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I just beat the first Demon (well, not counting the tutorial ), Phalanx.

My experience with the game is pretty much a super easy tutorial followed by massive amounts of death. I prefer to play offline; I don't really like the tips pasted all over the place, and I lack the self-control to just not click on them.

I've actually found DS to be a great game for me to pick up and play for short periods of time. I play until I die, or until I open a new gate or whatever, and then put it down for a bit. I made a Knight that I didn't really care for, and have been playing as a Wanderer for a bit now, and I like her. I prefer to use the two-handed weapon stance, but with all the firebombs and arrows, I tend to have to spend most of my time rocking a shield.

Really awesome game, though.

Right now I'm rocking a spiked shield + winged spear, and I have a bow to switch off with my shield and a dagger to switch off with the spear. I'm usually fine until hax bosses or hax mobs. Like, I was randomly 1 shotted (full stamina and full hp gone in 1 hit) at multiple times, and once I lost internet connection while running across the bridge where the dragon breaths fire. So when I get back on the dragon of course starts over again and I die. It's those moments that make you say ********** the 4000 souls I just accumulated, I'm going to grind somewhere."

Even on non NG+, you can get something like 5k souls in about three minutes using a circuit in 4-2.

4-1 is a lot easier than you'd think(if you try to play the game completely linearly, you're in for some annoyance), and the boss is a joke. And once you get good and ganking the reaper in 4-2, it's really easy to farm(and if you can hit him fast, you stun lock him to death).

Hell, even if you're not ready to take on the red eyes skeleton right before 4-1's boss, the silver skeletons in that level are great to farm and you can get revenge on the tutorial boss who you can kill a little ways in without him moving at all if you use ranged attacks(kill the flying mantas first and bring plenty of arrows).

I'd also recommend you get a better shield. The spiked shield is a great weapon, but it sucks as a shield(it lets a big chunk of damage through even when blocking). The red eyes knight in area 1-1 sometimes drops a purple flame shield(or if you go to where the dragons roost when the world is on pure white tendency you can get one easy as they're not there). If you really like riposting, the knight's shield is another farmable option, which you can get off the blue eyes knight in 1-1 as a rare drop.

I'm curious how that has played out for you. Since it's been 24 hours and I'm impatient, update!

What stats you stacking? Also, you might want to pick up a weapon for those situations where things aren't vulnerable to magic or piercing damage. There's a Dragon Longsword +1 in 2-2 that does "pure physical" and fire damage that might be great for those situations.

Figures, I need to keel me some black phantoms to raise my character tendency and nobody is on.

If I'm thinking about the right spot, make sure you left those 2 barrels there untouched. I'd suggest leaving him alone until you can take him on easier. There are so much better places to farm once you get a little further. 4-2 for example, if I didn't lose focus for an hour straight I could definitely get 360,000 souls easily.

I actually ended up being successful enough times that I can kill him in a straight-up fight now. If only I could get the shield to drop.

I'm also having a lot of trouble farming Hardstones. I get a ton of Sharpstones from the mini-Phalanxes, but only once in a while do I get a Hardstone.

I tried the 1-2 boss, but had a hard time with it. I didn't have any ranged weapons, so I was stuck running around him and stabbing his ankles. I might give 2-1 a shot tomorrow.

He isn't too bad when you get the hang of him, just make sure you have a good piercing weapon, as his ankles are weak to piercing damage. As weird as it sounds, if you've picked up the spiked shield, try using it in both hands as your weapon against him. It's rather effective.

He still manages to kill me sometimes when I decide to clear 1-1 barehanded. God damn spears!

Would anybody happen to have a Pure Moonstone I could have or trade for? Didn't get any and I'm out of gekko's. :(