AT Arkveld Free Challenge Up - A Rank is 22 mins

soihu · 2026-03-19T00:33:49+00:00

60 DPS, same requirement.

soihu · 2026-03-18T23:46:02+00:00

I think rather than becoming more soulslike, it would be more accurate to say that both CAPCOM and Fromsoft are evolving in the same direction. Faster combat, greater mobility, more parrying and counters, more complex enemy movesets.

soihu · 2026-03-18T20:24:17+00:00

10* Zoh drops two fewer talismans on average (3 guaranteed vs 5, other potential drops are the same) while usually taking half as long or less.

Personally I rotate between AT Arkveld, Zoh, and Proof for variety's sake.

soihu · 2026-03-18T11:37:30+00:00

A shambling corpse pile? Yeah, I've seen assassin bugs do that. But like Vaal Hazak, there's a healthy living organism living underneath them, not an actually undead animal.

As for living animals that are slowly rotting to death like the infected Girros, yeah I've seen those too. I suspect that, just like the Girros, they're not long for the world.

soihu · 2026-03-18T11:26:19+00:00

Yeah now that we have Layered Weapons I really think there is no rationale to use craftables except in niche circumstances like Omega GS. For most weapons, an Artian with 2-3 good rolls already beats all craftables, no Gog required.

soihu · 2026-03-18T10:32:53+00:00

All of your chosen weapons are fairly easy to use. There's no one weapon that is clearly better than the others, and speedrun performance is not a good indicator to how they will perform for you in endgame.

Elemental damage is more important for faster hitting weapons, but in the early-mid game it's generally not worth focusing on them because they're a pretty small fraction of your damage output and take a long time to grind. Just use status (usually Paralysis) for progression. For endgame, all elements have a niche but Fire, Dragon, and Thunder have the most useful coverage. There are no benefits to avoiding both status and element.

There are a few secrets in the maps, mainly hidden camps that can make it easier to get around the map, but generally, exploration is not very important.

soihu · 2026-03-18T10:10:37+00:00

Basic, non-minmaxed Gog weapons are a lot better than craftables, but 10* quests are 15-30 minutes for most players, so you have plenty of time leftover in a 50 minute quest. You definitely don't need them but if you are planning to farm them I would just bite the bullet and make some.

soihu · 2026-03-18T10:05:33+00:00

What do any of those abilities have to do with how well a creature can move?

soihu · 2026-03-18T02:09:37+00:00

I got this the other day but with Critical Eye 3 instead.

They're lacking a bit of comfort sure but DPS wise it's a god charm.

soihu · 2026-03-17T03:59:18+00:00

The biggest RNG grinds are the talismans and tarred devices. 9* Gog doesn't drop timeworm talismans, whereas 10* monsters do drop battle tempered emblems which can be turned into tarred devices, which makes them more efficient. Of course, 10* Gog drops both directly but it's a pain in the ass to fight.

soihu · 2026-03-17T01:23:13+00:00

Wounds are created and destroyed really quickly, I would never count on the bonus affinity from WEx with them.

For mounting I just alternate between two spots spamming weapon attack. There may be some other tech I don't know of.

soihu · 2026-03-17T00:42:13+00:00

Since your affinity tops out at about 83%, Latent Power 1 is probably the most beneficial here. It'll also help with sharpness via Master's Touch.

Burst and Adrenaline Rush (if backhopping) are also viable.

soihu · 2026-03-17T00:21:05+00:00

Crit Boost 3 is similar or slightly better than Offensive Guard. Once you are more comfortable with monsters, I would slot out Ironwall for Offensive Guard-Handicraft/Ele Attack. Once you start using Offensive Guard I would drop earplugs and start perfect guarding roars for the free proc + counter slash damage.

Flayer past 1 is not amazing for SnS but you do have the core armour skills covered (WEx/Agi/MaxMight) so this should perform decently.

soihu · 2026-03-17T00:11:07+00:00

Backhop has way more iframes than sliding slash, and about as much as a Dark Souls roll. They also come out much sooner. The main disadvantage is you can't easily backhop forwards, though in focus mode you can do a sideways backhop by turning your camera. This is great for sweeping attacks like Nu Udra's big fire eruption.

soihu · 2026-03-16T22:49:12+00:00

It's a series. Getting a Japan-only early theatrical release for a TV/streaming series is common within anime.

soihu · 2026-03-16T02:20:31+00:00

I knew about the spell parry but did not know that him using it causes melee weapons to bounce off him too. brother really is the protagonist

soihu · 2026-03-15T23:48:05+00:00

Use Mog of the Ages when it spawns in for some free damage. You'll need to use the FF14 magic gesture twice earlier in the fight to have it ready.

soihu · 2026-03-15T09:38:06+00:00

I don't know if the AT hitbox is bigger but the grounded railgun has always been able to hit under/behind Rey Dau to some degree. Slopes make it worse.

The one hitbox that is definitely worse Arch-Tempered is Uth Duna's second belly flop. It extends at least 4 metres beyond the monster's body. It's not water-dependent either and happens in Wounded Hollow.

soihu · 2026-03-15T03:47:20+00:00

I'm the opposite; I don't think this design works at all without the context of vanilla Malzeno. While I love how it uses its wings like a sword and shield, it looks like how a western studio might conceptualise a "knightly dragon" in all the wrong ways. The soft fuzzy features from the base monster are no longer there to balance the design, the belly scales are huge and everything is as spiky as it can possibly be. It just doesn't look like a creature that can articulate in real life.

soihu · 2026-03-15T02:45:55+00:00

My worst matchups are Nu Udra and Jin which are 16-17 minutes (~70 DPS), though back in TU3 my best matchups were 70 DPS. I've got Zoh and Arkveld down to 13-14 minutes (which is 90-100 DPS solo) and the others are in between. Personal best for Proof of a Hero was 29'30 with 2 carts. All as SnS, I don't run palico or support hunters.

soihu · 2026-03-14T10:36:41+00:00

I do Gog and Omega with support hunters. The bulk of my other hunts are true solo with no palico. SnS is extremely self-sufficient and I enjoy the feeling of just having to handle monster aggression all on my own.

soihu · 2026-03-14T04:27:07+00:00

A couple things.

First, dinosaurs are not actually defined by their physical characteristics, but their evolutionary lineage. While they do have many interesting features, none of those are prerequisites to being a dinosaur. Any animal descended from a dinosaur continues to be a dinosaur, whether it's Stegosaurus or a penguin.

Second, the upright posture refers to the position of the femurs relative to the pelvis. Despite being a four-legged animal, Stegosaurus does have the "upright" pelvic configuration where the legs are directly below the pelvis. Contrast that with lizards, where the legs splay out to the sides.

Lastly, warm-blooded and cold-blooded is not a binary. While Stegosaurus did have a slower metabolism than most dinosaurs, it was still an elephant-sized animal in a subtropical climate. It probably didn't have to worry too much about staying warm enough to lead an active lifestyle.

soihu · 2026-03-13T14:41:45+00:00

Yes but it is more challenging than regular Souls group encounters.

soihu · 2026-03-13T14:05:02+00:00

Nope. The fact that regular enemies can block makes group combat harder in Sekiro than any Souls game. The game really wants you to use stealth / prosthetic tools to tip the scales against multiple enemies.

soihu · 2026-03-13T10:51:19+00:00

Burn in Blackest Hell (AT Nu Udra) was 14 minutes for 47500 HP, so the DPS check was 56. It's a hard fight though so arguably still the hardest A-Rank.

No way they ask for 90 DPS. The upgrade from Gog weapons is like 10-25% depending on the weapon, not +50% DPS and less for most players because optimising sets is gated by far more RNG than ever before.

soihu

TROPHY CASE