1581

My strategy guide is still holding up well. I kind of want the color to leech off it, revealing a sketch of Saint Astraea, or the Ghostbusters, or somebody.

Today a Black Phantom invaded my game as I was exploring 4-2. I was rolling and dodging the tubby knight when I fell off a cliff and died. Would he get any benefit of me dying but not by his hand?

1582

No, he didn’t get any benefit, but you lost a soul level.

1583

Dadgummit!

1584

You can’t lose a level from getting invaded, unless you get soulsucked. Only the invader can lose a soul.

1585

Good word.

1586

Really? I thought if your game was invaded and you died via the environment or status effects (poison, bleed, etc) the game considered it a suicide and you lost a soul level.

Doh, you are right, I just checked the wiki and its the opposite of what I said. If the black phantom suicides he looses a level.

1587

first, i just wanted to say i bought a ps3 just for this game, and i haven’t regretted it for a second (also for GoW3)

i have a few questions that haven’t become apparent to me, even after going through a few wiki’s and message boards, hoping someone here can offer advice. it mostly concerns gear and upgrades. and magic. :)

i started as a royal (for the ring) with the intention of primarily being a ranged spell caster. so far so good, i’ve completed 1-1 and 2-1. got a ton of stones in 2-1

thus far i’m still using my starting rapier and buckler. for armor i’m wearing some old raggedy stuff i came across, which seemed better than the starting wizard wear. rings, i wear the magic regen, and the increased health in soul form. wish i had more ring slots, the decreased detection range one also seems good, but i just can’t give up the other two :)

should i use my stones to upgrade the rapier? should i be saving them? are there so many stones around, it won’t matter if i upgrade the rapier and get something better down the road? what weapon should i be looking for? not endgame type stuff, but stuff i could get/use now or soon.

i picked up the kris blade last night, which i was excited about, until i realized i’d have to use it instead of my shield.

what should i be looking for in terms of armor and shield? again, something i could be using soon…

should i be buying any gear? or will i find everything i need as drops?

and as far as magic/miracles go, which spells have you loved, and which have been useless? i don’t want to waste a bunch of souls getting ones i’ll never use.

any reason to get flame toss if i’m using soul arrow?

as far as miracles, is heal worth while? evacuate?

1588

A few notes from the top of my head: You don’t really need to buy any weapons. You should be able to find most of them. When I played as a Royal I used the rags for a long time actually, but it depends on how agile you want to be. The 4th world (Shrine of Storms) first level has some great equipment (great sword and bow and talisman) and the NPC there sells leather armor which may be better then what you’re wearing, so that’s a good place to explore next.

The prices for spells and miracles are fairly cheap IMO I’d get them all if you plan on having high magic and faith stat points. I like Heal and Evac a lot since it cuts down on consumables and backtracking.

1589

The rapier is fine, but you need to take better advantage of its “attack behind a shield” capability, imo, than a buckler can offer. I strongly recommend a heater shield +2 (available from blacksmith or other places) which has 100% damage soak, and if you can find one (as early as 1-2, iirc) a winged spear so you can feel out the other “behind the shield, piercing” weapon.

Also, daggers are a lot of fun and a great way to learn how to backstab, since they have the widest backstab radius. Be sure to try similar situations with and without lock-on…once you get to know enemies, different places (sometimes in the same battle) require different approaches.

Since you have a bastard sword from 1-1, try messing with that and see if you like the 2h sword feel. I’ve seen others get a lot of mileage out of it and it can be a very effective and fun approach to combat.

should i use my stones to upgrade the rapier? should i be saving them? are there so many stones around, it won’t matter if i upgrade the rapier and get something better down the road? what weapon should i be looking for? not endgame type stuff, but stuff i could get/use now or soon.

Depends. Quality upgrades tend to be pretty abundant and not exceptionally valuable, so that’s a good place to experiment. I would not, for instance, use up my moonstone upgrades on something I wasn’t positive about, although given the progression that’s hard to do. I would save most hardstones for your shield of choice, which for most people is the Purple Flame shield (requires 24 str, blocks fire completely and melee/physical damage 100%).

The compound long bow in 4-1 is the only “must” weapon, imo, and that is available right where you run into the lone skeleton archer on the battlements next to the Vanguard demon. You have to go through that pit that immediately follows Vanguard in order to find your way to that wall, and there are some dirtbag ambushes on the way, but you should be alright so long as you bring along

The mace +1 from 5-1, which is worth going through that bit of relatively challenging combat for, as it makes the skeletons much, much easier to kill. I don’t necessarily recommend trying to complete 5-1 or 4-1, but it’s pretty worthwhile to get those items especially if you get

the free Faith talisman right at the beginning of 4-1. It’s no beast talisman, but it beats spending 5k souls on that thing which is required for miracles.

i picked up the kris blade last night, which i was excited about, until i realized i’d have to use it instead of my shield.

That’s really one for higher levels, imo, especially pvp.

what should i be looking for in terms of armor and shield? again, something i could be using soon…
I say fuck the rags, because they look like shit and are cumbersome once you start picking up shields. My recommendation is the thief armor from 3-1 or any of the mage-type armors. I like the thief armor because a slightly elevated poison resistance is a nice help in 5-2 and it looks cool. Well, fantasy video game cool, taking into account DS’s character appearance limitations.

I have never played with heavy armors or anything of the sort, as I think by the time you can equip them and be nimble you are still better served by dodging, blocking, or parrying in this insta-kill type game.

should i be buying any gear? or will i find everything i need as drops?

No, and yes, in 99% of cases. Sometimes it’s worth it to get stones and definitely worth it for arrows, but forget the rest.

and as far as magic/miracles go, which spells have you loved, and which have been useless? i don’t want to waste a bunch of souls getting ones i’ll never use.

Soul arrow, evacuate, antidote, guided soul arrow, anti-magic field (for level 3 on dark tendency especially), rage of god (pays for itself with gecko farming in the gecko nest of 2-2, which is difficult to do without that or pillar of flame), thirst, and soulsucker. As you can see, most of the lower level stuff is just rarely in my repertoire, and basic farming has given me more than enough herbs to ignore healing. Since healing with spells and herbs takes time, I might as well take the one where I don’t use up mana.

Oh, and death cloud, if you want to cheese the last boss, which I strongly recommend in advance. Fuck that guy.

The more piercy magic missile thing (I forget what it’s called) is definitely effective in PVP against shield users, and flame toss can be tremendously irritating in that same arena as you can keep moving while spitting them out. IIRC.

1590

Which one is the last boss? The guy at the end of 1-4? I didn’t think he was that bad. Definitely took me a few tries but most of the time I died it was because I’d press the wrong button when trying to switch back from my beast talisman to a bow to interrupt his nuke. If you keep up protection and keep your distance he can’t really hurt you with anything but that.

1591

At that point in the game I was done with long walks to bosses, and that’s one of the more prolonged ones. I fought him fair and square to the last tenth of his health bar, died, and then cheesed it on the second try. I feel no regrets, and I wish there had been a character gesture for urinating on his corpse.

1592

feanan, I would say go with what works. This game really allows you to build whatever type of character you want. My first character uses a Blueblood Sword, Dark Silver Armor and Dark Silver shield (as well as a White Bow and some Beast Talisman magic/miracles). I use a Ring of Great Strength to get around the armor penalties. It’s a very well rounded character and a ton of fun to play, though not great for PvP.

For my second character I am putting together a Morian Blade/Cleaver Rat’s Ring/Viscous Compound Longbow Build. This seems far and away the most powerful build, but it is also pretty limiting as to how you play it. I’m glad I kinda went where I felt like on my first guy though, since putting together a “hyper-mode” character seems like a much more rigid and a bit less fun process.

I do suggest trying out a spear instead of the rapier, and though I skip the Heater Shield in favor of the Purple Flame Shield you should definately go with one or the other. That Buckler doesn’t really cut the mustard. As for armor I like leathers the best for my lightweight build, and with a decent shield and some good dodging skills (and Backstabing if you want to take the time to learn it) the lack of heavy armor isn’t really an issue, though the heavy stuff does look pretty sweet. :)

1593

Man, late to the party here, and I can’t read 53 pages for the answers I need. A little help?

Can you sell excess junk for souls or anything? Or just destroy the crap.

Small king is world 1, obviously, which is 2? Burrow king or chieftan?

Do you really need all 22 points of str to wield the purple flame shield? I have like 13… Maybe hunter wasn’t the best choice.

After 1.1 boss, do you proceed to 1.2 or go to a different world?

1594

No, you can’t sell excess junk, but for the most part you can safely drop anything you have more than one of, and if you feel any hesitation at all that you might want to play with something later on you can leave it with Thomas (there isn’t any limit to the amount of stuff you can stockpile, afaik).

Burrow King is world 2, iirc. It’s the one right up the stairs next to world one.

Yes, you need 22 points in strength to use the purple flame shield. That should be your first stat goal; increasing your dex to 30ish should be your second.

After doing 1-1, you can go on to 1-2, or you can tour the first stages of the other worlds. I’d either do 1-2 or 2-1.

1595

This is the one thing I think From Software got wrong. There really should be a checkpoint right before a boss. Having to run through the same low-level minions and long corridors every time before trying a boss fight again is very wearying and wastes the player’s time. It eventually makes you reluctant to keep playing the game.

The boss fights would be a lot of fun if you could just jump in again after failing and keep practising your moves. From Software has made the game very fair to the player otherwise so this one thing feels like a misstep.

I’d really like to know their reasoning for doing it like this. Has anyone run across an interview where they address the checkpoint placement specifically? I know they want you to feel a sense of accomplishment after winning but in this case the cost is too steep. I’d rather they had made the fights themselves a bit more difficult than leave the boring repetition in.

What do you guys think about this? Are the checkpoints fine as is or not? Do you feel this adds value to the game or detracts from it?

1596

What do you guys think about this? Are the checkpoints fine as is or not? Do you feel this adds value to the game or detracts from it?

Pointless consider most of the chapter/level have a shortcut you can open up before the boss which allow you to run back to the boss without fighting much.

1597

I agree that generally the shortcuts make the walks fairly painless. It’s smart level design. Take 5-2, for example. It takes bloody ages to get through the first time, and about two minutes once you open the shortcut. Likewise 3-2.

The only places it fell down for me are 3-3 and 1-4 though. You can’t rush up the steps in 3-3, as the black phantom mind flayer dudes are not to be trifled with. As for 1-4… it’s the last level I have to do, and I have basically stalled there. I can beat False King, but I failed the first two or three times, and even having killed the dragon and the black phantoms it’s a long old walk back, and a long old ride in a lift too. The minions on the level require concentration too; the fat ministers and knights can bring some serious hurt. I got kind of tired after coming back to it once more and getting nailed by the boss when I had him down to a sliver of health, then Dragon Age arrived and that was that. I should go back soon or I’ll never finish the bugger, what with L4D2 and AC2 imminent.

1598

The shortcuts are, of course, a tremendous help and are very much appreciated. In my opinion, the distances that are left to be covered are still far too long. For example, the routes to the Flamelurker or the Adjudicator get very boring after a bunch of tries even when going the fastest way. There is no great challenge but the obstacles are dangerous enough to demand concentration. So you get to do the same thing again and again and you can’t even coast through it. To me, this is not play. It is work.

1599

I agree wholeheartedly - hence my enthusiasm dipping massively at 1-4 after a few dickings from El Kingo Falso.

1600

To be honest, I imagine they just didn’t think about it. My understanding is that From Software made Demon’s Souls with no real expectation that the title would be published internationally.

Japanese games (for the most part) don’t seem to include anything like the checkpoint systems popularized in Western games. The player base over there just doesn’t seem to expect them. So it probably never occurred to anyone that they should be there, so to speak.