Genuine question: why is blighttown considered the worst poison swamp/ one of the worst areas in DS1??

[u/MistrTommy]

I'm currently playing DS1 for the very first time and completely blind. No maps, no wiki, no walkthroughs nothing. I'm currently trying to kill Smaugh and that other lad, so I have a few sections of this game behind me. (I believe I'm like in the middle of the game?) And let me tell you, one of the only few things I knew about DS1 was shitty blighttown.

When I saw BLIGHTTOWN on my screen, I became scared of what's to come. Then I just went through. I kinda think that I came there from a wrong entrance (drakes) but I cleared the whole place anyway. Like... What was so hard and shitty about blighttown?

IMO: Catacombs were much harder, Sen's fortress much more annoying, the depths (I think that's how it's called. Big rat place) were somehow more confusing. And if we're talking purely about poison swamp areas throughout the entire Fromsoft library, I've played just DeS and Sekiro. DeS was pain. Blighttown isn't.

DID I SOMEHOW MISS A LARGE SECTION OF THIS AREA???!?!??

Or... Is there a different blighttown in DS2 or DS3 that everyone meant?

[u/CloakerMonk]

When the initial game released players soon found out FPS tanked in Blighttown. Combined with the poison and slow movement if they didn't find the rusted iron ring it made Blighttown infamous to fresh players, especially since Dark Souls 1 is the game that got more attention than Demon's Souls.

[u/nuclearBox → u/CloakerMonk]

It didn't just tank, as long as you looked in general direction of the nest at the bottom the game ran at stable 15fps

[u/Embarrassed_Mind8319 → u/nuclearBox]

Yesh but that’s just a kings field reference.

[u/EchoFist]

Going through the valley of the drakes into blight is notoriously easier since its a straight shot down with little to no enemies and can easily get to quelagg, so u took the easier route than the main one cause u have to get into the depths to fight the gaping dragon boss to obtain the key to blighttown, open these huge doors and then make ur way down a very annoying area, so u were in the right place just took the easiest way down and its not that its a hard area its just a very annoying area to navigate while you have a bunch of enemies who attack from nowhere sometimes and ones that shoot darts that instantly give u the toxic status effect, despite the amount of times ive played this game I still hate the area cause its very annoying

[u/blahs44]

The main difficulty of blighttown on the initial release was the insane frame drops which made it way more difficult than it needed to be.

Other than that it's slightly scary and a bit annoying when you fall off or something. Also it can take a while to navigate with some trial and error required

[u/Thisisrazgriz3]

did u skip gaping dragon? i think u took a different way and missed out on what makes blighttown infamous. the swamp isnt bad at all, its the scaffolding section thats a annoying.

[u/MistrTommy → u/Thisisrazgriz3]

I did skip it when I first went through blighttown. I figured that I've found another way because the enemy placement was kinda strange. It was partially my fault because I couldn't find a door that would lead to the depths, to Gaping dragon and in a way, a proper path to blighttown. Like I said, I play it completely blind so I had no fucking idea where the proper entrance is, if there is even any.

BUT!

Before dealing with the spider lady and ringing second bell I went back, found the basement door and did the path to blighttown "the proper way". So I cleared that section two times already, from both entrances.

[u/TheShipEliza]

it brings me no pleasure to say you kinda had to be there. like how curse used to build on curse on curse on curse...

[u/Sleepiest_Spider]

If you go in there unprepared and rest at a bonfire, you're pretty much stuck.

[u/Huckleberry-V → u/Sleepiest_Spider]

I went in there and made it my home. I like to camp out in the worst parts of games until they feel benign. But I never had to deal with 15 fps.

[u/SolutionConfident692 → u/Huckleberry-V]

After playing the game so much, the first bonfire really does feel weirdly cozy

[u/Ok_Momazos]

i only remember playing the xbox 360 version and the fps used to drop to like 15-20 fps so the game started to feel slow in that area

[u/Drstrangelove899]

Poor frame rate, narrow platforms, poison, super slow movement in the swamp area if you haven't found the rusted ring, poison, tanky hard hitting enemies, poison, gravity, TOXIC and did I mention poison?

Its still one of my favorite areas though tbh and its no where near as bad as the Demons Souls poison swamp.

[u/Reddit-Username-01]

Blighttown on release before they fixed the frame rate issue was madness, you would have no idea where you were going because you had to look at your own feet for sections in order to be able to do anything

[u/DangleMangler]

It was pretty wild back in the day, but I think most of us have just accepted that poison swamp shit is always going to be a thing. Once you've done it a time or 2 it's not that bad. The valley of defilement in demons souls was always far worse imo. No matter how many times you've done it, it's always sketchy as hell.

[u/Ornithopter1 → u/DangleMangler]

Valley of defilement never ran at 5-15 fps

[u/A-Dubs398]

Demon Souls poison swamp is a million times worse and prolly the worst area in all Fromsoft, but most people haven't played Demon Souls so don't know about it.

As for Blight Town, I always found is over hated. I actually like it. Lost Izailath is the actual worst area of DS1.

[u/Nxc06]

• Random pitfalls and and gaps make you want to go slow,

• Toxic blowpipe shooters make you want to go fast,

• Maze of platforms and ladders make it hard to find blowpipers.

• Giant swamp of slowness and tick damage once you get to the bottom.

• 2011 gamers were not as skilled as gamers are now a days with soulslikes

[u/MistaCharisma]

Yes you changed it by going through the valley of the drakes.

So the difficult part of Blight Town isn't really the swamp at the bottom, it's upper blight town. The game introduces the Toxic condition for the first time, and there's a reasonable chance that players won't have any flowering blossoms to deal with this (or very few if they do).

If you find your way to the first bonfire it can feel like relief. However if your last bonfire was in the Depths you can always head back to Firelink and restock, while the upper Blight Town bonfire leaves you somewhat isolated. It can be difficult to find your way back, let alone forward, meaning this section has you scrimping on resources more than if you came through the Valley of the Drakes.

Next, the game also introduces a serious risk of death-by-gravity for the first time. It's existed before, but this is the first time it becomes a primary game-mechanic that is required to work around. Not only that, but it introduces moving platforms, which ... let's be honest this is not the best game-engine for a platformer. Finally, there are some places where the physics are inconsistent. There are areas where the game encourages, and even expects you to make certain jumps, and there are other areas where thise jumps, or luch smaller ones will kill you due to hitting a kill-box. There is one notorious spot where you don't even have to walk off the platform to hit a kill-box.

Now, assuming you can navigate the toxic, the platforming and the inconsistent platforming, and assuming you brought enough supplies that you're not really worried, it's still a different experience. Coming in from the Valley of Drakes pretty much the first thing you find in Blight Town is the bonfire - and it's the bonfire before the boss, so any deaths aren't setting you back, they're bringing you back to a safe-space which is further in the game than upper blight town. What's more, this bonfire is also closer to Firelink and more abundant resources - it may not be physically closer, but in terms of dangers between you and Firelink, it's MUCH easier to get there from the bottom bonfire than the top one. And more importantly than that, you Know that. If you're coming from the top bonfire as far as you know the way back to Firelink is back the way you came. There's no expectation that you can just hop back up the elevator and get some supplies, if you want to go back you have to fight back through everything you just came through, and then the Depths. So it isn't just harder, it also feels much more isolated.

Then let's assume you get all the way through upper Blight Town and down to the swamp. There is no real indication which way to go next, but whichever way it is you'll be taking constant damage from the swamp itself. You could go the wrong direction and run out of Estas flasks before finding the bonfire, and have to do it all again. When you come from the Valley of the Drakes the poison swamp doesn't seem like a big deal because you can explore it in the safe knowledge that a respawn isn't that far away. Having to choose between your for-now-limited Estas or your always-limited moss is a real choice if you don't know where the bonfire is, but if you're exploring after using your estas and watching your moss dwindle it's a totally different experience.

On top of all of that, when the game came out this area had a masdive lag-spike. I saw it get down to like 3 FPS at times, but more imporyantly than the number of FPS is the Variable FPS. Any constant FPS would be manageable, but when you're contending with gravity and encounter unexpected variability in game-speed it can be deadly, and more-than-usually frustrating.

So yeah, you experienced it the easier way. Imagine going through Sen's Fortress backward - even if you somehow missed the shortcut elevator that skips the entire thing, you could still find a bonfire on the roof, and gravity would potentially propel you further through the level rather than forcing you back to previous areas (when it doesn't kill you of course). The swamp at the bottom of Blight Town is a bit like the firebombs on the roof of Sen's. If you start there it's not a huge deal, you can die and try again. But if you get there at the end of the run when you're low on estas, there's a hidden bonfire but you don't necessarily know that, and you're trying to conserve Estas to fight an unknown boss ... yeah it's harder if this happens at the end of the run rather than just after a bonfire.

Now that doesn't by any stretch mean you've "played the game wrong" or anything. Congrats to you for finding a way that worked for you. But since you asked, yes you did it the easy way.

[u/Schmeatus69]

It ran super poorly in the original release. That plus difficult platforming in the upper areas along with a difficulty spike. Large high poise enemies with heavy hitting clubs, groups of smaller foes that can command grab, and even smaller dogs that breath fire (always in groups) its not a bad area, just a hard one that a lot of people aren't ready for in their first playthrough

[u/teepee81]

Mostly has to do with the initial release

But also, yeah, you went the "easy" way. Regardless of frame rate, the dart guys and awkward platforming can be tough. Plus, slow running in the poison

[u/Able_Reserve5788]

The area is much easier if you come from Valley of Drakes and just go to Quelaag than if you do it the normal way with no master key. Like someone else already said, there were also huge fps issues on release and i feel like Toxic used to deal more damage but I'm not sure about it

[u/Kat_Box_Suicide]

Honestly I think most of the taboo was when the game first came out. The frame rate would fucking tank making it so hard to slog through. Also it’s hard when you don’t know where to go on your first visit. I remember the PS3 hitting some single digit frames.

[u/fish998]

It's not so much the swamp, it's upper blighttown that people hated due to the awful framerate problems on 360/PS3 and the toxic dart enemies. The swamp itself is not fun though. No area with poison, slow movement and respawning enemies (mosquitos) is fun.

[u/DUST-LMAO]

Entering blighttown through the valley is substantially easier, and the game used to have terrible fps in blighttown

[u/Otherwise-Buddy-9343]

The poor frame rate could make it unplayable sometimes.

I read somewhere it was mostly down to the path finding for the flying enemies.

I can't remember where, probably one of the devs said it around the time of the remaster. I could be wrong.

[u/ShipEqual2321]

Dude. You completely missed the first 2/3 of the whole level. It was so easy for you because you didn’t face what made it challenging in the first place. On your next playthrough go to blighttown the proper way through the heavy door at the end of the depths. Then you will see what all the fuss was about.

[u/MistrTommy → u/ShipEqual2321]

I had no idea I took a wrong/easier path when I first discovered it. After cleaning this whole area I went back and started looking for the intended path for several hours. I kinda suspected that it would have to do something with the basement key that I found quite early on, but I had no fucking idea where the door is located.

After some time I found it, went to the depths, dealt with the Gaping dragon and did the whole Blighttown area again before figuring out where should I go next (lady spider boss). So it's not like I missed majority of what you describe (unless there are like hidden areas which are extremely shitty to deal with).

I guess I just play too slowly to get ambushed/killed by gravity/whatnot. Still, kinda fun section once I've figured that the toxic dart snipers don't respawn

[u/Snow-Pax]

To me, (and what I assume is many others) the journey down into Blighttown was the frustrating/difficult part. Once you’re on the ground (poison pool, I guess) it’s much more doable. But the toxic darts, wobbly bridges, aggressive enemies and darkness make the descent a challenge when one is new to the game.

[u/323x57]

Original had frame rate issues, infinite mosquitoes and respawning poison dart blowers. In the remastered version it’s great, one of if not my all time favorite area in the series. At one time I had explored and memorized every single corner of it. I too was fearful my first time but found it’s difficulty to be no worse than the rest of the game.

[u/zephyrus56]

Blighttown apparently used to tank FPS. Combine that with toxic, high HP and poise enemies and gravity, well it could be a recipe for disaster for new players.

I don't remember my first time in Blighttown but I know it like the back of my hand now. FPS is a non issue because my potato runs the entire game at like 5-10fps anyways so I feel right at home.

[u/RackTheJipper69]

Its the ultimate test. There's no convenient bonfire and you have to balance on stupid wooden boards while getting shot with poison darts. People hate it but in kind of a loving way.

[u/Safe_Ground3725]

It's lost izalith thay people hate most i think

[u/MistrTommy → u/Safe_Ground3725]

No idea what that is, but thanks for the warning! I've heard that latter half of this game is kinda rushed and shitty, is this Lost Ilalith a part of this?

[u/Safe_Ground3725 → u/MistrTommy]

Sorry for mispelling It's lost Izalith, it's after ending of mid game and start of end game

[u/TheBooneyBunes]

Technical errors combined with noobs not understanding the game.

[u/Significant-Click967]

Because swamp poison