Bonfire Ascetic | Dark Souls 2 Wiki

Bonfire Ascetic
Tossing this into a Bonfire strengthens nearby foes. Once the Bonfire Ascetic is devoured by the flames, its effects can never be reversed.

Bonfire Ascetic is a type of consumable in Dark Souls 2 (DKS2) and Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin. Exercise caution before employing this hazardous ember. Fire shares a link with the curse, and as the flames surge, so does the curse. Consumable Items grant various effects such as restorative properties for recovering HP, removing certain negative status effects, applying temporary buffs and debuffs, as well as activating various actions and effects.

Tossing this into a Bonfire strengthens nearby foes.
Once the Bonfire Ascetic is devoured by the flames, its effects can never be reversed. Be prepared before using this perilous ember. Fire exhibits a connection to the curse, and when the flames grow stronger, so does the curse.

Dark Souls 2 Bonfire Ascetic Usage

• When resting at a Bonfire, select "Burn" and then select "Bonfire Ascetic". Burning a Bonfire Ascetic is irreversible, so exercise caution.
• Doing so will increase the Intensity of the bonfire by one tier each time an ascetic is burned. This can be verified on the Travel menu when highlighting the specific bonfire.
• This effectively makes the area affected by the bonfire go into a higher ng cycle (so bonfire intensity 1 is base ng, intensity 2 is ng+, intensity 3 is ng++, etc.). 

Bonfire Ascetic Important Notes in Dark Souls 2

• You need to first kill the area boss(es) to burn the Ascetic in any of the bonfires in that area. Otherwise, you will get a message saying "First, defeat the lord of this quarter" and you will not be able to burn the Ascetic.
• Please be aware that any ascetic you burn in a bonfire WILL carry on to the next playthrough! If you want to farm souls and/or farm items using ascetics and then wish to go to NG+, the difficulty of the area will be the number of ascetics used + the NG cycle you're currently at. If you use a Bonfire Ascetic on your first playthrough on a bonfire, it will be NG+ level, so when you go to your second playthrough it will stack and will become NG++, and so on. Be very careful as this may make it much harder for you to complete the areas where you burned an ascetic.
• Using a Bonfire Ascetic will NOT respawn Estus Flask Shards, and will NOT respawn NPCs.
• Using a Bonfire Ascetic will NOT respawn Metal Chests, but will respawn Wooden Chests and items laying on the ground or on corpses. Increasing the intensity also allows the player to be able to obtain items that exclusively appear in NG+ and NG++. Useful for farming certain items.
• Using a Bonfire Ascetic will respawn enemies that have been unpetrified (with Fragrant Branch of Yore), but you will not need to unpetrify them again. They'll respawn unpetrified and ready to be killed.
• Bonfire intensity caps at 99, but you can still burn ascetics past 99 to respawn the boss or farm loot.

• The difficulty caps at NG+7, so every successive burning after the 8th intensity will be of the same difficulty. The highest leap in difficulty is from NG to NG+, after which the enemies slowly become stronger up to NG+7.
• Burning the item is also a way to respawn exhausted enemies, albeit at a much higher difficulty.
  • Alternatively, if the player is on the SotFS edition, they can join the Covenant of Champions to make enemies respawn without having to burn an ascetic.
• If the bonfire ascetic is used in the Heide's ruin bonfire, you will be able to farm sublime bone dust of the knight that doesn't respawn but you will need to defeat the Dragonrider each time. (Only in non-SOFTS version)
• For details on the results of burning an ascetic at each bonfire, please visit the individual bonfire's page. A full list of the game's bonfires can be found on the Bonfires page.
• Beating a boss when 8 ascetics have been used on its bonfire will turn its corresponding flame on Cale's world map blue, though there is no other apparent effect.

DKS2 Bonfire Ascetic Locations

Regular Game

• 1 can be chosen as a gift when creating a new character.
• 1 can be found on a corpse in the Lost Bastille before the bridge that leads you to the Sinners' Rise bonfire get in the cage that acts like an elevator and when at the top, jump down on the ledge below.
• 1 can be found on a corpse in Brightstone Cove Tseldora up the ladder after the church where you fight the Prowling Magus and Congregation.
• 1 can be found on a skeleton in Iron Keep at the first bonfire, cross the bridge, and about halfway across, look to the right. Drop down the ledge and run across the series of flaming rocks. (3 in SOTFS version)
• 3 can be found in an iron chest in Drangleic Castle after the Looking Glass Knight fight near the elevators leading down into the Shrine of Amana.
• 1 can be found in an iron chest in the Shrine of Amana in the area past the Altar of Amana beyond the Rise of the Dead bonfire.
• 1 can be found in an iron chest in the Undead Crypt up a ladder and on a platform next to a Leydia Witch near the Undead Ditch bonfire.
• 2 can be found in an iron chest in Aldia's Keep up the stairs in the main hall with the skeletal dragon.

• 3 can be found in an iron chest in the Dragon Shrine near the entrance.
• 1 can be found on a corpse in Memory of Jeigh on a ledge to the left right after the fog gate.
• 3 can be found in an iron chest in Memory of Orro by rolling onto the suspended platform after destroying the crane contraption on the rooftop and then jumping into the hidden area.
• 1 can be found on a corpse in Memory of Vammar on the rooftop with the 2 pyromancy casting giants.
• 4 can be found in the special chest in the Majula mansion as a part of a promotional event for Dark Souls 2 DLC from June 25th to July 1st, 2014.
• 1 can be found in a wooden chest in Dragon's Sanctum guarded by several Sanctum Soldiers near the start of the area. (respawns by burning Ascetic at Tower of Prayer bonfire)
• 3 can be found on a corpse in Cave of the Dead in the main area after dropping down one of the holes.
• 2 can be found in an iron chest in Brume Tower in the area where you get invaded by Maldron the Assassin.
• 1 can be found in an iron chest in Brume Tower by dropping down to the ledge containing the first Possessed Armor. The chest also contains 2 human effigies.
• 3 can be found in an iron chest in Frozen Eleum Loyce in the room with the once-frozen Mimic.
• Stone Trader Chloanne sells 1 for 7,500 souls near the Poison Pool bonfire in Harvest Valley, or later when she moves to Majula.
• Royal Sorcerer Navlaan in Aldia's Keep sells 10 for 7,500 souls each after completing his assassination missions while hollow or while human after he's been released. See his page for details on how to handle this.
• Darkdiver Grandahl sells 10 of these for 7,500 each if you are a member of the Pilgrims of Dark Covenant.
• Dropped by the Ashen Crawler monsters in Brume Tower. A very large amount of them reside in the tower where you retrieve the Scorching Iron Scepter, past the Foyer bonfire.
• Defeating an invader or a host in the Dark Chasm of Old will net you a single Bonfire Ascetic.

Bonfire Ascetic Farming in DKS2

• Enemy-based farming: They're dropped by Phantoms and Witch Trees during the 3 trials of the Pilgrim of the Dark Covenant. The Chasm is open permanently after the Darklurker is killed once in a playthrough allowing for unlimited farming of them at no human effigy cost. Once the entrance to the dark chasm is permanently open, you can join the Covenant of Champions, preventing the enemies from despawning.
• Scholar of the First Sin: By using a Bonfire Ascetic in the Foregarden bonfire in Aldia's Keep, and unpetrifying the hollow next to the Basilisk in the cage, you will gain 2 ascetics. However you can respawn him for 1 ascetic, and he will still drop them each time, effectively allowing for infinite bonfire ascetics. Very useful for getting every NG+ item in one playthrough and getting every bonfire on Cale's map blue. You don't need to de-petrify the hollow again either.

Soul Farming Methods with Bonfire Ascetic

• The Giant Lord boss is a good farming method for getting a very large amount of souls per run in addition to a soul vessel but is rather difficult without a heavily focused spell caster build. There is also a bonfire ascetic that respawns near the entrance, allowing for indefinite farming as long as you grab it.
• You can also farm Ascetics themselves with the above method as one respawns in Memory of Jeigh and another respawns close to the Giant Pyromancers on the memory of Vammar. This also nets a Soul Vessel inside the Memory of Orro.

Upgrading Materials Farming Methods with Bonfire Ascetic

• 1x Soul of a Hero, 1x Soul of a Great Hero, 3x Twinkling Titanite, 3x Petrified Dragon Bone, 3x Boltstone, 3x Bleedstone, 10x Rusted Coin, 1x Dried Root as well Focus Souls sorcery can be farmed in Dragon's Sanctum by burning Ascetic at Tower of Prayer bonfire, highly recommended to lure away enemies with Yearn sorcery, additional Bonfire Ascetic can be obtained from a trapped wooden chest guarded by Sanctum Soldiers in the first room. (Bonfire ascetic is replaced by a dried root in SotFS)

Bonfire Ascetic Merchant Interactions

• Allows purchase of Moonlight Butterfly set if used in Majula until 3 intensity - Available after spending 16k at Maughlin the Armourer. (The main set pieces i.e. chest, arms, and legs unlock on 2 intensity and the headpiece at 3 intensity). Note: The Moon Butterfly Shield can be found after 2-3 ascetics in the chest in the loft above Maughlin'shop
• Does not allow the purchase of the covenant weapons or spells at Chancellor Wellager, this needs actual NG++.
• Allows purchase of Dragonrider Set from Magerold at the Iron Keep when Drangleic Castle is cleared and Threshold Bridge is at intensity 2.

Bonfire Ascetic Notes

• The word "ascetic" is an adjective meaning unrelenting or rigorous. This may imply that the player burning this item will encounter enemies who exhibit those same qualities.
• An ascetic is a person who practices stringent self-discipline or self-denial and often withholds all physical gratification. The word can also be an adjective that means something characterized by the practice of self-discipline or denial. Its Greek roots come from a word meaning “training” or “exercise.” The word is usually associated with achieving spiritual goals. Thus, a bonfire ascetic is an object that allows you to train and practice self-discipline in the pursuit of higher goals by making your experience of the physical world around you harder.

Boss Respawning