No, I’m thinking of the spider thing before you can find the cave of knowledge. But same thing I guess. It’s to give the message that you suck. Haha.
Followed a tutorial to find some essentials and power up. Met some regular soldiers and still gets slaughtered… hehe
Not met “Spider thing” yet but I did find the sneaky route to avoid going through that bloody castle last night.
Off out for the rugby today but can tell I’ll be thinking Elden Ring and hoping to encounter “spider thing” 
Not sure what it was called, don’t have the console here right now, but it was some kind of warrior - according to the description, I interpreted it as the best one to pick for close combat, which is how I prefer to play these kind of games. I start out with lots of armor and a small sword that kills zombies in three or four strikes.
Though some say I should go for the Pyromancer, and just keep my distance. Honestly, if I could attack that big fella I’m facing now with distance strikes, I’d have him down by now (unless he changes tactics, which I have a feeling he might, haha 
)
Maybe I got the names wrong. But the first time I get killed it seems part of the story. It is the first enemy you meet after opening the first door and going outside. Maybe that is the tree guard thing?
To be honest this is how I name everything in the game too
I’ve seen photos of some weird multi limbed baddies too which would fit “spider thing” nicely!
I don’t know what happened at that point in my game - the fight started and everything went black for a few seconds. Is that normal? I was starting to wonder if it was a crash, but noises started creeping in and then things picked up again. It seems like the equivalent of the Asylum Demon, something you initially seem to have no hope against, but can learn to overcome. But as I say, I just approached it and bam, straight to black.
It’s all behaved fine since, so that’s good. Not sure about tree guard, but the tree sentinel is the guy on horseback just after you emerge past the tutorial cave. I wisely crept around him to the church the first time. Last night I was only packing a dozen or so runes, so I decided to see what he was like. Turns out I’ll be leaving him to it for a while.
Just popping in to say this game is indeed excellent.
Right. Nailed the first Dark Souls boss now. Actually quite “easy”, once I figured it out. But patience is key here. Even when I found a tactic that worked, I had to restrain myself from just going “And THERE and THERE and THERE”, but just fall back, wait for another opening and then hit him again.
I kind of start to get it now. Though the controls are a bit sluggish. It’s not exactly Ninja Gaiden, is it? :). Even the mechanics tell you to take it easy, like the older Resident Evil games.
So you left the asylum(tutorial), nice!
Although it is probably the slowest of them all, have you figured out the movement(and especially roll) speed mechanic yet? especially if you went with the knight and not the warrior. A good darks souls rule is:
Never dat roll. 
Yep, that’s what I used on the boss fight. He hardly touched me once I got that going. It is slow, though.
Are other characters faster? I can see myself restarting with another character if there are those who move faster.
Well you don’t have to restart. There is no “real” difference between the classes anyway. Which is dope. It’s just a starting out position for stats and equipment. So if you want to know what the quickest movement speed is, all you have to do is undress
Movement speed is based on equipment load.
I don’t remember the percentages exactly anymore. But you could look those up.
Best me to it haha
Yeah the long animations are definitely part of this sort of game and learning to not get greedy, especially when the boss has one hit left the temptation to just finish them off will get you dead. Avoid fat roll is a good idea but if your fully armoured up you also have better poise which makes you less likely to get interrupted by a hit when you are attacking also. That said it is pretty much always best to avoid dmg than to tank it in a trade unless you are in a more PVP style scenario.
Haha you guys, I love you 
feels like I’ve just joined a trainer club and everyone really just wants me to feel happy and welcome love it
You make me feel this way about the Blackbox!
And remember that multiplayer is not cheating, it’s a built in mechanics. Praise the sun and slay bosses in jolly cooperation!
Wait, what? Multiplayer?
Like Psychic Pizza said, the game has also ‘factions’ (I don’t remember the exact name) dedicated to different multiplayer style.
Proud SunBro here. \o/
I believe the term is ‘covenant’.
Praise the Sun, fellow Sunbro! \o/