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[Gaaraz]

That's brilliant, thank you so much for the tips guys! I love the idea of either a moon or crescent weapon that scales along with my magic - means I won't have to compromise too much when switching between melee and spells Or holding out for the Crescent Falchion at 4-1 could also be an option I guess.

I wasn't planning on going for miracles, but second chance sounds like it could be useful (though also taking away some of the challenge) - I guess it'd take up another spell slot and require higher intelligence? I need to look at the different spells to figure out which ones to use (something powerful but also fun would be good... the starting spell is kinda boring)

Interesting that you've both recommended vitality and endurance, since I was planning on completely neglecting those! Sounds like there's a lot for me to consider, I'd like to avoid any grinding or farming where possible - though I'd be happy to do it if I got completely stuck on a particular boss. Thanks again!

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I wasn't planning on going for miracles, but second chance sounds like it could be useful (though also taking away some of the challenge) - I guess it'd take up another spell slot and require higher intelligence?

Nah not in this game, miracles are only affected by faith. If you increase faith, I think to 10 or 12 (I forgot) you get 1 miracle slot, if you increase it to 16 you get 2 slots, so you can cast Second Chance, which requires 2 slots. Then you can stop there since all other miracles are kind of garbage, unless you are going for a faith build of course (blessed weapons, upgraded by Faintstone, are possibly even better than moon/crescent, as they do magic damage, scale with faith, and have HP regen -- but the flipside is that you can't really cast any good spells beyond SC).

Interesting that you've both recommended vitality and endurance, since I was planning on completely neglecting those! Sounds like there's a lot for me to consider, I'd like to avoid any grinding or farming where possible - though I'd be happy to do it if I got completely stuck on a particular boss. Thanks again!

Sure, no prob.
And yes for melee builds VIT and END are very important. VIT increases your health pool so things won't one- or two-shot you, and END increases your stamina which gives you more attacks/dodges/blocks etc.

 

[Gaaraz]

Nah not in this game, miracles are only affected by faith. If you increase faith, I think to 10 or 12 (I forgot) you get 1 miracle slot, if you increase it to 16 you get 2 slots, so you can cast Second Chance, which requires 2 slots. Then you can stop there since all other miracles are kind of garbage, unless you are going for a faith build of course (blessed weapons, upgraded by Faintstone, are possibly even better than moon/crescent, as they do magic damage, scale with faith, and have HP regen -- but the flipside is that you can't really cast any good spells beyond SC).

Thanks, I may level enough to get second chance and stop there, do you think even that is worth it though?

Sure, no prob.

And yes for melee builds VIT and END are very important. VIT increases your health pool so things won't one- or two-shot you, and END increases your stamina which gives you more attacks/dodges/blocks etc.

Sounds good, thank you - extra VIT would certainly be helpful against the Tower Knight... I'm getting destroyed!

I also find it somewhat frustrating that you lose your souls when you die, unless you get back to the blood pool... I had to quit last night because it was getting late, so I guess those souls are gone forever now.

 

[Red Liquorice]

Try not to run around in new areas with too many souls to avoid losing them if you die before you get back to your bloodstain. After a boss say, go back and spend them on leveling up. Your last bloodstain is saved, so it will still be there even though you turned off the system.

You're at the Tower Knight, did you go straight from the Phallanx (1-1) to the next area of Boletaria (1-2)? If so, you might want to explore the other archstones back at the Nexus as they are all now open after defeating the Phallanx boss.

Area 2-1 (Stonefang Tunnel) is especially useful as it is full of upgrade materials which should help you with the Tower Knight

 

[Gaaraz]

Thanks! That's really good news that the bloodstain will stay there - but I guess if I die, I'm screwed... so this should be fun!

I did use the archstone to level up thanks, I also (painstakingly) defeated the dragon so I ended up with lots of souls, but stupidly I've spent them before reading the replies here so I have a lot in magic and strength (trying to equip an awesome new shield I have).

I didn't realise I could go straight to 2-1, that's awesome - thanks I'll give that a try before taking on the Tower Knight again!

 

[Morrigan Stark]

It might not be worth levelling up faith to 16 just now, to be honest. It's stupidly good for PvP but for a first build playing PvE you don't necessarily want it. I wouldn't worry about it for now.

 

[Gaaraz]

Brilliant, thank you I'll avoid it for now, especially since I can't see me doing any P2P any time soon (if ever)

 

[Gaaraz]

Just wondering, are there any particular weapons you guys would recommend? Focusing on vitality, dexterity and magic for the most part. Definitely like the idea of the crescent weapons, but using a Scimitar and Soldiers Shield at the moment. Just taken down the Tower Knight so have lots of souls to spend

Going to try to learn Soul Ray and Fire Spray asap... They sound like the most useful spells at least!

 

[Gaaraz]

This game is so tense Just found sage freke, went to the ground floor (there was a large magic caster there who couldn't move) trying to find the key, and fell to my death

Knowing you can die at any time really ramps up the tension, and trying to get back to recover my souls even more so...

 

[Red Liquorice]

Latria is a great area, one of the most atmospheric in the whole series.

As for weapon recommendations, Morrigan or others might have more specific recommendations but I always say go with whatever weapon you like the moveset of. There's a lot of weapons but they're all viable really, it depends what you like and what moveset gels with your style of play.

You can make any regular weapon into a crescent weapon (or any other upgrade path like fire, bleeding etc). If you like the Scimitar the cresent falchion in 4-1 is a similar weapon that is already ascended to cresent so that's convenient. I don't personally like the curved swords class in any Souls games, the moveset just isn't my style, but I admit I have used the cresent falchion a lot in Demon's Souls since it's usually better than anything else you can get so early in the game, so if you like curved swords I agree go for that asap

 

[Morrigan Stark]

The falchion is a better version of the scimitar though, so he should stick with that or use the kilij (which is the better tier still). All three have the same moveset, but the kilij is the one with the more range and power (with slightly higher stat requirements).

But it's true that you should just pick the weapon you like the moveset the most.

 

[Gaaraz]

Latria is a great area, one of the most atmospheric in the whole series.

As for weapon recommendations, Morrigan or others might have more specific recommendations but I always say go with whatever weapon you like the moveset of. There's a lot of weapons but they're all viable really, it depends what you like and what moveset gels with your style of play.

You can make any regular weapon into a crescent weapon (or any other upgrade path like fire, bleeding etc). If you like the Scimitar the cresent falchion in 4-1 is a similar weapon that is already ascended to cresent so that's convenient. I don't personally like the curved swords class in any Souls games, the moveset just isn't my style, but I admit I have used the cresent falchion a lot in Demon's Souls since it's usually better than anything else you can get so early in the game, so if you like curved swords I agree go for that asap

Agreed - it's actually really creepy, and very tense. Especially since those weird guys with the lanterns can absolutely destroy me in a couple of hits with their paralysis spell and then grabbing me.

Good shout on the movesets and styles of blades - I've only tried the rapier which I loved at first since you can use it whilst still holding your shield, and a two handed bastard sword which felt a little slow... I generally like to roll around a bit in combat and then just wildly swing, so i sounds like the crescent falchion could be perfect.

The falchion is a better version of the scimitar though, so he should stick with that or use the kilij (which is the better tier still). All three have the same moveset, but the kilij is the one with the more range and power (with slightly higher stat requirements).

But it's true that you should just pick the weapon you like the moveset the most.

Thank you! I'll try to get the Falchion asap then, I'll do 4-1 as soon as I've completed 3-1 and rescued Sage Freke. I'll then try to get Kilij as my end game weapon

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Well I'd only suggest the kilij if you like the moveset of course.

 

[Gaaraz]

Thank you. I'll experiment with some different weapons, but I definitely like the idea of avoiding the enemy's attack and then mashing the attack button for lots of quick/rapid attacks

 

[Morrigan Stark]

If you like quick weapons you might want to try the uchigatana too (found in the same area as the kilij, both are

Spoiler

in 4-1 past the first fog

, you'll find them easily if you just explore everywhere). It's pretty fast and has superior range to the kilij (though the kilij is faster), and I generally prefer the moveset, especially one-handed, but it's a bit heavier and has slightly higher stat requirements (IIRC 18 strength and 14 dex).

My magic/melee hybrid used a moon katana as backup for my spell-flinging, it was fun.

 

[Gaaraz]

That's great, thanks again Morrigan. Another failed attempt to rescue Sage Freke last night! Tempted to go straight to 4-1 now instead to get the uchigatana and kilij Will experiment with both movesets and see which I prefer, have to say the uchigatana looks amazing.

 

[heebusjeebus]

I'm left with needing a Pure Darkmoonstone from the crystal lizards in Shrine of Storms.
The lizard by the archdemon wont re-spawn for me and I know there are 2 more by the final boss area.
What's the trick in reloading a level to keep them re-spawning until the Pure drops?

 

[Gaaraz]

Love this game, but I am spectacularly bad at it - almost 9 hours in and I've managed to complete only 1-1, 2-1 and rescued Sage Freke.

Two failed attempts at taking down the 3-1 boss so far, but I have a good feeling about tonight! Thanks again all for your advice and tips

 

[Tuck]

Love this game, but I am spectacularly bad at it - almost 9 hours in and I've managed to complete only 1-1, 2-1 and rescued Sage Freke.

Two failed attempts at taking down the 3-1 boss so far, but I have a good feeling about tonight! Thanks again all for your advice and tips

Honestly, don't worry about that. It took me something like 5 hours to beat the first level. Then another 5 to finally beat a second level (Tried 2-1, then went to 1-2, then back to 2-1, then 3-1, then 4-1, then finally settled on 2-1 and beat it).

After that though the rest of the game was considerably faster, cause I finally knew what I was doing. Dark Souls, afterwards, was also not so bad overall because there wasn't that initial learning curve to deal with.

 

[Gaaraz]

Thank you! Glad it's not just me

But you're right, each time I play it I feel like I 'get' it a little more. I've had some cheap deaths no doubt, but all of them could have been avoided in some way if I had either been a little more patient, not rushed through, and also being well prepared (items, equipment, level) helps a lot too.

 

[Gaaraz]

I play online co-op with a friend regularly, and this game would be right up his street - before we go ahead and buy a copy on PC, am I right in thinking the co-op options are very flakey? I've heard about dropping a stone multiple times to get backup from a friend, but am I right in thinking that as soon as one of us dies, we'd have to go through that again? (sounds very time consuming, and potentially frustrating)

 

[Red Liquorice]

When either you or a co-op partner dies, or you complete that areas boss all multiplayer ties are cut and yes one of you would have to put down your summon sign again in order to start co-op.

You can only do co-op in areas where the host hasn't killed the boss btw. The system might seem a little frustrating for people wanting to do full co-op runs together, but it really isn't designed specifically for that. The main thing about multiplayer in Souls games is the random element of co-oping and pvping with strangers, it's more built for that but that doesn't mean you can't co-op it all with a friend, it just means going through the game together so you both have access to the same areas. Later games introduced password or other mechanics to make them a bit more co-op friendly for those wanting to play with friends rather than just randoms.

On the plus side you can co-op in each others worlds since any progress you make as the host isn't so for the summoned player - that is if you are the host and kill the boss, your co-op buddy will still have to kill the boss in his world, so he can then summon you to help. So you could play it like that, helping each other as you both progress.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

buy a copy on PC

??
I have bad news...

 

[Gaaraz]

That's twice I've done that now - that was supposed to go in the Dark Souls thread! Sorry.

Thanks for the explanation Red Liquorice, sounds like it has potential, but I wonder if we're better off sticking to games actually designed for co-op. Saying that, we're playing through LotR: War in the North at the moment and it isn't very good, which was what got me thinking about the Souls games.

If we both end up with one of the same Souls games on PC though we'll definitely give it a try, from your post it seems like it'd be fun to play together, despite the initial hassles.

 

[Gaaraz]

Finally managed to kills Fools Idol and rescue Sage Freke. Learnt Soul Ray but didn't have enough capacity to remember it, went to level up intelligence and accidentally landed on Sage Freke from a very small distance - he stated attacking me and now I think I'm screwed Argh!

 

[Morrigan Stark]

...Ouch. Yeah you're screwed for his spells, that's for sure. No pardoner in this game, sadly.

 

[Flipyap]

Got this dumb thing earlier today, to prove that I officially do not value my own time:

My second Souls Platinum trophy. I needed some way to spice things up on my third playthrough, so I chose to dive deep into the whole mess of Tendency manipulation, duping and cold-blooded murder. While it wasn't nearly as painful as wading through the Defiled Chalice, it was a pretty darn silly and confusing grind.
I did, however, gain a new appreciation for achievements/trophies. It's fun to be able to trace back my whole roller coaster of a love affair with this game and series.

Trophies! They're like a diary that keeps itself.

May 2013 - The game was on PS+ at the time, decided give it a try. Killed Phalanx, Armor Spider and Tower Knight by shooting soul arrows in their general direction, predictably lost interest and never learned how to play it properly.

June 2014 - Decided to give it another shot (after playing a bit of Dark Souls - until the first bell, if I remember correctly), this time as a pure-ish DEX Uchigatana character (pure-ish, because I don't think I was brave enough to face the Tower Knight's ankles head-on just yet). Enjoying it more this time. Killed Adjudicator, Fool's Idol, Flamelurker, Dragon God, Leechmonger, Maneater, Old Monk... hit the swampy brick wall (5-2) and gave up.

March 24th 2015 - Shortly after randomly catching the Storm King fight on twitch. I thought it looked so inventive and surprising, it motivated me to git gudder. Chewed through Old Hero, Storm King, Dirty Colossus, Maiden Astraea, had to settle with maxing out my backup Quality Uchigatana due to Bladestone shortages, one-shotted the final boss

Spoiler

(well, final-ish, and at the cost of a few levels)

and so the world was mended.

March 25th 2015 - Started a new career in Yharnam Town.

 

[Gaaraz]

Excellent stuff, nice one Flipyap!

I'm currently on 5-2 and hating every single minute of it. Getting to the end of this level should be a platinum trophy in itself

 

[Red Liquorice]

Well done Flipyap!

How long were you farming in 4-2 for that pure bladestone?!

 

[funkystudent]

Finally playing this and I am enjoying it.

I played all the previous Souls games so this is interesting. The menus dont really explain anything. No "press select to explain this thing" button ether. Thank god I have Dark Souls experience otherwise I would be completely lost.


Trying to decide what weapons I want to start levelling up though. I got that super magic semitar from 4-1 but I hate those kinds of swords so ill switch it out soon. Maybe for the Ugi? I used that for most of my Dark 1 run. Maybe go Ugikatana + some kind of blunt weapon?

Got 1-1, 1-2 and 2-1 done. I feel like I am over that early game hump finally and can play a little more loose.


Also I got zero idea what the world tendency stuff does. Do I need to care if I aint going for a plat?

 

[Red Liquorice]

There is a similar early game good weapon in 5-1

Spoiler

Blessed Mace

if you don't like the one from 4-1 (I agree, I don't like curved swords in Souls either).

Tendency stuff has some nice side-questy type extras, but you're only missing a few extra items and NPCs/phantoms if you don't do it. Since it's not really explained in game, I feel it's something you wouldn't see in your first playthrough any way unless using a guide, something for NG+ maybe.

Basically:
Towards Pure White WT: Kill a boss, a black phantom or primeval demon (they only appear in Black WT so probably haven't seen them yet, they look a bit like the thing in DS1 guarding Power Within).

Towards Pure Black WT: die in human form in a world or kill any of the body-form NPCs who only show up in white world tendency.

There are a few changes and NPC interactions at both PW and PB that usually result in unique loot and sometimes new parts of a level becoming accessible (the locked gate at the start of 1-1 for example). After killing a boss you regain human form, so when going for white tendency people usually go back to the Nexus and jump off a high ledge to get back to soul form so they don't die in a world which would send tendency towards black. Deaths in the Nexus don't count towards world tendency.

There is also character tendency that also has a couple of events and changes, this changes from killing black phantoms (towards white) or NPCs (towards black).

I think it's worth doing all the events and possible to do them all in a single NG, but it would be difficult to do on a first playthrough without slaving over a guide. By killing every boss in a world and never dying in human form (other than the Nexus) you will definately get every world to Pure White without really trying.

Sorry for wall of text!

 

[funkystudent]

OK. All the world 1's are done as well as 1-2 and 2-2. Fuck 2-2 and it's tunnel maze lava bullshit.



Still haven't decided what I want to do weapon wise but I think now is time to get off the crecent curved sword or double down on it.

I have starts pretty even in Str, dex and magic so I should finally just pick a path.


Still thinking Uchi since I like the move set but I can't decide on the upgrade path. Would C C quality scalling be better then single A scailing crecent?

 

[RedSwirl]

Thinking about a new build. I never really knew what I was doing with my first character and ended up making an odd jack-of-all-trades knight.

I'm thinking I wanna go STR this time around. Endurance too. Don't know if I'll stick with shields (I haven't played a Souls game without one, don't own a PS4 so I don't have Bloodborne). Greatswords and halberds maybe? Fuck magic. Mostly PvE.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Thinking about a new build. I never really knew what I was doing with my first character and ended up making an odd jack-of-all-trades knight.

I'm thinking I wanna go STR this time around. Endurance too. Don't know if I'll stick with shields (I haven't played a Souls game without one, don't own a PS4 so I don't have Bloodborne). Greatswords and halberds maybe? Fuck magic. Mostly PvE.

Strength builds are very strong. You can the temple knight and start with the halberd, but as soon as you find a claymore or a mirdan hammer, you can replace your halberd and wreck shit up (the MH has the same moveset as the halberd, but scales better with strength, and has blunt damage which works best against some enemies like skeletons).

And if you can get Pure White World Tendency in world 2, you can obtain the Dragon Bone Smasher, the strongest weapon in the game with an insanely good moveset.

 

[funkystudent]

Yo.. Fuck the Valley of defilement.

Swamp is killing my "LOLROLL" strategy.

 

[themidnightsun156]

Yo.. Fuck the Valley of defilement.

Swamp is killing my "LOLROLL" strategy.

yeah the valley of defilement sucks soooo much, it took me far less tries with 5-2 than it did with 5-1 though,

Spoiler

at least the the bosses are pretty easy

as for me i just beat the game tonight and started gravity rush remastered right afterwards

Spoiler

the final boss was so piss easy, even easier than the first boss in boletaria, even if i was not leveled up i could have destroyed the last boss with ease

all in all demons souls is quite an amazing game, no regrets picking it up and will probably play it again one day, i have dark souls waiting but after playing bloodborne and demons souls back to back i need to take a break from the formula

 

[RedSwirl]

I don't remember the Ring of Great Strength being this much trouble to get.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Sadly I lost my characters when my PS3 died. I'll miss my perfected adept Dex build the most, but I suppose I can rebuild her... stronger, better, etc.

Strength builds are very strong. You can the temple knight and start with the halberd, but as soon as you find a claymore or a mirdan hammer, you can replace your halberd and wreck shit up (the MH has the same moveset as the halberd, but scales better with strength, and has blunt damage which works best against some enemies like skeletons).

And if you can get Pure White World Tendency in world 2, you can obtain the Dragon Bone Smasher, the strongest weapon in the game with an insanely good moveset.

Still waiting for you to try Folklore.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I have a huge backlog

 

[cj_iwakura]

I have a huge backlog

Move it to the top of the list. You'll thank me.

 

[funkystudent]

Spitting distance until the end now. Also thr platinum seems pretty realistic if you don't mind dupping boss souls and grinding out the pure bladestone.

Tempted.



How messed up is that bladestone drop rate?

 

[Red Liquorice]

You could be there half an hour, you could be there half a day. I did it in 40 mins my last time, I think the most I've ever had was a couple of hours. Doooo iiiiiittttt!

 

[v1n1c1uS]

OK, So I have a huge backlog of games and with the proximity of DS3 release I will give another shot to the souls game that I didn't finished.

I bought Demons close to release date (have the black label version), played but never finished.

Something similar happened to Dark Souls 1(seems to have a consensus it's the best of series)

In April of 2014 i finished Dark Souls 2 and May of last year finished Bloodborne(still have to play teh Bloodborne DLC as well).

So before playing Dark Souls 3, I decided to give another shot to Demons e and Dark Souls 1

Since I will not have much time to explore and make a progress route by myself, to finished these two before release date of DS3 (don't know if I can honestly).

Any tips of progress route in Demons?

 

[RedSwirl]

What's a good spear to start upgrading?

 

[Morrigan Stark]

What's a good spear to start upgrading?

Winged spear is the only decent one, to be honest. If you're a dex build, upgrade with bladestone (good luck getting the pure -_-), if a quality (dex/str) build, upgrade with clearstone, if magic build, upgrade with moonlight stone.

Spears are kind of meh in this game though. Good for turtling but low damage output. Just a heads-up.

Any tips of progress route in Demons?

Not sure what you mean. Depends on too many things like what kind of build/playstyle you're going for. If you tell me that, then I can suggest you an "optimal" progression route to get the gear/items/spells/etc. you'd want.

 

[RedSwirl]

Winged spear is the only decent one, to be honest. If you're a dex build, upgrade with bladestone (good luck getting the pure -_-), if a quality (dex/str) build, upgrade with clearstone, if magic build, upgrade with moonlight stone.

Spears are kind of meh in this game though. Good for turtling but low damage output. Just a heads-up.

I'm just using one as a secondary weapon for specific situations like turtling and tight corridors.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Gotcha. Yeah it's good in those situations.

 

[v1n1c1uS]

Already started with Royal Class(Soul Arrow makes Boletarian Palace easy).

I'm thinking magic ranged attacks with melee as a secondary choice, it was what I did in Dark Souls 2

By game progress route I mean which order is a good route. (1-1,1-2, etc...)

 

[Tarkus]

I'm just using one as a secondary weapon for specific situations like turtling and tight corridors.

I was going to recommend the Estoc because it does everything better than spears, but I can't remember where in Latria it is. I seem to recall it being a weird drop from the prisoners.

 

[Soulhouf]

What's a good spear to start upgrading?

I love the Istarelle for my faith build. Best spear in the game if you ask me. Weights like a feather and offers great resistance against poison and plague. The only problem is the upgrade material.