Bonfire question

[Charlemagne]

Another noob question :-) . Simple really. At bonfires there are two basic actions, light the bonfire, and rest at it. Sometimes you don't want to rest right away at a new bonfire because it will respawn the monsters etc.
However, the person who tutored me in the game initially told me it's important to light the bonfire even if you're not going to use it right away. I've also heard this advice in a couple of Dark Souls videos I've seen. My question is, if you're not going to rest right away, why it is important to light it? Doesn't make any difference as I see it.

[PanderMaWine]

I'm not really sure.

iirc in DS2 you can warp/respawn at a bonfire you have lit, but not sat at. But in DS1 you have to sit at a Bonfire in order to respawn there.
This has the advantage of minor spoiler: when you unlock bonfire travel, you can warp to another bonfire and then use the bone to return to your PREVIOUS bonfire, and not the one you traveled to. Useful for quickly visiting shops ect.

One reason I can think of is, if you are being chased, if you need to quickly rest at a bonfire that is not lit, it takes a few moments to light it before sitting down. Whereas if it was already lit, you won't have that issue. But this is situational as heck.

Overall, I don't really see any reason not to rest at a bonfire in the first place.
Yeah the enemies will respawn, but usually the dead enemies are behind you, not where you are about to go next.

[Charlemagne]

Yeah I'm asking if there is theoretically some reasoning behind the specific advice: "It's a good idea to light it even if not immediately using it". What you say about having to come back to the fire in a hurry is the only thing that occurred to me as well, however with enemies too close on your heels it's likely you can't use it anyway.
I think that the idea may simply have become a commonplace, or because the fire looks nicer when lit. Or it's just something to do.

[PanderMaWine]

Are you sure they didn't mean make sure to sit at it even if you don't intend to level up right away?
Otherwise it really makes no sense. Can you ask this friend of yours that told you this?

[Charlemagne]

Originally posted by PanderMaWine:

Are you sure they didn't mean make sure to sit at it even if you don't intend to level up right away?
Otherwise it really makes no sense. Can you ask this friend of yours that told you this?

No, the basic statement from my friend and a couple of walkthrough videos I've seen is specifically: Even if we don't want to rest at the bonfire just now, it's always a good idea to light it up in any case". I asked my friend and he didn't really give me a clear answer why, so I'm now pretty sure that there is no reason to light up the fire if you're not going to sit. Just aesthetic I guess. Or if you have bonfire travel, but I haven't even seen that yet. Maybe my friend and the guys who made the videos were talking from wider experience where it is useful, but as a new player out of the Asylum there doesn't seem to have a logic.

[Charlemagne]

OK...
I just started a new game at the Asylum. I lit and rested the first bonfire in the patio. I then only lit, without sitting, the second bonfire which is in a room between corridors. I then proceeded to die, and appeared, go figure, at the second bonfire! So lighting the bonfire actually creates the respawn point? This is important in some cases where you don't want to respawn at a certain place, at least not yet.

[PanderMaWine]

Nah I think that is only specifically in that tutorial bonfire.
I am 90% sure of this.
Any other bonfire in the game won't behave like that.

Then again maybe I am completely wrong and speaking out of my ass.

[dcy665]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

OK...
I just started a new game at the Asylum. I lit and rested the first bonfire in the patio. I then only lit, without sitting, the second bonfire which is in a room between corridors. I then proceeded to die, and appeared, go figure, at the second bonfire! So lighting the bonfire actually creates the respawn point? This is important in some cases where you don't want to respawn at a certain place, at least not yet.

Ah, yeah. The tutorial tells/shows you that. You will always respawn at the last bonfire you sat at. If you only sit in Northern Asylum, well - you'll be getting lots and lots of As The Crow Flies miles.

You cannot warp to every bonfire. You can warp to quite a decent number. But there are several areas that act like old school DLCs. With one entry point, and one exit for that matter.

Without being lit, the bonfire is not active. It can be any structure at all, like a rock. To be a bonfire, it needs to be a bonfire

[sekai]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

OK...
I just started a new game at the Asylum. I lit and rested the first bonfire in the patio. I then only lit, without sitting, the second bonfire which is in a room between corridors. I then proceeded to die, and appeared, go figure, at the second bonfire! So lighting the bonfire actually creates the respawn point? This is important in some cases where you don't want to respawn at a certain place, at least not yet.

Respawn zones that don't adhere to conventional respawn rules of the game exist in Dark Souls. They may include the Duke's Archives, Painted World, and the DLC content, etc.

Maybe specific bonfires and corners of the game world are coded in weird ways for any reasons (usually specified so you can't leave the location easily) but usually, you only respawn in the last bonfire you've SAT AT.

[sekai]

In later souls, there is still benefit to just light the bonfire without sitting on it. Say, in Dark Souls 3, you can teleport to bonfires so long they're lit; however this isn't the case in Dark Souls 1, where it have to have been one you've sat on (and you also only obtain teleportation half way through the game).

In Dark Souls 1, there is no real benefit to it besides saving you a little bit of time when you come around the next time to sit on it.

By saving a little bit of time I mean that: Sitting on the LIT bonfire can be almost instantaneous since you can cancel out of it as soon as the bonfire menu comes up and you're good to stand up and go with everything refilled - so if you just want a refill, the process can take as short as about just under a second. Whereas lighting the bonfire takes a little bit of time to execute.

If I have to stretch, it will be useful when you're running through a zone without killing anything and you just run to the bonfire to sit and reset it and keep going. You will probably be doing some of that when you're farming in mid-late stage of the game considering the teleportation options are quite limited in Dark Souls 1 and so you'd probably been running around farming stuff while ignoring mobs that don't matter. In this case, you'd like the bonfires to be lit already when you got there to reset it because otherwise you'd be standing there lighting the fire while 20 dudes standing behind you trying to smash your head in.

[Charlemagne]

OK, I thought I had discovered something but no. Anyway, the usual thing to do when you find a bonfire is to light it up and sit. Or don't, if you don't want to respawn there. And the conclusion to my original question would seem to be that there is nothing particular about just lighting up the fire without sitting.

[PanderMaWine]

I double checked to be safe, and yeah the Northern Asylum bonfire is an exception to the rule. You only respawn at bonfires you've sat at. as Sekai said there are certain bonfires that act differently in order to keep the story going.

The only instance this can be useful is when running away from mobs, but that is situational and unlikely to ever come up at all. A new player doesn't have a reason not to sit at every bonfire anyway.

[Charlemagne]

Well there are some places where you don't want to be stuck just yet so it is wise to not rest there, so if you are killed you return to your previous bonfire. Or if you don't want enemies to respawn just yet.