The Great Hollow is a location in Dark Souls and Dark Souls Remastered. A hollowed out tree with a series of twisting branches and roots leading down to a lower portion of the game. It's a relatively small area but made difficult by the perilous downward journey and tough enemies contained within. To access the Great Hollow, attack the two illusory walls at the top of a path on a giant tree root in Blighttown swamp. The area serves as the gateway to Ash Lake.
General Information
- Previous: Blighttown
- Next: Ash Lake
- Recommended Levels: Any
- Bosses: none
Video Walkthrough
The Great Hollow Map
(Work in progress!)
NPCs in the area
- none
Bosses
- none
Items
Consumables
- Large Soul of a Nameless Soldier
- Eye of Death
- Humanity
- Twin Humanities
- Large Soul of a Lost Undead
- Large Soul of a Nameless Soldier
- Large Soul of a Proud Knight
- Large Soul of a Lost Undead
- Gold Pine Resin
- Charcoal Pine Resin
- Purple Moss Clump
- Blooming Purple Moss Clump
- Soul of a Nameless Soldier
- Egg Vermifuge
- Divine Blessing
- Repair Powder
- Transient Curse
- Dung Pie
- Prism Stone
- Copper Coin
- Gold Coin
- Silver Coin
Weapons, Spells & Armor
Upgrade Materials
- Red Titanite Chunk
- Titanite Chunk
- Twinkling Titanite
- White Titanite Chunk
- Green Titanite Shard
- Large Titanite Shard
- Demon Titanite
- Dragon Scale
- Blue Titanite Chunk
Enemies
- Basilisk (Curse Frogs)
- Crystal Lizard
- Large Mushroom People
- Small Mushroom People
- Vagrants
Full The Great Hollow Walkthrough
How to Find The Great Hollow
To access the area head left toward the large tree from the Blighttown swamp bonfire and you should see a huge tree root going upward like a ramp that you can walk up. At the top, you can hit the wall to the left of the corpse (holding the Plank Shield) to reveal a secret area with a chest. Behind the chest you hit this wall too to reveal another secret passage leading down to The Great Hollow.
NOTE: It is extremely recommended to obtain the Lordvessel before traversing the Great Hollow, due to the trip down being far easier than getting back up. If you do not possess it, then ignoring the Bonfires within and using a Homeward Bone or Homeward may also be considered, to avoid the difficulty of ascending.
Exploring the Tree
As you continue through the narrow passage, down the ladder you'll find a bonfire, ensure you use it before continuing. In general there is only one direction to go - down - and doing so requires you to navigate a series of intertwined branches and roots which makes the details of the route difficult to describe in writing, so please excuse the limited directions. Figure out your route down through trial and error, and once you're familiar with it you'll find you can make your way down in no time.
The area contains various forms of titanite (there is at least one titanite chunk of each color and there are even two of certain colors) and some soul items. The easiest way to find them all is just to explore, none of them are overly difficult to reach but almost every treasure in this area requires you to jump from one branch onto other branches or mushroom tops below. Also note, a total of 9 Crystal Lizards in the area, which seem to spawn randomly in various locations upon each bonfire reset - they are a great source of Twinkling Titanite and other forms of titanite.
From the bonfire, as you go down the first root you can roll off toward the centre of the area and into the hollow tree below to get the Cloranthy Ring. Continue to proceed down the roots and you may come across an area with three Basilisks, before entering this area, find a Large Soul of a Nameless Solider.
Survive them and continue down until you will reach a set of two ladders leading down further to a dense canopy of roots. There's two more Basilisks down here waiting for you but be careful when fighting them as the floor here has some holes that are easy to miss - you don't want to fall down. Below, there is another root canopy with four more Basilisks, but if you go to the edges of the holes on the canopy your on now, you can grab the attention of a couple of them who will then walk off the edge of their canopy to their death.
Look near the base of the tree here and you'll find a ladder leading down, but there's also a hole nearby that you can drop down to collect an item. Down on the next level, be prepared to deal with the remaining Basilisks quickly. If you survive, look on the sides of the canopy for a root that slopes down and proceed down it to continue.
Partway down, you will begin walking on large mushroom tops instead of branches and roots and will start encountering Small Mushroom People - they are not too much trouble. Further down near the bottom you'll see 3 Large Mushroom People as well as a few more small ones. While they may not seem it, the Large Mushroom People can be very dangerous if they land a heavy punch; dodging their punches is the best strategy to defend against their attacks as they are slow and consume a large amount of stamina when blocked.
If you followed the mushroom path all the way to the bottom, continue in the same direction and turn left into a tunnel, leading to a fog gate. Through this gate and to the end of the tunnel, you will arrive at Ash Lake.
Video Guide
(in Bearbeitung?)
Notes
- The spell fall control will make the jumps down the tree quick without much life loss, however any fatal jump with the spell is still fatal.
Speed Run Walkthrough
A fast walkthrough of how to get to the end of the level the fastest, picking up only essential items goes here.Notes & Trivia:
- ??
If this tree is below lordran
Then what lies above those countless trees?...
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Really ought to be a warning at the top about not going down the tree without the Lordvessel. Just get the Chloranthy Ring and get out until then.
- Anonymous
Wouldn't be so bad if the lizards couldn't spot you from a mile away. And because of the steep angles it was simply impossible to snipe them at certain locations let alone drop down to them before they spotted you and vanished.
- Anonymous
Let's get to the root of the problem, shall we? While I was sliding through these slippery branches running from those big eyed chainsmoker lizards, suddenly, I forgot what game I was playing. Descending further into this ancient tree, the revelation hit me in the form of a powerful punch by a walking mushroom. To my surprise, it was Donkey Kong all along.
- Anonymous
The only place in the whole game, that I've never been able to 100% explore and, honestly, never wanted to. I've only killed 4 lizards at max and saw a few more with some platforms that I don't know how to get there. One day I'll definitely get every lizard, but... not today
- Anonymous
"Mom can we have Elden Ring?"
"We have Elden Ring at home honey"
Elden Ring at home :
- Anonymous
Just finished farming the lizards and I counted 10 of them instead of 9 like said in the article
- Anonymous
Died tons of times just to get those crystal lizards, worth it
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
This place, for lore wise, could have been more interesting.
"Once these archtrees were the roots of souls. Every living thing that has a soul thrived from these archtrees. There were colonies of archtrees and from there, more foreigners poured into Lordran. Even when war ended, the people of Mad Hollows stayed there, isolated themselves from outside... But eventually Witch of Izalith found the third flame, a new flame to be tamed... A flame glew more and more with the dark spirit... Her daughters started to kill innocent folk of this archtree. Some had has escaped before the massacre, to Tundrty...another archtree notorious for their heretical weapons...weapons made out of an occult core was reinforced with dragonflame. Dragonflame has been brought to Tundrty via smithers of Mad Hollow. They were the tamers of the dragonflame. The people of Great Hollow were the barrier between everlasting dragons and Lordran. Thus learning how to control the fires were our primary task.Anyways, the ones who could not escape met a terrible fate... For their souls, they were killed... Some has accepted their fate and become one with flame of Chaos... Have you seen these Cragspiders? Look carefully when you kill one! Their head, their legs and arms... It's like they were once a human... But some didn't accept their fate and hided... But to their suprise the Hollow was no longer what it once used to be... It was no longer the place they called home...even the archtree become a husk itself. The ones who hided met a worse fate... Instead of a quick death they have gone mad... Because of immense inactivity of this place. Some can be still seen within the Hollow but the only real residents that are left is some mushroom people and cursed frogs...The knights of this place were the strongest foe against both dragons and Lords... They could have not let us live peacefully since we were a threat... Now, Curmonte, the Mad Hollow, is nothing but a forgotten place... Weapons of this land was made with pure humanity... Like occult weapons it had a dark aura...but its darkness grew brighter with humanity. The knights of this land had at least one Hollowed Feather in their armour to stop taking damage from gravity... These feathers were also bestowed upon the Lord Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight. Young Undead, thy destiny shall be forged whence thou met the everlasting dragons down in the Everlasting Lake...take our message...and lend it to them... before we gone completely mad..."
I know, most of the things I talked about actually wasn't even mentioned in the game. But think about it, wouldn't it be so cool if it had a lore like this? Ash lake and Great Hollow are the most overlooked places, maybe Miyazaki made this place to mess with players or it was rushed.
- Anonymous
It's places like this that make it clear to me how annoying gravity can be.
The ambience playing in Great Hollow is also present in Bloodborne. You can clearly hear it in The Old Hunters dlc.
- Anonymous
Like a comment below mine said: There are actually 10 Crystal Lizards (CL) in this area, and in case anyone wonders about all locations, i'll write them down here.
Oh, and resting/warping at a bonfire might be a way to reset CLs, but doing a Save&Quit works just as well, it's way faster and, considering this area's layout, way safer.
* CL #1: From the beginning of the first branch after the bonfire, drop to a wide branch below to your right. Walk along it until the very end so you can drop on a platform that leads to a cave above the bonfire. It's at the entrance of this cave.
* CL #2: It's at the very end of the same cave. (A thrusting weapon, projectiles or AoE attacks are highly recommended, as this CL likes to run into a tiny crevice at the end of the cave, which will make most attacks bounce off the walls. (Alternatively, you can stand at the very end of the cave and then Save&Quit. You will be in front of the CL and, due to wanting to run away from you, it'll turn around and run to a better killing spot. Still, due to the tightness of the cave, the previously named attacks are still recommended.))
* CL #3: Drop onto a branch from the cave entrance to walk back up to the bonfire. From the bonfire, drop on the same branch again. Look for another cave entrance, it's a bit lower than this branch. (You can see it from the previous cave to your right.) Walk along the branch until you are above the entrance, then drop onto a smaller branch to your left. (Also try to land on its right side as much as possible, you can easily get semi-stuck on its left side.) From there, walk off its right side very slowly, to drop onto the edge of the cave entrance. (Yes, this is all very finnicky, but as long as you take everything slowly it should be fine.) The CL is at the entrance. (Just like CL #2 was in a tight cave, so are CL #3 & CL #4.)
* CL #4: Towards the back entrance of this cave, just before the 90-degrees turn to the right.
* CL #5: Go out of the back entrance of this cave to end up on a platform that's above 3 Basilisks in an alcove. CL #5, CL #6 & CL #7 are on this platform, one on the left, one in the middle, one on the right.
* CL #6: See CL #5.
* CL #7: See CL #5.
* CL #8: From the previously mentioned platform, drop down. (Watch out for the 3 Basilisks.) Walk upward along the thick green branch against the alcove wall and then walk upward along the branch on the left. It's on this branch, approximately at the part where this branch and another branch touch, a tiny bit further down.
* CL #9: Go back into the Basilisk alcove, and go out the lower entrance. Take the right branch and walk along it all the way. Walk onto another branch that collides with this one. The next platform you get to has CL #9 & CL #10 on it, one to the left, one to the right. You can confirm you have the right platform by looking to your right when facing this platform, there should be another platform with a ladder on it.
* CL #10: See CL #9.
And here's some CL tips.
* When you're right on top or right next to a CL spawn and Save&Quit, when you load back in you might hear a faint twinkle noise for just a brief moment, a noise that all CLs make. This noise may be made regardless of whether it has actually loaded in or not. This means you're at the right spot.
* Save&Quit works just as well as resting/warping to Bonfires, no matter how bad your luck is to spawn the CLs. Just be patient, my record of Save&Quits on 1 CL is 12 times.
* They guaranteed drop Twinkling Titanite, but the secondary ore can range between Large Titanite Shards, Titanite Chunks, and even a Titanite Slab per CL, and the CLs in The Great Hollow are the only ones that can drop Slabs. So, if you are someone who doesn't mind save-scumming (load a previous version of a save to undo something you did if you're dissatisfied with the results), you could get a whopping 10 Titanite Slabs from this area alone. It'll require some patience though, this precious ore doesn't drop often as you can imagine. They can also drop no secondary ore, but this is actually quite rare. Not as rare as Slabs, but still.
* While most CLs take their time to run away from you before warping out, and some have to turn around before running to properly run away from you, a few of these CLs warp out AS SOON as they see you. So when loading back in from a Save&Quit, be ready to immediately spot the CL if it spawned and attack it as soon as possible. The animation that plays after loading back into the game takes a good 1 second, and the CLs that warp immediately take advantage of this.
Hope this helps you!
- Anonymous
This area essentially works as a giant warp gate. The distance you cover within the great hollow is nowhere near the size of an actual archtree, yet it brings you down all the way to the base of the world.
- Anonymous
there's a total of 10 (TEN!!!) crystal lizards inside the Great Hollow, not just 9
- Anonymous
Of all the things that can kill you in Dark Souls, it's the trees that kill me the most.
- Anonymous
The embarrassment of knowing they re released this game without fixing that one branch that you can’t get past without walking through midair on the left to get back up is too much
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Am I to understand that the cloranthy ring is the only really important item in here? Because there's another item near the bottom, on a narrow branch, which I can't seem to make the jump to.
- Anonymous
Good thing I had prism stones when I first came to this place. Otherwise I would've fallen and die like an idiot.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Just on case anyone wonders by the conflicting "reports" and also this: "Also note, a total of 9 Crystal Lizards in the area". There are 10. Not 9. Not 8. I HOPE not 11. 10!
- Anonymous
ahhh i'm stuck trying to get back up to blighttown,, i can't get past the cave with the cursed frogs because i have no idea where to go from there and i can't use a homeward bone because i rested at a bonfire in ash lake,,, does anyone know where i can find a map or a walkthrough for how to get back up the great hollow,?
- Anonymous
Hate this place. Thankfully the only item I need to get here is the cloranthy ring. Then I'm just running straight down to get to ash lake.
- Anonymous
There’s a great strategy to claiming all loot without leaving anything behind in this god forsaken log. First there’s the Chloranty Ring then there’s 2 of each of the following, Large Soul of a Nameless Soldier, Titanite Chunk, Blue Titanite Chunk, Red Titanite Chunk and White Titanite Chunk. Lastly there are 10 Crystal Lizards who have a guaranteed drop of 2 Twinkling Titanite each. Store all of these consumables that you already have into your Bottomless Box so you have 0 of each in your immediate inventory. Now your able to collect items in the tree at random and you’ll know by your inventory when you’ve gotten everything. If you go for the lizards first they’ll drop bonus materials at random which include chunks, store all of these after defeating the lizards before exploring the rest of the area. You’ll know when you’ve gotten all lizards by seeing 20 Twinkling Titanite in your inventory.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I think I'm retarded, I've done multiple playthroughs and didn't even know this area existed until I tuned into Criken's randomizer stream.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
the 10 crystal lizards in this area. one on the right. one top right in cave. one in tunnel front. one in tunnel half way. three on ledge end of tunnel. one at criss-cross branch. two on ledge before first ladder.
- Anonymous
Oh and don't forget to note that this wasn't update since July 2018 so there might be a few more stuff and I hate going through blighttown
- Anonymous
I have no idea how a first time player would find this place.
- Anonymous
I know It could be tough, but a map would be nice. Maybe done from a side view?
- Anonymous
There are 10 crystal lizards. I have gotten ten in all 3 of my last playthrus.
- Anonymous
Using Slumbering Dragoncrest and Ring of Fog really helps with catching the crystal lizards off guard, especially the four in the hidden tunnel above the first/highest group of basilisks.
- Anonymous
A little tip. When quitting out to respawn Crystal Lizards in the Great Hollow, you may need to quit out more than once to get them to spawn on your location.
- Anonymous
You can also get past that glitched branch area on the way up by backstepping over it. I find this to be 100% foolproof and not as scary as walking on air! Tested, confirmed on Remastered.
- Anonymous
You can go back through the great hollow without jumping. Only go to the left branch as near as possible to the platform. See this thread for more help. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/606312-dark-souls/60826544
- Anonymous
A warning for anyone playing remastered, the bug that stops you on the branch that leads back up to the bonfire has not been fixed so before going down to ash lake make sure you have homeward bones or the lordvessel to return back up or you can get stuck in the great hollow. If using homeward bones do not rest at any bonfires in ash lake.
I'm almost sure there are actually 10 crystal lizards, 2 in a tunnel pretty much at the same level as the bonfire. 5 in the other tunnel which ends in the basilisks cave (2 on the tunnel + 3 on the plataform). 2 on the flat plataform right before the plataform with the ladder that leads to the bottom. And 1 last one which is alone in the middle of the root pathways, near that middle hollowed bulk where you drop down the hole after getting the cloranty ring.
As for the titanite, in the 1st portion (Before the big plataform with the basilisks before the mushrooms) you'll find 2 red chunks, 1 white chunk, 1 standard chunk and 1 blue chunk. Basically, find the 1st red chunk, and a little below him is the standard. Then go down a little more to find a corpse leaning against the main wall, that's the white one, drop 1 root below you'll find the blue, and from the blue, keep going down to find the 2nd red.
As for the 2nd portion, after you reach the bottom, where the ladder ends. There's another ladder to go to the plataform below with more basilisks and the entrance to the mushroom part. Instead of using the ladder, look for a hole on the ground with a corpse on it, that's another blue chunk. From this plataform, take a look around from the edges of the plataform until you find another corpse with the white one, this one imho is the hardest to get. As for the last standard one, it's pretty much in plain view after you start descending from the mushrooms.
0
+10
-1