@Felthry I guess this does count as a shortcut. Just one that's got a lot of enemies on the way out. If you took Master Key you could go backwards through this to enter Blighttown early.

@yaodema am I at least nearly through the extremely frustrating bit

how do I deal with the poison swamp, also

and where the hell are all these bugs coming from that keep comboing me to death

@yaodema I just want to be out of this horrible place where I keep falling to my death and enemies knock me off to my death and tiny bugs stagger me until something else stabs me to my death and enemies grab onto me and do like 90% of my health bar before I can get them off and I can barely even see a thing and

augh sorry for venting at you. just. does it get better? soon? is there some way to easily bypass this?

@Felthry The bugs respawn in the distance, they don't come from anywhere specific. Different weapons can deal with them better, or just moving. Rolling may be faster than walking through the swamp without the special item (you'd have to go back to Firelink to get where that item is anyway).

what you're describing is most of why I don't like Blighttown. It's just a mean area.

@Felthry The swamp's poison isn't instant, and poison-resisting equips can help, but I often spent a fair bit of time poisoned and just healed through it. You don't want to use moss clumps to heal the poison until you're in a spot to not touch more poison for a while.

If you're struggling with blowdart jerks, there's tricks to them that I can cover later.

@yaodema I want to finish this game, I don't want to get stuck here, but I just. I can't. I need a way to get through this one area, no matter how cheaty it might be. I do have the master key if that helps

also I forgot about the blowdart ones, I managed to kill all of those (i think) and they don't seem to respawn

@Felthry yup, they don't respawn, and thank goodness for that. The master key means you don't need to hunt for the New Londo Ruins key to get back to New Londo.

Kindle the bonfire at the bottom if you haven't yet, take a breather as you need, and work on making it out.

When you leave the area with the bonfire, turn right and hug the wall. You'll reach a wooden structure. There will be firebreathing mutated bug things on the path and fliers will head towards you so be mindful.

@yaodema okay where is the bonfire at the bottom, I have no tfound a bottom bonfire

@Felthry when you get down to the bottom, turn right and hug the wall, and you'll find an archway alcove thing with a bonfire right at the entrance. There's a chest further in that might be useful for later equipment upgrades, but mostly this is your resting point.

@yaodema okay. going to try to get down to that so I can at least claim to have made some progress in the last few hours

@Felthry gosh do I know that feeling. hope it goes well!

@yaodema okay made it to there, then found laders going up and went up and got a key to new londo and then got squashed by one of those big guys

@Felthry progress! You're on your way out. those big boys are cheesable, you should be good to go soon.

to ease frustration: when you reach the Valley and see the bridge across the chasm, cross it and open that door you see on the other side. You'll be near the entrance to New Londo Ruins; getting back to Firelink should be simple from there.

@yaodema I mean last time I was in new londo I just kept getting obliterated by ghosts

@Felthry The gate will take you to before the ghosts, right near where you enter from Firelink.

@yaodema okay so I got up to firelink and the bonfire is out and I am assuming that's another questline that I need to do to get it relit but: I also took the ember to the blacksmith and now I have the option of upgrading this longsword +5 to either a longsword +6 or a raw longsword. what's the difference?

@Felthry Raw weapons have higher base stats but get no benefit from your character's stats. I have never used that upgrade path.

@yaodema ah, that sounds a little less than good, I'll go to the +6 longsword then, thanks

@Felthry also since you mentioned the fire is out, make sure to check on the firekeeper at the shrine next time you're by.