Dark Souls

[cool breeze]

fucking gotdamnit the sewers and rat and frogs and random holes in the ground

is there a kindle place anywhere in there?

[iconoclast]

There's at least one bonfire in the sewer. Can't remember exactly where it is, but I think it's a decent ways in.

[cool breeze]

wow, most appropriate name:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

gaping dragon

how the hell? I had two guys with me and both were murdered in seconds.  Can I resummon them at least or are they dead?

[close]

[chronovore]

OK, installing now. I have -no- idea what to expect, from your descriptions.

[Mr. Gundam]

Restarted with a pyromancer. I can kill stuff much easier, but I'm still dying a ton.

Leveled up enough to get access to the bow and bought 60 arrows. Where do I find the dragon to get the Drake Sword?

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

Perfect! That's where I'm currently stuck!

[naff]

Just beat the Gargoyles and went back to the starting area to take out the skeletons and get some loot. Missed that guy Lautrec.... So he's in the church somewhere? Gonna gut him as soon as I find him if he kills my NPCs

Restarted with a pyromancer. I can kill stuff much easier, but I'm still dying a ton.

Leveled up enough to get access to the bow and bought 60 arrows. Where do I find the dragon to get the Drake Sword?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

After the Taurus demon on the bridge you'll come to meet him. Sprint to the stairs in the middle of the bridge, go down the stairs (you can open up a shortcut to the burg bonfire if you keep going down) and see his tail jutting out from a path under the bridge, shoot this 20-30 times maybe a little more depending on which arrows you have and you get the Drake sword.

[close]

[Shaka Khan]

Sounds like Pyromancer + Key as gift is the only way to go. I'm gonna go with ranged magic and occasional melee weapon boosted by magic stats.

[cool breeze]

wow, most appropriate name:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

gaping dragon

how the hell? I had two guys with me and both were murdered in seconds.  Can I resummon them at least or are they dead?

[close]

I was joking before.  But for real...amazingly appropriate name.

just touching him from behind instantly kills me.

[cool breeze]

wow what the fuck

someone invades my game, kills the two NPC knights and me in one hit 

that's a bunch of souls lost...

edit:

this is too hard.  even with the drake I'm barely hurting him.  the two npcs die almost instantly and this guy has instakill attacks without telegraphing them.  shit's ridiculous.

[naff]

Sounds like Pyromancer + Key as gift is the only way to go. I'm gonna go with ranged magic and occasional melee weapon boosted by magic stats.

Key is pretty useless. It only opens certain doors and you can always(I think) buy a key from some merchant for the area you're in to open the same doors. And if you're looking for an easier ride the doors you can open usually lead to a special area with a really hard enemy. Get the pendant! I don't know what it lets me do yet but hopefully it's good! (apparently it leads to extra story stuff you'd normally get in NG+)

[cool breeze]

yes, every door opened with the master key has a super strong enemy waiting to fuck your shit up

[chronovore]

Played a couple of hours. The back of the box says, "PREPARE TO DIE." It isn't a marketing catchphrase, it's a serious warning.

To give you an idea of the attenuated and decayed reflexes I sport, the opening dungeon took me almost an hour. I really enjoyed that. Then it starts at Firelink. Wasn't sure what to do with that, since there are several areas leading away from it. Of course I started with straight down, and walked through all the lost zombies who are just hanging out, worshipping urns and taking in the view until my sword cuts them down from behind. As if in revenge for this, the game launches scythe-armed ghosts at me.

I died, then went down again to get my stuff, died again, went down with a Hand of Glory or whatever it is, thought I could fight them, was taught otherwise, died again. Abandoned my stuff. Tried a different direction, had my ass handed to me by skeletons several times.

So... any basic combat tips? I appear to suck.

[cool breeze]

blighttown (sp?) kills the frame rate

and maybe it's because I played the import Demon's Souls, but the invaders there were nicer.  they helped me kill bosses 

so far, here they just murder me and my npc bros

[Shaka Khan]

Do the NPCs that help you in fights respawn?

[iconoclast]

Played a couple of hours. The back of the box says, "PREPARE TO DIE." It isn't a marketing catchphrase, it's a serious warning.

To give you an idea of the attenuated and decayed reflexes I sport, the opening dungeon took me almost an hour. I really enjoyed that. Then it starts at Firelink. Wasn't sure what to do with that, since there are several areas leading away from it. Of course I started with straight down, and walked through all the lost zombies who are just hanging out, worshipping urns and taking in the view until my sword cuts them down from behind. As if in revenge for this, the game launches scythe-armed ghosts at me.

I died, then went down again to get my stuff, died again, went down with a Hand of Glory or whatever it is, thought I could fight them, was taught otherwise, died again. Abandoned my stuff. Tried a different direction, had my ass handed to me by skeletons several times.

So... any basic combat tips? I appear to suck.

The areas below Firelink are mid to late-game dungeons, you're supposed to go up to the Undead Burge. Pretty easy mistake to make though, I'm sure most people wind up going down first and getting destroyed. The guy from gametrailers (Shane something) kept trying to push into the skeleton area when he first started the game, kept getting destroyed, gave up, and said the game was shit. lulz.


Did you beat the second boss yet Linkzg? He seems tough at first, but once you learn his weakness, he's one of the easiest bosses in the game.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Cut his tail off. Stay behind him at all times and keep attacking his tail. You won't even get hit.

[close]

[chronovore]

Thanks!

Played some more, restarted with a pyromancer since everyone here seems to think they're great. Unfortunately, I am unable to cast spells. Is that normal?

[iconoclast]

I think you need to equip the pyro glove or whatever it is. Put it in your second right hand slot and hit right on the dpad to toggle between your weapon and glove.

[Cerveza mas fina]

This game is torture im level 20 but been on the same bonfire for 4 hours now...

[Cerveza mas fina]

I killed the dude guarding the ring in undeadburg, then minotaur got me on the bridge. This is as far as i got ib 5 hours :/

[chronovore]

I think you need to equip the pyro glove or whatever it is. Put it in your second right hand slot and hit right on the dpad to toggle between your weapon and glove.

That got it, thanks!

So what's the point of displaying the pyromancy stuff on the up-direction on the D-pad, I wonder?

[iconoclast]

You'll be able to cycle through your equipped spells with up on the dpad once you get more.

[Cerveza mas fina]

How can you kill the minotaur? (is that the second boss?)

[Cerveza mas fina]

Woohoo finally some progress. thanks

[cool breeze]

Did you beat the second boss yet Linkzg? He seems tough at first, but once you learn his weakness, he's one of the easiest bosses in the game.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Cut his tail off. Stay behind him at all times and keep attacking his tail. You won't even get hit.

[close]

yeah, I eventually did it.  I had to get lucky enough where the NPCs wouldn't die instantly and spread out enough to have a triangle formation on the boss.  When they both died around halfway through his health, I played it slowly and managed to take him down to maybe ~10 more hits (on average I got off 3 or 4 hits with the drake).  At that health, he managed to jump high and land directly on me.  I was shouting "MUTHERFUCKRRR" at like 4 am.  When he entered his stage where i'd normally attack, I ran away and filled up my health; didn't want to take chances.  Eventually I did it.  Felt good.  25k souls   leveling up taking more souls 

I'm lvl 30.  still incredibly weak.  Vitality is only 10, strength is 16, dexterity is 20 some, endurance is high teens.  Gonna focus on endurance and dexterity now.  I have a bunch of itemized souls and I'm too stingy to use them.

the thing that made the boss tolerable were all the poison rats.  they drop humanity regularly.

and that's one of the easy bosses  :'( I'm so regretting thief.

[Shaka Khan]

I'm about to start this game, but as always, I can't decide whether to play it using my US or ME account.

How does online match up players?

The US account is my main, but I don't want to be constantly paired up with US players exclusively.

[iconoclast]

I have no idea how online works. Never summoned anyone, never put my sign out to be summoned, never been invaded (since I'm never in human form), and I've never invaded anyone.

I read that they split players randomly into multiple servers/groups, so finding a specific person to play with is probably going to be impossible.

[Shaka Khan]

Also, did you guys agree on the best gift?

Pendant or Witch's Ring?

@icono: I see. Might as well use the US account then. Thanks.

[Cerveza mas fina]

I have the ring no clue what it does though man.

[Mr. Gundam]

Got to the bridge with the dragon, keep trying to run away from it's fire breath, but always get roasted. Help?

[Shaka Khan]

Icono, Link, or whoever is way ahead of me, how many bosses/un-spawnable-enemies did you run into that drop special loot if killed/attacked in a certain way?

I really hate missables, especially from one time fights.

Edit:

How do you cycle between enemies while locked on again? Double-clicking the right stick doesn't do anything lol.

[Mr. Gundam]

How do you cycle between enemies while locked on again? Double-clicking the right stick doesn't do anything lol.

Quickly flick the right stick downward.

[FatalT]

I'm soul level 40 and just kinda dicking around.

[Shaka Khan]

Haha, I just had my first death. I believed a message that said "try jumping," left in front of a reachable-looking bridge at the beginning if Landblurnblah.

(Is there a way to read the name of the place, other than the first flashing notice?)

[iconoclast]

Got to the bridge with the dragon, keep trying to run away from it's fire breath, but always get roasted. Help?

Hold your shield up and run along the very side of the bridge. The closer you are to the middle, the more damage you take.

Icono, Link, or whoever is way ahead of me, how many bosses/un-spawnable-enemies did you run into that drop special loot if killed/attacked in a certain way?

I really hate missables, especially from one time fights.

Edit:

How do you cycle between enemies while locked on again? Double-clicking the right stick doesn't do anything lol.

3, I think. I might have missed some though.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The stage 1 boss: the first gargoyle has a tail you can chop off, which gives you the gargoyle axe. However, you do fight another gargoyle later in the game, who also has a destructible tale that gives you the gargoyle axe. I've got 2 of them now.

The second boss, the Gaping Dragon, drops the Dragon Great Axe when you cut his tail. This weapon seems pretty godlike, but it takes 50 strength to use so I haven't tried it yet.

And then later in the game, there's a centipede/dragon boss that has a choppable tail. He drops a ring that lets you walk through lava, which is extremely useful. It might even be a necessity if you want to complete  everything, and I'm not sure if there's any other way to get it.

[close]

Think that's all of them so far. The lock-on is a little weird, I just quickly tap in the direction of the next enemy I want to target. Seems to work most of the time.

[Shaka Khan]

I hope no one saw this derp.

[Bebpo]

FFFFFUUUUU

Dying so much.

I didn't have much trouble getting through Demon Souls, but here it feels like they nerfed the ROYAL/SORCERER fucking hard.  Not only is your soul arrow magic limited to 30 per bonfire, but even early on most of the enemies have shields AND the worst thing is there is SO MUCH CLOSE QUARTER fighting in this game as opposed to the wider, more open areas of Demon Souls.  I feel reallllly fucked since I can't do real damage with physical attacks in close quarter and my magic attacks miss in close quarter and have decent windup. 

Thinking about starting over with a physical character.  Only in the second area where the Boar is.

[iconoclast]

The guide is on sale for $14 (45% off) at Amazon right now: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3869930527

Just bought one since people seem to love it. Fuck the wiki!

[cool breeze]

I played a tiny bit more today.  Decided to go back and check on the asylum with closer to 20k souls in my inventory.  Ran through, had three super hectic battles, was on my way out, and then

spoiler (click to show/hide)

THE FLOOR COLLAPSES WHAT THE FUCK.  50% health instantly gone from the drop.  Stray Demon?! WHAT! run away and drink potion.  He hits me once, kills me in one hit.  I approach carefully the next time.  I fall, before I even stand up from the fall he attacks and kills me. That was at least 3 levels worth of souls for me.

[close]

[iconoclast]

Lol, I just went back there earlier today as well. Was not expecting that either.

In other news, I finally have 40 strength, so I started using the Dragon Tooth. This thing hits like a truck - does like 379 damage with R2.

Protip: you might want to bring curse cleansing items with you when you head to (late game area)

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Archives. There are enemies that drop the curse cleansing items in there, so you can farm them if you want, but the drop rate isn't great. I think most people will probably get cursed once in here, I didn't even realize it until I had died.

[close]

Once you know it's coming, it's not too hard to avoid though.

And there's a really cool online feature with the curse that I just noticed: if another player in the area dies from a curse, they'll leave an ash statue (or whatever that is) for everyone else to see. Pretty neat.

[cool breeze]

lol that makes sense considering there were all these ash statues in the sewers'

for about 10 hours I thought the rats cursed you.  I casually walked through the frog breath, slashing away at them, not really caring about that bar filling up.  then I got poisoned and realized I had it backwards.  next time I encountered the frogs I was more careful.

[cool breeze]

fighting enemies you can't lock onto is really hard...

edit: game froze me in limbo between life and death.  no commands worked, enemies kept attacking.  had to quit out.

first thing  that happens when I load it back up is my guy falling over dead 

[Shaka Khan]

As expected, I can't decide which stat I wanna upgrade first without having idea about the weapon list.

[Sho Nuff]

I played this game for about 3 hours at my friend's house as he talked me through it. Without his calm and collected voice I would have flung the controller across the room and smashed the shit out of the disc. I appreciate this game but in no way is this shit for me

[cool breeze]

I literally threw my controller against my leather couch when I first started.  Couch is so bouncy it bounced back and almost hit my TV.  ~20 hours in and I'm learning to control my rage...maybe..not really.  Game is like minutes/hours of pain for a few seconds of satisfaction.  Worth it.


I'm at a point where I think I screwed myself over with a covenant

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm in the forest and a cat in a window (WHO WAS TOTALLY NOT THERE BEFORE) speaks to me in vague ass sentences.  Last thing read like "get the fck out of here", then "YES -or- NO" as my options, with no explanation for what I was selecting.  I hit no and now the cat won't talk to me.  But apparently that's how you become a forest hunter? wtf?

Can I go back to the belltower and get that guy to apologize for me?

also, Hydra was ridiculously easy.

[close]

also also

spoiler (click to show/hide)

CATBEARS

[close]

also also also this is one of the few games where I'm actively insulting an inanimate object.  I couldn't play this game with other people around.

[iconoclast]

I think you had to hit yes for that covenant. That's what I did. She gave me a ring that said it would summon me to the forest once invaders come, but I wound up breaking the covenant by killing the NPC before I got a chance to try it. :\

[Herr Mafflard]

Started this a couple of days ago. Got up to the blacksmith. Loving it. Playing as a Wanderer. His starting weapon is pretty good and fast but once I wore that out, I found the axe to be pretty great at taking out shielded skeletons. Two-handed claymore was good for the bigger shielded enemies, mainly for its strong jumping attack.

Also, managed to find a way to kill the knight up the winding staircase near the armoured boar by leading him on the bridge into the dragon fire. I didn't get any souls because I was too far away from him when he died lol.

[naff]

Finally beat the Capra demon today, such a son of a bitch. Just being unlucky and getting past his initial attacks after going through the fog was what got me. Explored Dark Root a bit earlier too, really kicking myself for joining the white way in the beginning just to get some miracles, which I didn't end up getting because I decided not to drop the points into faith... Gonna cost me 40k souls to absolve my sin when I change covenants now

[Herr Mafflard]

I just joined the white way. Didn't know it costs 40k souls to change covenants. Oh dear.


Can you reinforce weapons at the first blacksmith? It says he needs concentrated flame or something...

[Cerveza mas fina]

I dunno if im mad enoufh to keep playing this. Have 10 hours in but its so hardcore. Dunno if I can commit another 90. Maybe if this was an mmo the social aspect would make me endure :/

[chronovore]

I dunno if im mad enoufh to keep playing this. Have 10 hours in but its so hardcore. Dunno if I can commit another 90. Maybe if this was an mmo the social aspect would make me endure :/

I played this game for about 3 hours at my friend's house as he talked me through it. Without his calm and collected voice I would have flung the controller across the room and smashed the shit out of the disc. I appreciate this game but in no way is this shit for me

I'm also probably not hardcore enough for this game. I am enjoying that enemies which used to be kind of problematic are now dirt simple, but even they will occasionally surprise me. I'm getting to know the area around Undead Burg's fire /really/ well.

Level 9 or 10; not sure I'm feeling a sense of progression, though the earlier advice has kept me from falling flat on my face (though I've died that way twice now).

Undead Burg spoilers ( you're all way past this)

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I found the first Soldier, a guy that looks like the one on the cover. I tried a straight-on fight, died. Twice. Tried to fight and retreat while fireballing, died. Tried to use Fire Bombs, thinking they might be more powerful. Died.

I noticed the Soldier is taller than I am by about half. Maybe he wouldn't be able to come through a normal doorway? I determined to throw a fireball and then retreat to the small tower where earlier there had been an archer/sniper. Got up there in a hurry, faced down the road where he might be coming... and he was still right behind me. I totally spazzed out, my actual feet (not character's feet) were bicycling in the air, trying to get additional speed away from this guy. I dropped down the tower, then realized there's a rooftop with a ladder in the same courtyard.

If he'd climbed up the ladder, I would have ran all the way back to Firelink. As it was, he can't climb, so I just fireballed him as I'd originally hoped to do.

[close]

Only +600 Souls. I think the cleaning bill for my shorts is going to be more than that.

[chronovore]

I will add that I'm sick to death, or at least character-death, of not attacking or doing anything useful because of failing to dismiss a message prompt: "It can't be opened from this side," "It's locked," "You found a Lost Soul Shield." BAM, CRASH, POW... Why am I not attacking? FFFUUU... "You have died."

I also find that the Item/Inventory HUD is sometimes still up when I wade into battle.

Is there some trick to facing the Taurus Demon? It seems like he's the next big deal, but I can't even get a dent on him.

[Shaka Khan]

I've only logged 6 hours so far in the past 48 hours, but omg amazing. I just beat the first boss, and got the Drake Sword

(I wasted at least 90 minutes getting into places I'm not supposed only to be slaughtered)

[brob]

it costs souls to change covenant allegiance? :C I joined the first one I was offered (monk dude) because it said "this will abandon previous covenant" or whatever, so I figured it was no big deal (barring any previous covenant catching feelings or something).

Anyway, I've killed the Capra demon. I've got a bandit knife+5 and a winged spear+5. Playing a thief so I dunno what I'm supposed to upgrade those two into further. It seems I can do Raw (increases strength bonus, decreases dex) or Divine (increases faith, decreases dex I think too) at the moment, but neither of them seem all that useful for me. ;-/

got the Drake sword, looks horrid. I used it a bit against some annoying enemies in the forest, but the dual wield strong attack costs durability and I'm not gonna keep trekking back to the blacksmith for that nonsense. Suppose I could buy a repair box, but I'm having a hard time farming souls so it kinda feels a bit wasteful. my spear/backstab dagger is good enough at the moment.

[Shaka Khan]

Does a one hand strong attack cost (a lot of) durability too?

[brob]

No I don't think so. the single hand strong attack is just a normal attack, no? The dual wield strong attack has special properties (shoots a really thin shockwave forwards) and that's probably what's expending durability. I'm assuming there are other unique weapons in the game that has similar unique attacks associated with them that operate the same as the drake sword. Haven't found any yet though. Would love a fanciful spear.

I was looking around a bit on the wikidot site and the tail drop from Pricilla looks like something I would want really bad. seems like a bitch to get at though

spoiler (click to show/hide)

given that the site says you have to jump into some lava somewhere to even get to pricilla, so I'm assuming she's an optional boss, plus she's fucking invisible so how the hell are you supposed to attack her tail for the dagger to drop? ffffuuuu... I can feel the sodium bubbling already.

[close]

[cool breeze]

yeah, I'm not even sure about how weapon upgrades work.  I've been using the drake sword and I'm mid-30s.  My bandit knife is +2 but the range is so short I don't want to make it my main.  Drake sword is even a bit too heavy and slow for my quicker character.

[brob]

someone posted this chart in the gaf thread: http://s2.postimage.org/jrj4k4fi3/Weapons_Upgrade_chart.jpg

though it doesn't say what the various things actually do. Like, raw is strength boosting, divine is faith, some of the other ones are self-explanitory, like fire, magic, etc. but what does an occult weapon do? chaos? does using boss souls give you a unique weapon or does it become a 'demon' winged spear if I do it on my spear? if so what does that do?

I like that I can just buy the shards now though. Haven't gotten to the point where I need something more but I've picked up some chunks and whatnot so I should at least be able to start doing that before I need to go farming for specifics.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Chrono I asked about the Tauren and got a nicr reply, scroll up.

I gave up on the game after 9 hours, level 22, at the boar. I think if id had this game 5 years ago id stick with it, now while i dig it, its too much of an investment.

[demi]

I'm not sure if you're shitting on the game or what. "I'm too outgoing and social to enjoy this game. I'd rather play WoW cuz it's social."

[Cerveza mas fina]

I'm not shitting on it at all. I was really impressed by it and def see its appeal.

I gave it around 9/10 hours so thats a fair shot, but is just not for me right now.