You know, I really wish Tera was a bit more solo-friendly, as the combat is stupidly fun.
Dave
Staff member
Grav. Now, I don't usually play early access games. But someone gifted this to me and I fired it up today to try it out. Think MINECRAFT...IN....SPAAAAAACE!
Right now the thing is fun but I could see it getting grindy quick. One thing in its favor is that anyone can set up their own private server for free. Super duper easy. I think if this game gets finished and gets the upgrades the devs are talking about, it could be a really, really great game.
Right now the thing is fun but I could see it getting grindy quick. One thing in its favor is that anyone can set up their own private server for free. Super duper easy. I think if this game gets finished and gets the upgrades the devs are talking about, it could be a really, really great game.
The Secret World
Snagged a 3-day trial to try this on the recommendation of @AshburnerX and @Gryfter. And...I kinda dig it. I love the setting and my first mission brought me to a little town overrun by zombies and the like. It's got a cool small town in Illinois kind of feel to it. The controls even feel a little bit like ye olde City of Heroes. Ran into another team along the way and teamed with them for most of the night. Good bunch.
It's pretty good from what I saw. MMOs, of course, are usually a steep learning curve and this one's no different. But the setting and everything feels a lot more like what I'm into than Rift or Final Fantasy Online had. Not sure if I'll play it much, but I'll keep my eye out for Steam sales. If others could as well, that'd be just neato.
Snagged a 3-day trial to try this on the recommendation of @AshburnerX and @Gryfter. And...I kinda dig it. I love the setting and my first mission brought me to a little town overrun by zombies and the like. It's got a cool small town in Illinois kind of feel to it. The controls even feel a little bit like ye olde City of Heroes. Ran into another team along the way and teamed with them for most of the night. Good bunch.
It's pretty good from what I saw. MMOs, of course, are usually a steep learning curve and this one's no different. But the setting and everything feels a lot more like what I'm into than Rift or Final Fantasy Online had. Not sure if I'll play it much, but I'll keep my eye out for Steam sales. If others could as well, that'd be just neato.
We're getting a "Power Weekend" soon, so I wouldn't be surprised if it goes on sale soon.
EDIT: Oh wait, it's THIS weekend. Right now.
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Finally got a new internet connection so I'm about to delve in pretty much every adventure game I ever wanted to play but couldn't get~
Broken Sword 1 and 2
Day of the Tentacle
7th Guest
Toonstruck
Toonstruck's gonna blow my mind~
Broken Sword 1 and 2
Day of the Tentacle
7th Guest
Toonstruck
Toonstruck's gonna blow my mind~
Doom Ultimate
Only 5 bucks on Steam with a crap ton of other stuff, hell yeah! Outside of the occasional turning into a technicolor nightmare its awesome!
Really its only happened once after I set the right compatibility mode, don't know why.
Only 5 bucks on Steam with a crap ton of other stuff, hell yeah! Outside of the occasional turning into a technicolor nightmare its awesome!
Really its only happened once after I set the right compatibility mode, don't know why.
Dark Souls: Oh, arrogant me of four hours ago. You thought you were going to beat the game.
Ha. Ha ha. Ha. Nope.
Now I've spent another couple of hours running back and forth to areas to pick up items I missed for blacksmithing, created a Fire Uchigatana+10, have my Black Knight Shield fully upgraded ... I'm probably still not at tip-top, but I'm going for it.
Ha. Ha ha. Ha. Nope.
Now I've spent another couple of hours running back and forth to areas to pick up items I missed for blacksmithing, created a Fire Uchigatana+10, have my Black Knight Shield fully upgraded ... I'm probably still not at tip-top, but I'm going for it.
What you stuck on? The Kiln?
I got past the dark knights; now I'm on the big man himself. He does not like the use of Estus Flasks. On the other hand, he doesn't like pyromancy. I was able to get him down to half-health on that alone, so if I can work the rest down conventionally, I'll have him.
If.
Gwyn is surprisingly easy... you really only need a decently strong weapon to waste him because he has several attacks you can straight out parry. My advice?
- Don't keep your shield up. It encourages him to kick you and break your guard.
- His grab is his most dangerous move.
I never learned how to parry, so the fight was tense. I kept my shield up most of the time and encouraged his kicks because they were easy to avoid and get in a free attack. His immediate follow-up was to grab me, but once I realized this, I'd roll back from it and get in another free attack. The Mask of the Child saved my ass all the way--it was all about stamina for me, otherwise I couldn't have kept up a decent defense against some of his attacks. Getting the Fire Uchigatana was worth it too, as I was doing twice the damage of its Lightning equivalent.
Got him in the end.
I kindled the flame. Not sure if I was a dupe really, but I suppose it kept things going. I checked out a video of the other ending just out of curiosity. Either dumb move or dick move, those were the choices.
There's really no way to have a happy ending, but that's what I expected with this game.
Now I have to resist the urge to start a new character tonight
. Those were 65 hours well spent. Thanks for the many, many words of advice, Ashburner. I'm honestly not sure how I'd have faired without some guidance beyond what the little orange signs could provide.Well... no. Rekindling the fire is probably the worse move because it's simply perpetuating the cycle, ensuring that not only will humanity abuse the power of Fire once again, but that once again the flame will falter and someone else will have to do what you did. You haven't solved anything, you'd just kept the Status Que.
Alternatively, failing to rekindling the First Flame allows the Age of Dark to start... which may actually be better for humanity in the long run because it will force us to not rely on the corrupting power of Fire anymore.
Alternatively, failing to rekindling the First Flame allows the Age of Dark to start... which may actually be better for humanity in the long run because it will force us to not rely on the corrupting power of Fire anymore.
Regardless, the real Dark Souls begins now!
I did some research based on what you said here. There was quite a lot I wasn't aware of, namely Kadath, Gwyndolin, some matters of Anor Londo. Hrm.
As for the real Dark Souls, I'm not super happy with my build and I want to try a new character, new build. Which I'm gonna do right now.
Dark Souls, Playthrough 2: This is like playing an entirely different game. As a level 5 cleric, I went to New Londo, unlocked the door to the Valley of Drakes, and danced with two infested barbarians with only my starting clothes and equipment and backstabbed (more like back-smashed with a mace) to death. Didn't go farther, but I might. I might very well hit the second bell first. I'm doing a lot of things out of order. Areas that once terrified me have become a playground. I wouldn't walk into a new room or open space without my shield drawn, and now I still haven't changed out of my starting clothes and I run around with my mace held in two hands. I even took down the Taurus demon without cheating this time--didn't jump on him once. As my last character, I buckled down and thought "If I'm going to beat the final boss, I need to not be afraid of these things." So I played with one in the Demon Ruins, learned their tactics, and killed some. Then as a much lower level character, I took that approach to the Taurus Demon on the bridge, and though it was rough, I killed him too.
I've even gotten into the PVP a little, laying down a white soap sign to be summoned (I wish I could've been more help), invading a couple worlds (even won one), and when I got invaded the last time, I managed to summon another cleric to help me against the super-strong invader. We didn't win, but we came close.
I can't wait to try more new things I didn't before. I can't wait to reach the DLC area and get farther than I did last time. This is as much of a blast as last time, just in a totally different way.
I've even gotten into the PVP a little, laying down a white soap sign to be summoned (I wish I could've been more help), invading a couple worlds (even won one), and when I got invaded the last time, I managed to summon another cleric to help me against the super-strong invader. We didn't win, but we came close.
I can't wait to try more new things I didn't before. I can't wait to reach the DLC area and get farther than I did last time. This is as much of a blast as last time, just in a totally different way.
If you're gonna play a Faith character, here are a few recommendations...
- Remember that merchant from the sewers? Once you've run both bells, he moves up into Firelink but is tricky to get to. You'll need to jump to the platform underneath the aqueduct in Firelink and carefully work your way over to him (and the body with a Ring of Sacrifice). He'll sell boss armor as you kill more bosses.
- If you take the New Londo route to the Valley of the Drakes, if you go further down into it, you'll see a sleeping dragon. If you are quiet and careful, you can nab the two items by him. One is the Dragon Shield, which is basically a BK shield but lighter and with a bit less fire resist. The other is the Astora Straight Sword, which is a blessed sword (kills skeles) that improves via twinks. You'll only get one chance before it wakes up and stays awake for the rest of the game, so try to get them both if you can. The Astora is especially good until you get the Holy Ember from Darkroot from killing the Moonlight Butterfly and can make a Holy weapon.
Now the stuff in here is about covenants... the methods of which are incredibly obscure. I'm spoilering it in case you want to try and find them yourself.
- Want to throw lightning like Solaire? Here's what you gotta do. You need to help other players kill 10 bosses minus however many Sun Medallions you have, then go to the bonfire in the small church by the drake on the bridge (the one that breaths fire all along the bridge). Nearby is a broken statue. If you've helped the correct number of players, you'll be able to pray at the broken statue. This lets you join the Warriors of Sunlight Covenant, which gives you 3 miracles (Lightning Spear and Great Lightning Spear for donating Sunlight medals, which you get for players as a Sunbro, and Sunlight Spear by hitting max rank and giving up the Soul of Gywn) as you rank up. These are pretty much your only offense miracles, aside from Wrath of the Gods and Project.
- Don't want to be a good guy? How about something that lets you dick around with people? In the Catacombs, in the area with the Titanite Demon, there is a coffin you can climb into. If you do this and wait for awhile, you'll be transported into Nito's lair. If you pray before his coffin, you can join the Gravelord covenant. Doing this nets you the Gravelord sword, which is a fairly decent faith weapon. Donating Gravelord Eyes (which you get for killing players as a Gravelord or, much more easily attained, can be farmed from Basilisks) ups your rank, giving you two offensive miracles based on Nito's spells and making them stronger. Actually USING a Gravelord Eye will put a red sign down in 3 other players games... and will spawn super tough red phantom enemies for them to fight until they ether die or kill you.
- Want to PVP but only against guys who deserve it? In the Catacombs, in a large coffin behind a wall you can break, is the Dark Moon Seance Ring. Wearing this ring gives you more spell slots, but it has another use... in Anor Londo, if you lower the rotating bridge TWICE you can enter a small tomb area with a bonfire and a ring you can pick up. If you have the Dark Moon Seance Ring equipped, you'll see a wall vanish to reveal stairs. Follow these stairs down and pray at the small square area there. Gwyndolin will offer to let you join the Dark Moon Covenant. This covenant is pretty good for faith characters: first you get a decent talisman for casting and secondly you get a spell that works like a faith-based version of Great Magic Weapon. This spell gets stronger as you rank up the covenant, which is done by donating Symbols of Spite (blue ears). You get these by killing people with high sin... you'll get automatically summoned to fight them if you wear the ring you get from joining.
Alternatively, you can enter the fog door and fight Gwyndolin. After you kill her, you can get the Sunlight Sword miracle, which is like Great Magic Weapon... only way stronger, lightning based, and with only a single casting. You can also buy her armor after you kill her from the merchant under the aqueduct in Firelink. Her helmet actually makes miracles more powerful! The downside to killing her is it makes the Anor Londo firekeeper hostile to you and killing her puts out the fire.
- Maybe you just REALLY want to fuck with people. Want to be a Darkwraith? To join them, you need to defeat Sif and the 4 Kings before you get the Lordvessel. You'll also need to kill the sealer guy who gave you the key to the switch to lower the water before because he won't give it to you unless you have the Lordvessel. If you do this, a guy shows up in the abyss who will let you join the covenant. Ranking up here gives you a fist weapon that steals humanity from other players and the Darkwraith set. You also get the Red Eye Orb, which lets you do invasions whenever the hell you feel like it.
Coincidentally, this is how your find out about the Dark Ending option.
- Don't want to be a good guy? How about something that lets you dick around with people? In the Catacombs, in the area with the Titanite Demon, there is a coffin you can climb into. If you do this and wait for awhile, you'll be transported into Nito's lair. If you pray before his coffin, you can join the Gravelord covenant. Doing this nets you the Gravelord sword, which is a fairly decent faith weapon. Donating Gravelord Eyes (which you get for killing players as a Gravelord or, much more easily attained, can be farmed from Basilisks) ups your rank, giving you two offensive miracles based on Nito's spells and making them stronger. Actually USING a Gravelord Eye will put a red sign down in 3 other players games... and will spawn super tough red phantom enemies for them to fight until they ether die or kill you.
- Want to PVP but only against guys who deserve it? In the Catacombs, in a large coffin behind a wall you can break, is the Dark Moon Seance Ring. Wearing this ring gives you more spell slots, but it has another use... in Anor Londo, if you lower the rotating bridge TWICE you can enter a small tomb area with a bonfire and a ring you can pick up. If you have the Dark Moon Seance Ring equipped, you'll see a wall vanish to reveal stairs. Follow these stairs down and pray at the small square area there. Gwyndolin will offer to let you join the Dark Moon Covenant. This covenant is pretty good for faith characters: first you get a decent talisman for casting and secondly you get a spell that works like a faith-based version of Great Magic Weapon. This spell gets stronger as you rank up the covenant, which is done by donating Symbols of Spite (blue ears). You get these by killing people with high sin... you'll get automatically summoned to fight them if you wear the ring you get from joining.
Alternatively, you can enter the fog door and fight Gwyndolin. After you kill her, you can get the Sunlight Sword miracle, which is like Great Magic Weapon... only way stronger, lightning based, and with only a single casting. You can also buy her armor after you kill her from the merchant under the aqueduct in Firelink. Her helmet actually makes miracles more powerful! The downside to killing her is it makes the Anor Londo firekeeper hostile to you and killing her puts out the fire.
- Maybe you just REALLY want to fuck with people. Want to be a Darkwraith? To join them, you need to defeat Sif and the 4 Kings before you get the Lordvessel. You'll also need to kill the sealer guy who gave you the key to the switch to lower the water before because he won't give it to you unless you have the Lordvessel. If you do this, a guy shows up in the abyss who will let you join the covenant. Ranking up here gives you a fist weapon that steals humanity from other players and the Darkwraith set. You also get the Red Eye Orb, which lets you do invasions whenever the hell you feel like it.
Coincidentally, this is how your find out about the Dark Ending option.
Now here's some OTHER secret fun stuff you might like...
- Want to return to the Asylum? All you gotta do is ride the Firelink-Undead church elevator up high enough to get onto the floor above where you'd start in Firelink, then follow that around until you see a small platform you can jump onto. Jump to it then follow the stairs up until you see an item on the roof of one the buildings in Firelink. Grab it, it's a key for a door in the Asylum. Jump down and then repeat the process, only this time instead of jumping onto the roof where the item is, go all the way up until you get to the Raven' nest. When prompted, curl into a ball and sit there like that for awhile. It'll take you back to the Asylum. Just a warning though: do not walk on the floor in the middle of the room you fought the Asylum Demon in... it'll fall away and dump you into a fight with the Stray Demon, which is a harder version of the Demon Fire Sage that drops a Titanite Slab. Follow the floors by the walls instead. This place also has like 3-4 Black Knights that all drop Red Chunks 100% of the time.
- There are a few items in the Asylum you'll want... first is the Blue Crest Shield, which is on the knight who gave you the Estus flask. He's hollowed and tough, so beat him to get it. Second is the Rusted Iron ring, which is behind a locked door (you have the key). This item lets you walk in water and the swamp without it slowing you down. Third, if you go back to the room where you started the game, you'll find the Peculiar Doll. You want this.
- Remember the room you had to walk across the narrow pathways in Anor Londo? There's a giant painting in there. Once you lower the rotating bridge in Anor Londo, you can go to the ground floor of that room. Inside are a bunch more of those guys in white robes, along with a few good items (Greater Magic Weapon spell if you dropped the chandlier and the Black Iron set), but you want to go up to the painting. If you have the doll, you can interact with it and enter the painting. This is an entirely new area known as the Painted World of Aramais and it has LOTS of good stuff in it, including the Occult Ember, which is like the Enchanted Ember but for Faith and it lets your weapons do the rare Dark damage type.
- There are a few items in the Asylum you'll want... first is the Blue Crest Shield, which is on the knight who gave you the Estus flask. He's hollowed and tough, so beat him to get it. Second is the Rusted Iron ring, which is behind a locked door (you have the key). This item lets you walk in water and the swamp without it slowing you down. Third, if you go back to the room where you started the game, you'll find the Peculiar Doll. You want this.
- Remember the room you had to walk across the narrow pathways in Anor Londo? There's a giant painting in there. Once you lower the rotating bridge in Anor Londo, you can go to the ground floor of that room. Inside are a bunch more of those guys in white robes, along with a few good items (Greater Magic Weapon spell if you dropped the chandlier and the Black Iron set), but you want to go up to the painting. If you have the doll, you can interact with it and enter the painting. This is an entirely new area known as the Painted World of Aramais and it has LOTS of good stuff in it, including the Occult Ember, which is like the Enchanted Ember but for Faith and it lets your weapons do the rare Dark damage type.
In any case, good luck!
I've gotten the ring, but didn't know a merchant would go there, so I'll have to get him.
I had the misfortune of finding the sleeping dragon on my first escape from Blighttown after beating Quelaag. I was trying to find the way back and ended up getting the items, but waking him up, having to run, find the drake-filled part of the valley ... I was out of Estus Flasks and practically out of health, but I made it back to fire link (only for the keeper to be gone, as is scripted).
I've read up on the Gwyndolin stuff and some of the Gravelord stuff. On the one hand, some of it sounds risky, on the other hand, that's kind of what I'm going for this playthrough. I'm less worried about bad things happening.
I went back to the asylum in my other playthrough for the crow trades and the demon; I'll have to find rusted ring this time too since that would make some other places a ton easier.
Thanks as always.
I had the misfortune of finding the sleeping dragon on my first escape from Blighttown after beating Quelaag. I was trying to find the way back and ended up getting the items, but waking him up, having to run, find the drake-filled part of the valley ... I was out of Estus Flasks and practically out of health, but I made it back to fire link (only for the keeper to be gone, as is scripted).
I've read up on the Gwyndolin stuff and some of the Gravelord stuff. On the one hand, some of it sounds risky, on the other hand, that's kind of what I'm going for this playthrough. I'm less worried about bad things happening.
I went back to the asylum in my other playthrough for the crow trades and the demon; I'll have to find rusted ring this time too since that would make some other places a ton easier.
Thanks as always.
Admiral Piett is the man, Don't need no Death Star when Piett's charming smile wipes the Rebellion from the face of a planet.
Dark Souls: Level 3o now, Gargoyles thumped, contemplating whether I want to try the Capra demon without exploiting the ledge now that I realize it, the Depths, and most of Blighttown are optional.
Also trying to decide if I want to go with Zweihander, Claymore, or stick with my trusty mace.
Also trying to decide if I want to go with Zweihander, Claymore, or stick with my trusty mace.
Are you going Str weapon? Then I recommend the Man Serpent Greatsword that you get off of the snake guys in Sen's Fortress. Gets S scaling in str at +15, can be buffed, and the drop rate isn't super low.
If you are going to make a divine weapon, then I'd go with the Claymore. It's just a good all around weapon, though you might consider buying the Crescent Axe off of Patches. To get Patches to sell you stuff, you need to...
- DO NOT TELL HIM YOU ARE A CLERIC in the Catacombs
- Follow the glow stones in Tomb of the Giants until he pushes you into the pit.
- Kill the hollowed retainers of the woman on pilgrimage while you are down there, then rescue her. She'll move up to the Undead Church and sell the advanced miracles that Petrus doesn't have.
- Talk to Patches up near where he is in Tomb of Giants. Forgive him, but do not tell him you are a cleric.
- He'll eventually move up to Firelink, hanging out near the path to the Graveyard.
Patches sells the masks from Pinwheel (a good way to get the Father's Mask) and the equipment the dead retainers were using, including the Crescent Axe. The girl on the pilgrimage sells the advanced miracles, but only for a short time. You'll need to buy them all before going much further into the game or she disappears. Of course, she disappears after you buy them all anyway (kind of like Big Hat Logan for sorceries) but you can find her again in the prison area of Duke's Archive in one of the locked cells.
Story spoilers...
If you don't buy all her stuff in time, Petrus kills her. You can kill him before he does this but I forget if this stops the story from advancing.
I'm going Str weapon, so I'll hold off on upgrading anything until I get to Sen's Fortress.
I may still turn the Claymore into a divine weapon on the side solely so I can mow down the reviving skeletons in the Catacombs even before reaching the necromancers.
Last time, I killed Patches after he tricked me. I had no idea he could become a merchant
. I'll definitely need him this time in case Mask of the Child doesn't drop from Pinwheel. I bought the woman's miracles last time after rescuing her--I don't know if I went back to the Parish and so I didn't see her or if she disappeared already because I did the Tomb of Giants last (I'll be doing it first this time).Why does Petrus kill her? Because she failed? That just seems weird.
BTW Big Hat Logan wasn't in the cell I was imprisoned. I'm not sure if I somehow screwed up events, but I went right down there after the tentacle things appeared and there was no one I could see. On another note, I killed Lautrec after opening his jail cell, so that's one less problem in the long run.
Petrus kills her because that was his job. The entire point of these journeys for Undead is to go hollow and stop hanging around the church. The whole Fire Rites thing is just an excuse.
In order to get Big Hat Logan to spawn there, you need to let him out of his cell in Sen's Fortress after you demolish the wall with the boulder. He'll go to Firelink after that, but leave once the Duke's Archive's open up. From then on, he'll be in the cell in the prison until you ether kill Seath or let him out. Then he's in a small side room where he sells his Crystal spells.
I'm still upset with younger me for trading in DQVIII.
Never played 3, I got a translated rom now.
I'm halfway into 2... looking forward to the next.
Kidding
. Play what you like. Just don't beg for the DQ MMO to come stateside.Dark Souls: Capra demon--splat! Gaping dragon--dead on first go! Quelaag--um ... this may take a couple tries. I was actually doing fine until I got caught between two lava pools while trying to equip a shield with better fire resistance. Sometimes planning is good. Forethought. That kind of thing. I'll get her tomorrow.