An arguably better weapon for low level players than the drake sword.

+4 Straight Sword of Astora. You can get 4 twinkling titanites from the crystal lizards in undead burg and darkroot basin, and 4 more from trading moss with snuggly. You can grab the sword from the valley of drakes if you use the masterkey from new londo ruins and you need 8000 souls for upgrades, which is easy enough considering that there is a soul of a proud knight and a large soul of a nameless soldier en-route to the sword. At +4 it deals 112 physical and 112 magic damage and scales cc-c, with requirements of 10-10-14. Its pretty good.

ive always liked it more than the drake sword, i love the way it looks, classy.

and you can use it in the catacombs.

Agreed, I much prefer it to the drake sword. I usually start with a Cleric char for the low sl (2) and Heal spell, and the cleric also starts with 14 faith. So for the straight sword all you need is two more points of dex and you can wield it at sl 4.

I vote for the Gravelord Sword.

With 16 Str and 13 Dex you can wield it 2-handed. Kill the parish titanite demon (weakest one, and even easier with this sword) and you can get it to +1 within a few minutes of starting a new game. That'll beat everything until you get to Sen's, where you can get more demon titanite if you're brave, or just get to anor londo and pick up a free one from the chest behind the first lift. Now you're at +2, and you can actually beat the whole game no problem with just that... did I mention you can get it within minutes of NG?


Edit: By "beat everything" I meant all the mobs and bosses, of course--not "every other weapon".

I was talking about this in different threads lol. You can also +5 Magic or Fire a weapon at the beginning to make a better weapon than both. That is if you're willing to do a little early farming in Blighttown.

PS: A +5 Fire Zweihander would do more damage than a +1 Gravelord Sword & also requires slightly less stats.

It takes a lot longer to get a Fire Zwei +5 than it does to get a GLS +1. You're talking hours vs minutes.

Edit: but, sure, if you only consider "great weapon for low level" and not the time it takes to get it, then yes the zwei is stronger, you're right. I don't think it's better, but it is stronger.

BLA1NE wrote:It takes a lot longer to get a Fire Zwei +5 than it does to get a GLS +1. You're talking hours vs minutes.

Edit: but, sure, if you only consider "great weapon for low level" and not the time it takes to get it, then yes the zwei is stronger, you're right. I don't think it's better, but it is stronger.

Slugs drop up to 5 green shards at a time & they're tons of them in blighttown. It mearly takes a trip to blighttown & a couple minutes of farming to actually gain the needed green. After that you can buy normal shards. It's also the same suicide trip as Gravelord in terms of actual danger when doing the upgrade. So if you can make it to Gravelord you shouldn't have trouble killing a few slugs before hand to +5 fire a weapon.

Oo1Zer0 wrote:

BLA1NE wrote:It takes a lot longer to get a Fire Zwei +5 than it does to get a GLS +1. You're talking hours vs minutes.

Edit: but, sure, if you only consider "great weapon for low level" and not the time it takes to get it, then yes the zwei is stronger, you're right. I don't think it's better, but it is stronger.

Slugs drop up to 5 green shards at a time & they're tons of them in blighttown. It mearly takes a trip to blighttown & a couple minutes of farming to actually gain the needed green. After that you can buy normal shards. It's also the same suicide trip as Gravelord in terms of actual danger when doing the upgrade. So if you can make it to Gravelord you shouldn't have trouble killing a few slugs before hand to +5 fire a weapon.

Yeah but the Zwei is a stupid sword that everyone using Giants Armor +5 and a Mask use to stunlock people to death.

You know what's easier then getting a Fire Zwei +5......

Just BB glitching any weapon..

Railage wrote:Yeah but the Zwei is a stupid sword that everyone using Giants Armor +5 and a Mask use to stunlock people to death.

You know what's easier then getting a Fire Zwei +5......

Just BB glitching any weapon..

What does any of that have to do with it being a strong starter weapon to breeze through the first half of the game? O yeah nothing. Funny it sounds like some of you hate on weapons simply because you've been killed by them in pvp.

I just started using it for the catacombs on my fth build. Awesome little sword.

Regarding the Zwei... don't forget you'll need the stats to use it. 24 strength is like 12 levels and then you have to upgrade it. It's a good mid game sword for Str based characters, not a general low level sword.

EDIT: Which has already been discussed... ignore my Zwei comment.

They gave a suggestion about a weapon that they think is better, and you're all like "Oh no that weapon sucks, my Fire Zwei is way better" (Queue sarcastic voice)

So I'm just stating a faster way to get a better weapon than that.

The BB glitch.

aceluby wrote:I just started using it for the catacombs on my fth build. Awesome little sword.

Regarding the Zwei... don't forget you'll need the stats to use it. 24 strength is like 12 levels and then you have to upgrade it. It's a good mid game sword for Str based characters, not a general low level sword.

Gravelord Sword is 24 strength 13 Dex which is higher than Zwei. My point with using Zwei as an example was to do a comparison based on stat requirements.

You can +5 fire a shortsword which will net you 156 physical & 156 fire making it better than Drake or Astora with a lower stat requirement.

@Railage my method doesn't require cheating. It's not my problem if you get but hurt over my comments. Also where did I say their weapons sucked in this thread? I was giving a different method for people to use.

FYI: I also promote using Astora if you're a faith based build. However if you don't intend on boosting faith there's no reason why you should use that weapon.

the zwei is not that good for los sl(depends what sl though) but for sl 20 it eats a lot fo your stamina specially if you wanna 2h the thing, i would go with the gravelord sword, mainly for the dead angles.

RantFromRant wrote:the zwei is not that good for los sl(depends what sl though) but for sl 20 it eats a lot fo your stamina specially if you wanna 2h the thing, i would go with the gravelord sword, mainly for the dead angles.

It depends on which moveset you prefer. Zwei has longer range while it's r2 knocks enemies to the ground. So long as you're not blindly swinging your weapon around it's a doable weapon even at base stamina. Also the stronger weapons are suppose to zap your stamina & Gravelord isn't that conservative when it comes to draining ether.

Personally I'd stick to upping a Claymore or Bastard Sword early on over any of the above mentioned weapons.

I guess it depends on who we're talking about as the intended wielder. If it's an experienced player who is just starting a new low level char, then sure you can get the gravelord sword or any number of other weapons without too much trouble. But a low level noob is not going to be able to run all the way through the catacombs (particularly since they won't know the shortcuts), evade the titanite demon long enough to get the necessary EoDs for the coffin to work, and then join up with Nito for the sword. The reason that both the drake and straight sword are ideal for low level chars is that they are not just good weapons but in particular are easy to get very early. Like I think the lightning spear in Sens is actually a great weapon and it has very low stat reqs so you can use it at basically starter level, plus since it is already lightning it is easy to upgrade to +4 or even +5 if you do stray demon, without even having to get to the giant blacksmith. It's just not something that a noob is ever going to breeze in and take early.

I wouldn't argue that the fire weapon +5 is a better choice, as with that you first have to farm in blightown then battle your way down and up through the catacombs, at which stage you'd have the GL sword anyway.

Someone who has never played this game before & never looked things up most likely won't get the drake sword when they first meet the dragon. They'll be lucky if they actually picked master key & took a side mission to get Astora. Even then if they're not planing on boosting faith the weapon simply wouldn't work for them. Zwei & Winged Spear will generally be picked up by simple exploration of firelink. If the person goes down instead of up which is likely on a first play-through without a guide they'll stumble across the blacksmith who does magic weapons. So as a new player who isn't focused on guides & actually plays the game properly by taking their time & farming items first assention & a good one at the beginning of the game would be for magic weapons which can easily be a much better option than Drake & Astora.

Oo1Zer0 wrote:Someone who has never played this game before & never looked things up most likely won't get the drake sword when they first meet the dragon. They'll be lucky if they actually picked master key & took a side mission to get Astora. Even then if they're not planing on boosting faith the weapon simply wouldn't work for them. Zwei & Winged Spear will generally be picked up by simple exploration of firelink. If the person goes down instead of up which is likely on a first play-through without a guide they'll stumble across the blacksmith who does magic weapons. So as a new player who isn't focused on guides & actually plays the game properly by taking their time & farming items first assention & a good one at the beginning of the game would be for magic weapons which can easily be a much better option than Drake & Astora.

That is, assuming, that they get lucky and have the leeches drop green titanite for them. Otherwise they wouldn't know.

Wade_Wilson wrote:That is, assuming, that they get lucky and have the leeches drop green titanite for them. Otherwise they wouldn't know.

Slims in the depths also drop shards both large & green. Pick up at least one on first kill & you'd most likely start farming since they're for weapons upgrades. Same rule applies to Leaches which drop up to 5 green at a time. Also you'd have to be rather unlucky to not get a single drop from the leaches first time cleaning out the swamp area in blighttown since they're all over the place.

Oo1Zer0 wrote:

Wade_Wilson wrote:That is, assuming, that they get lucky and have the leeches drop green titanite for them. Otherwise they wouldn't know.

Slims in the depths also drop shards both large & green. Pick up at least one on first kill & you'd most likely start farming since they're for weapons upgrades. Same rule applies to Leaches which drop up to 5 green at a time. Also you'd have to be rather unlucky to not get a single drop from the leaches first time cleaning out the swamp area in blighttown since they're all over the place.

You assume most people farm and grind like hell on their first playthrough. From my experience and the experience of my friends who play dark souls, farming is not high on the list of priorities.

Wade_Wilson wrote:You assume most people farm and grind like hell on their first playthrough. From my experience and the experience of my friends who play dark souls, farming is not high on the list of priorities.

You play a game like Dark Souls & don't take at least a little time to farm or at least search an area & clear out the enemies? You only need 3 drops to get the required green from the leaches.

Oo1Zer0 wrote:

Wade_Wilson wrote:You assume most people farm and grind like hell on their first playthrough. From my experience and the experience of my friends who play dark souls, farming is not high on the list of priorities.

You play a game like Dark Souls & don't take at least a little time to farm or at least search an area & clear out the enemies? You only need 3 drops to get the required green from the leaches.

I took my time, explored each area and got all the loot, but I didnt double back on an area to get drops. I relied on what I got first time round, or the guaranteed drops like the lightning spear.

Wade_Wilson wrote:

Oo1Zer0 wrote:

Wade_Wilson wrote:You assume most people farm and grind like hell on their first playthrough. From my experience and the experience of my friends who play dark souls, farming is not high on the list of priorities.

You play a game like Dark Souls & don't take at least a little time to farm or at least search an area & clear out the enemies? You only need 3 drops to get the required green from the leaches.

I took my time, explored each area and got all the loot, but I didnt double back on an area to get drops. I relied on what I got first time round, or the guaranteed drops like the lightning spear.

3 Drops I repeat 3 drops is all you really need. You act as if clearing out the swamp 1-2 times(3 at most) takes a long time.

Drake gets my vote just for how easy it is to get, I was used to arrowing dragons and got the sword almost immediately without reading a word of help. Plus there's no need for the master key (I started with the Old Witches' Ring) and if you aren't comfortable or capable at melee it gives a powerful ranged attack that can be used creatively. I spent a good time fat rolling early on (lol, despite my Demon's souls training) and had some difficulty evading Black Knights consistently. This sword gave me the edge early on.

Oo1Zer0 wrote:

Wade_Wilson wrote:

Oo1Zer0 wrote:

Wade_Wilson wrote:You assume most people farm and grind like hell on their first playthrough. From my experience and the experience of my friends who play dark souls, farming is not high on the list of priorities.

You play a game like Dark Souls & don't take at least a little time to farm or at least search an area & clear out the enemies? You only need 3 drops to get the required green from the leaches.

I took my time, explored each area and got all the loot, but I didnt double back on an area to get drops. I relied on what I got first time round, or the guaranteed drops like the lightning spear.

3 Drops I repeat 3 drops is all you really need. You act as if clearing out the swamp 1-2 times(3 at most) takes a long time.

Look, what Im saying is that I didnt go back and kill the leeches a second time anyway, once I got the Server. I dont even think I got green titanite from them in my first playthrough anyway, and its not as common a drop as you make out. I can go a couple of runs without it dropping at all.

And I disagree with an earlier point you made: new players would more likely than not get the drake sword due to their generally being a message saying, "try arrows" or "try aiming for tail"