10 Worst Areas In Dark Souls

10. Smouldering Lake

In Dark Souls 3, at the end of the Catacombs of Carthus and before High Lord Wolnir, you crossed a suspiciously rickety bridge.

When hit, this bridge collapsed downwards, usually dropping skeletons to their doom at the same time. Once this animation had finished, you could interact with it, and climb down it like a ladder to enter the Smouldering Lake.

The first thing you'll notice is the strange sound from somewhere off in the distance. The second thing will be three shots from a ballista that send you sprawling in the water amongst the massive crab enemies.

While there is decent loot to be had here, trying to kill the crabs, avoid the ballista and not get demolished by the Carthus Sandworm that spawns near the boss fog takes any fun out of it.

Your best bet is to run past everything (crouching behind a wall and let the ballista bolts kill the sandworm for you first), through the Demon Ruins, disable the hazard and explore at your leisure. Not offensively bad in any real way, but loot, a decent optional boss and an NPC fight are squandered in an area that feels "meh" at best, and frustrating at worst.