As a black phantom, I try to avoid using healing items and the like. I want to win, but I feel like you already have enough advantages (in a level, with enemies ignoring you, or in the boss fight with the extra health). Now if he’s got three blue phantoms with him or something, well that’s a different story.
I’ve even done the Good Samaritan black phantom, where you kill enemies for the good guys. It’s fun to see how far they trust you before their nerve breaks and they come after you.
EDIT: I just found out for the first time, by accident, that the d-pad makes the bow’s first person view zoom. I really, really wish I had known that a long time.
They were mine. I had all my normal equipment plus the special boss helmet thing that shot magic missiles periodically outside of my control.
All I had was the gloom breastplate, starting royal gear and a +1 magic short sword I equipped by mistake before being summoned. The other guy was decked out in what looked like the full Brushwood set.
Incidentally I thought I was being summoned as a blue phantom…must have used the wrong stone.
Just beat flame lurker. I went and fought Duron and got his sword, that thing ripped through flame lurker. Fighting Duron on the other hand was like walking a tight rope.
Nope, the 3-3 boss is chosen from players using the blue stone. That was working as intended. It’s a little taste of PvP in a game that otherwise doesn’t require it. In offline mode you get a bot.
No, in that level you have a good chance of being summoned as a black phantom even if you are putting down a blue stone. On other levels there’s a probability (linked to your respective character tendencies or something, probably), but with the monk it seems like if someone else on PSN goes in to fight and your blue sign is down, you’re going in on the other guy’s side.
In case anyone else missed it like I did, they’ve re-linked the japanese images of the old strategy guide maps on the wikidot. Very handy, once you’ve seen a little bit of the levels and can decode them, or you can just google translate like I did in that link.
Also, this is the best map I’ve ever seen.
ckessel
1788
I’ve got the thief ring, but it only lets me get in the first shot. It’s not a problem, the bow just is something I’ll be using from sniper points where a soul ray won’t reach. I don’t see myself using a bow in normal combat since with a soul ray I can keep a shield equipped, but I can’t with a bow.
I really love the exploring. Finding new stuff, figuring out how to skip a trap, etc. I really hate the bosses. I suspect if I go on to complete it, I won’t play a NG+ just because the most fun part for me, exploration, will all be done.
BTW, from what I just read on a wiki, the “kill a Maneater with a bow before the fog” “trick” has been removed in the North America version.
I just did it two days ago with my NA version. It may have been that my bow at the time was sufficiently powered up to not give him a window to back up in time (I used the clever rat ring along with a white bow that was +4 at the time and hard arrows, not because I was worried about that update but because I’m OCD about min-maxing damage ratios).
I really love the exploring. Finding new stuff, figuring out how to skip a trap, etc. I really hate the bosses. I suspect if I go on to complete it, I won’t play a NG+ just because the most fun part for me, exploration, will all be done.
For sure. But you might be surprised how much you missed the first time through no matter how careful you were. The two tendency extremes add twists to the levels that are interesting, and just being able to go through them while focusing on something other than abject terror of the unknown gives you a lot of appreciation for the details. Plus, those geckos have it coming.
Jarmo
1790
This is incorrect. I have killed the first Maneater about 20 times through the fog within the last two months and I have the NA version. Which wiki are you talking about? Both ones I know of recommend this tactic.
The wiki I’ve been using: http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/
The official Atlus one (doesn’t seem to be as thorough as the one above): http://www.atlus.com/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page
The wikidot one says don’t use the lava bow as if he’s on fire he’ll step out of range. I’ve meen using the sticky compound long bow +1 - +5, whatever upgrade level I’ve happened to have when I’ve fought him. Always worked fine with hard arrows.
The first Maneater never retreated even if I took a break from hitting him with my arrows through the door so any bow should be fine with enough arrows.
Jarmo
1791
The same thing happened to me. I finally got around to taking a new look at the manual after finishing my first playthrough and lo and behold, the bow zooms! Sure made many places in NG+ a lot more comfortable when I didn’t have to fight with the too steep sensitivity curve of the analog stick when first-person aiming.
Fine aim adjustments are a lot easier when the view is zoomed in. If you don’t use the zoom, it is easier to move the aiming point a little by moving the character than moving the aim point. It is almost impossible to make the aim point move only a little with the analog stick without zooming. Pushing the stick a little does nothing and when you increase pressure the aim suddenly jumps farther than wanted.
Also, for chrissakes pick up the sword that’s next to the body of King Allard in the pool of water at the end. Don’t be like me and miss out on making Northern Regalia in New Game + because you didn’t notice it among the other glowy things.
ckessel
1793
I’ll be damned if I can find it now. Clearly it works, so I must have imagined reading it or read something else related to the NA version change and conflated it with the Maneater strategy.
No, it was there on the wikidot page. It’s been recently edited out, if you look at the history. Must have been a lava bow thing. Incidentally, I now have all three maxed bows, so I guess it’s time for an arrow type to damage comparison. I can’t find the one I’d looked at before.
Also, has anyone successfully used soulsucker? Where and how, and what are the marginal returns vs thirst? Or is it simply a winner takes all situation, where you need to use both and just find a convenient target after stacking all of your slots?
I was thinking of using it on Adjudicator since he seems within touching reach, but after its miserable failure against Vanguard it seemed like a risky proposition.
Djscman
1796
The Maneaters were a set of the toughest bosses for me. I think the game started taking it easy on me after a number of losses; that viper grafted to Maneater’s ass started biting him in the head an awful lot, eventually giving me enough time to make an attack. Thanks, snake buddy!
From what I just saw, that attack is sometimes triggered if you hit the tail directly, and after a few hits you even sever it altogether. I just beat him in NG+, and the key was once again the clever rat’s ring and the fire fountain in the middle. Or whatever it is. I strafed around it when he was in melee mode, then used magic missile whenever he was further away. The spear often strikes right around the fountain with little effort.
After that, I went into the yellow monk’s. First I went in as an ally blue phantom, and got demolished (the meat cleaver was a little too slow for the stock boss and his claws, at least when they one shot kill you). Sorry what seemed like a Japanese guy! At least I took a lot of his health and if he’s susceptible to bleed he had to be feeling it.
Then I got summoned in as a black phantom, and the same setup (I had the cleaver switched out because he showed up with a shield) proved complete frustration to my opponent. I relied on anti-magic (because at level 110 it’s too hard to predict what magic they are going to throw at you) and my moonlight sword +5 (ignores shields). That and the fast stamina ring proved a winning combo, although it was a heck of a chase. It didn’t seem like I got anything as a reward other than that sweet headwrap, no souls or anything. And I felt kind of like a dick.
That Knight guy supposedly died somewhere in my game so I can’t get that key…
In new game + and beyond, I plan to just kill him myself and get the key off his corpse. Maintaining full black character tendency is easier than white, and Mephistopheles is fun anyway. Plus, that way you get the key for sure. Biorr gets a pass because he’s handy in that boss fight.
He disapeared in my first play through as well, but I just let the bule eyed knight in 1-1 do my dirt work for me…North Regalia is sweet, I like 1 hitting the skeletons in 4-1. :)
One think I must say is that I wish there were more colorless Demon’s souls to be had, without having to deal with the primeval demons. Hopefully they haver another pure black week soon, since I didn’t realize how important they were earlier and didn’t bother gettting them.
