I started playing Dark Souls Remastered again last week just because. I do this. I switch from game to game*, usually after finishing a playthrough, but sometimes during. In DS, I’m running my usual strengthcaster character–Pyro/Zwei. It’s the funnest character build for me, and I marvel at how I’m just tromping merrily through the game. Been re-watching Krupa (of RKG) stream his run for the platinum, and….while I’m not doing a platinum run, I’m not NOT doing a platinum run, either. I already have 24 of the 41 achievement (and can’t believe I don’t have the vanilla ending achievement, which is the easiest one to remedy). This platinum is super-fiddly and tedious, involving a lot of grinding and at least two-and-a-half playthroughs without assistance from other people gifting you items, and it’s doesn’t seem like any fun after a certain point. Krupa has done three streams of 6 hours, 7 hours, and 8 hours respectively–and he’s not done yet. There last stream will probably be three or four hours. He was already at Gwyn when he started the first stream, and then the fiddling started. He also had summons to help him, and our community was built on Souls (though it has expanded quite a bit) so the summons really knew their shit. Since Krupa used a password, he could summon anyone of any level. So many pyro pals. So much blamming goodness. There are several people who have platted the game themselves, and many more who have played it countless times even without platting.
The next stream is ten days away. I’m seriously tempted to buy it on the PS4 and see if I can get my character to where Krupes is. He’s in NG++ at the beginning, and he has to play halfway through the game to get everything he needs. I would love to be summoned for Ornstein & Smough, for example. Not Sif, though. I hate fighting Sif. I always close my eyes while doing it and just trusting my Pyros will take care of it. That’s another reason I’m thinking about buying it on PS4. I have a bunch of Pyro pals who play on the PS4, and they want to run together. It would be hilarious to have a Pyro-only run, though, I’m not sure I could stick to that.
My current wheelhouse is mostly Pyro with Hidden Body/Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring as my stealth option. One of my fellow Pyros mentioned how amazing Chaos Storm was and demonstrated it when he was summoned during Krupa’s plat run. I hadn’t been using it because it seems to take so long to cast, but it’s fucking incredible–especially with a mob. In fact, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Painted World using Chaos Storm, Great Chaos Fireball, and Slumbering/Hidden Body on the Phalanx. One Chaos Storm cast kills most if not all of the Phalanx, and one or two GCF finishes the job if it doesn’t kill them all. Wearing the Mimic head and/or the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring increases the number of souls you can get. Wearing the Mimic head OR the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring + 10 soft humanities maxes out your luck (item find).
You want to know how fiddly some of the quests are? I’ll give you an example. Well, this is not so much fiddly as annoying as fuck. You can’t really fail this one, but you can make it harder on yourself–and it’s hard enough. I just did this one yesterday, so it’s fresh in my mind. One of the achievements is Bond of a Pyromancer. You would think I already had this one because I’m into all things Pyro. However, there is one Pyromancy you can’t get without talking to Eingyi, the servant of The Fair Lady (sister of Quelaag). You would think it meant joining the Chaos Servant covenant, and that’s the first step, yes. Actually, I’m not sure you have to do that at all. Anyway, the way to get the precious Pyromancy, Toxic Mist, is this. You have to go to the Egg Burdened in Demon’s Ruins and let one of them grab you. A maggot comes out of their head and bites you. If it’s successful, you’ll become infected. You’ll know because you’ll start scratching yourself and roughly five minutes later, your head will become an egg.
Now, you think, now you can buy that Pyromancy! And what does becoming an Egg Head have to do with buying a Pyromancy? Oh, I forgot to mention that Eingyi is an Egg Burdened himself, and The Fair Lady eats humanities to try to ease their pain. In order to level up in her covenant, you have to feed her humanities. Thirty to open the shortcut to save Solaire, but that’s another story.
Anyhoo, you cannot buy that Pyromancy yet! Oh, no, my friend. You are only a Level 1 Egg Head, and Eingyi has no time for such a dilettante. You need to level up that Egg Head, and how do you do that, you ask? Easy! You feed the Egg Head 100,000 souls. Excuse me, what? 100,000 souls? Yes. How do you do that? You either consume 100,000 consumable souls (which, let’s face it, you probably won’t have that many in your inventory), or you kill enough enemies to gather 200,000 souls which will give half to the infestation. You will know when you level up because your head will burst open and then you’ll be able to do the maggot coming out of your head trick when you try to kick an opponent (left stick + RB). Then, take your butt back to Eingyi and buy that one Pyromancy you need to get the Bond of a Pyromancy achievement that you can’t get in a normal and fairly painless way. He does sell another (Poison Mist), but you can get that one in the Blighttown swamp.
I got the souls for the infestation by farming the Phalanx, but I couldn’t wear the Mimic head, and I don’t have the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring, so I had base souls. And only got half of them for myself. Still. A hundred thou is nothing to sneeze at, and I farmed six Souvenirs of Reprisal in the meantime–which is needed for another achievement. I need ten in total and four more shouldn’t be too difficult to farm. That whole bit took over an hour, and that was just for one piece of one achievement.
I recently checked another character I have, the one which I got one of the harder achievements (for me, the Sunbro covenant) on, and I have several of the Rare Weapons needed for the Knight’s Honor achievement. For that one, you have to get all the weapons on the same character. Which means this character. I don’t have my strength where it needs to be to rock the Zwei, and I’m using the Black Knight Sword. If I were to go for the plat–which I’m not–I’d have to bump up the Strength four notches in order to one-hand the two-hander. Apparently, I’m still in NG with this character (as I am with my current one), but I’m further along. Just gotta kill Nito and Gwyn. I’ve done Artorias (and the Sanctuary Guardian), but maybe not Kalameet and certainly not Manus. The DLC isn’t necessary for the achievements, but there are some upgrade material that is very helpful and some great Dark Sorceries/Pyros. Plus, can’t play the game without doing the DLC!
I know I should try to find another game to play, but it’s all about the comfort right now. My sleep has gone back to shit after making incremental improvements, and while I’m just dealing with low-level anxiety during the day much like any other day, all the freaking out comes out at night. I can’t fall asleep before two, and let’s face it, it’s closer to four these days. And I can’t get more than five to six hours of sleep a night. I used to live on four, but I need six to seven these days.
So, playing Dark Souls and not NOT going for the plat is what I’m doing at this time and for the foreseeable future. I’ve embraced the madness and made it my own.
*Dark Souls. All three. I have playthroughs going for each.