[Spoilers] Dark Souls 2 part Deux

[MerenthaClone]

Succesful invasions do not. Killing Blue Sentinels in said invasions does count however.

Which would be great, if there were any Bluebros out there, but since there is nobody invading, there's nobody in the blue covenants. And there's nobody invading because there is no covenant reward for invading. There's already a dueling covenant. The decision to not make successful invasions rank up the covenant turns the bloodbros into another shitty dueling covenant, the Blue Sentinels into an even shittier dueling covenant, and the Way of Blue into a completely useless covenant.

The Gutter is goddamned amazing and you're doing yourself a disservice if you cheese it with adjusting the settings. Its one of the best levels in the game. Just give it a whirl.

And going all-in on Great Lightning Spear will basically break the game. Again, the balance in this game is all kinds of off and spellsword builds are the best way to put out melee damage while also giving you the best ranged damage, especially if you're into Faith or Hexing. You could, but I find the melee combat more interesting and so basically refused to use the lightning spear line.

edit: I will say that those stupid Gutter dogs are one of the bugged enemies that apply their damage at the very start of their attack animation, and that's frustrating.

[Muttering Bill]

Yeah, I ended up using GLS heavily in NG++ when I just racing to Drangleic Castle for my Platinum. But then swore off magic for my next 4 characters. Really not that fun.

And I agree that the Gutter should be experienced in the dark. One of the best levels in the game. But it can be brightened if you really don't want to give up your shield. The enemies there aren't hard at all. Just a bunch of regular Hollows and those mutant dog things that be taken out at range.

[Fez]

Hmm, well I don't really want to break the game. At the same time, its been trying to break me for over 30 hours, so turnabout is fair play. Outside of bosses I generally do stick to melee combat (although with the binoculars the temptation to go FPS is pretty strong sometimes), which keeps things varied, but magics just make things so much more manageable at times.

As for the Gutter, I just don't do well with games set in the dark. Its why I never played stuff like the Silent Hill series or most of the Resident Evil games. Horrific monsters are fine, but shadows in the darkness, bleh.

[aceluby]

The gutter is one of my favorite levels in the game. Try it out a few times before adjusting your settings. They use light REALLY well there.

Almost done w/ my STR playthrough. Did all the Darklurker challenge and beat him with a single firestorm that happened to hit both of them just as they split for HUGE damage. Was probably my 10th try. Couldn't muster up a melee only win because of all those damn projectiles coming from every which way. Now I only have the Ancient Dragon, Vendrick, and Nashandra, but am not really looking forward to any of these bosses. I hate the trip up to the AD (plus I beat it once already and don't really feel the need to take her on again), so I think I'm going to skip that boss and just take on Vendrick and Nashandra before I start a FTH build and do the covenant of champions.

[Fez]

I finished the Gutter. I didn't end up changing my settings, the lighting wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be when I first landed down at the beginning. It also helps that all the enemies in it were pushovers (except the NPC dark invader, but even she wasn't so bad). I did get very confused on where the exit was those, until eventually discovering that I had made a beeline to the pit its in in the very beginning without realizing it or finding the actual entrance until much later. Fortunately I had close to 90 minutes of torch when I started, and there were lots of drops, so I've still got plenty now that I'm in Black Gulch; an area which, on first impression, appears to be what I thought the Gutter was going to be.

[AndrewJ]

Yech. I hated Black Gulch. Getting poisoned every two steps.

[MerenthaClone]

Yech. I hated Black Gulch. Getting poisoned every two steps.

Break the statues. Or just ignore the poison and run through the whole level, its like a tiny square box. (But Black Gulch does suck after the awesomeness that was the Gutter. Looking back and seeing it all lit up is awesome and makes me really wish they'd kept the better lighting they'd originally demo'd)

[aceluby]

And use fire arrows for the oil pits. The monsters there die really quickly and won't agro.

[AndrewJ]

Break the statues. Or just ignore the poison and run through the whole level, its like a tiny square box. (But Black Gulch does suck after the awesomeness that was the Gutter. Looking back and seeing it all lit up is awesome and makes me really wish they'd kept the better lighting they'd originally demo'd)

Yeah... I kind of did both.

Started out painfully making my way through slowly, smashing all the statues (but invariably getting hit by one or two along the way).

By the time I found my way to the fog door, though, I said "screw it" - and just sprinted through and healed up once I reached the door. (I probably had 4 or 5 attempts at the boss).

[aceluby]

There's a 2nd bonfire in the black gulch, so you should only really have to explore the area once.

[Fez]

There's a 2nd bonfire in the black gulch, so you should only really have to explore the area once.

Yeah, I found that one thanks to all the glowing messages off in the blackness. It was also the trail of messages that led me down to a cave with a couple massive somethings (I got 'Soul of the Giant' after beating them, so I guess that's what they are, but I thought that one boss was The Last Giant, also it was larger; I also got a key, but, as usual, I have no idea what its for).

Anyway, I beat the Rotten and so I finally went back to Shaded Woods, where the enemies weren't nearly as hard anymore. I made it to the second bonfire, where there's three paths forward, and I'm not sure where to go now. The central path is blocked by a door saying I need the king's power, which I'm pretty sure I also got from a locked door back in the Forest of Fallen Giants. The way to left eventually led to Drangelic Castle, but I don't think I'm supposed to be there right now. I remember that area from gameplay trailers and it was daylight, but for me it was so dark I could barely see, dramatically raining, and the Emerald Herald was at the foot of the bridge saying my soul was still too frail and I shouldn't go forward, but that she wouldn't stop me. I'm guessing that's the game's way of saying go the other way back at the fork, but the way to right led straight into a huge fog area where I could also barely see; and the idea of going through that doesn't thrill me too much either.

So, the castle or the foggy place?

[MerenthaClone]

It sounds like Freja is the next Great Soul on your list, which means you're off through the fog!

(You've killed Lost Sinner, Old Iron King, and the Rotten now, yes?)

edit: Basically what's going on is that there are two ways to unlock Drangleic castle: kill all four Great Souls, or get your Soul Memory to 1million. You've done the latter, so the Shrine of Winter opened for you. If you go to Drangleic, you'll advance the story. If you go through the foggy bit of the Shaded Woods, you'll be doing it the "right" way, but you won't really get anything besides more souls and items.

[Muttering Bill]

The Key you got from the Giants unlocks a couple of doors. One in the Gutter to get Havel's Armor. One in the Black Gulch to unlock one of Pilgrims of Dark areas. And one in the well for Great Lightning Spear and Souls Vortex.

Got to the fogged area next. You could go to Drangleic Castle, but that's not really where the game wants you to go yet.

[Fez]

It sounds like Freja is the next Great Soul on your list, which means you're off through the fog!

(You've killed Lost Sinner, Old Iron King, and the Rotten now, yes?)

edit: Basically what's going on is that there are two ways to unlock Drangleic castle: kill all four Great Souls, or get your Soul Memory to 1million. You've done the latter, so the Shrine of Winter opened for you. If you go to Drangleic, you'll advance the story. If you go through the foggy bit of the Shaded Woods, you'll be doing it the "right" way, but you won't really get anything besides more souls and items.

Okay, thanks. Yeah my soul memory is somewhere over 1M. This is the only time I'm going to be playing the game, so I guess I'll be completionist and go get a 4th Great Soul. I just really dislike when games interfere with my vision like that. Also, when I did go in there for a minute before, something invisible started hitting. It didn't do much damage, but it was pesky.

[Fez]

And Freja's dead. I rushed pretty quickly through the Shaded Woods, Doors of Pharos, and Brightstone Cove, so I'm pretty sure I missed a bunch of things (I found the bird lady blacksmith though); especially in the Cove. I really liked its design, it felt a lot more expansive and digressive than other areas, but all those enemies with homing soul arrows were very annoying so I didn't explore much.

I'm at the first bonfire in Drangelic Castle now, and I'm pretty sure I'm much stronger than the game expects me to be at this point. My Soul Level is 132, and I can kill everything pretty easily at this point, even just by sticking with melee; and since I abandoned using a shield a while ago, I'm able to fit Havel's armor, leggings, and helmet, with the Alonne gauntlets, and stay just under 70% equip load with my various rings. Or maybe I've just finally mastered the art of rolling properly.

I'm at the point where I'd like to just wrap things up and move on to something else, but since the plot is so sparse, I have absolutely no clue how much of the game is left.

[AndrewJ]

I'd say about 30% left to go. It's a pretty straight run from here, though - with the exception of once you've gained the "King's Power" you can progress straight to the end of the game or go unlock those doors you've been seeing and do some optional stuff.

[aceluby]

Yep, you'll have to run through Drangleic and after the Looking Glass Knight you have around 30% left. It's all pretty linear from here on out though. Crypts, King's Ring, locked door in Shaded woods, 2-3 areas in there, locked doors in the Forest, giant memories, then throne duo and final boss if you don't do any of the optional bosses.

[Fez]

I'd say about 30% left to go.

That much, eh? Ah well, onwards I go.

Something odd happened last night, which is that when I select travel from bonfires now, all the bonfires I never found are also being listed, just with question marks instead of names and they're blacked out so I can't select them. This is both bonfires in areas that I've been, and the areas I've not been to yet, although in those cases the area name is also question marks and blacked out. Up until this point I could only see bonfires that I'd been to, and I don't know what caused this change; the most recent thing I did was unlock the door to the King's Passage in the Castle (right past that elevator that goes up way too far to the chamber with the Embedded in it, whatever that thing is).

The upside is, since all the areas are listed in roughly the order you're supposed to visit them, the blacked out area between Heide's Tower and No-Man's Wharf reminded me that I never went through the second fog gate at Heide's, so I went back there and had a very satisfying time utterly destroying all those mobs that gave me so much trouble 25 game hours ago, and then easily knocked the boss out. There doesn't seem to be much to do in the Cathedral of Blue though, the guy there just calls me transient.

[Muttering Bill]

Something odd happened last night, which is that when I select travel from bonfires now, all the bonfires I never found are also being listed, just with question marks instead of names and they're blacked out so I can't select them. This is both bonfires in areas that I've been, and the areas I've not been to yet, although in those cases the area name is also question marks and blacked out. Up until this point I could only see bonfires that I'd been to, and I don't know what caused this change; the most recent thing I did was unlock the door to the King's Passage in the Castle (right past that elevator that goes up way too far to the chamber with the Embedded in it, whatever that thing is).

That happens after you talk to Nashandra. Just a nice way to make sure you got everything.

Catherdral of Blue is just the Blue Sentinel area. Targray is the Covenant leader, but he'll only deal with you if you have a Token of Fidelity in your inventory. You can get them by helping someone beat a boss as a Phantom (as long as you're not in the Heirs of the Sun Covenant). Or you can pick one up in Huntsman's Copse; kind of tricky to get to, you can look it up if you feel the need.

[aceluby]

And if you don't talk to Nashandra, they don't show up. I just did this on my last run through, never talked to her, and never got the ??? bonfires.