Dark Souls 3 - April 2016 : You Died, You Died, You Died

i fell for one of the oldest tricks in the dark souls book re: an npc, gg from

evangelist = fat official from demon's if you look close

really? fuck xp

XPS - with that gnarled hand item you buy in firelink you can summon 3 phantoms then at least one can invade or possibly two if you're in the swamp. I want to say the cap is 6 including the host but it might be 5. either way it's totally nuts and chaotic and exactly what i want

i think there's a second area protection covenant but i haven't made it far enough yet

where do i join swamp cov

i had 2 blues invade at once in crab area and i was alone. killed 1 and the other ran off and 'returned home'

ok this is great. i just got through the tree boss.

coolest thing that's happened so far is probably summoning a mad spirit just before that point, to see what they would do. they helped me clear out the whole area, then he finally attacked me once we got to the fog gate (i won).

got the red eye orb and have had some fun invasions so far, although it's too chaotic for me when there are two whites/yellows plus the host. much prefer duels.

there's a big wolf u pray to in the poison swamp farron keep zone. As u advance thru the zone u will find a long ladder going up the side of a bridge support, scale it,pray to the giant sleeping wolf, ask to join the cov and boom - unlimited invasions forever

ok yeah i got there but didnt join

parrying is tricky in this game but seems crucial

every game, i start out promising myself THIS is the one where I'm gonna force myself to learn to parry correctly. never happens.

i parried like a motherfucker all the way through bloodborne but i can't seem to find the rhythm this time around. lotta backstabbing though! seems easier to backstab in dsiii?

parrying is useful in pvp this time around as the counter to R1 spamming enemies. i haven't been able to consistently get it working in regular play

and yeah backstab looks to be back to DS1 levels

http://i.imgur.com/BL9zuJf.jpg

lol smell the halberd

i guess it was too much to hope that dark souls 3 wouldn't feature skeleton wheels

i hate hate hate those bastards

Just installing now. This is my first try at a souls game. Any tips for a noob?

The manual is uncharacteristically sympathetic and helpful this time out

I'd say practice blocking with a shield and dodging in the tutorial bit, and read a wiki mechanics page so you understand the status stuff like resistances, attributes, how weapon upgrades work etc

i played an embarrassing amount of this game over the last 48 hrs but felled 2 lords and am almost to anor Londo (having gone through the capital first). looking to get into the other zone defense covenant and maybe relax and farm my levels for a little bit.

not sure what the ideal pvp lvl is yet but theven build im tentatively working toward is basically good at 80 which should keep open the door for a wide range of coop options

theven isn't a word, phone u should know that

nooo, after looking it up, i apparently missed the trigger for the Mound Makers covenant. :( at least until late game. i was looking forward to that.

otherwise i'm at the obligatory poison swamp area, and i'm messing around with a rapier for pvp. felt like the katana was just a little too slow for a fast weapon, but it's great for pve.

the weapon arts for the rapier are amazing btw.

fuuuuck i killed the onion knight. saw him come down the elevator and got aggro. very sad.

can i resurrect these guys by forgiving my sins as per prior games. This is bothering me more than it should.

The forgiveness npc is actually in the same area you killed the onion knight. Unless perhaps you already found it and are only asking to know if it's worth the cost, in which case I have no idea because apparently I'm not a sinner yet.

Oh thank god, i was about to restart. Now i gotta find that guy

i just did that sidequest! killed the big fire demon w him. the trick to the elevator is that there are two of them, the top one goes up and the bottom goes down.

Now i gotta find that guy

or lady. or statue.

And even with that... No luck

Never mind, persistence paid off
But killing the onion knight is apparently not a sin! Bah!

Bummer. I wonder what sin is then since now it seems you can switch covenants willy-nilly and no one gives a fuck.

But that reminds me:

Just installing now. This is my first try at a souls game. Any tips for a noob?

Be careful who you attack, npc deaths are permanent and (not sure about DS3 but at least in the other games) can in a few cases make progression extremely difficult. Don't attack anything that's not visibly aggroed, normally if you can't lock on it's almost certainly not an enemy but there's no 100% reliable way to tell.

In other tips, learn to run past enemies, if you thoroughly explore a section and then die a little further down the road, don't bother killing every. single. thing. on the way to where you died. This is especially true for runs to the boss door, it'll do wonders for your enjoyment of the game.

Also, if you find the stats screen overwhelming or don't understand some gameplay mechanic and don't want to risk being spoiled by looking at a wiki, feel free to ask here.

so high lord volnir knows how to make an entrance huh

http://41.media.tumblr.com/81cd39af9078a33bfee5c34c6fcc4930/tumblr_o5ca102uo61r707vso1_1280.jpg
rip big man, sorry i killed you

maybe sinning is just aggro-ing and not killing?

so i've been playing without really using a shield and getting by, but i'm on the hunt for a 100% block shield that can still parry. some of the npc invaders & red-eye enemies are just relentless and it would be nice to be able to block once in awhile.

a 100% block shield that can still parry

the thief merchant you rescue in the high wall sells one

thanks. i've been terrible about going back to talk to npcs in Firelink.

got through the wolnir fight in the cheesiest possible way: summoned some guy who used some crazy powerful magic while i impotently whacked wolnir in the wrists with all the fearsome power of a tired kitten fending off unwanted cuddles

plus there were fucking skeleton wheels grrrrrr

the view over the area which opens up next is utterly breathtaking (and like a perfect fusion of dark souls and bloodborne's aesthetics)

i am playing this on easy mode, aka "summon two helpers at every boss".
I used to refuse to summon on my first playthrough, getting old.

top ten souls moment: rolling away from sabre/club kids on the swamp island, I take out sabre and am one hit away from getting club when a giant fucking crab merks me from behind

lol those crabs are fucking hardcore

just hit my first major difficulty spike in central irithyll but I think I'm getting to grips with it

central irithyl was a pain in the ass because of those pontiff knights. i found using a long reach weapon like arstor's spear works really well against them.

i told myself i wouldn't summon at all for bosses this time, but made my first exception for the Crystal Sage. i was using up too much Estus getting to the boss, and then for the fight itself i was like 'ok i get it' but kept getting stuck in a hurricane of magic when trying to find the real sage. it seemed like they were encouraging co-operation on that one.

any opinions on whether i should do the Cathedral of the Deep or Farron's Keep first? so far i've been messing around in the Keep swamp, trying to figure out the map and having some truly ridiculous invasions (fat-rolling after people as they try to fat-roll away in the water).

xp it is turning out to be a pretty good farming spot though - just one more level up to strength and i can use the cool-looking dark sword I found in *REDACTED*

I did cathedral of the deep first, didn't regret it for a second

any opinions on whether i should do the Cathedral of the Deep or Farron's Keep first?

cathedral is a massive zone with lots of shortcuts and loot and a relatively easy boss, i think it's intended to be the lower level step but probably doesn't really matter (fwiw i did farron's first because i didn't realize cathedral was a thing until i tried to enter irithyll.

i'm also playing this on easy-mode via summoning for bosses. about half the utility of souls games for me is pvp so sometimes it's hard not to get there as fast as possible. i grinded ds1 through without summons and i don't always have the stomach for that approach anymore

OK, so an hour into my first DS game, and I am so unbelievably shit at this. After getting my ass whooped by a crystal monster thing I decided to leg it instead and press on. Maybe I'm meant to come back to that? I dunno. Since then I've spent ages trying to do this first boss guy who has an FLCL-type snake coming out of his head halfway through the fight. Just as I think I'm edging nearer to victory I panic and start button mashing and drink health instead of pressing RB, and then die. And this is like the first level/ tutorial guy? JFC

Roll, roll, roll, hit, roll roll roll roll roll hit, roll roll die.

Not gonna throw in the towel tho, the game's too beautiful for that, all the moody vistas and cool as fuck character design already makes me think things will get spectacular down the line. I'm sure I'll get the knack, this brick wall's gotta give way before my head splits open against it.

Roll, roll, roll, hit, roll roll roll roll roll hit, roll roll die.

you'll have more luck if you

evaluate, engage, test the water, pull the rug, flip the hourglass, roll, tip the hand, cross the picket line, listen to your heart, carry the zero, crack the knuckles, crack the whip, contest the convention, roll, listen to the opponent's heart, bend the moral arc toward justice, three deep breaths, then hit

fear is the mid-killer - keeping a cool head is absolutely crucial in dark souls. take your time, study your opponent's move set, and learn their tells - everyone you fight will telegraph their moves in one way or another

dunno what your rolling strategy is but for me the key was realising that, counter-intuitively as far as I was concerned, often the best strategy is rolling towards your enemy when they attack, under their guard, delicately sticking a knife in their ribs and then dancing away from their response. rinse, repeat, enemy dead.

the other thing is that you might not realise it yet but chances are every time you die you've learned one more thing about your enemy's weaknesses. dark souls wants you to get better, it's just a harsh and inscrutable teacher a lot of the time!

or y'know what Karl said

i know that's what you're supposed to do, but in practice i usually end up making the sharp intake of breath/hissing noise while yelling "nooo! noo! NO! aaaghhh! NO! phew, phew....NO!!" and rolling around