Going to be starting Demon Souls soon.

[BaronVonVaderHam]

Yeah, I know. I'm late to this whole "Souls" game experience. I just had other stuff to play and just never got around to it. I know Dark Souls is getting a Switch release and I may play that eventually. But I wanted to start at the beginning, so to speak.

So what advice you you give someone just starting out. I know the games are brutally difficult and I need to "get good" . But what do you wish someone had told you before starting the game.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Play the Knight, increase your Luck Attribute in the 10s. Work on getting Magic spells like Magic Missle/Arrow/whatever they called it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well the online servers are going down for good in 4 days, so make the best of that time.
There're two specific things I wish I'd known before playing the game:

Read up on World Tendency and Character Tendency, because the game never even bothers to note their existence, much less explain them. Every World has a Tendency going from Black to White; every Boss you kill makes the meter move closer to White, and every time you die in body form the meter moves closer to Black. When a World reaches Pure White certain paths and areas become unlocked (good loot); Pure Black reveals special enemies called Black Phantoms (also good loot). A safe way of "locking" White Tendency on each World is to kill yourself over at the Nexus every time you regain body form - that way if you die in the World the White Tendency won't go down. Manipulating the Tendency is a bit of an ordeal - know it's there but unless you're going for 100% don't bother with it. Same with Character Tendency, which goes down if you kill NPCs and up if you kill the aforementioned Black Phantoms.

Also there's a character called Ostrava whom you have to rescue from death a total of 3 times. Make sure he doesn't die on you because in the end he gives you the Mausoleum Key, which unlocks the very final boss of the game. If he dies on you loot his corpse; if he falls, reload the game and go to his spawn point to retrieve the Key. Reloading the game only works once so don't die on your way over to get the Key. Honestly some players just kill Ostrava from the get go to save the worry but you do miss out on some good items in doing so and your Character Tendency goes down.

 

[meiam]

Depend how much spoiler you want. Might be worth looking into Yurt since going in blind with him will cause you problem. Early in the game you'll find a ring which will increase the amount of health you keep in undead form, make sure you don't leave the first real area without it. There's a part after the first boss (I think) where you have to talk to someone in the nexus, it's one of the monk on the third floor, he's hard to spot cause he's in the middle of a bunch of them, look for the burning candle. After the first boss all world open up, meaning you have 4 different way to progress, there very roughly in order of difficulty though (the last one is more annoying than difficult though).

World tendency is the big thing most new player will miss on since it's literally unexplained, it's how you unlock most unique weapon.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Well the online servers are going down for good in 4 days, so make the best of that time.

They aren't going to get a chance to experience the genius of the Old Monk fight as it was intended.

 

[TilMorrow]

Ah yes, world tendency... The ole jump off a cliff while you're not hollowed to get Black Tendency and kill Black Phantoms and hope the servers haven't been taken down so you can co-op to get White Tendency.

Well the online servers are going down for good in 4 days, so make the best of that time.

They aren't going to get a chance to experience the genius of the Old Monk fight as it was intended.

You mean the 50% chance you get a regular invader at the same point in the game as you or the 50% you get the uber-hacker who flies all over the place spamming soul drain?

 

[Drathnoxis]

You mean the 50% chance you get a regular invader at the same point in the game as you or the 50% you get the uber-hacker who flies all over the place spamming soul drain?

Aww, come on, it was great! I had a blast playing as the boss, and it's just such a clever idea!

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

The Souls games aren't difficult if you just go into them with the mindset that every action you take should be the action that is in the best interest for your survival (aka play careful as fuck). The games aren't about trying to look cool, do combos, etc. You should only fight one enemy at a time so if you see 3+ enemies up ahead, pull one to you at a time by hitting them with an arrow for example. If you're going into a house/building, walk in then walk out to see if you can pull any enemies that are corner camping like a ***** COD camper. Quite often, you'll see an enemy in a building and then you'll go to fight them only to get attacked from the side because there was some enemy in the corner. Walk through the levels slowly and pay attention, any traps are pretty easy to spot if you just pay attention and don't rush. There's "easy modes" already built-in like using magic or a shield. The only "pro" playstyle that requires you to somewhat "git gud" is playing via only dodging (no shield or magic). Even then it shouldn't be too hard if you played any action combat games because Souls enemies are far slower and less aggressive than most games so you should have good enough reactions to dodge them rather easily. The only tough parts of a Souls game is the occasional hard boss fight. There is a reason you can find full playthroughs of Souls games on Youtube where the player took literally no damage all game (you really only need to find the tricks to beating the bosses taking no hits because normal enemies are such pushovers if you're just careful).

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

- Careful, methodical movement. Always make sure to check your surroundings and look for clues to figure out where you are. Demon's Souls in particular has some labyrinthine level design, so learning where to go is vital.
- Check all paths, nooks and crannies. The loot is hidden there.
- Always exhaust all character dialogue to the end. This is absolutely vital for getting merchants into the Nexus.
- Don't bother trying to kill the blue dragon.

 

[demoman_chaos]

Try really hard to not die.

Get the Meat Cleaver

Flying Stingrays are PRICKS

The Cling Ring is your friend

The Ring of Herculean Strength is your friend

The Thief's Ring is your Best Friend

Avoiding damage is more important than damage reduction

Crystal Lizards are bastards

Empty your inventory of everything not 100% needed after every venture, you can only carry so much.

Enemies can be very resistant/weak to certain damage types

Yuria the Witch is second waifu, Maiden in Black is Waifu for Laifu

 

[BaronVonVaderHam]

Spoiler: Wikidot will help a lot

http://demonssouls.wikidot.com

It?s invaluable if you?re going for trophies. Otherwise the three biggest hints not specifically mentioned yet for going in blind would be:

- Save all the boss souls instead of using them to gain soul ?currency?. They yield new gear which is always more valuable, and there are far more efficient ways of accumulating souls to spend.

- NPCs are often critical sources of info and wares, so refrain from killing them. Although, there?s one big exception [http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/yurt] later on mentioned above.

- Crystal Lizards are the small sparkly things that run and disappear when they see you. They are also one of the best resources in the game, and a very finite one. Check out the respawning rules [http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/crystal-lizards] in particular to save a lot of undue frustration later.

Other than that, best to simply relax and enjoy the game. This whole series is a slow, methodical burn, where equal parts of patience and curiosity will yield the most enjoyment.

 

[gsilver]

>Crystal Lizards

Gah...

Spoiler

They kept me from getting my +5 Moonlight Stone weapon in my most recent playthrough.
Really hard to get both of the lizards in 4-3 at the same time after taking care of the boss

Though on the plus side, without online services bringing world tendency closer to neutral, it'll be easier to get the items locked behind it.


Edit:
Corrected level number.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well the online servers are going down for good in 4 days, so make the best of that time.

They aren't going to get a chance to experience the genius of the Old Monk fight as it was intended.

That and the pain in the ass that it's going to be to get Pure Blademoonstone without online trading...

 

[BaronVonVaderHam]

>Crystal Lizards

Gah...

Spoiler

They kept me from getting my +5 Moonlight Stone weapon in my most recent playthrough.
Really hard to get both of the lizards in 3-3 at the same time after taking care of the boss

Though on the plus side, without online services bringing world tendency closer to neutral, it'll be easier to get the items locked behind it.

By 3-3 you mean Latria? I don?t even recall there were a couple after that boss. I think one or two near the top of the stairs up to him was all I knew of.

If you meant Shrine of Storms (4-3) then IIRC there are three of them (after killing the boss) in the lower part of the stage, but reaching them before they run can be tricky. Cloak and Thief?s ring help, along with of course being in Soul form which is naturally quieter. I also just recently became aware that rolling doesn?t alert the lizards which can also close the gap nicely. I could?ve used that tidbit when I did my trophy running.

 

[BaronVonVaderHam]

Well the online servers are going down for good in 4 days, so make the best of that time.

They aren't going to get a chance to experience the genius of the Old Monk fight as it was intended.

That and the pain in the ass that it's going to be to get Pure Blademoonstone without online trading...

Ahh the Pure Bladestone. I don?t think I?ve ever been more relieved to receive an in-game item. What sucked is I leveled luck a bit too much, since ironically it scales all drop levels and not just the rare ones. Good opp for soul farming though. Gathering a few million souls yielded quite a few levels even at NG++.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

>Crystal Lizards

Gah...

Spoiler

They kept me from getting my +5 Moonlight Stone weapon in my most recent playthrough.
Really hard to get both of the lizards in 3-3 at the same time after taking care of the boss

Though on the plus side, without online services bringing world tendency closer to neutral, it'll be easier to get the items locked behind it.

By 3-3 you mean Latria? I don?t even recall there were a couple after that boss. I think one or two near the top of the stairs up to him was all I knew of.

If you meant Shrine of Storms (4-3) then IIRC there are three of them (after killing the boss) in the lower part of the stage, but reaching them before they run can be tricky. Cloak and Thief?s ring help, along with of course being in Soul form which is naturally quieter. I also just recently became aware that rolling doesn?t alert the lizards which can also close the gap nicely. I could?ve used that tidbit when I did my trophy running.

There's a lizard at the top of the stairs in 3-3 right before Old Monk and two lizards in 4-3 by the cliff in Storm King's area. For me the hardest lizard was the one in 4-2 though (on the cliffside, past the hidden passage left of the first reaper enemy). A tip that would've been super handy during my first run is that loading the game (without quitting) resets the lizards but not the enemies, so you can make it to a good vantage point and then just continue reloading the game killing the same lizard over and over until it stops spawning. Saves on having to do the whole level over as well.

 

[gsilver]

I meant 4-3.

But anyway, the level reload trick is essential.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I always try to get my world tendency in 1-1 to unlock the gate near the starting point, so I can get the Executioner's gear. Granted its locked to female characters only, but its my favorite gear look and once you get the spawn pattern of the mobs before entering her tower down, you can aggro-kite her back to the starting point and cheap shot her down as she de-aggros just before the teleport point giving you a free-shot or two and maybe a backstab, or some solid starting magic hits. Either way if you can get the gate to open early on with a lower level character, the armor's pretty decent and its not too hard a fight to cheese, its just a little bit of a ***** to kill the mobs that spawn before you reach her since they hit hard and there's a lot of them, but they can be triggered in small stages.

 

[Marik2]

It's weird, I don't see many people talking about the shutdown on the internet. I would have guess that this month would have an influx of players online.

 

[Rangaman]

Find and equip Firestorm.


Congratulations, you've won Demon's Souls.