Board 8 > Help me survive Dark Souls Remastered, my first* From Software game

(+) Yeah! (+)

I remember Raw being terrible in pretty much every game. Even at mid-range levels, you should have enough Str or Dex for the normal weapons' scaling to easily outclass the flat Raw damage.

Have you been reinforcing your Estus Flask with the Firekeeper Souls?

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Raw might work at like sub-50 pvp but for standard lvl 125 stuff normal weapons + spell buff is the way to rack up damage

Raw is for low requirement weapons that you don't want to invest in stats for. A high requirement weapon with scaling will likely outclass Raw damage simply by fulfilling the requirements.

In later DS games where switching between types is significantly more trivial, it can actually make sense to use Raw infusion early on even if you intend to use the weapon for a while. On the other hand, it's not like it'll make a huge difference for very long.

However, in DS1, not only is that not the case, but Lightning and Fire also have no scaling and are thus probably better options for the same idea.

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Also the letter grades are ranges, so when you're upgrading a weapon and the letter doesn't change it's still upgrading the scaling by a steady amount.

Peace___Frog posted...

In general, the higher a weapons letter grade, the better it scales with that stat (but not always, because dark souls!).

Technically I think this is always the case. The caveat is that the scaling bonus is actually percentage of the weapon's base stats. So A scaling on a 500 base AR weapon would certainly be better than S scaling on a 100 base AR weapon.

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Okay, that all makes sense. I kind of knew about the scaling/letter grades but hadn't caught on that Raw weapons didn't have it. Sounds like something to avoid so I'm glad I asked!

KamikazePotato posted...

Have you been reinforcing your Estus Flask with the Firekeeper Souls?

I did once, but I don't think I've come across a second Firekeeper Soul yet.

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You do get to see what the weapon stats will become right before you upgrade/modify it, so it's not like it would have caught you completely off guard when you saw the red hyphens.

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Yeah, true. On the other hand, I looked at my upgrade options recently and missed that completely, so. You might overestimate me a bit.

Progress update: Braved the frogs to clean out the rest of the Depths, so I guess I'm headed to Blighttown next.

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Kenri posted...

Progress update: Braved the frogs to clean out the rest of the Depths, so I guess I'm headed to Blighttown next.

Yeah you areeee

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blighttown "hype"

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Gotta say, joycon drift is adding a whole new layer of difficulty/paranoia to Blighttown.

I got to the bonfire, killed some weird squid thing, and I've taken out three of the toxic dart assholes that don't seem to respawn, but I'm pretty confused about how to get the rest of the way down.

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https://youtu.be/z_h-NvMJK-c
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There should be a way, Blighttown is just a pain to navigate on the top levels. Way too dark up there. Really, the coloring/lighting there was the worst in the whole game for me.

Ladders are generally marked by lanterns/fires which helps a bit. You do eventually reach a point where you reach a waterwheel kinda thing which is actually an elevator. You hop onto one of the panels as it rotates and it'll bring you the rest of the way. It's not really a jump though, you should be close enough to basically walk onto it when a panel passes by so if it looks harder than that you're probably not at the right spot. Not sure if you're that far yet. I know the squid thing you're talking about (lol i went max paranoia on that thing, wanted no piece of it and just sniped it with a bow until it died) but I forget where exactly that is in the grand scheme of the design joy that is Blighttown. I think it's pretty close to the waterwheel elevator though, certainly past the halfway point.

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xp1337 posted...

I know the squid thing you're talking about (lol i went max paranoia on that thing, wanted no piece of it and just sniped it with a bow until it died)

You may already know this by now but it doesn't fight back at all, you just walk up behind it and attack it until it dies. I imagine maybe if you come at it head on it'll fight back?

But yeah I'm not really stuck, just lost and confused. I'll keep an eye out for the waterwheel, don't think I've been there yet.

kevwaffles posted...

https://youtu.be/z_h-NvMJK-c

This is very VERY good.

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I like Blighttown a lot but that is not the most common opinion.

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Got through Blighttown and killed Quelaag. I really liked the bottom level swamp of Blighttown, reminded me of a couple areas in Turok 2, and the poison water was a neat use of that mechanic. The boss fight was kind of mediocre though. I summoned Man Eater Mildred and nearly won on my first try, but when Kellog was down to her last hit she double-tapped me with her fire aura AoE, killing me instantly. So I got it on my third try instead.

I'm only just now using the waterwheel xp mentioned, so I'm not sure if I skipped some of Blighttown on the descent or if this is the intended path. Either way, while trying to get back to the surface, I fell and died, so I'll give that another shot later.

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Ohhhhh right, duh, that section is connected to the rest of the upper level. For some reason I forgot that and was thinking it was its own thing when I was trying to visualize the map. Yeah, as for intended/not I'd say it's a push. The waterwheel is simply a shortcut that cuts out that last stretch if you happen to notice and take advantage of it. So you simply went the long way is all, you shouldn't have missed anything, I think. (In fact, the waterwheel method would have you "miss" the part after that that leads down to the swamp if you walk it.)

The Poison Swamp part of Blighttown suffers from Water Temple/Iron Boots problem for me personally. It practically begs for you to swap for the ring that makes bog traversal bearable as well as poison resist gear and I'd have zero problems if you could like... set a few equip loadouts and toggle between them with a single button press or at worst just being able to select it and have it change out all gear at once. Kinda like how you can equip backup weapons to your L/R hands but for armor/rings instead. ...and not counting against weight of course. >_>

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I used the Master Key the first time I played Dark Souls, went in the back way, and took the waterwheel down. Completely skipped the Depths and the first half of Blighttown. I didn't even know those areas existed until my friends told me to go check that one random locked door I forgot about.

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Also, looks like you missed Ash Lake which may or may not be for the best

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The first 85% of Blighttown is amazing, especially on remastered versions without framerate drop. One of my favorite levels in the game. The surface isn't my thing though. I find it dull and annoying to explore, but I'm glad some people enjoy it.

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I'm glad you like poison swamps, because Miyazaki sure as hell does!
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Gotta say, the joycon drift is making it way worse but even without that I kinda hate that this game doesn't have a "don't fall off ledges" button/crouch/etc.

I found a way out of Blighttown via Valley of Drakes -> New Londo Ruins -> Firelink Shrine. (Incidentally, the Firekeeper is dead now so the bonfire doesn't function.) There's also a big snake there now that gives some plot exposition. I've slowly been piecing bits of it together but this is the first time that anything's really spelled out since the intro.

Sen's Fortress is pretty intimidating, but then, I guess all the areas were at first.

KamikazePotato posted...

Also, looks like you missed Ash Lake which may or may not be for the best

Yeah, I didn't see anything like that. I did find the Demon Ruins but noped the fuck outta there as soon as the name popped up.

xp1337 posted...

The Poison Swamp part of Blighttown suffers from Water Temple/Iron Boots problem for me personally. It practically begs for you to swap for the ring that makes bog traversal bearable as well as poison resist gear and I'd have zero problems if you could like... set a few equip loadouts and toggle between them with a single button press or at worst just being able to select it and have it change out all gear at once. Kinda like how you can equip backup weapons to your L/R hands but for armor/rings instead. ...and not counting against weight of course. >_>

I just changed it out for Blighttown and changed it back after. But I also didn't bother with much poison resist gear since I had a million purple moss, so I didn't have much to swap.

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Kenri posted...

Yeah, I didn't see anything like that. I did find the Demon Ruins but noped the fuck outta there as soon as the name popped up.

lmao. i also noped out of there but for a different reason. bloodborne flashbacks when i saw the parasite type enemies.

As for the area KP mentioned. It's hidden very well. too well perhaps. If you want to go check it out: Down in the swamp near where the ramp that leads to the walkways that would eventually take you back up to the upper levels there should be a path up into a tree that dead ends up there. Hit the wall in that tree with a weapon and it should vanish revealing a small enclave with an item. Hit that wall too and it'll also disappear and reveal a path that will lead you there.

Sen's Fortress starts out intimidating, but it's a pretty cool place and I liked it a lot by the end of it.

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xp1337 posted...

As for the area KP mentioned. It's hidden very well. too well perhaps. If you want to go check it out: Down in the swamp near where the ramp that leads to the walkways that would eventually take you back up to the upper levels there should be a path up into a tree that dead ends up there. Hit the wall in that tree with a weapon and it should vanish revealing a small enclave with an item. Hit that wall too and it'll also disappear and reveal a path that will lead you there.

This is obscure to say the least. <_<

Made it to the Sen's Fortress bonfire near the bomb-throwing giant! I hate these snake mages. The axe pendulums look way scarier than they are though.

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Got to the end of Sen's Fortress and killed the Iron Golem. The rest of the area was pretty simple and the boss took me a few tries but wasn't too bad. It seemed like I could just keep nipping at his ankles and he didn't really have an answer for that, though his grab attack was still magnetizing to me.

Anor Londo is a real shitshow so far though. I'm having a lot of trouble with these pink lightning spear assholes, not to mention the archers. I got to the tower that you can spin, but basically haven't made it past that just because the enemies are ripping me apart.

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Sen's Fortress is often considered the hardest part of the game, but for me Anor Londo took the cake. Those two lightning archers are absolutely brutal.

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Iron Golem fell off the edge of the arena on me so I auto-won on my second try lol. Anor Londo is great except for the archers.

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Cue the Tarkus memes

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Okay, I figured out to use the Crystal Halberd on the lightning demons because it reaches them even after their backstep and kills in a few hits, I got past the archers, I opened up the castle shortcuts and opened the main doors, I learned how to parry-riposte the Silver Knights, and now I'm fighting Ornstein and Smough.

I just realized there were statues of them earlier in the area, near the entrance. Neat touch.

Anyway I'm bad at this game and can barely even put damage on them before being killed.

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You might be interested in this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GURa16H_QvM

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Thanks! I really need to give that a shot, I'm just lazy. Recalibrating fixed one joycon pair though (who knows for how long) so I haven't had to deal with drift issues for Sen's Fortress/Anor Londo.

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Doing Sen's Fortress with joycon drift sounds like hell.

As far as Ornstein and Smough go, they are the Dark Souls boss. They'll seem unstoppable up until the point where it clicks and you realize they aren't.

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Ornstein and Smough are such a good fight. My second favorite in the game. It's a really fun learning process IMO, like KP said, you go from getting wrecked to figuring it out.

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I killed Ornstein but got disoriented by the cutscene and got killed by Smough lol. Definitely starting to feel more doable though.

On a more successful note, I invaded Lautrec the super memorable NPC's world and killed him to reclaim the firekeeper's soul.

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Lautrec is a fun little sidequest. He's the spiritual successor to this dude from Demon's Souls, where they took the concept of 'someone you rescue who causes problems' and may have gone too far in a few places:

http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/yurt

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lmao Yurt sounds incredible

Ornstein and Smough are starting to piss me off and it's 0% because of Ornstein and 100% because of Smough. But I'm getting close to winning so it's just a matter of time.

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Kenri posted...

lmao Yurt sounds incredible

Ornstein and Smough are starting to piss me off and it's 0% because of Ornstein and 100% because of Smough. But I'm getting close to winning so it's just a matter of time.

I'll only say this because you seem set in your way. You're doing it the easy way. Try killing Smough first and then deal with the nightmare that is upgraded Ornstein. You'll run over smough after dealing with that

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I went Smough -> Bankai Ornstein. Was a lot of fun.

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Right now the biggest issue is Smough killing me in phase 1 while I'm dealing with Ornstein. Like, I definitely cannot even come close to killing Smough first right now, but I can almost deal with him while he's alone.

I'm sure Super Ornstein is a monster but he's not even on my radar at the moment.

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Got it! I should have switched to the Eagle Shield a while ago. I figured going down from 100% to 95% physical damage reduction would add up to hurt me more than going from 65% to 75% lightning damage reduction would help me, but nah, Eagle Shield definitely came through there. Had me worried when every attack of Ornstein's did chip damage though.

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Went through Painted World of Ariamis but didn't kill Priscilla

Opened the sealed door in Darkroot Garden and killed Sif

Got through the Catacombs, killed Pinwheel and got the Rite of Kindling. Also found Tomb of the Giants but the first enemy squashed me lmao

Exploring Great Hollow now, cool area but I got sloppy during combat and a mushroom double-tapped me to death.

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I love the mushrooms.

Do you have the DLC?

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I think it's part of Remastered, but I'm honestly not sure. Haven't seen any of it yet, to my knowledge at least.

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Also, there's been a suspicious lack of gifs in this topic

https://i.imgur.com/D6z0RZF.gif

http://i.imgur.com/hTVBHcx.gif

https://i.chzbgr.com/full/8319312384/h04C2EFF5/

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To access the DLC you have to go to the area where the hydra is/was in the forest and go to the very back of that lake area. There will be a special golem to kill. After that it's self-evident.

Also:
https://imgur.com/aoIKBIu

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KamikazePotato posted...

After that it's self-evident.

Is it though?
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Yeah, the Dark Souls DLC isn't quite intuitive and there's more to it than that!

After heading to that spot in Darkroot Basin - which itself is pretty well hidden! - and taking care of that golem, you then have to trek over to the Duke's Archives and kill another golem near the start of that area to pick up another item (that does not drop until you've seen that prior Darkroot Basin stuff) and then return to that part of Darkroot Basin.

Depending on the order in which you do things I'd argue it's not very intuitive at all even setting aside initiating the sequence!

It is 100% worth it though and some of the best content in the game is there so don't sleep on it.

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Me, cursed, my first time in New Londo Ruins: Wow, this sure is a manageable area

Me, ten seconds after having the curse removed: ah, i see

Despite this, drained the water and killed the Four Kings, then started working towards the DLC stuff. Killed the golem by the lake and cleaned out the Duke's Archives up until the outdoor part. Pretty fun area!

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Oh, I actually forgot entirely about the second golem. It's been a while.

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Killed Seath in a pretty boring fight, seemed much harder at first than it actually was.

Crystal Cave is probably my least favorite area so far, though it's pretty looking at least.

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Yeah, Seath is kinda lame.
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