Dark Souls

[Grimnirsson]

Last night I was determined to reach the Undead Parish which is a part of the world that is fairly early in the game and the story that the player must go to.  In order to get to the Undead Parish you must pass through the Undead Burg.  There is a great bridge that leads to the Parish however it is defended by a giant Bridge Wyvern.  Here is what happened to me...

Later in the game you will be able to reach this location (as all the others) in more than one way, Lordran is full of shortcuts but you must find and open them first.

On my way to the Bridge Wyvern I ran into the Taurus Demon.  I must have died 3 or 4 times before I realized that the Taurus Demon seems to behave like the monster at the Undead Asylum.  So I figured I'll try to get in close and stay inside is hammer strike.  After dying 3 more times I finally figured out his pattern and was able to kill him.  Yes!!

Congrats! The Taurus Demon is the first boss (not counting the Asylum Demon here) one encounters and I still remember my sweaty hands when I was in that fight myself. Like you I died, even more than 4 times and it felt great when the beast was finally killed and I was showered in souls :)
But he is a very easy Boss, but that only comes with experience. My Cleric killed him without using of an Estus Flask. If you climb up the ladder to the tower with those two crossbow soldiers,  killing them first, then go back to the bridge, running to the second tower until the Taurus Demon appears, again up the ladder...you'll have the opportunity to jump on him and hit him hard. Depending on the weapon this brings down his health bar 1/3 to 1/2 so the rest is pretty easy. Of course if you miss him he will get very angry and you might have a hard time under his feet :P

Then I met Solaire of Astora and had a pleasant conversation with him.  He is a member of a covenant and the Lord of Sunlight.  After talking to Solaire I proceeded halfway across the bridge to the Wyvern encounter.  He killed me over 10 times last night.  Although of course it was frustrating I was not at the point of giving up.  Dark Souls is so rewarding that difficulties are easily forgiven.    There is always another way around a problem in this game it seems so I figured I'd try bypassing the Wyvern until I level up my character a bit and get some better weapons and armor.

I found a way to pass underneath the Wyvern and make it to the Undead Parish.  But then some big Rhinoceros animal trampled me to death!  It was 12:44 in the morning so I decided to go to bed.  Tonight I shall slay me that animal and gain entrance into the Undead Parish!!

Cool :)  Explore this area under the bridge/Dragon you will find a shortcut back to the bonfire in the Undead Burg... But also remember that you don't need to kill all monsters, even the Bridge Wyvern doesn't need to be killed, he is not a boss like the others who open up new locations when defeated (of course it makes things easier and you get experience and souls, e.g. the Rhinos are monsters that don't come back when you sit at the bonfire so killing them does make sense). And he is pretty tough. If you manage to cause enough damage to his tail he will lose it and you get the Dragon Sword, one of the strongest weapons in the early game, but he will still be alive. Killing him is possible with a long range strategy using a bow or in melee if you are fast and/or have a high fire resistance. A good choice is to get the Dragon Sword and let him live until you are a higher level and better equipped.

The great thing with DS is, there is always more than one strategy and different play styles may find totally different ways to deal with the situations. That's also the reason why the game is still fun in your second or even third play-through or in fact any time you replay it with  a different character build.

[Grimnirsson]

Grimnirsson re-started the game with a Cleric, so he can probably say more about how this class would be for an inexperienced player.

The Cleric is pretty cool, I like my choice. He is able to use good weapons, has the healing miracle early in the game which gives 5 more times to heal in addition to the 5 Estus Flasks one has at the beginning, so that makes 10 so to say without the need for kindling a bonfire. That's pretty sweet and makes things much easier in the first hours. He belongs to the Way of the White covenant right from the start and that is one of the coop covenants so I see plenty of miracle resonances (strengthening my own mircales) and summoning signs. I was invaded only two times in 10 hours or so by a Dark Spirit and was able to defeat both of them. He is average fast (and lightning fast compared to my previous super-heavy tank) and so far I have no problems and the first bell is already rung as I said to W8taminute yesterday :)

So yeah, I think he is a great class for beginners and vets alike.

[DV8]

What a hard game!  I knew it was coming but had no idea.  I'm am still stuck just trying to get out of the Asylum!

[Grimnirsson]

Welcome to Dark Souls, this game separates the tough guys from the unbreakables  :P

So, what class did you choose and on what platform are you playing?

[DV8]

Decided on the hunter for now.

[Grimnirsson]

Your platform of choice...a hunter secret?  :P

[DV8]

PS3.  Switched to warrior.  At the boss.  One word comes to mind, OUCH.

[Grimnirsson]

Make sure you actually hit the Asylum Demon when you jump on him to make the plunge attack and grab your weapon with both hands to inflict more damage. Then stay close to him and go into melee and he should be no problem because a plunge attack is already doing a great deal of damage. Good luck!

[W8taminute]

Also try to click the R3 while facing the demon so that you 'lock on' to him.  Then circle around him real close.  Keep moving and circling around him.  When the demon takes a swing hopefully you'll be just off to his side where he'll miss.  Then plunge your blade into his side or better yet his rear if you can.  Rinse repeat and say goodnight to the demon.


Side note:  My 8 year old has learned the basics of combat and is able to take on 2 of those skinny zombie guys at a time.  She's playing as a pyromancer. 

[DV8]

Excellent advice.  Thanks!

[Hiimori]

Excellent advice.  Thanks!

Yes, the Lock-on is fundamental in this game! Once you locked a target, you will always keep it in your focus and can easily roll or circle around it, shield raised, and stab it from behind your shield.

The Taurus Demon isn't very strong; you have to make an initial plunge attack on his head from above (grabbing your weapon two-handed and hitting him while you are falling), this will drain half of his life meter.

Then, when you are on the ground with him, you have to lock him as soon as possible and start rolling like crazy around him. Some more stabs or swings or thrusts (depending on your weapon), and he's done. But you have to be quick about it because he loves jumping high and dropping down on you. His attacks are quite slow and when he makes his strong attack and it misses, he's open for several seconds where you can stab him to death. It's just a question of locking and avoiding him in the very first seconds you land on the ground next to him.

Good luck!

I just returned to the New Londo Ruins (got a heavy beating there by the ghosts and knights when I went there far too early in the game), and now it's almost relaxing there, compared to the places I just left ;)

[Grimnirsson]

Ok, a little update about the adventure of my new character, the Cleric. I'm now about 15 hours into the game again, level 33. Opened a few shortcuts, killed the Knight on the tower between the bridge (with the red dragon, which is still alive because I have low fire res) and the Undead Parish, had some farming runs into the Darkroot Garden and killed the Capra Demon in the lower section of the Undead Burg. Next goal is killing Havel, then the Hydra, the Golden Golem in Darkroot Basin and then heading towards the Depths...

This second playthrough so far is much quicker than my first one, will be interesting to see how many hours I need to bring the Cleric up to level 90+ where I lost my old hero after the mentioned 140 hours :)

[W8taminute]

^Level 33 after 15 hours of play?  That is impressive.

I'm currently about 13.5 hours into play and my knight is at level 24.  I ran into that same knight in the tower between the bridge and the Undead Parish as well but did not do good.  My problem is that I get greedy and try to perform multiple strikes against him before he swings at me again.  I think I can beat him but I need to take it slow and calculate my moves more closely. 

I did manage to kill the Armored Boar however so at least I don't have to face him anymore.  I'll bypass the knight in the tower for now and try to locate the bonfire in the Undead Parish.  I know the enemies will be a bit more tough than the ones in the Undead Burg but I recently reinforced my sword and armor +1 each so I'm hoping to be able to take them on.

[Grimnirsson]

So, accomplished my tasks yesterday - Havel, Hydra and the Golden Golem are no more :)

Regarding the "Tower Knight" - he has some nasty combos and does a lot of damage with his broad sword, so a shield with Damage reduction 100% is helpful if he gets through. I killed all the enemies in the area including the Knights in the Church to have enough room for maneuver. Then I lured him out so we could fight in the open area in front of the tower. A strong shield, a +5 sword with bleeding and being careful (and not greedy :P) did the trick.

A good strategy is to run up to him so he notices you and comes after you. Then quickly running back on the street and standing on the wall exactly opposing the door that leads to the tower stairs. When he comes out and sees you he will come to the wall below you and you can make a plunge attack on him. But be careful one of his attacks can reach you up there so if you are trying a strong plunge attack (holding the weapon in both hands) there's a short moment when you are extremely vulnerable to this attack. You can also lure him out and run into the church, he usually won't enter the church and with a bow you can shoot him while he is going backwards on the stairs, the arrows will aggro him again, he will come forth, go back, you shoot and so on. Poison arrows would work wonders I think :)

[Hiimori]

I LOVE poison arrows, I killed many of the larger enemies (dragons, golems, the highly dangerous basilisks, demons) by shooting them with poison arrows until the hit numbers above their heads began to count down (sometimes gaining aquisition by shooting them with cheap regular arrows first and then switching to poison arrows), and then waited until they died. Some are so poison-resistant that the arrows lose their effect after a while, so you have to shoot them again.

The Ring of Fog is also invaluable; I wear it since early in the game and almost never unequip it. The ring drastically reduces the enemy's area of awareness, so they realize you later and turn their back on you earlier. You should try to get the ring as early as possible, I won't leave my bonfire without it  :P In combination with a bow, it simply rocks!