I recently beat Dark Souls and am moving on to my second playthrough (which in this game is a LOT more fun than another playthrough on any other game I've played yet - immediately after beating it, I dove right back in).

Anyway, if you are experiencing any of the following, ask me!

• Can't find your way

• Not sure if in the right area

• Not sure how to find X Y Z

• Not sure how to beat X enemy

• Not sure how to beat X boss

• Not sure where to get X item

• Not sure the specifics of X game mechanic

• Not sure the specifics of X game stat

• Not sure what Covenants are, or what the benefits of Covenant A VS Covenant B, etc

• *insert question here*

I should be able to answer 99% of whatever you guys have to ask - so ask away!

(I'm only doing this because MAN do I wish there was somebody on the GiantBomb forums to answer my questions on my first playthrough)

And for anyone whose curious;

• Beat the game
• Killed every boss, incl. optional
• Cleared every zone, got vast majority of rare items, finishing it off with this 2nd playthrough
• Game gets fucking AMAZING around the 2nd half
• 67 hours was the length of my first playthrough, and I did 95%+ of all content including optional / secret stuff

Random facts:

• Hey remember the bull-headed demon boss you fought on the ramparts just before the red dragon? Remember the Capra Demon boss you fought? Later in the game, you have to fight 3 Bull-Headeds at once, and 4+ Capra Demons at once. This game gets nuts.
• DONT KILL NEUTRAL NPC'S - YOU CAN SCREW YOURSELF OVER BY DOING SO - by locking yourself out of certain advantageous items and/or Covenants

I just rang the first bell. I went down to go to the underground area where I thought the second one was, but I got ambushed by ghosts. I gave myself the curse that lets me fight them that I found, but I ran out after dying a few times. I only had two :/ Where do I get more? Am I even in the right place?

@BottleShip said:

I just rang the first bell. I went down to go to the underground area where I thought the second one was, but I got ambushed by ghosts. I gave myself the curse that lets me fight them that I found, but I ran out after dying a few times. I only had two :/ Where do I get more? Am I even in the right place?

You want to head down to Lower Undead Burg and begin your journey to The Depths/Blight Town.

I'm just curious where to get the "Gravelord Stone" and or ability for the Gravelord Covenant that was shown in previous gameplay trailers as I have joined the covenant and can't find it at all. turned in roughly 30 Eyes of Death from the Frog men in the sewers as well. Here is the video that shows it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J97jJhW6d3M .

So, I used the Drake Sword for most of the game, it's starting to be less than eficient now... Haven't upgraded much stuff yet, which sword should I take and invest my shards and souls on upgrading?

@BottleShip: That is NOT the right way to get to the second bell - you're headed down to see The Four Kings and/or Nito, which are "Lord" encounters and are very, very hard (to be saved til level 50+) - for ringing the 2nd bell, you want to go to the following path:

Undead Burg -> LOWER Undead Burg (just past the Capra Demon boss) -> Depths (Boss: Gaping Dragon) -> Blightown (Boss: Quelagg)

Fair warning though: on PS3 at least, every player I've spoken to says their FPS was cut down 3/4 on Blightown.. meaning NOT ONLY is it one of the most unforgiving zones in the entire game in terms of difficulty (see: poison darts) -- you also have to do the whole thing with 75% less FPS :(

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

@Grivah: I don't think its even IN right now - their covenant system is fairly broken, the vast majority of covenants have Level 1 and Level 2 rewards, but almost all have NO Level 3 reward whatsoever. I'm 99% positive its NOT in the game right now, expect a patch soon that (hopefully) fixes the Covenants (rather: completes them) - as well as maybe one that fixes the broken co-op / invasion system :(

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

@Maajin: Sword? Gross. Halberd and/or Spear all the way. If you want to use a sword, I would get the Black Knight Sword or something similar; as high attack damage as possible; upgrade it to +5 with Titanite Chunks and then upgrade it to some form of elemental weaponry. Remember that Spear you may have used before getting the Drakes Sword? I know most people used spears, anyway. But yeah; I upgraded my spear to +5, then turned it into a lightning spear, then upgraded it to a Lightning Spear +5 - and that took me to the end of the game.

(In terms of combat efficiency; er go high damage, "safe", long reach - Spears and Halberds are the weapon of choice in most PvE - the additional reach alone means just-as-high-damage, but you're much SAFER as you can hit them without needing to necessarily be in an enemies swingbox)

@SuperfluousMoniker: Yeah I forgot that certain items due to their high attack damage and/or "specialness", all you can do is upgrade it to +5. Beyond that +5 you may or may not? (someone else whose beaten it feel free to correct me) be able to use the BOSS SOULS (Soul of Sif, Soul of Quelagg, etc) to upgrade those "special" weapons that can't be made elemental into something different.

The weapons-upgrades side of the game is the ONE area where I didn't do as much exploring as I'd like simply because I went from Spear -> Drakes Sword -> Lightning Spear, and that was my whole game. In my play session tonight I think I'll grab some random crappy weapons and try upgrading them a bunch and see if I can't get a straight answer for you Moniker :)

Is the demon firesage optional or do you need to kill him? 
 
I ask because he is not only a pain in the ass but getting to him sucks. If I could skip him I'd love to (although I'm curious what he drops). 

Thanks for the help!

@Nadril: You HAVE to kill him. He was one of the most annoying bosses in the game for me.

What's worse? IMMEDIATELY AFTER the firesage, another boss, Centipede Demon, ALSO just as hard and annoying.

WHATS WORSE? Immediately after Centipede, which is immediately after Firesage, is the singlemost difficult and annoying zones in the ENTIRE game (in my opinion) - Lost Izalith.

EDIT: Getting to him sucks? Did you skip the Bonfire a tiny bit before him? Took like 20-30 seconds to get to him between attempts for me.

EDIT 2: As for what he drops; since he's not optional I'll let you find out :)

BEST WAY to beat him, though:

Stand 5-10 feet in front of his belly, until he does 1 of the following 3 things:

1 - a sideswipe, followed by another sideswipe - roll left/right to avoid them, then stab him 3-4 times before his next move

2 - raising his spear in a vertical manner to get ready to stab it down - GET BEHIND HIM ASAP and you wont get hit by the explosion, then hit him 3-4 times

3 - Flies up to slam his butt down - easy, back up a bit, when he slams down run up and stab him 3-4 times

^^ as long as you're standing 5-10 feet in front of him, he will ONLY do those 3 moves, none of his other really hard ones. Easily beatable at that point.

@Sackmanjones said:

@latros: So I just tried to kill Havel the Rock by luring him out in the open and..... well he fell off. Does this mean Im pretty much screwed on getting that ring he has

OUCH. Yes, unfortunately you cannot get his ring elsewhere in the game... thankfully he isnt that far into the game, so if it's that important to you you could always restart? (unless you were far in and just went back to him)

To be honest I never really used his ring - the only time his ring is useful is if you want to medium-speed-roll in super heavy armor... when in most boss fights that ask for heavy armor to survive, don't necessarily require fast movement. In other words; I had Havel's Ring the whole game, but never used it once, even on fights when I had to use full Havel's armor and was a slow turkey.

Lesson learned though: 99% of the time, "cheesing" an encounter won't give you the full experience of the game, in one way or another :)

Where's the second pyromancer in blight town?

Also your lack of faith in swords disappoints me...

@Nadril: You HAVE to kill him. He was one of the most annoying bosses in the game for me.

What's worse? IMMEDIATELY AFTER the firesage, another boss, Centipede Demon, ALSO just as hard and annoying.

WHATS WORSE? Immediately after Centipede, which is immediately after Firesage, is the singlemost difficult and annoying zones in the ENTIRE game (in my opinion) - Lost Izalith.

EDIT: Getting to him sucks? Did you skip the Bonfire a tiny bit before him? Took like 20-30 seconds to get to him between attempts for me.

EDIT 2: As for what he drops; since he's not optional I'll let you find out :)

BEST WAY to beat him, though:

Stand 5-10 feet in front of his belly, until he does 1 of the following 3 things:

1 - a sideswipe, followed by another sideswipe - roll left/right to avoid them, then stab him 3-4 times before his next move

2 - raising his spear in a vertical manner to get ready to stab it down - GET BEHIND HIM ASAP and you wont get hit by the explosion, then hit him 3-4 times

3 - Flies up to slam his butt down - easy, back up a bit, when he slams down run up and stab him 3-4 times

^^ as long as you're standing 5-10 feet in front of him, he will ONLY do those 3 moves, none of his other really hard ones. Easily beatable at that point.

@Anwar said:

Is it true that you won't appear in the book of sins when you join another covenant while you are in one(just changing covenants)? Can you rejoin a covenant? Will you retain the rank you had? Where can I upgrade my pyromancy flame +15(or get a better one?), are there any special requirements for that? Do the boars, taurus demons, capra demons, and black knights drop all of their good stuff?

That would be all for the moment, thanks in advance :D

You won't appear in the book of sins for simply switching to another covenant while in one.

Yes you can rejoin a covenant.

Yes you retain the rank you had.

I don't think you can above 15, I played a melee class with no magic so someone else might be better at answering that one :) There are certainly better pyro spells that you get later like off the merchant in Firelink Shrine (after you save him in the Depths).

Boars, Taurus, Capra, Black Knight all have good drops, yes :) I have the blade that the Capras drop, I have most black knight armor and weapons, I have the boar helmet, and I don't know if Taurus Demons drop their hammer or not.

@Doctorchimp said:

Where's the second pyromancer in blight town?

Also your lack of faith in swords disappoints me...

There's a second pyro in Blightown? :O@Sackmanjones said:

@latros: Well thats a relief. Honestly, I just wanted the bastard dead. He killed me about 10 times so I enjoyed watching him fall to his death. But thanks for the help

Lol yes I remember that encounter... I actually ended up killing him AS he killed me. Pretty lulzy. Either way I got the souls and the ring :)

@Nadril: I mean the bonfire up the hill a bit where you killed a worm thing to unlock it. Thats the closest one, but with careful rolling and sprinting (usually naked), you can run directly from that bonfire to the Demon Firesage no problem without taking any damage NOT killing any of the monsters between, and after doing it 20 times from dying so much, you master that 20 second run after awhile :)

@Sackmanjones: Yeah thats the nooby mistake, the tricks are

Shield DOWN

HUG their hitbox

Be behind them

If you aren't doing all 3, it won't work.

Common mistake #1: not having your shield down, or *just* having taken your shield down.. nope... take your shield down, WAIT 2-3 seconds, then try it

Common mistake #2: not hugging their hitbox. You can be behind them, you can have your shield down foe 2-3 seconds, but if you are even an INCH too far from their "backstab hitbox" you won't backstab them.

Step 1: Shield down

Step 2: Get behind

Step 3: hold forward so you're "hugging" their hitbox, swing sword to backstab

Once you've done it a few times you will literally have mastered it: I don't fuck it up anymore and backstab whenever I want.

DO NOTE: Not all enemies can be backstabbed. In fact I daresay most can't (in the grand scheme of things, as the enemies get larger / more wierdly shaped as the game goes on). Early in the game where you fight a lot of "human" sized-and-shaped mobs, you can Backstab all you want. A general rule: If its human sized-and-shaped, you can probably Backstab it.

@latros: Yeah I've heard people mention it...

But have yet to get a clear sense of direction...

Quelaag's Fury Sword or Chaos Blade? yes I already have a lightning uchigatana

Since you couldn't help me with the second pyro.

@Doctorchimp: Chaos Blade!

I'm headed to bed now but will answer ANY questions even if there are douzens when I wake up - so ask away. In the mean time I'm sure the other veterans will answer in my stead until I wake up :) Cheers, and don't give up the fight..... until you get to Lost Izalith. Then quit the game for 2 days, THEN continue the fight!

@latros Trying to defeat the boss to ring the first bell. Using shield/spear combo at level 20. I can't do enough damage (or stay alive). Any advice?

What is the best way to defeat Queen Quelaag? I assume when I defeat her I am able to leave Blight town, right?

@latros:

What is the meaning of life?

Hi, latros

I have couple questions about the game.

1) I accidentally hit and kill the human npc in the forest and break the contract with the white cat and I m currently level 49. Is it worth spend 100k soul to reclaim peace from the priest and will it able to re-contract with the white cat ( I haven't buy the katana yet ><)

2) I m playing JP version now. Can different version's player play with each other ? I noticed that I m not always getting summon as helper but always got summon from the white cat to defend the forest.

Thanks !

@Sethster said:

@latros Trying to defeat the boss to ring the first bell. Using shield/spear combo at level 20. I can't do enough damage (or stay alive). Any advice?

Hey, mind if I know what weapon u are using ? cus if u are using drake sword, u should be doing enough dmg.

The basic strag for that boss is go behind him and kill damaging his tail til it break. Once he reach 50-60% health, one more will spawn. One will stay put and spawn fire in front of him. Hence, the trick is, separate them, then go behind the one which is spawning fire and damage it

What is the best way to defeat Queen Quelaag? I assume when I defeat her I am able to leave Blight town, right?

What the hell am I supposed to do against the 4 legged giant skeletons in the valley of giants?

Can you choose who you invade? If I invade someone from the Book of the Guilty do I incur sin? Also, just scrolled through the book and saw a level 35 Knight with all maxed stats.... is that possible? Is it a multiple playthrough thing?

I just rang the first bell and am now getting fucked in the ass by Skeletor and his retarded children in some Catacombs. Please help me.

DARK SOULS

Y U NO EASY?!?!?!?!

@ImmortalSaiyan: One of the most important things to realize with Quelaag is that her sword attacks will not hit you at all if you are right up against her. If you hug her for the most part you can pump her full of any damage you like (EXCEPT FIRE, it turns out fire works poorly against the fire boss, go figure). The two things you need to be aware of in this fight as you hug Quelaag: Her Lava Spew and her Fire Nova. The Lava Spew comes out of her fire-spider-mouth-crotch and it has a distinct and long animation. When she starts to hack up her lava you want to run to her side or roll out of the way of it. This is really not hard to avoid as long as you are aware of it. The Fire Nova is easy to avoid too, but you need to be keeping an eye on the woman part of the boss. When the lady torso part of Quelaag lays down on the big spider part, you'll want to back the fuck up, and fast. This will damage you for an assload and likely kill you outright. She seems to use this most after her three swing combo with her sword.

tl;dr Stick close to the boss, avoid lava spew and fire nova.

I have heard you can spare Sif's life and you will get the moonlight sword. If this is true, do you have to be a part of the forest covenant and if so do you have to get told by her to kill him in order to get the sword? Or can i just go fight him myself in a different covenant and still get the sword? Also, I'm really confused about how upgrades work. Can I only use the basic shards to get a normal weapon to plus five? And when it is plus five can I then use a boss soul to make it a new weapon? And how do I know which weapon types go with which boss souls? Thanks

@N7: Dont go to the catacombs yet. You actually want to go back to the bridge with the drake and open the door that was locked.

Hopefully that's not TMI but that's the way you should head now =)

@latros: I killed the golden knight in the cell. He laughed like a south korean in Starcraft about to backstab me. So I stabbed the bitch.

Good or bad decision?

@FUMN: You will miss out on a quest later but you can technically do it on your next playthrough (in New Game +) so it's up to you really if that's good or bad I suppose. I killed him knowing this 'cus I wanted that ring. I don't mind having to wait to do that one quest though.

@CornBREDX: THANKS! Will do ASAP! :D

@Doctorchimp said:

Where's the second pyromancer in blight town?

Also your lack of faith in swords disappoints me...

The second pyromancer is sitting on one of the islands closest to Quelaag's lair. If you're looking at the crazy looking island, she'd be on the island all the way to the right, next to a pillar. She's easy to miss because she is sitting and wearing gold hemmed robes. She has some pretty cool spells so she's worth the hassle.

So I've just defeated the Bell Gargoyles and the undead church and now I don't really know where to go. I've tried the catacombs but the skeletons just destroy me (I've died 18 times so far...)even with the Drake sword. Is this really the way I'm supposed to go? I get the thing with killing the necromancer so that they don't come back to life, but at one point there are 5 skeletons at once that just gang up on me... So far the game has been manageable but this is just impossible, atleast with my current character.

I just got to Anor Londo(?), How do I get back to the first area?

the way u came to anor londo =) with the flying thingys =)

with them u get back to sens castle

@Gumby: go to the forest, it's behind the titanite demon and he is next to the blacksmith.

@Dots: just walk back where u came from and the ''gargoyles'' will take you back. You could also try to finish anor london, because you would gain the item that would make you capable of warping between specific bonfires.

We need a thread like this for life.

@zack1: Is that the way to the second bell or is it just to level up some more?

I have heard you can spare Sif's life and you will get the moonlight sword. If this is true, do you have to be a part of the forest covenant and if so do you have to get told by her to kill him in order to get the sword? Or can i just go fight him myself in a different covenant and still get the sword? Also, I'm really confused about how upgrades work. Can I only use the basic shards to get a normal weapon to plus five? And when it is plus five can I then use a boss soul to make it a new weapon? And how do I know which weapon types go with which boss souls? Thanks

@zack1: Is that the way to the second bell or is it just to level up some more?

@Tennmuerti: Thanks! Thought i had to struggle through the catacombs. What a relief.

@Sethster said:

@latros Trying to defeat the boss to ring the first bell. Using shield/spear combo at level 20. I can't do enough damage (or stay alive). Any advice?

Hug him as much as possible, roll to the side as he swings, then stab him 2-3 times while he's finishing his animation. Kill him as fast as possible, and when the second gargoyle comes he's cake: use the "curve" of the roof to make him shoot his fire against it. That fire animation takes forever: avoid it once and you can run around and stab him like 5 times, repeat.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

What is the best way to defeat Queen Quelaag? I assume when I defeat her I am able to leave Blight town, right?

Just stick to her side, and if the lava is starting to overwhelm you, run away. Hit her a few times on the side while the spider does the lava animation. After you beat Quelagg you unlock the 2 most difficult zones in the game that you come back to *later*, so yes, you finally get to LEAVE blightown.

@DarthOrange said:

@latros:

What is the meaning of life?

Dark Souls is the meaning of life.@johe0 said:

What the hell am I supposed to do against the 4 legged giant skeletons in the valley of giants?

Roll TOWARDS their hitboxes as they swing to go "under" their attacks, stabby stabby while they finish their animation, ROLL BACK to where you were, repeat above steps.@Resident4t said:

@latros: Sure a quick one. There is a poison lake in the bottom of Blight Town. Am I supposed to run through that thing? lol I go in it and the poison bar fills up like crazy so I immediately get out.

Going through that to the RIGHT takes you to Queen Quelagg, a boss you need to kill.

Going through that to the LEFT takes you to the very, very secret "The Hollow", which eventually leads to "Ash Lake" - two of my favorite zones in the game, but they're not easy :)

@jtman54179 said:

Can you choose who you invade? If I invade someone from the Book of the Guilty do I incur sin? Also, just scrolled through the book and saw a level 35 Knight with all maxed stats.... is that possible? Is it a multiple playthrough thing?

For book of the guilty invades you pick and if they're online / available you'll invade them. All other invasion types you don't get to choose; its random and wont even work some other times. You do not incur sin from guilty book invasions. As for a level 35 with max stats: he probably used an infinite soul glitch and will be banned promptly :)@Robot_Sneakers said:

@latros: What shield did you use with spears or longer reach weapons? I've been switching it up but tend to favor the giant stone shield i got from a golem thing in the forest, as it blocks almost everything (Though its pretty heavy).

"Crest Shield" - 100% physical damage block, 80% magical damage block, SECOND ONLY to Havel's Shield, which requires insane strength to even use.. so in terms of first-playthrough, Crest Shield is the #1 shield in the game. You get it from going back to the tutorial area, Undead Asylum.

@N7 said:

I just rang the first bell and am now getting fucked in the ass by Skeletor and his retarded children in some Catacombs. Please help me.

DARK SOULS

Y U NO EASY?!?!?!?!

Leave the Catacombs. You want to go to Blightown to ring the second bell - go from Undead Burg -> Lower Undead Burg -> The Depths -> Blightown -> Kill Queen Quelagg -> Ring 2nd bell, THEN go to the Catacombs later.

@CJduke said:

I have heard you can spare Sif's life and you will get the moonlight sword. If this is true, do you have to be a part of the forest covenant and if so do you have to get told by her to kill him in order to get the sword? Or can i just go fight him myself in a different covenant and still get the sword? Also, I'm really confused about how upgrades work. Can I only use the basic shards to get a normal weapon to plus five? And when it is plus five can I then use a boss soul to make it a new weapon? And how do I know which weapon types go with which boss souls? Thanks

You DO have to be part of the covenant, you DONT have to be told by the cat to go kill Sif. It is an event that simply registers IF PLAYER == Part of forest covenant, MAKE WOLF drop down on the ground and act hurt when almost dead. Simple as that. If you let Sif go, you get the sword, but lose the souls. Sword is replacable, I recommend taking the souls. Only shards work to upgrade NORMAL weapons to +5, then once you get a weapon to +5 you can use an elemental upgrade ember to make it an elemental weapon, er go fire. Boss Souls are used to upgrade "special" weapons that can't be upgraded with regular shards at all: Example would be Black Knights weapons. As for which boss souls work for which weapons / weapon types: not sure, going to mess with that during my second playthrough.

@FUMN said:

@latros: I killed the golden knight in the cell. He laughed like a south korean in Starcraft about to backstab me. So I stabbed the bitch.

Good or bad decision?

VERY good decision: he drops the best ring in the game, and you'd end up killing him later on anyway. This way you get the ring earlier in the game, so you're all good :)

@Gumby said:

So I've just defeated the Bell Gargoyles and the undead church and now I don't really know where to go. I've tried the catacombs but the skeletons just destroy me (I've died 18 times so far...)even with the Drake sword. Is this really the way I'm supposed to go? I get the thing with killing the necromancer so that they don't come back to life, but at one point there are 5 skeletons at once that just gang up on me... So far the game has been manageable but this is just impossible, atleast with my current character.

NO, you're supposed to go to Blightown to get the second bell! Do the catacombs much later!

Undead Burg -> Lower Undead Burg (Capra Demon Boss) -> Depths (Gaping Dragon Boss) -> Blightown (Queen Quelagg Boss) -> 2nd bell rung

@Dots said:

I just got to Anor Londo(?), How do I get back to the first area?

You can go back to where the gargoyle thingies dropped you off and they'll fly you back down to Sen's Fortress, but youll have to walk through ALL of sens fortress to get back down.. you're better off just FINISHING Anor Londo - once you do, you get the ability to teleport between Bonfires and then Travel gets MUCH easier :)