7 Most Obscure Puzzles in Soulsborne Games You Were NEVER Going to Guess

Dark Souls, Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro and Elden Ring are famous for weird, inscrutable requirements to progress, unlock items, get good endings, the list goes on! Here are the most bonkers ones that you were never going to figure out by yourself, with huge thanks to the Outside Xtra community for their suggestions too.

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Outside Xtra is a companion channel to Outside Xbox, covering the wider world of gaming with weekly list videos, Let's Plays and shows with your hosts Ellen and Luke. Look for regular appearances by OG Outside Xboxers Andy, Jane and Mike, and generally more of the videos you love, about more of the platforms you enjoy, from a team now two people larger overall.

Thanks for watching and be excellent to each other in the comments.

#darksouls #eldenring #bloodborne

[SeiPR]

For me, the "convolutedness" peaked in the Demon Souls remake.
To get the Penetrator's set, you have to find all 13 ceramic coins twice (i.e. you need to get them all, then go through new game+ to get another 13).
7 of these coins only appear on Pure White World Tendency, and the other 6 only appear in Pure Black World Tendency. All are scattered across all archstone areas.
They only appear in Fractured mode (your screen is horizontally flipped) and they are hidden within breakable environment elements.
Once you have 26, you must trade them to the crow in Shrine of Storms for the Rusted Key that opens a locked door behind an illusory wall in Boletarian Palace Inner Ward.

If the internet didn't exist, this would be a playground rumor.

[weltallelite]

Things like this make me believe that the mystery of Ready Player One would never have taken years to figure out because Reddit community would have cracked that puzzle inside of two weeks.

[ljfoe]

Luke explaining reversing the frenzied flame. “And after that” was said so many time I’m dying lol.

[Buff-Wings]

I love Miquella’s Needle so much. What’s crazy is that you skipped like half the convoluted steps in curing the frenzied flame. In order to find the door to the Three Fingers in the first place, you need to drop down an incredibly difficult platforming puzzle, which is locked behind a uniquely hidden path, locked behind an optional boss, at the end of a completely optional unmapped area of the game, accessed by one tucked away ladder running down a well in a back alley of the most dense area of the game.

And then you have to mention that in order to reach Millenia and finish Millicent’s questline you have to find both halves of the Haligtree secret medallion; one is found after an optional and easy to miss endgame level boss, and the other is found after talking to a man who is disguised as a pot, at the end of another optional and easy to miss area of the game. And even after that, you need to hold both halves of the medallions up through a hidden prompt at the great lift which previously took you to the mountaintop of the giants, something you aren’t told anywhere in the game outside of one other incredibly easy to miss NPC questline, which is accessed in a hidden area after the end of an optional early game cave dungeon.

Then you have to navigate the consecrated snowfield and solve the puzzle of the Ordina Township evergaol in order to traverse the haligtree and Elpheal, all to reach the hardest boss in the game, which you need to beat to get the item that will cure you. This is in addition to everything else you mentioned on Millicent’s quest, finding her arm in the Shaded Castle and eventually using the needle in Placidusax’ boss arena, which is something you’d only learn to do in game through a merchants note, hidden behind some set pieces that can only be destroyed if you lure an enemy to attack you. Truly some of the most cryptic and non linear quest steps in all of gaming, I don’t know how people would figure this all out without the internet.

The cherry on top that makes it the best Soulsborne secret to me, is that there is practically no point in doing it in an actual playthrough of the game. It is purely a convoluted cure to a problem that you must have created for yourself as a player. Similar to the rest of the Soulsborne catalogue, the whole quest is a great metaphor for hardship in real life. If you locked yourself into the frenzied flame ending you had to have gone through the steps to get there, you dug yourself into that hole and now you either have to sleep in the hole or start digging your way out, and while it’s way easier to lean into it and take the bad ending, the gratification you feel in overcoming your past mistakes is worth the struggle you face along the way.

Personally, I still do the quest for my preferred ending, where Melina turns on you for taking the frenzied flame, you burn the Erdtree in her place, then cure yourself and take Ranni’s ending. That way Melina doesn’t have to die but doesn’t want to kill you in the end either. Given all the trouble you have to go through I do wish they included some kind of ending with Melina for curing the frenzied flame and sparing her but it’s pretty fitting they didn’t all the same.

[tba]

Yuria: Aren't you a little thin for a Fat Official?
Luke: What? Oh - the uniform! I'm Luke Westaway, I'm here to rescue your hat!

[spencersguitarcovers]

I found Ash Lake behind the double illusory wall and am still in awe of that hidden area.

[MrJazzyPants]

"find three wise beasts"
Google: "translucent tortoises"
Me: only finds ghost dogs

[Chillton]

Considering eldritch horror themes in Bloodborne, the moment you get the make contact gesture you end up running around making contact with anything that doesn't kill you instantly 😂

[ApetureTestSubject]

"You could easily blunder into the Three Fingers, not really knowing what the consequences could be."
Yes, of course.
You just blunder into the secret hidden tunnel beneath Lyndell, fight your way through the sewer maze and the monsters within, accidentally break through the illusory wall behind the boss area, navigate your way down the merchant graveyard jumping puzzle, then, by chance, got naked to open the door.
I mean, it's so easy to do.


Then again, this is a Soulsborne game. By their standards, this is pretty straightforward.

[ZhaneX]

lol I love the Windmill Puzzle. I remember it being demonstrated to me by a guy I summoned to help with the level, and I subsequently tried to do the same (with varying levels of success) whenever I got summoned there too!

[Skenjin]

For draining the poison, it wasnt until i ignored the windmill that i found out that room normally is filled with poison.

[tommybear]

The humanity puzzle for D's 3 and the moon rune from blood born are truly mind bogglers

[MsKornkitty]

I think the funniest thing about DS2 is they find lots of ways to try and make you use the torch, and then in a late game area using the torch is suddenly a Very Bad Idea.

[oliverhendrix]

7:10 One detail about the windmill is that one of the npc phantoms will point at the windmill if you haven’t burned it yet.

[sirflimflam]

Two points about Miquella's Needle, too. When you find Millicent's summon sign in the room, it's even more confusing because you are presented by two summoning signs. Pick the wrong one and you begin an event to kill Millicent, not help her. No needle for you! Though you do get a decent item. And as for using Miquella's complete needle. You don't actually have to fight the optional boss. Entering his arena at all is enough for you to use the item, since it just needs you to be in a "timeless" area.

[wolfancap]

I actually figured out the Earthen Peak puzzle by myself, here's how.
-When i walked into that ledge i saw that it looked suspicious an enemy standing in the way to the windmill on guard duty, not attacking until you come close, as if he wants to stop you from breaking something important.
-The windmill looked important enough to warrant all that attention, so there was clearly something up there.
-This is Dark Souls, although the game is tough as nails its fair, therefore, there must be a solution to that.
-After trying to hit it and burn it with firebombs, on a whim i tried the game's gimmicky new mechanic, the torch (as it had already helped me in a similar way in the lost sinner fight).

[Alastorteryn]

finding the mound makers covenant in dark souls 3, you have to talk to a somewhat hidden npc who looks like other enemies you have to fight along the way (the walking cage filled with people), which lets you climb into a cage on a different enemy's back. and you have to do this before attempting the curse rotted Greatwood fight, because once it breaks the floor, it lands on and kills the npc who gives you the covenant

[tbar]

I'd say the Sekiro Ending where you need to figure out how to get the flower from the already dead Father Owl is way more obscure. Having to talk to and spy on the exact people at just the right point in the game, was almost impossible to figure out on your own. Where as I did the ending you mentioned on my own.

[crestfallenhussar]

The Asylum also holds the rusted iron ring, the ring that makes the blight town swamp bearable by letting you walk in it normally.

[jackjazzhands]

I think they just assume we use the wikis and internetz in general. Couse its not that good of a design if you ask me.