Grave of Saints | Dark Souls 2 Wiki

Grave of Saints Walkthrough

Start to Rhoy Invasion

After coming into the area from The Pit in Majula, the first bonfire, Harval's Resting Place will be an obvious find. On your way in, two Hollow Prisoner will sit around, get rid of them so they dont join your fights against Corpse Rats later on. After dealing with them, enter the large chamber, which has a dry fountain in the middle due to a hole in the base. There is treasure and a very interesting looking skeleton in the fountain but you can't access this area yet. More importantly, upon entering, several Corpse Rats will sneak out of small holes around the room and attack. Individually they should pose no threat, however, groups can be dangerous, because their attacs build up petrification. Inside this chamber is a skeleton with a Large Soul of a Nameless Solider.

Continue into the lightend-up area and up a small stairs, then take care of more Rats coming from the right. This way brings us further down the progress path, so we ignore that direction for now and go left instead. This way leads to another snickering Hollow Prisoner, as well as a corpse, holding 3x Small Smooth & Silky Stones. Back at the junction, you will notice a Pharros' Lockstone face on the floor, which opens a bridge right next to it. This is about the only worthwhile Contraption, if you have no interest in joining the Rat King Covenant. Activate it and cross the bridge to arrive at a large room filled with petrified rats. There is a corpse with 2x Poison Moss up ahead, but be carefull, as 3 more Rats will crawl out from the opening left of the corpse. After taking care of them and taking the Moss, go up a set of stairs, leading to a skeleton holding Whisper of Despair and a Torch.

Further down the way leads to a doorway, blocked with a bridge like the one you just crossed that can be lowered with another Pharros' Lockstone on the floor above. However, we recommend against wasting a lockstone here, as you will be reaching the area across later. Heading back to the hall where you lowered the bridge and take the way we ignored before. On your way down, you will come to a Pharros' Lockstone face in the wall and a ladder. This one creates a waterfall that obscures vision and extinguishes torches and is intended to help Rat King Covenant members, as are the majority of Lockstones in this area.

Rhoy to Royal Rat Boss

Heading up the ladder will trigger the scripted invasion of Rhoy the Explorer (Only if you play offline). Here's what you need to know:

• He is relatively fast but is not a tremendous threat on his own; allowing rats to join the fray does cause problems as they will fall and crawl to sneak up on you.
• He drops a random piece of equipment when killed:
  • Shotel +5
  • Armor of Aurous Warmth (pyromancy)
  • Heavy Crossbow +5

After defeating him and the three Rats coming from the left, you can inspect this new section, which mostly looks like the floor below but with several Pharros' Lockstone holes. The one in the floor right away lowers the bridge mentioned earlier, but as with most of the Contraptions here, it only is usefull for Members of the Rat King Covenant, or for dealing with them (having more ways you can go). Moving to the left leads to a tomb with 3 more Rats and a skeleton holding 3x Homeward Bone. Other lockstones will create acid pools (at the areas with the statues of rats holding jars) that damage armor; these are more traps to help covenant members.

Heading in the other direction leads to a the Grave Entrance bonfire and mist door, while the door leads to the boss fight.

BOSS FIGHT: Royal Rat Vanguard

When you first enter the boss fight, you will be swarmed by regular rats. Killing a number of them will trigger the Vanguard's entry. While it is not easily distinguishable, look for a rat with bigger ears and a mohawk. Once you've spotted the Vanguard, kill it to cease the continuous attack of rats. 

Rat King and Coffin Ladder

After defeating the boss, the room leads to a door and The Rat King will respect the murdering of his Vanguard, allowing you to join the Rat King Covenant. You are given the ring Crest of the Rat. If you have entered the covenant the area rats and hollows will no longer attack you as you are now one of them.

A hole in the floor after The Rat King drops down to the center fountain which was inaccessible before. Take a look at the very interesting skeleton before you do; while it's essentially useless, it's still a nice touch. Below is a corpse with a Pharros' lockstone. The only way out is down which leads to a pit with coffins jutting out as ledges to jump down. This leads to a stone bridge above a broken wooden one.

Wooden Bridge to The Gutter

If you're quick enough, the broken wooden bridge holds a Crystal Lizard. Note that there's a separate access to The Gutter area from The Pit in Majula, and the Crystal Lizard is fairly easy to get from this entry. The skeleton on the bridge also holds a Bleed Stone. You can jump from the bridge to a small ledge with a corpse yields the Disc Chime. Alternately, drop down to the wooden bridge below. On one end of the wooden bridge past the gap is a chest containing Ash Knuckle Ring.  Get a good running start and jump over.

Note: The stairway on the other end of the bridge leads back to an entrance ledge in The Pit in Majula. The Crystal Lizard will spawn on the stairs just before the bridge. It will run across the bridge and fall through the hole, so make sure to kill it quickly. 

Jumping down from either the Disc Chime ledge or the wooden bridge, will land you in a water pit. Get out of water as it slows your movement, not the movement of the 3 exploding Rupturing Hollows that are coming from one tunnel though. Another thing to note is if you hang out on the wooden bridge for a while, before jumping down, Rupturing Hollows will come out for you to snipe. One tunnel has water (NG+ there will be 2x Phantoms in the water tunnel, 1x Lightning Mage, 2x Knight) and the other does not. The one with water has a Syan Soldier guarding a chest that contains a Sublime Bone Dust.

The other tunnel (where the Rupturing Hollows came from) has a ladder and scaffolding further down. After the first drop...you're down there. You can't reach the ladder again. There are two choices down. When facing the pit, a ladder to the right leads to another ladder and a corpse with a Human Effigy.

The other direction leads to ladders down, passing a corpse with a Radiant Lifegem, near the bottom. Make sure to find this, as there is then another ladder with no way back up. A chest at the base holds a Token of Spite.

A tunnel here leads out to The Gutter. Bring torches.