Dark Souls

If my "non special" shields (i.e."can upgrade with regular titanite") I decided to upgrade the spider to +5, but not to ascend it just yet. 33 int, so I'm 3 short of soul spear. I think I'll give the hydra a try.

I'm not sure but I think it's "the Dusk."

Oh really? That's interesting. I don't know why I assumed it wouldn't matter. Thanks!

You know, I do believe that you are right.

Hydra dead. Getting close to him was obnoxious. Dealing with the heads in melee was easy when I remembered to equip the rusty iron ring. But the last head (the right-most, facinghim) took for ever as I seemed unable to ever get hits on it.

Never find or never get? It's impossible to miss coming from the depths. If you have the dex anyway it's nice for PvP since people usually expect uchigatana move set for your r2s.

I figured. The thing is, the upper BT is much easier to clear top down, so I've moved to just pushing through in order to grab the items. Otherwise,it's a more fiddly reverse course up to that top platform in order to get the iaito. That definitely explains it though.

So I killed the gold golem and freed the Dusk. I then said yes to her, and she phase warped to whever it is she hangs out normally.

I went and reversed hollowing at the bonfire that's near the lift to the valley of drakes. I've quit and re-load since. I can neither find her summoning sign nor find the antiquated set the golem was supposed to drop.

Go back to where the hydra was.

Also, click like more.

I've both been back where the hydra was and where the gold golem was.

A couple things. First, you don't need to be human to summon the Dusk. Second, the antiquated set appears after you summon the Dusk & talk to her. (The antiquated set will appear where the golden golem was.) Third, the summon sign for the Dusk is on the same side of the lake where all the blue crystal golems were. If they've respawned, make sure to kill them again before you summon the Dusk. I've read that the blue golems can kill the Dusk. As for where the summon sign is.... it's by the rock near where the knight armor set was. Occasionally the summoning sign won't appear until you quit & reload the game.

Yeah, it was there when I went back this time but not before, despite several quits/re-loads (I don't know if it would matter that I was doing it in the general area). I'll retrieve the antiquated stuff next time I play.

Well played.

The Mark knows what it's doing.

Yeah, same. I realized I could approach it from either side but the upper is such a pain that I wanted to get it over with and never come back again.

Where was I ... oh yes, Catacombs completed, Zwei Fire'd, Pinwheel pinned, one lantern traded to Snuggly for Fog Ring. On to Sen's, and may I say that flattening the serpent men with the Zwei is freaking hilarious. Ditto Great Club, since I pushed STR to be able to equip it now. Now it's really all End all the time, although that Black Knight Greataxe (only BK drop so far, sigh) sure tempts. Still, 36 STR is a good bit away.

I'm rocking the Fire Zwei, Great Club +5 (haven't been to Andrei yet) and Butcher Knife +7 when more speed is needed (rarely).

I'm now somewhere inside of Blight town. Had on e stupid death, but I'm almost ready to go to 34 intelligence. Started the bonfire that's down on the bridge/ledge like area. Time to explore the environs and see if I can get to some of those shiny things I've seen.

You know what's awesome? Dying to the Sanctuary Guardian because you can't see its lightning blasts. I really hope they fix the display bug on the PS3 soon.

Well, I went from mildy amused but mildly annoyed at Blightown to "oh god how long is this going to go on" pretty quickly.

Yeah, Blighttown epitomises the spirit of DARK SOULS. Not the game, the sentiment.

Not even Catacombs is this annoying.

Thankfully upper Blighttown is totally optional, master key or not. I've done it once and have not looked back. I think my next character I will suck it up and go in from the depths.

Hey, lookit that, Fire Zwei. :D

What is this "optional" concept you allude to? Bosses (hellkite), sure. Areas, no wai. :P

I had that same experience the first time I went through it, but finishing it made me feel like a total badass. Eventually finding your way down to the second bonfire is a genuine accomplishment.

Sure they are! I don't think I've missed anything. Never did DEX based so the iaito is no big loss. Maybe the eagle shield, but I've taken to the crest shields instead. That said I think I can better handle those blow dart guys that flummoxed me so the first time around.

Cruised through Blighttown and Quelaag. Pretty straightforward once I gave up on getting the Iaito and moved on with my life. The swamp was much easier than my first time through, as were those dang pygmies.

What's the point of the Tin Banishment Catalyst? It seems worse than the starting catalyst.

Looks like it's a trash catalyst. The wiki refers to it as "weak catalyst that's only worth using if you want it to double as a weak melee weapon". Which no one ever should, in a game as rich in melee options as DS.


I just rocked the Iron Golem with Iron Tarkus and a sunbro. Maybe I can become a sunbro yet, although I've utterly neglected Faith since I see zero reason to use it over my GYANTE weapons (STR). I've killed this guy by myself before, but I find I simply enjoy jolly cooperation on bosses. Seems like being a sunbro might help with that.

So that's Sen's down. I still need to go back down and let you-know-who out, but that's it.

I just realized I can rock almost the entire Stone set with Havel's and RoFaP. Crazy.

I think my next character is gonna be dex. Dex gets all the crazy neat weapons (silver knight stuff, claws, katanas, rapiers) with seemingly not as much investment needed (most need 20 max to equip).

Anyone can be a sunbro, you just won't be able to use the miracle. No big deal.

It does require you to leap to it at your own peril. It was my main weapon on my first play-through. I fell in love with the weapon animation.

Yeah, but that initial requirement is Faith 25 (according to Wiki) and to lower it you have to be successfully summoned and win. With my tendency to overlevel and the spotty PC networking that could be tough ... but I've just done it, so sunbros all the way. I've wrapped up Anor Londo up to the Law Firm, so hopefully I'll find some jolly cooperation there as well - after a few tries of my own, that is. We shall see how round 2 goes.

I've become quite proficient at parrying silver knights. I doubt that will affect the trouncing I'm about to receive from S&O, though. :P

Marcin, have you not put down your summon sign? When playing in NG I'll put down my sign to see how a boss plays out with a new character/build before doing it myself. I'm not sure if you need sunlight medals or just some internal counter with your character, but I have 8 faith and joined the sunbros so it's not an ornery requirement.

It's a secret counter. Basically the game just keeps track of what your required faith for joining the Sunbros is apart from anything else, and the formula is 25 - 5x, where x is the number of times you've been summoned to fight a boss and won the fight.

And now 0-4 for getting to the bottom-level bonfire. The last attempt seemed so promising, though I was down to one estus flask. I'd gotten the big club wielding mook in the hallway to fall to his death (not so much by design, it just happened). Took out a few more dart gunners. And then I fell the wrong way off something. Again.

peacedog, you did find the bonfire midway through it, right?

Play a dex character if you want, but I would be wary of going in with the expectation that it's going to be a smorgasbord of awesome weapons. The silver knight stuff in particular is a letdown. The spear is terrible, and I have literally never heard someone go to bat for it--if there's something good about it, somebody please tell me what it is. The sword is ok, but it is not as you might have thought the dex equivalent of the black knight weapons. It's basically a Balder Side Sword without the pokes, and its main advantage is being upgradeable with twinkling titanite. Which yes, makes it worth using if you want a straight sword, but it's not a good reason to make the build in the first place.

Otherwise, rapiers are not especially dex-based despite it making sense for them to be and the Claw is really more of a novelty than anything else. I think the weapons that are really uniquely for dex builds (as opposed to the ones you would use elemental versions of on other builds anyway) are the Painting Guardian Sword and the tracers and the scythes. I was actually very disappointed with dex's damage output when I played a dex character. It really seems to me that it really only works with buffs and that if you're unbuffed you just have to give up the dream of dealing as much scaling damage as you would deal elemental damage, although I haven't played that character since the DLC came out so I don't know if the tracers and/or the nerf make it any better.

My impression of DEX was that you wanted to pair that build with parrying and backstabbing. I never saw enough DEX base weapons that would seem to make it worth while upping DEX to 50 or whatever.

Yeah, don't listen to extarbags. Start a thief and learn to love the Bandit's Knife. Make a beeline for the DLC content and get the tracers. Get some katanas and upgrade them for specialty use. Bleed and backstab are your best friends. Yes, your basic dps is going to seem low, but when you're backstabbing and bleeding everything you'll feel better.

A beeline for the DLC? Is that even possible? I mean, it's post lordvessel! :-P