Demon's Souls

Schitzo

Because some of us still haven't beaten the damn thing.

I'm gonna start all the way from the beginning because my dumbass probably built my character wrong or screwed over my build or something.

I want to create two kinds of characters:

1. One melee crazy character that's good with two handers.
2. a pyro.

How should I go about this? Alex? Anyone?

MadassAlex

Firstly, you'll want a shield, if only as backup. Some (see: most) parts of the game require some kind of defensive fallback. That said, a lengthy weapon wielded in two hands can outrange enemies and allow you to stagger them, and a staggered enemy can't attack you. I like that as a form of defense. 

Anyway, insofar as building your character goes, there's a few ways to go about it for a close combat character. Firstly, you'll want to decide what kind of place you take in the overall metagame of brawlers:

• Strength-based, for heavy weapons that strike at long range and great damage;


• Dexterity-based, for lighter weapons that chain more effectively;


• "Quality", which is a mixture of the two above, providing a strong balance and two scaling stats;


• Faith-based, where you use blessed weapons that scale with your faith stat for additional magical damage.

I'm personally a fan of Faith-based characters, if only for the knightly, thematic element. One great thing about blessed weapons is that they give HP regeneration based on their level, which I take to be a subtle nod towards Arthurian mythology and the sword Excalibur in particular. Their damage scales with Faith, too, so you can be doing respectable damage while passively regaining your HP over time. Great stuff all-up. 

To pull this kind of character off, you want the minimum strength and dexterity required for your preferred weapon. I'm fond of the claymore and bastard sword, particularly the former for its excellent reach. I think it requires 18 or 20 strength? I can't remember. The dexterity requirement is either 10 or 12, if it has one at all. You might want to sink some stat points into increasing your MP, so you can make best use of miracles. They can be pretty handy at times, but aren't strictly necessary for this character type. 

The bulk of your points for this build should be in Vitality, Endurance and Faith. Since death is penalised reasonably heavily in Demon's Souls, high Vitality is a must so you can retain a decent amount of HP, even after death. Endurance is the lifeblood of all combat, important for almost every kind of build out there. And Faith gives you maximum effectiveness with blessed weapons, ensuring they aren't just a tool for HP regeneration. You can find a blessed mace in World 5-1 (The Valley of Defilement), which is a good placeholder weapon until you acquire the resources to upgrade a more preferable weapon along the blessed path. 

Just remember that if you want to go two-handed, aggression is your best defense. Two-handed weapon blocks aren't great for damage reduction or your stamina bar, so using a lengthy weapon to stagger your enemies from a distance is the best way to prevent yourself from taking damage, which is part of the reason I find the claymore such a great weapon for this approach. It strikes quickly in relation to its (massive) size and length, plus it has a pretty significant arc. Be careful of small areas, though; low roofs will intercept its heavy attack, and narrow corridors will intercept its light attacks. It's always good to have another weapon to back you up. Since fire weapons don't scale with any stat, and a fair few enemies and bosses are weak to fire damage, having a dragon longsword or somesuch would be a good call. 

The strength, dexterity and quality build options are much simpler, since they suggest their own solutions. I personally find the Faith-based build to be the most fun, though. Just remember, no matter what you do, to choose a weapon upgrade path that supports your character. That primarily means choosing an upgrade path that scales with the stat you plan to be the highest out of Strength, Dexterity, Faith and Intelligence. There's a host of other options for particular kinds of weapons, too, such as the addition of the bleeding or poison effects, MP regeneration and so on. 

As for the pyro? Can't help much there. I think there's only really one fire spell in the entire game, so Dark Souls is by far your better bet for the pyro theme. It has a whole school of magic dedicated to it, in fact, which doesn't require stat investment to scale the damage upwards. 

Schitzo

also: can I create an awesome character by dual wielding Hands of God? I mean if only to roleplay Gene from Godhand in a low fantasy setting?

MadassAlex

Only if you're fantastic at parries and/or dodging in general.

Naas_Human

I thought this was about whether demon's have souls and how it works.

Schitzo

^^ I could always learn :V that's what you do in twitch skill games

MadassAlex

It's dicey. The fists don't have range, so can't defend you at a distance via staggers. Obviously, you have no normal blocking, either. So you make yourself extremely vulnerable. 

Schitzo

Hrm...

Okay: one final question: What's the main thing I have to keep in mind, particularly when managing my items/ equipment/ character build? I'm certain there's some long term planning/ micromanaging to do.

ClockworkUniverse

Do 4-1 first. It has a good weapon, you can skip most of it, and 4-2 starts off with an absurdly overpowered grinding spot.

I never really got all that far beyond that, though >.>

I should actually buy the game at some point.

DYRE

I need to get a PS3 so I can play Demon's Souls...

I wish it would have been ported to the 360 after Dark Souls got popular or something.

ClockworkUniverse

Well, the thing is, it's not actually owned by From Software, but Sony.

edited because i'm dumb and had it backwards

MadassAlex

Okay: one final question: What's the main thing I have to keep in mind, particularly when managing my items/ equipment/ character build? I'm certain there's some long term planning/ micromanaging to do.

There's no one, main thing. You could try to keep your equipped item weight under 50% of its maximum for the best movement speed, but that's up to you. Just make sure your build has synchronicity with itself.

Also, the best order to do things in, I think, is:

• 1-1 (duh)


• 2-1 (you get heaps of great upgrade stones)


• 4-1 or 5-1 (depending on whether you want a Faith or Intelligence based magic weapon)

World 4 in general is fantastic for grinding.