Poink

Congratulations!

First time I killed Gywn was slapping on Havel's armor, Iron Flesh, and blasting him without care with Great Combustion. I did manage to kill him with parries on my other character, which was satisfying. I agree about the ending, although the "other" ending is slightly cooler, where instead of lighting the fire you just walk out the door. I got that one my first time cause I killed Gwyn right at the entrance and triggered it almost instantly.

New Game+ might not be too bad for you since you took a lot of time to level and upgrade. Weren't you like level 40 when you took out the Capra Demon?

It bumps the difficulty up enough to keep it from being a total cakewalk, but nothing like starting fresh. It's a good opportunity to go through and do things slightly differently, since there are tons of little optional bits that can only be done once per playthrough.

For example: If you release Lautrec (the gold armor evil bastard near the Gargoyles) and let him live, you get a cool sequence of events later on.

Another cool thing is if you never talk to the serpent dude after getting the Lordvessel, but go and kill the Four Kings 'first' (rather than opening the Orange gates and doing Duke's Archives, Catacombs, etc) you meet a different serpent and gain access to the Darkwraith covenant. You can get the Dark Hand, which is the cool weapon / shield that those guys in New Londo Ruins carry (the strange 'energy' shield that they block with).

Read the character articles on Wiki sites to learn more about the alternate 'quests'. I actually got into the game even more the second time around because of all the cool things that can be done.

wlj

Thanks!

I finished the game at level 90. LOL that is probably very high, but I didn't like "hoarding" souls. I hated losing them, so I would level up whenever I could. How do you get a different ending?

Poink

The other ending you just walk out of the boss area after beating him (don't light the fire, just leave). It's still a pretty brief ending, but it's a little bit cooler. I guess you did the "good" ending, and the other one is more the "evil" ending.

MoviePage

That's debatable.

Imprint

After a long journey, I finally got all of the achievements! This is actually the first time I've got 1000/1000 on a game. The hardest part was definitely killing mega Ornstein in my second playthrough.

MoviePage

Congrats!

dom56

Man, I hate, hate, hate, the Catacombs. I had to find and killed all those necromancers to stop raising those annonying skeletons. Thank god, I had the Sunlight Maggot and my Moonlight Greatsword +5, which made the trek easier. I fought Pinwheel boss, just kiiled one of his copies with one swipe of my sword and use Crystal Soul Spear and he was dead in one hit. Easiest boss ever. . Tried to find the bonfire in the Tomb of Giants, which I hate already, but when I climb down the long ladder two of the giant skeletons were waiting for me and killed me. Look like I got to start from my last bonfire and trek over so I can find the damn bonfire in the tomb.

Poink

It's very interesting that the game's creative director has been apologizing for the game's bugs (or "technical difficulties," as he puts it) and isn't sure if the fans will forgive them. He goes as far as to say they're not sure if they'll get another chance to make a new game, despite being confident that they can do better.

Now... I've put more time into the game than probably any other this generation and besides some pretty rare framerate drops, it's about as glitch / bug free as a game could hope to be in terms of performance. I know there were some problems with the online aspect at launch in Japan, but they were taken care of and didn't affect the U.S / Engligh version.

The only true glitches were more alone the lines of cheats / exploits than typical game-breaking ones. I have no issue with things like the Dragon Head trick, since it's completely up to you if you desire to do it. Compared to Skyrim and its backwards-flying dragons, disappearing NPCs / Followers, SEVERE frame rate problems, and thousands of other things, Dark Souls seems about perfect.

I really hope they continue the 'series' since it's easily one of the best things to come along in years.

wlj

i wish i could post you a vid, but i found a very short route(maybe 2 minutes) to the end of the catacombs. I just dropped off two of the bridges, went past the room with the Titanite Demon and dropped down a hole through a another hole in the ceiling of the room below. then I am on a cliff above the big room with the wheel skeletons. when they see me up there they all roll to the bottom of the cliff. i jump off and run like hell until I get to the room that you fight Pinwheel. if you do small zig zags while running you will avoid alot of damage. I found this route by myself, but I am sure someone probably has done the same thing on youtube. The Tomb of the Giants is a royal pain in the ass, however if you have the sunlight maggot things will be ALOT simpler. I didn't and I had to find the skull lantern down there. The area sucks, but i still think Blighttown is a bigger pain in the ass.



Dragon head trick?? what is this?

Poink

There's a covenant that you can join if you go to the Great Hollow (accessed from the swamp in Blightown) and descend to Ash Lake. One of the items you get is a dragon head. It's normal purpose is that if you use it while not wearing a helmet, you put it on and blast fire, which lasts until your stamina drains.

However, before it was patched there was a glitch where if you "used" the item, and turned to face the camera while switching to and using the next item in your inventory 'quick use' slot, you would consume THAT item indefinitely. So if you switched to your Estus flask, you'd drink all 10-20 of them in about 2 seconds.

If you put a consumable "soul" item after the dragon head, you'd just freak the game out and it would keep "using" the soul; so instead of getting say, 10,000 souls, you'd get 200,000 or however many it could before your stamina ran out.

To top things off, if you equipped the one shield (Grass Crest shield, I believe) that regenerates your stamina faster, you wouldn't run out of stamina. So as long as you held the button down, you'd keep racking up souls. Millions in mere minutes.

As far as I know, it didn't really cause many serious issues with PvP; the game only puts you against players of a close level. Actually, I think that the invading player is supposed to be a lower level in order to make things more of a challenge for them. So there wasn't much fear of a level 742 player to come along and destroy some level 20 guy.

Anyways, they fixed the issue a long while ago.

wlj

i had never heard of that before. i don't think i would have taken advantage of that. That is a little too cheap. I do grind the forest hunters every now and then for some souls. it is actually fun trying to get them to fall off of the cliff. There is still a chance of getting killed if you don't know what you are doing...especially in NG+. You can get hit with a couple of soul arrows and then slashed from behind after stuttering and you are dead. From Software evidently has no issue with doing the cliff stuff or they would have patched it by now.

dom56

I find it easier to get more souls in Anor Londo from the first bonfire by killing those six giant knights by using Soul Spear and Crystal Soul Spear. They die from one hit of either spell, so I get about 9000 souls for little over a minute for doing it. Nice. Oh, I finish the Tomb of Giants last night. Wasn't too bad since I had some powerful spells and my awesome Moonlight Greatsword +5 to take down those giant skeletons. Killed the boss Niko and my flask was down to just two. My next task is tried to get to the Great Hollow.

wlj

I actually missed the Great Hollow my first playthrough. i will try and make sure i do it in NG+


As far as farming in Anor Londo, I have done that some, but having to run so far to get there from the bonfire is aggravating. it is actually, not very far, but doing the forest cliff stuff is quicker. However you do get lots of combat practice doing anor londo. it is actually better farming in Anor Londo from the bonfire at Gwynevere. you can go down the elevator and take out the more advanced sentinels before S&O, then killing the white archer, then the regular sentinels outside the door, then all of the spear demons near the blacksmith. You can actually get around 12,000 per run.

Imprint

The medusa group near the prison cell bonfire in Duke's Archive is a good place too.

Poink

I glitched out my first character on New Game+. Wanted to see what a level 450+ was like. Not really as big of a difference as you'd think. Even with maxed out Vitality, any strong enemy / boss can still take you out in 4-5 full on hits. The biggest advantage was being able to wear Havel's armor, equip the Dragon King GreatAxe, and still be able to run / roll faster. Even then, I still needed Havel's ring and the Ring of Divine Favor to do so.

I farmed the hell out of the Silver Knights. They're good practice for parrying if you haven't gotten it down yet, since the bonfire is so close there's little risk involved. Or you could just toss a Great Fireball at them and kill them instantly. I tend to grind more for buying things than leveling, so that was a choice spot due to the nearby blacksmith.

I never cared much for the Forest Hunter part; too easy to fall off the cliff or get killed by the shadow thief. I prefer to go kill the archer, get the a-fuckin'-mazing Black Bow of Pharis, and then join the covenant so they'll leave me alone.

wlj

The Four Kings are a b*tch in NG+. Two hits and I am dead. What is even more troubling is that was with Smough's armor(heaviest in the game..right) and with 40 Vitality. I forsee this taking me a ton of tries. I think I will definitely have to summon some help for this one.

Imprint

I used Havel's armor, +14 Eagle Shield, fully upgraded pyro flame, Iron Flesh, and a combo of pyro spells and +5 lightening uchigatana. I think I got them on the 2nd or third try. took me many, many more tries the first time. Also, 20 flasks was necessary.

wlj

maybe Havel's Armor is better than Smough's. I thought i had read that it wasn't. i killed the Four Kings in one try my first playthrough, but they certainly are getting their revenge on me in NG+


how the heck does someone who is just a sorcerer beat these guys? most sorcerers aren't gonna have the stats to wear big armor.

dom56

I read in another forum in fighting Four Kings in NG+ that casting Iron Flesh and equiping your best weapon in both hand help. If you have it, the Grass Crest Shield is a nice to have, it regen stamnia. I have one at +9, need to find Titanite Slab to make it +10, and does help alot. I haven't fought the Four Kings first time yet, but heard that Homing Crytal Soulmass and Crytal Soul Spear can finish these guys, going to try it out when I get there.

wlj

I have that Grass Crest Shield, but I haven't used it yet. Does it have 100% physical defense? If not, that is probably why I have not used it. I haven't given Iron Flesh much playtime because I read it was nerfed pretty bad after the patch. I didn't actually have the game until after that patch was released. That spell will probably be useful against the Four Kings. Like I said before I whooped the Four Kings ass in one try my first time through, but in NG+ they are alot tougher.

dom56

95% is the highest which isn't that bad but I liked the stamina regen. I just killed the Centipede Demon which you said you was having trouble in defeating. First time I enter the boss area, I quickly cast Iron Flesh and when it got close I hit it with all four Crystal Soul Spear and one Soul Spear and it was dead. I only had to use just three flasks to keep my health up, very surprised that I beat it that fast.

wlj

were you able to cut his tail off and get the orange charred ring? that is a big help in Lost Izalith. Actually I don't understand how anyone could get through Lost Izalith without it...you have to run through lava on several occasions. I suppose it is possible if you open the shortcut by being ranked high in the Chaos Servant covenant, but otherwise I am clueless how you could do it. Maybe someone can shed some light on that quandary?

dom56

I got the ring by defeating it, didn't have to cut the tail. I'm guessing that they patched it so you get the ring without cutting the tail. As, for the shortcut to Lost Izalith, you need to join the Chaos Servant covenat and give the spider lady about 20 humanity to open the shortcut. It's on the right side before you entered the Firesage Demon boss. Walk on the left side of the wall and come down on the limb. It where you can find the bug with red eye, kill it and you get the Sunlight Maggot which help me see better in the Catacombs. Still trying to find Titanite Slab in New Londo Ruin by killing the Darkwraiths but I'm only getting just chunks. I know it's a rare drop but I'm not giving up till one of them drop one. Couldn't get the lizards to drop any slabs in the Great Hollow.

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The game always gave you that ring without cutting its tail. It's just the reward for defeating him.

The tail rewards in the game are all weapons.

wlj