Demon's Souls - Catch All

I plan on staying up into the night tonight to play games. Maybe this one will get some more time.

imbiginjapan wrote:

I think i suggested before that a key aspect to a magic only build would be to make boss runs separate from farming runs - since in most spots it's possible to rush the boss and avoid combat once shortcuts are unlocked, you can save your magic for the one boss. 10 homing soulmasses go pretty far against a single boss.

What you described is essentially how I played the game. It also required me to carry melee weapons because I simply did not have the volume of spells required to get through some areas. Even distinguishing between farming and progress runs it's nigh impossible to be a pure spellcaster. I guess my argument really boils down to this: How many arrows can you carry? How many casts can you equip?

Frankly, if I wasn't so lousy with a bow I would have been an archer. I maintain that it's a superior playstyle.

Dakuna wrote:

You can totally make a character that is magic heavy, and rely almost entirely on spells. My level 134 character can blast his way easily through most areas without any use of melee at all. This has been true since level 40 or so, and I think likely it would have been possible sooner if I had really been trying. I get the complaint that you can't play a "true caster", but on the other hand, I don't really get the desire to do so.

I like to play casters. Specifically, I like to have a very small toolset with which I am super proficient. Both in terms of my own skill and in terms of avatar strength. Casters just happen to be fun in Demon's Souls. Marginally less so in Dark Souls, but I remain bad at hitting things with a bow.

Overall, my desire to play a pure caster is just a preference. And it should be noted that while I wasn't totally happy with magic in Dark Souls, I do like the game overall. Both are solid experiences (excepting multiplayer for some reason...), and I'm glad I played them. I'll readily recommend either game (maybe with small caveats, some stuff in Dark Souls is nightmare fuel). I am, as is my wont, just picking nits.

I gots nits, you wanna pick em for me? Yeah I hear you. I guess I really do find the pure caster class as too much of an easy mode. This is why I so rarely played any casters as mains on games like WoW. I really like to get in there and take my punishment, not stand back and zone out while mashing 3 (or X).

imbiginjapan wrote:

I plan on staying up into the night tonight to play games. Maybe this one will get some more time.

Well, I'm not going to be joining you, I'm afraid. I'm going to be hoovering up some nice German beer with my nephew.

EDIT: Beer plans cancelled, but I had a backburner item in the wings. I'll be playing CoD for some of the night, but I may find some DeS time, who knows?

Ok, been running with a long sword +7 for a while. I've recently picked up claymore, a few flamberge's and the great sword. Thinking about switching. Anything I should consider aside from how slow the big guys swing / upgrade costs? I'm assuming all of these weapons will scale better once I get a few +1's on them.

Looking at the wikidot pages, I might try the greatsword out now that I have 26 str, and eventually go with the crushing upgrade path.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Ok, been running with a long sword +7 for a while. I've recently picked up claymore, a few flamberge's and the great sword. Thinking about switching. Anything I should consider aside from how slow the big guys swing / upgrade costs? I'm assuming all of these weapons will scale better once I get a few +1's on them.

Looking at the wikidot pages, I might try the greatsword out now that I have 26 str, and eventually go with the crushing upgrade path.

Spoiler:

The claymore has a hidden stun effect that can be incredibly useful, and is not as slow as some of the others.

The claymore move-set is also very good, including a nice stabbing attack.

Back on a roll! Took down the Penetrator boss (suggesting, anyone?) while freeing a few peeps, took down the black phantoms after the boss in tandem, then went over to the Fool's Idol archstone and only died twice before getting to kick the Maneaters' collective behinds.

Yurt is taken care of, as well.

EDIT: took down the Storm Beast boss - took me a couple of tries to figure it out. Then took down the old monk online.

Spoiler:

Not sure if it was someone online or an NPC,

but it was a relatively lengthy fight.

The blue dragon in 1-4 is giving me fits. Can't seem to time my run right and I barely deal double digits with my bow. I'll have to try something else

EDIT: Well, that blue dragon has now bitten the dust. Took a couple of tries after managing to get past the bridge. Now, I got the key to the Mausoleum back in 1-1 and found:

Spoiler:

Old King Doran, whom I battled without much trouble and, after he conceded to my awesomeness, got the Demonbrandt... however, I want the trophy and challenge of taking him out completely... and found that he can kill me in one shot and he can heal when I get his life down to 50%. Took ten tries and always ended up making a mistake (one time I got caught in a catapult and he capitalized on it),

so that's on my to-do list before I tackle the last boss.

Still have some of the black tendency events and phantoms to take care of, as well.

I had some frustrating runs at the Maneater last night (that guy is not going anywhere any time soon), and took out the Dragon God instead. That is a strange fight. It wasn't entirely clear to me why his attack would sometimes trigger and end me even when I thought I was behind a pillar. There is a timing aspect I still don't really grasp. But done is done. Where to now?

I have 1-3 on, 4-2 onward, all of 5, and as I said maneater is a roadblock right now in 3.

imbiginjapan wrote:

I had some frustrating runs at the Maneater last night (that guy is not going anywhere any time soon), and took out the Dragon God instead. That is a strange fight. It wasn't entirely clear to me why his attack would sometimes trigger and end me even when I thought I was behind a pillar. There is a timing aspect I still don't really grasp. But done is done. Where to now?

I have 1-3 on, 4-2 onward, all of 5, and as I said maneater is a roadblock right now in 3.

I suggest you hit up 5-1, and then make sure you summon some help for maneater when you go back. I'd say you could throw down your summon sign to learn maneater, but that makes you open to be summoned for the monk fight, which can get annoying.

I managed to play a little bit last night. I didn't realize I was still a human from the last boss fight, so in 2-1, I got invaded. Dude hit my shield with some sort of crazy knife that gave me the plague. I didn't really have a way to cure myself, and the guy just decided to hide among a large group of enemies, so I just let myself die. Not fun. Anyways, I'm back to my good ole dead self now, so I guess I won't have to worry about that for awhile. How do you avoid getting plagued, and what's the cure for it?

Is there a way to make yourself not human without killing yourself? I don't particularly want to have to deal with invaders.

Old King Doran is down! Homing Soul Arrow and some well-placed thrusts did the trick!

Now, to turn everything Black and go crazy with npc phantoms!

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I managed to play a little bit last night. I didn't realize I was still a human from the last boss fight, so in 2-1, I got invaded. Dude hit my shield with some sort of crazy knife that gave me the plague. I didn't really have a way to cure myself, and the guy just decided to hide among a large group of enemies, so I just let myself die. Not fun. Anyways, I'm back to my good ole dead self now, so I guess I won't have to worry about that for awhile. How do you avoid getting plagued, and what's the cure for it?

Is there a way to make yourself not human without killing yourself? I don't particularly want to have to deal with invaders.

You could jump off a staircase in the nexus, therefore avoiding lowering world tendency in any of the 5 worlds/areas. As for plague, there is a ring of disease resistance in 3-2, iirc, down in the bloodswamp, on the boardwalks.

As for the cure, the white lotus flowers take care of it. You can farm them in 3-1 from the prisoners.

Perfect. I know exactly the spot in the nexus that you're talking about. Thanks for the info!

Rounding out the game. I only have 5-2 & -3 and the end game left to go. I must say, 1-3, 1-4, & 4-2 (except the outside part against the gold skeletons since I kept falling off the ledge) were all a very refreshing return to most things awesome about the Souls games. The 4-3 boss was a stupid waste of time pushover.

I summoned someone for the 4-2 boss and he must have had a perfect build as the first time I ran to go heal, I think I saw him stagger the boss as I started running away and then suddenly it was over while I had my back turned to run. Sadly, I was really looking forward to that boss as the one time I got summoned seemed pretty fun until I screwed up and died.

Currently rocking a +5 Crushing Claymore, with 5 pure greystones in reserve, but no chunks if I wanted to upgrade another weapon.

Well, all worlds done for npc black phantoms and primeval demons, as well as farming for weapons and items, save for the Tower of Latria, which should fall later on tonight. Then - and only then - will I allow myself to do the endgame.

So, I don't know what I'm doing. I've replayed the first part of the first world for two hours. I haven't tried to dig in and see what I need to do to move on because I figured it's good for me to take some time to learn the mechanics and timing for countering. But I'm going to eventually get tired and want to not re-do the same area over and over. I'm sure you guys are tired of fresh meat like me asking for advice, but I'm doing that all the same; advice?

demonbox wrote:

So, I don't know what I'm doing. I've replayed the first part of the first world for two hours. I haven't tried to dig in and see what I need to do to move on because I figured it's good for me to take some time to learn the mechanics and timing for countering. But I'm going to eventually get tired and want to not re-do the same area over and over. I'm sure you guys are tired of fresh meat like me asking for advice, but I'm doing that all the same; advice?

We love fresh meat, asking whatever you want!

Some general advice:

Open both short-cuts in world 1-1; this will help you avoid repeating the level too many times. Once both short-cuts are open, you should have already opened the door to the first boss.

Spoiler:

Bring fire, preferably ranged for this boss (firebombs are awesome!)

The following area can be challenging, and will require numerous attempts in all likelihood. Be patient! Explore other areas (other worlds can be accessed from the Nexus).

Dakuna wrote:
demonbox wrote:

So, I don't know what I'm doing. I've replayed the first part of the first world for two hours. I haven't tried to dig in and see what I need to do to move on because I figured it's good for me to take some time to learn the mechanics and timing for countering. But I'm going to eventually get tired and want to not re-do the same area over and over. I'm sure you guys are tired of fresh meat like me asking for advice, but I'm doing that all the same; advice?

We love fresh meat, asking whatever you want!

Yes indeed. Don't hesitate to ask! Be more specific with the troubles you are having so we can offer some pertinent advice.

http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/concepts

Skim through that page. Ignore the world and character tendency sections.

Helpful beginner guides/tips -
http://www.giantbomb.com/demons-soul...
http://ps3trophies.com/forums/demons...

Much appreciated, thanks to both of you. I will look through those guides and take a look at the concepts page.

Dakuna wrote:

Open both short-cuts in world 1-1; this will help you avoid repeating the level too many times. Once both short-cuts are open...

I do not understand what this means. Do I open the shortcuts by finishing the level? When I'm in the nexus I go up to a stone, click a button, and end up in the world. Is there another stone I should be using that I didn't see? Sorry, lost on the concept of opening both shortcuts.

demonbox wrote:

Much appreciated, thanks to both of you. I will look through those guides and take a look at the concepts page.

Dakuna wrote:

Open both short-cuts in world 1-1; this will help you avoid repeating the level too many times. Once both short-cuts are open...

I do not understand what this means. Do I open the shortcuts by finishing the level? When I'm in the nexus I go up to a stone, click a button, and end up in the world. Is there another stone I should be using that I didn't see? Sorry, lost on the concept of opening both shortcuts.

No no, shortcuts are just ways of getting through the level quicker. While exploring a world for the first time there may be a door that you can't open right away (usually at the start of the level). If you explore a bit more, you'll find a lever to open that door and that allows you to get back to the Nexus quicker or lets you skip the first half of the level so that you don't have to constantly run through the whole level at once.

One of the shortcuts in 1-1:

Spoiler:

There is an area that has a winding staircase going down. On your way down there are groups of the regular humanoid monsters (some wielding torches). If you make it all the way to the bottom of the staircase, there should be a level that opens a gate. The gate takes you back out to the main starting area of 1-1.

Yeah, what CptDomano said Except it is a lever, not a level.

Bah! You know what I meant!

CptDomano wrote:

Bah! You know what I meant!

I did... new people might have been confused! Plus I'm a jerk.

I finally got back to this game. I played level 2-1 today and managed to get through it without dying. I was a little concerned going into the boss blind. Threw on a fire resistance ring because I figured with all of the fire geckos that fire might be involved. Yay me! I made it up to the spider and got hit pretty hard, so I fell back. Noticed a message and thankfully that was a safe spot. Then I just finished off the beast with arrows. Hurray! I've completed 1-1, 1-2, and 2-1 now. Should I just do 2-2 next? Also, do you lose magic if you aren't human? Since I took a long break, I may have missed how that work. After this boss, I noticed that I could relearn my soul arrow spell. I'm assuming that I lost it because I died at one point.

Are there any of these souls that I'm collecting be saved for crafting? I haven't looked at them carefully, but I haven't used any of the serious ones up yet. They're just sitting in my inventory. Also, I upgraded my longsword to +3 and then had the option to do a quality longsword +1 instead of a longsword +4. I went with the quality version. I'm assuming it ends up being better after a few upgrades. Is that the case? Lastly, is there a way to upgrade your armor? I wasn't seeing any option other than to repair it at the nexus.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I finally got back to this game. I played level 2-1 today and managed to get through it without dying. I was a little concerned going into the boss blind. Threw on a fire resistance ring because I figured with all of the fire geckos that fire might be involved. Yay me! I made it up to the spider and got hit pretty hard, so I fell back. Noticed a message and thankfully that was a safe spot. Then I just finished off the beast with arrows. Hurray! I've completed 1-1, 1-2, and 2-1 now. Should I just do 2-2 next? Also, do you lose magic if you aren't human? Since I took a long break, I may have missed how that work. After this boss, I noticed that I could relearn my soul arrow spell. I'm assuming that I lost it because I died at one point.

Are there any of these souls that I'm collecting be saved for crafting? I haven't looked at them carefully, but I haven't used any of the serious ones up yet. They're just sitting in my inventory. Also, I upgraded my longsword to +3 and then had the option to do a quality longsword +1 instead of a longsword +4. I went with the quality version. I'm assuming it ends up being better after a few upgrades. Is that the case? Lastly, is there a way to upgrade your armor? I wasn't seeing any option other than to repair it at the nexus.

Boss souls are for making weapons and buying powerful spells, either cleric or mage depending on your bent. You cannot lose a spell you have learned, but you can choose to 'remember' different spells, as you have limited slots. There are no armor upgrades.

Weapon upgrades are a little tricky, quality I think reduces the stat bonuses but increases the standard damage, similar to raw in Dark Souls.

Stayed up way too late playing this all evening. Played a lot of 2-2 but kind of got bored and those tunnels were getting to be a pain. Also, I felt a bit under leveled for some of the enemies. So, I moved on to 3-1 and beat that without a huge amount of trouble. Once I actually got to the boss (Fool's Idol), I didn't have any trouble cheesing her with arrows. I will use the arrow strategy any time if it guarantees a win.

There is no such thing as cheese in this series Whatever it takes!

2-2 is a lot faster when you have a magic enchanted weapon because those giant bugbears take so long to kill with melee weapons.

You do want to do it soonish though, as the boss soul from that zone unlocks the ability for the blacksmith to make boss soul weapons. Just know that the 2-2 boss is a big roadblock for a lot of people, myself included during my first Demon's Souls run.

Dyni wrote:

There is no such thing as cheese in this series Whatever it takes!

Dyni wrote:

2-2 is a lot faster when you have a magic enchanted weapon because those giant bugbears take so long to kill with melee weapons.

That's exactly what I figured and why I moved on. I actually thing I did a ton of the level. I killed quite a few of those guys. It does take forever. So, where would one go about finding one of these "magic enchanted weapons?"

In continuing with my no wikipedia rule, I have a couple other questions. I did actually google what button magic was and found out you need a catalyst. I don't think that really counts, though. I just didn't want to bug you guys with what I thought was a really dumb question. I've taken some pretty long breaks, so I must have just forgot that you need a catalyst. I ended up coming across a couple catalysts fairly soon after gaining that knowledge.

There was a bluish ghost in one of the cell blocks of 3-1. The guy who was yelling "Help me!" There was a mark claiming he was a liar, so of course, I left him to rot after hearing his plea for help. What's his deal and is there any benefit going back to get him? Also, I remember seeing a bright white ghost meditating in one of the cells somewhere. I didn't end up finding him again and didn't particularly want to wander around forever looking for him once I had the warden's key. Is there any benefit to going back and finding him?

In the church of 3-1, there was a corridor up to the right side of the area that you access through the circular stairs. At the end of this, there was a key and someone. There were a bunch of strange warnings most of which involved telling you to kill the enemy. So, rather than go up and talk to him first, I just killed him with a couple arrows. Was there anything interesting or funny about the enemy? There was a message saying he was a "bizarre enemy." Was he even all that dangerous?

Thanks!

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

That's exactly what I figured and why I moved on. I actually thing I did a ton of the level. I killed quite a few of those guys. It does take forever. So, where would one go about finding one of these "magic enchanted weapons?"

In continuing with my no wikipedia rule, I have a couple other questions. I did actually google what button magic was and found out you need a catalyst. I don't think that really counts, though. I just didn't want to bug you guys with what I thought was a really dumb question. I've taken some pretty long breaks, so I must have just forgot that you need a catalyst. I ended up coming across a couple catalysts fairly soon after gaining that knowledge.

There was a bluish ghost in one of the cell blocks of 3-1. The guy who was yelling "Help me!" There was a mark claiming he was a liar, so of course, I left him to rot after hearing his plea for help. What's his deal and is there any benefit going back to get him? Also, I remember seeing a bright white ghost meditating in one of the cells somewhere. I didn't end up finding him again and didn't particularly want to wander around forever looking for him once I had the warden's key. Is there any benefit to going back and finding him?

In the church of 3-1, there was a corridor up to the right side of the area that you access through the circular stairs. At the end of this, there was a key and someone. There were a bunch of strange warnings most of which involved telling you to kill the enemy. So, rather than go up and talk to him first, I just killed him with a couple arrows. Was there anything interesting or funny about the enemy? There was a message saying he was a "bizarre enemy." Was he even all that dangerous?

Thanks!

Enchanted weapons, you can find one in 4-1, before the first mini-boss, I think. It's a falchion I believe, or you can make your own using ... darkmoonstone.

The white guy is Sage Freyk, and he sells high level spells. You really only need to rescue him (find him again) if you want to buy sorceries from him.

Killing that guy is

Spoiler:

important and necessary. If you had not killed him, the boss would have been unkillable. He is nothing special otherwise.

Dakuna wrote:

Killing that guy is

Spoiler:

important and necessary. If you had not killed him, the boss would have been unkillable. He is nothing special otherwise.

Cool. I so have the tricks in this game figured out. *waits to get tricked and shamed next time*

Tuffalo, you are making me want to just answer each question one by one with quotes directly from the Demon's Souls Wikidot.