I'm finally gonna play Dark Souls...advice?

[Ikasury]

Beginner advice: watch your step, falling is the number one cause of dying... also, learn how to dodge :3


personally i love Demon's Souls better, but that's probably just me, i like how if you want to know anything about the characters in the game, you really have to look for it and make your own opinions, as nothing is ever flat out stated to you, makes them all quite interesting really (Maiden Astraea... oh Maiden Astraea) but Dark Souls definitely has that too, its just different place and stuff :3

though, chances are, you could probably just pick up Dark Souls 2 and not have to play the first one, sure you probably won't get some refereces or silly little shenanigans, but chances are that won't effect most of the story/gameplay, these aren't exactly 'continuous flow' games ya know...

 

[upgrayedd]

There will be a point where everything clicks and you "get it" don't quit, its one of the more fun games you'll play

 

[Caliostro]

Lol, running is futile, unless you find a ladder. They haven't quite mastered those.

What? The enemy is on a ledge 4 feet above me? Oh well, better forget about ever reaching him even though I'm 7 feet tall with a 7 foot sword.

Actually, just an addendum: While they haven't mastered ladders, this isn't a true deterrent. I stumbled on one once I didn't feel prepared for, so I tried to run down a ladder... At which point I was surprised with a large lance up my ass as the bloody thing decided to teleport down the ladder was a hell of a lot faster.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

I won't go into detail as it looks like people have got that covered, but one thing I'd say to all new players and those who haven't got stuck in yet: don't be intimidated by its difficulty - because it ain't that hard.

There's this mystique to DS that scares people away. Hell, it nearly did to me until XBL offered it for about £4 (I'll definitely be getting DS2 for full price). It's only challenging and frustrating if you really don't pay attention to what you're doing, and why you may be dying. And I don't mean in a 'Seth on 8star diff is easy if you know how to beat him'-way, I mean in a just don't be a complete numpty whilst playing it, and most players will learn and become fairly badass.

Oh, another tip I'm guessing's been given: be prepared to farm souls and items from time to time, if you really want to level up your gear (attributes aren't that relevant compared to good equipment and items).

 

[Qvar]

This so much, just attack every chest you see if you don't want to get fucked.

Not THAT chest you fool! You'll unleash the wrath of the gods if you do!
[/quote]

Finally somebody got it

 

[SantoUno]

http://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Dark+Souls+Wiki

That website is going to be your friend. Well, you can just google dark souls wiki and you will get similiar websites.

Basically you're going to need to look up lots of things. Not just where to find a specific item, but perhaps if you want to know if it's worth it to invest in upgrading a weapon. You need to decide from the beginning what weapon types you are going to use, because it will determine what stat you are going to focus on among the weapon stats (STR, DEX, INT, Faith). Then it will be up to you as to what weapon you will prefer to use for the rest of the game. Trust me, just because a weapon is powerful doesn't mean that it will be of good use to you. For example, the Great Scythe is capable of great damage but is pretty damn unwieldy to me. Meanwhile, the Longsword, one of the most basic weapons in the game, has easily the best damn moveset in the game, and it has been my prime weapon all the years of playing Dark Souls.

So good luck! If you have any questions or want advice feel free to quote my post so I can respond, I'd love to help out. Dark Souls easily has the strongest community of players wanting to help each other out and share strategies.

 

[JettMaverick]

So I avoided Demon's/Dark Souls

You're playing Dark Souls the right way. 'Not at all'




Continue avoiding it. When i last played it, some demon jumped out my screen and tried to set fire to my tears.


Avoid unless you have Iron underwear and an infinite amount of patience.

 

[Zacharious-khan]

This is just kinda a general rule i have for games that i would like to share with you. It applies well to games like dark souls and that is DO NOT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LOOK UP ANYTHING ABOUT THEM, See this thread? stop it, forget as much as you can (except maybe the stat suggestions because that can break you late game). Unless i am completely stumped for at least 4 days i do not look up information. I feel like this is an honest way to play games that feature challenge as a selling point. That being said i have 2 hints for dark souls

1. Try out a few classes when you start, don't be afraid to re-roll an other guy the opening zone is pretty easy once you get the hang of it and it will give you an idea of what you'll be dealing with until you get far enough to customize yourself well

2. Yahtzee is a jokey person, he says many not serious things to make us laugh but for the love of god, IF YOU SEE A HINT THAT SAYS "TRY JUMPING" do not jump, you will die.

 

[phantasmalWordsmith]

I'm not sure about you but if you're the type to get into a frustrated anger, I suggest you keep a means to calm yourself down. Petting a dog or cat helps. You want to be calm and collected as much as possible.

If you're not planning on doing a Magic / Pyromancy type character, take the Deprived class against all sense. Now I know that makes it difficult with the lack of armour and weak weapons but being at a disadvantage early on will get you used to fighting cautiously and patiently and you get some good stats so you can make your build any which way you want but there are some ideal set ups.

Lightweight armour is preferable for dodging. I go for heavy and blocking play style because I have some issues with my finger co-ordination so I don't do so well with very fast paced games and fighting styles but I can tell that lightweight / dodging is better because I have massive difficulty with bossfights when being light on my feet would be preferential.

When you get to firelink shrine, use the weak enemies to learn how to Parry. It'll make every humanoid enemy easier to deal with and its all in the timing. Equipping a shield or weapon in the left hand and pushing the L1 / LBumper button will make your shield swing. If you time this right against an enemies, you'll be able to deliver an extra powerful attack which can make dealing tough humanoids so much easier; made me able to defeat all of the Black Knights I've met so far which got me a very good greatsword to use.

Explore, look in every nook and cranny to find secrets or just get a guide.

Choose the Key as your gift at the start of the play-through, its the most constantly useful of all of them.

If you can, try to avoid using the Drake Sword from the Fire Drake's tail, it can easily become a crutch which can make it harder to deal with late bosses.

 

[mezorin]

My best philosophical advice I can give is to treat Dark Souls like an open world fighting game rather than a Final Fantasy clone. Every fight needs to be approached with the idea that the enemy can kill you if you get lazy, so mind your spacing/blocking and counter attacking and pay attention. I've gone through zones while vastly over geared and over leveled and gotten a beat down laid on me because I underestimated a couple of Hollows, so do not get lazy, ever.

Stat wise, you should pay attention to your max weight and to your poise. Your movement speed is determined by your current/max weight, and the two magic numbers there are 25% and 50%. 25% or less lets you fast roll/ninja roll, 25% to 50% is regular speed roll, and 50% or above is the infamous fattie roll. "Ninjas" and spell casters will want to try to be under 25% as much as possible as they need to stay mobile, while most run of the mill armored sword and board builds will wanna go 25% to 50% weight. For this reason, I suggest prioritizing endurance early on until at least 20 ranks in it regardless of build.

Poise is a little bit more complex. It determines what hits/how many hits can stun lock you, and is arguably the main benefit of heavy armor. Even if your build is not going to be an armored behemoth, its worth it to get a set of gauntlets or boots to compliment your ninja/mage so the smallest rat cannot stun lock you. Stun lock deaths are cheap, annoying, and plentiful if you do not have poise. The magic number for poise is 53, that's enough to soak a single zweihander hit and not get stun locked, anything heavier than that is genarally avoidable or easily blockable.

Learn to parry, especially with some of the tougher enemies. It can be intimidating staring down a black knight or Havel and trying to parry a weapon the size of a telephone pole, but the rewards are worth it when you get the parry/riposte and take down what was supposed to be an 'unkillable' enemy early game.

 

[cikame]

Don't give up, keep pushing, after abit of time it all falls into place.
You will inevitably come up against something that is so difficult you can't get past it, if that's the case you're probably supposed to be somewhere else, if you can't figure out where don't be afraid to look at a recommended progression guide, just to figure out that there are other paths to take.

 

[anthony87]

If you make it to Anor Londo, the archers WILL kill you. Probably many times. Accept this early on and it'll be marginally less annoying.

....Marginally.

 

[Alcamonic]

If it says "Try jumping" on the ground, do it!

 

[Pieturli]

Second question: any game advice for a beginner?

While I don't recommend just reading everything online or getting too anal about stuff, I gotta say that preparation goes a LONG way. I didn't get too nerdy about preparation, but I always had some idea of what to expect when entering a new area.


Some people might say that's boring or that it takes away from the game, but I dunno, I loved it. Felt almost like I was going on an expedition each time. Also, going through blighttown without any kind of poison mitigation is about as much fun as leprosy.


So anyways, my advice is: prepare. Also: fuck blighttown.



Seriously, fuck Blighttown

 

[DudeistBelieve]

So... Something I just found out, don't kill the merchants because they don't respawn. Everyone else respawns, but not the merchants....

Oh how fun it was trying to kill that first Knight and running out of supplys that would of made the fight so much easier. Ended up having to lure him out to an open area to whittle his health down.

I'm now at the Blacksmith's, who's now my best friend who I will never ever kill. Slowly upgrading my equipment so that I too, may be Fantasy Batman.

 

[Ruwrak]

Have fun, take it slow and dare to take a direction.

Seriously, most fun of Dark Souls is finding the hidden stuff and figuring out a way to go somewhere.
I could, of course, start you off with a big guide on "how to win at dark souls" but it would be off.

Either you like rolling fast, never blocking, swinging two daggers about or a giant suit of armor with a big *beep*ing axe.


So the best advice I can give is... Have fun really. And remember: "Praise the Sun"



....


I've played the game to much. 2 weeks before launch it landed on my doormat and I almost every day still play it haha. It'll be fun to start DS2 again as a blank slate, that first playthrough is just so... Intense, frustrating and as Yahtzee said it in the last ZP, make me smug for knowing all the locations, patterns, methods, weapons, scaling and min/maxing stats. *nervous eye twitch*.

... Bring Dark Souls2 <3

 

[Tuxedoman]

I would definitely get the grasp of the gameplay with Dark Souls until the DS2 comes out. There are many months remaining until june.

As for advice: Beware chest.

This so much, just attack every chest you see if you don't want to get fucked.

Nawww, that'd be a waste of time. Just open everything you see

Only go human before a Boss Battle.

I disagree. If you wander about hollow the whole time then you miss out on some pretty cool parts. NPC invaders wont attack you (And in turn, you miss out on their items), your item drop rate is non-existent basically and you're exempt from the pvp. If you're getting wrecked, then stay hollow for a bit and just chill, but nothing feels better than killing some ass red phantom who is soul level 5 and has Artorias's Armour mixed with the child's mask.

In other news, the biggest thing is try to be patient. Getting fed up and rushing through a zone will get you killed unless you know what you're doing. Take a step back, breathe, maybe even take a break. Just try to remain calm.

 

[suitepee7]

If you make it to Anor Londo, the archers WILL kill you. Probably many times. Accept this early on and it'll be marginally less annoying.

....Marginally.

nope. no sir. there is nothing that can make that section less annoying. it's doable, but that was the first time i properly got angry at the game, with good reason. the only bit that came close for me was crystal caves... that place blows