Dark Souls II |OT2| Prepare to Vengarl

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Smelter
is optional,
Sinner
- any of the 'great lords' are potentially optional if your soul memory is high enough to open the
shrine of winter
.

In theory, I think if you were to grind souls long enough - you could open that up w/o needing to kill any of them.
Well I've got over 700K of souls memory so how much to open the door? It cant be that much more really.
 
Well, finished getting through Heide's Tower of Flame, leveled up some more, got some upgrades to my armor, and I managed to beast through the Lost Bastille and most of Sinner's Rise.

However, I'm getting my ass beaten by the Lost Sinner, so do you guys think I should keep on going or just try the No-Man's Wharf?
 
Well, finished getting through Heide's Tower of Flame, leveled up some more, got some upgrades to my armor, and I managed to beast through the Lost Bastille and most of Sinner's Rise.

However, I'm getting my ass beaten by the Lost Sinner, so do you guys think I should keep on going or just try the No-Man's Wharf?

I would keep trying. She is very beatable, it will just take patience at lower levels. Maybe try helping others out for a bit to start getting the pattern down?
 
In NG it's 1 million to pass the door. Probably more on ng+ and so on.

I was asking about this at the top of the page, but I think it might have gotten buried since the thread moves so fast.

NG is 1 million, that's what I have heard. NG+ is 2 million, but 2 million during that playthrough (so souls acquired in NG don't count towards the NG+ soul requirements)

I am carrying around 1,200,000+ souls now, because I read that you need that many souls on hand somewhere, but I believe that is misinformation. I am 6million+ in souls memory, but the door isn't opening for me in NG+ just yet, so I probably haven't hit the 2 million in this playthrough. It's hard to tell how many I have gotten this time around since you can't tell how many you earned before you started a new game :/
 
I'm not 100% sure actually. Because the light crossbow has a 13 strength requirement but I seemed to be able to two-hand it just fine? Unless crossbows behave differently?

But double for melee yeah.

Two-handing formula seems to be (STR * 2) + 1 for determining minimum requirements to wield a weapon, but two-handing no longer increases your STR for purposes of determining bonus damage from STR scaling. It's kind of weird. The additional freebie point you get is only relevant in cases where the weapon you want to use has an odd-numbered STR requirement, since it effectively reduces the minimum STR to two-hand such weapons by 1.

Or something like that. I've been meaning to burn some Soul Vessels to mess around with it a bit more.
 
No response so I'll try again. am I missing anything if I skip the Smelter Demon. I cannot kill him for the life of me and I want to boost the area of the Iron Keep to try and get a black kitana.

I was having a very hard time with him, until I tried using the Grym shield, which has crazy fire resistance. Before I could hold my own until he "flamed on" and then the fire damage would chip away enough to kill me every time. After trying Grym shield, I beat him in the first try. It pretty much blocks all the fire damage. I also leveled it up quite a bit before going in.
 
Try to stay close to the boss, but not too close.
The spider lifts her body before she does that laser attack. If you stay close to her, you can just run towards one of her sides, its pretty easy to avoid the laser attack then
.

Alright, thanks. I'll take care of her later tonight.
 
I was asking about this at the top of the page, but I think it might have gotten buried since the thread moves so fast.

NG is 1 million, that's what I have heard. NG+ is 2 million, but 2 million during that playthrough (so souls acquired in NG don't count towards the NG+ soul requirements)

I am carrying around 1,200,000+ souls now, because I read that you need that many souls on hand somewhere, but I believe that is misinformation. I am 6million+ in souls memory, but the door isn't opening for me in NG+ just yet, so I probably haven't hit the 2 million in this playthrough. It's hard to tell how many I have gotten this time around since you can't tell how many you earned before you started a new game :/

Nah, it's definately just Soul Memory. At least on my second character in NG I could pass the door with only one of the great souls(at about 1.1 million SM). I don't think the principle changes in NG+.
 
Nah, it's definately just Soul Memory. At least on my second character in NG I could pass the door with only one of the great souls(at about 1.1 million SM). I don't think the principle changes in NG+.

Oh crap, so you need to have 3 million from ONLY the current run in NG++? At that point it's probably faster to just grab the 4 souls, I was hoping there would be an easier way to get in the castle.

Edit: Aw yeah, first post on page 271 (my favorite number).
 
I think that's just some other random castle to make the view look pretty, similar to the city you can see below in 1-2.

The city you see down below in 1-2 I believe is Boletaria (it's never verified, so it's just conjecture, but this seems to fit.)

In the cinematic, you see a sprawling city, with a high castle on a mountain off in the distance. That castle is the one you explore in area 1, and the city down below is the sprawling city.

demonssouls21.jpg


b8eeeefd.jpg
 
Yet you go through an area in 1 minute and the other is night. People talk about consistency but Dark Souls 1 lacks it too. Sure you can see some areas but there are inconsistencies there too.

It's infrequent in Dark Souls 1 though. The transition to nighttime in the Darkroot garden is the only place off the top of my head that sticks out, but I think it's supposed to be shrouded in darkness because it's stuck in an immense shadow of something, maybe like that layer of clouds you can see from above? Something is causing that place to be in the dark because if you look up you can see that dimly lit sun in the sky I believe. I'd have to go back and look more closely to be sure.

Is this the sun or a moon in this picture? I always thought it was the sun.

 
Okay that turtle guy with the to giant maces is even more annoying than havel..

yeah, they attacks are so easy to read, just backoff when he does his vertical strike, the horizontal swing is the easiest to punish, be patient and don't panic if you are in a narrow space
 
Holy MOTHER OF GOD. I FOUND ONE. I FOUND A SLAB! I feel like Willy Wonka finding a Golden Ticket. -sobs-

no shit, i got a slab 5 minutes into the game by trading the petrified something with the crows ;p Ended up with like 10 by the end of my first playthrough lol. Slabs get squirted out all over this game like a peter north production.
 
No response so I'll try again. am I missing anything if I skip the Smelter Demon. I cannot kill him for the life of me and I want to boost the area of the Iron Keep to try and get a black kitana.

I think you get a bonfire and a chest ( can't remember what was it in though). You can also fight pursurer and get ring of blades +1 when you kill him.
 
I was having a very hard time with him, until I tried using the Grym shield, which has crazy fire resistance. Before I could hold my own until he "flamed on" and then the fire damage would chip away enough to kill me every time. After trying Grym shield, I beat him in the first try. It pretty much blocks all the fire damage. I also leveled it up quite a bit before going in.


I have that shield, but still get beat down. I'll try it a couple more times before moving on.
 
FUCK

New Game + spoilers:

Holy shit does the difficult ramp up when you get to Drangleic Castle or what? That entrance was fucking obscene with that phantom with the goddamn spinning hammer attack doing all my HP, shit.

Now... I know that the Pursuers in the throne room have the Ring of Blades +2... I WANT THAT REALLY BAD. Unfortunately I simply feel like I'm not good enough to beat them :/ I didn't really have a difficult time with the game until now, those two are just too much.
Summon help for that fight? It's what I did because fuck 2v1. :)


It's also kinda aggravating that there are trophies for keeping npcs alive. Why would from put a penalty on players who want to solo every boss? I never cared much about summoning anyone for any boss, why should I have to summon Lucatiel and then have to babysit her throughout the game? Not to mention that I didn't know of that, and now I have passed the turning point for her and not even ascetics can help me, so no trophy. Won't try it on NG+ cause it will probably be harder, so I gotta make a new character just for that.
I would probably do it to experiment anyway, mind you, but I don't like it when I'm forced.
Hint: you are not forced. At all. Don't do the trophy quests. It's easy! Truly. All you have to do is not ever summon her. Ta-da!

Lucy's armor is by far the hardest to get in the game since, as many mentioned,
You know it's funny. I don't care for trophies (didn't know there was even one for that) and in NG+ I summoned Lucatiel just for the lols (I only ever got her for Smelter before in NG and she fell off the cliff right as I entered the fog), got her 4 times, and she survived all four fights without me doing anything special or even trying to protect her. Then way, way later I see her looking all glum and she gives me her gear. Now I hear it's a trophy and so hard to do and shit? Hah, in your face trophy whores. :D

But how do I know if it's an NPC or a player without having a list of summonable NPCs beforehand ?
NPCs have spaces in their names. PSN accounts cannot have spaces. And it's usually obvious, like "<first name> of <place>" or "<first name> the <title>". Benhart of Jugo, Lucatiel of Mirrah, Felicia the Brave, Masterless Glencour, etc.

How do you beat h
avel
??
Spoiler-tag that, yo. And uh... get good? XD I usually sneak in a few poison arrow hits, but in NG+ it's not enough, so I lure him back to the beginning of the dungeon where there's some water and less risk of falling, then dodge his swings and roll-backstab him.

I AM cursed. Go to hell llwyen go to fucking hell. If I ever find you I'll shove that shield so far up your ass it'll change your name to ass-face.
I have an extra Llewellyn chest armour... >_> If you're on PS3 and are in NG+ and in range, maybe I could drop it for you if you want it so bad.
 
Finished the game last night and I didn't immediately go to NG+. I did what I always do and kill all NPCS. Did the deed. NG+ comes around today and I'm in Heide's area and the blue's won't stop invading which I don't really mind b/c I like PvP. It gets kinda annoying when I'm trying to fight the Dragonrider guy but I have none stop invasions which hinder my progess to the boss. I thought the jump to NG+ wiped the slate clean like every other souls game. Googled it and I guess it's different in this game. So be careful if you decide to kill NPCs lol
 
What is the fastest way to darklurker?

Btw.: he just 1hked me. Lol..

Use the portal in Drangleic Castle. Easier to get those phantoms one on one, fastest trip back from the bonfire if you die.


Yep, just repeat the one that's easiest for you.

I actually found the location in Shaded woods was the quickest for me. You only fight 4 people in total before the boss and the first 3 can be easily pulled separately with a bow. As well as there being few bottomless hazards you don't see.

I just beat Darklurker last night after trying several times. I ended up using a Soul Vessel and going Faith / Str. After lowering the requirements for the Great Lightning Spear and using a +10 Pyro Hand with Flame Swath I defeated Darklurker really quick.
 
The city you see down below in 1-2 I believe is Boletaria (it's never verified, so it's just conjecture, but this seems to fit.)

In the cinematic, you see a sprawling city, with a high castle on a mountain off in the distance. That castle is the one you explore in area 1, and the city down below is the sprawling city.

demonssouls21.jpg


b8eeeefd.jpg

So where is the city at when viewing the castle from the mines? Forgive me if it's there as it's been many years since I last played it, but I don't think it's there. Then again, the distances between the artwork and actual in-game are completely different. In-game the city is right below the mountain whereas in the artwork it's miles and miles away from the mountain. Could be hidden from the mines view I suppose or they just didn't put it there.
 
So where is the city at when viewing the castle from the mines? Forgive me if it's there as it's been many years since I last played it, but I don't think it's there. Then again, the distances between the artwork and actual in-game are completely different. In-game the city is right below the mountain whereas in the artwork it's miles and miles away from the mountain. Could be hidden from the mines view I suppose or they just didn't put it there.

I think the city is on the other side. Particularly as you can see a river under the mines and under the castle, and the start of 1-1 has a bridge over a river too.
 
Two-handing formula seems to be (STR * 2) + 1 for determining minimum requirements to wield a weapon, but two-handing no longer increases your STR for purposes of determining bonus damage from STR scaling. It's kind of weird. The additional freebie point you get is only relevant in cases where the weapon you want to use has an odd-numbered STR requirement, since it effectively reduces the minimum STR to two-hand such weapons by 1.

Or something like that. I've been meaning to burn some Soul Vessels to mess around with it a bit more.
That seems like such a weird way to do that. I wonder what the intent was. As a deprived, I think the light crossbow was the only 13 strength/<=6 dex weapon I ever saw so I had no further sample size than that one oddity. And I only originally tried it because I just wanted a ranged anything even if it did 1 damage.
 
That seems like such a weird way to do that. I wonder what the intent was. As a deprived, I think the light crossbow was the only 13 strength/<=6 dex weapon I ever saw so I had no further sample size than that one oddity. And I only originally tried it because I just wanted a ranged anything even if it did 1 damage.

I like the way it works now. The +1 is just a nice convenience for weapons with odd STR requirements. But it's a bit easier to tell if you can two hand something now. Getting rid of the 2H bonus was a good idea too, because now there's reason to upgrade STR past the 2H requirement for a weapon.
 
It's infrequent in Dark Souls 1 though. The transition to nighttime in the Darkroot garden is the only place off the top of my head that sticks out, but I think it's supposed to be shrouded in darkness because it's stuck in an immense shadow of something, maybe like that layer of clouds you can see from above? Something is causing that place to be in the dark because if you look up you can see that dimly lit sun in the sky I believe. I'd have to go back and look more closely to be sure.

Is this the sun or a moon in this picture? I always thought it was the sun.

I don't know man. You don't fight the Sunlight Butterfly.
 
I have more slabs than chunks

/sun bros problems

I like the way it works now. The +1 is just a nice convenience for weapons with odd STR requirements. But it's a bit easier to tell if you can two hand something now. Getting rid of the 2H bonus was a good idea too, because now there's reason to upgrade STR past the 2H requirement for a weapon.

No 2H bonus? I thought I was doing more damage 2 handing weapons.
 
No 2H bonus? I thought I was doing more damage 2 handing weapons.

Two handed attacks are generally still more powerful and do more poise damage. But in the first game, your STR is effectively 1.5x its actual stat when you two hand a weapon. Now there is no two hand STR Bonus to your attack rating; you can simply wield a weapon in 2H with half the strength it takes to wield in one.

Example: In DS take a weapon with 40STR requirement on a character with 27STR. 2 Hand it and watch the attack rating on the info screen go up considerably (assuming that weapon scales with STR). In DS2, that number would be the same.
 
Two handed attacks are generally still more powerful and do more poise damage. But in the first game, your STR is effectively 1.5x its actual stat when you two hand a weapon. Now there is no two hand STR Bonus to your attack rating; you can simply wield a weapon in 2H with half the strength it takes to wield in one.

Ah, I understand. Yes, they mixed it up a bit. For better or worse, I'm not sure yet.
 
Made a good deal of progress this weekend. Killed
Mytha, The Rotten, Smelter and Iron King...may have taken out Covetous as well...the weekend kinda blurred together since the I basically dedicated the whole two days to it. Also claimed Havel's armor which is a long time favorite.

Mytha, Covetous and Iron King were unbelievable jokes. I didn't even get touched on Mytha and IK.

Smelter proved to be a little tougher, he probably took 8-9 attempts. He would have taken like 5, but I got stuck in a wall when he had literally no visible health. I originally went in full Havel's thinking I'd tank his damage like a champ, which was fine until I was stamina starved and taking fire damage through block. So I switched to a lighter set of gear and just dodged his shit. He became much easier to handle at that point.

Rotten kinda sucked, but he only took a handful of tries, I felt like everything I had just chipped at him. So I had to pace myself differently on him.

I tried to bring Lucatiel through The Rotten and Smelter and that was just a waste of energy. She's largely useless and the extra health for those bosses didn't help matters.

Probably logged upwards of 80-90 hours on the game so far. Not really interested in the pvp/co-op aspects so I'm around 160 and climbing and have my character built to rock
Havel's
and hit hard in melee while also wrecking with magic.This game is weird for me though, I think that the level design (at least so far) and the bosses have been inferior to the previous Souls games. That being said, I feel like this new one plays better...so I'm enjoying it more I guess. If I could mesh the mechanics of DSII with the worlds of the previous games I would probably have my ideal game.

As someone who likes farming in games, the extinction mechanic put me off some to start with. But I actually like it now, it also adds some additional consequences to dying as there are basically a finite amount of souls per play through.

EDIT: Also upgraded The Pursuer's Ultra Greatsword to...3 or 4 and it has gained A scaling with strength. So far it is one of my favorite weapons, but I have also come to respect and enjoy the larger clubs. S scaling and +10 have made it my hardest hitting weapon. I really dig the speed on the big weapons now, they actually feel usable.
 
No 2H bonus? I thought I was doing more damage 2 handing weapons.
I'm no mechanics expert, but any given attack animation seems to have its own modifier/multiplier. So two handed attacks just do more damage not see anywhere on the stat screen.

I remember comparing a greatsword+10 to a... I forget. the curved dragon greatsword+5 or something like that? I used a soul vessel to redo all my stats for the curved sword because with dex scaling it would have a higher total attack rating than the greatsword+10. And it did. The curved sword I got to around a 600 attack rating while with the greatsword it was 570. Both were 100% physical damage.

But, when I actually tested the swords the attacks of the greatsword did easily more damage. So the attacks of the greatsword had some kind of hidden bonus or multiplier to put it ahead.
 
For anyone that has been dual-wielding.

Do you tend to imbue your weapons or leave them at the basic +10 to scale with str/dex depending on weapon. I was gonna mess around with dual Falchions or Scimitars and was wondering if bleed / poison would actually be better to imbue them with since it could possibly rapidly increase the rate at which you would inflict the status on the enemy.
 
I'm no mechanics expert, but any given attack animation seems to have its own modifier/multiplier. So two handed attacks just do more damage not see anywhere on the stat screen.

I remember comparing a greatsword+10 to a... I forget. the curved dragon greatsword+5 or something like that? I used a soul vessel to redo all my stats for the curved sword because with dex scaling it would have a higher total attack rating than the greatsword+10. And it did. The curved sword I got to around a 600 attack rating while with the greatsword it was 570. Both were 100% physical damage.

But, when I actually tested the swords the attacks of the greatsword did easily more damage. So the attacks of the greatsword had some kind of hidden bonus or multiplier to put it ahead.

There's lots of variables. Weapons have different sweet spots (you'll do more damage if you hit with a certain part of a weapon), and there are different damage types (pierce, strike, slash) for which enemies have varying resistances. 2 handed attacks in my experience always hit a little harder and do more poise damage.
 
Wtf am I doing wrong? I've been fighting these tings for fucking hours.
Bad luck. With a Jester's Cap and Gold Covetous Ring +1 I still have plenty of slabs even after upgrading a bunch of stuff to +10.

I found out I was doing something wrong.
End game and optional boss spoilers. Also end game spoilers.
Vendrick. He kept beating the shit out of me after every simple mistake I made. ... ... ... Then I just started rolling right every time he attacked... I felt so so stupid. Crushed him without being touched. Crazy easy fight.
Nashandra I would have killed first try with Avelyn. Turns out beating the boss doesn't start NG+. Avelyn didn't work so well when I summoned Bernhart. Luckily a +10 Giant Club with Gold Pine Resin seems to do some damage. That fight was really easy.

Then I got in the throne.
Wearing my Jester Cap.
It gave me a giggle.
Great game and I still have another optional boss to dispatch.
 
There's lots of variables. Weapons have different sweet spots (you'll do more damage if you hit with a certain part of a weapon), and there are different damage types (pierce, strike, slash) for which enemies have varying resistances. 2 handed attacks in my experience always hit a little harder and do more poise damage.
I believe both weapons I was testing were slashing weapons (both being big ass swords) and I attacked the enemies in things betwixt a bunch of times to get a consistent damage comparison between the two swords. So I was looking at hits, counter-hits, and so forth and keeping notes on the damage numbers on the same set of enemies.

Greatsword, despite having 30 less attack power, still did like more than 100 damage more than the curved sword. So... I dunno?

Given that two-handed attacks have some hidden damage modification, it made sense to me that 1-handed attacks could also have a hidden damage modification depending on the speed of the attack. Thus, the slower greatsword does more damage because of this. That was my completely unsupported rationalization as I confusedly used a another soul vessel to dump my dex back to 12 and switch back to the greatsword.
 
I believe both weapons I was testing were slashing weapons (both being big ass swords) and I attacked the enemies in things betwixt a bunch of times to get a consistent damage comparison between the two swords. So I was looking at hits, counter-hits, and so forth and keeping notes on the damage numbers on the same set of enemies.

Greatsword, despite having 30 less attack power, still did like more than 100 damage more than the curved sword. So... I dunno?

Given that two-handed attacks have some hidden damage modification, it made sense to me that 1-handed attacks could also have a hidden damage modification depending on the speed of the attack. Thus, the slower greatsword does more damage because of this. That was my completely unsupported rationalization as I confusedly used a another soul vessel to dump my dex back to 12 and switch back to the greatsword.

Yeah, that makes sense. I dunno though.


Anyone throwing down summoning signs at The Royal Rat Authority? That dude is owning me. :(

You can't co-op that boss.
 
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