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

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

VICTORY ACHIEVED

just reached the profane capital bonfire with a shred of health left and no estus. phew

the lighting in this game is really phenomenal

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

― am0n, Wednesday, April 20, 2016 12:32 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that fancy room w the silver knights? fuck that room

the room right below there with the spider-women creeped me the fuck out

also holy shit those crocodile dog things are maybe the hardest non-boss enemies i've ever fought :O

those things its like why bother. huge enemy w/ infinite stamina and massive hp

no art, the area after that. not gonna spoil it for others other than to say its outside and involves a heavy dose of 'fuck you' enemies

the room below i had a gut reaction to because those things look like house centinpedes ugh

the 'fuck you' enemy area is tough in places, yeah

worth it for the wtf reveal at the end tho

word to the wise: get the 20k souls backyard shed key asap.

yep, cosign

no art, the area after that. not gonna spoil it for others other than to say its outside and involves a heavy dose of 'fuck you' enemies

ahh yes i got adept at cheesing this area.

i realized that my souls play follows a pattern whereby early in the game i am very methodical and safe and i try and survive as long as possible and solo bosses but by hour ~20 i hit new zones it's really "wheeeeee" as i hurl myself toward progress with reckless abandon. both playstyles have merits imo

sounds like i'm a bit behind most of you (i'm taking things slooow, 18 hours in and i'm at Farron's Keep), but i got my red soapstone if anyone wants some friendly dueling practice.

made it to lothric castle after some serious help from sunbros and wooo i think i need to level up a bit before proceeding D:

i think i'm starting to get the hang of parries in this game, you have to do it like exactly when they start the swing (after whatever wind-up the weapon may or may not have). but it's still tricky depending on which type of attack is used, and pvp is a whole 'nother thing.

xp

Red-eyed knight causing you grief? Must have died about ten times in that first room before finally killing it and then dying to the very next enemy. Then did a few suicide runs and got a bunch of titanite chunks, guess it's time for lv 7+ weapons.

only played for a bit in the castle - the knights getting buffed by the spellcaster fucked me up until I got their rhythm down, then I was getting humiliated by overpowered basic enemies, so I went to the king's gardens and ended up getting wrecked by two dragon-headed mutant monsters :(

i'll say one thing though, as a mostly melee-focused character the last few areas have made me super-glad i upgraded my bow a lot and stocked up on arrows - having a ranged option when I need it has been u&k to progress

if anybody is curious the anor londo covenant is as fun as the swamp one with respect to chaos/mayhem in pvp

I got their rhythm down

Way ahead of me there, even the not-red-eyed ones wreck me almost everytime. I can't parry for the life of me, guarding drains all my stamina in a couple of hits, and dodge rolling never lets me actually hit them. They're pretty great!

I just leg it now. And there I was thinking I might be over-leveled just yesterday...

roll around their shield side when they attack and then backstab is my favoured tactic. all bets are off when there's two of them tho

damn aldrich was hard! i was in a loop of getting summoned to help ppl with him and then summoning someone to help me who would then die halfway leaving the boss hp rly high. finally soloed him, got him down to a fraction then he did the arrow bs but i yolo'd and killed him as i died. still counted, phew

Those crocodile-dog things turned out much easier than I thought they would. Witch ring + flame clutch ring + chaos fireball does quite a number on them, I almost felt sad for the critters.

hey guys? if and when you get the chance to dunk your head in wax, you're gonna want to do it. trust.

as true today as it ever has been

some invasions are finally starting to go my way now that i have this Farron Greatsword setup. it feels closer to my Bloodborne build where i enough options to stay unpredictable. on the left hand i switch between katana, shield, and the built-in parry knife, with the big slow sword on the right, so it's really got everything. i haven't even moved into the Catacombs because i've been having so much fun invading around the rooftops above the wolf.

All upgrade materials bar slabs confirmed as purchasable.