That's the issue with having such a reputation of being a hard game. In any other game, you would realize there must be something you are not doing right. With dark souls, you're like "Ok, I guess that game is very hard indeed". That was absolutely my reasoning in many instances where I was just missing something.
A tip for new players about npcs: If you can't lock onto the person, they aren't hostile. So that's a good, quick way to tell if you should kill something
Welp didn't work for the milfanito in DS2. You can lock on and start whacking, BAM! you're banned from the altar at the Shrine of Amana. Real dick move Fromsoft.
I love how when the Crestfallen Warrior, who is very much supposed to be the embodiment of the actual players emotional state after dying repeatedly, is pushed into a fight by the player he shouts "I may be crestfallen, but I am not defenseless!" I think every DS player has felt that at some point, right before picking themselves back up for another go.
It's an even more hilarious thought process once they start getting invaded and think they can maybe slow play it, only to NOPE this asshole is rolling around naked and has backstabbed me for the third time now, STOP TAKING MY HUMANITY! It was fun when I got the poison pyromancies though, I don't think anyone ever expected to get hit with that and watched them panic since they didn't bring any cures lol.
Going left first. 😄 In every RPG, since ancient times we were trained that skeletons (and rats) are the starter enemies. Easy to beat down, not much damage and slow. Yeah! They did that intentionally! 😁
The area looks so inviting too "do you want to have the high ground in an open area, or fight your way up winding steps next to a big ass cliff" the devs are evil lol
Although there's some stuff you can get there early. Like the zweihander. And if you can dodge well you can put your bloodstain on top of the stairs allowing you to reclaim them without angering the skellies again.
And there's the people (me) who somehow failed to see the stairs at all and thought it was the only direction I could go... I did eventually manage to kill all the skeletons and make it to the tomb though! It was when they resurrected I knew something was wrong lol.
From watching Ellen's playthrough of Dark Souls I can honestly say another way you can easily get yourself screwed over is picking a fight with Crossbreed Priscilla. This optional boss will just ask you to leave when you finish the painted world instead of fighter but if you do fight her you're in trouble. Meaning you cannot leave now if you pick a fight with her until you kill her.
@@shadowassassinz7413 She doesn't give that many souls especially in the leg of the game where you enter the PWA. You get more souls circuiting Anor Londo and Old Londo Ruins (provided you have a divine weapon for all the damn wraiths and lichs)
@The Ferryman you just need to stagger her to make her visible. Kick her or firebomb a few times, then you will be able to see the tail. Not that her tail is worth the effort...
I still remember in my first playthrough, I accidentally attacked the crestfallen warrior thinking the Attack button was the Skipping dialogue. He gave me a real hard time by killing me for more than 10 times. RIP Crestfallen, and thank you for teaching me how to parry properly
First time i met the creature before the chaos daughter i smached him so hard with my Zweihander, and never looked back, until i watched a tutorial and realized he was an npc
I remember on my first playthrough of ds1 I somehow entered blighttown through the back entrance only to go the wrong way and end up at the sealed door to the depths after I'd rested at the bonfire. So not only did I ascend blighttown, I reached a dead end and had to descend it again
On my first playthrough I went through the Tomb of the Giants without a light source... inching forwards with my shield up, not being able to see more than a metre in front of myself. That was torture, but after about 15 hours in that one hell hole I made it through. I had a lantern in my inventory the whole time, and even equipped it. I just never knew to equip it to the left hand...
Dude. I gave up at the skellies in the grave yard. I never would have gotten into this game if it wasn't for a helpful friend that got me pointed in the right direction and all the guides I've watched. I feel like fighting cowboy is an old friend now and he doesn't even know who I am hahahaha
Had a similar experience in Everquest. I played the game and found that at night time I was near blind. Even with a light source. Took me over a MONTH of basically hanging out till sunrise every game day to learn about a thing called gamma control in the options. Turned out it started turned WAY FREAKING DOWN. Suddenly i found I could actually see where I was going!
They say that an undead has to cling to some form of goal or drive to keep from going hollow So I just like the idea that if you accidentally hit them, they are so insulted that they immediately give up on whatever their life purpose was originally and are instead kept human forever just by the idea of drop kicking you if you get near them (Or in the case of the moss lady repeatedly roasting you as you run past)
As someone who hasn't played any of these games, I read this comment and just imagine you getting some sick burns as you sprint by her everytime (Could her dissing your armor, dissing your inventory or dissing how many times you got killed or even what actually killed you). I mean hey, sometimes words do more damage to you then any sword or spell.
Just remember: Dark Souls is most enjoyable when sipped slowly. Don't go deeper into the catacombs until you are able to progress in a slow and deliberate way. Nothing is worse than being a low level/low upgrade when you get yourself into a sticky zone. Getting stuck isn't without warning, because you shouldn't be pushing through areas you can't clear.
Very true. I did go left when I first started, but as soon as I got two-hit by skeletons and got the red, all-caps ! BLOOD LOSS ! indicator on the screen, I turned the fuck around.
The amount of patience that it requires is my favorite part of the game. The lack of cutscenes and obvious story elements means that I'm not rushing to find "what happens next." I'm taking my time and just enjoying the game.
I would argue that Oswald does not look more like an enemy than any other NPC, because it was incredibly easy to accidentally kill the pyromancy trainer near quelaag's sister.
@@SunlightGwyn I did that, THEN answered "Yes" to the other pyromancy teacher's question. Ended up with my Pyromancy Flame at 0 upgrades for the rest of the playthrough. Surprised this wasn't in the video - or did I mess up in that unique a way?
@@audriusfrankonis6862 I don’t think it’s that uncommon. Most people will doom the Pyromancer to hollowfying by showing him the Pyromancy when he asks.
You’re right that you don’t want to piss off Andre, but not for the reasons you mentioned, as you can upgrade and repair armor at other blacksmiths, even bonfires if you bought the armor smithbox and repairbox. The real reason is that you NEED Andre for the regular weapon ascension, which is by far the most common upgrade path, especially if you’re a beginner. Without Andre you can’t achieve a +15 weapon, as you need him to ascend from +5 to +6 and +10 to +11.
@@ashergipner1989 you can if you want, but it’s also possible to just grab the dragon tooth and Havel set from Anor Londo and smash tank your way through the rest of the game, upgrading the tooth at other blacksmiths.
I got Andre hostile to me on my 1st run ever. Then I discovered I was still able to get him friendly by absolving my sins, when I get there I didn't remember that I had killed Oswald already. So I had to kill Andre as well and go trough my 1st run ever without leveling my weapons until I got to the giant blacksmith. Man, I was 14 and downloaded the game bc it was free for xbox gold users
I played 3hrs a day for two weeks. And then one night my gf jumped into bed and I bumped the right trigger and hit Andre. I didn't know I could absolve sins. So after 2 days of sulking, I started a new file... I got further in one night then I did in 2 weeks of my first play. Welcome to Dark Souls
I went through all the trouble of defending Eileen the Crow in Bloodborne, only to tangle my headset cord on my spinning desk chair and drop the controller. It pressed R2. Hit her. She killed me before I could pick it up.
I hadn't looked up any walk-through and thought that the two hunters fighting in the graveyard were both hostile to me. Let Henryk kill her, killed Henryk by standing on the roof and chucking molotov cocktails at him, looted Eileen's corpse, all the while cursing her for not helping me in the fight. (I looked up a guide after he killed me three times) Then I checked my inventory. Oops.
For new players, armor is often a hindrance more than a boon. The physical protection most armors provide (especially unupgraded) is not worth the amount it weighs. Only thing armor is good for is elemental protection. My favorite build on DS1 is usually naked, grass crest shield, and a giant two handed weapon. I rely on fast rolls and timing attacks to punish enemies with huge damage.
Even setting the gear aside you have a much better stat layout than most other starting classes, it's probably the single best choice if you don't mind looking like a naked chimp for a couple hours
I started the whole trilogy a while back and one of the most humble of moments I experienced was surviving the first two games and completing all the DLC…. Only to die in the tutorial of the third game to a random dog enemy when I tried dodging and dodged right off the cliff
Going left when you’ve already spent your souls and doing a couple of death item runs is actually very helpful! Especially if you’re able to get into the ghost place there’s a flask upgrade down there where if you decide to try to grab it you’re probably dead anyway
The Gravelord Sword can definitely be helpful since it can poison enemies. If you pick the Warrior class, you already have the 13 Dexterity points required to wield it, so then you just have to upgrade Strength a bit.
I actually went to the skeletons area first. Its hard to kill them so I tried to lure them near the cliff and push them to their death with kicks. Although you have to be careful and aggro them two at a time at least. Its worth the risk as I was able to get one the best weapons in the game, the Zweihander. Even the giant skeleton crumbles at the weight of its vertical strike. Great times.
That's great but you can also do a run through the area and just be quick enough to pick up all the items before any of them are done assembling enough to block your path or chase you effectively. That's how I got the unique spear there, right at the beginning, which I'm still using (though I'm not that far into the game yet - still not rang any bells yet). Later I came back with it upgraded and dispatched the regular skellies with relative (careful) ease. Not tackling those big dudes yet tho.
The morningstar you get early on can be two-handed and makes killing the skeletons much easier. You can stun-lock them, even the giant ones! A good way to get some souls early.
The whole point in Dark Souls is to go left at the beginning (just run past the skeletons), when you get underground, you can get The Great Scythe, which isn't just the best weapon in Dark Souls, but in FromSofts entire Souls-like library, which makes the game so much more funto play from the beginning. One of the most awesome things about Dark Souls 1, is that the game is so open and interconnected, which means you can get great weapons and equipment early on, unlike say Dark Souls 3, which basically just feels like one long corridor.
I accidentally turned a +12 Zweilhander into a crystal one… I tried to get another one on another run but so couldn’t connect into someone’s world. Thankfully a friend gave me one and I leveled it back up.
I just upgrade the Demon's Greataxe all the way to +15 since it has a Strength rating of A. I never actually use a Crystal weapon, I just upgrade it to get get the achievement.
How good is the zweilhander? I've heard it's good but rn I have a black knight greatsword that does a ton of damage. However I did see in the vid they did 700 something damage with it Is there something I'm missing?
Yeah, I tried the graveyard first. Tried the New Londo Ruins next, but ran off when it looked impassably flooded. Half an hour of gruesome deaths later, I concluded that Dark Souls was a surprisingly short game.
souls games don't "tell" you to do anything, everything they "tell" you to do is either implied or unavoidable as in trap you in mist to fight a nightmarish lovecraftian horror spawn. these games are so interesting because of the lack of rudder, you are your own compass both in morality and action, if your comment was meant to imply going the wrong way is foolish then you must not be a true gamer, because we most certainly ALWAYS go the wrong way, with purpose and vigor!
@juli7xxxxx there is no one telling you what to do in any souls games, your the author of your journey and you can go the wrong way, maybe you'll get fucked over but there's no annoying fairy trekking you through linear paths, but that wasn't what my comment was even about lol. I can literally give you directions to a trap and you can listen and get tricked by me or ignore me and go your own way making whatever I told you up to interpretation instead of providence...... but also why dreadge up a two year old philosophical point? I'm not trying to disrespect so I apologize if it comes off so but as I typed this I found myself wondering why I'm defending a point I made years ago lol.
13:09 Duuuuude, this was a huge chunk of my experience back when I started with Dark Souls 1 and was trying to figure out summoning with my buddy (turns out, my name was like, 2 characters too long and would crash the game for anyone who opened my summoning sign at the time). Good times.
There is a benefit to curse status however, you can fight the ghosts in new londo ruins without using the limited item of Transient curse (until you can get to the NPC) or specific and rare weapons
went all the way down to the tomb of giants bonfire and rested very early in my playthrough because although I got the key to depths I forgot about the door to depths I found earlier "key to depths huh catacombs are deep I can probably use the key there". such pain working all the way down only to realize its pointless and then struggle all the way up. Honestly despite the pain I went through its one of my most cherished gaming memories, and at least the drop from pinwheel you use to kindle bonfires made the rest of the game a lot easier.
The thing about Kaathe that is worse, you can snub him by being in the wrong covenant when you reach the Abyss. If you joined Gwynevere's covenant and then headed for New Londo, he disappears as you approach the bonfire after the four kings.
10:05 what's funny is that I didn't even see the correct path and when I checked every other path, I was sure the graveyard is the only way to continue and since I heard dark souls is a hard game, I thought that must be it. surprisingly I managed to kill every one of them after an hour and when I realized this isn't the correct way, I was so furious.
I love little details Oxtra put into these list videos, my favourite is the puns in the sub headings for each list topic. De-light full, and De-light my fire that was Ellen right? Edit just noticed Ember-arassing.😂
For a first playthrough I can see how about two of these really screw you over. On top of accidentally killing a vital NPC, but the buffer you get for damage and Oswald who most people don't miss, and tbh most don't attack (emphasis on most), it just doesn't seem too likely to really ruin it unless you really, really mess up and also just full on murder an NPC even after angering them
Crystal weapons can be broken down to their previous version and then upgraded back to crystal and you can farm twinkling titanite from the clams just outside of Seeth's second area, or at the bottom of Ash Lake. This, essentially, makes them last forever, but for a steep price of hours and hours of farming. Of course, 10 soft humanity and the covetous gold serpent ring can help you out.
Funnily enough, getting cursed is one of the ways that you can hurt the ghosts of New Londo Ruins. The easiest way is to hurt the spooky ghosts use the item transient curse, which you can only get from a few places, or as a rare drop from the ghosts, or by buying them at the guy who is at the very back of the flooded ruins. So one very bad mistake you can make is to use up the transient curses, or like I did, assume they were completely worthless and feed them to Frampt for 100 souls per curse because you thought they did nothing. This is why reading an items description is very important. Of course, you can also run out of them in the middle of New Londo Ruins because the drop is rare at five percent, so the second time I went back I had the ring that increased item drop rate and at least 10 humanity to maximize drop rates because I did not want to take any risks on that front. Luckily, I had not used up the ones sold by the lady merchant in the undead burg, because assuming something is useless comes with the added benefit of not wanting to buy it. You could also get a cursed weapon, like the Jagged ghost balde, the ghost blade, or the cursed version of the Greatsword of Artorias which can be made from the soul of good boy. But the former requires that you get a drop that is rarer than the transient curse, both droping at 1%, and the latter requires you put good boy down. Plus you need to have access to the giant smith in Anor Londo to make boss weapons.
@@aelechko Well known among the fanbase. Besides, I only write things so stupidly detailed because I find it helps me destress. If I want to do something that is legal, I will do it.
not so much once you get the hang of it, but the lock on mechanic can screw some moments up. baddie jump attacks and gets behind you somehow. now your roll to avoid the attack has you falling to your doom. the camera angle flipped around so your body just decided to move the opposite way you wanted.
I always get screwed worst by taking a break from any of the games mid play through. When I come back months later I have to completely restart or it just doesn't feel right
I love how being cursed is so bad and op that this game that essentially offers no tips apart from the tutorial, even tells you what to do do get rid of it. I think curse was way more fair in dark souls 3
#4 has me feeling so called out... I bashed my head against those bony boys for at least 3 hours thinking it was a trial by fire and I was just really bad at the game. At least it got me a couple of levels to go into Undead Burg with...
Getting stuck in Ash Lake while looking for the second bell of awakening is one of my absolute favorite moments in my almost 30 years of gaming. I was well and truly stuck, with only an impossible climb back up. I mean, talk about immersion! In most games I tend to zone out and run on autopilot, especially in games with expansive huds (You can play Witcher 3 with the minimap alone for the most part), but that realization that I had no choice but to get myself out of the whole I'd climbed down was such a great feeling. Of terror and regret. This is exactly half of why I think fast travel is a rubbish mechanic.
Interestingly enough I made the mistake of resting at the bonfires in the Tomb of the Giants (after surviving Patches' surprise when my estus flasks were depleted) and having to fight my way all the way back when the golden fog blocked my path. This all happened today just hours before watching this video.
Yep, thought the great hollow was where I could ring the second bell. Got cursed and rested at a bonfire down the lake of ash. Then went all the way back up but couldn't go past the enemies to reach the surface. Then went down again to farm purging stones on the clams that were too strong for me because I was still in fairly early game. Don't know how I still enjoyed the experience overall...
I went left on my first playthrough. After dying at least a dozen times I managed to kill one skeleton. Since I didn't have a divine weapon, being the start of my run and all, it simply resurrected. That's when I decided I couldn't do this without at least occasionally checking a walkthrough to make sure I was walking the right way.
Bundle going left with actually getting to the Catacombs and Tomb of Giants. As soon as you fall to skeleton blacksmith your pain begins. Deal with rolling skeles, dark knight, go through Pinwheel, then navigate and fight pitch black Tomb of Giants, miss the bonfire near Patches, drop to Rhea, get owned by hollows, repeat but with bonfire kindled, attempt numerous times to get back up.
20:14 I always thought curse would have been great if it didn’t kill instantly, but ticked down like poison does and IF you died while cursed you would lose half your max health.
For #7: - The altar before the Kiln can still be accessed by plunge attacking from where Frampt used to be, even if he and Kaathe can no longer be interacted with this will let you place the Lordvessel/lord souls...there's always the next new game to join the Dickwraiths and pvp is best in the ng+s at sl120 at Oolacile Town bonfire, unless you're twinking.
I feel the curse one. Did a playthrough with some friends where we decided (I have no idea why) that we were going to do the entire playthrough as dragonoids. Meaning that as soon as we got to firelink shrine we had to get to the bottom of the great hollow to join the covenant to be able to turn into a dragon. On the way down I got cursed and therefore needed to start again since I wouldnt be able to get a purging stone until lower undead burg.
5:58 i did exactly that… i thought that was the way to blighttown 😵💫 and once i finally got out i then thought that new londo ruins was the way to blighttown lmao. Now i just googled it and found out i missed a path when i rung the first bell
There's a popup hint after you resurrect at the bonfire that explicitly says removing the curse requires a purging stone or the aid of the Healer in New Londo Ruins.
@@NexusKin yes a hint, that doesn't clarify where is new londo ruins (remember first blind run)how to access it how to survive the ghost and where this healer is. also good luck remembering where are found purging stone at merchants considering that only 2 in the entire game have that in stock, Oswald at the gargoyle tower and the female undead merchant in the sewers (i don't even discover the female undead merchant until my third run)
I played Witcher III's DLC before i started my dark souls journey, and after seeing that there was an easter egg about the souls games, i had to play witcher again just to appreciate such a great add in to the game
My first playthrough I made it all the way to Tomb of the Giants by kicking skeletons off the edges only to find that I had to walk all the way back out because my progress was blocked by a golden door.
On that 4th mistake… going left, I never knew there was a right path… I spent 3 days trying to beat these skeletons and I killed all of them until I went down to the catacombs and realized it was a dead end, only then realizing there was a different path all along
Oswald looks threatening? He's literally got his arms open wide like he wants a hug with only a bit of a rude disposition that makes him a bit suspect. That's my take at least... Edit: I trust oswald fully now as a good person with a case of creepyvoice-itis, seeing as he tips you off as to that ratbag petrus' plan.
my first playthrough was hell. Went to the catacombs and got deep enough to do one lever by dying a hundred times. Then I looked up the recommended level for it only to realize that I am one dumb shit
well in 1.0 version it was pretty dangerous to get stuck in there with no purging stones since the curse was stackable, even if its no joke even one curse, since you can easily get there without knowing you should invest more in your health bar
I really screwed up my first ever play through. I aggro’d the Crestfallen Warrior (I killed him by luring him to a ledge and kicking him off however), saved at the Ash Lake bonfire before I unlocked fast travel, and lastly I stupidly levelled the Resistance stat to 45.
Ok I can literally relate to 90% of this. I just started my channels long trek towards monetization and I started with Dark Souls… I’ve never once played dark souls. I played Elden Ring but never anything that came before it. I’ve done pretty much everything on this list, even resting at the Ash lake bonfires… that wasn’t a good day. Game is fun though so I love it.
I remember very well my first ds playthrough, I went straight to the catacombs, and got to Tomb of Giants, and at the end I saw a yellow fog wall, I didnt know anything about the Lordvessel so I had to get out of there, I never finished that playthrough
Easiest way, by far, to screw yourself over in Dark Souls: Play Dark Souls. Great game, but you have to be a glutton for punishment to endure a full playthrough.
my first play thru i used my fire keeper soul because i thought that was how u boosted it. it wasn’t till the firelink shrine bonfire went out that i saw the firekeeper, not thinking it was a big deal i just kept playing. I think i only got my flash to +2 but that wasn’t enough to stop me.
Dark Souls makes me sad. It looks like an incredibly immersive universe, and I'd love to explore it; however, I'm not putting myself through that kind of frustration willingly. I have too low a tolerance for losing all of my progress.
I mean it’s not that bad as long as you use guides/wakthroughs occasionally as you play. I’m actually playing through it for the first time right now and although I’ve gotten frustrated a few times looking for help online is a great solution for some of the bull the game throws at you. Don’t let a few basilisks keep you from playing the game.
It's honestly not that hard. It's punishing, but not hard. You can learn to deal with absolutely everything the game throws at you, and it's even easier once you get over the mental block of anxiety the game purposefully generates (or tries to). Sekiro however, that's a legit hard FromSoft game. Punishing too!
I don't understand the appeal of it, myself, and I've tried. It looks like a lot of monotonous gameplay with not enough plot to make it worthwhile. I'd like to like it, which is why I watch videos like this, but I just don't.
I did the crystal upgrade on my first runthrough. Luckily it was before the 2nd last boss so I managed to complete the game with it, having to level it up one more time for Gwen but omg I was so worried
I remember playing dark souls remastered because I started with PS4 Completed the game, did ng+, decided to redo a save Start, immediately went left, ran past the skelys, lit the bonfire, dropped down a few pits, killed pinwheel, memorized the path in tomb of giants, got the silver ring and died, and thus got my quick way to lvl up because extra souls per kill
I recently got cursed badly for the first time. It wasn't when I happened to fall down the wrong hole in the depths. No, that would have been too easy to solve. Instead I was stuck at the bottom of blight town, with bad weapons, low level, no purging stone. The road back up isn't so bad, but grinding souls for the stone wasn't easy at such a low level/health.
9:14 yeah... did that... didnt relize I wasnt suppsed to be there until I was already in the tomb of giants, with the gravelord sword, level 60... My stop was when I just coudnt get past some yellow wall no matter what I treid... Only managed to get that far because I relized you could kick skeletons over the edge. And so i did, with basically Every. Single. One. Almost... God I love this game.
I remember going into the tomb of giants only to find out there was a golden fog gate at the end. Had to go all the way back without the lanternhelmet (forgot the name). Never. Again.
i almost left playing darksouls when i first encountered those skeletons. those were the first enemies i encountered after getting to firelinkshrine. so i thouht damn cant play if this game is going to be this tough. thanks god i changed my mind and played on . one of the greatest games i ever played.
I encountered onion bro overlooking the chaos eaters and without talking to him, lept in and kicked ass with my BK Greatsword. Found out later I needed him to fight too.
yup i got myself cursed in the depths and had to struggle to get back to undead merchant only to find it was 6000 souls arrgghh. grinded for that and got cured. will buy another stone before returning to depths lol
