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Death Is Fun – On kicking Havel’s ass, and Death At The Hands Of Ice Monsters 

Well, here we are again.  Last night I ventured deeper into the Undead Parish, encountering a few new knight enemies.  Before venturing firther though, I spent a bit more time in the Undead Burg grinding souls for the sole purpose of purchasing a heavy soul arrow spell.  I did indeed, and while the animation for casting it is a bit long, the damage it inflicts on enemies is worth it.  I encountered a huge knight in the chapel of the Undead Parish, and just peppered his sorry ass with that heavy soul arrow.  Two shots, down for the count.  Finally, the Firekeeper’s Soul is MINE!  I immediately high-tailed it back to the imprisoned Firekeeper below Firelink Shrine and reinforced my Estus Flask – with each drink I now recharge nearly ¾ of my hit points.  Not bad!

 

Before I continue on with my exploits in Lordran, I want to take a moment and comment on the PvP aspect of Dark Souls.  I’m currently a level 24, and not suited up for PvP…I’m actually still wearing some pretty shitty armor, though it’s been reinforced a little bit.  I’m in a decent spot for PvE….I have a firm grasp on the controls, and know how to roll, dodge, and parry when needed.  Typically though my approach has been to take out the baddies before they ever get close enough to harm me, and if they do, whip out a shield and do my best to get a backstab in.  Not so with black fucking phantoms.  These assholes ALWAYS invade if you’re in human form.  ALWAYS.   I suppose I could use the item that banishes them (can’t recall the name offhand) but I rarely have that at the ready in my inventory.  And I’m usually too panicked by the invasion message on the screen to hurry up and hit the inventory screens to equip or use said item.  So, that being the case, I’m opting to play the game as much in hollowed form as possible until I reach a level better-suited to the rigors of PvP.  For the record, I’ve also yet to be summoned, or summon phantoms to aid me.  I’m sure that’ll happen as I level up and proceed deeper into Lordran.

 

After handling that huge knight in the Undead Parish, I decided to backtrack a bit through Undead Burg and Firelink Shrine, opening up various doors and shortcuts I’d missed earlier.  I’m not the type to wait until I hit New Game Plus to unlock things…I handle stuff like that as quickly as I can, without following a guide when possible.  Also…you WILL end up looking things up online with this game.  I don’t care how badass of a gamer you are…Dark Souls will kick your ass, hard, unless you know what you’re doing.  The game offers you next to no information, so unless you’re into masochistic game sessions, you’ll be hitting the Dark Souls Wiki and perusing things like area maps.  I check it out for boss strategies.  Cheating?  Fuck no.  This game’s hard enough on its own, any amount of assistance that can be gleaned is pretty far from cheating, unless you’re some nerd gaming-fundamentalist. 

 

I ended up descending the staircase that initially leads to your first major boss encounter with the Taurus Demon down to a basement-like area leading into theDarkrootBasin.  Here is where I ended up stopping for the night, after having my ass brutally kicked by the giant ice creatures inhabiting the beginning of the area.  I was intent to press on and find the nearest bonfire, but was killed, losing a humanity sprite and 5k souls, as well as exhausting my supply of firebombs.  No worries though – Darth Kill’s got the medicine, and I’ll be taxing those icy asses this evening.  Every inch you progress is a hard-won, life-and-death struggle in Lordran….but you know what?  Dying has never been this much fun.