Odgrub is alive. His legacy, incomplete.
You may be asking how he survived.
Last time we saw him he was plummeting off the tallest mountain in Skyrim.
But let me ask you:
If Aragorn can survive THIS…
And Gandalf THIS…
…and Wormtongue THIS, ALL IN THE SAME MOVIE,
Then I don’t think it’s unreasonable to believe that Odgrub survived this.
Any way.
He's not one to dwell on such things. He’s back and he knows what he must do next.
He shall hunt down and battle the toughest creatures in Skyrim.
This alone wouldn’t be a challenge.
…but what if we were to turn the game’s difficulty up to the hardest, Legendary setting?
Yes. Yes, that might do it.
That may be enough to make for a challenge worthy of Odgrub.
Will he be up to it?
Has the old man still got what it takes, when everything is against him?
Or will this be the end for Odgrub the Basher?
…again?
…But this could all wait ‘til tomorrow.
So he ran through the night to find an inn. I mean, he could have just stayed at Farkreath’s.
But the beds there were too… bloody.
He must have run half way across Skyrim!
Would probably have helped if he could read signs.
Instead he just ran and ran, butchering everything he encountered.
5 Goats, 4 guards, 3 cultists, 2 couriers…
...and a partridge, in a pear tree.
But eventually he reached Markarth, one of the few places Odgrub was yet to grace with his presence.
'OUTSIDERS AREN'T TRUSTED IN MARKARTH'
Luckily for them, all he wanted to do was to rest.
'GUARD MIGHT GET NERVOUS, A MAN APPROACHES WITH HIS WEAPON DRAWN'
And as long as he remained sober, it should hopefully stay that way.
'Come on in, the Silverblood Inn has plemty of strong drink, and clean rooms.'
'Why can't the men in this city leave me alone?'
'Offer Odgrub a drink, hun, I'm sure that will go down well!!!'
'OKAY BABBY BUT NEXT TIME U DO IT XXX'
'WHAT WUD U LIKE SWEATY???'
'R U THIRSTY???-'
How unexpected. You might notice that killing people is taking
Odgrub a bit longer than normal. This might be the 20 pints he’s just had.
Or it could be Legendary Difficulty… which is serious business.
At this setting, Odgrub’s attack strength is now just a QUARTER of what it is normally.
And enemies now deal 3 times the amount of damage. Makes you wonder what the point was
in making Odgrub super powerful in the first place, doesn’t it.
Of course, even with these handicaps, these plebs still pose no challenge for our almighty
Odgrub. But there are far greater threats than guards lurking in Skyrim’s darkest, dirtiest regions.
The beds in Markarth turned out to be too bloody as well.
So Odgrub returned to Falkreath to start his adventure!
He soon tracked down a bear. One of Mother Nature’s most terrifying predators!
Just so you know, this is how an average warrior would cope at Legendary difficulty setting.
What you’re seeing here is Odgrub before he got super powerful… and he doesn’t really stand a chance.
His arrows do nothing, and even a good sword isn’t enough to save him against this creature.
Now back to present-day Odgrub.
The bear BARELY scratches the surface of Odgrub’s health bar,
and after several arrows the beast is defeated.
Even on hardest difficulty, Odgrub is SO good
that he can still defeat enemies with archery, even though his sword is much more powerful!
But while his equipment is the finest in Skyrim, many of his personal skills are child-like
at best, and could be vastly improved.
Soon Odgrub was sidetracked from his quest by a mountain that was begging to be climbed.
And it was here that he met a woman who was happy to teach him archery!
'Name's ANGI!'
With every challenge he felt his attack strength grow stronger.
He had gotten so far on his own- but company with the right person might let him improve further!
Perhaps it was her lonely existence.
Maybe it was the respect she gave Odgrub
-or just that she was good at killing things-
but something made her different.
They understood one another.
That was an afternoon that Odgrub will remember forever.
Later, he spotted a troll.
It looked like a challenge, but just the kind you find online, was frail and pathetic.
Walking backwards was enough to dodge its attacks.
Poor thing.
And when paralysed, it just lay there, looking pathetic.
Odgrub was not one known for his sympathy,
but even he wondered what cruel God would create such a creature.
He put it out of its misery.
Maybe the undead would put up more of a challenge.
He temporarily took a break from hunting difficult creatures to focus on his personal development.
This meant slaughtering bandit camps- being careful to leave one alive.
When it came to armour he knew nothing, against
so he spent several happy days grinding a wildling in a cave to improve his skills.
She sure taught him a thing or two!
'Now you'll pay!' *Swipes hopelessly*
Wanting a change of scenery, he did the same again in ANOTHER outpost,
this time levelling up his armour, his block AND his healing skills at the same time!
Eventually, he reached his goal:
level 100 in armour was finally his!
Having levelled Odgrub up dozens of times,
it would take a cruel, heartless person not to let this bandit live.
All this, just to unlock an ability that hurts people when they attack Odgrub.
Which makes no sense… but is totally worth it.
He discovered a hidden bandit hideout built beneath an unassuming hut.
This was when he first felt a challenge of some kind.
At legendary difficulty, a blow from these enemies dealt substantial damage to Odgrub!
Confined to close-quarters, his bow served to hinder him.
It was slow to fire and he was unable to block attacks.
But the paralysis enchantment worked wonders.
Odgrub had never been one to sneak about, but when the enemies take a literal buttload
of arrows to put down, he saw value to stealth damage multiplier bonuses.
Creeping through the shadows, he even had the time to spot and to avoid traps!
Most of them, at least.
Legendary difficulty wasn’t anything like he had imagined:
Rather than to make it more frantic, it slowed gameplay down to a painful crawl.
Odgrub had time to learn his enemy's attack patterns
and to use his surroundings to get the advantage!
The down-side was how quickly it drained his weapons' enchantments.
Which is to be expected when every enemy needs to be turned into a pincushion.
Combat for Odgrub had become a lot more varied than at normal difficulties.
He started complementing his attacks with shouts to keep enemies at bay…
...and even took cover at points to heal!
But he stuck to his bow because he was THAT GOOD.
‘I LOVE A CHALLENGE!’
‘MERCY!!!’
He got into fights against 2 or even 3 enemies at once.
As long as he didn’t encounter more than that he should be fine-
Bandits began pouring out of the opening.
Odgrub stood his ground and fought back, but legendary difficulty proved challenging
and he soon found himself outnumbered and outmatched in a way he…
...didn’t like.
His health draining, he had no choice but to switch back to his sword.
He returned to his primitive old ways,
tearing through a cave-full of bandits like a hot knife through margarine.
Following the bandit cave, Odgrub felt comfortable playing at legendary difficulty-
-at least, against standard enemies.
His new-found skills made using his bow a lot of fun. He loved shooting it deep into
single men, leaving them on all fours! You can’t beat it one-on-one.
But when grinding against groups in public places, one-handed sword-play remains his
favourite. And hardest setting only makes it more enjoyable.
BUT WHAT ABOUT A DRAGON? Are they a match for Odgrub at Legendary Difficulty?
…Of course not. Odgrub threw down his enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountainside!
But that was just a regular dragon. There are all kinds in Skryim- I don’t want to
bore you with the details, so we’ll go straight for the hardest of them all: the Legendary
Dragon. But there’s just one problem: you have to
be level 78 or over to encounter these. And Odgrub’s still in his 50’s.
That’s a lot of levelling he has to do!
But Odgrub loves a good challenge.
Heavy armour and blocking level up faster if against a strong enemy.
So Odgrub found 2 giants, and got endlessly pounded by them to level up his skills, over and over again.
They’d reach level 100, whereupon he’d reset them and start again-
-which isn’t pointless since Odgrub gets to keep any ability points he’s earned,
letting him unlock cool new skills.
These doubled his archery damage...
...which would have been helpful earlier.
And he got this perk to reduce falling damage…
...which would also have been helpful earlier.
Skyrim saw a Mass Extinction as he went on a mega monster massacre
to max out his attack skills.
At one point he accidentally assaulted Blackreach and stole an Elder Scroll. Classic Odgrub.
Dozens of caves, tombs and settlements were cleared,
just so that he could unlock the ultimate sword and archery perks,
which gave him a chance to paralyse enemies-
-ON TOP of the paralysis he can already do!
He liked this very much.
But his favourite had to be the beheading ability.
Which, it turns out, the citizens of Skyrim weren’t too keen on.
But at some point this massacre had to stop, so Odgrub then-
After he was done with this, he-
‘The foresworn are attacking my-‘
Eventually, even Odgrub tired of beheading-
Perhaps he finally realised that power had gone to his head.
Maybe he was just feeling light-headed.
Whatever the reason, Odgrub’s spree eventually ended,
and he headed on to the necks part of his journey.
Odgrub is more powerful than ever.
He has more health. More stamina. More moves! More… EXPERIENCE than ever before.
But is he man enough to beat a Legendary Dragon at Legendary difficulty?
As soon as Odgrub finds one, he’ll let you know.
It seems like we’ve been here before.
Following recent… activity, Skyrim now found itself in an unusually peaceful state.
That may have been because half the population had just lost their minds.
But whatever. Odgrub checked all the popular spots for a Legendary Dragon.
And while on his search, he began to appreciate how beautiful this region was!
At one point he saw what looked like a Legendary Dragon…
…but it was just a scripted sequence and a more ordinary dragon with a silly name.
He beat that one and moved on.
He heard something over by an Orc camp,
but it turned out just to be a giant and 2(!) standard dragons instead.
Dragons, dragons everywhere, but not the one you think.
(Dragon talking)
At one point he got stuck inside a talking dragon, forcing him to…
Urgh… FAST-TRAVEL to escape!
The dragons weren’t the only ones losing their souls on this adventure.
Odgrub accidentally progressed further in the main storyline,
defeating the main villain and learning a useful dragon-crash-landing spell.
Later, he encountered an elder dragon!
...but this duel was ruined when it seemed more interested in something further up the mountain.
What could it be?
Odgrub laid waste to the Elder Dragon… then went to investigate.
…It was here he found a Legendary Dragon!
…and 5 Deathlords, who, considering what they were up against,
did a pretty good job of fending for themselves.
Odgrub focused on them first,
all the while dodging attacks from the Legendary dragon circling overhead.
The Deathlords were dangerous foes!
They had the ability to blow Odgrub away-
-which, considering the mountainous terrain, was serious business.
But Odgrub dealt with each and every one of them.
With the Deathlords out of the way, Odgrub could focus his attacks on the Legendary Dragon.
One of its attacks was a horrible stat-sapping spell that made Odgrub not feel so good.
Odgrub retaliated with the dragon-crashing shout he had recently learned.
The bandit cave from earlier had taught Odgrub a few tricks and he cleverly used COVER and HEALED!
He’s had so much character development!
The next time the dragon landed he alternated between a staggering shield-bash
and some powerful one-handed attacks.
And soon, the Legendary Dragon had been defeated.
And Odgrub earned himself an achievement that even his predecessor had obtained!
Odgrub is undefeated. He is supreme!
He’s also over-encumbered.
He's carrying too much to run.
There’s only one thing for it.
Odgrub, carrying his burdens, walked back to civilisation.
He plodded over mountain passes. Slogged through frozen vales.
Trudged over the hills, and far away.
He was attacked. Of course he was.
He taught all challengers a brutally abrupt lesson.
Soon he was back on a familiar route. And a whole day, and 40 GB of 4K footage later,
he was back at his house to pick up something very important.
I AM SWORN TO CARRY YOUR BURDENS.
Odgrub may have single-handedly beaten many of Skyrim’s hardest enemies at legendary difficulty.
But even he will need help for the challenges that lie ahead.
And who better than his former packmule?
From now on, Odgrub and Lydia must venture, fight, and carry burdens...
...together.