Dark Souls 2 FAQ

[Matthew Jabour]

The Souls series is well known for its high difficulty, well-hidden secrets, and complex level design with very unintuitive exploits. This thread is for those last two. I'm here to help answer any questions and concerns you might have, including:
-Areas and the easiest ways to get through them
-Bosses and whatever tricks there might be to make them easier
-Tough enemies and the best strategies for defeating them
-Secret items and where to find them
-Where, exactly, you should use your Lockstones
-How to avoid being repeatedly ganked by the various PvP covenants
and so much more!

Have a question? Need help for a boss? Feel free to ask. And if you see a question you know the answer to, by all means answer it.

P.S. By the way, secret walls don't react to hitting them anymore, you just have to press A. Just throwing that one out there.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

Actually there are two kinds of walls, one kind that you need to press A to open and one kind you have to hit with your sword.
This makes all the hidden room ahead messages bloody confusing.

Apart from that, Shrine of Amana, be prepared with either a bow or some kind of magic.

 

[Dandark]

One thing I have been trying to figure out in Dark souls 2 is what the best way to scale with fire is. Im making a pyromancer character now who is going to be mainly focusing on using fire(Fire weapons and pyromancy) but I don't know how to scale with fire.

Im trying to level up faith but im not sure if I need to level up int as well, as far as I know 30 int and 30 faith would be the same as 60 of either so I was thinking of focusing on one.

Anyone else know what the best way to scale with fire is?

 

[suitepee7]

One thing I have been trying to figure out in Dark souls 2 is what the best way to scale with fire is. Im making a pyromancer character now who is going to be mainly focusing on using fire(Fire weapons and pyromancy) but I don't know how to scale with fire.

Im trying to level up faith but im not sure if I need to level up int as well, as far as I know 30 int and 30 faith would be the same as 60 of either so I was thinking of focusing on one.

Anyone else know what the best way to scale with fire is?

afaik, fire damage scales with both int and faith, and roughly the same level (not certain about the second part). if you plan on doing a fire/weapon build, i would advise you only really focus on one at first, then get all other stats up, and then go back to the other. however if its mainly a pryomancy build with almost all casts, do both.

also in case you didn't know, attunement also increases the number of available casts, so definitely don't neglect it if you're primarily a caster.

side note: get one of the black knight weapons (halberd is probably best), they scale pretty well and have additional fire damage

my question - for a dex/faith build, are there any naturally good weapons with lightning damage already on it, or am i better off infusing a regular weapon? also is it worth infusing short bow?

 

[Augustine]

Actually there are two kinds of walls, one kind that you need to press A to open and one kind you have to hit with your sword.
This makes all the hidden room ahead messages bloody confusing.

Those that are opened by impact are quite obvious, and scarcely need any aid in finding. They are almost exclusively Pharos' glowing walls.

Also there's a third kind of secret passage - ones that can be blown up with explosive barrels. There are very few of those (two?), but are rather important. Ones in the Forest of Giants and Bastille come to mind.

for a dex/faith build, are there any naturally good weapons with lightning damage already on it

This is a purely late game suggestion, but the Bow of Want (crafted from the soul of the last boss) fits your description very well. Very powerful bow if you got the right stats for it. And it can be further infused with extra lightning damage.

One thing I have been trying to figure out in Dark souls 2 is what the best way to scale with fire is. Im making a pyromancer character now who is going to be mainly focusing on using fire(Fire weapons and pyromancy) but I don't know how to scale with fire.
Anyone else know what the best way to scale with fire is?

I was under the impression that Fire scaled from combination of Int/Faith/Pyromancy Flame.
Level of the flame is the most critical part. Black Flame also scales up well with Hollowing level.
Also:
http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/20po1a/did_a_bit_of_testing_with_pyromancy_and_fire_bns/

 

[Maphysto]

my question - for a dex/faith build, are there any naturally good weapons with lightning damage already on it, or am i better off infusing a regular weapon? also is it worth infusing short bow?

You can get the Heide Knight Sword from the knight under the tree in Forest of Fallen Giants. It has natural lightning damage and is pretty good, at east early game. Later on, though, you may want to consider infusing a rapier or something.

As for the short bow, whether or not to infuse it depends on whether you'll be focusing on dex or faith. While I can't confirm, I'm 90% sure that infusion removes STR/DEX scaling. So, if you're mainly working on dex, don't infuse, but if you want mostly faith, give it lightning.

 

[Dandark]

side note: get one of the black knight weapons (halberd is probably best), they scale pretty well and have additional fire damage

my question - for a dex/faith build, are there any naturally good weapons with lightning damage already on it, or am i better off infusing a regular weapon? also is it worth infusing short bow?

You can get the Heide knight sword from the old heide knight in the forest of the fallen giants(In between the first bonfire and the tower bonfire, he is sitting under a tree) which is a great faith weapon early on in the game.
Later on you will probably want to infuse your own weapon though there is the dragonslayer spear which I believe scales primarily with dex and faith.

Personally I had the best results with a lightning claymore, it scales with both strength and dex equally but I took advantage of the faith scaling mostly. You could also try infusing a katana with lightning, I believe the blacksteel katana(Drops from Alonne knights in the iron keep) only has a small drop in dex scaling when you infuse it.

 

[Bombiz]

Any one know how to build a proper dex/int build?

 

[Hawkeye21]

While I can't confirm, I'm 90% sure that infusion removes STR/DEX scaling.

No, it doesn't. It just lowers it. It does, however add infused element scaling, like if you infused greatsword with lightning it will decrease strength and dex scaling, but add faith scaling. Enchanted infused weapons scale all their damage with INT.

You can read all about infusing weapons here http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Upgrades#.U2t09lcYkak

Also, one piece of information I wish I knew from the start: using bonfire ascetics carries added difficulty into NG+, so, if you burned 10 of them to farm twinkling titanite in dragon aerie, you are going to have a fun time there in NG+

 

[Dandark]

Any one know how to build a proper dex/int build?

Im not expert on Int builds but I think the current popular thing to do is infuse a katana with magic damage for dex/int builds. If you want to cast plenty of spells then invest more in attunement for slots but if your happy with only a few you can either invest more into int or put more in dexterity.