Just bought this game

[GJ4E-]

Got up to Fallen Giant Woods I think? I've played and platted DS3 so I atleast have knowledge of mechanics but I feel like I'm missing something. Am I really only suppose to have 1 Estus fill at this point? And what's up with my health, I always respawn at like 3/4s health and when I heal with life gems it never goes past that point. What's up with that?

 

Loving this game so far though, hoping I can plat this before all the new games come out later this year. I feel like Souls is not going to let me enjoy any other game! Haha

[PliskinCobra]

Dark Souls 2 is a bit different from DS1 and 3. The health bar will keep shrinking every time you die until it reach 50%, you will need to use human effigy to reverse the hollow state to get back the maximum health.

If I remember correctly you begin with 1 estus and need to upgrade it to gain more uses, but in DS2 estus is not the only healing item, you can use life gem instead.

[AncLEoniX]

Good luck with it. If your trying to plat it it's quite a pain. Also it's probably the hardest out of the series I've played. Tho it is very different then 3, a lot slower and a lot of differed in the mp and covenants.

[TigressLion]

I found DS2 the easiest, I mean like 3-4x easier then DS1. Though I seem to be the only one?

 

• Anyways, whenever you die you will lose a fraction of health, you'll need human effigies to reverse this.
• ^^^^There is a ring you will find, that will deal with this problem.
• You'll occasionally find Estus Flask Shards, bring to Majula to increase Estus uses.
• You'll occasionally find Sublime Bone Dust, sacrifice this at Bonfires to increase the strength of Estus heals. 

[spacemonkey3k]

I found DS2 the easiest, I mean like 3-4x easier then DS1. Though I seem to be the only one?

I found it to be the easiest overall as well. Most of the game is a cakewalk, souls-wise, with a few exceptions. Darklurker and Fume Knight had me raging more than a few times, and I won't even go into the blue Smelter Demon. The apparent ease of DS2 may be due to how many times I played through it though.

For the OP, wearing the ring that prevents your health from decreasing past a certain point makes it really no different than DS3 insofar as having more health when embered and less when not.

[Caesar Clown]

The "losing HP when you die" mechanic was supposed to discourage staying Hollow, since there was no real punishment in DS1 for staying Hollow beyond not being able to do PvP/co-op. It's annoying because even when you're Hollow, you can be invaded in DS2, and even at 50% Hollow, you're still going to find yourself right at the top of invasion queues.

 

There's really no reason not to be Human in DS2. Burn an Effigy to stop invaders everywhere you go (unless you want them), and you'll still have 50 or more by the end of the game.

[MMDE]

You gotta find Estus flask shards and then give 'em to Emerald Herald.

 

http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Estus+Flask

 

Where to find Estus Flask Shards:

http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Estus+Flask+Shard

 

They are located differently in the Scholar of the First Sin version, but there's a list there of those locations too.

Edited June 18, 2016 by MMDE

[Sara-Rosecult]

In DS2, there is a silly concept called "soul memory".  They use "soul memory" (not soul level) to determine online summoning/invading.  This concept is so bad so they introduce the "Agape Ring" in the later patch.  Basically, if you wear the Agape ring, you won't gain souls... that's cool, but without souls, you can't upgrade your weapons for purchasing supplies... didn't I say it was "silly".... so to cure the silliness, they introduce another silliness. 

 

Anyway, if you want to know how to get the Agape ring, check out my youtube videos on how to get there (links on my sign below).  Since I journey through this entire game naked at level 1 and using only weapons/items that I found along the way, you should have no problem following me with a more powerful build.

[GJ4E-]

Thanks for the tips guys. Having a tough time so far but i'm managing. Any use for the boss souls btw?

[aditya319]

This game may be a little easier with shield etc.. so i am playing without shield.. though u will definately die a lot in it as well.. me.. i found dark souls 1 easier than this.. may be becoz i used shield.. or may be i am not visiting the places the way i should.. but yeah this game for me is tougher than dark souls 1.. well dark souls 3.. i will play it once i finish dark souls 2..neverthless.. njoy the game.. and dont worry about estus flask.. u will gradually get them more than you want.. i have never felt i was short on estus flask.. only i was short was in the being able to use them when needed hehe.. so many times got killed while drinking it..

Boss souls in this game can be used to swap with boss weapons.. unlike dark souls 1 where i think we used to make boss weapons.. here there are a few npc.. who trade them with boss weapons.. like flexie sentry souls with some weapon made from his soul..

[durantjuan]

I haven't played in a while but there are 2 npcs that will trade you weapons or spells, whichever you think is more useful, for your boss souls. If you are going to plat you will have to trade for spells anyway so up to you if you want to do it in ng or ng+

[Griffon234]

Thanks for the tips guys. Having a tough time so far but i'm managing. Any use for the boss souls btw?

Boss Souls are used the same way in all 3 games, mainly as things to be traded for special weapons, or spells. You're going to need those spells for the platinum.

Something I haven't seen being mentioned, another silly thing about Dark Souls 2 apart from the rest is Adaptabillity. You probably noticed how slow you drink your Estus flasks. This is because of a stat that gets increased when you spec into Adaptibilty and to a degree Attunement, called Agility. It caps at 110 and it is what determines how much Invuln frames you have on your dodge roll as well as estus speed and some other things.

TLDR: You'll need adaptability despite it being a stupid addition to the game.

[GJ4E-]

Boss Souls are used the same way in all 3 games, mainly as things to be traded for special weapons, or spells. You're going to need those spells for the platinum.

Something I haven't seen being mentioned, another silly thing about Dark Souls 2 apart from the rest is Adaptabillity. You probably noticed how slow you drink your Estus flasks. This is because of a stat that gets increased when you spec into Adaptibilty and to a degree Attunement, called Agility. It caps at 110 and it is what determines how much Invuln frames you have on your dodge roll as well as estus speed and some other things.

TLDR: You'll need adaptability despite it being a stupid addition to the game.

 

I figured out the usefulness of ADP just recently, even though some people say it's a "placebo" and it doesn't actually do anything lol I leveled it up to 95 Agility anyway. Should I go up to 110? I am used to the rolling play style rather than shielding. I play better that way

[MMDE]

 

I found DS2 the easiest, I mean like 3-4x easier then DS1. Though I seem to be the only one?

 

I found it to be the easiest overall as well. Most of the game is a cakewalk, souls-wise, with a few exceptions. Darklurker and Fume Knight had me raging more than a few times, and I won't even go into the blue Smelter Demon. The apparent ease of DS2 may be due to how many times I played through it though.

 

I personally found DS2 much harder than DS1, because DS1 was pretty easy IMO. Yes, things like Darklurker and those limited attempts dark dungeons with strong enemies surely added quite a lot to the difficulty. I also found most areas to be harder.

 

In DS2, there is a silly concept called "soul memory".

 

I don't think it's a silly concept, but it wasn't well thought through. For one, it's super helpful for cheaters and it encourages not playing the game and makes it harder to connect to people. This was probably my biggest issue with the game, kinda broke the online a bit for me.

[Griffon234]

I figured out the usefulness of ADP just recently, even though some people say it's a "placebo" and it doesn't actually do anything lol I leveled it up to 95 Agility anyway. Should I go up to 110? I am used to the rolling play style rather than shielding. I play better that way

 

I'd recommend MINIMUM 100. 110 is the max.

[TigressLion]

I personally found DS2 much harder than DS1, because DS1 was pretty easy IMO. Yes, things like Darklurker and those limited attempts dark dungeons with strong enemies surely added quite a lot to the difficulty. I also found most areas to be harder.

 

 

I don't think it's a silly concept, but it wasn't well thought through. For one, it's super helpful for cheaters and it encourages not playing the game and makes it harder to connect to people. This was probably my biggest issue with the game, kinda broke the online a bit for me.

I played a Magic User in both DS games, DS1 though you can summon NPC help for some bosses, whereas your on your own for a chunk too. DS1 bosses also seemed to have A LOT more AoE/Wide attacks. Where DS2 almost ALL like 28/30 bosses can have summons, which you can just stand there and magic abuse, made tge bosses a lot less memorable. I mean as a weapon user may have a harder time up close? So I can see it being harder if I wasn't a Magic User.

[MMDE]

I played a Magic User in both DS games, DS1 though you can summon NPC help for some bosses, whereas your on your own for a chunk too. DS1 bosses also seemed to have A LOT more AoE/Wide attacks. Where DS2 almost ALL like 28/30 bosses can have summons, which you can just stand there and magic abuse, made tge bosses a lot less memorable. I mean as a weapon user may have a harder time up close? So I can see it being harder if I wasn't a Magic User.

 

Magic was likely harder in Dark Souls 1 because it was way OP in Demon's Souls. You can summon other players anyway. I don't think I summoned anyone online or offline in DS1, while I did in DS2.

Edited July 11, 2016 by MMDE

[aditya319]

I figured out the usefulness of ADP just recently, even though some people say it's a "placebo" and it doesn't actually do anything lol I leveled it up to 95 Agility anyway. Should I go up to 110? I am used to the rolling play style rather than shielding. I play better that way

Cap adap at 38..agility 110.. if you like dodging.. though just a basic tip..in fights try to limit your dodging.. ie.. dodge in a way that when boss etc hits a combo you just dodge once in a way that you get out of his all combo hits... remeber this tip for all bosses and you should be able to get through majority of bosses with ease..

[WARLOCK1972]

Got this game after completing Bloodborne. Wow, super impressed, great lore, awesome co-op, and good fighting mechanics. Took abit of getting used to. The slower pace fighting, and having to watch that stamina bar.  Bring on DS3 GOTY