Anyone have any tips on avoiding the basilisks? ( In the Depths) I keep trying to jump when sliding down the drainage area but I still fall + I can't seem to jump or roll over the trap doors in the ground?

is there a long way around or do I have to put up with being cursed over and over?

Get on the slide all the way on the left side and you'll skip the Basilisk pit.

As for the trap doors, jumping properly just takes practice. Just jump around some before trying to jump over them. It also helps to keep your index finger on the Circle/B button so you can keep controlling the camera with your thumb (if needed, you can then still attack with your middle finger).

Edit: also you can't roll over the trap doors. At all. You have to jump them.

You don't even have to jump over any of the trapdoors if you don't want to. If you go in via the room where the Magician was, you can walk directly to the Giant Rat room with the Slippy-Slide O' Fun without having to deal with any of the pits.

yeah I guess I don't have the timing on the Slippy Slide O' Fun to hit the ledge I just fall..

@Monopolized said:

yeah I guess I don't have the timing on the Slippy Slide O' Fun to hit the ledge I just fall..

IF you mean the long slide down to the area with the vendor then just go to the very left hand side, hug the wall and you will avoid falling into the pit because there is a ledge on that side.

@Humanity: is that the one where if you fall you land near the basilisks, I am confused..

Map!

The bit marked F is the Slippy-Slide, it will deposit you just outside the basilisk zone and you should only have rats/slimes to deal with.

Edit: Additionally, once you're down the area with the merchant, open the shortcut (E), and you're golden!

ok and after that it's blight town? where everything poisons you correct?

@Monopolized said:

ok and after that it's blight town? where everything poisons you correct?

Afte the big slide theres a long straight with two slimes and two rats - then you go Right to the boss fight or Straight to a merchant and a gate that leads down to blighttown.

Blighttown isn't as bad as people say it is and theres only two main things that will poison you - dart blowers that do not respawn after you kill them, and the toxic swamp at the very bottom of the level.

In the Depths you should have picked up a spider shield at some point - this shield will let you bock the darts without getting poisoned.

As for the swamp theres no getting around that. Theres a set of "ninja" clothes in the "scaffolding" part of the level that has alright poison resistance but you probably will end up getting poisoned once or twice so hoard those status ailments.

The level is pretty straight forward really the only help I might recommend is looking up a map of the bottom area to see where the bonfire is.

Stab basilisks, avoid their mist attack by rolling the fudge out of the way when you see them puff their throats - unless you think you can finish them off before they spray.

Before Blighttown go back to the Asylum and pick up the iron rusted ring so you can hustle through the poison swamp. You might want to farm the tree monsters in Darkroot Garden for their poison/toxic cures before Blighttown as well.

yeah I have like god knows how many of those poison cure blooms, pretty much right now is get to blight town and Raw + 5 my winged spear or keep using titanite rod.

I found an upgraded halberd was very effective, I could one hit the basilisks and the range of the halberd allowed me to strike from afar so that if they did release the curse smoke I was usually in a good position to roll back from it.