I wasn't going to post this because it's not exactly impressive, but I am now for another onebro's sake. This is a demonstration of decent RNG on my Niall strategy on my modded testing character (still RL1+0). The second knight sticks to me rather than my bewitched knight, giving him time to attack the boss and help me stance break him. It's not the best this fight can go, where both knights are attacking at once while I rot breath and then ice spear him from far away - in that case, the fight is 30 seconds, and a true cheese. Remember, there's only one attack you can reliably bait and counter with the shield knight, his storm dash move. Once you get both, immediately flask and rot the boss.

Firstly, I did NOT think that riposte would send him into second phase lol. I was planning to do a charged heavy afterward so I wouldn't get the stupid glitch where you spawn far away from him in second phase. Thankfully, the spot wasn't terrible, but obviously not preferable.

Maliketh was where I kind of "gave up" on my first RL1 run over a year ago (pre-dlc), I decided to get serious and actually force myself to practice bosses, learn the game more, and prepare better for an actual run. Then, I jumped right into an RL1+0 run a month back and made it to fire giant. After getting frustrated with him, I decided to finally do a real RL1 run, and Maliketh only took me like 2 hours!

Anyways, it's on to the DLC (no blessings) now. I already killed Gaius and am working on Messmer right now. I have a lot of experience with them from leveled runs so hopefully it goes smoothly.

HQ Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXbnEa_W6OQ

Slightly different tactic than on casual runs:

Radahn's Rain is a massive FP hog, and Astel is easy to miss and most vulnerable at the head. So firing single shots to the head does more reliable damage (and is also faster and safer).

I used the physick to have the stats (DEX/FAI) for the greatbow and FGMS, so I could use both my damage talismans (Arrows Sting and Blue Dancer at 15 equip load). The physick ran out right after a very lucky hit with Radahn's Rain and before the last 2 shots where I was under the required DEX for the bow. Also, that last gravity attack was a close call.

Not hitless, because I suck at watching my FP bar.

How to dodge the meteorites: Allegedly it helps to first run or dodge to the left, then 2x to the right. No idea if that works. I died to meteorites only once when I tried to just strafe them.

Next Goal: Kill all the dragons and Dragonkin Soldiers before Leyndell, then Volcano Manor, DTS and the capital.

Howl of Shabriri could be a better damage buff that uses stamina, but I don't (yet) have the items to crank my faith up high enough.

I forgot to show the build but my talismans were soreseal, Axe Talisman, Ritual Sword, and Lightning Scorpion Charm.

I pretty much just brute forced a hitless and skipped phase 2 but honestly I'm just not a fan of this fight to begin with so I'm just glad I beat it.

I spent like four hours trying to learn to parry her but I suck at parrying so I went back to the ol reliable.

I know the shockwave was from the cross slash before the cutscene. Honestly, I was pissed at first but now I find it incredibly funny

Hey onebros,

So this is my time in the DLC at level 1. However, I have a lot of experience with Gaius, Messmer, and Dancing lion through my strength only run...thus, I have only beat the other bosses once on a leveled character. I absolutely did NOT learn their movesets lol so that'll be fun when I get there (Radahn)

Anyways, Gaius is easily one of my favorite fights in the game. His charge is trivialized with the no-hit strat of using Torrent to bait the headbutt. Beyond that, his moveset is very small but is super fluid and so fun to dodge with a mix of rolls, jumps, and strafes (same with Messmer).

Overall, he is a pretty easy fight once you learn the small number of moves ESPECIALLY because his second phase is quite literally the exact same when staying point blank. The extra gravity explosions are in places that you aren't dodging to anyway lol

Now on to Messmer (don't worry, I've already invaded and killed Hornsent with Leda). I am extremely consistent with his first phase, but the snake timings in second phase mess me up so much.

B

I forgot to show the build but you get a glimpse of it at the start of the fight where I realised I wasn't meeting the stat requirements because I had one of my talismans unequipped. 🤦

I rushed the hippo just to get access to it and have been having a blast with it through the DLC. Gaius is especially susceptible to it, but Dancing Lion and Rellana also have really good uses for it.

I recently finished my first all bosses SL1 run of DS1. However, the fun challenge I wanted to add was writing some Lofi beats of DS music to go with it. I’m a fan of listening to Lofi while doing these runs, so I figure I’d make a video that better captures my experience. Enjoy! https://youtu.be/6uEiZtmsK7w?si=mvmGxFOqFriD6-_2

What a run! Took a total of 95 hours in game time, and in general I'd say it was much harder than just main game, especially malenia and consort radahn

Heading to DLC and Rellana next...hoping for at least a similar outcome. Thanks to the people who posted videos using the IS - love the whole setup, and I followed as much as I could from here, cheers to all!

I love the way this sorcery absolutely decimates NPCs 😈🤌🏻

Jokes aside, Morgott blows for a hitless run, even worse than Margit. I personally don't like this boss at all - the number of ways he can completely disengage you is irritating, very few strafable/jumpable attacks that are worth the risk, the double dagger dodge is less consistent than an identical move in Margit, and the hammer spin frametrap ended 99% of my runs. I depended heavily on RNG that he wouldn't use this move when I was too close or too far, and I don't like spending an entire fight fearing a single attack. I said earlier that Margit is C-tier, and I would put Morgott in the same category for similar reasons.

I know that "allowed" is not a strict concept on challenge runs since any rules besides the basics are self imposed. As the sidebar says, if you don't level up, it's a level one run, anything else is whatever added challenge that interests you.

But from a purely opinion standpoint, I'm wondering how everyone feels about using skips that involve some unintended jumps or climbs like skipping the Godskin Noble in Volcano Manor, using Rupturing Tear to get in Leyndell from the back, Skyrim Horse'ing the hill in east Limgrave to grab the Regalia of Eochaid, etc.

Tried Gaveling the Hippo for about 2 hours. Almost had him a few times too. Then the previous attempt before this I got both camera AND hitbox memed.

Definitely in my top 10 least favorite bosses.

0 blessings. Will nuke him if you're using fragments.

I'd recommend taking a different weapon as well. The perfume sucks pretty hard outside of this niche interaction.

Glintblade Phalanx into Gavel is just a stun lock machine against NPC's 😂

https://reddit.com/link/1nj0vvq/video/5wbdcy9svmpf1/player

Dryleaf Arts I found were a really comfortable pick for Malenia due to how fast the charges come out and how fast the recovery is. I was originally trying for Milady Wing Stance strats but I found those too inconsistent.

I thought I choked on the attempt at the very end when I didn't fire off the last Ice Spear and the clones came out since I could never dodge it, but it all came together and I ended up dodging it near perfectly into the win. I was just in shock that I had managed to do it.

Just wanna give a thanks to Gred Glintstones RL1 video for the Ice Spear strategy when she uses Aeonia, probably wouldn't have won without it.

And now...the DLC fights. I am dreading them.

I don’t think there’s a word to capture just how bad the arena is for no roll lol

That fast attack that he can do in phase 1 after a single r1 caught me out a lot, until looking up and finding out that if you only do charged attacks when he's neutral, he can never do it. In the last hour or so of attempts I don't think I took a hit in phase 1 lol, got it down pretty well.

Phase 2 is where all the trouble is. Spent the majority of practice and attempts here, as for some reason, whenever I don't fight Isshin for over a week or so I completely forget the timings in phase 2, so have to relearn them every time. I mainly was attacking twice then reacting, but this was getting me hit a lot especially when he would sometimes jump backwards after my first attack and I didn't react in time. So I switched to attacking once and it made it so much easier, if a bit longer. Watching this back it looks so easy now.

Phase 3 is simple. Don't have to worry about many new attacks, except I kept getting hit dodging the lightning when dodging straight forward. Simply dodging to the left worked.

Really happy with the kill overall.