Dark Souls - Bonfire of the Profanities - The Something Awful Forums

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Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

SUPER NEAT TOY posted:

Is grinding frowned upon? I passed on the Drake Sword because it seemed like it made the game too easy, but I want to get my armor up to +1 before I go any further. :[

I don't think grinding has ever been frowned upon. I'm pretty sure one of the reasons bonfires were balanced to make stuff reappear instantly was to make grinding easier.

EDIT: I think this was a few pages back and I had a brain fart. Sorry.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2011 23:44

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# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 03:07

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

LemonRind posted:

Pretty sure it's the giant raven right above the area there.

I heard this too, and it really did not sound like the raven. It sounded very human.

Unless the raven speaks at some point I'm not aware of.

2MB posted:

Is Soilaire of Astora good for anything else after you get the white soap stone from him? I've already killed the gargoyles. I want to kill him for his sword but I also don't want to gently caress myself out of anything later on.

I think I read/heard he helps with one other fight later on as well.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2011 23:46

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

GreatGreen posted:

Lovely, I'm just over an hour in and already getting frustrated! How to am I supposed to beat the huge bull-goat boss guy on top of the tower wall in the Undead Burg?

Is there any trick to it or do you just get stun-locked to death and that's the rest of the game forever?

My strategy was to take out the dudes on top of the tower above the fog wall as soon as you enter through it, then trigger the boss and sprint to the ladder immediately as he appears. I did a descending attack on him from the tower (he basically sits there like an idiot, I don't believe he can jump up, but do it quickly just in case), then sprinted across the bridge and waited for him. Once he did a jumping slash (he usually will, but be wary of him telegraphing other moves), I dodge rolled under him and sprinted back to the tower, and then repeated it once or twice more till he was at a sliver of health. I just slashed him once to finish him off.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2011 21:31

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

How far into the game do you get whatever it is that lets you teleport/travel between bonfires quickly?

# ¿ Oct 8, 2011 01:20

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Satanos posted:

So, I'm in the Undead Parish and just found a man in funky armour.

His outfit reminds me of Yurt.
His situation reminds me of Yurt.
His dialogue reminds me of Yurt.
I think he might be this game's Yurt.

... I do not how to approach this or his promise of "later reward".

I heard it's (he's?) "Fun". And that he's "great later on". :eng99:

EDIT: He does help you in the gargoyle fight in addition to the other guy whose name I forgot. The Sun pact guy. My friend basically made it seem like he does something some time after that, but was not specific at all as to what it was for spoilers' sake.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2011 01:22

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

So, I had been cheesing the two giant skeletons at fireshrine by landing on their head, making them ragdoll off the cliff. I created a new character and tried to do it again, and on the second one, instead of actually pulling it off, it just does a hop-dodge backwards off of a cliff. How convenient! :tipshat:

# ¿ Oct 9, 2011 09:16

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Dr. Abysmal posted:

I've read that you will be able to summon Lautrec to help you fight the gargoyles and gaping dragon if you free him. I didn't see his sign there though, only Solaire's. For future reference, anything special you have to do to get him to show up?

Before you go up the last ladder, look behind you on a ledge. You may also have to go back to Fireshrine and talk to him first.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2011 22:50

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Vintersorg posted:

How do you summon random NPCs?? Is it from the stone the sun knight gives you? Obviously must be in human form but is there something else I am missing?

Just find their signs on the ground (usually right before you enter a boss area), sometimes they're obvious, sometimes they're hidden.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2011 22:53

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

So, is there any reason to use Cestus other than to be completely awful? I really want to be a punch man, and I'm thinking of creating a new character at some point (I made a pyromancer, and coming from marauder it was... Not successful.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2011 05:04

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Cuchulain posted:

And you amazingly, ridiculously good at parrying? If so, Cestus are very light, so you can use them without slowing yourself down at all, and the left hand jabs are the fastest hit in the game.

However, nobody on earth is THAT good with Parry, so they're not worth it.

Yeah, the only reason I wanted to try it was the left hand jab I punched everything with (and nearly defeated the tutorial demon with). I guess I might just wait for a dumb gimmick run to do it.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2011 05:12

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Meme Emulator posted:

http://www.twitch.tv/moruid
Doing a speed run at the moment, his first course of action was to dive into the Catacombs and join nito faction for his sword, haha.

Wait, wait, wait.

You can slide down ladders?

# ¿ Oct 13, 2011 09:24

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Fargin Icehole posted:

Yeah, I just found out today. Gotta hit B once.

My life has been a lie up until this point.

Also, I suppose that would be Circle for me, unless the layout is dumb between platforms?

# ¿ Oct 13, 2011 09:27

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

So, I think I mentioned it before, but if this isn't common knowledge, there is an easy(ish) way to cheese the early skeletons in the graveyard to the left as you leave firelink:

You have to have either a heavy weapons (in particular, my character was a marauder at the time and started with the axe) whose strong attack is the overhanded vertical swing. Other weapons do it, but not as effectively. As long as you have the strength for it, you can use the morningstar you get out of the set of crates you get the first cracked red orbs from.

With one of these weapons, head to the graveyard and start kiting skeletons. Now, you can do this just as well with kicking, but if you use that overhanded attack, they fly backwards and break apart. If you start luring them to edges and use this move, they will usually clear the edge even if they are a few feet from it.

Now, I found out if you land on the giant skeletons' heads this falling-apart-ragdolling occurs. So, if you lure one of the giants to the small double-staircase, you can get them to stand below you on the lower part of the staircase (or, alternatively, you can get them to stand under the small hill ledge, it just does not always position right when you take the next step. you can also just go all the way up the stairs and stand enough off the ledge that they AI to derp below you, but they will rarely fall off the cliff from there). From this, simply walk off on the giant's head. Don't do a descending attack, it probably won't connect or even activate before you bonk the skeleton. If you're lucky, he'll fall apart, clip a little with the wall, and as a result, the in-the-wall pieces will rubberband towards the cliff, pulling the others with them.

EDIT: You can also do this to cheese a few of the first skeletons in the catacombs, but after the first... two I think, they won't follow you out far enough anymore.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2011 20:31

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

I haven't really found any reason not to use the Marauder body piece with the Boar head and Black Leather (now switched to the ninja looking set, forgot the name) feet and hands. My mind will probably change once I've pumped up Endurance more, and I'm only nearly through with Blighttown so it's certainly not a mid-game option.

Speaking of Blighttown, everyone I knew told me I'd be poisoned all the time, and while the mud and flies were certainly a pain, I have only been poisoned about...3 times total? I wasted a shitton of souls on purple moss, too.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2011 20:40

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

EDIT: ^ Depending on how you do it, most of them do reset once you area transition, and most people going there are sprinting like hell anyway so that's a non-issue.

Shalinor posted:

Cool, but - is there any reason you'd actually want to kill those skeletons?

It appeared they didn't drop souls, and you can just run by them if your goal is to grab all the stuff in the graveyard.

I am not great at the running-in-and-out that a lot of people are good at in the 'souls, so I tend to just find ways to cheese the enemies that are there. I had an easier (and arguably more fun) time doing that than trying to sprint in between all the dudes to get those items.

EDIT: Also, the giants drop a respectable amount of early game souls, and if you get used to the above method (and are used to retarded crowd control), you can just kite-n-knock a skeleton train while the giant leashes, or have the giant follow you while the others leash.

Aqua_D fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Oct 13, 2011

# ¿ Oct 13, 2011 20:46

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Akuma posted:

Why can't I drop a cracked red eye orb in the nest? I'm at the right nest; I've traded things before. When I go to drop the orbs, Drop is crossed out. I can drop other stuff. What gives?

You can't drop the orbs/soul sign items. You can trade FOR cracked red eye orbs, but you cannot drop them.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2011 20:59

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

That's... Weird. I thought I read that you couldn't drop them on the wiki, sorry for misleading. I think I had specifically looked it up since I wasn't going to use them. Sorry!

In other news, I just regained my humanity in Blighttown to fight the phantom, my character moves up way too close to the bonfire, and his leg goes all crooked during the animation. Now he's sitting like this:

And, when I tried to get a screen of the weird animation itself, I got this:

What a crazy boar witch doctor I am.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2011 21:13

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

I got cheesed by my first invasion the other day. I was mad, too, since it was my fault I died. I was barely into the front door of Londo when I got invaded. I ran back a bit trying to find him, and he was untargetable, which didn't slip me up, he was trying to spam what looked like incinerate at me, and I basically got him to a sliver of health, but I got backed into the path between the blacksmith and the giant door, so I got whittled down by his spell, and somehow managed to turn in a fashion that let him backstab me. RUN-ON-ANGER-SENTENCE.

I felt bad, too, since I had just started summoning a white phantom and he basically appeared and watched me die.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2011 21:20

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Those freakin' archers in Anor Londo, man. All the stories about them, good lord. I boosted my poise as much as I could so I could shield my way up to them and I still get staggered and knocked down easily. Rough times.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2011 08:29

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

CHaKKaWaKka posted:

Something weird just happened very early game when I got summoned.I got summoned into someone's game in the undead burgs, before the Taurus demon, and the guy who summoned me had both the crest shield and the drake sword. I don't think there's a way to get either item before beating the taurus demon, is there? Also, if it was a NG+ thing, wouldn't he have found a better sword by now?

I did that, but I took my sweet time looking for side stuff before the Taurus demon. The drake shield makes it a lot easier, but I think at that point I was just chipping my days away with a bastard sword, so I don't know. I had gotten the Crest shield, but I was using the Grass Crest shield when I went to fight the Taurus demon.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2011 08:46

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

So, after fighting the Hydra in Darkroot:

The golden crystal golem is nowhere to be found. I went straight back, and did not find it. I tried leaving and coming back, but that did not work either. Do I need to hit a bonfire or something?

# ¿ Oct 19, 2011 06:02

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

I never bought the stoneskin pyromancy before I let the pyromancer guy run off after showing him my cool spell. :gonk:

Also, the painted world is not easy to solo, especially since I'm low on toxin removers.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2011 19:57

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Amdis posted:

If you backstab the bigheaded idiots you don't get poisoned when they die and blow up into a poison spray.

Yeah, but it's tricky since I always seem to just slash when I try for a backstab. My best tactic so far has just been to slash them once, leaving them with a sliver of health, then finish them with a handful of arrows.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2011 20:02

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Elysiume posted:

What the gently caress is mega-Ornstein's impale attack? I get one-shotted from full, and that thing is fast as hell. What am I even supposed to do against that?

He telegraphs the gently caress out of that move, if he is rearing back for a thrust and his spear is electrified, dodge the gently caress backwards. I once side-dodged and he tracked me with it, you gotta get the gently caress back.

EDIT: The only other move his weapon becomes electrified for is the spear throw, and that has a completely different windup, so basically if he's electrifying his polearm, get the gently caress away.
EDIT2: As long as you don't have the fatty roll, you'll dodge back far enough to dodge, easily.

Aqua_D fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Oct 19, 2011

# ¿ Oct 19, 2011 20:33

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Elysiume posted:

Hmm, guess I just need more practice. I think I'll get the +lightning resist ring to be safe anyway, so I can keep my +20% pyro damage helm. Hitting for 1200 damage per fireball is satisfying.

I have been consistently helping to clear O&S with heavy armor (originally Havel's, but I just bought the Smough armor from the vendor) body and head with light legs and hands, with Havel's ring. I use an Eagle shield, which has good lightning resist. Don't hold your shield up, only put it up when a hit is coming, and you can tank the poo poo out of even the powered up versions. I only take a sliver of damage from either powered up boss's ground pound as long as I've got my shield up. I've had an easier time going with a tanky build on that boss fight than I have with trying any kind of resist build.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2011 20:43

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

I am endlessly white phantoming O&S because it's more fun than the typical way of farming souls/humanity. Slower on the humanity front, but I have become a well-oiled machine for that part of the game, and somehow it's still fun every time.

Also, if you 2-hand block with a polearm and run around in zigzags it looks kind of like your player is trying to be an airplane. I managed to join as a white phantom and have both the host and a second white phantom running around like idiots.

See also: equip a tower shield you don't meet the requirements for in your right hand, two-hand stance it, then start hitting L1 every quarter second or so.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2011 21:04

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

WalletBeef posted:

For those of you rocking the Zweihander:

1. What do you do in narrow areas, switch weapons?
2. One handed or 2 handed?

I made mine divine to deal with catacombs, but I would say:

1. R2 swing
2. One handed, but I'm a tanky character.

EDIT: Oh jeez, that post was further back than I thought. I need to stop replying to posts my browser is viewing when I get home from errands.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2011 23:54

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

So, is there any good rule of thumb guide to where to phantom at what levels? I'm about 66, and O&S summons are few and far between. I'm thinking of heading into an area to start working on learning a new boss, but I'm not sure where I should be setting down my sign anywhere else.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2011 09:34

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

IconicIronic posted:

I'm kinda sad; this was gearing up to be my favourite single-player (more or less) game ever.

Then I hit Lost Izalith, and it's a giant terrible design-decision. "Hey great, Bloomed-lava that makes my eyes bleed, a constant lava sound-effect that makes my ears bleed, and enemies that can jump towards you, yet still insta-kill you by landing in the opposite direction they jumped!".

Alot of people say the Capra Demon is luck-based, but that's crap. Once you know him (or fought several of him in the Demon Ruins) he's very predictable. Bounding Demons, on the other hand, will absolutely slaughter you unless you spend several failed runs making them kill each other or killing them at range, with a very good bow. If you can't do that, then enjoy an hour of bullshit as they apparentely hit/1-shot you from miles away. It's so random, that whether you're wearing absolutely nothing, or full Havel's (with enough Equip-Burden to still run the fastest you can) you may get hit for anything between 500 or 1200 health.

I was planning to go through several NG+, man. However, just in one NG+, I know those things will one-shot me no matter what.

Capra Demon is totally luck based! You're lucky when you have the crystal shield and a weapon to one-shot him with!

# ¿ Oct 22, 2011 05:23

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

I haven't touched Dark Souls in a while, have they made the co-op signs easier to find for the most part? Me and a friend kept trying to find each other (PS3), but the sign would never show up for the other player.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2012 22:37

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

I just ragequit after my third attempt helping the same guy finish his Gargoyle fight, and having the same guy invade again and one-shot everyone. I am not min-max-y enough to derp around and defend against these shits.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2012 04:38

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

gently caress guys, I just got to the giant smith and you guys are now answering what I should spend my souls on.

I'm torn between using the lightning spear or the Black Knight Sword on O&S.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2012 07:53

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Yeah, I was thinking the sword for that reason. On my first playthrough I used a BK Halberd most of the way through once I was statted for it. I also had a Silver Knight Straight Sword drop, is that worth using/upgrading to any capacity? EDIT: It requires 20 Dex, which I don't quite have yet.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2012 08:00

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Ledneh posted:

Someone way early in the thread said something like "this is the best metroidvania in years" and once I realized that this is, in fact, a metroidvania, I completely agreed. The multiplayer is just lovely (sometimes frustrating) icing.

I don't know that I would go the Metroidvania route. You don't get anything that lets you do anything other than keys. I always thought of Metroidvanias as backtracking to places where it looked like you could almost get to, but had to find a gadget or something that would allow you traversal. Not so much just straight up locked doors and cordoned off areas.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2012 21:57

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Shanty posted:

Every newbie's first move in this game is to try and tackle the graveyard skeletons and fail miserably. A lot of people also stumble down into New Londo, but the atmosphere of that place just screams "you're not meant to be here" at ANY point of the game, so people generally back off.
You're not meant to return to either of these areas until after you get the Lord Vessel. That means two of the three areas you get to from the starting bonfire are meant for the second half of the game. If that's not Metroidvania I don't know what is!

It just feels like an old-school RPG to me in that sense, but I won't deny understanding why people make that connection.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2012 22:36

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

So, last night, I decided to go on a suicide run fighting the Demon Firesage. My wife went to the restroom, and I was sitting on the bed, saying "this'll only take a second, i'm going to get myself killed". She comes in a few minutes later to me hitting him with arrows, because he's become inexplicably stuck on one of the large branches in the boss room. We then had a lengthy discussion about video game bosses as I whittled down his health.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2012 00:26

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Apocadall posted:

Is it possible to summon a phantom to help on the revisit to the undead asylum? The demon is kicking my rear end and I've tried the iron flesh and bleeding weapon strategy but I can't even get him to half health before he kills me. Also where is a good place to grind humanity because my corpse in his lair is holding 11 and I really don't want to lose them but if I do I'd like to know the easiest way to get them back.

The important thing with him is to just sprint behind him. He doesn't move around a ton, and once you pick up on the only attack that strikes behind him (hint: it's when he lifts his club up and basically stabs the ground with it), and know the safe distance (stay about a Zweihander's length away, and you should be fine), it's the most piss easy fight. You just have to keep sprinting, wait till he does a non-buttstomp move, then just smack him in the rear end once or twice. Rinse repeat.

EDIT: Also, if you want my help as well, I'll pop my sign down in the small hallway leading to the bonfire on the right from the entrance to that room in a moment.
EDIT2: What's your current covenant?

# ¿ Mar 13, 2012 02:00

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Apocadall posted:

Yeah it's that fire move he does that keeps wrecking me, should I stick to using my Zweihander+10 or should I use one of the bleeding weapons I have like the barbed straight sword for the 10% health damage bonus?

EDIT: No current covenant and some help would be great.

Cool, nearly there. PSN name is Deiterbomber.

EDIT: Bummer. I walked around a bit, and the White Sign Soapstone was darkened pretty much everywhere I went, so I think it's safe to say there's no summoning there.

Aqua_D fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Mar 13, 2012

# ¿ Mar 13, 2012 02:09

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Apocadall posted:

drat, guess I just have to try and try again, worse comes to worse I'll use a ring of sacrifice to at least get my stuff back and leave.

Yeah, it's one of those situations where once you figure the timings and safe spots, you'll kick yourself. I was completely off guard at how easy it became once I got used to it.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2012 02:16

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# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 03:07

Aqua_D: Feb 12, 2011; Sometimes, a man just needs to get his Rock off.

Sheep-Goats posted:

Summon the white and gold guys all the time, we're waiting to help you. Sometimes we even have gifts -- I took my extra green shards and made five Fire Hand Axes +5 and gave them out to the needy a few days ago. (Hand Axe is the best weapon that can be used by every starting class.)

I was streaming a week ago, having a bit of trouble (all I had was a Dark Knight Sword +2), and a guy offered to phantom in my game. He then dropped me a Fire Sword +9 for me to use, and I've had a lot less trouble since.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2012 19:10

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