Just bought this game......need massive help

Hello dark souls community!

I just bought this game because I have a friend who showed me this game and this community and thought man I'm hooked, I'm buying. So I got it, installed it, Playing it, and now wanting to destroy it and send it back to best buy lol. This game is hard!!!!! Any tips or feedback to help me would be very much appreciated!

Alright, here we go .

1) Take breaks. Anytime you feel that indescribable rage coming on where you want to shred the controller, turn of your game, and take a break, for this game they are mandatory .

2) Move slowly. Always try to take enemies on in as few a numbers as possible, check around corners before going around them, etc. This will make the game significantly easier.

3) Watch your enemies movements. All enemies have fixed attacks and methods of attack, observe them carefully and act appropriately, you will soon realize the best way to take them on.

4) Monitor your stamina. You need this for everything, always ensure that you have enough to block enemy attacks and/or get out of the way, rarely in pve should you wildly swing your weapon until you run out of stamina. Note that lowering your shield results in greater stamina regeneration than having it raised, time your shield raises so that you that you can lower it in between attacks to regain stamina.

5) Use the difficulty of the enemies to determine where you should go. If an enemy would take you 900 hits to beat (a bit of an exaggeration), then you should avoid them . Try finding a different route or another area to explore.

6) Make sure that your fingers are loose on the attack buttons, nothing worse than an accidental finger twitch that cause you to stab an npc in the face.

7) Keep an eye on your back, enemies can backstab, and it is where they will get the most damage off on you, considering that you won't be able to see them coming, so they can get some hits off.

8) Leave yourself an out, never box yourself in, have a direction to run away if things get dicey.

9) Humanoid enemies are like you. They have stamina and can be stunlocked, kicking them drains stamina, etc., they suffer from all the ailments that can effect you. Use these to your advantage.

I keep getting invaded at level 6 and being made bubba's beotch by these guys who do like 2 to 4 hundred damage a swing. How in the world do they do that at my level?

That would be because they either worked very, very hard to get advanced items at a low level, or they did something that this forum frowns very strongly on so I can't really tell you. The best way to avoid them is to not switch to human form, stay hollow for the point in the game that you are at.

I just read the frowned apon part. Wouldnt that take the fun out of the game? I mean yes I would love to have a more decent weapon than what I'm using but not a weapon that kills everything with one hit so early. Anyways, any class starting favs? What's the best gift to start with?

Others may be better at answering those questions, I have only ever made one character .

Personally I would say its a preference thing. Ultimately, all of them are attainable some way or another, though some give some lore specifics and others are consumables.

Ooooooo ok, well thank you for the help

No worries, here is another thread that may help. Haven't checked it myself though.

https://soulswiki.forumotion.com/t2426-new-to-the-game-have-a-couple-questions#36579

Also, check the guides section of the wiki (left hand side page list).

Probably the best starting gift would be the Master Key, it allows you to open many shortcuts in the game and outright avoid areas or get out through easier means.

A tip is to remember to upgrade your equipment at blacksmiths, and do not kill NPC's. If they attack you first that is another thing but you will want to keep as many traders alive.

Something that can help a new player a lot is a ranged weapon, so getting a bow with arrows and having the stats to use it can really help you out a lot, pulling and picking off enemies from a distance so that you aren't fighting hordes and getting slaughters as you try to block them all.

Shields are going to be important to you early on, if you pick a class with a poor starting shield near the undead merchant in the burg behind an unlocked door is the Wooden shield which is decent early on. As well from the undead merchant you can buy a heater shield which can block 100% physical damage from a hit.

I would recommend starting with the master key and looking up where the npc invaders are if you intend to play as an undead so you don't miss the encounters and items. That's undead, not hollow, hollow basically implies insanity and is something that happens to npc's and not the pc

I started with the wondered and master key so thank talos I don't have to restart

This is Dark Souls not the Elder Scrolls, you thank Gwyn, not Talos!

The wanderer starts out with the scimitar which is a good starting Dex weapon, so the question will become which do you think you are going to favour, dex or str weapons? Big weapons or fast ones, both can deal great damage but again it will just depend on your style of play. Dex weapons actually go pretty well with heavy armor, because then you'll probably be able to go at 50%-25% movement speed, since you'll carry a light weapon with your heavy armor rather than heavy weapons and armor.

Welcome to the community! As you can see, it is full of helpful folks, think of it as your new favorite bonfire.

Be sure to visit the wiki for your basics and fire away here when you run into anything specific you can't seem to make sense of.

Well I haven seen any big weapons nor heavy armor yet so I can't really compare the two yet. But big light seems good since I like to dodge rather than shield. And I will thank talos, not Gwyn. Gwyn reminds me of my grandpa

That is one badass grandfather haha.

And as Emergence pointed out there is the wiki as well through which can you find a big amount of information, though sometimes you might not exactly know what to search for so Discussions can help point you in the right direction. Any other questions you can think of at the moment?

Emergence wrote:Welcome to the community! As you can see, it is full of helpful folks, think of it as your new favorite bonfire.

Be sure to visit the wiki for your basics and fire away here when you run into anything specific you can't seem to make sense of.

Thank u do much! This community has been pretty helpful, no doubt. I've been going back and forth from computer to game and the wiki just trying to wrap my head around all of this lol. But one member of the community doesn't seem to like me already ahaha.

Tolvo wrote:That is one badass grandfather haha.

And as Emergence pointed out there is the wiki as well through which can you find a big amount of information, though sometimes you might not exactly know what to search for so Discussions can help point you in the right direction. Any other questions you can think of at the moment?

Yeah I got another question

Does this game get any easier lol?

I'd have to say it does get easier. The enemies do not, and the world does not. However as you progress you'll notice things will get easier in regards with that you are getting better at the game. This is a game that forces you to learn and master your combat craft, so you should find times where enemies just seem a bit easy...Then you'll enter blight town haha.

Ooooo yes I have read that B town is like traveling through satan's butt hole, putting in nicely lol

Quite, there are certain areas in the game where the difficulty will just spike in certain ways. I'd even say the enemies in Btown aren't difficult, it's just Btown itself. Although boy you will want a spider shield, found right near to the chest at the first butcher you'll see in the depths. Roll through the boxes behind him and you'll land on an upper area, the spider shield is up there if you walk around a bit.

I just beat the gargoyles so I think I'm getting close to going down there. I'm very over joyed to make that venture lol

You still have the Basement and Depths to go through haha, unless you want to skip those areas and use the master key, though I think you should do with experiencing them before going to Btown. You could also go through the forest if you want, some useful loot to be had in there along with the forest hunter covenant.

As someone mentioned previously, make sure you take BREAKS and plenty of them. I was stuck on a certain boss, took a break for an hour, went back to him with a clear mind and beat him in 2 tries. So much of this game is just making you are in the right mindset.

I've taken 79 breaks since in gotten to B town

Yeah, Btown is probably my most hated zone in the game, that and the Crystal Cave. At least there is this to look forwards to, when you get past it you don't have to come out the way you entered. You can leave through a shortcut which is fairly easy to get to.