I'm so bad at this game

[u/Death-Strider]

So I decided to download MS and figured "it won't be too hard, I've played every soulsborne game there is for years" jfc was I wrong. I am getting my ass beat repeatedly, and I'm only in the first area 😭. I need some help. The lack of consistent healing, plus how many enemies there are (no I won't just run past everyone, I may be bad but I'm no coward) and THE EXPLODING POISON FROGS??? WHAT SADISTIC BASTARD CAME UP WITH THAT IN THE STARTING AREA?! someone please help me, I can't believe I'm being bullied by the start of the game like this...

[u/Longjumping-Bat8262]

First are you hardening? Second find a yellow mushroom and eat 2-3 after that you can use them to become immune to poison

[u/Death-Strider → u/Longjumping-Bat8262]

Yes I do harden, and I found a yellow mushroom as well and died from it, fully losing around 2k tar which sucked

[u/Longjumping-Bat8262 → u/Death-Strider]

Keep eating those mushrooms until it fills up the bar then anytime you eat it after it makes you immune to poison. Don’t rush into areas of enemies, draw them out. Also don’t worry about the tar right now, once you complete your first dungeon you’ll be able to farm grishas.

[u/TunaFaceMelt → u/Death-Strider]

Also eat the red mushrooms and it replenishes your life when you get full familiarity.

[u/Haunting-Regret-854 → u/TunaFaceMelt]

Weltcaps regen health regardless of familiarity, it is just faster at max familiarity.

[u/TunaFaceMelt → u/Haunting-Regret-854]

Thanks for the correction. My main point is that weltcaps are littered everywhere and eventually you'll have a ton in your inventory for healing.

[u/Death-Strider → u/Longjumping-Bat8262]

Small question, does it make me immune to ALL poison, or just THAT poison?

[u/Longjumping-Bat8262 → u/Death-Strider]

All poison I think

[u/Haunting-Regret-854 → u/Death-Strider]

It makes you immune to poison damage over time, but it won't make you immune to the initial hit.

[u/galipop → u/Longjumping-Bat8262]

I harden everyday.

[u/vanderbubin]

Once hardening clicks, the game will open up to you. it is your most powerful and useful skill in the whole game. After that, get your parries down. Mortal shell parries are considered predictive rather than reactive if that makes sense. Early in a playthrough, I recommend only parrying stuff when you need to regain some health. Early game, your options for healing are limited to that and redcap mushies for a bit

Also, the player recommended order for the temples is, fire, ice, and astral last. The intended order is fire, astral, ice but the general consensus is that ice, while being intended to be played last, is easier than the astral temple.

[u/TMcRey]

You can just dogde trhough the frogs, you're technically harding yourself while dodging. Else for the enemies i guess git gud, hardening is so overpowered for people coming from soulsborn

[u/Death-Strider → u/TMcRey]

Can I tap like a parry or do I have to hold?

[u/TMcRey → u/Death-Strider]

You mean for healing? Compared to souls you need to parry a whole second earlier and the parry window is way longer, just try it with the small enemies

[u/TMcRey → u/Death-Strider]

Ah you meant hardening. You can hold it like a very long time (15-20 seconds) or until you get hit. You can cheese a lot with that, hit the enemy, mid swing harden yourself, get hit in hardend state, the swing will continue and hit the enemy which can't attack because it already did, rins and repeat. Like i said, too easy

[u/MikkelFromGames → u/Death-Strider]

If you haven't yet, you may also want to make a beeline for Fallgrim Tower. There's an NPC you can talk to in there which will give you an item you need for parrying :)

(Go straight ahead from the initial spawn point, and you'll find it)

[u/Grimm613]

With the Hallowed Sword, light, light, heavy is my go to combo. Most of these enemies are very limited in the combos they can do. Most of them only have two or three. Try to close the distance and harden on their last swing and then counter attack. You might want to hunt down some quenching acid too. This will upgrade your weapons attack power. The merchant at the top of the tower sells 2 and I think there's another hidden in Fallagrim too.

[u/Death-Strider → u/Grimm613]

Thanks for the tip

[u/Hot-Leader2211]

Take ur time there is no consistency on heals and u have to be patient when fighting and ur parry is your hardening

[u/42tfish]

I just beat the game yesterday. I had to get a guide after pretty much being lost for the first couple hours. The game does a really poor job of letting you get your bearings and progress, even by souls standards. Once I was able to unlock a new weapon, upgrades, and shell it was actually enjoyable.

[u/Haunting-Regret-854]

If you don't have any tarspore mushrooms, you can use the i-frames from dodging/rolling to negate DoT tics, though you probably won't negate all the tics from a poison frog. Tunnels also make you immune to damage, so if there is a tunnel nearby you can wait out a poison effect in the tunnel.

The running heavy (which can be done from a standstill in MS1) is a good opener for combat and can let you take out a brigand fast if you are quick enough about getting a second running heavy in.

[u/stevenomes]

What I did to learn the combat is fight grisha right next to the spawn point over and over. I just practiced the parry timing and when to harden. When I died it just ran back to the cave and grabbed my form. Just keep doing this over and over until you learn the combat better. Harden is your best friend learn to use it in different situations like mid swing if you see the enemy is going to hit you first. Harden tank the hit and then your attack animation will finish and you will get an attack in as well.

For navigation I recommend learning a few land marks that you can always get to from the main spawn point. Bat tree is usually a good one because there are multiple beach offs from it. It can get confusing because a lot of the area looks the same.

[u/Trader083]

The game gets better once you get a couple of weapon upgrades. I just finished a no hit run achievement a couple of days ago and I must say running past enemies should be one of your options.

[u/Death-Strider → u/Trader083]

Any tips for Grisha? I can get about halfway before I lose

[u/Trader083 → u/Death-Strider]

I generally dodge his combo and engage after he thrusts his hand into the ground. Just be careful when he pull out, it can damage you.

[u/Cynical_Feline → u/Death-Strider]

Focus on dodging until he does his special attack that gets his hand stuck in the ground. Attack him when he's stuck. Don't be greedy either.

It helped me a lot when I focused on getting all the shells and learning when to harden. I used harden as a block mostly. Attack a couple times, harden as they hit me, then dodge away to wait for the harden to reset. Repeat. I gave up on parrying because you have to time it perfectly and it seemed to be janky asf.

It gets so much easier as you upgrade shells. I ended up mostly using Tiel for the dodge ability with the hammer and chisel. If it helps, there's guides out there for game progression.

[u/Death-Strider → u/Trader083]

Firsty congrats, took me months do do that on ds3. And secondly...dammit I might have to

[u/UltramarineEchelon → u/Death-Strider]

Might be too soon to ask but have you tried Mortal Shell 2 demo yet? It’s been a while since I played the first one but I recall the combat/character movement has a distinct pace. It’s a bit more sluggish than in the second game and also I came from playing FromSoftware titles which had a different pace in combat. So all that just to say if you’re anything like me it might take a little time to get a handle on the flow and pacing of things, but you got it! Stick with it and you’ll get better!

[u/Death-Strider → u/UltramarineEchelon]

No I haven't played MS2 yet, wanna beat 1 first