Demon's Souls Coming to America.

[ffc]

I was not aware that pressing forward + R1 makes you do a little shove move.  I was feeling pretty clever for using it to push some wolves off a cliff to their deaths.  Now I have just died 5 times in a row to a blue eyes knight and his archer friends.  I don't feel clever anymore.

[Kageh]

Fuck, it's pretty demoralizing when you lose a shit ton of souls on a corpse run. Fuck.  

Yup. And often enough, in the process of corpse running, you get lots of souls, then die again. And again. Never get too attached to your souls!

The best antidote against soul loss frustration is to find yourself a good farm spot and, whenever soul loss gets you down, consider how 5-10 minutes of good spot farming easily recovers a full level of regular soul hunting. The knights before Penetrator or the reaper in 4-2 are very understanding - and cheerful - when I come to vent  

I was not aware that pressing forward + R1 makes you do a little shove move.  I was feeling pretty clever for using it to push some wolves off a cliff to their deaths.  Now I have just died 5 times in a row to a blue eyes knight and his archer friends.  I don't feel clever anymore.

Hmm does it? I know the move you are talking about, and it has gotten me killed very often, but I was under the impression the computer decides to do that instead of a regular R1 attack based on how close you are to the opponent. There's nothing like "Take THIS, sucker! Oh, wait, *slow ass shove* WAIT! *fateful chime* ---YOU HAVE DIED ---" to remind you how fragile you are. Especially with something like Meat Cleaver, where the shove animation looks like your back hurts. Or you are crapping your pants. Or both at the same time.

I have to try that out now.

[AutomaticZen]

Stairs are my mortal enemy.  Especially when you're fighting on them.

[stray]

Fuck, it's pretty demoralizing when you lose a shit ton of souls on a corpse run. Fuck.  

Yup. And often enough, in the process of corpse running, you get lots of souls, then die again. And again. Never get too attached to your souls!

Well, the worst thing about it is that I got ganked by a low level soldier.. Just had a brainfart or something. About 30,000 souls down the shitter. :\

[UnwashedMasses]

Flamelurker and I now have an understanding.

He likes to kill; I like to die.

It is better this way, really.

[stray]

I beat him earlier. Umm that purple flame shield paid off, I guess.   But in the same level, there's a fire resist ring. That might help too.

[Rendakor]

Light armor is key to beating him; roll often. Dodge his attacks then either pew pew or melee a few times. Put a pillar between you and him if you need to heal.

I had more trouble with 2-2 as a level than the Flamelurker himself; I couldn't find the tunnel leading to him and kept getting killed in that stupid lava area.

[Nerf]

Light armor is key to beating him; roll often. Dodge his attacks then either pew pew or melee a few times. Put a pillar between you and him if you need to heal.

I had more trouble with 2-2 as a level than the Flamelurker himself; I couldn't find the tunnel leading to him and kept getting killed in that stupid lava area.

I finally gave up on finding the way down to him and dropped down the shaft, only to realize later that the little platform at the end of a tunnel in the lava caves with 3 or 4 bearbug husks on it let you drop down to flamelurkers area.  It /looks/ like a really far drop, but it's not - I hope if they start doing DLC and level editing they change that bit to be slightly more intuitive so you know to drop.  I kept thinking he was past the lava and died a handful of times wading in that shit.

[schild]

The tunnel to the right is indeed a shortcut. One filled with treasures and riches at that.

[Kageh]

I nowadays start 2-2 with going right and dropping down, straight to Flamelurker.
I leave the rest of 2-2 untouched, including the gecko cave, so I can farm the full gecko spawn after I kill Dragon God. I found the rest of 2-2 to be very boring - bearbugs were incredibly annoying back when I didn't care about magic weapons, and there are too many of those endless tunnels with the huge bugs blocking your way, too.

I just finished Valley of Defilement on a new char yesterday, and I remembered how painful swamp jogging is. I died lots of times from the giant goblins there while attempting dodges and sidesteps in the mud. Dodges in the mud make for a frustrating experience, but for every failed attempt you get a corpse run for free! 

[stray]

For a noob like me, the run through all of those tunnels and killing beatles was worth it. That's quite a lot of xp to pass up, and all I have to do is stand back and blast them (albeit, for a long time.. burning through tons of mana.. but whatever).

[Elerion]

killing beatles

?

[stray]

Doh.  


edit: Maneaters are the toughest boss so far :\

[Nerf]

Doh.  


edit: Maneaters are the toughest boss so far :\

Go back a page or two and find my DO NOT READ spoiler if you really can't beat him, it's ez-mode.

[ffc]

I tried forward + R1 with a scimitar and it is a twirly double-hit move instead of a shove with a halberd, so it's weapon dependent. 

I joined some games as a blue phantom for the first time.  The warm fuzzies for helping people beat a boss they clearly have no idea how to beat is a nice consolation for the many, many, many rage filled boss deaths leading to that winning strategy knowledge.

Here's a quick two part question.  I activated the lift in 2-1 to get up to the people throwing boulders at me.  As I overlook the path I just came from, I see a glowing orb on a landing off a cliff.  Is there a way to drop there? 

As I was contemplating that orb, a black phantom invaded my game and I watched him run backwards and plunge off the cliff near that orb.  Is there an obvious reason why he would suicide?  Other than being afraid of facing me in combat of course.

[Morfiend]

As I was contemplating that orb, a black phantom invaded my game and I watched him run backwards and plunge off the cliff near that orb.  Is there an obvious reason why he would suicide?  Other than being afraid of facing me in combat of course.

If you die to the environment as a black phantom you lose one soul level. Some people try to suicide to get negative stats to have an advantage in PVP.

[Nerf]

Pretty sure they patched that out, as people were abusing it.  My brother just tried to delevel a character with no luck.

[Kageh]

I'm pretty sure soulsucker in PVP and Allant's attack still delevel you. I don't know about dying as phantom to delevel. But I was invaded at level 40-something a couple days ago by a guy who seemed to have at least about 1k HP, which, considering soul form and probably black CT, is quite a lot for level 40. That was on the asian servers with 1.04.

I had some fun with Garth Vinland yesterday. Turns out he can parry. And counterattack afterwards! 6 times I've killed him so far and not once did he parry. One counter-hit with that huge-ass mace will destroy you at 900HP, and totally mess up your plans for white world tendency if you're cocky and in body form, like me! 

On the other hand, I learned that you can farm the goblin shaman right at the end of 5-2 for splinters and chunks of faintstone. Zone in at Dirty Colossus AS and run back out to the swamp from Colossus room, takes about 1 minute tops and the drop rate is nearly 66% for splinters. Which is a lot, considering you'd otherwise have to buy them for 10k each. At pure black WT, he drops around 5-10% chunks too, and that is with a meager luck stat of 8. I finally got my Blessed +5 mace that way.

[stray]

I've wasted so many ephmeral things/died at full health that I almost feel tainted now.

Also, what a pain in the ass that such a thing can make you go "black tendency".


That said, I haven't pvp'ed or seen black shadow characters yet.. I should just invade areas myself.

[Kageh]

That's true.

At least with the asian version there's still the trick that I can manually depatch to v1.0, where suiciding in soul form was also lowering WT. I've done that a few times, but it's quite a bother, as it requires 30+ suicides sometimes to get pure black WT, that means about half an hour dying and reloading.

[Lounge]

World 5 hates me.

[Cyrrex]

Speaking of World 5, how the fuck are you supposed to beat that black phantom in the swamps in 5-2?  That motherfucker can dodge and roll all over the place, but I am stuck in the syrup and am lucky if I can bang of 10% of his health.

Of course, I don't even know where to go on that level, so maybe I should just be avoiding him/her?

[Kageh]

The generic meat cleaver one or Selen Vinland BP? For meat cleaver girl (I think it's a woman?), I'd guess lure her to an island where you can dodge as well, and either use a fast weapon for a few quick slashes until she dodges away, rinse repeat, or use some big ass stick to chain knock her down. Getting her to an island is quite important because of the dodging.

Here's a map of 5-2:

http://www.geocities.jp/kouryakubo/ds/chart/chart035.html

, sadly with japanese annotations, but it helps a lot when trying to figure out the general layout of the map. That webpage has all the maps, by the way, in case you need to check a specific one up (helps a bit for 3-1 and 3-2 as well).

Selen is kinda tougher, especially because you can't really use a shield. For Selen I'd say use a weapon with a wide slash/big range and try to hit her as she closes in at max range. She'll dodge away after a few hits, and when she gets low on health she'll heal up a few times. Unless you can interrupt the healing reliably (bow/thrown stuff/magic), it's going to drag for a bit.

[ghost]

Running through this with my first "pure magic" character.  It is decidedly more difficult on some worlds and easier on others.  So far I'm finding Maneater near impossible and 4-2 as well.  Interesting.

[Yegolev]

Shit, I can't seem to take Tower Knight as a Magic. character.

[schild]

Shit, I can't seem to take Tower Knight as a Magic. character.

That qualifies as a personal problem.

[Yegolev]

Shit, I can't seem to take Tower Knight as a Magic. character.

That qualifies as a personal problem.

Yep, I kept hitting the merlons and had shit timing so the fucker was blocking me a lot.  I nailed him a few times but I need to work on the timing for those slow-ass Soul Arrows.  I'm used to the bow and throwing, which seemed less... fat?  There are some places where Flamethrower or Soul Arrow are the I WIN button but there are times I prefer the bow.  TK is one of those times.

[Cyrrex]

The generic meat cleaver one or Selen Vinland BP? For meat cleaver girl (I think it's a woman?), I'd guess lure her to an island where you can dodge as well, and either use a fast weapon for a few quick slashes until she dodges away, rinse repeat, or use some big ass stick to chain knock her down. Getting her to an island is quite important because of the dodging.

Here's a map of 5-2:

http://www.geocities.jp/kouryakubo/ds/chart/chart035.html

, sadly with japanese annotations, but it helps a lot when trying to figure out the general layout of the map. That webpage has all the maps, by the way, in case you need to check a specific one up (helps a bit for 3-1 and 3-2 as well).

Selen is kinda tougher, especially because you can't really use a shield. For Selen I'd say use a weapon with a wide slash/big range and try to hit her as she closes in at max range. She'll dodge away after a few hits, and when she gets low on health she'll heal up a few times. Unless you can interrupt the healing reliably (bow/thrown stuff/magic), it's going to drag for a bit.

Must be the generic BP, because it looks like a female wearing rags, and is definitely running around with a big meat cleaver.  I'll try to get to solid ground, but she already has rolled my ass twice while trying that.  Thanks for your continual advice, though.

[schild]

That evil bitch with a meat cleaver was my worst enemy my first time through the game.

Yes, that small island is your friend.

[Cyrrex]

That evil bitch with a meat cleaver was my worst enemy my first time through the game.

Yes, that small island is your friend.

You mean the one slightly bigger than a postage stamp?  Great.  That'll be no problem.  I panic whenever she jumps up on me, can't even activate my Protection, let alone get to solid ground. 

[schild]

That evil bitch with a meat cleaver was my worst enemy my first time through the game.

Yes, that small island is your friend.

You mean the one slightly bigger than a postage stamp?  Great.  That'll be no problem.  I panic whenever she jumps up on me, can't even activate my Protection, let alone get to solid ground. 

Actually there's one that's composed of two parts that has enough room to run around and roll back when she goes for a heavy hit. It's near the wall.

[stray]

Got my ass kicked by the meat cleaver chick too... Decided to just zip through that level afterwards. For all the problems of it, the boss was a joke! Wtf?  

Lots of stuff undone.. I'd love to get BT on the world for Selen's blade now.. I heard I can sneak on her enough and just cast poison cloud and run. Might need to try that. ^_^

[Kageh]

Best strategy I worked out for melee was quick weapons, because if you hit her often enough, she dodges away. That buys you time for healing/buffing/whatever you need.

For heavy weapons without knockdown, she just kept ignoring 1-2 hits and went straight for me, and the moment you're knocked down, it gets kinda hard. I did kill her once with a great club, but timing with that is a PITA.

Also, really, really important for melee: use Thief's Ring (whatever it is called in the US version, the ring you get in 1-1 by Ostrava's first spawn place). I'm serious. Thief's Ring = WIN for melee. It allows you get close to mobs, it allows you to pick your fights, and you can move around without half the level homing in on you the moment you leave the archstone. Ranged/Magic chars could maybe do without - because of the range options - but for meleers that ring is vital. You can actually sneak up on meat cleaver chick (TM) instead of the other way.

I played nearly 90% of the game with Thief's Ring + Cling Ring. Everything else is worse for melee IMO. I just switch to Regenerator/Flame + Cling on bosses.

[stray]

Not to derail from meat cleaver bitch, but what exactly does the stat mean when it says "Magic Attack" on weapons? For instance, my Crescent Falchion has modest physical attack stats, but the magic attack stat listed underneath has a different number.

At first, I thought it gave a boost to my spell damage, but I'm noticing the sword in general is a hard hitting weapon... I equipped the Magic Sword Motoko (unique katana), thinking it'd be an upgrade.. It had a base physical attack around 200 or something - yet my upgraded Falchion is better - even though it's physical attack is stated as being lower. Am I right to assume that "magic attack" contributes to it's physical abilities as well.

Hope I make sense..

[JWIV]

Just for giggles, started up a Royal today instead of a Temple Knight.  Jesus christ Soul Arrow is cheating.  Though the rapier is obnoxious during the Phlanax fight.  I had to dance around and wait for Soul Arrow to regen, as opposed to my TK who just went in there and swung the halbred around a bunch toe to toe.