Lumination
'enry 'ollins
I THINK there's a glitch where if you d/c while gravelorded, your map stays gravelorded until you beat the boss.
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Dark Souls |OT4| Victory achieved for Scamco, text defeated
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This, every Dark Souls player should experience a Black Phantom Skelly Dog at least once.
i agree with you. I think for a new player struggling with the game, it's best to get his very useful reward early and not have to deal with the trouble he causes, and then do the other way on NG+.
The only red phantom I've ever seen was some kind of red-black crab that shot a bunch of spikes out of his back.
PetriP-TNT
Member
Lumination
'enry 'ollins
This, and I want to experience the whole "dropped items become monsters" thing.
Cloudius12
Member
I have never seen a black phantom monster anywhere ;_;
I agree it was really cool,
even though i was stupid and used the firekeeper soul to upgrade my flask so firelink was still out
And yeah I'd love to see a gravelord event. I think FROM said they can't do events like Demons Souls though because there's no dedicated servers.
Mr_Appleby
Member
when you get to the top and head right, don't block, roll and the arrow will pass right over you.
but it's the only way to get the blood-stained set.. and you miss out on the revenge moment.. and it's not permanently messed up at all
as long as you keep a firekeeper soul and take it back to where she was
I used "Hidden Body" and it seemed to work great.
Not at all. If you do that you'll miss many interesting things.
So please stop telling him things like that and at least let him play and discover by himself. You're not realizing how much you're ruining his experience.
How much people struggle with the 4 Kings really comes down to their build and SL. I plowed through them with my faith tank. I was literally able to sit still and 2hand my claymore while chugging potions every once in a while. But with my pyro/thief, it was a nightmare. I could barely get hit or I wouldn't be able to kill each king before they started piling on.
There's also a lot of random factors, like how aggressive the additional kings are, and how often they use their AoE or grab, neither of which you can avoid other than just running away, which wastes time.
It's a weird fight, either you really really struggle with it, and just need to come back later, or you blaze through it in 1-3 tries.
That's the only bonfire in Duke's that you can't warp out of. The other ones work normally, as do invasions. you should see lots of summon signs at the next bonfire.
Lumination
'enry 'ollins
Hey, you definitely got your money's worth. Can't see why it's anything to be sorry about.
Does anyone else miss item burden? Yeah, it's so convenient to carry all you want in this game, but item burden really forced me to make some tough decisions. I remember having to drop my Brushwood armor so I could carry the Purple Flame Shield. Or the time I traded some of my starting Temple Knight armor for the Fluted set. It was very fitting to be forced to manage how much you are carrying at all times. You weren't allowed to have all of your weapon options; pick what you could carry, and hope you don't find something super rare and super heavy.
I have never seen a vagrant anywhere either.
I've only seen a vagrant once, it was on my 1st playthrough. I've never seen black phantom monsters and I've only invaded a gravelord once.
This.
I loved how it was done in Demon's Souls.
Sure you will be screwed somehow at some point the first time (Brushwood set says hi) but you learn from it and it makes you more aware of this parameter when you manage your inventory (use the herculean strength ring when you need to, never leave in your inventory more items than necessary).
That really is missing in Dark Souls. Now you put everything in your inventory and never bother.
Besides that, I will say that even the equip burden is screwed in Dark Souls. You should never be able to ninja flip with heavy sets like Giant/Havel.
In Demon Souls ninja flip didn't exist but even the normal flip was impossible with Brushwood set.
I hope From will bring back item burden in the next game and think more deeply how to balance the game.
Mortrialus
Banned
I don't.
The Metroidvenia like approach to world and level design (By almost all accounts an improvement over Demon's Souls) just would not work if exploration and finding loot was hamstrung by Item Burden.
Cartwheeling? In Heavy Armor? It's more likely than you think.
PetriP-TNT
Member
Maybe because it's more a puzzle than a boss battle!
And I agree, Item burden just wouldn't work here. I haven't played Demons Souls but this seems more loot-based game than it is.
I don't agree. You can manage your inventory at every bonfire.
As for the video you mention, I don't call that a heavy armor.
Mortrialus
Banned
You're still dealing with very different games. Demon's Souls is mostly linear with a level select. Dark Souls is a comparatively nonlinear game which is specifically built to make you want to run around and explore. It really would be like adding item burden to a game like Metroid Prime. I don't see how making "Should I backtrack to the bonfire to dump the stuff I've found" an omnipresent burden on players is going to enhance the most important aspect of Dark Souls aside from combat.
It was a joke.
PetriP-TNT
Member
I don't think so... Same network settings (same NAT, firewall settings etc.) and then one lays down a summon sign and other just quits and restarts until you end up on the same "server". Maybe that even requires booting the game? I don't know, I have never tried.
Never thought about not being on the same server. That actually makes sense. I'll try it out, thanks.
Considering i played the game for over 300 hours after I completed my first playthrough.. maybe not
There is a lot more to the game outside of one playthrough. Your character will not be able to use many weapons/spells until later on when you have leveled enough.
There are also tons of secrets that you have probably missed that are fun to go back and experience. On my current playthrough, I stumbled upon the Chaos covenant bonfire for the first time, and have fought many of the NPC black phantoms, in addition to many other odds and ends that I missed originally.
It's great in that it was very intentionally designed to offer new things upon subsequent playthroughs. Even trying out a new weapon type will change the feel of the game completely...
been struggling the last few plays. kind of wandering around to different places to see what im strong enough to do.
New Londo Ruins seems like the easiest, but i ran through about 6-8 Curse items pretty fast and didnt really get anywhere. those ghost guys can gang up on you pretty good.
Blight Town is a pain with those poison archers.
i killed the Black Knight in the Darkroot basin and got the armor set down there. then its valley of Drakes which is way too hard. take me like 5 minutes to kill one Drake.
kind of lost at the moment.
New Londo Ruins seems like the easiest, but i ran through about 6-8 Curse items pretty fast and didnt really get anywhere. those ghost guys can gang up on you pretty good.
Blight Town is a pain with those poison archers.
i killed the Black Knight in the Darkroot basin and got the armor set down there. then its valley of Drakes which is way too hard. take me like 5 minutes to kill one Drake.
kind of lost at the moment.
Blighttown is where you need to go to progress, if you have the Spider Shield, equip it and it will make Blighttown much easier. Those poison dart guys don't respawn, so it will get easier as you kill them.
great tip. thanks. didnt know they dont respawn. i do in fact have a Spider Shield.
ill head there next.
Evil eye ring can help to compensate the poison when you reach the bottom.
And I recommend to bring a crossbow and many bolts. It will be very helpful especially against some enemies in the swamp.
Finished Demon's Souls twice and I'm so hooked I jumped right into Dark. I'm starting to get the feeling this game will be... harder. Not that far in yet, but I'm already having problems with a section.
Beat the minotaur, crossed the dragon bridge and took the path underneath it. Killed the armored boar no prob, but that's about where hell starts. After the aggro zombies there's a section with some ultra-strong knights that not only sandwich you if you're not careful, but also follow you like crazy if you run. My pyromancer was doing really well so far, but this section... It's insane. His fireball can be really useful, but it's also very slow and not very reliable.
Any hints here? It's so tough that I'm thinking there's an alternate path I should be taking first, but this seems to be the only way...
Beat the minotaur, crossed the dragon bridge and took the path underneath it. Killed the armored boar no prob, but that's about where hell starts. After the aggro zombies there's a section with some ultra-strong knights that not only sandwich you if you're not careful, but also follow you like crazy if you run. My pyromancer was doing really well so far, but this section... It's insane. His fireball can be really useful, but it's also very slow and not very reliable.
Any hints here? It's so tough that I'm thinking there's an alternate path I should be taking first, but this seems to be the only way...
i just started experimenting with a crossbow now that i started using lock on. just need to stock up on bolts. thanks.
PetriP-TNT
Member
That is the right route, the hardest enemy doesn't respawn. With the regular knights, keep your shield up, dodge attack, hit once or twice, back off and repeat. Pyromancy is also good and if you can, try to sneak behind them to get the first attack. With the hardest enemy (you know when you meet him) avoid every hit he does and take it slow.
There's a bonfire nearby, try to find it.
I feel Demon's Souls is superior to Dark Souls, but that's one thing I didn't miss at all. Item burden was awful.
sloppyjoe_gamer
Gold Member
Anor londo archers...any reason why my poison arrows arent poisining them? i hit them for 8 dmg, but they never get poisoned...
Lumination
'enry 'ollins
Did you like item burden in Demon's Souls? If you didn't, then yeah, it makes sense that you wouldn't want it here either. However, I don't Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are different enough to warrant the removal of item burden, if you enjoyed it.
I don't think Dark Souls' non-linearity is that different in relation to Demon's Souls. Sure, there is the occasional shortcut exception, but for the most part, if you head in one direction, you're basically going to be "doing that level". It's not fundamentally different from the level select in Demon's Souls; they've just made more subtle.
Also, you can think of backtracking as the price you pay for picking up something heavy (which is usually something good). You can choose to continue onward, and hope you don't come across more heavy equipment, or you can play it safe. It makes finding items a harrowing decision-making event, not just strictly rewarding. Additionally, there were a few moments I recall off the top of my head when I could just bumrush past a monster, grab the item, and die. With item burden, if you're holding too many things, you wouldn't be able to pick up the new item, it would be automatically dropped, and so when you die, it would disappear forever. This eliminates that whole cheesing factor.
Yeah, I always thought the ninja flip ring should have been restricted to 25% or less burden. Basically, it should be a buff to people who already have the best roll. The way it's currently implemented, it will definitely stay the most-used ring, bordering on necessary for PvP. Unfortunately, I don't see Namco ever forking over the money to make another patch. For the most part, the current Dark Souls build is pretty well-balanced, and I think I can be content with its current state.
You have to hit them multiple times in a somewhat quick succession. Enemies have the same status effect bar that the player has, which needs to be filled before the status is applied.
Lag is a major factor, I fear. The backstab mechanic is just plain broken, though. Something is seriously wrong when players wielding zweihanders and dressed in full giant's armour do nothing but fish for backstabs.
The best tip I can give is to disengage lock-on as your opponent gets close. Then move towards him and attack. At best you'll stunlock him. If he has high enough poise to eat your attack or is lagging, hopefully it will at least cancel the backstab damage.
Also, moving as fast as your opponent helps. Don't go over 50% equip burden with DWGR or 25% without.
Mr_Appleby
Member
i've had pretty easy success with two friends, just put the sign down and if the other person doesn't see it within about a minute, replace it. it seems once you've 'connected' that way you're more likely to stay connected (at least during that game session), and the next sign drop usually shows up right away. none of the times i've tried it have i had to restart the game. different covenants too i should add.
balder has great initial stability but others upgrade further. does look good though
balder, knights, hollow knights, dragon crest/crest, silver knights & black knights are my favourite light/medium shields. the heater shield is actually pretty fair if you are weight limited. grass shield is good for the stamina boost but yeah low stability and <100 damage reduction mean it's best on the back while you two-hand a heavy weapon.
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