The Black Knights

The Dark Souls bug has bitten me, hard. I'm hooked and totally enamored with this game. It's challenging, mysterious, and, above all, rewarding. Everything in the world poses a significant risk, but the game designers made excellent choices in terms of loot drops. Risks are often worthwhile.

Take, for example, the Black Knights. Early on these enemies are quite difficult, especially for players who aren't familiar with the game yet. Fortunately, they can be beaten (try parrying and backstabbing, or just play it safe and slowly chip away and their health by hiding behind your shield and poking them with a spear).

'tis but a scratch!

Every Black Knight offers a potentially awesome loot drop: sometimes they drop their weapon! Hint: to improve your drop rate, you need to be holding humanity.

Once I defeated my fourth BK he dropped the BK Sword which deals 220 base damage, besting my Drake Sword by a fair amount. Furthermore, the BK Sword scales with both strength and dexterity. It's a little slower than the Drake Sword but well worth it.

Just when I started thinking the BK Sword was the bee's knees, I stumbled upon another BK early in the Darkroot Garden area. With zero humanity I chopped him down with my BK Sword: lo and behold, he dropped the BK Halberd. The BK Halberd has a base damage of 245 and also scales with strength and dexterity. It seems to be quicker to boot, and it has a great range. I immediately focused on leveling my character to wield it.

It was worth it. Man, the BK Halberd blows the Drake Sword away. I currently have it reinforced to BK Halberd +4. A bit expensive, but it's really opening up the game for me: I now stand a chance against enemies and bosses that used to give me fits.

P. S. Check out the Dark Souls video walkthrough series by Gaming as a Surrogate Religion. It's entertaining as well as helpful. Honestly, I prefer this man's videos over TV.