Dark Souls Catch-All

Fedaykin98 wrote:

You are in the right place; apart from suicide runs for loot, the graveyard is for the final stretch of the game.

You can buy a short bow from the vendor in Undead Burg.

Finally, you should ignore the knight at the bottom of the tower (for now), and instead explore the top.

Sounds like you're making great progress!

Yes, never assume you HAVE to kill everything in your way. If it doesn't have a name and a giant health bar at the bottom of the screen, you don't have to fight it just then.

imbiginjapan wrote:

Yes, never assume you HAVE to kill everything in your way. If it doesn't have a name and a giant health bar at the bottom of the screen, you don't have to fight it just then.

And sometimes not even then, if you know what you're doing. The flexibility in this game is amazing.

Only had an hour last night and I spent it all trying to acquire a bow and successfully shoot it Found the vendor by breaking the boxes and going down the stairs off to the side of the main bridge. Bought a bow to learn I needed higher dex to use it. Saw he sold a crossbow so I bought that as well as some bolts; then I figured out you can't really aim a crossbow (ie zoomed in view with targeting reticule?).

Spent the next 20m farming souls to level up my dex to the required level. Got that done, bought some arrows and equipped the short bow. Got to the aiming view but it was telling me I had no arrows Tried equipping them but they wouldn't show up. It was late and I'm sure I dorked something up.

The game has its claws in me for sure to the detriment of my game pile. I'm overdue for some wiki time at least regarding the stat systems and the UI.

The red messages on the ground: are some of these from other players? What is up with the random ghosts that I see die from time to time?

Mesa wrote:

Only had an hour last night and I spent it all trying to acquire a bow and successfully shoot it Found the vendor by breaking the boxes and going down the stairs off to the side of the main bridge. Bought a bow to learn I needed higher dex to use it. Saw he sold a crossbow so I bought that as well as some bolts; then I figured out you can't really aim a crossbow (ie zoomed in view with targeting reticule?).

Spent the next 20m farming souls to level up my dex to the required level. Got that done, bought some arrows and equipped the short bow. Got to the aiming view but it was telling me I had no arrows Tried equipping them but they wouldn't show up. It was late and I'm sure I dorked something up.

The game has its claws in me for sure to the detriment of my game pile. I'm overdue for some wiki time at least regarding the stat systems and the UI.

The red messages on the ground: are some of these from other players? What is up with the random ghosts that I see die from time to time?

Ghosts are other players in their own respective versions of reality; when your positions are close, you can sometimes catch a glimpse of them. I have a theory that you only see people that are in living form, but I have no real evidence to support this.

Yes, the messages on the ground are mostly from other players, some very few are from the game designers.

The arrows can refuse to work if they are in the other arrow slot, as you do have multiple spots. You can access them by press L2 or R2, or equivalent while in the aiming view (on pc or xbox it may be RB or LB).

Dakuna wrote:

The arrows can refuse to work if they are in the other arrow slot, as you do have multiple spots. You can access them by press L2 or R2, or equivalent while in the aiming view (on pc or xbox it is RT or LT).

^^ fixed

@Mesa I'll be playing with a new character maybe tonight and for sure on Saturday. Friend me on steam and hit me up for any advice you may need and/or coop if you're in the mood to play it that way. Though, from the sound of things you're on target to tackle the first big chunk of the game without needing any help at all.

I spent over an hour last night getting beaten down by skeletons in the graveyard off Firelink Shrine before realizing there was a different path to take off the other way....

LibrarianX wrote:

I spent over an hour last night getting beaten down by skeletons in the graveyard off Firelink Shrine before realizing there was a different path to take off the other way....

It is a tale as old as time.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
LibrarianX wrote:

I spent over an hour last night getting beaten down by skeletons in the graveyard off Firelink Shrine before realizing there was a different path to take off the other way....

It is a tale as old as time. :lol:

True story. I wonder if this was part of the designers's intentions.

Dakuna wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:
LibrarianX wrote:

I spent over an hour last night getting beaten down by skeletons in the graveyard off Firelink Shrine before realizing there was a different path to take off the other way....

It is a tale as old as time. :lol:

True story. I wonder if this was part of the designers's intentions.

I always thought the placement of skeletons that are hard to kill with stock weapons/can quickly bleed you to death was supposed to indicate you're going the wrong way. Particularly after the crestfallen warrior's dialog has already told you that one bell is "above" and the other "far below" - these two things combined are probably a sign you need to go up, right?

It's a funny thing though. Especially as the layout of Firelink Shrine doesn't do much to demonstrate how Lordran is a very connected place - you can't see much more than the viaduct, and there's not been anything shown to you yet that suggests the places you can see are places where you can go. Possible failing of having the tutorial in a separate, closed-off environment (although you can go back there too!); maybe Dark Souls 2's opening will suggest this better.

Dakuna wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:
LibrarianX wrote:

I spent over an hour last night getting beaten down by skeletons in the graveyard off Firelink Shrine before realizing there was a different path to take off the other way....

It is a tale as old as time. :lol:

True story. I wonder if this was part of the designers's intentions.

I have no doubt about this. Even in Demons Souls they used the same trick to guide the player. If it's too hard, try something else. I actually really like this way of guiding players because it's not hand holding. If you are an experienced player you are free to take on the harder enemies right away.

I even knew, from listening to GWJ and other discussions about the game, that this sort of thing happened -- it just had to happen to me before I could truly take it on board.

LibrarianX wrote:

I even knew, from listening to GWJ and other discussions about the game, that this sort of thing happened -- it just had to happen to me before I could truly take it on board.

Ha! Yeah, I pretty much did the same thing. The thing is, I had these expectations that Dark Souls was this brutally difficult game which kept me sticking with those skeletons for way too long. When I found/was told where the right path was, I destroyed and it was my first really awesome Dark Souls experience. That was the Ah HAH! moment for me with the game.

I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but patch 1.08 on PS3 seems to be causing graphical flicker issues with anything that has a particle effect. Basically makes it impossible to see about half the souls, corpses to pillage, etc. It only happens if you're playing online, though, so you can get around it by going offline.

Crazy something like that slipped by Sony QA. Hopefully they'll get a patch out soon.

doogiemac wrote:

I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but patch 1.08 on PS3 seems to be causing graphical flicker issues with anything that has a particle effect. Basically makes it impossible to see about half the souls, corpses to pillage, etc. It only happens if you're playing online, though, so you can get around it by going offline.

Crazy something like that slipped by Sony QA. Hopefully they'll get a patch out soon.

Yep, it has stopped me dead in my tracks because I can't see the attacks from the gargoyles. I can only assume they are breathing something as the animation have them leaning their head forward. Looked pretty funny when there's no particles.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

The thing is, I had these expectations that Dark Souls was this brutally difficult game which kept me sticking with those skeletons for way too long. When I found/was told where the right path was, I destroyed and it was my first really awesome Dark Souls experience. That was the Ah HAH! moment for me with the game.

That's EXACTLY what happened to me. Too awesome.

Sorry psoplayer I just now read your post. Friend request sent. Weekends for me tend to yield the least amount of screen time for me as odd as that may seem (married with two kids, weekends are family time essentially).

To the comment about the expectations of brutal difficulty: this has significantly impacted my approach to this game. Case in point is that black knight in undead burg. I'm only four hours into the game but probably 2 of those have been black knight attempts. Why do I keep pulling him instead of moving on? Because I feel like dying repeatedly and learning a hard encounter is the meat of the game and by skipping him I'm missing out on what the game is all about or something to that effect.

Tonight I'm finally going to move on from the burg. To that black knight: I'll be back

While I admire your persistence, I think that you're actually missing a significant part of what the game is trying to teach you: You can't always kill something the first time you encounter it, and it's OK to come back later when you're better equipped.

Elycion wrote:

While I admire your persistence, I think that you're actually missing a significant part of what the game is trying to teach you: You can't always kill something the first time you encounter it, and it's OK to come back later when you're better equipped.

I think he was trying to say that the game's reputation has prevented him from learning this lesson as quickly as he should. This is a weird phenomenon that has been happening since Dark Souls began gaining some traction, though it is pretty hilarious

Just in this thread, it seems like about half of the new recruits spend entirely too much time trying to battle the graveyard skeletons and Black Knights because they've all heard that Dark Souls is supposed to be insanely difficult. I know Jeff Cannata said he spent 2 or 3 hours trying to kill those skeletons, and countless other games press people have said the same on podcasts or in articles.

Here's another from Polygon:

I think if most people went into this game without knowing its reputation, they'd learn much more quickly.

Dyni wrote:
Elycion wrote:

While I admire your persistence, I think that you're actually missing a significant part of what the game is trying to teach you: You can't always kill something the first time you encounter it, and it's OK to come back later when you're better equipped.

I think he was trying to say that the game's reputation has prevented him from learning this lesson as quickly as he should. This is a weird phenomenon that has been happening since Dark Souls began gaining some traction, though it is pretty hilarious

Just in this thread, it seems like about half of the new recruits spend entirely too much time trying to battle the graveyard skeletons and Black Knights because they've all heard that Dark Souls is supposed to be insanely difficult. I know Jeff Cannata said he spent 2 or 3 hours trying to kill those skeletons, and countless other games press people have said the same on podcasts or in articles.

I think if most people went into this game without knowing its reputation, they'd learn much more quickly.

Makes perfect sense. I had a similar issue, although I did think that the graveyard was probably not the place I should be lurking about quickly enough. The reason why I hung out there was that I'm and obstinate fool who wanted to get the better of the skeletons. I moved on after managing to get my first skeleton kill with miserably low level equipment.

I rang the first bell! I felt I was going the wrong way and had to backtrack a good deal to it though. I had run across the moonlight butterfly and gotten my rear handed to me. Plus all of the enemies there were ridiculous. Now to just figure out where to go next.

obirano wrote:

I rang the first bell! I felt I was going the wrong way and had to backtrack a good deal to it though. I had run across the moonlight butterfly and gotten my rear handed to me. Plus all of the enemies there were ridiculous. Now to just figure out where to go next.

Congrats!

Yeah, the stone guardians before the Butterfly and the tree ents can be a handful. Since the other bell, as hinted at by the dude in Firelink Shrine, is below, well...

Is there anyone still playing the 360 version?

obirano wrote:

Is there anyone still playing the 360 version?

I still play now and then, though I must admit Demon's Souls has taken over as of late. I have to renew my gold account, though, but as soon as I do, I'm up for jolly co-op!

What's your current level?

20 something.

I just got the 360 version.

I'm not still playing, but I'm up for coordinating a time to meet up and co-op with Goodjers on 360.

Anyone feel free to add me on 360. I'd love to try co-op.

obirano wrote:

Anyone feel free to add me on 360. I'd love to try co-op.

Done! Toss out a night that's good for you, and I'll check with the boss. Monday is bad for me, though. I'm drafting the new Magic set for the first time with TheWalt and friends.

Very productive night after ignoring the previous tough spots. Killed the Taurus Demon. I admit I read a guide on this one after about five attempts and ended up going with the jump attack from the sniper tower and then kiting him back and forth to repeat the jump attack and even with that strategy it took me another good three or four attempts. Same guide I was reading mentioned shooting the tail of the big dragon that comes up next to get the drake sword which I did and now I feel like I cheesed my way into a weapon that is *way* better than I had before Moved forward and killed the boar in the parish by shooting him from a higher vantage point with arrows (felt particularly proud of this 'cheese' because I didn't read it in a guide after my previous guide-based victories).

I'm sitting on 13k souls and I gather that I should be upgrading weapons/armor. I think I can't do that until I progress a little bit further. Also does anyone have a link to a good explanation of the dark souls UI? Been googling for it and haven't had any luck. Current confusion point is a shield icon with a green arrow on it pointing upwards under my health/endurance bars and I don't know what it means.