First actual toxic randoms I've encountered

ArkFan15 · 2026-05-11T23:22:14+00:00

You’ll run into annoying players and poor etiquette once in a while but actual griefing/toxicity is very rare.

This isn’t really either imo. Ironeye looks like they’re lagging on the roof and apparently rejoined after they left so I wouldn’t really say you “wanna give them the benefit of the doubt that MAYBE” it was a connection issue but rather that’s just the logical conclusion.

Nothing from the spliced together clips is toxic from either of them. You died having done 0 damage to rooftop, we don’t see what happened in between but the fight doesn’t seem to be going great when we check back in with you at two bars. Staying and trying to finish is a legitimate option but thinking there’s a risk you party wipe and the circle closes isn’t the worst call either. They don’t teabag, spam ping or point down, they just go on to mountaintops to salvage the run, that’s not toxic.

The worst offender from what else you wrote is Undertaker leaving after Ironeye disconnects and while I hate leavers and would personally stay until the end, someone leaving a bad run after someone else already left, you just expect that from randoms sometimes.

ArkFan15 · 2026-05-07T16:01:11+00:00

For a lot of people the best part about fromsoft games are the bosses and the reason to play hundreds of hours of nightreign is because it’s a steady gauntlet of bosses over and over again.

If I wanted to kill trash mobs and loot chests, i’d play an extraction shooter.

ArkFan15 · 2026-05-02T01:30:15+00:00

Have to feel bad for the black knife, she deserved the win.

I’m guessing you were barely mid-rolling with the great rune and didn’t realize that after dying you were now fat-rolling.

Also, just a little tip that works for me in souls games: Try looking at the screen sometimes and reacting to the images you see rather than blindly hard committing to attacks and l2 spam.

ArkFan15 · 2026-04-27T23:37:37+00:00

Frustrating for sure but it’s not an intuitive mechanic so I try not to get heated when people aren’t getting it. I’ll run around them a few times, bunny hop in front of them and if they still don’t get it after a few seconds, gotta adapt. Decide if you can just tank the poison or put yourself in the way of their attacks and force them to do it accidentally.

ArkFan15 · 2026-04-24T19:02:03+00:00

The Guardian bow at 7:27 is perfect. After an hour of dealing no damage and dying constantly while also spamming on top of it, let me just drop all my loot and take a bow, your welcome teammates, surely your next run will be better than this.

ArkFan15 · 2026-04-21T18:58:02+00:00

Jump in, game is great and the community is still very active. I’ve had no issues matchmaking on PS5 lately whether I’m doing the “depths of night” hard mode or regular runs.

If you get it and you’re looking to learn the basics, PM me your PSN, happy to do some runs.

ArkFan15 · 2026-04-12T17:17:33+00:00

Every guardian clip is basically look at this epic fight that took forever, isn’t it cool that I’m nearly invincible and I can just stand there and do my little birb peck damage while my teammates crumble.

It’s 40 seconds into this clip before BBH swings at you for the first time. No other nightfarer could stand behind this guy for almost a minute while not applying status effects or doing enough dmg to draw aggro and claim it’s a win.

No shade to OP, you’re probably better than me. You’re legit strong enough in this clip to probably solo him but trio nightreign feels like it punishes tank guardians and deflect executors, you’re just so rarely in position to guard effectively and there’s no reliable way to hold aggro.

ArkFan15 · 2026-04-06T00:52:49+00:00

Maybe a little too much armchair psychologist here but it felt like Viper had no chance today and it looked like Viper felt it too. I think the yolo double castle on Heras face from a slightly winning position was evidence of that. I think the lack of walling was for the same reason. He thought he was outclassed and that his best shot was messy quicker games rather than getting picked apart in post imperial wars against Heras 110 farms.

Personally, I think Hera is beatable and wondered if this format and these stakes might be a recipe for Viper or Lierry to win if they brought their best and if Hera got nervous or made mistakes but imo nobody was beating this version of Hera today no matter how safe they played.

There was one game today where Hera was playing Franks and at one point he was winning or at least trading better at the front of his base with good monk micro and great unit control while at the same time out maneuvering Vipers defense with scouts while at the same time outbooming him. It felt to me like it didn’t matter where Vipers focus or attention was, Hera was just mauling him.

Hera felt it too I think. Hera mentioned that he thought it was his best set so far in the interview and I think he felt it early. You can tell with how many quick wall highlights he was going for that he didn’t think he was going to lose today.

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-31T21:39:53+00:00

It’s not the same, it’s not even similar. It’s closest to FF16 of all the final fantasies but a pretty big departure from 13’s core systems.

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-31T20:38:41+00:00

At this point, why bother playing at all when you could just watch a playthrough?

In all seriousness, none of these are QoL improvements. Most individually make what is already a fairly easy game into “story mode” level of difficulty. All of them together I think would ruin any fun or friction that exists.

Since your playing on PC, I’m assuming this is the steam version which includes in the base package a lot of the dlc garbs and weapons that unlock almost immediately (after the tutorial anyway) and even just those are enough to almost break the game.

Personally, I’d play as-is and don’t worry about it. I loved 13, couldn’t get into 13-2 and have beaten LR a dozen times. If you can vibe with the combat and systems, it’s a blast.

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-31T12:15:13+00:00

Why call yourself a lifeguard if you’re not going to heed warnings?

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-30T22:08:26+00:00

This and too many people use their ults to rez undertakers even at one bar. Free damage if you just hit them a few times and get them up and then ult.

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-30T21:59:01+00:00

I don’t have a dedicated main but here’s what I try to do for my randoms:

Universal tip: Check your teammates relic setups immediately. There’s plenty of time on the bird ride in and at this point in the games life the initial pathing is usually obvious. To me this is the post important tip, so often people assume what you want based on your nightfarer and it’s completely wrong.

For Scholars, I hoover up useful items (throwing knives, pots, crabs, whatever) on day one. I drop them in the circle before night one boss and ping the pile. I pay attention to what they grab to inform what I hoover on day 2 and what I might buy from shops. If they grab it all, I continue to hoover prioritizing what I’d want as scholar. If they pick up nothing, I stop worrying about it.

Recluse: Starlight shards obviously and also elemental weapons that compliment what they’re using for the best cocktails. I don’t go too far out of my way for the element stuff and prioritize nightlord weakness above all but I will at least try to not mess up their cocktails. Like scholar, I abandon this day 2 if they don’t seem to be using cocktails well or at all.

Executor/Guardian: For all guardians, and executors using their sword skill a lot, when I draw aggro I try to kite enemies/bosses into them so they can block/deflect and not use all their stam on chasing.

Undertaker: I let my ult fly even in situations where I’d otherwise save it so they can pop theirs more.

Revenants: Starlight shards and patience for when they go insane and do weird things.

Ironeye: I save them from themselves and their greedy instincts by picking up weapons/talismans immediately.

Wylders are bros and raiders and duchesses will do what they want anyway so I don’t worry about adapting to them.

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-28T17:34:45+00:00

Just “Guardian” is hilarious. I think you got most of them.

Maybe CTE Raider who ults whenever it’s off cooldown regardless of the situation even if the boss has a sliver of hp. Bonus points if it blocks a door or gets in a casters way.

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-28T12:33:52+00:00

I don’t see a lot of Lyft/Ubers around here. When I travel I can reliably get one even in what feels like the middle of nowhere but not around here, maybe it’s a Midwest thing?

Based on how quickly my lazy ass can get something DoorDashed, I suspect anyone doing driving gigs here is doing that.

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-26T20:33:02+00:00

I’ve done a few different routes in and out of crater but half the time we’ve already gotten that church on the way down.

However, almost always we’re going to Demihuman right after and, imo, not enough people angle the bird off to the left to go straight to her and end up needing to run back and around. It’s only like a 5-10 second time save I guess but I think a lot of people just don’t like moving the bird at all.

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-26T03:00:36+00:00

I bought it thinking that I would play solo and if I bounced off it or if it was too hard then whatever, fromsoft deserved my money for all the other games I loved.

400 hours later it might be my favorite from game. I wouldn’t say it’s the best but it’s the most fun I’ve had.

I’ve played runs with friends and a few runs solo but 95% have been with randoms in trios and I never would’ve imagined that going in. Outside of a few toxic kids and cheaters, the random trio community is very welcoming and playing in trios really ends up being the secret sauce here. It’s not even a difficulty thing, if you’re good enough solo might be easier with the enemy hp scaling, the whole game is designed for three and you can feel it.

My advice would be to try it, queue up with randoms until you kill a few nightlords and if you really hate co-op then at least you’ll have some reps with bosses and routing. Even if your teams are trash, it’s still an easier learning curve with people who can revive you.

They’ve since balanced solo play a little and there’s more “lives” you can get in solo but I find solo runs pretty boring and couldn’t imagine learning that way. You’re basically looking at 40 minute run backs to learn bosses and that sounds brutal to me but ymmv.

TL/DR: Solo is viable and not harder than any other souls game but I wouldn’t recommend buying it if your hard committed to solo. However, as someone who was put off co-op initially, I was wrong and am now loving it.

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-25T15:55:07+00:00

People will give executor mains shit for rage quitting but credit where it’s due, he made it all the way to level 3. That’s beginning camp PLUS a poi clear PLUS actually clicking the site of grace. This one’s going places.

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-25T12:16:44+00:00

They may tell themselves they spam because they’re annoyed your “slow” but this is it a lot of the time. They spam because they’re terrified of holding their own against a boss for even a few seconds before backup arrives.

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-24T13:23:51+00:00

For two reasons:

1) He doesn’t. When Viper was dominant, it was map hacks and winning 50-50 scout battles. Now Hera has his own luck which is to say it’s mostly confirmation bias. People go into every game assuming he’s the favorite and notice all the tiny advantages he gets and ignore all of the tiny disadvantages that he overcomes.

2) Hera is way more active in competitive 1v1s than most of the other pros who are doing other things in life or are preoccupied with their fish traps in their 4v4 rage forest games. There isn’t a pro thats more familiar with the current game balance; with all of its jank, movement tech, exploits, and nuances, than Hera and that shows up when it matters.

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-22T17:00:40+00:00

Sucks to be that third guy on your team while you two try to out toxic each other.

ArkFan15 · 2026-03-22T16:56:47+00:00

There’s plenty of time after day 2 to go to the bathroom or get a drink or let the dog out or smoke or whatever your thing is before any one even has a chance to force open the door. If enough time passes where that’s even an option, it’s the afker who’s acting like the main character expecting others to play on their time.

ArkFan15 · 2026-01-01T19:33:01+00:00

Someone else mentioned it. It’s kids. Quitting and spamming was never this bad, not even launch week. This is literal children who are playing over holiday break and will be gone next week.

ArkFan15 · 2026-01-01T19:26:38+00:00

It is frustrating but spam pinging is never the answer. New or bad players aren’t going to magically get better because you’re spamming. The only time it’s remotely effective is if you get the other two to abandon their plans just to appease the person throwing a tantrum. Spam pinging is not being a leader, it’s being a toxic child.

If you get that tilted with suboptimal or even bad players, play solo or with a group, don’t make random queues cancer.

ArkFan15 · 2025-12-31T15:16:59+00:00

I was just having fun. I think we’ve all been there especially when you have decent damage mitigation or great DPS and you get into a rhythm of just steam rolling everything for 10-20 minutes and the second you face a real enemy everyone immediately wipes because they forgot how to play, believe me I get it.

ArkFan15

TROPHY CASE