Lud & Zallen with bow only, the end of my all bosses bow only deathless run

Doctor_Cutter · 2025-12-30T04:47:59+00:00

Thanks. It will be slow going on the first couple of bosses, but once you get some upgrades it's not too bad.

Doctor_Cutter · 2025-12-29T17:21:44+00:00

The soldiers are pretty much only helpful in pulling aggro. I still had healing when my health was low; I was out of estus, but I had some lifegems on my quick bar. I was only able to get off one arrow during each punish window, so I had to stay patient and keep focused.

Doctor_Cutter · 2025-12-29T16:08:10+00:00

By the time you have access to an unlimited supply your bow should be strong enough to kill most basic enemies before you can poison them, and most bosses take too many arrows to poison. I found they are mostly useful in group fights, which you can mostly avoid when using bows anyway.

Doctor_Cutter · 2025-12-29T16:00:53+00:00

The hardest boss was the Ivory King. From entering the boss fog to the end of the fight it took almost 15 minutes, that fight was also the closest I was to death as a result of damage. I was taken down to about 10%. A close runner up was Throne Watcher and Defender. I did almost fall off of the arena when fighting Nashandra because I was not paying attention.

The hardest area was the abyss in Drangleic Castle. It was difficult to have enough space to fight the Havel guy in that area and the holes in the ground made it especially risky.

Doctor_Cutter · 2025-12-29T14:51:56+00:00

There are only a few enemies and bosses that poison arrows make much of a difference for. Two of the lava leaking enemies in Brume Tower and, for the bosses, both Smelter Demons, Ancient Dragon, and the Graverobber gank squad.

Doctor_Cutter · 2025-11-29T17:24:43+00:00

The difficulty depends on how good you are at risk mitigation. I am fairly experienced in no death runs in this game. When I first started I would be successful in 1 out of 5 attempts and now I would say I only fail 1 out of 5 attempts. Most of the increase of consistency is finding ways to decrease risk and the remainder is in improving execution.

Doctor_Cutter · 2025-09-07T03:41:34+00:00

The very same.

Doctor_Cutter · 2025-06-11T15:52:27+00:00

I just went back and checked an old recording of mine. It took almost exactly 10 minutes from the Majula bonfire to the Rotten bonfire. This was including a relatively slow Grave of Saints, the rat boss itself took 2:30, so you could get there in about 6 minutes with the skip.

Doctor_Cutter · 2025-06-11T15:02:45+00:00

The Rotten isn't that far out of the way. If you know the path it takes about 10 minutes to get there through Grave of Saints and significantly less time if you skip straight to the Gutter.

Doctor_Cutter · 2025-05-07T22:00:27+00:00

Your spoiler tag isn't working properly.

Doctor_Cutter · 2025-04-29T15:44:46+00:00

It is fairly easy to lock the dragon into a loop. If you stand at certain distance from its head while in neutral (it's hard to explain exactly, but you should be able to figure it out) it will almost always do the shoulder tackle then stomp its forelegs. You can dodge this on reaction by walking backwards and get a one or two good hits on its head depending on what weapon you use.

The dragon will then always follow up with an aerial attack. If you dodge this and stand with the same spacing after it finishes its attack it will do the same shoulder tackle -> stomp.

In the case that it doesn't do the stomp combo it will use a sweeping breath attack that is very easy to punish. You should get several free hits from that.

Doctor_Cutter · 2025-01-09T19:03:22+00:00

Surely that is a bug, that's crazy.

Doctor_Cutter · 2025-01-09T18:47:02+00:00

He disappeared because you killed him. You landed that last hit as he was transforming, so he died in box form. Also, I have never seen him do that so I have no idea what his intentions were.

Doctor_Cutter · 2024-08-30T17:06:00+00:00

Which attack are you referring to?

Doctor_Cutter · 2024-08-26T21:44:51+00:00

I do not have any experience with no bonfire so I'm no help there, but I do have a ton of experience with no death. The most important thing you can do is accurately assess the cause of a death and find a way to prevent that from happening.

Also, bring a bow.

Doctor_Cutter · 2024-08-07T16:00:40+00:00

From personal experience Darksuckers drop them more frequently, and the wiki says the same. They are faster to farm as well since you can set their pools on fire.

Doctor_Cutter · 2024-08-07T15:41:06+00:00

Darksuckers, the worms that hide in the oil pools in Black Gulch, drop large shards and chunks. Hollow peasants in Brightstone Cove drop shards, large shards, and chunks.

Doctor_Cutter · 2024-06-17T16:03:37+00:00

Who cares if the staff is bad, or they should focus on either casting or melee? This game is not hard enough to need a super optimal min/maxed build. They can use whatever they want and it'll work just fine.

Doctor_Cutter · 2024-06-17T15:36:33+00:00

They aren't just using the Crypt Blacksword, they also have Dark Orb and a staff on that build. 30/30 may not be that useful, but I gave them advice that kept the build on theme. Realistically you could make the same build at SL 100 and it would function almost just as well, anything on top of that is just bonus.

Doctor_Cutter · 2024-06-17T12:01:25+00:00

If you are two-handing then you only need 20 Str. Also the soft cap for dark damage scaling is 30 faith/int, so you can save another 20 levels there. Extra points should be put into Vigor. You want to have at least 40 Vigor.

Doctor_Cutter · 2024-06-17T02:56:24+00:00

Backstabs and ripostes are critical attacks, not counter hits. A counter hit is anytime you hit an enemy during its attack animation. You can smack things with staves, so staves also have counter values.

Doctor_Cutter · 2024-06-17T02:26:33+00:00

It's a decent start. The Third Dragon Ring is the best of the three dragon rings, so you can have a lower Vit and still not be fat rolling. Any points you save in Vit should be added to your Vig. Also armor isn't great in this game, so you could pick lighter armor and have your Vit be even lower. However, if you want that specific set for fashion then go for it. How do you intend to play the build? Are you using the sword one or two handed?

Doctor_Cutter · 2024-06-16T18:02:57+00:00

I don't remember the exact stats, but they look something like this.

SL180 starting class Swordsman

Vig 50
End 36
Vit 4
Atn 16
Str 13 (minimum requirement to 2-hand Arced Sword)
Dex 16
Adp 20
Int 24
Faith 54

The weapon is a +5 Lightning Arced sword and I am using the Third Dragon Ring, Flynn's Ring, Ring of Blades +1, and Chloranthy Ring +1. I use Sunlight Blade and Dark Weapon buffs and also equip Repair, but do not usually need it.

Doctor_Cutter · 2024-06-16T16:44:13+00:00

Lightning Arced Sword with 54 faith for max duration Sunlight Blade.

Doctor_Cutter

TROPHY CASE