razarok
2641
Necromancus maximus! Revive in honor of the World Tendency Event.
I only ever finished 3-4 Demon’s souls levels but after doing pretty decently in dark souls I thought to revisit this game.
I’m in urgent need of some build advise as I see that I had no clue what I was doing when I made this character. I hope it is still salvageable:
Stats:
Royal
Vitality: 8
Intelligence: 14
Faith: 18
Magic: 18
Strength: 22
Endurance: 10
Luck: 7
Dexterty: 13
I think both End (and Vit) need points badly. I’m at ~5.5kish per level up.
The equip I have to work with:
Shield: Purple Flame Shield +3
Weapons: Crescent Falchion +1, Winged Spear +5, Talisman of God, Silver Catalyst
As such, I’m thinking that STR is enough for now, but generally STR+DEX for equipment requirements and then END + MAG with the blessed sword (mag would increase the magic damage of the sword, right?), with a few points in vit?
I was thinking of a magic/melee hybrid build. The best way would be to take a weapon that scales with magic, right? Basically soul arrow until monsters come into melee range.
The levels I have completed are 1-1, 1-2, 2-1. I had some progress in 2-2, 3-1 and 4-1.
Thanks!
bluemax
2642
Geez, I haven’t played this game in almost a year.
I beat Level 1-1 and couldn’t figure out what to do next and haven’t touched it since.
I only recently started this game (sorry razarok, I don’t know the game well enough to advise you on your build!) but about 15-16 hours in, I’m having a great time with a Royal. Unlike The Witcher 2, Demon’s Souls has the extraordinary knack of being difficult without frustrating. It also helps that the game allows you to play a lower-stress way, as a Blue Phantom.
I’ve only cleared 1-1 and 1-2 so far, though I’ve helped clear 2-1 as a Blue Phantom a couple of times. Next stop will be 3-1, then I can finally return to 4-1 – my go-to point for farming – and finish off the boss.
Upgrading to Moon Spear wouldn’t be a bad choice for that build, as it scales with magic if I recall reasonably well. Since magic and faith scale in a linear manner, you can’t go wrong with most paths that take you through putting more points in them. If you haven’t scared away the gecko nest in 2-2 yet, you can farm that x the number of bosses you’ve killed in that world in order to get your basic sharpstone and hardstone (and clearstone, fwiw, or possibly greystone, I forget) needs covered, so you can get that flame shield to +9 where it belongs. I would recommend waiting until you have Rage of God miracle so you can jump into the middle of the pit, quit and reload, then fire off the miracle asap to kill all of the geckos at once.
Dexterity is quite good through 30, and I really appreciated the fall damage mitigation that no longer exists in the sequel since it made a lot of shortcut moves painless as you get around. You are one level away from the reaper farming location in 4-2 which is also the level that can give you a white bow pretty painlessly if you haven’t already got a good ranged weapon. 4-1 will give you the compound bow which is the other great bet, but that’s going to need a good amount of upgrading to reach its potential where white is good out of the box. Either way, you will need a good bow and, early on, nerves of steel for that reaper farming; once you beat the level you can go full crazy and do the reverse reaper run from the boss checkpoint which is pretty lucrative. Anyway, your build looks good you just need better gear and to keep on keeping on.
Hi Lizard King, am I on you ignore list?
What I want for Darks Souls II/Demon’s Soul’s III: No more clipping, more consistent hitboxes. I half-read somewhere that some fancy lighting technique (anisotropic) could eliminate clipping somehow, but I wasn’t really paying attention.
Also, is there a best weapon? I am drawn to spears.
I don’t know, I found it was consistent in terms of feel but not in terms of how it looks, and a lot of that was that I spent the first ten hours or so in the Asian version without knowing you could lock on at all. There is no best weapon in DS but there are a couple of standouts that have acquired a great deal of fan support, whether it’s the winged spear for people that like blocking, the meat cleaver for people that decide 2 handed mass slaughter is more their speed, or the purple flame shield for people who like to live longer (because 100% physical and 90% fire protection is a beautiful thing). The Uchigatana also has a strong following, and the holy mace +1 you can find is an important part of your arsenal for skeletons especially early on.
So, I guess there is a best weapon but no one can really tell you that until you settle on a playstyle, and even then you need to have a plan B and C for when that’s less effective. For instance, you can shield and spear your way through the skeletons, but if the mace can kill them in two or three hits why would you run the risk of prolonging that many fights?
As Lizard King alludes to, I’m one of those people who decided two handed mass slaughter is my speed, and never looked back. The Meat Cleaver is a brilliant weapon, though it must be used two handed for maximum efficacy. Not only does it have an excellent array of regular attacks, but it has an incredibly fast rolling attack - you do a short roll and then slam the blade into the ground for an AOE. It’s start time is ridiculously quick, and it’s very difficult to interrupt. Brilliant general purpose build.
The skills you learn with the meat cleaver will also put you in good stead in Dark Souls, should you decide you enjoy two handed mass slaughter.
Prior to my discovery of the joys of the Meat Cleaver (and eventually the Keel Smasher / Dragon Bone Smasher, and similar swords) I was using fast one handed weapons with a wanderer build, paired with the Purple Dragon shield. That shield really is basically indispensable, though it can retard the speed at which you learn how to dodge, which is vital.
Blueblood is the way to go. :)
I’m on my second playthrough now, wish Namco-Bandai would do a Euro server event for tendencies! I’ve found that 4-2 is pretty good for soul farming on NG+, easy 20.000~ souls per go and then I just suicide…
No love for the Crescent Falchion +1 as an early melee weapon for magicians/royals? My melee damage increased several hundred percent once I snagged that.
Also, if I already have a heater shield, how important is the upgrade to the PFS (which would take a lot of extra strength)? I’d lose the ability to parry, which is not a big deal since parrying a bit too high-risk high-reward for my liking in an already high-risk game, and I’d gain the fire resistance (how useful would this be outside World 2?) and a marginal benefit to endurance lost when I block.
It’s the Guard Break Reduction that makes the PFS so good. Very high once you start to level it.
The Crescent Falchion is good, but I prefer the Blessed Mace for an early weapon.
It’s not a marginal benefit, although the heater shield is pretty good. It can actually make a substantial difference especially once you put some points into it and you’re taking a few hits in a row or something like that. The other 100% physical shields that block more are absurd in terms of weight and strength requirements, whereas the PFS puts at a range you need to be for most other things you’d want to use anyhow.
While world 2 is undeniably the most full of fire, there is no other elemental protection of similar value in this game. In New Game + it really streamlines a lot of otherwise slow early parts, and it pretty much pays for itself in doing and redoing the 2-2 boss.
If you are looking to upgrade the PFS, farm the right hand tunnel in 2-2 just after the spider boss. This by far my least favorite activity when starting a new game, but it more than makes up for itself once done.
Also, I would pay good DLC money if they put the real Meat Cleaver into Dark Souls. I miss that damn thing so much.
I think I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but the Crescent Falchion is a life saver for non-royal magic user, because the mana regen, while minor, is sufficient when you’re at a low level. It just saves a ton of time and souls on spices. I only used the blessed mace for skeletons though.
My main build ended up as blueblood/winged spear, although not by design. I started with dragon long sword, but the dragon weapons don’t scale damage with level, so I was looking for an alternate straight sword. Blueblood filled that role nicely in the endgame, since I had pumped luck early on to help with item drops, and had a very generalized build otherwise. (my theory was that since luck increases drop rate, the earlier you raise it, the higher the cumulative effects are: the longer you have a higher drop rate the better. I don’t think it mattered much at the end of the day though).
I tended to use what’s probably a typical conservative build: PFS, straight sword, spear and as much armor as I could wear and still roll effectively, usually a range of leather / chain. Pretty useless for PvP, but it got me through the game.
I just got this game a few days ago. Only got a PS3 this summer so I missed it the first time around and all the talk about Dark Souls made me really want to try one of them. Couldn’t afford a $60 game, but found a copy of Demon Souls for $13 and figured it should be a good place to start. Did a lot of fumbling early on, but got into a groove with my Royal and killed the boss in 1-1 on my first attempt. Managed to kill that knight with the red eyes, too, although I had to take 3 runs at him.
Once I was able to upgrade my stats and after a quick trip to 2-1 netted me the materials I needed to upgrade my weapon and shield I decided to go back and fight that dude in the hood with the huge axe who was one-shotting me if I tried to go through his door. Took 3 or 4 attempts, but I managed to get him into the open and chip away at his health until he died. Got over 5000 souls for that and a set of armor that makes me look like a gimp. There was also a set of heavy armor at the bottom of the hole he seemed to be guarding, but I don’t think it was right for my build.
After that I made it all the way to the boss in 2-1 without too much trouble, but that spider bitch started belching fire everywhere when I had her down to a bare sliver of health. Have to head back to finish her off tonight, and hopefully recover my souls.
Ultimately, I think the established orthodoxy was that luck past 8ish was a waste relative to the returns that modifying world tendency would get you. It could have been 7 or 9, as well, but it was something low because all of my early characters were like 13-20 and my two later ones never made it past 10, and ultimately the key variable was how much time I spent in full black with that dumbass artifact sword.
Even for people intending to get only one playthrough, I think knowing world tendency and applying it for farming areas is pretty invaluable. Then again, it is entirely possible to beat the game with minimal farming apart from little things like early backtracking from the tower knight to get grass and things like that.
Madame Executioner would be most displeased at your impudence in reassigning her sex.
Also, imo that’s the best female armor that can be worn by agility characters without too much effort. I like to think it’s more Pyramid Head than gimp, but whatever floats your boat.
That was a lady? Now I understand why the armor fits so well on my female character!
That’s the only reason you’re able to wear it at all. There’s actually a couple of things that only female characters can use / wear. I don’t recall anything similarly limited to men only, but it’s been a while.
I think there is a male only armor, maybe one of the saints robes?
