From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[Cowboy Moment]

I think it's mainly due to this being my first action game of this type really. I have a personal dislike for the genre, but Dark Souls just appeals to me on too many levels to ignore it. But me playing this type of game is really like handing the controls to Halo to my mother. It may not be an insanely difficult game but when the bitch can't even click to fire, it's gonna be an uphill battle.

As it happens, I was like you back in 2012 (although I used to be an avid Quake 3 and Starcraft player, so I had some leet RT skillz to fall back on, I suppose), and Dark Souls served as a gateway to various other action games for me, from Symphony of the Night to Ninja Gaiden, and now bullet hell shooters. I could probably write a very tl;dr recollection of my experiences, but generally speaking, I've primarily learned that actual reflexes matter very little, it's all about your mentality. Thinking that the game is hard often stops you from noticing things that would make it easier.

Still, if you've gotten reasonably far into the game on your previous playthrough, and still think you suck, then that might indicate some kind of fundamental misunderstanding of the systems at play. I assume that you're having problems with the combat, and not finding your way around the world or navigating particular levels. So, what exactly is it that makes you believe you suck?

 

[AN4RCHID]

I'd suggest wearing light armor and practicing roll-dodging. The heavy stuff is not worth the movement penalty and good luck turtling through some of the later fights.

Upgrading your primary weapon is usually the best thing to spend souls on, before levelling up. Upgrading armor and shields is a waste.

 

[Grunker]

Cowboy Moment: I don't think I can recall avoiding a trap. so that's one area where I suck. But mainly my problem is coming to terms with the controls. There are a lot of the "moves" I don't really use at all. I can go into combat thinking "OK this time you have to remember to use jump attacks", but unless I do that, I don't use any of them.

Upgrading your primary weapon is usually the best thing to spend souls on, before levelling up. Upgrading armor and shields is a waste.

I hate the feeling of upgrading weapons 'cause what if I find new, shiny shit? Pretty sure I didn't spend my souls wisely last game.

 

[AN4RCHID]

Most of the weapons are pretty competitive if you keep upgrading them. Most important thing is finding one with a moveset that works for you. I like that basic straight sword personally, I think you can find one of those right at the beginning of the game.

 

[Ninjerk]

Cowboy Moment: I don't think I can recall avoiding a trap. so that's one area where I suck. But mainly my problem is coming to terms with the controls. There are a lot of the "moves" I don't really use at all. I can go into combat thinking "OK this time you have to remember to use jump attacks", but unless I do that, I don't use any of them.

Upgrading your primary weapon is usually the best thing to spend souls on, before levelling up. Upgrading armor and shields is a waste.

I hate the feeling of upgrading weapons 'cause what if I find new, shiny shit? Pretty sure I didn't spend my souls wisely last game.

Use whatever attacks you want. I used a longsword for most of what I was able to play (would have used BSS if it would have dropped ), and no one raves about that weapon (even though its versatile as shit).

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Grunker, I'd suggest that you judge your own performance based on how you actually progress through the game rather than some abstract idea of "good play". For the record, I've completed all the Souls games multiple times, Dark Souls in particular both at level 1 and in under 2 hours, and I rarely, if ever, use jump attacks. If what you're doing works, great. If it doesn't, think about why (the answer is usually not that you don't use move X enough).

As for traps, there's not much to say. Pay attention to your environment. There are a few situations in the game that you can't really avoid without some foreknowledge, but the majority can easily be spotted if you occasionally stop and look around. This isn't just a theory, I've seen blind LPs where people would avoid nearly all traps and ambushes just by being observant.

 

[Grunker]

Yeah, easily the "worst" (best) part about this game is I rarely feel it like it's treating me unfairly when I die. I mean after using mouse I think a lot of bullshit started happening, but that's because the controls suddenly started sucking. As far as things being my own fault, I feel I have to own most deaths.

Anyway thanks for the advice.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Just for the record, you are using the mouse fix, right?

 

[Grunker]

Just for the record, you are using the mouse fix, right?

Using DSFix and hiding the Windows mouse, but nothing beyond that I don't think..?

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Just for the record, you are using the mouse fix, right?

Using DSFix and hiding the Windows mouse, but nothing beyond that I don't think..?

http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~petska/

It's not perfect, but it's servicable. The default mouse behaviour is atrocious. I'd prefer keyboard alone to that.

 

[Grunker]

EDIT: Nevermind, fixed it! That mod is p. awesome <3

Just for the record, you are using the mouse fix, right?

Using DSFix and hiding the Windows mouse, but nothing beyond that I don't think..?

http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~petska/

It's not perfect, but it's servicable. The default mouse behaviour is atrocious. I'd prefer keyboard alone to that.

Installed this and now my mouse don't work at all

EDIT: Only the scroll wheel works.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Apparently you need a patched version for the Steamworks version of the game. This is what I found: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=357056859

If it doesn't work, I'd strongly suggest a gamepad. Playing with default mouse controls will not be fun for you.

 

[Grunker]

EDIT: Nevermind, fixed it! That mod is p. awesome <3

 

[Murk]

You'll have enough material to upgrade 2-3 weapons to max (depending on which upgrade path you go) and you can farm/buy items to upgrade them to +10 basically infinitely, so even if you are stingy with using materials and what have you, it's still not a bad idea to upgrade weapons you commonly use at least somewhat. Gear upgrades give you far more attack power than raising STR or DEX would, and they save you from 'leveling wrong'.

I'd suggest you get some basic weapon types (straight sword, curved sword, great sword, ultra greatsword, axe, etc.) and just test their movesets. Once you find a moveset you like, aim for that one. There are few occasions where there is a weapon that is just a straight up +1 to another weapon, they often have some kind of tradeoff in regards to moveset, which stat scales, how much you can upgrade, etc.

Also, I'd suggest avoiding spears as I think it will make it too enticing to play very passively.

As for whoever said 'upgrading the shield is a waste' -- I disagree, as above all it increases the stability which will be very useful for a first timer.

 

[Gozma]

bros I just restarted this game after a long but retarded playthrough

now i'm bend on finishing it

but i suck at it

how to not suck at dark souls?

Buy a gamepad

DS1 in particular has a ton of ridiculous tightrope sequences I can't imagine doing without analog motion

Edit - As far as upgrading stuff, every melee weapon really is good for something or other. Pick what feels good, then upgrade your stats later. Weapon upgrades are usually the most effective thing to do with souls, more so than upgrading your stats - but they're gated by things you need to find in the world first. Don't bother with Raw type upgrades in DS1. Upgrade armor last. Don't upgrade resistance.

One more thing - fire and lightning damage weapons remove the stat scaling from weapons. Like if you have a lightning halberd, it will do the same damage whether your strength is 255 or the minimum it takes to wield it. This is pretty great for specific things you might want to do on a replay, but you won't have the knowledge to exploit it on a first play. There is a lightning weapon you will probably get in the midgame that is designed for people that made a lot of unlucky exploratory build choices to get a decent weapon they can beat the core, non-DLC part of the game with handily, so no matter what you won't get trapped.

 

[Delterius]

Yeah, easily the "worst" (best) part about this game is I rarely feel it like it's treating me unfairly when I die. I mean after using mouse I think a lot of bullshit started happening, but that's because the controls suddenly started sucking. As far as things being my own fault, I feel I have to own most deaths.

Anyway thanks for the advice.

Consider looking into Demons Souls.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

As Grimlorn already mentioned, if you're having trouble a heavy shield (high stability is huge) is pretty helpful, particularly with a spear. To elaborate a bit, a high stability shield will save more health than any armor over the long run. With a modest investment in Endurance you can basically have your shield up all the time while making quick spear jabs. I haven't used the lightning spear

Spoiler

you find in Sen's Fortress

in quite a while so I'm not sure how its been affected by patches, but on my first playthrough it allowed me to do good damage with zero risk for quite a while. It was basically easy mode through the midgame and adequate for a decent chunk of the end game, which will give you time to learn about the enemies and how to play defensively. Once you know have that, you have a pretty good base to start adding stuff to your repetoire.

To second Cowboy Moment's point about not worrying about using all of the moves, I ended up using just strong attack, weak attack and kick with any regularity. And I could have easily lived without kick. On some weapons the roll attack can be useful for PvP, but generally any attack that changes your position has more risk than benefit in my opinion, since they can often put you in a vulnerable position.

Also the stealth rings (Fog and Slumbering Dragoncrest IIRC?) or, even better, spells which do the same thing can be helpful in areas where you aggro more enemies than you'd like to deal with at once or where you have to deal with ranged enemies you can't get to easily.

 

[StaticSpine]

Posted in the tattoo thread, but there was no response, so I post here. My Artorias tattoo.

 

[Humppaleka]

That's awesome. Link the tattoo thread pls.

 

[StaticSpine]

That's awesome. Link the tattoo thread pls.

Thanks, mate!

Here: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/tattoo-thread.90352/

 

[Jaedar]

I always found the easiest way to play dark souls post earlygame was to take the biggest fucking shield and sword you can find.

And remembering to bring poison arrows for anor londo.

And yes, not using move X is not a problem usually. Jump attack are not very good for most weapons, although there are exceptions for which they bring a much needed type of move.

Also, playing DS1 with mouse and keyboard is perfectly fine, especially once you get the mouse fix. People who say differently need to git gud.

 

[Elwro]

I thought the easiest would be to take the Zwei, pump endurance and just use R2 on almost everything.

... and later discover that without lockon the Zwei absolutely destroys crowds and is actually useful against invaders, to my surprise.

 

[Multidirectional]

Grunker. Heavy armors + STR scaled weapons + shields are best for first run imo. Zweihander is slow but effective weapon, with insanely useful strong attack. Going dex + light armors is great fun for next run, but heavy is just the safer overall way to play, especially for people who suck at action games. Are you already informed about weight thresholds and how they affect movement? In any case, best attribute to max out first is Endurance, stamina will save your ass way more than higher hp pool would, provided you have a decent stability shield with 100 physical reduction. And you'll want to increase that weight limit too. Upgrade twinkling titanite armors, it's a material you can buy, and you'll have plenty of souls to pay for it eventually. Black Iron set found in Anor Londo is very nice overall. And mind your fucking weight thresholds! You don't ever want to be above 50% load. Of course upgrade the pyromancy glove too, great backup in some situations. For attunement slots you don't really need more than 2-3. Avoid spells that take up more than one slot, not worth it. Carry around a greatshield for boss fights, you can't parry them anyway, except for the last boss, so might as well go for max stability. Hmm. what else.. You know about the soft caps for stats? Generally you don't need to raise any of them above 40. Which is what I meant by "maxing" Endurance.
And oh yeah, start by switching to a control device this game is meant to be played on! Call me crazy but that seems somewhat important. I recommend getting cheapest xbox 360 pad you can find, I'm sure you'll find a use for it in other games down the road too.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Grunker, one more thing that comes to mind (as I'm bored at work, waiting for other people to get their shit together), is that you should really approach action games with the same kind of analytic mindset as you would, say, a turn-based RPG. All games are fundamentally systems to interact with, and understanding the system will make things a lot easier for you, even in a reflex-based game. In an RPG you would think about concepts like attack resolution, actions-per-turn, strategic and tactical resources, and so forth. In an action game, you look at hitboxes, invincibility frames, animations and animation-cancels, weapon movesets, and so forth.

Two things that I think are very important to understanding combat in DS, which the game makes no effort to explain, are the way encumbrance affects movement (and how a slower roll actually has less iframes in addition to being slower) and poise in general. Are you aware of how these work?

 

[DragoFireheart]

Two things that I think are very important to understanding combat in DS, which the game makes no effort to explain, are the way encumbrance affects movement (and how a slower roll actually has less iframes in addition to being slower) and poise in general. Are you aware of how these work?

This detailed video describes all of this perfectly:

Spoiler