How do YOU say their names? Is it "Orn-STEEN & SmOH" (elognated E sound and elongated O sound) or is it "Orn-STINE & SmAU" (elongated I sound and ow sound)? I read it as the second option.

First off, I have nothing against invaders in general.

If you are lucky enough to come to my world, congratz, you get a free kill, because I am on my first run, and don't know what I'm doing, but I will enjoy flailing around.

But please don't be like the last guy that stood in front of my blacksmith (boney guy), and tried to bait me into hitting him.

Idk if that dude is important, and he still has lore for me to uncover, so we are not fighting, you are holding me hostage, and the best you are going to get is that I restart the game.

Thanks for reading

Encountered this Vagrant while playing DSR on the Switch. I played before on Xbox, and this version seems to use the old Xbox 360-era graphics and textures.

So my question; is this guy actually gold? All the vagrants I have encountered before (which is a fair few) have been white/grey or red.

I really love Witch Beatrice, even though she's a non character. She killed the Moonlight Butterfly, fought the Four Kings, and doesn't afraid of anything.

I especially love her outfit. It's cool that it's a proper traveling coat and hat instead of just a big dress.

I already got a Balder Side Sword too, I’ve never been this lucky in a run. If someone wants the other Painting Guardian Sword lmk I dont need two (Xbox)

On my second ever playthrough of the DLC, I managed to beat Artorias first try!

(The first playthrough took like 11 tries)

But I’m just sitting here laughing because I just rewatched Asmondgold’s playthrough of the DS DLC and he took like…. 4 hours of straight tries to beat him LOL. Not that he’s like the elite gamer but I just thought like wow I just did that same thing first try haha it didn’t feel like a lucky first try either. Like I was just ON MY GAME that one.

Makes me feel good as a gamer lol

Anyways just wanted to share. Artorias is GOATED!

So I'm about to start a seamless coop run with a friend new to dark souls and wanted to ask ahead of time about certain details of how Seamless Coop functions. I would really appreciate your help as I couldnt find these details elsewhere

I heard the Lautrec event tends to bug out (a running issue for pseudo-pvp events, even in DS3). Does this happen every time? Will doing it solo in our own worlds avoid the issue?

Even more importantly, how are item drops shared in the world? Both in terms of items we get placed in our inventory through boss kills and pick ups from dropped items, corpses and chests? Are these shared, do people see their own item to pick or does it only go to the person who picked it up? Can the other person still find the item in their own world if they leave the hosts world?

Can non-hosts interact with NPCs and shop keepers? How does buying limited items impact the host and will it reflect in the nonhosts version of the NPC too?

Hey guys, I wanted to share this achievement with you! It took less time than I expected—I didn't even realize I could get through a New Game (NG) run so quickly, haha! I also got pretty lucky with weapon drops, so that didn't take long either. By the way, I absolutely hated the Bed of Chaos, but it was all worth it—finally got the Dark Souls platinum!

My first soulsborne game was elden ring. Which I never completed because I always just got tired by it near the end. But about a month ago I decided to finally buy first dark souls. And with that one, I've had such a good time. I even got surprised, because it was easier than I initially thought it would be. So I'm here to give my overall dumb thoughts on my first experience in ds (mostly about bosses).

Dark souls is almost perfect. The level design, music, enemies and fighting, everything is incredible.

All the areas except the lost izalith, demon ruins and tomb of the giants were awesome. I loved exploring every corner of the map, the game gives you some nice rewards if you are being curious and actually try looking everywhere. My favorite areas were probably Anor londo with all the gold and fancyness, giant castles, knights and one of my favorite boss fights that are Ornstein and Smough. Darkroot garden, was cool because I just like forests and moonlight butterfly was pretty. Depths, because of the gross tunnels with rats, overall vibe of despair, and also gaping dragon. Gaping dragon is cool. But as I said, there are three areas I mentioned that are yucky. Demon ruins consists of copypasted bosses as common enemies and a third asylum demon, but to be fair, centipede demon was quite cool. Lost izalith is just a giant lava pool with the worst boss in the game. And tomb of the giants tho isn't as bad as other two, still is frustrating with all the darkness and skeletons who do giant amounts of damage when you can't even see them. And well, gravelord Nito was dissapointing too, for the area this hellish.

Talking about the bosses, I liked pretty much all of them except three that I despise and also three that I just killed and was like "wait.. that's it?". Just wanna talk about fights I remembered the most. Gargoyles were an incredible boss fight. I love how they're actually easy, but being that there's two of them, it makes you nervous and wait for the right moment to attack. I still remember how euthorical it was to finally kill at least one of them. And once I beat the second one, few attempts later, damn it was cool. Quelaag was the second boss that gave me hell. At first, dodging her sword was insanely hard. Few times I died because I stepped in lava, trying to get back and heal. But eventually, of course, I did it. Loved her. Ornstein and Smough were probably the boss fight I'll remember the most. The game is 15 years old, so of course I heard of them. And once I saw that cutscene I knew I'm screwed, and well, I was right. About 20 attempts of suffering and it was worth it. My final attempt was pretty much perfect, I killed Smough without any hit and then fought juiced up Ornstein who then actually kicked my ass good before death. Gaping dragon was very memorable, I saw him lots of years ago on youtube and this design has never left my head. I beat him on my third attempt and on second I died only because I understood that I want to record everything. So, he was very easy, but I'm glad I finally met him after so many years. In dlc, three out of 4 of the bosses were probably the best in the game. Guardian was easy, he died pretty fast in first attempt. Nothing to say. But golly, Artorias. Artorias was good. Even tho I felt like some of the hitboxes are weird, I was having very fun time with the fight. It was so rythmic and epic. I was fighting with a spear, never really had a chance to stun him out of buffing. So I had to suffer. I think it was second hardest boss in the game for me. Kalameet. Well, at first I didn't even know how to kill him. I went to arena and immediately got cooked. Only later I went to that kind, giant bro and he helped bringing Kalameet down. Fight was pretty tough too. A lot of damage, pretty high speed. But later it just was the matter of healing in a right moment after any hit I took. He was the last dlc boss I fought and even tho he was pretty hard, for me being one of the hardest bosses in the game, he was nothing compated to Manus. Manus was literal hell for me. High health, high damage, bunch of magic. It was hellish, but being the hardest boss of the ds1 imo, he's my favorite out of all. The amount of joy I got when I finally learned the attacks he instantly killed me with before, was fantastic. Of course I shat myself when he started using his magic, but later I've learned to dodge it too. Manus became one of my favorite bosses of all time, I think, not just in this game. I can't describe how much I loved fighting him. But, there are bosses that I hated with the same passion I loved Manus with. First one was third asylum demon. And it's not that he's that bad, but I just hated fighting the same boss 3 times, but now he's just red and spam explosions. It's ass, don't like it. Second dumdum I hated is bed of chaos. It was the first boss I actually got angry at. I've heard about this thing and how much he sucked, but I wasn't prepared for THAT. Holy, getting pushed into the floor holes while trying to do anything was definitely an experience. I'm just happy that one of the bosses of all time saves your progress. If it wasn't like that, I'd lose all the hair on my head and become Patches, but insane. And last boss I hated, might be a hot take, but the last boss, Gwyn. I think he sucks big time, only reason he's hard is that he doesn't let you heal, otherwise he's pathetically easy. And well, he's the second boss I've got angry at. I tried to fight him normally, which always ended with me being dead. I was naive and expected hard, but fair fight like with Artorias or Manus, but well, In the end, I've got tired and parried him to death. So yea, I hated him, maybe part of it is my problem, for expecting something more and wishing for cinematic, cool last fight, but nonetheless, last boss for me was a big dissapointment. Cutscene of the ending is cool tho. And last three bosses I wanna talk about are the ones that just got me like "I thought you were stronger...", overall, surprisingly were memorable by how meh they were, and were either okay and little boring, or died so fast that I can't even say anything in particular and that last one is Pinwheel. Gwyn didn't even have his own cutscene (tho it's okay imo because that bum doesn't deserve it), but this dude who died after 10 hits did. That's just sad, idk. Second boss who dissapointed me was gravelord Nito. I beat him in first attempt with almost no hits, guess the real bossfight were the skeleton beasts we've met along the way. He was slow as hell, but design is cool, gotta say that. For one of the main bosses he was bleh. And the last boss that dissapointed me, who's runback is harder than the fight itself, were four kings. Spent 3 attempts and yes, the fight is just meh. Same situation as with Nito, one of the main bosses, but there's nothing much going on. Not really a fan. Rest of the bosses are just nice, but just weren't memorable enough for me.

So the conclusion is that this game is fire, despite some flaws, even big ones. Dark souls will stay in my memory for the rest of my life as one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. I'll definitely replay it one day, perhabs, after beating rest of the dark souls series which I will do with pleasure. I bought the second game yesterday, the day I beat the first one, and already have some things to say after few hours of playing, and some of those things aren't good, but I'm ready to play it with opened mind and have more fun. So, that's it, as it was said, the game is phenomenal. Brought me a lot of fun and happiness with little bit of suffering, I can see why so many people love it, and I guess, I'm one of them now too

This was the first time Ive ever deleted a run. I got to Ornstein and smough, and like everything else they managed to avoid all of my attacks. I dunno what rng gods rolled this cursed run but dear lord, I deleted this character and have taken a break from dark souls.

It took me my 4th try to finally commit and finally beat dark souls and it's DLC. I'd never even beaten quelaag on my other saves, and I was scared of the dreaded second half, but I done it.

It doesn't feel as much of a grand achievement as it does a sign of my growth though. I've tried to play this game a few times over the course of about 3 and a half years. I'm still young, and I'm currently in the process of applying to medical school, so it feels like a marker of my growth in terms of resilience.

I would tell myself in those earlier playthroughs that "dark souls just wasn't for me". But when I came back, and now upon reflection, I realise that i was trying to cope with my lack of determination. I went hollow for a time. I've beaten elden ring 3 times, the DLC twice and I've beaten Sekiro, the first berserker khazan and played various other difficult games.

I think my lack of determination for dark souls originally was it's lack of "options" if you like. If you picked a build path, you best stick to it, because switching is hellish. And much of the game isn't necessarily hard, just knowledge checks. That feels very purposeful, the random traps and having to learn new enemy movesets is trying to teach you resilience, that failing a few times is okay because you will ultimately succeed.

All in all, I really appreciate dark souls for what it is. It's one of the few games I've played that I can say has had an impact on me, and will likely continue to do so. Good day to you all, and don't you dare go hollow.

Like the Darkmoon Knightess says bonfires that have keepers are connected, that explains why we can hop into certain ones, it's because they have keepers, and if said keepers die the fire fades.

But when you think about, we could hop into the tomb of giants despite the fact that no keeper is present around, same can be said for the catacombs and the archives.

Is there a lore explanation to this? Or did the developers just feel lazy?!

edit: resolved! thank you to everyone who took time to respond :)
so I'm on my first play through and I just got the Lord vessel and talked to the serpent guy, he ate me and took me down to place the lordvessel on an altar and I was a little hesitant to do so immediately, can I use a bone to go back? and if so, will that ruin the serpent's quest line or will I basically start back from where I was when I initially returned to firelink?

Long time soulsborne player here but I've rarely played dex builds so I tend to forget details and need some help. I'm going to have a coop run with a friend for a tank and flank duo. Hope ya'll can help point out any issues or improvements I didnt catch.

Build Idea:

I put a build together inspired by a 90's Sega game called Shadowdancer. Short version: A Ninja with classic weapons who casts AOE elemental effects and can empower his basic attacks). The build is essentially a melee focused spellblade in the end with pyro backup, you won't see anything new in that regard. My intended end stat goals are for SL80 (or well, 77) as shown above. I found Wanderer and Pyromancer are the best starts, being equally efficient in reaching my end stats. The rest at best waste 3-6 extra levels to reach this point, with thief ironically being the worst offender (man that 2nd starter item and bleed dagger tho...).

On paper, they cancel out each other's benefits out stat wise. Circumstantially however, while having pyromancy early on is nice, its not truly beneficial to this build early on until I find the mentor for Power Within. Its also also less significant (initially) since I have a tank friend. Plus pyro's starting dex being that low is far from ideal, especially with all the dex weapons available at the start. Wanderer gives much more breathing room to invest in other stats. Breathing room I can afford to have because my int and str min stat requirements only come into play a while later. Plus wanderer lets me start with an extra dex weapon, the curved sword, early. Thats important because this build is based on adaptability.

Leveling breakdown:

1 more Int can access the dispels but I'll have items for that. Anytime I mention post 80 I mean new Game+

Gear:

The entire point of this build is to be adaptable. I aim to have a variety of dex weapons and spells on hand to deal with different enemies in different situations from groups, elites and bosses to open areas, tight corridors and hazardous areas. Is this necessary? No. At this point I could beat the game with the broken straight sword but what I enjoy the most about soulsborne games is making thematic builds, then beating the game with those set traits. I will focus on upgrading my core weapons first with the remaining titanite trickling down to the rest by order of usage. Or maybe I'll drive myself insane farming wraiths to max the remaining. We'll see.

The weapons I intend to have on hand are:

Main weapons: Iato +15 (I like the moveset) and a dagger. Later maybe I'll get Dark Silver Tracer and Gold Tracer for fights where the former dont fit.
Offhand: Oolacile Ivory Catalyst, Pyromancy flame. Parrying Dagger backup.

Back up weapons: Bandit's Knife (if it drops) for backstabs and bleeds in narrow places, ghost (jagged) blade for ghosts (if one of either drops!), curved sword, shotel, Balder side sword (if it drops...) as a dependable fall back and the estoc, rapiers or mailbreaker for armored foes in narrow places. Any spear for narrow places if I also need reach.

First weapons: No.

Shields: Buckler, Target Shield, Grass Crest. (I dont see myself using these for long)

Light Armor: Wanderer Set -> Shadow Set -> Painted Guardian Set.
Fashion Soul options to mix and match: Thief set, Black Set and Gwyndolin Moonlight Set.
Lord’s Blade Set and Chester's set are great but they will push my 25% weight limit.

Rings:

Spells: (cast with Oolacile Ivory Catalyst)

Offensive spells: I will have 1-2 of these max for when steel and iron fails or AOE is crucial.

And that should be it! If you stuck around at the end of this long ass post, please feel free to inform me of any opportunities and options I missed or mistakes I've made. Please keep in mind the theme I am chasing with this build.

Also feel free to suggest anything for my heavy tank buddy like say using specific weapons to stagger, using elemental enchants for more dmg, potentially investing in faith for useful spells, pyro for iron skin. Specific shields, armor, items and rings which would help him in coop with me. I would appreciate it.

So I was fighting the black night, giving em my money's worth, when, as one does, i rolled off a cliff. then when i went to go do the fight again...no knight. I just strolled on down to the cave with the elevator to the Valley of the Drakes. But, when I picked up the souls i lost, no extra souls from the dark knight? Something up here? or did the dumbass chase me (also dumbass) off the cliff. or is the knight not actually on the path to the cave and I just got lost or something?

if i cheesed it damn, that fight was a fun one and I was getting the hang of it...also I need the miniboss souls lol I'm 3 levels away from having the STR/DEX required to use the dark knight sword and I'm already pretty high leveled I just allocated stupidly early on.

Migsssssss! On the Switch version. Thank you.

I really like events where streamers compete in No Death Runs. I would really like to host an event at my home with all friends playing Dark Souls. No Death Runs need a lot of preparation and take a lot of time. Are there any formats that suite a couch coop evening better?

I know the world being fucked up is kinda of the main point of the games, and it would take away a lot of mystery but I don’t care, I would genuinely love to see what this world looked like. It’s really hard to picture what the world of dark souls looked like when it was actually functional, I just think it’d be super interesting.

The peak of its world or right as the world begins its decline, both would be really cool, at least in my opinion, what do you think?

Just kidding, the game was modded, but this was still a pleasant surprise! I've been running kingborehaha's 15th Anniversary mod, which has a 0.15% chance of turning any internal parameter into the number 15. It also has a separate randomizer for changing the lighting, also set to 0.15% by default, which occasionally results in silly or horrendous colors.

I didn't see this particular color scheme until the moment I stepped into Gwynevere's room though, and despite knowing that the mod sometimes creates funky lighting, this caught me off guard and I found it to be quite stunning. Almost like a woodblock print (at least the doors certainly look that way), but with turquoise and orange inks.