Sucked In By Dark Souls

@JonNik, Thanks for the advice. There is a lot to learn here.

Made more progress tonight than probably all my other time combined. I have the controls pretty well mastered now.

After killing Havel, I took out the Taurus Demon. He was very easy, the plunge attack almost feels like a cheat but in this game I'll take every advantage I can get.

I have the drake sword, but for now I'm not going to use it. The bandit dagger just feels right for a thief, I like the short quick strikes. I've become pretty proficient backstabbing with it and am even getting pretty good at parrying and riposte.

I made it to the parish also but didn't find the bonfire and got killed by a knight so I'm all the way back to the undead burg.:( I forgot to re-lock on after backstabbing so when I went to back peddle I turned my back to him instead and that was that. I've died this way a number of times, not sure why they make you re-lock on or why my dumb-ass can't remember to.:biggrin:

Got a long day of work tomorrow so unfortunately my long trip back to the parish for my 9000 souls and a little payback will have to wait.

I have quite a few titanite shards. I got a different one (can't remember what it was called) from killing some kind of crystal lizard or something that was in a barrel I broke. I haven't located the blacksmith yet though.

I did have gold pine resin but used it all up on Havel.
 
After killing Havel, I took out the Taurus Demon. He was very easy, the plunge attack almost feels like a cheat but in this game I'll take every advantage I can get.

Well if you took Havel a lot of things you are going to find on the next few hours will seem like a piece of cake ;) (Good job btw!) You will be able to find more resin in a while and I don't think you are going to need it for the immediate future.


I have the drake sword, but for now I'm not going to use it. The bandit dagger just feels right for a thief, I like the short quick strikes. I've become pretty proficient backstabbing with it and am even getting pretty good at parrying and riposte.

That and good stamina management (useful for about everything and everyone) is all you really need to get you going for a nimble dex build I believe. You are most definitely already on the right path. The first bell will be so easy (remember to summon help ;) ) that you will not believe it :)

The titanite you got from the lizard is most probably twinkling. You need that to upgrade special (i.e named non standard) weapons and armor, something for a bit later on probably.

on the right of the parish. If i.e you go to the parish below the bridge with the Wyvern, get the stairs going down where the Boar is/was get rid of the hollows, up the stairs through the mist then on the left after the footbridge and through the colonnade with the single longsword wielding Balder Knight. After you dispatch the hollows in the church courtyard don't enter the new church but take the path leading from it to the old one and follow your ears ;)
 
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Finally killed Havel, the ring will come in handy. Now darkroot basin or Taurus demon.

I think my first priority should be some better equipment but I want to stay true to my class( thief) and role play it.

My brother just keeps telling me to pump points into str/end/vitality and get heavy armor and drake sword and the game will be much easier, which I have no doubt is true but I don't want to game the game. ( at least not totally)

With the Havel ring I should be able to get some better leather ( still have the starting stuff) and a better weapon without getting too encumbered.

I've only put 1 point in to str., so I could use the long sword but found I preferred the bandit knife anyway, so I'll need a dex based weapon.

Would the drake sword be thief friendly or is it a giant sword? Even better how do I upgrade the bandit dagger?


You don't want better leather because it has no Poise. There's 2 poise points to observe, and I might be a little off on this… 36 poise will generally protect you from stumbling from 1handed attacks, 76 for 2handed. The Wolf ring will give you 40 poise. 36+40=76. You can get to 36 poise and still have fast rolls! Havels ring + Wolf ring is my standard setup for all my melee builds.

If you really have to stay in leathers for RP sake try and farm the Hollow Thief set. It's nice and light and apparently the most silent, however worthless silence is.

As for str, vit, end…. STR 16 is enough to use my favourite shields.(and the drake sword) You'll want at least 27 endurance. IF you like you can take 27 STR too, cos if you use 2hands that becomes 40. It's the cheap way to a str/dex build. (You could also go to 30 and use a Towershield) If you go back to early on in this thread I mentioned running down into the Catacombs and making a Fire enchanted weapon and focusing on Vitality only until its up to 40. The leeches in the Swamp will drop stacks of 5 green shards needed to upgrade fire weapons so they're really easy to farm. Get yourself a +5 chaos flame bandit knife and 10 humanity or just a +15 fire and you'll wreck shit without needing any str/dex at all since fire/lightning weapons don't scale with stats.

For the normal upgrade path you need the Large Ember from the depths and the Very Large Ember from New Londo Ruins and Andre under Undead Parish will sort you out.

Don't worry about the drake sword, its rubbish. The bandit knife is just fine and does some of the best backstabs of all the weapons in the game. It's also got bleeding! Other favourtes for dex are the Balder Side Sword that sometimes drops off balder knights, and generally anything with bleeding damage.
 
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Thanks for the help guys.

Taking a snow day today so I should make some serious progress.

Goal today is to get to the blacksmith and enchant my bandit knife. Then do some more exploring.
 
Working my way through Sen's Fortress right now myself. This place is devious.

Also, I love my Black Knight Sword, but I am wondering whether it is worth upgrading at the blacksmith? It'll cost me Twinkling Titanite, of which I only have 4 pieces so far. It seems hard to come by, which is why I am hesitant... Is there a place where you can farm this?
 
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Working my way through Sen's Fortress right now myself. This place is devious.

Also, I love my Black Knight Sword, but I am wondering whether it is worth upgrading at the blacksmith? It'll cost me Twinkling Titanite, of which I only have 4 pieces so far. It seems hard to come by, which is why I am hesitant… Is there a place where you can farm this?

Sure is, but its ahead of you yet. They drop off giant walking clams and Guardians in the DLC area. There's also crystal lizards all over the place that are pretty tricky to find.

To overwhelm you with instructions I'd say:

You'll have to get through Sens first, then beat S&O in Anor Londo, get the Lord Vessel just beyond SnOs room, and then talk to one of the Primoridal Serpents (either at the 4 kings in New Londo Ruins if you want to become a Dark Wraith or at Firelink Shrine in the watery bit. If you want to be a Darkwraith NEVER talk to the firelink shrine serpent or Kathe won't appear!) to lower the golden fog gates. The gold fog gate in anor londo will lead you into the clams, eventually, via Dukes Archives. You get to fight Seath the Scaleless. If you're a mage his tail makes an excellent magical greatsword for INT users. :)
 
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Just a minor correction here.

The criteria for being able to talk to Kaathe (which opens the path to be a Darkwraith) is

- Get the Lordvessel
- Do not put down the Lordvessel for Frampt when he asks you to!
- You CAN talk to him and he'll take you down to the Kiln, but do not put the Lordvessel on the altar; teleport back to the last bonfire instead; Frampt will leave you alone unless you ask him to take you down to the Kiln again
- Clear New Londo Ruins and kill the boss
- Kaathe appears and also tells you to place the Lordvessel for him
- Go with him as well but again, don't place the Lordvessel on the altar but teleport out

Now you can choose which serpent to side with by putting down the Lordvessel for him on the altar (by asking him to take you there) but the other snake will leave permanently:
- Frampt will be able to divide all kinds of titanite to smaller ones and you can sell your items for some souls
- Kaathe can recruit you to the Darkwraiths and provide their magnificent gear when given enough Humanity (30 for all items)

You can go on and do miscellaneous stuff and farm gear and make up your mind, but eventually you'll have to put down the Lordvessel to access the rest of the areas and end bosses.

To get everything out of this, simply gain access to Kaathe (explained above), become Darkwraith, give him the 30 Humanity, get the awesome gear, leave Darkwraiths (or stay) and place the Lordvessel with Frampt, keeping his services.

It's good to listen to both serpents imho, they kinda give you a good sense of the story's most important decision. BUT putting down the Lordvessel on the altar for either of them does not in any way lock you in an ending. You can still make up your mind in the very end about the choice.
 
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Alright, so I've just made my way through Anor Londo and got the Lord Vessel. I'll think I'll hang on that a little longer so I get to talk to the other serpent too…
I'm on my way to Darkroot Garden now, to defeat that wolf.

But, I was wondering weapon choice. I am currently rolling with a Black Knight Sword+5, and I am wondering what to invest in to get a better weapon. I mean, so far it served me well, but… I was half of a mind to use the wolf's soul to craft myself that cursed sword, to be ready for New Londo — yes, yes, I've been looking at walkthroughs ;) — but now I am not sure. It looks like I won't be able to wield that anyway because of the requirements. I actually think I might try to craft the shield with that soul now.
I have a claymore+10 sitting in my inventory too, that I was going to upgrade to a fire+5 one, but I read somewhere that elemental damage is not worth it in later levels. So I don't know what to do with it now, since it is still subpar to the Black Knight sword. Should I up it to normal+15 maybe?

In short, I want to know whether there is a better suited weapon (preferrably a sword) for my build, which I can invest in.

To give some background, I am soul level 70 Knight at the moment, with STR 40, END 30, VIT 23, DEX 18, INT 9, FA 11. I am wearing the Silver Knight set, Tower shield+2, Havel's ring and wolf ring.
 
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I take it everybody is still busy with DS2? ;)

Anyway, just finished New Londo and beaten the Four Kings on my 3rd try, so I am off to the Duke's Archives now.
 
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Why not play with mouse and keyboard using the mousefix? It plays like any other 3rd person game.

Does anyone know if this produces a true chase cam? I can't play any of these games that have camera movement independent of control movement. I've never been able to adapt to it.
 
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Does anyone know if this produces a true chase cam? I can't play any of these games that have camera movement independent of control movement. I've never been able to adapt to it.

No, the camera does not automatically pan to face the same direction as your character. It would be comparable to Two Worlds rather than Gothic. If that's what you mean.
 
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Wow, thanks for the bit of reading nostalgia. :) Whatever happened to JonNik? He was a good poster and a genuine cool dude.

Hopefully you can adjust Todd, as the game is certainly worth the effort.
 
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Bloodborne
Darksouls 2
Lords of the Fallen

Which of the above would you recommend to "souls" game beginner who's reflex skills are that of an old man!

I plan to try it on PS4 since they are all on sale right now and people say controller support is better anyway...
 
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Lords of the fallen is the most forgiving by far and quite enjoyable. It has perfect K&m controls I beat it twice on PC. Having said that it did have some late game crashing problems on PC so PS4 is probably a safer bet anyway. A quick hint that wasn't too obvious in the game secret areas can only be revealed with a shield bash. Rolling or hitting the wall with a weapon won't work.

DS2 would be the next easiest IMO and least enjoyable of all the souls type games IMO. Combat is much slower than bloodborne and the ability to tank with a shield makes it even easier. They do use mobs a lot though to try and increase difficulty but it's more annoying than hard.The k&m controls were ok but the double click lag was an issue so I had to do a lot of remapping. So again PS4 is probably the easier way to go.

Bloodborne is the fastest combat. This would make it the hardest if your reflex challenged. You can get a shield but it's largely useless. They added another shield in the DLC but it drains your entire stamina bar with one use. Not sure if that would change if you upgrade it as I didn't try. You get firearms instead of shields, not sure how useful they are in combat because their damage is dependent on bloodtinge and I never made a bloodtinge build. I just use the pistol for parry and riposte.

Out of these 3 I enjoyed bloodborne the most. I've spent 300 hours playing it, got all the achievements in the main game and the DLC. Having said that though bloodborne can also be the most frustrating of the games do to some cheap tactics such as some enemies and bosses that can 1 hit you, making you randomly unlock so you loses track of bosses, and the lock on isn't as friendly as DS. Many time I went to lock on but wasn't facing just right and it didn't lock on it just centered the camera and it resulted in death many times. What makes it worse is it is unpredictable sometimes you need to directly face an enemy to lock on, sometimes you can be barely facing them at all and it will lock on. I did get used to it though but even then I still probably only had a 95% lock on rate and 5% frustration.
 
Bloodborne
Darksouls 2
Lords of the Fallen

Which of the above would you recommend to "souls" game beginner who's reflex skills are that of an old man!

I plan to try it on PS4 since they are all on sale right now and people say controller support is better anyway…

Well, the thing is that if you have poor reflexes the best game to play is Dark Souls 1...... the others are faster and more twitchy.
 
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Well, the thing is that if you have poor reflexes the best game to play is Dark Souls 1…… the others are faster and more twitchy.

DS1 is also the best one IMO but that wouldn't be available on PS4. Also getting past ornstien and smough could be a real problem for someone with poor reflexes.

Still the hardest boss fight I face in any souls type game IMO. Spent 8 straight hours until finally beating them. I never played demon souls though. Wish it would come to PC or PS4.

DS1, bloodborne, lords of the fallen, DS2. My opinion best to worst.
 
Thanks sakichop and GothicGothicness for your replies!

Based on what you guys said, I might give Lords of the Fallen a go since its the easiest and currently cheapest on PSN UK store (all 3 games are on sale)!

I am not sure if my reflexes are all that bad as I made it out to be earlier but I haven't played this type of game for many years so it might be better to easy my way into things again and enjoy the game rather than try a hard game and give it all up!
 
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I see Sakichop and GG beat me to it, but I'll add a few comments.

If you are going by reflexes, you should wait with Bloodborne. Whereas the Souls games allow you to hang back and take a wait and see approach, Bloodborne is designed without shields specifically to force you to be offensive and strike first. This combined with generally faster opponents makes it more difficult.

A lot of people say that Dark Souls 1 and 2 have slow combat, but that isn't really true either. What you have are more options, so it rather is what you make it. On the one hand you can play it slow and defensive, heavy armour and your shield up. From what I have seen on the forum, this has worked fine for alot of people.

If you want to get a feel for the combat of Bloodborne, you can also strip down to light armour, put on a parrying shield and either dodge or parry attacks and it will give you a taste (Bloodborne is, however, easier I would say, as it's made to be played like this).

Personally I like a mix of shield and rolling and can't stand the fat (i.e. slow) rolls and generally slow movement speed you get with heavy armour, so I play mostly with medium.

This is getting really long; short answer is that the Souls games allow you to better adapt your playing style to your abilities. The first game I played was Dark Souls 1 and on my first play through I switched armour types alot to find whatever best fit the fight, when I got stuck.

As for what game to play, I would say buy DS1 on PC and plug in your PS controller. And install the DS fix.

Otherwise, Dark Souls 2 is much of the same. Some people on this forum prefers due to changes in the mechanincs. Personally I prefer the first game. Then again it's my favourite game ever, so I'm obviously a little biased.

Anyway, if you want a game with a clearer story, LotF is the better choice. Now I haven't played that one in a long time, and I didn't get very far so i can't comment on the overall quality of the game, but from what I remember, if you go for a warrior type of character it is clearly designed to be played with heavy armour, whereas going heavy armour in Dark Souls makes you feel a little handicapped in my opinion.

Actually that was quite a lot of comments. Sorry for the wall of text.
 
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Still don't get the adjuration for DS1. Good game, amazingly absorbing vibe and atmosphere, but just so repetitive and work-like at times.

My main gripe was having to travel for ages back to a place where you died. Is Bloodborne like that?
 
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