Dark Souls 2 (should I bother?)

[druss]

Pretty though! (Yeah, I didn't really notice the prettiness on my first run either...)

[Noodle Lizard]

Pretty though! (Yeah, I didn't really notice the prettiness on my first run either...)

It reminds me a bit of Fountainhead Palace in Sekiro, but with absolutely no way of simply stealthing your way through. I had to resort to slowly killing off the mages with a bow, finally got the boss although wait the mist wall isn't a boss it's another area with a massive gank squad waiting for you.

Put it down for the night. I actually went back to Iron Keep and nailed Smelter Demon. About half the enemies had despawned though!

[druss]

It reminds me a bit of Fountainhead Palace in Sekiro, but with absolutely no way of simply stealthing your way through. I had to resort to slowly killing off the mages with a bow, finally got the boss although wait the mist wall isn't a boss it's another area with a massive gank squad waiting for you.

Now imagine not being able to shoot them with the bow and with the magic missiles being faster with better tracking. Utter nightmare.

I remember the bit you're at now, it is daunting but it's basically just that bit and you're at the boss, you've done the hardest bit now.

Nice one on smelter.

[Thursday]

It's a real shame because the atmosphere of the place is wonderful. Actually getting through it. Ugh.

[Schlippy]

That last bonfire in Shrine of Amana (the one after "that bit") is the first location you can effectively farm twinkling titanite if you have any weapons that require it. It's also trés satisfying to repeatedly clatter the archdrakes & priestesses, who are now all facing the wrong way after you've made it through the gauntlet once.

[Harpo Speaks]

Limmy has just started playing this.

[druss]

Limmy has just started playing this.

I remember him saying he had played it before but didn't like it so can't see this lasting.

[Noodle Lizard]

Alright, I made it through the Shrine of Bollocks and luckily got the boss on the first try. Never again. I got through the crypt easily enough and killed Vestaldt, found the King wandering about and then I wasn't sure what to do so I consulted The Internet.

Turns out I'd missed a whole area with Aldia's Keep and Farum Azula Dragon Aerie, so I went and did that and ruined all my equipment at least once. Either way, got some Ashen Mist thing that allowed me to go into the Giant's dreams so I did that. That's about where I left it. Oh, and I switched out my mace for a Craftsman's Hammer which is lovely.

I don't think I've gone into any of the DLCs yet, nor am I sure what order I should be doing everything in now since it feels as though endgame is approaching. I am consulting you, my Internet.

[oggyraiding]

You get something from one of the giants' dreams that opens the door to the final bosses.

The DLCs you need to get a specific key for each one, then take the key to the respective DLC entry points. I think poison DLC is accessed from the room after The Rotten, fire DLC after Old Iron King, and snow DLC the Shrine Of Winter you go through to get from Shaded Woods to Drangleic Castle. I don't remember where the keys are though.

The DLC release order was poison land, fire land, snow land. Personally I found snow one the easiest and poison the hardest with its fucking horrible optional boss battle that could well be the worst in the series.

[druss]

The DLC release order was poison land, fire land, snow land. Personally I found snow one the easiest and poison the hardest with its fucking horrible optional boss battle that could well be the worst in the series.

Did you do the optional snow area boss? That was the worst for me but mainly due to the boss run being stinking discharge.

Alright, I made it through the Shrine of Bollocks and luckily got the boss on the first try. Never again. I got through the crypt easily enough and killed Vestaldt, found the King wandering about and then I wasn't sure what to do so I consulted The Internet.

Turns out I'd missed a whole area with Aldia's Keep and Farum Azula Dragon Aerie, so I went and did that and ruined all my equipment at least once. Either way, got some Ashen Mist thing that allowed me to go into the Giant's dreams so I did that. That's about where I left it. Oh, and I switched out my mace for a Craftsman's Hammer which is lovely.

I don't think I've gone into any of the DLCs yet, nor am I sure what order I should be doing everything in now since it feels as though endgame is approaching. I am consulting you, my Internet.

You can't get to Aldia's keep without getting to Vendrick first so you've done it in the right order. You are pretty much at the end game now after you beat Giant Lord in one of the memories (if he seems familiar, he is!). I'd recommend doing some dark diving if you like the abyss stuff though if you never did artorias DLC from DS1 it might not seem as cool. Other than that it's time for DLC! Keys are a bit of a pain to obtain, poison dlc you get the key from a previously locked door in the gutter. You need the forgotten key to open this door which you get from doing a jump in Black Gulch to a secret area where you kill a few giants (keep their souls, makes Vendrick easier/less tedious if you have five of them).

Key to fire DLC is in Forest of the fallen giants where all the fire lizards are. You should have enough hp to safely jump down there if you don't have the key from the iron keep (just buy the cat ring from Sweet Shalquois in majula if you're struggling).

Key to shrine of winter I couldnt remember but is apparently " it is in Drangleic Castle, after the first bonfire, located past the first rightmost door in the ruin sentinels' room. The key can be found in a corpse on the room before going upstairs.".

Have you ended up enjoying it more than DS1? I think I recall you saying you bounced off that a few times. DLC is the best part imo, particularly fire and ice areas (I look forward to your adventures with Maldron).

[Noodle Lizard]

Have you ended up enjoying it more than DS1? I think I recall you saying you bounced off that a few times. DLC is the best part imo, particularly fire and ice areas (I look forward to your adventures with Maldron).

I suppose I have, since across all 5 attempts at DS1 I never even made it to Anor Londo! I don't know what it is about that game, I always want to like it a lot more than I do, but it's very difficult for me to devote time to an experience I'm not enjoying, and the consensus seems to be that it peaks early and is all downhill from the midpoint on.

DS2 has plenty of janks and frustrations, and I'm not sure the combat is really all that much better than DS1, but for some reason I've been able to stick with it and am pretty confident I'll end up doing it all. Not sure I'll do it again in a hurry, but still.

[Noodle Lizard]

DLC is shagging my arse.

[druss]

DLC is shagging my arse.

Sunken king? Whereabouts you at? Stone ring works well on the general enemies who are otherwise very difficult to stagger. There's also a trick to the ghostly enemies if you've got that far.

Did you ever find the great sword by the way? That's the closest to easy mode and was the first thing I cleared the game with.

[The F Bomb]

I bounced off that first DLC after really loving the base game. Took me til the second one was released and a couple of respecs to get into it, and then I hammered the second and third and mostly loved them. Fume Knight and Blue Smelter were pretty frustrating but otherwise, I had a blast.

[druss]

Fume Knight is hard but ended up being one of my favourite bosses.

[Noodle Lizard]

I got to the ghosts in Sunken King, figured out the trick and they proceeded to shag my arse anyway. If there's a shortcut back from the first bonfire, I haven't activated it yet.

I switched over to Old Iron King and found the blue Smelter Demon. Gave him one try, saw the runback and called it a day. Then I found the Fume Knight, who is currently in possession of my arse after four or five tries. I'll come back to him tomorrow, after possibly rethinking my build.

[AliasTheCat]

I never played the DLCs but my impression was that the Fume Knight is by far the hardest boss in DS2. Noah Gervais did a good video retrospective of the series, and he got stuck on that boss for eight hours, though I think that's definitely the exception.

[druss]

I think coming from Elden Ring will actually help with the Fume Knight. He is one of the first hard bosses in the series that uses a lot of delays on his attacks which punishes early dodges, similar to a lot of Elden Rong bosses. I believe that one hand is delayed and the other hand is not delayed. Not too tricky once the timing is down and it's not like Malenia where one mistake means death.

[druss]

I got to the ghosts in Sunken King, figured out the trick and they proceeded to shag my arse anyway. If there's a shortcut back from the first bonfire, I haven't activated it yet.

I switched over to Old Iron King and found the blue Smelter Demon. Gave him one try, saw the runback and called it a day. Then I found the Fume Knight, who is currently in possession of my arse after four or five tries. I'll come back to him tomorrow, after possibly rethinking my build.

Are you using a shield? DS2 is the only game in the series where a no shield run feels less like a challenge run and more like the optimal way to beat the game. Power stancing two weapons or two handing a big fuck off weapon is the way to go.

[Noodle Lizard]

I think coming from Elden Ring will actually help with the Fume Knight. He is one of the first hard bosses in the series that uses a lot of delays on his attacks which punishes early dodges, similar to a lot of Elden Rong bosses. I believe that one hand is delayed and the other hand is not delayed. Not too tricky once the timing is down and it's not like Malenia where one mistake means death.

If I had my Elden Ring character, he'd go down quicker than a Godrick soldier!

He's not too hard mechanically, he just hits extremely hard and won't let you get a heal off. I'll have to figure out my stamina management too, despite having fairly high endurance.

[Noodle Lizard]

Ok: Fume Knight, Sir Alonne and Aava the Lion down. Onto King Ivory and his gank squad.

[druss]

Ok: Fume Knight, Sir Alonne and Aava the Lion down. Onto King Ivory and his gank squad.

You have missed a secret boss in third DLC. It is a really fun area.

Also FYI, even people doing challenge runs take enough knights with them to ivory king so that the final fight is a duel (from memory I think that 3 is the magic number).

Did you run into my mate Maldron the Assasin? Did you prefer Sir Alonne or Fume as a boss fight?

[Noodle Lizard]

You have missed a secret boss in third DLC. It is a really fun area.

Also FYI, even people doing challenge runs take enough knights with them to ivory king so that the final fight is a duel (from memory I think that 3 is the magic number).

Did you run into my mate Maldron the Assasin? Did you prefer Sir Alonne or Fume as a boss fight?

I've heard of the Frigid Outskirts. I have heard it's not even worth investigating. Running around the "new areas" of the castle retrieving Loyce Knights was quite enough.

Was Maldron the invader who pops up out of nowhere? Yes, I ran into him, and I killed him for being a dick.

If Sir Alonne hit harder, he might have been tougher than Fume Knight. As it is, I managed to get him on the 4th try (although the first try didn't really count since I was more or less out of heals after that tedious run-up). I like Fume Knight better because he was a solid challenge, but Alonne's good too.

[druss]

I've heard of the Frigid Outskirts. I have heard it's not even worth investigating. Running around the "new areas" of the castle retrieving Loyce Knights was quite enough.

Was Maldron the invader who pops up out of nowhere? Yes, I ran into him, and I killed him for being a dick.

If Sir Alonne hit harder, he might have been tougher than Fume Knight. As it is, I managed to get him on the 4th try (although the first try didn't really count since I was more or less out of heals after that tedious run-up). I like Fume Knight better because he was a solid challenge, but Alonne's good too.

Yeah I prefer Fume Knight. No awful run up too, which always helps.

Frigid Outskirts is worth at least checking out to see the progress they've made since as they do a similar thing in Elden Ring but better. If it wasn't for one specific enemy that shows up I think it would be an interesting area, they just fucked it with one obnoxious enemy that totally ruins it.

Maldron is the guy in Brume Tower who runs down into enemies when you damage him. He basically acts like a human player and it's a shame they've gotten a bit lazy with npc invaders since the DS2 dlc.

[Noodle Lizard]

Maldron is the guy in Brume Tower who runs down into enemies when you damage him. He basically acts like a human player and it's a shame they've gotten a bit lazy with npc invaders since the DS2 dlc.

Oh, there was a fellow like that in Eleum Loyce for me, luring me into ganks along the way to one of the Loyce Knights. Right little prick. I died to those Sonic things in the caves and haven't found him again.

[Noodle Lizard]

Alright, that's Old Burnt King taken care of. I died more to his gank intro than to the king himself, but it was a decent challenge.

I accidentally finished the main game too whilst searching for the final Sublime Bone Dust. Three bosses in one arena, but at least you don't have to do them all in one go like Radagon/Elden Beast. I died once to each of them, and then I sat on a throne and credits rolled.

Still got a couple of bosses to find in the main game, and I suppose I'd better go back and do that other DLC.

[druss]

Oh, there was a fellow like that in Eleum Loyce for me, luring me into ganks along the way to one of the Loyce Knights. Right little prick. I died to those Sonic things in the caves and haven't found him again.

Yeah he pops up in Eleum Loyce, a right prick indeed.

Alright, that's Old Burnt King taken care of. I died more to his gank intro than to the king himself, but it was a decent challenge.

I accidentally finished the main game too whilst searching for the final Sublime Bone Dust. Three bosses in one arena, but at least you don't have to do them all in one go like Radagon/Elden Beast. I died once to each of them, and then I sat on a throne and credits rolled.

Still got a couple of bosses to find in the main game, and I suppose I'd better go back and do that other DLC.

Good stuff! Burnt Ivory King is one of my favourite boss fights, it's not one of the hardest but for pure spectacle it's hard to top (I love Rykard for similar reasons).

[Noodle Lizard]

Good stuff! Burnt Ivory King is one of my favourite boss fights, it's not one of the hardest but for pure spectacle it's hard to top (I love Rykard for similar reasons).

I found it hard! Probably took me as many times as Fume Knight, but only because my ideal build for the gank was rubbish against Mr. King. Took me a minute to realise I had enough time to change my loadout while he minces into the arena.

While I didn't care for the gank, the cinema of it all was cool and I wish they'd do a bit more of that. The drop in to the arena with your little mates is a top-tier Souls moment.

[madhair60]

what the fuck does "gank" mean? i have googled and am none the wiser.

[Schlippy]

Contraction of "gang kill" originally I believe, these days it means to beat someone using an unfair advantage of numbers, strength or surprise. Comes from MMOs I think.