Methods to get a mass amount of souls in the Dark Souls games has been among the most sought-after secrets in the series, and for good reason: they are the games' currency, and players use them for things ranging from leveling up to purchasing items from vendors.
Dark Souls 3 is no different, and players have found various methods to obtain the souls that they so desperately seek. One popular method involves duplicating boss souls, while another involves using specific gear sets to maximize the amount of souls gained from defeating certain enemies.
While all those methods are good, wouldn't it be awesome if you could get all your souls without having to lift a finger? Well, there is a way. YouTuber/GameFAQer KishudarK has found a way that utilizes the aggressive Hawkwood the Deserter, as well as a glitch that makes him invincible, which allows him to farm souls for you while you do absolutely nothing. The only thing you have to do is actually get him to his location, and he does all the work!
Here's how it works:
Before you start, it's imperative that you are in offline mode first. This method requires you to be embered, which means that you'll be susceptible to invasions, and you certainly don't want to invaders coming to your world while you're AFK.
In addition, be sure to kill Havel first, or Hawkwood will easily spend about 10 minutes killing him each time.
Lastly, you need to ensure that Hawkwood is actually summonable at Archdragon Peak. Doing so requires you to engage in his quest line, so you can read up on that here.
Step 1: Go to the Great Belfry Bonfire at Archdragon Peak (be sure not to ring the bell).
Step 2: Summon Hawkwood the Deserter and let him wander off to engage some enemies.
Step 3: Once he dies, quit the game and rejoin it (do not rest at a bonfire).
Step 4: Re-summon Hawkwood (the last step activates the immortal Phantom glitch, so he can't be killed unless he falls to his death).
Step 5: Carefully lead him to Dragonkin Mausoleum bonfire.
Step 6: Let him fight against the Drakeblood knight the Serpent-man Sorcerer summons while you hide under the third column on the left side of the room and go AFK.
Step 7: Profit.
Here's a video of the farming method in action:
As you can see, the process is quite involved and takes a bit of finesse to pull off. There are several parts on the way to the Dragonkin Mausoleum from the Great Belfry where Hawkwood can easily die if you aren't paying extra careful attention to him. However, once you get to right spot (and make sure to kill Havel yourself beforehand) you can easily obtain about 500,000 souls per hour on NG without moving a finger.
It might not be the quickest method, but it's certainly among the easiest. You don't even have to be there for it to work properly, so, in the end, it simply comes down to whether you'd be willing to utilize an exploit to get all your souls instead of doing it the normal way.
