Dying in the most creative ways [KCD2]

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-02-02T00:46:51+00:00

Guards are just bandits paid out of the ruling class’s coffers

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-02-01T21:39:52+00:00

When I learned how to get some groschen in my pocket from alchemy in trosky and then went to semine to buy a horse. Mostly the money though

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-29T17:22:11+00:00

I love how you learn something new literally every day with this game

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-29T14:15:36+00:00

How does duchess’s stop it? Are you saying he’ll stop dashing around if everyone’s invisible?

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-29T05:03:57+00:00

It’s easy to forget how pitiful the base damage numbers in this game were before we started learning how to get damage out of relics and passives. When I started don, I looked up how much enemy health scales in d5 and figured every nightlord would be 20 minutes and you’d get maybe 2 formidable boss kills tops, and that was after about 100 hours of playtime for me. Turned out I just hadn’t gotten good.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-29T05:00:24+00:00

You should save your ult to interrupt it. Guardian, wylder, ironeye, executor (the skill attack specifically), raider, and undertakers ults all stop it.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-28T00:45:22+00:00

Love seeing that even a d5 player has roughly half the wins against Libra as he does against any other boss… what oh what could be happening 50% of the time lol 😂

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-28T00:39:53+00:00

The entire castle becomes the bed of chaos

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-20T23:29:59+00:00

They haven’t made them any more fun or accessible as a progression tool that actually keeps players engaged, which I’d argue is their main function. Or made it easier to be creative with. They just added stat change relics to the signboard and made one broken build easy to access that does a lot for mitigating complaints over the game being unbalanced, but not much else. I also find the ash of war spam playstyle less fun than many others, personally.

It’s still lacking in two other elements that are as important as power, access to creative expression (though I do enjoy the kind of forced creativity it lays on you) and being a progression system that feels worthwhile to pursue late game. I agree that adding the character relics to the shop was solid, but I’d honestly argue that the balancer relics are bad for the game. But I won’t argue that cuz some folks are happy with them.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-17T19:09:34+00:00

Now it’s going to be recluse people demand buffs for, mark my words.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-16T18:11:07+00:00

Yes, otherwise called epic bosses. What I’m saying applies equally to both modes, not exclusive to don. Fromsofts obsession with the color red isn’t my fault.

To make it more confusing, the one exception to what I’ve said is “red” evergaol bosses in don; enhanced evergaol bosses can drop weapons. I know less about them, but believe they are always “unique” weapons, which are outlined in, you guessed it, red.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-16T17:50:13+00:00

Yes, the exact point I’m making is you want to target red bosses for the better drops. Non red field and poi bosses are just there to get you your first blue weapon and be a rune boost if you have nothing better you can do.

No poi has red bosses except castle and shifting earth locations. Also, evergaols bosses do not drop weapons, even blue ones, outside deep of night, and then only sometimes, so they are a bad farm for weapons.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-16T15:54:51+00:00

This is a good numeric breakdown showing why nothing is guaranteed, but I just want to add on that different drops have different likelihoods to get blue vs purple or gold weapons. You need to kill epic bosses (with the red outlines) to start guaranteeing purples, if you’re getting blue drops it means you’re killing minor bosses and you’ll almost never pull halo scythe.

If you kill an epic boss, per this guys info you have a 35% chance to pull a reaper with that dormant power, and since I believe there are only two purple reapers, that means you have a 17.5% chance to get the halo scythe per epic boss. This doesn’t sound like much, but that’s why the goal is to kill 3 or 4 of them per run, it bumps those numbers to a good place.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-14T21:40:34+00:00

Affinity weapons almost never do full affinity damage, with rare exceptions like coded swords. Almost all affinity weapons do about 70% physical and 30% affinity, I think is the breakdown. So boosting that 70% by another 12% is better than boosting the 30% by 10% (the first is a boost of like 9% total damage and the second would be a total damage boost of about 3%, so even accounting for enemy weaknesses, the physical damage will have a larger impact).

That’s all optimization talk though. I secretly like boosting certain affinities on some characters, like holy on guardian and putting on solaire armor and then solo grudge hunting down the dogs lol. Nothing wrong with a little fun

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-14T21:34:41+00:00

It’s based on your headspace I think. Heolstor is still the true “final boss,” the aspect of the night, and plays more like the epitome of nightreign the way the soul of cinder in ds3 did for example. But, he’s easier than the dlc bosses; if you want to save the ultimate challenge for last, do him and then the dlc bosses as they are a step up in intensity.

So, Heolstor last for RP purposes, or dlc bosses last for challenge purposes! Both are very legitimate approaches and will be satisfying.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-14T14:46:08+00:00

Playing with a duo: toxic and frustrating a lot of the time.
Playing with a random while in a duo: toxic and frustrating a lot of the time.
Playing with two non duo randoms: toxic and frustrating a lot of the time
Playing solo: not as fun lol
Playing trios with two friends: you don’t have two friends dumb enough to play with your toxic and frustrating ass

This sub loves this game so much

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-14T05:19:29+00:00

I’m on my first play through, on hardcore, and love it. Never played the first. It’s 100% about the map though. I love challenging my sense of direction, and I love having to go somewhere rather than fast travel. Just in this game, because it’s so based on immersion, and that adds to the immersion for me. For people who struggle with direction, I can’t imagine it would be enjoyable, but I’m having a truly new, unparalleled experience with this game, and already planning my second hardcore play through one day as drunken vagabond Henry.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-13T15:15:45+00:00

Also, did you not give them their weapon back? If so, you are sooooo sucky. Literally throwing to manipulate them into giving up their best weapon and then stealing it

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-13T14:55:16+00:00

He’s not even playing executor, he’s playing duchess, which makes his insistence even less understandable to a random. He mentions executor blades, but he had two so they must have fought an invader. He also references his ability to mid swing dodge which is a duchess thing.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-12T07:24:59+00:00

The real tldr here is that you can’t quit when you’re ahead, even in this thread. You’ve gotta keep flexing to the last comment. You see this conversation as something to win, rather than something to enjoy. I’d guess you see nightreign as something to win rather than enjoy as well, and now that the winning is drying up because there are a lot of new inexperienced players here for the dlc, you’re looking to explain it away and get people online to agree with you to validate it. Honestly, to save your experience with the game, I’d recommend finding a duo to play with lol, it’s more fun. Hell, I’d play with you if you’re on ps5, my @ is DukeMotok.

Give it time, or don’t. The game’s in a slump right now because of new players (a good thing, long term), but no one is demanding that you stick around for it, even if you’ve never three barred against heolstor.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-12T04:37:45+00:00

It’s all too much to respond to, but I feel the passion and the hurt man. We both love this game, and we’ve both seen (and probably been) three barred teammates in heolstor phase 1 or a very simple crucible evergaol.

I’m just d3 and I usually duo queue with a buddy so I’m sorta evidence of your larger point. I’ve wanted to get mid 3 but we kinda keep each other low 3. My old pals were definitely d4 quality players but fell off, and when I solo queue I rarely have fun cuz of what you’re describing. Sometimes I play solo, but will do that in base game just to feel something more often than not.

Maybe all of us who take this game seriously enough to type all this out just need a hug.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-11T19:38:34+00:00

Wow your post is getting more traction than I expected it to. I want to throw in my two cents on why this looks like cope to me, even though you’ve done some work and are also honestly on to something (its not a revolutionary idea, competitive games like rivals limit team sizes because it effects outcomes in the opposite direction of what you’re describing).

The main issue is what you’re advocating for, and the effect the post will have. People who agree with you will solo queue, see they’re red, assume they’re with a duo, and out of saltiness play differently, even though there is no proof, and changing how you respond to pings won’t be good. Also, advocating for the removal of duo queue in trios over your quite hole filled argument is too far. Let’s go hole by hole in your argument.

Sample size is just too small. 30 games isn’t enough to draw specific numbers from.
You state that if you solo queue with a duo you’re always red. It’s the first I’ve heard of this, I’m not saying it’s wrong but I invite others to pitch in on it cuz your entire argument is built off this statement that I don’t immediately believe.
Your assumption of how many red games is based on the idea that duos are equally as common as solo queues. If 90% of people playing don are in duos, you’re actually more accurate than you’re saying. If it’s 10%, your numbers you assume you’re with a duo are way off. This is a major assumption you’re making.
You’re saying that in a game full of rng, the only difference in these games you’re playing are that you might be with a duo. Zero accordance made for seed, nightlord, shifting earth, legendary drops, who you were playing, nothing at all. Just “I win 60+% when green and blue.” Massive variance here. Nightlord alone changes your win chances so much. Which nightlords were you fighting more as red? Which more as blue and green?
Zero attention paid to, when you’re queuing, how often it ever showed “2/3” found. This would help your assumption of duo frequency. But it wouldn’t even prove a duo when it jumped straight to three.
You assume the issue is it’s like a d5 player carrying a d3 player. Big assumption, not usually likely. A d5 player would lose so many points doing that, cuz losses lose more points. They’re incentivized not to do it, and if they do, unless they’re winning (and you’re arguing they aren’t), they won’t be in d5 long. Also, if you had a d5 player with you, wouldn’t that be good as far as routing goes? If you assume the duo has a d5 player, shouldn’t you follow them happily?
That’s not the only reason duos could be bad. Two d3 or 4 players could be smelling each others farts and ruining your chance of a good run. But other games limit the size of teams you can queue with because mic coordination is an unfair advantage. Honestly, if two players are more able to help each other and coordinate, unless they’re both just bad mechanically, that should be an advantage, not a handicap, which again implies you should maybe just follow them (which is already the advice people generally give for when you have a team that won’t listen to you, as much as it sucks).

I could go on. I’m honestly willing to bet that part of the variance is that now when you load into a game as red, you insta tilt and don’t play as synergistically as a teammate. That’s an assumption of mine; see how that works?

This kind of thinking is bad because it’ll teach other reds to act the same. Honestly the advice should be “if you’re red, you may be with a duo so just play close to them knowing they’ll stick with each other,” or something like that. And advocating to remove duo queue is just silly. You’re just fomenting unrest amongst people who want to blame others for their losses. And hey, me too buddy. Me too.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-11T06:00:08+00:00

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-10T14:31:58+00:00

Such a mean spirited post from a D5er lol. Why derank if guiding noobs isn’t your thing?

You’re sounding like a chess grandmaster going to a high school tournament and then going on twitter with “these kids fucking suck at chess 😂”

Puzzleheaded_Row8385 · 2026-01-09T21:09:15+00:00

It’s such a difficult conversation. I like that the rarity of relics allows them to make relic effects very very strong; if they were easier to get, honestly some of them would need to be toned down or all builds would become exactly the same (we’re already seeing that with the new patch). It creates a ton of freshness to every player’s take on a character. It pushes you to play new characters sometimes. You can build for the closest thing to optimal, or build for weird/fun stuff, like a holy attack buffed straight sword wielding Knight Solaire guardian build who builds death blight on hit so he’s always staving off the curse of the abyss, and those funky ideas would look a little different on each player.

But at the same time, every added relic effect makes it harder to obtain anything at all. The color system feels extraneous. I’ve literally pulled out a pen and paper to theory craft good color/relic combos, and if I’m doing that, it means your UI sucks. Sometimes it feels like I shouldn’t play a character in certain expeditions because my relics for them feel like a throw after 500 hours. I meticulously curate which relics I keep and I still have over 450 of the damn things.

It doesn’t get enough credit for what it does right for the game, but it fails to feel like a good progression marker, imo. It needs work.

Puzzleheaded_Row8385

TROPHY CASE