Character Creation

Character Creation

Starting Class: Swordsman

"A finely skilled swordsman, fights gracefully, with strong weapons in both hands."

Soul Level: 12

Vigor: 4

Endurance: 8

Vitality: 4

Attunement: 6

Strength: 9

Dexterity: 16

Adaptability: 6

Intelligence: 7 

Faith: 5

I was torn between choosing a Warrior or a Swordsman for this play-through. On the one hand, the Warrior's high starting strength and dexterity would allow me to wield many more weapons, while having more Vigor and Vitality than the swordsman- giving me more Hp to play with. However what swung the decision for me was the Swordsman's higher adaptability and endurance- making it faster and more manoeuvrable in a fight- and it's starting gear. The scimitar +1 and Short-sword +1 are amazing starting weapons, especially when weapon durability is an issue. Both weapons can quickly defeat most early enemies with relatively high damage while also being quick to swing. As a bonus, when the scimitar is held in the left hand, its LT attack becomes a parry. The resulting opportunity for a riposte will usually insta-kill early enemies- once again preserving precious durability. 

 The Swordsman also starts with Wanderer set, which is not only a personal 'Fashion Souls' favourite but also great light armour for rolling and sprinting. I'm aiming to work off the basis that enemies can't kill what they can't hit, so that extra speed will be essential. Hopefully. Otherwise some grunt enemy will get a few lucky hits in and my no death run will be cut short...

Gift:

Yeah... here I wasn't thinking properly, and out of habit and chose the bonfire ascetic and hit Ok, forgetting that in a no bonfire run I'll have no chance to use it... blunder. I could have definitely used the free homeward bone, or the extra healing items, but I won't go through the whole process again for one mistake... I'll just have to live with it I guess. 

The RP bit:

Irrelevant to those of you who just want to read the summaries, but to those who read the narrative sections, my character is, of course, called Orthas. I haven't worked out the details of his background, and to be honest I don't really intend to. If the opening cinematic is anything to go by, new undead in Drangleic can't remember their past anyway. What I do know is that Orthas is more the sneaky, cunning sort than a bruiser. Lots of dodging and diving, parries and evasions rather than soaking up attacks, because who wants to stop an axe with their face?

Onwards...

With this out the way, on to the meat of the run. The challenge starts now- fingers crossed and will keep everyone posted. More pictures will be coming to, on an as-and-when basis. I apologise for the picture quality at the moment- I've order a screen capture addon for my Xbox...

Introduction (Dark Souls 2 Onebro/No death/no bonfire)

Welcome to OrthasOnebro!

About me

Hey all,

Welcome to my blog, which will document my experiences attempting a Onebro, no death, no bonfire run in Dark Souls 2. We all know that this is about as hard as Dark Souls challenge runs get- I may not manage to complete all three challenges, I may not even complete the whole run, but I'll give it my best shot, of course.

Straight up, I'm not a hardcore Souls player, and I'm sure there are countless players with more experience and skill than myself. That said, I've reached New Game ++, and feel that I've reached a stage where I'm looking for something a little more challenging than a casual run. Here's hoping that this is as entertaining for you guys to read, as it is for me to play!

About the Run,

First and foremost, this will be a Onebro run. For those of you who aren't clued in to this sort of Souls challenge, this is a run where I am not allowed to level up. Not once. Not never. The stats I have at the start will have to last me through to the end, so I hope I make the right decision for my starting class...

Secondly, this run will be a no Bonfire run. I won't be allowed to rest at a single bonfire throughout the entire game. That means I can't replenish my Estus flasks, can't fast travel from bonfire to bonfire, can't burn ascetics or other items and have no access to my item box. This will mean that I'll have to be extremely careful- I'll have to choose my route carefully, and budget my Estus flasks wisely. One thing that never occured to me when I went for a no bonfire run- no automatic repair on weapons. This will be a huge problem for me- when my favourite weapon breaks half way through the Gutter, it ain't getting fixed until I find a blacksmith, and chances are that won't be for a very, very long time. 

Finally, this will be a no death run. This is what scares me most about this playthrough- one mistake and its all over. Like I said earlier, I'm no pro player. Therefore if I die, I'm willing to limit myself to five deaths across the whole run, just to make things slightly more achievable, and hopefully to ensure that this run doesn't end only an hour or two after its start...

And if I succeed? An unknown ( and no spoilers please) reward waiting in new game + and a seriously good feeling. I'm definitely pumped to get started!

About the Posts

My posts will be written in two forms- either in a narrative manner from my character- Orthas'- perspective, or if I have there's nothing too interesting, simply a bullet point breakdown of what's happened since the last post.  Please feel free to comment on my posts- I love to read em, and it would be great to know whether people prefer the narrative or the bullet-points. As for a schedule, it'll depend on what I have going on in real life. I hope to have at least one episode up each week, with a few smaller strategy/ general Souls related posts coming up in the meantime.

Anyway, on to Character Creation- my first opportunity to mess up my run... hope you keep reading and supporting- I appreciate it.

Orthas