Support NeoGAF

[demosthenes]

Do Blue/Red Slabs come naturally anywhere in the game?

I think I might just give up on farming :lol

 

[corrosivefrost]

Wrong. You can only find/buy 9 Eyes of Death per NG.

You can supposedly farm them from the curse frogs, but I've killed over 50 and never seen them drop anything.

Sure, my own experience is wrong. :lol

I had 10 eyes of death before I even found Gravelord covenant. I think I have 6 extra now. And I killed Patches because I answered his question wrong, so I couldn't buy any from him, but I know he sells them.

The curse frogs in the depths were dropping them faster than the rats were dropping humanities in my game wearing the gold serpent ring with about 10 humanity.
I'm unsure why anyone would really *want* more than 10... unless for some reason your gravelord sword dance miracles scale with your covenant level. Otherwise, 10 is the most benefit you'll ever get (for great sword dance).

So it's still, IMO, better to hide your sign and reap all the souls from people getting offed. And if Patches only sells 3 eyes of death, well, that sucks, but still, that's 9+ easy cursefrog farming in the depths.

Do Blue/Red Slabs come naturally anywhere in the game?

I think I might just give up on farming :lol

There is a satanic hidden/invisible path in crystal caves that leads to a blue slab. There's a red slab somewhere in lost izalith/demonic ruins, I think. Chaos Servant supposedly drops them as (S) (as the butterflies drop the blue).

Yeah the drop rate and path gets 3 Eyes in an hour at best, and I'm not one to throw away time like that. That's not easy at all.

Granted, it's not like farming humanity off the tiny skeletons or pisaca, but I had something like 3 drops in 10 minutes when I was farming the depths for souls/humanity. When I hit the number that put me at 7 (knowing I'd get 3 in the catacombs right by the entrance), I stopped farming the frogs because it was quicker to do the run without going that deep into the depths.

But still, I managed 7 in less than a 2 hours total and I wasn't even trying.

 

[Ghost23]

Seriously the worst part of Blighttown are those stupid respwaning bugs that fly! Who thought it was a good idea to have them just infinitely spawn?

 

[ixix]

I wish he had talked about the rewards for doing all of this too. So far I've read that you only earn an Eye when the cursed enter your world and you kill them. If they die in their cursed world, then you get half of their souls. I see that repeated so much, I wonder if it comes from one of the guides.

This never made much sense, especially when it was recommended to hide your gravelord sign to keep them from invading you. If you only get Eyes from killing invaders, then you'd want it somewhere obvious, no? Some of these covenants feel like they weren't fully implemented in the game, but the ones that do have ranks are mostly focused towards acquiring the items that rank you up. I've seen one person claim that deaths of cursed players in their worlds would give you an Eye, but no confirmation on that.

A moving soul sign sounds cool, in that it might increase the chance of the sign being noticed, and avoid situations where the gravelord finds an impossible spot to drop the sign. But that picture looks like the gravelord's mark is right on top of a bonfire, doesn't it? That would imply that it doesn't move and that you only earn Eyes by invasion, since the gravelord clearly wants to be found (unless he just wants challengers or that was a test between friends).

I hope we get more clarity soon, because this covenant always intrigued me the most. It encapsulates what makes these games so different. The gravelord effectively becomes From Software and reaps the rewards of dicking over the average adventurer.

It sounds like it doesn't matter where the Gravelord drops his sign, and the fact that it moves is as much to prevent the Gravelord from camping where he dropped it and ambushing anybody who comes through as it is to prevent it from being impossible to find for the people who are cursed. Which makes sense when you think about it. When you know where an invader's coming from it's obscenely easy to set an ambush.

That explanation clears up a lot of what I'd been wondering about it. It sounds like a really interesting covenant, but the actual implementation of it is pretty naff.

 

[the_prime_mover]

ugh - last boss is frustratingly tedious - no real break in their attack to allow for a heal and they deal so much damage - as a melee character my only real option seems to be to use a spear and poke circle poke circle, but I take damage whether I block or not. The trek back to them is long enough to make it easy to put the controller down and walk away from the game - I suppose it is something that they don't drain soul levels...

The whole last 1/4 has been a tedious experience and I think I will move on to another game before attempting NG+.

 

[Beats]

Do Blue/Red Slabs come naturally anywhere in the game?

I think I might just give up on farming :lol

You can get a Red Slab in Lost Izalith. It's a bit hidden but you just take a right before the stairs that lead to the boss gate. Go down the branch, and the area to the left has a floor that

Spoiler

collapses

.

Walk slowly on the left wall, if you don't want to die, till it happens. There should be a corpse there with the slab.

 

[Zzoram]

It sounds like it doesn't matter where the Gravelord drops his sign, and the fact that it moves is as much to prevent the Gravelord from camping where he dropped it and ambushing anybody who comes through as it is to prevent it from being impossible to find for the people who are cursed. Which makes sense when you think about it. When you know where an invader's coming from it's obscenely easy to set an ambush.

That explanation clears up a lot of what I'd been wondering about it. It sounds like a really interesting covenant, but the actual implementation of it is pretty naff.

I would probably break some crates and put a gravelord sign there, hoping that it would be hidden under the crates and invisible in the other players' games lol. I guess making the sign move prevents it from staying hidden like that.

 

[Dresden]

Seriously the worst part of Blighttown are those stupid respwaning bugs that fly! Who thought it was a good idea to have them just infinitely spawn?

Throwing knives yo.

 

[Zzoram]

Throwing knives yo.

Genius!

 

[bathala]

I think Pyromancer was a great place to start.

I'll second this. I'm deprived but I'm using pyro glove and makes boss battle easy 0 deaths on couple of boss battles

Also leveling up ur pyro magic through souls is pretty good
Also, pyro u start at low level so u can start redistributing pts where u want

 

[sara_is_anxious]

don't want to make an easy joke but this game lacks 'soul' compared to Demon's, yeah graphics are better (but with some terrible unpolished areas and with some evident performance bugs, infinite drawing distance in Blighttown... lol, guess From Software already knew the RAM limitations and constraints of the PS360), yeah no loading / open world stuff, but most areas' design and mechanics are generally uninspired with a couple of exceptions (like the perfectly designed to be fun and challenging secret world you get

Spoiler

through the painting after recovering a key from you cell back in the Asylum

yet everything feels like "been there done that" but prettier (not by much, mind you) and with some new enemies that don't add much to the mix.

Also, some trophies are ridiculous / time consuming to achieve just for the sake of making them annoying, not challenging, but the worst offender is the lack of strategies to defeat the bosses? you basically block and/or roll out of the way, heal, get close, poke/hack/slash and start all over again... totally uninspired and generic. Demon's Souls' bosses have a weakness you have to find or an exploit you need to use, here is just a typical boss fight.

oh and the final 3-4 areas of the game are just rubbish, bland and geeric, seems like Form Sofware was running out of time and ideas and they threw some "leftovers" as an excuse to make the game longer and called it a day, Also the game forces you to grind or find an online partner to go through some areas....

all in all this is a more "caual"Demon's Souls but lacking in fun and level design compared to the flawless DS, maybe multiplatform development hurt and From Sofware had to cut corners here and there, a shame, was my most anticipated game of this year.

edit: long story short, this game lacks a lot of charisma compared to Demon's Souls, it hides it rather well for the first few hours, but then the flaws and downgrades are so evident you cannot help but feeling disappointed. I think I will not finish this game, I'm already bored.

 

[Ghost23]

Which stat increases pyro damage? INT?

 

[ixix]

I would probably break some crates and put a gravelord sign there, hoping that it would be hidden under the crates and invisible in the other players' games lol. I guess making the sign move prevents it from staying hidden like that.

I'd probably stick it right next to a fatal drop. Somebody starts to come through it? Firestorm.

The potential for dickery if you could control where they came through is virtually endless, really.

 

[sara_is_anxious]

Which stat increases pyro damage? INT?

some pyromancers will buff your damage if you give them some/or tons of souls of course, also you can increase the damage upgrading the "glove" using the appropiate materials.

Also joninin certain covenant will grant you acces to more powerful pyro spells, from my experience int/lvl don't affect pyro damage.

 

[drtomoe123]

Okay, I'm SL 56 and I can't get ANYONE to summon me. I've put down my stone right outside the Anor Lando boss...do other places get more summons? I haven't beaten the Anor Lando boss yet. :/

 

[Zzoram]

Okay, I'm SL 56 and I can't get ANYONE to summon me. I've put down my stone right outside the Anor Lando boss...do other places get more summons? I haven't beaten the Anor Lando boss yet. :/

That boss is usually one people get summoned to help a lot. Same with Capra demon. If nobody summons you after 5 minutes, put down a new summon sign. A new sign resets the multiplayer lobby so you might get a more busy one.

 

[corrosivefrost]

Which stat increases pyro damage? INT?

It's supposed to, but people have been saying the scaling INT on the flames doesn't work.

 

[Dresden]

Okay, I'm SL 56 and I can't get ANYONE to summon me. I've put down my stone right outside the Anor Lando boss...do other places get more summons? I haven't beaten the Anor Lando boss yet. :/

I had far more luck placing it on the bridge, people like having others help clear that area out.

 

[Ken]

So my bloodstain is in the room of the Anor Londo boss. Can I run in, recover the stain, and use a homeward bone to get out?

 

[def sim]

Which stat increases pyro damage? INT?

INT only scales the pyro flame's melee attack. So it's useless.

 

[Zzoram]

It's supposed to, but people have been saying the scaling INT on the flames doesn't work.

The INT scaling on a pyro flame is for the R2 melee attack, not spells.

 

[Soma]

lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2tDxDjs_D9c

 

[jersoc]

Okay, I'm SL 56 and I can't get ANYONE to summon me. I've put down my stone right outside the Anor Lando boss...do other places get more summons? I haven't beaten the Anor Lando boss yet. :/

i got about 4 summons for the golem boss before anor londo today too and i'm SL 53.

 

[Zzoram]

So my bloodstain is in the room of the Anor Londo boss. Can I run in, recover the stain, and use a homeward bone to get out?

I don't know about a homeward bone, but if you can live long enough to use the menu Quit Game, it'll save and exit and when you load you'll be just before the boss fog.

The problem is you may die while trying to get to it in the menu.

Homeward Bone is possibly worse, I think the animation gives them quite a bit of time to kill you, if it even lets you use one. It's a matter of luck I think.

 

[Joei]

People say they kill the Boar with the fire? That's interesting, I've never tried that. He's actually pretty easy with just a bow and arrow. A short bow and about 50-60 standard arrows are enough. You don't even need much dex, I either had what the Warrior started with or maybe I had to increase a level to equip the bow, I dunno. I just stood where the two soldiers who shoot arrows are and took him out.

 

[RyanDG]

So my bloodstain is in the room of the Anor Londo boss. Can I run in, recover the stain, and use a homeward bone to get out?

If you are quick enough yep.

 

[iconoclast]

Ugh, 1.04 can't come soon enough. There are so so many TWoP users online, it's almost sad. Plus almost every I invade is using the fog ring, though that's not too bad.

 

[Dresden]

People say they kill the Boar with the fire? That's interesting, I've never tried that. He's actually pretty easy with just a bow and arrow. A short bow and about 50-60 standard arrows are enough. You don't even need much dex, I either had what the Warrior started with or maybe I had to increase a level to equip the bow, I dunno. I just stood where the two soldiers who shoot arrows are and took him out.

The downside with firing fifty arrows is that you need to fire fifty arrows.

Really, they even give you the alluring skulls or whatever right above the boar and the bonfire, it's meant to do that.

 

[Ken]

I don't know about a homeward bone, but if you can live long enough to use the menu Quit Game, it'll save and exit and when you load you'll be just before the boss fog.

The problem is you may die while trying to get to it in the menu.

Homeward Bone is possibly worse, I think the animation gives them quite a bit of time to kill you, if it even lets you use one. It's a matter of luck I think.

Never used the bone but I figured it would have some long animation; guess I'll try to win wihout Solaire.

 

[scy]

It's supposed to, but people have been saying the scaling INT on the flames doesn't work.

I don't think it's supposed to; it scales with the Pyromancer Flame's level. Which makes sense since it's also the only spell "weapon" that is capable of being upgraded. It gets the appropriate Magic Adjust on it from that. The high-end Pyromancer spells do a rather obscene amount of damage that falls in line with the other spells (1000-ish or more still). If INT scaled with it, it'd easily do far more than Sorcery spells.

Do keep in mind that Sorcery spells (and Faith spells) themselves do not scale with INT or Faith; they scale with the Magic Adjust of their Catalyst/Talisman which scales with INT/Faith.

People say they kill the Boar with the fire? That's interesting, I've never tried that. He's actually pretty easy with just a bow and arrow.

Fire is an easy way to get the head damage needed to get the Fang Helm from it, though, so that's a rather nice advantage of this method as well.

 

[K' Dash]

45 hours and I'm not even finished with Anor Londo, in fact, I'm not even out of the Painted World of Ariamis, lol.

By the way, this game HATES melee chars with PASSION, I only find spells and pyromancies that sound fucking great, but God forbid I find a decent piece of armor or a good weapon...

I had to cheese the undead dragon in the painted world because I had NOTHING to throw at him, shit's just wrong...

Aside from that I'm loving every minute

 

[NervousXtian]

For the Tomb of the Giants I can see how the

Spoiler

complete darkness

can be a problem, but once I got something that let me see it played like a "normal" level. Could you explain exactly what was annoying, and frustrating with the tomb, and the cave? I think the only really bad end game level is Lost Izalith. The rest aren't as good as the first half but they aren't terrible.

It was a gimmick level, so was Crystal.. and Lost had a gimmick boss. They weren't well designed overall, definitely not on the same level as undead Berg/Parish, Sen's, Anor Londo, or fuck even Blightown.

Think of it this way, how cool was it when you got to the Red Dragon, then found the ladder to drop to that bonfire in Undead? It was awesome. How awesome was the elevator in the Parish back to Firelink? How bout the back way from the Depths up to Berg to Firelink? Well, fuck all that in the last levels.. they lost all that magic feeling.

Hell, remember the 1st time you went to Valley of the Drakes.. and you're like.. can't wait to come back here and explore.. and then you find out.. it's pretty much a non-area? That sums up the last 3rd of the game.

I still loved it, but I wish they kept that same level of design they put into the 1st 1/2 of the game.

 

[RyanDG]

So... New Game+... Do you have to rejoin your covenant before you can start using their 'toys'? I've had the longest spell I've ever had when it comes to being summoned by the Darkmoon ring... Usually I get in there pretty quick and I went nearly an hour this evening without a summon.

Didn't experience this on my second playthrough since I started a new character altogether.

 

[Joei]

The downside with firing fifty arrows is that you need to fire fifty arrows.

Really, they even give you the alluring skulls or whatever right above the boar and the bonfire, it's meant to do that.

Very true, I've never really used those before, but you're right: something taking 2 seconds is a lot better than something taking 2 minutes.

 

[Rubashov]

I'd probably stick it right next to a fatal drop. Somebody starts to come through it? Firestorm.

The potential for dickery if you could control where they came through is virtually endless, really.

Hell, you could find a spot that required an impossible jump and drop it there too. Endless grief. I don't know how some people drop messages in some crazy spots, but I'm usually too afraid to start jumping around and find out.

Maybe the sign teleports around to certain locations in the area. That picture had it perfectly on top of the bonfire, so I doubt it creeps around on the floor, if it moves at all.

As to the question of why you would want any Eyes of Death in the first place, why does anyone want the Souvenirs or Sunlight Medals? There may not be leaderboards for every covenant, but it's still about the experience. Besides, the Eyes are used to invoke the curse, so you could get to a point where you have to go farm some to even participate.

 

[Warnen]

I got the boar helmet from stabbing its butt. Didn't get the weapon from the bull demon if that matters any.

 

[QueenOfThorns]

I see like 800 summon signs in Andor Lando, but every time I try to summon someone it fails.

 

[K' Dash]

just for fun, a couple of days ago I saw a bloodstain of someone jumping inside the water well in firelink shrine, it was interesting.

 

[Zzoram]

I see like 800 summon signs in Andor Lando, but every time I try to summon someone it fails.

Make sure you are NAT 2. That seems to have the most success with online in this game.

just for fun, a couple of days ago I saw a bloodstain of someone jumping inside the water well in firelink shrine, it was interesting.

People always put signs there telling people to jump in, so it's no wonder someone tried.

 

[Rubashov]

just for fun, a couple of days ago I saw a bloodstain of someone jumping inside the water well in firelink shrine, it was interesting.

Awesome. They were probably tempted by messages in the area. I've seen a couple suggesting that I jump down there.

 

[bart jr]

I just had my first "I hate this game(but still love it)" moment fighting

Spoiler

Ornstein & Smough

.

I am in human form and get Soltaire to help me take out the two guys outside the room easily. We pass the fog, and I just so happen to take on fatty while Soltaire gets the other. I take my guy out, but Soltaire dies before he can take out the other. Two hits and I take 'em out...or so I thought. It goes into beast-mode and annihilates me.

Ok, no biggie, it was my first time. I don't have another humanity so I brave the next round alone. I get in there, take

Spoiler

Smough

out rather quickly with Pyromancy, and then once again get destroyed after the transformation. The next try(as well as the following six tries) end with me dying in about 30 seconds of being in the room.

Usually I'm pretty good about being accountable for my deaths and realizing I was either being too hasty or reckless, but there were times

Spoiler

Ornstein

would hit me and I couldn't help but call out BULLSHIT.

 

[sara_is_anxious]

People say they kill the Boar with the fire? That's interesting.

interesting? that's pretty obvious, you're given an item to "attract" enemies to certain spots, to your surprise there's a mini-boss and some fire around you, 1+1=2, I immediately placed the skull thing near the fire and the creature suicided and left a nice helmet for me as a souvenir, I didn't know you had to do that to get it, until now I thought it was the standard drop. Whatever, I'm finished with this game, I think I'll play through Demon's Souls again to forget about this disappointing "sequel".

 

[def sim]

just for fun, a couple of days ago I saw a bloodstain of someone jumping inside the water well in firelink shrine, it was interesting.

Possibly me. I thought that maybe something was in there.

edit: there was no sign encouraging me. it was totally my poor decision making skills at work

 

[Zzoram]

I beat Anor Lando boss despite being trapped in a corner for 30 seconds!

I have no idea how I survived that honestly, I thought I was dead any moment but somehow I managed to block hits and some of their attacks didn't seem to hit me, and I finally managed to roll out and backpedal + soul arrow to success.

 

[Zzoram]

Possibly me. I thought that maybe something was in there.

edit: there was no sign encouraging me. it was totally my poor decision making skills at work

Sometimes you'll get that feeling and there WILL be something where you decided to jump.

 

[scy]

Usually I'm pretty good about being accountable for my deaths and realizing I was either being too hasty or reckless, but there were times

Spoiler

Ornstein

would hit me and I couldn't help but call out BULLSHIT.

God, my first time vs this was an afternoon of frustration and absurdity. At the start of the fight,

Spoiler

Ornstein RNGs his first attack, though I always assume it's his quick step into a lunge so I just block and go right. Just stay moving a lot in circles until you can get Ornstein to be positioned badly (i.e., behind Smough) and then approach to let Smough whiff on a wide swing or, ideally, his jump. Poke a bit and then retreat. Repeat until Smough dies. He doesn't take as much as you'd expect for him to go down.

As for the second half of the fight,

Spoiler

Ornstein can be fully blocked, though you'll want to avoid his Lightning shots. Do be wary of how his impale works since you can release the block while he's still in the lunge and the second half of the attack can still catch you. Besides that, just stay close enough to bait his normal swing combo, get in close and attack. Back away out of range and repeat.

If you're aiming for the reverse order, I have nothing to say; I haven't tried it yet, lol.

 

[bathala]

INT does add some dmg to ur pyro spell.

I was at Anor Londo when I was fighting the boss and dealing 589 dmg.
Increased my INT by a pt and a jump to 30-40 dmg

 

[Insaniac]

been farming twinkling titanite from the clams, got about 12 or so, but 60 some purging stones which "sell" for 1000 souls, not bad! (410 item discovery with ring, didn't go higher when I got more humanity though)

 

[corrosivefrost]

Huh, what the fuck? Mimics in Duke's Archive and Crystal Cave area don't drop symbol of avarice? Sonofabitch, I wasted 31 humanity for no fucking reason! >_<

Are there a decent number of mimics in demon ruins/lost izalith?

been farming twinkling titanite from the clams, got about 12 or so, but 60 some purging stones which "sell" for 1000 souls, not bad! (410 item discovery with ring, didn't go higher when I got more humanity though)

410 is max.
if you were at 30 humanity in the counter, adding more won't bump it.

 

[scy]

INT does add some dmg to ur pyro spell.

I was at Anor Londo when I was fighting the boss and dealing 589 dmg.
Increased my INT by a pt and a jump to 30-40 dmg

I created a test character to test 8 INT vs 50 INT with no increase of damage; many others on GameFAQs have tested this to the same conclusion. You sure you didn't get a better timed hit? +1 INT doesn't equate to +30-40 damage for any of the spell types anyway so that's a rather bizarre damage increase anyway.

Easy way to test it is to raise your INT and check the Magic Adjust of the Pyromancy Flame. That is the stat that all spell damage is based off of, not your actual INT/Faith. It doesn't change.

Though, there's some JP testing showing that _DEX_ does decrease cast time, though it seems to be minimal (something like shaving off under half a second with 99 DEX vs 24 DEX?). I'm not thoroughly convinced yet, though, but ... I guess it's worth a mention.