Dark Souls Remastered brings the definitive version of Lordran back to players, a world defined by its unforgiving difficulty, interconnected level design, and deeply hidden secrets. Unlike modern open-world games, Dark Souls deliberately obscures critical paths, powerful items, and entire areas, rewarding only the most persistent and observant Undead. This guide is dedicated to mastering the game’s most concealed elements, detailing essential hidden content, revealing secret pathways for optimal routing, and revisiting the most useful old glitches and skips that remain viable in the Remastered version for speedrunners and challenge players alike.
The Architect’s Maze: Finding Hidden Areas and Shortcuts
Lordran’s brilliance lies in its complex, looping level design, where entire zones are often optional and hidden behind obscure mechanisms or non-obvious environmental cues.
Accessing Ash Lake (The Great Hollow Secret)
The most iconic hidden area in the game, Ash Lake, is accessed through the notoriously perilous Great Hollow. Finding the entrance requires locating an unmarked, hidden wall behind a specific tree in Blighttown—a secret passage often missed entirely. Traversing the Great Hollow involves challenging platforming and fighting Basilisks. Reaching Ash Lake rewards the player with a Covenant (The Path of the Dragon) and the sheer spectacle of the massive Archtrees, making the entire journey a crucial piece of hidden content.
The Painted World of Ariamis
This entirely optional, self-contained area is locked behind a two-part hidden quest: first, finding the Peculiar Doll in the Northern Undead Asylum (requiring the player to return to the starting area via the elevator shortcut) and second, interacting with the massive, unmarked painting in Anor Londo. The Painted World is a high-level challenge area that rewards unique weapons and the powerful Souvenir of Reprisal collectible.
Unlocking Darkroot Garden’s Shortcut
While the Garden itself is known, the crucial Crest of Artorias shortcut is often overlooked by new players who choose the long, dangerous route via the Demon Ruins. Purchasing the Crest from the Blacksmith Andre opens a direct, essential path to the Moonlight Butterfly and the large farming area, vastly improving early-game navigation and efficiency.
Legacy Skips: Viable Glitches in Remastered
While many exploits were patched, Dark Souls Remastered retains several key “glitches” that are essential for speedrunning, challenge runs, or simply bypassing difficult late-game sections.
The Darkroot Garden Skip
A popular technique for low-level players involves utilizing a specific wall geometry near the Artorias Crest door to jump over the wall and bypass the entire Basement Key requirement, allowing players to access high-level areas like New Londo Ruins much earlier than intended. Mastering this precise jump is critical for accelerated playthroughs.
Sen’s Fortress Skip
This advanced maneuver allows players to bypass the entire interior of Sen’s Fortress, taking them directly to the Iron Golem boss fog gate. It requires a difficult drop from an outer wall onto a specific tower ledge. While risky, this skip drastically cuts down on frustration and time, making it invaluable for advanced routing.
Item Duplication (The Bottomless Box Exploit)
Although controversial, a specific item duplication glitch involving the Bottomless Box and frame manipulation was famously viable in the original game and is often still achievable in Remastered. Mastering this allows players to duplicate resources like Souls or specific upgrade materials, enabling challenging runs (like SL1) to remain fully stocked. Note: Use of glitches is at the player’s discretion and can sometimes negatively affect save stability.
Unmarked Treasures: Secret Loot and Weapon Locations
The most powerful items are often placed behind fake walls, precarious jumps, or guarded by optional, unnamed enemies.
The Covetous Gold Serpent Ring
This essential item for farming is hidden behind an illusory wall in Sen’s Fortress. The ring is necessary for maximizing item discovery and significantly improving the farming of rare covenant items and upgrade materials. Missing this fake wall greatly impacts a player’s ability to efficiently prepare for later challenges.
Black Knight Weapon Drops
Unlike standard enemies, the Black Knights found scattered across Lordran (such an early one in the Undead Burg) offer a low-percentage chance to drop their extremely powerful weapon (Greatsword, Halberd, Axe). Finding the specific spawn locations of these enemies and utilizing high Item Discovery is a form of unmarked loot farming that can dramatically change the power curve of the early game.
Havel’s Armor and Shield
This heavy armor set is located in a secret tower accessible only via a key dropped by a challenging, unnamed NPC—Havel the Rock—who is hidden behind a locked door in the Undead Burg tower. Defeating Havel and claiming his powerful gear is an entirely optional, highly difficult early-game mini-boss encounter that rewards incredible defense.
Conclusion: The Depths of Lordran
Dark Souls Remastered remains a masterwork of concealment. To truly conquer Lordran, the Undead must look beyond the bonfires and markers. By finding the secret path to Ash Lake, bypassing the difficulty of Sen’s Fortress with expert skips, and claiming essential hidden loot like the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring, players move beyond mere survival and become masters of the world’s most intricate and rewarding secrets.
GGC