Asylum Demon- Do a plunging attack off of the ledge above it to do a huge amount of damage at the beginning of the fight. After this, try to stay behind the Demon for the entirety of the fight. Be aware of which way he’s swinging his hammer and you shouldn’t be hit once. Two-hand your weapon to do more damage; your shield won’t do much in this fight. Also, it would be wise to keep your camera unlocked during the fight. This makes getting around, and dodging the Demon much easier. Combining all of these tips should result in you besting Dark Souls’ first boss!
Taurus Demon- Every time you go into the fight, it is a good idea to take out the two archers on the tower above you. If not, they will shoot at you during the whole fight and cause a lot of trouble. When the Taurus Demon jumps down from it’s tower, immediately run back to the ladder and climb up it. Apply lightning to your weapon (you can find gold pine resin in Undead Burg, in a chest next to where the flaming barrel tumbled down the stairs) and do a plunging attack on it. After this, stay close to the Demon while you attack it. Be wary of the broken section of the bridge; if the Demon attacks you near it, you can go flying off the bridge and die. When the Demon is about to strike, roll towards it and through it’s legs. Keep doing this and it will eventually die.
Bell Gargoyles- After your first attempt at this boss, always be wary of the gargoyle’s first appearance. It will be standing just on the other side of the fog gate, ready to strike you as soon as the fight begins. It’s a good idea to mostly roll sideways during the fight (if you are staying locked-on). Rolling backwards will sometimes result you in being struck by an attack. The gargoyles are weak to fire damage, so any fire-based attacks, (charcoal pine resin, pyromancy, etc.) are effective. Once the first gargoyle approaches half-health, start being more aggressive. You want to do as much damage as possible before the second gargoyle enters the fight. In this second phase, try and focus your attacks on the one that is already damaged. Get the gargoyle to do his fire-breath attack, and then attack it. This is because it will be locked into a long attack and you can get in a couple of hits. (Be sure to be aware of the second gargoyle’s location during this. If he hits you, you are in a really bad position, between the two gargoyles.) If you are having a lot of trouble with this fight, you can use the Drake Sword (obtained by damaging the Hellkite Dragon enough times in the tail). This will be able to demolish the gargoyles’ health.
Moonlight Butterfly- Stay unlocked. Being locked-on during this fight makes it more awkward to dodge the magic attacks on the narrow bridge. Continue to dodge the magic and then attack the Butterfly when it lands. The Butterfly is weakest to fire damage, so when it’s about to land, use charcoal pine resin and two-hand your weapon. When the Butterfly lands, you want to put out as much damage as possible. If you’re having trouble, it would be wise to wait a while before fighting the Butterfly. This is because if you don’t do enough damage to it, the fight could take very long. (It is quite a boring fight, so you don’t want it to go on any longer than it has to.) The hardest part of the fight is learning to differentiate each of the Butterfly’s magical attacks. It’s not a very tough boss, so you can definitely kill it, after a little practice.
Capra Demon- The first three seconds after entering the fight are the hardest moments of the fight. If you can dodge the two dogs and Capra’s initial attack/s, then you could easily beat the boss. Having a shield equipped for the fight is a good idea. After entering the fight, immediately run up the staircase (after dodging a few attacks). Turn around and hold up your shield. After the dogs attack your shield, attack and kill them. At the top of the staircase, you can turn right and walk on a skinny ledge; do this. Stay at the back-end of the ledge with your shield up. Capra will eventually fall down from the stairs, and you can do a plunging attack on it. (Side-note: After Capra falls down is a good time to apply a buff to your weapon. It is weak to fire damage, so charcoal pine resins are a good idea.) You can either continue doing this, or fight him normally. If you fight him normally, dodge to the side, through his attacks. (You can also do this fight without your camera locked-on, but it’s not as effective as it is in some other fights.) Try and get behind Capra for the biggest openings. Also, be sure to watch out for it’s jumping strike, because that can deal huge damage. (Or you could completely skip the fight by throwing a couple dung pies into the arena from outside the fog gate.)
Gaping Dragon- Make sure to kill the channeler in the Depths before fighting the Dragon. He can buff the Dragon and shoot projectiles at you during the fight, making it much harder. Since, the Dragon is so huge, you should fight with your camera unlocked. This gives you the most control and it makes getting around the Dragon much easier. Be sure to buy lightning weapon buffs from the vendor outside the doors to Blighttown, as the Dragon is weak to it. The Dragon can smack you, body-slam you, jump up into the air and charge into you (the charge being the most deadly). As long as you apply gold pine resin to your weapon, keep your camera unlocked, keep attacking it’s feet and stay clear of any charging attacks, you should be fine. It’s also a good idea to two-hand your weapon. Your shield will do very little against the Gaping Dragon, and every bit of damage helps against its enormous health bar. Even if you get hit, it’s so slow that you have plenty of time to heal before it attacks you again. Play consistently enough and soon the Gaping Dragon will be dead.
Chaos Witch Quelaag- Quelaag is weak to lightning. For this reason, it would be wise to bring a spare gold pine resin with you, for her boss fight. During the whole fight, stay to her side, and attack the spider legs. Always pay attention to Quelaag’s human body, so you know when she is about to do her AOE attack. (This is telegraphed by her leaning forward.) If you get caught in front of her, get ready to dodge her three-attack combo. Always assume that she is doing her three-attack combo because even if she is winding up to do her big stab attack, the animation is so long that you can dodge again, once you’ve already dodged mistakenly (sorry if that was worded poorly). You want her to do her lava-spewing attacks because this is when you can do a lot of damage. (She will be stuck in place for a long time, similar to how the gargoyles are stuck during their fire-breath attack.) Speaking of her lava, make sure to stay aware of where it is. If you get caught in it, it can do massive damage and kill you easily. I suggest keeping your camera unlocked during the fight, because this way it’s easier to more reliably strike her spider legs. Also, it helps keeping the lava on your screen, so that you don’t mistakenly stumble into it during the fight. The fight sounds complicated, but when you memorize the timings for her sword attacks, it gets much easier.
Stray Demon- Very similar to the Asylum Demon, but with magic attacks, too. It also has much more health, so you should fight it much later in the game. Just like the Asylum Demon, keep your camera unlocked. This helps you get behind the Demon easier. Also, like the Asylum Demon, it is a good idea to two-hand your weapon during this fight (unless you have a high magic-defense shield). This is because your shield won’t do all that much against the Demon’s attacks. The hardest part of the fight by far are the magic AOE attacks. When you see that an AOE attack is going to go off, get behind the Demon and run. These AOE attacks are telegraphed by the Demon slamming its hammer or by the Demon swinging its hammer through the air. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether an AOE attack will go off, so play it safe during these instances. Try to stay behind the Demon and eventually you will kill it. You might want to use some sort of weapon buff in this fight, because you want to end it as fast as possible. This is because the fight is so RNG dependent, based on what attacks you get (some are easily-dodged and heavily punishable and others are very hard to avoid and allow little time after to damage the Demon). Keep in mind that the Demon is weak to magic and bleed damage. If the fight proves too difficult, you can always come back later in the game to defeat the Stray Demon.
Great Grey Wolf Sif- Sif is weak to lightning so bring a gold pine resin to the fight. Whether you lock-on your camera or not is largely up to preference in this fight, because neither lends a significant advantage over the other. Try to stay under Sif during the whole fight. He won’t be able to hit you as long as you’re under him. If he jumps away and lunges back at you, dodge the attacks by rolling towards Sif, and get under him. Most of his attacks are heavily punishable, because you can get under him after almost every attack. Once you are under him, two-hand your weapon for maximum damage. Once he jumps away, you can pull out a shield again, if you use one. Poor Sif.
Iron Golem- Be sure to kill the giant that is located directly above the fog gate before you enter the fight. If you don’t, he will constantly throw explosives at you during the fight, making it much harder. Once entering the fog gate, dodge the Golem’s first long-range attack and get to its feet. Try and do a lot of damage very quickly in this fight to each of his feet. Two-handing your weapon during this fight is a good idea because a shield will do very little against the gargantuan Golem. The Golem is weak to lightning damage, so try to either use a lightning-infused weapon or gold pine resin during the fight. Also, try to kill the Golem with your camera unlocked. Locking-on will keep you from seeing some of the Golem’s attacks and it makes hitting its feet harder. While you can kill it normally, there is a much easier way. If you do enough damage, it will start stumbling and be thrown off balance. Once again, do a lot of damage very quickly to each of its feet. Except this time, make sure to aim your attacks in the direction of a huge drop. The Golem will be thrown off the fortress if you deal enough damage to it quickly enough. It is easier for you to get the instant fall damage kill by standing on the long ledge on the far side of the arena. However, it is very easy to be thrown off, yourself, if you get hit. Balance positioning with controlled aggression and you will come out on top.
Ornstein and Smough- This is considered to be an incredibly difficult fight, so make sure you use a powerful weapon and a weapon buff. I suggest using the crystal halberd during this fight. You can find it earlier in Anor Londo. It’s to the left, once you leave the room housing the first bonfire in Anor Londo, inside the mimic. Be aware, though, that the halberd can break easily, so use it when you start getting good at the fight, to the point where you can finish it soon. For the weapon buffs, Ornstein is weak to fire and Smough is weak to lightning. For this reason, I would suggest using charcoal pine resin in the first phase and gold pine resin in the second phase. Once you enter the fog gate, be ready to dodge Ornstein’s lunging attack. (Sometimes he does it and sometimes he doesn’t.) During the first phase of the fight, you want to play incredibly carefully and only attack whenever you are absolutely sure that you have an opening. The basic game-plan for the fight is this: Run to the opposite side of the boss room if Ornstein and Smough are close to you. Use the six pillars as cover constantly throughout the fight. At this point, hope that Ornstein does a lunging attack so that he gets close to you. Attack him once (maybe twice) if you have an obvious opening to do so. Try to always keep Ornstein and Smough on-screen so that they can’t surprise you by stabbing you in the back. I suggest two-handing your weapon when you get the opportunity to attack Ornstein. This is because these opportunities are few and far between. You want to make the most of it every time. When Smough starts getting close to you run to the other side of the arena and repeat. Keep your camera unlocked for most of the first phase. Only lock-onto Ornstein when you’re going to attack him. You want as much control on your camera as possible during this fight. Killing Onstein in the first phase is preferable, because doing it this way is easier and more reliably done. During the second phase, always keep a pillar between you and Smough. Whenever he finishes one of his attacks, run to him and hit him once (twice if he finishes his lightning butt-slam attack). The only attack you really need to watch out for is his lightning butt-slam attack. It is very difficult to dodge and does very high damage. When you see him jump in the air, either run back or roll back twice (if you can fast-roll). Take this fight very slowly and it gets easier. Overcome this duo and you will have defeated what some believe is the toughest boss in the game!
Crossbreed Priscilla- Before the fight starts, apply charcoal pine resin to your weapon. Priscilla is weak to fire, so the resin, along with pyromancies are very effective against her. Do your strongest attack first; Priscilla doesn’t start fighting you unless you attack her first. After she goes invisible, you must locate her, based on her appearing footprints in the snow. If possible, get behind Priscilla when attacking her. It’s a very simple fight, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy by default. Similarly to Sif, it is up to your preference, whether you lock-on or stay unlocked. I prefer staying unlocked, because it allows me to more easily dodge her attacks. Try not to get greedy, and you will eventually defeat her. If she’s too difficult, you can come back later to fight her.
Dark Sun Gwyndolin- Gwyndolin has three attacks, so learning them and reacting to each of them differently shouldn’t be that difficult. There are pillars on either side of the hallway that I recommend using to dodge some of his attacks. Firstly, and his most deadly attack: his big orb blast attack. This will shoot at you very quickly and is able to go through the pillars on either side of the hallway, so it’s a good idea to do a roll even if you’re not sure if this attack is going off. His small homing orbs attack is when you want to hide behind the pillars, though. They move much slower than his big orb blast attack. His final attack is dart attack. This is the one you want him to use, because it is easily the most punishable. Whenever he uses it, just run side to side, whilst approaching him. (Side-note: his big orb blast attack is also punishable, it’s just harder to dodge than the dart attack.) You don’t have many opportunities during the fight to attack him, so using a fire damage is suggested, since he’s weak to it. However, Gwyndolin is also weak to physical, bleed and occult damage, so instead of pyromancies, charcoal pine resin would be better in this fight. Just like Priscilla, whether you lock-on or not, during this fight is entirely up to your preference. For me, personally, I prefer staying unlocked to dodge his projectiles, but locking-on when I run up to attack him. I’m over complicating the fight; just run up to him, attack, repeat.
Pinwheel- This is widely considered to be the most difficult fight in the Dark Souls series, and one of the hardest bosses in any game, period. Most of this fight boils down to lightning-fast reflexes and deep knowledge on the gameplay mechanics, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t try to give some tips. Once you enter the fight, immediately run up to Pinwheel. Start attacking him/her until he/she teleports away. (At this point he/she should be around half-health.) Pinwheel will start summoning copies of themself. Find out which one is the real Pinwheel by attacking his/her copies once. After you find out which one is real, attack him/her. Done. Seriously, though, if you come here earlier in the game, Pinwheel can put up a small challenge. Even at that point though, the catacombs to get to Pinwheel is much harder than the boss itself, so you are absolutely fine, even if it takes a few attempts.
Gravelord Nito- Using a charcoal pine resin/ pyromancies is a good idea in this fight, as Nito is weak to fire. I prefer fighting Nito with my camera unlocked so that I can more easily manage his skeletons. After you take fall-damage from falling into the fight, find a small opening to use your estus flask. It’s risky to use it immediately after falling because sometimes Nito will use his floor attack (where he summons a weapon from the floor beneath you). During the fight, stay close to Nito unless you need to heal. Focus your attacks on him, until he summons too many skeletons. The skeletons put up more of a fight than Nito, so periodically take out some skeletons, from time to time. When you see Nito charge up for his AOE attack, run away and it will kill all of his summoned skeletons. This is when you want to charge Nito and deal as much damage as quickly as possible. Repeat attacking him, taking out skeletons and dodging his AOEs and you will kill him.
Seath the Scaleless- When the fight starts, immediately run around Seath. There will be a glowing crystal behind him that you must strike and destroy (it’s destruction will result in Seath’s vulnerability). Now that he’s vulnerable, start attacking his tail/s while he turns around. Run far away from him to bait one of his long range attacks. Once one has begun, run up the his front and attack him. Keep attacking him until you see him charging up his next attack. Run away to escape his attack. At this point Seath should be close to cornering you in the boss room (if not, run up to him and attack the front of him again). If cornered, run around him and attack his tail/s until he turns around. Repeat these few steps and soon Seath will be dead. If you are having trouble against Seath, remember that he is weak to lightning damage. I definitely suggest staying unlocked during the fight, just like I do for pretty much every large boss in the game.
The Four Kings- This fight will be inaccessible until you defeat Sif, and equip the Covenant of Artorias ring. This fight is basically entirely dependent on your DPS. If you are capable of doing a lot of damage quickly, this boss will be easy. If not, then it will be very difficult. For this reason, it is wise to use some sort of weapon buff before the boss appears. Fire damage is most effective against them, so that is what I suggest. During the fight, be sure to stay close to each king so that they don’t do any projectile attacks. When the first king does appear, run up to him and dodge his first combo. Try to get behind him and attack him (try to get behind him so that you are able to get one or two more attacks off before the king goes into another combo). The only two attacks you have to watch out for is the grab attack and the AOE blast. (The AOE blast is telegraphed by the king spinning in circles.) After a while, a second king will spawn into the fight. This is why DPS is so important to this fight. If you can’t do enough damage, then you will eventually have to deal with up to four Kings attacking you at once. It is wise to play very aggressive in this fight so that you only have to fight one king at once. If your DPS in this fight is lacking too much for you to prevail, I suggest for you to fight this boss later in the game. You can acquire the lord souls in any order, so if you want to, you can put off this boss until late in the game.
Ceaseless Discharge- Dodge his fist-slam attack and then attack his... tentacle-fist thing. Possibly the simplest boss in the game. Only thing to be aware of is that you shouldn’t run too far from him, or else he will shoot out lava (which can actually be brutal).
Demon Firesage- This fight is very similar to the Stray Demon fight, the biggest difference is that now you are probably much better equipped than when you fought Stray. It’s the Asylum Demon with an AOE and fire. Because of their similarities, many of the strategies used against the Asylum Demon or Stray Demon apply here, too. Ironically, the Demon Firesage is actually weak to fire damage. Pyromancies and charcoal pine resin are especially effective against it. Try to stay behind the Demon. Not many of its attacks will be able to hit you. If not behind, then stay right in front of it. Most of his attacks will miss you, you just need to watch out for the AOE attack. However, your best bet is to just stay behind the Demon.
Centipede Demon- When you enter the fight, you will be on a tiny platform of land surrounded by lava, and the Demon will be approaching you. If you are able to, take a right and follow the path along the wall, eventually ending up to the right of where you entered the fight. This piece of land is much larger than the one you were on before. Now, wait for the Demon to approach and dodge his initial attack. If you want to maximize your damage output, be sure to utilize some sort of lightning or magic damage, as the Demon is weak to it. I also strongly suggest keeping your camera unlocked during the fight. If not, the camera will be awful, and you will barely be able to see what’s going on. Back to the fight, when the Demon is finally standing on a safe platform, run underneath him and start attacking his legs. He will keep doing jump attacks but just roll a few times in any direction and you should be fine. That’s pretty much the whole fight; get under him, attack, dodge the jump attack, repeat.
Bed of Chaos- Oh god. There are many ways/strategies to get around this awful fight. There is a very safe strategy involving firebombs, but it is too complicated to explain here and I’m not too comfortable with the strategy, myself. If you’re interested, you can watch it in most no-hit runs of the game. If not, then you’re in for a rough fight which will likely entail many deaths, with an enormous run-back to the fight every time. Here’s how the fight goes: Slide down the huge slide and run to one of her two sides. For the time-being, the only attack you have to worry about is a close-range attack; stay far away. Destroy the yellow ring inside of the orange orb. This is pretty much where the real fight starts. I suggest quitting out of the game and reloading so that you can respawn in the center of the room. The floor of the boss arena will start to collapse, so you must be careful where you stand. While doing this, you have to watch out for attacks coming from the boss, herself. Eventually, make your way over to the other orange orb and break it. Once again, I suggest quitting out for the same reason. Now, you must run straight at the boss and jump down to a tree root revealed by the crumbling floor. The boss will try everything she can to stop you, so be ready to die a few times while attempting this. Run into the center of the Bed of Chaos and break through the sticks blocking you. Deep inside, you will find a bug- kill it. This is by far the most annoying boss in the game, so one of the biggest challenges of the fight is going to be staying calm. There aren’t very many definitive strategies for this fight (at least not that I know of) so you are going to have to experiment. If you truly can’t beat her, once again, try looking up the firebomb strategy that people use during no-hit runs. If you were able to find the resolve within yourself to defeat the Bed of Chaos, you can pride yourself on knowing that you’re over with one of the worst fights in the series!
Gwyn, Lord of Cinder- The difficulty in this fight is greatly dependent on one thing; if you can parry. If you can parry, this fight is pretty easy, but if you can’t, then this will be one of the harder bosses in the game. For this reason, I will describe two different ways of defeating this boss, depending on if you can parry or not. Before that, though, keep in mind that Gwyn is weak to fire. Exploiting his weakness will lead to a swifter victory. Locking-on in this fight is up to your preference, but I prefer locking on. If you can parry: Get the first parry off on Gwyn when he lunges at you, beginning the fight. While he’s getting up, circle behind him. Fast-roll backwards thrice and prepare to parry his lunging attack. Keep circling behind him and rolling and parrying him until he’s dead. If you mess up any of your parries, reposition yourself and then later parry one of his normal attacks. This lets you get back into the parry loop. If you can’t parry: Try to wear fire-defense armor. Try to use a fire-defense shield (some of Gwyn’s attacks come out too fast to reliably dodge). I find it easier to get behind Gwyn if I play with my camera unlocked, however you should not do this if you have any type of thrusting weapon. The basic gist of the fight is this: Dodge Gwyn’s combo of fire sword attacks and hit him when he is finished. He has a wide variety of attacks that range from ridiculously fast, to relatively fast, so you need to learn how to differentiate each of his tells for each attack. He has grab attacks, combos, thrusts, leaping attacks, etc. He can close the distance between you, so don’t think you’re safe to use estus if he jumps backwards. If you do need to use estus (or if you’re in need of downtime during the fight, for whatever reason) be sure to take advantage of the stalagmites around the boss room. Usually, this buys you enough time to buff your weapon, use estus, or apply something to yourself, magically. Gwyn is a tough, straight-forward fight. It’s a classic duel. Learn his attacks and you will prevail, eventually. Congratulations on completing Dark Souls!
[I am unable to provide any useful guides for the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, as I have only finished it once. However, if I ever do it again, (which is likely) I will be sure to repost this, with information about the bosses in the Artorias of the Abyss DLC.]
[If you think I missed any useful tips, be sure to reply and tell them to me. If they seem genuinely useful to know, I will consider adding them.]

When you live in Raw, exciting news is rare to come by. Sure, something almost always happens somewhere, but there's only so often hearing about Siobhan's stories from Mrs Davis' gardening club before it gets boring.
Yes, mom, you grew the largest carrot in all of Raw. I'm proud of you but it just isn't anything new anymore.
So tonight I was left housesitting on my own because Siobhan and Donovan took all of the younger ones for a trip to Pure and Vasily took his chance to go down to Hoots in hopes of getting some action. He was apparently successful because he still hadn't returned come midnight. I took this chance to enjoy my free reign over our small television and sat down with some chips and icy lemonade to watch some stupid soap opera which I'd never dare to tune into in front of Donovan.
At some point I had to go to the bathroom and stayed there to freshen up for a few minutes. It was a really hot night so I really felt like washing off just to cool down again. On my way back into the living room though, I stopped in my tracks. I could hear voices speaking over the sound of the tv. Voices that sounded very familiar. I almost fell down the stairs in my hurry to get downstairs. There he was, Leslie Torres, sitting on the armrest of our couch. Mars and Rocco were standing around as well, the latter helping Sandy climb in through the window.
Upon seeing me, Leslie instantly got up and pulled me into a hug, lifting me off my feet before I could protest.
"Jesus!" I gasped once he'd sat me back down. "You almost gave me a heart attack just now."
"We had to come in somehow, didn't we?" he argued.
"You knew I was home alone, you could have just rang the doorbell," I began, but soon stopped and shook my head. I was happy enough to see them and I knew it was hopeless anyways. I greeted Mars and the guys, then reluctantly allowed them to raid our kitchen. I just knew Donovan and Siobhan would think I had suffered some kind of hunger attack in their absence. I was not looking forward to explaining myself to them.
"So," Leslie said, chewing on a piece of bread with his mouth open, "the four of us are gonna drive out into the hills later. Us dropping by here is basically just an invitation. Haven't seen you in a bit so I figured you might wanna come."
I knew what hills he was referring to. If you drive down the road that goes in and out of Raw and you've passed the mountain range, you'll find yourself on a plain again. When you drive offroads however, you only have to go around a mile in until the hills start popping up. The hills aren't dangerous or hard to traverse but there's also not much of a wildlife around them. Actually, there's nothing there at all.
"What's your business in the hills?" I asked. "They're just like piled up boredom."
Leslie snorted. "I'm very glad you asked." He walked over to Rocco and patted his shoulder with a wide smirk, causing the other man to groan and hang his head. "See, Rocco here says he saw strange green lights in the hills yesterday night. I on the other hand say he was high as balls and was just seeing weird shit. He insists though, so we're gonna drive out there and see if there's an abandoned UFO."
"I didn't say it was aliens," Rocco sighed.
"You did, champ. You literally came banging on my door screaming 'They're among us now!' Ain't no shame in admitting it." He grinned and looked back up at me. "So, you coming or what?"
I shrugged. I didn't really have any other plans for the night anyways. "Count me in."
"Nice. Grab your stuff then, we're taking Sandy's truck."
So we did. I was riding along in the pickup bed together with Mars and Rocco while Leslie and Sandy were sitting in the front. The breeze the speed at which we drove at brought with it was incredibly pleasant. We weren’t going fast or anything, so I had no trouble holding onto my seat. I was really enjoying myself.
"So how have you been?" I asked Mars, forced to raise my voice a little.
She shrugged. "Same old, same old. Pure is nice this time of year but there's no place like home. Glad we all got together again. I was really getting sick of the folks there too, they're so… uppity."
I nodded. "I'm glad you guys are back as well."
"Of course you are. Can't imagine hanging around an orchard all day being much fun," Rocco chimed in.
"Don't shit on the orchard, man. It's insanely pretty," Mars argued. "Wish I lived in a place like that. Sure, might be lame, but at least you got trees and a nice house."
"It really is great," I replied. "It's home."
Rocco rolled his eyes and Mars gave him a slap on the knee. "Ignore him. He's just bitter 'cause Leslie won't believe the alien story."
"Right, the aliens," I remembered. "So you actually think you saw some extraterrestrial kinda thing?"
Rocco merely grumbled in response, but it sounded affirmative. Mars let out a mocking laugh. "Can you believe Down to Earth McGee here has the audacity to complain about us liking the orchard?" she asked and I grinned. "For real though, no offense, man, but you were wasted. Moonshine isn't good at helping you keep your credibility. And Lord knows what else you were on that night."
"Just you wait until it happens again," the tan man warned us with a stern expression.
Not long after, the pickup slowed down and eventually came to a halt. Gazing ahead, I found that Sandy had parked at the foot of the hills. Without the sound of the motor running, it was absolutely quiet out there. It was almost a bit eerie. The night sky was clear and starry and the air had finally started to cool off. I took a deep breath and looked up with heavy eyes, only then noticing my fatigue. I could hear the car door to my side slam as Leslie got out of the truck.
I leaned over the side and turned to him. He smiled, holding out a folded blanket for me to see. "Tired?"
I nodded sleepily. He unfolded the blanket and spread it out on the ground. The three of us readily joined him when he sank down on it. Looking up at Rocco, he told him to stay up and wait for the aliens.
"Yeah, wake us up when they're here," Sandy added.
We had a good chuckle and then laid down to get some rest. We must have been asleep for at least a little while actually, because when I opened my eyes again, Leslie's head was resting on my chest, my legs were draped over Mars' stomach and when I sat up, I accidentally slapped Sandy square across the face. It had been Rocco's voice that had startled us awake. Leslie drowsily pulled away from me, a little red in the face, and Mars groaned as she removed herself from underneath me.
"What the hell…" Sandy muttered, but upon rubbing his eyes and looking up at the sky, his voice trailed off.
My jaw dropped.
"Holy shit," Mars breathed.
"I'll be damned," said Leslie.
"See? I told you!" Rocco shouted, pointing up.
The sky was still dark and starry as the sun had not yet risen, but it was illuminated by bright, flickering orbs of green light moving around in the distance. It almost looked like they were dancing. And then something odd happened.
As I was staring at the green lights, the voices of my friends faded into the distance. I must have been keeping my eyes open since I was beginning to feel them getting dry, yet I couldn't see anything. The lights were still there though, stinging my eyes. There was nothing but the lights.
What I saw and heard next I knew was in my head. It was like I was thinking of it without having lived through it before, as if I was unearthing a memory that wasn't my own.
I saw two men in odd dark blue uniforms push another one ahead of them. He was dressed in a dirty yellow jumpsuit and was staring right through me, even though I recognized him; I knew him from somewhere. He looked familiar, even though most of his face was obscured by white bandages. There was blood seeping through them from underneath. Some of it was already dried and had crusted and hardened the fabric. I could see yellow stains in places as well, as though whatever wound the bandages were meant to cover up was oozing pus or some other secretion.
I stifled a mix of a gasp and a gag. What did they do to him? I called his name, I don't know what it was, but I called his name. He turned to me, but although only one of his eyes was uncovered, I could see the confusion in his gaze. He almost looked a bit annoyed. The uniformed men kept ushering him forward, not giving me so much as a short glance as they passed.
And then, as suddenly as it had started, the vision was over again. I wasn't sitting on the blanket anymore. I was standing beside the pickup, my back turned to it and facing away from the lights. I felt a firm tug on my wrist and when I spun around, Leslie pulled me into his arms. His chest was calmly rising and falling and I could feel his skin and hair through his halfway unbuttoned shirt. His body was pleasantly cool. Once my breathing slowed, his arms dropped and I stumbled a step back.
"What happened?" I asked breathlessly.
Mars cleared her throat and exchanged confused glances with Sandy. "The lights are gone but you were staring at them and when we tried to talk to you, you didn’t react. Then you suddenly jumped up, ran over to the car and screamed 'David! David!', like over and over again."
I reached up to feel my forehead. There was a throbbing pain in my skull. "This will sound crazy but I think I just looked into somebody else's mind or something," I muttered.
"See? I told you guys there was something off about these lights. If you ask me, it's probably extraterrestrial hypnotisation or something! They want you to go crazy!" Rocco explained frantically.
Leslie sighed. "Calm down, okay? I'm not saying this isn’t completely crazy, but… just to be safe… we should probably try not to look at them anymore."
"Anyone got any idea where they might have been coming from?" Sandy asked.
"They looked to be pretty far away actually," Mars mumbled, staring up at the sky dreamily. "I'm not sure if it was anywhere nearby at all."
"Well, I'm not gonna drive around all of the country to look for aliens," Leslie said. "This could have literally been anything. Maybe we should just leave it be."
"That doesn't sound like you," I remarked, noticing I was still a bit weak on my legs.
Leslie shrugged. "Hey, we don't need to chase after everything. I know I like to go looking for trouble but to be honest, right now I think I just wanna get you home."
"You don't have to worry about me. We should go after the lights. Or you guys should go while whatever made them could still be around. I'll just wait here," I suggested.
Leslie firmly shook his head. "No way. We're getting you back to the orchard."
"Since when am I fucking helpless?" I protested. "If you don't go now, y'all are gonna miss out on God knows what but it could literally be mind-blowing!"
Mars cleared her throat. "Uh… don't get this wrong, Peps, but it might actually be for the best. You didn’t see yourself just now. I hate to say this, but it was far from anything you could just shrug off." She sighed. "To be honest… you scared me."
I looked at her in bewilderment. Coming from anyone in Leslie's friend group, that meant a lot. Mars is the rowdy queen. Mars demolishes store fronts of people she doesn’t like. Mars beat up a guy who called her a homophobic slur. When Leslie arrived at Foul, Mars was brave enough to simply pick him up. Mars doesn't get scared.
I swallowed and turned to Leslie. "I want to go back home, please," I muttered, looking down at his shoes.
He sighed softly and patted my shoulder, then turned to face our friends. "If you wanna go look for the lights, I could just drive Pepper home and come back for you guys later," he offered.
The three of them nodded affirmatively and we said our goodbyes before they excitedly set out for the hills while Leslie and I climbed into the truck. Neither of us said a word until we were back on the street. From time to time, he would take his eyes off the road and glance over at me.
"Sorry for ruining your trip," I eventually told him.
"You didn't ruin nothing, dear. I'm just glad you snapped out of it. What the hell was that even? I mean, I know you don't know but I've never seen anyone act up like that. Got me really worried."
"It's never happened before," I replied.
"I bet." Leslie sighed. "You know what else is weird? I got this… really odd feeling when I saw you like that back there. Like, I don't know why, but I kinda… nevermind. I can't even describe it." Looking back over to me, he gave me a wry smile. "Remember when we first met?"
"Dante's. Of course."
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but shut it again without a sound leaving his lips. Instead, he turned back to face the road. When we reached my family's house, I could see that the lights were still off. Vasily wasn't home. I remember thinking that was a good thing. It would spare me a bunch of questions.
"You gonna be fine by yourself?" Leslie asked.
"Yeah. You wanna come inside maybe?"
He shook his head no. "I told the others I'd be back for them, remember? Not that I… wouldn't like to. Are you gonna have the house to yourself again anytime soon?"
I told him no and he frowned. "Shame. Guess we can still meet up outside."
I nodded and just as I turned to leave, I could hear him mumble something, more to himself than to me.
"Lord knows why your face looked so familiar."
x

In this series, we have been examining the mythology episodes, in light of what we can believe or not, what we find confirmation of, and what is demolished by applying a bit of critical thinking.
We have had three kinds of mythology episodes: memories, hallucinations and tales. We can only rely on memories or other facts to clarify something as a fact. In order to accept parts of hallucinations or tales, we need toeholds and confirmations from facts.
There have been many posts about each one of them. What we will attempt here is to reconstruct the past by looking at all of them together and add the canon facts we have had in over 7 years.
What is left to analyze from the Rassvet mythology episode is that trip to Russia Katarina and Ilya undertake.
The trip to Moscow was prompted by Liz believing that Dom lived in Russia. In the tale, Ilya and Katarina are coming back from meeting Katarina’s mother Lena in the ferry terminal, and as they arrive at the motel they see Velov there, Liz then believe that they were going to warn Dom who Liz believed lived in Moscow. But it is LIZ who promps this part:

ILYA IN RASSVET: There's nothing in the room that would tell them where we're going.
KATARINA IN RASSVET: If he knows I'm alive, he already knows where we're going next.

That was all Dom put in the tale. Then Liz prompts Dom:

LIZ: To you, right? She was going to see you in Moscow.

It is easy to dismiss that trip as a fantasy especially because we KNOW that the sighting at the ferry terminal was not until 2 weeks AFTER the fake death. I dismissed for a while. But in Orion RS, Ilya says:

Her father helped get us out of Russia. But it wasn't enough. She needed to disappear. Needed a plan.

So, while Rassvet has a trip to Moscow that follows a prompt by Liz because she believed Dom lived in Moscow, Dom’s tale has them going to St. Petersburg too, and THAT is interesting, because Liz did not prompt that, and the city has a cluster of its own with links to Katarina’s mother, Fitch, Ilya and Katarina.

Her father helped get us out of Russia.

Is “us” Ilya and Katarina? It would seem so, but we have no confirmation. For all we know Ilya went to get Katarina’s mother out of St. Petersburg, where she said she came from.
Dom’s tale addressed Liz's question of what happened in those six months between the two events, so I suspect what he did was to cram everything that happened in that time.
We have already identified a few things in the Rassvet tale, and in the Orion RS recall that happened before the Cape May faked death, such as the time Katarina is in some shelter seeing the news about the Lithuanian referendum, among others.
https://preview.redd.it/7us18haw0vr51.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=c4ee38c9b54b30ec87e6ed044c4d55ee56cc860a
We have placed the call to Sam before the fake drowning, because he does not mention it, about the same time Katarina called Kate to tell her she was not coming back and to ask her to disappear.
https://preview.redd.it/b1cmzyfz0vr51.png?width=1916&format=png&auto=webp&s=4e22ed5fec0e7b101d3cd58bc59bba5577648d3e
We know the events at the ferry terminal happened 2 weeks after Cape May.
https://preview.redd.it/plxex5gm0vr51.png?width=576&format=png&auto=webp&s=bc4600a4125e7bb8cc067d55fb6442298496fc6a
We know that if someone connected Katarina to “Katarina Rostova” in that shelter, it was after the fake drowning, not in February. And it was not about how she looked. It was speaking Russian.
https://preview.redd.it/p6biz1op0vr51.png?width=1911&format=png&auto=webp&s=0af7e73f5ce802466b01fdbdc0056b1c8294c6b5
Dom’s tale has likely mostly true events, with a made up timeline and a few changes her and there to make it fit.
For example, one scene adds an “and” and in another the wording is ambiguous, as Ilya says to Katarina “I thought YOU were dead,” and we think is the singular “you” as in Katarina was dead, but in Orion, Ilya clarified it was not, “I thought THEY were dead”.
https://preview.redd.it/gygpkx0l1vr51.png?width=648&format=png&auto=webp&s=25b1c24f81b0ef3485005976b7ca60cbf4a4a890
We have also placed the Belgrade events after July 1995 when the Vukov station opened in Belgrade, and connected it to the 1995 resurgence of Reddington into the public eye and in the FBI’s sights by dealing in classified documents, and some “ruse” and a colossal mess Dom blames Red for. Even the hiring of Kate circa 1997, as the last link to Liz's whereabouts, could be connected to the aftermath of Belgrade.
I doubt that the plan was to leave Liz with Sam permanently. I bet that if all had worked out well, Liz would have been picked up when the heat was off, and Sam would have disappeared under a new identity. But after the mess of Ilya’s and Red’s failed ruse that sprung the Townsend Directive plus the additional mess of Belgrade, Liz was likely safer left with Sam, with Red directing her upbringing from the shadows. But then Kate needed to be killed, or observed closely. Red hired her circa 1996/97.

The first step is to identify WHEN could such a trip happen.

The idea that “Katarina Rostova” and “Ilya Koslov”, by then supposedly two fugitives KGB agents, would get in the USSR looking like themselves, after Katarina faked her death is laughable. The USSR had closed borders, only three airports, extensive checkpoints both internal and to the outside world, blocked roads, no-man’s land, etc.. Documents were needed to travel outside the city of residence. There were no direct phone lines, and all calls went through operators in a massive surveillance state.
But what about before that faked suicide?
In the gap between leaving Canada and the fire we have no indication of a trip. But we are hampered by not being able to place the fire. All we know is that it was from December of 1990, after they bought and decorated a tree that we see on fire, and early 1991. We know when RR was reported missing circa December 27th, but we do not know if he failed to show up because he was dead or injured already, or because he was otherwise engaged.
The next gap is after the fire. We have had placed a few events in there but we still have substantial time unaccounted for and one indication of travel in Kate’s memories.
When Ilya talks about getting out of Russia, he had been asked about "that night", not the time when he found out Katarina was alive after the fake drowning or the Belgrade disaster. He says he thought “they” were dead.
It seems that Katarina had something she needed to do or somewhere she needed to be when she dropped Liz with Kate, as we see in the time she spent in that room. Less than 2 minutes before she ran out of there. Could that have been a hurt RR in the car? We do not know what did Katarina do in the 10 days that elapsed after dropping Liz. Where did she go and what did she do?
But about 10 days later, she calls Kate and tells her to drop Liz at Sam’s likely, because she needed to travel unencumbered after the fire.

KATE: You need to come back for your daughter. It's been over a week.
KATARINA: I can't. The KGB uncovered my affair with Raymond, which means US Intelligence knows as well. Both sides are tracking me down. I have to leave the country. It'll be weeks before I can come for Masha.

Forget the ludicrous story about the KGB uncovering her affair with RR being the reason she was being hunted by them. Supposedly her job was to seduce RR, and she had supposedly scored a huge success in the Gideon coordinates. At some point both sides may have been tracking her, but it was related to her leaving it all behind to follow RR and Liz.
IF Katarina is described as a traitor to two countries, it HAS to mean she was a citizen and/or an agent of each. Since we can place her childhood in the US, it is likely she was a US citizen, and the KGB seemed to think she was their agent. BUT while the KGB continue to hunt for her, the CIA at some point after 1995 acts as if she is has a burn notice. Disavow her and denied her existence.
Katarina told Kate she had to travel. If this is a truth in the lies, this seems to be when Ilya and Katarina went to Russia.
Then it makes sense what Katarina was doing in sending Liz to Samas she prepares to travel.
In a previous post, we noticed how the bedcover in the cheap motel Katarina is meeting Ilya is the same as the motel Kate is staying. So it is likely that Katarina is staying in the same motel or the same chain, and she is keeping an eye on Liz. She just needed to be “unencumbered.”
https://preview.redd.it/nguj6arrzur51.png?width=864&format=png&auto=webp&s=0c2e0647d4374d333c1f9fc9e1204df6d09f4f75
But when she needs to travel, she does not trust Kate to keep Liz safe, or do as she says, so she sends Liz to Sam’s.
The question we should ask ourselves is if Katarina felt she could gallivant to Russia past the iron curtain looking like herself, and had 10 days she was doing whatever it was she was doing, why not take Liz herself to Sam? Even if she had a dead or very hurt RR in the car after the fire, she could have come back to pick up Liz herself to drop her at Sam’s.
The fact thatshe instructs Kate to drop off Liz at Sam’s at that time to me means she really had to travel, and she had not foreseen this. Remember that although Kate imagines what she looked like and where she was after the fact, Kate had no idea where Katarina was or what she looked like. She could have been in disguise in that same motel.
When she needs to travel, she does not trust Kate to keep Liz safe, or do as she says, so she sends Liz to Sam’s. Or that she had already altered her appearance and did not want Kate to know what she looked like.
https://preview.redd.it/u4tug0j30vr51.png?width=1008&format=png&auto=webp&s=2272431f7c408b2193e22b7dcd376ca152f47e35
Another thing that support that this travel is after the fire, and soon after RR was reported missing by his wife Carla Reddington, is Ilya carrying a newspaper regarding the disappearance, which makes sense weeks or days after, in the US, not months later in Russia.
https://preview.redd.it/d5brk8k4zur51.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=6848e673b5e40ad58fcdb8d1babfd92386a5add2
We have already place some of the events which in Rassvet happen in that room supposedly in St. Petersburg as happening BEFORE the fake suicide in Cape May.

• Ilya waking up, in a room similar to Katarina’s, looking at the newspaper, and coming up with the idea of “giving them an answer to the disappearance”, which makes sense weeks not months after the fire.

The world doesn't know what happened to Raymond Reddington, Katarina. It is a mystery, right? So, we give them the answer.

• Katarina seems to be rehearsing holding her breath under water.
• Katarina placing a call to Sam to tell him she is not coming back. Sam does not mention the suicide or marvels she is alive, but instead mentions what they are saying about Reddington, consistent with RR disappearing and/or being a traitor:

Where are you? What's going on? Do you know what they're saying about Reddington?

• Katarina is in a shelter hearing news about the February Lithuanian referendum.
• The trip somewhere, maybe St. Petersburg, Russia

We have also identified some events taking place AFTER the Cape May fake death

• Katarina walks into a church exhausted and wet, and collapses
• Katarina is recognized by a shelter employee as the Russian woman who walked into the ocean WHEN SHE SPEAKS RUSSIAN, not because how she looked.
• Katarina is in the Ferry terminal meeting her mother to hand her a new identity.
• The surgery with Dr. Koehler.
• Someone walks into banks and withdraws money from RR’s accounts. This person is welcomed back and recognized.

Next we should examine the connections of St. Petersburg, a detail Dom offers without a prompt by Liz.

In Rassvet, Katarina and Ilya go to St. Petersburg. Liz prompted the Moscow part of the trip, but why would Dom mention Saint Petersburg?
https://preview.redd.it/tnz5evj70vr51.png?width=648&format=png&auto=webp&s=e2679a5ca52916c3260cdaafc8ca7d799aae331d
We have a cluster of connections to it:

• Ilya and Katarina travel supposedly to St. Petersburg after the fire in Rassvet.
• Katarina’s mother told her husband Ted she was from there:She told me she was from Saint Petersburg, uh, that she'd split with her husband in her 40s, came to America to start over, and spent the rest of her life here.
• Fitch bought an apartment there in 2009, all cash, in which he left the number of Leonard Caul :

The safe. It's in St. Petersburg in the wall on the second floor of [Explosion]

We also have two other innocuous mentions, likely to keep the name fresh.
https://preview.redd.it/0cf2js7hzur51.png?width=864&format=png&auto=webp&s=6d43406458114cd60fb99d25d9338b46f8747fe6
We have connections from four characters to St. Petersburg: Lena, Katarina, Ilya and Fitch.
It is curious that Katarina and Ilya travel to St. Petersburg, a risky trip, and then years later, Fitch buys an apartment in St Petersburg (2009), and then the number of a former CIA agent, Joseph McCray AKA Leonard Caul is left there. Caul is someone who knows the cypher part of the fulcrum, says wrote it for Fitch.
Red travels there, after having Glen find the purchase, to retrieve it.

I've reviewed six years of bank records, and I traced the cash payment he made to purchase an apartment in this very building on this very floor. [2015]

Could Katarina and Ilya’s trip be to retrieve something or to hide something because it would have been risky to try to take it out at that time, before the end of the USSR?
Was that something in the same apartment that Fitch acquired later?
What is the connection between Katarina’s mother, a mysterious figure we know nearly nothing about and the storyline? Like Dom, her connections are to New York, for she meets Katarina in the Cross Sound Ferry (Long Island to Connecticut), but her Russian connections seem to be in St. Petersburg, and Katarina and Ilya go there. It cannot be a coincidence.
Was Lena a covert agent as well? What was her relationship to Dom? Was she married to Dom, or was that a fling? Was she assigned to him or vice versa?
This drawing, among Katarina's things and childhood toys remain mysterious. is it a man with two girls, or a man, a woman and a child?
https://preview.redd.it/wfxq31oa0vr51.png?width=665&format=png&auto=webp&s=e6f467f994f1500babcda4b1828997d1f4ddb305
Next we will ask why go there? And was there something in that trip that changed anything in the story?
<<<<<<>>><<<<<<>>
read the entire series:

• Part 1: Kate's memories until early 1990 (First part of Requiem)
• Part 2: The awkward encounter in the woods and Liz's memories of Katarina prior to her abduction.
• Part 3: from the kidnapping to the night of the fire (Liz's and Kate's memories).
• Part 4: Kate's memories from the time she drops Liz at Sam's to right before Red sends Sam to get her, circa 1997.
• Part 5: Ilya's memories corroboration of some of Rassvet.
• Part 6: the timing of Belgrade
• Part 7: Belgrade.
• Part 8: the hunting of Katarina Rostova
• Part 9: The staging of a fake death and the fights we see in Cape May & Rasset.

edited for formatting and clarity.

[first] [prev] [Last Night Terror] [SOMEONE PLEASE WAKE ME UP!] [next]
The multi-role strike hovercraft slipped through the air, dropping altitude quickly. The intact ships of the squadron were smoking, over half of them the battle-screens were down and the particle screens were so overloaded they were flickering and snarling.
Mukstet, pilot of Foxtrot-Niner-Two, lead striker of the squadron due to their unorthodox launch, looked around, the window shields covering the smart-armaglass retracted. The trees were whipping by and so far there hadn't been any Precursors popping up on the sensors.
That could be because our sensors are hashed, he thought to himself. He saw a faint glimmer of sparkling blue and did a slow bank toward it.
The controls were mushy, slow to respond. The two fifty-gallon reactor mass tanks were empty, used to power the afterburners, which meant his fusion reactor was offline. He was running on the auxilary zero-point reactors now and they barely had the power to keep the ship in the air. They were at over 80% heat, which left the alarms pinging in his ear. The hotter they got the higher the impedance and the less power the reactors produced due to the power being converted to heat.
It was a vicious self-sustaining cycle.
Terrans have been able to beat everything but heat, Mukstet thought, dropping his altitude even further. He was barely skimming above the tree-tops now. He glanced around him, doing a visual on the other striker craft. Four of them were streaming smoke, one white, one bluish, the other two black smoke pouring from where the weapon covers had torn free. A glance at the squadron icons showed him that of the twenty strikers besides his all of them were yellow or amber.
"973, can you do field repairs?" he asked over the link.
--need time and mass nano-forges too hot too slushy slushy-- the green mantid sent back along with a picture of a half-dozen green mantids standing on the lid of a top loading clothes washing machine with bubbles pouring out from the edges of the lid. The caption read "C17H35COONa/H2O!!!!!" Mukstet didn't get it completely but he got the gist.
The blue glimmer came out to be a large lake surrounded by manicured lawns, decorative tree groves, shrubs, and estates for Lanaktallan. There were wrecking equipment near the manors and over half of them were in the middle of being demolished.
"All Foxtrot-Niner elements, all strikers on me, we're going land near the lake and do field repairs," Mukstet said. "All dismount strike team leaderss give me a status report on your dismount teams once we're on the ground. Have your green buddies reconfigure your suits for intra-atmospheric combat. My appreciation to your green buddies for keeping everyone alive during our insertion."
Blinks came back from the squad leaders.
"Foxtrot-Niner-Two, this is Foxtrot-Niner-Twelve, my center-line gravitons are out and my zero-point heat is at 92% and rising. Tell me we're setting down soon," came Dulketit's voice.
"Five mikes, that's it, just five mikes, Foxtrot-Niner-Twelve," Mukstet said. "All squadron strikers, drop speed to two-hundred kay."
The icons blinked and Mukstet went back to keeping his battered striker in the air.
He managed to get his landing gear deployed and set down on what was obviously a manor's ornate back lawn. The striker hovercraft settled down slowly, bumping, and Mukstet killed the power. The vehicle made a whining sound that slowly went silent. The other twenty striker craft settled down on the lawn, not quite dress right dress but close enough.
Foxtrot-Nine-Seven and Foxtrot-Nine-Eighteen both had fires erupt. Black armored troops jumped out with fire extinquishers, hosing down the fires with white powder.
"How's she look?" Mukstet asked his mantids.
--couple hours need mass good to stop at water you run hoses-- 973 sent back with an image of armored Telkan wrestling umbilicals from the lake to the strikers.
"All right. How's the engineers? You all make it?" Mukstet asked.
--some injured two lost legs three lost bladearms be okie okie-- 973 transmitted back with a sweating smiley face.
"All right. Make sure they get first aid," Mukstet said. He reached down and popped the umbilical connecting him to Jekib. He turned on the system, feeling cool air flood in. He hadn't realized how overheated he'd gotten during the insertion. He undid his five-point harness and hit the release stud for his neural jack connector.
It felt weird being disconnected from the striker. Light he was lighter somehow. Aches and pains vanished for a second to be replaced by other aches and pains. His shoulders, elbows, wrists, and fingers hurt from the vibration through the stick and how tightly he'd gripped everything.
He closed his eyes, just like he'd been trained to, and took several deep breaths, giving his brain time to synch back up to his body. A count of five, opening and closing his hands each count, and then he opened his eyes again. He reached out and hit the stud on the side to open up the cock-pit side door.
Air rolled over him, smelling of water and alien green things. He could see the dismount strikers spreading out at the pointed directions of Sergeant Kuplo. Some of the scouts were running for the construction equipment, others were opening up panels on the striker craft and pulling out hoses, still others were kneeling down while a handful of troops with the red cross, red crescent, and red square of medical personnel were checking their armor's statistics.
The next two hours passed with a blur. Pulling the hoses out to refill the reactor mass with filtered water, the debris caught by the filters passed to the nano-forges, the greenies making repairs as rapidly as possible. Telkan Marines helped put mass into the hoppers for the nano-forges to tear apart once the creation engines had cooled down and deslushed.
"You get anyone yet?" Mukstet asked Kanpuk, his Technical Specialist operating the com-system.
"No. Tegket's working with the other EW guys to try to cut through the interference, but these Precusors are a lot better at jamming than the other ones," Kanpuk said. "So far we've heard some chatter, including a Telkan Marine Heavy Assault Battalion that got dropped into the wrong zone and are protecting a refugee center or ammo dump or something, as well as a couple of Terran Pacific Rim Class warmechs just jumping from the Boop and making landfall via impact."
Mukstet shook his head. They'd barely made it, he couldn't imagine dropping free fall to planet-side in a three hundred foot tall ten thousand ton mech. But then, those mech guys were a whole different breed of crazy. Mukstet's brother had tried out for the war-mech program and now was the pilot of a heavy assault class mech.
But then, he'd always been a little weird, even before the Terrans came.
"Keep me posted. Let me know if we find anyone that needs close air support once we get the strikers reconfigured for intra-atmosphere work and as much of the field repairs as we can do are done," Mukstet said. He'd opened the faceplate on his armored vac-rated flight suit and was enjoying the cool fresh air after all the hours sharing Jekib's air.
The Marine Scout armor used a laser to stimulate a small fungus to produce oxygen from CO2 and CO with enough efficency they could operate in total vacuum for months.
That was something that Mukstet had noticed. During comparisons to Lanaktallan equipment, he'd noticed that the Overseers had created all of their equipment under the assumption that everything would run perfectly. Terrans on the other hand, designed all their equipment as if the world was coming to end and whoever was using the equipment was in the worst possible conditions in the worst possible situation.
Which Mukstet was glad for now.
--refabbing ordnance-- 973 reported. --airframe repairs during wing repairs done--
Mukstet looked over and could see the green mantid engineers, in their hard-shell extreme environment armor moving off the wings of the strikers. They'd been forced to weld the wings in the open position to prevent an actuator failure from allowing the wings to slide into the retracted position. Now that they were ground-side the mantids had to cut the welds and smooth the armor again to allow the wings to deploy and shift properly.
"Everyone get something to eat. Sergeant Kuplo, make sure your men take shifts, eat, and get some water into them, that was a rough landing," Mukstet ordered.
"Yes, sir," the Scout Sergeant said. "You heard him, men. Squad leaders, take charge of your squads. Get with me in half an hour and I'll have guard rotations."
There was a click as Sergeant Kuplo switched to the leadership channel. "What's the ETA on the strikers being ready?"
Mukstet checked the chron display on his retinal link. "Eight hours for full repairs, two more to combat capable. We had to strip the ordnance to run the afterburners in vacuum."
"I'll assign shifts as if its eight hours then, sir," Sergeant Kuplo said.
"You know I'm just a Private First Class, right?" Mukstet said.
"You're striker a pilot and you're in charge of the squadron, that makes you 'sir', sir," Sergeant Kuplo said and then shut off the link to stop any more discussion.
Mukstet sighed and went back to overseeing the striker hovercraft being worked on. The weapons were all deployable, able to be rotated back up into the airframe to increase stealth then deployed when live fire time came.
One thing that Mukstet had noticed is that Terrans really liked kinetic weaponry. His striker had two six barrel rotating autocannons, two door guns, and an underbelly deployable cannon. Missile pods, sure, but he noted there wasn't any laser, plasma, or maser systems. All kinetic.
He wondered why that was as he moved around Striker Foxtrot-Niner-Fifteen, noting that the mantids were repairing the pilot side smartglass and had the armor off the nose to expose where they were working on the airframe.
He took a moment to admit to himself that he really really really wished the Terran pilots and dismount leaders had made it off the Boop. He didn't have any orders loaded up, the only scans of the planet were the ones he'd managed to get from orbit and on the way down, and he had no idea of who had even made it groundside and who hadn't.
He was glad to hear at least some of his fellow Telkans had made it groundside. Second Telkan was largely unblooded with the exception of the power armor guys and most of those were in the infantry units.
Mukstet had joined the Marines after fighting on the wall of Log Base Gamma on Telkan-2 for nearly a month, dressed in an armored vac-suit and running a massive rotary laser cannon. He'd never felt so helpless in his life as when he'd been on that wall. He'd swore he'd never feel that way again and signed up when the Telkan Marine recruiter had come through.
It was slowly getting dark, the pale sparks of the mantid engineers becoming brighter and brighter as time went on and the night got darker. He could see holograms springing up where the mantids clustered together and went to work.
--airframe repaired armor repaired ordnance almost done-- 973 reported. --software checks done combat capable but fragile fragile need two more hours--
"You've got it," Mukstet sighed. My first combat command and the entire squadron is grounded. At least I got them onto the ground.
Mukstet kept walking back and forth on the grass, his palm turned up so he could look at what little ground-side data they had. A BOLO almost four hundred miles out but Mukstet's trainers had all stressed that unless it was coming to your rescue or had requested you a trooper never had a reason to go into the hellfire of a BOLO's combat zone. Off to the east, roughly a hundred and fifty miles, the sensors had picked up heavy Precursor movement almost three hours ago but Mukstet had no idea where they were now. To the west there was heavy groundfire that they'd managed to avoid during their orbits.
The nearest population center was over a hundred miles away to the south, what had looked like a refining facility next to a lake with close packed barracks. Next closest one was two hundred miles to the north, a city from the looks of it.
Mukstet looked at the scans he'd managed to pull of the Precursor vehicles, comparing them to the ones loaded in his striker's IFF. After a little bit he walked over to where Sergeant Kuplo was standing, watching his men who were dug into the ruins of the half-demolished manors.
"Sir?" Sergeant Kuplo asked.
"Do you have your Precursor profiles loaded?" Mukstet asked.
"Yes, sir," the Sergeant said. "Same with the men."
Mukstet held his hand out, palm up, and showed the most common type of Precursor machine that was estimated to be over 5,000 tons. "You have this in your database?"
The Telkan NCO leaned forward, examining it. It had what looked like three snail shells side by side with massive tracks on either side, crawler legs on the side and in front and what looked like a set of jaws up front.
"No, sir. It doesn't match any of my profiles," Kuplo answered. "Where was this taken?"
"Over a thousand of them, from orbit. It's about two hundred meters long and twenty meters wide," Mukstet said. "I've seen something like it before, though."
"Where?" the NCO asked.
"Log Base Gamma, Second Telkan War," Mukstet said. "One large shell at the rear, and made of meat and chitin, but it definitely fits the look."
"You sure, sir?" Kuplo asked. "I was on Telisminia, we mostly had the big layered plate ones."
"I'm sure," Mukstet said. "Which means, these aren't the Precursors from the First Telkan War."
"All right, sir," Kuplo said, nodding slowly. "What's the plan?"
"Give me a few minutes, Sergeant," Mukstet said.
"I'll be over here, sir," the NCO said.
Mukstet walked away, looking at the different types of Precursor machines they'd spotted on the way in, as well as the vessels that they'd passed that had been fighting the Boop and other ships.
More flowing, more like they were patterned off of something living. Lots of mechanical tentacles and pinchers and crab/insect legs. They moved in groups, smaller ones around the big ones, the smallest ones riding on the bigger ones.
These aren't related to the ones from the first war, these are related to those things that came from outer space. Maybe the things made them somehow? Mukstet wondered. A terrible thought bubbled up.
Maybe something else made both?
He looked around. The field was good sized, large enough that all the strikers could be landed on it and then some room. The lake was important, if there was one thing the strikers were it was thirsty. There was plenty of debris to salvage to stuff in the hoppers, the trees on three sides would provide warning of anything large coming in.
I need to think of more than just now. I need to consider that we might not be able to regroup for several days. The strikers will need repair, reloading, remassed. Flight crews will need sleep and food, Musktet thought to himself, looking around.
He checked his armor's database and ran a search string for the terms he needed.
There were six field manuals detailing creation of an operations base. He stood by the lake, looking at the 3D wire-frames, reading the manuals quickly. There were some conflicting thoughts, some stuff that he didn't quite understand.
"Sergeant Kuplo, join me if you would," he sent over the comlink.
"On my way, sir," the NCO said.
It took a few moments for the NCO to join him and he kept scanning the field manuals the whole time.
"You needed me, sir?" Kuplo asked.
"Our current situation is one we've only lightly trained for. I don't doubt we would have trained for it when we arrived here but right now we've got some problems," Mukstet said.
"Aye, sir," Kuplo answered.
"Right now we have no support base. The squadron is based off the Boop, and the Boop is gone. That means right now, all we'd be doing is flying in circles squawking 'DOES ANYONE NEED HELP?' like jumping lizards with their heads cut off," Mukstet said.
"True, sir," Kuplo said, nodding.
"Everyone landed under fire. We passed heavy ground fire repeatedly, which means III Corps and Second Telkan landed into the teeth of heavy fire. Right now, we have a secure area," Mukstet turned and motioned at the field. "We don't know how far we are from any front, but even if this isn't a strategic area for a strike base we can still start a logistics base right here."
"How so, sir?" Kuplo asked.
"Foxtrot-Two-Twenty-Two has bad airframe damage. It's combat capable under the current conditions but to be honest I wouldn't want to have the crew risk it," Mukstet said. "I'm saying we have one active wing at all times, doing recon patrols. Two wings on standby, one on repairs. We pull the nano-forges from Twenty-two, Seventeen, and Eight, and start fabricating the things we need to fabricate a strike base."
Mukstet turned and waved at the area. "We already have construction equipment. You told me that there was construction supplies, that it was obvious something was going to be built out here on top of the Lanaktallan estates that are being torn down. We construct an airfield, rearming point, remassing point. Establish an urgent care clinic, mess hall, and at least get some tents up for sleeping so you don't have to sleep in holes."
Kuplo nodded slowly.
"The Corpsmen on standby will run the urgent care clinic. We've already got wounded little brothers, so we pull the worst wounded to work on building the camp, take the strikers in with the teams we can put together," Mukstet said. He pinged the hasty file he'd put together over to the NCO.
Kuplo turned his hand up, looking at the proposed idea.
"Wish we had something bigger as far as nano-forges go, but the little brothers care capable of damn near miracles with the stuff we've got," Mukstet said. "Right now, we'll break into wing shifts, the ones on standby work on the striker base, one in the air, one grounded. Four wings of four strikers each."
Kuplo nodded. "It could work. Even if we have to abandon the base due to the front shifting or being reassigned another place, digging in is our best bet, at least till the commo channels clear up or we can get something on the command net."
"Let's get it done, Sergeant," Mukstet said.
"Ayut," the NCO said. He put his hand to his helmet to signal he was speaking to the dismount crews.
Mukstet stared at the night around him, made bright as day by the electronics in his suit.
-----------
"Foxtrot-Niner-Two, taking command of Foxtrot Wing One," Mukstet said, checking over his instruments. He knew he'd need to be careful of the port-side graviton generators, but it beat not having the striker up and running.
"Roger, Foxtrot-Niner-Two. You are green to begin mission," Pv2 Dektol, communications technician for the grounded Striker-Twenty-Two said over the headset.
"Establish link with us when you get that commo-antenna up," Mukstet said.
"Roger that, sir," the Pv2, only one rank below Mukstet, said into the mic. "Good luck."
Mukstet got the striker, fully loaded and with a compliment of dismount light scout Marines aboard, into the air. He started moving forward, the rest of the Wing-One following him, then banked to fly low over the lake.
Let's go see if we have any neighbors, Mukstet thought, tabbing up a piece of stimgum.
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7 Days to Die Alpha 19 Newbie Guide (PC Version)
I've seen a number of posts looking for a "how to play," or "introduction," to the game. This is my attempt to write one.
At the beginning of the game, you wake up video-game naked (i.e., in your underwear) and completely ignorant. Your goal is to survive, which is made harder by a) your nude ignorance, and b) the fact that you're living in the aftermath of a combined zombie/nuclear apocalypse.
Your character has four on-screen meters showing your status: food, water, health, and stamina (or call it whatever you like -- fatigue, energy, etc.).
Food and water levels go down unless you eat or drink something. They go down faster if you're doing something that burns stamina (like running). They go down faster if you're too hot or too cold (which is usually only an issue in biomes like desert or snow when you're not properly dressed). They can also go down faster with certain health effects (like getting dysentery -- I'll talk about these effects in a second). Run out of food or water and you will die. (Pay attention to the status bars; in real-life survival situations, regularly getting water is more important than food, but in-game, they both matter.) (Pro tip: Food and drinks you can make yourself are better in many ways than canned goods or basic crops.)
Health is just like in any other video game. It goes down when you get hit, or fall, or step on pointy things like spikes or cacti. Run out of health and you die. Eating food, using certain medical supplies, or just waiting will cause health to go back up. Again, certain health effects may nerf your health bar.
Stamina shows when you're tired. If you run out of stamina, then you can't swing weapons or tools, run, jump, or do other elements of an active post-apocalyptic lifestyle. The good news is that your stamina comes back faster than health while waiting. Drinking improves stamina recovery, and eating gives a temporary boost to maximum stamina. The bad news is that you will be using stamina constantly as you go about your day. (Pro tip: Check out the various beverages in the game to find stamina benefits -- particularly red tea and coffee, also known as the mining combo.)
Alpha 19 has a variety of different health effects that can hamper your food and water consumption, your health/stamina recovery, your maximum health/stamina, your speed, or your ability to use tools. Dysentry comes from eating rotting flesh or drinking unboiled water. Don't do that if at all possible. (Pro tip: You can eat animal fat and snowberries -- or yucca fruit in the desert biome -- if you run out of food in the first couple of days.) Other de-buffs come from injuries. The good news is that if you click on the icon showing the effect, it will bring up your character with info on exactly what you need to mitigate the effect, e.g., put on a splint or a cast to speed healing from a broken leg. Two particular health effects worth calling out are bleeding and infection. If you're bleeding, your screen will flash and your health will keep dropping. Use a bandage, medicated bandage, or medkit to stop it. ANYBODY can make bandages from cloth, so keep some with you. Infection refers not to gangrene, but to the dreaded zombie infection...a disease so horrifying that it helped usher in the fall of civilization. The ONLY way to cure this dangerous disease is...to eat some honey or take an over-the-counter antibiotic. Really, infection should only ever be a serious issue in the first week. (Pro tip: using an ax on tree stumps has a random chance to drop honey.)
Encumbrance: You have a fixed number of inventory slots. You will note that three rows are clear at the start of the game, while the final two rows are not. Those extra rows represent encumbrance, and filling them up will significantly slow you down and increase your stamina usage. Try to avoid that outside of cleared or safe areas. You can increase the number of non-encumbered slots with clothing and armor mods, or through the Pack Mule perk. I recommend finding or making pocket mods ASAP and skipping the perk, though a single level in the early game can make things easier for newbies. (Pro tip: Some items, like most raw materials, food, drinks, medicines, etc., stack in inventory; some items like clothing, mods, and weapons do not. Smart inventory management when looting and salvaging will keep that in mind: do I really want to pick up that pair of shoes, or hold onto that dirty water that will stack if I find more?)
All right, now that the basics are out of the way, how do I get better at surviving? The answer to that is two-fold. 1) Learn how to do more things. 2) Get better stuff.
How do you learn more things? You get experience points (xp) from almost everything in this game. Eventually, when your xp bar fills, you will gain a level and get a perk point. You can use that to select perks, which all have various benefits. At the start, you will get a series of basic quests that serve as a mini-tutorial, and you will gain 4 perk points from finishing them (make sure you complete them!). (Pro tip: Upgrading blocks, e.g., turning flagstone walls into brick walls, is an exceedingly generous way of earning xp in Alpha 19; using a hammer on a block will tell you what material is needed to upgrade it.)
Which perks should I pick first? Well...as a newbie, I recommend Lucky Looter (which improves your chance of finding good stuff), either Pummel Pete or Skull Crusher (depending on whether you want to use clubs or sledges), Sexual Tyrannosaurus (which improves your stamina usage), and something from the Fortitude recovery perks. Healing faster, using less food, or running away are all useful. Ask a different player and you will get wildly different suggestions. Eventually, you will figure out your preferred style of play and pick things accordingly. Note that perks tend to be useful to different degrees based on whether you are in early, mid, or late game.
The other way to learn stuff is to find skill books and schematics. Schematics let you craft new things. Skill books give you a free perk, basically. Collect all seven of a type to get a bonus perk. Some of those are quite useful. Some of them are very circumstance-specific. Regardless, reading an unread book or schematic at least nets you bonus xp. You can tell that you've read a book by the tiny book icon (it will be open if read already). Even if you've read it, you can keep it and sell it for some cash. (Pro tip: Technically, schematics and books stack in inventory; in practice, finding multiple copies of the same one in a single POI is relatively rare.)
How do I get better stuff? There are three ways to do that: 1) Loot it; 2) Make it; 3) Buy it.
Looting: There are many objects that serve as containers in the game. Some objects, like cars, may or may not be a container. Just get close. If you get the option to search it, then it is a container. Not every container will have stuff. Searching containers takes time and makes noise. Locked containers need to be disassembled or have the lock picked in order to open them. Alpha 19 changed looting to be highly level- and time-dependent. You will not get top-tier loot in the early game. Even if you somehow fight your way to the roof of the Shotgun Messiah weapons plant on Day 1, you are likely to find stone spears and maybe a blunderbuss. (Pro tip: a pair of lucky goggles will increase your chance of finding better loot when opening a container for the first time.)
Crafting: If you know how to build something, and you have the necessary ingredients, and you have access to the correct work area, then you can create something from scratch. Perks and schematics will tell you how to build stuff, though there are a handful of things you can build right at the start (like you saw in your tutorial quests). Ingredients can be looted, or you can salvage them by destroying items. See the next paragraph for more on this. Lastly, some items require you to be at a workbench, chemistry station, campfire, or forge to create (there will be an icon next to the item in the build list telling you which). You can build all of these work areas if you know how, buy them from traders, or use ones you find scattered around the world. Traders have one of each, though they probably won't all be functional (but the broken ones can be looted, at least). Caveat: In Alpha 19, you can build up to level 5 gear (higher level gear is usually better and has more slots for mods), but level 6 gear can be found or purchased. Level 6 gear is typically better than anything you can build of the same type.
Salvage: Getting raw materials can be done in a number of ways. Use tools (axes, picks, wrenches, shovels) to extract things from blocks in the world. This is mostly fairly intuitive -- shovels work best on dirt, cement, etc., while axes are good on wooden items like tables and trees. Tools have different levels and can be modded to improve their abilities. Pay attention to the "block damage" stat of the tool to compare them. Some blocks are better sources than others. You can find mineral nodes scattered around that provide you with coal, iron, nitrate, oil shale, or lead, and those are excellent sources (Pro tip: the nodes are just the tip of the mineral iceberg; you can dig down to extract more ore.)
Another way to get raw materials is to use the scrap command in inventory (personally, I found the hotkey for this a little too easy to hit accidentally, so I remapped it). This includes most useful items of gear, as well as certain decorative items like faucets and chairs that you can pick up. Note that many metal items can be put in the forge to smelt them down for more resources than you get using the scrap command, including iron tools. (Pro-tip: Smelting radiators that you get from disassembling cars, heating radiators, and AC units is a great source of brass for crafting ammo; you can also smelt Dukes...but you're usually better off using them to buy ammo from a merchant.)
Buying: Merchants are scattered over the map. Setting up a base near one is a good idea. The post-apocalyptic currency in this game is the Duke, a brass coin that looks like a casino chip. (There are no bottle caps in this game!) If you don't have any money, then you can instead trade your labor for payment. Complete a quest and you'll get cash, xp, and a free prize of some kind (you get a choice -- ammo, meds, gear, etc.). Quests boil down to: retrieve a package, kill some zombies, kill some zombies AND retrieve a package, or dig up and retrieve a package. In the early game, in particular, quests can be very lucrative. (Pro tip: The Daring Adventurer perk can improve the rewards you get from quests if you decide you want to focus on that aspect of the game.) Merchants sell all sorts of things: food, raw materials, weapons, armor, vehicles, skill books, schematics. Their inventory resets daily-ish, so pop back on a regular basis.
Cheesy pro-tip: When you trigger a quest location, the POI will refresh to an "unexplored" state. This automatically refills all of the loot, etc., as well as repopulating the zombies. You can clear the location, then trigger the quest and clear it again for double the rewards. Just don't leave any loot inside a container that will refresh.
What about combat? Why haven't you really mentioned the z-word yet? Well, honestly, you'll probably spend a lot more time salvaging and looting than fighting (with the exception of Blood Moon horde nights, which I'll talk about below). Most zombies in the early game are slow and fairly easy to avoid. If you can avoid getting mobbed, then you will probably be all right.
Animals, however, will mess you up. You will quickly start yawning when you see a single stumbling housewife zombie, but a wolf will continue to be a threat well into the mid-game. Zombie animals are also a threat. Zombie dogs are fairly easy to kill but come in packs of 3-7. Zombie bears will soak up more damage than you can easily dish out in the early game. Zombie vultures are hard to hit and are really good and causing lacerations and bleeding. I've gotten infected by zombie animals far more commonly than I have from human zombies.
Zombie dogs, coyotes, wild cats, and wolves: running works until you run out of stamina, and then you're dead. The best bet in the early game is to find someplace high they can't reach and snipe them if you have enough arrows or ammo. These animals can and will sneak up on you. The good news is that they will make random noises that will let you know they're in the area.
Snakes: I've seen these in the desert and wasteland biomes. Good eatin', but they are quiet and can attack without warning. Luckily, they die easily.
Wild pigs: Don't bother them. Seriously, just leave them alone until you have good guns.
Bears and zombie bears: The good news is that they won't chase you as easily as some other animals. They are also not as fast and you can outrun them. The bad news is that if you get cornered, they can take and dish out huge amounts of damage.
Zombie vultures: These will attack you if you're injured, or are riding a vehicle. Shotguns are the easiest way to deal with them. Hitting them with melee weapons is an irritating chore that often ends with negative health effects. Possibly the most annoying creature in the game.
Deer, rabbits, and chickens: They don't attack, but run if attacked. They can be a good source of meat. (Pro tip: you can get quests from slips of paper you find in loot; the ones asking you to do things like, "kill a bunch of rabbits by throwing cans of Sham at them," are never worth it unless you're desperate to try something new.)
As the game advances, and as you explore some of the larger points of interest (POI), you will run across more dangerous zombies. Feral zombies have glowing eyes and always move at a full run. Crawlers will jump around like demented jackrabbits. Glowing versions of zombies regenerate health. A good rule of thumb is that if something is different about a zombie, it probably is more dangerous. (Pro tip: Quite a few POI's have alert triggers that will cause a bunch of nearby zombies to wake up at once, and stealth doesn't avoid tripping them; best to always have a clear avenue of retreat when entering a new location.)
Weapon selection: As said earlier, clubs and sledgehammers are your basic melee option. Either works well for the early game or to save ammo or hit quietly in the later game. Spears, axes, and knives/machetes can also be used, but they require more practice and really NEED perks to be fully optimized. Note that knives and axes are mostly meant to be tools. Stun batons require another source of damage, either turrets or other players, to be effective, and are also perk/mod-dependent.
Bows can easily kill basic zombies quietly with a headshot. Use the best bow or crossbow and the best ammunition that you can. Do away with stone arrows/bolts as soon as you can find or build the iron versions. You'll need to decide for yourself if you want to keep using bows once guns are available. I like them, but your mileage may vary. (Pro tip: There is a skill book that allows you to craft flaming and explosive arrows; sadly, there is no way to ride around in a Dodge Charger, shooting exploding arrows out the window while Dixie plays from the car horn.)
Guns are easily the best option in the game...and while perks can make them more effective, they aren't necessary. Don't hesitate to pull out a shotgun just because you put all your perk points into pistols if you run out of 9mm ammo. There is a fair amount of ammo in this game, and you can make more...but I always keep a club or sledge with me just in case. Having a gun makes exploring the harsher biomes a lot easier. The trade-offs for gun selection are pretty in line with any other game that has guns. Some burn ammo quickly. Some have low ammunition capacity. Some are better at long range. (Pro tip: having several loaded blunderbusses or double-barreled shotguns in your tool belt can provide an early-game rapid-fire option for dealing with tougher opponents.)
Weapon perks and skill books: Each type of weapon has an associated perk, and an associated skill book set. Maxing out both can make a fairly sizeable difference, and can have some unexpected other benefits. For example, one of the skill books gives you a 10% barter bonus if you happen to be holding a .357 while trading.
Blood Moon Horde Nights: Every 7 days (by default), the sky will turn red. When night falls (hour 22 by default), a horde will spawn near the player. Every zombie in that horde will magically know exactly where you are and will rush at you to eat your delicious flesh.
The devs of the game have made it clear that they want you to FIGHT the zombies, and have gone well out of their way to make turtling behind defenses less viable. Zombies will break down walls -- even ones made of brick and concrete. They will dig to reach you. They jump on top of each other to climb to get you (like in the Brad Pitt zombie flick). As the game progresses, zombies will appear that are capable of spitting acid, or that act as suicide bombers (can you call it suicide bombing if they're already dead?). (Pro tip: Bomb zombies, also known as Demolishers, can be taken down by head or leg shots; shooting them in the chest is a bad idea, despite the fact that shooting the glowing spot is normally the best move in a video game.)
Having said that, building defenses and traps can be very effective at delaying or channeling zombies, and can effectively thin the horde. There are pretty much two approaches people use to deal with a horde night.

1. Find a POI that prevents the zombies from reaching you and then wait out the attack. Anyplace high with enough metal or stone to last for a while will work. Large stores, fire departments, skyscrapers, water towers, etc., can all work, though the smaller the location, the more quickly it will fall to the zombies eventually.
2. Build a fortress. This is usually a setup that includes auto-turrets, traps, spikes, and walls made of brick or concrete. Often, they're set up to lead zombies into a killing zone where you can shoot or bomb them into bits. There are many YouTube videos on different approaches, and they range from lore-friendly to extremely cheesy exploitations of the AI or physics engine.

Note that these two are not mutually exclusive. It's pretty common to use POI's at first and then try building your own, or to move back to POI's if your attempt at a custom fortress is less effective than you had hoped. (Pro-tip: Don't use your home base for horde nights...at least until you've got a LOT of experience fortifying against horde nights.)
Creating a home base: Every survivor needs a place to keep their stuff. Just like with a horde base, you can either re-purpose a POI or build your own from scratch.
If you use a POI, then make sure you put down your bedroll. That will keep sleeping zombies from respawning in the area. If you want to use a bedroll as a way of regularly resetting your spawn point, then you're probably better off building your own base. That said, a good POI to use as a base has height. Using a forge on the first floor is a good way to attract random zombies. It's also good to find someplace with brick or concrete walls, as they'll last longer against wandering foes. Also, keep in mind that you'll be going in and out a lot, so you don't want it to be too hard to get in and out. (Pro tip: lone zombies can't jump to ladders that are two blocks off the ground, but you can; this doesn't work so well with hordes, as they climb over each other.)
By default, zombies are faster at night, so early game nights are a good time to huddle up in a base and craft things. When you run out of things to craft, READ the descriptions of your perks, skill books, and the built-in journal entries. You'll be surprised how much information is buried in there. You can also take the time to look at the map and plan out the next day's activity. (Pro tip: Find a cluster of close-together POI's on the map, and put a chest or storage box in the middle to serve as a temporary loot repository; inventory item stacking means that having a collection point can mean many fewer trips back to your base with the fruits of your effort.)
Vehicles: Maps in this game are fairly large. The solution to moving about to different biomes (which have different resources and different POI's) is to make or buy a vehicle. Anybody can assemble vehicles if they have the right parts, but some of the parts are locked behind perks/schematics. Taking the first-level vehicle perk can be useful, as the bicycle isn't a bad starting vehicle and the perk unlocks wheels, which every other vehicle needs. (Pro-tip: the easiest way to get gas when out-and-about is to salvage the many derelict cars.) Zombies and wildlife are pretty harmless if you can speed past them...with the exception of vultures, which can be annoying enough to make you stop your motorcycle just to shotgun them out of the sky.
Mods: There are tons of clothing, weapon, and armor mods in the game. Read the descriptions, as they can have a huge impact on effectiveness. (Alpha 19 has no vehicle mods, despite the fact that vehicles have mod slots.) If you open an item for modding, then any mods in your inventory that can be used for that item will start flashing, making it easy to see which mods go with that item. (Pro tip: There is a boot mod that reduces falling damage that is worth its weight in gold. Not only is it really easy to fall in some POI's, but the de-buff from spraining or breaking a leg when zombies are about can be utterly lethal.)
Power tools: Power tools are very powerful. Augers and chainsaws harvest materials very rapidly. They also use gas and make a ton of noise. They tend to quickly attract screamers, which are zombies that scream until other zombies show up to find out what all the fuss is about. Kill them quickly to avoid hordes interrupting your mining. (Pro tip: The physics engine of the game means that mine collapses are a thing, and they can be deadly; shoring up the ceiling with wood blocks can help prevent this, but augers can mine so quickly that you can lose track of how deeply you've gone beyond your supports.) The annoying pinging noise made by augers is an Alpha 19 addition that was generally disliked by everyone.
Repairing items: Many items like tools, weapons, and armor will degrade over time. Weapons and tools will let you know they need repair...typically when you need them the most. Armor never notifies you. It just stops working. Check your item status bars to figure out when to repair them. Simple tools and weapons can be fixed with wood and stone. More sophisticated items require repair kits. In Alpha 19, repair kits are a generic fix-all for any advanced item, which greatly simplifies things. They can be crafted with forged iron and duct tape. (Pro tip: forged iron can be made in any forge, but you can also salvage them from disassembling weight sets, desk and gun safes, and NON-FUNCTIONAL vending machines; salvaging them can be tedious in the early game but can be worth it to keep your precious firearms and armor functioning.)
Farming: You will find seeds, or you can take a perk or find a schematic to craft seeds. It takes five cobs of corn to create one corn seed, which is odd given that the whole grain is basically made of seeds...but chalk it up to game-play balancing. To plant a seed, you need a farm plot (except for mushrooms, which can grow on any surface), which you can craft with wood, rotting flesh, clay, and nitrate. Once planted, it will grow in three stages. Harvest it at stage 3 by punching the plant, and it will revert to stage 1 and deposit the appropriate food item into your inventory. If you accidentally harvest the seed, just replant it. If you want to get physically fit, do a push up in the real world every time you accidentally punch the ground or the air instead of your crop. (Pro tip: Don't harvest with a mostly full inventory, as if your tool belt slot is the last open spot, the crop will go there, and your next attempted punch will instead eat the last one you harvested.)
Electricity: Fire attracts zombies like moths. Using electric lights is a convenient way to avoid that, as zombies are Luddites and don't care for the products of industry. The most convenient way to light up your home base is with lanterns, but you need to find a certain skill book to make them. The good news is that their batteries never need recharging. You can also get flashlights, or mods that attach lights to your helmet or your weapon (press F to pay your respects...er, sorry, to turn on your light). You can also craft a variety of stand-alone electric lights, but that requires a separate energy source.
Energy sources come in three varieties. Battery packs hold up to six car batteries and drain the batteries over time. You can recharge the pack by connecting it to a different energy source. Generator banks hold up to six engines (recoverable from many derelict vehicles, among other sources) that burn gasoline to provide power. Solar banks contain solar cells and generate power as long as they are in sunlight. They also cannot be crafted and are as expensive as hell. (Pro-tip: Higher-level batteries last longer; use level 1 and 2 batteries to craft vehicles, sell, or smelt for lead, and keep the better ones for the battery banks.)
Use wiring tools to connect energy sources to energy consumers. There are some slightly wonky rules to how you can connect, but it isn't hard to learn with a little trial and error. Wiring doesn't cost you anything, so experiment freely. You can put various switches between the consumer and the source: toggle switches, pressure plates, and motion sensors being the most common, though there are other options. Switches require power, but less power than an active consumer. This allows you to, for example, conserve power in the daytime by turning off active defenses and lights so you don't waste battery charge or gasoline. (Pro tip: a solar bank charging a full battery bank will provide quiet, continuous power, at which point you can feel free to light up your place like a Vegas casino 24/7.)
Stealth: Some players will tell you stealth is impossible in this game. That is not true. What is true is that some situations negate stealth, most particularly Blood Moon hordes. Just tell yourself that the red moon makes their senses so acute that they can smell a living human from a mile away -- if you can't rationalize it away as a game balance issue. Some POI's also have event triggers that are based on your location rather than how stealthy you are being. Chalk that up to dramatic license. This is a game where zombies are real and I can carry a motorcycle in my boot. Get over it.
There are some things you need to know about stealth, though, to do it effectively. Your stealth rating is a combination of noise and visibility. Clomping around in heavy armor, waving a torch or flaming club around, or using a flashlight will make you easy to notice. Firing a gun, whacking a wrench against a metal appliance, or jumping up and down on a pile of trash will also make you easy to notice. That means using light armor, using a bow or melee weapon, and crouching are all ways to avoid being seen.
There are a number of skill books, perks, armor and weapon mods, and craftable gear that can all make you more stealthy. With diligence, you can walk up behind a sleeping zombie, smack him in the head with a sledgehammer, and not disturb the other one right next to him. Will this make the game much easier? I would argue no. It certainly makes some specific situations much easier. Clearing out a mini-horde in a POI with a bow before they wake up can be much less stressful, certainly. The lack of universal effectiveness definitely makes it a playstyle choice, however, rather than an over-powered build to avoid if you want a challenge. (Pro-tip: Stealth is never a 100% guarantee, which is why you always carry stacks of wood; wood is incredibly flexible, as it lets you drop cheap spike traps in narrow passages, climb up easily to places zombies cannot reach, make bridges across open gaps, craft doors to seal off openings that foes have to make noise to get through but that you can open easily, etc.)
That's about it. The most important pro tip is this: this is an open-world game where the only thing that matters is that you have fun playing it. It doesn't matter if you want to do single-player, or multi-player, or if you like crafting more than combat, or prefer spears over guns. You bought the game. Do what you like, as that is really the only goal.

Video Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L8iCM72IJQ

Watch some if it if you have the time, it took me over the course of 3 days to make, so appreciate any smashing of like buttons for support!
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With Vinera now available in the global version of the game, it's the perfect time to dig into evade team compositions.
Personally, the evade composition is my favorite setup. It’s gimmicky, but so much fun when it works. It is definitely not a build that has a 100% win rate as it has very specific weaknesses that hard counter it.
As with all recommendations, the below are simply recommendations. You should play the game how you want to play.

UNITS:

Pros:

• Fast: generally have high agility
• Independent: they don’t need to rely on other units on your team to survive
• Stopping power: they often come equipped with status ailment inflictions that can disable enemies
• They're freakin' ninjas

Cons:

• Low durability: Base HP tends to be low, so they usually can't really take more than a hit, if at all
• Single glaring weakness: this is specifically "guaranteed hits," or spells/abilities that cannot be dodged (except by the Reflex passive). Common examples include the Ranger-class Sharpshoot and White Mage-class Holy
• Expensive: some of the best vision cards needed to make this build work well are heavily gated

The evasion stat is the result of combining the Luck stat and Agility stat. In gross oversimplification, the higher your unit’s luck and agility stats, the more likely they’ll be able to dodge an attack.
So it’s not surprising to see some of the best evade units have naturally high luck and agility, whether as part of their natural stat growth through leveling up, as part of their ability board, or both. Better yet, they have some kind of base evasion stat built in, whether through passive skills or master abilities.
There are three core units I'll be focusing on:

Shadowlynx	Kitone	Vinera
High agility at 64 (base + ability board), which is good for 5th best out of all units currently available in the global version of the game	Even higher agility at 69, which is the highest among all units currently available on global	Highest base evade rate of all available units
Fairly high luck at 201, not the best, 8th to be exact, however…	High luck at 211, good for 4th highest	High agility at 62 and massive luck at 233
Has multiple evasion boosting abilities baked into her unit, including +15 evasion in her master ability plus two support passives that play directly into evasion: Shadow Runner, which raises both luck and agility, and Blade Soul, which directly increases evasion rate	Also comes with various evasion boosting abilities, including a +15 evasion boost from her master ability and the Shadow Runner passive	Has evade boosting abilities in her master ability, support passives in Thief Lore and Tune-up that both increase agility, plus a generic evade up passive

There are also additional units to consider beyond the core three above...
Wild Cards:

• Owe: basically has all the options that Lynx has: samurai job’s illusion, the Shadow Runner passive, and an evasion boosting master ability. Overall a strong option, just not the strongest based on raw stats.
• Ramza: set as a spellblade subjob, he can draw attention away from the squishier ninjas by using Taunting Spell. He’s arguably the best party buffer and even has access to healing just in case Lynx or Kitone managed to take a hit and need some help. He also has pretty good base luck and agility, as well as the Shadow Runner passive.
• Mediena: might start sounding like a broken record, but guess what she has? Pretty high luck, respectable agility. And, of course, access to the Shadow Runner passive.
• Salire: same reasoning as Medi.
• Orlandeau: because. High stats. Samurai subjob with access to illusion.

But for Lynx, Kitone, and Vinera... they're the top three in terms of base evasion rate out of all units available on global, without even considering skills, equipment, espers, and vision cards. But once decked out, they’re even crazier.

BUILDING THE UNIT: SKILLS & EQUIPMENT

As a very general rule of thumb, to get the highest evasion, you want to make sure you squeeze in as much luck and agility as possible. This is why the Shadow Runner passive is so good, since that one passive raises both those stats.

	Shadowlynx	Kitone	Vinera
Support Passives	Shadow Runner, Blade Soul	Shadow Runner, Self-Sacrifice	Tune-Up, Evade Up or AP Up
Subjob	Samurai	Soldier (or Ninja if Doton is needed)	Thief (or Dual Gunner if missile damage is needed)
Reaction Ability	Third Eye	Counter Slash	Dark Shadow

Finer details on skills:
While Vinera doesn’t have a passive skill that boosts luck, but she does have two that boost agility. Thief Lore and Tune-up. Tune-Up is the must-have since it destroys enemy unit defenses, allowing Vinera to be a real tank buster.
Lynx should have Blade Soul which automatically adds to her evasion rate and boosts her attack. Both really nice to have. Similarly, Kitone’s last passive can be Self-Sacrifice, which drastically increases her attack.
But what about Shukuchi? Both Lynx and Kitone already have high base movement being ninja job classes, so they generally already outpace most enemy units (4 move and 3 jump as opposed to most units having 3 move and 1 jump). It’s helpful for getting around a map, but at the cost of damage? I personally wouldn’t go for it.
As for Vinera, the last passive is a bit of a toss-up. The first is to continue going all-in with evasion and simply taking the Evade Up passive. The second is to assist in offensive capabilities, which will be AP Up, considering Vinera’s lack of efficient TP skills. Now if you’re fortunate enough to have Xiza’s Illusory Bell TMR, then you won’t need the extra AP help and can just take the evasion boost.
For subjobs, let’s get the easy one out of the way, which is Lynx’s. Samurai. Illusion. Done.
For Kitone, there’s debate between two: ninja and soldier. Ninja is good as it gives access to the non-weapon type damaging skill Doton. But other than that, there’s not too much else going on for it. I personally much prefer soldier as it gives access to much harder hitting skills in Hard Slash and Hazard Spin, both of which are capable of 1-shotting the ever popular Cid. However, the best skill in the kit is Drain Force, which scales off your HP and goes right through any resistances enemies may have. It’s a great way to cut through tanks in addition to restoring any lost HP.
Why not time mage? Well, because she kind of sucks at being one. There’s potential utility in it in a different team composition, but not in an evade one where every party member is already fast.
And for Vinera, the thief subjob would be the traditional option as it grants very useful skills that complement evasion, such as Shadowcast and Steal Time, all of which are TP skills which help build that much needed AP. And shoutout to Snipe Dagger, which is also a fantastic skill to have.
The final piece is reaction abilities. I’m not going to really spend much time on this, because fun fact, if you don’t get hit, you don’t trigger any reaction abilities.
Third Eye for Lynx. Counter Slash for Kitone. Dark Shadow for Vinera.
Equipment:
Two words: Sage’s Hat. It’s the best because the dodge version caps out at 19 raw evasion boosting stats. And to add on top of that, there’s another +8 as part of the item’s attributes for getting up to +5. That said, they are hard to make, so if you don’t have them or have the patience to go the distance, you can sub them out with the rare Wizard’s Hat. Circlet’s an option too, but the jump in materials needed from Wizard’s Hat to Circlet is pretty up there. You may as well have farmed your Sage’s Hat instead.
Wizard's Hat vs Circlet vs Sage's Hat (dodge version +5, level 50)

	Wizard's Hat (R)	Circlet (SR)	Sage's Hat (MR)
Max Evade Stat	12	15	19
Evade Attribute Bonus	6	7	8
Base materials cost	740 Murky Fluid	630 Murky Fluid, 1,810 Sticky Fluid, 1 Void Cyst	2,570 Velvety Fluid, 315 Ogre Bristle, 323 Void Cyst
Awakening books cost	345	735	1,125

The hat is the core piece of equipment in the evade build. What’s left is the weapon and TMR slots and those are much more flexible. There are plenty of options out there so for these recommendations I’ll just give them my personal preferences.

	Shadowlynx	Kitone	Vinera
Hat/Clothes	Sage's Hat (dodge)	Sage's Hat (dodge)	Sage's Hat (dodge)
Weapon/Accessory	Ninja Blade (assault) or Alexandrite Ring (aim)	Ninja Blade (assault) or Alexandrite Ring (aim)	Mage Masher (assault)
Trust Master	Shadow Ninja Blade (Lynx TMR) or agility boosting TMR	Shadow Ninja Blade (Lynx TMR) or agility boosting TMR	Illusory Bells (Xiza TMR) or agility boosting TMR

Finer details on equipment:
Rationale for Kitone using Lynx's TMR. The reason being is that I have Kitone’s faith up to max, at 97, due to her limit burst and Shadowbind’s stop effect. Higher faith means higher chance that the effect will trigger. So with Lynx’s TMR, Kitone can also inflict paralysis on enemies with her basic attack. That leaves one more equipment slot to play with, which will be an accessory. Hermes Sandals for the extra agility is a nice to have, though Lynx’s TMR already provides some modest agility (+4). Since on global the equipment stats don’t stack, there’s not too much value in having Hermes here, as both the valuable dodge and agility stats are more or less covered elsewhere. So I like an aim Alexandrite Ring here, for its high accuracy and elemental resistances. Crit won’t work as Lynx’s TMR already has a whopping 13 there.
But if you opt to not use Lynx’s TMR and go for a more standard ninja blade (e.g. Kodachi or Sasuke's Katana), then that frees up the TMR slot for a different accessory. Now this can be totally up to you. Mont’s Lion Emblem to buff everyone’s agility is nice. Xiza’s Illusory Bells are always amazing, though like I mentioned before they might suit Vinera better.
For Lynx, being a ninja herself, her equipment slots can mirror Kitone’s. You can literally try to equip her the same way. A traditional ninja blade, hat, and any useful TMR you have laying around. You can give Lynx her own TMR as she can also be built with high faith to inflict status ailments… she does also have Shadowbind and her samurai subjob gives her Nightveil, which can inflict AOE blind.
Lastly for Vinera, I would go for Mage Masher as the main weapon, rather than a dodge Main Gauche. While the latter is very interesting with its max 20 evade stat, it doesn’t provide additional evasion as part of the item’s main attribute, unlike the hats. Also you’re giving up plenty of attack, so let the weapon do what weapons do best, which is provide damage. TMR is flexible if you don’t have Xiza’s Illusory Bells. I would consider something with agility as out of the three units on the team, she is technically the slowest.

Espers and Vision Cards

ESPERS:
There are three main espers that are just really neat to have equipped in this setup and some secondary ones that can be good options.

Odin	Behemoth	Tetra Sylphid
Top 5 attack stat, attack bonus and slash bonus in skill tree	Top 5 attack stat, attack and slash attack bonus	Mediocre attack, but...
Highest agility among espers, 4th highest luck	3rd highest luck among espers, top 5 for agility	4th highest agility among espers
BIG, BIG MAN EATER	Light killer and resistance worth a look	More than DOUBLE the evasion granted in the skill tree vs other espers

Now not everyone has access to both Odin and Tetra Sylphid, so there are definitely viable alternatives to consider:
Golem: notable points include having access to man eater in its skill tree, along with defense boosts, high base attack, and massive HP. That HP can come in handy for a Drain Force user like Kitone. Its downside is low agility.
Cactuar: main selling point is access to man eater and the highest base luck in the game of all espers, with 66. But it doesn’t have evasion in its skill tree and it has the lowest base attack stat and the third lowest agility of all espers. It’s an SR for good reason.
VISION CARDS:
For Vision Cards, there isn’t a whole lot of flexibility, and the main reason why the evasion comp is expensive. VCs are categorized into there priorities: +party evasion, +party luck, and +party agility.
+EVADE
The main vision that’s needed is Shiva. This UR card provides a party-wide evasion increase, up to 20 when maxed out. The downside is that the VC is primarily magic based, which neither Kitone, Vinera, nor Lynx are built on. Hence why I mentioned Ramza and Mediena earlier. They can hold the Shiva card while the other traditional attackers can focus on others.

	Max HP	Max ATK	Max MAG	Unit Effect	Party Effect
MAIN: Shiva	330	18	170	0*: +3% ice resist; 4*: +10% ice resist	0*: +8% evasion; 4*: +20% evasion
ALT: Untrue Pledge, True Soul (unreleased on global)	264	82	75	0*: +5% slash attack; 4*: +15% slash attack	0*: +4% evasion; 4*: +10% evasion

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+LUCK

	Max HP	Max ATK	Max MAG	Unit Effect	Party Effect
MAIN: Secrets of the Heart	292	168	132	0*: +3% earth attack; 4*: +10% earth attack	0*: +18% luck; 4*: +35% luck
ALT: Birth of New Life	461	32	29	0*: +3% HP; 4*: +8% HP	0*: +10% luck; 4*: +21% luck

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+AGI or other party-wide relevant stat
The last vision card is more flexible than the previous two, but ideally you’d want something that can increase agility for more evasion. For agility, there’s nothing better than the limited Scion of House Beoulve. Not many people have this option, especially one that’s awakened and leveled.
If you can’t go the agility route, you can opt for more damage. In a slasher party, you can decide between Echoing Screams or Secret Orders. The former grants more raw power, while the latter is much easier to max out, and also grants the user a pretty hefty agility boost.

	Max HP	Max ATK	Max MAG	Unit Effect	Party Effect
MAIN: Scion of House Beoulve	162	144	90	0*: +3% slash attack; 4*: +10% slash attack	0*: +4% agility; 4*: +15% agility
ALT 1: Echoing Screams	346	169	10	0*: +8% ATK debuff res; 4*: +25% ATK debuff res	0*: +18% slash attack; 4*: +35% slash attack
ALT 2: Secret Orders	230	105	91	0*: +5% agility, -5 spirit; 4*: +10% agility, -5 spirit	0*: +12% slash attack; 4*: +20% slash attack

Wrapping Up

The awesome thing about the evade comp is that it’s able to go against pretty much any team. Physical slashers, magic users, turtlers… it just has one weakness. Teams with guaranteed hit capabilities, namely Sharpshooters and Holy users.
By default, Sharpshooters are currently limited to gunners, so Frederika and Lu’Cia. The latter is your worst enemy, as Lu’Cia, being wind element, completely demolishes Kitone. Lu’Cia isn’t just capable of hitting Kitone with Sharpshoot, she’s capable of 1-shotting her twice over in one hit, essentially turning the match into a 2v3 in the opening rounds before it becomes 1v3 as she’s equally capable of 1-shotting Shadowlynx. And speaking of Lynx, with her low HP, she can also be 1-shot by Frederika’s Sharpshoot.
As for Holy, you’re less likely to have issues with this in AI-led battles as AI controlled white mages will not be smart enough to prioritize casting Holy on your units than spending time buffing and healing teammates. But in player controlled matches, you can bet the enemy Ayaka or Salire will take any opportunity to clean house.
There are other units that carry guaranteed hit options. Ramza’s limit burst is guarantee hit. In the near future, the earth mage Kilfe has more than one ability that can guarantee hit. So keep an eye out.
That said, there are far more units that don’t have guarantee hit abilities than those that do, so the odds are in your favor. Slashers are still the most prominent team compositions and will continue to be the case for quite some time. Even if more players opt to use magic setups, not everyone will carry Holy users. And if you’re focused on arenas and guild battles, it’s a matter of scouting ahead to check if you may be going against a team with Sharpshooters.
Are evade units the strongest? No, not in the slightest. But in a game built around RNG and chance, it’s quite satisfying to be able to manipulate that in some way and that’s where building and optimizing an evade team comes in.
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Hope this guide has been helpful! If there's a tl;dr, then have yourself a tl;siw (too long, so I watched) instead in video form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L8iCM72IJQ

How to Beat Every Boss in Dark Souls
Asylum Demon- Do a plunging attack off of the ledge above it to do a huge amount of damage at the beginning of the fight. After this, try to stay behind the Demon for the entirety of the fight. Be aware of which way he’s swinging his hammer and you shouldn’t be hit once. Two-hand your weapon to do more damage; your shield won’t do much in this fight. Also, it would be wise to keep your camera unlocked during the fight. This makes getting around, and dodging the Demon much easier. Combining all of these tips should result in you besting Dark Souls’ first boss!
Taurus Demon- Every time you go into the fight, it is a good idea to take out the two archers on the tower above you. If not, they will shoot at you during the whole fight and cause a lot of trouble. When the Taurus Demon jumps down from it’s tower, immediately run back to the ladder and climb up it. Apply lightning to your weapon (you can find gold pine resin in Undead Burg, in a chest next to where the flaming barrel tumbled down the stairs) and do a plunging attack on it. After this, stay close to the Demon while you attack it. Be wary of the broken section of the bridge; if the Demon attacks you near it, you can go flying off the bridge and die. When the Demon is about to strike, roll towards it and through it’s legs. Keep doing this and it will eventually die.
Bell Gargoyles- After your first attempt at this boss, always be wary of the gargoyle’s first appearance. It will be standing just on the other side of the fog gate, ready to strike you as soon as the fight begins. It’s a good idea to mostly roll sideways during the fight (if you are staying locked-on). Rolling backwards will sometimes result you in being struck by an attack. The gargoyles are weak to fire damage, so any fire-based attacks, (charcoal pine resin, pyromancy, etc.) are effective. Once the first gargoyle approaches half-health, start being more aggressive. You want to do as much damage as possible before the second gargoyle enters the fight. In this second phase, try and focus your attacks on the one that is already damaged. Get the gargoyle to do his fire-breath attack, and then attack it. This is because it will be locked into a long attack and you can get in a couple of hits. (Be sure to be aware of the second gargoyle’s location during this. If he hits you, you are in a really bad position, between the two gargoyles.) If you are having a lot of trouble with this fight, you can use the Drake Sword (obtained by damaging the Hellkite Dragon enough times in the tail). This will be able to demolish the gargoyles’ health.
Moonlight Butterfly- Stay unlocked. Being locked-on during this fight makes it more awkward to dodge the magic attacks on the narrow bridge. Continue to dodge the magic and then attack the Butterfly when it lands. The Butterfly is weakest to fire damage, so when it’s about to land, use charcoal pine resin and two-hand your weapon. When the Butterfly lands, you want to put out as much damage as possible. If you’re having trouble, it would be wise to wait a while before fighting the Butterfly. This is because if you don’t do enough damage to it, the fight could take very long. (It is quite a boring fight, so you don’t want it to go on any longer than it has to.) The hardest part of the fight is learning to differentiate each of the Butterfly’s magical attacks. It’s not a very tough boss, so you can definitely kill it, after a little practice.
Capra Demon- The first three seconds after entering the fight are the hardest moments of the fight. If you can dodge the two dogs and Capra’s initial attack/s, then you could easily beat the boss. Having a shield equipped for the fight is a good idea. After entering the fight, immediately run up the staircase (after dodging a few attacks). Turn around and hold up your shield. After the dogs attack your shield, attack and kill them. At the top of the staircase, you can turn right and walk on a skinny ledge; do this. Stay at the back-end of the ledge with your shield up. Capra will eventually fall down from the stairs, and you can do a plunging attack on it. (Side-note: After Capra falls down is a good time to apply a buff to your weapon. It is weak to fire damage, so charcoal pine resins are a good idea.) You can either continue doing this, or fight him normally. If you fight him normally, dodge to the side, through his attacks. (You can also do this fight without your camera locked-on, but it’s not as effective as it is in some other fights.) Try and get behind Capra for the biggest openings. Also, be sure to watch out for it’s jumping strike, because that can deal huge damage. (Or you could completely skip the fight by throwing a couple dung pies into the arena from outside the fog gate.)
Gaping Dragon- Make sure to kill the channeler in the Depths before fighting the Dragon. He can buff the Dragon and shoot projectiles at you during the fight, making it much harder. Since, the Dragon is so huge, you should fight with your camera unlocked. This gives you the most control and it makes getting around the Dragon much easier. Be sure to buy lightning weapon buffs from the vendor outside the doors to Blighttown, as the Dragon is weak to it. The Dragon can smack you, body-slam you, jump up into the air and charge into you (the charge being the most deadly). As long as you apply gold pine resin to your weapon, keep your camera unlocked, keep attacking it’s feet and stay clear of any charging attacks, you should be fine. It’s also a good idea to two-hand your weapon. Your shield will do very little against the Gaping Dragon, and every bit of damage helps against its enormous health bar. Even if you get hit, it’s so slow that you have plenty of time to heal before it attacks you again. Play consistently enough and soon the Gaping Dragon will be dead.
Chaos Witch Quelaag- Quelaag is weak to lightning. For this reason, it would be wise to bring a spare gold pine resin with you, for her boss fight. During the whole fight, stay to her side, and attack the spider legs. Always pay attention to Quelaag’s human body, so you know when she is about to do her AOE attack. (This is telegraphed by her leaning forward.) If you get caught in front of her, get ready to dodge her three-attack combo. Always assume that she is doing her three-attack combo because even if she is winding up to do her big stab attack, the animation is so long that you can dodge again, once you’ve already dodged mistakenly (sorry if that was worded poorly). You want her to do her lava-spewing attacks because this is when you can do a lot of damage. (She will be stuck in place for a long time, similar to how the gargoyles are stuck during their fire-breath attack.) Speaking of her lava, make sure to stay aware of where it is. If you get caught in it, it can do massive damage and kill you easily. I suggest keeping your camera unlocked during the fight, because this way it’s easier to more reliably strike her spider legs. Also, it helps keeping the lava on your screen, so that you don’t mistakenly stumble into it during the fight. The fight sounds complicated, but when you memorize the timings for her sword attacks, it gets much easier.
Stray Demon- Very similar to the Asylum Demon, but with magic attacks, too. It also has much more health, so you should fight it much later in the game. Just like the Asylum Demon, keep your camera unlocked. This helps you get behind the Demon easier. Also, like the Asylum Demon, it is a good idea to two-hand your weapon during this fight (unless you have a high magic-defense shield). This is because your shield won’t do all that much against the Demon’s attacks. The hardest part of the fight by far are the magic AOE attacks. When you see that an AOE attack is going to go off, get behind the Demon and run. These AOE attacks are telegraphed by the Demon slamming its hammer or by the Demon swinging its hammer through the air. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether an AOE attack will go off, so play it safe during these instances. Try to stay behind the Demon and eventually you will kill it. You might want to use some sort of weapon buff in this fight, because you want to end it as fast as possible. This is because the fight is so RNG dependent, based on what attacks you get (some are easily-dodged and heavily punishable and others are very hard to avoid and allow little time after to damage the Demon). Keep in mind that the Demon is weak to magic and bleed damage. If the fight proves too difficult, you can always come back later in the game to defeat the Stray Demon.
Great Grey Wolf Sif- Sif is weak to lightning so bring a gold pine resin to the fight. Whether you lock-on your camera or not is largely up to preference in this fight, because neither lends a significant advantage over the other. Try to stay under Sif during the whole fight. He won’t be able to hit you as long as you’re under him. If he jumps away and lunges back at you, dodge the attacks by rolling towards Sif, and get under him. Most of his attacks are heavily punishable, because you can get under him after almost every attack. Once you are under him, two-hand your weapon for maximum damage. Once he jumps away, you can pull out a shield again, if you use one. Poor Sif.
Iron Golem- Be sure to kill the giant that is located directly above the fog gate before you enter the fight. If you don’t, he will constantly throw explosives at you during the fight, making it much harder. Once entering the fog gate, dodge the Golem’s first long-range attack and get to its feet. Try and do a lot of damage very quickly in this fight to each of his feet. Two-handing your weapon during this fight is a good idea because a shield will do very little against the gargantuan Golem. The Golem is weak to lightning damage, so try to either use a lightning-infused weapon or gold pine resin during the fight. Also, try to kill the Golem with your camera unlocked. Locking-on will keep you from seeing some of the Golem’s attacks and it makes hitting its feet harder. While you can kill it normally, there is a much easier way. If you do enough damage, it will start stumbling and be thrown off balance. Once again, do a lot of damage very quickly to each of its feet. Except this time, make sure to aim your attacks in the direction of a huge drop. The Golem will be thrown off the fortress if you deal enough damage to it quickly enough. It is easier for you to get the instant fall damage kill by standing on the long ledge on the far side of the arena. However, it is very easy to be thrown off, yourself, if you get hit. Balance positioning with controlled aggression and you will come out on top.
Ornstein and Smough- This is considered to be an incredibly difficult fight, so make sure you use a powerful weapon and a weapon buff. I suggest using the crystal halberd during this fight. You can find it earlier in Anor Londo. It’s to the left, once you leave the room housing the first bonfire in Anor Londo, inside the mimic. Be aware, though, that the halberd can break easily, so use it when you start getting good at the fight, to the point where you can finish it soon. For the weapon buffs, Ornstein is weak to fire and Smough is weak to lightning. For this reason, I would suggest using charcoal pine resin in the first phase and gold pine resin in the second phase. Once you enter the fog gate, be ready to dodge Ornstein’s lunging attack. (Sometimes he does it and sometimes he doesn’t.) During the first phase of the fight, you want to play incredibly carefully and only attack whenever you are absolutely sure that you have an opening. The basic game-plan for the fight is this: Run to the opposite side of the boss room if Ornstein and Smough are close to you. Use the six pillars as cover constantly throughout the fight. At this point, hope that Ornstein does a lunging attack so that he gets close to you. Attack him once (maybe twice) if you have an obvious opening to do so. Try to always keep Ornstein and Smough on-screen so that they can’t surprise you by stabbing you in the back. I suggest two-handing your weapon when you get the opportunity to attack Ornstein. This is because these opportunities are few and far between. You want to make the most of it every time. When Smough starts getting close to you run to the other side of the arena and repeat. Keep your camera unlocked for most of the first phase. Only lock-onto Ornstein when you’re going to attack him. You want as much control on your camera as possible during this fight. Killing Onstein in the first phase is preferable, because doing it this way is easier and more reliably done. During the second phase, always keep a pillar between you and Smough. Whenever he finishes one of his attacks, run to him and hit him once (twice if he finishes his lightning butt-slam attack). The only attack you really need to watch out for is his lightning butt-slam attack. It is very difficult to dodge and does very high damage. When you see him jump in the air, either run back or roll back twice (if you can fast-roll). Take this fight very slowly and it gets easier. Overcome this duo and you will have defeated what some believe is the toughest boss in the game!
Crossbreed Priscilla- Before the fight starts, apply charcoal pine resin to your weapon. Priscilla is weak to fire, so the resin, along with pyromancies are very effective against her. Do your strongest attack first; Priscilla doesn’t start fighting you unless you attack her first. After she goes invisible, you must locate her, based on her appearing footprints in the snow. If possible, get behind Priscilla when attacking her. It’s a very simple fight, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy by default. Similarly to Sif, it is up to your preference, whether you lock-on or stay unlocked. I prefer staying unlocked, because it allows me to more easily dodge her attacks. Try not to get greedy, and you will eventually defeat her. If she’s too difficult, you can come back later to fight her.
Dark Sun Gwyndolin- Gwyndolin has three attacks, so learning them and reacting to each of them differently shouldn’t be that difficult. There are pillars on either side of the hallway that I recommend using to dodge some of his attacks. Firstly, and his most deadly attack: his big orb blast attack. This will shoot at you very quickly and is able to go through the pillars on either side of the hallway, so it’s a good idea to do a roll even if you’re not sure if this attack is going off. His small homing orbs attack is when you want to hide behind the pillars, though. They move much slower than his big orb blast attack. His final attack is dart attack. This is the one you want him to use, because it is easily the most punishable. Whenever he uses it, just run side to side, whilst approaching him. (Side-note: his big orb blast attack is also punishable, it’s just harder to dodge than the dart attack.) You don’t have many opportunities during the fight to attack him, so using a fire damage is suggested, since he’s weak to it. However, Gwyndolin is also weak to physical, bleed and occult damage, so instead of pyromancies, charcoal pine resin would be better in this fight. Just like Priscilla, whether you lock-on or not, during this fight is entirely up to your preference. For me, personally, I prefer staying unlocked to dodge his projectiles, but locking-on when I run up to attack him. I’m over complicating the fight; just run up to him, attack, repeat.
Pinwheel- This is widely considered to be the most difficult fight in the Dark Souls series, and one of the hardest bosses in any game, period. Most of this fight boils down to lightning-fast reflexes and deep knowledge on the gameplay mechanics, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t try to give some tips. Once you enter the fight, immediately run up to Pinwheel. Start attacking him/her until he/she teleports away. (At this point he/she should be around half-health.) Pinwheel will start summoning copies of themself. Find out which one is the real Pinwheel by attacking his/her copies once. After you find out which one is real, attack him/her. Done. Seriously, though, if you come here earlier in the game, Pinwheel can put up a small challenge. Even at that point though, the catacombs to get to Pinwheel is much harder than the boss itself, so you are absolutely fine, even if it takes a few attempts.
Gravelord Nito- Using a charcoal pine resin/ pyromancies is a good idea in this fight, as Nito is weak to fire. I prefer fighting Nito with my camera unlocked so that I can more easily manage his skeletons. After you take fall-damage from falling into the fight, find a small opening to use your estus flask. It’s risky to use it immediately after falling because sometimes Nito will use his floor attack (where he summons a weapon from the floor beneath you). During the fight, stay close to Nito unless you need to heal. Focus your attacks on him, until he summons too many skeletons. The skeletons put up more of a fight than Nito, so periodically take out some skeletons, from time to time. When you see Nito charge up for his AOE attack, run away and it will kill all of his summoned skeletons. This is when you want to charge Nito and deal as much damage as quickly as possible. Repeat attacking him, taking out skeletons and dodging his AOEs and you will kill him.
Seath the Scaleless- When the fight starts, immediately run around Seath. There will be a glowing crystal behind him that you must strike and destroy (it’s destruction will result in Seath’s vulnerability). Now that he’s vulnerable, start attacking his tail/s while he turns around. Run far away from him to bait one of his long range attacks. Once one has begun, run up the his front and attack him. Keep attacking him until you see him charging up his next attack. Run away to escape his attack. At this point Seath should be close to cornering you in the boss room (if not, run up to him and attack the front of him again). If cornered, run around him and attack his tail/s until he turns around. Repeat these few steps and soon Seath will be dead. If you are having trouble against Seath, remember that he is weak to lightning damage. I definitely suggest staying unlocked during the fight, just like I do for pretty much every large boss in the game.
The Four Kings- This fight will be inaccessible until you defeat Sif, and equip the Covenant of Artorias ring. This fight is basically entirely dependent on your DPS. If you are capable of doing a lot of damage quickly, this boss will be easy. If not, then it will be very difficult. For this reason, it is wise to use some sort of weapon buff before the boss appears. Fire damage is most effective against them, so that is what I suggest. During the fight, be sure to stay close to each king so that they don’t do any projectile attacks. When the first king does appear, run up to him and dodge his first combo. Try to get behind him and attack him (try to get behind him so that you are able to get one or two more attacks off before the king goes into another combo). The only two attacks you have to watch out for is the grab attack and the AOE blast. (The AOE blast is telegraphed by the king spinning in circles.) After a while, a second king will spawn into the fight. This is why DPS is so important to this fight. If you can’t do enough damage, then you will eventually have to deal with up to four Kings attacking you at once. It is wise to play very aggressive in this fight so that you only have to fight one king at once. If your DPS in this fight is lacking too much for you to prevail, I suggest for you to fight this boss later in the game. You can acquire the lord souls in any order, so if you want to, you can put off this boss until late in the game.
Ceaseless Discharge- Dodge his fist-slam attack and then attack his... tentacle-fist thing. Possibly the simplest boss in the game. Only thing to be aware of is that you shouldn’t run too far from him, or else he will shoot out lava (which can actually be brutal).
Demon Firesage- This fight is very similar to the Stray Demon fight, the biggest difference is that now you are probably much better equipped than when you fought Stray. It’s the Asylum Demon with an AOE and fire. Because of their similarities, many of the strategies used against the Asylum Demon or Stray Demon apply here, too. Ironically, the Demon Firesage is actually weak to fire damage. Pyromancies and charcoal pine resin are especially effective against it. Try to stay behind the Demon. Not many of its attacks will be able to hit you. If not behind, then stay right in front of it. Most of his attacks will miss you, you just need to watch out for the AOE attack. However, your best bet is to just stay behind the Demon.
Centipede Demon- When you enter the fight, you will be on a tiny platform of land surrounded by lava, and the Demon will be approaching you. If you are able to, take a right and follow the path along the wall, eventually ending up to the right of where you entered the fight. This piece of land is much larger than the one you were on before. Now, wait for the Demon to approach and dodge his initial attack. If you want to maximize your damage output, be sure to utilize some sort of lightning or magic damage, as the Demon is weak to it. I also strongly suggest keeping your camera unlocked during the fight. If not, the camera will be awful, and you will barely be able to see what’s going on. Back to the fight, when the Demon is finally standing on a safe platform, run underneath him and start attacking his legs. He will keep doing jump attacks but just roll a few times in any direction and you should be fine. That’s pretty much the whole fight; get under him, attack, dodge the jump attack, repeat.
Bed of Chaos- Oh god. There are many ways/strategies to get around this awful fight. There is a very safe strategy involving firebombs, but it is too complicated to explain here and I’m not too comfortable with the strategy, myself. If you’re interested, you can watch it in most no-hit runs of the game. If not, then you’re in for a rough fight which will likely entail many deaths, with an enormous run-back to the fight every time. Here’s how the fight goes: Slide down the huge slide and run to one of her two sides. For the time-being, the only attack you have to worry about is a close-range attack; stay far away. Destroy the yellow ring inside of the orange orb. This is pretty much where the real fight starts. I suggest quitting out of the game and reloading so that you can respawn in the center of the room. The floor of the boss arena will start to collapse, so you must be careful where you stand. While doing this, you have to watch out for attacks coming from the boss, herself. Eventually, make your way over to the other orange orb and break it. Once again, I suggest quitting out for the same reason. Now, you must run straight at the boss and jump down to a tree root revealed by the crumbling floor. The boss will try everything she can to stop you, so be ready to die a few times while attempting this. Run into the center of the Bed of Chaos and break through the sticks blocking you. Deep inside, you will find a bug- kill it. This is by far the most annoying boss in the game, so one of the biggest challenges of the fight is going to be staying calm. There aren’t very many definitive strategies for this fight (at least not that I know of) so you are going to have to experiment. If you truly can’t beat her, once again, try looking up the firebomb strategy that people use during no-hit runs. If you were able to find the resolve within yourself to defeat the Bed of Chaos, you can pride yourself on knowing that you’re over with one of the worst fights in the series!
Gwyn, Lord of Cinder- The difficulty in this fight is greatly dependent on one thing; if you can parry. If you can parry, this fight is pretty easy, but if you can’t, then this will be one of the harder bosses in the game. For this reason, I will describe two different ways of defeating this boss, depending on if you can parry or not. Before that, though, keep in mind that Gwyn is weak to fire. Exploiting his weakness will lead to a swifter victory. Locking-on in this fight is up to your preference, but I prefer locking on. If you can parry: Get the first parry off on Gwyn when he lunges at you, beginning the fight. While he’s getting up, circle behind him. Fast-roll backwards thrice and prepare to parry his lunging attack. Keep circling behind him and rolling and parrying him until he’s dead. If you mess up any of your parries, reposition yourself and then later parry one of his normal attacks. This lets you get back into the parry loop. If you can’t parry: Try to wear fire-defense armor. Try to use a fire-defense shield (some of Gwyn’s attacks come out too fast to reliably dodge). I find it easier to get behind Gwyn if I play with my camera unlocked, however you should not do this if you have any type of thrusting weapon. The basic gist of the fight is this: Dodge Gwyn’s combo of fire sword attacks and hit him when he is finished. He has a wide variety of attacks that range from ridiculously fast, to relatively fast, so you need to learn how to differentiate each of his tells for each attack. He has grab attacks, combos, thrusts, leaping attacks, etc. He can close the distance between you, so don’t think you’re safe to use estus if he jumps backwards. If you do need to use estus (or if you’re in need of downtime during the fight, for whatever reason) be sure to take advantage of the stalagmites around the boss room. Usually, this buys you enough time to buff your weapon, use estus, or apply something to yourself, magically. Gwyn is a tough, straight-forward fight. It’s a classic duel. Learn his attacks and you will prevail, eventually. Congratulations on completing Dark Souls!
[I am unable to provide any useful guides for the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, as I have only finished it once. However, if I ever do it again, (which is likely) I will be sure to repost this, with information about the bosses in the Artorias of the Abyss DLC.]
[If you think I missed any useful tips, be sure to reply and tell them to me. If they seem genuinely useful to know, I will consider adding them.]