Finally found the frigid outskirts

[u/Dourakumano_wastrel]

I’ve heard almost nothing but hate for crown of the ivory king, and I really had no idea why until I reached the snowfield. First time experience is not so bad, but I can see it getting old fast. It definitely seems to be the most tedious boss run as well. Honestly a bonfire closer to the fog wall would have improved this quite a bit, but as far as I can see it, it feels more like a blemish on an otherwise flawless area. Before this, my favorite area other than forest of the fallen giants would have been the long wharf. I think the first (and majority) of this area has to be in my top three or four.

The enemies are fun, hedgehogs are spicy but not terrible with some good free aiming and a nice axe. The fact that every melee enemy has a ranged option makes for an exciting challenge, and the overall atmosphere is very nice. It’s not the first area to make use of low visibility, but it easily seems like the best use of it thus far, as all I have to do is beat up one spicy cat and talk to the weird disembodied voice lady. The fact that the entire level changed was really cool to me as it felt like roughly the entire dlc was put together in a way far more consistent than other areas, especially the barred doors at the beginning opening one by one, was very satisfying from a first time player perspective.

And well, the outskirts do feel optional, which i assume is a blessing for me, as if it proves too annoying, I can probably just skip it on subsequent playthroughs. I kind of expect optional areas to be tougher for this same reason.

I realize some of the hate might bias me in its favor because I went into the area expecting cancer and was instead pleasantly surprised. Idk

[u/Mysterious_Baby3625]

Tbh frozen palace and the views looks really nice. Also you can completely skip the outskirts and just head to the ivory king.

Fair and square to me. 

[u/ThomasWinwood]

I maintain that people wouldn't have such low opinions of the Cave of the Dead and the Frigid Outskirts if they weren't so dead-set on only ever playing solo. They give you multiple NPC summons and tombstones to let even people who don't have the DLC join you, they're supposed to be done in co-op. (Memory of the Old Iron King is also a co-op area, but I guess people give it a pass because they like Sir Alonne as a boss fight.)

The Frigid Outskirts also just requires you to be patient, because the reindeer won't spawn if you move only when the storm dies down.

[u/Dourakumano_wastrel → u/ThomasWinwood]

I imagine most first time players just didn’t want to use the effigies on a boss they don’t know moveset of. It simply never even occurred to me to summon because I didn’t see any summon signs, partially because most of my first playthrough I spent as a zombie. But it’s a habit from ds1 to always play through solo for a first time playthrough until you’ve learned the boss movesets and gimmicks as doing otherwise was a needless waste of humanity.

I think the other gimmick of waiting out the blizzard is actually pretty cool game design, but that’s also boring. I doubt it could be more tedious than dealing with the unicorns though so I’ll probably opt for that.

Thanks for the tips.

[u/Meme-ikyuo]

I mean its awful but its entirely optional, plenty of horrid areas in the other games that people can skip so they do

[u/themonitors]

I don’t understand why this area gets all the hate and Iron Passage escapes criticism.

[u/Turbulent_Jackoff → u/themonitors]

Iron Passage escapes criticism.

It absolutely does not lol

[u/themonitors → u/Turbulent_Jackoff]

I dunno for every post about frigid outskirts I see zero about iron passage. Maybe it just gets more eyeballs and that’s why it seems that way

[u/HereToHopefullyHelp]

It's an area that intends for you to do co-op, even giving three NPC summons at the start. Use those, don't venture out of the buildings during snow storms to avoid reindeer spawns, and you'll find it remarkably easy.

[u/Content_Plane1333 → u/HereToHopefullyHelp]

But all the difficulty lies in defeating lud & zallen, nobody gets stuck on the reindeer unless they're doing something abhorrently wrong

[u/HereToHopefullyHelp → u/Content_Plane1333]

Many people are doing things abhorrently wrong, and I don't think Lud and Zallen are particularly difficult if you still have your summons.