So I just got Dark Souls

[Naqel]

Why buy the residence key when you get the Master Key for free?

Because you need the key to later open the door to the magic vendor. Master key won't do that.

Where else can you find a 100% physical shield with that high of a fire resistance early in the game?

You don't need that fire resistance anyway, unless you come up with some really convoluted excuse like trying to block fire bombs, or Quelaag whom dosen't exactly care for your shield with most of her attacks.

For 100% physical resistance, starting as a knight/bandit/warrior aside, hollows within the parish drop great ones, and there's one available from the undead merchant.

The Claymore has way higher damage potential than the Drake Sword and you can upgrade the Zweihander enough to beat it out before you even acquire it.
[...]
Elemental weapons still have a higher damage potential than the Drake Sword. While they may not be the end all be all that they used to be when Dark Souls launched, they are still useful weapons far into the game.

Higher potential is worthless, if you can't get to the part of the game where it's accessible.
You can't argue against getting the Drake sword with things you need the Drake sword to get.

Neither of those runs are hard if you know how to do it, just like acquiring the Drake Sword.

Drake Sword is the strongest weapon you can get until you have access to +10 weapons and requires no upgrades whatsoever to take full advantage of.
Not getting it on a new character serves only to handicap oneself.

The amount of damage added by pine resin is laughable by the end of the game.

All fire/lighning damage is laughable endgame, save for spells which deal just that.

I'd take a weapon dealing 500 +150 from resin over just 500 split between two elements every day.

 

[Icehearted]

I've been sitting on this game for a while now, meaning to play, kind of eager, worried I will be disappoint. Comparisons to King's Field have only raised my expectations, but then i wonder if the praise this game gets are from fans and are not objective, a lot like people that enjoy Neptunia; niche fans that claim it's gold and ignore it's flaws unduly.

Reading this thread is only getting me more excited though, but still feel like I need to check my hype.

 

[PrimitiveJudge]

Simple strategy. Ignore everyone's post except mine.

Just play the game and learn. Simple enough, this game teaches you how to live at every corner, but everyone else here is tell you how THEY did it. Play the game and learn, that will make every boss fight a grand reward.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

I recommend making a test character or two where you play up to the first couple of bosses or so just to get a feel of the game and how all of the stats etc work.

Starting as the Pyromancer class can make things considerably easier especially early on because of the powerful fire spell you will start with, this will make the game a bit softer to sink your teeth into.

Give yourself all the information you can by reading some of the wiki articles, the game isn't very good at explaining things to you so don't be too proud to look for help, knowledge is extremely powerful in Dark Souls. In particular you should definitely read about the different stats so you can make some decent character builds, I'm not saying to go as far as copying and pasting other peoples builds, but some stats are absolutely core on just about any character build, such as Vitality and Endurance, while others can be completely useless, like Resistance. Also most of the stats give diminishing returns, so its good to learn the general stopping points for them.

Also I would recommend not becoming human on your first playthrough, as getting invaded by some min-maxed low level hunting douchebag probably isn't your cup of tea.

Approach the game with a careful, analytical mindset, most enemies are just puzzles waiting to be solved. Many will have pretty simplistic attack patterns and behaviour.

If you are having a lot of trouble and all else fails, a crossbow will counter most bosses, you might have to kite them for a while but it makes the game very easy.

Don't bother with the Drake Sword, it becomes useless very quickly.

 

[Rattja]

I've only gone through the game once, but here is my tips.

Find a weapon you like and can use well, and stick to it. Does not really matter what it is if you can use it well.
The halberd was my favorite.

Get a bow, and a healthy supply of arrows, it will make your life so much easier no matter what class you play.

Be patient. Most things in this game can be poked down slowly over time without taking any damage, there is no need to rush.

If it gets hard, experiment with where you are standing. Almost everything can be exploited some way or another (other than 2 bosses I think). Although this is not recommended as it is sort of cheating.

 

[Church185]

I figured I might wait and pick up Dark Souls 2 when it came out instead, but this is currently discounted to £4 on Xbox live.

What tips have you for someone new to it? Aside from drinking lots of water so I don't get dehydrated from all the tears I shed, I mean.

I'll leave the thread at this. Take everyone's advice, including mine (maybe especially mine), with a grain of salt. There is no right way to play this game, and I've had the most fun when I broke the mold (crossbow build FTW). The debate over the master key is going to come down to your personal tastes. Would you rather have a more normalized difficulty curve, or would you rather have the ability to get into some trouble with the possibility of reward? I wouldn't fault you for either choice.

The goal is to have fun, and to not get too frustrated. The tagline for the game is "Prepare to Die", which to me is less of a taunt more of a "hey, death is going to happen in this game, try not to let it get to you".

If you are interested in lore, check out the trailer below for a Dark Souls Lore playlist on VaatiVidya's Youtube channel.

Spoiler: Beware, there be spoilers!

​

So that means the Longsword of Asotra (or something) doesn't need large embers?

No, you don't need the Large Ember for that sword.

 

[rvbnut]

Pick a play style that you enjoy. Don't force yourself to play something that you don't normally play like just because this is Dark Souls, the hardest game around.

I made that mistake and tried to go tanky and play that way. I didn't get far before getting frustrated.
So I went sorceries (a form of magic) and had an absolute blast. Finished my first playthrough like that and had an amazing time.

Now I can't stop playing it! I've finished that game a ton of times and my best time for one playthrough is 3 hours 20 mins! (I'm modest huh? xP)

Seriously, play like you want to play (within the boundaries of the game of course) and you will have an amazing experience that will make you want MORE!

P.S. I AM SOOO HYPED FOR DARK SOULS 2!!!!! (I just wish that there was a set release date for PC :S)

 

[Trunkage]

I am just about to finish my first play through
I actually played with drake sword until Anor Londo
Here's what I wished I knew before I started
Go UP once you get to Firelink Shrine
To cast spells you need talisman for faith based spells, catalyst for sorcery and pyromancy hand for pyromancy
By the time I looked up a wiki I had feed the only pyromnacy hand I could get during the playthrough to Frampt. No more pyromancy for me. The correct wand must be equipped to use and the spell attuned at a bonfire. I spent so much time trying to figure this out, it better to wiki it
Never enter Sen's Fortress without a +6 weapon. You CANNOT get out to change that, and the drake sword probably wont cut it.
The bosses aren't hard, but the prowling/titanate demon is just the worst. I'm lucky to die 3 times with a boss but those ones usually 10 to 20.
Some big enemies you can kill from a distance with a bow and arrow. Do it. Even if it takes 100 arrows
Keep boss and firekeeper souls, research these before doing anything with them
Stock up on antitoxin
Look up Solaire and Siegmeyer of catarina
Learn what kindling means. Travelling around with 5 flasks makes this game difficult

 

[demoman_chaos]

For a 1st time player, it's a solid template of what to level. You can level 4 main stats just fine as well, it might not be the optimal build but you will have a great number of options available; you will be good with Str or Dex weapons, one kind of magic (and you can still level pyromancy too if you want), and you will be awesome with bows if you choose Dex over Str. IIRC you will get better weapon scaling and damage with Str and Dex as well especially early in the game when you can't even upgrade weapons to scale with Int or Faith.

You can fight the Moonlight Butterfly as your first boss outside of the Asylum if you have the master key, unlocking the Divine upgrade path at the very beginning of the game. To upgrade your weapons to scale with INT, you can start them on the Magic path from the very first blacksmith available to you in the game, Rickert of Vinheim.

Fun Fact: You can get a +14 level weapon without killing a boss. Get a weapon to +5, visit Rickert to make it a Magic type. Get it to +5 via the swamp slugs, get the Seal of Artorias (you can kill Andre if you want it for free), go grab the Enchanted Ember from behind the Forest Hunters. Give it to Rickert. Use those Crystal Golems to get the blue chunks until you are Enchanted +4.

 

[demoman_chaos]

I am just about to finish my first play through
I actually played with drake sword until Anor Londo
Here's what I wished I knew before I started
Go UP once you get to Firelink Shrine
To cast spells you need talisman for faith based spells, catalyst for sorcery and pyromancy hand for pyromancy
By the time I looked up a wiki I had feed the only pyromnacy hand I could get during the playthrough to Frampt. No more pyromancy for me. The correct wand must be equipped to use and the spell attuned at a bonfire. I spent so much time trying to figure this out, it better to wiki it
Never enter Sen's Fortress without a +6 weapon. You CANNOT get out to change that, and the drake sword probably wont cut it.
The bosses aren't hard, but the prowling/titanate demon is just the worst. I'm lucky to die 3 times with a boss but those ones usually 10 to 20.
Some big enemies you can kill from a distance with a bow and arrow. Do it. Even if it takes 100 arrows
Keep boss and firekeeper souls, research these before doing anything with them
Stock up on antitoxin
Look up Solaire and Siegmeyer of catarina
Learn what kindling means. Travelling around with 5 flasks makes this game difficult

You reminded me of a great tip.
Get the longbow from the Darkroot Basin, then buy an imperial fuckton of wooden arrows. 3 souls each and aren't that much weaker than regular arrows which cost 10. Stock up, and widdle away at the big boys that you can plink at. Takes so few souls to fill to max and can save a LOT of headaches.

 

[demoman_chaos]

-snip-

Fun fact: A +3 or so halberd used in two hands does more actual damage than the drake sword. The drake sword's damage type isn't great against armored foes and you lose a lot of your power to it. The halberd may not have the higher number, but in practice its 2-handed attacks do far more damage and eat through the stamina of a shielder. It isn't as OP as the Mirdan Hammer was in Demon's Souls (+5 Blessed MH was THE weapon to have, uber damage and health regen and long range and chews through shields and the healing stacked with all the other health regen items), but it is a very potent weapon.

 

[purplemonkey555]

Don't forget to go back to the Asylum before you go to the swamp to get the rusted iron ring. That thing is an absolute lifesaver there and in a few other places (like if you fall in the tar pit in Sen's Fortress). Just don't forget the key you'll need to get it.

Also, definitely spend your souls and go on a suicide run in the very beginning of New Londo Ruins (below firelink shrine) for the free fire keeper soul so you can upgrade your estus flasks. DO NOT EAT IT. My friend made that mistake when he started playing because he wanted the extra humanity but it is not worth it at all.

Learning backstabs and parry timing is a must. Having lighter armor for the quicker movement speed can be really helpful for this, but you may want to try and get Havel's ring early on and put some points in endurance so you can still be quick in relatively heavy armor.

 

[thesilentman]

What you need to know?

Learn the weapon system is mine. I'm not going to touch the whole Drake Sword issue, but get a weapon with good scaling (it's by letter) and use it. If you can use that weapon while moving around like a rock or a butterfly, it'll stay with you more, even if there are inferior weapons.

The lock-on system is finicky. Be gentle with it. Do reconsider yelling at it if you lost a fight on perilous ground though, it probably wasn't worth it to lock on target.

Most importantly, do what you like. Dark Souls is loads of fun when you go around figuring out what you like and what you do best. Worry about stats when you feel good at the game, focus on having fun first. =P

 

[TheAmazingMediocrity]

Just starting? I'm pretty sure Mr. Churchill said it best:




Oh, and don't let the bastard Taurus Demon put you off. Be patient, and you can overcome anything this game throws at you.

 

[theproductofboredom]

Ah the memories. Just know beating Dark Souls is about knowledge. Approach every encounter with caution, and turtle until you understand the enemies combat rhythms. Expect to die at least once in each boss fight. And avoid checking the faqs, this game's appeal lies in its secrets, and speaking as someone whose clocked in 500 hours on my PC version alone, I would love to recreate that same atmosphere of danger and mystery.