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[ihearthawthats]

There's a path that leads directly to Firelink. Look closer.

Technically it's not direct, but it might as well be. It goes Blighttown ->

Spoiler

Valley of the Drakes -> New Londo Ruins

-> Firelink.


Miracles are so good. I overlooked them at first, but Lightning Spears I find to be way better than Magic Arrows. And Wotg to be better than Homing Soulmas. I took faith to 50 because I planned to use Sunlight Spear, but nearly everything already dies from 1 cast of the weakest version. 10+10 casts is plenty. Maybe it's just a matter of lightning being better than magic/fire, I don't know.

Plus if you do coop a lot, you don't have to farm humanity.

 

[Anustart]

You can now remove those gold doorways blocking your way by

Spoiler

Speaking to Frampt at Firelink Shrine

, Gwynevere does say to do this in her dialogue, but if you don't talk to her you might miss it.

Actually gave it to

Spoiler

Kaathe

Took me a while to find him as I only had heard that he existed and not where. Anyone have a suggestion where I should head now? I know where I can go, just don't know if there's a preferred place. I know there's a gate in the

Spoiler

Demon Ruins, one in Anor Londo

also. Dunno where the third might be.

Edit: Wait, there's 1 in

Spoiler

Tomb of Giants

also! I think I'm good!

 

[Pizza con salsiccia]

Old picture, but very funny one.

"The only way to play Dark Souls"

 

[Anustart]

That's awesome! I hope our good buddy Solaire is in Dark Souls 2. He was the best npc to do Jolly Cooperation with!

 

[Dance Inferno]

You can use the Firekeeper Soul to upgrade your Estus at other Firekeepers, of which one you may have missed

Spoiler

There is an illusory wall below the Blighttown bell of awakening - DO NOT attack the NPC blocking your way after the illusory wall. (Not a biggie at all though if you do as most people don't realise he is NPC on their first playthrough)

Yeah I actually did find this Fire Keeper, since a helpful online samaritan put down an informative message next to that wall. You best believe I rated that message up.

However when you guys told me I need to "look harder" for a shortcut I basically spent an hour rolling into every single wall in that area hoping for a shortcut. Eventually my patience wore thin and I just trekked back up to Firelink using the water wheel.

Spent some time this morning messing around in the game before work. I decided to kill the two Black Knights I had come across thus far, one dropped his sword and a titanite something, and the other guy dropped nothing except a titanite something (shard?). Then I decided to take on Havel, and I managed to best him after about three tries. Man, you do not wanna get hit by him when he two-hands his weapon. Thankfully I was able to run up/down the stairs and heal whenever I got too low on health.

I know I'm supposed to go to

Spoiler

Sen's Fortress

next, but I kinda wanna explore the

Spoiler

Darkroot Garden

and

Spoiler

Darkroot Basin

first. Also that guy

Spoiler

Frampt

is freaking hilarious. I thought he was an enemy at first so I approached him slowly and threw a fireball at his face and he just went, "Hmm?" So I put down my shield and talked to him and couldn't stop laughing.

 

[Xemerau]

This is not true. Even when not maxed, Darkmoon Blade is the most powerful buff in the game and Sunlight Blade is equivalent to CMW.
They also look much cooler than the Crystal Magic Weapon. But you have a point, they only have one cast.

Here is a comparison:

Darkmoon Blade really hurts at 50 faith.

Thanks for clearing that up, I might try out a faith build when I get the chance then for the some of the PVE utility miracles.

 

[Anustart]

Yeah I actually did find this Fire Keeper, since a helpful online samaritan put down an informative message next to that wall. You best believe I rated that message up.

However when you guys told me I need to "look harder" for a shortcut I basically spent an hour rolling into every single wall in that area hoping for a shortcut. Eventually my patience wore thin and I just trekked back up to Firelink using the water wheel.

Spent some time this morning messing around in the game before work. I decided to kill the two Black Knights I had come across thus far, one dropped his sword and a titanite something, and the other guy dropped nothing except a titanite something (shard?). Then I decided to take on Havel, and I managed to best him after about three tries. Man, you do not wanna get hit by him when he two-hands his weapon. Thankfully I was able to run up/down the stairs and heal whenever I got too low on health.

I know I'm supposed to go to

Spoiler

Sen's Fortress

next, but I kinda wanna explore the

Spoiler

Darkroot Garden

and

Spoiler

Darkroot Basin

first. Also that guy

Spoiler

Frampt

is freaking hilarious. I thought he was an enemy at first so I approached him slowly and threw a fireball at his face and he just went, "Hmm?" So I put down my shield and talked to him and couldn't stop laughing.

I think the water wheel is the quick way outta there. It's the route I took anyway.

Also, while I didn't attempt to kill Frampt

Spoiler

which is quite out of character for me it seems

, I did try to kill the bird that transports you from the Undead Asylum to Lordran.

And just now I went back to Anor Londo to hit up that gate that opened, but managed to slip into

Spoiler

a painting!

. So I guess we'll poke around here for a bit!

 

[Maxwood]

I'm really liking the DLC so far. Explored the forest, found a shortcut, met a weirdo.
Not a big fan of bossfights in general, but

Spoiler

Artorias

is awesome. Almost had him, almost!

Defeated the Four Kings and Nito on my first try. I finally feel like im getting a bit better at the combat.

 

[Judderman]

Stop right now if you don't want to have to play through NG+ to do the DLC. You're in the last part of the game, and it immediately goes into NG+ after the ending.

Yea get the dlc now if you want to play it before new game plus. After you do kiln, you are sent straight to new game.

Thanks for the heads up. Called it last night after wiping at an attempt with the Sanctuary Guardian.

They are so cute :3

And perfect for

Spoiler

humanity farming

.

Spoiler

I've been using the Picasas (Squidhead guys in The Duke's Archive) for humanity farming.

The little skeletons keep respawning though, right? Hrm.

 

[E92 M3]

I love doing the forest covenant invasions, but man the joy people take when they beat me 2 on 1 is weird. So, I stopped with the pleasantries and do the sneakiest shit possible to win a lot of the 2v1 fights.

 

[Hobobloke]

That's awesome! I hope our good buddy Solaire is in Dark Souls 2. He was the best npc to do Jolly Cooperation with!

Dark Souls 2 is to be set in the distant future so there's little hope of seeing our old friend once more, though he'll live on in item form thanks to one of the winners of the shield design contest.

Spoiler

I've been using the Picasas (Squidhead guys in The Duke's Archive) for humanity farming.

The little skeletons keep respawning though, right? Hrm.

Best place to farm humanity is in the DLC area, you'll know the place when you get there.

 

[Anustart]

Dark Souls 2 is to be set in the distant future so there's little hope of seeing our old friend once more, though he'll live on in item form thanks to one of the winners of the shield design contest.





Best place to farm humanity is in the DLC area, you'll know the place when you get there.

Unless

Spoiler

he found his sun or became hollow

then perhaps he'll still be around!

 

[jim2point0]

First playthrough. Arrived here last night. What a sight....

 

[Soulhouf]

The little skeletons keep respawning though, right? Hrm.

Yes and that's why it's a very good place to farm humanities. Equip a fast weapon, Ring of the Evil Eye, bring some repair powder and you're good to farm 99 humanities in one trip.

 

[Dance Inferno]

Is that what the game looks like on PC? Damn, son. I'm getting pretty tired of how bland the game looks on 360, not to mention it probably has the worst framerate of any console game I've played this gen.

 

[Chitown B]

I thought I read the PC port sucked ass.

speaking of humanity - what's the point of farming it? Only use I've found for it is to make yourself human, or to kindle - and those only take one each.

 

[SeventhSon]

I thought I read the PC port sucked ass.

speaking of humanity - what's the point of farming it? Only use I've found for it is to make yourself human, or to kindle - and those only take one each.

Humanity can be used to fully heal yourself, useful as a phantom when estus isn't available. Also, using Humanity increases your "soft" Humanity counter, which buffs your defenses, so 99 in your Humanity stat is like weightless armor. Chaos weapons also scale damage with your Humanity stat, up to 10.

Edit: Humanity also increases item discovery and curse resistance

 

[Red Liquorice]

^ And item discovery too (max out at ten humanity).

Actually gave it to

Spoiler

Kaathe

Took me a while to find him as I only had heard that he existed and not where. Anyone have a suggestion where I should head now? I know where I can go, just don't know if there's a preferred place. I know there's a gate in the

Spoiler

Demon Ruins, one in Anor Londo

also. Dunno where the third might be.

Edit: Wait, there's 1 in

Spoiler

Tomb of Giants

also! I think I'm good!

There's not really any order now. but I would do Dukes Archives (from Anor Londo) first if you are using magic, there is an item in Demon Ruins that makes Tomb of the Giants a bit easier going.

 

[Chitown B]

Humanity can be used to fully heal yourself, useful as a phantom when estus isn't available. Also, using Humanity increases your "soft" Humanity counter, which buffs your defenses, so 99 in your Humanity stat is like weightless armor. Chaos weapons also scale damage with your Humanity stat, up to 10.

cool. I thought people were farming the "soft" humanity. Which goes when you die - so getting to 99 is pretty risky. One wrong move and all that work is gone.

 

[SeventhSon]

cool. I thought people were farming the "soft" humanity. Which goes when you die - so getting to 99 is pretty risky. One wrong move and all that work is gone.

You drop your soft Humanity and souls in your bloodstain when you die, both of which are regained when you pick up your bloodstain without dying again.

 

[Overdoziz]

I thought I read the PC port sucked ass.

Without mods it plays terribly.

 

[TheCthultist]

You have no idea how much fun this is getting to come to this thread more than two years after the game came out and still see so many people going through it and making all these discoveries for the first time. Says a lot about the game.

 

[Chitown B]

You drop your soft Humanity and souls in your bloodstain when you die, both of which are regained when you pick up your bloodstain without dying again.

right.... but you aren't always able to get it back.

 

[SeventhSon]

right.... but you aren't always able to get it back.

That's defeatest thinking!

 

[jim2point0]

Is that what the game looks like on PC? Damn, son.

With Durante's DSfix and a high internal rendering resolution, yes. Yes it does.

You have no idea how much fun this is getting to come to this thread more than two years after the game came out and still see so many people going through it and making all these discoveries for the first time. Says a lot about the game.

I never gave myself the proper amount of time to adjust to this game's mechanics and method of introducing you to everything (ie, it doesn't). But now that I'm discovering all these interesting tidbits all on my own, I'm having a blast. I really hope DS2 is like this as well. Not spoon-feeding you ANYTHING. At all.

 

[Soulhouf]

right.... but you aren't always able to get it back.

After you die, equip a Ring of Sacrifice. It acts as an insurance which prevents loosing you bloodstain if you die again before reaching it.
Remove it once you get back your bloodstain.

I was able to play like 10 successive NG+ and amass 80 million souls without dying that way.

 

[TheCthultist]

I never gave myself the proper amount of time to adjust to this game's mechanics and method of introducing you to everything (ie, it doesn't). But now that I'm discovering all these interesting tidbits all on my own, I'm having a blast. I really hope DS2 is like this as well. Not spoon-feeding you ANYTHING. At all.

I have to admit, this is the game and Demons Souls (though Dark Souls more) are the games that really got me into the habit of reading item descriptions, flavor text, and over analyzing every minute detail of the world around me. And now that it's happened I do it in every single game I play... and it's been a fantastic habit to get into.

 

[Chitown B]

That's defeatest thinking!

lol. that's cautious thinking.

After you die, equip a Ring of Sacrifice. It acts as an insurance which prevents loosing you bloodstain if you die again before reaching it.
Remove it once you get back your bloodstain.

I was able to play like 10 successive NG+ and amass 80 million souls without dying that way.

Hmmm... good idea. I have ONE of those.

 

[Mengy]

Without mods it plays terribly.

Really? The only mod I'm using is Durante's DSFix for the resolution, other than that it's the straight up Steam Prepare to Die Edition and I think the game looks and plays fantastic. Am I missing out on something?

 

[jim2point0]

Really? The only mod I'm using is Durante's DSFix for the resolution, other than that it's the straight up Steam Prepare to Die Edition and I think the game looks and plays fantastic. Am I missing out on something?

I think the only other mods you can get are texture mods (dsfix supports overriding in-game textures). But there aren't that many GOOD texture mods and they don't make a huge difference.

 

[Overdoziz]

Really? The only mod I'm using is Durante's DSFix for the resolution, other than that it's the straight up Steam Prepare to Die Edition and I think the game looks and plays fantastic. Am I missing out on something?

Well yeah, I'm talking about DSFix. Without it my fps and resolution was terrible.

 

[ihearthawthats]

cool. I thought people were farming the "soft" humanity. Which goes when you die - so getting to 99 is pretty risky. One wrong move and all that work is gone.

One of the best ways to farm soft humanity is coop, where you can't lose it unless by Dark Hand R2.

 

[Hystzen]

God damn my luck continues from previous run. Each time played this game I always got a skull lantern before heading in tomb of giants. This time first necromancer near bonfire in catacombs just gives me it straight away even though have 0 humanity or not even equipped gold ring.

That makes tomb a breeze as the dark part at start is the hardest rest is quite easy

 

[E92 M3]

I never farmed humanity, but it just happens to accumulate from the invasions and playthroughs.

 

[Chitown B]

what's the fastest swinging great sword with good damage for STR/DEX? Still using the Claymore, which I like - but it's super slow.

edit: I use one-handed if that helps. I like my shield.

 

[Judderman]

After you die, equip a Ring of Sacrifice. It acts as an insurance which prevents loosing you bloodstain if you die again before reaching it.
Remove it once you get back your bloodstain.

I was able to play like 10 successive NG+ and amass 80 million souls without dying that way.

Why didn't I ever think of that. That's a great tip!

God damn my luck continues from previous run. Each time played this game I always got a skull lantern before heading in tomb of giants. This time first necromancer near bonfire in catacombs just gives me it straight away even though have 0 humanity or not even equipped gold ring.

That makes tomb a breeze as the dark part at start is the hardest rest is quite easy

I like using the Sunlight Maggot instead of a Skull Lantern, I hated having to fast switch to my shield when a skelly would just appear on my screen already swinging.

 

[mannerbot]

what's the fastest swinging great sword with good damage for STR/DEX? Still using the Claymore, which I like - but it's super slow.

edit: I use one-handed if that helps. I like my shield.

Claymore is the easy suggestion here. Like, do you really expect a GREAT SWORD to be as fast as a spear? lol

 

[Sullichin]

what's the fastest swinging great sword with good damage for STR/DEX? Still using the Claymore, which I like - but it's super slow.

edit: I use one-handed if that helps. I like my shield.

It's the Claymore. If you want faster you don't want a greatsword, as they are all about that slow. Try out the longsword or the sunlight straight sword (very slightly slower than the longsword but has better scaling/attack rating)

God damn my luck continues from previous run. Each time played this game I always got a skull lantern before heading in tomb of giants. This time first necromancer near bonfire in catacombs just gives me it straight away even though have 0 humanity or not even equipped gold ring.

That makes tomb a breeze as the dark part at start is the hardest rest is quite easy

If you kill all of the necromancers in the catacombs and didn't get the drop yet, the last one will drop the skull lantern.

 

[Chitown B]

thanks. Originally I figured leveling up would give you more juice and make you swing faster - but I found out I was wrong.

I'll probably stick with the Claymore. I like the damage and the circular swing. I can kill 3-4 guys at once sometimes, and I even hit guys behind me!

 

[Anustart]

God damn my luck continues from previous run. Each time played this game I always got a skull lantern before heading in tomb of giants. This time first necromancer near bonfire in catacombs just gives me it straight away even though have 0 humanity or not even equipped gold ring.

That makes tomb a breeze as the dark part at start is the hardest rest is quite easy

I didn't know they were rare. I got two of em!

Just finished the

Spoiler

painted world

. How the heck do you cut off things tails lol. I've done it exactly once and that was the red dragon on the bridge which I just shot arrows at.

 

[mannerbot]

I didn't know they were rare. I got two of em!

Just finished the

Spoiler

painted world

. How the heck do you cut off things tails lol. I've done it exactly once and that was the red dragon on the bridge which I just shot arrows at.

You're probably trying to hit the base of the tail rather than the tip.

 

[Gorillaz]

I am finally playing this game for the first time, and it is fucking hard. I have no idea what the hell I'm doing, where the hell to go, or what anything means. I'm constantly getting killed by this swarm of skeletons at a cemetery, and this giant raven is freaking me out. I'm playing offiline, but I'm thinking about going online to see the notes people have left behind. Will this help any or do I just need to have patience and tough it out? I don't want to succumb to walkthroughs and FAQs for my first play through.

First tip, get away from the cementary. It's the game basically telling you, you aren't ready or strong enough for these enemies.

Alot of people do the same thing getting there. I did . Just to nudge you in the right direction, take the other path upwards

 

[Deified Data]

God damn my luck continues from previous run. Each time played this game I always got a skull lantern before heading in tomb of giants. This time first necromancer near bonfire in catacombs just gives me it straight away even though have 0 humanity or not even equipped gold ring.

That makes tomb a breeze as the dark part at start is the hardest rest is quite easy

I was always under the impression that one of the necromancers (usually the last) is guaranteed to drop one? Am I mistaken?

 

[Hystzen]

I was always under the impression that one of the necromancers (usually the last) is guaranteed to drop one? Am I mistaken?

As was said above it seems be but every run I always get it first or second one I defeat.

 

[Soulhouf]

what's the fastest swinging great sword with good damage for STR/DEX? Still using the Claymore, which I like - but it's super slow.

edit: I use one-handed if that helps. I like my shield.

Murakumo is what you want.

 

[TheCthultist]

First tip, get away from the cementary. It's the game basically telling you, you aren't ready or strong enough for these enemies.

Alot of people do the same thing getting there. I did . Just to nudge you in the right direction, take the other path upwards

Just be glad you didn't go down first. First run through I went straight to New Londo Ruins the moment I was done killing the crestfallen knight... At least the skeletons give you a chance of success. Ghosts don't...

 

[Chitown B]

Murakumo is what you want.

thanks!

 

[Chitown B]

Just be glad you didn't go down first. First run through I went straight to New Londo Ruins the moment I was done killing the crestfallen knight... At least the skeletons give you a chance of success. Ghosts don't...

ghosts do if you grab that transient curse right at the beginning. Still pretty impossible though...


I'm still trying to figure out what the point of Crystal weapons are. Seems like they are just there for trolling.

 

[Gorillaz]

Just be glad you didn't go down first. First run through I went straight to New Londo Ruins the moment I was done killing the crestfallen knight... At least the skeletons give you a chance of success. Ghosts don't...

I actually went to New Londo right after wards. I Made it to the halfway point of where people write warning messages and realized I was definitely out of my element. NLR honestly feels end game-ish from the get go.

 

[CMojicaAce]

Imagine a full strength Artorias (No broken arm, has a shield) was a boss in DS2 :O But I guess it wouldn't make sense story-wise..