Dock Souls

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 16:13:58

I don't know if we had a Dark Souls thread before but we do now.

As a Pyromancer, what should I be focusing on, stats wise? I just kind of went with my gut feeling for my first level up (which took me to level 4??? The levelling in this game is odd) but I kinda feel like that may have been a bad idea.

Odradek · 2013-09-25 17:09:45

Don't put points into Resistance.

Focus on one combat stat, preferably Dex or Strength, and find a good weapon that uses that skill, like the Falchion for Dex or the Man-Serpent Greatsword for Strength.

More vitality and endurance is always good.

The way you upgrade your power as a Pyromancer is weird. Once you find your first Pyromancy teacher, he'll let you upgrade your Pyromancy Hand to increase your base damage and teach you spells. No stat is tied to Pyromancy damage, which is good because it lets you focus more on VIT, END, and either DEX or STR.

Only take Attunement up to 19 or 22, the spell slots it gives you start becoming harder to get and not worth it then.

First Pyromancy trainer is in the room with the barrels in The Depths. Roll to free him, and he'll go back to Firelink.

Second Pyromancer trainer needs you to have gotten your hand to 10+ and is near a pillar in Blighttown once you've gotten to that point.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 17:27:47

Where're the Depths? I'm in Undeadburg and keep dying to that one Knight-like creature, I'm not sure if I passed it.

and I think I put two points into Resistance and one into Intelligence, guess those were wasted but it's good to know so I don't do it again.

Odradek · 2013-09-25 18:43:49

Save the Black Knight for later. He's there to take you out early on and what he guards isn't that great.

The Depths is further on, it's connected to Lower Undead Burg. You'll want to get to it after you ring the first bell in the Undead Parish and find the Blacksmith there.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 19:26:24

Actually I killed the knight and got the blue ring.

I'm having a lot more trouble with that demon in the next area.

Odradek · 2013-09-25 19:30:56

Mojave Music said:
Actually I killed the knight and got the blue ring.

I'm having a lot more trouble with that demon in the next area.

Remember plunge attacks?

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 19:33:05

I tried that and couldn't get it to work. And then he just climbed up onto the tower with me.

Also do I have any reason to prefer a standard sword to the pyromancer's starting axe if I've already started putting points in Strength?

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 19:45:55

OK I beat him!

now is there seriously not a bonfire after this.

Odradek · 2013-09-25 19:48:24

Mojave Music said:
OK I beat him!

now is there seriously not a bonfire after this.

Yes there is.

Once you get halfway across the Dragon Bridge, duck into the stairwell and kick down the ladder.

Welcome to the Bonfire you started from in Undead Burg.

Odradek · 2013-09-25 19:50:51

Mojave Music said:
I tried that and couldn't get it to work. And then he just climbed up onto the tower with me.

Also do I have any reason to prefer a standard sword to the pyromancer's starting axe if I've already started putting points in Strength?

A good metric is to check base damage and how well a weapon scales with strength. S is the best, E is the worst. You want to find a weapon with C or better scaling. There's a good Strength weapon in the Graveyard near Firelink with C scaling, but it takes a bit of strength to use.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 19:52:50

Both the sword and the battle axe I found a minute ago have a C rank in Strength scaling. I guess I'll stick with the axe cuz it looks cool with the hollow soldier armor I found.

Odradek · 2013-09-25 19:56:04

Mojave Music said:
Both the sword and the battle axe I found a minute ago have a C rank in Strength scaling. I guess I'll stick with the axe cuz it looks cool with the hollow soldier armor I found.

Axe is pretty decent.

If you have C Scaling, consider making it Lightning when you meet the Giant Blacksmith way down the road.

Also look up the upgrading system when you meet Blacksmiths in general, because it's really obtuse.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 20:08:01

well I stepped onto that bridge and then a dragon showed up and killed me.

Fossilmaiden · 2013-09-25 20:26:15

Run across it really fast. The stairs are on the right.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 20:29:32

Yeah I got it the second time, but I still lost like 2,000 souls.

At least I redeemed the ones I got from the boss.

Anyway am I supposed to be in Undead Parish yet because that's where it goes.

Fossilmaiden · 2013-09-25 20:33:37

Have you kicked down the ladder to the bonfire in Undead Burg yet? Do that before going to the Parish.

Odradek · 2013-09-25 20:33:46

Mojave Music said:
Yeah I got it the second time, but I still lost like 2,000 souls.

At least I redeemed the ones I got from the boss.

Anyway am I supposed to be in Undead Parish yet because that's where it goes.

Yeah.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 20:54:28

Fossilmaiden said:
Have you kicked down the ladder to the bonfire in Undead Burg yet? Do that before going to the Parish.

Yes.

I then killed a silver boar thing, wandered around for awhile, found a bright light, went through it, killed a rapier-wielding knight creature, and got a sweet shield.

I still have no idea where to go though.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 21:07:13

what does the Mystery Key do this is confuscl

Odradek · 2013-09-25 21:24:41

Mojave Music said:

Fossilmaiden said:
and got a sweet shield.

Noooooo it's a trap.

Also the Mystery Key leads to a prisoner in the Undead Parish. He's in a corner of the upper level of the church behind a flimsy wooden barricade.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 21:28:02

what's wrong with the Knight's Shield?

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 21:29:40

Keeping in mind my only other two options are a tower shield I picked off of one of those spear-wielding skeletal soldiers and the broken shield you start with.

Odradek · 2013-09-25 21:30:46

Mojave Music said:
what's wrong with the Knight's Shield?

Everything it does, the Heater Shield does better with less weight. It does look nice though.

Also quick Dark Souls lesson: The important stat for shields is stability, which you need to look at their stats to see. The default displayed number is the damage they do if you equip them in your weapon hand and beat people with them.

Odradek · 2013-09-25 21:31:26

Did you find the Undead Merchant? He's right near the bonfire, underneath those two spear wielding undead.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 21:33:23

The last bonfire I found is still the one at the start of Undeadburg. I can't find anywhere to go after that area with the two crossbow archers (where the boar initially spawns).

Odradek said:

Mojave Music said:
what's wrong with the Knight's Shield?
Everything it does, the Heater Shield does better with less weight. It does look nice though.

Also quick Dark Souls lesson: The important stat for shields is stability, which you need to look at their stats to see. The default displayed number is the damage they do if you equip them in your weapon hand and beat people with them.

Noted. I don't have the heater shield yet though.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 21:45:57

ok the two soldiers below the dragon bridge are probably the worst thing in the world.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 22:43:52

ok now I found Firelink shrine and a secret treasure area and there was a morningstar there.

is this better than my axe

is anything better than an axe?

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 22:54:55

nevermind it's way worse than my axe.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 23:25:26

how do I kill gargoyle

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 23:39:53

so I think I just killed barrel guy.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 23:41:58

yeah

fuck.

I didn't roll.

So I guess that's game over, then. :/

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 23:57:37

apparently there's a single other NPC who sells you basic pyromancies but they don't appear until much later in the game.

This is really frustrating. I don't want to just start over, I've been playing on this file for almost 8 hours and as a college student I have a pretty severely limited amount of time on my hands. Google has turned up nothing on how to load an old autosave either.

Odradek · 2013-09-26 04:15:03

Mojave Music said:
apparently there's a single other NPC who sells you basic pyromancies but they don't appear until much later in the game.

This is really frustrating. I don't want to just start over, I've been playing on this file for almost 8 hours and as a college student I have a pretty severely limited amount of time on my hands. Google has turned up nothing on how to load an old autosave either.

You can kinda say goodbye to being a good Pyromancer now.

You can still be a decent combat guy, though.

Odradek · 2013-09-26 04:24:08

That said, things are faster when you know what you're doing so you could start over.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-27 00:15:24

so I totally did not realize you can just literally turn around at that area near the start and just go to Firelink Shrine that way.

I'm on my Wanderer, is joining the White Covenant to learn miracles a good idea?

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-27 05:13:27

ok

so I found barrel guy again? And this time I rolled into him? IT STILL FUCKING KILLED HIM

what do I have to fucking do for this guy to NOT die?

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-27 05:17:00

hold on.

you find this guy in the Depths? Where the hell is that? I thought he was in the Undead Church near Lautrec.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-27 05:18:02

YOU'RE SERIOUSLY TELLING ME THERE ARE MULTIPLE BARREL-TRAPPED FOLK IN THIS GAME

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-27 05:24:36

well I guess I've got two saves now then.

Viani · 2013-09-27 05:31:49

I want to rent and try this game.

Many describe it as a horrendous grinder that loves to punish the fuck out of the player like IWBTG.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-27 05:52:16

I can think of literally nothing other than "general level of difficulty" it shares with I Wanna Be The Guy but w/e gets you to play it.

Odradek, should I be killing the Belfry Gargoyles or trying to find this Depths place first?

Fossilmaiden · 2013-09-27 07:18:42

Unless you have the Master Key, you can't get into the Depths before beating the Gargoyles.

Odradek · 2013-09-27 08:34:52

Mojave Music said:
ok

so I found barrel guy again? And this time I rolled into him? IT STILL FUCKING KILLED HIM

what do I have to fucking do for this guy to NOT die?

Mo.

That guy was already dead.

Sometimes you find corpses in barrels.

Yarrun XIX · 2013-09-27 08:55:02

I feel like this entire game is just finding barrels and deciding whether or not to roll into them.

Screw bosses or minmaxing. You know what's cool? Barrel rolls.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-27 13:40:41

Odradek said:

Mojave Music said:
ok

so I found barrel guy again? And this time I rolled into him? IT STILL FUCKING KILLED HIM

what do I have to fucking do for this guy to NOT die?
Mo.

That guy was already dead.

Sometimes you find corpses in barrels.

shut up ;_;

also apparently I missed this guy, unless he only shows up later.

Fossilmaiden · 2013-09-27 13:48:23

He's by the Burg bonfire. Turn right out of the door, left down the little path, smash the crates.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-27 15:25:39

I found him.

The past like, ten minutes have been cool back in my Pyromancer game (which is now my main again). I uhollowed for the first time, summoned a phantom for the first time (it was Solaire) and killed the Bellfry Gargoyles with his help, and I got a cool helmet and a medal out of it. Then I rung the bell, met that Confessor dude, and learned the "Well What is It" gesture, which is the most important thing out of all of this.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-27 16:57:18

is the Gargoyle Tailaxe useful in any capacity?

Fossilmaiden · 2013-09-27 17:02:20

Not really, no. The Halberd is, but I'm guessing you didn't get that.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-27 17:03:32

I did not. Apparently the various Gargoyle items other than the tailaxe all have a rather low drop rate. I'm just glad I got one at all.

Where do I go from here? I can get to Darkroot Garden by running past that lightning-throwing demon, but I'm not sure that's the right way.

Fossilmaiden · 2013-09-27 17:04:06

Go back to the tower before the wyvern bridge and unlock the door.

Dock Souls

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