Also, if you don't know this trick, you can equip Silver Serpent Ring after killing a boss.
I know you can swap to it after, but most bosses poise barely matters at all and you can just wear it in with light gear lol. On a lot of builds I'd just wear it during all PvE.
What's the most consistently accessible weapon that can run the game start-to-finish? I don't mind doing an 8x run in kiln to get titanite and red chunks for 1 weapon +15 (or lightning) and another chaos. Early-game candidates that seem pretty fast:
- GLGS (speed run down the catacombs, homeward bone out)
- Zweihander (if you can afford 16 str 10 dex) ---> I've beaten O&S on NG w/ Zwei +5...poise break on its r2 is good
- Halberd (12/12 2hand, any build using warrior as starting class can run the game with it no problems)
- Pyromancy
- Maybe claymore
- Great Scythe
- Crossbow +5 --> lightning spear --> crystal halberd
I guess weapons that upgrade on demon titanite are pretty easy to put together too, considering how trivial it is to throw on PW and start spamming kills on the titanite demon's in parish/sen's using basically anything.
NG route:
1. Taurus
2. Gargoyles (easy fight with just solaire with any of the above weapons)
3. Quelag (if master key, go through firelink --> new londo. If not, go darkroot basin --> valley of drakes and pick up grass crest shield on the way...running by the drakes is actually very easy). Master key is overrated, though none of the gifts are that great
. I usually summon Mildred for Quelag, and take that bonfire to grab PW climbing up (not a hard route if you know it).
4. Ceaseless (souls are useful for levels at this point).
5. After this, I'm torn between rushing to O&S (will do if my weapon is good enough), else kill capra demon, pick up large ember, and kill gaping dragon.
6. Up we go to O&S. Super O is somewhat tricky, super S can be mercilessly cheesed with almost any weapon.
7. Moonlight butterfly (super easy at this point), then Sif who is also pretty trivial
8. Stray demon, another easy fight.
9. 4kings. This is the hardest part of a NG run IMO, depending on weapon. PW + anything decent will keep up enough damage to beat them though.
10. Bed of Chaos (no shortcut, no need, though might as well open it from izalith side while grabbing a sunlight maggot), pick up red slab while down there.
11. Seath or Nito, using whatever weapon I've put together by now
12. Other one from 11.
13. Farm chunks as needed in kiln, then kill Gwyn with parry abuse.
The only real snag here is what weapon to use and when to upgrade it, which depends somewhat on build. For example while running my SL 100 mace build (posted in PvP section), I went to depths before Anor Londo to get the mace built up enough to actually damage O&S somewhat. With a Zwei +5 I'd go straight to get the lordvessel. The other snag is enough dps to keep up with 4kings spawn (I can fastroll dodge there and usually can run power within, so anything remotely decent works, for example halberd +10 and PW would be fine most likely).
To farm souls in NG+, I'd either have to run the game again or farm painted world. For PW I'd want fire tempest, but for most of NG+ you can get impressive soul counts to level by just running around wearing silver serpent ring and squashing bosses, which are ironically easier with a maxed weapon and PW than they were with a NG weapon until O&S or so. I guess that would generally be close enough by that point to where after finishing most of NG+ you'd be close to SL100 and could finish it with PvP, even without PW farming. PW farming can put up 1million or more souls per hour easily and that could push 120 easily enough, but I prefer SL55 and SL100 for now.