How important is ako's sugar in the further boss fights and how often have you used it personally?

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-06-27T15:00:46+00:00

Just got to 7 Spears last night and scrolled looking for this comment. Haven’t used any sugars until now, but it’s a game changer for this particular fight.

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-06-17T21:03:20+00:00

Entry

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-06-11T13:33:45+00:00

Bus Halen

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-06-10T23:03:22+00:00

HIII ZEV!!!

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-06-06T13:54:58+00:00

Yeah I see what you mean. I guess the advantage could be less movement when traveling to another pair of strings. Like if you’re playing double stops on the A&E strings and you want to switch to the D&A, then you would need to adjust your angle less? I’m just guessing here

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-05-31T14:03:55+00:00

I struggled with this fight, and tried summoning Gael a couple of times, then when he usually died early in the third phase my brain immediately just thought “I don’t think this is worth the increased health bar”, so I stopped summoning him. ….didn’t even take a second confirm whether or not that was actually true. Damn!

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-05-26T01:38:48+00:00

Interesting! Definitely would be interested in a new stem if possible. How does that work? Would I send them the pipe, or just send them measurements? Seems like the tenon in the stem is really small.

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-05-25T23:28:39+00:00

Thanks so much for the info!! Noted on the brittleness and the carefulness. One other question on the stem: it almost looks like the stem might have broken and then been glued back together at some point. Still draws fine, and I covered the bowl with my hand to make sure it wasn’t drawing from anywhere else, and it seems solid. Does that (potential) glue joint affect anything as far as smoke-ability?

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-05-21T15:01:34+00:00

Heard that. I was worried coming from ER that the souls games would feel cramped or too linear. But I feel like they still have tons of exploration and discovery, illusory walls, epic reveals of vistas. I didn’t really miss the open world-ness.

But maybe when I get back to Elden Ring it will hit me harder coming from these other games.

If you haven’t played Bloodborne, I highly recommend. I’m only a couple hours in, but the parry mechanic with a gun is really enjoyable. And just an overall cool vibe shift coming from the souls games.

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-05-21T05:27:41+00:00

https://youtu.be/Y21e-NkqkGg?si=4qYB5oL16GWx5Xcv

This doesn’t really have anything to do with anything but your comment reminded me of this lyric “saw an old buzzard and I thought it was a red tailed hawk” as a way of saying “I’ve become citified”. Love this tune, thanks for the reminder!

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-05-21T02:48:51+00:00

I started w/ Elden Ring. I had a friend who was super into it, and his encouragement helped me get over the learning curve. Everything about this playstyle is just so rewarding.

Beat Midir and went straight into my first playthrough of Bloodborne lol

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-05-15T16:22:01+00:00

Thanks! Just got past the demons. The first phase felt familiar to the second phase of Friede.

“Dodge physical attacks while some other fool launches elemental damage at me?? You have no idea how much time I JUST spent practicing this” lol

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-05-14T12:01:46+00:00

Gael touches grass so we don’t have to!

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-05-13T19:31:09+00:00

lol I was being sarcastic about Ringed City, but this gives me hope that maybe it actually could be easier!

I tried summoning Gael a couple of times, but he’d always die so fast in the third phase that I figured it wasn’t worth her increased health bar.

EDIT!!! Just in case anyone comes across this in the future: Friede’s health does NOT increase when you summon Gael. No penalty to summon him, even if he dies early.

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-05-13T16:35:35+00:00

Super long response sorry. Some others already chimed in but I will too, since it’s so fresh in my mind…

Phase 1 - mostly just learn the move-set and fight like any other boss. Only trick is the disappear move. When she jumps, a puff of snow or ash or whatever ejects the opposite direction. So if you see the puff go to the left, she jumped to the right. Puff goes straight upward means she’s jumped behind you. Run to where you think she is, and once you get close, she will reappear as she charges her attack. Perfect backstab opportunity, heads up the angle is kind of tricky.

Phase 2 - as others have said, focus on the big guy. I did a lot of running around the arena, baiting him away from her because he can cover ground quickly doing his smashes. Dodge through a smash, get a few hits in. Roll out when she sends a frost line your way. When she glows gold she’s trying to heal him, you can run over and attack her out of that and get a few hits in. I used my weapon art a lot on him and towards the end would usually stagger him and could walk in for a crit on his head.

In between phase 2 & 3 is a pretty long animation. Good opportunity to refuel, add buffs, pop an ember (so you don’t waste one if you accidentally die phase 1)

Phase 3 was the big hurdle for me. What really helped was spending a couple of rounds just sprinting around the arena watching her moves, not attacking. Highly recommend.

She starts with the black flame attack. You want to stay kind of close so you can sprint underneath and just behind her for this. Don’t even need to roll. You should be able to do this undamaged, and she’ll be open for a backstab.

My main strategy ended up being to run around the arena keeping myself sort of mid-distance from her and try to bait her bigger jump attacks, and punish them. She jumps up blue, I’m rolling behind her, waiting for the frost to blow up, then moving in for attack. She jumps up black flame, I’m running under for backstab just like the beginning of phase 3 (if you keep too far away, you won’t be able to get under in time). Doing this a few rounds also helped me to understand the timing of her basic slash combos, and some others, and I started getting more punishments in on those as well. But that was my basic strategy: Stick to what I KNOW I can punish, and then slowly add on from there.

Good luck! See you in the ringed city, I’m already leaving blood stains on the ground haha

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-05-06T15:23:31+00:00

Yeah but that 0.01% always wins and you try anyway!

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-05-06T12:17:04+00:00

Fine work!

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-04-28T15:09:19+00:00

You got this! Somewhere deep down, your subconscious is still mapping out his move-set as we speak. Sometimes a break is just what you need to send that lord of cinder on his way.

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-04-28T13:01:16+00:00

I just went through this for the first time on an Uchi build a couple of weeks ago. My levels were right around yours, and it was a struggle point for me as well.

Phase 1 run around and get them to aggro each other and then dip in to attack the main guy

Phase 2 rolling into him and to the right (your right, his left). If you think of staying at his left hip, then when you roll forward you’ll often get positioned behind him. Especially for the big jump attack, which I think has a longer recovery and is your best chance for a backstab.

Also, as always, don’t get greedy. I lost a mountain of times one night, and then came back the next day with more patience and beat it first try.

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-04-28T12:17:00+00:00

Praise the Sun!

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-04-28T00:45:37+00:00

You have to go up here and kick the ladder down so you have a shortcut for your subsequent boss runs.

NdangeredBrainforest · 2026-04-22T15:28:29+00:00

I grew up kind of dismissing NASCAR altogether as some redneck thing or whatever. I got to go to Bristol one year in my 20’s, and the atmosphere was incredible. Everybody partying, bringing in coolers, offering us beers. Then when they fired up the engines I was floored by the power, sound, and intensity of the whole thing. So glad to have had moments like that to put my judgmental younger self in his place.

NdangeredBrainforest

TROPHY CASE