Oh. Now I don't feel so bad for missing out on her because I didn't summon her for Moonlit Mothfly or whatever.
It shows up even if you don't summon her, though I'm not sure what the trigger is. I know because I've never summoned her.
I assume, then, that it's beating the 4 kings. (and the wiki confirms it). Learn something new every time.
Enh, I just roll with it. By the time the summon happens you're a short jog from the boss, and by the time I slowly tap out an XBL message I could probably be halfway done with the boss fight. If I fail, oh well. Try again. So far I've taken them down 2 of the 3 times someone summoned Beatrice, though obviously mileage varies.
What a jolly night I'm having! For some reason I'm able to score a summons every few minutes on Bell Gargoyles; at this rate I'll be a Sunbro before Castle is on! I think my current track is to head down to Btown to farm up some green titanite, make a divine weapon, go clear the catacombs to score various neat things (fire weapon, etc), and then I'll be set to head into the lower burg. Needless to say this is a major change from previous playthroughs, but I'm trying to shake it up. Incidentally, I've noticed that a lot of truly high-end str-scaling weapons are massively heavy. Is the intention that you always wield these two-handed? Or just suffer fighting naked with a giant sword/axe/whatever?
Heavy, or have a high STR requirement? I think the intent is that you commit to a STR build to gain access to them. Oddly, I don't think they really rank very high as STR weapons per se ... but I'm interested in at least finding out, so I'm going to 50 to try them out anyway. :)
I suppose that depends on how you define high end. The heavy dragon weapons don't scale at all with STR so while requiring 50 STR to wield can't be called STR scaling. The large club has A scaling, but only 26 STR to 1h. The mightiest of weapons to 1h is Smough's Hammer with 58 STR, but that's D scaling.
hahahahah the zweihander's R2 attack can stunlock black knights (so long as your stamina holds out). That was a hilarious fight, the poor schmuck kept trying to get up and then WHAM back on his face.
Ornstein and Smough down. I needed to use Solaire though, and I wasted several humanity trying. But it was a pretty fun fight. I killed Ornstein first, and then fought big Smough. Is that the typical way? I just found dodging Big Smough's attacks far easier. Next on the docket is to use my Black Orb to kill that bastard Lautrec, so I can turn Firelink Shrine back on!
I don't think there is a typical way. You'll find people swearing by each approach. I have yet to discover an approach that works. Maybe this character (#3). :D
This is true, but I think more people do kill Ornstein first. Big Ornstein always did seem harder to me, although it's not so different that there's a "right" way. Really the empirically correct approach is to just choose based on the items you want, if any. If you don't want either of the weapons I think it's probably actually better to kill Smough first, because Ornstein's armor occasionally turns out to be the optimal thing in one slot or another for your weight and defense/poise goals, but Smough's never really does.
There's also the matter of deciding what you want to get loot-wise after the fight, since killing one or the other first changes that. Took down the 4K another couple of times last night. Also went into the Valley of Drakes and fucked up some dragons (which I've actually never done before). There are random merchants scattered all over the place at this point in the game, and I'm just sort of messing around and buying random crap from them as I amass more and more souls from boss runs. I'm still liking 4K as a boss run much more than O&S. So far not one person has come along and summoned me without having cleared out the level first (though I'm sure it'll happen eventually). There's no merchant or blacksmith to mess with, so people just head straight for the fog door. It's also an easier fight than O&S. Plus, extra 5k souls when I win. So far I think I have about a 90% success rate. At some point I'm going to have to move on, but I'm enjoying helping people out too much to do that just yet.
I think if I manage to defeat Seath tonight, I may take a trip to the DLC to see what it's all about before going after the last two Lord Souls. Once I got up to the Duke's Archives it wasn't so bad at all, but I stopped for the night after I got outside again to that crystal area.
Good lord, I'm so bad at this game. I'm making light forays into the Undead Parish but it's basically certain death either path I take (note to self: I'm guessing this will become a theme). Either I go up and there is some badass dude in shiny armor who makes quick work of me or I run down past where the spectral boar dude used to be, through the undead cafeteria, and there is a new enemy type who runs at me and eventually kills me. Because I suck. Because I used too many flasks on the spear guys, again because I suck. But hey, at least I get to kick rats off a bridge. So there's that. No, I don't need advice quite yet... I just needed to ramble a bit. I feel better. Now I'm off to kick some more rats and mis-time my kicks on spear dudes, impaling myself in the process. edit: woohoo! I noticed that caped bastard had his back to me and I managed to sneak up and got off a backstab which helped immensely.
Crisco if you are dying to spear guys, you probably aren't playing slow enough. You need to approach them with your shield up, and wait for an opportunity. If you just try and whale against their shield it will end poorly. Wait for them to attack, absorb it on your shield, then give them a hit. If you want to graduate a bit, you can kick them (forward + R1) to open their guard then attack.
Oh my god, fuck Crystal Caverns. Made it to Seath, kept getting planted in his crystal garden. If you know what I mean. I offered myself for summoning, then fell off one of the invisible walkways like a Grade A moron. I could hear the host's facepalm through the Internet. But, it was getting late. I'll tackle Seath next time. Also, I think I must be overleveled at this point. I did 4 Kings solo without any problem at all prior to this. +14 large club helps, I guess.
Crisco, don't beat your head against the wall for too long, it's not worth it. This game is funny, you could write several pages of text explaining the mechanics and how to play it, but all the game gives you is a dozen or so orange soapstone messages.
I'm in the same place! I tried to got against Seath last night a couple times solo, but the stupid things crystals either got me or it tail whipped me into submission. I tried a few jolly co-op runs as a summons, and watched many of them fail, as people got too careless around the crystal giant things or fell to their deaths in the cavern or had those clams eat them. (My secret with those damn things? Zweihander R2 stomps them to the ground and a follow up kills them dead). My own attempt to bring along a summons resulted in the guy falling to his death quickly, and then when I re-summoned him he died to the clams. The caverns are hard, just annoying. But screw Seath. I think I'll try a different approach tonight and see what comes of it. I was trying for the tail, but looking up the stats are requirements, it's not something I'll need or be able to use, so frontal assault is in order.
I made a bit of a Seath guide in the other thread, for one strategy at least. If you want me to rustle it up let me know. FWIW I never had any luck getting summons for any lord boss (except Seath once) that wasn't a BFer.
So last night was fun. Prepare for a novel! I took down the 4K a couple of times to finish off my random buying sprees, then headed back to the Archives. Pulled the switch to head down the stairs and took on a bunch of the golems, then OH GOOD SOMEONE IS INVADING ME. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Waiting. Running around kind of near the bonfire just in case. Waiting. Okay, fine. Pop open XBL chat and just straight up say "I'm at the balcony bonfire. Come and get me." Response comes in, he's on his way. Waiting. "WeirdIndecipherableXBLName has been yadda yadda no more invader" Apparently he took a wrong step somewhere on the way to see me. The first time I'm actually ready to duel. Oh well. So I take out the rest of the golems, then head down into the Crystal Cave. Hey guys don't fuck with the butterflies down there. Just a heads up. I took one of them down early then decided not to screw with the rest of them. Walked across an invisible path (really, Dark Souls? REALLY?) and a big golem pushed me off the side of a nice wide platform. Stupid. On the way back in I somehow manage to get myself killed again, so there goes 13 soft humanity. Meh. Next time I head down and foolisly take a shot at one of the later butterflies. I can take this one in one shot, right? It's just sitting there. DEAD. So dumb and unnecessary. OKAY, time to do this. Go through the Crystal Caves, take out all the walking oysters, put on my Cursebite ring, head in to the boss area. A valiant effort, but dead nonetheless. So I summon some help. We truck it down there without trouble and head right in. I'm hacking away trying to get his tail off and...oh, I guess we killed him. Yay! From there, it was on to take out Ceaseless Discharge, who one-shotted me after I grabbed the new outfit. Fine. Went back, took him out. Walked through the now-lava-free zone and piddled around a bit before finding another bonfire. Rested there and shut it down for the evening. I think I have maybe another couple of days in me before I feel I'm kind of done with the game (which will coincide with me "beating" it). I can see why some people lose interest after S&O, since a lot of this later stuff doesn't seem particularly interesting. I suppose I'll see if that bears out through the "ending".
Yeah, what are you doing attacking the butterflies? Stahp. I also don't think I'll do another playthrough anytime soon. I may buy the PC version and do another one there, since it has the DLC, but I want to move on to some others in my backlogs (just picked up Sleeping Dogs) and there are a few big titles like SimCity 5 and Bioshock Infinite coming out soon. I've put a LOT of time into Dark Souls, though.
I feel the Crystal Cave is classic Dark Souls. You think OMG it's a fuck you, but in reality it's not bad. The (mostly) useless blue slab, though... Post Law Firm I still enjoy the Duke's Archives, appreciate the Catacombs / Tomb of Giants more, and am 50/50 doing New Londo prior to the Lord Vessel. I'm not really a fan of Demon Ruins / Lost Izalith, though. Also, you guys, be sure to spoil yourselves on Bed of Chaos.
Really? I make it a rule to go in once to get the reveal for the fun and cool factor. I give it an honest shot, usually die, then hit the wiki for advice.
Once you know it, Crystal Cave is pretty much one of the quickest zones to finish in the game. Not only is it a simple and fast run with only one enemy you have to fight (and only once, for that matter), the boss can be cheesed such that he's difficult to fail (tail notwithstanding).
Enh, if I hadn't done it for Seath I'd probably have wound up cursed. I don't spoil the areas I go into, but the bosses aren't something I really want to figure out the hard way.
If you were able to follow Logan's quest and got him to the library, he would have told you about Seath. Just like that the New Londo Ruin guy tells you about the ring.
You don't even have to fight that enemy. If you run past him he's quite happy to either leave you be or fall off the platform.
Right, but it doesn't tell me anything about what might be effective against him. I didn't want to just run in there with a pea shooter and hope for the best. I don't find that particular bit of trial-and-error constructive or enjoyable, so I just skip it.
The game is pretty consistent. Dragon, kill it with lightning, chop its tail (but not in that order). Seath being a magic user is going to be nigh impervious to magic. That's pretty much it! I guess the curse is a surprise (or is it since you did meet him before?), but I never gotten cursed from him.
Same here. I think this is one of the keys to enjoying Dark Souls. It can lead to frustration when you make no progress, but it's worth it for those moments when you are able to do it all by yourself without help. In fact, I can't think of a boss in the game which requires a "trick" to beat, along the lines of "hit him in his left eye!" or something. At least not that you can't observe by watching him. I personally needed help from others for Sif, but that was due to my own confusion over Stability, not something unique to the boss.
There's benefits both ways. I largely played Demon's Souls with the wiki handy and loved it; Dark Souls I played completely spoiler free. Both were great experiences.
I've pretty much been trying to find my own way but hitting up the wiki when I get stuck or am close to finishing up with an area to make sure that I'm not missing any sweet items. I also use the wiki liberally to look up various weapons and armor to plan upgrades etc. rather than trying to sort it out from the in-game information.
Charles: ha, funny you should mention this. I made some progress after posting. I found that if I just approach them with my guard up and sort of sidestep around them, they'll attack past me and I can get some shots in at their back. I had been trying to kick them for the stagger and free attacks but I am just woeful with that right now. Half the time I end up using a normal attack. Also, the charging caped dudes were not nearly as intimidating when I had enough flasks to experiment a little and suss out their weaknesses. I made it past them and on up to the gargoyles after activating the lift (I love the little shortcuts in this game), so I'm feeling much better about my progress. Now I have to decide if i want to handle the huge knight guy in the lift room or continue dying to gargoyles. Fun times.
