2661

There are five male-only sets, one of which is the Saint’s Robes. The big other one is the Ancient King’s set, which is amazing.

2662

Ah, you’re right! How the hell could I have forgotten that set? I suppose the nuisance of finding all this impressive armor my male wanderer couldn’t use just stayed in my mind.

2663

I’ve had this game since it was released (own the Atlus CE version), but just started playing it. I randomly selected the Priest class while the WT had been manually set to PW. I noticed the path to the left of the start area in 1-1, so I took it…and ran into 3 red phantasms. Ack! (BTW, what do red phantasm represent? What causes them to appear in the game?) They sliced me up real good!

I thought, “Well, if I’m gonna learn the combat mechanics, why not learn them against three bad-ass dudes who can one-shot me?” So, I came back again and again for more punishment, until I finally defeated them. By now I had a solid grasp on the combat mechanics, so the other red phantasms weren’t too difficult. But then I walked through a doorway with my heater shield raised (as always!) and jumped as a big ass weapon clanked off my shield!

“What’s your problem, bitch, and how are you even able to lift that thing?” I thought to myself. Yeah, she’s not a pleasant one. I thought I had a solid grasp on combat, but she whacked me (literally) back to reality. It took me about 10-15 attempts before I finally defeated her (forgot about being able to backstab). The rest of 1-1 wasn’t too bad (stayed away from the other areas not meant for beginners) and defeated the demon on the first try.

After coming back from traveling (in the real world), I saw the WT was now PB. So, I tried 2-1, and was toasted by some dude tossing fire from his fingertips. Bah! I decided to try 1-2, instead. Oh 1-2, I have a few comments regarding you:

  1. I hate massed crossbowmen.
  2. Damn, those dragon runs are tightly timed!
  3. The bigger the knight, the more of a dick he is.

But I’m havin’ fun!

2664

Red Phantoms are actually black phantoms in the game taxonomy, but they definitely look very red. The visual style represents either invading players,unique npcs or recurring npcs. The latter two categories are mostly triggered by changes in world tendency although some are scripted in to certain areas iirc.

Unique NPCs would be like the young lady (Mirelda the Executioner) with the guillotine axe, and are generally challenging but can be gamed by sneaky players since they have very strict AI limits. For instance, one is a spellcaster you can trick into wasting all of her magic, after which it’s clobbering time. That’s another great thing about this game, most enemies play by the endurance/magic rules that you do. You’ll see them in the load screen along with helpful NPCs, and most(not Mirelda!) have a good incarnation in white tendency that you can do quests for and an evil one in black that tries to fuck you up. Generally, they have some of the best items in the game.

The mob of other dudes would be the unnamed, generic variety of black phantom, which are marginally harder than a regular enemy (although it can seem daunting at first, especially in groups). Generally they will be very similar to the standard foe they resemble but have more health, stamina, and damage output.

I don’t think you’ve described any of the unnamed, unique NPCs but they are some of the more interesting encounters in the game by my reckoning. There’s one with a meat cleaver you’ll see later on, a real son of a bitch.

If you’re having trouble getting through the dragon in time, it might be that you are overly encumbered. If you drop some armor that will get you to your fastest running/moving speed (where you no longer do the “roll, thump” when you dodge but simply roll) and makes those sprints pretty comfortable.

The massed crossbowmen require you to have some presence of mind amid the adrenaline, and really master the timing around lowering your shield before the next wave of arrows comes at you so your stamina and weaving around can do the rest. I strongly recommend getting the bow that’s on the top of the first tower in that wall run and then getting enough arrows at the vendor (I think around 200) to kill the dragon ASAP, so that you can deal with the bridge-dwellers at your leisure. With the Royal (has the magic regen ring) it’s actually possible to use the bow’s aiming to target your magic missile manually, then plink away at the dragon for free, then wait to regen, and so on.

Anyway, you can find videos for how to kill the dragon off that first towerall over the place, and it’s well worth it imo just because having to do boss sprints through that dragon (if you don’t get him the first time) is irritating. Plus 10k souls will only be valuable to you if you get it early on.

2665

There is a tower in 1-1 where I can kill the dragon? Had no idea!

I recently started playing this, and find it extremely hard.

I took a royal, since it seems those are the best for a newbie like me, and I can finish 1-1 pretty easily by now.

Then, I have no idea where to go. I tried…eh…the one with the rockchopping guys, and where you start near some guys that throws boulders from a tower thing. I got killed by a fat guy throwing fire on a bridge - damn hard!

Then I tried a world where there are skeleton rollers and got killed by archers near the beginning - ouch!

I’m pretty scared right now, and could do with a little bit of help of where to go next, and perhaps a hug.

2666

It is in 1-2. When the dragon is dive bombing you while you run across the long bridge, you can get to the top of the first tower and snipe him. You can only get off one or two shots each time he dives, so it takes a while.

2667

It takes ages to kill that dragon in 1-2, but it’s well worth it. I would concentrate on that next and then seeing if you can kill the boss, either through legitimate shin-hacking or by magic sniping from the balcony. If you’re struggling you should go back to 2-1, which is home to the flamey boulders and laughing flaming fat dudes. Make sure you get the Purple Flame Shield from 1-1 (it’s in the Dragon nest near that bridge you have to run across, expect to die in the attempt) before trying 2-1. It will make life a lot easier. Then grab a crushing weapon - I believe there’s a good one early on in 5-1, but don’t go too far in. By the end of that you should be in a position to consider 4-1, and after that you’ll have reasonably easy access to some good farming opportunities in 4-2 that will make progress a lot easier.

Basically, your progress is going to be iterative and marked less by level boundaries and boss defeats than by improvements in your equipment and understanding that improve your confidence.

2668

Awesome - Thanks Hunty, I will defintely give this a try this weekend!

With the dragons nest, I assume you mean grab and die,and then have the shield for using?

2669

No worries! Yeah, you’re almost certainly going to die getting that shield and the other stuff on that ledge. Bummer eh?

2670

well, not necessarily. You have access to 1-2 already, and you’ve indicated you want to kill the dragon, so if you save the 1-1 looting trip for after that then the dragon won’t be there and you can pick up stuff at leisure.

2671

Also, the shield requires a substantial (but virtually necessary IMO for a starting player) strength investment in order to use it, which means it’s really up to you when to pick it up since you won’t likely be able to use it for a bit. Fat guys will be a lot easier when you have 100% physical damage soak and close to that in fire resistance with that shield up, and eventually they will just be someone you backstab on your way to more important places.

1-2 is a great level to clear early because the portal entry you unlock with that boss sets you up to sneak up behind the blue eye knights and farm them for half moon and better grasses. This will really expand your margin of error elsewhere.

You did find the thief ring in 1-1, right? That makes life a lot easier in terms of how quickly enemies react to you.

The skeletons are best dealt with by acquiring the blessed mace +1, which works wonders on their attitude problem. That requires a terrifying journey into 5-1, which will scare your pants off but you don’t need to beat it so much as get to that item and then bail. You can also buy it off a merchant but she’s not that much easier to get to in that same world, so you might as well get it for free.

2672

It’s frustrating to have the dragon down to 50% and then be disconnected from the servers. Has anyone else who’s been playing recently been experiencing server disconnects as often as I have (multiple times per a 2-3-hour session)?

2673

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to kill the dragon with my crossbow, since the server keeps disconnecting too frequently. :-(

2674

Log out of PSN.

2675

I thought about that, but didn’t realize the dragon would remain dead if I wasn’t online. Thanks for the confirmation!

2676

Another great option I recommend, takes less time in 5-1 but a little more upgrade material. You just have to go in far enough to kill the first 4 enemies, then fall down to the ledge on the left where you can knock down the alternate plank bridge. Grab that Morning Star and upgrade it to +3 and then make it Dragon with the stones from Stonefang. Blunt + Dragon makes it effective for all the skeletons, and having fire on it makes it much easier to take down the black katana guys.

I used this weapon most of my whole first playthrough, all the way up to killing Garl V. Because Dragon doesn’t scale with stats, it’s a powerful upgrade your first playthrough without much stat investment, so get and use it early for best effect.

2677

Woo, went on a roll yesterday and beat 2-1 (not a big deal; I’d already helped clear it several times as a blue phantom) and 4-1 (which was a big deal). I also killed my first black phantom… at the same time he killed me, but it’s a start! Now I just have to muster my courage and push through 3-1 or 5-1.

Razgon, you’re just a bit behind me. I’d second the advice to kill the dragon in 1-2 – bring about 200 arrows and then snag the bow from the second tower. I backtracked to the first tower once I had the bow and then used that as my shooting position, but YMMV. You may not need all those arrows, especially since you’ll also have Soul Arrow, but that gives you a margin of safety in case you waste some of them. After that, the 1-2 boss is easy as a Royal.

The skeletons in 4-1 were my bane at first too, but once you get the hang of fighting them as well as a decent anti-skellie weapon, 4-1 becomes a great place to farm souls for a new character. 4-1 also has the crescent falchion +1, which is a great early-game weapon for a Royal (since its damage scales with your magic stat).

My best general advice at this stage would be, use the heck out of that blue eyestone. Not only is playing as a blue phantom a blast, it’s also much less stressful for a newbie and lets you gather souls without the risk of losing them in PVE. (You can still lose souls if a Black Phantom invades the host’s game and kills you.)

2678

If you’re a Royal, you can kill that Dragon with Soul Arrow only. You just kind of point yourself in his direction, trial and error will get you aiming the right way before long. Once you are aiming at the right spot, don’t move. Fire off a soul arrow or two as he passes, and eventually he will die. You don’t need to have a bow at all to do this - just make sure you have the mana-regen ring equipped.

2679

The bow is still useful as it allows you to manually aim the soul arrow (aim with the bow, then go back to one handed with the magic catalyst in your right hand). It’s right there on the first tower.

2680

And manually aiming your spells becomes a hugely useful tactic for certain fights, like the Dragon God.