While Irithyll wasn't as cold as Frozen Elysium Loyce, the tall and slender guardsmen liked to dish out frost bite damage and work in squads. There were also fire stick carriers who led processions of ghoul like hollows across the streets. It was simpler to avoid them when I could - ducking into dead ends and only killing the few that spotted me. This sneaking around worked very well here, letting me reach a number of bonfires with relative ease.
Just need to avoid these!
After a dark warehouse of "invisible" hollows (not really since you can see their eyes, and the rest of them when they are in striking distance), I found myself in the moat surrounding the city - avoiding the white, bug like monsters resting in the water. The path eventually led to a separate tower - Irithyll dungeon home to masked lantern branders who had the annoying ability of "death stare". Yup, as long as they looked at you your maximum health would drop.
This was especially bad in the areas where they clustered in groups of eight or more. Obviously I opted to sprint past them when I could, as well as a sleepy giant and a surprise handful of cute froggies. Thankfully there were shortcut elevators to the bonfire up the top that I could unlock. There was also a strange cliff that suggested I "try gesture" but none of the ones I knew did anything.
Dungeon delving at its finest!
The prison eventually gave way to an old temple like place guarded by stone gargoyles (who can still fly) and fire cultists. The place is also littered with visual treasure, making progreses incredibly slow despite it being a smallish zone due to my graphics card crashing the game out constantly. Despite that I find the boss of the place, a giant King named Yhorm who has no issues in squishing me with his great sword. Finally a giant who isn't a push over! Given the minuscule damage I was doing to him in return he was certainly going to be a problem.
