Current Events > Dark Souls 1 question

(+) Yeah! (+)

How much does a run change if you kill Andre the blacksmith early on? Without buying the smith/repair tools from him, of course.

I've never killed him early on and I haven't played in over a year.
If you ignore stuff like the boss soul glitch, is it a totally different game from that point?

Git gud

It limits your weapon choices, though if you have an OP black knight weapon or something else that upgrades with twinkling titanite you'll be fine.

I just figure that if Andre and the other blacksmiths' abilities can get a lv1 through the entire game with a +15 reinforced club, then what's the opposite like?
A high level but with crap weapons and armor. Possibly constantly changing weapon because there's next to no options to repair or upgrade? Fun?

The game's too exploitable, if I'm gonna go back I need some fun stipulations.

Thought of something, losing the blacksmiths doesn't do a lot to stop you from bulldozing through the game with Pyromancy.

I don't want it to just turn into a ban everything remotely good run. I like all my characters to have a niche.

On its own, it wouldn't be hugely detrimental considering there are still three other blacksmiths. You wouldn't be able to get a +15 or divine weapon, but you'd still have access to basically any other kind of endgame weapon. Plus you could always fall back on casting. Pretty sure sorcery catalysts don't even need to be upgraded in DS1.

A no upgrade/repair run could potentially be interesting though. Might get a little tiring taking half an hour to kill every boss (and Four Kings would be a nightmare), but maybe fun if you're really starved for a challenge.

Anyone who kills Andre is honor-bound to uninstall Dark Souls and never play it again, so I'd say it changes the game pretty significantly.