Question about getting Solaire to survive for Gwyn summoning

I just want to make sure I have the sequence right: 

I've beaten the Centipede, and Solaire is sitting by the fire, moping and asking "Why?  Why?".  At this point, do I need to go get the shortcut to Lost Izalith from the DoC, then proceed through and kill all the bugs? 

Once I do this, what prompts Solaire to appear in the Shortcut itself?

Will he be insane, and need me to kill him?  Or does killing the bugs prevent this?

Thanks!

After you kill the bugs, enter Lost Izalith via the shortcut. Just have the name appear on your screen. Then, reload the game and Solaire will be waiting for you in the shortcut. You must not enter Lost Izalith in the lava way, or Solaire will go hollow in the shortcut.

Be warned that this does not work 100% of the time. I had instances where I did everything right and Solaire still hollowed.

Sentiel wrote:After you kill the bugs, enter Lost Izalith via the shortcut. Just have the name appear on your screen. Then, reload the game and Solaire will be waiting for you in the shortcut. You must not enter Lost Izalith in the lava way, or Solaire will go hollow in the shortcut.

Be warned that this does not work 100% of the time. I had instances where I did everything right and Solaire still hollowed.

That's great...thanks.  I'll give it a shot.  I seem to recall there were bugs on both sides of the shortcut door.  I assume you should kill them all just to be safe.

I believe you only need to kill the one that drops the Sunlight Maggot. But it's best to be safe, so slaughter tham all.

The one with the sunlight maggot has red eyes if that helps.

I have a question about this.  I've not advanced Solaire's dialog early on, so that he never appears in the Demon Ruins.  I then killed centipede and went through Izalith without the shortcut, killing the chaos bug anyway and opening the shortcut from Izalith side.  I then went back to advance Solaire's dialog (he was alive obviously), but didn't see him available as a summon in the kiln...however he was also not hollowed as far as I could tell.  That was...odd.  Any ideas?

I've done a different method from the one Sentiel posted.

I've used Poison Mist through the shortcut door and killed the Maggot with the Red Eyes.
(I believe it's the only one you need to kill)
Then proceeded to go through Lost Izalith the normal way.
When I get round to the other side Solaire is sat there all normal

I can try and re-create it later if you'd like me to?

Here is my sure-fire way to be able to summon Solaire for the Gwyn fight. The only drawback to this approach is that you will not be able to use him for the Centipede Demon fight, but sometimes Solaire is pretty useless against that boss anyway.


DO NOT TALK TO SOLAIRE IN ANOR LONDO until you perform the next step.

After you get the Sunlight Maggot and open the Izalith Shortcut (from the Izalith side), talk to Solaire at the interior bonfire in Anor Londo

Warp to Sunlight Altar and talk to Solaire there.

Warp to Daughter of Chaos and backtrack to the beginning of the Firesage Demon boss gate. Go down and kill all the Maggots and when you reach the top of the stairs, turn around. You should see Solaire sitting on the ground. Talk to him.

Solaire will be available for the Gwyn fight (if you’re in human form, of course) AND if your soul sign is not down to help others!