Hey guys! I'm back again and ready to impart my inexperienced wisdom on you, or whatever it is I have in me. Ahem, moving on. If you haven't been keeping up with the blog, we're playing Dark Souls all the way through for the first time. I've played once back in the day but I brute forced through a wrong path, and eventually had to stop playing because life got really busy. No matter, I'm well well past my progress from my real first time with the game. This is also my first time streaming a playthrough and I'm really enjoying it. A few regular viewers that are almost always following along with a couple people the occasional random viewer can make for some fun experiences. If you want to read more about how I'm playing the game, my experiences streaming, or how the run has gone thus far, the past blogs are linked at the end of this one. So to start off, let's recap the lessons we've learned so far.

Lesson #1: Expect the unexpected.

Lesson #2: Maintain your composure and always be aware of your surroundings.

Lesson #3: Analyze your enemy.

Lesson #4: Sometimes the best defense is a good (and smart) offense.

Lesson #5: Do not handicap your tactics based on your assumptions that something will or will not work.

Lesson #6: Fight on your terms.

Lesson #7: Explore new areas if you feel that you are stuck.

Lesson #8: Use the environment to your advantage.

Lesson #9: Never underestimate enemies; every enemy deserves full attention and stratagem.

Lesson #10: Don’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results… Yeah yeah, I should have been smarter than that.

Lesson #11: Don't waste too much time worrying being Dark Souls-ed, you can always recover.

Lesson #12: Always watch your back. Always!

Lesson #13: If you're not getting many story beats, you're probably not trying hard enough.

Here's the highlight video for those of you that aren't too interested in the read! Subscribe to follow along! Deaths compilation below!

*forgot to update the death counter but it will be updated for the next play session.

In the last session, we defeated Quelaag, rang the second bell and a giant opened the gate to Sen's fortress. Our Laito was reinforced and we were ready to go. The new enemies we found were Serpant Soldiers and Mages. I quickly realized that the Laito does not stagger the soldiers. A viewer was nice enough to let me know that a weapons weight is what determines whether it might stagger enemies, and the Laito is surprisingly heavier than the Balder Side Sword. I kind of miss the moveset of the BSS but I'm going to give the Laito some more time to see what it can do. If I ever feel the need, I can always go grind some Titanite Shards off stream to reinforce the BSS but I don't think I'm going to go that far. Right off the bat, the game throws a narrow walkway with giant axes swinging side to side. Here it is, Dark Souls is really starting to bring out its inner video game. To top it off, there were enemies on and above the walkway, swinging swords and throwing lightning.

So we got past that and the now instead of giant swinging axes, boulders were rolling all over the fortress trying to crush me. Instead they first crushed a Serpent Soldier. Thank you, game. And LOOK WHO IT IS! Onion Knight, complaining about not being able to get through the trials. Well, I guess it's up to us to clear the way. The top of the boulder pathways allowed us to switch where the boulders were rolled which I thought cleared the way for the onion knight, but the boulders mysteriously kept switching back to wherever I went. Sorry, Knight, I'll be back for you.

Well I kept trudging on and guess what, there's a Giant throwing bombs at me now. Things really are getting tricky. Not only that, but I saw the Giant that was loading the rolling boulders. First, we travel up. I equipped all of my fire resistance equipment and made it to where I needed to be. I pretty much cheesed the throwing Giant but staying in the doorway and attacking him from a safe point. I mean... why would I go out there in an enclosed space with that thing. No. It's funny, the piece of mind you get when you know giant fire bombs aren't being hurled in your direction.

With the way clear, I defeated a Berenike Knight with difficulty. He kept breaking through my shield until I remembered something that I haven't made use of too much in a while; I saw a small drop off that I could use to attack him vertically. I used that for the final blow on him.

Lesson #14: Never forget that vertical attacks are king and should be used as often as possible.

And here's something, I found a unique enemy by the name of Undead Prince Ricard. And for a uniquely named enemy, he was quite easy. That's all I have to say about him. I'm definitely going to look up some lore of him. I also found a merchant who was quite the defeatist. A friend of mine mentioned that I may want to go back to him for a good weapon, I guess. We'll have to investigate. So during all this, I saw another players ghost fighting in an area past a fog door. "must be a boss," I thought. So I did what I always try and do with bosses: get summoned and analyze. Well I managed to get summoned but the summoner managed to almost immediately get pushed off the edge of the fortress to his death. Well so much for analyzing, let's just go and fight the boss, eh? The Iron Golem was a fun fight. Right off the bat he threw a giant ranged attack at me which meant I needed to close the distance, and quickly. Guarding didn't prove too useful but his wide stance was perfect for rolling through his legs. With a lot of dodging and attacking his achilles, he became staggered and I went full bore. Except... towards the end of the fight I realized I wasn't dual wielding at all for the fight... that I didn't guard at all, during. Oh well. We still managed to defeat it, though not without a couple scares when he got good hits on us, as well as some grab-n-slams. And then some gargoyles appeared which I thought were enemies, but they ended up taking me over a wall to what I think was Anor Londo, which looked really damn awesome. My reaction in the highlights video was genuine. But I had some business to take care of before I moved forward.

I wanted to find a way to the other giant to help the onion knight. I wasn't too sure where to go but I knew there were plenty of areas I haven't seen, because a lot of unclaimed items were easily in view in the beginning section of the fortress. I dropped down to the Prowler Demons and managed to take down two of them because they were isolated. Easy enough. It was the two in the corridor that were giving me trouble. I managed to keep the second one unaggroed for most of my attempts, but despite the open area, this Prowler Demon proved much more difficult than the one in the room with a bunch of pillars in the way. Not only was this fight difficult but just getting to him was very tedious and not guaranteed, because of the three Serpent Mages right before him. This was the first time this run Dark Souls has actually made me very frustrated and somewhat mad. I died enough times to put together a death compilation and decided to call it a day. Nobody should play games angry and I needed a breather after a long stream. You know what, that's going to be Lesson #15, and you DOTA2 players should pay attention!

Lesson #15: Don't play the game, or any game, angry. It will only make you worse at it and make it a worse experience.

So that's that. Day 6 is in the books boys and gals. It was a fun and frustrating run. We have some unfinished business with that Giant but I'm not so sure I care to actually fight the Prowler Demons. Next session, I may just try to roll past them. The bad news is it's risky because if I get past them only to die further on, I'll lose everything if I die trying to get past them. The good news is I don't have much to lose at this point because I already lost my humanity and souls during Day 6... is that good news? ugh. That and Anor Londo await us at Day 7 and I know I've said this before, but I have a feeling this is where Dark Souls is really gonna show us it's true colors. Thanks for reading and join us during my next session! Here's a death compilation of days 4-6 for making it this far! Subscribe to my Twitch and Youtube page to follow along!

The archives of the full run are only temporary on twitch so they are indefinitely archived on YouTube as well. Included in my channel are most attempts at the boss fights (thus far) and larger enemies, and highlights. I’ll most likely be including death compilations only in these blogs and will make a full death compilation available on my page once I finish the game. Below are the links to my pages if you want to subscribe and follow along.

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtJjnxQwdCO6L2FbmytTGqA

Twitch Channel: http://www.twitch.tv/flashflood_29/

Thank you for reading and watching!

*Blog 1 (Day 1 and Streaming) - http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/flashflood_29/blog/dark-souls-day-1-and-streaming-highlights-included/112403/

*Blog 2 (Days 2 and 3) - http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/flashflood_29/blog/dark-souls-day-2-and-3-first-full-run-w-highlights/112488/

*Blog 3 (Day 4) - http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/flashflood_29/blog/dark-souls-day-4-first-full-run-pvp-and-boss-desig/112549/

*Blog 4 (Day 5) - http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/flashflood_29/blog/dark-souls-day-5-first-full-run-w-highlights-story/112603/

My next stream will be either tonight, tomorrow or Sunday night!