Dark Souls & 2011 Spike Video Game Awards this week!!

Hey everyone, not sure if you are aware but Dark Souls has made it through to the final round for best RPG of the year, at the prestigeous Spike Video Game Awards 2011. The voting pages can be found here:

http://www.spike.com/events/video-game-awards-2011-nominees/voting/best-rpg

However it's up against some tough competition: Skyrim, Dragon Age 2 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (which you can now get for £10 on play.com.... not sure that'll be winning any awards!). So cast your vote for your favourite RPG of the year on the official Spike website and check out the winners this Saturday.

Don't forget to vote for the other categories which can be located on the left-hand side of the page. Bear in mind some of the nominees are console specific [or vice versa] so choose carefully.

Lets hope the best nominees win!

Priscilla's dagger guide

Today I'm going to write a guide on how to obtain Priscilla's dagger. Firstly you need to fight your way through the Painted World to the final room - which is accessed via the lower-bridge underneath the sleeping poison dragon. Once inside you will encounter Priscilla the Halfbreed, she looks like a giant white cat woman. To get the dagger you must successfully cut her tail off, though this can be tricky as its so small and she moves around quite a lot in addition to turning invisible.

Once you've thrown the first strike she will usually activate her invisibility spell, at this point you want to start moving around the arena as she will be trying to swing at you with her scythe which inflicts bleed damage. Keep moving around and trying to stay on the side with more snow on the floor as you will be able to see her footprints as she approaches you. When she's within range use some spells such as pyromancy (i.e. fire whip with a large AoE or just a standard fireball) to hit her. Within a few hits she will usually become visible, but be careful not to kill her by keeping a close eye on her health bar. Now try to circle around behind her to get a strike on her tail - you will see that its rather small but persist at it. Shes typically most vulnerable after she has done a power attack with her scythe and you will have plenty of time to get behind her and cut that tail off. Lock-on makes this more difficult as you cannot sprint so freely, so be sure to take this off temporarily before trying to circle around behind her. Once you successfully get the tail off you will see it appear on the floor as a shining drop - run over and grab it before finishing her.

Hope this helps and if you're still having difficult write a comment and I'll try to help out further :)

You will also receive Priscilla's soul at the end of the battle and receive an achievement/trophy. Unlike other boss souls Priscilla's soul can only be used to forge one unique weapon - the lifehunt scythe. This is an average weapon although it does have a high bleeding bonus (500 I think). Forge this using a +10 scythe, or if you don't have one a halberd +10.

The dagger itself appears to have quite good stats (including the 500 bleed bonus), however I didn't use it during my game. I think rogue classes would benefit from this weapon the most, as its arguably one of the strongest speed weapons in the game and has an excellent bleed effect.

New Version Update Live

The new update i outlined in my last post is now live. I just put dark souls in for the first time in a while (due to playing skyrim rather a lot recently) and loaded up one of my characters. Although it didn't actually prompt me for the update like it usually does with other games it should still be active. One easy way to check it to visit a bonfire and see whether the req. souls box is filled in. If you lack the required souls to level up then it will be highlighted red. If you remember before this box was left blank so this is an indication that your game has been updated.

NEW PATCH/UPDATE (v.1.04) FOR DARK SOULS!! - ***READ***

WOW! Well i just got back from my weekend away and found out some very exciting news - theres a new patch coming to dark souls which will resolve a number of issues such as balancing, drop rates, weapon damage; but perhaps most importantly of all - MULTIPLAYER!!

Update v.1.04 has been released in Japan already and will be coming to Europe and the USA "soon" according to a number of leading game sites. I've posted the full list of changes below, highlighted what i believe to be some major changes and written comments afterwards summing them up and how i think they will affect the game.


"Translated by Brett (twitch.tv/thebrett)

Taken from in-game testing / jp wiki notes (http://w.livedoor.jp/project_dark)


Magic Changes:

1. Pyro Glove nerfed from 270 to 230. - Oh well not too much of a big deal, only a slight change in power which can be made up for by improving your pyro glove at a trainer such as Quelana. 
2. You can see resonance signs now.
3. Vow of Silence range increased.
4. Homing Soul Mass and other pursuit style spells nerfed. - Not sure how much they will be nerfed by as it didn't give specific details but this kinda sucks as i was about to begin putting some serious hours into my sorcery character. Oh well, i guess the homing was kinda overpowered, let's hope its not too much of a big change! 
5. Magic Shield and Strong Magic Shield duration lowered.
6. Tranquil Walk of Peace and other Slow duration reduced to ~10 secs. Effect supposedly changed from 100% encumbrance to 50%.
7. Iron Flesh effectiveness nerfed. - Oh well, didn't use it much anyway but i did hear one of the major strategies for defeating the final boss entailed using this pyromancy spell... To be honest it slows you down SO much that i found it pretty useless.

Status Changes:

1. Initial weight increased
2. Humanity Item drop rate increased from 10 to 210 - WTF!!??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??! Well i knew humanity was a pretty rare drop from enemies but sheesh! this is gunna be crazy - its been multiplied by 21 times!!! This is a big change and will mean using humanity won't be nearly as much of a big deal. Brilliant change in my opinion, finally we'll be able to use some humanity to increase our item discovery rates whilst running around, and take part in the online community a bit more.
3. Medium roll recovery faster? (unclear and unconfirmed)

Equipment Changes:

1. Reported some weapon scaling gets improved at higher normal upgrades (+15 uchi dex scaling goes to A)
2. Some scaling reported as changing from A to S with higher upgrades
3. Normal upgrade path buffed by ~10%
4. Lightning path nerfed slightly (~5%) - Not enough of a nerf in my opinion, lightning weapons in this game are totally unscaled, their stats are far beyond that of all the other elements, essentially rendering things like fire or crystal useless. Meh.
5. Grant scaling changed?
6. Gold-hemmed nerfed, still un-upgraded
7. Dust skirt nerfed hard
8. Silver Knights, Sun, Hollow Soldier’s Shield and other medium shield stability nerfed to ~70 at max upgrades to improve Great Shield viability.
9. Crystal Ring Shield scaling drastically nerfed. Does around ~200 +-50 - OH SNAP! I was just getting used to my 700s with the Captain America shield! Oh well, it had to be coming, that thing was a total weapon of mass destruction and definitely unscaled. Will still be useful but you'll have to do a bit more close quarters fighting too now... not much of a big deal really (?).
10. Dragon Greatsword buffed from 360 to 390.

Combat Changes:

1. Lock-on acquisition range increased.
2. Lock-on changing/switching got easier.
3. Ring of Fog users can now be locked on. - HAHA! suck it noobs. No more invaders who are invisible and can't be locked on. They'll take their punishment now.

PVE Changes:

1. Damage reduced on some mobs?
2. HP lowered on some mobs?
3. Bosses drop Humanity and Homeward Bones
4. Ghosts and Skeletons give souls now. - sweet!
5. Twinkling Titanite drop rate improved. - sweeter!
6. Some mobs may have added drops (Pyromancer dropping Lantern? Unconfirmed).

Online Changes:

1. You can see resonance signs.
2. Some invasion restrictions possibly changed? Darkwraith upperlimit confirmed as unchanged.
3. Amount of souls the Master of the game gains changed.
4. Cracked Eye Orbs no longer get consumed on failure. Confirmed

Other Changes:

1. Official Guide nerfed.
2. Lowered requirements for Sunbro covenenant (requirements moved from 50 to 25. 3/4 assists should do the trick) - MASSIVE CHANGE! finally its viable to join the warrior of sunlight covenant without having to have a ridiculously high faith stat of 50! This means that with the minimum starting faith stat of 8, you can help only a few people online as a white phantom to defeat their area boss and solaire will let you in!! This is excellent news for people looking to get that achievement(/trophy), and also getting all the miracle spells. Note that you'll still need to donate 10 medals of sunlight to get all the miracles from this covenant though AND the soul of the final boss (thats right new game + unfortunately).
3. Fixed some freeze issues.
4. Lvl up screen displays souls needed properly now.
5. Dragon-head glitch, snuggly, and magic shield glitches fixed. - suck it noobs! no more soul glitching to reach level 1,000,000. Didn't know there was a snuggly glitch but whatever! fixing any glitches has to be a good thing, and forces those mugs to go through the same pain as the rest of us hard working dark soulers!!
6. Fixed a bug where your inputs come out 1 second later. - Not sure if you guys noticed this during combat but i certainly did! This could definitely provide you with an extra edge during a close fight!
7. Fixed a bug where the second solaire event wont progress.
8. Fixed a bug where feeding frampt a titanite stone then going over 99 resulted in having zero.
9. Fixed some specific map areas where you’d get stuck or be unable to progress.
10. Changed some english subtitles on the overseas port.

Merchant stock updates:

1. Male Undead Merchant: Also sells bottomless box.
2. Female Undead Merchant: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts.
3. Andrei: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts.
4. Domnhal of Xena: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts, Master Key - WOW! no longer do you have to start the game with the master key as a perk!!! its now available to everyone (for a price no doubt) from Xena, in case you didn't know this is the Welsh merchant who can first be found in front of the door in the depths to blighttown, OR later near firelink shrine sitting next to the skeleton which had the ring of sacrafice on it at the bottom of the aquaduct that leads to undead burg.
5. iant Blacksmith (Fapsmith): Sells Arrows / Crossbolts, Small Titanite Shards, Large Tit Shards, Twinkling (8000 per, inf amount), Green Shards, Repair box, upgrade boxes - Sweet Jesus this is good news!! i spent hours farming for this stuff!! Although its 8k each thats not such a big deal, i dont mind paying that amount as the clam farming methods took a LOT longer. This means we can finally upgrade our gear which requires twinkling titanite without too much concern.
6. amos: Arrows / Crossbolts, Small Tit, Large tit, Repair box / upgrade boxes.
7. Ingwood: Sells Transient Curses."

(Source: http://trendygamers.com/2011/11/02/dark-souls-patch-1-04-information/)


As you can see this is quite a substantial update and will bring some significant changes to the offline and online game. Although not all of the multiplayer improvements have been listed here there are undoubtedly a number of background changes they will be making. More specifically - we shouldn't experience so much difficulty in finding a world to invade or summoning players to help defeat area bosses (or vice versa).


Thanks for reading everyone as always and i'd like to say thanks to Lee for recently filling me in on some of the storyline i previously didn't understand, as some of you may know i have been playing the game for around 110 hours now and am still learning some of the basics haha!


Peace.

Hidden fire keeper soul - New Londo Ruins

Hey everyone as i just came accross this fire keeper soul in my NG+ i thought it would be cool to share it with you all in case you missed it.

As you're coming into New Londo Ruins you will cross two narrow wooden bridges. Be sure to have some transient curses before you go across both bridges as you will encounter ghosts and won't be able to hurt them without using a transient curse. You can find two of these by looting a corpse inside a large jug before you cross the first bridge (near two sitting undead), from the witch merchant in the aqueduct near Firelink Shrine, or occasionally dropped by the ghosts themselves.

Once you've crossed both bridges turn right and then work your way into the bottom right corner of the first area. You will see the fire keeper soul shining on a corpse across a stretch of water. The way to get to it is by crossing a narrow bit of bridge under the water. You will know when you're in the right place as the shining corpse will be directly in front of you and you'll have to go underneath an archway.

BEWARE - when you cross the narrow bridge a ghost will appear behind you and two more in front of you. You can turn around and make your way back into the open area to fight them as this is easier but be careful not to fall off the bridge when trying to get around the ghost which spawns behind you!

Good luck and enjoy another estus upgrade!

Covetous silver serpent ring location!

Hi everyone, as a couple of you have asked me where I found the covetous silver serpent ring lately I thought I'd upload a brief guide on where to find it here.

First of all this ring is perhaps one of the most useful in the game as it increases the amount of souls from every single enemy you defeat - its perfect for grinding with, and just running from A to B farming extra souls. Remember to unequip it before entering a boss battle though as you will want other more defensive rings on for those!

The ring is found in the Tomb of The Giants - this can be accessed via the Catacombs and after defeating the Pinwheel boss. Climb the ladder at the back-right of his giant coffin (the Pinwheel arena) and you will be plunged into the darkness.
Note: the cast light sorcery available by freeing the maiden from the golden golem behind where you encountered the first hydra is essential here as it lights up the area well. Or you can wait until after Patches the Hyena kicks you into the pit and find the skull lantern - although this requires one hand to hold and leaves you without a shield. Be careful if you're using this to light your path as the giant skeletons can inflict a lot of damage, and the skull lantern has a very low physical damage reduction %. 

Progress through the Tomb of the Giants until you get to the area with the dog-like giant skeletons. Nearby you will find an archer shooting at you and then a small slope leading down. You'll be able to spot the ring from here - it's a glowing white light emitting from a corpse on top of a ledge. The only way to get up there is to run and jump, this is best done by removing your armour, or equipping lighter armour to gain more speed. Beware as there are a few enemies in the area so clear them up first and also be careful of the 6 or so skeleton towers which spawn when you pick up ring. You can run away from these, but they will drop down and follow you, so don't open the menu and forget they're there!

As I stated before, this ring is great for farming souls to help you level up your character. One particularly good place to do this is behind the sealed door in Darkroot Basin, where you will find members of the Cat Covenant. With this ring equipped they will drop far more souls than before. One word of warning I would give players is not to level up too much, especially if you like to play co-op online as you can only be matched with players +/- 10% of your level.

Weapon ascension, auxillary effects, and parameter bonuses explained!

Hey everyone, since I started playing Dark Souls I've been trying to figure out exactly what all the auxiliary effects and parameter bonuses actually mean for weapons and armour and I thought it would be useful for me to post them here in a list format in case there are things people don't fully understand yet.
There are three main categories to explain, which are listed below:

1. Weapon ascension:
In order to ascend weapons you need to visit a blacksmith with the correct materials, have an applicable weapon, and make sure the blacksmith has the correct ember. For enchanting advanced weapons such as occult weaponry, you will need to ascend an ordinary weapon to +5 in it's respective element and then you will be able to ascend it to +0 of the weapon you are attempting to make. For example: If you want an occult weapon you must first ascend an ordinary weapon to +5 divine, then visit the blacksmith near the Undead Chapel after giving him the dark ember. He will be able to create an occult weapon which can be progressed to +5.
You can also recycle weapons at any blacksmith, for example if you have a fire longsword, you will be able to transfer it to its previous state, i.e. longsword +5 or +10 or whatever it was on before you ascended it. Beware that although sometimes weapons appear to increase in damage when you recycle them it can actually make them weaker in the long-run, as they may not have yet been upgraded to their full potential with that given element.

Note: some sets of armour cannot be upgraded such as Havel's armour or other sets of armour forged using boss souls. This is usually because they come fully upgraded and already have very good stats, therefore upgrading it any more would cause an unbalance in the game.

Whilst upgrading shields to +1, +2 etc. may not actually increase the physical reduction % etc. it DOES increase the stability stat - this is particularly important as the higher your stability stat is, the less your stamina you will lose when you are hit with your shield raised. If you have a powerful shield AND a high stability stat you will be able to receive a huge amount of hits before being staggered. This can be a viable tactic for replacing stamina regenerating items such as green blossom/grass crest shield explained earlier in this blog.

2. Auxiliary effects:
i. bleed: bleeding is represented by the brown splotch mark in the bottom left of the auxiliary effects box. This increases your damage with some weapons after a certain amount of blows. I.e. By using the bandit's knife (300 bleeding effect), on your third successive strike it will deal significantly more damage than the first two. Other weapons which have a higher bleed effect may not require as many hits to deal bonus damage, i.e. the lifehunt scythe.

ii. poison/toxic: poison comes attached to some weapons, however you can also purchase poison throwing knives and arrows from the witch merchant in the aqueduct near Firelink Shrine (in the passage towards the depths behind some bars). Poison inflicts damage over an extended period once inflicted and will ultimately kill the infected opponent. However it won't always work after only a couple of hits so you may need to strike them a few more times to actually poison them. It's particularly useful when trying to kill strong enemies from a distance by using poison arrows (see the 'how to defeat two black knight archers in Anor Londo' guide).

iii. divine: divine basically puts down the skeletons in the catacombs for good - they won't restructure themselves once you've killed them with a divine weapon.

iv. occult: as far as i can tell occult deals more damage to some covenant members, i.e. the princess's guard; although many people have different opinions on this. The main thing to note about occult weapons is once they have been upgraded to +5 the physical damage will be greater than that of a +5 divine weapon, so if you're going for pure strength then occult is not a bad way to go.

3. Parameter bonuses:
Parameter bonuses are the most significant thing mentioned here. Every weapon and shield in the game has a parameter bonus rank which is graded below the attack information in the item screen. These vary from '-' (which is nothing) to S rank. Most weapons will have Cs and Ds, however you will come across the odd weapon or two with an A/S rank - don't underestimate these weapons as they can become far more powerful than weapons with '-' in the parameter box. The drake sword for example has '-' across all boxes, this means that although it is a powerful from near the beginning of the game when your stats are low, you don't receive any increase in damage when leveling up like you would with other weapons which have grades. Therefore, eventually a weapon with a C rank in strength would outmatch the drake sword.

There are four sub-categories to the parameter bonuses: strength, dexterity, intelligence and faith. If a weapon has an A rank in dexterity for example, when you level up at a bonfire you will see that by putting a skill point into dexterity it will increase your attack damage by around 3 or 4 with that weapon. This is why increasing your intelligence increases your sorcery damage whilst using a catalyst too; as you will be able to see the sorcerer's catalyst has an A rank in intelligence. I tested an S rank weapon at the bonfire recently, and each time I put a skill point into dexterity the attack damage was increasing by 3/4 alternatively.

Find a favourite weapon and start putting skill points into it in order to increase your attack damage whilst using it, but don't be under the impression that putting skill points into strength always increases your attack damage - it doesn't!!

TWINKLING TITANITE & DEMON TITANITE FARMING

Today I'm going to explain where you can fairly easily farm twinkling titanite and demon titanite shards for upgrading your weapons and equipment. Both of these are pretty rare drops, so don't spend them carelessly earlier in the game as you might find a better set of armour you want to upgrade later on. Demon titanite usually only drops from titanite demons such as the one near the first smith near undead chapel, whilst twinkling titanite drops from those rare blue lizards you sometimes encounter crawling around.

Note: i know i mentioned this before but in case you didn't read that post - if you see a rare blue lizard but it vanishes before you can catch it you can go to exactly where you saw it, save and quit, then load again and it should have re-appeared for you to kill.

Anyway, onto the farming!

1. Twinkling titanite:
Great little material, used for upgrading most sets of advanced armour and all of the black knight gear. My favourite place to farm this material is just outside Seath the Scaleless's final boss battle room. It drops from the large clams in the room directly prior to fighting Seath for the last time, although it is a rare drop so expect to grind for a little while. Also - these clams don't give you many souls so don't expect to be levelling up quickly from them.
If you wear the golden serpetous ring it will increase the drop rate, and you can use the bonfire in the boss battle arena to respawn the clams each time. Beware they have a pretty annoying attack where they throw you into their mouth if you get too close and munch you up - deals a lot of damage but more importantly, deals HUGE amounts of damage to your durability on your equipped gear so be wary of that!!

Note: in case you missed them earlier there are 2 rare blue lizards in the crystal cave area near the clams. If you progress up the invisible crystal staircase, they are located in this rather large chunk of crystals about half-way down the cave in a small, narrow tunnel. As theres two of them one will probably escape so use the save and quit method i mentioned before.

2. demon titanite:
first donate 30 humanity to the chaos mistress to open the shortcut to Lost Izalith. Once you reach the shortcut (before the firesage boss battle) you'll get to a bridge with a titanite demon about halfway along. Luckily he's facing the other way so you can sneak up on him for extra damage or just get the first hit in. The great thing about this titanite demon is that he respawns, though this may seem a bit of an inconvenience for getting to the area boss later on, you CAN still run past him fairly easily.
Anyway, he drops 2 demon titanites each time and 5000 souls! so is definitely worth stopping off to kill. the demon titanite shards are great for upgrading weapons forged from unique souls such as the moonlight butterfly, or quelag's soul.

Hope that little guide helps some of you, and enjoy upgrading your gear to be ridiculously powerful!! :D

Chaos shrine, Quelag's lair - BEWARE OF HOSTILE NPCs!!

Right, so yesterday a friend told me about the NPC who appears in Blighttown to help you - man-eater Mildred. Personally i had never heard of him before, nor did i know you could recruit him to help you but apparently the NPC is a bit of a nutter!

He helped my friend to defeat the area boss - Quelag, and then afterwards followed him through the illusionary wall in the next area and into the Chaos shrine. However at this stage Mildred started attacking the NPCs inside the shrine, more specifically the crawling man with the eggs on his back.

You want to be really careful here as engaging these NPCs could ruin your chances of joining or progressing with the servant of chaos covenant, therefore making your later trip to Lost Izalith a much bigger pain in the ass. Just in case you were wondering - the shortcut to Lost Izalith opens after you donate 30 humanities to the lady of chaos, it may seem like a lot but if you use the baby skeleton grinding method i explained earlier in this blog with the golden serpetous ring equipped humanities drop pretty quickly!

Thanks to Gary for alerting me to this possibly massive problem as the chaos covenant is great to join - you get a sick chaos fireball, a shortcut to Lost Izalith; and another new pyromancy spell after donating 30 humanities.

GAME COMPLETE!!! - YES!!!

Ok, so after about 30 attempts, innumerable 'F**KS', and launching my controller from one end of the room to the other i finally defeated Lord Gywn, the Lord of cinder. I'd like to say thank you and sorry to Gary for putting up with my ongoing rage over the last few days as i fight my way through the final bosses in the game to my great desperation and despair, but as always with Dark Souls - I HAD to beat them. Funnily enough, this was my last attempt at the final boss before i had to go and catch a train - and when i say 'last' i actually meant last as i hadn't packed etc. Well all i can say is *MASSIVE, MASSIVE sigh of relief* *tear to the eye* and *fist pump*.

The absolute key to this battle is parrying and ripostes. Unfortunately this is the hardest technique in the game and its quite appropriate that you have to master it to defeat the final boss. As ripostes are VERY important in this battle its good to wear the hornet ring as this significantly increases your damage with critical attacks, i.e. counter-attacks/ripostes. The flame stoneplate ring can also play an important role in this battle as Gywn uses a huge flaming sword, Although you will mainly want to focus on not taking any hits at all although resistances are handy when he [inevitably] breaks through your guard.

You will need a strong set of armour with high resistances across the board, especially flame and physical; and don't try to use a lightning weapon such as the lightning spear which i previously blogged about as he has resistance to lightning weapons. Personally i used the Quelag's furysword, forged from the soul of Quelag in Anor Londo, as it has high fire damage and OK physical damage. Ironically Gywn is actually fairly weak against fire damage so that's where this sword comes in handy - especially with the bonus the hornet ring grants.

As soon as you enter the battle he will BE ON YOU LIKE A BI*** NON STOP!!!! He won't leave you alone for the entire fight unlike pretty much all of the other bosses in the game, and avoiding his attacks doesn't give you any respite either so forget about trying to run away to regain stamina/heal - he's on your ass and its scary as f*** (excuse the large amount of curses but its important to emphasise the difficulty of this boss).

In case you were wondering it is possible to sprint past the black knights outside of the arena where Gywn is, although its not easy - you'll get a knack for it as you'll probably be doing this trip quite a lot but if you want to learn how to do it well just watch the speedrun video on youtube. These black knights are great for farming every type of titanite chunk (all colours), so you can upgrade all your weapons to level 9, although you will need the slabs to reach level 10 and ultimately get the achievements/trophies - rumour has it that there is only one of these slabs per playthrough so be careful when allocating them.

In order to break down Gywn's attacks I've listed them below, but i would recommend just going against him again and again in order to learn them and master them for yourself, most importantly don't stay at a distance from him as he will do his most devastating attack, and make sure to exploit the riposte!!

1. Leaping down-slash attack: He does this as his first move after you enter the arena. Don't stay too far away from him (if you get the chance after entering the arena) as he will execute this on you. In order to dodge it try rolling at the last minute sidewards (?).
** It's really important to dodge roll this first attack of his as if he strikes you he will get you down and from there on it's difficult to regain your poise and get back into the fight properly!

2. 3/4-hit combo: When you're right up close to Gywn he will either do his grab technique or this devastating 3/4-hit combo. This is by far his most powerful attack as it will no doubt break your guard and most times kill you. It's important to have a LOT of stamina and a shield which has 100% physical and high flame DEF. This is your best/only chance to SMASH HIM!! so get your LT/L2 buttons at the ready!! When he's swinging the sword from side to side you can time it right and parry him, immediately after it makes the *whoosh* noise (you have probably already heard this), give him the riposte! - again, hornet ring will significantly increase this damage - and if you have the +5 furyblade it will deal around 700 damage.
** After successfully executing the riposte, it's your best time to heal (quickly) or get your pyromancer hand out, circle around behind him, and spam him with ONE supremely powerful fireball (probably the great chaos fireball fully upgraded - +15). then get your sword straight back out. Doing so, will hit over 1000 in combination with your counter-attack and severely hurt Gwyn.

3. Grab: When your really close Gywn will try grabbing you. He pulls back his hand quite far and lunges down to grab you, i noticed he generally tries to do this when your behind him or just after he recovers from the riposte. Avoid this attack by rolling backwards out of the way, he sometimes does this multiple times in succession so be careful of that, sometimes you have to suffer the first blow of his 3/4-hit combo to realise he's changed his attack type again.


There are a number of different strategies to defeating Gywn, and some include using a greatblade to slash him through the pillars, some include using the iron flesh pyromancy spell and spamming him with fireballs - keep these in mind and whether they will be easier for you, but in my opinion the riposte strategy is the easiest and you will eventually get it - just don't give up! (and don't use a precious controller as it may end up getting smashed). If you're getting in a bad mood try to take a break, or at least a break from fighting this boss - maybe farm some shards from the black knights, you can also get their weapons from them occasionally; or go farm souls in the forest or something to pile a few more points into endurance.

Hope this has helped guys and invite me to chat if you need any more help, just remember - this isn't an easy boss and I'm sure everyone who has fought him has struggled so don't worry, take the opportunity to enjoy the rest of the world, collect hidden/rare items, forge, and clear up any areas you haven't discovered yet. I will continue be posting to this blog, and I'll be uploading more item locations, covenant tips, and other stuff that i may deem helpful/cool. Now that I've completed it though it would be great to hear your feedback and comments, so please comment on some posts if i have left anything out.

Good luck, and take no mercy!!!

How to get to the painted world

Possible spoilers so if you wanna find it for yourself don't read on.

Basically last night on my second return to the undead asylum to kill the black knight hanging around outside the beginning cell i found the strange doll. Btw, you get a red titanite chunk of each of the black knights when you go back there. Anyway, i looked at the description for the strange doll and saw that it mentioned a painting - well i remmbered seeing a large painting in Anor Londo so i thought 'what the heck' and gave it a try. Travelled back to Anor Londo and turned the wheel to gain access to the lower half of the chapel on the left-hand side of the Great Hall. Inside you beat up a bunch of painting guardians who are pretty weak and usually drop throwing knives or painting guardian sword - what i thought were pretty rubbish!? Then you progress onto the end of the hall to examine the huge painting.

Note: in the chapel you can strike the chain of the chandalier at the top to make it fall and get the loot from on top of it.

I entered the painting after the cutscene like 'WTF!?' and ventured on. I won't say too much here as its just a matter of exploring the place for yourself - although there are some tough harpies inside who can execute a jumping piggyback attack and almost 1-hit kill you, angry face >:(

You should also note that there is a stone dragon on the bridge which is defeatable - best to stay back and used ranged attacks for a while, although the second sleeping stone dragon cannot be killed. Theres also a few pyromancy spells scattered around the place and a dark ember which can be given to the blacksmith near the undead chapel. Don't forget to climb the ladder down into the well in the courtyard and beware of spear throwers.

Hope that was helpful and let me know what you think.

Peace.

Blighttown secret areas and covenant - possible spoilers!

Sorry to keep posting 'possible spoilers' in my post titles, it's just i know a few of you reading aren't as far as Blighttown yet and definitely don't want to spoil anything for you as it's a great area. If you have already reached it or just don't mind about potential spoilers then continue reading...

Right, so when you enter Blighttown you want to get all the way down to the poison pit and go left. Make sure you either have purple blossom or the remedy sorcery to heal your poison as you'll need to run through the poison for quite a while to reach the secret area. The rusty iron ring found in the return to the undead asylum speeds up your travelling across treacherous areas like the poison pit too - so that may also be an option!

Go all the way (e.g. the complete opposite side of Quelag's domain) until you see a climbable tree trunk. Around this area is the server sword which grants you HP restoration each time you make a kill, a full set of the pyromancy class starting robes, and some souls etc. but beware there are some poison worms down here (they aren't too tough) and the mosquito type bugs will be pestering you all the while too - angry face! >:(

Progress up the tree trunk until you reach a circular room with a corpse in the middle, loot this for the plank shield (its terribad) and then hit the illusionary wall behind that chest. Continue along this path and strike another illusionary wall when you reach the dead end. You'll find a bonfire and a large hollow area where you will begin your descent down the inside of the giant tree. Theres lots of items in this area visible from other trunks, i can't provide exact details of all the items here and how to get to them as it's just something you kind of have to figure out for yourself, just try to be careful not to fall off (although it's not much of a big deal if you do as theres a bonfire right at the top anyway). However there is one ring i would definitely point out - its on the shining body of that corpse in the raised centre area about half way down the main trunk (difficult to describe!), you can reach it from jumping off the spiraling branch above it. The ring is great as it speeds up your stamina restoration rate - and we all know how important stamina is!! :D

Get all the way to the bottom of the trunk, working your way down, also note there are lots of RARE sparkling lizards in this area some in hard-to-reach places. If you can manage to get to where you first spotted them but they have already dissapeared then quit game (this saves and loads automatically where you were before) and they should have re-appeared - kill them for some nice forging materials including sparkling titanite.

When you reach the ash beach at the bottom there is a bonfire just on right as you come in, you kind of have to go back on yourself to get to it; and a hydra in the water on the left. You can just run past it, or fight it if you wish, it's no different to the other one i wrote the strategy for and if you get close enough he starts to expose his weaknesses again with the headslam technique. Theres a large broken tree trunk half way between the entrance and the ash beach leading away into the woods ahead. in here you will find a couple of weak enemies and see a shining corpse on the other side elevated above the mushrooms. To reach the corpse you must go out of the other entrance and follow the spiraling branch down a little way, but not so far you reach the beach again. If you keep your camera peering over the waterside-edge you'll see another bit of broken branch sticking out. Jump down onto this and continue through the tunnel which leads out right next to the corpse. Can't remember what is on it but i don't think it was bad loot so definitely worth adventuring for.

If you continue along the narrow ash beach path you'll get to the woods and then see the next upcoming covenant - you can't miss it! just be careful not to assume to attack anything in this area as you could mess up your application ;)
I won't say too much about the covenant as i want to leave the excitement to you but personally i think it's an incredible covenant!!!

That's all for today, I've got to go play the game myself now! Hope your all enjoying the blog and to remind you all - please 'follow' - you can do this easily if you already have a google account as it's linked to blogspot, or you can sign up for e-mail notifications :) would appreciate that, and also comment if you want to know anything more or make corrections!

Thanks a lot to Mike for all this info and showing me the way through the illusionary wall(s)! Cheers!

Excellent humanity grinding area - Tomb of the Giants

On my way to fighting Gravelord Nito last night I discovered an excellent area for grinding humanity. You may have noticed it if you passed, however for those who haven't visited the area yet it could be a useful place to grind.

[possible spoilers]

Firstly you will need the lordvessel to open the orange covered door past the giant skeletons crypts. This area is a bit of an ass to get to as the giant skeletons are pretty tough so try using pyromancy. Otherwise learn the 'cast light' sorcery and use this in combination with some protective armour and powerful weaponry. Make sure you rest at the bonfire prior to entering through where the orange door was before - you can come back here later to spend your earned souls and humanity.

Progress through the previously sealed door defeating the giant skeletons on the way. You'll reach the area just before traversing the white light to fight the Gravelord. In this area are about 4 or 5 black magicians (they look similar to the Pinwheel boss) casting powerful spells at you and a pool of shallow water beneath. Kill the black magicians first then go down into the water. Baby skeletons will start jumping up out of the water and attacking you. Make sure you have some spare blooming purple blossom in case they poison you but try to avoid their attacks if possible.

I used a divine club to kill them as the skeletons appear to be more susceptible to divine weaponry, this should kill them in one hit although they're pretty weak anyway. Keep killing them and earning souls, and returning to the water's edge to spawn more. You can usually kill about 4 or 5 with each stroke earning about 200-300 (may be more in NG+ etc.) souls and occasionally humanity. I believe the humanity drop rate was greatly increased with an earlier update, so you should get at least one humanity per wave of skeletons. I noticed that sometimes after killing the skeletons, their corpses seem to shine white briefly but when I tried to loot them there was nothing there. This may have been because the corpses were disappearing as more enemies spawned, so be sure to loot anything you see quickly.

Boss battle strategy: Ornstein & Smoug

OK, before i start on the strategy for this boss(es) battle I'd to highlight a couple of things I've been informed of which are important to know before you start the fight and a possible glitch which I've experienced too.

So, apparently the order in which you kill the bosses affects which items you receive afterwards. For example defeating Smoug first grants you much better loot than vice versa. If you do manage to defeat Smoug first apparently you get Ornstein's armour, however defeating Ornstein first gets you the Leo ring (which increases your counter attack ability - not quite sure how this works yet!). GLITCH(?): When i went in i managed to kill Ornstein first and ran to his corpse to loot the Leo ring however i got killed by Smoug afterwards but i kept the ring. I later returned for round 2, again killing Ornstein first and got ANOTHER Leo ring - possibly worth exploiting although I'm not sure how precious or valuable the Leo ring is.

Defeating Smoug first is very difficult in my opinion as he's by far the slower of the two and you'll have Ornstein sweeping around stabbing you in the back the whole time with his speed and reach, therefore this strategy will be advising you to do it in the reverse order, however if you're really keen on getting the Ornstein armour it may be advisable to try and do it, i just didn't know about it at the time.


On with the strategy! -
Preliminaries:
You will want to equip yourself with some very good armour before entering this battle and i wore the Havel's armour set. You can find this in the fireplace near the bonfire after you fall through the glass when making it past the two pain in the ass archers outside. There's an illusionary wall and when you hit it you will go down into the basement behind the fireplace. Be weary of mimicry chests here, a good tactic for checking each chest is to hit it first then back away, try to do this a couple of times on each chest as your first hit may not make contact and the mimicrys generally kill you in one with their first attack.
The Havel's armour will blunt Ornstein's attacks quite a lot however, and Smoug's hammer blows but ideally you will want to be dodging the latter all together as they're very devastating! The armour itself is very heavy, and it's a good idea to wear it in conjunction with the Havel's ring - i explained where to find and loot this as part of my Hydra guide. Make sure you have enough stamina for running around and deflecting Ornstein's hits using your shield - you can do this by eating the green blossom mentioned in my capra demon guide or equipping the grass crest shield.
Secondly make sure you're stocked up on arrows before you enter and have you're bow equipped as a secondary. You can buy some sweet arrows from the giant smith in Anor Londo but they're f***ing expensive for what they are if you ask me! - i generally go for standard arrows and spam but i guess for this boss battle it might be worth splashing your souls on some sweet magic arrows, just be careful not to waste them! Also note that the dragonslayer arrows are only usable with the dragonslayer bow which can be found outside the Anor Londo great hall roof, accessible by jumping through the broken glass on the top floor and looting the shining skeleton corpse visible on the roof. Haven't tried this bow myself yet, but it looks awesome and very powerful!!

Strategy:
Start off by running behind a pillar so you position Smoug behind it. You'll want to keep your eyes on Smoug for most of the battle as hes got the stronger attacks, always hide behind the pillars from him and Ornstein will generally come around to get you - these are your best chances to attack him. I used pyromancy on him which killed him in around 4 spells but if you don't have that try some strong sorcery spells or even pure strength attacks - whatever you go for, just go all out on him to finish him quickly. Once you've killed Ornstein, grab his Leo ring and again, position a pillar between you and Smoug.
Smoug's hammer is now powered up with lightning making it even  more powerful so stay out of the way of those blows!! Keep a pillar between you and him at all times by running round in circles, and use ranged attacks to kill him. He's greatly exposed just after he comes up from his long sweeping attack, use spells or arrows on him now into his belly. He doesn't have too much health and without the help of his buddy Ornstein is a bit useless!

Victory!
Once you defeat him go up either of the lifts and explore the top floor before going through the large door beyond the bonfire as theres some nice armour up there!

Hope that helped and you now have one of the most annoying boss battles out of the way! :D

Thanks to Andy for the info on the order of the bosses.

Defeating the Hydra demon: tips and strategy

Today I will be writing some tips on how to defeat the Hydra demon in Darkroot Basin. While this boss is optional, it will drop some fairly rare items, and it may be useful for characters to clear the area so they can gain safe access to the shortcut ladder behind it (leading to the wood near Sif). There are 3 ways to reach this boss which I will outline below.

1. Access through the lower door in the tower before the Taurus demon boss using the Undead Burg basement key OR the master key. In this area you will find Havel - he's wearing heavy armour and wields a large club. The easiest way to defeat him is to lure him back up to the top of the tower and fire projectiles at him. Alternatively you can face him in close quarter combat as he is very slow and quite easy to backstab. He will drop Havel's ring which is a personal favourite of mine as it gives you much greater movement speed and improves your equipment load. Follow these stairs down and you will emerge in Darkroot Basin, the Hydra is on the right-hand side as you come into the area quite a distance away - but be careful as he can fire long range water spells at you. These spells cause splash damage so are very powerful and difficult to avoid, but can also kill the golems in the area.

2. Approach from the first blacksmith near the Undead Chapel:
Follow the path away from the large room with the titanite demon in and turn right once you reach the first pool (where the road forks) which leads you down the cliff face.

Firstly make sure you have rested and have plenty of estus flasks available. You can do this by kindling one of the nearby bonfires - either the one above the smith or the one at the bottom of the cliff path near the black tower knight and grass crest shield in the cave. This will give you 10 estus flasks which will be useful later on.
Secondly try wearing some protective armour to absorb his attacks as when you get closer to him he will attempt physical attacks. Magic defence is not really necessary for this battle as you should be able to dodge most of his long-range attacks, and once you are close enough he will stop using the water breath attack completely.
Defeat all the ice golems in the area first as you don't want to have them attacking you in the back as you try and deal with Hydra. Pyromancy works well against them or you can position them between hydra's water spells to kill them in one. They're quite resistant to physical damage and cannot be staggered, they also have a relatively powerful AoE attack.
Once you have cleared all the golems run towards the Hydra dodging from side to side to avoid his water breath. You will see a set of rocks on the right-hand side of his large pool, very close to him. When you're close enough he will begin using physical attacks by slamming his heads into the ground. Raise your shield to protect against his attacks and go to work on the heads one by one. Each time he uses the head slam technique the heads will remain on the ground for a while giving you a chance to either attack or heal. If you need to heal its a good idea to use the rocks on the right to hide and drink.

Once you have defeated him you'll get a load of souls and some nice items, and another access to the hidden forest behind the sealed door in Darkroot Forest. This can be found by passing the waterfall on the left-hand side of the area and climbing a long ladder up. Beware there are some tough enemies in the following area and you can also be invaded by other players quite frequently who are part of the forest hunter covenant, although this is also your chance to discover that covenant and join it if you wish.

Sen's fortress secret areas!!

Just now I was running through Sen's Fortress en route to Anor Londo when I was hit by one of the swinging axes and knocked into the water below. As this had never happened to me before I was surprised when I landed alive and surrounded by titanite demons! There are 4 titanite demons in this area which will drop demon titanite shards. These shards are quite rare, and there are also some souls to be looted from corpses in this area. In the corner of the room nearest the side you entered from you will see a few steps leading to a ladder. Climb this and when you reach the top hit an illusionary wall to climb another ladder. Have you ever seen that giant in the distance on the battlements of Sen's Fortress and wondered how to reach him? Well this ladder will lead you straight to him. He's relatively slow so you shouldn't have much trouble defeating him! a nice easy 3000 souls.

Using orange soapstone to earn humanity

A friend brought to attention the fact that using the orange soapstone etching can earn you humanity today. By writing something witty/helpful that other players will rate +1 (also using their soapstones) apparently you can earn +1 humanity each time. Humanity earned in this way goes directly into the pool in the top-left of the HUD, therefore if you die you will lose it unless you can reach your bloodstain without dieing again.
In case you didn't know the orange soapstone is available from the first merchant in undead burg at a cost of 100 souls or something very cheap.

Thanks to skunylager for letting me know! :]

Lightning spear

Right, so yesterday i finished Sen's fortress but whilst i was in there i found something VERY cool - the lightning spear. If you haven't reached Sen's fortress yet then stop reading here as there are spoilers, but if you have completed it then continue reading.

When you're running around on the boulder tracks with boulders following you from behind you'll come to a part where a boulder has gotten stuck in the floor and lodged in. At this point you turn left into a small room with a few large jars and a treasure chest. This chest is a decoy and is actually a monster (known as a mimicry). I killed it and it dropped the lightning spear for me, an amazing weapon which has a strong combination of lightning and physical damage - even more powerful than the later demon spear (which basically does the same thing). It's the first weapon i've found which is more powerful than the drake sword which i can use (for example, it doesn't need a high strength/agility to wield), and can be upgraded using titanite chunks - which can be found or bought from specific merchants pretty easily. Note that if you ascend the lightning spear to it's maximum ascension of +5, you will receive an achievement/trophy. However the final material is very hard to come by - titanite slab.

Shiva location (outside of forest)

Just in case you didn't know Shiva actually appears outside of the forest in Blighttown. Hes underneath the massive turning wheel near the bonfire in the sewery part near the stairs which go up to the wheel. He's usually leaning against a wooden bar but might not be there all the time as i was returning from somewhere yesterday and he had dissapeared, although this might have had something to do with me leaving the forest covenant temporarily...
Anyway he sells some pretty cool weapons for fighting armoured opponents and shielded opponents, and also has a ring on offer for 15k i think which increases the durability length on equipped weapons - this would be particularly useful if you wanted to use the crystal weapons available from the [Welsh]merchant in the depths near the rats as they only have one use then break.

KILL the red dragon!! - DING! - 10,000 souls

OK, so i was playing a couple of days ago and something VERY strange happened.. i think i KILLED the red dragon in undead burg. Basically i approached the area from behind (taking the darkroot basin>chapel>underneath the portcullis), killing the skeletons along the way and then i got to the staircase which leads to the top of the turret with the tower knight on (the same area you can climb down a ladder and fight 3 poisoned rats in the sewery bit). At this point i climbed the stairs and stood atop the turret, from here i could CLEARLY see the dragon perching on the castle from behind - he had no idea i was there. He wasn't far away at all so i decided to get out my bow and fire an arrow at him, not sure if it matters but here was the equipment i was using for it at the time:

1. composite bow found in new londo ruins at the end after passing the church.
2. standard arrows bought from the merchant in undead burg.

He flew away, like properly away not just onto the bridge, and didn't come back. I thought nothing of it and continued back down the stairs but when i got to about the ladder which leads to the rats i suddenyl received 10,000 souls and the dragon was GONE!! He hasn't returned since, i've read online some people experiencing the same glitch and it's an easy way to receive 10,000 free souls.

N.B. i think approaching the area from behind is probably the key to this so you can get behind him without him noticing you as hes transfixed on the bridge the whole time...

Capra demon tips

As we all know the capra demon battle is a total pain in the ass, as soon as you traverse the white light hes charging at you with his two little hounds, i'm going to try and provide some useful tips here on how to defeat him and the tactic i used.

As its a primarily close range battle you will have to forget about using sorcery or pyromancy as you just don't have time to cast it, therefore you should grind a bit and put some skill points into strength, dexterity and endurance to improve your stamina, hp and power. The stamina is especially important here and you will need a good shield to blunt his attack as he's got two huge swords and can pretty much drain  your entire stamina bar in up to two hits.

1. Go to the dark root basin and collect the following two sets of items:
i. elite knight armour: this is amongst the woods where all the sleeping grass giants are - it's on a dead body in the right hand corner of that area, you'll see the white light emitting from the soul when your in the right place, you should be able to run in and grab it but beware there are a couple of trees which pop out of the ground and can cause you some trouble, alternately you can fight your way through the giants - your choice.
ii. in the same area as you enter turn right, youll see an illusionary tree - attack this and youll start down a narrow descending path. in the next area youll encounter some red lizards, kill quite a few of these and collect the green grass (cant remember what its called off the top of my head) which greatly restores your stamina in battle. If you keep following the path up through the tree after defeating the lizards and giant you will find the wolf ring which improves your poise. This could be helpful in battling the capra too as i believe poise increasing your maintenance of a stance, however i'm not 100% how effective it is but if you don't have two other decent rings for the battle then it may be worth grabbing it whilst your here.
2. ok now back track a while to near the area where the demon who fires lightning at you is (before you reach the blacksmith coming from darkroot basin side), and youll see a path which leads left out onto a cliff face. traverse this path all the way down but beware there is a tower knight somewhere around that area if you haven't already fought him. youll reach the bottom of the path if you keep going down and there should be a cave on the left leading to a bonfire (and further on valley of drakes), whilst on the right there will be a corpse with the grass crest shield on - this is a great shield and also greatly restores your stamina which is useful for blunting capra's attacks.

Ok so now you have a few methods of improving your stamina recovery rate - what i would class as the most important thing in this battle because as soon as your shield has been knocked down he will kill you extremely quickly, regardless of whether you have a lot of hp or upgraded armour (like most bosses). Try to take out the hounds as soon as possible and stay at a medium distance from capra as then hes less likely to do his double blade overhead smash attack!! AKA the one which will knock your shield back in a single hit. Wait for him to swing uncontrollably and this will give you time to use an estus flask if your feeling brave or attack one of his hounds if you havent already had the chance - just DONT TAKE YOUR EYES OFF HIM!!

Hope that little guide helps, the items which are included in it will be useful in general too, especially the elite knight armour which you can upgrade for pretty cheap which makes it incredibly better.

WARNING PYROMANCERS & OTHER PLAYERS!! - BEWARE OF PYROMANCER NPC

Ok so today after much hand shaking and sweating i defeated the Capra Demon. Once i received the key from him i entered the 'depths'. In the first area you will find several hounds, and weak undead (some wielding torches as weapons), and a butcher! he's fairly tough but you can trick him by standing at the top of the stairs so he continually falls into the water, after a few strong spells and possibly a couple of strikes from the drake sword he'll die. You'll then progress a little bit to the next area, you'll be in close combat fighting the second butcher after coming to a sort of cross-road. If you turn left after defeating him you'll enter a room full of crates and boxes and hear someone crying for help from the corner.
Now this is the important part *weep* - be EXTREMELY careful when freeing him from the crate, don't hit it with a sword or anything as once you've attacked him he won't stop fighting back. If you do accidentally attack him you can go back to the gargoyle bell tower and pay the man at the bottom to absolve your curses. Unfortunately i did neither of these and accidentally KILLED the first pyromancer NPC so now, no doubt, i will have to wait a long time until meeting the second pyromancer NPC to improve my pyromancy, or worse - i won't ever be able to improve it :'(

oh well... even more excuse to pursue the knight path...

drake sword - how to get it

Of course everyone knows about the drake sword but in case you haven't seen the videos or tutorials yet heres my own:

First you have to beat the taurus demon then you will encounter the red dragon perching at the end of the bridge shortly after. Before you try running across the bridge make sure you have bought the bow from the merchant earlier in the undead burg (i think its about 1000 souls) and plenty of arrows (around 50).
The way you reach the dragon is by running directly across the bridge and then half way across right next to the enemies there is a staircase leading down to the right. You should be able to dodge the enmies attacks and then run straight down the staircase whilst the dragons flames burn the enemies granting you 300 free souls :)
Inside the room you've just entered is another staircase leading down, here you can kick a ladder and go back to the undead burg bonfire easily. Once you've done that go back up the ladder and beat the two skeletons underneath the bridge. Then position yourself on the right side underneath the bridge so you have a good view of the dragon's tail. From here you can fire on his tail taking off about 20 damage each shot (if your not doing this amount it means you don't have the necessary stat requirements - so you'll either need to level up your dexterity or strength in order to use the bow properly). Then after a certain amount of shots his tail will fall off and a screen will appear granting you the DRAKE SWORD!!
This is the best weapon in the game for quite some time and doesn't have too high stat requirements so most players should be able to wield it fairly easily. MAKE SURE you don't let the sword break, you'll reach a smith not long after obtaining the drake sword so you can have him repair it for you or alternatively if you can't find him you can buy repair dust from the first merchant for a price of 500 souls each. Using the two-handed power attack on the drake sword also uses up its durability pretty quickly so try to avoid doing that too much, the fast attack should suffice for most enemies anyway :)

So there it is, hope thats helpful and enjoy destroying your foes with the power of dragonsteel!!!

first things first

I'm a pyromancer currently level 23 so have gotten pretty far into the game already therefore will be posting some tips up to where i currently am. My play style usually involves fighting with heavy armour, drake sword and grass crest shield (those items i will explain how to get later in the blog), however i use a combination of magic too. I usually cast my spirit arrow attacks whilst holding a shield in my left hand, and when those spells are depleted i turn to pyromancy - not because i prefer spirit arrows, just because i like to save pyromancy for tighten situations and be resourceful with it.