brinstar's dark souls idiot journey

[brinstar]

finished garden area, killed butterfly. cool as hell boss. opened crest of artorius door, snuck through to get eastern set. yay hat. banged my head against the forest humans a while for some good souls. caster and cleric are easy, knights and rogue are hard, never made it to the hunter, bandit is impossible. leveled up a bunch and discovered black knight sword is way too slow even when i meet the reqs. switched back to drake sword and realized WHOA this thing's a lot lighter now

went back to undead area, opened up shortcut. got confused about which key i should be using, so did several against that nasty knight in the bottom of the watchtower. finally nailed him and got that ring that doubles your weight limit. before i put it on i was like wtf is the point of this, it's not like i am a thief who wants to wear chain. but i put it on and holy shit now i can dress like a knight and run like a ranger, fuck yeah. went through that door and found the hydra. nope!

went back up and used the proper key. capra demon took a few tries, then dove into the depths. the short version of the story is i quit for the night after going 0 for 4 against gaping demon, but the long version is now that i've done the depths twice in my life i understand there are two major mistakes you can make. the first is to jump down the hole behind the first butcher - you can cheese the giant rat and grab the key to the bonfire room, but you have to go through a lot of shit to get back to the door, including deal with basilisks. by this point you've got a big pile of souls, you're low on juicebottle, it's been forever since you bonfired, and there's a real chance you'll have to start burning humanities just to heal yourself (i don't have any spells or whatever). the other mistake is to fall down one of the holes in the tight tunnels because you'll land in the middle of three basilisks. luckily THIS playthrough i only made the first mistake, but i managed to not die and finally got back around to the bonfire. became human, kindled, went back to clear out basilisks (carefully!) and killed scripted NPC invasion. did everything else i needed to do, then summoned solaire to help with gaping dragon. he wasn't really a help; he died and although i was able to cut the dragon's tail off for the weapon thingy that's impossible to use, he only got to 60%. respawned and summoned solaire again since he provides helpful cover. thought maybe it would be worth trying the black knight sword because it hits harder and i can really hammer away while solaire has him distracted. nope. third try i went in hollow and had my best attempt (30%) but 4th time he glitched and wouldn't stop doing tail sweeps. called it a night.

basically i am one gaping dragon kill away from being exactly as far as i was the first playthrough, except this time i finished (non-DLC) garden area first and have much better stats & gear (with the exception of not having a garg hat). still fuzzy on what i should be working on for a weapon - not really interested in farming a side sword but i have to imagine i'll soon need better than the drake sword. boost up a longsword or bastard sword and make it magic/fire/whatever? i understand attribute scaling now, so with upgrades and fire and enough stats there's got to be a more powerful weapon i can put together...

[brinstar]

dug up some weapon bonus formulas, tell me if you think this sounds right

if i upgrade a Longsword (C/C/-/-) to +4 (112 base dmg) and have 20 STR and 18 DEX, my new AR should be... 234ish?

[Zanchief]

Longsword has decent scaling for two stats so an even level of dex and str is good. I don't know exactly what it will be, but that sounds about right. Havel's ring is one of the best in the game. Remember you can always go kill the merchant in the burg to get the Uchigatana if you want a fast dex weapon.

The Hydra is very hard early in the game, but the area your in connects to the forest with the butterfly boss so your just kind of taking the long way around. One of the best early leveling spots in the forest with all the hollowed npcs (bandit, cleric, mage, etc) the give a lot of souls. It can be very challenging though. You can pretty much run through the whole zone to get to the next part if you know where your going though. Enemies leash.

After the Gaping Demon is my least favorite level.

[brinstar]

ya i farmed about 25k souls off those humans in the forest but the bandit kept murdering me and i'd also die if i accidentally pulled 2 at once so i figured i was just wasting time and went to the depths instead

[brinstar]

took a few more tries after that, but the time i finally killed [the gaping dragon] i don't think he even touched me.

same. died to him like 5 times or so tonight, but he didn't touch me the 6th

pushed onward into blighttown. definitely didn't recognize anything past the first dumbass ogre so it seems the post i just quoted was the last time i played on my first attempt

do not like platform action in DS. cheap shit. give me enemies to mow through please, not ledges to tiptoe across. found the bonfire, found a fair amount of treasures, called it a night

[Zanchief]

Blighttown is evil.

[brinstar]

ya so far i'm really not a fan, especially with those blowdart fuckers lurking around with their perfect fucking aim

hoping to get it over with as quick as i can

[Zanchief]

Its funner when you know a bit more about the layout and can gank those fuckers with the blowdarts, but its brutal the first time through. As far as levels go, it is second only two one short section in Anor Londo a little later.

[Tossica]

Started playing through DS II again on PS4. It's a great game but I think being able to warp around everywhere so early on is a problem as well... dunno. It's fun but I'm kinds feeling like I want to hurry through it because it's just not as "fun" and engaging.

[Drem]

I was into it til shrine of Amana. Getting the itch to go finish it. Also dislike the fast travel system. What I really dislike is how they "refined" backstabbing and made the window much smaller

[brinstar]

made it to bottom of blighttown junk stack, found second BT bonfire. missed a couple loot corpses on the way, but f this place i'm not going back for them (already got the iaito)

i'm trying to avoid using guides but srsly f this place so next time i play it'll be searching for titanite in the swamp and then killing quelaag for the second bell

[Drem]

dunno if anybody has been following Twitch Plays Dark Souls?
http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplaysdark

for five days they had it real time anarchy. it was awful. they didn't even make it past the first bonfire in the tutorial. FOR FIVE DAYS NONSTOP

they finally put up a vote and now it pauses 20 or 30 seconds between each command that everybody votes on and they're at Firelink Shrine as of this post. it's fun to have on in the background at work

[Drem]

oh nevermind. they attacked crestfallen warrior

[brinstar]

dunno if anybody has been following Twitch Plays Dark Souls?
http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplaysdark

for five days they had it real time anarchy. it was awful. they didn't even make it past the first bonfire in the tutorial. FOR FIVE DAYS NONSTOP

they finally put up a vote and now it pauses 20 or 30 seconds between each command that everybody votes on and they're at Firelink Shrine as of this post. it's fun to have on in the background at work

what does any of this mean

[brinstar]

update:

climbed up the ladder/elevator side of blighttown to the top where you come out into valley of the drakes. killed all the goddamn snipers (gonna need to go back to garden to farm more blooming moss), got another firekeeper's soul. gonna turn it in instead of using it like a moron. forgot i was human, got invaded by NPC phantom, slew she. cleared out all treasures on left half of swamp floor and elevator tower. still don't care about junk pile treasures. called it a night.

next up: cleaning out the treasures on right half of swamp floor, then going after boss thing. is it real easy to get back to firelink from blighttown's valley exit? kinda want to turn in that FK soul before tangling with the boss

also, str/dex are both 21, end is 20. getting real nervous about when to wean myself off drakesword

[Drem]

dunno if anybody has been following Twitch Plays Dark Souls?
http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplaysdark

for five days they had it real time anarchy. it was awful. they didn't even make it past the first bonfire in the tutorial. FOR FIVE DAYS NONSTOP

they finally put up a vote and now it pauses 20 or 30 seconds between each command that everybody votes on and they're at Firelink Shrine as of this post. it's fun to have on in the background at work

what does any of this mean

click the link, filthy casul

[Drem]

update:

climbed up the ladder/elevator side of blighttown to the top where you come out into valley of the drakes. killed all the goddamn snipers (gonna need to go back to garden to farm more blooming moss), got another firekeeper's soul. gonna turn it in instead of using it like a moron. forgot i was human, got invaded by NPC phantom, slew she. cleared out all treasures on left half of swamp floor and elevator tower. still don't care about junk pile treasures. called it a night.

next up: cleaning out the treasures on right half of swamp floor, then going after boss thing. is it real easy to get back to firelink from blighttown's valley exit? kinda want to turn in that FK soul before tangling with the boss

also, str/dex are both 21, end is 20. getting real nervous about when to wean myself off drakesword

the path to valley of the drakes is actually a shortcut for speedrunners if you take the master key in the beginning. you can skip half of blighttown, capra demon, and all of the depths

i'd try to run up in front of that broken dragon and grab the sword in front of him. it won't be as nice as drake sword until you have more stats.

then if you look around you'll find a gate that leads to an elevator and that will take you back up to new londo ruins and the path back to firelink. you might've went down that elevator and ran into the locked gate when you first got to firelink. it'll open from the valley side iirc

stats are up to you. i went dexterity with my knight because of the weapons i wanted to use (baldur side sword, silver knight stuff). if you're sick of it and want something different i'd take astora's straight sword in valley of the drakes or farm a baldur side sword

[Zanchief]

If you're undecided keep putting points in Endurance or Stamina until they are 40. Every build needs stam and hp.

[brinstar]

link is blocked at work lol


so...

then if you look around you'll find a gate that leads to an elevator and that will take you back up to new londo ruins and the path back to firelink. you might've went down that elevator and ran into the locked gate when you first got to firelink. it'll open from the valley side iirc

i'm at the bonfire on the blighttown swamp floor, what's the straightest path to firelink? ride the wooden water wheel style elevator up to where i got New Londo key, then exit to drake valley, then what??

[Drem]

you just quoted me on what you're supposed to do!

as soon as you get into valley of the drakes you look for that elevator up to new londo. it's across a bridge out of the blight town tunnel

then you should remember where you are from the beginning of the game. soon as you go up from the elevator you're at firelink

[brinstar]

last sesh:

finally finally finally made it back to firelink only to find the firekeeper was dead and the bonfire couldn't be kindled. the fuck? whatever. went back down and one-shotted the fire spider lady and joined the sick spider lady covenant. pumped to find out she accepted my firekeeper soul. rang the bell, watched the cutscene, cleaned up the rest of blighttown loot. the end.

tonight's sesh:

grabbed key from top of firelink chapel and went back to undead asylum. killed the first BK i found in one try, had to zerg the second one a half dozen times due to cramped hallway. collected loot. kept getting jablowned by stray demon until i figured out his moveset. tough to do with only 5 juicebox, even if they're +1. finally ganked him and leveled up. think i'm behind in HP, gonna try and boost that the next few levels. traded everything i could to snuggly, then headed back to firelink and promptly died by falling off the goddamn ledge. no opportunity to recover either. goddamn. traveled back to parish and gave dorf guy large ember. camped out on the way to darkroot basin. the end.


i'm starting to understand armor stats better, but i'm still limp on what to do about a weapon. i have an iaito, an estoc, a bastard sword, a falchion, and some other blighttown stuff including the thing that leeches HP, but it's too intimidating to make the leap from overpowered drake sword so i haven't even tried ;\

[Zanchief]

You'll get a Lightning Spear in the next section that will do you well for a while. The thing about weapons is that special weapons are very good when they aren't upgraded, but regular weapons are often that best once fully upgraded. Depends really though. If you like the drakesword, keep using it I say. I didn't like the moveset so I never used it. Of the weapons you have now, the bastardsword is the only one I'd use, personally, but I'd kill the shopkeep in Undead Burg for the Uchikatana. To understand the power of weapons you have to understand stat scaling. Items scale in damage with Str, Dex, Faith or Int. For Faith and Int scaling, the bonus dmg is magic, fire or lightning. With Str and Dex its physical. There are probably a few exceptions to this, but for the most part that's how it works. What that means...if you have a +15 greatclub with an A in Str scaling it might do 250 dmg. That Str scaling will add another 150 dmg at 40 str. The higher the str the higher the dmg from scaling. Also consider that the higher the bonus (+1 to +15) the higher the dmg bonus form scaling. Keep in mind the game has diminishing returns. I rarely increase any stat past 50, but I'm sure there are exceptions.

Sooooo some weapons, like longsword, have double scaling (C in Dex C in Str I believe) those will be best with an even build of both dex and str. Some like heavy weapons for Str and Light weapons for Dex have only one stat. Those weapons will heavily favor a build with one high stat. If you want to do a pure faith or pure magic build there are types of upgrades for that too. Having said all that element upgrades remove stat scaling and just add bonus dmg (another upgrade in Dark Souls II by the way). So if you want to make a build with medium levels of str and dex to only meet requirements, you can add an element to a weapon (Fire, Chaos, Lightning) and remove the scaling.

This all seems complicated but it makes sense after a while.

[brinstar]

ya i'm starting to learn the difference between the movement sets too

like i bought the bastard sword and once i tried it i realized it has the same moveset as the black knight sword - too slow, too many opportunities for counterattack

on the other hand i like how fast the katanas are but they are sooo weak

seems i'm definitely a straight sword type of player - good balance of power and speed. so... what? pimp out a longsword as high as i can? i got the barbed sword from kirk, i could really enjoy using the bleed effect? i haven't found one yet but the silver knight sword looks nice? lots of internet places seem to like the estoc too

edit: and there's one in the drake valley someone mentioned?

[Zanchief]

Yea Artorias Sword (in Value of Drake) is pretty good if you have both faith and int at 14 i think?

Barbed Sword is a good option for a low rec item, but it will get outclassed by better items. Uchigatana has a base dmg of 90 so its a very strong weapon that is very quick and consumes very little stamina. It will start to become weak in NG+, but that shouldn't be a problem now. I don't want to steer you wrong with weapons since if you use large shards or chunks those mats are pretty valuable for a while. I usually just use a weapon until I find something better. I know I've said it many times already but if you like straight swords, you'll really like the Uchigatana. It's very good. You won't find more dmg unless you get weapons that are atleast as slow as the Bastard sword.

[brinstar]

blergh my faith is 9 and int is 11, i'd have to farm a lot of souls to even use that artorias sword