More adorable noob stories: I restarted with a pyromancer due to general advice, and did some more exploring around Firelink. Found some stairs down that I'd totally missed so far, and soon got murdered by some ghosts. I thought, well, let's not go that way then, and zigged instead of zagged and used this here Master Key gift the first time I can recall. Saw some big guys that I elected to backpedal from for the time being, and then a big old statue-still dragon. Which I'd ordinarily similarly backpedal from, but there were glowie bits nestled in its toes. And a ha. That's that Dragon Crest Shield I've seen occasional mention of. I've also cured myself of stubborn insistence to keep trying to riposte everything in favor of keeping the shield up most of the time, and it turns out that's working much better for me. There's the occasional attacks that I'm confident enough to try it occasionally, but no longer being insistent on it is saving me all sorts of grief. Which is also showing me the truth of what people say about how quickly you make up restarted ground once you have even a slightly better inkling of what you're doing.
You can fight those first two 1v1 as well, if you want to. Instead of running up the middle & aggroing both of them, walk forward next to one of the pillars. Go slowly, and you'll hear the hissing of the snake in the opposite corner when he sees you. You can then back up & fight just him.
Oh totally, now that I've run it a dozen and a half times Sen's is a cakewalk. It's just that first time is a huge wake up call.
Yes, there's being fast and there's being optimal, and Astora's sword is far from optimal even for faith builds. I really tried, because I like the move set, but it does awful damage.
More and rapid progress with the sheer power difference of the Drake Sword compared to the little hand axe I was using before, and an armored boar and a big shield guy and bunches of smaller fry later, I have access to a blacksmith, and this is obviously where the game is going to start opening up with a variety of places to get killed in. (I found a gimpy but big guy one level down from Andre who has a heck of a reach with his weapon when he's not throwing magic at me, and a really absurd number of undead small fries who mobbed me up above the elevators down to Firelink which were clearly intended to reinforce the importance of luring them back out to more contained and controllable fights.) I gather the Drake sword itself can be something of a trap, as it's certainly very powerful for where I am right now, but will rapidly fall behind the upgrade/power curve later? Should (to the extent that "should" applies to DARK SOULS) I be working at doing basic upgrades to some more basic weapons (titanite seems to drop pretty regularly from enemies in the immediate area, so I can certainly do some farming before striking out), taking a hit on damage output now in order to avoid getting stuck in a corner later?
What you want to do is pick a weapon as replacement that will fit your play style, and then upgrade it. Don't spread upgrades over multiple weapons, except to make elementals. Just focus on one for now, and it will quickly out power the drake sword, especially if you don't spend any dragon scales on the drake sword (which you shouldn't).
The titanite to get you to +5 on a normal weapon/shield/armour is also available to purchase from that blacksmith. Andre and his bonfire is a great base to strike out from at this point in the game, via the various shorcuts and homeward bones you can quickly poke around the various regions open to you, explore and gather souls to take back to Andre in return for titanite & upgrades.
The Drake Sword is a great way to start getting comfortable with the combat of the game for sure. It's decently fast, hits hard against those early guys and lets you feel more confident, but once I started upgrading other weapons and trying out different moves, I don't think I've equipped it in ages now. If I start an alt, I probably will still pick it up, but only for a few early harder fights for some equipment, but I enjoy my other weaponry much more!
I don't think of it as a trap, you just have to know how to use it correctly: pick it up when you get into Undead Parish, switch to something else by the time you leave. You've already gotten to Andre so you should look to move on now. Find some other weapon you like (you have access to a lot of them at this point) and upgrade it to +5 at least. Don't worry if the damage listed is less than that of the Drake Sword; the better moveset on most things combined with the fact that you'll be hand-picking the one that works best for you will more than make up for that.
The Drake Sword is pretty easy to outpace, but don't overthink it. If the Drake Sword continues to kill stuff at a rate you feel is reasonable, and you enjoy using it, by all means stick to it (don't upgrade it, though). As you find new weapons, try them out, and bear in mind that you can 2h most weapons at a lower strength value than advertised (note that the same does not apply to dexterity, though). A lot of them will feel weaker than the Drake Sword in an un-upgraded state, but you can still get a feel for how they'll function in combat -- how long the swing animations are, what their range is, to what extent they leave you vulnerable to counter-attack, and so on. If you find something you like, feel free to upgrade to +5 if it doesn't requires twinkling titanite, dragon scales, or demon titanite. This will cost you 9 titanite shards (purchasable for 800 each from the blacksmith you just found) plus 200 souls per level. +5 is a pretty trivial investment in the scheme of things, and while this won't necessarily put other weapons ahead of the Drake Sword, it will allow you to try them out more extensively without a big investment. Another thing to consider when looking at weapons is damage scaling. In the ParamBonus window, you'll see icons for Strength, Dex, Int, and Faith, each with a letter grade or a dash. The better the letter grade (E is worst, A is best*), the more that stat will contribute to damage with that weapon. This is a big part of why the Drake Sword runs out of steam fast -- it has a dash in every category, meaning it never benefits from your stats. In the future you'll be able to convert weapons to elemental, which will eliminate or alter the ParamBonuses, but provide them with extra damage to compensate for this. *There are a couple weapons with an "S" grade, but you won't encounter them until much later.
This is fine advice, but you should dream big when determining what constitutes a "reasonable" rate of killing things. There are people out there who are like "Dark Souls is cool but it's really really hard, so hard that I had to quit even though I read online how to get the best weapon in the game early on." You definitely need to not fall into that state of confusion.
FYI: Actually, many weapons start outperforming the Drake Sword at only +3 or +4. Also, keep in mind that there's a whole slew of weapons (e.g. the scimitar or the bandit knife) that have much lower damage on your character sheet, but end up doing more damage because you can swing them so damn fast. The drake sword is by no means a slow weapon, but I can do 2 or even 3 slashes of the bandit knife for every swing of the drake sword.
I just upgraded a vanilla halbred to +5 and started using that instead of the Drake Sword. It does a bit more damage, and I like how it handles better unless I'm in confined spaces. I love being able to poke at an enemy from half a block away or slash through three guys at once. And once I got three guys lined up in a row by luring them through a doorway, then skewered them all with one stab.
The halberd is a good weapon with good base damage that scales badly in the long run. This makes it a perfect candidate for an elemental weapon.
Weeping Dragon down, and I made sure to cut the tail off this time. Unfortunately the axe I got from that requires a honkin' 50 strength, so I don't think I'll be using it soon, even though I am doing a strength build. And I don't want to give up my shield to one-hand it. Was lost in The Depths for a good long while, unable to find the way back up from the lower area. Don't know why, because the passage way was right there. I just kept walking past it. But while I was at it I did an NPC invasion that got me some humanity (woo?). Not sure where to go from here. I guess there's the forest area near Andre, and there's the newly unlocked Blight Town. Or I could even go down from Firelink Shrine to New Lando Callarisian or whatever. Thoughts or advice? Also, I've got an ember from that Butcher's chest in The Depths. Andre was all like "Oooh, sweet, GIVE IT TO ME" but I demurred. Any suggestions for what I should do with it? It will allow me to ascend a weapon and get it past +5, right?
Yeah, Large Ember is for upgrading to +6-10. The embers all go to various blacksmiths (three in total can do ascensions), and only one of those blacksmiths will accept any given ember. This will allow you to ascend weapons an infinite number of times, so go ahead and give it to him, as he's the only one who will take it.
There are several embers in the game and each only has a single purpose. If a smith asks for it give it to them, you literally have nothing else to do with them. As for the ax it's not really all that great, I wouldn't worry about it, you'll have better Str weapon options. As for where to go, there's not much point in going to New Londo at the moment, unless you plan on doing a suicide run or something. The Forrest, Blighttown or back to the Asylum are your best choices.
The only use for the embers is giving them to blacksmiths that ask for them. You should give it to him, and upgrade your shields and weapons accordingly. Any of the paths you describe is viable. I always proceed directly to Blight Town because I am not made of pudding and whimpers, but most people have a variety of expletives and rants on call for describing the section from that direction, which takes you to what is known as "Upper blighttown" or, more accurately, optional blighttown for people with master keys. I'll just say that there's a fantastic light greatshield, a decent to good dexterity weapon, and a pretty handy pyromancy in the top levels, and if you can handle it methodically it's not much harder than any other section. In any case, do what you will and there's always the back door to blighttown through the valley of the drakes that will take you to the even more lucrative lower blighttown, which will let you take your pyro glove (if it's at least +10, usually) to the next level of damage output and get some really nifty pyro spells, as well as giving you access to the large n' green titanite shitting leeches and the great hollow, for which the DS OP thread has a link with all 10 of the crystal lizards that will give you a minimum of 20 twinkling titanite, a bunch of chunks, and potentially multiple slabs (I've gotten up to 3).If you do lower blighttown, I recommend a bow or crossbow for the airborne enemies, and if you can possibly pull it off the fog ring and the rusty ring. New Londo is equally viable, as it gives you access to some tremendous items and materials (very large ember, titanite chunks). You will have to kill the vendor and take his key to move to the very profitable section if you haven't yet beaten Sif in the forest. You will not be able to fight the boss without Sif's ring, the covenant of artorias. So I would say that is a less optimal choice than getting blight town over and done with. If you haven't done any of the forest yet, the butterfly should be easy pickings at this point. That will give you access to the divine ember, which means you can make a skeleton-toasting weapon for the catacombs. That means you can do a lot of interesting stuff, like get the ritual that lets you have 20 estus flasks from the boss, which is a huge upgrade, as well as making a fire weapon (if you have green shards or use the one near the blacksmith to at least mod a +5 weapon into it). We can talk more about the particulars of the catacombs, but the estus and fire make it a very tempting early option for me.
The Asylum? The starting area? You can go back there? A fourth question? How exactly do you get to Blight Town from the Weeping Dragon area? I don't see a door or anything. Regardless, I'll probably try the forest next, since I'll be visiting Andre. Is there a shortcut from The Depths to Andre? I'm guessing I'll have to go...Depths to Lower Undead Burg to Firelink to Parish, right? That's a bit of a trek.
Gaping dragon. And there totally is a door there. By the vendor in the room right after the three slimes and two rats.
Ah, right, Gaping Dragon. That would definitely be a more appropriate name. Not as appropriate as "Toothy Vagina Dragon" but still...
Back up to the room with slimes and rats just before the Dragon, the one that has the shortcut staircase back to the bonfire that I'm sure you opened. The shortcut is to the left of the waterfall as you face it, anyway. From that bonfire it's a short but determined sprint back to the firelink and then Andre. I recommend you charge up at the bonfire then head all the way back, then homeward bone back to the bonfire in the Depths if you intend to continue. At any rate, once you're in that slime room you can't miss the doors to Blight Town. Yes, you can go back to the asylum (I suggest you just youtube the route). Next time you ride the elevator from firelink to gargoyle church, you'll see the shafts are open on one side right before you get to the bottom. You get off there while it's in motion, then roll on to the roof of the ruins. Then work your way up to the big nest, although you might want to drop off halfway to the roof above Petrus as that will get you the key to the ring back in the asylum. Anyway, that big bird will take you back, and uh just don't run around with lots of souls because the place has changed a bit.If by any chance you can afford to buy purple moss, red moss, and blooming purple moss from the undead female merchant, you can trade those with Snuggly (look her up in the wiki, it's complicated) for twinkling titanite.
Yes. Just go into the crow's nest and curl up like a ball. OBVIOUSLY. Seriously though, when you're on the elevator that goes up to the Parish, you can hop off very near the bottom and land on a platform. This is easier when going up, and easier still if you do it from the one on the left side if you're facing the elevator from the Firelink entrance. Just go in, activate the switch, then turn around and run against the wall as when it starts going up. Walk across that area and you can roll off (LOL TRY JUMPING) to a column nearby. Follow the bit that connects back to the building area and you can walk up some stairs and around to a crow's nest. Follow the button prompt when you arrive and wait a bit, then you'll be back at the Asylum. Do you have the Master Key? If so, I'd recommend not going into Blighttown from the Depths, but rather approaching via the Valley of Drakes. If not, go to the area with the merchant in the depths. There should be a big locked door next to him. The boss dropped the key when you killed him. Unless I'm mistaken, that's pretty much right.
Don't you need to Lordvessel to get the key without killing the guy? Also, don't you need the Lordvessel to get to the boss, same as all the lord soul bosses? First it's Gaping Dragon and I think you have to back track slightly to door that you should now have a key for, it's near the funny looking vendor guy I believe. There isn't much of a shortcut out of the Depths unfortunately.
I'd much rather try and get out of the depths than do those evil ladders of doom in Blight Town. It's not even difficult at this point, it's just annoying.
After nearly killing Stray Demon once and then dying many, many times, I spent some time wandering around and trying out different gear. I took the Heater Shield up to +5 and really like it. I got some wiki tips and went back and killed Stray Demon on the first try. Then I went down to Capra Demon and died three times without even getting a hit on him. The next time I played, I got to him again and this time I blocked first rather than just trying to run past him. This allowed me to find a gap to easily run away, kill the dogs, heal up, and then kill Capra in like 2 falling hits. I've opened up the gate back to Firelink so now I'm ready to try the Depths!
He said you had to kill the guy if you haven't beaten Sif. That's not right, you need to Lordvessel to get the key without killing him and ring from Sif to not die on the boss. That's surprising.
Well you're better at reading than I am! It's tipped off in the cutscene that shows the orange fog doors disappearing after you place the Lordvessel, although if you're like me it's probably been a long time since you've actually watched that.
I'm also in upper blight town. There's a bonfire partway down that I stopped at so now I am committed. Anyway, my goal for this, my first playthrough is not so much to just get to the end of the game but to explore and make it through every area, so I'm not skipping it.
Just keep at it, sinnick. The level's not bad at all, people just get burned early and then spend the rest of their lives circumventing it. You're right near the eagle shield, which on its own justifies the detour. I don't recall exactly what the requirements are to keep him alive, because I haven't let him live in the last 20 or so characters. I need titanite chunks, and he's between me and those chunks. And now that I know he can be killed with arrows I often do it with a range weapon, because I don't even want to walk up there. Should have coughed up the key when I was being nice. But what I was getting at was that no, you don't need the lordvessel to fight the 4k. Just the ring. This is important if you are making a low level darkwraith and want to get started ASAP. It used to be great with the bottomless box glitch.
Upper Blighttown is mostly a matter of understanding enemy placement so you're not getting surprised and mobbed. Once you know where the various hollows pop out of, it's mostly cake. That said, if you have the Master Key it might be worth it to approach from below to take out some of the really annoying blowdart guys. Today on my alt I accidently ended up in the sewers in the depths... I killed every basilisk, got every bit of loot, and made it out without being cursed. THANK GOD. Then Gaping Dragon tore me a new one because I guess a combination of a) Solaire kind of sucks against it b) I didn't realize how hard it would be to hit it with my Halberd's stabbing attack and c) I'm a bit slower and getting out of the way of the trample was problematic.
I went too deep in the Catacombs and met the smith down there. Before I Bone my way out, what are some good candidates for a fire weapon? I'm a DEX build if that is relevant.
When you say "dex build," what exactly do you mean? Typically a build with high dex or strength would not use elemental weapons. But in general, a good candidate for an elemental upgrade path will have low stat requirements and probably low scaling as well, along with high base damage.
Well, also stat requirements right at the upper end of your capability that you will never be able to exploit, like the old fire zweihander at 18/24 str.
I made it! I really lucked out though. I was all out of Toxin cures and got hit by one last dart guy just moments from the bottom. Luckily, he dropped a blooming purple moss, or I would have been done for. I had to use some humanity for health, and then I just sprinted past the fire beetles to the bonfire, which had been helpfully marked with a breadcrumb trail of red messages from other players. Holy shit. I picked up a bunch of great stuff down in the swamp, and I even got invaded! By an NPC, I gather. Then I went and fought Quelaag. I decided to summon the NPC I had just defeated. She stood in fire until she died. Thanks Mildred!
fwiw, based on my experience with my alt: toxin isn't that dire. I mean it sucks and ultimately it killed me, but not before I did everything I wanted to do in my initial trip to Blighttown. You just have to keep an eye on your health and pop an Estus Flask as appropriate. It's worse if you're coming in from above and trying to make your way to the fire, though it's by no means fatal. The first time I got hit with toxin I panicked and I suspect that's ultimately the point. If you're sober about assessing where you are relative to where you want to be (bonfire, treasure chest, whatever), you can probably just power through it without much trouble.
