1841

I’m still (stupidly) trying to get the Pure Bladestone. I switched to farming the black skeleton in the secret passage in the beginning of 4-2. The run takes under a minute but only produces about 14k souls (YMMV). At this point getting a lot of drop rolls is more important. Still, my soul level is now 229.

I killed Skeletor about 200 times today. No pure stone. I earlier killed the BP black skeleton about 150 times. Assuming the drop rate really is 0.5% I calculated that at 350 tries the probability of the stone dropping is 82.7%. At 700 tries it’s 97.0%. So, even with double the effort it’s still no sure thing (although pretty probable).

The formula I used is 1-(0.995^n). I think it’s the right one but I’d be happy to be corrected.

At 200 one-minute runs you get pretty intimately familiar with the nuances of the run. Farming the skeletons I’ve learned e.g. exactly how close to an enemy’s back you can safely sneak, which is quite useful. Hint: it’s very close (backstabbing range) at least if you use thief’s/graverobber’s ring.

If you farm the passage skelly, suicide left off the cliff. It’s faster than going straight as the avatar drops a shorter distance before dying.

1842

You’ve managed to turn Demon’s Souls into Final Fantasy X’s ultimate weapons! Congratulations?

But thanks for the tips, I’ll give them a whirl. What do your stats look like and what kind of damage are you doing?

1843

Been a while since I posted, but I got the Compound Bow like folks mentioned. I upgraded it to +7 and damn, talk about easy mode for the game. The sniper ability with bows is just insane. That’s all I really use for bosses. It’s almost deflating. I’ve finished with everything but the last couple levels I think. It’s been fun, but I doubt I’ll play a NG+ for a couple reasons:

  1. I like the exploration part. The idea of going through the same levels again doesn’t excite me.
  2. I’d like to play a different character, but I can’t do that in NG+. Further, bows seem so powerful in the basic game I think any character I picked would end up feeling the same.

I’ve gotten my $ worth though, so I can’t complain too much.

1844

I’ll not make any claims of this obsession making any sense.

What do your stats look like and what kind of damage are you doing?
Vitality 21
Intelligence 40, six spell slots (the maximum)
Endurance 20
Strength 24, can wield Purple Flame Shield +10 and Large Sword of Searching with no penalties
Dexterity 52, adding points now only adds +1 per point to sticky bow damage
Magic 99, maximum
Faith 36, four miracle slots (the maximum)
Luck 18, drop rate 72, high enough for farming
Soul Level 230
Pure White Character Tendency (attack power +20%)

I’m now growing Vitality and Endurance in turns (started recently with both at 8). After they reach 40 I’ll put more points into Strength, up to 36 (Bramd requirement). Then I guess Dexterity as long as it keeps adding to bow damage.

The damage listed in inventory:
Sticky Compound Long Bow +5: 362 (68+294)
Insanity Catalyst: Spell Assist 230

Damage done to enemy at 4-2, NG+ (no Ring of Magical Sharpness, no hyper mode):

Secret passage black skeleton:
Fireball spell with Insanity Catalyst: 346
Fireball spell with Talisman of Beasts: 310

First reaper:
Sticky Compound Long Bow +5 with Hard Arrows: 297

If you’re interested in the damage of a particular weapon etc. I’ll be happy to check.

1845

Man oh man oh man oh man! After I just now sat down to play Demon’s Souls again the Pure Bladestone dropped on the first try!

I’m sure it was you, Lizard_King, whose magic words requiring a ritual reply made this happen. Thank you very much! I’ll buy you a beer sometime. I’m willing to be quite superstitious about this after seven hours of grinding for the stone.

1846

That’s great news. Thanks for the stats, I haven’t really gotten a lot of mileage out of fireball thanks to it being a little disappointing on 5-2 where I’d hoped it would help the most. I was curious about what Moonlight or other magic reliant weapons were doing, just in case you have a spear +5 lying around.

1847

Wait, is that why I never, ever met patches, anywhere? Holy fuck. I wonder if that’s why I never found the guy who teaches you the advanced priest spells, either. I’d assumed it was some kind of vicious bug - it never occurred to me that a tendency shift could entirely fuck you out of two of the most important characters in the game. I’d actually quit playing, because I stopped feeling like I could trust it not to just up and vanish a guy on me for no clear reason.

1848

If you think a +7 bow is overpowered, you should try turning your Compound Bow into a Sticky Bow (using spiderstone). You won’t see a real advantage until +4 or +5, but at +5, it’s an “S” class weapon, giving you insane stat adds from dexterity…

Bows are highly situational, though. Unless you want to play the shoot…run away…shoot…run away game, which is really boring.

1849

I haven’t built a Moon weapon yet as I’m still missing the Pure Moonlightstone. Farming the lizard in 3-2 and his brother in 3-3 in NG+ did not yield the stone. Hopefully it drops in the next playthrough or two.

I’ll try to check a magic based weapon or two when I again have some time to play.

With the help of the farming guide you linked getting six more marrowstone chunks and thus a Fatal +5 weapon was really easy. Maneater and Old Monk (offline) also rolled over like babies with my turbo-boosted level 230 character. Onwards to NG++!

1850

I use it mainly against the skeletons in world 4. It is the hardest hitting magic against them. Dog packs also melt away under it.

1851

So…the 4-1 shortcut is pretty epic. I’m sure it was by design, but it seems almost to good for a game that generally hates you.

1852

I was never able to get it to work but I didn’t try that hard at it.

1853

It’s actually easier than I thought it would be. All you really need to do is roll at the last minute and you’ll pop right over the wall. No weird glitching through geometry at all.

1854

Yeah, its pretty hilarious. After that, all other “shortcuts” felt like longcuts.

1855

I really hope that given the success of this game they release DLC for the “Broken Archstone”. I mean why even put the 6th up there and never do anything with it? Not that this game needs more, but I would love to see it expanded (and satisfy my Curiosity).

1856

According to the Monumental, the 6th Broken Archstone leads to the Giants in the Northern lands. Maybe they ran out of development time or it was unfinished so they cut it…?

1857

I’m a big fan of how 5-2 went from nightmarish initially to trivial commute. Relatively speaking. And then how black tendency puts a wrench in it with that big whomping asshole of a black phantom depraved one. I got very familiar with that farming soulstones.

1858

5-2 is a nightmare hellscape. The only thing worse is the plague baby pond which is avoidable.

There is an island in the middle of 5-2 that is easily the hardest encounter in the entire game.

1859

I can’t imagine it doing it without a bow. In fact, most of that level is ruled by the bow, at least unless your spell choices were carefully tailored to it the first time around. OTOH, it has one of the best black phantom drops, the resurrection stone farming spot, some of the rarer stones (marrow, faint), and lots of other good stuff that makes it worthwhile. But yeah, I thought after lots of that the plague babies wouldn’t be that bad. I was wrong, and had to revert to clever rat arrow spamming. The mobility asymmetry between you and the enemies is just a nightmare.

1860

I never used a bow, until I wanted to see what loot was on that silly island. I sat there for a good ten minutes sniping from afar. Every head-on attempt ended with me dead in the water. I’d be luckily if I could kill one of them. I did Archstone 5 last too…and the bosses were the easiest parts!