Pertaining to multiplayer what does the orange symbol on the right side of the screen indicate? I feel like I used to know this but I've forgotten. It looks like a circle with a T and usually displays a number next to it (like the eridium indicator). It usually only appears when you join a game.

@amillionhp: Farming in DkS often took several minutes to hours just to obtain what takes a few seconds in DkS2, since you can buy an unlimited supply from merchants. If there's anything to contrast it'd be the cost of materials; the cheapest vendors I can find across both games are the Giant Blacksmith in 1, and Chloanne in 2, who both sell large titanite shards for 3,800 and 2,500 souls, respectively. Not to mention that souls were extremely valuable in DkS, as the cost of levelling and improving equipment was vastly greater than DkS2.

Aside from treasure, chunks required you to beat enemies that had uncommon/rare drops, so you weren't always guaranteed chunks, even with 410 item discovery. You cannot buy chunks in the first game, you had to farm them, so where I could buy 50 chunks off the bat from Chloanne, I'd actually have to spend a lot of my time grinding those 50 out of the enemies. Normal chunks from Crystal Lizards were never certain - they're always a random drop.

Weapon durability was much more of an issue in DkS not having a damage indicator. You had to constantly check for damage or you could end up half-way through a boss battle and your main offensive weapon breaking.

I'd disagree with the armors too: Many of the armors, besides Havel's and the Stone Guardian's (which were by far the heaviest in the game), many of the boss and unique armors couldn't perform better than upgraded, standard gear. My character mostly wore a Hard Leather armor or the Armor of Artorias (upgradable), and the Painted Guardian leggings. Head-wear and gauntlets were normally standard gear. As a Dex build I had to think much more about my load than I ever have done in DkS2.

I had to carry much less and opt for less defence if I wanted to swing around a sturdier weapon. Blocking in DkS could easily be nullified or bypassed by thrusting weapons like rapiers, and the guard break kick knocked someone off balance while draining their stamina. Upgrading defensive equipment was just as critical.

I think I covered the rarity of most types of chunks, and the difficulty and time constraints required to grind them. At 410 item discovery, the Maneater clams in the Crystal Cave drop maybe 4-5 twinkling per run, sometimes less. Demon could be repeatedly obtained ONLY from one enemy in the game, and he happens to be the most difficult in the area. Dragon Scales had to be farmed from the wyverns: they were powerful, aggressive, and it was easy to get knocked off the bridge and small walkways. Red chunks were rare/very rare drops from three enemies in the Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith. Blue were rare drops from the Moonlight Butterflies and Crystal Golems in the Crystal Cave. White were rare drops from the Bone Tower enemies and the Pinwheel Servants in the Tomb. All are relatively difficult and time-consuming to farm effectively and chunks were not sold by merchants.

Maxed out weapons did nothing more than a max weapon in DkS2. An Iaito +15 would still do around the same base damage as an Uchigatana +10 in DkS2. You have weapons like the Dragon's Tooth in DkS2 that can 2 hit-kill other players.

Materials are far more abundant in DkS2, given also that in DkS, per play-through, you could only obtain four slabs, two of which were easily missed. DkS2 offered me a good dozen on my first run. Chunks couldn't be readily bought, they had to be farmed, and large shards cost 50% more than their DkS2 base price.

Lucatiel's equipment is also top-tier Dex gear. Her greatsword might be slow but it deals hefty damage and has great scaling with Dex. It's worth the effort.

You only gain a boss soul in your own world. And yes, you need to use an Ascetic on the bonfire closest to the boss area to respawn it. Although this increases the difficulty of all enemies in the vicinity too.

That's right, you summon other players for assistance. Bearing in mind that when you do summon someone, enemy health is increased to mitigate the increase in players. The only thing you gain from being summoned depends on what covenant you're in. Heirs of the Sun receive Sunlight Medals, which do nothing for anyone else, whereas most people will receive Tokens of Fidelity which only become useful if you're a Sentinel, as they allow you to participate in Sentinel-only duels.

Apart from that, everyone receives souls, but as a summoned player you won't receive a boss soul. Also keep in mind that the number of souls is split between all players, so a boss that normally gives out 60,000 souls might only give you 40,000 if you have one summoned player.

@csvichf: @horosavinXX: You can buy unlimited chunks post-game. The only thing difficult to come by is Twinkling but one section of the Shrine of Amana and a covetous ring will net you 4-7 pieces per run.

Contrast that with Demon Titanite in the first game: limited treasure drops, non-respawning enemies (I think there's 4 who all drop 1 piece each), and one respawning enemy that has a crap-ton of health, is located on a narrow bridge, and has two devastating attacks that can nearly one-shot you.

Twinkling was easier to come by but harvesting them meant fighting those goddamn Maneater clams, who had a lower drop rate than the clerics in Amana. Then there's Dragon Scales which can only be harvested from the Wyverns in the narrowest level of the game.

Both chunks and slabs in the first game had very rare drop rates (you're talking like 0.3% for some), and there's maybe 3-4 normal slabs in one play-through, 2 of which are difficult to obtain and extremely easy to miss, whereas there's only 1-2 of each coloured slab available per play-through, again with extremely rare drops from difficult mini-bosses and enemies.

If you think DkS2 is bad, don't bother with DkS.

Depends entirely on your build and how you like to play. I don't use shields, instead I left-hand a rapier which is very fast, pierces shields, and has a parry strong-attack. Rapiers and curved swords will be your choice weapons if you want speed. You can get the Espada Ropera by talking to Chancellor Wellager after defeating the Giant Lord. He'll also give you the Royal Dirk which has a 150 physical damage base, fully upgraded, and additional poison.

Whips are also a good off-hand or switch-to weapon, especially the Spotted Whip obtained from Straid in exchange for the Demon of Song soul. Twinblades are also great - they're fast and they deal heavy bleed damage. The Warped Sword you also get from Straid for the Flexile Sentry soul is another good curved blade, as is the Manikin Sabre.

As for katanas, your best bet is the Manslayer - decent damage and poison build-up. I infused my Manslayer with a poison stone to increase the poisoning potential. If you're really dedicated you can try for the Berserker Blade in Belfry Sol, though it's a very rare drop and might require hours of grinding a Black Phantom who only spawns 20% of the time. But it's hands down the quickest of the katanas and deals the most damage, aside from the Washing Pole.

That's one thing DkS 1 did much better than this one: multi-player felt like a secondary addition that threw hostile invaders at you once in awhile and had the phantom glow of unexpected help at random times. The covenants were also designed to mimic this sense of distance between you and others - the Gravelords purpose was to infest player's worlds with AI black phantoms, increasing the difficulty. It was a good mechanic because not every covenant was geared towards multi-player and it wouldn't instantly match you against another player.

DkS 2 is much more multi-player orientated. The Rat covenant - which I believe is a reiteration of the Gravelords - is far more personal, dragging players into their world for an unsolicited meeting. Even the Pilgrims didn't seem capable of bringing back the personality of the first game. For me, the only covenants worth a damn are the Sentinels and Brotherhood, as they mimic the original play-style of the previous game.

You'll still get invaded while Hollow, unfortunately. The only thing you really miss out on is summons and the ability to use certain items like the cracked eye orbs.

Those over-priced tech-dumps. You actually bought one?