The crow will accept a highly specific trade for the Providential Ring
Demon’s Souls fans have cracked the case of the Providential Ring. If you missed getting one, there’s an alternate way to obtain the item beyond choosing it as your one-time-only starting gift. If you’re way too deep in the New Game+ cycle, don’t worry – you won’t have to roll a new character after all.
Not only is the Providential Ring inherently useful – it raises your item discovery, which is helpful for farming – it’s also needed for the King of Rings trophy. Without it, you’re not getting that platinum.
I was fortunate enough to select it after weighing the other gifts, but if you didn’t know better or you (understandably) assumed the ring could be earned another way, the community has come through.
As miraculously discovered by Reddit user Hawthorne64, the Providential Ring can be earned in a not-so-simple trade with Sparkly the Crow in level 4-1. You’ll need to upgrade a Scimitar (there’s one in level 1-1) to a Scimitar+8 with Blacksmith Ed, turn it into a Large Sword of Searching using the Hero Demon’s Soul (from the Old Hero boss), and then trade it with the crow in the Shrine of Storms.
That’s the deviously tricky bit: there are several ways to create the Large Sword of Searching with Blacksmith Ed, but as other players have confirmed, this trade will only work if you upgraded the Scimitar. There may be other unknown conditions, but so far, the early reports look pretty convincing. This also explains why, despite its best efforts, the community was only now able to find a solution.
As someone who got all the way to New Game+2 and seriously considered starting over solely for the “all rings” trophy (long story short, I made some very bad calls in pursuit of the Friend’s Ring and Foe’s Ring), this is heartening news. I can sympathize with anyone who put a ton of energy into their character only to have to start anew because of one small step they messed up before beginning the game proper. Thankfully, at least in the case of the Providential Ring, there’s now a backup plan.
How to Obtain the Providential Ring [Reddit]
