It's difficult. But every opposition I've come across yet (grant it, I've only been playing for a while now) can be overcome with strategy and a bit of skill. If you enjoy difficult games, I'd say get it; if you're not sure if you do, rent it first for sure.

I heard you only ever fight one of the kings now..? Is this true or not?

As for iron flesh, I didn't use it on my first character. It made every boss so easy on my later characters that it was laughable. Good thing they nerfed it.

@Septim007: It's very easy once you know where to get powerful gear and understand dodging an attack while wearing no armor is better than getting hit by an attack while wearing full armor.

No thats a lie, they still have the same spawn timer.

Damnit I want to be summoned. Way of white, lvl 34 outisde O+S. I have been summoned twice before. But The other guy died, and in the second one, I died. Now its been around 45 minutes, nothing is hppening.

Nah not that hard. First blind playthrough is challenging, that's for sure. First time I finished I was lvl 88 I think.

Now I lvl 20, 3 bosses to go. Soloing 4 kings at low lvl was a fun challenge. Surprised I actually did it. And Im not much of a twitch gamer.

This is Coming from a fan, so take this as you will, I think it is worth it. Lots of build options that add to replay value and the multiplayer has much improved since the patch. If you're willing to brave pvp, that will add a lot of life to the game.

One warning though. You won't be playin with anyone on your friends list consistently. I've never been able to play with any of my Online pals. Definitely one of the biggest down sides to mp and to the game in general.

I can connect with the same person multiple times during the same session in the same area, but after that you'll likely never see them again. At least that's been my experience.

Can you not just arrange a time and place to meet friends? That's how we got around the multiplayer in Demon's Souls.

That worked in Demon's souls, but multiplayer is entirely different in dark souls. (at least pre-patch, no idea how it's nowadays).

Ah. I've not dabbled in multi-player much yet. Though I know you can still put signs down, so I assumed you could still just arrange to have a friend be there when your sign goes down.

You know about the NA and EU and japanese version of demon's souls? Where you can't play with the others because there are different servers? Well in dark souls, there's like a hundred of them and you can't choose which you are sent to. It's randomized whenever you put down a new sign, so it's possible to work yourself through them all, but it takes a lot of time. (the server thing is true pre-patch, as I said I have no idea how it works now)

Ah.. Gotcha.

Well I haven't been much for multiplayering (haha new word) but I do like a challenge. Coming from someone who likes to play age of Empires on the most difficult level possible (usually it is me defending my wonder until I am able to win.. hehehe), I think I would like it even though they are entirely different games. But if it can't be done without multiplayer then I don't know... I do have a friend that likes multiplayer games and often plays them with me and buys them for that reason, so that could be a bonus. Ya and I know that the first sentence and the second to last sentence kinda contradict themselves but whatevs.

Four kings, NG+ help!

I killed one, then died soon after. Tips would be appreciated. I am using zweihander +15, buffed with power within, and sunlight blde. Doing 900 dmage. Have the darkwood grain ring equiped, and xanthious armour.

Did you summon the witch beatrice to fight the butterfly earlier in the game? If you did, you should be able to find her summon sign just outside the 4 kings for, behind a stone-thing. If you didn't, try summoning regular guys to help you. 4 kings is nowadays quite an easy boss in comparison to what it was. Perhaps it's the power within that is the problem, that pyro kills you faster than 4 kings would kill you! Remember, you have all the time in the universe now, no need to hurry. If you need some quality gear, try using the mother's mask in that fight. It adds 15% more health and is a light weight head-gear. Other than that, a huge poise pool and lot of armor is still the way to go even with iron flesh nerfed as much as it was. I'd say your problem right now is a slow weapon, combined with a spell that slowly kills you and armor than weights little but probtects less and has no poise. There's nothing wrong with each of those on their own, but together you will have problems. Try changing one or two of those to something else, such as a faster weapon or more armor or no power within, and report back. Good to see you desided to give DkS a 2nd chance!

On demon's souls wiki forums I recently read a thread which contained these links:
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/namco-bandai-might-bring-dark-souls-on-the-pc-if-there-is-demand/
http://petitionbureau.org/DarkSoulsForPC

Basically, Dark Souls *may* come out for PC? That's.. interesting.

PC gamers everywhere are gathering up to prove to Namco that we're interested in a PC version.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/01/06/the-quest-for-dark-souls-on-pc/ (It's actually getting a lot of traffic over this article)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUXw86Vn8ko

http://petitionbureau.org/DarkSoulsForPC (Internet petitions aren't really known for their succesfulness, but this one is worth a shot since the publishers are actively gauging interest right now)


Their forums are also getting more activity than ever, with the thread that Namco is supposedly watching to gauge interest in a PC version being full of PC gamers signing up to post.
http://forums.namcobandaigames.eu/showthread.php?t=96407


It would be amazing if we could actually convince them. Dark Souls is next to Red Dead Redemption pretty much the only console exclusive title that I'd love to see on PC.

Hey got a couple questions..tried asking on the official forums, but man they screen your first five posts before putting them up, and it's been like 48 hours now and they won't post my questions.

So anyway, the game is fantastic, one of the best things i've played in years.

However, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING with a build or weapons. So far I have a level 25 Wanderer, mostly dex, some vit and end. I'm using a scimitar+3 and have some upgraded chainmail..about to try taking down the Bell Gargoyle at the top of Undead Parish...for the fourth time.

I'd like to know: Does/should my stamina bar grow? I keep putting points in endurance and it seems like it's having no effect on that. Also, how do dex and strength work with weapons, and there certain weapons that scale off dexterity only? Is there anything in particular I should know about a successful wanderer build..I know they are only starting stats, but I have ended up liking the mobility from the dex, while still being able to block decently.

Well technicly there is a timer. I killed 2 kings, but another spawned, and killed me as I killed the other one. But yeah its doing better without th power within. I am trying to mimic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnIDSjzix0o

And yet they will harp on about consoles killing games and being inferior, blah, blah, blah.

The only concern I'd have about Dark Souls being ported to PC is that the game simply wouldn't work well with mouse+keyboard. This is one game where anolog input makes a huge difference.

I hope you guys get it though. It's a great game.

By the way, any PS3 players still active? Some Demon's Souls vet friends of mine have seem to have made the first bonfire of the Undead Burg quite an active dueling grounds. Love to see some of you there.

I didn't watch the video, so I"m not sure what that guy's tactic is, but I killed the Four Kings solo in both New Game and New Game + by suiting up in heavy armor (Smough's + Mask of the Child), casting Iron Flesh, and wailing on the kings as quickly as I could up close and personal with my Man-Serpent Greatsword +15. I killed each king with time to spare before the next showed up. I healed when necessary.

EDIT: @ Bork: Your stamina bar does grow, however, not as quickly as your health bar, for instance. Endurance will top out at forty stamina wise, so keep upping it to around that level. Other than that, A decently high vitality is pretty important in a game where being one-shot by enemies isn't terribly rare, so keep upping that to a good level (I stop at fifty, even on my strength/vit build). And since you've chosen dexterity as your damage dealing attribute, find weapons that scale with dex. If you can find a weapon with at least a B or A and like its moveset, upgrade it along the standard path to +15 and see how you like it. You seem to be doing things right. Just get some help for the Gargoyle fight -- they can be annoying sometimes.

@septiego: I'm every now and then in Burg, around level 130. But it's extremely hard to play with someone specific and the chance of us seeing eachother in burg randomly is close to 0%.

@Borkelsplatz: You character won't become a build until you are like level 90+, so if you are simply looking to play the game through, make yourself some fire weapons, or lightning weapons. Don't bother putting points into str and dex, pump up vit and end. And End gives a very small stamina bonus every time you level it, until it hits 40.

See, I keep hearing about how the servers are handled in Dark Souls and how you'll likely never find someone specific. But for several days now an entire chat group (what's that, sixteen people?) have been regularly summoning eachother and hosting fights. And I see familiar faces all the time in the garden. Either we've all just been incredibly lucky, or the servers aren't quite what people keep making them out to be.

Tried tanking died in 2 hits.

Then went back to rolling round with zweihander and sunlight blade. Killed them all then. [censored] yeah. Now I just need a channeler trident and titanite demon catch poe and im set for knights honour. Well until NG++ where I jst need to get to anor londo and use sifs soul and gwyns.

Thanks for the newb info guys...so I don't need to bother with strength or dex at all on my first play through? Why not, is the damage increase mild or what?

Damage increase isn't mild at all. However, fire and lightning upgrades don't scale with anything and so are immediately more powerful (though eventually scaling upgrades surpass them). So I assume the recommendation is so that you don't have to worry about leveling a scaling stat like strength or dexterity, and can instead focus on getting vitality and endurance up.

Edit @ Ratslayer: two hits? Damn. And you were wearing heavy armor +Iron Flesh? That's ridiculous. With that set up, I could withstand every attack from each king until I killed it. I healed in between kings. Character only had thirty vitality the first go around, too.

Hmm, ok. At this point I am yet to come across these upgrades, so hopefully soon!

I think I stopped playing back in late October. Have any patches fixed a few things since then (*cough*online mode*cough*).