Summary
- This Dark Souls 3 player managed to beat the entire game without using a bonfire.
- It’s a gruelling run that requires a lot of backtracking, and if you decide to upgrade your gear or level up, you have to start from Lothric all over again.
In every Dark Souls game, the bonfire is a place of respite. It’s where you wind down after a tough fight, replenishing your health so that you can continue your journey unabated. But somehow, Reddit user Saysick managed to go all of Dark Souls 3 without them.
A Caveat: There’s One Mandatory Bonfire
Before we unpack how this run worked, there’s a caveat: in Dark Souls 3, the hub — Firelink Shrine — isn’t directly connected to the world. You cannot get to the High Wall of Lothric without using the central bonfire.
So, it’s not actually possible to beat the game without a single bonfire. But Saysick avoided every optional checkpoint, a nonetheless hugely impressive feat.
In Dark Souls 3, you level up by talking to the Firekeeper in Firelink Shrine, which means you can level up without using a bonfire.
While that might sound useful for a run like this, returning to Firelink Shrine to level up, or just upgrade gear, meant starting at the very beginning all over again. So, Saysick was still underlevelled and outmatched throughout most of their run.
In fact, they tried to use a +2 Fire Shortsword against Pontiff Sulyvahn to avoid just that, but died and lost 150,000 Souls as a result. Death is far more punishing when you’re always being sent back to Firelink Shrine and thus the High Wall of Lothric.
Dark Souls 3 also has several dead ends where you’d typically warp back to a fork in the road and take another path, such as when you’ve defeated Yhorm or Aldrich (whoever you beat last will automatically warp you to the Dancer). That meant Saysick had to retread their steps and walk all the way back through the game several times.
Dark Souls 2 had a unique ring if you beat the game without resting at a bonfire.
However, in some instances, there was no way whatsoever to retrace their steps, and so they had to warp back to Firelink Shrine with a homeward bone. This happened after fighting the Demon King, Nameless King, Champion Gundyr, and Midir (yes, they even did the DLC).
As they point out in the comments, it’s a run that demands the upmost patience, only for the most dedicated of Souls players.
Rounding out the popular trilogy by FromSoftware, Dark Souls 3 sees you build your playstyle and take on enemies in brutal combat. You’ll traverse the Kingdom of Lothric, linking the fire by defeating grand bosses and reaching one of four possible endings.