What are you playing?

[Exhuminator]

Got my shit together and beat that Tower Knight. After I beat him, I looked up online how other people tackle the boss. It looks like most people beat him with normal arrows, or the Soul Arrow spell... ranged attacks. But I beat him with just a scimitar in dual hand stance via straight on melee. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Got my shit together and beat that Tower Knight. After I beat him, I looked up online how other people tackle the boss. It looks like most people beat him with normal arrows, or the Soul Arrow spell... ranged attacks. But I beat him with just a scimitar in dual hand stance via straight on melee. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this.

Most bosses you do have to kill straight-on, balls-to-the-wall like that, but some, like Tower Knight, do have a scardey-bitch way of killing him (like I did the first time with arrows ). I can think of only two other bosses where anything remotely similar is possible, but it's nowhere near as easy to do as it is with TK.

[isiolia]

Got my shit together and beat that Tower Knight. After I beat him, I looked up online how other people tackle the boss. It looks like most people beat him with normal arrows, or the Soul Arrow spell... ranged attacks. But I beat him with just a scimitar in dual hand stance via straight on melee. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this.

Cool. Hacking at his ankles so he falls over isn't exactly uncommon (and there are bosses in later games that follow similar patterns, so it's good experience), but I like that there are options in that fight either way. To me, long as it's not cheesing the boss from outside the fog wall (which can still be neat, but it's really not doing the fight), it's all valid, if not part of the fun.

I mean, otherwise, the comparison can easily go the other way, and as you know, there are folks out there that are obscenely good at these games (not me though, I suck).


If you don't have a bow yet though, I'd definitely say to get one, as they can be useful in all of the games. Not usually for bosses, but for sniping or pulling other mobs. Main downside in DeS is inventory weight (booooo) and arrows, healing herbs, etc all counting towards it (double boooo).

[Exhuminator]

If you don't have a bow yet though, I'd definitely say to get one, as they can be useful in all of the games. Not usually for bosses, but for sniping or pulling other mobs. Main downside in DeS is inventory weight (booooo) and arrows, healing herbs, etc all counting towards it (double boooo).

I have a bow, I haven't used it much because arrows are a bit expensive. I'm interested in getting the Soul Arrow spell eventually. I did find a talisman in 4-1, so I'm getting closer to having magic. Also I grinded for a while against those skeletons in 4-1, and raised my vitality up a few notches.

The inventory weight thing is a bit much. The standard armor you start off with as a soldier causes you to fat roll. I took all my armor off and was able to roll a lot faster, but whenever I got hit I received massive damage. So I just put it back on. I have a Heater Shield+2 right now which blocks damage well enough. That is when I'm not going all Conan with a dual hand stance.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Bows in Demon's Souls are excellent for managing "regular" enemies, but basically worthless against many of the bosses. I used my totally awesome short bows on the 2-2, 3-1, 4-1, 4-2, and 5-1 bosses, but I always did most of the fighting up close and personal.

[Xeogred]

Soul Arrow is solid to have. I love the MP bar that Demon's and Dark Souls 3 have.

Inventory weight shouldn't be a problem dude. You have immediate access to the storage guy in the Nexus. Just keep dropping off everything you don't use or equip there. I guess I'm confused how the starting soldier equipment is making you fat roll even after more Endurance and level ups, but I guess I can't remember if it was fat armor or what. Or you need to dump some items?

Armor really won't make a break much here. Many argue that the Black Thief Set is one of the best in the game, it's light but boosts your resistances a little bit which is the only reason why some people favor it. This is the only armor set I used for my entire platinum run (NG+++++ something). It's in 3-1 somewhere.

Otherwise armor just doesn't do much in this or Bloodborne. It is far more fleshed out and advanced in Dark Souls and arguably for better or worse. In Dark Souls 1-2, you even have to upgrade each piece of armor. I'm glad they stripped that out of 3. In these you can put on some lame fat armor and cheese bosses, you won't be able to move, but you'll be a tank. There isn't really anything like that in Demon's or Bloodborne, so the emphasis seems more put on dodging and rolls.

I mean, you're saying there is a difference when you're getting hit, I won't deny that. But boosting HP and being able to move faster would be the priority for me.

[Exhuminator]

Inventory weight shouldn't be a problem dude. You have immediate access to the storage guy in the Nexus.

Oh I dump stuff on him all the time. I only carry the bare essentials. I'll have to take some screenshots tonight if I can remember, show you my stats and equipment loadout and such. Maybe you can offer some suggestions for optimizing.

I mean, you're saying there is a difference when you're getting hit, I won't deny that. But boosting HP and being able to move faster would be the priority for me.

I am focusing on boosting HP. I'm not 100% sure what makes you move faster beyond removing armor. I assume Dexterity boosting?

[Xeogred]

Yeah I'll be curious.

It should be Endurance I believe that increases your equip weight limit while Vitality boosts item weight. Equip weight should be below 50% for the faster roll.

Technically you can't do anything to move faster haha, sorry if that was confusing. I just meant for the rolls basically. I think under 25% you get an even faster/silent roll.

It's not a deal breaker for me in Demon's with item weight since it's easy to manage with the storage guy ... but I'm glad they completely ditched it after this. In all the Dark Souls games you become the walking storage unit and can carry everything which is convenient and cool. But equip weight is still there for the rolling action. No weight limits of any type in Bloodborne at all, but then again armor is kind of only cosmetic here and not that important, some elemental stuff can help out with a boss here and there but that's about it.

[Exhuminator]

Yeah I'll be curious.

Okay, I took some less than stellar screenshots right off my HDTV with my crappy cellphone camera:

That's all fluted armor. Heater Shield+3, and Scimitar+4. I typically run around in dual handed stance mode, and barely use the shield.

This game looks way better than this on my actual HDTV, the camera makes it look bad.

-

As for tonight's progress, I couldn't go through the fog past the Tower Knight (said I needed an arch-demon's soul?), so I spent time exploring 3-1. Very large prison, but I got good at killing those mindflayer things. I'm currently working freeing the two prisoners, and trying to figure out how to kill that giant black ball of dead bodies.

As for gains; I leveled up my vitality again, found a full suit of fluted armor, and best of all finally figured out how to get magic. I now have a HEAL spell, which is a BIG deal for me. This will make progress a lot easier. I think I'm going to save up for that Evacuate spell next.

[Xeogred]

Hmm, yeah I think you just need to pump up Endurance a little now. Maybe try and match that with your Vit and Str. Everything else looks good to me. I think I recall the Flute armor being pretty heavy.

Is that Heater shield heavy? Maybe you can just try taking off a helmet or the arm pieces for now to try and lower the weight. But if you're getting by alright with that fat roll then that's fine. Leveling up Endurance will help either way, once you can get another full attack or two in it can make a big difference in some fights and I believe it increases some resistance stats that should help, like Fire.

You still might get some better damage out of a Str based weapon. A normal swinging sword (forget if Demon's has the fence style types, those are usually Dex) or like a greatsword. A greatsword especially if you're liking dual handing a single weapon. Did you see the shop guy in 1-1? I think he sells Bastard Swords. I like the extra range on greatswords too. Although the Claymore is laughably huge, it can be tricky to use in tight areas like 3-1.

But at +4 that Scimitar is probably pretty good right now.

I tend to stop leveling Dex after I can use a low level bow. Like others said they aren't super great unless if you go all in on them, but they can be useful here and there.