The 3 abductor virgins (including the two at the end of the mini-dungeon you get teleported to near volcano manor) gave me the most trouble. I lost a total of 11k runes dying to the one at the bottom of the waterwheel twice. Once, trying but being okay with being eaten for the free teleport out to that Altus Plateau entry point... only to die on the two at the end of the dungeon after teleporting and thus lose them (coulda teleported back from the grace site midway, slain the virgin at the bottom of the wheel to collect my runes and grabed that loot before returning for the 2 in the volcano dungeon.) After beating them, I would then go and die AGAIN on that same solo virgin... literally right after beating two inside of a tiny cave, I die to one in a large, open clearing. That time, I opted to leave the damned thing and come back, which of course never pans out in rune gains
I wasn't super worried about losing that amount though. I am getting close to having 300 golden runes on hand. I was also eating lots of gold-pickled fowl's feet - I found a farming spot for the otherwise extremely rare fireflies needed to make them, all the way back on the Weeping Penninsula. There's like 10 of them up on this tiny giant octopus puddle on a plateau north of The Tower of Return, all the way at the end of the western section. The only way to get there the first time is to go all the way around from the north bridge. So you'd be at least level 20, but it's useful early in. I spent a whiiiilllleee looking for these on my first playthrough, only finding the scant one here and there. The description says they're found near bodies of water close to Minor Erdtrees... but on the map that misleads you. The 'nearby' Erdtree is actually fairly high up on another plateau - there is no direct path from the Erdtree site to the pond where the gold fireflies are. Liurnia has a pond for them as well, but it's not worth it. There's a floating head-ball/school enemy that pops up from the middle and a runebear sleeping on the edge of the pond. I didn't even see him, but I was lucky enough not to wake him. The fireflies respawn on rest, making the Weeping Penninsula spot FAR superior for easy farming. I'm routinely plucking birds for flight pinions as-is, so I have feet on tap as well. I use silver-pickled fowl's feet on big flocks of seabirds back on that shore wayyy back at the starting point. There's a beach with a giant troll and an invisible scarab... and dozens of birds. A knight-type enemy camps by a fire at the very end.
I should be using them more, frankly. They're deceptively easy to churn-up fistfuls of. Not like the damage booster that relies on Arteria leaf. The defense-boosting boiled prawns you buy from the guy in the shack on the lake south of the academy are another handy item to have a couple dozen of. Items are generally fricking useful in this game. All manner of healing, buffing, stat-proccing, damage dealing items can be continually crafted/acquired and are frankly total game-changers if you keep up with tracking down the cookbooks.
I'll just say... goddamn those rooftop platforming sections in the academy. They really make you do some of those sections multiple times! Sheesh!
The actual Renalla fight was a breeze, thanks to that jump damage talisman. She could only take a small handful of those jump attacks in either phase. Honestly, Raya Lucaria Academy as a whole is significantly more challenging than Rennala herself is. She hasn't managed to kill me yet. It's always the little stuff that trips me up. The bosses are just fun.
Coming out of that at level 68 with two +11 Uchigatanas. Approaching 40 dex with keen art of war on both, they get through bosses, bases, and dungeons with finesse. I really love the moveset now. So much power hidden in there. I very, very rarely break out the Bloodhound's Fang. The special weapon art it has only recently come in handy again. I used it for grabbing the rare windows you get when fighting those aforementioned twin Abductor Virgins. Using its heavy lunge, backstep, and teleport-attack combo, you can safely land vital hits with iframes even as others attack you, which then leaves you lots of time to escape. Just wait for the right moments to punish. Throw up that str/dex mixed physic and it'll get you out of some stuff. A solid greatsword or two is just good to have, for almost any class using melee weapons there is at least one good one to use. They may be the best all-around melee weapons, even if they are somewhat slow. Great damage and stagger for the moveset. Reasonable requirements.
The Fang is like... the early easy-mode weapon, coming to you in a starting area with a frankly unfair special move. And it breaks PvP. It is generally easier, but significantly less efficient in the majority of cases. You rely more on the weapon art for anything tanky enough to take more than 3 hits because of the speed/stamina cost, and that eats through the 100 FP I have at 16 mind quickly. It's a simple, but versatile moveset... generally easier playstyle, but it has those sorts of tradeoffs. The dual katanas are significantly tougher to master, as they require you to use being caught in the fray as an advantage and rule-out things like parrying and guard-countering - it's all offense. But when you utilize the moveset with your jumping and dodging, you never need to recharge while sustaining heavy damage output and taking minimal hits. You can quickly get attacks off from any angle with little to no set up just by utilizing the movement-triggered attacks. Other attacks move you. Between those moves, you're kinda just climbing these long combo ladders.
I think I'm gonna do what I can of the underground regions now. Honestly, I probably could have done parts of those sooner and parts of Liurnia later. Pretty sure I can find the stones to take those Uchigatanas to +13 each down in those zones.
