Chapter 604: CDX?

Chapter 604: CDX?

The Death Mode and Random Mode brought a brand new gaming experience to many players, giving even veteran players who had already lost some challenge in *Dark Souls* a fresh sense of fun.

In Death Mode, all aspects of the bosses, including their AI, are fully enhanced. In a sense, bosses in this mode are even smarter than the average player, capable of preemptive strikes, rolling to dodge player spells, and so on.

Throughout the entire process of clearing the game, players not only need to be extremely familiar with the bosses' skills but also possess some advanced PvP combat knowledge. Moreover, everyone must achieve near-zero mistakes, combined with a bit of luck, to succeed.

Of course, an inevitable result is that only a handful of top-tier players can ultimately clear Death Mode and leave their names at the Firelink Shrine.

However, this was precisely Chen Mo's intention in designing Death Mode—just to give those big shots who had already completed multiple playthroughs something to enjoy. As for ordinary *Dark Souls* players, Death Mode wasn't meant for them.

Random Mode, on the other hand, is the entertainment mode for the majority of players.

In Random Mode, aside from a few particularly critical items (such as keys or story-related items), all other items are completely randomized.

This means that lucky Europeans might pick up the Soul of a Lord of Cinder or a top-tier weapon right at the start of the game, while unlucky Africans, after painstakingly reaching a spot that would normally drop a good item, might just find a piece of dung...

However, this mode also has a benefit: it forces all players to collect everything, because every missed item could potentially be a good one.

If you play Random Mode in the *Dark Souls* prequel, it becomes even more intense, because in the prequel, upgrading weapons requires Large Embers and Very Large Embers to go beyond +5 and +10. If you happen to be unable to find these two embers...

Additionally, in Random Mode, every time a player picks up an item, they experience the thrill of a lottery draw, since no one knows what the item will be.

Random Mode also gives many players the motivation to replay the game, because each replay feels like a completely new journey. Not knowing what items will drop and choosing different playstyles based on different starting items is a very enjoyable experience for many players.

After opening these two modes, not only did sales of the *Dark Souls* prequel increase, but even sales of *Dark Souls* itself continued to rise. Many new players came out of curiosity, stepping into the traps Chen Mo had dug.

Furthermore, the Switch version of *Dark Souls* offered a different experience, and many young people even bought a TV specifically to play more comfortably...

Although the combination of Switch and TV is quite expensive, it can be had for around 4000 yuan in total. For many college students, this isn't an unacceptable price, especially since they can pool money with their dormmates.

When you think about it, the price of a Switch is only equivalent to the price of a VR game...

At this point, for Chen Mo, the development of *Dark Souls* has come to a close. Next, he just needs to develop the DLC and supplement the game content at a low price or for free.

The story of *Dark Souls* is complete, and he can consider developing the next game.

For players, the content of *Dark Souls* and its prequel, along with the special modes and DLC, is enough to keep them busy for a long time. However, everyone is now focused on one thing: when will the big shots in China achieve the first kill of a boss in *Dark Souls* Death Mode?

...

Since *Dark Souls* was released globally simultaneously, and subsequent updates are basically synchronized, with the foreign servers being at most a week behind the domestic servers, many foreign *Dark Souls* players are also striving to clear Death Mode.

In Europe and America, both *Dark Souls* and its prequel are very popular. Of course, due to fewer players, sales are lower than in China, but the enthusiasm is no less.

There are also many foreign speedrunning experts discussing how to tackle Death Mode together.

After countless failures, players both domestically and abroad have analyzed some tricks for Death Mode.

The key is: the more people, the lower the difficulty.

The easiest mode to clear should be the ten-player mode.

Actually, it makes sense. The more people, the more chaotic it gets, and the easier it is to make mistakes. So, the boss's difficulty should be slightly reduced to balance things out.

For players both at home and abroad, the first kill in *Dark Souls* Death Mode is a supreme honor. A global first kill means being able to show off on a worldwide scale—how could the big shots miss this opportunity?

Thus, many hardcore players are holding their breath, eager to be the first to achieve the Death Mode first kill.

...

At the entrance of the Abyss Watchers, Old Qin summoned all his teammates, applied buffs, and then they all made the "Praise the Sun" gesture in unison.

But unlike before, this time it was a ten-person group.

Wang Laji asked, "Old Qin, is this guy reliable?"

Besides the previous nine people, there was a player named "CDX" whom Old Qin had temporarily recruited.

In fact, these people had already managed to bring the boss in nine-player mode down to 13% health, but they were always just a little short, unable to finish it.

Old Qin and the others discussed it and felt it was mainly a difficulty issue.

The ten-player mode has the lowest difficulty. If they could add one more person to form a ten-person group, the chance of getting the first kill would greatly increase. Of course, the prerequisite is that this person isn't a liability.

So, Old Qin posted some recruitment notices in the group and on the forums, looking for one more person to complete the ten-person team. The requirements were strict: must have cleared *Dark Souls* eight times, cleared the *Dark Souls* prequel once, and had to spar with Old Qin.

In the end, they brought in this "CDX."

However, Wang Laji and the others were a bit worried, because the high-end player circle in *Dark Souls* is relatively closed. A few big shots often share tips in the group, and everyone knows each other well.

But this CDX? They'd never heard of him.

Old Qin said, "Don't worry, this is a big shot, very mysterious..."

Old Qin didn't dare admit that when he and CDX sparred, no one was watching. The truth was, CDX deliberately let him land two hits, reducing himself to low health before counterattacking, and then killed him in one combo...

Clearly, a player with such masterful PvP skills couldn't be a noob. He was at least thoroughly familiar with the entire combat system of *Dark Souls*, with excellent reflexes and awareness.

Even if this player wasn't familiar with the strategies for Death Mode, as long as he observed for a while and died a few times, he'd get the hang of it and wouldn't hold the team back.