Dark Souls III

Yes. It's really nice.

This completely changes my plans. I'm currently still sorta stuck at DS because I need to finish off Oolacile and beyond before ramming a Lightning Zweihander down Gwyn's throat, so being able to not worry about missing out on content because of progression is nice. Is 3 the only one that does it?

You can even trigger the ending and not automatically go to the next NG cycle in DS III. Though you can't get more than one ending in one cycle.

2 did this as well. You have to trigger NG+ via the majula bonfire.

One thing I kind of missed was being able to advance to a new NG in an area via burning a bonfire ascetic.

You know, "Deacons of the Deep" would really be A Good Name for a Rock Band.

Alright so I finally decided to start playing DS III again after a months-long hiatus. Still haven't gotten the last few trophies. When I last left off I was at the beginning of the Ashes of Ariandel content.

I had forgotten how bullshit that first setpiece battle with the Millwood Knights is. Trying to dodge those exploding giant arrows while fighting a Millwood Knight and his wolf companion wasn't fun. I just hope I don't die before reaching the next bonfire because I'd rather not go through it again.

The wolves seemed a bit easier to handle than I remembered though. The Birch Women are a lot easier too since I have an upgraded Ringed Knight Straightsword — they burn up real good as one would expect treefolk to do.

Fortunately, since this is an NG+ run, I don't need to collect every item — just stuff like the Titanite Slabs.

Edited by M84 on Sep 24th 2019 at 3:43:11 AM

Sup.

I'm starting III blindish now that I'm done with the OG game. I'll be achievement hunting so is there anything I need to know for that? Also, starting classes and stuff.

So I finally have a decent PC and I started playing this from scratch (didn't have a choice, my other file was on my brother PC's, I was at Sulyvahn when I had to stop). (spoilering some stuff since we have a first timer here)

I've largely gone with the same general character build as that initial playthrough, but I'm not sure what to do about the NPC sidequests this time around. I've not messed with Yoel's level ups to summon Yuria and I'm not sure if I want to do that or not.

Also despite making me absolutely miserable the first time, Farron Keep was actually relatively painless this go around. I actually had more trouble with the beginning of the cathedral, since I derped real hard and didn't open the door to the church for some reason and had to make a needlessly long trek from the crystal sages bonfire to get to it from the inside).

I think Knight is considered the best starting class? Unfortunately magic and pyromancy aren't as good this time around (you actually need to put points into intelligence I think for pyromancy to scale).

DS 3 as a whole might take a little adjusting to. It uses an engine that Fromsoft built for Bloodborne, and accordingly the game speed is a lot faster-paced. Enemies are also a lot more aggressive and have more diverse and dangerous movesets compared to DS 1. I was dying a lot in the beginning until I got used to it (I'm still dying a lot in this current playthrough I'm doing).

Also they nerfed poise for some reason and it doesn't work the same as in DS 1, it's a lot more situational and doesn't really come into play outside of specific circumstances (the oversimplified version is, it only really matters if you're trading blows with a heavier weapon against someone with a smaller one, you get "hyperarmor" during specific frames that helps you not get staggered). This means you get staggered a lot more easily in most situations, and you can't really haveltank stuff anymore. Conversely you can go up to 70% equip load before fat rolling and your roll as a whole is much faster and lighter than the old mid roll from DS 1. So on the whole you end up relying a lot more on your roll to dodge attacks vs tanking.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Mar 15th 2020 at 11:23:36 AM

Once again you'll have to go through the base game at least to NG++ since one achievement can't be done otherwise. Also, a couple of the achievements run counter to each other — you need to get all the gestures in this game, and you need to get all the rings in this game. The personal sidequests needed to get one gesture and one ring conflict with each other.

You might want to look up a walkthrough for personal sidequests — they're a bit more involved in this game.

And yes, Knight is probably the best. Their starting weapon, the Longsword, is actually one of the best weapons in the game. I'm not kidding. Get a Refined Gem, make it into a Refined Longsword, and make a Quality Strength/Dex 40/40 build. The Refined Longsword with those stats is one of the most reliable weapons in the game.

Drag is also right that this game is more fast-paced compared to its predecessors. It's not as fast as Bloodborne...but this game does encourage you to dodge more and tank less.

Edited by M84 on Mar 15th 2020 at 10:59:11 PM

Also, you can warp to every single bonfire now (this was actually introduced in DS 2). It's worth keeping in mind that you don't need to actually rest at a bonfire to be able to warp to it, you only need to light it. It's useful if you want to backtrack to see if you missed anything without having the enemies you already killed respawn. You might find yourself doing that a lot because while DS 3's progression is more linear, the actual level design is a lot more dense and labyrinthine compared to DS 1 so it's easier to get lost and miss things.

There's a lot more hidden stuff in DS 3, more illusionary walls and what not. And some of the stuff behind said walls is needed for achievements.

This time around you have to get every single ring in the game for an achievement. That includes the upgraded versions of rings that only appear in NG+ and NG++.

One thing that's great is that you no longer need to upgrade armor anymore. Just weapons. If you pick a Knight, you could feasibly get through the entire game using nothing but the starter gear, upgrading it as you go.

Edited by M84 on Mar 15th 2020 at 11:31:03 PM

Sweet. Time to play Quad again. Looking forward to more fast-paced combat, though parrying seems way harder.

Anyways I went Knight with the Fire Gem as my starting gift since it's probably objectively the best option. I guess? Idk everything else seemed lame or literally useless to my offline ass.

So I only died to the first boss like 3 times. I heard he could be frustrating but I guess I'm getting better at Soulsborne stuff. Went around Firelink Shrine, had Andre swap out my all my Blue Estus for an extra Sunny D, and got all the way to the High Wall.

Fire's very useful early on, especially since some enemies actually flail about for a bit helplessly when set on fire. You know that big black snake thing that emerged from the first boss? You'll be seeing more of those soon. Setting them on fire is a good way to deal with them. It's not the only enemy that reacts badly to fire like that either.

There's another useful early game weapon coming up too. Problem is that it's in a Mimic, and those are always a pain to fight.

Edited by M84 on Mar 15th 2020 at 11:53:28 PM

I'm also on a fresh run of this game. Not achievement-hunting or anything (I've probably already missed at least one thing), just playing through based on my memories of my first (and only) run, with a view to actually finishing the Ringed City eventually maybe.

I've been playing offline, but what's online like for this now?

On PC there seems to be a decent amount of activity still, on my current playthrough I've been invaded twice already.

Should've said, I'm playing on PS 4. And I hate being invaded :P I also don't summon much either, I try to solo it as much as possible in my own game, but I do like to be summoned. The only boss I summoned for in the base game was the Nameless King, and I was considering summoning for the Demon Princes or whatever they're called in the Ringed City, but I never actually got around to trying that boss again.

So is humanity just not a mechanic anymore? This ember thing seems to replace it.

This game is decently brutal already. Sure there are some easy mooks but they can overwhelm you if you're not careful.

Yes, Embers replace humanity. Same concept except being in ember form gives you an HP boost so it makes using embers a lot more worthwhile compared to being human in a lot of situations.

You also can't use an Ember while already Embered (or as a phantom in co-op), so it can't be reliably used for healing like Humanity could be.

Another thing about poise, it's basically gone for players, but it's also gone for enemies, mostly. Very few enemies have poise; it's mostly bosses who do, but there's even a few of them with no poise.

One last big change from Dark Souls 1 is that two-handing kinda sucks now. In DS1 it made your attacks much stronger, but in DS3 the only damage increase is from the 50% strength bonus two-handing gives, if your weapon scales with Strength. Two handing is only really useful to stagger on enemies with poise faster, and certain weapon types only get hyperarmor while two-handing. You also need it to use weapon arts, but there are shields that let you use weapon arts instead of parrying.

Edited by shigmiya64 on Mar 16th 2020 at 12:16:26 PM

Embers can still be used for a full heal (and health bonus) in a pinch, but that means you're going into the fight with, what, about 75% or 66% of the max health you could be starting with. Still, it's a nice little way to pull out your own "phase 2".

One convenient thing is that you can Ember up anytime instead of just at a bonfire. So if you want to summon but don't want to risk being invaded, just ember up right in front of the boss gate and summon.

Depending on who you ask that's either a flaw or a feature though.

Okay I'm back.

I found my way to Vordt and defeated him thanks to help from Albert. Beforehand I got the Refined Gem (also thanks to Albert) and upgraded my Long Sword to Refined +2. Since I have a spare, I infused that one into a Fire Long Sword.

I'm going back to explore a little more since I definitely missed some stuff.

Edited by Karxrida on Mar 19th 2020 at 3:19:04 AM

I got a Lothric Knight Sword drop while backtracking at the wall. Is this the game's Baller Swag Sword?

Anyways, I've made it all the way at the Cleansing Chapel. Trying to find my way around and to the next area since I don't think I'm ready to wander into the Painted World.

I did beat the crystal lizard thing while searching and looted the Titanite Scale. So yay?

Edited by Karxrida on Mar 21st 2020 at 9:09:26 AM