I wrote this in another thread with a little downtime at work, and some people said it was helpful. Here is a cleaner re-post in a thread of its own, with some additions. I realize there are already two stickies, I haven't read them, and I'm not trying to tread on their ground. I just love this game and want others who might be intimidated by the complete lack of in-game explanation to not give up simply because they couldn't or didn't want to figure out the basics on their own. This challenging game is a rewarding and satisfying experience, once you finally figure out exactly what's going on. These are some of the things, in no particular order,that I wish I had known when I was just starting: ------------------------- 1) The Nexus is the starting area where all the NPCs and shopkeepers congregate. This will be your home area for the entire game. It's not like Diablo where you move on to the next town or anything. The Nexus will always be your home for shopping/repair/traveling to other worlds. ------------------------- 2) From the Nexus, you can access five different worlds. I originally thought each world had different sub-stages, like 5-3 being World 5, Stage 3. But in reality, each world is just one really really big continuous stage, and the sub-numbers you often see are merely checkpoints to teleport back to the Nexus. Example: Since the world is one continuous stage, you can easilyenter from the Nexus into 5-3, and then within World 5 just walk back to the start of World 5. ------------------------- 3) The worlds all have distinct names (Boleteria, Stonefang, etc.), but to keep it short, people use the numbers 1 through 5. The inner stairs in the center of the Nexus form a semi-circle. If you FACE the stairs, and ascend the left set of stairs, you'll have the entrance to Boleteria right there. Boleteria is World 1. If you continue up those stairs and just follow the semi-circle all the way around, you get Stonefang (World 2), Lateria (World 3), Shrine of Storms (World 4), and Valley of Defilement (World 5). So when someone says, "oh you can get this and that item in 2-2," they mean the 2nd checkpoint of Stonefang. ------------------------- 4) Checkpoints are unlocked via defeating bosses. If you're just starting the game, pretty much all you got going for you is World 1, and no checkpoints. Once you defeat the first boss of World 1 though, you will unlock 1-2, as well as be able to travel to all other worlds. ------------------------- 5) Once you beat 1-1's boss, I thought that it was intended that I continue to 1-2, then 1-3, etc., and essentially finish off World 1 before going to another world. This is not the case. Although there is no set path (you're free to complete the game in any order you want), I highly recommend doing something like 1-1, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1, 1-2, and so on. Each area has unique items that you can gather up to help you progress in other worlds. In short, what I'm saying is, don't think you are supposed to do something in any order --- if you move on to 2-1 and absolutely cannot beat that level, you're not stuck, you can easily complete every other world and then do 2-1 when you feel more confident. ------------------------- 6) In general, World 2 (Stonefang) is generally considered one of the easier worlds. I think the reason being is that this world is relatively short, and includes many shortcuts. In fact, you can pretty much take a legitimate shortcut from 2-2 and fight the second boss of World 2 within minutes. ------------------------- 7) Each boss gives you a Demon Soul. You have two choices. You can consume these, or save them. SAVE THEM. Consuming them will give you a nice amount of souls, but later on magic vendors will stop charging you general souls, and require Demons Souls to purchase higher level magic.In addition,Demons Souls are used in the creation of certain weapons. One NPC in World 2 will only help you create powerful items if you hand over a certain Demons Soul first. In short, save the Demons Souls, do not consume them. ------------------------- 8 ) You can replay a world over and over again. Each time you return to the Nexus, the enemies respawn. For extremely low level characters/inexperienced players, you're best served by playing 1-1 over and over again. You don't have to go to the end, you can just run back to the stone in the beginning any time to teleport back to the Nexus. Kill a few things, get some grass (healing items), go to the Nexus, use your souls to level up, go back in, do it some more, and slowly progress through 1-1. Speaking of which, you spend your souls and level up at the girl in black who wanders around the Nexus. If she won't allow you to spend your souls yet and keeps talking about the "Monumental," it's because you have to talk to the "Monumental," which is a strange NPC that is found at the top of the Nexus via the outer set of stairs. Once talking to this guy, you can spend your souls. ------------------------- 9) You may have noticed a strange game mechanic in which you are alive in human form or in soul form. My very initial newbie advice is to just not worry about this too much yet. Just take whatever form you're in and accept it, then once you've got the basics worry about manually chosing when to be what form later. The thing to take note of that is most significant is that being in soul form cuts your HP down to about half. There is a semi-remedy for this...: ------------------------- 10) The Cling Ring. This will increase your max HP in Soul form by a lot, and in fact at Level 120 or so, I still use this ring. The beauty of it is that it is found in 1-1, the first area of the first world. In progressing through the world, you will come to a point where an armored knight with blue eyes is guarding a curtain of mist. After killing this knight, don't proceed through the mist. Instead, continue straight, passing the mist on the left. Enter the tower and go down the stairs to the very bottom to find the Cling Ring. This will make your life easier. ------------------------- 11) There is a very unclear system called "Tendency" that is working in the background. My advice is to forego worrying or thinking about this all together for now. It is overwhelming and makes little sense until you've mastered the basics. In one sentence, World Tendency shifts your world from white to black based on some of your actions, and as a result, only certain items/areas/NPCs are accessible when the world is pure white or pure black. Seriously, don't worry about this yet. I only recommend researching this now if you're merely playing for trophies and want to try and get everything in as few playthroughs as possible. ------------------------- 12) Speaking of playthroughs, this game is meant to be played more than once. "NG" means "new game," and this is the difficulty that everyone starts out on with their new characters. When you create a character, you are just in "NG."After you defeat all 5 worlds and the final boss, you literally restart the game in what people call New Game+ (NG+), but with all of your items and character stats saved. If you defeat all 5 bosses and the final boss of NG+, you restart again, in NG++. This is an endless process, there is no "final" NG. You can go up to NG++++++++++++ and beyond. The catch is that the enemies get tougher every time. I read a statistic somewhere that in general, the game gets 8% harder everytime you begin your next playthrough. Though based on how much HP and power some enemies have with each iteration, I think it has to be higher than 8%... ------------------------- 13) You can beat this game as a level 1 character. There isn't an enemy in the game that requires you to have a certain amount of HP or strength to defeat. In most RPGs, if you get wiped out by an enemy, your low level/stats/equipment probably had a decent amount of influence in that loss. In Demons Souls, you can literally go from the first fight to the last boss at Level 1. The reason being is that Demon's Souls difficulty is in it's gameplay, not it's numbers. If you die, it's because YOU made a mistake or YOU haven't comprehended the enemy's pattern properly. If you're Level 100 and simply cannot beat a boss, leveling up to 120 and trying again will probably have very little effect unless you've done a bit of research or studied the enemy pattern. Conversely, if you understand the enemy patterns and can read what's coming while also having precise control over your character, you can pwn the same boss that a Level 100 can at Level 1. The point of Levels is to make it easier overall, because no one is perfect. But the point is, technically, if you're really good, you don't need to grind to proceed.If you're having a hard time with a boss, farming souls isn't the solution; tactical trial and error (or just consulting a guide), is. ------------------------- 14) If you die, you drop all of your unspent souls. Your souls will be dropped in a pool of your blood. You can retrieve this pool of blood at any time to regain your lost souls. However, if at any point in time before picking up your lost souls you die, you will lose those souls permanently. Essentially, you can only have one blood stain at a time, and if you die and create a new blood stain, it overwrites whatever other blood stain you may have had lying around.Between your first death and retrieving your souls, you can return to the Nexus, go to any other world, etc. and then come back to get your souls, and they'll still be there, provided that you haven't died since previously dying. ------------------------- 15) Given the fact that the enemies respawn, you have a potentially infinite amount of souls that can be collected. So if you die, and then die trying to get your souls, thus losing them all, do not freak out. Later once you've mastered the game, you can farm an insane amount of souls in a very short time. So if you're like level 5 and you lost 1000 souls, just keep in mind that by NG+ some single regular enemies are dropping thousands of souls per kill. In other words, you didn't lose jack but a little bit of time. ------------------------- 16) Healing items (grass) will be your best friend for the entire game. World 1 has the most drops for grass, as far as I know. If you're running low/finding that you don't have enough, there are farming guides for things, including grass, around the internetz. ------------------------- 17) There are no real "classes" in this game. What you choose at the start is simply a starting template for your stats. There is no ability/weapon/armor in the game that any character cannot wear. Even the burliest of barbarians can learn all of the exact same magic as a mage. Do not worry about your character being limited or at a disadvantage to other characters. If you lack a certain stat, you can just level that stat up a bit, regardless of what "class" you chose. If you chose a Thief but poured 99 points into Magic, yeah, you'd technically be a "Thief" by title, but are you really a thief anymore? Point is, it's just a title, not at all any indication of what your character can and can't do. Example: the "Temple Knight" class doesn't start with a bow nor does it appeared to be geared towards ranged fighting. However, you will find that for a melee/archer/thief type, rather than actually choosing Thief, you will find that people recommend Temple Knight for such a character type. The reason being rather mathematical in the starting statistics (i.e. Thief kind of wastes a good amount of points on Luck, etc.) ------------------------- 18 )That being said, unless you have aspecific character type in mind, the best starting class is Royal. The reason being is that it starts with a strong attack spell, some nice equipment, and is Level 1. The spell and the equipment are all learnable/findable by any other character later, Royal just gets it first. Level 1 sounds like it would be a negative thing, but on the contrary, it means that you get that many more stat points to allocate as opposed to a class that starts at like Level 9 and has those first 9 levels already set in stone. The Royal is the strongest starter and is the easiest to mold into any character type you want. If you just started andarehaving a hard time and haven't invested much in your character so far, just re-rolla Royal and lol your way through the beginning of the game. ------------------------- 19) Your natural physical defense increases every level regardless of what stat you invest into. ------------------------- 20) Speaking of stats, the usefulness of Luck is debated. It's been recommended to me by multiple people that you do not increase the Luck statistic, ever. The reason is that yeah, it affects the rate of drops, but not the quality. Luck would be very valuable if it increased your chances to find rare items, but instead, Luck just increases the amount of drops, thus meaning you're going to end up finding more common items like grass rather than more rare items. One friend said that actually, higher luck increases the chance of finding items, meaning that there is a higher chance that the rare that WOULD have dropped with low luck gets overwritten by crap common items. Again, I often see this debated though, and have no clear scientific answer/proof. I see some people swearing by their high luck. I don't know. I've been going along at 7 Luck the entire game and have found more than enough rarities. ------------------------- 21) There are two types of spells: Magic and Miracles. Magic is affected by the Magic stat, and Miracles are affected by the Faith stat. To cast Magic, you need to equip a wand (catalyst). To cast Miracles, you need to equip a talisman. Later on, there is a single Talisman that allows you to cast both Magic and Miracles. You can find a catalyst to cast Magic in 1-2, and your a talisman to cast Miracles in 4-1. Also, to cast magic, you must have 10 or higher in Magic and Will, and for miracles, you must have 10 or higher in Faith. ------------------------- 22) Not every NPC and vendor is available from the start of the game. Some NPCs are hidden in the levels and some can only be found by altering the above mentioned World Tendency. For starters though, you can get the guy who teaches Miracles in 4-2, and guy who teaches you Magic in 3-1, those two are relatively easy to get. The process to get them though is kind of too long to write out here, I would use a guide, as the game tells you nothing about these guys or gives hints on how to get them. I only accidentally found one dude when it occurred to me that there may be more like him, then I used a guide to get the rest. Beware though that when you move on to NG+, these vendors are all reset as well (i.e. you gotta find them again). ------------------------- 23) There is a crafting system. As you play you will find rocks and ores and stuff. Save these at the guy in the Nexus who banks your stuff. Crafting is entirely optional, but necessary if you A) want to maximize your character's potential, and B) want to get all of the trophies. ------------------------- 24) Probably the rarest item in the game is the Pure Bladestone. This is an advanced piece of info, but I only mention it because you will see a ton of topics about finding one, trading for one, and so on. If, in your adventures, by some divine intervention you find one of these things, keep it, store it. ------------------------- 25) If you find that you are having trouble rolling (i.e. it's not smooth and fast), it's because of a stat called you Equip Weight. If you are currently at half or above of your maximum Equip Weight, you will lose your ability to quickly roll around. Your Equip Weight is increased via the Endurance stat. ------------------------- 26) There is an online component to the game. If you're online, the white ghostly people you see running around are other players in the game. Later on, you gain the ability to assist other players, attack other players, and so on. But for beginners, two of the most helpful components of online are A) messages, and B) blood stains. ------------------------- 27) Messages are left by other players as hints. These include hints such as the enemy up ahead being vulnerable to fire, or a warning to watch your step because of a hole ahead. I wasn't using a guide my first time, and found these hints to be amazingly helpful. ------------------------- 28 ) Blood stains are interesting. They allow you to see another recent players last few seconds before dying. This can be helpful for example if you come across like 3 or 4 blood stains in the same spot --- it's worth watching to see how these people died, or what they did in their last moment. If everyone turns left and then dies, it probably means there is something nasty on the left up ahead. Sometimes you'll get a good laugh out of seeing people lose their footing and fall into a pit, lol. ------------------------- 29) If you're having trouble at the boss in 1-1, try using fire, including the bombs and weapon enchanting items you've found throughout 1-1. Fire will own this guy. ------------------------- 30) In general, don't bother buying items from vendors. If you need recovery items and whatnot, that stuff is way overpriced for new characters. Your souls are best spent on leveling up. ------------------------- 31) Your items will lose durability and eventually break unless you repair them at the blacksmith in the Nexus. This costs souls. A broken piece of equipment can still be repaired, it just costs more. A side note that many people don't realize is that you lose durability on your weapons for swinging at the environment such as walls and barrels and crates. ------------------------- 32)Enemies withblue eyes and redeyes aremuch tougher than the average enemy. Even 1-1 has these enemies. Beware. You can hear one of these strong enemies in advance thanks to their Darth Vader-like breathing. ------------------------- Well, I guess that's all for now. If you're just starting, I would recommend playing 1-1 through a few times, level up a bit by returning to the Nexus and spending your souls, until you get the basics. You can continue on to give 1-2 a try, but I would recommend checking out the other worlds. My personal favorite is Shrine of Storms --- I just like the level, the design, all of that. Just because it's the fourth world doesn't mean it's any harder than any of the others. The Valley of Defilement is my least favorite, and I would actually avoid this one until you have a good stock of healing items/anti-poison items. It's not necessarily harder than any other world, it's just dark and depressing and poison is annoying. |
Bump. That got buried in a hurry, lol. |
mmkay |
Epic |
I had no idea you could make posts that big. fried potato |
Neither did I, I was expecting an error message, lol. |
Nice post, helped me out a bit there. Intolerance will not be tolerated. |
free bump PSN = Benyeh2000 "A leader leads by example, not by force." -Sun Tzu |
holy crap.............and i read it all. thank you. i just got the game today as an impulse buy. You gave me quite a few things i didn't know. |
Wow thats a long post. |
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