Talk:Astora's Straight Sword/@comment-5337347-20120813041746/@comment-71.23.225.154-20141122034525

Here's a step-by-step instruction list on how to make your own Divine Weapons, as well as more information as to what the weapon status "Divine" fully means:

1.)  Find a weapon that you like.  Dagger and Hand Axe (both sold by the Male Vendor in the Undead Burg) seem terrible compared to other weapons' impressive stats in the beginning, but are possibly the very best weapons for 1 vs 1 battles against early non-boss opponents.  Not only are they fast, get a bonus for backstabs to "connect", and don't hit any walls or obstacles in tight corridors, etc., but they also "stunlock" your non-boss opponents for almost no stamina cost at all!  Simply attack, attack, wait a 1/2 second, attack, attack, attack, wait a 1/2 second again...  and your opponent literally doesn't get a single turn.  Talk about easy mode!  (Both of these weapons actually yield "bonus souls of invisible enemies". The earliest "free souls" location I've been able to find myself is in the Undead Burg near where you find the Rubbish item. Attacking the first pile of greenish planks of wood across from the undead ambushers who are just "hanging around" (literally) as they wait for you, yields not one spot for 20 bonus souls (24 if you count the standard +20.5% souls increase from "overkilling" enemies in Dark Souls), but TWO hidden souls. I've tried to angle my camera view to see if there are 2 more pinkish undead hanging on that side of the walkway, but simply can't see them... they are invisible. Just like the twinkling titanite enemies though, you must defeat them quickly, or you'll find no souls. (Just kill the regular undead as quickly as you can, and attack the planks of wood up to 5 combo-attacks cutting up and down to find the invisible enemies.)

Long sword is also an excellent choice. Identical in length and moveset to Astora's sword, you can boost it to +5 Divine or higher to have it far exceed the Astora's sword's damage. (That's what I did.)

2.)  Find free titanite shards by defeating enemies, or purchase them from the Blacksmith in the building that's technically part of the Undead Parish, but also bordering the Darkroot area.  Have any blacksmith reinforce [upgrade] your weapon-of-choice using these titanite shards, or do-it-yourself by reinforcing weapons with a weapon box at any bonfire.

3.)  You can only reinforce a regular weapon, such as Long Sword, up to +5 this way.  To have the weapon "ascend" to the next level, you must take it to a blacksmith.

4.)  That same blacksmith can ascend your +5 weapon for you, but only if you have all the ingredients needed to do so:  You'll need:


 * The Divine Ember from the petrified (dead) blacksmith at the very top of the tower after the Moonlight Butterfly boss fight in the Darkroot area of the game.  Bring this Divine Ember to the blacksmith I keep referring to (Andre of Astora is his name), so that he can ascend your weapons past +5 for you (by selecting the modify weapons option he offers).


 * A green titanite shard.  You may have gotten 1 or 2 already.  If not, head to the depths and "grind" for them by defeating the Slimes in the depths.


 * 200 souls.

Once you have a divine blacksmith, a green titanite shard, 200 souls, and any standard +5 weapon, you can speak to the blacksmith, select "Modify Weapons" and choose to make that weapon Divine. Before you complete the transaction you can press the appropriate button (X button by default on Xbox 360) to view what changes will be made. (Don't worry.  If you change your mind, you can spend souls later to revert the weapon back to it's non-Divine state again...  but you lose the green titanite shard forever in the process.). The changes to the weapon are as follows:


 * The weapon itself appears the same.  What I mean is, it doesn't glow or anything like that to indicate it is more powerful and Divine.


 * The weapon's physical damage seems to be REDUCED.  This is true.   Although it seems like the weapon actually got weaker, that's not the case, I assure you.  In the case of Divine weapons, not only does it have the ability to keep undead opponents "dead", but it also does additional damage, as you'll see listed under the Magic Damage for the weapon.


 * The weapon no longer reads "+5".  This is also true.  Although you might think to yourself "What the heck?"  Remain calm.  Allow me to explain.  You have transformed your weapon into something new.  Something powerful.  Instead of your weapon being named "Longsword +5" it's called "Divine Longsword (+0)".  Now, when you continue to reinforce it (using additional green titanite shards), it deals more and more physical damage, and more and more magical damage, too!  :)


 * Once you have "Divine Longsword +5", you can bring Andre the Large Divine Ember (from the Valley of Giants deep in the Catacombs) and use white titanite chunks to improve it to +6 and beyond!

Don't worry. If you ever forget which titanite goodie is for each type of upgrade, it's written on that item's item description screen. But, the creators of the game also made it "common sense":

-->  small titanite shards are to start the upgrading process.

-->  large ones continue it. (Such as getting your Leather Gloves +3 to eventually become Leather Gloves +8, etc.)

-->  green titanite imbues the weapon with some new property. Green titanite shards begin the journey for your weapon to become more powerful; depending on the blacksmith you can make the weapon do raw damage, divine damage, magic damage, fire, lightning, etc.

-->  blue titanite chunks allow your +5 magic weapons to grow further. (Blue = Magic)

-->  red titanite chunks allow your +5 fire weapons to grow further. (Red = Fire)

-->  white titanite chunks allow your +5 divine weapons to grow further. (White = "Holy/Occult")

-->  black titanite chunks allow your grave weapons to grow, etc.  (Black = "Death/Evil")

-->  dragon scales are needed to upgrade Dragon Weapons, and

-->  twinkling titanite upgrades everything else not listed above. (Eastern Gauntlets, for example grant poise, which is extremely, extremely unusual for an item with such a light carryweight.  And Effigy Shield has an incredibly high resistance to Lightning.  So, I highly suggest you look carefully at any item requiring Twinkling Titanite to upgrade it, that you are lucky enough to come across.)

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Each upgrade is cumulative.

In plain English, this means that the first time you upgrade a piece of armor, you'll see it increases all 4 physical defense values by 10%, as well as all 4 spell resistance values by 10%. (A total of 110% of their original defensive values.)

But, you'll notice that Bleed, Poison, and Curse resistance do NOT improve. This doesn't happen for most armor until you upgrade it past +3. (The exception:  Items requiring Twinkling Titanite [such as Eastern Gauntlets] DO improve Bleed, Poison, and Curse resistances starting from when you  upgrade them from +0 to +1!!)

This means 2 important things to an observant and intelligent player:

1.)  Choosing an item with a higher bleed and poison resistance (such as black leather boots) might far surpass a similarly-weighted item as you keep reinforcing them.  This means, when they are both +5 boots, they might have nearly identical stats, but the black boots have a higher bleed and poison resistance.

2.)  Choosing to upgrade armor that requires Twinkling Titanite to reinforce, might give you the added edge you need.  Your +4 item stacked bleed and poison resistance not once, not twice, not three times, but four!  Your poor opponent reinforced some regular crap he found, and his +4 thing only got a tiny boost (only one time) to both bleed and poison resistances!  Translation:  You win!  :)

Here is a comprehensive list of cumulative upgrade bonuses to armor:

(to copy this chart, highlight the desired sections, press [Control] + [C] to copy, then paste it some in a file somewhere on your computer using [Control] + [V].  This way you can save it, or print it out if you'd like.)

1st upgrade:  10% increase = 110% original value

2nd upgrade:  11% additional increase = 121% original value (10% of 110 is 11...  another way to do the math quickly on a calculator is multiply 1.1 x 1.1 = 1.21.)

3rd upgrade:  12% additional increase = 133.1% original (1.1 x 1.1 x 1.1 = 1.331)

4th upgrade:  13% additional increase = 146.41% original (1.1 x 1.1 x 1.1 x 1.1 = 1.4641)

5th upgrade:  15% additional increase = 161.05% original (1.1^5 = 1.61051)

6th upgrade:  16% additional increase = 177.16% original (1.1^6 = 1.771561)

7th upgrade:  18% additional increase = 194.87% original (1.1^7 = 1.9487171)

8th upgrade:  19% additional increase = 214.36% original (1.1^8 = 2.1435888)

9th upgrade:  21% additional increase = 235.79% original (1.1^9 = 2.3579476)

10th upgrade:  24% additional increase = 259.37% original (1.1^10 = 2.5937423)

11th upgrade:  26% additional increase = 285.31% original (1.1^11 = 2.8531165)

12th upgrade:  29% additional increase = 313.84% original (1.1^12 = 3.1384281)

13th upgrade:  31% additional increase = 345.23% original (1.1^13 = 3.4522709)

14th upgrade:  34% additional increase = 379.75% original (1.1^14 = 3.7974979)

15th upgrade:  38% additional increase = 417.72% original (1.1^15 = 4.1772476)

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The chart I just typed above teaches us quite a few things:

1.)  In the beginning (or if you don't have enough titanite to go around) It's smarter to upgrade one favorite item over and over and over, rather than every equipped item a little bit.

2.)  It's also smart to remember the Twinkling Titanite rule that I mentioned.  If your hat gives 5 physical defense, and 6 poison resistance to start, and you upgrade it 5 times, you'll have 8 physical defense, and 7.2 poison resistance total (your hat is "normal", so bleed, poison, and curse resistances aren't increased until you get the item to +4 or higher).  I chose a hat that gives 6 physical defense, and 4.5 poison resistance to start, and upgraded it 5 times.  I end up with 9.6 physical defense, and 7.2 poison resistance, too. (because I chose a piece of armor that upgrades with twinkling titanite, it received bonuses to bleed, poison, and curse at +1, +2, and +3 unlike you.)  Needless to say, when you try sniping me with poison arrows, it's not as effective as you had hoped!

Also keep in mind, the upgrading process allows lighter armors to be upgraded beyond heavier armors' (starting) values. For example, black leather boots might have the same exact physical defenses as elite knight boots after you upgrade it 3 or 4 times. (I don't remember...  I'd have to check.)  But, it also has a very high poison resistance and lightning resistance. So, you may wish to equip them against swarms of rats in the depths and sewers, or against drakes in the valley of drakes. Besides, lighter armor allows you to move more quickly and more quietly -- which of course (in some cases) means:  more deadly.

Anyway, sorry to ramble. I hope this helps anyone who takes the time to read it. :)