I had trouble with the Crystal Sage fight at first, due to the magic damage kicking my ass. So, for the only time so far in the game, I stripped off all my knight’s armour and put on some high magic resistance clothing (sorcerer’s I think) I’d found in the swamp. That made a massive difference to my survival, and I was able to beat it on my first attempt after that.
Yes, the two guys guarding the area leading to Farron’s was one of my favourite fights! At the time I felt pretty evenly matched skill-wise with these things, so it was tense but possible.
Incidentally you are lighting fires when you extinguish the towers, they’re just being lit at the door! Either that, or think of it as extinguishing evil. Yep. ;) I’m sure there’s a much better lore explanation for it somewhere.
On another issue, I’m enjoying this so much I’m wondering whether I should grab the Season Pass while it’s 50% off at GMG. I loved the DS1 DLC, I did not enjoy the DS2 DLC, so I guess this one is a coin toss? :) Thing is, I’m enjoying DS3 far more than DS2 so far, it reminds me more of the first game.
Kolbex
1623
I just popped into Ariandel to see if I was leveled appropriately for it yet and got my ass handed to me by a giant wolf. Cool, but I’ll be back later.
Scuzz
1624
A tip. In the Crystal Sage fight when there are multiple Crystal Sages the ones that aren’t the main Boss will die with only a slight amount of damage. So if you can find an area, like the place on the right where you can run up a slight ramp, and pull a bow you can take out several of the Sages before they can hurt you.
Scuzz
1625
The first DLC is not particularly long but features a really bad ass final boss. It is a step up from the base game and the opening is a pretty tough start.
The second DLC actually finishes the game and has some interesting bosses. One I have never even came close to beating, but the last two bosses are fun. There is also a lot of lore in this DLC. Also, if you do play NG+ games there are some items in the final DLC you will want.
Kolbex
1626
So like, if you don’t have the dlc, does the game just end unceremoniously like Soul Reaver?
Thraeg
1627
Alright, I’m back into this after a couple months’ break thanks to going on vacation and losing my momentum. I had left off just after reaching Irithyll, and coming back last night, those pontiff knights did not mess around, killing me repeatedly while I was trying to get my bearings.
But after an hour or so, the timing started to click again, and I was able to progress through the next three bonfires. I met Anri in the Church of Yorshka, but at this point I’ve forgotten whether I ever found Hector or not.
Finally found my first sharp stone, which I’ve been waiting on since my build is mainly dex-based, and applied it to the Red-handled Halberd I’ve been using as my main weapon. Really digging the moveset on this thing, as it has a really nice mix of reach, speed, and power.
Felt a little guilty about cheesing the beast from the bridge by stabbing it from a convenient cul-de-sac where it couldn’t reach me, but all’s fair in love and Dark Souls.
As of now, I’ve reached Irithyll Dungeon but haven’t gone past the first bonfire. And I’ve got three areas of potential progress where I’ve been stopped so far by hard fights – the demon under the suspension bridge, the wolf packs in the painted world of Ariandel, and Pontiff Sulyvahn, who I reached last night and got repeatedly clobbered by.
gamerx
1628
I played DS3 but not enjoyed it as nearly as 2 or 1, the graphics remind me too much of Bloodborne.
Hmmm, so the Smouldering Lake seems like an unpleasant place to be. Fortunately the gigantic centipede monster was no match for my dashing, and I escaped! Ha. A bonfire, an area beyond that was kicking my ass, or a fog gate? I chose the latter: another demon, but with FaceApp applied. Nearly soloed him, then died repeatedly for several further attempts. I hate it when that happens. So I embered up and found an NPC phantom, and we took it down together. Well almost, thanks for the sacrifice, whoever you were.
I then figured out that giant centipede + ballista arrows = centipede burgers, and it worked! That sounds better than “I hid behind it like a coward and it died”. Alas I somehow ended up falling down a hole and into the nasty area below. Boo. Ugh, poison goats and face loving goats, MY FAVOURITE. (note: not my favourite).
I did kill two of the leaping goats finally, take that you mutant bastards. I was going quite well actually until I found a big knight behind an illusory wall. That wiped the grin off my face.
Kolbex
1630
Smoldering Lake is pretty unpleasant, but also quite small, considering. Not unlike tge Catacombs. I find it weird how you can hit the boss quite early, like I and it seems you did. Almost feels like I did the place out of order, although I don’t see how that’s possible.
Yeah, it’s interesting that in these games, these areas don’t look all that great compared to other areas, with the exception of Bloodborne’s Forbidden Woods, which I thought was the best looking area in that game, and the best looking version of “woods” in these games. I think the difference might be that Bloodborne does the woods at night. Dark Souls 3 does the Road of Sacrifices in the daytime and it looks weird still.
What’s weird is that I thought after I defeated one Giant Crab that I’d be free to wander in that area, but no, they just send more giant crabs.
I beat the Knight pretty easily as a Pyromancer, maybe I should farm him. Thanks for the tip! On Xbox, as a Knight, I had a hell of a time though. With a Longsword +2, he hardly takes any damage. Basically with a Longsword +2 I have to fight him for a long time, which really increases the chances of dying to one of his moves.
Yeah, the mutated bird things are genius. They’re so vulnerable if you take them out fast, but in numbers, once fully mutated they can be dangerous. I’m a little surprised that they only had them in a little area and didn’t use them much. Hopefully they’ll be back later in the game.
That’s a nice tip. I did find all that Sorcerer’s gear in that area, so i’ll have to check that out.
Overall, despite the retro look, I’m pretty happy with this whole Road of Sacrifice/Crucifiction woods/crabs area. It had a lot of variety and just general weirdness and atmosphere.
I was wondering that. If you head just to the right of the entrance you quickly find the hole that the ballista smashes, so perhaps you’re meant to think “screw that” when faced with the centipede and end up falling down there instead. The bonfire down there is earlier than the one past the centipede on the travel list. Who knows.
Anyway, I decided to take on the knight again and beat him no dramas. Got a nice Black Knight Greatsword that I’m almost able to use, so I might try that out next level.
Was going well, feeling confident, then dropped down a hole onto a rat, turned around and was mobbed by half a dozen small rats. I died. How ignominious. In my defence, it wouldn’t have happened if my estus flask was ready to go. I don’t know how it keeps happening, but I’ve died quite a few times now because for some reason I’ve ended up with the ashen estus selected, and in my fumbling to get it back to estus I’ve died. Not sure if I’m just fat fingering the D-Pad by mistake during hectic fighting, but it’s very annoying.
Oh, also I finally decided with 20k souls to buy the tower key! I have to say, I think it was worth it. Very useful ring which I’m now using, amongst other things.
Not sure about the Soul Reaver reference but the endings are basically just like all the other games in this series - a short cinematic with a cryptic NPC voiceover. I don’t recall anyone being particularly unsatisfied with them prior to the DLC coming out (well, except the default ending that is intentionally unsatisfying) and From didn’t change them afterwards. That said, the DLC does make the “true ending” clear and put an exclamation point on the whole thing.
Kolbex
1634
Soul Reaver’s ending, as I recall, was more or less just the words “To be continued”. I was pretty annoyed.
Scuzz
1635
I don’t want to spoil it for anyone but I think it is non-spoilery to say it ends like every other DS game, with a fight against a bad ass boss and your decision as to should you re-light the flame.
Scuzz
1636
I do this all the time. It is basically why I keep only my estus flask there. I would love to have other consumables available but there is nothing worse than going for the heal and instead doing a green blossom or throwing a poison knife.
One thing I have discovered, though, which I’ve yet to commit to muscle memory, is holding “down” on the D-Pad will roll back to the estus flask no matter how much shit you have in your selection. The only problem is that it’s hard to do this while also trying to dodge whatever is about to kill you. But yes, I have considered just dumping everything but the estus, and just put other stuff in there if I’m going to need it for a specific fight.
Are you guys changing weapons a lot, is that why you’re having this problem? That’s the only reason I can think of to be messing around on the d-pad, unless you’re actually trying to change the active use item, which you’re obviously not.
Since I’m a pyromancer, I do switch between the Pyro glove and my main weapon a lot. But I haven’t accidentally changed the active use item yet. Of course, now that I’ve typed that out, I bet it will start happening all the time.
Kolbex
1639
I switch between bow and twinblades fairly often, which let me tell you is a handful while also running away and then trying to two-hand the swords.
I’m swapping my sword out for my bow quite a bit, and I will sometimes swap the estus flask for a firebomb, but I think what’s happening is that when things are getting frantic, I’m swinging my thumb over the left analog stick quite a lot and must be hitting the d-pad.
