Souls Multithread

2018-08-20 08:59:34 am

Dood Trigger™

Oh nice, I'll go back there and see what the deal was with the bridge. I just saw the warning that it's about to collapse or something, and peaced the hell out of there.

tomatobob

2018-08-20 03:52:42 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

It's a pretty sturdy bridge, I don't think it'll collapse without some help.

Da Dood

2018-08-20 07:27:08 pm

Dood Trigger™

Smouldering Lake, wow. See, this is the kind of thing I felt DS2 was missing... you enter this new area (via secret means already) and a room size worm appears out of nowhere in front of you. That was amazing. I also liked the nod to Demon's Souls with the harpoon machine. Boss was easy.

The Demon Ruins part of the area was cool for all the references to DS1, but I guess it reminded me too much of a Chalice Dungeon with the samey hallways and maze design. I still enjoyed it, though.

That's all I did today. I walked out of there with like 3 extra upgrades for my Zwei, plus a couple of Estus boosts. Irithyll tomorrow.

tomatobob

2018-08-20 07:42:08 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

I don't love the Demon Ruins but there is something oddly satisfying about walking over piles of dead Capra Demons.

ryu

2018-08-21 02:05:54 am

I always do those ruins late game if at all because the demons in the entrance room are incredibly dangerous. Beating them is harder than the area boss...

tomatobob

2018-08-21 02:22:05 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Yeah they suck but I can't resist the call of those sweet Large Shards.

Da Dood

2018-08-21 09:57:23 pm

Dood Trigger™

Doesn't look like I'm done with Irithyll 'cause there's a giant unexplored building in front of me... but I just beat Sulyvahn. This is a really cool area overall. Enemies are tricky but not too obnoxious, and the place looks gorgeous. Boss was great fun too. DMC3 Doppelganger style. I wonder if a second player can take control of the clone here too, hah.

Was the bonfire run to Sulyvahn extremely long or did I miss a shortcut somewhere? I have the lift door open and another one with a couple of invisi-zombies behind it, but neither seems close to a bonfire (unless I'm not understanding the layout of the area).

I also found the Irithyll Dungeon but didn't enter it.

tomatobob

2018-08-21 10:13:32 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Going back towards Irithyll takeing a right from Pontiff's boss room and down the stairs should take you to a gate that's a pretty straight shot from the Church Bonfire.

Also go in the Dungeon.

Da Dood

2018-08-22 11:52:33 am

Dood Trigger™

Am I good to do the dungeon now? Heavy Zwei+5, I think SL75-ish. I'll give it a try anyway.

tomatobob

2018-08-22 03:51:07 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

You're fine. It's about the same difficulty as Irithyll.

Da Dood

2018-08-22 10:26:21 pm

Dood Trigger™

Irithyll really was starting to feel suspiciously like Anor Londo, LOL. I knew that was coming at some point, though. That was one of the things I got accidentally spoiled about DS3. But yeah, Irithyll is one of my favorite areas in the series. The challenge is just right, there's lots to discover, and it looks beautiful. Even the archers were fun to fight 'cause unlike DS1 you face them in these huuuge rooftops with lots of space to run. Aldrich was easy.

I found a hidden room, Water Reserve, with two of those agile tooth-y beasts (they remind me of the Watchdogs from Bloodborne).

Not too sure where to go to continue the main story, unless Irithyll Dungeon is the way forward. Going there next. Tomorrow.

Chunks are pretty rare in this, huh? Only found one so far. My Heavy Zwei is sitting at +5 for a while now. And now everywhere I go the game throws shards at me, large and small, haha.

tomatobob

2018-08-22 11:48:58 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Chunks are pretty rare for a while, yeah. You can trade a Black Firebomb for one. Combined with the Large Shards you'll have found by now you can be at +7.

There's a way to get to an area with a lot of Chunks around this point but it's a secret and you should get there the correct way on your first run imo. If only to sort of understand how it worked. You can get there really early in the game if you're ballsy and good enough to survive the attempt. It's a nice thing for future runs.

tomatobob

2018-08-22 11:55:51 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

For the record you'll get to Chunk Town very soon after you finish up this next branch. That's also about when you'll be ready for the DLC.

tomatobob

Edit history:

tomatobob: 2018-08-23 12:11:57 am

2018-08-23 12:11:09 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Still my proudest Souls moment. That's not NG+.

Da Dood

2018-08-23 07:45:36 am

Dood Trigger™

Hahaha damn, what is going on there? :O

I got a second chunk in the dungeon. Zwei+7 now, yay.

Oh man, Irithyll Dungeon. That was Tower of Latria 2.0 in the best ways. I made mostly the right decisions there, only died once IIRC. The lantern enemies make me nervous, haha. And those creepy babyface things. I killed the giant and approximately 37 mimics. There's a cell I can open with a key I got, but I think I'm more curious about the Profaned Capital now.

ryu

2018-08-23 10:16:15 am

There's lots of keys for that dungeon.

Loved that place on my first playthrough. In subsequent ones it was more of a slog. Latria is still miles better.

tomatobob

2018-08-23 04:49:27 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Da Dood:

Hahaha damn, what is going on there? :O

That's Pontiff getting his ass turned to paste by a +10 Heavy Zweihander backed with 66 STR Lightning Blade on a STR/FTH Build. That 426 at the top there was the first and only clone he summoned iirc getting immediately blown the fuck up. He went down real fast. It was immensely satisfying.

Backstory is Pontiff is the boss that is like a hard counter to me or something. I just can't deal with him at all. So after all the Ringed City dropped and I wrapped that up I did a new playthrough to make a STR/FTH character since that seemed like it would be real good for Ringed City (It is good for the whole game STR/FTH rules in DS3) then I got to Irithyll and decided, like I always do, that I didn't want to fight Pontiff so I went and cleared everything that could be cleared without fighting Pontiff. Which is... damn near everything, actually. Plus the DLC.

Then I came back and crushed him. It was a blast.

Quote from ryu:

Loved that place on my first playthrough. In subsequent ones it was more of a slog.

Weird, I found it much better on later runs. It goes a lot faster.

[quote="Da Dood"]Hahaha damn, what is going on there? :O[/quote]
That's Pontiff getting his ass turned to paste by a +10 Heavy Zweihander backed with 66 STR Lightning Blade on a STR/FTH Build. That 426 at the top there was the first and only clone he summoned iirc getting immediately blown the fuck up. He went down [i]real[/i] fast. It was immensely satisfying.

Backstory is Pontiff is the boss that is like a hard counter to me or something. I just can't deal with him at all. So after all the Ringed City dropped and I wrapped that up I did a new playthrough to make a STR/FTH character since that seemed like it would be real good for Ringed City (It is good for the whole game STR/FTH rules in DS3) then I got to Irithyll and decided, like I always do, that I didn't want to fight Pontiff so I went and cleared everything that could be cleared without fighting Pontiff. Which is... damn near everything, actually. Plus the DLC.

Then I came back and crushed him. It was a blast.

[quote="ryu"]Loved that place on my first playthrough. In subsequent ones it was more of a slog.[/quote]
Weird, I found it much better on later runs. It goes a lot faster.

Da Dood

2018-08-24 07:03:30 am

Dood Trigger™

Okay, finished Dark Souls 3, yay! Credits are rolling as I type this. 27 hours.

It was excellent. I can't think of anything it does particularly wrong... just the linearity of the route that bothers me, as it was with Bloodborne. But it had a lot of inspired moments, and I was always on edge (or at least intrigued). Can't agree with all the complaints about the environments lacking variety... I thought there were enough unique places to see. Maybe too many cathedrals, but even so...

I love how polished the gameplay is. Like, you can tell this is the 3rd (5th?) game in the series, with all the QoL touches and how refined the basic mechanics are. I know I criticize DS2 a lot because they tweaked everything to be a little bit more painful... but I mean, come on, DS3 plays and controls like DS1 and it's fine. You don't need to cut i-frames by 70% and make every room a gauntlet to design a fun videogame.

Another cool thing, which actually makes DS2 more interesting, is how many of that game's key features were simply gone from DS3. Are Bonfire Ascetics a thing in 3? Soul Vessel? Lifegems? Those were such important parts of DS2, it's kinda cool that they remain exclusive to it, or at least not as prominent.

I didn't choose to go to NG+, wanna do all the extra content next. Did I miss too many optional things? I know there's two DLCs, what else? Also, holy moly, is there a Cloranthy Ring in this? My stamina regen wasn't exactly incredible, haha...

Okay, finished Dark Souls 3, yay! Credits are rolling as I type this. 27 hours.

It was excellent. I can't think of anything it does particularly wrong... just the linearity of the route that bothers me, as it was with Bloodborne. But it had a lot of inspired moments, and I was always on edge (or at least intrigued). Can't agree with all the complaints about the environments lacking variety... I thought there were enough unique places to see. Maybe too many cathedrals, but even so...

I love how polished the gameplay is. Like, you can tell this is the 3rd (5th?) game in the series, with all the QoL touches and how refined the basic mechanics are. I know I criticize DS2 a lot because they tweaked everything to be a little bit more painful... but I mean, come on, DS3 plays and controls like DS1 and it's fine. You don't need to cut i-frames by 70% and make every room a gauntlet to design a fun videogame.

Another cool thing, which actually makes DS2 more interesting, is how many of that game's key features were simply gone from DS3. Are Bonfire Ascetics a thing in 3? Soul Vessel? Lifegems? Those were such important parts of DS2, it's kinda cool that they remain exclusive to it, or at least not as prominent.

I didn't choose to go to NG+, wanna do all the extra content next. Did I miss too many optional things? I know there's two DLCs, what else? Also, holy moly, is there a Cloranthy Ring in this? My stamina regen wasn't exactly incredible, haha...

tomatobob

2018-08-24 08:19:50 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Respeccing is a thing in DS3. It's just kind of secret and iirc will give one questline a Bad End if you do it too soon since it involves the invasion covenant.

The Chloranthy Ring is in the Undead Settlement. There's a part that can be accessed by hopping off the elevator up to where the Giant is around halfway down/up. It's down that way.

As for optional stuff, hard to say. There's a lot of stuff tied to quests, but there aren't a ton of totally optional areas. Did you find the Consumed King's Garden? It's opposite the Castle. It leads directly to another optional area and gives you the ability to access another.

At least track down the Chloranthy Ring before heading to the DLC.

And as for the linearity, I can actually explain this now, you can get into Lothric Castle early. If you kill the old lady opposite Vordt's arena the Dancer will spawn and you can get into the Castle. You still can't do the Grand Archives until you've cleared the other major bosses, but the Castle and Garden and optional areas that opens up will be open to you. It's a neat trick Pontiffs don't want you to know about! A real hoot!

I really like DS3's sort of but not really linear structure. The first run takes you along pretty naturally and gives you a sense of what's expected of you, and then later you learn you can kick down the door of Lothric Castle whenever you want and you can Choose Your Own Adventure.

Quote from Da Dood:

I love how polished the gameplay is. Like, you can tell this is the 3rd (5th?) game in the series, with all the QoL touches and how refined the basic mechanics are.

Yeah it feels really good. There are times where if feels like you're not really fast enough for some of the enemies/bosses and that's like my only real gripe with the game. If I was Bloodborne fast I'd probably be able to deal with Pontiff. And I'd have a Bloodborne that actually learned from DS1's mistakes. That'd be swell. DS3 is the best of these games and I don't think it's even close, honestly.

Respeccing is a thing in DS3. It's just kind of secret and iirc will give one questline a Bad End if you do it too soon since it involves the invasion covenant.

The Chloranthy Ring is in the Undead Settlement. There's a part that can be accessed by hopping off the elevator up to where the Giant is around halfway down/up. It's down that way.

As for optional stuff, hard to say. There's a lot of stuff tied to quests, but there aren't a ton of totally optional areas. Did you find the Consumed King's Garden? It's opposite the Castle. It leads directly to another optional area and gives you the ability to access another.

At least track down the Chloranthy Ring before heading to the DLC.

And as for the linearity, I can actually explain this now, you can get into Lothric Castle early. If you kill the old lady opposite Vordt's arena the Dancer will spawn and you can get into the Castle. You still can't do the Grand Archives until you've cleared the other major bosses, but the Castle and Garden and optional areas that opens up will be open to you. It's a neat trick Pontiffs don't want you to know about! A real hoot!

I really like DS3's sort of but not really linear structure. The first run takes you along pretty naturally and gives you a sense of what's expected of you, and then later you learn you can kick down the door of Lothric Castle whenever you want and you can Choose Your Own Adventure.

[quote="Da Dood"]I love how polished the gameplay is. Like, you can tell this is the 3rd (5th?) game in the series, with all the QoL touches and how refined the basic mechanics are. [/quote]
Yeah it feels really good. There are times where if feels like you're not really fast enough for some of the enemies/bosses and that's like my only real gripe with the game. If I was Bloodborne fast I'd probably be able to deal with Pontiff. And I'd have a Bloodborne that actually learned from DS1's mistakes. That'd be swell. DS3 is the best of these games and I don't think it's even close, honestly.

Da Dood

Edit history:

Da Dood: 2018-08-24 09:08:05 am

Da Dood: 2018-08-24 09:07:31 am

2018-08-24 08:59:59 am

Dood Trigger™

I didn't find the Garden, that's awesome. I have Dreg Heap and Painted World open, but didn't explore either. Where's the Ringed City?

Will try to do all non-DLC content later tonight. About optional stuff, I'm not interested in side quests at this point, I just wanna see all the areas and fight all bosses. I'll worry about questlines in NG+ (and only if they give you nice rewards haha).

That's pretty cool about early Lothric Castle. It's like Bloodborne where you can die to the bag dude and visit Not Anor Londo early. Should be useful to get some chunks and maybe other nice loot.

Also, I got a Titanite Slab but I can't remember where exactly. Maybe it was a crystal lizard in the library. But anyway, Heavy Zwei+10 FTW. Any way I can make it even more powerful?

Thanks for all the info!

tomatobob

2018-08-24 04:37:02 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Dreg Heap is part of the Ringed City DLC do that after The Painted World.

The Titanite Slab probably came from killing the four Winged knights on the roof of the Grand Archives. That's the one you're most likely to find just playing the game I think. At this point the only way that Zwei gets stronger is by leveling STR or adding a buff. There are a couple rings around that boost damage conditionally as is tradition.

Quote from Da Dood:

That's pretty cool about early Lothric Castle. It's like Bloodborne where you can die to the bag dude and visit Not Anor Londo early.

I guess, but like if getting there was actually useful and also the area didn't get 1000000% worse when you're meant to go there. :v

Da Dood

Edit history:

Da Dood: 2018-08-24 07:18:28 pm

2018-08-24 06:57:56 pm

Dood Trigger™

I mean, you can find a handful of early chunks there in BB. It's pretty useful going there. Not amazing, but hey.

Oh wow, there was a whole side area where you find Chloranthy. Got Flynn's Ring there as well.

Optional areas done:

Consumed King's Garden -- Could swear I tried that lift before and it said 'contraption does not move'. Oh well. That was an okay area. Kinda tiny, unless I missed a path somewhere. I figured they were gonna use toxic as a main hazard at some point. Luckily I had a ton of moss.

Untended Graves -- So nightmarish! I wish the real Cemetery of Ash had this look. I got a bunch of interesting loot here, including an Aged Feath-- I mean Coil Fragment, more Ashes for the merchant, Chaos Blade and Hornet Ring. I also got a pair of eyes that apparently does something to the Fire Keeper.

Archdragon Peak -- I wouldn't have found this on my own in a billion years, haha. Awesome place. Definitely wasn't expecting the second dragon. I didn't quite finish this area because it was starting to rain (am I scared of losing my PS4 again or what?). I made it to the giant bell that the messages are desperately telling me not to ring. Guess what I'm gonna do.

Will finish Archdragon and do at least one of the DLCs this weekend.

I mean, you can find a handful of early chunks there in BB. It's pretty useful going there. Not amazing, but hey.

Oh wow, there was a whole side area where you find Chloranthy. Got Flynn's Ring there as well.

Optional areas done:

Consumed King's Garden -- Could swear I tried that lift before and it said 'contraption does not move'. Oh well. That was an okay area. Kinda tiny, unless I missed a path somewhere. I figured they were gonna use toxic as a main hazard at some point. Luckily I had a ton of moss.

Untended Graves -- So nightmarish! I wish the real Cemetery of Ash had this look. I got a bunch of interesting loot here, including an Aged Feath-- I mean Coil Fragment, more Ashes for the merchant, Chaos Blade and Hornet Ring. I also got a pair of eyes that apparently does something to the Fire Keeper.

Archdragon Peak -- I wouldn't have found this on my own in a billion years, haha. Awesome place. Definitely wasn't expecting the second dragon. I didn't quite finish this area because it was starting to rain (am I scared of losing my PS4 again or what?). I made it to the giant bell that the messages are desperately telling me not to ring. Guess what I'm gonna do.

Will finish Archdragon and do at least one of the DLCs this weekend.

tomatobob

2018-08-24 07:47:40 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

I'd suggest exploring the area further before ringing the bell. That gets you to the boss fight so you might as well clean up the rest of the area first.

Da Dood

2018-08-25 07:07:06 am

Dood Trigger™

Finished Archdragon Peak.

Nameless King is probably my favorite boss in the game. He's so fair that I didn't mind dying at all. And the fight itself is epic! Overall, Archdragon Peak was amazing. The only big thing I didn't do (that I know of) is kill the second Ancient Wyvern. Honestly don't know how to approach that, because almost every other dragon in the game had a gimmick to it, but I haven't tried anything yet.

Starting Painted World soon.

tomatobob

2018-08-25 04:04:07 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

The second one I usually just lure down and shoot from just outside the door near the bottom of that area, there's a sweet spot there where he'll stay down and try to attack but can't actually hit you.