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Returning to Dark Souls after an 8 month break, help me out here GAF

B

Benzychenz

Member
So, due to moving house last year, I went for a while without having my PS3 set up, and this just so happened to conveniently be halfway through my Dark Souls playthrough.
So now with Bloodborne out I want to finish this off, problem is I can't remember a whole lot.

I killed O&S (by summoning another player) and I know I have to kill the big bad bosses now, that much I'm clear on.


Problem number one is that I can't really remember where I haven't been. I know the tunnel after the boss in the graveyard area kept on going so I can check that out, and the cliffs in Anor Londo lead somewhere. But that's only two places and I think there's 4 bosses :\


Next problem is my build and gear, I can't remember what I was doing with it.
My setup having just loaded the game is:

Level 54

Vit : 17
Att: 8
End: 40
Str: 28
Dex: 14
Res: 11
Int: 9
Fai: 9

Zweihander +10
Eagle Shield + 5

Mask of the Mother
Dingy Robe
Gauntlets of Favor
Shadow Leggings

Havel's Ring
Wolf Ring

Equip load: 28.1/120
Poise: 48

Forest Hunter Covenant


Now, I can manage to figure out that I was keeping my equip load under 25% for the fast roll, but that's about it.
Endurance I think I was happy with at 40, not sure on the exact reason. Strength I think I was currently going all into, but I have no idea if there was a sweet spot I wanted to stop at before going into Vitality or something.
Same with poise, I can't remember if there was a sweet spot there I was aiming for.

As for the covenant, I'm just using the one I managed to run into, I know I never really fully understood that aspect of the game and have largely ignored it.

And that isn't even getting into all the other random items, keys etc in my bag. Like the estus flask, mine is on +1 and I don't remember how that mechanic works at all.


So anyway, any help will be very much appreciated.
 
T

Tecl0n

Member
Stat start with dimishing returns after 40, so 40 endurance is ok. Considering you have a zwei you should be spec towards STR get that to 40 or a bit less. Up VIT a bit and you should be more than fine stat wise. I know you are going for fast roll, but tanking with shield and heavy armor is more than possible with your current END if you choose to change tactics. Explore and you'll get to the other bosses in no time.
 
JediLink

JediLink

Member
Benzychenz said:
Problem number one is that I can't really remember where I haven't been. I know the tunnel after the boss in the graveyard area kept on going so I can check that out, and the cliffs in Anor Londo lead somewhere. But that's only two places and I think there's 4 bosses :\
Click to expand...
Warp to the Daughter of Chaos bonfire and have a look around there. You'll probably remember when you do. The other one is an area that's accessible right at the start of the game.

Benzychenz said:
Next problem is my build and gear, I can't remember what I was doing with it.
My setup having just loaded the game is:

Level 54

Vit : 17
Att: 8
End: 40
Str: 28
Dex: 14
Res: 11
Int: 9
Fai: 9

Zweihander +10
Eagle Shield + 5

Mask of the Mother
Dingy Robe
Gauntlets of Favor
Shadow Leggings

Havel's Ring
Wolf Ring

Equip load: 28.1/120
Poise: 48

Forest Hunter Covenant

Now, I can manage to figure out that I was keeping my equip load under 25% for the fast roll, but that's about it.
Endurance I think I was happy with at 40, not sure on the exact reason. Strength I think I was currently going all into, but I have no idea if there was a sweet spot I wanted to stop at before going into Vitality or something.
Same with poise, I can't remember if there was a sweet spot there I was aiming for.
Click to expand...
It's possible you at some point had the Ring of Favour and Protection, which increases your equip load by 20%. 40 is the soft cap for endurance because after that point, you'll only gain equip load and no more stamina. 40 is generally the soft cap for all stats, so that might be where you were headed with strength, but bear in mind that two-handing multiplies your strength by 1.5, so if you two-hand often, you'll pretty much hit the point of diminishing returns at 27 instead. That might be what you were thinking of.

EDIT: I'm pretty sure poise works linearly so more poise is always better.

Benzychenz said:
As for the covenant, I'm just using the one I managed to run into, I know I never really fully understood that aspect of the game and have largely ignored it.
Click to expand...
Covenants are mostly for PvP. If you're not into PvP, you can mostly ignore them. In your case, being a Forest Hunter will allow you to invade people in the Darkroot Garden, which nets you rewards if you win. The other thing they're for is sometimes you get some nice rewards by leveling up in the covenant, which of course is required for 100% completion and whatnot.

Benzychenz said:
And that isn't even getting into all the other random items, keys etc in my bag. Like the estus flask, mine is on +1 and I don't remember how that mechanic works at all.
Click to expand...
You use Fire Keeper souls to upgrade your estus flask. You need to talk to a fire keeper (i.e. either Anastacia in Firelink, the Lady of the Darkling in Anor Londo or Queelag's sister in Blighttown) and select "upgrade estus flask". Upgrading the flask makes it restore more health per use.
 
B

Benzychenz

Member
Tecl0n said:
Stat start with dimishing returns after 40, so 40 endurance is ok. Considering you have a zwei you should be spec towards STR get that to 40 or a bit less. Up VIT a bit and you should be more than fine stat wise. I know you are going for fast roll, but tanking with shield and heavy armor is more than possible with your current END if you choose to change tactics. Explore and you'll get to the other bosses in no time.
Click to expand...

Ah yes diminishing returns. Now I remember.

Not sure I want heavy armour and tanking, I feel safer with agility.

Manmademan said:
pfft ignore this man, just don't get hit.
Click to expand...

Haha yeah, I think that's the strategy I was going for, which is why I still have such low vit.

Jedi Link said:
Warp to the Daughter of Chaos bonfire and have a look around there. You'll probably remember when you do. The other one is an area that's accessible right at the start of the game.


It's possible you at some point had the Ring of Favour and Protection, which increases your equip load by 20%. 40 is the soft cap for endurance because after that point, you'll only gain equip load and no more stamina. 40 is generally the soft cap for all stats, so that might be where you were headed with strength, but bear in mind that two-handing multiplies your strength by 1.5, so if you two-hand often, you'll pretty much hit the point of diminishing returns at 27 instead. That might be what you were thinking of.

EDIT: I'm pretty sure poise works linearly so more poise is always better.


Covenants are mostly for PvP. If you're not into PvP, you can mostly ignore them. In your case, being a Forest Hunter will allow you to invade people in the Darkroot Garden, which nets you rewards if you win. The other thing they're for is sometimes you get some nice rewards by leveling up in the covenant, which of course is required for 100% completion and whatnot.


You use Fire Keeper souls to upgrade your estus flask. You need to talk to a fire keeper (i.e. either Anastacia in Firelink, the Lady of the Darkling in Anor Londo or Queelag's sister in Blighttown) and select "upgrade estus flask". Upgrading the flask makes it restore more health per use.
Click to expand...

Ah wow thank you, just the kind of reply I was hoping to get!

Ohhhh the area at the start of the game. That's when you go down into the place with all the ghosts? I went down there early on and got destroyed, and googled it to find out I wasn't meant to be there yet. The 'one above and one below' made me think the below bell was down there :p

I think I was mainly using the sword in one hand with the shield, makes me feel safer :p
So I'll keep going all the way up to 40 strength.

Where do the Fire Keeper souls themselves come from? Do I kill all but one of the fire keepers or something? :O
 
G

Gozer the Gozerian

Member
I took an 8 month break during my Dark Souls playthrough a while back, too. Stumbled into the painted world way too early and was completely underleveled in an area with no way to back out of. God it sucked.
 
M

Mman235

Member
Your build's okay. It should already hit like a truck so if you like the Zweihander you may as well focus on raising VIT now (+wear the highest poise armour that still lets you fastroll) so you have more margin for error with it's slow swing speed. The main thing now is whether you want to upgrade the Zweihander for physical or elemental; your strength's high enough that the former would probably work out better.
 
T

Teeth

Member
If you can't remember killing two bosses in Darkroot, you may still have a second boss to kill in the forest.

Benzychenz said:
Where do the Fire Keeper souls themselves come from? Do I kill all but one of the fire keepers or something? :O
Click to expand...

You can kill them, but that's not the good way. You can just find them. There's one in the Undead Parish (which is the one you probably found),
New Londo (where the ghosts are)
, one in
Blighttown
, one in an area you haven't discovered yet.
 
B

Benzychenz

Member
Just went over all the controls on the Dark Souls wiki. Had completely forgotten how to do jump attacks and the like.

Teeth said:
If you can't remember killing two bosses in Darkroot, you may still have a second boss to kill in the forest.
Click to expand...

Nah I murdered Sif :(
 
M

Manmademan

Member
Jedi Link said:
Covenants are mostly for PvP. If you're not into PvP, you can mostly ignore them. In your case, being a Forest Hunter will allow you to invade people in the Darkroot Garden, which nets you rewards if you win. The other thing they're for is sometimes you get some nice rewards by leveling up in the covenant, which of course is required for 100% completion and whatnot.
Click to expand...

MOSTLY.

but if he's making a solo run I would highly, HIGHLY reccommend going for the chaos covenant ASAP. Joining that one means:

1.) you unlock the shortcut to bed of chaos and can skip almost all of lost izalith, the worst level in the game as well as that flame centipede boss

2.) you can pick up the sunlight maggott which makes the tomb of the giants merely "annoying" instead of "nightmarishly frustrating"

3.) getting the maggott means that
solaire lives and doesn't go insane
so you potentially have an AI co-op partner for the final boss fight with
Gwyn.

4.) It's also the only way to get great chaos fireball (which is very useful) and chaos storm (not so much) if you're into pyromancy.

Its a pain to level up, but definitely worth it.
 
F

FloppyDelux

Member
Have you been to The great hallow? or the Painted world?

Benzychenz said:
Ah yes diminishing returns. Now I remember.

Not sure I want heavy armour and tanking, I feel safer with agility.



Haha yeah, I think that's the strategy I was going for, which is why I still have such low vit.



Ah wow thank you, just the kind of reply I was hoping to get!

Ohhhh the area at the start of the game. That's when you go down into the place with all the ghosts? I went down there early on and got destroyed, and googled it to find out I wasn't meant to be there yet. The 'one above and one below' made me think the below bell was down there :p

I think I was mainly using the sword in one hand with the shield, makes me feel safer :p
So I'll keep going all the way up to 40 strength.

Where do the Fire Keeper souls themselves come from? Do I kill all but one of the fire keepers or something? :O
Click to expand...

You get them from defeating bosses, and a few from corpse's
 
JediLink

JediLink

Member
Benzychenz said:
Where do the Fire Keeper souls themselves come from? Do I kill all but one of the fire keepers or something? :O
Click to expand...
Well... that's one way lol. There are seven in total: three from the fire keepers, and four found as regular treasure on corpses. The one you have is probably the "free" one in the Undead Parish. It's along the way, really obvious. There's another one you've probably missed in an area you've already been through.

Is your Firelink Shrine bonfire still working? If not, you might have Anastacia's soul in your inventory (from killing Lautrec), and it'd be worth your while to return it to her.
 
M

Manmademan

Member
Teeth said:
You can get the maggot normally without the covenant stuff. You just have to go through that area before going to the Tomb.
Click to expand...

was that recently patched? I've never seen anything that says it's possible to get that without opening the shortcut first, since you have to kill it before entering lost izalith.

from the wiki:

If you reach Lost Izalith without killing the red-eyed Chaos Bug, Solaire will appear near the shortcut door (It does not matter if the shortcut has been opened or not) wearing the Sunlight Maggot. The sunlight maggot within the Chaos Bugs has burrowed into his mind; it has baited him into forfeiting his soul with the lure of his own personal sun. He is driven insane and presumably hollow upon being vanquished (he can still speak and does not have the Hollowed appearance, although this is maybe just the first step of going Hollow). This is one end to the story of Solaire.
 
B

Benzychenz

Member
Jedi Link said:
Is your Firelink Shrine bonfire still working? If not, you might have Anastacia's soul in your inventory (from killing Lautrec), and it'd be worth your while to return it to her.
Click to expand...

Nah I remember killing that guy in the room before O&S and restoring the Firelink Shrine.
 
BennyBlanco

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
Benzychenz said:
Nope.

I was about to go down to New Londo seeing it's right here at Firelink where I am. Should I do some of these first or does it not matter?
Click to expand...

Go to New Londo and get it over with. Personally my least favorite area in the game. There's a very important item down there that's easy to miss too.

Very large ember to upgrade weapons to +15
 
T

Teeth

Member
Benzychenz said:
Nope.

I was about to go down to New Londo seeing it's right here at Firelink where I am. Should I do some of these first or does it not matter?
Click to expand...

I would go back to the tutorial area first, though finding out how to get there is a bit of a convoluted setup. Just make sure you get the item from the roof of the one building in Firelink Shrine before you go.

I personally wouldn't go to New Londo yet, the boss of it is pretty tough. I would probably go to the lava area (down from Blighttown). Or maybe up past Anor Londo. If you're feeling cool you could do the first part of the area past the graveyard; the boss of that first leg gives you a very handy item.

Manmademan said:
was that recently patched? I've never seen anything that says it's possible to get that without opening the shortcut first, since you have to kill it before entering lost izalith.
Click to expand...

I know I have never done a single thing with covenants and I've always used a sunlight maggot helm in the Tomb. They are drops from an enemy in Izalith. Fairly common.

Bu yeah, Solaire eats it in my games.
 
M

Manmademan

Member
Teeth said:
I know I have never done a single thing with covenants and I've always used a sunlight maggot helm in the Tomb. They are drops from an enemy in Izalith. Fairly common.
Click to expand...

its not common at all. only one particular enemy that does not respawn in the entire game drops it, and it's behind that hidden door. if you didn't open it
solaire gets it first and you have to kill him.
.

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/sunlight-maggot

no idea what's going on in your game.
 
M

Manmademan

Member
Jedi Link said:
So you're willing to spoiler tag that, but not the name of the final boss?
Click to expand...

Ah, my mistake. I didn't even think about it- it's not really a surprise who the final boss is if you've gotten all the way past O&S.

I'll fix it though.

edit: poked around, looks like it's possible to find the maggot without the shortcut, but you'll
lose solaire

Go through the demon ruins. Beat the first two bosses, equip lava ring and fog ring. Make it through the lava area with the charred dino mobs to the castle. Inside the castle make your way past the first suction mob and just before the Chaos Servant woman there will be a root leading down to another part of the castle on your right. Down the root there is a trap to your left and a pathway across from it that leads you to a bridge with a respawnable titanite demon. Past him is the sunlight maggot and the now hallowed Soltaire.

All things considered, the covenant is the better way to grab that.
 
T

Teeth

Member
Manmademan said:
its not common at all. only one particular enemy that does not respawn in the entire game drops it, and it's behind that hidden door. if you didn't open it
solaire gets it first and you have to kill him.
.

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/sunlight-maggot

no idea what's going on in your game.
Click to expand...

No, i'm pretty sure it still spawns (once) even if Solaire loses his marbles, and it's a 100% drop from it. You just have to link back through the area right before the Izalith boss. It's not too tough to find.
 
D

Dr.Acula

Banned
I stopped playing a couple months ago, I should get back into this game.

I just realised that Solaire
totally got killed forever by me when the centipede dragon killed the fuck outta him
. Feels
bad
man
:(
 
B

Booshka

Member
Your stats are good, take your Vit to 30, Dex to 20, and replace Havel's with Ring of Favor, keep Wolf ring, drop those gauntlets for something lighter to stay at 25%. 40 Poise is plenty

2 Hand that Zwei, try to get it to +15, don't take it elemental, Pure Physical is all you need. Head back to Firelink and go down, explore New Londo and look for an NPC on a roof.
 
B

Benzychenz

Member
Booshka said:
Head back to Firelink and go down, explore New Londo and look for an NPC on a roof.
Click to expand...

Heh, I came to update the thread with my progress and this is the latest reply.

I am at that dude right now! :p

Ghosts are fucking annoying but I'll persist through.

I always see the Four Kings mentioned as one of the more annoying bosses, so I'm not sure if this is the right place to be going when I'm quite rusty haha.

Do they at least have a bonfire near them or do I have to go through all these ghosts every time?
 
B

Benzychenz

Member
Ok! Explored everywhere I can in New Londo (and got the very large ember). Definitely back in my groove now.

Question though, I found the fog door to the boss, but I found two other fog doors as well, where do they lead?
 
D

Dmax3901

Member
I too took a long break and when I came back I was in the painting world and died in a really shit place and just raged.

:(
 
D

Davidfoundation

Banned
OP four kings are some mother****! I swear co op them hopefully you get a good player that can help you. I barely beat the game for the first time recently & loved it a lot. You're doing fine OP also raise that VIT!
 
C

CHC

Member
I know this might sound shitty but from my experience with Souls (or just long games in general), it's really better to just restart. You can probably get back to where you were in less than 10 hours, and you'll have a much clearer idea of what you're doing and how to play your character.

Personally every time I load an old save game up I usually forget what strategies I was using, what I had picked up or had yet to explore, etc. There's a certain momemtum to just starting anew and going for it fresh.
 
B

Booshka

Member
CHC said:
I know this might sound shitty but from my experience with Souls (or just long games in general), it's really better to just restart. You can probably get back to where you were in less than 10 hours, and you'll have a much clearer idea of what you're doing and how to play your character.

Personally every time I load an old save game up I usually forget what strategies I was using, what I had picked up or had yet to explore, etc. There's a certain momemtum to just starting anew and going for it fresh.
Click to expand...

This doesn't seem to be one of those cases, OP has good stats, a good weapon, about to be even further upgraded. And seems to be making decent progress already, and he already beat O&S, so pretty far along.

I suggest restarting to a lot of people, but this doesn't seem like one of those times.
 
G

gogosox82

Member
Benzychenz said:
So, due to moving house last year, I went for a while without having my PS3 set up, and this just so happened to conveniently be halfway through my Dark Souls playthrough.
So now with Bloodborne out I want to finish this off, problem is I can't remember a whole lot.

I killed O&S (by summoning another player) and I know I have to kill the big bad bosses now, that much I'm clear on.


Problem number one is that I can't really remember where I haven't been. I know the tunnel after the boss in the graveyard area kept on going so I can check that out, and the cliffs in Anor Londo lead somewhere. But that's only two places and I think there's 4 bosses :\


Next problem is my build and gear, I can't remember what I was doing with it.
My setup having just loaded the game is:

Level 54

Vit : 17
Att: 8
End: 40
Str: 28
Dex: 14
Res: 11
Int: 9
Fai: 9

Zweihander +10
Eagle Shield + 5

Mask of the Mother
Dingy Robe
Gauntlets of Favor
Shadow Leggings

Havel's Ring
Wolf Ring

Equip load: 28.1/120
Poise: 48

Forest Hunter Covenant


Now, I can manage to figure out that I was keeping my equip load under 25% for the fast roll, but that's about it.
Endurance I think I was happy with at 40, not sure on the exact reason. Strength I think I was currently going all into, but I have no idea if there was a sweet spot I wanted to stop at before going into Vitality or something.
Same with poise, I can't remember if there was a sweet spot there I was aiming for.

As for the covenant, I'm just using the one I managed to run into, I know I never really fully understood that aspect of the game and have largely ignored it.

And that isn't even getting into all the other random items, keys etc in my bag. Like the estus flask, mine is on +1 and I don't remember how that mechanic works at all.


So anyway, any help will be very much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Endurance is fine at 40. You won't get any more stamina now, just equip load. I would put points into vit. You can two hand the zwei and you'll get 50% str bonus. So at 28 str you have 42 str when you 2 hand so you should see a big damage boost when you two hand the zwei. Try and get it to +15 and level some vitality. Try to at least get to 30 before the dlc (if you have it) and the final boss. You really don't need any more than 40 poise so I would just use the wolf ring and find some combination of armor that lets you fast roll. I wouldn't worry about covenants as they are mostly for pvp and you are just doing pve.
 
F

Fracas

#fuckonami
I'm playing for the first time and after like 5 tries I just killed the Taurus Demon

I am a godddddd

Also I'm going with a melee build; what should I be doing?
 
B

Booshka

Member
Fracas said:
I'm playing for the first time and after like 5 tries I just killed the Taurus Demon

I am a godddddd

Also I'm going with a melee build; what should I be doing?
Click to expand...

16 STR, 14 DEX, leave it at that for a little bit. Those stats will allow you to try out all kinds of weapons. If you like more Dex focused weapons, then you can start leveling that, and leave your STR at 16, you can level STR instead if you like the big smashy stuff.

Otherwise, healthy amounts of Vit and Endurance, then just points into STR and/or DEX for weapon damage scaling as you upgrade weapons and increase their scaling bonus.
 
G

gogosox82

Member
Fracas said:
I'm playing for the first time and after like 5 tries I just killed the Taurus Demon

I am a godddddd

Also I'm going with a melee build; what should I be doing?
Click to expand...

Depends on what kind of weapons you want to use. Until you figure that out, level vitality and endurance.
 
B

Benzychenz

Member
Jangaroo said:
If you have it, just wear the Havel set and out damage Four Kings.
Click to expand...

Lol this was doing the trick. Killed two of them easily and had only used half of my estus flasks (3 of which were used on the way to the boss). Third one shot off a big purple attack as I was running to him though which homed in on me and did like 60% of my health, then he did a followup attack and killed me :(
 
W

warheat

Member
Benzychenz said:
Lol this was doing the trick. Killed two of them easily and had only used half of my estus flasks (3 of which were used on the way to the boss). Third one shot off a big purple attack as I was running to him though which homed in on me and did like 60% of my health, then he did a followup attack and killed me :(
Click to expand...
4 kings is a bit different than other boss, the damage is based on distance, if you're next to him, it will only do a little damage, wear your havel set, get close to the kings and spam your attack, you do not stop except for healing. Good luck, there's also a shortcut to get to 4 kings so you don't waste estus flask on ghost and darkwraith.
 
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