Dark Souls

[Eli Vance]

They're expensive but well worth it when you're in the depths because you'll come across the first enemies who can curse... I'll not say anything more than dying due to a curse has dire consequences

@Eli: Yeah, I have the master key so I've encountered Havel Rock once, suffice to say I didn't go back (apart from to sneakily re-claim my souls then leg it!). The fecker killed me in one attack with his massive club thing but now I've got some spells and levelled my pyromancy a bit (the build I'm playing now is Pyromancer) I might try again whilst keeping a distance.

Definitely. Curse is the only afflication which cannot be healed using a bonfire so purging stones are essential for the Depths, Catacombs and Painted world of Aramis. There only two characters in the game which sell them so don't go too mad with them.

As long as you can keep your distance and pound him with spells he's not too hard. If you go down to the bottom of the stairs where you first encounter Havel the doorway there connects to Darkroot wood. The other one is by going down from the Undead Parish smith. Dark root basin where the hydra is located also connects to Valley of the Drakes.

You know I said about the false wall just down from Quelaag's bell. The firekeeper through there specialises in pyromancy. There's also a character (pyromancer) trapped in the Depths who sells pyromancies once you free him. When you get down into the Demon Ruins there are quite a few enemies who are fire based so don't focus solely on pyromancy or you may struggle with those.

To get to this character if you haven't already. Starting from the Depths doorway. Go in and down the first two flights of stairs. So your in the room with the benches and the fire weilding zombies. Standing at the bottom the stairs in this room (not the stairs leading down to the butcher at the table) walk forward and drop through any one of the arch shape holes to your right. Go forwards taking the left turn to where the second butcher is. Once the butcher is down go up the stairs and the character is in amongst the pots in the far right corner. Once he's free just return to Firelink Shrine.

[Tom909]

Yeah, I already freed him Eli, thanks anyway though. I've bought some extra spells off him and more importantly started lvl'ing my Pyromancy.

Will definatley try and get through that hidden wall if there's a Pyromancy smith there, it's just what I've been wanting

[ClownTrousers]

I take back saying it's not hard.

[Tom909]

I take back saying it's not hard.

If you're still stuck in Lower Undead Burg and the Capra Demon with his dogs I can only suggest going back to Undead Parish and doing a lot of farming. I knew it was coming so kept clearing the whole of the parish with quite a few humanities equipped, going to the bonfire near the blacksmith then repeating.
This got me loads of titanite and allowed me to lvl my weapon and all armor pieces to +5. It also got me loads of souls in the meantime to lvl my character.
It's a laborious task but worth it in the long run.

[ClownTrousers]

I did just discover the encumbrance thing (sometimes it would be nice if it explained the stats), took off me metal pants and now I'm a lot nippier so should be able to run around him. Might go back to the bridge and go up and down the stairs with the dragon (300 souls for walking).

Problem with equipping lots of humanities is i'd have to then win the bossfight first time. I have about 10.

[Tom909]

I did end up with exactly that problem at exactly that point. Because I'd equipped quite a few Humanities to get me titanite to take him on, every time my character went through his white light it was an instant dash for my lost stuff and then on to the boss/dogs. Made it even more annoying.

The encumberance thing is very importantant, it's why I've kept banging on about keeping my builds weight below 50%. Had about 5 hours play where I was walking around slow as feck and getting hammered till I read about that. You're right, it would be nice if at least some of these elements and stats were explained...

[Eli Vance]

I did just discover the encumbrance thing (sometimes it would be nice if it explained the stats), took off me metal pants and now I'm a lot nippier so should be able to run around him. Might go back to the bridge and go up and down the stairs with the dragon (300 souls for walking).

Press start for the small menu to appear in the top right corner then select the third one along 'view status'. Bottom of the screen it says press select for explanation then just highlight the one you want.

If he catches you he's going to do more damage though.

The two main issues with the Capra demon are lack of space and the amount of stamina his attacks deplete if you block. He only has two types of attack which are quite slow and easy to read. He'll put his two swords together behind him for a straight overhead stike. Or, raise one of his hands to the side of his head and do one slash followed by another.

If your going in with a melee weapon. The best strategy is to wait for him to start his attack and then role. Drill him with a quick counter and then roll back out and repeat. Make sure you keep locked on at all times or you'll get hit in the back.

If your going magic which I assume you are being quicker. Instead of rolling as he attacks, role and then run to give yourself enough space for casting time.

You can mix the two strategies together if you wish.

The dogs are a bit of a pain but not too much of an issue. These do need to go down first though. When you make a little room to cast make sure to use your lock on to avoid casts hitting the wrong target or missing.

[Tom909]

Rang me the second bell of awakening yesterday

Thanks for the Blightown shortcut Eli. I tried entering through the depths just to give it a quick try and ended up dead within 30 seconds. Went back, nabbed my lost souls and went for the shortcut.
Even that way it's still pretty difficult, first there's the fat fellas with giant clubs (who do end up being easy once you've worked out their attack patterns) then all the platforms down with various poisoning creatures and fire breathing pests. It doesn't get any easier at the bottom either; the swamp itself is hell bent on poisoning you and there are beasties around every corner. I'd have gone straight for the boss after the bonfire if I hadn't kept spotting that addictive glow of pillage-able corpses somewhere across the swamp many, many times.

Anyways, rang the bell and found the fake wall with the covenant and pyromancy weapon thing. Also found a merchant specialist in pyromancy in the middle of the giant swamp who's got some great spells up for sale.

Working my way back up and out of Blightown proved my downfall though; had let my guard down a bit after killing Qualeg and got killed by one of the fat fellas with giant clubs on the cave back out. Tried making my way back there and then fell to my death making the jump from the top of the big platform lift thing Luckily I'd just lvl'd a few times so didn't have many souls but still lost about seven humanity... The pad nearly went through the feckin wall!

Just not sure where to go now... So many choices

[Biggs]

Slighty off the detailed topic - but on Dark Souls anyway: I'm really glad you guys have given it a chance and are enjoying it. It's funny, looking back through this thread, to see how a few of you have gone from frustration to obsession.

Having played both Skyrim and Reckoning, it's renewed my appreciation of Dark Souls. It's the only RPG I've played in years that offers a completely new experience. Most other developers (including Bethesda) just dump a tonne of quests, NPC's and artifacts into a world and hope that there's enough there to distract us from the fact that this formula's getting really old now.

I still haven't completed the main questline of Skyrim and I don't care enough to go back to it. Reckoning is a very good game, but I can't take that seriously either. I will be going back to my level 60 Dark Souls character this weekend though, to pick up where I left off in Blighttown.

[Eli Vance]

Just not sure where to go now... So many choices

It depends whether you want to progress the story or carry on item hunting first? If your want to item hunt there are a few places I can tell you to go but its quite perilous.

General Info based on your current point.

Your first port of call should be Frampt (the big snake like thing) at Firelink Shrine

You don't need to bother with New Londo Ruins (leads to the Abyss), The Catacombs (leads to the Giants Tomb) and The Demons Ruins (leads to Lost Izalith) for now if you don't want to. Once you've got to Anor Londo (via Sen's Fortress) and got the Lord Vessel you will naturally come back to these anyway. Once you have the Lord Vessel you can fast travel between certain bonfires (as long as you've found them) making getting about a little easier

My advice would be to explore Darkroot Wood and Basin before going for Sen's Fortress and onto Anor Londo. There are 3 bosses (Hydra, Sif and Moonlight Butterfly) in this area whose souls can be used for weapons plus 2 embers (for the blacksmiths). The bosses souls are used to modify weapons at the Anor Londo blacksmith, this blacksmith is the only one who can use bosses souls to modify weapons. If you get the bosses souls before you get to Anor Londo its going to save you some getting around later

Edit: If you are going for Darkroot Wood/Basin grab the Crest of Astoria from the Undead Parish Smith first. The crest isn't 100% necessary but the door it open saves going the long way round each time you want to get to the area behind it. To get to Darkroot Wood/Basin head down from the Undead Parish blacksmith or open the door where Havel Rock is. Oh, and there is a false wall hiding a bonfire just to the left of the door which Asotria Crest opens.



Don't forget to grab the item from the Undead Asylum (cell) before heading for Sen's Fortress. Apart from the painted worlds wealth of goodies the occult ember is also located in there.

There are also other optional area's which you can explore at your leisure. The Great Hollow and Ash Lake being the main two; The Great Hollow leads onto Ash Lake. I would advise going for these after you have the Lord Vessel due to where the entrance to these is located.

The entrance to The Great hollow is located on the far left of Blighttown's poisonous lake, its basically the opposite end of the lake to where you go for Quelaag. Once there you'll find a big branch leading up out of the lake, head up it to get into the Great Hollow. The branch can be a little tricky to spot at first so make sure you have an extra few mosses to be on the safe side.

[Eli Vance]

It's the only RPG I've played in years that offers a completely new experience.

The most refreshing rpg experience of this generation to date, imo.

[Dark_Star]

Wow you lot are praising this game a lot and I got an earfull over christmas from a friend saying it was the nuts. I get bored of stories very fast but I did like oblivion so I may get it. Good games are so thin on the ground these days so I'm a pinch of salt kind of person now.

[Eli Vance]

Wow you lot are praising this game a lot and I got an earfull over christmas from a friend saying it was the nuts. I get bored of stories very fast but I did like oblivion so I may get it. Good games are so thin on the ground these days so I'm a pinch of salt kind of person now.

If you do decide to pick up Dark Souls throw all those western rpg story telling traits out of your head before you start this game.

Dark Souls is very much an rpg fashioned on the Shadow of Colossus method of design. It uses a minimalist approach to it settings like Sotc or Silent Hill. I mean, the lack of direct explanation and ambiguity of key events leaves plenty of room for the imagination.

In Dark Souls your character isn't there to save the world because someone else says so and your the only man for the job. Neither are you there to save a loved one. Your there to save yourself which makes things a lot more personal. Npc's don't care about you they have their own motives, problems and quests to worry about. You can rescue one charcter and he'll kill somoene who is of great use to you a little later. Making the rescue simply a chance encounter which played in the npc's favour. Instead of the usual scripted affair where your told you must go and free or kill this character.

The combat design and mechanics are also kept very simple like Sotc. Using a sword on an early boss is no comparison to the sword skill needed for later ones but the mechanics remain the same throughout. This forces the player to expand their thinking about how a small set of mechanics can be used in a different ways to create advanced tactics. Instead of the usual method where you have loads of mechanics at your disposal and you just simply pick whichever one you want.

[Eli Vance]

Reckoning is a very good game, but I can't take that seriously either.

That'll do for me.

I won't be taking Reckoning too seriously. After Dark Souls and Skyrim a bit of relaxed light hearted rpg-ing is definitely in order.

Missed this bit earlier teach me not to glance over posts.

[DUFFKING]

I did just discover the encumbrance thing (sometimes it would be nice if it explained the stats), took off me metal pants and now I'm a lot nippier so should be able to run around him. Might go back to the bridge and go up and down the stairs with the dragon (300 souls for walking).

Problem with equipping lots of humanities is i'd have to then win the bossfight first time. I have about 10.

When you go through the locked door in Darkroot Garden, if you join the covenant in there, a dude will appear whom if you kill his bodyguard, you get a ring which lets you run at max speed and do super fast ninja flips as long as you're below 50% equip. The flip animation has loads of invincibility frames too, so it's a damn good investment.

The forest hunters will hate you forever, though. Well, until NG+.

On Capra Demon, himself he isn't actually particularly tough, it's just the arena size and two dogs that make him tough. Once the dogs are dead he's not such an issue. Found it the same on New Game + - got slapped about twice trying to deal with the dogs, but once he was on his own it's pretty simple. You might be amused later on when you come across about 6 of them at once in the Demon Ruins and you don't even bat an eyelid.

In any case, I've spent the last hour or so invading people in the forest for giggles.