#chloranthy-ring

[sexhaver]

it's easy to forget now that literal dozens of youtubers have made careers out of dissecting every conceivable aspect of Elden Ring's lore, but one of the funniest moments in any Fromsoft game ever was going into ER completely blind at launch and being told that you can meet with "the Two Fingers" after some point in the story, and you think okay, so obviously they're referring to two human people who have a role in the religion of this world referred to as "fingers" because there's five of them total i guess? oh Miyazaki and GRRM, you two are so kooky sometimes. and then the door finally opens and you walk in there and are confronted by two giant literal fingers with knuckle hair and all

[mrsterlingeverything]

What are yalls favorite ds2 builds

[biohorror-human]

I BEAT DARK SOULS 3 WITHOUT DYING

This was seriously one of the most inspiring and intense few hours of my life. The whole run (in game time) was 9 hours. I used the uchigatana until I reached aldrich, where I swapped to the washing pole. Uchigatana is kind of a really bad weapon, and switching to the washing pole didn't increase my AR very much, but the extra length absolutely changed everything. Fighting bosses actually became like a dance, I was circling every enemy in the game. I had a few close calls with Yhorm and Dragonslayer Armor, but other than that I beat every boss relatively easily.

The no-deaths run forces you to re-evaluate how you play the game. For the first time ever, I was using bug pellets, green blossoms, and resins during bosses. I had divine blessings in my toolbelt the whole run. I leveled my faith to 15 so I could use tears of denial, and used the scholar's ring combined with hidden body and slumbering dragoncrest ring to sneak past the 3 strong NPC's at the end of the grand archives. I doubled back to old areas over and over to pick up items I forgot that ended up being massively useful. The chloranthy ring, the estus ring, every single estus shard and bone shard. I hot swapped to the mimic head, silver serpent ring, and shield of want after every boss to maximize soul gain and levels, I sold basically my entire inventory to scrape enough souls to get a few more levels, and even re-spec'd those faith points from earlier into vitality once I had access to the priestess ring. I was using 110% of the things the game was giving to me, and holy shit it just barely worked.

I failed my first attempt (super strength build, just playing the way I usually do but with more effort) because I leveled tf out of vitality for heavy armor. Yeah, heavy armor does give more defence, but it's sort of just a cherry on top. I should've put way more into vigor (40 is a good place to stop, my first attempt I stopped at 30 I think? It ended up getting me killed. Bad idea.)

Anyways holy shit terrifying run terrifying game I loved every second of this run. I think I'm a stronger person after this.

I recommend this run to anyone who thinks it's within their abilities to complete. Definitely make sure you're confident in your abilities because I struggled a bit with this run and I consider myself to be an incredibly good dark souls 3 player.

Also, don't just use your favorite weapon and plan out your whole run. Just do the whole run based on what feels right in the moment, even if it means revisiting old areas to do a kind of shitty 5 minute long run to get the super specific ring you need. You start avoiding enemies and routes that you otherwise would have taken if you were playing without the risk of losing your whole save. GET THE FUCKING ESTUS RING. Use those bug pellets that I know you absolutely forgot about for every other run of the game. Pick some weird weapon to revolve your whole build around.

Me personally? I roleplay as my character.

I'm the egocentric greatsword-compensator who pumped points into vitality to wear the scariest armor possible, who died of their own hubris by under-preparing for the 2nd to last boss in the base game. The once knight-in-shining-armor who served Lothric, now wearing the armor of the kingdom's exiles and hunting gods and kings for sport, all for the rush of adrenaline. Not because they have a goal, but because they want to be reminded they can still die.

I'm the mercenary who rises from the dead and disarms a crazed katana wielding old man just because it looked shiny. Who learns magic just to sneak around other mercenaries like a coward. Who eats a lineup of combat stimulants before and during fights to get an edge on all of their opponents. Who saw where this whole thing was headed and chose to snuff out the fire, rather than let this age of pain continue.

And I'll do this run again and again with different builds each time. I'll give every new character a personality and make dumb choices based on it. It feels like playing the game for the first time again.

10/10 best game I've ever played in my whole life

Also, I recommend watching Sunlight Blade's "crystal only" dark souls 1 challenge run. The ludonarrative he outlines that can only occur under the circumstances of the crystal only run is another chapter of the "dark souls has the best environmental storytelling ever" evidence book.

[the-guiding-qui]

Dark Souls 2 Stamina Just moved to Tumblr and I wanna write down all about the game mechanics I've investigated so why not. Note that I will only speak on current patch Scholar of the First Sin and have no interest in comparing with other patches or games.

So! Stamina Regen! At 0% current equip load, the Player regenerates 51.9 Stamina per second. (Internally the game actually treats it as 519 but the display numbers for stamina are a tenth of that.)

Now, what happens when wear anything? Every single percent of equip load lowers your stamina regeneration. However, not by the same amount.

There are 3 tiers of penalization that apply to every percent within that range:  - 0 to 30% are x0.25 (1/4)  - 30+ to 70% are x0.6875 (11/16)  - 70+ to 120% are x0.5 (1/2)

So for example, if you're at 20% current equip load, you'd have a (20*0.25)% penalty or 5% of 51.9 However, if you had 45% current equip load, you'd have a [(30*0.25)+(15*0.6875)]% penalty or 17.81% of 51.9 The max penalty you can have is at 120% current equip load, equal to [(30*0.25)+(40*0.6875)+(50*0.5)]% or 60% of 51.9

This means that you are on a pseudo-linear graph that makes every point matter. A lot of people ask what the best equip load is and honestly, what ever you like to play on, the game doesn't have any harsh weight tiers under 70%

Let's also look at stamina regen boosting gear. These apply their effects to your current regen, so they give more stamina if you have a lesser load. Chloranthy Ring        12.50% Chloranthy Ring+1    20.00% Chloranthy Ring +2   25.00% Regen Shields           5.00% Green Blossom         15.00%

As you can see, Regen Shields have a very small bonus and they weigh a fair bit so, usually they're just not worth the slot on New Game runs. At least, not unless you're running around naked.

Here's a Calculator for this: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15BqKyGgU1-MIBe9A50Wp39V-jPKMDcZlLWrX7CAdHec/edit?usp=sharing

Shout outs to Evan (https://twitter.com/halfgrownhollow) for helping me find these values and to Etuca for being the best resource on the topic for a long while http://acuteanthrax.blogspot.com/2014/04/dark-souls-2-bleed-mechanic-research.html

[minespatchart]

A non-prompt art I had to scribble down. Gravetender and Halflight are similar bosses. Figured they'd also need their sidekicks as well(Greatwolf would've been too suffocating).

I think the two were blessed by the Chloranthy ring so had to add that memery.

[gamejoypod]

Chloranthy Ring my beloved

DARK SOULS III >> Rings

[poisonheadcrabsalesman]

A Ko-fi for @chloranthy-ring. Featuring the Rookie, Vergil, and Sadie post-ODST

-

Round after round of ONI spooks, labcoats, and even some of the troopers had entered the secure backroom of the ship, and then tried and failed to get any information about the Prophets' goals and the Covenant from the newest addition to the UNSC.

The weird glowing gasbag of an alien was somehow a living supercomputer that had absorbed the Superintendent AI of New Mombasa before the whole city had been glassed and was so far above an ODST's paygrade that it was a wonder that Buck and "Ms. Naval Intelligence" had approached (cornered) Rookie while he was trying to sleep and persuaded (coerced) them into taking a crack at it. Buck had made some comment about being the strong silent type and maybe having something in common with the floating gasbag, and Captain Dare had cut him off with a look and all but shoved the still drowsy Rookie into the room. She probably remembered that he was the one who whistled and coaxed the poor thing out of the Data Hive.

It wasn't like they weren't going to get along, Rookie had grown fond of the Superintendent since it had helped him through the burning wreckage of New Mombasa. Limping along 6 hours after the drop went wrong was greatly improved by having the city's AI looking out for him and calling out health kits after he went toe to toe with the Covenant patrols. The little green face spurred him on as he navigated the dark streets and near empty buildings stained with neon blood and graffiti.

Rookie wasn't unsympathetic to the floating engineers before Dare had told him they were basically slaves or prisoners. He'd witnessed what the Brutes did to the other floating squid guys, wrestling them out of the air and strapping them with bombs, and he had done his best to avoid them.

The thing was-- has parts of a human AI assimilated into it. During their journey through the city, they'd picked up the snippets of data it shared via the public tech and learned about the girl, Sadie. How the Superintendent, Vergil, had a subroutine to look out for her, and the events before the fall of New Mombasa. She got out of the city alright, as far as they knew, and ONI was looking for her now because of her connection to it.

Still being shoved into a room with the thing wasn't high up on his list of things Rookie wanted to do today. That being said they were here now and would have to try something before the rest of the humans on the ship attempted another round of interrogations while they searched for the girl.

So he waved at the thing as it floated near the ceiling, humming and trilling as its tentacles danced along the welded seams of the ship and the camera in the corner.

It turned its beady-eyed head towards him and waved back.

Maybe this wouldn't be so hard.

-

So it was a bit harder than he thought. Vergil, the engineer, whatever they were calling it, liked him, but even that didn't make things any easier. It bobbed its head and wiggled and gestured with its tentacles when he tried communicating, but that was no basis for understanding. The glowing creature seemed curious and approached Rookie and even copied some of the hand signs he showed it, but it couldn't explain its own language or the strange marking he'd seen on the walls of the city. And to top it all off, the higher ups did not want to give it any tech to tinker with yet because they weren't sure of its abilities.

A commpad would have helped but apparently the thing was smart enough to hack both human and Covenant networks remotely so for now they had to deal with what they had. Rookie tilted his helmet at Vergil and showed it the sign he made for it. A "V" followed by the sign for "float", since the engineer didn't approve of the sign for "balloon". It chirped, bobbing and trilling as it copied the sign and waggled its tendrils.

Then it moved its tentacles in a strange approximation of familiar enough motions; a tendril flattening out and pushing towards him followed by one tapping another in a perpendicular fashion and then two tendrils moving back and forth from left to right as the alien tilted its head questioningly.

The damn thing just asked him his name.

Rookie rocked back on his heels for a moment, helmet lifted in surprise, and then he signed his initials. "JD"

-

"It's been a few days of those two staring at each other in total silence and you're telling me they've learned how much from the squid?

"Well, if you knew who was on your squad you might know about their background with nonverbal communication.”

"Well yeah, the kid's real quiet, helluva a trooper though. Don't see how that got the gasbag to open up."

"Sign language, Buck. He used sign language because Vergil could understand it and the engineer is Vergil."

"Oh. How was I supposed to know?"

"Read your team's files. Or read the reports I send you."

"Ow! Hey, Veronica--"

-

Vergil misses Sadie. The engineer- huragok -explains once they let it have a datapad. It hacks into a secure covenant facility, downloads a huge amount of data even human AI couldn't hope to access, and gets the UNSC the information they wanted about the artifact Truth uncovered.

Once communication is a bit easier, Quick to Adjust introduces itself and asks after Sadie, even offering to help find her if it meant she was protected. Vergil is there, amalgamated into the being that is Quick to Adjust, seemingly making the alien biocomputer a bit more friendly to humans and willing to cooperate. It doesn't hurt that the trooper that helped bring it in was the one it was watching over after the attack on the city began and that same trooper has been teaching it sign.

It missed having companions. Later that day, JD teaches it another sign; one tentacle on top of another clasping it once before flipping the limbs over and repeating the action once. Friend.

-

The UNSC finds Sadie nearly a week later, and Rookie can't help but feel for her when sees her escorted in after a series of briefings. The familiar sting of sympathetic grief pangs in his chest. This time it's different from the nameless dead and missing since he heard her story, followed her path around the darkened streets of Mombasa, and looking into her eyes, bloodshot from lack of sleep or grief he doesn't know.

She's only a few years younger than him and it shows, but so does her courage when she squares her shoulders and marches up to where Rookie is leaning against the wall with arms crossed as they try to doze outside Vergil's room.

"I've been told in no uncertain terms I'm supposed to work with an alien that's also the Superintendent. I've been talked at and talked over for hours so just open the door and let me see what I have to work with."

Rookie stands and uncrosses his arms with a nod, and turns, knocking on the door three times. It slides open near silently and a curious trill sounds from inside as a soft pink glow nears.

Sadie lifts her head and enters with almost no hesitation and Rookie follows in time to see Quick To Adjust stop fiddling with its specialized harness and nearly drop a datapad.

It recovers and brightens, bioluminescence glowing as it taps out a message and a familiar robotic voice chimes, "Hello Sadie."

"Vergil?"

-

Now also on ao3!

[navek15]

I just wanted to commemorate Asta, my pure strength character and the first character I used to beat every boss in Dark Souls 3! I’m gonna respec her into a Crucifix of the Mad King Build for New Game +, but I’ll never forget the fun I had smashing and frostbiting my foes.

[the-punforgiven]

That feel when you realize how you would have worded something you said earlier properly but it's been several hours since you said it so who cares

[tonguethulhu]

Cockanthy Ring

The dark souls of boner pills

[bellygunnr]

Cowardice

A Ko-Fi for @chloranthy-ring ! A piece about Promethean Knight Palmer and Thomas Lasky.

[TOP SECRET] [MOST IMMEDIATE]

"We are looking for a suitable-- I apologize, but something's come up-- yes, I understand--"

If his finger slips, terminating the hologram meeting early, he doesn't think twice about it. He turns his attention to his personal terminal instead, rereading the full contents of the message he'd just received. Immediate summons for his presence weren't common and he kept expecting ONI's stamp to be somewhere in the letter, but it was instead signed off by the Infinity's science team. 

He isn't sure why he dreads that more. If it was ONI-- or even someone from the Spartan branch-- then that'd be normal. Nothing had been normal in the xeno research labs since...

"Roland, what's the fastest route to the lab?" Thomas asks, canting his head in a vague direction. "Please."

He taps his data pad-- or tries to. A yellow alert consumes most of the surface, accented by a pixelated version of the aforementioned AI. It almost makes him smile, but the fondness barely cuts through the layers of anxiety in his chest.

"Wait for train #3. Fireteam Crimson will be aboard."

Simple enough instructions. Thomas runs a hand through his hair, sighing. He'd need to reschedule his meeting with Spartan Jun, lest the man disrupt his ship's entire mission and purpose. Not that that would be unwelcome, but there'd be difficulties in pulling out now. He'd just been about to float the idea of Spartan Locke as a viable replacement, after all.

But the summons-- the train, only now pulling into station-- delayed him. He straightens his posture with a deep breath, boarding the tram with more confidence than he feels. Immediately, he's made aware of how little space is left-- apparently, when Roland had mentioned Crimson, he'd meant all of them.

Their collective armor rattles as they hasten to salute him and he waves them off, shaking his head. Crimson One takes a step sideways, gesturing that he sits where she once occupied.

"I'll stand," he says. "If that's alright."

She shrugs, but says nothing. The rest of the tram ride goes in a similar unnerving silence, save for the scream of the electric rails and the shuddering release of maintenance hatches. His brow twitches as he realizes Roland was overriding all manner of rules, regulations, and hardware limits.

As the tram groans to a stop, Thomas can only hope it's worth it. He disembarks on slightly shaking limbs, waiting patiently for the Spartans to step off after him. He watches the train cart rise several inches in response.

The Spartans were heavy.

"This way, sir," Crimson One says.

He falls into step behind her. It's strange that the Fireteam surrounds him, acting as a high security escort-- whatever for, he doesn't know. Just what was he being brought into?

He didn't have the heart to ask.

He finds out quickly enough, though, when Crimson leads him into the lower levels and ushers him past a powerful series of doors. Each body offers their biometric data before vocally confirming their presence and only then do the steel doors in front of them slide open, admitting a cool rush of air that makes Thomas' skin flush with goosebumps. He adjusts quickly to the temperature, but the sudden darkness as they duck into the lab catches him, making him take a moment for his vision to settle.

And what he sees...

Carefully, he shoves his way past Crimson One, just to open his surroundings up to a strapped down, caged Promethean Knight and a cluster of familiar scientists. Even Roland is there, standing at attention, one golden anchor among a dozen different gold-orange holograms. It's a familiar display, not because it mimics that of a human-built AI but because he's seen the innards of a Promethean Knight before. The structure.

The images.

The humanity.

"Did any of you think to warn me or did you think I wouldn't recognize--?" Thomas starts without thinking, jaw snapping shut on his own tongue. "What the hell."

"I-- well," a scientist starts, looking sheepish, "well, we didn't-- we just thought it pertinent you found out immediately."

Thomas rubs the space between his eyes, sighing. Could grief be reversed? Would this stop the loss, or make it worse?

Around him, reminders gleamed, flashes of his own face glittering in memory thread suspended in the air. Snapshots of the Infinity cast in amber, awkward in that patchy, uneven recollection way. He's not sure if the face of Jun or the bird's eye view of the moon is what seals the deal for him, however.

He forces his gaze away, wrenching his head around so he's staring at a wall instead.

"Ripping out her-- the core didn't kill-- didn't kill it, right?" He asks, voice strained.

"No! No, no! She- the Knight gave it willingly, actually. We have been sending you the reports, you know."

Dimly, he recognizes the voice. Dr. Glassman. When had he gotten here? 

"I haven't had time to read them," Thomas grates out. "Okay. Alright."

He hears someone try to speak. The warm, familiar heat of Mjolnir grows nearer to him, possibly a Crimson member attempting to approach. He lifts his hand, palm out, clenching his jaw.

"Allow me to take a moment, please."

"Of course, Captain," a scientist- not Glassman- says.  

Is it cowardice to leave? To turn his back on [her]? Should they have warned him?

He lets the warmer air in the corridor outside heat his lungs. Just five minutes. That's all he would need to brace himself-- either for the worst or whatever else they wanted to give him. 

Just five minutes.

[sexhaver]

one of my favorite parts about Elden Ring is how comically token its efforts to pretend it's not Dark Souls 4 are (in a good way). it's so funny picking up an item that looks totally new and exciting and reading the description and going "ohh this is the prisoner's chain/cat ring/havel's ring/chloranthy ring/grass crest shield/etc". like seeing an old friend at the supermarket wearing groucho marx glasses to fuck with you until you recognize them and you both have a good laugh

[siofra-river]

Y’all I am shifting into dark souls mode so I changed my url. Shinesspark->Chloranthy-ring

[inexchangeforyoursoul]

doing math for incoming coop session be like “bone dust and all estus I can manage: check. where did I even pick you up but w/e aka life ring: check. i don’t wanna go over 10k soul memory: check, I’m on 9930. mugenmonkey says my levels cost 7375 thus far, I also bought the falconer boots at 1200, and spent another 1200 at Melentia for a bomb that I did not end up using and Lenigrast’s Key, which makes it... 9775??? the heck... am I miss--- oOOOOH leftovers gotcha”

[punchy-mchurtyfist]

Is this what the Chloranthy ring was supposed to look like the whole time? I always just saw a green mass cause the textures were so muddied, but this is super pretty. I’d wear this IRL, sure thing

[bitterfucked]

finally beat all the ds3 bosses solo the other day so here’s a buncha shitty cell phone pics i sent to my friend to brag

build was a regen faith build 44/40 VIG/END, 28/16 STR/DEX, 60 FAITH. rings were Sun Princess, FAP, Havel, and Chloranthy (all +3 for Midir/Gael). i used Blessed Lothric Knight Greatsword for Soul of Cinder, with Ancient Dragon Greatshield offhand, Sunlight Straight Sword + ADGS vs Nameless King, and the Blessed Dragonslayer Axe/Ethereal Oak Shield you see in the pics vs everyone else.

here’s my review of the 5 hardest bosses:

1. Soul of Cinder: 9/10

fun fight, the super varied movesets were really thematic. loses a point cos if you aren’t familiar with previous games’ lore this is kind of an “okay i guess there had to be a final boss” type of fight. like great gameplay but Cindy has 0 story build-up in ds3

2. Nameless King: -100/10 first phase, 7/10 second phase

overhyped garbage fight. hate playing camera souls phase 1, hate that you’re encouraged to bring lightning for the drake’s weakness and then punished for it phase 2, and i hate his janky stab-grab hitbox.

“he’s got a super varied moveset” okay but he doesn’t if you do the typical “suck dick and smack booty” ds3 boss strategy; the fight is just swing swing punish for 2 minutes straight. don’t get me wrong i love ds3 gameplay and i’m here for that but the way ppl talk about NK i was expecting something better than a trashfire phase 1 followed by a phase 2 that is IMO subpar when compared to Dragonslayer Armor or Cindy for “big dude with sword” fights.

i won’t be fighting NK on any NG+s i think. phase 1 is that unfun, so it’s probably a 1/character fight to get his sick fashion and maybe that swordspear

3. Sister Friede: 9/10

first phase is fun as hell once you get the hang of it, phase 2 is a bit meh and really why she isn’t 10/10, phase 3 is terrifying and so satisfying to beat. not much to say here. Friede and Cindy are both very nearly that platonic dark souls ideal of a boss that feels impossibly hard until you learn their moves and realize how fair (yet challenging) the fight is.

4. Midir: 10/10 potential, 7/10 practical

i love midir’s moveset and he’s the dragon fight of my dreams. you know how a lot of video games do dragon fights but they don’t do a good job of actually showcasing what it’s like to fight a five-storey tall crocodile that can breathe fire and fly? midir falls (omg spoiler) a lil short on the flying department but nails everything else.

the thing is, he’s a health sponge. this’d be my favourite fight in the game if he had about 2000 less HP but as is, he’s a bit too much of an endurance fight. which takes away from the sheer terror of a well done dragon - there should be more of an element of “take him down fast or die”. endurance fight removes that tension and makes it more of a “somersaulting arsehole teases animal for ten minutes before delivering a brutal headshot” kind of tone. midir also gives a surprising amount of space for you to heal for a battle that’s considered the hardest in the game, which removes the tension of an endurance fight - you’re not outlasting a series of deadly combos, you’re using your own massive HP pool to marathon 200 hits into midir’s noggin

5. Gael: 6/10

i’m probably never going to fight gael again but he does score a lot of points for

a) having each phase be more of an awe-inspiring “oh shit oh fuck” moment than the last

b) making me nearly piss myself when i passed through the fog gate for the first time and was like “huh this a weird spot for the gate” and then see him just fucking sprinting at me

c) literally saying “it’s always darkest before the soul!” like what a fucking funny line for the final boss of the series

anyways he’s got the same issue as midir where it’s a sastisfyingly difficult fight made frustratingly much harder by an inflated HP pool. even once i got phase 1 & 2 relatively down, he was such a slog that my mistakes would just pile up for phase 3. i know i don’t have this complaint for Friede who has a similar size HP pool but she’s not an endurance slog - she can get combo’d down fast phase 1, and phase 2 is so full of free hits that she’s effectively 5000 HP less than her written total. you don’t spend the entire fight dodging around being like “okay… where’s my one hit opening…” which is fun to do sometimes! just not for the entirety of an extremely long fight

outside of HP bloat, teleporting into phase 2 feels janky and basically having to use the pillars to create space for estus and buffs reduces an epic fight into cheesy videogame moments. i also literally did not realize that his cape hurts you because that makes no fucking sense. i thought he just had janky hit boxes until i looked up a video on how to beat him

fun as hell game overall tho time to finish my pyro, sorc, and ranger playthroughs