Dark Souls 3: Most Iconic NPCs, Ranked
Dark Souls games are known for their dark and intriguing atmosphere. Though the story can be vague and up to interpretation, it’s through item descriptions and conversations with NPCs that you learn about the world and what’s happening.
Related:Dark Souls 2: Most Iconic NPCs, Ranked
Through the previous entries, From Software has seen what works and used that to make some of the most interesting characters in the series. Through your journey of the new and old areas of Lothric, here are the 10 most iconic NPCs should keep an eye out for.
10/10 Giant of the Undead Settlement
The Undead Settlement serves as a great first area in the game, giving your weak enemies to learn combat with and a good sight as to what the undead curse has done to the land. Some sections have you quickly outnumbered by townspeople while also being bombarded by massive spears from above.
After getting further and climbing a tower your find the giant who is the source of the spears. While he isn’t one for many words, you can make peace, as he offers you a white branch and will no longer target you with his spears. This can make the earlier section much easier to explore and fight through.
9/10 Yoel of Londor
The opening cinematic for Dark Souls 3 introduces tons of new plot points to be explored through the game. One of which is the question of the pilgrims on their way to Lothric, and what their purpose is for coming towards to cursed land.
Yoel is one of the last surviving Pilgrims and his true purpose is discovered as he is used to unlock the secret ending of the game. He also acts as a guide giving your more details on the world while also being a sorcery merchant.
8/10 Pickle Pee, Pump-A-Rum The Crow
The latest in the iterations of nest-traders in a Souls game, and its true name may always be a mystery. The nest can be found on the top of Firelink Shire, if players drop the right kind of item into the nest will have it traded by the bird for something much better.
Despite the lack of vocabulary, interactions with this bird can be very entertaining in an otherwise dark game. Having it happily reply to some items and very curtly deny you trade if your item isn’t up to standard.
7/10 Ludleth of Courland
Ludleth is the only Lord who is already sitting on their throne in Firelink Shrine when you start the game. He has already linked the flame previously and in his own world and is now missing his legs from it.
After giving Ludleth the Transposing Kiln he is able to use the souls of defeated bosses to turn them into very powerful weapons and spells. Ludleth’s dialogue is very lore heavily, but his existence and presence on his throne means even more.
6/10 Painting Woman
The painting woman claims she is painting a new world and requires the blood of the Dark Soul in order to paint it. What makes the Painting woman so interesting is her implications in the Dark Souls universe as a whole.
The Painting Woman is the one who sends out Slave Knight Gael to collect the Dark Soul and is the catalyst for the Ringed City DLC.
She also is suspected to be related to Priscilla from the first Dark Souls, who is also locked into a painted world of her own design.
5/10 Unbreakable Patches
Another recurring character from the Dark Souls universe, Patches has found his way into this game and is the same exact person you remember him as. Instead of tricking you, in this game Patches has already tricked Siegward and has stolen his armor and now pretends to be him until you are tricked or see through the trap.
Related:Dark Souls: Most Iconic NPCs, Ranked
Patches also can show up to trap the player in one of the towers above Firelink Shrine. While many have a hate based relationship with Patches, it’s good to see him alive and well and causing just as much mischief in this game as previous ones.
4/10 Yuria of Londor
Yuria of Londor shows up if you accept the dark sigils from Yoel. While Yoel starts this quest line, Yuria shows up to finish it and becomes a central figure in achieving another ending to the game.
Yuria also acts as a merchant, picking up and slightly progressing from where Yoel left of. Yuria also plays a central role in the wedding ceremony between the Ashen one and Anri, which is definitely a first for the Dark Souls series.
3/10 Anri of Astora
Anri is initially found on her own quest along with her companion Horace and also will always appear as the gender opposite of the player. They have both their own in-depth quest line for the Ashen One to follow and also play a major role by becoming your spouse in another quest line.
Anri’s individual quest also highlights just how dark the world of Dark Souls 3 can be. If done correctly, Horace will be driven mad, and you must kill him, then lie to Anri claiming he is lost for good. This shows just one small example of the situations that those who are left in this world are going through.
2/10 Slave Knight Gael
Gael is initially introduced as an NPC trying to help his niece, The Painting Woman.
He is looking around the world for a new Ashen one to help clear out to the rotted world and let his niece paint a new one.
This quest leads him to search for the Dark Soul, originally obtained by the Furtive Pygmy in the first Dark Souls game. After finding and killing the Pygmy lords, he drinks their blood and obtains the power of the Dark Soul, and now serves as the final boss for the Ringed City DLC. While Dark Souls 3 had many callbacks to the first one, calling back the Dark Soul and having him obtain it being the series full circle.
1/10 Siegward of Catarina
The onion knight has returned and is just as puzzled as ever. His quirky personality is still a ray on sunshine in this dark would, and fighting alongside him makes even the most difficult fight all the more enjoyable.
Siegward also has an incredibly deep backstory and quest line in this game. At face value it seems as though his goal is to defeat Yhorm the Giant. It is in this fight and backstory you learn the two were once friends, and Yhorm made Siegward promise that should he ever fall to madness, Siegward must come and kill him.
This revelation makes the Ashen One feel like just a side character in one of the most cinematic fights in the game.
Next:Dark Souls 3: Best Rings, Ranked
10 Side Quests Players Completely Overlook
From Software’s games are infamous for many things. One of these is a very complicated side quest system. In Dark Souls 3 players have to complete several tasks and talk to the NPCs in specific places to progress their quests. And there are events throughout the game which can lock you out of certain side quests.
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Dark Souls 3 continued this tradition. It has some very complicated questlines, even by FromSoftware standards. Some of these require very specific and non-intuitive steps and are likely to be overlooked by players on a blind playthrough. Others need you to perform some creative platforming to get to them or keep specific items that they need to progress their questlines.
Updated August 2, 2022 by Erik Petrovich: Questlines and sidequests DS3 offers players are convoluted, just as the flow of time is convoluted. In an organic playthrough, one might only complete one or two questlines using in-game clues and guidance. It’s a bit of a shame, as most players completely miss out on the best quests in Dark Souls 3. Following a guide is easy enough for each of these DS3 NPC questlines, but be sure to follow them precisely or else risk ending it prematurely — or worse, killing the NPC unintentionally.
10/10 Siegward of Catarina
Getting to Siegward in a tower in the Undead Settlement requires some elevator acrobatics. After you meet him for the first time, he’ll move to a wooden platform halfway up the tower. The elevators in this tower are not very straightforward either, with one going up and another going down from the same place.
Once you find your way up, you’ll pass by his platform, and you might hear his signature hemming and hawing.
His is one of the most iconic quests in DS3, truly one not to miss out on before fighting Yhorm the Giant specifically. If you do not find him in the Undead Settlement, however, you will completely miss his questline and condemn him to a lifetime of stasis in front of a fire demon.
9/10 Yoel and Yuria
Yoel or Yuria’s sidequest requires a lot of non-intuitive actions. You won’t really even find him if you’re not one for searching every corner of the map obsessively. Or if you are put off by creepy moaning from what looks like a group of tastefully decorative corpses. But once you do talk to him, you have to go back and hollow yourself oh so many times before you reach a certain point or the quest will just end. If you succeed, however, you’ll find Yuria and have to jump through more hoops (including a particular wedding ring) all for the chance to experience a different ending that you might mess up at the last moment by resting at a bonfire.
8/10 Irina
Unlike the first two, Irina is not a hard person to find.
But you can easily mess up her entire questline and cause her to get corrupted and die. Irina is one of the NPCs who you can give magic tomes to, and she will let you buy spells from it. If you give her a couple of specific books, however, it will lock you out from the good ending.
Plus, if you do give her all the correct books but don’t buy all the spells out, her quest won’t be completed. It’s a tricky one to complete depending on your decisions, but just be sure to follow the questline precisely as you play through Dark Souls 3.
7/10 Yellowfinger Heysel
The only way to initiate Heysel’s sidequest is to having your ember restored at an area near the Road Of Sacrifices, and then fighting her. Later, you have to give a particular item to a particular person and summon her for the Abyss Watchers fight, and she ends up giving you a gesture.
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But if you decide to pursue this quest, you will be locked out of a different NPC’s sidequest, which the game doesn’t exactly tell players.
Unless you’ve been embered the whole time, it’s easy to miss this NPC and the gesture reward.
6/10 Sirris of the Sunless Realms
Sirris is easy enough to find. She just shows up in Firelink Shrine after reaching the Road of Sacrifices and talking to Horace and Anri, at which point you can talk to her and begin her quest. However, keep in mind that if you do the steps to summon Yellowfinger Heysel for the Abyss Watchers fight, you’ll lock yourself out of Sirris’ quest.
Either way, Sirris makes players work to complete her questline, offering what is easily one of the most convoluted questlines in the game. Look up her questline from the beginning of the game, and be sure not to do anything that contradicts her — don’t go collecting any pale tongues, so plan out future stat allocations ahead of time.
5/10 Orbeck
While Orbeck is not exactly hidden, he will refuse to talk to the Ashen One unless they have more than 10 intelligence. Once you do, you have to find a few scrolls and give them to him before the Abyss Watchers fight, or he will leave forever.
Also, if you have been continuing the Yuria sidequest, you’ll get a mission to kill Orbeck, which will naturally bring a stop to his questline. It’s really easy to lock yourself out of his story and all he has to offer if you are going for the Yuria quest, so try to complete his first.
4/10 Patches
The treacherous, treacherous Patches has been in every Soulsborne game in one form or another — even Elden Ring. He’s something of a trickster, though he almost always turns friendly once confronted on his dastardly acts. Here, however, finding him is a lot harder than in the other games. To find the Patches NPC Dark Souls 3 players have to turn left just before the Deacons Of The Deep fog wall to open a shortcut, then leave the Cathedral completely and return through the shortcut.
RELATED: Elden Ring: What Happens If You Spare Patches
After entering the Cathedral, you’ll find a bridge with Siegward standing next to it. He tells the player of a treasure just across the bridge that he’s leaving for them «right over there».
After you start to cross the bridge, Patches takes off Siegward’s armor and derides the player’s greed as he pulls a lever to lower the bridge. Return back up, confront him on the other side, and his quest will properly begin.
3/10 Anri and Horace
Anri and Horace are not hard to find. However, their quest is very long, involves a series of esoteric steps, and has a diverging point. At this point, you have to choose if you want to follow her questline or get the Usurpation of Fire ending from the Yuria questline.
It’s a brutal questline with many implications, and following it eventually forces players to decide whether to kill Anri or Horace. It’s worth following for the sheer ridiculousness of a mute Gimp accompanying a noble knight, as well as the genuinely emotional moments experienced through the questline.
2/10 Archdragon Peak
Getting to Archdragon Peak is not necessarily a questline in Dark Souls 3, but it sure feels like one.
The Nameless King and Archdragon Peak have become infamous for their difficulty, and for an area of such huge importance, it is really hard to get to. Fight Consumed King Oceiros first, which is not an easy fight, to get the Path of the Dragon gesture.
You may recognize the pose of this gesture from earlier, specifically from a group of stone dragons meditating near the Irithyll Dungeon. Make your way here, perform the emote, and you will be taken to Archdragon Peak after a short cutscene. Get past the Wyvern, a task easier said than done, to be able to challenge Gwyn’s Firstborn, the Nameless King, and his giant dragon.
1/10 End Of Fire
Dark Souls III has four main endings, not counting the DLC ones. The End Of Fire ending has two versions, one of which is pretty straightforward. You get a pair of Firekeeper’s Eyes from the Untended Graves and give them to the Firekeeper, and that’s about it.
This will trigger a cutscene for the standard End Of Fire ending.
But, during the final scene, you have a short window of time where you gain control of your character. If you kill the Firekeeper in this time, you get the alternate version of the End Of Fire ending — no spoilers, but it’s definitely a bit different.
Dark Souls 3 is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
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Guide Dark Souls 3: Locations for farming souls — thousands of souls per minute
Souls are the main currency of the Dark Souls series and third games in particular. They are used for almost everything, from buying things, upgrades, to leveling up the character himself. But the biggest problem with souls is that any fight can lead to the loss of collected souls.
Fortunately, if your goal is to earn a lot of souls in Dark Souls 3 for certain actions in a short period of time, then there are several places for farming in the game that are not very dangerous.
At some farming points you will find either just a lot of enemies at once, or one, but valuable, so you can kill them, collect souls, use a fire to rest, which will respawn enemies, kill again. Rinse and repeat. Considering that leveling up one level can cost tens of thousands of souls, you will need a lot of them.
Dilapidated Bridge — 900 at a time
This location is located in the third main zone of the game — the Undead Settlement, where you can find the Dilapidated Bridge bonfire. Down the road there is a giant throwing spears. A little headache, but later this giant will become your friend.
Move towards where the spears are flying — you will find a tower with an elevator. Climb down, then teleport back to the fire — in any way. After that, move to the tower again and the elevator will take you up — a simple system of blocks.
Talk to the giant here and offer your friendship. Return to the place where the spears flew at you.
The spears will fly again, but now at your enemies.
Just stay in this location and avoid the enemies by keeping them in the area of impact. The giant will kill mobs and you will collect their souls. When everyone is dead, rest by the fire. Repeat again.
In one run you will get about 900 souls, which is more than enough at early levels.
Cleansing Chapel — 900 showers per minute
This location is located in the zone Cathedral of the Deep. Just rest by the fire, exit through the main door and deal with the enemies on the right. You will reach the zone itself during the game.
Desecrated Capital — 2500 souls per minute
Move from the fire down the stairs to the center of the tower. After jumping through the hole in the back, run counterclockwise and hit the flying statue. Then go up the stairs to the tower. Here you need to stand in front of the stairs on the ground. The enemy will land in the right place for you to strike first.
Great Belfrey — 5600 souls at a time
In order to use this farming method, you must have Dragon Peak open and the Boss killed.
Farming takes place in Great Belfry.
Rest by the fire, go up the small stairs and forward between the columns. Kill the mob and turn left, jumping down. Through the doorway and down the stairs — here kill a couple of enemies and move to the far left — up the stairs, back to the starting fire.
Rest and repeat the process.
Grand Archives — 14300 souls at a time.
Rest by the fire, move to the left, up the stairs. Take the elevator up. Climb up the oval stairs on the right and exit the opening immediately to the left. Up again — then move along the roofs to the very top. Here one of the three winged enemies with a halberd will go down to the roof. A great way to kill them is backstab.
Dark Souls 3 Guides:
- Dark Souls 3 bugs, errors, crashes and other problems — solutions
- Dark Souls 3 Guide: Weapon and Shield Upgrades
- Dark Souls 3 Guide: Character Leveling — Characteristics
- Dark Souls 3 class guide: Knight, Mercenary, Warrior, Herald and Thief
- Dark Souls 3 class guide: Assassin, Wizard, Pyromancer, Cleric and Beggar
- Dark Souls III Guide: 10 Beginner Tips
- Dark Souls 3 Guide: Starting Boons
- Dark Souls 3 Guide: Bosses Walkthrough — Judex Gandir
- Dark Souls 3 Veterans Guide — Lots of New and Important
- Dark Souls 3: Boss Walkthrough — Rotten Tree
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Main characters in Dark Souls 3
Non-player characters (NPCs) are characters who interact with the player, provide services as merchants, start complicated quests, or are part of the story.
Initially, you will find the Fire Keeper in the Fire Shrine. In addition to her, in the Temple there will be Deserter Hawkwood, unburned and escaped from the Legion of Farron, Ludleth of Courland — a peculiar person sitting on one of the thrones. Well, first things first.
Keeper of Fire — looks after the fire in the Firelink Temple. Allows players to level up.
Blacksmith Andre — from the very beginning, located in the Temple of Fire. Interacting with him, the player can — upgrade, harden, repair weapons and shields. Estus flask shards can also be given to Andre to upgrade (up to a maximum of 15). Helps distribute estus.
Undead Settlement Greyrat — originally found in the High Wall of Lothric. After his release, he will move to Firelink Shrine as a merchant. Notably, his inventory can be updated with new items if he is allowed to go thievery. To extend his life, you need to complete the quest.
Deserter Hawkwood — stationed in Firelink Shrine. He is a deserter of the Legion of the Dead.
Instructs the player in his usual manner. He is an unburning one who ran away from his duties due to his despair. He gives appropriate advice.
Ludleth Courland — located in the Fire Temple. He is the Lord of Ashes. The only Lord in charge. Acts as a merchant. Can trade the souls of bosses in exchange for unique equipment.
Emma, High Priestess of Lothric Castle — located in the High Wall of Lothric. Helps join the Azure Path covenant. Helps the player by providing a quest item.
The Temple Maid is the main merchant in the game. All the time is in the Temple of Fire. Her inventory can be expanded by bringing in her ashes from other merchants or those found while traveling.
Sigvard of Katarina — the first time he can be found in the Undead Settlement, where his quest starts. It occurs many times throughout the game, you are required to save him and help him many times. At the end, you will receive a reward for this.
Yoel of Londoro — first encountered in the High Wall of Lothric.
Acts as a merchant and allows the player to «find his true power».
Yuria of Londor — Found in Firelink Shrine. A very mysterious character. Appears in the Temple after you find Yoel dead. A whole quest is associated with her and one of the endings of the game is dedicated to her goals.
Aegon of Karim — can be found in the Undead Settlement. Acts as the protector of Irina from Karim. If you, for some reason, kill Irina, he will become hostile to you.
Irina from Karim — locked up in the Undead Settlement. After liberation, he is located in the Temple of Fire. He is a merchant of miracle spells. Accepts tomes found during the game.
Cornyx of the Great Swamp — sitting in a cage in the Undead Settlement. After being released, he goes to the Firelink Shrine. Sells Pyromancy spells and accepts tomes. Improves pyromancy flames.
Horace the silent — first encountered in the Road of Sacrifices. He is a companion of Henri of Astora.
Leonhard Ringfinger — Found in Firelink Shrine.
He is a member of the Rosaria’s Fingers covenant. Offers the player to invade other people’s worlds and rob souls.
Velka, Goddess of Sin — located in the Undead settlement. Forgives sins.
Sirris of the Sunless Lands — Found in Firelink Shrine. Knight from the Sunless Lands. Notable for being an opponent of Rosaria and her covenant.
Orbeck of Vinheim — can be found in the Road of Sacrifices. Sorcery Spell Merchant. Accepts scrolls to expand the range.
Unbreakable Patchwork — Found for the first time in the Temple of the Deep or Firelink Temple. He is an auxiliary character in the quests of Sigvard and Greyrat. Also a merchant.
Anri of Astora — Found in the Road of Sacrifices. A quest character that you help find his companion Horace.
Rosaria, mother of rebirth, located in the Temple of the Deep. He is the leader of the Rosaria’s Fingers covenant. She can redistribute the characteristics or change the appearance.
Archdeacon McDonell — located in Irithyl Coldvale.
