Dark Souls II Gameplay Tips and Spoiler Thread

[Edz]

The first time you face them, neither will you

Ouch, I made the assumption there would be two not four of the buggers....

Decided to take a trip down the well to the gutter, interesting area. I was too tired to push past the 2nd bonfire but I'm looking forward to exploring the area some more tonight.

 

[Davey_Pitch]

Ouch, I made the assumption there would be two not four of the buggers....

Yup, caught me out first time as well! It's actually a great area to be summoned, I've helped at least 5 people take them out.

Another good place to help people if you all want to, is outside the boss fog in the Shaded Woods (Najka). I beat her 10 times in the space of about 90 minutes yesterday. It's a good way to get Tokens of Fidelity (or Sunlight Medals) nice and quickly.

 

[monkeyspank]

amazon have just despatched my 'collectors edition guide' book. i thought we werent getting them?

don't really want it now anyway its the first guide i ever bought and it was only because i was excited for the game

 

[kinger8938]

amazon have just despatched my 'collectors edition guide' book. i thought we werent getting them?

don't really want it now anyway its the first guide i ever bought and it was only because i was excited for the game

We werent they cancelled mine and many other orders everywhere saying it wasnt coming to the uk. And now it is and i think ive probably missed out

 

[monkeyspank]

I ordered it on the 11th
they are currently saying stock due in this monday..

 

[Moothead2]

I just bought it from Amazon US a few days ago. Not too bothered if it takes a while to come, won't be using it anyway .

 

[Jic89]

Just got back home from working away for the week, cant wait to getr back into this! Hope your all progressing nicely

 

[Pighardia]

Haven't seen a human effigy for ages, probably about 6 hours.... There really should be other ways to regain humanity. I was quite enjoying summoning etc as well.

 

[kinger8938]

Was having a bit of trouble with iron keeps first boss so gone back to explore the shaded woods made fair bit of progress but i always wonder if im doing it wrong by going here or there, thats dark souls though

 

[Moothead2]

Was having a bit of trouble with iron keeps first boss so gone back to explore the shaded woods made fair bit of progress but i always wonder if im doing it wrong by going here or there, thats dark souls though

Don't worry, I have three areas all in different directions to explore yet, including the Iron Keep. All of them can be explored whenever similar to the four lord souls in Dark souls 1. Getting annoyed at the numerous archers in the area and my lack of ability to dodge Smelter Demon's attacks .

 

[kinger8938]

Don't worry, I have three areas all in different directions to explore yet, including the Iron Keep. All of them can be explored whenever similar to the four lord souls in Dark souls 1. Getting annoyed at the numerous archers in the area and my lack of ability to dodge Smelter Demon's attacks .

Same! On my mission in shaded woods i reached another area and found a great shield that blocks 100% physical and 100% fire! So that should help me with the boss in iron keep! He can be dodged but 1 attack is devastating

 

[Moothead2]

Same! On my mission in shaded woods i reached another area and found a great shield that blocks 100% physical and 100% fire! So that should help me with the boss in iron keep! He can be dodged but 1 attack is devastating

I keep rolling to early. He has a slight delay before he swings after pulling it back and it completely puts me off. I've only tried him twice today because getting back to him feels like a chore.

 

[kinger8938]

I keep rolling to early. He has a slight delay before he swings after pulling it back and it completely puts me off. I've only tried him twice today because getting back to him feels like a chore.

Ive experianced my first despawning area with this one lol dunno why it seems rather straight forward but it just began to frustrate me so thought i would come back

 

[Pighardia]

Just killed that poison Queen thing, I forget the name. Someone tipped me off about the trick. What a ridiculous way to do it!

 

[Pighardia]

On the smelter demo now. As usual, came very close the first time to killing it, then on 3 subsequent attempts died horribly, and very quickly!

Also, found an effigy, became human, died about 20 seconds later at the only mimic I have come across in the game!

 

[Moothead2]

Nothing gets the heart pumping like have no life bar left with only one hit left to kill the boss. Defeated Smelter Demon my first try today. Got greedy when he had one hit left and he did his jumping attack on me which brought me down to the point where you have literally no red in your health bar .


Vaatividya's first Dark Souls 2 lore video is up going though his thoughts on Heide's tower of Flame:

 

[kinger8938]

After smellter demon, reach the bonfire and go back to his boss room

 

[Moothead2]

After smellter demon, reach the bonfire and go back to his boss room

Why do I get the feeling there'll be two of them there ?

Sweet, thanks for the tip .

Another 70k souls down the ****ter .

The Black Gulch is quite possibly the worst area in any Souls game. No real exploration, annoying enemies and a constant barrage of poison which is just annoying. I don't know why they persist with these kinds of areas, they're consistently considered the worst areas in all three games.

 

[Fenris]

Tips for Benhart and Lucatiel Achievements (Required to get their gear without killing them), some spoilers.

Spoiler

So for these achievements you need to talk to each of them in all their locations, expend their dialogue AND summon them for 3 boss fights WHICH THEY MUST SURVIVE, after which you can talk to them in their final locations and they will give you their gear. Now this sounds like a massive ball ache and it can be, but only if you are playing offline or and/or don't know the tricks.

So firstly talking to them, I won't go into this as you can find out all their locations yourself, only one location is a bit tricky and it is Lucatiel whilst she is in Black Gulch because the location is INCREDIBLY hard to find on your own.

The tricky part of these achievements is keeping the summons alive during boss fights, which are:

Lucatiel (need to summon and have her survive 3/4):

Flexile Sentry
The Rotten
Lost Sinner
Smelter Demon

Easiest are the first 3, Smelter just has too much AoE capable of one shotting her.

Benhart:

Prowling Magus and Congregation
Looking Glass Knight
Giant Lord

Only three that matter, all incredibly easy as Benhart is tough as nails.

To make these fights the easiest thing in the world, you need 3 things.

1. Redeye Ring - Purchased from Shalquoir, makes enemies focus you and only you.
2. Greatshield - 100% phys resistant, 2 hand it.
3. NPC phantom + player phantom.

Equip the ring, 2 hand your shield and watch your buddy and the NPC kill the boss with zero stress, you will take zero damage and never lose your stamina, ever, even if you keep up block at all times.

This tactic makes keeping Lucatiel alive a joke, Benhart is a different matter as he's genuinely useful, Prowling Magus is the new Pinwheel but easier, Looking Glass Knight is not overly hard and you only really need the Redeye Ring, Giant Lord is incredibly easy as the only real threat to Benhart is a boulder.

Once you've done this, all you need to do is talk to the NPC in their final places, for Lucatiel this is Shrine of Amana and Benhart you can talk to in the Memory of Oro, if you talk to them before completing the boss requirements and talking to them in their other places, you will NOT get their gear.

Oh and if you've already killed the bosses without them, you can do it in NG+ or by using Ascetics.

 

[apatia77]

Just completed the game, had to restart when my game bugged while opening the door in Drangleic Castle (it happens when you open the door but then die before you reach the bonfire and then you just will not open the door again ever). That was over 30h of gameplay by that time.

I went all melee and the game was great, just annoyed by one area where you have those damn mages in water etc, it was so annoying until I started sniping them with my bow.

So anyway it's good that you have some very good weapons near the beginning of the game, the fire sword helps a lot and then once I started using the halberd that you get early in the game (gotta invest some points into str and dex) the game became much easier. You can now use halberds like a spear without dropping a shield so was mainly using it for boss fights and tough enemies. Otherwise I started using a greatsword that you also get early in the game (like the one from FF7 ).

I think the game is very challenging at times however I didn't find any of the bosses too hard like for example Smough and Ornstein from Dark Souls.

Killed all bosses solo without using phantoms or online players.

I am totally burned out at the moment from playing the game, but will pick the PC version in the future again I think. Time to sell my copy and get a break from the game.