Dark Souls Catch-All

Btw I'm looking for suggestions over in the Demon's Souls thread.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
Kamakazi010654 wrote:

Should I do the stuff down in Darkroot before I do Sens? The enemies don't seem too bad but all the wiki stuff says do it after

Doesn't matter. All Darkroot Garden and Basin is optional except for the part locked behind the crest. If you want to get more souls and level up before Sen's, do Darkroot. If you want to progress, go to Sen's.

How important is leveling? I got the sense that it was more important to upgrade weapons and armor.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Btw I'm looking for suggestions over in the Demon's Souls thread.

How much different is it, really? I'd heard the enemy patterns were harder to track, but otherwise it's the same. No suggestions on a 360-like controller for PS3, unfortunately.

Demi - you are aware that Gimpy did a playthrough of the game without leveling at all, right? All he did was improve his gear. So that at least means leveling is optional.

My endgame character is 80 and done leveling. While leveling definitely improves your stats and makes a huge difference in health and stamina, a big driver in my leveling has been minimum stat requirements on various spells and equipment (mostly spells, one of which requires 50 INT).

Demiurge wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:
Kamakazi010654 wrote:

Should I do the stuff down in Darkroot before I do Sens? The enemies don't seem too bad but all the wiki stuff says do it after

Doesn't matter. All Darkroot Garden and Basin is optional except for the part locked behind the crest. If you want to get more souls and level up before Sen's, do Darkroot. If you want to progress, go to Sen's.

How important is leveling? I got the sense that it was more important to upgrade weapons and armor..

Yeah I have been using all my souls for awhile to buy titanite from Andre to upgrade my elite night armor but now I need large shards

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Demi - you are aware that Gimpy did a playthrough of the game without leveling at all, right? All he did was improve his gear. So that at least means leveling is optional.

My endgame character is 80 and done leveling. While leveling definitely improves your stats and makes a huge difference in health and stamina, a big driver in my leveling has been minimum stat requirements on various spells and equipment (mostly spells, one of which requires 50 INT).

I'd heard through the grapevine, sure. But who's to say Gimpy isn't just batsh*t crazy like most of the people who love this game?

...

Man, I love this game.

Also, fedaykin and demiurge I hate you both. I am stuck at the in laws the next few days and all I want to do is play Dark Souls

Leveling is still fairly useful as it boosts your defense, regardless of what stat you put the points in to.

Upgrading armor/weapons tends to not require too many souls, compared to leveling, so truthfully you'll rarely have to choose between the two.

Demiurge wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Demi - you are aware that Gimpy did a playthrough of the game without leveling at all, right? All he did was improve his gear. So that at least means leveling is optional.

My endgame character is 80 and done leveling. While leveling definitely improves your stats and makes a huge difference in health and stamina, a big driver in my leveling has been minimum stat requirements on various spells and equipment (mostly spells, one of which requires 50 INT).

I'd heard through the grapevine, sure. But who's to say Gimpy isn't just batsh*t crazy like most of the people who love this game?

...

Man, I love this game.

Yeah, I play Dark Souls like others play WoW. I couldn't sleep last night so I spent from 4am to about noon getting one of my characters into the Sunbro Covenant. Now when I get bored I'm going to be grinding for medals so I can get all the spells.

Rabbit is also playing right? I wonder if it's crushed his soul or if he's found a new fire to persevere and play a challenging game.

Gimpy_Butzke wrote:
Demiurge wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Demi - you are aware that Gimpy did a playthrough of the game without leveling at all, right? All he did was improve his gear. So that at least means leveling is optional.

My endgame character is 80 and done leveling. While leveling definitely improves your stats and makes a huge difference in health and stamina, a big driver in my leveling has been minimum stat requirements on various spells and equipment (mostly spells, one of which requires 50 INT).

I'd heard through the grapevine, sure. But who's to say Gimpy isn't just batsh*t crazy like most of the people who love this game?

...

Man, I love this game.

Yeah, I play Dark Souls like others play WoW. I couldn't sleep last night so I spent from 4am to about noon getting one of my characters into the Sunbro Covenant. Now when I get bored I'm going to be grinding for medals so I can get all the spells.

Rabbit is also playing right? I wonder if it's crushed his soul or if he's found a new fire to persevere and play a challenging game.

I don't think he's played too much. Enough to talk about it's early qualities. Don't believe he's been sucked in like I have.

(Sorry I called you crazy. )

I didn't read into it Demiurge. I'm just glad there will probably be more Dark Souls talk on the podcast, even if it's just that you've enjoyed the game far more than you thought you would.

Kamakazi010654 wrote:

Also, fedaykin and demiurge I hate you both. I am stuck at the in laws the next few days and all I want to do is play Dark Souls

I haven't played Dark Souls since Saturday, if it makes you feel better. I played 5 minutes of Demon's Souls today. I just like to post about the game and keep the undead juices flowing.

And Demi - we want a 20-minute gushing rant on Dark Souls on the podcast every week, with lots of personal anecdotes from your game! Have you been co-oping much? I think the positive energy from "jolly cooperation" is an amazing, deliberate artistic counterpoint to the darkness of the majority of the game.

I'm at my parents house for the week. No dark souls devices here. I may have to get my temporary fix through monster hunter tri on my ye olde Wii.

I broke Dark Souls.
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/I3Jw0.jpg)

So I was going down to Ash Lake, and when I got there the above picture is what I saw. I quit out and tried to reload the game but it would not load. I've since tried to load that character a few times and it looks like that character is not going to load in anymore.

Oh well I hopefully still have 6 or 7 more.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
Kamakazi010654 wrote:

Also, fedaykin and demiurge I hate you both. I am stuck at the in laws the next few days and all I want to do is play Dark Souls

I haven't played Dark Souls since Saturday, if it makes you feel better. I played 5 minutes of Demon's Souls today. I just like to post about the game and keep the undead juices flowing.

And Demi - we want a 20-minute gushing rant on Dark Souls on the podcast every week, with lots of personal anecdotes from your game! Have you been co-oping much? I think the positive energy from "jolly cooperation" is an amazing, deliberate artistic counterpoint to the darkness of the majority of the game.

Just a little bit of co-op so far. And there will definitely be some Dark Souls discussion soon.

Well I tried to get my dark souls fix via a let's play YouTube series, up to the point where I am now. It only made things worse. I guess it's time to sneak in some monster hunter tri and hope for the best.

Dyni was kind enough to gift this to me

I got DSfix going and it runs and looks great at 1080/60fps.

I played a little bit of Demons Souls at a friends house so I get the basic grasp of the game. I got past the tutorial area and have been exploring the second area. A couple questions:

- What's up with Humanity? Should I be using them or saving them?
- What's up with Soul of Lost Undead? Should I be using them or saving them?

And is there an item/stat that you would recommend I save for?

Edit: Oops, a couple more questions:

- I saw you can buy an item to repair your weapon but where does it show your item degradation?
- Can you sell items?

BNice wrote:

Dyni was kind enough to gift this to me

I got DSfix going and it runs and looks great at 1080/60fps.

I played a little bit of Demons Souls at a friends house so I get the basic grasp of the game. I got past the tutorial area and have been exploring the second area. A couple questions:

- What's up with Humanity? Should I be using them or saving them?
- What's up with Soul of Lost Undead? Should I be using them or saving them?

And is there an item/stat that you would recommend I save for?

Edit: Oops, a couple more questions:

- I saw you can buy an item to repair your weapon but where does it show your item degradation?
- Can you sell items?

I haven't used DSfix but I think it makes it harder to play with others online.

Humanity is used to reverse the hollow form which allows you to summon others and also kindle bonfires.

Soul of the Lost Undead is just an item version of souls. It is consumable and you can use it any time. I recommend saving them for when you need a little boost to gain a level or get the upgrade you need.

The item degradation is the durability when you are looking at a weapon or armor. When looking at a weapon or armor you should see it's durability stat somewhere near the bottom right.

You can "sell" items but it isn't for a long time.

EDIT:

That picture above where I broke Dark Souls is not accurate. Dark Souls has fixed itself and I can continue to play that character.

BNice wrote:

Dyni was kind enough to gift this to me

I got DSfix going and it runs and looks great at 1080/60fps.

I played a little bit of Demons Souls at a friends house so I get the basic grasp of the game. I got past the tutorial area and have been exploring the second area. A couple questions:

- What's up with Humanity? Should I be using them or saving them?
- What's up with Soul of Lost Undead? Should I be using them or saving them?

And is there an item/stat that you would recommend I save for?

Edit: Oops, a couple more questions:

- I saw you can buy an item to repair your weapon but where does it show your item degradation?
- Can you sell items?

Souls of undead bestow a quantity of souls. The best way to handle them is save them until you're ready to spend some souls on levels or equipment upgrades, because you keep them if you die.

You can use a Humanity to change the number in the top left. If it's at one, you can become human. You can also spend humanity on kindling bonfires, which is important. You need to be human to summon other players but that also opens the door to invasions (note: co-op still for nambie-pambies). The higher the number, the better chance of stuff dropping, regardless of whether you're in human or undead form.

Item status is one of the numbers in the bar when you look at it, I don't recall exactly. It'll be x/60 or x/150 pretty often, IIRC.

You can sell items once a certain NPC becomes available, but not in a traditional sense and not for as many souls as you'd like.

Bah, Gimped.

Thanks a lot guys!

Do not forget to explore areas fully. Dangers and glorious loot hide in the corners.

Pay special attention to unique merchant goods and loot you find. Many items, either by virtue or design, open up possibilities in the game. Character building has many advantages, but limits as well. The right gear can turn a situation.

When in doubt, shield out.

S0LIDARITY wrote:

When in doubt, shield out.

So true. In fact, I'm having to unlearn holding my shield up constantly so I can keep my Stamina up.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
S0LIDARITY wrote:

When in doubt, shield out.

So true. In fact, I'm having to unlearn holding my shield up constantly so I can keep my Stamina up.

You're learning to doubt less.

When I watched PXA's live-stream of Dark Souls, I was positively scandalized by how seldom he raised his shield! Obviously, just raising it in new areas or in anticipation of a blow is all that's necessary, but my habit for possibly 100 hours of Dark Souls has been to keep my shield up at all times unless I specifically want to lower it.

I think that's the difference in my enjoyment of my second attempt. I find it suits me better to drops shield only to recover stamina or switch to two hands. I also didn't realize that back stabs only work with a lowered shield until I watched a lets play series.

Someone hard sell me on getting the PC version of this game since it's on Steam Sale right now.

Some background:

I originally purchased it on the PS3 last year, put in 40+hrs into the game, haven't touched it since, and eventually sold it.

Pros in PC: Modding community, better textures, a more active/sustainable PS3, cheaper price point + DLC for $20 price point
Cons in PC: Hacking

I liked the game, but the thought of going from scratch again....sucks.

Well, you won't encounter the hacking for the same reason you really won't be able to do much modding - GFWL. You can do a bit of modding, things like DSfix and a few other minor odds and ends, but big mods and hacks will get you banned from GFWL, and thus the multiplayer.

If you buy on PC after having played on PS3, you'd do it because you really love the game and/or want a smoother framerate.

I'm running DSFix now and my lord is it pretty. The latest release added downsampling, which provides some of the best antialiasing you're likely to find. I used it with GTA IV on the PC via the enb mod forever - it's one of the things that makes so many of the GTA IV screenshots look so realistic. My recent PC upgrade is letting me render the game at 2880x1620, downsampling it to 1920x1080. That's 1.5x 1080p, and even that makes everything look amazing. I'll probably try even higher and disable SMAA altogether to remove the fuzziness that method causes.

Regarding playing online with others, there's no problem with it as long as you leave the FPS locked at 30. Unlocking the FPS is the only fix that changes the executable's code. In fact, GFWL have handed out bans for players who are using the feature, since the EXE's signature changes and they can detect it. I'll be happy with my 30fps and jaw dropping visuals.

Man, I'm not sure if I like how stuff respawns when you die since the bonfires are so far apart.

At the moment I'm trying 2 sword method as well which is fun.

I think I'll be fine with figuring out DSFix stuff on my own. I would like to know if there is a 15 to 30 minutes worth of reading beginners guide out there. I would like to save my self some grief in the beginning and not hit you guys up for initial info. I fully expect to take advantage of the GWJer hive mind later, though.