In general, how much time do y'all spend grinding souls for levels/equipment/spells vs trying to progress to new areas? Right now, most of my time has been spent going between the Undead Burg bonfire and the tower leading up to the Taurus Demon. I think I'm done grinding there, though, as I've bought pretty much all the equipment I want from the first vendor, as well as the Soul Arrow spell and catalyst.

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I tried killing the dragon with arrows last night. After 300 I gave up. I was only doing 13-15 damage per hit and it seemed like the health bar did not move. I did knock its tail off though... I gave up on the arrows and attempted hand to hand combat. With the shield up, I could withstand its fire. I got close enough to loot the first item on the bridge which was a decent sword. Then the dragon sat on me and killed me in one shot.

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Weird, that's about how much I was doing. Where were you shooting from?

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In general, how much time do y'all spend grinding souls for levels/equipment/spells vs trying to progress to new areas? Right now, most of my time has been spent going between the Undead Burg bonfire and the tower leading up to the Taurus Demon. I think I'm done grinding there, though, as I've bought pretty much all the equipment I want from the first vendor, as well as the Soul Arrow spell and catalyst.

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I haven't spent that much time. I will eventually, if it's anything like Demon's Souls, New Game+ is leaps and bounds harder than the first go round, so you want to be as beefed up as possible

Ill have to give that a shot blue.

My friend hit glitch where he killed it in 1 shot.

Lucky b*tard.

My tendency is to not move on from an area until I've gotten all the upgrades that I can there.

It's a confirmed glitch. Snipe the dragon from the top of the tower where the black knight is (just passed the room w/ the three sewer rats).

^
When Im standing on that tower, I cant see the dragon. Where is he? (You are talking about that tower with the black knight standing on top holding a huge sword over his shoulder?)

Is this only for the xbox 360?

This game's on 360 and PS3. The previous game was only on PS3.

"Texas - It's still America down here!"

Picked it up after work. I nearly quit in the tutorial trying to kill the big demon but finally figured it out. Just when I think I'm gettin the hang of it I stumble upon some heavily armored dude that flattens me in one hit. Reckon I need to do some grinding before I try that again.

Blue, I tried it from the spot you mentioned. I may give it another go later. Right now I am trying to kill the stray demon in the asylum.

Slurm - Can you describe the heavily armored dude? Was he chubby and silver, or tall and covered in kind of black and gold armor?

It gets better quickly. There's just a breaking in period during the first several hours where you keep dying until you learn to play the game correctly. The last two nights, I think I've only died once or twice during the night. But you have to play carefully at all times.

I made excellent progress tonight, kindling the Burg fire and one other as well. There is so much to do in this game! Right now I've been pushing forward, but I could stand to do a couple things behind me, as well. Things to buy, people to kill, etc.!

The first heavily armored dude was at the bottom of the spiral tower where the door to the Taurus beast is. I didn't get a real good look at him but he was kinda silvery and squatty with a hammer as big as he was.
Then I found another guy that was darker and taller who also killed me, but I think I can take him next time if I get a bowshot and some firebombs on him before he closes on me.

I don't have an instruction manual- how can you tell if you have enough souls to level without sitting at the bonfire?

[This message has been edited by slurm (edited 10/12/2011 8:33a).]

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I don't have an instruction manual- how can you tell if you have enough souls to level without sitting at the bonfire?

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You can't, you just have to guess. Just know that it increases with each point you buy.

Also, **** those frog things in the Depths and **** getting cursed. I was basically able to give the area 2 tries because I was spending the rest of the time farming souls to buy an item to reverse the curse. I'm going to do some grinding tonight.

Pro tip: if you get cursed, reverse it as soon as possible. It apparently stacks

Slurm - right, the chubby silver guy is notorious, and I haven't killed him yet. I haven't really made a strong go of it, though. There are so many things to do in this game, and I've been progressing forwards on the map instead of closing out every single detail in the Burg.

The tall, black/gold guy seems to be referred to as a Black Knight. I think your strategy will work. After I bought the Soul Arrow spell for my Wanderer, I beat him on my first try by just using the spell on him and then running away, trying to stay always out of his reach.

What class are you playing?

Man, this game is SO good.

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This game's on 360 and PS3. The previous game was only on PS3.

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I meant the glitch.

Wait, where is the chubby silver guy? I've been all around the Undead Burg and not sure If I have found him. Is he a mini-boss?

Getting cursed SUCKS. I do like how the game made that a decent area to grind in. So you really have to weigh the risk.

Im in Blightown right now (a homage to the Valley of Defilment in Demon's Souls).

Yes, it is still as irritating as it was then.

Oh yeah, that guy. I tried to kill him yesterday and he killed me in one hit.

He apparently gives you a ring though that doubles your armor burden, so it's definitely a fight worth seeing to if you win it

The chubby silver guy is in the bottom of the tower that leads to the Taurus Demon. Just go down the spiral stairway instead of up. And prepare to die - either don't take many souls/Humanity with you, or back up after you pull him so that you drop your stuff in an easy place to recover.

I've read that people are beating him by dodging rather than blocking. Which stinks for me, because I'm a blocker. I'll return for him one of these days, but right now I have so much more pressing stuff to do, like ringing the first bell.

Got my Drake Sword going last night after levelling STR 3 times, and I'm loving it! What does the blue icon underneath my Stamina bar mean?

reading this thread is like torture. I'm planning on renting this game this weekend to give it a shot. I never played demons soul but always wanted to. This weekend the wife is going on a trip, so I have the full weekend (minus the Aggies game) to play.

Iowa state? Did I somehow lose track of time and miss the baylor game while playing dark souls

Dude with wife and child is jealous of 32's playtime.

Whatever you do, don't judge the game until you can play for a solid hour without dying. Until then, you haven't learned to play it yet.

Remember, be cautious, be deliberate, be patient. Realize that something is always waiting around the corner to jack up your day.

Beat the Gaping Dragon in the Depths after finally getting past the damn frog things that curse you.

Tips for the Depths (Learn from my mistakes):
1. Apparently not being hollow makes you less susceptible to being cursed, so it's worth using a humanity to become human for that part. Once you get past it, there's a shortcut, so you won't have to do that again
2. You will have to face an "invasion" (it's an AI guy) by a black phantom while you're down there if you're human, but it's a fairly easy fight, similar to any shielded warrior you've faced, just with better stats. Take your time like any fight and you'll be fine, and you'll get a bunch of souls for it.
3. With the Gaping Dragon, it might take a few tries (took me 3), but once you figure out its attack pattern, it gets a lot easier. Just be sure to avoid its charges and be ready to attack when it gets stunned after charging. Be patient, just like any other fight, and you'll make it.

I gave up on the stray demon and went to the garden. The butterfly wasn't too bad to beat but the hydra gave me some trouble.

The guy at the bottom of the tower is Havel I assume as that is the rings name. I beat him by blocking his hit but only as a glancing blow. I still have no clue where the second bell is.

I gave two embers to the smith and he hasn't given me anything in return.

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The chubby silver guy is in the bottom of the tower that leads to the Taurus Demon.

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Do you need a key or something?

The second bell is in Blightown (or so I hear). I did a suicide run to get the Iatio (sp) sword. I am in need of some serious weapon upgrading. Im not doing jack for damage.

PMD, should you not be giving embers to that women underneath the firelink shirne to upgrade your estus flasks?

Rule Number 32: I'll agree with what the above poster said. You have to be able to play for an hour without dying to say you are giving the game a chance and becoming proficient.

I have a friend who bought it, and just can't get any traction. (Thinks he can figure it out all by himself)...he is not liking it very much.

I have another friend, who bought it and was frustrated as all get out. He got on wiki, learned how it worked, and now is hooked.

Be patient. GET ON WIKI, and the game may very well take you over.

You wont get far in a weekend (especially if it is your first time to play a "Souls" game).

Tex - What, I got demoted to random "above poster"?!?!? It was all "Bryan98, do it buddy! " when you were trying to get me to join your freakish Dark Souls cult. Now that I'm addicted, I'm just some random guy. I see how it is.

In answer to your question, maybe you do need a key. I took the Master Key as my gift.

Made it to Undead Parish, met a big scary dude there who was too big to follow me into certain places, so despite being really scary, I killed him on the second try and took his lunch money. He was also guarding a Fire Keeper Spirit or whatever, so I got my first upgrade on my Estus flask. Hoping to ring my first bell tonight, although I'm Hollow and can't bring in any help.

Ok, so I decided to just buy the game. I figured I was going to buy it anyway if I didnt get it for christmas, so I just went ahead and bought it. Played for an hour, found some random treasure chests and got my ass handed to me by some random skeleton in a graveyard. It took me several tries to beat the first boss because I couldnt figure out how to lock on to an enemy and still have enough fingers left to block, roll, and attack. Little did I know (and I realized 3 deaths in) that it auto-locks onto the boss. Duh...

Overall so far, AWESOME GAME though. I'm going to play the hell out of it this weekend.

Has anyone had trouble getting signed in to PSN for this game? I dont have problems with any other games, but this one wont let me sign in for some reason. It keeps telling me I have to exit the game to sign in, so I do that, and then when I get back in the game it tells me I can only play in offline mode. Did I miss something?

That's weird, I haven't had any issues with the signing in. If I'm not signed it, it will prompt me to and bring up the overlay to connect.

Beat the Hydra in Darkroot Depths last night...wasn't that hard once I got close enough for it to stop shooting water at me and stopped falling off the edge in front of it

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Tex - What, I got demoted to random "above poster"?!?!? It was all "Bryan98, do it buddy! " when you were trying to get me to join your freakish Dark Souls cult. Now that I'm addicted, I'm just some random guy. I see how it is.

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Bwahaha, sorry Bryan...When I was typing out my response, I forgot who commented and was too lazy to click back. (Sometimes even when I copy and paste I lose the whole post).

I'm glad you are enjoying the game! 60 bucks is alot to spend on a game that can be extremely polarizing on the post of some dude on the internet.

It really is an addicting game if its "your kind of game." And yeah...reading other threads on the internet...it is a cult.

Im confident that you need the master key for that mini boss.

Rule 32. You made some good progress if you beat the first boss(you are talking about the one on the bridge and not the tutorial boss correct?). You are going to have a great weekend. The first few hours of Dark Souls is awesome.

blue,
I hear that boss is pretty dang tricky.

I've had to do some serious grinding to continue on in Blightown. I had not upgraded any weapons and was only at soul level 29. Thus, I will be spending some time this weekend going back to the drawing board.

I got invaded for the first time last night, and just made the dude look silly. Might have been his first invasion; he didn't seem to have much of a plan. He never used any ranged attacks, but he kept his distance a lot. I think once I took some of his health and then refilled mine, he wasn't interested in trading blows with me. I wonder if he knew that invaders can't drink? Seems to me that if you invade, you have to be on the offensive. Your target is going to have up to 20 Estus Flasks, and you're not going to have any.

That experience really makes me want to join a covenant and get more involved in multiplayer PvP. I used to play WoW a lot, and this is a far better model for "world" PvP than WoW has. You're near the same level, and both players stand to gain or lose stuff that is meaningful to them, but not crippling or tragic.

Did some great exploring, opened some doors, found at least 3 new vendors...and finally worked up the nerve to try the Gargoyles. I got the tail weapon on the first try, but I died about 5 times before I decided to just blow a Twin Humanities I had picked up and summon some players. I got two dudes in there with me, and we made quick work of the Gargoyles.

Rang the first bell!

Ha, congrats Bryan.

I like how you can hear people ringing the bell when you are working your way up there.

So far...the area outside the church and the church itself is my favorite area of the game.

As for pvp. Apparently there are some items that can really effect pvp and with exploits, can almost break the experience.

I've yet to dive too deeply into pvp other than to summon some players to help me or be summoned.

Im waiting to join the Darkmoon.

Rule 32: Ignore those skeletons and go a different route. They will F you up as a newbie. Trust me on this.

The current state of my progress is still at first bell rung from the parrish. I have drained the new rondo ruins but decided to try a different route as the multiple black knights with the "glowy hand death grab" were a bit much for me. After beating the Hydra and butterfly, I have a couple open paths in the Darkroot gardens and basin. One leads to some odd looking wolf/rat creatures that just destroy me. The other leads to the valley of drakes which in turn leads me back to the new rondo ruins full of death punch knights. I really have no clue where I am going or where I should be going.

The key to get to the big silver guy at the bottom of the taurus demon tower is on a corpse after the moonlight butterfly.

I have given the smith (I think named Andrei or something) at the end of the parrish a magic ember and divine ember. He said he will make a weapon from them but so far hasn't given me *****

The fire keeper souls are given to the person in firelink to upgrade the flask. I wasted the first one by using it as an item. There is a second fire keeper soul in the new rondo ruins and that I gave to get my flask to +1.

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Tex, you're confidently wrong on the key to the miniboss under the Taurus Demon watchtower..you can obtain this key from a corpse later in the game.

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You know, I knew I was going to get called out on this. I re-read it after I posted and thought...well I know there is a key SOMEWHERE, but didn't change it. AAAANnnd it didn't take one post later to have me corrected. Ugh.

PM, good to know about those souls. Is it confirmed we give that soul to the blacksmith by the parish? (Obviously not the one that you give to the Ash lady).