Just got the game and trying not to use a guide for it. Started with a thief and mostly using a spear.
I died with about 5000 souls in an area full of ghosts and ran out of the curses so you can hit them. If I give my weapon a lightning element can I hit them? Or is there some place I can buy the curses?
You can buy it from a merchant you most likely do not have access to yet
It’s best to avoid that place until you are a much higher SL.
I hope you’re enjoying the game so far. 
You honestly don’t need to go there (New Londo Ruins) until (at the extreme earliest) you are done with the Darkroot Forest area. You literally can’t finish that area without a specific item that you get in the Forest zone. It might sound harsh if you’re just starting in the game, but if you’re concerned about recovering your 5000 souls, you really have no business in that area.
However, if you’re feeling ambitious, you can purchase Transient Curses from the female undead merchant in the undead burg (you might be able to access this earlier as a thief, assuming they start with master key? Not 100% sure about this).
Also, to answer your question, you will need to be cursed to attack the ghosts (either through Transient Curse, or through another, semi-permanent means which will leave you at 50% health until you pay to remove the curse or use a purging stone). The alternative is to have a Cursed weapon - the catch is that there are very few (I think three) in the game, and two of them drop from… you guessed it, the ghosts 
. The other requires a mid-game soul to create.
Good luck.
I am enjoying it and yeah I have the master key. Though most places I use it I end up dying. For instance, I ran into a knight with what looks like to be a a giant curved metal bat which just one shots me.
The only reason I went into the new area was the person where you start your quest told me to. I used a guide just to figure out where to go, but nothing else. I had a basement key and am on the right track now. I think I am doing the stages out of order, but the last boss I beat was the gargoyles. Currently stuck on the boss with two swords while two dogs attack around him. The room is entirely too small, but I’ll try finishing it tomorrow. Once I get knockdown the camera gets messed up and I don’t know if I have space to dodge or not. Also, should I stop focusing on DEX its about 25 while my max HP is maybe 720.
The gate is locked from the other side unfortunately
This was mentioned earlier, but that boss is stupidly designed. It’s really a matter of dodging him and getting distance to kill the dogs then eventually him. 25 is more than enough for now in DEX, you should consider putting some points into VIT and especially END (don’t go past 40 though).
I would always suggest maxing Vit first. If you need a weapon, make an elemental when you get an ember.
Also wouldn’t recommend following map guides, it defeats the open world design and exploration, but if you have a job or don’t have much time to play then it’s understandable.
It all depends on how you want to play through the game. I personally decided not to put any points into Vitality at all. I’m a priest/cleric (whatever it’s called), and I still have 11 vit (starting stat level), and I’m three bosses from the end of the game. :lol:
Endurance, IMO, is one of the more important things to level - it increases your stamina, your equipment burden capacity, and also increases your general defense, even though it’s somewhat minor. Having said that, I think my Stamina is only about 28 as well
Pumping VIT or END early is always a good idea. Let’s you live longer and equip more/attack more. A good rule of thumb I follow is 16STR/20DEX before I pump any other stats. This mostly applies to DEX builds since most if not all DEX weapons require at max 16STR (Chaos Blade and Lifehunt Scythe for example). Then depending on how you want to make your build, you can keep DEX at 20 or bump it up to 40.
Also while we are on the topic of stats, you may or may not know that 40 is the cut off for many stats as going above will subject you to diminishing returns. Some more severe than others.
Redundant info for some; new for others
[details=Spoiler]Vitality - Flexible stat. You can make it as low as 30 or as high as 50. More examples of diminishing returns; 30VIT - 1100 HP, 40VIT - 1325 HP (+225), 50VIT - 1500 (+175) HP, 60VIT - 1588 HP (+88).
Attunement - This is preference. I would personally never go above 19 just because 5 magic slots is more than enough.
Endurance - Stamina gain caps at 40. Unlike the other stats however, this is not subject to diminishing returns past cap. Every point about that will increase weight burden by 1 point. Essentially, the higher the END, the fatter you can be while rolling.
Strength - It can be raised to 50 if needed to one-hand the heavy weapons such as Dragon Tooth, Dragon Great Axe, or Grant, otherwise 34 can be the bare minimum for two-handing such weapons. Take note though that the highest requirement for a STR weapon is Smough’s Hammer at 58.
Dexterity - Must be capped at 40. To explain it as simple as I can, Chaos Blade scales with Humanity, up to +10. A +5 Chaos Blade @ 40DEX/10Hum, it comes out to 450 attack rating. The same +5 @ 50DEX/10Hum puts the sword at 455 AR. As you can see, you gain 5 rating for 10 stats, not a great investment.
Resistance - Useless because you get defense points just raising other stats.
Faith/Intelligence - Diminishing returns aren’t too bad. They can be raised up to 50 for maximum damage benefit. Otherwise you go for bare minimum for the spells/enchants/equipment you want to use (30 for Crystal Magic Weapon, 44 for Crystal Soul Spear, 28 for Wrath of the Gods to name a few).
[/details]
Hopefully this helps any new guys that have any questions about stats as well as anyone else that may have wondered about them.
Thanks for the help everyone. I haven’t put any into strength which is limiting my options for new weapons.
Found a poison swamp and enemy above I can’t kill. Is it causing the poison or do I just ignore it for the time being?
Is the enemy some weird tentacle thing stuck to a wall? If it is, just shoot it with arrows or something. It’s life bar is way above the actual body so if you lock-on it’s out of the screen. You’re still doing damage, just can’t see it unless you look up.
Skyrim stole me from this game, But I lost my disk whilst moving house and I can only find Dark Souls.
Is PVP better since all of the Ring of fog bullshit?
MP has definitely gotten better.
One thing for sure though is that it can’t be any worse than Skyrim’s MP.
Funnily enough, I’m not sure if you’re serious or not because Skyrim PC has just received a multiplayer mod (well, early testing phases) :lol:
http://www.thegameeffect.com/news/skyrim-multiplayer-mod-in-alpha-right-now
As I said, it can’t be any worse than Skyrim’s MP.
Alpha =/= working multiplayer.
i just got the game a few days ago(never played Demon’s)
my first char sucked >_> (thief)
any tip for a new player? i think i will do a pyro so any good build? =(
Standard dexterity builds is 40VIT, 40END, 40DEX, enough strength for dex weapons and most shields (a lot of which require 16 coincidentally). As for STR builds, not too sure about standard builds but I assume it’s the same as dexterity except it’ll be 50STR since.
Beginner tips for me would be to take your time. Don’t rush in mindlessly after that fleeing undead. Block, block, block. You will die a lot so being able to manage your frustration and anger are a must. Otherwise you might end up like some people who break controllers and TV’s.
Oh and if you see an enemy swinging and your last strike would kill it, do not for the love of all that is sacred, try to sneak in that last hit. You’ll die more often than not.
i played a lot of nes and snes games =P my body is ready lol
and thx!
Generally any build revolves around minimum requirement/max scaling for a weapon as there’s really no point in putting points into stats otherwise useless. Same thing in regards to spells such as CMW or DMB you go with the minimum required for the cast and nothing more (well in the case of CMW 32 INT to use Tin Banishment Catalyst as well).
Yeah I know. I mentioned that in my earlier post regarding stats.
For DMB or CMW though you can go minimum requirement, but increasing further isn’t too bad either (up to SL120 if they want to PvP). All in all, it really depends on the user and whether they want to go for minimum requirement or go higher.