Dark Souls(Demon's Souls successor)

[eot]

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

I'm trying to think of what you could be referring to. The boulders when they hit a corner and stop for a second? Maybe I'm having a brain fart.

[Griddlelol]

Yeah boulders. Same thing in Zelda games. That split second just registers with me as "oh hey, it's stationary, it's safe now."

 

The hardest boss in Sen's were the glaives. I died to them about 20 times while the boss was actually pretty easy. My timing is awful. I was really pleased to see that every time I died to a glaive I wasn't "sliced" and die where I stood, but actually flung off the sides. Made it entertaining to see where I'd land at least.

[Sno]

I really don't want to run through blighttown again.

You don't have to, near the bonfire in the swamp is a creaky wooden elevator and a few ladders that take you to a path that heads almost directly back to Firelink.

[Griddlelol]

I do find myself yearning for fast travel. I'm in Anor Londo (?) and I've got so much titanite that I want to use, but I really don't want to travel back to the blacksmith through Sen's Fortress. 

 

Anor Londo feels a little cheap to me. Archers with crazy pushback...on a ledge. I haven't screamed much at this game until I came across them. 

[eot]

You can buy smithboxes that let you upgrade (but not ascend) weapons at bonfires. There's also more than one blacksmith in the game, you'll find the others eventually.

[Griddlelol]

Yeah, I saw those, but I thought my precious souls would be better spent elsewhere. Probably a mistake! 

 

I have a shitton of deamon titanite, what is that for? Nothing seems to use it.

 

Holy shit. The Anor Londo boss is ridiculous. I usually die at least once, but I know what strategy I should use by the end of that death. This fight I don't have a clue what I should do.

[JonCole]

So, I decided to give this game a shot once again after quitting last time subsequent to dying 5 times at the Taurus Demon. This time, I beat the Taurus Demon on my second try (rolled off the edge by accident the first), got the Drake Sword, beat the Gargoyles, and rang the first bell. I poked my head in lower Undead Burg and unlocked the elevator to Firelink Shrine from Undead Parish, but I'm kind of just exploring at this point to figure out what direction is forward. Right now I have 14k souls and I'm not quite sure what to do with them. I've already bought all the boxes that enable upgrading weapons and items at bonfires. I have a pretty decent weapon obviously, and I've already upgraded all my armor pieces with at least +1. I have a +1 shortbow and 200 arrows, so I don't really need to buy any more of that kind of stuff. I'm level 16 with 18 endurance and 16 strength, so my stats seem pretty sufficient for the area I'm in as a strength warrior.

 

I imagine that I don't want to use the Drake Sword forever as it's difficult to upgrade (seemingly), so should I dump some upgrades into my currently unused longsword? Should I upgrade my armor any more (I assume I'll get something better at some point, but I can't really tell if that point is soon)? I'm sure I can dump more points into endurance, but is that my best bet right now? Vitality? Too many options right now, anyone have any tips?

[eot]

I have a shitton of deamon titanite, what is that for? Nothing seems to use it.

 

Holy shit. The Anor Londo boss is ridiculous. I usually die at least once, but I know what strategy I should use by the end of that death. This fight I don't have a clue what I should do.

Did you find the blacksmith? He'll let you make weapons that use it.

You can use boss souls to craft unique weapons, for example using Quelaag's soul and a +10 curved sword will let you make Quelaag's Furysword which is pretty cool. As for the boss, having a good shield that you've upgraded a lot is key. The Silver Knights can drop an amazing shield, but it's quite rare. Just go with something that has high stability.

 

If you're having trouble anyway, you could consider

Going back to firelink and doing the Catacombs area, it'll give you something to help you out

 

 

I imagine that I don't want to use the Drake Sword forever as it's difficult to upgrade (seemingly), so should I dump some upgrades into my currently unused longsword? Should I upgrade my armor any more (I assume I'll get something better at some point, but I can't really tell if that point is soon)? I'm sure I can dump more points into endurance, but is that my best bet right now? Vitality? Too many options right now, anyone have any tips?

It can be a bit annoying to get the upgrade materials for it, it doesn't actually upgrade very well, but the main problem is that its damage doesn't scale with your stats. Upgrading the longsword is definitely a good idea, but you can also try getting the Claymore. It's on the far side for the bridge that the Hellkite Drake is guarding. Upgrading armor doesn't help you as much as upgrading your sword and shield, putting those souls towards levelling is usually a better idea. As long as you do some mix of strength (or dex), endurance and vitality it's hard to mess it up. If you haven't put any points into vit then throw some in there, I like to get vit / end to 20 and then focus more on end. How much strength you want is up to you. There are some cool weapons that require a lot of it and will do huge damage, but you can also stick with the base requirements and make elemental weapons (they aren't affected by your stats). Just feel it out, if your health is doing fine then drop some points in there to get more damage.

[Bjorn]

Holy shit. The Anor Londo boss is ridiculous. I usually die at least once, but I know what strategy I should use by the end of that death. This fight I don't have a clue what I should do.

 

Anor Londo, with its church catwalk, super snipers and crazy hard bosses has inspired more rage quits and internet rants than any other area in a Souls game. 

even made a song about rage quitting there.  But beating those bosses is a major turning point in the game, stick with it! 

 

For the boss, go human and summon help.  If there aren't any players, there is an NPC somewhere in the big open room before the boss.  The distraction of a second target is more valuable in that boss fight than any other one.  If you are online, and keep getting invaded (it's a super popular invasion spot), then just go offline and use the NPC. 

 

On armor, I'd say upgrade what you have with resources that you can buy infinite amounts of, but hold off on higher level upgrades until you find an armor you really love. 

 

On the Drake Sword, some people consider it to be a trap.  It's incredible for when you find it, but it ultimately is the far poorer option even compared to some of the common weapons you can get around there once they are upgraded a few levels.

[Sno]

It's by no means impossible to solo O&S, i ended up doing it in my NG+ game so i could get to the DLC. Try to take out Ornstein first, just keep backpedaling in a wide circle so Smough struggles to stay near the fight. Be patient, don't get backed into a corner. Smough will steal Ornstein's lightning power when Ornstein dies, but you can pretty much just circle in close and hammer on him with relative impunity. If he leaps into the air, run away before that attack triggers. (Doing this fight the other way and fighting the powered up Ornstein is way harder.)

Smough is weak to lightning, Ornstein and both of the powered up forms are weak to fire. (I... think? I'm pretty sure.) If you have an enchantable weapon or magic to use, abuse that. (If you have any way to buff your defense against lightning, that also really helps in the fight.)

O&S is the hardest fight in the game though, if you can beat them, you'll have no trouble with the rest of the game.

Also, the Drake Sword sucks, it tops out with relatively crappy stats, don't use it.

[Griddlelol]

Ok I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to rage quit there. I'm so glad there's a bonfire really close to the boss. 

 

No, I've not found the blacksmith. I do have the shield you mentioned it's pretty good.

 

That's what I've been doing. Kiting. All. Day. Still no luck though. If you make a mistake you're dead. Simple as that. I'm sure once I've take out the little guy, it'll be a piece of cake though. Big slow bosses are very easy to kill, it's the casters/fast ones I have trouble with. 

 

I've only summoned once, at Quelaag. The summoned NPC was useless. She spent the whole time bouncing off lava on the floor while I did all the work. I don't really trust the friendly AI!

 

Also, yay! I'm not the only person starting this again. All I can say is stick with it. Once it clicks, suddenly you understand why everyone loves this game. The only thing missing in my opinion is fast travel. 

[Sno]

When you head down the stairs into the large hall before the O&S fight, head up the stairs on the opposite side. There's a door up there that will take you over to Anor Londo's blacksmith.

Also, even when you take down Ornstein, be careful with the powered up Smough. He's slow, but he has a few attacks that can potentially ohk you.

For Ornstein, when he does his dash attack to close in, dodge out of the way and hit him back while he's in recovery frames. Don't get greedy, he recovers quickly. Always keep the two of them chasing you, it's the only way to separate them, Smough will struggle to keep up while Ornstein will chase effectively. However, Ornstein becomes predictable when you force him to spend all his time using dash attacks to close distance. Don't lose track of either of them though, their AI has them constantly trying to circle around you.

[Griddlelol]

Haha! I found it, that's a cool blacksmith. Although he can't seem to bump my 5+ weapon to 6+. 

 

I actually just beat them. I had a single slither of health after I took down Ornstein. No flask charges left either. Smough didn't touch me once. People say that Dark Souls is the opposite of a power fantasy, but when you kill a boss you've died tons of times on finally, you feel like a badass.

 

Oh, hey it does have fast travel. This is fantastic!

[prettyunsmart]

You've now reached the point in the game where (at least for me), it stopped being immensely frustrating and then was just an intense but awesome series of boss fights.

[Griddlelol]

Great! Boss fights are the best part of this game. I has given me another point of "where the hell do I go now?" I kinda wish they gave you a few more hints.

[JonCole]

Yeah, I figured that I'd just use the Drake Sword until it just starts to feel not OP. I don't think it's good for my personal skills to rely on a stats crutch when its good and have to learn from the ground up later on when it's not powerful. For now, I plan to use it to farm some souls and upgrade my longsword a bit.

 

I love Justin's Anor Londo song.

[JonCole]

t can be a bit annoying to get the upgrade materials for it, it doesn't actually upgrade very well, but the main problem is that its damage doesn't scale with your stats. Upgrading the longsword is definitely a good idea, but you can also try getting the Claymore. It's on the far side for the bridge that the Hellkite Drake is guarding. Upgrading armor doesn't help you as much as upgrading your sword and shield, putting those souls towards levelling is usually a better idea. As long as you do some mix of strength (or dex), endurance and vitality it's hard to mess it up. If you haven't put any points into vit then throw some in there, I like to get vit / end to 20 and then focus more on end. How much strength you want is up to you. There are some cool weapons that require a lot of it and will do huge damage, but you can also stick with the base requirements and make elemental weapons (they aren't affected by your stats). Just feel it out, if your health is doing fine then drop some points in there to get more damage.

 

Is the claymore anything like the Bastard Sword the blacksmith is selling?

[eot]

@Gridde at the point you're at you can access the DLC (if you have it, comes with the PC version). You'll probably want to look up how to get to it because it's not the kind of thing you're likely to figure out on your own.

 

@JonCole yes, they're both Greatswords. They have slightly different attack speed, range and movesets. The Bastard Sword isn't bad actually, give it a try. Another very popular sword is the Zweihander (an Ultra Greatsword), but with 16 Strength you'll only be able to wield it with both hands. You can find it

in the graveyard behind firelink

[JonCole]

I got the Zweihander! Damn that was hard, facing mobs of any number of enemies greater than 2 is super intense and ridiculously stressful. (Ultra?) Greatswords can be handled in one-hand? Seems fairly ridiculous, how do I figure out what kind of Strength (and Dexterity?) I need to wield it properly?

 

Also, it turns out I got the Gargoyle Helm from the gargoyle bosses, which seems pretty cool. I also got a Baldur Armor chestpiece, so I look fairly odd but I think I'm doing fairly well in the armor department. I've upgraded my heater shield to +5 and my Vit is now 16, so I'm definitely more formidable in battle.

[Sno]

Haha! I found it, that's a cool blacksmith. Although he can't seem to bump my 5+ weapon to 6+. 

You're probably at the point where you need to start talking to the right blacksmith, and finding them the right embers, to ascend your weapons to the next phases of the upgrade paths.

If you're just trying to do standard path upgrades, you need to head back to the blacksmith out in front of Sen's Fortress to get you over the hump to +6, because only he can do that.

[Bjorn]

Haha! I found it, that's a cool blacksmith. Although he can't seem to bump my 5+ weapon to 6+. 

 

I actually just beat them. I had a single slither of health after I took down Ornstein. No flask charges left either. Smough didn't touch me once. People say that Dark Souls is the opposite of a power fantasy, but when you kill a boss you've died tons of times on finally, you feel like a badass.

 

Oh, hey it does have fast travel. This is fantastic!

 

Yeah, on your spoiler, that's what I meant when I said it hit a real turning point.  Tons of options suddenly open up.

 

On upgrading, there are 10 total embers and several different break points on when weapons can be upgraded towards different enchantment paths.  As it sounds like you've gone down a pretty dedicated melee path, you probably won't be interested in many of the enchanted paths, except maybe to play around with them or to have as a specific backup to deal with a particular weakness.  In general for melee characters, the regular upgrade path is the strongest. 

 

You should have already found the Large Ember, which takes regular weapons from +5 to +6.  If you haven't found it, it's in an area you already cleared out.  Backtrack to

the Depths and look around.

  Once you've ascended a weapon, you don't have to use the same blacksmith to keep upgrading it.  You can upgrade it anywhere from 6-10, it's just ascending it to +6 that takes the specific smith. 

 

Did you examine the giant painting in the Cathedral in Anor Londo?

[Gormongous]

Okay, I picked up my game again and ate a bunch of shit for two hours straight trying to figure out where I left off. Apparently, and I don't remember this at all, I fucked off back to the Firelink Shrine right before facing the Capra Demon. I totally thought I'd just made my peace naturally, not that I quit on the verge of fighting the first truly challenging boss in the game. Wandering around, I managed to kill the Black Sword Knight guarding some ring in the Upper Undead Burg, albeit after five tries and mostly through Drake Sword cheese, and I'm wondering if I should have another shot at Havel before I face the Capra Demon. It'd be nice to have the ring, just because I really like the aesthetics of wearing a ton of heavy armor, even though I'm currently wearing the thief leathers right now because my guy moves so much faster in them.

 

A lot of the theorycraft here (Dark Theory? Theory Souls? Fuck, I just broke the word "theory" in my mind) is intimidating me, but the mantra of "master the inputs and mechanics, it's hard to level your character wrong doing X, Y, and Z" is really comforting nonetheless. I just don't like the feeling that I'm playing suboptimally. I may actually be playing suboptimally, I don't mind that, I just don't like it when the game makes me feel it.

[Dewar]

Wow, busy thread this weekend.

 

A lot of the theorycraft here (Dark Theory? Theory Souls? Fuck, I just broke the word "theory" in my mind) is intimidating me, but the mantra of "master the inputs and mechanics, it's hard to level your character wrong doing X, Y, and Z" is really comforting nonetheless. I just don't like the feeling that I'm playing suboptimally. I may actually be playing suboptimally, I don't mind that, I just don't like it when the game makes me feel it.

 

If it makes you feel any better, most of the stat scaling on weapons drops off pretty hard at between 40 and 50 in each stat, so even if you've leveled sub-optimally up until you find the perfect weapon, you can still recover with some grinding. If you're really worried, Vitality and Endurance are always good. Personally, I leveled strictly them at first unless I needed to up a stat to use a weapon.

 

Great! Boss fights are the best part of this game. I has given me another point of "where the hell do I go now?" I kinda wish they gave you a few more hints.

 

This part of the story passed me by as well. The lady you talked to wants you to kill four bosses, each in different areas of the game, some of which I'm pretty sure you've been to before. Have a think if you've seen any areas that were blocked off with special fog gates or were just too dang hard at the time. It's time to hit up all those hard places now.

 

I have a shitton of deamon titanite, what is that for? Nothing seems to use it.

 

Certain super special one-of-a-kind weapons (such as the Drake Sword) use either Demon Titanite or Dragon Scales to upgrade. Demon Titanite in particular is pretty rare, so be sure it's a weapon you want before you upgrade it.

[Griddlelol]

Alright, an update (because while I'm at work I'm just thinking about DS)...

 

I went through one of the big fog gates that was blocked off before. SO. MUCH. TRASH. It's at Anor Londo. The cut scene showed more opening, although I have no idea where to go for them. I'd not noticed them. Is the one in Anor that hardest? It takes a long time for me to clear the trash, and I'm normally out of estus charges once I'm done.

 

I have my Uchigatana as my primary weapon, offset by a lightning spear and Quelaag's fury for enemies with specific weaknesses. Uchi is at +10 right now, but feels quite weak and neither smith will upgrade it past +10. Is there another smith, since it doesn't show up in the possibilities of things for them to do, usually if I'm missing reagents it'll just be greyed out. 

 

Yeah, I've gone only melee. I think if I'm going to play, I'm going to play the way I think is coolest (and after reading, is apparently the hardest). Dumped all my stats into Vit, End and Dex, with a couple in Str so I can wield Uchi. Although I just got that ring from the guy who murdered the fire keeper, so I think I can afford to ramp up my Dex input now to buff my attack. 

 

I don't know if there's a weapon I really like yet, I'm liking Uchi, it looks cool, hits harder than most of what I have, plus the moveset is good. It's a shame that the upgrade damages you. When I first read it I thought it was a vampirism effect, which would have been fantastic but oh well... Spears! They're quite useful! If there's a one-of-a-kind spear, I'd definitely consider getting that. 

 

To Gormongous: There is a way to mess up your stats. From my personal experience, dumping too much into Vitality excluding other stats really screwed me over. It's great to see you picked it up again! 

 

 

The DLC, I take it that it's worth it? I'll definitely check it out. 

[osmosisch]

If you don't like the duke's archives, it's a fine moment to go and explore some other areas. You can head down the graveyard from firelink, you can check out the spooky ghost party in firelink's other basement, or you can keep going past where Quelaag was. Oh, and there's still the crow flight path from firelink as well.

Many people are of the opinion that the best boss fights are in the DLC. It also adds some fascinating lore, especially regarding Artorias and the furtive pygmy. I'd recommend holding off on it for a bit though if the archives are giving you trouble.

There's several unique spears. One is made from the soul of the Moonlight Butterfly and is mainly intended for int builds. One builds from Ornstein's soul and looks boss as hell. It needs a lot of both dex and str thought.

As far as getting weapons past +10, you need the ember for that, which is found in the aforementioned place fulla ghosts.