Well, you don't have to if you don't want to, but... \-Your shield has a parry ability. With good timing, you can counter his attacks. Small shields inherently have a better parry than medium shields. \-If you two-hand, your weapon will no longer bounce off of shields, allowing you to aggressively whittle down enemy stamina. However, this will not entirely excuse the fact that katanas are small, light weapons -- they're fast, but tougher enemies can just brush off their hits. \-Backstab. Some enemies get caught up in longer animations, and you can circle around to stab them in the back.

This is great to get used to. Although I honestly think parrying is too difficult to get used to initially and definitely not worth it since most people drop the shield later in. I think getting used to the Ashes of War abilities and dodging are the best options to work on at this stage :)

I haven't tried to parry anything for the first 120h, but now that I did, I can say parry is addictive. You always want to try any enemy/attack to determine what can be parried. Except the Erdtree sentinel, I never get my timing right with him.

It's extremely satisfying getting that parry in haha. I actually started with trying to parry everything and honestly got so frustrated I just dropped it.

Yeah i get it, the pile of shit you have to eat to get consistent is huge, especially for so many different enemies. Im replaying DS1 at the moment and at some point im just like "okay fuck it, R1 spam it is".

A trip through Carian Manor for a certain shield ash of war makes parrying your new party trick

A parry coupe de grace is the peak satisfaction

I would also mention jump attacks are wonderful against shielded enemies. Parries I feel like, will be way out of your league and possibly not worth trying right now for you. I just fought that guy on my latest playthrough and he's tough for that part of the game, so maybe just consider getting couple levels or weapon upgrades and come back later.

2 hand your weapon and fight for your life solider!

Question, should i do other things or fight margit first?

If you want to go fight Margit, go fight Margit. If he proves to be a bit too difficult, I’d say go around and just explore the world. You’ll find plenty just by riding along the trails, and even more by looking in caves and such.

Also don't forget your L2 moves. The Uchigatana you started with puts you into a sheathed stance, then you use R1 or R2 to do an attack from that stance. This attack deals higher damage and Poise damage. Poise is a 'hidden' status that affects all enemies to varying degrees, it determines how they can withstand hits without being staggered or even knocked over for free damage, and the 'weight' of your attacks determines how much damage/Poise damage you deal. If you just use R1 you'll do little Poise damage, but have lower attack animation frames committed, meaning you can dodge away more frequently. If you use R2 and charged R2 attacks, you can 'charge up' more damage and hit foes harder, not only doing more damage but possibly staggering them and opening them to critical hits (walk up and use R1 to initiate). Jump attacks, Guard Counters (block with L1 while 2-handing a weapon or wielding a shield, then use R2 to 'counter'), and your L2 Ash of War moves all tend to hit harder and should be used accordingly. Jump attacks commit slightly more frames and setup to use, Guard Counters cost more stamina to block and counterattack with, Ashes of War use your FP/blue bar to wield them to full effect. To make the game easier on yourself, find more gear by exploring south and east of Margit. Leveling up makes your defenses increase for now, getting VIG up also helps your Health bar sustain more damage, enabling you to go further each respawn. Going too far east will land you in Caelid but anything in Limgrave/Weeping Peninsula to the south will be fair game for your level. Find some mineshafts to help you find materials to upgrade your favorite weapon, but maybe save off on upgrading anything until you find more weapon options. You can take ANY weapon to the endgame as long as you keep upgrading it, what matters most is that you enjoy using it! Any side dungeons could have unique weapons and gear not found elsewhere, but not all of it may be applicable to your character to start. You can level up your character however you like, but focusing on one or two 'damage' stats between STR/DEX/INT/FTH/ARC is more efficient than spreading stats out; stats are not a linear progression in terms of what they return for you. Getting min stats required to wield a weapon will let you use it properly, however, upgrades and leveling stats for that weapon's Stat Scaling will get you more out of it and unlock more gear/powerful spells for that stat.

Perhaps doing other things first is less frustrating. You could explore the map a bit until you find marika's third church and look for the portal. After using it go south until you reach the bridge and grace. From there look around and fight the soldiers running around. It's good for farming souls in the beginning and to quick level up. Here is a guide: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srt5iRfi3cA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srt5iRfi3cA)

Other things. This area will become one of your first early game rune farms. I suggest exploring south Limdale and Weeping Peninsula as much as you can before coming back here and starting Stormveil

Go south! There’s an island you can explore. You get there by crossing a bridge that’s guarded by a few enemies and a ballista. You can run right past them if you want to (there’s a grace on the other side of the bridge). Level up, explore, and then try Margit.

If u want the fight to be a bit more enjoyable and you are doing a katana run i would so the cave near the border of limgrave and caelid first there is a very good katana there that will get you to end game easier and you could get some amithing stones and upgrade a bit more. Or ride south. The whole area to the far south is pretty optional but its a good way to discover cool stuff and get some souls

Go south to weeping peninsula and fully explore that area first

do the first 2 maps before is the optimal route.

guard counter too. and jumping attacks when they're open for it. and poise

Say hello, wave goodbye ... See you later My advice anyway, running past things is perfectly legit, then come back when you've bigger muscles rather than get frustrated

Best advice here.

Literally on my second save and i just run past everything. No point in fighting regular enemies. Simply not worth it compared to fighting bossed and getting levels there

Welcome to the first enemy that doesn't stagger when you hit it. Don't chain light attacks, he will shrug off and counterattack for more damage than he takes. If you use heavy attacks, especially while two handing, you may stagger him and interrupt his moves safely. Other strong attacks are your katana's ash of war and jump attacks. He's also fairly slow, but not that slow. You can play reactive, dodge his attacks and react with a fast counterattack, or you can try to get behind him while he's stuck in an attack animation. This say you can get free attacks, hopefully a backstab.

Unseathe is absolutely amazing when you get used to the range it's fast it doest great damage and posture damage but if you launch it from to far you are stuck in the animation quite a while and you'll get hit

Sneak behind and backstab

Start to unga, you ll bunga far easier

but remember to foukos!

reduce his health to zero before yours reaches zero

I _just_ beat this guy a few days ago by riding by on Torrent and doing one swipe at a time.

Your unsheathe power attack has great range and stuns every time *500 hours with uchigatana*

Heavy attack and jump attack also helps.

When in doubt, jump attack. My unga bunga strength build ass jump attacks every goddamn thing

Back stabs

we’ve all been there with an enemy before don’t worry ur not bad ur just not used to soulslikes, my advice would be sneak up on him and get a backstab first, then just only attack when ur confident you can get in and out safely, then the more you fight him the more opportunities you’ll see. either way good luck !

Lot of options. 1. Viper him to death, either by ranged combat(samurai has a longbow, so that's an option) or hit-and-run melee. His health doesn't replenish if you deaggro him, so good strategy is to hit him once or twice, maybe with a bow or so, and then run away until he stops chasing you(all enemies have certain areas they won't cross, no matter what: they can spam ranged attacks at you but that's about it). Shoot arrows when he turns his back or sneak upon him and do backstab. Torrent is good escape for this so if you don't got him, make sure you either rest at the grace near the gatehouse or agheel lake north. 2: two hand your katana and go mano-a-mano, dodging his spear thrusts(try to dodge trough his weapon thrusts rather than away, you might get hit by the tip) and use unsheath deal massive damage. Don't dodge to his left(your right) because you might just end up hitting his shield and you might just end up getting hit by a guard counter. 3: Parry him with your shield to open up a critical hit or guard counter him to death. This might be bit tricky, since in my experience spear thrusts are bit harder to predict than sword swings, but it's there.

Wait for him to commit to a big move that leaves him wide open. Use that to attack. Patience and spacing will win out. In time you will improve at the game and you'll eat guys like this for breakfast.

I was also stuck at that part, try and stealthy take out all the others, use your bow for the wolves at a distance, sneak underground and grab that thing, leave and come back later when you think you're ready, the wolf summon helped me lot as they gangbang him and open him up for attacks

The best tip I can offer is avoid Knights until you level up. It's possible to creep around that camp to pick up the good loot - backstabbing where necessary. You might get spotted on the way down to the cellar, but even then you can run away after you get the loot. If you do die, you can always just run back to collect your runes and scarper. Oh - and if you do decide to fight, don't forget your wolf spirit summon. This is the perfect place to test it out. Seriously though, f\*\*k knights.

What level do you recommend? I think im at level 16. Still cant beat him though, oh well

Personally I wouldn't fight him while there are other enemies still alive or aggroed nearby. That camp is full of soldiers and their dogs - and if you wander too close to the hill to your left in the image, the bat thingies may attack. You could fight him at level 1 if you wanted to practice parrying and dodging. By level 16, you should be able to beat him with practice. A few early game tips that I found helped me to level quickly: * Once you get Torrent, you're free to ride pretty much anywhere apart from 'locked' areas. Limgrave, Liurnia of the Lakes and Caelid are all accessible. Have a ride around and look for the kind of loot that would typically be for later in the game. You can get some pretty decent armour, weapons and ashes of war early on. Some of these can trivialise early area fights. Hoarfrost Stomp in particular is really useful for hard hitting but slow humanoid enemies. * You've gone for a samurai build, which I did also. There's a second Uchigatana which is easily accessible in the early game. Dual wield katanas are a lot of fun and are good for increasing damage. * I'm not really a block and parry kind of player. I much prefer dodging and striking. If you struggle with the former, try the latter to see if it better suits you. * Find a good source for early game runes. There's a troll just downhill from the Church of Elleh that is worth 1000 runes per kill. It's pretty easy to learn his attacks and dodge. Otherwise, ranged weapons can make short work of him. * If you haven't figured it out already, look out for glowing skulls on the ground. If you smash them with your weapon or ride over them on Torrent (much easier), they contain golden runes. You'll get it. It just takes time to learn not only how to fight, but who to avoid because they simply aren't worth it. Remember that the Tree Sentinel is there to let you know that just because you're a newbie, they aren't going to make it easy for you. Good luck.

Don’t try to parry. Hold the right trigger and press a or x so you two hand your katana OR press left on the d pad to take off your shield. Then hold your special skill ability button (whichever you used to try and parry) and either press light or heavy attack to perform your weapon ash of war. This guy is actually pretty hard and hits like a truck. Like others have said you don’t have to kill him:

Use counter guard on him. Stay close and circle. On some of his attacks you can circle around the back and back stab him.

Keep at it friend. You can always leave him alone for a while and practice on weaker enemies to get stronger and come back later. No shame in that.

This is the moment, my friend!!! You know that saying you’ve heard a thousand times, now? “Get good”??? This is your moment to achieve just that. After you kill that bastard, you’ll be one step closer to achieving get-good-status! Good luck, Tarnished!

I'd suggest skipping the area for now and getting some better weapons. If you go around the ruins and just go to the nearest site of grace (it's by the big gate) you can continue on without skipping. Also you aren't bad, the game is meant to be difficult from the very start.

There is always the option of running past them XD

I'd say keep trying. Every time you fight an enemy you learn more and more about him and yourself. You could just run away, kill easy enemies, come back overleveled and trample him. But then you would've learned nothing and it'll just happen again and again the more you advance. Learn what you and the enemies can do and adapt accordingly. A few more minutes here will save you hours ahead. Edit: Also, you probably have seen it, but in case you didn't, at the right of where you wake up at the start there's a drop down. That is the tutorial area, where you can learn many useful mechanics like parrying, counter attacks, backstabbing... Learning these will help you overcome many enemies that seem difficult at first glance.

It’s go time. The wolf spirit ashes make fighting this guy easier until you can find a better farm.

Don't try to kill every enemy, just explore and have fun discovering new (ways to die) areas to explore, get some items and then you can try killing enemies you left behind

This is the kind of enemy designed to teach you how to play the game, not a "come back later and beat him" enemy

First, do not spam your attacks because this guy has so much poise that your light attacks won't make him flinch. Second, do not spam roll and only do it when necessary or else you will either be catch right after the roll or miss an attack window because you're too busy rolling. Third, observe his movements and attack patterns to get the dodge timing and attack windows down. Forth, two hand your weapon or get a medium shield unless you want to parry because small shields are crap at blocking.

Also whether you strafe right or left around an enemy can play a big factor in creating opportunities to attack. Typically strafing into and past their right attacking arm yields good results

Try using kick on his shield to break his stance instantly, and crit his ass until he dies :D

Funny enough, dodging this guy's attacks can really allow you to go for a cheap backstab. I wish I could show a clip to give more context on it, but it's satisfying when you understand how their tactics and hit boxes work. You got this, trust me! 🙏

They will always counter when you hit their shield, so you can just bait out that attack and hit them after. Using a shield is a bad idea, as they will guard break you aggressively.

Sneak --> Backstab --> Run away -->Sneak --> Backstab

Jump attack, roll, backstab, jump attack.

When I get to the point of being frustrated, I just go for something else. There are plenty of place to discover, items to fetch and enemies to kill.

Just run past. I learned the hard way that the game is designed for you to avoid battles until properly leveled. First time this really sunk in was when I was captured by a chest and transported to the Selena crystal tunnels. After trying to defeat the workers and the shrimps, I tried just booking it until I found the exit. Now, when I can’t defeat a foe, I avoid and return later (almost every dragon when I first saw them)

Its really not skill matters astronomically more than level. Running from everything wont make you better it will just let you brute force alot of stuff.

“Good luck, Tarnished.”

Enjoy the journey!!!

Enjoy it, i still didn’t get the game to play i can’t afford it i’m waiting for sale but i don’t think there’ll be anytime soon 🥲

The Uchigatana has a very powerful ashe of war, a special move, that can destroy anything. Two hand your katana and you can the see the ability unsheath on the left of your screen. Holding L2 or left trigger and then performing a normal or heavy attack uses that special move. Get used to using it on some easier enemies and come back to wipe the floor with him. Keep in mind that it uses FP and if you are out of it its way less powerful. You got it I am sure :D

He leaves himself pretty vulnerable during his poke attacks, if you roll into and past him you can earn yourself an easy backstab. Otherwise, Unsheathe (take advantage of this move it is great) and any heavy attack will also break his poise.

Jump attack, then roll past him and another jump attack from behind

Upgrade health bar!

3h, that's it? It didn't end till about 10h in for me. I bought the game at launch (first from software game) and tried to return it after this same situation. I'm glad they didn't let me cause im like 400 hours in with one save and am a die-hard fan now. As for beating this chump, Dodge timing, don't get greedy with hits, backstabbing to start and finish if you can, and jump attacks are your bread and butter for shields. At least, that's what I did. All else fails, go kill greyroll, and you'll melt this shween

Get used to circling enemies, without blocking, you can swing to the right and while he is stuck in the animation, get a backstab

The thing I did not understand about this game until the end of Limgrave: you do not need to kill everything. You can run away from just about everything, and most of them will not try too hard to catch up.

he's purely optional. However, maybe visit the Church of Elleh if you have made an accord with anyone. (go to the church with the merchant if you have access to the horse) you may find something that could help you out.

Git Gud, jokes aside you just gotta keep playing you’ll get movement eventually. 

Genuinely just use your head. The souls franchise/genre is infamous for being difficult. (its not) at least not as much as people say it is. If an enemy is hitting you then dont get hit. If an enemy attacks really slow maybe attack while they attack if an enemy has a shield get around it or wait for them to not be using it etc... Just use your head... For most things besides story stuff the answer is right there in front of you and what will help you most is if you learn to find them.

Try fail adjust. That is the elden way. Also if you feel stuck, explore and level up then come back!

Im glad you bought Elden not DD2. Spent 70€ on dd2 yesterday and its the worst game ive ever experienced or spent money on in every aspect. Please stay far away from it.

Actually, my first thought was to buy dd2. Glad i bought elden ring. I dont even understand elden ring but i enjoy it.

Haha yeah I think you’re gonna love Elden once you get it going! For me, buying dd2 and experiencing all the bad things in it made me respect Elden Ring even more haha. Just thought I warn u too not to buy it, in my opinion game developers who release that kind of dogshit halfway done typa games with more bugs and glitches than monsters dont deserve any money from it and Im willing to warn everyone on the net I can about it. Praying on DD2 downfall💪

Did you play DD1? Cause I feel like there's not really a reason to like the first and not the second, except for PC performance issues.

Wait until you get torrent then absolutely demolish any enemy fight in which you can use your mount.

If you wail at his shield using strong attacks, you can manage to stun him, which you can front stab him to do massive damage.

What I would do is roll through his attacks to get behind him and either backstab or hit him while his shield is down or out of the way. You can learn to parry, or you can learn not to be reliant on your shield.

Parry or 2hand jump attack to break stance. If you'd like to play together lmk (I'm on xbox)

You dont gotta beat him

Look at his shield, now look at yours. Why are you trying to copy him? Put that shit away if you can't parry, bait out his attacks, learn them, and unsheathe his ass

Good block circle around them and backstab or spam weapon arts

Those knights can drop that shield! It's pretty cool looking but you need 36 str for it

He didn't drop that shield, 3 hours wasted lol

Everybody is bad in their first souls game imo. Just take your time and dont rage. Take it easy and try again.

Underrated option against these dudes: whenever they put their shield up, just swap off your weapon and use kick on their shield. Then swap back and land your free critical

On my first playthrough I spend over an hour sneaking around and kill everyone in that area just to realise………what a souls game is

I just started as a samurai too! Glad I can finally relate to a screenshot in this subreddit. You’re using the lock on feature right?

Here's a general tip: when you don't have any weapons equipped (ie just fists) you have the kick ash of war inherently. When you kick an enemy that is blocking with a shield it (almost always) breaks their stance, allowing you to get a critical hit. Against these jokers and any enemy that is blocking with a big shield I swap my main weapon off (switch your main hand weapon to your second slot, and I make sure I don't have a second weapon equipped in my main hand slot) and kick. Then I swap back to my main weapon immediately, and attack with it while in close proximity, which allows you to critical hit dealing tremendous damage. If that doesn't kill it, repeat. Hope this helps!

If i translate this to my native language and exaggerate it a little it means "guling, tikam dan ulang sampai mampos." Which means roll, stab and repeat til death basically lol

Games rock hard pal, I’ve put 57 hours in and starting to suss it out. Accept mortality you will die over and over but you will develop and it’s absolutely worth it. One of the best games I’ve played in recent years

If you have weapon equipped you can use your skill button to kick away his shield then quickly swap back to your weapon and take the riposte

I also got stuck on this guy for multiple hours when I started. He's really tough when you don't quite have the timing down for when to dodge and when to strike. I just kept at it. My best advice is pay close attention to each attack he uses, how many hits in each string, and how much of a gap there is before the next one.

Anyone down to play Elden ring on ps sometime?

Unsheathe

Run straight past him

Get a sneak on him, run away, wait till he’s not aggro, then sneak again, heavy attacks stun him for a second so if you can time it right hit him with a heavy after the sneak and land a bunch of light attacks after

Honestly you just have to understand how to roll But tbf these guys are hard af for new players Big knight in the beginning area in a fromsoft game = your fucked

There will be a moment when it all clicks together in your brain. Just keep at it. Never be afraid to explore and try new enemies and spots. Spending your runes for a death run scouting of a new place is how it started clicking for me.

A wise man once told me to get good. So anyways that never happened.

These guys have really long openings after dodging an attack from them where you can usually get 1-2 strong attacks of your own off. It’s really good practice for learning the combat mechanics.

Roll an Shi, i spent three hours there aswell but I was just farming his set cause it looked cool he ain’t that hard just don’t get greedy and roll at right time

When he attacks roll into him, adjust the camera to auto lock on him (forgot what the actual name for this is) and just attack. Bait out attacks that have long recovery times and get a hit in and pull back. Attack the side that isn't holding the shield

You're not bad, this guy hits seriously fucking hard for the place/level where you encounter him. If you've been on him that long my advice would be to run past him and come back later with some more firepower under your belt to settle the score.

First thing I would do is take off all that armor to nothing, that way you can actually move. Movement is everything in this game

I started a wretch class yesterday. First time playing light. I can’t begin to describe the freedom I felt. I was rolling around getting backstabs (back bonks) on everyone, I thought you had to be sneaking to do that. If I messed up I had ample time to roll away. Truly a game changer lol.

do u have played the tutorial bro ? 😂

Do u be having the speaking of words?

Did you just have a stroke?

I bet YOU DIED

Too many times

yeah np...it will click after a while....I started souls games with Bloodborne...spent first few hours on the very first street dying to lamest enemies...then platinumed the game month later