Dark Souls(Demon's Souls successor)

[JonCole]

Yeah, the Gaping Dragon can hit me with an attack that reduces 90% of my health. Maybe I'm not well prepared, but I think I'll give it a couple tries before giving up.

[Larsen B]

I honestly could not tell you how Gaping Dragon attacks. Like I remember him running and jumping up but that seemed to be so he'd get into my attack range. Swell dude.

[Griddlelol]

Indeed, I took him on well after Anor Londo. Favourite boss is still S&O. Loved everything about that fight. Went in feeling like a DS baby, came out feeling like DS had been put on easy mode. 

I also really liked the gargoyles. Something about 2 on 1 fights really makes me happy despite me finding them incredibly hard. I've not really liked any of the bosses for the Lord Vessel. They all felt either gimmicky or boring compared to those before them. The DLC bosses seem pretty cool though, despite one kicking my ass so hard.

 

I remember my focus being to take off the Gaping Dragon's tail so he couldn't swipe me any more. Then continuing to beat on the tail and stay in that general tail area. I took a beating before I got the tail off, but it was alright once I'd done that part. Most of it's attacks are blockable, except for the crashing onto the ground one.

[JonCole]

I remember my focus being to take off the Gaping Dragon's tail so he couldn't swipe me any more. Then continuing to beat on the tail and stay in that general tail area. I took a beating before I got the tail off, but it was alright once I'd done that part. Most of it's attacks are blockable, except for the crashing onto the ground one.

 

Are you talking about the one where it seems to like vomit acid or something? Is the only way to subvert that running away as fast as possible?

[N1njaSquirrel]

Something about 2 on 1 fights really makes me happy despite me finding them incredibly hard. 

 

There are some bosses in Dark Souls 2 that you'll really like then

 

I like the 4 kings boss, and Nito is Neato.

 

Gaping dragon is easy:

Cut off his tail and then wait for him to flip over to run and charge. It exposes his tiny silly head which you can bash for + damage. Just make sure to run away in time to not get caught in his charge. As soon as his tail's off, his attacks that aren't the charge don't hurt you, and the boss becomes a cake walk. Just make sure he doesn't pick you up.

 

Are you talking about the one where it seems to like vomit acid or something? Is the only way to subvert that running away as fast as possible?

 

yeah, just run away. It's a pretty large arena, so it's not too hard, and the acid is slow moving.

[Griddlelol]

Actually I was talking about when he flies up into the air, then crashes down again (the one that killed me more often than not). I forgot about the vomit attack, but I don't think that was particularly hard to dodge if you have stamina. 

Also, I only locked on when I was side stepping around. Much easier if you don't lock on.

Oh and FUCK YEAH. Finally beat Artorias. They key again was not locking on and being incredibly patient. What a rush (:

I wish I didn't have a 4 or 5 game back log. I'd really like to try a SL1 run once I'm done.

[Gormongous]

I should have listened to you anyway, Bjorn. The Catacombs were miserable for me from beginning to end, Pinwheel was a boring boss, and my attempt to duck into the Tomb of Giants to grab the bonfire for later cost me twenty-five thousand souls and all my patience. With more fluency or better gear, it probably wouldn't have frustrated me half as much. Anyway, I got myself back to the Sewer bonfire to farm some humanity and found myself totally ready for a break.

 

Is there any advice for how to fight Prowling Demons? The one in the Catacombs seems nigh unkillable to me. Neither my +10 Claymore or my pyromancy took off much of his health at all, plus the corridor is too narrow to really make a waiting game work.

[osmosisch]

For titanite demons you want to circle them counterclockwise with a good stability shield just in case. Most of their swings should end up going over your head. Then you roll away when they do their jumping move.

Alternatively you can cheese most of them with ranged attacks if you bait them into bringing out their inner LARPer and doing their lightning bolt spam.

[Griddlelol]

Gormoungous, the exact same thing happened to me after pinwheel. Put the game down for a bit or pop on the TV while you walk back.

I can only say the same thing for the titanite demons - strafe around them and poke them. Run or roll if they leap into the air. I've not tried poison arrows on them yet, you might be able to poison them then go make a cup of tea while it dies slowly.

[JonCole]

Gaping dragon has indeed proved intimidating, so I've decided to go around to farm and clean up some loose ends. Got my Pyromancy Flame, bought Fireball only to find out that I didn't have any attunements slots because I'm a scrub, upgraded my Zweihander to +5, put two points into STR so I could wield it, and now I'm trying it out while farming Darkroot Gardens. Greatsword is definitely different from a Longsword, totally have to recalibrate my combat style to accommodate the huge stamina usage and slowness of the attacks. That said, I can kill Stone Golems in three strong hits and those plant things that spring out of the ground in one strong hit which is pretty great. Hoping to farm enough souls to buy enough attunement to use my Fireball, and then I'll go to the Depths and farm over there before giving the Gaping Dragon another shot.

[osmosisch]

If you're up to gaping dragon you should already have enough materials plus the large ember so that you can take your weapon higher than +5.

[JonCole]

I somehow completely missed that chest containing the large ember, but I did eventually find it. That said, I beat the Gaping Dragon! Felt so good, it took me two more tries. The first time, I used a humanity I had to reverse hollow and try summoning Solaire for the fight. Got invaded, but I guess the guy gave up because I just hid in a corner until I saw the fog door disappear. I figured that summoning Solaire would give me some wiggle room, so I tried to kill the Dragon while still kind of a newb with the Zweihander. Solaire got worked in three or four hits and I only got the Dragon's HP to about half.

 

I tried again with my +5 Longsword and actually managed to read his patterns and take him out. I wonder if I should try the Zweihander again, or if the faster/stamina conservative Longsword is just more complementary to my playstyle. I did like the one-hit kill strong Zweihander, but it seems I can handle harder enemies with much more ease with the Longsword.

 

I proceeded to Blighttown, which I was completely intimidated by but actually had a decent time dealing with the enemies. I had to stop because the framerate was total shit and I was getting ganked by toxic dudes and I ran out of the proper moss. So, I haven't really been playing much attention, how exactly do I avoid this kinda shitty place? Also, does the PC version's framerate suffer so much in Blighttown?

[osmosisch]

The PC does not suffer from the blighttown issues.

The biggest tip for Blighttown is to use the spider shield as it blocks 100% of poison/toxic. It's also a good idea to head back to the Undead Sanctum before ducking all the way to the Blighttown bottom because there's a ring there that lets you run in knee-deep water which is a godsend.

You can get more moss from either the undead merchant lady in the aquaduct between the Depths entrance and Firelink, or you can easily get a bunch by killing the treants in darkroot.

[JonCole]

Undead Sanctum? What's that?

 

I spent like... forever farming the Depths trying to get Large Titanite Shards, ended up with like 10 Green Titanite Shards and 3 Large ones. =/ Since I used some humanity to improve my drop rate, so I decided to also farm the Depths once every three slime runs just for variety. Ended up making much more than the 3 humanity I used farming humanity from rats down there, very sweet. Not to mention something like 40k souls just doing it again and again. I then went back to Andre, upgraded my Longsword to +7, and farming Darkroot with my humanity to get tons of moss. Used the humanity to reverse hollow, kindled the Darkroot Gardens bonfire and the Undead Parish bonfire, then faced off with Moonlight Butterfly with the nearby witch.

 

I feel like I'm kinda trucking through the game right now, maybe because I over-cautiously farmed and leveled or maybe it's because I'm getting better, hard to know. I opened the door to Artorias's thing, killed all the dudes in the woods, all the ents, saw that horrifying Hydra thing below, and joined the Cat covenant. What exactly is that Covenant about? It's hard to figure out what the hell any of these NPCs are talking about. I also went a little farther that way, almost got killed by huge mushroom things but managed to cheese them on some trees, and then saw a huge glowing door with about 100 messages in front of it that said "Imminent tears" so I turned around and bonfired. Are tears imminent behind that huge door?

[Stuart]

Yo, so I've been wanting to co-op this game with someone. I'm level 66 and I'm in Gwyndolin's quarters, so just add me on Steam if you want to jolly cooperate. My Steam ID is in my sig. Be sure to tell me who you are on the forum (your forum username, that is) when I accept your invite on Steam. You have to be level 59-72 if you wanna co-op.

[osmosisch]

Undead Sanctum? What's that?

The place where the game begins. You can get back there by hopping off the elevator from firelink to the gargoyle cathedral and then doing another jump to the central tower with the raven's nest on it.

It's fun to go back and see what changed since you left!

[Griddlelol]

Well that's useful to know!

I guess I'll be trying that out too.

[Gormongous]

Ugh, just realized that the dialogue I clicked through quickly about six hours ago lost me the pyromancy trainer at the Firelink Shrine. Not that I really have trouble getting down to the one in Blighttown or that I need Iron Skin, but still. Dark Souls: always answer "yes" to questions, except when you should answer "no". Training myself on those crazy huge cats in the Darkroot Garden should be a good way to destress.

 

Well that's useful to know!

I guess I'll be trying that out too.

 

Careful, the Stray Demon is there, in a place that will surprise you, and he's a little tough, although probably easier for you after fighting other bosses and getting a higher level than me.

[Sno]

It's so tragically easy to get some of the important trainers killed in Dark Souls.

I did my original playthrough of that game as a faith knight with no advanced miracles because i got Rhea of Thorolund killed. Gah!

[eot]

If you just said no to him (didn't kill him) you can just talk to him again. There one particular NPC who has the most confusing question ever who gets more annoyed if you pick the wrong answer.

[Gormongous]

It's so tragically easy to get some of the important trainers killed in Dark Souls.

I did my original playthrough of that game as a faith knight with no advanced miracles because i got Rhea of Thorolund killed. Gah!

 

Very easy! I wonder if the designers intended for player to cut themselves off from content regularly. You're only really guaranteed that first meeting with a trainer or vendor, before events might take them elsewhere, but the game teaches you everywhere else that just carrying around a large amount of souls, the amount necessary to buy all the useful stuff from a newfound trainer, is a stupid risk to take, so I've met every important vendor without much of a soul to my name. It's really more that this is the first time that they've disappeared rather than moved.

 

If you just said no to him (didn't kill him) you can just talk to him again. There one particular NPC who has the most confusing question ever who gets more annoyed if you pick the wrong answer.

 

No, this is later, once you join the Chaos Covenant and/or buy a big pyromancy spell, I'm not sure which. He'll ask if you got it somewhere in the deep levels. I saw no reason to lie to him, plus he seemed to be satisfied, just saying that he hoped to see it himself someday, but no, he was gone the next time I went to the Firelink Shrine and then attacked me as a Hollow when I went to find Quelana instead. It makes sense in hindsight, but it's still annoying because it feels like I'd have to use a wiki to know to lie to him now but not when we first met.

 

I also am just dumb, because I'm more distressed that I lost out on Iron Flesh and Flash Sweat, even though I need all my attunement slots for ranged damage spells and have good armor for both those situations. Dark Souls isn't a game in which I can be completionist and I ought to get it through my head quick.

[osmosisch]

A lot of Dark Souls design/theme hinges on the idea of infinity and obsession. Due to NG+ being a thing, any single character can eventually do all the things, which means that it is OK to have players make mistakes with far-reaching consequences within a given playthrough.

Further, any character in the game who strives for something will go hollow once they no longer have that obsession driving them.

[Bjorn]

As frustrating as it is, I've always liked that you could permanently lose trainers and merchants in DeS and DS1.  DS2 smooths this out, and there is little to no chance of ever losing a merchant.  Which takes some of the persistent dread out of not knowing whether or not something bad is going to happen. 

[Larsen B]

If you believe you can do it, you can.

 

 

I'd planned start and finish an SL1 run in DS1 before starting DS2 but, midway through, I thought that I'd actually take a break because 50 hours of Dark Souls and then 50+ hours of Dark Souls 2 sounded like too much. Of course, the night that I finished my run, I was lying in bed and started getting withdrawal symptoms and thinking how I really want to play Dark Souls 2.

 

Mainly because I'll be able to level up. You have no idea how much I want to level up.

[Bjorn]

If you believe you can do it, you can.

 

Congrats!