Disappointingly, these catacombs aren’t giant-sized; perhaps the name comes solely from their location in the Mountaintops of the Giants. This dungeon is designed to be a bit of a maze, but it actually isn’t too complicated, and can be completed in less than 30 minutes (assuming you don’t spend an hour trying to kill the tree spirit at the end of the dungeon).
This dungeon is one of the first points of interest in the Mountaintops of the Giants, and can be reached after passing through the Zamor Ruins — see our walkthrough of the Mountaintops if you’re having trouble reaching the dungeon.
From the site of grace, head down the stairs until you enter a room with a summoning pool. As you reach the middle of the room, a gargoyle imp will drop down from the ceiling of the tunnel ahead — as long as you let him come to you, the gargoyles in the room beyond will stay put. Kill the first gargoyle and then head west into the room, on guard for the gargoyle that will ambush you from the right as you near the entrance. Deal with both foes and then pluck the Grave Glovewort [7] from the back of the room. Head east, back the way you came, and take a left in the next room to head down the stairs.
In the next room, an imp hides above the archway ahead, while a second will throw daggers at you until you approach. Zig-zag, dodge, or use a shield to deal with the daggers, and get close enough to the imp above the arch that it drops down. Then, lead it back to behind the wall as indicated below, which will give you cover from the dagger imp.
Shielded from the dagger-thrower, you can more safely kill the wall imp, then go deal with the second imp. Continue north into the hallway, which will turn left (west) and lead to an elevator — ride it down, deeper into the catacombs. When you get to the bottom, step off the elevator button, then press the elevator button again to send it back up, then jump off and wait. When the elevator stops, you’ll find that there’s another platform you can step onto — do so, and it will take you still deeper into the dungeon.
Once the elevator stops, head east down the stairs, where you’ll find an imp with its back turned — sneak up and dispatch it, then head down the stairs, where you’ll find a non-boss version of the Erdtree Burial Watchdog (as well as a Grave Glovewort [8] if you head under the stairs). This burial watchdog only drops 3856 and is just as tough as the boss versions, so you may not want to fight it — you can attempt ignore it instead, since it won’t be able to make it through the frost trap ahead.
Regardless of whether you kill it or not, you’ll need to make it past the frost trap in the hallway to the north of the watchdog’s spawn point. Note that you’ll have to enter the hallway once and immediately get out of the way of the frost trap in order to activate it — after it finishes spewing frost, quickly sprint down the hallway and take your first left — watch out for the trap on the floor after you turn. If you killed the burial watchdog, you can instead use the Telescope to aim at the trap, then throw a Kukri or similar projectile to disable the trap.
Either way, take a left in the hallway and continue west (as per the image above). In the next room, there will be two gargoyles hiding on either side of the doorway, because aren’t they always? If you want, you can pull them back into the hallway and activate the trap, then hug either wall to avoid the arrows — this should kill or severely damage the gargoyle imps. When they’re both donezo, harvest the Grave Glovewort [8] in the room, then head back towards the hallway (don’t forget about the trap!). Turn left to continue north — if you didn’t disable the trap with a projectile, you’ll need to wait for it to activate once before running into the room with the trap.
Once in the room with the trap, hit it to deactivate it (if it’s still active), and then look down the hallway to the north. There’s another frost trap firing down this hallway, but there’s also a hidden alcove behind an illusory wall, and you can use it to avoid the trap:
The illusory wall
You can use the same Telescope/Projectile trick to disable this trap — otherwise, you’ll need to do a really good job timing your entry into the hallway in order to have enough time to both dispel the illusory wall and make it into the alcove. To add to your troubles, there’s a gargoyle imp waiting to slice you up behind the illusory wall. If you manage to survive, well done! Grab the Ghost Glovewort [7], then wait for a chance to make your way north down the hallway and past the trap.
Your troubles don’t end here, however — there’s another Erdtree Burial Watchdog waiting for you here. If you’ve got enough HP, you might be able to just ignore the watchdog, open the chest, grab the Fire Monk Ashes, and run back the way you came. You can also bait this burial watchdog into the trap by hiding in the alcove you just came from. If you kill it yourself instead, make sure you hit the trap to deactivate it before you head back the way you came. There’s nothing else down here, so once you have the ashes you can run all the way back to the elevator that brought you here, and ride it back up.
If you took a lot of damage, you’ll want to go back to the start of the dungeon and rest at the site of grace. To do so, you’ll need to step off the elevator button, then step on it and quickly get off of it before it starts going down. Once it stops moving, you can get back on and ride it up, then head all the way back to the start of the dungeon to rest — when you’re ready, head back to the elevator and ride it down again.
Head west through the hallway towards the boss doors, then turn left (south) and head down the stairs, where you may run into a patrolling gargoyle imp. In the room at the bottom of the stairs, two imps are hanging out behind cover on the left and right, and both will throw Magic Pots at you — melee users will need to charge one while rolling to avoid the pots. Kill all three imps, then make your way south to the second elevator of the dungeon and ride it down. When the elevator stops, head south into the hallway. In the next room are some little pot people — they aren’t aggressive, so you can ignore them if you want and keep moving south into the next room.
Immediately turn left when you enter the room, and kill the small pot person here (it’ll wake up otherwise). Continue south around the corner down the dark hallway, hugging the left wall. As you do so, a large living pot should jump down from the balcony above — head into the center of the room and take it out, then go up the stairs to the west. (There are a couple more tiny pots in this room, so check behind you to make sure you aren’t being followed once you’re up the stairs).
The way forward
There is a trap in the hallway at the top of the stairs, so avoid it as you continue west. Turn left to head south up another set of stairs, and you’ll enter a room with some guillotines and exploding pots. If you attack these pots before they have a chance to light up, they won’t explode right away, so you can wait for the guillotine to drop and raise, then rush the pot and kill it, then roll away before it explodes. However, some of them will light up and aggro when you get near, so this won’t work on all of them — the ones that chase you are dangerous, as you’ll need to run back through the guillotines to kite away from them.
Don’t be hasty, but wait for the blades to drop before you try to cross their path — it’s better to eat the explosion than to eat both the guillotine and then the pot explosion. Once you’re past all the blades, you can let the pots get close enough that they start their leap, then run/roll away from them.
Once all the exploding pots are gone, make your way further south. You’ll be able to turn left, but ahead of you is a room empty save for a small pot. This is another room that tests your moral fiber — do you need to kill yet another defenseless pot? Turn left and go east up the stairs, and you’ll enter an L-shaped room with lots of poison spewing things (what the heck are they called — anyone?). Sprint through them — avoiding their poison clouds as best you can — and go north up the next set of stairs.
In this room are a couple more sleeping pots you can ignore, a trap in the middle of the room, and a corpse on the left with Stimulating Boluses. Near the corpse is a drop we’ll take soon, but first head north into the next room, where a large living pot guards a valuable Ritual Pot. If you hate fighting the large pots, you can just run in, grab the item, and then run to the drop and hop down — alternatively, you can use the trap to kill the large pot.
You’ll land on the balcony that overlooks a room that looks like (but isn’t) the room you passed through earlier. Look southwest and you’ll see a corpse — head over to it and loot the Nascent Butterfly, then drop down to the center of the room. There are two exploding pots in the northwest corner waiting to surprise you, so go and try to take them out before they activate (don’t forget to roll away before they explode). To the north is an elevator we’ll take soon, but not yet. First, go west up the stairs, avoid the trap on the floor in the hallway, then turn left to continue south up another flight of stairs.
This next room is almost identical to the previous guillotine + exploding pots room, and can be dealt with the same way. Once you’ve (patiently and carefully) cleared out all the little pots, continue south into the hallway — you’ll be able to turn left or continue straight here. Go straight, and past the large pot (which you can kill or ignore) is a Grave Glovewort [8]. Snag it and go back into the hallway, then take a right to head east and up the stairs. Run through the L-shaped room at the top, past the poison spewers and up the next set of stairs.
Next, you’ll find another duplicate room, which once again has a trap, a drop down on the left, and a room to the north. The large pot in the room to the north can be hit by the trap, so go ahead and step on it, then run horizontally to the right (east) to avoid the arrows. You’ll need to do this once more, and then the large pot should perish. Head into the room it was guarding, where on the right as you enter you can find a Grave Glovewort [7]. Then go back into the previous room and turn right (west) in the center of the room to find a doorway with a small hole you can drop down through. You’ll drop down a few times, then find yourself back on the balcony from earlier. Drop down into the center of the room and head north to the elevator.
The Way Forward 2: Catacomb Boogaloo
Ride it up, then continue north into the next room. On the right as you enter is an immobile gargoyle imp, and there’s another to the left in the center of the room — take them out and then head north to the doorway. Look up at the ceiling, and you’ll see a third gargoyle lying in wait. If you don’t have ranged attacks, use projectiles to knock it down and kill it, then keep going north up the stairs. At the top is yet another Erdtree Burial Watchdog, as well as x5 Root Resin and a Grave Glovewort [9]. If you don’t want to fight it, run in grab the loot, then run back the way you came.
Ride the elevator down, then at the bottom, activate it and jump off. Look down into the hole where the elevator was, and you’ll see a place you can jump down — there’s a large living pot down there, and if you fall off while fighting it, you’ll end up back at the start of the dungeon. Fortunately, this guy won’t chase you very far, so if you aren’t confident in your ability to fight the large pot, just run south when you land and make an immediate right once you exit the hallway. Make your way around the balcony to the other side of the room, where you can pull the lever that opens the boss door! (If you aren’t good at quickly lining up for lever-pulling, you may want to kill the nearby pots before trying to pull the lever).
The small pots further to the east will aggro, so kill them before grabbing the Golden Rune [10] from the corpse that’s slumped over the edge of the balcony. Then jump down to the ground below and head north through the hallway, and continue through the next room to the elevator. Ride it up and continue north — through the next room and up the stairs, the doors that lead to the boss will be on your left. My sincere condolences to everyone who hates these things, but the boss of this dungeon is an Ulcerated Tree Spirit.
With the boss dead (or skipped), you can take the wisp back to the start of the dungeon and continue with your journey through the Mountaintops of the Giants!
Unabashed FromSoftware fanboy still learning to take his time with games (and everything else, really). The time he doesn't spend on games is spent on music, books, or occasionally going outside.
3856 and is just as tough as the boss versions, so you may not want to fight it — you can attempt ignore it instead, since it won’t be able to make it through the frost trap ahead.
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