fastest game progression

[Ocelot]

So I'm farming playthroughs to get the entire game to +7 onwards and I'm curious some of the routes/boss order ppl follow. I'v just finished playthrough 3 and its taken around 30 hours including all 3 DLC's. Hoping to get this down a bit cheers :)

[JellyPuff]

Well, at this point, if you wanna do it fast, you gotta pretty much ignore all the optional stuff. That means straight to the castle (if not enough SM, farm The Rotten), no DLC, etc.

There's no real "fastest route", if you aim to fully complete each playthrough. How fast you are there depends on how much damage you can dish out and how well you know the game.

[Ocelot]

Originally posted by Jellypuff:

Well, at this point, if you wanna do it fast, you gotta pretty much ignore all the optional stuff. That means straight to the castle (if not enough SM, farm The Rotten), no DLC, etc.

There's no real "fastest route", if you aim to fully complete each playthrough. How fast you are there depends on how much damage you can dish out and how well you know the game.

I have 38million SM but does that castle trick for 1 million SM still work? I only ask because i read some posts/heard that wasn't viable.

I dont want to fully complete especially those dumb rat bosses, just looking to boost the whole game up to 7

[JellyPuff]

The SM requirement to enter through the Shrine of Winter is 1M SM for NG (plus 1M SM for each additional NG cycle, capping at NG+7, so NG+ = 2M, NG++ = 3M, and so on).

So if you have at least 8M SM, you will always be able to enter Drangleic Castle right away at any NG cycle.

[Ocelot]

Originally posted by Jellypuff:

The SM requirement to enter through the Shrine of Winter is 1M SM for NG (plus 1M SM for each additional NG cycle, capping at NG+7, so NG+ = 2M, NG++ = 3M, and so on).

So if you have at least 8M SM, you will always be able to enter Drangleic Castle right away at any NG cycle.

ok thanks il do this and go straight through to the crypt for kings ring, thanks mate

[TrueArchery]

Originally posted by Jellypuff:

The SM requirement to enter through the Shrine of Winter is 1M SM for NG (plus 1M SM for each additional NG cycle, capping at NG+7, so NG+ = 2M, NG++ = 3M, and so on).

So if you have at least 8M SM, you will always be able to enter Drangleic Castle right away at any NG cycle.

That's wrong.

You've to EARN these amounts of souls during the NG cycle you want the shrine to be opened. So in MG+7 it's prolly faster to just rush all 4 lord bosses

[HypetheKomodo]

Just bumrush the lords. Really, with enough practice, you can blitz through the areas to get to the bosses.

Remember to use a torch in Spidertown to avoid a lot of meaningless conflict.

[+==={::::::::::::::::::::::::::>]

Originally posted by Ocelot:

...just looking to boost the whole game up to 7

Grab your favorite drink and read on...

For NG+ and NG+2:

Rotten farming method is the fastest approach.

Reasons --
1. From Majula, you can run to the second bonfire in Black Gulch within 5 minutes.
2. Lots of Bonfire Ascetics at hand (since you would have played NG thoroughly).
3. Rotten is right next to the second bonfire.
4. Rotten is very easy (even on bonfire intensity 8).

To maximize the gains from this method, you need to equip full Tseldora Set, Covetous Silver Serpent Ring +2 and fight him alone (since summons decrease the number of souls you get from the boss kill).

IMPORTANT: Fextralife's wiki states that equipping Tseldora Set and Covetous Silver Serpent Ring +2 yields 52.5% more souls, which is wrong. Here are the correct values --

Tseldora Cap increases souls gained by 2.5%
Tseldora Robe increases souls gained by 5%
Tseldora Manchettes increases souls gained by 10%
Tseldora Trousers increases souls gained by 5%
Covetous Silver Serpent Ring +2 increases souls gained by 30%

Somebody just added the numbers (cumulative) and updated the wiki as 52.5%. Actually, effect stacking is multiplicative (and not cumulative) and hence the correct number is --

1.025 x 1.05 x 1.10 x 1.05 x 1.30 = 1.61598938 or 61.598938%

So you get roughly 61.6% more souls (I can confirm this from my own playthrough). Here are the exact numbers for Rotten --

Bonfire Intensity 2 -- Base Souls 94,000 -- Increased Souls 151,903
Bonfire Intensity 3 -- Base Souls 117,500 -- Increased Souls 189,878
Bonfire Intensity 4 -- Base Souls 129,250 -- Increased Souls 208,866
Bonfire Intensity 5 -- Base Souls 141,000 -- Increased Souls 227,854
Bonfire Intensity 6 -- Base Souls 152,750 -- Increased Souls 246,842
Bonfire Intensity 7 -- Base Souls 164,500 -- Increased Souls 265,830
Bonfire Intensity 8 -- Base Souls 188,000 -- Increased Souls 303,805

Base Souls indicates the number of souls received from the boss kill without wearing any soul enhancing equipment, whereas Increased Souls indicates the amount you would receive by equipping full Tseldora Set and Covetous Silver Serpent Ring +2.

On bonfire intensity 2 and above, Rotten drops 2 different consumable souls which yield 85,000 souls when consumed.

So assuming you started NG+ without any consumable souls and the second bonfire in Black Gulch was only at intensity 1 before you started NG+, you would need to kill Rotten 7 times to reach an additional Soul Memory of 2 Million (to unlock Shrine of Winter). Note that you will need to consume most of the dropped Rotten souls (Soul of the Rotten and Old Dead One's Soul) to achieve this number. Only 6 Bonfire Ascetics are needed here. This whole farming process can be completed within 20 minutes provided you've high DPS.

For NG+2, second bonfire in Black Gulch would already be at intensity 8. Assuming you've no consumable souls, you would need to kill Rotten 8 times to reach an additional Soul Memory of 3 Million (7 Bonfire Ascetics). Again, this whole farming process can be completed within 25 minutes provided you've high DPS.

Once Shrine of Winter is unlocked, it's a linear path --

Enter Drangleic Castle --> defeat Twin Dragonriders --> defeat Looking Glass Knight --> enter Shrine of Amana --> defeat Demon of Song --> enter Undead Crypt --> defeat Velstadt --> grab King's Ring --> enter Aldia's Keep --> defeat Guardian Dragon --> enter Dragon Aerie --> enter Dragon Shrine --> acquire Ashen Mist Heart from Ancient Dragon --> enter Memory of Jeigh --> acquire Giant's Kinship by defeating Giant Lord --> enter Throne of Want --> defeat Throne Watcher, Throne Defender and Nashandra.

You should skip as many mobs as possible and only focus on killing bosses to progress; The obvious exception being Shrine of Amana, where you just can't skip certain mobs. And of course, this means skipping all DLCs completely.

Farming Rotten is ideal for players seeking the three NG+2 spells (that Chancellor Wellager sells) for achievements.

For NG+3 and beyond:

Farming Rotten would still be viable for a few more cycles but eventually you'll run out of Bonfire Ascetics (unless you farmed them in NG like there's no tomorrow, which in itself consumes time thereby contradicting your speed run). Not to mention the additional Soul Memory needed to unlock Shrine of Winter creeps up with each cycle. Like the others said, rushing the four Lords is your best bet. Lost Sinner, Rotten and Freja can be reached quite quickly, but reaching Old Iron King takes more time.

EDIT: As recently pointed out by Ocelot, Nahr Alma Robe increases souls gained by 10% as opposed to only 5% gained from Tseldora Robe. But to get Nahr Alma Robe, you must either kill Titchy Gren or reach Rank 3 in Brotherhood of Blood.

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by TrueArchery:

Originally posted by Jellypuff:

The SM requirement to enter through the Shrine of Winter is 1M SM for NG (plus 1M SM for each additional NG cycle, capping at NG+7, so NG+ = 2M, NG++ = 3M, and so on).

So if you have at least 8M SM, you will always be able to enter Drangleic Castle right away at any NG cycle.

That's wrong.

You've to EARN these amounts of souls during the NG cycle you want the shrine to be opened. So in MG+7 it's prolly faster to just rush all 4 lord bosses

Thanks for clearing that up. (the 3 different wikis about that sure didn't)
Looks like my plans to rush to NG++ Wellager (on a character, i do not intend to raise anymore SM) just gone poof.

[TrueArchery]

Originally posted by Jellypuff:

Originally posted by TrueArchery:

That's wrong.

You've to EARN these amounts of souls during the NG cycle you want the shrine to be opened. So in MG+7 it's prolly faster to just rush all 4 lord bosses

Thanks for clearing that up. (the 3 different wikis about that sure didn't)
Looks like my plans to rush to NG++ Wellager (on a character, i do not intend to raise anymore SM) just gone poof.

You can run through NG+ and ++ in one (admittedly extended) session in the evening. It's pretty fast if you skip everything you don't need dead.

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by TrueArchery:

Originally posted by Jellypuff:

Thanks for clearing that up. (the 3 different wikis about that sure didn't)
Looks like my plans to rush to NG++ Wellager (on a character, i do not intend to raise anymore SM) just gone poof.

You can run through NG+ and ++ in one (admittedly extended) session in the evening. It's pretty fast if you skip everything you don't need dead.

Then again, i might as well seize the opportunity and get some unique weapons an additional time to dual wield them as well as some more upgrade materials.
Did you know, that powerstancing whips is actually fun and viable?

[TrueArchery]

Originally posted by Jellypuff:

Originally posted by TrueArchery:

You can run through NG+ and ++ in one (admittedly extended) session in the evening. It's pretty fast if you skip everything you don't need dead.

Then again, i might as well seize the opportunity and get some unique weapons an additional time to dual wield them as well as some more upgrade materials.
Did you know, that powerstancing whips is actually fun and viable?

Yes. But in PvP I like to troll Whipsters by just rollig around them until their Old Whips break. Fun stuff.

[TrueArchery]

But speaking of that, I had a Poison build for a while on PS3 featuring 2x Poison Spotted Whips and a Falchion for applying pressure and cutting down moss-usage.

Now I'd do it entirely different, but the Whips were indeed very gud.

[JellyPuff]

Good thing, i'm wearing the Brace Knuckle Ring while whipping it. (Mostly for the poison Trident that i also wield for the lulz.)

[+==={::::::::::::::::::::::::::>]

Originally posted by TrueArchery:

I had a Poison build for a while on PS3 featuring 2x Poison Spotted Whips and a Falchion for applying pressure and cutting down moss-usage.

Now I'd do it entirely different, but the Whips were indeed very gud.

Almost insta-poison with Sanctum Soldier Gauntlets and Crest of the Rat. I've tried it too. :D

[TrueArchery]

Originally posted by BigZooka:

Originally posted by TrueArchery:

I had a Poison build for a while on PS3 featuring 2x Poison Spotted Whips and a Falchion for applying pressure and cutting down moss-usage.

Now I'd do it entirely different, but the Whips were indeed very gud.

Almost insta-poison with Sanctum Soldier Gauntlets and Crest of the Rat. I've tried it too. :D

L2 or L1 plus any other hit ALWAYS poisoned the victim. Rolling or running attacks into L2s are pretty reliable one combo triggers.