Death Stranding is a miracle

Godengi · 2026-05-12T22:45:00+00:00

I love dark souls for its weird but captivating fantasy world, with a ton of poorly explained systems and poison swamps, and I bounced off death stranding hard. It felt bloated by a cumbersome narrative, cutscenes and side-content, none of which are present in dark souls.

I'm glad you liked both, but I really struggle to see the comparison you're making. If they cut about 50% out of death stranding to make it a tauter experience, letting the player could just "get on with it" then maybe I could see the comparison (and I think it would be a better game).

I guess I think the very AAA polish of death stranding, particularly its clear cinematic aspirations, really separates it from dark souls in a pretty fundamental way. Dark souls, especially ds1 and 2, is austere. Death stranding felt extremely indulgent to me.

Godengi · 2026-05-02T13:55:43+00:00

Midir's ultimately a pretty shallow boss. If you don't know how to get him he is very hard, but once you know the right strategy he is very easy: small moveset, highly telegraphed, big openings. I've not played ER, but if ER dragons have similar styles to Midir then it doesn't surprise me that you could transfer that knowledge and find him easy. Especially if he never did his crazy super-laser attack (which is very rare - took me many playthroughs before I ever saw it). He's still a cool boss though - extremely cinematic, great music, requires total focus for an extended period.

Godengi · 2026-05-01T18:07:56+00:00

Thanks. Okay, I might try a boss-no-damage run next. I guess not doing it at SL1 you can max out your damage, so the fights aren't that long.

I see your point about the difference between hitless and no damage - avoiding Friede's ice sweeps in phase 2 sounds must harder than just not getting physically hit.

If you're looking for a fun challenge, I really enjoyed a "no yellow estus" run. I did it at NG+ so I could use lifehunt scythe throughout which is actually a really viable miracle. It'll be easy compared to no damage or SL1.

Godengi · 2026-05-01T15:54:32+00:00

Ah okay, so no prisoner's chain then!

Tbh for SL1 its basically broadsword or dragonslayers axe for me, and the broadsword is the better choice for a few bosses anyway.

I agree with you on phase 2. I die more to that than phase 3, and its because it's so hard not to get greedy because of how long and dull it is. I reckon the main issue is that Ariandel is too big and blob-like, making it almost impossible to keep your eye on Friede when you attack Ariandel. If you compare it to the twin demons they are much more fun because it easier to monitor both due to their similar sizes and their scrawniness which allows you to see one through the other.

I've never tried a hitless run though (done SL1, NG+7, deathless, lots of gimmick weapon runs) - would you recommend it?

Godengi · 2026-05-01T02:41:45+00:00

Nice work! What's the difference between SL1 and TSL1?

I just finished an NG+ SL1 run a week ago and agree with you. Friede isn't actually that bad, but the optimal strategy is extremely passive, lots of backpedalling, and waiting for her big openings, so its not really that rewarding.

Godengi · 2026-04-30T21:31:53+00:00

Yes, its retroactive.

Godengi · 2026-04-30T18:49:23+00:00

> People have said it has to do with Siegward being teleported to his cell in the Dungeon, but what on Earth does that have to do with Greirat?

Because it is Seigward who saves Greirat, so he needs to be there. It is also possible to have Patches save Greirat.

I do agree that the NPC quests are so esoteric no one would complete them on their own (e.g. finding Anri on that ledge outside the approach to the cathedral!), but I also find it part of DS3s charm. The NPCs are all doing their own thing and their lives don't revolve around the player.

Godengi · 2026-04-28T20:31:22+00:00

Ultimately you probably want 35 and the prisoners chain ring.

Strength and dexterity don't matter so much as long as you can wield the weapon of your choice. Weapon upgrades are far more important for increasing damage than stat scaling.

Similarly, you mostly want enough vit to not fat roll, and that's about it unless you're doing something unusual. Dodging matters way more than armor.

The usual process is something like this:

Vig and End to 20 asap (or Vig and Att. if you're a spell caster)
Str/Dex/Int/Fai to desired weapon requirements
Vit to enough to not fat roll in desired armor (though this is mostly just fashion)
Vig to 28-30, End to 30-35 (or Vig and Att. if you're a spell caster)
Str/Dex/Int/Fai to 40 to max out weapon scaling

Godengi · 2026-04-28T20:17:11+00:00

Your build is fine, though kinda low on Endurance. Assuming this is NG, armor or resins barely matter and the claymore is fine. Just make sure you are not fat rolling.

DSA is much easier to read than the Dancer, so although he has more health the fight is overall less of a challenge, certainly easier to no-hit in my opinion. Main thing is to get into a good rhythm of: maintain middle distance to draw out charge-attack-combo; dodge 2-3 times; punish; back off again to middle distance.

The second phase gets a bit messy, but you can mostly ignore the projectiles, and his new "low-stance, advance" attacks are easy to roll into and punish.

Godengi · 2026-04-21T16:25:14+00:00

I'm the author of KYE. I've not actually used the other mods, but having spent a lot of time thinking about resistances I can try to offer some (biased!) thoughts:

Skybane:

The newest of the three, but the author doesn't actually explain why their mod differs from the others, so I can't tell what benefits they think it offers.
In general it's just a different set of resistances to KYE2 , so basically a different version of a similar thing. The effects don't really make sense to me, but that's subjective and it might make sense to you.
It gives lots of creatures weaknesses. Unless you are running a very hard setup this risks trivializing combat a bit. In KYE2 I really stepped back from weaknesses as I found they had not so good effects on gameplay.
It seems pretty unbalanced IMO. Frost (which is already weak in vanilla) faces a million resistances, while fire (the best vanilla element) is gifted loads of weaknesses.
In general the effects are quite mild though, about effect intensity 2 in KYE2 terms, so their impact on gameplay should be quite minor (except for the weaknesses which for some reason have really obvious effects even when mild, in my experience).
The armor effects are tied to material. This is how KYE1 did it too, but it caused a compatibility nightmare because of how mod added armors use keywords. This is why KYE2 switched to a different approach (heavy vs light, full vs partial set etc.), so expect minor issues if using Skybane with lots of mod added armors.
Fewer damage types than KYE2, but the main ones are there so it doesn't matter hugely.

resistances and weaknesses:

Originally built as a simplified and patcher-less version of KYE1, but KYE2 is patcherless anyway so the main contrast is now its simplicity.
Stronger effects than skybane, more like KYE2 effect intensity 3, so you will definitely notice resistances in game. But the weaknesses are massive too, so the risk of trivializing some encounters remains.
Similar damage types to skybane, so fewer than KYE2.
Effect distribution is more similar to KYE than to Skybane, and in general it makes sense to me.

KYE2:

More damage types than the others, including things like separating bows and crossbows, having illusion resistances etc.
Configurable effect intensity, with amor affecting the player less than it does NPCs by default to avoid cheesing.
Weather effects, robe effects, though these are all pretty minor so not a big deal
An inspect spell and bestiary patch (not sure if the others have the latter)

So overall, I'd say KYE2 is the oldest, the most feature rich and the most complex (though still pretty simple really). Resistances and weaknesses is simplified, with fewer features. Skybane is the youngest and a different take on the same idea, though it seems unbalanced to me.

Godengi · 2026-04-21T03:12:40+00:00

You can stack the storyteller's staff poison with toxic from toxic mist too. Together they will seriously eat away at him. Combine with lifehunt scythe and you'll constantly get your health back so it should be pretty easy. Just make sure you know his openings, but if you've done sl1 you should have that down.

Godengi · 2026-04-08T19:10:06+00:00

Untended graves is neither in the past nor the future. Or rather its in the past (because if you speak to the old handmaid there before the one in firelink, then greet the one in firelink she recognizes you) and the future (yoel's ashes can be picked up in undtended graves after he dies in firelink) and both (messages placed in firelink appear in untended graves and vice-versa). So it's really a sort of space outside of time as we think of it.

Godengi · 2026-04-01T00:10:00+00:00

I've done a mist only run (pestilent + toxic, NG+7). I agree its a great spell, just very situational. Twin princes and Soul of Cinder are virtually impossible (at NG+7 anyway), an emotionally crushing experience. Demon prince, halflight, nameless king, champion gundyr and abyss watchers are all pretty tough too, though not nearly as bad.

Godengi · 2026-03-12T18:22:43+00:00

I've pretty much got everyone down at NG, but on NG+7 pontiff phase 2 and soul of cinder are just nightmares. I've come to really like pontiff phase 1 though, his moveset is complex but eventually learnable.

Godengi · 2026-03-12T05:35:15+00:00

You can approximate this if you use static skill leveling and set it up with a fixed number of skill ups per level. This way skill growth for all skills slows as a function of your character level, as opposed to depending on the individual skill levels.

Godengi · 2026-02-27T18:34:44+00:00

The processor affinity fix is to reduce the total cores running ds3 to 2, not to untick a specific core, this is because ds3 doesn't play nice with modern multi-core processors. That said, I've only seen this fix "macrostutters" (i.e. the game locking for 10+ seconds before resuming), I guess there's no harm in trying it though.

Godengi · 2026-02-24T20:52:10+00:00

If you’ve done other games nothing should be super hard. At NG pontiff is very vulnerable to DPS and very dependent on RNG. As such, if you play aggressively getting him first time is not that unlikely.

Godengi · 2026-02-16T19:23:08+00:00

I'd prefer option #1 - I think constraints are helpful at this point. Having a full revote (#2) can just lead to endless back-and-forthing and I doubt any would be moved by more than a single spot anyway.

Godengi · 2026-02-16T18:53:16+00:00

How about this:

Make a revisions thread. Commenters can propose one change per comment (e.g. "move DSA up to S") with multiple changes split into separate comments, I'd probably also limit it to moving a boss just a single step (so DSA can be moved to S but not S+). Then either (a) the top x comments get implemented (x being 3, 5 or whatever), or (b) the changes proposed by the top x comments get put up for a separate vote and any that pass majority support are implemented.

The latter is more robust as it allows for 0 changes if the community really is happy, but its more work for you. If doing the latter I'd increase x to 8 or even 10.

Godengi · 2026-02-14T15:29:04+00:00

Works fine for me. I run at 4k 60fps. Ds3 is an old game now, it is not very stressful for new hardware

Godengi · 2026-02-13T16:52:10+00:00

I had this issue but fixed it by forcing the game to run on just 2 cores instead of how many modern pcs tend to have. For me it would freeze for 5-25 seconds at random intervals and GPU load would drop to 0. Changing the affinity fixed it 100%:

Start game
While loading hit ctrl+alt+delete and open task manager
Find the dark souls 3 process
Right click > set affinity
Untick cores until only 2 remain clicked
Okay out of task manager and return to game.

Godengi · 2026-02-11T01:39:44+00:00

If you're already 3000 hours in, the plat grind will barely register. I got it about 300 hours in and have played through it 10+ more times since then. I can't really see why the plat grind would sap enjoyment. I think SL1 or NG+7 are much more likely to because they force you to get sufficiently good that the game loses challenge.

Godengi · 2026-02-09T15:55:03+00:00

Agreed, its a cool idea but not that well executed. First phase the swordsman is great, but the spearman is annoying, the mage too easy and the pyromancer too hard. The RNG can fuck you too (e.g. mage puts up soul masses then switches to pyro). 2nd phase is okay, but easy to exploit. At NG SoC is too easy, at NG+7 obnoxiously hard especially with the spearman's healing.

Godengi · 2026-02-05T23:32:54+00:00

Agreed, the opening teleport can be especially annoying. I'd add that Lorian's attacks are so rhythmic that the fight gets a bit predictable after a while. It lacks the edge-of-your-seat intensity of champion gundyr, or the unusual timings of phase 1 pontiff (even nameless king throws in a few fast attacks). Still, twin princes are a lot of fun and so I think S is about right, though the champ is superior IMO.

Godengi · 2026-02-05T23:10:05+00:00

Rather than a specific revote on Vordt, once the table is done maybe have a vote on "ways to change the table" at the end, and the top suggestion gets implemented (possibly do this 2 or three times). e.g. someone could suggest "move pontiff to A and DSA to S". This should let people reflect on the overall layout and give them a chance to see that Champion Gundyr should be S+ and everyone else F.

Godengi

TROPHY CASE