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

Here's the PS3 manual:

https://support.bandainamcoent.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/307/325/dark-souls---instruction-manual-ps3

the manual won't help much if at all, these games are deliberately obscurantist

> i guess it's just that "using" humanity might be somehow beneficial out there, away from the bonfires.

having humanity in the top left counter and being unhollowed are 2 different things, and you may want to have one or the other or both.

humanity boosts item discovery and curse resistance and i think other defenses too. you can verify that in the stat menu, 0 humantiy = 100 item discovery, 1 humanity = 130, etc. some weapons scale with how much humanity you have up to a max of 10

being unhollowed lets you kindle, be invaded and summon help

This time around, I had no qualms about buying the biggest hardback guide I could...

there are around 1000 weird game mechanics in this that if you dont know, you are just making things so much harder for yourself,

with the guide that takes it down to just approx 200 weird game mechanics..

you guys it's a PIG not a bull, sheesh.

or a boar, more accurately

I always feel like the boar helmet drop is trolling new players, they can't resist wearing it and end up fat rolling to their doom.

lol that was 100% me first time around

no fat-rolling if they wear nothing but the helmet, ie the one true build

can't believe it's a bull only in my game. chalk it up to another weird game mechanic, i guess.

the mechanic where i never really look at the boar directly bc it scares me

I know I killed the armored pig when I played, but even at the time I have no idea how I did it. That is, I died at some point and when I came back, it was ... gone. Magic!

i think i hit him in the arse then ran behind a wall * lots, it was very undignified.

You guys are really missing an element here

I just looked it up, and apparently there are multiple ways to use the environment to your advantage on that one that I was unaware of.

I kinda poked him in the butt and ran and hid behind things the undignified way too.

i didnt get to play last night, but i thought to jump down from the cross bow hollows' roost to get him

He might be too far away though

Can maybe do a falling attack, run up the stairs and repeat

I could not fall attack from the archway, but i did find the basement stairs while trying. In the next run, i found that i could lure the boar near the right stairs where he couldn't get me, and i could fall attack from there. This is the same technique i'd used on difficult hollows before, and it seems to be very useful with an axe (and a bit cheap). I was able to open the gate! Holy shit this game is hard. I had to immediately return to the bonfire 2 times bc the goddamn sewer rats poisoned me.

It seems like the boar wasnt killable without doing the fall attack, so i don't know how it's done any other way.

I can tell you, there is (at least) another way that's pretty ... hot.

Humanity seemed strange to me too, I started using a weapon that powered up with it toward the end game and it was useful and good, but I played the first two-thirds of the game hollowed, I think, only humanizing to kindle

Yeah, I played entirely offline and almost never turned human except to kindle and whatnot.

SG, did you find an item up on the bridge above the boar perhaps?

just glowing skulls, most of which i wasted

Hmmm

lol

The fuck?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea6wqti0w54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb4CxTTFDfA

I think when I'm done with Zelda I'll move back to Spider-man for a bit (which was fun but I haven't given it much time yet), but then after that I think I'll ready to move on to Dark Souls 3. Personal debate is, after following recommendations/a guide for Dark Souls 1, will I do it again for this one? Or will I go in blind? Blind is intriguing, but honestly, since I'm not playing online I don't get any tips or player assists, I might just go the guide route again. It's not like these games are much easier when you know the broad outline of what's around the corner, and for better or worse the DS games really lock you in to a certain style of play or strategy based on really early decisions/mistakes.

ok lol @ "Quelaag and (scorpion lady) are nude from the waist up...and nude from the waist down."

Btw no offense Josh, but you may not be a 'blind' type of player, if you get too anxious about missing things and doing it 'wrong'.

I try to go through areas blind the first time, but then I usually look it up to see what I missed.

i think thats the best way to do it and its what i'm doing for sekiro - blast through every new area blind for that fun fear factor and sense of discovery, then hit a guide to see what i missed.

No offense taken! I am totally not a blind playthrough sort, because my game time is at a relative premium, and if I spend too much time dying again and again and again and missing things then I will likely never complete a game. Like, literally. (You nerds know how long it takes me to even start a game!)

Honestly, there are games like the dark souls games where even if you know what's coming you still barely have any idea what's going on thanks to the elliptical mythology, mysterious mechanics, and so on. I was starting to consider what character to build when I get around to dark souls 3, and as intriguing as any of the other 10 or whatever classes may be, I don't know if I can take learning something like, say, pyromancer from scratch!

Put Ornstein and Smough over my knee last night...

With a dark knight halberd+3, it wasn't as difficult as anything pre-halberd. I never got the 'how the f**k am I going to do this' feeling, I've had with some bosses.

A powerful weapon is definitely cheesing, but in one O&S fight, a Giant Cleric from the previous area stabbed me through the fog gate, so fuck this game if it thinks I have any respect for it's rules.

playing with anything other than a naked fistfighter build is cheesing imo

i took a very long break, but i came back to it today and did better than expected. found the other bonfire above the blacksmith, which allowed me to upgrade some weapons. i'd previously used a mix of battle axe and scimitar, but i'm moving toward switching between one and two handed scimitar. the battle axe is too slow to be useful, and it'd probably help to unequip it. i even beat the big knight and wizard man on the first try (wizard man was tangled up in the horde, which felt like cheating). i gave the bell gargoyle one go, but he forced me off the roof. might head back to the rats to get more humanity for summoning help. i didn't see much of an opening left by the bell gar's attack.

Iirc for a lot of the enemies the strategy is to run around behind them and stab them in the butt.

I also eventually came to the conclusion that two-handing a weapon for more damage was more advantageous than using a shield, at least until you master parrying.

also: master parrying asap

I got the itch so I started Dark Souls III. Let me say, having beat the first one and learned some strategies, this one is already a lot more fun right from the start! Beat the optional crystal lizard monster in a couple of tries, same for Solomon Grundy or whatever the name of the first boss is. I started as a knight, and I suspect that helps. I'm debating how blind I want to play it, though. The one problem with this game is that there are so many secrets, so many things to miss, so many variables, that yeah, that makes replay fun, but if I'm not going to commit to multiple play-throughs there's just so much of the game I'll likely not get to experience or see. Or maybe not!

lol and just that fast, my first DS3 bullshit. I'm still pretty early, but decided to take down the sword master with the uchigatana. I fought him a few times, and made some progress, but he could pretty much one or two shot me. But like I said, progress. Fought him several more times with the same result before wondering if there was some other way, looked it up, and yeah, you can cheese him off the cliff. Still, I figured, well, I've been doing pretty well, I knocked off the other boss-like enemies so far, nah, I'm not going to cheese this guy, I'm going to beat him all on my own. So I go back to take him on, he totally batters me to the cliff edge, and then ... I fall off. Bummer, right? But then seconds later, *he* falls off, too, and follows me to my death! Served him right. But the thing is, while I got his sword, his death gave me no souls! Kind of a ripoff, since it wasn't my fault he flung himself to his death after me. But what can you do.

Well if we don't get Elden Ring news at least I'll have your DS3 playthrough. :)

Knight is def the best starting class. At this point you know the drill, blind playthrough is the real deal but honestly you won't ruin it for yourself by squinting at the wiki for the NPC quests and big secret areas. Do you have a version with the dlc?

Also I know you won't do it but the multiplayer is so integral to my enjoyment of DS3, more than any of the others.

I do have the complete version with the DLC, but I haven't checked out what that entails just yet. I'm trying to remember the DLC from the first one (I skipped 2 for now). That was Artorias of the Abyss, right? Was there more than that? Anyway, iirc that was one of my favorite parts of the first game, so I assume DS3 will have cool stuff, too. So far the early stages of this game are tons of fun, and I've been doing a pretty good job exploring (and leveling up a bit). Nothing super challenging yet in Lothric, but I assume that will be coming soon enough. There are a few mechanics I'm not familiar with, like FP (I don't really know what that is yet). There's also a key for sale for 20,000 souls, but I assume given the steep price it's something to grab later, after defeating a proper boss, rather than grinding for it.

(you may not have to grind but make that key your first major goal)

Huh. How else do I get up to 20000 without grinding (or beating a bigger boss)? Should I focus on that before finishing (or at least furthering) the Lothric area?

Oh rly, I don't think the key is that important? Not worth grinding for imo, it can wait.

FP = used for magic spells and weapon arts (cool attacks that use L2).

The dlc is great, as usual.

Another classic Dark Souls moment here. I'm cruising my way through Lothric, beat the fat guy by the fire, discover the elevator shortcut, figure, OK, at least I know I've made it to this area's equivalent of a check point, so that's a load off. Sneak/murder my way a little further and see those three patrolling Lothric knights. I know I can take one, but three? Eh. So I sneak up and get one, then get sloppy and get killed by another. That's fine, I've got the elevator shortcut! Respawn at the fire, take the short cut, decide to take on the first knight. But in the middle of the fight I get the attention of the second knight, who goes all aggro. So I run away ... right into the third knight. At this point I have no more estus, so I run as fast as I can, in a panic, and do get away ... right before I bump into a *blue* Lothric knight with his back turned. Hm, ok. He turns, I attack, and somehow, against all odds, I manage to accidentally get in a backstab. Cool! Then a second later ... a second backstab! Super-cool! And then ... he immediately killed me. Urgh.

Anyway, since I know my way back, I might as well go backwards for a bit and do a suicide run past the fire breathing dragon to see what it's guarding.

my point is DON'T grind to get the key but when you are able to get to 14k souls or so, then consider grinding and capitalizing on the key rather than leveling
it's super helpful but not necessary

Glad I ran by the dragon, there was a lot of swag to be had, including a claymore! Also reminded me of a doorway I missed when I was to busy running away from something later, and found a few things in there, too, like the cell key. In fact, I should probably take stock of my inventory.