Dark Souls Tomb of the Giants Guide – Full Walkthrough

Dark Souls 1 is one of my comfort games weirdly, and I find myself returning to it annually to remind myself of my Soulsborne roots. That being said, one of the only areas I still find unnerving to explore, even after multiple playthroughs, is the Tomb of the Giants.

The Tomb of the Giants is a late-game area, one of the three areas unlocked after placing the Lord Vessel, and at the end of its gauntlet lies a lord Soul, of which you need four to reach the game’s final boss.

Even though all of these four final lord soul areas have gimmicks and tricks, such as the invisible platforms in the Crystal Cave and the spectral ghosts in New Londo Ruins, the Tomb of the Giants has a combination of two very intense gimmicks that take a lot more pre-planning than any other area in the game. In addition to these gimmicks, you have to deal with difficult late-game enemies.

But hopefully, I can make this process a little easier for you and get you on the right track to obtain another Lord Soul. Here is RPG Informer’s Dark Souls Tomb of the Giants Guide!

Preparation: How to Fight the Darkness

You may have noticed that the three main options you have for brightness while traversing the area are above. First, you can go in with nothing, which, although possible, is very difficult. I recommend you go with either the second or third option. I’ll describe how to obtain each of these items shortly.

The second option is a Skull Lantern. The bright lantern was the tool most intended for the area, considering some hints of traversal be uncovered only with it. That being said, you must hold it in your off-hand, which disables two handing weapons, and you must hold it up to illuminate an area, similar to how you hold up a shield to block attacks. This hindrance to the ability to fight makes this method less suitable than expected. I will show you how to obtain this item as we make our way to the Tomb.

The third option is likely the easiest, especially if it’s your first time in this area. The Sunlight Maggot helmet lights up the same area as holding up the Skull Lantern. Yet, unlike the lantern, all you have to do is have the helmet equipped for it to work.

To find the Sunlight Maggot helmet, make your way to this corridor to the right of the Firesage Demon boss fight in Demon Ruins. Kill the Sunlight Maggot enemy with the glowing red eyes, which has a 100% drop rate of this item.

An additional option for magic users is the Cast Light spell. You can obtain this item from the NPC Dusk of Oolacile, unlocked after killing the Golden Crystal Golem behind the hydra in the Dark Root Basin. The spell works similarly to the Sunlight Maggot helmet.

Choosing Your Build

When choosing a build for the Tomb, you’ll likely want to know how to kill the constantly reviving skeletons living in the Catacombs and Gravelord Nito’s boss arena. To put down skeletons for good, you need a divine weapon. While it is possible to create a divine weapon from an existing one, for this guide, the divine weapon I used was formed from downgrading the occult club at a blacksmith. The occult club can be found naturally in Anor Londo if you want to use it.

That being said, here is an important suggestion: you don’t need a divine weapon! Yes, these skeletons coming back are scary, but you likely already have more than enough strength to kill them and just walk away before they respawn.

So, for your Tomb of the Giants build, I would recommend a build where you can deal a lot of damage. My favorite weapons for this are the Black Knight Sword and also the Lifehunt Scythe, which I used in this guide and can be obtained after defeating Priscilla in the painted world. If you can deal enough damage, it’ll be harder for respawning skeletons to gang up on you, as you’ll kill them faster.

For protection, although you can use whatever armor you want, I would recommend a good shield. Even though I prefer playing through most of this game without one, while walking through the darkness of the Tomb, a shield can protect you against damage you can’t see coming. Basic shields like a Grass Crest Shield or Bloodshield that I used work just fine, but if you find yourself constantly ganged up by skeletons, a shield like the Eagle Shield with more stability can take more hits before draining your stamina.

Dark Souls Tomb of the Giants Guide – Full Walkthrough

First, I will concisely guide you on how to make your way to the Tomb of the Giants from Firelink Shrine. Additionally, as we go down, I’ll describe how to prepare for the Tomb.

From Firelink shrine, go towards the skeleton graveyard that infamously kills beginners before they’re skilled enough.

Head down the main pathway until you reach the entrance to the Catacombs. If you’re interested, the skeleton graveyard around this entrance has a few goodies.

Head down into the Catacombs and go past the few regular skeletons. Although I recommend killing every enemy if you plan to scour places for loot, with the respawning skeletons around these areas, it’s often easier to run past them. Go through the linear entrance and run down a bit until you hit the ladder.

After the ladder, look out for this hole in the wall leading to the first bonfire, but be careful because there is an enemy in this room with some pyromancy abilities, so try to kill them swiftly.

This pyromancer in the bonfire room is an Undead Mage. In the Catacombs, regenerating skeletons around them will no longer regenerate when you kill them. They also have a 2% chance of dropping a Skull Lantern. This drop percentage is tiny, so there’s a minimal chance you get it from a random drop. On top of that, these enemies do not respawn. This means you cannot farm them for the Skull Lantern.

This is the central area of the Catacombs, and while I won’t show you how to traverse this area, many other Undead Mages here will hopefully drop you a lantern. If you kill every single one of the mages, the final one has a 100% chance of dropping the Skull Lantern. Good luck in the Catacombs, and if you’ve already placed the lord vessel by now, this area shouldn’t be that hard for you to go through and kill all the Mages.

Additionally, you can find the lantern in the Tomb of the Giants. I’ll point it out when we get there.

Make your way to the Pinwheel boss fight at the very bottom of the Catacombs, past the fog door at one end of the valley of Wheel Skeletons. Pinwheel is one of the easiest fights in the game, and once they’re dead, go up the ladder to the right of the arena to enter the Tomb of the Giants.

Path to the First Bonfire

At the top of the ladder, you’ll find yourself at the place above. This is the entrance to the Tomb, and we’ll first make our way to the first bonfire.

Make your way to the sparkling light to the left.

Now that we’re at the sparkling light to the left, go to the right towards the furthest one and continue until you see glowing eyes. That is our first Giant Skeleton.

Although you’ll often find it easier to run past Giant Skeletons to reach your destination, I’d recommend trying to fight this first one because it’s an easier one-on-one battle, and you can learn their basic movements. Their attacks are enormous, very telegraphed, and do lots of damage.

Once he’s dead, go down the only path ahead, and now you’ll find our first of three tomb slides.

These tomb slides are fascinating as, when you slide down them, you have a sliding animation only used on these three slides and the run-up to the Bed of Chaos. Note that you can move slightly to the right or left while sliding. We will use this on the third slide to get an item.

The second slide will be right in front of you, but before you go down again, you can kill another Giant Skeleton to the right.

Go down the second slide.

Be very careful because to the right, there is a Giant Skeleton, and behind him, there is one more. Also, in the distance are two Giant Skeletons with large bows you must dodge while fighting. This fight isn’t too hard if you play defensively.

Now, for the third slide, start near the right and hold your movement to the right to get the hidden humanity item to the side of the slide.

At the bottom, you will find Patches and a little glowing thing he’s telling you to look at. Please do not go near him or the light. He will push you down into the pit, and you must take a long time getting out of it. If you die, you have to start from the very top again. Go to the left, where my red arrow is pointing, and go to the ledge to find the ladder down that leads to the first bonfire over the ledge.

Good job now you’ve reached the first bonfire! From here, I will explore the Tomb briefly, showing a few side areas and encounters. The instructions to reach the second bonfire and for the Gravelord Nito boss fight are further down.

Exploring the Upper Tomb

Every following section will be reached very close to this first bonfire. Remember that you can kindle the bonfire for more flasks if the following sections give you trouble.

We’ll explore the first path hidden below and behind the third slide. This long path ultimately brings you back up to the top of the Tomb, with a few secrets along the way.

As you go up the path, you’ll find a tomb with a ladder leading down into the room shown above. This room has a pit with many Giant Skeletons. The closest item is the consumable Soul of a Brave Warrior, and the further one is a Large Divine Ember. If you need the Large Divine Ember, you could consider a suicide run to run in and grab it and then die. If you do this, you can jump and traverse around the edge of the Tomb to drop closer to the item you want. If you want to try to kill all the skeletons here, a good strategy is to lure them to you beneath the edge and then plunge attack them to deal a lot of damage.

After this room, two Giant Skeletons and a ladder are up the path. I recommend going for the Giant Skeleton with the bow first. There may also be a Giant Skeleton shooting at you from a distance.

You’ll see this item on the cliffside on the way up the ladder. Just fall from the top to grab it. Additionally, at the top are two more Giant Skeleton enemies.

Now you’ve made it back to the top of the Tomb! Some miscellaneous items are up here to grab, such as some Eyes of Death and soul consumables. At this point, I’d recommend going back down using either path to nab the items you may have missed the first time.

Now talk to Patches and inspect the glowing thing on the cliff he wants you to see. He’ll end up kicking you off the ledge into the pit below. If you haven’t gotten one already, there’s a Skull Lantern in this pit that will be helping us escape. Hidden to the side of this area is also a White Titanite Chunk.

You’ll also find your first Bone Tower enemies down here. They are slow and die quickly, so don’t be too scared.

Talk to the woman (Rhea) sitting on the ground, and she’ll warn you of two hallow knights further up. Once they’re dead, she’ll reward you with the Replenishment Miracle. Make your way through this area; holding up a Skull Lantern will show you particular blue, glowing orbs that lead to the way out if you’re lost. Ultimately, break through the invisible wall at the end of the path, and you’ll find yourself on the same route from earlier that led to the top of the Tomb.

Approach Patches again. If you reject Patches’ apology, he’ll give you twin humanities. After killing Nito, you’ll be able to find him later back at Firelink Shrine. He gives you a new gesture and sells Pinwheel’s masks and other valuable items, such as humanity.

Now that we’re all done exploring here, we will go to the second bonfire.

Path to the Second Bonfire

The path to the second bonfire is a primarily linear route with many large enemies, so to avoid getting overrun, try to aggravate only one or two enemies at a time, as fighting enemies one-on-one is a lot easier. Running past enemies in this monotonous area is valid, but killing the skeletons makes it much easier to pick up some items.

Walk forward down the path to the right of Patches. Here is the first Skeleton Beast. Like the Giant Skeleton at the top of the Tomb, you should fight this guy one-on-one to understand their moves and general traits. Many of these enemies’ attacks are massive sweeps directly forward and do much damage. Once you kill him, enter the fog door behind him.

Right after the fog door, off the cliff to the left below you, is the bonfire we are headed to. You possibly won’t be able to see it as clearly as in the picture if you have not lit it yet, but generally, it’s good to know that that’s how we are headed.

Go forward, and there will be a Skeleton Beast to your left, one to your right, and a Skeleton Archer directly in front of you. Behind the archer is a soul-consumable item. Drop off the ledge behind the item to find the secret Covetous Silver Serpent Ring.

To the left of the Skeleton Archer is a path that, to the right, leads to a Black Knight, and the other leads to the next bonfire. At the end of the path with the Black Knight is a dead end with the Effigy Shield.

Now, to reach the bonfire, hug the left wall, pass by a Skeleton Beast and a Giant Skeleton to your right, go to the ledge, and take the shortcut to the left.

How to Get to Gravelord Nito

From the second bonfire, we can now reach the end of this area, the boss, Gravelord Nito, and pick up some remaining items.

If you hold out a skull lantern from the bonfire, you can follow the glowing blue dots that lead to the exit. Follow this bottom path, and immediately to the right, you can find a small aperture with a White Titanite Chunk. Continue down, and you’ll face three Skeleton Beasts. To avoid them, go right.

Before continuing, loop to the right of the path below the platform with the three Skeleton Beasts to find the Soul of a Brave Warrior. Now, you can continue down the path, climb down the ladder (or drop), and finally reach the end of the darkness!

Now that you are out of the darkness walk along the cliff into the cavern. Additionally, If you are no longer hollow because you decided to kindle the bonfire for extra flasks for the boss, you will face Paladin Leroy on this cliffside. Inside the cave entrance, there’s a Crystal Lizard that will drop Twinkling Titanite.

At this point in the cave, hold up your shield. An archer behind this Bone Tower can hit you without you seeing it. Now, make your way into the room with a bunch of Pinwheels.

This room with all of the Pinwheels is the final room of this area. The fog door to the back leads to the boss, Gravelord Nito, who will give you one of the four lord souls needed to beat the game. There are also baby skeletons here who will swarm at your feet. The most valuable item in this room is a White Titanite Slab in a crevice in the back of the room. There are also some soul-consumable items and a White Titanite Chunk in the central part of the room.

Avoiding the pinwheels on the way to the boss makes sense unless you want to kill them for the souls, masks, or White Titanite Chunks/Slabs. They have a fire blast attack that can hit you if you’re standing still, and the Skeleton Babies shouldn’t be able to swarm you if you keep moving. Move fast so the enemies can’t get the better of you.

Gravelord Nito

Gravelord Nito is one of the trickiest boss fights in the game, and more than any other, requires a good sense of the arena itself, which is a large room with rocks in the middle. The second you begin the fight, you drop down a pit and take fall damage. Try to quickly take a flask and make your way to Nito, who will be closer to the back left of the arena. Most of Nito’s attacks are relatively basic, yet it’s often hard to see his windup through his heavy coat.

There are two particular attacks I find essential to memorize. First, the Gravelord Greatsword, which thrusts up out of the ground when you are distanced from Nito, so always be wary of it when you are away from him. The timing of this attack can be tricky, but you can know it’s coming based on a distinct scream indication. Secondly, there is the Miasma attack, where Nito charges and blasts a toxic wave in all directions. Run away and use this as a break to heal or use spells. Both of these attacks cause toxic buildup.

The skeletons in the arena are likely going to be your biggest issue. There are Giant Skeletons in the back that may join the fight, but as long as you keep away from the back half of the room, they won’t be aggravated. To make sure Giant Skeletons don’t fight you, lure Nito to the front of the arena near where you dropped in. The regular skeleton enemies that infinitely revive can be annoying, especially when paired with Nito’s strong attacks. You can try to kill them when you are separated from Nito. When you are near Nito, try broad attacks that will harm both the skeletons and the boss; Nito’s attacks can also kill the skeletons, so sticking close to him can solve the problem for you. If the skeletons are truly problematic for you, as mentioned earlier, a divine weapon that permanently kills the skeletons could make the job much easier.

This fight is best fought with a weapon that does heavy damage, so you can kill skeletons fast and get good hits on Nito between dealing with skeletons. Nito is slow and often easy to walk around, so you can give yourself space if you need it, but especially with the skeletons, you can still get ganged up on all at once, so be careful with positioning.

Tomb of the Giants Rewards

• Large Divine Ember
• Replenishment Miracle
• Covetous Silver Serpent Ring
• Effigy Shield
• Skull Lantern
• Eye of Death x3
• White Titanite Chunk x3
• White Titanite Slab

Gravelord Nito Is No More

The Tomb of the Giants has some of the most testing mechanics in Dark Souls 1. Even though it’s an annoying area to revisit, it can be a lot easier with the right tools and the proper knowledge of where you’re headed.

It’s really important to have something to light the way for you, and you’ll also need to be well-leveled with a solid build. But hopefully, this guide will help you get out of there in one piece! As always, thanks for reading RPG Informer!

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