Dark Souls(Demon's Souls successor)

[osmosisch]

Another amazing thing about the Souls games is that it is at least as enjoyable to see or hear someone playing through them for the first time as it was to do so for oneself.

I don't think any other game series gives me so much vicarious entertainment.

[Bjorn]

Nice, Hydra is super intimidating the first time you get there! 

 

I had actually forgot which boss you had previously got stuck on (which is where I was hinting at with the key question).  If you're having fun and doing well, carry on!

[Griddlelol]

I doubled back to the blacksmith and couldn't be bothered to go to back to where the hydra was so took a different path. Eliminated the miniboss in there and came across the moonlight butterfly. 

 

Ok this was a fairly tough fight. Took quite a few goes because I could NOT figure out how to hit her. I was swiping left and right hoping to catch her. My only ranged weapon is throwing knives so I blew those fast. Then she landed! Man, that made me feel like an absolute moron when I killed her.

 

I think the Capra deamon? The one with the two dogs as a body guard. Can't really remember how I got there, but after taking down 2 bosses and 2 minibosses today I'm feeling pretty good!

I'm getting a little tired of my armour set though. I found an "Elite Knight" set, but it looks like it's not much of an upgrade, especially as it has lower magic damage reduction, and physical attacks aren't too much trouble with a shield. 

[Sno]

What armor do you have?

[Dewar]

I didn't find too many pieces of armor in Dark Souls that really stuck out to me as being superior. In general, I just grabbed whatever looked cool and was the right weight.

[Bjorn]

I didn't find too many pieces of armor in Dark Souls that really stuck out to me as being superior. In general, I just grabbed whatever looked cool and was the right weight.

 

Yep, this exactly.  If you think it looks cool, and the weight is right, use it.  Min/maxing armor efficiency really only matters in PvP, and that mostly has to do with establishing minimum poise amounts to ensure that you can get an action off without being staggered. 

 

The Elite Armor, fwiw, was at one point considered the single best armor set in the game for its weight class.  Then it was nerfed, then unnerfed, really riled the community up.  I don't know where its efficiency ended up at by the time the changes were done. 

[Griddlelol]

I just have the standard warrior set. I'm using the elite knight now for the hell of it. It looks cool and I roll the same. I guess if you follow the upgrade path with armour it eventually becomes fantastic. I

Just entered Drake Valley. One electric drake at a time is manageable, two is not. Must be something I'm missing.

On second thoughts, these drakes take so long to kill I might come back when I do more damage. Right now it feels like I'm banging my head against a wall.

[Reyturner]

You never, ever, ever, need to kill those drakes. By the time it isn't a pain in the butt, you can farm other enemies worth more, faster. 

[Bjorn]

You never, ever, ever, need to kill those drakes. By the time it isn't a pain in the butt, you can farm other enemies worth more, faster. 

 

It's fun to discover that area for the first time though. 

[Reyturner]

Which is the Dark Souls-iest thing about it  

 

Every area has a progression from terror -> discovery -> utility -> banality, even the hallway between Blighttown and New Londo. 

[Griddlelol]

You never, ever, ever, need to kill those drakes. By the time it isn't a pain in the butt, you can farm other enemies worth more, faster. 

That's very useful to know. I won't be going back there for a while!

 

On a might brighter note, I killed the Capra daemon on my first attempt! He made me quit last time, and now I destroyed him. Feel great! Although it was when I had no flask charges left and at 25% I figured out a cheesy strategy of making him fall off the stairs to stun him for a second. Officially falling in love with this game now. I think I get it.

 

Although...now I have no clue where to go. 

[Reyturner]

Go to Capra's arena, and then down...

That's an ominous ellipsis, not a patronizing one btw.

[Bjorn]

You are cooking through areas!  Taking him down just opened up a new avenue for you, to what is one of my favorite areas in the game (I am probably a minority in liking this area).

 

On that area, for people who have played:

 

I love the Sewers. It captures the horror element of DS1 so well.  First you have the butchers, straight up horror monsters.  Sewage you can't run in.  Narrow corridors, pit traps, freaky ceiling blobs, a guy who has been canned to use for food, no idea what's coming, first introduction to basilisks and being cursed, catching the preview of the giant rat miniboss, the horror of the dragon boss.  ITS SO GOOD!  Plus I did a lot of PvP down there. Hunting people (or being hunted) through the tunnels is unlike fighting anywhere else.

[Griddlelol]

Ok so I made it into blight town. I hate this place SO much. The camera is just not your friend here I've fallen off a couple of times just because I am practically walking blind in some areas. Makes the whole thing really stressful.

 

I've had a funny day with it today. I killed the maw dragon (I think it's called). It was tough. Took me a lot of tries but I really enjoyed it. Forced me to learn a new strategy instead of always blocking. Then I spent about an hour trying to get cured of curse. Not a good mechanic really. 

[osmosisch]

There's a setting in the options to make the camera less annoying, that helps a bit. Also use the spider shield in blighttown if you haven't switched to it already, because it blocks 100% of poison/toxin which several enemies there use.

[Griddlelol]

Managed to basically run to the bonfire. Kinda cheesy but I was sick of the camera there. I'm now trying Quelaag. I'm having trouble mainly because I keep entering the room poisoned, no remedies left, and no where to buy any.

[osmosisch]

You can buy purple moss from the lady in the sewers in the shortcut between the Capra demon and Firelink shrine.

A cheaper option is to head back into darkwood and kill the plant guys there for a bit, preferably with some humanity in your pool (this increases item drop rate up to a maximum of 10 humanity).

[Griddlelol]

I really don't want to run through blighttown again. I thought about doing that but it's hellish getting back to where I am now. I'd rather just stick it out and leave when I have to!

 

I did eventually kill her. Now I'm fighting snake people. This is now what I consider really hard. It takes a long time to take one down and two mistakes will lead to me dying. I might have to farm souls and titanite (if that's at all possible) for a while...

[eot]

Did you find the Large Ember? Getting your weapon past +5 really helps.

Unfortunately, the best place to get the shards is down in Blighttown (from the slugs in the swamp). There are shards scattered about Sen's fortress though, a good amount of them. So if you can make it partway through it should get easier.

[Griddlelol]

I have two weapons at 6+ the standard long sword and a katana. The katana does more damage but I like the long sword because it's easier to use. I may have to head down to blight town then, bleh. The fortress is slow progress. 

 

Out of curiosity, what happened to the fat bloke that was sitting there before I opened the gate?

[eot]

He was waiting for the door to open, wasn't he?

[osmosisch]

The path into blighttown through the Valley of Drakes isn't too painful, but before you head back in there for leech farming I'd strongly recommend exploring Firelink Shrine a bit more. There's a way to get the raven to take you somewhere you can get a ring that lets you run in knee-deep water.

The fat bloke headed further into the fortress once the gates opened.

There's a vendor at the top of Sen's who sells large titanite shards but they're pretty expensive (couple thousand a pop).

[Griddlelol]

Sen's is very easy to get lost in, I keep going around in circles :/

It also has one of my pet peeves in video games. Stationary large objects that hurt you if you walk into them. 

 

I went back to firelink and found the bonfire had been extinguished, and the dumb girl was dead. Not really sure what to do there!

[Bjorn]

You have been betrayed!  Notice anything else missing from Firelink?

 

I like the Onion Guy's story a lot.  He's got one event that is very, very easy to miss, as he travels to an area you've already explored.  I think it's after the 3rd time you talk to him, he moves to Blighttown (yeah, woooo!).  But by then getting back to and navigating Blighttown will be easier for you, if you have any interest in seeing the rest of his story.

 

Sen's Fortress is one of the most impressive areas of the game to me in design.  It's so oppressive.  I don't know how many times I died there the first time around. 

[Griddlelol]

I guess the girl and her bodyguard who were praying are missing too. And the guy who I let out the jail cell. 

 

Yeah I like Sen's Fortress a lot. I'm stuck, but I don't resent it like I did in blighttown. That was simply because the camera was horrible to use, Sen's feels different. I'm extremely tempted to look up a map and figure out where to go, but that feels a little like cheating.