Dark Souls Remastered Soul Level 1 Guide

Class: Pyromancer
Starting Gift: Master Key
Everything else is up to you.

Firelink Shrine

Pick Up: 3x Humanity, 6x Homeward Bone, 4x Lloyd’s Talisman
Go to New Londo Ruins and pick up the Fire Keeper Soul
Don’t be afraid to suicide run.

Undead Burg

Speak to: Undead Merchant (Male) (Don’t ever kill him)
Purchase: 3x Reinforced Club.
(One Club will be Unascended, one will be Fire Chaos Ascended, one will be Divine Ascended)

The Reinforced Club is a great choice for SL1 because it has good base damage (which also translates well into elemental infusions), decent R1 moveset, very good R2 attack that has a lot of utility due to its range, and is fairly light.

Rest at the nearby bonfire for safety.
Pick up 5x Black Firebomb, 3x Gold Pine Resin
Kill the Crystal Lizard in the barrel before Taurus Demon.

Kill: Taurus Demon
Very simple boss.
Out-Space his attacks, run in for a running attack punish, repeat.
With the reinforced club, he staggers in 3 hits, meaning you can do 1 punish, wait for a second opening, then attack him twice to stagger him.
Recommended Weapon:
Reinforced Club +0

Undead Parish

Kill: Heavy Knight
Pick Up: Basement Key, Titanite Shard, Fire Keeper Soul
(If you are okay with using the item duplication glitch, make sure to keep one Fire Keeper Soul at all times)

Upgrade your Reinforced Club to +5

Kill: Bell Gargoyles

Killing the first one before the second gargoyle shows up is key.
Both of the gargoyles stagger from 2 hits of the Reinforced Club
The second one shows up after the first one is at 50%.
Consider getting the first gargoyle to just over 50% health, then attempt to burst him down.
The second gargoyle has a similar move set to the former.
The second gargoyle is likely to do a fire breath. Running/dodging to the side and punishing it is a good idea, as it is an attack with a very long animation.

Recommended Weapon:

Reinforced Club +5
w/ Gold Pine Resin

Ring the: First Beckoning Bell

Make your way back to Firelink Shrine.
Kill: Lautrec of Carim
Pick Up: Ring of Favor and Protection
Ring of Favor and Protection is a very good ring. It increases your health, stamina and equipment load by a considerable amount. Remember, in DS1, removing the ring destroys it.

Lower Undead Burg

Make your way to the Undead Burg
Speak to the Undead Merchant (Male)
Purchase: Residence Key, Chain Set
Chain Set is a good armour set that will provide poise, which will make the Capra Demon encounter much much easier as the dogs will not stagger you.
Rest at the nearby bonfire for safety.

Kill: Havel the Rock
Pick Up: Havel’s Ring
Consider parrying or backstabbing Havel. His attacks are very telegraphed and easy to parry, or roll to the side and backstab.
Get past the Taurus Demon boss arena and enter the Lower Undead Burg

Save Griggs of Vinheim
Make your way past the Capra Demon boss arena and open the shortcut in the sewers that leads to Firelink Shrine and rest at its bonfire for safety.
Then speak to the Undead Merchant (Female)
Purchase: Purple and Blooming Purple Moss Clumps. Purchase as many as you believe you’ll need for the Depths and Blighttown.
Also purchase 1 Red, Purple and Blooming purple moss clump to exchange for twinkling titanite at Dyna and Tillo
Also Purchase: Charcoal Pine Resin. Will prove useful against Capra Demon.
Kill: Capra Demon
When you start the fight, run past the Capra Demon and dodge any attack he throws at you. Then focus on killing the dogs.
Use the stairs to your advantage, to divide the dogs from the demon and give yourself breathing room.

Full Chain Set poise will let you tank through 1 dog attack, so don’t be afraid to trade with them.
Wolf Ring is also a very good ring for this, as it provides 40 poise.
After that, roll and punish Capra Demon’s attacks until he is dead.

Recommended Weapon:
Reinforced Club +5
w/ Charcoal Pine Resin

Gold Pine Resin would provide more damage than Charcoal Pine Resin, however, it is better saved for more difficult bosses. Since the boss is only difficult when the dogs are around, which you can one-shot without Gold Pine Resin, extra damage will not make the fight significantly easier.

Make your way to the Depths.

The Depths

Pick Up: Large Ember
Save: Laurentius of the Great Swamp
Rest at the Depths Bonfire for safety
If you do not want to use the item duplication glitch, I recommend reversing your hollowing and fighting Knight Kirk. It will provide a lot of souls which can be used to purchase upgrade materials.
Speak to: Doomhall of Zena
Purchase: 3x Gold Pine Resin

Kill: Channeller - Location
Killing the Channeller will make him unable to interrupt the Gaping Dragon boss fight by buffing him and shooting soul arrows at you.
Pick Up: Large Titanite Shard.
It’s located past the Channeller.
Pick Up: Heavy Crossbow.
It’s located right above the Gaping Dragon boss fog.
You are now free to kill the Gaping Dragon
It is recommended to kill him now as it will spare you another run to the Depths and later in the game, the fight becomes very trivial.

Recommended Weapon:
Reinforced Club +5
w/ Gold Pine Resin

If you are unable to kill him, you can return to him when your equipment is stronger.

Return to Undead Parish
Rest at the bonfire
Speak to: Andre of Astora
Give him the Large Ember
Upgrade your Reinforced Club to +6
(If you happen to have more than 1 Large Titanite Shard, likely from killing the Crystal Lizards, upgrade your Reinforced Club further)
Purchase: Weapon Smithbox

Go to Darkroot Basin

Kill: Crystal Lizard, Halberd Black Knight
Pick up: Grass Crest Shield, Leather Set and Longbow
Grass Crest Shield increases your stamina recovery greatly. It makes running through areas faster and bosses easier due to more stamina recovery.
Also does a decent job at blocking.
Bone back to Undead Parish
Make your way to Undead Asylum

Undead Asylum

When you enter the asylum, go to your right and rest at the bonfire for safety.

Kill: Black Knight, Oscar of Astora
Pick Up: Crest Shield
Kill: Black Knight
Pick Up: Peculiar Doll

You are now free to kill the Stray Demon
While the Stray Demon has a lot of health, he is weak to bleed.
Make sure to stay behind him. When he does his “stab his staff in the ground” that causes an AOE, make sure to stay a decent but behind him and punish that with 2 attacks.
His fly and buttslam attack has a very lingering hitbox, so be cautious when running into him to punish it.
Recommended Weapon:
Physical Reinforced Club
w/ Gold Pine Resin

If you are finding Stray Demon too difficult, you can come back at a later date when you have better equipment.
On your way back, exchange 1 of each Moss Clump for Twinkling Titanite

Return to Firelink Shrine
Speak to Laurentius
Purchase - Flash Sweat
Flash Sweat will be used to protect you from lava when trying to retrieve the Chaos Ember.
Can also use it for Chaos Witch Quelaag.

Blighttown

Enter Blighttown via Valley of Drakes
Make your way to the lower section of Blighttown
Rest at the bonfire for safety
Pick Up: 1x Green Titanite Shard and 2x Large Titanite Shard
Kill all the Slugs in hopes of obtaining Large Titanite Shards and Green Titanite Shards
Consider using the item duplication glitch to obtain 10 soft humanity, or use enough humanity items to have 10 humanity items
Enter the Great Hollow
Pick up: Twin Humanities in the chest on your way

The Great Hollow

Your goal in The Great Hollow is to make sure you have at least 9x Green Titanite Shards.
That many will allow you to upgrade your fire weapon to +5, and open up Ascention to Fire +6 or Chaos.

Collect Items or kill Crystal Lizards until you have at least 9x Green Titanite Shard
Keep in mind: Blue and White Titanite Chunks can be exchanged to Frampt for 2 Green Titanite Shards, count that in the equation as well.
If you plan on going to NG+6 it’s very recommended that you collect as much as possible

Here is a good and quick video showcasing Crystal Lizard Spawns.
Once you get to the area simply quit out and load your character again.
Sometimes Crystal Lizards might not spawn and you’ll have to quit out multiple times.

Pick Up: Chloranthy Ring

Once you have reached your goal, return to the Lower Blighttown Bonfire
Upgrade your Reinforced Club as much as you can.
Pick Up: Power Within
Power Within is a very strong spell that will increase your damage by 50% at the cost of 1%HP/Sec.
It’s not needed in New Game as bosses still have low HP.
Power Within Location - While the video does not show it, it’s possible to run past the enemy guarding the pyromancy and pick it up, which will result in a suicide run.

You are now free to fight Chaos Witch Quelaag
Roll through her firesword swipes, when the spider breathes lava, hit the legs. But never hit her when under her. This is because if she does the AOE attack, the legs will trap you and you won’t be able to escape.
Always watch out for the AOE attack and always keep in mind where the lava is, given there is any at a given time.
When she does the AOE attack, you’ll see the human portion of Quelaag leaning forward and grabbing the spider’s head.
The spider’s legs will also tense up towards the body.

Recommended Weapon:
Physical Reinforced Club
w/ Gold Pine Resin

Ring the Second Beckoning Bell
Jump down
Talk to Eingyi by going through the illusory wall
Ensure to say Yes or else he will not let you pass.
Rest at the bonfire.

Kill Ceaseless Discharge
If you don’t want to use the easy way of killing him, stay in front of him and as soon as you hear him do an attack (audio cues are key), run to the side and add a roll for safety, then smack his hand. Rinse and repeat.
Recommended Weapon:
Physical Reinforced Club
If you are willing to use the Item Duplication Glitch, Pick Up: Chaos Flame Ember
Pick Up: 2x Green Titanite Shard (only if you do not have 9)
, Pick Up: Large Flame Ember.
Chaos does more damage than Fire, however it requires up to 10 humanity for the damage boost.
If you are willing to use the item duplication glitch, use Chaos as you can dupe the Fire Keeper Soul.
Otherwise, use the Fire infusion.

Once you have collected all that, make your way back to Firelink Shrine
If you need to trade Blue or White Titanite Chunks to frampt for Green Titanite Shards, do so now.
Make sure you have 9x Titanite Shard to upgrade another Reinforced Club to +5.
Also make sure you have at least 3000 souls in consumable souls to upgrade your Reinforced Club to Fire/Chaos as much as possible.

Make your way to the Catacombs
Rest at the Catacombs bonfire for safety.

Do NOT rest at the bonfire near Vamos
This will make it much harder to get out of Catacombs and you do not need to speak to Vamos on this playthrough anymore, as your weapon will be Ascended enough that you’ll be able to finalize your upgrade via other blacksmiths or Weapon Smithbox
Upgrade one of your Reinforced Clubs to Fire/Chaos depending on your preference.
Ascend them at least to either Fire +6 or Chaos +0. Upgrade further if you have the required materials.
Regardless of your choice, the Recommended weapon will be referred to as: Fire, but it can mean Chaos, depending upon your willingness to use the dupe glitch.

Bone Back

Return to Firelink Shrine
Talk to Griggs of Vinheim
If you are fine with using the item duplication glitch, dupe enough souls from Quelaag’s soul to purchase: Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring and Lingering Dragoncrest Ring
Bellowing will make your pyromancies stronger
Lingering can be used to extend the duration of Power Within. Useful for Hyper Mode (Red Tearstone Ring + Power Within)
After you obtained these two rings (or decided you don’t want these two rings), kill Griggs for the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring
This ring will make you produce no sound, meaning it’ll be easier to run through areas.

Make your way to the Undead parish, Rest at the bonfire for Safety.

At this point, most of the preparation is now complete, the rest of the areas will not require as much detail, as there is simply not as many things to pick up.

Sen’s Fortress
If you don’t have a Reinforced Club +10, Pick Up: 3x Large Titanite Shards
Pick Up: Covetous Gold Serpent Ring
If you still don’t have a +10 Reinforced Club, Pick Up: 2x Large Titanite Shard or purchase Large Titanite Shards from the Crestfallen Merchant
Spend the rest of your souls on Green Blossoms.
Pick Up: Rare Ring of Sacrifice behind Prince Ricard

Kill the Giant above Iron Golem’s arena.
Pick Up: Titanite Chunk

Kill Iron Golem
Stay near his legs and smack away at them.
Be careful about his hand slam or his grab, they can hit you when you’re under him.
The tell for the grab can be confusing, because it is visually similar to the stagger animation.
Once the golem is actually staggered, hack away at his legs and he should fall over, at that point, the golem should be dead by the time he recovers.
Recommended Weapon:
Fire Reinforced Club

Enter Anor Londo

Rest at the bonfire for Safety.
There is nothing to pick up in the first half of Anor Londo

Make your way to the Solaire Bonfire.
If you’re struggling with the Demon Archers the most important thing is to be confident. If you sprint, arrows will never hit you, run up to the Silver Knight on the right as soon as possible.
If he keeps shooting at you, make sure to roll the arrow. Blocking can get you pushed off the ledge.

Rest at the Solaire Bonfire for safety.
Pick up the Occult Club in the basement
Make your way to the Giant Blacksmith
Make sure you have 9x Twinkling Titanite
If you do, kill him and Pick Up: Blacksmith Giant Hammer
If you don’t have 9x Twinkling Titanite, and you don’t have the souls to purchase them, come back after Ornstein and Smough, purchase remaining Twinkling Titanite, kill him and pick up: Blacksmith Giant Hammer.
Pick up: Titanite Chunk on the terrace next to the Giant Blacksmith

Kill Ornstein and Smough
Phase 1: It’s recommended to kill Ornstein first. 2 Hits from the Club will stagger Ornstein, use that to your advantage. If ornstein is behind smough, you can run into smough (around his right) and no matter what he does, he will miss you (unless he is shoveling), then get behind ornstein and hit him.
Always keep track of them both.
Be careful of Smough’s Shovel attack.
Phase 2: Stay close to Smough at all times. If he does a melee attack, you can strafe it to the left. Includes the Swipe and the slam.
If he does his Jumping Hammer Slam, you can run under it.
If he does his big butt slam, make sure to run back as quickly as possible. When he lands, add a roll for safety.
Be careful when approaching him after the attack, the butt slam has a long lingering hitbox.
If he does his shovel attack when you’re close, run left and it’ll miss you.
If he does it when you’re far away, run away.

Recommended Weapon:
Fire Reinforced Club

Retrieve the Lordvessel

Don’t kill Gwynevere yet.

Return to Firelink Shrine and place the Lordvessel via Frampt

Darkroot Garden

Warp to: Undead Parish
Upgrade: Blacksmith Giant Hammer to +5
Buy: Crest of Artorias
Go to Darkwood Garden
Kill: Moonlight Butterfly

Use the Crest Shield to block its attacks.
You can throw Firebombs when it’s flying.
You can also dodge the magic attacks to the sides.
Recommended Weapon:1
Fire Reinforced Club

Pick Up: Divine Ember
If you don’t want to continue your journey to NG+6, transform your Occult Club to Divine Club +5

If you plan on going to NG+6, acquire 9x Large Titanite Shard for your Divine Reinforced Club
You can do so by: Farming Slugs in Blighttown, buying the shards from Crestfallen Merchant or trading your Blue Titanite Chunks for them.
However, this isn’t urgent. This is only to be ensured before you go into the Catacombs and Gravelord Nito will be the final Lord of this run. Do this at your own pace.
The first Lord’s Soul will be Seath, who has a few crystal lizards on the way, so you might get some materials there. So wait until after that section to start farming.

Return to Darkroot Basin
Light and rest at the hidden bonfire.
Use Covenant of Artorias on the door.
Kill Sif, the Great Grey Wolf

Dodge into Sif’s Attacks but watch out, some of her attacks are really quick, especially the running swipe attack. The R2 covers a lot of distance and is very recommended.

Sif is weak to Bleed and Fire. However due to the current upgrade level of Fire/Chaos Reinforced Club, it is more optimal to use the Giant Blacksmith Hammer.
Recommended weapon: Blacksmith Giant Hammer
In NG+ onwards, Fire and Chaos are a better choice

Pick Up: Hornet Ring from her arena.
Make your way to the Hydra and kill it.
Stand in the water, block the hydra’s melee attacks then do an R2 with the blacksmith giant hammer.
When the hydra is dead, go to the left side, save and quit, then reload and fight the Golden Golem. Talk to Dusk of Oolacile.
Bone back.
Warp to Anor Londo first bonfire

Make your way to the Duke’s Archives.
Kill the Blue Golem and Pick up: Broken Pendant
Go all the way to Seath and let yourself get killed by him - Equip the Rare Ring of Sacrifice you picked up in Sen’s Fortress to not lose your souls, humanity and avoid getting cursed.

Archives Prison
When you spawn, kill the Serpent Soldier by the gate, pick up the Key and open the door.
Go downstairs and up the ladder.
Pick up: Archive Tower Giant Door Key.
Go through the area normally.
Light the bonfire and rest at it.
Pick up: Crystal Ember (in NG+)
Crystal will do better than regular +15 on Artorias, Manus and Kalameet, however you only have 10 Durability per Reinforced Club.
It’s very useful for NG+6 DLC as it provides a nice damage boost over +15.
It’s only really recommended if you’re okay farming for multiple Crystal Reinforced Clubs +5 or are willing to use Save Scumming to revert your save between boss attempts to save on durability.

Make your way to the Crystal Caves

Crystal Caves

Kill the Crystal Lizards located after the first invisible bridge.
This has a chance of giving you materials that will help with your Divine Reinforce Club upgrade.

Kill: Seath the Scaleless

When you enter the fight for the first time, consider save and quitting then loading in again, as there is a high chance a clam will enter the fight and cause chaos.
Break the crystal when Seath is close, because this will stun him for a short period. Get some free hits in while you can. If you’re close to him and he starts an attack animation, run to the side as it will likely hit in front of him.
Best way to fight Seath is to stay mid range, bait a mid range crystal breath attack and punish it with about 3 R1 attacks.
Disengage before he starts attacking again.

Recommended Weapon:
Blacksmith Giant Hammer

Return to Firelink Shrine

Make your way to New Londo Ruins
Pick up Transient Curse from the hollow in the big jar.
If you run out of Transient curses before reaching Ingward, you can buy some from the Undead Merchant (female). You can also have 10 humanity and Covetous Gold Serpent Ring while making your way through New Londo Ruins to increase the chance of enemies dropping more Transient Curses.
Make your way to Ingward and receive Key to the Seal
Open the Seal.
Pick up Red Tearstone Ring

Pick up: Titanite Chunk (one behind an illusory wall guarded by a darkwraith, one in the building next to illusory wall)
Pick up: Very Large Ember

You are now free to kill 4 Kings

Always run towards one as quickly as possible. Strafe them to the left. You can easily strafe the vertical attacks, but for the horizontal slashes, it’s best to roll back for the first one, then roll right for the follow up as they have lingering hitboxes and this minimizes the time you spend in “contact” with their sword.
For the magic AOE you want to run away from it and stay at range until it’s over.
The grab can also be outran if you start running back early enough. Rolling right also works.
The magic projectile is best blocked with your shield. It’s possible to avoid it if you circle strafe the king left, but if they do magic attacks it becomes much more difficult.

Recommended Weapon:
Blacksmith Giant Hammer

Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith
Before killing the Bed of Chaos make sure you have upgraded your Pyromancy Flame to at least +10 and have spoken to Quelana of Izalith, otherwise she will disappear after killing Bed of Chaos.
Use souls you have gotten from 4 Kings and previous bosses as well as the upcoming bosses to upgrade your Pyromancy Flame.
Alternatively you can use the item duplication glitch to obtain the souls needed or do it in NG+
Warp to the Daughter of Chaos bonfire.
Make your way through the Demon Ruins
Kill: Demon Firesage.

When you enter the arena, Demon Firesage will most likely leap at you. Dodge that attack to the right, then just as Stray Demon, focus on staying behind him and hacking away.

Recommended Weapon:
Blacksmith Giant Hammer

Continue forward and make your way to Centipede Demon
Kill: Centipede Demon

Stay at the platform by the fog gate.
Wait until it closes in on you. It can do a few long range attacks first. Make sure to avoid them.
Then he will do a distance closing attack where he will spin midair and slam. That attack covers a lot of distance so be careful.
After the Centipede Demon closes the distance towards you, the fight is pretty simple.
Stay in front of it. Its attacks are telegraphed by a small roar. Brace yourself, react to the attack accordingly and punish with an R2.

Recommended Weapon:
Blacksmith Giant Hammer

Make your way to Lost Izalith

Rest at the first bonfire.
Make your way to the second bonfire and rest at it too.
Pick up: Red Titanite Slab

Pyromancy Obtainment
Almost all of your useful pyromancies are to be obtained from Quelana of Izalith
Purchase: Fire Tempest, Great Combustion, Great Fireball. Buy them before killing BoC.
Other Pyromancy to obtain: Chaos Fireball, Chaos Storm
These Pyromancies are to be obtained by joining the Chaos Servants Covenant.
Chaos Fireball is received upon joining the covenant.
Chaos Storm is received upon Giving 30 humanities to the Fair Lady
You might not be able to do so now, so do this as you’re going through NG+ cycles.

Kill: Bed of Chaos
The Bed of Chaos often will do a double swipe around the arena then a slam in the middle. When it does that, use it as your cue to go toward one of the cores. When one is destroyed, you can quit out and destroy another one. Then go for the actual Bed of Chaos
It is recommended you first go after the left core, then the right core.

Catacombs and Tomb of the Giants

Make your way to Pinwheel.
You can skip a large amount of the catacombs like this and make your way to pinwheel very easy using this trick
Kill Pinwheel
Rush to him as quickly as possible. If you’re lucky enough you’ll be able to kill him before he does anything.
If he teleports away and spawns clones, quickly notice where all the clones are and determine the safest route to kill them all.
Be careful because, believe it or not, he can do a lot of damage very quickly.

Recommended Weapon:
Blacksmith Giant Hammer

After that, make your way through the Tomb of the Giants, until you find the bonfire.
From the bonfire, you want to get kicked down by patches so you can pick up the Skull Lantern.
It’s an item that will help you through the Tomb of the Giants. Equip it in your off hand and block with it. It will illuminate your surroundings.

Pick up: Large Divine Ember
It’s very possible to do a suicide run to get the Large Divine Ember. Consider doing so.

Navigate your way to the Second Bonfire
It can be a little hard to find and people often miss it.
Restore humanity at the bonfire and fight Paladin Leeroy (npc invader)
Pick up: Sanctus
Sanctus is a shield that regenerates your HP. It can be used to stay in “hypermode”
Hypermode - Power within and RTSR.
If you are cursed, use RTSR, Lingering Dragoncrest Ring, and have Sanctus equipped, you can stay in RTSR range with Power Within for its whole duration.

Kill the Crystal Lizard
In the area before nito, there will be a few White Titanite Chunks as well as Pinwheel Servants that have a good chance to drop a White Titanite Chunk.
Farm them until you have 7x White Titanite Chunk.
Pick up: White Titanite Slab
Once you have acquired all White Titanite Chunks and White Titanite Slab, warp back to Undead Parish, upgrade your Divine Reinforced Club to +10 and bone back to your last bonfire.

Kill Gravelord Nito

First of all, stay where you drop down. There, only the small skeletons will aggro onto you.
Kill them using your divine weapon so they don’t respawn.
His Scream stab comes out as soon as he plunges his sword into the ground, so you can use that as the cue. Alternatively, very often it works to just sprint forward to avoid the attack.
Alternatively you can use high poison resistance gear and just tank it.
Stay in front of him and dodge his sword swings. Hit him from the front. If you see him charging the AOE, make sure to disengage and run away, as the AOE has high range.

Recommended Weapon:
Blacksmith Giant Hammer

Here you have access to Kiln of the First Flame once you place all the Lord Souls in the Lord Vessel.
Sword Black Knight drops a regular Titanite Chunk
Greatsword Black Knight drops a Red Titanite Chunk
Farm them two until you can upgrade your Reinforced Club to +15 and Chaos/Fire Reinforced Club to +5/10
As well as your Crystal Reinforced Club to +5 (which you can only do in NG+ onwards as the giant blacksmith is dead)
Go back to the asylum and trade the Skull Lantern for Ring of Fog
This will make it much easier to run through the DLC as it will make you near invisible (hidden body effect)
Go to the Undead Merchant (Female)
Purchase: Dung Pies and Blooming Purple Moss Clumps
This will help you set up RTSR

Enter the DLC by going to where you freed Dusk of Oolacile

Make your way back to the Firelink Altar
Make your way to Gwyn, Lord of Cinder
Kill: Gwyn, Lord of Cinder

Prioritise Stamina Regeneration in this fight.
Start the fight by running into him and parry his intro attack.
You have to be right in his face and parry at the last moment.
After that you have 2 choices.
- Stunlock him with a series of 2 R1s. If you do it well, there is a small chance of him escaping and doing anything.
Do R1R1, walk behind him while waiting for your stamina to regenerate, R1R1 and repeat.
If he jumps away after 1 R1. Consider an R2 as it covers a lot of distance.

You can continue attempting to parry him.
Block the quick slash then parry the follow up.
Parry the slow horizontal slash.
Avoid the Kick and grab attacks.

Recommended Weapon:
Fire Reinforced Club

Choose whatever ending you want.

Congratulations! You beat Dark Souls at Soul Level 1