How to finish new londo without transient curses?

[Dundo]

I try to get past them but i just get dogpiled asap

[Awmax]

There are a few cursed weapons in the game that can hurt ghosts without YOU beingcursed. I can't recall all of them but the jagged ghost blade and artorias greatsword are two. Jagged ghost blade is ♥♥♥♥ because it's specialty is bleed which doesn't really work on ghosts. Artorias greatsword is a fantastic weapon with a boss-themed cool moveset, however you must be sure to make the CURSED variant and not the TRUE variant. Dark souls provides no name difference for the two so I will explain:

CURSED artorias greatsword is made via soul of sif and ascending +10 dagger or most other straightsword/normal blade type weapons.

TRUE artorias greatsword can only be made from ascended +10 broken straight sword and is NOT cursed so it will not work, however it is marginally better and has a higher intelligence requirement, so it will outperform slightly against non-ghost enemies.

Again, the only way to tell the difference between the two is what you used to ascend and their intelligence stat requirements (true is 20 while cursed is 18 iirc)

Therefore, best method without transient is to use cursed greatsword or just get cursed through other means and then take them one at a time. You can also snipe the seal key guy on top of the cathedral from the catwalks with the ghosts that attack you from below (has the kickable ladder) , allowing you to run straight to the seal from thereon and skip the entire second ghost building (ideal unless you need ghost drops or have yet to explore that area - you should always explore everything for at least the first time to get all items and for fun)

p.s - I recommend having hawk ring or a good bow for killing him since even a hawk ring +14 Pharis bow only does ~19-25 damage a shot with large arrows at the necessary range. It can also be a challenge to hit his head above the railing on the cathedral.

Hope that helps!

[richardson]

I got lucky. I did run out of transient curses (including the four from the female undead merchant) but I had gotten far enough to open up the shortcut to the boss door AND one of the ghosts had been kind enough to drop a Jagged Ghost Blade while I was still able to kill them.

If that hadn't happened, I was planning to do as above and get a basilisk curse and farm ghosts while at half health.

[patrixilentius]

Originally posted by richardson:

I got lucky. I did run out of transient curses (including the four from the female undead merchant) but I had gotten far enough to open up the shortcut to the boss door AND one of the ghosts had been kind enough to drop a Jagged Ghost Blade while I was still able to kill them.

If that hadn't happened, I was planning to do as above and get a basilisk curse and farm ghosts while at half health.

I hope you know that Curses work for five minutes. There's also that nifty trick for always knowing if your Curse wore off or not.

[Awmax]

A good strategy is to keep your transient curses in your item bar for quick use, and to constantly have them selected unless you need to use another item. As soon as they wear off, they will go from grayed out to highlighted as a good signal.

[patrixilentius]

Originally posted by Awmax:

A good strategy is to keep your transient curses in your item bar for quick use, and to constantly have them selected unless you need to use another item. As soon as they wear off, they will go from grayed out to highlighted as a good signal.

I was just going to give the same advice.

[Mr. Oibyr]

the first room filled with ghosts can only be run though if you bait out the farthest one to get around her...no easy feat

after; kick the ladder so you don't have to do it again

second room can be skipped if you kill Ingward from the walkway

[The Great Brambino]

Just progress through different parts of the game until you're a bit beefier, then come back. By then you'll have met both undead merchants, one of which sells transient curses.

[yes!]

You can also buy this item (Transient Curse) from a female Undead-merchant. She is in a tower right next to the door to the Depths. But she charges an arm and a leg for it - 4000 souls each.