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Dark Souls |OT5| Definitely better than the sequel

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Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
I've played a pure melee build in Dark Souls and a Sorcery build in Demon's Souls. I guess DS2 will be a dexterity build. I assume that entail lots of archery? Maybe I should try for a faith build, although that seems similar to sorcery.

I found playing the melee role to be much more satisfying, but that could just be because Demon's Souls is generally more limited when it comes to loot and what have you.
 
Recent Dark Souls addict checking in.

Gave the game a try a few weeks ago, and am now level 55, with 2 of the Lord Souls under my belt.

I completely understand why people freaking love this game now. The connected world, consistent rules of combat, helfty feel to combat and general movement, the subtle storytelling, the million ways to do any particular objective, it's all just so damn great.

Oh, and I only discovered the delights of invasions and co-op play today, felt like such a badass helping out a guy in the Painted World. I'm a complete noob I thought, but he was all impressed and thankful for me helping out and it just felt great.
 
I beat 4 Kings tonight with my INT build. Had to summon help though. I'm only at Level 50 with 15 Vit, 16 End, 12 Str, 14 Dex, and 40 Int. Currently using a Magic BSS +5. Now I have the Witch Set, though my Black Leather Chest +8 is better right now. Time to go to Anor Londo and beat up O&S!

Edit- gotta farm some blue titanite from the golems in Darkroot first.
 

Boogybro

Member
Me and my brother are trying to SL1 the game before Dark Souls 2 comes out. Who would've though not leveling up would be so fun?
 

Dance Inferno

Unconfirmed Member
I just beat the Bell Gargoyles after a few tries. I think the secret is keeping your shield up rather than dodging, since it can mitigate 100% of physical damage and a lot of fire damage. I was trying to roll to evade but those times that I mistimed my roll I paid dearly.

Also I basically used Fireballs and Firebombs on the first gargoyle because I didn't want to risk getting double teamed by him and his friend. Not sure how you're supposed to take him out with melee only.

After ringing the bell there are now some new guys at Firelink Shrine, one of whom refuses to talk to me. I had the chance to free him when I met him in a jail cell but there was a sign on the floor that said "liar ahead" so I left him in his cell. Did I screw up?

Also how do I get more spells for Pyromancy? I still only have 8 Fireballs per bonfire, which is annoying.
 

mannerbot

Member
I just beat the Bell Gargoyles after a few tries. I think the secret is keeping your shield up rather than dodging, since it can mitigate 100% of physical damage and a lot of fire damage. I was trying to roll to evade but those times that I mistimed my roll I paid dearly.

Also I basically used Fireballs and Firebombs on the first gargoyle because I didn't want to risk getting double teamed by him and his friend. Not sure how you're supposed to take him out with melee only.

After ringing the bell there are now some new guys at Firelink Shrine, one of whom refuses to talk to me. I had the chance to free him when I met him in a jail cell but there was a sign on the floor that said "liar ahead" so I left him in his cell. Did I screw up?

Also how do I get more spells for Pyromancy? I still only have 8 Fireballs per bonfire, which is annoying.

It's not that blocking is better than rolling, it's that blocking is easier and as you said you're not rolling correctly. Dodging is inarguably better than blocking if you can do it well. As far as doing the Belfry Gargoyles as pure melee, the easiest way is to simply burn the first one down quickly so that you don't have to fight two of them at once. The most likely reason that you weren't able to do enough damage to accomplish this is because you were missing dodges and blocking ate up your stamina, so you lost a lot of dps time. Using gold pine resin makes the encounter really trivial as well.

You get more Pyromancy spells later on when you meet the NPCs that sell them.
 
After ringing the bell there are now some new guys at Firelink Shrine, one of whom refuses to talk to me. I had the chance to free him when I met him in a jail cell but there was a sign on the floor that said "liar ahead" so I left him in his cell. Did I screw up?
You didn't screw up per se, he just has some dialogue and an unimportant gift if you let him out - A Sunlight Medal - which you can get tons of by doing co-op after joining the Sunlight Warriors covenant that Solaire belongs to. If you let him out you can summon him for the Gargoyles boss fight (and another later on, which I assume he won't appear for now since he's not on speaking terms with you?)

He has a quest/story though so you will be seeing more of him later on.
 

Chitown B

Member
started this up yesterday. Beat the Taurus Demon and I'm a little past that. Somehow I killed him, I don't know how, haha.

Basically I did one plunge stab from above, ran down the bridge, he followed, I ran past him and started up the ladder again then the screen said "you defeated"

I wonder if he somehow knocked himself off the bridge?
 

Divius

Member
started this up yesterday. Beat the Taurus Demon and I'm a little past that. Somehow I killed him, I don't know how, haha.

Basically I did one plunge stab from above, ran down the bridge, he followed, I ran past him and started up the ladder again then the screen said "you defeated"

I wonder if he somehow knocked himself off the bridge?
He he does that some times. Doesn't matter, congrats anyway!
 
Just bought DS for PC. Relatively new to PC gaming so forgive my ignorance, but after downloading when I try to play DS simply won't launch. Tells me the executable stopped working. Any idea how to fix this? Should I even bother trying with GFWL about to be removed? Thanks.

Anybody?
 

Shawn6661

Member
Just bought DS for PC. Relatively new to PC gaming so forgive my ignorance, but after downloading when I try to play DS simply won't launch. Tells me the executable stopped working. Any idea how to fix this? Should I even bother trying with GFWL about to be removed? Thanks.

I guess you re on windows 8. You have to delete all GFWL then download it from the microsoft website and run it as an administrator and windows7 compatibility from what i remembered. Good luck.

Im off beating those archers, thanks for all the suggestions !
 

Dance Inferno

Unconfirmed Member
It's not that blocking is better than rolling, it's that blocking is easier and as you said you're not rolling correctly. Dodging is inarguably better than blocking if you can do it well. As far as doing the Belfry Gargoyles as pure melee, the easiest way is to simply burn the first one down quickly so that you don't have to fight two of them at once. The most likely reason that you weren't able to do enough damage to accomplish this is because you were missing dodges and blocking ate up your stamina, so you lost a lot of dps time. Using gold pine resin makes the encounter really trivial as well.

You get more Pyromancy spells later on when you meet the NPCs that sell them.

Haha fair enough, I was messing up my rolls every now and then so it was my fault somewhat. But I will say that I'm getting the hang of dodging and rolling and blocking in this game, and it has really opened it up for me (even though I'm only 5.5 hours in at this point). I'll be honest, I never thought I would enjoy this game but I'm finding that it's really not as difficult as most people claim. Although maybe I haven't hit the hard sections yet.

You didn't screw up per se, he just has some dialogue and an unimportant gift if you let him out - A Sunlight Medal - which you can get tons of by doing co-op after joining the Sunlight Warriors covenant that Solaire belongs to. If you let him out you can summon him for the Gargoyles boss fight (and another later on, which I assume he won't appear for now since he's not on speaking terms with you?)

He has a quest/story though so you will be seeing more of him later on.

Ah, got it. I guess he won't be helping me for this other boss then. Can I get him to talk to me by requesting it from that dude at the bell tower who absolves your sins or whatever he was going on about?

In order to play co-op do I have to be human? I want to play co-op but I also don't want to be invaded, which is why I'm staying hollow. I also joined the Way of the White, which I heard puts you at the very bottom of the queue for PvP.
 
Ah, got it. I guess he won't be helping me for this other boss then. Can I get him to talk to me by requesting it from that dude at the bell tower who absolves your sins or whatever he was going on about?

In order to play co-op do I have to be human? I want to play co-op but I also don't want to be invaded, which is why I'm staying hollow. I also joined the Way of the White, which I heard puts you at the very bottom of the queue for PvP.
I'm not sure about the first one, if you go to the guy in the belltower and request to have your sins absolved, if it counts as a sin there will be a price, if it doesn't he will say you haven't sinned (as long as you haven't sinned elsewhere).

Re: co-op. You only have to be human if you want to summon other players (and NPCs) to your world. If you want to co-op in other people's worlds you can be hollow you just slap down the summon sign somewhere suitable. Co-op is the easiest way to farm souls.
 

Dance Inferno

Unconfirmed Member
Ah got it, guess I can try to be summoned into other people's worlds then. If I kill a boss in another person's world does that boss count as dead in my world? Or does it not work both ways?
 

Mindlog

Member
Ah got it, guess I can try to be summoned into other people's worlds then. If I kill a boss in another person's world does that boss count as dead in my world? Or does it not work both ways?
It does not work both ways. However, killing their boss will get you a bunch of souls, a soft humanity and the previously mentioned sunlight medal.


______later in the game so new players avert their eyes for spoilers______


My latest playthrough has been really great. Killed my first Evil Vagrant. Tired of SL50 I started leveling again. Went 50 INT and those spells are a lot of fun. After Manus gave me so much trouble at SL 50 I got Kal's tail first try without taking damage. I had souls to spare so I threw some stats at one handing the Obsidian Greatsword.

Wait.
Low requirements.
Low scaling.
Can be buffed...

OGS is great! It's weird that on my INT build I've had so much fun testing out a wide variety of weapons. Enchancted Falchion, Moonlight weapons, Velka's Rapier and OGS have all been fun. Invaders have been dealt with. Huge uptick in Gravelord events in my world, but I haven't seen them yet. Three have been resolved without my involvement. Will end up with every achievement/trophy except rare weapons and obviously the last one.

After having fun with slow heavy weapons, magic weapons and dex weapons I am once again just as torn on my first DS2 run as I was before.
 

Chitown B

Member
Haha fair enough, I was messing up my rolls every now and then so it was my fault somewhat. But I will say that I'm getting the hang of dodging and rolling and blocking in this game, and it has really opened it up for me (even though I'm only 5.5 hours in at this point). I'll be honest, I never thought I would enjoy this game but I'm finding that it's really not as difficult as most people claim. Although maybe I haven't hit the hard sections yet.

It seems like the odd thing about this game is you can beat it really fast if you're actually good at playing - without much leveling. It's pretty much 100% skill and mental agility. You can dodge or block most things (or at least dodge at lower levels). But if you're a gamer who grew up on hand holding energy regeneration and constant auto saving, you're gonna have a bad time. Luckily at 32 I grew up on late Atari and the NES, so I'm used to games being unforgiving.
 

Randam

Member
How do I know if I have one? XD

if you have a devine weapon, it says devine long sword or something like that.

you can find 2 weapons the are devine too.
should be mentioned in the item describtion.

I'm at Anor Londo and the only way to go is through a roof with 2 black archers...and its impossible. What were they thinking ? I tried 15 times to kill the right one, i almost beat him once with luck but it ended by a fall as usual. I also make him fall twice but he managed to make me fall with him.

I need HELP.

got past that spot on my first try.
never knew people had so many problems there.
maybe i got lucky with my buld.
as far as i remember, i used a great shield and he knocked himself down.

now i run upt to him and parry him.
even on sl1 you wont die if you srew up once or twice.

Does anyone here actually fight Ceaseless Discharge?

did on my first run and some later trys, where i died running from him.

Seath is super easy, one of the easiest in the game imo, just follow this strat, guaranteed to work every time. Just never go "behind" his tentacle.

i got cursed so many time fighing him. xD

I beat 4 Kings tonight with my INT build. Had to summon help though. I'm only at Level 50 with 15 Vit, 16 End, 12 Str, 14 Dex, and 40 Int. Currently using a Magic BSS +5. Now I have the Witch Set, though my Black Leather Chest +8 is better right now. Time to go to Anor Londo and beat up O&S!

Edit- gotta farm some blue titanite from the golems in Darkroot first.

first playthrough?

After ringing the bell there are now some new guys at Firelink Shrine, one of whom refuses to talk to me. I had the chance to free him when I met him in a jail cell but there was a sign on the floor that said "liar ahead" so I left him in his cell. Did I screw up?

Also how do I get more spells for Pyromancy? I still only have 8 Fireballs per bonfire, which is annoying.

you will loving that guy a little bit latter.

and in the next area you will have to have the chance to free an other guy.
he too will go to firelink shrine and then sell pyromancy.
 

spliced

Member
I meant to post this a while ago but I forget why I didn't.


I got this game not too long ago(a couple months) but I've already put huge amounts of time into it. It is so good though. I noticed the OT thread for this game getting bump often before but I don't usually play these kinds of games so I didn't do much other than read a few posts here and there. The thing that intrigued me was that everything I read was always about gameplay, so knowing that and also the fact that I liked the original King's Field a lot I finally gave the game a chance, boy am I glad I did.

I remember thinking awhile ago how I'll probably never have that feeling again I had when I played King's Field but playing DS felt so similar. DS is quite different but that feeling of suspense and not knowing what is waiting around every corner is very similar for me anyway. One of the stand out moments for me was when I was walking up towards that big armored boar at Undead Parish and I'm thinking what the heck is that thing. That feeling of oh crap combined with trying to figure out how I'm gonna handle the situation was amazing.

Funny enough it ended up that the boars agro range wasn't near as far as I was expecting and I ended up clearing out the guys around him then I pulled him towards the pillars where the stairs go up and he somehow got caught walking backwards so I was free to hit him a bunch in the backside until he went down lol.

That's another thing about the game, it punishes you so badly that anytime I can find some cheap way of doing something I'll gladly take it and feel no guilt about it either. That's what happened with Havel. At first I went at him one on one(the one tip I did remember from gaf was to take the master key) but he would one shot me so I left him for later. Then somehow I figured out he couldn't go into Darkroot Garden so I'd lure him to that door and either get a quick shot in on him first and roll away or I'd wait until he attacked and get him after. He still killed me a few times this way but I eventually got him.

I did my first playthrough mostly blind since I saw that recommended and that's just the way I like to play just about all games if I can. I would look up item info if I was curious but I wasn't browsing through wiki's for stuff I hadn't encountered.

There were several spots I did get stuck that I looked up info and to be honest I was glad I looked up the info since they were parts I would have either wasted hours and hours not knowing what to do or they were parts I felt were so cheap that my cheating was justified.

I started off the game ok, I was slow but I was making progress both in the game and in my understanding of it. One problem I created for myself was I accidently hit the first merchant and he started attacking me so I ran away. I don't exactly know what happened but when I came back he was gone, somehow he had died. Another funny thing was I was reading the messages on the ground and read the one about parrying and somehow got confused and thought it said L1 was parry and I though L2 was just some weird attack and so the whole game I never parried and was quite confused when I'd see messages saying to parry.

Anyway then I got up to the knight in undead burg and boy did he give me problems. There was a message to use fire so I collected up a bunch of firebombs but they weren't hitting him for much plus I was having problems staying safe and hitting him with them. I kept pulling him into that more open area a bit before you meet him and then going on the roof but he would then go on the other side of the house and it was hard to hit him without falling off the roof.

Eventually I beat him after leveling up a bunch. I made slow but steady progress up to the undead parish blacksmith(boy was I happy to finally have a merchant I could buy from). I remember going down those stairs that separate that area from Darkroot and having that titanite guy shoot the lightning ball at me and thinking I wonder if that's the mini boss before the end boss of the game haha. That freaked me out.

After spending a bunch of time in the Parish area exploring and leveling up I pulled the kinght at the top of the tower and luckily he dropped his greatsword which was my weapon for the rest of the game. I would try other stuff I found but nothing did the damage it did. It's a great weapon to get for first time blind playthroughs, it's just a real basic weapon that hits hard.

Next up the rooftop gargs killed me a bunch. I did my playthrough solo because frankly I didn't even know you could summon for most of it. The fire breath from the second garg was a huge pain but I just kept at it until somehow I did it. Once you get one out of the way it becomes much easier.

The depths and even getting down to the bottom of Blighttown didn't go too badly, yeah I died at times but nothing too ridiculous. But then I kept going through The Great Hollow to Ash Lake. This part destroyed me as I got cursed in The Great Hollow and my half health self just got pummeled by both the hydra and the clams in ash lake. Not only that but I had no idea where I was supposed to be going so I did finally look up online to get some help. So then I found out the clams drop the curse break item so I got 1 to break my current curse and got 1 or 2 for the road and got out of there back to Blighttown.

Maneater Mildred showed up but at the time I thought it was an actual person. It did seem like a weird encounter but I didn't think too much of it. I got through the spider boss and ceaseless discharge ok and got to the lord sealed door and went back up.

I did what I could at New Londo Ruins but man that place wrecked me. It was so close to where you start I kept thinking that it's a fairly early area to beat but all that got beat was me. I can't even count the number of times I insta-died getting knocked off a ledge. The relief of finally getting through that area was huge but short lived when it was a dead end since I didn't have the key to the gate ARG!

I did the Catacombs and Sens(I loved the puzzley feel of Sens) and got to Anor and got super stuck for a long time so I had to look online again and found out there was a narrow little walkway that connected the buildings you could walk on, I don't know how I was supposed to figure that out. It was an annoying thing to figure out too because I didn't actually know what I was stuck at, I thought I had somehow missed the key for the New Londo Ruins gate and that's what I was supposed to do next.

After that I go along ok for awhile, do the Painted World. Get back into Anor and work my way through until I get to them. Maybe the biggest pain in the butts in the game the Anor London archers. After one too many times being knocked off the ledge I looked for some tips but sadly the only thing I found was to just keep moving until you get right up to the one on the right. After more tries I eventually got him to fall off the ledge and I went on hoping like I had never hoped before I'd find a bonfire which I did.

I actually didn't have all that much trouble with S&O I think I died 2 or 3 times. I was a pretty high level by that point and there aren't any tricks to that fight to possibly get stuck on.

Next up I did the Duke Archives and once again got badly stuck, this time on Seath. I kept going back and fighting him where you first meet him but he's basically invincible. I actually got into a spot once where he wasn't hurting me and did everything to him I could possibly think of but his health would instantly regen after I hit him.

So I had to go online again to look for some answers. This proved to be a hassle since mostly all I could find were strategies on how to beat him at his second location which I didn't even know was a thing at first so I was beyond confused. I kept reading about how you need to break his crystal but I was looking around not seeing any crystal I could break. Finally I found out you have to fight him at his second location, unfortunately in trying to find out what was going on I spoiled much of the Seath fight and he ended up being pretty easy.

Tomb of Giants was awful at first since I couldn't see hardly anything but once I understood how to use the skull lantern it became much more bearable. Nito was hard as nails but in one of the fights he blasted me up on this rock sticking out of the ground and I got stuck there, but I was able to hit him and he couldn't hit me so I finished him off and used a homeward bone to get unstuck.

Next up I went down and fought the Firesage guy. He ended up getting stuck on one of those dead roots and I used my weak arrows to very slowly take him out from range. I breezed through the centipede and slowly made my way through the t-rex lava party and eventually got to the Bed of Chaos. I broke both of the things at the side and got totally stumped. After a bunch of tries I looked up what to do online, once again I have no idea how you're supposed to figure that out other than through dumb luck.

After finishing off Bed of Chaos once again I'm stuck since the only place to go is New Londo Ruins gate but I didn't know where the key was. So again I have to look online and find out. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to know that I have to talk to that guy on the roof after I get the lord vessel. I had already talked to him so I never thought talking to him again would do anything. From here to the end mostly everything went pretty smoothly.

Since then I've continued to play the game a bunch. The first time through the game there is some frustration and a few parts I didn't like but I find the more you play it the less those annoyances mean since they mostly only effect your first p[lay through when you don't know what's going on. The one thing I really hope they cut down on for DS2 is falling off of ledges insta-deaths.

Playing through the game a second time is a total blast, the game is like 2 games in one. I looked up walkthroughs and playthroughs of the game after beating it just to see how things are supposed to be done in the game and compare it to how I did it. Then with that knowledge plus the experience of the first time through you can savor going through and easily beating all these parts that seemed impossible the first time, plus you can try out different items and tactics you didn't try the first time. The satisfaction levels are off the charts the second time when you actually know what the heck you're doing.

It's so cool to see your skill progress after playing the game for some time. I love comparing the difficulty of those dung pie guys in Blighttown from when I first encountered them to now. I remember running into them thinking it's gonna be ages before I can challenge these guys. Yet in my most recent play through I went over to them early in the game and took them out. Because of their slow movement they're actually some of the easiest guys in the game to BS.

The online stuff in the game is pretty good also. I'm not much of an online player but the way DS implements it takes away some of the annoyances. Even some of the players seem to be friendlier.

One thing I've been doing lately is playing around with the NPC summons. Solaire is so terrible he's funny, he was fighting something I forget what and he just kept doing those slow motion rolls over and over and wouldn't attack the enemy. Then another time I had him and Lautrec in the Depths and I went sliding down that ramp by the waterfall. I went down fine, Lautrec followed me fine but then Solaire went right down the waterfall, it looked so hilarious. Actually later on in the depths Lautrec had one of those roof jelly things land on his head.

Invasions with the NPCs can be fun too. I had them both out in Undead Parish and this guy came down the stairs and was just stunned to see all 3 of us there and he didn't know who to attack first. My favorite one though was in Sens I had Iron Tarkus out in that tower area where you get the ring and divine blessing. I was in the top area and saw the invasion message come on the screen so I went to the top of the staircase to look for the invader and Tarkus was still in the area that was covered so you couldn't really see him.

All of a sudden I see the invader coming up the stairs he had caught me off guard, but just before he got up to me Tarkus came out and blocked the narrow stairway so he couldn't get to me. He tried attacking but he was hitting Tarkus and doing tiny damage but I was able to hit him through Tarkus and smoked him for huge damage and then me or Tarkus finished him off I'm not sure who. It was just so awesome how it worked out and it was a complete accident I wasn't planning it at all.

I'd encourage anyone playing it for the first time to take notes of how things go so you can look back after and see how your understanding and feelings about the game change.
 

Shawn6661

Member
I did it ! The archers are gone. The best advice i can give to players with the same problem is to get up, roll (dont block or you may fall) to evade arrows. Then come as close as possible to the right archer, then as soon as he draws his sword get turn back to the bridge and he will eventually fall into oblivion. The same goes for the left archer.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Never understood why anyone would use the poison arrow method. So boring, takes forever. Much faster and easier to run up to the knight on the right and either parry his ass or (great-)combust him to death.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
Gaping Dragon was super easy once I learned to stop rolling off the edge of the cliff. Took me many tries but mostly due to my own stupidity.

Goddamn this game. It's holding all my other games hostage. If the PS3 is on I start it up without even thinking.
 

Quikies83

Member
If anyone on PC (with dsfix and summon fix) wants to help with 4 Kings in NG+, that would be amazing. I'm getting destroyed.
Steam: Quikies83

edit: Oh, SL98
 

Soulhouf

Member
I remember thinking awhile ago how I'll probably never have that feeling again I had when I played King's Field but playing DS felt so similar.

I agree.
You sir are a scholar.
I'm glad to read that you enjoyed Dark Souls (who doesn't?). One thing I don't aree with you is the wish to remove the falling insta death. It's cheap but credible and it's one of these little game designs we don't see anymore in modern games. I really like it and don't want it to go away.

BTW if anyone here never played King's Field II (called King's Field in the West), by all means do it. It's a great game that will give you a memorable experience and you will enjoy the many references to the series in Dark Souls.
I'm playing it again right now and I can't believe how well it holds in this day&age. The atmosphere and the gameplay are still top notch.

Never understood why anyone would use the poison arrow method. So boring, takes forever. Much faster and easier to run up to the knight on the right and either parry his ass or (great-)combust him to death.

The same reason why people would cheese Ceasless Discharge or Seath or any other boss.
it's so boring. What's the point of fighting a boss who doesn't show even 10% of his move pattern? Seriously, it's almost like fighting a statue that doesn't react.
I like to see all the moves a boss uses, it makes the fight intense and the way it was designed.
 
I've fought Ceaseless Discharge enough times. Usually I want to get through the end game as quickly as possible, do the Artorias fight for fun, and then get to a New Game+. Ceaseless has the same problem with a lot of the later bosses, which is that they all share pretty much the same general attacks: Big sweeping attacks, huge damage, some projectile/ AoE, and just not really all that much fun to fight. At least he doesn't have minions like Nito or tricking your depth perception with a dumbass black background like 4Kids.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
I meant to post this a while ago but I forget why I didn't.

Great write-up! I'm impressed that you were able to just hustle through Ceaseless Discharge at a low level. I assume you were pretty decent at rolling? I've never quite got it down. I've always been a brute-force shield kind of guy.
 

lyonhardt

Member
Beat the game yesterday. Kalameet was surprisingly easy, I was sure that I was never going to beat him after I died the first time, but my second try went very smoothly. Gwyn was quite disappointing. I went around killing some NPCs before Gwyn, and felt like shit lol.

For NG+ I'm gonna follow a guide closely to do all the NPC quests, find all the hidden areas etc this time. Not going to lie, I did use a guide now and then during my first playthrough; if I didn't know where to go and some other information, like what to do for Tomb of Giants, how to actually start the battles with Four Kings and Kalameet, etc. It became apparent though that there were a lot of NPC stuff I missed completely and I want to do them.

Wondering if Claymore+15 will carry me through NG+
 
Question here from a first time player. I'm playing the game completely offline. Can other players still effect my game? I just rang the second bell (on the tower) and came back to Firelink Shrine and the firekeeper was dead, and on her body was this stone to invade the player who killed her. Did some asshole come in my game and kill her or does that happen automatically? Are there other firekeepers I will encounter to upgrade my flask or am I screwed? Thanks!
 
Question here from a first time player. I'm playing the game completely offline. Can other players still effect my game? I just rang the second bell (on the tower) and came back to Firelink Shrine and the firekeeper was dead, and on her body was this stone to invade the player who killed her. Did some asshole come in my game and kill her or does that happen automatically? Are there other firekeepers I will encounter to upgrade my flask or am I screwed? Thanks!

An NPC did that. Figure out what other NPC is missing and you have your answer.

And yes, you'll meet more Firekeepers, so don't worry.
 

DaciaJC

Gold Member
Question here from a first time player. I'm playing the game completely offline. Can other players still effect my game? I just rang the second bell (on the tower) and came back to Firelink Shrine and the firekeeper was dead, and on her body was this stone to invade the player who killed her. Did some asshole come in my game and kill her or does that happen automatically? Are there other firekeepers I will encounter to upgrade my flask or am I screwed? Thanks!

An NPC did that. You'll be able to resolve the situation in an upcoming area. Yes, there are other firekeepers who will reinforce your Estus Flasks.

EDIT: Beaten.
 

2AdEPT

Member
Recent Dark Souls addict checking in.

Gave the game a try a few weeks ago, and am now level 55, with 2 of the Lord Souls under my belt.

I completely understand why people freaking love this game now. The connected world, consistent rules of combat, helfty feel to combat and general movement, the subtle storytelling, the million ways to do any particular objective, it's all just so damn great.

Oh, and I only discovered the delights of invasions and co-op play today, felt like such a badass helping out a guy in the Painted World. I'm a complete noob I thought, but he was all impressed and thankful for me helping out and it just felt great.
welcoe to not being able to enjoying other games as much! good work on embracing the online...its a huge art of the game many miss owing to paranoia.
I beat 4 Kings tonight with my INT build. Had to summon help though. I'm only at Level 50 with 15 Vit, 16 End, 12 Str, 14 Dex, and 40 Int. Currently using a Magic BSS +5. Now I have the Witch Set, though my Black Leather Chest +8 is better right now. Time to go to Anor Londo and beat up O&S!

Edit- gotta farm some blue titanite from the golems in Darkroot first.
You'll want to go to dukes archives immediately after placing the lordvessel...dat level is for mages.
I think my save is corrupt. Firelink Shrine is glitched or something and every one of my characters there doesn't work anymore.
This happened to me when I rested the game for a while and came back, but I didn't upgrade the dsfix....try updating to the most current version of dsfix.

as mentioned windows 8 issues are likely..also read the readme. Dont worry about GFWL...just get on it ASAP and embrace the mulitiplayer as much as possible in case they do yank it.
It does not work both ways. However, killing their boss will get you a bunch of souls, a soft humanity and the previously mentioned sunlight medal.


______later in the game so new players avert their eyes for spoilers______


My latest playthrough has been really great. Killed my first Evil Vagrant. Tired of SL50 I started leveling again. Went 50 INT and those spells are a lot of fun. After Manus gave me so much trouble at SL 50 I got Kal's tail first try without taking damage. I had souls to spare so I threw some stats at one handing the Obsidian Greatsword.

Wait.
Low requirements.
Low scaling.
Can be buffed...

OGS is great! It's weird that on my INT build I've had so much fun testing out a wide variety of weapons. Enchancted Falchion, Moonlight weapons, Velka's Rapier and OGS have all been fun. Invaders have been dealt with. Huge uptick in Gravelord events in my world, but I haven't seen them yet. Three have been resolved without my involvement. Will end up with every achievement/trophy except rare weapons and obviously the last one.

After having fun with slow heavy weapons, magic weapons and dex weapons I am once again just as torn on my first DS2 run as I was before.
Please tell me you also tried the Moonlight greatsword? I guess that's what you meant by moonlight weapons, although there is the soul of the moonlight butterfly weapon AND the Moonlight greastsword
it was in seath's tail?
I meant to post this a while ago but I forget why I didn't.


I got this game not too long ago(a couple months) but I've already put huge amounts of time into it. It is so good though. I noticed the OT thread for this game getting bump often before but I don't usually play these kinds of games so I didn't do much other than read a few posts here and there. The thing that intrigued me was that everything I read was always about gameplay, so knowing that and also the fact that I liked the original King's Field a lot I finally gave the game a chance, boy am I glad I did.

Very nice to see new players embrace the series similarly to how I did in 2009....again welcome to not being able to enjoy other games as much.
 

Nerokis

Member
I'll go ahead and put the TL:DR at the top: I'm so in love with this game. Running around blind has never been so rewarding. I'm amazed by how open it is, and by how much there is to discover. Also, sorry for the length of this post, but I must vent!

Spoilers ahead, in case that matters here

I just reached the second bell, but I spent a lot of time doing this and that between ringing it and the first. I was under the impression the bell would probably be somewhere else for some reason (I think over time I mixed up different things the guy at Firelink Shrine said), and I had no idea killing the witch-spider boss would lead to it. After getting a glimpse of her and then failing to Homeward Bone out, I decided to move on and save her for later. I wanted to explore the area more, which lead to me exiting Blighttown and being amazed to suddenly finding myself in the part of Drake Valley I had already briefly explored earlier (I chose the Master Key). So then began the series of events that probably really swept me off my feet.

The fight with Sif sealed the deal. Man, after seeing so much messed up stuff (a gaping dragon, nightmare fuel frogs I shall never forget, the witch with an enormous spider thing as her legs, etc.), he stood out quite a bit. My favorite fight of the game so far. It had this Shadow of the Colossus quality where you're fighting this majestic giant, and nothing in the atmosphere makes you think that's actually a good thing. It became straight up depressing when he started to limp around. Beautiful fight. I also loved the preceding forest area overall.

Another highlight was being introduced to an entire different dimension of the game: online play. I vaguely knew about it before, but just that it existed. God, being so immersed in the game for as long as I was, only to discover there are all these other systems waiting to be dipped in...amazing. I love the way online integration works. I've had two invasions so far, got killed once and won the other time. Looking forward to being summoned at some point.

Also made a comeback to the Undead Asylum! I was wondering if I would ever return. Discovered there was a body with loot on one of the roofs in Firelight Shrine, discovered how to get to it, discovered it had a key for a door in the Undead Asylum. Stupidly tried to get the bird to take me there with emotes before I caught sight of the nest. For some reason it took me ages to make the jump needed to get to the spiraling staircase again, and I ended up being at around 50% health with 0 flasks by the time I did. God, it was sweet vindication (and really exciting!) when it all worked out and the bird took me back to the asylum! Too bad I was then sent back to the blacksmith, because out of nowhere the floor in the asylum collapsed beneath me, I proceeded to die from falling damage, and the blacksmith bonfire was the nearest one because someone murdered Firelink Shrine's extremely depressing Fire Keeper. This game. This game.

So anyway, I made my way back to UA. After going through the whole of (weirdly creepy) UA (and figuring out the key I found was essentially useless except for letting me know to come back, lol), I killed the demon guy you see across the bars at the beginning of the game, which I found very cool. Then I bounced. I should note I found a very peculiar doll in either my cell or another one.

Throughout this whole chapter of my experience, at least beginning from when I found the poor Fire Keeper murdered (ugh, the blood stained skirt description...), I tried at various points to get through the New Londo Ruins and hopefully reach Ano Londo or whatever, the place mentioned in the Black Eye Orb description. My entire motivation constituted of revenge and wanting that Fire Keeper back. Gave it another go after securing the relatively-convenient-for-the-purpose Undead Asylum bonfire, but ultimately decided to return to Blighttown and kill the spider-witch boss (very fun, by the way). Doing so ended up being much more productive than I expected it to be. Besides finding the bell, found another extremely depressing Fire Keeper to give a Fire Keeper Soul to. Flasks are now at +2. Wooo. Also, exploring the Demon Ruins, I found a new set of armor compelling enough to force me to finally switch from my Wanderer set, and yet another boss (this makes 3, I think?) that I can't even imagine beating.

So now I'm back at the blacksmith, and the area beyond the gate awaits. Today was pretty much dedicated to Dark Souls, though, and I'll be spending the next few days settling back into real life. What a ride it was truly falling in love with this game. I already picked it up a few months ago, but only got to the Bell Gargoyles before I had to put it away and focus on other things. Started over on Saturday, I think, and I've definitely more than compensated for that.
 

RVinP

Unconfirmed Member
I'll go ahead and put the TL:DR at the top: I'm so in love with this game. Running around blind has never been so rewarding. I'm amazed by how open it is, and by how much there is to discover. Also, sorry for the length of this post, but I must vent!

Spoilers ahead, in case that matters here

...

Running around Blind,
went into a flight.
In the night, before a fight,
find did you?, legacy of the stone knight.

Knee deep in muck, but in the light,
innocently stands, a pride in the blight.
gaze did you?, into a basilisks sleight,
Run, walk, fall and jump, false promise of a woodsman alight.
 

MilkBeard

Member
Finally got to the DLC. The bosses are much harder! Here's a few action shots that I recently took that I thought you guys might like:
Fullset: http://www.flickr.com/photos/15539352@N02/sets/72157634774669900/

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Damn that looks great on PC. Such a huge difference. This is why I wanted DS2 on PS4! Argggh. I'll still love every second of it despite the aging tech though.

Also, From should hire you to do promo shots for their games. These are way better than anything they've done themselves.
 

NZNova

Member
So, just finished Sen's Fortress tonight. Honestly it wasn't as bad as I was expecting, I'd heard it was really hard but I found it alright especially once I found a lightning spear. Compared to the dark days of falling down that goddamned hole in the depths and pretty much all of Blighttown, it seemed like a big improvement to be honest, haha.

Now on to Anor Londo... I'm kind of pushing myself to play it more than I normally would, because I worry that if I don't, the GFWL shutdown will bite me in the ass.
 
So anyway, I made my way back to UA. After going through the whole of (weirdly creepy) UA (and figuring out the key I found was essentially useless except for letting me know to come back, lol), I killed the demon guy you see across the bars at the beginning of the game, which I found very cool.
It is cool that you can see the Stray Demon through the bars right at the start. I think a lot of people miss it although you can hear it. I'm pretty sure I didn't see it on my first run.

The key by the way, it does unlock a door in case you missed it. It lets you get the item that was previously unreachable.
Rusted Iron Ring, used for normal movement speed in water/swamps etc.
 
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