DARK SOULS™ II: Scholar of the First Sin

DARK SOULS™ II: Scholar of the First Sin

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Finding the Moss Gobbler in Dark Souls
By Elden John
The Moss Gobbler is arguably the best boss ever made
And yet I've seen people miss the boss time and time again. So, I've taken it upon myself to help my fellow undead and write this detailed and comprehensive guide on not only finding the Moss Gobbler, but fighting it as well.
Long may the sun shine!
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Getting the required items
Before we start, make sure you have all of the following:

You will need all these weapons:
  • Caestus - Corpse in the sewers of Undead Settlement, before the Giant Undead Rat.
  • Four-Pronged Plough - Dropped by undead wielding this weapon in Undead Settlement.
  • Sacred Herbage Scythe - Random drop from vengeful spirit in the Shaded Ruins



Make sure you also collect the Bone Key in the Drangleic Castle Throne Room. There will be a ladder behind the throne leading down to a small room with a Bonewheel Skeleton. Killing it will drop the key.



There's also a fairly hidden Estus Shard on the windowsill here, so go ahead and grab that.



This next part is a bit tedious, but we will have to pull through. Interact with the south east illusory wall in the Ruin Sentinels arena, and perform the 3 jumps to reach the opposite end of the room. These jumps are incredibly hard to time, so don't get too annoyed if you cant make it straight away. Personally, it took me just shy of 38 tries. After making it across, pick up the Deluxe Divine Blessing.

If you can't find the blessing, you must have taken more than 8 attempts on the Last Giant. This is a major skill issue. That's on you. You can get around this by playing through the game again, but at this point just hand over the controller to your oldest living relative, they will do better. Alternatively, you can watch my combat guide video below which demonstrates the incredible tactic called "Git Gud"

Completing the required questlines
We all know that Miyazaki loves his complex and vague questlines, and these are no exception.



Complete the following questlines in order and then head over to the next section.

Vengeful Sap Spirit Questline

(1) After collecting all the items in the previous section, equip the Caestus, head over to the Boreal Valley bonfire and wait for Smough to invade. (without the Caestus, Ornstein will invade instead)

(2) When he charges the overhead lightning move, parry it. This should send you straight to the Gardeners Labyrinth (I'm not sure why this happens, but it's easier than going through the entirety of the Sacred Ruins, so just do it this way)



(3) After reaching the Gardeners Labyrinth, just progress the area until you reach the Forking Paths bonfire. The Vengeful Sap Spirit should be sitting on the left by the tree stump. The next part can be tricky, so pay close attention.

(4) Before talking to them prepare some wood, stones and maybe some leaves/paper. Now speak to them. They will ask for your hand in marriage. DO NOT ACCEPT YET. You will now need to build a bonfire in your living room and send an image of it to Miyazaki in Fromsoftware HQ.
Here's an example:



(5) You will now be able to accept the marriage proposal. There is approximately a 28% chance of success, and for the item we need, you will need to succeed on the fourth try. If you succeed, you will receive a Moss Transformation. If you don't get it on your fourth try, don't worry, you can simply restart from step (4).

Milgrim the Stolen questline

(1) Luckily, this next questline starts in the Gardener's Labyrinth, so we can start it straight away. Progress the area until you find the Ancient Asteroid. Grab the Abyssal Core lying inside and talk to Milgrim. He will offer to open the gate to the Precipice of Chaos. Reject his offer and kill him to get the Key of Sin.

(2) Now head over to the Shaded Woods and use the Key of Sin on the brown door right before the second bonfire.



(3) This will lead you to the Heart of Sin. Use the Abyssal Core on the heart and wait for a few seconds. A message saying "Cannot be opened from an elevated position" should appear.

(4) To properly activate the Heart of Sin, you will need to approach from the Bowels of Filth. Head over to the Bowel Entrance bonfire and make your way through. Be wary of the Nebulous Badgers, as their grab attack can permanently drain your weapon's max durability.

(5) After you reach the Staircase of Sorrow, use the Bone Key on the door and insert the Abyssal Core into the large slot on the wall. You will hear a loud click and a portal should open on your right. Before heading through, make sure you're ready for a fairly challenging boss.

(6) After heading through, you will see Milgrim's corpse on the ground. Equid the Four-Pronged Plough and plough him from behind, activating the Icon of Sin bossfight.



Icon of Sin tips and tricks
  • The Icon of Sin will spawn smaller enemies throughout the fight. You can use these for health and ammo throughout the fight.
  • Don't worry about wasting BFG shots, Blood Punches or Crucible Pips. These regenerate throughout the arena.
  • You can use a Railcoin combo to deal incredible damage to the arms and head of the Icon of Sin, so make sure you use your Railcannon carefully,

After defeating the Icon of Sin, you should receive the Accursed Moss Summons. Simply use this whenever to be teleported to the Moss Ridden Village.
Getting through the Moss Ridden Village
The Moss Ridden Village is an incredibly challenging area, with loads of enemies that can kill you in a single hit.



This is where the Sacred Herbage Scythe comes into play. This weapon deals TRIPLE DAMAGE to any moss-based enemies. After progressing a bit through the area, you should see a small building with a broken staircase leading up to it. Deploy the Eagle 500kg Bomb to remove this obstacle. Then make your way through into the building and talk to the Cat in the Jar. Join their covenant, receiving the Fated Moss Soul. This is the final item required to reach the Moss Gobbler.



Now equip any axe, chop down a tree and craft a Mossy Translocator. Place it down in the layout shown below:


Step into the translocator, and you should end up in the Great Moss Ultimate Cavern of Death and Chaos Gobbler Location of Evil and Dark. Walk forward a few steps and the Moss Gobbler should spawn.
The Moss Gobbler
Finally! We have reached the Moss Gobbler.



You might be thinking "Was that it? It was that simple?"
The be honest, the answer is no. The hardest part is yet to come. Get ready.

Phase 1
In Phase 1, the boss will spawn a procedurally generated maze. You will need to solve this within 2 minutes or you save file will be deleted and your PC will BSOD. Here is an example of a possible layout:



In the past, you were able to hug the right wall, allowing you to complete the maze fairly consistently on each attempt. However, as of patch 1.12.04 hugging either wall for more than 11.2 seconds will cause both of your legs to fall off. Just run as fast as you can, being careful of the instant curse pressure plates that can spawn in the corridors.

Phase 2
In my opinion, Phase 2 is the easiest phase. So don't worry too much. :)

The boss spawns a 10x10 grid on the ground. Simply choose a square to stand on and wait a few seconds. 99 of the squares will disappear, leaving one behind.



If you got lucky, you can move onto the 3rd phase, if not, go back to step 12.

Phase 3
In this phase, the boss kills you.

Phase 4
Remember the Moss Transformation you picked up in the 2nd section? Now is the time to use it. You only get one attempt at this, so let's make it count! Using this item will turn you into a clump of moss, causing the Moss Gobbler to eat you.



When the eating move starts, roll on the 47th frame of the gulp animation, stunning the boss just long enough for you to re-deploy the crab. Repeat 50 times.

Phase 5
You will now need to play through all of Armored Core 1, Armored Core 2, Armored Core 3, Armored Core 4, Armored Core V and Armored Core VI. Upload your save files to King's Field: The Ancient City to receive the Herbal Code. Entering this into the Moss Gobbler will cause him to explode.





Phase 6
Use your Deluxe Divine Blessing to resist the Moss Gobbler's Mossification. This will trigger the entity. If you have already used the blessing, turn around. Miyazaki is currently hitting you in the spine with a boulder.

Phase 7
Unfortunately, no-one has figured out how to complete phase 7 yet. Good luck.

Long may the sun shine!

12 Comments
Ditty 31 Aug @ 9:19pm 
i have figured out how to complete phase 7
bob 21 Aug @ 9:03pm 
Thank you so much for helping me find the moss gobbler, this boss is truly a hidden gem of a character, moss gobbler is definitley one of my favorite bosses.
Mohammed8000 13 Aug @ 11:32am 
Mohammed8000, signing off :steamthumbsup:
Mohammed8000 13 Aug @ 11:31am 
I got gobbled by the moss gobbler and that
Elden John  [author] 13 Aug @ 6:43am 
Thank you D7, I completely forgot about this! This is true, so be careful with that.
D7 12 Aug @ 3:50pm 
apparently when going through john darksouls questline if when he prompts "every soul has its..." you answer "light" instead of "dark", black phantom "mirana the b1tchless" will be summoned by icon of sin in phase 2. Be wary!
HosakaSendai 11 Aug @ 6:24pm 
Seriously great guide. So many desktops lost to the insatiable appetite of the Moss Gobbler. You are a saint!:praisesun:
YDA S-Rank! 10 Aug @ 10:47pm 
kinda absurd how few casuals know about this
RICO 9 Aug @ 12:20pm 
No.