Royal Wood | Dark Souls Wiki

Full Royal Wood Walkthrough

Entering the woods

After leaving the Oolacile Sanctuary, you will cross a bridge then head up to the right to meet the first of two forms of the Treant Gardener: the Fork Scarecrows. They mainly use between a dash-and-ram move or lunge with their forks. This makes them very easy to block, and avoid. It's suggested you clear the front of the cliffs by slowly approaching the other nearby Gardener, which will draw the attention of another one sprinting at you. Now you can choose two options:

1. (optional) Head back to the side you came from, follow the wall to the other side of the woods to find Alvina's tower, containing the Guardian Gauntlets. Then, try to pull the conclave of Gardener and Stone Guardians as individually as possible, to get the Blue Titanite Slab hidden in a chest in the pool they are surrounding.
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3. Head forward along the cliff of the Gardener to see another one running away from you, setting up an ambush. As you hear it crack and rustle, or see him turn, just back up the slope you came down only to find another 6-8 Treant Gardeners to add to your problem. After beating them, you will find another Stone Guardian in the same flower bed, in front of a corpse holding the Guardian Leggings. From here, turn right (still facing the mountain ahead), and continue in that direction until you come across a bridge. On trying to cross it, Kalameet will fly though, almost exactly as the Hellkite Drake did in the Undead Burg.

After Kalameet flies off, you may notice a Stone Guardian on the cliff above walking, if this is the case then know he is about to come crashing down onto your level to engage you. So you may want to stop and check before continuing. Venture right and continue until you find a Crystal Lizard looking to escape, which unfortunately due to its valuable loot, you can't let happen. Drop down the small cliff, onto a lower ledge and head left to find the second variation of the Treant Gardener; he is a bit faster, wields shears instead of a pitchfork, and has a 6-hit combo attack that isn't staggered by shields.

Before continuing into the forest ahead, turn around to the wall of the cliff you jumped off of, to find a gap separating a rock. Jump across it and head up a slope to find the Guardian Helmet.

Head back down to see 2 Stone Guardians marching in front of a cliff. From here you can see another corpse with Gough's Arrows on it. Head along the cliff to find the Guardian Armor on a corpse hanging from the cliff near some bushes. Get back to the gap and now hug the left side, dealing with another Treant Gardener along the way to find a secret area the only findable Elizabeth's Mushroom. Now proceed further towards the ridged area and in the tunnel to find another corpse with a Soul of a Proud Knight. Fall back down and proceed down one of two paths:

1. (optional) Stay on the right side, go forward and find a Crystal Lizard, 2 Stone Knights and a Treant Gardener.
2. Head left down a slope with 3 more Treant Gardeners and a corpse with a Gold Coin.

Journey to the Fog Gate

Continue forward until you've left the trees behind you and only have a Stone Giant, and a few Treant Gardeners to deal with. It easiest to just dash past them into the tower on the right, and onto the plate, activating a lift; however you can brave them, then continue in the same building.

That one will take you down to the Colosseum fog gate. If you locate and cross the bridge to the right, you can find Marvelous Chester as well, a merchant of overpriced but useful goodies. If you continue right, into the tower at the end of the path, you can find access to another lift shortcut to the tower you collected the Guardian Gauntlets earlier. There is also a shortcut to the Chasms nearby, but you can't access it - yet. Head through the fog gate into the Colosseum to fight the boss.

Boss Fight: Artorias the Abysswalker

Note: The enemies in this section, with the exception of the first two Treant Gardeners, can be avoided by hugging the right edge of the map and dashing to the shortcut tower; this is useful for getting to Artorias the Abysswalker after finding all the goodies in the woods.

After beating Artorias the Abysswalker, walk through the other exit towards Oolacile Township.

Kalameet the Black Dragon (Optional)

If you exit the tower you just came from, and turn right 180 degrees, you'll find a Soul of a Brave Warrior , and a ramp heading downwards into what's informally referred to as Kalameet's Valley. On arriving at the bottom, make another 180 and follow the stream to kill two Wild Dogs and pick up the Large Soul of a Brave Warrior on the corpse at the back of the valley. Head back the way you came and continue onwards to kill three more Dogs, along the way. Then when you get to edge of the water fall, look over to find a small platform with a Crystal Lizard. Once you land here, you can use the subsequent protruding rocks below to get to the bottom without sustaining any fall damage. Alternatively, you there's a long ladder leading down into the valley proper, on the left. There are a few soul items near the center of the valley which can be safely accessed, but exploring too far will cause Black Dragon Kalameet to swoop down and hit you with an invariably lethal breath attack, so don't do this unless you're ready to enlist Gough's help with killing him, which first requires killing Artorias the Abysswalker, and finding a key later in the area. Note that Kalameet is an optional boss.

 

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:

• This area is actually the Darkroot Forest, a hundred years before it became known as the Darkroot Forest. This means, the portal you were sucked into didn't transport you to a different location, rather a different time.