Dark Souls

[J0e Musashi]

I'm starting this tonight. Seeing as Uncharted 3 is out now, everybody will stop talking about DS and I'll be able to play it peacefully. I aim to have the platinum trophy by the end of the month. I have the Asian version, so the online will likely be a better experience.

[fuse]

Ambitious, I like it. Online is multi-region though, as a heads up. No duping souls, either

[J0e Musashi]

Multi-region? Gah, Demon's was region locked. I won't be duping anything. No guides / FAQs either. Prolly gonna take me the whole evening getting my chara to look exactly the same as before anyway.

[Brad]

Yeah, there are no servers mate. The multiplayer aspect *seems* to show people local to you but I'm not even sure about that. In Demon's Souls I could get a mate to drop a stone somewhere unlikely and join him in a game. Not so in this. It's all very random, with hardly any messages and nobody rating them. I've never seen a message with a rating higher than 2 :-( That said it's still awesome.

[J0e Musashi]

No servers?

I.Could.Have.Just.Bought.The.PAL.Version.

Not that I would of course, but wait 5 weeks to play it FTW.

[fuse]

I.Could.Have.Just.Bought.The.PAL.Version.

[jimtendo]

Much rumoured patch 1.04 is going to roll out pretty soon from various rumblings.

patch notes

translations provided by GameFaqs.

- Changes to the Magic Shield Spells.
- Changes to Ring of Fog
- Changes to TwoP
- Blacksmiths sell arrows and more shards (perhaps twinkling, but let's not get too hasty)
- Merchants sell arrows, Xeno sells the Master Key
- Changes to Weapon Scaling
- The guy who gives you the Key in New Londo Ruins sells Transient Curse
- Sunbros Faith Requirement halved to 25 at base, with -5 for each successful co-op
- Bug fixes

Also there's mention of specific Blacksmith (Giant) selling the much wanted Twinkling Titanite

[Bort]

- Changes to the Magic Shield Spells.

Boo-urns.

Hopefully they'll knock down the number of sunlight medals along with the Faith stat.

edit, whoah. I thought you need a ton on medals to get the miracle spells. Only 10!

[S3M]

Also there's mention of specific Blacksmith (Giant) selling the much wanted Twinkling Titanite

Just farm it from the clams on Ash lake or the crystal caves it's not that rare, use them to get the Twinkling Titanite to upgrade my giant armour to +5, making it the strongest armour against weapons in the game, powerful versus flame too.

Ring of Fog does need some major changes as it make players very tricky to kill, been using it myself and it gives you way to much of an advance.

There is a real lack of arrow sellers for some reason, glad to see their fixing it.

Weapons scaling does need some serious looking at my +15 normal Halberd is stronger and hits harder than any other weapons I have including a number of soul weapons the stats scaling doesn't seem to be working on them.

[briareos_kerensky]

They are also tweaking drop rates on rare items, which is good. Having a Titanite Demon drop its pole or the Belfry Gargoyles drop their weapon and shield is almost impossible even with the Helm of Avarice (or whatever it's called), which itself is probably the rarest drop in the game.
Also the input delay/buffer is getting resolved, best thing in the whole patch.

[fuse]

- Sunbros Faith Requirement halved to 25 at base, with -5 for each successful co-op

Oh god, yes please.

[briareos_kerensky]

The quality of red phantoms decreased a lot since Demon's Souls.
I was trying to get the Hellkite Drake reappear on the bridge (bug: you can ear it and youc an see its shadow but it's not shown from the nearby tower) and I was going back and forth between

->Open Spoiler<-

Undead Parish and Darkroot Garden in human form because I wanted a Sunlight Medal from Solaire for the Gargoyle battle, to be done after the drake.

The first red phantom invades in the area between the church and Andre. Trying to dodge my Homing Crystal Soulmass he rolls right off the wooden bridge there.
The second phantom invades when I was going to the

->Open Spoiler<-

Gargoyles (I never noticed that one Gargoyle starts at half its life)

, where the

->Open Spoiler<-

channeller is;

he crystallizes his weapon (I think

->Open Spoiler<-

Queelag's Fury Sword

) and I prepare the Homing Crystal Soulmass; the zone is full of small columns and he fires a fireball (I hope it wasn't a Great Fireball or a Chaos Fireball) right into a column twice while standing right next to him. I get close, he doesn't do nothing and seeing his small shield (for parrying, I suppose) and cloth armor (probably a mix of the Maiden and Thief sets) I start swinging my sword and...he's dead.

Also, fun facts:

*

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(True) Greatsword of Artorias'

two-handed strong attack makes enemies fly.

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Rescue Lautrec, wait till he's in Firelink Shrine and attack him head-on.

See him fly right in the pit behind him with his spoken lines cut early by the ever-increasing distance. Laugh. A lot. Quit and reload for the loot.
* When going from Undead Parish to Undead Burg, with the stairs shortcut available, kill all Hollow Soldiers near the church gates (the one with the lever to open/close them), open the gates if needed. Go to the first Undead Burg bonfire (the one before the firebomb-throwing Hollow Warriors) but do not use it and have the sword-wielding Hollow Soldier notice you. He won't attack you and will run toward the stairs shortcut, use them to reach the church and will close the gates. He'll then disappear.
* the guy right next to Firelink's bonfire has one dialogue when killed

->Open Spoiler<-

before he goes hollow

.

['Press Start']

They are also tweaking drop rates on rare items, which is good. Having a Titanite Demon drop its pole

I have the Demon Catch pole. Is it good? looks standard to me unless it improves the rate of titanite drops. What are the Sunlight light medals for? I have about 6 but no sure what the point of them is? Also what are the Silver/Gold coins for?

[briareos_kerensky]

I have the Demon Catch pole. Is it good?

I don't know, I'm trying to get the Titanite Demons drop it but no luck, even when human with 5 or 6 humanity points and the gold serpent ring.

What are the Sunlight light medals for?

->Open Spoiler<-

You offer them at the Altar of Sunlight to advance in the covenant. I'm trying to get all covenant-specific items and spells

.

Also what are the Silver/Gold coins for?

->Open Spoiler<-

Feed them to Frampt for souls.

[crocky-chocky]

How did folks beat

->Open Spoiler<-

The Four Kings

?

I've died in moments due to unfortunate overlapping magic attacks, been consistently grabbed from off screen for HP halving fun, hit by off screen magic projectiles, had moments where I can see nothing but a single kings tush blocking my view, and to top it off, my attacks don't register unless my characters face is close enough to brush their nightmarish thighs.

The journey down there is getting pretty monotonous, and the fight itself seems madly unfair at the moment. It's got me right frazzled!