I’m surprised they still do server maintenance at all

My only other version was the human Ciaran theory but I do not believe it for multiple reasons, personally... Especially paired with the fact that Artorias' long ponytail IS what's used to put on his grave. I think she is just short and Gods can experience the corruption as well.

Honorable mention: Yuria and Lelianne implied to also have white hair despite not being physically old! I am just back and forth all the time on whether it IS their hair or just a helmet's decoration like Bloody Crow's from Bloodborne! But even if that is just a decor it still works imo, as sort of their "aspirations" display.

So I went and fought my absolute favorite boss duo of all time. And I was having such a good time fighting them, then it happend I accidentally took out ornstein first completely locking myself out of his gear 😮‍💨. It usually would not be an issue but its my favorite armour im running a pure dex faith build like aaggg.

Just wondering if anyone else thinks as strongly about this as I do. Definitely my favorite intro oat

Sorry for the bad angle. Good news is that I should be able to get this captured completely on my computer soon so won't have to deal with weird angles.

Context: in youtuber ZeroLenny’s video “Dark Souls but with the IGN guide” [best known as the origin of the “it floats down” meme] he put IGN’s proposed strategy for fighting gargoyles [composite bow + stone armour] to the test and was astonished to discover that it works incredibly well. The armour’s high poise allows the bow to do it’s work, such that the gargoyle’s attacks can be largely ignored. I was inspired to try this myself and can confirm, the fight is an absolute joke if you do it like this.

Here is the link to Lenny’s video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6lClIybJ6Y&t=227s

One more dead body which doesn't want me to leave it alone.

I still have my prepare to die edition on steam and I have been reliving the infamous bad controls, but it really doesnt feel that horrible after a few hours. I have completed it this way once or few times before and have a good time doing it.

My current build cleric/paladin. Did a little research and couldn't find any weapon I care for that would need a boss soul down the line. Is it safe to consume them? Or is there another reason to hold on to them? Thanks :)

Also thinking of upgrading str next so I'm not hosed with split damage against high magic def enemies.

Sword hilt only

All bosses

Most fun challenge I did thus far

Going off of something I've heard about the dark souls series in particular is that playing however you want is not only viable, the game will actually let you feel out whatever niche your playstyle'll gravitate towards, so I figured I might as well document some of what I'm finding I like in terms of gameplay, and see what tips the community will give me.

• I started with the Knight because I'm definitely not going to be landing the i-frames. Learning that I couldn't equip the full knight set without dipping into fat rolling was a surprise, but it also meant finally getting enough Endurance to wear the whole thing felt really satisfying.
• I don't like using shields, and I'm told that just means I should always seek out a particular stamina shield and two-hand with it on my back for the rest of the game. No complaints here.
• As a player who usually will go out of their way to find the heaviest weapon (hammers, greatswords, et cetera), I was really surprised that I like the straight swords out of all the weapons available early on the best (have not tried curved swords, but they look kinda hard to control from what I've seen). (Technically, the daggers also do it for me, but I'm not going to be hitting parries, so the straight swords are a nice compromise.) I did the Bandit cheese on another character where you two-hand the Zweihander as soon as you can because I heard that was really good, and it just didn't feel as satisfying to use as comboing with the straight sword. I think this means I should try for a faith build just because it looks like the upgrade that scales faith seems to be the most effective for straight swords. I'll be anxiously waiting to see what that feels like, because from what I could tell from using the sorcerer and pyromancer, spells aren't hitting it as hard for me.
• The axe the pyromancer starts out with is a close second, but only because its moveset reminds me of the straight sword's.
• As I said earlier, I tried sorcerer, and I do see the appeal, but they are. so. slow. I'm told that high dex will speed up the cast time, so maybe on a wanderer or another sorcerer later on will I'll try doing magic missile type stuff again as some kind of hyper-aggressive non-stop spellsword type character with a weapon in one hand and a staff in the other.

I'm looking to do a playthrough that feels fresh after playing the game a million times. Can anyone recommend a weapon that doesn't see much use? Probably the most "out there" weapon I've played is the Flamberge...

Edit: Nevermind, everyone. The first Balder Knight dropped a Swag Sword and I legally have to use it.

When it comes to enemies in Dark Souls, there are many unique examples with overly creative designs.

But when it comes to choosing THE dark souls enemy, the main one, the most iconic to the point to even be called dark souls mascot (if we don't count NPC, characters and main bosses) I can't decide among three options:

The Black Knights

The Basilisks

The Mimics

All of them to me encapsulate the obscure and punishing nature of the game. All are difficult in their own way, and each of them have something that stands out:

The black knights are the most relevant to the lore and attuned to the main plot of the game. They are the first miny boss most players will encounter, and probably the first wall of difficulty (if they have not departed from the intended main path to the burg and end up going to new londo or the graveyard instead) They also give a turn to the black knight trope, being the King's elite force who accompanied him to his own sacrifice instead of being the dark and evil enemy of the historical heroe.

Mimics and Basilisks, tho lacking in story relevancy, have a more interesting design as monsters, much more intimidating. But they don't rely only on appearances, for they have an X factor that won them their popularity.

Basilisk can kill you instantly with their dire breath and if that's not enough, when you come back to life you find yourself cursed, with half your health sealed away and unable to restore your human form, locking you outside from the on line gameplay. Forcing you not only to retrieve your souls but also to find a cure or by believing there's non, end the game in such a pitiful state.

And the mimic it's a surprise for the player who goes and opens a chest searching for treasure and instead meeting the most gruesome of ends before the "YOU DIED" screan rolls an you are left traumatized to the end that will haunt you for the rest of your playthrough, macking you sweat cold when encountering another chest in a dark room, unsure if you are before a harmless coffer or a unespicable horror waiting to sink their teeth on another greedy adventurer.

Finally, there's actually a fourth contender in my personal contest for Main Enemy/Mascot of DARK SOULS. The Vagrants, so easily forgotten. Today, they are probably already well known by most fans, but it wouldn't be a surprise that some of you don't know what I'm talking about. For context, the Vagrant is an obscure enemy that only appears through online mechanics, I myself don't remember all the details surrounding them. I know that they have a chance to spawning in other players' world when you drop an item or a humanity on the floor and don't pick it up, waiting for it to desapear for restoring the are. The Vagrant comes in two variants a peaceful one and a hostile one. They both look like an egg or white sphere with little crab legs. The hostile one has crab pincers, and I believe both can attack you with little magical white proyectiles, and if you don't kill them on time, they may disappear and flee to another's player's world, but if you manage to kill them your reward is the item drop in the first place by the other player that caused his existence.

Unlike the other enemies, the Vagrant is less none and lacks their popularity for being a weird occurrence in most of the quests of the chosen undead, with less than half the dark souls players seeing them in their own playthroughs. But despite this, they may represent in the best way what's the core of Dark Souls, it's mystery and quantity of obscure mechanics of which the Vagrants is part of.

There's also the low hollow, which is the most common and first enemy that the player will find, but to me, they are more filler and basic requirement for the game ambiance, important in their own right but not suited for the title of main enemy.

What do you think? Which is the most iconic enemy? Is it one of the already mentioned before, or do you believe there's a more fitting subject to bear the name of Dark Souls Mascot?

Yeah yeah yeah.. IT'S ALBOUT THE LOOKS BABY!! It's not about that.. But Caestus hits fast and unlike the daggers it has high poise damage . Though damage is lacking and might be still one of the worst weapons in the game. But i did a mostly dagger run and damage is still fine when two handed which is perhaps the Caestus problem.

I am aware of the Thorn Gauntlets 20 damage buff but anyway maybe repeated poise break might give the Caestus or any First weapon more use than you think and i do like that Fist Weapons are really good in later Dark Souls game.

Though never did a run my self so let me know some more thoughts about the Fist Weapons catagory..

I've been alway from dark souls for a REAL long time and i'm kinda tired of seeing other people's theories with the whole "people taking theories as facts" thing

Anyway i'm gonna ask you guys this: Was Gwyn 100% evil?

Bit of a stupid question as even if he wasn't completly evil, it wouldn't remove the weight of his actions, but i'm somewhat curious these days if he was more "human" than i remember (human in the sense of him not just being evil for the sake of it, like how i used to see people treating him). You think there is a case to make for him and the age of fire?

I myself need to re-play the games to grasp the lore again by myself after getting tired of just using youtubers' opinions, but from what i remember i think THERE MAYBE is a case to be made of his actions. As seeing how the Abyss and the Dark Soul corrupts things so easily and turns people who have ammassed that power into abyssal nukes that corrupt shit around them (Manus destroying oolacile and etc), and people in the age of fire generally were able to live normally. With the problem being that the age of fire itself not being a problem, or the age of dark as well, more so either one being extended beyond their stay (i find the idea that everything just working normally on the age of dark or humanity and only a prolonged stay of fire to be bad to just be weird at least). So wanting to extend that age of his own species (i remember "the gods" being actually more so a species like humans, rather than what actual Gods would be from irl mythologies) is something i can understand. He made a mortal mistake for his people, and i doubt the humans wouldn't have also done it too.

I probably got a lot of stuff wrong since i'm going off of memory, but what you guys think? I kinda like having Gwyn as a more nuanced figure than just the basic view i had of him just being bad, but...well, idk. Kinda also wanted to know how he was as a ruler tho, to get a better idea. We see him acting as a questionable person with Nameless King and forcing Gwyndolin to live as a woman out of some weird tradition, while Gwynevere wasn't forced to live as a man even if she was more into sunlight miracles (was this actually a thing? I just thought of it a while ago and it really seemed Gwyn just didn't like Gwyndolin and the reasoning for him not being left to choose how he'd grow was just out of personal beef lmao), but him as an actual king of anor londo? No clue.

I noticed recently that the elite knight set is an enhanced version of the knight set when you look the pieces of armor.

The helm is the same for both set but one of them is open. The Elite Knight Leggings have more iron on it and the gauntlets are the same for both.

I've never noticed this for several years playing this game and thought it was a good detail to share.

I made a post maybe a month ago about not doing well, and wanting to start the dark souls games. Well, I didn’t. But I did start Elden Ring because I already owned it. I’ve failed twice previously but really wanted the experience everyone talks about. Today, I made it to the Elden Beast. Before this run I couldn’t even beat Rennala. Today’s my birthday, and I got some extra money laying around so I did myself a favor and got DS1 Remastered today. Once I beat the Elden Beast, I’m starting DS1. I know it’s a world of difference compared to Elden Ring, but I even played a little demon souls today and enjoyed how that was so I’m excited. I definitely understand why people enjoy FromSoft’s games so much. My experience so far has been fantastic. Already can’t wait to play DS1 but also another run through of Elden Ring. I haven’t gone hollow yet brothers, but as of right now, I’m doing alright. Thank you for everyone who commented on my last post on here.

Lowkey kinda crap

The wife and kids are away for a week and I want to go from Demons through to Dark Souls 3 with the same character/build idea. I haven't had this much free time in ages and I'm going to make the most of it by smashing through my favourite series. Last time I did this I went fire longsword, light armour, small shield, miracle support spells.

I am by no means good enough to do a cestus run for example but would like something that is plausible in all four games and also a bit fun! Any suggestions are much appreciated.