Dark Souls

[briareos_kerensky]

Cleared the

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Ash Lake

. When I was there previously I never rested

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at the Everlasting Dragon's

bonfire and after defeating

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the hydra in Darkroot Basin I decided to go after its bigger brother swimming in the primordial lake.

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The battle was exactly the same, though I had to lure the hydra on the other side of the lake (avoiding its water bombardment when it jumps) and slowly chipping away it health. Unlike the Darkroot hydra I didn't cut all its heads off to kill it but it died with few heads attached.

I was there for the souls and I found out an extremely pleasant surprise: enemies there drop purging stones and twlinking titanites. With the snake ring on I go two titanites and three purging stones in two runs (on a total of 3 enemies per run), which is an excellent drop rate.

After that I decided to go through the

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Valley of Drakes.
First I've found an skeleton drake guarding some loot...just to be sure I switched to two hands and gave the drake a strong attack and not-so-surprisingly it sprung to like, vomiting toxic blob all over, but the upgraded black iron set gives excellent protection against status maluses; a few more blows and the undead drake was history.
I had more troubles with the blue drakes, though after a couple of stupid deaths (like walking off a bridge while circling a drake) going through them wasn't a problem.
However the huge door there is sealed shut and there are no other routes...and water is filtering through the gate...can't wait to see the gates opening and killing all the respawned drakes nearby,

but where do I open it?

And finally I also beat

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the giant wolf

in an other uninteresting battle.

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He was quick and delivered some good blows, but in the end it was once again a matter of running through his legs and hack away.

[parkinho]

Haha, die

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Capra Demon

die! I had so much pleasure in finally taking him down that I got summoned into someone else's game and destroyed him again.

Afterwards I

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went into the depths, racked up a whole load of souls and humanity, killed the big rat bastard, then let my guard down for one second and fell down a hole where some frog bastard cursed me! And I didn't even find a bonfire, so back to the Undead Burg I go!

This game is a tough mistress but I love her. Spent most of my day at work considering where I would go on Dark Souls tonight rather than actually being productive. Don't know if that is a good thing or not!

[crocky-chocky]

Regarding the

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illusory wall

just after ringing the second bell - Can anyone tell me what the weird

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eggman

just before the Estus Lady is useful for? I thought he was just a standard bad guy and dropped him without thinking about it, then I remembered he'd been mentioned a bit earlier in the thread as being able to provide a shortcut or something?...I need to know what I've missed out on forever!

Braved the

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Tomb of Giants

and got so far down there before running out of health stuffs and using a homeward bone in the nick of time. That place is blinking tough...One last question: I picked up a lantern down there, equipped it and it literally changed nothing in terms of improving visibility...am I missing something or is it just a weapon?

['Press Start']

Regarding the

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illusory wall

just after ringing the second bell - Can anyone tell me what the weird

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eggman

just before the Estus Lady is useful for? I thought he was just a standard bad guy and dropped him without thinking about it, then I remembered he'd been mentioned a bit earlier in the thread as being able to provide a shortcut or something?...I need to know what I've missed out on forever!

Braved the

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Tomb of Giants

and got so far down there before running out of health stuffs and using a homeward bone in the nick of time. That place is blinking tough...One last question: I picked up a lantern down there, equipped it and it literally changed nothing in terms of improving visibility...am I missing something or is it just a weapon?

You need to equip it left handed.

Blightown = Done. Thankfully it is not as bad as the swamp stage in Demon Souls (IMO).

Is there

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A bonfire warp in this game?

please say yes.

[Brad]

Right got around to Ringing the first bell. Sneaky boss fight, I wasn't ready for

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a second gargoyle!

. I had to go in a second time. I used that green herb that regens your stamina faster, that way the

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first one was dead before the second one

really started on me. Took 300 Arrows and tried to cheese the hydra. Only got 3 heads off before running out lol. Got a couple of black knight swords that I can't wield yet. Have switched to the Astora sword now. The drake has become surplus really now. Shoving points into faith so I can get the miracle to take me back to the Bonfire. Figure it'll make soul farming twice as quick and half as dangerous. Incidentally, where's the best place to soul farm?

[rmoxon]

Right got around to Ringing the first bell. Sneaky boss fight, I wasn't ready for

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a second gargoyle!

. I had to go in a second time. I used that green herb that regens your stamina faster, that way the

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first one was dead before the second one

really started on me. Took 300 Arrows and tried to cheese the hydra. Only got 3 heads off before running out lol. Got a couple of black knight swords that I can't wield yet. Have switched to the Astora sword now. The drake has become surplus really now. Shoving points into faith so I can get the miracle to take me back to the Bonfire. Figure it'll make soul farming twice as quick and half as dangerous. Incidentally, where's the best place to soul farm?

The best places to farm souls are all right next to bonfires, you dont need that miracle at all, youre wasting your money getting it unless you want the trophy for obtaining all the miracles. The quickest soul farming that I have discovered can be done in Anor londo, but I can only presume that you are pretty far away from there having only just rang the first bell. Your closest worthwhile farming method will be when you get

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into the depth, there are bug eyed frogs that curse you, once you find the hidden bonfire down there they can be easily farmed for around 2100 souls and it only takes a few minutes a run

.

Regarding the

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illusory wall

just after ringing the second bell - Can anyone tell me what the weird

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eggman

just before the Estus Lady is useful for? I thought he was just a standard bad guy and dropped him without thinking about it, then I remembered he'd been mentioned a bit earlier in the thread as being able to provide a shortcut or something?...I need to know what I've missed out on forever!

He doesnt provide a shortcut to my knowledge, all he does is act as a guard and if you agree to what he says will move out of the way and let you past so you can talk to his boss. If you kill him though you probabaly arent allowed to use that bonfire again as I'm pretty sure it will upset the bonfire keeper woman if you slaughter one of her minions. It would probabaly haved removed you from the covenant too if you were in it.

[Supergoal]

The best places to farm souls are all right next to bonfires, you dont need that miracle at all, youre wasting your money getting it unless you want the trophy for obtaining all the miracles. The quickest soul farming that I have discovered can be done in Anor londo, but I can only presume that you are pretty far away from there having only just rang the first bell. Your closest worthwhile farming method will be when you get

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into the depth, there are bug eyed frogs that curse you, once you find the hidden bonfire down there they can be easily farmed for around 2100 souls and it only takes a few minutes a run

.



He doesnt provide a shortcut to my knowledge, all he does is act as a guard and if you agree to what he says will move out of the way and let you past so you can talk to his boss. If you kill him though you probabaly arent allowed to use that bonfire again as I'm pretty sure it will upset the bonfire keeper woman if you slaughter one of her minions. It would probabaly haved removed you from the covenant too if you were in it.

I killed that eggman and still can use the bonfire. Although I guess there could be some repercussion to it. I offered a humanity to the woman, though I haven't seen any benefit.

[briareos_kerensky]

Can anyone tell me what the weird

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eggman

just before the Estus Lady is useful for?

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He acts as a guard of sorts when entering the Daughter of Chaos' secret chamber. If you talk to him and say "yes" he'll let you in; he will sell you things and he'll be able to upgrade the Piromancy glove. If you join the Chaos covenant he'll sell more stuff and will give you a freebie.
The spider lady is a Firekeeper and if you kill her you won't be able to use the bonfire in front of her; you can join her covenant and if you offer enough humanity a shortcut will open.
Killing the egg guy doesn't block the shortcut.

[PeteJ]

The quickest soul farming that I have discovered can be done in Anor londo

Best I've found is

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behind the magic door in the garden. Can get 7,000 souls in about 3 minutes and its right next to the bonfire

.

[ItsThere]

I'm with PeteJ although there are some Anor Londo spots I'm having to use to break to frustration of the boss there in NG+

[SUMIRE]

I did the Catacombs last night then the Tomb of Giants. I really liked the two areas, but the mini boss was a joke in the Catacombs, too easy. The boss in the Tomb of Giants was only hard because the FPS dipped to 10fps at one point. Still loving it though!

[Riskbreaker]

After a break from it all weekend, decided to take on Ceaseless last night. What a bast!

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For some reason, when fighting him solo it's alot harder to dodge those fire beams of his. In co-op I can dodge them quite easily, but in solo they always seem to be on target. Stuck around for a while so that other players could summon me to help them out, lots of fun watching other players get one shotted as they grab the armor near him

[fuse]

Regarding the farming spot in Darkroot - if you run around and aggro all of the forest hunters then head back to the stairs by the door and stand in the very corner right next to the cliff, they will try and attack you from above and fall off the cliff. Cheap but very effective.

Last night I finally got to

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Ornstein & Smough

- nearly took them on my second try, which says to me that yes, I am way over-levelled right now (this may be related to the above tip!). Currently 61, and am casting from a +13 Pyromancy catalyst.

[Brad]

Went back down the stairs to where the 3 rats are (where the red dragon/drake is) and as I descended the ladder the framerate dropped to about 5fps. Why!? i've been there dozens of times before. Anyway, still awesome.

[crocky-chocky]

Thanks again for the earlier info folks.

I'm uh, working from home at the moment and my PS3 pad is within arms reach. Just one button press and I could be Soulin'. It is just the worst game in terms of thinking about it when not playing.

Re: Pyromancy Catalyst, will levelling that up improve the range of my fireball? So far it just piffs on the floor mere feet away from me.

Also, any tips on how to beat/cheese the Hydra? I can barely get near the thing before its far reaching magic attacks have done enough damage for me to chicken out. There's a rock I can hide behind not too far away, but its magic still damages me.