@SCP1471 the one where onion guy is forlornly waiting for it to open?

@Felthry Yup! So assuming you killed the gargoyles and rang the first bell, the second bell will open that huge gate

@SCP1471 anyway what you're saying is we should be set to beat quellag or however it's spelled (quelaag? quelagg? there's a double letter somewhere in there) now, with our current equipment? of course i'd like to get ten estus flask uses though first, that means kindling that fire

also does this mean I won't be able to upgrade the estus flask until after this fight because I found a fire keeper soul and want to upgrade it

@Felthry Yeah if you beat Maneater Mildred and summon her for the fight you should be good

Oh there's another firekeeper once you get to the start of Anor Londo who can upgrade your flasks. Also a secret fire keeper right after Quelaag who can do that too. (look for illusory walls in the area after Quelaag but before the bonfire right after her)

@SCP1471 how do you summon someone for a fight

@Felthry You need to be human. There'll be a white glowing sign on the ground right before Quelaag's fog wall

@SCP1471 oh great, so I need _another_ unit of humanity

humanity is hard to come by!

@Felthry yeah its not easy unfortunately. If you can't revive to human for the fight then just try a few times with hit and run tactics. Stay at her sides, never in front or directly behind, and if her human-like body slumps forward then get away from her

@SCP1471 well I immediately got some humanity from a random spidery thingy, kindled the fire, killed mildred, and now I have a ton of sould, enough to level up twice

I don't know what to level though. Strength? Vitality? Resistance? Maybe boost my rather lacking intelligence stat? that last one might be a waste though I dunno

@Felthry Resistance is a garbage stat, don't bother putting points in it. And you're already levelling up Faith so getting Intelligence wouldn't help much either. Honestly i'd say either strength or vitality depending on if you need more damage or life more

@SCP1471 yeah faith is actually currently my highest stat at 18, I leveled it up so I could use homeward. maybe I'll put a point each in strenght and dexterity? still using astora's short sword as a main weapon; I've not encountered any enemies where the longsword +6 does more damage, at least not yet, but the dexterity would be nice for the bow I use when I need ranged damage

@SCP1471 also thank you to both you and @yaodema for being helpful and stuff!!

@Felthry yeah get some more other stuff, either attack stats (str, dex) or durability (vit, end). in dark souls its actually a really bad idea to balance your build cuz being a jack of all trades in this game usually ends up meaning you suck everywhere

@SCP1471 okay so, fighting quelag, how do I survive the "kill everything" attack

@SCP1471 that is, sometimes she just outputs a massive red haze that does enormous damage and just instantly kills me with nothing I can do about it

@Felthry she has a tell where her human torso just kinda, falls forward over her spider head and she holds still for a bit. Its a bit hard to spot but if you see that then get as much distance between you and her that you can. Either that or try to block it if you can't flee in time

@SCP1471 urgh. i'm going through humanity needing to summon each time

why is this semi-hollow state a thing anyway, why do you ahve to revive to human

i do not think this is a good mechanic

@Felthry it gets better in the later games kinda. At least, the items are more commonplace. Humanity was a weird system that, tbh, was better than Demon Souls' way of doing it at the very least

@SCP1471 how did demon souls do it?

@SCP1471 i've been told to try to farm it from rats but i've yet to see one rat drop any and the one time I saw a rat glowing with an item it immediately phased through the ground never to be seen again