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[Dark Souls] Go post in the new thread (pg 100 for link)
Fawst
The road to awe.Registered User regular
The road to awe.Registered User regular
Welcome to the Dark Souls thread!
Stolen from Satsumomo by Fawst
Dark Souls is a hardcore action-RPG by From Software, a spiritual successor to their previous game Demon's Souls. It's also as "difficult" as you've heard it is, but provides an experience that you rarely get in other modern games. But rather than difficult, the game is more unforgiving than just being artificially difficult. You overcome this difficulty by becoming better at the game, not because you increased your stats (Although they do matter!)
There are no difficulty levels and no manual saves, you cannot pause and combat is entirely skill based. By defeating enemies and using certain items you gain souls, which are everything. You use them to level up your character, buy and upgrade items and magic and in certain cases create powerful unique weapons.
As well as souls, there is a secondary resource you'll be collecting called humanity. You start the game as an undead (hollow), weaker and overall less effective than you are in human form. By collecting and spending humanity you can revert yourself back to human form, increasing certain resistances and improving your item discovery rate. Becoming human also allows you to be summoned to and invade other players worlds.
Doesn't sound too bad right? Well let's talk about death. You'll see this a lot. Death is as much a part of Dark Souls as collecting the precious souls themselves. If you die you keep your items but lose all your souls and humanity and leave behind a bloodstain. If you make it back to your bloodstain you can recover them, but die on your way back to your corpse and you lose them for good.
Rush forward with abandon to pick up that shiny item? You're going to die. Let your guard down because you've been through the starting enemies 20 times before? You're going to die. You'll learn to respect death as it starts out by beating you into the ground but then teaches you that every step forward, every dark corner and every closed door in this place demands respect.
Despite the shadow of death following you everywhere you go, there is one place you can gain some respite.
Bonfires are the one place you can rest and restore. You can spend your souls to increase your character stats, repair your weapons and armour and restore a limited number of healing flasks. Spend your humanity here and you can also make them more powerful and have them restore more healing items. Bonfires are also your only checkpoints, as long as you've lit one you will return to it once you die.
Of course it's not that easy. Anytime you touch a bonfire or warp back to one after dying, every enemy you've previously killed respawns ready to take you down again.
So that's Dark Souls. Prepare to die.
Multiplayer
or as we prefer to call it
Co-op
When co-opping in Dark Souls you can either summon players to your world or be a phantom summoned to another's world. To summon you must be human but phantoms can be either human or hollow. The summoning system isn't your normal "invite to game" thing though. In game you throw down a summoning sign and anyone within 10 levels of you can bring you into their world until you die, exit or kill the boss of that area.
PVP and Invading
Although becoming human allows you to summon others to your world when you want, it also opens you up to being invaded by anyone with an easy to obtain consumable item. The invader however doesn't choose what world to invade, it is random but limited to the zone you are currently in. Invasions and PVP can also be initiated by joining certain covenants that hold specific conditions.
Other Online Stuff
If you're not engaging in co-op or PVP, it still pays to play while online. Players can leave messages around the world warning of traps or monsters, giving instructions for hidden items or just being dicks and fucking you over. You'll also see other player's bloodstains throughout the world that show you how they met their maker.
Screenshots
Tips, guides & tricks
DSFix by Durante
Download here!
http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?tag=dsfix
DSFix is an amazing tweak for Dark Souls on PC. It will allow you to render the game at higher resolutions, and it includes several other tweaks, such as better lighting, texture mods, save backups, mouse cursor fixes and more. It is highly recommended to use this mod!
NOTE BEFORE INSTALLING DSFIX!
You MUST run the game first without DSFix, and disable the in-game AA option. Otherwise your game will crash on launch.
Here is a small example of the difference between Vanilla and with DSFix:
http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?tag=dsfix
DSFix is an amazing tweak for Dark Souls on PC. It will allow you to render the game at higher resolutions, and it includes several other tweaks, such as better lighting, texture mods, save backups, mouse cursor fixes and more. It is highly recommended to use this mod!
NOTE BEFORE INSTALLING DSFIX!
You MUST run the game first without DSFix, and disable the in-game AA option. Otherwise your game will crash on launch.
Here is a small example of the difference between Vanilla and with DSFix:
Playing with a Keyboard + Mouse?
While it is STRONGLY recommended to play with a gamepad (Preferably an X360 gamepad), there are some things you can do to improve your experience when doing KBAM.
Here is a guide, with links to improve KBAM controls in Dark Souls.
Dark Souls Connectivity Fix
DSCfix aims to improve the online experience when attempting to engage in jolly cooperation with friends. It is an interception DLL intended to be used with DSfix and functions by adding any online GFWL friends to your P2P connection pool before searching for random peers. This means that direct connections to friends are established right away, whereas in vanilla Dark Souls this only happens after the first successful summon or invasion (if you were even lucky to get that far).
Download here: http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/334//?
Download here: http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/334//?
Tips for new players (No spoilers, but I'm spoiling it anyways!)
Blendtec's armour guide
Humanity: The number to the left of your health bar, occasionally obtained from defeating enemies. Used to return to human form to summon others, kindle bonfires (5 more estus flask uses) and level up some covenants. Increases item drop rates and Chaos damage (cap at 10).
Endurance: Increases stamina and maximum equip burden. Stamina is used for attacking, blocking, sprinting and rolling – basically everything. Under 25% of your max burden and you can roll freely, 25-50% and your movement speed and roll are slower, 50-100% and you’re much slower and roll heavily with a long animation to get up. Over 100% and you plod ridiculously slowly and can’t roll at all.
40: The stamina hard cap, increasing past this point will only raise your equip burden.
Attunement: Determines how many spell slots you have for all sorceries, miracles and pyromancies.
10/12/14/16/19/23/28/34/41/50: 1-10 spell slots, 4-6 is generally sufficient.
Vitality: Your health. 30-50 is a good number for PvP and NG+.
Strength: Determines whether or not you can swing a weapon or use a shield effectively, increases damage dealt with weapons that scale with it. Multiplied by 1.5x when two handing a weapon.
16: Claymore, Zweihander (two handed), Eagle Shield, Black Knight Shield. The go-to value for non-strength builds.
28: Covers every weapon that might benefit from both dexterity and strength, hits 40 when two handed.
40: Diminishing returns on damage scaling past this point. Can one hand almost everything and two hand everything else.
(51/58/66): Every shield/one hand every weapon/max possible damage two handing (none of these are worth it).
Dexterity: Increases damage for weapons that scale with it, slightly increases casting speed.
18: Lets you use all Black Knight weapons and crossbows.
25: Covers every weapon that has a dexterity requirement to wield at all.
40: Diminishing scaling returns past this point.
(45): Max casting speed (not worth it).
Magic: Requirement for sorceries, increases damage for sorceries and weapons that scale with it (Magic/Enchanted).
10: Let’s you buy spells from the vendor at Firelink and Logan at the Archives, can use some basic utility spells.
Mag 16: Oolacile Catalyst, all utility spells, Dark Beads
Mag 25/32: Crystal Magic Weapon/Tin Crystallisation Catalyst and 5 orbs with the Soul mass spells and the Pursuers dark sorcery
44: Crystal Soul Spear sorcery.
(50): White Dragon Breath sorcery (not really worth it).
Faith: Increases magic defence, requirement for miracles, increases damage for miracles and weapons that scale with it (Blessed/Occult).
18: Emit Force and Homeward utility miracles.
28/30: Wrath of God miracle/Darkmoon and Sunlight Blade weapon buffs.
40: Diminishing returns past this point.
(50): Sunlight Spear (not really worth it).
Resistance: Joke stat, disregard. (Increases poison resistance, and increases defence slightly faster than other stats).
Poise: The most important stat on your armour. Higher poise means that you won’t get staggered when you’re hit by heavier attacks, which is particularly useful in PvP.
40: One hit from most one-handed weapons.
53: One hit from larger weapons (notably the Claymore and its ilk).
76: One hit from very large weapons, eg. Black Knight Greataxe and Zweihander.
Endurance: Increases stamina and maximum equip burden. Stamina is used for attacking, blocking, sprinting and rolling – basically everything. Under 25% of your max burden and you can roll freely, 25-50% and your movement speed and roll are slower, 50-100% and you’re much slower and roll heavily with a long animation to get up. Over 100% and you plod ridiculously slowly and can’t roll at all.
40: The stamina hard cap, increasing past this point will only raise your equip burden.
Attunement: Determines how many spell slots you have for all sorceries, miracles and pyromancies.
10/12/14/16/19/23/28/34/41/50: 1-10 spell slots, 4-6 is generally sufficient.
Vitality: Your health. 30-50 is a good number for PvP and NG+.
Strength: Determines whether or not you can swing a weapon or use a shield effectively, increases damage dealt with weapons that scale with it. Multiplied by 1.5x when two handing a weapon.
16: Claymore, Zweihander (two handed), Eagle Shield, Black Knight Shield. The go-to value for non-strength builds.
28: Covers every weapon that might benefit from both dexterity and strength, hits 40 when two handed.
40: Diminishing returns on damage scaling past this point. Can one hand almost everything and two hand everything else.
(51/58/66): Every shield/one hand every weapon/max possible damage two handing (none of these are worth it).
Dexterity: Increases damage for weapons that scale with it, slightly increases casting speed.
18: Lets you use all Black Knight weapons and crossbows.
25: Covers every weapon that has a dexterity requirement to wield at all.
40: Diminishing scaling returns past this point.
(45): Max casting speed (not worth it).
Magic: Requirement for sorceries, increases damage for sorceries and weapons that scale with it (Magic/Enchanted).
10: Let’s you buy spells from the vendor at Firelink and Logan at the Archives, can use some basic utility spells.
Mag 16: Oolacile Catalyst, all utility spells, Dark Beads
Mag 25/32: Crystal Magic Weapon/Tin Crystallisation Catalyst and 5 orbs with the Soul mass spells and the Pursuers dark sorcery
44: Crystal Soul Spear sorcery.
(50): White Dragon Breath sorcery (not really worth it).
Faith: Increases magic defence, requirement for miracles, increases damage for miracles and weapons that scale with it (Blessed/Occult).
18: Emit Force and Homeward utility miracles.
28/30: Wrath of God miracle/Darkmoon and Sunlight Blade weapon buffs.
40: Diminishing returns past this point.
(50): Sunlight Spear (not really worth it).
Resistance: Joke stat, disregard. (Increases poison resistance, and increases defence slightly faster than other stats).
Poise: The most important stat on your armour. Higher poise means that you won’t get staggered when you’re hit by heavier attacks, which is particularly useful in PvP.
40: One hit from most one-handed weapons.
53: One hit from larger weapons (notably the Claymore and its ilk).
76: One hit from very large weapons, eg. Black Knight Greataxe and Zweihander.
Stats Calculator
A bunch of helpful calculators can be found here:
https://sites.google.com/site/darksoulstats/
A bunch of helpful calculators can be found here:
https://sites.google.com/site/darksoulstats/
Dark Souls II
Dark Souls II is scheduled to release on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in March 2014. No current plans for a next-gen release.
DSII has been extensively shown on the floor at E3 2013, and several journalists have confirmed that the game is just as hard and unforgiving as its predecessor.
Features that have been confirmed:
- Dedicated servers for multiplayer
- 3 weapon slots per character
- Dual wielding
- Projectile deflecting
- Backstabs no longer work as a "grab"
There may be more info, but I am keeping myself in the dark about DS2, I like playing through blind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHgUuhOsHoA
DSII has been extensively shown on the floor at E3 2013, and several journalists have confirmed that the game is just as hard and unforgiving as its predecessor.
Features that have been confirmed:
- Dedicated servers for multiplayer
- 3 weapon slots per character
- Dual wielding
- Projectile deflecting
- Backstabs no longer work as a "grab"
There may be more info, but I am keeping myself in the dark about DS2, I like playing through blind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHgUuhOsHoASo, once again, welcome to the Dark Souls thread!
Please tag your spoilers, but don't hesitate to ask for help, we'll be as helfpul as possible, without spoiling anything.
Praise the Sun!
Fawst on
+1
Posts
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Edit: Also, I plan on doing some modifications to the OP so that it includes Demon's Souls info. The game is still going strong, after all.
I actually don't think it feels dated at all compared to Dark Souls. It has the same gorgeous environments that make you feel like an insignificant speck in a dying world where giants once walked.
The combat mechanics are largely similar, so your days as a newbie in Demon's souls are likely to be far less frustrating than your days as a newbie in dark souls.
It's not worse or better - it's actually very similar, but with enough differences to keep it fresh. Some of these differences are improvements, others aren't, on the whole it's clearly another dark souls game and if you enjoyed dark souls I can't imagine you not enjoying demon souls.
Demon and Dark souls are much closer than, say, AC I and AC II.
The world tendency stuff is probably the most complicated new mechanic, IMO.
I actually feel like they could have blended the world tendency mechanics with some sort of covenant vs covenant based invasion/pvp for some interesting results. The worlds are different and different characters/encounters appear based on which covenant is currently ascendent. It would be best if it wasn't a binary 'one covenant is on top' mechanic, but rather since each covenant has different goals and different methods, if say maybe 3 covenants could be influencing the worlds at any one time.
As it is, invasions in dark souls feel pretty low impact, both as the invader and the invadee. Hooray you got some souls humanity. Big whup. No one loses anything. The only way dying to a pvp invader is bad is if you were already on a corpse run, in which case - why on earth are you human?
Otherwise you see the guy coming and usually have plenty of time to get back to a safe place. I guess as a new player who is, say, mired in blight town and doesn't know where he is it can be a problem. But if you know the area it doesn't take long to get to somewhere you can usually reliably get back to your body if yo die. And even if you do die and lose your souls/humanity, well, that happens all the time anyway.
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Other than that, like @Vorpal said, if you enjoy one, you will probably enjoy the shit out of the other. That prison level will always give me nightmares.
I very much like that while you are human, you can be invaded by phantom NPC's. That is a good way to introduce new players to the concept. The problem is the first invader (Kirk) happens way too late - at least he happens in a hellishly difficult area so you know invasions can make your life much harder! Usually new players get invaded in the undead burg the instant they turn human. I'd stick some sort of NPC invader reaaaaaaally early on.
Much like you can be invaded without your consent, I'd like to see players forced to invade without their consent. I'm not sure how to arrange that, perhaps it could be a covenant. But I think forcing people to engage in both sides of the PvP coin could be beneficial. As invaders don't lose anything anyway, hard to see a downside. You do get to invade Lautrec so you can kind of see what it's like but I think there should be more of that - just suddenly you are getting randomly warped to someone elses world and have to kill them to go home. (or die).
They also need to figure out a better way of balancing low level PvP. As it is you can have veteran players at low soul levels who have twinked themselves out with really good gear either obtained via shortcuts or transferred from other characters) invading newbies and one shotting them. Tighter level/stat restrictions on gear perhaps? But the open world go-anywhere-loot-anything-you-can-get-your-hands-on nature of Dark Souls is one of it's chief strengths, IMO. I don't think restricting that would be a great trade. Perhaps some sort of behind the scenes gear level check?
That and pyromancy is way too easy to make use of with no stat point investments.
In honesty a veteran invading a newbie is going to win fairly easily even if they have the exact same gear. But perhaps the newbie might not feel it was quite such a pointless experience if the invader wasn't clearly decked out in twinked gear the newbie had never seen and doesn't even have access too. Dark Souls is supposed to be about danger and risk and uncertainty and I don't think invaders should ever invade with a feeling of casual ease, knowing it's extremely unlikely they'll meet anyone who is a threat and even if they do, there's no way they can lose anything.
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
There might be some op items/spell for low level, but no more +5 lightning reinforced clubs with maxed pyro at SL1.
I wanted a PS3 because of Metal Gear Solid IV and Gears of War 3. I bought a PS3 because of Demon's Souls.
I'm assuming this is a deployed APO address, because if like me here in Japan, I just skip my merry way to yonder PX and pick up a copy launch day.
I should have gone with the PS3 instead of the 360. Some old and new JRPGs in the PSN store really interest me.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Ah, Demon's Souls. I thought Dark Souls was hard. Then I played Demon's Souls. Dark Souls made me rage quit. Demon's Souls made me *cry* (screw 5-1!).
XBL: GamingFreak5514
PSN: GamingFreak1234
Man I must be some kind of freak
I played Demons first, which was definitely excruciating but I beat it pretty quickly. I think the Hub/levels thing made it more digestible since I had a clear goal. But, Dark souls made me quit for a loooooong time, infact I bought it on launch day and beat it for the first time.... yesterday. One of us!
So Hyped.
XBL: GamingFreak5514
PSN: GamingFreak1234
I definitely bought my PS3 specifically for Demon's Souls. That was the system seller for me and I never regretted it.
SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
Now I'm having horrible flashbacks. Everyone complains about that "other" level but, 4-1 must of taken me weeks. I seem to remember constantly being invaded while the level was still loading right at the start. Maybe I've purposefully forgotten the DeS memories as they're just too painful to relive, it's a defense mechanism. Ohhhh god.... stingray things everywhere.
SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
I have not played any pen and paper RPGs but it sounds like Demon's Souls comes close to Ravenloft. Am I wrong?
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
But yeah, Tower of Latria is so god damn good the first time through... the atmosphere is ridiculous. Dark, the little bells ringing in the distance, figures carrying lanterns along walkways... not to mention the second level with the whole weird giant chains running through it.
Now that I look back. At the time of playing DeS I had already been deployed to Iraq with the Army, but it's being a melee character and trying to get down those stingray/skeleton cliffs that made me a man. So many broken controllers...
And now I'm looking through Dark souls youtube videos to increase hype. I didn't even know there was a story in DS1. I was just a dude, a dude with a shield, a spear, and a glint in my eye - fighting everything.
So does Dark Souls. The world oozes despair and almost every story ends badly. Everything wants to kill you, and every shining light is a lie and a trap.
And not even death offers you any escape.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
In Dark Souls I'm at the Tomb of the Giants/Duke's Archives split but having recently watched Vinny from Giant Bomb play through the latter half of the game (watching him play actually got me back into it), has killed my interest in those areas.
I do want to beat both of them, but I think I nice JRPG break is in order. (I should probably beat Ni No Kuni)
Steam: abunchofdaftpunk | PSN: noautomobilesgo | Lastfm: sjchszeppelin | Backloggery: colincummings | 3DS FC: 1392-6019-0219 |
Dark Souls is creeping horror. Demon Souls is a bit more upfront about it. You start out alive after all. Then you are brutally killed and trapped in a nightmare world.
My Let's Play Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2go70QLfwGq-hW4nvUqmog
Four Kings was giving my Hollow Thief Set / Rapier / Target Shield build trouble, so I stopped playing for a few months. I just beat 'em without breaking a sweat.
Eh.. Dark Souls.
Yep, Demon Souls gives you a glimmer of hope before dashing it on the rocks.
In Dark Souls, you're already dead, so how bad could it be?
Ooh, tell me more! Is this the Last Centurion Rory? I've got one character I set up to look as much like a Roman Centurion as possible (bits and pieces of armor, eastern has some good ones, thank god for eagle shield!) and was wondering if you'd found good choices.
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
Sinners will be punished.
Though the garden is also the Forest Covenant invasion area... but they're red. Blue is exclusively Darkmoon.
No souls left behind is odd though.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
i ain't no sinner.
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
May just have been a glitch in color and it was a Forest Covenant invasion then. I've heard of that happening, but more comically (white).
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Nah I just have him in the biggest armor I can with a greatshield and the best strength weapon I can find so far.
I'm not making the centurion. I'm making transcendent Rory.
He's currently Black Iron Rory.
He may end up being Giant Rory.
Or possibly Silver Rory, Spikey Rory or Golden Rory. Really depends on how I feel about each one after I put them on.
Though there are glitches in invading sometimes. I was playing a forest hunter and was being summoned to the forest via the cat ring, but I zoned in as a white phantom.
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion