DARK SOULS RETURNS (PREPARE TO DIE....LESS)

[Amraphenson]

Alright, seeing as a bunch of people picked up Dark Souls thanks to the Steam sale this holiday, I figured it was about time I threw a thread together. I'll compile level ranges and characters here, along with provide you guys with some links that'll be useful, and we can organize co-op/PvP from here as well. It's a bit intimidating to ask, I'd know.

http://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls/
-The Dark Souls character planner; immensely useful tool that simplifies the process immensely.
http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/
-The Dark Souls wikispace, extremely extensive and very useful.
http://www.youtube.com/user/EpicNameBro
-One of the first LPers of Dark Souls, great guy in general, plays lots of other games, and creator of the Dark Souls Lore videos.

aaand characters.
Amra (GFWL ID: SubmersedCube1)
-125 DEX/INT Enchant build
-101 FTH Zweihander/Miracles build
-81 DEX Pyromancer build
-Can rush a character to most any point in the game if required.

To multiplayer, a player has to be within 10+level*15% of the host. So higher level characters will have a bigger range to work with IF they're the host.

[HakureiSM]

YES, a Dark Souls thread. This shall come in handy now that I can play this again.

Games these days not coming with a proper menual are a hassle, I tell ya.
This morning I found my Combat Flight Simulator 2 and Ceasar III manuals, which at 324 and 225 pages each are so big they earned themselves a place on my bookshelf, like all good old game manuals, and was thinking how utterly fucking stupid it is that my physical 360 copy of Dark Souls came with all but a bloody pamphlet, 18-pages long only because half of it is in French, and the digital copy doesn't come with so much as a .pdf manual. And that's one game that deserved a 400-page manual, beats me having to alt-tab to the wiki every time I need to check what the hell an item does.

Also Live ID: Subcmdt Marcos.
Still starting though, just got to the gargoyles.

[Arcengal]

You can check what items do by highlighting them on the menu and pressing X a few times.

[HakureiSM]

I know, but it's not really detailed enough, is it

A lot of stuff just isn't there, and it's hard to figure out on your own

[Observer]

No, not a Dark Souls thread, I finally left that drug known as Dark souls! D:

I finished the game three times, got all 41 achievements, got my lower rear handed in the bloodied grounds of Oolacile and hunted people in the forest for that big, ugly cat whose name I never remember... Such an awesome games! But, man, I put 155 hours in it, don't think I have ever played a game that much outside of Starcraft/Warcraft III.

Oh, btw, Amazon is having a sale on the PC retail version, it's for 10 pounds or so in the UK site. Might be interesting for some since it comes with the OST and an artbook.

[Amraphenson]

Armor tells you everything, weapons are a simple matter of equipping and checking movesets. Beyond that, it's all there if you actually have it to examine. The only thing I can really think of is the arbitrary numbers they give to bleed/poison/divine/occult.

[HakureiSM]

Note to self: pay more attention to load

[Amraphenson]

Quick run-down on movement types:

• Fast movement is when you have 25% load or less, dubbed fast-rolls by the community. This gives you the fastest run, walk, and roll speed along with roll distance. In addition, the roll has far more invincibility frames than the other rolls, in many cases in excess of what is actually needed. A special addition to this is the Dark Wood Grain Ring, which turns your rolls into flips and handsprings; even more invincibility frames, distance, speed and distance are gained with these rolls. I prefer fast rolls myself, but keeping that low load means your armor may suffer.
• Medium movement is when you have between 25% to 50% load, and is colloquially called Mid-rolls. The general rule is that you can do anything possible with fast rolls as a mid-roller, but you must be a lot better at timing. Your first character will in general be in this area a lot as you try to balance mobility and armor.
• Fat movement, or fat rolls, is after 50%. There are really something you can't do here, like roll past 4kings or Sif. However, fat rolls do suffice in many PvP situations and are perfectly serviceable for dodging most projectiles and spells. The main issue with fat rolls is that both distance and recovery time are abysmal; the start up is actually pretty good.
• Finally, overencumbered occurs when you're higher than 100% or using Iron Flesh. You can't roll, backstep, or even run in this mode, but generally this means you won't have to because of either the super heavy armor you're wearing or Iron Flesh. Try to avoid this level unless you really know what you're doing.

basic tutorial has been recorded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O23o9IlZII

[HakureiSM]

I think I'm missing something incredibly obvious here.
After I sounded the first bell I don't really know where to go.
I've gone down in the Darkroot Garden and Basin and beat everything there except iirc the flying boss thing, and the dude with the giant club under the Undead Burg, I went around the Basin to where the entrance to the Valley of Drakes is, opened the gate from the Valley to Firelink, killed the three Black knights so far, etc.
Where to next? I swear I'm missing something

[Amraphenson]

Go back the the drake bridge. There was a door you couldn't open before? Open it. With the key you picked up in front of the church, hopefully.

Spoiler:

prepare for capra

[HakureiSM]

Yep, knew I forgot something obvious. Thanks bro


e: Goddamn this goat

[Widermelonz]

I'm always up for some jolly cooperation if any of you see me on Xbox Live. My gamertag is Watermelonz.

[HakureiSM]

Gonna add, but I'm on PC only now.
Speaking of which, Amra, Live tells me your ID doesn't exist

[Amraphenson]

That would be because I forgot to add the 1 in the OP. SubmersedCube1

[Rikter]

ArrestedData90 is my tag on windows live. Do not remember exact level ranges on my characters.

Sens fortress is annoying to do without a shield because one of my 2 current characters at like level 41 isn't using a shield out of design choice.

[Arcengal]

Isn't Anor Londo basically impossible without a shield due to THOSE archers? That is, unless you have solid ranged attacks, but I wouldn't know since my dude is just a rock that hits things with a sword.

[NegaZero]

Isn't Anor Londo basically impossible without a shield due to THOSE archers? That is, unless you have solid ranged attacks, but I wouldn't know since my dude is just a rock that hits things with a sword.

Blocking the arrows they shoot has always gotten me knocked off somehow. I find that rolling through the arrows is a lot easier.

Or you could just shoot them with poison arrows and wait for that to kill them.

[Amraphenson]

If I were ever to do that without a shield, I'd just dark wood grain ring and barehand parry the one knight in the way.

[Rikter]

No Amra the solution is to R2 him off the edge with Black Knight Greatsword.

Edit: So I actually did that section today and the knight like jumped off for me so I didn't have to do a thing...