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[Antiwhippy]

Spoiler

I've read that you must put it in that bird's nest in the tutorial area, where those weird voices come from. "Give us silky!" and stuff. You supposedly get a weapon from it, one guy got a whip and someone else a spear.

Is that it?

Huh.

 

[Carcetti]

WTF !! My character turned into a woman!

This has to be a bug right not a plot point

Haha, it took me a day to realize my character had turned into a man because I was wearing so much armor. Started wondering at one point why she was grunting with such a low voice on death, then read about the coffin.

 

[PuppetMaster]

Did you use the coffin in the tutorial area? Use it again.

Ah ok thank you! I used that like hours ago. I only just noticed now when removing armor!

 

[KennyLinder]

Getting this today, much excite!

How quickly do you get the White Soapstone? I want to get summoned for jolly co-op ASAP

 

[Rolfgang]

Is that it?

Huh.

Well, could be there are more uses, but I've only read about this one so far.

 

[Arcayne]

PvP wise: Hmm, no matter how I time my dodge, a sorcerer's spell arrow keeps hitting me. I'm gonna assume internet lag cuz spells in DkS1 was fairly easy to see and avoid.

Getting this today, much excite!

How quickly do you get the White Soapstone? I want to get summoned for jolly co-op ASAP

Fairly fast. Not in the intro/tutorial level, but definitely in the first real area you'll goto. Make sure to talk to a guy repeatedly

 

[Prototype]

Ah ok thank you! I used that like hours ago. I only just noticed now when removing armor!

dude, same thing happened to me yesterday lol. I thought I was losing my mind.

 

[Gorillaz]

Getting this today, much excite!

How quickly do you get the White Soapstone? I want to get summoned for jolly co-op ASAP

like probably.in the first hour and a half. longer then it was for DS oddly

 

[MrCookiepants]

"Be wary of hole"

What hole? *falls into it*

lol

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Whaaaat is it true pvp invaders and bell tower peeps cannot heal at all? Thanks a lot FROM

 

[AKingNamedPaul]

"Be wary of hole"

What hole? *falls into it*

lol

The classic

 

[KennyLinder]

PvP wise: Hmm, no matter how I time my dodge, a sorcerer's spell arrow keeps hitting me. I'm gonna assume internet lag cuz spells in DkS1 was fairly easy to see and avoid.



Fairly fast. Not in the intro/tutorial level, but definitely in the first real area you'll goto. Make sure to talk to a guy repeatedly

Cheers! It should be fairly busy today since it launches here in UKLand and Europe today. I hope they haven't locked the servers down regionally.

 

[QisTopTier]

Whaaaat is it true pvp invaders and bell tower peeps cannot heal at all? Thanks a lot FROM

you can use life gems and faith spells

 

[perorist]

you can use life gems and faith spells

Can't use lifegems as a red phantom, not that healing is really something you have time to be doing during invasions.

 

[Exr]

Bell Tower is a goddamn madhouse, so much traffic.

 

[Kysen]

I've had to put the game down at least 5 times because of the horrendous loading times. I clocked 42 seconds a couple of hours ago. I can't stand them.

I was about to question this then I remembered I have the downloaded version(PSN). None of my load times are that long.

 

[mxgt]

Bell Tower is a goddamn madhouse, so much traffic.

It's nuts, non stop invasions. I love it l.

 

[Sakura]

I'm at the fog door in The Gutter... But I haven't seen a bonfire yet here. Any idea where one is? I don't want to fight the boss then have to redo all this.

 

[MilkBeard]

I joined the Blue Sentinels. This is gonna be fun crushing invaders.

On a side note, before that I tried to invade people but my crushed red-eye orb had the 'use' function greyed out. Is there some requirement for invading people? I'm not familiar with it as I played through Dark Souls I completely offline. I used a soapstone and was summoned so I know the servers are working.

 

[Comfort Jones]

I fought like 3 guys in the bell tower at one point, and still won lmao.

Couldn't seem to enter the boss room though, not sure why. Do you have to beat the invaders first?

 

[mugwhump]

How long will xbawks servers be down? I heard 3/4 hours elsewhere.

 

[pretty done]

guess there's no boss in

Spoiler

dragons aerie

? killed 3 dragons though!

 

[The Sentinel]

What's the difference between small white sign soapstone and the big one?

 

[Arjen]

Shipped! It's happening!

 

[Arcayne]

Could someone elaborate on how the (covenant)

Spoiler

Blue Sentinal counter-l

invasions work? Do I have to go to a certain area or something? I'm gonna assume its cuz people haven't gotten a hold of the (item)

Spoiler

red eye orb

yet.

Anyways, I got bored of waiting for a summon and joined the (covenant)

Spoiler

Bell Guardians

. Man its fun, lol.

 

[Eusis]

Gosh I'm glad graphics were the last reason I was excited for this game.
Played a couple of hours earlier in the morning and left really impressed with everything except how hits react to shields. Really dull reactions there. Otherwise I really like the animations.

Forest of Giants spoilers.

Spoiler

A black raven dropped some crazy hovering knight on me. As I ran away to heal he proceeded to melt into the ground, never to be seen again.
Also found a Fire Longsword. Might give that one a shot.

Well, people were also disappointed because a significant gameplay mechanic wasn't as important as the earlier trailers implied, but then with how they fucked up the torch system entirely it was probably a mercy to err on well lit for most of the game. Nevermind that I swear most of those pictures look worse than the game actually does.

And if you want to know more about that spoiler bit:

Spoiler

that's a boss in the area, but I don't know if you get to beat him early, wear him down then, or what as I ran the first time it happened, remembering a curbstomp in the prior game I joined.

 

[Ken]

Could someone elaborate on how the (covenant)

Spoiler

Blue Sentinal counter-l

invasions work? Do I have to go to a certain area or something? I'm gonna assume its cuz people haven't gotten a hold of the (item)

Spoiler

red eye orb

yet.

Anyways, I got bored of waiting for a summon and joined the (covenant)

Spoiler

Bell Guardians

. Man its fun, lol.

I wonder if

Spoiler

Blue Covenant only works on true invaders so it's useless on gray spirits.

 

[MilkBeard]

Just participated in a sparring match in the Cathedral of Blue. Didn't think it would link with anyone but it happened after about 15 seconds. I won. That was my first PvP fight in the game so far. In the 20 hours I've played no one has invaded me.

EDIT: Interesting. I'm in Sinner's Rise and the cracked red eye orb is now active. So I'm guessing there are only certain locations that you can use it?

 

[Corpekata]

Did some sun broing earlier and found out apparently something I did in the

Spoiler

Earthen Keep

made my boss fight there much easier.

Spoiler

One of the Lockstones drains the boss room, which I didn't realize. I only found out when I got summoned and found the entire room flooded with poison (and you get to mover super slow too). Definetly going to suck for people that didn't explore or didn't have enough lockstones.

 

[Fahrenheit]

Sitting on close to 80k souls. What should I level up? Also should I head into the

Spoiler

Iron Keep or Gutter? Thinking Iron Keep for that ember that lets me add elemental damage to my weapon

Also been using this Mace +6 for a while, anything to keep my eye out on to replace it with?


Will be doing jolly co op till you guys get back to me

 

[The_Hitcher89]

lol@ the Notes section of the manual being black/grey

Namco pls

 

[Ashler]

This game is turning out to be all I ever wanted out of a Dark Souls sequel. And I'm sure i'm still missing out on a lot of areas and secrets still, clocking in at 20hrs so far into the game.

 

[Red Liquorice]

Is there any info on what the patch does?

Hopefully I'll be playing later today (if the postman is kind) and before I snuggle down for 100% offline goodness wondered what the patch does and if I need it I guess.

 

[the_batman]

really enjoying the game more and more. too bad a boss

Spoiler

"smelting" something

in the iron keep is kicking my ass hardcore, and everyone i try to help as a summon.

 

[Soyongdori]

Should I invest in my stats for future Faraam armor or just upgrade elite knight armor?

 

[Eusis]

This game is turning out to be all I ever wanted out of a Dark Souls sequel. And I'm sure i'm still missing out on a lot of areas and secrets still, clocking in at 20hrs so far into the game.

Eh, I wanted a continuation of how interconnected it is, but so far it seems more like the game kind of "spikes" out from a central area rather than being an interconnected web, kind of like if you didn't make Demon's Souls into discrete zones. Probably a casualty of the warping, especially as that was the point when it was dialed back in Dark Souls as well. Still, the areas are rich to explore so it's not like it mostly ended up like the Dark Souls DLC, even if that STILL put to shame most other linear games anyway.

 

[Goodacre0081]

Spoiler

I've read that you must put it in that bird's nest in the tutorial area, where those weird voices come from. "Give us silky!" and stuff. You supposedly get a weapon from it, one guy got a whip and someone else a spear.

Spoiler

I got a White Ring. all it seems to do is make me look like a Phantom. yay

 

[Randam]

How do you riposte and is there a trick for parrying?

 

[Arcayne]

How do you riposte and is there a trick for parrying?

Parry as usual, wait for enemy to fall on their butts, and then R1.

Oh, a trick for parrying... trial and error, practice and get a feel for when is the right time to parry.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Played this game for a few hours yesterday and don't want to sugar coat anything.

It looks absolutely horrible. Aside from some nice draw distance this, to me, looks like a PS2 game and runs even worse. I played DS1 just a few days ago and am pretty sure that the average framerate is worse than in DS1.

Whereas I had no problems finding myself into Demons Souls after finishing Dark Souls I struggled to get into DS2 yesterday - big time. Maybe it's just me but I feel like the game has way more unfair moments already than DS1, where it was mostly up to your skill or impatience when you died.

I'm really not feeling this game yet. Played up to the first boss (who one hitted me) and then quit. Will try again to find my way in this weekend. Pretty disappointed so far.

 

[StrongArmSteady]

Spoiler

I got a White Ring. all it seems to do is make me look like a Phantom. yay

you need to "leave" that in the birds nest, you'll get a random item for it

 

[Goodacre0081]

Parry as usual, wait for enemy to fall on their butts, and then R1.

Oh, a trick for parrying... trial and error, practice and get a feel for when is the right time to parry.

it seems very hard to do consistently. do faster weapons like daggers have smaller window to get the parry off?

 

[fedexpeon]

The trusty Claymore +10 is carrying me through endgame just like it did in DS.
Thing is so boss with backroll+thrust, and of course, the sweeeet 340 degree arc with the speed like of a 1H weapon.

 

[Grudy]

Anyone else keeps disconnecting from the EU servers?

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I still have more pages to go (this thread moves too fast) so apologies if this has been answered already, but just in case:

No Man's Wharf has some great moments.

Spoiler

- The realization that the boss room is filling with water, slowly.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa? For real? I never noticed. Got the boss on my first try too. Total pushover. That's interesting though...!

Are there no illusionary walls?

There are but you press X (or A on the 360) to trigger them now instead of attacking. There ARE some walls you need to break to reveal too, though. So if a wall looks weak, attack it.

I feel like this hasn't got a definitive answer yet, so I'm throwing it out there again. Why would one choose to use a small soapstone over a large one? I know that you apparently stay summoned for a shorter period of time or maybe for only a few kills, but when would that be an advantage? Also, why as a summoning player would I ever choose a small summon sign over a large one? I'm still pretty early in the game, and maybe it becomes more obvious later on, but it's something I'm confused by.

The reward for "duty fulfilled" as a Shade is different, gives you a smooth and silky thing so if you're farming those it can be interesting. Also sometimes I'd like to have a Shade around to help me clear some mobs while I'm revisiting areas I already explored solo, but I prefer to solo bosses and I'd feel bad dismissing a phantom, so Shades would suit me. Haven't come across any yet though...

Is anyone else kind of disappointed by the size of some of the areas in the game?

Spoiler

Heide's Tower, No Man's Wharf, Lost Bastille...

a lot of places really don't have that much branching going on.

Whaaaaa?

Spoiler

Heide's Tower

I can agree is small-ish, but

Spoiler

No Man's Wharf

is great and has tons of nooks and crannies to explore, and

Spoiler

Lost Bastille

is huge, bigger than any area in Demon's or Dark Souls. I spent the entire evening just exploring everywhere, also took me forever to understand how to reach that damn item perched up on that rampart haha (the

Spoiler

golden shield

thingy). Funnily enough I had found that illusionary wall and made the jump across the gap, but didn't think to

Spoiler

follow the narrow ledge

after that the first time. lol.

I really feel like there's nothing sorcery excels at in this game. I do dramatically less damage than all of the melee people I've done co-op with (and clerics too with their lightning spear, which does at least 3x what I'm doing), and compared to what people do in videos I've been watching, and I can take fewer hits, and can block fewer hits. I have a +4 archdrake staff, 40 INT, 15 faith. I could be convinced that it's something I'm doing wrong, but it's just really losing its luster. I'm considering starting over as some sort of melee character.

I am not a magic user so I don't know if they're any good, but in the Lost Bastille there's an NPC that sells what appears to be insanely good spells. You need to

Spoiler

beat the Sinner to get the item that unpetrifies him

, IIRC. Don't give up!

 

[Alebelly]

Traded some games and had South Park in one hand, this in the other.

So... Not having read about down grades or really watching or reading anything since last year some time. Holy shit is this game completely disappointing presentation wise. I knew the UI stuff wasn't my taste (think it looks tacky and is too cluttered and small) but I wasn't expecting it to look worse than dark souls one and frankly look low budget. The tressfx-lite on my clerics cloak is distracting, the 'argh' when I die is cring worth, the low ass textures, the massive frame hit before I even take control of the character, it's really disappointing.

Dark souls wasn't the most beautiful game but It everything felt and looked solid, so far dark souls II (lovely seascapes aside) looks like a game that hasn't had the final coat put on. 9 year old consoles I know but damn.

Hope the gameplay redeems the very poor first impression.

I was thinking the same thing, feelin disappointed, and in the beginning its pretty tough to get your bearings and figure out exactly what works and what doesn't. But if your willing to invest the time, the game absolutely redeems itself. I'm fully addicted at this point, cant get it out of my head.

 

[Randam]

Parry as usual, wait for enemy to fall on their butts, and then R1.

Oh, a trick for parrying... trial and error, practice and get a feel for when is the right time to parry.

I can parry pretty good in demon's and dark souls one but here it seems off.

And "fall on their buts"?
Do I have to wait for that to happen?

And how do parries look?
Unsatisfying like the new back"stabs"?

 

[mugwhump]

it seems very hard to do consistently. do faster weapons like daggers have smaller window to get the parry off?

Daggers actually have bigger ones iirc. In DS1 it was up to like... 9 frames? Big heavy weapons usually have smaller windows. The window is also right at the beginning.

Is there any info on what the patch does?

Hopefully I'll be playing later today (if the postman is kind) and before I snuggle down for 100% offline goodness wondered what the patch does and if I need it I guess.

I asked too, afaik nobody's even been able to guess so it can't be huge. I haven't noticed anything.

 

[Arcayne]

it seems very hard to do consistently. do faster weapons like daggers have smaller window to get the parry off?

It is definitely hard; I would only ever parry a person if I study what weapon they're using and how fast it swings. Its very unforgiving if you mess up a parry too lol. I have not yet encountered someone using a dagger or estoc/fence weapon yet in DS2, so I can't confirm. I would assume so though!


Edit: ^ Well I guess that answers that, lol.

 

[Badgerst3]

How do I toggle arrow types?

I can see my 2 types of arrows on the HUD, but have no idea how to toggle back and forth when I want to fire.

Thx.