Part 13: Undead Purgatory

Wanted to do this earlier, but forgot about it until now. This is a small extra bit of Huntsman's Copse featuring an additional boss as well as the straight invasion covenant.



Wearin' the Helm from the set of Armor that adorns most Dark Souls II promotional materials. I'm not a big fan of the set but the helm fits well with a lot of things. Like our White Priestess Robes.





Executioner's Chariot


This fight is unique, although in my opinion is more tedious than anything else in the beginning (unique) stage but after that it just doesn't pay off. I know a lot of people like this fight and I suppose there is a reason for that it's just I don't get it.

The fight starts us out in a circular corridor. Going to the right will bring us to a bottomless pit we don't want to make acquaintance with the left will lead us to where we need to go. But it's not as easy as it sounds. A chariot is constantly going through the corridor counter-clockwise. You going clockwise, of course, means that you'll have it coming right at you sooner than later, getting hit deals a huge chunk of damage and will most likely just kill you. To make it worse there's plenty of skeletons littering the path and as a little cherry on top there are two necromancers reviving the Skeletons.

To actually survive you need to hide out in the little nooks located in both walls of the corridor and slowly advance towards a lever while dealing with the skeletons and avoiding the chariot itself. It is very easy to die here. Of course you'll wanna be safe and hide out early to avoid the chariot but if you get in too early skeletons may swarm you (this happens to me in the video, I survive through nothing but dumb luck). Depending on your shield or ability to parry you might be able to just block their attacks until the chariot takes care of them for you. At which point you hurry to the nearest Necromancer to make one half of the skeletons stay dead.

The only real "trick" to this fight is to not lose your cool. Wait for the chariot. Head out and kill a couple skeletons. Hide again. Rinse and repeat until you find a Necromancer then pick off surviving skeletons or let the chariot do it for you. Then go to the entire thing one more time. If you want a really easy time you can just get a couple Alluring skulls, which will make enemies go wherever you throw it. That way you don't really have to deal with the skeletons themselves.

This doesn't sound too hard, does it? It sounds like it could be a fun and exciting challenge. Well, it is. Even if you do your first time because you go "Oh shit, they come back to life" but if you die again it's more frustrating than anything to go through that part again. Thankfully, or disappointingly the actual boss is not really challenging or fun at all.

Once you got everything cleared out wait for the chariot to pass one more time and pull the lever you should be able to see from where the second necromancer was hiding. It will lower a gate and the chariot will crash through it and get wrecked, leaving only its two-headed horse to fight you.

It's best to stay at it's side. It's almost completely safe. Opposed to the front, where it can charge, stomp and breathe darkness in your face and the back, where it'll just kick out, don't be behind it. The only attack that can it you when you're on the side is the stomp, which as a surprisingly large area of effect. Just get away when you notice it's about to stomp and you're fine. When you see it doing its breath this will give you a great opportunity to get a good couple of hits in and deal a lot of damage to it while it does it.

Overall getting to actually fight the boss is harder than the boss itself. This is not necessarily a problem it's just that the approach to it, while a neat idea, gets old fast. At least that's how I feel about it.

One thing to take note of is that you'll get a Cloranthy Ring +2 if you beat it on a NG+


Boss Weapons
Soul of the Executioner's Chariot, that holds control over the Undead Purgatory.
The chariot was created only to torment Undead, and it took the form of a horrendous mad steed, a window into the soul of its master.
Give this Soul to Straid to make...

Weapon

Moveset/Weapon Class: Lance
Physical Damage (+0/+5): 124/310
Bleed Effect (+0/+5): 67/ 100
Scales with: STR (B), DEX (E)
Requirements: 30 STR, 18 DEX
Damage Type: Thrust

In-Game Description:
Lance forged from the soul of the Executioner's Chariot. Its cross-shaped blade causes bleeding.
The perverse design of this spear mirrors the chariot from which it came, a merciless creation that endlessly tortured the Undead.


Shield Crossbow

Moveset/Weapon Class: Crossbow
Physical Damage (+0/+5): 112 / 280
Scales with: -
Requirements: 19 STR, 10 DEX
Damage Type: Strike

In-Game Description:
Crossbow created from the soul of the Executioner's Chariot. Iron plate serves as a shield while firing.
The merciless chariot inflicted agony upon others with utter impunity, and the crossbow created from its soul strives to protect from possible retribution.
Effect: guard while firing


Brotherhood of Blood:
To join this covenant you need to have one Token of Spite you can get from a succesful invasion or find in one or two places in the game. With that in hands talk to Titchy Gren in Undead Purgatory. The Covenant can be described as the "Return of the Dickwraiths" The classic Invasion based PvP from Demon's Souls and Dark Souls is back and it's better than ev... not really. It's the same. It's still fun. It's main problem is that the Cracked Red Eye Orbs you need to invade someone are pretty hard to obtain and very rare until you can buy an infinite amount on NG+. I wish they gave you way more of them way earlier instead of making it way less likely for people on NG+ to get invaded. Soul Memory, of course, complicates things as well. Anyway, here's how it works: You use a Cracked Red Eye Orb and invade another player's game. You then hunt that player down and make cocky gesture if you win. You then need to win so fucking many times to actually get a reward. You can also duel other covenant members using the statues near Gren, but you need a Token of Spite to actually duel as well.

To join: with 1 Token of Spite, talk to Titchy Gren and he'll let you join and give you the Crest of Blood a ring that adds strenghtens the bleed effect of bleed weapons.
50 Kills - You get a curved twinblade. You'll also get some kinda Aura I've never seen.
150 Kills - You get the Crescent Sickle, a reaper type weapon. Also more Aura I've never seen.
500 FUCKING KILLS - You get Grens Scythe and Robes as well as Great Chaos Fireball, a pyromancy that was really easy to get in the first game maybe too easy. I'm not gonna get it through the covenant in Dark Souls II because I'm not gonna win or even fight 500 invasions or duels.

As far as some people claim you get one kill, or rather point, deducted every time you lose. So that's funny too. Welcome to Dark Souls and fuck you too. Gonna tell me to git gud, huh? That what you wanna tell me???
I honestly don't know if this is actually the case though and I'm not going to find out by testing. I also don't care because I'm just gonna buy the spell on NG++ once we reach a certain Merchant. He will only sell it on an actual NG++, yes two pluses. And using Ascetics doesn't work. It's one of the few things you can't use an Ascetic for.


Item Descriptions:
Crest of Blood
Ring of the Brotherhood of Blood Covenant.
This is nothing special. Perhaps, in the end, an oath is but a window into the ambitions of the oath taker.
If you have taken this oath, then you know what you want. To be soaked in the blood of your kind.
Note: The description says it's nothing special, but it actually has an effect. It adds further bleed damage to any weapon that already has a bleed effect on it allowing you to make your opponents bleed faster.

Curved Twinblade
A twinblade imported from a foreign land. The razor-sharp blades cause bleeding, but as a result, are easily worn and dulled. When wielded by a master, this dual-tipped blade is an unparalleled weapon that hardly allows a foe any opportunity to retaliate...

Crescent Sickle
A sickle with a crescent-shaped blade.
This sickle, enchanted by magic,
is not intended as a weapon,
but rather a ceremonial instrument.

Great Chaos Fireball
Dark Souls II: The Chaos Flame is said to have devoured the mother of pyromancy.
Create a chaos flame, and hurl it at foes.
This special flame creates a short-lived surge of molten lava wherever it lands
Dark Souls: Art of the Flame of Chaos, which engulfed the Witch of Izalith and her daughters. Hurl giant chaos fireball.
The Flames of Chaos can melt stone, producing a short-lived lava glob.

Scythe of Nahr Alma
The scythe used by Titchy Gren, and by believers in Nahr Alma, god of blood.
Normally used only in ceremonies. Imbued with the power of dark.
This is no place for talk of such things, however

Dispatcher Set of Armor
Armor worn by Tiny Gren.
Blessed with the protection of the god of war Nahr Alma. This armor is much heavier than it looks, overwhelmed by the blood that it has absorbed