Well, I no longer have ER; I returned it early on. I decided to give DS1 another shot as I already had the remastered version for the Switch.
I might give ER a shot again when there’s a sale. Broken builds sound good if they can avoid the level grind…
Bleed is the week one meta for sure, loads of invaders using it and anyone struggling with a boss should give it a try. Procs effectively and the bleed weapon arts Ive seen are very strong. Bloody slash has carried me a lot.
I used the spirit summons quite a bit early game but then forgot about them as they start to get shredded. Picked one up mid game, though, and its very OP indeed. When upgraded (by woman who sounds like Philomena Cunk) it makes a dramatic difference to boss fights.
Perhaps a few of them will be strong, not tried any others.
Game is just immense, amazing quality. So happy they delivered on it as I was actually a bit worried about the concept - a lot of things potentially in opposition between DS and open world but they have slayed it.
Took out the Taurus Demon. Not that hard, really, though it took a few tries. It helped a bunch when I realized I could two-hand my weapon. And I would have taken him out earlier if I’d known about kindling the fire for extra flasks. Probably the zwei would have helped due to the range, but I didn’t have the str at the time. And I know the pine resin would have helped, though I wanted to practice before wasting it and ended up beating him before needing it.
I cheesed the dragon for the Drake Sword. Nicer than the zwei for now but I guess it doesn’t scale well later. I’ll hold onto it.
Another thing you should know is that two-handing a weapon increases your effective strength by 50%. So you only need 16 strength to properly use the zwei.
Does that apply to ER as well?
The Drake sword can be upgraded but the dragon scales or whatever are rare and you won’t want to spend them on that sword. It doesn’t matter too much though because the sword is very OP for a large chunk of the game, by the time it’s not you’ll have already found your long term weapon. Claymore in my case. You’re going to want to figure out which weapon has your favorite move set and focus on spending upgrade material on that and don’t spread it around. The highest level materials are limited to just a handful per play through. Also, don’t apply an effect to your main weapon (IMHO), you’re better off with raw power on your main weapon vs elemental or status effects in the late game. Oh, be careful with Drake by the way. The charged attack depletes durability of the sword and it cannot be repaired.
Excited to hear you report back from the Gargoyles. That’s what separates the men from the boys. Get through them and your “teeth are officially cut”!
Yes it does.
Do keep in mind that this only applies to strength; you need to meet all other stat requirements to two-hand weapons this way effectively.
If you like the shield turtling playstyle, keep an eye out for any greatshields you may find along the way. A lot of weaker enemy attacks will bounce off a greatshield, leaving them open for immediate counterattack!
Good to know thanks. I was going to level up my strength to 30 for a great axe I found but it sounds like that’s not necessary. It won’t help me weld that Tree Sentinel’s drop though.
For those who haven’t played it yet and aren’t sure if they will want to or not. The open area around Limgrave is cool and everything with lots to do, but Stormveil Castle is an amazing piece of level design with an incredible use of vertical space. However, and this is a big “however”, it is very much like the other Souls games in this area. There’s essentially just one way to go (with a few branching areas to explore) and if you struggle against an enemy you may find you get into the fight-die-repeat loop that can become tiresome. The barrel dropping eagles piss me off because I can normally deal with them quickly but if I make a mistake and let one start pecking at me, I can be dead very quickly.
My advice for Stormveil Castle is to say “fuck it” and look up a walk through. I think my least favorite moments in the game have been environmental: scooting across narrow ledges, platforming, that stupid chariot in that one tomb dungeon, etc. When a named big guy kills you, you can always return later. When it’s just you failing jump timing or distances, no amount of grinding skeleton dudes is going to help you.
I appreciate your other advice, but I could do without this bullshit. This is just the kind of toxic gatekeeping that the community could do without.
The game is a little different from what I was expecting. Some positives, some negatives. The combat does still feel very mechanical, though I can see why some people like it. It’s not really my style, though I’ve more or less gotten used to it. In terms of mechanics it’s actually much easier than games like Spiderman, which have zillions of combos. It’s less forgiving but there’s less to think about (I don’t think I used more than 3 buttons in the Taurus fight, and no combos). Spiderman was more fun due to the wealth of possibilities, but only required slightly more skill than pure button mashing.
It feels like the game was made by someone who thought: well, I like RPGs, but I don’t like quests. Or sidequests. Or crafting. Or lockpicking minigames. Or talkative NPCs, and definitely not NPC companions. Or friendly cities, or any place that isn’t filled with bad guys. Or any way of gaining XP aside from combat. Hey, I’ve got an idea: make combat the only thing.
And while there’s something to be said that open world RPGs have gotten a little too kitchen-sinky, with too many half-assed things thrown in like base-building and such, they nevertheless give enough variety to keep things interesting. I need something else to do when the combat gets dull.
I’ve only played like an hour at a stretch before getting bored. It’s drawing me back in so far, but most games I can easily play for 8 hours without a break (I try not to, but…). The open world in ER probably helps a bit but it’s still missing too much other stuff to capture my interest for long periods.
That is a very interesting article. These games make a lot of sense given that background and it is clear that the core gameplay will probably never change for as long as Miyazaki is the driving force. It is interesting that the collaboration with George R. R. Martin was conceived well before a Game of Thrones made him a household name.
Back to this one. I used an NPC summon and my Jellyfish ashes to help against Margit and they helped, but there was no way they would take the boss on by themselves.
I suspect Johnny_Bravo is confused because people talk about both summoning other PC players into a limited multiplayer to help fight and you can also summon AI assistance (rarely an NPC for major story fights, usually a weak ghostly “pet”). I agree with him that having a PC summoned ally kill a dude for you doesn’t feel like playing the same game and agree that using AI companions is fully kosher.
I’m also pretty sure that Storyteller was referring to the “call a PC to do it for you” type of summoning and Johnny_Bravo was responding to that idea.
No. I was responding to this:
Ok. My experience with NPCs so far is that they won’t carry the fight themselves and are only available in limited circumstances. The ghost pets are basically scratch damage or a distraction. But maybe that’s different in other fights (or I haven’t been giving them enough credit and could have just gone for a smoke while they fought). Apologies for the error though; I remember people talking about summoning PCs earlier to get through tough fights
There’s only a few bosses where this is the case (summoning Black Iron Tarkus versus Iron Golem in DS1, Jester Thomas versus Mytha in DS2). It’s pretty funny in those instances when they absolutely curb stomp the bosses without your intervention, but in most other cases NPCs will die if you just stand there and watch them do their thing.
And that’s all fine. Using summons and stuff is absolutely a part of gameplay. I’m only taking issue with the notion that tools which let you bypass content completely are equivalent to accessibility options.
I have not played the game but I watched a video where the guy summoned skeletons and each time they were killed they resurrected themselves and went back to fight. I think he said they did most of the damage while he kited around. That said, I am not sure what level he was at and how powerful the monster he fought was to him in comparison.