can someone explain the chalice dungeons to me? i have played through the game twice now and never bothered with them. next playthrough i want to give them a go.
To add to the above, there seems to be a set order that you have to go through to get the items necessary to do higher level ones. From what I've done so far:
1) Pthumeru 1
2) Pthumeru 2 (you get Hintertomb chalice here)
3) Pthumeru 3
4) Hintertomb 2
5) Hintertomb 3
6) Loran 4
7) Loran 5
8) Pthumeru 4 <- where I'm at
And then, I'm assuming
9) Isz 5
10) Pthumeru 5
I don't do any of the Root Chalices because procedural generation isn't my style and the cost of making the chalice dungeon (in items) seems high. I'm not into grinding for rare drops just to make it through the standard (non-root) chalice dungeons.
The structure for each dungeon is generally -
Enter -> go through the first section to find the big purple switch -> find the main treasure -> exit through the green door that the switch opened (usually right near the entrance lantern) -> fight boss -> go down to next level.
By the time you get to the second or third layer of a Chalice dungeon, you will often find orange doors off to the right or left in the transition hallways between lanterns or before bosses. Those are always Treasure Areas. They will always have a main treasure (which is often a rare material you will need to make the next Chalice dungeon in the above list) or, more rarely, weapons or shops you can buy root chalices.
Again, in my experience, it seems you HAVE to do the side treasure areas to get enough materials for generating future Chalice dungeons (unless you like grinding), so I don't really consider them optional.
As you go further down the Chalice list, enemies get more health and do more damage. Lots of unique bosses await you too, so it's not just all repeats of the main game (though there are some). Generally, I've found that stock grunts go up in health by about 1 Saw Cleaver +10 slash per Chalice level. So an enemy that takes 1 swipe to kill on Pthumeru 1, takes 2 on Pthumeru 2, 3 on Pthumeru or Loran 3, and so on.
Trust me, by the time you do two or three Chalice dungeons, you'll know the pattern like the back of your hand. Just make sure you do all the side treasure rooms (and find the treasure in the main section) and you'll have enough crafting stuff to keep making the next Dungeon.
Side Note - I beat the Loran Darkbeast finally. Turns out the trick was to focus on stun locking him by targeting individual legs. I got lucky on dodging his AoE attack and he didn't do it as many times. Feels good man.
