Dark Souls- PS3, Xbox 360, PC

[Sumez]

Except for maybe the PVP: Demons souls had this right whereby you invaded to regain your human form, not you had to be human to invade, what's the point in that? Plus the limited use items such as cracked red eye orbs and this covenant bullshit.

Funny, the online thing is where I think Dark Souls improved immensely over Demon's.
Due to humanity being way easier to obtain than a revive in Demon's Souls, most people will play in "physical form" much more often, making it easier to get summoned as a phantom, and easier to get help with a boss. I was invaded ONCE during the entirety of the my time in Demon's Souls, and never did co-op once. In Dark Souls, I've been doing tons of online play, having both invasions, helping phantoms and a duel for a dragon scale (which I won ).
Some of the Covenants are pretty stupid, but in general I think they have a good idea, which creates another incentive to invade (and cause ruckus in other ways), rather than just regaining humanity. It's pretty much what they put in, to have more online stuff, rather than the terrible world tendency system in Demon's Souls. I definitely know which of the two I prefer.
You can easily play through the entire game without doing any Covenant stuff, so it's not like you have to care.

Also, you don't have to be human form to invade, I think that only applies to a single Covenant, since it's basically based around YOU "inviting" OTHERS to invade you.

[CMoon]

Oh... I've never much cared about PvP in either game. I've only had positive experiences in this game. As in, someone invades, I kill him. That pretty much the extent of my experience with PvP.

This is about how I feel--and I'd agree for the 1 player experience, I think Dark Souls is a vast improvement over Demon Souls, but yeah, I hear the PVP people and apparently in this department it is much worse. I joined the forest covenant for a while and was always getting summoned to fight massively powerful characters with incredible equipment. Maybe the idea was to present a challenge by having all these newbies invade your world and you can just mow them down (maybe I'll be doing that when I'm much more powerful), but at this stage in the game for me it was not particularly fun.

I'm definitely enjoying summoning helpers, but it seems highly unpredictable, and everytime I've put down my own sign I've never been summoned. Hmmm.

[mesh control]

FUCK YOU CAPRA DEMON. YOU ARE MY BITCH.

>:]

[Leader Bee]

It's the dogs that are your bitch. The capra demon is just a pussycat once those are out of the way.

[Zaarock]

Wow, twilight of anor londo is PVP central.. On 360 version at SL90 right after I changed the area to twilight I summoned someone in front of the old boss door, got invaded by two blades of the darkmoon. Then my phantom and one of the blue phantoms died, the last one running away waiting for the damn NPC's to kill me, which they did. A darkwraith entered when I died and he got the honor for my kill lol.

edit: I think the best idea is to wait for the darkmoons inside the boss chamber, allowing for a nice fair duel in an arena everyone loves

CMoon: forest covenant ring doesn't have any level limits, so what would you expect?

[sjewkestheloon]

I'm definitely enjoying summoning helpers, but it seems highly unpredictable, and everytime I've put down my own sign I've never been summoned. Hmmm.

The trick is to first of all be in the relevant area for your level. Then put a symbol down and explore a bit to rack up some souls. If I don't get summoned in about 10 minutes I quit the game and reload it. Then I pop a summon sign down and repeat.

I often find that this gives me the opportunity to help a fair amount of people. After helping a few the game seems to brain fart and refuse to connect me to any more populated servers. Quitting out sorts this out and then I get a bunch more summons.

The best summon spots I have found so far are at the swamp bonfire by Quelag, Sen's Fortress boss waiting room (sounds like you are there with me) and in the Moonlight Butterfly tower block. I also got summoned once or twice for the Gargoyles.

[iconoclast]

I hate how you have to have 50 faith, or do a bunch of co-op in order to join the Sun covenant. I haven't done any co-op at all so far, and at SL 105 I never get summoned anywhere I leave my sign. I'm about to just grind up to 50 faith and ruin this character.

[Elixir]

I've never, ever been summoned after putting my white sign down and I've never, ever seen any other white signs.

[iconoclast]

Yeah, the online system is really messy compared to Demon's Souls. It's too splintered, and the connection failures don't help. Hopefully the patch improves things a bit.

At least I'm starting to have some co-op luck in the final area. Been summoned twice so far, which is two more times than I've ever been summoned before.

[Zaarock]

I'm seeing quite a lot of summon signs in anor londo at SL 90, and this is on 360 ver. Also killed like 40 blades of the darkmoon today chilling out in twilight anor londo :p

[Elixir]

So I'm sitting here, 3 humanity, soul sign down, in front of the Capra Demon, and nobody's summoning me.

Oh wait, there it goes.

Wow, that thing was easy.

Okay, so summoning DOES work. Hey can't you grind Humanity like this?

Edit: I guess this guy who summoned me is in Australia. Yeah.. due to being p2p I can't see online co-op lasting too long.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Why do so many people seem to have problems with Capra Demon? On my first playthrough I faced him about 15 hours into the game. My character was around Level 54 and was equipped with a Giant Black Knight Sword or whatever it is called. It took just one swing to kill the dogs and two more to kill the demon.

[Elixir]

Because I'm level 20 and 4 hours into the game. Level 54 is rather.. overpowered for this area. I can actually probably take him, I just want to mess around with co-op right now.

Anyway, this game should be called Summoning Failed Souls. Jesus christ.

[CMoon]

I've been having good luck summoning other players to help me fight bosses, but that's about it. And yeah, forest covenant thing works if you want to face players WAY more powerful than you.

Beat Sen's today and just opened up Anor Londo. Rather scared given everything I've heard about it. Seems its the only place I can make the crystal ring shield and boost my lightning weapon, so I guess the only way is forward. Thinking about going back, re-joining Way of the White and seeing if I have any luck at getting summoned to fight Sen's Fortress boss again.

[iconoclast]

Why do so many people seem to have problems with Capra Demon? On my first playthrough I faced him about 15 hours into the game. My character was around Level 54.

Bolded the important part. Most people are most likely facing him at SL 20 or less. But otherwise I agree, I didn't have any problems with the Capra in either of my playthroughs (same goes for the archers in Anor Londo). shrug

@Elixir: you can earn Humanity by killing bosses in co-op, but there's a much faster way to farm it later in the game (you can get probably 30-40 an hour in ToG).

[Zaarock]

Tomb of giants farming is really tedious. I just traded some guy 7 dragon scales and some other shit for 10 humanity items while beating up invaders, much more fun :p

Also, I was trying to grab people with the humanity sucking attack for a long time and it never seemed to start the animation.. maybe it doesn't work on darkmoons or people who aren't the host?

On another note, I just got 930k souls from some pvp.. what the hell do I do with that if I don't want to level up lol

[Elixir]

Is there some sort of hidden trick to summoning people? Like being in their covenant, for example?

edit: what the hell

[Zaarock]

That's supposed to help a little, yeah. And apparently there are a couple tricks to change "servers": go through area gates repeatedly(when it announces the name of the area and saves) or rest at bonfire repeatedly.

I guess the gate thing is true, as I managed to summon the same japanese player 6 times in a row in anor londo where there are no area changes.

But yeah, they'll change the matchmaking with a patch.. let's see how that turns out.

[Elixir]

Looks like joining a covenant actually works. I went back to Firelink and joined the miracle covenant, went back to in front of the Capra Demon and was immediately able to summon two phantoms.

[sjewkestheloon]

Yep like I said earlier Way of the White increases co-op massively. I helped about 5 people to kill the iron golem last night in a row.

Anor Londo will be mine.

[guigui]

Also, seek guidance seems to be really helpful spell when it comes to summon other people to help you.
I cant count the times when I could not see any sign, cast souls guidance, and immediatly saw two.

Spell can be bought for 1000 souls from that guy who sells miracle near the firelinks shrine

[Sumez]

Why do so many people seem to have problems with Capra Demon? On my first playthrough I faced him about 15 hours into the game. My character was around Level 54 and was equipped with a Giant Black Knight Sword or whatever it is called. It took just one swing to kill the dogs and two more to kill the demon.

You were 54 for Capra Demon?!! At level 54 I was near the end of the game. Have you just been grinding a lot, or where did you go before Capra Demon, besides the Parish?

[Jeneki]

On another note, I just got 930k souls from some pvp.. what the hell do I do with that if I don't want to level up lol

Upgrading / acending a pyromancy flame eats up a lot of souls.

Speaking of which, that has to be the most confusing acension in the game. A pyromancy flame turns into ... a pyromancy flame. Exact same name, just a slightly different graphic with different stats to tell them apart. wtf?

[CMoon]

In Anor Londo and getting my ass handed to me by the first couple dudes. Maybe I'm underleveled (40) or just suck too much. Would it be worth going back and messing with the New Londo Ruins or the Catacombs, or should I tough it out in Anor Londo?

Edit: looks like part of the problem is the spear's lackluster moveset.

[mesh control]

40?

I just finished blighttown (fuck blighttown) and leveled up to 44.
I need to focus more stats on HP. High vitality, high endurance w/ pyromancy.


Was I supposed to go to the demon ruins after defeating the Chaos Witch?

I high tailed it out of there with the 50k souls on me.

[CMoon]

There's a boss fight in the demon ruins that is either really hard or really easy depending on if you know what you're doing (to the point that some would not call it a real boss fight.) The area that opens up after that is a little different and you have to fight a bunch of those taurus demons, but you can take them on one-on-one. I don't remember them guarding any thing that spectacular, but it was something to do. Obviously the 'boss' fight gives some good xp, so you should do that.

Got a bit further into Anor Londo and ended up in the painted world. Not sure if that's where I should be right now or not, but it is challenging without feeling 'holy shit I'm way underleveled for this' challenging. Had the cat ring on, so kept getting summoned out for forest covenant, and somehow bouncing back and forth between painted/forest ended up with 36K, which I promptly sunk into three more levels (Vit and End).

So I'm probably 43 or 44 now. Once during a forest invasion I ended up getting 70K. Sunk it all into my pyro fist.

Edit: Hahahahaha...I finally got some dark souls hate mail. Got called a pussy. Well duh, when everything can kill me in two hits, yahdamnright I'm a pussy!

[evil_ash_xero]

No, you don't want to go to the Demon Ruins, after defeating the Chaos Witch. Shit gets wild down there.

[Moniker]

Oh dear, Capra Demon and his steroid-injected pit bulls... And that weird Ronin at the bottom of the tower... And my tendency to fall off cliffs whenever the opportunity presents itself...

[Jonathan Ingram]

Why do so many people seem to have problems with Capra Demon? On my first playthrough I faced him about 15 hours into the game. My character was around Level 54 and was equipped with a Giant Black Knight Sword or whatever it is called. It took just one swing to kill the dogs and two more to kill the demon.

You were 54 for Capra Demon?!! At level 54 I was near the end of the game. Have you just been grinding a lot, or where did you go before Capra Demon, besides the Parish?

I went to the Darkroot Garden shortly after having passed Hellkite Dragon(but before fighting the gargoyles on the roof) and farmed the forest covenant guys for EXP for a couple of hours, then went to other locations. I only returned to the Undead Parish after I had exhausted all other possibilities.

No, you don't want to go to the Demon Ruins, after defeating the Chaos Witch. Shit gets wild down there.

You mean the giant lava boss? There`s a safe spot from which he can be pummeled to death easily without you getting hit even once.

[evil_ash_xero]

No, I just meant the Demon Ruins, in general. It might be a little much, that early on. Fighting 7 Taurus Demons, requires some EXP.