After spending a lot of time in the depths and finding another merchant I started the evening at the door of the Gaping Dragon. I figured there was a boss through the door, and spent lots of time thinking if I should go back and rest at a bonfire.
But I decided against it and went into the fight with full health and two Estus flasks. The Gaping Dragon, for lack of a better term, was a push over. I don't know if the AI was busted but he literally never laid a hand on me. I stayed at range, which was pretty easy to do, and shot him with arrows until he died. Upon his death I got a great axe that I wont be able to use (Strength 50). With the Dragon dead I got the key to Blighttown and went through the doors.
I don't really like Blighttown very much. Most of the humanoid enemies are easy one hit kills, but the dogs and flies are just annoying. I spent time wandering down to the bottom of the town and waded through the bog. Good thing I had lots of moss clumps because I get poisoned really easily in the bog. Next to a bonfire in the bog I found a way back up to the back entrance I had used previously from the Valley of The Drakes. Since I don't think that is the way to go to get to the second bell, I am left wondering if an area across the bog is the way to go. There were large guys with boulders over there. They were so far away that I couldn't hit them with arrows. I guess next time I play I'll try to wander over there and see what I can do with them.
I also found more sets of gear. I found a wanderer set, a hard leather set and some set that I could buy from the merchant in the depths. I really think that gear is overrated. I'm still running around with my chain mail from early in the game and doing just fine. I have spent no money trying to improve any of the armor, so maybe I should do that. I wonder if armor scales with attributes the same way that weapons do. If so I should find what scales with Dex and work on that (assuming it isn't too heavy). My Dex is ~40, so I think that is really helping my weapons.
The Gaping Dragon took me a few tries to defeat (one time I fell off the far end of the vault, which I did immediately after killing it, too). Hitting it at range definitely looked like the way to go, but I just hadn't built my character in that direction. Recently, that's improved as I reinforced my longbow to +5 and have my strength and dexterity both above 20, however at the time learning its attack moves and two-handing it from behind with the Drake Sword was the way to go.
ReplyDeleteWhat was most interesting about that fight was that, after Solaire and I made short work of the gargoyles, he and Lautrec did very little against the Gaping Dragon and, after two failed attempts alongside them, I stopped summoning them for the fight. It's too bad, as I would have loved to get another Sunlight Medal from Solaire after a successful teamup.
I thought summoning white phantoms was going to be swingy, but so far, the Gaping Dragon fight was the exception. The help one gets with the Blighttown and Sen's fortress bosses made those fights a lot more manageable.
Right, I forgot about the Sunlight Medals . . . what are they for again?
ReplyDeleteI assume they're for joining Solaire's covenant, but I haven't received the offer to do so yet.
ReplyDelete