Bringing back PIT STOPs with a purpose, this PIT STOP will tie in directly with my upcoming Mortal Shell review (stay tuned for that). Along the way I've been achievement hunting which is what I normally do when I really love a game. Because of that, I went and ahead and achieved an achievement (say that last sentence three times fast) that I have not even did previously and I have played this game on PS4 and now Steam multiple times and conquered it many times as well.
This time, without making anymore excuses I was going to do the no shell/ Foundling run. And after my first couple fails and especially dying against a mini-boss that I normally 'farm' for currency I was beginning to doubt if it was possible. One thing did give me pause through, with this achievement you can die as much as you like so with that in mind, I believed it was doable.
Now one of the cool benefits of trying this challenge was I was able to kill two birds with one stone. I was able to get the 'Forever Alone' achievement by staying in the Foundling form and I could get the 'Life is Suffering' achievement by using the Obsidian form (thankfully in the regular game the Obsidian form is just a different skin more on that later). Once I realized due to the Foundling's abnormal sized stamina bar, I was able to spam dodge my way through most areas and on top of that, I was even able to skip some mini bosses as well. The only ones I did fight was because they blocked my progress so Imrod, Tarsus, Crucix, both Grishas (imprisoned and the regular one) and of course, ol' the Unchained.
I skipped picking up 92% of the items and focused on just upgrading my Hallowed Sword to max because most of them are pointless to the Foundling. I did kill Hadern 3 times to get the three main weapons tho but I did that for a different reason. You see, having multiple weapons and finding their special skill upgrades and upgrading said weapons give you resolve (the meter you need for parries and special attacks) and I need as much of that as I could get.
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| HARD MODE UNLOCKED |
The run was going pretty well until out of all bosses Tarsus was giving me a hard time. The hilarious thing is Tarsus is arguably my favorite boss to fight in the game but he was giving me a run for my money especially because his frost attacks which only does minor damage to a regular shell but insta kills the Foundling form (like everything else, looking at you, you dumb poison frogs). That however was not the end of my suffering. Right after Tarsus I went back to home base and fought the final boss, the Unchained. As I was elaborate more in my upcoming full review, the Unchained is my least favorite boss in any Souls-like... not just this game. ANY Souls-like.
After a grueling war where I not only had to deal with my least favorite boss with no safety nets and no way to cheese it (witness Ongal take down of him, it is amazing) plus real life issues like worrying about my dog and her health, after 5-6 hours of countless attempts I finally did it (perfectly timed with me being able to bring my dog home from the vet). One of the hardest achievements I have ever attempted and I did it.
Now... the next logical step. To do it again but in the Virtuous Cycle rogue-lite mode where the Obsidian shell has drawbacks as well as when you die, you die for good. The thing is, I need to do it because I need this achievement (named 'No Lifer' unironically) to get my 100% for Mortal Shell.
Wish me luck.
AV
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