Dark Souls: Solaire's Questline, A Step By Step Guide (2025)

Okay, let's be honest; there's no need to introduce the most popular character in all of Dark Souls. We've all seen, and subsequently gotten tired of, the praise the sun memes by now, but how many people have actually managed to follow Solaire's questline all the way to the end? Or, rather, how many people have managed to figure out how to get his good ending?

Considering how complex and precise you need to be to do it, we doubt many have. If you really do want to engage in some jolly cooperation with everyone's favorite sun bro, here's a step-by-step guide on Solaire's questline.

Updated October 10, 2023, by Sean Murray: Still looking for the best way to complete the Solaire questline? We have you covered with this refreshed guide that now features improved formatting and more breakout tips so you can keep Solaire alive and happy. Or at least, as happy as anyone can be in the gothic hellscape of Dark Souls.

How To Start Solaire's Questline

We start out by simply meeting Solaire. If you somehow haven't come across him yourself, or been otherwise told, Solaire can be found standing on a balcony in the Undead Burg right after beating the Taurus Demon boss.

Slay the Taurus Demon, descend the tower that leads to a bridge, then head to the balcony on your right. Exhaust Solaire's dialogue, agree to assist him on his journey, and get the White Sign Soapstone item.

Encounter Solaire At Different Locations

After your first encounter with Solaire, you can encounter the jolly knight at four other locations:

1. Sunlight Altar
   1. Optional
2. Anor Londo
3. Demon Ruins
   1. Optional
4. Lost Izalith

You can find him again at the Sunlight Altar on the other side of the drake bridge in Undead Parish. This encounter is optional.

The next time you actually need to find him is not until way later in the game when you reach Anor Londo. He's almost impossible to miss, sitting next to the bonfire inside the castle after you brave the buttresses with the Silver Knight archers on the ledges. Talk to him as much as you can again here, then move on.

Your next encounter will be at the Demon Ruins after you kill the Centipede Demon. This is also an optional encounter. Our sun bro will once again be resting at the next bonfire.

Solaire's final encounter will be in Lost Izalith. This is the most important encounter, as what you do before meeting him in Lost Izalith will determine his fate.

How To Save Solaire

Lost Izalith contains nine chaos bugs you'll find in a locked shortcut between the Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith. If you want to save Solaire, you must kill the red-eyed bug. Failing to do so will result in Solaire becoming Hollow the second you enter Lost Izalith, turning him hostile.

Well, if the shortcut is locked, how exactly do you finish Solaire's quest? You have three options:

1. Open the shortcut through the Daughter of Chaos Covenant.
2. Kill the bugs by using pyromancies.
3. Never speak to Solaire at Anor Londo.

Option 1: Opening Lost Izalith's Bridge Shortcut

Go back now and join the Daughter of Chaos Covenant—which is located behind an illusory wall at the second Bell of Awakening. If you get to at least rank two with the Covenant, you will open up a shortcut that leads to Lost Izalith from near where you fought the Demon Firesage. Getting to rank two does require a heavy investment of 30 Humanity, which is likely more than you have sitting around in your inventory.

Once you raise the rank to two, head back to the shortcut and interact with the door to open it up. Once inside, your goal is to kill all the little chaos bugs on the ground to collect a Sunlight Maggot. If Solaire finds this Sunlight Maggot, it's game over for your best bud.

Option 2: Using Pyromancy To Kill The Chaos Bugs

If you do not want to join the Daughter of Chaos covenant, there are technically other methods you could use to kill the chaos bugs before they lead to Solaire's mental breakdown. You will need to have both the Pyromancy Flame and Poison Mist pyromancy, or White Dragon Breath. With these, go to the same shortcut and run your character as close to the wall as possible while spraying your poison mist through it.

Option 3: Ignore Solaire At Anor Londo

One final alternate solution requires a lot of forethought. If you hold off on speaking to Solaire when you find him at the Anor Londo bonfire and make it to this point in the game, he won't show up after the Centipede Demon boss fight yet. You will then be free to go kill the bugs however you want, then return to Anor Londo and speak to Solaire.

Solaire Quest Endings

Solaire's quest has two endings:

1. Solaire survives Lost Izalith.
2. Solaire becomes Hollow.

If you defeated the chaos bugs, you can open the shortcut at the other end and find Solaire again after beating the Bed of Chaos. He will seem defeated, but this is the better of his two fates. Your main reward for keeping him alive is that he becomes the only NPC you are able to summon for the game's final boss.

If you don't do any of those last steps and move on after beating the Centipede Demon, you will still find Solaire one more time at the end of the shortcut, only now turned decidedly hostile. He will have confused the Sunlight Maggot for his "sun" and adorns it as a hat. At this point, you may as well put him out of his misery, as he's been driven Hollow in never being able to reach his goal of finding his very own sun.

Killing Solaire will grant the following:

• Iron and Sun armor set
• Sunlight Straight Sword
• Sunlight Shield
• Sunlight Talisman
• x2 Humanity

Next: Dark Souls: Most Unforgettable Quotes From The Series