Each game that makes up the Souls series has its own rubbish dump. In Demon's Souls it was the Valley of Corruption, in Dark Souls the Infamous City, and in Dark Souls II, punctual, an area whose nature is if possible more blatant than the previous two: the Drain, found in the most remote depths of Drangleic.
At the furthest point of this dump lives a forgotten being, alone but at the same time in great company, who spends his life in a humid cave arranging the statues that cover the street up to his cave. During its incessant collection, this being has reached such a magnitude that it is pinned as one of the Four Lords of Drangleic - or, more correctly, a boss who owns one of the most powerful souls in the game. We are talking about the Putrid, the last one missing in our series of guides to open the doors of the Winter Sanctuary.
The Lost Sinner, the Old Iron King, Freja, the Duke's Beloved and, finally, the Putrid, are the most important bosses of the first part of Dark Souls II, mirror and reincarnations of the Four Lords of the first Dark Souls. In his case, the Putrid is associated with Nito, the Tomb King, also known as the first who knew death.
Its "sanctuary" can be reached after a long journey, which starts from Majula and its characteristic central hole, so out of place compared to the beauty of the sunsets which gives away the central hub of Dark Souls 2. Falling equates to certain death; to avoid this we are met by Gilligan, met on the Earth's Peak before the clash with Mytha, the Destructive Queen. The merchant sells scales that facilitate the fall in three sizes, 500, 1.200 and 12.000 souls, respectively one longer (and more useful) than the other.
It should be remembered that the fall damage in Dark Souls II does not vary with the level or the vitality of the character as in the previous one: ways to partially stem the damage are for example (but not only) the Cat's Silver Ring and witchcraft Controlled Fall. Before embarking on the expedition against the Putrid it is important to check that you have a torch in your inventory (or more) and some Fire Butterflies, which will be used to light the fire when there is no Bonfire nearby.
The hole leads to two places depending on the depth: the middle staircase will lead to the Tomb of the Saints, while the longer staircase, the one that costs 12.000 souls, leads to the Scolo, one of the few areas in which to navigate in the dark with a torch it is crucial for survival.
The Scolo, located for a strange joke of life under the brightest point of Dark Souls II, is the place where all the things thrown and unwanted by the people of Drangleic end up. Between corpses and undead with their heads in their hands, in a word "garbage" as Gilligan says, the prevailing despair and the beams of luck in pitch dark are there classic bread crumbs from Tom Thumb and lead to another area, called the Black Throat, that it should also be the lair of the Putrid.
Compared to the one just passed, the Black Gorge is a fluorescent area that hides a background darkness and aberrations among the most "memorable" of the game, among which predators emerge from tar pits and above all (falling with caution to right, past the beginning of the area) you will find that the Last Giant is not quite the last of his race - as if he were, since his companions have fallen into oblivion.
A bonfire located in a cave towards the end will be the ideal refreshment area, from which you can clearly see how the poison-spitting statues trace the path to Putrido like lanterns for a moth. Listening means allowing yourself to discover a cry beyond the great fog and, once crossed, the Putrid in the process of fixing the head of a fallen statue and raging at the invasion.
He looks like a amalgam of bodies originated, perhaps, from the iron cage that serves as a head, an undead on the right in a prominent position as a "controller" and a giant cleaver in his right hand. The Putrid is weak to electricity, to bleeding, can be poisoned and, while not a great threat, it should not be underestimated: the key, as always, is to learn his moves and dodge when appropriate. The arena, at the bottom, is surrounded by flames.
Attacks:
- Horizontal shot: the Putrid uses his weapon, the cleaver, in a rather rudimentary way. This is demonstrated by the classic blows - in this case the horizontal one - which can be dodged in the opposite direction or even through thanks to the adaptability statistics.
- Vertical shot: The boss will try differently than before slicing you with a vertical shot, then from top to bottom. It's easy to dodge with a side somersault if the hit is single, but not if it's a ...
- Vertical burst: very often, in fact, the Putrido will chain together three vertical shots with quite annoying tracking. For this reason, the simplest strategy is to quickly back off with a couple of somersaults, to put some distance from the boss and above all to avoid his fury.
- Punch: attack that starts only if you are too close to the boss, sees the Putrid try to crash the player to the ground with a punch. Dodging by backing up or rolling to the left, generally.
- Oil: the Putrid will bring a hand to his chest: it is the sign that he is about to have a retching and spit highly flammable oil. This attack does not go well with the particularity of the arena, whose extremes are in fact in flames. It is a fairly telegraphed attack and one that can be avoided well in advance by moving away. If you grease you will have to wait for the effect to dissipate trying to keep the Putrid in the center of the arena.
- Presa: Like any hold, it is among the most dangerous attacks due to the damage inflicted. In the case of the Putrid, he will try to catch the Curse Bearer with his free (left) hand and if successful he will crush him, slamming the character to the ground as if that were not enough. The hold is to be dodged either to the right or back.
- Dark explosion: The last attack available to the Putrid is an explosion of darkness with which he will try to strike especially when he is low on life. There is a few seconds to dodge an AoE attack that otherwise does a lot of damage. Like? Running away as far as possible.
Note: the left arm (fist, grip) and the right arm (cleaver blows) can be severed thus crippling the boss who cannot use the attacks connected to the respective arms. These will regenerate after some time.
Drop:
- 47.000 anime
- Soul of the Putrid (creation, from Ornifex: Cleaver)
- Soul of the Dead Ancient (New Game +, creation, from Straid: the evil eye Torpor; from Ornifex: Crypt Greatsword)
Lore:
Il Putrido is a patchwork of undead, many of whom are thrown away in the Drain, who lives the rest of his days in this form. One of Dark Souls 2's most mysterious creatures, he absorbed so many souls that he ended up owning a Lord's soul as well and getting unexpectedly rich in the rubble. The Putrid does not know what to do with this wealth: its charm is not comparable to Astraea in Demon's Souls, nevertheless even the Putrid - like the Saint - ended up holing up in a Sanctuary and welcoming undead after undead thrown away and merging into a long embrace with them.
The compassionate nature of the Putrido, after all, can be noticed as soon as you pass the fog: the care he takes in trying to rearrange the statues, perhaps his / their only source of comfort, is a symbol of an opprobrium called such only because it is territorial but that has tried to transform the most damned area into an arranged home that only one with its history made up of many voices can call "home".
The most insistent rumor has it that the one who became the Putrid over time came from Shulva after Sinh, the Sleeping Dragon, had begun to release the miasmas that led to the ruin of historic civilization. The more intriguing one, however, wants that the Putrid is - or has welcomed - Pharros, the legendary inventor. The wanderer, whose passage is literally carved in Drangleic stone, he found both ways to facilitate future passers-by by building contraptions, and traps, to the point that he was recognized as being invented by others.
Pharros is indeed a legend of the past: no one knows his face, or even if he really existed. One of the few certain things is that it is One of his devices can be found in the Tomb of the Saints, the place above the Scolo. From this it can be understood that the wanderer in the course of his travels ended up in the depths of Majula - or, more likely, it was thrown there by those who were tired of seeing how the inventor “stole” its merits. Pharros would have dragged himself up to the Black Gorge and the rest, as they say, is history.
► Dark Souls II is an RPG-Adventure game developed by FromSoftware and published by FromSoftware Bandai Namco for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the video game was released on 11/03/2014 The version for PC came out on 25/04/2014
