PixlBit

This entry will continue to detail some of the notable areas I've been to in Dark Souls, and some of the battles I've been in so far on my first playthrough. In the previous entry of the series I talked about the character I created, the Undead Asylum, Burg, Parish, Firelink Shrine, and Darkroot Garden. If you missed it, you can find it here.

Lower Undead Burg

The thief class enemies that ambushed me in this area are jerks. They have low health and can be sliced to size in no time, but the trouble was connecting hits at all. These guys would parry my attack, hop up onto me, crawl around to my back, and stab me with their daggers in a critical attack. It was the first time I encountered the thief class enemies with that move-set, so at that point I was accustomed to fighting face to face with knights like a normal person. The first time I had a theif crawl all over me and stab me I was like, "WHAT? Who the **** do you think you are!?" They do bleeding damage as well so if they connect enough strikes and build up your bleed meter till it's full, you will loose a giant chunk of health all at once and probably die.

The Capra Demon battle was a claustrophobic mess but it was pretty thrilling. I'm really into level design so when I'm playing games a part of me is always analyzing the way the gameworld is put together. The area the Capra Demon resides in is unique because you would never expect a boss or sub-boss battle to be staged in such an awkward and small space. Growing up playing Zelda games conditioned me to know exactly when to expect boss battles because they always have a large room dedicated to them (often circular). In Dark Souls, boss battles are more organic and seem to just show up out of nowhere many times.

It was crazy being tossed into that tiny encounter space with a big Demon jumping around at me and there is hardly anywhere to run. In order to be successful I had dodge every attack the Demon had because receiving hits was taking way too much stamina. I ran up the set of stairs in the area, he came up the stairs after me, and I fell off the side onto the grass below and ran to the start of the stairs. Running a circuit around the small area to avoid him, and getting in a couple hits when I could.

The Depths

When I killed the Capra Demon, I got the key to enter the Depths. I had no idea what I was descending into other than it was underground, and nothing good ever happens underground, ever. The first few encounter spaces were straightforward and I had nothing to fear. Just some hollowed men and a giant butcher. However, there are some sneaky slime blobs that hang from ceilings and drop onto you, so watch out from above! The slimes are good to farm though because you can earn green titanite and large titanite from them. The real trouble started once I entered the sewers and began poking around. At one point I was exploring and found a dark hole in the floor. When I noticed the hidden hole, my brain started weighing the pros and cons of falling down it. Caution was telling me, "It's a dark hole in an underground place, if you go down it, you're an asshole." But risk was telling me, "Explore it, there could be special items down there to help out in the adventure. I didn't buy this game to avoid danger." So I fell down the hole and it was deeper than I thought.

I ended up several floors down, a big chunk of my health was chopped off, and I got jumped by a bunch of frog creatures I had never encountered before. Little did I know these frogs can inflict the Curse on you, which is the worst thing in the game from what I've heard. Deep in enemy territory, don't know my way out, surrounded by Curse frogs, and to top it all off some hostile NPC named Knight Kirk invaded right as I was surrounded by Curse frogs. Sounds hopeless, but there's always hope!

After a lot of careful exploring with my shield up, I cleared the area of enemies and came across the giant Gaping Dragon. This giant snaggle-toothed vagina-on-legs, crawled out of the abyss, and killed me a few times as I ran around the expansive battlefield. Sometimes I would get close enough to use my sword for a quick combo, but the only thing that saved my life was my bow and the few arrows I had. I kept the Dragon at distance as often as I could, and plugged it till it died.

The Depths aren't so bad once you know your way around, but the one thing that really is nasty about the Depths is that it's only a two-way street. If you want to get out of that place and back to familiar territory in the Undead Burg, you have to fight all the way back up out of the Depths. The only other direction to go is down, into Blighttown. Believe me, if Blighttown wasn't an essential area containing the Second Bell, I would never recommend you go there. Unfortunately, we must go.

Undead Asylum Part 2 / Blighttown

Well, this area of the game is a peach, full of maggots. Once you know your way around Blighttown, it will certainly help you out, but it never makes things easier. Blighttown never gets easier or more friendly. Everything that exists down there is geared towards killing you, even the shady walkways and often-rough geometry. Before you come here, you should absolutely climb to the top of the church at Firelink Shrine, find the Crow's nest, and let him take you back to the Undead Asylum so you can find the Rusted Iron Ring. The ring allows you to move around in water and swamp without any penalty to your movement speed, which is extremely useful and it's saved my life many times in various areas of the game so far.

The Undead Asylum Part 2 (where you get the Rusted Iron Ring) was a place that I became stuck for a couple nights, and it was all because of the Stray Demon boss. I died 14 times in a row and I was ready to give up hope, leave, and never come back to the Asylum to fight him. Luckily right when I was about to give up hope, I got some encouragement from Angelo Grant over at Pixlbit, and I came back to beat the Stray Demon. I had to grind through the battle for at least 10 minutes, but I killed it. Now back to Blighttown.

I entered through the front entrance to Blighttown initially, and it wasn't long before I turned back and retreated to the Depths. I was poisoned, made toxic, knocked off walkways, bashed with clubs, and killed in such an eclectic variety of ways that I decided to retreat, buy more poison herbs, and regain my composure. I had heard from friends that there was a back entrance to Blighttown and it was much more convenient, so I set out to find it because fuck me, anything is better than the front entrance. Thankfully I chose the Master Key as my starting gift and I was able to unlock a door that led me to the back entrance, and it is much more convenient. Down in the swamp isn't a good place to be, but it is a great place to kill the slugs and farm for green titanite and large titanite.

Quelaag, the boss of the area, is the toughest boss I faced in the game so far. My fire resistance is very low and her attacks are all about fire. I even summoned Maneater Mildred to help me out in the fight and I continued to die over and over. Maneater would get pinned in a corner and Quelaag would cover her in lava so she couldn't do anything but die. While Quelaag was busy terrorizing Maneater, I would attack from behind but she would use an AoE fire attack and kill me. Eventually the way I achieved victory was by being alone, constantly running, getting in one melee attack at a time, and doing the rest with my bow. Once I killed Quelaag I tossed my controller up and sighed in relief. Overall, Blighttown was the only area of the game that wasn't fun for me. Every little area of Dark Souls has been a blast for me and I love the challenge, but Blighttown is a place that only makes me frustrated. I was so happy that it was over with and I could move on. The fun has returned in full form once I left Blighttown, but that will be for the next entry!

Stay tuned, it won't be long before my next entry comes and updates you on Andromeda's ongoing adventures through Lordran! The next entry will officially bring you up to speed on where I am in the game.