Dark Souls Challenges

If you're like me, you'll have played enough Dark Souls now that it's starting to become tiresome. You know every enemy attack pattern, every trap is predictable, and the only boss that ever kills you (unless you majorly slip up) is the Bed of Chaos (because it's a pain in the arse.)

So, I come to the Dark Souls community to beg of you: challenge me. And I mean seriously challenge me. Am I not allowed to spend souls in a specific stat? Must I use one weapon all the way through? Do I have to go through naked? Or so over-encumbered that I have to walk all the way through and can't dodge a slug? Should I do this in a specific time limit? I'd love to hear some suggestions, and I'll make a compilation of any and all challenges on this post. Who knows, maybe you too will try and attempt some of these challenges.

Try and present them in this format:

Not allowed to level above 20
Can't spend any souls in Vitality
Must start off as a Warrior
Restricted to str-based weapons
Must be over 50% encumbrance
Complete the game in under 10 hours

Done as such so each individual element of the challenge is on a separate line. I look forward to any suggestions and trying a few of them in between sessions of destroying people in PvP.

Challenges

Rockstar's 'Piss-you-off-athon' Challenge

Not allowed to level above 15
Can't spend any souls in Vitality
Must start off as a Thief
Restricted to str-based weapons*
Must be over 100% encumbrance as soon as possible.
Complete the game in under 10 hours

(*Any weapon with a B or higher scaling in STR.
Any weapon that needs a 20+ in STR to wield.Any greatsword except the Moonlight GS.
Any ultra greatsword.
Any axe/greataxe/hammer/greathammer)

Mark's Elementless Challenge

No levelling up.
Must retain starter gear the entire playthrough
No modifying gear to Elemental (only Basic/Raw upgrade paths allowed)
Items such as resins still allowed to be applied however
No upgrading Pyromancy
No buying spells

Randel's Bonfireless Challenge

Starting level gear and weapon only.
Only protection rings allowed, i.e. Stoneplates and steel protection.
No elements at all
Only bonfire allowed is firelink shrine/altar.

Yarxov's Undead Challenge

Cosplay an undead warrior the entire playthrough.
So: Undead warrior armor; broken straight sword, cracked round shield.
Old witches ring must be equiped at all times, as the one who controls you mustn't lose contact.
No Magic or miracels, that breaks cosplay. Vitality must not pass 10. And you can not have fast roll.
No random phantoms or phantoms that will carry you.

Yarxov's Undead Warrior NG+ Challenge

Follow the rules set out in the original Undead Challenge through to completion.
After completing your playthrough, you are allowed to upgrade to an
Undead Soldier and use a shortsword and hollow shield. And can increase
your vitality to 15. All other rules apply.

Vageta's Accursed Challenge

Start as an sl 3 sorcerer
No master key
No leveling
No pyro/sorcery
No burden/health increasing items including rings/masks(no dwgr, havels, rofap, etc..)
May wear any armor
Can use any equipable weapon, but no fire/chaos/lightning upgrades.
You may not kindle bonfires
Most importantly you must curse yourself before ringing either bell and remain cursed through the entire playthrough
Everything else is fair game.

CougH's Under Extreme Conditions Challenge

Dual Wield the first non starting weapon you get until the end of the game
No Leveling
Starting Gear only (allowed to upgrade)
No estus flask upgrades
No Bows
No miracles, pyromancies or sorceries
No alternate items (i.e firebombs, throwing knives, souls etc.) so +5 is your max bro
Die no more than 10 times throughout the playthrough
No covenants
Basically you can do/use nothing besides your starting gear, Andre the Blacksmith, and Dual Wield

What defines a STR based weapon? Any weapon that has scaling in STR?

Edit:
By the way, +1.

I'm now at this point as well, and have started making cosplay builds, and am now looking at challenge builds.

A challenge I was doing, was:

My friend and I, we play coop (so much easier already) but we can't level up, and we can't change gear at all. We also can't modify our gear to elemental; so my Bandit will have to play with a +15 Axe at most, with a 14 STR.

So I guess that will be my challenge run:

Not allowed to level at all
Cannot change gear (taking off gear is allowed, but cannot equip anything you didn't start with)
Cannot upgrade any item to elemental, must stick with Regular (Raw weapon OK)
Using any item is OK (resins)

I guess that's kinda vague. Weapons that have a B or higher scaling in strength with nothing above an E scaling in other stats. Axes/Maces/Hammers are all generally strength based rather then anything else, along with most Black Knight weapons. Can't remember if Dragon weapons have strength scaling too but they'd also be acceptable due to how much strength you need to lift the Dragon Greatsword or w/e.

What defines a STR based weapon? Any weapon that has scaling in STR?

Edit:
By the way, +1.

I'm now at this point as well, and have started making cosplay builds, and am now looking at challenge builds.

A challenge I was doing, was:

My
friend and I, we play coop (so much easier already) but we can't level
up, and we can't change gear at all. We also can't modify our gear to
elemental; so my Bandit will have to play with a +15 Axe at most, with a
14 STR.

So I guess that will be my challenge run:

Not allowed to level at all
Cannot change gear (taking off gear is allowed, but cannot equip anything you didn't start with)
Cannot upgrade any item to elemental, must stick with Regular (Raw weapon OK)
Using any item is OK (resins)

Edit: added your Elementless build also :>

Definitely need to be specific. For example, a Greatsword doesn't fit your criteria, even though I consider it a STR based weapon. Also, the Greataxe doesn't fit either.

How about this for STR Based:
Any weapon with a B or higher scaling in STR.
Any weapon that needs a 20+ in STR to wield.Any greatsword except the Moonlight GS.
Any ultra greatsword.
Any axe/greataxe/hammer/greathammer (?)

Starting level gear and weapon only.
Only protection rings allowed, i.e. Stoneplates and steel protection.
No elements at all
Only bonfire allowed is firelink shrine/altar.

I've done this...sens to anor londo complete is HELL!

Oh can you edit my challenge?

No upgrading pyromancy.
No buying spells. Basically, you can't use anything except for what you start with, but you can use any rings.

Edited and added. Footnote is affixed now to str-based to more easily define it and edited my original challenge to make it more challenging.

Sorry; where is the footnote about STR weapons? I don't see it.

IV_Mark_VI wrote:Sorry; where is the footnote about STR weapons? I don't see it.

Included just under the challenge.

Ok. I put a question mark before the axe/hammer list because some of the weapons in there are debatable (Hand axe; is it a str weapon? Who knows). Up for you to decide! Your rules

Play the game in your heaviest winter clothing. Turn off the AC. Stand up. Every time you are running, jog in place. Every time you sprint, sprint in place. When you roll, well, you get the idea.

i'm doing a SL 5 run with this build but is not proving to be so much of a challenge since the elemental weapons ar OP for this SL, so i'm soloing the bosses to (wich is really fun),

but you can try somthing similar that fits your play style like this, the raw B-Axe has proven to very usefull in the golen and queelag fight (since it hits way harder than a +10 longsword)

And i love the knight theme low SL run

@BIG TIME MASTER:
I shall follow in your footsteps. Please post some instructional videos showing how you do. If you go at it for 30 minutes straight, I will do the same.

How about making a sl1 Darkwraith character without relying on a lightning weapon for fighting the Four Kings? I reckon that a +5 or +10 handaxe will draw the fight out long enough to get 3+ Kings on your butt.

This might be what I'll do next, actually. I made a sl1 Darkwraith before, but the lightning handaxe+5 just tore through the Kings and nullified a good challenge.

IV_Mark_VI wrote:@BIG TIME MASTER:
I shall follow in your footsteps. Please post some instructional videos showing how you do. If you go at it for 30 minutes straight, I will do the same.

Haha, I will! But I am rehabbing a broke knee still so give me a month or two.

I have another challenge...

Play offline. Grab the Pendant as your starting gift, become human ASAP, and don't die. You must beat the game without dying.

No other rules.

I have done such a challenge before, though it wasn't too hard. I did have to restart twice though.

Progress on the 100% encumbrance challenge: slow.

Rockstar2112 wrote:I have done such a challenge before, though it wasn't too hard. I did have to restart twice though.

Progress on the 100% encumbrance challenge: slow.

Though surprisingly fun. It makes backstabs simple since you constantly walk, due to the armour I'm wearing (full Havels) I take no damage, and you look like a total badass casually walking away from enemies.

Dual Wield the first non starting weapon you get until the end of the game
No Leveling
Starting Gear only (allowed to upgrade)
No estus flask upgrades
No Bows
No miracles, pyromancies or sorceries
No alternate items (i.e firebombs, throwing knives, souls etc.) so +5 is your max bro
Die no more than 10 times throughout the playthrough
No covenants
Basically you can do/use nothing besides your starting gear, Andre the Blacksmith, and Dual Wield

Record if possible

^ Thats called G.G i believe

My challenge:
Cosplay an undead warrior the entire playthrough.
So: Undead warrior armor; broken straight sword, cracked round shield.
Old witches ring must be equiped at all times, as the one who controls you mustn't lose contact.
No Magic or miracels, that breaks cosplay. Vitality must not pass 10. And you can not have fast roll.
No random phantoms or phantoms that will carry you.
Go forth!

Part 2:
After completing your playthrough, you are allowed to upgrade to an Undead Soldier and use a shortsword and hollow shield. And can increase your vitality to 15. All other rules apply.

Accursed Challenge



- start as an sl 3 sorcerer

- no master key

- no leveling

- no pyro/sorcery

- no burden/health increasing items including rings/masks(no dwgr, havels, rofap, etc..)

- may wear any armor

- can use any equipable weapon, but no fire/chaos/lightning upgrades.

- you may not kindle bonfires

- Most importantly you must curse yourself before ringing either bell and remain cursed through the entire playthrough

- Everything else is fair game.



Enjoy.

It sounds like maybe you've tired of NG challenges, op. Make yourself a character around sl 6 and join me for a little co-op at NG+infinity. I don't want to retire my character and I doubt I'll do anymore solo playthroughs on him, so if you (and anyone else) want to join me for a level please do!

This is on my XBL account, btw.

My god, vageta's accursed challenge sounds horrible.

By no kindling of bonfires, do you mean no lighting them beyond Firelink Shrine, or not kindling them to beyond them giving you 5 estus?

Edited the original to include the new challenges. Might try and do the Accursed challenge myself, wish I had a hd pvr or something to record my progress now.

Also Callip, sounds fun but I'm afraid I'm on the PS3, and I have a level 1 pyro into NG++ now