Souls Multithread

2014-04-30 07:47:57 pm

NG+ in dark souls 2 is awesome. i obtained some good and cool stuff near the end of the game, so i'm actually getting to make good use of my new equip and spells. NG+ has actually been easier than my regular run so far.

i went straight to tower of flame and went on to do the section that leads to iron keep first. on the way there i found a fragrant branch of yore pretty early on and checked out shrine of winter, but didn't get through. apparently the soul memory counter for that place resets when you go into NG+ which is a bit of a bummer.

Da Dood

2014-04-30 09:08:59 pm

Dood Trigger™

As far as I know, the Shrine of Winter soul memory counter adds 1M per playthrough, and you must collect that amount in THAT playthrough, so no stacking allowed. For NG it's 1M, NG+ 2M, etc.

Agreed on NG+. How was your Lost Sinner fight?

ryu

2014-04-30 09:16:28 pm

haven't been there yet. i can't wait to refight those damn gargoyles, i feel like i can wreck them on my first try now that i have a decent amount of faith and the great lightning spear spell

Da Dood

2014-05-01 10:04:05 am

Dood Trigger™

I think my DkS2 OP file is screwed. I'm at 400K souls with most enemies dead. I haven't been getting any summons lately, and maybe the soul memory has something to do with it. I'm at a fairly high level + souls for the game's early areas, and not even in the Black Gulch people are touching the sign.

ryu

2014-05-01 04:33:32 pm

supposedly online matchmaking is screwed because of soul memory

Da Dood

2014-05-01 05:48:57 pm

Dood Trigger™

Yeah, I imagined. :\ Oh well, I'm not deleting the file, maybe they'll fix it some time.

Also, here's a SL1 playthrough of Dark Souls on NG+7.

Holy shit.

ryu

Edit history:

ryu: 2014-05-01 08:45:59 pm

2014-05-01 08:39:12 pm

sounds tough. i'll probably watch that once i'm done with dks2.

just beat the forest, wharf and bastille. lost sinner was incredibly easy with just lucatiel around, she just tanked the boss while i killed those pyromancers (who never even hit me) in like 3 hits each. didn't the patch notes say they made the lost sinner itself slower? because that might have been a hefty nerf, since the boss' animations didn't feel particularly fast to me.

and the flame weapon pyromancy i just obtained is... super interesting. ng++ difficulty freja might turn out even easier than ng+ freja if i'm lucky

Idkbutlike2

2014-05-02 07:53:03 pm

Well, looks like a sequel/successor to Demon's Souls might be coming out on the PS4. The working title right now is Project Beast, but judging by the screenshots, it's clearly a Souls game. Hopefully they put out some more info about it at E3.

ryu

2014-05-02 08:29:11 pm

i can't wait to play that in 5 years or so .)

Idkbutlike2

2014-05-02 08:31:52 pm

Well, considering SCEJ is helping out with its development...

Da Dood

Edit history:

Da Dood: 2014-05-02 09:37:06 pm

2014-05-02 09:35:05 pm

Dood Trigger™

I probably won't have a PS4 in the next couple years anyway. I hope they make it different enough from Dark Souls without sacrificing the old-school experience.

Speaking of, I started an SL1 melee playthrough in DeS, got about 60% through.

I've done SL1 before and it's fairly simple in this game. The weapons you can equip aren't that bad in normal play to begin with, like the Crescent Falchion. And hypermode is the best damage source anyway. Killed the 3-2 boss with no damage taken (died once, though). Not having Second Chance is scary, but hypermode is too great to pass.

My goal is to (maybe, possibly, if I have the patience) take an SL1 character all the way to NG+7 one day. But for now, I'm okay with just beating NG again. Will finish tomorrow.

Another challenge I'd like to try is a health regen miracle build with no consumables allowed. Shouldn't be that difficult, but it sounds pretty interesting having to visit W5 on PBWT early on for Blessed upgrades, and not being able to heal with grass.

I probably won't have a PS4 in the next couple years anyway. I hope they make it different enough from Dark Souls without sacrificing the old-school experience.

Speaking of, I started an SL1 melee playthrough in DeS, got about 60% through.

I've done SL1 before and it's fairly simple in this game. The weapons you can equip aren't that bad in normal play to begin with, like the Crescent Falchion. And hypermode is the best damage source anyway. Killed the 3-2 boss with no damage taken (died once, though). Not having Second Chance is scary, but hypermode is too great to pass.

My goal is to (maybe, possibly, if I have the patience) take an SL1 character all the way to NG+7 one day. But for now, I'm okay with just beating NG again. Will finish tomorrow.

Another challenge I'd like to try is a health regen miracle build with no consumables allowed. Shouldn't be that difficult, but it sounds pretty interesting having to visit W5 on PBWT early on for Blessed upgrades, and not being able to heal with grass.

ryu

Edit history:

ryu: 2014-05-03 10:14:25 am

2014-05-03 10:14:15 am

Quote:

I probably won't have a PS4 in the next couple years anyway.

dito

Quote:

ancient dragon fight. never again.

fuck the police. i just beat the thing in ng+ on my second try. you can actually run past all the enemies fairly easily.
also, the boss fight hardly lasts any longer on ng+. i didn't even use the red tearstone ring and the fight took me about as long as it did on the first playthrough.

ryu

2014-05-03 10:22:59 am

good job beating 3-2 under those circumstances. i imagine that boss to be a nightmare at sl1

Da Dood

2014-05-03 10:29:30 am

Dood Trigger™

Nice. The reason I didn't fight Ancient Dragon in NG+ is because I was too lazy to learn how to dodge the enemies. Good to know it's fairly easy (I've seen speed runners do it but I imagined it was a super tricky deal). I don't bother with RTSR in Souls 2. 20% damage boost compared to 50% in the first game... :\ No idea why they would nerf something that requires insane skill to be useful.

99% done with SL1. Only Crappy Blob Allant left, which should barely count as 1%. You're right ryu, Maneaters were quite difficult. I was high on hypermode though, I think you can take a few hits with full health. Hardest fight was False King Allant, but that's also the best fight in the game so I didn't mind dying. That feeling when you beat that guy with no damage taken...!

Unlike my previous SL1, now I'm setting up for NG+s, so the run has been a lot of fun (and also grindy). I made 3 or 4 almost fully upgraded weapons, plus Morion Blade and Lava Bow. Weapon of choice so far is a Moon Falchion+5. I lucked out with a Pure Moonlightstone drop from the last lizard before the boss. This weapon deals just a bit more damage than a fully upgraded Crescent Falchion, but no MP regen.

Turns out that you can cast Second Chance on SL1, with a combination of rings and gear that boost MP/spell slots. Love this flexibility. It is kind of a pain to equip and unequip like 5 items every time I want to cast, but hey, no one asked me to play SL1. Haven't got a chance to use it, all bosses were dead. Will do in NG+.

Nice. The reason I didn't fight Ancient Dragon in NG+ is because I was too lazy to learn how to dodge the enemies. Good to know it's fairly easy (I've seen speed runners do it but I imagined it was a super tricky deal). I don't bother with RTSR in Souls 2. 20% damage boost compared to 50% in the first game... :\ No idea why they would nerf something that requires insane skill to be useful.

99% done with SL1. Only Crappy Blob Allant left, which should barely count as 1%. You're right ryu, Maneaters were quite difficult. I was high on hypermode though, I think you can take a few hits with full health. Hardest fight was False King Allant, but that's also the best fight in the game so I didn't mind dying. That feeling when you beat that guy with no damage taken...!

Unlike my previous SL1, now I'm setting up for NG+s, so the run has been a lot of fun (and also grindy). I made 3 or 4 almost fully upgraded weapons, plus Morion Blade and Lava Bow. Weapon of choice so far is a Moon Falchion+5. I lucked out with a Pure Moonlightstone drop from the last lizard before the boss. This weapon deals just a bit more damage than a fully upgraded Crescent Falchion, but no MP regen.

Turns out that you can cast Second Chance on SL1, with a combination of rings and gear that boost MP/spell slots. Love this flexibility. It is kind of a pain to equip and unequip like 5 items every time I want to cast, but hey, no one asked me to play SL1. Haven't got a chance to use it, all bosses were dead. Will do in NG+.

ryu

Edit history:

ryu: 2014-05-03 10:52:50 am

2014-05-03 10:52:15 am

Quote:

(I've seen speed runners do it but I imagined it was a super tricky deal)

i was surprised by how easy it is myself. >_> maybe i was just lucky though, since i only had to speedrun the first area twice, and the part after the door once. one of those guys wielding ultra greatswords got me on my first attempt, but i went there at low HP for the RTSR so even if you screw up you should be able tot ank a hit at full health, even while naked.

Quote:

Turns out that you can cast Second Chance on SL1

that's awesome and will probably be quite handy to have in ng+

Da Dood

2014-05-03 10:55:59 am

Dood Trigger™

Let me know how Darklurker was in NG+!

ryu

2014-05-03 11:32:09 am

i'm not even going to fight that guy. i'd like to, but the fuck the prerequirements

ryu

Edit history:

ryu: 2014-05-03 11:47:25 am

2014-05-03 11:47:15 am

although... i'll probably be done witht he game pretty early today, so maybe i'll try it anyways. seems like i'll be having some spare time after all

the quests just so damn annoying, having to go through the abyss and meeting that guy at every location twice...

Da Dood

2014-05-03 12:41:49 pm

Dood Trigger™

Agreed. Such a pain. I might try again just once more to see what's he like in NG+, but... eh. At least now I have a ton of effigies and ascetics.

ryu

Edit history:

ryu: 2014-05-03 01:18:12 pm

2014-05-03 01:17:27 pm

died two times in the first chasm i entered (black gulch) and gave up. it's tough fighting through a bunch of phantom enemies, as expected, but doable. i just hate traversing the black gulch. it's super annoying and you can't even safely rush down to the ledge because you're likely to just fall past it (just happened to me)

how are ascetics related to the darklurker quest?

Da Dood

2014-05-03 01:34:49 pm

Dood Trigger™

Ascetics are an easy way to farm effigies @ Majula. The skeleton in the house basement respawns with more buddies every NG+, and they're all guaranteed effigy drops. The Darklurker enemies drop ascetics at a fair rate, so it works out pretty well. Just something in case I run out of effigies for the Darklurker quest.

ryu

2014-05-03 01:52:33 pm

oh, yeah. i still got like 48 effigies so i think it's unlikely that i'd have to farm them for the darklurker quest.

just soloed the final boss, only took me two tries. the boss seems to be so simple it hurts. :/

after she summoned her orbs, just bait her with ranged attacks. she'll follow you outside of her orbs' range where you can engage her in melee combat without having to worry about the health drain. just gotta dodge her physical attacks and the laser probably can't hit you at all at close range

that's it. i'm going to quit here and not advance to the next ng level, just in case they'll eventually release dlc content which i'd probabyl want to play through with my current character.

Da Dood

2014-05-03 06:19:40 pm

Dood Trigger™

Damn... I feel so bad for using NPCs vs. Nashandra, haha. Everyone keeps talking about how easy she is. I'll try a solo fight one of these days.

Things I learned doing DeS SL1 NG+:

1. I. Hate. Dogs. Seriously, 2-1 is a whole new place with those fast OHKOin' little jerks. Took me 20 minutes to pull the first lever. On the plus side: improv'd a cool strategy for them later in the area. Normally I'd skip the whole water switch by rolling on the lava, but of course, that's not possible in SL1. So I cheesed the flame lizards with arrows, and from up there still, I barely aimed at the dogs through the floor/railing gaps for sweet OHKO revenge.

2. THANK YOU JESUS (Urbain) for your glorious miracle. Namely Second Chance. Yeah, it's a hassle switching stuff around and juggling miracle slots just to cast one thing once. But oh man, that effort was the difference between my life and Flamelurker's. I took a dumb hit near the end of the fight, which would have been my doom if not for SC.

Another cool thing about this particular fight: because my normal damage isn't great vs. that boss, I had to re-enter hypermode after taking the hit. So I walked around on the lava until my health was low enough. That felt pretty badass. :)

3. I don't keep 100 arrows on me anymore. Now it's 300!

I'm a bit halfway through, 9 stages done out of 16.

Damn... I feel so bad for using NPCs vs. Nashandra, haha. Everyone keeps talking about how easy she is. I'll try a solo fight one of these days.

Things I learned doing DeS SL1 NG+:

1. I. Hate. Dogs. Seriously, 2-1 is a whole new place with those fast OHKOin' little jerks. Took me 20 minutes to pull the first lever. On the plus side: improv'd a cool strategy for them later in the area. Normally I'd skip the whole water switch by rolling on the lava, but of course, that's not possible in SL1. So I cheesed the flame lizards with arrows, and from up there still, I barely aimed at the dogs through the floor/railing gaps for sweet OHKO revenge.

2. THANK YOU JESUS (Urbain) for your glorious miracle. Namely Second Chance. Yeah, it's a hassle switching stuff around and juggling miracle slots just to cast one thing once. But oh man, that effort was the difference between my life and Flamelurker's. I took a dumb hit near the end of the fight, which would have been my doom if not for SC.

Another cool thing about this particular fight: because my normal damage isn't great vs. that boss, I had to re-enter hypermode after taking the hit. So I walked around on the lava until my health was low enough. That felt pretty badass. :)

3. I don't keep 100 arrows on me anymore. Now it's 300!

I'm a bit halfway through, 9 stages done out of 16.

ryu

2014-05-03 06:43:27 pm

oh man, those dogs. i had my problems with them myself when i first got there.

Da Dood

2014-05-04 10:31:24 am

Dood Trigger™

And it's done. Made it to NG++.

I can't think of anything I've done in a Souls game that was harder than this. It was REALLY fun, though. I loved figuring out the best strategy for each level. Suddenly a dumb hollow enemy is the worst threat imaginable.

I had to kill all 5 named BPs for higher character tendency (recovering from PBCT), and will have to do it again next time for PWCT. That was the first time I fought them with a non-OP weapon, and they weren't as impossible as I imagined, mostly:

- Miralda can be stunlocked easily with Moon Falchion. With my low stamina, I'd hit her 2-3 times and get away to recover.
- For Scirvir, I hid near the ledge and poked him with arrows. He would walk a bit forward, but wouldn't aggro fully with Thief's Ring, so I ran up and backstabbed as he was returning to default position.
- Rydell is no big deal. You can stunlock him before he readies his weapon, and in Latria balconies he always opens with simple attacks.
- Satsuki was a LOT of fun to figure out. He's fast, relentless, and you barely have time to set up 'cause he has a freaking eagle's eye. I would bait one of his attacks and sneak one hit. Having hypermode here was important because he tries to heal several times.
- Selen was sort of weird. I don't think she's all that tough, but I feel that I lucked out in the last couple hits. We'll see how this goes next time. If I use range, she shouldn't be an issue.

So far, I have not allowed myself to use any (offense) sorcery, and I feel like I've gone through the worst of the challenge by hand (literally). Difficulty increase beyond NG+ in DeS isn't too drastic, and my melee strategies would be the same. Everything is already OHKOing me, anyway, the only difference is having to connect a few more hits myself.

Sure felt horrible looking at the spell list during the hardest times, knowing I could be destroying enemies with Soul Ray. So I'm planning the next run as a sort of reward/relief playthrough. Should be fun.

And it's done. Made it to NG++.

I can't think of anything I've done in a Souls game that was harder than this. It was REALLY fun, though. I loved figuring out the best strategy for each level. Suddenly a dumb hollow enemy is the worst threat imaginable.

I had to kill all 5 named BPs for higher character tendency (recovering from PBCT), and will have to do it again next time for PWCT. That was the first time I fought them with a non-OP weapon, and they weren't as impossible as I imagined, mostly:
[hidden]- Miralda can be stunlocked easily with Moon Falchion. With my low stamina, I'd hit her 2-3 times and get away to recover.
- For Scirvir, I hid near the ledge and poked him with arrows. He would walk a bit forward, but wouldn't aggro fully with Thief's Ring, so I ran up and backstabbed as he was returning to default position.
- Rydell is no big deal. You can stunlock him before he readies his weapon, and in Latria balconies he always opens with simple attacks.
- Satsuki was a LOT of fun to figure out. He's fast, relentless, and you barely have time to set up 'cause he has a freaking eagle's eye. I would bait one of his attacks and sneak one hit. Having hypermode here was important because he tries to heal several times.
- Selen was sort of weird. I don't think she's all that tough, but I feel that I lucked out in the last couple hits. We'll see how this goes next time. If I use range, she shouldn't be an issue.[/hidden]

So far, I have not allowed myself to use any (offense) sorcery, and I feel like I've gone through the worst of the challenge by hand (literally). Difficulty increase beyond NG+ in DeS isn't too drastic, and my melee strategies would be the same. Everything is already OHKOing me, anyway, the only difference is having to connect a few more hits myself.

Sure felt horrible looking at the spell list during the hardest times, knowing I could be destroying enemies with Soul Ray. So I'm planning the next run as a sort of reward/relief playthrough. Should be fun.