Anyone else having issues with judging fall damage. I've died numerous times from falls that in the first game would have done very little or no damage at all. It's a pretty big change and takes some time to get used to.

I did a couple of times. Now I just put on the silver cat ring whenever it's a free jump with no enemies. Better safe than sorry.

The fall damage seems a bit excessive, especially early on in the game before one has access to the Silver Cat ring. There are instances where it's clear that you are intended to drop down and do a plunging attack on an unsuspecting enemy, but the falls are enough to cause damage. It's not a huge deal but it does seem like a poor design choice overall.

We went from being able to drop what seems like the equivalent of a tall building in Demon's Souls, then that got about halved in Dark Souls, then maybe halved again in Dark Souls 2. I prefer the Dark Souls range.

Absolutely. It's ridiculous how my sorcerer, wearing very light gear, will lose half her health bar from dropping down 10 feet onto soft grass.

I guess they're trying to be more realistic, and less like Super Mario. It's just taking a lot to get used to. It accounts for at least half of my deaths.

Does putting points into adaptability or dex improve this?

I dropped down from the Forest of the Giants bonfire place on to the scaffolding and it took almost one third of my health bar, I already have so little health and healing items. Fall damage that much for a necessary drop kind of sucks.

@mason: I wouldn't be so sure about the game not having Mario elements.

The fall damage appears to be linear now instead of by %, that's why you guys notice the difference; what this does is allow you to eventually fall farther and not just have this arbitrary cut-off point where you die instantly that's maybe 1 foot further than taking off half your health; but early on it makes the falls hurt more.

I saved up for the Silver Cat Ring to drop down into the well in Majula. Bought the ring, dropped down to the first platform and promptly died.

I guess I'll bump up my Vit?

I'm level 50 and only have 11 Vigor so that's not enough to survive that fall with the Silver Cat Ring. I wonder how much health I need.

I survived with 15 vigor and the Silver Cat Ring. Not sure if anything between 11-15 would work, as I didn't try until I had 15 vigor.

One of the trade offs in this game it seems. We've definitely got it easier in some regards like being able to equip 4 rings so I think changes like this are slight balance tweaks but yeah... silver cat ring. Buy it.

It's weird, there are some areas that look as if you can make the fall and some that blatantly look like a shorter fall, but still kill you. I guess some drops they don't want you to make. Maybe they watched too many speedrunners fall through Blighttown.

@golguin: It is quite a lot, possibly around 1200 hp; but there's other ways of going down the hole (eventually, dialogue hints at it). Cat also sells fall damage pants, not sure if they stack and not sure when they show up.

Hmm, I'm only at 7 now...not sure how much I want to dump into vigor. I might just have to find another way in.

Guys keep in mind that every stat increases your HP, not just vigor; so either listing raw HP or SL + Vigor is going to be much more indicative of your status.

@fredchuckdave: That's true, I think I was around SL50 when i did my successful drop. Granted, it took almost all of my health bar when I did.

The fall damage issue has me paralyzed in places, afraid to drop down to explore where in DS1 I wouldn't be nearly as hesitant. It's the only change (so far at least) that I don't like at all.

@paco: Did you have any of the rings increasing your HP (some of the covenant rings do this as well)? Seems a little low based on my experience; but who can say.

I think Adaptability also affects this. Adaptability increases your agility, which may also lower the fall damage slightly. The guide is very vague about some of these things. I've been reading over the first chapter that goes over stats and mechanics. And they don't fully explain a lot of what Adaptability does. They just say "and it does other things". Well wtf are those other things?

@fredchuckdave: I had the Silver Cat Ring, Guardian's Seal, Cloranthy Ring, and Ring of Blades equipped at the time. It doesn't seem like the Guardian's Seal increases HP like the Blue Seal does.

I just said SL50 as an estimate, because I don't remember the exact level I did the drop at, but it was definitely between 50 and 55 (I'm currently at SL63).

@golguin: not sure of my stats, but I took the drop with the cat ring with low vigor and survived. Died later and tried the drop again but dies this time. I wonder if the health loss is based on max health, not current max health due to deaths.

This change mostly has me not doing the plunging attack and hoping beyond all hopes that the drops won't do enough fall damage to kill me :/

I just realized that being heavier causes more fall damage. I kept trying to jump to a difficult ledge and kept failing. I took off all my armor and immediately noticed the change. Learn something new everyday with this game.

At first i had issues, but now i can judge the safety of any fall pretty easily. Hell on my second playthrough i skipped getting that fall damage ring cus you dont need it.

You guys are crazy. You gotta realize that fall damage is handled differently now. It doesn't take off a "percentage" of your health anymore; it takes off a fixed amount that scales with the height of the drop (at least in my experience; might also/instead be affected by Agility). For example, you can equip the Silver Cat Ring right out of the gate, but you'll still die if you try to drop into the Sparta hole in Majula, even with full health in human form. Like (all?) other item bonuses, different gear with the same bonus stack with each other. So if you were to do whatever it is that makes the cat sell you those sweet pants, you'll have enough fall damage resistance if you also wear the Silver Cat Ring. You can also get the Lion Cape to help reduce the fall damage.

If you were to wear all those items (or just 2 of them), most falls in the game won't take anything off your health, and you can fall way further than in any other Souls game if you have around 15-25 Vigor and all those items equipped. You also only need those items for certain sections with lots of verticality; the rest of the time you should have enough lifegems by now (buying 99 from crazy hollow merchant lady is super cheap) that you can just pop one whenever you drop off a moderately high ledge. As for not being able to jump off scaffolding... come on... it's a different game now; don't play it like it's Dark Souls 1. Either heal up with lifegems or walk down like a normal undead.

I think they really improved the way fall damage is handled in this game. It's one of the pleasant surprises I ended up really liking.

And I'll add that running around in PVP in areas with lots of vertical drops is really fun if you're wearing some of that gear. It allows you to chase fools down like an animal.