DARK SOULS: if you need me i'll be in an induced coma so mvrch comes tomorrow

i know i've been trained to expect a certain type of challenge after probably a couple of hundred hours playing souls games, but it just seems so weird that the developers built this exquisitely-tuned mechanic for melee combat, where every decision about armour and weaponry and stats makes a tangible difference to how your character feels, but then they also gave you the option to chill out and call in an airstrike over and over and over until your enemy is dead

maybe i'm setting myself up for getting crushed when i make it further in, i dunno

it's kinda cool to see dark souls from a different perspective i guess but it also kinda strips away everything i actually enjoy about dark souls

josh otm, suicide runs are u&k, do them as often as possible imo, even if it's just to get a sense of a new space before you start exploring it properly

I think I'm going to use a walkthrough for the first hour or so. I didn't know how to level-up, what to level-up, what "humanity" was for, or anything. I went out on to this lake place and kept getting scissored-to-death by these ghost ladies and hauling my paltry 520 souls back along the dock a few steps at a time. I don't know what I'm doing so I'm starting again with a guide in hand.

I found a really good spoiler-free tutorial I can post. Give me a second.

Here you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_YBDIhXgbw&index=1&list=PLnDa47i6qBvl8_qDUuAU2KWmZC9691LGd

You can obviously skip past the overeager intros, but he does a good job teaching the basics without giving anything away (like many walkthroughs).

Huh, weird. Lemme try again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_YBDIhXgbw&list=PLnDa47i6qBvl8_qDUuAU2KWmZC9691LGd&index=1

I don't get it. Well, they're all here: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnDa47i6qBvl8_qDUuAU2KWmZC9691LGd

ty!

I went out on to this lake place and kept getting scissored-to-death by these ghost ladies

Ohhh that is not where you want to go yet, but it is classic Dark Souls to wander down there.

So far it's "ohhh don't fight those wimpy looking skeletons" and "ohhh don't fight the ghost ladies" so I'm going to watch these videos and try again this weekend I guess

Some nasty surprises in the depths. Got cursed by those bug-eyed things once, got surprised by a few rats and blobs (which take forever to kill with a sword, so there must be an easier way, unless I'm just supposed to outrun them. But I made it to the gaping dragon (which took a while to find) and managed to halve its HP before it killed me, so I have high hopes for round two. Just need to be patient. Probably helps that I've got my claymore up to +6, now that I found the large ember and gave it to Andre.

Got cursed by those bug-eyed things once

Sooo, you're still cursed then?

did you already remove the curse?

re: blobs, remember what i said about certain enemies seeming too hard to kill but having a specific damage type weakness? turns out those blobs don't like fire that much. if only you had some way of setting foes ablaze by touching them...

I don't think I have a way of setting them on fire. Fire bombs? Seems like a waste, they're slow and easy to hit.

And no, I'm not cursed. The first time I found the undead merchant I basically bought at least one of everything, so when it told me how to reverse the curse after I was cursed I did that right away.

I did notice that something gave me some humanity, like, not to use but instantly added to my screen. Of course, I'm back to 00 again, but I think I might up it again to at least 1, because some creatures seemed to drop more stuff when I was human.

Oh I forgot that the merchant in the tunnel sells purging stones. I vividly remember getting cursed in the Depths during my very first playthrough and going all the way back up to the priest in the tower with 1/2 health. :)

Yeah sometimes you randomly get soft humanity by killing x number of enemies in an area. There's another random online mechanic where you get a bonus estus if another player kindles the bonfire you rested at most recently.

much like being invaded if you were playing online, the random humanity from killed enemies only happens while the area boss is still alive

the purging stone thing was patched in, in the game as released the only way to remove curse was indeed a trip to the sealer's office. also curses stacked up to 3x (1/8 max health)

Ugh, what a pia that would have been. I don't even know how I got cursed. The gas? Was I bitten?

the gas, i don't think they attack you any other way.

if you were playing online, you'd see statues in agonising death poses of other cursed players scattered throughout basilisk territory, one of the many cool atmospheric things this game excels at

and then you get to smash their frozen corpses to smithereens and feel smug that they are dead and you are not

A friend brought his Switch over to get some tips while our respective partners were working on something else. The portable controls took some getting used to, but just seeing portable Dark Souls blew my mind a little.

Okay, I killed the gaping dragon and got a key to Blighttown, whose reputation precedes it. But the only places I think I can go that I have not yet explored are the New Londo Ruins, Valley of the Drakes, and a big Ten Thousand Soul door by Darkroot Garden.

On the plus side, all that time in the Depths mined a lot of humanity but more importantly Titanite, so I have upgraded my Claymore to + 8.

Now +9! But I don't know what that means. 9 more points damage?

Ha. Weapon scaling is... complicated. Plenty of breakdowns out there for full nerd min/max efficiency but sounds like you’re doing just fine.

Yeah, so far so good! Might try Valley of the Drakes next, because I've now found two ways to get there, from opposite sides, which means it might be a good shortcut to figure out.

Um

Should I be attempting to unhollow after every death and human my way to simplicity

And also, should I restart and be a ranger

I have never met a more punishing game

I've mostly been playing hollow, I think it doesn't make a big difference (esp. offline). But eventually you start accumulating more humanity, so it's not hard to reverse when or if you feel like it.

Josh, I don't recall the ui offhand but when upgrading it shows exactly how much damage increases for each type. there was also a nifty page in one of the many status/inventory menus that displays total base damage for each currently equipped weapon with scaling already factored in. in the 360 version i think you had to press Y to switch to that display or something.

Don't take those single numbers at face value, though, a 600 dmg weapon that it's split between 400 physical + 200 lightning may or may be not more powerful than a 450 pure physical weapon, it will depend on the enemy's defense stats.

fgti, there's no advantage in picking any class other than starting level distribution. you can start a wizard and level your way to a knight or whatever.
the only reason to restart would be to pick a different starting gift but that's something that demands prior knowledge of the game

early on (imo) you're probably best to save your humanity and use it only to kindle new bonfires when you reach them and unhollow for boss fights if you feel you need to

I think I saw that if you are human for boss fights then you can summon an NPC or two to help, but honestly I haven't noticed any summons sign. Is it possible that if you're playing offline you can't even summon (or be invaded by) NPCs?

Here's another question, speaking of NPCs. I've rescued a few dummies trapped in barrels here and there, and they're now often/always hanging by Firelink, offering to help. But if I've been putting stats toward strength/dex, which is what my warrior began high in, and not intelligence or faith or whatever, then there's not much help a magic dude or pyromancer or whatever can give me, is there? Same for certain sets of weapons and armor I've come across, or ways to ascend my own weapons, right? That is, if I have a weapon, there's no reason to make it magical, or fire, or lightning etc. unless I have stats leaning sympathetically in those directions, because unless I do it seems like I would actually just make my weapons *less* powerful.

That weapon/scaling stuff is super confusing. Say I bring my claymore up to +10, or max it out to +15 (I think). Will I still have serious non-strategic trouble with any enemies? Obviously I can win the game with the broken sworn hilt, or even my fists, if I've read correctly, but I'd prefer to do it with a good weapon I can stick with for the duration (bow and arrow aside). I mean, I do have the Zweihander, which seems pretty huge and awesome. I haven't really used it, because it is slow, but would it be to my significant advantage to start improving it? Or is it cool and sensible to stick with one primary weapon I'm good with? I understand as hard as this game can be it gets harder - and the bosses get harder - after Blightown (which I still haven't found!).

you can still summon and be invaded offline but npc invasions are rare and summons are sometimes hidden and often dependent on gameplay triggers

sometimes it pays off to have a sub-optimal weapon handy, as you've seen for those blobs in the depths, but generally you're right. most equipment you won't use or even be able to try

i may be misremembering but your pyromancy hand either doesn't scale or doesn't need any levels in INT to be leveled up, you need only the souls to spend. fire and lightning weapons don't scale at all, they're the same for any build

Say I bring my claymore up to +10, or max it out to +15 (I think). Will I still have serious non-strategic trouble with any enemies?

yes

I understand as hard as this game can be it gets harder

it's not that hard, if you ever did a 2nd playthrough you'd breeze throught it, it'd probably take you less than 2 hours to get where you're at now once you know what to expect. enjoy the mystery while it lasts

Say I bring my claymore up to +10, or max it out to +15 (I think). Will I still have serious non-strategic trouble with any enemies?

What I meant was, will my +10 (or however much) claymore ever be woefully underpowered for a boss? The way early weapons might be for some of the tougher early enemies, like the black knight or Havel or the skeletons (who are now more strategically tough, relatively speaking, than HP tough).

So you're saying I can use pyro even if I am not a pyromancer? And you're saying the fire and lighting weapons don't scale, so (like the drake sword) they just have a max damage that can't be increased? What are all those other ones (raw, chaos, etc.)?

Your claymore +10 - +15 will get you through everything, really.

The regular upgrade path that you're taking is generally preferable. Fire and lightning do cap out and don't receive boosts from your DEX and STR points.

https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Claymore

So you're saying that after the first play through, with surprises ruined and strategies revealed, subsequent playthroughs are less difficult and more about having fun, just killing things and beating the game new ways, with new builds and weapons and methods? I can see that.

it’s an extremely replayable game, and if you’re not relying on a guide there are almost certainly things you’ll miss the first time through

yep, and even with a guide things will be missed by virtue of being mutually exclusive, there's no 100% path where you see everything there is to see

So you're saying I can use pyro even if I am not a pyromancer?

yes, the starting classes are just for default equipment and levels. pyromancy in particular only requires spending of souls to level up your hand and buying spells. and at least one attunement slot, so some levels do need to go into that stat

What are all those other ones (raw, chaos, etc.)?

raw is extra pure physical damage with all scaling removed. it's supposedly crap or so i've heard

chaos is a split from fire +5 (instead of fire +6 you upgrade to chaos +1) that adds scaling with humanity (up to 10)

enchanted is a split from magic +5 that does... i'm not sure what honestly, maybe better scaling with INT than regular magic path?

divine is sorta like magic but scales with faith and adds bonus damage against certain enemy types, eg npc/internet invaders. talk to andre, he'll tell you what it's good for

you'll end up finding special weapons with some of the above properties, in fact you probably have some in your inventory right now

Blightown (which I still haven't found!).

Did you find the merchant in the Depths, not far from the hallway that leads to the Gaping Dragon?

(also raw infusion is great for early game, but quickly gets outclassed once your stats start to go up)

I did find the merchant. Most of his stuff was super-expensive, but I did buy a gold pine resin, which I used on one dragon attempt (though it didn't seem to help much; gaping dragon has a ton of health). Blightown near there?

I've been focusing on building vitality and endurance right now, which will eventually hit some sort of soft cap, right (30/40 or the other way around)? But I should probably start putting more souls toward strength and dex (which are currently both over 20) to help scale my favored sword. Is that how it works? I had been leveling up the katana, too, but it seemed faster but less effective, especially for thrusting. It does apparently have the power to make things bleed, whatever that means, but I couldn't really figure out those mechanics.

the blighttown door is right next to the merchant

like poison and curse, bleed is a status effect. try fighting the skeletons near firelink and let them hit you with your shield up: you won't take normal damage but a status bar will start filling up whenever they hit your character or your shield.
let the bar fill all the way up and enjoy having 30% of your max health disappear instantly signaled by ! BLOOD LOSS ! on screen. that's bleed and it was apparently really useful in pvp against players who hid behind their shield constantly

only some enemies are susceptible to bleeding. common sense applies most of the time, darkroot stone giants probably don't bleed. there's no visual or auditory feedback of whether bleed damage is accumulating on enemies like there is for your character but the signature blood loss sound effect does play when it triggers.

imo if you like the claymore's moveset more then that's your weapon. the katanas probably scale better but, again, don't min-max, especially since you're not even playing online

this has been a deeply enjoyable conversation to see btw; always fun when newbs go from "so wait, do i actually LOSE all my souls if i don't get them back on the next life" to detailed min/maxing conversations on leveling favorite weapons

Hmm. So, I found Blightown and I guess was doing well enough, relatively speaking, once I figured out the first wave of monsters and pests. Got poisoned once, which sucked, esp. since I kept taking the wrong curing purple moss while I wasted estus. But then I more or less got lost or ran out of places to go - the ladders are hard to see - so fell on purpose down to another platform where I saw that giant spider thing stomping around ... and it more or less immediately killed me. I'll try again later.

On the plus side, I don't think the dart guys I killed come back, so there's that.

okay, decided giant spider thing that was apparently impervious to arrows and killed me with one shot was a clear hint that I should go a different direction. Almost made it to the bottom of Blighttown, lower than scaffolds, but inexplicably slipped off a rock or something and fell like 5 feet but still died. Maybe something else is going on?

(That is, maybe something I didn't see killed me and I fell off.) Super glad I found the Blightown bonfire, which I missed the first few times I descended from the Depths.

OK, figured out how to kill that giant spider, but don't know to what end. Oh, wait, I got pyro something! I'll have to look into that. Anyway, now I can get down to the bottom of Blightown OK with minor setbacks (getting lost, getting attacked), but as soon as I get down there I get ganged up on and poisoned to death by either the giant mosquitos or something else I can't see. At least I can understand why some people find this area frustrating.

Oh, and I think I came across a glitch, even in this remastered version, because I thought I had killed all the dart dudes (at least up top) but kept hearing one and seeing one firing at me from a distance. So I spent some time searching for it, and all that time I couldn't find it (and don't think I was getting shot at anymore). Maybe it walked off the edge of a platform or something?

Well, I resorted to a guide today, after mistakenly getting scissored by ghost ladies and then accidentally walking out into "The Valley Of The Drakes" at entry level and grabbing a very heavy sword and getting one-hit by a dragon as a result and getting chased by stupid ogres and still, because I don't know what I'm doing, going back to reclaim my lost 300-or-so souls and what not, and getting one-hit again on the way back...

And the guide told me "um go up the stairs" and immediately I'm meeting friendly carcasses who are obligingly dying in front of me and suddenly the guide is put away and I'm having no problems making short work of this grenadier or that man with a very long shish-kebab and I basically died a couple of times before encountering an ugly black knight who killed me a few times but I rather cunningly upped my vitality and stamina and then made short work of his ass

I wouldn't say the game has "opened up to me" but it has been a really, really long time since I've played a game where the monsters don't scale-- i.e. grinding is good-- and so it is very nice and refreshing to look forward to a future where I might actually get good at this

One of the aspects I'm enjoying the most, in a rueful sort of way, is that pretty much every enemy has killed me at least once, if I do something dumb, or let my guard down, or just don't expect to be attacked a certain way. And when that happens it's kind of funny. But farting around in the bottom of Blightown (which, fgti, looms a little later for you, but not that far off) I'm encountering my first instances of simply being overwhelmed: dying of poison while being hit by ogre things throwing rocks while being poisoned and bit by mosquitos while fire spider-fly-whip creatures beat on me. All more or less in sight of my bonfire, which is located across a poison swamp that slows you down and kills you as you wade through it. It's pretty ott, especially since I don't think there's an easy way to traverse these particular challenges, you just have to do it and be done with it. I think.

On the plus side, I'm inadvertently accumulating more souls each run, so that every time I reclaim my pile of lost souls (never far away) the total goes up, until I just eventually cash out for more leveling.

The most useful item I've found, btw, is the grass crest shield, earlier, which really helps with endurance regeneration, allowing me to run farther, swing more, etc. It's been a big help.

Technically there are rings that let you walk in the swamp without being slowed down, resist poison, items that cure it, etc but it's unrealistic to find all those on your first blind playthrough. And they're not actually necessary, but can make subsequent trips a breeze once you know what you're doing.

Ok, killed Chaos Witch Quelaag on my first try, so I must be doing something right! After ringing the second bell it looks like I am supposed to head back to that Undead castle where the big gate is. but I suppose if I want I can still go from Firelink to Valley of the Drakes or New Londo I think?

Oh, and realized this far in that I can level up humanity or whatever it is those numbers mean without reverse hollowing. For some reason I thought I was no longer a skeleton zombie when I had the white numbers up, but it turns out that nope, still ugly.

Are the number of fires I can kindle limited? That was useful to do in Blightown.