Dark Souls- PS3, Xbox 360, PC

[Elixir]

Right, now it's time to take down Sen's Fortress at level 1. Primarily to upgrade my club to lightning, so I can stand a chance against the Four Kings.

[Elixir]

Imminent 1.05...

http://darksouls.fromsoftware.jp/online/

So basically 1.04 broke co-op even further and they're working on 1.05. Watching Brett's stream, it's true, 1.04 is broken. I mean, there's absolutely no way this game is so dead so quickly after release, even if the servers are now split between Japan and everywhere else.

[Jeneki]

Seems like most of the stuff people are using for level 1 runs (Pyromancy attacks, Crystal Ring Shield, Iron Flesh, etc) are all getting nerfed to the curb by the patch. Elemental weapons still look good post-patch, so they definitely sound like the way to go.

You just know there are going to be douchbags who troll everyone who did a level 1 run, because the used the "n00b pre-patch" version to do it.

[Marc]

Anyone else come close to giving up with this? I can't kill the first boss, do barely any damage to the sub-boss at the enterance to Darkroot Garden, can't seem to find any decent kit (still in hollow armor with A +2 long sword at around level 15) and sick of getti. My arse kicked. My last option is to take on the big armoured knight where Darkroot opens up and press further into there, but I'm almost out of options and ideas.

[Leader Bee]

Anyone else come close to giving up with this? I can't kill the first boss, do barely any damage to the sub-boss at the enterance to Darkroot Garden, can't seem to find any decent kit (still in hollow armor with A +2 long sword at around level 15) and sick of getti. My arse kicked. My last option is to take on the big armoured knight where Darkroot opens up and press further into there, but I'm almost out of options and ideas.

Strange, the Taurus demon is the only boss i've managed to kill on my first encounter and on my own, all it took was 3 plunging attacks from the tower with a battleaxe. I havent been power leveling or anything either.

[Elixir]

I almost gave up trying to kill the Four Kings at level 1, until I discovered how incredibly broken Crystal Ring Shield is in 1.03. Unfortunately it's going to be impossible in 1.04 onwards, considering Iron Flesh and Crystal Ring Shield are both heavily nerfed.

Beyond that, no.. none of the bosses made me want to give up. I just summoned other players for help, or helped others. On the bright side, 1.04 and 1.05 will bring us buyable Twinkling Titanites, and in .05, hopefully proper netcode.

[Sumez]

Anyone else come close to giving up with this? I can't kill the first boss, do barely any damage to the sub-boss at the enterance to Darkroot Garden, can't seem to find any decent kit (still in hollow armor with A +2 long sword at around level 15) and sick of getti. My arse kicked. My last option is to take on the big armoured knight where Darkroot opens up and press further into there, but I'm almost out of options and ideas.

Well it's been ages since I was at that point, and the game definitely opens up after the point you're at now. I'm a little confused how you're able to reach Darkroot Garden without beating the first boss, though? Which do you consider "the first boss"?

The titanite demon at the entrance to Darkroot is easily the easiest one in the game, though. It uses ranged attacks a lot, but at a very slow frequency, making them very easy to dodge. Run up to it and whack it between attacks, or stay at a safe distance and use ranged attacks. If you don't have any ranged attacks, you might consider getting them. Playing this game in one way all the way through is never the way to go, you have to be able to adapt to different situations.

Also the game doesn't rely on your equipment (ie. good armor is good, but you should be able to make it through the entire game naked if you're good at it), so don't worry about not having anything better than what you have.
A +2 longsword isn't bad at that point in the game, but if you want an easier time, try shooting the tail off the red dragon from under the bridge with a bow. That will get you a neat starting weapon early on, which helped me beat the Belfry Gargoyles and most of the next section of the game.

Trust me, if you keep at it you won't regret it. Don't give up! You're still extremely early in an extremely long game.

[Marc]

Sorry, I'm talking about the boss on top of the cathedral roof. I love the game, really do, but totally stuck at present.

[Sumez]

I was stuck at the same boss for a while, which is funny because if I faced it with the experience I now have, I'd probably have had a much easier time.
Anyway, try the dragon tail trick, that sword will make short work of those gargoyles.
In the worst case scenario use a humanity to "reverse hollowing" at a bonfire and wait for summon signs to show up near the boss door. If you talked to knight Solaire earlier, you'll be able to summon him.

[Moniker]

Weird, the gargoyles are the only bosses I've beaten so far on the first try. Usually takes me 5-10 attempts or so. I think I used fireballs, a hollow soldier shield and the drake sword. Just lock on and keep circling the enemy with your shield up until you can get a hit in. In contrast, I must've thrown myself against that lightning dude missing a leg outside the blacksmith in Undead Parish about 20 times, even though he's a much tamer enemy.

I just beat Quelaag, followed by Pinwheel. Lots of places to go now and I'm not really sure where to start. New Londo Ruins has those ghosts that apparently require you to use an item every time you fight them (?), and those lizard soldiers in Sen's Fortress are pretty tough. At least the chaos spider queen thing let me pledge to the Chaos Covenant and now I can finally upgrade that Pyromancer Flame.

[CMoon]

Word is that the 1.05 patch is out in Japan now. Rather glad I finished my initial run and have Skyrim to tide me over until they sort this mess out.

[Sumez]

I just beat Quelaag, followed by Pinwheel. Lots of places to go now and I'm not really sure where to start. New Londo Ruins has those ghosts that apparently require you to use an item every time you fight them (?), and those lizard soldiers in Sen's Fortress are pretty tough. At least the chaos spider queen thing let me pledge to the Chaos Covenant and now I can finally upgrade that Pyromancer Flame.

The ghosts aren't bad - several of the item you need to fight them is available as a found item in the area you fight them - two of them before you even encounter the first ghost. They also drop two of a time when they drop items, so you'll most likely never run out unless you do really bad.

But I'd say do Sen's Fortress now, you'll be glad you did. The lizard enemies aren't that bad, just keep circling them to get behind them where they are vulnerable. And most of them can be lured into traps or pushed over the edge, too. Like, lure out the first one you encounter, and step backwards unto the stepping switch activating the arrow trap, and it'll shoot it in the back.
You'll also find a new weapon in Sen's that'll kill the lizards quickly.

[Leader Bee]

I just beat Quelaag, followed by Pinwheel. Lots of places to go now and I'm not really sure where to start. New Londo Ruins has those ghosts that apparently require you to use an item every time you fight them (?), and those lizard soldiers in Sen's Fortress are pretty tough. At least the chaos spider queen thing let me pledge to the Chaos Covenant and now I can finally upgrade that Pyromancer Flame.

The ghosts aren't bad - several of the item you need to fight them is available as a found item in the area you fight them - two of them before you even encounter the first ghost. They also drop two of a time when they drop items, so you'll most likely never run out unless you do really bad.

Also, i'm not sure how rare of a drop it is, and it's not a particulalry great weapon but the ghosts drop a cursed dagger that allows you to attack them without using the transient curse item.

[Sumez]

It's common enough that a I have a ton of them (using gold serpent ring, obviously)

[Elixir]

I don't think people actually understand just how much effort goes into these "troll characters". It took me 20 hours before mine was even useful. I have 80 humanity at the moment, almost entirely from Undead Burg or Undead Parish, invading people that think it's a smart idea to run around these areas... in human form.

Seriously, there is practically no point to being in human form in Burg or Parish. Parish I can sort of understand, if you're wanting to summon people for the gargoyles, but.. Burg? You DESERVE to be killed. And if it wasn't for me, it'd be the Taurus Demon taking you out anyway. And during all this time, wherein I've also been in human form, I've only ever seen maybe 5 signs to be summoned.

Gravelord sounds like fun, but all the times I've tried have resulted in failure. I don't think I'll bother though, waiting on the never-never for someone to reverse invade gets tedious fast. I did actually invade a Gravelord earlier and took him out, meanwhile someone else invaded and I killed them too. Uhh, not sure about why I was able to attack a summon in a Gravelord's game.

The catch to doing this is that you're possibly entering someone who is in Burg or Parish in their NG+, meaning they'll be level 50+. It's happened to me a few times already.

[Sumez]

Seriously, there is practically no point to being in human form in Burg or Parish. Parish I can sort of understand, if you're wanting to summon people for the gargoyles, but.. Burg? You DESERVE to be killed.

Kindling the first bonfire, I guess?

Also, if you're in human form, I guess you had a reason, too?

[Elixir]

You can't kindle the first bonfire unless you're in human form and have a second humanity to kindle with. I know there's another humanity on top of the sewer path with the rat and undead female merchant, although I doubt new players will even understand kindling at that point.

I'm in human form because.. well, it's not like I have any choice. I can'T invade other players while hollow.

[Jeneki]

I've tried laying summon signs in undeadburg, both around the fire and just before Tarous, at levels between 6 and 10ish. Never got summoned there. My conclusion was the same; I don't think anyone bothers with human-form there. I did get a lot of summons in the parish though, level 10 to 15ish, and was able to max out Jolly CoOperation in a couple nights.

Only one invasion in the Parish so far, but people need to watch their rolls on the wooden bridge . I don't know what it is with me and hosts who fall to their death. There's only like one or two spots to fall in the Parish (outside the boss fight), but people still manage to kill themselves.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Only one invasion in the Parish so far, but people need to watch their rolls on the wooden bridge . I don't know what it is with me and hosts who fall to their death. There's only like one or two spots to fall in the Parish (outside the boss fight), but people still manage to kill themselves.

Why does that wooden bridge collapse? (the one just after a knight and hollow soldier) As I can walk over it just fine, it must depend upon the weight of the character

[Leader Bee]

I dont think so, i'm carrying around a gravelord sword and black iron armour that clocks in at almost 70lbs and that bridge still hasn't collapsed on me.

[Marc]

God fucking damn. I can't aim at the dragon's tail from below the bridge, the black knight is fucking me up when I try to climb his tower to get above the dragon, and having attempted him so many times had now fucked my main weapon, so I'm gonna have to fight through the whole damn parish to get to the blacksmith! Motherfucker. I cleared out most of lower 'Burgh, but haven't yet stuck my nose through the light due to getting my arse beat everywhere else. And yet I come back for more.

[Elixir]

God fucking damn. I can't aim at the dragon's tail from below the bridge, the black knight is fucking me up when I try to climb his tower to get above the dragon, and having attempted him so many times had now fucked my main weapon, so I'm gonna have to fight through the whole damn parish to get to the blacksmith! Motherfucker. I cleared out most of lower 'Burgh, but haven't yet stuck my nose through the light due to getting my arse beat everywhere else. And yet I come back for more.

There's a blacksmith at the beginning of New Londo, right below Firelink. Or if you've activated the elevators from Firelink to Parish, there's that shortcut to Andrei.

[Moniker]

God fucking damn. I can't aim at the dragon's tail from below the bridge

You shouldn't have a problem getting him from below the bridge. Go to the right of the first undead knight under there, and time your shots so you hit the tail when it swings to the outside. Make sure you get a bunch of arrows (I think it takes like 50 large ones, but get more if you miss).

[CMoon]

Played a couple hours of Dark Souls today waiting for gamestop to open. Saddly took the disc out of the PS2 for the first time since the day it came out. I'm about ready to say this is probably my favorite game on the PS3, and I'm not even that good at it.

[sjewkestheloon]

I took it out of the 360 for the first time today too so that I could pop in skyrim. Going to play the crap out of that for a month or two and then I will probably do rotations of the two for a few years

[Marc]

Tower Knight and Gargoyles down, fuck yeah!

[guigui]

Tower Knight and Gargoyles down, fuck yeah!

Congraturations.

Personally, I enjoyed the beginning of the game more than the following areas. Dark Souls is life, isn't it ?

[mesh control]

Dark Souls is life, isn't it ?

YES

[Moniker]

Finally made it to Anor Londo. Freaking awesome. It's such a welcome change from the crumbling ruins of the first part of the game. Especially after throwing myself at the iron golem 15+ times. Got my lightning spear all charged up, my gold-hemmed dress on. Time to wreck some shit.

Dark Souls is life, isn't it ?

YES

Dark Souls has replaced Jesus in my life.

[Elixir]

Unfortunately Gold-Hemmed will be largely useless after the upcoming patches are released internationally. I can understand why.. on my level 1, I was taking less than 100 HP with the full set from Ceaseless Discharge.

Here's a picture. These bosses aren't fun at level 1!