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@tennmuerti: This was unbelievably helpful and enlightening. Can’t understate how grateful I am for that wonderful breakdown.

Thank you all so much for the very thoughtful advice. You’re right - it’s about understanding builds and starting to invest in mods and mod capacity so I can solve these problems from a more thought-out approach.

@whatshisface: The main reason I’m getting stomped is I’m not killing enemies fast enough (even with Level 30 weapons) and because of that they tend to surround me and just dump damage on me. The missions I’m running aren’t popular enough to matchmake with so they feel very tough solo.

Hi duders. I mostly lurk on the forums but wanted to post my problem here. I’ll make this quick.

I’m in the middle of completing all the planets, but I seem to have run into a difficulty wall that I can’t get past. I’m working on Europa and find that any mission that is Level 20 or above means I’m going to get destroyed by enemies, even though I have almost 1,000 shield and 1,000 health.

What are the GENERAL things a player can do to overcome these difficulty spikes? Because I can assume this won’t be the last time the mission levels will get higher.

Sometimes these questions are answered by “just use X warframe and X weapon” but that doesn’t really help me engage with the game systems and understand the overarching problem of why I’m failing. I have plenty of Level 30 weapons and frames and sentinels but I’m still getting stomped on missions.

And then I watch players on YouTube who are getting 15,000 headshots with their pistol and thinking to myself “How?! How in the world are they doing that but I can’t...”

Am I not pursuing rare and powerful mods? If so, where do I find them? Am I not doing enough Fissure missions? Does the game only return to “doable” once you get prime weapons and frames?

I’m asking all this because I feel like the game is squeezing me into putting more money into it, which isn’t off the table for me, but I thought the whole point of this game was that you could always make progress without paying.

Thanks guys and gals.

@beligerent_beard: I just can't stop looking at this and smiling. Incredible work.

@ikramit: So then the "corruption" could be a taming/manipulating agent? If so, who is wielding it? How did they get access to it?

Just gets more and more confusing.

@dudeglove said: "Elsewhere the Pilgrims of Londor keep the shell on their backs to stop the humanity running wild"

This one line sort of blew my mind. I always wondered about the pilgrims and the rocks on their backs.

The two theories, one of humanity and the other of dragons, are both really compelling. I think we can all agree that this probably goes a lot deeper than we anticipated, and hopefully the DLC really expands on this.

I also agree that perhaps this "angle" of the story was maybe abandoned as development went on since its theme is brought up so prominently at the beginning of the game and then is never really expounded upon in any meaningful way.

One more question: When you defeat an enemy that is corrupted/goo/infected, the blood spatter that they leave behind is extremely dark red, borderline black.

Does this blood color have any significance or is it telling in any way?

I've been racking my brain lately over what the hell that black, sentient deformity is that sporadically shows itself in the game. Since I cannot find any dialogue or item descriptions that cover this "corruption," I'm more than curious on what everyone here thinks.

My observations (which hopefully provide context clues to someone smarter than me):

1. The corruption only shows up on three different enemies
   1. Iudex Gundyr (not champion Gundyr)
   2. Skeleton-knife dudes
   3. The two Lothric dragons
2. It typically manifests above/on the back of enemies. The only other location it manifests is on the feet of the two Lothric dragons.
3. It has red eyes (indicating being in "fury mode")
4. The only place where the corruption doesn't transform and manifest out of a normal enemy is in the King's Consumed Garden. Everywhere else it appears, it is lying dormant and manifesting out of enemies.
5. It mostly appears in the Lothric area. However, if you consider the Untended Graves a sort of time-space loop, then it could be argued that the Cemetery of Ash is behind an alternate version of the Consumed King's Garden, which would make it 100% Lothric as far as location.

I feel like this enemy type is important to the narrative somehow since the game makes their appearance somewhat of an exclamation point in the gameplay. Also, are there any spells/pyromancies that duplicate this corruption? If so, does its item description lend any clues?

Looking forward to Giant Bomb gumshoes cracking this one open.

@rikiguitarist: Crap you're right. Totally forgot. Fixed title.

So first off, if you'd like to just see my run of beating King of Storms/Nameless King (which in my mind is probably the hardest boss I've ever faced in a video game ever), then you can go see that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw1gsf9DNCo

If for some reason that video makes it look easy, please understand that I had spent three days on this boss, well over 75 attempts...alone and with co-op partners.

My character was basically a Knight with just enough DEX to use Gundyr's Halberd. I upgraded Gundyr's Halberd to +5, which is max. I two-handed it without a shield (trust me, I would have LOVED to use a shield for this fight).

The most important thing for me for understanding and beating this boss was primarily two things:

1. Using the Carthus Bloodring (which extends your rolling invincibility)
2. Understanding the second phase (Nameless King) and the rhythm of his close-up strikes

Once those two things were locked down, this boss became very doable.

On the first phase, you're going to want to look out for the obvious windows to hit the feathered dragon on the neck or head. His spitting fire animation is the easiest opportunity to get 3-4 good hits in with your weapon. When he's spitting fire do NOT try to hit him on the head but rather the neck. If you touch the fire from his mouth even a little bit you will get staggered and fall to the ground, which kills your opportunity for hits.

Also, an important point is that there IS a way to escape his flame attack AOE where he blasts the floor with fire. As soon as the dragon flies up and shrieks at the same time, immediately starting running away and don't stop. In the video above I get close to escaping the flame but the very edge caught me. It's okay if it does, as there's plenty of time for a quickie sippy of Estus after you get hit with the fire.

Otherwise, this first phase is about staying relatively close right under the dragon's chest area so that the sword strikes don't hit you. Keep rolling through the sword strikes and take those opportunities to hit the dragon's neck/head whenever you see the opportunity. You will most likely only get chances for one hit, except for the spitting fire animation that we talked about earlier.

75% of the time you will have an opportunity for a visceral attack on the dragon. As soon as the opportunity comes up just do it, even if you're low on health. There will be plenty of time after your visceral attack to heal since it takes a moment for the dragon to get back up.

Now the hardest part is easily the second phase, where you're one-on-one with Nameless King. For me, I died way, way too easily by trying to stay far away from him. When you're far away from him he does chain after chain of his distance-closing strikes, which are brutally accurate and devastating to your health (if they don't kill you outright).

So my personal advice is to stay close to him at all times. His up-close strikes and combos are much more predictable once you understand their rhythm. Keep rolling through his combos or heavy strikes, the ring will help you greatly with boosted i-frames.

Now, at the end of each of his combos or at the end of one of his heavy strikes, you have an opportunity for JUST ONE hit. Do NOT try to take more than one unless he is staggered or after a visceral attack. If you try to do more than one hit he will have already begun his next combo or heavy strike and either kill you or eliminate most of your health.

My other crucial realization: At the end of his combo or heavy strike, you have an opportunity to do one of two things - either one hit of damage OR a sip of Estus. You do NOT have time to do both. So every time you have that "window" you need to decide if you're going to heal or strike.

As you can see in the video, even if he took off only a little health, the next window I got I chose to heal. It's better to have full health in this fight at all times because accidental hits or combos can wipe you out easily.

And, of course with any Souls boss fight, just practice practice practice. Understanding the rhythm of attacks for both phases is the name of the game - because then you can just roll through and pick your opportunities for quick one-hits of damage. In my opinion this fight is about attrition - your "big moments" of damage will come with opportunities for visceral attacks. Otherwise, you really just need to take your time.

I would also offer the advice of "don't get greedy" but honestly even just trying for ONE more hit in either phase of this boss usually leads to instant death, so I feel like that piece of advice is generally just implied.

So that's my take! I hope this helps.

You can do this!!

@mysteriousfawx: I agree about Farron Keep - not a pleasant place. But yes I definitely smiled when I learned that there was yet another area where the floor is poison and everything is crazy dangerous.

Actually I have had a relatively smooth time in all of Bloodborne (including DLC) and in Dark Souls III. I've stayed calm when losing to bosses over and over and trying to learn them (fuck that Crystal Sage). But my first ever "Souls" huge moment of Brad-level frustration was just yesterday when fighting the boss in the optional area of the game.

Jesus Christ this boss is fucking insanely hard.

It almost ruined my whole day of spending hours bashing my head against this boss, even with co-op partners.

But if I've learned anything about these games, you gotta take a break, reset, and come back when you're fresh. I decided to navigate my way through the rest of the game, and just before the final boss I'm going to come back stronger and more upgraded and kick this guy's ass once and for all.

I am the Champion of Ash, goddammit. Lothric is MY house.