Wait- you could pass through the high road prepatch? I have never been able to cross up there, even after killing the dragon.
Yeah you could, if you wacked it right the dismembered legs would stand up allowing you to pass underneath. However it seemed very much like a glitch at the time.
I just did Blighttown again yesterday, and I agree that the level is just really well put together. I really like that you can creatively drop down, slowly climb down, or use the connecting tunnels to make your way down. Also, I think From did a really good job signposting Blighttown (and the whole game in general) with the glow of treasures. A lot of times I’ll run over to a treasure glow and find another path or notice something in the distance.
If it’s his first time through it’ll take him a lot longer than 5 minutes. Which is actually another reason why I think this game is really fantastic - areas that have taken me hours before only take me 20-30 minutes now because playing the game has made me a better player. I guess that’s why in Demon’s Souls new game plus would have messages like “the real Demon’s Souls starts here”. Once you’ve gotten good at the game you can play it as its equal rather than fumbling through.
That said, fuck Lost Izalith. You’re right about them running out of time. The same guys who put together Sen’s Fortress or the Painted World could not have cooked up Izalith and been happy with it. It’s shit in almost every way. Even down to the first encounter with the land octopuses. He’s at the top of a flight of steps but he actually can’t come all the way down because a tree branch holds up his model half the way to the bottom. It’s almost literally a free kill on an enemy the player has never seen before. Not even a chance to legitimately learn its behavior patterns. Awful.
I have to agree about Lost Izalith, it almost seems like it was designed to make the player to be forced to use the shortcut from the spider lady covenant. At least with the Valley of Giants, most of the difficulty there is rendered moot if you have the light spell or the maggot helmet.
I finished the game last night at about 3am. I got invaded as soon as I set foot in the Kiln, and the dude came at me when I was fighting a silver knight. I kicked his ass with my Moonlight Greatsword, and it felt great.
I think I got a bad ending though? Once I killed Gwyn, I lit the bonfire, like I always do, and my character caught on fire and the credits rolled. That’s it!
Also, poor Knight Solaire. He went hollow when I was in Lost Izalith, with a bug on his head. I wanted to cry. Dude was my best bud for so long.
His life was in your hands, dude. In your hands.
Also if you’re curious about the endings, the end of the previous page in this thread has a clear explanation of what’s at stake.
So at the four kings. Have +5 lightning spear and queelag sword. Same with an eagle shield. Have the armor from discharge and I have the heavy set that goes with the ring that boost load limit. I can get a boosted silver knight straight sword too (currently +2). I’m around level 60, not much magic but I have an int of 16.
Do I just go in heavy armor 2 handing my spear and hope forthe best? I’ve killed 2 out of 4 so far but I feel like I’m button mashing for the first time in either demon or dark souls.
I also went with a brute force method on my first time through, one thing that helps is that using humanity gives back a lot of health.
Supposedly from a guide I read, there is a NPC you can take in to the fight, the only consideration is that you have to summon the NPC for the butterfly fight beforehand. I’m going to try it out later to see if that’s true.
Generally for four kings its about soaking damage without stagger and dishing out as much as you can. If you kill each one fast enough - you have enough time to flask/humanity/cast heal before the next one shows up. The only attack you have to dodge is the grab - because it costs you time.
It’s true. The tricky thing is that summoning an NPC for the butterfly fight implies dealing with the countless starved invaders partying around the forest for reasons no one can quite explain, so it might be one of those “disconnect from the internet” kind of evenings.
Also, to judge from my wife’s experiences with the 4 kings this evening, don’t be shy about piling on the gear to get to just under 100% of carry weight. You don’t need movement so much as ability to take pain and dish it out without being knocked down. If you have a strong Pyro option the ability to hit without draining stamina is pretty handy as well.
Funnily, I’ve found that going as light as possible so as to have maximum maneuverability is a must with the 4 kings. All their attacks are telegraphed clearly, and fairly easy to dodge around(save for the big AoE, but even that is clearly telegraphed so you can run/roll back and out of the way). I hit every one of the 4 kings almost exclusively in the back, two-handed. They’re slow enough that it should be possible.
Also, they seem to be fairly weak to lightning damage.
And Wallapuctus, it’s possible to save Solaire’s life. It’s a fairly non-intuitive route, but you can have him alive and well(if depressed), and available for the final fight with Gwyn at the end of your runthrough.
So I dinged NG++ early Sunday (mostly just to finish up a few Boss Soul weapons for the trophy) and I’ve been able to breeze through the first 5 bosses or so with no deaths. I’m still using my +10 Fire Uchi most of the time even as my stats are starting to favor greatswords/axes again. I just can’t cope with how long the attack animations are after falling in love with a katana that lets me get 9-12 combo hits per stamina bar.
My question is, anyone still using a katana that deep into the game? Or am I gonna have to give up my fast lighter weapon for some of the other beasts I have upgraded (MGS and DKA also a +15 Zwei and a +5 Lightning Zwei)
Going the evil route I think I found a better farming spot then the forest. In dark Anor Londo, the big room before the duo fight, there are two knights that spawn who are worth 5k souls a piece. If you’re strong enough you can kill them both within a minute then warp out using a bone to make them spawn again. Granted it is more dangerous, but it’s great for quick levels and income.
Also the butcher knife fully maxed out becomes A ranked for strength and has become my go to weapon as I’m trying not to cheese lightning this time.
The Moonlight Greatsword is a beast of a weapon if you’re playing a Sorcerer. I was short 1 dragon scale to enchant it up to +5, sadly, but even at +4 it was a game changer.
I get murdered by that weapon all the time so I burned through my dragon scales to upgrade it… sadly it doesn’t scale well with my build. Being a Souls Series noob I did a strength build (sort of) thinking it would be the basic starter class. Turned out being kinda boring, hit stuff with big stuff, stand behind shield and take wallops standing.
So now my gear is practical, but silly looking. A dude in full Onion Armour with a katana and the Greatshield of Artorias. Or sometimes full Black Knight and the Onion Helm. The katana just doesn’t look right, but I can’t find any other weapon class that fights as quickly and fluidly. I bought hundreds of pieces of Twinkling and farmed the Titanite Demon in Izalith so I could upgrade all the weapons and see if any felt right, but so far its a wash. Coming to the point of all this, I’m really just bored of fighting with the katana for 150 hours and wanted to see what ya’ll were using.
Edit: Cost of fully upgrading catarina armour without getting drops 320k souls. Thats a pricey onion, bought oh so worth it. A Sunbro in full Catarina is a guaranteed summon.
I roll with that and the +5 Armor of Favor, with the sunlight maggot instead of the helm as the helm put me over 50% encumbrance. They upped the droprate of twinkling titanite to about 1/3 on the oysters outside Seath’s lair (anecdotal, I was rolling with the ring and 1 humanity, I got about 2 drops per run).
I would love to use the Ninja armor set because it looks so badass but the stats really do stink. Besides, there’s something to be said for an armor suit that hugs you back.
I jumped right into NG+ after defeating Gwyn, and I started spamming my Darkmoon orb in Undead Burg and getting a ton of fights. I took on a guy in full Havels with some club that shot black lasers and killed him with a crystal soul arrow that staggered him and he fell off the bridge to his death.
I invaded another guy and it placed me in the tower with the door to Havel, behind the skeleton who kicks the barrel down the stairs. I could not move past the skeleton, so I decided to wait for the guy to come to me. Sure enough, he did, and the skeleton kicked the barrel and attacked. I followed behind the skeleton, locked on a crystal homing soulmass, and the sinner died quite easily. The player then sent me a message on XBL calling me a dick.
I invaded a dude in the forest covenant area and totally uppercutted him off the cliff with the Dragon Bone Fist (R2 attack). Coolest looking attack/hit animation in the game by far! He sent me a message: "You are AWESOME!
In other news, I can’t believe the internet hasn’t figured out what the Pendant is for yet.
arrr! I must know!!! I have 3 of them and I swear it has something to do with the princess but cannot figure it out.
Lordvessel obtained! Ornstein and Smough were a pain, but not the worst I’ve faced.
I then went back to the Darkroot Garden, joined the Forest Covenant, died a bazillion times to people who were clearly ready for me, and finally got my three kills for a fog ring. Went on in and took Sif down on the first try–sorcery just murders the poor puppy.
Made myself an enchanted claymore, currently at +3. (One blue chunk short, damnit. I’ll have to go back to the basin to farm it up.) I’m digging it, although I miss some aspects of the spear.
Currently working on New Londo. Deaths so far have been entirely to not noticing that my curse had worn off; I’m half tempted to go get cursed for real.
I had one startling moment. I’d gone down into New Londo, and stopped to go to the bathroom before heading out onto the bridges to ghosttown. As I came back to the TV, I saw someone running across the bridge towards me. I grabbed the controller just in time to defend myself. I have no idea who this guy was; it wasn’t a phantom (I wasn’t human), and I’ve never seen him down there before or since. Very strange.
I know that Frampt & co. are perhaps not the most trustworthy bunch in town. Where should I go to get the other side of the story? I spoke to Frampt and he had me place the Lordvessel; I only discovered afterwards that there’s an alternative. Am I screwed as to choices of ending, or am I just out of luck on the one covenant?
Based on my last internet search, the latest Pendant theory deals with Reah of Thorolund because she drops the Pendant after Petrus kills her.
I’m not sure what in-game dialogue they are referring to. The Furtive Pygmy is only mentioned on the Evil path by the other primordial serpent and the pendant was never mentioned.
One take is the Furtive Pygmy, the owner of the Dark Soul, opposed to the Lord Souls, hedged his bets and used it to afflicted all his “descendants” with the darksign in an attempt to bring about the end of the Age of Fire and rise of a Darklord. This would be the only way to break the undead curse. So Gwyndolin and Frampt simply try to deceive the darksign undead to prolong the Age of Fire AKA The “Good” path. And Gywn and his knights simply went hollow after they set off to re-link the fire.