Dark Souls Patched, Now Slightly Easier

Earnest Cavalli

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Jun 19, 2008
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Dark Souls Patched, Now Slightly Easier



Namco Bandai just released the 1.05 patch for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Dark Souls and we've got details.

Dark Souls isn't technically an MMO, and yet it flirts with the genre like a drunk co-ed rebelling against daddy. Thus, when the game gets a patch full of balance tweaks and subtle changes to the brutal adventure, fans of the game should prick up their ears and have a peak.

The good news? This particular patch seems to make the game a bit easier. Don't get me wrong, it's still capable of turning even the most devout Buddhist monk into a swearing, screaming infant, but with the 1.05 patch Dark Souls has gone from "insanely hard" to merely "really stupid-hard."

I'll include the full translated patch notes below (hat tip to Brett [http://www.twitch.tv/thebrett] for the translation), but would like to draw special attention to one particular change that means a whole lot to me:

Humanity Item drop rate increased from 10 to 210

On behalf of everyone who has spent the vast, vast majority of their time in Dark Souls as a sunken-eyed Hollow, I'd just like to say "Gwyn be praised!"

That said, here's the rest of the changes courtesy Brett's Pastebin post [http://pastebin.com/HxMjdaBx]:

Magic Changes:
Pyro Glove nerfed from 270 to 230.
You can see resonance signs now.
Vow of Silence range increased.
Sorcery spell damage as a whole was slightly buffed, but Homing Soul Mass and other pursuit style spells were nerfed.
Magic Shield duration lowered to ~11 seconds.
Strong Magic Shield duration lowered to ~11 seconds. Invincibility removed. Effect on Stamina drastically reduced.
Tranquil Walk of Peace and other Slow duration reduced to ~10 secs. Effect supposedly changed from 100% encumberance to 50%. Rolling possible if your equip burden is lowered. Slowness is similar to swamp effect.
Iron Flesh effectiveness nerfed.
Invisible Body duration remains unchanged.

Status Changes:
Base Equipment Burden increased (~6-10 points)
Humanity Item drop rate increased from 10 to 210
Medium roll recovery faster? (unclear and unconfirmed)
Defensive bonuses gained via Humanity reduced. Other defensive bonuses remain unchanged.
Item discovery gained via Humanity improved. Capped at 20.

Equipment General Changes:
Reported some weapon scaling gets improved at higher normal upgrades (+15 uchi dex scaling goes to A)
Some scaling reported as changing from A to S with higher upgrades

Upgrade Changes:
Normal scaling buffed by 5-20% (20% at +14).
Crystal scaling buffed by 5-20% (20% at +4).
Lightning +4 nerfed by 2% (+5 remains unchanged).
Raw scaling buffed by 10% (all levels).
Magic stat scaling buffed by 10-20% (20% at +9).
Enchanted stat scaling buffed by 15-20% (20% at +4).
Divine stat scaling buffed by 10-20% (20% at +9).
Occult stat scaling buffed by 15-20% (20% at +4).
Fire +9 nerfed by 2%. (+5 remains unchanged)
Dragon stat scaling buffed by 5-20% (20% at +5).

Specific Gear Changes:
Grant scaling changed to Strength:B and Faith:A
Gold-hemmed nerfed, still can't be upgraded.
Dust skirt nerfed hard (streamlined to match the other pieces).
Silver Knights, Sun, Hollow Soldier's Shield and other medium shield stability nerfed to ~70 at max upgrades to improve Great Shield viability.
Crystal Ring Shield scaling drastically nerfed. Does around ~200 +-50
Dragon Greatsword buffed from 360 to 390.
Silver Knight's Sword lightning effect removed. Now enchantable.
Elite Knight gear nerfed, then buffed slightly in 1.05

Combat Changes:
Lock-on acquisition range increased.
Lock-on changing/switching got easier (more responsive).
Ring of Fog users can now be locked on.

PVE Changes:
Overall increase in souls gained (~2-2.5 times more)
Damage reduced on some mobs?
HP lowered on some mobs?
Reduced acquisition range on normal enemies.
Supposedly reduced poise on some enemies.
Bosses drop Humanity and Homeward Bones
Ghosts and Skeletons give souls now.
Twinkling Titanite drop rate improved.
Pyromancers in Catacombs drop Skull Lanterns.
Darkwraiths in New Londo drop Dark Hand.

Online Changes:
You can see resonance signs.
Some invasion restrictions possibly changed? Darkwraith upperlimit confirmed as unchanged.
1.05: Summon restrictions improved slightly again.
Amount of souls the Master of the game gains changed.
Cracked Eye Orbs no longer get consumed on failure. Confirmed
You can hit Select to rate messages.
1.05: Fixed 1.04 bug where summon signs were invisible.

Covenant Changes:
Covenant Material drop rate improved.
Lowered requirements for Sunbro covenenant (requirements moved from 50 to 25. 3/4 assists should do the trick)

Other Changes:
Official Guide nerfed.
Forest Hunter NPC farming remains unchanged.
Dark Anor Londo NPC farming remains unchanged.
Kiln Skip Glitch still works in 1.05

Merchant stock updates:
Male Undead Merchant: Also sells bottomless box
Female Undead Merchant: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts
Andrei: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts
Domnhal of Xena: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts, Master Key (5000)
Giant Blacksmith (Fapsmith): Sells Arrows / Crossbolts, Small Titanite Shards, Large Tit Shards, Twinkling (8000 per, inf amount), Green Shards, Repair box, upgrade boxes
Vamos: Arrows / Crossbolts, Small Tit, Large tit, Repair box / upgrade boxes
Inglwood: Sells Transient Curses

Fixes:
Fixed some freeze issues
Lvl up screen displays souls needed properly now
Dragon-head glitch, snuggly, and magic shield glitches fixed.
Fixed a bug where your inputs come out 1 second later.
Fixed a bug where the second solaire event wont progress.
Fixed a bug where feeding frampt a titanite stone then going over 99 resulted in having zero.
Fixed some specific map areas where you'd get stuck or be unable to progress.
Changed some english subtitles on the overseas port.

So? What do you guys think? Awesome or super awesome?

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-22-dark-souls-patch-1-05-released-notes]

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RedEyesBlackGamer

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Jan 23, 2011
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EpicNameBro said that the patch made the game easier, so I will stick to vanilla Dark Souls.
 

gigastar

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Sep 13, 2010
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What do i think? I think im going to sacrifice the pseudo-online gameplay fragments so i can keep my Iron Flesh tanking.

On the other hand, ive been wanting to start a new character as part of the Sunlight Warrior covenant... And maybe another one to experiment with those weapon types i left on the wayside due to them doing ultimately less damage than fire or lightning...

Choices. I hate choosing.

Also, how exactly do you nerf an official guide?
 

Kopikatsu

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May 27, 2010
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DVS BSTrD said:
Now they've finally made the game what it was always supposed to be:
Playable.
Still not playable. At least PvP isn't. Lightning weapons are more or less unchanged. They needed to get a giant nerf hammer of Justice.

Also, Iron Flesh was nerfed. Good luck surviving on NG++ and up as anything but a naked, dex heavy build with the Dark Grain Wood Ring permanently attached to your little body.

godofallu said:
It fixed the infinite glitch, and made the game easier. Stupid on both fronts.

Of course I already beat the game twice, and the PvP is garbage either way. So I guess this doesn't bother me too much.
How was fixing the infinite soul glitch 'stupid'? It broke PvP even worse than normal. And PvP was completely smashed to begin with.
 

godofallu

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Jun 8, 2010
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It fixed the infinite glitch, and made the game easier. Stupid on both fronts.

Of course I already beat the game twice, and the PvP is garbage either way. So I guess this doesn't bother me too much.
 

viranimus

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Nov 20, 2009
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Truly awesome.

Not for what they did as much as it is the effect it will have personally.

Given my PS3 is offline only (Thanks Sony for giving consumers a choice of update and agree to an illegal ToS or offline play only. So now it means that when I do muster the time to finish the game, Ill have beaten it in the "harder" pre 1.05 version of the game. Thank you guys for inadvertently creating a little badge of honor. Now if I could get a handle on this rental renovation, so I could have time to work through this game.
 

oldtaku

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Jan 7, 2011
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Woohoo! Now we have license to kvetch about how fantastic Dark Souls was before they ruined it and made it a total walk in the park. *harumph* 'Back in my day, kiddies, we snapped a controller in rage PER NIGHT.'
 

ZeroMachine

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My only question is... can I still kill that damned dragon (wyvern, drake, whatever) on the bridge with a single shot from behind?
 

josemlopes

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Earnest Cavalli said:
Humanity Item drop rate increased from 10 to 210
It wasnt that hard to have humanity, rats drop it from time to time and there are a lot of rats on the Depths. And since humanity can be stored by only using it when necessary I usually had 3 or 4 in my inventory.
 

Westaway

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What does the humanity thing mean? That it'l drop more often? Cuz that's fantastic, as well as the soul increase
 

Zetona

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Mixed feelings. Us hardcore players don't really WANT the game to be easier. That said, some things are definitely welcome. A bit more souls per kill will be nice, especially for really big and annoying enemies like the black knights in Anor Londo that only give you 500 souls as is. The increase in Humanity drop rate is very welcome, but 10 to 210 seems a bit like overdoing it. My Lightning Spear +4 is nerfed, as is my favorite armor--more incentive to try something new, I guess! And the increased equip burden will help with that. And I'm excited that I can now get the Dark Hand through an item drop. I was thinking about joining the Darkwraith Covenant just to get it.
 

SamuelT

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ZeroMachine said:
My only question is... can I still kill that damned dragon (wyvern, drake, whatever) on the bridge with a single shot from behind?
I tried this morning, with the patch. It disappeared like it always does, but it didn't die and was just there when I returned.

OT: Save for the increase in humanity drops, most of this is largely irrelevant for me. Though selling T.Titanite is pretty awesome, I had to trade those plants for it most of the time and that took ages.
 

Kopikatsu

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Mr Ink 5000 said:
what the hll does nerfed mean?

i've noticed i'm getting a lot more souls per a kill now too
Nerfed is...nerfed. The opposite of buffed. It was made weaker.

Westaway said:
What does the humanity thing mean? That it'l drop more often? Cuz that's fantastic, as well as the soul increase
MUCH more often, yes.
 

otakon17

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Jun 21, 2010
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Mr Ink 5000 said:
what the hll does nerfed mean?

i've noticed i'm getting a lot more souls per a kill now too
"Nerfed" means the effect was weaken substantially. Which means it is now WORTHLESS! Bastards took the usefulness of Iron Flesh away. I loved Iron Flesh, the bloody spell made things easier but not too easy. The last boss is still a pain in the ass to kill even the first time through.