My first complete run of DS, only finished today, was built around Slamjam’s ham wham.

Initially I was going for a no-levelups run with the Bandit base class. While stuck on O&S a friend offered to help, so I had to decide where to put my souls while getting my SL in range for co-op.

On finding out this item had the highest STR requirement in the game, my very simple build fell into place. I executed the executioner and used his meat beater to slam the remaining Lords of Lordran into ashen pâté.

The enormous size of the hammerhead will restrict your vision, so good camera skills and face-tanking defense is a good idea. I ran with fatty’s own armour and eventually transitioned to Giant’s +5.

I expect most greatweapon fans use it anyway, but the health on-hit synergises nicely with the Grass Crest Shield as you’ll negate the small amounts of damage you suffer from lacking 100% phys DR. Backstabbing/riposting enemies is a guaranteed 2hit/+20 HP every time which is nice on enemies that are too puny to withstand one blow.

My limited PvP experience was mostly of using the 1h R2/rolling attack to 360 spin in tight quarters, or of relying on the sprint/jump attacks for speed in the open. Being able to free-aim your slow attacks and change direction during windup is another very important skill. Parrying/backstabbing goes without saying, although people seemed to get upset when I managed to pull it off.

All I can say is their tears made their hollow flesh even more succulent.