GRcade

The areas in it are better than anything in the main game.

Ive not got that far into it, Ive just done the Iron Keep and started into blight town jr

I've gone back to this for like the dozenth time, and started afresh. Made it further than I think I've ever managed before, beating the Taurus demon, and making it to the undead parish.

I even managed to beat the armoured boar, even if it only died of fire damage after it had already killed me, so I got no souls or loot for it.

But I'm having a shite time trying to progress here. I've not found a bonfire in the undead parish, yet, so I'm still restarting at undead burg every time, which means a run over the underside of the bridge to get to the parish every time, and I keep getting poisoned by rats, so I wind up using all my estus just to stave off the poison, and by the time I get to the parish proper, I've no health items left, and end up getting ruined by the baldur knights as you head up the ramparts there. Must have run that same stretch at least 20 times last night.

DO you want spoiler/help or happy to work at it yourself? Also what platform?

Happy to work at it myself, but I guess some general, non-spoilery tips would be useful. I've already been having a look back through this thread, as well. I might have also looked at a wiki and found a map of the parish so i at least know where the next bonfire is. I just got frustrated with constantly running the same stretch last night and not even knowing if I was going the right way to make progress.

Oh yeah, also playing the Prepare to Die edition on PC

Stopgap bonfire: there is a timing that will allow you to pass beneath the dragon to places anew

Balders: are you familiar with the parry mechanic?

Worst comes to worst and you are at an impasse lmk and Ill make a character and come and help

Remember you can just run past stuff if you want, you doing have to fight anything bar bosses.

My brother started playing this, made it past the Taurus Demon, and then promptly stopped playing it. It wasn't for him, he hated it.

Random story but I thought it was relevant. Some people just don't like how vague it is.

Advent7 wrote:Remember you can just run past stuff if you want, you doing have to fight anything bar bosses.

Don't enemies just follow you, though?

False wrote:Stopgap bonfire: there is a timing that will allow you to pass beneath the dragon to places anew

Balders: are you familiar with the parry mechanic?

I probably need to look into the parry thing, I know the game introduced it, but I've not really used it, and forgotten exactly how it works. I'm finding the controls for some of the more complex moves a bit fiddly. There's a spear wielding soldier on the bridge, and it's clear you're supposed to kick him off the edge, but half the time when I try to kick, I end up swinging a normal sword attack instead. Might have to spend some time in undead burg farming souls and practicing moves.

I also can't seem to get the backstab move to work on the black knights, either, which I thought was supposed to just be context sensitive. Every time I've attacked one, I just end up doing a normal attack, and then getting btfo.

Ive had this for a while, I just can't get into it like I have done DS3 and BB. Its too slow and cumbersome for me. Got to blight town i think and I haven't been back to it since.

plebs
nah to be fair it is a lot 'slower' than 2, 3 and BB

Conversely I am still finding this to an astoundingly better game than my experience of DS3.

Everything about it from world design to the general level of challenge and the satisfaction of successfully defeating a section, to the more open approach to progression just brings so much more enjoyment than I ever managed to eke out of DS3.

So I went and looked up parrying, and it turns out the reason I was struggling initially was because I was using an offhand weapon that can't parry.

I also looked up a guide for how to progress in undead parish to see if I was doing anything wrong, and the first thing it said was to make sure you have the Drake sword. So I looked that up, and it's such a cheesy method of getting it, I'm tempted to just try and ignore it, and wish I hadn't looked it up.

Is it really a necessity, though? Are all the other weapons so underpowered there's no reason to even try prising without it?

I also tried sprinting through the parish to get to the bonfire, and just ended up getting surrounded and ganked to pieces, so that was fun.

Drake sword is an early game boon but doesnt scale at all and the upgrade process for it is diminishing in a big way, you're fine without it

There is a legitimate way to obtain it outside of the cheesy approach too, but it requires a bit of bravery and timing

With parrying if you want your practicing to be just a little bit easier then you can use a shield in the small shield category as they actually have slightly wider parry windows, buckler, target shield etc.

Never bothered with the drake sword. I did get it but just didn't think much of it over my base weapon at the time.

And yes enemies will follow you, but eventually give up the chase and more often than not, give up quite quickly. You could probably run through a whole area unscathed once you get a feel for where they are positioned.

Drake Sword is fine up until after Blighttown.

I had no problems with the Undead Parish and have no idea what the Drake Sword is so I'd say you're fine without it.

Still loving the greater level of freedom of exploration this offers compared to DS3, I've almost got too many avenues I could be pushing out into at the moment!

Does the normal version still work?

yes of course it does.
not sure what the online user base will be like though; i dont think they can play together so id imagine its pretty empty at this point

Ah, I was hoping both player bases could play together.