From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Lyric Suite]

So i just finished the base game with Company of Champions on full time except when i needed to summon NPCs for quests. SL105, SM slightly short of 1M.

I'm also rank 3 in all covenants except the blues and the reds. Did the Bell, Rats and Dragon covenants mostly legit, I.E., by killing players except when i had to farm the Mad Warrior to get his gear. This is why it took me so long to report my progress in this thread as i put off progressing in the single player to do all the covenants and pvp.

With Company of Champions the Throne of Want fell like a proper finale this time. Last time i went there i was SL200 and it felt like a walk in the park.

On to the DLCs wish me luck. I'll try to do them with Company of Champions too but we'll see if i can do it. I know i'll definitely not go through the horses area with the double tigers at the end with this covenant, that's for sure. It was cancer already on my first game and there i was at SL215 with SM 6 million lmao.

BTW, this game still has a ton of people play but the blue covenant remains a desert. I had like two successful connections by praying on the statues after waiting almost half an hour and about 3 connections helping a way of the blue peon fend off an invader in 5 HOURS of waiting.

I'll wear the cop ring throgh NG+ as an added challenge since you have to be human to use it but man those two last covenants are a bitch. I tried the arena of the reds and holy shit what a clusterfuck. I got people way over my level and you can LOSE progress if you lose a match, and you have to kill 1000 people to get to rank 3. Fuck me.

 

[Ivan]

Dark Souls 2 DLC is peak Souls (great variety too!). Enjoy

 

[Verylittlefishes]

This game will never end.

Beaten snowy DLC first (it's only halfway through I've realised this is a DLC already, lol), halfway through Shulva DLC. I really like the design of these sections, base game sucks ass comparing to this.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i tried some DLC bosses with Company of Champions lmao.

Yeah i give up this is too irritating. Base game was fine with this covenant but in the DLCs everything pretty much one shots me and it's getting obnoxious more than anything.

Reverting to regular like the scrub i am.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Hot damn, i'm starting to get some hits with the blue orb, around SM 1.3 million. Finally.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i'm done with the game. SM 1.7 million and SL136. Much better than the last time, that's for sure.

I'm going to take this toon to NG+ for a no bonfire, no death run. Ought to be interesting. I'll totally back up my save before attempting so i can try again, fuck yo mama lmao.

Next in line is also a SL1 run.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I'm going to take this toon to NG+ for a no bonfire, no death run

But why

 

[NJClaw]

I'm going to take this toon to NG+ for a no bonfire, no death run

But why

Challenges are fun

 

[Lyric Suite]

Fun, and completism. I doubt how useful the rings you get for either challenge really are but i want them in my inventory all the same. I'm going for a full achievement, full items run on this character, so i don't have to with further characters.

Either challenge seems doable on it's own. Doing them both seems like a pain, but all you have to do is kill Nashandra, so you don't have to carry the challenge further on the DLCs in NG+ (unless you want to) and you can also postpone optional content too (like Darklurker, or PvP).

I think i'll probably fail the no death part just because i never did NG+ so i don't know what to expect. The no bonfire one seems easy though, especially with the black crown i can just attune stuff like heals or repair to make it less of a pain.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I still feel like a bad Souls player after putting 300+ hours into the trilogy. You guys are insane!

 

[Lyric Suite]

Git gud hurr durr

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I still feel like a bad Souls player after putting 300+ hours into the trilogy. You guys are insane!

Don't worry about. Just play as you wish. If you beat it a couple of times that's already better than games journalists.
I personally don't bother with gimmick runs.

 

[Multidirectional]

Yeah shit like lv 1 runs never appealed to me. It's a fucking action RPG, I am going to level up. Never bothered sticking to PvP meta soul levels either. And I didn't even know no bonfire runs are a thing. Certainly not my idea of fun.

 

[Caim]

I still feel like a bad Souls player after putting 300+ hours into the trilogy. You guys are insane!

I have put more than 300 hours into DS3 alone and I still get my ass handed to me by Oceiros and Aldrich.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

and I still get my ass handed to me by Oceiros and Aldrich.

Yeah, Aldrich is a nice opponent, took me a while.
Otherhand, I was drunkplaying (drunk souls!) when encountered Oceiros and, I believe, I killed him from the first try, though can't recall how exactly.

 

[Lyric Suite]

When in doubt, just cheese it lmao:



Personally, the reason i like those challenges is that i want to feel like i'm playing strategy against the game. When there are no stakes i tend to get lazy and then the game just becomes less enjoyable to me. So you lose souls if you die who gives a fuck takes 1m to farm them back so i often go in without even bothering preparing and if i die so be it try again.

I did a DS1 SL1 run up to Ornstein and Smoug, which i killed. I had to cut it short because real life got in the way but i'll definitely either finish it or try a fresh one. By the looks of it though a SL1 in DS2 might actually be more interesting due to the high amount of items you get.

I think it's both the minimalism and the need to exploit every resource to the full that attracks me. It's probably the same impulse that led me to the no rest rule in the IE games. I just like that feel of having to plan every move and make every resource count.

 

[Fishy]

I think i'll probably fail the no death part just because i never did NG+ so i don't know what to expect.

Well, it's more or less the same. Just a couple things here and there.

Looking forward to the results/impressions. I haven't gone down the no death/no bonfire yet but it's been on my to-do list forever. I don't think I'll ever do it in NG+, mind!

 

[Beggar]

One day I'll stream drunk run without dying

 

[Lyric Suite]

The no bonfire one is definitely doable and on NG+ i can stock up on some useful spells and with the black crown i can just recharge them as i go.

No death one is a tall order. I'm sure i can avoid dying to mobs but bosses are another story. Of course, all you have to do is make it to the last boss to get the ring so you can skip some dangerous stuff and leave it for later.

I did all the bosses in Company of Champions already so i'm prepared for NG+ in a way.

 

[NJClaw]

Time to repost the true chad challenge:



The full run is here if someone's interested, but it's 11 hours long:

Spoiler

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, this is my current build:

Vigor: 20
Endurance: 20
Vitality: 9
Attunement: 43
Strenght: 16
Dexterity: 13
Adaptability: 14
Intelligence: 27
Faith: 27

Basically a dark priest/spellsword/hexer depending on how i feel like it. Currently sporting Llewellyn set with a dark homunculus mace (the R2 is a poise wrecking ball, especially with the stone ring, couldn't live without it) and a dark estoc (trust attacks but scales with str, which i'll eventually take to 40 so i can use the Chime Hammer, but that's more for a NG++ run i'm also planning). I'm wearing the king's crown which takes me to the int/fth soft cap, and depending on the situation i have an array of gear i can use. With 9 vitality i can use the Flynn's Ring with both the Third Dragon Ring or Ring of the Embebbed. I can use the Simpleton's Ring to take me to 19 adaptability if i need that extra frame. With the Vessel Shield and the Dexterity Ring i can use the broken Santiers Spear in case durability is an issue at any point (i'm attuning repair all the same, fuck farming repair powders). I have a raw heavy crossbow that i can use with the Strengh Ring if i need to snipe anything.

If i take this character to 150 before moving to NG+ i think i'll just dump everything to Vigor, maybe go 30 Vigor and take Strenght to 20 for a nice round set up.

My only question is how to restore estus. I can do it by getting summoned but i noticed i'm getting very few summons at my current SM level. Might have to learn to live without estus which is going to suck.

BTW i think i'll also take at least one Dark Orb and possibly Dark Fog. Take two slots but it has a huge range and i can aim with the cross bow. I can just trivalize a lot of shit with it.

 

[Fishy]

The no bonfire one is definitely doable and on NG+ i can stock up on some useful spells and with the black crown i can just recharge them as i go.

No death one is a tall order. I'm sure i can avoid dying to mobs but bosses are another story. Of course, all you have to do is make it to the last boss to get the ring so you can skip some dangerous stuff and leave it for later.

I did all the bosses in Company of Champions already so i'm prepared for NG+ in a way.

Yeah, no bonfire is ok, it just requires planning to minimise the backtracking. But it's the no death bit that would scare me a lot more in NG+, although thinking about it, a straight run to Nashandra skips most of the dodgy sections. No idea for Estus, I always assumed no bonfire runs just loaded up on lifegems (unless you're good enough to never get hit).

Best of luck at any rate. And if you die, it's not the end of the world, that'll give you the opportunity to properly explore areas in NG+.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I got tons of gems. But estus is useful for bosses.

Yeah i'm thinking the no death part is going to be tricky but it's going to be fun just to try. I got some of those bugs things to help me too.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Honestly the scariest shit for the no death run is this lmao:



He died twice!

 

[Fishy]

Oh, no, wait. No bonfire means you're not going to be able to do quad-rotten, and you're not going to farm either, so that's the 4 big souls required, meaning some funny sections are actually in there.

Goes without saying but stock up on repair powder too.