Dark Souls Discussion [Prepare to Die]

Yeh, those Hollow Thieves are bitches. Best attack I found was to block their attacks, then RT them when they're stunned. Usually kills them or takes off a lot of their health.

Having trouble beating the Wolf at the moment. Tried using my Black Knight Sword +1, but it's too slow, even though it does a lot of damage. Trying the Drake Sword again, as it's the most powerful light sword I have with me, but I'm still getting owned. Maybe I'm not light enough, I dunno. It still sucks, though.

 

I've figured out why I struggled with this game so much. I was just playing like an idiot.

I've gotten the hang of combat, I've learned to be a lot more patient and I'm figuring out each enemy's weakness pretty fast, so I'm not nearly dying as much. I've also discovered my love for archery, so I've started a new game because my stats were too spread out and I had killed the merchant.

I'm doing pretty well now. I'm wrecking everything that stands before me, my character is pretty solid, and I'm having a much better time than I used to.

Also, because of some messing up with the game shipping last week, Gamestop sent me a free copy of the strategy guide. I'm not opening it until I'm finished with the game, but it's cool to have.

 

If you're into archery, I'll mention that poison arrows will be your best friends. They're good for whittling down larger targets from a distance if you haven't got the strength to face them full-powered. Just fire a few into them until they get poisoned and watch their health drop, then run in and finish them off.

Usually, an enemy will lose around 500+ health before the poison wears off. Not sure if your bow strength affects the damage of the poison, but I use a Long Bow +5 and that's usually always the result I get.

 

I decided to **** around in the depths a bit, went down to face the Capra demon. I literally just walked through the fog and he one hit me. Twice.

Any advice?

 

Yeah, I got him. I walked in, dodged immediately to the right to avoid his first attack, and one hit his dog. His second dog kept dodging me, so I used the stairs as much as possible. It was the closest boss battle I've ever done, because I ran down there immediately after beating the bell gargoyles, so I only had one estus flask the whole battle, and he had me at about 2% health when he died. **** was close.

I've gotten so much more patient at the game, so instead of rusing a boss and dying twice, then raging and leaving it for a while, I keep going back to figure out their exact strengths and weaknesses.

Thank **** for those stairs.

 

When I fought the wolf, I had almost max stamina and a shield that blocked 100% of physical damage. From there, it was just a matter of blocking his attacks, then getting under him to get some hits in with my Drake Sword. He backs off several times after attacking, which gives you time to regen your stamina for the next attack. The trick is to keep enough stamina left while attacking to block an attack, because the damage will bleed over to your health if his attack "breaks" your stamina. Actually, that's the key to fighting most enemies, assuming your shield is decent. I only wish you regenerated some stamina when you do damage so you could keep attacking when you have the upper hand. It sucks when I have to back off while my attacks are causing my opponent to flinch.

P.S. The Tomb of Giants is bad news bears, and I wouldn't advise going in there. RIP my 25+ humanity and 30k+ souls.

 

Yeh, I've tanked up a bit since I last went there but I don't have max stamina. I have a +7 or +8 Hollow Shield which blocks 100% of damage, but certain enemies attacks still take it out of my Stamina. I'm actually working on my Vitality and Strength at the moment; got my Strength at about 36 and Vitality is slowly working its way up and is now at 20. It would be good to work on Endurance as well, but it seems to level up so slowly. I'm at level 54 right now, and just got to Anor Londo and cleared out the Painted World area. After I finish there I'm probably going to go back and annihilate the Wolf.

And with regards to the Tomb of the Giants, you get there by entering the Catacombs under the graveyard at Firelink Shrine, don't you? Just for future reference so I don't stumble in there by mistake and lose a tonne of loot.

Ooh, also, my story for the day, was playing the other day and had three people attempt to invade my game, but for some reason they couldn't connect. Which was probably a good thing, because I was in Blighttown at the time and had very little Estus in my possession, so I probably would have been raped. Still, would have been cool to see how my character would have fared in a PvP. I found a Red Soapstone in the Painted World, which... (don't read spoiler if you want to find out about it for yourself)

Spoiler

allows me to be summoned into someone elses world to have a PvP, but I don't know how willing anyone would be to let me invade them. Has anyone used this item, and if so what were the results?

 

You find the Tomb of Giants after you beat the boss of the Catacombs area under Firelink. You'll recognize it by the pitch black darkness with little colored lights attempting to guide you along a path.

Spoiler

The boss gives you the Rite of Kindling, allowing you to kindle bonfires further to increase your Estus capacity even more. I thought he was a pushover, but the path getting to him gave me a little trouble. After you beat him, you go up a ladder and the Tomb of Giants is in front of you, but you can double back over the "coffin" lid and find a tunnel that leads back to the path you took to get there.

 

Wow. Just wow.

I was moving through the game super slowly. Like, super. Didn't plan on finishing the depths and going to blighttown for AGES.

Anyway, get to the bonfire behind the locked door after all those slimes. See a summon sign for a dude. Summon him. He leads me all around the depths, kicking enemies asses, getting me shitloads of items, and then brings me to the Gaping Dragon. We absolutely annhilate it. Just before the boss battle, we got invaded by some dude, who the summon quickly backstabbed. Got me an extra 6000 souls. On top of that, he cut off the dragons tail, getting me that insane axe.

I ****ing adore this game.

 

The last time I played, I was still in Anor Londo and had just found a bonfire. Reverted to human, kindled the flame to get 10 Estus Flasks. Running around trying to complete the level, someone invades my game. Ab. So. Lute. Ly. Rapes. Me. Had some kind of shockwave spell or something that destroyed my health bar. So I went up close for some melee action. He whips out this massive greatsword and starts swinging it around like it's a foam bat. Bam, dead.

Get revived, figure I'll hand out some punishment of my own, so I go back to human and try to invade someones game. Doesn't work. Use another orb thing. Doesn't work. I figure I'm standing in the wrong spot, so I move onto a higher platform and try again. Waste my last orb, enraged me decides to use my Red Soapstone to see if someone will do it the honourable way. Try it a few times and nothing happens. Get pissed off and decide to play normally, bam, get invaded again. Some Mage asshole in phantom form (so I can't lock onto him) comes in and wipes the floor with me by using some kind of AOE pyromancy on me, destroys my health again, somehow manages to get behind me and backstabs my last bit of health before I could use my Estus.

I'm never going human again. :\

 

I'm just about to go into Sen's Fortress with my lvl 43 Wanderer ... Gold Hemmed armour, Drake Sword+2 and Caduceus Shield+1 ... also wearing the Wolf Ring to increase poise to 40 and the ring that nets you some HP when you kill something. Had Havels ring on (who was lol to kill) but it isn't necessary since i'm not wearing the Elite Knight Armour any more (gold hemmed armour is loads lighter).

I need to decide whether i want to go and rape Sen now, or use the sneaky back entrance into Darkroot Garden (ladder at the waterfall next to the Hydra).

I had a little look around the Demon Ruins but it looks like i'm gonna get raped for even being there, so I killed the Ceaseless Discharge and fled.

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Most invaders like that are easy if you've got the Drake Sword ... make sure you block their initial attacks and then dual-wield the sword. Use the strong attack and you knock the invader down straight away. Just keep knocking them down and they'll die pretty sharpish. It totally breaks the sword though, so make sure you have a repairbox and go straight to a bonfire after so you can fix it.

 

I've only been invaded twice. Once was the time I listed in the last post, where the poor unfortunate invaded my world while I had a guy summoned. The second time was a little after that, and I beat him too. I used a fire spell first off, sapped his health, let him get at me with his sword until I thought he was low in stamina, then went all out. Wrecked him.

Anyway, about being Human. It brings so much more to the game. For me, anyways, it appears things like bloodstains are a lot more common when you're human, or have a high humanity. On top of that, I absolutely ADORE summoning dudes in to help me rape. It always goes incredibly well, and I gain lots from it.

Anywayfaic, last night, from a combination of running with dudes, grinding a little and a couple of invasions (I had a shitload of those red eye orbs, and most of them failed, but a couple worked), I ended up, somehow, with 25 humanity. Which I did not want to lose.

First off, I needed a dragon scale, so I headed into the valley of drakes and killed the undead dragon. Seriously, he's a *****. Go buy 100 arrows and just stand beside him and shoot. He doesn't react.

Then i equipped a ring of sacrifice and went to test how powerful wyverns were. Thank **** I was wearing that ring.

I then headed into Darkroot. Killed the Black Knight, got the grass shield, killed some enemies, ran away like a ***** from some Crystal Golems (Thanks Vice), and then headed into a fog door, expecting a boss.

What I did get was a large area ****ing filled with Stone Golems, who cast magic to slow you down. After killing most of them, and a load of ents, I only had one estus flask left, but I heard the Moonlit Butterfly boss was ***** easy. So I broke the flower thing, summoned that witch and headed up. The thing one hit me.

I was supposed to lend it to a friend in school today. Had it in my bag. When I was about to give it to him, I had an epiphany. I just said "**** it, you can't have it, I want my Humanity back". Once I get to my xbox, I'm getting that Humanity back.

But if those Stone Golems respawn, I'm seriously screwed.

 

They do. But assuming I know where you are talking about, if you hug the left wall of the forest, you can avoid all but the last Stone Knight. Just make sure to avoid the tree with vines in the back corner.

 

Those stone golems are pretty easy if you have a shield that blocks 100% damage. You just need to circle around them, and only attack when their attack animation is finishing, because sometimes they'll do a massive swing that goes behind them, so if you're not blocking it'll catch you on the back swing. Also, try to only get them one at a time. The ents in the ground can be hit to make them pop up, and then draw them away into clearer ground and to also not wake up any more golems.

It is also important to keep yourself in that first little entrance bit near the illuminated flower, just in case you die so you can easily recover lost souls and humanity without having to trudge through more enemies to get it back.

I actually used that area as my biggest grind spot before I could afford to go into the forest area through the sealed doors. If you kill all the enemies in that little area you rack up about 2000 souls, plus a lot of red, purple and blooming purple moss clumps, which come in very handy down in Blighttown.

 

Those crystal golems are incredibly soft, they're totally slow too so they're an easy 250/300 souls ... buy the Caduceus shield from the blacksmith in the parish, that has 100% block.

 

Holy ****. I don't know if I've tanked my character up too much or if the scaling of this boss is off, but I just beat Seath the Scaleless and he was a total pushover. I went into the room where he was (it's in the bottom of the Crystal Cave, by the way, not the top of the Duke's Archives), not knowing what to expect because all I could see was a bunch of mist on the ground, and he came in with his fancy little intro animation, and I pooed a little because he smashed me up in the tower.

Not so this time. I just ran around him as he tried to attack me with the ground spikes (there's a safe zone to either side of him) and laid into his tails. Didn't take me long to kill him, and his defense attacks were easily blocked. When his health got to the lower end of his health bar he tried to continue facing me to do his little spike attack again, but I kept doing the sprint attack and finished him quite easily. Thought it would take me a few tries to beat him but I did it first go.

And while I'm on the subject of pushover bosses, that Pinwheel thing was a piece of cake too. Laughable as a boss, literally took me about four hits to beat it. I had more trouble beating the Skeletons on the way to his chamber. Here's hoping the bosses after these guys are actually challenging.

 

Ok guys ... i'm stuck on Smough and Orenstein. I can thrash the normal sized dude in the gold armour, but i keep getting pumelled by the huge one with the hammer before I can finish either off.

Does anyone have a good strategy for separating them or something?

I'm SL55 using a Lighning Spear+3 wearing a combo of Havels armour, gold trimmed armour and black iron armour, toting the Blood Shield. Also have Havels ring and the ring of Steel Protection.

 

I'd suggest wearing all Gold-Trimmed armour for mobilitys sake, and getting a strong bow and lots of arrows, about 500 just to be safe (you can buy normal arrows from the guy across the broken bridge in Sen's Fortress for 10 souls each).

Beat Ornstein as you would normally, but try to keep him as far away from Smough as possible, which will stop him from cheaply hitting you while you're busy with Orn. Don't bother hitting Smough, because once you beat him and he absorbs Orns power, his health will regen.

After you've beaten Orn, try and situate yourself between Smough and one of the broken pillars. Stay close enough so that he will try to attack you, but not so far away that he will try to walk around the pillar - basically lock-on distance. You will need to learn his attack patterns to figure out when you need to back away far enough or dodge back so that he can't hit you, but if you've done everything correctly, he should try to attack you through the pillar, and you can basically load him full of arrows by locking-on and firing (no need to go first-person). Every now and then he will try to walk around it, but that's when you go in slightly so he'll try to attack, and you re-position yourself so the pillar is between you and him again. Sometimes you'll have to go to a new one because he somehow gets around it, but this is a viable strategy that allowed me to beat them.

If you're still having trouble though, try summoning someone (or two) to help you beat them. I got stuck on this one for a while and was getting frustrated with it, but once I figured it out and beat it the game got so much better from then on. Hope this helps.

 

I bought this game a week or two ago. I beat it twice if you don't know what you're doing it's the most punishing game I can think of. My first playthrough was a dex build that utilized quelaggs furysword and darkwraith armor. It was fun and the sword looked cool, but unfortunately there are only a few competitive pvp builds in this game and that is not one of them except at extremely high levels. My second playthrough I built just enough stats to wield an Iato (name?) and maxed it with lightning. I then purchased steel armor from the crestfallen merchant and my samurai rape build was complete. It puts you at exactly half weight to the point where you cant use a secondary weapon or you go over. I used ring of favor and dark wood grain (ninja flip) ring that puts you at 25% weight. You then max stamina at 40 and put the rest into vitality.

The best all around pvp build I think is a Crest Shield for magic defense and a lightning spear. Followed by the best armor you can wear to stay under 50% weight with a ring of favor and dark wood grain ring. Also max pyromancy because it requires no stats. Great combustion is very good in pvp due to it being very hard to punish and you can't out damag

On my dex build I thought the best idea would be to put all my stats into dex. I completed the game with 5 bars of health. Lol.

The hardest part of the game for me was getting past that one knight on the ledge in anor londo. So much BS. Capra Demon is up there to.