Dark Souls

[Silvergun X]

Wham bam, the second bell is rung.

I reached a bonfire in

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Blighttown

and realised I had one humanity in stock, so I decided to reverse hollow and make myself human again.

Lo and behold, there are two summon signs there! And even better, they both succeeded!

The three of us went on an epic trek to the boss. Unfortunately, one of the phantoms died and was banished from my world, but me and the remaining phantom made incredibly short work of the boss and killed it within seconds.

We also got the first invader in my world! I didn't even touch him - The other guys completely screwed him over, and I got a very nice 10k souls, humanity, and butcher's knife from him.

He returns with his humanity, and I get my second bell. Fantastic.

[PeteJ]

Damn, talk about being between a rock and a hard place after the first bell. Can almost kill the

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butterfly but the hydra can get to ****, and the ghost town

is way too scary

Like I said, use lightning. it makes that fight really easy.

Tried it and it wasn't for me. My weapon can't be aug'd with lightning and my ault weapon was still less powerful. In the end I just rush attacked the first boss and waited for the opening. Managed to kill it before the second was even on me.

[Silvergun X]

PeteJ -

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Both the butterfly and the hydra are completely optional. You don't need to do either to progress.

From here, I think you've got a couple of choices:

You can kill the Capra Demon and go through the sewers, then go through the front end of Blighttown OR:

You can go through Darkroot Basin, and as soon as you reach the Valley of Drakes, immediately go left and follow the path along the cliff. This will take you to the back end of Blighttown, where your next major boss and the second bell awaits.

I think there's also the option to go completely through New Londo Ruins but that's hardcore. I wouldn't touch that

[PeteJ]

How do you get to the

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valley of the drakes

? Not noticed any other path in the

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Darkroot basin other than the capra. There is a door but it is locked and a magic door at the top which costs 20k souls to unlock!

Time for some non-spoilery impressions from someone who has never played DS before... I had forgotten what an adventure game could be like, this generation of games has spoilt me. I'm used to signposting and checkpoints and find it frustrating when these games botch either one, but Dark Souls takes both away completely and it makes for a hugely addictive, engaging, frustrating and rewarding experience. I'm either so entranced by the experience when exploring a new area that I completely lose all track of time or so caught up in attempt after attempt with a boss fight that as soon as I switch off the machine in frustration I'm immediately thinking of alternative things to try.

It's unlike anything else I've played and quite frankly rather brilliant. It can go to hell, but it's still brilliant.

[Silvergun X]

How do you get to the

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valley of the drakes

? Not noticed any other path in the

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Darkroot basin other than the capra. There is a door but it is locked and a magic door at the top which costs 20k souls to unlock!

->Open Spoiler<-

Have you seen the Black Knight yet? You have to defeat him to get past it but he's piss easy as you can just boot him off the side of a cliff. As you're going down the slope next to the cliff, you'll notice it keeps going down and down, there are 2 (maybe 3) layers to it.

There's a body holding a Grass Shield or something at the bottom, that boosts stamina recovery, and right next to that is a cave with a bonfire in it that leads to Valley of Drakes.

[Golgo]

What's the benefit of having more than one humanity 'point' active at any one time? I can see how being unhollowed improves your character's abilities, but what's the benefit of racking up more? I am confuse.

[PeteJ]

What's the benefit of having more than one humanity 'point' active at any one time? I can see how being unhollowed improves your character's abilities, but what's the benefit of racking up more? I am confuse.

Increases luck\ drop rate. Haven't noticed any other benefit.

[PeteJ]

Ha! I've been using that shield for ages, from that very spot in fact! I must be blind.

[Silvergun X]

Being unhollow increases drop rate and curse resistance. Your character doesn't necessarily get more powerful.

The more humanity you hold, the higher your drop rate goes and the higher your curse resistance is.

['Press Start']

The worse co-op mechanic ever realised in a game IMO. Standing in the same place as my cousin in game, put sign down as human form, he is human, he is follower of the light, he is level 12.

Nothing. He does the same thing. Nothing, keep trying for 20 minutes, nothing. I can live without an invite system but at least allow 2 players standing in the same location to join, else what is the point other then standing next to your summon point waiting for a random to join. Am I missing something?

Apart from that it's everything I hoped for!

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Taurus boss was easy with the ladder and fire bombs!! hehe

[Synthesthesia]

The worse co-op mechanic ever realised in a game IMO. Standing in the same place as my cousin in game, put sign down as human form, he is human, he is follower of the light, he is level 12.

Nothing. He does the same thing. Nothing, keep trying for 20 minutes, nothing. I can live without an invite system but at least allow 2 players standing in the same location to join, else what is the point other then standing next to your summon point waiting for a random to join. Am I missing something?

Apart from that it's everything I hoped for!

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Taurus boss was easy with the ladder and fire bombs!! hehe

2 things. 1, only hollowed players can be summoned. 2, it's not meant to be played with a friend.

Not sure what sign you're putting down as human? Unless you've just been writing messages or something. I love the co-op mechanic. I've beaten 2 bosses now with the help of someone I summoned.

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Helped a LOT with the grey wolf.

[Silvergun X]

You can still be summoned, and put a white summon marker down as a human.

[englishbob]

thanks Silvergun, Riskbreaker and FSW for the tips, glad to report now that I am past the numpty!

Still didn't take me long past that point though to question the masochistic nature of this game

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went to the end of the 2nd tower after Tarus Demon to be confronted with a long stretch of open-top battlements. What looked like 3 or 4 enemies lied in wait at one end so I started to move towards them. Suddenly a dragon screeches overhead out of nowhere and instantly unleases a fire storm which results in INSTANT DEATH. Seriously WTF is it with this game that everyone loves so much?!! This is beyond unfair really! If ANY other game dealt out an instant death scenario it would get slated! Still I am guessing this is going to the "fools rush in" catagory I suppose, but still WTF!

I've cheated now and found out how to get past this via YouTube, yes it has resulted in that. I would say that the section I've described is trail-and-error fooder, but its such a long way away from the respawn campfire to do this, yeah **** it I cheated. I think the game cheated me first though.

[Brad]

I was disappointed not to see a new fire after beating

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Taurus

but it only takes 2 minutes to run to that point again so it's not too bad.

I completely agree that other games would get slated for the instant death that this dishes out. The trick is to make a game where players accept that as part of the gameplay and I think they've done that. Not everyone will agree but they're not making this game for everyone. I think there's a certain amount of bragging rights involved and the satisfaction of eventually making it to the next bonfire is immense.

[rmoxon]

thanks Silvergun, Riskbreaker and FSW for the tips, glad to report now that I am past the numpty!

Still didn't take me long past that point though to question the masochistic nature of this game

->Open Spoiler<-

went to the end of the 2nd tower after Tarus Demon to be confronted with a long stretch of open-top battlements. What looked like 3 or 4 enemies lied in wait at one end so I started to move towards them. Suddenly a dragon screeches overhead out of nowhere and instantly unleases a fire storm which results in INSTANT DEATH. Seriously WTF is it with this game that everyone loves so much?!! This is beyond unfair really! If ANY other game dealt out an instant death scenario it would get slated! Still I am guessing this is going to the "fools rush in" catagory I suppose, but still WTF!

I've cheated now and found out how to get past this via YouTube, yes it has resulted in that. I would say that the section I've described is trail-and-error fooder, but its such a long way away from the respawn campfire to do this, yeah **** it I cheated. I think the game cheated me first though.

That is not an instant death senario and it isn't trial and error, you see it well before you move close enough to it for it to attack. Plus it isn't trial and error if you just open your eyes and figure out where to go. Your problem with this game sounds to me like you are trying to rush through it. That is somthing you can do with most modern games, but not this one.