Way of the Rodent

This and Uncharted 2 are my games of this generation.

I thought 4-2 was ok once I got the silver shield. I just legged it down the stairs and out the gate in the second section. The bit with the slugs was a bit freaky afterwards - I kept expecting something nasty to jump out.

yeah - those fuckers are fast. I lured them out one at a time and fought them on the platform above. Warding helps a lot too if you have it.

In your face, Flamelurker.

Piece of piss. Got him first time. It helped a bit that he got stuck on some scenery, but he was already pretty knackered by then.

I also like the way that everyone's journey is quite different and that there is genuine well wishing for all who give it a go.

Fucking yes!

Allant is down.

yup.

Dipped in for half an hour last night, post football, and managed to find the Thief Ring - although it was pretty random that at one given point in an otherwise identical low wall I was able to climb over.

Then I polished of Phalanx at the first time of asking - soul arrow renders him utterly toothless. And man, do you get a good amount of shards from those shield twats!

Had a quick peak at 1-2, hit some dogs, and got toasted by the dragon again. Looking forward to twatting him in due course.

Also, I had a cut scene at the Nexus which invited me to climb to the top of the chamber. When I got there, I found a door which did nothing. There was a message saying 'obtaining information' or something similar. Was I supposed to hang around? None of the other archstones have opened either.

Cling ring? I've got four I think. One that enables my MP to rise slightly. One that raises my HP in soul form. Then there is the thief ring and something that referenced a resistance to gashes? i've not really studied them to be honest - I have the first two equipped.

Ah right - so I actually need to manually level up. Best do that pronto.

Good advice mate.

And bugger - no idea how many souls I lost when I was killed by the dragon - but I do know I have a fuck of a long way along the battlements to get them back! When I killed Phalanx, did I pick up his demon soul? And will I have dropped it?

Ah right. So you don't cash in demon souls to level up? It is just the general souls that you need?

I've cashed in quite a few of those unknown warrior souls - think I used them to upgrade my weapons. And the souls I dropped - well I got past the first encounter with the dragon, and then went underground to get past the second expanse of battlements. I was then killed 3/4 the way across the third - I was pegged by an archer, and while I was staggered, I was toasted.

I'll have the thief ring equipped as well, of course.

And then once I have rescued the souls, I had better get back to the Nexus to do some levelling. I will be mighty fucked off if I do perish along the way. That said, I am pretty sure I didn't have many souls when I died - no more than 4,000.

So, back to my original question - what are demon's souls used for? Can you cash them in for many souls, like those of the unknown warriors?

Ok - special weapons and spells they shall be saved for. Fuck - it would be very easy to piss away opportunities to do cool stuff in this game.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. As long as you aren't in pure white or pure black world, you can always come back for stuff later. Just don't try to pick something up then leave it because you can't lift it - it will be gone when you reload the world. You should have the ring from Thomas that gives you 1.5x weight limit, stick that on and head back to the nexus with whatever loot you have.

Remember to dump stones with Thomas too - you can still use them for upgrading even though he's got them. Doesn't work with Demon's souls or upgrade items tho, you need to be carrying those to upgrade with them.

That maneater is a bit of a prick. I killed him dead for his troubles.

New monster in Dark Souls - dual golf-club wielding berserker..

We had to take them off because they were soaking wet after him playing in a paddling pool. There was more water in his wellies than the pool ;-)

Nice going.

Allant was a cunt.

yeah. I was tempted to twat him with arrows from the door but I toughed it out and took him down with soul ray instead. Took me a good few goes tho.

Fuck melee-ing the cunt tho.

Well, you're so fat he just bounced off you, innit?

I would say do 4-2 because 4-3 is great for grinding soul levels but you really need an item from 5-3 for 4-2 or it's much harder.

5-2 is a pain in the arse. It's a bit easier if you use leechmonger's soul to get the cure miracle, otherwise you'll go through a ton of lotuses.

Not essential, but very useful.

He is, but he's near the start, before the really nasty bit that you need the silver shield for.

5-2 is a complete cunt. If you know where to go it's a little bit easier but not much. The best way to deal with the big fuckers with clubs is just to avoid them once you know where they are. You can snipe them but the level is so fucking dark it can be hard to pick them out far enough away that you can snipe them without them spotting you.

4-3 should be doable if you have any ranged magic or a good bow, otherwise you'll need to sprint right down to the far end to get the nice sword. You do run the gauntlet of about 20 mantas tho, so I'd advise against it.

3-2 is pretty good. Oodles of atmosphere and pretty straightforward as long as you are cautious. I think I did that one in only about two goes, which I can't say for any of the others (apart from Archdemon fights, False Idol and Storm king I did first time, but they don't count as they aren't really levels I'd say).

edit - when I say do, I mean open up the shortcut. The boss fight took me a few shots ;-)