Dark Souls HARDEST Challenge is too Easy

Straight Sword Hilt implies there is a Curved Sword Hilt. When Fromsoft WHEN!
I also messed up the audio compression and did not have the time to re-record the voiceover. I am sorry about that.
Links:
-Twitch
[ / minoan13 ]
-Twitter
[ / minoanrun ]
Glitches used:
-True Asylum Skip
[ • Dark Souls Remastered ... ]
-Pick Up and Enter
No resources I can share. There are some unlisted videos, but I don’t know if they are comfortable with them being shared.
-Humanity/Soul/Material Dupe
[ soulsspeedruns.com/darksouls/... ]
[ soulsspeedruns.com/darksouls/... ]
[ • Dark Souls Remastered ... ]
[ • Dark Souls Remastered ... ]
-Sen’s Gate Skip
[ soulsspeedruns.com/darksouls/... ]
[ • Dark souls 1 Sens gate... ]
-Dark Seance Ring Skip
[ • DSR Gwyndolin Jump Doo... ]
-Force Quit Wrong Warp
[ soulsspeedruns.com/darksouls/... ]
[ • Dark Souls force quit ... ]
Music used in order:
- Hoogway - Orion
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • Hoogway - Orion
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/EquationOfTime
____________________________________________________________
- less.people - You all sound the same
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • less.people - You all ...
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/onedayitsover
____________________________________________________________
- S N U G x Nuver - Moonscapes
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • S N U G x Nuver - Moon...
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/NightfallEp
____________________________________________________________
- Goosetaf x INKY! - Somewhere Away
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • Goosetaf x INKY! - Som...
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/Latibule
____________________________________________________________
- H.1 x Hevi - November
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • H.1 x Hevi - November
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/IndigoNight
____________________________________________________________
- Pointy Features x Kanisan x Softy - Moon Base
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • Pointy Features x Kani...
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/ShineOnEP
____________________________________________________________
- less.people - Gyoza
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • less.people - Gyoza
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/1amstudysession
____________________________________________________________
- H.1 x Hevi - Chrono
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • H.1 x Hevi - Chrono
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/IndigoNight
Time Stamps:
0:00 Intro
0:25 Asylum
2:08 Valley of the Basin
3:15 Andre
4:03 The Burg
4:47 Gargoyles
7:29 Sen's Fortress
9:00 Anor Londo
9:25 Gwyndolin P&E
10:52 O&S
13:47 Rings
14:15 Mid Run Routing
14:42 Lautrec
15:18 Darkmoon Covenant
16:36 Quelaag
17:31 Force Quit Wrong Warp
18:15 Gwyn
19:08 Outro
#darksouls #challengerun

[@minoan13]

I decided not to re-explain some of the glitches that I have already explained in my previous videos. New people might not be able to understand what is going on, but it could become annoying to re-explain every glitch. Should I explain all glitches, even ones covered, but put in timestamps to skip the explanation? Do you prefer no repeats like in this video?

[@AnTiN0Y]

I think it's fine not to mention it, maybe mention it briefly like it's name and it's point. Love ur content btw, pls keep it u, there's not much to watch lately

[@coolguy-hu4ou]

i don't need the explanation so I don't mind. Also Shawshank Redemption is a great movie and I barely watch movies so maybe give it a shot

[@yuhyuh1471]

Maybe not the whole speal but a very short explanation wouldn’t be hard and would help.

[@DaKittamiau]

If you already have explainations for the tricks in some form you could do a writeup in some easily shareable format, e.g. in google docs. You could then put the link in video descriptions and mention it at the start of the video. Not sure if that would help but just my 2 cents :)

[@0008loser]

Lazy lmao

[@Brotaro]

What we learned in today’s challenge run: 1. The bird is the fastest method of travel. 2. It’s better to fast roll while dripped out. 3. 100,000 souls is a small price to pay for friendship. What you learn on the next run is still a mystery, That is…Dorohedoro

[@ludomirrackza2529]

Nice comment

[@CallMeMimi27]

I really liked dorohedoro. Is s2 out already?

[@rheenusthebeanus4559]

No thief black firebomb??? What has this world come to?!

[@abramdelisle5746]

The horror

[@bukeschmenzell]

i like the changeup tbh, gives the run more freshness

[@darkwhispersstories47]

Your voice sounds like a librarian asked to teach history and is half done with his life. I like it ^^ subscribed

[@CallMeMimi27]

I was gonna say he sounds like a full time office worker high on Xanax trying to recall some joy from gaming. But that's because he reminds me of myself

[@bricklegends6103]

You’re videos are honestly so relaxing to watch. There’s no fluff, just a chill gal and some chill gameplay.

[@noxthestar8300]

Gal, actually 🏳️‍⚧️

[@minoan13]

🏳️‍⚧️😊

[@bricklegends6103]

@@minoan13Oh sorry I just saw this I usually forget to check my replies. I’ll change it😅.

[@sneed622]

​@@minoan13joking or for real?

[@TheRealTorG]

@@sneed622 fr

[@AnTiN0Y]

Love your voice and commentary, the music's super chill too, the runs are so unique it hypnotises me to watch them once they come out ;)

[@JessicaMorgani]

I love the "go around" style of challenge! Please make more in this style. Also... YOU FORGOT BLUE MAGIC EXISTS????

[@duchessskye4072]

The thing with the broken straight sword, or literally any weapon, is that since the magic weapon buff scales entirely on int and doesn't depend on the base AR of the weapon you can get up to really high damages by just using that

[@minoan13]

Power Within works with these buffs as well. I just kind of forgot it was a spell in the game.

[@ed_j_webb]

This was my first playthrough as I didn't equip my starter weapon. "Oh it's taking ages to kill these things. No wonder people say Dark Souls is hard." Took 10 mins before I realised.

[@konstantinoskan6992]

unexpectedly good, I appreciate the work and the side jokes that were put in the video. Nice.

[@carcillian1024]

I don't know why this was recommended to me but it's wonderfully smug

[@TrialSizeDove]

You are genuinely funny. Great videos, this will grow

[@PhillStone]

this channel needs more subs!

[@silver18781]

The commentary alone deserves a sub :D

[@LoverofChildren]

the way he spoiled shawshank tells me he watched shawshank

[@frisky_raccoon6076]

Just based on that assylum skip youve earned my sub good sir

[@theoyarusewicz6343]

Loved this video :)

[@ethanknapp4371]

Very cool routing. Subbed

[@Aria_DemonsSouls]

good video, Asylum skip will always be funny to me lol

[@KarmasAB123]

I like how the buff animation is 3 times longer than the sword hilt XD

[@JamieCracker]

I subscribed last night when I heard you call the dragon eepy, that was all I needed

[@noxthestar8300]

Another banger video fr

[@mysteryosdoor3076]

worst thing in this video is that he has not seen shawshank redemption

[@Zakkariaha]

Cool video. Keep it up

[@ericschuster2680]

"There is a moment of sheer panic when I realize he is doing what seems to be a casual Mace playthrough and it's obviously gonna be the most boring shit ever to watch. I calm myself by continue watching when he did the Asylum Demon skip, breaking DS """Remastered""" to what looks to be a fun video after all."

[@NormalLee67]

After watching this video I foolishly went "oh wow you can get semi-decent damage if you just use sorcery/miracle weapon buffs, this doesn't seem like it would be too bad," and a couple months ago I decided to do a "casual" Straight Sword Hilt only playthrough. Here's what it was like for me as someone who isn't a speedrunner and doesn't really know how to do any glitches or skips in these games. Essay incoming. Asylum Demon was the only boss fight I had to do with no buffs of any kind, but it's Asylum Demon so it wasn't hard, just took like 15 minutes since the straight sword hilt basically does the same amount of damage as your bare fists (and upgrading the weapon barely does anything to help that). I started as a cleric and had the Heal miracle for extra safety but I still had at least three uses by the time I finally finished the fight. After that my goal was to free Griggs as soon as possible to get the Magic Weapon sorcery, the earliest weapon buff you can get that isn't a consumable. However, I am not a speedrunner and suck at doing skips, so to get to him I had to kill Taurus Demon using the Gold Pine Resins inside the one house in Undead Burg. Unfortunately on my first attempt, I wasted one resin on the crossbow hollows in the arena, then used a second resin on Taurus Demon himself only to suffer from a skill issue and die to him for the first time in ages. I kill him on my second attempt, but at the cost of my last Gold Pine Resin. I don't use any more for the rest of the run, as only two merchants in the entire game sell them, one of them being Elizabeth in the DLC and thus only being accessible after Ornstein and Smough, and both merchants only sell the resin in limited quantities for a total of eight I can actually purchase in a single playthrough- the only way to get more without duping is by farming mushrooms and that is not an option with how tanky they are and how little damage the Straight Sword Hilt does even when buffed. The only other consumable buffs are Charcoal Pine Resin and Rotten Pine Resin, but for some reason the former only applies 80 fire damage to your weapon as opposed to the 150 that Gold Pine Resin gives you, and obviously the latter only applies a poison buildup effect, not any actual damage, so I decided neither of these were worth the 500 and 1,000 souls they cost apiece considering I'm not a speedrunner and don't know how to do dupe glitches to give myself a ton of free money. With Taurus Demon dead, now I am able to free Griggs and get the Magic Weapon sorcery. I also buy the Lingering Dragoncrest Ring from him, since it will increase the Magic Weapon sorcery duration by 50%. It also increases all other sorcery weapon buff durations by 50%, as well as all pyromancy buff durations, but for some reason miracle buffs like Sunlight Blade and Darkmoon Blade are not affected by this ring, which I don't think I even noticed during the run. Whoops lmao. Anyway, although Magic Weapon gives me a way to buff my straight sword hilt without having to rely on consumables, Magic Weapon fucking SUUUUUUUCKS (or at least it sucks early game when your Intelligence stat is still fairly low). You get 0.8 x your catalyst's magic adjust stat as magic damage for 60 seconds (90 with the Lingering Dragoncrest Ring). It has 5 uses though, and you can eventually increase that to 10 when you get access to Sen's Fortress and free Big Hat Logan, as he sells a separate Magic Weapon sorcery you can equip on top of the one from Griggs. Until then though, 5 uses is all I've got. My long-term plan was to eventually be able to use Darkmoon Blade and Crystal Magic Weapon (as these are the best miracle and sorcery weapon buffs), which require 30 faith and 25 int, respectively. I also wanted to be able to put on at least three weapon buffs without using a ring to increase my spell slots, so I wanted to get attunement up to 14 as well. These would be my "damage stat" goals for the run, and everything else would go into Vitality and Endurance. Obviously I wouldn't really be able to get much money outside of soul item pickups and boss rewards, so I wouldn't have the luxury of being able to level my damage stats any higher if I didn't want to sacrifice survivability. At 30 faith and 25 int, the best talisman and catalyst are, respectively, the Canvas Talisman with 172 Magic Adjustment, and the Oolacile Ivory Catalyst with 180 Magic Adjustment (technically the Manus Catalyst is better as it has 197 Magic Adjustment, but getting it requires beating Manus, and the catalyst itself limits the number of casts you get- needless to say, these are two things that are not at all optimal for this run). I already own the Canvas Talisman, as it's part of your starting gear as a cleric, so no problems there. The Oolacile Ivory Catalyst is sold from Dusk for 1,000 souls, but the obvious issue here is that accessing Dusk and her shop requires killing the Hydra in the Darkroot Basin. I tried fighting the Hydra early on, but even with using 5 Magic Weapon buffs, I was barely short of the damage I needed, so I opted to come back later once I had at least gotten the extra Magic Weapon uses from Logan. I did eventually do this successfully, but I had to finish the fight close to the ladder that takes you up to Darkroot Garden, because otherwise some of the heads will be too far away to be hit with the Straight Sword Hilt. Until I was able to do this, I just used the basic Sorcerer's Catalyst, which can be bought from Rickert in New Londo (and Griggs) for 500 souls. Back to game progression, most bosses just kind of took a little while with only Magic Weapon at my disposal. I killed Pinwheel pretty early on (iirc it was one of the first things I did after acquiring Magic Weapon) so that I could get into Tomb of the Giants and get the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring to maximize the amount of souls I could get from bosses- as I said before I'm not really going to be able to farm anything so I'm going to need all the souls I can get. The Rite of Kindling was also nice to have early on. The Gargoyles weren't really an issue- damage was obviously not incredible but it was still very doable. Capra took a few tries but was mostly just a matter of getting into a good rhythm and finding the right opportunities to reapply Magic Weapon when needed. I remember Gaping Dragon being kind of frustrating because of the Straight Sword Hilt's absolutely dogshit range (it basically only has as much range as your fist) on top of the boss's massive health pool. I did eventually triumph over him- he's technically not required to get into Blighttown, but the souls he gives are nice, especially with the CSS Ring. I took down Moonlight Butterfly at some point for some extra cash but I forget exactly when I did this, I may have had to come back later when I had more and/or better weapon buffs but I'm not sure.

[@NormalLee67]

I picked up Power Within in Blighttown since the extra damage and stamina regeneration it gives goes a long way in a lot of fights, and its duration is affected by the Lingering Dragoncrest Ring (100 seconds without the ring, 150 seconds with- basically a whole extra minute of extra damage and stamina regen). I also grabbed the Chloranthy Ring from The Great Hollow for extra stamina regeneration (I had already long acquired the Grass Crest Shield by this point). On the subject of stamina, one important thing to note is that the Straight Sword Hilt's scaling is practically nonexistent, meaning two-handing the weapon often literally does not increase the damage it does at all. However, two-handing the weapon still uses a LOT more stamina and makes you perform vertical swings that often struggle to actually hit the enemies you're locked on to. These things combined meant the optimal way to play was to one-hand the weapon, as this consumed much less stamina per attack without sacrificing more than a point or two of damage, if even that much. I basically only two-handed in cramped hallways (like in some parts of Sen's Fortress) to avoid having the weapon bounce off the wall every single swing. Back to Blighttown, thankfully I had already done a level one playthrough where my weapon dealt 25 damage a hit to Quelaag (35 on a counterhit!), so I was thoroughly familiar with her moveset and perfectly capable of fighting her for minutes on end if needed- the only concern in that fight was just going to be whether or not I would be able to kill her before running out of Magic Weapon uses, and thankfully I was able to do so (would've been kind of awkward if I got stuck here since the run would've basically been over unless I used glitches or skips). The damage was ass and the fight took a while (both of which were expected), but I made it through. I also went ahead and stole the clothes of Ceaseless Discharge's sister and pushed his stupid ass off the cliff for another free 20,000 souls. With Quelaag dead and both bells of awakening rung, I finally had access to Sen's Fortress, and more importantly, access to Big Hat Logan and five more uses of Magic Weapon. I used these extra uses to squeeze out the extra damage I needed to be able to kill the Hydra in Darkroot Basin and get the Oolacile Ivory Catalyst. I also bought the Repair sorcery so I could repair my weapon and armor for free whenever I wanted- of all the things I did this run, this was probably the least necessary, but since it costs money to repair equipment, being able to do it even after dying and losing whatever money I had was nice, even if the sorcery itself cost 10,000 souls. It's possible it might not have paid for itself in this playthrough in terms of how much it saved me on repair costs, but with how long some fights were and how many tries they took, the convenience of having infinite free repairs helped alleviate some of the stress of this run. I did upgrade the Straight Sword Hilt a few times, since upgrading a weapon automatically repairs it, but I don't think I ever got it higher than +5 just because the damage and scaling you get for upgrading it is so minimal. Anyway, Sen's Fortress was mostly uneventful. The Ring of Steel Protection was basically the only super necessary item in the area and it was pretty much just running through the area to get to Iron Golem. Iron Golem is Iron Golem- the damage is still bad because I still just have the basic Magic Weapon sorcery, but the new catalyst definitely helped, as it has a fixed 180 Magic Adjustment at all int levels and this increased scaling improved the Magic Weapon buff a bit. I honestly don't even remember if I was able to make Iron Golem fall off (I'm very, VERY bad at setting him up so he falls off the arena) or if I just fought him normally, but I had already killed the giant that throws the massive fire pots into the arena, so the fight wasn't much of an issue either way.

[@NormalLee67]

Onto Anor Londo, and more importantly OH MY GOD FINALLY A BETTER WEAPON BUFF. Great Magic Weapon can be picked up in the painting room with all the painting guardians, provided you destroy the chandelier in the rafters. Unlike Magic Weapon, which has a 0.8x multiplier on your catalyst's MagAdj stat, Great Magic Weapon has a 1.1x multiplier on your Catalyst's MagAdj stat. This doesn't seem like a lot, but going from 0.8x to 1.1x is almost a 50% increase on the damage multiplier, and the actual damage you do honestly feels like it gets an even bigger buff than that. I don't know what weird math the game is doing in the background but I'm not going to complain, I'm just happy that I finally got a better weapon buff (reminder that it took basically half of this playthrough to get access to a weapon buff that wasn't just the Magic Weapon sorcery you can buy after Taurus Demon). Its only downside compared to Magic Weapon is that it only has three uses instead of five, but the extra damage more than makes up for this. Then comes the first real roadblock in the run- Ornstein and Smough. This fight is so jank and my dps was just not high enough to reliably kill Ornstein fast enough to prevent him and/or Smough from pulling some bullshit in phase one. I banged my head against them many times but even with Great Magic Weapon I just couldn't do it. Thus, I was faced with a dilemma. Originally, I wanted to join the Chaos Servant covenant and open the Lost Izalith shortcut so that I could skip having to fight Demon Firesage and Centipede Demon on the way to Bed of Chaos. However, this shortcut is blocked by the golden fog gate until you place the Lordvessel... *after* killing O&S. On its own, this isn't an issue, but as I said before, I wanted to use Darkmoon Blade, as it's the best magic damage weapon buff in the entire game. Being able to use Darkmoon Blade has two requirements- the first is that you must rank up with the Blades of the Darkmoon covenant up to at least +1 by offering 10 Souvenirs of Reprisal (obtained from online play, invading and killing Lautrec in Anor Londo, or by farming the harpies in the Painted World of Ariamis). The second requirement is that you must *stay* in the Darkmoon covenant. **You can NOT use the Darkmoon Blade miracle if you are not at least a member of the covenant**, and the damage it adds to your weapon is dependant on your covenant rank, so leaving and rejoining the covenant would decrease the damage it adds to my weapon if I didn't rank back up with the covenant, which would require farming more Souvenirs of Reprisal. Obviously, I wanted to squeeze out as much damage as I possibly could from buffs, so I didn't want to do this. However, I didn't want to have to fight Demon Firesage or Centipede Demon if at all possible. This meant that ideally, I would simply just beat O&S with what I had now, join the Chaos Servant covenant and open the shortcut after placing the Lordvessel, then go back to Anor Londo and the Painted World to join and level up the Darkmoon covenant to get the Darkmoon Blade miracle (after opening the Lost Izalith shortcut there's no benefit to staying in the Chaos Servant covenant, so once that's been done I can join the Darkmoon covenant without missing out on anything). Now you might be thinking that Sunlight Blade is also technically an option, but that requires killing Gwyndolin and locks you out of using the Darkmoon Blade for the rest of the playthrough, even if you've already acquired it. This is obviously bad, as Gwyn is INCREDIBLY resistant to lightning damage, and I'd rather not get stuck on the literal final boss of this run, so Darkmoon Blade is the best weapon buff for going against him (he technically also has very low fire damage resistance, but Charcoal Pine Resin is the only weapon buff that adds fire damage to your weapon, and as I've explained before that item is absolutely awful, so it's not really an option either). Ultimately, I decided to go ahead and get Darkmoon Blade for O&S and skip the Chaos Servant covenant entirely. Demon Firesage isn't at all a difficult fight and Centipede Demon can easily be cheesed, plus I figured if I could get through O&S then nothing else in the run would be able to halt my progress. So I went to the Painted World (I had already made a return trip to the asylum to get the Rusted Iron Ring and the doll required to access the painted world) and farmed the harpies for Souvenirs of Reprisal (I'm playing PTDE so there's no online anymore, though it's not like my odds of killing another player with a Straight Sword Hilt would have been that high anyway). Remember when I said the Ring of Steel Protection was the only necessary item I picked up in Sen's? I lied. I also got the Gold Covetous Serpent Ring to boost my item discovery, and it worked wonders for farming this item. I mainly just focused on the harpies that are in the giant tower in the center of the area since it's really easy to just bait them to fall to their death. There were very few I actually had to fight, most just jumped off on their own or bounced off my shield and fell to their death. I got at least one souvenir every single run I did- farming this item is honestly not that bad so long as you use at least one piece of equipment that boosts your item discovery. I got 9 souvenirs from the Painted World and another from invading and killing Lautrec (MUCH easier said than done oh my god, it wouldn't be that bad if he didn't have the blowjob brothers with him, the three of them are so difficult to separate for even a second, not to mention your Estus is disabled for some reason). Despite having already killed Pinwheel I didn't grab the Darkmoon Seance Ring, so I had to jump into the statue at the Darkmoon Tomb bonfire and quit out to make it disappear and open the path to Gwyndolin, allowing me to join the covenant and obtain Darkmoon Blade. I then proceeded to beat O&S the very first attempt I used Darkmoon Blade. The jump in damage from Great Magic Weapon to this made the jump from Magic Weapon to Great Magic Weapon feel like literally nothing in comparison. I absolutely obliterated Ornstein with this weapon buff, and then from there I just fought Smough normally, using Great Magic Weapon to rebuff myself since Darkmoon Blade only lasts 60 seconds and has one use. Like I said before, Darkmoon Blade isn't affected by the Lingering Dragoncrest ring, so there's no way to increase its duration, but the ring increases the duration of all sorcery weapon buffs and Power Within, which boosts the damage of Darkmoon Blade (along with stamina regeneration), so it's still worth using even in fights where Darkmoon Blade is the only buff I end up actually using.

[@toastishot12]

finally, the forbidden souls pause

[@Mayor_Turtle]

that banana peel needs to be nerfed

[@darkhobo]

I loled at "Godskin Duo copy"

[@thatoneturtle5469]

Seeing you play the game in a not-speedrunning manner is kinda cursed

[@hellxapo5740]

Hold up, not calling out any party here but, shouldn't nerds technically be the ones defending that using glitches is fine - since they are present in the game - when confronted with a casual player that says glitches are cheating (when they technically aren't) ??

[@TheOneAndOnlySame]

Woah dude dug out a 2005 high res Emoticon gif ! Catch you later on AIM guys!

[@florianwarin3540]

Understood nothing. Good video, I like your voice

[@pratikgurung7153]

Damn that asylum skip 🤣

[@grogueQ]

illusory

[@LavenderRex7705]

The "Alt girls" joke is so good. I love how you don't bring much attention to your jokes.

[@aaaaaaaaaaaaaa2907]

i love you

[@o00580]

17:50 YOU CAN PAUSE?????

[@MCrex007]

Wait, isn't that a broken straight sword, not the straight sword hilt?

[@minoan13]

No, you start the game with the sword hilt. The broken straight sword is a drop from hollows. They are both trash weapons, but the sword hilt is worse.

[@sorensouthard927]

I like how you do the absolute dry-est takes of the script but still bother writing jokes. The disconnect between telling jokes and the complete lack of enthusiasm telling them is pretty great.

[@AlphaW0LF]

Perfect impression of a nerd xD

[@theohornsmiley]

Hehe funny man run fast

[@blockwearingman]

too easy cuz you glitched😭😭

[@BRG_Godsword]

please always talk like this

[@0008loser]

Cringe

[@GodofPookies]

fr

[@ichabodthecrane]

THE EEPY SOULS!!!!