The Dark Souls Thread

[Comrade Slinky]

Did you beat it again with a different character or on a NG+?

Well it looks like the gender changed and this ain't fable 2...

[jakebonz@work]

Patch incoming (Note: List looks poorly translated):

http://www.preparetodie.com/forums/view ... 18&t=17137

[The Schwartz]

at least now you can see how many souls you need to level up that was the biggest WTF WHY

[jakebonz@work]

Yeah, they had it in Demon's Souls. Wonder why on earth they took it out of this one.

[ungodlywarlock]

Beat Ornstein and Smough.
Man, they were hard for me. I did have to summon Soltaire, though. I don't regret it in the least bit. Those guys are dicks.

[spacehamster]

Beat Ornstein and Smough.
Man, they were hard for me. I did have to summon Soltaire, though. I don't regret it in the least bit. Those guys are dicks.

I had help for that fight too. Because ugh.

Currently ploughing through Lost Izalith. Then I really "only" have the Four Kings left before the endgame, but like I said earlier, I may actually fuck around and get a few of the upgrade trophies first.

Also, I seriously had to give myself two days off from this game, I couldn't take it anymore. I had a much longer break during my first DS playthrough, though, so I guess that doesn't really have to mean anything.

[doomeddisciple]

I didn't play as a human very often so I didn't get an opportunity to have help with that fight, actually scratch that. This board helped me cause grinding out enough souls to have uber fireballs before that fight was what got me the w.

I never went to painted land in the my first playthrough. I found the painting a couple of times, before and after getting the lordvessel, but nothing happened when I approached it.

[spacehamster]

I didn't play as a human very often so I didn't get an opportunity to have help with that fight, actually scratch that. This board helped me cause grinding out enough souls to have uber fireballs before that fight was what got me the w.

I never went to painted land in the my first playthrough. I found the painting a couple of times, before and after getting the lordvessel, but nothing happened when I approached it.

Apparently you need...

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

...the peculiar doll (it sometimes pops up in the load screens), which you get by getting the crow to take you back to the tutorial level. I haven't tried this myself, though. I'm gonna go over the list of what you can get from Snuggly before I go back there.

[ungodlywarlock]

I didn't play as a human very often so I didn't get an opportunity to have help with that fight, actually scratch that. This board helped me cause grinding out enough souls to have uber fireballs before that fight was what got me the w.

I never went to painted land in the my first playthrough. I found the painting a couple of times, before and after getting the lordvessel, but nothing happened when I approached it.

Yeah, I actually have my pyro ascended to +5 and they still gave me trouble. I just wasn't quick enough on the toes to make much progress and Ornstein kept dodging all my fireballs, so I went with a Iron Flesh strat and just let both of them beat on me for the first round and burned Ornstein down. But then after that, I was so slow that Smough smashed/charged me good.

Having Soltaire tank them made it a ton easier, because at least then they weren't both nailing me.

[doomeddisciple]

I didn't play as a human very often so I didn't get an opportunity to have help with that fight, actually scratch that. This board helped me cause grinding out enough souls to have uber fireballs before that fight was what got me the w.

I never went to painted land in the my first playthrough. I found the painting a couple of times, before and after getting the lordvessel, but nothing happened when I approached it.

Yeah, I actually have my pyro ascended to +5 and they still gave me trouble. I just wasn't quick enough on the toes to make much progress and Ornstein kept dodging all my fireballs, so I went with a Iron Flesh strat and just let both of them beat on me for the first round and burned Ornstein down. But then after that, I was so slow that Smough smashed/charged me good.

Having Soltaire tank them made it a ton easier, because at least then they weren't both nailing me.

I wish I had that.


I died multiple times due to mis-timing my pyro trying to get Ornstein to walk onto them...

[spacehamster]

So either I missed something, or Bed of Chaos really was a pretty stupid "bossfight". Figuring out the puzzle is one thing, and I don't mind getting killed a couple of times while I trial-and-error that shit, but if I know exactly where to sprint to and just have to do it three times because every now and then the game decides that just now would be a good time to launch a largely unpredictable swipe at me that it has never done before and that's why I have to run through the level yet again... no. Really, just no.

But it's done now. Four Kings, I'm coming for your asses.

[doomeddisciple]

So either I missed something, or Bed of Chaos really was a pretty stupid "bossfight". Figuring out the puzzle is one thing, and I don't mind getting killed a couple of times while I trial-and-error that shit, but if I know exactly where to sprint to and just have to do it three times because every now and then the game decides that just now would be a good time to launch a largely unpredictable swipe at me that it has never done before and that's why I have to run through the level yet again... no. Really, just no.

But it's done now. Four Kings, I'm coming for your asses.

That was dumb, but at least you didn't have to re-do the chaos orbs on the side each time.

[spacehamster]

That was dumb, but at least you didn't have to re-do the chaos orbs on the side each time.

Sure, but that just felt like they were apologizing for the shit boss fight. The general randomness to what respawns and what doesn't in this game is my biggest (although still somewhat minor) gripe with this game so far anyway. There's just no logic attached to it, other than the fact that it usually feels like a last-minute difficulty tweak. First mob of Taurus Demons in Demon Ruins? Don't respawn, so you only have to kill them off once to get to the ember, and you can just ignore them anyway if you want. Next three Taurus Demons? Do respawn, because they're in terrain where they're easy to fight, and we want you to have to fight the one guarding the boss fog everytime you die. Black Knights? Don't respawn. Except the one in Sen's Fortress. Because... I dunno, so you can farm him for item drops? It's just silly. One of the things I loved about Demon's Souls was the incredible internal logic and cohesiveness of the game, and it really does seem like Dark Souls has lost some of that due to how expansive it is.

Like I said, it's a nitpick, and I know I'm holding this game to a ridiculously high standard, but, well, this is the Demon's Souls sequel here.

[spacehamster]

Painted World looks awesome. I was a bit disappointed with the more dungeon-y levels (Catacombs, Tomb of the Giants), so this is especially nice to walk into now. Priscilla just totally wiped the floor with me, though.

[ungodlywarlock]

Painted World looks awesome. I was a bit disappointed with the more dungeon-y levels (Catacombs, Tomb of the Giants), so this is especially nice to walk into now. Priscilla just totally wiped the floor with me, though.

I haven't fought her yet, but I explored the hell out of that place. Awesome zone!
I spent my time last night getting into the Dragon covenant so I can have the dragon-head which looks supremely badass with Havel's armor.

[spacehamster]

Oh yeah, covenants... honestly, so much of that stuff sounds really awesome and fun, I really want to do all of them eventually, but I do need to do something other than play Dark Souls in the next five years...

[spacehamster]

So where the fuck is the entrance to the Abyss? Strolling around at the bottom of New Londo "just looking" is kinda, um, deadly.

[ungodlywarlock]

Oh yeah, covenants... honestly, so much of that stuff sounds really awesome and fun, I really want to do all of them eventually, but I do need to do something other than play Dark Souls in the next five years...

Well most of them give you a pretty sweet ability just for joining that you don't have to build up.
Join the Dragon covenant get the dragon head, join the chaos covenant, get the great chaos fireball, etc...

It's when you leave one covenant for another, it doesn't make them hate you. You have to kill a member of it for them to do that.

[spacehamster]

Well most of them give you a pretty sweet ability just for joining that you don't have to build up.
Join the Dragon covenant get the dragon head, join the chaos covenant, get the great chaos fireball, etc...

Yeah, but from what I've seen at least some of them also have fairly long and involved sorta-quests attached to them that are all kinds of awesome if you're into the Souls games' style of cryptic half storytelling. Those seem fairly time consuming to do, and I probably won't be able to resist doing them because I can't put this game away until I feel like I've done absolutely everything.

[spacehamster]

Just finally did the Great Hollow and Ash Lake.

I'm now convinced that some form of severe mental illness is a hiring requirement at From Software.

[spacehamster]

So here's another question nobody's going to answer: when I unlock the Kiln of the First Flame, does that lock anything else out or can I still go everywhere? I think I'm pretty much done with all the trophies I'm going to do this playthrough (got about half the upgrade trophies, doing the boss weapons in NG+ when buying Titanite will require less grinding), but just in case.

Four Kings was hilariously easy at lvl 80 with a +10 Magic Bastard Sword. Cast Iron Flesh, circle, spam R1. Got 'em on the first attempt. Fighting all those Darkwraith on the way there was clearly harder.

[Comrade Slinky]

I unlocked it and was able to run back in and out. Only by beating Gwyn do you get locked into ng+ I believe.

[spacehamster]

Alright. I think I'm still gonna get the Sunlight Maggot and kill Gwynevere and Gwyndolin first, though.

I kinda don't really want to finish, too, because I know from Demon's Souls how awkward everything always is at the beginning of a playthrough when you can't go anywhere. Just the thought of not being able to warp again... ugh.

[ungodlywarlock]

Well Lost Izalith is fucked.

[spacehamster]

Well Lost Izalith is fucked.

Protips:

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

The jolly jumpin' t-rex butts don't respawn. Dragonslayer Greatbow helps, but a regular longbow is enough if it's properly upgraded. Also, you can get them to kill each other. Get to the top of the second tower, aggro a bunch of them with arrows, watch them stomp each other to death.

Also, in typical 'Souls fashion, Lost Izalith has some really good loot to make up for what a pain in the ass it is.

Dark Sun Gwyndolin was seriously mopping the floor with me earlier, but I think it may just have been one of those things where I needed to take a break from the fight and come back a bit more patient. In the end, the trick was not to hold down the sprint button as I ran towards him so that I had enough stamina to block whatever attacks I couldn't dodge.

Tried Gwyn too, got my ass handed to me. Prolly farm the Black Knights in the Kiln for chunks and the two NPCs in Anor Londo for souls for a bit before I go back there.

I also have to kill Quelaag's sister for her Firekeeper Soul, but I no wanna. She and the friendly little infested dude are some of my favorite NPCs.