So, several more Dark Souls 3 bosses down and I am chugging along towards the fourth Extra Bad Big Bad Guy because the Dark Souls series seems fixated on the Rule of Four. Presumably there will be something else after I kill the first four. 

That’s not that noteworthy. What is, however, is a lesson that I thought I’d learned years ago (from a PSP game!) but which I apparently hadn’t fully internalized. 

Basically, while playing through “Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core”, there was a point where I got trapped in a room full of fire elementals, with me carrying a fire sword and with fire spells equipped. It did not go well for me, because they were completely immune to every form of damage I had on offer, and I thought that it had taught me to always have a backup. 

So when I got to Aldritch in Dark Souls 3 and realized that he was, well, not 100% magic resistant but certainly pretty dang resistant, I was quite embarrassed to realize that I had done exactly the same thing again. He’s very weak to fire, but most fire spells are “Pyromancies” rather than “Sorceries” and require at least some investment in the Faith stat. 

My Faith was 7. 

I did give it a try. Several tries! I got pretty good at dodging the guy’s attacks, even, but I just could not hurt him enough before I made enough mistakes to wind up looking at the You Died screen again. 

So I grumbled, and backed away from the boss, and found a quiet corner full of respawning enemies, and ground up five levels of Faith so I could equip a low-level fire spell, and then I absolutely steamrollered the guy on the next attempt. 

So victory? But not really one for the record books. 

Anyway I have several optional zones open to me before I actually go for Bad Guy #4, so those are my next goals. With any luck, the next DS3 post you see will start with “Did I Actually…”