Dark Soul's: Prepare to Die Edition (PC)

[strumpusplunket]

Updating the above: ha, finally found I could coax goldie to jump to his death (and managed to roll/sprint past the standard crystal golems).

Those man-eating shells were a PITA too, though. Although it only took patience in the end (but with, what, six of them (?) PER RUN it took a LOT of patience.)

Seath was an utter PITA as well, but only because I wanted the Moonlight Sword from his tail. First two goes I was whacking his "side" tails and wondering why I'd taken off a third of his health bar with no tail slice :0

As a magic-heavy INT build with INT scaling magic damage on my main weapons, doing damage to this guy was slow, and I died after finally managing to hack of his tail. Was able to kite him around and zoom in for damage on my next go though and reclaim my thousands of souls

Actually a bit lost now. Found my way to and through Duke's Archives, but a bit uncertain what to tackle next.

Still loving this game. Can't believe it took me so long to get round to playing it!

 

[KiiYzOo]

I really want to play through DS1 again after losing my 32 hour save by moving to my desktop

For some reason my version will not work no matter how many times that I reinstall it from steam, it just decides to full screen all the time with a black screen

Hopefully I can get it sorted, does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do to fix this? ENB's from the dark series is really making me want to play

 

[uncle_rufus]

Hopefully I can get it sorted, does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do to fix this? ENB's from the dark series is really making me want to play

Have you definitely got the new(ish) non-GFWL dropdown thing selected in Steam? (I think it's under the game options where you normally select "Betas")

 

[agnes]

I'm having flashbacks of two silver knights with greatbows and a narrow ledge to traverse... The horror...

Why, why make me revisit those nightmares????

Love DS, recently started playing through again. Only completed it twice though!!!!

 

[strumpusplunket]

One of the things that shows what a well-made game this is is not only how it sets the difficulty bar very high but never feels unfair or insurmountable, but how the parts I've found difficult are so different from others' experiences.

The archers in Anor Londo? I think I fell off the ledge the first time in surprise, but other than that, no problem. ("Oh you have a greatbow, do you? Have a soul spear to the face.")

Ornstein and Smough, a common vote for toughest boss? On my third try Ornstein was down before I even took any damage. Would have come through completely unscathed had I not fumbled the lock-on toggling for one of Smough's charges.

Sif? I think he managed one swipe of his sword. Bell Gargoyles? Down before I even really knew what was happening.

But: Sen's fortress frustrated me immensely. The Giant's Tomb was horrible. It took me about eight tries to defeat the Gaping Dragon, and the same with Seath (the easier bosses according to most accounts I've read). The Stray Demon took me five or six attempts, too. Even Nito took me four attempts, and I almost gave up with the run back through the dark with skeleton dogs, bone towers, giant skeletons and Dark Paladin Leeroy repeatedly invading. Gah!

This is probably all down to build and playstyle presenting me with challenges others don't have (and vice-versa). It really speaks to how well-balanced and crafted it all is. (I think everyone finds Capra difficult first time, though, right?)

 

[KiiYzOo]

Have you definitely got the new(ish) non-GFWL dropdown thing selected in Steam? (I think it's under the game options where you normally select "Betas")

Yeah, I've tried it with and without the patch a few times, tried adding just dsfix to it (this was after trying it vanilla) and setting different options like forced windowed and intro skip etc, but it still doesn't work I think my last option may be to try either installing it to my spare usb 3 drive from my laptop, or from a friends account who has the game

 

[evsknight]

One of the things that shows what a well-made game this is is not only how it sets the difficulty bar very high but never feels unfair or insurmountable, but how the parts I've found difficult are so different from others' experiences.

A lot of folks (myself included) were pulled into the game due to the ruleset. The fact that enemies are following the same rules as you and if they have weighty weapons, they do attack slower and have more of a parry window and things like that. Though in DS2 DLC there's a few mobs which really seem not to (hi2u parry from behind?!) but that could just be a bug. Generally speaking the 'weight' of the game movement and combat applies to all and you get a feel for what weapons you like quite often plumping for one you like rather than has the best stats.

For the difference in difficulty - caster does make the game much easier (in fact both DS1 and DS2) than melee for the majority of people. Just being able to sit back and throw stuff at the enemies and have more reaction time to what's going on is a big bonus.
In pvp it's often really easy to telegraph read the cast and spells can be dodged all day long and needs more setup time vs an opponent to catch them off guard. Mobs aren't that clever though and just eat the spell.

Don't get me wrong that's not trying to belittle your achievements so far, finishing the game is an accomplishment in itself no matter how you do it but it's probably a good reason why you are finding it easier on certain bosses.

Sif being a good one, whilst it isn't a terribly difficult boss - as a melee you can't sit there and tank the hits as your stamina quickly goes bye bye unless you setup for regeneration and so on but as a ranged you can just keep pelting away and only really have to watch for a couple of attacks which aren't the fastest. Normally for melee Sif is a learning the boss fight to see what animation is when the spin comes, the jump comes and so on as you need to keep under him as well.
That doesn't mean it's the way you could or could not have done it, but by large range is king in pve until you 'git gud' and parry+backstab all the bosses with super duper 2h buffed up weapons

 

[KiiYzOo]

*snip*

I definitely think that what you find hard is down to your play style, I have never been one for magic builds in these games and I tend to go for the biggest and heaviest hitting swords that I can get (along with my beloved mace). This always meant that I'd have a harder time against bosses who would jump away or dart around a lot. I personally beat Capra first time with my build, but I definitely found sif a challenge. I didn't manage to complete the game before losing my save but I think the boss I hardest time with was manus (even with a friend helping)

I think when I play through it again I'm gonna go for a spellsword sort of build with either strength or dex weapons and also try out other stuff that I didn't get a chance to play around with

 

[strumpusplunket]

A lot of folks (myself included) were pulled into the game due to the ruleset. The fact that enemies are following the same rules as you and if they have weighty weapons, they do attack slower and have more of a parry window and things like that. Though in DS2 DLC there's a few mobs which really seem not to (hi2u parry from behind?!) but that could just be a bug. Generally speaking the 'weight' of the game movement and combat applies to all and you get a feel for what weapons you like quite often plumping for one you like rather than has the best stats.

This is a good point. I think that has been a big part of why the game feels hard but fair.

For the difference in difficulty - caster does make the game much easier (in fact both DS1 and DS2) than melee for the majority of people. Just being able to sit back and throw stuff at the enemies and have more reaction time to what's going on is a big bonus.
In pvp it's often really easy to telegraph read the cast and spells can be dodged all day long and needs more setup time vs an opponent to catch them off guard. Mobs aren't that clever though and just eat the spell.

Don't get me wrong that's not trying to belittle your achievements so far, finishing the game is an accomplishment in itself no matter how you do it but it's probably a good reason why you are finding it easier on certain bosses.

I wasn't really feeling my "achievements" were anything special, really (I did after all die FOUR TIMES on the run from the bonfire to Nito!) I was more thinking that it was an indication of the depth of the combat system that it provides such different challenges to different players.

As a spellsword I can pump out high single-target damage at reasonable range, which can eat through bosses' healthbars, but I really struggle against enemies with high resistance (chipping away at Seath's healthbar was arduous in the extreme, and I had to cheese it by switching to pyromancy in the end, no other way I could get his health down quick enough).

I also find it difficult with enemies that can close quickly and interrupt cast animations, and especially with enemies that can surround me as I lack a big physical damage option to clear them quickly enough (so Nito's skellies and the bonetowers and skellies before him were a complete PITA).

Socrcery does feel very powerful though in general as you say. Though when you're out of casts you're in trouble, so it can be tricky knowing which mobs to use it on so I don't arrive at a boss with no casts left.

I definitely think that what you find hard is down to your play style, I have never been one for magic builds in these games and I tend to go for the biggest and heaviest hitting swords that I can get (along with my beloved mace). This always meant that I'd have a harder time against bosses who would jump away or dart around a lot. I personally beat Capra first time with my build, but I definitely found sif a challenge. I didn't manage to complete the game before losing my save but I think the boss I hardest time with was manus (even with a friend helping)

I think when I play through it again I'm gonna go for a spellsword sort of build with either strength or dex weapons and also try out other stuff that I didn't get a chance to play around with

I always go mage

Spellsword is quite fun in my experience, but my weapon damage is pitiful and I'm lacking the materials to pump up the INT scaling to a point it would be useful. Moonlight GS is helping, but it's still on the weak side really.

 

[evsknight]

Any boss killed in DS for the first time (without using guides!) is an achievement

If you like magic and pyromancy, faith builds are often very strong as well, for DS2 it was a go-to build for many as the spears did incredible damage and you got a lot of them!

Pyromancy in DS is incredibly stupidly op and some bosses are 2 or 3 shot with it even at low SL levels. Great fun though!

 

[davewhite04]

Yeah, I've tried it with and without the patch a few times, tried adding just dsfix to it (this was after trying it vanilla) and setting different options like forced windowed and intro skip etc, but it still doesn't work I think my last option may be to try either installing it to my spare usb 3 drive from my laptop, or from a friends account who has the game

Not sure if someone has mentioned it, but this requires games for windows installed and running, with you logged in. iirc.

 

[Pighardia]

I could never play a Souls game as a mage tbh... Got to feel the weight of combat!

 

[davewhite04]

I could never play a Souls game as a mage tbh... Got to feel the weight of combat!

I always start as mage in 2, the soul arrow speeds up the early levels greatly.

 

[Doug73458]

I really want to play through DS1 again after losing my 32 hour save by moving to my desktop

For some reason my version will not work no matter how many times that I reinstall it from steam, it just decides to full screen all the time with a black screen

Hopefully I can get it sorted, does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do to fix this? ENB's from the dark series is really making me want to play

Sounds like you changed the screen res on the game that is not supported by your monitor. Go into the directory where you saved the game and find the graphics setting .txt file and see what res you have it set to

 

[strumpusplunket]

Any boss killed in DS for the first time (without using guides!) is an achievement

If you like magic and pyromancy, faith builds are often very strong as well, for DS2 it was a go-to build for many as the spears did incredible damage and you got a lot of them!

Pyromancy in DS is incredibly stupidly op and some bosses are 2 or 3 shot with it even at low SL levels. Great fun though!

Yeah, I'd noticed pyro being a bit ridiculous for certain enemies, but I tended to avoid it for role-playing reasons, being a mage and all.

I'll bear the faith build idea in mind for DS2, though. Be nice to have a bit of a change.

(I confess, however, that I did resort to a guide for Seath in the end, after dying a number of times and getting utterly cheesed off with the run through the crystal caves and baiting and whittling down those darned shells! That's how I found he was weak to fire and decided to cheese it with combustion and fireball...)

 

[KiiYzOo]

Sounds like you changed the screen res on the game that is not supported by your monitor. Go into the directory where you saved the game and find the graphics setting .txt file and see what res you have it set to

That seems to have fixed it, thank you took me a while to find where my dark souls 1 folder was in my appdata directory

 

[strumpusplunket]

As I'd only got one more lord soul to get I thought I'd go into the DLC the other night.

Really like the DLC bosses - interesting, fast, aggressive. Very challenging. Got through the Guardian and Artorias on my second run on each, but they were very messy victories that I only achieved by virtue of having a decent amount of VIT and highish spell damage. I just couldn't get a pattern down for either of them, and just chipped their health down a tad before they did mine.

Then I found Manus. Well... this is gonna take some work! Failing all my dodges, can't block him, getting staggered. One tough cookie that guy. Anyone find a sound method for him?

 

[uncle_rufus]

Then I found Manus. Well... this is gonna take some work! Failing all my dodges, can't block him, getting staggered. One tough cookie that guy. Anyone find a sound method for him?

There's an item you can find in the surrounding areas that helps a little bit (allows you to not get totally messed up by his dark attacks)

 

[Grandmaster Fap!]

Kill him with a bow outside of his lair if you want to be pathetically cheesy Otherwise, lots of rolling and patience, also get Sif to help in the fight, he can be a good distraction sometimes.

 

[strumpusplunket]

There's an item you can find in the surrounding areas that helps a little bit (allows you to not get totally messed up by his dark attacks)

Ah great. So I've missed something crucial in that horrible dark pitfall-filled void...

Oh well. I guess I can warp back to the earlier bonfire(s).

Kill him with a bow outside of his lair if you want to be pathetically cheesy Otherwise, lots of rolling and patience, also get Sif to help in the fight, he can be a good distraction sometimes.

Ha! Just looked that up. I can't believe that works! It's (somewhat) tempting, but this git humiliated me so thoroughly before I have to take him down properly.

And I had no idea you could summon Sif! I restored humanity at the previous bonfire to see if I could see any summon signs, but didn't spot any.