Dark Souls Catch-All

Having your humanity intact and the ability to summon is the easiest way to beat the Capra. Either way you need to survive the initial rush...

The key moment is the rush at the beginning immediately after clearing the fog gate. You do want to make directly for the stairs, but you want to get there by going right first. Whether you are taking him on alone or with helpful phantoms, as soon as you enter, you want to roll right to get under the columned archway and get your shield up. Continue to strafe right and work around to the back of the demon, then make a run for the stairs. Hopefully you can then take out the dogs before the Capra comes after you, if not (and you are still alive) drop down and continue to use the stairs until the dogs are dead, then use them again to avoid the Capra. If he ever comes at you without going up the stairs, then you can use a plunging attack.

It really does take some tense skill to beat the Capra, but I found going right first had a better survival rate for me than trying to push left.

A good pre-plan is to upgrade your gear as much as possible at the blacksmith in the Undead Parish. A high stability shield (Heater, Tower Kite, Knight, Balder) will help a lot and standard swords work well. I suggest swords, just because they are the perfect middle of the road weapon; they have good damage, speed of attack, and they do not consume too much stamina. The Drake Sword (requires a Wiki check to learn how to get) works the best. Its attacks are very fast for how strong they are.

Helping people with the Bell Gargoyles can provide a lot of souls for upgrading and leveling before the Capra. A have tanked the Capra with a knight before, but it took a lot of soul farming in the Undead Parish beforehand.

EDIT: Fed. posted the same advice, while I was posting mine. Great minds.

Ha! Consensus is a wonderful thing.

Also, DSG, be aware that when Capra puts his swords together and gets ready to do a two-handed baseball swing at you - your shield is not going to help. You have to get away from that. Now, if you're trying to constantly avoid him the way we're describing, it shouldn't be an issue.

And finally, this is one of the crappiest parts of the game. It really opens up in the future, and you have multiple options of where to go. Buy some de-cursing stones from the top of the gargoyles' bell tower before heading to the Depths.

There's a lot more fun exploration ahead. Go carefully, and have fun! Don't sweat losing souls - I had over 100k this weekend with nothing I really wanted to do with them. I just bought a bunch of Twinkling Titanite from the Parish blacksmith just to invest them in something solid that I couldn't lose.

I really dislike how the 2 worst parts of the game (in my opinion) are both bottlenecks. Difficult to go do other things and come back when you're stronger.

What's the other "worst" part, btw?

Fedaykin98 wrote:

What's the other "worst" part, btw?

Archers

Dyni wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

What's the other "worst" part, btw?

Archers

Yeah the combination of the archers + S&O. More so in NG+ than in a first play through.

Archers, definitely bad, but a distant second to Capra imho. S&O, well, I never tried them solo, nor in NG+ (since I'm not quite done with the game). With help and in 1st playthrough, they've been easy for me. Co-oped against them many times, including this weekend. I was visiting the giant smith and dropped my sunny sign for the heck of it - was shocked to be summoned for that fight as an 80. Only time to kill the fat man first, so that was cool!

Funny, every time I try to go to the right against the Capra I get stuck against the arches and hacked apart. I have always had more success going left.

The Edge article is out, and it's pretty easy to find the article transcribed online if you wish to seek it out. If you want a detailed discussion of the key points of the article, check this out:

A very disappointing reveal in the Edge article, paraphrased: "Miyazaki will not be involved in the development of Dark Souls II at all. The decision to assign the 2 new directors was made by From Software and Namco Bandai. It was a company decision made in order to evolve the series and broaden its appeal."

This is the most worrisome information to me. Miyazaki is a damn genius. The good news is that it sounds like he is being tasked with lead director on a new game for Namco Bandai.

And a very nice reveal from the Edge article:

We're talking about an athletic leap forward in terms of graphic fidelity... Dark Souls II, by contrast, looks effortlessly ready for the next generation of consoles, on par with the fidelity of, say, Watch Dogs and Star Wars 1313.

It looks like Dark Souls II might actually be a next gen game.

imbiginjapan wrote:

Funny, every time I try to go to the right against the Capra I get stuck against the arches and hacked apart. I have always had more success going left.

I have had that problem too. If you hit the gap smoothly, though, it gives you just enough time to escape the rush and get your bearings. When I go left I usually get pinned, staggered, then die.

I think the commonality to the different strategies is that you need to avoid getting swarmed and pinned by the first onslaught. However, it is possible to tank the Capra (even solo) with the right build.

Dyni wrote:

A very disappointing reveal in the Edge article, paraphrased: "Miyazaki will not be involved in the development of Dark Souls II at all..."

That has me a bit worried. I assumed the first announcement, which said he was becoming a producer, just meant that the team was growing in scale and they needed him at a higher level of project management. I know games are made by large teams of people, but I like knowing that there is one guy there who is in charge of getting the vision correct. When the top creative people leave a team, the next game ends up being quite good, but missing something utterly fundamental.

Still, I will pre-order and hope for the best. I have been burned every time this happens though.

Definitely hoping that DS II will be on next-gen. The art direction in DS is so good that I can't wait to see what they do with more resources. I don't think I've ever appreciated a game's graphics more, from an artistic standpoint. Metroid Prime is the only other one that stands out as doing far more than its contemporaries with the power available.

Gonna read that article when I get home.

heavyfeul wrote:
Dyni wrote:

A very disappointing reveal in the Edge article, paraphrased: "Miyazaki will not be involved in the development of Dark Souls II at all..."

That has me a bit worried. I assumed the first announcement, which said he was becoming a producer, just meant that the team was growing in scale and they needed him at a higher level of project management. I know games are made by large teams of people, but I like knowing that there is one guy there who is in charge of getting the vision correct. When the top creative people leave a team, the next game ends up being quite good, but missing something utterly fundamental.

Still, I will pre-order and hope for the best. I have been burned every time this happens though.

I'm right here with you guys on this one. Fingers crossed, but I fear that the change in lead will result in a game that's just a bit too much changed from what came before.

Btw has anyone read the EDGE issue and can say whether it has actual screenshots - as in, not from the trailer from the VGAs?

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Btw has anyone read the EDGE issue and can say whether it has actual screenshots - as in, not from the trailer from the VGAs?

It doesn't. Only concept art.

I thought they said they'd played it? How could the play it, get an exclusive, say it looks next-gen, but not have shots?

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I thought they said they'd played it? How could the play it, get an exclusive, say it looks next-gen, but not have shots?

NDAs, embargoes, etc. PR controls what actually gets published, regardless of what they show the press.

SixteenBlue wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

I thought they said they'd played it? How could the play it, get an exclusive, say it looks next-gen, but not have shots?

NDAs, embargoes, etc. PR controls what actually gets published, regardless of what they show the press.

Yeah. They saw a 10 min gameplay demo, but they can't post any actual footage or shots.

Capra was annoying but I can respect the brutal logic of it - survive the initial onslaught, kill the dogs and he becomes very manageable. Same with Ornstein and Smough, tough as hell solo but still doable with good rolling and pattern recognition.

Now gravelord Nito.... thats another story. I ended up abandoning my lv7 deprived run through and leveled up after ~3 hours of fruitless attempts at killing him (the lengthy bonfire distance didn't help). It was very frustrating do get a few decent hits on him, see him crouch for his black flood attack only to realise that you're being fat-assed by three or so skeletons and escape is impossible (and lethal at that level)

I repect anyone who beat him with a low level character but I felt he was cheap as hell. After leveling up I beating him on my first retry but somehow the game doesn't seem as worth finishing as it did beforehand...

SixteenBlue wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

I thought they said they'd played it? How could the play it, get an exclusive, say it looks next-gen, but not have shots?

NDAs, embargoes, etc. PR controls what actually gets published, regardless of what they show the press.

I get all that, but...meh. After watching the video posted above, I'm not buying the magazine after all.

Re: Nito: I think I beat him the first time I

Spoiler:

used a divine weapon to kill the small skeletons first

. But that was at level 70 or so. On a sorceror.

I've been looking to give this game another shot. I picked it up in the Spring and got discouraged by how little I understood what was going on. Can anyone give me a shove in the right direction?

EDIT: Playing on 360 if it matters.

First off, the game is intentionally obscure. Don't feel the least but guilty for using the Dark Souls wikis that are out there. They have walkthroughs if you need help getting started.

If you tell us specifically where you are, we can help more.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

First off, the game is intentionally obscure. Don't feel the least but guilty for using the Dark Souls wikis that are out there. They have walkthroughs if you need help getting started.

If you tell us specifically where you are, we can help more.

I would go one further and say that part of the joy of this game is in talking about it with other gamers. Part of my love of this game is the old school nature of wanting to talk to other people about how to get past a certain part. There's rarely one right answer.

DSG is very right - and the multiplayer aspects of the game are mostly about building that sense of community as well.

And heavy and I are in synch for the second time today.

SixteenBlue wrote:
Dyni wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

What's the other "worst" part, btw?

Archers

Yeah the combination of the archers + S&O. More so in NG+ than in a first play through.

I forgot to comment on this. I don't think S&O is comparable to Capra Demon or the Anor Londo archers. S&O is very difficult, but nothing about that fight is ever cheap or unfair. There was always something I could have done better to make my failed attempt go more smoothly. Every attack is avoidable in some way, even when both of them are alive and you are solo. It's just challenging.

On some of the Capra Demon and archers attempts, the only thing I could think to improve in my approach was "get a little luckier". Those 2 encounters seem so out of place compared to the rest of the game.

DSGamer wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

First off, the game is intentionally obscure. Don't feel the least but guilty for using the Dark Souls wikis that are out there. They have walkthroughs if you need help getting started.

If you tell us specifically where you are, we can help more.

I would go one further and say that part of the joy of this game is in talking about it with other gamers. Part of my love of this game is the old school nature of wanting to talk to other people about how to get past a certain part. There's rarely one right answer.

Couldn't agree with this more.

S0LIDARITY wrote:

I've been looking to give this game another shot. I picked it up in the Spring and got discouraged by how little I understood what was going on. Can anyone give me a shove in the right direction?

EDIT: Playing on 360 if it matters.

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/

Head up, instead of down. Hit the wiki if you get completely discouraged.

Funny thing is I keep looking for more games like this and I can't find them. And by "like this" I don't mean games that play like Dark Souls. I mean games that have that quality about them that we just discussed. Where your ability to succeed is based almost entirely on learning and where you can share "hints" with other gamers and get a dozen different answers. I can't think of any game like it since my little brother and I playing couch co-op NES.

If you find any, post them here!

Monster Hunter.

And yo, Dark Souls co-op is still for nancies.