lol same, I ran around exploring, hoping for clues and not discovering it for like 40 levels when I meandered back to the swamp and killed the thing with the key. There is a map with a clue that gets you very close but I completely missed that I ever picked up that clue.
My butt clenches every time I see one of these...
Very minor quibble on this: Of course knowledge trumps all, that's been true for past souls game where you could beeline for the grass crest shield or drake sword to trivialize the early game. For new players I think it's actually pretty genius how it's implemented for first time players. I've had a Somber stone 8 and 9 now for like 50 levels i can't do anything with. Somber 6 and 7 were the bottle necks for me getting to a S9 level weapon the whole time. Now I just need 7 and once I get one, I'll instantly get a weapon to level 9 so it's a bit of a jump but there are definitely bottlenecks to account for in any build.
Yeah, I avoided all the guides and just roamed the world gathering maps, flask upgrades, and smithing stones... and severely screwed up a main quest because I activated the festival before starting Ranni's quest and doing the stuff with Blaidd. So much so that I had to go back and actually kill Radahn just to get her to spawn the very first time in her tower. The quest skipped over Blaidd completely (no idea where he even is now) and I guess it's back on the path again, but it's annoying that it all happened because I didn't scour the Hold enough to find Rogier hiding out on the balcony after I killed Godrick which in turn forced me to go look up the quest info because I was told to go find her at the tower and she just was never there.
