official Dark Souls

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Official post created by +Slane.

Developer:

FromSoftware

Publisher:

FromSoftware (Japan PS3), Namco Bandai Games (International PS3 and X360)

Reviews:

Gamespot 9.5/10, IGN 9.0/10,

Basic Tips:

What class should I pick?

Starting classes only affect you in the beginning of the game. They have next to none impact at later stages. Each class is tailored to a style of gameplay. Pick the one that you would feel most comfortable playing and use it. Make sure you invest points into your primary stats. As you progress into the game were you put your points will affect how you play the game. It's not really easy to soul farm (though it is possible just really time consuming when each point starts to cost million's of souls) so make sure you spend your points wisely.

Which gift?

It's generally best to pick the Master Key as your gift. It allows you to open any door with a simple lock and is the only gift that can't be found in game. If you are a thief class you should pick a different gift as the Master Key is part of your starting equipment. The other gift worth noting is the Pendant as it is related to the story. Though this gift as well as the Ring of Aged Witch can be traded for with Smugly the Crow. All other gifts can be obtained throughout the game.

What are Bonefires?

Bonfires act as a resting area. Whenever you visit a bonfire it will cure you of any everything (except Curses), replenish your HP and restock your Estus Flasks. Also every time you rest at a bonfire all enemies, with the exception of bosses and stronger foes will respawn. If you Kindle a bonfire it will remain Kindled (no matter how many bonfires you kindle). Kindling requires one Humanity and can be done 4 times. When you Kindle a bonfire you increase the amount of Estus Flasks it will give you, up to a maximum of 20.

You loose everything when you die?

No. You will retain your Soul Level, all items/equipment. You will however loose your current unspent souls as well as all humanity. You may recover these lost souls and humanity if you reach your bloodstain without dying. If you die on your way to your bloodstain, they will permanently be lost.

How to cast spells?

First ensure you have the proper amount of points spent into the stat. Secondly make sure you have a Tailsman equip'd to cast Miracles. A Catalyst to cast Sorceries and a Pyromancy Flame for Pyromancies.

Attunement!

Attunement affects how spells you can have equip'd at a time. The higher the attunement stat is the more slots you will have to equip different spells. You can also use rings to increase Attunement slots which is good for casters as you will gain an extra slot without spending points on the attunement stat.

Attunement Points = Slots

0-9 = 0

10-11 = 1

12-13 = 2

14-15 = 3

16-18 = 4

19-22 = 5

23-27 = 6

28-33 = 7

34-40 = 8

41-49 = 9

50-99 = 10

Darkmoon Seance Ring = 1 Slot

White Seance Ring = 1 Slot

Max of 12 slots

Stats!

Vitality: Vitality affects HP. Once you get to 40 Vitality you will start to see smaller gains of HP. At this point you may want to put points into another stat.

Vitality Points = HP

20 = 793

27 = 1001

40 = 1325

50 = 1500

60 = 1588

70 = 1675

80 = 1758

90 = 1837

99 = 1900 (Max points spent)

Equipping the Tiny Being's Ring adds 30 HP. Ring of Favor and Protection increases HP, Stamina and Equip Load by 20% but rings breaks if removed.

Endurance: Endurance affects how much Stamina you have as well increasing resistance to Bleed and maximum Equip Load.

Endurance Points = Stamina/Equip Load

10 = 81/44

20 = 110/54

30 = 133/64

40 = 160/74

50 = 160/84

60 = 160/94

70 = 160/104

80 = 160/114

90 = 160/124

99 = 160/133

Stamina is max'd at 40 Endurance points If your Equip Load is under 25% of total Equip Load you will roll faster and further, Stamina regenerates at fastest rate. Between 25%-50% rolling is slower as is Stamina regeneration. 50%+ you will roll extremely slow, as well as take longer to get back up when knocked down and Stamina regeneration will be slower. 100% Equip Load and you will not be able to roll, sprint or run and Stamina regeneration will be at it's slowest.

Strength: Strength will allow you equip more powerful weapons and the higher Strength is the harder you will hit with any weapon that has a Strength Parabonus. You need a minimum of 58 Strength to equip every weapon in game.

Dexterity: Like Strength but is more oriented for finesse weapons like Bows, Spears and Daggers. This will affect all weapons, ones based on Dexterity will see biggest gains and it affects any weapon with a Dexteirty Parabonus.

Inteligence: Intelligence increases the power of magic. You need at least 50 points in Intelligence to use all spells. Raising above 50 will not see huge increase in power of spells, however it is worth doing for PvP based characters.

Faith: Faith affects Miracles. It's the same as Intelligence, you need at least 50 points to use all miracles and anything above that sees minimal gains in power. Faith does affect Magic Defense which is good for PvP based characters.

Resistance: Resistance is the best way to increase defensive stats. All stats affect defense but Resistance has highest impact and affects Poison resistance.

Vitality, Attunement, Endurance, Strength, Intelligence and Dexterity affects Physical, Magic and Flame defense minimally. Has a normal affect to Lighting Def.

Resistance affects Magic defense minimally, Physical defense greatly, Flame def extremely and Lighting normally.

Faith affects Physical and flame defense minimally, Magic def extremely, and Lighting def normally.

How to ____?

Kick: Flick LS up and at the same time hit RB/R1. Must be quick

Jump: Press B/O to sprint. Double tap B/O to jump.

Riposte: Once you parry an attack hit RB/R1. You have a small window to do this.

Backstab: You must be behind the enemy, not holding (keep shield lowered) LB/L1 and press RB/R1. Try not to move while attempting a Backstab.

Buffs:

These are icons that appear under the Stamina bar. Not much is known. Hopefully can update this as more info is known.

Shield with Arrow pointing Up: A buff to Defense

Three Arrows Pointing Up: Increase Stamina Regeneration

How can I write and rate messages in the world?

You must purchase an Orange Soapstone, which can be bought via the Undead Male merchant in Undead Burgh.

Weapon, Armor Smithbox and Repairbox:

Highly recommend that you purchase all three. The Weapon/Armor Smithbox will all you to reinforce weapons at Bonfires and the Repairbox will let you repair equipment at bonfires. The Undead Male merchant (where you get Orange Soapstone) sells the Repairbox and Andre the Blacksmith in Undead Parish sells the Weapon/Armor smithbox. They are worth the souls they cost.

We needed a place to talk about the game and help each other out so here it is!

Edit's incoming as I add information and what not.

Hows everyone coming along? Need help with anything?

------

GamesTM

9/10 - "Joyous, beautiful, bleak, lonely, hard as nails."

Official Xbox

5/5

IGN

9.0 - XBOX 360 / PS3

Edge

9/10

GiantBomb Dark Souls QuickLook : 1hr 24m

Time for the kids to put their hand holding candy wrapped games to bed.

Edited October 13, 2011 by Anaron

[shakey]

Aww, the link to the 5.5 is not up.... I wanted to read how they cried and hid in the corner to this monster! :p

[mattmatik]

Nice. So glad this is coming to 360 - will be getting for sure. Thanks for the post.

[+virtorio MVC]

I watched the Giant Bomb Quick Look last night.

If it didn't make you go back (potentially) so far every time you died I'd play it.

[Tharp Daddy]

I'm debating whether I should save money for the holiday season, or get this. I've never played a game which was considered extremely difficult, so i'm curious to find out if this will cause me many tears and feelings of despair.

[RiverCampher]

I'm debating whether I should save money for the holiday season, or get this. I've never played a game which was considered extremely difficult, so i'm curious to find out if this will cause me many tears and feelings of despair.

Probably will do but from that you'll get the enjoyment of completing something that's challenging rather than just racing from one cutscene to the next.

This looks like a nice mixture and I'm sad to say it's not coming for the PC (as is the norm for Japanese games, Capcom excluded).

[mattmatik]

I'm debating whether I should save money for the holiday season, or get this. I've never played a game which was considered extremely difficult, so i'm curious to find out if this will cause me many tears and feelings of despair.

That's what is drawing me to this game so much - it seems pretty unique. Watched the quick look from Giant Bomb just now and there seem to be so many possible experiences yet the game is pretty basic (i.e. no branching dialog or quests).

[S00N3R FR3AK]

The bias article putting dark souls against skyrim got me looking at this game and now I can't wait to get it tuesday,

[compl3x]

I'm too susceptible to rage quitting or throwing my controller through a window so I don't know if I should get this :p

[mattmatik]

Placed my pre-order earlier on Amazon. Can't wait!

I think the "comparisons" with Skyrim are just so unfair and lazy. To me, they are very different games and I'm looking forward to spending the next few months playing them.

[LingeringSoul]

That Giant Bomb quick look pretty much sold me on the game. I'm in the mood for something a little crazy, and that video looked fun. Some of the things I've read/seen are definitely making me a little scared (that thing in the IGN review about the enemies who cut your total health in half definitely made me a little fearful), but sometimes it's fun to have a game just completely mess with you like that.

I actually just placed my pre-order on Future Shop a few minutes ago. The fact that you get a free upgrade to the Collector's Edition certainly helps :).

[Lingwo]

Sometimes i look at it and pretty much want to buy it and then the difficulty puts me off, while i enjoy a difficult game but if it is so unforgiving that i honestly don't see me beating it. Then it really puts me off. If it had proper co-op then it would be an instant buy.

With Rage on the way too.... decisions!

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

There should be no decision necessary on "anything" vs Dark Souls :p

[furyshinobi]

Looking forward to pick up this game but my Mac died on me so my moneys is towards fixing my oldish Mac now... :( Thanks for the review Audioboxer, can't wait to pick it up later.

[mattmatik]

Did anyone pre-order from Amazon and choose release date delivery? It says mine shipped but is showing delivery for tomorrow. I have Prime so RDD is free for me. Not complaining just hoping - the wifey is working night shift tonight and the kid is going to the grandparents' house so I'll have hours to play...so I'm hoping it gets here this evening.

Checked Amazon awhile ago and the only place that has the game is an Amazon seller, not Amazon itself. Not sure how that works, really.

[S00N3R FR3AK]

So to no surprise best buy oversold the CEs and I had to get a normal one. At least it came with a $20 gift card for them screwing up.

[shakey]

****! Forgot to preorder my CE edition.... Oct 4th just came out of nowhere. Hopefully my location I will get it from will have some left on Thursday.

[mattmatik]

Well, UPS dude just rolled through the neighborhood and didn't stop LOL grrrrrr! This is the first time I've done a pre-order on Amazon, usually go through GameStop but I'd like to not give them my business anymore. Oh well, hopefully tomorrow and I can put in a few hours before my four night work stretch Thursday.

[S00N3R FR3AK]

****! Forgot to preorder my CE edition.... Oct 4th just came out of nowhere. Hopefully my location I will get it from will have some left on Thursday.

I doubt it, this seems to have just been pre-order only. Unlike some of the other free upgrades where it is really the whole first shipment.

Yeah here is some info on it gameinformer.

[Xilo]

Preordered the first day it came up on Amazon. Got upgraded to CE for free like was stated and got release day shipping. :D

[Solid Knight]

I picked up a copy today. I'll see how it goes. I added the first game to my Amazon wishlist. We'll see how it goes.

[sanctified Veteran]

Let me get this straight: Is this an online only game?

[Xilo]

Let me get this straight: Is this an online only game?

No, but you miss out on a big part of the game experience if you play it in offline mode like player messages, watching player deaths, invasions, and summoning.

[S00N3R FR3AK]

Wow not that far into the game and dying a lot already, Trying to kill this one big knight to get to an item that better be freaking amazing.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Yay :D