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[Alo81]

Alright so I just shared this story on Reddit and remembering how awesome it felt, I thought I should share it here too.

I was playing through the DLC and I was sitting at the typical PVP spot and invading.

I had been doing the usual stuff, bow to the opponent then battle.

So I invade a guys world, he waits for me to bow and as soon as I do he runs up and back stabs me and his friend runs up and they both kill me.

Alright cool, this dude isn't looking for a fair fight - now I know.

So I'm invading again and I enter his world but he's gone. I start running up to try and catch up to them. I walk through a door way right before the whole corrupted cave and they're both sitting on opposing sides and simultaneously great combustion me and I die instantly.

Hey! Pretty sneaky! I dig it! But they had to pay for it.

So! I get to invade them again and start sprinting through. I'm looking all over and can't find them, but then I see I think their damage numbers? right by the boss door.

I sprinted full speed, jumped off, and right as the host was healing, I did a falling attack and killed the host right before he could finish his Estus and walk into the boss door. His summon was caught completely off guard too and didn't even get a chance to react.

That was some of the sweetest revenge I've ever enacted.

Don't fuck with Darkmoons.​

 

[Robert J. Sullivan]

Picked the game during the Amazon sale, I'm going to start playing as soon as I finish Hard Reset.
Is there anything important I should know before playing the game (aside from DSFix/DSCFix) ? Demon's Souls had this fishy world tendency stuff (which didn't matter in the end because I kept getting wrecked at that spider boss D.

 

[Divius]

Picked the game during the Amazon sale, I'm going to start playing as soon as I finish Hard Reset.
Is there anything important I should know before playing the game (aside from DSFix/DSCFix) ? Demon's Souls had this fishy world tendency stuff (which didn't matter in the end because I kept getting wrecked at that spider boss D.

Prepare to die

 

[Red Liquorice]

Picked the game during the Amazon sale, I'm going to start playing as soon as I finish Hard Reset.
Is there anything important I should know before playing the game (aside from DSFix/DSCFix) ? Demon's Souls had this fishy world tendency stuff (which didn't matter in the end because I kept getting wrecked at that spider boss D.

There's nothing like world tendencies in Dark Souls. The closest are the few NPC invaders which you can miss if you are not in human form, they drop unique loot so you'll want to kill them before killing the area boss (which stops all invasions in that area), they're all pretty weak and easy to kill.

Other that, just general advice same as Demon's like playing cautious not rushing in, upgrade your weapon it's more important than levelling up, and praise the Sun!

 

[Robert J. Sullivan]

Thanks !

 

[eot]

Picked the game during the Amazon sale, I'm going to start playing as soon as I finish Hard Reset.
Is there anything important I should know before playing the game (aside from DSFix/DSCFix) ? Demon's Souls had this fishy world tendency stuff (which didn't matter in the end because I kept getting wrecked at that spider boss D.

There's nothing like that and it's actually pretty hard to fuck yourself in the game. Even if you kill the most critical NPCs you can still adapt to the situation. I would just say be attentive, talk to all the NPCs, read item descriptions (especially for stuff like keys) and explore a lot (it pays to be curious!).

 

[Morrigan Stark]

The design works artbook is coming to US
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1926778898/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Awesome, so getting that. What's with the affiliate tag in the URL though?

 

[Sullichin]

Awesome, so getting that. What's with the affiliate tag in the URL though?

I copied it from twitter

I asked the publisher on twitter when it's coming out - January.

 

[killertofu]

I've been playing for the last couple of days...around 25 hours (I've started the game three times but this is my first time on PC)

So beautiful. So fluid. The soul still burns.

Before I would use the fury sword but I've been rocking the huge black knight sword for a while. Just demolishing everything.

 

[daedalius]

Woo finally finished the game + DLC for the first time.

Ready for Dark Souls 2.

Pillar dancing on the final boss was kind of dumb, but his triple combo swing literally depleted my entire stam bar from blocking.

The design works artbook is coming to US
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1926778898/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Must have!

 

[Kard8p3]

Had DS for the 360, saw prepare to die on steam for like 6 bucks, instantly grabbed. Been forever since I played it and I can't remember jack.

What's one of the better builds to go towards? Any indepth info would definitely be amazing lol.

 

[eot]

I hope From says something about GFWL soon, the game being unplayable on PC would be a damn shame. I'd happily kickstart a steamworks "port" if that's what it takes.

Also (spoilers), really cool map of the game:
http://holdxtodie.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/lordran.jpg

 

[Altazor]

I hope From says something about GFWL soon, the game being unplayable on PC would be a damn shame. I'd happily kickstart a steamworks "port" if that's what it takes.

Also (spoilers), really cool map of the game:
http://holdxtodie.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/lordran.jpg

I've always loved how you can see pretty much the entire first 2 levels of the game in that map. The Undead Burg + Parish area is so well designed.

 

[Divius]

Started my lvl1 run today.

A kind phantom gave me some stuff to get me going, pretty sweet.

Beat Taurus + Capra, got the large ember, freed Laurentius, bought combustion and upgraded my glove to +9. Ready to rock and roll.

 

[eot]

I ran into a stange thing in the painted world today. It image looks like shit because I had to brighten it a bit:

If you look closely you see something that's not supposed to be there!

 

[Red Liquorice]

One of the Phalanx enemies? I've had them follow me and drop down there too, kinda spooky!

 

[eot]

Started my lvl1 run today.

A kind phantom gave me some stuff to get me going, pretty sweet.

Beat Taurus + Capra, got the large ember, freed Laurentius, bought combustion and upgraded my glove to +9. Ready to rock and roll.

Good luck
I literally just finished my run. I'd never tried parrying g-man before so I don't feel too bad about it. Had a funny attempt early on where I was sure I'd killed him so I stopped attacking to take a screenshot haha.

A few tips: get the light crossbow and upgrade it to +14/15, not elemental (it's borderline essential for Kalameet). Get the Crown of Dusk and Bellowing Dragoncrest ring asap if you want to use pyro on bosses. I also found it useful to get the large flame ember before the lordvessel so you can get a decent fire weapon for O&S. You can get red chunks in the great hollow.

One of the Phalanx enemies? I've had them follow me and drop down there too, kinda spooky!

Yup, kinda weird.

 

[SiegfriedFM]

I noticed some interesting stats on the PS4 trophy screen. Only 88.9% have reached Lordran. 64.8% kill the gargoyles. About 40% make it past the lord souls and most of those then kill Gwyn.

This is just the PAL PS3 version, but it's interesting to see. And that's still a rather big percentage that complete the game. Only about 20% finished Demon's Souls, and even something like Lego Lord of the Rings (that basically plays itself) only has 47% actually complete it.

 

[Creamium]

I noticed some interesting stats on the PS4 trophy screen. Only 88.9% have reached Lordran. 64.8% kill the gargoyles. About 40% make it past the lord souls and most of those then kill Gwyn.

This is just the PAL PS3 version, but it's interesting to see. And that's still a rather big percentage that complete the game. Only about 20% finished Demon's Souls, and even something like Lego Lord of the Rings (that basically plays itself) only has 47% actually complete it.

Wait, wait. That percentage thing also works for PS3 games? That's awesome. Can you also look at percentages for games you don't own?

40% past lord souls is way higher than I expected. I guess most who buy this know what they're in for and are determined enough to beat it.

 

[ArynCrinn]

Question, I usually do this during any big Dark Souls sale, but wanted to get the community opinion.

Should I roll my SL1 Darkwraith twink and batter fellow churchgoers, or do strictly co-op and PvP in the Burg/Township. I usually just constantly Red Eye Orb and smash new players around the church for fun all day, but I guess I could just help out with the Gargoyles. Only problem is, with my gear and experience the Gargoyles are usually dead before the host really knows what happened. ;\

 

[eot]

If you want to invade first time players from the steam sale, I think you should do goofy stuff like full Xanthous set and falling on your ass with the pitchfork R2.

 

[Soulhouf]

If you want to invade first time players from the steam sale, I think you should do goofy stuff like full Xanthous set and falling on your ass with the pitchfork R2.

Yes, that will scare them much more and leave a stronger impression.

 

[Divius]

Good luck A few tips:

Hey thanks for the advice man

Just played some more:
- Quelaag + Gargoyles went down without any trouble
- Did some farming + some co-op
- Upgraded my flame to +12, got some spells
- joined the chaos covenant (for the chaos fireball), joined the sunbro covenant (for the gesture)
- Got the bellowing dragon ring

next time: moonlight butterfly, hydra + golems (to get crown of dusk) and then I'm off to Sif.

I helped some people in the undead burg and a bunch of them got invaded by super OP dickwraiths, even together we could not take them on

 

[eot]

Thats nice progress! Queelag took a few tries for me.
I got the chaos fireball too but I ended up not using it much because it takes up two attunement slots, which is all you've got unless you put that ring on. Great Combustion ended up being the most useful, mainly because it casts quickly. If you can be bothered to go back for it I suggesting picking up Power Within down in blighttown as well. You might not use it, but it's nice to have the option to go crazy glass cannon RTSR + PW.

 

[Divius]

I've yet to do blighttown and the dephts (took the alternate route) but I will definitely grab it when I go down there.

 

[Altazor]

Altazor's Mage Adventures in Lordran - The Succint Edition: The Abyss also gazes into you

The worst is finally, FINALLY over. Well, not really, I still have that stupid Bed of Chaos fight, but still...

Kalameet is finally dead. So is that horrible Primeval Human.

And I don't feel ashamed to admit that I had to grind a bit to boost my INT. And, in the end, I still died time and time and time again in both battles, so it's not like I cheesed those guys and beat them cheating. It was still hard work. And countless "YOU DIED" screens.

I beat Manus first. Took me a while - I still have trouble roll-dodging. Especially THAT dark magic attack, the one with the dark orbs surrounding the arena and slowly traveling inward. I never managed to get the timing quite right. Still, the Silver Pendant was useful a couple of times, I managed to deflect the "dark rain" TWICE with it. Feels good.

Kalameet, on the other hand... I tried to take him out yesterday and failed. But I decided I would use Power Within to boost my Soul Spears, and that worked. It still wasn't enough, of course, but I managed to deal pretty decent damage before dying so... it wasn't a lost cause. Then I realized I was finally able to "learn" Crystal Soul Spear and so I bought it.

Fought Kalameet with it. Power Within + the CSS did between 700 and 900 damage with each hit. More than enough - considering I had 8 "normal" Soul Spears to use alongside. My first try ended abruptly. My second one was much more successful - I actually managed to beat him within an inch of his life. I was, literally, one attack away from victory.

And, of course, I got killed.

Third try wasn't as good. Got careless, suffered the telekinesis grab and then a fireblast ended my Mage's life. And then... the fourth try. It went pretty much perfect. 4 Crystal Soul Spears and a couple of normal Soul Spears and the dragon was no more.

I died countless times and all I got was a lousy Calamity Ring. And a nice number of souls, too... but still. I just felt relief.

The journey's almost over.

 

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Dammit I went into the giant painting and I must be too level or something, I am getting destroyed by the raven-headed enemies and swollen-fireballs too, don't think I can leave this place until I clear it either.

 

[Laurentius]

Dammit I went into the giant painting and I must be too level or something, I am getting destroyed by the raven-headed enemies and swollen-fireballs too, don't think I can leave this place until I clear it either.

Yeah, it doesn't let you warp out until you get through it. There's some shortcuts you can take that make it a lot easier,

Spoiler

and the boss is optional

.

Also, do you have any fire weapons? If so, kill the bloated hollows with that. If you kill them with fire you don't get Toxic.

 

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Yeah, it doesn't let you warp out until you get through it. There's some shortcuts you can take that make it a lot easier,

Spoiler

and the boss is optional

.

Also, do you have any fire weapons? If so, kill the bloated hollows with that. If you kill them with fire you don't get Toxic.

No fire weapons, but using my spear I at least have a little distance when they die. I'm having the biggest trouble with the crow demons, they keep attacking in pairs and I'm having a hell of a time evading their "jump on my back and peck my face off" instant kill attack.

 

[eot]

I made an Ornstein cosplay character and then spent like 2 hours trying to get summoned without any luck :| was hoping with the Steam sale that it would go smoother. At least I got to look cool while farming humanity.

I beat Manus first. Took me a while - I still have trouble roll-dodging. Especially THAT dark magic attack, the one with the dark orbs surrounding the arena and slowly traveling inward. I never managed to get the timing quite right.

If you sprint towards him you don't need to dodge or use the pendant. The projectiles stop before they hit Manus so there's a safe zone around him.

 

[Calibus]

NeoGAF's favorite YouTuber, PewDiePie

Spoiler

/s

,just started playing Dark Souls.

The results are the trainwreck you'd expect them to be.

http://youtu.be/Y6mO4n_A6Dc

 

[Laurentius]

No fire weapons, but using my spear I at least have a little distance when they die. I'm having the biggest trouble with the crow demons, they keep attacking in pairs and I'm having a hell of a time evading their "jump on my back and peck my face off" instant kill attack.

Yeah, they can be pretty tricky. There are a few routes through The Painted World that avoid most of them. If you can find it, then things should be easier, and you can come back later when you're stronger to get the cool loot you might have missed.

 

[Altazor]

If you sprint towards him you don't need to dodge or use the pendant. The projectiles stop before they hit Manus so there's a safe zone around him.

whoa, I never knew that. Thanks for the advice! I'll keep that in mind when I eventually reach the fucker in NG+

Also, a small update: I'm trying to farm a Blue Titanite Slab but so far, no luck. Fucking Butterflies don't drop anything sometimes, argh.

 

[Red Liquorice]

No fire weapons, but using my spear I at least have a little distance when they die. I'm having the biggest trouble with the crow demons, they keep attacking in pairs and I'm having a hell of a time evading their "jump on my back and peck my face off" instant kill attack.

Mash the attack buttons to get you out of their grab a little quicker (also works with other grabs like mimic, darkroot tree enemies).

They are annoying when there's more than one, but a decent weapon 2-handed should slay them in 3-4 hits, they stagger pretty easy.

You can also reduce their numbers by going up to the earliest encounter with them, not far from the bonfire where you drop down to get the dried finger, trigger the first two by walking over on the roof to where the item was/is - Then after dealing with the first two, use a bow to hit the other two across the distance (the area where the vow of silence miracle is) and they will come over to you. It gets rid of two of them from across the way at least - sometimes I roll off the steps by accident over where they are originally because of lock on spaz out.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

whoa, I never knew that. Thanks for the advice! I'll keep that in mind when I eventually reach the fucker in NG+

Also, a small update: I'm trying to farm a Blue Titanite Slab but so far, no luck. Fucking Butterflies don't drop anything sometimes, argh.

Why farm? The game gives you two free ones, do you really need a 3rd magic/enchanted weapon?

 

[2AdEPT]

No fire weapons, but using my spear I at least have a little distance when they die. I'm having the biggest trouble with the crow demons, they keep attacking in pairs and I'm having a hell of a time evading their "jump on my back and peck my face off" instant kill attack.

You can bait them over to the first tower with pharis bow (or other bow with hawk ring) and arrows ...the first two will be easy to separate by aggroing one to follow you and then retreating down the stairs. I farmed theses bastards at low level so i could do low level darkmoon stuff and eventually learned how to fight them one on one (dodge forward to avoid them landing on your head.)

 

[SeventhSon]

How do the regions in Dark Souls work? I bought the UK version of Prepare to Die Edition because I wanted to have the DLC on a disc, since Bamco never released it in NA.

I've been playing online in Dark Souls for the time since trying on the PC, which because of GFWL, never worked right. Am I playing with worldwide players, players from my region, or from the region the game was published in?

 

[Altazor]

Why farm? The game gives you two free ones, do you really need a 3rd magic/enchanted weapon?

yeah, I realized that during a break. I guess I'll just do BoC and then who knows.

Yesterday I did a bit of Izalith. Siegmeyer decided to off himself. Sad end

Spoiler

though it's kind of a better ending than being mercy-killed by your own daughter

.

The only thing I know is that this run took me at least 70 hours less than my previous one. Yes, that much. I only have BoC and Gwyn left and... well, it has been a fun ride so far.

 

[Soulhouf]

How do the regions in Dark Souls work? I bought the UK version of Prepare to Die Edition because I wanted to have the DLC on a disc, since Bamco never released it in NA.

I've been playing online in Dark Souls for the time since trying on the PC, which because of GFWL, never worked right. Am I playing with worldwide players, players from my region, or from the region the game was published in?

It's "worldwide" per system.
360 and PC have access to NA and EUR and PS3 adds the Japanese version on top of that (the only version released in Japan).

 

[eot]

Is Gaping Dragon's cutscene pre-rendered? I think it looks artifacty but maybe it's just my computer.

 

[SeventhSon]

Speaking of Gaping Dragon, I was co-oping last night in the Depths, and fighting Gaping Dragon has a very poor framerate. In fact, a lot of what I've experienced on PS3 seems to have more framerate problems than what I remember from the Xbox 360 version. Is this accurate?

 

[Booshka]

Speaking of Gaping Dragon, I was co-oping last night in the Depths, and fighting Gaping Dragon has a very poor framerate. In fact, a lot of what I've experienced on PS3 seems to have more framerate problems than what I remember from the Xbox 360 version. Is this accurate?

I've come to the conclusion that is an online issue with PS3, if you have player phantoms in your world, invaders or white summons, the framerate is much worse and in some areas is nearly unplayable. Which is why I spend most of my time playing online on the 360 version of the game. Still a decent player base and far better performance in online sessions. PS3 is really terrible for PvP and co-op because the framerate tanks to the teens and worse very often.

If it is just one phantom, like a 1v1 duel then the framerate is usually decent, but if there is a lot of stuff going on and with multiple phantoms, the framerate will hover around 15, top out at like 20, and dip to single digits every so often.

Demon's Souls on the other hand runs very smoothly in comparison, even with a full game of players and tons of shit going on, the game runs much smoother.

 

[SeventhSon]

I've come to the conclusion that is an online issue with PS3, if you have player phantoms in your world, invaders or white summons, the framerate is much worse and in some areas is nearly unplayable. Which is why I spend most of my time playing online on the 360 version of the game. Still a decent player base and far better performance in online sessions. PS3 is really terrible for PvP and co-op because the framerate tanks to the teens and worse very often.

If it is just one phantom, like a 1v1 duel then the framerate is usually decent, but if there is a lot of stuff going on and with multiple phantoms, the framerate will hover around 15, top out at like 20, and dip to single digits every so often.

Demon's Souls on the other hand runs very smoothly in comparison, even with a full game of players and tons of shit going on, the game runs much smoother.

Yeah, Demon's Souls runs way better, so I wasn't sure if it was just something about dedicated server versus p2p. I didn't play the Xbox 360 version online so I didn't have a comparison to make there, except that I didn't remember many framerate problems outside of Blighttown. Even without phantoms, it seems like the PS3 version hits more framerate issues, too.

 

[Chinbo37]

Thinking about this game next, which version should I get, PC or ps3?


Also what will happen after gfwl shuts down?

 

[Alric]

Thinking about this game next, which version should I get, PC or ps3?


Also what will happen after gfwl shuts down?

PC version without a doubt as long as you can run it. Get the DSFIX immediately and as for if GFWL shuts down. Praise whatever god you worship for his kindness in doing so. If we are lucky though maybe it'll switch over to steam achievements and a better server.

 

[Gazoinks]

I did my sacred duty and got a friend into this game. As a result I've gone back after a while. Initially started using greatswords, but I decided I've done that too much so I've restarted as a duelist (dex and rapiers, maybe some int for Velka's) build. I've done the beginning of this game so many times, it's kind of ridiculous how efficient I've become at it.

 

[Laurentius]

I did my sacred duty and got a friend into this game. As a result I've gone back after a while. Initially started using greatswords, but I decided I've done that too much so I've restarted as a duelist (dex and rapiers, maybe some int for Velka's) build. I've done the beginning of this game so many times, it's kind of ridiculous how efficient I've become at it.

That feeling as you run past a swarm of hollows, flip off a ledge, immediately parry one enemy and then dodging and killing another.

Gotta love how much different the game feels once you've gotten really good. (And then proceed to die anyway, because Dark Souls.)

 

[Gazoinks]

That feeling as you run past a swarm of hollows, flip off a ledge, immediately parry one enemy and then dodging and killing another.

Gotta love how much different the game feels once you've gotten really good. (And then proceed to die anyway, because Dark Souls.)

That feeling when you beat down some dogs, roll past some hollows, backstab everyone, and then get stunlocked to death by a torch hollow in the corner. That happened to me in The Depths a couple of days ago. xD

EDIT: So does the RNG hate me or did they switch Black Knight drops to be 100%? Because I've killed three and got the sword, the greatsword, and the halberd! ON A DEX BUILD WITH BASE THIEF STRENGTH.

Further evidence: I've played this game for over 110 hours and have never got a Balder Side Sword to drop.

 

[Altazor]

Further evidence: I've played this game for over 110 hours and have never got a Balder Side Sword to drop.

Hah, I dunno what I did but I got the BSS during my first playthrough... and it was one of the earliest Balder drops! So imagine my surprise when I read that the BSS was kind of a "rare" drop for some people - by the "end" of the game (I only have Gwyn left with my melee char) I must've gotten 3 BSS at least.

 

[Gazoinks]

Hah, I dunno what I did but I got the BSS during my first playthrough... and it was one of the earliest Balder drops! So imagine my surprise when I read that the BSS was kind of a "rare" drop for some people - by the "end" of the game (I only have Gwyn left with my melee char) I must've gotten 3 BSS at least.

We're enemies now.