From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[Caim]

Alright, made some decent progress today. I fought my way through Blighttown (which was managable, but it eventually devolved into a game of Hollows and Ladders), defeated the fire spider witch boss whose vagina was a monstrous head (and she was a pushover: MUCH easier than the Gaping Dragon) and sounded the bell, I've defeated Havel (just keep backstabbing him and he'll stay down), defeated the metallic bull thing in Undead Parish (Pyromancy FTW), fought the Black Knight with the two-handed sword in the same area (though no weapon drops), managed to chase off the Hellkite and found the bonfire behind it, though I have to say that one's awfully close to the previous one.

I've made some progress into Sen's Fortress, though I have to say that the snake monsters are rather tough. I've been playing with the Indiana Jones Pinball Machine, so I now have an idea on where to go to.

An on what was told earlier: I have found the Claymore, but I don't really like how slow it is. So for now I'm sticking to the Drake Sword, though I'm looking into upgrading it (currently at +1). How reliable is farming them from those monsters in the Valley of the Drakes? And how tough are those things?

 

[Ninjerk]

I've never heard anyone say that upgrading the Drake Sword is a good idea.

 

[Gozma]

Don't upgrade the Drake Sword, it's totally not worth the effort. There is a lightning spear you'll find in Sens that shits on it if you put some titanite chunks into it even if you are getting by with minimal str/dex, never mind an actual good weapon.

 

[Wulfstand]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8IoE7pp5so&index=1&list=PLIGWVDu9gdfQrYTPN7dqa1M_LJ8dgMP1i

This playthrough is fucking awesome. It helps that Oney is a pretty hilarious guy; it makes the whole thing feel fresh even to someone who's been playing the game for a while now.

 

[Caim]

Hm, alright, I'll keep an eye out for the spear. Since I'm leveling my Strength to be able to wield Greatshields I'll be able to do decent damage with it. Even have some Titanite to upgrade it.

 

[Raghar]

After I killed all ghosts in new Londo, I came to conclusion that Anor Londo isn't the same as a new Londo. I also resisted urge to jump into water, swim to fog gate, go through the fog gate, and kill the boss behind.
I also have awesome magic sword +4 which I improved after I found the smith that can do magic weapons. It's brutal it hits for 384 HP.

Now I killed Queelag. It looks like with flesh sweat it can't hurt that much. And Mildred distracted her for few soul arrows.

 

[Mystary!]

Hm, alright, I'll keep an eye out for the spear. Since I'm leveling my Strength to be able to wield Greatshields I'll be able to do decent damage with it. Even have some Titanite to upgrade it.

No, elemental weapons do not have statscalings, they work better for mages who dont raise str/dex. You can use it untill you find something else but youd be better off upgrading claymore to +15, or some other weapon you like. My personal favourites are Large and Great Club, they have some of the highest str scalings in the game. The swords the lizardmen drop actually have pretty high scalings aswell.

 

[StaticSpine]

Hm, alright, I'll keep an eye out for the spear. Since I'm leveling my Strength to be able to wield Greatshields I'll be able to do decent damage with it. Even have some Titanite to upgrade it.

The swords the lizardmen drop actually have pretty high scalings aswell.

Yeah, the Manserpent greatsword is awesome, I've completed the game with it, it deals massive damage if fully upgraded.

 

[Caim]

Alright, I got the spear, defeated the Iron Golem in one try and got carried off to Anor Londo. I found the way I need to go, but when I get to the part where you need to run up the ramps while dodging those black knights with bows I make it to the top, but when I turn to go one way I keep getting shot to death from the other direction. How do I get past that place?

 

[LivingOne]

You can either roll through the arrows or parry them.Then go close to the Silver Knight to the right since he'll likely fall while trying to engage you in melee + the other one can't hit you there.

Altenatively Ring of Fog + poison arrows.

 

[Cosmo]

Alright, I got the spear, defeated the Iron Golem in one try and got carried off to Anor Londo. I found the way I need to go, but when I get to the part where you need to run up the ramps while dodging those black knights with bows I make it to the top, but when I turn to go one way I keep getting shot to death from the other direction. How do I get past that place?

You have to attack the archer on the right, so that you're invisible to the other one. So, as soon as you're finished climbing up the ramp, roll and roll to the right (never raise your shield !).

 

[Mystary!]

I was fatrolling in black iron armor and the heaviest shield I could find, round stone shield, I blocked the hell out of those arrows.
Poise ftw.

 

[Caim]

Alrighty, I managed to enter the cathedral, helped out the onion knight, met Sunbro again, opened the front door and found my way to the mist to Ornstein and Smough. Anything to keep in mind against those two?

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Be patient, try to keep both of them in your sight at all times, and pay attention to what they're doing. In many ways, O&S is the pinnacle of Souls specific type of boss design, where the difficulty lies in anticipating events rather than reacting to them, and in finding "safe" moments to attack or heal. It'll take a while before you learn enough to stop yourself from being gangbanged, which will feel very frustrating and unfair when it happens. Just stick with it, while you're learning, the answer to most problems is to play more conservatively. With certain weapons, it's possible to just zerg Smough down quickly, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Your lightning spear will deal shit damage to Ornstein, so this might be a good moment to upgrade some other weapon with the giant smith in Anor Londo.

 

[Mystary!]

Anything to keep in mind against those two?

My best advice would be to praise the sun.

 

[Caim]

Be patient, try to keep both of them in your sight at all times, and pay attention to what they're doing. In many ways, O&S is the pinnacle of Souls specific type of boss design, where the difficulty lies in anticipating events rather than reacting to them, and in finding "safe" moments to attack or heal. It'll take a while before you learn enough to stop yourself from being gangbanged, which will feel very frustrating and unfair when it happens. Just stick with it, while you're learning, the answer to most problems is to play more conservatively. With certain weapons, it's possible to just zerg Smough down quickly, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Your lightning spear will deal shit damage to Ornstein, so this might be a good moment to upgrade some other weapon with the giant smith in Anor Londo.

Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks bro.

Anything to keep in mind against those two?

My best advice would be to praise the sun.

I don't have that emote, but I know I can ask Sunbro for help.

 

[Cromwell]

I found this formula on a wiki:

20 strength user, 1 hand wielding a +15 Club:

• BaseDamage: 182
• Scaling: A (132%)
• StatRating: 20 Strength: 40%

AttackRating = 182( 1 + 1.32 × 0.4 ) = 278


where does this formula take the 40% from? from which valuable is 20 strength 40 %. Just trying to understand this scaling mechanic.

 

[Ninjerk]

Be patient, try to keep both of them in your sight at all times, and pay attention to what they're doing. In many ways, O&S is the pinnacle of Souls specific type of boss design, where the difficulty lies in anticipating events rather than reacting to them, and in finding "safe" moments to attack or heal. It'll take a while before you learn enough to stop yourself from being gangbanged, which will feel very frustrating and unfair when it happens. Just stick with it, while you're learning, the answer to most problems is to play more conservatively. With certain weapons, it's possible to just zerg Smough down quickly, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Your lightning spear will deal shit damage to Ornstein, so this might be a good moment to upgrade some other weapon with the giant smith in Anor Londo.

Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks bro.

Anything to keep in mind against those two?

My best advice would be to praise the sun.

I don't have that emote, but I know I can ask Sunbro for help.

\[T]/

 

[Murk]

I found this formula on a wiki:

20 strength user, 1 hand wielding a +15 Club:

• BaseDamage: 182
• Scaling: A (132%)
• StatRating: 20 Strength: 40%

AttackRating = 182( 1 + 1.32 × 0.4 ) = 278


where does this formula take the 40% from? from which valuable is 20 strength 40 %. Just trying to understand this scaling mechanic.

Can't be certain, but it may be the cap. Stats have a soft cap (at which point raising the stat has diminished returns) and a hard cap (at which point raising the stat does almost nothing if not outright nothing).

The soft cap for STR is 40 and the hard cap is 50.

So, 20 str = 40% of 50 (20/50 = .40) and perhaps that is it? That is, the damage formula takes into account how much of the "full range of strength bonus" you can have int he form of a percentage multiplier.

 

[Surf Solar]

Edward_R_Murrow do you know if the summoning system is borked on the games for gold version of DS on the xbox? Yesterday I have been trying to co-op with a friend who is absolutely new to the souls series (he and I both downloaded that particular version) and he sucks at the game, but has fun with it. A bit coop would have been fun. But it doesnt matter where I put my white soapstone down, he never sees my sign. We tested it in areas none of us have cleared yet, as well as areas he has cleared or I have cleared. While we are able to put the sign down, none of us sees each other. He is level 28, I am level 31. He also frequently sees many signs of other players, be it red gold or white, while I see maybe one sign each 20 minutes randomly. :< Hell I even tried invading him, waited and waited, nothing happened. We are both human ofcourse. What sorcery is this?


Also, while I have no problem with other bosses, the gaping dragon simply wrecks my shit everytime in this version. I fight him without the lock on, circle him, attack tail etc. But always his legs with those massive hitboxes get me or he jumps on me despite me running away as fast as I can when he does this jump attack. Summoning phantoms is useless since his HP bloat increases doing so. Whats the gimmick with it?

 

[praetor]

Edward_R_Murrow do you know if the summoning system is borked on the games for gold version of DS on the xbox? Yesterday I have been trying to co-op with a friend who is absolutely new to the souls series (he and I both downloaded that particular version) and he sucks at the game, but has fun with it. A bit coop would have been fun. But it doesnt matter where I put my white soapstone down, he never sees my sign. We tested it in areas none of us have cleared yet, as well as areas he has cleared or I have cleared. While we are able to put the sign down, none of us sees each other. He is level 28, I am level 31. He also frequently sees many signs of other players, be it red gold or white, while I see maybe one sign each 20 minutes randomly. :< Hell I even tried invading him, waited and waited, nothing happened. We are both human ofcourse. What sorcery is this?

it seems to be completely borked. i've seen lots of threads on reddit asking for a patch ASAP

 

[Raghar]

Edward_R_Murrow do you know if the summoning system is borked on the games for gold version of DS on the xbox? Yesterday I have been trying to co-op with a friend who is absolutely new to the souls series (he and I both downloaded that particular version) and he sucks at the game, but has fun with it. A bit coop would have been fun. But it doesnt matter where I put my white soapstone down, he never sees my sign. We tested it in areas none of us have cleared yet, as well as areas he has cleared or I have cleared. While we are able to put the sign down, none of us sees each other. He is level 28, I am level 31. He also frequently sees many signs of other players, be it red gold or white, while I see maybe one sign each 20 minutes randomly. :< Hell I even tried invading him, waited and waited, nothing happened. We are both human ofcourse. What sorcery is this?


Also, while I have no problem with other bosses, the gaping dragon simply wrecks my shit everytime in this version. I fight him without the lock on, circle him, attack tail etc. But always his legs with those massive hitboxes get me or he jumps on me despite me running away as fast as I can when he does this jump attack. Summoning phantoms is useless since his HP bloat increases doing so. Whats the gimmick with it?

What's your version? Pirates are playing on 1.06. If your is lower, then you would be able to only connect to other scum that has unpatched version.

I killed gaping dragon on second try without dying once. Considering I'm using only keyboard without mouse...

BTW he didn't killed me even on first try.

 

[Murk]

huh? then how did you die on first try?

 

[Cowboy Moment]

He forgot to kill the Channeler.

 

[Surf Solar]

I beat him now anyway, Zweihander and the lightning buff and the dragon didnt last long. Never tried that weapon before since I dislike overly huge swords etc, but it sure is a completely different feeling than with my last character and queelags chaosblade. Just beat Ornstein & Smoug, Fight was easier than I remembered. Practising dodge rolling in DS2 sure helped out.

No summon signs or invasioms AT ALL still on that free xbox version. Shame, since I never really experienced much of the pvp of it.