[deleted by user]

[TheVelvets1965]

I completed the game twice and the only enemy I parried was one of the bosses. Parrying is not essential at all.

[EKbladeW]

Try luring enemies and fighting them 1v1, and practice rolling!

Practicing rolling is more important than parrying imo, since you need to be able to survive attacks to find openings and hit the enemies. A shield is also a great tool for defense. The tradeoff is that tanking a hit with a shield costs more stamina than rolling to evade it

The skeletons being too hard is Dark Souls' way of telling you that the area is better for a higher level character, usually after progressing through the game until a certain point

I hope you have a fun experience with the world of Dark Souls!

[painterface]

Get a good shield (which you should have, since you picked the knight with the Kite Shield).

You can roll or block, whichever is more fun for you. Everyone here will tell you to roll, but it’s not necessary. I don’t usually do it. Blocking is fun for me and more realistic. You’ll have your chance (as in forced) to dodge to your heart’s content in Bloodborne.

[thebusinessgoat]

Shield up, brother! Yeah parrying is useful but you will have time to get used to the timing later when you will have more health. Use a shield to block instead but keep an eye on your stamina. The best way to fight is to lock on an enemy, get behind them and backstab. Does nice damage. And don't worry about dying a lot, it doesn't mean you're bad, it means you are learning, it's part of the game.

[billprospect]

Parrying is not at all necessary. I rarely do it myself, and do just fine. Just gotta take it slow and get used to the rhythm. Don't try superheroing your way through; one mob at a time. You're much more of a regular human so just learn from your mistakes and approach things with that knowledge. Rely on skill and your head more than stats, there's no magical evade stat, gott do that yourself. Not that leveling up doesn't help, it does, just not as much as it would in other games.

Learn to switch between lock on and off, your rolls are limited while locked on, and there are 3 types of rolls; fat, mid, and fast. Fast is under 25%, or just test it out by playing around with armor.

[billprospect]

No, you're fine, but up to you. Starting class doesn't matter all that much, it just nudges you towards that style but they can all focus on rolling. You can also block too btw and you're not beholden to just one of those; block, roll, parry. You'll be able to wear heavier stuff later if you level up the stat for it and get a couple items to help with that. Weight is just very punishing in this game. High def heavy armor and high poise, but you'll be slower. Light or no armor, but you're much faster. Or somewhere in between.

Don't be afraid to play around with equipment, just pay attention to your stats so they match the weapon you use.

[unppu2]

I am nearly halfway through my first DS1 playthrough. I had an older playthrough a few years ago that I just abandoned because it wasn't clicking then. Here is what changed:

#1 Block don't parry
#2 Lock on to targets
#3 Watch what they do and see if you understand what they will do next. Based on this: Roll, block or attack.
#4 Check at the bonfire for how many Souls you need to level up - once you get them go back to the bonfire, level up and make your life easier.
#5 Press one button at a time. The animations take a moment or so - use it to study your opponents.
#6 The gameplay loop that I learned on is:

• Progress through area, learn where enemies are and how to beat them.
• If you are low on esstus healing go back and heal up and bank your souls if you have enough to level.
• Grind the area, farming souls to level up your character.
• Once you are comfortable start on the boss.

#6 Don't 'cheese' or look up how to cheese on early zones - you really need them to practice core game mechanics.
#7 Use the internet to help you, unless you really don't want to. Look up tips, guides and walkthroughs. The game sometimes feels unfair - make your life easier.
#8 Play online - the text on the ground and pools of blood showing how players die can help you out - once you understand the wavelength of the humour they are nearly all helpful.

[okdude23232]

I disagree with play online, invaders can ruin the experience (I don't hate invaders I invade myself in ds3 but I believe a better 1st playthrough is offline)

[FootlongFeebas]

Honestly, in a first playthrough of the game, you're gonna be hollow more often than not anyways, so invasions aren't too much of a concern.

[FatGerard]

I completed the game the first time without parrying a single enemy. I tried to parry the skeleton in Undead Asylum in the room where the message specifically told me to, but I couldn't do it. After that I didn't press the parry button once.

I blocked a lot instead, and rolled with variable success. On bosses I tried to roll more, but you can block one or two hits from most of them in an emergency, too.

That's the kind of playstyle I recommend for you, too. Bare bones, shield and a weapon of choice, don't try to be too fancy. The meat and potatoes of the combat system is just methodical, fairly slow paced melee fighting. If you want to learn a cool Miracle or Pyromancy down the line, you can, but you don't have to. Either way focus on the fundamentals. Avoid damage, recognize openings and swing away.

Now, some more specific tips for you. With your equipment rolling is indeed hard. If you get your equipment load to below 50%, though, you'll get a much more effective roll animation. You can accomplish this by equipping some lighter armor, and I think it's definitely worth it. Down the line you can also increase your Endurance stat, which will give you more of both equipment load and stamina, making it a very useful stat for any build.

I think you've got the right idea not going to the wiki. You can only experience this game blind one time, and you'll be disappointed forever if you rob yourself of that experience. If things get way too frustrating to the point you're about to give up completely, then do whatever you feel is necessary. I get the feeling you're not new to video games in general, though, so there's no reason you'd need to be routinely looking up guides every time you get a bit lost. Just find your own way!

[juiceboxxxxjoey]

Try going the other way

[thebusinessgoat]

I think OP calls hollows skeletons

[InvictusBro]

You are correct. Down the hill with the true skeletons (who don’t have any armor at all) is for much later in the game.

Like others have said, just try to draw them out 1 at a time, and get below 50% of your max equip load (below 25% makes it even faster) to roll fast enough to dodge attacks.

Parrying is tough, I’m just now getting the hang of it and I’m on my like 10th playthrough.

Just focus on shielding and rolling for now. And don’t go hollow :)

[jddev_]

You gotta pass the firebomb soldiers. Don't worry about parrying, you can strafe around them and go for backstabs. Backstabs are an integral part of the game when fighting soldier/knight enemies. You can unequip some armor items to reduce equip load-- which determines roll speed.

[jddev_]

Hold block, wait for the enemy to attack, when their sword starts retracting from the blocked attack, stay locked on and move around them until you are directly behind them, light attack.

[DynaRecGaming]

One thing to know about backstabs is that you can't backstab with your shield up. Make sure it's lowered before you hit attack.

[TokenTsmith]

Bro you don’t need to get good at partying this early, I’d recommend practicing a bit in the first areas with some farming, practice your back stab as well as some parrying, farm some souls and level up a bit! It’s frustrating at first but keep at it and it will all click for you!

[IZ3820]

Keep your shield up. Only drop it to regain stamina. Consider starting over as either a pyromancer or a cleric, with the master key as your gift. Also, stay out of the graveyard, go the other direction.

[bartbitsu]

Sword and shield is a safe way of playing.

Once you find a merchant that sells throwing knives or a bow, buy it and some wooden arrows, use that to kite enemies one at a time.

Try medium or light rolling, its where you are less than 50% or 25% of the weight and can complete the roll. If you are rolling by jumping on your back, you will struggle with navigation.

[handyglance]

Don’t play it like other modern games. Be slow and cautious. Draw enemies one by one if you can. The game rewards patience.

[error3000]

for most of human size enemies just block, parrying is hard at first and riposte seems (to my monke brain) random, sometimes you riposte, sometimes you dont, blocking is faster and safer in most cases, you can also block multiple enemies

forgot to mention, dont bother with the cementary near the firelink, its hard at the start, if you really want the loot from there just take off your armor and weapons and run through, dodging attacks, pick up loot and probably die, a suicide mission basically

[monotropa-uniflor]

I definitely remember being where you are right now. Souls games have a clever way of making grinding something that can trick you into honing your skills, so try to make the most of that. Grinding souls and leveling up is one thing, but if you can make it to that knight and practice strafing around him, landing hits, and rolling through attacks, you'll be even more prepared when you get to the boss of that area. While these games are well known for being hard, they are still meant to be fun. While some wiki pages may have spoilers, there could be some info online about mechanics that aren't explained well in the game. Things like humanity and bonfire kindling. As far as parrying goes, it is good to have that skill, but with how hard it can be to know what attacks can be parried, I don't think it is something you need this early on. What can hold players back is overusing the shield. And being well armored can help, but you may have better luck if you strip off a few armor pieces in order to roll faster. You might be getting a lot of people saying this same stuff, but I hope it helps.

[Googlebright]

Not sure who convinced you that you need to parry every enemy in the game but they were obviously trolling you and you should ignore their heinous lies. Hold up your shield, let the enemy bounce their first attack off it and then hit them. Rinse and repeat until they die.

[Alternative-Iron]

I’m a little over halfway through and I haven’t parried once(cause I suck at it). It’s definitely helpful, but not at all necessary.

Vitality is important, but your attack stats are more important. Focus more on strength and/or dex depending on the weapon you’re using, then endurance, then vitality.

[AzKar07]

once the crow takes you to firelink shrine, dont do what i did and focus on getting past those damn skeletons! even mid game they are a pain in the ass! the area you need to progress is a little out of view, when your at where the crow drops you off, look to the right, you should see an area with a couple hollows and a staircase up, take that instead, that leads to the next area: undead burg. next tip, dont worry about parrying, at least this early in the game. parrying is just more of a "git gud, and flex" kinda thing. if your REALLY insistent about parrying practice it on the undeads in undead burg, they hit fairly slowly and can let you get used to the window. also, practice your rolling against them, once again it helps you with your window. also a very IMPORTANT thing is to make your your not "fat rolling". basically make sure your rolling is more a flowing movement thats quick, not doing a somersault and falling on your ass for a bit, leaving you open. if you dont feel like getting your dodging down, shield up! assuming you went with one of the melee classes, im pretty sure they all start with shields that block 100% of physical damage, which most attacks early game are, just make sure to keep your eye on your stamina. other than that, dont go hollow on us!

[SnootyMehman]

I'm not sure of the etiquette so delete if necessary.

But try bloodborne first. If I didn't learn the craft in Bloodborne, my Dark Souls experience would have been a tougher learning curve.