Dark Souls Catch-All

Sounds like my plan should work fine. It's really not a huge deal to me at this point. I like how it's going. Thanks!

Strength and dexterity really don't scale well enough with a weapon like the long sword to make them worth it on a first play through. If you're planning ahead for multiple playthroughs, it may be worth it to gimp yourself a bit on the first run for smoother sailing on subsequent runs.

You would be better off focusing on endurance and vitality and making it a max rank fire or lightning long sword. You'd be trading survivability and utility for equal or lesser damage by focusing on STR and DEX.

Only focus on strength for playthrough 1 if you're planning on using a BIG, slow weapon with high scaling. I did this for playthrough number 1 with my Demon Great Axe.

Only focus on dexterity if you're using one of the very few weapons with high dexterity scaling, like select daggers or the Silver Knight Spear.

If you're not doing one of these, you should only need enough STR and DEX to meet the minimum requirements on the weapons you want to use. Fire and Lightning enchants are going to be stronger without high weapon scaling and Soul Levels.

So, I'm new to Dark Souls, but I've seen some of the PC port hate around the webs. Is there recommended mods/etc. to make this more playable/awesome on PC?

superjars wrote:

So, I'm new to Dark Souls, but I've seen some of the PC port hate around the webs. Is there recommended mods/etc. to make this more playable/awesome on PC?

It's already totally playable without having to do a thing. It's a simple task to make it more visually awesome: see previous page

Thanks for the info, Dyni.

Yeah, superjars. Get DSFix and go through the read me. It's fairly straightforward to edit the .ini. Then, go to the Dark Souls Mod Nexus and get the text, button, and UI mods that look good to you. Just make sure to keep the 30 fps lock going if you are connecting to live so that you don't get banned.

So I got summoned 4 times to fight the Iron Golem. I was trying to get one humanity so I could summon others. Somehow the summoner died all 4 times. I don't understand how people are so bad against this boss. I eventually got a free humanity for killing a balder knight. In my Iron golem attempt, I don't think anyone in the group took any damage. However, I forgot to repair my weapons for a while and I'm now out of pyromancy and my katana needs repair and I can't find a bonfire. It's a bit intimidating running around a fresh area with 50k in souls and missing my offensive staples.

There is a bonfire nearby (outside area below the boss area). Look for a break in a stone rail (half wall) on your way up from Sen's interior. It is on a small balcony and you have to drop down from the break in the wall to reach it.

There is an important shortcut key in another part of the the area as well. You have to jump the gap in the railless stone walkway to get it. It's tricky, but it makes traversing Sen's so much more convenient.

I found that thanks to an orange hint. Now I'm in Anor Londo but my xbox froze as I walked over a sunbro summoning sign. Xbox isn't actually starting up now. Just spiral in the middle for like 3 minutes. Ugh.

EDIT: It restarted after like 5 minutes of spinning. Praise the Sun!

There are no enemies between that fight and the next bonfire, unless you go out of your way to engage them.

It's also a very, very short walk.

Woohoo! First bell rung!

Ended up in Painted world of aramais on accident. Not sure if this where I'm supposed to be, helped some people defend against invaders and co-op the undead dragon and Priscilla. While exploring on my own I lost 70k souls because I have no idea how to safely evade the harpy-head stomp attack.

S0LIDARITY wrote:

I have no idea how to safely evade the harpy-head stomp attack.

Move or roll forward, after they jump.

It feels unnatural to go toward the enemy instead of dodging back, but they are special.

I got the item from where they spawn. I don't plan on going back to that spot. One really weird thing happened to me though. I was looking for some jolly co-op and kept getting summoned but these two players just kept waiting for the other one to invade then have me fight them. I'm not sure why. Seemed like a good opportunity to learn PVP since there was no risk. I only won one fight out of like 4. I kept getting lag-back-stabbed.

Chumpy_McChump wrote:

Woohoo! First bell rung!

Nice!

I made an announcement in the Demon's Souls thread, but that game is going downloadable on January 8 - wish I'd known; I'd rather play off HD than disc.

They will be celebrating with a Pure White World Tendency for six days, which is a pretty rare thing.

Yay!

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/Ukhnkl.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/FRponl.jpg)

This is probably a better example of what my UI is like:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/7g7KZl.jpg)

I scaled the images to 1920x1080 for posting. Anyways, the game is still great stuff. After I did the bell, I unsuccessfully tried The Black Knight in Undead Burg a couple times. I had some good ideas to sort of trick him. I wanted to lure him way over to that ladder and jump attack him. I couldn't get him over there, unfortunately. I even got him down to maybe 25% health on the first try when I wasn't doing that, but I screwed up. Ultimately tried the parry method and was destroyed. That's enough for tonight.

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that a Dark Souls anime would be the best thing ever. It's probably already been mentioned in the thread.

I don't know if it has, but I'm pretty sure I've inquired about dark medieval fantasy/horror comics in the comic book thread. Not too many out there.

Seriously, do a comic - or hey, I'm open to your idea of an anime - in the Dark Souls style, maye throw in a dash of Lovecraft...that would be amazing.

Edit to add that there's already SOME Lovecraft in the series. Demon's Souls starts with someone foolishly waking up an Old One.

Yeah, I think maybe Claymore is the closest thing I can think of anime-wise. I never liked it, though. I can easily picture an anime like Dark Souls, though. I just want to be able to experience something like Dark/Demon Souls without having to put in that mental effort. Surprisingly, compared to many video games, I don't find Dark Souls to require lots of mental effort and strain. The mechanics are great, so I never get really frustrated.

Lots of progress in only a couple of hours. Explored all over the place, found new shortcuts, kindled a new campfire, took down a crazy bull, super tower shield man, and crazy caster mage man and his swarm of zombies all on first encounter all without dying! Then I found the rooftop... And then I found that discovering a new campfire is not the same as resting at it.

Finding myself in the burbs, like tuffalo, I decided to try my hand at taking down black knight. On my third attempt I managed to land a parry/riposte, allowing me to finish him off with a couple more slashes before he had a chance to get back on his feet.

At lvl 21 now, and I'm feeling well equipped with my longsword+5 and colorful new shield. Next up... rooftop again? Before I died up there I noticed a couple of animations I can probably use as openings. Just have to spend a little more time learning to identify the tells and how to reliably dodge.

Is the Black Knight in Undead Burg that hard? I'm a big fan of block-counter, or roll-back-when-they-start-the-attack-animation-then-run-in-and-counter; both of those seem to work pretty universally. Except for the Capra Demon. Seriously; screw that guy. And his dogs. And the rocks in his friggin' courtyard that make it really easy for the dogs to trap me.

S0LIDARITY wrote:

RE: Dark Souls-like anime. It's a stretch but it kind of reminds me of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The mysticism, dark-tones, and fast-paced combat hit some of the same notes. It lacks the medieval elements and dragons and undead, but I'm still thinking of the Iron Golem as Alphonse Elric.

Oh yeah! That's totally what I was picturing, just a bit more realistic looking and dark souls-ey. I loved the old Fullmetal Alchemist and Brotherhood. Thanks for the reminder. I do believe that's why I could picture Dark Souls as an anime.

BNice wrote:
psoplayer wrote:

BTW, this game is a real monster. Not for the hardcore nature or difficulty for which it is known, but for the way it has been all I could think about today.

Yeah, ever since I started playing it's dominated my mind.

Ornstein & Smough down!

I'm a little lost as to where I'm supposed to go now. I assumed it was the giant orange door in Anor Londo but apparently not.

This game haunts me every waking moment. Absolutely the best game ever. I did some co-op on my level 13 cleric (might be 15 now), and helped somebody cut off the Bell Gargoyle's tail (wish more helpful people would focus on things like that).

I'm trying to figure out why people find the Capra Demon hard, I failed twice due to silliness (the first time I didn't realize I was going into a boss fight, and the second time I accidentally had my bow equipped). After that I just

Spoiler:

used the falling attack on him repeatedly with my +5 winged spear.

I think I only had to heal like 3 times.

I can't believe I missed the Large Ember so many times, and eventually had to look it up! What a noob I am!

Loving the titanite farming in the depths, but those curse frogs can kiss my butt.

S0LIDARITY wrote:

RE: Dark Souls-like anime. It's a stretch but it kind of reminds me of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The mysticism, dark-tones, and fast-paced combat hit some of the same notes. It lacks the medieval elements and dragons and undead, but I'm still thinking of the Iron Golem as Alphonse Elric.

I imagine it would turn out like the anime Bleach where there is a ton of filler and the characters all become demigods in terms of ability. If Demon's/Dark Souls went the anime route I would hope for a miniseries, or a very well defined story arc that would run for two to three seasons tops.

RE: Dark Souls-like anime. It's a stretch but it kind of reminds me of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The mysticism, dark-tones, and fast-paced combat hit some of the same notes. It lacks the medieval elements and dragons and undead, but I'm still thinking of the Iron Golem as Alphonse Elric.

EDIT: @Chumpy, I feel like I'm the only one that didn't struggle a whole lot with the Capra Demon. I got him on my second try and it was solo.

How I beat him.

Spoiler:

First attempt, I walked in. Shielded, got trapped by the demon and the dogs while trying to observe his attack patterns. Second attempt, I shielded the first blow then rolled my way behind him. Saw the dogs coming, ran behind them too. Saw the stairs, ran up those and about-faced. Took out the dogs one by one with a block+counter. Capra demon was coming after me at this point and I jumped off the ledge and I whittled him down via my standard strategy. Sword -> Butt.

Gimpy_Butzke wrote:
S0LIDARITY wrote:

RE: Dark Souls-like anime. It's a stretch but it kind of reminds me of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The mysticism, dark-tones, and fast-paced combat hit some of the same notes. It lacks the medieval elements and dragons and undead, but I'm still thinking of the Iron Golem as Alphonse Elric.

I imagine it would turn out like the anime Bleach where there is a ton of filler and the characters all become demigods in terms of ability. If Demon's/Dark Souls went the anime route I would hope for a miniseries, or a very well defined story arc that would run for two to three seasons tops.

I think one of the Bleach Games was even called Bleach: Dark Souls. Bleach would be kinda close if Dark Souls was a game about your main character turning into a progressively more powerful superman every-time your health bar got below 20%.

Maybe what I really want is a Dark Souls game set in the Fullmetal Alchiverse?

EDIT: There was also the terrible, terrible DMC anime.

Dakuna wrote:

I'm trying to figure out why people find the Capra Demon hard, I failed twice due to silliness (the first time I didn't realize I was going into a boss fight, and the second time I accidentally had my bow equipped).

When people say that fight is hard, they're referring to the first 5-30 seconds of the fight, when you first enter the tiny room and the dogs are alive. Once the dogs are dead, he's not bad.

I beat him on my first try during playthrough number one, but subsequent playthroughs took several attempts. Don't dismiss the possibility that you guys just got a little lucky The opening to that fight is very much helped by a bit of luck.

@Dyni, that's a fair point. I'll find out on my next playthrough.

So far every time I've walked into that room, I get either knocked down by the demon's first attack and then hedged in by the dogs, or trapped on walls or bloody rocks (and then dogs) while trying to get around him.

What level is appropriate to face him? I'm currently 31.

Chumpy, I'd guess way less than that. I think I got him at like 15. If you're still having trouble, I'd recommend watching a play-through of someone taking him out. Be careful though, Dark Souls let's play videos are a rabbit-hole for me.

Using the stairs is key to the Capra fight.

Getting to the stairs the first time with the dogs alive is the hardest part of the fight though.

Once the dogs are gone, it's very easy.

Summoning a friend can really help with the opening.