Dark Souls 3 - April 2016 : You Died, You Died, You Died

it's great. i've been really enjoying the official arena too, especially 2v2 mode. it's my go-to thing for when i have 15 minutes free.

https://www.bandainamcoentstore.com/product/435037/dark-souls-iii-x-mas-fleece-sweater-size-s

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/12/20/why-dark-souls-3s-aldrich-is-2016s-best-boss/

this is pretty good and goes into some of the lore of DS3

Someone discovered a glitch that allows people to invade into boss fights, and it's fantastic (while it lasts). I was invading in Lothric Castle for awhile, ran out of people to invade, and decided to move on and fight the Dragonslayer Armor. A purple phantom shows up in the middle of the fight and it honestly made it so much more exciting.

replaying this again from scratch to get to the point where i can jump into the new downloadable content. it's a very very good game.

can't find the DS1 thread via google, but pretty much all the drums on this are DS samples ;)
https://www.residentadvisor.net/tracks/840047

this is crazy but true. last night i was struggling against the Abyss Watchers and was farming that area to save up enough souls to level up. i was at level 48 meaning i had to get 13,979 souls according to http://darksouls3.wiki.fextralife.com/Level. i killed some bad guys and not paying attention to how much i had warped back to Firelink and leveled up. i ended up with 1 soul left!

http://i.imgur.com/57AkuCq.jpg

i ended up with 13,980 souls, exactly 1 more than i needed. feels like a crazy coincidence but then again i bet they have all the numbers for enemy soul yield and leveling intertwined.

Nioh is really messing up my Dark Souls muscle memory when it comes to the controls.

Watching this guy's videos was very helpful to upping my invasion game btw: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDkeh30ZpOrazSqZ9_RCFog

#teamilx?

https://twitter.com/DarkSoulsGame/status/842012500665217024

http://i.imgur.com/uYDSW0l.jpg

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

It's really good, I only wish it was longer.

(I'm currently at what I assume are the last two bosses, both of whom are still in their 'seemingly impossible' phase of familiarity)

i've just killed the three angels and am at the first boss(es). it's a really good fight. looking forward to seeing the rest.

I never found the, um, way to kill the angel in the swamp. Too stressful running around there.

I don't think this is going to be a very good place for invasions (especially compared to the last dlc), as almost every moment is a gauntlet or set piece. You're always running through trying to avoid lasers/arrows/fire/tons of enemies, and an invader could probably just come in and do nothing until the host dies from the environment.

holy shit all these respawning archers

the city itself is really cool. i love the moss-covered lost city look.

http://i.imgur.com/J9onyNS.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zxV3qHg.jpg

really happy with how the new DLC turned out. feels really quite expansive and it's surprising me with all these different environments. the Inner Ring is fast becoming one of my favorite levels, that sun-dappled, mossy, ruined lost city is simply gorgeous. the guys with the giant holes in their chest are a lot of fun to fight, and taking out the turtley monks while dealing with them is a fun challenge. the giant headless guys are fun to fight too! they keep killing me but they are fun! i found another swampy area, full of bits of ruins sticking out, those giant ghost archer summoners roaming around in the distance. i really like the scale of it all, feels like they are going out with a bang!

beating this optional boss has turned into a second job for me.

btw try plunge attacking those giant headless things.

hell yeah, that insta-kill is sweet. once again the level layout there is phenomenal, that bridge being a perfect place to plan your attack, after you clear out the lightning guys of course.

i like how the patrolling headless are set up so that one of them is in front. the first time i entered this area i saw one and was like "oh hell no, not one of these guys". and then the other two showed up! Dark Souls has always excelled at moments like that, where things seem pants-shittingly impossible.

Did it! Had to do it the old-fashioned way learning every move and how to deal with it, but I honestly think it's way more doable solo than with phantoms. When there are multiple players its movements are much less predictable, and harder to react to.

Now I'm having sooo much fun with the covenant that gets unlocked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_19er_GOOk

Tonight. 7 PM Pacific. Jesse Farrar will attempt to speedrun Dark Souls 3 (all bosses). https://t.co/zACHXnrQDd

— Stefan Heck 💻🚽 (@boring_as_heck) August 14, 2017

Quick update: Jesse has apparently never played Dark Souls before.

— Stefan Heck 💻🚽 (@boring_as_heck) August 14, 2017

I like Jesse's style

This is a silly thing to do but I recently started pressing 'save video clip' after invasions that seemed interesting or exciting:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDz6pkTVAF3WWgYGLstA-UbokJwJpKA7i

NB I have no video editing software

i'm having a great time with DS3, no surprise. i'm most of the way through the undead village portion of the game (the area the demons fly you to after the second giant beast hound boss).

most quintessential dark soulsy moment, so far: sloooooowly taking down the dragon from afar with tons of crappy wooden arrows, only to get torn apart by a mimic as i tried to claim the treasure from the building the dragon was resting on top of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMbzmfx6GYs&t=0s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMbzmfx6GYs

oh that is brilliant

Karl, i envy you your first playthrough; DS3 is the jam

All his videos are ridiculously clever.

Have fun Karl! Tell us your character name so I know if I invade you! ;)

I think I am Valdiev

but i am super stingy on embers so i'm rarely invadeable (iirc)

The other night I was invading at low-ish levels, and got invaded myself. The invader dropped me, like 130 embers. I felt slightly guilty since I don't need them, and when I find solo hosts who seem nice or new I only drop like 5. I've been trying to pay it forward though, so if you want embers and are on PS4, lmk.

for some reason the last day or two i haven't been able to connect to the network anyway, so i've just been in offline mode. it's weird because i can stream tv/movies and other games on my ps4, but i can't connect to the Dark Souls network.

one very underrated feature of dark souls 3 is the atmospheric barfing noises. i've been playing the game on headphones and it is VIVID.

this whole undead village is just wreeeetching

♫♪♩· ♪♩·

don't wanna close my eyes

I think that's a widespread thing, something to do with the PS network (haven't tried to connect though).

hah yes there are some great sounds, lots of ghoulish shrieks, moans of the damned, gargles of the undead, etc. later on there is a dungeon that has some random screams that never cease to scare the shit out of me

good luck on your quest!

that dungeon has one all-time jump scare too iirc

i am trying to figure out whether i should go ahead and do the fight with the giant cursed tree, or try to ascend the tower and take out the crazy watchman who can shoot out giant arrow/bolts/trees/spears, whatever they are. meanwhile, everyone is throwing up

I highly recommend the tower first, but, um, keep an open mind.

The giant cursed tree is always the hardest boss in the game for me for some reason, and the only one I routinely try to summon for. Having a weapon with some vertical action/range can help.

it's remarkable how widely ppl's experience of these games vary. the tree boss was a relative breeze for me each time. my worst boss was the one grimes is fighting there, the guy on the rooftops. if it took me literally 50 tries the first time i would not be surprised. i remember being baffled by my friend who nearly quit demons souls because he couldn't beat tower knight and then (twice) beat maneater on 1st try. also interesting to me how sometimes after eventually beating a very hard boss it's like the code is cracked and i can then beat them easily on subsequent occasions, e.g. ornstein and smough

Yeah, it's so subjective! I've never had a problem with the one you're talking about.

I think I have an easier time with the humanoid ones, and a harder time with the ones that are so big that when you're close to them, there are parts that are off-camera (so you really need to be observant in order to see their tells and not get smushed).

uuuugh, real life and dark souls just collided in the most intensely frustrating way. I went to the tower and resolves the spear thrower situation, then kept going and took out the monster thing circling the fire. I thought about home boning to level up, but decided to keep going a bit further. I got in over my head with the evangelists but managed to whittle them down to the last one, no estus flasks left, no stamina, evangelist down to one last hit, they’re winding up and I’m literally going “aaaaagghhhh!!” IRL and then - the fucking power went out in our building! Everything just shut down (except for the loudest carbon monoxide detector in the entire world, just outside my door, which will now beep every 30 seconds and keep me awake through the night until maintenance comes to fix it 2-3 days from now

Time to walk the dog

But good lord that was intense. Also, very biased because I was on a winning streak there, but this whole undead town and surrounding area is my favorite part of the game so far.

Do keep posting here, with your DS3 thoughts/observations. It's interesting. Tempted to start a new build tbh. Can't work out which the monster... oh wait the woman priest with the hug? She's a fucker, even when you're totally late game overpowered. Excited for some of the stuff you're yet to encounter. Still haven't beaten the final boss in this game (rebuilt my build and fucked up on load carrying and now can't carry on with it).

if i do manage to make it all the way to new game+, i'd like to try some sort of sorcerer or magic-based build. i went with a standard knight STR-based build for this first attempt. i'm trying to test out various weapon styles as i get them, but i reinforced a battle axe with dark damage early on and it's been my go-to during more difficult portions of the game so far. i'm so STR-heavy that it doesn't seem super-slow to swing, either.

i took down the curse-rotted Greatwood last night and also explored the sewers with the key. getting ready to head back in now :D

Melee is more fun imo. I always intend to make these hybrid builds and abandon them for another dex character (I do have a poise + strength one but it's not as fun for me).