What are you playing?

[PartridgeSenpai]

I've fought the 2-2 Flamelurker three times. The first two times it eviscerated me. The third time I got its health halfway down. That thing is a bit psychotic.

For the record, Flamelurker is the one boss I remember needing and actually getting help for back when the online was "dead." I even helped out another person or two, I think! He's SO freaking hard. You're really gonna need to learn how to roll soon. Especially for at least one of the arch-demons I can remember, you really need to be countering his attacks quickly, and rolling is the only way to do that short of parrying.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Demon's Souls

So far I've cleared:

1-1, 1-2
2-1
3-1
4-1
5-1

I've fought the 2-2 Flamelurker three times. The first two times it eviscerated me. The third time I got its health halfway down. That thing is a bit psychotic.

I'm really starting to think I should be playing this with a guide. Overall the difficulty is fair, but there's been moments that were just NOT fair. For example, Yurt. Having a covert assassin show up and start killing vital NPCs in the Nexus out of the blue was major WTF. Thankfully I caught on before he slew anyone too important. Also the acid spewing bugs in 2-2's swamp! There's no way you could know beforehand that one spit from them can break all your armor and your weapon instantaneously. Which all costs shit loads of souls to repair BTW.

I still very much enjoy Demon's Souls, but perfect this game is not. The camera really is your biggest enemy a lot of times. Why FromSoftware decided to create so many claustrophobic areas, where your camera gets mushed into your back, meanwhile obscured enemies flay your insides, I really don't know. For a camera like this the tight corridors are kind of stupid. Anyway, for a guy not playing as a soul arrow spewing royal mage, not using a guide, not using roll maneuvers, and playing totally offline, I guess I'm doing OK. I make a little more progress each play session. I think I've got about 20 hours in this now.

Get the Flamelurker stuck in the architecture and used ranged attacks. It's AI isn't that great, and if you position it properly, you can hit it while it can't hit you. That is how I finally beat it. (It took me a lot more than three tries...)

[Exhuminator]

Thanks for the tips guys.

As I understand it the Flamelurker is weak to magic. I have zero offensive magic. But, I can coat my Scimitar+7 in Sticky White Stuff which gives it a magic attack. I think using that combined with the Thief's Ring may give me a sneak and pounce tactic that will work. If I can find some magic arrows (Holy Arrows?) then I'll add those to the mix as well.

[isiolia]

Flamelurker is generally considered to be one of, if not the most difficult boss in DeS (for melee at least). So, if you struggle a little with it, you're far from the only one.

I'm really starting to think I should be playing this with a guide. Overall the difficulty is fair, but there's been moments that were just NOT fair. For example, Yurt. Having a covert assassin show up and start killing vital NPCs in the Nexus out of the blue was major WTF. Thankfully I caught on before he slew anyone too important.

Following NPC storylines can fall into that, though offhand, while at least a couple of the other games do something similar, it's more limited in scope (and ultimately recoverable in DS1, the other example I can think of is in Bloodborne, which I think just removes one option for an umbilical cord piece, and is harder to trigger in the first place).
Usually it's more a matter of finding/triggering each of their appearances early enough to allow for their full storyline...which is quite unlikely for a first playthrough in some cases.

I still very much enjoy Demon's Souls, but perfect this game is not. The camera really is your biggest enemy a lot of times. Why FromSoftware decided to create so many claustrophobic areas, where your camera gets mushed into your back, meanwhile obscured enemies flay your insides, I really don't know.

I don't think anyone that has played through these would disagree with you over the camera. It's something that can end up being a real hinderance in the later, faster games particularly.

There is a little bit of room for simply adapting to it - it's a good part of the trial-by-fire that O&S was for me (and I assume others). Learning to toggle target lock on and off effectively was a key thing there.

Still, yeah, technically perfect games these are not.


Anyway, I've kept on with my DS1 NG+ run, with Manus/Kalameet/Gwyn left. Controller snafu led to me killing Andre
My goal was to try and build up to use all this magic I've collected effectively, but so far it's still been weaker than applying Zweihander +15 and repeating as necessary. Maybe in NG++ ?

[PartridgeSenpai]

Get the Flamelurker stuck in the architecture and used ranged attacks. It's AI isn't that great, and if you position it properly, you can hit it while it can't hit you. That is how I finally beat it. (It took me a lot more than three tries...)

That is EXACTLY how the guy who helped me out killed him. One of the two went in melee and got killed just before we killed it, and the other one stayed back with a bow and arrow and unloaded on the bastard. I can say from experience this works well

[Exhuminator]

One of the two went in melee and got killed just before we killed it, and the other one stayed back with a bow and arrow and unloaded on the bastard. I can say from experience this works well

The first two times I fought Flamelurker, I tried to get him stuck in architecture. I could get him to wedge himself on pieces once in a while, but sooner or later his AI would figure out how to get to me. I have to say, the pursuit AI in this game is second to none I've seen. (It's kind of funny to run through a level and form a train of enemies mobbing behind you.) I totally understand why someone might want to cheese Flamelurker to death, but I'd rather go toe-to-toe with him and pound his flaming face into the dirt.

I'm just gonna get naked and beat his ass barehanded.

[Xeogred]

Did you find the quick route to Flamelurker? You can get to him in like a minute.

And again, maybe just do the other bosses and come back to him. 4-2 and the 5-X bosses are a joke. 4-3 isn't hard either once you figure it out and another really good grinding area. 3-2 is tough but you unlock some routes that makes it easy to get to.

It's often more viable to not lock on large bosses.

[Exhuminator]

Did you find the quick route to Flamelurker?

Yes, taking the drop shaft down via precarious platforms. Poor lizard-men suiciding behind me all the while.

[Xeogred]

That route cracks me up. Get ready for all of these games to have similar moments.

[Ack]

But, I can coat my Scimitar+7 in Sticky White Stuff which gives it a magic attack.

That's not magic.