
i've yet to use my backups, but i still keep them there any time i start a pvp session anyway. i've been playing the whole game online for almost 300hrs now and have barely met about 2 hackers in my adventures, all of which weren't interested in the malicious hacks and used 1hit daggers or infinite hp instead. though we do always bring up the topic of hackers, the situation is kinda exaggerated. Currently going through huntsman's copse, which is really keeping in tune with the weirdly uneven difficulty theme - first part is easy, second part you run into a bunch of fast halberd-wielding guys who can kill you in 3 hits.Originally posted by BlobMan32:well you shouldn't be that concerned. Haven't found any bonfire ascetics yet, but I'll give it a try when I do. Trust me, I've depleted several areas already.

If you're really struggling at getting past some area, but keep fighting the enemies there, eventually you'll be able to proceed safely. (Some enemies have more, some have less, but 12 seems to be the standard). The small ones have lightning-fast attacks and 3-hit combos and can hit behind them and are just a huge pain in the for the dynamic difficulty: enemies have a limited number of lives, kill them 12 times and they're permanently gone.

It's the regular knights, not the giant ones that give me trouble there. This area mostly is there to teach you how to block and circle around enemies, I'd say :P Originally posted by Yal:Heide's Tower gets much easier with a shield and blunt weapon - the rusty knights' attacks chip away incredibly little stamina when blocked, and blunt attacks easily do twice as much damage to them, at least with unupgraded weapons. If you want a harder game, you can make an area harder, and you get rewarded with more soul drops from dead enemies and a chance to reloot all items. There also is an item called Bonfire Ascetic that can be used to revitalize a bonfire: it respawns all item orbs on corpses, refills all enemies' lives (including reviving bosses), but also increases the area's difficulty one NG+ cycle.


This area mostly is there to teach you how to block and circle around enemies, I'd say :PĪs for the dynamic difficulty: enemies have a limited number of lives, kill them 12 times and they're permanently gone. Heide's Tower gets much easier with a shield and blunt weapon - the rusty knights' attacks chip away incredibly little stamina when blocked, and blunt attacks easily do twice as much damage to them, at least with unupgraded weapons.
