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[jerpdoesgames]

Give you a reward based off of the opponent's soul memory. Much more than the often 400 souls you get for killing a phantom in DS3.

Soul income wasn't based on soul memory directly - only that you'd be matched with people within a few SM tiers. It still gave you a reward based on the opponent's cost to level (which it seems to do to some degree in Dark Souls 3, but seems to be massively reduced). In fact, in Dark Souls 2 it'd cap you to receive a soul amount within 40 levels of the opponent so as an invader you could be losing as much as 80,000 souls per kill. More for host/phantoms.

Dark Souls 1 was the golden age of invasion soul income simply because despite only receiving 10% of the host's soul cost to level up, you could invade a SL700+ player regardless of your level.

 

[Benzychenz]

I know level 120 is the stopping point for PVP, but will activity peak earlier than that?

I'm at level 91 now and there's nothing I desperately need. I could bump int/fth up to 30 and add some extra endurance, but it's not important.

 

[KittenMaster]

Hmm... I kind of want to run a bit of a fight club on PS4. Late at night though but the thread seems active.

I know level 120 is the stopping point for PVP, but will activity peak earlier than that?

I'm at level 91 now and there's nothing I desperately need. I could bump int/fth up to 30 and add some extra endurance, but it's not important.

I am running SL100 and I get plenty of activity (and IIRC I can match up with SL120 players as well).

 

[jerpdoesgames]

I know level 120 is the stopping point for PVP, but will activity peak earlier than that?

I'm at level 91 now and there's nothing I desperately need. I could bump int/fth up to 30 and add some extra endurance, but it's not important.

You can get a ton of sloppy chaotic invasions at lower levels - I have an invader build at SL24 on PC and it's a ton of fun and always something different. Something around SL65 is also very active.

 

[Slick Butter]

Yeah there must be so inconsistent connection problems between users with the covenants, if people really aren't ever getting invasions.
Watchdogs of Farron also appears to work perfectly fine for me, though it was fairly slow (probably because I am level 106), I was able to invade ~16 times in 2 to 3 hours to get my 10 swordgrass for the Old Wolf GS. Got 2 from Ghrus and 8 from invasions.

 

[KHlover]

I didn't realize you lose your souls when you die as an invading Mound Maker.

I just lost EIGHT MILLION SOULS. No big deal.

bahaha

It's not tied to being a mound maker, tho. Losing souls on invasions is tied to the REO.

Use REO/CREO to invade -> lose souls and need to pick up where you died

Auto-summon invasions -> don't lose souls

Red Soapstone -> don't lose souls

EDIT: At least the host should be happy with 8 Mil souls tho

 

[Benzychenz]

Hmm... I kind of want to run a bit of a fight club on PS4. Late at night though but the thread seems active.

I am running SL100 and I get plenty of activity (and IIRC I can match up with SL120 players as well).

Hmm alright, might go to 25/25 int/fth which will put me dead on SL100.

 

[Manu]

bahaha

It's not tied to being a mound maker, tho. Losing souls on invasions is tied to the REO.

Use REO/CREO to invade -> lose souls and need to pick up where you died

Auto-summon invasions -> don't lose souls

Red Soapstone -> don't lose souls

Good to know.

It really isn't a big deal though, I overleveled enough farming Concords. I didn't have anything else to buy either.

 

[Benzychenz]

So what covenants are best to farm from PvE which I can do while I'm without an internet connection?

And are all covenants 30 of the item for max rank?

 

[zswordsman]

Anybody have all rings to drop for ps4? I don't really wanna grind more covenants at high pvp :/

Benzy: well, Darkmoon is basically offline since it's super rare to get summoned, especially at higher levels.

 

[KittenMaster]

I've yet to win any 1v1 fight at Irthryll, but I've lucked out against some players after the main PVP hotspot.

Conclusion, all of the good players go to Irythill.

 

[kagamin]

I've yet to win any 1v1 fight at Irthryll, but I've lucked out against some players after the main PVP hotspot.

Conclusion, all of the good players go to Irythill.

Always go Faithfuls for easy PVP wins.

 

[theSlacker]

*ENB looks at Giant's Coal and then doesn't see that he can give it to Andre* lol

dammit Marcus

It's painful watching him play. Like from all the hype I expected him to be fully exploring and getting stuff but I've seen him just walk by ledges with chests on them and not even explore dark corners or curious map segments to check for secrets, but then to act like he's going above and beyond where he strikes obvious areas for hidden walls. Will not even look to see if a giant worm is taking damage from big ass arrows but then dies on purpose to make sure he has seen every move a boss makes.

Is this how he always is? With all the hype I assumed he would have a more thorough playstyle.

 

[KittenMaster]

Always go Faithfuls for easy PVP wins.

Covenants don't work for me at all. :/

EDIT: I wasn't looking for easy wins anyway, but still.

 

[Riposte]

Episode 29 and Episode 31 of ENB's run were pretty great watches, especially the very end of the latter. I was excited to see how he would react to it.

 

[kagamin]

Covenants don't work for me at all. :/

EDIT: I wasn't looking for easy wins anyway, but still.

Easy in that someone invaded before you and you win automatically when they finish the host.

 

[Benzychenz]

Oooh I just remembered I need to use the 5 free level ups in NG+ for the ending, so I definitely don't want to level up too high just now.

 

[takriel]

Yeah, ENB is kind of disappointing to watch sometimes. But the lore discussions are really great. He seems to be really into it.

AGS is disappointing to watch, as well. He's so slow and seems to complain about every little detail. Does he enjoy playing the game like at all? Cheer up, mate, Jesus.

Right now I'm looking forward to Kay's Let's Play the most. I hope she uploads more frequently from now on!

 

[DieNgamers]

It's painful watching him play. Like from all the hype I expected him to be fully exploring and getting stuff but I've seen him just walk by ledges with chests on them and not even explore dark corners or curious map segments to check for secrets, but then to act like he's going above and beyond where he strikes obvious areas for hidden walls. Will not even look to see if a giant worm is taking damage from big ass arrows but then dies on purpose to make sure he has seen every move a boss makes.

Is this how he always is? With all the hype I assumed he would have a more thorough playstyle.

I think he just plays the way he likes...Nothing wrong with that. I guess he did it with the other games as well...Remember, he plans to do multiple playthroughs! He probably gained the knowledge for the other games the same way.

 

[Defuser]

If you guys want to farm for mound makers I suggest not to place your sign at the Pontiff but place it at the Kiln. That way you won't run into fight clubs as often but still get some decent PvP kills.

 

[Hikami]

Just beat the final boss. That was actually fun compared to most of the final bosses from the other games.

Now that I don't mind spoiling myself.. it seems like I missed some optional bosses. Can I go back to do those right now (didn't go into NG+) or do I have to fight them in NG+?

 

[DieNgamers]

Just beat the final boss. That was actually fun compared to most of the final bosses from the other games.

Now that I don't mind spoiling myself.. it seems like I missed some optional bosses. Can I go back to do those right now (didn't go into NG+) or do I have to fight them in NG+?

You can go back! Have you found

Spoiler

Archdragon Peak

?

 

[jb1234]

Just finished the game and all the bosses/optional areas. Took 35 hours. I'm undecided on whether

Spoiler

Pontiff

or

Spoiler

Nameless King

is harder.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

question in upgrading the dual katanas (onikiri and ubadachi)

should I got crystal +10 or lightning +10???

Er, depends on your stats. If you have high int, crystal, if high faith, lightning.

If neither... sharp or refined.

Lmao this is so true. I replayed DS1 after my 2nd playthrough of 3 and it was tough going back. 3 is just way more fluid.

It's how I felt comparing Demon's Souls to Dark Souls, really. DeS is more fluid (similar to DS3).

 

[Don Draper's Hat]

My first playthrough was 100% blind and offline (no messages):

1) I missed all the NPC questlines:

- because I did Abyss Watchers/ Smouldering Lake 100% before The Cathedral so that royally fucked Anri questline (as I never went back to Catacombs after Deacons; I just teleported to Ithryll)
- Sirri? Like why would I ever go back on the Ithryll bridge after killing the beast?
- Siegward? never saw him again after Undead Settlement
- Crestfallen Knight? he just disappeared
- Darkmoon? how the fuck would I know there was a invisible bridge? I SAW the bonfire I even zoomed on it with Binocs but I thought maybe later in the game the snow would thaw (like in Eleum Loyce) and I could access the tower from ground level.
- Yuria? How the hell would I know to revisit Yoel after I die again and again?
- never even heard about Patches
- Greirat never came back
- etc.

Let's be honest the NPC quests are literally impossible to solve when playing blind and offline.

I *never* backtrack through areas that I cleaned up 100% so that's why I missed all the goddamn NPC quests.

2) I also missed the Nameless King because... fuck... how could one know to sit on that goddam carpet!

...but I found the Untended Graves on my own Thanks Blighttown Tree chest!

This pretty much sums up my first play through.

Although I did sit on that carpet. The moment I found the gesture for some reason I automatically thought of that dragon. But I didn't find Nameless King until I'd finished the game and looked up if I missed any bosses, he was the only one I missed.

In my second play through just now, Greirat will not leave. Every time I talk to him he tells me he's a petty thief and wants to scavenge, I accept but he just sits there. I've been back to him about 5 times now and nothing changes.

Patches still won't show up either.

I love the Souls games, I really do, but the sidequests do my fucking head in.

 

[Empty Space]

This was posted on Reddit it's seriously impressive what the guyis doing with the free camera. There's some serious hard reads going on. It's makes me want to actually give a pyro build a go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylIXhcVAP08&app=desktop

 

[Cannon Goose]

This was posted on Reddit it's seriously impressive what the guyis doing with the free camera. There's some serious hard reads going on. It's makes me want to actually give a pyro build a go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylIXhcVAP08&app=desktop

Free aiming spells really makes them shine, just like in Dark Souls 1.

 

[Hikami]

You can go back! Have you found

Spoiler

Archdragon Peak

?

Oh nice and nope, haven't been there.

 

[Cyborg]

Wohoo I have met NK! What an epic boss! A beast! One of the best if not the best boss in a game.

Edit: He is kicking my ass.

 

[Screaming Meat]

- Yuria? How the hell would I know to revisit Yoel after I die again and again?

I fell on to this quest line completely by accident on my blind playthrough. I just spoke to everyone whenever I went back. I think the idea is you search everywhere thoroughly, talk to as many people as possible and most of these lines fall into place.

I like how hidden these things are. The game is designed for repeat playthroughs, Back before the Internet laid everything bare in seconds, these kind of secrets would have been discovered over a much longer period of time.

 

[activatethesmile]

The world is really fucked up spatially and temporally.

For me it seems like a bit lazy and a cop-out to be honest.

It seems like all the answers for the "Why is this person here? Why is this location there?" questions can be just handwaved with "Oh the timeline is altered/fucked/weird" and that's that.

I like how hidden these things are. The game is designed for repeat playthroughs, Back before the Internet laid everything bare in seconds, these kind of secrets would have been discovered over a much longer period of time.

Sometimes I feel like the game is so obsessed with the "let's be obscure" thing to the point of highly flummoxing and just plain annoying.

 

[Screaming Meat]

Sometimes I feel like the game is so obsessed with the "let's be obscure" thing to the point of highly flummoxing and just plain annoying.

Given the state of most games these days, I appreciate something that's more ambiguous or obscure. I assume a lot of this stuff is meant to be discovered over multiple playthroughs, but people don't have the time and patience for it, which is fair enough. Plus, Internet.

The gratification I got from unraveling the Yuria quest line blind (online, mind) was similar to overcoming a particularly troublesome boss.

 

[DealWithIt]

It's painful watching him play. Like from all the hype I expected him to be fully exploring and getting stuff but I've seen him just walk by ledges with chests on them and not even explore dark corners or curious map segments to check for secrets, but then to act like he's going above and beyond where he strikes obvious areas for hidden walls. Will not even look to see if a giant worm is taking damage from big ass arrows but then dies on purpose to make sure he has seen every move a boss makes.

Is this how he always is? With all the hype I assumed he would have a more thorough playstyle.

Give him time to put it all together. Lore wise he's already been going really interesting places. Everybody misses stuff when they are 100% blind.

Also, watch his from the dark series. Really good comprehensive ds1 coverage.

 

[Hentailover]

R1 longs words are stronk with this one -_-

 

[Meccs]

I hear it's easier to get parried if you lock on, so it might be worthwhile to learn not to

So are the people that spam R1 and I still can't parry the third swing not using lock on then? Because that happens a lot.

 

[theSlacker]

I think he just plays the way he likes...Nothing wrong with that.

Well of course there is nothing wrong with that, and I'm not saying there is. Just I expected something different from the reputation he has gotten and was asking if something was different this time since this is the first of his videos that I have watched.

Sometimes I feel like the game is so obsessed with the "let's be obscure" thing to the point of highly flummoxing and just plain annoying.

That was one of my bigger issues, lore wise, with ds2. Everything was a mystery for the sake of it, or direct "hey how about this reference, wink wink nudge nudge". As opposed to the DeS and DS1 way of "there is a complete story here but there is no reason that you would be able to or should know it. Didn't play sotfs yet so don't know how much that "fixes" it.

There are a few parts like that in DS3, but it seems to come together better. Better to not go into spoiler stuff in this thread though.

 

[Benzychenz]

Holding off for the DLC to do NG+ is painful.

I finally beat NK, got all the estus upgrades, have collected all the spells/rings I can etc.

But all I want to do is play more DS3 ;_;

 

[Agent_4Seven]

My first playthrough was 100% blind and offline (no messages):

1) I missed all the NPC questlines:

- because I did Abyss Watchers/ Smouldering Lake 100% before The Cathedral so that royally fucked Anri questline (as I never went back to Catacombs after Deacons; I just teleported to Ithryll)
- Sirri? Like why would I ever go back on the Ithryll bridge after killing the beast?
- Siegward? never saw him again after Undead Settlement
- Crestfallen Knight? he just disappeared
- Darkmoon? how the fuck would I know there was a invisible bridge? I SAW the bonfire I even zoomed on it with Binocs but I thought maybe later in the game the snow would thaw (like in Eleum Loyce) and I could access the tower from ground level.
- Yuria? How the hell would I know to revisit Yoel after I die again and again?
- never even heard about Patches
- Greirat never came back
- etc.

Let's be honest the NPC quests are literally impossible to solve when playing blind and offline.

I *never* backtrack through areas that I cleaned up 100% so that's why I missed all the goddamn NPC quests.

2) I also missed the Nameless King because... fuck... how could one know to sit on that goddam carpet!

...but I found the Untended Graves on my own Thanks Blighttown Tree chest!

Yeah, side quest (and quests in general) in Souls games is absolute shit in terms of design and you can't complete them without online help or step by step guides (which is not fun btw and you don't have to read all of this shit and waste your time searching the web). Does it really that hard to make traditional quests instead of this cryptic bullcrap? Just stop if From! I know that Souls games is not a traditional RPGs but for fuck's sake From, we need quests with traditional and WAY less cryptic design to be able to complete them on our own and without wasting time.

Now, in terms of story and lore it's fine and I don't have anything against it, but quest and side quest in general are terrible in Souls games and there's no way around it.

 

[DieNgamers]

Well of course there is nothing wrong with that, and I'm not saying there is. Just I expected something different from the reputation he has gotten and was asking if something was different this time since this is the first of his videos that I have watched.

I don't know for sure but I think he always takes his time with the games. That's what he says, at least. The older videos I watched came at a time when he already wrote the guides so he was more or less going through the motions...after probably playing them 20 times, haha!

 

[theSlacker]

Give him time to put it all together. Lore wise he's already been going really interesting places. Everybody misses stuff when they are 100% blind.

Also, watch his from the dark series. Really good comprehensive ds1 coverage.

Lore wise from what I've seen it is pretty solid. It's the not fully exploring things. Something as simple as just not getting the mimic chest near the demon at the very start of Smouldering Lake because after killing the demon he just glanced up there and moved on. Or the "I will strike every wall in the dark in this one room, but I will only glance in the general direction of that corner that has a fake wall with a big ladder behind it in this other room". It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, it just is like an itch you can't scratch.

Though for lore stuff it would be great if he read more then just one piece of each armor set since they are different from time to time.

Holding off for the DLC to do NG+ is painful.

I finally beat NK, got all the estus upgrades, have collected all the spells/rings I can etc.

But all I want to do is play more DS3 ;_;

Back up that save and then continue the game normally.

 

[pa22word]

Back up that save and then continue the game normally.

Or just do a new character. The game is short as hell second time around due to the linearity, especially if you don't waste time doing multiplayer stuff. I did my second clear of the game in around 14 hours.

 

[theSlacker]

Yeah, side quest (and quests in general) in Souls games is absolute shit in terms of design and you can't complete them without online help or step by step guides (which is not fun btw and you don't have to read all of this shit and waste your time searching the web). Does it really that hard to do traditional quests instead of this cryptic bull crap? Just stop if From! I know that Souls games is not a traditional RPGs but for fuck's sake From, we need quests with traditional and WAY less cryptic design.

Now, in terms of story and lore it's fine and I don't have anything against it, but quest and side quest in general are terrible in Souls games and there's no way around it.

No, "we" really do not. If anything I'm kinda disappointed that there wasn't more hidden quest stuff that I missed. Like half of the complaints in the post you quoted were "well I never fully explored and decided that without a quest tracker and glowing icons that I should never go back to an area".

 

[pa22word]

No, "we" really do not. If anything I'm kinda disappointed that there wasn't more hidden quest stuff that I missed. Like half of the complaints in the post you quoted were "well I never fully explored and decided that without a quest tracker and glowing icons that I should never go back to an area".

Oh please, get out here with that nonsense.

You can have good quest design without making them needlessly obfuscated seemingly for the point of it. I've beaten the game 4 times already and still don't have an iron strategy down for actually making s and p show up correctly @ cathedral.

 

[MilkBeard]

Oh please, get out here with that nonsense.

You can have good quest design without making them needlessly obfuscated seemingly for the point of it. I've beaten the game 4 times already and still don't have an iron strategy down for actually making s and p show up correctly @ cathedral.

No, I agree with him for the most part. I'm actually disappointed in myself that I read about them first instead of trying to discover them on my own.

We aren't really supposed to be able to 100% the questlines on a blind playthrough. It's pretty obvious that was the intention. If you want to see the multiple endings then you have to complete several playthroughs anyway. Relying on messages and the community are what make the discovery more interesting.

I get it, people don't like not being able to 100% a game super easy. But I just see it as the developers didn't want to hold your hand in figuring it out. Makes actually finding it more rewarding.

Besides, Souls can be different. That's my opinion anyway.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Man invading the post-Pontiff area is just way too addictive...

 

[theSlacker]

Oh please, get out here with that nonsense.

You can have good quest design without making them needlessly obfuscated seemingly for the point of it. I've beaten the game 4 times already and still don't have an iron strategy down for actually making s and p show up correctly @ cathedral.

What nonsense? That something that I enjoy is being called shit and terrible because someone else does not enjoy it?

Spoiler

Triggering Patches is even easier after a recent patch that doesn't even require you to revisit the area at all. Just open the big door short cut and turn around and go to the area with the rising bridge and it will be up with patches there in Sigs armor. Sig will also be in the well as soon as you open that door now without a need to reload/reset the area.

Man invading the post-Pontiff area is just way too addictive...

Doing the covenant auto invasions? There has been something about them that has always been really fun in every souls game so far as long as they are working right.

 

[pa22word]

No, I agree with him for the most part. I'm actually disappointed in myself that I read about them first instead of trying to discover them on my own.

We aren't really supposed to be able to 100% the questlines on a blind playthrough. It's pretty obvious that was the intention. If you want to see the multiple endings then you have to complete several playthroughs anyway. Relying on messages and the community are what make the discovery more interesting.

I get it, people don't like not being able to 100% a game super easy. But I just see it as the developers didn't want to hold your hand in figuring it out. Makes actually finding it more rewarding.

Besides, Souls can be different. That's my opinion anyway.

Your opinion is nonsense, then.

Again: there is a difference between clever quest design that rewards exploration and completely unintuitive design that's obviously as bad as it is solely because of the game's linearity forcing the designers to arbitrary place and cut off things in haphazard ways to maintain linear progression.

Seigward's quest alone is one of the stupidest designed things in the series. And no, messages are not going to make up the difference, and "relying on the community" is just a cop out answer. If people are going online and wiki'ing stuff with no other way of really figuring it out, then you have bad quest design.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Doing the covenant auto invasions? There has been something about them that has always been really fun in every souls game so far as long as they are working right.

I was, at first, but I wanted to get some pale tongues, so I started using the red orbs too. It's funny when Aldrich Faithfuls or purple phantoms mistake me for the host since I always wear the untrue dark ring for Fashion Souls. xD

It's a bit annoying that your bloodstain is where you die in the host's world though... I mostly cleared my map of enemies so it's at least safe to go pick it up if I do die, but it's a little tedious. Fortunately I usually win so it's not too much of an issue. xD

 

[JustCheezze]

Yeah, side quest (and quests in general) in Souls games is absolute shit in terms of design and you can't complete them without online help or step by step guides (which is not fun btw and you don't have to read all of this shit and waste your time searching the web). Does it really that hard to make traditional quests instead of this cryptic bullcrap? Just stop if From! I know that Souls games is not a traditional RPGs but for fuck's sake From, we need quests with traditional and WAY less cryptic design to be able to complete them on our own and without wasting time.

Now, in terms of story and lore it's fine and I don't have anything against it, but quest and side quest in general are terrible in Souls games and there's no way around it.

@bolded 1
You can, but you're just not smart enough.

@bolded 2
No it's not difficult to do a traditional, hold-your-hand quests like the hundreds of JRPGs and WRPGs are already doing. But why should they? Because people like you can't figure it out?

@bolded 3
YOU need, not "we". Don't address everyone else like they're part of you.

 

[playXray]

My first playthrough was 100% blind and offline (no messages):

1) I missed all the NPC questlines:

- because I did Abyss Watchers/ Smouldering Lake 100% before The Cathedral so that royally fucked Anri questline (as I never went back to Catacombs after Deacons; I just teleported to Ithryll)
- Sirri? Like why would I ever go back on the Ithryll bridge after killing the beast?
- Siegward? never saw him again after Undead Settlement
- Crestfallen Knight? he just disappeared
- Darkmoon? how the fuck would I know there was a invisible bridge? I SAW the bonfire I even zoomed on it with Binocs but I thought maybe later in the game the snow would thaw (like in Eleum Loyce) and I could access the tower from ground level.
- Yuria? How the hell would I know to revisit Yoel after I die again and again?
- never even heard about Patches
- Greirat never came back
- etc.

Let's be honest the NPC quests are literally impossible to solve when playing blind and offline.

I *never* backtrack through areas that I cleaned up 100% so that's why I missed all the goddamn NPC quests.

2) I also missed the Nameless King because... fuck... how could one know to sit on that goddam carpet!

...but I found the Untended Graves on my own Thanks Blighttown Tree chest!

I see where you're coming from, but this is part of the charm of the Souls games. The point of this stuff is that there is a community-based approach to finding all these secrets - very similar to PT. The problem is that with the t'internets and people's desire to get everything done in one playthrough (I count myself among this group), it kinda ruins the community discovery idea. The last time we really had this was when Demon's Souls was first released - each game since then has had more and more revealed within launch day guides etc. It's a shame, but I can't really blame From for not putting everything on a plate for us.