The Hydra is really odd one mainly because of the stupid hit boxes it has. Don’t worry you don’t have ranged weapons and pay attention to where it’s attacks go - that’s the key and I won’t spoil further I didn’t liked this boss at all during my first playthroughs.
Souls are really easy to come by and soon you will see that, so never worry too much about them… It’s nice if you are able to recover them ofc, but it’s never the end of the world if you can’t. The game becomes a lot less fun if you are kinda overleveld in every fight
It’s funny, I did the Capra Demon on my third go, but because of the weird way that the Hydra rotates as it attacks/as you move it was difficult to get to the last head whilst avoiding drowning. Once I killed him I climbed up the big ladder behind him and then promptly fell off twice in quick succession by accidentally misrolling…I really should spend my souls asap rather than just leave them to accumulate.
I’ve acquired a fair few poison cures now so next session it’s back to Blighttown!
Haven’t had much more than short sessions lately which meant Blighttown destroyed me (20-30 minute quick bursts when you have little clue where you’re going and fall to your death a lot is not a great opportunity for progress). I’m ashamed to admit that I made a meal of Quelaag because I couldn’t work out what the AoE tell was because it killed me in one hit…once I’d finally figured it out I’d pretty much finished with her. Unfortunately on exploring my way around (Demon Ruins is obviously not for me just yet) I’ve ended up facing the second Hydra who is just creaming me over and over…
Finally killed that damn Hydra (it’s annoying because if you get unlucky you die, it’s difficult to predict how to actually hit it and not die in the process, and the final heads are a massive pain to manipulate)…and then I got cursed in the big hollow tree, and then I found out the big mushroom might be a little slow but are in fact lethal. Cursed status in this game really, really hurts. Took a while to work out how to fix that, but thankfully getting out again wasn’t that bad.
Went up through the other exit from Blighttown to the Valley of the Drakes, and killed the big undead dragon…and then met one of those situations designed to screw you over…the drakes on the bridge. One on one they’re not so bad, so the first two are pretty managable, although they can be deadly with their swoops. However, the three grouped together are difficult to aggro and you’re in a really precarious position on a bridge without sides…it’s environmental difficulty as much as anything. In the end I just gave up and left them be, moving on to…
Sen’s Fortress…which is quite frankly, infuriating. This may well take some time…the lightning bolt pushback is incredibly troublesome when you’re trying to bypass scythe pendulums and I feel that my progress is going to involve a lot of luck.
Your capacity of sidetracked exploration is astounding. You managed to get yourself all the way down to ash lake before even trying Sen’s fortress? That’s kind of supposed to be your 3rd or 4th area to visit I think. : )
I remarked to OnLoose that I don’t really like this more open ended style of game compared to Demon’s Souls’ much more linear journey with shortcuts. What inevitably happens is that I trawl every single inch of each area looking for fake walls, item drops and enemies and get distracted. I found an illusory wall in the swamp portion of Blighttown after I’d rung the second bell and just went for it…was a little worried I’d never get back up, but thanks to my need to kill one of everything was distracted by the Hydra and so didn’t have to worry about it. (I also actually ran past the drakes on the bridge to see what was behind them…a big closed door.)
One thing I didn’t mention was my annoyance to find I’d lost the bonfire at the firelink shrine because the woman behind bars died…
Well it’s your fault!
You’ll get your chance to rectify it though.
Most of the time open games like this try to indicate to you if the area you’ve ventured into is somewhere you’re supposed to return to later by simply being way too hard for you on a stat level. But it appears one can persevere with just sheer stubbornness and skill. Would not have thought it possible to traverse the demon ruins and Izalith right away after Quelaag. So well done.
If you hadn’t done so already I’d suggest equipping some armour with poison resists on so you don’t get poisoned by one hit there. I’m guessing you mean the guys who throw fireballs and explode in poison when they die right?
Yep, those things…it’s not even poison (which I’ve got the supplies to cure) but toxic which is just argh! Even with my best poison defence I hit around 80% on the resistance bar after killing one and they always swarm in groups of 2 or more…infuriating when an undead dragon goes down but blobby fireballers are lethal.
Weeell… half an undead dragon.
Have you tried using a spear, halberd or something with decent reach? I don’t know if you can kill them outside of the toxic spray distance.
I didn’t liked this boss at all during my first playthroughs.
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