This dungeon isn’t too difficult, and offers the chance to snag one of the best defensive talismans in the game. It also has what we at EIP consider one of the most fun bosses to fight — the Ancient Hero of Zamor.
After riding the elevator down into the crypt, you’ll find the site of grace. On the left, a passage leads south further into the dungeon, while to the right is a fog gate protected by a stonesword imp statue — the room beyond the fog has the Crimson Seed Talisman guarded by a single weak sorcerer enemy. If you only have 2 or 3 Stonesword Keys left, don’t open this fog gate — there’s a way better item further on in this dungeon that requires two keys.
Next, head through the passage to continue deeper into the crypt. You’ll come to a T-intersection where you can continue straight or turn right — go straight and then continue right to enter the next room. You’ll see two albinauric sorcerers at the top of a staircase — rush them and take them out. Now you have a decision to make — do you want to fight a Royal Revenant and receive a Ghost Glovewort [4]? If you don’t have the Heal incantation, it’s a pretty tough fight.
If you decide it’s worth it, go under the staircase to spawn the Royal Revenant. If you do have the heal spell, you can then run upstairs and cast Heal — the AOE will reach through the stairs and kill him. Otherwise, see our guide for strategies on defeating this enemy. It’ll reward you with the Ghost Glovewort, and there is also a Grave Glovewort [5] you can grab from behind where the revenant spawned.
Now go back the way you came, to the T-intersection, and this time go south down the stairs. Continue forward and you’ll find a gargoyle imp with its back to you. Check out the circle of light it’s standing in, cast by the statue above the circle. There are a number of inky-black shadow enemies in this dungeon — to damage them, you must lead them into one of these circles of light.
Look for these circles (or the statues that emit them) to find places to lead shadow enemies
Approach this imp (you can’t sneak up on it) and take it down, then turn left. Moving forward a bit will prompt one of the afore-mentioned shadow enemies to drop down on the right — lead it back into the light in order to be able to damage it. Note how the imp is stunned as it steps into the light — you’ll want to take advantage of this throughout the dungeon. Continue east after defeating this foe and go down the stairs. You’ll enter another room with a beam of light, though it’s around the corner to the right.
There’s also a sorcerer under the stairs, but he won’t be able to hit you around the corner, so just run ‘n roll past the two shadow imps and lead them into the circle of light. Defeat the two imps, then go back towards the stairs and kill the albinauric, and grab the glovewort under the stairs. Then head back east and go through the doorway there, then down the stairs and into the next room.
Don’t rush into the next area — actually, go ahead and rush in, we’ll be able to pick up the item you miss later. If you walk into the middle of the next room, you’ll fall through the sand and land in a circle of light, surrounded by shadow imps. This area can be challenging — melee users should charge heavy attacks as the imps approach the circle of light (you’ll be able to hit them with it as they are stunned by the light), while mages should utilize a shield and/or get ready to do some pro rolling. If you don’t move too far forwards when you land, sometimes the imps will approach one or two at a time instead of all at once, so try to stay towards the back of the circle.
Grab the Grave Glovewort [3] in the southeast corner, then pull the lever to the right of the door (on the north side of the room). Go down the stairs and you’ll enter a long hallway with lots of falling blades and zombies. Kill the first zombie, then wait for the blade to fall and stand on the slit it fell through while being relatively close to the western wall. It will rise with you on it — jump off onto the ledge with the doorway.
You’ll find some stairs with plenty of zombies on them — head up both flights, killing as you go. At the top of the stairs you’ll enter a room with more zombies, another stonesword imp fog gate, and some high ground with a sorcerer on it. Run past the zombies onto the high ground and go past the first sorcerer, because straight ahead is another one. Kill that one in the corner first, then turn around and deal with the second one.
Now you can clear the zombies on the low ground and then spend a few more Stonesword Keys to open the fog gate, behind which is another Grave Glovewort, and a couple of zombies staring at a corpse that holds the (incredibly awesome) Dragoncrest Talisman +1. Go back up the stairs where the sorcerers were and turn left to go through a short tunnel; you’ll be able to then drop down into the room with the floor that you fell through. Drop down carefully, since this time we want to make sure we land on the middle level so you can grab the Leyndell Soldier Ashes on the northern side of the room.
Then drop down through the hole in the middle of the room, and head north back down the stairs and through all the blades. You don’t have to kill all the zombies, but it makes fighting the horseman that will appear as you near the corner much easier. He can be a pain in the butt to catch if he doesn’t get stuck on a corner, but he doesn’t do too much damage with his spells and attacks and you can hit his horse fairly easily. Once he’s down, continue east, where you’ll see the boss doors at the end of the hall. It ain’t open yet though, so go past the first two blades here and then turn right to enter an archway and find a ladder.
Climb up the ladder but don’t jump down off the ledge yet. A royal revenant waits below, and a second royal revenant spawns on the left once you drop down. If you have Heal you can hit the revenant down there with it; otherwise, you’re in for a brutal fight. The item on the corpse is x5 Human Bone Shard, so unless you’ve got a particular use for it (or want the Ghost Glovewort [4]s that the revenants drop), consider just sneaking past. You can drop down and crouch-walk to the right to avoid fighting the revenants.
The spawn of the 2nd revenant is marked, and the arrow indicates the direction to head to continue in the dungeon
You’ll cross a bridge above the hallway you just came through, and you can grab x3 Root Resin from a corpse draped over the edge. Continue west up the stairs, where you’ll find a corpse with Prattling Pate “Let’s get to it”. At the end of the room is a shadowy Grave Warden, with a few Gloveworts behind him. Feel free to grab them, but the main goal here is to lead this guy back to the room with the lever and the circle of light.
Get close enough to aggro him, then run east, back the way you came, down the stairs. Once on the short bridge, drop down to the right (south), being careful to dodge the blades while still trying to hurry. Continue up the stairs to the circle of light and get ready to fight the Grave Warden — don’t forget he’ll get stunned when he enters the circle of light. (If you struggle with beating this guy, check out our boss guide on him for help.) Sometimes he won’t come into the light — attacking him (even though it doesn’t do anything) will make him attack you back; you may have to do this a few times to get him to swing himself into the circle.
When the Grave Warden dies, the boss door will open — head north, back down the hallway with the blades and turn right at the end of the hallway to go east and make your way past the final three blades and through the boss door. Instead of immediately finding a fog gate, you’ll find a series of stairs instead, with a zombie waiting to make you waste some healing before the boss. Run past it and enter the fog gate to face the Ancient Hero of Zamor and earn yourself the Ancient Dragon Knight Kristoff ashes.
NOTE: If you have fire grease or a fire weapon, prep them before entering the fog gate. Unlike the boss in the Evergaol (which is what is linked below), you can use summons for this fight, so it’s much easier.
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.
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