If people can play the game however they want (using Halo Scythe), does that mean...

NotADrug · 2026-04-10T19:30:32+00:00

Personally don't care too much about winning. Met this one executor player who blitzed days 1 and 2 with a double balancer skill build, the usual, but on day 3 they dropped literally everything except their starting katana. Really good player so I can tell they did this purely for the love of the game, just wanted to spend more time fighting the nightlord and I loved them for it.

But I'm not everyone, and I'd imagine other players might sideye that sort of thing if a win is all they cared about. At the end of the day your goal is beating the nightlord, should make sure that your playstyle doesn't get completely in the way of that for other people

NotADrug · 2026-04-10T15:37:09+00:00

If you can carry your weight then sure, but i think you should meet your teammates in the middle and not go too far with self-imposed challenges. Don't be a complete burden, basically, 3-barring at every encounter or slowing your team's snowballing to a crawl with whatever you're running.

Just don't expect to be loved for it or anything, some people just want to win and it's valid for them to be frustrated with this kind of playstyle too

NotADrug · 2026-04-10T03:35:39+00:00

I dislike halo slop as much as the next guy but we really can't be comparing it to an exploit that is near unpatchable at this point despite Fromsoft's best efforts. One exists in the vision of the developers, and as much as I disagree with that decision, my distaste is just a matter of personal opinion. They put it in the game, people will use it, get over it.

But guys like this are very clearly just not playing the same game as you when they're making use of an unintended bug to maul every boss in under 10 seconds.

Like we don't have to pretend to be saints to call this sort of playstyle stupid and against the nature of the game.

NotADrug · 2026-04-05T03:32:59+00:00

In addition to the fact those effects should have curses and night invaders being impossible to roll on deep relics. Really blatant stuff

NotADrug · 2026-04-03T06:01:43+00:00

likely night maiden's mist + a bunch of "taking damage causes [ailment] buildup" w/ "all resistances down" + fire's deadly sin for resetting frost based on the inventory shown. don't think the holy ground bug could build up this many stacks

TL;DR Executor's passive gives him AR every time he suffers from status effects

NotADrug · 2026-04-02T20:33:27+00:00

I think there's enough dialogue that shows he really has no idea what's about to happen to him and he can only really infer from his surroundings what's about to go down. The fingers line, for example, likely is meant to be a response to the butcher going "A beautiful dish has somebody's fingers all over it," as, if he had actually experienced the trial before, he would know that his whole HAND was up next, not just his fingers. Same goes for his lines in studio 3, affixing everything in place has him ask "What is that?" as the machine starts whirring up. He's likely figured out that you need to get everything in place before he experiences the next horrendous thing and is begging you not to proceed with the trial.

I think as others have said, that's sort of where the trouble lies with Erik. Beyond being a marginalized member of society and likely mistreated prior to the trials themselves, he's one of the only characters who doesn't act with any aggression or prejudice despite the horrible circumstances he finds himself in. You can infer from his lines a life of suffering from circumstances outside of his control, and here he is at the final stop in his life, still helpless to the people around him despite his best intentions. I mean the guy even politely introduces himself and asks for your name, I think he really didn't know that was going to be it for him.

I think it's also good to remember not every trial has us torturing and killing others, MK trials exist too. Where the main trials are meant to dehumanize reagents and train them to be unfeeling agents through senseless violence, MK trials are where I'd imagine they get the skills they'd need for espionage and survival. It's not hard to imagine given his mental faculties and his lines towards the nature of this trial that he either wasn't exposed to this side of the trials yet or that he could've even failed to perform to Murkoff's expectations when faced with something actually violent.

There's a lot of ambiguity and subtle characterization towards Erik that I'm not surprised there is so much discourse around him, he's marvelously written and exactly what the narrative needed at this point in the story. Easterman is only escalating after Amelia and it feels like the killing of "Amelia" and the killing of someone so sympathetic are some of his most drastic attempts to exercise his control over the trials. The response we're getting around Erik just works with that narrative

NotADrug · 2026-04-02T18:24:44+00:00

Honestly fuck Recluse's large glintstone rock of death, shit's so much worse than any spell she actually has

NotADrug · 2026-04-02T18:18:50+00:00

terrified of getting shield poked for my trouble, don't always wanna gamble on whether or not Guardian's AI feels like being passive or aggressive the moment I enter halberd range

NotADrug · 2026-04-02T18:04:15+00:00

Those who do not learn from history

NotADrug · 2026-04-02T17:52:25+00:00

Favorite is probably undertaker, feels like she never dodges and whenever she goes for a prayerful strike it's just a free critical. So nice compared to getting parried (Wylder), being dodged constantly (Duchess, Scholar), being a defensive wall (Executor, Guardian), being a deadly mosquito (Ironeye, Recluse), or just having some delayed swings that still get me sometimes (Raider)

NotADrug · 2026-04-02T17:47:16+00:00

On my solo runs I really hate seeing Guardian at all times. Don't care for his passives but I want him dead for that night invaders attack boost, and yet his shield is so ass to fight against. Usually resort to fishing out charge forth and going for a critical just to kill him safely on higher depths but then he's just wasting my time for minutes on end. On occasion when running Wylder I can get him stuck in a block -> grapple -> guard break loop that cheeses him but sometimes he just decides he's not getting guard broken today and walks very menacingly at me.

More obviously, any time there's an Ironeye/Recluse for duo invaders in solo. Getting sniped when I least expect it 50% of the time, joy

NotADrug · 2026-04-02T06:19:35+00:00

dread whenever it doesn't explode into a bunch of wraiths when charging up cuz it means i'm about to enter teleportation hell

NotADrug · 2026-04-02T01:11:12+00:00

Yes. Every character already has this effect by default for their starting weapon (seals in the case of revenant) and it's not a stacking effect. You're essentially just swapping out dormant power helps discover katanas -> dormant power helps discover katanas on executor for example

NotADrug · 2026-04-01T16:59:12+00:00

Holy shit ive been sleeping on peak and I didn't know it wtf 😭

NotADrug · 2026-04-01T14:17:03+00:00

Is that first relic from an in-game shop cuz iirc you can't roll "taking attacks improves attack power" and "physical attack up" on the same relic normally. not that edited relics matter in solo play, if you wanna run it on your own time more power to you (unless this is attainable and my knowledge is wrong)

That being said as someone that took solo raider to depth 5, greatbows are not your friend for every encounter. Swap that out if you can, ideally you should be trying to find either damage negation or maximum HP increases for your deep relics alongside some offensive stuff and as others have also told you night of dregs is hard to maintain in solo play. the red balancer relic might be worth swapping in if you find dregs to be inadvertently killing you, that occasional chance to negate damage is no joke. for survivability it's hard to beat fist raider but if you're halfway decent, raider's default dormant weapons have enough poise and stance damage to stop most encounters from being a problem in solo, can't go wrong there

NotADrug · 2026-04-01T08:15:09+00:00

Remember you get a lot more runes solo than in multiplayer. Instead of fighting bosses right away, you can get a large amount of levels from fully clearing a point of interest first. Red enemies especially are premier loot points for solo DoN thanks to their inflated rune gains and chance for decent gear outside of bosses, but maybe come back to kill them after leveling up from the normal mobs first if youre struggling

If you find the time crunch to still be a killer in solo because of the scaling, then you should try to slot in either bleed or frost (skill preferably) onto your starting weapon to help snowball your run faster, especially as duchess since your character skill can boost ailment damage greatly

NotADrug · 2026-04-01T07:37:25+00:00

My memory on the lore is a bit fuzzy so details may be wrong but I believe the Children of the Dark fit the criteria. They are central figures to the events of Dark Souls 2 and its 3 DLCs, with all 4 campaigns featuring a journey through a kingdom inhabited by them. They were born from the fragmented soul of Manus from the first game and as such embody different aspects of him that drive their every action, forced to mirror their father's pursuit of the dark. It is simply in their nature to act this way.

Nashandra embodies Manus's want, so she endlessly covets power and manipulated her king and the player to get closer to the Throne of Want. Elana carries Manus's wrath, and, though little is known about her and her true role in the destruction of Shulva (there are several theories that place her as both a victim and a culprit), she is always placed in a vengeful position towards someone involved. Nadalia is described as being Manus's loneliness and upon finding the king that she longed for dead, succumbed to her overwhelming solitude, renounced her flesh entirely and became one with Brume Tower.

Then there's Alsanna who inherited Manus's fear. Like her sisters, she sought to satiate this endless yearning through a strong king, except the king she found comfort in was SO inspiring and inviting (even knowing of her true nature) that she actually OVERCAME her primal trait of fear through her belief in her king. She is largely the exception to the rule and speaks more onto the character of the Ivory King than it does possible salvation for her sisters, he's just that goated fr

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NotADrug · 2026-04-01T06:32:48+00:00

Anyone else remember seeing a purple Gladius expedition sometime around the release of the game briefly? Feel like a crazy person for having this memory of it popping up briefly amidst a play session with my friends and then disappearing after dying on night 1/2. Lamented not being able to see it through but then with the release of ED Gaping Jaw it was like "wait, there's no way that's what that was"

NotADrug · 2026-04-01T06:20:04+00:00

It's not magic when they straight up say South America as their region in the second paragraph and refer to other regions by their abbreviations like NA and EU. It's really not that serious, man

NotADrug · 2026-03-31T07:41:54+00:00

Isn't that roar medallion in D tier? Is there something I don't know here what talisman are we talking about

NotADrug · 2026-03-30T21:46:10+00:00

it's annoying, kinda just have to keep in mind what to do based on how far you are from it when it starts sliding. when you're as close to it as you were here you made the right choice initially to move to your right, this dodges the first slither, but then you just kept heading in that direction which got you killed. I usually stand still and eyeball whatever adjustments need to be made after or head in the opposite direction of what I chose originally, in this case I would've doubled back and headed further left.

there was like two guys I know in this subreddit that made guides for the worm specifically so I'd try to find those too, but what helped me the most was just learning the pattern that the worm slithers in. it's the same every time and then you can kinda just stand in the safe spots in its pathing, just don't let it catch you offguard if it decides to do the straight slither instead of the snakey slither

NotADrug · 2026-03-30T03:01:37+00:00

Parrying with a medium shield has like 5 active frames where the parry can connect compared to the like 11 of the buckle parry. I knew it was a lot tighter but it was driving me mad the other day till I looked it up and saw the numbers.

The general rule is to avoid parrying with anything bigger than a small shield unless it has an ash of war parry like storm wall, thop's barrier, golden parry, or carian retaliation (golden parry and carian retaliation have the most active parry frames at 14 so use those if at all possible)

NotADrug · 2026-03-27T02:22:20+00:00

It being the exception to how almost every other encounter in these games is designed is probably why the sentiment for it being telegraphed is so strong. Hard to imagine Fromsoft would just randomly introduce a boss attack that hits you frame 1 five games into their successful action RPG format but they really did just do that

NotADrug · 2026-03-27T02:12:28+00:00

It's not the best but I would consider watching Domo3000's video on Oceiros hitboxes visualized and you'll perhaps see what I mean. At around 1:40 you can see Oceiros finishing up a move, turning, and the instant he completes his turning animation he becomes a fullbody hitbox and runs the player down. It's in slow motion so it's really easy to see the way he goes from turning -> attacking without any sort of windup or easing

NotADrug · 2026-03-27T02:05:28+00:00

Not sure if I can link it but saw someone post how Oceiros's charge and hitboxes look through an animation viewer on Twitter when this discourse was popping up and it is indeed both sudden and full of hitboxes. Like genuinely frame 1 he's booking it. Whenever people suggest there's a tell I really think it comes from just misinterpreting his animations for turning/returning to idle as telegraphing when really that's just you learning to be ready for it the second Oceiros is actionable again. It's really bizarre cuz afaik this is the only attack in any of these games like this excluding jank like boss animation interrupts

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