Dark Souls 2: YOU DIED HARDER

Also, I met a guy called stiffmeister666 last night. Not quite pizzalawyer420 but it still made me laugh.

invaders are always like 'DatD1ckwraith' or something (real example)

I went human three times for Smelter, but the summoned help was mostly useless. :/

haha

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

So how about that giant, non-aggressive insect in The Gutter. Nobody seems to know its purpose.

isn't one of the starting items a weird egg/larva type thing? Maybe you can offer that up...

i ran around the shaded ruins for awhile before it sunk in that i had no business being there yet, and i'm curious about the silent/sleeping man with the body of a giant scorpion...

i think there's a ring that allows you to talk to that guy.

I haven't had any time to play this since knocking out 3 bosses over the weekend. i'm waaaay back in...wherever you are when you've defeated the two heide tower bosses and the wharf boss.

i'm still just exploring the forest of giants... need a day or two to devote.

i spent less time on skeleton lords and chariot combined than i did getting the lockstone that you have to jump to. the real truth about this series of games is they are at their most sadistic when they make you do anything that approximates platforming.

oh yeah i died a bunch of times trying to do that, then gave up.

Think I'm pretty close to finishing, just going round trying to find anything I missed now. Have had a lot less trouble than I did with first but guessing the final boss will be a real pain.

DS and DS2 do secrets better than any game I've ever played. It's so satisfying to discover a hidden area, and they're always so well integrated.

i'm sure i'm missing lots of explodable walls.

Yeah turned out I missed a load of hidden bonfires near boss fights. Black Gulch is worth exploring a bit more.

yeah. this one makes it even trickier by having some of the secrets accessible by a button press instead of a weapon smack.

i've been missing a lot of obvious stuff 'cause i'll see a path on some initial exploration and think 'hmm, that looks like it goes on awhile, i'll come back later' then totally forgetting about it. i'm into it though, it's nice to be able to come back to an area and have things left to discover, without worrying about making it to the boss.

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

http://i.imgur.com/CjQoCpz.jpg

haha, I've seen that tag a couple of times.

lol i got eaten (and spat out) by the Covetous Demon. it was worth it.

earthen peak is pretty fun.

just started playing this, they certainly didn't dumb it down lol. framerate is pretty crappy so far, not Blighttown bad but not great either. got a good laugh from reading the inscription on the monument by the sea.

I beat the last boss earlier today... and I've only collected three of the four old souls. Hmm.

The story-ending boss, I mean - the one in Drangleic Castle.

Brightstone Cove is such a shit level. Anti-fun.

oh god just got lost down a Dark Souls k-hole

Lol @ the second half of the Iron Keep. Banner day for torturous levels.

I think I'm done for the evening.

cruising along now...2nd half of iron keep was a breeze thanks to a helpful phantom (the only time i've summoned someone outside of a boss fight, just on a whim), and the gutter/grave/gulch was surprisingly not that bad. i didn't light anything in the gutter (do you just have to use flame butterflies?) and somehow made it to the bonfire near the end...that was the most careful i've been the entire game, but the enemies aren't that bad, as long as you watch out for the drops and poison statues.

black gulch is crazy but thankfully short, managed to do the Rotten solo on the 2nd try. now i guess it's time to do the Shaded Ruins for real? i think that's the only open path i haven't gone through.

i feel like i can't quite connect with this just now... need a year or so to acclimate. should maybe just focus on finishing 1.

I'm at the gulch right now! I know most people probably sprint through it, but I want all the treasures, so I've been painstakingly knocking over every statue and drawing the Lovecraftian horrors out of their pits one by one. Hm, I wonder if something like Emit Force could break multiple statues at once.

i haven't tested this out, but supposedly the black pools are flammable.

They are, but you have to be careful as there's one chest that's sitting directly in a pool of the stuff, and will get burned up if you approach it while carrying a torch

Started NG+. Time to first YOU DIED: 30 seconds.

those 3 big gold skeleton fuckers can get tae fuck

Trivia
• If you decapitate one of her heads, You can kick it around like a soccer ball. (Confirmed.)

They're going to make the turning human from a successful summon bug into a permanent feature! Which would be cooler if I didn't use a ring of life protection to stay human all the time already.

yeah that ring is an out of character addition for the series

cool, where did you hear that? i've been doing the ring move for successive attempts on bosses where i feel ok about using co-op, but i usually let it slide when moving through new areas (too much pressure to stay human/warp back to majula to get them repaired, i like being able to die with impunity). and i love helping people with bosses.

that ring would make more sense if you couldn't repair it

btw the old sun ring is my new favorite ring.

I was not aware of this ring until now but it sounds awesome. Will have to grab.

i killed someone in the belfry wearing that and my final kill blow set it off killing me at the same time. a 2nd invader was watching and did a celebratory gesture

Wait, it hurts yourself too when it explodes?

nope, it shouldn't

i was not wearing it, the guy i killed was

where's good to leave a summon sign? Have been playing about with it with not much luck. I'm level 50-something and only 20hrs into the game...

I usually leave 'em by bonfires or by the fog gate in front of a boss, usually with reasonable success. I got more summons once I turned on the option for multi-region play - I think it's turned off by default.

yeah I tried that around Heide's Tower but with no luck. Switching that option is a good hint, thanks!