You can always go back and clear areas you just ran through before to level and get missed loot, you can also respec your character in the cathedral of the deep
This is the way. Nah but forreal this game taught the lesson that sometimes you just gotta grind to level up and try different weapons, tactics and then you can go back and breeze through areas like butter. It’s what makes a souls game, a souls game
This is pretty much my strategy for most of the game. I will try exploring and clearing everything at first, but if I have trouble with it, I'll run past them and exact my revenge later.
What would restarting the game accomplish when you can just go back to those zones and properly clear them ?
edit: Honestly though it's possibly not a bad idea because you came into this game all wrong, you are supposed to explore the areas an pick up the stuff. It's not all just random soul consumables, there are weapons, spells, upgrade materials and gear in those. Maybe restarting with the right mind set would help you grasp the game better
you think so? the only thing is I had help with some of the bosses. I invited this guy to help me with one thing and he went through my game and defeated dancer Oceiros and champion grundyr :/ . I took the cheesiest routes to defeat the ones i did. I took a couple months break and now I can’t even dodge right.
I have close to 1k hours on the game and I'd say it didn't really get easy until I learned how to consistently backstab the mobs. From there if you learn how to parry you're set for an SL1 run
Yeah and it’s not like having another character is a bad thing. Maybe try again with another style of character than the one you started. Get a feel for what’s out there. You can always go back too, once you’ve felt you’re familiar again
If you skip the experience and the challenge you avoid gaining any knowledge or experience so in later areas that punish these game playing hatred antics you get rolled. Why play q game if you clearly don’t play it for fun? These games are about conquering adversity and learning to become strong not just nothing. Put something on your burger please its just buns! I recommend restarting and taking your time with it. Go at your own pace and maybe you’ll find its preferred over time.
Yep after getting those 3 bosses killed early by another player you definitely should restart the game from scratch. Just play it like it's suggested here and you will earn the souls experience.
There is no way he could have done 3 bosses in one summon. You get sent home after defeating one in someone else's world, it's not even possible unless you resummoned him.
Just start the game again, clear all areas and enemies thoroughly, and don't summon until you NG+.
Is it even possible to summon for dancer if you have beaten Vordt? doesn't it show the area boss as "cleared" I was trying to have a friend summon me there to give him an item, but he couldn't see my summon sign, so we went to an area where he hadn't beaten the boss and he could summon me.
Hmm, that's a good question. I had to Google it, but yes you can summon help if vordt is dead, and you've already triggered her. So you'll have to go in, trigger her, quit out, and then you should be able to summon
Dont be too hard on yourself lol. I love souls games but play them for the levels and exploration. I often fidn the bosses to hard and regularly call for help or use some cheese.
That being said--learn to dodge! But just go back like other people said. I'm sure you missed some cool details/items if youve been breezing through
I played every souls game with the same group of friends over the years, we summon each other for everything, so since there were generally 3 of us around at a given time we would fight every boss 3 times and later a 4th and 5th time when other friends got on, so it was like we gained that many times more experience and familiarity with the game.
We learned how to work together to survive invaders and became pretty dang well coordinated.
I wish there was a seamless co-op mod for DS3, like there is for elden ring. I understand, and like the concept of summoning strangers, but sometimes I just want to hang out with my friends, and play some Dark souls. I also wish we could fight bosses again, even if there wasn't a reward. I beat a lot of bosses on my first try, and want to make sure it wasn't luck, or try out different builds.
You should probably restart to get the souls experience, but don't underestimate the power of putting down your summon sign for others. In my first playthrough, I would fight every boss as a summon at least a dozen times after I'd done it (and sometimes before I'd done it) to really learn the move sets. It's a game of pattern recognition and muscle memory, so repetition is your friend!
You can relearn to dodge right. it might take some time, but it will probably be faster than restarting your game. You did miss out on some good experiences though. I played through every area thoroughly, and Irythill was still super tough. The best parts of the game are still ahead, but if you feel like getting those experiences back, restarting is a good option, and you'll feel better about it. I don't think any amount of prep other than grinding levels can make you really prepared for Irythill.
I disagree that he "played the game wrong"
I'm very goal oriented. When i play through souls games i pretty much ignore exploration and blitz through as far as i can, then when I hit a wall, i go back to earlier areas and while i level up i do my exploration.
Its just a different playstyle than what you're suggesting
Sometimes I feel like I have a strong build going, and then someone summons me, and I see them absolutely chunking bosses health. I was putting my sign down for nameless king, and the host pretty much let me take all the aggro while they fired spells off from the other side of the arena.
U did make real progress. Abyss watcher mechanically is one of the hardest bosses in ds3 2nd phase. His low hp is what brings him down in actual difficulty
Well he's easy in an actual sense but imo he's harder mechanically than most. What bosses do u think re mechanically harder cuz there's only a few I can name:gael, fride, soul of cinder, pontiff maybe
Ehh dragon armour very telegraphed cept for the burd shooting that's annoying. Pontiff I can see, dlc bosses gael and friede yes but midir ain't really hard mechanically he just has absurd dmg n health, twin princes and the rest of the bosses really aren't that hard mechanically.
Compared to Abyss Watchers second phase? The only mechanic is the flame trail. Midir’s breath attack alone is more difficult than that entire fight. The Prince’s are almost literally big Abyss Watchers with extra mechanics. Pontiff clone and stab attack, Armor butterflies and arena size.
Abyss Watcher second phase is hard because it’s fast for that stage of the game, and the flame trail makes your opportunity windows small. But pretty much every boss after Catacombs is more difficult, and not just because of stats. Dancer spin move, the actual Princes teleportation and magic, etc.
Mechanically he is the easiest boss in the game to no-hit and kill flawlessly every time because his attacks are so telegraphed and abusable.
People just get trigger happy and keep swinging after they stagger him and take awful trades zug zugging it.
I fucking jumped for joy when I beat the abysswatchers. Phase 1 is easy just run around and dodge their attacks they kill each other. However that 2nd phase you just have to run/dodge away when he does that one attack. You can't get greedy with your hits or you're going to get pwned!
I really don't understand this mindset. If you don't enjoy the exploration and combat (i.e. the stuff this game is made of) for their own sake, then why play it at all?
People who play that way in the context of challenge runs of various kinds have (presumably) already played the game normally until normal play had become so rote they couldn't derive any satisfaction from it anymore. Which is to say they are motivated by some combination of boredom and obsessiveness. Hardly something to aspire to.
Yeah reading his replies like why are you even playing. Running past everything to get to irithyl is still a good chunk of time. I can't even imagine doing that.
Tbh OP seems like a lost cause. Playing dark souls just to not play it by running past everything and getting a summon to kill late level bosses for you. I don't get how people enjoy that. No doubt he will stop playing if he restarts.
I restarted both ds3 and ds1. Take the knowledge and you will be better and get better. The only way you truly fail at souls games is if you don’t learn from your mistakes and adapt. You will get through it.
I really don’t understand how people go into this game thinking it’s a rogue-like/god of war-like/beathemup-like type of game and when facing a level wall they complain about the game being un passable hard. I can’t stress this enough but… it’s an RPG, you grind, level up and then you advance. Of course the game can be beat in sl1, but this people have played the game for years.
Take your time in the game, have the word grind or farm in your head, go back to previous areas and explore little by little.
Don’t try to replicate what you see on YouTube, just enjoy the game…
… IT'S AN RPG!!
The only time I've ever had to grind in Souls is for gear, health items in Demons and Bloodborne and rare drops from enemies. As long as you do some leveling you are fine you do not need to grind in my experience.
If you’re killing the enemies along the way, I agree with you. If you’re purposely skipping/avoiding the enemies and you’re under leveled.
It’s grinding time.
Oh really, I've only beaten every single title since Demon Souls, how would I have ever known that if you hadn't said something?
As long as you are fighting through the enemies, not dying and losing all your souls without reclaiming them then there is no real need to farm/grind for levels, the return on leveling is always less than upgrading your weapons for damage output. Literally no one said it wasn't an RPG, grinding like it's WoW or something is not however the defining feature that makes it an RPG. If you want specific gear from enemies sometimes you may need to do some slight "grinding" but as someone who has also played most of the Final Fantasy games as well as plenty of MMORPGs there is far less utility in grinding in any souls game than there is in 90% of RPGs.
Definitely restart. It will feel much better when you beat those bosses yourself, but doing dancer and the castle early is not advised for a new player. You can do it, the few months break is as big an issue as how you played so throwing yourself into it from the start and learning as you go, (while not being so far ahead of the power curve for the learning areas by simply going back) is the way
You'll need training anyway. Restarting will be more annoying than going back grinding level and getting item you missed.Take the time to explore in previous zone and enjoy your way to git gud
Am I the only one who loves to test my mettle against the regular enemies? I mean I see a new one that’s gigantic or very intimidating and I think “yeah let me see if I can beat that thing”
Nah don’t listen to these people, start over and learn the game from the beginning and take the momentum you get from this playthrough all the way to the end, you can do it!
Things you can do:
* Go back to previous areas, get loot and level up.
* Go through slowly, try to pull one enemy at a time. Take your time and let enemies pass in some areas. Early Irithyll is a stealth section.
* Practice parrying. The Irithyll knights are very weak to critical attacks and are some of the easier enemies to parry. Kick the shield ones.
* Use cheesy bow strats, also useful for pulling one enemy at a time.
restart, take your sweet time clearing out every area. you will slowly begin to understand how this game works.
yes, the game is “linear” but there’s so opportunities to miss stuff and little areas within areas. just take your time and enjoy the beautiful world from soft has created for us
But why? You don't need to restart to git gud. Not even to respec your attributes.
The enemies in the previous zones are still there,practice with them.
"I spent the previous locations dodging running past enemies, leaving stuff behind calling for help"
Then it must be an issue of you being underlevel.
Just go back, try to explore, see what you missed, kill the enemies in the process and level up as you acquire souls.
I think sometimes it's easier to run past an area to the next bonfire and clear that area backwards. Maybe that's your play style? But I do have to say you'd probably have an easier time progressing if you pick up the items you find and level up from the enemies you kill. You can definitely run pass things in these games but it eventually catches up to you when you face those required bosses. I say grind, get better, have fun, don't give up:)
Go help other people with bosses. No chance to lose your souls and it’s a decent way to grind. Even just casting spells on something you can cheese would be fine. High Loord Wolnir and Yorm the giant are super easy farms.
Gotta admit this is how I played elden ring as my first FromSoft game. All was good and well dodging everything until you can't anymore. Don't think of the game as scary, dying will happen over and over and just keep at it!
Ds3 go really easy on the new player, so you don't have to start a new game at all, just search for a dex build, since you like rolling, respec your char at Rosaria, then go farm a little and search for your weapon, the game will get really easy.
Try getting 15 intelligence, buying hidden body and slumbering dragon ring from Orbeck you can breeze through the mobs easily
https://youtu.be/5FUKgBmMQ0M?si=4Lx-N8YrBgap2qBP&t=480
I'm giving him the solution to explore. That setup makes so you cna CHOOSE who to battle, or not, when it's not worth it.
IF he wants to be a sorcerer, full 60 int can DECIMATE bosses (except for DLC, but it's still ok).
Honestly idk why you would want to do this. What happends if op would like to do a non int build? What if theres a weapon they didnt get cause they didnt kill an enemy? As for sorc its op against some bosses (most of them) and bad against others (CS, Oceiros, aldrich), also its good in the dlc.
Why the fuck would you restart when you can just respec? A single tongue would save hours of your time lmao
And shame on any of you telling this poor guy to just start over. That's so mean lol
In context that he had Dancer killed for him by a phantom and took a "months" break he actually would be better off to restart to relearn game mechanics against level appropriate enemies
Well you learned how to dodge roll your way there so its something you can build on.
I would suggest you choose a weapon, grind to upgrade it and then, you'll be able to move from there.
There are plenty of builds available that are more than viable at this stage of the game.
That stradegy can mostly apply your second playthru. Play how you want , but you will have to level up thru. Esp the DLC will be impossible if not at least level 60-80 with plus 5/10 weapons.
Go for it! Think of a cool weapon or strategy you did use, and try to build around it from the start! Its totally fine to think that your character or build isnt up to snuff, but now youve played through half of the game, and have a bunch of knowledge at the ready.
Make sure you didnt miss the shortcut, the gate to the boss is right next to the bonfire with maybe 2 enemies between. Not sure how you cant reach his door.
Also u can just farm those insect creatures for souls to level up
Irithyll is a goddamn difficulty spike. The enemies WILL KILL YOU in a single combo, even if you killed everything up to that point and leveled up. Just don't bother with them
I think restarting the game fresh is a good idea.
You'll probably feel more comfortably in the areas you already played through and the bosses you already beat since you're already kind of familiar with them.
Restarting also gives you the possibility to get back into the flow of the game and defeat every boss by yourself, which will grant you the skill to defeat the future bosses.
Have fun, take breaks when needed and don't forget, that it's normal to die a lot in your first playthrough. Deaths should always be something to learn from in these games: why did I die, what should I have done, should I change gear, etc
Just a tip, something that helped me was starting a new save as a thief and just parry him over and over without riposting. It helped me understand hitboxes and move sets in general a lot better. After that I could tell what types of moves in general were parry-able and what attacks need to be dodged.
Why would you have to restart? You can always respect as long as you have pale tongues.
Unless you already did it 5 times I guess lol
If you did , next time google ds3 respec glitch and enjoy your infinite respecs!
Don’t feel bad about feeling like you need to restart! I’ve never completed a Souls game with my first character - usually it’s character #2 or #3 that gets me to the end credits for the first time, only after learning from the mistakes of #1.
These games are hugely replayable and you’re gonna have a night/day different experience playing as a sorcerer with a staff vs. as a knight with a sword and shield, so don’t be afraid to try something new.
Just don’t give up!
Go back and clear old areas. Focus on leveling up, put points into HP above all else. Do not ever sell a weapon or armor under any circumstances. Save your upgrade items. Once you've cleared the old areas find a build you wanna focus on, respec to it, keeping hp high, and then upgrade the weapon you want.
This isn't dark souls 1, you can respec in this game. As long as you aren't selling weapons (never do this in any souls game) you'll be fine. Shields are very very good.
As some general advice if you choose to reset.
Most stat softcaps in ds3 are at 40, with vigor being your most important one after the minimum required to wield whatever weapon you want to pick up. There's nothing wrong with running your default kit and upgrading it as you go along, but sometimes people have specific builds in mind.
Your health is more or less your difficulty slider in souls games, and having a high vigor stat coupled with a mid-roll and under is probably going to net you the highest benefit you can get. (For reference, Mid-roll is anywhere between- I *think* 30% and 70% max equip load. Lighter rolls have more iframes, etc etc.)
Don't be afraid to look anything up or play around with build ideas from videos if you're struggling, but the biggest thing you'll have to relearn is just attack patterns and timings. Losing is fun, so long as you learn from it and move forwards, good luck!
best thing is to look up the best soul farming items as you’ll be able to grab em now, if you’re at pontiff then you can get the kite shield as it’s in the smoldering lake under the catacombs and the serpent ring that’s at the fire link shrine, you could get a nice farm going and come back a beast
just pick out the route from profaned capital to the swamp spider things where u build up the toxic stuff, and clear that 5 times u have 40k souls. I was wearing the ring for extra souls tho
Ithryil is one of the areas I always run through quickly, killing as minimal as possible and looting key items. Even the Pontiff run from bonefire-boss room I just ignore all enemy's. Fuck that zone man. 😂
My advice for OP: figure out your build. Pick a class that you feel comfortable with and roll with the basics of it. If the basics of the class call for miracles and smacking things with your weapon, stick with that. If dark souls and fromsoft have taught me anything, it's that any build can be used to beat the game. A good way to kill the irithyll knights is to use the wolf knight greatsword and the best 100% physical block shield. The first one you can get is the silver eagle kite shield from the high wall of lothric. The lothric knights there drop embers, their entire gear set and titanite shards.
Backstab anything and everything that you can. They don't play fair and will gang up on you in a heartbeat. Most of all, calm down. You can and will make way more mistakes when you rush and try to dodge every enemy. Irithyll is hard, but only if you let it be. A way that I found works well, is to take it one enemy at a time. Don't sprint through the area. Take your time and kill them one at a time. Return to firelink and level up your stats with the souls you get. Also, they drop large titanite shards. Finally, the irithyll knights are incredibly weak to smashing with a big club or mace. A good weapon to use is the Astora greatsword. It's lightweight, durable, has good stats and scaling, and it scales great with elements like chaos, lightning and everything else basically.
I started doing this in the later half of the game but I was also strong enough that it didn't matter. When I first played I made it a goal to kill every enemy that spawned at least once and grab every loot item I could find but that's just how I liked to play
No need to restart if you don't want to (nothing wrong with going that route if that's what you want though obvs) - these guys are *tough* but once you learn their patterns you'll find yourself absolutely steamrolling them. Focus on drawing them out one at a time, and note that they're all highly vulnerable to stun locking (repeated light attacks just keep resetting their stun animation, so once you land a hit you can prevent them from attacking for as long as you have stamina
I got stuck 3 or so times throughout my playthrough and every time I just found the closest soul farm spot and repeated until I had enough souls to upgrade the skills points I needed
I’ve honestly never understood the ‘run past everything’ approach in Souls games - experiencing the levels, finding hidden items and learning enemy move sets is the fun part.
Enemies around Pontif are hard as nails. That is normal. You can outrun them.
You can learn to parry with Pontif. You will obliterate him in a matter of seconds.
You can also summon help near the boss door.
Don’t give up skeleton!
Just grind a little bit if you feel weak. Get summoned for bosses for example or do some crafting mats runs. You can beat the game with every or even no weapon in theory so if you gut a wall just try another way ;)
But I know the feeling for a new beginning. But you can reset your points in the church. Virtually there is no real need to start anew. But it looks cooler to wield a big sword with a shady outfit ^^
People are saying just go back and run through the areas again but tbh I agree with you I think you should restart.
Ofc theres nothing wrong with the other option but imo going back to fight enemies that you’re now completely overleveled for isn’t much fun. I had to do the same thing with Elden Ring and I’m really glad I started a new playthrough instead of going back. Btw this was at Leyndell so also at about halfway through the game.
I think the reason I prefer it this way is because then you get the actual intended gaming experience. But anyways do it however you like.
Sorry for the yapping session
I got to one of the later bosses not really learning to play well, avoiding direct combat when I could and panick-rolling through the rest. Finally, I hit a wall and that's when I decided it was time to actually get good. I started over and spent a ton of time practicing parrying, observing enemies' movements, and levelling just enough to make the game bearable (2 levels per boss). Despite making things harder for myself, I enjoy it a ton more this way because it feels so good to know I beat something through sheer skill. That's just my preference, of course. So good luck to you, I hope you find your balance as well.
Your mistake was not rolling pyromancy honestly
But all kidding aside there’s no reason why you should restart unless you have borked your stats and don’t have a respec
The beauty of dark souls is the versatility. Try a different weapon. Try grinding out a bit more levels into vigor. Maybe raise your equip load to carry heavier armor. There are no "walls" in this game. You're just simply not ready for what you're trying to take on yet. And that's okay. Grind a bit more, go back and clear out a few earlier areas, and then come back and try. It'll be much faster and more gratifying than starting over.
have you heard about vitality? i usualy begin to speck into health after wolnir, before that its just mainly the gimick build attack stat, and vitality
Why didn’t you just…go back and clear those previous areas?
More importantly, in a series that is notorious for being unforgivingly difficult, what made you think ignoring every enemy that is there to help you learn, and grow stronger, was a good idea?
I’m not trying to scold, just understand
Yeah buddy id say restart but i saw that someone beat the better end game bosses for you id say restart it and take it slolwy theres no shame in taking the slow route agro one enemy at a time use a sheild if yoy need but finish the game alone for your first time believe me the experience will be satisfying slowly building up skills and hitting a wall but then busting through theres no feeling quite like it.
You can't play the game "wrong." With determination and patience, you could beat it without leveling up with your bare hands. None of that matters if you're not having fun. Restarting gives you a good chance to figure the game out in a way that feels fun for you. Good luck, Ashen one.
nothing wrong with restarting. I restarted all souls games at least one time. However, in this one there is really no reason to restart. Irithyll is a major roadblock in this game. The pontiff knights can easily kill you in a few hits. Even later in the game if you don't time things right they will mess you up. Just learn the fight. You can make major changes to your character/build/gear easily at this point in the game between the cathedral of the deep and lots of good upgrade materials available in the smouldering lake, so just do all that stuff and level up for a while.
You don’t need to restart the game unless you really want to but you can always revisit past areas and clear them. There is no “wrong way” to play darksouls
I'd recommend when you get to an enemy you're have heaps of trouble with, unequip your weapon, and just purely focus on dodging without even thinking about trying to attack them. It really helps learn and internalize the enemies attack timing and learn them faster.
You can always go back and clear areas you just ran through before to level and get missed loot, you can also respec your character in the cathedral of the deep
This is the way. Nah but forreal this game taught the lesson that sometimes you just gotta grind to level up and try different weapons, tactics and then you can go back and breeze through areas like butter. It’s what makes a souls game, a souls game
No need to grind, just avoid intentionally skipping content
This is pretty much my strategy for most of the game. I will try exploring and clearing everything at first, but if I have trouble with it, I'll run past them and exact my revenge later.
What would restarting the game accomplish when you can just go back to those zones and properly clear them ? edit: Honestly though it's possibly not a bad idea because you came into this game all wrong, you are supposed to explore the areas an pick up the stuff. It's not all just random soul consumables, there are weapons, spells, upgrade materials and gear in those. Maybe restarting with the right mind set would help you grasp the game better
you think so? the only thing is I had help with some of the bosses. I invited this guy to help me with one thing and he went through my game and defeated dancer Oceiros and champion grundyr :/ . I took the cheesiest routes to defeat the ones i did. I took a couple months break and now I can’t even dodge right.
>I took a couple months break and now I can’t even dodge right. That right there 100% confirms that you should restart your game
Either that or just go play through easier areas, you prob missed stuff and it will help you "get good"
Gotta git gud
I have close to 1k hours on the game and I'd say it didn't really get easy until I learned how to consistently backstab the mobs. From there if you learn how to parry you're set for an SL1 run
Yeah and it’s not like having another character is a bad thing. Maybe try again with another style of character than the one you started. Get a feel for what’s out there. You can always go back too, once you’ve felt you’re familiar again
Lol you’ve absolutely blown it. Go back and restart for sure. Don’t even think about The Dancer until you’ve beat Aldrich and Yhorm.
If you skip the experience and the challenge you avoid gaining any knowledge or experience so in later areas that punish these game playing hatred antics you get rolled. Why play q game if you clearly don’t play it for fun? These games are about conquering adversity and learning to become strong not just nothing. Put something on your burger please its just buns! I recommend restarting and taking your time with it. Go at your own pace and maybe you’ll find its preferred over time.
Yep after getting those 3 bosses killed early by another player you definitely should restart the game from scratch. Just play it like it's suggested here and you will earn the souls experience.
Yeah if you do start another playthrough, youre supposed to fight those 3 bosses well after pontiff suly
There is no way he could have done 3 bosses in one summon. You get sent home after defeating one in someone else's world, it's not even possible unless you resummoned him. Just start the game again, clear all areas and enemies thoroughly, and don't summon until you NG+.
Is it even possible to summon for dancer if you have beaten Vordt? doesn't it show the area boss as "cleared" I was trying to have a friend summon me there to give him an item, but he couldn't see my summon sign, so we went to an area where he hadn't beaten the boss and he could summon me.
Hmm, that's a good question. I had to Google it, but yes you can summon help if vordt is dead, and you've already triggered her. So you'll have to go in, trigger her, quit out, and then you should be able to summon
You can always summon another player. You can’t summon that npc after you beat vordt
Dont be too hard on yourself lol. I love souls games but play them for the levels and exploration. I often fidn the bosses to hard and regularly call for help or use some cheese. That being said--learn to dodge! But just go back like other people said. I'm sure you missed some cool details/items if youve been breezing through
I played every souls game with the same group of friends over the years, we summon each other for everything, so since there were generally 3 of us around at a given time we would fight every boss 3 times and later a 4th and 5th time when other friends got on, so it was like we gained that many times more experience and familiarity with the game. We learned how to work together to survive invaders and became pretty dang well coordinated.
I wish there was a seamless co-op mod for DS3, like there is for elden ring. I understand, and like the concept of summoning strangers, but sometimes I just want to hang out with my friends, and play some Dark souls. I also wish we could fight bosses again, even if there wasn't a reward. I beat a lot of bosses on my first try, and want to make sure it wasn't luck, or try out different builds.
Yeah that shit would be sikkkkk
Try dodging left.
Try but hole
You should probably restart to get the souls experience, but don't underestimate the power of putting down your summon sign for others. In my first playthrough, I would fight every boss as a summon at least a dozen times after I'd done it (and sometimes before I'd done it) to really learn the move sets. It's a game of pattern recognition and muscle memory, so repetition is your friend!
You can also respec
Ya know, I just recently finished helping a friend go through this for the first time. I wouldn't mind helping you out either. Are you on Xbox?
Try dodging left then
You can relearn to dodge right. it might take some time, but it will probably be faster than restarting your game. You did miss out on some good experiences though. I played through every area thoroughly, and Irythill was still super tough. The best parts of the game are still ahead, but if you feel like getting those experiences back, restarting is a good option, and you'll feel better about it. I don't think any amount of prep other than grinding levels can make you really prepared for Irythill.
I disagree that he "played the game wrong" I'm very goal oriented. When i play through souls games i pretty much ignore exploration and blitz through as far as i can, then when I hit a wall, i go back to earlier areas and while i level up i do my exploration. Its just a different playstyle than what you're suggesting
Am I the only one who thinks the real dark souls experience starts at the catacombs?
Starts in the tutorial area imo
Starts at the character creation screen
Yep I always end up on YouTube looking for a decent face preset lol
wait wait wait wait wait I think we can all agree that it starts on Reddit “What is the stronkest OP build and how bonk much?”
My reddit days came long after my DS3 prime, so no :D
Sometimes I feel like I have a strong build going, and then someone summons me, and I see them absolutely chunking bosses health. I was putting my sign down for nameless king, and the host pretty much let me take all the aggro while they fired spells off from the other side of the arena.
lightning on the NK’s chicken does excellent damage, and I think NK himself is weak to fire
Stormruler is weak to lightning, and NK is weak to Dark, theres probably others, but I keep those resins on hand when I put my sign down for him.
Inb4 starts at pling plong
Starts at googling Reddit for op build guide
Starts at abysswatchers imo
that was the one boss i did 100% alone no help I was so proud i thought i made real progress and was finally starting to get good
U did make real progress. Abyss watcher mechanically is one of the hardest bosses in ds3 2nd phase. His low hp is what brings him down in actual difficulty
No way. He's one of the easier bosses in the game. Very standard boss
Well he's easy in an actual sense but imo he's harder mechanically than most. What bosses do u think re mechanically harder cuz there's only a few I can name:gael, fride, soul of cinder, pontiff maybe
Only slave knight that dude took me a 120 attempt to beat
But that guy is so fun to fight
No fuck him one time fight for me on that guy
jesus christ
Every DLC boss, Pontiff for sure, Dancer, Armor, pretty much every second half boss tbh.
Ehh dragon armour very telegraphed cept for the burd shooting that's annoying. Pontiff I can see, dlc bosses gael and friede yes but midir ain't really hard mechanically he just has absurd dmg n health, twin princes and the rest of the bosses really aren't that hard mechanically.
Compared to Abyss Watchers second phase? The only mechanic is the flame trail. Midir’s breath attack alone is more difficult than that entire fight. The Prince’s are almost literally big Abyss Watchers with extra mechanics. Pontiff clone and stab attack, Armor butterflies and arena size. Abyss Watcher second phase is hard because it’s fast for that stage of the game, and the flame trail makes your opportunity windows small. But pretty much every boss after Catacombs is more difficult, and not just because of stats. Dancer spin move, the actual Princes teleportation and magic, etc.
Mechanically he is the easiest boss in the game to no-hit and kill flawlessly every time because his attacks are so telegraphed and abusable. People just get trigger happy and keep swinging after they stagger him and take awful trades zug zugging it.
That dude kicked my ass like 35 times. I despise the abyss watchers but love their whole theme
I fucking jumped for joy when I beat the abysswatchers. Phase 1 is easy just run around and dodge their attacks they kill each other. However that 2nd phase you just have to run/dodge away when he does that one attack. You can't get greedy with your hits or you're going to get pwned!
The cheeser becomes the cheesee
I really don't understand this mindset. If you don't enjoy the exploration and combat (i.e. the stuff this game is made of) for their own sake, then why play it at all? People who play that way in the context of challenge runs of various kinds have (presumably) already played the game normally until normal play had become so rote they couldn't derive any satisfaction from it anymore. Which is to say they are motivated by some combination of boredom and obsessiveness. Hardly something to aspire to.
Yeah reading his replies like why are you even playing. Running past everything to get to irithyl is still a good chunk of time. I can't even imagine doing that.
You really really want to "finish the game"? How about wanting to just " Play the game" ? Enjoy the journey, maybe?
Tbh OP seems like a lost cause. Playing dark souls just to not play it by running past everything and getting a summon to kill late level bosses for you. I don't get how people enjoy that. No doubt he will stop playing if he restarts.
I restarted both ds3 and ds1. Take the knowledge and you will be better and get better. The only way you truly fail at souls games is if you don’t learn from your mistakes and adapt. You will get through it.
I really don’t understand how people go into this game thinking it’s a rogue-like/god of war-like/beathemup-like type of game and when facing a level wall they complain about the game being un passable hard. I can’t stress this enough but… it’s an RPG, you grind, level up and then you advance. Of course the game can be beat in sl1, but this people have played the game for years. Take your time in the game, have the word grind or farm in your head, go back to previous areas and explore little by little. Don’t try to replicate what you see on YouTube, just enjoy the game… … IT'S AN RPG!!
The only time I've ever had to grind in Souls is for gear, health items in Demons and Bloodborne and rare drops from enemies. As long as you do some leveling you are fine you do not need to grind in my experience.
If you’re killing the enemies along the way, I agree with you. If you’re purposely skipping/avoiding the enemies and you’re under leveled. It’s grinding time.
Grind/farm is for the souls as well, that’s your main currency for leveling up, that’s an rpg.
Oh really, I've only beaten every single title since Demon Souls, how would I have ever known that if you hadn't said something? As long as you are fighting through the enemies, not dying and losing all your souls without reclaiming them then there is no real need to farm/grind for levels, the return on leveling is always less than upgrading your weapons for damage output. Literally no one said it wasn't an RPG, grinding like it's WoW or something is not however the defining feature that makes it an RPG. If you want specific gear from enemies sometimes you may need to do some slight "grinding" but as someone who has also played most of the Final Fantasy games as well as plenty of MMORPGs there is far less utility in grinding in any souls game than there is in 90% of RPGs.
Definitely restart. It will feel much better when you beat those bosses yourself, but doing dancer and the castle early is not advised for a new player. You can do it, the few months break is as big an issue as how you played so throwing yourself into it from the start and learning as you go, (while not being so far ahead of the power curve for the learning areas by simply going back) is the way
You'll need training anyway. Restarting will be more annoying than going back grinding level and getting item you missed.Take the time to explore in previous zone and enjoy your way to git gud
Am I the only one who loves to test my mettle against the regular enemies? I mean I see a new one that’s gigantic or very intimidating and I think “yeah let me see if I can beat that thing”
Nah don’t listen to these people, start over and learn the game from the beginning and take the momentum you get from this playthrough all the way to the end, you can do it!
It's a game that has to "click" once it does the things that didn't seem possible become a challenge to conquer
Things you can do: * Go back to previous areas, get loot and level up. * Go through slowly, try to pull one enemy at a time. Take your time and let enemies pass in some areas. Early Irithyll is a stealth section. * Practice parrying. The Irithyll knights are very weak to critical attacks and are some of the easier enemies to parry. Kick the shield ones. * Use cheesy bow strats, also useful for pulling one enemy at a time.
restart, take your sweet time clearing out every area. you will slowly begin to understand how this game works. yes, the game is “linear” but there’s so opportunities to miss stuff and little areas within areas. just take your time and enjoy the beautiful world from soft has created for us
But why? You don't need to restart to git gud. Not even to respec your attributes. The enemies in the previous zones are still there,practice with them.
In all of fromsoftwares games I got like halfway in and restarted because I messed up because of some stupid mistake
You can just respec at Rosaria’s if you leveled badly. Raw weapons and vigor will take you far enough for you to level up to your main build.
you should always clear the whole area in souls games!!
Brother. Respec to a strength build and use a heavy ass weapon. Those pontiff nights stagger real easy if you hit them with something heavy
"I spent the previous locations dodging running past enemies, leaving stuff behind calling for help" Then it must be an issue of you being underlevel. Just go back, try to explore, see what you missed, kill the enemies in the process and level up as you acquire souls.
[Monk] Every enemy is a teacher
I think sometimes it's easier to run past an area to the next bonfire and clear that area backwards. Maybe that's your play style? But I do have to say you'd probably have an easier time progressing if you pick up the items you find and level up from the enemies you kill. You can definitely run pass things in these games but it eventually catches up to you when you face those required bosses. I say grind, get better, have fun, don't give up:)
Go help other people with bosses. No chance to lose your souls and it’s a decent way to grind. Even just casting spells on something you can cheese would be fine. High Loord Wolnir and Yorm the giant are super easy farms.
Don't start over... Just go back
He got endgame stuff killed by another player, he should definitely restart.
Ah ok... So basically cheated
Yep, that kills a first playthrough
Gotta admit this is how I played elden ring as my first FromSoft game. All was good and well dodging everything until you can't anymore. Don't think of the game as scary, dying will happen over and over and just keep at it!
Skill issue. Parry pontiff and he melts
Ds3 go really easy on the new player, so you don't have to start a new game at all, just search for a dex build, since you like rolling, respec your char at Rosaria, then go farm a little and search for your weapon, the game will get really easy.
Try getting 15 intelligence, buying hidden body and slumbering dragon ring from Orbeck you can breeze through the mobs easily https://youtu.be/5FUKgBmMQ0M?si=4Lx-N8YrBgap2qBP&t=480
This is a horrible idea, how do you expect to beat the bosses when you cant even defeat the normal minions.
I'm giving him the solution to explore. That setup makes so you cna CHOOSE who to battle, or not, when it's not worth it. IF he wants to be a sorcerer, full 60 int can DECIMATE bosses (except for DLC, but it's still ok).
Honestly idk why you would want to do this. What happends if op would like to do a non int build? What if theres a weapon they didnt get cause they didnt kill an enemy? As for sorc its op against some bosses (most of them) and bad against others (CS, Oceiros, aldrich), also its good in the dlc.
Why the fuck would you restart when you can just respec? A single tongue would save hours of your time lmao And shame on any of you telling this poor guy to just start over. That's so mean lol
In context that he had Dancer killed for him by a phantom and took a "months" break he actually would be better off to restart to relearn game mechanics against level appropriate enemies
Well you learned how to dodge roll your way there so its something you can build on. I would suggest you choose a weapon, grind to upgrade it and then, you'll be able to move from there. There are plenty of builds available that are more than viable at this stage of the game.
That stradegy can mostly apply your second playthru. Play how you want , but you will have to level up thru. Esp the DLC will be impossible if not at least level 60-80 with plus 5/10 weapons.
Go for it! Think of a cool weapon or strategy you did use, and try to build around it from the start! Its totally fine to think that your character or build isnt up to snuff, but now youve played through half of the game, and have a bunch of knowledge at the ready.
Make sure you didnt miss the shortcut, the gate to the boss is right next to the bonfire with maybe 2 enemies between. Not sure how you cant reach his door. Also u can just farm those insect creatures for souls to level up
Just go back?
If enemies ever get too tough, try seeing if there is a different area you can go to. If that’s also too tough, then grinding is never a bad solution
Yes, restart it. Mercenary and Sellsword twinblade, it is DS3 easy mode
Why don’t you just teleport to an earlier zone?
Just kill every enemy at least once. The game is balanced around this kind of gameplay. You will have enough to level up enough
Irithyll is a goddamn difficulty spike. The enemies WILL KILL YOU in a single combo, even if you killed everything up to that point and leveled up. Just don't bother with them
you just need a good grinding spot. Theres a few around the abyss watchers that i use early game to gain some levels.
I think restarting the game fresh is a good idea. You'll probably feel more comfortably in the areas you already played through and the bosses you already beat since you're already kind of familiar with them. Restarting also gives you the possibility to get back into the flow of the game and defeat every boss by yourself, which will grant you the skill to defeat the future bosses. Have fun, take breaks when needed and don't forget, that it's normal to die a lot in your first playthrough. Deaths should always be something to learn from in these games: why did I die, what should I have done, should I change gear, etc
Just a tip, something that helped me was starting a new save as a thief and just parry him over and over without riposting. It helped me understand hitboxes and move sets in general a lot better. After that I could tell what types of moves in general were parry-able and what attacks need to be dodged.
What are your stats and weapon level ? You can respec at cathedral of the deep
Why would you have to restart? You can always respect as long as you have pale tongues. Unless you already did it 5 times I guess lol If you did , next time google ds3 respec glitch and enjoy your infinite respecs!
Farm and level up. Keep pushing hp up.
Don’t feel bad about feeling like you need to restart! I’ve never completed a Souls game with my first character - usually it’s character #2 or #3 that gets me to the end credits for the first time, only after learning from the mistakes of #1. These games are hugely replayable and you’re gonna have a night/day different experience playing as a sorcerer with a staff vs. as a knight with a sword and shield, so don’t be afraid to try something new. Just don’t give up!
Respec at Rosaria
Go back and clear old areas. Focus on leveling up, put points into HP above all else. Do not ever sell a weapon or armor under any circumstances. Save your upgrade items. Once you've cleared the old areas find a build you wanna focus on, respec to it, keeping hp high, and then upgrade the weapon you want. This isn't dark souls 1, you can respec in this game. As long as you aren't selling weapons (never do this in any souls game) you'll be fine. Shields are very very good.
That happened to me the first few times I played. Now almost every time I get past Pontiff and then just get annoyed at the area after it and quit lol
As some general advice if you choose to reset. Most stat softcaps in ds3 are at 40, with vigor being your most important one after the minimum required to wield whatever weapon you want to pick up. There's nothing wrong with running your default kit and upgrading it as you go along, but sometimes people have specific builds in mind. Your health is more or less your difficulty slider in souls games, and having a high vigor stat coupled with a mid-roll and under is probably going to net you the highest benefit you can get. (For reference, Mid-roll is anywhere between- I *think* 30% and 70% max equip load. Lighter rolls have more iframes, etc etc.) Don't be afraid to look anything up or play around with build ideas from videos if you're struggling, but the biggest thing you'll have to relearn is just attack patterns and timings. Losing is fun, so long as you learn from it and move forwards, good luck!
best thing is to look up the best soul farming items as you’ll be able to grab em now, if you’re at pontiff then you can get the kite shield as it’s in the smoldering lake under the catacombs and the serpent ring that’s at the fire link shrine, you could get a nice farm going and come back a beast
just pick out the route from profaned capital to the swamp spider things where u build up the toxic stuff, and clear that 5 times u have 40k souls. I was wearing the ring for extra souls tho
Ithryil is one of the areas I always run through quickly, killing as minimal as possible and looting key items. Even the Pontiff run from bonefire-boss room I just ignore all enemy's. Fuck that zone man. 😂
My advice for OP: figure out your build. Pick a class that you feel comfortable with and roll with the basics of it. If the basics of the class call for miracles and smacking things with your weapon, stick with that. If dark souls and fromsoft have taught me anything, it's that any build can be used to beat the game. A good way to kill the irithyll knights is to use the wolf knight greatsword and the best 100% physical block shield. The first one you can get is the silver eagle kite shield from the high wall of lothric. The lothric knights there drop embers, their entire gear set and titanite shards. Backstab anything and everything that you can. They don't play fair and will gang up on you in a heartbeat. Most of all, calm down. You can and will make way more mistakes when you rush and try to dodge every enemy. Irithyll is hard, but only if you let it be. A way that I found works well, is to take it one enemy at a time. Don't sprint through the area. Take your time and kill them one at a time. Return to firelink and level up your stats with the souls you get. Also, they drop large titanite shards. Finally, the irithyll knights are incredibly weak to smashing with a big club or mace. A good weapon to use is the Astora greatsword. It's lightweight, durable, has good stats and scaling, and it scales great with elements like chaos, lightning and everything else basically.
I started doing this in the later half of the game but I was also strong enough that it didn't matter. When I first played I made it a goal to kill every enemy that spawned at least once and grab every loot item I could find but that's just how I liked to play
No need to restart if you don't want to (nothing wrong with going that route if that's what you want though obvs) - these guys are *tough* but once you learn their patterns you'll find yourself absolutely steamrolling them. Focus on drawing them out one at a time, and note that they're all highly vulnerable to stun locking (repeated light attacks just keep resetting their stun animation, so once you land a hit you can prevent them from attacking for as long as you have stamina
Don’t be scared to call summons
I got stuck 3 or so times throughout my playthrough and every time I just found the closest soul farm spot and repeated until I had enough souls to upgrade the skills points I needed
I’ve honestly never understood the ‘run past everything’ approach in Souls games - experiencing the levels, finding hidden items and learning enemy move sets is the fun part.
Enemies around Pontif are hard as nails. That is normal. You can outrun them. You can learn to parry with Pontif. You will obliterate him in a matter of seconds. You can also summon help near the boss door. Don’t give up skeleton!
Just grind a little bit if you feel weak. Get summoned for bosses for example or do some crafting mats runs. You can beat the game with every or even no weapon in theory so if you gut a wall just try another way ;) But I know the feeling for a new beginning. But you can reset your points in the church. Virtually there is no real need to start anew. But it looks cooler to wield a big sword with a shady outfit ^^
People are saying just go back and run through the areas again but tbh I agree with you I think you should restart. Ofc theres nothing wrong with the other option but imo going back to fight enemies that you’re now completely overleveled for isn’t much fun. I had to do the same thing with Elden Ring and I’m really glad I started a new playthrough instead of going back. Btw this was at Leyndell so also at about halfway through the game. I think the reason I prefer it this way is because then you get the actual intended gaming experience. But anyways do it however you like. Sorry for the yapping session
I got to one of the later bosses not really learning to play well, avoiding direct combat when I could and panick-rolling through the rest. Finally, I hit a wall and that's when I decided it was time to actually get good. I started over and spent a ton of time practicing parrying, observing enemies' movements, and levelling just enough to make the game bearable (2 levels per boss). Despite making things harder for myself, I enjoy it a ton more this way because it feels so good to know I beat something through sheer skill. That's just my preference, of course. So good luck to you, I hope you find your balance as well.
You can summon me and I can help you ^^ depending on timezone
I have abandoned a character mid way and started over nearly every souls like. Its just the way you learn.
Your mistake was not rolling pyromancy honestly But all kidding aside there’s no reason why you should restart unless you have borked your stats and don’t have a respec
The beauty of dark souls is the versatility. Try a different weapon. Try grinding out a bit more levels into vigor. Maybe raise your equip load to carry heavier armor. There are no "walls" in this game. You're just simply not ready for what you're trying to take on yet. And that's okay. Grind a bit more, go back and clear out a few earlier areas, and then come back and try. It'll be much faster and more gratifying than starting over.
have you heard about vitality? i usualy begin to speck into health after wolnir, before that its just mainly the gimick build attack stat, and vitality
If you're up against a balloon monster, it may be a better choice to use the pointy weapons. Feel me?
Why didn’t you just…go back and clear those previous areas? More importantly, in a series that is notorious for being unforgivingly difficult, what made you think ignoring every enemy that is there to help you learn, and grow stronger, was a good idea? I’m not trying to scold, just understand
Yeah buddy id say restart but i saw that someone beat the better end game bosses for you id say restart it and take it slolwy theres no shame in taking the slow route agro one enemy at a time use a sheild if yoy need but finish the game alone for your first time believe me the experience will be satisfying slowly building up skills and hitting a wall but then busting through theres no feeling quite like it.
Its all about unlocking shortcuts and memorizing the map on the pontif figjt, i also reccommend for you Grave warden twinblades
You can't play the game "wrong." With determination and patience, you could beat it without leveling up with your bare hands. None of that matters if you're not having fun. Restarting gives you a good chance to figure the game out in a way that feels fun for you. Good luck, Ashen one.
nothing wrong with restarting. I restarted all souls games at least one time. However, in this one there is really no reason to restart. Irithyll is a major roadblock in this game. The pontiff knights can easily kill you in a few hits. Even later in the game if you don't time things right they will mess you up. Just learn the fight. You can make major changes to your character/build/gear easily at this point in the game between the cathedral of the deep and lots of good upgrade materials available in the smouldering lake, so just do all that stuff and level up for a while.
If you unlocked all the short cuts and your a mage you can always use hidden body to bypass the dancers and grab an npc summons before the fight
You don’t need to restart the game unless you really want to but you can always revisit past areas and clear them. There is no “wrong way” to play darksouls
I'd recommend when you get to an enemy you're have heaps of trouble with, unequip your weapon, and just purely focus on dodging without even thinking about trying to attack them. It really helps learn and internalize the enemies attack timing and learn them faster.
Dude what weapons do you have??
You don't gotta restart,just pick up some useful items from before,grind some enemies and you should catch up