Is it a good idea to spend all your souls before a boss battle?

[K4ever]

Im going to die a lot and I dont want to lose all my precious souls I gathered. Some people say I should just spend all of them whenever I find a bonfire but I beg to differ. Maybe if I keep going Ill will find a merchant, blacksmith, etc ... where I wish I had enough souls at that moment (either by buying, upgrading, or leveling specific stats in order to meet weapon and magic requirements). This strat has been good to me for a while, but I dont know if its the right one. Every fog curtain I find can be a potential boss area, so by making an educated guess looking at the environment I can deduct if I indeed will fight a boss or not. Theres been so many times before where I have lost all my souls when dying fighting bosses that I came to this conclusion.

Any inputs about this?

[iNeegma]

It's one of the game's hmm perks? :) The choice is yours.. risk and keep your souls unspent or play safe.

One way to gain lost souls quickly is offer your assistance to others via the summon stone.

[K4ever]

Originally posted by iNeegma:

It's one of the game's hmm perks? :) The choice is yours.. risk and keep your souls unspent or play safe.

One way to gain lost souls quickly is offer your assistance to others via the summon stone.

What do you do mostly? Risk them or do you play safe?

[Dequanacus]

Near any weapon you use can easily carry you through the entire game. Otherwise, the only weapons that are comparatively powerful pre-upgrades are ones that are dropped and not bought.

As for upgrades, souls are not needed (in large amounts) for upgrades themselves nor are blacksmith materials spread out enough that should be constantly expecting one that sells certain titanite.

Honestly, unless you're doing a jack of all trades character, the stats you normally invest in are the ones you'll need for your weapon anyway. If you need int or faith to use a weapon, you probably know that already because it's only suited for a build using those two stats. (That and a weapon such as that requires a specific upgrade path or a boss soul so you know that you'll be getting it prior to needing the stats)

[iNeegma]

Originally posted by KFORCE-K4:

What do you do mostly? Risk them or do you play safe?

I don't generally risk during first playthrough, use everything to level up / upgrade and if there's a sudden merchant with something new and shiny I begin saving up.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Well, since I already know where all the merchants, smiths, and items are in the game I'd say more along the lines of always spend them to level...But again...I know where everything is, so I know when to save my souls and when not to.

I'm going to assume you're on your first playthrough because of this question, so I'd say...Always level up if you think you're about to fight a boss. Even if you do find a smith/merchant, the stuff they sell is usually cheap, and if it isn't cheap enough...well...it's not like they're gonna leave, so you can always come back later when you have more souls.

It's better to use all your souls and not have enough for something from a merchant, than to risk saving them for that merchant...and loosing them all.

[K4ever]

Originally posted by Vinyl Scratch:

Well, since I already know where all the merchants, smiths, and items are in the game I'd say more along the lines of always spend them to level...But again...I know where everything is, so I know when to save my souls and when not to.

I'm going to assume you're on your first playthrough because of this question, so I'd say...Always level up if you think you're about to fight a boss. Even if you do find a smith/merchant, the stuff they sell is usually cheap, and if it isn't cheap enough...well...it's not like they're gonna leave, so you can always come back later when you have more souls.

It's better to use all your souls and not have enough for something from a merchant, than to risk saving them for that merchant...and loosing them all.

Thats what I was thinking. The thing is that I didnt want to use them in leveling up because the more levels I increase the more should I need to have for the next one. Say I spent them all on strenght or endurance and then I find an item that requires me to have 12 faith. Even if I was at 11 faith then amount of souls needed to get to level 12 will be a lot since I already kept leveling all my other stats. One can say this can be solved easily by farming souls, but if I do that Im afraid I will get to the point where I will be so much overleveled that the enemies wont give me a challenge anymore, and dark souls will stop being a "hard" game at that point.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Originally posted by KFORCE-K4:

Thats what I was thinking. The thing is that I didnt want to use them in leveling up because the more levels I increase the more should I need to have for the next one. Say I spent them all on strenght or endurance and then I find an item that requires me to have 12 faith. Even if I was at 11 faith then amount of souls needed to get to level 12 will be a lot since I already kept leveling all my other stats. One can say this can be solved easily by farming souls, but if I do that Im afraid I will get to the point where I will be so much overleveled that the enemies wont give me a challenge anymore, and dark souls will stop being a "hard" game at that point.

If you're on your first playthrough, I'd advise against attempting Hybrid builds.
For a first playthrough, I always recommend you focus on Str or Dex, depending on what weapon you find and like. Spells and Miracles are far a few between if you don't know how to unlock them, and trying to use Faith/Int weapons on the side is rarely good, as they are weak without long term stat investment.

Also....don't worry about leveling too much and making the game easy. If you find a new enemey and don't know how to deal with them, your stats aren't going to stop them from flattening your face. this game is about knowledge, not stats. People can breeze through this game without ever leveling up once. The stats are mainly there for weapon requirements.

[Destrell]

You really don't want to be levelling Faith at this point of the game, level Vitality, Endurance and either Strength or Dexterity, don't spread your stats too much. Also, soon enough you won't get enough souls to level up by staying on the same place, so you'll have to move on an deal with harder enemies; you could go full-on MMORPG and farm the easiest enemies for souls but that would take ages and be mind-numbingly boring so I doubt you'll go that way.

[toroid]

Originally posted by Destrell:

You really don't want to be levelling Faith at this point of the game, level Vitality,

Pfft. Vitality is a crutch. You don't need it.

[ivlr3vil]

You want to spend your souls in armor and weapon upgrades instead of stats, use them with the blacksmith to buy titanite shards or chunks to get them to +10 or +15, if you cannot do that, then spend it on making your weapon stronger. Faith isn't so bad if you know how it actually works and your build is dependent on magic.

[Destrell]

Originally posted by DJ Big Breakfast:

Pfft. Vitality is a crutch. You don't need it.

Originally posted by ivlr3vil:

Faith isn't so bad if you know how it actually works and your build is dependent on magic.

The thing is he's new at the game, he won't know where to get miracles or magic to properly use Fth or Int, and he'll need at least som Vit.

[toroid]

Originally posted by Destrell:

and he'll need at least som Vit.

Playing with low HP is the best way to learn how to not get hit.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Originally posted by DJ Big Breakfast:

Originally posted by Destrell:

and he'll need at least som Vit.

Playing with low HP is the best way to learn how to not get hit.

It's more efficient to practice dodging if you can take more hits before having to go back and practice more.

[Cooperal]

My souls are only the ones that I gathered between my last bonfire and my journey to the boss, I will not backtrack. I usually get them spent as often as possible (except souls that are still itemised) so that's the common case.

If I fall to the boss I will often try and make it my first priority to make sure those souls are retrieved (which will multiply for every journey that the boss causes me to rerun). Plenty of bosses can be reached more quickly the second time around and outside of Sens Fortress and the first trip to Oreos and Smoothies boss battle, I very rarely fell victim to the environment or common minions. So I was very confident about that approach.

Otherwise I would turn even further for a while and give myself a good grinding.

[K4ever]

Originally posted by DJ Big Breakfast:

Originally posted by Destrell:

and he'll need at least som Vit.

Playing with low HP is the best way to learn how to not get hit.

Exactly.