..... 

Suitably motivated I killed Laurence on 2nd attempt. Difference this time was having saw cleaver +10 (instead of +9). And I think I was lucky with the 2nd phase (or stood in better locations to bait specific moves).

I'm not sure about Maria yet. My current thoughts are that her tracking is a bit unfair. Some attacks don't have it but most do. Even if I dodge behind or to the side and a bit behind, I can get some contact, leaving me vulnerable to further combo attacks. Couple that with her ability to hit you from anywhere in the area and it's a bit much.

I'm also not a fan of enemies that use guns - but she doesn't use hers that much.

This fight is relying a lot more on recognising the few frames of animation to read the attack. And my brain isn't that fast, plus the From game engine isn't exactly at twitch reaction standard.

First phase is ok but the second is where I am stuck at the moment. Doesn't help with more stuff being drawn on screen to confuse my brain even more.

tbh, I didn't think I'd even get this far so I'm reasonably happy with progress.


Ludwig was ok. Again more sky jumping (why From?) - but two different timed ones for the lols.
Laurence was rubbish - 1st form was challenging but 2nd form was just annoying.
Living Failures - why even bother?
Maria - not decided yet. Fun but see above.

Bosses in this game are either hard with lots of confusing parts and effects flailing around so you are not sure what's really going on, really easy, or have gimmicky stuff that's tricky to deal with for bosses that would otherwise be boring and easy.


Martyr has been the best boss for me - apart from the obligatory jump in the sky to break lock on shenanigans.

I read that so I had a few attempts with the gun just to see. I got her into a parry loop of 3 or 4 hits to get to second phase at one point.

But I'd rather do melee only. I've not used the gun so far - I'd probably move on instead of using it.

I've decided to do axe spin to win exclusively with Maria. Been close a few times.

We all know about stored rolls and turn based combat with From games but as an example with Maria - I just dodged towards her, she hit me with a combo of three attack and I flinched with each attack animation - then I dodged after that. I wasn't spamming dodge, just pressed it once. I might have pressed dodge a frame or so late but why the dodge after the sequence of attacks? Lol From games.

Got to SoY, died on first go and have no clue how to get back there. I keep running around in circles.

Also had a very stressful moment where I was running back to the elevator to go to the lamp, I had 31k echoes that I wanted to cash in. My character just kept running, over the bridge and into the woods, in stead of turning right to the house. Thought I accidently clicked auto run, but turns out my controller died. Luckily my character stopped not too far from where the actual enemies where, so I was able to gain control and get my extras level up.
Very stressful area this, a lot has happened in the last 1,5 hour.

Nina wrote:

Got to SoY, died on first go and have no clue how to get back there. I keep running around in circles.

I hated this level - it's probably my least favourite boss run as well. It's been a while but I think this video shows the route I took - fortunately the boss isn't too bad. Oh, and make sure to reset the elevators each run.

https://youtu.be/YH-AJnI3BYQ

... maybe even  a 1440p @ 120fps mode; well a hunter can dream. I'd be very excite with just 60fps.

Consistent 30fps would be nice.

I don't think PS5 is any different - some people claim it's smoother but most comments say there is no improvement. I can see there being less stutter when it loads new segments due to the faster hard drive but the game engine being the same.

edit: and by game engine I mean inconsistent frame rate/pacing.

Time_on_my_hands wrote:

Nina wrote:

Got to SoY, died on first go and have no clue how to get back there. I keep running around in circles.

I hated this level - it's probably my least favourite boss run as well. It's been a while but I think this video shows the route I took - fortunately the boss isn't too bad. Oh, and make sure to reset the elevators each run.

https://youtu.be/YH-AJnI3BYQ

I'll probably give that a look soon. Am pretty close to my next level so gonna grind a bit close to the lamp.

There's also two more things I can grab that are not the standard items I think (grapefruit l headpiece and rune) but even with a drawn map from the wiki I don't fully understand where to get l go.

I think the level is beautiful, it's just a shame it's full with poison spewing enemies.

I upgraded the Tonitrus to +6 because I had lots of shards. I didn't use it that much but it was certainly effective against things that don't like bolt damage.

L1 is a short term bolt boost, and can be used during a combo as an attack.

Durability is low so it wears out quickly.

Hm, I might upgrade it then. I'm not a big fan (for now) on using insight for bolt/fire papers as I prefer to spend it on attire sets.
Have 30+ twin blood shards after the woods, so plenty for 2 extra weapons I think. Cleaver and Holy Blade are at +6 already. Not really sure if the guns are worth upgrading further than +3, some people said it's not useful if you're not putting numbers in bloodtinge.

Found my items I was hunting for this morning. So will check SoY next time I'll play. Gained two levels since last time I think, so not that bad.

After that it's time to take a look east of the Cathedral with an item I got from someone in the woods, and check out the other side of the poison lake. I know where that shortcut leads to, but I'm not sure yet if I'll be able to handle that.

Finding the woods beautiful and very atmospheric, but I'm happy to leave them behind. The area with the snake heads is impossible to navigate (although it racks up echoes quite quickly still). Thinking the snake heads are giant tarantula's isn't really helping.

SoY dead. Third try, I still feel overpowered but who cares.

Question about the area east of the Grand Cathedral.

First spoiler is also where you can get one of the items you need for True Last Boss, yeah?

hylian_elf wrote:

First spoiler is also where you can get one of the items you need for True Last Boss, yeah?

Didn't know that, and I don't want to happen what happened to mrsmr2. Will read up on it a bit. Although I'm scared of going after the True Last Boss.

B said the Lecture Building was an area most people found the scariest, so I'm really not sure what to do with that. Thought there's been plenty of scary / tense stuff already.

Patiently waiting for the sun to rotate enough so I can see again. Morning sessions are always a bit bleached out thanks to indirect sunlight, so didn't want to explore more this morning. Looking forward to going back in.