Hey everyone,
Im excited to play this game on launch day but at the same time im already feeling anxious. The only other games in this style I have played is bloodborne ( plat ) and dark souls 3 on ps4. While I obviously did enjoy them I did find them stressful from start to finish.
I want to make this as fun as possible. I don't want to overly challenge myself needlessly with a crippled build. So, you experts out there what tips do you have for new players like myself when starting out and creating a character.....and general tips going forward? Also, can anything be missed in the game? Or should I somewhat spoil myself in order to prevent missing key areas and items? Thanks.
I attempted the game twice - the first time it didn't take and I quit the game in frustration after the first boss due to not really understanding how levelling *up* caused me to deal *less* damage (I *now* know that that's a combination of a World Tendency thing and the fact that you deal less damage in body form, but that wasn't clear then - and I don't know if we know whether World Tendency is coming back in the same form?)
After taking some advice, several years later I came back to the game and it
clicked; here's the stuff that worked for me:
* This you'll get conflicting opinions of, but it worked for me: When picking class, go Royal. You start from level 1 so you can start shaping your character from the off, and you start with two very useful things - a ring that regenerates mana, and a single spell that's a very effective ranged attack.
* HOWEVER, I'd also caution a corollary to that:
Don't fall into the trap of relying on those. Quite early on I tried to engage with the melee combat in a conventional sense and tried to limit the ring/spell combo as an emergency measure only. I think that helped a lot - it gave me opportunities to escape and regroup from difficult situations if I had to while still letting me learn the essentials of combat.
* Be careful with your armour loadout. If you wear too much armour, you'll dodge much slower (and 'too much' is much less than the maximum amount you can actually wear - I *think* the 'fast dodge' is half your armour weight limit?)
* You're going to lose souls. It's not the end of the world. Even tens of thousands.
* Some souls are instead objects which only add to your souls tally when you use them; you will not lose these when you die. Do note that some such souls are also used in crafting high-end items, so don't use them willy-nilly.
* Don't feel you *have* to go from 1-1 into 1-2. Hop around. I *think* my progression in the end was 1-1, a *little* exploration into 1-2 (see below!), then 4-1 but not tackling the boss, then 3-1 to get my second boss kill.
* Find a weapon that works for you. For me this was the spear+shield combo, since turtling and playing at a slow pace really worked for me, and upgrading it along a specific path made it a very effective weapon.
* Note that you can use a two-handed stance for any weapon, it'll deal more damage at the cost of speed.
There's lots that can be missed, and indeed some things you'll do in a playthrough will lock off other avenues (and vice versa), but the game is very replayable with a robust NG+, so you can explore different approaches. I went through with a guide, and I don't regret doing that (that's in part how I *found* that spear that suited me, for one thing - and I would have been *very* inconvenienced if I'd gone down one specific path due to how I usually play RPGs, so the guide helped me avoid that.), but there's a lot to potentially explore if you so wish.
Edit: And I'd missed that you were already a Dark Souls alumni? Nah, you'll be fine.
