on the way down. When you hear him, jump off the lift and find him sitting outside on the ledge of a balcony, just to the right in one of the window alcoves before Siegward, is the Life ring +1 (on NG+). Below you can spot a Fire Demon. Talk to Siegward and he will fight by your side when you face the demon. Afterward he'll give you a Siegbrau and give you the gestures Toast and Sleep. In the open area you can find Red Bug Pellet x2 and the Large Club. Two hanging corpses hanging near a low roof on the left side of the open structures contain the Northern Set and a Pale Tongue. You can explore the structures in the area to encounter some caged hollows near a corpse containing Alluring Skull x2, dogs and a chest with Human Pine Resin x4. Looting this chest will trigger a group of caged hollows to appear. There are two Evangelists on the upper level of this structure, if you exit outside here and take the stairs to the roof you can find a corpse with Flynn's Ring. Drop down on the wooden scaffolding near the back of the roof and then drop onto the balcony of the tower to receive  Homeward Bone x2.

Enter the tower and drop down to the bottom floor to obtain a Chloranthy Ring and the Mirrah Set. This drop will likely kill you. Don't try jumping. Roll off the wooden ledge to your left towards the ledge lower down and at the opposite side of the tower.

Leave the tower's bottom floor and then drop down from the ledge to return to the courtyard near The Curse-Rotted Greatwood.

Back where you met Siegward, take the lower lift to a Knight of The Boreal Valley, kill him for an Irithyll Straight Sword, open the door to the Road of Sacrifices, where a bonfire is located. The knight can be easily killed using the lift you took to get down. Before engaging the knight, send the lift back up, but do not ride it. Lure the knight through the two rooms back to the lift and position the hole between you and the knight. He should try to attack you and then fall to his death. The Irithyll Straight Sword will be automatically added to your inventory.

Warriors of Sunlight

Return to where you took on the mob of enemies by the blazing fire. If you head down from here to the lower level you will encounter several worker hollows. At the base of a wall, you will find a corpse with a Titanite Shard 1x. Head through a large archway, and open the door into a dwelling. To your right, there is a corpse along the wall, with a Caged Limbs enemy to its right. Kill the caged enemy and loot the corpse for Charcoal Pine Resin 2x. If you drop down a hole in the floor near here you will land in a room where you will find the Warrior of Sunlight Covenant item. There is also a cauldron here where you can consume some Estus Soup. 

Exit the door here and on your left will be a staircase and straight will be a hallway with caged limbs, the first one on the right being hostile. Midway through this hallway, 2 of the short hollows will drop down from the ceiling to attack you. There is a red-eye sickle hollow here as well. If you continue down the hallway you will encounter 2 more caged limbs. Continue down the hallway and outside to find 2 pitchfork worker hollows. To the right, before these hollows is an alley of breakable crates which leads to a dead-end cliff & a body holding a Soul of an Unknown Traveler. Just past the above-mentioned hollows, a caster standing on a narrow bridge above the path will cast spells at you. To the right of this overhanging bridge is a hollow with a mallet. To the left, another hollow with a machete will engage you. On the left, you can enter an open dwelling with a short, hatchet-wielding hollow and loot a corpse for a Whip. Continue up the path and go up a short flight of stairs on your left where you can take a ladder up to the bridge to deal with the caster. Up here you can loot a corpse for a Titanite Shard 1x.

Mad Spirit Holy Knight Hodrick

Important Note: (Since this is the first NPC Phantom invasion), beating the Curse-rotted Greatwood boss before this invasion will make it no longer possible to fight Holy Knight Hodrick here. This mechanic persists for most invading NPC Phantoms, so if you are trying to fight them all be careful not to kill the bosses of the areas they are in beforehand.

Continue through the house and down the path, you can turn right towards the cliff to find a Crystal Lizard and if you follow the path back you will find the bonfire you unlocked via the sewers earlier, near the wooden bridge. Head back to where you came and through a grassy patch with a crumbling stone overpass, if you are Enkindled (Ember), you will trigger an invasion by the mad dark spirit Holy Knight Hodrick (a member of the Mound-Makers). He is a challenging fighter who often two hands his sword and is adept at parrying your attacks. Take your time with Hodrick. He can heal himself, cast miracles and pyromancy, and he uses weapon arts to break your guard. Getting behind him is the best tactic to score hits. Alternatively, dodge his attacks and hit him when his stamina is recharging, or wait until he casts a spell and uses that window to score a combo on him. Killing him earns a Vertebra Shackle, which can be used as an offering to increase your rank in the Mound-Makers Covenant. Go then back through the house where you killed the caster before and go left onto the roof jump down there to get a Rusted Coin.

 

Spears and Ashes

If you continue ahead you will encounter a large hollow holding a saw. Proceed onward to a path along a ravine where a giant on top of a tower will fire massive spears at you. There are several corpses here where you can carefully loot Fading Soul 1x, Ember 1x, Young White Branch 2x, Large Soul of a Deserted Corpse 1x. If you go to the left and up, through the graveyard you will find a corpse with Mortician's Ashes that you can give to the Shrine Handmaid enabling your purchase of the key to unlock the door in the sewers that leads to Irina. Laying along with a hut where there is a corpse you can loot for the Cleric Set and the Blue Wooden Shield but beware of the gremlin hollow that drops down to attack you here. Go back down to the path, and leap across the small gap to find a corpse with an Undead Bone Shard 1x. Proceed carefully past the flung javelins and enter the building in front of you where hollows await. Proceed up the stairs turn around and jump over to the ledge to obtain the Great Scythe.

Proceeding to the Boss

Enter the next building along the path where you will begin to notice flowers growing from the cracks in the stones. To your right, you may open the double doors you were unable to open from the other side to unlock a shortcut. To the left is a courtyard. Proceed onwards to an area marked by lavender flowers growing from between the stones and you come to a courtyard full of hollows gesticulating in prayer to a large gnarled tree. Approach the hollows which will animate the tree and trigger the boss fight with the Curse-Rotted Greatwood. Destroying the sack between his legs will take off a large portion of his health and will trigger the boss to destroy the ground bringing you both to a lower level. Destroy him to obtain the Soul of the Rotted Greatwood and the Transposing Kiln which you can give to Ludleth of Courland to enable Soul Transposition.

 

 

 

In this lower level, you will find an altar where you can offer the Vertebra Shackle to increase your rank in the Mound-Maker Covenant. The pit of hollows bonfire is nearby and a corpse where you can find a Homeward Bone 1x as well as a Wargod Wooden Shield. Leave via the bonfire. 

When you're ready to proceed, return to the lift where you met Siegward. Take the lower lift to a Knight of The Boreal Valley, kill him for an Irithyll Straight Sword, and open the door to a bonfire and the Road of Sacrifices.

Undead Settlement Maps

 

Undead Settlement Video Playthrough

Walkthrough Videos:

1. Undead Settlement Walkthrough Part 1, Curse Rotted Greatwood (Several attempts), Part 2, Part 3 (Fire demon, Cloranthy Ring, Boreal Knight)

• Undead Settlement Item Guide

Speed Run Walkthrough

A fast walkthrough of how to get to the end of the level the fastest, picking up only essential items follows:

The Undead Settlement is an optional area with a boss that can be bypassed if the player so wishes. It is advisable to recruit the NPCs in the area and defeat the boss, however, as it's the only way to enable Soul Transposition and gain access to special weapons.

There are 5 NPCs worth mentioning in this map: Yoel of Londor unlocks the Hollowing mechanic and plays a very important role in the game's story, it's impossible to get one of the endings without his help. Cornyx of the Great Swamp teaches you Pyromancy, Siegward of Catarina's story goes a long way to a Lord of Cinder, Irina tells Miracles & Eygon will assist you with some bosses if you rescue Irina.
You should also consider befriending the Giant if it's your first time. Because he will help you get Mortician's Ashes as well as other items in the next few maps. (Or killing him, because he'll make your life harder while trying to get those items otherwise.)

As soon as you land on the Foot of the High Wall you will find a bonfire, light it and move down the long staircase. At the bottom, you will see a portcullis that will rise and 3 hounds will come out and attack both you and the non-hostile hollows, kill them then turn around and with the portcullis at your back, proceed down the stone roadway (Be wary of dogs on your left) towards the group of pilgrims at the end of the broken ground. On the right one of them is still alive, and you can overhear his pleas for death. He is Yoel of Londor, the first NPC you need.

Back toward the closed portcullis, on your left, you will find a lever to open it. Run forward and light the Undead Settlement Bonfire. Move ahead and in a small doorway, 2 hallows will attack, at the bottom of the first ramp another hallow will drop and attack once you take few steps from the ramp. Ahead of the ramp is a small balcony with a hanged corpse that you can hit to drop down, and later loot it for Loretta's Bone. Back inside the building continue going down, fighting through three more Thralls.
Once outside, you'll find a huge bonfire with an Evangelist praying in the middle. Behind her is an Estus Shard. Skip if you wish to. Pick up Loretta's Bone on your left and cross the wooden bridge behind the tree to your right.

At the end of the bridge, you will meet two Hollows, behind them two more Hollows are sleeping in the stalls to the right. Ahead one Thrall wielding a greatsword will drop on you.
Open the gate and on your left, you will see a stone bridge, you have to run across the bridge fast and jump onto the ledge to the right side at the end before the Hollows start throwing bombs on you. two Hollows will be patrolling the Ledge so be ready to Jump Attack while falling if one of them was directly below you.
Enter the small building ahead and light the Cliff Underside Bonfire. Exit through the other side of the building and to your right you can climb the building turn around and continue climbing, kill the three Hollows that were throwing bombs on you, and continue walking on the wooden ramps to find your second npc, Cornyx of the Great Swamp.

Back on the broken thatch roof you climbed, you can drop down on the tree in the right corner and then to the ground, another tree with 4 broken cages will be here, jump to the right of the tree and attack the undead dog below. Turn right and enter through the gateway under the mountain. Go down the ladder and run to the end of the sewers, fighting 3 small rats and then a bigger rat with 2 small ones. Climb the ladder on your right at the end. Across the wooden bridge, you can light the Dilapidated Bridge Bonfire. Around this area you will get invaded by the NPC Holy Knight Hodrick if you're Embered.

Back through the sewers and to the other side again, becareful of the dog at the top of the ladder if you resetted the area. Next, dash through the stone bridge ignoring the large hollows and turn left. At the end, you will find a gate you can open and enter. Sometimes one of the large fiends will chase you here, turn around and kill him after opening the gate. Or ignore him and continue to the other side of the elevator and he should stop. The lift will be coming up and you'll meet the 3rd NPC, Siegward of Catarina.
Go downwards with the lift and kill the Boreal Knight. Behind him is a gate that leads to Road of Sacrifices, Light the bonfire there, and turn around to go back up the lift. Once you're up where Siegward used to be standing, step on the button of the Lift and leave it quickly, wait a bit and another lift going up will descend. Ride it to the top of the tower to befriend or kill the Giant, then while going back down the Lift, in the middle of the ride, you'll see a wooden platform and hear Siegward's "HMMM" you should drop down on the wooden platform then. And talk to Siegward.
You will encounter a Fire Demon here. After killing him talk to Siegward a few times to learn emotes.
There are few items after the demon fight, if you decide to skip them use a homeward bone. And teleport to Dilapidated Bridge Bonfire.

From there run toward the roaming large hollow and through the big archway behind him. If you befriended the Giant archer he will be a great help here, a lot of enemies will be roaming and you only have to wait for the giant to kill them.
You can turn left after the white tree, going upwards, and then stick to the gravestones on the left side and move foward. You should find Mortician's Ashes.
Turn around and enter the stone building where the giant was shooting, a fork wielding Hollow will try to ambush you right at the door. Behind him is a sickle wielding Hollow, dispatch them and go upstairs and run straight until you find yourself at a crossroads, on your right you can open the gate for a shortcut to the boss room, and on your left is the boss of the area, Curse-Rotted Greatwood.

After killing it teleport to the Firelink Shrine and give the handmaiden the ashes you found and she will start selling the Grave Key.
Buy it and teleport back to the Dilapidated Bridge Bonfire, then onto the sewers after killing the big rat, further into the sewers, on your right as you engage the 3 smaller rats, you will find the door that requires the key.
You'll be fighting a lot of skeletons, and then ambushed by rats. But at the other end of this entrance, you should find the 4th&5th NPCs, Irina of Carim, after rescuing her talk to Eygon of Carim outside.
To your left is the tower where you met Siegward, enter it take the lift downwards, and proceed to Road of Sacrifices. Undead Settlement Speedrun Guide

Trivia:

- Trivia, player notes, fan art and such go here.

• It is heavily implied that, when the Undead grew in numbers, the denzins of the Undead Settlement dissected them and sent their remains to the Cathedral of the Deep, where they would be devoured by Aldrich and his followers.
• You can directly jump into the pit of hollows.