Death Knife Catacombs’ LocationThe entrance as viewed from the south
Note that the skeletons here cannot revive if you are using a weapon enhanced with holy essence — the Ash of War: Sacred Blade is one such way to grant your weapon holy essence.
From the site of grace, head down the first two sets of stairs and you’ll find a skeleton assembling itself. Don’t let it finish — “kill” it instead, and note that its bones start glowing white after a moment of being on the ground. Attack the bones once more to finish off the skeleton for good. Continue down the next set of stairs and you’ll come to a closed door — feel free to activate the summoning pool and leave your summon sign here — then turn left, grab the Grave Glovewort [2] and continue down the next set of stairs. You’ll find another skeleton here in front of a Stonesword Imp statue — take him down but don’t bother finishing it off, because you can’t yet.
Continue quickly down the hallway and be ready for another skeleton to jump out from the left. Dispatch it and you should see a guy holding a blue-flaming staff — take him out and the nearby skeletons will stop reviving. Behind you in the dead-end is another Grave Glovewort [2].
If you have a Stonesword Key and want the Rosus’ Axe, you can grab it inside the room blocked by the Imp Statue in the hallway you just went through — be careful of the two skeletons that get up once you approach the item.
In the room beyond the necromancer-guy, there are multiple ranged enemies, including one up above on a platform. The huge blades in the room go up slowly, then drop down, so you can roll or run past them after either occurs (though waiting until they drop is the far safer technique). Bust the bones of the two skeletons shooting arrows, and grab the Spellproof Dried Liver from the corpse in the center of the room. They’ll keep reviving because of the guy in the room above, but while they’re getting their bits back together, you can walk over to one of the two blades on either side of the platform above — when the blade drops, stand on the slit it fell into, and it will rise, taking you up with it.
It can be tough to ride the blade without eating an arrow, although a shield can help (bonus points: can you spot the incoming damage?)
Hop off the blade and onto the platform and kill the two enemies there, then continue south, where you’ll encounter two bow-wielding skeletons. Run towards them diagonally and they’ll miss, then kill them quickly and continue right around the corner where you’ll be ambushed by another skeleton. Kill it and then the necromancer, and then finish off the skeleton while it’s regenerating. The archers will probably be back by this point, so you’ll need to kill them (twice) again.
Once the room is clear, head west through the doorway to find a new room with yet another skeleton archer on the right who stands in front of a Grave Glovewort [3]. Another skeleton is assembling behind you, so watch out and roll away if you don’t down the archer quickly. Once both skeletons are dispatched, roll into the western wall, between the two pillars — for once, all those “hidden path head” messages aren’t lies! Beyond the illusory wall, you’ll find a Grave Glovewort [4] and the boss fog gate. If you’ve spoken to D, Hunter of the Dead some amount of times (we are still testing whether or not you have to speak with him again after seeing the Beast Clergyman), he’ll be available to summon at the fog gate. It’s usually part of advancing an NPCs questline to summon them, so summon D if you care about his questline.
Enter the fog gate to fight the Black Knife Assassin. He’ll throw a ranged attack when you enter, so be ready to roll or block it. The Assassin is fast and can be surprising, but with D there to help he isn’t too tough. Stay back and let D take aggro (he’s got plenty of HP), and leap in with jumping attacks while the Assassin is attacking D, or while it’s stunlocked. If you use heavy attacks, he’ll stagger eventually and you can walk up for a critical attack. If you want an even more detailed guide on this style of boss, just click the button!
Defeating the Black Knife Assassin nets you the Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger talisman and the Black Knifeprint (which can be brought to Sorcerer Rogier in Roundtable Hold). We aren’t done with this area yet, however, so don’t take the wisp back to the start of the dungeon. Instead, go back the way you came (east), and drop down the hole the skeleton archer in here was standing behind.
Roll north immediately upon landing, as there’s a skeleton waiting to ambush you. Down it, kill it, then pull the lever on the southern wall. Now head over to the metal fence and pull the lever there to open the door, and head through. Grab the Grave Glovewort [2] in the middle of the room, then head left (west) and get ready for a big crab to pop up as you head toward the item (a Rune Arc). You can just grab the Rune Arc and run to the ladder on the northern side of the room, or you can fight it in the hopes of getting crafting materials from it.
Climb the ladder and deal with the skellington here, then grab the Grave Glovewort [3] and head up the stairs ‘n through the blade room — feel free to just run past the enemies here if they aren’t dead. Go left and up the stairs, and you’ll find that the closed door is now open! Enter to confront the Cemetery Shade.
Thisboss beyond the golden mist can be tough if you don’t have a way to put holy essence on your weapon (if you haven’t grabbed the Sacred Blade Ash of War, consider doing so now and using it for this fight). Consider summoning via a Furlcalling Finger Remedy — this boss has adds, so it will be more of a fair fight. The boss is very fast, so magic can be tough to land if it’s attacking another player — it’s better to actually make sure it’s targeting you before you cast spells at it. In between combos it will sometimes idle and move slowly — this is the best chance for melee characters to attack, ideally with a jumping heavy attack. If you want a more detailed guide on this boss (the only difference is the guide below doesn’t talk about the adds), click the button!
Defeating the Cemetery Shade will earn you the Twinsage Sorcerer Ashes, and the nearby chest contains a Deathroot. With all this looted, you can take the wisp back to the entrance, and leave the dungeon.
Unabashed FromSoftware fanboy still learning to take his time with games (and everything else, really). The time he doesn't spend on games is spent on music, books, or occasionally going outside.
Nevermind, dumb question confirmed, I have to activate it the skill first derp. I thought it was like a DS1 divine weapons that just killed them all the time
Hitting him with a few holy water pots seemed to do the trick
crabs in the hole when you drop after the Blacknife Assassin
Might be a dumb question, but I applied the sacred blade AoW to my uchi and the skellies are still respawning, what am I doing wrong?
Nevermind, dumb question confirmed, I have to activate it the skill first derp. I thought it was like a DS1 divine weapons that just killed them all the time
I made the same mistake my first time through this very dungeon, so don’t feel too dumb 🙂