Dark Souls

[patsu]

Spoiler

That Crystal Ring Shield is going to be significantly nerfed in the upcoming patch.

So the Lifehunt Scythe is pretty good. I haven't yet bothered getting the required boss soul for. I did try a different Scythe, but didn't really like it. Too slow, and I didn't it's move set.

I'm still mostly using my Fire Washing Pole +5. It's basically a gaint Uchigatana. It strikes as fast, but it has a much longer range. It weighs more, so I usually don't have a second weapon equipped to keep my equip burden below 25%. But since the Fire upgrade beats everything else in damage right now it doesn't matter.

Then it's one of the other list of weapons that can make the Cursed Greatsword of Artorias. The guide wasn't really clear on which it was. I also thought a Broken Sword would make the Cursed Greatsword of Artorias.

Yeah, I missed

Spoiler

Washing Pole.

8^( 8^(
It would be the perfect weapon. Better tell Shifty not to talk to the

Spoiler

cat

when he's not ready to commit yet.

Some people say we need to use the original broken sword when we first started.

I'll enjoy the ring shield while it lasts. It's actually pretty cool.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yeap, I exploration in the series.

If I were to line up my recommendations, it would be as follow:

* Upgrade...

Don't think we have one. The best shield we have a DK shield, which is only listed as one or two points better than our knight shield or whatever it is, but weighs a lot more.

* Take on H. at the bottom of...

He's been long dead! We;ve invested a number of points in END to improve carrying capacity.

* Go to Darkroot Garden, and grab the...

Got it, although the protection it affords doesn't seem much better than our starting leather armour, while it significantly slows us down.

* Put on everything, level up until you can wear the full set. In the mean time, it's up to you to build your character. You can farm for souls and mosses in the garden. You can level up stats or the pyro equipment.

Don't have pyro equipment. Don't want to 'play' the game just farming. Want to actually advance as a character as we advance the game!

* I think you'll find you are just as mean as the other monsters now.

In some cases, yes. But against tougher foes like

Spoiler

lightning drakes

we don't do a lot of damage, and it appears there's no way to change that for a long time.

 

[patsu]

By DK shield, you mean Black Knight Shield ? That looks good too, especially against fire attacks, an upgraded Hollow Soldier shield would provide more stability and higher physical defense later.

It looks like you're all set.

The Butterfly should be easy to defeat if you have light armor. Beyond that lies even more terrible monsters.

Your real progress blocker is the Capra Demon. Beat him to advance the game. The Elite Knight's armor and a good shield should prevent the Demon and his dogs from breaking your form. However, if you prefer an agile character, perhaps the existing leather armor would suit you more. With the knight armor, I only needed to run up and down the alley once to recover and kill them all. Before that, my Wanderer armor couldn't even survive half the alley.

If you don't want to farm, you may need to co-op, and/or invest in spells. Too bad the network fix is not in yet. I remember Gaffers "solved" it by going into the XMB chatroom and ask friends to drop whatever stone/sign at the right time and place.

The

Spoiler

Wyverns in the Valley of Drakes

deal lightning damages. Are you referring to them ?

EDIT: okay, I remember how to get there from Darkroot Basin now. I thought you need to get through another boss first. Yeah, leave the drakes for now. You'll get Lightning protection and weapons later.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The

Spoiler

Wyverns in the Valley of Drakes

deal lightning damages. Are you referring to them ?

Yep.

EDIT: okay, I remember how to get there from Darkroot Basin now. I thought you need to get through another boss first. Yeah, leave the drakes for now. You'll get Lightning protection and weapons later.

We battled valiantly through 3 and took the gear on the bridge, which was no good

Spoiler

brigand armour, tiny bit more lightning resistance or something

. We then, having lost all our souls and feeling carefree, ran through them all to explore,

Spoiler

found a ladder, picked up a ring at the top, and that seemed to be it

. I had made my way around the left of this area much early when one of the wyverns jumped off the cliff and another on the narrow path jumped over my head and let me pass. This route looped round to where another known location. I think it led to the Bay of Zombies which had a path going up to the starting location that we had completely missed.

 

[patsu]

We battled valiantly through 3 and took the gear on the bridge, which was no good

Spoiler

brigand armour, tiny bit more lightning resistance or something

. We then, having lost all our souls and feeling carefree, ran through them all to explore,

Spoiler

found a ladder, picked up a ring at the top, and that seemed to be it

. I had made my way around the left of this area much early when one of the wyverns jumped off the cliff and another on the narrow path jumped over my head and let me pass. This route looped round to where another known location. I think it led to the Bay of Zombies which had a path going up to the starting location that we had completely missed.

Hmm... from that valley, you can go to

Spoiler

Darkroot Basin, Blighttown or New Londo Ruins (which is very close to Firelink Shrine).

If you go left, you should see an

Spoiler

Undead Dragon

which is easy to kill if you have ranged weapon. If you go too near, you'll need

Spoiler

poison resistance

. But you can stay out of range to hit it.

Nonetheless, I think Capra is your man now.

 

[N_B]

I don't think the overspoilertagging is needed anymore. Just makes things hard to read

 

[patsu]

Okay, this definitely needs to be spoiler tagged though. It's about the end game. I just killed

Spoiler

Four Kings and met a new NPC

I think I figured it out. xbd, see if this makes sense.

Spoiler

1. There is no good ending. The player is the "Chosen Undead" because he's the Dark Lord. He is (or has) the Dark Soul.

2. If you link the fire at the end of the game, you basically sacrifice yourself to fulfill Lord Gwyn's original plan before he went cuckoo (Prevent darkness from settling in). You, the Dark Lord, die and the world plunges into flames. If you walk away, the world will continue to plunge into darkness because it's supposed to be the era of Darkness anyway.

3. If you don't link the fire, you evetually become the Dark Lord. All the Darkstalkers will honor you as the king of the new Dark world.

I'm trying to make a Cursed Sword of Artorias. According to some people on the net I have to use my original broken sword. I have 3 broken swords now. One of them has been upgraded to +10 but it can only be made into a Regular/True Sword of Artorias. Will see if one of the remaining 2 (my original sword) can be made into the Cursed sword.

If this is the case, then it further reinforces the notion that the player is the bad guy. He is cursed.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

So, one more play last night. Visited the garden from the tough side (route up from Hydra lake), killed trees very well after a lot of dying prior to then, accrued souls, found a route to new territory, but was attacked by a human who killed us with soul arrows before we knew what was happening. Went through the garden again, approached this area cautiously to deal wtih this guy, and started being shot by arrows. Raised shield and then a ghostly knight attacked. We weren't able to lock on and they killed us.

Was this an invasion? Did some human player with 2 sidekicks appear in our game and ruin it for us?

 

[Cornsnake]

So, one more play last night. Visited the garden from the tough side (route up from Hydra lake), killed trees very well after a lot of dying prior to then, accrued souls, found a route to new territory, but was attacked by a human who killed us with soul arrows before we knew what was happening. Went through the garden again, approached this area cautiously to deal wtih this guy, and started being shot by arrows. Raised shield and then a ghostly knight attacked. We weren't able to lock on and they killed us.

Was this an invasion? Did some human player with 2 sidekicks appear in our game and ruin it for us?

No these are invisible NPCs using the Ring of Fog. There should be 5 of them in total, with 3 of them being invisible. They are pretty strong for low level players, but you can get a lot of souls from them if you do manage to defeat them.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Okay. Well, things ahve taken a serious turn for the worse anyhow. Again I pressed R1 to interact with an NPC, the blacksmith, after giving him a soul that allows for fire weapons, and now he's our mortal enemy. It'll cost 60,000 souls for absolution. There's a vague plan to farm the souls and wait for the patch, but this game is getting real tiring now, and certainly isn't as much fun on a Tuesday as FIFA. IMO DS is not fun, nor particularly entertaining, nor particularly rewarding either in a sense of achievement for overcoming difficulties or a sense of progression. It's a game I'm glad I didn't buy because everyone was raving about it!

 

[Cornsnake]

You should consider yourself lucky. If this was Demon's Souls it would be extremely difficult to finish the game after attacking the wrong NPCs.

But this is a game that was never meant to be for everyone.

It's annoying that the patch is taking so long. If it's not here before friday then I'll playing that other great RPG.

Spoiler

Disgaea 4

 

[patsu]

Should have entered the garden from the easier entrance. T_T

Shifty, you knew it's the tougher entrance and ventured in at your own risk. ^_^
It's just how the game is set up. It won't go soft just because the player wants to explore a danger zone.

If you go from the easier entrance, there is a hidden bonfire near the merry men in the forest (on the other side of the locked door).

You're supposed to run away instead of going deeper when you face an impossible enemy. If the soul arrow guy can kill you in one hit, he's above your current level now. Nonetheless, like many enemies in the Souls series, there is an easy way to defeat him.

Spoiler

Melee him. He's weak up close and his soul arrows will miss if you stand too close.

The more difficult part is to figure out how to lure him out from the rest of the pack. If you go through the easier entrance (via the locked door), you can stick close to the right "wall", walk into the small pond for 1-2 seconds and run back. He will come after you, all the way back to the bonfire. You can kill him there. If you fail, the bonfire is just next to you.

EDIT: 3 of these folks are 2000 souls/head. One is 1000. The invisible knight is 3000. Pharis the archer is worth 5000. Pharis and the invisible knight don't respawn. So they help you to level up fast since they are very close to the Darkroot Garden's bonfire.

 

[patsu]

You should consider yourself lucky. If this was Demon's Souls it would be extremely difficult to finish the game after attacking the wrong NPCs.

But this is a game that was never meant to be for everyone.

It's annoying that the patch is taking so long. If it's not here before friday then I'll playing that other great RPG.

Spoiler

Disgaea 4

I have decided to finish the game pre-patch to grab unique items. May start a second run after patch. I'm at the

Spoiler

Duke's Archive

now.

Shifty, some day when you decide to come back , the patch is supposed to lower the absolution cost significantly.

If you're looking for group FIFA fun, then this game is probably not what you want. ^_^
It's a solitaire game (may be with spectators watching in horror as someone invades you).

 

[patsu]

Okay. Well, things ahve taken a serious turn for the worse anyhow. Again I pressed R1 to interact with an NPC, the blacksmith, after giving him a soul that allows for fire weapons, and now he's our mortal enemy. It'll cost 60,000 souls for absolution. There's a vague plan to farm the souls and wait for the patch, but this game is getting real tiring now, and certainly isn't as much fun on a Tuesday as FIFA. IMO DS is not fun, nor particularly entertaining, nor particularly rewarding either in a sense of achievement for overcoming difficulties or a sense of progression. It's a game I'm glad I didn't buy because everyone was raving about it!

Don't worry about the Blacksmith in the mean time. He's not your bottleneck. One, you don't need the super upgraded equipments at this stage. You can find powerful weapons along the way to help you. Two, there are other Blacksmiths who can upgrade regular weapons. When you level up enough, gathering 60,000 pre-patch is not that big a deal.

Kill Capra to open up your game.

Spoiler

Dodge his first attack, kill the dogs while you try to run up the stairs, go further onto the plank(s), heal, run to the opposite (or jump on him) and fight him

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Shifty, you knew it's the tougher entrance and ventured in at your own risk. ^_^

But it was open and we were exploring and there's nothing in game to suggest one way is the right or wrong way. Plus we were duffing up the trees just fine - iot wasn't too hard. It just suddenly changed and pulled something unexpected.

You're supposed to run away instead of going deeper when you face an impossible enemy.

But that's normally what we do! We tested a stairway, there was a tip "tough enemy ahead" and we turned back! These people in the forest came out of nowhere.

If the soul arrow guy can kill you in one hit

It wasn't one hit. He attacked by surprise - we so inching forwards so cautiously looking out for surprise tree attacks. A tip a little earlier had said "secret path ahead" and we carefully progressed. We heard footsteps, turned expecting to see a tree which we knew how to fight, and it was a guy with a sword and buckler shield. After a bit of battle, he backed off and maanged to finish us with several soul arrows to which we had no defence. We had never fought soul arrows before, they penetrated the shield - short of turning and runnig and leaving our back exposed, we were done for no matter what.

But having experienced that we knew what to expect, very carefully, cautiously made the way to out dropped 6000 souls, ready to fight this guy, and got attacked by another two. Yes, we turned and ran to avoid the confrontation, but the soldier followed us, cornered as, and defeated us, losing all our souls.

The more difficult part is to figure out how to lure him out from the rest of the pack.

That bit doesn't really bother me. It's the mishmash of events, and fact you cannot plan because something out of the blue might, and when that does happen you are punished so hard. Losing your souls for fault of your own, more fool you. But when you play the game as it should be played, being cautious, taking it slow, and still get kerwalloped with there beign nothing you can do about it, that's just a frustration IMHO.

EDIT: 3 of these folks are 2000 souls/head. One is 1000. The invisible knight is 3000. Pharis the archer is worth 5000. Pharis and the invisible knight don't respawn. So they help you to level up fast since they are very close to the Darkroot Garden's bonfire.

Ah, and that's why people talk about this being a farming spot?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

If you're looking for group FIFA fun, then this game is probably not what you want. ^_^
It's a solitaire game (may be with spectators watching in horror as someone invades you).

We've played all sorts. FIFA is the mainstay as there's no better coop experience, but we've played Uncharted and Uncharted 2 with hotseat coop, Resistance 2, a number of multiplayer hack'n'slashers, Portal 2, and so forth. If the cost of mistakes in DS wasn't so astronomical, and the sense of progress more satisfying, it would have been okay.

 

[patsu]

But it was open and we were exploring and there's nothing in game to suggest one way is the right or wrong way. Plus we were duffing up the trees just fine - iot wasn't too hard. It just suddenly changed and pulled something unexpected.

Yes there is. ^_^ (at least for Darkroot Garden)

The tree grunts in that area took a few more hits to kill (Seems double or triple the HP). That signaled to me that I could be in a high risk area. After clearing the tree monsters carefully (They tend to swarm the player immediately, unlike the other area), I retreated and unlocked the other door to explore further.

But that's normally what we do! We tested a stairway, there was a tip "tough enemy ahead" and we turned back! These people in the forest came out of nowhere.
It wasn't one hit. He attacked by surprise - we so inching forwards so cautiously looking out for surprise tree attacks. A tip a little earlier had said "secret path ahead" and we carefully progressed. We heard footsteps, turned expecting to see a tree which we knew how to fight, and it was a guy with a sword and buckler shield. After a bit of battle, he backed off and maanged to finish us with several soul arrows to which we had no defence. We had never fought soul arrows before, they penetrated the shield - short of turning and runnig and leaving our back exposed, we were done for no matter what.

Yeah... need a shield with better magic defense, but magic attacks are rare so far.

But having experienced that we knew what to expect, very carefully, cautiously made the way to out dropped 6000 souls, ready to fight this guy, and got attacked by another two. Yes, we turned and ran to avoid the confrontation, but the soldier followed us, cornered as, and defeated us, losing all our souls.

That bit doesn't really bother me. It's the mishmash of events, and fact you cannot plan because something out of the blue might, and when that does happen you are punished so hard. Losing your souls for fault of your own, more fool you. But when you play the game as it should be played, being cautious, taking it slow, and still get kerwalloped with there beign nothing you can do about it, that's just a frustration IMHO.

Ah, and that's why people talk about this being a farming spot?

Yap ! It's like a casino to me right now. After you have leveled up enough, it's good for relieving stress.

 

[patsu]

We've played all sorts. FIFA is the mainstay as there's no better coop experience, but we've played Uncharted and Uncharted 2 with hotseat coop, Resistance 2, a number of multiplayer hack'n'slashers, Portal 2, and so forth. If the cost of mistakes in DS wasn't so astronomical, and the sense of progress more satisfying, it would have been okay.

What level are you at now ? 30 ?

Someone restarted the game and was able to hit Darkroot Garden in 2 hours (Well, ignore that 2 hour speed run dude). I probably got too carried away and am over leveled now, making lotsa of weapon experiments.

Would have co-op'ed with you to show you around. I can drop upgraded weapons too.

 

[Wahz]

Ah, and that's why people talk about this being a farming spot?

There is AI path glitch that you can farm 7k souls per minute.

 

[patsu]

Nah... it will make the game boring.

I'm cruising at level 90 now because I farm precious stones to make/upgrade weapons. ^_^

Walked in to the lair of

Spoiler

Seath

and beat it at one go. Didn't get cursed although the guide claimed I would be cursed at least once (Curse defense was probably too high ). I had more trouble with the grunts and environment in general. But in one-vs-one encounters, I think I am over leveled.