What should I do?

Hello Guys,
I'm fairly new to Dark Souls and I need your help.... because I don't know what to do.
I already rang the two bells ingame and now I want to go to Anor Londo but I can't pass Sen's Forest because I have a really hard time killing one Snake-Headed Guard :/
Then I tried to go to the Darkroot Garden because I really need the "Dark Wood Grain Ring" but I can't get past the Fog Knights... I can't manage to kill him and that's the reason I can't reach Alvina to join the Covenant "Way of the Hunter" to get the Ring....
So, where should I go... it seems everywhere I go the enemies are to strong for me... (or I'm just really bad at this game or I have a bad character build)
Here are two pictures of my current items and stats (sadly the pictures are in my native language)

Well your stats are ok, the Drake Sword is a good starting weapon but about after putting stats over 20ish it becomes a weaker weapon.

The Elite Knight Set is a extremely good armor set when it's upgraded all the way, best advice is to level up your armor, that way you can take more hits, which helps dealing with any monsters more easy.

Don't worry you are not the only person to have trouble with Sen's Fortress, the Serpent Warriors are very easy to back stab, and a faster weapon is a must, seeing how they are hard to stagger, there for harder to fight,alternatively if you have a internet connection, Sen's Fortress is a lot more easy.

Best of luck to you my friend, I just started playing so I'm afraid this is all the information I can give at this point, hope it helps.

the undead merchant if you kill him you get an uchigatana which causes bleed. thats what i use for sens fortress

Teh_hapy_octopus wrote:the undead merchant if you kill him you get an uchigatana which causes bleed. thats what i use for sens fortress

Omg how could I for get the Uchi, that's even what I use lol.

the serpent guys are pretty weak to bleed

I think you're doing fine, but you may be weighted down. Try equipping only one weapon at a time, even dropping the shield. You probably don't need the bow equipped, unless you're just showing what you got.

Your "Kondition" (endurance) should be higher, same with vitality. Raise those for a while instead of strength. And try two-handing a weapon -- it's more powerful that way.

If you can get past Quelag you can surely do Sen's. Just takes some practice not to fall and to be careful about sorcerers and swinging blades (on the level I recommend taking out the giant at the end by going up the stairs. This way he doesn't throw balls at you during the Iron Golem fight, making it easy. There's also a hidden campfire near the end that I didn't know about until my most recent playthrough).

I find both Demon Souls and Dark to be easier in single-player when two-handing a good sword (drake is fine, but upgraded Claymore or Bastard is better). So is that Great Axe found in the Depths. It can be used with fire to be quite powerful, but takes a long time to upgrade.

The fake PvP in the forest is good for grinding if you need to. Remember you can save that stuff until after Sen's Fortress and Anor Londo, although by then it's kind of easy.

The game was built for shield, so you may not want to listen to me about the two-handed thing. I don't know how I could have beat the last boss without a shield, so yeah...

Do you have the lightning spear? I would pick that up and use it.

I think he'd have to proceed well into Sen's to get the lightning spear. Although that's definitely a good option. I did Sen's at about the same soul level and similar stats/build. Sen's is all about memory the first time particularly when one Serpent is tough. I was using an upgraded broadsword which gave me fast enough attack to hit and hard enough to matter. A good shield helped (not sure what I was using). After you have a strategy to kill the Serpent's it's all about getting them one on one. For a quick few ideas, upon immediately entering go to the side of the entrance to avoid the daggers and draw both serpents. As they run to the middle step on the trap block and the flying daggers will kill one for you and eliminate the trap. I see you have good dexterity and a bow. Once in the fortress you can hit the mage serpent on the second platform with your bow and knock him off to kill him, which will avoid trying to fight the lightning on the bridge. After that, shoot the serpent on the bridge directly ahead of you, if lucky he'll run into a blade and take severe damage and fall. Be careful, he won't die from from the fall and will climb a ladder and come out from an opening to the left (before the first blades). If he doesn't fall it's still a one on one fight. After that it's repeat the same idea and learn the traps.

sen's is a challenging level because of those serpents along with traps. i can't remember how many times i died in sen's, but it is quite simple once you cracked it. my tip is to always lure the serpents into the traps (easier said than done) using a bow. use the trap against the two serpents in the entrance, it makes so much easier if one dies. on the first guillotine bridge, use a bow to snipe the lightning serpent until fall or died, and snipe the one in front of the bridge and hold your guard, this way the guillotine will do all the work for you. use the traps whenever possible against the serpents (the ball, darts, guillotine).

Spoiler:

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when you reach the top (you'll know because you'll see blue sky) i strongly recommend that you run. and oh, don't miss the bonfire or else you'll have to do it over again. keh heh heh heh

i would stop putting souls into res for a long time....

With that high of strength you should go grab a greatsword, or a battle axe and go nuts. The Drake Sword is fine for a bit, but since it has no damage scaling it will be pretty inferior to other options at this point, and it is simply not worth the dragon scales to upgrade it. That Halberd you have will work wonders at your SL and progress in the game, especially if you upgrade it (farm some large shards from the blobs in the depths or on the slugs in blighttown and you can get it to +10 via Andre of Astora which will murder things).

With your current equipment load you are doing fat-flop rolls and running at slow speed...which can make for low survivability if you can't get out of the way of incoming attacks, etc. And it will make the blade bridges in Sen's Fortres...even worse than usual for a first playthrough. Go get Havel's Ring...Havel can be a pain the first few times you kill him, but its worth it.

The next ten or so soul levels you get should go into getting your Endurance up to the point at which Havel's Ring allows you to run and roll a bit faster (medium speed), and your vitality up to the 25 range (which should suffice for your first playthough).

Upgrade your armor. That elite knight set will protect you quite well if you upgrade it (even to +4 or so is better than nothin).

Don't put anymore points into Resistance :-). I put points into it on my first character too (and he still works just fine...but I carry my 15 Resistance like a battle scar)

The Serpent Men in Sen's Fortress have very linear attacks (you can sidestep them easily). Just fight one at a time. Walk sideways around them and when they do a lunge you stab them in the rear (backstabs are a plus, but simply poking at them will eventually do the trick). The Serpent Mages are a real pain, but they are easily defeated if you can get up close and punish them or if you can hit them at range (using things like the swinging blades to mess up their lightning bolt attacks, ducking around corners, etc).

The knight shield is quite possibly the worst shield in the game. It's objectively worse than the kite shields that you buy for a nominal fee from Andre. It has less resistance, lower stability, and substantially greater weight than the kite shields. Hell, it even has lower durability. Switch it out for a kite shield.

You're also overburdened. At 18 endurance, I can tell by your equipment that you're fat rolling. This is a major problem, because the combination of your awful shield and your inability to roll means that you can neither dodge nor block effectively. My guess is that the snake serpents are quickly wearing your stamina down as you try to block, and your character isn't fast enough to run behind them for the backstab.

You can solve these problems by (1) replacing your shield with either a heater shield or a kite shield; (2) using only one melee weapon (choose between the drake sword and the halberd), (3) removing the bow from your L2 slot and equiping it from the start menu when you need a ranged attack, and (4) acquiring havel's ring and/or the dark grain wood ring. Regarding #4, do you have the master key? If so, use it on the door in the tower leading to the Taurus demon. You should be able to kill havel by repeatedly backstabbing him. If you don't feel like you have the skills to backstab him, then use dung on him. Three or four dung hits will poision him. After he's poisoned, you can leave his room and let him die. If you don't have the master key, you will have to kill the moonlight butterfly before obtaining the appropriate key.

Edit: typos corrected.

did you pick up the iaito in blight town? a very nice katana, with a good r2 attack.

sparkly-twinkly-lizard wrote:did you pick up the iaito in blight town? a very nice katana, with a good r2 attack.

Iaito does get points for being popular but the OP's 29 Strength & 14 Dex probably wouldn't make the best use of it.

While there are better weapons around, I think a vendored Battle-Axe or that Halberd he's packin' would do some decent damage and be almost immediately gratifying in terms of results. Even if the new weapon were merely upgraded to +5 (build up 9,000 souls and just buy the shards and >poof<). Throw a few large shards at either weapon and things are even better off.

Then once he loots a Man Serpent Greatsword in Sen's Fortress he's off to the races with a burley B scaling strength weapon.

oh str 29... how bout a pike? you buy it from andre and its got really long reach.

the morning star and the reinforced club has bleed effect and has scaling of C for strength. respectively they'll have 124 and 145 at +5. i'm gonna second strangejoy's suggestion of getting the havel's ring. if you do, replace your shield with the eagle shield, and only equip the weapons you'll need and just switch it when it suits your condition. to push it a bit more, i suggest getting the cloranthy ring just in the beginning of the great hollow to give you extra stamina regen.

be wary of the marking in your environments especially the ones near traps, their your... uhm... marks. chipped bridges, broken pillars, floor.

edit: pike is not a bad suggestion. alternatively, any spear will be great if you want the block-poke strategy.

Thanks for the great suggestions!
I got the "Dark Wood Grain Ring" and "Havels Ring" now. So I'm really agile!
Like some of you recommended I upgraded my Halberd up to +7 and it is really strong.
I managed to get through Sen's Fortress and got the Lightning Spear after that Sen's Fortress was really easy!
And I already managed to get through Anor Londo and I defeated "Ornstein and Smough" (one part was really frustrating in Anor Londo... the stupid Knights and there big arrows... I died at least 20 times... and I had to run tom them again and again...)
Where should I go next?

get the lord vessel? if so you can either become a dark wraith and go beat new londo or just give it to frampt

KillJoy wrote:Thanks for the great suggestions!
I got the "Dark Wood Grain Ring" and "Havels Ring" now. So I'm really agile!
Like some of you recommended I upgraded my Halberd up to +7 and it is really strong.
I managed to get through Sen's Fortress and got the Lightning Spear after that Sen's Fortress was really easy!
And I already managed to get through Anor Londo and I defeated "Ornstein and Smough" (one part was really frustrating in Anor Londo... the stupid Knights and there big arrows... I died at least 20 times... and I had to run tom them again and again...)
Where should I go next?

Excellent. Glad to hear it. Have you gone through the catacombs yet? If not, go there, and don't forget to bring a divine weapon. The rite of kindling is very helpful for the remainder of the game.

If I give the Lord Vessel to Frampt, can I still teleport between Bonfire?

KillJoy wrote:If I give the Lord Vessel to Frampt, can I still teleport between Bonfire?

Yes. However, if you give the Lord Vessel to Frampt, you won't be able to join the Darkwraiths this game. If that doesn't matter to you, go ahead and give him the vessel. There is no other downside.

I have another question...
I want to help some people defeating some bosses for humanity and souls but nobody summons me. Don't know what I do wrong....
Is it possible that my level is to high for certain bosses, so that nobody can summon me?