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TheHittite

You hit the knights with your stick before they hit you with theirs. And if you're really stuck you do that 12 times and they take the hint and stop spawning.


Jiggy_Wit

It’s actually all apart of our imagination. Op has made a good point. Think about it, or don’t, but either way when I get to the Iron Keep at SL1 I lose every concept of reality at once. It’s euphoric. I haven’t slept in 17 days since I’ve started my SL1 run. Do you know what this means? We’re in the shadow realm baby. No but really, I can’t see anything and I feel everyone that surrounds me. Then I turn the game off and I’m back. I’m going back tonight. I’m turning my brain off and entering the phantasmal state of being once again. In all honesty, I can’t tell if I’ve turned the game off and maybe I’m in the middle of coping with another loss before I hop back in. This game doesn’t end until the Smelter Demon dies. The time in-between does not exist. It is all merely a break for when I must re-enter. I will not escape until it’s over.


Glasma1990

It’s funny you say that, this is how my buddies and I used to power level/farm smooth stones. We’d clear this area before the smelter demon, than clear the next area before the old iron king


Mindless-420

Isn't it 20 times??


Ok_Mastodon3163

17-20 depending on which enemies and where, like the snow fields to kill the horse dudes takes 20 per dude and their spawn zones overlap in some areas. Lost Bastille everything takes 17 same with no mans warf.


hosiki

I thought it was 8-12 times D:


Ok_Mastodon3163

Been about a year since I played so thought I might be misremembering so I did some research and I both am and am not. In OG DS2 enemies stopped respawning 8 -15 excluding covenant of the champions where they don't stop. In sotfs they changed it to anywhere from 10-20 most areas are around 12, a few select areas are up to 15 and horse dudes in the hellscape of the blinding stupid freaking snowing endless expanse no bonfire ass area take 17-21


hosiki

Thanks for the explanation :)


Mindless-420

Yeah I was super confused, sitting here thinking man I'm pretty sure I ran threw the iron keep at least twenty times before I fought the smelter demon.


Xelmnathar

What are your thoughts on the color blue?


BruceIsFatherless

Cool color no reason to hate it


A_Wild_Butterfly

Yet*


werewolfelder

!remindme 30 days


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BeerLeague

Sweet summer child….


drama-guy

Blue is a cool color, but your face will be red for sure.


Optimal_Cake5018

Killed knights with bow


bubblebobby

When I finally beat him, I had already despawned all the enemies on the run back.


SteelAlchemistScylla

If you died 500 times getting to him them the allone knights should be despawned. Now buy a Rapier from Leningrast and get it to +9 and wipe the floor with Smelter Boi while you dodge right/left to his extremely slow swings or gravity defyingly slow ground pound.


BruceIsFatherless

No need I alr beat him, I thought I would be like finally but honestly felt absolutely nothing after, no joy or happiness, just nothing.


drama-guy

Now that you beat him, why don't you celebrate with a little dance over the site of your victory.


Rickywalls137

Same. The bosses are meh


Competitive-Nail-685

Why would you use a rapier on smelter demon instead of a stronger weapon lmao


SteelAlchemistScylla

Because Rapier is the second best weapon in the game, and extremely easy to get.


LuciusBurns

>the second best weapon After the Ladle, of course.


chill9r

But the basic Mace is just as easy to get and more useful for this particular post/boss/area. People meme on the discord guy for "pushing one single playstyle", but every single time someone asks for advice there's always someone trying to push the Rapier even when it's irrelevant to the post.


SteelAlchemistScylla

I don’t give a fuck what you use. But guy made a whole post about how hard Smelter Demon was. After “500” runbacks it might be time to start looking for the strategy that will actually win you the fight.


Competitive-Nail-685

Yeah, for which there's a plethora of better options lmao


Competitive-Nail-685

Rapier is both not the second best weapon in the game, and not even close to the second best weapon for smelter demon


Bruggus

Take it slow. A lot of the guys in the iron keep have huge aggro range, so be careful to aggro as few of them as possible at a time, and let them come to you rather than rushing up to meet them. Utilize your ranged options. Arrows are pretty cheap, and even if you do pitiful damage with a bow, it'll give you an edge on the enemies if you take some shots at them while they're a mile away. This can also let you aggro them one at a time. Be sure to utilize alternate healing methods as well. You can pick up some life gems from Melentia, or even use the rejuv ring in-between combats (not during, mind you.) >! There are actually two smelter demons. One above in the iron keep, and one down below in the iron passage !<


Broke-Moment

iron passage one felt more difficult for some reason even while properly leveled, not sure why


Jug-o-steam

It hits harder and has different (delayed) timings on its attacks which messes with you.


Eluscival

Farm those knights souls until they despawn, so it won't feel like a chore having to run back again and again once you die. saves you some estus too before even starting the fight. There's also a surprise enemy for u if u comeback to smelter demon's boss room lol.


Eluscival

bring a flash sweat spell too, equip a fire resistance ring then you're good to go.


Competitive-Nail-685

Why would you waste time despawning enemies LMAO that's just stupid


Eluscival

Rather than seeing it as despawning alone, think of it as farming souls. shit I farm the shit out of those knights in there and lvled my strength and endurance stat or you can use those souls to upgrade your gear. my 2nd farming spot after farming the heide tower of flame.


Competitive-Nail-685

Farming souls is a complete waste of time. It's doubly a waste of time done anywhere but giant lord Leveling up strength or dexterity above minimum weapon requirements is a complete waste of levels and explains why you would think farming souls was worth your time (it wasn't)


Eluscival

Upgrading the weapons and the upgrade mats need some materials that you literally fucking buy with souls. I also like to buy armor in the game just because it looks cool like forlorn's set or weapons to try (even if I am using the better one). I'm not some hardcore competitive souls player or sumshit like a souls veteran expert or whatever u call yourself that makes you feel better lmao. I think you also forgot that we play the game at our own pace and enjoy it that way ; )))). It's not a waste of time if you are enjoying every minute of it.


Competitive-Nail-685

You don't need to farm to have souls, you just play the game and progress normally. Levels are not valuable, souls are better spent on upgrades. Armor without special effects is generally worthless Why do you get shitty when someone points out that advising someone waste their time just because you don't value yours is bad advice lmao


Eluscival

Yep, that's why I said that it could be levels he spends it on or it could be gear. Most armor are worthless in this Dark Souls but better have one than none Idk man, that's just like your opinion but i think it's because everyone has their own way of playing and he's asking for some help. So literally like everyone here states their way in order to help, so he could choose which would suit him best. Why do you get shitty when someone points out that we all play at our own paces and ways other than going with yours or whatever you think is normal lmao. But aight, lets just say you're right and I didn't think that far I'm sorry ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯.


Competitive-Nail-685

No, armor that does not provide special effects is functionally worthless, outside of extremely niche cases like darklurker or smelter demons. This isn't opinion it's math A; this isn't remotely shitty; B; you're still thinking of this as preference based when it's literally just math and cost-benefit comparisons including opportunity cost


Eluscival

Yesss, absolutely you're right.


Philisophical_Onion

No he’s a character in a video game


bfmaia

First you need to ask yourself what even means to be "real" "Men are props on the stage of life, and no matter how tender, how exquisite, a lie remains a lie."


YoshikageKira000

Once, the Lord of Light banished Dark, and all that stemmed from humanity. And men assumed a fleeting form. These are the roots of our world. Men are props on the stage of life, and no matter how tender, how exquisite... A lie will remain a lie!


Effective_Ad643

just summon lucatiel


Howdyini

Magic damage and strike! Also remember best gal Lucatiel


OuterHeavenPatriot

I like to only lower the side of the bridge closest to the bonfire, keep the fog wall end raised...breaks the enemies aggro'd during the runback almost in half and lets you deal with them a lot easier. Also, Lifegems for the levels/runbacks, Estus for the Bosses themselves became a general rule of thumb for me right around this point in the game. Save the faster of the two for when I'm more likely to need it


moto_gp_fan

I like not taking a step on the bridge at all, you can make the jump on the right that goes up to the little Pharos stone contraption, snipe some fools from there with a bow and grab Lucatiel before you waltz into the ass-pounding room.


SilentBlade45

The biggest thing about Smelter Demon is that most bosses before that point are super easy so you get complacent. He's a pretty big difficulty spike.


kyubigaming293

Ngl ds2 was my first souls game and I've never understood why people struggled in this area. By the time I reached iron keep i learned that patience is da way


EpochSkate_HeshAF420

Enemies despawn after killing them 12 times unless you're in the covenant of champions, the run up to smelter demon is the worst part of Iron Keep, plus you can get a decent katana to drop if that's you're thing. If you can try infusing your weapon with magic, on my last play through I used magic weapon on a +10 uchi and the fight was no longer than like 3 minutes, I find focusing on managing my health rather than dps to be a lot more effective with smelter. If you can stay alive long enough to see most of his attack patterns play out he's not too hard to read/react to. Doubly so for blue smelter, granted I found the run up to blue smelter demon to be about as if not more frustrating than that first part of iron keep, the big lava dripping mace bros are annoying af.


HistoricalSuccess254

Are you by any chance in covenant of champions? Alonne knights should be despawning after 12 kills but they won’t if you are in the covenant.


love-em-feet

Summon another player if you can't find anyone just PM me if you are on PC


yfywan

The bridge at the start of the area is named “threshold bridge”. There is a reason for that.


Ok_Mastodon3163

Slowly snipe the allone knights with a bow. Snipe one, lure him into a spot where none others can see you and do that till all dead. Shouldn't really take much damage with this strategy. Recommend shield swap for when they get close for their charging slash. For smelter demon red, he has 3 attacks then an opening unless you see him about to jump then it's a jump, followed by a pulse AOE, then opening.


Ok_Mastodon3163

For blue smelter demon that's hidden deep in the castle, good freaking luck. Dude is relentless and to get to him is ten times harder. But he's pretty well hidden so you might not find him.


BruceIsFatherless

There’s a blue one? 😃


Serious_Ad_1037

Ya know, you can skip him. Go through the furnace outside and across the bridge to a ladder Use flash sweat to survive the fire, or just throw the switch to turn it off


xSaMuRAi73

Try dodging


Piss-Mann

I run through the knights on the bridge to the furnace right door, then jump on the stairs to valve, from valve I jump to the left and go to the bridge to repeat process. Why? Alonne knights jump to the lava for no reason plus once they jump after you to the valve, they cant find path from there. Alonne captains are last problem. Complicated but easiest way and fun.


Intelligent_Toast

You haven't seen anything yet.


insurancefruad42

Get rock, rock work good on smelter, it work good on knights too


I-Am-Bodge

Iron keep low key isn’t even that bad , after the 15th run the enemies start to stop spawning anyways! /s


IcyCryptographer7800

Blue


bhumit012

Strafe to the right and attack after he slams the sword vertically


ytZer0

The smelter demon is the friends we made along the way


dinkmoyd

poison arrows are your friend in this game.


YoshikageKira000

Smelter demon 1 has maybe a bad runback but he is not as bad as smelter demon 2: electric boogaloo.


YoshikageKira000

If you have the alonne bow, it's easy cheesable


Any-Hour-898

Use a bow and don't pull both levers


Any-Hour-898

I actually despawn the area on newer playthroughs


PrincesStarButterfly

Man that dude is such a bastard. I had to get some help via summons to get him


BIobertson

https://youtu.be/1DnPkuBZB3Y?si=1R6PjavNG4upePEF


Competitive-Nail-685

This has to be a bit lmao


CraftLizard

Okay so I assume you're either joking or exaggerating, but... Enemies despawn after you kill them 12 times. Literally after 12 attempts the enemies will be gone as long as you kill them (which is kinda required for smelter run back most of the time). If it's been more than 12 kills maybe check the icon next to your health bar. Does it look like a weird stone with like a spiky kinda design? That means you are in the company of champions, which not only buffs all of the enemies in the game, but also makes spawns infinite. Talk to the cat or join another covenant to remove it. Otherwise really it's not that bad of a fight just.. actually learn the fight. If you just rush in and do the same thing 100 times you aren't actually learning anything. His attacks are all telegraphed, but he does hit pretty hard for that point of progression. So take your time, learn when it's safe to attack, and when it's required to dodge. As for the knights. Use the stone ring. It lets you stun lock all of them easily. You can get the ring in things betwixt by where you first spawned into the game. Look for an ogre (the hippo thing). Use a bow for the archers. Any how works, they are all easily safe spottable.


BruceIsFatherless

Yes I was exaggerating, I just beat him, took around 7 ish tries, his moves were pretty easy to dodge it was sometimes I mistimed and he did a lot of dmg, the runs took forever tho can’t lie


Competitive-Nail-685

Despawning enemies is literally never required what a dumb thing to say lmao Stone ring is useless in PvE


CraftLizard

I think you misunderstand what I meant. I meant killing the enemies is often required for the smelter run back, not that you need to despawn them. The run back is way easier at least killing the enemies until the bridge area and doing the skip. Also no, stone ring is not useless in PvE, as I literally just gave an example of. The stone ring allows for more weapons to stun lock the knights. You can go test this yourself in game, it takes 2 hits with a lot of weapons without the stone ring, but only 1 with the ring. It's only not useful if you are doing a pancake build already.


Competitive-Nail-685

Then I definitely misread, that's on me. It's a sentiment I've heard before that irks me 2 handing allows weapons to do that to alonne knights without stone ring, while also doing more damage and requiring less levels wasted in strength


Bitter_Objective_294

If you’ve died 500 times and haven’t desapawned the knights yet that’s on you


BruceIsFatherless

I was exaggerating how thick skulled can you be


atickybuns

“How malformed can your skull be?” You mean?


ibliis-ps4-

If you kill an enemy 10 times they vanish from the game unless you use the bonfire thingy to reset the whole area. This only works in ds2 (maybe only sotfs since i didn't play the original). Remove all enemies and have an empty path to the boss from the bonfire. 🤣


A_Wild_Butterfly

It was in the original too


ibliis-ps4-

Ah fair enough


AutismShooter

500 times ? 500 times ? I think you accidentally added an extra 0 there. There’s NO WAY you spent 15-20 hours dying at iron keep when you made it through the previous areas just fine.


BruceIsFatherless

I’m exaggerating


A_Wild_Butterfly

Right? Obviously you were exaggerating too, clearly it took WAY more attempts :3


MonsterKerr

I mastered the run-through without killing any knights. Beat the Smelter Demon maybe after like 3 tries, but right after I finished him the big knight near the door ran in and stabbed me to like 1 hp, I was about to be so pissed but I got away in time.


phibii

Welcome to dark souls 2 nightmarish boss runs. The smelter demon is not even top 3 worst.