Brume Tower tips?

[Ridley]

And I thought Iron Keep was bad. These armored guys are everywhere + witches with backstabbing teleportation. Also headless giants that vomit lava. Usually it`s an 8vs 1 party and I`m lucky if I manage to run away and start picking them of 1 by 1. So far Heide`s sword`s lightning damage was effective against them. Dragonrider bow can snipe melee units, but useless against heavies, witches and cursed/iced(?).

Most dissapointing are soul rewards - not even worth the trouble :(

[Robin]

Hey, I recently just completed this area for the first time in a long time today so I think I can give some tips.

The Fume Sorcerers are really resistant to spells but they're pretty weak to melee. They're lightning ball is easily avoidable and their teleport > backstab is easy to see coming because every single time they teleport, they'll do it. Don't just hammer attack, just walk up and hit them once. They have a melee 4 combo attack at max and the 4th hit is super delayed (sometimes not even done) so try to roll behind them on the third attack and hit them. Make sure to kill all the Knights first where they are too.

The Iron Giants seem tough but they're really not. The first one is the hardest because he's surrounded by enemies but you can use those barrel hollows to do damage to him (or the enemies around). As for fighting them 1v1 the lava they spew out comes from random directions and they have alot of health but luckily thier lava does like no damage and their attacks are all super easy to see coming. Just keep rolling around them.

General tips for the area? Focus on always killing Knights first and luring them away. They don't have much health and can easily be backstabbed. If there's a Nadalia Piece nearby buffing, lure the enemies away from it first then make a mad dash towards it and use your smelter wedge. If the knights are covered in dust they're usually buffed so avoid them until the Piece is gone. For the Possessed Armor you can almost always run past every single one in Brume Tower so there's never a real need to fight them. After you get the Smoldering Key the Brume Tower becomes much easier to navigate (use it on the contraption outside the Foyer Bonfire).

Good luck on the Fume Knight!

[Ridley]

Thanks, but that won`t be nessesary.

This is the single most retarded game designing I`ve ever seen in my life. Now I understand why ppl hate the sequel. Your advice was usefull, but still impossible to pass BT and Iron Passage without despawning every enemy. Here`s what I experienced:

1) Possessed armor arrows hit you no matter what you do. Only block helps. Kinda...
2) Giants are too fast for my idiot of a character to get up on her feet after rolling, though 69% of gear weight.
3) Despite full set of Havel armor +1600 HP, I can take only 3 hits from the lowest enemy. Giants are 1-shot.
4) Every couple of minutes a new invader squad appears. Not players - appear in groups of 3-4.

Fume Knight is hust...well...didn`t land a single hit, 3 attempts. On 4-th I just grabbed my remains and teleported away.

Went through the Iron Passage and...met another Smelter Demon...with 5% HP and 0 Estus after another set of gank squads. Still got time for teleporting away.

I give up. Shall google if there is another way to Drangleic Castle. If not, then I`ll just throw this game away. Or download trainers and finish this in offline mode - this part is far above my skills and intelligence.

[Dexter]

There is only one way to get to Dranleic Castle and it is in base game.

While I will not defend all of the design and enemy placement in Ds2 I need to point something out:
- arrows from possessed armor are dodgeable
- lower your equip load... don't get hit or block
- upgrade your armor, unhollow when You can, get more HP, it is impossible that you're getting 3shoted with 1600hp from normal enemies
- this is the stupidies NPC invasion, if you're talking about predators

Iron Passage is one of the places where You don't rush in like a RamboBambo but You pick enemies one by one.

Other then that, git gud.

[Airk]

ok brume tower is all essentially a big puzzle.
if youre fighting 8v1, youre doing it wrong :P
heres how it goes:
first bonfire, drop off edge.
jump the gap to the balcony. drop down the inside. kill the fire guy.

kill the 1-2 loan enemies.

open that door.

eventually youll come to the first big lava head guy.
heres what you do: you do NOT kill those barrel enemies.
you put them in the room with the big head guys.
if you drop in to the room for a second it will stir up all the enemies and theyll all blow themselves up.
then youve got 2 more loan guys, and 2 witches spread out from each other. easy enough to deal with. also the teleport, just roll away.
after the first 2 witches theres 0 reason to fight any moreof them. as you can use the sliding bull heads/barrel guys to kill the rest
also, most of the lava guys are near those barrel guys.
so its easy peasy.
brume tower is by far the easiest to get through on a LOW sm.
ive already cleared it at less than 50k SM several times
once you get the elevtors going go up and go right, use the bull heads. get the rest of the shivs to clear the boss area.

[Dark Angel]

I can't give advice for Brume Tower ( right now I have a hard time there too)
But one thing I can say: You are on the wrong way, if you are looking for Drangleic Castle.
I would suggest: finish the base game first, and return later to the DLC.
And don't give up, skeleton. Just take a break from this area and play another.

[ShiroiŌkami (白い狼)]

Originally posted by Human-Wolf Police:

1600 HP

I see the problem here
Pump up vigor to 50 and you'll see the difference

[The Icecream Snowman]

Brume Tower (and the other expansions) are harder then the base game areas. They're meant to be. You can't just rush in like a meat head and expect to knock everything over; this isn't Skyrim. Don't expect to get through any encounter on your first go.

Enemy agro ranges aren't very long so you can often fight one or two enemies at a time, provided you can stay in the corner of a room (like where you find the first Nadalia totem). Other times you can use flames and other traps, including the barrel imps, to your advantage. Fire arrows will detonate those guys, as will the Iron Knights' arm pit lava. Let enemies come to you, don't rush in to fight them. Be prepared to back away and use bottle necks like doors or bridges to your advantage. You require equal quantities of tactics and skill to get through Brume Tower.

In the Iron Passage (and Frigid Outskirts) there are a few NPC summon signs. I highly recommend grabbing everyone you can. These guys are tough, deal good damage and most importantly, get the agro away from you. Some areas need you to either run past some casters on inaccessible ledges, or put them away with a bow. This area is hard, though. Iron Passage and Fridig Outskirts are the two hardest areas in any of the Dark Souls games.

The Aged Smelter Demon is just a magic version of the regular Smelter Demon. Stack up some magic resistance if you think you'll take a hit or two but otherwise, just time your rolls correctly. If your buddies are still with you (they should be) you can even poison this boss.

[Ridley]

Originally posted by The Icecream Snowman:

; this isn't Skyrim. Don't expect to get through any encounter on your first go.

Don`t worry - I struggle even there :D
But that`s a good idea - I`ll go to Skyrim to relax for now.

Originally posted by The Icecream Snowman:

The Aged Smelter Demon is just a magic version of the regular Smelter Demon.

About his fire version though - had a glitch, where he skips entirely to phase 3 right at the start by stabbing himself and engulfing in flames. Any chances blue fella can do the same?

Originally posted by Dark Angel:

You are on the wrong way, if you are looking for Drangleic Castle. I would suggest: finish the base game first, and return later to the DLC.

Wow, so I`m not even supposed to be there so early? Lack of GPS trackers is my worst enemy in Souls 2.

Originally posted by The Icecream Snowman:

Other times you can use flames and other traps, including the barrel imps, to your advantage. Fire arrows will detonate those guys, as will the Iron Knights' arm pit lava. Let enemies come to you, don't rush in to fight them.

Yeah, I noticed that everyone tends to rush through bull "turrets" when they are on. Easy kills. Giants should stay there for a while, but I can block them a few times with Havel shield to roast them.

Originally posted by 2020Shoota:

if youre fighting 8v1, youre doing it wrong :P

Most of the time I was like "Where the hell did YOU came from?!" :D

[TrueArchery]

I mean "not supposed to be there" isn't really correct. It's an optional area, it's one of the harder areas, but it's doable even at level 1 because stats don't determine everything in this game.

Aged smelter is kinda beefed up and behaves a bit differently but is mostly the same, wear magic resistant stuff instead. Counter his aura by popping some lifegems. Or play it safe with poison.
The gauntlet is designed for coop and thus is a pain to handle solo, the npcs are trash and make the boss even more beefier. Unequip your stuff (or some of it, just to get rid of the equipmentload penalty spell), do a mad dash to the boss fog and reequip your stuff in the boss room while smelter d awakens. If you cleaned your inventory in advance it should be easily doable.
Don't know if the glitch works there.

Like already mentioned, get 50 vigor. Hp are much better for survivability than defense. Especially in higher ng cycles.

[Fishy]

Like for most areas in this game: if you're really stuck, just bring a bow and poison arrows. On another run you'll probably find that you can actually run/melee your way just fine, but for your first time round, don't be afraid to use all the tools available: bows, magic, consumables, you have a lot of stuff to play with. Remember that tip too for when you get to the Shrine of Amana.

[Ridley]

Got it.

And what should I do about invaders? Not NPC, they are fine. Cheaters and hackers - pain in the ass since day 1. Killing them is impossible, can`t disable invasions without disabling coop, disconnecting could be the option, but there is some sort of penalty. Maybe giving them the taste of their own medicine is the way out, since FromS softban can`t detect anyone anyway?

[Fishy]

Assuming you can't beat them (which is likely the case on your first run), you have, indeed two options: playing offline, or burning a human effigy at the bonfire to (mostly) prevent invasions for, errr, 1h or 30 minutes, I can't remember. That does disable coop too yes, but there's no way around that one I'm afraid.

[Ridley]

Actually I might - might! - just found my playstyle for PvP. In PvE I always use Heide sword+heavy shield. In PvP this doesn`t really work well. So after yet another loss, was mindlessly scrolling through my inventory and found +8 Caestus.

"Why the hell not? Can`t be worse than that."

Infused both with poison, upgraded to +10, googled how to enter Power Stance, trained a little in Iron Keep and teleported back to Dr. Castle. And there he was, invading after 5 minutes of waiting. Turns out I only have to beat him enough for poison metre to fill up and just keep the pressure on. Now it was *MY* turn to chase him through the mobs, now it was *MY* finishing blow and was *MINE* taunt gesture at the end.

So satisfying...

[TrueArchery]

Honestly it's more a matter of practice, heide sword + greatshield is a really good pvp setup. Funny that you switched to a poison build because the heide sword is infact a sick poison weapon. The buildup just skyrockets when you infuse it and it doesn't lose too much regular damage.

[Ridley]

Okaaaay, it seems Brume Tower isn`t the only area with ♥♥♥♥♥♥ design. Decided to venture into Shulva city and while the Queen was defeated by some pure luck + 2 phantoms - boss summons other clones of another boss in unlimited numbers. That`s BS - trio graverobbers is almost as frustrating as the Fume ♥♥♥. Without summons they attack at once and I`m dead in 10 seconds. With summons my attack dropped from 280 to 50.

Main areas are challenging, hard, but beatable. Hell, I defeated NG++ Pursuer, Rotten and Ruin Sentinels(bonfire aestetic) without receiving any damage at all. Trial and error. But DLC areas it seems were designed to be punishable to extend gameplay time without adding anything interesting to the story. Guide says they are optional, so I`m going to ditch these sobs and maybe skip all DLC`s entirely, since no achievements exist for them anyway.