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

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

these games are amazing at occasionally making you feel like a world-class boxer, picking apart your enemy's defences with clinical precision

more often though I end up trapped in a corner and get stabbed to death by some embarrassingly low-level scrub I've killed a thousand times before

for the first guy, stay close for your hits, back way off and then rinse repeat. you don't want to go toe to toe but if you pick your spots you should be able to cautiously chip him apart.

also, don't worry about the crystal dragon; that is indeed for later.

NotEnough don't get frustrated. first time i played Dark Souls i spent my first hour dying over and over to the regular bad guys. just see every death as a learning experience. practice makes perfect. fighting a boss is about learning how to read his attacks and how to dodge them and finally how to then land an attack as soon as possible. you will start dodging slightly earlier than necessary in order to land more hits. you should only ever focus on hitting a boss 1 time per dodges, any more at your experience level will leave you vulnerable to counter-attack. practicing will teach you the tells. you will start to feel victory when the boss's HP is lower than last time when you die. every time you play you get better, these games reinforce this attitude. and of course if you're having trouble don't forget level/equipment grinding after all this is a JRPG.

the crabs are insanely OP. i just got there and i keep dying. i like the forest area here though it seems a bit too bright.

Curse-Rotten Greatwood took me a few nights to beat. i won by avoiding the front altogether until i needed something to attack.

that's the key i think, the back. also i got lucky and spammed him to death as he was doing one of those "pick up a guy, play w him a little, then tear him in half" attacks to the sunbro that joined me. rip, sunbro, but i got the kill *guitar solo*

how do u do co-op in this? i never successfully figured out covenants in the other games. i want to help people fight bosses!

nvmd its the same. White Soapstones. guess i never waited around long enough?

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?

That's sounds about right for a first experience, honestly. FWIW, that lizard is beatable right off the bat with some classes at least but you actually learnt the right lesson there: if something seems too hard and there's an alternate path unexplored, ignore the former and take the latter.

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

Turns out that's completely wrong and a formerly helpful npc has just threatened to kick my arse next time we meet. Haven't check with the forgiveness npc yet, maybe it's reversible.

i think that happened to me too - did you meet him at the tower?

the tower behind firelink shrine, i mean?

SPOILERS obviously:

I don't think so, I don't know who you're talking about there.

It's Sirris (?), the woman from I assume the Blue Sentinels, she appears sometimes inside the shrine next to the fire keeper and she offered to help me during boss fights (this after I had already got the red eye orb and successfully invaded other players) and eventually I did summon her for the Cathedral boss but after I found and joined the Rosaria covenant she considers me an enemy now. Gonna check with Velka next time I play.

hmmm, innarestin'

a bald guy locked me in the tower then threatened to steal everything I owned after he killed me and I haven't seen him since

the mysteries of dark souls

Was it Patches?

yeah, I think it was - cheers

just ploughed through irithyll and uh I did not expect to end up where it leads. can't wait to see what happens next!

im at irithyll and ballista lake

Just vanquished a second Lord of cinder up above ithiryll and now descending into the depths of some kind of prison where I keep getting rekt in tight spaces :(

a bald guy locked me in the tower then threatened to steal everything I owned after he killed me and I haven't seen him since

ha, i did that today. try looking in the hallway near where you left the shrine to go to the tower.

i did Cathedral of the Deep, pretty cool area. also i'm a filthy hollow now, which honestly is an improvement for my character's face.

i forgave him though i don't know why

i didn't and it didn't seem to bother him, he still gave me a gesture and (i think) an item to get on my good side.

i made it to a part of irithyll that induced ptsd from ds1 :(

YESSSS! FUCK YOU FLCL DUDE!

I feel like the mistake I was making was being too timid. I kept backing away and thinking the distance would protect me, as soon as I started to get up in his grill (like y'all told me to) I had a lot more success. Also getting the timing of the rolls right - not too early so I stand up before he hits me, not too late that I get clobbered, but just right so he's looking around perplexed as I run up behind him an RT his ass.

So pumped right now.

welcome to dark souls, it is fucking amazing