Sure I'm not saying that Dark Souls trophies are great, like I could really do without all the different weapon upgrade trophies. 1 is ok since it encourages you to get one strong weapon which people probably should anyway(unless you deliberately don't). But making stuff you won't use is kind of urgh.
People do a lot of fun stuff in these games that is trophy worthy. It's just either way I wouldn't be doing them to feel accomplished. It would always come down to do I like this game enough to do whatever stupid shit the trophy asks of me.
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On a side note what soul level are you guys? It's a bit insane how much more leveling you can do in this. I'm at 156 now. Probably because I helped out a bunch at different bosses. But still the soul requirements don't seem to skyrocket that fast.
Dark Souls II
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I don't think I'm much of a subscriber of feeling accomplished because I got a platinum in a game(Not that I'm looking down on people that do it's just I don't feel that). For me it's more like a love letter. Like I've spend all my time doing all this stupid shit in this game because I really like it and the platinum is like a digital monument to that fact. It's even nicer if the game's trophies go under the line of thinking of letting the player explore every bit of it. In a way trophies are a convenient excuse to spend more time with a game, it's up to the devs to make that time more interesting or super arduous.
This, for me.
The selection I feel is a bit counter intuative for a game like this tho. I'd rather just, you know. Hey, can you defeat this boss in 30 seconds? You can?! Yeah totally, give it go! How about killing 6 enemies in a single swipe? Making it from point A to B without dying or getting hit? I'm just personally disappointed Soul games don't have trophies that relates much to the meat of the game. Like combat or exploration.
And absolutely this. There's so much creative shit they could have done along the lines of what you're proposing (run through Black Gulch without being hit by poison blob; beat a boss with no weapon equipped; kill 200 enemies without returning to any bonfire), but it's just the same old collect-nearly-everything and mess-with-some-npcs-a-bit.
I think Castlevania Lords of Shadow actually pulled it off really well. The special little challenges in every stage (kill some tough enemy in some absurd way; never get hit by the boss; beat whatever with a time limit) were right on the money, even if they weren't each trophies themselves (I believe completing all of them granted a trophy though). Really frustrating at times, but deciding to do them extends the shelf life of the game to an incredible extent, and really forces the player to go all out, in creative ways, when it comes to understanding the mechanics of the game.
But I guess the (spoiler about requirements for two rings)…
! rings that require you to
-beat the game without dying
and/or
-beat the game without resting at a bonfire
…are cruel attempts to give the masochists what they want.I do plan on getting as close to platinum as possible, but not if it involves any sort of multiplayer/covenant bullshit. I have no patience for that.
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Man. I'd go for those rings for bragging rights. Screw the trophy for that!
I'd need atleast a few months with the game before doing those, tho. I want to atleast learn every cheese method to this game.Also. Got a question reguarding power stances. When it means 150% of the stat req, does it mean from both weapons combined?
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Man. I'd go for those rings for bragging rights. Screw the trophy for that!
I'd need atleast a few months with the game before doing those, tho. I want to atleast learn every cheese method to this game.Haha they didn't make those required for a trophy. The people would riot.
Just sort of the devs acknowledging that some people are going to do that stuff anyway (speedrunners :P), so why not reward them?I can imagine trying the former (NG, with intimate knowledge of everything and cheesing everything possible), but the latter seems ridiculous, because…
! No warping + weapon durability goes so fast in this game. Apparently the best way around that is to help someone online, because you get "refreshed" or whatever.
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Response in regards to bosses
! It's odd you had problems with Rotton, CCC. He was pretty easy for me.
! I'm still stuck on that Rat boss in Pharros, but mainly because I can't last a minute in the fight.
Smelter Demon is a real asshole tho. I was actually practicing on how to roll through his attacks, but they got some really dead-on auto-fix. I think this one may be hardest one for me so far.
! Aside that, no boss have given me serious trouble. Belfy Gargoyles still remains the most "fun" boss battles so far despite not being very difficult.Who's your favorite NPCs guys? I've got so many and it's sad to say that I almost love them all. Almost.
! If you can take out the four rats before the Royal Rat Authority jumps down, the fight will be a cake walk. He's just Sif 2.0, only he doesn't have a sword in his mouth. Just stay under him the whole time and slash away at his legs. Only thing to watch out for is his puke attack, but that is easy enough to dodge.
I hate the spell trophies. They're absolute bullshit… Arghhhh... I'd take farming bladestones over the shit you have to do to get some of the spells.
Only open if you want to know the easy (relatively) way to get those spells.
! In NG++ They're all available for pu
Which is good, because if you can survive NG+, NG++ is a cakewalk. The jump in difficult is almost non-existent. -
@Xen:
Only open if you want to know the easy (relatively) way to get those spells.
! In NG++ They're all available for pu
Which is good, because if you can survive NG+, NG++ is a cakewalk. The jump in difficult is almost non-existent.Does this completely bypass any multiplayer/covenant requirements?
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Log from last night.
No tags or anything since I didn't really do much.I joined the Champion Convanant to see if the difficulty boast would aggress the AI, but it seems like all it did was raise the enemies base stats by x1.5. Kinda disappointing tbh. After that I decided to leave my soapstone for Summons at the end of Iron Keep… Then I realized I could not leave my sign and I thought it was some kind of online issue(the Champ Conv. actually disables the summoning feature). So, being bored.... I used some Red Eye Cracked Orbs and invaded some players to see if I CAN invade(I never been invaded by a Black Phantom ONCE in this game, and it was bugging me). Surprisingly I did O_o... And I absolutely destroyed them.
My second invasion made me feel really bad and I decided to stop experimenting. It seem like the guy was really anxious to progress, and he was even running away from me the few times I attempted to scare him(he was pinned between me and an Ironclad). So yeah... I killed him.
From there I went to Belfry Luna to kill Grey Phantoms. At this point I was really curious to see what kind of player builds there was in the game. That way I can some ideas :3 It was fun. I ran into this one guy that seemed to have Havel's Armor and he used a Lightning Halberd. He was really tough and it was kinda funny that we encountered eachother a total of three times. He was also nice enough to not bother ganking whenever I got invaded a second time.
So yeah. Had a good time messing around with PvP. Got killed a few times myself and won alot more. Even more is, I managed to learn a few tricks in combat from other players too.
@Xen:
! If you can take out the four rats before the Royal Rat Authority jumps down, the fight will be a cake walk. He's just Sif 2.0, only he doesn't have a sword in his mouth. Just stay under him the whole time and slash away at his legs. Only thing to watch out for is his puke attack, but that is easy enough to dodge.
I know I can do that, but I can't seem to kill those rats quickly enough. Every time I manage to do so, the big guy jump attacks me. Holy Water Urns seem to do the trick, but ehhhh. Maybe there's a quicker way.
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@Xen:
! In NG++ They're all available for pu
Which is good, because if you can survive NG+, NG++ is a cakewalk. The jump in difficult is almost non-existent.If that's true, THANK GOD urgh…. I'm only missing the covenant spells now. Haven't made the jump to ng+ yet I instead used ascetics for some of the ng + boss spells.
@CCC:Does this completely bypass any multiplayer/covenant requirements?
! The only thing you'd have to worry about are the sunlight medals which you get for helping out at bosses while being in the covenant or for summoning someone to help you out that is in the covenant. But if that's true you don't need to pvp an insane amount like I thought.
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! The only thing you'd have to worry about are the sunlight medals which you get for helping out at bosses while being in the covenant or for summoning someone to help you out that is in the covenant. But if that's true you don't need to pvp an insane amount like I thought.
Nope. Nope nope nope.
Fuck that. Farming them from Harvest Valley dark blob throwers if it takes me every bonfire ascetic in the game. -
Also. Got a question reguarding power stances. When it means 150% of the stat req, does it mean from both weapons combined?
150% of whatever the highest stat is between the weapons. Usually rounded down.
So if your first weapon needs 9 strength and 11 dex, and your second weapon needs 7 strength and 14 dex…. then your total required stats to dual wield would be 13 strength and 21 dex.
This obviously becomes absolutely insane with some weapons... but I really wanna dual wield a pair of giant things that require crazy strength to lift them in the first place.
,,,man, I haven't had a chance to play all week, I'm falling so far behind. Some people are wrapping thei new game+ runs... I'm still barely past
! Ornstein and into the underground. Granted, I've been trying a couple different builds and gotten to that point pretty much three times now, but still.
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I've been wanting to swing by and give my experiences, but every time I want to post…. I just play Dark Souls instead!
@Xen:
I'm running a Hex build which started out a a sorcerer, so I feel abliged to give some advice.
All the elements scale with a stat, and fire scales with intelligence. Thus the fire longsword available half an hour into the game is going to be your best friend for a long time. Upgrade it and you won't need anything else ever. Eventually you'll get a weapon with better scaling, but the fire longsword +10 with a buff will get you through the game without too much issue. Best part is, you don't need more Strength/Dex than is needed to wield it (11/10) so you don't have too many points to allocate.
This leads me to my second point: you want a flex build. Dedicated sorcery is not going to be your friend, especially with how likely you are to be invaded. Holding a catalyst in your left hand and a quick attacking weapon (Fire Longsword) means you will be a force to reckon with. Especially in PVP. People see you have a staff and they tend to rush you. You're weapon (fire longsword) will make them pay.
Finally, going along the theme here, you want magical flexibility. You will come across enemies and people who aren't susceptible to your sorcery. Being able to switch over to a lightning spear will be great for you and a nice surprise for your enemies. However, that of course means you'll have to split between intelligence and faith… which is perfect for Hexes and pyromancy! WIth a solid attunement (20_ + Southern Ritual Ring, you've got something for every situation.
Now, you may be thinking that this is a jack of all trades, master of none, but it's really not. Essentially, you're borrowing what would be a master of Hex magic build but you're piloting it primarily for sorcery, which, due to having high intelligence, it is perfect for. It just so happens to be amazingly flexible. It also does insane amounts of damage. And it can handle each boss easily. The only boss who has lasted longer than a minute against me is the Smelter Demon, because he's an ass. You;ve got fire, lightning, dark, and magic on your side. Everything in the game is going to be weak to one of those four.
I've played three characters now: pure dex, pure strength, and now this weird magic hybrid. The first one I dropped after the The Last Giant, as it wasn't any fun and I was dying a lot. The second was fine, but I got bored with it and quit after The Shaded Ruins boss. This one, just beat the first Brightstone boss, and it has been fun the entire way through, mainly due to the flexibility.
Alrighty, that's a lot of stuff, but I obviously really love playing this character. Magic was never fun for me in Demon's or Dark Souls, but here it's a blast.
This is great. I've been rocking a basic quality build and am getting a bit bored of the Drang-gear. It's like the drake sword all over again… just in an ENTIRE SET. And it's been useful... especially with getting my feet wet with Dark Souls proper again... but it's lasted... a liiiiiiitle too long for my liking.
But this build of yours is pretty cool. Care to elaborate a little bit more on other important items, armor, weapons, stat progression?
I've got my soul reset item, and i'm really considering this!
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So I've just began going through ng+ and it's pretty cool that there are items that require some effort and luck to get. It's insane that dark souls has loot that is more fun than diablo 3. I'm currently trying to get the full heide knight set, problem is they don't respawn. So I have 19 ascetics to burn on this let's hope it goes well.
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About to move onto NG+ (just have to beat the optional abyss boss) but I want to make sure I've done all the quasi-reasonable checklist-type things before doing so. Anything else anyone can think of?
! -Buy all effigies and ascetics from all npcs (exhaustible stocks)
-Farm as many sunlight medals as possible from dark-orb throwers, twinklings from Amana mages, and petrified bones from Aldia scientists
-Buy all limited stone items from stone girl
-Collect all super useful rings (for potential use before coming upon them again, next time) -
@CCC:
About to move onto NG+ (just have to beat the optional abyss boss) but I want to make sure I've done all the quasi-reasonable checklist-type things before doing so. Anything else anyone can think of?
! -Buy all effigies and ascetics from all npcs (exhaustible stocks)
-Farm as many sunlight medals as possible from dark-orb throwers, twinklings from Amana mages, and petrified bones from Aldia scientists
-Buy all limited stone items from stone girl
-Collect all super useful rings (for potential use before coming upon them again, next time)! Did you do the Aldia assassination side quests?
Also ranking up the bell covenant on normal at belfry sol(killing the infinitely randomly respawning red phantom) might be less of a hassle. As for the twinkling you don't need to necessarily there is a spot that can give you quasi infinite twinkling(2 per use).
! The forth bonfire at forest of fallen giants right by the memory of jeigh. You burn your ascetic do the boss(which is kind of easy as far as ng+ stuff goes) the level itself has 1 ascetic to reimburse you then if you're outside go down from the giant tree there is a corpse with 2 twinklings. Rinse and repeat as you need. The boss gives also a nice amount of souls about ~150k I think. Also in general I feel like the game gives you a lot of upgrade stuff per play through so unless you want to really upgrade a large range of stuff farming is probably not that important. Good luck with the darklurker I've burned so many effigies on that thing… -
! Did you do the Aldia assassination side quests?
Also ranking up the bell covenant on normal at belfry sol(killing the infinitely randomly respawning red phantom) might be less of a hassle. As for the twinkling you don't need to necessarily there is a spot that can give you quasi infinite twinkling(2 per use).
! The forth bonfire at forest of fallen giants right by the memory of jeigh. You burn your ascetic do the boss(which is kind of easy as far as ng+ stuff goes) the level itself has 1 ascetic to reimburse you then if you're outside go down from the giant tree there is a corpse with 2 twinklings. Rinse and repeat as you need. The boss gives also a nice amount of souls about ~150k I think. Also in general I feel like the game gives you a lot of upgrade stuff per play through so unless you want to really upgrade a large range of stuff farming is probably not that important. Good luck with the darklurker I've burned so many effigies on that thing…! Ooh, right, forgot about some of that stuff!
Unfortunately I let Navlaan free before talking to him (again, that'll show me to play without a guide… or without heeding the dev warnings written all over the ground).
Leveling up the Bell Keepers seems worth it, though. Some of that twinkling too, given how useful it is vs. what a high price what's-her-face sells it for.
! Darklurker destroyed me about 6 times last night (it would always split around 50 or 60%, and then it was all over), but I'm going to try again today, this time using pyromancy. People are saying that using a single Chaos Firestorm right when it splits is pretty much enough to kill it. And Flame Swath before it splits. -
@CCC:
! Ooh, right, forgot about some of that stuff!
Unfortunately I let Navlaan free before talking him (again, that'll show me to play without a guide… or without heeding the dev warnings written all over the ground).
Leveling up the Bell Keepers seems worth it, though. Some of that twinkling too, given how useful it is vs. what a high price what's-her-face sells it for.
! Darklurker destroyed me about 6 times last night (it would always split around 50 or 60%, and then it was all over), but I'm going to try again today, this time using pyromancy. People are saying that using a single Chaos Firestorm right when it splits is pretty much enough to kill it. And Flame Swath before it splits.! Almost happened to me too but I gladly chose to listen to the message there. It's a bit surprising I have only encountered 3 troll messages so far. The majority is rather usefull or at least has good intent.
! I also totally forgot if you beat king vendrick pick up his soul in shrine of amana. I almost missed that just cause I didn't know that he didn't give me his soul when I defeated him. I only noticed when I tried to get one of his items from ornifex and I couldn't.
! Darklurker was kind of very mage like for me. He can't take a lot but dishes out like a madman. I got him to split several times before one of his attacks oneshot me. The time I got him was because I somehow casted faster than him.Hurray got the full heide knight set. And wow I'm tanking a lot more. Like I used to get 2 shot I can take 4 hits on average now.
I kind of want to push until SL 200 to have a nice round number and because I have way to many souls. But I worry that I won't be able to help people anymore.
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I just parried a sunlight spear from an invader pointblank range and it killed him instantly xD....
Backfired! -
I tried re-doing my souls for a faith/int build that capitalizes on fire damage for a melee weapon, like Xen had posted.
I 'effed up on a couple fronts though. First… my starting class is knight... so I waste points making my int higher.
Second... I ended up spreading my points out too far. I didn't want to have to let adaption go. So I ended up being too weak on all fronts. My int and faith were like at 20, so hexes and spells were too weak. I was getting slaughtered in the belfry pvp. So I had access to one more soul vessel in the bastille... and it would be a little longer before I had a chance to get a third one. So I decided to go back to my quality build, but this time I added some spell slots for my pyromancy, lowered my dex and pumped souls into str.
Been reading a lot around that Dex builds aren't as insane as they used to be. Seems more balanced... simply faster, with more of a focus to dual wield. Lots more people going the STR build route. So I see a LOT of players running around with giant swords and shit.... and they would demolish me and my puny hexes. But then again... I wasn't built correctly for hexes anyway.
Currently on old iron king, so flash sweat comes in handy. He's pretty easy... but i've found myself dying for dumb shit.. like getting pushed into the lava by his fire.
Got bored of the drangleic sword... so I switched to a mace... which is pretty badass after a few upgrades... just short reach. Also have my eye on the dragonslayer's crescent axe.. but I don't want to risk my precious twinkling titanite just to see how good it is.
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If your build is like all 20s, or evenly split stats, I have secret news for you about those Mundane stones you've probably picked up, although I don't know how it'll fit into your hex plan.
! Mundane builds are based on your weakest stat, meaning if you are a seemingly super spread thin character, you can get wacky crazy damage.
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Have people here played around with the boss weapons? I've been especially looking at faith(lightning weapons) and the defender greatsword did the best for me.(Faith:50,Str:20,Dex:20)
I also looked at the Moonlight greatsword which I'm not a fan of. Not sure if there are any standouts in there. I've only traded I think 6 weapons so far despite owning almost all souls 2 times.Also does someone know how to open the gate at the rise of the dead bonfire(up the stairs)?
Been rushing through NG+ like a madman and boy is it long. I'm not sure if I have it in me to instantly start the NG++ for the last spells. Probably need a break. All in all I have to say NG+ is definitely tons more interesting than it was the previous games.
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Oh my god... Dark Souls you're the best. Holy crap I just found the best armor. xD! Sorry for the bad image quality I don't have capture equipment for my ps3.
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Am kinda stuck trying to figure out where to go next. Anyone have an idea?
What I finished[hide]
-Giant Spider primal boss
-Iron Keep primal boss (Iron King or something)
-Sinner at Bastile primal boss
[/hide]Is there an area I'm missing?
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Am kinda stuck trying to figure out where to go next. Anyone have an idea?
What I finished[hide]
-Giant Spider primal boss
-Iron Keep primal boss (Iron King or something)
-Sinner at Bastile primal boss
[/hide]Is there an area I'm missing?
! Black Gulch primal boss? But didn't you already do that? Maybe you just forgot to kindle the primal bonfire there. It's easy to overlook the cave entrance to that.
After that it's the shrine of winter you have to head to. -
! Black Gulch primal boss? But didn't you already do that? Maybe you just forgot to kindle the primal bonfire there. It's easy to overlook the cave entrance to that.
After that it's the shrine of winter you have to head to.! Oh. I did Black Gulch too. So it's Shrine of Winter. Where is that?
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! Oh. I did Black Gulch too. So it's Shrine of Winter. Where is that?
Don't quite remember the name of the bonfire but it's the bonfire right before the super misty forest. One of the other roads should lead you to it.
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Oh! I completely missed that third path in the fork. Thanks.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
@RobbyBevard:
150% of whatever the highest stat is between the weapons. Usually rounded down.
So if your first weapon needs 9 strength and 11 dex, and your second weapon needs 7 strength and 14 dex…. then your total required stats to dual wield would be 13 strength and 21 dex.
This obviously becomes absolutely insane with some weapons... but I really wanna dual wield a pair of giant things that require crazy strength to lift them in the first place.
Update on this. I mangaged to dual weild two club weapons and use power stance after putting 43 STR. I haven't tested the damage yet, but geez it does look ridiculous. I think you'd be real satisfied.
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Glad I could help.
Also just got the platinum. What a game. It's pretty hard for me to say if I do like this one better than Dark Souls 1 compared to me being very sure about liking dark souls more than demon souls. I'd say they're about the same for. I have to say I was surprised by how much content there was. I mean I could still try to get some rare items like the visible aurous set or really get into pvp, have to say fending of invaders was mostly fun I only got miffed once when they interrupted me trying to do the belfry luna boss.Also the trophies are generally better there isn't much farming to be done depending on how you approach it.
The one thing that was somewhat irksome is the required ng++ run.Having finished this I have to say though I'm not sure if I'd be ready for another souls game that doesn't bring something drastically new to the table(well I guess it depends on how much time there will be between this one and the next.)
There are so many things I would like to comment on but before this just becomes even more of an incoherent mess of thoughts I'm going to leave it with my favorite boss fight(one of the very last ones).
! The ancient dragon. Figuring him out took a lot of tries and when I finally did it was just the best. There are probably a few ways to handle him it's going to be interesting to see how others did it.
! My strategy was hiding under his belly. -
Grats on platinum!
I'm sure I'll be bugging you for Lucatiel/Benhart strategies at some point ;)
Currently at 23 out of 30 sun medals I need for max rank and the spell… Last thing to do before NG+.
I know I said I'd never give in and do co-op, but... ugh. Whatever. I'm camping the final boss, which is only yielding about a ~50% return rate because stupid hosts rush in and die/don't know the boss's moveset. -
How much longer do I have because I kind of just want to move on and beat the game because I don't have a ton of time after this week to be Into anything
I've gotten
! Two primal bonfires, seemingly my only options are to go forward and do Tseldora, or the Iron Keep past the Smelter Demon.
Please don't tell me this is the halfway point only
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@CCC:
Grats on platinum!
I'm sure I'll be bugging you for Lucatiel/Benhart strategies at some point ;)
Currently at 23 out of 30 sun medals I need for max rank and the spell… Last thing to do before NG+.
I know I said I'd never give in and do co-op, but... ugh. Whatever. I'm camping the final boss, which is only yielding about a ~50% return rate because stupid hosts rush in and die/don't know the boss's moveset.Thanks! Hehe good luck with the medals!
! I did get a good chunk of them by helping out at jabba the hutt. That thing's move set is just ridiculously easy. Helping out at the Iron King was the worst for me. Most people just get one shot there but I can't fault them the first time I went there he just lasered me into the lava.
As for Lucatiel and Benhart I think the thing that makes this easier is that you can actually do the same boss multiple times(ascetics) to trigger the inherit item event. I personally feel the black gulch boss is the easiest for Lucatiel and the memory of Jeigh boss is the easiest for Benhart.
Hope that helps :).
@Holy:Please don't tell me this is the halfway point only
Mmmh it's hard to say with only that since area progression is so nonlinear. Like if we assume you only have 2 primals and left the areas of the other 2 primals untouched you might be about ~1/3 through. If you're right before the primals in those other areas it might be 3/5?
In any case it might be more helpful knowing that you still have about 8 major areas to go through(spoiler for those that completed so they can double check that I didn't miscount)! Not counting the last 2 primal areas: I count Drangleic Castle, Aldia's Keep, Memory of Giants(I'll count all 3 as one area), Dragon Aerie, Dragon Shrine, Undead Crypt, Shrine of Amana, Dark Chasm(darklurker again all 3 as 1), that's 8. Not all of them are super long though and one of them is entirely optional.
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Let's see. log for today
! The Crypt! Best level in the whole game for me. The ruins with the singing was interesting too, but it was more of an annoyance due to magicians spamming projectiles beyond thier own draw distance. But the Crypt man! This place was amazing from enemy layouts, trap design, boss intro and pretty much the end. The boss I managed to beat on my first try. With a low amount of Humanity too. Buit damn! The end of dungeon had emotions that was on the same caliber as meeting Gywn in Dark Souls 1. Maybe even a little better.
! Also managed to make it to Ancient Dragon… I don't know if my experience and skill have grown in this whole ordeal, but this guy gave me zero problems. I two handed my Large Club pumped with Gold Pine Resin and opened the fight with over half his lifebar gone. Then he eventally messed himself up by using that breath attack while on the floor. I was close enough to him to finish the fight with another string of attacks.
! Now I'm at the place that was shown in the early footage of Dark Souls 2. It's starting to feel like the final leg in this long journey....Also an older log. Regarding the end of Iron Keep.
! Did anyone think the primal boss here was the most hilariously stupid boss in the game? The way he attacked and left himself REALLY open reminded me of one of those shitty boss fights in a platformer game aimed for kids. Not ripping on the fight itself(or platformer games), but I could not help but laugh while beating him. Seriously… He seemed like he was in the wrong game.
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This seems more like a general question about the series though I'm applying it to DaS1 and not 2 but this thread seems active so I'm asking here. If I upgrade a weapon to a special version of that weapon with the soul of a boss, do all of the stats of that weapon get overridden by the stats of the new weapon? Specifically, I have a giant's halberd that I am planning on upgrading to +10 and then turning into a Lifehunt Scythe. The giant's halberd requires 36 strength to use but the Lifehunt Scythe according to the DaS Wiki only requires 16 strength to use. Will the final Lifehunt Scythe's strength requirement be higher because of the type of halberd I'm using to get it or will it still be 16? And similarly, will a halberd/whip/scythe with a higher base damage result in a Lifehunt Scythe with a higher base damage or not?
Edit: Now that I think about it maybe I should save the giant's halberd since it seems like it could be a pretty rare drop and use another halberd-type weapon that I have. I still want to know the answer to my question though.
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This seems more like a general question about the series though I'm applying it to DaS1 and not 2 but this thread seems active so I'm asking here. If I upgrade a weapon to a special version of that weapon with the soul of a boss, do all of the stats of that weapon get overridden by the stats of the new weapon? Specifically, I have a giant's halberd that I am planning on upgrading to +10 and then turning into a Lifehunt Scythe. The giant's halberd requires 36 strength to use but the Lifehunt Scythe according to the DaS Wiki only requires 16 strength to use. Will the final Lifehunt Scythe's strength requirement be higher because of the type of halberd I'm using to get it or will it still be 16? And similarly, will a halberd/whip/scythe with a higher base damage result in a Lifehunt Scythe with a higher base damage or not?
Edit: Now that I think about it maybe I should save the giant's halberd since it seems like it could be a pretty rare drop and use another halberd-type weapon that I have. I still want to know the answer to my question though.
Nah. The base weapon that you use to create the boss weapon doesn't have any effect whatsoever on the final product. The only requirement is that it's of the right class (halberd vs. bow vs. axe, etc.). The stats of boss weapons are set and finalized and listed in the wiki. Just make sure you're using a "normal" weapon, aka one that is upgraded with normal titanite and not twinkling/dragon scales.
But Dark Souls 2 doesn't actually require a base weapon at all. You just pay the npc(s) the boss soul and a token amount of ordinary souls. A nice change, imo, although the boss weapons this time around are pretty unimpressive.
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Have people here played around with the boss weapons? I've been especially looking at faith(lightning weapons) and the defender greatsword did the best for me.(Faith:50,Str:20,Dex:20)
I also looked at the Moonlight greatsword which I'm not a fan of. Not sure if there are any standouts in there. I've only traded I think 6 weapons so far despite owning almost all souls 2 times.Also does someone know how to open the gate at the rise of the dead bonfire(up the stairs)?
Been rushing through NG+ like a madman and boy is it long. I'm not sure if I have it in me to instantly start the NG++ for the last spells. Probably need a break. All in all I have to say NG+ is definitely tons more interesting than it was the previous games.
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Oh my god... Dark Souls you're the best. Holy crap I just found the best armor. xD! http://i.imgur.com/hrOsBbLl.jpgSorry for the bad image quality I don't have capture equipment for my ps3.
Late reply here since I been playing the game but yeah Defender Greatsword seems to be the best faith weapons when infused with lightning thanks to the S in lightning at +5. Haven't seen anything better myself but it's good and also saves me a slot from using Sunlight Blade since the two-handed L2 is pretty much its own version of Sunlight Blade. I then use a Sun Sword +10 (no infusion) as a back up weapon when I need something speedy and physical. Been working for me so far. I managed to beat NG and am now going through the optional bosses I skipped:
! Vendrick caught me off guard and pretty much one hit killed me. I think it's late since I keep mistiming my rolls and getting myself killed. Will aim for him again tomorrow. Otherwise I need to go through the Chasm of Old. Last time I went the NPCs killed me and I got frustrated at wasting humanities so decided to leave to endgame. Feel more confident I can take them now that I've upgraded both weapons and miracles. Back then I was still using Drangleic and regular lightning spear.
Also grats on the platinum. I missed the NPC quests you had to summon since I was pretty much hollow the entire time except for when coop rarely turned me human. Oh well, a reason to do another playthrough I guess. But I actually feel more like replaying Demon Souls for some reason….
I had a question for the all miracles/hexes/spells/pyromancies trophies. I know there were some ridiculous ones like Wrath of Gods having an insane amount of rank up required as a covenant reward. Are all such spells available by other means through bosses in NG+ or such? Which spells are these and what bosses?
Sunlight spear doesn't matter - I have like 60 medals from all the cooping haha.I hear CCC on the frustrating hosts that rush into death though. It's about 50-50 between good hosts and the impatient imo.
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Thanks! There is a NPC that sells all covenant spells in NG++ with the exception of hidden weapon which you get from the bell covenant(can be done offline).
From what I've seen boss weapons this time around do feel a lot like normal weapons with a gimmick(some are cool some are meh) added to them.
Defenders Greatsword is basically a claymore with that 2h L2 effect.I think my favorite boss item is the mirror shield it's just hilarious. But then I haven't tested too many of them.
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I hear CCC on the frustrating hosts that rush into death though. It's about 50-50 between good hosts and the impatient imo.
That was actually kind of me, tonight. :P
NG+ spoiler
! I died to the Sinner twice while fighting with Lucatiel and other real-life phantoms. Just from sloppiness and panicking when Lucatiel was taking too much damage. Finally succeeded on the third try by just resolving to be a total tank (red-eye ring, of course) while Lucatiel and my buddy did all the damage on both the Sinner and the two pyros that show up.
! I honestly don't know how I could possibly win that fight (pure melee) without the help of a real person. Let alone keep Lucatiel alive.
! Going to attempt the Rotten and Flexile with Lucatiel tomorrow. -
Did anyone use the gender swap coffin at the beginning? I had a good laugh when I did. The result is kind of funny yet not hideous(at least it wasn't in my case).
Mine actually turned of kind of similar to someone I knew, just a tad bit more angular. -
I thought it was really wacky just getting in and finding out THAT'S what it did. I wonder if there's some lore reason for it somewhere in the game, because I kind of expect that and wouldn't put it past the devs at this point.
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! Did anyone think the primal boss here was the most hilariously stupid boss in the game? The way he attacked and left himself REALLY open reminded me of one of those shitty boss fights in a platformer game aimed for kids. Not ripping on the fight itself(or platformer games), but I could not help but laugh while beating him. Seriously… He seemed like he was in the wrong game.
Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw agrees with you ;)
[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8945-Dark-Souls-2-Prepare-to-Die-AgainM](http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8945-Dark-Souls-2-Prepare-to-Die-Again)y favorite part was Ornstein and Twat leading to Skully Bunch, That Tree Thing, Naturist Dragon, and John Paul George and Ringo.
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Oh wow I haven't watched ZP in a long time. Haha always funny to see someone come around. I still remember the Escapist Expo 2012 where he was really reluctant about that game not seeing the appeal at all and basically saying that he just doesn't have the time(honestly in most cases people say this they just don't want to make the time :P) to commit to the frustration that dark souls is.
I've seen so many people turn on this game with a little help, I always feel weird when there is someone that genuinely doesn't like it. It really makes me just think that they just haven't understood the game yet. Which is kind of douchey of me I think.
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And…. I completed Dark Souls 2. Almost completely blind. What a great game.
Gonna defiantly play New Game + since I obviously missed alot of optional areas and content, and well... I desire more challenge... seeing as the game was seriouly lacking that great O&S boss fight. It had its moments tho, so it didn't disapoint me.Might do the second run blind too. I like discovering stuff on my own. And I'm not interested in the Trophies. What I AM interested in?! Those special rings. So the plan? To do much NG pluses as possible to the point I'd completely trivialize the main game's difficulty... Then start a anew. No real rush. I spent 60 bucks on this amazing game, and I expect to have my fill :3
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Did anyone use the gender swap coffin at the beginning? I had a good laugh when I did. The result is kind of funny yet not hideous(at least it wasn't in my case).
Mine actually turned of kind of similar to someone I knew, just a tad bit more angular.I didn't understand what that coffin did until I had played about 50% of the game, which is a bit embarrassing. Quite the shock when I suddenly looked like a girl after taking my hood off. :P
But yeah, absolutely amazing game. Haven't been this addicted to a game for a long time. Getting the platinum in about a week is a testament to that.
Really wish the game had some insanely hard and memorable bosses though. The four old ones (bar sinner in NG+) were too easy and forgettable :/Btw, I've been hearing some rumors about blue flames. Anyone know anything about that?
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The no bonfire ring is actually pretty easy you can buy infinite repair powder and then there's the ash knuckle ring.
No deaths is also fairly doable(assuming you only do bosses you have to) I think it's just a matter of nerves of not being able to make 1 mistake, although I definitely wouldn't try this one online. Grey spirits and invaders could screw you over hard on this one.
I think it's at least easier than doing the 999 seconds chicken dodge in zelda.
@SanjiFan:Really wish the game had some insanely hard and memorable bosses though.
First time is always the best for me with dark souls, ng+ is neat but once you know the bosses you know them in general.
I'm surprised though that you didn't find anything really hard or memorable.
I thought the Dragon Shrine boss was really cool it took me quite a few tries to understand how to influence his patterns. The first Iron keep boss is pretty fun too and the last brightstone cove boss as melee is also pretty great. -
Finished Benhart; working on Lucatiel.
Did Flexile, Rotten, and Sinner with her alive (with the help of a friendly sunbro each time) so far. Flexile was fucking horrible.
! Flexile really seems luck-based, with those two extra ninja GT robos in the fight. I didn't have a jolly cooperator the first ~10 times, so I just kept dying in the first 5 seconds, over and over. Finally summoned someone (besides Lucatiel) and he was pro enough to deal with the ninjas.
! I know the guides say you only need three for her, but given the fact that she disappears forever once you speak to her at Aldia's AND the fact that people have reported that this quest is bugged, I'm not risking it. Gonna get the fourth. Already tried Smelter a few times, but I have no idea how to keep her alive. Even with red-eye ring.
Will try again tomorrow :( -
@CCC:
Finished Benhart; working on Lucatiel.
Did Flexile, Rotten, and Sinner with her alive (with the help of a friendly sunbro each time) so far. Flexile was fucking horrible.
! Flexile really seems luck-based, with those two extra ninja GT robos in the fight. I didn't have a jolly cooperator the first ~10 times, so I just kept dying in the first 5 seconds, over and over. Finally summoned someone (besides Lucatiel) and he was pro enough to deal with the ninjas.
! I know the guides say you only need three for her, but given the fact that she disappears forever once you speak to her at Aldia's AND the fact that people have reported that this quest is bugged, I'm not risking it. Gonna get the fourth. Already tried Smelter a few times, but I have no idea how to keep her alive. Even with red-eye ring.
Will try again tomorrow :(! Haha yeah ninjas are pretty mean. Did you wear the red eye ring? If yes that's most likely why this was harder than it actually is. It's the one fight where wearing it is actually a detriment. Putting some trust into Lucatiel's tankiness helped me overcome it. I only put the ring on once I've dealt with the ninjas.
I could not figure out how to keep her alive for smelter on normal(I gave up on that one). The burn is just too much. Maybe one of the group heal miracles?
But then you can repeat boss fights with Lucatiel if you burn ascetics. It will count. -
First time is always the best for me with dark souls, ng+ is neat but once you know the bosses you know them in general.
I'm surprised though that you didn't find anything really hard or memorable.
I thought the Dragon Shrine boss was really cool it took me quite a few tries to understand how to influence his patterns. The first Iron keep boss is pretty fun too and the last brightstone cove boss as melee is also pretty great.Oh, that was bad wording on my part. There definitely were some memorable bosses in the game. Smelty was a well made boss, for example, and probably a better one than the primary boss of the area. The tributes to the first DS were also a nice touch, but I'm glad they were optional. I did miss that one really, really hard boss though. There were some challenging ones, but they were all doable after a few attempts at most. And managing to one shot the final boss is a bit meh. I fought Medusa in the poison on my first playthrough, so that might've been where I died the most.
@C3: I'm a bit surprised that you thought Flexile was the hard one. I might've gotten very good rng on that one. For me the Sinner and Smelty were a nightmare to beat with her in NG+. Even with the ring and some help she'd get annihilated so quickly. I didn't get the achievement on my first playthrough, so I beat 5 bosses with her on NG+ due to paranoia. :P
Imagine if Lucatiel was as useful as Jester Thomas… -
! Haha yeah ninjas are pretty mean. Did you wear the red eye ring? If yes that's most likely why this was harder than it actually is. It's the one fight where wearing it is actually a detriment. Putting some trust into Lucatiel's tankiness helped me overcome it. I only put the ring on once I've dealt with the ninjas.
I could not figure out how to keep her alive for smelter on normal(I gave up on that one). The burn is just too much. Maybe one of the group heal miracles?
But then you can repeat boss fights with Lucatiel if you burn ascetics. It will count.Yeah. I did wear the ring for Flexile. I guess that was my problem :P
Did Smelter w/Lucatiel on my first try today. Summoned a sunbro, Lucatiel accidentally fell off onto the ledge before the fight, I tanked, sunbro did all the work. Easy cheesy.
Got the trophy.Just need all pyros and miracles from Wellager on NG++ now.
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^ Congrats!
So I've had some time to really let dark souls II sink in.
! Was doing more pvp and progressing on the no bonfire ring, sadly the no death ring didn't pan out I did 3 primals before I ended getting cursed by accident by the second pursuer in Iron Keep.So I wanted to talk about one of its aspects and how it compares to previous souls games for me. What I want to talk about is warping and by extension the overall level design.
Spoilers just in case.! So first and foremost I'm of the camp that thinks the interconnectedness of Dark Souls wins by a mile to the stage by stage design that Demon's Soul had. With that in mind I have to say I don't think I'm in love with how DSII went about this. DSII level design feels very much like a tree branching out and rarely connecting to other branches whereas DS kind of loops back more with its branches.
! I don't think I'm in love with the whole being able to warp from the very beginning. Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying DSII would be better if it didn't have warping from the very beginning because with the way the levels are set up(most things are fairly apart from each other in the beginning) it wouldn't be I think.
! But in general I prefer it if they kept warping as something you achieve later in the game. My sense of the world turned out definitely way weaker because of it.
It took me NG+ to really remember all the connections by heart, for example I totally forgot for a moment that the passage after the dragonrider leads to No Man's Wharf, or that I had to go through Earthen Peak to arrive at Iron Keep. Whereas in DS the constant loop backs and how everything connected made for a very strong sense of the world, quickly burning the geography of that world into my head.
! With how big DSII turned out to be I also have to wonder if it would be even possible to connect everything together. There's a part of me that questions if big worlds do suit the Soul series and if it may be better for them to explore other ways to pack in more content without increasing the world size.
! What also didn't help is that the interarea shortcuts where pretty rare. The destroyable wall at the second bonfire in forest of the fallen giants those kind of things were pretty awesome I wished there were more of it. But most areas actually end up being pretty tunnel like in the sense that it's only about moving forward.
! That said I appreciate them experimenting on things like these to keep them fresh. In this case it just didn't pan out to my liking. So that's my 2 cents on this little aspect of the series. -
One thing that sort of bugged me about the interconnected world this time was pretty much the ones that make absolutely no sense. pre-area to Iron Keep, and Tower of Hidle to No man's Wharf comes to mind. Then agian, the world itself felt very dream-like in some sense.
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! Also a surprising lack of secret areas that made you go "oh". Something like the painted world. And what I absolutely didn't like was that it showed you every bonfire and area you were missing towards the end of the game(not sure if this is a normal game only thing hasn't happened since but that was meh).
@Hiroy:One thing that sort of bugged me about the interconnected world this time was pretty much the ones that make absolutely no sense. pre-area to Iron Keep, and Tower of Hidle to No man's Wharf comes to mind. Then agian, the world itself felt very dream-like in some sense.
Yeah that was kind of funny to me actually. For the way that connects to the Wharf I was thinking "damn the romans don't have anything on them soul's architects". For Iron Keep I had a "wait a moment" situation when the elevator went up. If they didn't call the area before Earthen "Peak" I could have filed it away as it just leads up into the volcano area.
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I'm still slow and wrapping up missing stuff I missed before I head to NG+ (some rings and spells). But after a couple rings I think its about time to head to NG+. And thanks for the note on getting the covenant spells DarthAsthma, those and the NG+ ones are the only ones I am missing now. I did finally beat the optional bosses (except I didn't even try the one atop Dragon Shrine since just getting there is annoying in itself). I also kinda want to try a new character with a different build at the same time. My STR/Faith knight is probably more than ready for NG+ though with a Lightning Defender Greatsword + 5 and a Lightning Dragon Chime and tons of Great Lightning Spears and 4 Sunlight Spears. Noticed a ton of bosses have lightning weakness this game.
Also this video was awesome (NG+ Castle Drangleic spoilers) - I was wondering why I saw so many bloodstains in that area in NG lol.
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Played around with New Game +
It had a strong start, but I got bored around No Man's Wharf since it was mostly the same thing. AI didn't seem too madly aggressive, and I sort of expected new enemies in every area. Does it get better? Like filling up spaces with enemies that were once empty and barren? Are there that many new enemies? If not, I'm just going to replay the game with a new character.
Speaking of… I'm thinking of trying a build that focuses solely on punishing and poise damage (also knockdown). I feel like the Large Club playthrough pretty much did most of that really well(it actually taught me to two-hand more and learn to avoid hiding lamely behind a shield), and if there's no options outside that... I might as well make a witch character. Magic looks neat. Especially Toxic spells.