RichC2

Part of it is that it's fun, the other part is that satisfaction that comes from finishing something mildly frustrating.

K&AJones

Both me and a friend are at the "Nightmare" sections...or at least about to start them.....Nightmare Frontier. We are somewhat dreading it because according to several topics on various forums the "Nightmare's" are prime Invasion Areas. I then mentioned, "we'll just have to play offline and do solo". But how does your progress save and get uploaded?

RichC2

I'm confused by that, when you're getting invaded early on, can they just invade anytime they want? I thought it could only happen if the bitch rang the Sinister Bell.

lopper

I was only invaded once in each of the nightmare zones. Once you kill the bell ringing woman, who's pretty easy to find, they can't invade anymore, I don't think.

maxfisher

So tonight will be the fourth evening of attempting the Blood Starved Beast. I had him down to a sliver on my first try last night, and went to finish him with a molotov. Unfortunately, I was out of molotovs and just popped him with a pebble, then got instantly killed as I sat there in confusion. Made another 5 attempts after that and got him down to around 30% each time, but never as close as the first try of the evening. On the one hand, I get and don't especially mind the back tracking from a lantern every time, but it is starting to feel a bit like artificial inflation of game length.

K&AJones

I usually look at the fextralife wiki site for everything but in this case there really is not much there. It did say on the Nightmare Frontier..."Maiden will spawn whether multiplayer has been initiated or not". In Nightmare of Mensis there are actually two which is why many wanting to PVP actually lists that as the best place. Playing offline the Chime maiden don not spawn.

I did see where someone more or less asked the same question and the advice was to play offline, clear the area up to the Chime Maiden. Quit out there, reload the game signing in "Online" and hopefully where you re-spawn at, the Chime Maiden is close and you can kill her. Then summon your co-op help if you wish. Of course the issue is getting the other person in the same area in their game.

K&AJones

What character did you pick and how is you endurance? I started as lone Survivor and have kept my Vitality and Endurance Levels up. With the BSB...you really need to dodge, roll and move while taking a few shots to his legs & side. It helps to use the columns as cover, heal and let your endurance regen. I used the Long Axe around the columns. You can watch him as he moves around to get you and if you time it right, a hard R2 swing will hit & stun him. He almost always swings with his Right Hand followed by the left and sometimes a quick Right & Left combo. If you can steer him around the columns to his left, you can opened up on his right....the Long Axe swings Left-to-Right.

Don't know what armor but the highest poison resist is needed and any Poison Antidotes. Grab anything Fire...Molotov, Fire Paper, the Hand Held Flamesprayer, Oil Urns (if you have them throw and then use the Flamesprayer). He can be parried but if you miss back off to avoid a counter or worse him grabbing you.

maxfisher

Got past him on my first try tonight. Seems like I have my best luck against bosses at the start of a gaming session. My preferred strategy was to charge him, roll under his attack and then score 2-3 hits if he was within range. Once I had him down to about 20%, I'd keep my distance, dodge a long attack and then hit him with a Molotov. Couldn't figure out where to go once I defeated him, but eventually got one-hit killed by some kind of sorcerer when roaming around and woke up in a new area with a lantern, so good to go, I think.

RichC2

The game gets to be kind of wide open where you're at now, not in the Unseen Village, but after you beat BSB.

K&AJones

Yep..I totally agree which is a really good thing about this game. It doesn't force you into a A to B to C to D...path. it gives some optional areas and paths but at the same time it's not a total open sand box.

Your "Sorcerer" friend is commonly referred to The Bagman...and actually most prefer to be "Bagged' since that's the only way there. There are some good pickups there but you'll come across some tough foes as well. I will just say use the terrain to your advantage, don't let the slow walk of the Bagman fool you, lure & sneak attack and explore all over.

...good going on BSB...a tough one solo at that part of the game.

RichC2

Yeah, the structure is similar to the Metroidvania games.

K&AJones

Not sure if this will help anyone...possibly max....but I just finished a Central Pthumeru Root Dungeon and got some decent gems and other stuff in there...sorry but no special weapon drop. But gems were...

(1) Fire Gem with 10.5% Damage
(2) Phy ATK with 10.5% Damage

Got some additional gems but cannot remember what. Plenty of Ritual blood, some Tomb Mold, etc....bosses were Pig, Beast-Possessed Soul and Watchdog of the Old lords

glyph - j2fzrirn

maxfisher

Anyone else having trouble with the servers tonight? I've been trying to get on for 20 minutes. Connected to PSN fine, but the game keeps giving me the error. Tried turning off suspend play and powering all the way down, but no luck.

K&AJones

We didn't while doing co-op thru a Dungeon last night but we all hooked up around 7:30 Central and never had a issue ringing the bells. However real late another got on and one was going to break off and help him but he couldn't connect. Tried restart and still couldn't get on. That was around 10:30.

Got about 75% of the Nightmare Frontier done doing it offline. Only have parts of the swamp to deal with and Boss. It's different alright with some varied enemies and terrain that's all over the place. Some good drops in there.

Tried to farm some Blood Chunks doing two runs each in the Unseen Chapel and Cainhurst...just got two and that was it. Need to complete Upper Cathedral Ward with those Blue Eye Wolves.

maxfisher

Never was able to get on Friday night, so I just played offline for a bit. Seemed to be fine Saturday night & last night though. Knocked off Vicar Amelia and the Witches of Hemwick. The former was pretty easy once I figured out not to lock onto her and the Witches were so easy it felt like a different game.

I managed to clear out the Hypogean Gaol area up to the Darkbeast and ended up giving up on him for now. I figured out I can get underneath him and swipe a leg to stun him, but his hair makes it so hard to see where I'm at that it feels like it will be pure luck to actually beat him.

I also tackled the first two chalice dungeons. The first wasn't too bad, but I got hung up on the Old Gods guy with the fire attacks on the second.

I'm still enjoying the game quite a bit, but for the most part, I like exploring much more than the bosses, which I think might be the opposite of a lot of people.

K&AJones

Sounds like you made a great deal of progress, especially with Vica and the Witches. Darkbeast Paarl looks more menacing than he is, providing you don't stand in front him or linger below and behind him to long. like many other bosses out there...it's all in the legs.

Good going on the Dungeons too...we're trying to do more of them. I've done the first three up to the Depth 2 Root alone but that Lower Depth 3 we did together. We got one all the way thru and need to get two of us thru. We had those Three Fat Guys in a small area and they just wore us out...no place to run. ROM was the next Boss and the final is the Bloodletting Beast. But some of the gems have been fairly good and has helped out in the normal game.

Did the Upper Cathedral last night but still have both Bosses to deal with....both the Celestial Emissary and Ebrietas which is the bigger concern over Emissary. I'm down to those Bosses along with Amygdala (Nightmare Frontier) before moving to Nightmare Mensis...all I'm not looking forward to.

By the way what level are you...the three of us are Level 79-82 and trying to stay right there. Mainly because it seems a great deal of the PVP crowd likes to stay around Level 100 so to have a low & high end to invade. Level 100 can invade Level 84 and higher I think. Which is another reason why we like the dungeons...no worry there on getting invaded and we can take our time to explore and knock out everything.

maxfisher

I think my level's in the mid-40's, though I may be getting closer to 50. I had a really good session that lasted through beating the witches and I ended up moving up 5 or 6 levels at once. I haven't done any of the co-op yet and just do the online play to benefit from the notes and ghosts. I've got a 3-month-old at home, so it's hard to know when exactly I'll be able to hop on and sometimes I've got to stop pretty suddenly.

RichC2

Exploring was the best part of the game, not the bosses. People tend to talk about the bosses more because they're benchmarks in the title.

maxfisher

This game could really use some kind of a pause function. Maybe an item that would freeze time and cost enough that people would only use it sparingly. I managed to knock out the Darkbeast on my second try last night. I was lucky and got in a rhythm where every time he stood up, I swept out one of his legs, so there wasn't a lot of running around and dodging.

After that, I wandered around Hypogaen Gaol, then Cathedral Ward, before making my way down to the entrance to the Forbidden Woods. I kind of had to pee by the time I got to the lantern there, but I didn't want everything to respawn from visiting the Hunters Dream, so I kept going, intending to just clear out enough of the area to feel safe before running to the restroom. An hour and a half later, I stumbled back to that lantern, after getting lost numerous times and having never felt safe enough to leave the game running on its own. I don't recall the last time I came that close to pissing myself. On the bright side, I had accumulated enough blood echoes to jump from level 47 to 56, so I'll be in good shape when I go back tonight. On the downside, I never saw anything that looked like a potential boss area and all those goddam snakes are going to be back.

mewmartigan

I'm pretty sure that standing next to a lantern won't get you attacked if you set the controller down and walk away. I think there is enough of a buffer around a lantern that enemies won't "notice" you.


Although, if I had that many blood echoes, I definitely would have used the lantern and used them up.

K&AJones

Yea...the Forbidden Woods is a trip...like nightmare trip...and maybe called the "You'll-Get-Lost Woods".

I did the first part myself but that second section, I got lost turned, went in circles and of course died a few times wondering around getting blindsided or from the back. Most of the areas up to there is somewhat straight forward...the woods are just that, all over with various paths going here & there. I had to use a map eventually just to get an idea of direction (fextralfe wiki).

I will say this, after completing it I went back several times where that Lamp is as it was a great place to farm for echoes used to level up and getting some Twin Blood Shards. Done up to The Town area I was getting around 16+k a trip

maxfisher

Yeah, I almost did, but I was like, 'well, if I just explore near the lamp and something gets me, I can get them back'. Then I strayed a bit further and a bit further and then got lost entirely. By the end, it was easily the most blood echoes I've had at once, probably by a factor of 3.

Good to know on the lanterns and I'll definitely make use of that going forward.

james2025a

I picked up this game yesterday. My intial thoughts.

The Good:

Amazing graphics and design
Very atmospheric and good action
An addictive quality that am i am sure will keep me interested in this game for some time to come (well maybe it will get put on the back burner a little with Witcher 3 out next week.)
Nice audio

The bad:
No tutorial at the beginning which means the player has to learn everything the hard way.
The game is not easy at all from the get go.
Long load times are not cool at all.
The distances between save points blows.


I can see why so many people would give up on this game really quickly. Its frustrating to begin with and a player has to have perseverance and determination in order to actually get anywhere. I did not play the Dark Souls games, so am totally fresh to this. My first hour of play i was not enjoying it much at all. I started to experiment more with my tactics and the game opened up more. I have not had much time to play, and only made it to the first boss, but i have managed to explore a lot and got a hang of the game. I almost beat the first boss after a few attempts last night and with very little in the way of provisions, but sure i will scoot past him today.

This really is a game where a determined good player will end up enjoying it whilst a casual gamer will give up after 5 mins. I don't regret picking it up at all.

RichC2

Yeah, the problem with the save system/design for me is picking a right time to stop playing. I poured entirely too much time into this game during the first month I had it.

maxfisher

I agree with the steep difficulty/learning curve being off-putting as hell, but it seems like people that get through the very beginning stick with it. I've been looking at the trophy percentages as I get them and the ones for later bosses aren't much lower than the one for the first boss.

I made it to Shadow of Yharnam last night and it was the second easiest boss so far. Once I killed one, I just got the other two near one of the pillars/rocks in the area and would alternate locking on and attacking one then the other while dodging around the obstacle to avoid attacks. Then I made it to Rom and that thing can eat a bag of dicks. I'm sure it'll just take some patience to figure out, but it was a pain and I'll have to farm some blood vials before trying again tonight. I'd seen here to use fire on it, but that didn't do much for me at all.