Topic: You Died. The Dark Souls Series Discussion Thread

I have a question / need guidance —

I’m not sure I fully understand weapon infusion.

Despite playing 3 other Soulsborne games, I’ve never dabbled into infusing my weapons. I’m not sure why. I think for Bloodborne I was such a noob that I was just unaware of how the systems work (does BB even have weapon infusions? 😅), for Demon’s Souls I was very heavily a magic user so any weapon use was negligible, and for DS1 I was able to make it through essentially the whole game with the Black Knight Halberd which was so powerful I didn’t worry about infusions.

So now with DS2 I’m at a point where I think I might want to try it out, but I don’t want to waste or ruin my setup. I have my rapier at +5 and honestly have enough supplies to easily push it to +7 or +8 if I want. It’s working great for where I am (with the exception of the aforementioned Ruin Sentinel that I struggled with and what got me considering infusions). I was able to procure a Boltstone and I have opened McDuff, so I can infuse my rapier with lightning if I want. I’ve read it’s a great option for a magic user because (and this is where I get confused) the weapon damage will shift to scale with my faith instead of Str/Dex and also add elemental damage…? I’m doing Hex/Dex build but my Dex is only around 15 atm, and my Faith is 23. Goal is to get Int/Faith to the soft caps of 30/30 eventually. I’d planned to put a few points into Dex and get it to around 20. What I want to be able to do is use my Hexes and Magic for ranged and rapier for melee, figuring about a 50/50 split in usage. I don’t like being stuck with only magic options because of the risk of running out of spells and also the ganging up that happens in this game really requires the flexibility to have a good melee option.

So anyway, I’ve all but decided to use my boltstone and do it, but I also worry about ruining the good physical damage that it’s able to do. How does the upgrading of the weapon (eventually to +10) affect things if it’s infused with an element versus not infused? In other words, does upgrading only help the base physical damage stats and infusion negate the benefits of having a higher level weapon? I’m not sure if I’m making sense, but would it be better to use the boltstone on another weapon (even a second rapier that is still +0) and continue to have my original rapier as a +10 physical weapon?

I’ve looked ahead and I don’t think I have any other weapons I’m interested in using for a main until much later in the game, and honestly I’m reading that the rapier should be fine to get me all the way through, especially if I really ramp up my Hexing and eventually get my staff infused with Dark.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded query, but I just have the one stone and once it’s done, it’ll be a while until I get another one, most likely. Although my understanding is that if I want to un-infuse (defuse? 😂) the weapon later (with a palestone?) then I can.

Anyone willing to chime in, I’m all ears (er… uh, eyes I guess in this case)

@CaptD @BlAcK_SwOrDsMaN @colonelkilgore @HallowMoonshadow @JohnnyShoulder Just a nudge to see if any of you fellow Souls pros had any thoughts or clarification on the preceding post about weapon infusions. It’s fine if not, but I’m likely to get some DS2 time in this weekend and the first thing I plan to do is infuse the weapon, unless it’s a bad idea. 😅 The more I ponder it, I think there’s very little downside to do a weapon infusion unless you have super high Str/Dex on a weapon with high associated scaling. 🤷🏻‍♂️

@Th3solution I am not the best to ask as I only really know about DS3 weapon-infusion. I infused my Claymore (I believe) with the Bleed status effect and it was devastating against most bosses, but I had a b*tch of a time getting the required materials to apply the effect. Oh, scratch that, I actually know a bit about DS1 weapon-infusion as well because I infused my Zweihander in that game with Fire and then upgraded it further to make the Chaos Zweihander, which was extremely op with a GiantDad build. But I don't know how helpful that info is for a DS2 run, never played that one properly.

My understanding is that different status effects are more or less effective against different bosses, for example, one weak to lightning will not be weak to piercing etc. and so on. But I think you should listen to what others have to say as well.

All the best!

@BlAcK_SwOrDsMaN Thanks, even that information helps. So it sounds like infusion of the element or effect won’t negate the effect of leveling of the weapon and so the elemental damage and/or whatever residual physical damage will continue to scale up with upgrades?

I can understand that depending on the element, it will help immensely on certain enemies but not on others, depending on their elemental resistance and susceptibility. I read that most of the bosses are weak to lightning, so that helps. I’ve played games where attacking with certain elements actually heals certain enemies. Hopefully there isn’t anything like that in the game.

@Th3solution I don't think it effects physical damage at a basic level, but, that being said, if an enemy is weak to physical damage w/o lightning infusion it would make sense that if they are not weak to lightning, and you lightning-infuse it, you will have a 'lightning weapon' now and the physical damage on it's own won't be as effective as it was against that particular enemy before you infused it. I say, have a backup weapon.

@Th3solution it’s been a long old while since I’ve played 2 and from what I recall, all three have their slight differences in terms of the weapon upgrade paths. Iirc I just upgraded my UGSS to +15 without any infusions. I think that was down to a couple of things, 1. that I was pure melee with no magic etc. and didn’t fancy trading off the pure damage for elemental damage that some future enemies may be immune to and 2. I think infusions only go up to +10, and while I’m sure an infused +10 is equal to a pure +15… just like Nigel Tufnel, I’ll always go with the higher number 😉.

I did eventually get max infused weapons at the end of my ng+++ run as I needed them for the platinum but never used them.

What rapier do you have again @Th3solution? A standard one or something else?

@Th3solution
Has been a while for me too and I'm not sure if Dark Souls 2 does things slightly differently but as I understand it you basically lose the scaling which is not too important if your character is low level or excelling in most attributes but if you go down, say a DeX route then your rapier might lose a scaling of S in Dex and become a C or even blank. So it really depends on the weapon I guess and if you have a so so weapon (i.e. C scaling) then it isn't too important but if your weapon is an A or S then you might find the tradeoff to be poor especially as your character attributes become more narrowed.
Also I think damage becomes split so half physical and half, say fire which might be okay or it might not depending on the enemy and sometimes just leaving the weapon and using items (fire, bolt etc. ) might be preferable.

I think that's right at least.

@Th3solution Go ahead and do it, I think I had a few weapons which were infused, and I had a load of levelled up weapons to choose se from in all From Software games I've played. Maybe except for Sekiro.

I don't think any enemies would heal if attacked with a certain element, but they will be stronger against some and the weapon will be less effective. I would just use another weapon and either experiment a bit or go online to see what they are weak against.

@HallowMoonshadow It’s a standard rapier. Not the estoc or anything. Just the vanilla one.

Ahh okay not a fancy special one like Ricard's Rapier or anything then @Th3solution.

I'd suggest building up a second weapon if you plan on doing an element Infusion seeing as some enemies/bosses will heavily resist the lightning damage.

But otherwise it seems like a solid choice for what you have.

If you're not planning to raise your dex very high you'll gain a bigger bonus from infusing overall and having the altered scaling leaning towards your faith rather then the pure dex scaling.

Though a dark or fire might also be good seeing as you're doing faith & Int? (I think? It's been a while)

You might want to look into infusing shields too to increase your element absorption if you're having trouble (One boss in particular ya might find this very beneficial)

@HallowMoonshadow Sounds good. Yes, I’m doing a Int/Faith centered build in order to maximize hexing. I want to try to dark infuse my staff as I read somewhere that if you infuse an item that is already using that same element then your bonus damage is increased by multiples.

So I think doing a lightning rapier will help and then I think I’ll be picking up the Warped Sword when I open up Orniflex soon. That could serve as a really good long term backup plan for late game physical damage if I run into lightning resistant enemies. Of course I could just Dark Orb and Soul Arrow them into oblivion as well. 😂. In the short term I have a fire longsword that is actually quite good and a mace that does relatively good physical damage if I run into issues in the meantime.
Thanks!
And thanks also to @JohnnyShoulder @CaptD @colonelkilgore @BlAcK_SwOrDsMaN for your advice and thoughts. 😄
I’ll report back with how it goes.

@Th3solution really glad you’re having a good time with 2 btw. It obvs ain’t for everyone but for those with who it connects, it sticks long in the memory. Where are you in the game atm?

I love DS2 so much. It introduced a lot of things I was instantly a fan of, such as dual wielding. I was also completely addicted to upgrading my armor, and my weapons as well and see damage goes up. It’s my first 60fps souls game too, as I played it only a smudge after it came out so it was the only one at the time. Also endless bonding memories with my younger brother as he was teaching me all about souls stuff and mechanics and lore.

I adored how many options DS2 gave you for tackling so many situations. It never felt like you were ever S.O.L., it was surprisingly convenient having annoying enemies disappear too after to kill em enough times. Lifegems were also fun for my collectibles brain.

@Yousef- yeah the ability to upgrade armour in particular, is something I really miss from FromSoft’s later games.

Early results are positive from doing lightning infusion on my rapier. It really tore through the Ruin Sentinel boss fight. I was able to solo the fight even being max hollowed form with a low HP bar. It did take me 4 attempts, but still, I had tried the fight over a dozen times before I did the infusion.

I have noticed maybe a slight drop in damage to some enemies, but it’s hard to tell. Overall I think it’s going to be a good trade-off though and I will work on getting a second physical weapon built for back up.

————

@colonelkilgore Yes, DS2 is sticking fairly well and I’m getting properly obsessed. Although I’m not sure yet how I feel about the map and general outlay of the game. I actually like Majula being a true central hub to treat as a home base. Firelink never really felt that way, like Hunter’s Dream and The Nexus were. But the interwoven structure of the map in DS1 made up for the lack of a good central Hub to fast travel back and forth to. In contrast, so far Majula feels like a legit home base because it has vendors, the Emerald Herald, pathways to important places, etc. However, when you’re out and about, the sub-locations feel unnecessarily abstruse. It feels like there’s many more hidden doors and places that need keys or special items to unlock. I might be misremembering, but exploration alone was all you needed to do in Bloodborne and Dark Souls 1 to open up the shortcuts and hidden areas and have those ‘Aha!’ moments. I don’t like that I have to have so many Pharros Lockstones, keys, Fragrant Branches of Yore, etc. and that these items are often either exceedingly rare or hidden themselves so as to be a whole other task to track down. It makes it hard to know where I’m supposed to go next.

For example, as I noted above, I finally beat Ruin Sentinel, which is a semi-optional boss and I think probably one that I was supposed to do later because I had to use my only fragrant branch to open the map to it, but there was no way I was going to give up on that boss fight because I used such a rare item to get there and I needed to capitalize on that.

The pursuer fights have been interesting. I have actually yet to beat him except for the one ballista assisted fight. But I came up against him today after the Ruin Sentinel fight and had him almost beat and down to the last sliver of his health bar, then he swung at me, I dodged, but he hit an explosive barrel in the process which exploded and killed us both simultaneously. And they game didn’t give me the souls, nor the drop (Twinkling Titanite) when I respawned and yet it registers him as defeated so I couldn’t do the fight again. Super annoying.

My next area is either Belfry Luna, if I want to spend my only Pharros Lockstone to access it, or going on to Sinner’s Rise. I think I’ll try the Belfry route even though I’m worried about the PvP shenanigans there. I might disconnect from the internet to make life easier… we’ll see.

@Yousef- I do agree about the enemy spawns having a limit. It’s saved me a lot of frustration to just clear out an area and then be able to trek back to the boss without having to run through all the common squads on the way there.

@Th3solution ha you really triggered some touchstones for me there… those bloody Pharros Lockstones and Fragrant Branches of Yore. There’s just not enough of either to open up everything (during one playthrough anyway), which as a completionist really messed with me 😅. I think I got them all in the end after a few playthroughs but remember that very few of them led to anything particularly good or of interest.

The Pursuer too, forgot about him… but how the hell could I? I mean I fought him so many bloody times! So many infact, that it got to the point where I understood every single one of his tells and our clashes ended up feeling like my Neo against the Pursuer’s Agent Smith at the end of The Matrix by the time I was done with the game. Thinking about it, he was a great touch and one that I don’t think has been replicated in any From games (or any other souls-likes) since.

PVP-wise (& I’m no aficionado on that front) 2 is a lot of people’s favourite. I vividly remember a few battles from 2 while struggle to recall many from 1 or 3. While I get your … and not wanting to put words in your mouth, anxiety about getting invaded, I love the mechanic. It always adds so much pressure to proceedings when someone has entered your game. I always used to run to the nearest bonfire and wait for them to find me, that way even if you lose, you can quickly pick up your souls and be on your way 😉

@colonelkilgore It’s a little more scripted, but the Pursuer mechanic is reminiscent of Nemesis in Resident Evil 3, in the sense that he just keeps popping up and throwing a curveball at you’re trying to do something else.

And yes ‘anxiety’ is certainly an apt term for my feeling about PvP invasions. I like the idea of just hanging out by the bonfire so you can access your bloodstain easily if you die. I suspect at this stage of the game’s lifespan, there’s unlikely to be many players out there to invade, so maybe I’ll take my chances at the Belfry. Everybody’s playing Shadow of the Erdtree right now. 😄

@Th3solution yeah I suppose it is a bit like Nemesis from RE3… in that case though I’d imagine each encounter was probably more of a hit-and-flee, rather than an all-out boss fight. I say I’d imagine, as I haven’t actually played it but am somewhat aware of the antagonist.

And yeah good shout, I can’t imagine there’ll be many hardcore From pvpers anywhere other than under the shadow of the Erdtree rn.