2846

It was mentioned later it’s different amounts.

2847

The golden skulls are always 200 but yes, you can find other bankable runes in larger amounts. I have found one worth 5k runes.

If you see a field with stone graves with shinies you should always investigate it.

2848

My current save is literally outside the room where Moonveil is (Magma Wyrm). I just need to deal with that LOL.

I also have both Meteorite Staff and Demi-Human Queen Staff as my offhand item

Up to now, I’ve been mostly Dex and using Uchigatana+7, Nightrider Flail+6 and Longbow+4.

2849

Yes you can

2850

You should get used to dying a lot @jpinard. It’s part of the whole Dark Souls gameplay loop. Die over and over, but learn more each time you die, so you can do better next time.

2851

I read that Ashes scale with the weapon (and not stats) and that weapon level upgrades are a much bigger immediate jump on damage.

So I’ve just continually tried to max out one of my weapons pairing it with whichever Ashes you can most profitably abuse.

2852

Death happens. In the open world it’s mostly trivial, especially once you get a mount. You can just do a drive by on your Runes if there are enough to care about.

Dying never puts you behind really (unless you just killed a boss or something, in which case a grace likely just spawned near you anyway), but getting the habit of levelling whenever you have enough is a good habit to get into (at least once that unlocks).

2853

Haha, I was going to post the same thing last night but felt kind of silly figuring this out at evel 70. Glad I’m not alone!

2854

I have a hybrid/jack of all trades character, and it really depends on how you build it, as there are numerous versions of “jack of all trades”. It’s really all about what you’re going to be using as your main attack/weapon, and scaling those stats. Everything in the game scales off some combination of stats, all stats have soft caps so…trying to sort all that out is part of the fun. I’m currently playing a dex/int build, and it’s great, because all the stuff I have scales off primarily those two stats. In general though, you want to pick an angle and commit too it pretty heavily. There is a big difference in 20 points in a stat, say int if you’re playing a “mage”.

Typical late game stats for a mage:
vigor: 40
mind: 30
endur: 20
str: 12
dex: 12
Int: 80
faith: 7
arcane: 9

Best starting class depends on what move set you like, what weapons you like etc. Vagabond is hard to beat for anything melee, Confessor for faith build, Astrologer for int build. That being said you can get there with any starting class. My current dex/int build started as a prisoner for the stat start and gear.

Most fun for me so far has been my dex/int caster/melee hybrid. My pure mage is a close second as it really can lay down the hurt. In general it’s very handy to have some kind of decent range attack.

2855

Is there any cost for fast traveling? I’m guessing no, but there was a game I fast traveled all over and only discovered later it was costing me a fortune lol.

Does this game have the Souls mechanic of Demon’s Souls? You die, and then you’re just your soul and don’t have as many HP? I died and look fine so I hope this game didn’t bring ghat mechanic with it!

2856

Looks like he could play drums in a Scandinavian metal band.

2857

Jack of all trades works if you know what you’re doing (and even if you don’t as long as you keep some guidelines in mind).

Most Faith builds seem to aim for about 50 Faith and then 30-40 in whatever other stat their main weapon is using.

Basically there are a few things you want:
Vigor. To live. Less than 40 Vigor sucks almost universally. You can get by with lower, especially at lower levels, but eventually everything will one or two shot you with less. Some people say “get enough to use your weapon and then race to 40,” but that’s not really required. That said high health helps a lot.

Mind/Endurance: If you’re caster and/or want bigger weapons and armor. Everyone needs Stamina (and FP really) at the end of the day. You can always flask for more FP, but if you run out of Stamina and can’t dodge, you’ll probably die. That said you can generally get by with 20’s or even teens here unless you’re a pure caster or something. There are a lot of Talismans that help with equip load, but they’re % based so a strong base helps. Also it might free up a precious Talisman slot.

Damage stat: Whatever it is. Str/Dex for most things, but a lot of weapons scale off Faith and Int very well. You need enough to wield whatever you’re using and then want the best scaling stat to 40-60. Softcapping starts at 40, so often times you’ll get better damage results from going to a secondary stat (you can see the results on the right when you’re putting points in). Lots of math and whatnot under the hood, but basically “get to 40” is a decent rule of thumb and by then you’ll have sorted what you want/need.

Also you can respec after a certain point a few times, so if you want to change things up a bit, that’s an option eventually. You are constrained by your starting class stats, but that’s it and really the variation isn’t huge between them once you’re a decent level.

Edit: Also apparently Arcane weapons don’t have scaling. So don’t try an Arcane build until they fix it.
Arcane Ashes seem to work (and are late game anyway), but natural Arcane weapons just don’t scale with Arcane. Either universally or it’s so common as to nearly be universal. But going for an Arcane build out of the gate is… ambitious. Especially since they don’t show up for a good while anyway. Str, Dex or Str+Dex is more common. Maybe with some Int or Faith depending on the weapon if applicable.

2858

I’m doing Dex/Fth with a scythe that scales off faith and dex (also str, but str is it’s weakest scaling) as my primary weapon. I use a dex scaling flail for enemies that aren’t impressed by things that poke and slash. Then incantantions and a bow for backup, the dex helps keep the bow damage acceptable.

At times I see a piece of Str/Fth gear and wish I’d gone that way, but I do like the weapons I have and dex also improves casting speed ever so slightly so it feels that tiny bit more synergistic.

2859

For those reading all these posts about Builds and whatnot, here’s my experience. So far, I’ve just been wandering around and winging it. Started as Prisoner, barely put any points in Vigor (I think it might be up to 15 now) , and none into Mind. I put some into Dex and Int to use some spell I found, that turned out to be totally useless (Bubbles? WTF is the point of this?), and have otherwise just been putting points into stuff when I want to use something new I’ve found. I think the only one I have over 20 is Dex at 25, and that was so I could use the Night Flail (which is definitely my favorite horseback weapon- being able to spin up using the trigger and just ride past enemies is great!). I tend to just switch between my spell (starting Prisoner spell) and my Estoc (ashed to Blood) and occasionally Horn Bow. I got the 100% shield from the castle, put Barricade on it, and pull it out for the occasional enemy for the Guard Counter love.

But still, making progress. only ‘major’ boss I’ve killed was the grafted dude, that wasn’t too hard, and killed a bunch of minor ones besides that I just find through exploring. Just worked my way through the Manor, killed the boss, found the witch behind it. No idea where that’s leading, but it doesn’t seem like the main quest?

So far, at least, I’m pretty jack-of-all-trades, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing me down.

2860

I think most glaives are dex/fth.

2861

Man this game has really sucked me down the rabbit hole…crazy good.

2862

Does an “Ash of War” go away after imbibing a sword with it? In other words should I save them for a very special weapon? Or use and nit wait?

2863

No, you can change them up to your heart’s content.

But an AoW can only be applied to one weapon at a time.

2864

Awesome thanks! It’s not always evident if something like that will disappear once you use it.

2865

most of it is similar to Demon’s Souls but with different names. And there is no HP penalty when you die.
Later you get something to use called “rune arcs” that work similar like ephemeral eyes, they boost “great runes” but the boost gets lost, when you die.

If you can’t do at least 5% damage to an enemy, come back later… otherwise you need a lot of time killing it, and might get killed in the process. Most enemies are not mandatory.