Support NeoGAF

[Ledsen]

Hello. Welcome to the completely spoiler-free hint thread. for Dark Souls.

What is the point of this thread?
This thread is mainly for new players who want to ask questions, but don't want to sift through the OT, which is full of unmarked gameplay spoilers.

What are the rules?
1. You have to use spoiler tags for any information that a new player wouldn't know about. Basically you should use spoiler tags for EVERYTHING That includes tips on what class to play, which stats to focus on, a good starting weapon, places to go, places to avoid, how gameplay systems work... basically everything that you can't find in the manual or learn by yourself within the first few minutes of the game.

2. Always make it completely clear what question you're answering, and what type of spoilers are in your answer (eg. "late game gameplay spoilers", "story spoilers", etc).

What is this game I don't even
http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/




And that's basically it. And remember: if in doubt, always, ALWAYS use spoiler tags!

 

[Orayn]

I have sort of a meta-hint: If you need to ask for help, ask friends before message boards, and message boards before wikis. Part of what From Software tried to evoke with Dark Souls was the feeling of being a kid in school talking with your friends about how to beat the secret boss on level 12 while you were at recess. Getting access to too much info too easily spoils the fun.

 

[Bumhead]

Anyone have any tips on

Spoiler

how to defeat the Capra Demon? Having a really hard time with him and not sure what to do. He is killing me within seconds everytime I go through the fog.

Any help most appreciated!

 

[Ledsen]

Anyone have any tips on

Spoiler

how to defeat the Capra Demon? Having a really hard time with him and not sure what to do. He is killing me within seconds everytime I go through the fog.

Any help most appreciated!

*coughs*

*points at rule no 2*

 

[Tomat]

Anyone have any tips on

Spoiler

how to defeat the Capra Demon? Having a really hard time with him and not sure what to do. He is killing me within seconds everytime I go through the fog.

Any help most appreciated!

1. Summon someone. (Seriously, I recommend everyone do this unless you're hellbent on going solo)

2. (Early game boss spoilers)

Spoiler

Dodge to the left, and get your ass up those steps. KILL THE DOGS FIRST!

I think you should be able to get it from there, just be careful.

 

[JaseC]

I have a three-pronged question: What character stats are in the game, what do they affect, and how useful are they in respect to different play styles?

 

[mxgt]

Anyone have any tips on

Spoiler

how to defeat the Capra Demon? Having a really hard time with him and not sure what to do. He is killing me within seconds everytime I go through the fog.

Any help most appreciated!

Spoiler

Get to the stairs at all costs, you can pick off the dogs much easier there. once the dogs are dead the Demon itself isn't too much trouble

 

[Sethos]

My question, the cleric is able to cast 'healing miracles' according to the description. Are you able to constantly heal yourself, is it on a slow timer, is it limited or how does it work? Being able to heal yourself sounds appealing.

 

[Tomat]

My question, the cleric is able to cast 'healing miracles' according to the description. Are you able to constantly heal yourself, is it on a slow timer, is it limited or how does it work? Being able to heal yourself sounds appealing.

All spells in game are limited use. You can "reload" your spells by resting at a bonfire.

 

[Sethos]

All spells in game are limited use. You can "reload" your spells by resting at a bonfire.

Ah okay, my plan of spam healing MMO style is out the window then. I'll stick with my Knight for now.

 

[Ledsen]

Spoiler

All spells in game are limited use. You can "reload" your spells by resting at a bonfire.

Is this in the manual? Otherwise it's a spoiler. Yes, this thread is hardcore about this stuff

 

[Tomat]

Is this in the manual? Otherwise it's a spoiler. Yes, this thread is hardcore about this stuff

Just checked, it's in the manual.

I have a three-pronged question: What character stats are in the game, what do they affect, and how useful are they in respect to different play styles?

(Stat spoilers. These aren't in the manual)

Vitality

Spoiler

governs the player's maximum Health points.

Attunement

Spoiler

governs the amount of Spell slots.

Endurance

Spoiler

controls the player's Stamina, max Equip Load and resistance to Bleeding.

Strength

Spoiler

controls the player's Attack Power for weapons that scale with Strength. Strength does NOT affect your weapon swing speed.

Dexterity

Spoiler

controls the player's Attack Power for weapons that scale with Dexterity and increases casting speed for most spells.

Resistance

Spoiler

increases physical and flame defense and resistance to poison. USELESS STAT!!!

Intelligence

Spoiler

governs the Sorcery Power. It also controls the player's attack power for weapons that scale with Intelligence.

Faith

Spoiler

governs the Miracle Power and also increases the Magic Defense. It also controls the player's attack power for weapons that scale with Faith.

Concerning different playstyles:

Spoiler

Certain weapons have certain Strength and Dexterity requirements. Some weapons even require faith I think (I could be wrong here). Dexterity builds are more about being fast and killing your opponents with bleed damage. High strength builds gives you access to bigger weapons which do a great amount of damage but are also slow. There are plenty of inbetween weapons, it's not just fast attack or high damage. Faith and Intelligence are two very different things, and it's probably not best to focus on both of them unless you plan on being a PURE caster. Endurance and vitality are important to all classes up to a certain amount.

Hope this helps a bit, I'm really not the go to person for build advice. There are a lot of builds you can go with in this game.

 

[Ledsen]

Just checked, it's in the manual.

Great

 

[Dascu]

Is there any particular class that is not very well suited for a beginner?

 

[Laughing Banana]

What is the priority stats for a melee-focused character and which one to avoid?

 

[Leezard]

What is the priority stats for a melee-focused character and which one to avoid?

Spoiler

Avoid Resistance.

This applies to all characters though.

 

[Cloudius12]

Is there any particular class that is not very well suited for a beginner?

Spoiler

Deprived

 

[Zeliard]

I'll start with a question of my own: When I start the game, is there any class I should absolutely avoid because it'll make the game even more super hard or frustrating compared to any other class?

Spoiler

Starting classes are meaningful only up to a point and they are mostly only important for their starting equipment. You can ultimately create any build with any class. Some will be easier to start off with than others, i.e. those with attack spells. The Deprived class starts with poor gear so they'd technically be the toughest to use off the bat.

Basically, gear is king, along with certain stats like Endurance. Starting class becomes trivial after a certain amount of levels, and a mistake a lot of newer players make in both Dark and Demon's Souls is to focus far too much on their class when they really have the freedom to go in whichever direction they want.

 

[Speevy]

Avoid farming. You'll get more out of your first run.

 

[Lancehead]

I don't get this thread, am I missing something?

Spoilers for what your primary stats do?!

 

[JaseC]

(Stat spoilers. These aren't in the manual)

Vitality

Spoiler

governs the player's maximum Health points.

Attunement

Spoiler

governs the amount of Spell slots.

Endurance

Spoiler

controls the player's Stamina, max Equip Load and resistance to Bleeding.

Strength

Spoiler

controls the player's Attack Power for weapons that scale with Strength. Strength does NOT affect your weapon swing speed.

Dexterity

Spoiler

controls the player's Attack Power for weapons that scale with Dexterity and increases casting speed for most spells.

Resistance

Spoiler

increases physical and flame defense and resistance to poison. USELESS STAT!!!

Intelligence

Spoiler

governs the Sorcery Power. It also controls the player's attack power for weapons that scale with Intelligence.

Faith

Spoiler

governs the Miracle Power and also increases the Magic Defense. It also controls the player's attack power for weapons that scale with Faith.

Concerning different playstyles:

Spoiler

Certain weapons have certain Strength and Dexterity requirements. Some weapons even require faith I think (I could be wrong here). Dexterity builds are more about being fast and killing your opponents with bleed damage. High strength builds gives you access to bigger weapons which do a great amount of damage but are also slow. There are plenty of inbetween weapons, it's not just fast attack or high damage. Faith and Intelligence are two very different things, and it's probably not best to focus on both of them unless you plan on being a PURE caster. Endurance and vitality are important to all classes up to a certain amount.

Hope this helps a bit, I'm really not the go to person for build advice. There are a lot of builds you can go with in this game.

Great, thanks for the info.

 

[Tomat]

I don't get this thread, am I missing something?

Spoilers for what your primary stats do?!

*shrug* Better safe than sorry I guess. There's one "spoiler" for Resistance, but it's something I think everyone should know.

Dark Souls really is a game that is best when playing blind though. You're right in that stat descriptions aren't really spoilers though.

 

[Zeliard]

I don't get this thread, am I missing something?

Spoilers for what your primary stats do?!

Yeah, seems fairly absurd. The stuff I posted is simultaneously innocuous and important.

 

[Antagon]

What is the priority stats for a melee-focused character and which one to avoid?

Spoiler

Endurance, though that's for all characters. Allows you to wear heavier gear while still rolling fast, attack/block more before running out of stamina. Outside of that, get your strength/dexterity high enough for the weapons you want to use. Fast weapons need higher dexterity, slow weapons strength

The stat explanations from Tomat don't have to be spoilered, as you can get the description from the level up menu.

Another important tip about equipment load that isn't explained in the manual (I think):

Spoiler

Your run/roll speed depends on the equipment load. Under 25% load you can run/roll the fastest, between 25-50% it gets a bit slower, between 50-100% it gets slower again and above 100% you can't run/roll anymore

 

[Ledsen]

I don't get this thread, am I missing something?

Spoilers for what your primary stats do?!

If you want to go in blind, and I do mean BLIND, you wouldn't know that stuff, would you? This thread is for everyone who has a question to ask, even the most hardcore of hardcore "I don't want ANY info" people. My goal is for people to be able to go in here, scroll through, find any info they're looking for/ask a question without getting any additional info they weren't looking for. You can always highlight a spoiler, but you can never un-know something you read. And come on, adding the tags isn't THAT annoying

 

[Lancehead]

If you want to go in blind, and I do mean BLIND, you wouldn't know that stuff, would you? This thread is for everyone who has a question to ask, even the most hardcore of hardcore "I don't want ANY info" people. My goal is for people to be able to go in here, scroll through, find any info they're looking for/ask a question without getting any additional info they weren't looking for. You can always highlight a spoiler, but you can never un-know something you read. And come on, adding the tags isn't THAT annoying

Maybe people should start spoiler-ing the questions not in the manual as well.

 

[Ledsen]

Maybe people should start spoiler-ing the questions not in the manual as well.

obviously if you're asking how to defeat a boss or something you'd have to spoiler it... I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but if you are, why does this bother you so much?

 

[Lancehead]

obviously if you're asking how to defeat a boss or something you'd have to spoiler it... I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but if you are, why does this bother you so much?

I don't ask people to stop doing it. I think some of the spoiler tagging is ridiculous.

 

[Ledsen]

I don't ask people to stop doing it. I think some of the spoiler tagging is ridiculous.

You're free to think whatever you like, and you're free to not read the thread or post in it as well. Look, some people are really bad about not understanding what others may consider a spoiler. This is why OT's are always full of spoilers even if there is a non-spoiler policy. This is especially relevant in the case of Dark Souls, considering what Orayn wrote in the first reply. The best way to ensure that there really are no spoilers is to be strict about it. Highlighting a spoiler takes next to no effort, so I don't see the harm. Is that so hard to understand?

 

[Anteater]

obviously if you're asking how to defeat a boss or something you'd have to spoiler it... I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but if you are, why does this bother you so much?

I don't have anything against a spoiler and spoiler-free thread, but now we have 3 threads on Dark souls (not counting the "I want to give dark souls one last chance" thread for people that just started out), there's also an OT in community (I post there the past week or so when I started and it was not as active as the other one), now there's a one spoiler-free hint one and one for the prepare to die edition, a lot of people are also just starting out and they want to read tips and share hints with each other, I'm half way through the game and I'd like that too, but find this a bit confusing.

Usually there's only 1 thread discussing the game and people tag spoilers appropriately, and usually there's a thread for spoilers/story.

 

[Ledsen]

I don't have anything against a spoiler and spoiler-free thread, but now we have 3 threads on Dark souls (not counting the "I want to give dark souls one last chance" thread for people that just started out), there's also an OT in community (I post there the past week or so when I started and it was not as active as the other one), now there's a one spoiler-free hint one and one for the prepare to die edition, a lot of people are also just starting out and they want to read tips and share hints with each other, I'm half way through the game and I'd like that too, but find this a bit confusing.

Usually there's only 1 thread discussing the game and people tag spoilers appropriately, and usually there's a thread for spoilers/story.

And that's what we have now, except instead of a story spoilers thread there's a gameplay spoiler thread, which is more relevant for this game. The OT in community is the old one, for the console game.

In the end it's up to the mods, but I don't see why we can't have a thread like this or why people would be upset about it.

 

[Anteater]

And that's what we have now. The OT in community is the old one, for the console game.

Which is essentially the same game without the DLCs

I'm not upset about it, I just would find it easier with 1 thread where spoilers are appropriately tagged and another one where people post whatever spoilers they want, which is what you wanted

 

[Ledsen]

Which is essentially the same game without the DLCs

So tell that to the people in the OT, I or this thread have nothing to do with that decision.

 

[zkylon]

This is a great idea (although there's like a horde of Dark Souls threads now lol).

I'm thinking what class to pick. I'd kinda like to try something using a lot of bow & arrow since they seem to really nerfed down magic since Demon's. I'll probably end up doing a bit of everything like I did in DeS.

 

[Anteater]

So tell that to the people in the OT, I or this thread have nothing to do with that decision.

Tell what to them?

 

[Ledsen]

Tell what to them?

that you think two OT's are unnecessary. I don't have any opinion on that. Anyway, let's stop this discussion right here, this isn't really relevant to the thread.

 

[Tomat]

Which is essentially the same game without the DLCs

Of course they're going to make a new OT for the PC version. The Last Shot Dark Souls thread was made a while ago so it's completely valid.

There's usually a spoiler based thread for all games.

I think there is a general BF3 community thread and a console BF3 community thread, so it's not like it hasn't been done before.

You don't need a spoiler tag but fuck dark souls. Seriously, I played that game for 20 hrs (exaggerating) and you wanna know how far I got....barley passed Tarus. To all new players, save yourselves, if you play this game you will pop blood vessels. Stick to demon souls, wayyyy easier.

You have much to learn grasshopper. Be swift, safe, drink plenty of fluids, and run to the stairwell down below!

 

[spiderman123]

You don't need a spoiler tag but fuck dark souls. Seriously, I played that game for 20 hrs (exaggerating) and you wanna know how far I got....barley passed Tarus. To all new players, save yourselves, if you play this game you will pop blood vessels. Stick to demon souls, wayyyy easier.

 

[Zeliard]

Tip: the Souls games are known for their excellent and informative unofficial wikis. If you're simply interested in the basics (starting classes, stats, etc) and don't want to know much else, those are a great spoiler-free resource and you should probably go there first.

 

[Anteater]

Of course they're going to make a new OT for the PC version. The Last Shot Dark Souls thread was made a while ago so it's completely valid.

There's usually a spoiler based thread for all games.

I think there is a general BF3 community thread and a console BF3 community thread, so it's not like it hasn't been done before.



You have much to learn grasshopper. Be swift, safe, drink plenty of fluids, and run to the stairwell down below!

Well as I said I don't mind having 2 threads, I could just pick one and post in that

You don't need a spoiler tag but fuck dark souls. Seriously, I played that game for 20 hrs (exaggerating) and you wanna know how far I got....barley passed Tarus. To all new players, save yourselves, if you play this game you will pop blood vessels. Stick to demon souls, wayyyy easier.

What? I thought people said DeS was more harsh, I didn't find dark souls to be too difficult so far (just finished

Spoiler

anor londo

) and the save points were quite close usually

 

[Sethos]

The very first boss,

Spoiler

the monastery boss mahthingy. Why in my first go did I jump down in his face and take out half his HP and kill him with ease and with every subsequent try the fucking player just jumps down in front him, he smashes me twice before I can even move and dead.

Is there a specific button?

 

[Lancehead]

You're free to think whatever you like, and you're free to not read the thread or post in it as well. Look, some people are really bad about not understanding what others may consider a spoiler. This is why OT's are always full of spoilers even if there is a non-spoiler policy. This is especially relevant in the case of Dark Souls, considering what Orayn wrote in the first reply. The best way to ensure that there really are no spoilers is to be strict about it. Highlighting a spoiler takes next to no effort, so I don't see the harm. Is that so hard to understand?

I perfectly understand what Orayn was saying. The jist of what he said was the things you have to figure out in the game are spoilers. Telling how to beat a boss is certainly a spoiler in a game like Dark Souls, but the notion that telling what Vitality is is also a spoiler, is what I don't understand.

But I withdraw from this argument as it is clearly not productive for the thread.

 

[Anteater]

The very first boss,

Spoiler

the monastery boss mahthingy. Why in my first go did I jump down in his face and take out half his HP and kill him with ease and with every subsequent try the fucking player just jumps down in front him, he smashes me twice before I can even move and dead.

Is there a specific button?

The attack button? Or do you mean you pressed attack and it wasn't working?

 

[Zeliard]

The very first boss,

Spoiler

the monastery boss mahthingy. Why in my first go did I jump down in his face and take out half his HP and kill him with ease and with every subsequent try the fucking player just jumps down in front him, he smashes me twice before I can even move and dead.

Is there a specific button?

The attack button

 

[Tomat]

The very first boss,

Spoiler

the monastery boss mahthingy. Why in my first go did I jump down in his face and take out half his HP and kill him with ease and with every subsequent try the fucking player just jumps down in front him, he smashes me twice before I can even move and dead.

Is there a specific button?

Just press the attack button.

 

[Forkball]

So what does humanity do? What's the difference between be human and being in hollow form? What does kindling flames do? Also one time there was a room with a bonfire, and when I turned around there was some white smog on it that I couldn't pass. Eventually it went away. What gives?

 

[Sethos]

The attack button? Or do you mean you pressed attack and it wasn't working?

Yes, sorry, that's what I meant. I pressed attack the first time, it worked. Now I've retried 3 times and he just lands in front of him.

 

[Anteater]

So what does humanity do? What's the difference between be human and being in hollow form? What does kindling flames do? Also one time there was a room with a bonfire, and when I turned around there was some white smog on it that I couldn't pass. Eventually it went away. What gives?

Humanity turns you back into human at the bonfire (players could invade you when you're in human form), and kindling it requires humanity which will increase the Estus Flasks you could hold by 5 at that camp.

Yes, sorry, that's what I meant. I pressed attack the first time, it worked. Now I've retried 3 times and he just lands in front of him.

Weird, try pressing it earlier, you should see your character does the slash animation and the damage I think is from you falling on the enemy with the sword pointed at it.

 

[Zeliard]

One tip that would be criminal to spoiler tag is to let people know not to use Fire Keeper Souls as consumables. They have another, much more important use.

 

[Fistwell]

Stick to demon souls, wayyyy easier.

That's highly arguable. I honestly would be hard pressed to say which of the two i feel is the more difficult game. If anything, the consensus is probably that dark souls actually is easier, due to the network of bond-fires. Difficulty of bosses is subjective and depends on your build to a large extent. Personally, I don't recall anything in dark souls that put up as much of a fight as

Spoiler

man eater

for example (although

Spoiler

capra demon

came close). If you had no problem with demons souls, i wouldn't expect you to have too much trouble making progress in dark souls. What was the exact problem you were having?