Topic: You Died. The Dark Souls Series Discussion Thread

... How have you got so few torches @Th3solution? I had 2 hours worth of the buggers by the end of the game!

Pretty sure you can farm them from Torch wielding hollows in... Whenever they appear!

You're making good progress though! I seemed to have missed your previous update. Duke's Dear Freya didn't give you much trouble it seems?

@colonelkilgore Yeah, I tried the spell that creates light (I forget what it’s called) and it basically works okay-ish and you can see and still get to use both hands, but it doesn’t last very long and you still run the risk of being in the middle of a fight with a hoard and then have your light turn off and then you’re totally hosed. Plus the spell doesn’t light things up the same and gives a weird bluish hue to everything and I find that I can’t see holes in the flooring as easily and it just doesn’t work as well as a torch since at least with the torch you can light this little sconces along the way. Which actually that part is fairly handy for a complex web of ladders and platforms like the Gutter, because it’s easy to see what areas you’ve explored already because you’ve left a breadcrumb trail of lit sconces along the way.

@HallowMoonshadow I have a decent supply of torches now, mainly because I’ve been so apt to farm and overlevel and picked several up. I think 🤔 have over 2 hours worth now. Ever since I first had my torch die on me in the middle of exploration, I’ve been real paranoid to keep enough on hand. Nothing worse than getting caught on a narrow plank in the sudden pitch black!

As for Duke’s Dear Freya, yeah - got her on the first attempt, but it wasn’t necessarily easy. I had two NPC summons present for the fight, which helped to distract her. I still struggled a little because the alternating heads and the changing invincibility, but in the end I had enough help to keep her main attacks from hitting me and mainly just had to deal with the little minions whilst pecking away at her health in short spurts.

I will say that DS2 does like to have bosses that have multiple beings to fight at a time. I struggled more than I should have against the Royal Rat Vanguard, although I got it on the first try. The Royal Rat Authority on the other hand had me dying multiple times. I also died several times to Ruin Sentinel. I can’t recall if I died but Belfry Gargoyles were also tough. Getting swarmed is difficult for me since I really am built for ranged and quick one-on-one attacks with my rapier. I am getting where I use the Silverblack spear more because R2 does a sweeping attack, just at the expense of a lot of stamina. So if it doesn’t connect then I’m in trouble because I may not have stamina to roll away. Still thinking about doing the broken Santier spear thing. The moveset for it looks to be sublime.

@Th3solution sounds like you’re still making good progress mate, even though you seem a little more downbeat than I’ve heard you previously. This section now is a bit of a trudge but as you say, the trail of lit sconces proves you’re moving forwards. I actually think that these dark, trudge sections are there to test the player’s fortitude. They’re never fun… but once done, you can look back with satisfaction.

And about bosses that involve multiple enemies… the gank-squad in one of the dlc’s is the brutal epitome of that… have fun 😉.

@colonelkilgore I have to admit, the environmental hazards of some of the recent levels have sapped my enthusiasm for the game. I’m still quite enjoying it though. However, whereas I was actually considering DS2 as my second favorite From game, it has descended into last place here lately with some these areas. First the invisible ghost enemies, then poison areas out the wazoo, dark areas you can’t see in, and just the overall death by gravity going on repeatedly. 😅
But still, fourth best FromSoft game is still better than 75% of other games. And the game still has a lot of content so it may move back up the list after these environments are past me.