Labubs

Pretty much title...I want to do Mephistopheles' questline before NG+, and I also want to craft the Northern Regalia beforehand too. From what I've seen I should be able to bring an Archstone Shard (to keep souls etc) with me down to Old One, grab Soulbrandt, warp back to Nexus, and craft NR. True?

After that, can I start to kill the in world vendors etc to make Mephistopheles appear, even though it's endgame? Side question, how many NPCs do I need to go for to get from Pure White to Pure Black, and do you have any suggestions on what order to do them in?

Like am I really gonna have to do all Rankings the hour they drop to beat out the sweatys? I placed nicely in the Nightmare and Battlefield the night they dropped, but I can't break 80% on a basically perfect Firing Range drill halfway through the week? I thought Provisional Ranking wasn't really against actual people's results, just time, damage, and ammo used; but according to Tips it's indeed against real high scores. How is stealthing 12 out of 14 BTs under 2 mins 30 sec a "Lol git gud scrub"? Same with MULEs and Strand....what little exploits are you all doing to make these runs considered shitty? Eh these will end up rotating back around looking at the banner page so we should be able

When Sam first sees Amelie in the Oval Office type room at the beginning of the game, she walks out from behind an inverted rainbow. At first, it seems like it's just a lighting effect from the window behind her; soft, warm, colorful light used to better introduce the damsel in distress, but knowing what you do now, literally seeing 'Amelie Behind the Rainbows' takes on a bit of a different meaning...what little details did you miss the first, or even second time through?