First of all I should mention, that I have 3 characters at the moment. One of them is in finished NG+3, one of them is in finished NG and I created one more in order to get two achievements I missed during my previous playthroughs. So here is the list of achievements and a brief description how I got them.

Nothing special here. This can't be missed.This can't be missed too. Honestly, I got this one right in the tutorial, two minutes into the game.By falling off the cliff while trying to pick up the coin. -_-The following are achieved by discovering covenants, defeating bosses, interacting with npcs and rekindling bonfires.Nothing special there, just play and you will get them:This one is easy as well, but it can be done in a few ways. Here you have to max out devotion to one of the covenants. Note that you can abandon covenant, rejoin again and you wll keep your rank in that covenant.So feel free to hop around covenants if you like.My personal preference is to join Covenant of the Sun and to do co-op. I like co-op, and it was the first covenant I maxed out devotion with. Not even for achievement.Drop your summon sign (White Soapstone, you want to be fantom, not shade) at tricky bosses, help people, have fun. You'll get a covenant medal for every successful co-op.It takes 30 medals to max out devotion to the Sun covenant. However, if you are doing the achievements, probably you'll prefer one of the other covenants.Second option is to join Pilgrims of the Dark (Abysmal Covenant). You will need it for one more achievement - Master of Hexes. I'll talk about it later.Third option is to join the Bell Keepers (Clangorous Covenant). You will need this for Master of Sorcery achievement as well. By far I think it's the easiest covenant to max out. I'll talk about it later.Next two achievements again - nothing special. Just play and eventually you will unlock them.This one is easy, but I've missed it on my previous playthroughs. You have to gather 7 npcs in Majula: Licia of Lindeldt, Merchant Melentia,Laddersmith Gilligan, Cartographer Cale, Carhillion of the Fold, Rosabeth of Melfia, Stone Trader Chloanne. Usually they go there after you exhaust their dialogs. Do not kill npcs :)If you invade Licia with Crushed Eye Orb before you got the achievement - you'll screw up. Carhillion will talk to you if you have 8 or more int, but he will go to Majula only when you speak to him again after defeating Flexile Sentry.Just play and kill the bosses.I don't know exactly how many souls I spent. All I know I bought some weapons from McDuff and I infused 8 weapons. Just play and talk to npcs, learn gestures. Eventually you'll unlock this one.For this one I've made a new character, because I didn't want to do this in ng+, or in ng+4. I can't confirm that bonfire ascetic works for this achievement, I just did it the normal way.At first you go to No-Man's Wharf, speak to Lucatiel at the bonfire, find her summon sign later and defeat the Flexile Sentry. After that talk to her in Lost Bastile and summon her for Lost Sinner fight.(???$??Ф?к™ in comments confirmed, that bonfire ascetic works for this achievement. You have to summon Lucatiel 3 times, before talking to her in Aldias Keep, otherwise she will disappear forever.)After that speak to her in Earthen Peak. Then you'll summon her for the Smelter Demon fight. Last boss is Rotten. Find Lucatiel below bonfire, speak to her. Cry. Summon her at the hidden bonfire before the Rotten. I believe she has to survive all the fights. And it's not a problem, since the girl is tough and can take the hit. Now all you have to do is to make a long trip to the Aldia's Keep, speak to Lucatiel at the first bonfire. "despair, and then, tears". But you got your achievement.For this one I can definitely confirm, that bonfire ascetic works.I've simply exhausted dialogs with Benhart at all his locations and then started burning bonfire acetic at the first bonfire in Brightstone Cove Tseldora and summoning him for Prowling Magus "boss" fight. After 3 fights speak to Benhart in the Memory of Orro.

Now this is where things become a little tricky:Before doing this achievement I searched for the list of all hexes: they are saying that there are 19 hexes. Do not get confused, in a recent DLC you can pick up two more hexes. So it's 21 hex. I believe that only hexes before DLC counts for achievement. So you need those 19. Most of the hexes are pretty easy to get.However, some of the hexes are traded for the boss souls with Straid of Olaphis. Lets take a look at the hexes which is "hard" to get:"Numbness"Traded for Old Dead One Soul. This soul drops from Rotten in NG+ (bonfire ascetic will do)."Repel"Requires Giant Lord Soul. It's from Giant Lord in the Memory of Jeigh."Lifedrain Patch"This one is a little hard to get, since it requires Darklurker soul. First of all, Darklurker is not a hard boss. This is my way of dealing with Darklurker. It works for me, maybe it will help you too.I went there in NG, lvl 155 melee dex, 2 handing berserkers blade. I had a hunters blackbow and a lot of poison arrows. Also the Ring of Life Protection is useful, since you have to pay humanity for each try.Getting past black phantoms is easy: I drop down, run past two black phantoms into the room, where I have to lit up the fire. Phantoms chase for a while, but then they run back, or get stuck in the coridor.I take them down with poison arrows, kill the ghost, kill other two phantoms with arrows. Jump down to the boss. His attacks are slow and very predictable. The only tricky part is when he splits, but it does not really matter.Don't lock on boss, move the camera around, so you will notice when he is charging ranged attacks. Ranged attacks are slow and easy to dodge. When bombardment is over I run straight to the boss, bait his melee attack. It is also slow and gives a chance to land a couple of good hits. Serioulsy, if they add in game an opportunity to choose between killing Darklurker and traversing Shrine of Amana, I would choose Darklurker any day of week.Once again, I'll talk about the sorceries which is "hard" to get."Heavy Homing Soul Arrow"Requires Ruin Sentinel Soul."Crystal Soul Spear"Soul of Duke's Dear Freja in NG+."Soul Shower" Scorpioness Najka soul."Hidden weapon"Bell Covenant reward. You can get it by invading and killing hosts, but I don't know much about it. There is another option - farm mad warrior in Belfy Sol. You need to kill it 10 times or so. And he drops mad warrior set pieces and berserkers blade. And here is the tip on how to save time farming mad warrior:1) Travel to Belfry Sol2) Join the Bell Covenant3) Clear trash up the ladder4) If there is mad warrior - kill him. Rest at the bonfire, climb up the ladder again. If there is mad warrior - repeat. If no, go to 5.5) Switch game to windowed mode. Open windows task manager (ctrl+shift+esc).6) Find process darksouls2.exe - take a look at the memory it consumes. For example 468MB - that means no mad warrior for you.7) Rest at the bonfire.8) Look at the memory consumption again. if it suddenly jumped for example from 468MB to 488MB - mad warrior spawned. Kill him and go to 6.Not always works, but most of the time. And from now on I call mad warrior "Mr. 28 Megabytes".Once again, only the "hard-to-get" pyromancies."Forbidden Sun"This one is a reward for "assassination" quest given by Royal sorcerer Navlaan. He is sitting behind the fog fall in Aldia's Keep and will give quest only if you are hollow. Basically, you have to bring him 4 items (or only 3, if all you want is to get the spell): Gilligans miniature ladder, Helmet of the Cale the Cartographer, Sunset Staff (you can get it from mimic at the first bonfire in Aldia's keep or from Felkin) and the feather of Emerald Lady. There is no need to kill npcs: Gilligan will sell you ladder, Cale will give you his helmet when you light all the fires (which is required for "Curious Map" achievement anyway) and Sunset Staff drops from that mimic, or Felkin will give it to you if you have enough int and faith (20, I believe)."Great Chaos Fireball"I simply bought it (available from NG++) from Chancellor Wellager (spooky ghost) in Drangelic castle, since I have a character in NG+3. He will sell some spells in NG++.It also can be aquired as a reward for rank 3 in Brotherhood of Blood covenant."Flame weapon"Taded with Straid of Olaphis for Old Witch Soul (NG+ Lost Sinner)"Acid Surge"Traded for Royal Rat Authority soul."Toxic Mist"Traded for Royal Rat Vanguard soul."Hardest" miracles to get are the following:"Soothing Sunlight"It is obtained after you invade Licia of Lindeldt with Crushed Eye orb and kill her. Make sure NOT to do it before you get "Gathering of Exiles" achievement."Bountiful Sunlight"I bought it from spooky ghost in NG+3 (available from NG++). It also can be obtained as a reward for rank 3 in Blue Sentinels covenant."Wrath of the Gods"Bought it in NG+3 as well (available from NG++). It also can be obtained as a reward for rank 2 in Blue Sentinels covenant."Sunlight Spear"Heirs of the Sun Rank 3 covenant reward.

And here we are. The last achievement you'll get automatically.This is it. It was my path to the "Dark Soul" achievement. I hope this will help someone else. Enjoy the game and keep playing. Looking forward to the next DLC.P.S. "Don't give up, skeleton!"