Well I finally finished AC2 last night and was able to get back into playing some Demon's Souls tonight. Went ahead and got world 2 back to PBWT and killed the BP and primeval demon, then I finished 3-1 which got it to PWWT and grabbed the key from 3-2, getting it 'finished' so I can go straight to the boss when I need to.
My Character Tendency seems *so* close to pure white... next thing I'd like to try is getting world 1 to pure black and killing Miralda. Though I don't really know where the primeval demon is in 1-3, so I'll have to be careful trying to find that once I have the world in PB.
At some point I'll have to take a break and farm 4-2 for a while, try to get my Magic stat up to at least 10. Though I hear there's a little oddness where Yuria the witch will teach you magic even if your Magic is lower than 10. Still, I need to get it to 18 to be able to wield the Talisman of Beasts correctly regardless, so...
I am just getting destoyed by flamelurker in NG+. Here's my strategy, and I'd be open to any suggestions for what I should change:
Equip:
Full set of Ancient King's Armor (for extra fire resist and low weight)
Purple Flame Shield +5
Cling Ring
Thief's Ring
Crescent Falchion +5 (My magic stat is 37, so this sword does 222 points of magic damage)
Magic:
Soul Ray
Water Veil
Poison Cloud
Strategy:
Since I have the thief's ring, I can circle around behind him at the beginning unnoticed. From the stairs, I cast poison cloud to start doing some damage. Then, I cast water veil and slash him in the back a few times (usually between 2-4 times before he can turn around). Then, I try to dodge like crazy until I can get far enough away from him that he can't see me anymore. At this point, I heal and maybe let my MP regenerate a little.
At this point, he walks in place forever, sometimes I can sneak behind him again, and sometimes not. It's kind of a crapshoot. If I can, I just repeat the above. If I can't, I shoot him with a soul ray and try to get away again.
One time, I got him down to about 100 hp or so, but I couldn't cast the last soul ray before he hit me.
I'm at SL 120, and without Water Veil he one-shots me. If I block with the shield, it reduces my stamina almost all the way. If I get stuck in a corner he just pounds away until I'm dead. When he gets down to 1/3 health, the thief's ring doesn't work anymore and he can rush across the arena in about 3 seconds.
Is it possible to just poison him until he dies (I wouldn't mind cheating a little at this point)? My only concern would be the above mentioned 1/3 health issue, and I'd hate to spend 20 minutes waiting for poison to get his health that low only to find out that he's still going to rape me.
Do I just need to grind a little and come back later? My network connection has been going in and out, so I can't summon anyone without getting disconnected. Playing in offline mode because of it.
If you hug the wall to your right as soon as you enter his lair, you can get behind him without ever aggroing him (Soul Form + Thief Ring + Cloak for good measure).
Then you can just poison cloud him to death. It takes awhile, but hell'll never move.
yurnamehere on
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HalibutPassion FishSwimming in obscurity.Registered Userregular
I am just getting destoyed by flamelurker in NG+. Here's my strategy, and I'd be open to any suggestions for what I should change:
Equip:
Full set of Ancient King's Armor (for extra fire resist and low weight)
Purple Flame Shield +5
Cling Ring
Thief's Ring
Crescent Falchion +5 (My magic stat is 37, so this sword does 222 points of magic damage)
Magic:
Soul Ray
Water Veil
Poison Cloud
Strategy:
Since I have the thief's ring, I can circle around behind him at the beginning unnoticed. From the stairs, I cast poison cloud to start doing some damage. Then, I cast water veil and slash him in the back a few times (usually between 2-4 times before he can turn around). Then, I try to dodge like crazy until I can get far enough away from him that he can't see me anymore. At this point, I heal and maybe let my MP regenerate a little.
At this point, he walks in place forever, sometimes I can sneak behind him again, and sometimes not. It's kind of a crapshoot. If I can, I just repeat the above. If I can't, I shoot him with a soul ray and try to get away again.
One time, I got him down to about 100 hp or so, but I couldn't cast the last soul ray before he hit me.
I'm at SL 120, and without Water Veil he one-shots me. If I block with the shield, it reduces my stamina almost all the way. If I get stuck in a corner he just pounds away until I'm dead. When he gets down to 1/3 health, the thief's ring doesn't work anymore and he can rush across the arena in about 3 seconds.
Is it possible to just poison him until he dies (I wouldn't mind cheating a little at this point)? My only concern would be the above mentioned 1/3 health issue, and I'd hate to spend 20 minutes waiting for poison to get his health that low only to find out that he's still going to rape me.
Do I just need to grind a little and come back later? My network connection has been going in and out, so I can't summon anyone without getting disconnected. Playing in offline mode because of it.
If you hug the wall to your right as soon as you enter his lair, you can get behind him without ever aggroing him (Soul Form + Thief Ring + Cloak for good measure).
Then you can just poison cloud him to death. It takes awhile, but hell'll never move.
Thanks. I tried him a couple more times last night before giving up, so I'll try the poison thing tonight. I actually ran through the entirety of World 4 without dying last night, so I don't really feel under-leveled. I just want to be able to upgrade my weapons before taking on the rest of the game.
Wait... Putting your catalyst as a 2handed weapon (triangle) will raise your magic damage? o_O
If the weapon you are wielding has magic damage (Blessed, etc), then yes. It won't, however, increase the damage of spells (Soul Lance, Fireball, etc).
Gotcha. That is what I have known. I just thought for a moment that it increased spell damage based on what you said. I was about to do a serious face palm if it increased spell damage.
I really want to take pictures for all the items/armors for the wiki. The old images, that were on there, blew up.
I really wish they would have done some DLC for this game. It seems like it is setup perfectly for it. Or at least give us a sequel. I can't stop playing DS.
Gotcha. That is what I have known. I just thought for a moment that it increased spell damage based on what you said. I was about to do a serious face palm if it increased spell damage.
I really want to take pictures for all the items/armors for the wiki. The old images, that were on there, blew up.
I really wish they would have done some DLC for this game. It seems like it is setup perfectly for it. Or at least give us a sequel. I can't stop playing DS.
Yeah, they should have made DLC for the 6th archstone.
Gotcha. That is what I have known. I just thought for a moment that it increased spell damage based on what you said. I was about to do a serious face palm if it increased spell damage.
I really want to take pictures for all the items/armors for the wiki. The old images, that were on there, blew up.
I really wish they would have done some DLC for this game. It seems like it is setup perfectly for it. Or at least give us a sequel. I can't stop playing DS.
Yeah, they should have made DLC for the 6th archstone.
Such a cocktease : (
Well, they probably had the concept artwork down and everything and thought "how can we do a zone with giant demons as standard? Break the archstone!"
Gotcha. That is what I have known. I just thought for a moment that it increased spell damage based on what you said. I was about to do a serious face palm if it increased spell damage.
I really want to take pictures for all the items/armors for the wiki. The old images, that were on there, blew up.
I really wish they would have done some DLC for this game. It seems like it is setup perfectly for it. Or at least give us a sequel. I can't stop playing DS.
Yeah, they should have made DLC for the 6th archstone.
Such a cocktease : (
Well, they probably had the concept artwork down and everything and thought "how can we do a zone with giant demons as standard? Break the archstone!"
I'm surprised they DIDN'T make a zone where the cannon fodder mobs were as powerful as the giant depraved ones from world 5. I mean how could they resist?
Izanagi-Okami on
0
HalibutPassion FishSwimming in obscurity.Registered Userregular
edited December 2009
So the poison cloud trick worked like a charm on Flamelurker. Had to cast it about 9 times though, so it probably won't be worth it on NG++. Luckily I had something else to keep me occupied while waiting for him to die. Also, a Soul Thirst and Ring of Avarice netted me about 100,000 souls for my time.
Been farming in 4-2 a little. Seems like a pretty good spot, just like the first runthrough.
NG+
Pure Black WT
Ring of Avarice
Run forward and kill the manta ray for about 4,000 souls, run down the hall, cast soul thirst and arrow the reaper for about 26,000 souls. Immediately jump down and run outside to shoot the middle skeleton and the skeleton with the bow for 10,000 souls. Jump off the cliff and repeat. Just under 40,000 souls per run.
So the poison cloud trick worked like a charm on Flamelurker. Had to cast it about 9 times though, so it probably won't be worth it on NG++. Luckily I had something else to keep me occupied while waiting for him to die. Also, a Soul Thirst and Ring of Avarice netted me about 100,000 souls for my time.
Been farming in 4-2 a little. Seems like a pretty good spot, just like the first runthrough.
NG+
Pure Black WT
Ring of Avarice
Run forward and kill the manta ray for about 4,000 souls, run down the hall, cast soul thirst and arrow the reaper for about 26,000 souls. Immediately jump down and run outside to shoot the middle skeleton and the skeleton with the bow for 10,000 souls. Jump off the cliff and repeat. Just under 40,000 souls per run.
Just remember, NG++ doesn't go up in difficulty *nearly* as much as NG+ does from normal.
What do you guy think would be quicker? Farming the one chunk of cloud stone I need to get my dark shield in NG++ or just going on to NG+++ and doing world 4 up to 4-3 to get the treasure?
'cause so far I've been having terrible luck even in PBWT. See I didn't plan on doing anything but World 3 and 5 in NG+++ just to finish off those trophies.
Izanagi-Okami on
0
HalibutPassion FishSwimming in obscurity.Registered Userregular
So the poison cloud trick worked like a charm on Flamelurker. Had to cast it about 9 times though, so it probably won't be worth it on NG++. Luckily I had something else to keep me occupied while waiting for him to die. Also, a Soul Thirst and Ring of Avarice netted me about 100,000 souls for my time.
Been farming in 4-2 a little. Seems like a pretty good spot, just like the first runthrough.
NG+
Pure Black WT
Ring of Avarice
Run forward and kill the manta ray for about 4,000 souls, run down the hall, cast soul thirst and arrow the reaper for about 26,000 souls. Immediately jump down and run outside to shoot the middle skeleton and the skeleton with the bow for 10,000 souls. Jump off the cliff and repeat. Just under 40,000 souls per run.
Just remember, NG++ doesn't go up in difficulty *nearly* as much as NG+ does from normal.
On a level of 1-10, ten being the jump in difficulty from first game to NG+, how much would you say NG+ to NG++ is?
Changing the subject a little, I just forged a Northern Regalia last night. It's a beast, but it's a little heavy. I mostly stick with my crescent falchion, but maybe I'll pull it out when I need to get a couple of heavy hits on someone.
So the poison cloud trick worked like a charm on Flamelurker. Had to cast it about 9 times though, so it probably won't be worth it on NG++. Luckily I had something else to keep me occupied while waiting for him to die. Also, a Soul Thirst and Ring of Avarice netted me about 100,000 souls for my time.
Been farming in 4-2 a little. Seems like a pretty good spot, just like the first runthrough.
NG+
Pure Black WT
Ring of Avarice
Run forward and kill the manta ray for about 4,000 souls, run down the hall, cast soul thirst and arrow the reaper for about 26,000 souls. Immediately jump down and run outside to shoot the middle skeleton and the skeleton with the bow for 10,000 souls. Jump off the cliff and repeat. Just under 40,000 souls per run.
Just remember, NG++ doesn't go up in difficulty *nearly* as much as NG+ does from normal.
On a level of 1-10, ten being the jump in difficulty from first game to NG+, how much would you say NG+ to NG++ is?
Changing the subject a little, I just forged a Northern Regalia last night. It's a beast, but it's a little heavy. I mostly stick with my crescent falchion, but maybe I'll pull it out when I need to get a couple of heavy hits on someone.
Couldn't tell you, I haven't even gotten to NG+ yet, but everything I've read says the jump to NG+ is by far the biggest.
Just platinum-ed the game. I feel so empty now. I don't want to be done with this game!
Also I had a funny incident today when a BP invaded. I was half cleared through 1-3 when he entered and after a brief skirmish on the ramparts where his firestorm failed to one shot me he jumped down past the horde of uncleared mobs and sough refuge near the 3 red eye spear knights with no intention of moving from that spot.
Knowing there was no way for me to face his firestorm and 3 red eye spear knights at the same time let alone all the other trash I'd have to clear while he soul ray'd me from safety I equipped my makato, morian blade, and clever rat's ring got down to 30% health while he just stood there waiting for me and I started using my bow to one shot all the trash and 2 shotting the red eye knights.
Finally everything was cleared and I charged in and made short work of him for a very satisfying kill.
A few minutes later I got a message going "WTF U HAKER HOW U ONE SHOT EVERYTHING?!"
Made my day.
Izanagi-Okami on
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TrynantManiac BrawlerRank 20.100 and full WildRegistered Userregular
edited December 2009
I made a new character and decided I would beat Vanguard in the tutorial. Died on my first attempt, let DS sit for a day then beat it on the first try of the night. I wasn't even using a Royal--I killed that big fattie with a Knight. I felt like quite the badass 8-)
Getting punched in the face by the Old One was pretty cool to boot.
It's nice knowing that one can improve in the game enough to make the beginning content seem (relatively) trivial. I went through the 1-1 without dying, got my body back, went to 2-1, fought off a BP (twice!), killed the boss there, and then went to 1-2....
Black Phantom invaders, damn you. A BP who obviously out-geared me invaded, we had a huge back and forth battle, and after a grueling half-hour of trying to kill this guy and using up way too much grass he gets me down. FFUUUUUUUUU-
It was the loss of grass that really peeved me. I would have not been as nearly as angry otherwise.
But I had to admit, that was a pretty freckin' epic way to die for the first time since the tutorial. And all I had to do to get my body back was get summoned as a blue phantom and beat down the boss of 1-2. Good times.
I'm now in 2-2, and I would like to know what is the best way to kill those lava-armadillo things? I read a message that said blunt was the way to go; is that really my best option? Also, I hear they blow up, but that never happened to me. What's the deal?
I have been using a build similar to that guy on Youtube that has a huge series of PvP videos. I thought it would be a good start to get my feet wet. Meat Cleaver + Dark Kite Shield + Second Chance + Light Weapon + as much armor my 25 end can grant me. So far I have been splitting points in dex/str and they are at about 30 each with a goal of 20 vitality for now. I put the minimum I need into Faith/Magic/Intel.
There seems to be a lot of action around soul level 70. Especially in 4-2. I have been getting a lot of messages from people that have been very cordial when invading there. A lot of people look to be waiting for you to invade. Possibly to raise character tendency to white. My favorite moment tonight was BPing for the Old Monk and killing the host and a friendly phantom. He immediately sends the message, "u ass." I think I will be doing more of that for the rage spam.
I've gotten more hate mail from just playing this game then I've ever gotten on the entire internet ever and I don't even use stuff like scraping spear, acid cloud, or firestorm.
Lesson of the day: Apparently using the Miridan Hammer in PVP is cheating.
I get a lot of hate mail for using Blind when I'm the 3-3 boss.
It's been easier to find people who can actually get to the boss chamber lately, but about half of them still die to the BP Mindflayers.
Heh, today, I got summoned to the 3-3 boss and the guy fights his way up stands just behind the fog and sent me a message: "Leave."
I suggested if he didn't want PVP he could do the boss in offline mode and I wasn't about to leave since I'd lose a soul level if I did. (Not actually sure if that happens for quitting as the 3-3 boss.).
He went AFK for about 2 hours but luckily my PS3 is right next to my PC.
The black phantom doesn't suffer any penalty for losing as the 3-3 boss, so if you want to be a nice guy you can just let the other player kill you.
Yeah. I would have sent a message back saying, "Don't worry. Come in and I will let you kill me." When he comes in, just murder his face off.
I'd have thrown Wrath of God through the fog, or something.
I tried to shoot arrows at him through the fog like you can do at maneater but it didn't work.
I think they patched that to not work anymore, since they're sticking in maneater's fog when I try it.
I've gotten more hate mail from just playing this game then I've ever gotten on the entire internet ever and I don't even use stuff like scraping spear, acid cloud, or firestorm.
Lesson of the day: Apparently using the Miridan Hammer in PVP is cheating.
I get a lot of hate mail for using Blind when I'm the 3-3 boss.
It's been easier to find people who can actually get to the boss chamber lately, but about half of them still die to the BP Mindflayers.
Heh, today, I got summoned to the 3-3 boss and the guy fights his way up stands just behind the fog and sent me a message: "Leave."
I suggested if he didn't want PVP he could do the boss in offline mode and I wasn't about to leave since I'd lose a soul level if I did. (Not actually sure if that happens for quitting as the 3-3 boss.).
He went AFK for about 2 hours but luckily my PS3 is right next to my PC.
The black phantom doesn't suffer any penalty for losing as the 3-3 boss, so if you want to be a nice guy you can just let the other player kill you.
Yeah. I would have sent a message back saying, "Don't worry. Come in and I will let you kill me." When he comes in, just murder his face off.
I'd have thrown Wrath of God through the fog, or something.
I tried to shoot arrows at him through the fog like you can do at maneater but it didn't work.
I think they patched that to not work anymore, since they're sticking in maneater's fog when I try it.
I think you have to be all the way to the left and right up against the fog wall for it to work. I've done it a couple times, and as far as I know there hasn't been a new patch for the US version.
I'm now in 2-2, and I would like to know what is the best way to kill those lava-armadillo things? I read a message that said blunt was the way to go; is that really my best option? Also, I hear they blow up, but that never happened to me. What's the deal?
Magic weapons/SWS helps a ton against them. The fastest way to kill them is to use Soul Suck, which will one-shot the big ones. on NG+, with Soul Suck/Soul Thirst, you get a very nice chunk of souls. That being said, the two best locations for soul-grinding that I've found are the 4-2 entrance and 4-3. I'm sure everyone knows that, though.
I haven't played in soooooo long. I'm in the middle of my NG+, trying to take down the blue dragon now. Got wasted testing my luck with getting as close to the fire on the stairs as possible. Oops. That's the last time I played. I've been too busy learning Blender to get back into it for now.
I agree, the 6th Archstone is the biggest cock-tease! I figured the end game would play out there, but nooooo. DLC is pretty much a requirement at this point. I would rather they put a little time and effort into making a new zone for us with new spells/gear than starting on the sequel. Give us something new to do while we wait.
I mean, they have to make a new one... don't they??
I am beginning to contemplate resorting to offline in order to beat Old Monk.
Killing other players is just too damn hard when they can combine grass with that health bar.
I am beginning to contemplate resorting to offline in order to beat Old Monk.
Killing other players is just too damn hard when they can combine grass with that health bar.
I really don't think it's cheating to do that. In my experience there is a huge gap in potential (one that requires a huge skill disparity to overcome) between players who spec for PVP and those who just want to play the game the way they like; and it's usually those players who spec'd PVP camping out the old monk.
If you do want to keep it up in online mode I can offer a few tips.
1. Whenever you get knocked down spam the roll button as you are getting up away from your opponent. He won't be able to hit you and you will 99% of the time be able to eat a grass right away before he can get to you.
2. Spam roll whenever you eat a grass.
3. If you are melee don't bother using a shield. Find a good weapon to 2 hand. Halbred types are pretty much the best for this since they have range and attack relatively fast.
4. Whenever you see the Old Monk BP casting guided soul ray roll the heck out of the way. Those things will tear your shit up.
5. Go in with Anti-Magic field up. If you're up against melee it'll suck that you're not using second chance but it'd suck a lot more if your enemy is a caster and he firestorms you dead instantly. It won't be an instant win against a caster who knows what he is doing since he'll just roll around like a madman until it wears off but you'll be able to react to firestorm later and he won't be able to nuke you as you zone in from around the corner.
6. It's really easy to back stab an overly aggressive player with a slow weapon. Try to get around behind him as he is swinging. Just be careful some attacks like the 1H Katana R2 will track you and automatically turn to hit you.
man this game looks cool. Only one reason i dont have it.
You cant pause?
The Bad:
Nope, you sure can't. And, like Mario of old, there's no "checkpoints" or "quicksaves" or anything of the nature. Typically, however, if there's no enemies around, it's perfectly safe to put the controller down for a while (assuming that you're dead already... I hate the PvP aspect of this game). You need to beat a stage in it's entirety to be able to quickly warp to the next stage again. I should also mention that the game auto-saves all the time. If you screw up, there's no reverting to a previous save, or anything of that nature.
The Awesome
This does, however, lead to an interesting risk/reward debate that I thoroughly enjoyed, as well as a sense of gratification that I haven't had since legitimately beating Super Mario 3 (no warp whistles, that's skipping content). It's at it's core a single player game, with multi player elements. Environments, themes, music, controls, etc are all well done. As long as you go into it expecting a difficult game that will punish your mistakes in a fair manner (cheap deaths will not be found here), you can't go wrong with demon's souls.
man this game looks cool. Only one reason i dont have it.
You cant pause?
I just started the game (half way through the first level), but from what I can tell, no, you can't pause the game. When you hit start, the little menu pops up at the top of the screen, where you can open various menu and options screens, but the action does not stop in the game. It didn't seem like a big deal to me... I just found a quiet spot in the level and "paused" it. No enemies appeared from nowhere to surprise me.
As I'm just starting the game, I have a few observations / questions:
I started playing the game on a different PS3 user account, so that in case I hated it and returned it to Gamestop (within 7 days, bought used), I wouldn't have the Demon's Souls 0% staring at me in my trophy list. I'm really enjoying it, so I'm going to keep it, but the game does not allow you to copy your game save from one profile to another. Just a heads up.
I'm playing as a Royal, and I really like this class so far. I'm probably using soul arrow too much, but it's keeping me from dying.
I'm in 1-1 (I guess), and I'm wondering how the naming of the levels (1-1, 1-2, 3-1) became so standard, since it doesn't seem like the game refers to the levels that way. I'm assuming that the first archstone on the spiral staircase is 1, and inside the level are the different areas (-1, -2, etc), but with all the 4-2 and 2-3 talk, I thought the levels would be more broken apart. Like the loading screens would actually refer to them that way. I know the levels have descriptive names, but I don't remember the name of the first one, so it makes sense to refer to it as 1-1, but I'm just surprised.
I haven't played it online yet. Does playing it online drastically change the difficulty? I've only died twice (the scary knight relatively early on in 1-1 when you can go a few different ways by the first fog door and when I thought I could dodge the boulders you unleash at the enemies later on). I'm just wondering if I'll be moving through a level, carefully progressing through all the enemies, then suddenly some ridiculously leveled up PvP guy comes in, completely overmatches me, and then I have to start over. Does this happen?
I like the auto-saving part of the game, and that you can stop at any time, quit the game, and it starts you right where you were when you start again. I'm assuming that you can't use this to your advantage by PS quitting right as you die, so that instead of restarting at the beginning of the level with 0 souls, you start at the last auto save. Or does it only do this "saved state" thing when you actually go into the menu and legitimately quit?
EDIT: Beat'd. Also, completely forgot about the possibility of some PvP guy coming in and killing you while you're in the can. Shit, so much for my idea of finding a quiet spot to "pause" it.
Having finally splurged into the current console generation I'm seriously tempted by this game. Unfortunately I am residing in Euroland. If I remember correctly the PS3 is region free, so getting an US import running shouldn't be a problem (?).
I am wondering however, how my online play will be affected. Am I going to suffer from Europus Lagitus?
Locked saves: Yea, the Demon's Souls saves are locked. That means that shy of a complete PS3 backup and restore they can't be moved or copied. At all. This has caused much frusteration with players who "screw up" and want to "fix" it.
Playing a Royal: The royal is quite simply the easiest starting class. While you're learning the game to an extent, I highly recommend a temple knight (going DEX/FAITH), soldier (DEX/STR), or Thief (DEX/MAGIC) to get the real Demon's Souls experience. Taking any of these characters would make the playthrough more difficult, but honestly, the more difficult it is, the more rewarding it is when you beat it. It's a much more "true Demon's Souls experience" that way
World Numbering: The world numbering system is kinda a de-facto scheme. Going from Boletarian Palace (I'm not spoilering that, it's the first stone), clockwise around the room, the words are then numbered 2 - 5. The destoryed stone, which is not accessable currently, goes to the land of giants (according to in-game videos), and is dubbed world 6. As to the stage names, from the first spawn point until the first archstone (after defeating the first boss) is stage 1. From that point until killing the second boss is stage 2. All of the worlds have 3 stages (2 real "levels" and 1 more epic boss fight) except for world 1, which has 4 stages.
Online / PvP: Playing online is ... interesting. In some ways it's much easier. In others... well, online is the only reason I've actually put down the controller in anger. Players can leave each other messages, which are typically either "I'm in trouble, please recommend this message" or something helpful (i.e. "Use fire on next enemy" or "There's treasure ahead" etc.) What really frosts me, however, is the PvP. If you are alive (have a full capacity health bar) someone can invade your game. Now, while under level 100, the players must be within 10 soul levels of each other. This removes the possiblity of just plain getting stomped by someone obscenely higher than you, but realize that this limitation works with summoning allies as well. If you're alive, you can see blue marks on the ground, indicating that someone else is willing to come and help. You can summon them, and they get the same amount of souls that you do for killing things. Often, if you're a new player, these summoned helpers will show you hidden passages, or tactics for taking down enemies, or, more importantly, how to take down a boss. If you're not alive (not a full capacity health bar), however, you can't summon anyone, but you can offer yourself up to help someone else. If you take down a boss while helping someone, you get your body back (a full capacity life bar again), but don't get credit for killing that boss in your world. You have to do that in your own game still. Wow, that was quite the wall, but I think coveres the basics.
Auto-Save: People have said that they can PS Quit without any ill effects, preventing any recent death penalty or whatnot, and others have said that this has corrupted their saves, rendering that character no longer playable. I would suggest against it.
If you have any other questions or whatever, there's quite a bit of information up on the unofficial demon's souls wiki.
You can only get PvP'd if you're in body form, which, trust me, won't be very often.
I thought it would be a huge problem, but I've only run into PvP at high levels. Know that there is a VERY OBVIOUS WARNING that someone has invaded you, so they're not going to catch you by surprise unless you're in another room making a sandwich or something.
You definitely want to be playing online. Not only can you recruit other player if you're having trouble, but you can read messages that (usually) give you vitally useful information. Just, don't listen to the ones that say "if you take a step forward...." next to a huge cliff.
Thanks for all the info, ArdentMarauder and Behemoth. I didn't know about the 10 level max difference with PvP, and the fact that you're only susceptible to it when "alive". That makes sense and eases my mind a little.
I tried Temple Knight on recommendations from this board, but I thought that the weapon was ridiculously huge and hard to swing. I do have to start over on my real account, now that I'm sure this is a game for me, so I may give something other than Royal a shot.
I fully intend on playing this online. I hope my offline "trial" of the game led everyone to believe that I'm trying to avoid this aspect of the game. I just created a "Demon's Souls" user account on my PS3 to try it out (this is what I do if I'm not sure if I'll like a game or if I rent a game, so that my trophy list isn't full of games I don't really own or don't like) and I didn't have any PSN account logged in under this temp account. I'll play online for sure once I'm playing for real.
About the PS quitting, I never really wanted to actually do this, I was just curious.
I tried Temple Knight on recommendations from this board, but I thought that the weapon was ridiculously huge and hard to swing. I do have to start over on my real account, now that I'm sure this is a game for me, so I may give something other than Royal a shot.
I think you mean "long-ranged" and "has a really wide area of effect," there.
Also, when in tight spaces, double-hand it to get attacks which are all in-line, like a spear. The vertical swings will also make it easier to take out low-profile enemies, like geckos, salamanders, and other assorted bugs.
firewaterwordSatchitanandaPais Vasco to San FranciscoRegistered Userregular
edited December 2009
I need to get back into this game. The avalanche of new titles coming out combined with loosing like 20K souls to Flame-goddamn-lurker put me off it for a bit.
Tower Knight was easy as hell. Just spam magic arrow from the archer-stand and dodge when he attacks.
Hell man, he's easy with a melee character. Stay behind him, stab stab, back up when he does an attack, go back in and stab stab, rinse, repeat. It almost reminds me of trying to kill the tutorial boss, except even easier.
The dungeon that most intimidates me as a melee-focused character is the Tower of Latria. Mind Flayers don't seem like the type that you want to be close to at all.
BTW, pausing is not necessarily a huge deal, but it can be annoying at times (i.e. you need to go to the bathroom and you're in the middle of a bunch of monsters). I personally think that overall the game doesn't suffer from of the absence of this feature.
Damn, reviewers were right about the fear this game can instill in you. I am afraid to play it because of the impending sense that I will get my ass chewed out at every corner and lose my souls/body/dignity. So instead I post on these forums as one giant scaredy cat
The Octopus men are IMO easier to attack in close then at range where they take can soul arrow you in the middle of your own ranged attack animation. Assuming you fucked up and missed your backstab chance they will either shoot out the stun ray or ring the bell. They will alternate ringing and shooting so it's easy to roll away from the AOE and sidestep the stun attack allowing you to tag them a bunch in between.
If you can stagger the mindflayers, they're easy. Either at a range or up close.
You probably want to have the thief ring, though. If you're having a lot of trouble, get a bow and you can snipe them in such a way that they can't shoot back.
Once you get out of world 2, if you're not pumping magic. They're great for 2-1 and 2-2 because all the enemies are weak to magic/piercing and resistant to cutting/blunt weapons (like that fancy new axe).
If you can stagger the mindflayers, they're easy. Either at a range or up close.
You probably want to have the thief ring, though. If you're having a lot of trouble, get a bow and you can snipe them in such a way that they can't shoot back.
I like to pop into their view and dance until they shoot the green electrical ball. As soon as it misses you or hits a wall, they will charge you. As Behemoth said, use that time to stagger them and keep hitting them until they are dead.
Having finally splurged into the current console generation I'm seriously tempted by this game. Unfortunately I am residing in Euroland. If I remember correctly the PS3 is region free, so getting an US import running shouldn't be a problem (?).
I am wondering however, how my online play will be affected. Am I going to suffer from Europus Lagitus?
I imported with no problems (besides needing an NTSC tv, obviously) and no lag.
Go do it!
Posts
My Character Tendency seems *so* close to pure white... next thing I'd like to try is getting world 1 to pure black and killing Miralda. Though I don't really know where the primeval demon is in 1-3, so I'll have to be careful trying to find that once I have the world in PB.
At some point I'll have to take a break and farm 4-2 for a while, try to get my Magic stat up to at least 10. Though I hear there's a little oddness where Yuria the witch will teach you magic even if your Magic is lower than 10. Still, I need to get it to 18 to be able to wield the Talisman of Beasts correctly regardless, so...
If you hug the wall to your right as soon as you enter his lair, you can get behind him without ever aggroing him (Soul Form + Thief Ring + Cloak for good measure).
Then you can just poison cloud him to death. It takes awhile, but hell'll never move.
Thanks. I tried him a couple more times last night before giving up, so I'll try the poison thing tonight. I actually ran through the entirety of World 4 without dying last night, so I don't really feel under-leveled. I just want to be able to upgrade my weapons before taking on the rest of the game.
If the weapon you are wielding has magic damage (Blessed, etc), then yes. It won't, however, increase the damage of spells (Soul Lance, Fireball, etc).
I really want to take pictures for all the items/armors for the wiki. The old images, that were on there, blew up.
I really wish they would have done some DLC for this game. It seems like it is setup perfectly for it. Or at least give us a sequel. I can't stop playing DS.
Yeah, they should have made DLC for the 6th archstone.
Such a cocktease : (
Well, they probably had the concept artwork down and everything and thought "how can we do a zone with giant demons as standard? Break the archstone!"
I'm surprised they DIDN'T make a zone where the cannon fodder mobs were as powerful as the giant depraved ones from world 5. I mean how could they resist?
Been farming in 4-2 a little. Seems like a pretty good spot, just like the first runthrough.
Pure Black WT
Ring of Avarice
Run forward and kill the manta ray for about 4,000 souls, run down the hall, cast soul thirst and arrow the reaper for about 26,000 souls. Immediately jump down and run outside to shoot the middle skeleton and the skeleton with the bow for 10,000 souls. Jump off the cliff and repeat. Just under 40,000 souls per run.
Just remember, NG++ doesn't go up in difficulty *nearly* as much as NG+ does from normal.
'cause so far I've been having terrible luck even in PBWT. See I didn't plan on doing anything but World 3 and 5 in NG+++ just to finish off those trophies.
On a level of 1-10, ten being the jump in difficulty from first game to NG+, how much would you say NG+ to NG++ is?
Changing the subject a little, I just forged a Northern Regalia last night. It's a beast, but it's a little heavy. I mostly stick with my crescent falchion, but maybe I'll pull it out when I need to get a couple of heavy hits on someone.
Couldn't tell you, I haven't even gotten to NG+ yet, but everything I've read says the jump to NG+ is by far the biggest.
Also I had a funny incident today when a BP invaded. I was half cleared through 1-3 when he entered and after a brief skirmish on the ramparts where his firestorm failed to one shot me he jumped down past the horde of uncleared mobs and sough refuge near the 3 red eye spear knights with no intention of moving from that spot.
Knowing there was no way for me to face his firestorm and 3 red eye spear knights at the same time let alone all the other trash I'd have to clear while he soul ray'd me from safety I equipped my makato, morian blade, and clever rat's ring got down to 30% health while he just stood there waiting for me and I started using my bow to one shot all the trash and 2 shotting the red eye knights.
Finally everything was cleared and I charged in and made short work of him for a very satisfying kill.
A few minutes later I got a message going "WTF U HAKER HOW U ONE SHOT EVERYTHING?!"
Made my day.
It's nice knowing that one can improve in the game enough to make the beginning content seem (relatively) trivial. I went through the 1-1 without dying, got my body back, went to 2-1, fought off a BP (twice!), killed the boss there, and then went to 1-2....
Black Phantom invaders, damn you. A BP who obviously out-geared me invaded, we had a huge back and forth battle, and after a grueling half-hour of trying to kill this guy and using up way too much grass he gets me down. FFUUUUUUUUU-
It was the loss of grass that really peeved me. I would have not been as nearly as angry otherwise.
But I had to admit, that was a pretty freckin' epic way to die for the first time since the tutorial. And all I had to do to get my body back was get summoned as a blue phantom and beat down the boss of 1-2. Good times.
I'm now in 2-2, and I would like to know what is the best way to kill those lava-armadillo things? I read a message that said blunt was the way to go; is that really my best option? Also, I hear they blow up, but that never happened to me. What's the deal?
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
I have been using a build similar to that guy on Youtube that has a huge series of PvP videos. I thought it would be a good start to get my feet wet. Meat Cleaver + Dark Kite Shield + Second Chance + Light Weapon + as much armor my 25 end can grant me. So far I have been splitting points in dex/str and they are at about 30 each with a goal of 20 vitality for now. I put the minimum I need into Faith/Magic/Intel.
There seems to be a lot of action around soul level 70. Especially in 4-2. I have been getting a lot of messages from people that have been very cordial when invading there. A lot of people look to be waiting for you to invade. Possibly to raise character tendency to white. My favorite moment tonight was BPing for the Old Monk and killing the host and a friendly phantom. He immediately sends the message, "u ass." I think I will be doing more of that for the rage spam.
I think you have to be all the way to the left and right up against the fog wall for it to work. I've done it a couple times, and as far as I know there hasn't been a new patch for the US version.
Magic weapons/SWS helps a ton against them. The fastest way to kill them is to use Soul Suck, which will one-shot the big ones. on NG+, with Soul Suck/Soul Thirst, you get a very nice chunk of souls. That being said, the two best locations for soul-grinding that I've found are the 4-2 entrance and 4-3. I'm sure everyone knows that, though.
I haven't played in soooooo long. I'm in the middle of my NG+, trying to take down the blue dragon now. Got wasted testing my luck with getting as close to the fire on the stairs as possible. Oops. That's the last time I played. I've been too busy learning Blender to get back into it for now.
I agree, the 6th Archstone is the biggest cock-tease! I figured the end game would play out there, but nooooo. DLC is pretty much a requirement at this point. I would rather they put a little time and effort into making a new zone for us with new spells/gear than starting on the sequel. Give us something new to do while we wait.
I mean, they have to make a new one... don't they??
Killing other players is just too damn hard when they can combine grass with that health bar.
I really don't think it's cheating to do that. In my experience there is a huge gap in potential (one that requires a huge skill disparity to overcome) between players who spec for PVP and those who just want to play the game the way they like; and it's usually those players who spec'd PVP camping out the old monk.
If you do want to keep it up in online mode I can offer a few tips.
1. Whenever you get knocked down spam the roll button as you are getting up away from your opponent. He won't be able to hit you and you will 99% of the time be able to eat a grass right away before he can get to you.
2. Spam roll whenever you eat a grass.
3. If you are melee don't bother using a shield. Find a good weapon to 2 hand. Halbred types are pretty much the best for this since they have range and attack relatively fast.
4. Whenever you see the Old Monk BP casting guided soul ray roll the heck out of the way. Those things will tear your shit up.
5. Go in with Anti-Magic field up. If you're up against melee it'll suck that you're not using second chance but it'd suck a lot more if your enemy is a caster and he firestorms you dead instantly. It won't be an instant win against a caster who knows what he is doing since he'll just roll around like a madman until it wears off but you'll be able to react to firestorm later and he won't be able to nuke you as you zone in from around the corner.
6. It's really easy to back stab an overly aggressive player with a slow weapon. Try to get around behind him as he is swinging. Just be careful some attacks like the 1H Katana R2 will track you and automatically turn to hit you.
You cant pause?
The Bad:
Nope, you sure can't. And, like Mario of old, there's no "checkpoints" or "quicksaves" or anything of the nature. Typically, however, if there's no enemies around, it's perfectly safe to put the controller down for a while (assuming that you're dead already... I hate the PvP aspect of this game). You need to beat a stage in it's entirety to be able to quickly warp to the next stage again. I should also mention that the game auto-saves all the time. If you screw up, there's no reverting to a previous save, or anything of that nature.
The Awesome
This does, however, lead to an interesting risk/reward debate that I thoroughly enjoyed, as well as a sense of gratification that I haven't had since legitimately beating Super Mario 3 (no warp whistles, that's skipping content). It's at it's core a single player game, with multi player elements. Environments, themes, music, controls, etc are all well done. As long as you go into it expecting a difficult game that will punish your mistakes in a fair manner (cheap deaths will not be found here), you can't go wrong with demon's souls.
</shameless plug>
I just started the game (half way through the first level), but from what I can tell, no, you can't pause the game. When you hit start, the little menu pops up at the top of the screen, where you can open various menu and options screens, but the action does not stop in the game. It didn't seem like a big deal to me... I just found a quiet spot in the level and "paused" it. No enemies appeared from nowhere to surprise me.
As I'm just starting the game, I have a few observations / questions:
EDIT: Beat'd. Also, completely forgot about the possibility of some PvP guy coming in and killing you while you're in the can. Shit, so much for my idea of finding a quiet spot to "pause" it.
I am wondering however, how my online play will be affected. Am I going to suffer from Europus Lagitus?
http://steamcommunity.com/id/pablocampy
If you have any other questions or whatever, there's quite a bit of information up on the unofficial demon's souls wiki.
I thought it would be a huge problem, but I've only run into PvP at high levels. Know that there is a VERY OBVIOUS WARNING that someone has invaded you, so they're not going to catch you by surprise unless you're in another room making a sandwich or something.
You definitely want to be playing online. Not only can you recruit other player if you're having trouble, but you can read messages that (usually) give you vitally useful information. Just, don't listen to the ones that say "if you take a step forward...." next to a huge cliff.
I tried Temple Knight on recommendations from this board, but I thought that the weapon was ridiculously huge and hard to swing. I do have to start over on my real account, now that I'm sure this is a game for me, so I may give something other than Royal a shot.
I fully intend on playing this online. I hope my offline "trial" of the game led everyone to believe that I'm trying to avoid this aspect of the game. I just created a "Demon's Souls" user account on my PS3 to try it out (this is what I do if I'm not sure if I'll like a game or if I rent a game, so that my trophy list isn't full of games I don't really own or don't like) and I didn't have any PSN account logged in under this temp account. I'll play online for sure once I'm playing for real.
About the PS quitting, I never really wanted to actually do this, I was just curious.
I think you mean "long-ranged" and "has a really wide area of effect," there.
Also, when in tight spaces, double-hand it to get attacks which are all in-line, like a spear. The vertical swings will also make it easier to take out low-profile enemies, like geckos, salamanders, and other assorted bugs.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
But I'ma commin' back, just you wait!
Hell man, he's easy with a melee character. Stay behind him, stab stab, back up when he does an attack, go back in and stab stab, rinse, repeat. It almost reminds me of trying to kill the tutorial boss, except even easier.
The dungeon that most intimidates me as a melee-focused character is the Tower of Latria. Mind Flayers don't seem like the type that you want to be close to at all.
BTW, pausing is not necessarily a huge deal, but it can be annoying at times (i.e. you need to go to the bathroom and you're in the middle of a bunch of monsters). I personally think that overall the game doesn't suffer from of the absence of this feature.
Damn, reviewers were right about the fear this game can instill in you. I am afraid to play it because of the impending sense that I will get my ass chewed out at every corner and lose my souls/body/dignity. So instead I post on these forums as one giant scaredy cat
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
You probably want to have the thief ring, though. If you're having a lot of trouble, get a bow and you can snipe them in such a way that they can't shoot back.
That + Knight's shield = badass motherfucker right now. Glad I pumped a ton of points into strength.
Magic Arrows are still super-powerful though. When do they become useless? (I'm on 2-1)
I like to pop into their view and dance until they shoot the green electrical ball. As soon as it misses you or hits a wall, they will charge you. As Behemoth said, use that time to stagger them and keep hitting them until they are dead.
I imported with no problems (besides needing an NTSC tv, obviously) and no lag.
Go do it!