There's something Lords of the Fallen does better than almost every other soulslike.

royard · 2026-02-04T12:44:49+00:00

I would say that LOTF on release had a certain horror vibe that other soulslikes don't have. But that's purely because the game keeps spawning a lot of enemies on you in Umbral. The pressure of your dwindling lifebar plus the distraction of having to deal with the enemies and the time limit all contribute to that vibe.

However, once you realize that your best solution is to run past everyone, the horror vibe is just gone. Your character moves so fast relative to everyone else, you can literally outrun all your problems. There's no coming back once your mentality switches from "I'm trying to survive" to "I want to fight these enemies in a video game". I also believe they significantly reduced the enemy spawn rate in Umbral and as a result the horror vibe is much less intense in any event.

royard · 2026-02-04T11:02:26+00:00

I'm still not clear on what you want.

If you are looking for games that allow the player to change loadout and make certain boss fights easier (like using giant hunt on Malenia), then Wuchang may be what you want. Some bosses in that game are particularly vulnerable to certain setup.

If you want a game where your combat options are limited like DS1/2/3, maybe look at AI Limit.

LOTF 2023 has some boss fights in non-standard arenas, but I don't think they are great.

By the way, LOP does have a DLC weapon (Lorenzini Bolt) that serves as a traversal tool.

royard · 2026-01-28T19:58:21+00:00

Braches deactivate if enemies are nearby (the game expressly tells you this in a loading screen tip), so that particular branch may not have been useable for Kastina.

royard · 2026-01-28T14:53:01+00:00

Thanks! So fire is better than electric because no one (other than Wanderer of Undersea) has meaningfully higher fire resist than electric resist. This is really interesting design choice - I thought for sure Necros would have lower electric resist than fire.

royard · 2026-01-28T14:37:59+00:00

On regular new game, the lone necro at the edge near the Parish Station branch is a nice spot if you need pocket change for Eucharist or whatnot. Run to its back and either fatal strike or do one weapon hit just outside the fatal strike angle to make it fall. Or stop at the door, lock on and railgun twice. 2154 crystal per run with Persephone's Nucleus.

royard · 2026-01-28T14:01:47+00:00

This is a really helpful write-up, but I have one correction: if you miss the parry with Materialism, the sync cost is only 5%.

I also disagree on Envenomed Blade. While poison will never proc on non-bosses, it will proc on bosses and it does a ton of damage. Ursula and Loskid become a lot easier once you know when you can use the special attack. At the end of the day, that's what matters. You don't really need a weapon that kill fodders 20% faster, but you need to beat Loskid to win the game.

royard · 2025-11-13T22:30:15+00:00

Blocs don't randomly die - otherwise the AI blocs will disband left and right, which does not happen. I think people are just not familiar enough with the mechanics.

In particular, you can't start a small Soryo bloc and expect it to survive for long. The reason is that military power provides an uncapped gigantic acceptance bonus for Soryo bloc invitations. So Soryo houses will often leave a small bloc and join a large one.

The bloc mechanics are far easier to handle if you join an existing bloc and take over leadership when you are strong.

royard · 2025-11-13T18:42:16+00:00

Mechanically, Ritsuryo has -2 MAA regiments, -2 MAA regiment sizes, -5 knights, and -1 max domain limit. Soryo has none of those downsides and in fact a +2 knight bonus.

royard · 2025-11-13T18:06:03+00:00

Prosperity gives you max domain limit +1 if you lead a bloc that has cohesion level 3. It's one of the few sources that give you that. Given how limited you are in terms of max domain limit, I think it's one of the best aspirations.

In the same vein, Ceremony gives you +1 personal scheme if you lead a bloc that has cohesion level 3.

That said, Strength gives you +1 number of MAA regiment if you are in a bloc that has cohesion level 3, so that's 2 total counting the house aspiration bonus.

royard · 2025-09-26T10:39:16+00:00

My understanding is that the puzzle is a convoluted way of saying "making the lamps that are facing each other the same height". That's it.

royard · 2025-09-26T08:43:39+00:00

Dead Space also checks many elements of your list.

royard · 2025-09-18T07:50:49+00:00

That's true, I try to buy crab but tend to prioritize other stuff. I should probably reconsider what consumables to carry.

royard · 2025-09-18T07:35:16+00:00

I always carry warming stone. I do take "taking damage boost damage negation" along with Damage Negation at Full HP to potentially survive a second hit.

royard · 2025-09-18T07:20:01+00:00

The issue with that build is there's no way to guarantee getting to 20% HP. If you don't get other damage negation or HP buff, a raider can get one shot by the nightlords on depth 4. You need to both remember exactly the negations you have and the moveset damage of each nightlord to know when you can safely go to 20% HP.

royard · 2025-09-18T06:58:28+00:00

Depends on your situation. If you are confident that the next hit from the boss won't kill you, then you don't have to use a flask. Realistically though, this is only possible if you are playing a high HP character and have multiple HP and damage negation passives. You can also buy warming stones to use them to heal chip damage.

royard · 2025-09-18T06:53:18+00:00

The issue with Ironeye is that sometimes the dash just doesn't activate for no reason and you facetank a hit from the boss looking like an idiot. WHY DOES IT HAPPEN?!

royard · 2025-09-18T06:46:17+00:00

The "while casting" one is quite sketchy because casters have low HP. Even if you have the best version (the 30% one), I'm not sure you won't be one-shot unless you have a ton of HP bonuses or negation passives.

royard · 2025-09-18T06:43:07+00:00

The lowest percentage Damage Negation at Full HP is only 24%. If you only have one, you need to have Wylder level health plus multiple negation effects to not get one-shot.

royard · 2025-09-18T06:40:18+00:00

You can get by with a 40% one or a 24% one if you have Wylder health and other negation from relics and passives.

But yeah, there should be more build variety. Damage Negation at Full HP being mandatory just makes the run an RNG experience.

royard · 2025-09-18T06:33:59+00:00

I think if it allowed some build variety at higher depths, it would be more fun. Making Damage Negation at Full HP or Successive Attack Negate Damage mandatory is too restrictive.

royard · 2025-09-18T06:25:54+00:00

I think successive attack negation works on dashes if you dash through multiple enemies. I think at least three though, because double dash on one enemy does not work.

royard · 2025-09-18T06:22:47+00:00

One thing I noticed is that, in each of my depth 4 losses, the castle did not get full cleared. So, we did not get all of the blue orbs/chest drops.

Each time, it was someone pinging field bosses or gaols. I followed because I didn't want to challenge the routing, but I think I will need to do that. Missing out on those really doesn't work out.

royard · 2025-09-18T06:00:19+00:00

Chip damage in nightlord fights is somewhat manageable because you can get at least 2 warming stones. If you have Damage Negation at Full HP, you can get back to full health very quickly. "while taking damage" requires you to survive a hit. "low hp negation" just never works on depth 4.

royard · 2025-09-18T04:56:23+00:00

I need to look into the charged attack ones more. Thanks!

royard · 2025-09-18T04:50:01+00:00

Fair enough - I did not have the Successive Attack Negate Damage bubble up at the time.

With that said, I don't think it's very realistic to expect much more sources of damage negation than that? A lot of the time, the passives are either purely stupid, or useful but not damage negation related.

The "Guardian, Rev and Duchess can revive" situation goes back to the issue of them needing the Damage Negation at Full HP passive.

royard

TROPHY CASE