A Homeward Bone doesn't kill you or drop your souls. That's a get out of jail free card.
Using the Dark Sign counts as a death and leaves a new bloodstain.
Use the Bone.

BONE YOURSELF!

...Yeah that's my contribution to this discussion... I'm going to leave now.

^You heard the man.

this game is so stupid sometimes. I quit out, and when I booted it back up it showed I was back before where i died, but I only had 1800 souls, (about how much when I quit out) but I also instantly died, and went back to the bonfire.

Ouch. Not sure what would cause that. Condolences though.

yea, made me want to take a break from it.

o also if you do think about getting dragons dogma it is getting a major expansion some time in 2013

If I pick it up it'll probably be if it has a Game of the Year type of thing will any added content they make in it. Likely some time for that, I imagine.

so far they have had added hard mode and speed run. both free, and both came with good gear for doing those things

Sounds like you shouldn't have quit while being in that spot, it seems more like you should have died but got caught by random piece of wood, I am not surprised that you died when you restarted.

what really sucks is I could of really used that humanity to deal with all the poison/toxin that was literally like 50 feet away. plus the next bonfire was right there too

Started up a new character. Thinking of going Faith/Dex. Trying out spears/halberds this time too. Got to be a lot more careful than with swords, I can tell you.

When I started the game up I remembered something about those reassembling skeletons in the graveyard.
They can be permanently killed by an unarmed level 1 player.
Kick them off the cliff.

yea did that a bit. I also made them try to attack me and end up going off the cliff as well

EDIT; also im at the spider queen chick. and it is just very annoying having to make my way through the swamp. dealing with the stupid poison, dealing with the infinitely spawning mosquitos, and approach in a way that doesnt get the orcs to pin me down, and also got to make sure they dont kill the near by NPC (she got down to a sliver of health one time) all that just to get to the boss, its not challenging just annoying. way too much effort. Having to do the same time consuming steps over and over without much of an actual challenge is wearing me down.

There's a route to take from the bonfire to the cave that you can take where you have to kill a grand total of two of the flesh manspider things. I'll spoiler it in case you'd rather find it yourself.

Spoiler:

Not sure it's worth the trouble to you right now, but there's also a ring you can get that lets you ignore the slowdown effect of the muck. Back in the Undead Asylum. Not sure you want me to tell you how to get there, but it can be reached from Firelink Shrine is all I'll say.

Well if you are having to do the same steps over and over, obviously you are dying over and over which means the sequence is challenging for you, it is OK to admit you are finding something difficult when it comes to this game . It's not even that time consuming, there's a bonfire quite close and it takes mere minutes to reach the island from it.

In regards to the actual sequence, I think I had very resistant poison armor and hugged the wall for a bit until getting to the island, those ogres can be annoying but just make a dash for the boss, hugging the wall doesn't seem to attract them until you are basically at the island. TBH I was more of a tanking character so I could take a few blows, you sound like a character that is relying more on speed and dexterity, probably why you are finding the area challenging.

CobaltMonkey wrote:

There's a route to take from the bonfire to the cave that you can take where you have to kill a grand total of two of the flesh manspider things. I'll spoiler it in case you'd rather find it yourself.

Spoiler:

Not sure it's worth the trouble to you right now, but there's also a ring you can get that lets you ignore the slowdown effect of the muck. Back in the Undead Asylum. Not sure you want me to tell you how to get there, but it can be reached from Firelink Shrine is all I'll say.

let me guess the ring is down a tower, guarded by a guy with a huge club that kinda looks like a bone? Saw him fought him a few times, decided to come back later since he was 1 shotting me, never did go back. and on the way down there was a message that said something about a good ring ahead.

also "diagnal towards land" is very vague (and thanks for putting it in a spoiler tag)

Mitchell wrote:

Well if you are having to do the same steps over and over, obviously you are dying over and over which means the sequence is challenging for you, it is OK to admit you are finding something difficult when it comes to this game . It's not even that time consuming, there's a bonfire quite close and it takes mere minutes to reach the island from it.

In regards to the actual sequence, I think I had very resistant poison armor and hugged the wall for a bit until getting to the island, those ogres can be annoying but just make a dash for the boss, hugging the wall doesn't seem to attract them until you are basically at the island. TBH I was more of a tanking character so I could take a few blows, you sound like a character that is relying more on speed and dexterity, probably why you are finding the area challenging.

I die on the boss, not the sequence to get to the boss. I do die on the sequence when I rush it though.

With the boss, what Monkey said earlier in the spoiler tag makes the fight much more manageable.

because it brings in another person that distracts/damages it?

Not looking for an easy way out. Figuring out the bosses movements, how to avoid them, and where his openings are is the best part of any good action game (imo) I am not going to rob myself of that just to get past it.

EDIT: besides got the boss down to half health on my 1st try. its not that hard. its just that there is only really one attack she does (that i've seen) that really leaves her open to attack. I die either because I am trying to get some hits on her when she isn't as open as id like (mostly due to impatience) or the lava gets me. I need to be more aware of my surroundings. backed right up into lava a couple times.

nobody wrote:

CobaltMonkey wrote:

There's a route to take from the bonfire to the cave that you can take where you have to kill a grand total of two of the flesh manspider things. I'll spoiler it in case you'd rather find it yourself.

Spoiler:

Not sure it's worth the trouble to you right now, but there's also a ring you can get that lets you ignore the slowdown effect of the muck. Back in the Undead Asylum. Not sure you want me to tell you how to get there, but it can be reached from Firelink Shrine is all I'll say.

let me guess the ring is down a tower, guarded by a guy with a huge club that kinda looks like a bone? Saw him fought him a few times, decided to come back later since he was 1 shotting me, never did go back. and on the way down there was a message that said something about a good ring ahead.

also "diagnal towards land" is very vague (and thanks for putting it in a spoiler tag)

Nope. That's an entirely different, better, and much less situational ring.

Pulling in that NPC doesn't make the fight easy mode, just easier. Believe me, no NPC you summon will ever pile on the damage. All they're really good for is a moment's rest when the boss is distracted, and since damage effects agro they'll never stay pointed at the NPC for long.
You're meant to have help against some of these things. The devs knew how hard they were making the fights. Thus the NPC phantoms.
Yes, you can solo everything in the game unarmed and naked if you really want to go for a challenge, but it's not required, and I wouldn't suggest it.

I wasnt talking about damage I was talking about distraction. using him as a decoy to force easy openings as opposed to baiting and dodging attacks, and hitting him at the right moment

I know. I was saying that that distraction is always small since they don't do enough damage to pull aggro, so the enemy remains mostly focused on you. It's enough to help a bit, but not enough to remove all the challenge.

I feel like a broken record. I dont care how big or how small of a help it is, what I love best about dark souls (and other games in the genre) is mastering the boss fights. to read, or even control what attacks they are using and to deal with them. having someone else in the fight does me no good at all because for me it is not about beating them. it is about out playing them. The boss fights are the best part. i dont want any help, I want to savor it. what you are recommending is like if you were to buy a nice expensive bottle of wine, and instead of savoring it you just downed it like a beer. Obviously the degree of one end to the other is probably a bit more extreme in the wine/beer scenario. but the same principal still applies. I want to savor it for as long as possible, because once it is gone its gone.

Are you wearing armor and using a weapon? If so, you should know that the challenge is much greater without doing so. If any help at all is too much, then you should probably put those down.
Using equipment when you could go without is like buying a sports car and never taking it over 20mph.

You want the challenge of beating each boss solo. Great. Entirely your call.
But it doesn't fade so quickly as you think. The huge variety of weapons and builds coupled with the large degree of difference between each one makes each fight different every time you take it on with some other character or equipment set. The bosses may use roughly the same moves each time, but an opening for a sword isn't the same as an opening for a greataxe or spell.

I still use my starting armor, and using a weaker weapon just makes the fight drag on.

I was referring to this play through. I cant go back and do it again. once you kill them they are gone. dont plan onn doing a 2nd playthrough. I started a 2nd character as a sorcerer and damn was that boring. I already know exactly where all the enemies are. there is no sense of wonder, or exploration. sure the style of fighting is different, but the game basically forces you to memorize where all the enemies are and where they will attack from, so once you have that down 80% of the challenge is gone. what makes dark souls so great and sets it apart is gone. same thing happened with dragons dogma after having played it enough times through.

To each his own.

I still find plenty of fun figuring out just how to do this or that.
But I understand where you're coming from. It's true that most of my fun comes from PvP now, where every opponent is a new mystery to solve. Never know what someone's going to throw at you (sometimes literally).


Through Sen's on this character. Most of the way through the level after as well.
Learning the spear/polearm is more challenging that the sword, greatsword, ax, greataxe, or magic. Still working with that Winged spear I got in the graveyard at the outset. It's up to a +7 now. Not high enough level for the scaling to really kick in. Just got a Giant's Halberd to drop though, so I might give that a try if I meet the requirements.

Spoiler:

whats in the spoilers? i have no clue if I want to click it or not.