What are you currently playing?

[Johnny Novgorod]

Never played Dark Souls? I'm really surprised.

It was largely a kneejerk reaction to the game getting furiously recommended and meme'd to death, plus the sneaky suspicion that it was just Demon's Souls by any other name. I was a big fan of that and I never understood why it was such a miss where Dark Souls triumphed.

So to anyone interested, I'm just past the dragon and into the Undead Parish. Died an embarrassing amount to Taurus Demon and ended up cheesing it with four downward stabs. I just got the first good weapon upgrade in the game so far, the Drake Sword. I'm paranoid about using any items so I'm hoarding everything just in case. I'm assuming fast travel between bonfires comes later.

I'm not clear about what humanities and kindling are for, and how do they work, and what's the point of unhollowing other than getting invaded.

 

[Xprimentyl]

It was largely a kneejerk reaction to the game getting furiously recommended and meme'd to death, plus the sneaky suspicion that it was just Demon's Souls by any other name. I was a big fan of that and I never understood why it was such a miss where Dark Souls triumphed.

So to anyone interested, I'm just past the dragon and into the Undead Parish. Died an embarrassing amount to Taurus Demon and ended up cheesing it with four downward stabs. I just got the first good weapon upgrade in the game so far, the Drake Sword.

The Drake Sword is a lie; it's great for the early game, but since it doesn't scale with anything, it can be outclassed by almost any other upgraded weapon almost immediately.

I'm paranoid about using any items so I'm hoarding everything just in case. I'm assuming fast travel between bonfires comes later.

There's nothing you can really run out of; some things are harder to come by than others, but nothing is necessarily finite. Even Humanity which you can "waste" is farmable. I think the only thing you want to use sparingly would be Titanite slabs; they're used to upgrade a weapon to its highest tier, and are very hard to come by, so make sure you're committed to a weapon before using them.

I'm not clear about what humanities and kindling are for, and how do they work, and what's the point of unhollowing other than getting invaded.

Consuming humanities slightly raises resistances, increases drop rates (stacks a little with each humanity consumed up to 10,) and makes you invadable. If you don't want to be bothered with PvP, just stay hollow; the benefits other than PvP are relatively negligible, and can be achieved with other items.

 

[Ezekiel]

This Michael Bay stuff feels like an admission that there really isn't that much to playing westerns and such a game should be short and sweet rather than long. Hot air balloon would be extremely easy to eliminate.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Consuming humanities slightly raises resistances, increases drop rates (stacks a little with each humanity consumed up to 10,) and makes you invadable. If you don't want to be bothered with PvP, just stay hollow; the benefits other than PvP are relatively negligible, and can be achieved with other items.

Curious: Is there any other way to restore your character's human appearance than to restore Humanity? Or is the only way to avoid trolls keeping your character looking like a ghoul?

 

[Worgen]

Curious: Is there any other way to restore your character's human appearance than to restore Humanity? Or is the only way to avoid trolls keeping your character looking like a ghoul?

Not without mods or whole body covering armor.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Curious: Is there any other way to restore your character's human appearance than to restore Humanity? Or is the only way to avoid trolls keeping your character looking like a ghoul?

Humanity is the only way, and the benefits are far outweighed by the detriments, at least for those of us who don't bother with PvP.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Beat the two Bell Gargoyles and NOW it feels like the game's started properly. Finally met a blacksmith and unlocked a shortcut to the central hub. Undead Burg/Parish is remarkably like the first area of Demon's Souls, whatever it was called, down to the dragon scares on the ramparts and the appearance of a jolly adventure bro who's probably gonna get it. I have fond memories of Ostrava waltzing off a bridge in Demon's Souls, which cost me I forget which key item and immediately doomed me to one more NG+. I must've been on NG +5 by the time I got the Plat.

Anyway, I have a hard time parsing and comparing weapon and armor stats so I just go with the ones where the blue stats outbumber the red stats.

If anybody wants to recommend an early game weapon/armor to reinforce, please be my guest.

Also, is it worth kindling every bonfire for the +5 Estus or am I supposed to be picky, like near boss rooms?

 

[Xprimentyl]

Beat the two Bell Gargoyles and NOW it feels like the game's started properly. Finally met a blacksmith and unlocked a shortcut to the central hub. Undead Burg/Parish is remarkably like the first area of Demon's Souls, whatever it was called, down to the dragon scares on the ramparts and the appearance of a jolly adventure bro who's probably gonna get it. I have fond memories of Ostrava waltzing off a bridge in Demon's Souls, which cost me I forget which key item and immediately doomed me to one more NG+. I must've been on NG +5 by the time I got the Plat.

Anyway, I have a hard time parsing and comparing weapon and armor stats so I just go with the ones where the blue stats outbumber the red stats.

If anybody wants to recommend an early game weapon/armor to reinforce, please be my guest.

Also, is it worth kindling every bonfire for the +5 Estus or am I supposed to be picky, like near boss rooms?

My personal favorite weapon is the Uchigatana which you get when you kill the undead merchant in the Undead Parish, but it's a DEX weapon; not sure what build you're going for.

As far as which bonfires to kindle, it's up to you. I typically only kindle the ones I know I'm going to frequent, but since it's just Humanity, upgrading any/all of them is low cost/decent reward.

EDIT: Also, the Zweihander is a great STR weapon you can nab for free from the graveyard near the Firelink Shrine bonfire .

 

[meiam]

Beat the two Bell Gargoyles and NOW it feels like the game's started properly. Finally met a blacksmith and unlocked a shortcut to the central hub. Undead Burg/Parish is remarkably like the first area of Demon's Souls, whatever it was called, down to the dragon scares on the ramparts and the appearance of a jolly adventure bro who's probably gonna get it. I have fond memories of Ostrava waltzing off a bridge in Demon's Souls, which cost me I forget which key item and immediately doomed me to one more NG+. I must've been on NG +5 by the time I got the Plat.

Anyway, I have a hard time parsing and comparing weapon and armor stats so I just go with the ones where the blue stats outbumber the red stats.

If anybody wants to recommend an early game weapon/armor to reinforce, please be my guest.

Also, is it worth kindling every bonfire for the +5 Estus or am I supposed to be picky, like near boss rooms?

Haven't played the remaster version so they might have nerfed it, but claymore is/was one of the best weapon in the entire game, and can be obtain very early.

If you wanna go faith, there's also the astora straight sword.

Don't kindle everything, not worth it, just wait till there's a boss you struggle.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

My personal favorite weapon is the Uchigatana which you get when you kill the undead merchant in the Undead Parish, but it's a DEX weapon; not sure what build you're going for.

As far as which bonfires to kindle, it's up to you. I typically only kindle the ones I know I'm going to frequent, but since it's just Humanity, upgrading any/all of them is low cost/decent reward.

EDIT: Also, the Zweihander is a great STR weapon you can nab for free from the graveyard near the Firelink Shrine bonfire .

I got the Zweihander before I realized the graveyard path led to the harder area before Undead Burg but I'm too fond of shields to use it. And I'm too much of a goody two shoes to kill the merchant for the uchigatana.

I picked Warrior and I'm currently shooting for STR 20 DEX 18 so I can try out the Black Knight Sword or whatever it was called.

Haven't played the remaster version so they might have nerfed it, but claymore is/was one of the best weapon in the entire game, and can be obtain very early.

If you wanna go faith, there's also the astora straight sword.

Don't kindle everything, not worth it, just wait till there's a boss you struggle.

Got the Claymore and I was using that until I got the Drake Sword too, which I ended up choosing because it's faster and one-shots most mooks so far.

I'll probablt go for the Faith sword eventually since I need 25 Faith to join the sun bro covenant anyway.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I'm not clear about what humanities and kindling are for, and how do they work, and what's the point of unhollowing other than getting invaded.

There are a few NPC invaders with unique drops that only spawn when unhollowed. You also get the bonuses to drop rate and resistance for having a higher humanity stat, but you still get the bonus even when hollow. Kindling just gives you more estus and you should do it as much as possible unless you are short on humanity or want the game to be harder.

I got the Zweihander before I realized the graveyard path led to the harder area before Undead Burg but I'm too fond of shields to use it. And I'm too much of a goody two shoes to kill the merchant for the uchigatana.

You can use a shield with the Zweihander. That's the sword I beat the game with the first time.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

You can use a shield with the Zweihander. That's the sword I beat the game with the first time.

Then I'm about to write a sternly-worded letter to Hidetaka explaining the meaning of zwei and hander.

(I'll try it out though)

 

[Xprimentyl]

I got the Zweihander before I realized the graveyard path led to the harder area before Undead Burg but I'm too fond of shields to use it. And I'm too much of a goody two shoes to kill the merchant for the uchigatana.

I picked Warrior and I'm currently shooting for STR 20 DEX 18 so I can try out the Black Knight Sword or whatever it was called.


Got the Claymore and I was using that until I got the Drake Sword too, which I ended up choosing because it's faster and one-shots most mooks so far.

I'll probablt go for the Faith sword eventually since I need 25 Faith to join the sun bro covenant anyway.

The Black Knight Sword is amazing; you can take that one to the end of the game easily. And if you can net the Black Knight Halberd from the knight in Deeproot Basin, you can basically say you beat the game. That was the weapon I beat it with first.

Oh, and since I know you like to go for platinums, plan on at least 2.5 playthroughs; you need.boss Souls to make unique weapons, and a couple of those souls make 2-3 different weapons you'll need.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The Black Knight Sword is amazing; you can take that one to the end of the game easily. And if you can net the Black Knight Halberd from the knight in Deeproot Basin, you can basically say you beat the game. That was the weapon I beat it with first.

Oh, and since I know you like to go for platinums, plan on at least 2.5 playthroughs; you need.boss Souls to make unique weapons, and a couple of those souls make 2-3 different weapons you'll need.

Black Knight Sword it is.

I'll probably take a breather after I beat it once but yeah, the plan was to make it my Platinum #150 (currently at #149). Knowing I have to play the game at least 1 or 2 more times anyway takes the pressure off missable stuff like covenants and the collectibles trophies.

I poked around Deeproot Basin and decided it wasn't for me. Can barely put a dent on the headless lightning demon thing at the entrance.

Oh and I got curve-stomped by Capra Demon just by walking into the arena. That's a funny 5 second clip I just trimmed, and enough Dark Souls for the day.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Black Knight Sword it is.

I'll probably take a breather after I beat it once but yeah, the plan was to make it my Platinum #150 (currently at #149). Knowing I have to play the game at least 1 or 2 more times anyway takes the pressure off missable stuff like covenants and the collectibles trophies.

I poked around Deeproot Basin and decided it wasn't for me. Can barely put a dent on the headless lightning demon thing at the entrance.

Oh and I got curve-stomped by Capra Demon just by walking into the arena. That's a funny 5 second clip I just trimmed, and enough Dark Souls for the day.

Capra Demon's is the biggest bullshit fight in the game. Probably could catch hell for this, but look up the cheese strategy; it's only fair since you're in for enough challenges ahead that a 3-on-1 in a closet should be cheesed.

 

[Satinavian]

I am playing EU4 yet again. It is somehow a game i always come back to.

Recently i am exploring some of the conversion mods. Same of them do crazy things with the base mechanics.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I am playing EU4 yet again. It is somehow a game i always come back to.

Recently i am exploring some of the conversion mods. Same of them do crazy things with the base mechanics.

Never been able to get into those games, but I enjoy reading the after-action reports of people that do.

What kinds of crazy things?

 

[Drathnoxis]

Capra Demon's is the biggest bullshit fight in the game. Probably could catch hell for this, but look up the cheese strategy; it's only fair since you're in for enough challenges ahead that a 3-on-1 in a closet should be cheesed.

It is the biggest BS fight. Don't cheese it though, that's lame. It's definitely doable without cheese, you just need to get out of the entryway before you get pinned down.

 

[Xprimentyl]

It is the biggest BS fight. Don't cheese it though, that's lame. It's definitely doable without cheese, you just need to get out of the entryway before you get pinned down.

Yeah, I figured someone would virtue signal on behalf of doing it the "right" way. @Johnny Novgorod, follow your heart; if your heart wants to fight Capra, then follow your heart... follow it back to its apartment, and drown it in the bathtub, then come back and cheese that fucking fight.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I felt bad about cheesing Taurus Demon so I'll give Capra a few honest tries. I mean I did too with Taurus until I got sick of not being able to bank the souls I kept losing and retrieving.

Biggest hurdle right now is how inconveniently placed the bonfire is. It's a long walk from Firelink, which I'm sensing is the closest spawn point.

At least I beat Havel without much problem.