I Survived!

Nioh Challenge Entry #5: I Survived!

I finally did it! I managed to survive a number of baddies and keep my death counter at 4. This may not be a significant achievement for many who play these types of games, but with my novice stature, I feel successful at having accomplished it for the first time. Perhaps this is the start of a streak…we’ll see…

Back in my jail cell

Of course after my last entry, I found myself back in my jail cell. The wall was still broken so I had no problems getting out as usual…little did I know, this would be the last time I would wake in my cell. If I had known, I would have danced a jig or something in celebration.

Crossing the Bridge

As with the past few tries, I easily made it past the cell guard and out to the bridge where I quickly dispatched the first swordsman and charged, blocked, and evaded the crossbowman and eventually brought him down. This time, I tried something new…as I had lost about half my health, I decided to try out a Medicine potion.

Cool…I’m back to full health. It looks like the medicine restores a set amount of HP so I figure I won’t always get back to full health, but I need to start using these after combat and perhaps in combat if I can…I set them to the up arrow on my controller since I’ll probably be using this a bunch.

Past the Spear

After the bridge, I crept forward even more slowly than last time and was able to draw the swordsman out of the side room where he and the spear-man clobbered me last time. Fighting him one on one was much easier than trying to dance with two partners like last time and I quickly took him down.

That left the spear-man. He still had range on me but I trapped him in the room where he spawns. This enabled me to counter his range advantage because he was between me and the table in the middle of the room.

It took longer than my previous fights, but I got in enough good shots and blocked enough that he ran outta stamina (or Ki…same thing I think) and I was able to get in a killing blow…BAM! That was satisfying.

My First Shrine

After finishing off the spear-man, the floor was mine to explore. I found a few chests and boxes and loaded up with some new gear. I also picked up another bastard sword though I’m not sure what I’ll do with 2 identical swords…they’re a bit large to try to dual wield even if I had that skill.

Once I checked out all the rooms it was time to move up in the tower where on the next level I found my first shrine. The Guardian Spirit that woke me in my cell so long ago (4 deaths ago) showed up and guided me to the shrine where I prayed.

I feel pretty good about this run. I managed to slay all my foes, learned about medicine, and made it to a shrine without dying. It seems the key to praying at the shrine is that it acts to move my respawn point that I come back to after I die. I won’t be headed back to the cell unless I run there purposefully. The shrine also restores Ki and HP and resets the bad guys so I’ll have to use the prayer only when necessary.

Whew it sure feels good to survive a gaming session.

Death Count: 4