From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Arnust]

Something really perplexes me about the Lost Bastille area.
I usually see activity at Lost Bastille, Belfry and Sinners. However when I place my summon sign down I don't get summoned, nor do I get invaded at Belfry. Just what are they doing there?
Is there something good to farm?

Well, you have the people offering or looking for help for the Ruin Sentinels and Lost Sinner fights. Invading isn't bad as it's a good map. The Bell Keepers covenant base A is located there. Added to the normal little boost on activity in early game areas due to people knowing of SM staying around intentionally. If you want to get summoned, your SM shouldn't be too inflated and you could place it in around McDuff's-Ruin Sentinels, or at the Salt Fort bonfire. Or even at the belfry or the Servants' Quarters.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Yeah, Sinh has a hidden ability where weapons degrade faster on him. I usually take a back up weapon because of this when fighting him.
I think Aava does as well, but I'm not sure. Ivory king is ok. I consider it the weaker of the DLCs design wise, but it is probably the prettiest level.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

NG+ doubles his health, I think. Yeah, the knuckle ring is great for those sort of situations.

I really like the drake blood set. I would actually go for that over the Raime set, as the drake blood set just needs normal titanite to upgrade to +9. It will take a lot of souls (22800 to buy all of the materials from Cloanne), but if you killed Nashandra it's possible to nearly max it out. The only tricky part are slabs, and you'll probably have more than you really need anyway.

Raime set, like all boss armors, needs a lot of Twinkling to upgrade, and that has a low drop rate. It is a nice set though. It has high fire and dark resist making it, ironically enough, good against Fume Knight.

Of course, upgraded armors only really matter in NG+ and beyond. In NG it's not needed.

Speaking of armor sets, the full Heide Knight set is great. At +9 it has surprisingly high dark resist, and isn't too heavy. Not particularly high poise, but its serviceable.

 

[cvv]

Slowly going through ENB's streams where he's replaying the game after several years. I mostly hate it. It's kindda mystery why I loved his videos back in the day.

The biggest annoyance is obviously the chat. The constant prattle about pizza and stupid shit while playing a game this atmospheric is just maddening. But ENB is also a master of rationalizations. He simply doesn't like an enemy or an area and he would yap incessantly about why it's "objectively" too long or too easy or too boring or the exploration is not very good... Jesus fuck.

Also the favourite idiot's argument - "it's not hard, it's just too long and annoying". Uh-huh. "It's not hard it's just I'm dying a lot and can't get through the area. But I swear guise, it's not hard."

The one bright moment was when he was playing Sunken King for the first time, he switched off the stupid chat and actually focused on the game. I was reminded why his Youtube videos were great. It didn't last long tho. Apparently "he missed the chat too much". Halfway through the Iron King he switched the chat back on and started complaining about "bad exploration" and areas being too long....or maybe he's tired or his tastes changed... And the constant talk about pizza. It's pretty unbearable.

Bye ENB, you used to be great and now you're just an insufferable whiny windbag.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Any tips on how to kill Lud and Zallen on NG+? I got Lud to near death using a fire black knight ultra greatsword, but as soon as zallen shows up I just get fucked over. Even brightbug doesn't work, because they deal so much damage it overrides the damage reduction. Then I tried a fire long sword, and that didn't work either. Too weak. Then I tried a black knight greatsword. Same overall results as a black knight ultra.
Is this one of those bosses where you need a really specific build to kill it or something? If it weren't for the weapon their souls give you I would just abandon it again, but my completionist tendencies are getting really annoying.

I know that fire deals more damage, so I've been using fire infusions and flame weapon buff. I've also been dodging, because even a greatshield gets stamina drained in one hit.

 

[Ezekiel]

Got the last few achievements today, just because I've done it in four other Souls games. The trash mobs really bothered as I was finishing up. I had to get to the castle again in NG+2 to buy the last three spells. I spent so much of the game running in circles and zigzags, hacking away at the hordes or bosses a little at a time. There were also a lot more AI invaders. Three in the first half of Iron Keep. It was just silly. People sometimes call Demon's Souls simple compared to the later games, but I think that was part of its strength. They went nuts with the enemy numbers in DS2 and 3, without accommodating them with faster stamina regeneration and a new camera/targeting system. Instead, they just threw in the life gems. Or maybe all the trash mobs are the result of the life gems.

I'm just glad the series is finally over. It was mired in problems that they were never gonna fix. They're apparently working on three projects.

http://metro.co.uk/2016/09/14/dark-souls-makers-from-software-working-on-three-new-games-6127466/

Project 1: An action role-playing game with a dark fantasy setting similar to Dark Souls, but approached from a 'different angle'.

Project 2: A reboot of an existing franchise, with ideas inspired by Dark Souls and other previous franchises.

Project 3: A brand new IP that's 'something different from what the company has been doing previously' and 'a bit weird'.

I'm concerned that they're not gonna make PC games anymore, now that their contract with Namco Bandai is over. Partly because I've become used to cheating at these games, like I said elsewhere...

"As I was playing Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin over the last few days, I thought about how much it would suck not being able to copy and paste my save files as many times as I want. There are so many trash mobs and long stretches of running that would have pissed me off to no end had the save file been locked like in the PS3/4 versions, only able to be backed up with PlayStation Plus and only able to be downloaded once every 24 hours. I lost my Demon's Souls save twice because of the copy-protection."

I also don't wanna play these games at 30 fps, and I just really don't like consoles.

 

[Jinn]

I'm concerned that they're not gonna make PC games anymore, now that their contract with Namco Bandai is over.

This seems highly unlikely considering their massive popularity amongst PC gamers.

 

[Ezekiel]

I'm concerned that they're not gonna make PC games anymore, now that their contract with Namco Bandai is over.

This seems highly unlikely considering their massive popularity amongst PC gamers.

That didn't stop them from partnering with Sony and making a PS4 exclusive.

 

[Hyperion]

Bloodborne was made by mostly the same guys who made Demon's Souls. It made sense for them to partner with Sony and make Bloodborne, as it was a familiar development setting.

Extra mobs in DS2 also added relevance to equipment durability for the first and only time in the entire series. There were a few areas that had a long enough gap between bonfires that using 1 weapon was nearly impossible without consuming a few Repair Powders. Good luck pleasing anyone in the Souls community, though.

Any tips on how to kill Lud and Zallen on NG+? I got Lud to near death using a fire black knight ultra greatsword, but as soon as zallen shows up I just get fucked over. Even brightbug doesn't work, because they deal so much damage it overrides the damage reduction. Then I tried a fire long sword, and that didn't work either. Too weak. Then I tried a black knight greatsword. Same overall results as a black knight ultra.
Is this one of those bosses where you need a really specific build to kill it or something? If it weren't for the weapon their souls give you I would just abandon it again, but my completionist tendencies are getting really annoying.

I know that fire deals more damage, so I've been using fire infusions and flame weapon buff. I've also been dodging, because even a greatshield gets stamina drained in one hit.

Fast weapon, play defensively, use Lifegems for 'pre-healing' and do everything you can to keep both on your screen at the same time or else you pay the price. If all else fails....Git Gud, or summon an NPC phantom while you go ham.

 

[cvv]

Project 1: An action role-playing game with a dark fantasy setting similar to Dark Souls, but approached from a 'different angle'.

An dark action RPG similar to Dark Souls.....but with a different take? I reckon all those previous criteria pretty much limit your choices to another DS sequel.

Project 2: A reboot of an existing franchise, with ideas inspired by Dark Souls and other previous franchises.

That's the new Armored Core right? Yawn.

Project 3: A brand new IP that's 'something different from what the company has been doing previously' and 'a bit weird'.

Looking fwd to this the most, I just hope it's not gonna be oozing with weaboo animu bullshit.

 

[cvv]

To be fair tho it's mostly fine because of the stamina system, unlike, say, Witcher 2. In DS1 and DS2 that is. DS3 fucked everything up, including making rolling too cheap.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

So I killed Lud and Zallen. Oddly enough, I found it easier with 2 NPC phantoms than with 1, despite the increased damage reduction. Also fire mastadon halberd is pretty great, and denial is op.
Off to NG++ now, to get those spells from Wellagar. Because I don't have time to win 1000 arena matches (Brotherhood of Blood + Sentinel max ranks).

 

[Arnust]

So I killed Lud and Zallen. Oddly enough, I found it easier with 2 NPC phantoms than with 1, despite the increased damage reduction. Also fire mastadon halberd is pretty great, and denial is op.
Off to NG++ now, to get those spells from Wellagar. Because I don't have time to win 1000 arena matches (Brotherhood of Blood + Sentinel max ranks).

Fair. Just Ascetic the Rotten until you get 3? another million souls and then you're off to Drang castle.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

So I killed Lud and Zallen. Oddly enough, I found it easier with 2 NPC phantoms than with 1, despite the increased damage reduction. Also fire mastadon halberd is pretty great, and denial is op.
Off to NG++ now, to get those spells from Wellagar. Because I don't have time to win 1000 arena matches (Brotherhood of Blood + Sentinel max ranks).

Fair. Just Ascetic the Rotten until you get 3? another million souls and then you're off to Drang castle.

Yeah, I popped all of the boss souls I had stored already, and It didn't even break a million. I think I'll wear jester's gloves + ring and murder everything in sight until I get to a boss I can farm.

Trying a chime hex / dex build this time. Before it was miracles / strength. I just love soul vessels. Probably the best feature in the game. You can try a new build every new game cycle instead of making a new character.

The only problem I have though is that you can't buy PDB and Twinkling in unlimited quantities. You can buy unlimited twinkling in DS1, and there's an exploit that allowed you to easily farm infinite Demon titanite as well, but you can't do that in ds2 unless you want to spend hours farming. Not to mention that you have to join a specific covenant. Which isn't fun.

I also feel that slabs are too common in DS2; In DS1 getting a slab is a big deal, and you can only have 4 of them per NG cycle, iirc (not including special slabs; you get 2 of each with the DLC).
In DS2 by the time you finish a cycle you can have 14 of them, and that's without farming.
I have more slabs than I know what to do with. I might have to max out armor.

 

[Arnust]

I have more slabs than I know what to do with. I might have to max out armor.

You can always... sell them. kappa

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Oh yeah, Gavlan exists. Derp. I keep forgetting you can sell stuff now.

One thing that bothers me about the Ivory Crown DLC's lore is that it mentions seven beasts, but they only show you 3, two of which are a reskin.
What happened to the other 4? In fact, the DLC seems to have a lot of reskins and recycling. It reuses Maldron, who's not an invader for some reason. It reuses covetous demon, which doesn't make sense. And it borrows the witchtrees from the Dark Chasm. Again, why? Why are they there?

Here's my list of beasts

1) Aava (obviously)

2) Lud - This time a sword wielding monkey, because reskins are lame. Soul pretty much the same description. Maybe a bit of lore about him being trained to use a loyce greatsword by the king himself, but had to go into exile because of the dark.

3) Zallen - This time a giant boar with a shield on his head. Gimmick is that it slowly regens health at a certain point. Lud and Zallen fight more like Ornstein and Smough in playstyle, with Lud zipping around doing Artorias style moves, and Zallen being slow boar with a charge.

4) Replace White covetous demon with a giant version of an ice hedgehog. Which makes sense, because that's the area you find them in. Drops what is basically Kirk's thorned armor. Duty is to devour the dead, hence the skeletons.

5) Thunderhorse. Works differently than in the game. Only one, but it has more health, and it teleports out when the blizzard ends. It comes back with full health. Spawns only if the player goes off the specified path in the DLC, which would be easy to do. Drops a ring type item that works like a ring of fog. Lore is that its a horse that can only really exist in our reality during a storm. Its job is to make sure that no one escapes the wastes.

6) New animal in the Outskirts - a snow dwelling whale like creature that creates blizzards. Job is to create blizzards for the horse. Doesn't attack, but if it takes damage it creates a storm for longer, which spawns the horse for longer. Killing it stops the storm permanently, which disables the horse. Just there for players who don't want to fight the horse everytime. Drops a spell that works like hidden body - creates a blizzard at the caster's location. Enemies cannot see that far into the blizzard

7) Replace the sentries with an ice spider. Its there to protect that vault where the retainers are. Fires soul spear like projectiles. Drops a fang like lance that works like the ice rapier, except stronger. Item contains lore, like the other drops.

 

[Deflowerer]

Got the last few achievements today, just because I've done it in four other Souls games. The trash mobs really bothered as I was finishing up. I had to get to the castle again in NG+2 to buy the last three spells. I spent so much of the game running in circles and zigzags, hacking away at the hordes or bosses a little at a time. There were also a lot more AI invaders. Three in the first half of Iron Keep. It was just silly. People sometimes call Demon's Souls simple compared to the later games, but I think that was part of its strength. They went nuts with the enemy numbers in DS2 and 3, without accommodating them with faster stamina regeneration and a new camera/targeting system. Instead, they just threw in the life gems. Or maybe all the trash mobs are the result of the life gems.

"As I was playing Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin over the last few days, I thought about how much it would suck not being able to copy and paste my save files as many times as I want. There are so many trash mobs and long stretches of running that would have pissed me off to no end had the save file been locked like in the PS3/4 versions, only able to be backed up with PlayStation Plus and only able to be downloaded once every 24 hours. I lost my Demon's Souls save twice because of the copy-protection."

I also don't wanna play these games at 30 fps, and I just really don't like consoles.

wtf are you smoking? DS3 played like character action game at some point due to the increased stam regeneration. What targeting system wtf? Who the fuck uses targeting for multiple mobs especially?

git gud scrub

 

[praetor]

Is there a point in doing the Frigid Outskirt? I find its design to be utter and complete shit and, as far as I know, at the end you get to fight fight Alva again only there's two now and I disliked that fight.

depends. do you want to have arguably the best greatsword in the game, or are you satisfied with the weapons you have now? if the answer is "yes" for the former, then it's absolutely "worth it" (i mean, it's still a colossal pain in the fucking ass but at least you can get something good out of it)

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Is there a point in doing the Frigid Outskirt? I find its design to be utter and complete shit and, as far as I know, at the end you get to fight fight Alva again only there's two now and I disliked that fight.

You get a shiny dex scaling greatsword that uses twinkling instead of petrified, and a shield that regens health. Other than that, don't bother.
The boss is actually a lot easier if you have 2 phantoms with you. If you are thinking of doing it to get the sword, I'd advise doing it in NG, because they are a pain in NG+ and the area gets new enemies in NG++

 

[Multidirectional]

Dex scaling greatsword? Can it really be that good? I mean DEX scaling is utter shit compared to STR scaling in DSII and there is such a huge variety of STR weapons to choose from already.. I remember doing Frigid Outskirts once but I didn't even bother trying that sword.

 

[Hyperion]

It's all in the moveset. Its 2HR2 and Rolling R1 are thrusts with a similar speed to a Straight Sword.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Dex scaling greatsword? Can it really be that good? I mean DEX scaling is utter shit compared to STR scaling in DSII and there is such a huge variety of STR weapons to choose from already.. I remember doing Frigid Outskirts once but I didn't even bother trying that sword.

Admittably, the damage isn't great, but it does have nice length and a versatile moveset. It's also pretty fast for a great-sword and not too heavy. It's 2H strong attacks are quick and combo pretty easily

Anyway, got 100% acheivements on DS2 original. Playing through Scholar now.
Some things I noticed -

Things are really different in terms of enemy placement. I got surprised by some ambushes, some of which are a real bitch to fight against. An early example of this is getting that halberd; in vanilla there's just one guy that drops down to ambush you, in scholar there's like 4 of those gambeson wearing grunts, who aren't really that dangerous, but since you're on a narrow path its really possible to get knocked off.

The Enemy aggro range appears to be longer and more aggressive as well. I had guys I would ignore before because they didn't aggro follow me from like a mile away, and archers are a real pain in the ass

The lighting system is nice. If you go into a dark room, then its a dark room. You can actually see shit in Things Betwixt as well, as there's that nice light coming from the sky.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

And now you know the pain of everyone who played DS2 to its entirety. The good news is that now that you've beaten it, you never have to do that shit again. Unless you want their souls, of course.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Oh, they are for real. They want those 50 souls.
Few hints -

1) Dont kill the Ivory King. If you kill the ivory king, only a few spawn at a time, and they are subject to spawn limits. Even the Covenant of Champions doesn't seem to work. Farm until the king spawns, then commit suicide. Repeat. You can also try to get summoned; Loyce souls are a drop when playing as a phantom, so you can try doing that if you killed the King and don't want to burn an ascetic.
2) Summon phantoms. For some reason the drop rate increases the more phantoms you have
3) Try the following set up - Symbol of Avarice / Jester hat + Gold Ring(+1) + Prisoner's tatters + Watchdragon + coin. You can get a better gold ring if you kill the belfry gargoyls on NG+ / Bonfire intensity 2+

 

[sullynathan]

I have less playthroughs in DS2 than other souls games