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    What is the fastest legit way to build a SL 100 or 120?

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    What is the fastest legit way to build a SL 100 or 120? Empty What is the fastest legit way to build a SL 100 or 120?

    Post by TheMeInTeam Sun Jul 07, 2013 4:08 pm

    Say you're staring a new character, no gifting at all.  What is the fastest way to have a full build with say 2 upgraded weapons, requisite spells, and soul level?

    For SL55, it's pretty much just running through a new game; any farming for SL after that would be minimal.

    However, SL 100 and especially 120 are quite costly in souls.  I don't think it's time-practical to attain these SLs in a regular new game unless you are OK just pvp for fun to get souls and working up (but even that's relatively slow).

    I suspect the answer is to go into NG+ or additional iterations, however you're talking about several hours investment per run especially if you factor getting the spells/treasure (chunks, slabs) that are important to your build each time.  Still, it would probably be doable to hit SL 100 in 5-8 hours that way if you're familiar with the game (or maybe a bit less if you're truly experienced and can quasi speed-run).

    Are there any faster methods?  I get the feeling like I should just speed-run a NG playthrough, only getting spells I consider essential and otherwise just 1 good weapon until NG+ where you have the serpent ring and everything is giving more than 2x souls.  Can ANYTHING beat painted world fire tempest on phalanx runs in NG+?
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    What is the fastest legit way to build a SL 100 or 120? Empty Re: What is the fastest legit way to build a SL 100 or 120?

    Post by Dibsville Sun Jul 07, 2013 4:08 pm

    Forest Hunters.
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    What is the fastest legit way to build a SL 100 or 120? Empty Re: What is the fastest legit way to build a SL 100 or 120?

    Post by Odinbear Sun Jul 07, 2013 5:31 pm

    Was also going to say, Forest Hunters PVP .  And O&S coop, and nito.  And Oocalile Township coop. All fun runs and plays. I amass a lotta souls and have fun.
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    Post by Soris Ice Goldwing Sun Jul 07, 2013 5:46 pm

     Co-op, low sl invasions, running to NG+ and more, Forest hunters. Try starting class co-op with +5 or more items and the souls add up for you.
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    Post by Asdeft Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:01 pm

    I either kill the Royal Sentinels in Anor Londo or just kill the Phalanxes in the Painted World.
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    Post by twigsterxd Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:54 pm

    there's many ways. kill invaders, pve in high traffic areas that the soul count is good. I've gone from sl 30 to sl 90 in just over 1 hour dropping white in depths.
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    Post by StiffNipples Sun Jul 07, 2013 9:11 pm

    On console I'd say the fastest way is co-op in Anor Londo or somewhere high traffic like that.
    Forest Hunters works well too, but it's a little more luck based on whether you get 800k souls from someone dying (lets be honest here, at low level with half way upgraded stuff you're not really beating them alone).

    On PC I'd say the fastest way is going through NG+ and farming. The co-op might be funner, but it's far slower.
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    Post by Jansports Sun Jul 07, 2013 9:30 pm

    Since most of my builds use spells I almost always end up in Ng+ or further. So for me the fastest is typically using whichever spells I have to farm the Phalanx in PW on Ng+ such insane soul collection. Getting weapons is more of a pain because you only get 3 regular slabs per run unless you get lucky. Ng usually will cover armor, Ng+ a shield and a few weapons. Since Trading an ascended flame is a huge time sink builds using elemental weapons (chaos) are more of a pain since farming red Slabs is a huge chore. (hey at least its not blue)

    Honestly Sorcery is too expensive, it's near impossible to keep your Int and spells up to date without going out of your way to farm. Try it, by the time you save logan being able to purchase HSM and SS AND cast Soul Spear is a real stretch, unless you have no Vit and End and haven't upgraded anything expensive.
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    Post by sids__09 Sun Jul 07, 2013 11:50 pm

    There's a really easy soul-run in Anor Londo -- if you hang out by the lower bonfire, on that first floor of the castle (after you drop down on the balcony), there's four silver knights right in the immediate area. You can kill them in a single shot with a Great Fire Orb/chaos orb/whatever from an ascended pyromancy flame (don't remember the exact level you need), or bs/parry/whatever for a little extra.... wearing all your soul-farming gear, it nets close to 8k/run. I throw on the Darkmoon ring while I do it, so every couple of minutes I get a PVP break and maybe some extra souls, but in the meantime it's risk-free, hassle-free, super reliable free money.
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    Post by twigsterxd Mon Jul 08, 2013 12:23 am

    With ascended flame, sl doesn't matter for great or chaos fireball. It will one shot the knights
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    Post by TheMeInTeam Mon Jul 08, 2013 1:08 am

    Forest Hunters.

    It's my favorite covenant along with darkwraith in forest.  It is nowhere NEAR the speed you can farm souls in NG+ painted unless you're very, very lucky.  For every lvl 500 you might be able to kill, you'll encounter dozens of people SL 100 or less (IE only good for what, 6000 souls?)...not to mention the usual representation from hackers (I'm on 360), invasion delays, or battles you just plain lose.  IIRC it's possible to get 500,000+ souls in an hours on NG+...maybe more I forget.  Luck of the draw will almost never get that with standard FH...suicide SL 712 hosts and such aside.

    lets be honest here, at low level with half way upgraded stuff you're not really beating them alone

    I have no problems beating the game at low SL IE running through it fast as possible.  I could get a chaos rapier or whatever else I want to use for low SL invasions, but I still don't think it can keep up with painted world NG+ phalanx with the serpent ring, avarice, and fire tempest. 

    For those not familiar with what I'm talking about, check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWURpwJ0UbU

    Basically, if you count invasion kills with 10% of the host's souls to level up and compare it to this farming (which is drudgery, but pretty fast), you're getting something comparable to a ~SL 200 host kill per minute.  I don't see forest invasions with ANY SL matching that unless your SL is very high already so that you can consistently invade and kill high level hosts.

    Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any faster tricks sad.  Looks like the fastest way really is "just ASAP beat the game and get the bare minimum you need for your build" then go farm souls.

    Fortunately armor can be maxed if it's twinking upgrade with minimal extra effort, once you've gone that far.  I rarely bother getting slabs for full standard titanite upgrade sets (never actually done it) because the diminishing returns of armor are so severe it seems, and upgrades don't alter poise at all.  This is part of (but not the only) reason I favor heavier builds using black iron, havels, and giants; armors you can easily max on souls alone (havel's starts maxed, and is respectable defensively).

    So this thread basically turns into a "how to speed run the game", with some practicality questions depending on builds.  Hmm.  For a pure easy/fast speed run type setup, I'm seriously thinking that most builds can use light crossbow for almost the whole game + npc summons (not pure speed run, but high success rate), and then relying on crystal halberd or some other easily attained weapon depending on stats vs 4kings...assuming one has power within that should be good enough to still have souls left to dump into a glove +10...or possibly transitioning to pyros if it's a build calling for 2-3 attunement slots (doubles as farming method) xbow + pyro can easily and quickly trounce anything for multiple new games thanks to power within and npc summons (just use PW + combustion/GC on 4kings, though on NG xbow +14 and PW might be enough...would have to test it).
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    Post by AnCapaillMor Mon Jul 08, 2013 4:12 am

    Maybe i'm just lucky but forest hunters, last few playthroughs i've ran into some really bad high level players.
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    Post by IV_Mark_VI Mon Jul 08, 2013 4:51 pm

    If you're doing it legit, I would blast through the NGs and wouldn't bother farming, in order to collect slabs or other needed equipment (duplicate/triplicate spells).  I enjoy variety, and can always use more chunks/slabs.

    In each area, use dried finger, collect dark wraith/dark moon invasion souls.

    Host in forest, or Ool township, don't invade.  If you're decent at PvP this is a much faster way, especially if you gank.  Dirty way to 'earn' souls though.

    Forest covenant: once you level up, if you don't care about losing humanity, equip the cat covenant ring and just leave your console on when you go to sleep/work.  Occasionally you'll happen to invade as the host dies, and collect a decent amount of souls.  Hours of this can net a good amount of souls, but someone will definitely dark hand you.

     Also, if you don't know this trick, you can equip Silver Serpent Ring after killing a boss.  I do this all the time; have my rings rearranged so silver is right below Havels which I use, so I can easily switch to get +20% souls.

    Edit: if you don't need regular slabs, then you should need SOME kind of slabs; regardless if you go INT, FTH, dex, str or some combination.  I can't stand using the same weapon over and over.  Dull!
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    Post by TheMeInTeam Mon Jul 08, 2013 5:56 pm

    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 happy
    - 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 big grin.  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.
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    Post by Forum Pirate Mon Jul 08, 2013 6:04 pm

    If you're good in 1v2s and 1v3s host in the forest, if you're not, be a forest hunter for a bit.

    In NG+ you can farm the phalanx in the pw for a lot of souls very quickly.
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    Post by TheMeInTeam Mon Jul 08, 2013 6:59 pm

    FH can invade up though, which means i'll occasionally get kills that are worth like 1000-3000 souls, and often 10k...an amount I could get every minute twice over in PW NG+.  I think I'll stick to running the game if FH or killing FH is the next best alternative.  I don't think that approach can come even close to just running NG+ in terms of #hours to get SL 100.
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    Post by Jansports Mon Jul 08, 2013 11:13 pm

    If your build has at least 16/10 str/dex getting a Fire Zweihander takes like 14 minutes at the very begining of the game. And a Single 5xgreen drop in Btown along with random greens you find on the ground is enough to get it to +5 if you kill Stray before Kellog you can quickly grab the big fire or chaos ember and use the Chunks from the Asylum BKs to make a weapon that'll carry you through everything except Kellog. Fire Zwei +7 with PW eats just about every boss alive
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    Post by Carphil Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:06 am

    Hosting dark anor used to be a good way to level up pretty fast. Not sure if still works.
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    Post by TheMeInTeam Tue Jul 09, 2013 9:58 am

    Carphil wrote:Hosting dark anor used to be a good way to level up pretty fast. Not sure if still works.

    It does (I've been invaded there almost instantly after taking out the fake goddess), but I'm not sure it can match 20k-30k souls/minute even with a dried finger.  I'm not sure anything else can...it's not like I can win 100% of invasions.

    But on a more positive note, I've simply run NG and NG+ on a build I started on Sunday evening.  I'm currently lvl 87 with a +15 mace.  Beating O&S in NG+ with silver ring on netted just under 200,000 souls by itself, allowing me to buy and upgrade full giants +5 using spare twinkling titanite and buying 20+ of it.  I'd need to win 5-6 invasions to match that, which is doubtful to do in the same time used.

    I might be able to make SL 100 on just boss kills.  If not, I'll be close enough that I'll just add the final few VIT points through PvP.  I'm probably going to stay there for quite some time, although I might eventually go to SL 120 and run sunlight blade, WoG, GMB, Great heal...or in single player I could kill anything through NG +6 using SLB + Power Within.

    I like the fire zwei suggestion.  It would be easy to get that by going ---> pick bandit, gain 3 SL from asylum demon, pick up zwei, run past skeletons and kill necromancer, kill pinwheel with leeroy, use souls to make fire zwei via the green titanite en route + purchased shards.  A weapon smithbox later or just buying green shards off giant would allow fire zwei +5 easily which would be more than enough for O&S and most of the rest of the game.

    I suppose any other weapon could be handled similarly --> get it, make it fire, run the game with it, then switch to +15 or continue to chaos +5 as desired.  This is a good suggestion, since it allows the depths to be skipped until one has the lordvessel, which means rather than walking out of there you can teleport.

    It's a shame nobody sells fire bolts.  I love the xbow for cheesy fast runs with summons and really anything other than 4 kings can be handled by it easily.
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    Post by buzzgud Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:49 pm

    Goodness I co-oped in Anor Londo and farmed the Silver Knights from 50-65-70 then I just beat the game, got into NG+ and by then it only took me a short while to get past NG+ and then my build was done, you get SO many souls in NG+ it's not even funny. Although I enjoy all aspects of the game.

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