Some people will suggest you get the master key as a starting gift. DO NOT FOLLOW THAT ADVICE. That item was meant for players to get to desired areas on subsequent playthroughs.
True but the master key lets you skip almost all of Blighttown, the worst area in the game. I do not recommend going through Blighttown without the master key on a first playthrough at all. Also all of the alternative starting gifts are pretty much useless trash, the master key is the only one worth picking up.
Since you are going pyromancer I am assuming you want something like a magic-type class.
You will want to probably get your INT to 60 at some point. probably not at once, but put points in that when you can.
You'll want to put points into Attunement. I suggest getting attunment to maybe 16 or 19. This will give you spell slots.
You'll want to also put points into endurance until 40. Your stamina bar will max out at 40, any more will only boost your ability to carry load.
You should also put points into strength or dexterity but only just so you can wield your choice in weaponry. Like that Drake Sword I'm sure someone has already recommended.
Being a magic user you'll want to probably get the Moonlight Butterfly soul which you can later turn into a Moonlight Spear which basically uses your Int as it's power instead of str or dex.
Later you'll also want the Moonlight Sword.
With the two moonlight weapons and a wand, you can hold your own in both melee and spellcasting with an Int-build.
the following will probably not mean anything to you until you are at those points so bear with me:
Once you find the first blacksmith, run down the stairs and run past/defeat the big statue demon.
You will be in a forest type place. Head left carefully, you'll have to fight some bush-people. You'll come across a big important looking door. Ignore it for now, but hit suspicious looking wall next to it to reveal a bonfire.
Head to the path to the right of the door.
You'll want to become human for a bit here. Or you can go down as an undead to scout out the danger first.
Take extra care in fighting the statue guardian. You'll want to fight them one at a time and quickly before they can cast any spells.
There is a building doorway somewhere with a set of stairs. If you are human you can summon a NPC white-spirit which will aid you in the boss fight.
climb up the stairs, and let the NPC fight for you. Concentrate on just avoiding things thrown at you. the NPC here is strong enough to fight this by herself.
You should now have the moonlight butterfly soul. this will be important later for you when you get to the Giant Blacksmith in Anor Londo.
edit: however if you want a STR focused build, I advise getting the Demon Great Axe, as it scales the best with STR when fully upgraded.
Why get upgrading his INT if INT doesn't affect Pyromancies? It only affect the punch of the Flame, not the Pyromancy itself. And believe, nobody uses the punch in the Flame. NOBODY! It's useless... Moonlight Greatsword is a great weapon however.
Generally I find people who want to be magic users start as pyromancers.
Hell, I never even said int affects pyromancy. In fact I said he would be using a wand. A wand is used to cast magics, not pyromancy. Hell, I never even mentioned using the damn flame as a melee weapon, I said he'd be using the moonlight weapons.
I like the pyromancer starting class because it's starting class I think has the best distribution of stats for a magic user for it's soul level.
Focusing on pyromancy can really be done with any type of build since it doesn't really depend on any stat (well except attunment indirectly.) and a focus on pyromancy would probably be best done on a str or dex build that generally doesn't use magic or miracles. While again, that does NOT limit you to using pyromancy only for non-magic classes.
I find magic to be a lot more flexible than pyromancy since spells generally fly a lot farther, cast faster and give you a lot more uses. Unless you are pvping, in which case some of the pyromancies are quite useful. Again, in my opinion.
edit: Oh ya, random advice, There's a lightning spear weapon in Sen's Fortress somewhere that will generally be your strongest weapon for a while, at least until you find the Giant Blacksmith, or you find tons of materials for upgrading something else.
I suggest you watch this video, explains all of the basics for beginners in less then 4min. Yeah I gotta tell all the new players looking at this, it really helped me out the first time I played the game. Although I found upgrading the steel slicer through the mystic weapon path to scale it with APK rather than SSL. But you know I just prefer that build, you don't actually get that more dmg out of it especially against crusaders. It lets you play more like the necromancer class with a hint of firelord, very meta especially for king of the hill. If you didn't take this all as a joke, then prepare to die a lot more then usual.
Ok hardcore joking aside, I understand you got the drake sword, but once you've rung both bells make sure to switch weapons cause from then on EVERYTHING will out class that garbage weapon. Try a longsword or the claymore, both very versatile in their moveset to where they come in handy in most situations. Upgrade your weapons and armor consistently, as for stats focus on Vitality and Endurance first, once you want more damage focus on your choice of scaling: Strength or Dexterity (Faith/Intelligence if you want miracles or magic in your arsenal). Other then that, keep your shield up, kite your enemies, and prepare to die you filthy casul.
Decide what type och character you want and stick with it. This means you'll have one or two primary attributes to level up. Int, Faith, Strength, Dexterity or Str and Dex combined. Your chosen stat you should level up fairly high, maybe 40-50 if it's str or dex, 50 if int and i honestly don't know about faith but i'm guessing level that shit up as well. If you split it betweens str and dex, distribute it equally over both. Other than your chosen stat put everything else in endurance and vitality. If you are a caster of some kind, take a few points in atunement as well to get some slots for your spells.
The worst mistake to make is leveling up the wrong stats and/or spreading your levels out over all stats. Spreading your stats out means you'll suck at everything.
Now, once you've picked what type of character you want to play, start looking at the weapons you pick up. They all scale with different stats and the scaling plays a HUGE role in your damage output. Get a weapon that you like and that scales well with your chosen main stat(s). Also as soon as you can start upgrading your weapons. The regular upgrade path that just makes your weapon stronger is the best path for str and dex builds. If you are doing an int build you want to upgrade your weapons with the magic or enchanted path, that adds high int scaling, same goes for faith (but with the divine upgrade path). You'll find different blacksmiths and embers all over the place to give you new upgrade paths. Be careful with elemental upgrade paths though (fire and lightning) as they remove all scaling from weapons. With this in mind, always upgrade your weapons as far as possible and you'll soon find you have weapons that make the drake sword look like complete garbage.
Also keep track of your equip burden. At 25% or lower you have the quick roll, at 50% or lower you have the medium roll and above you have the suicide roll that's good for absolutely nothing. Play around with the different options, see which one you prefer. I find it's fairly easy to go tanky, block and punish, though in the end it's more effective (and fun) to use the quick roll. This is why you want to level up endurance a lot. Endurance raises your equip burden, so that you can equip heavier armor without getting slowed down.
As for starting gifts and class, don't fret too much. If you didn't get the master key, no sweat. You'll just not be able to take some shortcuts quite as early as you might have otherwise done. Any starting gift is ok aside from the pendant, though i'd advice against the twin humanities as you can farm humanity anyway.
Not sure if anyone mentioned it yet either, but having humanity on your character boosts item drop rate, so i always have at least one or two on me if i want to farm particular items.
Don't go reading up on where to find items and stuff for your first playthrough though. Finding cool gear and new places is part of what makes the game so much fun the first few times through. Also that video up there with the "get awesome stuff in 10 minutes" sucks. Bad tips imo, and they still rely on you having the master key so i suppose it doesn't matter in this particular case.
Decided to explore a little bit of the higher level areas today before going to the Undead Burg. Got the Zweihander (which I can't use yet), and the Estoc (which is pretty awesome).
I also tried to go to the Drake Valley, as shown in the above video, but found that I couldn't unlock the door since I didn't have the master key. Guess I'll be going the "correct" path with no short cuts like everyone else.
Listen, if you're gonna follow videos like that you might as well open up a walkthrough and never take a step without its permission.
Dark Souls is a lot about exploration and discovery. Don't jump through all the hoops everyone shows you, it cheapens the game, the sense of discovery and the experience. Assuming you take your time, explore and figure the game out, it's fully doable without any of these tricks.
When you played Dark Souls did you read the red text on the ground and follow its advice when it warned you of traps or tough enemies nearby? I'm going to guess that you probably did.
Guess what? I'm playing offline so I don't have that option, so excuse me for trying to get some advice from people online when I can't do so in game.
The hint markers really only do so much. I kinda have to agree that following guides and learning all the "tricks" during your first playthrough does sort of ruin the experience, why i tried to give more general tips on how to approach the game rather than "go here, do this, get that".
The messages on the ground are really limited, leading to ambiguous hints like "here!" or "treasure ahead!" or something like that, so in the end you'll usually be surprised anyway because you didn't understand the message until you had seen the thing it was warning you about.
I mean if that's how you want to do it, why even bother here? Just go on the wiki. Or youtube. Watch a let's play by EpicNameBro or something, you'll learn all the strats, secrets and exploits.
Decided to explore a little bit of the higher level areas today before going to the Undead Burg. Got the Zweihander (which I can't use yet), and the Estoc (which is pretty awesome).
I also tried to go to the Drake Valley, as shown in the above video, but found that I couldn't unlock the door since I didn't have the master key. Guess I'll be going the "correct" path with no short cuts like everyone else.
Listen, if you're gonna follow videos like that you might as well open up a walkthrough and never take a step without its permission.
Dark Souls is a lot about exploration and discovery. Don't jump through all the hoops everyone shows you, it cheapens the game, the sense of discovery and the experience. Assuming you take your time, explore and figure the game out, it's fully doable without any of these tricks.
When you played Dark Souls did you read the red text on the ground and follow its advice when it warned you of traps or tough enemies nearby? I'm going to guess that you probably did.
Guess what? I'm playing offline so I don't have that option, so excuse me for trying to get some advice from people online when I can't do so in game.
If anything I found bloodstains to be more informative, as I could see how the last guy died and sorta guess what did him in, or at least what direction it came from.
Played a bit more dark souls yesterday. Beat my first Black Knight (in the most cowardly way possible), and the Taurus Demon, and got the drake sword.
I don't particularly like the drake sword though. While it's a powerhouse it swings slowly, and leaves me open to attack for far too long. I much prefer the estoc, which I can use without lowering my shield. So here's my problem, the estoc is awesome, but the shield I currently have is just a wooden shield, which is ok, but drains a lot of my stamina when I block. Is there any place in the undead burg, or somewhere nearby ahead where I can get a better shield with more stability?
Once you get to Undead Parish there's a Knight's Shield guarded by a Baldur Fencer, not great, but bettter than what you have. If you don't want to buy a Tower shield from the blacksmith there you can try farming for the Balder Shield (by killing the cape knight guys, or there's another Black knight right at the top of the tower leading to the Parish that you might get lucky and get a Black Knight shield off of. If you do, you're pretty much set for the playthrough with that shield.
Played a bit more dark souls yesterday. Beat my first Black Knight (in the most cowardly way possible), and the Taurus Demon, and got the drake sword.
I don't particularly like the drake sword though. While it's a powerhouse it swings slowly, and leaves me open to attack for far too long. I much prefer the estoc, which I can use without lowering my shield. So here's my problem, the estoc is awesome, but the shield I currently have is just a wooden shield, which is ok, but drains a lot of my stamina when I block. Is there any place in the undead burg, or somewhere nearby ahead where I can get a better shield with more stability?
Balder knights (the hollows with helmets and capes) drop Balder shields which are good.
It's probably a good thing you don't like the drake sword, it's expensive to upgrade and doesn't upgrade well.
Try to only keep your shield up when the enemy is actually swinging rather than attacking from behind it though or you'll just eat through stamina.
Edit: Got merchants mixed up, it the guy in sen's who sells them.
Played a bit more dark souls yesterday. Beat my first Black Knight (in the most cowardly way possible), and the Taurus Demon, and got the drake sword.
I don't particularly like the drake sword though. While it's a powerhouse it swings slowly, and leaves me open to attack for far too long. I much prefer the estoc, which I can use without lowering my shield. So here's my problem, the estoc is awesome, but the shield I currently have is just a wooden shield, which is ok, but drains a lot of my stamina when I block. Is there any place in the undead burg, or somewhere nearby ahead where I can get a better shield with more stability?
Balder Knights (the Knights in the church below the bell gargoyles) drop their shields which have 100% physical resistance and good stability. They also drop the Balder Side Sword which would complement your playstyle well. And it becomes very powerful when fully upgraded.
Could someone better explain to me the whole process of upgrading weapons?
I have a bunch of titanite (I have some of the +1, 2 or 3 of the +10, and 1 of the +14), and I wanted to increase my estoc to +10, but Andrei would only take my +1 shards not my +10 shards.
What exactly does it mean when an elemental reinforcement removes stat scaling? The way I understand it, it means that the weapon is permanently stuck at a specific damage regardless of putting more points into strength or dexterity, but I struggle to understand why that's beneficial.
Also, from what I understand certain enemy types and bosses have elemental weaknesses so reinforcing your weapon with that specific element would make it easier to kill certain enemies. Do enemies also have elemental resistances? For example, would reinforcing your weapon with lightening make some enemies weaker to you while making other enemies stronger?
Any answers would be appreciated.
I really wish this game would explain basic things better, like the ability to backstab, the downward stabbing attack when falling onto an enemy, and the effects of the different stats.
Also, from what I understand certain enemy types and bosses have elemental weaknesses so reinforcing your weapon with that specific element would make it easier to kill certain enemies. Do enemies also have elemental resistances? For example, would reinforcing your weapon with lightening make some enemies weaker to you while making other enemies stronger?
I...don't think you can make a weapon do less damage because of it's elemental affinity, but I could be wrong. Lightning is usually the safest bet for weaknesses though. Works really well on dragons too.
Any answers would be appreciated.
I really wish this game would explain basic things better, like the ability to backstab, the downward stabbing attack when falling onto an enemy, and the effects of the different stats.
You have to stop moving to backstab, downward stabbing is only effective against bosses or enemies specifically placed/designed for it. Otherwise it's too risky. And the stats are...complicated. There are many guides that talk about them.
Could someone better explain to me the whole process of upgrading weapons?
I have a bunch of titanite (I have some of the +1, 2 or 3 of the +10, and 1 of the +14), and I wanted to increase my estoc to +10, but Andrei would only take my +1 shards not my +10 shards.
What exactly does it mean when an elemental reinforcement removes stat scaling? The way I understand it, it means that the weapon is permanently stuck at a specific damage regardless of putting more points into strength or dexterity, but I struggle to understand why that's beneficial.
Also, from what I understand certain enemy types and bosses have elemental weaknesses so reinforcing your weapon with that specific element would make it easier to kill certain enemies. Do enemies also have elemental resistances? For example, would reinforcing your weapon with lightening make some enemies weaker to you while making other enemies stronger?
Any answers would be appreciated.
I really wish this game would explain basic things better, like the ability to backstab, the downward stabbing attack when falling onto an enemy, and the effects of the different stats.
1. You need titanite shards for upgrades up to +5, large shards for +10 and chunks for +14, then a slab for +15. You also need the large ember to upgrade past +5 and the very öarge ember to get beyond +10.
2. You get a big damage boost from the elemental upgrade. It removes the scaling (ie the bonus damage you get from your stats) but instead gives you a big fire or lightning damage bonus. It's really strong early on in the game, before you get your stats up, or if you just want to pour all your levels in to vitality and endurance. The big downer with this is that the damage doesn't get stronger with your characters. You are stuck at a fixed amount of damage.
3. Yes, enemies have both weaknesses and resistance to different types of attacks. This includes, so far as i know, pretty much all types of modifiers. The type of damage your weapon deals, any elemental affinity, if it deals magic or divine damage and so forth.
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