Dark Souls

[LazyBoy]

If I'm replaying it now I always just do the blightown skip - too much of a headache that area.

[Julius]

Made some decent progress yesterday. 

Took my first steps through the door down to Blighttown, and the change in colour palette to blacks and greens immediately filled me a good bit of dread (though not quite as bad as the Tower of Latria in Demon's Souls). Made my way down the ladder, and as I start crossing this wooden bridge an ogre runs over to me, so I just circle him a fair bit and get off a few backstabs. Not too bad a start. Continue forward, the next one comes over, and as it charges up its first attack - the walking overhead swing - I got stuck on something, blocked its attack, but then plummeted to my death. 

Made my way back over, and this time figured that, as these guys move pretty slowly, I'll try and parry. They hit me a couple of times, but after a short while, I was pretty dependably able to parry all of their attacks, and just had to keep an eye on the poison gauge. I had over 8k souls before coming down here, and after beating a few of them and retrieving my souls was at over 10k, so made my way back to the bonfire and used a good chunk of it to level up, as I figured it would give me more chance to practice parrying and also because I can zone in a bit better when there are fewer souls on the line. 

So, made my way back on over, parried the attacks from the ogres, and then these right freakos come running out of the shadows - they looked a bit like the Depraved Ones from Demon's Souls, but...freakier. Took them out and then dealt with this guy who blew toxic darts, followed the path around by him and rolled down to find some armour. It really isn't fun traversing narrow beams and bridges in the dark, especially with how ladders seem to have a habit around here of blending into their surroundings. Anyway, I must have aggro'd some of them as I heard them smashing pots and falling to their dooms all around me, and I couldn't see any of them. Made it over to this concrete area on the other side when I got caught between two of them and got killed, the way they jump on and bite away at you is pretty disturbing stuff. I then got back to the same place - woo! - and died again - haha - as some guy in the distance blew toxic darts at me while these freaky, furless fire pups chased me around along with some of those freakos I mentioned before, and this just as I was about to consume some Estus. 

I made it back to the same spot and then made it much, much further than I did before, looping around Blighttown, seeing this freaky wall creature off in the distance (and naturally opting to not head in that direction), getting better at reading the freakos (this is their name now ) - either by parrying them, reading their lunge when they try to snack on you so that I can move to the side and they fall off, or (sometimes precariously) moving around them as they attacked for a good old backstab and kick off the ledge - and just taking it nice and slow. Eventually I managed to get behind the wall creature (there was a hole behind it), but I couldn't see its health bar or if I was doing damage, so I just whacked it for a minute and it eventually died. At this point I was on a slither of health (less than a bar) and out of Estus, mainly searching for a bonfire, but I carried on. Came across an ogre, who I managed to parry and riposte, before a freako turned up, and I made decent work of him too. Eventually I got close to the bottom, see some of these giant fire-breathing mosquito things (I'm guessing mosquitoes because there are also actual mosquito-looking things down there too), and pull out my Heavy Crossbow and Heavy Bolts I'd picked up before, as a nearby note said to try ranged attacks...but I was too far away. I went down there, drew it out, and the Heavy Bolts weren't that effective, so I carefully made my way around it as it whipped some fire around and cut it up from behind. Ditto for the next one. And then, naturally, one of those toxic dart guys got me. Hate those dudes. I did come across something on this attempt which gave me a chuckle though, a freako falling endlessly into...the corner 

Well, the next time? I went a slightly different route when I made it to the concrete side...and immediately found a bonfire. Go figure! I then continued to make my way down, retrieved my souls, slowly dealt with a whole bunch of those giant fire-breathing mosquitoes, and I had made it to the bottom! I could see a white land mass on the opposite side of the lake, with some items strewn about in-between, but I headed immediately right, as I figured I could circle my way around the lake and try picking up the items without setting a foot in the swamp. Well, I was wrong, and got poisoned pretty quickly, but thankfully - as had been the case up to this point too - I had a lot of Purple Moss Clumps to hand from my time in Darkroot Garden, and so I was fine. Eventually I came to a small cave, and found a bonfire! Spent as much of the souls I had to hand as I could, headed to the back of the cave and found a Dragon Scale (the chest and a note left to it seemed sketchy so I whacked it ahead of time, because I figured I'd get attacked from somewhere as I opened it). 

I then made my way back out of the cave and continued heading right, eventually coming across a waterwheel. I figured the direction I needed to head was the other side of the swamp, but what could be the harm in checking it out? The mental damage sustained through death would be the answer. The first time, I made it over a branch and heard some clanging nearby, so figured there must be a blacksmith around here (in hindsight this was from the guy shooting toxic darts at me), and seeing some flames not too far below that kind of looked like a fire, I rolled off the side...and died. Whoops. The second time I had exhausted my search of this area and was making my way back over the branch and slipped off. Whoops again. 

After that, I decided to head on over to the other side of the lake, as I couldn't see a way forward by the waterwheel. Swatted away some mosquitoes - big and small - then came across some ogres who wanted to play catch with some boulders as I made my way around picking some items up in the swamp, but I eventually make it to the other side. The white colour I'd noticed before was from everything being covered in webbing, and I headed down through a tunnel into Quelaag's Domain, the clanging sound of a bell - the second bell! - getting louder and louder, and I came across some guys on the floor that were praying. They didn't seem interested in me, so I carried on, eventually coming to a fog gate. I stepped through, and was treated to a cutscene, where this flaming spider thing lugged itself around, but eventually revealed itself to have the upper half of a topless woman attached to it. She gives a dry smile before the battle starts. Got to say, thought the way they played with your expectations for the boss's appearance was handled really well. 

Yeah, I died first time to Quelaag, mostly down to not having any Estus left by the time I made it over due to my time in the swamp, but I got to learn a good chunk of her moveset at least. The second time around I unfortunately learned, as I was slashing away at her spider legs, that this thing had an explosion AoE, and so that got the better of me. The third run went really well, at this point I decided to run past everything in the swamp and just use a Purple Moss Clump to heal myself from the poison (which would take between 15% and 20% of my health). I got Quelaag down to less than a third of her health this time, but I'd run out of Estus a while ago and while strafing took a step back into some lava spewed out by her before. 

It was on that attempt that I came up with a general strategy: strafe, keep my distance as she pulled out her flaming sword and tried to catch me with it's spin and thrust attacks, then when it does it's sweeping lava spray attack, I'll hit it's leg furthest out with some two-handed slashes and then run away. I did also toy a bit with rolling through the flame attacks with some i-frames, but it didn't seem to give me too much of an advantage. On my fourth attempt I died after getting her down to half health, but I knew I had a bit wreckless with my Estus management as I got through them quite quickly. It was worse the fifth time, and I didn't even manage to get her down a third. The sixth attempt was a particularly annoying death where I tried to roll away between Quelaag and the wall, but couldn't see myself because of the camera's angle and rolled into one of her attacks. 

The seventh time was the charm, though!

I had felt myself getting a bit wreckless on my last few attempts so I took it slow, drew out her attacks, rolled through the flaming sword, coaxed her as best I could into using the fire spray attack as that's when I could get the most damage off, all the while strafing, deselecting my lock-on and looking around quickly to make sure I wasn't about to guide the fight towards some lava she had spewed out, and then quickly locking back on and continuing to strafe. I got very aggressive (and maybe a bit lucky) at the end, slashing her two-handed five times instead of the three I used for most of the fight, as I didn't want to risk it after running out of Estus. Good battle, and great track backing it up (made even better by the bells you can hear in the game, but which they didn't add to the actual OST):

After defeating Quelaag, I got my composure back and carried on, eventually coming across a lever -- which I pulled. And, just like that, the second Bell of Awakening had been rung. 

I was treated to a quick cutscene of a giant pulling some chains which raised the gates I had found before, on the other side of Undead Parish, next to Siegmeyer. Guess that's where I'd be heading next! 

I carried on down the steps and eventually came to a room with what looked like an elevator, but I stepped on it and it didn't seem to do anything. There were some signs off in the corner, which told me there was an illusory wall ahead, and it turns out there really was. Spoke to this nice guy called Eingyi, who was shocked I hadn't brought any eggs...and next to him was a bonfire and another half-woman half-spider hybrid. I tried talking to her, but she didn't seem to understand a lick of what I was saying, so I carried on. 

Took a few steps out into the next area - Demon's Ruins - and lit it's bonfire...before feeling like this place looked and felt like a bit much. I had rung the second bell, I knew that the path forwards was seemingly up above ground on the other side of Undead Parish, and so I bailed. 

I figured I'd give the waterwheel another shot, as the only alternative was making my way all the back up through Blighttown, which wasn't an exciting prospect. I quickly found a ladder I somehow didn't notice before, so carried on up, but following the path around, I fell taking on a guy shooting toxic darts at me and was quickly surrounded by the furless fire pups, and a bunch of other toxic dart guys too. I died. 

Made my way all the way back over there from Quelaag's Domain, and died again. Fun. The next time I made sure to make it back to the nearby bonfire (which I never kindled), then ventured back up, and found a different path to follow instead, coming across some ogres. The first one was fine - parry and riposte against these guys was all good - but the real challenge came when I accidentally drew the next two out at the same time, and so had to face them both down at once. Going back there was a risk of running into the toxic dart guys, and going forwards - but with my face to these ogres - there was a risk I'd get attacked from behind, and so I made the choice to take them on. It was rough, there were times where I would parry and riposte or backstab one and the other would come bumbling in and whacked me the moment my animation and i-frame advantage was gone, so I got poisoned a few times and had to back off a few times to swig some Estus Flasks down and get rid of their poison with Purple Moss Clumps -- and it got really close a few times. In the end, once I'd taken one down, it wasn't much bother taking out the other, but I did manage to do something I haven't done in this game yet against them: a double parry! 

I was pretty proud of that! 

I carried on forwards and eventually made my way out into a small canyon area called the Valley of Drakes. There was a small bridge to the other side, with a locked door -- luckily for me, I picked the key up somewhere before, and so I unlocked it. At this point I was down to my last 2 Estus Flasks, so I knew I had to be careful. I followed the stairs up, eventually coming out into the dark of the New Londo Ruins. 

There was no way I was going to be able to withstand another area, even if I found a bonfire soon - I was definitely drained at this point and just wanted to get back up to the surface. I was surrounded by more guys praying, but I chose not to interact with them. There was a slope heading down, but I wanted to go up, so looked to my left and there were some steps and what seemed like a tower going up. I made my way up the steps and followed them around, eventually coming making my way to an elevator. I head on up, take a step out, and I hear the first few notes of this, immediately realising where I was. I take a few steps forwards, and surely enough: I had made it back to Firelink. Chills. 

I stepped outside and followed the path around. I came across this barred cave, interacted with it and it said 'Dead'...okay, I don't even know who was in there, so what are you trying to tell me, game..? I continue on up and find myself coming out of the steps down that I mentioned avoiding at the very start of the game -- and hadn't gone down since! 

On 17/06/2021 at 11:14 PM, Julius said:

you're crazy if you think I'm going downwards first!

I take a few steps forward, go to rest at the bonfire, and...

Fire Keeper is absent? Who the hell is the Fire Keeper -- and why can't I use my favourite bonfire? I talk to the guy nearby and he says the place is filled with a stench (of blood, I guess?), and he mentions that he might take care of it himself. And then I slowly piece it together: the thing I interacted with in the barred cave below - 'Dead' - must have been the Fire Keeper. I'm not one to point fingers, but I'm going to hazard a guess that it was that bastard Lautrec. I knew I should've killed him. I haven't seen him since accidentally freeing him. 

For a moment, I was pretty frustrated. I hadn't even gone down that way before, hadn't met the Fire Keeper, and now I couldn't light the bonfire in the only place in the game I truly felt safe?

But that anger quickly died down: I found something very poetic about overcoming the part of the game I knew I'd dread the most - The Depths and Blighttown - to miraculously return to the only place in the game I felt safe, only to find out that it was never safe at all. The Fire Keeper died without me ever speaking to her. And it was freeing, almost like the game was telling me to just go continue my journey, and detach myself from this safe place; it's symbolic of my relationship with the game, which is pushing myself out of my comfort zone in a lot of ways, and it felt like a cathartic moment where the game - intended or not - is kind of screaming that staying in your comfort zone can be dangerous too. 

What else had changed around Firelink? As I found out, not too much...other than this right freak called Frampt sticking his head up from the depths of the shrine. 

He told me a bit more about my purpose, that I was heading to a place called Sen's Fortress (filled with traps? Sounds like a madhouse), and eventually a place beyond that called Anor Londo to get something called the Lordvessel. Sounds like gibberish right now, but imagine it'll make sense sooner rather than later. 

I used the lift up and made my way over to the other side of Undead Parish, and used both of my Large Titanite Shards: I upgraded my Broadsword to +6, but then accidentally while looking around turned it into a Raw Broadsword (there wasn't even a greyed out method to get +7, so I figured that might be the end of that path). I've looked it up since and it seems a pretty bad idea for me to go with Raw (seems to be for a STR/DEX build and I've put nothing into DEX), so I'll probably have to start my next session off by trying to undo that, seemingly to a +5 and with no way to get my Large Titanite Shards back. Hopefully there'll be somewhere later in the game to farm them. 

But for now, next time...

...it'll be onto Sen's Fortress. 

[Julius]

Didn't get around to it on Monday, but did play the game a fair bit yesterday. Started my session off by reverting the Broadsword from Raw to +5 (also upgrading the Tower Kite Shield to +5 too), and gave the big, headless demon down by Andre a quick shot (still barely damage the thing), before heading off in the direction of Sen's Fortress. 

After entering the gate I heard a hissing sound, and this snake-headed guy came at me. I pulled him outside and we duked it out a bit, I probably spent a good 15-20 minutes pulling him and his friend out to get comfortable with how to parry and riposte them (I decided to only attempt it on its wide swing as opposed to its overhead swing or quick thrust), frequently revisiting the bonfire to heal up. Once I was comfortable enough with it, I carried on up the stairs to a tight pathway with huge drops on either side and swinging axes. Yeah, Frampt was right about this place behind a madhouse, that's for sure. I made it across without too much trouble, taking it nice and easy, before having to parry and riposte another snake-headed guy on the tight path after drawing him under the path above us - knew that my practice would come in handy. There were also some of his friends above and below me firing lightning my way, but I didn't pay them too much attention, and made it to the other side. 

I carried on forwards, taking my time and having to fight one of the lightning-throwing guys up close and personal, which is never fun. Got the parry down a bit here but had to be wary of its ability to bite me if I stayed too close, something a bit difficult to manage on a tight path with him in front and swinging axes behind! Continued on and encountered my first boulder in here, which played out pretty hilariously: 

I waited here until the boulder passed and ran to the left up some stairs, another lightning-throwing guy taking aim at me, and a boulder crashing down on me, forcing me into a gap, I think with a fog door. I walked through it, but the lightning-throwing guy had followed me down, and chased me around this room a bit, before one of his friends turned up and they ganged up on me. I died. 

I'd picked up a couple of Large Titanite Shards while in there, so from the bonfire took them on over to Andre to get both my Broadsword and Tower Kite Shield to +6. I dove back in and ended up dying to the lightning-throwing guy with two swords by the swinging axes that you come across, and after that died to the guy on the tight path under that lightning-throwing guy. My parry timing was getting worse. 

The next time, though, I got much, much further. Quite a few traps in the way -- I love how the enemies can interact with them too (even if it does seem a little inconsistent at times when it comes to stepping on the pressure plates).

I got really lucky running up some stairs boulders were flying down to what I thought was a fog door, but wasn't, so rolled off the ledge, and then rolled off that ledge, as more and more boulders chased me down. At some point (this might have been after, I'm not sure) I came across a chest which unlike all the others I've come across was just flung in the middle of a room at an odd angle, with warning signs all over the place and bloodstains EVERYWHERE, so yeah, I didn't open that thing. I'm guessing it was a mimic, and so now that I'm pretty confident they're in the game, I'll be whacking every single chest I come across from now on before thinking about opening them to see if that does anything. I don't want to see what a Dark Souls mimic looks like.

Eventually came to a mechanism which the boulders were falling down onto and shooting in four directions, and which I could turn, so I shot a few in every direction, then checked them all out. Most of them just took me in directions where I'd had to run past boulders before, but one of them had destroyed a wall in the room with hanging cages I was in before, and so I followed it down, coming to a larger room with more hanging cages, and met a wizard-robed guy called Logan. Unfortunately the cage was locked, and I didn't have a key, so there wasn't much I could do for him, but there was a pretty nice view from the end of this room at least. 

Eventually I circled back around and had to make my way up the path where a boulder had been flying down before, with the lightning-throwing guy up ahead. I made my way to the side room, checked to see if he had followed me in, backed up when as I went to do this he entered the room, then I tried to lock on and put my shield up...it turned me around and I was facing the wrong way, so he killed me from behind. 

I then got much further again, this time coming to an extremely tight path with swinging axes in the distance and a lightning-throwing guy just to the side, but he was on a ledge and I couldn't reach him. Figuring that ranged weapons were the way to go, I tried to have a go at him with my Heavy Crossbow and Heavy Bolts, but it barely did anything, sake for Throwing Knives. Turns out I picked up a Longbow somewhere...but I haven't invested in DEX at all, so was still at 11, and needed 14 to handle it properly, so that was a no go too. Stumped, I hid behind a corner for about 10 minutes trying to figure out what I should do: I can't hit him enough to take him out, no matter what I try, so do I make my way back with all of these souls I had on hand, or just go for it? Eventually, I decided, I just need to play it cool and go for it. And so I did. 

First time's the charm but crikey that was not fun. This fog door took me outside, and so I had a little look around - I could see the giant who was dropping the boulders down into that room with the mechanism! - before making my way up some steps, when suddenly a massive explosion went off next to me. I didn't get caught in it, but looked around, and surely enough there was a giant at the top of a tower hurling firebombs my way. I got to a safe spot and noticed a bunch of messages up against a damaged part of the wall, so I turned the camera and had a look down to find a small balcony below. I dropped down, and surely enough, there was a bonfire there!

I rested up, invested the souls I had on hand in DEX (no time better to start investing in me using that Longbow, right?), and then carried on, the path taking me back to a little drop next to the fog gate I'd just walked out of before. Explored the area a bit more, finding some black-faced knights like the ones in Undead Parish, and I can parry them really well now - love the feeling of retaining your own skillset in this game. Explored a bit more, eventually came to a massive black knight (like the one I found protecting the Fire Keeper Soul in Undead Parish before), and he managed to get me stuck between him and the wall, so I died. 

Explored further, killing that big black knight, and eventually making my way up a tower. As I got up there I spotted a giant - the one who had been lobbing firebombs my way - and he kicked me through the wall. I healed up and went back out there, walking between his legs a lot of the time (camera can be very dizzying when doing this!), occasionally getting caught underneath him when he keeled over from tiredness, but I eventually took him out. From here I could see what looked like a MASSIVE knight beyond a big fog door that I decided not to go through before - would have to guess that's the boss of this place. I made my way back down to some of the narrow paths, and managed to jump across to the giant on the other roof dropping boulders through a hole. Took him on, and he eventually took me out, but I came back next time with a vengeance and killed him pretty quickly. Also came across this lovely view:

Did a bit of grinding for souls at this point as I wasn't too far off going another level, and wanted to continue working towards using the Longbow. I attempted another - risky - jump adjacent to the one I had made to reach the giant with the boulders before, and landed it, making my way to the top of a tower and finding this extremely optimistic guy who had some items to sell...

Made my way down to the bottom of this tower, and it came out to a bridge - one that was visible from the boulder mechanism room - and there was yet another lightning-throwing snakehead here too. Took him down with a few backstabs, finding the Cage Key behind him -- this must be the one for Logan. I then made my way back up, and wanted to go save Logan, so jumped over to the boulder-dropping giant, fell through the hole...but he was aggro'd and wouldn't drop anything, no matter how far away I ran. Threw myself off a ledge nearby and figured that I would need to make it back here going the "normal" route. Great. 

I made it back to the biggest room, the one with the overlapping paths, and noticed something glowing at the bottom. Cautiously, I edged my way around the tight ledges, eventually dropping into a small pool next to one of those headless demons like the one by Andre. He didn't aggro at all, so I picked up the nearby items, but as I walked away and another one turned up, they both started attacking, so I ran away up some stairs and followed the ladder up. There were some more items here and messages saying that there was an invisible wall, and surely enough there was; this took me out onto a balcony to face another giant (this was the one who pulled the chain in the cutscene after ringing these second bell). After taking him down I was on a slither of health and still had to make my way back essentially through most of Sen's Fortress to the boulder room...which I managed! Got the boulder to crush the wall, freed Logan, grabbed the nearby item, and knowing I probably wouldn't make it back in one piece, threw myself off a nearby ledge to spawn back at the bonfire. Quite happy that I'd managed to almost fully explore Sen's Fortress (at least it felt that way!), I can only remember one item in that big room that I couldn't figure out how to get to, but I don't mind. 

It was finally time to make my way through the fog door and take on the boss: the Iron Golem. 

So, the first time went about as poorly as you'd expect, and I died...but not for the most obvious of reasons. Walking through his legs and sticking close to observe his attacks I just managed to walk off the ledge, so for the first time in these games I think, I was laughing at having died at a boss. No idea why the arena is like this, but it changed things up a bit, and the fact that he can grab and throw you - potentially off this very high tower - was very funny too.

Love the music, especially when the violins and piano go off in a tizzy. 

The second time around I died trying to get too much distance between us to heal and he killed me with his air slash from behind. 

The third attempt went much better, even though I still died, as I managed to get him down to half health before kicking the bucket this time. My strategy was to stay close with my shield up, walk between his legs and try not to get grabbed, then two-hand slash his ankles a few times. After getting him down by a third he stumbles like a drunken buffoon for a solid 10 seconds, before eventually falling over.  

The fourth attempt didn't go quite as smoothly. Even though I got him down to half health again, I found out that the hitbox on his grab is INSANELY big, you can be more or less behind him and he will grab in front of him, and he'll stick pick you up. That was fun. As I'd been walking through his legs to this point I decided I'd start jogging through instead. 

The fifth attempt was probably the worst one, he trampled me pretty early on and I didn't even get to use an Estus, I think locking on bit me in the ass a bit here. I decided that on my next attempt I wanted to see if you could dodge roll through / away from the grab animation. 

And surely enough, you could. My sixth attempt went much better: didn't have to use an Estus until after it was down to half of its health, I could dodge roll through the grab, and I don't think I got grabbed once. But then I noticed a gold ring on the bridge behind where he was originally standing, went to interact with it, and...nothing. Making my way back to the middle he hit me a bunch, so I got through my Estus Flasks pretty quickly with a lot of work left to do. I would draw him in, dodge through the grab, two-hand slash away, run to the other side to pull him into the middle, and repeat. And eventually - with a pretty aggressive ending where I just went for it, which could have ended badly - he went down. 

The gold ring from before moved itself to the centre of the arena, but before interacting with it, I wanted to spend my souls. Got myself up to DEX level 14 so that I could use the Longbow, and then spent the rest buying 183 Heavy Arrows and 15 Firebombs. After this, I made my way back over and interacted with the ring of light...

...and so it was up to Anor Londo! Such a well done cutscene, just look at how dark the area around the ring of light is, the freaky nude gargoyle-like creatures grabbing you and whisking you away, this foreboding and unnatural humming noise...before this golden sky greets you as you sail over the wall, the choir taking hold triumphantly of the moment, before it ends with a melancholic bar. Awesome stuff, and such a great contrast to the rest of the game: this place feels special. 

Made my way down the stairs to be greeted by this giant golden knight, who didn't seem too interested in me, so I carried on into the room next to him, where there were two more. It looked like they were protecting something at the back of the room, but feeling intimidated I didn't want to fight, so tried to have a nose around to see if there was anything there, before one chased me off into this massive courtyard. With what looked like the top of a tower to my right and more giant golden knights up ahead, I hooked left and looked down a narrow staircase going down, at the end of it a bonfire. 

I made my way down and rested, a Fire Keeper nearby offering to reinforce my Estus Flask with a Fire Keeper Soul I'd picked up before. Didn't do that yet - we talked a bit and I learned a bit about Anor Londo and the Fire Keepers - before resting up and saving. I was happy with where I'd got to for the day, and it seemed like a natural finishing point to my session. 

I'm not sure if I'll get back to Anor Londo today - I would love to, but I'm feeling a little feverish after my jab yesterday, so I'll have to wait and see. But whenever I do get back to it, I can't wait to continue my journey and explore this place. 

Edited July 7, 2021 by Julius

[Julius]

Took a bit of a break until I got back to the game yesterday, it's been very stop-start the last few weeks between this game and I, but what can you do  unfortunately because of that the pressures of returning to the game feel compounded

I'll talk about Anor Londo more in-depth when I complete it, but the level itself I really enjoyed. Every corner of this place is huge, I've loved learning to parry and riposte against the Silver Knights, it's been a good time. 

But...yeah, I'm stuck on Ornstein and Smough now. Maybe my thoughts will change after I beat them, maybe I'm being biased, but of all of the bosses in the game so far, genuinely don't think this is a well designed boss fight. I get what they were going for - one big guy, one small; one slow, one speedy - and I think their armour is cool, the arena is cool, but some particulars of the boss fight itself kind of suck.

To be fair, that seems to be the case for a lot of these boss fights where you're taking on more than one enemy -- the camera really sucks (in the second phase the range for locking on seems smaller, and that's got me killed a couple of times), and when you're seeing Ornstein dash in position because he's being blocked off by Smough (but can shoot lightning or hit you through him?) or look like he's walking around (but is actually dashing) it's like the game is struggling to understand what it was wants to do itself. There's also the fact that Ornstein can throw lightning and hit you through Smough. The part I'm enjoying is playing how I normally do: taking it slow, selecting my moments to strike, backing up, then going again. But because of some of the jank it reminds me (in a bad way) of my experience with the Adjudicator from Demon's Souls...but don't worry, in my case, it gets worse. 

You see, things were going swimmingly to be fair, I found a Crystal Halberd and had been using that, which made taking Ornstein down not too difficult after a few attempts (it just dragged out the fight), and I got a few attempts at second phase Smough...before my Crystal Halberd conked out and broke. I'd upgraded it as much as I could to +3 at that point, and as you can imagine, without it, getting to the boss fight became a pain because what took a minute or two now took me ten, I'm using more Estus and just generally feel a bit more frustrated. Guess it's on me, but yeah, it's not been fun since, because now the first phase of the boss fight (and everything else) is taking an age. I haven't used a Crystal weapon before, so I didn't realise how fragile they are or that you can't repair them outside of reinforcement...it's a pain. That weapon breaking has kind of broken my spirit a bit as I've effectively had to relearn the fight without it, and I was pretty close to packing it in. Haven't spent too long in it yet, just a couple of hours trying them and farming souls for the giant blacksmith in-between, and nowhere near as much as I tried Stray Demon (yet). 

But I'm not going to (though I'm done for today), I'm just not sure what I'm going to do now. I need 2 Titanite Chunks to upgrade the Crystal Halberd to +4, but I'm not even sure if that would restore it's durability, but considering that I was consistently getting to second phase Smough with it, I think that would be the way I have to go. If so, I know I can farm them potentially from the giant gold knights in the room just before Ornstein and Smough (as I managed to get one on one of my runs through to them), so maybe I'll have to give that a go tomorrow. 

Edited July 12, 2021 by Julius

[Sméagol]

I need to catch up on your story so far. Funnily enough there was someone else on another forum who started Dark Souls after playing Demon Sould, and I had fun reading his exploits as well.

But some general tips:

Yeah as you found out, crystal weapons are fragile (which should have been obvious if you took a look at their stats..). Don't use them unless you're willing to deal with the consequences. You could buy spares for example. I never used them I think, perhaps only temporarily.

Ornstein & Smough: I never had any big problems with the camera I think. You just really need to think about your positioning. Always be near a pillar, so you can run behind it for some attacks. Always run to somewhere where you can see them both at once. Smough is much easier to defeat first, but everyone wants the cool Ornstein armour. Eventhough I didn't use it much myself for this fight, apart from some pyromancy, this is another situation where some ranged attacks could prove useful. Playing it slow is what I did too, choose your opportunities well. A good opportunity to strike is always when Smough does his buttstomp. Strike then, while positioning yourself so that Ornstein is behind him. Also remember you don't necessarily have to lock on. It usually helps, but can get in the way when you need to run away, so learn how to unlock quickly, and switch between the two.

[Julius]

Thanks for the advice @Sméagol, appreciate it! 

Yeah, lesson learned with Crystal Weapons I think. Unless I manage to get a few of them, think I'll steer well clear of them, but at least I learned that I enjoy using the Halberd for its range and poke attacks. It was really useful for Ornstein as I could circle the room with both in frame while locked on, and just get a few pokes in when he missed an attack or I dodged it, but seeing as I can't get the standard Halberd I've got beyond +5 (as I have no means to ascend it here, at least that I know of), the fact that it does significantly less damage than the Crystal Halberd at this stage and I was pretty frustrated at that point and was probably my own worst enemy, I think sticking with my strategy of going for Ornstein first is going to have to change. Probably going to have to relearn the fight a bit, but seeing as my Broadsword+10 does quite a bit of damage to him and is the strongest weapon that I'm familiar with, I think I'll be going for Smough first instead. 

I had been using the pillars for cover and healing when I could, but again, it was circling around the room, so probably not as optimal a use for them as I could think of. The camera could just be me, I do have a bad habit of locking on to bosses quite bit before I'm comfortable with their moveset and drop it (and then do better against them), I think being dependent on it just came from my strategy of going for Ornstein first, as it was definitely the safest way to go about things, so I'll have to relearn that part I think. 

I get flashbacks to Flamelurker in Demon's Souls a lot when having to stop locking on, running around to find cover or to create some distance, and swapping items at the same time (though admittedly haven't really had to do that last one in Dark Souls so far), the way my hands contort around the controller during fights like these can definitely give me a good chuckle 

I'll stick with it. I know I can do it, it'll probably take a bit longer than with the Crystal Halberd, which was a pretty crushing blow to lose for my confidence considering how close I was getting when I had it, but again: lesson learned. I'll update the rest of my journey in Anor Londo once I make it past these guys, but I get the feeling that this is probably going to be my Adjudicator moment with this game, so hopefully I'll be able to kick on in full force after this. At least I know a few ways I could try to go after - go get the Crest of Artorias for that door in Darkroot, the golden fog gate in Anor Londo I'm guessing will open up at some point soon, and there's also New Londo and the Demon Ruins - but there's no rush, I'll just take it all in my stride and hopefully get it finished by the end of the month. 

[Julius]

Right, time for a bit of a catch up!

Had a bit of a frustrating time with making this post - about 70% of it got deleted in the editor when the page refreshed as I added a link on my phone, so if it seems rushed at times...that'll be why

11/07

Before taking my first steps into discovering Anor Londo, I reinforced my Estus Flask for the first time to +1, using the Fire Keeper Soul I found way back near the start of the game in Undead Parish. 

I hooked left first, as there was clearly a straight path up ahead and I wanted to see what was around. I took on two of the giant knights I mentioned before, getting used to their attack patterns, and took them down without too much trouble after goading them out of that room (mainly just locking on and circling them to draw out an attack and then slicing up their behind). There was a chest off in the corner with bloodstains around it and chest warnings, but I figured it was time to take on my first Mimic, and so I whacked it. 

Boy are these things creepy. The way they walk around, sort of hunched and with their arms at this inhuman angle, the noises they make, the way they run around, and especially the way they fly around and kick you. If they manage to grab you and throw you into their mouths...nightmare material. Anyways, I killed it after a while, and it dropped a Crystal Halberd. 

I coaxed the next giant knight out if the area and killed him before continuing up the steps, and eventually came to a golden fog gate, which I couldn't pass through as it was "Sealed by the Great Lord's power."

Guessed I'd be coming back here at some point, but instead made my way back out to the courtyard and headed on the straight path down towards Anor Londo, taking the elevator down. Stepped out and there was a gargoyle, but only one, so it wasn't too bad. Kept my shield raised, locked on and strafed, focused on taking the tail out first as I remembered from the boss fight how much a pain that thing could be to deal with otherwise. 

I then explored my immediate vicinity, around the bottom of the lift, but there was a gap at the end of the bridge I was on to a tower. Took me a good five minutes or so to notice the support beams coming down from the building next to me with one accessible, so I slowly walked up it and rolled down onto a balcony. Walked in through a broken window and found myself at the top of a massive room, when this white ninja jumped down and rushed me. I blocked a few of his attacks and started learning his attack pattern before his friend rushed over, and together they cornered me pretty quickly and killed me. 

The next time around, I got back to the same place, safely dispatched the white ninja guys, then made my way up to a ladder which had me up walking along precariously on some beams, with white ninja guys off in the distance. 

Slowly made my way across these beams, and safely dispatched the first white ninja, but the second one ran over and knocked me off.  

Once I'd made my way back, I came up with a pretty easy way to kill them, which was to get their attention, and then stand diagonally from them at one of the joining points of the beams. They'd try to jump over and plummet the long way down to the bottom of the room far below. I got to the end of the room in one piece, stepped through the fog gate...but my curiosity had been piqued by an item I saw on a chandelier not too far below the beams. Naturally, I went back there and dropped down onto it, and while the chandelier of course fell and broke on the ground...so did I with it. 

Made my way back to the end of the area and to the top of the tower I couldn't access before, turning a wheel at the top to lower it. Out of curiosity I immediately pushed it again to see if it would go further down, and as it did, a gargoyle hopped on over. Quickly took him out and followed the path over to find myself at the bottom of the massive room I'd made my way across on the tight walkways before, with a whole bunch of white ninja guys around. Took the ones closest to me out before goading them in one by one from distance with the Longbow, parrying and riposting or landing a backstab after walking around them. After clearing the room I picked the items up that were dotted around, it seemed clear to me that these white ninja guys were guarding this massive painting...but I interacted with it and nothing happened. 

I then made my way to the bottom of the tower with it still at its lowest point, and found some safety in a bonfire looked over by a statue of Gwyn (?). 

Spinning the tower back up I made my way up a wide set of stairs to be confronted by two giant knights and a giant locked door, with a locked gate and some nude gargoyles (that's what they're being called I guess!) to the left and an open gate to my right. Sprinted past the giant knights and through the opened gate, headed down the stairs nearby to take on two of these nude gargoyles...and a third rushed me from behind, so I quickly got torn apart. 

Back at the bonfire, I restored my humanity and kindled the bonfire to get ten Estus Flasks, feeling that I'd need them...before immediately realising that with the tower lined up I could just have just returned to the previous bonfire, and it would probably be faster too. Whoops. 

Back over at the nude gargoyles, knocked one off the ledge from range with some arrows (even though they have wings and can fly?), and knocked the other two off as well. Made my way down another support beam and took on two more naked gargoyles before I took cover as two guys up ahead were firing ballistas down at me. I pegged it up the support beam after waiting for the right time, taking cover behind the pillar up ahead and then waiting for them to stop firing again before I sprinted up the support beam on the other side. Got up to a tight ledge, headed right carefully, but the guy in front of me shot a ballista through my chest and then I fell off. The next time, I hooked around to the one on the left, but as he drew his sword, the other guy shot a ballista at me and then his friend sliced me up. After that I got to the guy on the right, sprinting across the ledge at him and jumping at the right time to evade his ballista, but he whacked me with his sword and the other guy hit me from behind, so I died again. Fourth time was the charm though, this time running up and confronting him before legging it back to see if I could get him to fall off, and surely enough, he did! 

Carefully made my way around on the tight ledge before rolling down to a balcony, and exploring the nearby rooms I found another bonfire with Solaire just chilling. I found a hidden path behind a fireplace but it was pitch black down there and so I backed out of that. Took on a few Silver Knights, got better at parrying them after learning their moveset. I died shortly after finding Siegmeyer just chilling by a window, as a Silver Knight had chased me down to him, and even though he was getting hit, he couldn't seem less interested in giving me a hand. 

Decided after that and with all of the Silver Knights around to use some humanity and kindle this bonfire by Solaire. Explored every nook and cranny, got loads better at reading these Silver Knights and parrying and riposting them, so I saved Siegmeyer and opened up a shortcut from Solaire's bonfire to the main hall which was behind the giant door I mentioned before. There was also one of those headless metal demons in a room for some reason, but in that cramped a space I decided not to risk taking it on. 

After a bit of killing Silver Knights for fun, I freed myself from the shackles of carrying a bunch of souls around and di some levelling up back at the bonfire. 

However, I was kicked out. I figured I was getting invaded - totally forgot that my humanity had been restored - and so after waiting around a message finally pops up to tell me as much some ten seconds or so later, as this onion knight with a giant club walks in. It starts off well as I parry and riposte him, but then one of our internet connections must have played up, as he was a good five yards or so away and then was suddenly behind me, giving me a good backstab before going scorched earth on the place with his pyromancy. I never have a great time with invasions...

Did a bit of looking around, making my way out of a broken window at the top of the hall after spotting a fog gate at the opposite end, rolling down and picking up a Dragonslayer Bow. Thought I was stuck for a moment as the gap in the fence wasn't too clear, and with no way back up, I rolled down...only for two naked gargoyles to tear me to shreds. 

Then, as I explored the giant room a bit more, a message popped up that the Black Eye Orb had started quivering, and so I used it...to invade the world of Lautrec, apparently the murderer of the Firelink Fire Keeper I never got the chance to meet. 

I died pretty quickly to him and his three friends the first time around. The second time, I equipped myself with the Firebombs I bought from Sen's Fortress and they chased me around the room like it was a comedy sketch as I would occasionally turn around and throw Firebombs back down at them. Anyways, I quickly ran out and got cornered by Lautrec and his friend with a spear, so quickly died, which was a shame as I had got them quite close. The third time I ran them close but got cornered again, so decided to leave it there for the day -- but not before noting that I should consider a spear or something next time. 

 

12/07

Somehow on my first attempt the following day I fell from a great height and died before the fight started, thinking I was trying to get a good angle to fire arrows at their hands from that wasn't too far away. The second time I equipped my best spear-like weapon, the Crystal Halberd, and after drawing the wizard out with some arrows and taking care of him, made quick work of Lautrec and his friend after finding out just how overpowered the Crystal Spear is. Returned to my world with some rewards, including the Firelink Fire Keeper's soul. 

Got through the area before to reclaim my souls (as deaths in Lautrec's world didn't count) and the Crystal Halberd wrecked the nude gargoyles too. Sprinted across the giant room to unlock the front door by spinning a wheel I had noticed in the distance, but after killing one of the Silver Knights and one of the giant knights, I fell to the second giant knight. 

Oh, and I also found a giant blacksmith, so I stocked up on a load of arrows!

Changed my look after this to wear the Silver Knight armour, with the Elite Knight leggings and Elite Knight helmet, and it looked awesome. Big fan of capes and obviously the better defence doesn't hurt! 

Cleared the giant room out and then made my way through the fog gate, to finally be confronted by the next boss battle: Ornstein and Smough. 

I got completely wrecked on my first two attempts, not even managing to get an attack off as they quickly cornered and destroyed me. The third time around, I did get a hit off, but I died soon after. After those first few attempts I knew a bit about their movesets, so would lock on, back my way around the room, wait for Ornstein to rush me and miss before poking him a few times with the Crystal Halberd...which did a load of damage! This time around I got Ornstein to about half of his health before dying. 

After clearing out the giant knights on my run back to O&S, I was greeted by a 'Weapon at Risk' message, which I'd never come across before. Sure enough, after checking the weapons screen, I found that the Crystal Halberd had the durability of a paper mache paddle. Though I couldn't repair it, I could reinforce it, so I reinforced it to +3 and that seemed to restore its durability. I also swapped over to the Silver Knight Shield at this point and used the Twinkling Titanite I had to hand to get it to +2. 

Back at O&S, got Ornstein to less than a quarter of his health before the two of them combo'd me, Smough charging and throwing my shield out of the way before Ornstein zoomed across and thrust his spear into my chest. Thought I was dead, but as I learned from the second or two delay before hitting again, I was on the slightest slither of health. The next time around I managed to kill Ornstein for the first before Smough supersized himself. I rolled through some of his attacks but died under his lightning butt stomp. 

I then got my Silver Knight Shield to +3, checked my rings to see if there was anything that could give me an edge - there wasn't - and I realised I needed to remember that I could two-hand my weapon too, which I quickly forget in the heat of boss battles. Got Ornstein to less than a quarter of his health and died again. Got another Twinkling Titanite, then found that I could upgrade my Broadsword to +10 - confusingly you can do it through the reinforcement screen rather than the modification screen. 

Died to them again, this time with Ornstein only one hit away from seeing me into the second phase after being combo'd. Got Silver Knight Shield to +4, but as it next needed 4 Twinkling Titanites, I swapped over to collecting Large Titanite Shards instead. Got to second phase Smough on my next attempt when the camera kind of screwed me over: after rolling through one of his attacks, it stopped locking on and I got hit as I tried to turn the camera back around. Got him down by about a third, so I was making progress. On my next attempt I got him to nearly half of his health before he did his charging attack, which I got myself killed by as I tried to roll out of the way while locked on, but I probably would've been better off turning around and running away instead. 

Got the 'Weapon at Risk' message for the Crystal Halberd again, with it down to 6/20 durability, and at this point it won't even one-hit riposte the Silver Knights like it was before. Upgraded Broadsword to +10. On my next attempt at O&S I died before getting to my bloodstain for the first time, and so lost some 40k souls...and I think this was where the frustration started setting in. Crystal Halberd got down to 3/20 durability and I pretty much packed using it in at this point, but as I liked the moveset I upgrade my standard Halberd to +5...but it barely does any damage by comparison. I died to O&S again, this time around it sinking in just how screwed I was: I barely scratched those two with my new Halberd and struggled down to get Ornstein to half health before dying. With these weaker weapons it was a struggle to get back to them when coupled with my frustration, as battles with Silver Knights and giant knights were longer, as I did less damage, and as they dragged on I took more damage and would reach O&S with far fewer Flasks than before. 

Figured that I would need to swap tactics to taking out Smough first, as the Crystal Halberd was what gave me the advantage against Ornstein, as it kept me out of his range. I found that I could do some damage to Smough, but it was clear at this point that I would essentially have to learn the fight again with taking Smough on first and using my Broadsword after making a lot of progress before. 

Decided to take one last swing at it with the Crystal Halberd, figuring it would either break when Ornstein was nearly down or in the early parts of the second phase. I did manage to take out Ornstein just as the Crystal Halberd broke...but I was out of Estus for second phase Smough and quickly died. After this I got my Silver Knight Shield to +5, but died again on my next attempt, leaving it at that for the day. Felt like I might need to try farming Titanite Chunks from the giant knights to bring my Crystal Halberd back into play - I had one drop before, but I needed another two, so this could take a while. 

 

17/07

And then I took a break from the game for a while, not getting it back to yesterday, knowing that I would either need to grind out some Titanite Chunks and/or learn the battle all over again, which I was not looking forward to. 

The first time I got to Ornstein and Smough in this session I was down to two Estus Flasks as I had to learn how to parry the Silver Knights and effectively take out the giant knights with my Broadsword again. Still, aiming for Smough, I managed to get him down by about half on my first attempt at doing so, so it felt like the way to go. 

The next two attempts I got there with ten Estus Flasks but they quickly cornered and destroyed me on both occasions. The following attempt, though, I finally got to second phase Ornstein and died after getting him down by about a fifth. My strategy was to keep them both in plain view, as I was before recovering when hidden behind pillars, and then slicing up Smough's knees (which seemed like a weak point?) when I got the chance, sticking close when he tried swinging his hammer around so that he would miss. My only issue then was Ornstein stabbing me through Smough or shooting lightning through him, as Smough obscures your view of Ornstein almost completely. 

Next attempt I got Smough to less than half, with Ornstein killing me through Smough as I mentioned before. After that I got second phase Ornstein down by about a fifth of his health on my next attempt, and I felt like locking on probably did me in here as keeping my shield raised and being locked on meant he would hit me with his attacks and destroy my stamina, and being locked on when I tried to cut at his ankles resulted in a lot of missed slashes going between his legs (kind of wish it had the Tower Knight thing here where you could target specific body parts). Same story the next attempt too, this time he did his dragging attack which went on a bit too long for my liking and broke my poise before slicing my health down by about three quarters. The next time I didn't even get to the second phase...

...but then I had a break of good fortune: on my usual run, the second giant knight dropped a Titanite Chunk, which took me up to three (as I had picked up another one from his friend earlier) and so I knew that I had the opportunity to risk bringing the Crystal Halberd back into play. I reinforced it to +4 over at the giant blacksmith, but this time with a clear plan in mind: I would take Smough out with my Broadsword before swapping over to the Crystal Halberd only for supersized Ornstein. 

On some of my previous attempts, I had tried to roll through second phase Ornstein's attacks and get close, but had no real luck, and the length of my Broadsword probably didn't help with the attacks. This time, though, things went much better. I started out by locking on, getting in close after rolling through one of his spear thrusts, then staying close until he tried his lightning butt stomp. At this stage I locked on to back away from him and get myself accustomed to the range of that attack, and after doing so disengaged the lock-on, rolling through his attacks and slicing away at his heels with the Crystal Halberd, which did loads of damage. Got him down to about two thirds before I used up my last Estus, yet having a clear plan and a path to victory kept me focused, so I continued on, every time he jumped up quickly locking on and backing away to get out of range. Towards the end, I managed to get him in a lightning butt stomping frenzy, where I would get in close, hit him once, then he jumped up and I backed away until as soon as I knew his AoE damage stopped, stepped forwards, poked at his ankle, and he jumped up to repeat the attack again. He did this a few times before he was down to a slither of health, but then I thrusted for one last hit and he jumped back. Rolled through one last spear thrust and spun the Crystal Halberd around: Ornstein was down. 

Glad I stuck with it and managed to defeat them, but it was more relief that I'd get to move forwards with the game like it was with the Adjudicator jank in Demon's Souls. Ornstein's ability to attack through Smough is pretty ridiculous to be honest, and again, the way he zooms around the room but gets stuck on onjects to make it look like he's walking before he continues dashing...it's immersion-breaking. 

Still, the music for this boss fight is probably my favourite boss fight track in the game so far. Their theme is what you heard when you first saw over the walls of Anor Londo, which is the sort of connective tissue I love in soundtracks, and coupled with their physical size and unrelenting attacks, its a very intimidating fight. Yet there's something kind of heroic to the track for the most part, but hidden behind it is this twinge of unsettling disharmony to some parts. Great stuff. 

Made my way upstairs by taking a lift and came to a bonfire, naturalling doing quite a bit of levelling up as I had some 150k+ souls to hand, leaving over 20k for the Crest of Artorias which I knew I wanted to pick up from Andre when I next got the chance. Walked up the steps ahead and pushed the door open...

...a golden ethereal light shining through and this giant of a woman perched on a massive sofa. I walked towards her, the music swelling, and Gwynevere told me about how I must be the one to continue carrying the fire of Lord Gwyn. She gave me the Lordvessel, a means to warp between bonfires, which sounds like it will prove useful. 

Much like entering Anor Londo from Sen's Fortress, this has to be one of my favourite moments in the game. The way the music and the room just force a smile out of you, this heavenly touch to this space, music for the first time in this game feeling almost divine and hopeful. Hands down one of my favourite tracks in the game so far:

I'm a sucker for choirs, but I'm an even bigger sucker for violins, and the violin solos at 0:34 and 1:54 seriously seal it, it's like they're hitting the roof of what they can do and can't climb any further, much as they may try to dig in deep and attempt to do so again. After taking on probably one of the more challenging areas and bosses in the game in Anor Londo, it was hard to not feel blown away by this track. 

After exhausting her dialogue options, I headed back down the steps and to the bonfire, warping to Firelink Shrine. It was here that I found Siegmeyer, who gave me something as a thanks for helping him up in Anor Londo. 

I found that I still couldn't light the bonfire, and so I headed back down towards the barred cave where I had found the dead body before, and interacted with it, returning the Fire Keeper's soul to her. I wasn't expecting this, but she was restored, and introduced herself, before I headed back up the steps and lit Firelink's bonfire once more. 

I made my way over to Frampt at the back of the Shrine, figuring he'd have something to say about acquiring the Lordvessel, and he was giddy with excitement...before he decided to swallow me whole. 

Not a terrifying image at all. He took me down below ground to an altar where I placed the Lordvessel, this beautiful charge of light erupting up through the darkness...

...and I saw the golden fog doors vanish. Frampt advised me that I now have the task of obtaining four powerful souls - of Gravelord Nito, the Witch of Izalith, the Four Kings, and Seath the Scaleless - and returning them to the Lordvessel. Seeing the golden fog doors I knew one was up in Anor Londo - I would guess Seath's, considering that Frampt said he was once an advisor to Gwyn - and could try to guess at where the others were, with one a cave in a dark space - maybe near the Darkroot Basin? - and the other some deep underground temple - I would have to guess beyond the Demon Ruins?

Letting Frampt swallow me whole again, he took me back above ground, and I warped on over to the Undead Parish to talk to Andre. I ascended my Halberd to +6, reinforced my Longbow all the way up from basic to +5, and then bought the Crest of Artorias. Andre hinted that the grave of Sir Artorias the Abysswalker was beyond the sealed door...

...and so that's where I intent to continue my journey next. 

Edited July 18, 2021 by Julius

[Aperson]

I wound up taking a three year break from Dark Souls after getting stuck on Ornstein and Smough originally. I didn't do the second half of the game until this year. Definitely one of the hardest boss battles I've ever had to face.

Turns out though that one of the best grinding spots in the game is in Anor Londo. The large knights drops a ton of souls and there's about six in the vicinity of the first bonfire in Anor Londo so if you keep fighting those knights over and over again and rest at the bonfire you can get a ton of souls and that helps upgrade your armour and level up a fair bit. I wound up power levelling to help myself against Ornstein and Smough and it was that moment that sent me down a more dexterity focused build.

 

Personally I think Ornstein and Smough is the apex of this game's difficulty. In the second half of the game you're pretty strong and you have a strong familiarity with the game's systems and how to deal with enemies, added with the ability to warp between bonfires it gives more confidence to exploration. You can be a bit more aggressive against the earlier enemies in the game as you can kill many in the first hit.

 

By this point I think its important to decide what kind of character you want to be. There's about three recommended good builds in this game, a setup prioritising strength and health, a setup prioritising dexterity and movement and a more magic focused sefup. Rounding stat powerups down to a couple of stats will help considerably in the second half.

 

[Julius]

Super brief session today (well, I guess yesterday now!). It was probably less than an hour, but glad I did it as I felt I made some meaningful progress. 

So, I headed down into the basement from Andre to head towards Darkroot Garden to investigate what was up with the sealed door, but first I came to the headless metal demon I've come across many times at this point (here and elsewhere), but had yet to take on since my attempts way back when I was taking on the Moonlight Butterfly. Figured I might as well give it a go, so pulled out my Halberd+6 and...killed it. It really wasn't that bad, just getting in close and sticking right by its side, just behind it's left shoulder, and stabbing at it a few times before it would jump up or try something and I'd need to pull out my shield to block. No major threat here, got some Demon Titanite for the deed (no idea if or when I'll need this). 

Carrying on towards Darkroot, I kept my Halberd equipped as I figured rather than risk getting too close to the shrub freakos, I'd just poke at them from a distance, which worked really well. Two or maybe three strikes would take them out, and it wasn't long before I found myself back at the previously hidden bonfire, before unlocking the sealed door. 

After walking through the door and heading down some steps, I was met by a pretty dense forest, and I wasn't really sure which direction to head in, so I figured I'd edge around the perimeter and figure it out from there. As I headed to my right some guy with a greatsword tried to have at me, I tried to parry a few times but had no real luck, so I just strafed around him a bunch and backstabbed him a few times instead. Continuing on to the right from the entrance, I came to some shallow water...before the leaf guys jumped me from EVERY direction. 

Good thing I had the Halberd equipped, I just had to try to keep my distance and keep an eye on their moves before thrusting the Halberd forwards when some of them had lined up. One did grab onto me and munch away at me - never a pleasant sight in this game - leaving only the slightest slither of health, but I backed up, swigged some Estus, and poked the rest until they were ready to be raked. Picked up some armour precariously placed at the tip of a cliff, before I looked back and noticed there wasn't much else around, so I headed back to the door I entered this area from and instead carried on directly forwards into the thick of the forest. 

A guy started throwing spells my way, which my shield didn't do much good against, so I drew him away from the area to have a close quarters fight as some other guy started firing arrows over. Took out the failure of a wizard, then the arrow-holding thief, then a guy with some kind of morning star (at least that's what it looked like), and made it to the other side of the forested area. There was a guy there in front of some sort of decrepit chapel, who I started fighting with an axe and Spider Shield. I locked on and strafed and got multiple backstabs off (a few I positioned myself just right for when he stood back up), continued strafing, stepped back and...

...fell from a cliff. Whoops. Kind of lost my bearings in the heat of battle! 

Back at the bonfire, I decided to ignore what was to my right and instead head straight in the direction of these human NPC's. Slayed them all without much trouble, retrieved my souls, and headed towards the broken chapel-looking place. 

Inside I met Alvina of the Darkroot Wood, a creepy cat who told me all about how many believed Artorias' grave resided beyond that point. She also invited me to join her cult - I mean, covenant - but warned me against betraying anyone or I'd have hell to pay, and so like with pretty much offer I've got to this point, I accepted.

After exhausting her dialogue options I headed down some steps and came to another forested area...with these little mushroom guys walking around. I had no idea who was and wasn't in the cult, so I just slowly followed them, but they didn't pay me much mind -- or at least the small ones didn't, the big ones tried to throw a punch my way! I continued through this forested area and saw what was clearly a door sealed in a similar way to the previous one. I looked around after getting closer and didn't see much of interest around (though I did see the multiple snake-headed water-spitting thing I saw from a distance in Darkroot Basin, is that a hydra?) so crossed the bridge over and opened the door. 

Beyond the door were dozens of swords dug into the ground, hilts up, like this was the sight of some battle. At the centre of them all was a giant sword and some sort of gravestone. I inched my way forwards, shield up, not knowing what to expect, darting my eyes - and the camera - left and right to avoid being caught out. I made it to the gravestone and the giant sword in one piece, before a cutscene began, which ended in...

...this giant wolf, Sif, taking up the aforementioned giant sword and wanting a bout. Given his size and the length of his weapon, I wanted to keep my distance, so kept the Halberd at hand. He swung the sword around, sweeping left, and then right, both of which I dodged with some well timed rolls, before swinging all the way around with the sword twice without stopping, which quickly took me down as I tried to dodge the first, didn't have time to react to the second, and got hit again shortly after. All without getting so much as a scratch off. 

I made my way back over from the bonfire, and it would seem these human NPC's must be part of Alvina's cult, as none of them paid me any mind as I made my way back to Sif (bit of a shame none of them could speak now we were seemingly on the same side, though). This time at Sif, as soon as I walked through the door, he jumped up and spun around, landing practically on top of me, and I noticed as he swung his sword around with me here, he couldn't hit me whatsoever. The camera wasn't great locked on, but I wasn't in such a bad spot, so started poking at his underbelly and heels, taking him down by about a quarter of his health. I still tried to roll through his attacks when he got some distance, though, but Lady Luck wasn't on my side and he sliced me up real bad. At least I had a bit of an inkling of how I could manage the fight though from this, attacking from underneath with my Halberd. 

And the third time was the charm. Same thing as before with sticking underneath him, though this time when he backed up, I simply walked towards him with my shield raised. At most he'd hit twice in quick succession, which I had enough stamina to withstand with my shield up, and even when he did his triple attack (slash, slash, jumping slash), there was enough of a gap between the second and third moves to either just walk forwards to where he would land and completely miss, or recover very briefly by putting my shield down before putting it back up again. Think I only got hit two or three times in our entire fight. He slowed up towards the end, I could tell from the rate of his slashing around waning, but I didn't pay it much mind and finished the job. 

Honestly, even though that fight took me a couple of attempts to die and learn from, it's probably the least stressful boss fight I've had in this game so far by a massive margin, purely because there isn't much to react to, it's either Sif predictably slashing around or jumping into a different spot to attack from. It got even less stressful on the third attempt when I realised my shield could do all the dirty work without me having to risk rolling for i-frames too.

Bit of a shame I found it underwhelming, as I thought the track for the fight was another great one. Very melancholic. 

 

Anyways, made my way back on over to the bonfire, rested up, and spent some my souls on levelling up a couple more times. Decided to cut the session a bit short here - a combination of the heat and me getting hungry - but today's session felt...very different after my ordeals in Anor Londo. Very little fuss, but I also find myself with a bit less direction now for the first time (weirdly) in the game as I need to go find the golden fog door locations.

Even though I've got a hunch on where some are at this point as I mentioned in my last post, I think next time I'll head on over to see if I can take on that hydra and have better luck in the Darkroot Basin than I did the last time I visited. Might try to track down that Black Knight too. 

On 18/07/2021 at 4:09 PM, Aperson said:

I wound up taking a three year break from Dark Souls after getting stuck on Ornstein and Smough originally. I didn't do the second half of the game until this year. Definitely one of the hardest boss battles I've ever had to face.

Honestly, I can appreciate why you took that break (imagine you had plenty of other games in the meantime to keep you busy anyways!). If I wasn't so stubborn about focusing on one game at a time, and knowing full well that if I dropped Dark Souls here and came back to it later I'd probably end up restarting it, I think I could have quite easily dropped the game at that point.

Not because I wasn't enjoying it, mind, and I'm pretty sure I died more to Stray Demon in the end, but because this game can definitely be a struggle to turn on after working all day, which was probably compounded by some of the stress I've faced in the last month. It's why this game has regrettably taken me so long to get through (by my standards of how much I normally play games per week), and why it's been put down a couple of times for 5+ days at a time. And then taking even a short break like that compounds the intimidation of returning to it even further! 

As for Ornstein and Smough, I think it's definitely a very memorable and difficult fight...but for me, for some of the wrong reasons.

After spending some 60+ hours in these games now between Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, I can definitely see From Software learning from some of their previous attempts at boss battles, and there have been some great ones (and adversely some less memorable, sure) so far. I think a lot of these boss battles so far end up on a scale comparing a good, memorable boss fight, with engaging boss design, arena and movesets...with quite frankly having to put up with some jank. 

Maybe this will change once my time with the game is done and dusted, but while I think it's a great idea for a boss fight, I just don't think the execution is quite there, like it wasn't with the Adjudicator from my experience in Demon's Souls. For me, any enemy that can strike you through something else - be it a wall, or a floor - in a game that makes a clear point to bounce your sword back at you when you strike a wall will go towards making me feel a little annoyed by the game, but that's more than doubled in the case of it happening in a boss fight. 

It's tough, but by the end of Ornstein and Smough, like I said before, I was more than ready to move on, and more relieved that I didn't have to keep beating my head against a wall rather than I was elated that I'd taken down some of the most well known bosses in the series. Pretty much exactly how I felt after the Adjudicator, though the saving grace for me here is that basically everything else except the mechanics of the fight with them - the build-up, the music, the setting, the reward just after them - is of some of the highest quality that I've experienced in my time with this series so far. 

On 18/07/2021 at 4:09 PM, Aperson said:

By this point I think its important to decide what kind of character you want to be. There's about three recommended good builds in this game, a setup prioritising strength and health, a setup prioritising dexterity and movement and a more magic focused sefup. Rounding stat powerups down to a couple of stats will help considerably in the second half.

Yeah, I think I learned my fair share from Demon's Souls in this particular instance as I've been sinking souls into the build I learned was best for my Knight then from the very beginning: Vitality, Strength, and Endurance. I threw some souls at Dexterity when I wanted to start using the Longbow, too, but other than that I've had a pretty keen focus on levelling up the stats I mentioned before and my weapons of choice (the Broadsword I started with, my shields, and now my Halberd too). I haven't used any pyromancy or magic yet, which is odd because when I've been attacked by either, they seem just as overpowered here as magic did in Demon's Souls! 

I'm not sure how much grinding I'll do in this game to be honest, I've got on with it okay so far, so unless I reach some brick wall which feels insurmountable (which seems unlikely after overcoming O&S, but well it is Dark Souls, so we'll see), I imagine I'll just keep going. It's very different to Demon's Souls in that regard where you're basically forced to grind for healing grass anyways by going to one specific Archstone, with one specific entryway being the best place to do so.

Here I find myself doing essentially what I find myself doing on occasion in JRPG's, where I just suck it up and ignore the fact that grinding is an option, and see if I can figure out some way to surpass what's in front of me without needing to grind. 

Edited July 19, 2021 by Julius