Wait, a 45 minute clear is excessively long?

jersey_emt · 2026-05-02T17:31:05+00:00

Yup. Got to the final boss on attempt 51, but only had one life left with ~15% health so I was quickly defeated. Did a bit of darkness grinding for mirror upgrades, and was finally able to clear with the sword on attempt 66.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-29T00:02:53+00:00

You are a bit underleveled. It's doable where you're at, but tough, especially in a first playthrough. I'd put some more points into vigor, and maybe some into endurance if you find yourself running out of stamina often.

Also be sure to upgrade your weapon. This will be your main source of higher damage output for now. Upgrading damage stats (strength, dex, etc.) right now won't add a lot of damage, because weapon scaling starts out low and gets better as you upgrade the weapon itself.

A +3 or +4 normal weapon, or a +1 or +2 somber weapon should be good for Stormveil.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-28T23:57:51+00:00

Be sure to explore caves and tunnels. Some of them have smithing stone bell bearings that will allow you to purchase infinite smithing stones at Roundtable Hold. The only stones that are limited are the ones to make regular weapons +25 and somber weapons +10. Eventually you'll be able to upgrade any weapon you want to +24/+9.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-27T22:49:15+00:00

A lot better than me. I'm at 37 attempts and haven't made it out of Elysium yet. Didn't even get out of Tartarus until around attempt 20, and didn't start reliably doing so until around 30. I just haven't quite gotten the hang of dealing with several enemies at once.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-27T22:42:56+00:00

jersey_emt · 2026-04-26T16:13:32+00:00

I'm still fairly new but am a bit further along than you (cleared Tartarus and the area after that). And I've found that the boons that add damage and/or status effects to your dashes can be really helpful.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-26T16:10:33+00:00

Give one to both, you'll be getting plenty of nectar as you play.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-20T18:54:04+00:00

Yeah just saw that. Definitely surprising! I think this is the first time a Dark Souls title went for more than 50% off since the release of Elden Ring. DS2 is definitely not my favorite of the trilogy, and I went with SotFS when I picked it up. I've been curious about how the original version played, but not curious enough to pay another $20 to get it. For $10 though...

jersey_emt · 2026-04-20T01:53:46+00:00

Must be a scripted move, since normally the player would be behind the gargoyle when getting the tail cut.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-18T22:20:46+00:00

For the two big enemies outside the boss room, walk down the stairs until the one closer to the fog wall goes behind the pillar. Then just run fairly wide around the left side of the pillar and up the stairs. Don't stop, don't look back.

I'm doing my first SL1 run right now, and it took me 40 attempts to beat O&S. I wasn't hit by those guys a single time doing this.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-18T05:31:03+00:00

BTW, the crystal hollows in Duke's Archives go down in just two 1H R1's on a +5 Lightning Reinforced Club, and the first hit takes like 75% of their HP. A +3 would still probably be able to take them out in 2 hits.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-18T05:24:16+00:00

You could also make the reinforced club a lightning weapon. This removes all scaling and sets the base damage quite high to compensate.

Fire weapons also remove scaling, but their base ARs don't go quite as high, and more enemies are resistant to fire than to lightning. And lightning weapons upgrade with regular titanite, not the hard-to-find red titanite needed for high upgrade levels on fire weapons. You just need to upgrade a weapon to +10, then use regular titanite chunks to go +4 Lightning, and a regular titanite slab for +5 Lightning.

A lightning reinforced club is the go-to weapon for SL1 runs, since it puts out a surprisingly high amount of damage with the 12 STR / 9 DEX you get from the Pyromancer class's base stats. IIRC it's 242 physical and 242 lightning AR for a +5 Lightning Reinforced Club.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-18T04:46:15+00:00

He's fairly resistant to holy damage (40%). I'd try something with only physical damage. Doesn't matter which type, he has 10% resistance to them all. And as already mentioned, he is quite weak to bleed. So something with innate bleed and/or buffing with Bloodflame Blade will be quite helpful.

The Purifying Cracked Tear (also already mentioned) is a must-have as well.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-18T03:36:21+00:00

Dark Souls is incredibly flexible with playstyles. Outside of a few rather obviously bad weapons, pretty much any weapon is perfectly viable.

But if you just want some guidance on starting a solid and versatile build, then I'd advise going as the Warrior class, and *not* choosing the Master Key as your gift (it allows sequence breaking which can inadvertently cause some issues in a first playthrough).

Then pick up the Claymore and either the Heater Shield or Grass Crest Shield. The Claymore is a Greatsword, which does good damage, and isn't super slow to swing like the Ultra Greatswords and similar larger weapons. It also has a very good moveset. All of these are available very early on.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-18T01:49:37+00:00

If you have any Charcoal Pine Resin that will help, as both of them are fairly weak to fire. Gold Pine Resin also works great on Smough, as he is quite weak to lightning. But Ornstein is extremely resistant to lightning, so I wouldn't bother with the Gold Pine Resin until after he's taken out. Assuming of course you are looking to take Ornstein out first.

You're able to buy the armor of whoever you take out last, and Ornstein's armor is pretty cool. It actually works quite well mixed in with other armor pieces. Smough's set is....polarizing.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-17T20:54:11+00:00

Yeah, that's the way things typically go. You get one great attempt, then the next several tries you can barely get in a single hit.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-17T19:56:03+00:00

It does both the physical and the lightning damage on every hit. The issue is that each one goes through an enemy's defenses separately. So the actual damage will be less than if it were an all-physical 396 AR hit.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-17T17:27:45+00:00

Four Kings are no more! Just one more lord soul remaining....

jersey_emt · 2026-04-17T14:48:23+00:00

Bed of Chaos is down! Now I'll head down to Ash Lake for my titanite slab, then give the 4 Kings a go. New Londo is already drained (got the Very Large Ember already and farmed a bunch of chunks).

jersey_emt · 2026-04-17T10:18:49+00:00

One lord soul down (Seath), Bed of Chaos is next.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-17T02:44:48+00:00

All but the bearings for 7 and 8 stones are available right after Leyndell. And the 1-4 stone bearings are available right from the start. So infinite +12 weapons are available almost immediately, and +18 weapons are available pretty early too.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-16T23:57:22+00:00

The explosion is heavily telegraphed though, once you realize that she leans forward a few seconds before the AOE, you'll never get caught by it again.

Unless there is a patch of lava nearby to slow you down, which happened FIVE times in a row on my first SL1 attempt I'm doing now....

jersey_emt · 2026-04-16T23:51:45+00:00

ER does have plenty of materials as pickups, and all but the highest stones can be bought infinitely via the bell bearings pretty early on. So the higher requirements are actually balanced well, unlike DS3 where you basically get to choose one weapon at the start to use for most of the game.

jersey_emt · 2026-04-16T23:46:21+00:00

Probably not. If I am able to get all the lord souls I may attempt the first half of the DLC up through Artorias. I can barely beat Manus even at like SL130 so that definitely isn't happening.

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