Demon's Souls: tips for getting started
A prologue ... particular
Demon's begins by throwing the player into the middle of the action without too many frills, with a tutorial reduced to a few messages on the floor, and enemies designed to understand just the basic mechanics. From the beginning it might seem like a simple action, but the RPG elements of the game are actually very elaborate. The deception arises from the fact that for a long time these are almost completely blocked ...Once the prologue is concluded, in fact, you will not bea> able to level, and you can only explore the map of the Boletaria palace. Do not despair: it is the clearest location in the game, and once you defeat its boss, Phalanx, you will be able to use the souls collected up to that moment to enhance your character. Watch out, if you don't want bad experiences with this cute blob made up of shields, keep the incendiary bombs and turpentine that you find while exploring. You will eliminate it in no time.
For the record: Vanguard, the boss of the prologue, is not unbeatable for a low-level character, although eliminating him is very difficult. To kill him try to get right behind him and stay away from him, hitting him with your weapon or magic safely. It will take a while, but doing so will allow you to reach an area full of extra items (where you will be immediately killed by one of the next bosses).
Choose your stats carefully, and your weapons
Demon's Souls have many upgradeable stats, and it's not always immediately obvious what their effect is, apart from the numerical increases indicated. You, for heaven's sake, don't randomly upgrade them thinking you can improve everything without any problem: leveling up gradually becomes more and more difficult, and it is good and right to start with precise builds in mind, right from the creation of the character. Do you want to create a powerful wizard? The noble class has great starting equipment and stats suitable for sorcery. A sacred warrior? The temple knight or the priest are the right choices for you.Also look at the weapon used. The idea of creating a sword-wielding ninja with super-high dexterity might tease you, but it's not particularly brilliant. Each weapon, in fact, has modifiers indicated by various letters, where the S is the most powerful: these modifiers increase with the strengthening of the weapon by the blacksmith, and at higher levels to have a blade (or a mace, or a spear) that corresponds at its highest stats it leads to an extreme damage increase. Anything else to keep in mind? Weapons with unsuitable modifiers can be transformed in order to obtain them: crescent and moon weapons, for example, scale with magic and can transform useless weapons for those who use spells into amazing tools of death.
Keep in mind, however, that the blacksmith in the Nexus is not particularly skilled. The most efficient one is found in the first map of the Stonefang tunnel and must be unlocked, and is even capable of creating weapons with the souls of the bosses if you give him that of the Flamelurker (the last boss in that area, and also one of the most difficult of the game). Ah, always returning to the changes related to specific statistics: you cannot change the status of weapons freely, they must often be upgraded by a certain amount in their "normal" branch so that the following ones are unlocked. Experiment with the materials found in the game, or look for one of the many online guides to understand how to modify them (a ring that you can select among the starting gifts greatly increases the percentage of found materials ... take it).
Flexible souls, inflexible masters
We've talked about souls that can be used by the blacksmith, but once a boss has been eliminated, his soul can also be used to obtain particularly powerful spells, provided you have the right master. Sage Freke, who teaches some of Demon's best magic, is found in the first phase of Latria's tower. Yuria the witch, on the other hand, is in an advanced area of Boletaria, and saving her is quite complicated (you need the entire set of Fat Ministers to make sure that whoever captured her brings down the pier necessary to reach her). Easier instead to free the teacher of sacred magic, which is at the beginning of the second zone of the Shrine of StormsThe souls used to obtain spells, of course, cannot be used for weapons until you recover them back in the New Game +, then make selection (unless you are characters focused on melee ... in that case the problem does not even arise). However, keep in mind that certain spells, whether sacred or magical, deserve a bit of investment in statistics for their ability to greatly facilitate the game (an example? Second Chance, which gives you an extra life, or Firestorm, which creates a devastating explosion). On the other hand - and we have already said it - in Demon's the magic is really very powerful.
Ah, just to not forget anything: keep in mind that once learned spells must always be inserted in your slots by teachers (the number of which depends on the intelligence statistic), that some consume two full slots due to their power, and that to use them you need specific catalysts. There is only one item in the game that allows you to use both magic and sacred spells, the Talisman of Beasts, so try to figure out how to get it. Obviously, it depends on the tendency of the worlds, but we do not advise you to be too careful about it during your first game: you risk complicating your life even more.
A strategy for every danger
We close with some other advice, and especially with a warning: "be patient". Running into Demon's Souls only leads to a quick end if you don't know exactly what to do. The enemies are aggressive, do enormous damage, and often block the passage with no chance of escape within already labyrinthine maps. Every enemy has some weakness, every pattern in the game can be bypassed or exploited to your advantage, and even the most irritating maps can be overcome by using your resources properly. Poisonous swamp? Use armor with good poison resistance and buy some flowers to heal statuses. Cut-resistant enemies? A club in your inventory can save your life, or you may even decide to punch for a little while (some weapons have alternate attacks that do penetration damage, very useful in these cases). And, for heaven's sake, if you don't know an area, try to run almost always with the shield up, it can save your life in case of traps or ambushes.For the bosses it is more or less the same thing: many battles in Demon's Souls are based on mechanical specifications and weaknesses, which once understood make them infinitely easier. Look closely at your enemies and try to figure out how to eliminate them: one detail is enough to make a clash seemingly impossible a walk. And if things get too tough anyway, look for an area where souls can easily accumulate and upgrade your character. Farming materials and levels is not a sin; you don't necessarily have to advance like mad.
We hope to have given you a hand with these tips. Now go, and try to survive. Happy demon hunting!
