Demon's Souls

[Fallen]

I remember there was some talk of this game in the Torchlight? thread, though I figured I would start one here. I'm playing as a Temple Knight, and am enjoying the game quite a bit. It is very unforgiving, but I find the difficulty refreshing after playing a few games where death means next to nothing.

Anyway, i've a few questions for anyone else that has been playing the game. What stats come to be important later on? As a fighter, are there any I should be focusing on in particular? Any I should avoid raising up? I don't really use magic yet, and i've only one heal spell that I very rarely use.

What type of weaponry/equipment do people use? I haven't found any armor better than my starting set. I've got a Knight's shield that seems to work well, but I am wondering if I should trade out for the spiked shield, or the purple shield. I started out using the Halbert. It is slow, but I find it usually kills everyone in 1-2 hits, so as long as you time your attacks carefully, I seem to do well.

When do black phantoms start fucking with you? I haven't encountered any as of yet, though i've done a few runs as a ghost in someone else's world, and had a few help me in mine. Very cool mechanic, just sucks you need to do it every time you die.

Great hack/slash game for anyone looking for a challenge, BTW.

[Warriorbird]

I love it. I just wish I could play online.

[Celephais]

I started as a mage but quickly evolved into a temple knight... wearing fluted armor and using a moon winged spear, purple shield, and a cresent falchion for mana regen... and a bow for single pulling.

Spears are fantastic, great weapons, the winged one was the best I've found and I upgraded it with moonstones to add some magic damage. I've only had one black phantom invade my world, and he fought like a pussy trying to train me to other creatures/arrow me... but I just kept my shield up and swapped between my spear and my regen sword (darkmoonstones let you add mana regen to weapons, and I had the regen health spell), until he actually came to fight me, then I murdered him.

Generally I've found I just like staying in ghost mode, you do more damage, sure you've got to constantly keep the cling ring equiped, but I don't have to worry about getting invaded unprepared and deaths aren't as big a deal. The few phantoms I've summoned to help me have all been idiots... I've had so many fall off cliffs, I hardly use them.

I think I'm pretty close to either beating it or reaching a big milestone of some sort, I'm at the ridiculously hard fight of the king in the first world, he drains soul levels! and have sort of given up on it, I've beaten all the other worlds except the last one (going clockwise), where I've only beaten one of the demons and the actual level is rather difficult (poison'd just walking in the water, insanely hard guys w/ massive swords, look like the things from silent hill, huge trolls that'll kill in one hit, or take all your stamina if your shield was up), so I'm guessing I just need to get through the disease world, then go back and fight the king and that's it. Soul level is around 80ish.

[Fallen]

I love it. I just wish I could play online.

At this point I don't know if I would WANT to play it if I wasn't online. Have you beat the first boss yet? Not that big pile of goo, but the huge armor guy. I'm not quite sure I could do that by myself. That, and I imagine eventually you will be stuck at half health for lack of those soul uniting stones. Unless they're sold off the shelf at some point, they seem pretty damn rare. Where are you in the game?

[Fallen]

I started as a mage but quickly evolved into a temple knight... wearing fluted armor and using a moon winged spear, purple shield, and a cresent falchion for mana regen... and a bow for single pulling.

Spears are fantastic, great weapons, the winged one was the best I've found and I upgraded it with moonstones to add some magic damage. I've only had one black phantom invade my world, and he fought like a pussy trying to train me to other creatures/arrow me... but I just kept my shield up and swapped between my spear and my regen sword (darkmoonstones let you add mana regen to weapons, and I had the regen health spell), until he actually came to fight me, then I murdered him.

Generally I've found I just like staying in ghost mode, you do more damage, sure you've got to constantly keep the cling ring equiped, but I don't have to worry about getting invaded unprepared and deaths aren't as big a deal. The few phantoms I've summoned to help me have all been idiots... I've had so many fall off cliffs, I hardly use them.

I think I'm pretty close to either beating it or reaching a big milestone of some sort, I'm at the ridiculously hard fight of the king in the first world, he drains soul levels! and have sort of given up on it, I've beaten all the other worlds except the last one (going clockwise), where I've only beaten one of the demons and the actual level is rather difficult (poison'd just walking in the water, insanely hard guys w/ massive swords, look like the things from silent hill, huge trolls that'll kill in one hit, or take all your stamina if your shield was up), so I'm guessing I just need to get through the disease world, then go back and fight the king and that's it. Soul level is around 80ish.

Sounds interesting. I've summoned 2 phantoms, and have been summoned once. When I was summoned, we pretty much walked through the big armor guy, as I just sort of hung back until I figured out what the strategy was for him. The two I summoned, one died in the boss fight and I ringed out, the other one and I were able to off him, though. I'm in that mine level now. It isn't that bad, but i'm paranoid about black phantoms. They sound annoying as shit.

C, did you ever kill that insanely hard Knight in the first level of the game? He kills you in about 2 hits, and takes next to no damage, yet looks like a normal enemy. I ran around him and got the treasure he was guarding, which is just a soul, but didn't get close to killing him. Fucker must have destroyed me like 3 times before I gave up and avoided him.

[Celephais]

At this point I don't know if I would WANT to play it if I wasn't online. Have you beat the first boss yet? Not that big pile of goo, but the huge armor guy. I'm not quite sure I could do that by myself. That, and I imagine eventually you will be stuck at half health for lack of those soul uniting stones. Unless they're sold off the shelf at some point, they seem pretty damn rare. Where are you in the game?
I haven't had any of the spirits help me in any of the boss fights... just keeping your shield and stamina up (which is what makes spears so great, the normal attack doesn't lower your shield) and watching the guy until you figure out their pattern is enough. All of the boss fights have had a learning curve for me, the first was easy enough (someone left the hint to use fire outside his door, I did, and absolutely wrecked the ball of goo).

I think the key w/ the armor guy is to run past him and get up on the stairs, get rid of all the archers and then he was easy... just got under his feet so he couldn't hit me w/ his lance, and then when he went to stomp backed up. Just need to mess up both his ankles and he falls over, took a single strong stab to the head and just about killed him (he stood up, I took one swing at an ankle and that did the rest of the damage).

My favorite fight so far was against the dragon god, it's pretty easy, but a lot of fun, and he looks awesome. I'm just mad I messed up and didn't get to kill both geckos in his room, there is one that's kind of hidden and is scared away before you get to him (it's literally strait in, gecko next to the dragon so it'd be a suicide run to get the gecko).

[Celephais]

C, did you ever kill that insanely hard Knight in the first level of the game? He kills you in about 2 hits, and takes next to no damage, yet looks like a normal enemy. I ran around him and got the treasure he was guarding, which is just a soul, but didn't get close to killing him. Fucker must have destroyed me like 3 times before I gave up and avoided him.
Yeah, that was actually why I went mage, I was playing as a temple knight and he RUINED me (seriously I think I died to him a good 20 times before giving up), then my roommate started a nobel and had 'spirit arrow' spell, and murdered that knight. I was pissed! So I started a mage and sure enough... spells ruined him.

Now those same knights are normal enemies in that first world (well sort of normal, there are three next to each other guarding a demon), and I can melee them just fine... I don't think my character is that much more powerful, just I've learned the tactic ... they won't even hit me because I kite them, wait for them to swing as I jump back, then I lunge w/ my spear, the range of the spear lets me stay way back. Of course w/ the three next to each other I have my thiefs ring on, arrow one away from the rest, and then fight him... single pulling is key.

[Fallen]

I will start having to work archery into the mix. I haven't messed with it yet, as it didn't seem to do much damage. As a temple knight, couldn't you use a miracle to lure monsters, or do they only do heal/buff spells?

[Warriorbird]

Past that guy but not much, Fallen. Working archery thanks to some advice from my little sister.

[Ashliana]

I played through it as a warrior, but learned enough for 2 slots of magic (so I could get "Warding," immensely useful, and 1 prayer slot, for healing). The game was pretty hard until I got the Adjudicator's Shield and the regenerating ring (whatever it's called), so you recover health quickly whenever you're not taking damage.

Finding "Demon Sword Makoto" or whatever it was called was the first step into making the game about 10x easier. Does a lot of damage, and a lot of magical damage. It drains health, though--so wearing adjudicator's shield counteracts it and the regenerator ring overpowers it back to healing mode (and you can swap weapons from Makoto to something else to get 2x healing back).

In the end, I forged a Meat Cleaver by upgrading a normal Club. It's one of the best weapons by itself assuming you've got the stats to properly wield it, and unlike Demon Sword Makoto/etc, it's non-enchanted so you can use Turpentine/Sticky White Stuff/+attack spells to make it even better. It does a shitload of damage, and has an insane amount of knockback--almost anything you hit is put flat on its back, making any followup incredibly easy.

I was only ambushed by a phantom once.. and he didn't kill me. I was chasing him and fell off a cliff. /facepalm

Oh, and something people may not have realized: if you're a melee type, make sure you don't have more equipped than you should. If you can roll/dodge quickly, you're under your "Equip Limit" and you're all good. If your rolls are slow and feel clunky, you're wearing too much for your strength (or was it endurance? w/e).

[Celephais]

I will start having to work archery into the mix. I haven't messed with it yet, as it didn't seem to do much damage. As a temple knight, couldn't you use a miracle to lure monsters, or do they only do heal/buff spells?
I think the key is to not identify yourself with your class, they're just jumping off points. I haven't gotten any offensive miracles, which has been annoying to switch from talisman and catalyst, but it gives me a few more spell slots (I've got 4 arcane slots (flame toss, protection(2), and soul arrow) and 2 miracle slots (regen/cure and evacuate)). I mostly train dex and magic for attack power (spear and bow using dex, spear and sword us magic). Understanding the weapon stats was a HUGE ahah momment for me, since it's not really explained.

A weapon has a damage stat and then a modifier. So if you see Physical 100 +20, it does 120 physical damage, the +20 comes from your stats, and you can tell what stats effect it based on the letters next to the stat (something like grades), so my spear has e's for dex and str, and I think a b or c for magic... so as my magic increases the magic damage my spear does increases, as dex/str increase the physical damage increases. Physical damage seems to be more important as a lot of creatures seem to be heavily resistent to magical damage.

I also made the mistake of thinking I could train up dex for the safe fall ability... it's negligable damage reduction, but thankfully I needed dex for offense anyway.

[Celephais]

Oh, and something people may not have realized: if you're a melee type, make sure you don't have more equipped than you should. If you can roll/dodge quickly, you're under your "Equip Limit" and you're all good. If your rolls are slow and feel clunky, you're wearing too much for your strength (or was it endurance? w/e).
You know, I was on your side w/ this early on, whatever your equip limit is, if you're under half of that you roll rather fast, and that's cool and all, but I found that I'd much rather have heavier armor than be able to roll. I'm at something like 46 lbs equiped, and I can't roll for shit, but I'm still fast running around and stuff, just not rolling. I found my survivability went WAY up when I went with heavy armor. I thought it was "protection" not warding... whichever one takes up two slots and costs a demon soul.. actually I think it was the huge knight in the first world's demon's soul that I traded for the spell.

The gargoyle demon fight was SO much easier with heavy armor and protection up, because it's such a dangerous bridge your on, you're better off being able to take the hit instead of blocking it (seriously... it knocks you way back if you have your shield up, but if you take the damage it only moves you slightly) So you take the hit, and have full stamina to let loose on them.

I might try the king w/ lighter armor though, because my current tactics aren't working on him, might be better being able to dodge w/ him. That's something I really like about this game, you constantly have to adjust your tactics, but once you find the right one, you can breeze through.

[Ashliana]

Generally, if it's something you can't avoid no matter what, I'd wear all your best armor. If it's a boss where you need to be able to dodge--like the one with the Sephiroth-looking boss that zooms around trying to stab you, I found the best strategy to be being lightly armored and able to quick roll, while casting warding (the two slot, soul-learned one--I believe "protection" is the spell) as a precaution. I'd also use a quick weapon like the Crescent Falchion or Demon Sword Makoto on him, and not the Meat Cleaver if you have it, just to give you extra room to dodge when you need it.

[Fallen]

Killed a black phantom yesterday. I don't know what his deal was, but he couldn't do much in the way of damage, and my Halbert got the job done. He was one of these idiots that rolled around everywhere. Halberts follow people that roll, like those skeleton guys in the Storm board. Stupid black phantoms.

I also beat the spider boss in the Second? board. He killed me twice until I attempted a strategy other than "run up and stab him in the face". Don't want to spoil it, but the guy is probably the easiest boss in the game once you beat him the right way.

Those 2-katana wielding guys beat the shit out of me a few times. I don't think i'm ready for them yet. I would need to be better at parrying attacks, as they can lunge with those two swords and drop your block to 0. They look cool, though. I hope to eventually be able to kill them efficiently.

[Celephais]

I kill the 2 katana guys with fire-bolt... it absolutely rocks them, they don't even get in range of me. That first one off to the left was guarding a cresent falchion for me, mana regen sword. (later I got a Kilij and upraded that to cresent, as it does more damage)

[Fallen]

Where the hell do you get spells? Haven't had a chance yet.

[Celephais]

Where the hell do you get spells? Haven't had a chance yet.
This bothered me too... they're right in the nexus, both cleric and mage spells, off to either side there is a teacher, but they won't teach you until you have a 10 in faith and magic respectively.

[Fallen]

What is fucking STUPID about this game is if you accidently hit an NPC, they forever remain hostile to you. Some fuck in the catacombs I accidently pegged is now hunting me down, and no matter WHAT I do I cannot turn him friendly. To me, that is fucking retarded.

[Celephais]

... who did you hit? I once landed on the mage guy (short fall from above him for one point of damage) and he got all hissy about it, but forgave me right away. Are you connected to a network (maybe there is a patch).

[Fallen]

... who did you hit? I once landed on the mage guy (short fall from above him for one point of damage) and he got all hissy about it, but forgave me right away. Are you connected to a network (maybe there is a patch).

Someone with the adjucator's shield in the mines. He fought with a spear/shield, and I didn't have the heart to kill him. He was being a real prick about it (tactics wise) and the whole thing was pissing me off.

I decided to restart as a barbarian. They had the highest soul level right off the bat, but at the cost of "shitty equipment". Well, all I can say is I think Ashliana had a point about being fast and maneuverable. I had no idea you could even MOVE that fast until I was running around naked with a small shield and club. Rolling actually is useful! The damage output is annoying, though.

You mentioned the winged spear, C. How did you upgrade that? I dont think I will go the magical weapon route, so what stones should I hold out for? Should I just use Sharpstone, or is there a better ore I should use and keep the spear for later in the game? I found the blacksmith in the mine board, and almost killed him because he looks like one of those miner pricks. He didn't seem keen on forging anything useful for me, but apparently you need to beat the board boss first in order for him to forge with magical stuff (Right?)

Anyway, what are good stopping points for Magic, Intelligence, and Faith? I remember you had enough to memorize 2 spells, and 2 miracles, right? I may try to work up to that point and stop, and try to focus more on health/stamina/damage. Luck, at this point, I am just going to ignore.

[Celephais]

I just ignore luck too, as far as I can tell you can just upgrade things strait to +10 or you can change them from being standard + to magic based. So the crescent stuff requires taking it up to +3 or +6, then having that blacksmith make it a +1 <special> weapon. I haven't taken any weapons past +6 (because then I switched them over and made them +5 special), but my shield is up to +9 (I didn't have the option to do anything special with it that I noticed).

I did spend some time farming stones, but it's the pure/chunk of whateverstone that are extremely rare, so in attempts to get them I ended up w/ enough of the low end stuff to play around w/ to get the weapons I wanted. In the fourth board, the one with the skeletons, once you beat the first boss of it, the second area is AWESOME for farming. You can pick up like 7000 souls without breaking a sweat, zone out and back in and do it again ... but then the next part is extremely deadly.

[Fallen]

I'm just mad I messed up and didn't get to kill both geckos in his room, there is one that's kind of hidden and is scared away before you get to him (it's literally strait in, gecko next to the dragon so it'd be a suicide run to get the gecko).

Those geckos infuriate me. They are sometimes the ONLY way you will be able to level up your weapon, and 99% of the time, they put them next to a cliff, which they promptly run off of the second you get near them. They are so small you will likely miss if you swing at them, and they only spawn 4 times.. that is if you kill all the bosses in the board. Totally unforgiving gameplay. I hate those fuckers.

[AestheticLife]

Those geckos infuriate me. They are sometimes the ONLY way you will be able to level up your weapon, and 99% of the time, they put them next to a cliff, which they promptly run off of the second you get near them. They are so small you will likely miss if you swing at them, and they only spawn 4 times.. that is if you kill all the bosses in the board. Totally unforgiving gameplay. I hate those fuckers.

Try a bow?

[Fallen]

Try a bow?


With a bow, I can't get in close enough to secure a lock, so my first shot usually stuns them. The next shot in the same location will undoubtedly miss, as the creatures thrash about when hit. They then usually flip over and promptly hurl themselves over the most convenient cliff. The third occurance of this in a row is what prompted me to take a break from the game for a bit by way of smashing the R2 button on my controller into several pieces.

[AestheticLife]

With a bow, I can't get in close enough to secure a lock, so my first shot usually stuns them. The next shot in the same location will undoubtedly miss, as the creatures thrash about when hit. They then usually flip over and promptly hurl themselves over the most convenient cliff. The third occurance of this in a row is what prompted me to take a break from the game for a bit by way of smashing the R2 button on my controller into several pieces.

While I entirely understand your frustration, I've never played the game. Thus, I cannot help but be exceptionally thrilled at the prospect of seizing salamanders (or geckos anyway, but 'seizing salamanders' sounds a hell of a lot better) trying to kill themselves by leaping off of a high elevation of some sort.

Video please.

[Celephais]

They are pretty ridiculous... have you found the lair of them? That can be a bit of a trial. If you get your dex high enough and a good bow, some I've been able to kill in a hit... if you have the thief ring equiped (make sure you don't have the ring of averice equiped) your detection range is reduced and you can get in lock on range (bows lose power over range).

The spear works good for them too, since they're really hard to hit with swords because they're low to the ground.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMqlXiGnVs0
(this person sucks at that dragon, video quality is bad too, gets to a gecko near minute 6.. actually misses a gecko at the very beginning by charging right instead of left first, around the dragon).

[Ashliana]

Certain weapons hit the ground--Demon Sword Makoto, fierce attack in 2H mode, directly hits the ground. Perfect for hitting geckos. Also, the meat cleaver's pretty good. You won't kill them in one hit, but you will stop them long enough to regenerate stamina and keep hitting 'em.

[Fallen]

Beat it. As you said, Cel, with Archery the game becomes a lot more simple. I used archery on the last 5 end bosses I came across. Fuck getting in close, they can do too much damage. Better just to stick and move. I wont be playing through again on NG+, as I find the idea of killing myself repeatedly in the nexus to get the right soul tendencies stupid. Great game, though. I will be sending it to my friend to complete.

I went with a +5 Crescent Winged Spear, +10 Heater Shield, +3 White Bow, and all Gloom armor.