Shulva - Sanctum City | Dark Souls 2 Wiki

Full Shulva - Sanctum City Walkthrough

Access

From the second bonfire in the Black Gulch, break the pots and drop down to the bigger area. Immediately head right and once you pass the path filled with poison statues, head across the area to find a small entrance into a cave. This will bring you to the Primal Bonfire and the Obelisk that can be activated with the Dragon Talon to enter the Crown of the Sunken King DLC.

Lost City

Continue past the statues and fire to open a pair of big doors, this will lead you to a straight passage that ends at a cave exit, and brings you to Shulva, Sancum City. As you pass the doorway look left to find a body with 3x Dragon Charm. Continue down this path and you'll awaken a sleeping dragon that'll fly away, so keep moving forward until you reach a bonfire, the Sanctum Walk bonfire.

To the left of the bonfire there are stairs leading down, at the end of the stairs is a body that holds 3x Old Growth Balm. Behind the stairs is an entrance to a shortcut that will be unlocked later in the level, so head back to the bonfire and this time follow the main path. Shortly after, you'll encounter a Sanctum Soldier playing dead that will attack you as you approach him.

Further ahead you will see a small obelisk and a group of enemies down the path. Hitting these obelisks will either raise or lower structures that can give you access to areas or help with eliminating enemies. In this case, it hits 3 of the Sanctum Soldiers, heavily damaging or even killing them. On the left, you'll find three Sanctum Archers and a body holding 5x Lifegem, and an obelisk to the right of them. Once again hit it to raise the structure directly in front of them and jump on it. This will give you the height advantage but will also damage some of them, and grant you access to the Dark Quartz Ring+3 from the body on the pillar to the right. Jump down and hit the first obelisk again then drop into the gazebo-esque structure as it descends. At the bottom, head out and walk the ledges until you reach a small jump to another platform holding a Long Bow +7. Here, a Sanctum Soldier may drop down. From here, look up for an obelisk and once you've identified it, use the longbow you just found to shoot it, activating the structure you currently stand on to raise.

Obelisks for Days

On one side you'll find a single Soldier standing next to a corpse draped over the edge, holding a Poison Stone. Continue forward from here to find another obelisk and a set of stairs. Head up the stairs and you'll find two doors on either side, and a Sanctum Archer on a platform behind. 

• The room on the left glows red and holds 3x Goldenfruit Balm, a bunch of Corrosive Eggs, and a total of 3 Corrosive Egg Crawler. In this door there are also two doors. Take the left one first, and immediately scale the wall to the right of the exit and around to find a ledge you can drop off and onto an item -3x Old Growth Balm. Drop onto the stairs and proceed up all the subsequent stairs then turn right to re-enter the red room. Head back out the same door you did (left) and follow the path to hit the obelisk, a structure will rise allowing you to enter the next building. Inside is another Sanctum Soldier waiting, kill him and go up the stairs to encounter another Corrosive Egg Crawler that ambushes you, and pick a Poisonbite Ring+1 from the body nearby. 
• The room on the right brings you out to a ledge near to where the Archer was on, with an obelisk. Hit it, proceed forward to drop down next to another obelisk that you need to hit again, then head back up through the door. You now have a path to continue to a platform with another obelisk to be hit. Hit it then drop down.

Look for the cluster of urns then destroy them to open up a new path for you to traverse. Past them, you'll find a doorway just beneath the platform you're currently on. Continue through it and up the stairs, passing the egg clusters, to find yourself in a room with 4 Corrosive Egg Crawlers. You'll find two doorways up here, one leading back to the platform you just came from, and another to a ledge holding an Elizabeth Mushroom and a decent spot to snipe the upcoming enemies, or hitting the obelisks to raise the structures and provide you with cover from the Archers ahead for when you pass by, with your newly acquired Long Bow +7. Once you're done here, head out the door that brings you back to where you came from and look for a wide staircase heading down.

Going Up

Head down the staircase but not before taking out the Poison Statue Cluster out by targeting the lizard housing the statues in its back at ground level. It guards 20x Throwing Knife and 5x Cracked Red Eye Orb. On the left after the statue there is a Sanctum Soldier in a dead end. Ahead, you will see a winding hill with several archers at the top. Below them on the cliff face will be two obelisks, with a third on your side of the chasm. Shoot the 3 obelisks to raise the towers to their upward position, and to block the archer's line of sight, protecting yourself from incoming arrows. This also acts as a bridge to the Tower of Prayer bonfire. 

Now you can safely continue up the winding cliff and defeat the Sanctum Soldiers one at a time. There will be a Sanctum Soldier on the floor that will rise when you get near and behind him an Archer. Above the Archer there will be another Soldier with another 2 Archers. After dealing with them loot the bodies in the area for 3x Twinkling Titanite and 3x Lloyd's Talisman. 

At the top of the hill there is a small building with a Poison Statue Cluster and a ladder inside. Before ascending the ladder, circle around the back of the building to find the 4th Obelisk. The Tower controlled by this Obelisk has two items on it, so plan out a line of sight to it from the cliffside so the Tower can be raised and lowered as needed.

If you have raised all 4 platforums as part of those previously mentioned, you can walk across the top of them to the Tower of Prayer bonfire.

The Pagan Tree

First, we will solve the obelisk puzzle to collect all the nearby items. To safely retrace your steps to the winding cliff, stand on the platform outside of the bonfire room and shoot an arrow at the obelisk that will lower the nearest tower. Ride the tower partways down, and then jump off. You will not be able to jump back to the cliff from its fully lowered position. From the cliffside, lower the third pillar. Step on it, then hit the obelisk to raise that pillar again, rolling onto the the middle level of the second pillar (=the pillar to the left of you) on the way up, to pick up a Thunder Quartz Ring +3. Return to the cliffside and go onto the lowered first pilla (=the one closest to the bonfire, and jump stright to the raised second pillar, reciving 2x Darknight Stone. Return to the cliffside by jumping off, or warping back to the bonfire.

Across the chasm next to the ladder building  you will see a cave. Look a bit down to the left and you will see a set of red-eyed statues and an obelisk behind them. Use either great arrows or a spell to break the statues and hit the obelisk. If you don't have any of these, then look down and you will a structure. Drop down to it and from there shoot regular arrows at the obelisk, the angle from down there will allow to hit the obelisk without breaking the statues. In the middle level of the structure (you will be one level above if you jumped down to hit the obelisk, so just fall to the entrance of the cave and walk back) there is a body holding 5x Torch. Entering the cave will have you pass 3 Poison Statue Clusters. Inside you'll find a Pagan Tree and 2 bodies, they hold a Notched Whip +7 and Hex, the Promised Walk of Peace. You can kill the tree by hitting its eyes to make it drop 3x Dried Root, but it you hit it with any whip it'll completely restore the durability of all of your items currently equipped. Oddly, if you hit the the tree with the curved sword Eleum Loyce, it'll also steal the health from the tree.

Path to the Dragon's Sanctum

Head back to the Tower of Prayer bonfire. Make sure the first platform next to the bonfire is down. 

Exit through the other door and drop down on the left side. Pick up 1x Dried Root from the body then enter the building and kill the Sanctum Soldier. Exit to the ledge and walk all the way to the right to find a body that holds a Sanctum Mace. Go back to the building and to the ledge you dropped on, now drop down to the right side. Down the path and there will be a Soldier on the left, kill him and cross the bridge on the right. In the building ahead, you'll find 10x Rusted Coin on a body, and an elevator that is currently inaccessible. Later on, this will serve as a shortcut to the next bonfire.

Head out, and proceed to the bridge with the 2 Soldiers. The first time you go to this area Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon will show up and shoot 3 fireballs towards the bridge, killing any enemies on it. Don't step on the bridge yet, break the vases on the other side and go around to find the sorcery Focus Souls on a body. Go back to the bridge and kill the 2 Soldiers, in case they survived the roast. Enter the building and you will arrive at the Dragon's Sanctum.

Note: There is a third Bonfire in this area, but it cannot be reached till reciving the Eternal Sanctum Key.