OK I'm kind of running out of steam and I need some help to get back on track.

I rang the top bell, couldn't find anywhere to go from there so went back. Just rang the bottom bell and the fortress opened. I assume that's where I need to go next but there's a new huge area past the bell which I haven't explored plus a load of other areas I haven't been to. Where should I be going? I feel completely aimless.

I'm still using the drake sword. Just hit level 50 and maxed out my stamina. My strength is only 22 and dexterity is 13. I have a lot of weaker weapons so I don't have much incentive to use anything else. I upgraded it with a drakescale I found in Blighttown but it's not much stronger and I don't think I'll be getting any more. Should I be looking to switch weapons right now? What should I be spending all these crafting resources on? I'm just sword and shield at the moment.

Oh, and does upgrading my shield do anything if I'm not using it offensively? The damage goes up but I just use it to block.

I've killed the moth thing and got a soul that I don't know what to do with, and a lot of other minor bosses etc.

Sen's fortress is where you want to go next, this is the big door by the blacksmith in Undead Parish that opened when the bells were rung. Hold onto any boss's souls, you can use them at a later blacksmith to upgrade them to unique weapons.

Once you get access to the Giant Blacksmith, your weapon choices expand a lot and you can have more fun swords to experiment with.

@alistercat: Past which bell? Are you talking about all the fire past the second? If so you can ignore that for now. You've got the right idea, head to the fortress. You should probably drop the drake sword, it starts strong but caps early, just experiment with the weapons you have, find something with a move set you like and upgrade from there. Choose strength or dex according to the weapon, don't dump points into both once you meet the requirements. Resources (for the most part) are infinite so don't worry about what to spend on them on.

I think upgrading shields improves stability which means you lose less stamina per block, I'd focus on your weapon first.

Boss souls let you craft unique weapons, they can be cool but they're not a big deal. Alternatively you can crack them like you do with all the other souls you pick up. I didn't touch them my first play through and I wasn't short of good weapons or souls. You can't go wrong really, just check the unique weapons out on the wiki before you crack them because once you do that weapons gone.

@alistercat: The area beyond the second bell (which is the lava area) isn't really where you are meant to be going. Sens Fortress which, as you just said, opened up is where you should be going next.

I used Drake Sword up until the same section of the game, however its probably time to switch weapons. Most weapons are pretty viable so it just depends on what you want to use, I upgraded and used a Zweihander simply because I liked great swords. The reason you should start using and upgrading normal weapons is because they scale with your stats whereas I don't think the Drake Sword does. The Drake Sword is super good for beginners and for the early sections of the game but compare the 100-200 damage you are probably doing to what Vinny does with his fully upgraded Black Knights Halberd(?)

You should probably upgrade your vitality and strength some more.As for upgrading the Shield it probably makes it better but I'm not sure, I haven't bothered on my game yet.

The game does give quite a bit guidance early on if you just know how to look at it. And if the game shows you doors to fortress opening it probably means that it's a good idea to go there, but it doesn't prevent you from exploring, do so if you want, but know that to proceed the fortress of Sen's is the place to go.

I honestly think that people should stop recommending Drake sword for newbs, sure it makes early game easier, but it would be best to learn early how to operate normal weapon, upgrade it as often and as much as possible and put some points in the stats that boost it's damage.

Upgrading shield should also add it's stability which is really important and is good enough reason for putting some time and effort into shield upgrades.

As the item description for boss souls say, they can be used to make special weapons, but that's for later.

I would like to start Dark Souls & finish it before the sequel comes out, but my Xbox 360 isn't connected to Live. Can I play in Offline Mode without losing too much of the experience, or should I wait to play until I can connect to the online portion?

@mikelemmer: There are npc invaders and npc co-op buddies, but you lose lots of the little things I love in the game, other players ghostly figures, their bloodstains, the sound of bells ringing when other player gets to them, little things that doesn't really matter too much, but which are nice little details.

But I'd say go for it, the core gameplay is still the same offline as online.

@mikelemmer: Exactly what Apsup said. At some point you'll deliberately want to play offline, such as farming humanity efficiently without being invaded, or getting through a difficult area and also being able to NPC summon at the boss. Sometimes you just want no-nonsense.

Goddammit, I'm walking to get my PS3 disc and starting a new character...

@alistercat: Not every shield gets a worthwhile Stability bonus from upgrading, but they are pretty obvious in that regard when you look at the crafting interface. A fully upgraded Black Knight Shield or Balder Shield can carry you through the entire game. :) Greatshields you can bash with, and spiked shields are good if you want to try "dual-hand" staggering.

A fully upgraded Drake sword is actually pretty strong, but as a Dragon weapon it gets zero stat modifiers. Only half of the dragon weapons have a stat modifier and they are low for strong weapons and high for weak weapons.

The Butterfly soul sits in my inventory forever, don't worry about it. Demon's Souls was much better about making every boss soul valuable.

1. Is it useful to learn 2 schools of magic? What about 3? Or should you only learn 1 school of magic and stick to it?

2. What stats are useful for Pyromancy? It seems like it doesn't scale off stats, but I find that hard to believe.

Stick with one school of magic, though you could dabble with two. The amount of spells you can carry on you at once is pretty low so going with multiple different schools of magic will limit what you can actively carry of each.

Pyromancy does not take your stats into account (other than attunement for the amount of spells you can bring along) and scales based on your pyromancy flame. It's more of a complement to builds by being something any build can use given they spend souls upgrading the flame.

Pyromancy is a great back up magic for all classes as it doesn't need stats to increase in power.

My tip if you’re going full magic (something that I'm experimenting with right now) is to get a decent little melee weapon that doesn't need big stats as your back-up, something you can use on the weaker enemies and save your shots for the bigger guys. I've been using a rapier myself and its made life much easier.

I must agree, I just beat the game last night for the first time. I went for a high int build and wanted to use sorceries for as much as a could. That being said, still having a weapon I could use was a big help in some areas, one boss in particular. I used a +4 or 5 Uchigatana for my backup most of the time and then, much later in the game, I found an Enchanted Falchion that I upgraded a bit and it was quite the badass little weapon with 50+ intelligence.

And yea I would just stick to either Pyromancy or the Sorceries (i.e. soul arrows, homing soul mass, etc..) once you figure out which one you like, I really loved being able to kill dudes in one or two shots from a distance.

Edit: Forgot to mention that if you want to use sorcery, buy the bellowing dragoncrest ring from the guy at the firelink shrine, it's about 20k souls but worth it.

Yo, that is exactly what I am doing right now in DkS too! I finished Anor Londo yesterday and have been face rolling dudes with sorceries and my magic rapier. I'm hoping the hornet ring will make my ripostes and back stabs far too powerful.

I'm going with a Cleric ATM; hope to expand into Pyromancy later. I originally thought of taking Sorcery as my second magic school, but I suspect pumping both Faith & Intelligence would gimp my Str/Vit/End too much.

I'm reading through the wiki and just noticing all the little details of the items they don't mention in-game. Stat scaling, weapons upgrades that do more damage based on Faith, etc. A few spoiler-free questions: How high should I raise my Str? And should I do Divine or Occult upgrades?

What sort of weapon would you like to use? That massively determines what strength you need.

I haven't gotten far enough in the game to get/try multiple weapons yet, but I'm enjoying the Mace I started with. I might switch over to a Morningstar; not sure whether its Bleed effect is worth the reduced base damage. If I'm reading the Unique Weapons right, it looks like the Grant mace might be good for my character? But I'm not sure if I should put 30 pts into Str just to wield it properly.

Stick with the Mace over the Morning Star, it gets a B level boost from your strength, whereas the Morningstar only has a C. This scaling will be a large factor throughout the game. Also, you'll not get Grant for AGES yet, so don't even think about that yet.

The most important stats for you right now are Endurance, Strength, Vitality and Faith, probably in that order. Endurance is always a lovely thing to upgrade first, let's you block like crazy and get used to how the game works.

Also, your question about Divine and Occult is a tricky one to answer without some very minor spoilers. You pretty much need a divine weapon to get through a large and important area of the game without dying of stress in real life. Occult weapons hurt some enemies later on in the game more than normal ones. Divine is more important in my opinion.

What is standard procedure for seeing if you can take on a random mob or not? Wait until you've spent as many souls as possible, then carefully approach it and see if you can do any damage? I want to test whether I can kill the metal boars & black knights yet.

@mikelemmer: Here's the proper procedure:

1. Approach cautiously.
2. Take a tusk/massive sword/hammer to the face.

Then either:

• You're dead: too early.
• You're barely alive: too early, run!
• You've an appreciable amount (a quarter to half) of life left: carefully try to take them down.

Keep in mind many of them can be cheesed if you have ranged or magic.

By "to the face", you mean "to the shield" or "don't bother blocking yet, just take a blow head-on"?

@mikelemmer: Hrm. Well, shield is an OK replacement for face, but then you need to replace your measure of life remaining with the amount of stamina you have left over.

Pretty much how I entered any new area was just drawing over a few at a time, seeing if I could use anything in the environment to my advantage. If there's a lot of dudes, see if you can bottleneck them through a doorway or on a bridge. If I remember correctly, the area you're at definitely has something to help you get past at least the boar.

I ran past the boar and finally killed the black knight with a Lightning Enchant. I've gotten one ring, discovered the merchant in Undead Burg, and activated the Parish elevator down to Firelink Shrine. Technically, it's not much progress. Personally, it feels like I finally hit the first base camp on the way up the mountain.

I'm going to come back here often. I just gotten into the game recently, and I need to understand what I'm doing half the time.

@crithon:Welcome to the fold duder, it's an awesome if confusing ride. Just ask if you ever need help. Same with you @mikelemmer, I always like some jolly co-operation.

Opening that shortcut is a huge step! It means you just cut out the entire Undead Burg and can freely move around pretty much all of the map you've explored at this point. Killing your first Black Knight is a big deal, too. Congrats, duder!

Seeing as these two are very close together, it's good to practice on them both, but if you haven't managed to open the gate with the bonfire 20 steps away it gets to be a pain for practice running back from under the bridge.

Boars are a good case of inventing a challenge where you shouldn't. The boars have a weak point, and a very specific pattern they rubber-band on. Attacking a boar facing you is a complete waste of time. Attacking it with a blunt or slashing weapon is a complete waste of time. Don't make the game harder for yourself your first time.

Realise the entire game can be beaten at SL1. Learn the AI, use the environment, learn how to roll. The game is not about being on even footing, it's about David and Goliath.

I've been using http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/ and looking at YouTube videos for guidance.

@noizy: Please don't do that. I ruined my only first playthrough of Dark Souls by looking up too much stuff from the wiki. It's one thing to look up a little guidance when one is totally stuck and unable to proceed, but even then it's better to ask hints and tips from other people than consult a wiki.

You get only once chance of going through the game blind and without knowing what's coming, don't waste that.

@apsup: No. I don't say to use a walkthrough and look up the wiki every single step of the way; but you're stuck it's a useful resource.There is a starter's guide and boss guides, there's explanation about the game systems, etc.

I think everyone whose been playing game for a while has their own rules on who much they are willing to seek hints and guides and how much they are willing to spoil a game for themselves. It's a personal line. The game says I've played 38h and I would say my furthest milestone I unlocked is Sen's Fortress. That was months ago when I put it down.

I've used the wiki for looking up item stats, upgrades, and potential spells so far. Not where to find them, so much as "What's the best stuff I should be looking for? Can I really go through the entire game with an upgraded Mace?" Lately I've been searching every nook & cranny and finding not just secret items, but entire Shops situated out-of-the-way. I'll have to do more exploring in case I missed more large chunks of the game.

I don't know what to think about most Shops being stuck in out-of-the-way nooks and crannies. It's a rush when you discover a whole new Shop, but the lack of items for sale from the start means most characters can't customize their builds until they're done with the First Bell. My Priest pretty much has to go with a chainmail build ATM because I haven't found any good light armor for sale yet, and I'm still using the basic 2-3 miracles. (Heal is great for conserving Estus, but Force seems tough to time & I wish Seek Guidance had a latent gameplay effect besides showing more messages. I'm playing Offline and the developer messages are too sparse to justify using it much.)

As for my progress, met the blacksmith outside Sen's Fortress, killed the lightning demon living next to him, and range the Chapel Bell. I heard loud snoring next to the Firelink raven, but I couldn't find the source. Wish I knew how to find it rather than just give up, move on, and miss something. I have a key to Lower Undead Burg now, but not sure where to use it... perhaps I should give Undead Burg another sweep before exploring the cemetary.

@mikelemmer:

Have you tried taking a closer look at the key's description?

@apsup:

I'll double-check. It was at the end of a 4-hour marathon so I just skimmed it. About the time you start killing enemies solely from muscle memory, the higher brain functions shut down.

@mikelemmer: You should check out that direction, seems like a decent sort of direction to find things.

Alright, gotten a Divine weapon and delved into the Catacombs now. I'm also connected to the online portion now; any suggestions on what I should do for fun online?

@mikelemmer: The source of the snoring will become clear once the path to the fortress is opened.

You might be able to handle the first bit of the Catacombs but that path isn't 100% necessary at the point you are (but you can find some interesting goodies). You're on the right track with poking around the Undead Burg some more.

If you're down with exploring, you can also find some cool stuff down the forest path after the blacksmith.

@ravenlight: Wish they hadn't put that snoring in. I spent a good chunk of time trying to find the source.

It's funny, I think I've gone everywhere aside from where I'm supposed to go now. I've wandered deep enough into New Londo to meet Ingward, and I was so frugal I tried to get through most of it by 2-handing a Jagged Ghost Blade and flailing at the ghosts with it rather than using a Transient Curse. I hit a roadblock there, so now I went back to the Catacombs and beat Pinwheel, and I plan to go into the Tomb of the Giants to save Rhea before I finally go back into the Depths to find Blighttown.

So basically, right now I'm visiting everywhere except where I'm supposed to go. And I'm not dying horribly that often!

@mikelemmer: Wow, if you’re getting through the Catacombs without snapping your controller in half in frustration, then you're a better human being than I. I hate the Tomb of the Giants so blinking much. Totally glad that you're enjoying exploring around the world, as long as you know that real progress lies in the The Depths below Undead Parish.

Most of the Catacombs? Weren't tough. Dealing with that damned Black Knight and the Skelewheels? Almost controller-snapping.

And the only reason I know I'm supposed to go back into the Depths to progress is because I reread the Melancholy Knight's dialogue on a wiki, where he mentioned the captured Pyromancer going to Blighttown. I really wish you could ask the NPCs about specific things via keywords; that seems old-school enough for Dark Souls. Those damn Depths are a 3D maze. As-is, though, I want to save Rhea first.

@mikelemmer: Those skelewheels are the worst!

They don't roll over you, instead they grind your corpse into a bloody pulp! Hate hate hate hate HATE.

Although the giant skeletons might be worse. At least the skelewheels dies in two hits. Ugh, this grind is getting annoying. 5-10 minutes to work my way back through the Catacombs, then die to giant skeletons 1-2 packs in. Lost 9000 souls last time after the skelewheels wasted me before I could make it back.

@mikelemmer: Just wait until you see what lies in the Tomb then…. Although if you’re just going in there to save Rhea though, then you don’t have to face too many of the buggers just then. I really would advise you to leave there as soon as you get to her though and return later when you have an important item.

Alright, I've discovered I don't hate the skelewheels nearly as much as the giant skeletons. The darkness (even with a lantern) doesn't help either. Every time I get used to a previously-hated enemy, the game tosses a new hated enemy at me. At least I've unlocked the Skelly Blacksmith, so now I invest all my souls in Titanite Shards rather than losing them on every other attempt.

All my gear should be +3/5 in no time. I must've gone through the Catacombs two dozen times at least now... it's gotten to the point I can shortcut to the next area in my sleep.

@mikelemmer: The trouble is duder, you're on a little bit of a dead end with The Tomb Of The Giants. You can get to where you want to save Rhea, but you can't beat the boss yet as the story hasn't allowed that area to be accessible yet.

@gatehouse: I know. I've finally managed to save Rhea and get enough souls in the process to buy all her miracles. Now I plan to go back to the Depths and continue on the main quest proper.

I already know Petrus will try to kill her, though; I'm debating whether I would've known I can kill him first to save her for a while without looking it up in a wiki.

Lovely jubbly, now you're all buffed up to show the Depths what-for.

Man, I would've gone into Blighttown earlier if I had known the leeches can drop 5 Green Titanite shards each. I could've upgraded my Mace to Divine +5 before entering the Catacombs. I'm getting a lot of use out of my upgraded Heavy Xbow now; it's perfect for picking off those damn flies. Now if only I hadn't died falling off the elevator... I'm gonna have to slog through half the level or lose 10,000 souls & 2 humanity.

Ah well, at least I got 15 Green Titanite Shards as a consolation prize!

@mikelemmer: Welcome to the land of rubbish frame-rate and annoying mosquitos. Those leeches are a fantastic place to farm green shards, which are always useful. Just make sure you’ve got enough purple moss on you and go trudging through to goop. Keep your eyes open for the dart shooting wooden men though, those guys are rather annoying.

@gatehouse: I find the boulder goons more annoying, honestly. I got enough Poison Resist for the darts.