Death's Gambit |OT| Bet Your Souls

Biestmann · Aug 16, 2018

Forgotten Gaian

on Heroic is driving me insane. The aggro is ridiculous.

My thoughts on the story in response to someone calling it nonsense on Reddit:

As far as I understood the story, Death wishes to end immortality to reestablish the natural order. Thalamus is a god of negative emotions, which happen to surface more and more each time you die. The immortality orb was created by the old civilization Origa belongs to, which is referenced by the giant saying the old architects found a relic underground. Important to note is that the orb and Thalamus are not linked by design. His emerging was an unfortunate, unexpected result of the abuse of immortality, which doomed Origa's civilization and turned it into a setting for a horror movie. Vrael on the other hand wants to kill you because he knows how unstable you have become, trying to avoid a last minute betrayal. He is not at all linked to Thalamus.

The protagonist, I think knew right from the start what his mother had become. "You are not her" was less an observation about the identity of Endless, but more so her character. He was in disbelief of what she had become. After fighting the Thalamus worshipper in Journey's End, we find his mother dead. But she isn't really there. That is just the protagonist realizing that no trace of her remains in Endless, and that she has fallen to Thalamus. You may say that conclusion is reaching on my end, but once I returned to the arena, her corpse was nowhere to be found. She also appears several times as an illusion afterwards. So that is how it occured to me at least.

Personally, I think the story was great, but the presentation overdone in parts. When you start having all these random flashbacks all of a sudden, it took me out more so than it pulled me in. But I understand the meaning of them regardless.

sym30l1c · Aug 16, 2018

Does anybody know the location of the

Gaian relics?

As someone mentioned above, I have the 2nd and the 4th. No idea where the other ones are.

Also, after defeating the last boss, can you still explore the world or does it automatically go to NG+?

Biestmann · Aug 16, 2018

sym30l1c said:
Does anybody know the location of the

Gaian relics?

As someone mentioned above, I have the 2nd and the 4th. No idea where the other ones are.

Also, after defeating the last boss, can you still explore the world or does it automatically go to NG+?

Relic locations as per Wiki:

Gaian Relic 1: Gaian Relic 1 is located after the Dark Knight fight, an elevator appears after the fight and on the way up the elevator there is an illusion wall on the right side with the relic
Gaian Relic 2 is located in the Technologically advanced facility after the dark knight boss. You need to flick 4 switches hidden throughout the map using The Swarm to unlock the door to get it.
Gaian Relic 3: Gaian Relic 3 is located near the second Death Shrine in the Observatory, go left, then up the stairs, and then at the bottom of the ladder there is an invisible wall you can strike to reveal the item
Gaian Relic 4: In Caer Siorai just before the elevator to the top of the tower go back down the set of 3 platforms in the middle of the room and jump to the left, hugging the left wall. The relic will be on a platform attached to the wall with a shark mage guarding it.
Gaian Relic 5: Gaian Relic 5 is recieved from beating the Forgotten Gaian's Heroic Fight

FF Seraphim · Aug 16, 2018

Biestmann said:
Endgame optional stuff spoiler question:

Does anyone know where the four Gaian Relics are? I found only one, as well as the place to socket them. I was thinking one might be in journey's end on the ledge I might require the air dodge to reach, an ability I might not be able to acquire this playthrough. I hope that is not the case!

Oh man you are in for a fight

Got to beat Heroic Gaian for one of the Runes.

sym30l1c · Aug 16, 2018

Biestmann said:
Relic locations as per Wiki:

Gaian Relic 1: Gaian Relic 1 is located after the Dark Knight fight, an elevator appears after the fight and on the way up the elevator there is an illusion wall on the right side with the relic

Gaian Relic 2 is located in the Technologically advanced facility after the dark knight boss. You need to flick 4 switches hidden throughout the map using The Swarm to unlock the door to get it.

Gaian Relic 3: Gaian Relic 3 is located near the second Death Shrine in the Observatory, go left, then up the stairs, and then at the bottom of the ladder there is an invisible wall you can strike to reveal the item

Gaian Relic 4: In Caer Siorai just before the elevator to the top of the tower go back down the set of 3 platforms in the middle of the room and jump to the left, hugging the left wall. The relic will be on a platform attached to the wall with a shark mage guarding it.

Gaian Relic 5: Gaian Relic 5 is recieved from beating the Forgotten Gaian's Heroic Fight

Thanks! What do you get when you get all of them? Do you do something with them or you get some new items/perks?

Biestmann · Aug 16, 2018

FF Seraphim said:
Oh man you are in for a fight

Got to beat Heroic Gaian for one of the Runes.

You don't happen to know a good strategy, do you?

sym30l1c said:
Thanks! What do you get when you get all of them? Do you do something with them or you get some new items/perks?

I wouldn't know, as I am still missing the last. I did not expect that much of a challenge.

sym30l1c · Aug 16, 2018

Biestmann said:
I wouldn't know, as I am still missing the last. I did not expect that much of a challenge.

I think I'm at the very last boss, but I'm not sure whether it's worth getting the relics or not.

Biestmann · Aug 16, 2018

sym30l1c said:
I think I'm at the very last boss, but I'm not sure whether it's worth getting the relics or not.

Regardless of the reward, getting two of the remaining three should take you five minutes at most. The third depends on your performance.

TheIlliterati · Aug 16, 2018

FUUUUUUUUUUUCK

Save corrupted. Game crashed as I was saving. Only a couple of bosses left. I don't imagine there's any way to get this back now. The PS4 just keeps saying it can't load any saves and asks me to delete them over and over. Unlike many my game crashed like twice before this, but this is literally game ending and breaking.

sym30l1c · Aug 16, 2018

TheIlliterati said:
FUUUUUUUUUUUCK

Save corrupted. Game crashed as I was saving. Only a couple of bosses left. I don't imagine there's any way to get this back now. The PS4 just keeps saying it can't load any saves and asks me to delete them over and over. Unlike many my game crashed like twice before this, but this is literally game ending and breaking.

I suppose you don't have the file saved online?
I'm at the end, so I've just uploaded my save file to be on the safe side.
I'm liking the game, but I honestly wouldn't feel like replaying everything from the beginning right now.

TheIlliterati · Aug 16, 2018

sym30l1c said:
I suppose you don't have the file saved online?
I'm at the end, so I've just uploaded my save file to be on the safe side.
I'm liking the game, but I honestly wouldn't feel like replaying everything from the beginning right now.

Not sure, I'm going to check. I think it should be there.

Edit:Well, its there, its a few hours back. Better than the whole game though. I have to redo the entire Darkness/Garde Tun area.

FF Seraphim · Aug 16, 2018

Biestmann said:
You don't happen to know a good strategy, do you?

I wouldn't know, as I am still missing the last. I did not expect that much of a challenge.

God... I am struggling with this one it is just so god damn hard because of the adds. I do not think we are suppose to tackle Heroic until NG+ since there is a level cap with NG. I am just not doing enough damage with my scythe... Might forget the relic for now beat the game then farm to level up some more.

sym30l1c · Aug 16, 2018

FF Seraphim said:
God... I am struggling with this one it is just so god damn hard because of the adds. I do not think we are suppose to tackle Heroic until NG+ since there is a level cap with NG. I am just not doing enough damage with my scythe... Might forget the relic for now beat the game then farm to level up some more.

I've just done it. It took a few tries. I increased the damage to 150% and had 5 feathers only.

I'm using the Anti Gravity Field aura to help with stamina regeneration. What I did is to try to get the Gaian just 1 hit away from triggering Ione and kill the spawns.
Then trigger Ione and focus on her with a lot of hits plus abilities. At that point I'm not even looking at the spawns. I have a Vados longsword +8 and with 213 damage (not counting the additional damage from reducing the feathers).
It's essentially an all or nothing strategy, not very elegant but it worked.

Biestmann · Aug 16, 2018

sym30l1c said:
I've just done it. It took a few tries. I increased the damage to 150% and had 5 feathers only.

I'm using the Anti Gravity Field aura to help with stamina regeneration. What I did is to try to get the Gaian just 1 hit away from triggering Ione and kill the spawns.
Then trigger Ione and focus on her with a lot of hits plus abilities. At that point I'm not even looking at the spawns. I have a Vados longsword +8 and with 213 damage (not counting the additional damage from reducing the feathers).
It's essentially an all or nothing strategy, not very elegant but it worked.

When you find out what socketing all five sigils does, I'd appreciate if you let me know.

GwyndolinCinder · Aug 16, 2018

Finished playthrough 1, will do a gush post later because this game is an absolute gem. For now, i leave you with my EldCouncil&Endless - no damage kills/strats.
https://youtu.be/4vRLnbwW-6A

I only invested stats into FIN, so these strats should work for any build.

Thoughts on Endless

You want her to do the lunge across the room as often as possible, because 99% after this move she prepares the low sweep which is SUPER punishing. So for one lunge youll get atleast two full combos
Keep your distance at all times because the backflip-spin, and moonlight projectile combo are super hard to dodge at close range. Dodge them by running away, then rolling towards her. Timing is tricky for both
Emotions order: Fear -> sadness -> rage. Save purple stuff for fear, use BOWS on sadness, use purple on rage.
Fear is an absolute nightmare, its fair but you have to make decisions very quickly. Pulling her is the hardest part, since you have to be right next to her, which gives you very little room to manoeuvre. Each move is dodgeable, but without spacing to rely on the dodges are hard to execute. Use built up purple stuff to burst her down
Sadness is really easy, easier than rage, so you might question doing her second. But doing rage last makes her super easy! Just spam bows vs sadness, not the gun since it uses purple.
Rage is trickier the longer shes alive, but she will deal alot of damage to herself and since youve got loads of purple you can burst her down during this phase. The hard part about rage is not getting hit by the projectiles from the left, but that doesnt matter if the entire boss is dead before they arrive.

Thoughts on EldCouncil

Its really really awesome
Dodge the poop

Quick thoughts on game overall

CREATIVE
Ninja Gaiden black - Combat Rhythm
Beautiful & charming
Gorgeous and epic adaptive music
Well paced
Generous amount of content
Incredibly well designed encounters
Story is interesting, but was very unwelcome alot of the time. Pays off in some moments though, dat boss reveal

Dphex · Aug 16, 2018

"Dodge the poop" would be my advice regarding this game

Triggerhappytel · Aug 16, 2018

GwyndolinCinder said:
Finished playthrough 1, will do a gush post later because this game is an absolute gem. For now, i leave you with my EldCouncil&Endless - no damage kills/strats.
https://youtu.be/4vRLnbwW-6A

Might I suggest you spoiler some of this please for benefit of those of us who still have a long way to go?

sym30l1c · Aug 16, 2018

Biestmann said:
When you find out what socketing all five sigils does, I'd appreciate if you let me know.

I still have no idea what to do with those relics.
Maybe they are used to open the door to

Cusith?

I remember when the door was closed it said you needed some kind of

Gaian emblem (or something like)

to open it.
Unfortunately I have no way to know because I opened the door with

a special master key that I obtained by killing the snail NPC

So, it was either that, or something else I have no idea about.

GwyndolinCinder · Aug 16, 2018

Apparently you can upgrade your weapons?

Stainless · Aug 16, 2018

would be interested to see if there are any specific patch notes for the update I saw come down today...it's always just "bug fixes"

Triggerhappytel · Aug 16, 2018

GwyndolinCinder said:
Apparently you can upgrade your weapons?

You can once you find the hairy shaman dude who hangs around by the huge Death statue in the sanctuary. I've only done a bit of weapon modifying but I think you need soul stones which you can get from disassembling useless equipment (like obsolete armour or weapons) to do it.

Edit - I think I freed him in the icy area with all the big wolf warriors with their axes.

TheIlliterati · Aug 16, 2018

GwyndolinCinder said:
Apparently you can upgrade your weapons?

As far as I can tell it does basically nothing. It literally adds one damage for each level to each weapon which is all but worthless. I don't know if its bugged or what but it worth leveling to +4 cause its cheap but not beyond there.

GwyndolinCinder · Aug 16, 2018

Triggerhappytel said:
You can once you find the hairy shaman dude who hangs around by the huge Death statue in the sanctuary. I've only done a bit of weapon modifying but I think you need soul stones which you can get from disassembling useless equipment (like obsolete armour or weapons) to do it.

Edit - I think I freed him in the icy area with all the big wolf warriors with their axes.

Whatttt, he was just all high to me "like lets chill out and mediate"#

TheIlliterati said:
As far as I can tell it does basically nothing. It literally adds one damage for each level to each weapon which is all but worthless. I don't know if its bugged or what but it worth leveling to +4 cause its cheap but not beyond there.

I'm not suprised given his chilled nature, cant imagine he does a good days work. While im asking questions,do you know if theres someone to upgrade the scythe?

Biestmann · Aug 16, 2018

sym30l1c said:
I still have no idea what to do with those relics.
Maybe they are used to open the door to

Cusith?

I remember when the door was closed it said you needed some kind of

Gaian emblem (or something like)

to open it.
Unfortunately I have no way to know because I opened the door with

a special master key that I obtained by killing the snail NPC

So, it was either that, or something else I have no idea about.

In the starting area of the game, drop down between the two hollow trees to reach a new area. On its very left side is the entrance to a little cavern with a golden knight. That one dropped a nice aura for me, which I am not sure is guaranteed, and behind it is a gate that requires Gaia's Crest. Behind that door, you will find five pillars you can socket in one sigil each.

GwyndolinCinder said:
I'm not suprised given his chilled nature, cant imagine he does a good days work. While im asking questions,do you know if theres someone to upgrade the scythe?

Same NPC should do that too.

stan_marsh · Aug 16, 2018

lol game crashed halfway through Thalamus ...

sym30l1c · Aug 16, 2018

Biestmann said:
In the starting area of the game, drop down between the two hollow trees to reach a new area. On its very left side is the entrance to a little cavern with a golden knight. That one dropped a nice aura for me, which I am not sure is guaranteed, and behind it is a gate that requires Gaia's Crest. Behind that door, you will find five pillars you can socket in one sigil each.

Thanks! I'd been in that area before, but I don't know why I didn't check if you could go to the left.

Now, the only mystery that's left for me is the room you see on your left at the bottom of Garde Tum.

In the area before the positive/negative charged enemies, when you go down with the elevator you can see a room on the left (there's a hovering round device in it).
In one of the maps in Garde Tum you can clearly see that there should be a path, but there is no way to enter. There is no invisible wall. I tried everything I could think of,
but nothing worked.

Biestmann · Aug 16, 2018

sym30l1c said:
Thanks! I'd been in that area before, but I don't know why I didn't check if you could go to the left.

Now, the only mystery that's left for me is the room you see on your left at the bottom of Garde Tum.

In the area before the positive/negative charged enemies, when you go down with the elevator you can see a room on the left (there's a hovering round device in it).
In one of the maps in Garde Tum you can clearly see that there should be a path, but there is no way to enter. There is no invisible wall. I tried everything I could think of,
but nothing worked.

Did you check the sigil room out yet? Did anything special happen?
And yeah, I saw that too. There was a segment one square above and one to the left where you fought a giant, but defeating it activated the pathway across the pit, and I couldn't try dropping in from there anymore. It's peculiar for sure, since the round thing you get glimpses of is unlike anything I have seen in the game.

Mockerre · Aug 16, 2018

Where are the reviews?

GwyndolinCinder · Aug 16, 2018

Had no idea my class had a roleplay element unique to it, i could restore broken death idols thought that was a weird exercise.
edit: Wait what these classes are for real, change the way you get soul and everything

sym30l1c · Aug 16, 2018

Biestmann said:
Did you check the sigil room out yet? Did anything special happen?

Sorry, I thought you had already done it.
I got 5 immortalite stones,

one for each relic.

That's all I got :(

Biestmann said:
And yeah, I saw that too. There was a segment one square above and one to the left where you fought a giant, but defeating it activated the pathway across the pit, and I couldn't try dropping in from there anymore. It's peculiar for sure, since the round thing you get glimpses of is unlike anything I have seen in the game.

I went around the lower floor, but there seem to be no way to drop down and no hidden passages anywhere. The weird thing
is that in one map it shows you can get there, but in another map you find later that passage is not there anymore. I think I'm gonna give up at this point.
I'll try a couple of bosses on heroic and then just go to the last boss.

ThisOne · Aug 16, 2018

Is Heroic basically new game+?

Biestmann · Aug 16, 2018

GwyndolinCinder said:
Had no idea my class had a roleplay element unique to it, i could restore broken death idols thought that was a weird exercise.
edit: Wait what these classes are for real, change the way you get soul and everything

Yeah, the differences are staggering. When you start out you don't really know what class will suit you best yet, but reading up on it now, I really should have gone with Soldier over Sentinel...

Lulu · Aug 16, 2018

So kinda eh like chasm and moonlighter?

ThisOne · Aug 16, 2018

Lulu said:
So kinda eh like chasm and moonlighter?

I'm enjoying it more than Chasm. Haven't played Moonlighter yet, though.

stan_marsh · Aug 16, 2018

Why is the Galaxy Mage doing so much damage to me?

I've never hated and loved a game like this in a while, christ.

GwyndolinCinder · Aug 16, 2018

Lulu said:
So kinda eh like chasm and moonlighter?

Sitting right next to GoW as my games of the year so far.

stan_marsh · Aug 16, 2018

GwyndolinCinder said:
Sitting right next to GoW as my games of the year so far.

How anyone can see this as a game of the year is beyond me but to each their own.

A lot of the times you're not fighting the bosses or enemies you're fighting the janky mechanics.

Salt and Sanctuary was so much better, shame it kept crashing.

GwyndolinCinder · Aug 16, 2018

stan_marsh said:
How anyone can see this as a game of the year is beyond me but to each their own.

A lot of the times you're not fighting the bosses or enemies you're fighting the janky mechanics.

Salt and Sanctuary was so much better, shame it kept crashing.

Do explain then..

sym30l1c · Aug 16, 2018

So, I finished the game. The last boss fight was fairly easy...or maybe I was overleveled.
At the end

the game gives you the option to choose NG+, NG+2 or NG+3.
The text "Choose NG+" also turns into "Choose Regret" for a second. I pressed the button
when that appeared, but I just went straight into NG+. So, I'm not sure "Choose Regret" is another gameplay option.
Maybe it just means that moving to NG+ is like regretting the choice that you made at the end of the game to
destroy the source of immortality, so you do it all over again.

Also, there is no trophy for finishing the game? Nothing popped up after the end for me.

Lulu · Aug 16, 2018

stan_marsh said:
How anyone can see this as a game of the year is beyond me but to each their own.

A lot of the times you're not fighting the bosses or enemies you're fighting the janky mechanics.

Salt and Sanctuary was so much better, shame it kept crashing.

Unfortunately for Salt and Sanctuary it was really too ugly to sit through but yes I've heard amazing thing about it.

stan_marsh · Aug 16, 2018

GwyndolinCinder said:
Do explain then..

Sure, how about this shit happening constantly or things like this:

Boss spoilers:

GwyndolinCinder · Aug 16, 2018

stan_marsh said:
Sure, how about this shit happening constantly or things like this:

Boss spoilers:

I mean thats a bug not a mechanic.
Console version i assume? Bugs arent bad on PC, occasional audio loss is a somewhat frequent offender i ran into when retrying the same boss, and one time a boss respawned cause i killed it before it could finish its final phase intro shift......

Do little jump and attacks like this, https://youtu.be/8l28rw_F9N4 .

stan_marsh · Aug 16, 2018

GwyndolinCinder said:
I mean thats a bug not a mechanic.
Console version i assume? Bugs arent bad on PC, occasional audio loss is a somewhat frequent offender i ran into when retrying the same boss, and one time a boss respawned cause i killed it before it could finish its final phase intro shift......

Do little jump and attacks like this, https://youtu.be/8l28rw_F9N4 .

Yea ps4, I'm just frustrated this game should have been more polished imo.

Thanks for the tip!

Biestmann · Aug 16, 2018

stan_marsh said:
Yea ps4, I'm just frustrated this game should have been more polished imo.

Thanks for the tip!

You're right, and I feel fortunate to be playing the much more solid PC version. There still is bugs, some items don't do what they say they do, some things happen that clearly should not... the game needed another month or two in the oven, and it's a shame they instead delivered it in this state. I think there are some clear indicators that they were unable to finish all the content they had planned too, and I wonder if some DLC could have them address that. I really wouldn't mind, as the experience was meaty enough as is.

GwyndolinCinder · Aug 16, 2018

The tutorial needs some additions too. They know that many players are going to have predefined expectations of how combat should work based on souls, i.e roll, attack, roll, attack
Can easily show new players this mindset is wrong, by making the attacks of the first enemies have a RPS style relationship between "Dodge, jump, backstep".
For example, introduce enemy type: The spearman who has three moves

Low sweep: The spearman sweeps the spear 360 degrees around him, with the spear low to the ground
Tall overhead: The spear man points the spear high in the air, and slams it to the ground
Lunge: The spearman lunges the spear forward, then behind him

The sweep would be easily dodged with a jump, allowing for free counter attack. The overhead would need to be dodged, but it could be slow to allow for counter attacks. The lunge would would demonstrate the usefulness of a backstep, fast and glorious iframes. Instead of an early tutorial like this, the game expects you figure out the purpose and importance of each manoeuvre when you get stuck on a boss and cant possibly think how to progress.

The bosses have enough mechanics you should not be learning the importance of a backstep during the GalMage fight, you should be able to recognise the situations backsteps are useful by that point and think immediately "Oh ill try backstepping that". Instead GalMage comes out swinging dualswords & teleporting, and you are like wtf am i meant to do, my rolls to slow, i cant jump over that hes teleporting.

^ Maybe this is what stan means by fighting mechanics

Biestmann · Aug 16, 2018

I'll be honest, I haven't backstepped intentionally even once and I am at the end of the game. The lack of a follow-up attack akin to Souls made me think of it as fairly useless early on. Meanwhile, I am rocking a shield with A stability and can block most attacks with ease, especially after upping my stamina. Taking the GalMage's teleporting slashes for example, I just block in whichever direction he pops out of. High stability shields with high stamina are so good, they won't falter even after multiple attacks. The dodge roll still has uses though when it comes to dodging and covering distance at the same time. But this is why I say I should have picked Soldier. Energy build on block would have had me running at 100 all the time!

Triggerhappytel · Aug 16, 2018

I had a couple of crashes during a 90-ish minute session tonight (PS4). Both crashes happened fairly close together, and thankfully nothing since then.

Anyway, I've been grinding the giant knight beside the save point just up the elevator in the sanctuary. Spent about 30+ minutes just fighting him and must have gone up about 22 levels. I then went and killed Batman and fought Origa, but couldn't do much damage to her. Bit of a trek to get back there and I couldn't avoid taking a bit of damage so I was already down by about 2 estus.

Probably won't have much time for gaming over the next week, so I'll have to juggle my time between this and Guacamelee 2.

Slev · Aug 16, 2018

Finished my first play through.

Really enjoyed it. Game definitely could use some combat polish, but still enjoyed my time.

Not sure if i want to do NG+ or just start another class...

FF Seraphim · Aug 16, 2018

Okay beat the game, tried to the 4 hour run for the trophy.... the game crashed on me. I did not get my trophy...

SaberX85 · Aug 17, 2018

Finished the game, what an underwhelming last boss. Maybe i'm overleveled, it was so easy.

Solid 7/10 for me, not gonna try to platinum it.

Death's Gambit |OT| Bet Your Souls

Story Director

Saw the truth behind the copied door

Saw the truth behind the copied door