Demon’s Souls has a new Sodden Ring that makes the Valley of Defilement less of a slog

What are you doing in my swamp?

I feel like every time I revisit Demon’s Souls, something different trips me up. That goes double for New Game+ runs, and it definitely still applies to Bluepoint’s just-released PlayStation 5 remake. As the Souls community comes together to share different discoveries, we all stand to benefit.

On my first PS5 run, nothing stole more of my souls than the dark, vile, occasionally cheap-as-hell Valley of Defilement. As it turns out, I could’ve saved myself a lot of trouble, at least for part of the stage. There are several new rings in the Demon’s Souls remake, and one of them, the Sodden Ring, can make the trek through the swamp leading up to the Dirty Colossus much less of a meandering slog.

The Sodden Ring “allows freedom of movement in the murkiest of waters, but does not remove other dangers.” In other words, it’s like the Rusted Iron Ring in Dark Souls, and it’s ideal for level 5-2.

Where do you find it? It’s easily missed – you’ll need to have Pure Black World Tendency and head to the bottom of level 3-2 (in Upper Latria) where all of those creepy Man Centipedes are roaming free.

This video walkthrough from chan4est shows the long-winded path down to the Sodden Ring.

As someone who hasn’t started messing with Pure Black tendency yet (that’ll come with time as I run through the trophy list), I probably wouldn’t have found this ring until way later than I would have liked. Without this guide, the Sodden Ring would be another eventual “Gee, that woulda been nice” moments.

As for the rest of Bluepoint’s new rings in Demon’s Souls, Powerpyx has some pointers for how to find them. There’s the Providential Ring (raises item discovery), the Ring of Longevity (increases max HP), and the Ring of Uneven Scales (raises maximum item burden, but lowers maximum equip burden).

Yesterday, Chris said he plays like “there’s only one ring slot” because of the Cling Ring. Same!