Joe_M
2001
I don’t know if it’s being a Bethesda nerd to not check out DLC areas. The process for getting into Oolacile is a little convoluted if you aren’t using a wiki. My first playthrough I didn’t even know that stuff was over there, nor do I think I’d have guessed that I needed to return a couple more times.
By that I just meant bragging about not seeing certain content because you’re off doing something else. (Okay, it was a ridiculously obscure reference.) It reminded me of people who skipped the main quest in Skyrim, when it actually had some cool stuff in it this time!
I’m sure remaking characters is fun too. But the DS DLC is worth going through the steps to see it ASAP.
Joe_M
2003
I still have not finished the main quest in Skyrim and I don’t think I’m even close to done with it. I saw some dude on a mountain and then… I got distracted by like 120 hours of other things to do. It would help if the quest log were a bit more user friendly: I click on various things, receive no feedback, then return to whatever I was doing before I decided to brave the interface.
Wolff
2004
So depending on your skill and comfort with the souls games you will want to get stats at different times. I am pretty solid now so what I do may frustrate some players (fairly low vitality for a long time).
Basically you want to have 10 floating humanity so your item find is high when you get to undead parish. Kill the balder knights there for the swagger sword. You want the knights with the baker shield not the small shield, two in the church one across the small wood bridge.
Basic build is two magic slots one for power within one for the highest magic weapon you can cast.
End goal is 40 dex at least 25 intelligence for crystal magic weapon and strength 16 for shield use. I stopped at 20 vitality but you could potentially go for more. When its boss trouncing time wear the lingering dragon ring. Buff weapon and then. Power within. Kind of sick damage while still playing a fast mover. I was able to roll most of the game at less than 25% burden slapping on black knight or paladin armor for dangerous areas.
Wolff
2005
Oh if you are looking for a "pure"magic build that is going to be int or faith as the primary stat dump. Seriously otherwise you are playing a mage whose spells suck or a melee dude that is really under performing. One of the most common mistakes I see players make is spreading a character to thin across multiple disciplines.
pg1
2006
I found Power Within to make the game at least an order of magnitude easier in boss fights.
Wolff
2007
Yeah I basically feel it is easy mode now but would never recommend it to a new player. I think prob the best build for most new players is to start as a cleric and then build towards a strength/vit/end or dex/vit/end build never putting more points in faith. This way you have a couple out of combat heals as well as the estus flasks for in combat heals and a sturdy character that does very solid damage.
I liked Anor Londo…it was Blightown that I hated!
Disagree with a bunch of those - 4 Kings waaaay too low, and at the time they’re encountered, the Capra Demon & Bell Gargoyles are far tougher since you likely haven’t finished out the game yet, while Gaping Dragon, Centipede, & Nito all easier than listed. Never died to any of 'em on any playthrough, while Capra and Bell Gargoyles swallowed a fair amount of time on 1st playthrough, until you realized the importance of the environment.
Yeah and Gwyn is a joke with parry.
Really though, “fun party time” as a literal description needs to be reserved for DLC bosses. So great.
Hansey
2012
To be fair, some of those are an absolute joke (or way more difficult) depending on class as well. Quelaag is a cakewalk as a sorcerer because you can stand right in front of her and kill her with soul arrows… every hit staggers her and she dies before she can even get an attack off. (I hear she staggers with regular bow attacks as well.)
That said, I thought the Capra Demon should have been farther up the list.
4 Kings was by far the hardest boss after the initial playthrough, and also one of the more annoying to flub given the travel route - and I died against them at least every other time. Once in a while I’d have a death, but everything else was a cakewalk. That said, Dark Souls does a better job than Demon’s Souls at making multiple playthroughs challenging, or maybe that’s just my sense because I played them in reverse order.
I did the New Londo Ruins which I did not enjoy for one reason and one reason only: Needing to have transient curses. The ghosts never dropped any for me in the beginning and I only had a couple. Ended up having to run through the area multiple times until eventually I found the NPC that sells them. Alright, my weapon can’t hit a ghost unless I use an item, that doesn’t bother me. Having the item only drop from ghosts I can’t hit or bought from a NPC in the middle of ghost town, kind of a dick move but alright. I think the thing that bothered me the most was that I couldn’t walk through the ghosts. I can’t hit them, but they can physically block me in hallways. Once I eventually made it to the NPC and bought some it became pretty easy. I think I found an ember here which let me upgrade my gargoyle halberd to +15. Took on the 4 Kings and almost failed right off the bat because I hadn’t used a transient curse. Once I had it was a pretty easy fight. I guess they spawn on a timer or something, but I only had the second one appear while I was still fighting the first. My halberd brought them down pretty quickly and they never really used any strong attacks on me. Don’t know why it’s called 4 Kings when 5 ended up spawning for me.
Did the Duke’s Archives and Crystal Cave after that which weren’t so bad. The cutscene in the prison kind of hyped the difficulty of the blue squid things so I spent way too much time messing with the alarm and trying to draw them away until I just started attacking them and realized how easy they were. In Crystal Cave I died a few times due to falling because of those golem things. Boss again was really easy.
I think there’s a couple transient curses maybe that drop from some of the worshippers in the beginning of the Ruins? But yeah, it’s definitely a positive feedback loop: if you have some, it’s easy to get more, but if you don’t have any, it’s hard to get started.
You don’t need to be cursed to fight the 4 Kings…you do need the Covenant of Artorias though.
Joe_M
2016
I believe you can buy transient curses at the merchant who’s at the end of the aqueduct tunnel. She’s behind that door, unfortunately, if you haven’t unlocked it.
The Four Kings just have a total health bar, so they spawn until it’s gone. I wonder how many one can survive at once? Or maybe only four will spawn at one time.
I did have some trouble gauging just how far away the boss was. I guess I just missed completely and assumed my weapon went through it.
Wolff
2018
In depth dark souls podcast:
http://duckfeed.tv/bsc/1
only listened to about five minutes so far but sounds promising.
Delta
2019
Quarter to Three, help me, help me. Man, I love this game, but I’m horribly stuck on the Capra Demon. I’ve read all the guides about using the stairs, but I fail in the crucial first 3 seconds of the fight. Rolling to dodge the first strike only tangles me up in either a.) The scenery or b.) the dogs. I’m using the Firelink Shrine shortcut, so it amounts to about five minutes of running followed by a 3 second boss fight. Help?
Poise helps a lot so you don’t get hit-stun so easily. It’s hectic in there also, you have to sort of focus and not allow yourself to become flustered. Consider using a shield to block hits if rolling isn’t working, too.
