Souls are an all-important currency in Dark Souls. They are used to purchase items, upgrade your equipment, and even level up your character. With the ever-increasing difficulty of Dark Souls, however, you can soon find yourself struggling to get by as prices increase to buy the spells, infuse weapons, and buy armor.

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When this happens, you must resort to the age-old method of farming.  But what areas offer the best souls at each point in the game? And, more importantly, which areas can you easily get souls without worrying something will come along and kill you? Get ready, you're going to need your Symbol of Avarice after this.

Updated on February 6, 2021, by Reyadh Rahaman: Besides using items that grant the Chosen Undead more souls per kill, such as the Symbol of Avarice helmet (gained by killing every mimic in the game and drops from the last one) and the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring (found in the Tomb of Giants close to the second bonfire), players will need to develop an efficient strategy and looping route to maximize their soul-gain while decreasing the time spent doing so. This is the optimal way to draw in a bunch of precious souls quickly so that one can get back to slaying bosses and progressing through their playthrough.

10 Firelink Shrine

Firelink Shrine is one of the earliest areas you get to in the game and acts like a central hub where most of the NPCs go after you convince them to travel there. This area is also good for soul farming early on in the game, especially if you are new. There are easy to kill undead enemies here that you can use to practice your parrying which will help you in the future. You can also make things a little easier when you unlock the aqueduct shortcut. Simply run back and forth between the bonfires and you are good to go.

One fairly risky yet lucrative way to get a decent amount of souls early on is to farm the giant skeleton enemies in the graveyard nearby. Each of these big boney fellows drops 500 souls and have a low chance of dropping a Murakumo curved greatsword as well. Since this area is so close to a bonfire, there's little trouble to retrieve one's souls if a giant skeleton, or one of their smaller allies, defeats the Chosen Undead. It is recommended to use Fire damage or a Strike weapon on them as they have high damage resistance to pretty much every other type of attack.

9 Undead Burg

Undead Burg is another great opportunity to practice your parrying skills but this time on more enemies. Around the primary bonfire in Undead Burg are a bunch of enemies for you to reap souls from. All of these enemies are easy to parry or backstab to get the bonus souls. If you open up the shortcut to the depths there are even more enemies to run around and kill. Granted, killing all these enemies won't net you very many souls, but early on, every soul you can get counts.

A remarkably easy and quick way to farm souls is to use the Hellkite Wyvern as an unexpected ally. Once one finds the occasionally burning bridge where the draconic foe perches above, be sure to unlock the ladder shortcut on the right that leads down to a previously encountered bonfire. Since there are quite a few hollow enemies on this bridge that respawn, poking one's head out on this bridge will trigger the Hellkite Wyvern to unleash its fire breath and immolate all those in its path. Repeatedly using the bonfire and peeking out to trigger this attack can net players hundreds of souls every minute.

8 The Depths

The Depths are another great early farming location to get those extra souls needed to get stronger. Once you get to the bonfire, simply run out and kill all the oozes then take a turn down the stairs to slay a large group of rats. This is an extremely easy area to farm, especially if you are a spellcaster. All the rats also have a chance to drop humanity which is always useful, even if you are a seasoned Dark Souls veteran. Even if you end up getting poisoned, the nearby bonfire can quickly remove it, allowing you to almost never die doing this method. Just don't get careless.

The inky, black slimes that try to ambush the player from above rightly deserve the worst kind of death. Therefore, one should utilize their weakness to Fire damage when farming these sludge-like adversaries. It is much more worth it to focus on the slimes instead of the rats, as the former drops 100 souls and the latter only 20. If one does not have pyromancies, Firebombs can make farming in the Depths less tedious.

7 Darkroot Forest

This area requires a few souls to access, 20,000 to be exact, but it is worth it. Once you unlock the secret bonfire next to the massive stone door, unlock the door with the Crest of Artorias (which can be bought from Andre of Astora), and on the other side are three NPC enemies to kill. Each of these enemies grants you 2,000 souls and some good practice for PVP fights without being overly difficult. If they do prove to be too tough at the time, you can always bait them off the cliff as well.

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It is recommended to tackle each of these foes one at a time, as the abundance of trees makes it difficult to see if one is being snuck up on by another of the Forest Hunter covenant's warriors. That is, if one intends to face them in head-on combat. A far easier method is to draw the attention of these warriors and then head back to the stairs leading to the bonfire. Run up the stairs and then drop down the side, directly next to the cliff. The AI's pathing will take them up the stairs if they are close enough behind the player, but as they follow off the edge of the stairs, they'll most likely tumble down the cliff.

6 Anor Londo (Pt. 1)

Anor Londo has two areas that make for good soul farming locations. The first one that is worth mentioning is at the bonfire where all the giant knights are. Each one of these big boys gets you 1,500 souls and there are a good number of them. Strafe around them and hit them from behind or use some powerful spells to quickly dispose of them and reap the rewards of your efforts. This is also an area you can easily teleport to, making it one of the best spots to go to.

The sentinels are relatively weak to Magic damage, therefore sorcery builds will have an easy time farming them, especially since they can stay out of aggro range while blasting these towering foes with blue-white spells. Surprisingly, these armored guards of great size are also very susceptible to poison, making it all too easy to wreck them with poison arrows from a safe distance. Around the bonfire where the firekeeper known as the Darkmoon Knightess is found, there are 6 sentinels close by to farm per run between bonfire rests.

5 Anor Londo (Pt. 2)

Once you have progressed a little farther into Anor Londo, you will find yourself surrounded by silver knights. These gleaming beauties get you about 1,000 souls each. There is another great area to practice your parrying skills since silver knights don't pose much of a challenge and, if necessary, are easily backstabbed. There are also other enemies further down by Smough and Ornstein's boss room, but you may need a homeward bone for that route unless you have the bonfire there as well.

Another type of enemy that there is an abundance of in this area is the bat wing demons (sometimes called "imps"). These ugly, pink fiends grant 500 souls each and also have a low chance to drop the Demon's Spear, one of the longest and highest-damaging spears in the game. Despite having wings, these thin demons cannot fly and can be pushed or tricked into falling off the area's many ledges to their demise. Their frailty lets players easily push them around with the shield bash of greatshields or even with standard kicks due to the bat wing demons' low poise.

4 Tomb Of The Giants

This farming method is best done with Kirk's armor (Thorns set) because of the damage you can cause from rolling. Down in the Tomb of the Giants, you will find Nito's boss room, but that isn't what we care about. Right before the boss door is a room where tons of baby skeletons will spawn. That is the enemy you are looking for. These baby skeletons die fast and get you about 120 souls each. That can quickly add up after a short while when you realize that these little buggers spawn infinitely. Just make sure you don't get surrounded in the process.

As with other skeletal enemies, these creepy dead babies are weak to Strike and Fire-type damage, though be warned that due to their small stature it is easy to completely miss them while attacking with some weapons. Pyromancies and Firebombs will be helpful here. Since the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring can be found in this area, it is recommended to grab it despite the ambush that awaits the player after they pick it up. This ring grants a 20% boost to souls gained from killing enemies, making it incredibly useful for soul farming.

3 Kiln Of The First Flame

The Kiln of the First Flame is the end of your Dark Souls run, which is unfortunate because it is a good area to get some soul farming done. This area has a group of black knights that can net you a solid 10,000 souls per run. Like the silver knights, they are rather easy to kill with parrying or backstabbing. Just set up your spawn location in the area and use a homeward bone each time you finish off the enemies. Just be careful not to progress through the fog wall.

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It should be mentioned that every single one of a black knight's attacks can be parried except their shield bash (which is easy to see coming). Slaying them with a riposte will also grant more souls. Since this is the last area in the game, players will have had a chance to acquire both the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring as well as the Symbol of Avarice helmet, which, when stacked, boosts soul-gain by a massive 44%.

2 Demon Ruins

The Demon Ruins are a great place to gather a few extra souls if you want to venture around the hellish landscape. Nearby the first bonfire of the area are a group of Taurus Demons. These ugly brutes will net you 3,000 souls each. Plus, at that point in the game, they are pretty easy to kill.  There are also Capra Demons in the area that will get you a little over 1000 souls each. You can quickly gather souls in this area, especially if you are a magic-user.

These demonic foes can be defeated much like their boss counterparts from earlier in the game. Using a bow and some arrows to lure them out one at a time can make farming them a bit easier. Just be wary of the lava in this area, as even though one should be able to take these demons out fairly easily in one on one duels, their attacks can still push a player to their burning death if blocked while near a pool of lava.

1 Painted World Of Ariamis

To farm here, there are a few necessary steps. Return to the Asylum that you start the game at and go to your cell. Inside you will find a strange doll. Take this doll to the massive cathedral in Anor Londo and you will be able to enter The Painted World of Ariamis. Once you are there, you will want to traverse through the area until you find the Phalanx. These enemies are piles of goo with spears and shields that can be a bit annoying if you aren't used to them. Equip a weapon, preferably with lightning damage, and go to town on them. They can easily net you 10,000 souls each time you farm them. By far, the best area to farm souls in the game.

Furthermore, they are even weaker to Fire damage, so pyromancies and Firebombs once more can be very useful here. The Phalanx's 13 individual amorphous bodies will constantly try to poke the player to death, so be sure to utilize hit and run tactics if one is taking them on in a melee fight. Since they are very slow and don't leave their formation, the bigger, slower pyromancies can absolutely devastate them. In addition, immolating over a dozen enemies simultaneously with a single Chaos Storm's direct Fire damage, as well as the pools of lava it leaves behind, is immensely satisfying.

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