So I just got Dark Souls

[The Funslinger]

I figured I might wait and pick up Dark Souls 2 when it came out instead, but this is currently discounted to £4 on Xbox live.

What tips have you for someone new to it? Aside from drinking lots of water so I don't get dehydrated from all the tears I shed, I mean.

 

[Church185]

2. Know your shields. Always get the shield with 100% physical damage reduction (since that's what 90% of all monsters inflict) and as much of the Stability stat as you can without going overweight. Stability is very important; it measures how much stamina you lose when you block. Your stamina decreases much slower if you keep the block button held down.

This is probably one of the more important things to know about the game. In my opinion the Black Knight Shield is probably the best 100% physical shield. Great stability, considerably lighter than a greatshield. If you aren't lucky enough to get one to drop early in the game you should try using the Dragon Crest Shield, which leads me to my next point...

Everything else shouldn't be so hard to figure. Explore everywhere, don't be afraid of dying, never hoard souls and don't throw yourself at fights you can't win.

People like to be friendly and give you advice that will bite you in the ass later. Therefore, some counter-advice:
- don't take the master key as a starting gift

Why shouldn't he start off with the master key? It's probably the only worthwhile starting gift, and a great way to explore.

 

[shrekfan246]

My top 3 things to tell a newbie:

1. Upgrading weapons is the most important thing in the game. Always upgrade your weapons to the maximum level asap. The first blacksmith you usually find should sell you the materials required. Upgrading shields is less important, but still important.

Er, there needs to be a bit of qualification to this. Getting to the maximum level tends to get fairly expensive even on some of the weaker equipment, and there are a lot of different weapons a person might want to try using. It's more a matter of never forgetting that you should be consistently leveling your weapons alongside your character.

2. Know your shields. Always get the shield with 100% physical damage reduction (since that's what 90% of all monsters inflict) and as much of the Stability stat as you can without going overweight. Stability is very important; it measures how much stamina you lose when you block. Your stamina decreases much slower if you keep the block button held down.

Again, for most combat encounters as long as you're careful you can get away with having a damage reduction of ~90-95%, since a great number of the shields in-game don't have a full 100% from what I recall. It's not as ideal, sure, but that's what the dodge or parry mechanic is for.

3. You roll faster if you have lighter items equipped. There are 3 distinct dodge rolls you can have - play around with the weight limit to see them, and then pick one. Neither is especially mandatory, but you might find yourself having more fun if you're fast.
Also, items equipped in your second weapon/shield slot weigh you down even if they're not in your hand currently.

Indeed. The weight thresholds at which you start rolling slower are 25% and 50% encumbrance. Personally, I stick below 50% if I can help it.

People like to be friendly and give you advice that will bite you in the ass later. Therefore, some counter-advice:
- don't get the drake sword, it's bad. Trust me.
- the claymore is in fact not the be-all, end-all of dark souls
- don't take the master key as a starting gift

Eh, once again and like most things in Dark Souls, that's really all circumstantial.

The Drake Sword has zero scaling, sure, but it's not a bad starting weapon, considering how early it can be obtained. It should be replaced as soon as you find something stronger, but if obtained as early as possible it can get a fair amount of mileage.

And the Master Key isn't the worst starting gift you can choose, unless you're a Thief. Picking the Master Key means you can unlock a shortcut that skips the vast majority of Blighttown, arguably one of the most infuriating areas of the game. It's the nature of the gifts that they all have certain advantages and drawbacks that each player should weigh individually according to how they want to play. And a good number of the other gifts don't even actually tell you what they do in-game.

Anyway.

OT: Always keep your shield up. And walk carefully if you're in any area where you can't see thirty meters around you in all directions. And always be mindful of cliffs.

And don't be ashamed if you end up resorting to looking up things on the Dark Souls Wiki pages or whatever, there's a lot about the game's mechanics that aren't explicitly explained until you're already trying to do something, especially with the upgrading system.

EDIT: Also, if you learn and can hit the parry timing for most of the non-Boss enemies, it can make many of the encounters vastly easier.

 

[Church185]

It's only important because it has the highest fire resistance out of all the shields.

Which is why I love it. I only really recommend the Dragon Crest Shield because of how early you can get it (with the Master Key of course).

It can potentially make you sequence break without wanting to, thus skipping a lot of important items and a boss. Then you end up in Anor Londo with a +5 weapon wondering why the game's being so hard on you.

I guess, but I would tell him to pick that gift with the disclaimer that it opens up the possibility of him getting mercilessly pwn'd by something he shouldn't be fighting yet. The positives far outweigh the negatives in my opinion. On his first playthrough I doubt he'll be skilled enough to fight the bosses out of order, much less end up in Londo with a poopy weapon.

 

[shrekfan246]

That's not the reason I said what I said. The Drake Sword is a crutch that will make you skip learning the upgrade system, which is something you really have to learn. On my first playthrough I got the Drake Sword and used it way too much because I didn't bother learning to upgrade a normal weapon. I hate it ever since.
Also it makes the early game really fucking easy (like 1shot every normal enemy kind of easy) which will also make sure you learn less than you should. It's not a weapon for learning the game; there's a reason it's hidden so well.

It doesn't take that much to learn the upgrade system, or how to fight the early-game enemies.

While I take your points on all sides, Dark Souls is still a game meant to be played however the player wants to do it. Beyond the systems a player will have to learn, such as dodging, blocking, one-handed and two-handed wielding, upgrading, etc. the specific items someone takes or the sequence they go in can be tackled however they like. Provided they can recognize areas that are too difficult for them until they level up/get better equipment, at least.

Much like your own preemptive counter advice, you provided advice and I provided counter advice to give a less one-sided view of the discussion at hand. What Binnsy, or anyone else, does with the information is purely up to them.

 

[Bertylicious]

Be very careful about leveling up your charachter as upgrades get more expensive the more you spend.

You can upgrade weapons & items as much as you like because you can just farm enemies for the drops but screwing up your character stats can seriously gimp you. Read a wikki if you're in any doubt!

Out of curiosity, has Daystar quit? Has he left all this gaming nonsense behind and gone on to an exciting life of personal achievement, huge salaries, going to nightclubs where the urinals are buckets of ice? Or has he dialed it all down massively and he is getting into line dancing and only buying fairtrade granola from people who are ardently committed to saving the long-eared bat and the local highstreet?

 

[shrekfan246]

While I take your points on all sides, Dark Souls is still a game meant to be played however the player wants to do it.

...eh. This is 2 years after the launch of the game. There are enough resources online that will tell you every exploitable nook and cranny of this game. At some point it becomes less about how you want to do it and more about how well you can break it.

If he'd bought the game day 1, there's very little chance he'd have learned of the Drake Sword or the Master Key being the best thing ever.

That's true, but just because they have knowledge of something being in the game and trivializing the content, it doesn't mean they have to exploit it.

Some people like the vanilla challenge of going through a game without breaking it.

Others like having ways out of hairy situations.

Either way, Dark Souls remains a relatively challenging game for a new player even if they do break a good number of the systems, so I feel it's best to warn them of the pros and cons to all of these game-breaking items rather than just advising them to avoid something with no reasoning.

 

[Alma Mare]

Drake sword is just too good of an early damage boost to pass up. The trick to it is

1 - Don't upgrade it; Dragon scales are much better spent on other weapons

2 - Don't rely solely on it. Choose another weapon that has good scaling with stats you invest on (the magic and divine upgrade paths pretty much assure most weapons can be coerced into scaling with the stats you prefer) and a moveset you are confortable with. Keep switching between the two and pretty soon the upgraded weapon will start outperforming the Drake Sword. By that point you will have enjoyed the damage advantage of the drake sword without having become dependent on it.

 

[Church185]

It's very possible to miss the entire Capra Demon fight and the Depths if he takes the other route to the swamp. That means he'll never find the Large Ember thus can't upgrade a weapon past +5. So yeah, anor londo with a +5 weapon. I mean, I used the Drake Sword throughout Sen's and the Lightning Spear from then on.

I generally don't like telling people explicitly where to find amazing weapons early game or things that make the game too easy. It translates to a weird difficulty curve that is never a good thing.

Just because there is a possibility to sequence break doesn't mean it's going to happen. Do you think you were ready to fight Quelaag early in the game on your first playthrough? You may have had the equipment to do it, but back then do you think you had the ability? I don't think it's as big a deal as you are making it out to be. The difficulty curve is pretty consistent along the "normal" path so people tend to gravitate towards that.

Large Ember isn't necessary to beat the game anyways. Divine Upgrade Path is where it's at.

 

[Church185]

Drake sword is just too good of an early damage boost to pass up. The trick to it is

1 - Don't upgrade it; Dragon scales are much better spent on other weapons

2 - Don't rely solely on it. Choose another weapon that has good scaling with stats you invest on (the magic and divine upgrade paths pretty much assure most weapons can be coerced into scaling with the stats you prefer) and a moveset you are confortable with. Keep switching between the two and pretty soon the upgraded weapon will start outperforming the Drake Sword. By that point you will have enjoyed the damage advantage of the drake sword without having become dependent on it.

Gravelord Sword is a better early game weapon if you are planning on making a strength build. Higher raw damage, the ability to toxic enemies and incredible reach. Pretty good for a high VIT and END build as well because of how terrible its stat scaling is.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Figure out what kind of weapon you want to use, not the exact final weapon obviously. But at least decide if you wanna use Str or Dex based weapons (like big swords or something like a katana) so you can only level one of those stats instead of both of them. Level both End (for Stamina) and Vit (for Health). Then, you can level Int (for sorcery) or Faith (for Miracles) if you want any of those magics. You can use Pyromancy without leveling a stat at all. I would suggest going to a site just to look at the kind of spells each type of magic allows for and picking the kind of magic you like the most. You don't even need to pick a type of magic if you don't want to, but you don't need to be leveling stats you don't need either (as there's stupidly no respec option). Basically, you should only be leveling 4 main stats tops (you can get by with only leveling 3 of them by cutting out sorceries and miracles); Vit, End, Str or Dex, and Int or Faith.

ALWAYS carry a bow and arrow with you for the purposes of pulling enemies one-by-one to you. If you don't pull enemies to you one-by-one, you'll end up fighting multiple enemies at a time almost constantly. The game's combat system is dependent on the lock-on mechanic and fighting multiple enemies is a lot harder than it should be.

I wouldn't suggest going past level 5 with a weapon unless you know that's a weapon you really want to use as you don't need to be wasting good resources on shitty weapons. For example, I was a Dex character and I leveled the scimitar to level 5 so I did more damage with it, but I knew that wasn't going to be a main weapon for me so I stop leveling it. I decided to use the Iaito (a katana) as my main weapon and I leveled that up to level 15.

Don't be afraid to look at a site for certain things to see what a certain spell does, see what you get out of joining a covenant, look at a chart to see how weapon/item upgrading works, looking up what weapon a boss' soul will make, stuff like that. I'm not recommending using a walkthrough or anything like that but looking up the occasional thing will save you a bunch of hassle and resources in the long run so you didn't waste rare resources on some shitty weapon and then you are grinding and farming to get them back.

 

[Alma Mare]

Drake sword is just too good of an early damage boost to pass up. The trick to it is

1 - Don't upgrade it; Dragon scales are much better spent on other weapons

2 - Don't rely solely on it. Choose another weapon that has good scaling with stats you invest on (the magic and divine upgrade paths pretty much assure most weapons can be coerced into scaling with the stats you prefer) and a moveset you are confortable with. Keep switching between the two and pretty soon the upgraded weapon will start outperforming the Drake Sword. By that point you will have enjoyed the damage advantage of the drake sword without having become dependent on it.

Gravelord Sword is a better early game weapon if you are planning on making a strength build. Higher raw damage, the ability to toxic enemies and incredible reach. Pretty good for a high VIT and END build as well because of how terrible its stat scaling is.

I'll believe that it's better (I never looked too much into it) but the issue I have with recommending it is "early game" =/= "early player". If you know exactly what to do and how to get it, then I'm sure it's worth it. However, a new inexperienced player on a low level character will have to go out of his way and potentially be destroyed just to get it, whereas the drake sword can be easily get with just a couple dozen arrows on a character that you are bound to meet during the normal progression of the game.

ALWAYS carry a bow and arrow with you for the purposes of pulling enemies one-by-one to you. If you don't pull enemies to you one-by-one, you'll end up fighting multiple enemies at a time almost constantly. The game's combat system is dependent on the lock-on mechanic and fighting multiple enemies is a lot harder than it should be.

Lol no. You don't need a bow to pull enemies. Just pace your approach so you won't aggro entire hordes at the same time. If you DO get into a big fight, just remember this isn't freaking God of War. 2 vs 1 you can pull off if you position yourself well, more than that and it's just better to unlock, run for it and try another approach, or at the very least the same approach but slower.

 

[Church185]

Figure out what kind of weapon you want to use, not the exact final weapon obviously. But at least decide if you wanna use Str or Dex based weapons (like big swords or something like a katana) so you can only level one of those stats instead of both of them. Level both End (for Stamina) and Vit (for Health). Then, you can level Int (for sorcery) or Faith (for Miracles) if you want any of those magics. You can use Pyromancy without leveling a stat at all. I would suggest going to a site just to look at the kind of spells each type of magic allows for and picking the kind of magic you like the most. You don't even need to pick a type of magic if you don't want to, but you don't need to be leveling stats you don't need either (as there's stupidly no respec option). Basically, you should only be leveling 4 main stats tops (you can get by with only leveling 3 of them by cutting out sorceries and miracles); Vit, End, Str or Dex, and Int or Faith.

Why would you level 4 stats? If you plan on using sorceries then forge your weapons to scale with your main damaging stat. Magic and Enchanted for INT, Divine and Occult for Faith. This only ever becomes a problem if you insist on having Sunbro Lightning while wielding Havel's Greatshield or Demon's Greataxe. For that might I recommend leveling pyromancy or upgrading a crossbow for ranged attacks.

 

[Church185]

I'll believe that it's better (I never looked too much into it) but the issue I have with recommending it is "early game" =/= "early player". If you know exactly what to do and how to get it, then I'm sure it's worth it. However, a new inexperienced player on a low level character will have to go out of his way and potentially be destroyed just to get it, whereas the drake sword can be easily get with just a couple dozen arrows on a character that you are bound to meet during the normal progression of the game.

I never claimed that it was easy to acquire (though I made a video guide for a friend on how to get it right after getting to Firelink Shrine), but I did say it was a great early game weapon. If you can manage to upgrade it to +2 before the Tauros Demon (possible but improbable) you'll one shot him with a plunging attack.

Just bragging at this point that I have no life.

13 characters across my Dark Souls career.
10 Xbox 360
3 PS3 (ran out of slots on the 360)

Eagerly awaiting Dark Souls 2.

 

[Alma Mare]

I'll believe that it's better (I never looked too much into it) but the issue I have with recommending it is "early game" =/= "early player". If you know exactly what to do and how to get it, then I'm sure it's worth it. However, a new inexperienced player on a low level character will have to go out of his way and potentially be destroyed just to get it, whereas the drake sword can be easily get with just a couple dozen arrows on a character that you are bound to meet during the normal progression of the game.

I never claimed that it was easy to acquire (though I made a video guide for a friend on how to get it right after getting to Firelink Shrine), but I did say it was a great early game weapon. If you can manage to upgrade it to +2 before the Tauros Demon (possible but improbable) you'll one shot him with a plunging attack.

Just bragging at this point that I have no life.

13 characters across my Dark Souls career.
10 Xbox 360
3 PS3 (ran out of slots on the 360)

Eagerly awaiting Dark Souls 2.

Yeah, but considering the thread was made by someone who just picked up the game, I thought it was important to make that distintion pretty clear.
Now I want to go and give that sword a run, I actually have upgraded my to +5 and never bothered to give it a fair chance.