Current Events > JAKAS plays Dark Souls 2: SOTFS for the first time! *ongoing spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hello!

Somewhat recently I made a playthru topic of my attempts (successfully) to beat Dark Souls 1 Remastered! I beat Demon's Souls PS5 earlier this year and decided WTF let's go through them all.

My Dark Souls 1 topic was successful as many people joined my ongoing decent into madness and my eventual win! There was many great times to be had by myself and those who followed the topic. It was a good time! I played DS Remastered on the Switch, and now Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin will be done on the PS5 via the PS4 Remaster or whatever you wanna call it.

Ongoing spoilers and general feelings on the game as I beat certain things or make it to new areas. Anything y'all think I should know before starting up?

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Adapability stat will affect the i-frames of your roll. i forget the optimal value (look it up), but your roll will feel off until you level that up enough.

what class / build you gonna do?

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Game sux, skip to 3.
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lilORANG posted...

Game sux, skip to 3.

I've heard this from some people but Imma give it a go.

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lilORANG posted...

Game sux, skip to 3.

it's definitely the least good of the entire Soulsborne series, but i still love it, especially compared to most games. the DLC is a step above the base game with like 2 exceptions (blue boss variant and snowfield)

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lilORANG posted...

Game sux, skip to 3.

I think it is still good. But the difficultly is a mess. Generally speaking, the bosses are easy other than the ones that seem hard until you know the gimmick. However, the random mobs can be very frustrating. Also, it just doesn't have the same brilliant level design as the other games, or Bloodborne for that matter.

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I like DS2 more than 3.

Hate the Scholar version, though.

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Good luck!

i beat this earlier this year, so im still pretty fresh with knowledge

This game has more resources available about mid way through, so you will be able to max more weapons, but its good to stick with one for a while

Also, stat scaling doesnt have as much effect as other games, a weapon with A in dex may still be weaker than a weapon with B in dex if the B weapon has a higher physical damage value at base

I liked using estoc, pates spear, and any clubs or hammers

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enjoy your bad game

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DeadBankerDream posted...

I like DS2 more than 3.

Hate the Scholar version, though.

Why would you hate the version that has more stuff? I'm intrigued.

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The original DS2's enemy layout isn't all that different than SOTFS beyond them doing things to certain areas that the devs realized totally sucked, and it wasn't generally things that "fixed" them so much as made them longer. Heide's Tower for example used to be laughably simple in its layout and you could run past all the enemies with your eyes closed, and SOTFS added a ton of bullshit to the area to make you slow down and fight things without adding anything interesting to it. In Iron Keep they did something silly like double the amount of enemies in the area without changing anything else

Oh and they added npc invasions everywhere that all suck

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I don't remember Scholar having more stuff. To my recollection it is entirely reshuffling and rebalancing of stuff already in the game. And the enemy reshuffling is, mostly, just super videogamey and doesn't take account of what makes logical sense. Just shoves enemies in wherever a level could use the kind of challenge that enemy provides no matter how silly it is. And while some people play Souls for the challenge (though I'm not sure why), I play them for the worlds they put me into, and to me, Scholar compromises that experience. Granted I am aware DS2 in any version sometimes tries its hardest to do that on its own, but Scholar is just an extra, more blatant layer of that.

Also, Scholar ruined ring of sacrifice abuse and I hate it forever for it.

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Ring of Sacrifice Abuse?

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"Perhaps you've seen it, maybe in a dream..."

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I punched the first little enemies that are around as I have no equipment and I almost died. XD

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So in this one I am cursed to become hollow apparently? I don't recall a Curse being part of the first game... I was just the Chosen Undead.

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Character Creator!

Uhm, the first game I kinda went balanced with Strength, Dex, and Vitality. I didn't heavy roll so I did have enough equip load to deal with medium armor. I enjoyed having a lot of options. Might just start as a warrior and go from there.

NOTE - I will likely never go Magic as I've heard it's kinda almost a cheat for all the Dark Souls games and deprives you a lot of the challenge of rush of victory. Melee baby!

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All these gifts seem kinda lame. Early game type stuff or... hmm...

Petrified Something? Sounds intriguing, let's do it!

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Alright, done making my lady. I decided to turn right back around and murder those small creatures who almost destroyed me. Found a little spot in the rocks I could go through with some LARGE footsteps. Time to die!

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Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

Character Creator!

Uhm, the first game I kinda went balanced with Strength, Dex, and Vitality. I didn't heavy roll so I did have enough equip load to deal with medium armor. I enjoyed having a lot of options. Might just start as a warrior and go from there.

NOTE - I will likely never go Magic as I've heard it's kinda almost a cheat for all the Dark Souls games and deprives you a lot of the challenge of rush of victory. Melee baby!

when you're laying out your stats leave points for adaptability. youll thank me later, it makes the game actually control better

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Ds2 is far better then ds3. Ds3 is straight up linear. Its pvp is the worst and its just bloodborne with shields.
Ds2 has problems. But it has the best povp and ng+ content. And almost every weapon is viable. Great game.

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Big_Nabendu posted...

Ds2 is far better then ds3. Ds3 is straight up linear. Its pvp is the worst and its just bloodborne with shields.

all this is wrong, ds1 and DeS have way worse pvp than ds3 and it plays nothing like bloodborne beyond being faster

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Tried to fight the big weird... I dunno... Rat Rhino thing? Instead I just lured it away from the item and then ran away. I'll kill it later. Maybe.

Edit - Nah, I'm gonna kill it. Fuck this coward stuff! Dodge-rolling should make it easy.

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Left it be for now cause I'll get it later and wanted to wander around more. Did the opening little spots that are tutorial. Nice.

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Light every torch in the tutorial

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The ogre isn't too bad except for its grab. That attack has some wonky-ass hitboxes
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Hmm, there is a lady who gave me my Estus Flask and tells me I have to meet King Ventrick? But I'm too much of a weakling right now. I'm supposed to find 4 people whose names are not utterable, and take their souls and come back to her.

Mmmkay

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I'm also talking with a cat. Shalquoir the Talking Cat?

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go to the forest first

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Those stupid ogres have a weird hit box on their grab for sure. I think I have to roll backwards to avoid instead of to the side.

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Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

Those stupid ogres have a weird hit box on their grab for sure. I think I have to roll backwards to avoid instead of to the side.

Oh, they are rough this early in the game. Not meant to be defeated now, but it is certainly doable with patience.

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Made my way to the Forest of Fallen Giants. Might farm a bit to buy the better gear from the dude in Majula.

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What did you just call yourself in the topic title?

That's definitely not an alias that you want to call yourself, bud.

LMAO!

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Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

Made my way to the Forest of Fallen Giants. Might farm a bit to buy the better gear from the dude in Majula.

Lol, he thinks he can farm in DkS2
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Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

Made my way to the Forest of Fallen Giants. Might farm a bit to buy the better gear from the dude in Majula.

The Falconer armor? It's not that much better than your starting set as a Warrior. You're probably better off saving the souls for levels.

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lilORANG posted...

Lol, he thinks he can farm in DkS2

Uh, you can...

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Actually, on that note, it is worth pointing out that enemies only respawn a limited number of times (15, I think) in DS2. There's a covenant in Majula you can join to remove the respawn limit, but it also makes the enemies harder.

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lilORANG posted...

Lol, he thinks he can farm in DkS2

Hard mode covenant + bonfire ascetics = souls galore
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Vicious_Dios posted...

What did you just call yourself in the topic title?

That's definitely not an alias that you want to call yourself, bud.

LMAO!

Look at the capital letters of my user name. ;)

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Made my way to the bonfire in the castle I guess? Bought the Blacksmith's Key and will warp back to Majula to help that boy out

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How would you describe how the character moves?

A. Like they shit their pants
B. Like theyre wearing a dirty diaper
C. Like they have mud butt
D. All of the above

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Got the Blacksmith his hut back. Gonna take a break to watch some TV with my wife.

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Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

I'm also talking with a cat. Shalquoir the Talking Cat?

The most beautiful lady in any game ever

Also with the agility stat - it not only affects your roll i-frames, it also affects estus drink speed. Ideally, get agility up to 105 (by leveling adaptability if you're a melee character, or attunement for magic) to get to ds1 fast roll i-frame rate.

Mace is the best weapon (and also good as a backup since durability is WACK in this game). Quick enough swings and a LOT of enemies are weak to crush.

When you eventually find it, don't pull it. You'll know when cuz they vehemently tell you not to.

There's a ring in a blocked chest in Heide's Tower that makes the health bar reduction from dying suck a lot less.

Putting enough points into faith/att for a few minor healing spells won't go amiss, especially in some of the longer areas.

God I love DS2 so much. It blows but it's wonderful.

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Schwarz posted...

Also with the agility stat - it not only affects your roll i-frames, it also affects estus drink speed. Ideally, get agility up to 105 (by leveling adaptability if you're a melee character, or attunement for magic) to get to ds1 fast roll i-frame rate.

I personally find that 100 AGI is sufficient, but to each their own

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

I personally find that 100 AGI is sufficient, but to each their own

Tru, I think 100-105 is the generally agreed-upon sweet spot. Drink speed stops going up at 100, but if you want a teeny bit more i-frames on your rolls 105 is a good place to stop for that fast roll.

I need all the i-frames I can get D:

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Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

I've heard this from some people but Imma give it a go.

I was told the same, but I'm glad I played it through. And besides (as usual) the DLC in SotFs is still incredible from what I've been told

I've only ever beaten vanilla DS2 so I won't be much help here, but tag nonetheless.


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Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

Ring of Sacrifice Abuse?

In Dark Souls 1 a Ring of Sacrifice makes it so you don't lose your souls on death, but the ring permanently breaks. In Dark Souls 2 you can repair a broken RoS. In the original version it costs nothing to do. Like 2k or something. In Scholar they saw how absurdly overpowered it was and upped the ring repair fee to something like 18k or so.

I hate it :(

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Oh yeah. Do not pull it. Not on ur first game. You will see.

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