Iron Keep

Quick Reference

Boss Mini-Boss NPCs Notable Loot Enemies Enemy Drops
Smelter Demon
Old Iron King
The Pursuer Magerold of Lanafir
Lucatiel of Mirrah
Dull Ember
Chaos Storm
Covetous Gold Serpent Ring
Life Ring +1
Thunder Quartz Ring +1
Simpleton's Spice
Zweihander
Black Knight Greataxe
Lightning Short Bow +1
Sublime Bone Dust (DS II only)
Bonfire Ascetic
Ironclad Soldier
Alonne Knight
Alonne Knight Captain
Mimic (DS II only)
Crystal Lizard (DS II only)
Bonfire Intensity 2+ only enemies:
Red Phantom Alonne Knight
Red Phantom Alonne Knight Captain
Roaming Soul Ironclad Warrior Phantom
Ironclad Set
Alonne Knight Set
Alonne Captain Set
Blacksteel Katana
Alonne Greatbow
Lightning Winged Spear (DS II only)
Dark Armor (DS II only)
Ring of Blades +1

Description

A massive iron fortress, built by the Iron King. The tremendous weight of the iron structure caused it to sink into the ground and be consumed by fire.

Connections

Bonfires

  • Threshold Bridge
    Down the stairs on the left when you enter the area.
  • Eygil's Idol
    In the last rectangular room before you fight the Old Iron King boss. Look to the left, past the fire spitting bulls; there's a ladder leading to the bonfire.

Notes

  • This area is full of enemies that are best dealt with ranged attacks.
  • You will encounter items that are placed in lava throughout the level. Unlike in Dark Souls there is no lava protection ring, instead you should cast the Flash Sweat pyromancy or the Great Magic Barrier miracle, and use fire resistant items like the Flame Quartz Ring, and the Alonne Knight Set. The level is filled with pots that are full of water. Roll through them to soak yourself in water. This adds to your fire defense.
  • You can also use the Pharros contraptions to create healing water sources.
  • The summon sign of Lucatiel of Mirrah is right in front of the Smelter Demon's fog wall.

Walkthrough

Iron Keep Map (Japanese)

Item Guide Part I

Item Guide Part II

Iron Keep Video Walkthrough Pt. 1

Iron Keep Video Walkthrough Pt. 2

First lava chest

Second lava chest

  1. As you enter the area from Earthen Peak, first head down the stairs to your left to light the Threshold Bridge bonfire. The item in the lava is a Human Effigy – with enough health, Flash Sweat, the Flame Quartz Ring and armor with decent fire resistance, you should be able to pick it up without dying.
  2. Cross the bridge towards the courtyard. There are two Alonne Knights guarding the entrance to the keep here. Draw them out, preferably by shooting an arrow at one of them, then walk backwards towards the entrance to the area, keeping one of them just out of striking distance. Their active range doesn't extend all the way across the bridge unless they're actively engaging you, so the one farther away from you will eventually back away, leaving you to deal with the other one on his own. Cross the bridge and dispose of the second knight.
  3. In the first room behind the closed door, there are another two Alonne Knights. Walk towards the first one until he reacts, then back out through the door and fight him there. The other one won't follow, for some reason, so you can fight them both separately. The item under the fire is the Iron Key; you can pick it up now if you're careful and have decent fire resistance, or just come back later when you've turned off the fire.
  4. The hallway to the right leads to Magerold of Lanafir. The stairs past the arch on the left in the hallway lead to an Alonne Knight and a Pharros Lockstone. You can also roll through the vases here to fireproof yourself and then go back through the window to pick up the Iron Key. There's an illusory wall on the right that leads to a room with a treasure chest with some Fire Arrows and a ballista facing the wall. The wall the ballista is facing is illusory and is directly behind an Alonne Knight. Open the wall and use the ballista to take him out. Be ready, though, because there's another knight you'll have to fight next to him.
  5. After speaking with Magerold (he has some information about the history of the Iron Keep that's worth listening to) and browsing his wares, head back and up the stairs. There are three knights in this room, so don't rush in. Draw the one you see immediately out without entering the room and dispose of him first, then head back in. There's a sword-wielding knight on the left and an archer on the right. Both will follow you immediately if you step inside the room, so trigger them and back out. The swordsman's active range is farther and he's faster, so your best bet is to lure him all the way outside of the building, kill him there and then go back in to fight the archer. You don't want him shooting at you while you're fencing with his buddy.
  6. Next is a big open area with lava at the bottom and a furnace in the middle. There's an archer around the corner to your right, up on a ledge. First, draw out the swordsman on the pathway to the left. He's quite a ways off in the distance, so get his attention with an arrow (without stepping forward so the archer doesn't see you) then fight him as close to the door as possible. Then deal with the archer; he'll eat quite a few arrows, so just shoot 2-3 at him at a time, then step to the right so he'll fire his arrow into the wall, then step back out and repeat.
  7. Now sprint up the pathway on the left. There's an archer on a platform at the far end, so what you want to do is run under the platform, target him, then step back and forth from under the platform in between his shots to shoot arrows at him. There's also an Alonne Captain on the platform farther up; you can aggro him from here with an arrow and he'll come down to fight you, but there's an easier way to deal with him later.
  8. Now that you've disposed of both archers, you can move around the center of the area more freely. Walk back the way you came and down the stairs. There is an Alonne Knight down here and a lever. Don't open the door yet, the inside is a furnace and flames will come out immediately. The lever brings down one side of the bridge connecting the two sides of the area. You can now run across and drop down the other side to fight the Smelter Demon if you want; the boss door is guarded by an Alonne Captain, but there's enough room to fight him comfortably here.
  9. Also on this side is a gap you can jump across to a chest containing the Zweihander, and if you jump off the right to the small platform with the staircase, you can pick up the Dull Ember for Steady Hand McDuff. Up the stairs from here is a Pharros Lockstone contraption that triggers one of the fountains that increase your fire resistance; you can use this to pick up the items in the lava below.
  10. To gain access to the rest of the Iron Keep without defeating the Smelter Demon, drop down from the half-lowered bridge to the walkway below. Up the stairs is a wheel you can turn to shut off the furnace; once you've done this, you can open the doors on either side, and you've opened up the way to the second half of the keep. There is also a lever down here that lowers the other end of the bridge, allowing you to walk back and forth between the two sides of the area. The stairs here going down towards the lava also have a pathway with a chest containing the Phoenix Parma, which requires fire resistance to cross.
  11. Inside the now-dead furnace, there are two Large Titanite Shards and a Petrified Dragon Bone. The ladder leads to a narrow walkway guarded by an Alonne Captain with an Old Radiant Lifegem and a Green Blossom at the end. You can fight him here, but it's tough as you're likely to fall off. The small ovens on either side of the path will also detonate if you or the Captain hit them. The easier way to do this is to walk back to about where you killed the archer from under the platform and just snipe him with the bow from over there.
  12. Now go back inside the furnace and climb up the ladder. From the beginning of the narrow walkway, shoot the Alonne Captain standing on the top platform to the left. He'll drop down to chase you, which is what you want because now you don't have to fight him up there and risk falling off. Or don't and go fight him if you want. If you don't want to fight him, note that he'll come all the way inside the furnace room, so your exit will be blocked.
  13. At the other end of the area is a door leading to another bridge guarded by two Ironclad Soldiers. If you aggro the one on the left, the other will turn around and begin to smash a hole in the bridge. Once triggered, let the one on the left come to you and kill him. Then walk in, jump across the gap in the bridge and walk through the door. The second Ironclad Soldier will be waiting to the left, so immediately back out and either fight him outside the door or jump back across the gap and kill him with ranged attacks. If you shoot him first, they will both walk forward to attack you.
  14. Behind the door, to the right on a raised platform, is an Alonne Knight archer. If he runs to your left when you walk in, immediately activate the lever; it will lower the platform in the middle into the lava, killing the Ironclad Soldiers standing on it and the Alonne Knight who will have run onto the platform. If the archer starts shooting arrows at you, shoot back and strafe to avoid his arrows. Activate the lever again to bring the wider bridge back up if you want. Alternatively, you can kill the soldiers and knights with ranged attacks; just be sure to strafe to avoid the Alonne Knight's arrows.
  15. On the platforms above are two Alonne Captains; you can fight them if you want their item drops, or just step on the switches next to each platform to make them fall. Make sure you don't fall to your death yourself. There is also an archer on the far left, but as long as you keep moving, you can ignore him. Or go over there; there's a Crystal Lizard on the way, and a lava pathway leading to a chest containing the Chaos Storm pyromancy, and a Fire Seed on the part of the path near the wall right of the stairs behind the archer. Be aware that stepping on the switches on the ground will trigger lava fountains that stay turned on for the rest of your playthrough.
  16. From here, you can either go up the ladder (only accessible with the upper version of the bridge activated by the lever) for some loot or to the right side of the room to the exit door. The exit door is guarded by an Ironclad Soldier. Aggro him with an arrow and he'll walk across to the left, often getting himself killed in the fire. If he makes it to you, lure him on one of the remaining platforms and step on the switch. Continue at 20 if you don't wish to go up the ladder; this is the faster way.
  17. Up the ladder is a platform with some vases that you can use to fireproof yourself and get the Chaos Storm from the chest below in the lava, and a Mimic chest containing a Lightning Winged Spear and the Dark Armor. Climb the next ladder. At the far end of the next platform is another chest containing 10 Destructive Greatarrows.
  18. The next ladder takes you to a small room with another Pharros Lockstone-activated fountain and a set of stairs. The stairs take you to an open area with three Alonne Captains. If you step outside, you will drop down and not be able to back down the stairs, so kill at least one or two of them with ranged attacks before you do. You'll find a chest here containing a Black Knight Greataxe and a corpse with a Simpleton's Spice.
  19. Now drop down the walkways; one of them has a Cracked Red Eye Orb and a Torch. When you get to the penultimate walkway to drop down to (where you can drop down to the cauldron), shoot the Alonne Knight first. Then either get to the final one via the cauldron (the item on the cauldron is a Covetous Gold Serpent Ring) or roll off the far end where the two are closest together. From here, drop down to the platform that connects to the stairway.
  20. On the stairway, you'll encounter another Ironclad Soldier, followed by another one in a narrow hallway. Behind him is a contraption that blocks your path; you can raise it with a lever in the wall, but this is essentially a trap; it drops down again after a bit, blocking your exit route, and around the corner to the right is another Ironclad Soldier who will get you caught between himself and the contraption. To avoid this, wait for it to drop down, raise it again, aggro the Ironclad Soldier, then run past the contraption to make sure you don't get trapped. If you're lucky, you'll get it between yourself and the Ironclad Soldier; or better yet, bait him to attack underneath and be killed by the trap.
  21. Next is a square room with four fire-spitting bull heads. Avoid the fire and climb up the latter to your left; it leads to the Eygil's Idol bonfire and to a switch that turns off all the fire-spitting bull heads in the keep, including the one at the very beginning that makes the Iron Key difficult to pick up. The item on the ground is a Lightning Short Bow +1.
  22. Climb back down the latter and leave through the exit at the bottom, guarded by another Ironclad Soldier. This is the way to the Old Iron King boss fight.
  23. After the boss is dead, continue into the building and open the chest. It contains Sublime Bone Dust. Use the Primal Bonfire to leave.

Bonfire Intensity 2+ Changes

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