Dark Souls

Ah. Rerunning through Dark Souls

Knight has to be one of the best classes to start with. An all around build, Only needs a single point in Faith to use heal, Get a few thousand souls for above mentioned spell and a Thoroulound Talisman and the early game becomes really easy. Also helps that you start with one of the best small shields in the game. Some tips for early game.

• Elite Knight Armor is best used when you can kill havel for his amazing ring. Combine with Wolf Ring to have almost ideal poise.
• Whatever weapon you are using. You should pick up a reinforced club. Then Upgrade it to fire. While not immediately apparent, it's really freaking good against hollows and Snakes.
• Claymores are really just extra long longswords. That R2 has some great reach, and that running R1 is great for hitting crowds.
• The Wandering Demon's vulnerable point is its tail. Try to be behind it at all times. Makes your life easier instead of playing "Guess the Hitbox of this next attack"
• Don't forget to upgrade your shield. Stability is life.
• If you are a human in the Sens Funhouse you are going to have a bad time.

the claymore is one of my favorite weapons exactly because it's basically a slightly slower but more powerful longsword. the greatsword class is pretty reliable like that, they have the versatility of the straight sword moveset, a little bit less speed but more reach.

EDIT:

By the way Ninety, if you haven't bought the key from the merchant yet, you should. it unlocks a door that leads to something you might find very useful in beating the taurus demon. (but you should be careful to go back and spend the souls you get from him on something, otherwise you'll most likely regret it because there's a bit of a dick move not too far from him).

edited 3rd Oct '15 3:47:37 PM by wehrmacht

This game is addicting. Actually, it's like a Rocky movie - you spend x amount of time getting your ass whipped like a Novigrad whore, and then the awesome 80's rock kicks in and you start whipping ass.

That is... almost a good interpretation.

Rather, I'd say you get your ass whooped, kick the ass of the thing that whooped you and immediately find another, bigger and tougher that whoops you twice as many times.

Rinse & Repeat 'til you Git Gud.

Back to the Rocky analogy, once he beat Apollo Creed, he had Clubber Lang. After Clubber Lang, Ivan Drago. After Drago, bad writing.

Considering what the endgame of Dark Souls winds up as, that analogy is not far off.

Yeah, I can't argue with that (though I'm not that familiar with the Rocky franchise).

So, remind me, what is lightning good for when you get it? It kinda sucks in Anor Londo and I don't recall too many late game enemies having a weakness to it.

it does bonus damage to dragons iirc, for obvious reasons. might be of some use against seath.

Lighting damage has the ability to ignore armor.

All elemental damage ignores "armour" if by armour you mean physical defense.

I believe lightning is the most uncommon resistance?

Yes, not many things have good lightning resistance.

Well, finished Sen's Fortress. I dunno who Sen is, but fuck them and their goddamn fortress. Also from now on I'm stabbing every treasure chest before I open it. Got a wicked awesome lightning spear from that mimic, though.

Also, from reading the tropes page on this, are there really griefers out there that are butthurt over people playing while disconnected from the internet to avoid getting invaded? Cause it's what I do.

edited 5th Oct '15 1:23:48 AM by MarkVonLewis

Personally I just pull out my internet cable when I don't feel like Pv Ping.

I say in the first game. it's really easy to avoid PVP just by staying hollow. There is a limit to how often you get invaded.

Sen could be a person, or it was mistranslate, and its actual name is The Fortress of a Thousand Traps.

Also Sen's Fortress isn't that bad, compared to that one area of the Duke's Archives.

Or the Tomb of the Giants, or Lost Izalith.

The theme of the final areas is practically Platform Hell. They're all a pain in the arse to navigate without dying.

edited 5th Oct '15 4:35:39 AM by TheCuriousFan

If there are, I have zero pity. "Oh, have we spoiled your fun by stopping you spoiling everyone else's fun? TOO FUCKIN' BAD".

Wow, is that you you read it? If so I may need to go back and edit that entry.

What the example actually say is, people that invade others games don't like it when the invaded player disconnects in the middle of the invasion, before they get killed by the invader.

Oh, no, that's absolutely a dick move ^note I may or may not have been known to quit the game upon being invaded. I stress that I have not done this in the middle of a battle, and only if I really really can't be bothered with it, like I'm trying to do something that's already a pain in the arse, and I don't need the extra hassle.

edited 5th Oct '15 10:24:28 AM by artfulscruff

Isn't there an item to immediately kick other players out? Or does that only work in co-op?

I've been killed twice by invaders. :/ After the second time, I started equipping the thing. I think it's the Black Soapstone or something? Separation Stone?

I pretty much only don't worry about it when I don't have Gold membership.

EDIT: Nah, turns out it only works on co-op phantoms. Like if one's trolling you, I guess, although if they are, you'll probably be dead before you could banish them anyway.

Hell, I'd probably invade somebody if I wasn't paranoid about it fucking things up for my other characters. Or about accidentally Bullying the Dragon.

edited 5th Oct '15 11:01:21 AM by Knowlessman

Honestly I can't fathom what about "let random players invade you single-player game and slaughter you" sounded like a good idea.

you can only get invaded in human form. if you're hollow, you won't be invaded, ever.

there's a certain give and take involved because being human means you can summon other players for help in defeating bosses and clearing levels, so it's not exactly uneven.

technically speaking invaders are at a disadvantage because they can only heal with humanity while in another person's world, their estus flasks are disabled.

of course this does ignore the fact that many invaders are more experienced players who have gotten higher level equipment and spells at much earlier levels than normal.

the invasion aspect is tied very heavily into the lore of the game, and it does add a pretty cool amount of tension. maybe some players don't want to deal with that, but again, they can just play as a hollow or summon help if they feel like they are afraid of being invaded, so any invader will have to fight a 2v1 or 3v1.

this may seem like a strange system but dark souls received attention for largely ignoring modern gaming conventions.

i do wish the game had less dick moves though. the basic combat against enemies and bosses is fine, and the level design and enemy placement too, but there are a number of moments that i feel don't necessarily give the player a fair chance to react (the first mimic, hellkite dragon appearing, etc). i mean maybe if you're super observant you will notice ahead of time but most players aren't conditioned to play this way, especially with hints that seem so small they wouldn't be foreshadowing anything in any other game.

edited 5th Oct '15 11:26:20 AM by wehrmacht

Is there a level restriction? And what do you mean by healing with humanity?

Which reminds me, how much of my souls should I spend on leveling and how much on buying stuff?

you can only invade players within a certain level range. if i'm not mistaken, you can't invade players who are lower level than you. the "dream" many players have is to become a level 1 invader, who can invade a player of any level. this is not an easy task by any means since it requires defeating a number of difficult bosses and going to high-level areas much earlier than you should.

if you consume a humanity (the black sprite thing), it adds 1 humanity to your counter and heals you up to full. this is the only way invaders can heal while invading other worlds.

I would say spend money on upgrading/buying the equipment you want first, since it usually makes a more immediate difference (especially upgrading, having a +5 weapon as early as possible makes the game much easier). from there you should just level up when you have spare souls lying around so you aren't carrying a bunch of them with you.

edited 5th Oct '15 11:30:40 AM by wehrmacht