Dark Souls 2: YOU DIED HARDER

that area is awesome! he also killed me when he was one hit away from death but i got him on the 3rd try

it seems like the game really encourages co-op this time around, like with how the Pursuer fight is set up and that nearby area with all the giant armadillo-looking dudes. i'm sure it's possible solo, but so hard at lower levels.

allies can be hurt by those crossbows at the Pursuer fight apparently. i haven't seen it happen, but i'm sure that's led to some pretty funny/infuriating accidents.

how do I check the stat requirements for items this time out? I just bought a shield I can't use properly

anyone else on xbox having bad connectivity issues? it seems like i have to play on offline mode 75% of the time

i got a vague message about connectivity this morning but it worked fine. i mean, i have to restart my router every time i want to connect to xbl, but that's nothing new.

allies can be hurt by those crossbows at the Pursuer fight apparently.

ha, that happened to me (i died). also i'm pretty sure i saw someone parry him? i tried that once and didn't work, and i gave up since missing a parry meant death at the time.

how do I check the stat requirements for items this time out? I just bought a shield I can't use properly

pretty sure the requirements are on the bottom left when you look at the item in your inventory.

terrible newb question, but i never messed around much with multiplayer in dark souls 1 (i know - missing a major aspect of the game) so i don't completely understand it.

i can only be summoned into another player's world if i drop a little sign near a boss? i don't have a sign in my inventory so i guess i have to find it somewhere. i'd like to be summoned, because i'm at 50% HP due to repeated YOU DIEDs, and i don't want to start using up my effigys until shit gets really intense.

yep, an npc gives you the soapstone. there's also a small version that you can find somewhere that lets you be summoned as a shade instead of a phantom, i don't fully understand the distinction yet.

cool, thanks! as you might guess, i'm not too far. i'm 2 bonfires into the forest of fallen giants, exploring the area. managed to get a sweet flame sword and also some ring that raises my stamina regen but also makes the Northern Lights appear around my body at all times. tradeoffs.

it's tough to know when to invest in upgrading your EQ! i know it would be good to reinforce upmy weapons right now, but then i'm afraid i'll win a boss fight, get a sweet new weapon and have no titanite shards/slabs left to use.

i'm liking majula as the hub world. i don't know the hardcore player's perspective on it but i enjoy having it as a nice looking calm place to retreat to.

judging by the previous games i'm assuming shards will eventually be more available and slabs are rare. i was surprised to learn that merchants have finite stock of certain things

i'm digging Majula. nice place to just stare out at the sea and think baout things.

i was in the same boat re: should i upgrade this or wait. i found a sword that i liked (bastard sword) and just said fuck it. if it's like DS1, there will be enough materials around to fully upgrade more than one weapon. good decision cuz bastard sword +4 is currently wrecking shit. still looking forward to the zweihander though.

http://i.imgur.com/Y7oPByy.gif

lol. same here re: bastard sword (although i hedged my bets and took it to +2, it's my current main weapon).

i've been terrible about specializing in stats, hopefully that doesn't turn out to be dumb in the long run. i committed to being a heavy shield/heavy sword warrior lady that also will someday use magic, since i want to at least dabble in it this time. got my INT and attunement up to the minimum and i have a few soul arrow spells, just need to find a staff now.

i upgraded the fire long sword to +4. btw did anyone else's character change gender seemingly at random. i thought it was a glitch and then looked it up and loled. good one, fromsoft!

i was like why is my zombie dude wearing a bra?????

haha. you didn't even climb in that coffin?

started as a magic dude. hoo boy, those initial physical stats are butt. had to play a lot of the game with a dagger and no shield before i could afford to wield a shortsword and crappy shield. eventually got a shield on and got the fire sword and leveled my stats to use it at about the same time and it was a total game changer. things moving pretty smoothly since then. stopped pursuer boss. died maybe 10 times and the mobs between the bonfire and the boss disappeared?!! sellouts! anyway, that's where i had to leave things. getting close with the boss, won't take much more. no margin for error with low phys stats and then half HP on top of that. refuse to summon on 1st run thru unless totally stuck (e.g. little n large first time in ds1).

i have def experience the sound glitches but no other bugs so far. there seems to be a load more of the passive online stuff? coming to an area with tonnnns of bloodstains is hilarious.

mobs stop spawning after you kill them a bunch of times apparently.

they added rewards for people who can a) beat the game w/out dying and/or b) beat the game without using a bonfire. you get rings that make your left and right hand weapons invisible

haha. you didn't even climb in that coffin?

― festival culture (Jordan), Thursday, March 13, 2014 1:23 PM

i did but i thought huh that did nothing i'll come back later. then hours later i'm taking armor off and see zombie boobs

gender reassignment coffin

i am fully human about 0.1% of the time in this game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utqHy0lM1b4

lol

pizzalawyer420

I DIED

I've barely poked my head into the Forest of Fallen Giants and my HP has already been capped at 50%. Not sure I'm enjoying that change to the game tbh

yeah, i played all the way up to the boss of the forest at 50%. i finally realized that i needed to join the blue men group covenant so that i could occasionally be summoned and rewarded, but even after joining i've never been summoned.

yeah, i was confused by that too. Way of the Blue covenant members, when wearing the ring, will have Blue Sentinel covenant members summoned into their world when they're invaded. i think that's how it works.

Have you been wearing their ring? Only just noticed it in my inventory.

yep, wearing the ring! the ring also gives a small HP boost (about 30 HP in my case)

since i never really messed with invading/summoning in dark souls 1, i don't really have a good feel for how often it's supposed to happen.

Tip for you guys struggling with the health penalty. The ring that limits your hollowing health reduction is in a zone right off Majula, Heidi's Tower of Flame. It might be a little rough if you're fresh out of the gate, but it's not a super high lvl area or anything. Might be possible to pull some crazy suicide run. It's by one of the fog doors in the area. Left and up, not right and down.

think you have to get the white soapstone off peter serafinowicz and help somebody kill a boss to do the blue man group stuff, haven't talked to crestfallen sadcase yet to see if it actually works in practice

how do you get to that tower of flame place then? i can't remember finding any other directions off of majula in my initial root around

in what has been a pattern for me throughout the series, i died a bunch of times to pursuer boss, left it, and then beat him first time the next time i played. i ended up in the lost bastille place without necessarily planning to be there, but i seem to be coping okay so i figure i am in the right place. got to the boss(es) and died p much immediately and had to quit there. ring of binding would be sweet to have right now.

just to clarify tho, the Way of the Blue that you join in Majula will only summon others to you when you're invaded, you won't be summoned anywhere. xps

Heidi's Tower is down the long tunnel/stairs off of Majula. looks like it leads to a dead end, but poke around a bit at the bottom.

oh, whoops - of course that's right. i haven't been invaded yet (i think). i picked up the white soapstone just before i finished playing yesterday, so haven't had a chance to use it yet. if i place it a little bit before the 1st boss maybe some fellow newbs will appreciate my assistance.

i've got about 16 hours logged and i haven't been invaded yet either. i think if you invade others, you're more likely to be invaded? i haven't even bothered with that yet.

yeah man, would recommend trying out that soapstone. get some souls, fight experience, and (possibly) some humanity back. no risk, all gain.

The ring that limits your hollowing health reduction is in a zone right off Majula,

oh man, i beat nu-Ornstein this morning and must have ran by there 10x without noticing it!

re: spending all your time hollow and at half health, i highly recommend helping people beat bosses (once you get the soapstone) to regain your humanity (which is why i was so bummed that the servers were down earlier).

lol, so apparently From is saying gaining humanity from co-op is a bug and shouldn't be happening at all.

nooooooo

that's kind of a bummer, then. i guess i should reassess how i use my items, but everything i'm reading is like "save your effigies! don't use them willy nilly!"

so i tend to just be at 50% all the time, maybe using an effigy if absolutely needed (before a boss fight, say)

tbh though, being able to pop to human after a handful of co-op sessions in front of a boss door and then summoning someone for your battle did feel a little cheap.

oh ok yeah there is a Way of Blue and a Blue Sentinel covenant (guy after old dragonslayer boss) which are different, one theoretically summons help if you get invaded, the other automatically summons you to be the help when people get invaded

I've never been invaded so don't know if the first one works properly

i did the other half of heide's tower, nice surprise there

got invaded at the belltower by the covenant ppl there. also was summoned as a grey phantom, which was weird cuz im in way of the blue. i think the ring the cat sells pulls you in when you wear it, like a secret covenant?

that first sinners rise bonfire location... lol

Tip for you guys struggling with the health penalty. The ring that limits your hollowing health reduction is in a zone right off Majula, Heidi's Tower of Flame.

shiiiit i missed that

lol, so apparently From is saying gaining humanity from co-op is a bug and shouldn't be happening at all.

i liked the idea of it reviving in steps, which is how i assumed it worked. oh well. i guess its just for farming then?

lot of benefits. tokens for covenants, souls, scope out a boss w/out risk, refill estus flasks and repair weapons. lot of outcry about this online, but straight up i've been abusing it and it does make the game feel a little broken. i've hardly soloed any bosses. there needs to be some sort of risk or real expenditure involved in summoning help.

idk, this "it's actually a bug" stuff is based off of something they recently said on twitter, in japanese, so there could be some sort of misunderstanding at work here.

phew, two bosses down (last giant and dragonrider dude, who wasn't that hard)

i'm thinking of totally rerolling my stats using that one item. (although...i murdered everyone in the hut at the beginning of the game so maybe i'm not allowed now? i think i remember reading that you had to talk to someone there to use the item. sigh.)

i started as a knight but didn't think about how badly that would cutoff both INT and Faith. i don't want to be a spellmaster or anything but i was hoping to at least be able to cast a miracle or two in a pinch.