[Oh God Spiders No]

Just started playing last night.
I rolled the brave knight Yorik.

Am I some sort of prodigy? I sailed through 1-1, got most of the items the dragons were guarding (would have gotten all of them but didn't realize the big guy would stop moving once I crossed the bridge), and then crushed Phalanx, all on my first try without dying.
I trust things get much, much harder soon, right?
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[Oh God Spiders No]

[Oh God Spiders No]

It seems the trick to doing well in this game is staying alert and patient. Every time I've died it's because I rushed and got stupid.
Or because of that fucking dragon in 1-2. I want to kill him but I have no ranged attacks, short of buying a whole bunch of bolts, which I'm not going to do.

I poured a bunch of souls into my stamina, which helped me get past the first rampart. The second is still too long, though.

Loving this game, guys.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

I'm having a lot of trouble staying connected to the server. Anyone else have this problem, or have an idea how to fix it?

Also, when I am connected nobody seems to ever pick up my blue stone requests. Is this because nobody is level 20 any more?
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[Oh God Spiders No]

[Oh God Spiders No]

They fell down into the void, does that mean I can't get the black eye stone now? Will it drop from the next black phantom I kill?
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[Oh God Spiders No]

[Oh God Spiders No]

I was making some progress in the prison level. I was traveling down a certain path when I was bombarded over and over by dozens of messages:

"Beware the liar ahead"
"Watch out for the next enemy's lies"
"Liar"

So I come upon this weird ghoulish guy stooped over a shining, golden pentagram. I talk to him, he tells me he won't hurt me. So I kill him in one deft strike.

Can someone tell me what would have happened if I hadn't killed him? What the purpose of the spell was that I interrupted?
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[Oh God Spiders No]

Yea, you're pretty much expected to be in soul form like 90% of the time. It's nice when you get your body back but you don't really need it.

I'm playing as a knight, so here are some tips:

1. Don't try to roll. That's a technique for light armor (or very high strength). If you try to pull it in your plate armor you're going to be a sitting duck.
2. Be patient. Enemies in this level are pretty stupid, and will telegraph their slow attacks. Just edge in, back up when they start to strike, then attack after they're done. Take your time.
3. Your single-hand R2 attack with the long sword is a devastating piercing strike, that will one-hit most enemies. Pair this with tip 2 for victory.
4. Are you getting murdered by a red-eye knight carrying a spear? Don't go that way; you're not supposed to be there til much later.
5. Use health items liberally if you aren't already. They're extremely common.

Yes.

I came back to the Nexus and that blue phantom guy started losing his mind. The next time I came back he was gone, with a hero's soul in his place. I'm sad now! He was an asshole, but it was heartbreaking hearing him go crazy. Good voice acting in this game! Crazy that this was the original dub for a Japanese audience.

I found a dragonstone long sword, and holy shit it's like playing with cheat codes. Enemies that used to die after two well-placed strong attacks are dying after being knicked by one normal swing.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

Wait, how has the Dark Souls thread already overtaken this one?
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[Oh God Spiders No]

Right, endurance, I realized that later when I played again this evening.

I don't know, Cuba, it might change in later levels but I've seen about half the game at this point and I've done pretty fine with heavy armor and no dodge.
Usually backing away, sidestepping, or even just blocking is more than enough. My guy is really sturdy and usually when someone tries to hit me their swings deflect uselessly. When they DO manage to break my defense, they're not exactly ready to swing again either. I have high str and end, though, so I'm not really sure if its the heavy armor or my stats that are making me so impregnable.

Of course bosses are an exception, since they hit so hard anyway. Usually I'll strip off a couple of pieces of armor for those.

EDIT: Aaaaaaand I read your second post

[Oh God Spiders No]

Been invading people of late. My record is pretty bad, but each fight has been a learning experience.

I invaded one guy who was wearing Yurt's armor and carrying a glowing white bow. I almost gave up I was so intimidated by his armor, but then I noticed he was just running away and generally being weak and passive. My guess is that he didn't have a melee weapon equipped, which was stupid of him. Either way I chased him down and beat the tar out of him. After that I fought a few other players aggressively and won, who lost because they were constantly on the defense and never noticed when my fatigue and health were low.

I've decided that being aggressive and in control of the battle's flow is how you win in PvP.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

And then tonight I discovered the Old Monk. My character tendency is almost pure black.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

Okay, I give up. How the hell do I get past the second Grimm Reaper in 4-2? Seriously, what the hell.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

Cool, I'll give that a shot this time. Right now I have 30 strength and am double-handing a meat cleaver. They go down quick but not quite quick enough.
Maybe if I throw some turpentine on there instead of enchanting it I'll be able to take 'em out before they can beam.

My cleaver knocks the reapers down, so if I can get the drop on him he should be cake. Using soul remains sounds promising; I'd completely forgotten about those. I'm going to try distracting him with that or "demon's prank".

Hey, what's the deal with archery in this game? I can't for the life of me figure out how to effectively free-aim. There's no crosshairs? How do you know where the arrow's going to go without actually shooting a few test shots?
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[Oh God Spiders No]

[Oh God Spiders No]

Thanks for the advice, guys.

[Oh God Spiders No]

I've killed the Dragon God in world 2... is there any chance of me getting the DBS this time around? Is there any way to boost up to PWWT if all the bosses are already dead?
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[Oh God Spiders No]

[Oh God Spiders No]

If I body die or kill an npc in a world will it mess up the tendency? Or is it permanently white until the end of the event?

Also, where is the calendar for these things?
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[Oh God Spiders No]

The fact that I had near-white tendency earlier had me worried that I had somehow affected it, but I found an article, and it looks like the PWWT event started literally today, so it's little wonder I haven't seen it yet. I know when you're connected to the server you don't have your own tendency, but rather everyone who's online shares the same tendency, and everyone's actions affect the tendency in aggregate.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

All my playtime the last few days has been spent grinding. But, I don't feel so exhausted by it because in Demon's Souls you aren't just gaining levels, you're actually learning and practicing. 4-2 was an unapproachable nightmare a few days ago, and now I have no troubles getting to the end at all.
However, I haven't had the guts to actually step through that fog yet, because by the time I get there I've always had at least a solid soul level's worth of souls ready to cash in. I'm at level 72 or something now, though, so that will be changing soon.

I went back and crushed Penetrator and Maneater no problem. Having a decent amount of endurance made all the difference I guess.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

DBS is awesome! Meat Clever is still showing a higher attack power for my build, but regardless this thing rips apart bugbears like it was due yesterday.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

Fucking 5-2
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[Oh God Spiders No]

[Oh God Spiders No]

[Oh God Spiders No]

I've been looking at the wiki, and this thread. I know, I know. I went a long time without doing so, though. I get worried about bugs, especially near the end of the game.

In my defense, I didn't look up the targets and such until AFTER I met Meph. After seeing that this was a thing, I didn't see much harm in finding out who ELSE she wanted me to kill. And there's no way I would have even known Biorr or Yuria existed if I hadn't looked, so I don't really feel like I missed out on anything.

I just killed Biorr in the Nexus, rather than bother with the dragon thing. It was a lot easier, and there was no risk of him glitching or me dying in a level that way.

Meph asked me to kill Ostrava and then I talked to him and he killed himself. No credit.
Then when I fought Meph she did this weird blue attack which I dodged, but I guess it lingers or something because when I lunged into kill her she stole a soul level.

Kind of pissed at how all that went.

Hope I don't need to change my spells before now and the end!
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[Oh God Spiders No]

Beat all the levels, after which I was carrying around 100,000 souls.

Didn't realize that was my point of no return in terms of spending them, though.

Tried to do a few PBWT events, and ended up losing all 100,000 souls. Pretty damn annoying.

The primeval demon in world 4 is bugging out and not showing up. I followed a clue on the ground, and then validated on the wiki, and I'm definitely in the right place. But it straight up is not appearing.

The thought of doing all those BP events and collecting all those colorless demons souls just seems like a chore, so hey I'm not going to do them.

I'm going to go beat the game and enjoy the hell out of it. I'll post my thoughts afterward.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

I really like the discrepancy in how the Old One is depicted in the Monumental's story versus how she actually appears at the end.
Sheagorath Horror vs. Miyazaki Forest Spirit
This was a beautiful, wonderful game.

Onward to Dark Souls.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

[Oh God Spiders No]

I thought it was that they had a certain (high) chance to drop a colorless demon soul, but that they were definitely supposed to appear?
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[Oh God Spiders No]

Good point.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

Spells are for silly dandies. For me, the only reason to have soul arrow is to use as a fly swatter in 5-2 (and a worm stomper in 2-2). Even the paltry INT I had to commit to afford cursed weapon sort of felt like I was selling out.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

I started playing this again after getting kind of tired of Dark Souls. I'm playing a magic build this time around.

I guess I'm just sticking with the crescent falchion and buckler so that I don't have to spend a single point on str or dex. I'll probably get to about 30 end and 25 vit and then just pump mag forever.

Is there a point of diminishing returns for MAG scaling on spells and weapons?
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[Oh God Spiders No]

In hindsight, I am now a little disappointed with how the world tendency system is set up. You have to choose between multiplayer and world events, and that's just bollocks.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

Blaaarg.

SPOILERS AHEAD, but this game is so old I don't feel like tagging any of them.

When I started I killed Ostrava because I didn't want to glitch and miss the Mausoleum key later on.

It wasn't until a bit later that I remembered that he's a Meph target, and by killing him early I would be depriving myself of a Colorless Demon's Soul ToB (EDIT: but who cares?)

Well hey no biggie, I still have Patches!

But then of course while I was standing next to him, I set my controller down on the table, accidentally pressing R2 and aggroing him. FUCK, now I've fucked that one up, too.

I always take special care to make sure my hands are clean before I play this game, because I will be palming my face a lot.

I guess I don't actually have to do any of the Meph quest now. Spare myself the hassle of killing everybody and maybe actually get the friend ring.

EDIT: Oh wait, Ostrava nets you the Talisman of Beasts, not a colorless demon's souls. I can still get Biorr's. But man I still missed Patches'!

[Oh God Spiders No]

Thing is I aggro'd him in 4-2, and he hasn't returned since then.

Maybe he's still hanging out in 4-2? I should look into this...

ADDENDUM:

I gotta say, I think I prefer Demon's Souls to Dark Souls. Dark Souls is huge and impressive and amazing, but Demon's just feels better to me.

Maybe it's because it was my first? Maybe I'm just bored of Dark. But to me, Demon's seems to have a more subtle, consistent, and powerful tone throughout.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

There's something else, too. Maybe it's that the armor in Dark that's sort of bombastic? It's not just that, but it's kind of about that. It's fun for multiplayer, and my favorite character by far is Bumbling Sir Onion, but that stuff comes at a price.

[Oh God Spiders No]

My first knight was pure physical and it was awful on him. Dragon Longsword until Meat Cleaver showed up.
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[Oh God Spiders No]

I checked, and Patches is still hanging out in his spot in 4-2, so I'm good!
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[Oh God Spiders No]

My first knight character is sort of a mess stat-wise, because I wanted to try a lot of things. As it is he's sort of torn between dex and strength, with a bit too much faith, as well (I wanted two miracle slots for some reason).

Rather than start a new build from scratch I sort of want to re-spec him now. Does anyone have a character around 93 120 with soulsuck that would be willing to help me de-level?

EDIT: I cheated to get to 120 so I could find more people to help me.