3201

Unequip the crossbow and one of the swords, then you can add back in some armour.

3202

if you die on the 1st boss, no big deal, since you can enter the boss fight from the start of the area. The big gate is now open and shows a fog gate.

3203

Do NOT play on graphics mode. The differences are miniscule. It’s a setting even the devs don’t like. Performance all the way.

3204

For the last time, RESTART AS ROYALTY

You seem to be struggling a bit with the game to the point it seems like it’s impacting your enjoyment. The starting items and skills of that class will make your life much easier going. You can definitely keep going as the Knight and long term starting class doesn’t matter as it’s really only starting items stats. You can start as Royalty and go full heavy armor eventually if you want.

Playing as knight may help you learn some of the core mechanics faster though as you won’t abuse your starting spell and have to deal with mastering melee combat.

For the record, on my PS5 run I started as Thief and played most of the game with a dagger as my main weapon, but also I’ve played every Souls game to date so I started well versed.

3205

I finished the first boss and only died once. Yea! But I used up all my fire stuff.

On the next level I got myself the wooden stick so I can cast a bit of magic, picked up the soul spell. But now I’m majorly stuck. There’s the bridge you have to run across fleeing the dragon and you run into 5 crossbowman and a blue eyed knight. I can dispatch the crossbowman, but I just cannot kill that knight. I’ve died 15x in a row.

Any tips for this?

3206

I’m stuck at around the same point in my game.

But from what I’ve read we should strongly consider doing the other archway first levels rather than trying to push through a single one all the way through.

Diego

3207

I’m so close to finishing off that knight, but I just can’t heal, hit, block to save myself. And there appears to be one crossbowman up above that confounds things.

3208

Well, this:

…is part of your problem. The blue-eyed knights are definitely tough opponents for the early game, and you’ll have an easier time if you come back with a bit more experience. Remember that you have access to all the archstones now. It can be helpful to switch around when you find yourself getting stuck or frustrated. The first level of Stonefang Tunnel and Tower of Latria are both probably easier to progress in than where you are now, and the first level of Shrine of Storms is tough but profitable.

3209

Excellent, I will do that!

Have to say it’s very hard to know if you’re supposed to be able to beat something or now. Like that red eyed knight. I died to him a lot early on and finally had to look it up only to find you’re not supposed to battle him for a while.

3210

Yeah, the blue-eyed knights are nowhere near as tough as their red-eyed cousins – beatable if you did decide to keep at it. But this is a game where you have multiple ways to progress at any given time, so it can be good to switch things around rather than beating your head against the wall.

Also, @forgeforsaken is right that you could save yourself some difficulty by restarting as a royal – with the knowledge you have now, you’d get through the first level and catch up to where you are now in a fraction of the time it took originally, and you’d have an easier time for a while going forward. But you’ll be fine just continuing forward with your existing character too.

3211

I remember the one guy from the totally rad show podcast once told how he heard about Dark Souls and that it is a hard game and you need to push through. Then he played it and went to the graveyard at Firelink and it was so hard and he pushed and pushed and abandoned the game. It was the wrong direction.

Souls game now have the label attached to be hard games (they are not). And when a newcomer starts and hits a wall early, he thinks that’s the way it is, hard game. Instead, just go somewhere else and explore.

I remember Shrine of Storm was brutal, so I gave up on that area and went Stonefang. So my advice, if some part is too hard, maybe try other parts first.

If a boss is too hard and you are not too proud, maybe try coop. I think there is one really hard boss in the game.

3212

I spent 4 hours last night trying to kill Maneater. My Latria world is now pure black. So far, I haven’t noticed a difference on the boss run, where half the time I die trying to get past the phantom Mind Flayer. Fuck that guy.

Does my build suck? I started as a temple knight because I wanted to be a Paladin. Having cleared the first 2 worlds, as far as I can anyway, I have found no miracles other than the shitty ones the vendor sells. So I have an extra heal, sometimes. I dumped my points in Vit (20), End (20), and Str (24), with Faith (14) because I had dreams of using spells. I think I have Int (10) so I could get enough MP to heal twice. I use a Crushing Bastard Sword +3 and a Winged Spear +8 primarily. The spear is so handy in narrow corridors, so I keep it.

This Maneater boss, he sucks. There’s 2 of them. And if you make one mistake, you die. I have been helping other players by getting summoned, and out of like 10 attempts we’ve killed him exactly once. I also get summoned as the Mad Monk, and that fight is really buggy or something. I got into a duel with a guy last night, kept landing backstabs that did zero damage. Anyway…

I broke down and watched a Youtube video about this boss. They talk about exploiting a ledge next to some stairs and using arrows. My arrows do 66 damage, which is like… 2% of the bosses health? And you have to wait like a full minute between shots to exploit the boss’s AI. Not doing that.

Another video I watched showed a guy at SL 1 beating him down with a flame sword. It happened so fast, he just melted the boss. My +2 Dragon Sword does 105 a swing, and staggers the boss on the first hit but if I swing twice I get hit by his counter attack. Another guy was using a katana and doing 264 damage a swing. Wtf. My giant +3 crushing Bastard Sword with 24 STR does 85, and it’s SO SLOW.

Do these guys just grind their level and weapons up before fighting the boss? I’m SL 39, and I’ve upgraded my weapons best I can.

3213

Maneater is probably the toughest fight, only one I got some help with. They are particularly weak to magic damage although you probably don’t have a way of producing that. How much is your dex stat? Looks like you need to concentrate on strength based weapons for now.

3214

I’d say don’t run around human so much so the soul level doesn’t drop so far unless you are trying to force it.

Have you beat Tower Knight? If you convert his soul to the shield spell that will help you a lot.

Miracles aren’t the greatest in Demon’s and the NPC with the better ones can be a late unlock, he’s in 2nd part of Shrine of Storms (the Ritual Path)

3215

I assume that’s the NPC that calls me a dull brute and won’t talk to me!

I roll mage in every RPG so I wanted to mix it up. Shame on me. I should restart.

3216

If you do know that Royalty starts with an item that regenerates MP and Mage does not.

There’s a Faith scaling Mace in the first area of Vile of Defilement but it doesn’t look like you put many points in Faith either, but you still may want to grab that for the bonus magic damage

3217

I have that mace. I can’t upgrade it.

I’ve been avoiding a lot of googling, I just want to play the game. But I feel like I hit a wall with Maneater. Every other boss has gone down pretty quick with a summon to help me. Not this guy. I can’t even find a summon near his gate tbh, I’ve only been able to summon 1 person. I just go human for the added health, since my world is already pure black from dying so much.

3218

3 quick questions if you don’t mind.

  1. I decided to play two contiguous builds. Royalty and also continue with my Knight. With the Royalty run I found a Mausoleum key when in the first map when the knight you save runs around killing enemies… he died. Now I’m concerned by run is gimped because my Knight didn’t find this? Can I get it somehow? I scoured that whole area again and he, nor the key are anywhere.

  2. Also, the fat fireball guy in the digger run. He blocks a tunnel I need to get through and I just cannot get past him without dying. I spent 2 hours last night trying to get through and I couldn’t. Any tips?

  3. Is there a way to quickly farm souls when you open up the game a bit? I’m all out of healing and fire stuff and need a bunch badly.

3219

I don’t remember the exact sequence, but I think that if that guy survives, you can meet him again later and continue his quest line. I think finding the key if he dies is just a way to avoid locking people. There are a number of NPCs with associated events that can be opaque and hard to progress without a guide (there’s no quest log or anything). But the good news is that they’re all optional and not a big deal if you miss them.

There are a number of those guys. Don’t know of any real shortcut for them, but in general when learning a new enemy type it can be beneficial at first to just put all your focus on watching them and learning their patterns before you try and attack them. You’ll probably see some openings that you can start to exploit. Oh, and depending on what shield you’re using, you might check if you have one with better fire resistance. You can technically find the Purple Flame Shield in the first level, though it requires some risky dodging around the dragons.

Get a blunt weapon and go to the first area of Shrine of Storms. The skeletons there are around 300 souls a pop, and not too hard to beat with some practice. The second stage of Shrine of Storms will be even better once you get there.

3220

The Skeletons in Shrine of Storms are good for farming, but tough enemies