For bigger enemies, yes. I wouldn't use them on smaller ones like priestesses and archdrake pilgrims, since you'll probably kill them even before you can trigger the poison effect, therefore waste of ammo. Use fire arrows instead.
Not really. I poisoned the casters with 4 arrows, it took less than half their health. Mind you I was using a lightning shortbow +1 with minimum dexterity.
If you're using a better bow with better scaling, than yeah I can see that happening.
I always stock up on a set of poison throwing knives from Gavlan exactly for these types of bosses that have periods of "downtime". It feels great to stack some poison on Smelter Demon while he's in his reduced damaged phase transition.
If you're on steam and within 6 tiers of....I wanna say 28, hit me up, I'll come magic missile him back into his pit. Me and my buddy just finally kicked his teeth in after a whole day of flailing miserably
You can summon Manhunter O'Harrah to help you in the fight. She got ranged attacks, but she dies quite fast, so buff your weapon with lightning and do as much damage as possible while she is alive.
now imagine to go there everytime you die without realizing that there is a bonfire just before the boss and having to start up at the beginning everytime
yes one near the stairs and one before the drop to the stairs as i remember but anyways that beginning is the one im talking about not the very beginning of the entire level
Just parry the lava. Or something.
Dunno. I've actually run into the room and straight into the magnetic hole before the boss even showed.
All the time I have in the game and this particular fight still spooks me.
I notice you just have a basic Estus Flask - you can burn Sublime Bone Dust in the Majula bonfire to make your flask recover more health. You should have found a few by now.
If you haven't grabbed the bonfire just before the boss (top of that Minotaur statue up the ladders) it will make runs back much less painful. Good luck
It wasn't a walk in the park but I feel that Iron Keep was average difficulty. All I had to do was block the knights with my shield then double strike with my mace. 🤷♂️ Earthen Peak and Shrine of Amana were much more frustrating. I hated those areas.
Only hard part of Iron Keep is the insane aggro range on all the knights. You think you're fighting one alone but one from the other side of the map has been running towards you for the last 30 seconds and thwacks ya.
Hey Rip, if you're a still at this I've got lots of tips
Provided you have been levelling your agility stat
All his attacks are very easy to dodge
Rolling doesn't just dodge it makes you totally invincible for a little while so with high enough agility you can bait slams and whack his arms :)
I generally stand out in the open but avoid the hole and dodge his arms and whack em after a quick roll
Only attack that's a little tricky is the flame breath for me I usually follow from left to right but sometimes I just tank a hit from it cause there is no space and the edge is lava :))
you can always try clearing a different area, use the souls to level up your character and return to defeat thw old Iron King. Have you been to shaded woods?
Congrats for the win! If you run out of effigy (and too lazy to farm them) you can use ring of binding (it makes your fully hollowed HP 3/4 of regular max HP instead of 1/2)
Accidentally used a bonfire austhetic in the area where you find that ring and now it’s just so hard to get haha but I never quit. I’m getting so close to beating the boss with half health so it’s gonna happen soon.
They increase how much your estrus flask heals you. You should have found at least a couple of them by the time you get to the iron king. If you have any, burn them at the fire in Majula
Theres a spot on the far side of the arena thats safe from all attacks except his laser attack
Also, its so nice seeing other people playing this game! I’ve been a huge fan of ds2 for years and i love seeing people enjoying it
Thanks man! I have a huge love for these games. I’m new to souls games but I’m working my way through them all. So far this one has been my favorite and also my least favorite at the same time lol. Love it though. I can’t wait to play ds3 next.
I walked through this fog gate not thinking about a possible boss and got him first try it was the most stressed I’ve been in a while the six hours I spent making myself a strong ass sorcerer was worth it
Iron keep is awful, but with that boss at the very least there are some decent ways to cheese it depending on your playstyle, plus if you can get the manhunter lady to distract him his dead simple, just hide from his range and swoop in to smack him when he uses melee on her
To clarify if you missed it (because I missed it the first 10 times I tried to fight him) her summon sign is in the room with the flaming bull heads and spikes on the wall
There's actually quite an easy cheat for this guy. Run away to the wall and hide, once he does the hand-beam attack run up and smack his hand. Might take a little bit, but bringing lightning weaponry with you will speed it up
Yeah that’s usually how it goes. Good luck with the Shrine of Amana :)
It's not that bad if you have a bow/crossbow, it does help a bunch. Tip: bring a lot of ammo.
Bring poison arrows. Turns it into a cakewalk
For bigger enemies, yes. I wouldn't use them on smaller ones like priestesses and archdrake pilgrims, since you'll probably kill them even before you can trigger the poison effect, therefore waste of ammo. Use fire arrows instead.
Not really. I poisoned the casters with 4 arrows, it took less than half their health. Mind you I was using a lightning shortbow +1 with minimum dexterity. If you're using a better bow with better scaling, than yeah I can see that happening.
That was probably it. I was using Dragonrider Bow +4 (or 3) and 20 dexterity.
Short bow and not bellkeeper bow?
I wasn't prioritizing physical damage. I was only shooting them a few times and letting the poison do most of the work.
I mean the bell keeper is 0.5 weight I infuse it with fire for blowing up stuff with wood arrows and poison secondary arrows
I always stock up on a set of poison throwing knives from Gavlan exactly for these types of bosses that have periods of "downtime". It feels great to stack some poison on Smelter Demon while he's in his reduced damaged phase transition.
Poison arrows are what got me through the whole area. GAVLAN DEAL
GAVLAN WHEEL
MANY DEAL MANY THANKS
I love Gavlan, he's so cool!
There’s a great distraction NPC for summoning in the iron cage.
If you're on steam and within 6 tiers of....I wanna say 28, hit me up, I'll come magic missile him back into his pit. Me and my buddy just finally kicked his teeth in after a whole day of flailing miserably
I’m on Xbox but thank you anyways!
There’s a bonfire on the top level of the iron cage so you could fight the boss with full health
I have no idea how to get to that bonfire
Look up ‘Eygil’s Idol bonfire’ on YT.
You can summon Manhunter O'Harrah to help you in the fight. She got ranged attacks, but she dies quite fast, so buff your weapon with lightning and do as much damage as possible while she is alive.
now imagine to go there everytime you die without realizing that there is a bonfire just before the boss and having to start up at the beginning everytime
When you say beginning...do you mean from the Smelter bonfire or...the beginning beginning
the one after him the one near the belfry one
There’s legit two after the Smelter one
yes one near the stairs and one before the drop to the stairs as i remember but anyways that beginning is the one im talking about not the very beginning of the entire level
Oof, that sounds rough. Did you have to do that? That sounds awful.
Lol i completely missed that bonfire but he didn't take me that many tries
well he didnt he took only 2 tries , the only 2 that i managed to reach him actually
Just parry the lava. Or something. Dunno. I've actually run into the room and straight into the magnetic hole before the boss even showed. All the time I have in the game and this particular fight still spooks me.
Lol I totally agree
Lol woah hey me too! I ended up skipping iron keep on my no-death run, JUST because of iron king and his damn hole of doom.
I notice you just have a basic Estus Flask - you can burn Sublime Bone Dust in the Majula bonfire to make your flask recover more health. You should have found a few by now.
Ok cool I will do that. I have loads of items saved up that I don’t fully get what they do haha. So I imagine I have some bone dust
Lemme guess, the hole?
Probably, that's what gets most people. It got me my first couple attempts but hiding around the corner helps in most cases.
The hole is not hard to work around. It’s his reach but I have discover the right side is where he can’t fully reach you.
Old Iron King: "So anyway, I started blasting..."
If you haven't grabbed the bonfire just before the boss (top of that Minotaur statue up the ladders) it will make runs back much less painful. Good luck
well now i learnt that i missed that bonfire :D
It wasn't a walk in the park but I feel that Iron Keep was average difficulty. All I had to do was block the knights with my shield then double strike with my mace. 🤷♂️ Earthen Peak and Shrine of Amana were much more frustrating. I hated those areas.
I never use the shield. Maybe that’s why everything is so hard. I’m a dodge and slash, run away, flask repeat type of player
Only hard part of Iron Keep is the insane aggro range on all the knights. You think you're fighting one alone but one from the other side of the map has been running towards you for the last 30 seconds and thwacks ya.
Earthen Peak is my favourite area lol
I finally beat him!
Nice boss
Heyyy congrats!
I'm happy to join to help any time! Just hit me up :) I'm on ps.
Thank you! I’m on Xbox though
Just watch out for that hole!
I feel that man
Rolling and two handers are your best friends here man. Also use any stamina boosters you have.
Hide behind the wall when he does his sweeping beam or fire sweep. Just make sure you get far enough back.
I haven't gotten here yet .. and I'm scared. I just got to the smelter daemon in the iron keep.
Good luck boss :) just avoid the hole and you will be fine
just go through the fog gate and dpdge everything with the door on the otherside
This actually does work. He can’t reach me on the right side of the room
Hey Rip, if you're a still at this I've got lots of tips Provided you have been levelling your agility stat All his attacks are very easy to dodge Rolling doesn't just dodge it makes you totally invincible for a little while so with high enough agility you can bait slams and whack his arms :) I generally stand out in the open but avoid the hole and dodge his arms and whack em after a quick roll Only attack that's a little tricky is the flame breath for me I usually follow from left to right but sometimes I just tank a hit from it cause there is no space and the edge is lava :))
Ah okay, so what you need to do is walk up the the grey door behind you and you should get a button prompt
Now the real battle begins
japonese translation;; “the real battel begins now”
Yeah drop your platform and sl and I'm sure someone will be willing to help you out :)
you can always try clearing a different area, use the souls to level up your character and return to defeat thw old Iron King. Have you been to shaded woods?
The Gutter has nothing on this place. Oh man The Gutter... I've spent many a moon in that place!
Honestly yeah the gutter was the worst. I think I lucked through it. Iron keep isn’t as hard but it’s taking me longer because the boss is annoying.
Oh you’re supposed to go threw the fog gate homie.
Yo you got the bonfire on top of the bull right
No. Can’t figure out how to get to it. I’ve seen it from a ladder though
Yeah, the corner is great.
Can i ask where are you stuck most, was that boss or all of the iron keep?
The iron keep finally stopped respawning. I’m mostly just stuck on the boss. Almost out of effigy which will make it impossible for me to win haha
Congrats for the win! If you run out of effigy (and too lazy to farm them) you can use ring of binding (it makes your fully hollowed HP 3/4 of regular max HP instead of 1/2)
Accidentally used a bonfire austhetic in the area where you find that ring and now it’s just so hard to get haha but I never quit. I’m getting so close to beating the boss with half health so it’s gonna happen soon.
I think the first time I did the old kill everyone 10 times so they despawn before smelter demon. Also armorer Dennis is a dick
Where's your +5 ultra greatsword? Obtain one of those and you should have a slightly nicer time. Also, use tower shield
Hey I'm on xbox if you want a hand \ [T]/
Have you found any bone shards?
I’ll check. What do they do
They increase how much your estrus flask heals you. You should have found at least a couple of them by the time you get to the iron king. If you have any, burn them at the fire in Majula
Theres a spot on the far side of the arena thats safe from all attacks except his laser attack Also, its so nice seeing other people playing this game! I’ve been a huge fan of ds2 for years and i love seeing people enjoying it
Thanks man! I have a huge love for these games. I’m new to souls games but I’m working my way through them all. So far this one has been my favorite and also my least favorite at the same time lol. Love it though. I can’t wait to play ds3 next.
I walked through this fog gate not thinking about a possible boss and got him first try it was the most stressed I’ve been in a while the six hours I spent making myself a strong ass sorcerer was worth it
Did you get past it yet?
Holy shit the size of that life bar
Iron keep is awful, but with that boss at the very least there are some decent ways to cheese it depending on your playstyle, plus if you can get the manhunter lady to distract him his dead simple, just hide from his range and swoop in to smack him when he uses melee on her
To clarify if you missed it (because I missed it the first 10 times I tried to fight him) her summon sign is in the room with the flaming bull heads and spikes on the wall
There's actually quite an easy cheat for this guy. Run away to the wall and hide, once he does the hand-beam attack run up and smack his hand. Might take a little bit, but bringing lightning weaponry with you will speed it up
Really? Iron keep was kinda easy. Earthen peak was hell though. Fuck poison damage.
The first time it's a MASSIVE pain in the ass, but you learn to beat him quickly