All areas necessary in Dark Souls

dark-souls

When I first started the game, I followed the same path as many other beginners and went to the first bell and then to the Depths, Blight Town and to Queelags Domain to ring the second bell.

However, I really found Blight Town much earlier since I went from the first bell to the Darkroot Gardens and to the "exit" of Blight Town running past the drakes in Drake Valley and as far as I can see, there really isn't any need to go all the way through the depths and most of Blight Town at all?

Heck, if I have the Master Key I don't even need to go through the Darkroot Gardens. I can just go to New Londo and straight to the second bell skipping also the gardens.

My question:

Is it necessary to visit all areas to progress through the game or are some just there to provide loot, NPC:s (with their story elements) and heaps of practice and souls?

As you can tell I just rang the second bell and haven't progressed much further than this.

I did kill the Moonlight Butterfly and really couldn't see any need to do this either as it didn't bring me any closer to finishing the main game.

Please advice! 🙂

PS: I AM actually going to play through every single square inch of this wonderful game but it intrigues me that some areas and bosses just feel totally unnecessary… :DS

Best Answer

The Wikidot Dark Souls Wiki lists 4 areas as "optional" - The Great Hollow, Ash Lake and Painted World of Ariamis on the Areas page, plus Valley of Drakes on its own page. (I'd argue Darkroot Basin is also optional, but the border between Darkroot Garden and Darkroot Basin is somewhat blurred.)

I'm unsure of the role of the Moonlight Butterfly in the game progression, but there are definitely other parts of Darkroot Garden that need to be completed before the game can be finished.

I haven't finished the game yet myself (though I am close), but since I did not choose the Master Key as my starting gift, I have had to unlock each area in sequence. The Master Key does allow you more freedom to access areas out of sequence, but I think the game is better structured without it.

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