Frigid Outskirts is Overhyped { A Guide to Survive }

[CtenosaurOaxacana]

Okay, so this DLC run is challenging, but the reputation it's got is way over-exaggerated.
The only way it's as difficult as people claim is if they run around wildly every time a blizzard starts up again. Yeah, that's going to get you killed. If you're patient and time your movement right, you can end up with minimal Ice Deer trouble.

1) Blizzards last roughly 35 seconds, sky is clear for roughly 10 seconds.

2) Don't ever move during a blizzard any more than you have to. Defend yourself and defeat nearby enemies, obviously. But if you cover too much ground, you are more likely to spawn more enemies.

3) Be aware of the sun's position, you want it to always be to your right as you move forward, and you will always be able to see where the next ruins sanctuary is when the sky is clear. Deer won't ever generate too close to ruins.

4) If you boost stamina regen and run straight from one set of ruins to the other, and try to hold still whenever the blizzard arrives, you will deal with very few ice deer.

5) Run to 1st ruin is extremely easy, almost impossible to get attacked if you head straight to it. It's possible to get to 2nd ruin without any deer attacks, if you're fast. Be sure to unlock that health pool there too.

6) Hardest part is run to 3rd ruins, it is a long stretch plus two annoying knight enemies in the way. Try to move further north/left away from them. You might have to face two deer at a time if you are unlucky, but remember not to run around too much when they spawn so you don't get screwed by more. You can also try to kite the 1st knight back to the 2nd ruin with health pool, but you'll probably have to deal with a deer following you there too.

7) 3rd ruin has a rampart golem waiting, so be aware and deal with them. Run from 3rd ruin's sun-side entrance, and head towards left side of canyon up ahead. It's a short distance, so if you time it right after the blizzard you should be in the clear. Otherwise you probably will die. Even hugging the edge of canyon to get the ring should keep you safe, blizzards should be disabled at that point.

8) Deal with easy kitty cats, they're just like the one big cat boss. But be aware 2nd one will get a temporary but annoyingly long dmg buff after 1st kitty dies and 2nd kitty is at like 25% hp.

TL;DR
Hug Ruins, run like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hell between them when there's NO blizzard, hold position and don't flee if caught in blizzard. Follow these simple guidelines and it's much easier to deal with this place.

[CtenosaurOaxacana]

Fighting the deer themselves aren't so bad either if it's 1v1, just be careful with dodging. And if you do as I suggest and avoid moving too much in blizzard, it will almost always stay 1v1 (except for final run to canyon, you WILL be ♥♥♥♥♥♥ if caught in blizzard midway there, so avoid that).

Strongly recommend stone ring and/or dark weapon or anything else that will increase chance of breaking their poise and stunning them mid-attack, they aren't many hits if your weapon is good. You should probably dodge initial charging attack when they spawn though, it hurts a lot.

If you want all the items here, they're not hard to find and get either, there's nothing far out of the way. Check the coffins near the starting point for a couple items. Look around 1st ruin for two more items, including against the outer walls. There's an obvious lootable corpse right between 1st-2nd & 2nd-3rd ruins too. 2nd ruin has unlockable healing pool but no items, 3rd ruin has one item. Final item is hugging the edge of the canyon after last ruin.

[pyramidensurfer]

The area would probably not be as hated, if it wasn't an unskippable boss run. To a boss, which is both a recycled version of a previous boss and a gank boss at the same time.

[Call Sign: Raven]

Most of the areas that people complain about are by players that probably went in with bad strategy. Also, moving during the blizzard vs. not moving has no impact on the deer spawning. It's all RNG. I've had deer spawn when the skies are clear. The build you go in with determines how difficult the deer are, too! Smash 'em with Greatclub R2's and a stone ring and they are completely trivial. Go in one-handing a longsword and dear lord that's a nightmarish experience.

[Zap2Strike]

Originally posted by Harrison Ford:

Most of the areas that people complain about are by players that probably went in with bad strategy. Also, moving during the blizzard vs. not moving has no impact on the deer spawning. It's all RNG. I've had deer spawn when the skies are clear. The build you go in with determines how difficult the deer are, too! Smash 'em with Greatclub R2's and a stone ring and they are completely trivial. Go in one-handing a longsword and dear lord that's a nightmarish experience.

from my own extensive testing, the ice stallions only appeared to spawn during a blizzard and ONLY the blizzard. not once have I ever seen them spawn while the blizzard was clearing up.

the blizzard itself lasts for 30 seconds while the clearing lasts for 20 seconds, with an optimal setup, you'll only encounter 2 blizzards and have to fight 2 stallions.

as long as you have at least 6 strength/dexterity than any build is capable of going through the area so long as they have the appropriate tools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8ZqhuVHqdw

[Call Sign: Raven]

Originally posted by Zap2Strike:

Originally posted by Harrison Ford:

Most of the areas that people complain about are by players that probably went in with bad strategy. Also, moving during the blizzard vs. not moving has no impact on the deer spawning. It's all RNG. I've had deer spawn when the skies are clear. The build you go in with determines how difficult the deer are, too! Smash 'em with Greatclub R2's and a stone ring and they are completely trivial. Go in one-handing a longsword and dear lord that's a nightmarish experience.

from my own extensive testing, the ice stallions only appeared to spawn during a blizzard and ONLY the blizzard. not once have I ever seen them spawn while the blizzard was clearing up.

the blizzard itself lasts for 30 seconds while the clearing lasts for 20 seconds, with an optimal setup, you'll only encounter 2 blizzards and have to fight 2 stallions.

as long as you have at least 6 strength/dexterity than any build is capable of going through the area so long as they have the appropriate tools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8ZqhuVHqdw

349 hours played vs 5K hours played, but yeah, extensive testing lol

[Zap2Strike]

Originally posted by Harrison Ford:

Originally posted by Zap2Strike:

from my own extensive testing, the ice stallions only appeared to spawn during a blizzard and ONLY the blizzard. not once have I ever seen them spawn while the blizzard was clearing up.

the blizzard itself lasts for 30 seconds while the clearing lasts for 20 seconds, with an optimal setup, you'll only encounter 2 blizzards and have to fight 2 stallions.

as long as you have at least 6 strength/dexterity than any build is capable of going through the area so long as they have the appropriate tools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8ZqhuVHqdw

349 hours played vs 5K hours played, but yeah, extensive testing lol

the majority of my hours are on console, although im failing to see the relevancy in comparing hours if the time spent studying how the area works is there

[quacksouls]

I find that most, if not all, items at the Frigid Outskirts are not worth collecting on subsequent playthroughs from NG+1 and beyond. So from NG+1 onward, I would summon the 3 NPCs and then run for the fog wall, keeping to the right-most edge of the map. The summoned NPCs can deal with the Ice Stallions. Most of the time, the Ice Stallions would be distracted by the NPCs. If I have to fight an Ice Stallion, I would use the Raw Great Club+10 or Raw Old Knight Hammer+10, buff the weapon with Charcoal Pine Resin, equip the Stone Ring and Ring of Blades+1, and R2. The Ice Stallion becomes pancake in at most two R2s.

[Zap2Strike]

Originally posted by quacksouls:

I find that most, if not all, items at the Frigid Outskirts are not worth collecting on subsequent playthroughs from NG+1 and beyond. So from NG+1 onward, I would summon the 3 NPCs and then run for the fog wall, keeping to the right-most edge of the map. The summoned NPCs can deal with the Ice Stallions. Most of the time, the Ice Stallions would be distracted by the NPCs. If I have to fight an Ice Stallion, I would use the Raw Great Club+10 or Raw Old Knight Hammer+10, buff the weapon with Charcoal Pine Resin, equip the Stone Ring and Ring of Blades+1, and R2. The Ice Stallion becomes pancake in at most two R2s.

If you're gonna run GC or OKH, I'd just say to run Dark infused OKH instead of raw, primarily because it saves you time from having to apply a resin.

Additionally, if you're gonna run that strategy at all, it's best to not summon phantoms whatsoever as the phantoms will increase the poise health of the Ice Stallions, OKH also doesn't need the Stone Ring unlike the GC, a single R2 will pancake them if you're running it solo, making them quick and easy kills for traversing the rest of the area, if you're gonna use any weapon buffs for the stallions at all, dark is the go-to choice given it's their lowest resistance

[Call Sign: Raven]

Originally posted by Zap2Strike:

Originally posted by Harrison Ford:

349 hours played vs 5K hours played, but yeah, extensive testing lol

the majority of my hours are on console, although im failing to see the relevancy in comparing hours if the time spent studying how the area works is there

It's okay, not everybody sees the novelty of experience. You'll see, one day!

[ZMT_235]

Yeah, I never really had problems with it either. It was hyped as this legendarily hard area, but I blitzed through it on my first try. Boss wasn't much to phone home about either. I killed the first kitty and my NPC's polished off the other one before I could even get to them.

[Edgarek]

i notice duration of blizzard and calm weather has kinda random duration between 10-50 seconds , but when you across half the way some trigger immediatly call a blizzard. Not sure about it.

Try to kill reindeers with daggers or shortswords, its just not worth it.
Also boss itself can catch you on wake up attempts so you also need a little bit luck.

[Half-Vampire]

The sun will always be where the boss is or at least it will always be at your right side when running from ruin to ruin, you can look at the sun for guide. Praise the Sun!

Also, summon all 3 NPC for easier time,
-Head of Vengarl as melee/tank
-Abbess Feeva as buffer/healer/caster
-Manhunter O'Harrah as ranged damage dealer
Boss takes longer of coz cuz of increased health, but that makes the fight even more epic.

[Stan]

I have to agree, the are is really not that difficult as people make it to be.

The only hard part is to get to boss but even that can be easily pass with 3 npc's and running in clear sky. Even the boss is not hard, as long you get other kitty down.

I personally run from ruin to ruin. Only have to fight 1 or 2 reindeer.

[TRITONEEE]

Originally posted by Harrison Ford:

Originally posted by Zap2Strike:

the majority of my hours are on console, although im failing to see the relevancy in comparing hours if the time spent studying how the area works is there

It's okay, not everybody sees the novelty of experience. You'll see, one day!

Touch some grass buddy

[Senki]

Love how people say ''it's not hard if you summon 3 npcs''. Is anything in any souls game hard to get to with 3 npcs carrying you through it? Co-op and summoning is literally made to turn the game into a joke. Especially mob areas.

Outside of that I don't think it's worse than some of the other bs areas in the game either, still one of the more annoying ones tho.