u/BobcatLower9933

Sorry if its a stupid question. I've just beaten the rat vanguard (music was terrifying, I am traumatised).

I am fucking *loving* this game. Bought in to the hate for far too long and avoided it but finally started the other day. Its literally amazing so far, best of the trilogy by absolutely miles.

Obviously I know when you die your health cap starts coming down. But up until now its been by a tiny amount. But my last couple of deaths its dropped by *loads*. I went from full health (human), 1 death vs the boss and now its capped at this - and that's with the ring of binding too. If I take it off im at like half health - from 1 death.

What have i done to make this start happening? 😂

Put a post up last week about a buyer that agreed a deal on 2 different items. He made 2 ridiculous low ball offers, I said id accept 1 if he agreed a slightly better price on the other.

He agreed.

Bought the first item at a significant reduction, then refused to pay the more reasonable price for the 2nd. Sent me a tirade of abuse when I pointed out he was reneging on a gentleman's agreement.

Ebay basically not interested, said i can cancel the sale or fulfil it. But if I cancel it then thats a black mark against me and the buyer could leave negative feedback.

So I sent it. Item worth around £300, which i sold for £140. Got an extremely patronising message from rhe buyer about how id learnt a valuable lesson about rhe customer alwqys being read, ending with "thanks for the bargain ;)"

He received it. Immediately raised an "item not as described" request. Photos were a completrly different itwm to what I sent. Ebay advised to accept the refund and if it wasn't the item id sent then he wouldn't get refunded.

Received it back today. It was an item weighing 3 grams, wrapped in more than 700g of heavy duty masking type - inside a shoe box. Took me over 9 minutes to open. Lo amd behold, not the item i'd sent. Same general area, but damaged and worth about £10.

What do i do here? Ive raised it on ebay as "not the item I sent". Am I likely to win?

Ive honestly never dealt with such an utterly awful human being. Absolute scum of the earth.

M18 I weight train 6 days a week, do 15-20mins of cardio. Please guide me on how i should approach this race.

Edit- The race was advertised as a marathon hence the title 😭

Tl;dr - mental buyer who renewed on an agreement, and then somehow made me out to be the bad guy.

So i have a fairly niche collecting hobby, i'm currently in the (long) process of refining my collection which means selling some/most of the 1200~ or so pieces in my collection.

So far i've sold about 350 on ebay. I have a 100% positive feedback, and many of the items ive been sold have been *vastly* below retail. Some as much as 50% off, with the sale prices ranging from around £50 up to about £1500. Most pieces sell at around £80-£120.

Anyway I had a buyer message me late last night. They made a ridiculously low offer on something which is already about 30% below retail. I went back with an offer of about 10% below my asking price with a message explaining why I wouldn't accept lower.

They replied and said they understood but would like to go lower. They made another low offer. I declined and said I was firm. Another low offer. I declined again. They eventually said they'd pay it but noticed I had hundreds more for sale on my page and wanted time to have a look. But said they would accept the price i offered.

Fast forward to today. Another insultingly low offer. More negotiation. 2 more offers later and I finally agreed "if you are 100% going to take the first item we agreed on, i will accept x offer on this one". They agreed. So I sent the offer. He accepted and paid.

But then didnt accept the agreed price on the 1st item. I messaged back and reminded them that was the agreement.

"What agreement?" He replies. Despite the fact he had replied 30 mins ago agreeing. Said that he didn't thibk that was reasinable and didn't understand thats what I was saying when I had literally said "I am only accept 140 for this if you take the other one at 90".

Spends the next 5 mins telling me how unprofessional I am. And that he still expects me to send the item he has paid for, despite it being 50% below retail.

Then when I refuse, he screenshots the conversation, posts it in Google AI, makes some edits, gets Google to say im in the wrong because I was refusing to send the item.

I suppose 1 in 350 idiots isn't a bad ratio....

EDIT: I DID IT!!!! 41st sttempt, only 1 boss ever has taken me longer 🤣🤣 and ended up killing him without even being hit! Back to loving this game, but will return in approx 30 mins when im walled again!

So full disclosure on my background here.

I picked Sekiro up in 2019. I'd played Dark Souls 1 when it first released for about 2 hours and proudly told anyone who would listen it was "the worst game i'd ever played". Absolutely hated it (and still do).

I dont think i even knew Sekiro came from the same developer, but Tenchu was one of my favourite series ever so figured id love it.

Anyway I sucked. I think I put about 15 hours into it. I don't think I beat Gyoubu (but I might have done. Definitely didn't beat the blazing bull). But tells you how much i sucked.

Anyway, Sekiro became my new least favourite game.

I picked Elden Ring up when it was released. It was a steep learning curve but I started to learn what FromSoftware wanted you to do. Its now one of my top 5 games ever (i've been playing games since the early 90s, ive played literally thousands in that time).

Souls and soulslikes are now pretty much my go-to genre. On the whole, I think im pretty good at them. I've beaten all the Souls games several times now, and many soulslikes as well. I recently beat Lies of P with under 10 deaths across the entire game, until rhe final ("secret") boss.

I've avoided Sekiro...until now. I think i have a bit of Sekiro-trauma!

But this week I bit the bullet.

I've got through relatively painlessly up until this Seven Ashina Spears guy. I'm at around 35 deaths now (for context, thats more than i died on my blind runs of DS2 and DS3, including the DLC put together). Ive died more here now than I have to any boss i've ever fought, except for some guy on Wuchang recently, and also Raven from Stellar Blade.

I do, generally, find parry timing extremely tough but I felt like I had the hang of it until this guy.

His timings seem "off" compared to everything else i've done so far. A quick google search seems to say he is the mikiri counter skill check, but he *very* rarely seems to use that move. And when he does, the deflect timing seems to need you to deflect about half a second earlier than the regular mobs (and the practice guy at the temple).

Likewise all his regular attacks and sweeps seem to be totally unpredictable in terms of the window.

Its also an annoying "run back" to get to him. Theres about 10-13 mobs, including the 2 big guys with clubs. Ive now done that run back so many times ive picked up about 8 skill points and have something like 4k sen in my pocket 🤣

Overall im having a *lot* more fun than I did before, mostly because I understand that death is a part of what's expected, bur I know im still incredibly early on and I'm worried that if this is my wall im judt going to get more and more frustrated further down the line.

Any suggestions on how to deal with him? Is this really just a "git gud"?

So full disclosure - i suck at parrying. I picked the game up over a year ago and, honestly, hated it because I was just bad at it.

I'd played most of the fromsoftware games, and a haldful of other "easier" soulslikes. Generally I'm fairly good at them, the only bosses which genuinely made me suffer were from Sekiro because, as I mentioned, i suck at parrying. I've now played a much wider variety of games from the genre and after reading all the reviews online, I came back to it.

Anyway, everyone seems to love Lies of P so I went back to it. I enjoyed it more this time but I dont think its as good as a lot others make it out to be. For instance I recently beat AI limit and Wuchang - both are far better IMO.

So -

Combat - is good and satisfying. The game definitely leans towards parrying, but most enemies, bosses and attacks can be dodged. If you're good at parrying this game will be an absolute cake walk for you. There are too many status effects, and "decay" in particular is incredibly OP and *incredibly* annoying.

The bosses - are generally very underwhelming..... Apart from the ones that aren't. I beat every boss in the game first time, except for 3. 2 of them were just "skill check" bosses. The other is just *bullshit*. The final "secret" boss which depends on your gameplay choices is the hardest boss from any game i've ever played. It is absolutely a case of "git gud" but it honestly makes every "notoriously" hard boss look like a super Mario goomba - that honestly isn't an exaggeration. I didnt summon for any bosses, but there is an option for this on the "end of chapter" bosses if you're struggling (apart from, inexplicably, the secret final boss).

The enemies - are almost all *way* harder than the bosses. Even some of the common "mobs" are pretty tough, and some of the "elites" I died multiple times to despite the bosses mostly being easy.

Build variety - you technically have unlimited respecs, but you are fairly limited on the amount of weapon upgrade materials. The weapon flexibility is awesome, as you can disassemble and reassemble depending on what you like.

The story - this is where the game really shines. Its a creepy as fuck twist on a well known children's story/fairytale. Its probably the best story from all the well known soulslike games.

Overall its probably worth playing unless you know you really don't like parry-centric games. Dodging is viable but *definitely* makes the game a lot harder than it needs to be. Its better than a lot of other soulslikes, but its definitely "the best game ever" like a lot of people seem to think.

Solid 7.5/10 overall for me!

I've done all riddles.

I grabbed the "scandal" note in Lorenzini arcade.

I've exhausted all dialogue with Arlecchino.

I've exhausted all dialogue with Venigini.

What else am I missing please? I'm at the end of chapter 11 - havent used guides at all, just at the end of the game now so having a quick scan to see if i've missed anything and this is the one that stands out.

Thanks!

In the most adult, rational, and civil way possible:

What the motherfucking fuck is this boss?

I almost made a post yesterday about how underwhelming the boss fights are in this game, then I come across this and now every single orofice in my body is being penetrated in every possible direction.

5+ attempts now and yet to get it to halfway.

Wtf are you supposed to do? Absolutely *insane* difficulty spike 🤣🤣

So i put a post up yesterday. I completed the game in about 13 hours (including sunface fragments).

I, basically, didn't die for the entier game. I had 2 deaths in the 1st biome, and then got straight through to biome 5, without dying again. But that point I had quite a lot of shit. High integrity, loads of artefacts. Genuinely good parasites. I died in biome 5 fighting some severed....and this is where my issue with the game starts, though i didnt know it at the time.

I died a couple more times, against against the severed. Looking back, I got *incredible* RNG on my runs immediately after death. Again, didn't know it at the time. Thought this was typical. I've already forgotten my total number of deaths, it was sonething like 6-9 total.

So I finished the game yesterday, and had a blast. I was a bit disappointed with the length, but also accepted I had missed some stuff out.

Some people suggested i went back and played again. A cool redditor sent me a DM and we talked about about the game and his experience vs mine (wildly different).

So anyway, here i am again. New game, new cycle.

As before I blasted through biome 1-3. 0 deaths. Arrived at biome 4, obviously "back to the start". And here is where my issue with the game starts.

It is *entirely* RNG. I can basically play until I fight the severed and rhen, regardless of how OP i am, I die.

They are so hilariously far above everything else in the game in terms of strength.

I'm about 9 hours into this run. Havent got beyond biome 5 yet. Something like 15 deaths. Every single one has been fighting the severed. Just now I was basically maxed out - 200% integrity, loads of protection augmentations, good parasites. Hollowseeker, 28 proficiency (pretty much the highest i've ever had). Probably a 2 hour run. Dead in <30 seconds.

Respawn in biome 4, obviously lost everything. 1st room has a secret dropdown l, severed spawns, obviously dead as I have nothing.

Respawn again, 3 rooms in, severed spawn, dead.

Respawn again, this time about 15 mins in. Starting to get some stuff, challenge room, severed spawn again, dead.

Is this what I was missing out on? It is *incredibly* frustrating because it feels like you are entirely at the mercy of whether or not these guys spawn.

You are *ridiculously* weak following a respawn. Its badically a run through until you find an actually usable weapon (carbine or hollowseeker) because everything else is trash?

In total im now around 20-25 hours in. The *only* deaths i have are fighting the severed.

Is this normal? I genuinely find the game ridiculously easy - to the point where I dont even really need integrity pickups now. Most other enemies don't even hit me. But I think almost without exception, every severed i've fought has killed me. It's getting to the point now where i'm actively avoiding the challenge rooms, and "secrets", and scanning the "dead" versions of serene in rooms because if its a severed spawn I might as well save myself the 30 seconds and hit a reset.

Im not sure if this is a rant or not. Because until about 6 hours ago I was bloody loving this game. Now it just feels like im making absolutely no progress at all. But i've never pkayed a rogue game before. Is this what it's meant to feel like?

Tl;dr - extremely good, one of the best games, literally, in years. For people that enjoy replayability I imagine there is absolutely loads to keep you going. For those, like me, that don't even 1 playthrough is rewarding.

To start off - it's short. Like, really short. My total play time was just under 13 hours. I got it on ebay for like £17, so at that price I have no issues at all. But if I paid full price i'd probably have been a bit annoyed.

I found out yesterday that generally people find the game really challenging. I've never played a "roguelike" game before so didn't know what to expect. My normal sort of game are RPGs, soulslikes etc. Im not a completionist or a platinum hunter at all. I think I had 7 or 8 deaths total (but im not sure if it tracks deaths where you use one of the machines as a "checkpoint"? That happened to me once on the boss of biome 4. So yeah personally, I found it really quite easy. I have practically no "shooting game" experience, but have played quite a lot of souls/soulslike games.

I died twice in the first 30 mins, and then didn't die again until halfway through biome 5. Unfortunately, this meant that I couldn't then go back to biomes 1-3 - so for completionists this might be an issue. I died quite a few times in biome 5 after that, big step up compared to the others.

I "died" once on boss 4, but I went in with under half a health bar so only needed 2 hits or so to die. The only other times I died (apart drom me being a noob in biome 1), were fighting "the severed", which i found extremely challenging right the way through. I found them far, far harder than any of the bosses. Hit like a tank, teleport on top of you, ridiculously fast. I died this morning fighting 2 of them in biome 5. I was on something like 250% integrity, had 3 heals, had 3x 10% augments for protection, parasites for recovery and *still* died fighting them!

All of the biomes look great, but I especially like 1, 3 and 4. They really reminded me of the film "prometheus" (which has its faults, but the "world building" in it i think is fantastic, and as good as any other sci-fi film ever)

The story is *great*. I pieced a lot of it together whilst I was going (but i also have a good knowledge of Greek mythology - i knew my classics degree would come in useful one day!) but there was still a lot which caught me by surprise at the end.

Im certain theres still a lot that im missing, and if I go back to it (which i actually might at some point, which is something I *very* rarely do, which just shows you how much I enjoyed it).

But honestly, its easily a 9/10 - and this is for a game and a genre that I have practically no experience of. My only criticisms would be that its a little short and, in my opinion, theres major balance issues. But itd absolutely worth getting if you aren't sure.

Not sure if this is allowednon this sub, but couldn't thibk of anywhere more appropriate.

Looks like i cant share images, but had a notification from Monzo that soft searches had been carried out on me this month. Had a look and theres 8 searches on friday 3rd July, mostly for "lexis nexis" amd "bisl limited".

Nothing to do with me, I was in London at a concert on friday. Havent applied for any credit since March when I was thinking about buying a new car, which I ended up buying for cash anyway. Have a credit card which I use occasionally but always clear each month.

Only other credit is my phone contract which I got in September 2025.

Do I need to be worried about this? Or is this just a routine thing some companies do occasionally? I don't recall ever seeing it before.

Would like to reiterate these are soft searches and not hard searches.

Hi, new player here.

Ive never played this genre of game before (roguelikes) so just getting my teeth into it a bit.

I died 2 or 3 times on the first world/level before I beat the first boss. But since then ive beaten 3 more bosses without dying. Ive explored thoroughly on each world, but i know that in the first world when you die, the world "changes". Is this only in the first world or is that all of them?

Im about 5 or 6 hours in (playstation isn't currently tracking playtime so not totally sure). I have 3 hadal keys but havent found what they're used for yet.

So my question is - am I better of intentionally dying, in order for the "worlds" to change? I know the game is meant to be about 20 or so hours long so I know I still have miles to go, just dont want to miss out on any good permanent upgrades if I just keep going from world to world! But if those worlds stay the same then I wont bother and will just keep progressing!

I've got to say, im really loving the game - actually a lot more than I thought i would becsuse ive never played a game like this before and im usually quote picky with what i play!

Hi, new player but played lots of souls games and soulslikes. Probably a noob question here!

I played the original and hated it. Played the 2023 version when it came out but found it... not great. Have decided to come back to it, have heard its a lot better now.

Im very early game. Ive just beaten Pieta and then gone to the central hub area. Im just beyond that now. Not sure if its linear progression or not - but im sort of just outside these castle walls, on the ramparts.

Ive found a huge sort of bridge, theres a "memory" there in the umbral world where it's a woman who is sacrificing to Adyr and she sort of laughs/screams while she kills herself (or thats what it sounds like).

Anyway, just before that I used the statue to come out of Umbral. Walked to this bridge. Found the memory, went Umbral to listen to it. Came out of Umbral again using the statue at the end. Realised it was a dead end so used the lamp and saw a skeleton bridge, leading away from the main bridge. Went Umbral to cross it and realised it's a dead end.

But now im stuck in Umbral, I cant go bsck to before the *first* statue, as there was an elevator there which doesnt work in Umbral. But ive used the 2 statues coming out of Umbral.

Where am I supposed to go here?

Overall, its great. Would highly recommend.

Im usually not a fan of anime, or the anime art style in general. Especially that which focuses on the, ah, male gaze! I enjoyed Stellar Blade, but the protagonist was annoying simply because of the costumes.

Ai Limit isn't as.... blatant as that which makes it way more bearable! But thats a really minor criticism.

Its very much a typical soulslike. Slightly futuristic vibe, limited story telling unless you go out of your way to explore and then it actually becomes one of the better and more engaging stories. Im definitely left wanting more which doesn't often happen with these sort of games.

The actual combat is quite simple, but its really rewarding. You know that feeling you get when you have a bonk build and it feels great when you hit something? You get that with all 3 major weapon classes. Its so satisfying when you hit something, like a proper "crumch". And then beat them, obviously.

Difficulty is a bit weird. Overall, I found it easier than most but with 3 or 4 extremely challenging fights thats really force you to actually learn patterns. 2 of the hardest fights in the game have a second health bar for their (much) harder 2nd phases and they took me multiple (10+) attempts to get down.

I only pkay physical games, and there is only a Chinese or Japanese version available in physical. I believe the Japanese physical *doesn't* have an option for English subtitles, but the Chinese version *does*, however theres a minor text wrap bug where the text doesn't always fit on a line so words csn be randomly split in half and appear on different lines. Its not ideal, but a million miles away from being game breaking.

But yeah. Definitely recommend. I picked a copy up on ebay for like £22, and for that I feel like ive got a bargain!

M40 is closed. Been sat here for almost an hour, havent moved an inch. No idea how long it's going to be for. Loads of ambulances/police gone past so looks like a bad one.

Looks like im going to miss it, which is gutting, just hoping any late leavers see this and take another route!