From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[Elwro]

AL was a great experience for me.

Spoiler

"I'll check out the main level later, let me just see where I'll end up if I take this clever little passage through the window". Uh, right.

"K, now, lol, I want to reach the main part of the level. Right, but what about these annoying little archers? Such things are usually small diversions before the main obstacle, right?"

 

[Raghar]

(after dying to Iron Golem 15+ times)

HOW?

It's MicoSelva.

 

[MicoSelva]

I was sure I will finally beat Ornstein and Smough today, but my Crystal Halberd broke during the fight.

But tomorrow they will get what is coming to them from my newly acquired Crystal Halberd +1.

And I have heard Anor Londo is still in the first half of the game. That cannot be true.

 

[Immortal]

I was sure I will finally beat Ornstein and Smough today, but my Crystal Halberd broke during the fight.

But tomorrow they will get what is coming to them from my newly acquired Crystal Halberd +1.

And I have heard Anor Londo is still in the first half of the game. That cannot be true.

It's true.. but unfortunately it's kinda down hill from here..
Ornestein & Smogh is really the highlight of this game. The rest is good but you may be disappointed at the level design / boss fights from here on out.

 

[Raghar]

I was sure I will finally beat Ornstein and Smough today, but my Crystal Halberd broke during the fight.

But tomorrow they will get what is coming to them from my newly acquired Crystal Halberd +1.

And I have heard Anor Londo is still in the first half of the game. That cannot be true.

Where did you get second crystal halberd?

 

[MicoSelva]

Where did you get second crystal halberd?

The first one did not completely break, it just went to 'low durability" state and started dealing very little damage. After I died I upgraded it to +1 with a large titanite shard, which has also fixed durability.

 

[Ivan]

I recommend you solo all the bosses so the feeling of satisfaction is that much more intense once achieved.

 

[Raghar]

Actually he can get sunbro into that fight.

 

[Caim]

I was sure I will finally beat Ornstein and Smough today, but my Crystal Halberd broke during the fight.

But tomorrow they will get what is coming to them from my newly acquired Crystal Halberd +1.

And I have heard Anor Londo is still in the first half of the game. That cannot be true.

Yeah, the Biggie and Smalls fight is one of the toughest of the game. After them there are four directions you can go, but they're all rather lackluster:

- The Catacombs are pretty fun, but the Tomb of the Giants is just annoying.
- The Archives are okay, but the Crystal Caverns are kinda dull.
- New Londo is rather short, and the enemies there are not all that inspiring.
- With Lost Izalith they just ran out of time and resources, and it really shows: the enemies are boring and repetitive, there's little to do there, parts of the level are just not there (lotsa holes in the world) and the boss fight is based on luck rather than skill.

Also, have you tried reaching the nest way up in the tower in Firelink Shrine?

Actually he can get sunbro into that fight.

Sunbro tends to get tangled up fighting the guards in the main hall, and if you don't beat them first he won't join you.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

It's true.. but unfortunately it's kinda down hill from here..

- The Catacombs are pretty fun, but the Tomb of the Giants is just annoying.
- The Archives are okay, but the Crystal Caverns are kinda dull.
- New Londo is rather short, and the enemies there are not all that inspiring.
- With Lost Izalith they just ran out of time and resources, and it really shows: the enemies are boring and repetitive, there's little to do there, parts of the level are just not there (lotsa holes in the world) and the boss fight is based on luck rather than skill.

Ah, that old meme. The memesters! When there was no DS2 and one couldn't whine about "muh miyazaki touch" yet, you dipshits whined that the second part after lordvessel was somehow rushed and lacked quality. But when DS2 came out, it took the game 20 minutes to convert you into Miyazaki fangirls after the Last Giant and Pursuer made you their bitches. L2p crybabies.

 

[MicoSelva]

I could summon Solaire, since I always kill all the sentinels anyway, that way the boss fight alone feels like a reward (and I stock up on titanite shards) but I do not want to, because he might kill Ornstein first - and I want Ornstein's soul to get his spear (also the ring).

I got to the point where can I kill Smough pretty reliably, but I have not been able to beat Giant Ornstein yet (at most got him down to 1/3 HP).

 

[Immortal]

It's true.. but unfortunately it's kinda down hill from here..

- The Catacombs are pretty fun, but the Tomb of the Giants is just annoying.
- The Archives are okay, but the Crystal Caverns are kinda dull.
- New Londo is rather short, and the enemies there are not all that inspiring.
- With Lost Izalith they just ran out of time and resources, and it really shows: the enemies are boring and repetitive, there's little to do there, parts of the level are just not there (lotsa holes in the world) and the boss fight is based on luck rather than skill.

Ah, that old meme. The memesters! When there was no DS2 and one couldn't whine about "muh miyazaki touch" yet, you dipshits whined that the second part after lordvessel was somehow rushed and lacked quality. But when DS2 came out, it took the game 20 minutes to convert you into Miyazaki fangirls after the Last Giant and Pursuer made you their bitches. L2p crybabies.

What?

 

[Mozg]

If you aren't particularly good at action games please sperg over weapons and scaling a little bit to get that edge. I like watching people play Souls games on streams sometimes but no matter how bad they are at the action part they will never just spend a couple minutes figuring out how weapons work and what stats they should buy.

 

[Redlands]

I could summon Solaire, since I always kill all the sentinels anyway, that way the boss fight alone feels like a reward (and I stock up on titanite shards) but I do not want to, because he might kill Ornstein first - and I want Ornstein's soul to get his spear (also the ring).

I got to the point where can I kill Smough pretty reliably, but I have not been able to beat Giant Ornstein yet (at most got him down to 1/3 HP).

He almost always goes after Ornstein first, at least in the (many) times I tried the battle with him (on normal and in my paused NG+ run) because Ornstein closes the distance faster, and I guess Solaire's AI makes him go after him first. If you can do more damage to Smough than Solaire can do to Ornstein (which can be tough) then Solaire would have served his purpose of getting Ornstein off your ass. If not, then it can be really annoying (I had to let Big Ornstein kill me a few times in NG+ in order to make sure I got the right one down). Also I think having a summons increases the boss' health, but I might be thinking of Dark Souls 2 or something else entirely.

If you do want to take Solaire with you, just be wary of taking him down the stairs: he seems to enjoy jumping off and taking a small fraction of damage because he's an idiot.

Spoiler

• Big Ornstein inherits Smough's weakness for fire, which you can use to your advantage if you have pyromancies or have stocked up on black fire bombs or flaming arrows or similar things.
• Another thing that can be of use to have a lot of is humanities; when he's doing his electric firing attack you might have enough time to heal up with one to full health and save your estus for more pressing situations.
• If you're planning on killing Smough, try to do it near the fog door you entered in through; that way you have a little time between when Big Ornstein is summoned and him getting up in your ass.

It sounds as though you're on the right path to victory, though. The key I think is to be patient when it gets down to just being one of them; being cautious helps a lot, and waiting to keep an eye out for his weak spots when he's just coming off of an attack. It also helps to be cautious during the first part of the combat, since you can try to preserve your estus for when it's necessary.

But good luck!

 

[praetor]

Also I think having a summons increases the boss' health, but I might be thinking of Dark Souls 2 or something else entirely.

this is true for all Souls games

 

[MicoSelva]

Failed again.

He was one maybe two hits away from dying when I tried dodging into a wall and got hit by a lightning.

Maybe tomorrow then.

 

[Elwro]

Just for kicks, since you've tried the fight many times: don't take Solaire. Wait for someone to invade you instead. Run towards the bosses while evading the invader. Try to enter the boss room with a minimal amount of health.

In my experience such 'preparation' greatly increases your chances against any boss. The added adrenaline does the trick ;-)

 

[MicoSelva]

Just for kicks, since you've tried the fight many times: don't take Solaire. Wait for someone to invade you instead. Run towards the bosses while evading the invader. Try to enter the boss room with a minimal amount of health.

In my experience such 'preparation' greatly increases your chances against any boss. The added adrenaline does the trick ;-)

Thanks for the, uh, advice. I have decided against following it, since I got enough adrenaline kick from my traditional approach.

I have finally beaten those fuckers. The game has granted me an epic boobshot in appreciation. Well worth it.

 

[Caim]

I have finally beaten those fuckers. The game has granted me an epic boobshot in appreciation. Well worth it.

Amazing chest ahead
Try holding with both hands

But yeah, welcome to the Lordvessel! You can give it to the snake guy for one path of the game, or you can say fuck it and go through New Londo first without talking to the snake again. But with both paths you'll lose out on something, one more useful than the other.

 

[Somberlain]

I bought this from Steam since it was so cheap but I'm already getting cancer from technical issues 5 minutes into the game.

I can't be arsed to read through 284 pages so can somebody give me some technical beginner advice about configuration, mods etc.? The default keybindings are weird, the interface shows xbone buttons and the camera feels wonky and annoying, are you supposed to play this with a controller even on PC? Performance is also terrible even though I can run most new games perfectly fine even on high settings. Are there some mods to fix this?

 

[Caim]

The best thing you can do is move to the controller, because the keyboard controls are shit.

 

[racofer]

And the controller is also a terrible experience, so yeah, it is a shitty game.

 

[Mozg]

Some people play it with m+k but I don't so I can't help there.

Open the game, go to the options menu and turn off anti-aliasing, quit out.

Google dsfix, download the 2.4 version, unzip it in the folder with the executable. Open dsfix.ini and look at the options (as in shit like resolution and filtering). Tune performance shit however depending on the machine u got. The game has internal logic tied to the framerate, but you can still unlock it and cap the framerate at 60 instead of 30 and it mostly works OK aside from a few random bugs.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

I bought this from Steam since it was so cheap but I'm already getting cancer from technical issues 5 minutes into the game.

I can't be arsed to read through 284 pages so can somebody give me some technical beginner advice about configuration, mods etc.? The default keybindings are weird, the interface shows xbone buttons and the camera feels wonky and annoying, are you supposed to play this with a controller even on PC? Performance is also terrible even though I can run most new games perfectly fine even on high settings. Are there some mods to fix this?

Install DSFix, use controller.

 

[Niektory]

Keyboard+mouse is mostly fine if you install DSMfix, but you'd have to google it, I haven't played in a while so I don't know where to find the most recent version.