Dark Souls 3's Ashes of Ariandel DLC is out now, here's how to access it

Naturally, Dark Souls 3 Ashes of Ariandel spoilers to follow.

As you may have spotted yesterday, Dark Souls 3's first portion of DLC jumped the gun on its official launch date, following its premature arrival on consoles last week. It's now officially live worldwide and, as is fairly typical with Hidetaka Miyazaki's twisted worlds, accessing it isn't quite as straightforward as booting up your game and diving straight in.

Instead, you'll want to have reached, or passed, the Cleansing Chapel bonfire at the base game's Cathedral of the Deep. Once you've purchased Ashes of Ariandel—either via the Season Pass or standalone—you'll now find a hooded and bearded fellow sprawled out on all fours next to the altar—strike up a conversation with him and he'll eventually ask you to touch his weird blood-stained handkerchief. Doing so will transport you to the elusive Ariandel, which looks something like this:

In his recent hands-on, Shaun noted that while he only came across one boss during a couple of hours within the expansion, he was under the impression it houses two all told. This seems consistent with the Steam reviews that've surfaced since launch—with the add-on seemingly taking anything between two and six hours to finish. A souls level of 80 or above appears to be a worthy tally from standard saves, whereas NG+ players will obviously want to be a fair bit more powerful if possible.

Dark Souls 3's Ashes of Ariandel DLC is out now for £11.99/$14.99 via the Humble Store and Steam.