Demon's Souls - SL1 Manhunters

[✚ Mariel ✚]

I finally reached this fight and gave it a try, gonna go to bed now and give it more tries later. Anyone who has done this have any advice for me going forward? I'm using a +4 d short with morion blade on back and the <30% HP damage ring, planning to use behel- I mean stone of ephemeral eyes after the first one goes down. Also considering farming dragonstone chunks for a +5 d long

[Call Sign: Raven]

Take advantage of all the extra damage you get. If you feel confident on the second one, don't spend the behelit, keep your damage boost.

For the first one, take your time, hit and run. Don't get too greedy. When the second one begins to appear, try to make sure the first one is very far away from where he spawns, and go to town on him and try to eliminate it before the second one lands. With your extra damage, you should be able to pull it off. Good luck!

[✚ Mariel ✚]

Do you know where the second one appears? I can't remember. Wouldn't it be better to use the behelit so he can't one shot me anymore? It's only the charge attack that ever hits me and there's plenty of time to heal after it so the fight should be safe after the first one dies if I use the behelit

[Call Sign: Raven]

Sorry for delayed reply, if I remember right he appears closer to that central round thing close to the exit that leads to Old Monk. Was it a large torch? It's been a while for me!

It would be better to use the behelit to avoid getting one shot, but if you feel good about the fight I say just go for it. If you are unsure about the second phase of the fight, then yeah pop the behelit and hope Griffith doesn't show up!

Let me know if you get them!

[✚ Mariel ✚]

Finally did it!

I worked out eventually he has two different punch animations so I started baiting the charge attack instead. If the first one dropped my last chance off me I just suicided

After the first one went down I use a behelit to revive, swapped to my silver catalyst in my offhand and used a spice so I could have second chance ready, but in the end I didnt need it since I was able to get by just by eating a healing herb everytime the second one got a hit off on me. Took a bit longer to kill him without hyper mode but I did take like 5 hits so it probably did save me in the end.

So I guess this is the end of my run. Old Monk and Allant left, and I don't expect much out of either of them. I'll just go human form with second chance on allant and just keep reapplying second chance. If I die then I'll probably just use hyper mode in subsequent attempts but the blue dragon is already dead.

Guess it'll be Dark Souls SL1 next :D

[✚ Mariel ✚]

They ded lol

[Call Sign: Raven]

Good job!!!! Glad you got 'em.

I've done SL1 runs of all the games except Bloodborne and Demon's Souls, and they can be the most fun and the most stressing moments ever. Hope you had fun doing it!

[✚ Mariel ✚]

It's breathing new life into a series I thought was over for me :D

[Call Sign: Raven]

Haha! Wow, I can't imagine the series being over for me. Been playing an hour or two every single day single the first game. It's actually really hard for me to play other games! LOL

[✚ Mariel ✚]

I played the first Dark Souls and was hooked but found I couldnt get so invested in the sequels, they felt too easy and samey after the first one. Bloodborne brought the feeling back for me though with it's different gameplay, story and aesthetic, probably my favourite in terms of story and environment. But I got bored after I cleared every challenge, and most of my runs end early now since I'm bored, not challenged, and so playing the game becomes a chore for me

Playing it like this requires a higher level of mastery though. You can't just chug estus while facetanking every other hit, you have to actually get good! I did the chalice dungeon in BB and there's this one boss that can one shot you, a sort of dog monster. I really raged and had to watch videos and stuff til I could do it, but when I won the fight was nothing short of art, it made me realize I can still gain a greater level of mastery and skill, and reclaim that old dark souls feeling one last time with SL1 runs!

I burned out hard on shrine of storms 2 in Demons Souls though, the ghost things shoot these sweeping lasers that instakill you and cant be reliably dodged so you just need to keep going and hope that they miss. It was really infuriating and when I finally beat that section I decided to quit the run for a few weeks to cool down and then just didnt return. I tried to get into Dark Souls 3 lately but couldn't, and decided maybe a SL1 run would be fun, and decided to finish my DeS SL1 run first

I think I'll probably do DkS1 then BB then DkS3 and then maybe Nioh or something. Have you done any of these runs before?

[Call Sign: Raven]

Never played Nioh, but I've done SL1 on all three Dark Souls games. 3 is by far the worst, in that regard, and I enjoyed 2 the most. 1 felt easy because it was just leveling up pyromancy and hoping you don't get one-shot.

Have you ever tried speedrunning? I did speedruns of Dark Souls 1 and 2, and of Demon's Souls for a time. Got Dark Souls down to 45 minutes on an any%, but after grinding so many speedruns I just play the games for enjoyment, now.

[✚ Mariel ✚]

I used to speedrun Resident Evil games. I liked planning out my route, deciding what items I will pick up and what I will abandon, working out how I can salvage a run if I spend a bit too much ammo or healing items by grabbing an extra item along the way. Then I'd watch someone else speedrun and find out some unique way of dodging an enemy and then incorporate that into my run.

I guess I only really liked it because it felt less like executing actions in quick succession with high precision, and more like planning out a strategy and carrying it out, and continuously refining it. I have aspergers syndrome and dyspraxia and I'm really clumsy so I typically don't like to test my finesse so much as my skills at planning, tactics and strategy

This is getting off topic though, I'll send you a friend request so we can talk more off the forum XD

[Call Sign: Raven]

Oh, thanks for the friend request, but I don't have any friends on Steam because I'm rarely on, plus I start a new job tomorrow and won't have time to chat much. Again, thanks!