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March 29, 2024, 01:12:42 AM

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Dark Souls tips for new players without spoilers

Started by The Boston Crab, October 20, 2018, 03:49:24 PM

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Kelvin

Do weapons have durability, like if I keep failing on a boss, will my sword or shield eventually break before I can beat it? I'm sure I heard these games had weapon durability.

I've just beaten the Asylum Demon, which was good fun. I appreciate how it went from terrifying to fairly easy once I knew the tactics and pattern. Although I couldn't solve the bird puzzle straight afterwards, so I assume I can't return to that now.

You'll see in your inventory that weapon durability goes down. It's not actually a big deal in the first game, for the most part. You can get an item fairly early which will let you repair your gear. It's not BotW by a long long long shot. You might repair your weapon two or three times over a single playthrough.

The bird puzzle is...it's not a puzzle. Did you...erm...go on, what are you thinking? I'm not sure where you are now. Did you go through the big gate after the Asylum Demon?


Edit: You said 'can't return' so can I assume you're now in a different area? Anyway, if so, put it behind you, you've not missed anything out.

Kelvin

Quote from: The Boston Crab on October 24, 2018, 09:20:20 AM
You'll see in your inventory that weapon durability goes down. It's not actually a big deal in the first game, for the most part. You can get an item fairly early which will let you repair your gear. It's not BotW by a long long long shot. You might repair your weapon two or three times over a single playthrough.

The bird puzzle is...it's not a puzzle. Did you...erm...go on, what are you thinking? I'm not sure where you are now. Did you go through the big gate after the Asylum Demon?


Edit: You said 'can't return' so can I assume you're now in a different area? Anyway, if so, put it behind you, you've not missed anything out.

Yeah, I just looked it up, I can go back at some point. I finished playing at the very start of Lordran or whatever it's called.

I suppose my only genuine heartfelt piece of advice would be not to spoil too much of it for yourself looking stuff up. There's absolutely no chance you will see everything on your first run, no way you'll complete all (or even any) of the NPC quest stuff. The area you're talking about leads onto another 'optional' area and the DLC area is also almost impossible to find without looking it up but I'd say leave both til you're in the second half of the game. You'll know when that will be.

Beagle 2

I'm into it, it's clicked. As soon as you get your head around the mechanics and start making a bit of progress.

falafel

Is this easier on Switch?

I mean it, have they toned it down? Surely not?

Just feels a bit easy. Got the Asylum Demon in seconds and haven't played in nearly two years.


Kelvin

I can see why people enjoy the core game, here. The combat is satisfying, and the art direction's good. Plus, even at this early point in the game, it's obvious the level design is smart, with areas looping round on themselves and making it easy to work out where you're going.

For years, the thing that put me off most about Dark Souls was the speed and movement, but I can hold my hands up now and say I was wrong about that. The game feels fine in how it controls, mainly - although the kick and lunge controls are very temperamental and hardly seem to work for me. Do you just have to just tap the control stick, rather than hold it? It only seems to work about 40% of the time.

Sadly, and with all that said, I'm already fairly certain I've made a mistake buying the game, and should have spent that money on a bunch of indie games I want instead. It's just not my type of game. I'm tempted to say I'm not good enough, but I think it's also that I don't like to play games the way Dark Souls needs to be played. I've spent the last couple of hours in the area leading up to the Taurus Demon - so right at the start - and I must have died literally 100 times, which I suspect is a lot even for Dark Souls, at that section.

Quite often I get to the Taurus Demon, die within seconds, then back I go, to repeat the previous 3 minutes of gameplay, same enemies, same everything, only dying more and more as I grow more and more impatient, and yet never really learn anything. The game is so (imo needlessly) opaque in what it tells you, that I don't feel like I really understand the combat mechanics properly, in order to work on them and improve. I've just found the last two hours a miserable, repetitive drudge of dying in the same 3 sections, for the same reasons, and not really knowing what I should be doing, beyond grind my level up.

Add to to this how janky and broken the game is - lock on is frequently useless and counter productive, the camera's crap, I don't like how little it explains it's base mechanics - and I just feel like I've wasted thirty quid on a game that will just make me feel frustrated and bored. I think the worst thing is that I'm properly stuck so early in the game, because not only does is make me feel useless, but I also don't feel like I've given the game a proper go. But what am I supposed to do when I'm finding the experience so frustrating, demoralising and repetitive?

Kelvin

I've just looked it up online, how to beat the Taurus Demon. Find some ladder hidden behind you and then do plunging attack.

I guess that's going to be my experience with the game. Just getting fed up trying to do a section, so looking it up some easy solution instead.

falafel

Heh. It took me two years and three failed starts to get past those exact same feelings. Might as well just get on with it.

Kelvin


Mate, I spent twenty hours in the first area of Demon's Souls and never even beat the first boss. I feel you. Taurus is a hurdle for everyone but when you've done him, and you can absolutely do this, you are well and truly on your way. There's a guy on another forum who probably doubled your deaths and he came through it and he's having a blast.

You kind of said it yourself, you get more and more impatient, learn nothing and die more quickly. Without kicking you when you're down, stop doing that. Slow it down, take your time. You are actually learning, by the way. You know what doesn't work now. That said, I lost twenty or thirty thousand souls yesterday after a careless death in the first place and then stupidly trying to run back past everything to collect them and fell off a cliff.

Also, to be honest, Taurus is also one of the more gimmicky bosses with the plunging attack thing, but it's building off what it already taught you from the start of the Asylum Demon fight. It's their idea of giving you a fighting chance. Very few of the bosses are like 'Taurus Demons hate this one trick!' so don't feel disheartened that you'll constantly have to look stuff up.


Stuff to keep in mind and hopefully keep you going:

- After Taurus, you'll find two very significant NPCs (one very soon after, one in the next area) which will make a bigger difference to the game than any levelling up or any of these tips.

- You'll soon be able to upgrade (and repair) your weapon which will make by far the biggest difference at this stage.

- You'll very soon be able to summon other players and help others in co-op. This is a game changer.

- You'll unlock a neat shortcut with a ladder which will improve your life.

- You'll open up various routes.

- You'll know that if you can get past Taurus, you can get past anything in this game.

Even Dark Souls savant homunculus biggy was stuck for bloody ages but once he got past Taurus, he blitzed the whole bloody game like it was nothing.

Ok, very practical tips now:

- Go to the merchant near the Undead Burg bonfire, the one with the crossbow guy outside, i assume that's where you are for Taurus. Turn right and go back down the stairs, kill the enemies and then first left, kill the spear guys, smash the boxes, go down the stairs. You can buy Repair Powder from the merchant which will fix your weapon, or you can just buy another one, try something different, different moveset might suit you better.

- Take your time to Taurus, ignore the Black Knight down the stairs down that alley because he will destroy you. You'll soon be able to race through that section. Bonfire, come out, crossbow guy, guy coming up the stairs. Run across the little bridge, lock on, circle right, watch out for guy coming from blind left, choose your moment, three dead sods. Go in the door, dead, go left, why you waiting there mate, dead. Come out, up the stairs, lock on, circle right, dodge the bomb, three more dead bastards. Up the spiral staircase, dead. Down the stairs, block the spear and pummel when they're staggered. Up the stairs, same. A trail of destruction in your wake.

- To make that a bit easier, up and R2 does a leaping attack. I use it a lot when enemies are trying to close the distance and their shield is down. Hang back, let them run at you. Up R2. SMASH. Kick is tricky, it basically needs to be exactly the same input timing but with practice, you'll eventually get it down. You don't need it, though. I didn't even know there was a kick or leaping attack on my first run. Just block and attack when they're staggered, or roll towards them (towards is often better because it moves you out of their weapon hitbox!).

TAURUS TIPS

- Turn around straight away, up the ladder, two dead bastards. Go back down, make your way across without burning your stamina until he jumps down. Turn and sprint back to the ladder. Climb, lock on, plunging attack.

- Stop locking on. Very important.

- Run/roll past him/through his legs and run to the far end of the bridge and let your stamina recharge. Essential.

- When he gets close start running and roll past his attack/through his legs/past him and back to the ladder. Rinse and repeat.

* Tricky things to note. *

You might get stuck by his feet after the plunging attack, just get away down the bridge and proceed with the plan. When you get back and up the ladder you can heal and still have time to plunging attack.

When you try to run or roll past him on the bridge, he might twat you off the bridge or just hit you. Continue with the plan. Ladder. Plunge.

You might run out of stamina when running to the ladder and get twatted or get twatted off the ladder. Turn around, get to the other end and reset.

You might have a massive boner when you beat him.

Also, you're going to absolutely love reading back your post above when you're having Black Knights for a mid-morning snack. It's basically a word perfect 'Welcome to Dark Souls' rant.

brat-sampson

I do think in design terms the trek back to Taurus could've been reduced slightly. Most players are likely going to have to make the run a whole bunch of times, and if you're not just sprinting past everything it can become a real demoralising slog.

The game really does get so much better and more manageable after you do it though, and yeah, the rush is great.

madhair60

Quote from: The Boston Crab on October 25, 2018, 08:46:31 AM
Also, you're going to absolutely love reading back your post above when you're having Black Knights for a mid-morning snack. It's basically a word perfect 'Welcome to Dark Souls' rant.

Absolutely. Mate you should have seen my posts on Other Forum when I was going through the first time. Fucking alternating This is garbage why does anyone like this hateful shit (beats Bell Gargoyles) BEST GAME EVER

Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: brat-sampson on October 25, 2018, 09:11:19 AM
I do think in design terms the trek back to Taurus could've been reduced slightly. Most players are likely going to have to make the run a whole bunch of times, and if you're not just sprinting past everything it can become a real demoralising slog.
I agree with this. However the Souls game that really got its hooks into me was Bloodborne which has a ridiculously long and tough trek to the first boss. I was stuck on that for 10 hours or something. I can slaughter my way through there now. I started a new game and was stunned by how quickly I could progress compared to that first time. The same with DS1. I played it before Bloodborne and got just past the Taurus Demon before giving up. Returning to it earlier this year was a totally different experience. These games are so rewarding but you need more patience than I usually have access to.

Kelvin

Beat Taurus Demon. Just opened the castle gate behind the big metal boar. Like the game again.

madhair60

The true Dark Souls starts here. The only two real roadblocks for me (as in teeth-gnashing, despairing, uninstalling the fucking game and immediately reinstalling it) were (spoilers below):

Bell Gargoyles

Ornstein & Smough

I just twatted the AL A with WOTG. First time ever that I've done them first go. Bring on the tits!


Kelvin

How do you make your character move a bit faster? I've seen clips of people moving much faster than my character, but its not something that seems to be upgraded via leveling up at a bonfire. Is it clothing?

I picked up a crossbow and equipped it, but i can't seem to fire it. Do I need to find arrows?

I should have read this thread before starting, because I've upgraded strength, resistance and dexterity a fair amount, and endurance only once.

I really dislike the button assignment for the kick and lunge. They're so unpredictable, and therefore responsible for loads of deaths, where I just couldn't get the kick to work first try. Were they always like that, or is it just on Switch?


madhair60

Always like that. The way I tend to think of it, is you know the quick smash attack in Smash Bros? It's basically the same input as that, an uncharged smash attack.

Beagle 2

Fuck this that's Kelvin ahead of me already. Thanks for the tip on ignoring that black knight as I'd only just noticed he was there and I was wondering if that was where I was supposed to be going. Reached the Taurus demon a few times, even made it up the ladder but the plunging attack thing hadn't occurred to me despite that being literally the only way I beat that first big cunt. I learn nothing. I'm still really enjoying it though, not totally lost my temper yet.


Beagle 2

Thing is I'm usually shit at video games so this is just like playing Kirby for me.

Sin Agog

You know when they remastered DS1, did they make it so you could roll in all directions, instead of just forwards, backwards, left and right? I know coming off DS2, which has omni-directional rolls, that would be massively jarring.

madhair60

When I played DS I killed that Black Knight and he dropped his sword, which I used for the entire rest of the game.

Kelvin

Totally fucked the Knight Lautrec quest. Tried to kill him when I freed him, because I read it was relatively easy and gave good rewards.

They lied.

Edit: apparently can reverse it later on.

Quote from: Kelvin on October 25, 2018, 11:07:07 AM
How do you make your character move a bit faster? I've seen clips of people moving much faster than my character, but its not something that seems to be upgraded via leveling up at a bonfire. Is it clothing?

I picked up a crossbow and equipped it, but i can't seem to fire it. Do I need to find arrows?

I should have read this thread before starting, because I've upgraded strength, resistance and dexterity a fair amount, and endurance only once.

I really dislike the button assignment for the kick and lunge. They're so unpredictable, and therefore responsible for loads of deaths, where I just couldn't get the kick to work first try. Were they always like that, or is it just on Switch?

Jesus Christ. I made the thread of spoiler free tips purely for you and you go and level up Resistance.

Right, in answer to your questions:

1. Hold the roll button to run. If you're still slow it's because your equip load (directly linked to Endurance) is too high. Up to 25% of your equip load, you will fast roll. Up to 50%, you will medium roll. You're probably over 50% which is known as 'fat roll'. Take off some armour. Fast roll is better than armour. You can see your equip load in the stats screen or in the change equipment screen, press X to scroll through various stats in the right hand panel.

2. You need bolts for a crossbow, equip them in your equip page when you get some. It's basically shit. Bows are OK for provoking enemies from afar so you can pick them off one at a time but basically shit for damage.

3. I can't stress this enough: Almost the entire game is about stamina management. Don't put any more points into resistance. Strength and Dex at this stage are only important to allow you to wield whatever weapon you find. Some stuff needs like 20 strength or maybe 12 strength and 18 dex. You will hit harder by upgrading your weapon, not from the damage bonus your stats bring, at least not for a long while.

4. Stop trying to kick. You'll reach a point where it's ineffective against harder enemies and you're not learning anything particularly useful. It's effectively a time saving strategy for people who know the game and the enemy movesets well. Your focus now should be when to block, when to roll and when to attack. Kicking is impatience which is why you keep dying.

That said, if you do want to expand your options, learn to parry with ZL. You'll know when you've timed it right because the enemy will stagger. Then press R and you'll riposte for massive damage. This technique doesn't work on every enemy but it does on most, even some of the biggest bastards in the game.

Quote from: Sin Agog on October 25, 2018, 12:56:53 PM
You know when they remastered DS1, did they make it so you could roll in all directions, instead of just forwards, backwards, left and right? I know coming off DS2, which has omni-directional rolls, that would be massively jarring.

No, because the enemies don't have 360 degree instant tracking in the first game.

Kelvin

Actually, the kick wasn't why I was dying, as I hadn't worked out how to semi-consistently use it before Taurus Demon. It seemed to make things much easier, so its disappointing to learn it's going to be mostly useless.

Is it worth restarting and putting everything into health and endurance? I've wasted so much on the other areas, and haven't upgraded endurance once. If I'm.going to restart, now's the time for me to do it, as i'm still fairly early.

I was partly downplaying the use of the kick so you didn't get hung up on it and keep dying. It's useful if you know when to use it, it can interrupt attacks nicely and give you an opening. It can break down a resistant defence. It's pretty risky though, nevertheless, and it's by no means a standard part of combat. I wouldn't be using it outside of a 1v1, unless I was very confident with my timing and spacing and the enemy's moveset, etc. Once you come up against bigger enemies, they won't even flinch at your kick and you'll get thumped.

On the restart notion, while you can't really fuck up a build in Dark Souls, I would still probably start again because it sounds like you've most likely wasted a load of levels for almost no gain which just slows your progress. Endurance is the most important stat, then health, then however much strength/dex you need to hold the nice weapons you find and like. In reality, though, the starting weapons are almost all good enough to take you all the way through the game, if you wished.

If you want to give yourself options without having to follow too much NPC quest stuff to get the most out of the build, I'd recommend starting again as a Pyromancer. You can then play with some offensive spells without sacrificing your melee options or having to farm gear or go out of your way to sequence break or anything. It's a kind of entry level magic option but it will also bang hard if you level it up. I'd also recommend buying a Reinforced Club from the Undead Merchant near the Burg bonfire. You will find loads of other weapons which you may soon prefer but it's a great option and the leaping R2 will flatten almost everything for the first chunk of the game and will stagger most enemies for a good while. It's primitive, it's cheap and it's very effective.