Dark Souls General

[Alex Steacy]

Want to talk about Dark Souls / Demon's Souls / Dark Souls II / Bloodborne?

Slam your questions, answers, thoughts and stories here!

[Alex Steacy]

I liek dark soels

[plummeting_sloth]

oooooh... that's what the last dozen streams were about. Makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking.

[Master Gunner]

I too like Dark Souls. However, I'm just about to enter Blighttown, and what I've heard about that area does not raise my confidence.

[adi_pie]

Don't worry about it, the upper part of Blighttown hates the enemies as much as it does you.

[Darkobra]

I've beaten it a few times. Leather armour and katana kind of guy. The co-op kinda sucks as I was expecting to play it with a friend the way I can solo but it turns out everything's fogged off and you're locked off from a lot of areas.

It's a good game but I can't see me rushing for Dark Souls 2.

[Lurkon]

I was just about to start up a playthrough. I've been... influenced lately. So I'm going to clean my turtle tank, do my math homework, and start up Dark Souls: Prepare to Die edition. I feel like I should... read some literature on it before I start, though.

[adi_pie]

darksouls.wikidot.com is your friend Lurkon. They have maps, walkthroughs and boss strategies if you ever get stuck.

[Alcaste]

I'm a huge fan. The thing about Dark Souls though is that I can never seem to get myself to end-game. Is Dark Souls II worth it?

[ch3m1kal]

I was just about to start up a playthrough. I've been... influenced lately. So I'm going to clean my turtle tank, do my math homework, and start up Dark Souls: Prepare to Die edition. I feel like I should... read some literature on it before I start, though.

Honestly don't even worry about it. Go play it, It's just a game, and it is NOT as hard as the fan boys like to say it is.

Oh it's definitely challenging, but like any challenge you can overcome it with a bit of perseverance and some skills that you should be able to acquire fairly quickly. Even though the game doesn't bother to explain most of them to you...

I actually mentioned in the chat on the last DS2 stream that I think the main problem most players have is panicking. Once you get over the natural "Oh shit!" response to some of the encounters, you can start focusing on actually fighting the enemies, and not yourself.

Re-watching Graham's playthrough was a real eye opener for me, since he did really well with some guidance from Alex, until he got to the Capra demon, where everyone is like "OMG Capra demon is the worst" and he panicked and ran repeatedly into it and died, despite the fact that he could have killed it fairly easily with his build.

[adi_pie]

What ch3m1kal said is definitely true, the game is challenging but it's also fair. It doesn't throw things in your path that you can't overcome with patience and perseverance.

I recommended the wiki because it gives you options and can be read at leisure, though I would also recommend playing the game on your own and only using the wiki in case you get stuck.

Dark Souls is at it's best when it can surprise you.

P.S. One golden rule of Dark Souls is that there is no "correct" way of doing things. If a way works for you, it works, that's all there is to it.

[Master Gunner]

Re-watching Graham's playthrough was a real eye opener for me, since he did really well with some guidance from Alex, until he got to the Capra demon, where everyone is like "OMG Capra demon is the worst" and he panicked and ran repeatedly into it and died, despite the fact that he could have killed it fairly easily with his build.

I went into the Capra Demon's area by accident, so I just started flailing wildly with my Zweihander before it even registered where I was. By that point the guy was down to half health already, so I figured I might as well try to actually take the guy and started dodging around a bit and running up the stairs for some Estus. Ended up taking the Capra Demon down first try, while if I had actually being "prepared" for it, I probably would have run into the same problem as Graham.

[nicholasmc1]

On my 6th playthrough(failure on all previous runs) I'm finally making progress, my save isn't being corrupted and I've optimised the shit out of my character. Killing bosses first try. Turns out the only hard thing remaining in the game is my poor sense of direction. How I did this?, mono club, incredibly light armour and getting strength to 40 first.

[Alex Steacy]

Dark Souls is an extremely strong reccomendation of mine. Dark Souls 2 is... Okay. I'm almost 30 hours in and pretty disappointed with it. But in the same way that the worst Pixar movie is still pretty good...

[nicholasmc1]

If pixar was to kids as dark souls is to non-casuals?

[ch3m1kal]

Dark Souls is an extremely strong reccomendation of mine. Dark Souls 2 is... Okay. I'm almost 30 hours in and pretty disappointed with it. But in the same way that the worst Pixar movie is still pretty good...

Cars 2.

[Lurkon]

So... I started Bandit with Firebombs to get that sweet warhammer (I like hammers). I can't wield that hammer quite yet, because you start with 14 strength and need... 45. Would it be better for me to... start Deprived and level only Strength for awhile? I WANT to be using that warhammer.

ETA: CLEARLY I want to end up with Smough's Hammer eventually. I do not know what any of what I read about it means yet, but I want it.

[nicholasmc1]

So... I started Bandit with Firebombs to get that sweet warhammer (I like hammers). I can't wield that hammer quite yet, because you start with 14 strength and need... 45. Would it be better for me to... start Deprived and level only Strength for awhile? I WANT to be using that warhammer.

ETA: CLEARLY I want to end up with Smough's Hammer eventually. I do not know what any of what I read about it means yet, but I want it.

Just use a club until you get your stats high enough for those big strength weapons. Its cheap as dirt from the games first trader and scales with an A from strength.

[ch3m1kal]

I'm assuming you mean the Demon Great Hammer. You only need 31 STR to 2 hand that thing, which is kind of the way you're meant to use it, since 45 STR for a first playthrough isn't really feasible. You really need to buff your END too, otherwise you'll get a couple of swings in and that's about it.

Also note that you can get that hammer by trading that Sack that the butcher drops to Snuggly, and in fact by the time you get all that done you should also have the required strength as well as other nice things.

[Sakana]

since 45 STR for a first playthrough isn't really feasible.

I definitely got to 50 STR and DEX before hitting NG+, but I'm pretty sure I'm a scrub who farmed out way more than I should have and rushed strength to meet the requirements of weapons I never use.

Considering how annoyed Alex was by the awful texture tiling present in DS2, I'd be interested to know what he thinks about how the different areas of the game are connected to each other. For example where the hell is Iron Keep physically located.
You reach it by climbing to the top of a windmill situated on a largely flat expanse of land, at which point you take an elevator directly upwards to... the gigantic lava castle which is apparently invisible from the outside, balanced on top of the spire that is the elevator.

Compare to DS1, where all areas are connected fairly seamlessly without any 4-th dimensional overlapping (with the possible exception of Ash Lake, which seems to have its own underground sky.)

[Alex Steacy]

Yeah, as someone pointed out it's like different groups each designed a level and they just smushed them all into a loosely adjacent arrangement because they assumed players would just teleport around. It's just more of the lazy, uninspiring design that keeps making for a worse experience. The levels they DO have also feel way more like video game levels than areas in a rich and interesting world, iron keep being a good example.

Like, it doesn't have the functional layout of anything resembling an actual castle. It's just a lava/platform level with evenly spaced enemies who vaguely suit the area.

[Lurkon]

Welp, I'm up to 31 strength, and I'm afraid that great hammers are slightly too slow for me. Maybe I can make it work at 45 strength, though... I think I'll try it out.

[Sakana]

It's just a lava/platform level with evenly spaced enemies who vaguely suit the area.

But hey! At least the enemies vaguely suit the area! *Cough* grave wardens *cough*

[Fenrir]

I too like teh Dark Souls. Haven't had a chance to sit and play in a few days but I'm up to the ... bus, what was it's name ... the demon dude with the two dogs that Cam had trouble with? *herpaderp* I'm up to that. *nods*

I'm actually really digging it over all. Went with Wanderer in the end because YAAAAAY DEX BUILD.

[ArchieO]

I'm going with a Paladin build on my current playthrough, Sun-bro'd it up to get both lightning miracles and wielding the Zweihander, its going well so far.