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The minor details about the most optimal way through any% with shrine skip we already know it's entirely just a question of source of damage we have Clubs, Drangleic Sword, BKH, Heide Lance, Demon's Great hammer or Pyro to really choose from.
Now Reap The Whirlwind!
Anyone been having good luck with any% with shrine skip? I've been working on it a lot and had marginally success. From what I had discovered, I'm not sure that dual clubs would be the best method for damage. Since the amount of souls being acquired is significantly lower than normal any%, you just can't get the same amount of strength and reinforcements. They haven't been very effective for me so far. Although this may not be the case for later on, that's just what I've been seeing.
If anyone is interested in doing all bosses, both Lobos and Noobest have run my Clubs soulvessel respec into Hexes all bosses route, though I've made some bigger changes and there's still a lot of questions about whether Whisper of Despair is worth grabbing for the bosses really resistant to magic. Great resonant soul just absolutely melts through most bosses except Darklurker (and you just grab Great Lightning spear for him).
Now Reap The Whirlwind!
Alright. Been doing a lot of practice on the any% with Shrine skip (has involved a lot of dying btw). I figured that I'd drop off what I've found would work for a route and any general notes I have.

1. Start by going Warrior and getting healing wares
2. Grab the estus shard and bonfire at Mejula.
3. Head to Heide's Tower of Flame, pick up the Human Effigy and the soul near the hammer wielding enemy, and kill the Dragonrider.
4. Go back to Mejula from the bonfire after the Dragonrider and go to the Forest of Fallen Giants. Grab the Human Effigy in the chest and the Homeward Bone from the corpse along the way.
5. Go to the bonfire at the merchant and run up the stairs and grab the estus shard. Then, buy 2 clubs, 3 firebombs, and Lenigrast's key
6. Use a firebomb to blow up the wall in the room with the merchant and run to The Last Giant. (don't forget to grab the shortcut)
7. After beating The Last Giant, head up the elevator and get the titanite bug nearby.
8. After that, head out to the Pursuer.
9. When he's beaten, jump down to grab the Drangleic shield, then Homeward Bone.
10. Go back to Mejula, use the souls of the bosses and other souls if you haven't already, get the Silvercat Ring, buy 10 titanite shards from Lenigrast and upgrade your clubs to +3 each. Then go to the Emerald Herald, upgrade your flask, and put as many levels as possible into strength.
11. Make sure you equip the Drangleic shield, both clubs, the Ring of Blades, the Silvercat Ring, and the Estus flask, then head to the pit in the center of Mejula and jump down.
12. After you get to the bottom of the pit, run and get the titanite bug at the bridge. Then jump down and head for the The Gutter.
13. Getting the first bonfire in the Gutter, make your way down to the bottom, break through the urns going to the Black Gulch and grab the Fragrant Branch of Yore there. Then go to the mist that leads to the Black Gulch and use the bonfire near there to teleport back to Mejula.
14. From there, head up to the Shaded Woods entrance, grab the lifegems and Homeward Bones near Benhart, unpetrify the woman there, and unlock the entrance. Then run through the Shaded Woods to the first bonfire.
15. Take the door from there that leads to the Shrine of Winter. Do the skip there, then go to Drangleic Castle.

From that point the route should be identical to the normal any% route. Here are my general notes:

1. You have very little souls. There isn't much to work with in terms of levels (I actually included the Dragonrider because I thought there was just not enough souls to get the job done)
2. Since you aren't as powerful, bosses may have to be done a little slower, just to be safe.
3. Had no luck using other weapons. After including the Dragonrider into the route, there were enough souls to make the Clubs viable. However, they still aren't as powerful as they are in any%.
4. Went with the Drangleic Shield and the dual Clubs because there aren't enough souls to buy the Twin Dragon Greatshield and Maces.
5. I think that a trip back to Mejula to level up should be done after getting the first bonfire in the Shrine of Amana. It should help with the rest of the game.

So far, I've gotten to the Shrine of Amana and almost to the Demon of Song while doing the Shrine of Winter skip. It's been very frustrating, but I think that this can be done.

That's all I've got to contribute. For now
Socially awkward ;P
I just thought about something, considering how easy it is to kill the Dragon Rider, do you think using a bonfire ascetic to kill him twice and get a few more levels (24 000 souls) could save time with the last bosses ?
Now Reap The Whirlwind!
Maybe. But I think that this route could be done without that. If going back to Mejula at the first bonfire in the Shrine of Amana is included, then all the levels you get there would be going into vitality. With the souls you get from the Dragonriders and the Looking Glass Knight, you should be getting a ton of levels out of it. It should be enough to get through the rest of the game without another trip.

But doing the Dragonrider twice is not a bad idea. Let's see what happens. I'll keep working on this and try to get a video of it soon.
Now Reap The Whirlwind!
Alright. Feel like I should report more on the any% with Shrine skip route. Mainly that I know it can be done. I have gotten to the Throne Watcher and Defender. However, I had to stop because I had no more Human Effigies and beating them normally just wasn't going to work out. So if I practice more or if someone better at the game than me were to attempt it and not die as much, it could happen.

Here are general notes I have:

1. If I had been able to finish the game, I would have had 23 Vigor and 44 strength with a total soul level of 57. I think that this is all that will be needed.
2. There are a couple of new things that I found will be needed for the route: 
            -After getting the Fragrant Branch of Yore in Black Gulch and when you teleport back to Mejula, upgrade your main hand Club to +4 with the large titanite shard from the Gutter titanite bug.
            -When going back to level up after getting to the Shrine of Amana, put enough points in strength to get to the 44 (should be about 6 or 7 points). Then pump the rest into Vigor.

That's about it. Also, does anyone have a backup strategy for the Throne Watcher and Defender, just in case you can't do it with Benhart or if he dies too quickly? I know that Noobest was able to get the Watcher to fall off, but only with difficulty. Anyone do anything differently?

Yeah the Watcher can fall off and Distortion has been playing around more with that. Apparently if you can get him to a certain position it works every time. Though he has failed doing it while I've been watching him too so I guess getting him there can be a bit difficult? Otherwise club / mace powerstance L2 staggers both of them in two combos so that is useful for when Benhart has the aggro. Also you can buy 5 effigies from the hag and 13 from the guy in crypt.
Does anyone have any tips for getting through Lower Earthen Peak quickly? Those stupid dagger throwing guys are a real pain.
Now Reap The Whirlwind!
I've finally beaten the game while doing the shrine of winter skip/route. I think that with more practice, it could be a respectable category. I do have an addition to the route though:

Either after beating Guardian Dragon or the Giant Lord, go back to Mejula, use the souls you have left and pump up strength. You should be able to get it to around 64 or 65. This will make beating the Throne Watcher and Defender much more feasible.

That should be it for routing. Now to get a halfway decent time
Edit history:
Soliduz Znake: 2014-03-27 05:51:31 pm
Soliduz Znake: 2014-03-27 05:42:10 pm
I found this website which has info on weapons, locations, covenants, items and other stuff in this game if anybody needs it:
http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Dark+Souls+2+Wiki#.UzS2BvmSwXs

also here is a map to help you where to go:
Edit history:
Soliduz Znake: 2014-04-06 12:12:17 pm
never mind I though it was a glitch. my bad Dx
You're in the rat covenant. I thought the same thing too when I got there. ;P
Edit history:
Soliduz Znake: 2014-04-06 12:13:01 pm
Quote from skychase2rebirth:
You're in the rat covenant. I thought the same thing too when I got there. ;P


:S
Edit history:
VincentX9: 2014-03-27 10:52:09 pm
Hey Noobest this post is mainly for you but if other people find it useful that is good to.

I've been running for a couple days now and I got 2h 6m last night with your old club strats wooot!!
I wanted to show you a jump I dont think you are aware of that is easy and I wanted to show and explain a consistent method of getting the drake skip jump.

The first jump is at 2:08 on my link and is self explanatory. http://www.twitch.tv/vincentx9/b/514650701
The drake skip jump is at 1:04:22 on the same link and the way I perform it more consistently is I move far enough into the cave until the opening is barely visible then I start my run, I let the camera rotate on its own and just run straight forward toward the cave exit, then right before I run into the post of the bridge outside the opening I tilt the move stick to the 45 degree up-right direction and jump. It seems very consistent and I get the jump around 9 out of 10 times

Congratz on the new PB today Ill have to watch it later

Edit: Posted this right before watched distortion and all the new stuff going on lol, but it should be still helpful
Edit history:
Noobest: 2014-03-27 11:50:03 pm
Thanks Vincent, I'll be sure to do the Gutter jump and look into the Aerie skip too.

Regarding 1.00 we've been routing it with Distortion utilizing the king's gate skip ( and using the BKH. Doing this allows you to completely skip Last Giant but we found ourselves with a lack of souls. Someone from chat suggested bonfire ascetic on Dragonrider to be used for souls and god damn it works so well. Since the bossfight is so damn easy doing it on NG+ difficulty is not a problem at all and you have plenty of souls to start of the run. Here's the vod of the route after the intial routing had been thought out. http://www.twitch.tv/distortion2/b/514895543?t=92m It's of course by no means perfect and he messed up some things and we only thought of certain things midway run, but it should give the general idea of how it can work out. Since you can get the BKH up to +2 it does actually really good damage for a weapon you can get so early on. Honestly I think this base idea might be one of the fastest ways to do the shrine skip run and I'll get some runs in myself next week.

There's a lot to be improved and tons of things that we didn't completely think through or just overlooked so any input would be great.
Takahashi Meijin


Dual Pursuers NG+++++ Barehanded = As Neo of course!

JoeFenix, the king of 3d action games rears his head again. lol this is just crazy.

he parrys two at the same time!
Now Reap The Whirlwind!
I finally was able to look over the video of the shrine skip route with the BKH and I gotta say, it looks far superior to the dual clubs route. With some polish, we might get some insane times from this route. Here are my comments on the route (not the run itself):

1. Should definitely grab the corpse near Benhart at the Shaded Woods entrance. Has 3 lifegems and 3 Homeward Bones. Makes it so you don't have to buy all of Shaliquoir's.
2. Going to the merchant at the Forest of Fallen Giants should be done after the double Dragonriders in Drangleic Castle. You'll be able to have the twinkling titanite to upgrade the BKH to +2.
3. Why not grab the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring from the merchant at the Forest of Fallen Giants?
4. Grab the Estus Shard from the Forest of Fallen Giants.
5. Any way to get three more twinkling titanite without too much extra effort? +2 BKH is nice, but a +3 wouldn't hurt. (this is just a suggestion, +2 could work fine if this doesn't play out)
6. What should the stat distribution be?  Distortion seemed to have good results by getting points in Adaptability, but I think that some of those points would be better spent in Vigor. Since the BKH has crap scaling, maybe points could be allocated to Vigor and Endurance.

I think that should be it. I'm definitely going to be learning this route.
Socially awkward ;P
Quote from Stormknight:
5. Any way to get three more twinkling titanite without too much extra effort? +2 BKH is nice, but a +3 wouldn't hurt. (this is just a suggestion, +2 could work fine if this doesn't play out)


I'd say Rusted coin + prisoner's chest/helm in Shrine of Amana or Crystal lizards in Dragon Aeries.
Edit history:
Noobest: 2014-03-29 04:23:51 am
1. Definitely a good idea.

2. I suggested going to the forest straight after getting the first branch. My reasoning was that the jump you have to do in the forest can be quite difficult to pull off so you don't want to have it too deep in the run. You could also get +1 afterwards I suppose. Also you probably want to go back to Majula after double dragonriders to level up either way.

3. You need to spend 10k souls to get the ring which might be problematic early on. Maybe kill her for it?

4. Optimally you wouldn't want to get it but when starting out for sure.

5. We did discuss the possibility of getting 3 extra twinklies for +3 but honestly the small(?) damage boost might just not be worth the time. Anyway if you're interested in looking into that here are the locations we found:
There's one twinkling titanite in the basilisk cave next to the shaded ruins bonfire right near the BKH.
The flexile sentry in shaded woods on the path to the shrine of winter drops one.
Lootable corpse just before Mirror Knight has one.
There's a chest in Dragon Shrine with three twinklies after the first mace giant.

6. Leveling vigor doesn't really give that much benefit if you don't get A LOT of it. You need a very large health pool to not die in two hits from most bosses in either case. Adaptability helps a lot with dodging attacks but of course stats are a personal preference. Endurance for more swings / stamina left for rolls after hitting things could definitely be helpful. I think the best way to find out what works for you is just try it out in a run and see what happens.
Now Reap The Whirlwind!
Ok. I mainly suggested getting the ring because I saw Distortion buy the Effigies and gems there , so why not get the ring too? I also suggested the extra shard because you have less healing items with this route and it couldn't hurt to have the extra bit of backup.

It seems like getting the extra titantie wouldn't be worth the effort. +2 BKH worked well enough.

Also, there has to be a better way of getting through the Shrine of Amana. I've actually tried a bit of a combination strategy. You summon Felicia, then you take her around the left edge of the area to the mist. She's smart enough to follow closely and not aggro anything. Then you can use her to keep the mob near the mist busy. Will need to kill at least one of the sorceresses though. It's probably not as fast, but it worked well.
Forget about wasting your time with estus flasks in a speedrun, obtaining shards and giving them and burning bone dust, it's all very slow, you start out with enough lifegems and most of the time can purchase a few from the hag or pick up a few as well, just don't get hit really.

We've had different groups of people thinking about different routes for different categories, BKH is the way to go for a weapon when you don't have upgrade materials past small titanite shards it seems.

For 1.0 Distortion2 managed to get a 1:20 run


And this morning they had a BKH any% (via million souls) that kills rotten four times that is probably the fastest thing you can do as well (if I've been reading all these chat logs correctly) that he did a test run of and will do proper runs of tomorrow.
I haven't tested this yet but I think this is more of an optimized route.

getting the branch then bone to Majula, open locksmith, head to shaded woods. Get BKH and titanite. Warp to Majula upgrade BKH to +2 for dual dragon riders and mirror knight.
I would have just enough stats to dual wield the BKH since if I do 20 str and 26 Rex I won't have enough for upgrades.


OR

Go on with normal route. Get BKH and titanite then to dragon rider. Get the two twinkles in the castle. Rather than levelling up after, level up at the next bonfire after mirror knight since it puts the souls from mirror knight to use (~50k) also BKH is viable since there should be 5 twinkies without any inconvenience.
This here would be the first and last trip for levelling up and upgrades. Should have about 50k souls to spend on levels which is more than good enough for the rest of the game.

I don't think BKH+2 would make up 1 minute (the time it takes to warp and upgrade) on mirror knight because the damage difference between BKH and BKH+2 is not big.

I think the second route is the fastest though since it only takes one trip to do everything.
Quote from Ohkae:
I haven't tested this yet but I think this is more of an optimized route.

getting the branch then bone to Majula, open locksmith, head to shaded woods. Get BKH and titanite. Warp to Majula upgrade BKH to +2 for dual dragon riders and mirror knight.
I would have just enough stats to dual wield the BKH since if I do 20 str and 26 Rex I won't have enough for upgrades.


OR

Go on with normal route. Get BKH and titanite then to dragon rider. Get the two twinkles in the castle. Rather than levelling up after, level up at the next bonfire after mirror knight since it puts the souls from mirror knight to use (~50k) also BKH +3 is viable since there should be 5 twinkies without any inconvenience.
This here would be the first and last trip for levelling up and upgrades. Should have about 50k souls to spend on levels which is more than good enough for the rest of the game.

I don't think BKH+2 would make up 1 minute (the time it takes to warp and upgrade) on mirror knight because the damage difference between BKH and BKH+2 is not big.

I think the second route is the fastest though since it only takes one trip to do everything.
Edit history:
VincentX9: 2014-03-30 04:51:50 pm
Today I attempted to map different 1.00 runs. My results are as follows

Sorcerer - To far to run out of the way to grab useful spells, pre mirror knight very low damage (since after is soul bolt which is great for bosses), and low damage makes getting stone giant parts to difficult.

Cleric - This run was so close to being successful, it completely shreds everything up to looking glass knight, LGK has way to much lightning resist and can't be killed with the 1 offensive miracle that is easy to get (even buying amber herbs doesn't help). If anybody has ideas for a cleric beating LGK that doesn't go to far out of the way I would be very interested.

Any melee other than BKH - Just not powerful enough Sad

Bows - didnt even try, seriously not even worth trying

Hexer - still working on this, looks like resonant soul is the strongest spell you can use without going really far off track.(not great resonant) unless somebody has another idea this seems not very damage effective.

Overall BKH still seems the most legit for 1.00, but I'll keep looking.