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[Ruuppa]

That's a great idea. Only problem: I haven't been summoned very often lately. I think it's because I am only SL20 and now in Anoro Lando at the second bonfire. I can occasionally get summoned in front of the cathedral to help with the gargoyles, but I never get summoned anywhere else . Now that I have the rusty ring, perhaps I should head to Blighttown as you suggest, put down a summon sign, and proceed to farm titanite shards.

I really hope Dark Souls 2 works better online on the PC...

Anor Londo is a good place to farm a few souls. The Silver Knights are relatively easy to parry, and you can leave your sign by the bonfire while you clean them all from the area. A lot of people will try to summon at least one helper, so there's a good chance you'll get summoned there.

If you're having no luck getting summoned there, raise your SL to 45 - 60 range, that should help.

 

[Creamium]

A really weird Nito fight

 

[Alo81]

Jeff Green is about to stream Dark Souls. For those who haven't been following, he's a 50+ year old gamer going through Dark Souls for the first time. He used to be the head editor at PC Gaming magazine and he recently left EA Popcap.

The dude is god damned hilarious.

He's going through Blighttown right now and it's great watching his progress.

 

[OpinionatedCyborg]

Anor Londo is a good place to farm a few souls. The Silver Knights are relatively easy to parry, and you can leave your sign by the bonfire while you clean them all from the area. A lot of people will try to summon at least one helper, so there's a good chance you'll get summoned there.

If you're having no luck getting summoned there, raise your SL to 45 - 60 range, that should help.

Yeah, I'm just not having a whole lot of luck lately. I'm trying to keep my soul level fairly low so I can help newer players at the start of the game (a friend of mine might start playing soon), but if I get desperate enough for more summons/invasions, maybe I will level up a bit. Currently, I'm just dumping any extra souls into upgrading weapons, armor, and pyromancy (level 15 at the moment).

one question: My uchigatana is now a lightning sword. I noticed that O&S seem to be weak when it comes to fire. If I apply the charcoal to my lightning sword, will I get the flame + lightning buff at once?

 

[Tawpgun]

Tomb of Giants. SO many tears.

 

[SeventhSon]

Jeff Green is about to stream Dark Souls. For those who haven't been following, he's a 50+ year old gamer going through Dark Souls for the first time. He used to be the head editor at PC Gaming magazine and he recently left EA Popcap.

There's something very very wrong with what you just wrote. :/

 

[Alo81]

There's something very very wrong with what you just wrote. :/

PC Gamer?

 

[SeventhSon]

Jeff was EiC of Computer Gaming World and subsequently, after the rebranding, Games for Windows the Official Magazine.

Jeff was also the host of the famous CGW Radio (GFW Radio) podcast, AKA 97.5 The Brodeo.

 

[Tawpgun]

Forgot to take out the skeletons in the Nito fight with my divine weapon... I only got one hit on Nito before they all trucked me.

 

[krakov]

Yeah, I'm just not having a whole lot of luck lately. I'm trying to keep my soul level fairly low so I can help newer players at the start of the game (a friend of mine might start playing soon), but if I get desperate enough for more summons/invasions, maybe I will level up a bit. Currently, I'm just dumping any extra souls into upgrading weapons, armor, and pyromancy (level 15 at the moment).

one question: My uchigatana is now a lightning sword. I noticed that O&S seem to be weak when it comes to fire. If I apply the charcoal to my lightning sword, will I get the flame + lightning buff at once?

You can only be summoned or summon people that are fairly close to your level. At SL 20 you are very unlikely to get summoned in Anor Londo but it should work well in the Parish, Depths, Lower Undead Burg and Blighttown.

You can't buff elemental weapons so lightening will have to do unless you have another weapon for it. You can buff normal, raw, crystal and a few uniques.

 

[Red Liquorice]

You can always join the Forest covenant, buy another couple of Uchi's from Shiva, upgrade one the normal path, the other fire or chaos to cover all bases.

 

[Ruuppa]

You can always join the Forest covenant, buy another couple of Uchi's from Shiva, upgrade one the normal path, the other fire or chaos to cover all bases.

His Pyromancy is at a decent level, so if he has a couple of Attunement slots, he could Fire Orb/Great Combustion Ornstein to death pretty handily.

 

[Dolemitesooner]

Yes! I beat the Taurus Demon. Only took me 5 trys.

I now remember how much I love this game. So hard but so rewarding.

 

[SonicXtreme]

I finally got the 1000 on xbox. Man, thats gonna be a pain doing on pc considering how unreliable summoning and invasions are for me on pc. darkmoon blade was the last thing i got (yes i know you can get souveniers in the painted world but its so much slower than invading)

 

[MrDaravon]

Beat the Four Kings on my next attempt after posting. Got the Firelink bonfire up to 20 flasks and just brute forced it. It was super sloppy and I played like shit but it worked so whatever~

Also went back to Nito with a Silver Knight Spear, but it wound up probably not being needed at all. I took the advice posted of just hanging out where you drop down at so you don't aggro the big skeletons and it was easy as pie, I only healed like twice. I actually totally missed the name of the level, but now I'm in the libarary/tower place. Progress! I think I'm relatively close to finishing it.

 

[Ruuppa]

Beat the Four Kings on my next attempt after posting. Got the Firelink bonfire up to 20 flasks and just brute forced it. It was super sloppy and I played like shit but it worked so whatever~

Also went back to Nito with a Silver Knight Spear, but it wound up probably not being needed at all. I took the advice posted of just hanging out where you drop down at so you don't aggro the big skeletons and it was easy as pie, I only healed like twice. I actually totally missed the name of the level, but now I'm in the libarary/tower place. Progress! I think I'm relatively close to finishing it.

If you haven't met the master of that place yet, you might want to equip a Ring of Sacrifice after fighting the guy wearing the Crystal set.

 

[Dolemitesooner]

Dang this game is so good. I hope I can beat this before Dark Souls 2 comes out.

 

[MrDaravon]

If you haven't met the master of that place yet, you might want to equip a Ring of Sacrifice after fighting the guy wearing the Crystal set.

Already did unfortunately, lost like 40k souls . I still haven't died since so I can theoretically still get them back, but I've already written them off so whatever.

 

[ToyMachine228]

So as someone who just finished their first Dark Souls play through, what would I think of Demon's Souls? How is it different from Dark Souls?

 

[Alo81]

So as someone who just finished their first Dark Souls play through, what would I think of Demon's Souls? How is it different from Dark Souls?

No bonfires =O

It's more level based.

 

[MilkBeard]

So as someone who just finished their first Dark Souls play through, what would I think of Demon's Souls? How is it different from Dark Souls?

It'll play very similarly, save for a few differences like the magic system, item burden, and the nexus hub.

There are no bonfires like the person above said, but the levels are still constructed in a manner where you unlock shortcuts and each new level in the same world starts just after the place that you beat the boss before it. You can return back to the hub at any time by touching the archstone at the beginning of the level.

I would recommend playing it if you're a fan of Dark Souls of course.

 

[OpinionatedCyborg]

Beat the Four Kings on my next attempt after posting. Got the Firelink bonfire up to 20 flasks and just brute forced it. It was super sloppy and I played like shit but it worked so whatever~

Also went back to Nito with a Silver Knight Spear, but it wound up probably not being needed at all. I took the advice posted of just hanging out where you drop down at so you don't aggro the big skeletons and it was easy as pie, I only healed like twice. I actually totally missed the name of the level, but now I'm in the libarary/tower place. Progress! I think I'm relatively close to finishing it.

I just did exactly the same thing with teh four kings. That fight was insanely hard the first time I played. Now I know a quick path to the kings and I can cheese them easily.

Thanks for all the advice in this thread. Now, I am a level 20 darkwraith fucking shit up wherever I please .

His Pyromancy is at a decent level, so if he has a couple of Attunement slots, he could Fire Orb/Great Combustion Ornstein to death pretty handily.

I used my other attunement slot, which helped a ton. The first part of the fight was hardest for me. The second part wasn't so bad. Fireballs + fire orbs and running up and hacking at Ornstein's ankles, which prevented him from hitting me with most of his attacks, made it quite easy.

Also, I bought the uchis and some other gear from Shiva. good tip as well.

 

[Tawpgun]

Killed Seath finally


The trek there was worse than the boss...

 

[BlewHedgehog]

After giving myself the weekend off from Dark Souls, I'm heading back in to deal with Anor Londo. The stupid archers fill me with a dread that makes for the first time I haven't looked forward to playing. Some gargoyle-type guys brought me here, so I don't think I can leave, which sucks because I would love to take a break to do some random exploring. How long until I can get back to Firelink?

 

[Gazoinks]

After giving myself the weekend off from Dark Souls, I'm heading back in to deal with Anor Londo. The stupid archers fill me with a dread that makes for the first time I haven't looked forward to playing. Some gargoyle-type guys brought me here, so I don't think I can leave, which sucks because I would love to take a break to do some random exploring. How long until I can get back to Firelink?

Go talk to the gargoyle where you were dropped off to go back to Sen's.

 

[BlewHedgehog]

Go talk to the gargoyle where you were dropped off to go back to Sen's.

How embarrassing. I'm choosing to play Dark Souls, ffs. You'd think I could be bothered to go check! Thanks. I can't recall whether or not I opened a shorter route through Sen's or not, but it sounds like it might be more trouble than it's worth. I really do miss the archstones...

 

[Gazoinks]

How embarrassing. I'm choosing to play Dark Souls, ffs. You'd think I could be bothered to go check! Thanks. I can't recall whether or not I opened a shorter route through Sen's or not, but it sounds like it might be more trouble than it's worth. I really do miss the archstones...

The Sen's shortcut can be kind of easy to miss, but it's super duper convenient.

Spoiler

Check the iron maiden person-hanging whatchamacallits at the top of the fortress.

 

[mrbagdt]

The Sen's shortcut can be kind of easy to miss, but it's super duper convenient.

Spoiler

Check the iron maiden person-hanging whatchamacallits at the top of the fortress.

that took me awhile to find the first time. i tried backtracking through sens without the shortcut and it made me hate my life.

i started a new character (my main it at the kiln of the first flame) and its crazy how much easier a second playthrough can be. my main was dex based and i threw away points into intelligence and faith because i thought the miracles and spells would be useful. turns out they arnt really. if i need healing while doing co op im better just using some humanity and while i thought the homeward spell would be helpful, homeward bones are so cheap there isnt anything to gain by having the spell. with this character i had the first bell rung within 2 hours and i just got capra on my first try. to think that to get this far my first time around i was probably on hour 15! i wanted to do some more co op because i feel like i did all these bosses just once and now my main is high enough level i cant get summoned to help with them. the gargoyle fight must be a common one because i could lay down my marker and get summoned with 5-10 minutes. the only negative that i have experienced so far is while trying to help someone they get invaded by crazy twinks that can destroy us.

 

[Blinck]

After giving myself the weekend off from Dark Souls, I'm heading back in to deal with Anor Londo. The stupid archers fill me with a dread that makes for the first time I haven't looked forward to playing. Some gargoyle-type guys brought me here, so I don't think I can leave, which sucks because I would love to take a break to do some random exploring. How long until I can get back to Firelink?

I think that the Anor Londo archers are "over-feared" (for the lack of a better word ). They really are not that hard. They won't even be able to hit you on your way up if you sprint all the way across. When you are up there go straight to the right with your shield raised ( preferably a good shield). then you just need to fight or kick off the Knight. IIRC the other archer won't even be able to hit you once you reach the top and go to the right.

If you are really having a lot of trouble you can just use poison arrows on the archer to the right before even going up, and this way you won't have any problem.

Having the Hidden Body spell before going up can also be very helpful!

I don't want to sound condescending or anything like that when saying that they are not that hard. I just get the feeling that people overblow this part of the game which makes everyone fear it so much, which in turn makes them very stressed out and more prone to making a mistake.

Let us know how that went!

 

[Mengy]

OKAY, so I bought Dark Souls at the last Steam sale. I'd never played it before and everyone seems to rave about it, so my curiosity forced me to buy it. I was really enjoying it at first, had some difficulty with skeletons in the beginning but I've learned how to fight now. At this point I can breeze through enemies fairly well, until I hit the brick wall called Tauren Demon. For four hours of game time I tried to best him, I must have made the run from the bonfire to the tower wall over twenty times, dying horribly at the hands of that huge Demon every time. Shield bearing skeletons along the way that used to give me trouble are now merely a stepping stone, I've gotten so good at making the run to the wall that I can literally breeze through all the enemies along the way without losing barely a tick of life myself, and it takes mere minutes to reach the wall. So last night I finally beat him after about a dozen hours of game time, using a combination of falling on his head and dive attacking him with rolling to his side and quick attacking him, then sprinting away to prepare again. I had literally thousands of souls in my green glob up there when I finally killed him, I'd died so many times at his feet. I feel like I just got lucky in killing him, yet I also feel like I learned something too. But that difficulty spike....

So, yeah, I've developed a love hate relationship with this game. On one hand it looks fantastic and is very atmospheric. I love the feel of combat in the game, makes me wish Skyrim had combat like this. But on the other hand, the bosses so far seem ridiculously hard. I guess that's the point, but Holy Hell. Also on that other hand, I'm very confused about a few aspects of the game, and I think it's all related to this little paragraph from the OT:

Humanity: Humanity is a farming-heavy stuff, basically. Humanity exists in two forms. One is items, that can be stored, are not lost upon death (such as "Humanity" and "Twin Humanities"), other is Humanity in its active form. You can randomly(to be confirmed) get active humanity points while you play, you can get active humanity by killing invading Spirits (other players with humanity). You can only be invaded if you are in Human form. You will gain more chance to have loot from enemies with every new humanity point you have. It is around 125 percent with 2 humanities, and around 145-150 with 8 points, will post proper points later. You can check this in the stat screen. The increase is present even with Hollow-form, so you need not spend point on being a non-hollowed if you just want to farm and does not want to get invaded/invade. Humanity is a requirement for kindling and reversing hollowing process, and Rats have a quite good chance of dropping it, so do not worry about it too much, you will have your chance to get LOTS of it. 

Okay, so my questions are:

1. What the hell are invading spirits? I occasionally see white ghost warriors like running around and shit, usually when I press on a blood stain, but sometimes just randomly. What are they? What are these blood stains I see around sometimes? And can you kill the white phantom warriors? Because so far I don't seem able to interact with them at all.

2. Human form? Hollow form? What does that mean? Is that a spell you get later on?

3. I have humanity items in my inventory, and I seem to have a humanity counter up top too. Is it kind of like Nephalem Valor for Diablo III, where you accumulate them for magic item find? The ones in my inventory seem to be for healing only.

4. Get invaded? What does this mean? I see it referenced in lots of places talking about the game but no one ever defines what "getting invaded" means, it seems like everyone just assumes you know what it means.

5. The orange messages laying all around the game, are they completely random or is there some method to where and when they appear? Sometimes they seem to offer advice, other times they simply proclaim "Praise the Sun!".


Interesting game, both fun and frustrating at the same time, but confusing in many ways too. For now I'm just playing it and trying things out and experimenting, and dying a whole hell of a lot, because now some dragon is guarding another wall and he fries me everytime, and my bow and arrows don't even seem to scratch him....

 

[Red Liquorice]

It sounds like you had the right idea about using the plunging attack (learned on the tutorial area boss) on the Taurus Demon. If you were having problems though try to let enemies attack first, dodge them either by rolling or just stepping back and then going in for a hit when they are recovering - don't get greedy, Souls is a very considered, methodical style of gameplay, not a button masher. Sounds like you're getting the hang of it

1. What the hell are invading spirits? I occasionally see white ghost warriors like running around and shit, usually when I press on a blood stain, but sometimes just randomly. What are they? What are these blood stains I see around sometimes? And can you kill the white phantom warriors? Because so far I don't seem able to interact with them at all.

Invading phantoms are red and blue, they are other players invading your world with one aim - to fuck your shit up!

The white ghosts you see running around are other players online right now, you can't interact with them. The bloodstains are replays of other players deaths, which can sometimes be helpful in showing you if an ambush or trap is ahead.

2. Human form? Hollow form? What does that mean? Is that a spell you get later on?

3. I have humanity items in my inventory, and I seem to have a humanity counter up top too. Is it kind of like Nephalem Valor for Diablo III, where you accumulate them for magic item find? The ones in my inventory seem to be for healing only.

Hollow form is when your character looks like a zombie. You are safe from invasions, but also cannot summon white/yellow phantoms as helpers (co-op). You can still co-op in other people's worlds yourself as a white phantom - no progress is made in your own world, this is just for rewards (souls, humanity, covenant items) and to help other players.

Human form is when you 'reverse hollow' at a bonfire. Your character regains human form, doesn't look like a ghoul any more, and you are open to invasions and can summon co-op players to your world. This uses 1 active humanity (the big number top left on the HUD). When you die, you go hollow. Benefits of human form besides online play are also the ability to kindle bonfires which gives you extra Estus flask refills in incriments of 5 (so you kindle a bonfire once, you get 10 refills instead of 5 every time you rest at that bonfire). Kindling costs 1 humanity also.

Humanity Consumable healing item, restores full HP. This is kind of a last resort use as it can be put to better uses like kindling and returning to human form. Every time you use one humanity, the counter top left goes up 1, when you die this 'active' humanity is with your souls in your bloodstain. The more active humanity you have some of your resistance defense stats increase, as does your item discovery (drop rate from enemies). The max number of humanity is 99, the max item discovery is 10 humanity.

4. Get invaded? What does this mean? I see it referenced in lots of places talking about the game but no one ever defines what "getting invaded" means, it seems like everyone just assumes you know what it means.

As above. Red and blue phantoms are other players who can invade your world when you are in human form, their aim is to kill you - PvP plain and simple.

5. The orange messages laying all around the game, are they completely random or is there some method to where and when they appear? Sometimes they seem to offer advice, other times they simply proclaim "Praise the Sun!".

The orange messages are from other players - they might be help, they might hinder - it's up to you to figure it out! You can write them yourself with the orange soapstone sold by the Undead Merchant in Undead Burg.

 

[Blinck]

OKAY, so I bought Dark Souls at the last Steam sale. I'd never played it before and everyone seems to rave about it, so my curiosity forced me to buy it. I was really enjoying it at first, had some difficulty with skeletons in the beginning but I've learned how to fight now. At this point I can breeze through enemies fairly well, until I hit the brick wall called Tauren Demon. For four hours of game time I tried to best him, I must have made the run from the bonfire to the tower wall over twenty times, dying horribly at the hands of that huge Demon every time. Shield bearing skeletons along the way that used to give me trouble are now merely a stepping stone, I've gotten so good at making the run to the wall that I can literally breeze through all the enemies along the way without losing barely a tick of life myself, and it takes mere minutes to reach the wall. So last night I finally beat him after about a dozen hours of game time, using a combination of falling on his head and dive attacking him with rolling to his side and quick attacking him, then sprinting away to prepare again. I had literally thousands of souls in my green glob up there when I finally killed him, I'd died so many times at his feet. I feel like I just got lucky in killing him, yet I also feel like I learned something too. But that difficulty spike....

So, yeah, I've developed a love hate relationship with this game. On one hand it looks fantastic and is very atmospheric. I love the feel of combat in the game, makes me wish Skyrim had combat like this. But on the other hand, the bosses so far seem ridiculously hard. I guess that's the point, but Holy Hell. Also on that other hand, I'm very confused about a few aspects of the game, and I think it's all related to this little paragraph from the OT:



Okay, so my questions are:

1. What the hell are invading spirits? I occasionally see white ghost warriors like running around and shit, usually when I press on a blood stain, but sometimes just randomly. What are they? What are these blood stains I see around sometimes? And can you kill the white phantom warriors? Because so far I don't seem able to interact with them at all.

2. Human form? Hollow form? What does that mean? Is that a spell you get later on?

3. I have humanity items in my inventory, and I seem to have a humanity counter up top too. Is it kind of like Nephalem Valor for Diablo III, where you accumulate them for magic item find? The ones in my inventory seem to be for healing only.

4. Get invaded? What does this mean? I see it referenced in lots of places talking about the game but no one ever defines what "getting invaded" means, it seems like everyone just assumes you know what it means.

5. The orange messages laying all around the game, are they completely random or is there some method to where and when they appear? Sometimes they seem to offer advice, other times they simply proclaim "Praise the Sun!".


Interesting game, both fun and frustrating at the same time, but confusing in many ways too. For now I'm just playing it and trying things out and experimenting, and dying a whole hell of a lot, because now some dragon is guarding another wall and he fries me everytime, and my bow and arrows don't even seem to scratch him....

1 - The white ghosts you see are the ghosts of other players that are playing their game in the same area as you. Think of it as parallel worlds "intersecting", so you can see glimpses of the other world.
Blood stains appear when other players die in their world. When you click on a blood stain you can see how they died, sort of like a replay of their death. This is useful because it lets you forsee certain ambushes and traps. Invasions explained in point 4.

2 - Hollow form is when your character looks like a skeleton. Human form is when your char looks human - more on this later. You will spend most of your game as a skeleton and that's normal. If you die while in Human form you turn Hollow again. How to turn back to human next:

3 - Humanity is a sort of currency in game. It can be in your inventory, or it can be used and will go to the counter near your health. Think of the humanity in the counter as "Active Humanity" (called Soft Humanity by the community) - when you use a humanity you will regain all your health and it will be added to your soft humanity counter.

Soft Humanity serves different purposes :

Increases item drop rate
Increases damage of certain weapons.

While at a bonfire you can also do these things by spending SOFT Humanity:

You can Kindle the bonfires - Kindling a bonfire will increase the number of estus ( health potions ) that you get when you rest at that bonfire.

You can turn into HUMAN form if you are Hollow - While in human form you are able to play co-op by summoning or be summoned by other players. This is very useful for bosses. You can see summon signs when you are human, generally they are near bosses fog walls. You can also summon certain NPC's for boss fights if you are human.

4 - Invasions are the counter-part of being in Human form - While you can do co-op and summon NPC's while in human form, you can also be INVADED by other players. Other players will invade your world and try to kill you.
If you don't want to get invaded, stay in hollow form - there is basically no penalty besides the fact that you can't do coop.

5 - Most of the messages on the ground are left there by other players to either help or decieve other players. You can leave these messages by using an Orange Soap Stone, that you can buy at the mechant in the Undead Burg IIRC ( near the bonfire that you used to run from to meet the taurus demon ). You can also rate these messages. If you rate a message positively, the player who wrote the message will gain either an extra estus flask or soft humanity - I honestly don't recall which one.

Good luck!

EDIT: Beaten like the first time I met Havel

 

[eot]

I only just now noticed that the AoE attack from the Crystal Golems causes curse. Makes sense I guess, just surprised I've never seen it before.

 

[Mengy]

Thanks Red and Blinck, interesting answers. That's kind of a fascinating way to incorporate online stuff and multiplayer actually. Guess I have to look for this Orange Soapstone, I've only found one vendor so far and it sounds like he sells it (Undead Burg). It also explains why over the course of attempting to kill the Tauren Demon I started to see better equipment drops, it was probably due to my humanity count going up.

I'm guessing you don't want to "kindle" every bonfire, only the ones that you will be using for farming areas, or in tough places? It's probably better to try and save up humanity instead...

So, if I go human form by clicking non-hollow at at bonfire, I'll be able to see these summon signs from other players? How do players invade other people's games? Could I invade someone else's game and attack them too? And how would I go about doing that?

Interesting. This game has a lot of neat mechanics to it. Think I'll play around with it some more tonight.

 

[Ruuppa]

Thanks Red and Blinck, interesting answers. That's kind of a fascinating way to incorporate online stuff and multiplayer actually. Guess I have to look for this Orange Soapstone, I've only found one vendor so far and it sounds like he sells it (Undead Burg). It also explains why over the course of attempting to kill the Tauren Demon I started to see better equipment drops, it was probably due to my humanity count going up.

I'm guessing you don't want to "kindle" every bonfire, only the ones that you will be using for farming areas, or in tough places? It's probably better to try and save up humanity instead...

So, if I go human form by clicking non-hollow at at bonfire, I'll be able to see these summon signs from other players? How do players invade other people's games? Could I invade someone else's game and attack them too? And how would I go about doing that?

Interesting. This game has a lot of neat mechanics to it. Think I'll play around with it some more tonight.

If you go non-hollow, you'll see summon signs, but put yourself at invasion-risk. There are multiple ways of invading, but mostly people use Cracked Red Eye Stones and Red Eye Stones to invade as Dark Phantoms. Other ways include Red Soapstone(needs host acceptance), Blue Eye Stone(invades only sinners) and the Darkroot Forest(Forest Covenant can invade non-Covenant members who are human.).

There are a couple of other methods and rules to the methods listed, but those are the basics.

You can invade a player if:
1. The player you're invading is within your level range: The difference between your Soul Level and the Host's Soul Level is less or equal than (10 + 10% Host's SL)
2. The player you're invading is in Human form.
3. The player hasn't defeated the boss of the area yet.

Some methods of invading have different rules, you should check those out if you're interested in the mechanics. Here's a link: http://darksouls.wikidot.com/online

As for kindling bonfires, you're spot-on. The only exception might be right before fighting the last boss, since all kindled bonfires carry over to NG+.

 

[Maxwood]

Played a bit a year ago, and after answering an unknown feeling of hype about this game (i'm sure GAF has a hand in that) i've now arived at the Undead Church. Brilliantly made game, but the amount of enemies still feels like overkill.

Anyhow, i'm really liking it so far, better then "back then". Especially the exploration and room for strategic aproaches. A friend gave me a hint about getting the Drake Sword.

Spoiler

You can shoot the dragon from under the bridge, he said. So I bought a bow and arrow, didn't think I was doing any damage and wham! The tail falls off. Awesome moment

That sword rocks!

Also received a piece of headgear from that metallic swine...thing.
Looks kinda funny.

Love how you get rewarded to play it slowly.
Tips are welcome, especially about the types of weapons. I'm not really sure what to specialize in. The amount of animations are insane. :/
Putting one point into endurance every uneven number, seemed like a handy stat. Looking at this page and what people have written, I was probably right.

Quite an active community here, great stuff.

 

[Arjen]

Big tip: Ditch that damn drake sword. Looks sweet now, but it will bite you in the ass later on.

 

[Ruuppa]

Big tip: Ditch that damn drake sword. Looks sweet now, but it will bite you in the ass later on.

Seconded. While not horrible as a weapon, upgrading it slows down your progress towards becoming a Dragon! Rawr!

 

[Creamium]

That sword rocks!

What Arjen said. Drop it asap

I went on with my Zweihander dude and I'm post Anor Londo, so probably gonna call it quits soon. This was a fun run though, I love the zwei now. Hit Ornstein, staggers, hit Ornstein again, staggers, ... Feels great. I made it lightning for the heck of it. Been so long since I made anything outside of the normal path.

Are there pointers for pvp using the zwei? I did some battles and it seems hard to be effective with it. It's easy to get backstabbed

 

[Maxwood]

Really? The amount of damage that thing does, atleast in the stage i'm at, is pretty darn impressive. And it looks pretty cool.
But since I want to be a dragon and missed the stabby-stabby from my boring 'old Longsword, i'll take your advice to heart. It was almost broken anyway.

Blocking or rolling?

Game feels like an Action/Adventure Roguelike. Three genre's I love.
Also, the art-direction of this game is pretty darn impressive. Love how they're telling story's through the enviroment and loot details.

 

[Tawpgun]

Centpiede Demon is kicking my ass.

 

[Red Liquorice]

Really? The amount of damage that thing does, atleast in the stage i'm at, is pretty darn impressive. And it looks pretty cool.
But since I want to be a dragon and missed the stabby-stabby from my boring 'old Longsword, i'll take your advice to heart. It was almost broken anyway.

Blocking or rolling?

Game feels like an Action/Adventure Roguelike. Three genre's I love.
Also, the art-direction of this game is pretty darn impressive. Love how they're telling story's through the enviroment and loot details.

The Drake Sword will see you through the very early game, but it soon gets outclassed by your ability to upgrade weapons. Stick with whatever weapon is giving you the best damage atm, but you pick up a lot of weapons so try them out and see which ones you like, then look towards upgrading those.

Souls isn't one of those games where you will be picking up better weapons as you advance and dropping old ones though, pretty much any weapon will see you through the game - early loot like the Claymore, Zweihander, Halberd and even the Longsword are all good solid choices. Upgrading (and repairing) weapons is very important. You will get far more gains from upgrading your weapon than levelling up especially early on, so always look to upgrade as far as you can asap.

Block vs Roll? Well evasion is always better and at <25% equipment load you get the fastest roll, but see what works for you. The most basic way through the game is block an enemy strike, then hit them but you can get as fancy as you want once the basics are down.

 

[T.O.P]

Started the game again on pc...stucked again at Ornstain & Smaug, first run is they're always a pain, any help for the fight?

SL 44 KI Heisenberg

Left a summon sign near the bonfire

 

[MrWhitefolks]

Getting O stuck behind a pillar while fighting 'Fatass McLongneck' is a good plan, high damage spells, and if all else fails use the toxic clumps you get from the poop golems in blight town. Toss one and roll away, repeat as needed...

Or you could praise the sun

 

[Deimo5]

Drake Sword seems to get more criticism than necessary sometimes I think. It does end up sucking, but it's a nice quick damage fix for a new player especially to make the early parts of the game easier while you build up resources for upgrades.

 

[Tawpgun]

Bed of Chaaaaaoooosssss!!!!

 

[Kieli]

Drake Sword seems to get more criticism than necessary sometimes I think. It does end up sucking, but it's a nice quick damage fix for a new player especially to make the early parts of the game easier while you build up resources for upgrades.

It enables you to treat the early portions of the game as a hack 'n slash, solidifying bad habits.

I would just ditch it altogether and go the upgrade route.

 

[Tawpgun]

Ok beat Bed of Chaos.

That was underwhelming. It was more obnoxious than it was challenging.


So whats the consensus on the DLC? I have Kiln of the First Flame unlocked. But before I go I wan to consider the DLC

 

[Gazoinks]

Ok beat Bed of Chaos.

That was underwhelming. It was more obnoxious than it was challenging.


So whats the consensus on the DLC? I have Kiln of the First Flame unlocked. But before I go I wan to consider the DLC

It's great. Some of the best bosses in the game, and a good story.

 

[Tawpgun]

It's great. Some of the best bosses in the game, and a good story.

Been hearing similar things from friends.

Unfortunately its 15 bucks.... that's 10 bucks more than I paid for the base game. And I don't feel like putting the final boss on hold to wait out for a sale.