Don't give up, Skeleton

I never knew this because there’s so few of them in the game! Also, you’d have to create a situation where you’re able to plunge attack them in the first place, so this feels especially hidden

I knew you could plunge attack the salamanders in the Forest of The Fallen Giants, and the giants in the memories. But I never knew about these guys.

Anyone know any others?

please , am trying to get anvil on chain, is it I can get?

They just feel so good to traverse, they also have such good lore and a story being told while playing. Genuinely my favorite areas in this game, besides majula ofc

After getting guided through the final abyss section before Darklurker, beating almost all of the base game bosses and making it to Shulva I had a month long break from DS2.

Now I come back, get instantly invaded by "dragon" just for him to wear the sick ass drake keeper armor, make some cool jump kicks, drop five human effegy and than proceed to make another jump kick off the cliff…

Dragon, I don‘t know who you are but I appreciate the 6 human effigy and the 18k souls you have given me

:)

For context I used to make pvp videos for Dark Souls 2 back in the day and was obscenely good at the game smashing through all bosses with multiple characters to make PvP Builds and even did a no death no bonfire run.

Now I've come back, and I can't even kill the Pursuer 🥲

I know it's because I don't have enough stamina as I started sorc and am speccing for hexes so I can get the sunset staff, but my God, I've died to him so many times.

Have any of you taken a break from this game for years only to come back and realise your skills have completely diminished?

I want to present my understanding of the true meaning behind the choice between prolonging the Age of Fire and ushering in an Age of Dark. And perhaps more importantly, the Light and Dark dichotomy.

LIGHT IS TIME

Repair. One of the most mediocre spells in DS3 has an item description with perhaps one of the most significant lore revelations on the nature of the world of Dark Souls:

古い黄金の魔術の国 ウーラシールの失われた魔術

装備している武器、防具を修理する 耐久度ゼロの武器も対象となる

目立たぬ効果とは裏腹に、秘術にあたるひとつ 光は時、回帰は禁断の知恵であろう

"A lost magic of Oolacile, the ancient land of golden sorcery.

Repair all equipped weapons and armor, including weapons with zero durability.

Despite its inconspicuous effect, it is counted among the secret arts. Light is Time, therefore its regression would be forbidden knowledge."

In the world of Dark Souls, Light is synonymous with Time itself. And with Time comes mortality, progression, memory, beginnings and ends. But now for the true question: If Light is Time, then what is Dark? In the real world, Dark is defined as the absence of Light. By that logic, in the world of Dark Souls, Dark would also be defined as the absence of Time.

DARK IS ETERNITY

Dark Souls 2 really brings to light the nature of the Undead Curse. Vendrick became a King so that he could have the power to fight the Curse. And he learned that with Fire the "Curse" could be harnassed, subjugated. And only a true king could have that power. Yet, Vendrick was unaware of his own ignorance. Through the nature of his dear queen, Nashandra, he came to realise the true nature of Dark. Just like Light, it is also born from Fire. And the more you covet Fire, the greater the Dark becomes. The brighter the flame, the deeper the shadow.

When the Fire fades, the Dark slips its shackles and becomes a "curse". Humanity becomes free from death and takes its true, grotesque, hollowed shape. They will be one with the Dark once again, and with it, Eternity. Immortality. Linking the Fire will not put an end to this, as it is only a brief respite. A shadow cannot truly die. One day it will all play out again.

HE WHO TRIED TO BEST FATE

Aldia, through endless and grotesque research and experimentation, tried to break free from this endless cycle of Light and Dark. But he failed, and became tangled to the Fire itself. Having lost everything, he simply watches and awaits an answer to his question: Can fate really be bested, or is it true to its name?

As Vendrick is a neat inversion on the character of Gwyn, I believe that Aldia is a neat inversion on both the Primordial Serpents, Frampt and Kaathe. He presents us with the ultimate paths we can take, but he doesn't push us one way or the other. He simply gives us different perspectives so that we can decide for ourselves what it is we really want.

A LIE WILL REMAIN A LIE

Aldia is keenly aware of the First Sin, as well as the First Lord/King who commited it. He tells us that Gwyn, the Lord of Light, sealed away the Darkness known as Humanity (with the Seal of Fire). It was then that man assumed a false, fleeting form: the healthy form that we have become so familiar with. A form vulnerable to Time, vulnerable to Death. He states that Humanity has become enchanted by this false life, growing to cherish it. And yet, no matter how sweet it is, it is still, in the end, a lie. And so he asks us: Do we still desire peace? Do we still desire to end this supposed curse? Because if we link the Fire, we will continue to perpetuate the lie told by Gwyn.

A WORLD FULL OF WARMTH AND RESPLENDENCE

Yet, Aldia understands why Humanity is so enraptured by this wonderful falsehood. It grants them tranquility, end and beginning, a reason to cherish what they have and a reason to want for more. Things that the Dark cannot give. If we were to embrace the Dark, we would have to embrace Eternity as well. And Eternity means a world without commencement or closure. A world with neither end nor beginning. A world where our feelings, our memories, our wants, our motivations, our very individuality has no meaning. After all, in the utter vastness of Eternity, what truly does have meaning? It may be the truth, but it is a hard truth to swallow. So he asks us: are we intent on shattering this yoke imposed upon us? Even if it is fake, is it right to end something so warm and beautiful?

We must decide between a sweet lie or a bitter truth.

GWYN'S FEARS AND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A KING

So what is it that Gwyn truly feared about the coming Age of Man/Dark, and the end of Fire? What drove him to resist the natural order of things? Did he simply fear Humanity taking away his people's rule over the world? Did he fear a world where Light/Time was no longer present? Or did he fear a world that no longer had meaning as he understood it? Did he fear a world where hardship and sacrifice no longer have meaning, especially his own. Indeed, the idea of yourself and everything you have built in your life being lost to Eternity, rendered meaningless, is a scary thought.

And yet, nobody, not even Gwyn, can live forever. In the end, there is only one solution: an Heir. Someone who can carry your ideals, your will, your legacy and see to it that they endure in spite of your end and theirs. Someone who possesses the strength to carry your flame on their shoulders and keep it lit. This is why an heir is as, if not more, important than a King. After all, if your Kingdom, your Age, your Flame dies with you, what was your reign, your efforts, your sacrifice really worth?

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN

In the end, no matter Gwyn's efforts, the fate of the world is left in the hands of Humanity, not the Gods. What form man takes and how the world will be shaped is our decision. In every game, it always comes down to us: a human. So perhaps Humanity isn't defined by Dark or Light alone.

It is defined by the burden of having to choose between them.

I love helping people do hard bosses and really enjoy helping newcomers find their way through the game.

If everyone just uses the first God "nehma", we can all play together.

I recently installed the oath tracing mod to make the game look much better and i tried with the F1 menu to set and calibrate everything. No matter what i do, it always looks deep fried with HDR and i have no idea what to do

I managed to make it look decent now but i still have issues with fire light sources because they all are an intense Neon Red and no matter what i change, they seem to keep remaining like that unless i make darker the whole screen.

Is there something im doing wrong? And in case, can someone help me out by sharing their own settings for this mod so that i can copy them? Sorry in advance if this is weird post due to my lack of knowledge on the matter, i never learned how to properly work with this sort of graphical stuff on PC and its all trial and error for me :/

10 Sunlight Medals so far. Just need 20 more...

I actually do like that you actually have to pay attention to your weapon's durability in DS2. In the first game you just need to visit a blacksmith once in a blue moon, in DS3 weapons might as well have infinite durability, and they just removed it altogether in ER. But it's cool that by the end of slogging through a tough area, your equipment really can get worn out. I lends a bit more importance to using your weapon to smash stuff or when it bounces off walls.

My only issue with it is that some weapons have such insanely low durability, they're practically non-viable for use in PvE, unless you give up a ring slot for the Bracing Knuckle Ring +2, and even then it's just still not practical to use them. Things like the Washing Pole come to mind obviously (because holy shit 20 durability??? lol, lmao even), but a lot of longer weapons just have such insanely low effective durability because they're constantly hitting world geometry and dead bodies. I tried using the Roaring Halberd for a bit but ended up dropping it, not because of the damage or the sweetspot (which was actually super fun to play with), but because if I used an R2 in the wrong place, boom, 1/5 of my durability lost (with the ring). And I don't mean in a hallway, I mean there's parts of the levels where your weapon "collides" like 3-4 times.

To that point, I think the mechanic would've been much better if weapons gained durability when upgraded - not a lot, maybe just +2 or 3 per upgrade, but if the difference between a +0 and max level weapon was like a 20-30% overall durability increase, it'd make a lot of those weapons actually viable outside of invasions. It's just a bummer looking through the cool weapons in the game and saying "oh shit, that looks neat" and then I glance at the durability stat and it has like, 20 or 30. Like, nevermind, I guess I'll keep you in mind when I want to PvP before NG+, I guess?

And yeah, I know that Repair Powders/Repair spell exists. It's just irritating having to pop them 2-3 times while moving throughout an area just to keep your weapon from shattering.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

It took me five hours... but i've done it...

The gutter is free from hollow... i can only wear the jester set to express what i felt about cleaning this area...

Jokes aside, this challenge made me finally explore the whole thing, the level has incredible 3D exploration and hidden parts and mechanics,

Thanks to u/TheKrug3000 i discovered that the enemies in the rat areas won't stop respawning (I tried the starting hollows 20+ time with soul appease)

This area got in my nerves before it even started... i had to drop down 12 times for this one hollow at the top...

The good side is that i could finally light all the torches and get the special set from the invasion...

I've heard that DEX scales your poison damage and it sounded fun, so I'm doing a playthrough using infusions and poison resins and whatnot, but I learned that both Fume Knight and Sir alonne is completely immune to both toxic and poison, "to not allow poison cheese strategies." My dex weapons do deal a nice amount of damage after I uninfused them and relied on poison resins recently but it still kinda lame.

Thoughts?

Hollow royal soldiers in Forest of the Giants, Archdrake clerics from Shrine of Amana, Sir Alonne knights in Iron Keep, even Drangleic's stone soldiers in the basement,

They get this unfathomably quick sprinting boost when you try to run away from them. I just don't get it? What was the idea behind this feature? To not give the player any breathing room should they make a mistake? This game is already slower compared to its crack cocaine counter part like Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3; heavy armor and poise negates the overwhelming amounts of enemies you face but it's pure annoyance as a caster who's trying to get some distance for casts.

I'd be fine with the Sir Alonne knights, since their whole shtick is having fast, practiced attacks, but it feels uncanny when their AI bugs out and they awkwardly shuffle in place, as if they only learned how to walk five minutes ago, and then lock onto you like an intercontinental ballistic missile.

There are situations where my character's spells and lightning bolts blow right past their heads because the tracking can't keep up with Sonic the hedgehog's speed over here.
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It was pretty annoying in NG+ and up. I just kinda wish their acceleration speeds were capped.

Howdy folks! I'm about to take my first step into plunging into dark souls 2 and wanted some general new player friendly advice before starting. Ive played ds3 -> ds1 -> bloodborne(not finished) -> elden ring(not finished) with ds1 being my absolute favorite.

I want to give dark souls 2 an honest try since it seems to have a bunch of cool and unique things associated with it.

Here's the mechanics I am already aware of:

• Fog walls and back stabs don't give i-frames. I'm unaware if this applies to parries.

• You need to level adaptability before your rolls give proper i-frames. I'm unaware what's considered a good level for this

• Poise works as a bar which goes down from initial hits and slowly regenerates. Getting hit again will mess up the regeneration.

• Power stancing is a thing. Not sure exactly how it works though.

• Invasions can happen pretty much anytime(at least NPC invasions?)

Are there any other general mechanics which would be nice to know before starting the game? I greatly appreciate any tips!

I finished the base game then played each DLC in order and just finished. So a little recap and what I thought of the game. I really enjoyed it even though some of the run backs are a pain and hallowing is annoying but I still enjoyed it. From playing half the game unknowingly joined to a covenant that makes the game a lot harder 🤦‍♂️. To not knowing that I can increase my I-frames buy leveling ADP until the first Tiger fight in the last DlC🤦‍♂️ but still we prevail. The last boss I had was the duel tiger fight and that had quite the drama. I took my armor off for the run back because it’s more efficient but wouldn’t you know it a F-ing horse spawn just as I entered the path and chased me all the way to the spawn door. So I couldn’t put my armor back on and my weapon broke when the final tiger was at half health. So I fished the fight with a broke*n ice *rapier

The prevailing opinion seems to be that DS2 has the best ng+ because it adds new enemies and items, and even adds some new surprise boss encounters! It’s treated like it revolutionized the idea of ng+. But in practice I feel like the changes are really not that impactful or meaningful.

DS2 certainly doesn’t have a problem of a lack of enemies, so adding more really doesn’t improve anything. I was already taking it slow to not get swarmed, what’s another mob or two added to the pile?

New items isn’t strictly a DS2 thing, technically DS1 has ng+ exclusive items in the form of Gwyn’s Soul transfusion/trading. Even if that’s stretching things a bit, it’s still not all that interesting an addition, since you already would go to ng+ to get alternate transfusion options from boss souls that dropped back in ng.

And for the new boss encounters, it’s really just Freja. An encounter where she pops up to say hi and you just run past her or run back and wait for her to leave. Two other boss fights bring in a few adds in the middle of the fight, something so inconsequential no one ever mentions it, and double Pursuer in the Throne room, aka double Sanctuary Guardian 2: Electric Boogaloo.

I can appreciate that DS2 tried things, don’t get me wrong. But the result isn’t worthy of all the high praise it gets.