Dark Souls Catch-All

Woot!

Beat the Iron Golem at the end of Sen's Fortress first try and got dragged to Anor Londo. That is a pretty, pretty area. Wandered around a bit, and then found my way to the cathedral.

So pretty!

Wow just Iron Gollum down too, what quick work a +10 weapon makes! First try as well. I recall him being more difficult and maybe as a first few runs the size and landscape made me worried. On to Anor Londo, if only I could be so grossly incandescent

Darted pasted the archers in Anor Londo first try. Wow that never goes so well. I nearly quit there my first playthrough.

So I'm a sucker and bought the remaster. I beat Dark Souls years ago, after a copy of the Prepare to Die edition dropped onto my lap during a Steam sale -- well, I hesitate to say that "I" beat it, because a very kind Goodjer (thanks AVH ) helped power me through with enormous patience while I struggled to land even a single backstab. In the years since, I've played through about 75% of DS2 and DS3, but didn't get around to finishing them off, for various reasons.

Anyway. The remaster release and Sean's video series got me hooked on the idea of playing DS1 again, and so I began a couple of days ago. I have intense memories of some areas, and vague recollections of others so far. I'm trying to be more patient and methodical when I play. I never got the hang of parry/riposte through any of my previous Souls experience, but I'm happy to say that it's finally clicked with me now; doesn't always succeed, but often enough to keep me in business.

I so far have been playing Hollow, soloing environments and bosses. I've defeated up through the Gargoyles and the Capra Demon, as well as a few minibosses (e.g. hydra & butterfly). The Taurus Demon was probably the most difficult fight so far, surprisingly. Shortly after that fight, I switched over from a Scimitar to the Drake Sword (which I remembered how to cheese from my first time playing), and then more recently, to the Black Knight Sword. I love the speed of the Drake Sword, but its lack of scale means it probably isn't worth investing in; I love the damage output and the ability to operate in narrow corridors of the BKS, but it demands extreme patience and precision... and I don't know how worthwhile it is to upgrade. I'm also using a Crest Shield for defense, while I run around naked. It's been working pretty well.

I killed Quelaag on the first attempt (with assistance from Maneater Mildred). I also leveled Faith a bit and switched over to Astora's Straight Sword; it doesn't hit quite as hard as the Black Knight Sword, but it looks like it scales a bit better and it's much lighter, so I can actually wear some armor.

Then I inadvertently ran into the open pit where the elevator out of New Londo Ruins should have been, and lost 30k souls (I died again while en route to recover by falling off the wooden waterwheel contraption). Ah well.

C’est la Dark Souls.

Hobear wrote:

Darted pasted the archers in Anor Londo first try. Wow that never goes so well. I nearly quit there my first playthrough.

Well done!

In relation to your other post, I feel like the Iron Gollum was about the time I realised that helping other folks beat bosses was a lot of fun so I have some affection for the big lunk.

I tried watching Sean's Dark Souls run through but it didn't click with me. I think I just don't enjoy watching people that are "forced" to play a game when they have very little interest in it. Plus I knew it was going to end immediately after the terms of the bet were met. Unfinished Let's Play's are a huge pet peeve with me.

It did make me fight the urge to go pick it up myself for the umpteenth time. I resisted though. Way too many other games I need to get through.

I've played the game too many times to be able to enjoy watching people new to the game play it.

I beat the Iron Golem last night (man, I had forgotten what an annoyance Sen's Fortress is). Then, while exploring the area leading up to Ornstein & Smough (a few dozen times *cough*), I decided that my +5 Astora's Straight Sword just wasn't cutting it (ha!), and powerlevelled a Claymore to +10. That weapon is a beast, even without Pine Resin applied. I finally feel like I'm doing the right amount of damage output. O&S are down now.

That feeling of mastery of an environment and of its denizens is really something. First time seeing a new enemy: "Hmm, I wonder what your attac... OMG I AM GOING TO DIE". An hour later: "Hey look, free souls. Come here, you!"

The true Zen state of Dark Souls is "oh you ... I don't have to kill you I'll just run past..."

merphle wrote:

I beat the Iron Golem last night (man, I had forgotten what an annoyance Sen's Fortress is). Then, while exploring the area leading up to Ornstein & Smough (a few dozen times *cough*), I decided that my +5 Astora's Straight Sword just wasn't cutting it (ha!), and powerlevelled a Claymore to +10. That weapon is a beast, even without Pine Resin applied. I finally feel like I'm doing the right amount of damage output. O&S are down now.

That feeling of mastery of an environment and of its denizens is really something. First time seeing a new enemy: "Hmm, I wonder what your attac... OMG I AM GOING TO DIE". An hour later: "Hey look, free souls. Come here, you!"

I tried the large swords, and they just seemed way too slow. I am really liking the gargoyle halberd right now.

mudbunny wrote:

I tried the large swords, and they just seemed way too slow. I am really liking the gargoyle halberd right now.

they are very much a timing weapon. Lots of weapons function well with a "parry/block then riposte" rhythm. The greatswords and big clubs are more about getting the timing to make the first strike as your enemy moves in to range. Very satisfying to splat an enemy on the head before they can even attack

*nods*

I just could never get the hang of the timing. I tried the large club, and after 30 minutes, still could not handle the timing right, and I just did not really like the moveset. I tried the greatsword you can get near firelink, but that was even worse for me.

The right bumper 2-handed attack for the gargoyle halberd is just right for me.

DanB wrote:
mudbunny wrote:

I tried the large swords, and they just seemed way too slow. I am really liking the gargoyle halberd right now.

they are very much a timing weapon. Lots of weapons function well with a "parry/block then riposte" rhythm. The greatswords and big clubs are more about getting the timing to make the first strike as your enemy moves in to range. Very satisfying to splat an enemy on the head before they can even attack

Exactly. It’s about killing the enemy in the first hit, before they even know they’re in danger. The leaping heavy-attack is my favorite.

merphle wrote:
DanB wrote:
mudbunny wrote:

I tried the large swords, and they just seemed way too slow. I am really liking the gargoyle halberd right now.

they are very much a timing weapon. Lots of weapons function well with a "parry/block then riposte" rhythm. The greatswords and big clubs are more about getting the timing to make the first strike as your enemy moves in to range. Very satisfying to splat an enemy on the head before they can even attack

Exactly. It’s about killing the enemy in the first hit, before they even know they’re in danger. The leaping heavy-attack is my favorite.

The leaping attack is the key to making the heaviest weapons work well. It's an attack that executes at the same speed for a 2h greatsword as a 1h longsword, but it has much better reach and hits way harder with a heavy weapon.

The Demon's Greataxe dropped for me from the Taurus Demon during my very first run, so naturally I pumped my Str until I could use it. The majority of my damage with that thing was jumping attacks. It flattened everything. It's so satisfying to repeatedly pancake an enemy every time they try to stand up.

Can't say I ever got on with the greatclub movesets either but the greatswords have their charm

I liked the claymore moveset more than Zweihander so I was using that. The blackknight halberd is just amazing though. +5 and destroys everything. Damage is amazing.

Damn 4 kings. What a dps race...another try later or tomorrow morning.

Havel's Armor helps with 4 kings. Tank tank swing swing heal heal.

The Anor Londo archers can suck a bag of goat testicles.

So, to tempted to make the excruciatingly long trip back to buy some arrows so I can cheese them from a distance.

mudbunny wrote:

The Anor Londo archers can suck a bag of goat testicles.

So, to tempted to make the excruciatingly long trip back to buy some arrows so I can cheese them from a distance.

Yeah, those archers were so, so, so annoying my first playthrough. What made it worse was missing the next bonfire after I beat them and had to do it again. However, if you have a fast roll, you can roll through the great arrows fairly easily. At least it is for me. Who kept dying a lot the first time.

DARK SOULS!

psu_13 wrote:

Havel's Armor helps with 4 kings. Tank tank swing swing heal heal.

Yeah did that before trying to do it separately. Got them over half down on a second run. They'll be the 4 dead kings soon.

mudbunny wrote:

The Anor Londo archers can suck a bag of goat testicles.

So, to tempted to make the excruciatingly long trip back to buy some arrows so I can cheese them from a distance.

Strategy below.

Spoiler:

Some do poison arrows. Honestly run up from the Darkmoon bonfire, run past the Giants, past the gargoyles, Sprint down to the 2nd set of gargoyles, run past them up to the safe spot at the tower. Time the run around so you don't get hit and run up, go straight right and roll nearly the whole time or time the rolls on the arrows, get up in the silver knights face. You're good to block here. Either you'll fight on the ledge or if you can parry do that. If your lucky it will push off the geometry. Clear sailing. Don't worry about guy to the left

.

To be honest if you opened all the lift/cage shortcuts in Sen's then the run back to Andre isn't that far.

Third round of the 4 kings did them in. Since then a load of bosses have fallen.

This thread got me in the mood to play this again, so I treated myself to a copy on the Switch. I've been trying out Dyni's advice from a few pages back about focusing on Endurance and weapon upgrades over scaling damage stats. I also decided to give Pyromancy a try since I've never dabbled in it before. Both have been going great. Burn everything!

So, the Twitch STreamer The_Hoppy_Hob finished his Dark Souls God Run.

Dark Souls 1, 2, 3, BloodBorne, Demons Souls

All without a single hit.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/398519965

Never thought it would happen. Watched a few attempts recently, looked like he was starting to lose focus.
And literally just in time for his switch to Sekiro.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

This thread got me in the mood to play this again, so I treated myself to a copy on the Switch. I've been trying out Dyni's advice from a few pages back about focusing on Endurance and weapon upgrades over scaling damage stats. I also decided to give Pyromancy a try since I've never dabbled in it before. Both have been going great. Burn everything! :lol:

Update just over a week on: there are nothing but cinders in my wake.

I've torn through the game and everyone but Gwen is now dead. I've taken a detour from finishing the game to explore Oolacile, though, so I've got a bit more left to go. I've been regaling the Slack channel with my play-by-play, but so far, the only major speedbump was Ornstein & Smough. Again. Except that when I finally cleared the fight, I suddenly understood how to manage the two opponents and cleared it fairly easily.

I'm looking forward to playing through the Artorias content. I've heard so many good things about it.

Slack channel?

Super Seekrit Slack.