Kiln of the First Flame is a Location in Dark Souls and Dark Souls Remastered. Once you've obtained the souls necessary to power the Lordvessel in the Firelink Altar, you may begin the end of your first journey.
General Information
- Previous: Tomb of Giants
- Next: New Game Plus
- Recommended Levels: Any
- Bosses: Gwyn, Lord of Cinder
Kiln of the First Flame Map
(WIP)
NPCs in the area
- None
Bosses
Items
Weapons, Spells & Armor
- Black Knight Armor Set (fixed location)
- Black Knight Shield (chance to drop from all knights)
- Black Knight Greatsword (chance to drop from greatsword knight)
- Black Knight Halberd (chance to drop from halberd knight)
- Black Knight Sword (chance to drop from sword knights)
- Black Knight Greataxe (chance to drop from axe knight)
Upgrade Materials
- Red Titanite Chunk (guaranteed drop from greatsword knight)
- Titanite Chunk (guaranteed drop from sword knights)
- White Titanite Chunk (guaranteed drop from axe knight)
- Blue Titanite Chunk (guaranteed drop from halberd knight)
Keys and other
- None
Enemies
Full Kiln of the First Flame Walkthrough
Dotting Our "i"s
Rampage - Once you have acquired all four souls of the chaos lords: Seath the Scaleless, The Bed of Chaos, Gravelord Nito and The Four Kings; you are ready to proceed with the final quest of your first playthrough. You can take this time to finish up any unfinished side quests, collect any uncollected items, or find all the NPCs you've become friends with and kill them for their loot; since completing this mission will take you to New Game Plus, all encounters with NPCs will be forgotten, and forgiven.
Offerings - Once you've finished dotting your "i"s and crossing your "t"s, you may return to Firelink Shrine, talk to Kingseeker Frampt or merely jump down the hole he sits on. When you get to the Firelink Altar, select 'Offer souls to Lordvessel' to trigger a cinematic showing just that, watch the gates to the Kiln of the First Flame, open.
Path to the Big Bad
The Last Adventure - Make your way down the illuminated staircase, then down the right of the ashy wasteland. On your way down you should notice two enemies in the distance, these are Black Knights. Fight them, one after the other, then continue forward until you come to the end of the ashy ground, and see thin stone walkways. Get on it, and continue along until you reach the walkway before the next Black Knight. On the right of the walkway you should be standing on, find the Black Knight Set, but take the one ahead on first. Walk to the end and if prevented Solaire from getting consumed by madness, his summon sign will appear on the left. Continue down the stairs on the right, here you will encounter another two Black Knights, the one at the end wields a halberd.
With all five Black Knights dealt with, proceed into the fog gate, where you will face the boss of all bosses, the final frontier...
Boss Fight: Gwyn, Lord of Cinder
Endings
After defeating Gwyn, you have two options available;
- Touch the bonfire for the "good" ending and the To Link the Fire Achievement/Trophy.
- This ending continues the age of fire, and the continues cycle: Gwyn once lit the fire and became the big bad, and the chosen undead - you - would succeed him. This was his fate, and it will become yours, if you light the fire.
- Walk away and leave the area for the "evil" ending and the Dark Lord achievement/Trophy.
- This ending ushers the age of darkness, and breaks the cycle.
Regardless of the ending you've chosen, you will be transported back to the cell you started the game, in the Northern Undead Asylum, after the credits roll. From here, the stakes will change slightly. Visit our New Game Plus page to find out more. Hope you've enjoyed the journey!
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 you have defeated Gwyn and touch the bonfire (or either leave the area) the game ends without a warning and you will be thrown into a New Game Plus! So if you want to do some stuff before finishing the game (farming, questing, optional bosses and areas) do it BEFORE killing Gwyn. See our guide on New Game Plus for a comprehensive checklist of things to do before completing a cycle.
- Area is known for high level PVP as it is only available to those who have killed a majority of the bosses.
- This area is one of the highest chance of being invaded while in human form.
- Five Black Knights, with different weapon configurations (sword, greatsword, sword, axe, halberd). However, contrary to the other Black Knights in the game, these respawn and drop different high-tier Upgrade Materials.
- If you placed the Lordvessel for Frampt, you can select 'feed titanite chunk' to get smaller titanite pieces, making this the best place to farm.
- First Black Knight drops Titanite Chunk, second drops Red Titanite Chunk, third drops Titanite Chunk, fourth drops White Titanite Chunk, and the last, fifth one drops Blue Titanite Chunk.
Anonymous
- Anonymous
The kiln of the first flame and the architecture of brume tower are strangely reminiscent of one another...
- Anonymous
Just finished the game for the first time, thanks for the guide fextra, wouldn't do it without it.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
This is the worst area in the game. It has nothing to do and is extremely disappointing. It has the least content of any area in the game and has nothing in it besides a few black knights, one armour pick-up, and a boss.
All that build-up and philosophy about how important Gwyn and his fire fetish, and all we get for it is a boring two minute stroll across a barren area with no content to a boring, easy fight and a vague, unsatisfying ending. Going through this after the (actually good) DLC is like a kick in the teeth.
- Anonymous
I think that the humans and giants emerged from the land beneath the ash lake where the first flame emerged (considering that kiln of the first flame is not directly under the firelink shrine but placed entirely out of bounds of the map). And the lords built Lordran on top of the Arch trees (as a sign of dominance?). One thing that really interests me is that the great hollow entrance is accessible only through blightown, AND blightown is basically sewer area with poisonous fecal waste. And there lies the entrance to the primordial realm (ash lake). I think it was intentional for blightown to be there as a sign of mockery to the everlasting dragons.
- Anonymous
What's the music that plays at the stairs leading to the kiln?
- Anonymous
Raising their model above the ash reveals that the strange green archs are actually the remains of a burnt archtree, which the building in the center is also built on. Neat.
- Anonymous
I have never been invaded here before and I just tried invading with a cracked red eye and I killed the person. Now I feel unclean. I’m a demon, a devil. I feel bad-
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
After a almost a year of playing this game I was able to make it here at level 30 with +3 black knight weapons. Wanted to grab the armor set because the chest piece completed my fashion souls.
I wanted to evolve as a player, I've always relied on magic and pyro to win in PVE or PVP; this build was pure quality based. My hardest challenge was Nito due to my low health and all the skellies but after making the occult club a devine one, that fight became easy as well. I've since gone up to level 60 and am still polishing my combat skills. This may be my first character to go NG+. If you love this game, continue challenging yourself.
- Anonymous
Thanks to certain people in the community using debug menus and the likes we were able to discover that Ash Lake is a physical place in Lordran that has a ceiling of branches connected by the arch trees which the kingdom is built on but what or where is the Kiln? The Firelink Altar is physically under the shrine but once you go through the passage you really do appear to enter a void that connects two physical places but we don’t know how far apart these locations might actually be. Fascinating stuff man.
- Anonymous
In the DS1 remaster I only see 4 black nights not 5. the first one you normally encounter on the bridge to lord Gwyn's boss room is missing.
- Anonymous
I've actually rarely encountered, if at all, any PvP in the Kiln. I've found white and gold summon signs during the original game on the 360 version a couple years back.
- Anonymous
What's with the fogged up knights at the stairs? I've been looking for information regarding them. Anyone know?
How come that the place is so big, but still no-one has seen it or climbed in the mountains to find it
- Anonymous
Imo the "good" ending is the dark lord ending and the "bad" ending is the link the fire #Darkwraiths_did_nothing_wrong!
- Anonymous
dlc bosses gave me so much trouble. This guy was a cake walk comparatively and rightly so. I'm sad the game is over.. Onto dark souls 2 :)
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
My favorite detail about the Kiln is the skybox. A faint sun, clouds with movement thats slowed to a crawl, and the sky turns a deep black away from the faint sunlight obscured by ashen gray clouds.
To me, the skybox of the Kiln is tied to Gwyn. A figure of sunlight, dying and surrounded by dark, his glow faded and his motives obscured. It's also just so starkly different from the sky of Lordran as a whole. I'd love to see more talk about subtle design notes like that.
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