Dark Souls- PS3, Xbox 360, PC

[CMoon]

First, it is probably worth restarting. Honestly, as you learn the game, you realize it can be beaten very quickly and getting to queelag is no real chore.

As far as queelag herself, if you have maneater mildred she can be killed easily from range (yes, even that stupid crossbow you found in the burg.) She is not a hard boss to melee except that you NEED to learn her explosion move AND it is possible to get stuck in the lava. Maybe worth watching a video? For melee I always try to stick close to her head, a little to the left.

If you picked up the drake sword she should die pretty quickly, but at this point you should be able to have your favorite weapon of choice upgraded to +10 (and if you don't, you should farm the slugs across from the bonfire.) If you have the thief key you should also have access to the dragon crest shield which should help you deal with her explosion.

Probably the best strategy of all is to put a white soapstone sign down near the bonfire. By helping others you will get more humanity. More humanity will increase the drop rate, so you can get more titanite drops from the slugs, which will let you upgrade all your gear--all the while learning Queelag's strategy.

Another thought--you should have access to pyromancy now, which means you can buy flash sweat. I assume this would help negate the lava and explosion damage.

Anyway, tons of tools for dealing with her.

[Pretas]

At this point, what are the chances that Bandai-Namco will try to make a Dark Souls III on their own without From Software's involvement? I could easily see them recruiting a Western developer for it.

[CMoon]

At this point, what are the chances that Bandai-Namco will try to make a Dark Souls III on their own without From Software's involvement? I could easily see them recruiting a Western developer for it.

oh god

[iconoclast]

I think it's pretty likely that the Dark Souls 2 team will continue making Souls games. I can see From going the Call of Duty route by having two different development teams work on a game with two year development cycles. That way they can get a new Souls out every year until it's been milked to death.

[Khan]

I've got a 35 hour save which I parked last year. I was at Queeelag's lair but was having trouble killing her and ran out of Humanity, so I nipped back to Firelink via Valley of The Drakes, found some Humanity there and returned to Queelag's lair only to lose it.

I was having so much trouble fighting her, I returned to Firelink and decided to tackle New Londo Ruins instead in the hope of acquiring some more Humanity, but lost all the Transient Curse I had. I love the game and I loved playing Demon's Souls too.
Is it worth continuing, is there anything I can do to accumulate more Humanity? I'm thinking of restarting, would that be wise?

Humanity is useful to a certain extent, if you have an area that you keep revisiting I used to kindle the bonfire so i had 25 flasks for that area and most other bonfires i had kindled to atleast +15 along with pvp those are the only real uses i had for the humanity i aquired i mean i had 40 something and unless you plan on invading other worlds I think its pointless to have that many (unless u wanted the witch of izaliths pyro spell afaik you had so give her 30 humanity for her to give you that spell I never bothered tbh).

Bit of a tip when you do kill her and get her soul just forge it into quelaags fury sword and +5 it when you can its truly shocking just how good a fire weapon it is! and how little stamina is uses.

I played a mage and balanced between spells and miracles i think in the end though i had like 54 intelligence 28 for miracles and over 900hp my stamina was pretty decent too I used magic shield for some boss fights when stamina was an issue but overall I think i should have just put more points into stamina/hp compared to miracles the only miracle i really found useful was lightning spear i had greater lightning spear sadly i was like 2 points away from using it xD. if your still having problems go human and summon an npc though it might be hard now since the communitys shrunk alot since ds2 came

[mastermx]

As others have mentioned, humanity isn't all that important in DS1. I made it through that game without consuming humanity. Most of it whilst hollow, and an occasional Kindle to increase estus stock. I never summoned anyone either. I played it strictly solo. It was only after ng+ that I tried out the multiplayer aspect of the game. If you really want to be in human form for the stat boost, then a good way to get that would be to leave your summon sign at a boss people often have trouble with such as the gargoyles.

I thought queelag was an easy boss. I played melee, so maybe that's why I found her so easy. You just need to dodge and time attacks. You can of course grind and level up, but if you summon a good player or npc she should be manageable. Perhaps you're underlevelled.

I do believe that it is worth continuing. It's such a great game. Also demon's souls and dark souls 2. The souls games is one of the few series' that I love and enjoy.

[President_Obama]

The bosses make me take panic attacks, so I chicken out and summon help.

[mosey]

The bosses make me take panic attacks, so I chicken out and summon help.

Word, several times I felt my heart pounding so hard in my chest! 103 hours in and Lv. 101, one day I'll finish it.

[guigui]

The bosses make me take panic attacks, so I chicken out and summon help.

Word, several times I felt my heart pounding so hard in my chest! 103 hours in and Lv. 101, one day I'll finish it.

This is why we love souls.

[mastermx]

I learnt of dark souls after playing monster hunter. In both, beating bosses requires self control. 1-2 hits when the chance is there. Getting greedy means more than likely you'd still be recovering from your attack animation and you'd get caught in the bosses attack pattern.

Only thing I don't like about these games, is I often have trouble knowing where to go. Arcade and especially shmups are the exact opposite, the screen scrolls for you.

[President_Obama]

The bosses make me take panic attacks, so I chicken out and summon help.

Word, several times I felt my heart pounding so hard in my chest! 103 hours in and Lv. 101, one day I'll finish it.

This is why we love souls.

I didn't have any trouble with Demon's Souls, Dark Souls feels like its leaner, meaner (dare I say it - slightly cheaper) cousin.

Anyway, I got back to Undead Parish in about 10 mins and save/quit after getting charged by the armoured boar. I'm actually glad I restarted, I'm enjoying it much more this time around.

[mastermx]

I didn't had any trouble with Demon's Souls, Dark Souls feels like its leaner, meaner (dare I say it - slightly cheaper) cousin.

Anyway, I got back to Undead Parish in about 10 mins and save/quit after getting charged by the armoured boar. I'm actually glad I restarted, I'm enjoying it much more this time around.

No boss brought me as much greif as the armor spider. Now that mofo was a nightmare to melee.

Glad you are enjoying the restart. I do it too sometimes if I've been from a game for far too long. Especially with a game like this that has so much replay value.

[President_Obama]

ungh I sound like a moron in that post lol

[CMoon]

I didn't have any trouble with Demon's Souls, Dark Souls feels like its leaner, meaner (dare I say it - slightly cheaper) cousin.

This is interesting because I think Demon's Souls is actually harder. The issue here is that you've barely scratched the surface with Dark Souls. Queelag is still an early boss and the game feels like it is progressively harder up until the O&S fight in Anor Londo. The problem is that after Anor Londo you will start feeling over leveled. The game seems to become much easier. Demon's Souls never seems to have this issue. It is certainly a much smaller game and False King is actually a really challenging final boss.

That said, I'd certainly describe demon's as meaner and leaner, but you might not have been aware of how much game you have ahead of you.

[President_Obama]

I'm the opposite, I found Demon's easy enough. The only thing I found frustrating was the boss in the Tower of Latria whose name escapes me, but it was particularly cheap.

edit: Maneater.

[Moniker]

PSA: Dark Souls is the latest Free with Gold game on X360. So yeah, if you're insane enough not to own it already, go get it for free.

[mosey]

I have only played DS in offline mode so far, partly for the immersion and for fear of the blasphemous cheaters hacking their saves, cheating themselves. Are the online players a good bunch lately, especially after the free offer from MS?

[CMoon]

Been working toward a speed run. Not god-like, but under 2 hours. Sounds easy, right? Well go ahead and try it for yourself right now!

What you start realizing is that even though you might think you are skilled at this game, things can go wrong very very easily, and the game is peppered with RNG/'oh shit' moments that can decide the fate of your game. What's more, you also start recognizing areas you actually aren't good at at all.

The best thing about working toward a speed run is that you end up practicing small segments A LOT, and these become like little bursts of arcade gaming. Strung together, it becomes enormously intense. Maybe you only make it to the gargoyles before some major fuck up, but that's a solid 15 minutes of precision gaming.

Anyway, this is another limitation like SL1 runs that gives Dark Souls such enormous depth and almost feels like a natural part of the game. I still don't feel Dark Souls 2 really has the same viability although I'll have to take a look at some of the runs on that title.

tldr; I just went through the first half of anor londo in about 1-2 minutes bare handed--total fucking rush!

[jepjepjep]

After finishing all of the optional bosses Dark Souls 2, rather than continue in NG+, I decided to start playing DS1. So far the game is amazing. I'm just past the Gargoyles.

After a couple of hours I'm running around with the Drake sword and no pants. I was surprised by how different the player movement and combat feel.

[CMoon]

Just in case any of you soul fans missed this and need a laugh, it's the Dumbshits guide to Dark Souls (still in progress):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4xt_K_ ... SG3SXndmSg

[Ed Oscuro]

By some strange coincidence, I've decided to pick up Dark Souls and CS: GO again a bit, and it turns out I'm just a week or two shy of a two year absence for both games. CSGO is much improved, but it's still CSGO - Dark Souls is pretty much just the same, but that's good too! Wrote up a few notes so far:

No regular blocking in any of these fights - riposte for many, but some (i.e. whenever I've got the halberd out) are just straight evasion / flask use / semi-tanking. I have been checking out some guides and my build is loosely following this build, though my Endurance is still considerably lower, at lv 28, than that would show. I also want to add more Faith for the Sunny D covenant, though possibly I could spend some time with the soapstone instead and save my levels...

Currently, damage output is mainly halberd (replacing spear) and +5 dag of banditry with the target shield. Simple armor - just the starting armor, plus the elite knight leggings and arms (replacing some Balder pieces used earlier). Using bow / crossbow extremely infrequently, mainly for rare events like hitting hellkite's tail.

Dark knight in burg - 2 deaths, then victory on third try: 3 ripostes + small hits to finish
armored tusk - 2 deaths, nearly killed him on the first try; exploited bonfire close to stairs / entrance
balder knights - backstab + riposte from the start
channeler - crossbow (used bandit's dagger against the horde of red followers after, oops)
parish church floor knight - unmodified axe + some help from the small wall outside the parish entrance, first try
prowling demon - after +1 flask, unmodified halberd used (5+ flasks used), lv 24 (or so), took 3-4 tries probably
havel - tried some ineffective halberd attacks + backwards rolling, got killed; tried backstabs (did pull one off), got killed. Decided to go with ripostes. First attempt got 2 ripostes, taking him to 50% health; third attempt got 3 ripostes in a row; fourth attempt did see him land a solid hit or two but I was able to tank it. Four ripostes and Havel's Ring is mine again!
capra demon - almost killed in the first try with unupgraded halberd; upgraded halberd to +2 and did half health; third try was victory with drake sword and standing just in the entryway (8/10 flasks remaining after victory heal from half health), lv 28. Funny thing - I was halfway thinking "oh, maybe I could try out this method of aiming the bow and lobbing some firebombs over the gate," but there I was, walking through the mist door again. I have no more fear to give.

Current stuff - went a little ways into Depths, freed the Swamps guy, bought the 20K crest from the blacksmith and gave over the large ember.

tl;dr - Maybe I'm doing bad but it doesn't feel bad. 3 to 5 attempts to kill each big enemy and steady progress still. Not much in the way of frustration either!

[Ed Oscuro]

Ha ha, Stray Demon.

Tons (well, under a dozen or so?) of deaths, and at least one early near-victory, but I finally pulled it off. Basically did what this person does, except I didn't get hit once.

"I managed it without taking any damage except from the fall! I decided to put Havel's Ring on (along with the Blue Tear Ring) but that and my equipment didn't come into play, except that I was below the 25% encumbrance level. Just kept rolling away from him every time it looked like he was possibly spooling up an attack - though maybe I got lucky this time, since he didn't seem to be doing magic much."

Eh, 20K souls is a nice reward...I lost about that amount earlier today, in aimless wandering here and there. I died once to Gaping Dragon (didn't really have a clue what a do) after Solaire did (I haven't picked up the white soapstone yet...), then went elsewhere and did other stuff (killed some blue wyverns, though I'm not good at it yet). I boosted my Humanity to kindle the Depths bonfire (well, the one nearest the Channeler) and got invaded twice, and put those guys down fast. I boosted my total lifetime invasion defense success ratio by 300% to 3 successful defenses! Just halberd weak attack spam, though. (I thwarted an invader back around the game's launch in pretty much the same way, using a spear, on the approach to Havel.) I also farm a bunch of stuff, got my bandit's knife to +10 (pretty much a necessity for the Stray Demon, though I had a pretty good pattern going finally). At the Asylum again, I collected everything - had some trouble with the knights but finally succeeded in two-riposte killing them - and defeated Oscar the first time I met him the same way. (Interesting that he kept flipping about when I sat at the bonfire again for a moment just to top off my health after he surprised me in the hallway.)

Having that FRAWRESS VICTORY against the Stray Demon is nice to put a cap on things for the day.

[CMoon]

The great thing about DS is that a lot of the bosses are completely memorizable and except for a few bits of nasty RNG can be taken down handily, almost like you are playing a Platinum game. Stray Demon was super intimidating at first, but he has no resistances (meaning level 1 pyro can take him down) and his patterns are telegraphed and easy to dodge. Just stay close to its butt.

[Necronopticous]

I'm a little late to the party on the Souls games, but I spent the last month playing through all three of them and topped it off with second playthrough of Dark Souls as a soul level 1 pyromancer. I started a little over 3 days ago on Thanksgiving night, and I just killed Gwyn this morning. So much fun you guys!

[guigui]

Souls games = good.

I am stuck on my SL1 pyro run though. How did you beat those four kings ? My +10 lightning club does not damage them enough.

[Necronopticous]

In my first playthrough I took the dodging approach to the 4 kings, rolling through most of their attacks, and getting in a few hits when their combos were done. In that game, I was two handing a fully upgraded black knight halberd which absolutely wrecked them, and I was so powered up at that point that I could afford to take a few hits here and there if I got greedy and didn't roll out of the way in time. On my SL1 run, I gave a few attempts with this same idea, thinking I'd just have to dodge more consistently. It quickly became obvious to me that it would have taken a huge amount of practice and luck to be able to get through that way, so I switched my strategy completely and decided to tank up in full Havel's armor while keeping iron flesh up whenever possible and then just going nuts with two handed attacks, only stopping to get out of the way of the grab attack, or pull my +5 Crest shield out and block the occasional magic attack. I managed to beat it my second try with this strategy.

[CMoon]

Souls games = good.

I am stuck on my SL1 pyro run though. How did you beat those four kings ? My +10 lightning club does not damage them enough.

[edit] Ugh, I was thinking of speed running, not SL1. Just a couple more attunement slots and you could be hitting him with power within + fully upgraded flame and two slots of great combustion/black flame. Unfortunately I don't think you can manage at SL1, although there is a ring that gives you one extra attunement slot.

Only real comment here is that if you stay VERY close to 4 kings, he can't really hurt you that much except with magic. His weapon just clips you.

[shmuppyLove]

Picked it up on Steam yesterday along with Deadlight and Halo: Spartan Assault, all for about $10

Installing it now, I know it's going to completely kick my ass.

[Necronopticous]

Ugh, I was thinking of speed running, not SL1.

It's really fun! It gave me an entirely new perspective on the game, and honestly wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and certainly rarely annoying or excruciating due to the handicap.

[CMoon]

Ugh, I was thinking of speed running, not SL1.

It's really fun! It gave me an entirely new perspective on the game, and honestly wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and certainly rarely annoying or excruciating due to the handicap.

Yeah, both speed running and SL1 really show off the diversity of ways that souls can be legitimately played. There are points where it feels like the developers had those ideas in mind when they made it.