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Dark Souls II |OT| The Dark Souls of Dark Souls

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Clevinger

Member
So I've finished the Forest of Fallen Giants. Treebeard and Pursuer have been elminated, and I have zero idea where I'm supposed to go next. Forest doesn't seem to lead anywhere so I went back to Majula. From there I can go to the place where the girl has been turned to stone in front of a switch. On the other end I can go down some stairs to an area of water, but the door is closed off. What am I missing?

If you mean one of the side paths (the one that doesn't go to Forest of Fallen Giants), look for a lever/switch in the same room. It'll open the door.
 
I waited for ages for a summon sign to pop up in front of the Lost Sinner boss but nothing showed up. Ended up failing yet again after only getting three hits in.

I know you have to be human to summon, but are there any other tricks? A specific covenant I should be in or something?
 

sixghost

Member
Heads up for anyone using an INT build, I found a really good headpiece that doesn't seem great at first glace. The
female pyromancers
wearing red in Earthen Peak drop a hood called
Desert Sorceress Hood
that increases your INT by 3. It doesn't say this anywhere in the item description, so I thought I'd mention it. I just discovered it by chance.
 

Ken

Member
Where can I get lockstones? I haven't found any in a very long time.

There's one in
Shaded Ruins.
Ah, and another one in Majula but I'm sure you found that one already. There's also the already mentioned Merchant one. I know I had 2 or 3 more but I can't remember where I picked them up.

Should I put points into ADP even as a tanky melee dude/V-Bomb?
 

LProtag

Member
I waited for ages for a summon sign to pop up in front of the Lost Sinner boss but nothing showed up. Ended up failing yet again after only getting three hits in.

I know you have to be human to summon, but are there any other tricks? A specific covenant I should be in or something?

Make sure you're not too high or low of a level, as that will affect who can see your summoning sign and the summoning signs you can see.

At least, I'm pretty sure.
 
I waited for ages for a summon sign to pop up in front of the Lost Sinner boss but nothing showed up. Ended up failing yet again after only getting three hits in.

I know you have to be human to summon, but are there any other tricks? A specific covenant I should be in or something?

I made the mistake of going at him early too. You need to be at least like SL 100 for him, for realsies.

Heads up for anyone using an INT build, I found a really good headpiece that doesn't seem great at first glace. The
female pyromancers
wearing red in Earthen Peak drop a hood called
Desert Sorceress Hood
that increases your INT by 3. It doesn't say this anywhere in the item description, so I thought I'd mention it. I just discovered it by chance.

I dunno about you, but after 30+ points in INT..my spells have gone up by maybe 10 pts of damage.
 

Dresden

Member
Well, just met my first mimic.

I go back and there's a message warning about it there with like 30 ratings on it. Why didn't it show up before :(
 

-Ryn

Banned
I waited for ages for a summon sign to pop up in front of the Lost Sinner boss but nothing showed up. Ended up failing yet again after only getting three hits in.

I know you have to be human to summon, but are there any other tricks? A specific covenant I should be in or something?
There's a ring that will allow you to summon (or be summoned) more easily by people of the same covenant. I believe the cat in Majula sells it
. Don't know if that will help much but it might be worth a shot.
 
Just had the hypest bell tower defense ever. We both got a good hit on each other, he ran back to entrance and turtled, then I guard broke his ass and critical'd him for the kill.

Load times are a major drag though. Especially when the host is already dead.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
So wait, (area spoiler)
the second bonfire in forest of giants with a shit load of turtle kmights, is there really nothing else there other than the giant you can examine?
 

Phatmac

Member
Been having loads of fun defending the bell tower. I could do this all day. Only problem is being loaded to an area in which the host already died.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
a. lack of a direction - it's way too aimless in the beginning. There's no effort to guide the player at all; you have no clearly discernible objective (ring the bells! gather the lord souls!), and in its absence you just explore and fight through the world for the sake of it. There is something later on, but even that feels tenuous at best.
(

I agreed with you until you gave the "gather the lord souls" example. The equivalent to that is gather the four souls that the priest girl or whatever her name is tells you about after meeting her in Majula. There is a goal but it's just really stupid as to how you go about doing that.
 

Dartastic

Member
If anything, I'm having a lot of issues trying to enjoy the game. There's so much I can think of that I don't like in comparison to the other Souls games. I could easily go on a rant about
Belfry Gargoyles
and how the other Souls games did it much better. The biggest issue for me is that there's just absolutely no sense of progression for me because the game completely lacks any actual structure. Even something so simple as those inter medial goals in the original Dark Souls (ring bells, get vessel, etc.) does a lot for giving a sense of progression. There's honestly nothing that's given me any sense of achievement because all I can do is wonder what's next after exhausting what options I can find.

This game has honestly been pretty disappointing to me, and I don't know if I can muster the willpower to complete it. Maybe I'll just give it a little time and come back when I'm not so upset with it.
Yeah. I haven't gotten to them yet, but I totally feel the lack of progression. One of the things that the first game did so brilliantly was make you feel like you were actually exploring an area and uncovering new shortcuts and stuff as you went along. I haven't really experienced that yet. I guess I unlocked that gate in the first area that linked me back, but that wasn't nearly the same. I remember in the first one when I got to the ladder that you could kick down to one of the first bonfires, it was such an AHA moment, and the whole game was filled with great stuff like that. It had a lot more hidden cool areas too. This one feels almost like a collection of stages so far. I wish it was more connected. Also, the goal of "get souls" as the main goal immediately is kinda like "eh...." I also hate that my life gets diminished when I die. I get what they're doing, and I understand it but when you combine that with the guard break ridiculousness it's pretty damn irritating.

3 things that stick out at me:

a. lack of a direction - it's way too aimless in the beginning. There's no effort to guide the player at all; you have no clearly discernible objective (ring the bells! gather the lord souls!), and in its absence you just explore and fight through the world for the sake of it. There is something later on, but even that feels tenuous at best.

b. lackluster enemy designs - this extends to the bosses, too. Too many enemies look the same; there's reused creatures from DkS1; almost all the bosses are visually and mechanically boring.

c. MLGS still scales with Int - c'mon FROM, you could have gone full Demon's with this. (
Totally agree with A. Especially as there's no connection to other areas. You just kinda... progress. Also agree with B so far too. C I can't comment on.

For me, it's a collection of little things. Warping back to the main bonfire to level up is stupid, stupid stupid and it's a waste of goddamn time. It really irritates me. The animations are really weird too. They don't have the weight of the first game, and even stuff like the running animations are off. Why is my dude running with his arms sticking out so far? Also, the guard break stuff is pissing me off a lot too. When your stamina gets bashed from one or two blocked hits and you then get into that LOOOOOONG guard break pose that basically guarantees you're gonna get smacked... UGH. The beginning of the game didn't do that any favors either when you just get mobbed by like 3 or 4 guys at once.
 

LProtag

Member
I agreed with you until you gave the "gather the lord souls" example. The equivalent to that is gather the four souls that the priest girl or whatever her name is tells you about after meeting her in Majula. There is a goal but it's just really stupid as to how you go about doing that.

The game gives you a goal, but it seems to be a long-term goal compared to the bell goal. It's basically just "Seek bigger souls. Seek out the king." Sounds like stuff that will take way longer than ringing the bells in Dark Souls.
 

Vazra

irresponsible vagina leak
So I checked the guide to check how many places left I have to do and it seems I have 12 areas left. Not Bad!
 

Aeana

Member
I was told that I just needed the
silvercat
ring to make the fall in the center of Majula but I'm dying to the first fall even with that ring on. :(
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
Only played a couple of hours so far. Just invaded another player's world and after waiting around for a minute, they were apparently defeated without me doing anything. Neat.
 

ScribbleD

Member
So wait, (area spoiler)
the second bonfire in forest of giants with a shit load of turtle kmights, is there really nothing else there other than the giant you can examine?

Wait, what area is this? The only turtle knight I remember seeing is the single area opposite the ballista room.
 

Ken

Member
I was told that I just needed the
silvercat
ring to make the fall in the center of Majula but I'm dying to the first fall even with that ring on. :(

I survived with like 1% health even after pumping quite a few levels into HP.
 

Soriku

Junior Member
How do I unlock the locked doors in the Forest?

Also, is there any way to open the blockage near the Crystal Lizard and the undead enemy, or is that just permanently locked?
 

Tirod

Member
God damn, PVP is awesome with the servers and reworked backstabs. I've just been having too much fun PVPing to finish up the last few bosses.
 

Lost Fragment

Obsessed with 4chan
Yeah I don't get the people who are saying there's no direction. The NPCs give you a pretty clear goal, even if that goal is pretty long-term relative to the one they give you in Dark Souls 1. It's pretty much the same as in 1. "This is the thing you have to do and this is the general direction you have to go in. Good luck."
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
The game gives you a goal, but it seems to be a long-term goal compared to the bell goal. It's basically just "Seek bigger souls. Seek out the king." Sounds like stuff that will take way longer than ringing the bells in Dark Souls.

It does give you a goal for sure. I'm just saying that the way the game guides you to meet that goal or raise up its clarity is bad.
 

Yasadril

Member
buying unlimited titanite shards:
the merchant at harvest valley will go back to majula after you talk to her a bit. she also sells upgrade stones
 

Soriku

Junior Member
a. lack of a direction - it's way too aimless in the beginning. There's no effort to guide the player at all; you have no clearly discernible objective (ring the bells! gather the lord souls!), and in its absence you just explore and fight through the world for the sake of it. There is something later on, but even that feels tenuous at best.

How long did you talk to NPCs? The Emerald Herald tells you to collect the four great souls and meet with the King, and the crestfallen dude who lets you join Way of Blue tells you the locations of the Forest, Heide's Tower, and the area below Majula.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Yeah I don't get the people who are saying there's no direction. The NPCs give you a pretty clear goal, even if that goal is pretty long-term relative to the one they give you in Dark Souls 1. It's pretty much the same as in 1. "This is the thing you have to do and this is the general direction you have to go in. Good luck."

The landscape of firelinkshrine makes it very clear as to which way you're supposed to go. They said there's a bell underground and one above. Firelink Shrine has a great deal of verticality so it's extremely easy to know where you're supposed to go. It's impossible to fuck up. This is not the case with Dark Souls 2. They just say gather souls. Granted, one of the NPCs say that you have to go to the forest regardless at first but there's no sense of direction as to which way leads to the forest. There is no implicit guidance in Dark Souls 2 compared to its predecessor.
 

RoeBear

Member
Very late game observation:
Helped like ten people kill the dragon boss....almost all Vengarl set + A big sword/shield. No one is using magic :p

Yup people were pretty thankful for my
lightning bolts :)

Also quick question about Brightstone

Is there a closer fire to the Spider boss? I'm at the Cathedral...
 

Soriku

Junior Member
The landscape of firelinkshrine makes it very clear as to which way you're supposed to go. They said there's a bell underground and one above. Firelink Shrine has a great deal of verticality so it's extremely easy to know where you're supposed to go. It's impossible to fuck up. This is not the case with Dark Souls 2. They just say gather souls. Granted, one of the NPCs say that you have to go to the forest regardless at first but there's no sense of direction as to which way leads to the forest. There is no implicit guidance in Dark Souls 2 compared to its predecessor.

???

He literally says the Forest is past the bonfire. Turn your camera around, and you see a way down from the bonfire. That's not the only area he mentioned either.
 
Second hypest bell defense: I spawned on the second floor and my teammate was chasing the invader down the stairs. I jumped down the hole to cut him off and killed him in one combo.

So addicting.
 
Made a bit of progress in the
Old Bastille.
Explored most of the area minus a few locked doors, and now I'm in some scary place called
Sinner's
something. I think I'm right before a big boss too.. the area looks quite beautiful in the moonlight and ominous.

I feel like this game has so many nice rings... hard to choose which ones to use. I swap out rings quite often (when I need the Ring of Restoration for example).

I finally found another Pharros stone, and I saw two locations to use it in
Old Bastille.
Should I hold onto this or use it now? Wish I knew what I got from those two contraptions prior to using it. I know it would totally break the game, but sometimes I wish you could save/reload, lol.
 
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