Challenge Run |

Something a little different on here. I’ve been playing through Dark Souls with a challenge run I call the Penny Pincher run.

Essentially, I am not allowed to spend souls for ANYTHING, and if I permenantly lose the souls, I reset the run, and I give away an ebook of An Altar on the Village Green. I’m about 7 hours and 3 resets in currently, and thought I’d share some about my experience. This probably won’t make much sense to people who haven’t played it.

The challenge: I will have neither damage nor health for the most part, and if I lose souls completely, it costs me about $2.50.

So obviously I want to maximize damage and defense and minimize the risk of reset. A lot of this would be simple if I could spend souls in other ways (buying weapons, supplies, or rings). But all those are off the table.

DAMAGE

I can’t upgrade or downgrade weapons, since that costs money, and I can’t level up, either to take advantage of scaling or even have the stats to use higher-base weapons. My options are VERY limited.

This would be a nightmare if I wasn’t able to do Sen’s Skip. For those not in the know, Sen’s Skip allows me to get into Sen’s Fortress early. If I kill a mimic, I can pick up the Lightning Spear, which is basically a +11 weapon. And I can do this almost right out the gate.

Of course this basiclaly requires running through a midgame area with no bonfire and killing a mini-boss way beyond my level.

In Anor Londo, there’s another mimic behind an illusory wall that has the Occult Club, which is also about +11, give or take, but a different damage type. Between these two, I should hopefully do enough damage to get through the game.

I would kill to be able to downgrade this club to Divine to deal with skeletons, but that costs souls, so it’s a no-go. Nito is going to be a trip.

For my next run, I’m going to get the pyro glove and Power Within, see if that tips the scales on certain cough O&S cough fights.

DEFENSE

I can’t level, so I can’t increase health or equip weight. However, there are rings that increase both of those, and together, I can wear middling armor just fine. I’m still pretty squishy, but there’s not much I can do about that. Most people who’ve played through Fromsoft games a few times are very familiar with low health; it’s not too much of a problem on its own.

SAFETY

Even more vital than overal defense, I need protections against resetting. And those only come in one form (technically two): Ring of Sacrifice. These one-use rings keep you from losing souls when you die (or keep the dropped souls from disappearing if you die again), but break in the process. They are the PANIC button.

Between normal and Rare Rings of Sacrifice, there are around 8 available. Some of them aren’t worth the risk involved to get them, so let’s say 6 are actually in play. When I pick these up and where I use them is one of the key parts of the run.

I definitely need some on hand for Sen’s Skip, since I’m so underpowered and so vulnerable. Having some for O&S is great. As I learned recently, keeping some in reserve for Bed of Chaos is a must. on top of which, you NEED to have a Rare Ring for Seathe, because he not only kills you and puts you in a prison far away from your souls, but he potentially curses you, as well.

Which leaves one, maybe two for use anywhere else. Being able to buy these would sure be handy. But no.

OVERALL

I’m really enjoying the tension and being forced to think about the game in a new way. Having to Sen’s Skip as a core part of the run is just so cool, you almost never need to use that. And there’s enough room to continue to tune my strategy, route differently, and start with a different class.

Resetting in the late-game is soul-crushing, particularly when it’s to freaking Bed of Chaos of all bosses. Going to be upset about that for a while. Here’s hoping it doesn’t happen again (I chose Hunter this latest run specifically to be able to use the bow and safely snipe Bed of Chaos).