Seriously, turn on your console and get the the update!

Confirmed by the Namco Community Manager.

https://twitter.com/#!/filthierich/status/138920545520586752

@FilthierichRich Bantegui
Dark Souls - join me to check out the new- dragon head glitch is gone for good woot!

Here are the changes.

Patch 1.04/1.05 Changes

Magic Changes:
Pyro Glove nerfed from 270 to 230.
You can see resonance signs now.
Vow of Silence range increased.
Sorcery spell damage as a whole was slightly buffed, but Homing Soul Mass and other pursuit style spells were nerfed.
Magic Shield duration lowered to ~11 seconds.
Strong Magic Shield duration lowered to ~11 seconds. Invincibility removed. Effect on Stamina drastically reduced.
Tranquil Walk of Peace and other Slow duration reduced to ~10 secs. Effect supposedly changed from 100% encumberance to 50%. Rolling possible if your equip burden is lowered. Slowness is similar to swamp effect.
Iron Flesh effectiveness nerfed.
Invisible Body duration remains unchanged.

Status Changes:
Base Equipment Burden increased (~6-10 points)
Humanity Item drop rate increased from 10 to 210
Medium roll recovery faster? (unclear and unconfirmed)
Defensive bonuses gained via Humanity reduced. Other defensive bonuses remain unchanged.
Item discovery gained via Humanity improved. Capped at 20.
Equipment General Changes:
Reported some weapon scaling gets improved at higher normal upgrades (+15 uchi dex scaling goes to A)
Some scaling reported as changing from A to S with higher upgrades

Upgrade Changes:

Normal scaling buffed by 5-20% (20% at +14).
Crystal scaling buffed by 5-20% (20% at +4).
Lightning +4 nerfed by 2% (+5 remains unchanged).
Raw scaling buffed by 10% (all levels).
Magic stat scaling buffed by 10-20% (20% at +9).
Enchanted stat scaling buffed by 15-20% (20% at +4).
Divine stat scaling buffed by 10-20% (20% at +9).
Occult stat scaling buffed by 15-20% (20% at +4).
Fire +9 nerfed by 2%. (+5 remains unchanged)
Dragon stat scaling buffed by 5-20% (20% at +5).

Specific Gear Changes:
Grant scaling changed to Strength:B and Faith:A
Gold-hemmed nerfed, still can't be upgraded.
Dust skirt nerfed hard (streamlined to match the other pieces).
Silver Knights, Sun, Hollow Soldier's Shield and other medium shield stability nerfed to ~70 at max upgrades to improve Great Shield viability.
Crystal Ring Shield scaling drastically nerfed. Does around ~200 +-50
Dragon Greatsword buffed from 360 to 390.
Silver Knight's Sword lightning effect removed. Now enchantable.
Elite Knight gear nerfed, then buffed slightly in 1.05

Combat Changes:
Lock-on acquisition range increased.
Lock-on changing/switching got easier (more responsive).
Ring of Fog users can now be locked on.

PVE Changes:
Overall increase in souls gained (~2-2.5 times more)
Damage reduced on some mobs?
HP lowered on some mobs?
Reduced acquisition range on normal enemies.
Supposedly reduced poise on some enemies.
Bosses drop Humanity and Homeward Bones
Ghosts and Skeletons give souls now.
Twinkling Titanite drop rate improved.
Pyromancers in Catacombs drop Skull Lanterns.
Darkwraiths in New Londo drop Dark Hand.

Online Changes:
You can see resonance signs.
Some invasion restrictions possibly changed? Darkwraith upperlimit confirmed as unchanged.
1.05: Summon restrictions improved slightly again.
Amount of souls the Master of the game gains changed.
Cracked Eye Orbs no longer get consumed on failure. Confirmed
You can hit Select to rate messages.
1.05: Fixed 1.04 bug where summon signs were invisible.

Covenant Changes:
Covenant Material drop rate improved.
Lowered requirements for Sunbro covenenant (requirements moved from 50 to 25. 3/4 assists should do the trick)

Other Changes:
Official Guide nerfed.
Forest Hunter NPC farming remains unchanged.
Dark Anor Londo NPC farming remains unchanged.
Kiln Skip Glitch still works in 1.05

Merchant stock updates:
Male Undead Merchant: Also sells bottomless box
Female Undead Merchant: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts
Andrei: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts
Domnhal of Xena: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts, Master Key (5000)
Giant Blacksmith (Fapsmith): Sells Arrows / Crossbolts, Small Titanite Shards, Large Tit Shards, Twinkling (8000 per, inf amount), Green Shards, Repair box, upgrade boxes
Vamos: Arrows / Crossbolts, Small Tit, Large tit, Repair box / upgrade boxes
Inglwood: Sells Transient Curses

Fixes:
Fixed some freeze issues
Lvl up screen displays souls needed properly now
Dragon-head glitch, snuggly, and magic shield glitches fixed.
Fixed a bug where your inputs come out 1 second later.
Fixed a bug where the second solaire event wont progress.
Fixed a bug where feeding frampt a titanite stone then going over 99 resulted in having zero.
Fixed some specific map areas where you'd get stuck or be unable to progress.
Changed some english subtitles on the overseas port.

Is it US only? I'm not getting an update message and I live in the UAE. We always get updates around the same time our European buddies do.

" official guide nerfed "  what?  lol

It's being rolled out right now, so European players are expected to get it tonight. It seems like it's already out in the US.

Oh shit! Today is the day I start playing Dark Souls again. I'm 68 hours in and have been waiting for the patch before bothering to play anymore and started playing Skyrim in the meantime. Now I'm waiting for the Skyrim patch to fix the troubles on the PS3 and can play Dark Souls in the meantime.

Hurray for patch! I´m tempted to go back, but I don´t think I will. I´m perfectly content with what the game gave me on my NG and NG+. Skyrim and Saints Row will have me by the balls, untill Batman (PC) and AssRev (PC) are out.

Maybe I'll give it another go in 2012.

I'm kind of sad that Strong Magic Shield isn't invincible anymore... would've rather it was put as a spell with an insanely high INT req or just a 10 second duration. Maybe it's for the best, it kind of ruined the fear factor for my NG+.

I'mma rock SO hard with my Uchigatana.

Whoa, this sounds like a whole new game. A way easier game haha

I like how they nerfed a goddamn guide

how is the guide nerfed?

Lol, I guess the poster just put that in there for fun. Due to the changes, the official guide is less accurate...and nerfed.

Finally I won't have to keep grinding to get into that stupid Sunlight covenant. Hopefully I can get some Souvenirs of Reprisal too. Four Kings with nerfed Iron Flesh on NG+ might be a bit rough though.

Good stuff. I thankfully managed to complete Dark Souls the night before Skyrim launched, so I am not in too much of a hurry to return. But once I tire of the 'rim I will definitely start up a NG+ and get more involved in some PVP activities.

I just finished the game last Thursday, kinda tempted to go back and see the changes now though. Might as well go for the bad (good?) ending while I'm at it.

I like these changes. Most of the players who wanted the high difficulty of the game have already beaten it by now, good to know that now it's easier to farm some stuff to experiment and build your character for PVP. And most of the nerfs are really welcome too.

It's out in Germany for 360 ... I downloaded it earler. But it seems Sony takes a little longer to put it up.

@RockmanBionics said:

I just finished the game last Thursday, kinda tempted to go back and see the changes now though. Might as well go for the bad (good?) ending while I'm at it.

I think the Dark Lord ending is the good one, but that's not for me to decide. Internet-philosophers will be pondering over that one for the coming 50 years.

@gosukiller: I agree. The only thing I really find speaking against that is that the guy who tells you about it is in charge of a bunch of really bad dudes and thus might be untrustworthy, as well as none of the "good guys" ever seem to have any malicious intent.

The way I see it, it has the following going for it merely from a game/story design perspective:

1. It's the hidden ending, one you won't normally come across, with some information and extra backstory that gives the story greater context.
2. It's the only path that mentions the titular Dark Soul, I think this is a good indication to it being the "true path" .

I'm kinda bummed because I learned all this stuff after finishing the game. Maybe it's less about a "good" and "bad" ending and more about a "kinda good" and a "better" ending. The latter being better for humans in the long run. Or something.

Sounds like the game got easier? I'm going to have to jump back in to see what it's like but the increased scaling and x2 souls (I mean really????) sounds like major game changers to me.
I am curious to jump in and see if my Enchanted Claymore + 5 finally out damages my lightning halberd + 5 on my INT character.  
 
But who are we kidding, we will all miss the days when you could take on ANY boss with Iron Flesh and the Crystal Ring Shield :P

I'm 20+ hours in right now, seems weird for so many changes to come mid-playthrough. Looks like most of them benefit me, but I like checking some things out on the wiki, and now it seems like a lot of that info will be outdated.

EDIT: That sounds negative but I am excited by this patch. Just a little scared as well. I'm such a wimp.

oh, 8000 per twinkling.

I'm going to be really upset if they take out "YOU DEFEATED" or any other of the wonderfully broken english phrases in the game. Other than that, solid patch.

Some of these changes sound kind of bummer (seems like they made some of it easier) but overall I am happy they fixed most all of this stuff.

This one made me laugh:

Ring of Fog users can now be locked on.

The PvP griefers that are only good at exploiting the systems are gonna be sad about that hahaha

Seriously, though, I'm happy for the patch.

This is a pretty extensive patch! I'm excited they made so many changes. Most of them seem great. The ones that make the game easier are just usability changes, which I have no problem with at all.

Looks like some good shit here. Hopefully this will make the co-op more vibrant even at the higher levels (cause I'm weak and have been relying on sunbros for a lot of boss fights, DON'T JUDGE ME! I LOVE CO-OPERATION IS ALL). Also good to see that drop rate stuff has been changed so there might be a chance to see more gravelord people about.

Great! Now I can buy the game.

Disclaimer: I've already beaten this game at a friends place.

Patch is now up on EU PS3 as well. Finally. I will buy INFINITE TWINKLINGS.

And kudos to Namco/From for just calling it what it is, namely a patch, and not going with the recent trend of masking everything as a 'title update'.

I heard the Four Kings are extremely powerful in NG+ even with Iron Flesh. I'm going to meet them soon (currently at Sen's), but last time it was with a fully powered Iron Flesh. Hopefully the people who farm there are dropping signs at SL 85.

@Tesla: I know they've changed "You Recovered". But don't worry, I think they've changed it to something almost as incomprehensible.

The weirdest change I noticed when playing last night was that they'd moved the archers on the drake sword bridge to the opposite end of the bridge. I guess it's kind of cool that they're making such detailed changes to the game at this point.

Super buff to humanity drop rate should result in a lot more people in human form, good shit.

WOO WOOOO

I've never been so excited to have my everything nerfed before.

@Marz said:

" official guide nerfed " what? lol

Did they fix the part where online is broken?

@Jeffsekai: I was invaded 4 times today, lost all... :( But last night I tried summoning atleast 10 times at 4 kings in NG+ and they all failed. So, it's still up for debate.

Shout outs to Filthierich.

Currently playing through the game. Hopefully this will help me out.

Playing some Dark Souls now and I can see the HP mob difference, the damage mobs deal, and the amount of souls you get now. Seems like they toned down the difficulty some with these changes.

Just got to Blighttown, hate to think what this was like before the patch.

They actually made a bunch of little changes to enemy placement and aggro range, seems much nicer overall. Although I went through the dreaded Anor Londo dragon greatbow knight section and it actually seemed harder. Before the guy swould stop shooting and pull the sword when I get relatively close but I had to be right up on him post patch. It was NG+ though come to think of it, so maybe that's why.

Has this been confirmed as being out for U.S. 360? I haven't seen an update yet.

@SuperfluousMoniker: Everyone tells me that those dragon greatbow archers and that whole part in general is tough, but I never had a problem with it, even my first time playing through. I just waltzed up and murdered them both with little to no issue. Hrmm...

SO now what is the use of Ring of fog? 

@The_Laughing_Man: For the discerning gentleman/lady that wants to look like casper? I guess someone could still sneak up on you with it and slumbering dragoncrest ring combined with that sorcery spell that turns you into a vase. Meh. Just happy that the patch looks to improve the game albeit a little easier.

@The_Laughing_Man: For the discerning gentleman/lady that wants to look like casper? I guess someone could still sneak up on you with it and slumbering dragoncrest ring combined with that sorcery spell that turns you into a vase. Meh. Just happy that the patch looks to improve the game albeit a little easier.

I didn't see any mention of fixes to the framerate drops in certain areas - did that get fix or not? I wouldn't be surprised if it was engine limitations but sure would be nice if the game ran more butter smooth like Demons Souls. I've been putting serious hours into Saints Row so going back into this will be a nightmare.

I didn't see any mention of fixes to the framerate drops in certain areas - did that get fix or not? I wouldn't be surprised if it was engine limitations but sure would be nice if the game ran more butter smooth like Demons Souls. I've been putting serious hours into Saints Row so going back into this will be a nightmare.

umm.maybe im missing it but...

I haven't played in awhile and just started again. The Female Undead Merchant use to sell that item so you could hit ghosts in New Londo (looked it up...Transient Curse). She no longer is selling them in my game and there is no other merchant that I can find that sells them. In other words...it has completely fucked me over. How do I fight the ghosts?

Not sure if this is an update thing or not but I went back to her 3 times just to make sure I haven't gone stupid and...nope...it's no longer there. I'm just assuming it was part of the update but I see nothing update it in the update notes.

edit: nevermind she only sells 4 of them? Well that sux...im boned...i guess i need to go get permanently cursed somewhere.

@Humanity said:

I didn't see any mention of fixes to the framerate drops in certain areas - did that get fix or not? I wouldn't be surprised if it was engine limitations but sure would be nice if the game ran more butter smooth like Demons Souls. I've been putting serious hours into Saints Row so going back into this will be a nightmare.

interested in this as well. I'd like to play on 360 but if the framerate issues still exist i'd pick it up for ps3 instead.

@af7lm said:

@Humanity said:

I didn't see any mention of fixes to the framerate drops in certain areas - did that get fix or not? I wouldn't be surprised if it was engine limitations but sure would be nice if the game ran more butter smooth like Demons Souls. I've been putting serious hours into Saints Row so going back into this will be a nightmare.

interested in this as well. I'd like to play on 360 but if the framerate issues still exist i'd pick it up for ps3 instead.

The ps3 has pretty much identical framerate issues, this isn't a console specific problem. I'm pretty sure the engine just wasn't meant to handle the game in the open ended direction they took it in. I remember seeing a video that showed how for instance rolling through barrels on the 360 induced almost no framerate drop while on the PS3 it did - which didn't make any sense from a hardware spec perspective seeing as the PS3 should handle those sort of collision physics better.

Man the Giant Blacksmith selling twinkling shards is crazy. no more hunting stupid crystal geckos?

@The_Laughing_Man:

I never used it against other players (or wanted to), but I spent a lot of time with Ring of Fog and the Slumbering Dragon ring equipped, and found it quite enjoyable.

Hmm, I'm actually tempted to go back to Dark Souls at this point (mainly to finish up my third, or maybe fourth I don't really remember, NG+). Though I'm probably not going to do that until I've at least S-rank either the 360 or PC version of Skyrim (I already have my S-Rank in Dark Souls so I don't have that hanging over me anymore).

@handlas said:

umm.maybe im missing it but...

I haven't played in awhile and just started again. The Female Undead Merchant use to sell that item so you could hit ghosts in New Londo (looked it up...Transient Curse). She no longer is selling them in my game and there is no other merchant that I can find that sells them. In other words...it has completely fucked me over. How do I fight the ghosts?

Not sure if this is an update thing or not but I went back to her 3 times just to make sure I haven't gone stupid and...nope...it's no longer there. I'm just assuming it was part of the update but I see nothing update it in the update notes.

edit: nevermind she only sells 4 of them? Well that sux...im boned...i guess i need to go get permanently cursed somewhere.

In your time killing ghosts before you ran out of Tran. Curses did you ever pick up a Jagged Ghost Blade or the other one the female ghosts drop? Because those are already cursed so you don't have to be... Also any other weapon that's cursed will work. And then you'll kill a few ghosts and get more Tran. Curses. It's a terribly easy loop. And most of the ghosts can be completely avoided, anyways.