Souls Games

[jawn galliano]

it is a map of the catacombs of the source of canada's true power

also germane to this thread:

as of this afternoon i have a copy of the dark souls boardgame reserved at the local shop

[User]

i refuse to look at that map because for some reason my brain creates an artificial binary between asking friends for advice and reading walkthroughs

but i thank thee for the effort. I will persevere

[Methuselah Honeysuckle]

it is a map of the catacombs of the source of canada's true power

also germane to this thread:

as of this afternoon i have a copy of the dark souls boardgame reserved at the local shop

A board game?

[jawn galliano]

i don't know anything about it, but i assume it's like an elaborate and grim take on hero quest

[Methuselah Honeysuckle]

No idea what that is. I ain't got no pre orders but I did a survey for smash up for a free sheep deck .

[jawn galliano]

oh hero quest is an old milton bradley game from the early gloryhole era , it's basically a super simplified take on D&D stuffed into a box with a grid and miniatures

[Methuselah Honeysuckle]

We do the super complicated miniature games

Talisman and descent

[User]

i played junta yesterday, i came 7th of 7

[User]

also fuck dark souls' crappy engine man, people are hitting me with swords through walls, i am falling through the map, getting stuck in cracks

also fuck the way they purposefully position enemies that are easy to kill in retarded map conditions so that they take 3x time and energy to destroy only for measly souls

and fuck losing souls, i keep killing bosses and exploring and then losing my souls, i think i am about -200,000 souls that i should have if i played conservatively

[jawn galliano]

i don't think i ever experienced falling through the map, although it doesn't surprise me as from has never been a technical powerhouse

if i kill a boss and i have a use for souls, i go back to a bonfire before exploring again. you should already have a clear run back since enemies won't have respawned, or you can use a homeward bone if you're feeling impatient

before one can play with reckless abandon, one must first... git good

[User]

goddammit i am good it's all the game's fault clearly

[jawn galliano]

gooder, then!

[User]

i feel like i wasted all my metals on a big sword that is too slow for my tastes

now i can't find any metals to boost the crescent axe which i would prefer to use

problem

drakes are spastics

[jawn galliano]

i never much cared for greatswords/ultra GS, i used the black knight polearm a lot in the original until i came across this fucker: http://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Demon%27s+Greataxe

the more you progress, the more plentiful upgrade items become. you can buy large shards once you gain access to sen's fortress though they do cost a few grand each.

[User]

i feel like i am early in the game but it is very hard

20 hours in i have access to the tomb of the giants, the drake area, the new londo ruins and blight town but do not have bonfires in any of them

[jawn galliano]

the first three are all late-game areas which are tough to explore if you're at a lower level. blighttown is the general direction you should be heading as that leads to the second bell. where are you approaching from, the valley of drakes entrance or the depths side? iirc the former has a much shorter/easier route to the main bonfire at the very bottom.

[jawn galliano]

trying to finish off the first DLC in DS3 today and fuck fuck FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK ABSOLUTELY MOTHERFUCK sister friede & company, fight is complete fucking bullshit and i'll stab the eyes out of whoever decided it was a good idea

[zim]

i beat darklurker yesterday so i got that going for me

[User]

never been to the depths, i am going in from the drakes, but i can't work out how to get past the dead ends, like it seems as though there is no way to climb down, i will have another crack this arvo

[jawn galliano]

that is the easiest approach for sure, you should have ladders going down most of the way until you hit an elevator/lift thingy toward the bottom

in DS3 news i hatefucked friede to death after many frustrating attempts, and then also the last DLC boss and then also the last mandatory story boss for the main game

all that's left is the final encounter

[zim]

motherfuck the kings pets in the ds2 dlc

the journey to the gate alone is cancerous.. almost equal to the blue smelter demon

[agony bagony]

is that like the frost dragons in final fantasy 1

because holy mother of fuck can the ice cave go fist itself to death by a trash fire

[User]

blighttown turned out to be extremely easy

what was with the dude who appeared at the entrance to the boss and proceeded to do all the killing for me

also i got "invaded" for the first time which appears to mean an NPC randomly spawned and ran at me with a butcher's knife

[agony bagony]

and those fucking mages, fuck me

everything in the ice cave is a slow death waiting to happen

[jawn galliano]

blighttown turned out to be extremely easy

what was with the dude who appeared at the entrance to the boss and proceeded to do all the killing for me

also i got "invaded" for the first time which appears to mean an NPC randomly spawned and ran at me with a butcher's pocket pussy

the dude was an NPC summon, you cheesed the boss queelag isn't too hard to do solo, if you have another body to draw aggro i imagine it's pretty trivial (this is the case for summoning/co-op vs most fights, save maybe O&S). you should have access to sen's funhouse now. if you can make it through there, you've earned an official real deal souls player badge

there are scripted NPC invasions throughout the game, they appear under certain conditions and generally drop a bunch of souls plus some unique gear. they take on the appearance of black phantoms, which is what it looks like when a player invades you. i believe you need to be human for most/all of those to trigger, makes sense since you were also able to summon for the boss which isn't possible when you're hollowed. the butcher one appears at the bottom of blighttown near the bonfire. if you explore more of the world in human form you'll find a whole bunch more

sadly the butcher's knife isn't great in the dark souls games outside of the badass factor of wielding a massive rusty two-handed cleaver, it was top tier in demon's souls though.

[User]

i see, i see, well i will go around human more often now

i can get to the iron golem with ease but still can't beat him

[jawn galliano]

iron golem is the easiest part of that whole area have you bested him yet

in other news i have finally completed dark souls 3

[jawn galliano]

is that like the frost dragons in final fantasy 1

because holy mother of fuck can the ice cave go fist itself to death by a trash fire

nothing in souls games really compares to the ice cave, because every rare once in a whlie the ice cave just gives you a surprise encounter that instantly wipes your party and there's 100% nothing you can do about it

ice cave :::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::

[User]

no, iron golem is the hardest in the whole area

well i can't kill the scorpion dudes in the oil pit either but i got their items

i have probably died at the iron golem ten times by now

[jawn galliano]

it was my intention to run through a bit of the game to get up to iron golem and demonstrate the easiness of the fight

but my PC file is only up to moonlight butterfly and it turned out to be a much larger undertaking than i'd anticipated

nevermind i tore thru butterfly, then hit pinwheel to get my bonfires done up proper like. did queelag & also now iron golem. 1/1 no summons bitch yeahhh

20170220195817_1.jpg

that was SL42, black knight sword +4, 26str/18dex/24end

i'm assuming you've already beaten him at this point, but if not, all you do is dash to the center and then roll to the side to dodge his opening shockwave attack. let him wander up to the center platform and get behind him. focus attacks on one leg and he'll start to stagger. keep hitting and he'll fall down in a giant display of homosexuality for several seconds, letting you beat on him unopposed. just be careful standing behind him, his grab attack can still land so if he winds up for it, roll back

[User]

yeah i beat him but it was very painful and i died maybe 15 times, i couldn't get him to fall over, but he did stay still and wobble for a while which gave me free hits. it was hard to hit him with the lightning spear, but my zweihander was too slow

on the plus the next area is really easy as i am now a high level, at the moment i am trying to run up this tiny ramp to kill these big archers but when they hit me they knock me off

there are two areas in the tomb of the giants i can't beat yet and i still can't hit the baddies in the ruins

also i accidentally used my estus flask boost item so i can't upgrade it with the chick i now have access to and the other one is dead, so it is +1 which is like 33% of my health bar

[jawn galliano]

oh the archers is a classic, i actually stopped there last night after failing it a couple times

basically the trick is, once you've cleared the demons out of the landing below, wait for an arrow volley to land and run up to the midpoint. wait for another volley, walk around and once you're at the next ramp, continue running all the way up to the top. ignore the archer to the left, once you're at the upper ledge he won't be able to hit you. move along the right, and roll thru the arrows as that archer fires on you (blocking or tanking the hits will both cause you to fall off - you can unequip your shield before this run to get your weight down in case you have a slow roll). once you get in melee range the archer will swap to melee attacks, if you time it right you'll have a chance for some free hits, which will hopefully be enough to knock him off or kill him.

continue around the edge to an opening and once inside, the door on your immediate left is a bonfire. every other room has enemies that can fuck your shit up so don't explore anything until you light it and rest. i recommend saving your humanity for kindling that bonfire

you won't be able to progress tomb of the giants or the inner demon ruins until after you've cleared anor londo, there's a few gates tied to the boss & ensuing NPC conversation.

i actually had no idea you could use the FKS as a consumable, that blows. there's a limited number per playthrough, and a couple of them require killing NPCs -- if you kill the lady at the first bonfire in anor londo she'll drop one, but then the fire goes out so you can't use it anymore. queelag's sister also drops one, but then you lose her as an upgrade NPC and you lose access to the chaos servant covenant. there are a couple others you can pick up in later areas, i know new londo and grand archives both have them.

[User]

i will attempt to hocus pocus these archers this afternoon

previously i was going for the one on the left and died on three attempts

also i don't get the covenants or any of that shit. i am not a member of any of that - i just assumed it was for magic-wielders. and yeah it sucked that i used the fire-keeper soul, it was an accident

[jawn galliano]

iirc you can cheese the archers using the black bow of pharis + long range arrows + the range extending ring, but it takes a long time and still involves risk since you have to have a clear line of sight to land your shots

covenants just have you do stuff to rank up, and you get a couple of unique rewards from each covenant. most involve either turning in certain items, or participating in PVP/co-op. chaos servant has you trade humanity, you max out the rewards by trading a total of 30 and get access to a pyromancy spell, as well as a shortcut into lost izalith.

[User]

that sounds complicated

i fucked them archers on first attempt. still in same area but have next bonfire. got drunk tonight so forget the rest

[jawn galliano]

you can skip a lot of the interior by running and jumping down the spiral staircase. there's a landing that isn't normally accessible but if you angle it just right you can hop over the banister and unlock the shortcut back to the bonfire

[User]

the whole area was really easy. boss was a little challenging, got them on the third go.

i just killed the wolf with the dagger in his mouth, he was easy. i think i am around level 70 and 40 hours in. i got that big bowl thing so can warp. used FKS from invading the world of the hard-on bearer who killed the firelink chick so upgraded my flask. still looking for a better weapon.

[agony bagony]

so is this like a board game

[jawn galliano]

the whole area was really easy. boss was a little challenging, got them on the third go.

i just killed the wolf with the dagger in his mouth, he was easy. i think i am around level 70 and 40 hours in. i got that big bowl thing so can warp. used FKS from invading the world of the hard-on bearer who killed the firelink chick so upgraded my flask. still looking for a better weapon.

o&s on the third try is very impressive

i still suggest going all in on strength and upgrading a demon greataxe it's a lengthy investment though, requires 46 to one-hand it or 31 to two-hand it

[User]

yeah i wish it told you what you need to wield cos you can't make the calculations otherwise, i have the dragon's tooth to +3 which is my most dmg by far but i can't use my shield with it

a lot of the info you have given me i was supposed to read on the loading screens

i have caught bits and pieces, but it goes too fast so i can never read much

[jawn galliano]

there's stat icons on each weapon with a number listed next to it that tells you the requirements

strength is the one stat you can cheat with two-handing since it gives you a 1.5x multiplier to your base

[User]

hmm good tip

[zim]

i used the dragon tooth in ds2, that thing does massive damage when fully upgraded

also discovered that it breaks super fast against dragons

[User]

nice

i think DS is best in its early game, it is getting pretty easy now. I killed gravelord nito on my second attempt barely losing any life

kind of lost in the duke's archives tho, can't remember how i got to the boss, who slayed me easily with his ice attacks that i couldn't seem to be able to dodge

[jawn galliano]

the first seath encounter is a scripted loss, you always die the first time going in there and respawn in the jail cell. you'll face him again later on

[User]

ah OK, i ran away from the archives cos i couldn't figure out any new areas

now i went down to the ceaseless discharge, can't beat him yet

have black knight halberd +5 but can't seem to upgrade it further than that

[jawn galliano]

if i have one major point of shame in the original dark souls it's that i never actually fought ceaseless discharge straight up there's a bug you can exploit pretty easily in that fight. once you grab the set of armor that spawns him, there's a trick where you just book it back to the fog gate and he just kinda dies. i did that on all three of my game cycles for my original character, i think i will try and actually kill it the intended way on my current file

+5 is the max for anything that upgrades with twinkling titanite, which is anything that drops off the black/silver knights

for what it's worth that weapon is easily enough to carry you for the rest of the game, i used the very same for most of my first playthrough

[User]

interesting

i can't find any other areas apart from new londo ruins and ceaseless discharge area, i only have one lord soul

[jawn galliano]

ceaseless discharge is actually optional, demon ruins goes down a lot deeper. if you walk down the hill from the first bonfire toward the big lava field down below there's a path off to the right that leads further in, keep exploring and you'll find another bonfire and eventually the demon firesage boss. there's another boss after him and then you'll get access to lost izalith, which is the last area on this path

[User]

i killed ceaseless discharge easily; i worked out that his normal attack is resistable, it's just his massive lava spew that fucks you. if you stay on the narrow path he doesn't use it. i am up to demon firesage hard-on bearer, fought him once and he raped me. got no humanity to kindle either.