At level 48 my save file was dead on 10 hours. So now here I am, in Sen's fortress at the roof bonfire, gearing up for what I see is quite an easy Iron Golem fight. Off with the Magic Ember and back to Ricket, bam, Enchanted weapon. Joined Alvina's covenant (ahhh that sweet, sweet ding) and find the Mushroom Men. Off to earn some souls, buy the Crest of Artorius and see an interesting approach for farming, sit by the stairs for the next hour and pump my Int up 10 levels as well as buffing health and endurance. Darkwood for Purple Moss Clumps, smashed that stupid Moth, but then remember the sealed door. easily beat her without losing a shred of health in just a few minutes. when she leans forward, disengage to avoid the blast then get in again. Move in close, shield up and just roll press against her front and curving around her to her right, her sword misses you, the lava misses you and you can just whale on her. Queelag at this point was a doddle, what a joke once you know her. Then, a bit more savvy about how humanity works, I unhollowed and quickly farmed 20 pieces of green titanite, and knowing now the location of Rickert, quickly had myself a Magic +5 longsword. Moving onto Blighttown, I made it through the entire town, including the venom guys and the Firekeeper soul, every enemy dead in what felt like minutes. Jumping up to the Gargoyles, I had some issues there only due to useless player Phantom's not reliably doing their job (that's what I reckon anyway) but on second go, easily avoiding their slow attacks and pacing it so I only ever took clear shots, Solaire and I bested them.

Ignoring the Bridge Wyvern, I went through the Depths like a Magic Enema, ripping apart the laughable Gaping Dragon on the first go due to his slow, extremely predictable moves. Moving onto the Taurus and his predictable, lazy attack pattern and he too went down with just one quarter of my health bar lost. I ripped through the Asylum Demon, nimbly rolling around his slow swings and poor reach and stabbing his giant fat legs with no health lost. Using the Dark Souls wiki, I decided to follow a Magic User build as throwing giant light spears sounds awesome. I hadn't focused on anything but my Drake Sword so barring a +3 Uchigatana that I couldn't weild and a pyromancy backed by poor Intelligence, I had a poor build of stats and at level 47 I realised it was time to restart. That place did my head in, not through difficulty but the goddamned lag.Īnywho, finally got lucky with Quelaag after being burned, stabbed and blown up (4 deaths) and then. Then onto Blighttown and the feotid green swamps and angry wasps. Beating the stupidly fast, hard-stunning Capra Demon (after resorting to a strategy walkthrough - 12 deaths) and the ceaselessly-following Gaping Dragon (5 deaths) I progressed through the Undead Parish, defeating the hard-hitting Gargoyles (9 goddamn deaths and time spent farming more humanity)with the help of Solaire and a friendly Phantom. Some hours later, I achieved the Drake Sword and proceeded into the Depths. The Asylum demon went down, he seemed a little slower and his reach must have shrunk (2 deaths) and the Taurus went down thanks to a player phantom (0 deaths). Starting a new Pyro build, I purposely put some points into Dexterity so that I could properly weild a bow and set about obtaining the end of that Dragon's tail. Months later, inspired by reading player experiences on these and other forums, and lured as always by the Lovecraftian nature of the lore, I once again forayed into Londor. My save file for just this section, the section where ultimately I gave up and cast the game aside in despair, shows a playtime of 6 and a half hours. I lost count of how many times I fought my way across the Burg to have at the Taurus Demon and his power, reach and speed, but that was nothing to the efforts I went to once he was defeated in pursuit of the Drake Sword. It was here that my hate for Dark Souls started to fester. After maybe two hours, I made my way around his punishing, lightning fast attacks and long reach to beat the Asylum Demon and feeling like a King I swaggered through Firelink Shrine and popped upstairs into the Undead Burg. As a born-and-bred 35 year long gamer, I've never been afraid of a challenge, but nor do I really go out of my way for one, there's just too much gaming content out there to get locked in to a hard grind. I grabbed Dark Souls purely based on hype. you'll never need the crutch of the Drake sword again! just restart the game and be surprised at how quickly you melt through bosses. Tl dr - message of hope for those finding the game is kicking their arse.

Ftw shred company