Tell Me How To Get Started

Ah well, at least they're dead now. I was running out to get my stain every time, which was resulting in multiple simultaneous spawns, so losing it (or at least not doing that) was the key to victory. Hardest boss remains Anor Londo archers, at least in terms of deaths incurred.

Hi all. I've been wanting to get into this after hearing Charles, extar and Astromarine talk about it on the podcast, but I didn't have a chance until the steam sale. A few days ago I booted it up. My first character was a pyromancer, as most folks suggested in this thread, but otherwise I tried to ignore advice in here, as one of the things the guys mentioned on the podcast was that the real joy of this game is in exploring.

So yeah, I fell for the thing that most noobs fall for ... I went down into that wet area with the ghosts first. It even seemed okay at first, since the first enemies you see are zombies who stare at walls and don't even fight back. But then, yeah ... the ghosts. I did kill a few ghosts with my fireballs, and managed to walk across a scary secret bridge where three ghosts popped up from underneath to kill me. I killed them too. But ultimately, I just ran out of fireballs and couldn't get further, so I wound up running away and going back to the hub to try a different route.

After a little bit of melee fighting in Undead Burg, I decided I wanted a character who focused more on that aspect, so I re-rolled a Knight as my new character. With this guy, I've been making decent progress! I found the vendor and bought a morning star, slightly better than my starting sword I think. I killed the Taurus demon by what felt a little like cheating ... just doing constant drop attacks on him from the top of the turret, and then dodging away back up the ladder ... sometimes absorbing one hit as I climbed up, but quaffing a potion at the top to counteract it.

I completely avoided the dragon on the bridge and found my way into Undead Parish. I'm getting the hang of combat. I can kick relatively reliably, which is handy for those spear guys with shields. I learned how to avoid the poison rats, and what the weird blue poison countdown thing means. And I actually killed the armoured bull by throwing skulls at him until one landed in a fire and he happened to go into it and burned his health halfway down, after which I lured him into running at me, but getting stuck in a stairwell where I could hit him with a drop attack again.

I don't feel like I'm hitting my head against a wall yet -- the best advice I heard for playing this game was on the podcast, where someone said that you just need to take it slow, be patient, learn the enemies, etc. Dying a lot, sure, but not rage quit worthy yet.

But I've spent a few hours reading this thread, it does seem like I'm doing something wrong (I apologize if I've missed a post about it). There's a lot of talk about various awesome weapons and shields you can get. Named weapons like the drake sword and the gargoyle halberd. I haven't found any weapons like that. None of the bosses I've fought have dropped anything, and regular enemies only seem to drop trash that's worse than what I'm wearing. I'm level 18 and I've been taking the advice of someone early on who recommended to pump stats like vitality and endurance, and only upgrade strength or dex when you find a weapon that needs it. So I haven't pumped those at all.



Am I doing something wrong? Should I be looking for vendors or secret doors or something where I can find better loot? Or am I just not far enough along / in an advanced enough area yet?

Still really enjoying the game, but I feel like I'm missing out on a key part of it.

The Drake Sword is something you cheese out of that big dragon on the bridge by shooting its tail with arrows. The gargoyle halberd comes from a boss you haven't fought yet.

Paraphrased sage words from someone else: if it has a tail, and a health bar on the bottom of the screen, cut off the tail.

You're doing fine. Those aren't special "named" weapons, those are just their names, the same as Long Sword and Morningstar are names. You'll get them when you get them, and you should never feel like you have to use a weapon because other people have talked about it. Try everything and use your favorites.

As another newb example I went through the motions to get the drake sword but I'm currently preferring a generic halberd for actual gameplay because I like it's moveset/reach/damage combination.

And sinnick, where you are right now is on the cusp of discovering the first important blacksmith and a much needed fresh bonfire, you just have to find the one direction in the parish that isn't overfull of hard bastards. I know because after resuming Dark Souls post-christmas I just made it there last night. I then promptly killed a black knight and some kind of mage only to wander slap bang into some boss gargoyles where, I think, I should probably figure out how to summon that ally guy because two at once was kind of breaking my balls.

I haven't been able to get the knack of kicking at all.

I'm not quite as far you, but I got an estoc as a drop, and while it doesn't do as much damage as most of the other weapons (3 longsword drops today, I'm holding 3 humanity), it's nice and fast on a the straight stab.

I watched one of the video's LK's linked about parrying and have been practicing that with some of the guys around the undead berg bonfire.

I think you are actually better off without the Drake Sword to be honest, sinnick . It's a crutch. It does far more damage then any other weapon you can get at that level, quite often one-hit killing things so that you don't really have to use tactics as much. Kicking, dodging, parry and reposte are all good habits to learn.
It's great in the beginning in boss fights though.
The problem is that eventually it will lag behind other (upgraded) weapons, and at that point no matter what weapon you use, having learned various tactics is a great skill to have.
Besides that, I can't imagine any newbie finding that weapon on their own on a first blind play through, it's not exactly obvious.

I don't feel the need to warn people off the Drake Sword, as long as they also take my advice to stop using it once they get to Andre. Being told about secrets like that is an important (and intended) part of the gameplay so that part at least is not a consideration.

I don't think there is a need to warn people off it as long as they realise it's an extremely powerful weapon at low levels, and you guys have done a very good job making sure us newbies see it for what it is. Not everyone has a great supportive group of vets easing them into the game though.
sinnick did a great job going in blind, and all I meant to say to him is that he didn't really miss anything by not finding the Drake Sword. It might have been harder in the beginning then for those of us who did use it, but he's learned some good habits and tactics (like kicking, which I'm still struggling with) because of it.

Heh, kicking things off of ledges never stops being satisfying.

Capra Demon down on first try last night. Hell yea.

Whatever your opinion on using the Drake Sword, it's funny when playing online to see the ghosts of other players under the bridge with a bow.

I've got some green titanite. Is there any reason I shouldn't use to to upgrade a weapon to Magic, since I'm focussing on Intelligence for my casting anyway, or should I go for Lightning?

Lightning doesn't use it, and it's easy to get more anyway, so feel free to use it for whatever you want.

Also I've already posted my thoughts re drake sword. Suffice to say that I disagree with Mirriam, though ultimately its a question of trade offs. The drake swords ability to one shot most early game trash frees you up to worry about exploring other stuff, but you won't learn techniques like parrying and backstabbing unless you actively seek them out (I did, even with the drake sword I'd try to parry riposte whenever I knew I was in a one on one situation).

Noob Q: What is with the "Praise the Sun!" comments I see everywhere?

It's the motto of Solaire and his Warriors of Sunlight covenant.

Good to know! Next q: is there a way to approach Queelag's lair without aggroing the three barbarians and mosquitos? Between them and the poison I end up blowing half my flasks before I even step in to fight the boss. :(

Sure. If you hug the right side and come up behind the pillar (and don't wear medium or heavy torso armor to draw in more enemies with sound), it should be a breeze.

Is the Capra demon the wisest course pretty much straight after downing the gargoyles?

I doofed about in various directions; first killing giant green forest knights & a big headless thing under Blacksmith Andre but there was a lot of knights and some of the trees hugged me to death with seemingly no recourse, then I tried the Skeleton direction from firelink shrine which was fine until I hit the catacombs and the skeletons seemingly infinitely respawned so I was left with good old Capra and of course the moment I stepped into his room I was dead before I realised who he was or what was going on.

I would say if you can get a shield over 60 stability you'll be in good shape for the Capra Demon, and have a much better chance of surviving that opening flurry. Once the shock wears off you get better at expecting it and can gamble on sprinting to one of the sides with maybe an oh shit roll or two. Once you're on far end of the ledge, >60 stability means that you can pick off his pals and then plunging attack/ranged attack him to death, as he can still be a bit overwhelming in melee and his two handed smash will still likely kill you. Remember that if you push past the Demon and go downstairs there's a handy shortcut back to the firelink if you need a blacksmith or something.

Tree hugs are fatal, but they telegraph it (raising both "arms" above their heads); you should be able to avoid that attack pretty easily. Catacombs are a pain; there are (non-respawning) necromancer skeletons in there that you have to kill to stop the skeletons and for me it boiled down to two or three suicide runs (each one penetrating deeper and killing more necromancers).

What LK said is true about the Capra Demon. Basically walk in with a 60+ stability shield, eat the initial flurry, get some separation and deal with the puppies. At that point Capra is pretty easy; all of his attacks are blockable and if you need a breather you can lure him up the nearby stairs and then jump down for an esther (he likes to hang up there for a few moments). Once I survived his initial flurry he was a one-shot; one of the easier bosses I've faced.

BTW Sun Bros are a bunch of four-flushing Melvins, so here's how to get some more of them in your life.

To quote the poet-philosopher DMX, just a bigger piece of cake.

Just a quick heads-up. The Faith requirement now starts at 25, not 50, and is lowered by 5 for every boss you help kill. There's hardly any point in joining unless you plan to raise your Faith to at least 20, so you can use the Lightning Spear miracle.

Quelaag: done. Had a little help from Mildred, which really makes the battle much easier. I was able to two-hand the gargoyle's halberd and R2 attack her to death rather quickly.

I'm thinking of turning the OP for this thread into a basic guide to Dark Souls. Like a consolidated "here's what to know for your first two hours." Some basics on combat, stats, etc. If so, do you guys have any thoughts on what else I might include?

Thanks guys. I really did just want to know if I was missing something obvious. Glad to hear I'm not.

So I had to fight my way back into Undead Parish several times because those damn rats kept poisoning me. A single poison eats up like five quaffs of the flask, so I figured it was more efficient to just jump off a cliff and try again when it happened, so as to conserve souls.

Anyway, I finally made it to the blacksmith, and it was a close call. After fighting and killing those undead knight guys (who are fucking scary when you first meet them because they move so much faster than normal enemies) I got the Knight Shield and made it to the courtyard of the church. As soon as I stepped into the church, a giant black knight guy comes charging at me, and I'm not ashamed to say I screamed a little and ran. Luckily the direction I ran in was down a forest path that led to the blacksmith and a fresh bonfire, so I don't have to keep going through Undead Burg anymore.

You know what this game reminds me of? Boiled down to it's essence, it's kind of like Super Meat Boy. I mean it's much more interesting with the stats and the different weapons and the atmosphere and all, and it's definitely slower paced, but what's fascinating is that areas which were challenging to me when I started are simple now that I've learned more, and each gameplay sitting feels like I'm accomplishing something meaningful.

I don't like the Knight Shield as much as my Tower Kite Shield though. It feels heavier and I seem to attack a little bit slower when I have it equipped, even when my encumbrance is at the same % level. I switched back.

• Blocking and it's interaction with the green stamina bar.
• the importance of locking on to circle strafe around people and actually hit them.
• The importance or archery for whittling down terrifying things and sniping to pull single enemies from groups. Plus where to buy a bow and that you need to buy and separately equip arrows for it.
• The importance of attacking staggering enemies immediately after blocking.
• The idea that you can wield even the largest seeming weapons in one hand with a shield.
• Where the first merchant is.
• How you kindle a bonfire to double your health potions.
• What the important numbers are for each piece of equipment and what the symbol is for these numbers.
• A general tip of which direction to go in and to avoid anything that looks really big until later unless it is the specific first boss guy.

BTW where does the gargoyle halberd come from? I got the tail axe and a helm after the fight but no gargoyle halberd.

Its a random drop from the gargoyles.

Ah, so just bad luck/not enough humanity then.

You can actually farm them for it, kill one and quit the game through the menu. Rinse and repeat until you got it.

I got I sanely lucky with mine. It is awesome!

I got that axe too, it's really weird. It wobbles and bends as if it's made out of rubber! The helmet is cool though.

That's the tail axe; you get it for chopping off a tail. The Halberd is different (and so much more awesome!)

Hey Lizard_King can you talk a bit more about how to use the light crossbow? I started equipping it in my left hand in Blighttown to deal with mosquitos, and I liked it enough as a pulling tool to slap a +5 upgrade on it; and I'm considering taking it to +10 (I'm flush with Titanite).

The main thing the light crossbow brings to the table is high base damage for a ranged weapon if you aren't a dexterity character, and an inordinately flat trajectory for such a small, low stat req weapon. I use it in my right hand, primarily, because I find it a lot more natural to aim freehand with that. So the key things that will make your crossbow a lot better are binoculars, the hawk ring, and the fog ring. If you only have the binos for now, don't sweat it. The way you use them is by equipping them to an item slot, then (with the crossbow in your right hand already) hit x to use the binos. Then center your screen on your desired target, and fire. As they get closer, use lock on if needed.

Once you have the hawk ring, you can start getting high damage at great range, almost at the limit of your line of sight. What the fog ring lets you do is twofold: one, it lets you see through your character, which is really nice for trickier shots that you are bracketing in, and two, it lets you be ignored by far targets, sometimes for quite a lot rounds.This is really nice in a level later on that has a fair number of really dangerous flying enemies.

As you upgrade it, it starts being able to one shot weak enemies, which means you can thin groups, switch to your primary, and finish them off in one fluid sequence. It also becomes notably more effective than many melee weapons apart from rock stars like the gargoyle halberd at low stats, simply because it has such high base damage. For my SL1 character, it was the easiest way to clear both the sanctuary guardian and Queelag; the latter was especially the case because I was finding melee really punishing at the time as I found my footing with the SL1 loadout and hadn't yet started trusting my club's ability to stunlock.

Also, there's a certain gunslinger appeal to the goofy bino and crossbow sequence that I really enjoy, like I'm using some kind of demented muzzle loader. I've even busted it out in PvP with overcautious opponents, as I find it gets them out of their shell pretty quickly.

That sounds hilarious.

Obviously my first playthrough is going to be gargoyle halberd (I'm in love with that thing). I got the Great Club in Blighttown, and I kind of want to do a club playthrough now. Just beating everyone over the head with a plank full of nails sounds really appealing!

Yeah see? There you go. That's how these ridiculous things start, except in your case you're proposing something quite effective in combat if you can get it to drop. Similar to (but very much unlike) a guy that I saw beat one of the main difficulty wall bosses at sl1 with a naked character using fist weapons, the stat for stat worst unbroken weapons in the game. I'll link it in the main thread but suggest first time players avoid.

Heh, well, the minmaxer in me is never going to go for truly suboptimal weapons, except insofar as they've got a degree of ridiculousness to them. The hilarity of saving the world (or whatever the hell it is I'm doing; still not clear on that) with a goddamn plank counts for a lot in my book, though.