I've tried fist weapons, but never fists alone. Things like Power within and red tearstone ring should still work, but they're not likely going to net you much benefit because the base damage of bare fists is so low. So they're likely going to do more harm than good. I want to say that I think leveling up strength will increase your damage a bit, but it won't be by much. So honestly, your options are very limited.

I think the main thing you're going to want to focus on is survivability because the boss fights are going to be agonizingly long. You want to be sure you can take a few hits and not die instantly. So Vitality and Endurance would probably be the thing to go for. Vitality is obvious, but the Endurance is so you can wear better armor by increasing your weight capacity. Stamina isn't going to be an issue, so you could forgo upgrading endurance and just not wear armor, but that would be an extra layer of challenge on-top of doing fists only that I don't really think would be necessary.

No tumblebuffing is gonna hurt. I don't see the point in doing such a long-winded challenge run, but if that's what you want...

RTSR is a bad idea unless you are confident in 100% dodging everything, in which 10 Vigor Dusk CR, RTSR, Sanctus and Power Within are obvious to boost the damage a bit - however this is useless until post-Lordvessel. Power Within is worth it, of course.

If it's a glitchless run, then you really are completely wasting your time because it's going to take you hours to kill bosses. Four Kings are going to take an absurd amount of time.

I'll just point out now that each king has 2353 HP, and 299 Defence - meaning you will be hitting for 2 damage per punch (2.8 while Power Within is active) - meaning it's going to take over 1000 punches to kill a single king, and you will have 4 of them on you at once.

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If it's not glitchless, then 999 Soul dupe and max Vigor and Endurance to 99.

Grass Crest Shield.
15 Intelligence and Strong Magic Shield just for a little extra tankiness.
30 Faith for Great Magic Barrier and Vow of Silence (just for the ease).

GMB obviously doesn't stack with Power Within, but against something like 4 Kings... I mean, what a joke anyway it lasts 40 seconds and you'll be there for hours.

Despite what the guy said above, raising Strength or Dex won't improve your fist damage. It's a static 20AR. Raising other stats will only boost your defences a smudge.

Just power the rest of your stats with souls - don't forget to buy the Bottomless Box to store spare souls so failed dupes don't force you to lose all your copies. You can literally just to the Sen's skip, grab the Soul of a Hero, use the purchase weapon glitch to get 99 of them, stick 98 in storage and then consume 999 for each one for desired Souls.

It breaks the game in a normal run, but for fists only it just about gives you a fighting chance.

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Seriously though, don't do it. It's a complete waste of your life to spend THAT much time on something that ultimately, almost no-one will care about. It's not going to give you a sense of accomplishment (if you ever manage to finish) it's just going to steal possibly over 100+ hours of your time trying to do it.

Originally posted by Shard of Manus:

Seriously though, don't do it. It's a complete waste of your life to spend THAT much time on something that ultimately, almost no-one will care about. It's not going to give you a sense of accomplishment (if you ever manage to finish) it's just going to steal possibly over 100+ hours of your time trying to do it.

Galvanizing, thank you for your advisory, but ESPECIALLY thank you for this!

While trying to do the impossible can ofttimes be rewarding, there are boundary conditions, and edge cases that belie just going for it

Saving yourself 100+ hours of painful progress does suggest a better path, one that others can assist with, wish you well, and congratulate you when finished.
The other, most would respond with, Why?

Good Luck

Fist will do 2 dmg to almost everything so many bosses would take over 1000 hits to kill.

So even if you can do it there is no point.

400AR dragon first is doable of course.


Doing a shield only run is also doable and can be fun some shield attack types also have block frames so you can block while attacking.

Bonewheel shield infused is actually half decent as a weapon as it can hit 3 times.
+there is a shield that can cause bleed.