Takes No Damage posted:

Good videos so far. I never played Demonssssssssssouls myself, only watching Squint's playthrough way back when. Cool to see someone run through it for the first time, but also appreciative of you cutting out redundant content i.e. most of your bloodstain runs.

Nidoking posted:

Well, that was certainly a way to fight the Tower Knight. He's not difficult to beat head-on, though. Obviously, you want to start by running past him, up either staircase, and then going around the upper ledge and taking out all of the archers. You're pretty safe from the Tower Knight's attacks up there, because I don't think his magic will ever get past the crenellations. Once you've dealt with the archers, the Tower Knight is the completely archetypal "big guy what falls when you attack its legs". Get behind him and whack at his ankles until they spew whatever that green stuff is that drives him, and eventually, he'll fall down. Ideally, he'll fall in such a position that you can hit his helmet, which will do considerably more damage. Admittedly, dodging the attacks while you're that close can be tricky. The backwards jump is the big one to watch for, since it leaves you scrambling to get behind him while avoiding his attack area. Most of the rest of the attacks can only hit you if you're in front of him, or too close to his legs when he slams his shield on the ground. Rolling away to a safe distance is probably second nature by now, though. If you have trouble getting past him, baiting an attack that you can dodge should give you an opening, and remember that you can get between his legs if need be. The safe spaces are the little rooms at the top of either staircase - I don't think it's possible for him to damage you there in any way, so you have time for whatever inventory or equipment management you might want to do.

Nidoking posted:

I was waiting for that fall, and it didn't disappoint. Most people come at that gap the other way, chasing the lizard, and by the time they see it falling, they've already joined it.

By the way, the thing you picked up near the dragon and didn't notice at the time was the Ring of Giant Strength, the proto-Havel's Ring that raises your equipment limit. I don't think it's nearly as essential in this game as Havel's was, just because I spend almost the entire game wearing the Cling Ring anyway.

The Silver Bracelet is the reason that, for me, step one of this game is "Create a female character". Dispensing with gendered equipment was a huge improvement in the later series.

liquidypoo posted:

To answer your question about your bloodstain: it absolutely stays where you died last until you either die again or pick it up. You theoretically could die at the tower knight, decide to complete the entirety of valley of defilement in one go without dying (somehow), and return to tower knight to find your stain still waiting for you.

Also I feel dumb for never trying fire on the ball of bodies enemy! Wow, kinda obvious in hindsight. I always just chipped away at it for much longer than apparently necessary.

Nidoking posted:

Having to refight the Fool's Idol is one of those parts of the consummate Demon's Souls experience you just can't miss. I think you picked up all of the tricks during the fight - if you've got good enough spatial awareness, you can memorize the positions of the stun traps when the magic circles appear, but avoiding them is another matter. I generally just deal with them - high Magic Defense is the way you want to prepare, and there's a lot of timing so that if you do get stunned, you have a good chance of escaping without damage. You can tell the difference between the real Fool's Idol and the fakes by looking at the beams they shoot - the real one shoots the wide, staticy looking beam. I like to move around the edges, where the columns block many of the shots, and take out all of the fakes each round. I thought any ranged attack would be enough, but it looked like your single arrow didn't do the job. Soul Arrow has always worked for me. Once you can get a bead on the real body with nothing in the way, two-hand your strongest weapon and go for the full offense. Once you score a hit, she won't counterattack, and you can attack as many times as your stamina allows before she disappears. Also, the Baby's Nail is close to impossible to pick up after the fight, since approaching it triggers the cutscene that takes you up to the Archstone, so if you want it, pick it up during the fight.

Also, note the difference between Moonstone and Darkmoonstone. They're different upgrade paths, and the stones you picked up in this video won't work on the Crescent Falchion.

liquidypoo posted:

I also want to point out something in the smithing upgrade tree, since you appeared to skim by while mainlining your new battleaxe to +5. Hopefully you noticed, but when you were at +3, prepping to click on the +4 upgrade, your axe had a few branching paths. Probably worth noting that +3 and +6 are kind of branch milestones, so you'll see further upgrade paths at that point instead of just immediately on a fresh weapon. I want to say more, and cover the subject of boss soul weapons, but it's still a little too early to give you specifics on those

Nidoking posted:

When your equipment is at low durability, there's a status icon in the top left that shows which piece it is. The one you had looked like the Silver Circlet. It's easy enough to confirm in the menus, but that's not always convenient.

Effect stacking is kind of weird in this game. As you noticed, the Fragrant Ring stacks with the Crescent weapon effect. In general, two different sources of the same effect will stack, but you can't stack two copies of the same source. As I understand it, and I haven't tested this independently, this means that if you have two Crescent weapons at the same level and equip one in each hand, you'll only get the effect of one, but if they're at different levels, the effects will stack.

Good job successfully navigating pretty much every trap in this area. It took me a long time to make my way through there, and the shortcuts are sparse. I'd like to believe that the spiral you climbed is some kind of weird shortcut if you jump off the right way, but it's hard to imagine that they would have done something like that intentionally, and it's also hard to believe that the tentacle is climbable by coincidence, so I don't know what to think. I climbed the other spiral and never found anything worthwhile, so I think they're just weird bits of atmosphere that happen to work like terrain until they don't.

Nidoking posted:

Wow, I don't think I've ever seen Maneater use that buff before, but that's what you saw a couple of times. You might notice the yellow cloud around it afterward.

Leechmonger is kind of a weird boss, as bosses go. It's a first-area boss, so it's not very strong, but the Valley of Defilement is such a horrible area to get through that most players will have done just about everything else before getting to it, meaning that they're much stronger than likely intended. I could have that backwards, though, since it is indeed a damage race where you're constantly taking damage from the leeches and Leechmonger is constantly healing from the leeches. The path to the bottom spirals down and has some barriers you can hide behind if it throws leeches at you on the way down. Once you're down there, it's mainly just a matter of doing as much damage as possible and surviving. The Regenerator's Ring is a huge help, and this is one of the few times when I think fire damage is more effective than magic by enough of a margin to be worth using over the Crescent Falchion. The Epee Rapier you got in the Tower of Latria should be a fire weapon, if you want to save Turpentine. There are also safe spots at the ends of the various tunnels around the room, although there's less breathing time than against most bosses if you're covered in leeches. I don't think there's a way to get rid of them aside from waiting them out, but I guess you could... try rolling?

Nidoking posted:

Nidoking posted:

Adjudicator is the boss I recommend most players fight first, after Phalanx. Not only is the Crescent Falchion on the way there, but if the skeletons are still too intimidating, there's a shortcut that must have been intended - from the top of the staircase where you get the Copper Key, you can roll to the gap in the wall across the way and drop down to where the Regenerator's Ring is. You skip more or less the entire level, and nothing of value is lost. Adjudicator is also not too difficult. I'm told it's possible to stand at the top of the room and attack the bird from range, but I have no idea how to avoid the tongue, and the floor collapsing under you can cause severe problems. As long as Adjudicator is in the center of the room, you can circle to the right to avoid all of his attacks (or roll to the left if you're caught off guard), and even early in the game, one hit shouldn't kill you outright. He turns slowly enough that you can get in healing or a quick trip to the menu from behind his back. I think you can also hide near one of the staircases, if worse comes to worst. If he moves toward a wall and you don't have room to circle, get to the far side of the room to lure him out. The rest is just aiming for the wound on his stomach and then the bird. I had no idea fire was so effective, but your Dragon Long Sword is +4, so it's no surprise.

Ah, Patches. I don't remember him showing up there when I first played the game, but I don't remember whether that's because I had killed him earlier, or because I'd beaten the next boss before finding that spot, or because he was actually there and I just forgot, but I'm sure I just jumped down the hole myself. You might now recognize the healing aura you pointed out the last time you saw him - he has the Adjudicator's Shield equipped. The Black Phantom down there is usually my first, and it's easy enough to defeat with just a shield. I always used to leave a "The next enemy is weak to shields" message down there as a hint.

Nidoking posted:

Nice job with the rest of the area. I think you said most of what I could possibly say. You found the Farming Spot (TM), figured out how to work with the Old Hero's blindness (the Thief's Ring does, in fact, make you nigh invisible to him, although I think magic is more effective than fire, hence the glut of Sticky White Stuff), and handled the Storm King fairly effectively as well. The Storm Ruler is famous for a few interesting attributes, among them the null stat requirements (because if you couldn't use it, you'd be really screwed), the whopping TEN points of Durability (which take forever to decrease because you're not generally hitting anything solid with it), and enough knockback to send the victim of an invasion all the way back to King's Field. It does indeed do slightly more damage with two-handed swings. The Storm King has about five targetable spots, but as far as I've ever been able to tell, there's no difference other than how you aim. It can be hit with other ranged attacks, once you've cleared out enough Storm Beasts to bring it down to attack, so if you prepare properly, you can ignore the Storm Ruler altogether. There's only one potential reason to do that, though, and you may be able to guess what it is.

A bit of friendly advice that I hope won't go amiss: Never warp to the Storm King's Archstone. The Old Hero's Archstone is about thirty steps away and comes with 200% less regret upon use.

Nidoking posted:

Storm Ruler doesn't affect World Tendency, but you're right about the Storm Beasts.

I never messed with Demon's Prank much, although I use Aural Decoy in several strategic parts of Dark Souls. But I do have an idea of why it seems to be underperforming. From my experience, it effectively causes the enemies to react as if you were in the target location for a few seconds. You've been wearing the Thief's Ring most of the time, so maybe the enemies can't see "you" even at that range. I can't imagine I'm right, but it wouldn't surprise me too much. It's probably one of those mechanics that they refined in the later games.

rojovision posted:

That's an interesting idea. Maybe I'll try it out again sometime making sure I don't have the Thief's Ring on.

If Storm Ruler doesn't affect world tendency, then I'm not sure what good leaving it alone is. Maybe there's a Playstation trophy for doing the fight without it? Either way I intend to do a lot of research on the wiki after the playthrough is finished.