Demon's Souls

[Kaisha]

At least a good 20 hours for the first playthrough if all my failed attempts at the stages have anything to say. Seems that things really speed up on NG+ #2-3 and up though, which I'm not sure is due to your own strength scaling higher than the mobs, or because you got every fucking mob position memorized perfectly after the first run through.

[Celeras]

My first playthrough was just over 48 hours, though I did some tendency events as well and inched through every stage.

[Null]

I spent well over 100 hours on my first play and still feel I haven't done everything I wanted. Guess I'm far to anal.

[Minions]

Wtf, just did mestopholes quest, killed the people that were alive, the magic, and miracle people, then she told me to kill Yuria, which I did and I did not receive a foe ring. She told me I had done well to kill everyone, then immediately went into saying she was going to kill me. Everywhere I've read says I should have gotten the ring but didn't. Starting to hate glitchy games like this.

[Oravis]

If you're at 169 or around it I can let you get the foe's ring for the trophy if thats what you want it for.

[Minions]

If you're at 169 or around it I can let you get the foe's ring for the trophy if thats what you want it for.

Only 131~ atm let me use up all of these souls and see what lvl I get.

61 Unknown Soldiers
43 Unknown Hero's
17 Renowned Soldiers
20 Renowned Heros
27 Storied Soldiers
16 Storied Heros
10 Legendary Soldiers
5 Legendary Heros

just started ng+ cause I was doing ct/wt events

Also missing ring of devout prayer, selen spawned gave me the quest, I immediatly killed the boss, (she didn't suicide, I killed her) then I guess it lowered my WT, as she disappeared and her brother never spawned....

[Oravis]

Ok. I can pretty much give you any ring as long as you return them

[AoE]

Oh man. Just took out a full party just now. Felt really good.

Black Phantomed in 4-2. Really bad place to do so because you don't really have anywhere to hide. So I ran all the way to where the second reaper is. First blue phantom I think saw me but targeted the grim reaper instead so as she killed him, I backstabbed her and she conveniently fell off the edge. Second phantom comes and sees me as I kill the first one, has a Dragon Bone Smasher. He swings with a strong hit and I dodge and backstab him then swing for the second kill. Host comes along and gets backstabbed by the female wandering soul which puts a ton of relief off me and I finish him off. Almost went to try to Soulsuck him since I have it equipped but I didn't wanna mess up this moment.

[gandorf]

I just rented this game from blockbuster and I got a question I'm hoping some of you could answer.

I'm not sure how far I am in the game but I just killed the first boss named phalanx. I talked to the monument and I can now upgrade my stats which I been doing. The problem is I don't know where to go. I been to the otherside of phalanx were the dragon spits fire down on you but I can't beat tower knight. I also entered the swamp, prison and some fortress with skeletons. I can only kill the monsters in the begin of those areas and anywhere further I get raped. So where should I go now?

[Arnwulf]

Tower Knight is the next easiest boss to beat in the game, so he's you're goal for now I would think.

[AoE]

Yeah go with Tower Knight. He's the boss that'll test your your dodging skills which you need to start learning anyway. If you have any ranged stuff, preferably magic, use that. I don't remember if you get your Blue stone there but it's usually a good way to "trial" run a stage in someone else's game.

[Kashka]

If your character is too burdened to roll you might find it easier to do Stonefang Tunnel (2-1) second. The stage is longer and slightly more difficult than 1-2, but you get a lot of upgrade ores for weapons and shields for free and the boss is largely stationary, so if you're not used to messing around with targeting as much it's probably easier. Once you're right in its face it only has three attacks too, one of which doesn't hit you if you're squarely in front of it (but might one-shot you if it does).

Definitely 1-2 or 2-1 though.

[Doombear]

Hmm as a ranged (bow) character I think I did 2-1, 2-2, 4-1, 4-2 (for soul weapon upgrades) then maybe 3-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4?

I am probably remembering some wrong but I do remember that I went far enough into 5-1 to get the Morning Star and used that to farm 4-1 a bit faster. I am also sure that 2-1 was the second one I did.

[Tomiko]

If your character is too burdened to roll you might find it easier to do Stonefang Tunnel (2-1) second. The stage is longer and slightly more difficult than 1-2, but you get a lot of upgrade ores for weapons and shields for free and the boss is largely stationary, so if you're not used to messing around with targeting as much it's probably easier. Once you're right in its face it only has three attacks too, one of which doesn't hit you if you're squarely in front of it (but might one-shot you if it does).

Definitely 1-2 or 2-1 though.

I haven't read through the entire thread, but is there an order I should do the levels in? Til the last few posts I thought I was supposed to do 1-1 > 2-1 > 3-1 > 4-1 >, etc. So far I've beat 1-1, 2-1 & 3-1, but now it seems I went ahead of where I should have.

Also, why are there random mobs that have red outlines? On 3-1 I had a Soulflayer one that kept 1-shotting me in Soul form.

[Celeras]

I haven't read through the entire thread, but is there an order I should do the levels in? Til the last few posts I thought I was supposed to do 1-1 > 2-1 > 3-1 > 4-1 >, etc. So far I've beat 1-1, 2-1 & 3-1, but now it seems I went ahead of where I should have.

Also, why are there random mobs that have red outlines? On 3-1 I had a Soulflayer one that kept 1-shotting me in Soul form.

Not really an order, but the x-1 worlds will have easier enemies then the latter counterparts.

And the mobs with Red outlines are called Black Phantoms. Usually they only show up under special Tendency events and for certain NPCs, but some levels have them wandering. They're jacked versions of normal enemies.

If you're encountering Black Phantom medusas in 3-1, then you must have died alot there in body form because there are none normally. Dieing in a level in body form shifts your World Tendency towards black, which makes normal mobs harder and spawns black phantoms. Yes, dieing makes the game harder. Have fun

[Kashka]

I haven't read through the entire thread, but is there an order I should do the levels in? Til the last few posts I thought I was supposed to do 1-1 > 2-1 > 3-1 > 4-1 >, etc. So far I've beat 1-1, 2-1 & 3-1, but now it seems I went ahead of where I should have.

Also, why are there random mobs that have red outlines? On 3-1 I had a Soulflayer one that kept 1-shotting me in Soul form.

The only concrete restriction in place is that you have to beat one of the not-Boletaria worlds before you can enter 1-3, but even that only applies to the first run through I think.

If you were to do the worlds in the order of boss soul consumption points, it would be 1-1, 2-1, 1-2, 5-1, 3-1, 4-1, 2-2, 3-2, 2-3, 3-3, 4-2, 1-3, 5-2, 4-3, 5-3, 1-4. But there's no real reason to do it that way. If you can get to the boss you can kill it.

I'd suggest trying to get through 2-1(blacksmith), 2-2(ability to make super weapons & unlocks NPC with heavy arrows), 3-1 (Advanced spells NPC unlocked), and the beginning part of 4-2 (advanced miracles) decently quickly. Unlocking those things won't potentially mess anything else up, but there is more to unlock.

Also the red outline monsters are black phantoms. The ones that look like players but are not will only appear once a playthrough (the xbow/dagger one at the end of 3-1 is one of these). The ones that look like monsters are just stronger versions, and they come back. If you get invaded, which the game will let you know pretty clearly if you have been, the invader will have that same red outline too.

[Kaisha]

One thing I've been wondering now is, how do you determine which upgrade path for a weapon is worth the time?

All I've done is upgrade my arrow to +3, and left it at that since I don't know whether to +4 it, or move it onto a different upgrade path starting back at +1. I'm also aiming for trophies, but on my first playthrough, getting good weapons first seems appropriate.

Btw, regarding the Dragon God in 2-3...

Spoiler: show

Is there much damaging involved for it after you shoot the two ballistas at it? Have yet to get to the second ballista due to me trying to nail the timing of running/hiding since he one shots me every hit, but I want to know if it's even feasible at the point I'm at where one attack = dead me.

[Doombear]

Oh and to clarify why I prioritized 2-2 and 4-2... I wanted the 2-2 Soul to enable the creation of 'super weapons' as Kashka stated and the 4-2 soul to create Large Sword of Searching. I was breaking my mind farming Spiderstones for my bow and went that route as fast as i could to have a bit of help.

[Kashka]

One thing I've been wondering now is, how do you determine which upgrade path for a weapon is worth the time?

All I've done is upgrade my arrow to +3, and left it at that since I don't know whether to +4 it, or move it onto a different upgrade path starting back at +1. I'm also aiming for trophies, but on my first playthrough, getting good weapons first seems appropriate.

Btw, regarding the Dragon God in 2-3...

Spoiler: show

Is there much damaging involved for it after you shoot the two ballistas at it? Have yet to get to the second ballista due to me trying to nail the timing of running/hiding since he one shots me every hit, but I want to know if it's even feasible at the point I'm at where one attack = dead me.

The upgrade path that's worth your time is the one you choose to build your character around. For example I went with Sharp and Sticky so that I could pump all my stats into DEX since both of those have an S rating bonus for dex with the highest base damage applied. Originally I thought this game was like Diablo so I kept waiting to find better armors/weapons but that never happened. You get stronger by building your weapon and character in sync, and that's all. Most people seem to agree that a Sticky Compound Long Bow +5 is the best bow in the game though.

Dragon

Spoiler: show

You hit it in the teeth a couple of times and it's dead. The flame vapors that come out can hurt you but it won't one shot you.

Getting to the second Ballista

Spoiler: show

Only do things when the dragon is looking up. If it sees you once it'll roar and then start only watching the lower part of the arena and I've never gotten through it after that. It's pretty easy if you wait for it to be looking at the upper landing though.

[Kaisha]

So the upgrade paths are pretty much strictly for stat modifiers/damage-types? I was going for just pure raised damage earlier. I'm a whore for strength, so I'll look into my options for that.