Author Topic: Dark Souls: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Death  (Read 58774 times)

Offline idolminds

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #80 on: Friday, March 08, 2013, 12:06:35 AM »
I had stocked up on some mosses to handle poison, but I underestimated just how much of that shit was down here. That and I didn't think to grab toxic curing stuff. Oops. Probably a good idea for me to level up and upgrade my weapons/armor. Takes 4 swings to take down the regular guys here so I think the drake sword is getting to the end of its usefulness. Either that or I seriously need to build up my STR stat. Or both.

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #81 on: Friday, March 08, 2013, 07:24:22 AM »
My trips to Blighttown have been an exercise in frustration so far.  Saw the framerate dips, and I hope they don't get worse.  I hoped the barbarians didn't respawn.  I was wrong.

It's taking 4 swings for me down here too, Idol, and Str is one of my top attributes.  I think it's time to check into putting that blacksmith to work on upgrading some gear. 

Idol and I have been talking about it on IRC, but I've been looking REAL hard at the retail "Prepare to Die" edition.  it comes with an art book, Soundtrack, making of DVD, a poster, and a set of 5 postcards.  It's available from a third party reseller for 35.99 with Amazon fulfillment.  I figure the cheapest I could get a digital version is 15 bucks.  Not requiring steam (and actually being able to take a toon offline) has to be worth something as well.  So what I'm trying to decide is if it's worth the 20 dollar premium to have the feelies and no Steam on a game I already own and have invested a significant amount of time in already.  I fear it won't get cheaper, though, and will only become harder to find since it is an import.

One thing I do know is that I want the PC version regardless of what happens.  It is the definitive version of the game and is definitely something I will return to one day.

« Last Edit: Friday, March 08, 2013, 07:54:57 AM by K-man »

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #82 on: Friday, March 08, 2013, 02:00:47 PM »
OK, so I was tooling around on Amazon.co.uk seeing how many copies of the game they had (Idol and I were debating the availability).  Ends up the game is only 27 bucks after shipping from Amazon.co.uk.  Supposedly they won't ship PC games to the US, but I was able to place my order.  So here's hoping!

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #83 on: Saturday, March 09, 2013, 10:46:16 PM »
I am sort of at a crossroads here.  Thus far I've been able to make do with whatever armor sets I find along the way and the Drake sword.  In fact the only thing I've bothered upgrading is the Long bow to +5.  I've tried every weapon I have other than the Drake sword and they just don't measure up to my play style.  I'm also not sure what armor I want to upgrade moving forward.   I like the fast movement of the shadow set, but I'd really like some more armor. 

Instead of progressing forward today, I went back for some mop up duty.  I finished all the black knights in the Asylum, and went back to Drake Valley and killed a few of the smaller dragons as well as the large one.  I also found the catacombs and died pretty fast afterward.

If any of you guys have any insight on gear, by all means.  Everyone seems to have a different answer on the Interwebs.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #84 on: Sunday, March 10, 2013, 12:18:40 AM »
There's quite a lot of it and it really depends on your build. Gear in this game starts to get very specific as you go, where you're using certain pieces in order to achieve different goals. My build was a nimble faith build where I used the Dark Wood Grain Ring and Mask of the Father (increase equip load) in accordance with my stats to stay acrobatic despite wearing some heavier armor and wielding the Greatsword of Artorias. The whole setup was really geared toward that end, though it wasn't something I decided on until way into the game.

So yeah, you pretty much have it. You're going to get different answers everywhere, because any one decision you make is going to affect the others if you're being conscientious, and most people are going to be working toward pretty specific builds.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline idolminds

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #85 on: Sunday, March 10, 2013, 10:29:32 AM »
I beefed myself up with the heaviest armor I have (Elite Knight armor) plus the Eagle Shield I managed to pick up in my short time in Blighttown, and went to take on Havel. He is still a bit of a bother since he has a lot of HP and do not let him hit you with your shield down, but with my setup he could no longer one-shot me. He still caused a little damage when hitting with certain attacks but they all bounced off and left him open to take a hit. Just keep dancing around him to recharge stamina and you will eventually wear him down. Just don't get greedy, get one hit in and back off with your shield up.

You might want to think about trying him, kman. Killing him gets you his ring which really boosts your equip load. Now when I run around in my heavy armor is like I'm in medium, and my thief armor for Blighttown I feel like the Flash.

I might go clean up the Asylum next.

Update: Asylum cleanup is going ok. The black knights are finally defeated, but the boss still stands. I also took care of the knight in Darkroot Basin and had a look at Valley of the Drakes. I didn't stick around long, those drakes look tough.
« Last Edit: Sunday, March 10, 2013, 04:11:24 PM by idolminds »

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #86 on: Sunday, March 10, 2013, 09:09:52 PM »
I finally took down Havel.  I had to train myself to wait on dodging until the very last second, and was able to get in behind and backstab him to death.

I have just about run out of things to do besides go to Blighttown.  I've put it off long enough.  i've got poison resist gear, enough moss to last several lifetimes, and all my equipment is repaired and good to go.  I will just have to accept the fact that normal baddies take 4 hits to die...

Offline idolminds

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #87 on: Monday, March 11, 2013, 08:16:30 PM »
My preparation for Blighttown is taking a little time, but I think I'm about ready to get in there. I killed the undead dragon in the Valley of the Drakes and got the nice sword he guards. Once upgraded it is currently about on par with the drake sword, but has a nice long stabbing motion strong attack instead of the drakes wide swing. Not so good for crowds, but in the game you should be avoiding crowds anyway. The nice part is this swords damage scales with STR, DEX, and Faith. I don't plan on putting more in faith (I had to bump it up to 14 to properly wield the sword), but I'm keeping my dex and str up so I will be causing more damage as I go.

To get those extra faith levels and pay for the upgrades...I needed to soul farm. I started off under the bridge with the red dragon, because one attack from him killed all the skeletons on the bridge netting about 550 souls. Not bad and really safe, but climbing up and down that ladder was time consuming for the number of souls you get. I had a look at the wiki to see if there was some place else I could go to do it. I ended up down in the Depths farming the slimes with my new found pyromancy skills. Each run was more interesting, fairly quick, and got me 1000 souls. As a bonus the slimes would drop large titanite and green titanite for upgrading equipment later and the rats would drop humanities.

Turns out, I should have been doing this a bit differently. Just inside the door in Darkroot you can do some really quick and easy soul farming and I would have been better served saving up to do that. Oh well. I have that open now so if I need souls for something I know where to go, but right now I think I'll just save up to buy a few more mosses and then get into Blighttown.

While in the valley of drakes I found a "back" entrance to Blighttown. I don't know where this is in relation to the other entrance and I wonder if it might be a good place to start from or not. Guess I could go find out.

Oh, forgot to say. The new sword physical damage is much lower than the drake, but it also deals holy damage. So I need to watch out for enemies that can resist that. On the plus side it allowed me to kill the skeletons in the graveyard so I could go loot everything including the winged spear. Weee!

Offline TheOtherBelmont

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #88 on: Monday, March 11, 2013, 08:31:54 PM »
That "back" entrance from the Valley of Drakes into Blighttown is closer to the boss of that area, though whether or not it is easier than going in the front entrance, I don't remember. You would have access to some high ground early on if you went in the back way, but I don't remember if its close to the dart spitters or not, which were the primary source of frustration for me there.

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #89 on: Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 05:23:49 AM »
I decided to upgrade a longsword to Divine +5 rather than invest the twinkling titanite into the astoria sword.  I like it so far, and it only cost me about 20 minutes of farming the slime room near the bonfire in the depths.  I got preoccupied with that and never got around to hitting blighttown last night.  Oh well, i'll be there soon enough.

I love the fact that I can augment my weaponry and check my inventory at bonfires.  Great design decision over Demon's.

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #90 on: Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 09:36:30 AM »
I ordered Dark Souls Prepare to Die Retail from Amazon.co.uk Saturday afternoon.  It arrived this morning.

Holy crap.

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #91 on: Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 07:45:09 PM »
Oh, Blighttown. 

I finally stopped being a pansy and dove in.  My first trip was cut short by a barbarian at the entrance.  Ok.  Regroup.  I make it into Blighttown.  I attempt to jump over the chasm to obtain the iaito sword.  I fall to my death.

I know right then it's gonna be a long evening.

I make it back through, get the iaito, and make my way over to the first bonfire.  I immediately use some humanity and kindle the fire.  I proceed carefully through, stopping any time I hear the pinging of poison darts off obstacles.  I'm able to snipe most of the blowdart dudes before they become an issue.  I end up down in the swamp area where i am invaded.  Later I find that his is a scripted invasion.  No biggie, I dispatch her no problem.  I get to the water wheel and my dumb ass jumps off before I should have.  I hit the ground.  Dead.  FUCK.

I decided to kindle the bonfire again since I was having a difficult time. I  had already burned through 8 estus before my death by falling.  Whoops, I can't kindle past 10.  I'm stuck human with humanity.  GREAT.  I manage to make it back down to the swamp.  I run around trying to find another bonfire.  There has to be one.  I get the prompt "YOU HAVE BEEN INVADED!" FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.  I'm running around and I see it.  Oh beautiful bonfire.  I run over to it and realize that apparently I can do nothing with it during an invasion.  Shit.  Maybe he'll give up and disconnect.  About three seconds after I think that, he walks into the bonfire area and one-shots me with what appears to be some sort of lightsaber.

I die a few more times on the way to my body, losing a decent amount of souls.  Oh well.  Those are replaceable now.  I manage to find my way out of the area using the New Londo shortcut.  Thankfully.  Now it's time to regroup and recharge, and perhaps explore some of the new gear I looted down there.  I got another fire soul but went back to the shrine to find that the chick is now dead.  I was able to loot her.

I dunno, fuck.  I hope that was scripted.  The fire is out at the shrine too so I had to go all the way to blacksmith to save.

Offline TheOtherBelmont

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #92 on: Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 08:33:44 PM »
I dunno, fuck.  I hope that was scripted.  The fire is out at the shrine too so I had to go all the way to blacksmith to save.

That event is scripted.  There is a sidequest you can do to get things back to normal, but I won't go into detail about it unless you want me to.

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #93 on: Thursday, March 14, 2013, 05:21:19 AM »
Don't.  Just knowing it was scripted is enough of a relief for me.

I went back down to the swamp area last night and mopped up some items I had left down there.  I now have a few more swords and armor sets.  Not sure if any of it will replace what I have currently but I'm going to check it out.

I ended up divine +5ing a longsword, so I may hit the catacombs after I go fight whatever boss is down in the swamp.

Offline TheOtherBelmont

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #94 on: Thursday, March 14, 2013, 09:46:09 AM »
......so I may hit the catacombs......

I don't want to tell you how to play the game and I want to avoid spoilers, but to avoid some further frustration, I would avoid the catacombs until much later than you are thinking.  It will be partially spelled out for you when you need to go down there.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #95 on: Thursday, March 14, 2013, 03:33:44 PM »
What the fuck, man? I was really looking forward to the stories resulting from that trip. haha

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline TheOtherBelmont

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #96 on: Thursday, March 14, 2013, 06:29:20 PM »
What the fuck, man? I was really looking forward to the stories resulting from that trip. haha

Haha, I didn't think about that.  That area is really annoying though.

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #97 on: Friday, March 15, 2013, 05:12:58 AM »
I dove back down into Blighttown to fight Quelaag.  My best attempt was the first.

I think I'm going to check out what fire resist gear I have and go from there.  Bitch is tough.  Thankfully she's somewhat easy to get to.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #98 on: Friday, March 15, 2013, 06:55:16 AM »
Yeah, she was a plateau moment for me. I just couldn't get past her at first. Had to go away and come back with a few better items, but even after changing items and stuff it was still rough. The internet doesn't seem to think she's all that tough, but I had a hell of a time. Was very satisfying when I finally got her down.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #99 on: Friday, March 15, 2013, 05:23:19 PM »
Beat her convincingly on my 4th try tonight.  Finally found out what the snoring at Firelink was about!  Went to Sen's Fortress.  Got raped.

Fun times!

Offline idolminds

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #100 on: Friday, March 15, 2013, 06:29:48 PM »
If you defeated the NPC invader and go at Quelaag in human form you can summon her to help you. If you have some decent ranged ability either with magic or arrows, she gets the bosses attention and you can keep your distance. I was still in human form when I got there and hadn't summoned anyone before so I figured I'd try it since I knew it was going to be a tough fight. You can probably also do melee which the boss is distracted but the lava made it difficult, so I switched to range. It took a while and the NPCs health was getting down there (that and she was an idiot trying to follow me when I was running to get some range...NO! You stay here and make the boss mad at you! Stop leading it to me!), but she lived and the boss was defeated.

But to back up a little, I entered Blighttown through the Depths because...well, because. Seemed like the right thing to do. I flubbed the jump to pick up that one katana style sword, but I managed to get my souls and humanity back as well as made the jump on my second attempt. Woo! Sword!

Speaking of loot, there was some other loot in that upper area that I didn't get yet. Good part is coming in from the Depths is pretty quick so I can go loot that stuff later.

Making the way down the scaffolding was probably the hardest part since there isn't much room to move and you can fall easily. Plus the framerate can take a dive making it even trickier. Plus plus those damn blowdart guys. They managed to poison me a couple times but I had plenty of cure. In fact I probably didn't need near as many as I brought, but it was good to have just in case and I'm sure will be useful as I got forward. A scary moment after I had killed a dart blower with arrows I steped to far to the side and fell down...on top of like 3 of those fire bugs and those damn mosquitos. I freaked out at first but managed to just deal with it and survived the encounter without much health loss.

At last I reached the swamp itself and found the other bonfire. Big sigh of relief. I then of course worked my way back up the waterwheels, full of bugs, dart blowers, and those fire dogs. Bastards. Died a couple times taking care of the dart guys but then it wasn't so bad. The dogs did manage to get me down to one pixel of health as I went to pick up the fire keeper soul. That was WAY too close.

I had a run around the swamp looking for loot. That back area full of leeches was scary. I ran my ass off and didnt fight any of them. I think I got everything back there but didn't want to risk fighting all those things while being poisoned right now. My Vitality is actually still pretty low, I think 15 or so.

So yeah, after the boss fight I rang the second bell and saw the new area open. Weee!

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #101 on: Saturday, March 16, 2013, 07:03:54 AM »
I was tooling around in the cemetery last night and encountered a pretty nasty bug.  If you are parried by one of the skeletons you fall through the ground to your death.  It happened the first time and I thought maybe it was something random, but then it happened again.

I went down to the Demon Ruins to check things out.  not much else down there but some docile huge thing and a dead body holding something.  Oh look a set of armor OH SHIT THAT WOKE HIM UP.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #102 on: Saturday, March 16, 2013, 04:49:17 PM »
God you guys make me want to play this again so bad.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline idolminds

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #103 on: Sunday, March 17, 2013, 01:37:58 PM »
I didn't know where to go after Blighttown. The new dude that showed up at Firelink seems to indicate I should be going into Sens Fortress but those lizard dudes are assholes. Makes me feel like I'm not really ready for that yet.

Instead I went into the Catacombs. With the sword I have I am able to kill the skeletons in 3 hits, 2 with the heavy hit. And thanks to the holy damage the skeletons stay dead. Good. At first I was just going to "peek" inside and leave, but ultimately I got a really long ways down in there. Taking arrows with is a good idea to draw skeletons to you from a distance. Also always walk slowly into areas where skeletons might form. If you listen carefully for the sound of them coming together and back up, you can get lucky and have them form one at a time. Doing this I got a long way down without much incident.

Dropping through the ceiling and seeing the cutscene I was freaked out. Oh shit, a boss! Since I was just taking a "peek" in here I didn't rest at any of the bonfires. Turns out the badass skeleton is in fact a blacksmith. Whew! I was worried for a second. I had a look at what he could offer me and then walked through the wall he busted open....and was promptly killed by those fucking wheel skeletons. Unlike every other fight you've had to this point, they do not just bounce off your shield after the first strike. So if you hear the clang and instinctively attack...well, I hope you like losing all your souls.

I was brought all the way back to the bonfire above the other blacksmith near Undead Parish. I had like 21k souls but I'm not too concerned about them. Getting the 5 humanity back would be nice, though. At least I got some new loot and the place isn't as scary as I once thought. I'll probably go back in there to get that back and maybe find the boss.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #104 on: Sunday, March 17, 2013, 07:27:14 PM »
Those wheelie dudes are a bitch. They aren't really so bad, but until you know the places they hang out, they can catch you by surprise and kill you really quick. And there's one other space in the game where they're just kind of fucking hard to avoid.

Those snake dudes will be chumps for a lot of the game, but yeah, when you first get into Sen's they definitely smack you in the face well and truly. I spent a lot of time there even though overall it was probably my least favorite environment. Not just from straight dying, but trying to find everything, figure out how to get through certain spots, trying to overcome a few troublesome bits. In the end it's a pretty satisfying area with a lot to do and a great finish that leads to what—for me, at least—was a jaw-hanging moment and some of my favorite parts of the game (including several that made me seriously consider pulling the disc out of the drive and crushing it with a hammer—you'll know when you get there).

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #105 on: Monday, March 18, 2013, 05:19:15 AM »
I didn't get to play nearly as much as I wanted to over the weekend, which is probably good.  I've put a bunch of hours in recently and I've got some HUD-related image retention in my plasma.  It should all go away, but I wanted to give it a break regardless.

I did manage to beat the Ceaseless Discharge Saturday night.  I proceeded down far enough to find that former bosses are now regular enemies in this area.  I know I'm not ready, so I turned back (after testing my luck and dying, of course).  I'm going to look into some more gear builds tonight, and I may finally get around to upgrading some armor.  I'm going to have to get some practice in on the guillotines in Sen's Fortress.  I can't quite judge the depth well enough to avoid the close ones.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #106 on: Monday, March 18, 2013, 05:32:11 AM »
Ugh, Ceaceless Discharge, that fucking asshole. Bad memories.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline MysterD

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #107 on: Monday, March 18, 2013, 05:23:23 PM »
I made my way to the Gaping Dragon yesterday...
...and it owned my ass.
{shrug}

Offline idolminds

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #108 on: Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 02:31:34 PM »
I went back into the Catacombs to get my souls and humanity back. I failed. I missed the ledge leading down to the blacksmith and died from the fall. Blah. But it gave me a fresh start inside so I moved on. More exploring, I think I killed all the necromancers. Everything else is just skeletons so its not too terrible. I pissed off some wheel skeletons and then ran up a ladder...only to fall through the floor onto an axe wielding black knight. He isn't too hard to kill if you pace yourself. Get greedy and he kills you. Which I found out because I got greedy. Luckily getting back to him and killing him was simple enough. The good part of dropping in where he stands is it gives you a great vantage point to then snipe those damn wheel skeletons with arrows. Its time consuming to kill them all but you are perfectly safe up there.

I dropped down but there wasn't much interesting in the big room. Then I found the fog gate to what I assumed (and was correct about) the boss. I only had like 6k souls on me so I ran over to the blacksmith and stocked up on arrows so at least if I was killed I wouldn't lose much. Turns out I was being overly cautious because I killed the boss in one go. Pushover. Ok, he did almost kill me once because I got in a bad position and got hit in the back with some magic but I had plenty of time to heal and keep going. Got the Mask of the Mother for my trouble (crap) as well as the Rite of Kindling (GOOD!).

Now...where to next...

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #109 on: Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 05:10:22 PM »
Heh, yeah, that boss is cake. The next bit after that, though... heh. I look forward to your report.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline idolminds

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #110 on: Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 06:04:31 PM »
Yeah I wasn't about to go traipsing around in there. Pitch black and little glowy things leading you in? Nice try, Dark Souls.

On my way back out of the catacombs I walked past a breakable wall that has a developer note on the ground that says "Treasure". Hmmm...couple archer skeletons and a drop down into inky blackness...what could go wrong? I spent my souls from the boss kill so I didnt have anything to lose so I jumped on in. There were 3-4 skeletons down there waiting for me which is not a good number of skeletons to have. Plus the archers were still shooting down at me. Cleared them out, popped a flask, and moved on...into a giant skeleton! Not a big deal, they are like the ones topside in the graveyard. I forgot how much stamina their kick takes, though. Behind him was a ring that has some mysterious use in anor londo or something, and a miracle that slows enemies near me. Not bad.

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #111 on: Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 08:11:54 AM »
I don't really have a ton to report.  Tooled around in the Catacombs some last night before deciding to go back to Sen's Fortess.  Pretty sure I'm just going to stick it out there.  I'm trying to work toward the first bonfire in there, wherever that is.  I hate the guillotines.

The lizard men are not such a huge deal any more.  I'm carrying that eagle shield, and it seems to negate their effectiveness just fine.


Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #112 on: Thursday, March 21, 2013, 05:15:15 AM »
Man Sen's fortress has been slow going.  It seems like i fall victim to every trap they laid in that thing.  I still haven't even found the first bonfire yet. 

Offline Pugnate

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #113 on: Thursday, March 21, 2013, 06:21:18 AM »
I hate this thread. It makes me want to play along with you guys. I wish I had the time. Entertaining read it all though.

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #114 on: Thursday, March 21, 2013, 06:24:01 AM »
Aw man.  I sort of hate that we're spoiling so much for you.

The thrill (and fear) of discovery is part of the allure!

Offline Pugnate

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #115 on: Thursday, March 21, 2013, 09:59:50 AM »
Don't worry.. I will forget everything I read.

Offline idolminds

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #116 on: Thursday, March 21, 2013, 01:29:24 PM »
Ceaseless Discharge is actually the easiest boss ever. Kman told me I should go grab the armor down in the Demon Ruins since you don't have to fight anything to get there and it has good fire resist. I was going into Blighttown anyway to grab some loot I missed so it wasn't even out of the way

Sure enough, theres nothing to get in the way except those egg dudes. Only 2 wanted to follow me but they were slow and easy to outrun. I see the fog gate and head on over. Sneaking in slowly and the boss just sits there. Maybe hes bugged? Hmmmm, oh look loot! Oh look, HE WOKE UP! Fuck! I was not ready to take him on so I figured maybe I can run back to the fog gate and drop down the side? Well, no that didn't look like a fall I could survive...even if it went anywhere. At least if I hug the gate then when he kills me I can come back and grab my souls from the other side. I mean I already got my loot, and I was able to get my souls through the fog door at Capra. It wasn't a lot of souls but I had to fight things in Blighttown so might as well try and keep them. So I stand back, shield up and wait for death.

Then something happened. CD jumps at me because of that pit and grabs on to the path to keep from falling in. Might as well attack his hand...blob...thing. A few whacks later he lets go and falls into the pit. Dead. His entire healthbar goes, I get the loot, and the lava cools to form a path. Well, that was easy.

On the way out I attack one of the egg dudes. The maggots kill me. Go figure.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #117 on: Thursday, March 21, 2013, 07:42:52 PM »
What the fuck? I don't know what your level was like versus mine when I went in there, but that was far and away the hardest boss of the game for me, even in a full load of fire-resist equipment. Though I don't think I had whatever armor you guys are talking about. It was close to one-shot kill on me when he did the big fire blast thing, and once he's awake, you have to be at your quickest to get from the entrance to that area toward the back where you can dodge it. Looking at videos, I suspect this may have been patched or altered, because it was a MUCH closer call for me every time I ran in there, and he was never standing as far back along the ridge as he seems to be for everyone else.

Damage isn't the hard part with that guy, surviving long enough to do the fucking damage is the hard part. Or was for me. Actually, I think I did better when I first woke him up than I did on the next 5 or 6 runs. At that point it was all just figuring out how the fuck to survive the initial blast and what patterns he runs after that. I suspect you may have gotten really lucky and avoided the worst and killed him quick enough that he just didn't do anything too terrible.

But yeah, looking at YouTube vids, almost every single "how to kill CD" one has people killing him when he first wakes up. If he's already awake, it appears you can get him to lunge at you and launch an arm behind the shield rock, which he didn't do with me. He'd just stand on the other side and keep blasting (which is tricky as it can even hit you like at the edge of the rock where you think you'd still be safe), so I had to run OUT and be exposed to do any damage to him at all, which always risked getting slammed on the head with his arms or that he'd do the big fire blast and one-shot me or leave me nearly dead.

I wonder if this has changed or if it's just a positional thing where he was standing in a certain spot or something. Either way, this dude kicked my ass a good dozen or so times.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline idolminds

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #118 on: Thursday, March 21, 2013, 08:11:07 PM »
I looked at the wiki, and yeah I guess if he manages to kill you the first time as you grab the armor, then to do the scripted kill thing you have to get to the altar so he brings his arm out. Which he can kill you trying to do that. Guess I got lucky by being a coward. I grabbed the gear, heard him roar, and I booked.

Offline K-man

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Re: K-man and Idol tackle Dark Souls together (SPOILERS GALORE!)
« Reply #119 on: Tuesday, March 26, 2013, 05:16:26 AM »
I went back into Sen's last night with the sole intention of finding the bonfire there and getting a foothold.  I died a few times on the way there, but finally managed to make it.  Then I decided to just explore and see what I could find.  I killed one of the giants thinking he would not respawn.  I was wrong, and worried that I might run out of arrows.  Thankfully I found a merchant. 

So I find the fog door.  Off to the side of that room is a walkway over to a summon.  I decided to summon.  It was a good idea, too, because both of us made real short work of the boss.  I won't spoil what comes next for you, Idol, just let me know when you're out of Sen's.

A word of advice, though.  Mimics exist in this game.