@SCP1471 @yaodema @ShugoWah@snouts.online okay well uh. I beat the gaping dragon with advice from all of you nice people and now I have 26390 souls and no idea what to do with it

the most I've ever had at one time previously is 5000ish

@Felthry time to level the HECK up!

or get back to Andre the blacksmith and get your armor upgraded if you haven't yet

@SCP1471 @yaodema @ShugoWah@snouts.online should i buy the crystal straight sword this guy is offering? should I get a couple miracles from that priest guy at firelink shrine? should I level up? should I level up items?

@Felthry Crystal stuff is bad unless you know what you're doing. They have good stats but can't be repaired at all. once they break they're gone for good

@SCP1471 oh, that's... odd

what about this armor he has, helm of the wise/armor of the glorious/gauntlets of the vanquisher/boots of the explorer

is that any good?

@Felthry Eh, not really. What armor are you currently wearing?

@SCP1471 balder helm, hard leather armor +2, hard leather gauntlets, black leather boots +1

@SCP1471 my first attempt at the game was playing as a knight and the inability to dodge is what ultimately made me give up on that one so I'm keeping this character less encumbered as much as possible

@Felthry if you wanna stay light a full set of hard leather is good. i forget exactly *where* you get it but it's good to stick with a set and upgrade the heck out of it.

Otherwise, if you don't mind upgrading your endurance, there's an Elite Knight set in Darkroot Garden that's basically the best balanced set in the game and is p good defense for its weight

@SCP1471 I started with a full set of hard leather, and got another full set in the boss arena I just got out of

I found a superior helm and pants that were similar quality but lighter and is there some bonus for using all from one set or something, or is it just down to direct stats?

@Felthry its mostly aesthetics imo, but i find sticking with one set for a while a good way to go.

But also don't be afraid to level up your endurance for some heftier gear. DS1 is nice in that endurance boosts both stamina AND carry weight so you get both out of one stat

@SCP1471 How heavy is the set you recommended, and how far am I from being able to get it? If I don't need too many more points in endurance I might do that

@Felthry The full elite knight set is 26.8 weight versus the 16.4 of the hard leather set. It's certainly heavier but if you get enough endurance to avoid fat rolling with it it's way worth it.

Also there's a big dude with a GIANT mace beneath the tower right before the taurus demon that drops Havel's Ring. If you can beat him and get the ring your carry capacity goes way up

@SCP1471 oh I tried to beat that guy a few times, he's really tough to beat

any tips?

also thank you for all the help so far!! this is really helpful

@Felthry You can parry all of his attacks except the jump attack, so if you get the parry timing down he turns pretty simple

Otherwise you can just circle-strafe him and backstab him repeatedly, just watch out for his sweeping attacks

and yeah of course! I try to be helpful where i can since the souls games are some of my favorite but i understand they are very obtuse and difficult to get into

@SCP1471 Parrying is something I've never gotten the hang of, can't even reliably do it against generic hollows

@Felthry Yeah then just try to backstab the guy. He hits like a truck but his overheads are pretty easy to sidestep and get in that big hit

@SCP1471 so, I got that ring you were talking about--am I anywhere near being able to get this elite knight armor or should I spend my souls upgrading the armor I already have?

@SCP1471 ah never mind, I explored the darkroot garden a bit (had to look up where it was though, didn't realize you could get _past_ that lightning demon) and found it... and then even managed to get out with my souls by using homeward

@Felthry it's a good set! if you have the weight capacity with Havel's ring to wear it without fatrolling, you should have an easier time with most of the game.

@SCP1471 yeah! I just now got a balder side sword while grinding souls so I'm kind of wondering if I should try to shift focus to dexterity, since it has a higher scaling with dex than the otherwise-identical longsword

I went ahead and levelled it to +6 to almost match my +7 longsword (need another titanite) and I'm doing only slightly less damage, which makes sense as my strength is better than dex right now but only by two points

@Felthry if you level both strength and dexterity, the longsword and certain weapons like that should end up having pretty good stats. Honestly the two physical attack stats are the only attack stats i 100% recommend leveling up both unless you got some massive fuck-off sword or, like, a really good dagger/rapier

@SCP1471 also I got flash sweat from the pyromancy guy (I like the pyromancy guy, he's the only actually friendly person at firelink) which might help with the quelaag fight when i'm ready to try it again?

I also saw something about using magic weapon (the sorcery spell) against her but I need at least 10 sorcery to be able to buy it and is it worth the level to put one more point into sorcery? I have a really good catalyst, or at least I think it is, the tin banishment catalyst that I forget where I found it

@SCP1471 but, of course, my int stat is really low as I haven't put a single point in it yet so I dunno if magic weapon will be that useful

@Felthry eh, honestly stick with the flash sweat skill imo. It'll help a lot more than a low-intelligence Magic Weapon.

Also i just remembered, the Balder Side Sword is famous for being good as hell. go for that and a focus on dex versus str

@SCP1471 I mean I could do both, I have two attunement slots. One for magic weapon and one for flash sweat. But I could also put homeward in the other one and have a possibility of escape in a bad situation, or something

@Felthry homeward is not a bad skill to have

@SCP1471 yeah it's gotten me out of a couple really bad situations and saved me a few humanity and a few thouand souls