From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[Metro]

Sounds like the new Giant Dad!

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

SL1 Kalameet done again... This time no shield/pyro. I'm surprised that this fight was much easier than Manus. Close to 10 minutes of dodging mostly predictable moves is better than getting Manus dark magic spam RNG.

 

[AngryEddy]

can I get a trigger warning on Vaativideos voice

Yeah, I wish people would stop plugging that cunty shill.

 

[AngryEddy]

But will it have SOLARE<3 and PRAISETEHSUN<3 so that I can shitpost on reddit?

Easily one of the worst aspects of the Souls community, coupled with obsession with awful fanfiction.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Easily one of the worst aspects of the Souls community, coupled with obsession with awful fanfiction.

That's why people prefer Demon's Souls – times were better then

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

DeS has plenty of OMG MAIDEN ASTRAEA SO SAD SO EMOTION and UMBASA<3

 

[Admiral jimbob]

It is good that, even now, Silly Souls continues unabated. I was summoned by a benevolent hacker and we had a dance party with a friendly blue spirit, uppercutting each other with dragon bone fists while he threw souls of Gwyn around and did trident dances.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

My silly souls is a bit different... I'm dropping dragon eyes in the burg, fishing for noobs that can't differentiate them from white signs.

 

[Metro]

UndetectedButthurt Are you playing on the Steam beta client? My SL1 could use some help on O&S 'cuz I suck.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

I sent you a PM or "started a conversation". Jeez... All these new fancy forums...

 

[Gentle Player]

That's why people prefer Demon's Souls – times were better then

Dark Souls > Demon's. As much as I love DeS, it was somewhat decline in lacking flask system and open world.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

UndetectedButthurt Are you playing on the Steam beta client? My SL1 could use some help on O&S 'cuz I suck.

SL1 O&S should be pretty easy, it takes like 2-3 Great Combustions to kill Smough with a +15 Flame, and super-Ornstein isn't that difficult. If you're really having trouble there, Manus will destroy you.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Dark Souls > Demon's. As much as I love DeS, it was somewhat decline in lacking flask system and open world.

I agree that DS is the better game if you consider mechanics. It was a successful iteration of DeS and improved on where DeS was lacking, e.g. farming and munching grass. The open world was nice, but I think the hub system worked as well. But if I had to pick, I'd still prefer DeS over DS, it was new, had better atmosphere (Boletaria, ToL) than comparable areas in DS. And personally I'm always wary if there is too much of a hype going on and also the marking (prepare to die) was kind of annoying, in DeS times, when the developers were still surprised that anyone bought the game at all, it was different.

 

[Metro]

SL1 O&S should be pretty easy, it takes like 2-3 Great Combustions to kill Smough with a +15 Flame, and super-Ornstein isn't that difficult. If you're really having trouble there, Manus will destroy you.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Another good piece of advice is to buy a Balder Shield (if you don't have one yet) and upgrade it as much as possible. You don't, strictly speaking, need it, but it's a godsend against the occasional attack that you find difficult to roll through (for me, this was Kalameet's swipe) - with a +14 Balder Shield, you can block Kalameet and Manus' attacks without losing all your stamina, even at SL1.

Also, don't expect to achieve anything with Pyromancy in the DLC, everything has elemental resistances out the arse, you need both a Chaos and a Lightning weapon (for Kalameet) at close to max upgrades there.

 

[Athelas]

SL1 O&S should be pretty easy, it takes like 2-3 Great Combustions to kill Smough with a +15 Flame, and super-Ornstein isn't that difficult. If you're really having trouble there, Manus will destroy you.

Doesn't that defeat the point of a level 1 run? How is upgrading Pyromancy functionally different from raising stats on level ups?

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Doesn't that defeat the point of a level 1 run? How is upgrading Pyromancy functionally different from raising stats on level ups?

Well Pyro doesnt scale with your stats so i gues people treat it as a another "weapon". Since you can do sl1 run with upgraded chaos/lighting club +5 you can also upgrade your Pyro flame

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Doesn't that defeat the point of a level 1 run? How is upgrading Pyromancy functionally different from raising stats on level ups?

The point of an SL1 run is that you succeed without increasing your Endurance, HP or offensive stats, and without being able to use most weapons or armor. Might as well ask how upgrading weapons is functionally different from levelling up. It is possible to do an SL1 run with no upgrades, it's just boring as fuck, since you take forever to kill anything. Functionally, you can kill Smough with a +5 Chaos Reinforced Club just as fast as with Great Combustion, only real difference is that the latter doesn't require you to scour the world for red titanite chunks. So it's mostly a matter of convenience.

 

[Athelas]

The point of an SL1 run is that you succeed without increasing your Endurance, HP or offensive stats, and without being able to use most weapons or armor. Might as well ask how upgrading weapons is functionally different from levelling up. It is possible to do an SL1 run with no upgrades, it's just boring as fuck, since you take forever to kill anything. Functionally, you can kill Smough with a +5 Chaos Reinforced Club just as fast as with Great Combustion, only real difference is that the latter doesn't require you to scour the world for red titanite chunks. So it's mostly a matter of convenience.

Everything requires souls to upgrade/improve, hence my comment on it being functionally similar. Considering how Pyromancy is relatively powerful and non-dependent on stats, and the ease of rushing from a bonfire to a boss location and spamming all your fire attacks, it doesn't really strike me as an interesting challenge - and the 'rules' of the challenge seem to be arbitrary. To each their own, I guess.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Everything requires souls to upgrade/improve, hence my comment on it being functionally similar. Considering how Pyromancy is relatively powerful and non-dependent on stats, and the ease of rushing from a bonfire to a boss location and spamming all your fire attacks, it doesn't really strike me as an interesting challenge - and the 'rules' of the challenge seem to be arbitrary. To each their own, I guess.

You seem to believe that the point of SL1 runs is to gain some kind of street cred, a badge of ultimate hardcore. That's not the case. The point is to be able to utilize all the knowledge you have of the game (for instance, knowing where Quelana is, or knowing how to run through the catacombs to the skeleton blacksmith) without making it trivial in the process. SL1 achieves that, because it greatly limits your defensive options and stamina. If you want something even more difficult, you don't go the "No using souls for anything" route, because it makes the game an awful slog. Instead, you do a speedrun.

And if it doesn't strike you as an interesting challenge, I urge you to try SL1ing the DLC, and then come back and tell me there isn't any difference.

 

[Athelas]

You seem to believe that the point of SL1 runs is to gain some kind of street cred, a badge of ultimate hardcore.

No, I don't. My point was that that 'no level ups' is just an arbitrary rule, considering more immediately impactful stuff like upgrading the Pyromancy glove is allowed. As such, it doesn't strike me as an interesting challenge, because the rules aren't coherent with the game systems. Might as well allow a few level ups or something.

A challenge like 'no shields/blocking' allowed does strike me as interesting, because the limitation makes 'sense' with the gameplay systems.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

No, I don't. My point was that that 'no level ups' is just an arbitrary rule, considering more immediately impactful stuff like upgrading the Pyromancy glove is allowed. As such, it doesn't strike me as an interesting challenge, because the rules aren't coherent with the game systems. Might as well allow a few level ups or something.

A challenge like 'no shields/blocking' allowed does strike me as interesting, because the limitation makes 'sense' with the gameplay systems.

I honestly don't understand how "no level ups" is any more or less arbitrary than "no shields". Nor do I understand your notion of "interesting challenge", given that playing DaS1 without a shield is still really easy if you've finished the game before. Do you mean that the challenge is supposed to be interesting for the player actually carrying it out, or is it meant to be interesting as an abstract idea?

To be honest, though, I feel like I understand what you mean less and less with every post, so I think we might have to settle on agreeing to disagree.

 

[Athelas]

Do you mean that the challenge is supposed to be interesting for the player actually carrying it out, or is it meant to be interesting as an abstract idea?

The former obviously. When the advice to a SL1 challenge:

SL1 O&S should be pretty easy, it takes like 2-3 Great Combustions to kill Smough with a +15 Flame

Not only sounds dull, but is also something you can do on a normal playthrough.

To be honest, though, I feel like I understand what you mean less and less with every post, so I think we might have to settle on agreeing to disagree.

This is probably a good idea.

 

[toroid]

Of course the SL1 challenge is arbitrary, along with any other self-imposed challenge you can imagine. That's kind of what a self-imposed challenge is; having the self control to follow the rules you've exerted upon yourself to test the limits of your ability within a particular scope when your skill and your knowledge of the game reaches high levels. These challenges only exist for personal satisfaction and to spice up a game that people have learned to make into their bitch. The SL1 challenge is popular because it imposes a convenient and diverse set of restrictions - low health, low endurance, low defense because of the greatly reduced choice of viable armors, and being limited to a very narrow range of weapons.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Why do I have to do this with every new char now... OCD levels are critical. How could you pass up on that free greathammer AND keep the master key?