Can You Beat DARK SOULS 2 With Only Crossbows?

hey it's lemon welcome to the backlogs it's been a long time since we last stepped foot in the lands of drangleic so i figured we were due for a return and what better way to answer the age-old question that has been bouncing around my head since yesterday can you beat dark souls 2 with only crossbows while i get my dude to the character creation station let's go over the rules first the only direct damage we're allowed to do is with crossbows and crossbow bolts simple enough second no cheating or exploits and third we have to beat every boss in the game before completing the game itself after choosing a name that felt appropriate i make my character a knight because much like dark souls 1 crossbows don't have scaling so a class that starts with high health and stamina is the way to go i sprint my way through the tutorial area and into majula and after getting my first estus flask from the emerald herald i speed walk my way through the forest there were a couple close calls but with the power of pure unadultered speed i'm able to make my way through the level without fighting anyone and after a hard left at pate and a short ladder climb later i finally have access to my first crossbow alright let's get this run started for those unaware crossbows and dark souls 2 are a bit better than the first game you can now have two bolt types available on the fly and you can even manually aim the weapon if you're two handing it oh god that's jarring we uh we won't be using that much with a little bit of looting i'm able to find enough souls to pop for the blacksmith's key who after berating me for not being his daughter is willing to sell me some crossbow bolts they're bad but it's better than nothing phew yep still got it all right let's see how bad the damage is this go around 150. damn dark souls all right i see you i make a few quick stops around the map grabbing some loose titanite pieces as well as a few estus flash shards and before you know it we've got a light crossbow plus three the damage increases aren't going to be anywhere near as impactful as they would have been with a scaling weapon but at least the base damage is still pretty significant after picking up the last few odds and ends around the map it's time to see what this baby can do wish me luck first up is the last giant did you see what i did there no it's low hanging fruit and all but still a guy's got to eat okay calm down it was just a joke fight itself is as easy as you'd expect but a great example of how the crossbow mechanics are going to impact the way we play first off the range on the crossbow is huge we could be all the way across the arena and never see a change in the damage so that's great as for the attack speed it leaves a lot to be desired much like dark souls 1 the crossbow automatically reloads after every shot meaning we need to time our attacks in such a way that we don't get smacked around after every pull of the trigger and lastly the damage itself as long as you've got the stamina for each pole you'll do maximum damage try to shoot without the required amount though and you'll do less weird but okay one boss down by the way 31 more to go i upgrade my crossbow to a plus four then spend the rest of the bostons on my armor because i want it forget to buy something no marlon no i did not in fact i bought something just for you uh man he's taking these bolts like a [ __ ] champ shame he got stuck in the doorway right let's get going next on the hit list is the pursuer how hard can he be oh while his moveset isn't anything too difficult some of his animations are a bit faster than the giants good practice when it comes to getting my attack timings right he was also an unwelcome reminder that adaptability is a thing in dark souls 2 and that i haven't put a single point into it i might be misremembering but i believe adaptability affects a lot of animation speeds not just your iframes man man drink it like you mean it took a little longer than i would have liked but after a five minute endurance fight the pursuer finally goes down and gives me a ring of blades which should give my crossbow a flat damage boost exciting stuff let's see a few extra points here a few levels over there and there we go looking good moving right along we've got two bosses to deal with over in heights tower of flame dragon rider's up first in the interest of moving quickly and keeping things exciting i didn't bother fighting any of the armor guardians which means we're fighting on some very limited space but considering our adaptability is at a much more appropriate level this boss might as well just give me his souls now why does everyone even bother with the platforms it's not like this fight is even yeah i'll fix it in post there we are seamless can't even tell good job lemon just don't forget to take out the embarrassing death we can't have people realizing you're terrible at dark souls a few more points in adaptability no don't ask why upgrade the crossbow to plus six and a quick and easy dragon fight you know typical thursday no wait poor hitboxes means it's monday maybe where am i regardless we finally slay a dragon then take on a dragon slayer okay that damage isn't too terrible maybe we can it takes a few minutes to figure out the safest times to attack but eventually ornstein 2.0's attack patterns start to make sense and after a few more minutes of running and shooting the old dragon's lair goes down giving me a goodly amount of souls and the old leo ring which is going to be a staple in this run because believe it or not the ring actually works with crossbow bolts adding a whole new layer of complication to finding the right time to attack enemies hooray after some careful consideration i decided it was time to get a second crossbow and with a little bit more stat building voila dual wielded crossbows this is the only dark souls game where dual wheeling is a thing and we'd be a fool if we didn't at least try it out dark souls game dark souls go back and delete your comment now the ring doesn't count to be safe i did do a quick test to check that the damage is increased when you do wield and it is but there are a few other aspects to do wheeling that i didn't consider at the time turns out that dual wielding while it increases your damage also increases the stamina cost and reload time so all that excitement about doubling my damage not always the best solution not by a long shot at the current point in the run it won't really have any negative impact on anything due wielding still works great against regular mobs and can really speed up the run but against bosses the extra stamina costs and extra reload time can make or break a fight and the choice between extra damage or additional safety is an important one in later boss fights where there's fewer and fewer windows of opportunity to strike thankfully the flexstyle century isn't one of those fights and goes down with relative ease but yeah gonna be a problem later and wouldn't you know it later has arrived the ruined sentinels were the first great example of this lots of damage to be had but there's no way to get out of the reload animation in time that said this fight gives you the high ground so there's still plenty of time to get in loads of damage but once you have to give up that advantage that reload time is gonna hurt a lot it took a few tries but eventually i started to get the timing down and after remembering that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer the ruined sentinels go down that uh that sucked but after a small investment into endurance i can almost wear my elite night armor and more importantly that extra defense really helps mitigate all the small mistakes i keep making when it comes to timing my shots next up is the belfry gargoyles much like the ruined sentinels the biggest issue this boss fight presents is multiple enemies keeping my distance from one no problem remembering to keep the other two just as far away a little bit more difficult it takes some patience and a little planning but several hours i've already put into this run are really starting to show he's starting to believe there we are gargoyle's first try let's go i pump up my endurance enough so i can wear all of my armor have a little fun in the bastille shooting gallery then make my way on down to the lost center fighting a boss with ranged weapons in the dark how hard can it be um lemon you're lemon you're not supposed to do well at this part come on man you're ruining the joke it says in the script you're supposed to die multiple times really so we're just going off script now fine [ __ ] it lost center first try why not kidding aside this run is really starting to feel easier and easier the damage numbers aren't getting any better not really but switching between firing modes and dodging around enemies is becoming an easier rhythm to find i'm not sure if i should be worried about that or not but being honest cannot use oh hey man what's up you hungry i was just about to light up some s'mores yeah sure any seat you like up next is the executioner's chariot and the multiple tonys that guard him this should be interesting free my meat bag as with earlier fights the biggest issue this fight has is its multiple enemies but if we take out the summoners and then let the chariot take out the rest we can make this fight much easier you know what we've got time let's try something i've never done before with careful positioning and aiming i can actually hit the chariot with little to no risk in fact with even better positioning and aiming i can hit him twice in one pass and after a few passes we get the unique animation of the horse being stuck on the ledge and dark souls why do you always have to make me feel bad about the things i do good night sweet prince may you find rest down there in the dark alright moving on it's time to enter the bone zone this is probably not gonna go well all right well maybe it's not all that bad but it's still well tedious i guess the word is tedious between the large number of enemies on screen the fact that a good number of them have shields and the problem of them being somewhat resistant to damage this fight is easy but goes on for far too long we need a damage upgrade how about a shield crossbow i mean it looks badass no question about that but as far as damage goes it's not exactly an improvement and while upgrading it does boost the damage significantly it requires petrified dragon bones to upgrade it which i'm not exactly rolling in right now ah well maybe later after picking up all the goodies and a few poison pits and dying a few more times than i care to admit i entered the earthen peak where if memory serves i can find a heavy crossbow plus three very nice i'll need a few more soles before i can use it and upgrade it so let's give the covetous demon a run for its money shall we i tried to be clever and free some of the covetous snack food but apparently crossbow bolts aren't strong enough to break pots so yeah i guess we'll just have to murder him the boring way as a proof of concept i did do a little testing while i was here dual light crossbows give me 292 damage while the heavy crossbow at plus three gives me 249. yup this is the way what the hell i've never seen that animation before learning all sorts of new things today but with little to no effort covetous goes down let's go upgrade our crossbow some more shall we no yeah that's the good stuff more damage and a slightly faster reload time make lemon a happy camper and also make for much easier boss fights maitha is normally a bit of a challenge due to her longer range and decently quick attacks but with my newly upgraded heavy crossbow there's nothing she can really do but die a slow painful death i mean i guess she was already doing that but with the constantly ingesting poison to try and stay beautiful or whatever but if you really think about oh hi hello we bland this place always sucks doesn't matter what build you use i poke armor or dennis to death die poke fencer sharon too then die again this uh this this may take a while eventually after a high intensity game of cat and mouse that's far too exciting to show on youtube i begin my fight with the smelter demon it's a slow fight due to the fact that my damage is much less than i would hope and with the smelter demons constant attack combos stamina management is key to making sure you don't get obliterated but with a little patience and a lot of caution smelter demon eventually falls to my bolts a quick stop back into the smelter demons arena to fight the pursuer again it goes well but we get the ring of blades plus one for our troubles so that's helpful and after a few slightly frustrating deaths we make it through lava world and pull the switch i'm gonna need you for later anyway time for the old iron king who is neither old iron or a king because [ __ ] you that's why i'll be honest this fight was underwhelming dodge the fists pull the trigger dodge the flames pull the trigger hide around the corner pull that you see where i'm going with this and with that that's another great soul embraced easy peasy you know one thing i do miss about dark souls 2 is how many souls you get i'm already level 94 and we've only crossed two big names off our list guess we better get a move on this video is long enough as it is charlie how's the kids i ground out one of the bas lists for some upgrade stones yeah that's the one then infused my heavy crossbow with raw power okay it's only an additional 20 or 30 damage but come on man could dream clarity ring plus one because why not help out the bird who lives just down the road and onto nachka ma'am are you alright you appear to have fallen and can't seem to get up nachka is nothing to write home about she's slow and easy to dodge and just for fun i even knocked off her tail so that's cool i guess two out of ten would not bother helping up again after the local villagers hold a parade in my honor it's time for the prowling magoo and his congregation it goes about the way you'd expect magu himself takes about six crossbow boats and the rest of his congregation are one shots so that was a boss what the who the hell are you oh man guthrie are you do wielding avalans oh you best give me that as a dropper i'm gonna be so mad damn it anyway continuing right down the road i make it to the birds workshop she's got firebolts which i'll gladly take and also sells heavy crossbows in case i ever want to dual wield them which i do but before we can really dual wield that properly i need a few more souls and i know just who to get them from combined with my new firebolts i'm able to kill freya's children in one hit and if we wait no stop i'm sorry as anyone who's fought freya knows the easiest way to beat her is to run back and forth between the heads repeat ad nauseum and bam frey goes down what the hey hey you who said you could wear my outfit i wear it better and don't you forget it oh and i can do wheel heavy crossbows now they're not perfect yet i think one is a plus nine and the other's a plus six or so but hey one step closer to perfection bowman gu3 made another appearance as well i made sure to equip my gold serpent ring before killing him just in case there we go come on come on come on damn it moving right along let's go after the royal rat authority this fight sucks no matter how you run it but i will say that having a crossbow that can one-shot the adds before they reach me is definitely helpful the authority itself isn't too bad firebolts do plenty of damage and so long as we keep avoiding the pause it should be much like sif in her thigh gaps the authority is a bit finicky with hitboxes as well thankfully free aiming isn't very difficult this time around and with a little bit of patience ugly sif goes down time for the pit i pay gilligan more than he's worth for a fancy ladder that we'll need later make my way down the pit as carefully and with as little clothing as possible deal with an unwelcome visitor trying to flex on me with his invisible weapons then begin my job in pest control and let me tell you business is booming after a few hundred rat deaths the royal rat vanguard made an appearance but it was rather brief and didn't really make a difference in the long run hey where are you all going i'm still getting paid for this right segway sideways segway black gulch after letting a few oil fields on fire for fun oh hey that actually works it's time for the rotten this shouldn't take long you know what it doesn't with duel of kimbo crossbows and firebolts the rotten won't last long and despite getting grabbed which is usually a one-hit kill in my experience i've actually pumped enough points into health and stamina that i can take the hit i even take the time to take off the rotten's hand because why not and with a final pull of the trigger the rotten goes down oh yeah the hand drops an item pharaoh's lockstone wow thanks pharaohs hope you feel better so with all the lord souls acquired we can whoo i upgrade my armor a bit for the challenges to come and make my way to drangleic castle jeeves ghost may be a little confused but he does have something i want magic and lightning bolts i'll take a few of those thank you and after filling my imaginary backpack to the brim with bolts it's time to fight the twin dragon riders neither of them have very much health and if you focus fire on one of them becomes a pretty straightforward fight nothing to see here at least nothing we haven't already seen before you know we're in a pretty good place at this point between our high damage and rounded out stat points i doubt there's really anything that can give me any trouble the looking glass knight isn't too bad the only two things that make this fight difficult are his shield and the friends he keeps inside it it was a bit tricky trying to split my focus between them since one was always quick to support the other and even when i did take the time to kill his buddy the looking glass knight just summoned in another one almost immediately fine you have my full attention are you happy now it took some finagling but with careful shots and death dodging the glass knight finally goes down oh boy the shrine of amana can't wait to lose my souls here over and over again actually maybe this won't be so bad wait stop i have a family yep same old amana never change at the end of it all is grandma frog she's fine just dodge the creepy mouth hands and fire whenever she stops moving easy enough boss moving on into the undead crypt where we really still doing this huh despite a few frustrations with the crossbow moveset come on do the jump i finally make my way to the secret wall deeper into the crypt where my prize awaits that's right ladies and gentlemen the avalon is back let's just get that up to snuff and give it the old raw power infusion and there we go call of duty mode unlocked better test it out though gotta make sure this thing is worthy of the name let's see about 113 damage per bolt with the avalon and 238 damage with the heavy crossbow yep that all checks out the avalon has all the same problems that dual wheeling does heavy stamina costs slow reload speed and the inevitable deaths that come along with those properties but if you adjust for those issues you're still looking at a greater damage output than anything else in the long run sometimes that extra damage is all that matters so with that in mind let's go ahead and finish that off right quick there we are plus 10. but you know what's better than a plus 10 raw avalon 2 plus 10 raw avalanche i talked to the fates and asked them to give me enough strength and dexterity to dual-wield some machine guns use a bonfire aesthetic and fight the gargoyles again in order to get me a golden serpent ring plus two then burn another bonfire aesthetic in the doors of pharaohs why you ask because if you send the doors of pharaohs into new game plus omen guthrie will respawn a total of 12 more times combine that with my jester hat watch dragon parma golden serpent ring plus two and handsome good looks and there shouldn't be any reason why gu3 doesn't drop another avalon for me god damn it i won't bore you with the details of how many times i killed koo three suffice it to say it was a lot honestly i'm up to my ears in royal soldiers armors i kind of wonder if they can even drop come on come on come on come on all right time to test these puppies out don't be fooled by the damage numbers on the bottom of the screen that's the damage of each individual bolt definitely a bit too heavy for my liking at the moment the weight of two avlins and my elite night armor is messing with my iframes but at least the bosses are melting with extreme speed so you know take what you can get after fighting the same boss three more times in a row i finally arrive at the dragon shrine okay you know what i'm feeling good about what i got going on here i'm gonna do the dragon shrine the right way okay not a great start but we can still recover yeah no [ __ ] that speedrun strats it is all right made it you uh you all want to go take five or after a quick message conversation with the dragon we get the ash and missed heart but you and i both know how this ends slowly painfully and with a thousand or more crossbow bolts in between the ancient dragon's toes and even the avalanche don't speed things up literally the worst time to phase into trees and search their memories because dark souls good lord everything in here is a bit more angry than i remember that thing stops right time for the giant lord he's really not that hard just hide on the ledge dodge and attack and respond in kind takes a few minutes but we get there eventually thanks for the memories chief all right moment you've all been waiting for it's time for the dlcs there's still about five or so bosses left in the base game but i think my bill is at the point where it's really not going to get any better so i might as well throw myself into the grinder now i make my way through the poison drenched cityscape get into an argument about fashion souls with thomas over there hey wait no one said we could bring friends and eventually eventually remember where the heck i'm supposed to go a few minutes of falling with abandon and we'll be at the first boss of the dlc how hard could she be [Music] [Music] [Applause] so yeah alana let's talk about this we've got several things going against us in this fight first off the summons if it were a one-on-one fight this boss would be easy but alana loves to summon in friends which means you have to split your focus between two or more enemies all of whom hit really hard or cause status effects so that's a good time second is these damn fireballs video game developers please take notes if you're gonna design an explosion make it very very clear where the explosions range ends and third is our damage output plain and simple it's too low by the time we make some decent progress on our health bar she's already summoning in her second round of friends with no sign of slowing down and speaking of slowing down the crossbow's attack speed is problem number four low damage is one thing but low damage and a low rate of attack is another entirely each attempt takes several minutes just to bring her to half health which really starts to add up when you keep dying repeatedly things were getting pretty [ __ ] dire even tony over here starting to laugh at me [ __ ] meat bag so i did the one thing left i could think of i asked chat for help with mixed results so who is ideas who has ideas because i need some we're stuck can you smuggle the ballista from the pursuer into the boss arena that's an idea i i should specify does anyone have any good ideas can you attach fire bombs to your bolts if i can i don't know how or shoot her again that's that's an option that's that's that's certainly an option try aiming for the head hmm man she took that like a champ she didn't even even blink try using a sword no i i don't i think you're in the wrong chat can we try the shield crossbow please sure why not i love this thing it's so stupid pew 175 not bad but it is a full on oh and 197 when she's casting that's good is it fire faster than everything else hold on hold on wait a god damn minute hold on a minute plus the shield hold on a minute hold on did we just did we just figure it out two and a half hour story cut short yeah yeah we did turns out the shield crossbow has several things going for it that i didn't account for first off the stamina use every shot with the shield crossbow is cheaper than other crossbows except for maybe the light crossbow combined with the fact that it does almost as much as the heavy crossbow damage wise and with the stamina regen shield added into the mix i can now attack more often and with no real loss and damage add in a free shield that blocks a portion of incoming damage so long as you're firing a bolt and you've got a pretty amazing crossbow sleeper hit of the summer if you haven't tried it before give it a go definitely worth it chat also helped me figure out a strategy for the summons as well apparently alana is pulling from a pool of summons three skeletons her boy toy extraordinaire and on a rare occasion a sounder of swine that means a group of pigs that's right you just learned something today useless knowledge aside chat helped me realize i was goofing up all my earlier attempts my first hundred tries i would always wait for skeletons then kill two of the three thinking i was hot [ __ ] for outsmarting the system however if you don't kill the skeletons entirely that means they aren't in the summoning pool anymore which means you're basically guaranteed to get velstad which is less than ideal kill all the skeletons as fast as you can though and you'll put them back in the pool and when all the kids are back in the pool you've got that much more of a chance that they'll get summoned again it's a shame you can't stop the summons entirely but hey we'll take what we can get oh right away doc oh yeah oh oh [ __ ] it still takes forever and several tries but eventually the power of friendship and copious amounts of capitalism alana goes down thanks again chat couldn't have done it without you so with alana out of the way it's time for sin how bad can it be [Music] i'm i'm just kidding though sin looks intimidating he's really not that bad once you figure out his patterns sprinting away between his attacks is usually the easiest way to dodge all of his toxic fire as is running towards him rather than away and while he is certainly aggressive sins attacks are slow enough that you can get several shots in between them if you're careful it takes a few tries but nowhere near as many as alana and eventually the beastie goes down next up is the gank squad not much to say here i'm being honest i focused fire on sarah for the beginning of the fight so as to get rid of the ranged element and shot at the other two gankers whenever there wasn't an opportunity did that just say 5 damage and once sarah went down it became a matter of kiting the remainders around the map getting in shots when i could down goes alva leaving us with just havel oh thank god he actually takes damage wait estes you're trying to estes not in my house you don't damn invaders it's always something isn't it but with the gang squad out of the way that's the poison dlc completed who's ready for round two getting through the dlc itself wasn't too much of an issue but the bosses themselves were a whole other ball game first i went after the blueberry flavored smelter demon honestly it was basically just a replay of the first smelter demon fight dodge the swings shoot when you're able there were a few times where he caught me off guard i can really move when he feels like it but in the end a reskin is just a reskin next up was the fume knight i'll be honest i was a bit worried about this one but truth be told i really didn't need to be he's slow and clunky for the first half of the fight so getting in damage and heals is easy enough and although he speeds up in phase two he still has ample windows of opportunity if you're patient and time and right after mastering his attack timings and learning the range of his attacks fume knight goes down on the second try not bad not bad at all which leaves me with just one boss left sakiro i mean sir alan alright hold up can we just talk about the runs up to all these dlc bosses in this game like why are they all so hard for some reason i wasn't able to lock in siralan's attack patterns like i was with the other bosses the knowledge that i would have to deal with all of his minions again every time i died must have weighed on my mind or something because no matter how many times i tried i just kept dying to his rush attacks i know his attacks know what to do i even know when to attack in response why the hell do i keep dying over and over again this one needs to marinate a little longer let's come back to him later ah helium leuce somehow my favorite and least favorite dlc at the same time first up was ava oh who's a good kitty it's you yes it oh no the biggest trick ava really has up her sleeve is her delayed attacks which took a little bit to get used to but once you figure them out she's just the sweetest little thing ava no bad spit it out icky you don't know where that's been spit it out it took a few tries but ava goes down simple enough in the end all right we all knew this was coming time to take on the worst offender of any dark souls game ever made the frigid [ __ ] outskirts here's a cool concept let's make the player run blind in a snowstorm where they can only periodically see where they need to go great idea but how do we make sure it keeps the spirit of miyazaki's undying hatred towards his players well that's simple just add [ __ ] unicorns okay whatever they're not actually unicorns but they're definitely a close cousin who thought a respawning pool of these stupid things was a good idea every attempt to get across the outskirts takes at least three to five minutes too that's a long time to waste just to get to one of the more frustrating bosses in the game oh and don't worry i [ __ ] got there blood and zolling were on my hit list after dealing with that area i was even doing really well all that practice against ava must have paid off in spades because lud's attacks were basically second nature to dodge add in a second cat though and it's a different ball game entirely ever tried to balance dodging delayed attacks from two separate bosses and the intricate timing it takes to get a shot off from a crossbow well i have it sucks there were even a few really good first attempts where i was able to focus fire on one cat which made it even worse when i died i even killed ludd at one point thought i had the whole fight in the bag but as with all cats they always have a tendency to get out i completely forgot about zollin's charge up ability where it gets angrier and starts to regenerate health that extra bit of frustration must have gotten to me because i completely biffed it weirdly enough turns out the winning strategy was something i would have never suggested using the avalon and staying locked off instead of locked on don't ask me why but for some reason it just felt easier to keep track of both of the cats and dodge attacks when i wasn't hyper focused on one of them and using the avalon required me to find the right times to attack instead of trying to get in an attack every chance i could like i was before once it was just zalin i did go back to locking on and switching over to my heavy crossbow more for the reliability than anything else but after a much more successful buffing phase zalin eventually finally went down this is why no one does dark souls 2 challenge runs game do better but with the cats out of the way it's time to go for the owner himself let's go boys it's ivory king time [Music] why did nobody tell me we were doing a team superhero landing communication is important jerry the team scrimmage isn't all that bad the crossbow does decent enough damage and with pretty much all the enemies hyper focusing on me for some reason it gave my boys plenty of time to get a few hits in to help out and before long it was time the burnt ivory king himself now i knew this was going to be difficult not only because he's one of the harder hitting dlc bosses in the game but also because he's by far the boss i have the least amount of experience with i just don't know all of his attacks or his attack timings this means his buff up phase is basically just a countdown timer for my inevitable death yep there it is right on schedule god every time literally every time as soon as the sword becomes a lightsaber that's it my game is immediately thrown off so i did the only reasonable thing i could think of i took a break and weirdly enough as it always does the brake helped dodging felt smoother the timings felt natural i was in the zone all right maybe not entirely in the zone but i had at least one foot in it after all the frustrating dlc bosses i've been through something alone just doesn't feel that threatening anymore time on the tool that's all it took and just like that sirlon goes down one more one more dlc boss to go and i can be free please base god just let me leave i promise i'll be good no more chocolate before bed just please considering the difficulty of the ivory king i decided to let him marinate just a little bit longer and when after the final optional bosses of the main game first up was the dark lurker geez talk about underwhelming after the [ __ ] i've been through this boss is a cakewalk oh you can split in two that's nice delay all of your attacks and then we'll talk i even got cocky enough to start using the avalon easy peasy get good scrub i've got bigger fish to fry hey gramps you're up give me a challenge would you oh oh no oh he's easy i mean yeah his health pool is bloated as all get out but the man's only got like three attacks this isn't hard this is just tedious that's almost worse almost well we're not getting any younger time to get to work i make it through the team fight this time with some additional help i'ma name you carl and carl's dead lemon you know better than that never name them it always hurts so much more when you name them but carl's death aside something feels different not entirely different mind you every king still hits like a stack of bricks but there's definitely something one foot in the zone maybe maybe eventually i realized that my best opportunity for attacking without getting clapped back was whenever the king does his jump attack which is pretty often considering i'm using a ranged weapon and while i'm still having some trouble with a few of the king's attacks oh [ __ ] it's not too much longer before it all comes together time for the final push the king's chambers the final three bosses in the game let's do this let's be honest in comparison to everything the dlc threw at us these last few bosses might as well be trash mobs i take my time at the watcher and defender balancing my shots between them as best i can and once the watcher goes down it's really not much of a fight after that considering she was the one doing all the pushing one down two to go nashandra's up next but as anyone who's made it this far knows she's all bark and no bite because of our long range capabilities she's basically just a watered down version of the dark lurker easy to dodge and wildly unthreatening aside from her death laser going wonky every once in a while there's nothing to write home about here which means we've only got one more boss to go there he is a scholar of the first sin once again while his attacks are imposing and could definitely do some real damage if they hit they uh they really don't who knows maybe we'll even clear this triple threat all in one thank you dark souls goof ups aside he's as easy as the rest one more final pull of the trigger and that's it dark souls 2 in its entirety beating with only a crossbow and what a roller coaster if you made it this far into the video kudos to you there were plenty of times where i was having fun just enjoying the ebb and flow of attacking and dodging the call and response of it all definitely seems to be my play style of choice for these games but for a couple bosses there things got pretty rough i'll be honest i had to put this run down a few times just to make sure i kept a level head throughout but as with all things it always seems impossible until it is done thank you all for watching i hope you enjoyed the video this one took a lot of effort to put together but i think it was worth it in the end i'm hoping to get a few more larger runs like this one done for the future looking at you bloodborne so feel free to do all the youtube things if you're feeling spicy or want to make sure you're alerted when that one finally comes out and in case i haven't made it clear a big thanks to all of you for watching my videos couldn't do what i do without you sometimes quite literally so i just wanted everyone to know that the fact that you all give up a portion of your day to watch my nonsense or send me the moral support i need to break through any brick walls i come across in my challenge runs is greatly appreciated and i can't thank you enough but other than that that's all i've got stay safe out there be good to one another and i'll see you all again soon [Music] you

Channel: The Backlogs

Views: 1,090,145

Keywords: the backlogs, challenge run, dark souls, dark souls 2, dark souls 3, elden ring, bloodborne, sekiro, dark souls 2 challenge run, dark souls challenge run, dark souls 3 challenge run, elden ring challenge run, bloodborne challenge run, sekiro challenge run, demons souls, demons souls challenge run, dark souls crossbow only, dark souls 2 crossbow only, dark souls 3 crossbow only, elden ring crossbow only, demons souls crossbow only, bloodborne gun only, dark souls crossbow

Id: 2GiXZX6Q2bM

Length: 35min 4sec (2104 seconds)

Published: Sun May 29 2022