Brooklyn

I just hopped down the stairs past him then fought him in the open area at the bottom where I continually circled him and struck him in the back every go-round. He's was too slow to even hit me once. I'm using a bandit I believe and alternating between a battle axe and a great axe.

wlj

i gave Havel a shot again last night. I tried the lame, lure him to the top of the tower and fire bomb him tactic. however he was determined he was going to go back down, so I never could do any damage that way. I didn't try to fight him anymore. I will try again tonight maybe. Honestly...the guy scares me. I am not afraid to admit it.

xmiyux

I chased him to the top of the stairs and would lure him out onto the stairs. He would do one smash attack that I evaded and counterattacked. Then he would run back into the tower. I would get one soul arrow in his back and then he would turn around and charge me again.

Repeat till dead.

I did this at a lower level though and if he hit me once it was fatal.

Poink

For backstabs, you just need to be pretty much dead center behind them and not be holding your shield up. If you're holding down the guard button, you'll just take a regular swing no matter what.

Just practice on the guys atop the stairs in Firelink. They really can't hurt you much anymore, so they've become my test subjects.

Practicing parrying on them is probably a good idea as well, but backstabs are easier and more important. You'll be facing some things soon that you aren't going to want to take head on.

wlj

I am getting a little bit better with the backstabbing. I pulled off several last night. ok, i beat havel last night. yay me, however he didnt drop his armor? Glitch? God I hope not. I did find the back entrance to Blighttown that puts me right near the boss but i havent tried her yet.

Poink

You're fine. He only drops the ring when killed. His armor and weapon (Dragon Tooth) is found later on in Anor Londo. It will be a while before you get there, so don't worry, you didn't miss anything.

The boss in Blightown isn't too bad. Just don't bother using fire on it.

Other than the boss, the rest of Blightown (and the entire Depths, for that matter) are optional areas if you have the Master Key. Blightown is an annoying level, but there's some good items here and there, but mostly light armor and Dex. based weapons.

You might want to finish the Depths just to fight the cool boss and get the huge axe from cutting off its tail. You'll probably have to wait until the next game to use it -or grind like a madman- since it requires 50 Strength, but the base damage of it is like 500. It's fun to have.

wlj

Wow 50 strength!! I only have 17 right now. So that will take a long time

Imprint

I agree about skipping the the part of Blighttown that you bypassed. You can go back and visit it later if you want, but it's too annoying early on. Also, if you do finish The Depths, make sure to not get cursed by the frog-looking guys (you can bypass all of them). You will lose half your vitality until cured. The Depths boss is cool and I recommend not skipping him.

wlj

Yeah, I had the honor of being cursed last night. Thankfully the merchant nearby sells the purging stones. However they are a whopping 6000 souls . I just keep getting lost in the depths.

Poink

Yeah, being cursed sucks. The creepy guy that you met after coming back down from killing the Gargoyle boss sells the cure as well, but his are a lot better priced at 2000 or 3000 souls.

To get to the end of the Depths, go to the room you fought the huge rat. There's a slant where the water is running down at the far end. Go to the far left and you can slide down to the lower room where you can reach the boss, unlock the shortcut from the Bonfire, and enter Blightown the "normal" way.

wlj

Thanks man, I'll try that route.

wlj

well I beat these guys last night:

Gaping Dragon -- pretty simple, i died a couple of times learning his patterns, but he was easy to kill if you are patient. You have a HUGE area to fight so it is pretty easy to get away and heal when you are in trouble

Stray Demon -- whew, this guy was intimidating. It took me probably 12 tries to kill this big fella. It seemed hopeless to start with. If you can survive the first 10 seconds of the fight and get behind him you have a shot. However this guy will punish you severely if you lose focus and make a mistake. I jumped out of my chair and screamed for joy when I finally took him out.

Quelagg Spider chick == I kind of cheated with this one, I decided to summon someone so we took her out the first try. I feel bad about it now. I should have done it by myself :/


The shortcut to the end of Blighttown was certainly a blessing. That section of the game is just atrocious. It i so awful getting poisoned or toxic every 5 seconds.

I joined the Chaos Covenant in Q's Domain. I have no clue what my purpose is now, she only gave me a Pyro spell. I also had no idea me joining this covenant would make the pyromancer guy in the firelink shrine leave. That really sucks because I just got my glove up to +14 and I was hoping to max it out, but that is out the window now.

I am going to try to get through Sen's Fortress now. I went in there for a short bit last night, and it sure seems like a doozie. Those trap's and snake guys are going to drive me insane probably.

Brooklyn

For something so big I really thought he was going to be a problem, but you can take him out very easily just by running around the outer rim of the area and slinging arrows at every corner when he stops to roar.

Imprint

Since you got your flame above +10, there is a new pyro trainer in the bottom of Blighttown. She sits on on some dirt between the boss tunnel and the bonfire. She's kind of easy to miss, but she can continue your training.

BTW, congrats on downing those bosses!

Brooklyn

Ran into a what I thought was a dead dragon tonight. Got close and picked up a few items from nearby corpses and wham! Respawned and hiked back over to the area he was in and all I can say is that they really need to patch the lobbing arrows from a distance nonsense. Both it and the drakes can be taken out without them even taking a step towards you, or even looking in your direction (they will howl when struck though). For such a punishing game I'm surprised they'd let something so obvious slip past.

wlj

ok, cool I will have to look for her. Also, i read that you can run into the pyromancer that left earlier and he would try and kill you somewhere in blighttown.

I defeated Hydra last night, who was extremely simple if you have a good shield and don't fall off the underwater cliff. However I climbed up the tall ladder next to the fight and ran into 3 huge cats that tore me to shreds. This game has the distinct ability to bring you back down to earth after a moment of jubilation

I gave Sen's Fortress another quick shot, those snake guys are freaking brutal. What is a good weapon to use on these guys? I made it to the long bridge with the pendulum blades and someone shooting some kind of projectile at me. They knocked me off only to find 2 of those Titanite Demons waiting for me at the bottom. I almost sh1t in my pants. Needless to say I didn't last long down there. Should I even be going through Sen's Fortress right now? I am assuming so since ringing the second bell opened the gate to it. I think this will be my biggest challenge so far. I am 32 hours in and still loving every minute of it.

Noonan

Sen's will be tough until you find the Lightning Spear in there. That will make the snake guys much easier to take out. It's not too far past the bridge you mentioned.

Imprint

This. If you want a hint:

wlj

alrighty, last night I made my way through Sen's Fortress and beat the Iron Golem. I actually enjoyed Sen's Fortress. I had read alot of bad things about it, but I thought it was interesting and different. I died alot, but after alot of trial and error I made it through. It is actually a very short area if you know exactly what to do.

Here is my most frustrating moment in Sen's Fortress:






I started Anor Londo, but I needed to go to bed so I didn't do a whole lot. I fooled around with those huge sentinels, but that is about it.

WHERE THE HELL DO I FIND FIRE KEEPER SOULS?!?!? I used the only one I got in the Undead Parish. I didn't know you were supposed to take it to someone, so I used it thinking it would permanently increase my flask. I didn't realize it would be temporary. I ran into a guy in Anor Londo who will upgrade it, but I can't find another one This would help me tremendously, my vitality is rather high so it takes about 3 flasks to refill it.

Noonan

There are only a few fire keeper souls in the game. There's one in New Londo Ruins; the only others I can think of are the ones you get if you kill a firekeeper (the one in Anor by the bonfire and the one at firelink in the little cell who doesn't talk). They carry over into NG+; if you plan on playing through it again, be sure to kill all the firekeepers before finishing the last boss. They'll be back alive in the NG+ and you'll still have the upgraded flasks from using their souls.

wlj

well crap! i am upset with myself for using that first one. a better flask would sure come in handy right about now...i will probably face Smough and Ornstein tonight. I know I probably murdered the spelling of those names.

Noonan

Good luck; they're by far the hardest boss in the game. Make sure you have something that deals fire damage (upgraded Pryo hands is the best or the sword you can make using the soul from the blighttown boss). The lightning spear is pretty much useless against them.

wlj

my plan, take all of my armor off and pull out the broken sword from the beginning of the game -- put some fire resin on it --and open up a can of
whoop ass.


will that work?

Imprint

If you are in human form, you can summon the Sunbro NPC to help. With his help, I got them on my first attempt. He tanked, and I pelted with pyro.

As for the fire keeper souls, there is one in Blighttown (easily reached from the bonfire near the boss), New Londo Ruins (you can do a suicide run or use a homeward bone to get this one easily), and then there's another or two later in the game. You can get those two right now though.

Noonan

Sunbro definitely helps since you're against 2 bosses at once. If you go that route, I suggest disconnecting from online. Anor is notorious for being invaded by dragon head glitchers (not sure if there's been any patches that help with this).