@frostyryan: The first part is probably because this is the 5th game in the series. But it gets harder for sure. The second part is true though.

Bonfire placement is really haphazard in some places but I don't mind, makes getting around more convenient.

I don't feel like I can speculate on the difficulty anymore. I've played all these games.. it just feels like another one of those.

The main thing that feels more difficult about it is the amount of souls you get per kill on enemies is way lower than previous games.

The hardest game in the entire series for me has been and probably will forever be Demon's Souls simply because it was my first and had almost no idea what was going on. Dark Souls was easier. Bloodborne was harder in the beginning because of the change of pace, but it eventually got easy once I acclimated. Dark Souls II was even easier.

Haven't really had a hard time with Dark Souls III 12 hours in, but I don't find that a problem. I still have to be careful, but the challenge isn't the biggest draw for me anymore.

Still really early but I just wanted to pop in and say that I really love the war cry on the axe.

Just beat the Abyss Watchers. It took me a few tries, which is nice since the game has been a little easy so far. That fight was freaking amazing.

@viciousbearmauling: Yep cool fight.

Dark Souls: Prepare to Die

Dark Souls 3: Does Not Open from This Side.

Just finished the game, was a whole lot of fun and it really ramps up in the back end of the game. Took me 17h 40m (binged it on Tuesday). I was worried about the bosses being too easy but the latter half has some of the best bosses in the entire franchise including Bloodborne. Now its time for PvP and minmaxing, the best part of all!

Also the super secret area is really cool, big tonal and atmospheric shift which was nice.

The 2nd/3rd area, Undead Settlement, is really, really good. There's a confidence on display in how they designed it - initially too easy. To the point where you will probably feel bad about killing so many defenseless enemies. The early part of the village defenses are really meant for the mindless hollows outside the gate, not for a badass like you. Then the traps, the guerilla warfare tactics, the archers, the red eye jerks, and the cages all come into play. When the inhabitants start pushing back, it's a lot of fun.

Mind you, I'm playing mainly with sword and board / bombs, as I usually do for the first run through. It's possible this level wouldn't have clicked so well for me on its difficulty curve if I had more ranged attack options.

They have done this in previous games - Latria 3-1 and the end of Valley of Defilement really did their best to make you feel like a monster for progressing. But man, has it been a while since they were serious about it! Bloodborne and DS2 did try putting you thematically in the role of callous invader in a few areas as well, but without ratcheting down the difficulty enough to sucker you in.

I was stoked to see people putting down messages like "Overconfidence..." and know that they got it, too.

Well, I seem to be doing an awful job with my friends in Firelink Shrine. Maybe spoilers up to the end of the 5th area: Yoel is suddenly a corpse, Sirris now hates me for daring to join a Covenant to see what it did, Greirat spent a day curled up in a ball over Loretta's death, and that grumpy guy who was telling me all about the Lords of Cinder has disappeared since I killed the Abyss Watchers he may or may not have been a part of.

:(

I'm cleaning up optional stuff right now with my main character. I just beat Champion Gundyr, I can't believe they hid him! Coolest fight thus far next to Dancer.

Keeping spoilers to a minimum can anyone tell me a few things?

• Should I give the Fire Keeper the Fire Keeper Soul I found?
• Should I let Greirat start thieving?
• Should I take the level up from Yoel?

@jjbsterling: for the third point as you seem to have guessed there is some consequence for doing that, the first point is related to that and as far as i know there is no negative to giving it to her. Don't know if there are any negatives to point 2, thats as spoilerless as I can be

Here's a tip, for anyone wanting to progress certain storylines, don't kill the final boss of the catacombs, which is High Lord Wolnir until you've finished any story things that come up in that area that you wanted to finish. I wish I had known this :(

@hark: It's free levels, but also opens up a side quest to get rid of the mark.

It also opens up the possibility of additional endings, depending on whether you keep the mark or not.

@hark: Whoops, I just did just that. :S I can't think of anything you might be referring to, though. I think I've somehow screwed myself out of a bunch of stuff given the fact that so many people have gone mission from Firelink Shrine in my game :/

Tangentially related to that boss: Irithyll is pretty.

@gunslingerpanda: did you run in to Anri in the catacombs anywhere? Basically:

To be as vague as possible all of these things can open up interesting developments that are worth seeing so yes absolutely.

So is there any reason to reverse hollowing? It doesn't seem to have any downside that I can see. Or am I just not noticing the downside to it?

I don't know why they insist on putting in areas full of poison/curse/slow-moving-water/sludge. Hate them in every game. Also not a fan of the enemies that seem to have unlimited Stamina & Poise. Otherwise really liking it, maybe my favorite Souls game aside from Demon's (just because it was my first).

@sterling: Downside is you can be invaded. Some people really don't like that.

@hunkulese: Hmm. I have 40 hollow or something there abouts. Its above 40. I died a bunch to get it semi high to see if anything happened. And I have yet to be invaded in 17 hours. I've had it above 40 for 12 of that. So I'm not sure if that is the case.

Can't you only be invaded if you burn that thing that gives you more health? And lets you summon others?

True to Souls tradition where I take a week off from work, I did the same with this one and played obsessively for the last couple of days. Finished it last night. Took me about 26 hours and had a level 99 Strength build character. Only used three weapons in the game and they all served me well:

• Long Sword
• Butcher's Knife (big slab of metal, but fast and great str scaling)
• Yhorm's Great Machete (even bigger slab of metal, ends with A scaling, great moveset)

I think it was Brad who said Austin was sort of promoting hybrid builds. I can safely attest a strength build does just fine, especially wielding the huge weapons with hyper armor. Can't speak for pvp or coop, because I don't have Playstation Plus. All in all, this was a fantastic game, I might just put it above Dark Souls I (below Demon's Souls though that might have a lot to do with the fact it was the first one I played) because this game managed to remain interesting throughout, which Dark Souls I with it's rather lame later bosses could not maintain. In fact it just gets better and better as the game progresses. Same can be said for the atmospheric settings, there's some fascinating stuff later on. My only gripe is that maybe it's a bit too easy? Then again, maybe it's because I've been playing these games for so long now and know how to build a character so I probably can't really fault the game for that. Not trying to brag because make no mistake, I died a whole bunch (Nameless King holy crap!!).

That's actually one of my main "complaints" about the game. There is a spot in the game where you literally light a bonfire, walk for <10 seconds and then light another bonfire. You can actually see the other bonfire while sitting at either of them.

What are some good dex weapons? Preferably something with reach and/or fast. Right now I'm swapping between the rapier and halberd

Question.

What's the hollowing system about in this game? Obviously I'm getting ugly but what else? Also what's up with the pilgrim that sometimes lets you level up for free?

@frostyryan: I haven't found any downside to it myself yet. And no one seems to be able to give me a straight answer if there is any downside to it. Being hollowed.

If you aren't aware, you only become hollow when dying with a dark sigil in your inventory. You only get a dark sigil if you get a free upgrade level from the pilgrim guy. You can only get 5 free level ups from him. They are bases on your hollowing level, which you can see on your character sheet. 0,2,6,12, and 16 are the levels for getting them. Each time you do you get a dark sigil. When you die with a dark sigil in your inventory you get a hollowing level x the sigils. So if you have 5, you get 5 hollowing when you die. This ends up being quest related for end game with another npc for end game stuff from what I've gathered and had spoiled.

As for being hollowed, I am hollow level 40, and have yet to see any downside to having it. Other than I can only summon one person at a time, no longer two. But I only summon NPC's anyways, and I've only done so once, so that isn't a big deal for me. Some seem to think you can get invaded more, but I've yet to be invaded almost 20 hours in, and I've had 40 hollowing for 12 hours. I've also found a weapon upgrade item that says it pairs with hollowing. It makes weapon hollow. And the higher my hollow level the more damage it does. And it boosts my luck with my hollow number. So that seems pretty cool.

I'm wondering if there are events with NPC's that require you to have no hollow or a very high hollow to get done. Like in Demon's Souls with PT/WT. It seems more like that than anything else.

@sterling: .......christ

I'll just, uh....ignore it I guess.

@frostyryan: Apologies if that was a bit spoiler-y. I wasn't sure if I should of used any tags or not.

@sterling: Oh no you're good. Much like this series, that was just overwhelming to read and take in. I'm just gonna play the game and see what happens. Doesn't seem like hollowing is that big a deal

Spoilers for a boss in the undead settlement. Just a quick question about it if anyone can answer.

@mezza: I have no idea, that never happened to me. Kinda sounds like a glitch.

@redhotchilimist: That's what I was starting to think. Spent about a half hour trying to figure out what to do hitting him in random spots because I didn't know he was supposed to change at that point. Luckily didn't seem like a hard fight so I don't mind redoing it.

@mems1224: I use Pontiff's Curved Sword and a Fire infused Twin Brigand Daggers. The curved sword is awesomely fast w/ good damage and has a sweet weapon skill (huge frost blade horizontal swipe), and I mainly use the daggers for regain via the Pontiff's Left Eye ring. I really enjoy the risk/reward on saving myself an estus use if I'm feeling confident. Also a big fan of Arstor's Spear from the 3rd boss' soul, but it fell behind due to the rare upgrade material. I have no clue where the scaling ends up on any weapon though, trying not to look stuff up.

I tried starting out as a deprived before realizing that I want to actually have fun playing this game instead of hating myself for the first half-dozen hours (the club's moveset is some real hot garbage), so I re-rolled as an Assassin and that's been working out much better. Spook is a weird little spell, but it's already allowed for some really cheesy backstabs. Haven't run into a DEX weapon much better than the Estoc I started with, but maybe I'll get some use out of the great scythe or the hollowslayer greatsword, both of which I picked up.

Oh, also I fought a giant nightmare tree, so already a point above Dark Souls II in the boss design department.

Man the one thing i really love/hate about this game is that there are just too many awesome weapons. I WANT TO USE EVERYTHING. Or at least a lot of weapons, there are just so many that are useful in their own little ways. Like I've been sticking with a darkwraith sword as my bread and butter because it's fast yet quite beefy enough to stagger a lot, plus has neat unique heavy attacks. But fuck I have had so much good shit just sitting in my bags that I tried, loved but just don't get around to using regularly, like that greatsword+dagger combo weapon that makes you literally break dance and do doughnuts on the ground around enemies. Then I just bought a Lorthric Greatsowrd that has inbuilt lightning damage, yet still scales with str/dex, and it can be buffed to boot, so dmg can shoot through the roof, then there are more boss weapons like fire fists, or a sick spear you get that just drains HP, I could go on and on. And while in DS1 a lot of cooler weapons were just gimmicks that were barely usable this is definitely not the case anymore.

In terms of weapon variety, actual diversity of said weapons and their uses and just how many are super viable and fun this is easily the definitive peak of the series.

PS: Oh and compared to DS2 the hitboxes are just supreme. Not once have I yet felt like an attack i got hit by was total bullshit, none of that shit of some enemy slashing air a good meter away from my player model and getting the hit anyway, just cause. Reason this popped into my head is that greatsword+dagger combo for example quite stunningly allowed me to slide under certain enemy attacks (like thrusts). And say elevation like stairs potentially changes such situations too. That's one aspect of the Bloodborne engine version I am really glad to have in DS. But Bloodborne just didn't quite take full advantage of it, due to a limited number of weapons on both sides of the fight.

Like I just feel one should give credit where it's due and I strongly feel it's due here.

Somehow my dex character started using a greatsword and cosplaying as Lucatiel so I don't even know what the hell.

@tennmuerti: There are a lot of really great weapons in this one. So many that I keep changing what I use every time I play. Every session I go through the inventory and just pick something. And roll with that for a bit. Then if I don't like it after a while I switch to something else. But I also keep a main in my second slot to switch to just in case I find myself in trouble. Also that GS+dagger boss weapon is so amazing. I built up str first, so I am currently building my dex up to use it now. Only two points away!

@sterling said:

Really? What's everyone's build? I've been using the dark axe I got from the mimic chest in the very first area. It is consistently doing a lot more damage than other other weapon I've got, even without the scaling factor. I haven't found a compelling reason to move away from it. Are these late-game weapons or what?

(I'm currently running through what I think is Cathedral of the Deep. Just killed the first giant dude who tries to crush you.)

Sad to say I've been very boring this time. I've been a club and Large Club/Pyromancy user in earlier games. I just upgraded my starting longsword regularly in this game, with something like one pyromancy because of how the requirements have changed so you need to actually level the magic stats. Made it Refined, too, which seemed to improve the scaling from Ds in both dexterity and strength to Cs. Using that and a shield(first the starting shield, then Shield of Want) has been my go-to strategy. It's super dull compared to the amazing weapons you can get, but it's reliable. I've used other weapons occasionally! The Brigand Twindaggers have that really cool dash, and I fought a huge fire boss at one point that Vordt's Ice hammer seemed to do very well against. But I find myself largely changing my clothes more than my weapons, changing them in every area to have the best defense against whatever is there. It's less Fashion Souls and more Fashion Disaster Souls at this point.

Farros greatsword is AMAZING, definitely the coolest weapon I've found so far.

@lawgamer: It's not too far away from where you're at(although, not in Cathedral of the Deep). It's a boss weapon. I don't know if the damage is better than the Deep Axe, though. I'm actually surprised the Deep Axe is doing well in Cathedral of the Deep, you'd think those guys had some defense against it.

On another note: I highly recommend not looking shit up. I was checking out another NPC thing and now I know stuff about the ending. At least now I know why you were all calling Anri "her" while I was hearing a man's voice.

On another another note: I feel like I've been chasing Aldrich of the Deep ever since the beginning of the game. He's been in another castle every time.

@lawgamer: I started off with a focus on STR but have since started to invest in DEX as well. Most of the weapons I've mentioned a relatively early/midgame weapons location wise. Some of them are within about one zone of you in fact (back/parallel/forward).

Keep in mind that there are a lot of things to consider when comparing weapons. Firstly elemental unscaling weapons will generally outperform regular scaling weapons in the early game. To bring scaling weapons on par you would need to not only invest the stats closer to 30+ but also keep upgrading them to increase scaling. Secondly are you comparing the damage of the upgraded axe vs. upgraded weapons? Then you also now have heavy/sharp/refined stones, that are meant to be used on your scaling weapons too. Finally and this is imo more important is comparing stuff like: the weapon move sets, animations, speed, reach, stamina use and of curse special abilities, etc. Which is where all the meat of the variation comes in. For example: the butchers cleaver (before cathedral) is basically an axe right, but it's attack animation seems just slightly faster and it also has a way bigger reach, A-str scaling at the very start, and it's special is lifesteal with every swing when buffed, plus it's got very unique set of heavy attacks. But when you get it, it's likely not going to put out as much dmg as a deep axe for example, it'll take a few upgrades and good stats in order to compare.

Plus it's not like it's unviable to just stick with the deep axe, if you like it just roll with it. No real harm, most weapons in DS can easily take you all the way to the end right. I think it really comes down a lot to how much you will want to experiment personally. I can totally understand finding a sweet spot and not being bothered to spend time trying every dinky little thing you come across, heck I don't either, it's just too much work (i think i have about 2-3 full pages of weapons by now in storage and on hand), but now and again I like to switch it up and sometimes hit paydirt. The only real reason preventing me from constantly carrying more then 1 weapon and switching it up more is really just trying to keep encumbrance below 70% while still adhering to fashion souls.

Ha, I was thinking the same thing this morning.

Trashing my first character. I have nothing left to and the Abyss Watchers are destroying me. I hate what they've done to shields in this game.

I've got a potentially spoilery question about the Firelink lady who you give ash to (and one of the covenants) which I haven't been able to find any info about when searching about it (all the wiki's are still missing information, so I'm sure it will appear eventually, but I thought I'd ask about it anyway):

@shindig: What shield are you using? I haven't really had any problems with the shields I've been using (Knight Shield and some others I've found)

I'm not too fond of deviation from the "main path" being punished and it's not something I remember being an issue in previous games. I've had a few NPCs just disappear on me after stumbling into the "wrong" place at the wrong time. Most notably, as already mentioned, Anri. I also have no idea where Hawkwood's disappeared to and I was enjoying his history lessons. Also some guy in a tricorne hat showed up once and never again. I wonder what I'm going to miss out on in Irithyll Dungeon since I thought that was a side area and bumbled ahead to Pontiff Sulyvahn and the next area's entrance. If there's an intended narrative path, I wish they would have just enforced it rather than applying the previous games' design philosophy when it doesn't quite fit this time. tl;dr I'm salty.

Hopefully New Game + doesn't carry this stuff over and I can look stuff up to make sure I don't screw myself over again.

I just bought the game and played for about an hour this morning. Still haven't gotten to Firelink. Couldn't beat the crystal lizard or the first boss.

I think Jeff said something on UPF this week along the lines of this game being much easier for the reviewers out there. Unlike the GB staff and most reviewers, I haven't played all five Souls games. I'm still terrible even though I played about 70 hours of Dark Souls 1 on Xbox (but didn't finish). As far as my first impressions go, this game feels just like it did when I started Dark Souls a few years ago. I hope it's like this for the whole experience.

Oh we aren't talking about damage output, but rather move sets. You'd need to upgrade the weapons for them to have high damage. Super early I made a fire long sword and upgraded it to +4. Nothing I have in my inventory outputs as much damage as that sword except one, which I can't use properly let as I need one more point of dex. Which is why its my main in my second slot to always have on me. Just in case I need to do good damage. But there are a ton of other great early weapons that would be good if upgraded. When I find a weapon I like the move sets for I tend to upgrade it to at least +3. So far I've found 9 weapons that I love the move sets for. But I can't upgrade all of those to +3. I'd be farming for souls forever. As for build I started as str but have brought my dex up to match. Everything else is 20 but magic/faith/luck. Str is 25, dex is 19. I'm at the same point in the game you are also.