Soulslikes

[tough lynx]

We meant more it seems like you would end up over leveled for the endgame

[sweet quiver]

maybe

the dlc did come out after the base game was finished

also the levels cap out at around like, 90, then uncaps again at around 200

for ng+ stuff ostensibly

[tough lynx]

…huh?

You mean like

You can’t go higher than 90 or…?

[sweet quiver]

no like

the cost only increases by 1 ergo

until 200

then it starts actually costing again

the scale of the cost bottoms out entirely between 90 and 200

so it costs around 16000 for every new level until 200, then it starts increasing in cost again

[tough lynx]

Mmm

[sweet quiver]

love Lies of P what a game

[tough lynx]

It is very fun!

[tulip cove]

gonna delve into unfrozen eleum loyce again

as a caster whats the best damage type to throw at the mobs there

pyromancies still?

[sweet quiver]

fire usually beats ice

i have no idea tho i did not change my strategy at all for the entire game

[tulip cove]

gotcha

um

Drakekeeper armor set description in ds2:

Something dark indeed eats away at the drakekeepers, eternal guardians of the shrine

What does this even mean

wdym ancient, Aldia built your dragon lord right

or maybe the shrine and the keepers were already there, and Aldia just plopped a false dragon god there

[brisk idol]

Probably that second one yeah

"Something dark eats at (insert guy here)" could reasonably be a line to describe 90% of all enemies and bosses and even some npcs in ds2 lmao

Pretty throwaway line, might not even be referring to anything specific

And yeah they sure do be standing around at the shrine, that can definitely be considered guarding

[tough lynx]

...well we found a new advance weapon
It's a circular saw on a stick

Rose (It/Its) | The Labrynth Doll ↩️

[Reply to:](#1162109930472493066 message) The only bad thing about it is that there are, like, three handles we've found so far that scale wit…

[ashen pumice]

there are some more in the DLC too

[tough lynx]

There was a Venigni fan club?

Can we join it?

[spare summit]

ain't none of the rest left

[tough lynx]

(Also gods, having hdr on makes the screenshots look awful)

[tulip cove]

Dark souls 2

ive been invaded by the same arbiter spirit thrice now

twice while farming, once while saving the knights in eleum loyce

lost both times and just peaced out into the fog door in the third

the first two instances are funny to me because imagine kicking someone's door down to arbiter their ass for some red orb invasions (i lose 75% of the ones i initiate) and you catch your culprit wearing literal rags and a clown mask

[next hollow]

id shit my pants if binah inavded my dark souls 2 save

[tulip cove]

"You've shed too much blood across the worlds, prepare for your arbitration!"

me:

https://tenor.com/view/clown-makeup-clown-makeup-bozo-gif-26049773

[tulip cove]

sadly no sadistic goth feds showed up lo;

*lol

just a blue guy

[next hollow]

those blue motherfuckers

[tulip cove]

im annoyed that the path to the best fireball pyromancy means having to a.) do PVP in an arena full of cracked ds2 pvp vets or b.) actively bait the Heide cops into your house to murk them

i never win at the former and the latter is a loooot of work

[tulip cove]

the dark souls 2 ideal item farm fit is just so funny

speaking of arbiter

i wonder what fit you'd need to cosplay binah in ds2

speaking of arbiter 2
ANOTHER damn blue guy just got me while im looking for the second knight in eleum loyce

[next hollow]

are there any long black hexagonal coats

[tulip cove]

long black coats yes

nothing with a fur trim tho

[next hollow]

damn

[tulip cove]

armor of the forlorn could work 🤔
also apparently, each of the Forlorn that invade you across sotfs are women, if their character models are any indication

wonder if the Rat Squad is still active nowadays

the mechanic seems fun but the summoning conditions seem strict (gotta wear a ring and hang out in one of two spots thats out of the way)

[tough lynx]

They were planning to show off this abomination at the exhibition?

[spare summit]

wdym abomination

he's perfect

[bitter ridge]

it kind of reads like 'we made the advertisements before we finished the project'

or just real hard propaganda

[tough lynx]

Side note: parrying every attack in a chain is extremely hard

[spare summit]

but greatly rewarding!

[tough lynx]

It would be if we could do it 😔

[tough lynx]

Welp a person in spiked armor just stabbed him in the back so we guess we win

Dang it we were so distracted by the evil villain speech that we forgot to lie

“This is the person that killed Victor?”

We should probably spoiler our posts from here on out

We're kind of surprised the boss weapon guy isn't a crow or a bird or something as a reference to the dark souls 2 one, though the devs probably didn't watch the happy souls vid

[bitter ridge]

all the Animalfolk are references to the book, just sort of.. extrapolated into a Strange Person

[tough lynx]

True yeah

[tough lynx]

Grabbed Victor's boss weapon it's uhh... it's certainly a weapon

[sweet quiver]

which one was it now again

i used none of the boss weapons so my memory on them is hazy

[tough lynx]

Frozen Feast, the greatsword that gets faster when uou attack with it up to four stacks

It's um

[sweet quiver]

it sucks ass

i hate that one specifically actually

[tough lynx]

Extremely slow and becomes only as slow as the other greatswords at four stacks

While using more stamina >->

At least the fable art instantly gets you to four stacks

[sweet quiver]

i had to rerun the entire game because of that weapon

[tough lynx]

We assume it does more damage than the other greatswords?

wat

[sweet quiver]

fuckass stupid and it sucks gameplay wise too

[sweet quiver]

no

it's just bad

[tough lynx]

Why did you have to rerun the game because of it?

[sweet quiver]

achievement

[tough lynx]

You need it for an achievment?

[sweet quiver]

yes

you need it to do a specific miniquest

that you have to do for an achievement

[tough lynx]

How strange

[sweet quiver]

yeah

[tough lynx]

Anyway, it seems like a significantly less cool version of the circular saw

[sweet quiver]

it does genuinely just suck

i got the 100% in the end

funnily enough

the dlc released the like, day i was going to get all the achievements for base game

and it fucked up my 100% run

[tough lynx]

[sweet quiver]

then i bought the DLC and went 100% on that and now i have the game fully completed

worth it honestly

the last one i did was so perfect cause it was the DLC record one, and there was a thing you get in-game relating to it for completing the dlc

so it ended in like

the perfect way

[tough lynx]

...oh hey we found an ax made of puppet arms. Neat.

[sweet quiver]

oh sick

yeah that's a fun one

didn't end up using the Puppet Axe parts much but it's a great weapon for em

[tough lynx]

Gods, the puppet string's final upgrade is so much fun

[sweet quiver]

it is!

Puppet string and Aegis are both peak arms

[spare summit]

Frozen Feast is actually horrid regrettably

[sweet quiver]

yeah

[spare summit]

every big weapon in Lies of P is kinda fucking cheeks

on account of the game just not respecting the big bonk life

[sweet quiver]

Pino is kind of lithe and speedy

[spare summit]

all the good Motivity weapons are like

spears, weirdly enough

and halberds

[sweet quiver]

not me putting heavy blades on speedy handles and calling it a day

[spare summit]

heavy blade on speedy handle is still Technique scaling tho X_X

[sweet quiver]

yeah i ran technique imma keep it real

booster glaive handle diff

[tough lynx]

I love being in a poison swamp while being bombarded by artillery

[sweet quiver]

lmao

[tough lynx]

...what the heck are critical hits?

Okay so some weapons just have a chance to do extra damage we guess?

[spare summit]

yes

[tough lynx]

Interesting

[spare summit]

crits are not a regular function of the game, just a thing that a few weapons have

[tough lynx]

...oh dang this is a lot of extra damage

[spare summit]

sure is

rock pistol drill be hitting different

[sweet quiver]

one of my favourite base game weapon combo's was the big stabba

[tough lynx]

Doesn't that get a damage decrease for most of the attacks?

[sweet quiver]

just charge heavies

or normal heavies

[tough lynx]

Never use r1s we guess

[sweet quiver]

yeah

[tough lynx]

Side note: why do the alchemy boosters exist

[bitter ridge]

Great question

[tough lynx]

The gold fruit tree already makes more fruit than we know what to do with, having it make more even faster seems redundant

We guess they're useful if you're a madman who actually uses the cube?

[sweet quiver]

absolutely no idea

presumably if you use the cube yeah

idk

[tough lynx]

Actually, let’s look them up to see if any of them are any good on a no specter playthrough

So the recover stone is a 200 hp heal over 30 seconds which is fine but not spectacular

Advance restores 75 legion over (unspecified period of time)

[spare summit]

da cube is kind of a meme

[tough lynx]

One of them gives you more fable per attack (how much more? Who knows!)

And one gives you 40 stamina for 30 seconds

…

So the best of these is just the lies of p version of a life gem huh

I guess there’s nothing else to use the coins for outside of quests and respecs so might as well buy them?

[sweet quiver]

the cube is abysmally dogshit for non specter stuff

[final smelt]

i feel like the courage could be useful if anyone had a value

i guess you could test it

diffrent main menu screen

i dont have the dlc so did the broken stargazer turn out ot be it?

[sweet quiver]

yes

[final smelt]

ok courage is noteicable but its also really slow to use item and it lasts for a short tier

so the legion cube is just a legion magzine

thats what it is

its a legion magzine you can only have 1 of at a time and uses a diffrent money

[sweet quiver]

that's pretty ass

[final smelt]

Know what would honestly almost make these kinda useful

if they auto triggered

[sweet quiver]

yeah that would make them have SOME utility at least

[final smelt]

yeah like if you use up enougyh legion that your out it just auto uses it

and fills it some

or if your hp is low enough

using all your fable trigers the fable one

[spare summit]

the hp cube is pretty decent I guess

[tough lynx]

We think there are some p-organ upgrades that buff the number of cube uses you have, but why get those when you could upgrade the number of legion mags or fable catalysts you can hold instead

FoxKnight ↩️

[Reply to:](#1162109930472493066 message) its a legion magzine you can only have 1 of at a time and uses a diffrent money

[sweet quiver]

yeah

[tough lynx]

It really only matters for exactly specters and bad life gems huh

[final smelt]

yeah

also one thing that is really good

is the grindstone upgrades

the special ones

instead of repairing the slow way you can just use a special one to repair it some with an upgrade

its great for bosses

since you can just at phase 2 use the special grindstone to repair you back to normal

[tough lynx]

Gods, this game is good 😌

[sweet quiver]

it really is

[final smelt]

the cubes feel so wierd

and out of place

[tough lynx]

Yeah

I think our only real criticism about the game is that it is aggressively linear

But that's it

[final smelt]

yeah its pretty linear

also your pobally gonna get a another criticism real soon

[sweet quiver]

it is not an exploration game for sure

[tough lynx]

We are concerned

FoxKnight ↩️

[Reply to:](#1162109930472493066 message) also your pobally gonna get a another criticism real soon

[sweet quiver]

honestly i never got the problem with games being particularly linear or not

[final smelt]

i usally dislike it unless it gives me something good for it

like ex33 is very linear

but its also constant vomit of nice visuals

[tough lynx]

(What's the criticism?)

FoxKnight ↩️

[Reply to:](#1162109930472493066 message) also your pobally gonna get a another criticism real soon

[final smelt]

where are you now?

[tough lynx]

The swamp but we are open to being spoiled for this

[final smelt]

the swamp contains the single worst boss in the game

[sweet quiver]

the Green Swamp Monster was not fun

[tough lynx]

Oh no

[final smelt]

its the only boss i had to summon on

[sweet quiver]

it's the thing i'm least looking forward to on my current playthrough i think

[tough lynx]

Concerning

[sweet quiver]

you'll see when you get to it

it's not an absolute nightmare but like, it's not something i enjoy

[final smelt]

i started working on a little soulslike tierlist

boss tierlist

and yeah green is part of f- tier

F-:hino-emma(n),bed of chaos(1),Ludwig(b)godskin multi(e),valient gargoyles(e),niall(e),demon prince(3) once i get to writing down lies of p

but i started inputing nioh and went

"its been a while i don't emember a ton of the bosses

hino though i remember her

[tough lynx]

Ugh, trying out the crit weapons but the constant red flashes are a pain

[tough lynx]

So um

What was the hard part about this boss supposed to be?

We just used a wintry rapier blade + city longspear handle and first tried it

We guess it seemed to keep a lot of its refillable health but we just kept attacking it and it didn't matter

...well Alidoro is quite rude isn't he

||...oh. A bloodstained book with golden wings on it. That isn't the real Alidoro is it||

||Oh. So this is what Geppetto meant by the station being filled with monsters||

[bitter ridge]

Ergo and the production of it are fine, whatever you hear negatively is propaganda

[tough lynx]

Weapon spoilers: ||so the two dragons sword seems great||
||Is the light flash in its charged r2 a parry frame?||

||IT IS!||

This weapon is amazing

[heavy agate]

love that sword

also I found the first boss of the DLC to be much, much worse than the swamp boss

[ashen pumice]

It's great

One of the best Technique weapons in the game

[bitter lotus]

what's the vibe check on wuchang

I liked what I saw of it

[tough lynx]

Beginning to wonder if small pointy sticks are actually the most overpowered weapons in lies of p

[sweet quiver]

pointy sticks are good

throwing shit also works

[tough lynx]

Lies of P ||What do you MEAN the Hotel is under attack!?||

[ashen pumice]

:)

on the plus side, that means you are almost at the DLC

[tough lynx]

Wow, this corrupted puppet is strong

Aaaaand dead

||We are shocked, shocked we say, that the Fox and Cat betrayed us. What's next, Geppetto being evil? Alidoro being an imposter?||

||Also (other) Sophia we understand that making sure everyone is still alive is important and all but we have a new record we want to listen to and that takes priority||

[sweet quiver]

REAL

[tender orchid]

Gotta up that Humanity with the power of music!

[tender orchid]

Hey look on the bright side, ||the industrialist that made all the things trying to kill you is actually a cool and stand up guy just wanting to do the right thing, even if he got confused about what the right thing was for a while||

[sweet quiver]

gotta love Venigni

[tough lynx]

||That Venigni is literally just a cool guy is amazing tbh||

[sweet quiver]

yeah

honestly lovely

[tender orchid]

It's nice that there's one cool guy from that group and he wants to help

[tough lynx]

...so the upgrade materials for the boss weapons seem to be limited in quantity. That's annoying

[bitter ridge]

the biggest gripe of the game

[ashen pumice]

unfortunately yes

[tender orchid]

Choose wisely

[sweet quiver]

max level upgrading items for normal weapons is also limited but it's not remotely as bad since it's only for the final level

[tough lynx]

DLC: ||Oh god it’s iceborne||

[sweet quiver]

lmao

[bitter ridge]

surefire way to adjust an aesthetic

[tough lynx]

Geez, how long has this city been completely doomed

||We're at some point in the past (apparently a while ago) and the place is still full of carcasses||

[bitter ridge]

||I believe it's something of an early breakout in the DLC, but I was also asking that. Nobody mentioned them, it was all Puppet Frenzy Puppet Frenzy!||

[sweet quiver]

There is in fact an answer

[tough lynx]

Lies of Peak DLC ||You think we could get the reward by telling them we killed puppet Romeo from the future?||

||Red headed stalker you say 👀 ||

[tulip cove]

Whats with souls(likes) and icy dlcs

[tough lynx]

||Did we just pick up a bow||

||...huh. Gemini has memories of this day||

||Oh my gods the play dead gesture actually makes bears ignore you||

[ashen pumice]

oh lmao

[tough lynx]

Hmm... want to try out the ||bow|| but it's a special weapon so we can't safely upgrade it

[tough lynx]

||The lorenzini bolt blade is awesome and we love it||

[sweet quiver]

that handle is my favourite in the entire dlc

i use it on my favourite wepon combo

[tough lynx]

👀

[long flicker]

What's the combo?

[tough lynx]

What's the combo?

[sweet quiver]

it's with a weapon later in the dlc

here is a pic with it if you don't mind being spoiled a bit on a weapon part

it's my favourite weapon by far in the entire game

[tough lynx]

||There’s a shotgun arm!?!?||

[sweet quiver]

yes

yes there is

[ashen pumice]

yes, and it's very good

[sweet quiver]

actually all three of my main weapons rn are dlc ones

all custom combo's

[tough lynx]

Dang, it scales with motivity 😔

[sweet quiver]

yeah

i got motivity and technique at 50 by now which is nice for trying stuff

[tough lynx]

For us it's mostly that we don't really have any upgraded blades that work well with motivity handles, most of our blades are pure stabbing damage

[final smelt]

if it can do both its fine

[tough lynx]

||Why are we fighting golden hippo in lies of p||

...we get the feeling we should not be in the dlc yet

We are getting 2 shot by this thing

[tough lynx]

This is the worst boss we've fought in any souls game

[tulip cove]

Whomst

[tough lynx]

||Tyrannical Predator||

[tulip cove]

Mm i see

[sweet quiver]

Yeah it is

Shit

[tough lynx]

There, it's dead

||We guess we've got female dolls now||

[sweet quiver]

Yeppers

[tough lynx]

||I think this Markiona gal might like legs or something||

[sweet quiver]

For sure could be a thing

[tough lynx]

Huh. Neat

[sweet quiver]

Ye

[tough lynx]

Welp, boss time apparently

[sweet quiver]

Yeppers

Fun one too

[tough lynx]

So um

Nice doll

And Sophia is being gay, as usual

[sweet quiver]

Fair

[tough lynx]

This is a fun fight! 😌

Very difficult though

[tough lynx]

Oh hey, what level/ what stats did y’all’s late game builds have?

(For lies of p)

[heavy agate]

just found out I'm locked out of a quartz and a cool outfit for not taking a specific boss weapon 😭

can't get it now until NG+

the ||Mechanical Cryptic Vessel Decryption||

[sweet quiver]

Yeah

Same thing happened to me

One of the myriad of reasons that ||Frozen Feast|| sucks

[heavy agate]

I think it's probably the only boss weapon I didn't take

the amulet looked too good

[sweet quiver]

yeah

[heavy agate]

||Laxasia|| is dead, I think I'm near the end of the base game so I'm focussing on the DLC for now

I've met ||the real Alidoro, cool guy. Wish he hadn't been stabbed in the back||

[final smelt]

L is a really good fight

i semi recently just refought her using an old save

||https://youtu.be/GGV58wwA_1I?feature=shared||

[heavy agate]

it is a cool fight

it's only a shame you don't get her super cool weapon

and instead get a chakram for some reason?

[heavy agate]

oh, nevermind

lmao

guess I've found my ng+ weapon

changed my mind about the Green Monster

I hate it

it just hit me with three grabs in a row, jesus

[heavy agate]

there's a gunblade?!

sick

[spare summit]

Pale Knight cooks

[heavy agate]

too many cool weapons

[ashen pumice]

It's pretty good

[spare summit]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/337171515587952642/1265942968397987905/RDT_20240725_032604.mp4?ex=6887d803&is=68868683&hm=9452d657fdcf1acffb4ee5e16529ac3395abd1410b7b12e0e67a5e6077abad17&

[tulip cove]

CACKLING

[untold tendon]

@fallow otter

[spare summit]

I have bearer seek seek lest as a soundboard option on my irl-friends ttrpg server lol

[tulip cove]

shannalotte is my favorite firekeeper in the trilogy

[spare summit]

highly uncontroversial

[heavy agate]

why?

[heavy agate]

If I could make one change to this game, it would be to remove Decay

there are a lot of carcass enemies and bosses that inflict it and it's the most annoying condition

well, Disrupt is an instant kill when it goes off but it's much rarer

[heavy agate]

why does ||Lumacchio|| have so much HP?

my sword is on red durability by the time I hit phase 2 and phase two inflicts decay

[final smelt]

do you use the sepcial grindstone repair?

[heavy agate]

no, I haven't unlocked that yet

bought it, I mean

[final smelt]

get it its amazing for boss fights

[heavy agate]

I haven't been struggling too much with durability until this fight

I usually have time to repair, but this guy is all aggression

[heavy agate]

found the best cosmetic in the game:

[spare summit]

there's a use

I won't tell you what

[heavy agate]

holy shit this game is so depressing

the base game was depressing enough, but the DLC makes it so much worse

[heavy agate]

I've beaten Overture

[ashen pumice]

Nice

[sweet quiver]

Gg's

[heavy agate]

I didn't think I could hate ||Simon and Geppetto|| more honestly

I haven't finished the main game though

[sweet quiver]

Real

[heavy agate]

||"Was I a good father?"|| no, you were kind of a piece of shit tbh

[sweet quiver]

YUP

[heavy agate]

wait what

why was ||Simon Manus|| so easy?

[sweet quiver]

||Laxasia is low-key the hardest boss in base game||

[heavy agate]

base game beaten

[sweet quiver]

mfw i beat the game and realise ||everything is Geppetto and Simons fault||

[heavy agate]

for real

[sweet quiver]

||"Was i a good father" no actually, you could not have been more of a piece of shit if you physically tried, rot in the deepest depths of the underworld||

[ashen pumice]

literally

[sweet quiver]

Always has been

[tulip cove]

question
if i start nge+ in DS2 with a bazillion souls, do these bazillion souls count for the nge+ soul amount i need to bypass the shrine of winter?

[final smelt]

no

it starts counting once you swap over

and it goes up by i forget how much per ng+

[tulip cove]

ahh gotcha

i just gotta save up on soul items then

[flint pike]

I mean, ||Thge alchemists as a whole really helped. and whatever's going on with McFunkyImmortalSquad||

[sweet quiver]

true

[tulip cove]

tormenting myself by trying to do the No Death Run AND the No Rest Run on my NGE+ of Dark Souls 2

At the Same Time

(i thought i had enough saved souls to skip the Shrine but NOPE)

25% of what's needed 🥹

[potent pewter]

this is why, if you're doing NG+, you just farm up the rotten a trillion times on NG0

[tulip cove]

i was farming giant lord

[potent pewter]

and have 99 dead one souls in your inventory

also works

[tulip cove]

dang

i shouldnt have jumped the gun

[potent pewter]

always carry around your entire net worth in your pocket

this life hack brought to you by john robber

[tulip cove]

hah

im currently on my way to kill 3 of the four Old Ones because i am not going back to Iron Keep

[sweet quiver]

Giant lord farm is one for the ages

[tulip cove]

my ass is not gonna gamble on those platforms

[potent pewter]

iron keep has a lot of dicey parkour stuff, yeah

[tulip cove]

also uh
i should play offline
or burn an effigy

before some blue guy tries to smite me for my invasion crimes again

[tulip cove]

If i fail this run ill Learn and do this and the rotten strat before jumping the gun

[sweet quiver]

👍

[final smelt]

altnertively do you want to try one of the challange runs i did for ds2

sl1, merchants only, enemy drops only

[tulip cove]

Oh dear

Sl1 seems like a challenge weapons wise
Whatd you use

Mace?

Blunt damage feels like its king in ds2

[final smelt]

theres a chart somewhere

i used the hnadaxe

[tulip cove]

Oooh

[final smelt]

i can't find it

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sS60wRSHyKsq1b--UzZCuaG7djVNdOvXie8ajZSqm5g/edit?gid=1947278080#gid=1947278080

found it

tell you all possible gear

and what gear you neeed

also armor is useful to upgrade

i had enough armor that most things could not oneshot me

it was only giant,velstat powered up, and nashanda that could

mechants has one big thing that sucks about it

the windmill

you can't burn it

so you need to fight mythra in a poison pit

to unlock unlimited large titnite

[tulip cove]

Some enemies drop torch charges right?

[final smelt]

yeah

but no merchants do

merchants only means you can only uses items from mechants and key items

[tulip cove]

Ooof

Oh i misread the sentence above (i thought it was s1 AND merchant and enemy drop only)

[potent pewter]

sl1 merchants only seems neat

[final smelt]

that sounds like a lot

i actully not sure if it would be possible

that would require you to beat myrtha at sl1 with the poison pool active

in order to get unlimited titinite

10 can be bought from lnigrast and thats all you get

until cholanne who has 10 more

she gets unlimited after beating iron keep

[potent pewter]

yeah but that should be fine, since you only need 6 for a weapon in ds2

since merchants includes melentia you get brightbugs, and i think someone sells resins before mytha

[untold tendon]

https://bsky.app/profile/ironpineapple.bsky.social/post/3lveftknvcs2x

Iron Pineapple (@ironpineapple.bsky.social)

hmmmmm

Likes

574

Bluesky · Aug 1, 2025, 7:41 PM

[final smelt]

its more of the issue of the poison just melting you

its fixed damage in ds2 i think

yeah one poison proc alone is enough to kill you at sl1

[potent pewter]

ah true

i totally did not think about that part

[final smelt]

it sucks even with leveling

because you have to heal while also fighting her

who is being constantly healed

so its both a self heal race and a damage race

[potent pewter]

yeah but with leveling you can pop an old lifegem or two and sustain while you whack

[final smelt]

one life gem makes you netrual 2 i think makes you heal up

[potent pewter]

source: i didn't know about windmill on my first run

played completely blind

[final smelt]

its the only part of the merchants only run that really sucked

[potent pewter]

makes sense

[final smelt]

enemy drop only was mainly just grindy

[potent pewter]

yeah I'm super uninterested in that unless i have a mod for 100% drop rates

[final smelt]

its not that bad in ds2 too much

its mainly chunks

[potent pewter]

and weapons

[final smelt]

weapon drops are decently common in ds2

[potent pewter]

most of the enemy weapons i like are very late

[final smelt]

shards can be farmed on blacksmiths pretty easily

the villagers drop shards at a not as good rate but not aweful

and the big gyrm guys you can farm near that one big rat boss drop chunks at a meh rate

do you know the wierd thing about ds2 equipment drops?

Each enemy can only drop their gear set once

for example if you farm at the first bonfire in forrest at the nearest soldier he will never drop more than one weapon and armor set

[tulip cove]

Huhh

[tulip cove]

Oh my lord

[final smelt]

so if you want to dualwield you nneed to farm a 2nd enemy

[tulip cove]

Silent Hill F(romsoft Game)

[spare summit]

Ryukishi07 stays winning?

[noble plover]

having an extremely normal day in DS1

[sweet quiver]

it do be like that

[tulip cove]

freja just killed my No Death run
outside of the boss arena too

well i still have my No Rest run

[ashen pumice]

The hardest part about no death is not accidentally sitting at a bonfire

[tulip cove]

this is why im Afraid

[noble goblet]

I'm afraid because aaaaahhhhh! spooky skeleton 😱!

https://tenor.com/view/dark-souls-gif-24580984

[tulip cove]

you'll never guess what happened

well rip, next nge++ it is then

i'll farm more giant lord souls this time aaaaaaa

[final smelt]

it goes up each ng+ on how many to skip the shrine

it might be good to stock up on brightbugs

since your goning though this process anyways

and get yourself some stuff that might jelp you long run

like repair powder etc

[tulip cove]

i uh slotted a Repair spell and wear the Iron Crown at all times (im doing this run with a spellcaster)

[final smelt]

remember this is ds2 item limits are are pretty high

also good to buy the resist items too

[tulip cove]

ah yeah, the flowers (?) that give resist

ill just spend this current run stocking up on supplies
thank you for the advice

[tulip cove]

my focus is spread
im thinking of doing some cosplay builds while grinding my main save for the No Death/No Rest run

i once did Vin from Mistborn and Allison from KSBD
and also Endgame Thanos with a twinblade build

right now im trying to think of how to make Binah from LobCorp/Ruina

[tulip cove]

there's something therapautic about farming the Rotten

[still garnet]

Been playing lies of P

About 4/5 of the way the dlc

What the fuck was ||the anguished guardian and why did arms of ergo come down to bless the spear||

What the fuck did that mean

also, the alchemists are the most comically evil faction of all time

On par with pontiff sulyvhan for “ruined everything”

Specifically repairing ||arlechinno|| was a fucking insane choice

[tough lynx]

Come on, what's the worst that could happen?

[sweet quiver]

Simply goated evil behaviour

[sweet quiver]

:)

[still garnet]

Is there an answer to that question or is it just like

Up in the air

[still garnet]

The events of overture are actually

And by extension the main game although idk how big of a role the riddler plays in that

[sweet quiver]

Lil bit of A and lil bit of B

[still garnet]

Rad

As a sidenote why do the dlc weapons rock so hard

[forest shard]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSwkJC96IXI

[still garnet]

@sweet quiver got to the final boss of the dlc

Peak

Haven’t beat him yet

But he’s peak

[sweet quiver]

Absolute cinema

[bitter ridge]

Does further bring a sort of 'what the fuck was the plan here, Manus' kind of energy

[tulip cove]

For a second i thought this was about dark souls

[still garnet]

So my guess is that he didn’t really get how like

Completely uncontrollable A is

He thought he was like a human, where he could have him on a leash

When the very idea of being controlled is I think anathema to him

Speaking of Manus tho

Man monad why did you just

Let him do this shit

For so long

[noble goblet]

Manus lies of P and Manus Dark Soul should shake Overly Large Hands

[sweet quiver]

mfw i'm in a pointless evil competiotion and my opponents are ||Simon Manus and Guiseppe Geppetto||

[forest shard]

https://bsky.app/profile/aleriiav.bsky.social/post/3lvhosplaf227

Aleriia_V (@aleriiav.bsky.social)

Recluse from Nightreign

Reposts

730

Likes

3614

Bluesky · Aug 3, 2025, 3:00 AM

[still garnet]

Also holy fuck Lea and Arlecchino’s VAs give

INSANE performances

In overture

Lea specifically knocks it out of the park

Her dialogue for the final fight is

Woof

[sweet quiver]

https://tenor.com/view/me-atrapaste-es-cine-its-cinema-cinema-esto-es-cine-gif-17729711691959966457

[still garnet]

The line she gives for judgement cut that forces the phase change is god tier

[sweet quiver]

yeah

did you beat the fight?

cause (post-fight spoilers)||the weapon you get for doing so can do the judgement cut||

[ashen pumice]

it's pretty slick yeah

[still garnet]

Have not yet

Keep dying to the phase 2 opening attack chain

Which is brutal

We’ve gotten past it like twice and it’s def doable from that point t but we have not been able to consistently get past it to like

Learn the phase

Yknow

[sweet quiver]

yeah

i had a specific tech for it called "use the invincibility grinder" but i think learning it would be fun

[heavy agate]

I used the perfection grindstone for that attack and only that attack, I simply could not get the hang of parrying it

never used it otherwise 😛

[still garnet]

We aren’t moving on in the main story til the dlc is over so we’re like

Just at the end of chapter 9

Also know what

I’m far enough

I think this is old hunters/SOTE tier

As souls DLC go

Which is pretty much royalty

[sweet quiver]

It'd not Lies of Peak for nothing

And Overture seriously elevates the weapon game

My fav weapon combo's are dlc ones

[heavy agate]

Genuinely top three soulslike. Probably my second favourite after Elden Ring

[sweet quiver]

it's peak

i have 121 hours and i'm going to have more

[bitter ridge]

I think my one real qualm is build variety is like.. it's very much there, and there's tons of weapons and all, but not quite wildly unique to the extent I'm gonna replay the game about it

It's both a good and bad thing I guess

[still garnet]

Pale knight is absurd

[sweet quiver]

Yah

By far my favourite weapon combo was ||the puppet welder blade combined with the Venigni bolt handle||

I was ||straight up playing Monster Hunter lance when i combo'd it with Aegis||

[tough lynx]

||Makes us think of the bagelgoose lance||

[sweet quiver]

My other faves were the ||maniacs pinwheel blade+la vendetta handle and Arche Guartian Blade+Maniacs Pinwheel handle||

Honorable mentions to ||coil hammer blade+arche guardian handle for making Mjolnir||

[ashen pumice]

it's really nice yeah

the combos on it also felt really good

[sweet quiver]

I didn't fw the non-craftable weapons much

but Pale Knight seemed sick

tbh though i could never pick it over the ||Monad's Rose Sword||

[untold tendon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTlBUqC2Cto @glossy cloak @gloomy ibex

[tender orchid]

The Divine Comedy

Now I know Italian /jk

[untold tendon]

https://bsky.app/profile/airbagged.bsky.social/post/3lwvxtjh7622b the go woke go broke crowd continuing to baffle

kate bush’s husband (@airbagged.bsky.social)

tattoos are a soulslike experience for your flesh

Likes

155

Bluesky · Aug 21, 2025, 12:44 PM

[sweet quiver]

???

[heavy agate]

The use of the word 'soulslike' gets broader and broader. In five years, someone's going to announce a soulslike hero shooter and a soulslike toothbrush

[velvet gorge]

They’re just using as “painful”.

They do not understand

[still garnet]

Oh @sweet quiver my friend and I finished the DLC

holy SHIT G is so fucking evil

[sweet quiver]

YEAH

[still garnet]

That post credits scene was the biggest fuck you EVER

[sweet quiver]

literally no reason to do that

just doing it for the love of he evil game

[still garnet]

Man idk if it’s gonna get answered in the main game but why the fuck did he need ||romeo specifically to be king of puppets||

||the only reason I can imagine is just spite for them not saving carlo||

Also freyja thought you’d appreciate

Found and killed A in the modern timeline with Lea’s sword

[sweet quiver]

[sweet quiver]

:)

[still garnet]

Also found a note that implied manus was gonna fuse the arm of god, which I know now to be a LITERAL eldritch arm

And like

Come on man

[sweet quiver]

:)

[still garnet]

Simon, G, and Arlecchino all in race to see who can be the most needlessly evil

[sweet quiver]

me when i'm in a pointless evil and needless suffering competition and my opponents are Simon Manus, ||Guiseppe Geppetto|| and ||Arlecchino the Blood Artist||

[still garnet]

Somehow Simon is absolutely ahead

[still garnet]

And bafflingly A is in the back???

[sweet quiver]

yeah

[still garnet]

Also Venigi is Batman right

I’m not crazy

He’s just Batman

[sweet quiver]

it's crazy fucking work that the ||insane murderous psychopath who literally wants nothing more than to murder people|| is losing in the evil competition

Venigni is Batman if he was cool

[still garnet]

I was really worried he was gonna take the truth of the translated message poorly but

He was kinda just like “oh that checks out actually”

[sweet quiver]

nah Venigni is unironically just 100% based

actually the GOAT

[still garnet]

I was not ready for the final bit of dialogue from his butler tho

That shit was awesome

[sweet quiver]

🙏

[still garnet]

“Alright well. Go get your dad so we can kill him I guess”

[still garnet]

Hey he’s also weirdly chill

[sweet quiver]

yeah

[still garnet]

I saw someone talking about how he like

Seemingly also enjoys fostering peoples like, full potentials

[still garnet]

Also wow I uh

The rose sword is

REALLY good

[ashen pumice]

Yeah

[still garnet]

@sweet quiver OH I DIDNT SAY IT BUT

THE LINK RIPOSTE

WAS THE COOLEST SHIT OF ALL TIME

[sweet quiver]

Cash money

[still garnet]

I also love that the rose sword confirms that she was just doing all that shit herself

She didn’t have any powers, she was just that fucking fast, even with the plague

Jetstream sam ass

[sweet quiver]

That's why she's the GOAT

[still garnet]

Oh @sweet quiver beat the game

Got every gesture and every weapon

(Well, not every weapon but I believe we got them all except the boss weapons we chose not to)

FUCK NO WE MISSED ONE

[still garnet]

I just realized she had speed powers because ||she swore never to be late again||

[sweet quiver]

lol

[forest shard]

"Oh huh, there's a fairly active Dark Souls meme subreddit, I wonder what-"

ok. sure.

[tulip cove]

meme subreddit
expect nothing but quality (the worst) in places such as that

i havent even thought of the GiantDad meme in like

ages

[sour grail]

i'm dreading running through this againnnn 😭

[spare summit]

ahh

unfiltered dogshit.

[sour grail]

gonna finally give offensive miracles a shot

[sour grail]

yea...

that's for future me to deal with

i'm going to bed

[spare summit]

lmfao

real

it honestly isn't that bad once you figure out what they're expecting you to do?

[sour grail]

hopefully 😭

i forgot how much I like the vibe of this game and its areas

I just hopped on to grab that last ear (got 2/2 on my first try), and now I'm free to finish up Ringed City and do NG+2

grab all the NG+2 rings and 1 more gesture, convince someone to let me kill them 30 times for vertebra shackles, and that should be my 100%

[still garnet]

so whats ur take on this btw

[sour grail]

got past the pincushion section surprisingly easily

ringed knights are tough, but I'm making my way through the first lil city bit

[sweet quiver]

Theres a bit that's concrete and a bit that's just me speculating

(Lies of P main game+DLC story spoilers) First off, ||Romeo was in the main game said to have been dying to the petrification disease, from what we know in the main game it was mostly speculated that Romeo asked Geppetto to make him a puppet as he was dying anyway. This is not the case as we know by the dlc, Geppetto unleashed the Nameless Puppet on the dismembered Carlo and dying Lea after Pino vanishes post Arlecchino fight. Speculating a bit, He was trying to perfect the puppet making proccess that he failed to do with Nameless, and decided to use materials he had on hand, i.e Romeo, to do so. He presumably did this out of a cruel sense of irony or some evil oragmatism or a bit of both. Romeo was far more advanced than Nameless who was kinda just a monster, and ended up awakening his ergo while being forced to become King of Puppets, so we can also speculate that what Geppetto learnt from making Romeo into a puppet paved the way for him making Pinocchio and the P-Organ||

Tl;dr ||Geppetto is an evil bastard who was trying to improve his puppet making game and probably used Romeo because he had his corpse and ergo on hand due to killing him. Romeo ended up being a really fucking advanced puppet so Geppetto repurposed him to be the king of puppets cause he might as well. With what he learned from Nameless and later Romeo about making human puppets he made Pinocchio and the P-Organ in a bid to revive Carlo||

[still garnet]

Also I like how the dlc recontextualizes the shot of ||Gepetto pulling off his glove, as it reveals he picked up markiona’s tech, bro can’t fucking help himself|| @sweet quiver

[sweet quiver]

yep!

[still garnet]

Hope u don’t mind me ating u with my Lying On P thoughts

[sweet quiver]

naw

it's cool

i don't really mind pings in general

[still garnet]

Also his fucking hand is blue

In that shot

Which has

[sweet quiver]

yeah

[still garnet]

implications

[sweet quiver]

i thought it was a glove at first but no

it isn't actually

he's just like that

fucking freak

[still garnet]

Hey buddy what’s going on

You doing acid heroin?

You really shouldn’t!

SPEAKING OF RECONTEXTUALIZATION

[sweet quiver]

the main game is fantastic

the DLC is fantastic

the DLC makes the main game even more fun

absolute grand covenant

[still garnet]

||Simon’s boss fight made me realize that the ancient guardian was calling down the ergo of the ancient civilization in that moment, like Simon calls the ergo he’s summoned with the arm||

[sweet quiver]

https://tenor.com/view/lies-of-p-lop-pinocchio-lies-of-p-p-p-lies-of-p-gif-9662625293062647286

[sweet quiver]

yeah

https://tenor.com/view/its-p-lies-of-p-peak-gif-8315402644347361697

this is actually a really funny gif

[final smelt]

i hate that attack specificly because it always showed up at the worst moments for me

[still garnet]

It kinda makes me think that the ancient civ must’ve like…. Ascended to beings of pure ergo or something

[sweet quiver]

love theorycrafting

my beloved

[still garnet]

Also ||the angel was definitely an alien that was ripped apart by people trying to study it for its immortality||

Given how evil an action that is, I’d guess it was committed by ancient alchemists

Honestly the one thing I’m sad and feel was a missed opportunity was ||actually seeing the physical fallen star never happened||

[sweet quiver]

||The Angel?||

[still garnet]

||yeah the one winged angel from the church, there’s a lot of documents that refer to them, including Simon as pistris, saying that the angel refused to gift immortality to mankind and was torn apart iirc||

[sweet quiver]

||ahhh ok, ic||

personally i'm more interested in ||Paracelcus and the immortals||

[still garnet]

Well I’m sure you’ll get that in the new game lol

[sweet quiver]

Yeah more than likely lmao

Gods what a fucking cliffhanger

[still garnet]

Also fuck you ||paracelceus I gave you all that coin fruit and you didn’t even need it||

[sweet quiver]

What a dickhead

Tbh i just

Didn't ||give paracelcus any more coin fruit than what was necessary||

[still garnet]

Fair enough we just used the specters a lot which necessitates buying stones

[sweet quiver]

Fair

I didn't use specters at all so they were useless to me

[untold tendon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we9dmyP-4kI

[spare summit]

how has Iron Pineapple not done a video on this

[tulip cove]

2nd try on my

no death, no rest DS2 run

ive farmed the Rotten enough in my last playthrough to open up Drangleic Castle for the new one

i am

at the Shrine of Amana now

with a bo

w

I

I GOT SLAIN

by the damn archdrakes

after getting stuck at a door 😭

i think i'll try a different save file for this

[sour grail]

midir down 😌 other than some of the charges being a bit tough to handle, I like it

[untold tendon]

wait wrong thread

[potent pewter]

lmao

is there a dodge roll

if so, it still counts

[noble plover]

well, i'm still a zwei guy at heart, but i am appreciating what the falchion brings to my Dex/Int build in this DS1 run

much easier to quickly pile on hits than with the longsword i was using previously

[sweet quiver]

Big sword good

I kinda like Rapier for my caster build in ds2

[final smelt]

rapier was the 2nd best weapon in the game

the best is also a rapier

DS2 in generally hanlded stabbing weapons better

spears have amazing range

[sweet quiver]

I used the chaos rapier

[next hollow]

you win

[tulip cove]

I used the ice rapidr

Rapier

[final smelt]

theres a reason that rapier is the all bosses go to weapon

for speedruns

[untold tendon]

https://youtu.be/Qu2ewImdfuU

[potent otter]

yo there's someone making a pretty cool looking Bloodborne-inspired overhaul for Elden Ring

I think these are meant to be the starting classes?

[sweet quiver]

interesting

[harsh shard]

Code Vein deluxe edition's on sale for cheap, how do folks like that one

[final smelt]

i like code vien

the combat is faster, abit more about diffrent combos like holding i think right bumper does diffrent stuff and can be used mid combo

[harsh shard]

Does it have a pause button or does it do the Souls thing where bringing up a menu doesn't pause the world

[final smelt]

more story focused with regular charcters you are in a team with

I do not recall

give me a bit

[harsh shard]

No worries, I like games with proper pause since I get interrupted a lot and can plan around it otherwise

[final smelt]

also the char creator is good

also the dlc isnt really good

eh 2 dollars more it doenst matter

[harsh shard]

Yeah the huge sale makes it pretty easy to justify the extra content

[final smelt]

Ok it does not have true pause

but photomode cna be maped to a button and it does pause

so you can just use photo mode as a pause button

[harsh shard]

Everyone enjoys a good photo mode

[hollow spruce]

Codevein is the only soulslike so far that made me want to donate blood

[final smelt]

i think that is supposed to be Io

[tough lynx]

What the heck

Reverb-MSG4RF- ↩️

[(click to see attachment)](#1162109930472493066 message)

[tender orchid]

Yeah Io would be my best bet too since she's the one with short white hair and a massive rack

[final smelt]

shes voiced by the same person who played moxxi from borderlands

[hollow spruce]

It is indeed Io

And if you donated blood during that time you received a free copy of the game apparently

[potent otter]

One hot tip for CV is that elemental defenses actually matter a huge amount

[tender orchid]

Another hot tip: Blood candies are really easy to farm so you can max out all your home base NPC affinities earlier than you'd think and can thus acquire their Blood Codes and buy their special gear real early if you wanted to use them or experiment a bit

[harsh shard]

Are blood candies kind of like the Ambrosias in Hades for making NPCs like you?

[final smelt]

theres a lot of little gift items you get

you can give them to people and they have diffrente likes

i recomend just looking it up

[tender orchid]

They probably have a different name but everyone likes the blood candies so it's the safe bet

Blood Bead Candy

[spare summit]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggIUsLzAHfc

it's soulslikes time

[next hollow]

it'S SOULING time

[hollow spruce]

Crossposting into here, Dinos with Weapons has Steampage now
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3440070/Dinoblade/

Steam

Dinoblade

Dinoblade is an intense action RPG set in a prehistoric world forever changed by a cataclysmic event, one that redefined the very nature of Dinosaurs. Step into the role of a young Spinosaurus, wielding a colossal Great Sword forged from ancient power. Confront rival dinosaurs, some armed with brutal weapons of their own, all in a desperate fight…

Release Date

To be announced

▶ Play video

Crossposting cause it has a Souslike tag, Idk how accurate it is but figured I'd post it here anyways incase

[potent otter]

[potent pewter]

oh fuck

[scenic hemlock]

Combat feels good but I stopped playing because it feels weirdly fanservicy idk how to describe it

[sweet quiver]

Code Vein was fun for what it was

Felt a bit unpolished but it might just be cause i was expecting a more traditional souls-like thing and it wasn't quite that

[bitter ridge]

I bounced off Code Vein, the combat felt.. weightless? And the aesthetic was like two steps aside where I'd prefer

[final smelt]

it does have less weight yeah but its also decent amount faster

also part of what you can do is combo your attacks into various ablities

you know how in elden ring alot of weapon arts are kinda awkard

the weapon ablities have better flow in codevien

[bitter ridge]

See I felt awkward the whole time but it's perspective and whatall I guess

[harsh shard]

The competition I've got to picking up Code Vein is AI Limit which might be a different cup of tea - anyone got experience with both?

[final smelt]

i played only the demo of ai limit

so one thing code vien doesnt each you veyr wlel

is holding i think right bumper has diffrent moves

[harsh shard]

Demo's usually a good indicator if the camera's nice at least

[final smelt]

so you can change your combo

code vien's demo is still up

[harsh shard]

That's kind of cool, I'm coming off Kingdoms of Amalur that had that kind of tech

[final smelt]

its not really combplex its mailny just a light a heavy and your cloak attack

theres also no true classes in code vien

you just swap bloodcodes which are the classes

but you change them any time

and some stuff can be carried over like some ablities

[harsh shard]

I do like easy respecs

[final smelt]

for example you can interupt the ends of combos with ablities to flow better

theres no respecing because there is nothing to respec

here is what swiching your class looks like minus equipment

some of the late game classes do have abitlies that are locked to them but for the most part you can unlock them to use whereever and thats where the builds come from

some of the lighter classes require lighter armor but they also get dodging simlar to bloodborne

[harsh shard]

Took a bit and took the plunge on the deluxe edition, will send trip reports over coming weeks; immediate results out of the character creator is it's tough to get to wear actual full length pants and not shorts

[final smelt]

yeah most of the time your going to be wearing armor

so you kinda have to plan your outfit with the armor a bit but you can change how you look later

freely completely

[scenic hemlock]

I wanted to ask some questions about emulating bloodborne, is this the right place because I'm fairly sure someone here did that

[spare summit]

I know someone who has a working emulator setup

[sweet quiver]

I've emulated it, iirc it wasn't terribly hard

When i was playing it crashed a lot but the game worked fine that aside

[scenic hemlock]

about how legal is it for me to do that and what's the risk of getting a virus?

[scenic hemlock]

are they on this server?

[spare summit]

nah

[scenic hemlock]

you think it works better now?

ah alr

[spare summit]

also like, to be totally straightforward, emulating Bloodborne is probably-definitely going to involve piracy at some point along the line

and discussing how to commit piracy is not permitted on this server for obvious reasons

[scenic hemlock]

oh ye no I meant everything besides that

[sweet quiver]

I'd be disappointed if it didn't

It's been quite a while since i last played

[scenic hemlock]

alright

[final smelt]

i played am ore recent verison and it mainly was fine except the dlc did need something done to work properly

it would crash on boss cutscenes if i didnt lock it down to 30 i think

[sweet quiver]

Huh

Weird

That was not an issue when i played

[final smelt]

it was only ludwig it triggered on

[sweet quiver]

Strange

[final smelt]

the half wya cutscene would crash

[sweet quiver]

oooh nice

[noble goblet]

she puppeteer my P-organ as I lie there, ergo, her Technique must be Advance'd or whatever

[noble goblet]

geniunely one of the best soulslikes of the past few years though. Absolutely worth it 100%.

[noble plover]

Started playing DS2 for the first time last night

Thought "I hear dual wielding is cool in this one, I'll start as a swordsman!"

Pro tip: do not do this

[ashen pumice]

Ah, yeah the classic

[noble plover]

I think I'll be restarting as a knight

[ashen pumice]

Though Swordsman can enable power stancing on its starting swords fairly quickly

[noble plover]

Ye

Unfortunately they also have 4 vigor and playing glass cannons is decidedly not my playstyle

[ashen pumice]

Knight is very good though as a starting class

Especially if you dint plan on doing much with magic

[noble plover]

Yeah, I usually don't

2h Str is kind of my bread and butter

I still wanna play with power stancing but I think I can do that a bit down the line here

[ashen pumice]

Then Knight is great yeah
They have IIRC the lowest points in most casting stats

Except for only somewhat low Faith

[ashen pumice]

This one has the benefit of 2h doubling effective Str in DS2, instead of just 1.5

[noble plover]

I think I did actually know that at some point, but holy shit

[ashen pumice]

It makes it very easy to meet Str requirements if you 2h

[noble plover]

Hell yeah

Actually somewhat unfortunate in that this is going to make it that much harder to get out of my 2h Str comfort zone

But we do what we can

[final smelt]

knight is the best starting class probally

if you yeah

i think theres only really 4 classes wort hstarting at

knight,depravied,sorcerer,explorere

[ashen pumice]

Deprived isn't worth it IMO, unless you need to do some weirdly hyper specific builds

The theoretical stat flexibility you gain isn't actually that useful most of the time

[final smelt]

yeah but i can't think of any use case for the others

other than if you just really really like the starting gear

the only use for bandit i could think of is

a faith build that does not use micles

[noble plover]

DS2's starting options do seem a bit... oddly balanced, to put it nicely

[final smelt]

warrior is just knight but bad, cleric is eh because mircles in general are just kinda weak

swordsman has really nothing for it its very lopsided

[noble goblet]

What do you recommend for a hexer start?

[final smelt]

sorcerer

even though its faith is very low

[noble plover]

Like the starting gift options being one (1) homeward bone, one (1) human effigy, several thousand souls' worth of healing items...

[ashen pumice]

Miracles are still fine tbh

Even after the lightning nerf

[final smelt]

caus sorce already has 14 int

has 12 attunemetn

and 4 faith

as well as already a staff and spell

30 points in magic stats bascily

vs clerics 26

higher adp as well than cleric

explorere is also decent as like an all arounder

has ab it roughter start due to bad equipment

but gets conusmables and decent stats

well several of them are low but adp is high

one of the stats that everyone will get

[potent pewter]

and also ds2's starting areas are littered with gear

there's a mace in majula, a couple short swords around, and a hand axe early into forest

[ashen pumice]

Lenigrast also sells a bunch of basic weapon

[potent pewter]

yeah, but those demand a bit more foreknowledge for someone picking explorer

since it requires buying the key and then the weapon, for a couple thousand souls overall

instead of just booking it to the thing you want

meaning you also gotta know where to go to pick up some soul items

[ashen pumice]

true enough I suppose

though the hollows in Forest are I feel weak enough that you can jusst kinda kill them with whatever

[potent pewter]

yeah

you're not wrong

[noble plover]

I walked into the forest, got oneshot by a hippo ogre grab attack, and walked back out of the forest 😛

Spose I'll have to get a bit bolder and more flexible about exploring if I'm going to keep playing blind

[ashen pumice]

yeah I don't know why they added the ogre into the river tbh

but you can just kinda avoid it and get the bonfire a little further down

[sour grail]

think i'm picking up lies of p after work tonight

[sour grail]

😭

[sour grail]

berry cool!

the attack animations feel a little stiff, and I'm sad R1s only go 1 2 1 2, but you seem to be able to mix in heavies and lights?

the weapon customization system is really awesome in concept, and I'm excited to see it open up more :D

stuck the starter greatsword blade on the baton handle

[final smelt]

a lot of the fable arts also flow well

make sure you buy the other weapons

from that shop near the parade

[sour grail]

there isn't a confirmation message when destroying a weapon (i thought that might be how you got the parts) 😔

[sour grail]

ooooh gotcha

i'll have to play around in the training mode

[final smelt]

you dont destroy weapons

you just split them in half

if you want the same weapon back just put back together

its the blade you upgrade

the handle determmines ab unch of tsuff

like animations

and attack speed is based on the combo

[sour grail]

I've really only been using some of the handle arts, but maybe the 3 hit rekka on the greatsword does a lot

[sour grail]

ahh gotcha

[sour grail]

yeah i did this before i got the item that lets you customize them 😭

cool cool!

I really like the combat flow too

deflecting is fun, although the scrapped watchman was quite erratic with its timings sometimes

[final smelt]

wait im really confused now

[sour grail]

being able to charge back your last estus is awesome too

[tough lynx]

oh, a tip
we forget how you see it, but some handles only do certain damage types and blades do better damage when you match the damage types

Vampbun Este (they/she) ↩️

[Reply to:](#1162109930472493066 message) stuck the starter greatsword blade on the baton handle

[sour grail]

gotchaaa

I did see something like Stab ⏬

on one of the handles

[final smelt]

check stargazer storage

[sour grail]

I'll take a look

[sour grail]

what for?

[final smelt]

that might be where the weapon you destroyed might be

[sour grail]

oh huh

will do when I'm on

😔

nothing for parts either

[final smelt]

what did you destroy?

[sour grail]

one of the weapons that you can choose at the start, that I purchased from the merchant

[final smelt]

yeah it looks like yeah if you want it back you just have to restart

how far in are you?

[sour grail]

just past scrapped watchman

it’s ok though, I’ll live

[final smelt]

was it the saber or rpaier?

[sour grail]

rapier

[final smelt]

rapier is pretty good nad has the guard parry art

[ashen pumice]

It's not the biggest deal ultimately

[sour grail]

I'm having some stuttering issues even on low or medium settings sometimes, did anyone else run into anything similar?

opened task manager and everything's looking good :( it might be certain areas but I don't think it should be this bad

[spare summit]

shaders might still be cooking

[noble goblet]

yeah I had huge issues with that until I updated drivers

[sour grail]

hrmm ok