From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[praetor]

It makes chaos weapons/the boss weapon you make with quelagg's soul hit harder up to 10 held humanity, you get more random drops (also up to 10 I think), and at really high humanity you get a bunch of free resists and armor points that are vaguely noticeable (this is like at 50+ held humanity).

Also using the humanity pickup items heals you for a lot. And if you are invading some dude you can pop humanities to heal while you can't drink estus.

the def increase is really noticeable at low soul levels, particularly vs other players. and they heal you up fully, not just "a lot"

 

[Raghar]

A regular soul arrow works just fine...

You don't burn with proper passion.

 

[ZodoZ]

I got an idea: throw knives at those fucking mosquitoes. We'll see how that turns out.

Those F#kin skeeters love to float up under platforms and be total wankers
they're like those Morrowind cliff racers - first play through, meh, not too bad - subsequent play through they are just annoying as fuck

Parrying is very satisfying. Only problem I have is those long ass wind up times for some undead
I end up flapping a shield at them 2 or 3 times before their swing initiates xaxa
the knights have very nice timing and very predictable movesets, once their 3 or 4 moves are studied they become somewhat trivial

 

[Caim]

I just run away from the mosquitoes until they chase after me in a place where I can easily return the favor and take them down with my weapon of choice.

 

[Damned Registrations]

This is also the only game I've found where plain simple blocking was satisfying as well. If you're using a shield with high deflection, most enemies go reeling from the majority of their attacks when they get blocked, leaving themselves wide open.

 

[Elwro]

This is also the only game I've found where plain simple blocking was satisfying as well. If you're using a shield with high deflection, most enemies go reeling from the majority of their attacks when they get blocked, leaving themselves wide open.

Sure, that's how I finished my first playthrough.

Another satisfying thing is the simple jumping-R2 attack with the zweihander. Frankly, most things DS offers are satisfying when you learn where to use them.

 

[the_shadow]

Just picked this game up, and I honestly can't see the appeal. A large part of this may be due to the fact that I'm getting absolutely curb-stomped. I'm only up to the second boss (Tauras demon), and he's stomping a mud hole in my ass. I've tried the dive-attack off the tower, but can only pull two off before he one-hits me. Rolling and dodging him to avoid is attacks is touch and go.

I'm not going to lie, I'm new to this sort of game, and it doesn't help that I'm also new to the XBox controller. How long does it take to get proficient at this game?

 

[Elwro]

Do you remember to two-hand your weapon before the jumping attack?

A very general tip: in this game dodging towards the enemy is usually the safest direction. If you can stay close to the demon's legs and slowly circle him, you should beat him even without jumping from the tower.

I have no idea about the controller - I'm playing on PS3. But when I first got the console it took me at least a month to stop making super stupid control-related mistakes in various games.

 

[Raghar]

Just picked this game up, and I honestly can't see the appeal. A large part of this may be due to the fact that I'm getting absolutely curb-stomped. I'm only up to the second boss (Tauras demon), and he's stomping a mud hole in my ass. I've tried the dive-attack off the tower, but can only pull two off before he one-hits me. Rolling and dodging him to avoid is attacks is touch and go.

I'm not going to lie, I'm new to this sort of game, and it doesn't help that I'm also new to the XBox controller. How long does it take to get proficient at this game?

Do you know there is an area where there are 8 of them?

I remember I tried to dodge one of them, rolled out of the cliff, and then while falling down I seen how he thought he'd rebound by me by a jumping attack, I wasn't here because I was falling down, and he overflew the cliff and was falling down too. That was one down. And because they don't have dark sign...

 

[the_shadow]

Do you know there is an area where there are 8 of them?

 

[Elwro]

But don't worry, they're optional and by then you will have realised that you can

Spoiler

run through, avoiding enemies, most of the areas in the game.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Just picked this game up, and I honestly can't see the appeal. A large part of this may be due to the fact that I'm getting absolutely curb-stomped. I'm only up to the second boss (Tauras demon), and he's stomping a mud hole in my ass. I've tried the dive-attack off the tower, but can only pull two off before he one-hits me. Rolling and dodging him to avoid is attacks is touch and go.

I'm not going to lie, I'm new to this sort of game, and it doesn't help that I'm also new to the XBox controller. How long does it take to get proficient at this game?

You went through the Capra demon already, right? Taurus demon should be a cakewalk compared to that.

 

[the_shadow]

No, I've only beaten the tutorial boss (Abyssal Demon).

 

[Elwro]

You went through the Capra demon already, right? Taurus demon should be a cakewalk compared to that.

Why would he? It's not easy (hurr!) to get to the Capra Demon before the Taurus...

 

[Great Deceiver]

Honestly sequence breaking is very foggy in my mind as I haven't played DkS in years; anyway, don't get too frustrated by Taurus, now you know something much tougher is just ahead!

 

[Caim]

Well it is possible to do. Go through the Valley of Drakes or defeat Havel "The Rock" Johnson, go through Darkroot Garden for a bit, go through the Undead Parish backwards and open the door heading down. It's just very unintuitive and not the easiest way to do things.

 

[Elwro]

I know, I know. I just wouldn't assume that a new player would somehow stumble upon these routes.

edit: the_shadow, just know that a key element of the Dark Souls experience is the elation you feel after finally conquering the given boss.
(If you don't feel it after the Capra demon, then probably the game is not for you.)

 

[CryptRat]

Just picked this game up, and I honestly can't see the appeal. A large part of this may be due to the fact that I'm getting absolutely curb-stomped. I'm only up to the second boss (Tauras demon), and he's stomping a mud hole in my ass. I've tried the dive-attack off the tower, but can only pull two off before he one-hits me. Rolling and dodging him to avoid is attacks is touch and go.

I'm not going to lie, I'm new to this sort of game, and it doesn't help that I'm also new to the XBox controller. How long does it take to get proficient at this game?

I personnally got raped all along the game, but I'm a masochist, at least when it comes to video games.

 

[Damned Registrations]

One very general tip that can help a lot is to just try strafing the other direction if you're having trouble. Seems obvious in retrospect, but in the moment it's easy to jsut do what feels natural and keep circling in the same direction, even when the enemy is especially good at countering to that side.

 

[Grimlorn]

Just picked this game up, and I honestly can't see the appeal. A large part of this may be due to the fact that I'm getting absolutely curb-stomped. I'm only up to the second boss (Tauras demon), and he's stomping a mud hole in my ass. I've tried the dive-attack off the tower, but can only pull two off before he one-hits me. Rolling and dodging him to avoid is attacks is touch and go.

I'm not going to lie, I'm new to this sort of game, and it doesn't help that I'm also new to the XBox controller. How long does it take to get proficient at this game?

When learning a new controller it can take several hours I think but eventually you get the hang of it and it becomes second nature. With the Taurus demon I didn't even realize you could go up that tower and jump down, I didn't see the ladder, so I fought him at the bottom by the door so I wouldn't get knocked off the wall. I think you can block most of his attacks with a shield as well. Just keep rolling to the side until you're near his back and then attack, keep track of your stamina and make sure you don't run out when you're in danger of being attacked.

 

[the_shadow]

I didn't even try blocking, what with him being 10 times your size. I'll give it a go.

 

[Metro]

I don't think you can effectively block Taurus Demon with a beginner level of poise. The best method is what you've been trying: plunging attack from tower. As mentioned make sure you switch to two-handed grip for extra damage. Try to evade him when you hit the ground and get back up to do it again.

Have you fought the Black Knight in the alcove of Undead Burgh? If you kill him he has a chance to drop a super OPOPOPOPOOP weapon that can one shot the demon boss.

 

[Kutulu]

Use lightning resin, its in the box next to tower that leads to Taurus.
Honestly anybody half decent at this game can run it at SL1, without level anything.

Watch this until Taurus is dead:

or watch the whole thing if you dont hate to be spoiled.
You could also watch beginning to Taurus to see how easy it gets once you get better.

Some tips:
Decide what you want to use: Dex, Str, or Quality Weapons, get a Weapon and stat accordingly.
Many good weapons can be found pretty early: Zweihander, Claymore, Battleaxe.
Souls and Levels arent that important, stat for your weapon, some health, some endurance.
Magic is for scrubs.

 

[the_shadow]

Finally beat the Taurus demon by plunge attacking. Being able to dodge his attacks was a bit touch and go. It was quite easy to roll under his leaping attack and high-tail it for the tower, but his swipe attacks seem to 'follow' the character.

Anyway, I racked up 6,000 souls, and then get toasted trying to roll past the dragon's fire. Went back to the bonfire and died almost immediately rolling off an edge away from some skellies.
God I suck at this game.

Anyway, I'm plinking away at the mecha-boar with my magic attacks, but always die from poison the rats inflict on me. This game has no mercy. How does someone who is already dead get poisoned, anyway?

 

[Kutulu]

Delete the char, make a new one without magix, your havent seen more than 10min of content
Watch the video until taurus dies.