Dark Souls Catch-All

Time to reach O&S on first character: ~34 hours. Time on second character: just under 12 hours. Knowing what you're doing in this game makes a big difference. Reckon I could do it even quicker on a third character with less mucking about. This would be an interesting game to speed run.

Am currently using both havel's ring and ring of favour and protection and armored like a tank. Only problem is the optimal combination for current equip mode looks ridiculous since it's a cobbled together mess of Havel's, Elite Knight and Black Knight. Somewhat tempted to dial the armour back a bit since it seems to be impeding stamina regen more than I'd like. Could be psychosomatic due to dislike of current look though.

There are some crazy speed runs out there.

I really hope Dark Souls 2 has some sort of collectors edition that comes with a statue or something cool.

The metal case and hardcover art book for this one weren't nice enough for you?

Or the art book and CD with Demon's Souls?

I've been more than satisfied with this series, and Dark Souls was one of the small handful of games I bothered to pre-order.

After preordering the new Bioshock, i just expect more i quess.

Sen's Fortress is brutalizing me. I've mostly figured it out. Given another hour, I'm pretty sure I could finish it, but not tonight. I think what's getting to me is the traps. It makes it feel sooooo trial and error, and that's saying alot for Dark Souls. This might be the first place where it truly felt unfair at points.

I think I'm also feeling out of my element with my weapon. My long sword +9 is just not cutting it against these snake-men. I had to start using a Black Knight sword. It staggers on the first hit, but I don't WANT to use the Black Knight sword.

Thankfully, it seems to be compressed, and actually pretty short once you know where everything is.

Not feeling very victorious right now.

Lex Cayman wrote:

Sen's Fortress is brutalizing me. I've mostly figured it out. Given another hour, I'm pretty sure I could finish it, but not tonight. I think what's getting to me is the traps. It makes it feel sooooo trial and error, and that's saying alot for Dark Souls. This might be the first place where it truly felt unfair at points.

I think I'm also feeling out of my element with my weapon. My long sword +9 is just not cutting it against these snake-men. I had to start using a Black Knight sword. It staggers on the first hit, but I don't WANT to use the Black Knight sword.

The first trap is a surprise. But for all the rest of the pressure plates, you can see the hole in the wall that shoots arrows before, or right beside the trap itself.

As for the weapon, yes. There's a Lightning Spear in Sen's that you can find part way through that helps a lot. Use the wiki, or we can tell you where it's at if you want. It will help.

Stele wrote:
Lex Cayman wrote:

Sen's Fortress is brutalizing me. I've mostly figured it out. Given another hour, I'm pretty sure I could finish it, but not tonight. I think what's getting to me is the traps. It makes it feel sooooo trial and error, and that's saying alot for Dark Souls. This might be the first place where it truly felt unfair at points.

I think I'm also feeling out of my element with my weapon. My long sword +9 is just not cutting it against these snake-men. I had to start using a Black Knight sword. It staggers on the first hit, but I don't WANT to use the Black Knight sword.

The first trap is a surprise. But for all the rest of the pressure plates, you can see the hole in the wall that shoots arrows before, or right beside the trap itself.

As for the weapon, yes. There's a Lightning Spear in Sen's that you can find part way through that helps a lot. Use the wiki, or we can tell you where it's at if you want. It will help.

Even more helpful IMHO is the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring, worth its weight in humanity and then some. I overlooked it my first time through Sen's and I wish I hadn't.

My precious.
IMAGE(http://www.pricescope.com/forum/files/smeagol.jpg)

Sonicator wrote:

Somewhat tempted to dial the armour back a bit since it seems to be impeding stamina regen more than I'd like. Could be psychosomatic due to dislike of current look though. :-P

FYI:

Took Manus down with the NPC summon. Closest I'd gotten him before was 2-3 hits away and this provided that little nudge to victory. Yeehaw!

The good Lord Gwyn has fallen to my blade.

What an exceptional game on the whole. Some of the bosses were uninteresting but the world they created was amazing!

Favorite fights:
Knight Artorias
Belfry Gargoyles
Manus
Sanctuary Guardian
Smough & Ornstein
Sif
Kalameet
Chaos Witch Quelaag

The DLC was firing on all cylinders boss wise as well as the rest of Oolacile with the exception of the Guardians which were just a pain to deal with as a melee fighter.

I got the spear and the ring. I'm not impressed with the spear. Does it get better with leveling? I think I got it to +2.

I have so much humanity. Should I be using it? I probably have 20 regular and 10 double. I don't usually crack it unless I'm trying to summon.

I would only use "hard" Hunanity for kindling or summoning. Those things are fine to do.

There are a couple other uses for Humanity that you may or may not be interested in. In general, I'd advise against wasting any.

Yeah definitely don't use the ones in your inventory unless you are immediately going to turn them in as kindling or as covenant rewards.

Having 1 on your counter increases your item discovery by 50, and then a smaller amount for each one up to 10. So if you're farming for items you definitely want 1 (and probably the covetous ring too).

Farmed a bit in blighttown and now have nearly 40 green titanite shards and only 7 large titanite. I was hoping for large, not green. guess I'll keep farming a bit.

Multiplayer as a Forest Hunter is great. There is no penalty for attacking fellow guardians as a helpful phantom and you can slip on the Cat Covenant ring and invade when you need a change of pace. The Darkroot Garden is like a PvP arena, with the only penalty being souls and the rare indictment. Being able to switch back and forth between summoning and invasion is great fun.

Lex Cayman wrote:

I got the spear and the ring. I'm not impressed with the spear. Does it get better with leveling? I think I got it to +2.

It does get quite a bit better with leveling, but even unupgraded, you shouldn't be having trouble with the lizard dudes with the lightning spear. If you are, you need to change your tactics. Sen's isn't bad after you've made it through once. Nothing is random. You just need to keep an eye out for the pressure plates and figure out the boulder patterns.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Farmed a bit in blighttown and now have nearly 40 green titanite shards and only 7 large titanite. I was hoping for large, not green. guess I'll keep farming a bit.

You'll be able to buy them from a vendor later. I wouldn't bother farming. Just get more souls and progress. The further you get, the more souls you get from enemies, and the cheaper it is to afford upgrades. It is never necessary to actually sit in an area and farm.

Hadn't seen this before:

Plastefuchs wrote:
Sonicator wrote:

Somewhat tempted to dial the armour back a bit since it seems to be impeding stamina regen more than I'd like. Could be psychosomatic due to dislike of current look though. :-P

FYI:

I'm pretty sure certain armor sets directly affect stamina recovery. Golem armor, Black iron, others.

Lex Cayman wrote:

I also wish I had gone back to the Asylum before Blighttown. I've reconciled that mistake, and I have to say what I found has been very useful in a number of places anyway.

Firelink did not go out for me. I was aware of the dangers and... solved the problem preemptively.

So I just got through The Depths last night. Where should I head to next, then?

DSGamer wrote:
Lex Cayman wrote:

I also wish I had gone back to the Asylum before Blighttown. I've reconciled that mistake, and I have to say what I found has been very useful in a number of places anyway.

Firelink did not go out for me. I was aware of the dangers and... solved the problem preemptively.

So I just got through The Depths last night. Where should I head to next, then?

I'm at the same point and it looks like there's a lot you can do before hitting blight town. I was gonna go through the Wiki, but could use advice from on here as well. I'm getting sidetracked by other games at the moment, but will probably put in a few hours today.

DSGamer wrote:

So I just got through The Depths last night. Where should I head to next, then?

Blight Town is the next story part, 2nd bell is down there.

But you can go back to the Asylum or wander around Darkroot Garden if you want. Also maybe go finish off the Black Knights in Undead Parish you might have skipped.

I had an eventful morning with Dark Souls. I am using a super heavy character with the Black Knight Axe. After I beat the game I decided to run through some more of the game and I was invaded twice. Once in Darkroot Basin while fighting the Hydra and another time right at the entrance to the gargoyles.

I was happy to defeat both invaders. The first fell to not having enough poise. The 2nd invader was unfortunate because they spawned right in front of me just as I was going to fight the gargoyles. The player didn't have a shield equipped so I immediately attacked full force and gave the invader zero chances to fight back.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
Lex Cayman wrote:

I also wish I had gone back to the Asylum before Blighttown. I've reconciled that mistake, and I have to say what I found has been very useful in a number of places anyway.

Firelink did not go out for me. I was aware of the dangers and... solved the problem preemptively.

So I just got through The Depths last night. Where should I head to next, then?

I'm at the same point and it looks like there's a lot you can do before hitting blight town. I was gonna go through the Wiki, but could use advice from on here as well. I'm getting sidetracked by other games at the moment, but will probably put in a few hours today.

I finished off GD last night and got all the way up to my first encounter with Quelaag. Blighttown not fun, just annoying.

psoplayer wrote:

Blighttown not fun, just annoying.

I'm having a nice relaxing day replaying ME3 on insanity. I think I'll put off Dark Souls until tomorrow.

....I'm still trying to get past the Bell Gargoyles....

(ahem)

KidDork wrote:

....I'm still trying to get past the Bell Gargoyles....

(ahem)

I just summoned the 2 NPC guys for that. If you want an easy way to do it, try that.

I got this during the Steam sale and have been having a pretty awesome time with it. As long as I'm just playing around, it's good - but I've been trying to kill the f*$#^&g Capra Demon for about 2 hours and I'm ready to put my fist through my monitor. I get him about half way and get hung up on some geometry and die. I can't summon anyone because I'm not holding any humanity, and when I was human, I never saw a single summon sign thing.

Dammit. I know it'll feel so good when I finally beat him, but... damn.

I'm going to play something easy for a while... cleanse the palette.

KidDork wrote:

....I'm still trying to get past the Bell Gargoyles....

(ahem)

What platform?

Aries - Put your sign down in front of Capra Demon and play on your cell or whatever for 5 minutes. You'll get summoned (or would on Xbox, anyway) and some valuable experience with the fight. And if you win, Humanity.

Aries wrote:

I got this during the Steam sale and have been having a pretty awesome time with it. As long as I'm just playing around, it's good - but I've been trying to kill the f*$#^&g Capra Demon for about 2 hours and I'm ready to put my fist through my monitor. I get him about half way and get hung up on some geometry and die. I can't summon anyone because I'm not holding any humanity, and when I was human, I never saw a single summon sign thing.

Dammit. I know it'll feel so good when I finally beat him, but... damn.

I'm going to play something easy for a while... cleanse the palette. :)

Yeah, I got through that part by summoning. I definitely have to be in the right mindset to play this game. Some days it's just too much.

Edit: Hence my post about playing ME3 on insanity to relax. I'm not even doing it as NG+. It's so funny that I'm doing that to relax instead of playing Dark Souls.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
KidDork wrote:

....I'm still trying to get past the Bell Gargoyles....

(ahem)

What platform?

Aries - Put your sign down in front of Capra Demon and play on your cell or whatever for 5 minutes. You'll get summoned (or would on Xbox, anyway) and some valuable experience with the fight. And if you win, Humanity.

"Put your sign down..." That is with the white soapstone, right? I haven't done that yet. If I get summoned in and beat the guy, it doesn't count in my world, does it? Humanity if you win though? That's good to know.

Thanks, Fed.