Frustration has set in earlier than I thought. I'm only a couple hours in with my Wanderer and I can't do shit. I run out of potions every time before I get to the boss guy and it's impossible. If this is a sign of things to come I suspect I'll be giving up long before the end.
Dark Souls
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Elerion
N00b
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Where are you?
What are your stats (roughly)?
What kind of weapon/armor/skill setup are you using?
What enemies do you have problems with, and how are you trying to fight them?
It sounds like you have either gone to a harder area than intended, or you're missing some basics in your play. The game really isn't that hard apart from some specific areas/bosses.
What are your stats (roughly)?
What kind of weapon/armor/skill setup are you using?
What enemies do you have problems with, and how are you trying to fight them?
It sounds like you have either gone to a harder area than intended, or you're missing some basics in your play. The game really isn't that hard apart from some specific areas/bosses.
If you are running out of flasks you might be missing a key role that bonfires play in the game. Look at the options you have next time you rest at one.
Uhh, I'm on my way up to the to top of the castle in the Undead Burg.
Everything is at 11 or 12 as far as stats go except for dex (15) and faith (8), I'm only level 7.
I'm using the basic items I started the game with as a Wanderer. Scimitar with shield. I'm mostly just blocking and waiting for a chance to hit. Rarely do I try to parry because my timing sucks. I'm trying to bait and pull a little bit, but still seemed to get overwhelmed. Other than the flasks and bombs, I'm still not sure what the other items do in my inventory.
Everything is at 11 or 12 as far as stats go except for dex (15) and faith (8), I'm only level 7.
I'm using the basic items I started the game with as a Wanderer. Scimitar with shield. I'm mostly just blocking and waiting for a chance to hit. Rarely do I try to parry because my timing sucks. I'm trying to bait and pull a little bit, but still seemed to get overwhelmed. Other than the flasks and bombs, I'm still not sure what the other items do in my inventory.
Elerion
N00b
- 735
- 46
Hm, okay. The area I assume you are talking about (From the bonfire by the first crossbowman in the burg to the boss, the Taurus Demon) is one of the areas I had to repeat the most on my first playthrough. It's not hard for an experienced player, but it's the first area where a new player is forced to learn the basics of combat. The boss at the end is no slouch either, although there are a few tricks which nearly trivialize him.
At this point I guess it doesn't hurt being specific to get you going.
First off, I assume you've found the bonfire in the Burg? Right by the crossbowman? That should be your starting point.
Moving out of that room, you should be able to take out the crossbowman and the 2-3 hollows charging you without taking significant damage. Try not to rely on your shield too much. Lock on to and circle strafe/roll the hollows, they will miss. This minimizes damage and stamina drain and is a good habit to learn. Avoidance is your first line of defense, blocking is your second. There's a new shield for you right underneath the crossbowman which will reduce the damage you take while blocking.
The two spear hollows nearby are good for practicing parrying*, but let's get the basics down first. Provoke and avoid their attacks by moving in and out of range or circle strafing, wait for them to miss, then hit them. Lower your shield when needed to let your stamina regenerate quicker, you don't need to raise it until just before getting hit. There's a merchant right under the spear hollows (break the crates), which can sell you a Heater Shield with which you take no physical damage while blocking if you feel you need it. Don't be ashamed to clear this little area with the crossbowman, the wimpy hollows and the spear hollows a few times until you feel comfortable fighting them, and get a couple of levels. By the way, I recommend leveling endurance early on, it lets you roll, attack and block more. Never level resistance.
When you feel comfortable with that, start moving towards the boss. Run across the bridge which is being firebombed from up top, meeting 3 hollows. Don't try to block the attacks from all 3, they will drain your stamina. Move around them to avoid their attacks instead. Kill the two without a shield asap, then duel the last one. They might still hit you once or twice, so you'll often have to use a flask after these (4/5 charges left).
Moving on, enter the open door on your right and kill the lone hollow. Just block or outrange his attack and hit. Head back outside.
Next, up the stairs for another trio. The two melee hollows will charge you, just move around them and towards the firebomber. When he throws a bomb, roll towards him. Kill him asap. The other two are just dumb unshielded melees, do what you have been doing. You might get hit once or twice here too, so that's another flask charge (3/5).
Don't worry about the firebombers you ran underneath earlier, killing them is more trouble than it's worth. Kill them if they climb down for you, otherwise ignore them. Next, move up the small sniper tower and take out another crossbowman. Just hit him from the stairs, he'll fire over your head. Go back down. Double check that none of the firebombers have come after you, then move down towards the 3 shielded hollows. Try to pull them 1 or 2 at a time (proximity aggro). Use your technique from the spear hollows earlier - move in and out of range to provoke an attack (which misses), then hit. Finally, pull the last hollow on the stairs and dispatch of him in the same way. You might misjudge an attack and be forced to heal another time on one of these (2/5 charges).
There's a big guy with a big sword down to your right, ignore him for now. Killing him is absolutely possible at this point, but if you're struggling already, I'd wait a bit. Come back when you've learned how to parry.
That's it, you can go through a fog wall which will bring you to the boss guy, usually with at least 2 charges left in your flask. If you're feeling confident, go through. If not, run back to the bonfire, use your souls to level up some more, and repeat the above until you feel ready for the biggest challenge yet. Once you do, enter the boss room. Immediately climb the ladder to your right and take out the two hollows, then you're ready for the boss. He's hard, but here are 3 basic tactics:
1. Stay close, roll around or between his legs when he hits. If he misses, hit back a couple of times, then repeat. If he hits, use your next attack opening to heal instead.
2. Buy a residence key from the merchant I mentioned above, then open the door behind the firebomber and 2 melee hollows to find Gold Pine Resin. This is a consumable which buffs your weapon and will make your attacks several times more effective against the Taurus Demon.
3. Use the drop attack trick you learned in the tutorial. Climb the tower, drop down and attack. Repeat if necessary.
Praise the sun!
*When you want to learn parrying, go to the spear hollows and let one of them get close. When he goes to attack, press parry when his HAND moves forward. "Parry the hand, not the weapon". The spear dudes have only one attack animation, so they are good for practicing this. Parrying is super powerful, but only humanoid enemies can be parried, so you need to learn to fight without it too.
PS: You have a humanity counter in the upper left corner, which sometimes increases when you kill stuff, or it can be increased by consuming a Humanity item. It drops to zero when you die and fail to recover your souls. Farm a bit, or just use two Humanity items, to get this number to 2. Then, go to the bonfire and regain your humanity, then kindle it. Enjoygetting invaded.
At this point I guess it doesn't hurt being specific to get you going.
First off, I assume you've found the bonfire in the Burg? Right by the crossbowman? That should be your starting point.
Moving out of that room, you should be able to take out the crossbowman and the 2-3 hollows charging you without taking significant damage. Try not to rely on your shield too much. Lock on to and circle strafe/roll the hollows, they will miss. This minimizes damage and stamina drain and is a good habit to learn. Avoidance is your first line of defense, blocking is your second. There's a new shield for you right underneath the crossbowman which will reduce the damage you take while blocking.
The two spear hollows nearby are good for practicing parrying*, but let's get the basics down first. Provoke and avoid their attacks by moving in and out of range or circle strafing, wait for them to miss, then hit them. Lower your shield when needed to let your stamina regenerate quicker, you don't need to raise it until just before getting hit. There's a merchant right under the spear hollows (break the crates), which can sell you a Heater Shield with which you take no physical damage while blocking if you feel you need it. Don't be ashamed to clear this little area with the crossbowman, the wimpy hollows and the spear hollows a few times until you feel comfortable fighting them, and get a couple of levels. By the way, I recommend leveling endurance early on, it lets you roll, attack and block more. Never level resistance.
When you feel comfortable with that, start moving towards the boss. Run across the bridge which is being firebombed from up top, meeting 3 hollows. Don't try to block the attacks from all 3, they will drain your stamina. Move around them to avoid their attacks instead. Kill the two without a shield asap, then duel the last one. They might still hit you once or twice, so you'll often have to use a flask after these (4/5 charges left).
Moving on, enter the open door on your right and kill the lone hollow. Just block or outrange his attack and hit. Head back outside.
Next, up the stairs for another trio. The two melee hollows will charge you, just move around them and towards the firebomber. When he throws a bomb, roll towards him. Kill him asap. The other two are just dumb unshielded melees, do what you have been doing. You might get hit once or twice here too, so that's another flask charge (3/5).
Don't worry about the firebombers you ran underneath earlier, killing them is more trouble than it's worth. Kill them if they climb down for you, otherwise ignore them. Next, move up the small sniper tower and take out another crossbowman. Just hit him from the stairs, he'll fire over your head. Go back down. Double check that none of the firebombers have come after you, then move down towards the 3 shielded hollows. Try to pull them 1 or 2 at a time (proximity aggro). Use your technique from the spear hollows earlier - move in and out of range to provoke an attack (which misses), then hit. Finally, pull the last hollow on the stairs and dispatch of him in the same way. You might misjudge an attack and be forced to heal another time on one of these (2/5 charges).
There's a big guy with a big sword down to your right, ignore him for now. Killing him is absolutely possible at this point, but if you're struggling already, I'd wait a bit. Come back when you've learned how to parry.
That's it, you can go through a fog wall which will bring you to the boss guy, usually with at least 2 charges left in your flask. If you're feeling confident, go through. If not, run back to the bonfire, use your souls to level up some more, and repeat the above until you feel ready for the biggest challenge yet. Once you do, enter the boss room. Immediately climb the ladder to your right and take out the two hollows, then you're ready for the boss. He's hard, but here are 3 basic tactics:
1. Stay close, roll around or between his legs when he hits. If he misses, hit back a couple of times, then repeat. If he hits, use your next attack opening to heal instead.
2. Buy a residence key from the merchant I mentioned above, then open the door behind the firebomber and 2 melee hollows to find Gold Pine Resin. This is a consumable which buffs your weapon and will make your attacks several times more effective against the Taurus Demon.
3. Use the drop attack trick you learned in the tutorial. Climb the tower, drop down and attack. Repeat if necessary.
Praise the sun!
*When you want to learn parrying, go to the spear hollows and let one of them get close. When he goes to attack, press parry when his HAND moves forward. "Parry the hand, not the weapon". The spear dudes have only one attack animation, so they are good for practicing this. Parrying is super powerful, but only humanoid enemies can be parried, so you need to learn to fight without it too.
PS: You have a humanity counter in the upper left corner, which sometimes increases when you kill stuff, or it can be increased by consuming a Humanity item. It drops to zero when you die and fail to recover your souls. Farm a bit, or just use two Humanity items, to get this number to 2. Then, go to the bonfire and regain your humanity, then kindle it. Enjoygetting invaded.
- 1
Thanks for the advice. Finally got around the Taurus Demon, and it was surprisingly easy after leveling up a bit and using that resin. I got a bow as well and its helped quite a bit.
Just a few other questions:
What stats do you think I should focus on mostly for a Wanderer, and is it a bad idea to use heavier armor/weapons?
Are the ghosts I see and the marks on ground other players?
Is it possible to die and not have the option of recovering your souls? I died and the place to recover my souls wasn't there when I went back.
Just a few other questions:
What stats do you think I should focus on mostly for a Wanderer, and is it a bad idea to use heavier armor/weapons?
Are the ghosts I see and the marks on ground other players?
Is it possible to die and not have the option of recovering your souls? I died and the place to recover my souls wasn't there when I went back.
Elerion
N00b
- 735
- 46
Grats!
Class doesn't matter in this game. As for heavy armor/weapons, you have three levels of carry weight, which affect your move speed slightly and your roll speed/animation greatly.
>50%: Fat roll
25-50%: Mid roll
<25%: Fast roll
Try them out, see which ones you like. I personally prefer the fast roll, though many like going mid roll for more mitigation or heavier weapons, especially before you get items which raise your carry weight. You should generally never go into fat roll territory. These break points are another reason why Endurance is a fantastic stat.
So yeah, stats:
All stats soft cap around 40, so don't level them higher than that.
I recommend you first level STR/DEX to whatever you need to equip the weapon/shield combo you like (generally around 10-16 in each) and level Endurance to ~25.
At this point you will have a feel for what you want more of. Are you being oneshotted? Vitality. Are you struggling with carry weight and stamina? Endurance.
Everything cool, just want more damage? Look at your favourite weapon's stats. See the S/A/B/C/D/E marks next to the stat symbols? An S means the damage of that weapon scales tremendously with that stat, an E means there's almost no scaling. Level the stat that boosts your weapon's damage.
Also, at some point you get the option to upgrade your weapons. Do this. It will boost your damage far more than leveling up offensive stats.
Yes.
You can only have one blood stain at a time. If you die again before you get there, your souls will be gone forever. Otherwise, they should be there.
Szlia
Member
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- 1,318
The blood stain is also placed a little before the place you died usually. So if you fall to your death it will be at the top of the cliff, not at its foot. Very rarely, that mechanism proves a little misleading and surprises you with the spot it chose for the stain (once or twice in my playthrough).
For stats, choose whether you want to use Dex weapons, str weapons, pyro, or sorcery. Choose and stick to it before you put any (more) points in a stat. You can Google "best [dex] weapon" or whatever for help with what weapon to use. Its not all that intuitive and your upgrade mats aren't infinite.
My opinion is that newbies should put a decent amount of points into vit early on. I didn't on my first play through and just got frustrated with how much I died.
If you have lots of souls and are at a hard part, just homeward bone back to bonfire if you're afraid of losing souls. My first play through I got SOOO mad when it'd die to a boss then die to trash on my way back and lose my souls. When in doubt, more levels are always good.
If you're tired of clearing trash and need to practice a boss fight, practice running past the trash. It may take a few tries but running past shit is actually an important skill.
Lastly, if you endure the frustration, later on you will be so much better you won't believe it. Suddenly the stuff that's giving you trouble now will be a joke. And you won't really know why its easier. It just is. I hated the game and almost quit several times just a few months back. But now I'm having a blast trying out new builds, "speed" running, etc
My opinion is that newbies should put a decent amount of points into vit early on. I didn't on my first play through and just got frustrated with how much I died.
If you have lots of souls and are at a hard part, just homeward bone back to bonfire if you're afraid of losing souls. My first play through I got SOOO mad when it'd die to a boss then die to trash on my way back and lose my souls. When in doubt, more levels are always good.
If you're tired of clearing trash and need to practice a boss fight, practice running past the trash. It may take a few tries but running past shit is actually an important skill.
Lastly, if you endure the frustration, later on you will be so much better you won't believe it. Suddenly the stuff that's giving you trouble now will be a joke. And you won't really know why its easier. It just is. I hated the game and almost quit several times just a few months back. But now I'm having a blast trying out new builds, "speed" running, etc
Szlia
Member
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- 1,318
This fight is arguably the worst of the game because it takes place in a cramped place, you are forced to take on multiple enemies and it can go to shit in the first 3 seconds, killing you before you can learn anything to make the next attempt more successful. Advice: run/roll/run past the demon and the dogs to the left and up the stairs, which should allow you to deal with the dogs and demon separately. Once the dogs are down, the demon is not hard as it has only two or three different attacks with clear tells that are easily dodged/blocked (better not try to block the vertical swing where he uses both his weapons though).
Elerion
N00b
- 735
- 46
Fucking Capra Demon. Just the worst designed fight in the game. All the challenge is in the first 10 seconds of the battle, and it is ridiculously unforgiving on a low poise character.
Szlia's tips are good. I'll add one thing: Go into your inventory and put on the highest poise armor set you can make without fat rolling.
Once the dogs are down, the rest is easy. Good luck.
Szlia's tips are good. I'll add one thing: Go into your inventory and put on the highest poise armor set you can make without fat rolling.
Once the dogs are down, the rest is easy. Good luck.
Vaclav
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Yep, you can even run up the stairs and onto the top of the one arch to really stay clear of him - most of the time if he lunges at you from the stairs and you're there he'll miss.
And just for the extra damage of it, once the dogs are dead I tend to keep using the stairs for plunging attacks over and over.
The problem is that I can't seem to dodge his attacks very well and have about a second to heal before getting hit again. I try rolling underneath his swing and it's like he adjusts mid-attack.
At this point should I have new armor and weapons? I'm still using the starter kit, just reinforced.
Edit: Capra down. On to The Depths.
At this point should I have new armor and weapons? I'm still using the starter kit, just reinforced.
Edit: Capra down. On to The Depths.
spronk
FPS noob
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who wants to be captain fucking america
Captain America Shield at Dark Souls Nexus - mods and community
Yea, Capra Demon is one of the earliest bosses in the game that should get you to trying out different gear no matter what your build. It is SUPER DUPER easy fight if you've got a super high stability shield (Baldur shield +7) and a fair amount of stamina and/or knight starting gear, and you just shrug off his hits and tank him head on.
When and where is the bell gargoyles fight? Apparently there is an NPC that absolves you of your sins (which I need because I accidentally attacked the blacksmith). I desperately need to ascend my weapons or find something new. I'm still using the starter scimitar.
So I guess I was supposed to do it a long time ago? I'm already a bit past Blighttown, trying to kill the wolf with a sword.