Demon Souls

[Dark_Chaotix]

Yeah I still have most of the special weapons to build before plat At least I have a pure blade and darkmoonstone yay

Have you done all the side crap that doesn't equate to trophies? I mean things like Mephistopheles' quests and facing the stage specific and NPC Black Phantoms? Some of the NPC BP are really quite a pain (Scrivir in particular)

Yeah, the only ring im missing is the Friend ring inwhich i have been trying to get my pwct up....Ill need to do it in the next play through since this one i did the Mephistopheles' quests and it went all the way to pbct.

I have 3 special weapson to build and I have all the ones you get through the game (i did some work on them today).

I have a few spells and miracles left and thats bout it really. Just taking longer then I thought to plat thats all.

[Apathy Wind]

Sounds like you got your pure bladestone early on - consider this a blessing. I think I spent more time farming one pure BS then I did all the other stones combined.

One of the last things I did in DS was gather a fourth soul from the Old Monk. That itself was easy but facing a fourth playthrough Maneater was suuuuuuper stressful. I managed to kill them first try but it was quite hairy with their buffed up damage and cheap arse 'knock you off the platform' attack.

So what class/weapon/build did you end up using?

[Dark_Chaotix]

On only on my second playthrough so i still have to get 2 more old monk souls

Yeah and I didnt have the sword of searching either so i was kinda lucky.

My build?? Well Im a royal male (i was told that was the class to do first time playing it, well female is better in soul farming with girl only bracelet...but that was a minor detail). So far I wield a cresent Falchion +5 where Ive decked out my magic (damage is quite good so far), but also have good strength / vitality to have the set of old kings armor without too much weight (I want to have the whole brushwood but not viable atm), Kris balde +5 on sub righthand, left hand I have dark silver shield with talisman of beasts.

I want to try this "tank" build with morian blade with cleaver rat ring / dull rat ring and warding. Risky being at <30% health but the damage output is worth it. Not sure to take scraping spear to take down equipment or use anti magic for long distance magic users.

On PvP, if you are lvl 120+ and you want to pvp do the game make you go to a cap level or you still have to fight ppl that are around similar level? I havent got the red stone yet so not sure how it works.

[Apathy Wind]

I'm 99% certain that the scraping spear only works against other players. If you're thinking of using it for PvE then I'd go with the straight or winged spears instead (with relative +'s of course).

So with the Kris Blade, ToB, and Royal class I'm assuming that you focus on magic (must be heavy on the spices). My magic was only good enough to sample the later spells (offensive capabilities were pitiful) - I think the only spells/miracles I ever really used were shield and second chance (lousy non-enchantable weapon. Well, actually not that lousy I guess).

Be heartened that the difficulty jump from playthrough 2 to 3 and then 3 to 4 isn't anywhere near as drastic as it was with PL 1 to 2. Honestly it doesn't even really seem that different (although occasionally the game will remind you - i.e. super damaging one shots from those retarded miners in 2-2).

As for PvP if I recall correctly it always ties you to other players in your soul level range. If you're in the hundreds I believe you can only summon or be invaded by someone within about 20 soul levels of your rank. That range does eventually increase but not until like level 300 or something.

[Dark_Chaotix]

Actually I dont focus on magic...Im more of a close / melee build its just handy that my damage is scaled off magic from crescent falchion, so I get best of both worlds when needed. I only keep ToB cos i switch between second chance and warding, where I also have poison, fireball and soul ray. Id like to keep death cloud but it takes two slots and I dont have enough and dont want to use ring...

whats PvE?

I know that from first to second play through it jumps 60% in damage, then a further 8% there after per playthrough. Maneater easily has been the hardest boss for me in the whole game....I always hate fighting it. Thankgod for that bowl in the middle of the stage

I like how you can poison boss aswell (not all of them) but at least its not like FF where you can only use shit like that against normal enemies and not bosses cos they always immune (for some reason)

5-x is such a shit world, especially 5-2 without rolling. Those huge goblins do my head in.....

[Apathy Wind]

whats PvE?

PvE is player versus environment (aka single player). As opposed to player vs player (PvP).

I think everyone hated world 5. I thought that since it was 'parallel' to world 1 (same height on the staircase) that it was the logical next board to go to. Needless to say my young wanderer had all kinds of trouble getting past those freakin goblins. On the upside my perseverance netted me the Blessed Mace +1 which was a fantastic weapon early on.

Of course none of this excused the frustrations that were 5-2. Nothing like that feeling of dread one gets when trying to dodge a giant goblin strike only to discover you barely stepped off the island and are stuck in the swamp (unavoidable death blow imminent). Or when those bastards knocked you off the island into the swamp where you're immediately poisoned. Argghh

One of my fondest memories of DS was on my third or fourth playthrough where I decided to kill Yurt right off. I let him out of his cage and he proceeded to wander around his little platform. I walked up behind him and ran my sword through his back - which initialized his pre-battle trash talk (i.e. "◦Well, what have we here? Do you wish to die so soon?"). Unfortunately for Yurty, just as soon as he started his speel my character puts her foot to his back and kicks him off the blade - which in turn sends him flying over the edge of the platform. The game proceeds to continue his 'tough guy' dialogue while he plummets to his death. Ahhhhhh - satisfying.

[Fuu]

World 5 is certainly a pain, but it's well implemented in DS very special amalgam of level design+narration. When you reach the end not only is it totally worth it, but you can feel that everything was put in place to protect the "boss", which produces such a peculiar experience.
Just bad on replay, obviously.

[Gojira]

I finally just started playing this, after owning it for more than a year. I procrastinate.

I had a character going but ended up starting over anyway, since he'd only gotten past the first boss anyway. Plus it was a barbarian, which seemed to suck (though I can't tell much difference between the starting classes besides some minor magic/melee differences). So far I've only beaten the first demon, and the armor spider. I can get up to the armor giant but I think I need magic or arrows to beat him.

Not sure where to go from here. I take it the arch of the chieftain is the infamous swamp map?

[Dark_Chaotix]

Magic is good to have, which is why royal is a good starting character cos they have the silver Catalyst that cast soul arrow. early in the game its good

If you dont want to use royal, then there is a Wooden Catalyst in 1-2 or 3-1 but yeah either one is difficult to do in it own way.

[Apathy Wind]

You don't need magic or arrows to beat Tower Knight - or at least that's my experience as I didn't use either. Start by running past him and going up the ramparts - just follow the path and kill the archers until you exit on the opposite side; then you can fight TK. As for TK himself I beat him using turpentine on my falchion. TK is a freakin pain so it will likely take several attempts to beat him but it's entirely possible without ranged attacks.

If you don't want to bother with TK you might want to try 3-1 or 4-1, I guess. Or you could slog through 5-1 and pick up the blessed mace +1 (it's regen properties are helpful early on).

I'm not sure what the images on the various entrances are but the general set up is:


-----------------3-1 (Tower/Prison)-----------Broken---------------------
--------2-1 (Mines)----------------------------------4-1 (Storm)----------
1-1 (Boletaria)------------------------------------------------5-1 (Swamp)

[Gojira]

DC: Yeah, I'd heard about royals, but I already went with a soldier. I don't think it'll be that big a deal, in the end I think royals just have more options on where to go, other classes just need to acquire more stuff first.

AW: Falchion? Right now the strongest weapon I have is a bastard sword + 1, which I can only hold with 2 hands. I find weapons but I can't use them. How do you know how strong you have to be to use a particular weapon anyway?

The first couple of times I fought TK I was approaching the battle pretty much exactly like you said, but every time I get within a few feet of him he plops down his shield and I have to run around, and if I get too close he just pounds out a shockwave and knocks me down. But maybe in the back of my mind I was thinking I probably couldn't handle it without some kind of ranged attack; if you say it's possible to do it this way I'll try again.

[Apathy Wind]

Regarding equip strength I don't recall but I found this on the DS Wiki

Shows the required statistics to use this piece of equipment. From left to right the 4 symbols are for Strength, Dexterity, Magic, and Faith. You may be able to two hand it and get past a slightly low Strength stat score by pressing Triangle (this gives you effectively 1.5 x Strength). If you do not meet the requirements for weapons, the only penalty is reflected in a negative damage bonus as you will see reflected in the numbers shown above. However, this damage penalty is quite high, and you may find that being even 1 point short in an attribute results in such a severe penalty that almost any other weapon is a better choice. For shields, not meeting the requirement will result in a larger stamina impact when blocking, and the shield bash damage can be affected.
NOTE: Bows are always held in both hands when wielded, so you always get the 1.5x strength bonus, thus the actual requirements for using a bow are always lower than stated on the stats needed.

IIRC I beat TK by running around him until I got past his shield and then hacking at his legs. As you said you'll have to be mindful of his shield slam - if he starts to move it just run off and start the process over. Eventually he'll fall over - try and make sure he doesn't land on you (I swear he landed on me everytime...). Once he's down I believe you can attack his head for extra damage - I always seemed to end up whailing on his junk for some reason. He'll eventually get back up - once this happens repeat the process. Getting around his shield can be annoying and he'll occassionally spear you or hit you with a swipe while you're trying to do so. Also you'll likely get hit with the shield slam as well since it's fast. If you have magic capacity then I'd recommend using shield (or whatever its called) when fighting him - it makes his hits survivable and give you a chance to back off and heal via some grass. Unless your a magic based character this is likely a better use of MP then ranged spells. As previously mentioned using turpentine on your weapon helps as well. BTW - the falchion isn't anything special; it's just the default weapon for the wanderer.

All and all the whole fight can be frustrating as hell but eventually you'll put together a good run and kill him. Of course that right there's pretty much DS in a nutshell anyway. On the upside it makes your eventual victory all the more sweet - I recall beating TK being the most satisfying boss victory for me in the entire game.

[Dark_Chaotix]

On my first run i did do TW with hitting his ankles and then attacking him when he fell. But I found it way easier to attack with SR from a distance with clever rat ring and magical sharpness ring. Even on my second run when I did this, the damage was decent. Much safe for me anyways.

Prob 3 would be a better start after 1 cos in 5 you need fire to deal decent damage for most of the bosses

[Apathy Wind]

At the point he's at I don't think he'd have Soul Ray or either of those rings. I'm not even sure if I had a bow that early on - I think I was still sporting the crossbow. Without the necessary equipment I'd imagine the soul cost of spices/arrow/bolts wouldn't be worth it in light of the amount of damage you'd be doing with each spell/shot.

[Dark_Chaotix]

Which is why I said on my first run I took him on and hit his feet... But its WAY easier with magic since you can be at a distance.