Demon's Souls - Atlus & From Software's Action RPG - October 6

[Jodou]

Log off and log back in. After killing the BPs (and getting them back to neutral-ish), I logged out and logged back on and it was back to black again.
Sounds like they're just subtracting three from the WT every time you log in.

[happy]

If I kill a named black phantom will that NPC not show up in White WT for whatever I may be able to do with them then? And if so are there any I should avoid killing?

[IRHari]

No the black phantom NPC is separate from the body form NPC, they're independent of each other.

So, explain this to me cause I haven't even logged in yet. Could I log in, every stone turns pure black WT, then log off and kill the primeval demons. Then log back in, get everything back to pure black just by logging in, and keep going?

[Snake2715]

I am not sure what happens when you play offline right now, but getting it white or nuetral and logging out and in will bring it darker again, yes.

I killed two primevils and some phantoms and mine was above nuetral. I didnt try to get it to white, but I imagine you could.

[happy]

I killed Miralda. Scirvir wasn't there though - perhaps because I killed the the primeval demon on 2-1 so it wasn't black enough anymore.

I needed to turn the game off and on a few times to get my worlds actually black.

[ChibiJosh]

No the black phantom NPC is separate from the body form NPC, they're independent of each other.

So, explain this to me cause I haven't even logged in yet. Could I log in, every stone turns pure black WT, then log off and kill the primeval demons. Then log back in, get everything back to pure black just by logging in, and keep going?
If you're asking if you can kill the primevals multiple times, you can't. If you're asking if you can get things back to pure black after killing the primevals, you can.

[Snake2715]

scirvir is a healing biatch..

I need to rely on my magic more I think and less on my bow.

[Saint Noir]

scirvir is a healing biatch..

I need to rely on my magic more I think and less on my bow.

I just poisoned him. He isn't as aware as Satsuki... and no need risking one of us falling off the cliff.

[ChibiJosh]

Hell yeah! I have finally have the ability to use a bow. Time to grind the first reaper.

(also just got my crescent falchion fully upgraded)

[BlueScrote]

Executioner Miralda is a sneaky one. She just jumped me from behind and totally caught me unawares. No big deal, considering I can one-shot the black phantoms before her.

[ChernobylCow]

So can someone summarize the Halloween event?

[ChibiJosh]

So can someone summarize the Halloween event?

Black world tendency, bam!

[Snake2715]

I just poisoned him. He isn't as aware as Satsuki... and no need risking one of us falling off the cliff.

yeah I dont have that yet... I do have to say my great axe + 6 is sick though I knocked him right off the edge.. then I quite and reloaded and it dropped his talisman right where he started at


Know the guy at 4-1 is somewhat tough. I walked in with my axe and it knocks him over so I wait for him to start to get up and smack him again... I had him within a sliver the first time out and then the skeleton came up from behind me and slaughtered me... i forgot all about him.

Miralda wasnt have bad, took her out last night.

[Bavgate]

Wow, what the fuck. The Primeval Demon in 2-1 never appeared for my alternate character. I know I was in pure black too since I saw BP Scirvir in 2-2. How lame. :bomb:

[Snake2715]

Wow, what the fuck. The Primeval Demon in 2-1 never appeared for my alternate character. I know I was in pure black too since I saw BP Scirvir in 2-2. How lame. :bomb:

no the black phantoms can show in an almost pure black state...

[Bavgate]

no the black phantoms can show in an almost pure black state...

Regardless if it's Pure Black or NEAR Pure Black, that Demon should've showed up. I reloaded my game multiple times to get back to Pure Black and that stupid Demon still hasn't appeared.

[io]

Hmmm... So if I want to take care of white events later I should lay off the BT stuff... But I'm tempted to try Satsuki anyway though I think he'll slaughter me. I can barely handle the BF skeleton that showed up. I just ground out some more levels from 4-2 last night. Then I farmed a few spiderstones. Finally in pure black I get them occasionally :roll:. I should probably try to make that sword of searching dealie.

Any tips on Satsuki before I take him on? Also, the only white thing in that world is to get that sword off the stalagmite, right? I got that earlier when it was just randomly near white.

[ChibiJosh]

Any tips on Satsuki before I take him on? Also, the only white thing in that world is to get that sword off the stalagmite, right? I got that earlier when it was just randomly near white.

Tips for Satsuki: Don't fight him.

As for WT events, the sword (Makoto) and normal Satsuki (who doesn't do anything but attack you anyway) show up.

[Saint Noir]

Any tips on Satsuki before I take him on? Also, the only white thing in that world is to get that sword off the stalagmite, right? I got that earlier when it was just randomly near white.

I tried lots of stupid stuff. For Satsuki the thing that worked for me was just to stay on top of him. And if you get him low and he starts to back away... RUN to him or else he will eat a full health grass... and keep doing it forever.

[Bezerker]

Beat Miralda & Scirvir. Having issues with Satsuki though. I get him down to about 30% and then he heals himself 100%.

[sotc1988]

Beat Miralda & Scirvir. Having issues with Satsuki though. I get him down to about 30% and then he heals himself 100%.
Like the other poster mentioned you have to be super aggressive so that you can attack him before he finishes the item consuming animation. He will NEVER run out of healing items so if you can't interrupt him, he's impossible to beat.

[Bezerker]

Yea, i gave up on him for the time being. I went back to 1-3 and proceded to get raped many times by the two Phantom Fat Officials that spawn on both sides of you.

But hey, I rescued Yuria and Biorr, so at least I did something productive.

[ChibiJosh]

I now has a lava bow and a large sword or schwartzing

[IRHari]

Finally got my Soldier's Trophy (all unique weapons) now if I could get a FOE's ring from someone lol. Eh I've just gotta grind out mercury, sucker, and marrow stones and do a few more playthroughs and I'll get plat.

[ChibiJosh]

Eh I've just gotta grind out mercury, sucker, and marrow stones

I have fully upgraded weapons for all those. Though, with about 100 levels difference between us, I doubt we'll be able to meet.

[Jodou]

Finally got my Soldier's Trophy (all unique weapons) now if I could get a FOE's ring from someone lol. Eh I've just gotta grind out mercury, sucker, and marrow stones and do a few more playthroughs and I'll get plat.
Lol, you just don't want to go pure black CT. :P

I'm 216 so I guess I can get on and give you w/e you need. After I kill you, that is. :twisted:

[IRHari]

sweet, lemme know when/where lol. i'm 205, just PM me bro, im up to go whenever you are.

[Jodou]

sweet, lemme know when/where lol. i'm 205, just PM me bro, im up to go whenever you are.
You gonna be on later? My GOW III demo is at 55% and I'm watching the world series atm. Also, do we need to be within 10 levels of each other? I might actually be 217 since I killed a few demons last night, can't remember.

[IRHari]

I heard after Level 100 the range is like, 25. I'm 208 now actually, so I think we should be ok. Just PM me and we can coordinate where to meet, I'll be on CAG all night, my PS3 is right in front of me. Just watchin the Phils rape the Yanks ;)

[Jodou]

I heard after Level 100 the range is like, 25. I'm 208 now actually, so I think we should be ok. Just PM me and we can coordinate where to meet, I'll be on CAG all night, my PS3 is right in front of me. Just watchin the Phils rape the Yanks ;)
Word. Yeah, NY not looking so hot tonight. Slow working and falling behind in the count A LOT.

Wow, amazing bunt; Yanks packed with Phils lol. ROFL, this dude is going to walk in a run, just watch. Bam, two nothing.

[Apollo Creed]

It's really odd. None of my worlds are black. The only one in BWT is Boleteria and that's because I died in human form five times tonight.

I can't remember his name, but the black phantom on the bridge to Old King Doran ... I killed him, but the prick fell off the edge. I died at the boss, went back and the drop is still not there. Uber frustrating.

On another note, decided to invade a few games for the first time. The result: 1-1.

The first guy did his best Forrest Gump impersonation. He ran as far as his legs would take him and inevitably plunged to his death. Second attempt did not go so well. Just my luck, the game I invaded happened to have 2 other players in soul form assisting. I was swiftly annihilated.

[ChibiJosh]

I can't remember his name, but the black phantom on the bridge to Old King Doran ... I killed him, but the prick fell off the edge. I died at the boss, went back and the drop is still not there. Uber frustrating.


There is no phantom there... There's a black knight though

[IRHari]

I think he means False King, cause the black phantom he's referring to is Ostrava.

[Jodou]

On another note, decided to invade a few games for the first time. The result: 1-1.

The first guy did his best Forrest Gump impersonation. He ran as far as his legs would take him and inevitably plunged to his death. Second attempt did not go so well. Just my luck, the game I invaded happened to have 2 other players in soul form assisting. I was swiftly annihilated.The one time I did face two players, I did a diving roll and one-shot him with a sweet spot strike. The other guy shit his pants and tried keeping his distance with magic. I ran him down with ease using a dark silver shield +5 and swept through his shield three times to finish him off. Large Sword of Moonlight is seriously OP in PvP.

[Apollo Creed]

There is no phantom there... There's a black knight though

The guy that moans about how his father is a dragon demon then hands me the mausoleum key, slumps over and fades away.

Apparently I can't tell the difference between and black knight and a black phantom. lol

[ChibiJosh]

I did one of my only invading someone else earlier. The guy had someone with him, who cast anit-magic field as soon as I entered. As you know, I'm pretty much strictly magic, and I had firestorm ready to go. So, I start running away, and the guy stupidly follows me without the phantom, I get out of the anti-magic field range and I unleash firestorm. Guy dies.

The guy that moans about how his father is a dragon demon that then hands me the mausoleum key, slumps over and fades away.

Apparently I can't tell the difference between and black knight and a black phantom. lol

IRHari had it right.

Also, about the drop, you can get it in 3-2.

[Apollo Creed]

I did one of my only invading someone else earlier. The guy had someone with him, who cast anit-magic field as soon as I entered. As you know, I'm pretty much strictly magic, and I had firestorm ready to go. So, I start running away, and the guy stupidly follows me without the phantom, I get out of the anti-magic field range and I unleash firestorm. Guy dies.



IRHari had it right.

Very frustrating. Oh well. I'll grab it in 3-2. It's a love hate thing with this game. Today was all hate. :bomb:

[ChibiJosh]

I know. I died a million times in 3-1 today.

[Snake2715]

Hmmm... So if I want to take care of white events later I should lay off the BT stuff... But I'm tempted to try Satsuki anyway though I think he'll slaughter me. I can barely handle the BF skeleton that showed up. I just ground out some more levels from 4-2 last night. Then I farmed a few spiderstones. Finally in pure black I get them occasionally :roll:. I should probably try to make that sword of searching dealie.

Any tips on Satsuki before I take him on? Also, the only white thing in that world is to get that sword off the stalagmite, right? I got that earlier when it was just randomly near white.

You have a large ax?

You can hit him and it will knock him down... right when his animation shows his left hand up by his left knee swing again. He stands right up into it and gets knocked over again. If you can time it right you can finish him without taking a hit.

The one thing is to get the skeleton out of there before you do that.. you may have to cast the cloak to lure the skeleton away first without him attacking you. This gives you the entire area to fight in.

[Snake2715]

It's really odd. None of my worlds are black. The only one in BWT is Boleteria and that's because I died in human form five times tonight.

I can't remember his name, but the black phantom on the bridge to Old King Doran ... I killed him, but the prick fell off the edge. I died at the boss, went back and the drop is still not there. Uber frustrating.

On another note, decided to invade a few games for the first time. The result: 1-1.

The first guy did his best Forrest Gump impersonation. He ran as far as his legs would take him and inevitably plunged to his death. Second attempt did not go so well. Just my luck, the game I invaded happened to have 2 other players in soul form assisting. I was swiftly annihilated.

if you kill a major phantom like that and they fall off. Quit the game (through the menu) and reload it.. it will drop their bodys (and loot) at there starting point. Dont leave the area. Worked for me on Scirver after I knocked him over a ledge!

[DrFoo]

Anybody have any tips on how to beat phantom Rydell? I've tried beating him with adjudicator's shield and my crescent falchion with some arrows before hand but he's just way too strong. Even with using my shield he takes away a fourth of my health per hit and since he has about a million hit points there is no chance I can beat him in close quarters. I was thinking of maybe getting the dark silver shield since I'm guessing the damage that is getting through is mostly magic but other than that I have no idea what to do.

... and I still have to beat Scirvir although I'm guessing I could at least get him to jump off a ledge or something.

[Feeding the Abscess]

WT didn't turn black for me yesterday. Still haven't cleared an entire world; could that be why?

[happy]

Does anyone have advice for the second part of the blue dragon. If I stand under him and shoot soul arrows will they hit (the screen doesn't tilt up enough for me to see). Or is there a better place to stand to shoot him with magic?

[Apollo Creed]

Does anyone have advice for the second part of the blue dragon. If I stand under him and shoot soul arrows will they hit (the screen doesn't tilt up enough for me to see). Or is there a better place to stand to shoot him with magic?

I just stood in the doorway right underneath him locked on and shot him with the soul arrow. It took a very long time to finally take him out. Thankfully I had an obscene amount of fresh spice.

[IRHari]

So last night Jodou helped me get the Rogue's Trophy (all rings) and 4 weapon upgrade trophies.

Then, Jodou, Biorr and I raped the shit out of Penetrator in NewGame+ (although I just shot back and shot arrows lol.)

So yeah, Jodou deserves some kind of good Samaritan award for Demon's Souls. Just sayin.

[SynGamer]

Just went and got the Purple Flame Shield, what do I need stats wise to use this without the 'Ability Shortage' message?

[option.iv]

22 str. But if you really don't want to pump pts into STR, just don't. You can still weild the shield and have 100% physical cut (most important fire cut), it'll just drain a little more endurance on each block.

... and I still have to beat Scirvir although I'm guessing I could at least get him to jump off a ledge or something.
For scirvir, you can just stand behind the wood supports (on your right facing scirvir). He'll end up wasting all his mp shooting fire. Eventually, he'll run out of mp (won't regenerate) and become pure melee. From there, his pattern is easy to see.

[SynGamer]

My strength is at 11 so I may bump it up to 13 or 15 but I want to focus on VIT/INT/MAGIC.

[io]

You have a large ax?

You can hit him and it will knock him down... right when his animation shows his left hand up by his left knee swing again. He stands right up into it and gets knocked over again. If you can time it right you can finish him without taking a hit.

The one thing is to get the skeleton out of there before you do that.. you may have to cast the cloak to lure the skeleton away first without him attacking you. This gives you the entire area to fight in.

Man, I took on Satsuki about 10 times last night and most times I can get him down to a sliver, but I just can't stop him from healing. He does it so damn quickly and I always hit him just as he takes it. The problem is that you can't be too agressive or he will end up nailing you with a baskstab or something. I have no problem if I'm careful and roll/dodge. But if you do any of that when he is abotu to heal there's no way you can stop him. I think it might just not be possible now. I think I need to do WAY more damage per hit (as with the winged spear +6 I can only do about 25 per hit).

I di dtry the axe method and I can see how it might work, but the problem is you end up knocking him back and have to readjust your position every time and once he gets backed up to the rocks you end up recoiling when you hit him (and the rocks). As I was only doing 15 or so damage with a normal axe I had that was going to take forever. And invariably I would mess up the timing and then be open to a one-shot kill without my shield up.

I may try to look at the axe upgrades and see if I can get anything to +5/+10 that way and maybe try it again. Any suggestions on axe upgrades? Ie, any special upgrade paths I should pursue?

The one thing I was able to accomplish last night was finally to farm enough spiderstone shards out of the miners in 2-2 so that I could upgrade the sticky compound long bow all the way to +5. Got my first trophy from this game in a long time ;). I need to work on the shield a bit more too (still at +6 on that) but for that I need large shards of hardstone which are harder to come by.

I'm also thinking that while 2-2 is black I should try the crystal gecko nest. I'd hate to screw it up though. I have rage of god now but it seems highly ineffective. I tried it on the normal grunts in 1-1 and it seemed like you had to be really really close to them for it to work. I thought it was some sort of awesome spell? I can't even tell if it's working and it seems really slow to get going. I can't see getting all the geckos with that. Do the ones in the nest regenerate one time for each boss beaten like the others do? If so, I guess I have 4 chances there and could try it once.

I'm also thinking maybe I can try Rydell in 3-1...

[ChibiJosh]

Rydell is pretty easy. You can do the poison cloud trick on him. Although, he will notice you before you get close enough to do it, but just cast it close to him, get him to chase you through it and run away far enough so he'll lose interest. It should take 2 or 3 casts.

Firestorm is a million times better than God's Rage, in my opinion. It's stronger and it casts instantly.

[gunm]

I hear Northern Regalia with Clever Rat's Ring works real well against Satsuki. Riposte and backstab seems like the best strategy, but it does take practice to learn the timing. Also, Poison Cloud apparently mitigates heal by 50%, so using that before entering the fight should help too.

Last night I just farmed for stones for low level upgrades. Got my Scimitar to +5, my Long Sword to +5, my Compound Long Bow +1, and Purple Flame Shield to +2. I actually like farming, so I think I will try and go as far as I can with the low level upgrades before finishing up either 4-1 or freeing Sage Freke in 3-1.

[DrFoo]

Thanks for the advice option and chibijosh. Yeah I tried scirvir a couple of times but even with the purple flame shield his fire explosion thing one shotted me. I was thinking I'd have to use some sort of cheats with poison cloud to beat Rydell. It would be nice if it was reasonably possible to beat these phantoms in a regular 1v1 fight but they don't really give you a choice other than to abuse shit.

Also io or anybody trying to get spider stone, pure black world tendency helps so much. Maybe I've just gotten lucky but when I was near white I got 0 shards in 15 runs and now that I'm pure black I've gotten around 2 shards or chunks on the last 3 runs through the 2-2 miner tunnel.

[SynGamer]

I got a pure spiderstone for beating the spider in 2-1. Should I save it for something? Also, I have 3 demon's souls sitting in my storage, what should I use them on?

[Apollo Creed]

I got a pure spiderstone for beating the spider in 2-1. Should I save it for something? Also, I have 3 demon's souls sitting in my storage, what should I use them on?

I believe you'll need the spiderstone if you want to upgrade the compound low bow to sticky.
Hold on to the demon's souls until you free Freke.

[gunm]

I got a pure spiderstone for beating the spider in 2-1. Should I save it for something? Also, I have 3 demon's souls sitting in my storage, what should I use them on?



What demon souls do you have? I assume it's 1-1 (used to upgrade to Scraping Spear), 1-2 (used for Spell Warding) at least.

I'd save the spiderstone for bow ugprade, I forget which one (I think Sticky/Viscous), but it's high level.

[SynGamer]

SO just save the Demon's Souls for now :)

[crystalklear64]

having a good time with the game. got the awesome sword from the storm king world only to be disappointed when it didn't work as i had planned it to in the nexus : ( makes killing the mantas a breeze though and looks awesome.

did all the pure back stuff with relative ease yesterday except for the vinlands since I haven't played world 5 yet.

i don't understand how people can get someone down to 30% and then not beat them. a heal is a free opening to attack! satsuki in particular is incredibly easy, as you can block every single one of his attacks. maybe it'd be a little more difficult with a short range weapon like a falchion, but grab yourself a spear with some upgrades on it (or a regular one and enchant/light weapon it), constantly hold block, walk into his face to make him attack, walk backwards as he is attacking, poke him, repeat till dead. if you use a shield with a high hit res you'll never take any damage from him. if he rolls away roll after him, just constantly hold block and poke, its the beauty of the spear. if you need to recover stamina, bait an attack and instead of poking, just block and back up. usually he'll miss and you'll recover you stamina drop your shield as soon as he's missed for a sec to speed up recovery, but not necessary if you're not going crazy with attacks.

[crystalklear64]

Thanks for the advice option and chibijosh. Yeah I tried scirvir a couple of times but even with the purple flame shield his fire explosion thing one shotted me. I was thinking I'd have to use some sort of cheats with poison cloud to beat Rydell. It would be nice if it was reasonably possible to beat these phantoms in a regular 1v1 fight but they don't really give you a choice other than to abuse shit.

Also io or anybody trying to get spider stone, pure black world tendency helps so much. Maybe I've just gotten lucky but when I was near white I got 0 shards in 15 runs and now that I'm pure black I've gotten around 2 shards or chunks on the last 3 runs through the 2-2 miner tunnel.
if you've made it to the point where you can farm cloudstones, you can upgrade your purple flame shield to a dark purple flame shield which has a much better magic resistance at the cost of some hit res i believe. all the phantoms are 100% doable with "legit" tactics, they are just time consuming but its a great sense of achievement when you finally beat them if they were giving you a hard time.

[io]

Also io or anybody trying to get spider stone, pure black world tendency helps so much. Maybe I've just gotten lucky but when I was near white I got 0 shards in 15 runs and now that I'm pure black I've gotten around 2 shards or chunks on the last 3 runs through the 2-2 miner tunnel.

Yeah, I just posted right before you how I got the bow to +5 and finally got that trophy ;). I was getting a spiderstone shard every trip or two vs once every 10-15 when it was near white. The only problem was that I was getting chunks more often than shards, and I actually needed the smaller shards and NOT chunks :lol:.

I hear Northern Regalia with Clever Rat's Ring works real well against Satsuki. Riposte and backstab seems like the best strategy, but it does take practice to learn the timing. Also, Poison Cloud apparently mitigates heal by 50%, so using that before entering the fight should help too.

Last night I just farmed for stones for low level upgrades. Got my Scimitar to +5, my Long Sword to +5, my Compound Long Bow +1, and Purple Flame Shield to +2. I actually like farming, so I think I will try and go as far as I can with the low level upgrades before finishing up either 4-1 or freeing Sage Freke in 3-1.

OK, what is this Regalia thing? I tried clever rat's ring but thye problem is that it is very hard for me to get to 30% without simply being killed as he pretty much one-shots me. The only time I actually got to 30% was when the skeleton joined in and dinged me a bit. I also hit him with poison once but that made little difference - I think it wore off before he got to healing anyway and once he was in close range I couldn't cast it again without getting killed.

Rydell is pretty easy. You can do the poison cloud trick on him. Although, he will notice you before you get close enough to do it, but just cast it close to him, get him to chase you through it and run away far enough so he'll lose interest. It should take 2 or 3 casts.

Firestorm is a million times better than God's Rage, in my opinion. It's stronger and it casts instantly.

How do you get firestorm? I'll try Rydell since I already took care of the WT events there anyway (so I don't need to go to the next boss today). I'm confused as to where the primevil demon is though from the walkthrough - I don't want to mess with that Yurt guy and when I got there before I just saw him in a cage and no other way to get down so I turned back.

crystal - I could do the dark purple shield as well but it seemed not as good as a fully-upgraded regular one so I think I'll stay with that. It always seems like I'm getting pounded with regular attacks vs magic so I don't want to lose the hit res.

[IRHari]

I don't agree with gunm's tactic, Satsuki is too fast, the Northern Regalia is too slow, and combined with Clever Rat's ring @ 30% health, you're putting yourself in danger.

I think a 1H sword & shield is the best combo. You should NEVER have >50% equipment burden, cause being able to roll and dodge quickly is almost mandatory to play well in this game.

Just keep blocking and when he hits your shield and it bounces off, keep using your R1 weak attack till he rolls away. Your stamina should recover and you should repeat.

Word of warning, when he prepares to do his strong attack with the katana (which can one shot you), it DOES track, so if he prepares his sword and you sidestep around him it WILL lock on and hit you, so your best bet is to either block that or roll back.

[crystalklear64]

You can get more than one purple flame shield, you can always have both on hand and switch to one when you know you'll be facing more magic. the game to be seems to be much about preparation as it is anything else. I think some people just get stubborn and try to use the same set of gear for everything rather than using all the options available to them.

[crystalklear64]

I think a 1H sword & shield is the best combo. You should NEVER have >50% equipment burden, cause being able to roll and dodge quickly is almost mandatory to play well in this game.
I think the ability of the spear to attack and block at the same time makes it perfect for this phantom. His attacks do come quickly, so it is easy to make a mistake such as getting hit in the middle of an attack. With spear and shield, you cannot make this mistake unless you let go of the block button.

[salty tbone]

I haven't taken on Satsuki in New Game+, but I beat him the first time standing toe to toe with him with a shield and spear. It was the only time I really never used the roll tactic because if you don't roll just right he gets a clean hit on you. The spear's reach also helps close the gap when you anticipate his healing. He was by far the toughest nonboss in the game, especially since you can't cheese him like the other black phantom NPCs (except for the executioner).

[ChibiJosh]

io:

The northern regalia is a sword. I think you get it by combining the soulbrandt and the demonbrandt or something like that.
You get firestorm using the dragon demon soul (2-3 boss). And, I think you get it from the witch, not Freke (Freke gives you fireball).

I'm annoyed at how difficult it is to find blue phantoms now.

[io]

I don't agree with gunm's tactic, Satsuki is too fast, the Northern Regalia is too slow, and combined with Clever Rat's ring @ 30% health, you're putting yourself in danger.

I think a 1H sword & shield is the best combo. You should NEVER have >50% equipment burden, cause being able to roll and dodge quickly is almost mandatory to play well in this game.

Just keep blocking and when he hits your shield and it bounces off, keep using your R1 weak attack till he rolls away. Your stamina should recover and you should repeat.

Word of warning, when he prepares to do his strong attack with the katana (which can one shot you), it DOES track, so if he prepares his sword and you sidestep around him it WILL lock on and hit you, so your best bet is to either block that or roll back.

I haven't taken on Satsuki in New Game+, but I beat him the first time standing toe to toe with him with a shield and spear. It was the only time I really never used the roll tactic because if you don't roll just right he gets a clean hit on you. The spear's reach also helps close the gap when you anticipate his healing. He was by far the toughest nonboss in the game, especially since you can't cheese him like the other black phantom NPCs (except for the executioner).

Yeah, I had no problem fighting him with the spear/shield combo. The only problem was that in being careful not to get hit by him I can't get to him when he heals (I mean, I miss it by a half second or so).

io:

The northern regalia is a sword. I think you get it by combining the soulbrandt and the demonbrandt or something like that.
You get firestorm using the dragon demon soul (2-3 boss). And, I think you get it from the witch, not Freke (Freke gives you fireball).

I'm annoyed at how difficult it is to find blue phantoms now.

Well, damn, wish I had known about firestorm - all the guides say to get god's wrath because it is so awesome so I got that as soon as I saw it available - also from the 2-3 boss soul. So no firestorm for me this playthrough I guess :bomb:.

[Jodou]

So last night Jodou helped me get the Rogue's Trophy (all rings) and 4 weapon upgrade trophies.

Then, Jodou, Biorr and I raped the shit out of Penetrator in NewGame+ (although I just shot back and shot arrows lol.)

So yeah, Jodou deserves some kind of good Samaritan award for Demon's Souls. Just sayin./flex! :lol:

OK, what is this Regalia thing? I tried clever rat's ring but thye problem is that it is very hard for me to get to 30% without simply being killed as he pretty much one-shots me. The only time I actually got to 30% was when the skeleton joined in and dinged me a bit. I also hit him with poison once but that made little difference - I think it wore off before he got to healing anyway and once he was in close range I couldn't cast it again without getting killed.
They're referring to a tactic where you intentionally get your health below 30% to stack damage bonuses to the point where every swing is deadly. Many people use it on the man-eater boss as to eliminate the first one quickly. Add black turpentine as needed.

[Jodou]

Well, damn, wish I had known about firestorm - all the guides say to get god's wrath because it is so awesome so I got that as soon as I saw it available - also from the 2-3 boss soul. So no firestorm for me this playthrough I guess :bomb:.
It's situational: firestorm hits randomly whereas God's Wrath is a complete 360 attack.

[DarthPuma]

Before I get any farther in the game, was hunter a good choice of class? I went for it for speed and the bow, but I don't want to put 20 hours in with her if it's a shit class.

[gunm]

Yeah, with the Clever Rat's Ring damage stack, a few good swings with a high dmg weapon like Regalia or Meat Cleaver and your target is dead.

Puma, it's been mentioned before, but class doesn't matter except in the very beginning of the game. Once you pass 1-1 you can make your character into whatever you want.

[joe2187]

How the hell do I use magic!?

[gunm]

If you didnt' start off as a magic using class, then you need a catalyst (wand) and at least 10 points in Magic attribute.

[SynGamer]

What's the best level to grind early on? I would really like to up some of my stats, tempting to make a new character and start over but I don't want to lose 10 hours.

[gunm]

Jodou mentioned it already, but the 1-2 archstone is great--you start off behind the two blue knights and can grind on them and the 3 archers into your 30s. Maybe up to 40 if you have a lot of patience I guess.

If that gets boring you could do 4-1 or 2-1. If anything, it's good practice for melee against trickier enemies.

[SynGamer]

Jodou mentioned it already, but the 1-2 archstone is great--you start off behind the two blue knights and can grind on them and the 3 archers into your 30s. Maybe up to 40 if you have a lot of patience I guess.

If that gets boring you could do 4-1 or 2-1. If anything, it's good practice for melee against trickier enemies.

1-3 you mean? The Tower Knight Archstone...I'll give it a try, see how many souls I can get. I'm level 28 right now so hopefully the drops aren't too bad.

EDIT: Looking at about 1200 between the two Blue Eye Knights and the 3 things after them. Not bad, about 3-4 minutes so If I do this for a half hour or so I could probably gain a couple levels.

EDIT 2: 581 souls for each Knight so that's 1162. 1.5 minutes between loading to the level and heading back to the Nexus with the souls (1162). Not bad at all :)

[DrFoo]

Alright I have a couple of decisions to make between weapons:
Winged Spear +10 vs Sharp Winged Spear +5
and
Great Axe +10 vs Quality Great Axe +5

All for a character with a soul level of around 100 with points going into mostly dexterity with around 25-30 strength (and nearly none into will/magic). It's hard for me to tell what will be the most powerful at the end of the upgrade trees. Anybody have any advice?

[SynGamer]

Just had a person invade me for the first time. They ended up leaving about 5 minutes later, never saw them. Odd thing was the two Blue Eye Knights I've been grinding on for about 45 minutes now came back after I had killed them but they were glowing red and had twice the health...what was that? Not sure if I got any souls for killing them, just glad I COULD kill them.

[IRHari]

Usually the weapons that have a high stat bonus (like S in dexterity) end up being better than +10 weapons. Sharp Uchigatana +5 is one of the better weapons in the game for pure physical damage.

[happy]

Just had a person invade me for the first time. They ended up leaving about 5 minutes later, never saw them. Odd thing was the two Blue Eye Knights I've been grinding on for about 45 minutes now came back after I had killed them but they were glowing red and had twice the health...what was that? Not sure if I got any souls for killing them, just glad I COULD kill them.

Was your world tendency towards black, sounds like you fought phantoms and they should have given a good number of souls/decent drops.

[SynGamer]

Yeah, my WT is rather dark, not black, but dark. If I keep going to that level will they continue to become phantoms after I kill them?

[gunm]

Sounds like you are on black WT. Normal bonuses for those knights and the archers is less than that. Hm, I should try playing online tonight before the event ends, lol.

[ChibiJosh]

They don't become phantoms, they're already there.

[SynGamer]

So souls and drop items are worse in black WT?

[SynGamer]

They don't become phantoms, they're already there.

So what were they? I went to 1-3, killed both BE Knights and then someone invaded my game. Never saw them but then these two BE Knights outlined in red came after me near where you spawn in 1-3.

[ChibiJosh]

So what were they? I went to 1-3, killed both BE Knights and then someone invaded my game. Never saw them but then these two BE Knights outlined in red came after me near where you spawn in 1-3.
They were phantoms, but things don't become phantoms because you kill them, the phantoms are there from the very beginning.

And souls and drops are better in black WT.

[Jodou]

EDIT 2: 581 souls for each Knight so that's 1162. 1.5 minutes between loading to the level and heading back to the Nexus with the souls (1162). Not bad at all :)
You sound like me when I farm. . .

I tell you what, playing through the game with pure black WT is a pain. I'm used to just going commando, but everything is such a pain it really slows you down. The increase in souls is seriously not worth the trouble unless you're farming. The first time I got one-shot (we're talking 1500 HP here) by a black phantom mob, I was like 'wow, that's cheap'. It's not like I get a huge boost in damage to even it out either. :\

[Razzuel]

This game is pretty damn bad ass. I have 15 hours in it so far and I have beat 1-1, 1-2, and 2-1. The most recent thing I did was defeating Miralda and getting the Brushwood armor at the bottom of that tower where Miralda comes from.

It took me a while to kill Miralda, since I was severely under leveled for her. Also, it was a pain in the ass getting that armor at the bottom of the tower. The first time I tried to drop down I died. My blood stain had 30 thousand souls. I was able to grab my blood stain from one of the rafters, but I died for a second time trying to get to the bottom. On the third try, I was able to grab my blood stain and get to the bottom safely.

I was so damn scared that I was going to lose 30 thousand souls; thankfully I didn't. Also, Brushwood armor is pretty damn awesome; much better than the Mirdan armor that I started with.

[io]

^^ Hmmm... Maybe I should have done that. I avoided Miralda since it says in all the guides that that is the last black phantom to do and since I had so much trouble with Satsuki I figured she was even tougher and I should wait. And I'm level 60 or so :lol:.

I did take care of Rydell - piece of cake with arrows, a slight backing up as he runs halfheartedly towards me, then more arrows...

I also beat Maneater tonight just for the hell of it (I hadn't even played against a boss in like 20 hours of gameplay so I figured it was time).

Speaking of which...

/flex! :lol:


They're referring to a tactic where you intentionally get your health below 30% to stack damage bonuses to the point where every swing is deadly. Many people use it on the man-eater boss as to eliminate the first one quickly. Add black turpentine as needed.

Yes, yes. I know that. That is why I was saying it was hard for me to do because in order to activate the Clever Rat's ring you have to be less than 30% health and Satsuki can kill me with a glancing blow at that level ;). So while the increased damage was nice, it was much harder to stay alive for any length of time. I tried him again today and no dice... I'm not sure how I'll handle that. Maybe I'll upgrade an axe all the way (because the plain one I tried yesterday only did like 16 damage). As it is, my winged spear +6 only does about 22. Is he susceptible to magic attack? Maybe I can go with the moon winged spear as I got a pure moonlight stone from a crystal gecko today!

Also, I decided to go for the gecko nest in 2-2. Rage of God worked perfectly fine in there. I got all the ones at the bottom twice - lots of sharpstones and clearstones which I have yet to find a use for. Oh well... I guess I need the sharpstones to get base weapons up to the point where you can then turn them into unique weapons with the demons' souls so I guess that is good.

As for Maneater, I got destroyed by the double team the first few times I went in there as I hadn't read up on it at all. But rather than bother with the Clever Rat's ring there is a much easier way to get rid of one of them: Just go right up to the fog without activating it and peg him with arrows. Then go in and you just have to fight one at that point. I just hung around the fire thing in the middle and hit him with a poison cloud which seemed to stay on him a long time, soul arrow, or got him with my winged spear when he came close (which wasn't too often - mostly he just flew around).

So I made moderate use of the black WT event weekend. We'll see what happens when we fire the game up Monday. I farmed a ton of spiderstones in 2-2 in order to get my bow upgraded all thw way which was nice since I had already beaten Scirvir and gotten that world to near pure white making farming very difficult. On world 4 I had already gotten it near black before the weekend started but this saved me wasting more stones of ephemeral eyes in order to find out I can't beat Satsuki just yet. But I figured I better take care of someone else at least so I did Rydell and am all done with the WT events in 3 now as well. And I guess the door in 1-1 will stay open soI can go in there and get the stuff even if it returns to neutral and not worry about Miralda just yet.

[SynGamer]

This game is pretty damn bad ass. I have 15 hours in it so far and I have beat 1-1, 1-2, and 2-1. The most recent thing I did was defeating Miralda and getting the Brushwood armor at the bottom of that tower where Miralda comes from.

It took me a while to kill Miralda, since I was severely under leveled for her. Also, it was a pain in the ass getting that armor at the bottom of the tower. The first time I tried to drop down I died. My blood stain had 30 thousand souls. I was able to grab my blood stain from one of the rafters, but I died for a second time trying to get to the bottom. On the third try, I was able to grab my blood stain and get to the bottom safely.

I was so damn scared that I was going to lose 30 thousand souls; thankfully I didn't. Also, Brushwood armor is pretty damn awesome; much better than the Mirdan armor that I started with.

I'm about 10 hours in and that's where I'm at too, just beat the spider in 2-1. Wait, Miranda is where? in 2-1? Are you referring to the tower with the platforms that are on an elevator? I died at least 5 times trying to get onto one because I finally managed to walk onto one instead of my character just jumping off :P

Also, is evacuate necessary? Couldn't I just go back the way I came (outrun my enemies) instead of wasting 20,000 souls on that right now?

[TheHiei]

I'm about to get the game in soon and as a person who knows very little and hasn't been following it like crazy, I was wondering if you all had any very basic tips or recommendations for someone starting out?

Whether it's something I should know, something I should be aimin' for, or little helpful tips early on.

Any help would be very helpful, thanks.

[Jodou]

As for Maneater, I got destroyed by the double team the first few times I went in there as I hadn't read up on it at all. But rather than bother with the Clever Rat's ring there is a much easier way to get rid of one of them: Just go right up to the fog without activating it and peg him with arrows. Then go in and you just have to fight one at that point. I just hung around the fire thing in the middle and hit him with a poison cloud which seemed to stay on him a long time, soul arrow, or got him with my winged spear when he came close (which wasn't too often - mostly he just flew around).
You can also get one stuck on either end of the bridge if you use thief's ring. It will just get hung up on the fog and eventually stop trying to move. He'll be a good little boy and sit in his corner until you're ready to kill him. ;)

[SynGamer]

I'm about to get the game in soon and as a person who knows very little and hasn't been following it like crazy, I was wondering if you all had any very basic tips or recommendations for someone starting out?

Whether it's something I should know, something I should be aimin' for, or little helpful tips early on.

Any help would be very helpful, thanks.

Ranged attacks are a godsend. So Royalty is a good class to pick. Try to pick 3 stats and focus on those early on, Vitality should definitely be one those. The more HP you have, the better. Put Luck at 8 and leave it there, any more into that and it's a waste. Other than that, ALWAYS keep your shield up and Soul Arrow is your friend. Do NOT rush at enemies (unless they are down or backs to you --with thief's ring equipped--). Around corners especially be careful.

Also, the messages on the ground that players leave, be wary of what they say. Treasure ahead? Probably not, especially if there's a cliff in front of you ;) Beware of enemy ambush, better heed this warning.

My mistake in 1-1 was that I kept taking different routes after the first tower which lead to me dying often because I didn't know what to expect (and low level). If you have a decent amount of souls (a couple 1000 early on is decent), go back to the Nexus (the way you came should be clear of any enemies so long as you killed everything) and cash those souls in for some stat points :)

[Apollo Creed]

I'm stuck on the bridge to the 1-4 boss in human form with no souls signs in sight. I'm soul level 64 and I've had no luck with the boss so was hoping to rally a few troops to no avail.

I'll hop on later today and see if anyone is around.

On another note, I managed to take out BP's in 2-2 and 3-1 as well as the primevil demon so it wasn't a complete waste.

[Snake2715]

Just went and got the Purple Flame Shield, what do I need stats wise to use this without the 'Ability Shortage' message?

If you are viewing the item in your inventory you can hit sqaure and it will tell you the requirements..

If you view it in the equip screen hilight your current shield and hit x (not square to remvoe) and then you can see the difference the item you place in that slot will do over your current item...

Both these options are helpful.

Before I get any farther in the game, was hunter a good choice of class? I went for it for speed and the bow, but I don't want to put 20 hours in with her if it's a shit class.

I love that class. I rely on my bow pretty heavily for ranged but he his good at melee as well. I have over 20 hours and not too many things I cant take out... I can still die pretty easy, but thats the nature of this game... I am running ultra light gear as well. My equip burden is like 15 lbs or something.

I am getting better with magic, but where people on here were using soul arrow I just used arrows.

Its funny cause typically I will go for a thief or mage in games like this, however this time its a blend with a fully capable close combat fighter.

[Snake2715]

I di dtry the axe method and I can see how it might work, but the problem is you end up knocking him back and have to readjust your position every time and once he gets backed up to the rocks you end up recoiling when you hit him (and the rocks). As I was only doing 15 or so damage with a normal axe I had that was going to take forever. And invariably I would mess up the timing and then be open to a one-shot kill without my shield up.

I may try to look at the axe upgrades and see if I can get anything to +5/+10 that way and maybe try it again. Any suggestions on axe upgrades? Ie, any special upgrade paths I should pursue?



I am at a great axe +6 I wont upgrade further as I need to get faintstones to make it blessed. I think I was doing 134 dmg per hit with that.

You can get the recoil from the rocks then if that bothers you just back off and dodge him till you get his pattern down and know hes not going to swing twice... then when he misses go in an knock him down again.

I had him almost done the first time I faced him but that skeleton came from behind me and stunned me then he killed me.. it took me maybe 15 minutes from that point to get a good pattern on him. I would just run up and get him and the skeleton to come after me. I would dodge him and smack the skeleton twice to take him out... then its just me and the BP... I also tried to have a crescent falchion as my secondary weapon.. if he went to heal I switched and swung with that, so he could not heal.. Also if I hit him 4+ times in a row with the falchion he would start to bleed out. So that may help.

If your doing 15 per hit it would take a long time, thats for sure.

What level are you right now?

*edit nvermind I see that your around 60... I am slightly over you, its probably what we concentrated on in regards to stats.

[redshadow]

I think I need to do 3-1 instead of 2-2 because I'm playing the soldier class and don't have enough magical damage output to take down flamelurker. Any thoughts?

[gunm]

@io: Meat Cleaver is good. High dmg and does a stun.

For Flamelurker, magic is best, but you can use bows. Melee is tricky. Actually, I think Meat Cleaver works well here too since it causes the enemy to stagger allowing you to hit, heal, etc while they're stunned.

[io]

I'm about 10 hours in and that's where I'm at too, just beat the spider in 2-1. Wait, Miranda is where? in 2-1? Are you referring to the tower with the platforms that are on an elevator? I died at least 5 times trying to get onto one because I finally managed to walk onto one instead of my character just jumping off :P

Also, is evacuate necessary? Couldn't I just go back the way I came (outrun my enemies) instead of wasting 20,000 souls on that right now?

Miralda is right at the start of 1-1 through the locked gate on the left (which opens when the WT is black or white and stays open afterwards, supposedly).

Evacuate is very convenient. I bought it around level 30-40 and don't regret that at all. There are times when simply going back is not possible without a lot of trouble (such as going down the pit to the right on 2-2). And it just saves you time in other places.

Ranged attacks are a godsend. So Royalty is a good class to pick. Try to pick 3 stats and focus on those early on, Vitality should definitely be one those. The more HP you have, the better. Put Luck at 8 and leave it there, any more into that and it's a waste. Other than that, ALWAYS keep your shield up and Soul Arrow is your friend. Do NOT rush at enemies (unless they are down or backs to you --with thief's ring equipped--). Around corners especially be careful.

Also, the messages on the ground that players leave, be wary of what they say. Treasure ahead? Probably not, especially if there's a cliff in front of you ;) Beware of enemy ambush, better heed this warning.

My mistake in 1-1 was that I kept taking different routes after the first tower which lead to me dying often because I didn't know what to expect (and low level). If you have a decent amount of souls (a couple 1000 early on is decent), go back to the Nexus (the way you came should be clear of any enemies so long as you killed everything) and cash those souls in for some stat points :)

Well, I started off as Royalty and I don't think vitality is too important for that class since you are taking most things out at a distance. I'm level 60 and my vitality is only at 14 or so now. I put most of my points into intelligence and faith to get the spell slots up. I put in enough into strength to wield the purple flame shield (which given my low HP is crucial to be able to use well). And more recently I've been pumping up dexterity to increase my bow power. I'm finally able to one-shot crystal geckos which is nice. And the reaper on 4-1 only takes 2 shots now. I've put a handful of levels into endurance (so I could equip the light armor I wanted and still be able to roll/dodge well) and luck (just figured 10 was a nice round numbe to increase my drops slightly). The one I'd like to put more into is Magic so all my attacks are more powerful but I always find something else I'd rather do and much of my fighting more recently has been bow or melee.

I can see vitality being more important in the later part of the game but still, it doesn't add anything to your attack or magic and thus I find it hard to choose when upgrading as it won't really help me beat anything. It will just give a very small cushion for getting hit (and since many things kill me instantly when I screw up and don't have my shield up I'd probably have to put a lot into it and that seems wasteful).

I am at a great axe +6 I wont upgrade further as I need to get faintstones to make it blessed. I think I was doing 134 dmg per hit with that.

You can get the recoil from the rocks then if that bothers you just back off and dodge him till you get his pattern down and know hes not going to swing twice... then when he misses go in an knock him down again.

I had him almost done the first time I faced him but that skeleton came from behind me and stunned me then he killed me.. it took me maybe 15 minutes from that point to get a good pattern on him. I would just run up and get him and the skeleton to come after me. I would dodge him and smack the skeleton twice to take him out... then its just me and the BP... I also tried to have a crescent falchion as my secondary weapon.. if he went to heal I switched and swung with that, so he could not heal.. Also if I hit him 4+ times in a row with the falchion he would start to bleed out. So that may help.

If your doing 15 per hit it would take a long time, thats for sure.

What level are you right now?

*edit nvermind I see that your around 60... I am slightly over you, its probably what we concentrated on in regards to stats.

Yeah, I may try getting an axe to +6 (which should be no problem as I have like 60-70 of the lower level "common" shards) and then see how it goes against him. But I would wager that I'll still do significantly less damage than you. My strength is at 24 right now.

@io: Meat Cleaver is good. High dmg and does a stun.

Yeah, I was looking at special weapons and this looked like a good one to get. I think it is the only use for the Adjudicator's soul, anyway, right? So I might as well make it soon. You can upgrade a bunch of stuff into that, right? OK, just checked the guide and you can do this from a pickaxe + 6 and I have plenty of these. But it also says just regular club and great club. Does that mean I can upgrade to the same stat Meat Cleaver using just an non-upgraded club? If so, that would be great - no wasting stones to get the other weapon to +6. Or is that just a typo? Also, it appears the Adjuticator's soul is used for the regeneration miracle too. Oh well, I have to play through again anyway so I'll just wait on that maybe.

[SynGamer]

Hmm, I beat 1-1 a while ago. Not sure where this NPC is though my WT is very dark. Is this person hard to beat? What do I gain from beating them?

[io]

Hmm, I beat 1-1 a while ago. Not sure where this NPC is though my WT is very dark. Is this person hard to beat? What do I gain from beating them?

Start off at 1-1, and go to the left after passing the first set of barricades. There will be a regular dude there that attacks you from a little opening in the wall. Behind him are some stairs that lead to a (normally) locked gate. It should be open if you played level 1-1 in the black WT event. But if you didn't go there it might not be open.

I'm entirely sure what you get but you need to beat all the black phantom NPCs to get the friend's ring. There are also some goodies in that area (you can see a bunch of treasures down there if you go up towards the 1-1 boss door and look down the side over the wall behind you). And supposedly there is a colorless demon's soul on a corpse in there - those are very hard to get otherwise so you definitely want to snag that one. I've killed two primevil demons so far and gotten one colorless demon soul by sheer luck. The second I beat last night and I got nothing.

[ChibiJosh]

for the 1-1 black phantom, you get the guillotine axe. and you do not need to beat the phantoms to get the friend's ring. I have two of them, and I've only beaten 3 of the 5 phantoms.

[SynGamer]

If I've already beaten 1-1 and didn't do it in black WT, how do I get that gate open?

[ChibiJosh]

get back to black WT

[SynGamer]

get back to black WT

Any way to do that without suiciding?

[io]

for the 1-1 black phantom, you get the guillotine axe. and you do not need to beat the phantoms to get the friend's ring. I have two of them, and I've only beaten 3 of the 5 phantoms.

Wait, what? Really? That's not what the guide says! Well, I guess you need to beat them anyway to get all the unique weapons but still, it would be nice to get that ring taken care of before that. I guess I'll go talk to the Monumental and see if I'm there yet (my CT seems to be pretty white right now though I've only done 2 of the 5).

SynGamer - yeah, get it to either black or white WT. Black is easier since you can just kill yourself (when in body form) in 1-1, then use stone of ephemeral eyes to resurrect (or help a person as a blue phantom), then repeat a few more times till it is black again. There's nothing wrong with suiciding - what's the problem? You get lots of stones of ephemeral eyes throughout the game.

Has anyone played yet again today to see what happened with the WT? Are they all reset to neutral, to what they were before, or what? Mine will be an interesting case because I had 4 of them still at pure black but one at near pure white (since I killed Rydell and then the primevil demon in world 3).

[ChibiJosh]

You don't need to beat Satsuki at all. You find what he drops elsewhere. But, the others, yeah, you need to beat them to get the unique weapons.

[SynGamer]

Yes, they are all reset to Neutral :( It was black earlier this morning...damn.

[jmbreci]

Need to get a bunch of souls to get a bajillion arrows to down the red dragon next. Actually, I just need enough time to do this.....of course, I was masochistic and decided to see what both the red-eyed knight and the executioner could do on 1-1....bad ideas. Ran everything in 1-1 without dying beyond those two...need to do some runs in 1-2 and 2-1.

[SynGamer]

This suiciding thing doesn't seem to be working...

[Jodou]

This suiciding thing doesn't seem to be working...
Because it must be to a mob and you need to return to the nexus each death.

[SynGamer]

Well, I'm out of stones...WT is dark but not black :(

Got it...

[gunm]

If you want to get black faster, you could burn up some Stone of Ephemeral Eyes--dying to a mob in body form speeds this process up.

[SynGamer]

Gay. Hiding right when you go inside...

[crystalklear64]

its gonna be a bitch to get pure white on these worlds now that i've killed all the phantoms and bosses and primeval demons : (

[SynGamer]

No way I can beat her, I barely do any damage to her, wow.

[ChibiJosh]

poison cloud will kill her. of course, it helps to have the graverobber ring.

[SynGamer]

I have neither.

[gunm]

That fight is a war of attrition. Not sure if you have enough time to just run past her and grab the goodies and die, if that's all you really want.

[SynGamer]

I had her down to about 1/8th her health but she got too close and killed me. My soul arrow does hardly anything, about 24 per hit. I just stocked up on some fresh spices, should be able to take her out so long as I don't get too close.

[SynGamer]

I gave up, waste of 5 fresh spices.

[gunm]

Yeah, if you can whittle her down, then just stick with it.

How is your shield/block? If you have high hit res, you can block against her (except for the two hand swing, but you should be able dodge/evade).

[SynGamer]

Not really worth the aggravation. The game is slowly wearing me down too, I kind I have to will myself to enjoy the game more often than not.

[gunm]

Time for a break then.

Luckily we've got Modern Warfare 2 around the corner. I'll definitely stop playing when I receive that one.

[Snake2715]

Yeah, I may try getting an axe to +6 (which should be no problem as I have like 60-70 of the lower level "common" shards) and then see how it goes against him. But I would wager that I'll still do significantly less damage than you. My strength is at 24 right now.




My strength is at 30. I have been raising my dex as well to increase my bow damage as well. I too can do 2 hit kills on the reapers... My magic is at 18 and my faith is 18 just so I can use the beast talisman.

You have probably upgraded a bit differently than me, but we are close to the same stats overall I would bet.

What armor are you going with? I am always thinking I should use more than the assins stuff, but its so light.

[gunm]

IIRC Dex carries over to general Attack dmg, not just bows.

[Feeding the Abscess]

Is it possible to get the guillotine axe from someone other than Miralda in 1-1? I don't recall fighting anyone with that weapon.

[gunm]

I think it's also a rare drop from those Axe dudes.

[io]

Because it must be to a mob and you need to return to the nexus each death.

If you want to get black faster, you could burn up some Stone of Ephemeral Eyes--dying to a mob in body form speeds this process up.

Really? I've had no problem getting worlds to black simply by suiciding. It usually just takes a few times from neutral (returning to the Nexus in between each time of course). I thought maybe there were negative implications to your character tendency when dying from monsters. It doesn't seem to effect it when you suicide though.

My strength is at 30. I have been raising my dex as well to increase my bow damage as well. I too can do 2 hit kills on the reapers... My magic is at 18 and my faith is 18 just so I can use the beast talisman.

You have probably upgraded a bit differently than me, but we are close to the same stats overall I would bet.

What armor are you going with? I am always thinking I should use more than the assins stuff, but its so light.

Yeah, not too far off. I think my strength is 24 and my dexterity is 20 or so. My intelligance and faith are in the 20's though - not using the beast one since it's stats are lower. I just switch out when necessary. I am wearing the black armor (I think that is the assassin's stuff, no?). Except I just switched in the Venerable Sage's robe for a little more protection (at the expense of poison resistance). That poison resistance stuff is fairly useless except for in 5-2 where it doesn't even seem to help that much (though maybe it is 10x worse without it - wouldn't know ;)).

[idkblah00]

whats a good class to start off with? I chose the barbarian and the first stage is just hard

[SynGamer]

Royalty.

[idkblah00]

thanks

[cheezisgoooood]

I started with the temple knight and got to level 27 in 27 hours.

...I started with a Royalty and got to level 29 in 7 hours.

[IRHari]

Yeah I agree with io, I've been doing suicides with SoEE and I've had no problem getting black WT. I dunno where you guys are getting this 'dying to mobs' stuff from, but hari-kari has been workin' for me.

[gunm]

Yeah, if you die in body form, it doesn't matter if you do it or if a mob does it to you. It just tilts the WT faster.

Edit: btw, to clarify, you don't even need to die to a mob--you can spam suicide in soul form even, but being in body form supposedly makes it quicker. That's all I was trying to say.

[IRHari]

no, thats not right. dying in soul form doesnt affect WT at all. only dying in body forms affects WT. I'm pretty sure dying in ANY way in BODY form, whether its suicide or mob, will lower your WT toward black.

[gunm]

Yes, sorry you are right IRHari. Suicide in soul form doesn't affect WT, although I'm pretty sure getting killed by a mob in soul form does--not right away, but eventually if it happens enough. Anyway, I know dying to a boss in either form does in offline mode. Dying in body form does regardless of how.

[ChibiJosh]

Oh, maneater, how I hope the person that made you dies in a car crash.

[option.iv]

I think I burnt myself out on this game. I've noticed I've beaten most enemies and bosses by kiting and using projectiles. Melee seriously sucks in this game for both leveling and getting through the game itself, especially in NG+. I've tried making different chars, but it seems you must at least have a 100% Pcut shield, a decent bow and arrow and some sort of magic. Meat Cleaver is probably mandatory as one progresses through the game because of the insane dmg mods and knockdown ability.

This of course leads to evenly distributing stats. But then everyone is in the same boat, wasting points for equip and magic purposes instead of using them on the stats they truly want to level up first.

Sure everyone eventually gets 99 in all stats, but I unfortunately am not going to reach that point in this lifetime.

I guess I'll be playing Borderlands in the meantime, while I wait for MW2.

[IRHari]

Oh, maneater, how I hope the person that made you dies in a car crash.

I know you're kidding. At least, I hope you're kidding...

Reminds me of last night's game though. A-Rod got hit for the 3rd time in the series, and a good portion of the crowd (game was in Philly) started CHEERING. I know you don't like the guy, but c'mon, we can beat him legit without encouraging what was probably an accident.

[Jodou]

Oh, maneater, how I hope the person that made you dies in a car crash.
I actually said the exact same thing out loud LOL!

[Jodou]

Melee seriously sucks in this game for both leveling and getting through the game itself, especially in NG+. I've tried making different chars, but it seems you must at least have a 100% Pcut shield, a decent bow and arrow and some sort of magic. Meat Cleaver is probably mandatory as one progresses through the game because of the insane dmg mods and knockdown ability.
Yeah, melee is only for those who challenge themselves to master it. Ranged is for the meek. ;)

Meat Cleaver is quite possibly the best weapon in the game since it gets huge bonuses from STR and DEX as well as some from Faith. To top it off, it has a passive health regen from each strike IIRC. It's a very situational weapon though, because of it's extremely slow attack (even holding it 2H). It dominates the 5-3 boss for sure though.

[gunm]

I love camping and sniping.

[ChibiJosh]

It's annoying that I sit around the beginning of 3-2 for 20 minutes and one soul sign pops up, and apparently this guy is waiting from a friend because he leaves as soon as I summon him (I get a lot of that).

[Bezerker]

Welp, got through all of stages 3 & 4. I had a phantom guy literally running me through 4-2 killing everything in one or two hits. I just threw on my Ring of Avarice and followed him. Sad thing is that he died right before the boss when he got hit by one of those flying white things, he would've so gotten an S rating.

Would you guys recommend Thirst over Moving Soul Arrow? 30 Seconds of 50% exp for 200mp doesnt seem that great, but im sure if you combine with Avarice and the bracelet it would be quite nice in that Storm Ray area in 4-3. Of course, on NG+ I can only imagine combining it with soulsucker is amazing.

[ChibiJosh]

Moving soul arrow isn't that great. It's super easy to dodge.

[SynGamer]

Moving soul arrow isn't that great. It's super easy to dodge.

That's exactly what Miralda did. Is there anything she's weak against?

[gunm]

She does this 2h swing that takes a while to recover from. You can circle strafe her after she does that move and hit her from behind for good damage.

[SynGamer]

I think I'll put this game away for a little while. I have Mercs 2, Godfather 2, and Marvel UA 2 coming this week (and MW2 next week) so a little break sounds good right now :)

[io]

Well, I wasted a bunch of time tonight for very little payoff (except a few levels gained). I did manage to get through 5-2 enough to open the shortcut which will come in handy later. It was tough getting through there with all those black phantom big club dudes during the black WT weekend.

However, I hosed myself in another place. I decided to push on from the 1-3 archstone and free these people I hear about in there. Plus, since world 1 is one where you need pure white to do something I want to be able to get to the primevil demon easily once I defeat Miralda. Well, you apparently need to open some gate to do this. The FAQ, as well as the guide, warn to get it open before you go to pure black as you get the two black phantom Fat Minister ambush in that narrow passage near the end.

So I was in body form after beating Maneater and suicided in world 1 since it was back to neutral. Now, it turned just a shade darker but clearly has much more to go to get to pure, or even 75%. However, after slogging through all the enemies and traps in 1-3 I got hit by the ambush and utterly annihilated. I tried it 2 more times and can't get past those bastards.

The FAQ says the following:

Take note of the spot the Red Eye Knight is at.
Noticed the passage there? This place look harmless.
But in Pure Black World Tendency, the moment you walk into it. 2 Black
Phantom Fat Ministers will materialize, 1 in front of you and 1 behind
you. You can imagine how nasty it will be right?
By opening the Large Gate, you don't have to get into this nasty
situation. Anyway, in case you are sandwiched in between them, hold
your shield up and slowly maneuvers around the Black Phantom Fat
Minister behind you. Once you get out of the passage. There are many
ways to deal with them.

Now clearly, the info here and in the guide is wrong, as all it takes is for it to be slightly less than 50% for those guys to appear. However, I'm hoping that the other point is correct and I'll be able to get past one of them so I can take them out from afar. I tried to do that one time but it seemed like they were in the way plus they killed me so quickly it was hard to tell what I could do.

I'm getting good at running through the level up to that point (but there are a lot of enemies to take care of and you end up with about 10,000 souls). I only hope it is easy to open the gate after that. I guess I'll try it again tomorrow. If I can't get through then I don't know what I'll do - just wait till the WT changes randonly from being online I guess. How annoying... Those guys should not appear when you are just a notch below neutral.

[Snake2715]

It's annoying that I sit around the beginning of 3-2 for 20 minutes and one soul sign pops up, and apparently this guy is waiting from a friend because he leaves as soon as I summon him (I get a lot of that).


I have yet to beat 3-2 and am probably lvl 70 now... can i work with you?

And are you trying to be a phantom or asking for help?

I am guessing since your on game+ this is all irrelevant however isn't it?

[Apollo Creed]

I have yet to beat 3-2 and am probably lvl 70 now... can i work with you?

And are you trying to be a phantom or asking for help?

I am guessing since your on game+ this is all irrelevant however isn't it?

I'm in the same boat, level 67 and haven't touched 3-2, 4-2, or 5. Waiting around for help via soul signs is painful.

[Snake2715]

I wish I could hit 4-2 with you. I know that one like the back of my hand. I dont believe I can if I have already beaten that level.

We can do 3-2 together but I have not played it at all so be warned.

You on tonight apollo?

[jmbreci]

Finally took the long way around plucking the red dragon (25 minutes of arrows with the compound bow). Need to go finish up 1-2 now and then on to 2-1. Think I'm SL23 or 24...finally decided to bump magic (Hunter) to 10 to get Soul Arrow. Anything else I should get before getting it on with either of those two bosses? Got a Battle Axe +2, Compound Bow +3, and Quality Scimitar +1. I'm guessing I should bring the purple shield with me for 2-1.

[Apollo Creed]

I wish I could hit 4-2 with you. I know that one like the back of my hand. I dont believe I can if I have already beaten that level.

We can do 3-2 together but I have not played it at all so be warned.

You on tonight apollo?

If you're in soul form you can do any level again. Hell, I've done the 1-3 boss at least 6 times in the past three days.

I've taken the day off work, so pick a time tonight (specify EST or PST), add me and we'll see you then, sir. Be warned ... I think almost everything is pure black WT.

[Jodou]

Well, I wasted a bunch of time tonight for very little payoff (except a few levels gained). I did manage to get through 5-2 enough to open the shortcut which will come in handy later. It was tough getting through there with all those black phantom big club dudes during the black WT weekend.Lol, it's not worth the effort killing them. I just put on thief's ring and ran past them into the fog.
Now clearly, the info here and in the guide is wrong, as all it takes is for it to be slightly less than 50% for those guys to appear. However, I'm hoping that the other point is correct and I'll be able to get past one of them so I can take them out from afar. I tried to do that one time but it seemed like they were in the way plus they killed me so quickly it was hard to tell what I could do.The guide is dead wrong unless it's suggesting you open the large gate BEFORE going pure black. The passage those two spawn in is the only way to that gate. Getting sandwiched between them is sure death.

[ChibiJosh]

I accomplished absolutely nothing yesterday. I didn't even gain a level. Stupid maneater. I think I'm going to try to go in there with warding and firestorm and see if I can tear him up with that. I'm going to have to wear that ring that give me an extra magic slot though to take fireball so I won't be useless to the normal enemies before him.

I have yet to beat 3-2 and am probably lvl 70 now... can i work with you?

And are you trying to be a phantom or asking for help?

I am guessing since your on game+ this is all irrelevant however isn't it?

I'm 122, so we can't play together.

If you're in soul form you can do any level again. Hell, I've done the 1-3 boss at least 6 times in the past three days.

If you've beaten the level (yourself, not helping someone else beat it), you can't go back to it and help someone.

[Apollo Creed]

If you've beaten the level (yourself, not helping someone else beat it), you can't go back to it and help someone.

That's messed up. Are you sure? I mean, I beat the 1-3 boss in my own game and have since gone back and dropped a blue soul sign and fought him 5 or 6 more times with others.

[ChibiJosh]

I know you can't get help from someone if you've already beaten the level, and I thought you also couldn't help someone too. But, I could be wrong, I guess.

Maneater is dead! I went in there in soul form with the monk's head wrappings and the ring of magical sharpness. He was dead from one firestorm.

[io]

Lol, it's not worth the effort killing them. I just put on thief's ring and ran past them into the fog.
The guide is dead wrong unless it's suggesting you open the large gate BEFORE going pure black. The passage those two spawn in is the only way to that gate. Getting sandwiched between them is sure death.

They both suggest doing it before you go to pure black, yes. But the problem is they show up WELL BEFORE pure black. It was neutral after the weekend event and I suicided once since I was in body form and wanted to work on world 1 WT events next. So it is just slightly darker than neutral, though well above pure black. Those dudes show up now. So, are you saying there's no way to get past them? I was hoping maybe I could get back past the first one and then fight them from afar. But maybe the dufus who wrote that FAQ is just guessing. The passage is very narrow and it might be impossible to get through there. So I guess my whole game is screwed since I can't even advance to the 1-3 boss now. Wonderful.

The thing is, in a sense, the black WT event weekend screwed me up because before that world 1 was near white, so suiciding there once would have still kept it above neutral. But after that weekend everything reset just to neutral (except for the one world I had back up to white - that stayed).

If anyone is around level 60 and needs help with the 2-2, 2-3, 3-2, or 5-1 bosses let me know. I guess all I can do is churn out levels until I can hope, somehow, to beat those two guys. I can also try to make my way through 4-2 and 5-2, now, I guess. Maybe by that time the WT will change since I'm online. It did seem like the worlds trend towards white over time if you play online (as I got some of the white WT events done without even trying on a few of the worlds).

[Jodou]

They both suggest doing it before you go to pure black, yes. But the problem is they show up WELL BEFORE pure black. It was neutral after the weekend event and I suicided once since I was in body form and wanted to work on world 1 WT events next. So it is just slightly darker than neutral, though well above pure black. Those dudes show up now. So, are you saying there's no way to get past them? I was hoping maybe I could get back past the first one and then fight them from afar. But maybe the dufus who wrote that FAQ is just guessing. The passage is very narrow and it might be impossible to get through there. So I guess my whole game is screwed since I can't even advance to the 1-3 boss now. Wonderful.
If they only trigger once you're in the middle of that passage, then there's no way you can do it alone without a lot of luck and skill. Those dudes can one shot you with even one fireball, so I can't imagine being able to kill one without getting shot in the back.

Funny story, but I didn't even know those two existed until IHari wanted help killing Penetrator. I was trucking along just killing everything in the way like I've always done when they spawned on us and I got shot in the back because I didn't even see the second one. Then I get a message, 'why didn't you just go through the main gate to the boss?' I had figured he needed the stage cleared up to the boss as well. Now he tells me lol.

[io]

Bah, so no one has gotten past them successfully? It can't have been meant to be impossible because it is game-breaking if so.

[ChibiJosh]

io: Have you tried using the graverobbers ring, so they can't see you until you get close and casting poison cloud from a distance? I haven't fought these BPs so I don't know how it works.

[SynGamer]

Where do you get poison cloud? This sounds like a great spell to use. Perhaps I could grind out some souls and get this then go after Miralda again.

[ChibiJosh]

5-1

[SynGamer]

5-1

Shit, that's pretty far away...

[ChibiJosh]

You can go to any level, you know...

[IRHari]

Lol, it's not worth the effort killing them. I just put on thief's ring and ran past them into the fog.
The guide is dead wrong unless it's suggesting you open the large gate BEFORE going pure black. The passage those two spawn in is the only way to that gate. Getting sandwiched between them is sure death.

I'd trust Jodou on his 1-3 advice...he now has firsthand experience...:bouncy:

[SynGamer]

You can go to any level, you know...

But at level 35 (last I checked) I doubt I could take on the things in 5-1...

[io]

io: Have you tried using the graverobbers ring, so they can't see you until you get close and casting poison cloud from a distance? I haven't fought these BPs so I don't know how it works.

That's what I would do if I can get past one of them. The problem is they materialize on either side of you within a narrow passage. So I need a method to get away from them first. They are WAY too close to avoid initially with the ring. One appears right in front of you and the other about 6-8 steps behind you.

I'd trust Jodou on his 1-3 advice...he now has firsthand experience...:bouncy:

Well, it seems like he doesn't have too much experience with them (he said he didn't even know they were there until he joined your game). so I'm hoping he's wrong in this one case because then that means the game is broken. There is no way to whiten the WT without killing a boss and I can't get to the next boss on 1-3 unless I get past there. It is sure death if you stumble upon them by accident as you have no idea what is even happening at first. But I'm hoping there's some sort of preparation/tactic I can use on them.

But at level 35 (last I checked) I doubt I could take on the things in 5-1...

You can go through 5-1 at that level. 5-2 is the hard one. I think I did 5-1 around then though as a very underpowered (in terms of strength) Royal. You can use soul arrow and the spear/shield combo to deal with most of the enemies. The only tough ones are the bigger versions with clubs. They took me out a few times but you can always peg them with arrows and then run. It is time consuming but works. Then for the boss make sure you have a TON of arrows, get the sticky bow upgraded as much as possible (farm spiderstones in 2-2 if necessary) and upgrade your strength. You can take him down from above with arrows but you have to be able to counteract his constant healing.

[ChibiJosh]

There is no way to whiten the WT without killing a boss


There are lots of ways to whiten WT.

[IRHari]

I'm saying, now he has experience with them lol.

It's really unfortunate that there isn't a better way to communicate. It takes like 5 seconds to bring up the emote menu and most people arent even looking. I knew my WT was pure black, and I remembered the 2 BP were going to spawn. I stayed back knowing Jodou would trigger them and I managed to distract the one, but I think the other one caught him off-guard. He clearly didn't see the huge gate open, but he was on a roll going through the level so I figured he wouldn't have a huge problem. Had NO idea the two fat officials are uber powerful.

Sorry again Jodou, lol.

[io]

There are lots of ways to whiten WT.

Please share then.

I can't get to the next boss, so that's out.

I can't get to the primevil demon because it is past here (and I'm not even in pure black anyway though I could make it so easily enough).

I suppose I could get to pure black and fight Miralda and that might whiten it enough to go back up past 50%, but I'm not even sure of that. But that will screw up my white WT events (where you want to kill Miralda and then the primevil demon without going back to the Nexus in between to get it near pure white). And like I said, I'm not even sure killing Miralda will be enough to raise it to 50% or above (OK, looking at the guide that will probably work but I don't want to go that route unless absolutely necessary).

[ChibiJosh]

You need to be in body form, but killing black phantoms (other players) increases your WT. If you have the resurrection spell, you can summon phantoms and resurrect them. You can be a phantom, and I think if you survive all the way to the end, it increases your WT.

[Saint Noir]

5-1 is a piece of garbage, but it has little to do with enemies. Most are push overs. There are a few giant guys who can be a pain due to the cramped nature of the stage. And make sure you have something that can cure plague, just in case.

I just got done with 5-1 in my + game. I was cursing it's name. But it is more about patience and maneuvering than awesome enemies.

[ChibiJosh]

kickapole: I don't think you know what you're talking about. You can't go back to a level that's you've already beaten and lay a blue stone down. I just tried it and it didn't let me.

I have 1-3, 1-4, 5-2 and 5-3 to do. 5-2 is such a pain though...

[Saint Noir]

Yeah, definitely can't blue stone a level you have beaten.

I am not looking forward to doing 5-2 again at all. Still have to do black WT things in there too... probably will lay that bridge down first.

[ChibiJosh]

I am not looking forward to doing 5-2 again at all. Still have to do black WT things in there too... probably will lay that bridge down first.
Yeah, I need to do black and white WT stuff in 5-2. I have no idea how I'm going to do it.

[io]

You need to be in body form, but killing black phantoms (other players) increases your WT. If you have the resurrection spell, you can summon phantoms and resurrect them. You can be a phantom, and I think if you survive all the way to the end, it increases your WT.

Ah, I forgot about the whole game invasion thing. Well, I don't play in body form ever and don't really want to deal with beating invading players so that's out. I could help in soul form maybe on 1-3, though I don't know the boss so I wouldn't be too sure what to do. I tried helping on 1-2 a while back but I think I'm too high a level for anyone to summon me there.

kickapole: I don't think you know what you're talking about. You can't go back to a level that's you've already beaten and lay a blue stone down. I just tried it and it didn't let me.


I don't get it. The only times I've helped other people are on bosses I've already fought. I sort of thought that was the point. I just lay the blue stones down right outside where the fog would be in their game (obviously it is gone in mine) and wait. I got in pretty quick on Flamelurker and Adjuticator, but sat there forever waiting on the Spider and 1-2 boss (because as someone else pointed out earlier I was probably too high a level for anyone summoning at those places). I may try to go back and help with Maneater, and I could try the 1-2 boss again to see if beating that helps my WT. Or I could try helping out with the clearing of 1-3 like Jodou did for IRHari. I certainly know my way through that level up to the point of the dual black phantom fat officials/ministers (whatever they are). Problem is, beyond there I have no idea what's in store and don't want to mess up someone's Ostrava saving or 1-3 boss.


I am not looking forward to doing 5-2 again at all. Still have to do black WT things in there too... probably will lay that bridge down first.

Yeah, I felt like I had to make some real progress so I slogged through that level yet again and got the bridge down at least. The odd thing was that where I always died before was NOT on the big club dudes (which, Jodou, I did run past many times after fighting them the first time) but in the encampment area. One time that purple glowing guy got me with some spell I didn't even realized he had cast at me until all of a sudden I fell over dead. So watch out for those and try to take them out with arrows from afar.

I suppose I could try the black WT stuff there, but that means black phantom big dudes... Ugh... I suppose the ones in the swamp are much easier to deal with from the encampment side than from the other side where it is wide open so now that I have that bridge down I can try it that way at least.

Problem is, can you then get up onto the bridges from where you can shoot Selen Vinland (or whatever her name is) from that end, or do you need to go the original way to get up there? Ah, looking at the guide it does seem you have to go the regular way - the bridge is just a shortcut if you die afterwards to get back to the primevil demon.

[io]

OK, so apparently I don't even need to do anything in white tendency in 1-1 anyway so killing the primevil demon is not absolutely necessary. It seems all you do there is meet and kill normal Miralda, which will lower your CT. But I don't think the item she drops (some armor) is essential, so I can just pass on that. That means I could make 1-1 pure black and fight black phantom Miralda. The problem is that the wiki says that only gives you a +3 in WT, which is just under neutral or just about where I am right now :bomb:. It might be enough to get rid of those ambushing phantoms, but I'm not sure.

I guess I will try them one more time tonight and try to back my way out behind the first one. I'm sure it will be an epic fail though.

[Apollo Creed]

kickapole: I don't think you know what you're talking about. You can't go back to a level that's you've already beaten and lay a blue stone down. I just tried it and it didn't let me.

I have 1-3, 1-4, 5-2 and 5-3 to do. 5-2 is such a pain though...

/shrugs

I dunno, man. Generally every time I want to go back to body form, I head to a bosses arch stone, back up to where a player would enter the fog to fight him and lay the stone.

Could it be a soul level thing? I seriously have no idea. I helped beat Penetrator twice tonight in soul form to add to the half dozen times over the weekend.

Finished off a productive night. 4-2, 5-1 and 5-2 bosses are done. I was pissed when my router decided to quit midway through the 4-2 boss. If I'm in the midst of a boss battle, why must the game care if I lose my internet connection briefly. :bomb:

[anticulture]

I love this game, so much. I what somewhat excited about the game before it launched, but the pre-release media made it feel like sort of a budget title. I jumped on picking it up on launch, as a sort of leap of faith. I can't say I was disappointed. What a great action-RPG.

But I'll be damned if it isn't so intimidating that it scares me out of playing. There's so much stuff to worry about, with the world tendency, black phantoms and so forth.

Any skilled players want to gather around in a text chat, on PSN? I could use a few pointers (and co-op partners) before going forward.

[io]

/shrugs

I dunno, man. Generally every time I want to go back to body form, I head to a bosses arch stone, back up to where a player would enter the fog to fight him and lay the stone.

Could it be a soul level thing? I seriously have no idea. I helped beat Penetrator twice tonight in soul form to add to the half dozen times over the weekend.

Yep, I've done the same thing a few times myself. But if only I could get to the stupid Penetrator boss :bomb:. I'll try it again tonight on Maneater as my sons wanted to see me beat that and I did it while they were asleep.

[Saint Noir]

You can be summoned, but can't summon. And you haven't really "beaten" a stage until the archdemon is felled. Also, you can't lay a stone down no matter what too close to an archstone.

[AkariK]

Any people trading items or trophies here? I'm at the end of my NG+ run (SL 122) and need a couple rings (and would like to hold cloud/marrow/suckerstone items for trophies). I've got every unique weapon and Crushing/Dragon/Moon/Blessed/Sticky+5 that I can offer just for trophies. I can also offer advice/help as needed, albeit limited to what I've experienced as a hybrid melee/magic build.

To add to the conversation, Flamelurker was my key to human form in my first playthrough. I must have killed that boss 50 times. You can redo any level you like as long as there's someone in your level range that wants a phantom helper.

Edit: Chibi is completely wrong about WT. Killing invading BPs only raises your CT. Resurrecting blue phantoms with the miracle has no effect on WT or CT. It's killing named NPC BPs that affects WT. And io, you may want to try to get a Meat Cleaver/Dragon Bone Smasher to knock one down and get past it. At least, I think they can be knocked down. Otherwise, general strat seems to be to get around the one that spawns behind you. I wouldn't know myself, halloween pushed me to PBWT when I had 1-3 beaten so I was able to get to the primeval demon using the shortcut. I also recommend a Purple Flame Shield to block their spells as necessary.

[Apollo Creed]

You can be summoned, but can't summon.
To add to the conversation, Flamelurker was my key to human form in my first playthrough. I must have killed that boss 50 times. You can redo any level you like as long as there's someone in your level range that wants a phantom helper.


That's what I've been trying to say. :bomb:

Chibi, you've officially got a target on your back tomorrow night in FP for making me think I was going crazy. :lol:

[ChibiJosh]

That's what I've been trying to say. :bomb:

Chibi, you've officially got a target on your back tomorrow night in FP for making me think I was going crazy. :lol:
I will let this evidence show that it was Saint Noir who originally put that idea into my head.

I am in soul form and trying to lay a blue eye stone to help.. it wont let me... Am I doing it wrong? its on a level I have already passed.

maybe no living players are playing that section now? So it wont let me waste it.

Well just took out flame lurker.... not too bad.

Well, you can't waste it since it has infinite uses. I know you can't summon players on a level you've already beat so maybe you can't be a phantom on a level you've already beat either.

Yeah, this is correct.

;) But, still I could not put a stone down on 3-3, no matter where I tried to put it.

[ChibiJosh]

Edit: Chibi is completely wrong about WT. Killing invading BPs only raises your CT. Resurrecting blue phantoms with the miracle has no effect on WT or CT. It's killing named NPC BPs that affects WT.
Killing a named BP adds 9 to your WT score. Killing a Multiplayer BP adds 3 to your WT score and resurrecting a player adds 3 to your BP score. (all of these also change your CT)
It's from the collector's edition guide.

Any people trading items or trophies here? I'm at the end of my NG+ run (SL 122) and need a couple rings (and would like to hold cloud/marrow/suckerstone items for trophies). I've got every unique weapon and Crushing/Dragon/Moon/Blessed/Sticky+5 that I can offer just for trophies. I can also offer advice/help as needed, albeit limited to what I've experienced as a hybrid melee/magic build.

I have cloud, marrow and sucker stone. But, I don't know if I want to give them to you. ;) Just kidding.

[AkariK]

;) But, still I could not put a stone down on 3-3, no matter where I tried to put it.

Try again. You can't place it in the large square area right after the archstone. You CAN place it in the small square directly in front of the stairwell (right before the fog gate). I have helped 5-6 people kill old monk in ng+ this way while trying to get human.

Edit: By BP score, you mean CT? I killed one person as the old monk, which dropped my CT from pure white to white. I then resurrected 2 blue phantoms and was not restored to pure white. I think I have proof that resurrection does nothing.

[ChibiJosh]

Try again. You can't place it in the large square area right after the archstone. You CAN place it in the small square directly in front of the stairwell (right before the fog gate). I have helped 5-6 people kill old monk in ng+ this way while trying to get human.

I helped someone directly before killing the old monk. I tried placing it right before the fog area (after killing the gecko), I tried placing it on the stairs. I tried placing it right inside the room before the stairs start. Nothing worked. But, I was able to go back to 5-1 and fight the boss again. So, I don't know.


Edit: By BP score, you mean CT? I killed one person as the old monk, which dropped my CT from pure white to white. I then resurrected 2 blue phantoms and was not restored to pure white. I think I have proof that resurrection does nothing.

We're talking about WT not CT. Killing a person as a BP drops your CT by 4 and reviving someone ups your CT 0.5. You need to revive a lot more than 2 people.

[Bezerker]

I did notice that on 4-1, I could lay down a blue stone before the first archway, but if I tried to put it down after the archway, it would give me some message and disappear.

[Apollo Creed]

I will let this evidence show that it was Saint Noir who originally put that idea into my head.

A simple "I'm sorry, kickapole" and perhaps an offer of cake would have sufficed, but Oh no, you had to pass the blame. ;)

[ChibiJosh]

Well, if you were on blue team, I'd gladly offer you cake, but...

[io]

You can be summoned, but can't summon. And you haven't really "beaten" a stage until the archdemon is felled. Also, you can't lay a stone down no matter what too close to an archstone.

Ah, well, see, I was taking about being summoned. I've never summoned nor would I since I've played the whole game in soul form. And besides, why would you need to summon once you've beaten a stage?

I have noticed that if you run from before the fog area into the boss area while your stone is down (but before you are summoned) it gets picked up - but that's simply because you are going from one section to the next (like 2-2 to 2-3).

And io, you may want to try to get a Meat Cleaver/Dragon Bone Smasher to knock one down and get past it. At least, I think they can be knocked down. Otherwise, general strat seems to be to get around the one that spawns behind you. I wouldn't know myself, halloween pushed me to PBWT when I had 1-3 beaten so I was able to get to the primeval demon using the shortcut. I also recommend a Purple Flame Shield to block their spells as necessary.

No dice on the Meat Cleaver. I went to make that and realized I didn't have the Swollen Demon's soul any more. I'm assuming, then, that I used it to get Regeneration from Urbain though I don't remember doing that. I certainly have never used it :cry:.

But I do have the Dragon Bone Smasher I believe. And I did go in there with the purple flame shield. The problem is you get hit simultaneously from the front and back. I went in last night and tried Rage of God, but the front one hit me while I was casting and that was the end of me.

I tried getting past the one in front and that doesnt work - but yeah, something I read said to try getting back past the one behind you so I will try that tonight. It says to go slowly. I don't buy that, though, because they will just pound on you. I may try rolling quickly that way and see if I can slip by. I had enough trouble with the non-phantom one down there by Biorr's cell. TWO black phantom ones is a bit overwhelming, but if I can get away from them I'm sure I can take them out (since they will still be in the way) using the graverobber ring and associated tactics.

[Saint Noir]

I admit it. I purposely spread propaganda! ;)

I messed up and wrath of god'ed an NPC. Messed my CT up. So, after I beat 5-3 again, I will need some people to resurrect to build it back up... only level that this would be easy on would be level 1 as level 3 has the monk issue. If anyone is near level 116 (I think) and wants to be brought to life... and hey you could darken your own world tendency... I'll need to do this.

I barely started farming for bladestone... I can tell this is going to take 2 years.

[ChibiJosh]

I admit it. I purposely spread propaganda! ;)



Aha! I kneeew it!

[Jodou]

Well, it seems like he doesn't have too much experience with them (he said he didn't even know they were there until he joined your game). so I'm hoping he's wrong in this one case because then that means the game is broken. There is no way to whiten the WT without killing a boss and I can't get to the next boss on 1-3 unless I get past there. It is sure death if you stumble upon them by accident as you have no idea what is even happening at first. But I'm hoping there's some sort of preparation/tactic I can use on them.
Lol, I know the mob inside and out. BP versions are just worth more souls but deal a shit-ton more damage. The problem with that mob is unless you're within melee range, he will ALWAYS cast a fireball. This can be dodged easily if you have the maneuvering room, but that passage is very tight making it nearly impossible. Like I said, it's only an issue if they completely sandwich you so if you can break free and face them one at a time, it's really not hard. The BP fireball, if not guarded against, will one-shot you. If it kills me in one hit with 1500 HP, it will kill you.

[ChibiJosh]

Ok, does anyone know for sure whether or not a black phantom can invade you on a level you've already beaten?

[crystalklear64]

Something strange happening, maybe its normal but I hadn't run into it yet so it seems strange. I started a new character, blazed through 1-1 and 1-2. However, the game will not let me proceed into 1-3. It says in order to proceed an archdemon must be slain or something to that effect. I always thought that the bosses were archdemons, thus the Tower Knight should be an archdemon if not the Phalanx thing. Why then, can I not proceed into 1-3? Do I need to kill a demon from a different world first?

If so, I think in other play throughs I had always killed the Spider before the Knight which would explain why I hadn't had this problem before.

[io]

Something strange happening, maybe its normal but I hadn't run into it yet so it seems strange. I started a new character, blazed through 1-1 and 1-2. However, the game will not let me proceed into 1-3. It says in order to proceed an archdemon must be slain or something to that effect. I always thought that the bosses were archdemons, thus the Tower Knight should be an archdemon if not the Phalanx thing. Why then, can I not proceed into 1-3? Do I need to kill a demon from a different world first?

If so, I think in other play throughs I had always killed the Spider before the Knight which would explain why I hadn't had this problem before.

I got the message about the fog clearing when I killed the Dragon God (2-3). I think you have to clear one of the other world's end bosses first. The spider and/or Tower Knight have nothing to do with it. They are not archdemons - only the ones at the end are.

Lol, I know the mob inside and out. BP versions are just worth more souls but deal a shit-ton more damage. The problem with that mob is unless you're within melee range, he will ALWAYS cast a fireball. This can be dodged easily if you have the maneuvering room, but that passage is very tight making it nearly impossible. Like I said, it's only an issue if they completely sandwich you so if you can break free and face them one at a time, it's really not hard. The BP fireball, if not guarded against, will one-shot you. If it kills me in one hit with 1500 HP, it will kill you.

Well, interesting play session tonight, and much more productive than last night. So I got myself all prepped for dealing with those 2 black phantom Fat Ministers. I fought my way there, switched equipment out to deal with them (not that it would have made too much difference if I couldn't escape from in between them) and charged into that very small corridor...

I came out the other side and nothing happened... :rofl:

I checked the WT and it seemed like it may have been back up a notch to neutral. OR, maybe it didn't change but it was just a glitch from the black WT event weekend that somehow the game was still spawning pure black events on Monday even when the WT didn't show it as black. I dunno - but those guys are so tough I can't imagine they are meant to be there at just slightly black WT.

I was so stunned to get through there I didn't know what to do. I took out a bunch more guys and finally got to that stupid gate and opened it. Then, there was Ostrava who started talking about saving him again and walked slowly towards me. While he did that a stupid red eye knight backstabbed him :wall:. I was so pissed after taking such good care of him the previous levels that I wasn't paying attention and got killed myself.

So... I'm thinking I'm really screwed. I make it back to my bloodstain to collect the 10k+ souls I left there. And the red eye knights are back but NO SIGN of Ostrava. No body, no key, nothing. I'm thinking I'm seriously shaq-fu'd, at least with respect to getting the Mausoleum key in this paythrough. I was pretty much resigned to losing out on that plus the pure clearstone prize.

Oh well... So then I decide to make world 1 truly black and take care of Miralda. I do her in with 2 casts of poison cloud. I did get killed once when I had to go back in and lure her out for the second casting and I ws trying to be tricky and use the Kris blade to increase my magic (hoping it would kill her faster - didn't seem to make any difference) and got chopped because I didn't have my shield up as a result. But the second time I was more careful and had no problem.

Then I made my way to 1-3 to find the primevil demon and who do I see standing at the top of the stairs beyond the now open gate? Yeah, that bastard Ostrava. WTF!? I guess, maybe, because I died he actually respawned. He thanked me for saving him and then gave me the clearstone. Then he started marching up and down the stairs and down the little side path with two enemies in it. I helped him with those as it seems he could be killed there if he got backstabbed again. Then he just kept marching in the same circuit. Later, he was in the Nexus, then back in 1-3 when I went to farm some souls. So I guess he's back on track for 1-4 though I guess it doesn't matter now if he dies as long as I get the key off him if he does.

Oh, and prior to this I took care of the 3-3 boss, which may have been the easiest in the game so far - even easier than Phalanx. And considering that you can't cheese him with arrows or magic that is really saying something. I had no problem using melee attacks on him. Now, isn't this the one that will summon a real player to fight you? How do you tell if it is a real player? Does the player have their own stuff or do you get stuck with whatever equipment he gives you? The one I fought used claws and had no shield and thus was no match for my shield/spear combo. He did seem to roll around alot which made me think he might be a real person. Even my son commented on that. But then again, who knows. After all, those skeletons roll all over the place :lol:.

I then went back in to 3-1 with the intention of buying up moonlight stones from the merchant there since it seems I was only short 5 regular shards to get a winged spear + 6 all the way up to a moon winged spear +5. Luckily I had gotten a pure one from a gecko in that world during the BT weekend. I bought one and then was just messing around trying to get more cash. I ended up at the bottom where you head off towards the arrow machine. I had forgotten there was a gecko there and I had two more chances to peg him. This one seems to drop only moonlight stones so he's a good one if you are looking for those. I got more than I needed and went back and got two more upgrade trophies. I had been getting multiple winged spears from drops for some reason so I took a new one and went all the way up to +10 on that. Then I made the moon winged spear +5. It has a much higher attack than the +10 regular one - assuming the target isn't magic resistant that is. But now I'm one-shotting the miners where before with the winged +6 it took 3 shots.

So, yeah, not a bad 3 hours or so of play: 1 boss, 1 black phantom, 1 other level pretty much cleared (1-3 - saving the boss for tomorrow so the kids can see it), about 4 levels gained, and 2 upgrade trophies.

[jmbreci]

I love this game, so much. I what somewhat excited about the game before it launched, but the pre-release media made it feel like sort of a budget title. I jumped on picking it up on launch, as a sort of leap of faith. I can't say I was disappointed. What a great action-RPG.

But I'll be damned if it isn't so intimidating that it scares me out of playing. There's so much stuff to worry about, with the world tendency, black phantoms and so forth.

Any skilled players want to gather around in a text chat, on PSN? I could use a few pointers (and co-op partners) before going forward.

Take it from some others here, as I tried it last night - start with Royalty as your class. Having Soul Arrow and the MP regen ring makes the first level a piece of cake. Think I went through and killed everything, sans Red Knight and the phantoms, in about 45 minutes - and that includes me dying once while not paying attention to a mob attack (opening the gate to the left of Phlanax).

Not sure what SL I ended up at (10-12 I believe), I just know that I am not looking forward to killing the Red Dragon again on 1-2...that took forever with arrows and my +3 short compound bow. I also need to run back through 1-1 and grab all of the grub by the dragons since I was too tired to last night....I can use the grind for a few more levels anyway.

I mainly started over from my Hunter because I let Ostrava get killed in 1-1 when I had no clue as to what I was doing/supposed to do....yet I still have the item he gives, but no key. :(

Fun game.....I should break away for a night and finish up Uncharted 2 though....3 levels from the end there...then I can give my devoted attention to DS.

[Jodou]

Well, interesting play session tonight, and much more productive than last night. So I got myself all prepped for dealing with those 2 black phantom Fat Ministers. I fought my way there, switched equipment out to deal with them (not that it would have made too much difference if I couldn't escape from in between them) and charged into that very small corridor...
I came out the other side and nothing happened... :rofl:WT has always been bugged; it's reset on me plenty of times, especially if I go pure black to farm. Logout and in and it's always back to neutral. Really sucks having to waste stones on world 4 every time I want to farm.
So... I'm thinking I'm really screwed. I make it back to my bloodstain to collect the 10k+ souls I left there. And the red eye knights are back but NO SIGN of Ostrava. No body, no key, nothing. I'm thinking I'm seriously shaq-fu'd, at least with respect to getting the Mausoleum key in this paythrough.He hides in a corner all the way up the stairs and off to the left once you save him. He doesn't patrol again until you either talk to him for the stone or leave and come back. Any time you die, NPCs reset their health and positions so nobody can die unless you're in the level when they do.
Oh, and prior to this I took care of the 3-3 boss, which may have been the easiest in the game so far - even easier than Phalanx. And considering that you can't cheese him with arrows or magic that is really saying something. I had no problem using melee attacks on him. Now, isn't this the one that will summon a real player to fight you? How do you tell if it is a real player? Does the player have their own stuff or do you get stuck with whatever equipment he gives you? The one I fought used claws and had no shield and thus was no match for my shield/spear combo. He did seem to roll around alot which made me think he might be a real person. Even my son commented on that. But then again, who knows. After all, those skeletons roll all over the place :lol:.It wasn't a player. Players will have all their gear with the exception of the helm, the twisted wrap. I've never actually fought a player here because I was always ahead of the leveling curve. Likewise, I've never used soul signs other than black so I've never been summoned.

[ChibiJosh]

Something strange happening, maybe its normal but I hadn't run into it yet so it seems strange. I started a new character, blazed through 1-1 and 1-2. However, the game will not let me proceed into 1-3. It says in order to proceed an archdemon must be slain or something to that effect. I always thought that the bosses were archdemons, thus the Tower Knight should be an archdemon if not the Phalanx thing. Why then, can I not proceed into 1-3? Do I need to kill a demon from a different world first?

If so, I think in other play throughs I had always killed the Spider before the Knight which would explain why I hadn't had this problem before.
The archdemons are the final demons in a world: 1-4, 2-3, 3-3, 4-3 and 5-3. You have to kill one of those first (obviously not 1-4 since you can't get there).

[jrsmaster411]

I've been killing nothing but black skeletons for the past 3 days looking for a Pure Bladestone. I've got 99 soul remains, over 200 Shard of Bladestone, and probably 30 level ups, but still no Pure Bladestone. :(

[Saint Noir]

I've been killing nothing but black skeletons for the past 3 days looking for a Pure Bladestone. I've got 99 soul remains, over 200 Shard of Bladestone, and probably 30 level ups, but still no Pure Bladestone. :(

Yeah. I hear this is hard as hell to get. Not looking forward to it myself.

[jacknicklson]

Guide replacement program:

http://atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5072

[Saint Noir]

Guide replacement program:

http://atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5072

Super awesome. Mine is mega worn and de-inked. By the sounds of it, I will get to keep the majority of my existing guide for further use and get a new one to keep all minty and new! :D

[jacknicklson]

Does that crap get all over your hands? White controller + that would suck when I start playing

[Saint Noir]

No, I haven't noticed ANY on my hands at all. Which is sort of weird. But there are thumb marks turned white on the guide and the spine is almost pure white.

[blissskr]

Wow I must say I commend Atlus on this replacement program, my guide did get some strange color wear and all but never did I expect that I publisher would offer a replacement. I noticed my guide wouldn't rub off on my hands either so I have no clue where the color actually was going lol.

[jacknicklson]

That is freakin' weird lol

[ChibiJosh]

My guide looks mostly fine, but there are white streaks at the edges of the spine.

[io]

WT has always been bugged; it's reset on me plenty of times, especially if I go pure black to farm. Logout and in and it's always back to neutral. Really sucks having to waste stones on world 4 every time I want to farm.
He hides in a corner all the way up the stairs and off to the left once you save him. He doesn't patrol again until you either talk to him for the stone or leave and come back. Any time you die, NPCs reset their health and positions so nobody can die unless you're in the level when they do.

Yeah, in this case the reset to neutral (if that's what happened) was very very nice though.

As for Ostrava, he did die when I was on the level. When I went back right away from the 1-3 archstone after getting killed the red eye knights were still there and he was not (after I got rid of them I went all over and he was definitely not where I saw him later as he would have been in the middle of the new position of the red eye knights). When I went to do other stuff and came back later all of a sudden he was standing there right at the top of the stairs past the gate. I thought I was going to lose his prize (the pure clearstone) as well as the key since I figured his loot went away when I died. Luckily the game reset him as being back alive again - a glitch I'm glad happened ;).

I've been killing nothing but black skeletons for the past 3 days looking for a Pure Bladestone. I've got 99 soul remains, over 200 Shard of Bladestone, and probably 30 level ups, but still no Pure Bladestone. :(

Ugh, I'm not looking forward to this sort of stuff. But if I'm that close to a platinum I'm not gonna let one stupid trophy keep me away!

[ChibiJosh]

I went through this entire game thinking Ostravia died a long time ago, and who do I happen to run across when I go to beat 1-3. fucking Ostravia! I should've killed him.

If anyone is around lvl 125 and wants the bladestone trophy, I have a fully upgraded weapon that I wouldn't mind letting you hold for the trophy. (I just need the spiderstone and clearstone trophies)

[Saint Noir]

I'd like to hold it... and I have rez now. I have fully upgraded spiderstone and clearstone items. Or I can give you some stones if you need.

[ChibiJosh]

I don't really care to have the upgraded items. I'll just hold yours. Do you need any of the other upgrade trophies?

[Saint Noir]

I need quite a few... I may even have the stones for several of them. Not 100% sure. If it's not something I plan on using, I just put it off. I know I need Bladestone, Mercurystone, Suckerstone, Moonlightstone, and Marrowstone. My main concern is Bladestone though.

[ChibiJosh]

I can give you everything but moonlightstone, are you on right now? (I have to leave soon-ish)

[Saint Noir]

I gotta leave too. So we can set it up for later.

[io]

If anyone is around lvl 125 and wants the bladestone trophy, I have a fully upgraded weapon that I wouldn't mind letting you hold for the trophy. (I just need the spiderstone and clearstone trophies)

Damn, we'd be a perfect match as I have the bow upgraded all the way (as well as the moon winged spear) and would love to snag that bladestone one since it sounds like a pain. And any others you might have as well (all I have besides spider and moon is the sharpstone one). Problem is, I'm only level 77 or so.

So I have a question on all this. How do you share items? Can you do it as white phantoms or do you need to do it as a summon/invasion (either blue or black)? At first I thought I read you could just do it as a white phantom because something I read talked about finding an out of the way location to trade. It would be tough to do as a blue phantom because you'd have to hope you summon the right person. Or did they mean put the blue stone down in an out of the way place? I guess that makes more sense now that I think about it. It would suck if you dropped something temporarily as a white phantom and then had some random person snag it out from under you :lol:.

So, Chibi, I could grind out a bunch of levels but that may take a while. How close do you have to be again? Within 10?

Anyone else around 77 and have any fully-upgraded stuff?

[ChibiJosh]

You have to be within 25 once you pass 100, or so I've heard. So, get to 105-ish.

To share items, you have to have one body and one phantom (I think it can be black or blue). Then, one player drops the items and the other picks them up.

[io]

Ah, so I guess the best bet is to pick an obscure location to put down the blue stone and then meet up there. OK, well, tonight I'll try to grind out some levels though I doubt I'll get to 105 tonight ;). Maybe by this weekend if you don't move too much!

[ChibiJosh]

I've leveled up like 3 levels in the past couple days, so no worries there.

[jughead]

Just beat 1-1. Lovin' it. It takes patience though.

[Saint Noir]

Alright, I am back. So, if you want to try and set up a meet up, tell me when and where. Guess I'll need to use a stone to get in body form.

[idkblah00]

what are those hardstones for and how do i use them?

[Saint Noir]

You use them to update weapons and make them stronger. You have to go to a blacksmith to do this. At certain updates at the good blacksmith, you can branch off and use other ores and stones for even better upgrades.

[idkblah00]

You use them to update weapons and make them stronger. You have to go to a blacksmith to do this. At certain updates at the good blacksmith, you can branch off and use other ores and stones for even better upgrades.

i went to the blacksmith at the nexus and the only for me to upgrade my weapon is by using souls

[Saint Noir]

Souls can repair. But not upgrade. SOME souls are required to get him to do the work, but he uses the ores to upgrade the weapon. Without the ores you can't upgrade anything.

[idkblah00]

Souls can repair. But not upgrade. SOME souls are required to get him to do the work, but he uses the ores to upgrade the weapon. Without the ores you can't upgrade anything.

o k thanks

[crystalklear64]

Well I've been having tons of fun with my new melee oriented character. My first character was just the gamefaqs assassin one, so learning to deal with things on ng+ with no extra life or stamina was tough, but it has really paid off. With this guy I'm doing only endurance, vitality, strength (currently all in the 30's), and just enough faith for 2 miracle slots to cast second chance (15 i think). Since I exploited many bosses previously with the longbow and spells, this time I'm only allowing myself to use a crossbow and my melee weapon. Its made some of the battles different, and I guess a little more difficult since you can't really call sitting back and shooting arrows difficult, but I still think all the bosses are more than doable in melee once you learn when you can interrupt, when you can block, and when you need to roll. I got the Dragon Bone Crusher and have been sticking with that, I absolutely love it!

[Saint Noir]

Hrm... earlier I got the saint's trophy.

On a more amusing note, ChibiJosh and I met up on level 3 to do some trading. I also wanted to raise my CT, so I resurrected him. He said he would go fight Old King and return once done for some more rez.

Cool. So, I hang out in 3 and decide to summon any blue phantoms to just rez them immediately. Of course, being alive means black phantoms could be an issue. I summon a blue and a black comes in at the same time. They fight and die together whirling off a cliff.

I rez several other blues and then I get invaded all by my lonesome. I get stuck in a corner and get killed.

ChibiJosh comes back and I summon him 2 times in a row and immediately send him back alive. The third time, I have been invaded. I summon him and he comes in and sees me peeking around a corner. He knows whats up. I saw the black run off the other way and we wait for a bit to see if he will come back. Nothing. So, I get banish on the quick draw.

We creep ever so slowly down the narrow path. Shields up. Taking our time to dispatch the flying gargoyles we come to. Then I see the guy at the end of the hall. He hides like he has not been seen.

No problem I think... so ChibiJosh goes a little bit ahead and I plan on blasting the black back to his realm as soon as he shows himself. He shows himself... and starts wailing on ChibiJosh. I cast... unfortunately the guy has a 20 foot sword and hits me way through Chibi and interrupts my cast. Chibi is out. I try again. Fail.

I run... try again... fail. Death. I was still in my swamp gear of adj shield and black leather. Most of my equipment was worthless junk that was just upgraded for upgrades sake (to trade). I wasn't even planning on fighting enemies... much less invaders. Epic fail.

It was fun though... :lol:

[mowmow]

i started this game yesterday. i started off as a hunter and so far ive beaten 1-1 and 1-2. I'm on 4-1 atm and its whooping my butt specifically the black skele guarding the final boss. this games great... ive died so many times on this stage and yet i dont mind and continue to keep going.

[io]

I've leveled up like 3 levels in the past couple days, so no worries there.

Well, I got about 6 or 7 levels in tonight but that was from a few boss encounters with the ring of avarice on. I beat Penetrator and the blue dragon, so that was pretty eventful. I also got the key from Ostrava. Biorr died fighting the blue dragon and I was well on my way to beating the dragon (pegging him with arrows from afar - it seemed impossible to run past his fire - not sure how anyone does that). But I got a little impatient and decided to see if I could inch forward to get a few more points on my attack. On the bridge my arrows did 51 damage. At the second location they only did 17 damage - and that was only when I got it lined up and timed perfectly. As soon as I got near that top step I got toasted in a millisecond - so again, I don't see how you can even try to run past since there isn't enough time between blasts. So, anyway, I just went back in and did it the long way. Unfortunately I didn't get Biorr's drop though. What does he drop anyway?

Just beat 1-1. Lovin' it. It takes patience though.

Ah, good ol' 1-1. I was running around in there today a bit and got a nostalgic feeling for it. It is kind of fun to go back there when you can one-shot (or even get multiples with one shot) nearly all the enemies (the red eye knight takes 2 or 3 shots now but is cake compared to some of the later stuff). I can even screw up and get nailed in the back by one of the regular enemies and it just takes a sliver of health now. And note I really haven't upgraded my vitality much at all (just at 15). The defense rating goes up with every level, though, no matter what stat you pick, and that apparently has made a huge difference.

what are those hardstones for and how do i use them?

I would suggest you save them up to get the Purple Flame Shield all the way to +10. You need so many of the hardstones to do that and even though I've farmed them quite a bit I'm still a bit away from getting it to +10 (I just need a few more large shards - have all the chunks and the 2 pures taken care of though!). The crystal geckos that show up at the end of world 1 dropped a ton of chunks that I needed for the upgrade (they helped me get it from +7 to +9 tonight). The mini-phalanxes at the beginning of 1-2 drop the shards. I'm having a tough time getting the middle one though (the large shards). I think maybe the nest in 2-2 has those, though, and I've only hit it twice so far. I guess I should just finish that off. I'm getting near the end of the game anyway so I should make sure I exploit the geckos as much as possible.

i started this game yesterday. i started off as a hunter and so far ive beaten 1-1 and 1-2. I'm on 4-1 atm and its whooping my butt specifically the black skele guarding the final boss. this games great... ive died so many times on this stage and yet i dont mind and continue to keep going.

I wouldn't suggest going to 4-1 right after 1-1 and 1-2. It is pretty impressive that you managed to get to that black katana skeleton right before the boss, actually. I would suggest you go through 2-1, at least, first, though, before slogging through 4-1 again.

[Loonknight]

Damn plague killed me along with those bloody swamp babies in 5-4 before I could loot the boss! Is there any way to raise my WT a bit, since I just revived and died it dropped from pure white.

[Zmonkay]

My guide is mostly fine, but hey, I'll happily tear off its cover to get a brand new minty fresh one. Then I can use the guide w/o fear of ruining it cuz I have the backup.

[io]

My guide is mostly fine, but hey, I'll happily tear off its cover to get a brand new minty fresh one. Then I can use the guide w/o fear of ruining it cuz I have the backup.

^^ This is what is awesome about what they are doing.

[Saint Noir]

Damn plague killed me along with those bloody swamp babies in 5-4 before I could loot the boss! Is there any way to raise my WT a bit, since I just revived and died it dropped from pure white.

This happened to me too... world tendency is kind of loopy. Mine went back to pure white on its own shortly after it dropped slightly.

[ChibiJosh]

Saint Noir: Last night were good times. That guy kicked my ass.

I got the soldier trophy last night for all the unique weapons. So one more playthrough and I'll have the platinum.

[SynGamer]

Wow.

I decided to try the whole run past Miralda and get the armor before she kills me idea. So I rush past her and book it down the stairs, never once looking back since the bitch can keep up with me. About half way down the stairs I hear something "woosh" by me and low-and-behold, 11,xxx souls pop up. I didn't see her body but she must have walked off the ledge to her death. Fucking awesome! Got the armor and such :) I'll go back and see if I can find her body...

:D

[Jodou]

As soon as I got near that top step I got toasted in a millisecond - so again, I don't see how you can even try to run past since there isn't enough time between blasts. So, anyway, I just went back in and did it the long way. Unfortunately I didn't get Biorr's drop though. What does he drop anyway?A full suit of brushwood; the same armor from the tower in 1-1. BTW, the Brushwood shield +5 is the best in the game since it's 100% fire and melee damage absorbant. Against magic, Dark Silver shield +5 is a no brainer at 100% (or Large Sword of Moonlight with both hands since it's 80%).

To get past that dragon, you can use the Brushwood shield to bare the brunt near the top of the stairs and then walk the rest of the way past his range.

[Snake2715]

kickapole: I don't think you know what you're talking about. You can't go back to a level that's you've already beaten and lay a blue stone down. I just tried it and it didn't let me.

I have 1-3, 1-4, 5-2 and 5-3 to do. 5-2 is such a pain though...

I am catching up from a few days pages, but this needs to be cleared up. I would have a blast going back to help on levels I have beaten..

[Jodou]

Wow.

I decided to try the whole run past Miralda and get the armor before she kills me idea. So I rush past her and book it down the stairs, never once looking back since the bitch can keep up with me. About half way down the stairs I hear something "woosh" by me and low-and-behold, 11,xxx souls pop up. I didn't see her body but she must have walked off the ledge to her death. Fucking awesome! Got the armor and such :) I'll go back and see if I can find her body...

:D
You can also just push her off the ledge, which is what I normally do lol. Bitch doesn't drop shit.

[SynGamer]

Just went back and got the Colorless soul off the beam body. Promptly died afterword but got it none-the-less.

[Snake2715]

Ah, well, see, I was taking about being summoned. I've never summoned nor would I since I've played the whole game in soul form. And besides, why would you need to summon once you've beaten a stage?

I have noticed that if you run from before the fog area into the boss area while your stone is down (but before you are summoned) it gets picked up - but that's simply because you are going from one section to the next (like 2-2 to 2-3).



No dice on the Meat Cleaver. I went to make that and realized I didn't have the Swollen Demon's soul any more. I'm assuming, then, that I used it to get Regeneration from Urbain though I don't remember doing that. I certainly have never used it :cry:.

But I do have the Dragon Bone Smasher I believe. And I did go in there with the purple flame shield. The problem is you get hit simultaneously from the front and back. I went in last night and tried Rage of God, but the front one hit me while I was casting and that was the end of me.

I tried getting past the one in front and that doesnt work - but yeah, something I read said to try getting back past the one behind you so I will try that tonight. It says to go slowly. I don't buy that, though, because they will just pound on you. I may try rolling quickly that way and see if I can slip by. I had enough trouble with the non-phantom one down there by Biorr's cell. TWO black phantom ones is a bit overwhelming, but if I can get away from them I'm sure I can take them out (since they will still be in the way) using the graverobber ring and associated tactics.

Great axe, have one of those, they too knock people over... is it not true that if you do a heavy swing (cant remember the neame) you are invincible for a short period? If so you could roll forward for a stike and do a heavy swing. That may get you past one, or knock him down.

Also isnt there a spell that stops magic form being cast? I swear I read that people used it on the BP scirvir....

[SynGamer]

Just lost 6K souls trying to get my bloodstrain back. Got the Guil. Axe that Miralda dropped though.

[ChibiJosh]

SynGamer: you need to catch up farther. I think that was already cleared up.

[Saint Noir]

I am catching up from a few days pages, but this needs to be cleared up. I would have a blast going back to help on levels I have beaten..

After a bit of confusion, you can do this (in the right spot). You just can't summon.

[Snake2715]

After a bit of confusion, you can do this (in the right spot). You just can't summon.


Yeah Saint, thanks for the update. I noticed it was cleared up.... notice it was me who asked originally... Oh well I have plenty of time to try it out now.

[ChibiJosh]

Whoops. Meant snake in that last post. Posting form my phone doesn't work well

[SynGamer]

Whoops. Meant snake in that last post. Posting form my phone doesn't work well

I was going to say, catch up on what, to where? I think I'll shelve this for a little while now, the frustration of dying to Miralda a few times is gone now that she's dead so I feel at peace :P

[salty tbone]

Just an aside to the BP Satsuki conversation a few days ago when someone said there's no cheap way to kill him. Today I started at the 4-2 archstone, backtracked while backstabbing every fool I came across, then soulsucker-ed Satsuki. Like a dope, I even first tried to do it with not enough MP. So while standing within arms reach I used old spice then used soulsucker.

So while you can only do this on a second playthrough, it's possible.

And since I beat him straight up the first time, I don't feel AS cheap this time. I just wanted to see if it was possible since he seems to have a high detection range.