Dark Souls(Demon's Souls successor)

[Dewar]

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?

 

That Covenant is about....

 

protecting the forest by invading the worlds of other people who are doing harm there. It's basically a PvP covenant, but also provides you access to an interesting merchant.

 

there are tears...

 

but not because of the difficulty of the boss behind the door, it's because of the story of the boss which was mentioned a couple of pages back in this thread.

[Dewar]

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. 

 

Big Hat Logan spoiler:

 

I've always liked that Logan doesn't go hollow until you've bough all of his spells, implying that he is no longer of any use to you. I wish other trainers did the same, at least for conversation-based mistakes.

[eot]

Big Hat Logan spoiler:

 

I've always liked that Logan doesn't go hollow until you've bough all of his spells, implying that he is no longer of any use to you. I wish other trainers did the same, at least for conversation-based mistakes.

Doesn't

Rhea do the same thing, kind of? If you buy all her stuff she ends up as a hollow in Dukes.

[Dewar]

Doesn't

Rhea do the same thing, kind of? If you buy all her stuff she ends up as a hollow in Dukes.

 

If she survives, yes. In my game Petrus killed her.

[Gormongous]

Darkroot Garden/Basin is my favorite level of the game so far. Lush, beautiful, and full of interesting enemies. My only real-life friend who's played the game tells me to look forward to Anor Londo.

[Dewar]

I enjoyed Anor Londo. That's where the game really clicked for me.

[Griddlelol]

Anor Londo is fantastic.

For me Sen's fortress is where it clicked. It was difficult but it made me really love the game.

[Gormongous]

Anor Londo is fantastic.

For me Sen's fortress is where it clicked. It was difficult but it made me really love the game.

 

I didn't like Sen's Fortress very much, probably because I died more to the terrain than to the enemies yet again. The four deaths from getting hit with swinging blades or rolling boulders each made me more frustrated than all the dozen-plus deaths from the Prowling Demons in the basement combined. I wonder why it bothers me so much more to die from the environment than to die from enemies. It's probably a control thing, like how I keep my shield up too much.

 

I also joined the Forest Hunters covenant and had the best time ever. Every fight was tense and fun, even the ones where I died, except when I kept getting matched (like, four times in a row, plus intermittently beforehand) with some guy all in Havel's Armor with a Demon Great Machete who one-shotted me just like his namesake (no worries, we were both laughing by the end, I could tell). Also, I got a ton of souls and great loot from it. Are all the covenants this much fun? The only other one I've put much time into was the Chaos Servants, but I didn't have enough humanity to get very far.

[Griddlelol]

I loved that I died from the traps in Sen's Fortress. My adrenaline was highest at the very last swinging blades which I fucked up about 15 times. The boss was too easy though. 

 

I wish I could do some PvP. Stupid GFWL. 

[Sno]

Sen's Fortress wasn't really one of my favorite areas in the game, but it did also for me feel like the place where the game first really clicked.

It's kind of the first area of the game that you really, really can't brute force through. If you haven't come to grips with the systems and the controls yet, Sen's Fortress will bludgeon that knowledge into you.

[Dewar]

I didn't like Sen's Fortress very much, probably because I died more to the terrain than to the enemies yet again. The four deaths from getting hit with swinging blades or rolling boulders each made me more frustrated than all the dozen-plus deaths from the Prowling Demons in the basement combined. I wonder why it bothers me so much more to die from the environment than to die from enemies. It's probably a control thing, like how I keep my shield up too much.

 

I also joined the Forest Hunters covenant and had the best time ever. Every fight was tense and fun, even the ones where I died, except when I kept getting matched (like, four times in a row, plus intermittently beforehand) with some guy all in Havel's Armor with a Demon Great Machete who one-shotted me just like his namesake (no worries, we were both laughing by the end, I could tell). Also, I got a ton of souls and great loot from it. Are all the covenants this much fun? The only other one I've put much time into was the Chaos Servants, but I didn't have enough humanity to get very far.

 

The Sun covenant encourages co-op and there's a couple of other ones that encourages invading or punishing other invaders, but none directly draw you into PvP as the forest covenant does.

[Bjorn]

The Sun covenant encourages co-op and there's a couple of other ones that encourages invading or punishing other invaders, but none directly draw you into PvP as the forest covenant does.

 

The Gravelord Covenant should have been awesome, but in reality just never worked.  I really wished it would have.  The idea was that you forced people to invade you.  You used an item that would spawn multiple new enemies in 3 other players' worlds, and a portal to your world.  But the new enemies only spawned in NG+, and lots of people would never even see the sign to portal to the Gravelord Servant's world. 

 

The other area that can be fun for PvP is defending Anor Londo from trespassers as a Blade of the Darkmoon.

 

If you shoot an arrow at the big busted god woman, she disappears (she was an illusion), and the sun goes out. This is "Dark Anor Londo". Now members of the Blades of the Darkmoon can automatically invade people who are trespassing in Dark Anor Londo. You can join the Darkmoon Covenant by opening a secret door at the bonfire underneath the church where the big painting is (have to rotate the big spinning staircase to reach the bonfire). There's a particular ring you need to wear to open the secret door. DON'T enter the fog door unless you want an optional boss fight that will break the covenant. Just kneel on the carpet to join the covenant.

[Korax]

After a couple false starts since its console release, I finally got into it last week. It not only clicked for me around Blighttown, but it seems to have dug its claws deep into my Spelunky gland. While its obviously not procedural in the same way, the learning about environmental hazards and enemy tactics through experimentation, death, and relatively quick repetition hooked me. The only thing more satisfying than finally making it down to Quelaag's lair was pulling off a careful and considered battle where I defeated her on my first try (GET FUCKED, QUELAAG!). The game's been lurking in the back of my mind since. Thinking about how I'm going to upgrade my Zweihander as I fall asleep. Keeping a wiki page open in the background at work so I can read item descriptions. DS2 is already nestled in the bowels of my PC, but the call of NG+ might be strong for quite a while...

[Gormongous]

Anor Londo was amazing, even though I don't think I could have beaten Ornstein and Smough without Solaire. After a bit of cleanup using my new warp ability and upgrading the Silver Shield to +5 to replace my trusty Eagle Shield, I'm back in the Tomb of the Giants. Frustratingly, I've discovered that my strength-plus-shield build isn't really strong against the giant skeletons, whom I have a hard time killing unless I catch them off-guard with a fireball. Like everything in Dark Souls, I'm sure the answer is to be more patient and more careful.

 

Also, I'm now around SL 70 and I pretty much never get summoned by the Forest Hunters anymore. The one time I did, there was a guy in Havel's Set waiting with two white phantoms. I just started running, but they caught me before long.

[Dewar]

That's a shame. I imagine you'll start getting summoned more again as you approach NG+ levels

[Lork]

There are no level restrictions on the forest hunter covenant. It's just a big, crazy free for all where you can and will be summoned at SL1 to fight a trio of SL120 giant dads, or your SL300 character might get sent in to crush some poor newbie.

[Dewar]

Oh, then maybe people are finishing their fresh playthroughs inspired by DS2's release and it's going back on the shelf?

[Gormongous]

There are no level restrictions on the forest hunter covenant. It's just a big, crazy free for all where you can and will be summoned at SL1 to fight a trio of SL120 giant dads, or your SL300 character might get sent in to crush some poor newbie.

Oh, then maybe people are finishing their fresh playthroughs inspired by DS2's release and it's going back on the shelf?

 

The only people with whom I'm getting matched are kitted out like crazy for PvP and waiting for me when I load, so I assume that it's more that everyone with a less than totally hardcore interest in Dark Souls PvP is playing Dark Souls II, leaving latecomers like me at the mercy of those too invested to move on. It make sense, I guess, but I had so much fun on Saturday, I was just surprised that last night and today were pretty quiet.

[Stuart]

So uh, if anyone wants to jolly co-op...holla at me...ya gotta be between levels 70 and 84, tho. I'm at the Crystal Caves, and I think I'm gunna be fighting Seath or whatever his name is.

 

I really want to co-op this game.

[Korax]

Killed Seath a couple days ago (those damned caves were harder to survive than the boss), took care of Nito and the Four Kings today. I'm making my way down the demon ruins and just killed Ceaseless Discharge, too. Man, do I love my Lightning Zweihander. It's so bad.

 

So uh, if anyone wants to jolly co-op...holla at me...ya gotta be between levels 70 and 84, tho. I'm at the Crystal Caves, and I think I'm gunna be fighting Seath or whatever his name is.

 

I really want to co-op this game.

 

 I just hit 70, but I'm packing it in for the night. If I'm still in range, tomorrow would be doable.

[heybeardo]

 

Hey all, my new video's up with my thoughts on Dark Souls: exploration, death, and making friends with enemies.

[Gormongous]

Okay, so how important is upgrading armor? I'm fighting Nito right now (or rather I walked into the boss room and died immediately, then went to bed) but I have a relatively experienced friend back on Quelana and he already has chosen a set to upgrade to +5. I like the Elite Knight set a lot and the internet seems to think it's not a bad choice, but titanite's still pretty scarce for me and I certainly won't have the slabs to max it out.

 

I guess my thought has always been that I should upgrade my weapon and shield first, so that I avoid taking damage entirely and kill its source quickly, but the late game is maybe proving that this is hubris.

[Dewar]

I would say that now that you can buy an unlimited supply of titanite shards, you might as well level up your armor at least to the point that those shards are no longer good enough. It's not super important unless you're running a tank build, but you might be able to go to slightly lighter armor with the same protection with a few upgrades.

 

Edit: Late game bosses are often doing types of damage other than physical, so having a few different setups that improve different kinds of defense can be handy as well.

[Korax]

DON'T NEED ARMOR IF YOU NEVER GET HIT

 

More seriously, I brought Iron Flesh and 20 hits of Estus to the Nito fight, and just tanked the damage while blasting him with fireballs. You also take a fairly large amount of damage just from the drop into the arena, so make sure to heal it up as soon as possible.

[Sno]

You should definitely not be as far into the game as Nito with non-upgraded armor, and as already noted by others, you definitely need to think about damage types other than physical.

Sorcery and miracles both have good options for mitigating non-physical damage.