Dark Souls

[briareos_kerensky]

The Master Key gift. Can this item be found elsewhere if I chose a different gift?

Not the Master Key itself but a bunch of keys that will open everything the Master Key would.

[Brad]

All attacks can be stopped mid-animation, even bosses'. What the enemy (or you) needs to do is pass the poise value; once an attack passes (either a single, incredibly strong attack or multiple, lighter attacks) this value the character staggers and attack animations are interrupted.
Armour increases poise, as well as one ring.

What I'm saying is that I hit R2, started the long strong attack animation and the other guy swung at me, made contact and took my health down but my animation continued and my strong attack landed. So, is that a glitch or by design?

[briareos_kerensky]

So, is that a glitch or by design?

By design: an attack animation will continue unless an attack able to break your poise lands on you. The poise value can be seen in the status screen, above bleed/poison/curse resistances. You can improve poise by wearing armor or wearing a specific ring.

[fuse]

Had a couple of good sessions on this over the weekend. Took down

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Four Kings, Seath, and the Bed of Chaos

and am getting myself prepared for

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Nito and Gwyn

. Got actually quite upset seeing

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the Solaire of Astoria die, with him going on about 'finally getting his sun' as a bug latched onto his head - very grim, and annoyingly I could've saved him but supposedly I did some bits in the wrong order once I got into the Demon Ruins

I've already said to myself that I'd really like to get the 1000 in this, and have been trying to do as much as I can in this first run in the hope I will only need to do one round of NG+. I'm not entirely sure if it's possible or not though... anyone know? I have

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joined with Kaathe rather than Frampt on this run so have the option of his covenant, have still got all of the boss souls, and haven't closed off any covenant options yet (i.e. Gwyndolin / Nito are still alive). I've already got the daughter of Chaos' covenant up to +2 so I could grab her Pyro spell, and the shortcut through Lost Izalith was hugely helpful too, but I guess I should try and get a few of the additional bits from levelling other covenants too?

I can say without doubt this is the best game I have played in an absolute age. I'm so caught up in the game world it's unreal - the design of the world and the way everything links up is incredible, and whenever I'm not playing all I can do is think about it. That speedrun too - wow. A complete testament to both the player and the game that something like that is possible.

Game of the forever

[briareos_kerensky]

I'm not entirely sure if it's possible or not though... anyone know?

You can forge three things from

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Silf's

soul and if you are in Solaire's Covenant (which requires high Faith or helping other players in defeating their bosses) you can offer

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Gwyn's soul to get a spell,

so at least 3.5 playthroughs. Not sure if "that's all", beucase some NPCs have pretty elaborate paths.

About Solaire:

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you need to open the shortcut from the Demon Ruins to Izalith with the Chaos Covenants and kill all the bugs before entering Izalith. If a bug is alive and you load Izalith (you see the location's name), Solaire is lost.

[rmoxon]

Bit stuck on the crystal caves boss fight now. It's impossible to knock his life bar down at all, what the heck???

[Bort]

Bit stuck on the crystal caves boss fight now. It's impossible to knock his life bar down at all, what the heck???

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Break the crystal behind him. It showed you it in the cutscene before him.

[Neon Ignition]

I've moved on from this now, though that's not a slight against the game in the slightest. I've hit a bit where I need to do probably a couple of hours grinding and though that's not a problem in itself I simply have too much to play. I'm going to keep my file save and return at a quieter time.

[fuse]

You can forge three things from

->Open Spoiler<-

Silf's

soul and if you are in Solaire's Covenant (which requires high Faith or helping other players in defeating their bosses) you can offer

->Open Spoiler<-

Gwyn's soul to get a spell,

so at least 3.5 playthroughs. Not sure if "that's all", beucase some NPCs have pretty elaborate paths.

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Even if all three of Sif's items are required for the achievement (I think it's only weapons / and shields) shouldn't that be 2.5?

About Solaire:

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you need to open the shortcut from the Demon Ruins to Izalith with the Chaos Covenants and kill all the bugs before entering Izalith. If a bug is alive and you load Izalith (you see the location's name), Solaire is lost.

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Yeah, I had the required alignment with right covenant, but went the 'normal' way to Lost Izalith, only taking the shortcut after I got fed up of being squashed by the huge demons in the lava. First time I opened the door, Solaire was already there :[

[crocky-chocky]

So yeah, beat Fatty McBoomboom and Spears Mcgee. The names escape me.

Not pretty. I mean, thinking about how I beat them and breaking down my tactics it actually sounds easy as pie. But getting one a safe distance from the other, keeping track of your distance from both of them and the walls, the lock-on (problematic for the first time in 60 hours!), the fact that certain pairings of their attacks were just mean, those lightning attacks, and Fatty's area attack after felling Spears?

Oh my...glad that's over. But saying that, I wouldn't have it any other way!

[Brad]

Cheers BK. I *think* that greatsword added something to my poise too in which case that'd explain it. I think high poise is a necessity when wielding greatswords then. I usually have the Wolf's ring on anyway.

When fighting for the cat's covenant in the forest I see there's no limitation on level balancing! I had some bad mofos 1 hit me in there although I did manage to kick one of them off the ledge after he took 99% of my health off in one hit. That was satisfying, he must have been well annoyed. I should be working but I'm planning tonight's game. My mate told me I missed some bronze Golem after beating the Hydra so I'll do that and then I think I need to visit the depths.

[briareos_kerensky]

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Even if all three of Sif's items are required for the achievement (I think it's only weapons / and shields) shouldn't that be 2.5?

Yeah, my bad.

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Yeah, I had the required alignment with right covenant, but went the 'normal' way to Lost Izalith, only taking the shortcut after I got fed up of being squashed by the huge demons in the lava. First time I opened the door, Solaire was already there :[

Because

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you entered Izalith from the standard route first. You can talk to Solaire after the Centipede demon and kill a couple of half-dinosaurs without entering Izalith with a good bow (I think), but you need the corridor clear of bugs before entering the area. Even with one bug alive if you take one step into Izalith from the shortcut Solaire will "die".

When fighting for the cat's covenant in the forest I see there's no limitation on level balancing! I had some bad mofos 1 hit me in there although I did manage to kick one of them off the ledge after he took 99% of my health off in one hit.

Or they could have a weapon bypassing your defenses (like a chaos weapons, which mix fire and scale with humanity) or simply built their character to maximize their weapon of choice. Or got

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Artorias' Holy Sword from Silf...that greatsword is absolutely a beast

if you have the stats to wield it.

[hudson]

Does anyone else wuss out and enter boss fights in a group after failing solo a couple of times? Ha. The game kind of encourages it in my opinion.

[Brad]

@Hoolak I haven't yet but I'm totally cool with doing so. I think you're supposed to. That said, none of the bosses so far have been a challenge*. Other than cheesing the hydra I haven't used any ranged stuff yet. I only have a longbow anyway and Dex=13. My mate here keeps telling me I'm going to need ranged attacks / magic to get through this or that area but it makes me feel good when I melee everything. In Demon's I ranged magic killed everything and wore no armour. This time I want to just be a tank.

Oh, the 3 giant rat things you come across after beating hydra and climbing the ladders etc. Horrendous slowdown. Really bad. I just lured them, stood behind a tree and stabbed them. Felt a bit cheesy but then the game had failed me technically at that point so I felt like I was simply evening the odds a bit!

To reiterate, nothing can possibly beat this to my GOTY.

*Other than when I returned to Undead Asylum prematurely.

[briareos_kerensky]

My mate here keeps telling me I'm going to need ranged attacks / magic to get through this or that area but it makes me feel good when I melee everything.

You don't need any ranged option, though they would help in certain situations. There's a huge difference between D'sS and DS in terms on how much a bow is needed. In D'sS it was almost necessary, in Dark Souls you can perfectly live and undie without one.