When you first arrive in Eleum Loyce, there's a heavy blizzard placating the entire area, this causes most of the routes to be blocked off until the blizzard is stopped. To do this, the player needs to defeat Aava and then speak to Alsanna to stop it.

As you progress normally, you'll find 3 Bonfires

Outer Wall - 1st Bonfire
Abandoned Dwelling - 2nd Bonfire (This area is important)
Inner Wall - 3rd Bonfire

Just before the Inner Wall is a key item known as the Eye of the Priestess this item will allow you to see invisible enemies and more importantly, Aava.

After Aava is defeated, the player will speak to Alsanna and will subsequently cause the blizzard to stop, after this occurs, the player is then expected to backtrack to the area JUST before the 2nd Bonfire and will need to go through a small crevice to reach a small area with several sconces. Previously the blizzard would cancel out any torch immediately, but with the blizzard gone, the player is free to light up a torch either via the Bonfire or by using a Flame Butterfly.

Light each of the sconces and the doorway will open, in the far back is the Garrison Ward Key
This key is needed to reach the Expulsion Chamber Bonfire. Which can be found by going along the route after the 2nd Bonfire and turning left after reaching the gate with a lever and a Rampart Golem.

Now that we've successfully reached the Expulsion Chamber it's time to move onto the next segment.

This is the area just before the 2nd Bonfire, walk straight and into the enclosure

Light these 4 Sconces (Flame Butterfly is useful here)

Once the door is open, go straight until you encounter a Flexile Sentry

The Garrison Ward key will be on the corpse right next to him

Old Knight Hammer (Dark Infused)

This is most likely the best Greathammer available to use for a couple of reasons.

- It's got REALLY good damage
- High Poise Damage (Excludes the need to use Stone Ring unless phantoms are present)
- Two-Handed Strong Attack causes a Hard Knockdown (or pancake)
- Low Requirements to use and easy to obtain
- Dark Infusion will save you from using any resins

If you are in the Company of Champions, the Ice Stallions will die in just 3 R2's, if you aren't in this covenant, they will die in just 2 R2's.


You'll need at LEAST 6 Strength and 6 Dexterity to be able to use this with any build, in the event that you only have 6 STR/DEX the Strength Ring and Vessel Shield will be required to use the Old Knight Hammer

Flynn's Ring

Another great item and for one particular reason in comparison against Ring of Blades

- No penalty on Infused Weapons, unlike the Ring of Blades
- Adds just enough damage to be worthwhile
- Relatively easy to obtain
(This ring is only mandatory if you are in CoC, additionally you can't have more than 10/14 VIT)

Ring of the Embedded

Increases VIG/END/VIT, Slight defense reduction (Boost to Endurance is important)

- EXTREMELY easy to obtain (It's even in the same DLC)
- Benefits outweigh the negatives for LOWER level characters

Chloranthy Ring

Increases Stamina regeneration by 12.5/20/25% respectively

- The regeneration is significant enough to decrease the time it takes to scale the area greatly
- All variants are easy to obtain
- Saves you from having to consuming/buying any Green Blossoms

This area doesn't contain a lot of treasure but a compact list can be found below:

x2 Human Effigies
x20 Lacerating Knife
x1 Dried Root
x1 Wilted Dusk Herb
x1 Blackweed Balm
x2 Twinkling Titanite
Ring of the Living
Mirrah Hat

The area itself is quite vast and is compromised of a couple of landmarks, but aside from that not much else to say, The sun however will always be a good indication of knowing what direction you're facing so use that to your advantage. Enemies in this area CAN be despawned (unless you're in Company of Champions) Additionally, Ice Stallions will only appear one at a time per blizzard, these blizzards last approx 25 seconds or so and the clearing lasts around 15 seconds. How you can traverse this area without worrying about the loot will be explained in more detail in the Routing section of the guide.


Lud and Zallen both behave pretty much exactly like Aava, so if you managed to get past them, you'll be able to get past Lud and Zallen.

One of the unique feature of this boss is that you face both of them at once and at varying HP levels, If 1 or more phantoms is present, Zallen will join the fight much sooner. If you are facing them solo, Zallen will only join when Lud is low on HP.

Another unique feature is their Enraged state. When only one of them is left standing and they're low on HP, they will begin to buff which will increase their Damage/Resistances and will regenerate their HP. (This buff doesn't last forever however)

Lastly, any hits will have increased durability loss (same as Aava) so make sure to pack Durability Powders or extra weapons before confronting them.


[STATS DISPLAYED HERE ARE FOR NG]
Health: 5,070 (Each) 10,140 (Total)
Physical Defense: 610
Fire Defense: 23
Magic Defense: 37
Lightning Defense: 30
Dark Defense: 30
Poison Resist: 79
Bleed Resist: 30

The route itself consists of going from landmark to landmark, it consists of 5 landmarks total:

The Coffin
The Tombstones
1st Building
2nd Building
3rd Building

The screenshot below will depict each of these to give a basic understanding of the path you follow:



Face away from the Coffin like this


Run inbetween these two tombstones


Run forward from this building here (1st Stallion Encounter)


Run forward from this building as well (2nd Stallion Encounter)


Run forward from this building and into the chasm

This is a video demonstration of the route for those who prefer it.