Dark Souls Catch-All

There are quite a few very hard games out there, which I do not like, but what makes Dark Souls worth it to me is the rewards; beautiful worlds, amazing loot, new strange characters, tidbits of lore, finely honed skills, and the knowledge and ability needed to adapt to almost any situation. If this was just a difficult Mario clone I would not play it. It has so much depth and balance and it is all set in a gorgeous 3D world where you get to see your character evolve.

S0LIDARITY wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

an hour without dying. Until then, you're still handicapped by the bad habits taught by other games.

I'm nearly there. Cursed ledges.

If you cleared Depths from the entrance to the fog door, you're there. Never mind the arbitrary one hour figure.

So, I found how to return to the Undead Asylum today. I lost some souls/humanity to the Stray Demon. That fight seemed less fair to me than the Capra Demon. I may just be bitter because I lost 6 humanity and about 15k souls.

Spoiler:

The surprise drop and forced heal set me on my heels the first few times. I eventually figured out how to stay out of range of his giant fire attacks and how to goad him into flying up and attempting the easily avoided 'ass-drop' attack.

EDIT: I know I've stayed alive for more than an hour at a time before. I just feel like a noob whenever I fall off a ledge, aka 5 times a night.

2nd EDIT: Now trading with Snuggly the crow. How the hell did anyone figure this out?

S0LIDARITY wrote:

So, I found how to return to the Undead Asylum today. I lost some souls/humanity to the Stray Demon. That fight seemed less fair to me than the Capra Demon. I may just be bitter because I lost 6 humanity and about 15k souls.

Spoiler:

The surprise drop and forced heal set me on my heels the first few times. I eventually figured out how to stay out of range of his giant fire attacks and how to goad him into flying up and attempting the easily avoided 'ass-drop' attack.

Spoiler:

There are two important pieces of loot in that area: The Peculiar Doll and the Rusted Ring. The doll opens up the Painted World and the ring is very useful in particular situations. If you did not get them, go back. You will need the key which is on top of a roof in Firelink.

RE: Heavyfeul spoiler
Already took care of that. I haven't left yet, I am doing a bunch of crow trades while i'm here.

Crow trading was in Demon's Souls, too. I haven't done it in either game yet, as it seems like a pain.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Crow trading was in Demon's Souls, too. I haven't done it in either game yet, as it seems like a pain.

It was the best way for me to get max rank in the Dragon Covenant. Doing voluntary PVP to get dragon scales is ridiculous.

So, I'm still at the very beginning by the Firelink Shrine. Is there anything that I should be concentrating on specifically doing at this point? I've wandered around the area a teeny bit. There were a couple skeleton dudes at a cemetery that I could probably kill if I really took my time. For now, I'll keep wandering around.

I've had to give up downsampling which is okay. I was getting drops to 15 fps at this Firelink Shrine area when you look at stuff with things far off in the difference. If they fix SLI, I can go back to it. For now, I'm happy with the DSfix results. The one nice thing about going back to the native resolution of my monitor is that the UI resizing and transparency works again. Hurray!

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

So, I'm still at the very beginning by the Firelink Shrine. Is there anything that I should be concentrating on specifically doing at this point? I've wandered around the area a teeny bit. There were a couple skeleton dudes at a cemetery that I could probably kill if I really took my time. For now, I'll keep wandering around.

I've had to give up downsampling which is okay. I was getting drops to 15 fps at this Firelink Shrine area when you look at stuff with things far off in the difference. If they fix SLI, I can go back to it. For now, I'm happy with the DSfix results. The one nice thing about going back to the native resolution of my monitor is that the UI resizing and transparency works again. Hurray!

The path where the skeleton area leads to is far too hard to tackle in the beginning. Though there are some items up there that you could probably get to. Although if you really want a virgin experience, go wherever you want and just feel out if you can do it or not. Otherwise,

Spoiler:

go up the hill / stairs on the wall past the well to the 'easy' zone.

Omaha wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

So, I'm still at the very beginning by the Firelink Shrine. Is there anything that I should be concentrating on specifically doing at this point? I've wandered around the area a teeny bit. There were a couple skeleton dudes at a cemetery that I could probably kill if I really took my time. For now, I'll keep wandering around.

I've had to give up downsampling which is okay. I was getting drops to 15 fps at this Firelink Shrine area when you look at stuff with things far off in the difference. If they fix SLI, I can go back to it. For now, I'm happy with the DSfix results. The one nice thing about going back to the native resolution of my monitor is that the UI resizing and transparency works again. Hurray!

The path where the skeleton area leads to is far too hard to tackle in the beginning. Though there are some items up there that you could probably get to. Although if you really want a virgin experience, go wherever you want and just feel out if you can do it or not. Otherwise,

Spoiler:

go up the hill / stairs on the wall past the well to the 'easy' zone.

Heheh... I just started wandering up there. So far, those enemies are perfect. So satisfying. Getting that first shield zombie guy who charges at you by dodging up the stairs was perfect. I managed to get him without dying, too. I'm progressing really slowly but enjoying every enemy encounter. I actually had those 2 skeletons down halfway by luring them up into some close quarters in the second level of the shrine. Still died, though. Yeah, it's a little tough when they can probably take 20-30 hits or so.

Anyways, love it, love it, love it! The score seems pretty great, too!

The game actually hints that you need to go that way, but it's MUCH subtler than most games, so it's easy to miss.

Spoiler:

So I was working my way through blighttown. I found it while exploring via valley of drakes. I was super excited to find another fire keeper soul after dying of toxicity repeatedly. I returned back to firelink to cash that in. To my supreme frustration the firekeeper is now gone. I can't relight the bonfire. This seems real bad. Did I break my game?

Nope, that's normal. Hold on to that thing!

Spoiler:

Make sure you collect anything she might have dropped...don't use anything until you're prompted to do so in a later zone. You'll know when it's time.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Omaha wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

So, I'm still at the very beginning by the Firelink Shrine. Is there anything that I should be concentrating on specifically doing at this point? I've wandered around the area a teeny bit. There were a couple skeleton dudes at a cemetery that I could probably kill if I really took my time. For now, I'll keep wandering around.

I've had to give up downsampling which is okay. I was getting drops to 15 fps at this Firelink Shrine area when you look at stuff with things far off in the difference. If they fix SLI, I can go back to it. For now, I'm happy with the DSfix results. The one nice thing about going back to the native resolution of my monitor is that the UI resizing and transparency works again. Hurray!

The path where the skeleton area leads to is far too hard to tackle in the beginning. Though there are some items up there that you could probably get to. Although if you really want a virgin experience, go wherever you want and just feel out if you can do it or not. Otherwise,

Spoiler:

go up the hill / stairs on the wall past the well to the 'easy' zone.

Heheh... I just started wandering up there. So far, those enemies are perfect. So satisfying. Getting that first shield zombie guy who charges at you by dodging up the stairs was perfect. I managed to get him without dying, too. I'm progressing really slowly but enjoying every enemy encounter. I actually had those 2 skeletons down halfway by luring them up into some close quarters in the second level of the shrine. Still died, though. Yeah, it's a little tough when they can probably take 20-30 hits or so.

Anyways, love it, love it, love it! The score seems pretty great, too!

You can take on the skeletons in the graveyard pretty early on if you remember what you learned in the asylum. Dropping from a height puts a real hurt on whatever's at the bottom of your fall. I rang the first bell and wandered over there long enough to find some nice toys, but decided I needed some different equipment to fight the restless, fleshless undead. I'm in a similar boat now, wandering around a bit to find a new place to play. I've got some items in my inventory that hint at where I should go, but I have to say I love the fact that the game refuses to hold my hand

I noticed that sometimes I will glow and receive an extra Estus flask. What is triggering that?

BNice wrote:

I noticed that sometimes I will glow and receive an extra Estus flask. What is triggering that?

Another player kindled a bonfire near you.

Dyni wrote:
BNice wrote:

I noticed that sometimes I will glow and receive an extra Estus flask. What is triggering that?

Another player kindled a bonfire near you.

Sweet.

You know what's not sweet?

THESE f*ckING ARCHERS IN ANOR LONDO!!!!!!!!!!!

All the Dark Souls talk, plus playing with Solid last night, plus the prospect of needing to perhaps start a new character in Demon's Souls after cocking up my first one (see thread) has inspired me to finally finish Dark Souls. I set it down in favor of Demon's Souls because I wanted to do everything one does before NG+, but didn't feel like doing all the boring stuff right now (google NG+ checklist if interested).

Anyway, tonight I got back to it and decided to start by crafting a Chaos weapon, recommended for certain enemies in NG+. Since I'm very fond of the Longsword/Shortsword fighting style, I considered one of them, but when I examined Andre's wares (ha!), I realized I'd never had a broadsword, which is in the same family. I decided to go with that.

Had to make a trip to Lost Izalith to farm a couple more red chunks, and then had to make the run to Vamos for the crafting. Before embarking, I went ahead and levelled my Divine Estoc from +5 to +10 for extra damage and the cheevo.

As far as I know, Firelink is the closest warp point to Vamos, although I first tried backtracking from Tomb of Giants - that did not seem to work. I didn't want to run all the way from Firelink to his forge, but since I'd opened all the shortcuts, it turned out to be quick and painless.

So now I have my Enchanted Longsword +5, a Divine Estoc +10, and a Chaos Broadsword +5. Slowly but surely, I'm checking those boxes.

I agree with those in the Deals thread saying that parrying isn't worth the hassle. I think I've pulled off one parry and riposte, and I was completely underwhelmed. Just block or dodge.

Agreed. I've done it a few times, but it was always when I went out of my way to specifically try it. I can never just incorporate it into a standard fight.

Skip parrying, but learn backstabbing.

Dyni wrote:

Skip parrying, but learn backstabbing.

Troof.

Apparently I'm playing this game wrong, I riposte whenever the opportunity arises.

mr_n00b wrote:

Apparently I'm playing this game wrong, I riposte whenever the opportunity arises.

Part of the beauty of the game is the viability of different approaches, imho!

Fedaykin98 wrote:
mr_n00b wrote:

Apparently I'm playing this game wrong, I riposte whenever the opportunity arises.

Part of the beauty of the game is the viability of different approaches, imho!

Well, that's why I was trying to learn it. It's extremely powerful and the riposte makes you invulnerable for a sec. It's just really difficult for me to pull off. I have about a 50% success rate with normal enemies (totally not worth it unless I get better). I still haven't gone back and tried to do it after watching the tutorial video. Anyways, I think I'll have a go at the game here in a bit. I will forget parry for now to remove some frustration.

For me, trying to parry lowers my survivability dramatically.

Parrying is certainly useful, but I think backstabbing is a better skill to practice, as the game progresses (and I am only up to Sen's with most of Darkroot cleared) there seems to be more an more enemies especially big ones that hurt that can't be parried or at least are nearly impossible to do so.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

For me, trying to parry lowers my survivability dramatically.

I've gotten very good with parry, and use it often - though rarely against an opponent I haven't played fought previously. For the enemies I've faced so far, it's worked very well. That said, I make sure I'm dodging & backstabbing as much as possible as well. As with all things in this game, I'm finding the demands placed on my skills to be ever changing.

If you feel like trying parry, remember that you're vulnerable for some time if you fail. Larger shields incur a longer time, and small (e.g. target) shields incur a shorter time. The trade off for these smaller shields is obvious - they block less physical damage and you're less stable than if you had a big one. Regardless, parry/riposte remains a high risk/high reward move that's perfect for moving quickly through an area you've mastered if you don't want to sprint past everything.

I'm running a dex-based wanderer at the moment, so the small shield with a few good dodge works wonders for me. I'm still switching to my normal shield against some opponents though.

So, I absolutely love my current UI:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/508B7l.jpg)

Got the Taurus Demon after 2 tries. Not bad. I figured I would have had more trouble with it. I just:

Spoiler:

used a battle axe with both hands to drop on him, dodged around and ran back the path a ways, rolled through and did the same thing again. I've decided to just completely embrace walkthroughs for so many reasons. I didn't know if there was a fire close ahead and was contemplating returning. I'm glad I checked a walkthrough, because I'm not certain if I would make it through the next part. I probably would have been fine getting to the next bonfire, but I had so many souls and didn't want to lose them. Anyways, I'll probably be hitting up the wiki most of the time. The game is still pretty fun. Oh yeah, eff the 360 D-Pad That screwed me up the first time with the Taurus Demon