Dark Souls 2 journal #5: playing silly buggers in Drangleic Castle and beyond

News by Dave Cook Contributor

Published on April 14, 2014

Dark Souls 2 continues to back-stab Dave Cook with its Zweihander+10 of suffering, as he marches through the gates of Drangleic Castle and gets closer to his confrontation with the king.

This entry covers Dave's progress up to level 142 and over 46 hours into the quest, you can catch up with his previous journals here:

Here's this entry's status update:

Do you remember when, in my last journal entry, I said that I played Dark Souls 2 until 4am without realising it? I did it again while playing to write this entry, except this time it was due to the game taking another one of its 'easy' turns that saw me barrelling through it like a hot halberd through Hollow limbs. I've come quite far since my last post.

But first; let's have a little talk about the Iron Keep shall we? It's like... Bowser's Castle from Super Mario Kart, with metallic structures, stone walkways and lava everywhere. It's a place that'll eat up those with shite flame resistance and s**t them out as ash in moments unless they can get their stats up. It starts off not so bad, with easily-defeated footsoldiers roaming the castle's halls, but once you start to get a little bit cocksure you come to a wide open area swarming with archers.

Remember those utter bastards from Anor Londo, the ones that hurl giant arrows at you that couldn't be blocked? Well, these guys aren't so bad but they can sap your health down to nought in a few moments if you aren't careful. It came to a head when I was trying to lower both sides of a drawbridge leading to the next boss fog gate. I found that meandering too much resulted in taking an arrow to the back, then the side, then front, then the side again, then the back and, well, you get my point.

I still haven't figured out how to get that item over there without melting

Going slow and methodically while keeping my shield up seemed to do the trick, and because I had my Covetous Silver Serpent Ring equipped I was earning a lot of souls from killing both the swordsmen and the archers. Before I proceeded to the fog gate I decided to make all of these extinct after killing each of them ten times, and then returned to Majula to boost my Soul Level a little, but nothing could fully prepare me for what lay on the other side of that bastard fog gate.

Enter the Smelter Demon, a giant horned prick with a flaming sword and a mid-section so hot you take big damage just by standing near him. He's one of those bosses that starts off simple, but then levels up as the fight goes on. At first I had no trouble rolling around his attacks and jumping ground pound to dish out a few hits, but twice in the fight he'll stop and kindle his core, which makes him utterly lethal. It's at this point I realised my flame resistance wasn't high enough.

He killed me so many times and it actually riled me up because I knew I could beat him if it wasn't for his searing heat. So off I went to level up some more to raise my fire resistance stat and save up enough souls to purchase the Flame Quartz Ring. You can buy it from the pyromancer lady in Majula, who can be found standing at the bottom of steps leading up to the big monument at the cliff's edge. I'd highly recommend pairing it with the pyromancy Flash Sweat - which boosts your fire defence greatly - when fighting the Smelter Demon.

This is the Smelter Demon room. Going back here after killing him will see The Pursuer emerge again and attack you. Kill him to earn a Ring of Blases+1, which is good for boosting your attack strength. Don't go back in there if you're low on health though.

The problem is that even if you're able to dodge the demon's attacks, the heat of his flaming core will hurt you over time. What I found helped was that rolling to the left as he swipes often triggers a combo that leaves his back exposed. The third attack in that chain is occasionally a jumping move that you can roll under. Instead of swiping as he recovers, just back off and re-cast Flash Sweat or drink an Estus Flask. In fact, only hitting him once or twice per attack is advisable, as you'll need all your stamina.

There are times when - instead of standing up slowly after his jump attack - he'll unleash a flaming shockwave that can take half of your health off in one hit. It just pays to back off each time just to be sure. Anyway, after much swearing and heart-break I sent the bastard packing, and venture on to the Iron Keep's second bonfire. Things let up every so slightly from there, but it was by no means easy.

Not by a long shot...

I should point out before continuing; if you cross the drawbridge towards the Smelter Demon fog gate and look to your right (shown above) you'll see a corpse hanging off a ledge, to the right of a doorway. If you jump over there and pick up the object he's holding you'll obtain the Dull Ember, which can be given to McDuff in the Lost Bastille. Once he has it he can add elemental effects to your weapons using the correct shards. Be warned though, that you'll sacrifice raw damage for these effects, so be careful.

Anyway, venturing deeper into the Keep I came across some really devious sections. You'll encounter those weird, turtle shell warriors from The Forest of Fallen Giants, except this time they're much harder. Beware their overhead smash, it'll cut right through your block without any resistance. The Keep's main chamber has a few of them standing on a hanging walkway, but I quickly learned that by pulling a switch to the right of the entrance will plunge it into the lava, killing them. They never try to escape, the idiots.

Those are some thin walkways however, and I was a bit p**sed to learn that doing the lava trick will see the path replaced by a thinner platform with a flame-spewing turret in the middle. It's not so bad if you're patient, but you will have more of those archer fools shooting at you. Just be smart and you'll eventually come to a thin metallic corridor that leads down towards the fourth and final Lord Soul boss. Getting sandwiched in there by those turtle guys is painful, trust me. Don't let it happen to you.

Here's a free pointer for you too; after the thin metallic corridor - you can't miss it as it has a guillotine switch in the middle - you'll come to another flame turret room with spikes on the walls. There's a cleverly-disguised ladder on the left-hand side of the exit that takes you up to the Iron Keep's third bonfire. There's also a switch up there that turns off all the flame turrets in the area. You'll wonder how you ever managed without it, seriously.

Look closely, it's there in front of me. Just go up for the third bonfire and the turret switch.

By this point I was able to get through this area without dying, but there was still the little matter of the Old Iron King waiting at the end. He's the Iron Keep's last boss, and he's actually not all that hard, if you're disciplined. That's what many of Dark Souls 2's bosses are all about; just keeping a cool head - which is hard in a world made of f**king fire - and getting those attack patterns down. The King's a slow beast, emerging from a lava pit to smash you with his giant arms. I died here loads through foolishness and the 2am rot, that started to make my eyeballs burn with stress and sleeplessness.

I knew the drill by that point though, and instantly cast Flash Sweat, and donned the Flame Quartz Ring again to stop his fireballs from burning through my health. However, because the platform I was on is so small and has a devious hole in the middle, I kept on dodge-rolling away from his swipes only to fall into the lava. It kills you instantly, of course. Getting hit by the fireballs will also knock you back into the molten lake of death, so don't get hit by them basically.

You can easily roll through his horizontal arm sweeps as if his hands were made of air. Dodging just simply negates the blow altogether, which is a little weird but I'm honestly not complaining. I managed to beat him in the end, and learned after the fact that he's highly prone to lightning damage, but my lightning-imbued spear+2 wasn't all that strong to make a difference. Still, it's worth bearing in mind for NG+ or for first-timers. God damn I miss the first game's Lighting Spear...

Using the last Primal Bonfire I went back to Majula and spoke with the maiden again. She told me that I had all the Lord Souls necessary to enter Drangleic Castle. Great! Amazing! Bloody fantastic!

Err... where is it, exactly?

Goddammit! Why don't you tell me where to goooooooo!

Yeah, Dark Souls 2 may be more 'accessible' than its predecessor, but the sign-posting really is balls in parts. I had no idea where I was going, once again, and at first I thought that was my chance to open those sealed doors around the world, you know, the ones that say 'Produce the symbol of the King,' without any clue as to how you do that. But nope, that's not where you need to go at all.

Now, I feel dirty for saying this but gosh darn it, I have a journal series to write, and if I have to use a Wiki guide to deliver these words to the 20 people who still read them, then that's what I'll do. So I hopped on over to the Dark Souls 2 Wiki pages and found that Drangleic Castle is accessed via the Shaded Woods. I fast-travelled to the second bonfire, and took the left path. That's not the one with all the mist, or the one that leads to the King's door, but the one with the disgusting poison guys. That one.

Follow my crude arrow of pointing+5

I fought the first two packs of those guys with ease then came to a dead end in the path. If you look to your left you'll see a thin trail leading up the hill to your left with another poison bro on it. That's where you need to go. So off I went, through the Shrine of Winter, which is literally one room and hardly worth a pop-up title (unless it has some significance later perhaps?) and headed up the hill towards Drangleic Castle. It loomed over the horizon, mocking me with silent menace as the rain started to fall.

The Shrine of Winter is up a path to the left behind those boulders. Trust me, it's there.

Beautiful, but a tad scary I'll admit. There's quite a walk until the next bonfire, and a ton of nasty dudes waiting to slaughter you on the way. I was surprised to see the Majula maiden waiting for me at the base of the steps up to the castle doors. She offered me a few words of wisdom before p**sing off and leaving me to die at the hands (hooves?) of a giant elephant warrior. There's two of them, and they're the same as the ones found in the Doors of Pharros, except much tougher.

Mother of god...

I eventually reached the top after dying loads and couldn't get the castle's grand double doors to open. It didn't help that there was a never-ending wave of footsoldiers ganking me every few minutes either. With back to the door I held my ground and killed one of the grunts only to see his soul fly away from me, instead of being absorbed as usual. It was sucked into one of two statues flanking the door, which seemed to operate some kind of mechanism. The idea is to kill an enemy next to both statues to unlock the door. Clever.

I managed to get both statues lit up and pushed open the mighty iron doors that creaked and groaned as forced them aside. What lay on the other side of that terrible threshold?

What indeed...

Umm hello? You're not going to come alive... are you?

Whoever decorated this place really needs mental counselling. Seriously man, what the hell is up with all the creepy statues of enemies that may or may not come alive and kill you? What's with the painting of Drangleic's Queen that casts curse on you? And why the heck are there stone serpents that gob gear-decaying acid all over you when you least expect it? Lock up that architect and throw the key down the Majula well I say. Mad bastard.

At first, Drangleic Castle is an intimidating place, but with a little understanding and caution you'll coast it, seriously. Your first major challenge is getting from the first bonfire to the next fog gate. There's also an NPC that gives you some weirdly in-depth backstory into the King, and his backstory, but I won't spoil it here. Just keep on talking to the guy at the castle entrance to hear the full tale. It's ace.

The throne room is behind him, and let me tell you those are some big-ass seats. It's a bit like when, after defeating Ornstein and Smough in the first Dark Souls, you encounter Gwynevere to get the Lordvessel. She was massive! You'll see Queen Nashandra at one point in Drangleic Castle and the first time you spot her is quite disturbing.

Is that?...

Good lord!

She sits across a sheer drop, looking out at you from her private chambers, just staring at you without saying a word. She's also massive and guarded by two warriors on either side. I thought about zooming in and firing an arrow at her to see what happened, but I bottled it like a wimp. You can talk to her for more backstory though.

I'm getting ahead of myself here. From the throne room you need to go down into the castle basement, and I quickly found the first bonfire without much trouble, as the armoured guards down there were both slow and didn't take up too much stamina per block. The next room was full of locked doors that, like the entrance statues, can be opened by killing a stone grunt in front of them. 'This was easy,' I thought as the first door gave away, only to reveal a Ruin Sentinel on the other side.

NOOOOO!

Remember the Ruin Sentinels? That trio of utter sods that caused me hours of pain in part two of my journal? Yeah they're back as common enemies, and there's one of them behind each of this room's eight doors. Once you open one it stays open forever, meaning you can potentially have eight of them attacking you with their asshole hammers at once if you're careless.

I managed to take them out after dying lots and taking it really, really, really, really, really, really, really slow. Once all the doors were open and the statues at the end of the hall were activated with souls, I went up a few outdoor staircases. From there I rumbled with a few more guards, sprinted through a room full of poison-spewing statues and emerged at the castle's first fog gate expecting a royal (get it?) beat-down.

But the boss inside was really s**t; basically just two Dragonriders at once. They were really simple and I beat them first time - not quite the Ornstein & Smough retread I had feared - and within minutes I was sitting at the second bonfire resting my weary bones. By this point it was 3am and I was just about ready to call it quits, but it's possible you've felt that whole 'I'll just press on a little further' temptation that Souls games deliver so well. That happens, and so I kept going.

After activating another soul statue I was able to hop a lift up to the top of Drangleic Castle's vast tower. It take you up to a really freaky room containing a maiden trapped in a cage. On the locked door to her prison is this... thing:

Oh come on man this s**t's just getting odd now...

I've still not figure out what this is or how I'm supposed to open the cage, but I've seen one of those maidens since in the next area Shrine of Amana, but I'll touch on that in my sixth journal. Anyway, It didn't take too long for me to reach the next boss fog gate, after fighting through a corridor full of Anubis-style statues that come alive once I passed them. I just stood well back and hit them with my arrows to tease them out one at a time. They were badass to look at, but pretty easy to defeat in the end.

Stand here and use arrows, basically, and be patient.

Behind the fog gate stood the Looking Glass Knight, who has been shown in Namco's official screens a few times now. He's not so bad in all honesty, with slow, heavy sword swipes that dent your stamina and the occasional jumping attack. You only really have to worry when he raises his sword high and lighting bolts fizzle around the blade, at which point I tended to just back off to avoid his blasts. Every so often he'll put his shield down and summon an NPC warrior, and I'm told if you're playing online he can summon actual players to fight alongside him.

I'm playing on a PS3 debug machine that can't go online unfortunately, so I'm unable to try it myself. But still, he was defeated on the first attempt, leaving me free to proceed on to the Shrine of Amana, and as I approached its grassy cliff edge to peer down into its babbling waters, I heard a faint, lulling song floating on the breeze.

Where was it coming from? You'll have to wait for part six to find out.

Disclosure: To assist in writing this piece, Namco Bandai sent Dave a copy of Dark Souls 2 on PS3.