Topic: Dark Souls: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Death

[K-man]

Idol told me how to get back to the asylum last night, so I went for a visit.  I think I looted basically all I'm able to at the moment there.  Anyhow, Willa made an early morning of it, so I've been tooling around in the game.  I was able to take down that lightning demon with one leg that's right past the blacksmith (2-handed ftw!).  I also made my way down into the basin and found another bonfire.  I was able to take down a knight while I was down there.  Thankfully they don't respawn it appears.  I found a shortcut back to Drake Valley.  Once I saw where it led I just turned back around and went to the shrine using the long way.

I keep looking at the "Prepare to Die" retail release on Amazon...  I can't help but feel like it was the CE that should have been released stateside.  I'm going to look into the extras some more, but I may have to break down and get it.  I wanted to get the PC version eventually as I am sure at some point Namco/Bandai will shut down the console servers. 

[idolminds]

After your post I decided to go take care of the lightning demon. Wasn't so bad once I figured out his pattern. Then I had a nice walk around Darkroot Garden. I knew it was coming and got jumped by 3 of those shrub dudes. They didnt kill me but I burned through some flasks and didn't want to risk going forward since I've got like 10k souls on me. I might go back to Firelink and buy some miracles or some pyromancy stuff. Ill save the fog door until I get a full set of flasks and come back.

I did walk down the path into the basin and got a set of leather armor. Though I think that area freaked me out a little more than it should have. Walking down that entire path and no enemies appear? I'm just waiting for something to jump out at me. I saw further down another body to loot but there were 2 markers on the ground saying a tough enemy ahead so I held off. Then I went the other way and it looked like a fairly open area but in the distance I could see something moving. At first I thought maybe it was splashing water from a waterfall or something? But as I stood there looking at it....I think it was a hydra. So I said "NOPE" and went back to go get my spells.

[Quemaqua]

There are a bunch of subsections to that area, some harder than others. And those lightning guys... man. That first one makes you think they aren't so bad. Later on, watch your shit. There are a few places you can fight them that are just all kinds of not fun. And the most fun part is you probably won't figure that out until you're knee-deep in it.

[K-man]

I tried beating the Capra Demon 10-12 times this morning and have failed miserably every time.  I try and get the dogs out of the way so I can concentrate on him, but I have to roll away from his attack which puts me wide open for dog badness.

First real wall I've hit with the game so far. 

[MysterD]

Oooh, Capra's damn tough.

If you're curious of how the hell I beat him after a ridiculous amount of tries, look here:
http://www.overwritten.net/forum/index.php?topic=7065.msg115936#msg115936

[K-man]

I went back to it and finally got him.  I decided the shield wasn't doing me a ton of good so I went two hand with my drake sword.  I was able to roll by his first attack giving me a free shot at the first dog.  The second one got hold of me but was able to dispatch him after running upstairs.  Capra got caught on some edge or something allowing me the time to roll out and drink some estus.  I swung a few times, he whiffed with his attack, and I had enough stamina left to finish him off.

The problem with this fight is twofold:  1) You're rushed as soon as you enter the room.  and 2) the narrowness of the space causes the camera to screw up a lot, blinding you in some cases.

I'm loving this game so much, but it's hard to ignore the shoddy workmanship at times.  I hope they finally work the bugs out of the next game.

[Quemaqua]

The only way I managed it was to get on the narrow stairs over to the side and deal with the dogs first, then get on the archway at the back and get a few cheap shots in. I think I managed a plunge attack after that and then finished him off with a couple more swipes. Dude is fucking rough, and is one of a few bosses that become regular enemies later on.

[K-man]

Oh fer fuck's sake.  Really?

Do later iterations have dogs?  Because honestly that's like 75% of the issue.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, the issue with that fight is the space constraint and interference from the dogs. Later ones don't have pets, and while you might fight several at once, I don't recall ever facing them in tight quarters like that again.

[MysterD]

Capra Demon is tough...
...but if you ain't been cursed before, you ain't seen NOTHING yet...

[idolminds]

Yeah Capra wouldn't be so hard if it wasn't for that space and the dogs.

I decided to explore Darkroot Garden some more this morning. I had an early death because those 3 plant dudes that jump you when you grab that soul are now just ready to get you when you go down that path. I wasn't expecting that so I got jumped.

I expected to find a bonfire somewhere in there but never did. Made things kind of tense because I'd have to start all the way back at the blacksmith. I think I found everything there is to find in the garden because I explored everywhere. Got a nice heavy set of armor, a weapon, and a ring. Those giant stone knights weren't so bad though I avoided them when I could. The worst was grabbing that heavy armor. Knight wakes up and 2 of those frickin plant bastards too! I burned 3 flasks fighting that mess. At the ruined tower someone left a note about "try dashing through". I figured it couldn't hurt to try, I didn't want to fight another knight anyway. It worked. If you get up the stairs fast enough he gives up the chase.

At the top is a fog door. Looking over you can see another fog door so obviously this was the boss area. In fact, when looking over I saw the boss itself! Pretty butterfly! I only had 1 flask left and about 7k souls but I said...fuck it, lets do this! After Capra this boss was a cakewalk, though I suppose it helps that I had that magic resist shield you pick up back at the asylum. At first I was confused...how I was I even supposed to hit the thing? It never comes close and there was no time to get the bow out, fire a shot, and get the shield back up for the boss attacks. Turns out you just need to be patient. Eventually it will land to rest for a good 15-20 seconds and you can pound on it. A couple of those and used my flask for the damage I was taking and it was a done deal. Grabbed my loot from the top of the next tower and just homeward boned it out of there.

Only thing I didn't see what whats behind the weird glowy door. I'm sure I'll be back for that later.

[K-man]

There's actually a bonfire right beside that glowing door.  I found it by positioning the camera around the cliffside there, since there's just enough space to run around.  I used it probably 5-6 times that way, but an ent followed me back one time and attacked through the wall, which revealed it to be a fake one.

[idolminds]

ah, ok. Ill go back in there and activate it. Because I can.

[Quemaqua]

There's also a hidden bonfire in the gardens, just fyi.

I actually had way more trouble with that fucking butterfly than the capra. I had zero magic resist at the time and no ranged ability of any kind, and while it does have a set pattern, some of its attacks are very hard to avoid if you aren't super nimble. I lost that fight a good 5 or 6 times and was pretty fucking not happy about it, haha. Finishing it was a relief.

[idolminds]

Yeah I can see that fight being a huge pain in the ass if you don't have any magic resist. The slow moving orbs you can dodge well enough, but I don't know how you'd avoid that needle attack thing. Seems instant.

[Quemaqua]

You learn the fuck how to roll properly. haha, you have to be really light on your feet. You can avoid most things, but not 100% of the time. And I didn't have the drake sword I don't think, since I'm pretty sure I didn't get that until waaaaay later, so you guys are having a way easier time of things than I was using some shit barebones weapon. That fight took like 15 minutes for me to get through, and 9/10 of that was frantic dodging and healing. It was awful. I almost beat it once when I used one of the NPCs that's around that area, and she was OH GOD SO HELPFUL at damaging it, until she killed herself and... well, so ends jolly cooperation. I died and had to do my subsequent attempts solo.

[K-man]

I actually came in this thread to talk about how easy that fight was.  I beat it on my first attempt.

Granted I had arrows.  I think the key with a lot of these bosses is to dodge rather than block and go two-hand.  Once the butterfly came within striking distance it was over.

[K-man]

I spent most of last night trying to beat bosses I was in no way prepared to face:  Havel the rock and that blasted red dragon.  Havel's probably doable, but since he one-hits you there's no room for error.  The dragon, not so much.  I don't want to cheese him since that's essentially what I did in Demon's souls.

I have also cleared out every knight that I've encountered so far.  Well, besides the ones in the Asylum.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I spent most of last night trying to beat bosses I was in no way prepared to face:  Havel the rock and that blasted red dragon.  Havel's probably doable, but since he one-hits you there's no room for error.  The dragon, not so much.  I don't want to cheese him since that's essentially what I did in Demon's souls.

I have also cleared out every knight that I've encountered so far.  Well, besides the ones in the Asylum.

What's your endurance and soul level at?  For Havel you're going to need a good amount of endurance if you either decide to roll around and get hits in or if you try to get in for backstabs or if you parry a lot.  I did a combination of backstabs when I could get them in but mainly did a lot of parrying and getting one hit in and then backing off for another parry and riposte when my endurance went back up.  If you have heavy armor on during this, it won't work out too well.  I ended up switching to some lighter armor for fighting him so I would have more mobility and then equipped my heavy armor back on after fighting him since my guy was a beefier build of endurance and strength.

Unfortunately, I don't have any advice on the dragon since he glitched out on me after hitting him from behind with a melee attack.  He died and I got the souls and loot, but it was an early bug that got patched out a few days after I had done that.  I plan on fighting him properly when I play through the game again with the DLC content.

[K-man]

I have more points invested into endurance than any other stat.  My problem with Havel is that he can adjust the direction of his attack while it's coming down.  I have yet to master the timing on it.  Usually once an enemy engages with an attack the direction is set in stone.  Not so with him.

I'm just going to have to wait on the dragon.

[Quemaqua]

Funny the differences in experience. Havel was a lot easier for me. I got his timing down right off the bat and beat him in a couple tries.

[K-man]

I managed to avoid an attack and roll past the red dragon last night.  That ended up being a colossal waste of time.  There's a bonfire and a shortcut back there, but nothing else.  The items on the bridge weren't worth the trouble.  And to add insult to injury the dragon flew away after I got behind him and has yet to come back.  Come back dragon!  I want to slay you!

[Quemaqua]

Don't worry, he isn't gone. He just wants to throw you a surprise party.

[K-man]

Farmed 20k souls and opened the glowing door by the bonfire.  Nothing but a bunch of dudes that want to kill me behind it.  I managed to run around and collect the loot before I perished, at least anything remotely visible.  I went down to the depths last night.  Found a cool ring that replenishes 30HP for every kill but kinda got lost.  I ended up getting caught between two basilisks and got cursed.  Now I have to find the cure.

[idolminds]

Ok, I finally waded into the depths. I was doing ok, unlocked the bonfire (that Master key I took at the start has been really handy), and was taking things nice and slow. I saw the giant rat and came up on a fog door...I assume the fog door lead in to him, so before I did that I wanted to explore a bit more. There was a side path I hadn't been down, so I start wal...

God damn it! I fell down a hole! Which is terrible because now you're in the middle of some place. Which way is going deeper and which way is back out? Fuck! So I tried to stay calm and handle just whats in front of me. I'll find stairs eventually.

So now I meet these frog bastards. I'm guessing they are the curse-givers based on the meter and the weird shit they were spraying. Luckily I avoided being cursed and was able to make a "safe" area. Got that healing ring which was much appreciated, and saw a something or the other to pick up but I had to jump over this hole to do it. I could not make that jump! Ugh, drove me crazy. But thats when I noticed these...things. Spikey looking statues were just appearing all over the place, more of them every time I attempted that jump. They didn't move and I didn't dare attack them, but there were so many I forgot about the treasure I was after and got the fuck out of there. Didn't want those things coming to life or something.

I eventually found my way back up to where I had been before and had a seat at the bonfire to heal. I might kindle this one so I can have some more flasks in this place. Next time I'm going to go deal with the giant rat.

[MysterD]

@Idol
I hate those frogs (basilisks).
That smoke they spew, it can curse you.
If that meters fills up, you'll be cursed.
I don't wish that madness on anyone. It's killer.

[K-man]

I had to farm for a few minutes to buy the cure, but now I'm back in the game.  Made it to the boss of the depths.  HUGEEEEEEEEEAH.

not real sure how to proceed with him.  I've been attacking him from a distance with arrows but i may try and melee him.

[idolminds]

Ok, turns out the weird statues are actually other players being cursed in that area. I feel kinda good getting through there in one piece because there were a lot of statues. Didn't locate the boss but I have a good idea where he is now.

[Quemaqua]

I wish I could actually watch you guys play. You should find a way to stream this shit. What versions are you guys playing, just out of curiosity?

I had a similar circumstances to idol except I got murdered. I got ambushed by like 4 of the fuckers and was cursed pretty much before I even had time to get my bearings. I tried to run, but just ran into another group which finished me off.

As I recall, that boss isn't super hard, but it's a pretty long fight (or was for me).

[idolminds]

I'm playing on PS3, fully patched up and I bought the DLC. Really tempted to get my hands on the PC version, though. Probably will at some point, but that will be after I beat it on PS3.

I should see, maybe I can record some audio of me playing some sections. Can use my ipod for that. If it ends up being kind of interesting I'll post it.

[Quemaqua]

Awesome! Also do commentary!

[K-man]

I went back and finished the boss.  As long as you stay behind him and two-hand a weapon you can make fairly short work of him.  I got the key to Blighttown.  I guess we get to see just how bad this framerate can get!

[idolminds]

Well, I was going to do commentary on my fight with the gaping dragon but I was concentrating so hard to kill it that I wouldn't be talking anyway or if I was talking I'd get myself killed.

So I did a couple things first. I will admit, I had a peek at a guide to see if I was missing anything down there. And I was. I grabbed the spider shield above the giant rat room, and then went human to have the NPC invader show up. He won't show up if the boss is dead, and then you won't be able to get the cool spikey armor later on in that playthrough. Of course the bastard shows up when theres a basilisk still running around. I was able to kill the basilisk and then it was a fairly mundane fight with the dude. I got a spikey shield off him that causes bleeding when I bash with it.

The dragon itself was a bit of a bastard. Luckily as I was going that way I walked around the upper area of the arena and got the attention of one of those spell casting dudes. I figure he would start shooting at me as I fought the dragon so it gave me a chance to go back and kill him first.

Ok, moment of truth! Oh, hello Solaire! Nah, thanks for the offer, its cool bro. I got this.

I don't got this.

I came close, but that tail hurts like a motherfucker if you don't get out of the way fast enough. Ok, lets try this again but switch out my heavy armor for something lighter so I can run and move quicker. That should do it.

That didn't do it.

Switching my armor out seemed to make my weapon do significantly less damage. Thats also when I figured out what that vomit stuff that doesn't hurt did. It doesn't hurt me, it hurts my weapon! So now my drake sword has 15/250 durability so it was going to break in the next fight. Shit. Luckily I had made a longsword+5, so I ran with that. And I had 3 of those lightning boosting things to give me a little more punch. I got in there, grabbed my souls, hit the dragon a couple times...man, this really seems to hurt him. He's going down!

He's not going down.

God damnit! I used up all my lightning things and my souls are in the arena so I can't level up or repair anything. I hop on IRC, taking a little break. If I get too frustrated I play even worse. I've gotten the dragon down close to death a few times but then I mess up and get caught. Kman tells me to cut off his tail for a weapon. Sure, why not? I can focus on that and at least get something out of the fight. Turns out thats a generally good strategy because once his tail comes off that tail move he does has next to no reach, which makes him a lot less dangerous to maneuver around. I end up killing him on that attempt, so now I've got the Blighttown key! This should be interesting. Once I figure out where the door is...

[K-man]

It's the gate beside the vendor you can access before going down to the boss fight.  In the room with the two slimes and two rats.

[idolminds]

I never saw that guy. Weird.

*EDIT*

Huh, yeah. I didn't even notice the opening in that fence. Guess I could have farmed some souls and bought more lightning stuff from the merchant in there.

I just did a quick walk into Blighttown, at least to the first bonfire. I do not like this place.

[Quemaqua]

Blighttown, for as bad as the framerate is, is horribly difficult, annoying, and just fucking awesome. I loved to hate it the whole way through. And there's lots of cool stuff to see around there, and then the next place is even more horrible and made me angry! Yay! I found my covenant after Blighttown, which I thought was a really cool one.

[idolminds]

God I want to get off these fucking scaffolds! Can't see shit, its cramped so when someone comes to attack you can easily run off the side. I hate this place.

[Quemaqua]

I know! Isn't it great? I also got murdered by like 3 invaders there. Almost beat each one then died. I was fuming to the point where I was ready to attack my TV with a hammer. haha

[idolminds]

So it turns out poison and toxic are two different things and I was very very unprepared for one of them! I think I'm going to climb out of this hellhole and do a bit of farming so I can stock up up as many mosses as I can get my hands on. No sense in making this place harder on myself. Especially with those asshole dart spitters.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, absolutely don't bother going in there unprepared. You want to have what you need, and you're going to go through shitloads of mosses down there. It does get better, though, don't worry. You do eventually purge a lot of the worst of it.