Written by Jab on these forums!
Yeah you’re right. But it does take a sec to kick in.
Last night, Nonalla the Guilt-Ridden Thief realized she’s inadvertently either killed or alienated every other non-hollowed undead in her world and decided to take a sabbatical.
So, I decided to roll a sorcerer and pay careful attention to my covenants, dialogue choices, and use of firebombs around vendors. I rolled all the way through the first bell without dying, soul-arrowing my way to glory. With my +2 Sorcerer’s Tunic and my +1 Rapier I was ready to take on Capra Demon, with the help of my green-haired phantom friend SWKUNKz.
Fuck Capra Demon.
While I agree that the weapon stats needed tweaking, it’s sort of a shame that a big chunk of the fancy hardcover strategy guide is now obsolete. Oh well.
I imagine they’ll publish errata - they have a whole site dedicated to keeping their guides up to date.
Hehe, realizing that Capra Demon encounter is not really designed for casters, I’ve summoned 2 phantom friends and they killed him by the time I got upstairs and killed one of the dogs. :)
Continuing my habit of being the very latest person to the party, I just made it up to the Capra Demon last night. I took him down to half health easily on my first try, with no problems at all with the dogs…and haven’t come even close on my subsequent shots.
Damnit. :>
Farscry
1608
Well, I only just passed that part this week myself, so you’re not much later to the party than me. ;) I progress at a glacial pace with this game.
Like Damien Neil I once got him to half life solo, made a stupid mistake, and died. And spent a bunch of tries dying almost immediately upon entering the room. Then I said fuck that, summoned two phantoms, entered the fog, held my shield up for about 5 seconds, and won. I like that you can make fights easier by summoning people, but that was ridiculous.
My annoyance with the Capra Demon at this point is less him, and more my discovery that I wasted 3k souls on Magic Weapon to aid in the fight, since it doesn’t work on my Drake Sword.
Magic weapon doesn’t work on any weapon with a trait, I’ve found. Divine, Lightning, Fire, I can’t use it on any of those, nor can I use it on a bow.
My +10 Iaito is very much enchantable though.
Avtar
1612
I did the same thing! I’m farther along now though, and the most recent boss I killed I ended up switching from my normal sword(s) to an upgraded non-special sword with magic weapon applied. Huge difference! I’m sure you’ll find a use for it later.
Is the patch even out yet, besides Japan?
SlyFrog
1614
I’m not even there yet. And I’ve owned the game since day 1 (and put about 25 hours into it, if the time on the save is to be believed).
I started the game really slowly, too. It took me a good 20 hours to ring the first bell. I spent a lot of time running back and forth through Undead Burg, finding everything and getting the hang of combat, both magical and melee. In my NG+, it took me about 30 minutes to get to the Gargoyles. This is possibly my favourite exploration game ever, making progress is about learning and discovery - you have to learn the layouts of the areas, the placements of the enemies, the best way to fight each enemy, then practice until you master it.
It’s interesting what the lack of a map does to the way I play. I have actually memorised pretty much the entire world and know all the best ways to get from point A to point B. Compare that to a game with a map, where I’ll find myself constantly opening the map so I’ll know where to go. Some of the moments where you open a certain shortcut, and it hits you that this tower is the same tower that you saw a few hours ago in another area, or that you’ve done a complete circle and the place that it took you hours to get to is directly above that other place, are just amazing. It’s such a beautifully well put together world.
This is almost the perfect game, such a rare treat in this age of ‘interactive experiences’ masquerading as games.
SlyFrog
1616
Yeah. A huge amount of those initial hours for me was fighting that first Black Knight in the Undead Burg over and over (until I figured out a way). I spent another large amount of time trying to figure out how to kill the drake on the bridge (which I’ve just given up on for now).
Other areas oddly went very fast. I killed the Taurus Demon and Moon Butterfly the second try on each.
I also have a tendency, particularly when playing unforgiving games like this, to hoard items. That often makes it take longer (e.g. I still haven’t used the weapon electrifying resin I found in the Undead Burg).
It also took me awhile to treat souls with the respect they deserve. I didn’t spend the effort I should have to always try to get my souls back after a death.
Now I seem to be rolling pretty quickly.
Huh. So that was the Capra Demon everybody hates so much? I killed him on my first try, with a standard +2 longsword. Admittedly I had 10 flasks and the black knight shield, but I don’t think it offers much in this fight aside from slightly higher stability. The worst parts seemed to be the dogs and the camera. The long sword’s thrust does pretty hefty damage to him, i guess any other thrust / pierce attack would as well.
Admittedly, I did take a pretty huge accidental detour, so I may have been over-leveled for him. And I was down to my last flask.
Were you level 60 like the last guy that said the same? Most people here hit him around 20 I think. And yeah the dogs are what make him hard.
No…24.
The dogs weren’t very aggressive for me…so maybe I just got lucky.
Jab
1620
Getting that article published reminded me that it’s been several years since I last played Ninja Gaiden Black. I really want to go through Dark Souls again, but I want to wait until the patch comes out with the improved lock on and phantom control fix, and of course weapon scaling.
