@lestat: The guide does? than yeah, its reeeeaally odd, but i can only tell what ive experienced, and quite a few on gamefaqs are struggling with that, too.

but.. in the archives, the record player (Which makes the Jellydude's go berserk) which was triggered by those lizards  in a cutscene at the gamescom demo didnt happen to me either, i can activate it myself, (which i did once), but else, nothing happens with it.

maybe i was just unlucky and my copy of the game is just seriously bugged. xD .. indicator would be the diying dragon, and the fact that the hydra shot Lightning Balls without pause or break time inbetween on my first try. =o

strange. but well, that one disabled bonfire isnt of any importance, since the next one is maybe 2 minutes away, and i can teleport from every bonfire. (Only the locations i can port to are limited, but to those, i can port to from every bonfire.)

Those are some very odd events, but I can only speak for the Hydra. What you experienced never happened with me, it kept firing water spouts as long as I was far from it's melee range, but it had pauses which you could use to run up to it.

Defeated Smough and Ornstein on my 4th try (without summoning). I was gunning for Ornstein's soul (for the DragonSlayer Spear) so it took me a while to get the pattern down to kill Smough first.

It's quite easy once you see it, since Smough blocks most of the attacks (except the Lightning spear throw) of Ornstein, if you position him between you and Ornstein. Hardest part for me was figuring out how to succesfully block the majority of Super-Ornstein attacks and still have enough window of opportunity to strike him. I ended up using one of the broken pillars for added protection and the rest of the fight went quite smoothly.

It helped to don the Havel helm and Gloves for amazing lightning and defensive protection, plus the Ring of Steel Reinforcement, and using the Eagle Shield. My weapon was the Lightning Spear + 5 for Smough and the BK Halberd +4 for Ornstein (which only did 120 damage, even at 436 att).

much respect to you. =)

@else: Crystal Cave.. damn, thats an awesome location :D and i was like 'Oh!.. o:' when i figured out how to proceed in there, since i was stuck a bit. (But not nearly as long as in the archives. i wouldnt say its primarily the enemy's that make it hard, but it sure is the complexity.. or, regarding the archives, i was just dumb as hell x))

I found out how you make Anastacia appear again in the Firelink Shrine. When you defeated Lautrec, you gained a Fire Keeper Soul right? With the Soul, you must return to the Firelink Shrine and examine the cage where Anastacia was. The soul will react with the cage and Anastacia will appear again.

nope, i got no soul from him. =/ i was at her place already, but yeah, something went wrong when i killed  lautrec..  and the item which is to invade his world isnt in my inventory anymore either. *Sigh* Well, next Playthrough then. (Even if i think i kill that bastard as soon as he gets out of the cell for ruining mah firelink lol.^^)

Now that's very, very odd. Those are some weird glitches you're having, I haven't had none so far (crosses fingers to avoid them further on). Btw, you're going for the good ending too right?

lestat thank for your post earlier about level and weapon power.

I died a few times on that black knight in Undead Burg (and there is another one on top of the spiral stairs in Parish right?). Just in vague general terms, how do I beat a black knight, by blocking or by evading? No details, I dont want too much spoilers.

Blocking is by far more effective, especially if you have a good physical reduction shield (the closer to 100% the better). Evading is too timing-restricted with the BK's, since their attacks go pretty fast. My personal strategy? Backstabs.

eh, to be brutally honest, i didnt know there are different ones. do you have a link, or could you post the info about that?

@else: lol@the boss at Crystal Caves. he doesnt seem to be hard, but he curse's (died of it), so i guess i'll farm some humanity now. =)