Demon's Souls - Atlus & From Software's Action RPG - October 6

[quote name='billyrox']btw, do you recommend just upgrading the kite shield up as much as possible or should i use the adjudicator shield and try to upgrade that instead for 4-1[/QUOTE]
Adjudicator's shield is a unique item, one of several, which can only be upgraded by colorless demon souls. These are the souls of primeval demons which only appear in pure black world tendency, once per world, and also can be collected in a few other places; a maximum of 10 per playthrough. Since it has low guard break reduction, and only fair protection its primary benefit is as an accessory on your off-hand while two-handing a weapon to regenerate health.

If you plan to stick with using a shield, you might consider switching from a shield which can parry to a heavier shield which can't. Shields that can't parry offer greater guard break reduction (less stamina loss per blocked blow) and often offer greater resistance to fire damage. A kite shield offers a maximum guard break reduction of 75% at +10 with weight of 3.5. The tower shield offers the highest possible guard break reduction at +10 (85%) but it is prohibitively heavy on most builds.

The next highest is a tie between the Steel shield and the Purple flame shield (82%). The steel shield has the same resistances as your kite shield (when blocking: 100% of physical damage goes to stamina, 30% of magic damage goes to stamina, 70% of fire damage goes to stamina) for 2.5 more weight than the kite shield. The Purple flame shield offers 20% more fire protection for 4.5 more weight than the kite shield. The Brushwood shield is the next highest at 80% max guard break reduction, but it offers an additional 10% fire resistance over the purple flame shield (for a total of 100%) for 9.5 more weight than the kite shield.

I am personally a fan of the purple flame shield because it offers the second highest guard break reduction and nearly complete protection from fire (90%) at a fair additional weight over shields which parry. It looks pretty darn cool to boot.

The steel shield is usually found in the course of playing 2-1, the purple flame shield is being guarded by the red dragon in 1-1 (which you can run in and grab if you are careful or come back for after you arrow the red dragon to death in 1-2), and the brushwood shield requires pure black or pure white tendency in 1-1 unless you kill Biorr for his shield in 1-3.

Shards of hardstone are easy to come by from the filthy man at the start of 2-1 so you can easily upgrade any non-unique shield to +3, so I would do that the bare minimum. The filthy man is a little harder to get to in 2-2 (who sells large shards of hardstone), but large shards will get your shield up to +6. It is +7 and on that requires chunks of hardstone which can't be bought from a vendor.

The only other upgrade type offered for shields is "Dark" using cloudstone which increases protection from magic at a cost to other protection stats, but no matter which shield you upgrade with it, it has worse stats than the unique Dark Silver Shield that you acquire at the end of the Valley of Defilement. The only reason to fully upgrade a shield with cloudstone is for the trophy. The only drawback to the Dark Silver shield is it decreases your magic attack damage.
 
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again thank you for the sage advice.. it's kept me fighting rather than give up in defeat.


i've now reached the abjudicator now...but he keeps destroying me with one kill during melee... i've seen the melee videos where you hit his belly and then he falls on the ground and you just keep doing it back and forth. the main issue is often his body blocks him from getting behind him when moves to the corner. and then i get killed in 1 hit.

i've read online that you can shoot soul arrows while running around on the middle floor is that possible? because the last night i tried to do it his tongue broke the floor and i fell to the very bottom.
 
[quote name='billyrox']again thank you for the sage advice.. it's kept me fighting rather than give up in defeat.


i've now reached the abjudicator now...but he keeps destroying me with one kill during melee... i've seen the melee videos where you hit his belly and then he falls on the ground and you just keep doing it back and forth. the main issue is often his body blocks him from getting behind him when moves to the corner. and then i get killed in 1 hit.

i've read online that you can shoot soul arrows while running around on the middle floor is that possible? because the last night i tried to do it his tongue broke the floor and i fell to the very bottom.[/QUOTE]
I never had much luck with ranged, he would always kill me with a quick flick of his tongue.

If you keep close to his body on the right side under the arm with the broken cleaver, his horizontal swipe cannot reach you. However, after enough swipes his body will often turn far enough left that his left side will jam up against a wall so you can't get under his arm. When that is about to happen, cross his front and get on the other side, slightly behind him. He will attempt to turn around to face you, which moves his left side back away from the wall. Then begin cradling under the broken cleaver arm again, crossing back to the other side whenever you need to reorient him.

With enough stamina and a shield with high enough guard break resistance, you can survive a horizontal slash. I always have my shield up and blocking when not attacking as a safety net in case I mess up and get whacked by the horizontal swing. You may be able to survive it with your current shield, but the attack will probably break your guard, leave you temporarily stunned, and near death so have plenty of strong healing grass ready. The spell protection (which you can purchase from the vendor in the Nexus) also will reduce damage taken by 30%.

Also, listen during the fight, the golden crow on his head always cries out just before it will do a horizontal slash.
 
It's been posted several times before, but once more can't hurt: http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/

That is the ultimate reference to this game, billyrox. Obviously it has spoilers and whatnot, but it really helps.

At least read this page, which is spoiler-free and explains how to interpret the weapons attribute screen. (Seriously, I hope Dark Souls uses normal acronyms/abbreviations for stats instead of those stupid made up symbols. That is one of my only strong dislikes about Demon's Souls).
 
So I finished my first play through and want to help others play or just in general kill more bosses can I only play with people on their 2nd playthrough or is it still by soul level?
 
[quote name='dante2007']So I finished my first play through and want to help others play or just in general kill more bosses can I only play with people on their 2nd playthrough or is it still by soul level?[/QUOTE]
You can play alongside people who are 10 levels above you and 10 levels below yours.
 
Sort of true. Taken from DSW

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Anyone willing to help me clear too Dragon God im getting my face smashed in 2-1 on the spider, and I keep almost getting back and get invaded and killed. PSN is dante2007 SL is 89.
 
@dante - If you keep getting invaded you should try it in soul form especially if thats the only thing keeping you from completing 2-X.

If your still having problems I can try and help.
 
[quote name='dante2007']Anyone willing to help me clear too Dragon God im getting my face smashed in 2-1 on the spider, and I keep almost getting back and get invaded and killed. PSN is dante2007 SL is 89.[/QUOTE]

I'll help you out if your around tonight. I'm SL 92 Royal, primarily magic and bow user, so I can pwn that Spider from long distance. I should be on from around 7pm EST onward. PSN ID is Puffa469.
 
My EU BP edition arrived yesterday. My first playthrough on EU was under 8 hours (doing all tendency events, didn't level beyond SL 14). Only thing I upgraded was the CLB to +3 and just rolled with steel shield and DLS +1. Good times.
 
Is lizard in 4-1 gone forever? The one by the boss.

I saw him before boss, and he ran away. I wasn't think, and ignored him. I didn't know that he drops a Dark Moonstone, which I _really_ want to upgrade my Crescent Falchion.

After the boss, I warped from Nexus back to the boss, and went back to where he was, and he was there again. I got him twice with soul-ray, but he jumped off cliff before I could get the last 3 HP off him.

Am I a screwed now? The Dark moon stone is so rare, and I am concentrating on magic, so the Crescent Falchion is a great weapon to use.

I think I read the lizards only appear once before a boss, and once after. If that is true, I can never get those crystals. If that is true, I find that more frustrating than anything else in the game, as atleast I can retry my other failures.

Help me!
 
The lizards appear once on their own + once more for each boss defeated.

If you fail to kill it or it suicides, it counts as an appearance just as killing it would so you will have to wait until a future playthrough or find someone to trade/dupe you some

Also, there are no guarantees that it would even drop what you are looking for if that makes you feel any better. :)
 
[quote name='jacknicklson']The lizards appear once on their own + once more for each boss defeated.

If you fail to kill it or it suicides, it counts as an appearance just as killing it would so you will have to wait until a future playthrough or find someone to trade/dupe you some

Also, there are no guarantees that it would even drop what you are looking for if that makes you feel any better. :)[/QUOTE]

Yep, so each lizard can be killed (or missed) a max of 4 times. You'll probably have to play through the game 2-3 times to get what you want. I think everyone screws up the lizards on their first play-through, so don't feel too bad. Just be more careful to sneak up on them next time :)

Use these tips to hunt them: http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/crystal-lizards
 
Soul Level 37.

Looks like in 4-2 there is a fair bit of darkmoonstone I could get for my crescent upgrades.

Also looks like a moon weapon might be a good patht to go down as well, as I like the idea of the weapon power scaling with my magic. And I already have some moonlightstone, and you can just buy it from the the once royal mistress in the tower of Latria.... though I hate the thought of returning to that level. Those face suckers give me night mares, and I lose control of my bladder/bowels everytime they get a hold of me.

Thanks,

~S
 
[quote name='snowsquirrel']Soul Level 37.

Looks like in 4-2 there is a fair bit of darkmoonstone I could get for my crescent upgrades.

Also looks like a moon weapon might be a good patht to go down as well, as I like the idea of the weapon power scaling with my magic. And I already have some moonlightstone, and you can just buy it from the the once royal mistress in the tower of Latria.... though I hate the thought of returning to that level. Those face suckers give me night mares, and I lose control of my bladder/bowels everytime they get a hold of me.

Thanks,

~S[/QUOTE]

Carry some soul remains with you to help get around the mindflayers.
 
[quote name='snowsquirrel']Soul Level 37.

Looks like in 4-2 there is a fair bit of darkmoonstone I could get for my crescent upgrades.

Also looks like a moon weapon might be a good patht to go down as well, as I like the idea of the weapon power scaling with my magic. And I already have some moonlightstone, and you can just buy it from the the once royal mistress in the tower of Latria.... though I hate the thought of returning to that level. Those face suckers give me night mares, and I lose control of my bladder/bowels everytime they get a hold of me.

Thanks,

~S[/QUOTE]

That is a good weapon. I had a mage character who focused on magic. I used the crescent falchion and eventually got it to +5 and it was great for pvp (along with my spells, obviously). Later I made a +5 moonlightstone spear weapon which was quite good against the computer, though spears suck for PvP.
 
I finally got around to finishing obtaining the Platinum trophy. The last trophy I obtained was the Sage's Trophy.

Now comes the long wait until Dark Souls.
 
I have played Japanese version before, but I am still interested in playing the US version. Could anyone tell is the server still having a lot of gamers there?
 
I've been thinking of picking this game up but I am hesitant because of the insane difficulty I keep hearing about. Just how difficult is it really? Is is worse than say mass effect 2 on insanity?
 
It's difficult if you dont use patience. Just tread carefully until you learn the level and don't try and plow through anything as it will be quite awhile before you are strong enough to do so. Even then, one wrong move and your beast character is done for.
 
It is difficult as you make it. Deaths are meant to be taken as a learning experience. Either from learning enemy patterns, being cautious, and being aware of your surroundings.
 
[quote name='iwannadie']I've been thinking of picking this game up but I am hesitant because of the insane difficulty I keep hearing about. Just how difficult is it really? Is is worse than say mass effect 2 on insanity?[/QUOTE]

I picked it up last Thursday, have been playing it for several hours a night, and am still on the first level. I've died about 800 times, and am ready to snap the disk into pieces and flush it down the toilet.

The difficulty on this is insane, and not in a fun way. It's extremely easy to die, one wrong button hit and Bam, You Died. I've gotta say it's the most frustrating game I've Ever played. The whole collecting Souls as currency aspect really sucks, IMHO. You can't sell items, and you lose all your souls when you die, which you then have to go back and collect from the spot you died at. Making getting healing herbs all the more difficult, because without souls you can't buy more, meaning if you have none, getting back to where you dropped your souls is really difficult. They drop off of corpses, but I'm finding one herb on a body, and that drop is getting rarer and rarer the more I die and spawn back at the beginning.

All in all I'm thinking this is the worst game I've ever played.
 
[quote name='iwannadie']I've been thinking of picking this game up but I am hesitant because of the insane difficulty I keep hearing about. Just how difficult is it really? Is is worse than say mass effect 2 on insanity?[/QUOTE]

Took me 24 hours to beat it in Offline Mode (no bloodstains/messages to help me out) and I think I only died 40 times or so. Probably 20 times on world 4 alone, and 20 times in the rest of the game. Honestly, if you're used to playing games on anything higher than Normal, you shouldn't have any problem. Just keep in mind it's a very deliberate slow-paced game without any checkpoints (though you can create shortcuts by flipping switches and whatnot so that you never have to redo more than 10 mins or so), so it's a very different experience from most fast-paced shooters and hack 'n' slashers where it's total chaos all the time and you really don't care if you die because you got checkpointed 10 secs ago.
 
[quote name='praxus07']I picked it up last Thursday, have been playing it for several hours a night, and am still on the first level. I've died about 800 times, and am ready to snap the disk into pieces and flush it down the toilet.

The difficulty on this is insane, and not in a fun way. It's extremely easy to die, one wrong button hit and Bam, You Died. I've gotta say it's the most frustrating game I've Ever played. The whole collecting Souls as currency aspect really sucks, IMHO. You can't sell items, and you lose all your souls when you die, which you then have to go back and collect from the spot you died at. Making getting healing herbs all the more difficult, because without souls you can't buy more, meaning if you have none, getting back to where you dropped your souls is really difficult. They drop off of corpses, but I'm finding one herb on a body, and that drop is getting rarer and rarer the more I die and spawn back at the beginning.

All in all I'm thinking this is the worst game I've ever played.[/QUOTE]

haha. These sort of responses is what I'd expect a lot. No offense to praxus07 in any way. I respect your opinion and see that it is definitely not your cup of tea.

On the flip side, I just want to point out that this game should not and cannot be compared to other games. And I think that's what makes it so great to many people. It's different in a sense that it's extremely unforgiving. It will make the player WORK for screwing up and it will penalize almost without mercy. It is the extremely high stake that makes the adrenaline/excitement when walking down a dark corridor the more intimidating and scary. At the same time, when you DO defeat whatever it is that makes you piss in your pants... THAT gratifying feeling is what I think makes it so great about this game.

The whole soul mechanic as praxus07 points out... is a very limiting factor and you're gonna want to protect that stash with your life(pun intended lol). Guess that's why it's title is Demon's Souls. The herbs are there to help you edge along. It is not a common utility to heal whenever you need like in other RPGs. And obtaining them means you have to either find it on a rare corpse or pay for it with souls... your precious commodity... makes it all the more valuable. In the end, it just means the game is telling you... DON'T mess up. :) As praxus07 states, and it is true, one wrong button move and you're done for, so don't mess up. lol

As others have already said, the game is as hard as you take it. The key is the careful pacing and keen observations of the enemies and environment. Some of us like run and gun blazing with explosions and enemies in your face. Some of us likes to find tons of gils and stock up on potions and chug it like sodas. Then there are some of us who feel that such games are too forgiving... making Demon's Souls their cup of tea. The game really tests your patience and persistence. It was deliberately created to be punishingly hard to the careless, so it definitely caters only to a niche demographic of gamers.
 
OK....After persevering I FINALLY made it to the first Demon boss, and actually killed it without dying. Marking this date on my calendar.....
 
[quote name='praxus07']OK....After persevering I FINALLY made it to the first Demon boss, and actually killed it without dying. Marking this date on my calendar.....[/QUOTE]
There's a reason many players say the first level is arguably the hardest part in the game. Now that you can level up to "bank" your souls, dying won't be so bad.

Where you are is very much where I was when I started playing. I used up all my fire bombs prior to the boss so I spent THIRTY FIVE MINUTES edging around the room, killing stray, regenerating hoplites and attacking the boss when I could before I finally killed it. And I thought to myself "is the whole game going to be this time consuming?" Thankfully it wasn't as once you get past the first level you get access to a lot better equipment/spells and the ability to level up which makes things easier.
 
Thanks for the lengthy replies guys that helps me a lot. Playing a game like dead space or force unleashed on super difficult was just frustrating to me and not so much fun, I'm hoping this is would be a different experience.
 
Someday I will play this game again. I never made it too far, but I just stopped. Even though I didn't get tired of it.
 
If one wants an easier starting experience, pick royal, the spell the class starts with can one shot most normal enemies in the first level and MP regenerates on its own. Character classes are just starting packages of stats + equipment; any character class can use any spell, weapon, miracle, etc. as proficiently as any other class. Unlike most other dungeon crawlers and RPGs, you're not pigeonholed into a certain playstyle because you picked that class. So you can pick a royal (mage) to finish the first level then choose whatever playstyle you want afterward. A royal actually offers the most customization because it starts with the fewest stat points already allocated (81) with a soul level of 1.
 
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[quote name='praxus07']OK....After persevering I FINALLY made it to the first Demon boss, and actually killed it without dying. Marking this date on my calendar.....[/QUOTE]

You have made it past the hardest part for sure, and the game really opens up and becomes more fun after the first level.
 
Possible mild spoilers:

I was slashing some flying bearbugs and accidentally hit the filthy man in Stonefang Tunnel (He hadn't popped out of the trash pile until after I swung my weapon.) I had been determined to be a good guy until then, but for some reason I decided to just kill him, since he was hostile. It was like the beach scene from The Stranger. I guess I thought he might give me something good and I didn't realize he was the same guy I had been depending on to purchase ore from outside the Blacksmith Ed's shop.

After that event, I started to get sloppy. I was practicing with some new weapons in the Nexus and I pressed the wrong button and unleashed a powerful miracle which hit Stockpile Thomas and Boldwin. Now they're hostile and I can't get my mass of stored stuff. They are still alive, I don't want to kill them, and I think I'm strong enough and have good enough weapons on my to finish the game, but I know it will be much harder than it would have been otherwise. I have a lot of hours invested, but I'm thinking about starting a new game. My character was supposed to be a righteous barbarian entering a wicked world and redeeming it, but it seems I've been defiled, or defiled myself.

Discovering that the NPCs are killable; that they might be evil, though they seem good, and vice versa; and that killing them or not can have great and long-lasting consequences in the game was a surprise. It really elevated the game into something great. I know games like the Ultima series did this kind of thing before, but this is the first game I've played that explored issues of moral consequences so well. I haven't played the Mass Effect games. Are they similar as far as consequences go?
 
I had a similar experience. 1-2 was fairly easy, except boss. 1-3 was really hard I found. Half the tiem I have in the game went to those three. 1-4 was similar to 1-2. 1-5, 2-1, 3-1 were all pretty easy. In fact I have only died a couple times since 4-1. Game gets way funner, as it gets easier. I wouldn't given up yet.
~S
 
[quote name='Backlash']You have made it past the hardest part for sure.[/QUOTE]


I've seen many posts about Flamelurker and Man Eater that rival that. :lol:
 
[quote name='ET1492']Possible mild spoilers:

I was slashing some flying bearbugs and accidentally hit the filthy man in Stonefang Tunnel (He hadn't popped out of the trash pile until after I swung my weapon.) I had been determined to be a good guy until then, but for some reason I decided to just kill him, since he was hostile. It was like the beach scene from The Stranger. I guess I thought he might give me something good and I didn't realize he was the same guy I had been depending on to purchase ore from outside the Blacksmith Ed's shop.

After that event, I started to get sloppy. I was practicing with some new weapons in the Nexus and I pressed the wrong button and unleashed a powerful miracle which hit Stockpile Thomas and Boldwin. Now they're hostile and I can't get my mass of stored stuff. They are still alive, I don't want to kill them, and I think I'm strong enough and have good enough weapons on my to finish the game, but I know it will be much harder than it would have been otherwise. I have a lot of hours invested, but I'm thinking about starting a new game. My character was supposed to be a righteous barbarian entering a wicked world and redeeming it, but it seems I've been defiled, or defiled myself.

Discovering that the NPCs are killable; that they might be evil, though they seem good, and vice versa; and that killing them or not can have great and long-lasting consequences in the game was a surprise. It really elevated the game into something great. I know games like the Ultima series did this kind of thing before, but this is the first game I've played that explored issues of moral consequences so well. I haven't played the Mass Effect games. Are they similar as far as consequences go?
[/QUOTE]
If you can finish the game
Everything resets at new game+, the vendors and NPCs will no longer be hostile but all your stuff will still be safe and sound with Stockpile Thomas
.

[quote name='Supplice']I've seen many posts about Flamelurker and Man Eater that rival that. :lol:[/QUOTE]
I could see how flamelurker would be frustrating if you don't know how to take the "falling" shortcut down to him when you fail as that would be LONG span of playing between boss attempts.
 
[quote name='Supplice']I've seen many posts about Flamelurker and Man Eater that rival that. :lol:[/QUOTE]

Good point. Once you get to them though at least you kind of know how the game works and you can grind if you really want to. Also, you can summon blue demons to help you (especially for Flamelurker) and that can really really help.
 
[quote name='Supplice']I've seen it on Japanese forums long before that ever showed up on that site. Great for PvP testing nonetheless.[/QUOTE]

Yep, its just we got it in a more linear walk-through than what was out there in JP. The running firestorm trick is still probably the best JP discovery, plays hell on PvP though.
 
[quote name='guardian_owl']
I could see how flamelurker would be frustrating if you don't know how to take the "falling" shortcut down to him when you fail as that would be LONG span of playing between boss attempts.[/QUOTE]

Lol, that reminds me when this game first came out. I use to purposely leave false messages on random spots where its safe to fall off from. I would see the ghosts check my message and then go off to their doom. :lol:
 
[quote name='Supplice']Lol, that reminds me when this game first came out. I use to purposely leave false messages on random spots where its safe to fall off from. I would see the ghosts check my message and then go off to their doom. :lol:[/QUOTE]

I'll admit I did fall for a leap of faith message one time in my first ever run. I was like, I have to gullible once!

I did leave good ones and not-so-good ones as well. The health bonus was never needed though.
 
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