Soul farming: 4 locations tested

Note: This is in NG+ (my second playthrough), in which the souls gained per mob is quite a bit different than NG but the relative results should be fairly similar to NG.

These are four spots that seemed to be worth staying for a while just to gather souls. Usually they are close to a bonfire.The data below is a comparison of time taken and souls gained in these spots - your mileage may vary. In all spots I'm wearing the Covetous Silver Serpent ring (addnl souls) except for #2 where I changed to the Bellowing Dragoncrest ring (sorcerty boost). I currently can't wear both these rings because I have the Ring of Favor and Protection equipped.

#1. Tomb of the Giants: Baby skeletons. Lots of people farm here. I use an Occult Club exclusively. Of course a benefit to farming here is that you also get lots of humanity. It can be difficult to pick up, but I only missed picking up one in this short run and managed to get exactly 1 humanity per minute (17 in 17 minutes) with 210 item discovery.

#2. Tomb of the Giants: 4 Skeleton Dogs + 1 Giant Skeleton. The starting point here is the last bonfire in Tomb of the Giants before you get to the baby skeleton farming location (#1 above). The bonfire is hidden around a corner and you do need to be careful not to fall when getting back and forth from it. Cast light is absolutely necessary. There is 1 giant skeleton dog and 1 giant skeleton next to the bonfire and then three more giant skeleton dogs if you head just a little further (down) toward the baby skeleton room. The most effective method to soul farm here for me was using the homing crystal soulmass with the Tin Crystallization Catalyst and (as mentioned above) the Bellowing Dragoncrest ring. This allows me to one-shot everything so that most of the time is just running back and forth to the bonfire.

#3. Anor Londo Giants. This is the first bonfire you get to in Anor Londo, located between the two temples that each have three giants. My preferred method for farming here is with a bow. I used a Composite Bow +15 with standard arrows (cheap) which allows me to take out the giants in 10 shots. If you stand far enough away the giants do not attack. Killing them in a fair fight isn't hard, but takes more time. I find that I can kill all three in 30 seconds with a bow.

#4. Anor Londo Knights and Giants. The bonfire I used here is the closest to the Ornstein & Smough room. The main targets here are the enhanced giants in the large hallway outside the O&S room because they give double souls compared to normal giants. There are two knights that are unavoidable here and I didn't try just running past them although that might be a quicker way to farm souls. Instead, I just killed them with a sword along with two other knights that are on the way and wouldn't normally attack you (in the room across from the bonfire and the second knight in the room with the stairs and chests. There is also a knight shooting arrows in the big hall that I killed because I have an easy location to snipe him. Anyway, my run involved killing the first four knights on the way to the main hall, then sniping the two enhanced giants and the dragonbow knight in the main hall, then sniping the two regular giants just outside the main hall. The enhanced giants take 15 shots from high on the stairs in different locations. The regular giants take only about 5 shots in the back.

Results:

1. 103,462 souls in 17:35 (+ 17 humanity) = 5884 souls/min (6850 souls/min if you turn humanity in to Frampt)
   
2. 168,000 souls in 12:17 = 13677 souls/min
   
3. 129,600 souls in 13:05 = 9906 souls/min
   
4. 102,960 souls in 10:15 = 10045 souls/min
   

The last three are fairly similar. Obviously #1 is not the best location for souls, but is more of a humanity farming location. I think perhaps I could improve the results for #4 if I just skipped the knights and ran straigt through to the giants.

Great job! I can tell you put alot of time into this, so congrats! I will use this from now on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS4H03dZiUA

heres another one, its faster and better since the data is calculated in NG, not in NG+

Isn't the best place to farm darkroot garden? not only is it fun and not tedious, if you are human enemies will spawn forever and drop an insane amount of souls.

Probably the best spot is the PW Phalanx. With an AoE spell you can kill them in about ten seconds. With Avarice and S Serpent Ring you'll net around 11k souls each run, on just NG, on NG+ of course that goes up and up.

One I never see mentioned (it may have been changed in the patch) it that you can buy prism stones for 10 souls from the female undead merchant and sell them for 100 at Frampt, Its quick easy and safe. Can anyone confirm if it still works?

Frampt takes prism stones for 10 souls each, so no profit there. It must have been patched.

I have never been to Painted World. I think I recall getting the Peculiar Doll in my first playthru and having no idea what it was used for. I'll hafta give this place a try and include the results for comparison purposes.

Another really good one is if you have Dark Anor Londo, the two NPC's in the large hallway net you 5000 each in NG, and about 15000 each in NG+. You just go, kill them, and then use a homeward bone. Depending on your skill, you can net about 10-30k a minute. Pyromancies pretty much fry them easily so I go there when I need money. Symbol of Avarice and Silver Serpent Ring get you tons more.

OK I tested the Phalanxes in Painted World. They are more difficult to kill in NG+ in one pyromancy casting, so I modified the technique a little. I put my un-upgraded pyromancy flame in the left hand and my pyromancy+15 in the right. Using the left hand, I cast Power Within (If you use an upgraded pyromancy flame to cast this it burns your health pretty fast). I wore the Covetous Silver Serpent ring but not the Bellowing Dragoncrest ring - because of what I said above having only one ring slot to spare.

I used Chaos Storm instead of Fire Storm also. My technique was to cast Power Within, then just run around the zombie guard (dodge to the left seems to work best) and cast on the Phalanx pod. If I didn't get nearly all of them in one cast I sometimes hit them with a second Chaos Storm. I would then just run straight back, not hanging around to whack anything with my sword. I did this a little longer than the other tests so that I could get into a rhythm.

Results:

640,368 souls in 29:12 = 21930 souls/min.

Looks like it is about double the rate of the enhanced Anor Londo Giants. I haven't tried Dark Anor Londo yet, thanks for the suggestions!

My favorite soul farming area is in anor londo, after turning the world dark. You can get the bonfire by the princess chamber, run down to the npc's, kill them for an easy 30000 or more, and homeward bone to let them respawn. I got over 1500000 in like 1 hour 30 min. So far i think that is the best spot .

Painted World is better as you can see in my test I got 640k in less than 30 minutes and you don't need any home bones which are kinda expensive at 500 souls each.

Well my favourite spot is PW Phalanx equipping Wrath of God and Sunborn Ring and this crown of oolacile. The other Ring is Silver Serpent Ring and Avarice thing on the head. IMO the fastest method of soul farming.

Takeno