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[Red Liquorice]

Force doesn't do damage, though. At level 15, your summoners can be level 26 (10+10% up/down), and darkwraiths can invade 10 levels below their own (no +10% for darkwraiths it seems, and no upper limit). So the invader could've been level 36. More than enough levels for WOTG. In fact, picking cleric class and putting all your points into faith gives you WOTG at level 16.

Oh. It was definately WotG then because it did 75% to my lvl 15 wearing crappy armour, more than enough for the second go to finish me off before I even had time to react after getting up!

So they did do a speedy run down to Tomb of the Giants after all? I guess it's not so far, I've worked in Pinwheel as my early game speed-through and it's pretty quick, but it still sucks to troll newbies like that.

 

[Mxrz]

Going through withdrawals. Need to play (and hopefully finish) this soon. Tomb of the Giants is a great demotivator, however. :c

If don't mind spoiling yourself, you could try video of a speed run and see how quickly you can do the whole Catacombs to Nito bit. I used to dread it too, but there isn't too much you need to fight, especially if you don't have an interest in the items.

 

[Wowbagger]

Oh. It was definately WotG then because it did 75% to my lvl 15 wearing crappy armour, more than enough for the second go to finish me off before I even had time to react after getting up!

So they did do a speedy run down to Tomb of the Giants after all? I guess it's not so far, I've worked in Pinwheel as my early game speed-through and it's pretty quick, but it still sucks to troll newbies like that.

I think you have to beat Nito to get Rhea to move to the church. That means going through Anor Londo first, of course. Maybe I'm wrong, though. I know Patches won't relocate until the boss is dead.

I've run into a new breed of low level griefer lately, hosting PVP in the burg. They come equipped with infinite divine blessings thanks to the new duplication glitch. Doesn't help much when I have 70+ levels on them, but it sure sucks that the best advice one can give a new player is to stay hollow for the first half of the game.

 

[krakov]

Oh. It was definately WotG then because it did 75% to my lvl 15 wearing crappy armour, more than enough for the second go to finish me off before I even had time to react after getting up!

So they did do a speedy run down to Tomb of the Giants after all? I guess it's not so far, I've worked in Pinwheel as my early game speed-through and it's pretty quick, but it still sucks to troll newbies like that.

If you use the BB glitch to start out with upgraded weapons, armor, etc it takes pretty much no effort to run through the game. You can expect most of the community to be using this glitch right now, at least that is my impression as a level 40-ish invader. Early game PvP is very random, though it evens out.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Yeah it's actually much easier to rush through many areas in Dark Souls than it is to fight.
(New Londo being a major exception. Those ghosts can aggro for years!)
...
I think I'm going to quit for awhile. I'm really not sure what to do next and I have a handful of other games that need playing.

 

[Zertez]

Even with the new glitch and tons of Divine Blessings, I dont see it hurting things much more than the BB glitch did already. Many players already have close to max humanity for pvp, so constant healing to full was already wide spread. You just have to catch the griefers and take them out before they can use the items. Basically I bait them into using their cheap spells and then move in for a well placed riposte and dont let it up when they try to heal. If they are low level, they normally have lower vitality and I can kill them pretty easily with a hornet ring bandit knife ripo and backstab if they are really bad. It is pretty cheap as well, but they are griefers, so I dont care. The griefers are usually pretty horrible players and just use their overpowered items to make up for their lack of skill. I know this doesnt help new players much, but some of them give up after being killed this way a few times in a row. It is fun hunting griefers the same way they hunt new legit players.

 

[Zertez]

Yeah it's actually much easier to rush through many areas in Dark Souls than it is to fight.
(New Londo being a major exception. Those ghosts can aggro for years!)
...
I think I'm going to quit for awhile. I'm really not sure what to do next and I have a handful of other games that need playing.

The ghosts in New Londo are by the most annoying mobs in Dark Souls imo, with maybe the crawling skeletons in TotG with close in annoyance. The biggest thing I hate about the ghosts in New Londo is when they get bugged in the air and you cant even hit or kill them.

 

[Captain Pants]

I've beaten the game five times now, so I feel like I know it well. That being said, I always struggle through the early parts of the game with any of the mage characters I've made. What is the best way make progress early on? Right now, I'm just leveling my health and endurance and relying on backstabs with my dagger to clear out most areas, but obviously, this isn't too effective for bosses. Does Dark Souls have an early game equivalent to that Crescent Falchion+1 in 4-1 of Dark Souls? I want to be doing more damage than I am. I feel like the most effective weapons and spells aren't accessible until after Anor Londo.

 

[Sullichin]

How do you get 99 divine blessings in the first place? I've never had more than a few from going through the whole game. Are they really getting a handful per game, BB glitching, and doing that over and over? Just so they can have a quick healing item in PVP? I bet these people aren't actually very good at PVP since they rely on healing.

I've beaten the game five times now, so I feel like I know it well. That being said, I always struggle through the early parts of the game with any of the mage characters I've made. What is the best way make progress early on? Right now, I'm just leveling my health and endurance and relying on backstabs with my dagger to clear out most areas, but obviously, this isn't too effective for bosses. Does Dark Souls have an early game equivalent to that Crescent Falchion+1 in 4-1 of Dark Souls? I want to be doing more damage than I am. I feel like the most effective weapons and spells aren't accessible until after Anor Londo.

I usually use the magic weapon spell on a longsword or something on the early bosses like Capra and Gargoyles, it works well. You can also make a magic weapon at the new londo blacksmith once you have some green titanite.

 

[krakov]

I've beaten the game five times now, so I feel like I know it well. That being said, I always struggle through the early parts of the game with any of the mage characters I've made. What is the best way make progress early on? Right now, I'm just leveling my health and endurance and relying on backstabs with my dagger to clear out most areas, but obviously, this isn't too effective for bosses. Does Dark Souls have an early game equivalent to that Crescent Falchion+1 in 4-1 of Dark Souls? I want to be doing more damage than I am. I feel like the most effective weapons and spells aren't accessible until after Anor Londo.

Go down to the blacksmith in New Londo and get Heavy soul arrow, it will take care of most bosses early game. As soon as you can buy from the firelink mage you can get Great (heavy) soul arrow. The magic boosting ring is a good investment and dusks crown is also useful. There aren't that many int scaling weapons in the game but you can just level some STR/DEX and use a regular upgraded weapon with buffs. Magic upgrade path is available as soon as you get some green shards but it's not very good.

 

[ihearthawthats]

so i finally reached the giant blacksmith and now am able to upgrade my black knight sword further. the question is, i also found a giant's halberd so i'm wondering which one i should use?

on the stast page, it says the giant's halberd is stronger, but in practice the black knight sword seems to do more damage, especially with criticals. is this due to the better strength scaler? or perhaps the mobs in this area have high lightning def? i do love the speed and reach of the halberd though, but its hard to ignore the damage of the black knight sword.

theres also the option of crafting weapons with the boss souls i got. i haven't really looked too much into what they make yet though. any suggestions?

 

[maomaoIYP]

I've beaten the game five times now, so I feel like I know it well. That being said, I always struggle through the early parts of the game with any of the mage characters I've made. What is the best way make progress early on? Right now, I'm just leveling my health and endurance and relying on backstabs with my dagger to clear out most areas, but obviously, this isn't too effective for bosses. Does Dark Souls have an early game equivalent to that Crescent Falchion+1 in 4-1 of Dark Souls? I want to be doing more damage than I am. I feel like the most effective weapons and spells aren't accessible until after Anor Londo.

Playing as a pure mage requires a little bit of planning. What I do is right when the game starts go down to the New Londo Ruins to buy the cheapest spell that gives you 30 casts. Assuming you started with sorcerer, that's a total of 60 casts, definitely enough to clear all the enemies between bonfires. If that's still not enough, rescue the mage dude, and buy another 30 casts. I never go for Vit and End, I just go for Int, enough Dex to use a bandit knife (and get one as soon as you can) and enough Str to use a heater shield. Kill the darkwood basin hydra and then get Dusk's crown as soon as possible. Use your casts to power though enemies who block, and for those whom you can't do so, do a parry cast for extra damage (or riposte or backstab).

As soon as you can, buy the next tier of spells, I like a mix of the slower stronger ones and the faster ones. Save the slower spells for the bosses. As a pure mage, the hardest fights you will have are the normal enemies, simply because there tends to be so many of them at one go. Leveled correctly, you should slice through bosses like a hot knife through butter.

 

[Derrick01]

So what determines how you get sunlight medals in co-op? I've helped 4 people kill quelaag today and I got 30k souls each time but only once did I get a medal. I want to get into that one covenant so does it still lower the requirement by 5 each time even without a medal?

 

[Ventilaator]

Finished it. I'm not sure what game had the biggest anticlimax at the end, this or Demon's Souls. Demon's Souls had an absolutely pathetic final boss, but at least it was very clear that it was the final one and the game was about to be done. I killed Gwyn, saw a bonfire appear and was looking forward to what's next because the area is cool. I went to the bonfire, and then fire and then credits.

Huh? I feel like I need to read some companion novel or something.

Anyways, new game plus. It's so easy to play so sloppily because you assume that these are the easy enemies that won't do anything to your lifebar. I almost died once going from Firelink to the first blacksmith. That's just sad. Also, I'm now at the "Fuck the fucking pvp backstabbers" stage of playing Dark Souls. How many stages are there? There's the "I went to the wrong direction at first and it was hard lol" stage, the "Man, Blighttown framerate" stage and the "Man, Anor Londo archers" stage.

 

[H_Prestige]

So what determines how you get sunlight medals in co-op? I've helped 4 people kill quelaag today and I got 30k souls each time but only once did I get a medal. I want to get into that one covenant so does it still lower the requirement by 5 each time even without a medal?

You need to be in the sunbro covenant. Then you will always get a medal, and so will the host and his other phantom (I think).

 

[Derrick01]

You need to be in the sunbro covenant. Then you will always get a medal, and so will the host and his other phantom (I think).

Ah that's the covenant I'm trying to get into by lowering the faith requirement with these co-op sessions.

 

[Sullichin]

Ah that's the covenant I'm trying to get into by lowering the faith requirement with these co-op sessions.

You still lower your faith requirement for joining the covenant with each successful co-op session regardless of whether any of the players are in the sunlight covenant.

 

[krakov]

Finished it. I'm not sure what game had the biggest anticlimax at the end, this or Demon's Souls. Demon's Souls had an absolutely pathetic final boss, but at least it was very clear that it was the final one and the game was about to be done. I killed Gwyn, saw a bonfire appear and was looking forward to what's next because the area is cool. I went to the bonfire, and then fire and then credits.

Huh? I feel like I need to read some companion novel or something.

Anyways, new game plus. It's so easy to play so sloppily because you assume that these are the easy enemies that won't do anything to your lifebar. I almost died once going from Firelink to the first blacksmith. That's just sad. Also, I'm now at the "Fuck the fucking pvp backstabbers" stage of playing Dark Souls. How many stages are there? There's the "I went to the wrong direction at first and it was hard lol" stage, the "Man, Blighttown framerate" stage and the "Man, Anor Londo archers" stage.

I guess the final one is the "Man, this is a breeze" stage, though that isn't always very sane to carry around in NG+ and beyond. Depending on your equipment there are many spots that can be challenging, though they can all be easy once you come prepared.

 

[Derrick01]

You still lower your faith requirement for joining the covenant with each successful co-op session regardless of whether any of the players are in the sunlight covenant.

That's good news, thanks.

 

[Mxrz]

Huh? I feel like I need to read some companion novel or something.

Surprisingly, the Dark Wraith NPC explains a good chunk of it that the other side seems to skip over. But most of the game lore is in the item descriptions. NPCs say maybe one or two lines about what you're doing, and then go back to their basic talks.

Also, I'm now at the "Fuck the fucking pvp backstabbers" stage of playing Dark Souls. How many stages are there? There's the "I went to the wrong direction at first and it was hard lol" stage, the "Man, Blighttown framerate" stage and the "Man, Anor Londo archers" stage.

Hmm.

"This new character (game) is great!"
"WTF, why do these guys have uber gear at this level? Damn cheaters!!!"
"Bitch ass wotg."
"Man, Elemental weapons are broken. Everything else sucks!"
"Fucking lagstabbing bullshit!"
"DWGR is stupid, havels is stupid. Mask are stupid. Poise is stupid. Everyone looks alike. Pvp Sucks!."
"The Great scythe / Murakumo / Great club is awesome! I kick ass!"
"lawl wotg."
"Hmm. Everyone just fishes for backstabs now days. I miss last month / week / year. "
"Ah well. It may suck, but there's nothing better."

I've beaten the game five times now, so I feel like I know it well. That being said, I always struggle through the early parts of the game with any of the mage characters I've made. What is the best way make progress early on? Right now, I'm just leveling my health and endurance and relying on backsta

Well, for a mage, I'd say not to bother with health and endurance early, and instead push INT up into the 25+ range. That'll make the Great Soul Arrows & Heavies take care of most things. On mine, I took INT to 50 before pushing Vit and Endurance past 15. If stuff is dead, it can't hit you, etc. Picking up the Sorcery boosting rings early can help too.

You can make a magic Falchion, or pick up an enchanted one later. But they won't be as big a boon as that Crescent Falchion was in Demon's. The Moonlight butterfly spear/horn can plow through NG+ easy enough.

 

[kamorra]

I need some help here please. I never actively tried to co op with a friend but I want to help my brother now. We both started new characters, beat Taurus and received the White Soap Stone. Were is the next location after Taurus where he could try to summon me?

edit
I also have a red soap stone but also not 100% sure how it works.

 

[2AdEPT]

So what determines how you get sunlight medals in co-op? I've helped 4 people kill quelaag today and I got 30k souls each time but only once did I get a medal. I want to get into that one covenant so does it still lower the requirement by 5 each time even without a medal?

THE signs on the ground if they are gold mean sunbros, as does the gold coulour of the phantom...if any one of these players, (solaire counts) yourslef included are sunbro, gives all parties a medal upon completion...you can help others to forego the faith requirement, but you must have 10 medals minimum to join iirc.

I've beaten the game five times now, so I feel like I know it well. That being said, I always struggle through the early parts of the game with any of the mage characters I've made. What is the best way make progress early on? Right now, I'm just leveling my health and endurance and relying on backstabs with my dagger to clear out most areas, but obviously, this isn't too effective for bosses. Does Dark Souls have an early game equivalent to that Crescent Falchion+1 in 4-1 of Dark Souls? I want to be doing more damage than I am. I feel like the most effective weapons and spells aren't accessible until after Anor Londo.

Pyro is magic kinda, so for me I am not so purist that early game can not involve pyro even for my magic characters. ALl my characters go to queelag first before gargoyles and get a maxed glove as a pyro starting character by assisting on queelag (lots of action at low levels as it is a mandatory bell), then they migrate to either magic or faith, or whatever....pyro doesn't require stat modification and the character only starts at SL6 so you have room to work. IF you are too purist to do that you can take your sorcerer to the depths to get the pyro guy saved, but htis requires basement key and capra completed. Co-op can do this as well if that is yuour choice. I just start all my charcters as pyro's now and get maxed pyro and gold hemmed set before doing much else....pyro is always good as a back-up and helps on Seath, ornstein, sif, butterfly, tree creatures, etc.

I need some help here please. I never actively tried to co op with a friend but I want to help my brother now. We both started new characters, beat Taurus and received the White Soap Stone. Were is the next location after Taurus where he could try to summon me?

edit
I also have a red soap stone but also not 100% sure how it works.

You will need to get close to the gargoyles boss by getting accross the bridge, past the dragon and up some stairs to teh left. Alternatelively, you can go through the garden if you ahve the master key and are willing to run by tough drakes....but this route is longer...you have to deal with dragons either way. Once you get up into the chapel there are several locales you can meet up...one spot I usedint eh past was an area just outside a jail cell where a guy names Lautrec sits...most players know htis spot, but few would actually drop a soul sign there which might interfere with your trying to meet.

 

[Derrick01]

THE signs on the ground if they are gold mean sunbros, as does the gold coulour of the phantom...if any one of these players, yourslef included are sunbro, gives all parties a medal upon completion...you can help others to forego the faith requirement, but you must have 10 medals minimum to join iirc.

Ah so that's what the gold/orange-ish signs were. Yeah I was able to finally join that covenant though I had to dodge the dragon, but you don't need medals to join. I only had 3 when I joined.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

Ah so that's what the gold/orange-ish signs were. Yeah I was able to finally join that covenant though I had to dodge the dragon, but you don't need medals to join. I only had 3 when I joined.

In order to join your faith has to be 25 but the requirement is lowered by 5 for each time you help someone kill a boss. Before the 1.05 patch the requirement was 50 so it took a lot more work. I don't think the medals have anything to do with it, though.

EDIT: Ah, looks like you already knew all this. Sorry!

 

[2AdEPT]

Ah so that's what the gold/orange-ish signs were. Yeah I was able to finally join that covenant though I had to dodge the dragon, but you don't need medals to join. I only had 3 when I joined.

GEez, I guess the medals are only for ranking up in the covenant not joining...its been a ong time since i Was starting from scratch with this covenenant....just the other day I BB glitched and was ableto get all the lightning bolt miracles inc. great sunlight spear or whatever the highest 50 req. one was right upon joining. Still had 10 or 11 medals kicking around after that as well. (the big one is from Gwynns soul though.)

 

[MvmntInGrn]

So I finally started Dark Souls today. Loved Demon's Souls but I'm only just now getting a break in school to finally get around to it.

General thoughts and impressions:
-Visuals are much more detailed overall, though with more framerate hitches

-Control improvements are great, jumping stab is so satisfying. Sometimes I try to be more fancy than I need to be, which can be dangerous.

-Flask for HP regeneration is interesting. I'm trying not to research this game as much as I did for Demon's Souls so I can figure it out as I go but I'm very curious if there will be other health items like the grasses in Demon's Souls. It works well with the limited item slots though.

Anyway, I keep dying at the first boss. I need to get back into the "groove" of the Souls games. I got to the point in Demon's Souls where dying became less frustrating but I'm finding myself raging a little bit now, rushing, and making more mistakes because of it. Hope to pour some time into it over the summer while I have it.

 

[krakov]

I need some help here please. I never actively tried to co op with a friend but I want to help my brother now. We both started new characters, beat Taurus and received the White Soap Stone. Were is the next location after Taurus where he could try to summon me?

edit
I also have a red soap stone but also not 100% sure how it works.

Anywhere, just make sure you are within about 10 levels of each other. If you can't use it, the game won't let you. Works best if the one trying to put down the sign is hollow as invasions can interfere otherwise.

 

[AEGISX]

Flask is the main hp recovery item. You can also heal with humanity or fire keepers soul, but these items are hard to come by

 

[Robot Pants]

So I finally started Dark Souls today. Loved Demon's Souls but I'm only just now getting a break in school to finally get around to it.

Prepare to be addicted (edition)

 

[MechaX]

PvP is just starting to get bizarre.

Did a Darkmoon invasion in the Burg, and it was just one guy loaded up with all Havel's with no weapons except two Havel shields. And he was parked right in the corner. "... oookay..." I thought to myself, and bowed anyway. Dude starts throwing dung pies in mid bow. I had enough poison and toxic stuff to make this pretty trivial. But he was definitely quite high on the poise scale. Nailed him with a couple of MLGS energy waves, but he wizened up to it. After about 3 minutes of a mixture of my poking him and staring him down, I just blasted him with all Crystal Soul Spears and then stunlocked him with MLGS swings.

My only response was "... Why?" This... was most likely for trolling but... I just don't understand how someone can get humor or enjoyment out of something like this.

 

[2AdEPT]

So I finally started Dark Souls today. Loved Demon's Souls ....
Anyway, I keep dying at the first boss.

Welcome back! I will recommend that you try to find a happy medium between too much and not enough help from wiki's, this board etc. Obviously to err on the side of caution and NOT get the spoilers is better. BUt here are some tips for making it enjoyable without spoiling it:

Remember that there is even less of a "recommended" path than there was for Demon's. The developers were clear they were going for a more wideopen world. Many Demon's players seem to feel comfortable taking on difficult enemies early on as they remember the SL1 runs from Demon's. THese continue and perhaps are even more viable in Dark, so don't feel you can't go into any area...of course some are more difficult than others, but there is always either an item, a strategy, or a combo of both that enables a low level player to pass through.

Rather than have the world tendency events, Dark has covenants to spice things up. There are many to choose from but you can exit and enter all of them all in the same playthrough. although it might be time consuming to do all of them in one playthrough, you only get one virgin playthrough, and choosing your favourites is key for multiplayer mostly, but also special weaponry and miracles etc.

Suggestions:

• leave bosses alive until you have exhausted all paths you are able to explore..lots of shortcuts exist and enable you to bring the right equipoment to each fight.

• choose the master key as your gift (thief gets it automatically) as it enables more exploration early

• Homeward bones are a new item that enables you to fast travel bacl to the last bonfire. These are acquired much easier after a major patch and can be found very soon after the tutorial....FIND THEM.

@taurus demon -- remember your training Luke - -

Spoiler

the tutorial i.e. introduced you to a new move you could try right away on Taurus.

 

[CountAntonius]

PvP is just starting to get bizarre.

Did a Darkmoon invasion in the Burg, and it was just one guy loaded up with all Havel's with no weapons except two Havel shields. And he was parked right in the corner. "... oookay..." I thought to myself, and bowed anyway. Dude starts throwing dung pies in mid bow. I had enough poison and toxic stuff to make this pretty trivial. But he was definitely quite high on the poise scale. Nailed him with a couple of MLGS energy waves, but he wizened up to it. After about 3 minutes of a mixture of my poking him and staring him down, I just blasted him with all Crystal Soul Spears and then stunlocked him with MLGS swings.

My only response was "... Why?" This... was most likely for trolling but... I just don't understand how someone can get humor or enjoyment out of something like this.

Bored person with too much time on their hands.

 

[systemfehler]

Just finished helping out a few guys with Smough and Ornstein. If some of you read that - I don't mind finishing them off by myself but please use the Estus flask sometimes to at least help me out a little.

 

[soultron]

Painted World was phenomenal. Love that bit. Amazing that you could miss it completely if you didn't have an item before your journey to Anor Londo. I got the item after AL so I had to go back!

 

[2AdEPT]

Just finished helping out a few guys with Smough and Ornstein. If some of you read that - I don't mind finishing them off by myself but please use the Estus flask sometimes to at least help me out a little.

Yeah many people don't kindle Anor Londo bonfires much and esp noob hosts depending on their route incur all kinds of taxings on the estus whether it be silver knights (archers), mimics, titanite demon, giants or otherwise....most noob players will not have a lot left for that fight...i have run out many times myself. I was a beneficiary of the latest divine blessing craze as one pvp dude dropped me 30 or so. WIll put to good use as a phantom.

 

[Robot Pants]

Ha. I laid down an eye of death in the Undead Berg and left to go hiking for 2 hours. I came back, and am in the exact same position I was when I left. No souls gained.
Come on, Dark Souls. Come on. I know they had problems with Eyes of Death pre-1.05 but didn't they fix it?

 

[MvmntInGrn]

*Wonderful Advice*
@taurus demon -- remember your training Luke - -

Spoiler

the tutorial i.e. introduced you to a new move you could try right away on Taurus.

While watching some TV it finally hit me how to take on that boss which I believe is what you are referring too;

Spoiler

Hit him with the falling slash thing 3 times a few sword swings, can't believe it didn't hit me sooner

.

Already finding out the multiple paths too

Spoiler

after a few failed attempts at confronting that big hog, I decided to sprint past the dragon instead, we'll see where that takes me.

.

I spoke with an NPC who mentioned covenants but I didn't join. Next one I run across I'll accept and see what that's all about.

 

[AEGISX]

OMFG new Demon's Souls for Vita just announced!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iALs1vosHJI

 

[kamorra]

OMFG new Demon's Souls for Vita just announced!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iALs1vosHJI

ehh, no. We still don't know if this will be a Souls game or something completely different.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=473273

 

[krakov]

Ha. I laid down an eye of death in the Undead Berg and left to go hiking for 2 hours. I came back, and am in the exact same position I was when I left. No souls gained.
Come on, Dark Souls. Come on. I know they had problems with Eyes of Death pre-1.05 but didn't they fix it?

What SL?
Was the boss still alive?
What position?

 

[Captain Pants]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

 

[Zertez]

I've beaten the game five times now, so I feel like I know it well. That being said, I always struggle through the early parts of the game with any of the mage characters I've made. What is the best way make progress early on? Right now, I'm just leveling my health and endurance and relying on backstabs with my dagger to clear out most areas, but obviously, this isn't too effective for bosses. Does Dark Souls have an early game equivalent to that Crescent Falchion+1 in 4-1 of Dark Souls? I want to be doing more damage than I am. I feel like the most effective weapons and spells aren't accessible until after Anor Londo.

Firebombs available on the undead merchant in Undead Burg is also helpful in the early stages when you have limited weapon options. With patience you can drop Havel using just firebombs at any level. If you start with the Thief class, you can get black firebombs as the gift, since the class comes with the master key. You also start with enough int to use Soul Arrow and Heavy Soul Arrow that you can buy off the blacksmith in New Londo Ruins along with a catalyst. You will have to drop a point into attunement to open another spell slot though. Putting one point in Faith will open Heal as well. You should be able to make it pretty far without spending any points on Soul Levels, just by using the things above and upgrading equipment that drops.

 

[Robot Pants]

What SL?
Was the boss still alive?
What position?

SL 140
Boss is alive. (Tomb of Giants)
just on the ground right above the area that holds the large divine ember

 

[Derrick01]

Heh 3 of us against ornstein and smough was pretty damn easy on NG+. We even took Ornstein down last just to make things harder and we still destroyed him. Thankfully it worked out that way though because I need Orn's soul.

 

[B-Genius]

OMFG new Demon's Souls for Vita just announced!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iALs1vosHJI

Yeah, seriously, stop it.

 

[weekend_warrior]

Hey looking for advice on PvE/PvP co-op build. Mostly aimed at helping people beat levels and defend from red phantoms. I want to stay low-level (35-55), with average str/dex to use a few of the heavier swords (Claymore), a few in Att/Int (because Heal is a most for phantoms, and Chameleon is super cool), and with most points dumped into Vit/End. But I'm wondering if it's worth it to dump more into faith for some of those co-op friendly spells, and then maybe joining the SunBros? What say you?

 

[Red Liquorice]

Been co-oping in Sen's Fortess most of the evening, got a cool half a million in souls that I had to spend 3 rings of sacrifice to keep when I was dealing with the ghosts in New Londo Ruins to get the Very Large Ember. Most trouble I've ever had in that area, it's always when you've got something worth losing that they gang-bang you :/

I find people are appreciative of the help in Sen's because of all the traps, many times I got a message of thanks. The area is fun, and 20,000 for the boss is pretty good.

Also was in Anor Londo when a sunbro helping me out was using the sword you get from Seath's tail cut off - I'd never seen it before and at first I thought it was a spell, I really want to get it this play through now!

And another first for me was joining Nito's covenant - I've been past the coffin in the Catacombs many times before, but never knew it was there, d'oh.

Hey looking for advice on PvE/PvP co-op build. Mostly aimed at helping people beat levels and defend from red phantoms. I want to stay low-level (35-55), with average str/dex to use a few of the heavier swords (Claymore), a few in Att/Int (because Heal is a most for phantoms, and Chameleon is super cool), and with most points dumped into Vit/End. But I'm wondering if it's worth it to dump more into faith for some of those co-op friendly spells, and then maybe joining the SunBros? What say you?

I'm currently playing with a strength/faith sunbro build, just level 30 atm - Miracles are really useful in co-op, the lightning spear is good for getting easy hits on bosses till it runs out, then melee. Heal comes in handy when host is stingy with the estus, or you make a stupid mistake and don't want the host to 'pay' for it. I also use Force to panic invaders, it doesn't do any damage but stuns them and works just as a threat alone once they know you have it not to get too close and quit constantly fishing for a backstab. You don't have to put too much into Faith for those, 20 I think for the lightning spear.

 

[ihearthawthats]

I want to stay low-level (35-55)

i've been noticing people say this a lot. what are the reasons to want to stay at a lower level?

 

[Sullichin]

i've been noticing people say this a lot. what are the reasons to want to stay at a lower level?

You can only co-op with people who are within 10% of your level range (more if you're in the sunlight covenant), so some people stay low leveled so they can get the most out of co-op. You'll be summoned a lot more at level 40 or 50 in Anor Londo than if you were level 200 for example, because of the average levels of players in that area. If you invade, you can only invade people at your level or higher, so that's another reason to stay low. Also people just stay low level for the challenge or to try out different character builds.

 

[weekend_warrior]

i've been noticing people say this a lot. what are the reasons to want to stay at a lower level?

So I can be summoned by lower level characters. Plus I thinks it's more interesting to create an optimized low-level character then dump points a create an uber-character.

You can only co-op with people who are within 10% of your level range (more if you're in the sunlight covenant), so some people stay low leveled so they can get the most out of co-op. You'll be summoned a lot more at level 40 or 50 in Anor Londo than if you were level 200 for example, because of the average levels of players in that area. If you invade, you can only invade people at your level or higher, so that's another reason to stay low. Also people just stay low level for the challenge or to try out different character builds.

And this.