Sully907

Dark Souls(Demon's Souls successor)

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The dung pie trick does work yes. My issue with Blighttown is the layout tends to hide and confine a lot of annoying fights. Even taking it slow like you should basically any area, it takes way longer than I want to spend. Still don't hate it as much as the Depths, but it's a close second.

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Still don't hate it as much as the Depths, but it's a close second.

The fact that they come one directly after the other can be quite brutal, yeah.

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I've done the early areas so many times now that I quite enjoy just cruising through them very selectively. Those bastard archers in Anor Londo never get any easier though, I usually just sit back and let suicidal phantoms tackle them.

The PC version and the resolution hack seem to be going much smoother than expected. the only problem I have now is the number of failed summons. I suspect that an awful lot of people have badly configured NAT, since you hardly ever see this kind of P2P connectivity on PC and so it doesn't often come up. Very annoying.

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The PC version and the resolution hack seem to be going much smoother than expected. the only problem I have now is the number of failed summons. I suspect that an awful lot of people have badly configured NAT, since you hardly ever see this kind of P2P connectivity on PC and so it doesn't often come up. Very annoying.

That was my experience on the console version as well. It's hard to tell whether it's people with closed NATs or just the inherent sketchiness of the netcode that causes the failed summons.

Also I already know this is going to be a Thumbs approved game because it's all about lording.

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I've done the early areas so many times now that I quite enjoy just cruising through them very selectively. Those bastard archers in Anor Londo never get any easier though, I usually just sit back and let suicidal phantoms tackle them.

I can't remember exactly what i did, but i think i ultimately just booked it up those buttresses and got close enough to incite them into melee, at which point they were actually mostly harmless because their footing was so precarious.

Definitely a contender for the most annoying and tricky spot in the entire game.

The palace itself isn't easy either, so many knights, and so many mimics.

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The trick to the AL archers is to force them into melee, block with your back against the wall and they'll stagger off the edge from the block. Getting in position to do that is of course another matter entirely.

As for skipping the obscene amount of knights and such in AL, the spiral staircase can be jumped off of to get right to O+S.

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Has anybody gotten into the new content yet?

A few new areas, a few new bosses?

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Four new bosses, 6-ish new areas, a new covenant. The only thing that really matters is that you can get Gough's armor and you can buy unlimited consumable little wooden statues that say things in Gough's voice like "I'm sorry" and "Hello" when you throw them down in a persons world.

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That was my experience on the console version as well. It's hard to tell whether it's people with closed NATs or just the inherent sketchiness of the netcode that causes the failed summons.

Also I already know this is going to be a Thumbs approved game because it's all about lording.

It was definitely far more reliable for me on PS3 at least.

And yeah, the world is called Lordran... enough said.

I'm at Anor Londo with the character I've settled on (strength/intel), hoping to get to the new content today.

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God, there's a lot of compelling stuff in here. Like the giant blacksmith, and all the other characters you find around the world – I feel like the designers very consciously leave as much as possible unexplained, both in the mechanics of the game, and the world itself, and it results in some very frustrating game play at times, but other times it just works and gives the game world this extra layer of creepy, fascinating atmosphere. It may be that I haven't been paying attention, or that all the Lord lore is written in the manual booklet or somehting, but the way I experience it, with little or no back-story tying together the weird characters you meet, it's so engrossing. They avoid being just another game about killing enemies and explaining it with some half-assed story by just not having much of a story, which, combined with the excellent production value and visual design, makes the unexplained and ambiguous that much more interesting.

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Be sure to read item descriptions if you're interested in piecing together the specifics of the story, there are pieces of lore all over the place, and eventually a larger picture emerges if you stay aware. (There's numerous examples where a really critical detail of the world's history is hidden in the description of some small and easily missed item, but it's information that will just make huge chunks of the game's story fall into place and make sense.)

From is essentially using item descriptions like other games might use books or audio logs, but still in a much more ambiguous and fragmented fashion.

Dark Souls has an awesome tone though, it's dark fantasy done right, i think. (I love how everybody just seems so perpetually exhausted and spent, there's something very specific about the voice acting in that game.)

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Just killed two of the new bosses and found the needlessly, brilliantly elaborate PvP arena. So good!

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I was told to start as a warrior. The shield really helps apparently (i sure as hell find is useful).

Also, when you get out of the Asylum, go

up the steps, not down into the Graveyard. You will die in there. The steps are less obvious.

I love how janky the ragdolls are in this. You kill a guy, run up a stairs and look down to find that he has clung to your ankle the whole way:D Hello friend.

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Figure out your chosen weapon's move set and become comfortable with what you can do. (Two-handing prevents you from using a shield, but in most cases will let you do vertical strikes in narrow hallways where your weapon would otherwise clang against the wall.)

If you find a weapon you like, stick with it. Most are balanced to be viable through to the end game, and most have long and elaborate upgrade paths to go down.

Carrying a shield is almost essential, and while certain builds that emphasize evasion or parries can be viable, it is generally a way more difficult way to play.

Don't equip heavy gear unless you specifically want to play a knight, so try to keep encumbrance under half, because run speed and a quick dodge are important.

If you're using heavy weapons, make sure you wear armor with good poise so you aren't constantly being staggered out of attacks.

Keep a bow on hand so you can pull enemies away from groups and deal with them one on one. That is a very, very valuable tactic starting out.

There's three kinds of magic - Miracles, sorcery, and pyromancy.

Miracles are governed by faith, sorcery by intelligence, and pyromancy purely by upgrades to your pyromancy glove. (Which can make pyromancy extremely powerful, since it doesn't require you investing levels into making it stronger, but failing a couple tricky questlines can lock you out of further pyromancy upgrades.)

Some priority should go towards upgrading your stamina and health.

If you find humanities and souls as consumable items, don't activate them until you need them. You don't lose items when you die, only your active stock of humanities and souls.

Being human lets you summon co-op partners and upgrade bonfires, but also lets you be invaded. (You don't need to be human to invade or be a co-op summon.)

If you're invaded, asshole people will often try to sprint in close and then dodge roll right past your side and stab you in your back. So control spacing, be aware of what people are trying to do, and be ready to roll out of the way.

You can carry humanities without being human.

The more humanities you have, the tougher you are. (Early going though, you're better off spending them to upgrade bonfires, so you can carry more health restore items.)

Don't hoard souls, spend them so you're not constantly at risk of losing them.

Certain consumable soul types can be used to upgrade your estus flask, so don't eat those. (I think the bonfire keepers can upgrade your flask? It's been a while since i played.)

The covenants all tie into the metagame and can dramatically impact how you play, but there's way too much about that to go into, so just start reading wikis.

The most important rule: Just be careful, take your time. The game isn't that hard, it just requires constant attentiveness and caution.

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I wouldn't necessarily say you need to be a warrior, but I definitely wouldn't recommend thief as a starting class. Knight can also be a good choice, as can pyromancer. Most of the classes can work, but thief is a genuinely difficult one for a new player I think.

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It's worth noting that the classes don't really impact your character at all, and it's actually the starter gear that ends up defining the classes.

You can build your stats out in any way you please, but as a knight, for example, you'll probably end up using that starter armor for a good ten hours or more.

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Certain consumable soul types can be used to upgrade your estus flask, so don't eat those. (I think the bonfire keepers can upgrade your flask? It's been a while since i played.)

Firekeeper Souls are used by Firekeepers to reinforce your Estus Flask. Reinforcing your flask gives you more health per swig, whereas kindling bonfires gives you more flasks per rest. 20 is the max flasks available from a bonfire, but you can only kindle once (20 requires you to kindle three times) for a good while without some sequence breaking.

Following that note, don't eat boss souls. That said, if you're hurting for souls, google Soul of _____ and see if it upgrades into anything you want. If not, eat it or

feed it to Frampt

.

Carrying a shield is almost essential, and while certain builds that emphasize evasion or parries can be viable, it is generally a way more difficult way to play.

Currently in Sen's with a caestus and scimitar only run, using the scimitar for parrying. It is slowly killing me.

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I generally found that the excellent stats of the boss soul weapons were usually offset quite harshly by slow and clumsy movesets.

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Aside from what I'm about to do shortly with the Iron Golem soul for my Dragonbone Gauntlet, I've only ever made the Lifehunt Scythe. Which goddamn, I love that weapon, I really do, but nothing else interests me from boss souls. Most amusing to me is the Moonlight Butterfly soul that gives a pitiful 1.5K souls, or turns into a mediocre catalyst or an INT spear. :eek:

E: Oh no, sorry, it makes a terrible shitty shit shield.

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Wasn't that shield incredibly game-breaking, though? Like, it has some weird ranged attack ability that people were ohk'ing bosses with and the like.

Anyways, I ended up making a bunch of the boss soul weapons, and didn't really like most of them. One of them was the true version of the artorias sword, which has potentially incredible damage growth for a strong character, but extremely slow swings relative to comparable weapons.

I think the bow i ended up using was a boss soul weapon, though.

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Figure out your chosen weapon's move set and become comfortable with what you can do. (Two-handing prevents you from using a shield, but in most cases will let you do vertical strikes in narrow hallways where your weapon would otherwise clang against the wall.)

If you find a weapon you like, stick with it. Most are balanced to be viable through to the end game, and most have long and elaborate upgrade paths to go down.

Carrying a shield is almost essential, and while certain builds that emphasize evasion or parries can be viable, it is generally a way more difficult way to play.

Don't equip heavy gear unless you specifically want to play a knight, so try to keep encumbrance under half, because run speed and a quick dodge are important.

If you're using heavy weapons, make sure you wear armor with good poise so you aren't constantly being staggered out of attacks.

Keep a bow on hand so you can pull enemies away from groups and deal with them one on one. That is a very, very valuable tactic starting out.

There's three kinds of magic - Miracles, sorcery, and pyromancy.

Miracles are governed by faith, sorcery by intelligence, and pyromancy purely by upgrades to your pyromancy glove. (Which can make pyromancy extremely powerful, since it doesn't require you investing levels into making it stronger, but failing a couple tricky questlines can lock you out of further pyromancy upgrades.)

Some priority should go towards upgrading your stamina and health.

If you find humanities and souls as consumable items, don't activate them until you need them. You don't lose items when you die, only your active stock of humanities and souls.

Being human lets you summon co-op partners and upgrade bonfires, but also lets you be invaded. (You don't need to be human to invade or be a co-op summon.)

If you're invaded, asshole people will often try to sprint in close and then dodge roll right past your side and stab you in your back. So control spacing, be aware of what people are trying to do, and be ready to roll out of the way.

You can carry humanities without being human.

The more humanities you have, the tougher you are. (Early going though, you're better off spending them to upgrade bonfires, so you can carry more health restore items.)

Don't hoard souls, spend them so you're not constantly at risk of losing them.

Certain consumable soul types can be used to upgrade your estus flask, so don't eat those. (I think the bonfire keepers can upgrade your flask? It's been a while since i played.)

The covenants all tie into the metagame and can dramatically impact how you play, but there's way too much about that to go into, so just start reading wikis.

The most important rule: Just be careful, take your time. The game isn't that hard, it just requires constant attentiveness and caution.

thanks

I wouldn't necessarily say you need to be a warrior, but I definitely wouldn't recommend thief as a starting class. Knight can also be a good choice, as can pyromancer. Most of the classes can work, but thief is a genuinely difficult one for a new player I think.

Is the thief hard because of all the parry that one has to do? Or is there something else more horrible I don't know about. Any ways what type of build was the most enjoyable to play as?

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Wasn't that shield incredibly game-breaking, though? Like, it has some weird ranged attack ability that people were ohk'ing bosses with and the like.

Anyways, I ended up making a bunch of the boss soul weapons, and didn't really like most of them. One of them was the true version of the artorias sword, which has potentially incredible damage growth for a strong character, but extremely slow swings relative to comparable weapons.

I think the bow i ended up using was a boss soul weapon, though.

The shield got nerfed very, very hard in .05, so now it's just an interesting toy/PvP gimmick rather than a threshing machine. The issue was that it scaled off the damage of your right handed weapon, and then that damage scaled off the stat scaling. So you'd basically be doing the damage of a Chaos +5 weapon at 99 Humanity and ridiculous shit like that. It's now fixed, sadly, along with degrading much, much quicker.

The thing with the True Greatsword is that it is a hilariously good weapon... if you have all of your stats at 40. And it requires across the board stat investment to even wield. A build that is built specifically to use and take advantage of the pretty generous scaling on the weapon can do some pretty crazy things, but it's not something you'll use in a regular/non-focused run. You can now even make a third version of that damned sword with a greatsword now.

As for bows I always build every character I make to at least 20/20/-/- so I can use the Dragonslayer Bow, and now in the DLC Gough drops his bow, which is an 85 damage bow with a B/C/-/- scaling ( :blink: ) that works on the same special arrows principle as the Dragonslayer. The arrows are 650 a piece, but they are insane.

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The boss soul weapons tend to be pretty gimmicky, so they're kind of hit and miss as a result. There are definitely some good ones in the pile though.\

Oh, and some very helpful advice for new players - Don't just use all your souls for levelling up. The absolute most effective way to improve your survivability is to upgrade your weapon. The second most is to upgrade your shield. Even going from +0 to +5, which can be done with nothing but titanite shards that can be bought from Andre the Blacksmith, will make a world of difference.

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