DARK SOULS

Mutsumi

Guild Member
http://preparetodie.com/uk/

Out this Friday, I'm sure I'm not the only one here getting it.

General Dark Souls discussion here as we all struggle through the game, dying many many times.

DON'T BE A DICK, REMEMBER YOUR SPOILER TAGS.

Demon's Souls discussion can fill the gap until Friday. :) I'm not going to platinum it, but I've almost got all spells. Got all weapons the other day, and have most of the weapon upgrade trophies too.

For Dark Souls, I think I will make a sort of battle mage. Either that or a pure glass-cannon mage.
 
I cancelled my preorder since I still have Demon's Souls sitting here unplayed, and I figured I wouldn't even get one of them finished before Skyrim comes out, never mind both. D:
 
Travesty! :O You owe it to yourself to play them both eventually, Demon's Souls is one of my favourite games for the last few years, and I am sure you will enjoy it just as much.
 
Arrived today. I only just got back from college so I've yet to start. Got the LE and it's nice; although not as nice as the Demon's Souls one from Atlus last year.

I did play a short section at the Eurogamer Expo and...Yeah. It's Demon's Souls all over again which isn't a bad thing for me. I think I put in around 200 hours into Demon's and loved every minute of it (...well...Bar...That guy.)
 
Mutsumi said:
MercenaryRaiden said:
(...well...Bar...That guy.)

Allant?

Suprisingly not! My friend had an absolutely torrid time against him though. Lost 3 soul levels then dieing to him the first time around, before losing SIX soul levels and dieing again. His reluctance to have blue phantoms helping him cost him dearly. For me it would have been Ol' Flamey. I was playing as a pretty much armour-less hunter. If he got up to me then that was pretty much me dead...


So Dark Souls then. Oh this game. Thissss gameeee. First hour or so I thought that this was being more forgiving then Demon's Souls...

Early game stuff (up to just past tutorial stuff):
Nope.

So yeah at first I thought Dark Souls was a bit easier. Started off with a Hunter and went through the tutorial area without much trouble (doing it sensibly that is...) however then you hit what feels like a hub area. There seems to be a way to go up and a way to go down. And also a graveyard full of skeletons that are...Tough.

Down sounds...Absolutely horrendous so i'm going up instead. Already had some guy jump on me from above trying to cleave my head in...


It already feels like I'm playing Demon's Souls again. It's excellent.

Edit: I take it back. I just lost over 8000 souls in the space of one careful yet frightening hour. Just as hard as Demon's Souls.
 
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Flamelurker was a pain for me too on certain characters. My mage can kill him in two casts of homing soul arrow on NG++, but also can be killed in three to four hits from his attacks. My He-man (royalty, I called him Adam and made him look like He-man) had an easy time of flamelurker due to wearing the best fire resist gear, shield, ring and casting water veil. Fun fight though.

I look forward to playing Dark Souls myself tomorrow, as my copy did not arrive today. :/
 
Flamelurker was a pain for me too on certain characters. My mage can kill him in two casts of homing soul arrow on NG++, but also can be killed in three to four hits from his attacks. My He-man (royalty, I called him Adam and made him look like He-man) had an easy time of flamelurker due to wearing the best fire resist gear, shield, ring and casting water veil. Fun fight though.

It's weird but my first NG+ he seemed to be really easy but the other 3 NG+'s I did after that he was anything but. I completely agree that it was a fun fight though. Dodge rolling out of his way and then drawing an arrow whilst watching him getting ready to pounce was almost exhilarating at times. Although I've lost track the amount of times I accidently rolled into a piece of scenery only to get caught by him. That's probably what killed me the most!


Dark Souls got ridiculous at one stage for me today. Around 4 hours attempting to get through to a new section and then when I finally did...

(Spoilers up to near the end of the first proper area, with some game mechanic spoilers.)

So Undeadburg is an interesting place. I really enjoyed it's designs and the fact that you feel like you're on the higher part of town on the rooftops. Of course no rooftops I've been on have housed dragons but meh whatcha gonna do.

So I'm stuck at a bonfire under the dragon for about 4 hours attempting to get through a rat infested area, past a boar, through some fog, an entirely new area and it just felt like I was doing something wrong. Then I lost another 8k souls again and almost died inside. Instead I felt the same way when this happend on Demon's Souls and just decided to go crazy and do something stupid.

I decided to run under the dragon.

My first attempt ended with him laughably burning me to death with ease. It was clear that this wasn't what I was supposed to do but then I tried to go under him on the bridge to try and shoot him. Eventually I got to a decent angle and shot him. And to my utmost surprise he jumped onto the bridge. I had my method so I tried it. He essentially chased me across the bridge but it worked. A very minor victory but one that felt good none-the-less.

Then I found enemies who PARRY your attacks. Damnit Dark Souls I wasn't prepared for that...

This feels a lot more...Open then Demon's Souls. Don't get me wrong it is still linear but it feels more like I can choose the route I want to go. Although it never signposts what the best route is...
 
Just started it this evening. Decided to create a pyromancer. Yet to decide whether I will prefer this magic system to Demon's Souls' more traditional MP system.

I am at that hub-like area where you can choose to go up or down. Not yet decided which path I will choose.

This time around I am going to make my character very balanced, stat-wise, because I do not know what items or equipment I will encounter, nor what tactics I will need to use against bosses, so I will keep my options open by being balanced. :)
 
I'm not sure if Pyromancers are supposed to put anything into INT. I've had a read around and a lot of people say that INT doesn't actually power up the pyros spells (And if it does then only a very small amount.) But then again I've rolled a Hunter so I don't have the foggiest!

(very minor spoilers up to the end of undeadburg, I don't think I need to spoiler this but it's better to be safe :) )

Yesterday was a day of patience for me and this game...At an area mini-boss I kept dieing and losing the humanity to summon friendly players to help me. So I went back there and laid out my soul sign so that I could help people. I was summoned about 4 times to help out and each player sent a message thanking me. I forgot how much of a warm feeling you get helping out others with a tricky part!

Of course I still haven't had the help with that boss but...I've managed to make a nice soul profit from handing out my services. Capra Demon you are going down!
 
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I caved in and got this (wasn't going to since the difficulty was something I'm not too keen on these days).

Only just finished the Asylum. The entire boss fight at the end was like...

'Oh hey, I'm here, but on a ledge... oh there's that demon... THERE'S THAT DEMON! Oh SHI-'

Wack. Death.


Chose to play as a Wanderer, with the pedant.
 
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Ok I've rang the bell at the top of Undeadburg. Bell Gargoyles were a pain to beat, but I had the help of a player phantom and an npc phantom. Not seen this Capra Demon you mention, so I may have to try running under the dragon to see. Either that or I'll buy a crap ton of arrows and try to snipe it. I'm guessing the Capra Demon must be that way, because you've been that way and I have not...

Also met a blacksmith, a scary headless lightning chucker, a giant Moon Butterfly boss (not beaten yet) and killed two tall dark knights, each of which gave me some nice loot.

Also, started the down path. Skeletons are a pain, as are the undead pyromancers, but I was able to sprint past most of them and activate a new bonfire, and pull a couple of levers to open new paths.


Also, got invaded by a black phantom. Killed it though. :D
 
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Mutsumi said:
Ok I've rang the bell at the top of Undeadburg. Bell Gargoyles were a pain to beat, but I had the help of a player phantom and an npc phantom. Not seen this Capra Demon you mention, so I may have to try running under the dragon to see. Either that or I'll buy a crap ton of arrows and try to snipe it. I'm guessing the Capra Demon must be that way, because you've been that way and I have not...

Also met a blacksmith, a scary headless lightning chucker, a giant Moon Butterfly boss (not beaten yet) and killed two tall dark knights, each of which gave me some nice loot.

Also, started the down path. Skeletons are a pain, as are the undead pyromancers, but I was able to sprint past most of them and activate a new bonfire, and pull a couple of levers to open new paths.


Also, got invaded by a black phantom. Killed it though. :D

It's actually interesting reading your post. After undeadburg we've gone off in completely opposite directions and only now am I re-emerging onto a similar path (Partly because every fibre of my being is telling me "Don't go to Blight Town." because of remembering how bad 5-1 was in Demon's Souls...) It goes to show that there is kind of an open worldy aspect to it - even if it is still pretty linear

I had my first black phantom as well. Fortunately I had a squadron of 2 White phantoms as we were traversing below Undeadburg into The Depths. Although I've had far less invasions then I expected. People still getting to grips with the game I guess...My next route is similar and is past Mr Lightning Hurler to see if there's anything on the other side that doesn't begin with Blight Town.
 
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Is Blight Town down past the area with the skeletons and pyromancers?

Also, killed the headless lightning chucker, and then the Moonlight Butterfly boss.

The dragon on the bridge came back after it had flown off...

Lastly, have you tried revisiting the Northern Undead Asylum? You'll be in for a surprise or two... I don't know if you've been there yet, so I'll not spoil the surprise, because I know you'll read this. Lets just say you'll encounter a perfect example of how cruel and evil this game is...
 
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Mutsumi said:
Is Blight Town down past the area with the skeletons and pyromancers?

Nope. The way down is convoluted but you can get there via Lower Undead Burg. You just have to go via another area first which is also kind of tricky!

Edit: Well! It might be. I just don't know if it is or not. BT is...Huge. And rather laggy :\


Lastly, have you tried revisiting the Northern Undead Asylum?

Nope! Didn't know you could but it makes sense. I was always wondering if I could get past that locked door...

Today whilst studying I thought I'd leave my summon sign outside of the Capra Demon to help others who were having the same troubles. Problem is when I loaded my save I assumed I was already there...

Dear the poor player relying on me for navigation. I am so sorry. I have never been to Blight Town before and I didn't really want to start now. That giant poison swamp wasn't such a good idea, huh? :(

I think i'll skip there for now and head for the forest...
 
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MercenaryRaiden said:
Mutsumi said:
Is Blight Town down past the area with the skeletons and pyromancers?

Nope. The way down is convoluted but you can get there via Lower Undead Burg. You just have to go via another area first which is also kind of tricky!

Edit: Well! It might be. I just don't know if it is or not. BT is...Huge. And rather laggy :\

I found Blight Town, having travelled via Darkroot Basin where I had to avoid getting shot by the gigantic hydra 'boss'. That led me to Valley of Drakes, where I fought and killed a plague dragon 'boss'. Just past that I found an entrance to Blight Town.

Also, I killed the spiky red dragon in Undead Burg. Also found Dark Souls' equivalent of Freke's apprentice; a sorcery tutor, thankfully minus the attitude this time.
 
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Great...Another route to Blight Town then! Swell. All roads are leading there at the minute :p

Anyways...Tonight has been...Amazing. Firstly went to Darkroot Garden and disposed of the Butterfly boss; whilst losing FIVE humanity and 15k souls on the route because of my own stupidity. That hurt, a lot. But I kept going and found the Valley Of Drakes that you also found. Except I went back the other way. I beat the Hydra and found a ladder and climbed up.

And here's where the evening took a suprising turn...

Climbing the ladder led to a new area of the Darkroot Garden only the enemies were a bit tougher. One route had a Porcupine cat type demon who was pretty tough. So I left him alone and went the other way. Found some more of those bush/treeant monsters who now took about 4/5 hits with my Drake Sword. So I'm struggling against them (They're amassing from nowhere by this point) and I receive a strange message on my screen.

"Failed to create session"

er...I didn't put down my white soapstone....Oh.

"Dark spirit <playername> has invaded"

Here it was! My first proper black phantom! I'm ready for this. I'm pumped up and psyched. I've got my best weapons but an almost empty flask.....And then it happend...

(Potentially rather large gameplay spoilers)

I was invaded by a second black phantom. At the same time. I was dead anyway but this guy? Oh man. He was half invisible! I couldn't lock onto him and I could only see him if he was literally next to me. I got a flurry of arrows from god knows where which indicated me to his presence. Then the other one turned up...

I'm...Honestly suprised at my suprise over that. I'm not suprised they ramped it up...But like that? Ooof. That just felt like a punch to the gut. Reached the limit of what I can handle in one session...
 
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Any tips for the fight against the Hydra? Also, what level are you? I'm level 30ish, pretty balanced statline, elite knight armor set and black knight greatsword.

Also...... You can pull players into either the world you are in or your own world using an item. Invade and then summon another invader perhaps? :D Also, what about npc invaders? You get npc allies to summon after all.

I fought my way through the Catacombs, encountered some nasty wheel skeletons, and then a boss called Pinwheel, who splits into three forms who all cast powerful magic. Not as tricky as I thought though, and I cut him down. This led me to Tomb of the Giants, which is pitch black, filled with places to fall from, and so far I've only encountered giant skeletons, still high up where I can fall from too.
 
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Mutsumi said:
Any tips for the fight against the Hydra? Also, what level are you? I'm level 30ish, pretty balanced statline, elite knight armor set and black knight greatsword.

As crazy as this sounds - Get in close. Firstly you REALLY want to get rid of those Crystal Golems because otherwise they are going to become a HUGE pain in the rear. Once you get close enough (waters edge although BE CAREFUL NOT TO WALK TOO FAR IN THE WATER. The bit around him has no ground.) the Hydra will start physically lunging his heads at you. Dodge those, apply weapon. Works a treat! He will sometimes do his mouth beams though. Make sure you dodge roll forward (I found it minimised the damage) and lastly you might want a form of bow. His last head wouldn't come close for me to damage!

I'm about level 30 as well. Hunter, Drake Sword and Longbow, pretty vitality/end/dex built. Mostly the original armour with a helm and a change of leggings (I hope there's some decent light armour. In Demons Souls in my entire 5 playthroughs I never once changed out of my original armour. Nothing was as good. Mind you i'm not going for armour...)
 
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