Yea, its a little confusing in there. I have some stuff I missed there as well and I'm not sure I'm going to worry about it much! Glad you made it and are doing well, though. The feeling of 'thriving' in this game doesn't come often.
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Dark Souls |OT4| Victory achieved for Scamco, text defeated
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Yea, its a little confusing in there. I have some stuff I missed there as well and I'm not sure I'm going to worry about it much! Glad you made it and are doing well, though. The feeling of 'thriving' in this game doesn't come often.
Go back to the Blacksmith in Undead Parish and buy some of the Key items you may have skipped before. Helping people with Iron Golem is actually pretty good soul farming if you keep yourself in level range (below 50). I would suggest buying items, spells upgrading a Pyro glove instead of leveling. That way you aren't overleveled for the next areas in the game. And, you will also be more well equipped if you upgrade your gear instead of level up a few times. It's up to you though.
Haha. I don't want to run off and dye trying to get to merchant (Other than the one in Sen's, or try to upgrade my flame. That's all a long ways away!)
Red Liquorice
Member
Good advice from Booshka, I agree to upgrade your gear rather than over-levelling. There are two shortcuts back to the bottom of the Fortress, one needs a key, the other is a couple of safe falls (as long as you have full health first of course), and then you can homebone back to the top bonfire. Carrying a lot of souls can be hazardous for your health!
I haven't got a Balder Shield yet, didn't think I had the stats for it tbh, but looking now it only needs 12 STR, I thought it needed a DEX stat too for some reason. That's my next stop, I left off at the O&S bonfire. On the subject of stats: the lack of a bow made some areas really different for me - not being able to poison Ignward from the stairs outside, the bat wing Demons in Anor Londo were a pain too without pot-shotting some of them.
Not a good idea to kill Ingward for his key anymore, anyway, unless the bug where he sometimes doesn't drop it is only in the PC version. I think you could have used a crossbow, though. I've seen videos of people manually aiming those with the help of the binoculars.
The Balder shield is the highest stability shield you can use at SL1. A real lifesafer for the first part of the O&S fight.
OK I will try this. I am debating what items to actually buy/upgrade. I am using Iachi (+9) and the Crimson gear. I have all the boxes I know of. Any suggestions?
I am up to 120k now from helping peeps?
SJRB
Gold Member
I did the same thing you did on my first playthrough, even with the same boss.
The result was a truckload of souls but also being too afraid to progress because I didn't want to lose my souls. I was basically being held hostage by my huge amount of souls and it sucked the fun out of the game.
I basically said "fuck it" and leveled my character. "Overleveled" is nonsense to me anyway.
Sen's Playhouse has a shortcut, by the way..
By shortcut, do you mean the cage down?
Yea. It takes you right near the beginning. If you haven't killed all the
Titanite Demons below the bridge where it takes you
lizard dudes
I agree with just leveling. Seems the only reason to worry about being 'over/under' leveled is for PvP stuff. You wont be overpowered for the next area, dont worry. I went into the next area at SL55 or something, I think, and still had a fight of it.
SnakeLinkSonic
Member
Red Liquorice
Member
I'm at exactly the same point, although I don't feel like giving up lol!
I just did the Great Hollow, I'm pretty sure I've missed one lizard but couldn't find where it was. I know there is one on an intersection of two branches where one goes lower than the other, it's easy to miss. Anyway thought the Hydra would be a breeze since the Darkroot one is, it killed me twice I had magic-resistent gear/shield. So I thought fuck it - 75,000 souls and 15 humanity aren't going down in a blaze of magic blasts. So I run to the dragon bonfire and leave the Hydra for later. I had NO IDEA it could follow you and jump over to the other side of Ash Lake, I shit myself and ran for that Dragon as fast as I could! ;__;
On to Demon Ruins next for the large flame ember, usually do this low level before Sen's any way, so shouldn't be a problem, only now I can do the Demon Firesage and then I'll do Dukes. The only things I'm really dreading are 4 Kings and the DLC areas which I found tough even with a normal levelled character and really haven't played much since playing it through the first time.
All I see is magic and fairy dust *_*
Marcovaldo
Member
is there a place where you can get black knight armour set?
In the final area before the end boss.
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I love how they take the concept art (left) and then do the exact same fucking thing with in game assets (right monitor). So simple, but everyone else screws it up, waters it down, messes with it.
OK, well I go have that shortcut open. I think I could probably get out (or atleast die in a "safe" zone. I am at 8 humanity and 200k+ souls. I enjoy helping people! Just sometimes takes a while to get summoned there.
I am part of the Chaos Servant Covenant, but I do not want to run all the way back there with the humanity! Stupid analysis paralysis.
2H the Eagle Shield and you'll be alright.
And you can only kindle a bonfire in human form. But yeah, that's kinda it.
Marcovaldo
Member
hmm is this a point of no return or can i go get what i want then resume whatever i was doing before?
If you beat the boss the game ends (NG+ starts). But the area before the boss is all good.
Ugh, I skipped blightown and don't want to go there just for a shield.
It should work with an upgraded Balder Shield as well. 2H it and you will be able to block the swipe attack.
With that said, Blighttown is important in a SL1 run because that shield and especially Power Within are very helpful in some situations.
Marcovaldo
Member
Continuity
Member
Going through Duke's Archive at SL1 is a refreshing experience, it's almost like Undead Burg+. The crystal soldiers tests your ability to manage your agro, Channeller's buff spell teaches you to be observant and play defensively when needed, and the multi-leveled layout forces you to play patiently and avoid arrows and spells from unseen angles. It's almost like the game saying "Oh you feel like a badass beating O&S and wearing those fancy armor? Back to basics bitch!". No gimmicks, no bullshit, just pure Dark Souls fundamentals. I love it.
I've been trying really hard to use the elevator trick to skip the first fight with Seath because I don't have a rare ring of sacrifice and I definitely don't want to be cursed. But if it comes down to it, I might just run it with maximum curse resistance and as little life as possible and hope for the best.
I've been trying really hard to use the elevator trick to skip the first fight with Seath because I don't have a rare ring of sacrifice and I definitely don't want to be cursed. But if it comes down to it, I might just run it with maximum curse resistance and as little life as possible and hope for the best.
SJRB
Gold Member
You could just go into the fight with very little health and maybe even power within, you'll die before the curse effect kicks in.
You also need to be human to invade others, as far as I know.
The big advantage is being able to summon help for boss fights, or just playing through an area with your buddy/random.
- Can kindle bonfires
- Can summon human help/NPC help
- You can get invaded by NPCs at certain points in the game. This doesn't sound like a good thing at first, but these NPCs sometimes drop items that you can't find anywhere else in the game. You can also "miss" these invader NPCs if you defeat the boss without getting invaded by these npcs first.
- You get to stare at a normal human body instead of a horribly disfigured hollow body for once.
MoonsaultSlayer
Member
The four kings are kicking my ass. Any tips? I'm SL 74 with a +3 or 4 Black Knight sword.
What specifically are you having trouble with, not enough DPS?
A quick tip is that you can still damage a King while it's in its death animation. Since the overall health bar is tied to damage taken, not specifically the maximum health of the Kings, you can finish the fight by only killing three Kings.
If you're having trouble with taking hits, try going full tank and getting Havel/Stone armour to just take the hits. They don't do much damage or stagger so you can power through attacks. It's not completely fool proof because dodging the AoE attack can be a pain. I find it easier to just roll through the attacks, trying to stay behind them though.
A quick tip is that you can still damage a King while it's in its death animation. Since the overall health bar is tied to damage taken, not specifically the maximum health of the Kings, you can finish the fight by only killing three Kings.
If you're having trouble with taking hits, try going full tank and getting Havel/Stone armour to just take the hits. They don't do much damage or stagger so you can power through attacks. It's not completely fool proof because dodging the AoE attack can be a pain. I find it easier to just roll through the attacks, trying to stay behind them though.
MoonsaultSlayer
Member
Yeah, they just drain my stamina when I block and the next hit delivers damage, I heal, leaving me vulnerable to more damage. Repeat.
When I get behind, I think I'm good but some kooky shenanigans decides I'm in the path of the swing all of a sudden.
When I get behind, I think I'm good but some kooky shenanigans decides I'm in the path of the swing all of a sudden.
It might be best to just go heavy armour/Iron Flesh and take the hit rather than lose stamina. Though I'm not quite sure how the damage works. When it does the double sweep attack, the first one usually does very little damage but the next one almost drains my health completely. Luckily the other physical attacks have limited range.
Not much advice you can get right now. It's as much a trek to wade through it as it is to head back to the start and climb trough the Depths where you are. Just take it fairly slowly, follow the torches for the ladders and watch out for the toxin dart guys. Use the spider shield if you have and if you have white moss keep it on your quick select in case you get caught out. Good luck!
Go downwards.
Seriously though, just look on Youtube for a walkthrough if its that much of a headache. Describing things in words would be a little difficult.
Sanic
Member
Yeah, i've started to do that. Problem is, i'm 30+ into BT so it's difficult to jump to where i'm at, but then also find a video that just pushes me through without any fluff. Your general "go down" advice was sorta what I was looking for, and good enough. Thanks.
I was just joking about that.
Rushing through is difficult if you dont know what you're doing and you'll also probably miss some items along the way. Best thing to do is like most things in Dark Souls - take it slow. The framerate is terrible and annoying, but its better to be patient and do it right than rush through, die a lot, and have to redo things a bunch of times. You'll probably save time in the end.
Really, just watch a walkthrough. At least then you'll be prepared for what comes up. Thats half the battle right there.
Here is a story: Watching a friend play for the first time, I noticed something quite nasty. Each and every single time he was in human form, he was invaded by douchebags with gears way ahead of what you were suppose to have at those levels. Ok, one encounter of that kind could be interesting, but no. Every single time he was in human form, someone with advanced gears invaded. And to make things better, when he tried to call for help he: got failed summonings, got killed by the invader before getting help or summoned players without proper gears to face the invaders. To make things "better" , the few times he managed to summon someone "strong" enough, he wasn't invaded.
I went home and I tried to replicate the experience, (new character following the "normal" route) and I found the same thing: If I was in human form I was getting invaded, without fail, by people with gears way ahead of the place.
Considering how rare the humanities are at the beginning of the game, If you are a new player, I think it's safe to say that it is not recommended to play in human form. Seriously, looks like there is a legion of douches hunting down new guys.
I went home and I tried to replicate the experience, (new character following the "normal" route) and I found the same thing: If I was in human form I was getting invaded, without fail, by people with gears way ahead of the place.
Considering how rare the humanities are at the beginning of the game, If you are a new player, I think it's safe to say that it is not recommended to play in human form. Seriously, looks like there is a legion of douches hunting down new guys.
SJRB
Gold Member
The "logic" of Blighttown is hidden in the torches - there's ALWAYS a torch next to a ladder, indicating a way up or down. Blighttown holds many secrets though, and the structure layout is almost maze-like.
Just keep your patience. And equip your Spider Shield.
After you've reached the bottom you should look up a video of someone speedrunning Dark Souls, it'll blow your mind haha.
Red Liquorice
Member
It's incredibly rare that I get invaded by anyone who isn't in uber-gear. Sometimes they have uber-spells and I think "wtf!.... I'm level 14 or something, how can they have dragon's breath and still be low enough to invade me?!" I still don't get the level matching of invasions, it's a mystery to me.
I think the easiest way to get humanity very early on, say if you were virgin to the game and still in Undead Burg is just to do a run of the level killing everything, you should get 1 humanity every run and a half or so. If you've knocked the ladder down from the Parish, even better as you can do a run on the rats too.
I was chillin' in the Burg yesterday after taking down 4 Kings and got invaded by people,, killing them in one shot thanks to Great Combustion + Ascended pyro flame+5, dusk crown and bellowing ring. Giving low level invaders a taste of their own medicine is incredibly gratifying, even more so knowing I got all my equipment on this run where as most of them are probably still using their BB-glitched toons.
I think there are a lot of scumbags on pc with hacked gear. I saw a video showing you how to add the Key to the Seal to your inventory by editing memory entities if you were affected by a glitch where it didn't drop. I assume people are using the same method to add whatever they want to their inventory. I don't know why they don't ban anyone from online when their stats don't match their soul level. There are a bunch of people at SL1 with all stats at 99 :/
I don't think banning people is the best answer, mainly because it won't stop the problem. The problem is GFWL, which in all honestly needs to be cut out completely, because even with zero hackers/cheaters, the netcode and online interaction will still suck. We need a total networking mod on a private server, where all kinds of competitive possibilities could open up.
Case in point, I've maybe had one or two hacker PvP issues in maybe a hundred duels. But I've had about a 30-40% consistency in netcode issues ranging from teleport backstabs (and bunches of other distance issues that arise) to constant summon fails. And a lot of those I can't be totally sure if it was someone not playing fairly, or just another netcode issue. So netcode is priority one, I've come to except hacking as a part of online MP, especially on PC. Because if the experience is consistent it's still fun with most people, if not you get Dark Souls P2P.
Frank Jaeger
Member
Prepare to die edition! LE is not worth it since you will be missing the extra stuff and would have to buy as DLC!
Completely agree, the netcode issues are easily the biggest problem I have with the pvp. (Well, the backstabbing could receive some balancing too)
And adding a small "matchmaking" (SL+Gears+etc.) to the invasion mechanism could improve the low level invasion situations and limit the problems that hacked clients bring to the table.
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