I discovered something new today. As usual I defeated the two dark Knights and surrounding poison keepers, and I took one of my 7 remaining Embers.
Hey look at that! Instead of just Goddard (NPC summons), I had 3 more choices today: Cheshire the Cat, Sylvia, and Cynic. All human players wanting to help me beat the Abyss Watchers. This has never been a choice for me before, so hey, why not, let’s give it a try. I summoned Cheshire the Cat. As he was being summoned, I noticed my other choices disappeared. I could no longer summon Goddard or any of the others. I guess this will be a 2 man show. I remembered the posts above about bowing, so I looked up the gesture menu for the first time and waved, and Cheshire the Cat waved back at exactly the same time. He must have been fumbling with the menu too!
Ok, so here we go, I cast Great Magic Weapon on my Astral Sword+2, and went in. I hate to throw him under the bus, but Cheshire the Cat was nowhere near as good as Goddard the NPC at getting and keeping the Abyss Watcher’s attention. His timing was all off, and even though we almost beat the first phase before I died, I wasn’t a fan of Cheshire the Cat’s abilities compared to Goddard’s.
So next up, I died to some dark Knights. No problem, I’ll just try again, here we go, ready to take an Ember, tastes sweeter than candy. Nom nom nom. (5 left now). Same 4 choices: Goddard, Cheshire the Cat, Sylvia and Cynic. Step up Sylvia, let’s see what you got. She bowed deeply to me as I waved at her. Once we got inside I knew picking Sylvia was a huge mistake. She was a magic user firing heavy soul arrows at the abyss watcher. I’m not going to waste my time describing the worthlessness of that to the fight.
Let’s skip ahead to how I died to the dark Knights, then tried again and cleared the area and chomped on some Ember (4 left now). There were only two choices this time: Goddard and Cynic. I guess Sylvia knew my contempt for her, and Cheshire knew he’d blown his chance. Cynic, come on down. He was wearing a shawl that covered him completely, I couldn’t tell what he looked like under there. What kind of man are you Cynic? Alright, stop bowing to me, let’s do this.
The moment we got inside, I had the luckiest run I’ve ever had at the Abyss watchers. Not only did I hit them with every hit and dodge successfully, I actually got a backstab for the first time! And Cynic got a backstab as well! We got to the second stage fairly quickly, I’d say 15 seconds faster than any run with Goddard. So now I was getting cocky as the second stage started. I even brought the staff back out and put Great Magic Weapon on the sword again. I missed with my first hit, though Cynic hit, and then the enemy got me with a 3 swing combo, slash, slash, SLASH. Dead.
Ah damn it. That was such a good run.
Oh well, no time to give up now. Cynic was my man. We were going to do great things together. The Dark hombres got me a couple of times. Damn it. Cynic you’d better be waiting for me. This time I cleared the area. Time to bite down on some Ember. (3 Left now). Hi Cynic, see how I can wave at you? Yep. I learned that today.
Inside the chamber, nothing went right on this run. Nothing. I missed on every swing. I missed in situations where I was staring going “what? How did that not hit?” I was expending all my stamina on misses, so I died pretty quickly.
It’s okay. Deep breath. Let’s just get rid of these dark bros real quick. Oops, I died. That’s okay. Let’s pretend that didn’t happen. Come on, here we go, area clear, chomp chomp chomp on Ember (2 left). No time to wave Cynic, I’m casting Great Magic Weapon, let’s go. We got inside and I swung left right left, all hits, all timed perfectly with Cynic’s hits. Then as my stamina recovered, he hit again, then I hit as he recovered his stamina. We got the Abyss watcher before the second one even showed up! I swear!
Ok, second guy. This time I didn’t go for the magic spell. I saw Cynic being careful, drinking an Estus even though he was at 75% health, and I did the same. We kept hitting and backing off, both taking estus earlier than we had to, both being ultra careful, and we got him. My first sunlight medal! Woohoo. Cynic is the man.
I didn’t get too much farther for the night. I did explore the Catacombs a little bit. The red eyed enemies there are no joke, but they do get easier with practice. I did go deep enough to pick up a pyromancy tomb to give to my pyromancer at Firelink, and that’s where I decided to call it a night.
Looking at this guy really made me nervous:
Could he see me from under that shawl he’s wearing? His eyes are glowing red, so maybe?
This feels good. Playing actual cooperative multiplayer with other people is pretty cool. I never did coop in Demon’s Souls or Dark Souls or Bloodborne. I know I did a little bit of it in Dark Souls 2, but it feels so different in Dark Souls 3, since the animations are so much smoother. This felt new. And very cool.
