From Software 'n such

[bcass]

To be honest, I think these games are at their most fun in the first 6 months after release where everything is broken. Balancing might be good for PvP, but it diminishes PvE IMO. Not that there aren't still broken PvE builds in Elden Ring, because there are.

[Lemnear]

To be honest, I think these games are at their most fun in the first 6 months after release where everything is broken. Balancing might be good for PvP, but it diminishes PvE IMO. Not that there aren't still broken PvE builds in Elden Ring, because there are.

The thing i hate most is that some builds are "impossible" to do.
How can you have an INT/FTH caster if the CAP is 80? and 50 for Mana... it exceed the comunity LV, is easier to make a STR/INT , STR/FTH (the easiest to do in the game), DEX/ARC, DEX/FTH (second easiest to do), etc... but for Quality and INT/FTH builds is impossible.
You can only max 1 offensive stat...while the second would not be maximized

[Sima Tuna]

Int/Faith caster was definitely doable in Dark Souls 2. DexHex was a meme unto itself. Now quality/hex, I don't know. That might be too many stats to manage at once. You only need about 20 in DS2's adp, and a 20 in stamina will do ya as well. Hp can be as low as you can tolerate. DS3, I suppose you remove the adp requirement. Sink hp. 20 to stamina will do ya. Rest into quality weapons OR quality int/faith, until you hit a threshold.

Not maxing a stat isn't the end of the world. The more shit you want, the less you can optimize. A generalized build can still be good. You always have the option to maximize int/faith and then use weapons that scale off int/faith or raw + coating (like magic weapon). Quality strength/dex as a build has always lent itself well to utility magic that doesn't cost anything in stats, such as Pyromancy.

I don't know if Elden Ring changed anything or if the systems for building characters are still the same.

[Lander]

The thing i hate most is that some builds are "impossible" to do.

This is something that's bugged me for ages with stat-allocator RPGs, though less so in Souls since (outside of PvP, which I don't really touch) you can ignore community level recommendations for the sake of a novelty build.

Classical ARPGs like Diablo and Grim Dawn really highlight the problem; each class has a wide pool of skills to choose from, and the game will happily let you spread your points around however you like, but if you aren't picking 2-3 to dump 90% of your levels into then you're doing it wrong and will end up nonviable pretty quickly.

There's a quote nestled somewhere in the Path of Exile skill tree that sums it up well:
Fear not the warrior who has practiced ten thousand techniques once; instead, fear the warrior who has practiced one technique ten thousand times.

Surely there must be some abstraction that better unifies the balance intent with player agency. The problem is lessened by having comprehensive build guides available with just a few clicks, but that strikes me as more of a patch than a fix.

[Lemnear]

The thing i hate most is that some builds are "impossible" to do.

This is something that's bugged me for ages with stat-allocator RPGs, though less so in Souls since (outside of PvP, which I don't really touch) you can ignore community level recommendations for the sake of a novelty build.

Classical ARPGs like Diablo and Grim Dawn really highlight the problem; each class has a wide pool of skills to choose from, and the game will happily let you spread your points around however you like, but if you aren't picking 2-3 to dump 90% of your levels into then you're doing it wrong and will end up nonviable pretty quickly.

There's a quote nestled somewhere in the Path of Exile skill tree that sums it up well:
Fear not the warrior who has practiced ten thousand techniques once; instead, fear the warrior who has practiced one technique ten thousand times.

Surely there must be some abstraction that better unifies the balance intent with player agency. The problem is lessened by having comprehensive build guides available with just a few clicks, but that strikes me as more of a patch than a fix.

I've managed to create some super-duper-refined builds, but in Elden Ring technically most of the starting classes are useless and have some wasted points (use a Character Planner), the game is intended to be played OR with a Pure Single Stat Character, OR with a 1 Physical and 1 Elemental Stat Charaters, but..some combination have 1 or 0 weapons available (STR/ARC, INT/ARC, FTH/ARC, INT/FTH), those combinations are sub-optimal, meanwhile, the others have at least 3 or more specific weapons
Quality STR/DEX builds are far way less powerful than in the past (and less powerfull than a phys+elem build, weird...) but viable...the only good thing are the swappable AOW...ignoring that a big chunk of the weapons are totally useless with no reason to be
I want a Death Herself build with Rancorcall and a Winged Scythe for fashion souls in the colosseum...bored about all those bloody-ninja or lunar mages.

[Blinge]

Wat?

I thought in Elden Ring you can make pretty much anything get busted good..

[Lemnear]

Wat?

I thought in Elden Ring you can make pretty much anything get busted good..

It depends, if you want an optimized build (LV150) or simply go for PVE only, exceeding that LV limit. In this case, there's no problem.
If you go for LV150 there are a lot of build that are not as optimal as if they were LV180/200.
Oh i have a spare LV140 wretch character with every item, ready to modeled YEE. I saved a lot of hours

EDIT: everything? Try the Cane Sword btw in other soulslike, the basic weapons can get you to the endgame without much effort, in ER everything that isn't a special weapon (with a few exclutions) is outclassed in late game. ....

[guigui]

Currently over 150 hours in Elden Ring, first blind playthrough.

Still impressed with the very huge world. I am near the Forge of Giant (looks like main road, close to endgame ?), unlocked Shunning Underground under Leyndell, and Miquella's Haligtree but did not explore yet.
I also have the most northwestern part of the overworld map that is not uncovered at all.

Also, I once crossed path with a giant blacksmith who told me not to go in the manor over there, very dangerous. So I turned around and forgot about it. Then came back way later only to discover that I am very overleveled now, and that Doll Ranni is hidden over there. A bit frustrated to have missed this when time was good.

And in a general way : I have no bloody clue of what is going on in this game in terms of story and lore. All the main deity protagonists seem to have the same name God-thing, whenever you talk to an NPC you do not know who he is (unless he has a shop-like interface, or you can remember his name he told you 100 hours earlier in the game), and they move around all the time with apparently no reason. But I like it, very Fromy style. I remember not liking the other way around at the start of the game where everything seemed to be guided. Guess I need to read items descriptions more.

Btw, loading screens are awful : describing always the same mechanism of mostly online stuff, to which I dont even have access b/c no PSN paid account. Give me Demon's Souls loading screens back, where I could actually take time to read item descriptions and the lore that goes with them.

[Lemnear]

Currently over 150 hours in Elden Ring, first blind playthrough.

Still impressed with the very huge world. I am near the Forge of Giant (looks like main road, close to endgame ?), unlocked Shunning Underground under Leyndell, and Miquella's Haligtree but did not explore yet.
I also have the most northwestern part of the overworld map that is not uncovered at all.

Also, I once crossed path with a giant blacksmith who told me not to go in the manor over there, very dangerous. So I turned around and forgot about it. Then came back way later only to discover that I am very overleveled now, and that Doll Ranni is hidden over there. A bit frustrated to have missed this when time was good.

And in a general way : I have no bloody clue of what is going on in this game in terms of story and lore. All the main deity protagonists seem to have the same name God-thing, whenever you talk to an NPC you do not know who he is (unless he has a shop-like interface, or you can remember his name he told you 100 hours earlier in the game), and they move around all the time with apparently no reason. But I like it, very Fromy style. I remember not liking the other way around at the start of the game where everything seemed to be guided. Guess I need to read items descriptions more.

Btw, loading screens are awful : describing always the same mechanism of mostly online stuff, to which I dont even have access b/c no PSN paid account. Give me Demon's Souls loading screens back, where I could actually take time to read item descriptions and the lore that goes with them.

There is also the Mohgwyn Palace, the rest of Nokstella (under Liurnia) the Manus Celes Altar (Liurnia), Miquella's Haligtree, the underground roots of the Erdtree (Fia quest), Volcano Manor, idk if you explored all those places. The THREE fingers (not the 2 fingers). The majority of the game is secret.
The lore? is incredibly contorted, complex and with a fuckton of references to Dark Souls 1,2,3 and Bloodborne (inting that is the same universe...in a non specified moment but probably after the end of Dark Souls 3).

[guigui]

Thanks for the post Lemnear, gives some places to seek :

There is also the Mohgwyn Palace,

Done, Mogh is dead, got a Trident weapon, and an ugly arm sprouting down from an egg that I can not interact with. Nice view though.

Volcano Manor

Currently exploring Mt Gelmir, I think the Manor is somewhere here. Just got kicked down the cliff by Patches, and was actually surprised this happened, even though I played all Souls games before. I love him !

the rest of Nokstella (under Liurnia)

Done I guess. Found a deceased giant king on a throne, could even open the chest underneath thanks to Ranni.

the Manus Celes Altar (Liurnia)

If this is the high plateau in southwest Liurnia, over the poison part of the lake, then I still have no clue how to get up there. Dont tell me.

Miquella's Haligtree

Unlocked but not explored yet.

the underground roots of the Erdtree (Fia quest)

Went to Deeproot Depths, roots of a big tree somewhere close under Leyndell. Cleared the zone and the bosses consisting of 3 or 4 invade-like NPC. Have no idea what the big mass in the boss area is supposed to be though. Is this the place ?

The THREE fingers (not the 2 fingers).

No idea where they are, dont tell me.

[Lemnear]

Thanks for the post Lemnear, gives some places to seek :

There is also the Mohgwyn Palace,

Done, Mogh is dead, got a Trident weapon, and an ugly arm sprouting down from an egg that I can not interact with. Nice view though.

Spoiler

Miquella was kidnapped by Mohg, so he can marry an Empyrean and become Elden Lord (the only Empyreans are Ranni, Miquella, Malenia, Marika, not sure about Melina and there is also the only-mentioned Dusk-Eyed Queen, who ruled the godskin apostles in past). Yes Miquella is male.

Currently exploring Mt Gelmir, I think the Manor is somewhere here. Just got kicked down the cliff by Patches, and was actually surprised this happened, even though I played all Souls games before. I love him !

it is well hidden despite being huge. And with a big secret inside! (is hidden, is a secret...is an hidden-secret!).

the rest of Nokstella (under Liurnia)

Done I guess. Found a deceased giant king on a throne, could even open the chest underneath thanks to Ranni.

Yes, but there is more to explore down there (MORE), i don't remember where the access is D:

the Manus Celes Altar (Liurnia)

If this is the high plateau in southwest Liurnia, over the poison part of the lake, then I still have no clue how to get up there. Dont tell me.

Yes! is that plateau, It will surprise you how you get there (not sure if is only for Ranni's quest).

Miquella's Haligtree

Unlocked but not explored yet.

Is the VERY late game area.

the underground roots of the Erdtree (Fia quest)

Went to Deeproot Depths, roots of a big tree somewhere close under Leyndell. Cleared the zone and the bosses consisting of 3 or 4 invade-like NPC. Have no idea what the big mass in the boss area is supposed to be though. Is this the place ?

Is that place, but there is a real fight there (Fia's Quest), don't worry you can do all the quest you want, all together (except one, that immediately stop all the other quests). The NPC's are just her other champions.

The THREE fingers (not the 2 fingers).

No idea where they are, dont tell me.

Is a dangerous path, gameplay-wise, and ...morally hardest place to reach in the entire game.


There are 6 Endings (all NPC related) you can achieve 5 of them with 1 complete run [save-state at the end], the last one is very different and lock you out of all other ending choices, unless...

[guigui]

Yay, now I'm even more hyped to explore all those stuff. I wont ask more details to not ruin the pleasure.

But you seem to know very much about the game and its lore. Did you decipher all of this by yourself, or read it elsewhere ?
If you do happen to know a good place where I could learn about lore, but with no risk of spoiling the gameplay aspect, could you direct me there ?

[Lemnear]

Yay, now I'm even more hyped to explore all those stuff. I wont ask more details to not ruin the pleasure.

But you seem to know very much about the game and its lore. Did you decipher all of this by yourself, or read it elsewhere ?
If you do happen to know a good place where I could learn about lore, but with no risk of spoiling the gameplay aspect, could you direct me there ?

Items description (ALL), dialogues (and some secret dialogue, for example there are two secret dialogue with Melina and one with Patches, first encounter, depends by your answer), cut-content material, lore of previous games, not directly correlated but sometimes Elden Ring suggest it, AND, From Software never recycled something just for laziness, there's always a sense.
The Golden Mask questline is a BIG reveal too, probably the most important plot-twist, but it requires something like 38 INT, you can respect your characters to do that then return to your original stats.
PS: some items description in japanese are slighty different and have extra lore.

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Elden+Ring+Wiki (if you "click to much" contains spoilers )
Good starting point ^
There is also another one.

But, yeah....i deciphered the whole lore of DS1,DS2,DS3, Bloodborne and Elden Ring, is like a puzzle!
[Random Example: on the Titanite Slab in Dark Souls 1, is depicted the ERDTREE ]
[Random Example 2: on the Titanite Slab in Dark Souls 3 there are RUNES, same for the summon signs ]
[Random Example 3: in Elden Ring (Volcano Manor) there's a weapon from Dark Souls 3, even the description suggest it]
[Random Example 4: Fia is the ONLY one that knows the art of Lifedrain , something that ONLY the first invaders of New Londo knows and the 4 Kings]
[Random Example 5: Fia dress is a copy of Prince Lothric dress, what she wants (questline) is exactly what the Church of the Black Flame and Londor wants in DS3]
[Random Example 6: there is a mention of the Outer-Gods of Bloodborne]
[Random Example 7: there are mentions of Sekiro, Land of Reeds]
etc. better to stop XD
So i suggest that during those events, the Land Betweens already existed, the game starts eons after the end of Dark Souls 3 (DLC 2).

Patches is the only character in the entire game that when dies it not say "Patches is Dead" but "Patches returned to his world".




Instead for Stats allocation:
https://negator13-eldenring.azurewebsit ... calculator
https://www.tarnished.dev/weapon-calculator
https://www.tarnished.dev/spell-calculator

The Soft-CAPs or Hard-CAPs are just indicative, like the weapons scaling, a B for a weapon is not the same B of another one. Vigor at 60, always!

This is a PVP Tier List for the LV125 meta. (courtesy of several Elden Ring Discords server) OP weapons/AOW are prohibited for fairness.

Spoiler

[Blinge]

Respec
- as in Re-do the specifications.

Unless that was just a typo, then i'm sorry. The only reason I point this out is because the first time I heard 'respec' it was spoken and i heard "respect" and carried the error forward for months lmao.

Finding the Goldmask twist by myself in game was awesome haha, do you need faith aswell? I believed I respecced just to get the revelation.
But it was an easy one as I went full Mage/Int on my first playthrough.

Oh god, your connections between Souls and Elden Ring are wild
nononoo.

WHERE does it say Patches returned to his world? Let's dig into that one shall we?

[bcass]

Patches is the only character in the entire game that when dies it not say "Patches is Dead" but "Patches returned to his world".

Spoiler

I interpreted that completely differently. I thought that he simply gives-up shortly after being summoned, and, being the coward that he is, simply returns to his own world of his own accord.

[Blinge]

Gah yes. that is what happens.
but i was waiting for Lemnear to answer, to see if he knows what he's talking about.

[Lemnear]

Respec
- as in Re-do the specifications.

Unless that was just a typo, then i'm sorry. The only reason I point this out is because the first time I heard 'respec' it was spoken and i heard "respect" and carried the error forward for months lmao.

Finding the Goldmask twist by myself in game was awesome haha, do you need faith aswell? I believed I respecced just to get the revelation.
But it was an easy one as I went full Mage/Int on my first playthrough.

Oh god, your connections between Souls and Elden Ring are wild
nononoo.

WHERE does it say Patches returned to his world? Let's dig into that one shall we?

Oddly enough, 0 Faith is required for Golden Mask hahaha

ALLERT LORE ALLERT SPOILER:

Spoiler

Dragonslayer Swordspear

Item Description:
"A dragon hunting weapon from the age of the gods. The earliest form of the cross spear, serving as both a sword and a spear.
Its owner was the Nameless King, a deific hunter of dragons. The swordspear is imbued with lightning, of which he was the heir."

Serpent-Hunter

Item Description:
"Weapon that serves as both greatsword and spear. Thought to
have been used to hunt an immortal great serpent in the distant
past, it manifests a long blade of light when facing such a creature."


Or:

Dark Souls 3 Serpent-Man:


Elden Ring Worm-Face:


And most important (Dark Souls 3):
Way of White Circlet

Item Description:

"Online play item. Restore the connection to other worlds.
Those who engage in unjust deeds when in contact with other worlds will lose their connection to them.
Way of White Circlets assume such sin as their own, but are found few and far between. Acting without honor will never be without risk."

Is this a Great Rune?
When you lose it, you lose Online Multiplayer, do you lose Grace and get sent into the Land Between? (lore-wise).

Elden Ring Great Runes:



And:
THE FRENZIED FLAME
The Frenzied Flame is either an Outer God itself or a manifestation of an Outer God's influence. At the end of Hyetta's questline, she is able to speak to us on behalf of the Frenzied Flame's Three Fingers. It outlines its beliefs that the Greater Will's act of "fracturing" the "One Great" into life as we know it was a mistake, and is the source of all suffering. Its intentions are to burn the world, "until all is One again".

Hyetta the "Fire-Keeper"
Essentially they want to return to the original Dark Souls 1 Flame before Gwyn&co took the 4 souls from it.

Fingerprint Stone Shield

Item Description:
"A great stone shield with an intricately carved fingerprint design.
One of the heaviest of all greatshields.
Part of the tomb of an ancient god, the Readerless Fingers relayed their message through these imprints, said to be the very seeds from which frenzy first sprouted."

Is the Tomb of Gwyn?

Here Patches running away from Radahn (why his sign is there? LOL)
When i'll re-reach Radahn again i want to try to summon only Patches while Radahn is near the summoner sign and if he can be hitted for real (or even killed), because he walks a bit before leaving.


Lapp/Patches
Final Encounter (Ringed City):

EVERY AGE, it seems, is tainted by the greed of men.
Rubbish, to one such as I, devoid of all worldly wants! Hmmm, I dunno, maybe it's just the way we are.
I'll stick you in my prayers. A fine dark soul, to you."

Every Age? What this means? How many ages he witnessed? Is Patches the same Patches in all the games? In search of the perfect Age/World?

[Stevens]

Patches is the only character in the entire game that when dies it not say "Patches is Dead" but "Patches returned to his world".

Spoiler

I interpreted that completely differently. I thought that he simply gives-up shortly after being summoned, and, being the coward that he is, simply returns to his own world of his own accord.

He sees Radahn and is like - fuck that noise.

[Blinge]

thinking up lore reasons to explain away From Software's asset re-use.

[Sima Tuna]

If you have a good asset, why not use it again?

Spoiler

And again, and again, and again.

[Lemnear]

thinking up lore reasons to explain away From Software's asset re-use.

I can understand assets re-use, but when you find "Seath the Scaleless" both in Kings Field and in Dark Souls, looking the same ..with the same name...idk

At least change the name or something else LOL..or the lore.

[Blinge]

he doesn't look the same.

it's a reference, a homage.

the bonkers lore connections you want to dream up are where i draw the line.

change the lore? they do change the fucking lore. Seath in KF is totally different lorewise to Seath the Scaleless

[Lemnear]

he doesn't look the same.

it's a reference, a homage.

the bonkers lore connections you want to dream up are where i draw the line.

change the lore? they do change the fucking lore. Seath in KF is totally different lorewise to Seath the Scaleless

I like how in DS3 they talk about the reshape that happens at the end of each cycle (Ringed City part 1), i think it's the most brilliant excuse ever invented to justify laziness, and at the same time build a general epic lore, something that only the best D&D Masters do.

[hazys]

That's something I didn't like about DS3, it was so self-referential and concerned with legacy-building. For all its faults DS2 was an entirely new story with just minor connections (and revisited themes).

[Sima Tuna]

That's something I didn't like about DS3, it was so self-referential and concerned with legacy-building. For all its faults DS2 was an entirely new story with just minor connections (and revisited themes).

I feel the same way, although I won't let DS2 off the hook quite so easily. DS2 still has that bollocks about cycles of kindling and shadow, which basically invalidate both endings to DS1 and makes you feel like nothing you did in that game mattered.

Compare that with Demon's Souls, where your actions very much have *an* impact. Whether for good or ill, well that depends.

I give some slack to Bloodborne because dreams are at the center of its story. So how much does what you do matters? It matters to the dreamers. The edges of dream and reality are blurred in any case.

But yeah, DS3's story felt like a straight retread of DS1's themes and ideas. I guess From wanted to remake DS1 with more polish, which is fine I guess. What dev doesn't feel that way about their old games? I wish From would consider poor, forgotten Tenchu and King's Field.

[Fingolfin]

Been trying to wrap my head around Frame Gride; set up Flycast about a month ago and as a fan of Virtual On: Cyber Troopers/VOOT and From Soft had to give Frame Gride a shot.

Have tinkered with a few different builds but trying to just commit control scheme to memory/develop some muscle memory. Am using very familiar Xbox 360 controller but w/ Dreamcast emulated controller layout mapped to that, it is taking a little getting used to.

Have been using this translation of Frame Gride manual https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/dreamcast ... /faqs/6573
and have started to poke around this walkthrough https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/dreamcast ... /faqs/7572
though not really ready for starting a campaign/full play-through yet.

Thoughts on Frame Gride?
Any suggestions for builds or strats?


Got the US/North America version of PS1 King’s Field not long after Playstation launch and at first the gameplay struck me as a bit cryptic; but only in the best ways — kinda like a polygonal 3D Colossal Cave Adventure!***

Played the original Armored Core on PS1 upon release (1997) but only checked out/borrowed for a couple of nights as a store manager for Electronics Boutique.

About 10 years ago got Dark Souls free on 360 via Xbox Live Gold. Never spent much time with it though until a couple of years ago: janky/wonky (as well as challenging) is the 360 version. Finally picked up PS4 Dark Souls Trilogy and have been slowly working through DS Remastered to start. Have finally started Bloodborne too.

*** holy shit: had no fuckin’ clue that Roberta Williams had recently remade/updated the original text Colossal Cave Adventure with graphics (2023 release); my reference above was to the original text version of CCA by Will Crowther (1975) and Don Woods (1977). My comparing From Soft’s King’s Field on PS1 in 1995 to Colossal Cave Adventure was to convey the challenge of King’s Field with high level of difficulty of the original text Colossal Cave Adventure — weird as fuck that I literally used the phrase “3D Colossal Cave Adventure” which is the title of Roberta Williams’ remake.

Edits for (attempted) brevity and re: the new remake of CCA

[hazys]

I feel the same way, although I won't let DS2 off the hook quite so easily. DS2 still has that bollocks about cycles of kindling and shadow, which basically invalidate both endings to DS1 and makes you feel like nothing you did in that game mattered.

Compare that with Demon's Souls, where your actions very much have *an* impact. Whether for good or ill, well that depends.

I give some slack to Bloodborne because dreams are at the center of its story. So how much does what you do matters? It matters to the dreamers. The edges of dream and reality are blurred in any case.

But yeah, DS3's story felt like a straight retread of DS1's themes and ideas. I guess From wanted to remake DS1 with more polish, which is fine I guess. What dev doesn't feel that way about their old games? I wish From would consider poor, forgotten Tenchu and King's Field.

If they wanted to do the whole "closing the cycle" thing they could've kept it to the Ringed City DLC. All the Souls deal with themes of fate and death and eternal return and so on, but there was no need to make it an explicit "zomg it's all connected!" thing, at least I found it unnecessary.

Demon's has more of that Weird Fiction thing going on (as applied to D&D-style fantasy), and Bloodborne's got heaps of that, but portrayed as the dark side of rationalism/enlightenment, which I found really interesting.

Going off on a tangent here, I think Bloodborne is my favorite Souls overall (for its atmosphere and pacing and for not dropping the ball in the last section of the campaign), but I feel like it really could've gotten away with not being an RPG. Get rid of the stat system, just keep the weapon upgrades and Runes, implement some kind of upgrade system for Hunter's Tools, done. That would've solved its issues with build variety. In a game with so few weapons and no respec, it sucks to come across a really cool weapon and realize you'll never make it work with your build. Would make runs far more dynamic.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I finally did it. After months of failed attempts and stupid deaths, I managed to clear DS1 without dying (aside from, y'know, Seath's mandatory library prison visit >w>;). Ignored any platforming with the risk of death such as the trip down to Vamos (which is usually safe but I had a run ruined when I somehow bounced off the wall, so much for making a chaos weapon -w-).

Wanderer with 16 Str, I ended up using a Lightning Longsword for 90% of the game. Power Within and Havel's wrecked the 4 Kings nicely. For the final boss, I managed to pick up a Balder Side Sword instead, and upgraded it to +14 (since he's effectively immune to such low lightning damage). Eagle Shield, BSS, Cloranthy Ring, and Ring of Favor. 46 Vit, 40 End, backpedalled, waited for openings, stabbed him after he whiffed a grab or a kick.

I tried to get a Black Knight Shield but the knights refused to drop one for me so I just went in with Eagle Shield. Eagle Shield eats a lot of damage due to the fire element on Gwyn's sword, but it also has way better stability than the Black Knight Shield at least, which matters for some of his big slam attacks.

[bcass]

Congrats. No-hit next?

[Lemnear]

I finally did it. After months of failed attempts and stupid deaths, I managed to clear DS1 without dying (aside from, y'know, Seath's mandatory library prison visit >w>;). Ignored any platforming with the risk of death such as the trip down to Vamos (which is usually safe but I had a run ruined when I somehow bounced off the wall, so much for making a chaos weapon -w-).

Wanderer with 16 Str, I ended up using a Lightning Longsword for 90% of the game. Power Within and Havel's wrecked the 4 Kings nicely. For the final boss, I managed to pick up a Balder Side Sword instead, and upgraded it to +14 (since he's effectively immune to such low lightning damage). Eagle Shield, BSS, Cloranthy Ring, and Ring of Favor. 46 Vit, 40 End, backpedalled, waited for openings, stabbed him after he whiffed a grab or a kick.

I tried to get a Black Knight Shield but the knights refused to drop one for me so I just went in with Eagle Shield. Eagle Shield eats a lot of damage due to the fire element on Gwyn's sword, but it also has way better stability than the Black Knight Shield at least, which matters for some of his big slam attacks.

Good Job!!!
Lightning is ridicolous in DS1, strongest elemental infusion and the Balder Side Sword is the longest SS in the game.
Now try to get the 2 secret rings in DS2 (No Death, and NO Bonfire)

PS: the second one is easier than it seems...TIP: Santier Spear!

PPS: you can avoid that death with Seath.