Can't get past the first few levels...

[Migel]

First of all, this is my first playtrough of ANY souls game, and also the first game I ever played with a controller.I know Dark Souls is supposed to be the hardest game ever made or something, and I thought id be up for the challenge... But the opening levels are proving impossible for me. I have tried multiple classes, mainly melee. Whatever I do though, I always hit a wall at some point.

My longest attempt was with a deprived, who I levelled trough Strength and dexterity, so I can use all kinds of melee weapons. I am currently running with a mace, a lv4 estus flask, a elite knight armor and the twindragon shield, which so far has been really good against the old knights and the ironclads. I have beaten the last giant... and felt kind of sorry because he wasnt really standing in anyones way... The things I am stuck at after about 10h are:

-A big, levitating knight, who dashes towards me and takes down my shield very quickly.
-A red ghost named Dennis, who casts spells and attacks swiftly, but mainly has a lot of health and help by 3 ironclads.
-The bosses at Heides tower, the armored guy to the right and the dragon to the left.

I don't mean to ask for help with these in particular, just want you to get an idea of where I am stuck right now. Now the problem I am having is that I almost grinded these areas empty to level up, barely any enemies still respawn, and I still feel like I am not even close to being able to take on a boss... To be honest, spending most of my time running trough areas I already emptied again and again, to level up gets really stale. While I like the difficulty so far, at some point I cannot proceed. Sure, I have a soul vessel, but no idea what I should respec differently to make the game easier.
I just started a new playtrough, starting off with a mage, as I could get some range to take down enemies... But I already know that here too, Im going to get stuck somewhere.

So what am I doing wrong? From what i've seen about this game, whatever setup you do, it gets harder or easier, but the youtubers - even if amateurs, always progress really quickly, and not nearly need 10h or grinding to take towards their second boss.

I guess I really need some substantial advice instead of small tips...

One thing I could imagine is that Im always sabotaging myself by trying to make a jack-of-all-trades, and keeping my way open for alternatives: therefor, I don't specifically concentrate my levelling on a build, but wildly distribute the points in every direction in order to not miss out any content.


DS is being famed for not holding the players hand. I want some handholding :C

And please, don't tell me to get good or something... Im doing my best and I am willing to learn. I am enjoying this games concept and I want more of it, but cant get it without help.

Edit, delivering the Smooth n Silky stone to the birds gave me a Demon hammer with 300 damage... aka 70 damage because it takes 50 strength.

[TrueArchery]

It's all about memorizing enemy patterns.
Are they done with their combo? Good, walk in and hit them.
Are they big and armored? Don't spam attacks as they might not get stunlocked by them.

I assume you know that you can roll through attacks and avoid damage due to iframes. A secondary stat called Agility increases the number of iframes your rolls (and backsteps!) have, you can increase that one by leveling Adaptability (and Attunement to a lesser degree).

The area with Dennis is actually damn hard, come back later. It's a dead end and optional.

[Migel]

Originally posted by TrueArchery:

It's all about memorizing enemy patterns.
Are they done with their combo? Good, walk in and hit them.
Are they big and armored? Don't spam attacks as they might not get stunlocked by them.

I assume you know that you can roll through attacks and avoid damage due to iframes. A secondary stat called Agility increases the number of iframes your rolls (and backsteps!) have, you can increase that one by leveling Adaptability (and Attunement to a lesser degree).

Sounds like I should put my mind on staying mobile. So far ive been trying to get trough with blocking and tanking damage (And being 90% overburdened.)

As for rolling trough attacks, what exactly does that mean? Sure, I have rolled out of the way a lot, but what exactly does it do? Traverse fast, make me invincible for a short time or minimizing my hitbox for example?

[Kleerex]

Make sure you level ADP stat. This stat determines the number of invincibility frames you get when rolling.

Oh dear, I remember being in exact same situation as you are now. Brace yourself, you're in for a wild ride.

[ARingMaker]

Originally posted by VSF Migel:

-A big, levitating knight, who dashes towards me and takes down my shield very quickly.
-A red ghost named Dennis, who casts spells and attacks swiftly, but mainly has a lot of health and help by 3 ironclads.
-The bosses at Heides tower, the armored guy to the right and the dragon to the left.

The Knight you Speak of is called the Persuer. he is easy to parry or roll around once you learn his moves and the tell tales of them. you also have the option to shot him with a balista a few times for a quick kill to progress but will still have to face him a few more times without such things.

the red NPC phantom is a tough fight. kill the Iron clads before getting close enough to have him appear. you have an NPC summon and the use of estus, use a shield and dont be afraid to try and parry or try poison and patience. ( never tried poison on him for the record, just a thought... it works on the dragons.)

depending on soul memory. you should be able to find good help at heide's tower. the heide knights are extremely easy to parry but that one with a spear is nasty. I always get behind him and backstab him a few times. or again. posion and patience or use one of many long range options avialable in this game.

dont give up. or if your really stuck... just post your soul memory (SM) and a location with a polite request for help. someone will surely give you a hand if need be.

[TrueArchery]

Originally posted by VSF Migel:

Originally posted by TrueArchery:

It's all about memorizing enemy patterns.
Are they done with their combo? Good, walk in and hit them.
Are they big and armored? Don't spam attacks as they might not get stunlocked by them.

I assume you know that you can roll through attacks and avoid damage due to iframes. A secondary stat called Agility increases the number of iframes your rolls (and backsteps!) have, you can increase that one by leveling Adaptability (and Attunement to a lesser degree).

Sounds like I should put my mind on staying mobile. So far ive been trying to get trough with blocking and tanking damage (And being 90% overburdened.)

As for rolling trough attacks, what exactly does that mean? Sure, I have rolled out of the way a lot, but what exactly does it do? Traverse fast, make me invincible for a short time or minimizing my hitbox for example?

Literally roll through an attack and don't take damage, like I said. You know what iframes are, don't you? If not, just google it, it's really simple.

And yeah being overburdened is a stupid tactic. Always stay below 70.1%.

[ARingMaker]

I reread stuff... just realized that the "armoured guy" mentioned was not the kight before the dragon. it was the boss after the dragon.

[Veezora]

The problem is Pursuer (the floating knight on top of the forest of fallen giants keep) hits very, very hard, up to three times in a combo, and doesn't leave himself open very often. This will drain your stamina and damage you through your shield very easily, leaving you drained of stamina, likely staggered, and open for his next attack. Rolling allows you to dodge through his sword sweeps and get in a few quick hits near the end of his combo, without exhausting all your stamina and health blocking each of his attacks.

Rolling through attacks is pretty simple in execution. During a roll, you have invincibility frames, or iframes, which prevent you from taking most damage from attacks. What may seem the most counter-intuitive is that more often than not, rolling towards an enemy's attack (ie: a sword slash) is the easiest way to avoid being hit by it. So imagine it like this:

1. Your enemy pulls their sword arm back. This indicates that they are about to sweep horizontally across you towards your right.

2. At the beginning of, or just before, their swing, you roll towards them, to your left, meeting their sword as it passes across to your right.

3. Because you pass through their sword as it is swinging away from you, this heightens your chances of passing through with your few frames of invincibility, leaving you unhurt.

Every enemy will have different timing and movement on their swings, and what may work for one, may not always for for another. Horizontal attacks have wider hitboxes, making rolling towards them easier, while vertical attacks have longer, thinner hitboxes, making rolling directly towards or away from them more dangerous. Thrusting attacks, such as spears, lances and rapiers, seem to have most of their hitbox at the tip of the weapon. Almost always, rolling around towards your enemy's flank and rear is a good move.

Additionally, being overburdened with gear will affect your rolls. Your equip amount is indicated by a flat amount and a percentage at the lower right of your equipment screen. Above 70% equip load, your rolls will be slower, and cover less distance, indicated by your character stumbling and falling flat as they roll. Under 70% equip load your rolls will be much easier, and under 30% your rolls will be unaffected by your gear. Raising Vitality can raise your equipment load if you want to carry more / heavier weapons and armor, as well as wearing certain rings which will raise your equip load.

Finally, if you're still having trouble with a boss, don't be afraid to summon another player for help. While human, their summoning signs will often show up around bonfires and boss fogs, and calling in some help to give you breathing space on a boss can be a big help the first playthrough. If you're hollow (zombified with reduced health), you can restore your humanity by using a human effigy, or by placing a summon sign with the white soapstone or small white soapstone (found in a chest above the bonfire with Merchant Hag Melentia, and given to you by Mild Mannered Pate) and successfully assisting another player in killing their boss.

[Yal]

First of all, let me recommend my beginners' guide: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=784728422

The advice about not being overburdened is very sound... going above 100% will make you more or less unable to move, but just going above 70% will cripple your movement considerably (especially ruin your dodge rolls, which are pretty essential). There's no point in trying to tank damage when you can avoid damage completely just by dodgerolling, or even just WALKING out of the way. Also, your stamina recovery speed getting crippled is pretty bad too, since you can block less AND attack less. Being under 50% is generally a good recommendation, being under 70% is more or less an absolute requirement.

It's easier to tank damage with a shield, too... look for a shield with 100% physical damage reduction to reduce chip damage (90-95% is easier to find and still very good), and the higher the shield's Stability stat is, the less stamina you lose when blocking.

Heide's Tower in particular gets much easier with a shield, and in fact even a lot of the Dragonrider's attacks can be mitigated this way. If you are human (aka having used a Human Effigy - you're all green and undead when you're not human) before entering, there's an NPC you can summon right outside that is a great help... especially as a distraction so you can get behind the Dragonrider and really drop the hammer on him. Don't forget to summon help if you're stuck, NPCs are always fair game IMO.

Also, if you're really stuck, try playing as a Cleric... level up STR once using the soul items hidden in Things Betwixt (plus killing the tutorial hollows) so you can hold your mace in one hand, get the estus flask and the upgrade shard hidden in Majula, then go to Heide's Tower and grab the cheap shield on the way. You can kill the old rusty knights MUCH easier with a mace than a sword, and you can use your healing spell to heal up between fights instead of wasting Estus. Clerics start with VERY low stamina but other than that they're pretty easy to play as if you just take care to retreat before casting healing spells.

[Yal]

Oh and one more thing: holding a weapon in both hands halves its STR requirement, so just get your STR to 25 and you can use that giant hammer. Should be a lot more doable.

[Snippy The Rat]

The armored guy (Pursuer) is extremely vulnerable to greatshields (As a weapon). You can 2-hand it, and most of his attacks will actually bounce off as opposed to being blocked normally. Greatshields deal blunt damage, which he's weak to, and they do enough stamana damage to stagger every couple of hits. After doing a GS run the Pursuer became a joke.

Regardless of any weapon you use, if you keep your distance you can bait his dash attack which you can sidestep to the around him to the right, its one of like 2 attacks that gives you enough time to estus or a quick combo.

Also, you really should kill the boss that was behind the dragon first, because if you kill the other one the knights that were passive wake up permanently and they are not nice enemies.

tl;dr: Learn to bait Pursuer, if not grab a greatshield as a weapon; kill Old Dragonslayer first.

[Migel]

Alright guys! First of all, thank you all for your input. This is by far the most helpful steam community I've met so far!

Second, Talorian talked me trough the battles against the Dragon and his Rider, so I am done with those two. As for the Pursuer, I'm thinking he can wait a bit, as he doesn't seem to obstruct a way. I will remember these:

Originally posted by Yal:

[...]holding a weapon in both hands halves its STR requirement, [...]

Originally posted by Veezora:

[...]
Rolling allows you to dodge through his sword sweeps and get in a few quick hits near the end of his combo, without exhausting all your stamina and health blocking each of his attacks.
[...]
if you're still having trouble with a boss, don't be afraid to summon another player for help.
[...]

Originally posted by Snippy The Rat:

[...] tl;dr: Learn to bait Pursuer, if not grab a greatshield as a weapon; kill Old Dragonslayer first.

Originally posted by ARingMaker:

I reread stuff... just realized that the "armoured guy" mentioned was not the kight before the dragon. it was the boss after the dragon.

>The Rider, actually. Sorry, the description wasn't exactly great...

Originally posted by Reloaded:

Make sure you level ADP stat. This stat determines the number of invincibility frames you get when rolling.

Oh dear, I remember being in exact same situation as you are now. Brace yourself, you're in for a wild ride.

Yup, I put some of the souls I got from the bosses into adaptibility. While I cant notice an immediate effect, I guess its a slow progress. So thanks for the advice!

[Gallina Renga]

In addition with everything said, I personally recommend a website that contains all about this game (both versions) with a very wide varieties to use against ALL bosses, plus weaknesses and strengths.
The website is darksouls2.wikidot.com
Good luck bearer of the curse

[vic_viperman]

Hey man, please stick with it because these games are all awesome. BUT, you picked the worst game in the series to get started with-- DS2 is an awesome game, it just pales in comparison to the other souls games.

Honestly, the best entry point in this series is Bloodborne, because it does the best job of teaching players HOW to play these games. Yes, I do believe you can play these DS games "wrong." As for which game is the overall best quality, I feel that DS3 or BB is what most people would say is their favorite. For me, DS3 is my fave.

I didn't read the whole topic, but I assume you are doing what almost all new players do, which is hide behind a shield and play very conservatively. Bloodborne stops that **** in its tracks. (there are basically no shields in BB)

Sword and board is fine, but for new DS players, the early Souls games kinda teach you to ONLY hide behind a shield at the beginning. This leads to some player confusion IMO.

You should try being more mobile, making sure your equip load is not too high, and focus on learning how to use your i-frames when dodging. This will lead to better understanding of game mechanics and more fun when playing IMO.

[Kenzo]

If you're talking about the first pursuer encounter for the floating knight, look up how to cheese him. You basically parry and then use one of the bolt launchers to instantly kill him.

[Yal]

Originally posted by VSF Migel:

As for the Pursuer, I'm thinking he can wait a bit, as he doesn't seem to obstruct a way.

In one way, he does... but beating him more or less unlocks a shortcut to an area you'd reach normally later, and you'll probably have an easier time if you progress elsewhere first, getting some more experience, upgrades and levelups on the way.

His soul can be turned into either his greatshield or his sword later, though, so beating him to get that is pretty nice (it's generally a good idea to not consume boss souls until you know what you can turn them into; you'll meet an NPC later that can transform them for you), both are pretty good although heavy.

The Dragonrider's soul can be turned into a whopping FOUR items, by the way - a halberd, a longbow, a twinblade (think the two-bladed lightsaber) and a shield. You'll probably find something for your playstyle there no matter what you pick :3