After you've explained rule number 3 and said that it won't be much, I fully expected "With that out of the way" getting followed by "Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake" 😅
It kinda did in 3 it's called the tailbone short sword and I believe the only thing connecting them is the weapon art is exactly like the drake swords heavy attack.
Yeah I think anything saying it's a "noob trap" or whatever is just clickbait. Upgrading it is bad but that's very easy to see. Having no stat scaling is fine because then you can focus your early game on health/stamina/mana whatever, which makes the game more fun. Once you've played the game a lot there are more interesting ways to start the game though. Ugh, did I just take the bait?
I'd say it is an even respectable choice for doing physical damage with a caster, as no other weapon will do more physical damage at base requirements.
The drake sword is only a trap if you, exclusively level like, HP while it is carrying you. If you're NOT doing that... it's fantastic, especially as a sidearm to a Sorcery or Pyromancy character, since you're otherwise probably not getting good scaling off weapons anyways, and won't care about your weapon choice until later infusions or more specific weapons come online. By the time it starts falling off, you have the firepower to take over
Fr I always use this weapon first until i get to sens fortress for the ring that increases drop rates then i go back and kill every single black knight, only for 1 weapon the black knight sword, the best weapon.
I did use the drake sword (+5) on Kalameet my first playthrough and got the tailcut on my third fight which was also when I killed him because each attempt was so excruciatingly slow that I had learnt him fairly well by that point. Also after about 2 hours of trying to cut Manus' tail I finally went online and learnt that you can't. "Fun" times.
I remembered always making the Drake Sword a priority in all my early Dark Souls runs. But now my defaults are always either the Zweihander or making the suicide run through the Catacombs for the Great Scythe.
@@christianthompson7915About as good as any other commonly used weapon. Decent scaling, fair speed for a reach weapon, I think the hit box can reach around shields if you space it correctly (but don't quote me on that). If you haven't used it, give it a try. Besides, you really can beat DS1 with any weapon, so use wh a tever you like.
I just upgrade the hand axe until I have the requirements to wield the gravelord sword, which gets grabbed 0.1 seconds after falling into firelink shrine
I watch backlogs, zerolenny, and other challenge runners who've mentioned you, so this is your first video that I've seen. I decided to take up your shot challenge as I had shot glasses nearby (no alcohol so I chose a different drink) by 3:15 I realized I had made a misdrake, by 6:30 I had finished my beverage of choice off, and never wanted to drink it again because somehow everything becomes worse when you do shots of it.
Oh how times change , I remember how everyone was obsessed with this weapon for how strong it was , 10 years later and nearly 10,000 hours and hundreds of speedruns later , i sometimes forget that this weapon exists
Tbh it´s perfect for just clearing the undead burg and if you manage to get pretty much any black knight weapon soon after you are set for the rest of a normal run.
Tbh the Drake Sword could go up to Quelagg, but it doesn’t do much damage. It is still viable early on tho. The only problem is how hard it is too level up because of the dragon scales. You would need to either 1:Go through the game and collect all dragon scales, or 2:Just use a duplication glitch to level it up early on. It gets out shined, but I don’t agree about how Jk put it as the worst noob weapon.
@@ThukunaKingofCurtheswell you can farm drakes in the valley of drakes from SL1 but if u were to ONLY be using the drake sword to farm its gonna be horrible
Honestly enemies in the undead burg are so dumb and slow, you can easily walk behind and one shot them with a backstab. Any weapon kills them. Dark souls isn't hard when you play smart.
I think the misconception came mostly from the fact that it seemed like a super special weapon. You get it from a dragon that seems way too powerful by shooting his tail and it even has a special attack. However, when you are doing it the "intended" way you realise that getting the sword isn't actually that challenging. Especially if you happen to get resin. Also in that case, you find the Claymore which is already better, but I think it needs a bit more dexterity.
@@Omnimon152 yes they are easy since it's still the first area, but dealing with mobs in one hit without worrying about retaliation or positioning is still it's own level of easy.
I think it’s actually pretty good for a first playthrough as you can just become a tank since you only need to level up health and endurance, also it gives you a chance to learn the bosses attacks as it does low enough damage to make bosses use almost all their moves
I feel like a raw infused claymore would be much better if you're looking for a decent flat damage weapon while you face tank with a massive HP and Stamina bar, atleast that can be buffed with resins or spells EDIT: Or the obvious...chaos path
@@sasaki999pro But n00bz aren't going to know about those, and still have to make it to Andre, and then past the Capra Demon for the embers to do that. It took me a long time to figure out how to do different ascensions. The lightning path is probably the real noob trap. If you go up to +4 or +5, you can deal with anything in the first run no problem, but you're going to need to actually learn how to interface with scaling, movesets, and specialist ascensions to beat the higher NG+ rounds.
@@Alex_Barbosa Yeah I'm someone who plays all of these games repeatedly yet never does a NG+ run, I'd much rather just make a new character and start from scratch. The progression of Rags to Riches in my character build is like the most fun part to me
@@saint037 There was a singer/guitarist Peter Frampton, big in the 70s, known from the band Humble Pie and then his solo career, whose biggest hits were (apart from Baby I Love Your Way, which might be the most well known today) Show Me the Way and I'm in You.
@@jasonkane7231 in my country we have a challenge called 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes, it's gonna be impossible to do almost as many of wine, which is stronger, in a 5th of the time. They are large shots, 40ml so idk maybe if you were doing 20ml ones you could do it with beer, still think that wine is impossible
I didnt see this comment until after counting myself to give people an idea how many, in my comment I typed how many times drake was said by certain points of the run and got 69-75 (cause i didnt decide to do it til he already said it 3 or so times 😂
ACTUALLY WICKED Jesus Christ loves you, he has a plan and a purpose for your life, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jesus loves you : )
Jesus Christ loves you, he has a plan and a purpose for your life, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jesus loves you : )
You skip Ash Lake because "a new player won't find it", I think it's more likely to find Ash Lake as a new player than figuring out how to jump in Firelink, curl up and take the flight back to Asylum. So Painted World should've not been entered with the 'noobs cant find Ash Lake' rule set.
He could have also farmed dragon scales in the valley of drakes and got the drake sword fully upgraded, but he probably didn't do that for extra difficulty. A shame, because 300 damage is much better than 260 due to the way the damage formula works.
@@johnkalyvas4838 Totally, but Valley of Drakes would be an area a casual/new player will stumble upon. Not visiting Ash Lake because people probably won't find it on first play through, yet going Painted World contradicts itself. No new player would figure out to go back to Asylum and get the doll but walking into the Great Hollow and hitting hidden walls is more likely.
I actually found Ash Lake my first time, and didn’t replay the game for 10 years or so. Mixed up Blight Con with Demon’s souls, and was looking for Moonlight Sword, and thought Ash Lake was part of Demon’s Souls cuz I couldn’t find it
There's always the exception. I found the curl up into a ball thing on my first playthrough. I assumed that if it was an option, there must be a reason for it, so I did it and waited. I never found Ash Lake or the Oolacile stuff on my own though.
I remember talking to my friends about the Drake Sword in school a few months after the game came out. I learned about it through a friend who saw a really early guide on RUclips on how to get it. I never really liked it because the idea of a weapon draining lots of durability when you attacked scared me. My friend however never replaced it until he got the lightning spear in Sens (another amazing noob weapon).
my friend also beat the game with a really weird tank setup and the lightning spear (barely upgraded) DS1 first playthrough is VERY forgiving despite what people want you to believe, it's the second run through the game after you beat it where it really gets hard since the enemies hurt and have way more health
0:04, you were not able to snipe the dragons tail to get the sword on or around release because 1.0 had a feature from demon souls where items dropped by mobs had to be picked up where it died. Much like Crystal lizards in demon souls; it wasn’t until a later patch that From added the instant inventory pick up after noticing all the complaints of players getting a drop in an out of bounds area (which would happen if you tried to snipe the tail on 1.0) or if you did manage to cut it on the bridge but then died and it despawned forever (same with any rare drop like crystal lizards or seaths tail cut for Moonlight greatsword, lava ring etc)
the lava ring permanently despawning is crazy. You can still do lost izalith by getting the 30 humanity and unlocking the secret door but if you were a new player? that's rough lol
I still use this weapon early game because of the initial damage. Though I think that's also probably because initially on my first ever blind playthrough, I started off leveling up myself rather than my weapons (I did not know you could do that) and my friend told me that I managed to avoid the trap with the sword. I still like the sword but I know there is better weapons out there.
while this weapon doesnt develop very well inton end game, you also have to remember- it is a straight sword. So even if it does have great damage, it isn't hard to get damage in. Straight swords in these games generally have great movesets that are functional and safe. Fighting with it is usually not harder- just longer.
@@lemeres2478 Drake Sword is still a good troll weapon option for invasions though if you wanted to stay at low level because of how little damage it does.
I use it every playthrough, its the easiest weapon to use up until both bells are rung and lets you spread your stats out more once you have 16 strength
This, DS1 weapon balance is really broken, Un-upgraded gravelord sword will last you all through the content to Anor-Londo and even a little after, upgrading it to max it'll last the whole game and then you can dump all your levels into Health, Endurance, or Int or Faith, w.e.
@@NachozMan I used that power to heavily maximize my magic build and ended up with a stupidly powerful character. Being able to do extreme physical and magic damage made the game quite a breeze compared to my original run of the game.
@@GracelessTarnished Honestly, they spoil us with the gravelord sword. Low stat requirements, pretty high damage even in its un-upgraded form, it swings so much faster than a lot of great swords and has a thrusting attack. Also it looks really fucking cool, I'm surprised it wasn't the last reward for the gravelord servant covenant.
I loved the Drake sword on my first few playthroughs. It was in a game guide/achievement guide and back then nobody overly hated it, other than saying that theres better swords about it was pretty much widely recommended.
This weapon is the reason I ever managed to get into Dark Souls and then From Soft games in general, it may be a crutch, but it really helps ease you into the game and help avoid some of the frustrations that might make a newcomer rage quit and never touch the game again. It's basically like having training wheels on a bike, and once you get used to the game and its systems and you grow more patience for death and retrying areas and bosses over and over again, you move on to an actual decent weapon.
That's precisely what I compared it to in my comment! It's a great early game weapon to show players that they don't need to be scared of everything, just cautious. It shows players that they can be powerful, and that confidence boost can go a long way into breaking a player's turtling shell.
I can’t believe I’ve played this game a countless number of times, even WITH the master key, and I’ve NEVER thought about skipping undead burg like you did at the start
Can you do a run where it’s basically just like an average run Summoning, cheesing some bosses, playing with friends, playing pvp, and other things. Would be fun and silly to see.
I think its a pretty good weapon for when you're just starting out with the game but switching out by the time you start heading to blighttown/quelaag is a must. I think my first few runs of the game i would use the Drake sword for a bit until I was able to upgrade the Uchigatana.
I believe my runs most of the time basically went like: Drake sword - Quelaag's Furysword with high Humanity - Halberd (basically the hardest hitting non-elemental non-"great" [as in, big and slow] weapon in the game).
Back in the day, I would use this until I got the lightning spear in Sen's. By the time I got to the giant I could get it to +3 or 4. The Drake sword was always a functional weapon for that brief period. When I get to the Giant blacksmith I usually either keep using the lightning spear or make Quelag's fury sword. After lordvessel, I farm the little skeletons to get max humanity which makes the fury sword great. Going back to the Drake sword after either of those really let's you see the difference.
I don’t think this sword is that bad and I usually pick it up to use on the early game bosses (mostly just undead burg/parish) but I usually decide on a weapon for my character after getting past that
2:23 it's important to note here that going to the undead merchant FIRST is vital because if you take this route through valley of drakes the hellkite drake does not spawn at his bridge. you have to trigger his first appearance in the undead burg. seems like you were aware of this possibility (because you weren't sure if he would be in his spot on the bridge or not) but you didn't mention this in the video so i'm just making note of it here in case anyone is using this as a guide.
For 16 strength and 10 dexterity , 300 physical damage is not bad for a straight sword. Could be used on a pyro tank build if you don't like split damage and/or heavy weapons.
Exactly, it is a great companion for pyros and mages when enemies are resistant to their main element. The only weapon that outshines the Drake Sword in that regard is the Obsidian Greatsword.
One thing that alot of people not pay attention to, is that because you only need enough stats to wield it, you can spam all the rest of the stats into survivibility stats making it more forgiving to learn the movesets of bosses. You have so much hp and stamina that you can tank many things and survive and you can dodge spam for a while and get into a better spot. And since DS1 has some horrible boss runbacks... it´s pretty much a really good setup to have to learn the game honestly. I would always tell new players to go for the sword and just get enough stats to wield it, never upgrade it, then once you have another weapon that is better, switch to that over time. That makes it that the player can fully invest in survivability in the beginning and once they got used to their hp and stamina setup they can go for more damage. So here is my Hot Take: The drake sword is actualy a new player AND intermediate player trap for people who do not understand how to actualy use this weapon propperly. Not realizing how good of an early game weapon it is and how much more smooth it makes the early game if you switch to a better weapon at the right time. Obviously if you are a good player you know how to get to a good weapon fast and instandly start doing big things but neither new players nor intermediates do. Intermediates will watch youtube videos and follow guides but often still dont have a decent grasp and start dying even with their new weapon. And good - god tier lvl players no death or even no hit the entire game with anything so there is no point in discussing that anyway. The drake sword is a missunderstood gem.
A bunch of early obtainable (or even starter) weapons will match or surpass a +0 or +1 Drake Sword at a standard reinforcement of +5, with better movesets, and in many cases significantly better poise damage to reliably stun enemies and bosses (e.g. Mace, Battle Axe, Claymore). And you can get a standard +5 weapon as soon as you meet Andre, he sells the titanite shards you need and many of the nearby enemies drop them. You meet Andre about 2 minutes after the Drake Sword is available to you. Provided you know how to upgrade a weapon to +5, the Drake Sword is not even worth the time it takes to collect imo. And that's all with dumping every level into Vitality too. Because you should ideally be doing that early game almost no matter what weapon you choose. Weapon scaling is calculated as a % of base damage. Low weapon upgrade level = low weapon base damage. That means pumping points into Strength or Dexterity is nearly always a bad move early game, it's only worth doing to meet requirements. It doesn't take a god tier understanding of the game to make the Drake Sword obsolete as early as Undead Parish. If you understand the basic systems, that's enough.
Eh the move-set argument is highly subjective, and some people don't want to dump 9 shards + whatever else souls to upgrade an early weapon just to "match or surpass" a 0 upgrade weapon. It's very cool to have the option though. Starting the game doing different paths with different builds is part of the fun.
@@yewtewbstew547 Apples to oranges. Mace, Battle Axe and Claymore aren't straight swords. Also, no small-medium (not UGS, GA, GH) weapon at +5 will surpass the 200 AR of the Drake Sword. Standard straight swords start surpassing the Drake sword around +7, and having 20 str and 20 dex.
I still use the Drake weapon when I make a Mage Build until I can make myself a decent Int scaling weapon. it's pretty reliable if you don't want to dump too much into physical stats iirc
@@Karan-Aujla Velka's Rapier is a great choice for a low stamina mage. Channeler's Trident is decent, Titanite Catchpole is very strong in early game, but it doesn't scale that much. Other than those, just enchant your favourite weapon with low stat requirements (in the Duke's Archives there is an enchanted Falchion, great choice for upgrading)
i'm always amazed people who can do low-damage runs. And this didn't look that bad. I suspect that this weapon fulfills it's purpose just fine, good in the early game but meant to be replaced by something else.
Actually surprisingly useful for Blighttown too, can get you through pretty much the whole area pretty well, and only really comes up short against Quelaag
I appreciate the jokes for the DS 2 fans :) Although, you did miss out on a big part of why the drake sword is considered a trap. The high early damage means new players don't really learn how to fight. So, when the damage falls off, they're stuck having to go back and relearn how to play.
@@inciaradible7144 yeah, its not like its so strong it one shots everything, you still have to dodge/block/parry/back stab and you can still get surrounded. you very much still have to learn the combat.
It can easily carry you through half of the game,and can be fun of you wanna just level up hp and stamina for a none samage output focused playstyle without making it a challenge run.
Personally, my noob "trap" weapon on my first playthrough was the Black Knight sword, that I got from the blue tear stone Bk. It just did so much damage I just couldn't not use it, which I didn't enjoy that much since I hate slow-hard hitting weapons. And I kept on switching to it on and off throughout the playthrough.
"Nowadays, I don't think anyone really uses it." Man, do I wish this were true. I swear 1/3 of the coop & invasion hosts up to- and including- Anor Londo use the dang thing exclusively.
On my first run I went to cut the tail on the drake with the claymore, I cut the tail I took the weapon looked at the attacks and never used it again, after all I am a black knight weapon enjoyer 😈💯
It makes an okay secondary weapon for a magic using character, due to its low stat requirements and not needing to worry about scaling. There are surely better options, but it could be worse.
In my first run, I played blind in Dark Souls 1.0 unpatched on Xbox360. I used minimal online hints, but I did use japanese maps I found just to understand the layout. I found out about the drake sword, somehow, and.... used it for the whole game. Gwyn with a drake sword was a bad time, but not nearly as bas as when I got double-cursed in the depths.
The drake sword doesn’t deserve to be so maligned. It’s useful for the early game, I used to get it using gold pine resin when running past the hellkite drake, and then use it un-upgraded until I had the stats and equipment I needed to start using whatever build I was going for.
If you do not level, upgrade weapons, reinforce estus, or raise convient rank. Then, choose to play the warrior, hunter, or level 2 pyromancer by grabbing 1 dex. Its going to look like good damage considering your other options.
I loved the Drake sword. Used it until I farmed a black knight great sword in the asylum. They were the only two weapons I used in my three playthroughs. Maybe I should have broadened my horizons slightly.
JEEESUSSSS I didnt expect Drake to become the only verb, noun, conjunction and even more parts of speech i didnt know were capable this word to fit in to
Im going through everyone's channels after watching Lemon's oneshot video, and first off, this is fantastic. Secondly, I'm so relieved to hear you were using save states for Manus 😂
So I figured I could do the drinking challenge with water, I'm calling it quits a third of the way into the video after drinking an entire liter. Update: yeah that ending would have killed me
I did that. Started with Hunter/Bowclass and it took just 90h but it was the first time touching DS. Knew the game long before I did that. Love it 100x times more now
yeah, gaping dragon's tail hitbox is deceptively far back, it has a long stub of a tail left after the cut and basically anything that doesn't fall off doesn't actually count towards tail damage. figure the back end of where it's legs connect plus like 2-3 good drake sword lengths at a minimum.
I still collect the Drake Sword every time I play, even if I never use it. I don't think there's anything wrong with using it early on, especially if your stat-scaling weapon of choice isn't available until later. Just use it to tide you over until your favorite weapon is available.
One thing: you say no ash lake because new players wouldn't know but then you choose the master key as your starting gift which is also something new players wouldn't know about.
ngl, this sword is the weapon that I've been stuck with until the end when I play Dark souls 1 for the first time, back then I wasn't aware of the meta because hell I was like 14 at that time, good to see this weapon again with new perspective now
If u would sand more to the left to shoot his tail, u can shoot it twice, one to trigger the dragon once when he waves his tail directly in front of u, from above the bridge perse.
you know, if you take the noob strat of leveling health and stamina, and focusing on becoming a master pyromancer which takes no stat investment, combined with the Drake Sword's good early damage and no stat investment required... this sword could make for an effective add on to a pyromancer build!
The word "drake" and its derivatives were used 80 times in this video (this includes the 5 times it was used before the proposition of the drinking game as well as the outro speed-draking that included 18 mentions or the word "drake"). Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
What was your favourite drake?
“Drake me by surprise” 🤣💀👏 I just KNOW I’m going to start saying that any day now lol
probably the Drake on towards the end.
Dude
I was already drunk while watching this video and You are telling me to take a shot every time you say "drake"?
Not fair😂
Thanks
My personal favorite *drake* these nuts across your face
(Please laugh I’m funny)
With a Drake sword, there's gotta be a Josh sword somewhere in-game.
I'm still searching for it!
I hate you😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Drake. Where's the Josh sword?
Find it, brother!!!!!!!!!
No
After you've explained rule number 3 and said that it won't be much, I fully expected "With that out of the way" getting followed by "Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake" 😅
Came just to say this...
... then I came again.
"It's nothing gamedraking." 🤡
I mean, he immediately followed it up with a drake pun and started using those at every opportunity, so he did just what you said, only stealthily lol
I think he said "Drake" 74 times after explaining the rules 😂
bro after the 10 min i don't remember how much i drank
Question, does that suggestion of playing a drinking game based on the number of times you said "drake" count as attempted murder?
No, I never said it had to be alcohol 😁
@@JKLeeds Yeah but if I use water I'll drown!
@@JKLeedsI tried it with Tea and I'm still drowning in liquids
Brother I'm doing this with 7up I'm 5 minutes in and it's already 6
Using an auto transcript website he said drake around 57 times, it only takes 21 shots to get poisoned from alcohol
Honestly, I can't believe the good ole drakesword never made it into 2 or 3. It's kind of iconic.
It kinda did in 3 it's called the tailbone short sword and I believe the only thing connecting them is the weapon art is exactly like the drake swords heavy attack.
@@Big-Hat-Logann this MIGHT be Big Hat Logan
The drake sword is great for early game, good temporary weapon until you find something more specific to your build.
Yeah I think anything saying it's a "noob trap" or whatever is just clickbait. Upgrading it is bad but that's very easy to see. Having no stat scaling is fine because then you can focus your early game on health/stamina/mana whatever, which makes the game more fun. Once you've played the game a lot there are more interesting ways to start the game though.
Ugh, did I just take the bait?
I'd say it is an even respectable choice for doing physical damage with a caster, as no other weapon will do more physical damage at base requirements.
The drake sword is only a trap if you, exclusively level like, HP while it is carrying you.
If you're NOT doing that... it's fantastic, especially as a sidearm to a Sorcery or Pyromancy character, since you're otherwise probably not getting good scaling off weapons anyways, and won't care about your weapon choice until later infusions or more specific weapons come online. By the time it starts falling off, you have the firepower to take over
Fr I always use this weapon first until i get to sens fortress for the ring that increases drop rates then i go back and kill every single black knight, only for 1 weapon the black knight sword, the best weapon.
Yeah something worth getting until you find something more interesting or progress more to see more weapons
I did use the drake sword (+5) on Kalameet my first playthrough and got the tailcut on my third fight which was also when I killed him because each attempt was so excruciatingly slow that I had learnt him fairly well by that point.
Also after about 2 hours of trying to cut Manus' tail I finally went online and learnt that you can't. "Fun" times.
Same with manus
Same with manus
never attempted to do that on manus but drake sword on him is brutal
Drake the type of guy to use the Drake sword
I was just at a drake video with 1000’s of these comments
Drake the type of guy to send Fantano a guide on how to get Moonlight Greatsword
I remembered always making the Drake Sword a priority in all my early Dark Souls runs. But now my defaults are always either the Zweihander or making the suicide run through the Catacombs for the Great Scythe.
is the scythe really good? i’ve never used it before but always thought about it
@@christianthompson7915About as good as any other commonly used weapon. Decent scaling, fair speed for a reach weapon, I think the hit box can reach around shields if you space it correctly (but don't quote me on that). If you haven't used it, give it a try. Besides, you really can beat DS1 with any weapon, so use wh a tever you like.
Gravelord Sword is also really fun if you're willing to rush the Catacombs
@@christianthompson7915definitely one of the best dex weapons in the game
I just upgrade the hand axe until I have the requirements to wield the gravelord sword, which gets grabbed 0.1 seconds after falling into firelink shrine
I'm not allowed to purchase alcohol after watching this video, and I'm banned from a lot of pubs and bars.
I watch backlogs, zerolenny, and other challenge runners who've mentioned you, so this is your first video that I've seen. I decided to take up your shot challenge as I had shot glasses nearby (no alcohol so I chose a different drink) by 3:15 I realized I had made a misdrake, by 6:30 I had finished my beverage of choice off, and never wanted to drink it again because somehow everything becomes worse when you do shots of it.
Oh how times change , I remember how everyone was obsessed with this weapon for how strong it was , 10 years later and nearly 10,000 hours and hundreds of speedruns later , i sometimes forget that this weapon exists
Tbh it´s perfect for just clearing the undead burg and if you manage to get pretty much any black knight weapon soon after you are set for the rest of a normal run.
Tbh the Drake Sword could go up to Quelagg, but it doesn’t do much damage. It is still viable early on tho. The only problem is how hard it is too level up because of the dragon scales. You would need to either 1:Go through the game and collect all dragon scales, or 2:Just use a duplication glitch to level it up early on. It gets out shined, but I don’t agree about how Jk put it as the worst noob weapon.
@@ThukunaKingofCurtheswell you can farm drakes in the valley of drakes from SL1 but if u were to ONLY be using the drake sword to farm its gonna be horrible
Honestly enemies in the undead burg are so dumb and slow, you can easily walk behind and one shot them with a backstab. Any weapon kills them. Dark souls isn't hard when you play smart.
I think the misconception came mostly from the fact that it seemed like a super special weapon. You get it from a dragon that seems way too powerful by shooting his tail and it even has a special attack. However, when you are doing it the "intended" way you realise that getting the sword isn't actually that challenging. Especially if you happen to get resin. Also in that case, you find the Claymore which is already better, but I think it needs a bit more dexterity.
@@Omnimon152 yes they are easy since it's still the first area, but dealing with mobs in one hit without worrying about retaliation or positioning is still it's own level of easy.
I think it’s actually pretty good for a first playthrough as you can just become a tank since you only need to level up health and endurance, also it gives you a chance to learn the bosses attacks as it does low enough damage to make bosses use almost all their moves
I feel like a raw infused claymore would be much better if you're looking for a decent flat damage weapon while you face tank with a massive HP and Stamina bar, atleast that can be buffed with resins or spells
EDIT: Or the obvious...chaos path
@@sasaki999pro But n00bz aren't going to know about those, and still have to make it to Andre, and then past the Capra Demon for the embers to do that. It took me a long time to figure out how to do different ascensions.
The lightning path is probably the real noob trap. If you go up to +4 or +5, you can deal with anything in the first run no problem, but you're going to need to actually learn how to interface with scaling, movesets, and specialist ascensions to beat the higher NG+ rounds.
@Mortablunt most people don't even do new game +
Especially new players. They're mostly just glad to have finished the game.
@@Alex_Barbosa Yeah I'm someone who plays all of these games repeatedly yet never does a NG+ run, I'd much rather just make a new character and start from scratch. The progression of Rags to Riches in my character build is like the most fun part to me
@@sasaki999pro same
Since im a minor and can't consume alcohol, I decided to do the challenge with chocolate, ended it with diabetes but it was worth it.
You CAN consume alcohol, you just can’t buy it. 😇
a minor? oh Drake's gonna love that!
GET OUT!@@ahadadu
@@ahadadudamn that’s insane man 😂
I loved the Frampton joke. In fact, this entire video was darn hilarious, you got yourself a new subscriber.
as a noob, someone please explain to me the frampt joke
@@saint037 There was a singer/guitarist Peter Frampton, big in the 70s, known from the band Humble Pie and then his solo career, whose biggest hits were (apart from Baby I Love Your Way, which might be the most well known today) Show Me the Way and I'm in You.
I counted anywhere from 70-75 drakes. I don't think I can drink that much of anything in 20 minutes.
Came here to know thius, i knew somebody would count them 😁
Wine shots at best
I counted somewhere around >80
@@jasonkane7231 in my country we have a challenge called 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes, it's gonna be impossible to do almost as many of wine, which is stronger, in a 5th of the time. They are large shots, 40ml so idk maybe if you were doing 20ml ones you could do it with beer, still think that wine is impossible
I didnt see this comment until after counting myself to give people an idea how many, in my comment I typed how many times drake was said by certain points of the run and got 69-75 (cause i didnt decide to do it til he already said it 3 or so times 😂
7:20
That was the most epic plunging attack I have ever seen
no, its THE most epic plunging attack to exist
ACTUALLY WICKED
Jesus Christ loves you, he has a plan and a purpose for your life, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jesus loves you : )
My favourite part in the FROM SOFTWARE universe is when JK Leeds proclaimed "It's Draking time." and indeed Draked all over Lordran.
" drake my way up this ladder "
LMAO
Jesus Christ loves you, he has a plan and a purpose for your life, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jesus loves you : )
I watched a guy kill everything with the damned skull lantern, which technically isn't even a weapon.
I'm not surprised by any challenge run anymore
Drake Sword carried me ngl, I didn't struggle in the slightest. Did the same in DS3 with the Irithyll Straight Sword
You skip Ash Lake because "a new player won't find it", I think it's more likely to find Ash Lake as a new player than figuring out how to jump in Firelink, curl up and take the flight back to Asylum. So Painted World should've not been entered with the 'noobs cant find Ash Lake' rule set.
He could have also farmed dragon scales in the valley of drakes and got the drake sword fully upgraded, but he probably didn't do that for extra difficulty. A shame, because 300 damage is much better than 260 due to the way the damage formula works.
@@johnkalyvas4838 Totally, but Valley of Drakes would be an area a casual/new player will stumble upon. Not visiting Ash Lake because people probably won't find it on first play through, yet going Painted World contradicts itself. No new player would figure out to go back to Asylum and get the doll but walking into the Great Hollow and hitting hidden walls is more likely.
Agreed x10 but you know youtubers are just here for views not to provide any decent content
I actually found Ash Lake my first time, and didn’t replay the game for 10 years or so. Mixed up Blight Con with Demon’s souls, and was looking for Moonlight Sword, and thought Ash Lake was part of Demon’s Souls cuz I couldn’t find it
There's always the exception. I found the curl up into a ball thing on my first playthrough. I assumed that if it was an option, there must be a reason for it, so I did it and waited.
I never found Ash Lake or the Oolacile stuff on my own though.
I remember talking to my friends about the Drake Sword in school a few months after the game came out. I learned about it through a friend who saw a really early guide on RUclips on how to get it. I never really liked it because the idea of a weapon draining lots of durability when you attacked scared me. My friend however never replaced it until he got the lightning spear in Sens (another amazing noob weapon).
my friend also beat the game with a really weird tank setup and the lightning spear (barely upgraded)
DS1 first playthrough is VERY forgiving despite what people want you to believe, it's the second run through the game after you beat it where it really gets hard since the enemies hurt and have way more health
I respect the drake run, but the drake puns? Those take skill, well done.
0:04, you were not able to snipe the dragons tail to get the sword on or around release because 1.0 had a feature from demon souls where items dropped by mobs had to be picked up where it died.
Much like Crystal lizards in demon souls;
it wasn’t until a later patch that From added the instant inventory pick up after noticing all the complaints of players getting a drop in an out of bounds area (which would happen if you tried to snipe the tail on 1.0) or if you did manage to cut it on the bridge but then died and it despawned forever (same with any rare drop like crystal lizards or seaths tail cut for Moonlight greatsword, lava ring etc)
the lava ring permanently despawning is crazy. You can still do lost izalith by getting the 30 humanity and unlocking the secret door but if you were a new player? that's rough lol
I still use this weapon early game because of the initial damage. Though I think that's also probably because initially on my first ever blind playthrough, I started off leveling up myself rather than my weapons (I did not know you could do that) and my friend told me that I managed to avoid the trap with the sword. I still like the sword but I know there is better weapons out there.
while this weapon doesnt develop very well inton end game, you also have to remember- it is a straight sword.
So even if it does have great damage, it isn't hard to get damage in. Straight swords in these games generally have great movesets that are functional and safe. Fighting with it is usually not harder- just longer.
Yeah, Black Knight weapons in the early games were much better options though.
@@xxx_jim_the_reaper_xxx yeah, but that has the caveat of "You were lucky enough to get it to drop".
This thing is guaranteed.
@@lemeres2478
Drake Sword is still a good troll weapon option for invasions though if you wanted to stay at low level because of how little damage it does.
I use it every playthrough, its the easiest weapon to use up until both bells are rung and lets you spread your stats out more once you have 16 strength
10:30
Okay, you got yourself a subscriber. That was a good one.
15:27 a noob wouldn't know the ceaseless discharge scripted death lol
I did it on accident running tf away
The Drake sword is a perfect weapon for getting me through the catacombs to get the gravelord great sword which proceeded to last me the entire game.
This, DS1 weapon balance is really broken, Un-upgraded gravelord sword will last you all through the content to Anor-Londo and even a little after, upgrading it to max it'll last the whole game and then you can dump all your levels into Health, Endurance, or Int or Faith, w.e.
@@NachozMan I used that power to heavily maximize my magic build and ended up with a stupidly powerful character. Being able to do extreme physical and magic damage made the game quite a breeze compared to my original run of the game.
Dude, that's exactly how I usually play. Gravelord Sword is the shit. My fave weapon in the game.
@@GracelessTarnished Honestly, they spoil us with the gravelord sword. Low stat requirements, pretty high damage even in its un-upgraded form, it swings so much faster than a lot of great swords and has a thrusting attack. Also it looks really fucking cool, I'm surprised it wasn't the last reward for the gravelord servant covenant.
You can get the gravelord sword without killing any enemy in the catacombs, the only danger is the titanite demon near the teleportation coffin
For an added challenge for us viewers, take a sip every time JK makes a pun
I loved the Drake sword on my first few playthroughs. It was in a game guide/achievement guide and back then nobody overly hated it, other than saying that theres better swords about it was pretty much widely recommended.
Hot-takes and clickbait are a huge part of social media now.
12:13 this edit is golden
With Drake power comes Drake responsibility.
W comment
This weapon is the reason I ever managed to get into Dark Souls and then From Soft games in general, it may be a crutch, but it really helps ease you into the game and help avoid some of the frustrations that might make a newcomer rage quit and never touch the game again. It's basically like having training wheels on a bike, and once you get used to the game and its systems and you grow more patience for death and retrying areas and bosses over and over again, you move on to an actual decent weapon.
That's precisely what I compared it to in my comment! It's a great early game weapon to show players that they don't need to be scared of everything, just cautious. It shows players that they can be powerful, and that confidence boost can go a long way into breaking a player's turtling shell.
Idk if you mean never nor even
Idk if you mean never nor even
I did the drinking challenge with a protein shake and now I can rip the sword off with my bare hands
Man this drinking has me draking. Good stuff. I finished my first play through with that sword lol.
I can’t believe I’ve played this game a countless number of times, even WITH the master key, and I’ve NEVER thought about skipping undead burg like you did at the start
I think the "Four-tress" joke made me fall in love with you
Can you do a run where it’s basically just like an average run
Summoning, cheesing some bosses, playing with friends, playing pvp, and other things. Would be fun and silly to see.
Ya know, I'm pretty tempted to do that 😂
@@JKLeedscan I beat dark souls the way it was intended 🧐
I think its a pretty good weapon for when you're just starting out with the game but switching out by the time you start heading to blighttown/quelaag is a must. I think my first few runs of the game i would use the Drake sword for a bit until I was able to upgrade the Uchigatana.
i would always grab the drake sword then switch to a lvl5 claymore and then go from there
I believe my runs most of the time basically went like: Drake sword - Quelaag's Furysword with high Humanity - Halberd (basically the hardest hitting non-elemental non-"great" [as in, big and slow] weapon in the game).
Weeb
Back in the day, I would use this until I got the lightning spear in Sen's. By the time I got to the giant I could get it to +3 or 4. The Drake sword was always a functional weapon for that brief period. When I get to the Giant blacksmith I usually either keep using the lightning spear or make Quelag's fury sword. After lordvessel, I farm the little skeletons to get max humanity which makes the fury sword great. Going back to the Drake sword after either of those really let's you see the difference.
Oh yeah that lightning spear. This game's fun when doing a no-weapon-upgrade run
i tapped out of the drinking game at 9:13 lmao
The thumbnail was shockingly accurate for the 4th challenge stated in this video...
I don’t think this sword is that bad and I usually pick it up to use on the early game bosses (mostly just undead burg/parish) but I usually decide on a weapon for my character after getting past that
I had no idea that the sword had an R2 special….and I used this sword a lot in my early days….I’m truly amazed
I literally had no idea either. Back then I only did sword and board.
No way! I just started that exact run yesterday! Cheers man!
2:23 it's important to note here that going to the undead merchant FIRST is vital because if you take this route through valley of drakes the hellkite drake does not spawn at his bridge. you have to trigger his first appearance in the undead burg. seems like you were aware of this possibility (because you weren't sure if he would be in his spot on the bridge or not) but you didn't mention this in the video so i'm just making note of it here in case anyone is using this as a guide.
22:20 you really made us take that 20 shots😂
For 16 strength and 10 dexterity , 300 physical damage is not bad for a straight sword. Could be used on a pyro tank build if you don't like split damage and/or heavy weapons.
Exactly, it is a great companion for pyros and mages when enemies are resistant to their main element. The only weapon that outshines the Drake Sword in that regard is the Obsidian Greatsword.
One thing that alot of people not pay attention to, is that because you only need enough stats to wield it, you can spam all the rest of the stats into survivibility stats making it more forgiving to learn the movesets of bosses.
You have so much hp and stamina that you can tank many things and survive and you can dodge spam for a while and get into a better spot.
And since DS1 has some horrible boss runbacks... it´s pretty much a really good setup to have to learn the game honestly.
I would always tell new players to go for the sword and just get enough stats to wield it, never upgrade it, then once you have another weapon that is better, switch to that over time. That makes it that the player can fully invest in survivability in the beginning and once they got used to their hp and stamina setup they can go for more damage.
So here is my Hot Take: The drake sword is actualy a new player AND intermediate player trap for people who do not understand how to actualy use this weapon propperly. Not realizing how good of an early game weapon it is and how much more smooth it makes the early game if you switch to a better weapon at the right time.
Obviously if you are a good player you know how to get to a good weapon fast and instandly start doing big things but neither new players nor intermediates do. Intermediates will watch youtube videos and follow guides but often still dont have a decent grasp and start dying even with their new weapon. And good - god tier lvl players no death or even no hit the entire game with anything so there is no point in discussing that anyway.
The drake sword is a missunderstood gem.
A bunch of early obtainable (or even starter) weapons will match or surpass a +0 or +1 Drake Sword at a standard reinforcement of +5, with better movesets, and in many cases significantly better poise damage to reliably stun enemies and bosses (e.g. Mace, Battle Axe, Claymore). And you can get a standard +5 weapon as soon as you meet Andre, he sells the titanite shards you need and many of the nearby enemies drop them. You meet Andre about 2 minutes after the Drake Sword is available to you. Provided you know how to upgrade a weapon to +5, the Drake Sword is not even worth the time it takes to collect imo.
And that's all with dumping every level into Vitality too. Because you should ideally be doing that early game almost no matter what weapon you choose. Weapon scaling is calculated as a % of base damage. Low weapon upgrade level = low weapon base damage. That means pumping points into Strength or Dexterity is nearly always a bad move early game, it's only worth doing to meet requirements.
It doesn't take a god tier understanding of the game to make the Drake Sword obsolete as early as Undead Parish. If you understand the basic systems, that's enough.
Eh the move-set argument is highly subjective, and some people don't want to dump 9 shards + whatever else souls to upgrade an early weapon just to "match or surpass" a 0 upgrade weapon. It's very cool to have the option though. Starting the game doing different paths with different builds is part of the fun.
@@yewtewbstew547 Apples to oranges. Mace, Battle Axe and Claymore aren't straight swords. Also, no small-medium (not UGS, GA, GH) weapon at +5 will surpass the 200 AR of the Drake Sword. Standard straight swords start surpassing the Drake sword around +7, and having 20 str and 20 dex.
I still use the Drake weapon when I make a Mage Build until I can make myself a decent Int scaling weapon. it's pretty reliable if you don't want to dump too much into physical stats iirc
What are some good Int scaling weapons? Except the Butterfly horn and the Moonlight greatsword
@@Karan-Aujla anything you upgrade down the magic or enchanted paths. Magic gives you more of a split while enchanted gives you more magic damage.
@@Karan-Aujla Velka's Rapier is a great choice for a low stamina mage. Channeler's Trident is decent, Titanite Catchpole is very strong in early game, but it doesn't scale that much.
Other than those, just enchant your favourite weapon with low stat requirements (in the Duke's Archives there is an enchanted Falchion, great choice for upgrading)
@@ulaznar aye aye capn
You could say it drakes a lotta skill to beat the game with this weapon
Think I get the drake sword on every new game and use it till the claymore outperforms it
i'm always amazed people who can do low-damage runs. And this didn't look that bad.
I suspect that this weapon fulfills it's purpose just fine, good in the early game but meant to be replaced by something else.
"I guess the real drakes were the ones we draked along the drake"
-JKLeeds, 2023
I choose to drink alchohol, 4:14 minutes into the video and I'm positive I am going to die
Hello, did you die?
@@yes78 yes
Actually surprisingly useful for Blighttown too, can get you through pretty much the whole area pretty well, and only really comes up short against Quelaag
0:37 The first reason is why it's an EARLY game weapon. It doesn't scale with stats because it's for when you don't have very good stats.
I appreciate the jokes for the DS 2 fans :) Although, you did miss out on a big part of why the drake sword is considered a trap. The high early damage means new players don't really learn how to fight. So, when the damage falls off, they're stuck having to go back and relearn how to play.
I've never really bought that idea. Early game, you still lack the health to take many hits so you still gotta dodge or block.
@@inciaradible7144 yeah, its not like its so strong it one shots everything, you still have to dodge/block/parry/back stab and you can still get surrounded. you very much still have to learn the combat.
@@inciaradible7144agreed.
It can easily carry you through half of the game,and can be fun of you wanna just level up hp and stamina for a none samage output focused playstyle without making it a challenge run.
Personally, my noob "trap" weapon on my first playthrough was the Black Knight sword, that I got from the blue tear stone Bk. It just did so much damage I just couldn't not use it, which I didn't enjoy that much since I hate slow-hard hitting weapons. And I kept on switching to it on and off throughout the playthrough.
Thats not a noob trap weapon though.
"Nowadays, I don't think anyone really uses it."
Man, do I wish this were true. I swear 1/3 of the coop & invasion hosts up to- and including- Anor Londo use the dang thing exclusively.
I finished a whole bottle of whiskey in the first 30 mins why have you forsaken me
On my first run I went to cut the tail on the drake with the claymore, I cut the tail I took the weapon looked at the attacks and never used it again, after all I am a black knight weapon enjoyer 😈💯
Wow, cutting it with melee! I've actually never done that
Did the exact thing too. Used it like twice. Also, Average Black Knight Enjoyer 🗿
Greataxe is 🔛🔝 though
It makes an okay secondary weapon for a magic using character, due to its low stat requirements and not needing to worry about scaling. There are surely better options, but it could be worse.
I always used enchanted claymore for that. Doesnt work for faith builds though, divine version is hot garbage.
@@d07RiV Velka's rapier is absolute goat
The Drake sword got beef with the Kendrick sword?
Vendrick sword
I’m convinced people could beat this game with a broken straight sword at this point
they have though
07:18 that really was the most epic plunge attack for real 🔥
On one of my runs i made the mistake of using the drake sword all the way to the iron golem lol
Oh dear! That damage against Iron Golem 😬
@@JKLeeds I know! Great video!
Guessing that's why you switched?
@@jacthing1 Yeah, i did. To a claymore I think, and it was embarrassingly my 4th playthrough I think.
In my first run, I played blind in Dark Souls 1.0 unpatched on Xbox360.
I used minimal online hints, but I did use japanese maps I found just to understand the layout.
I found out about the drake sword, somehow, and.... used it for the whole game.
Gwyn with a drake sword was a bad time, but not nearly as bas as when I got double-cursed in the depths.
The drake sword doesn’t deserve to be so maligned. It’s useful for the early game, I used to get it using gold pine resin when running past the hellkite drake, and then use it un-upgraded until I had the stats and equipment I needed to start using whatever build I was going for.
If you do not level, upgrade weapons, reinforce estus, or raise convient rank. Then, choose to play the warrior, hunter, or level 2 pyromancer by grabbing 1 dex.
Its going to look like good damage considering your other options.
My god, these puns. Very entertaining video, and nice Peter Frampton reference lmao
I loved the Drake sword. Used it until I farmed a black knight great sword in the asylum. They were the only two weapons I used in my three playthroughs. Maybe I should have broadened my horizons slightly.
Calling the drake sword a "noob trap" is like calling Jagen from Fire Emblem an "Exp thief".
Jagen is that purple pre promote with shit growths, right? That one that everyone calls a pitfall?
@@iwannaseehowlongyoucanmakethis Yeah
JEEESUSSSS I didnt expect Drake to become the only verb, noun, conjunction and even more parts of speech i didnt know were capable this word to fit in to
Im going through everyone's channels after watching Lemon's oneshot video, and first off, this is fantastic. Secondly, I'm so relieved to hear you were using save states for Manus 😂
I did your drinking challenge and almost died of alcohol poisoning, you’ll be hearing from my lawyer.
14:03 Why am I in that 1%?
Can you explain?
Peter "Frampton" is a musician from my parents generation who sung songs with those titles.
So I figured I could do the drinking challenge with water, I'm calling it quits a third of the way into the video after drinking an entire liter.
Update: yeah that ending would have killed me
I did that. Started with Hunter/Bowclass and it took just 90h but it was the first time touching DS.
Knew the game long before I did that. Love it 100x times more now
longest plunging attack 7:18 and shortest plunging attack 8:34 ever in Dark Souls history
I'm 15 2:12
drink milk then
Then just smoke meth instead.
It's equally illegal for every age 😆
The man didn't ask. He said DRINK
yeah, gaping dragon's tail hitbox is deceptively far back, it has a long stub of a tail left after the cut and basically anything that doesn't fall off doesn't actually count towards tail damage.
figure the back end of where it's legs connect plus like 2-3 good drake sword lengths at a minimum.
I still collect the Drake Sword every time I play, even if I never use it. I don't think there's anything wrong with using it early on, especially if your stat-scaling weapon of choice isn't available until later. Just use it to tide you over until your favorite weapon is available.
One thing: you say no ash lake because new players wouldn't know but then you choose the master key as your starting gift which is also something new players wouldn't know about.
I understood that Peter Frampt reference. 10/10 as always.
ngl, this sword is the weapon that I've been stuck with until the end when I play Dark souls 1 for the first time, back then I wasn't aware of the meta because hell I was like 14 at that time, good to see this weapon again with new perspective now
Whole new meaning to drake sword now a days 🤤🤣
Fr😂
Man, ive been doing a dagger run so thought the damage would still be higher, but ye that fall off is insane. Really shows how important scaling is.
If u would sand more to the left to shoot his tail, u can shoot it twice, one to trigger the dragon once when he waves his tail directly in front of u, from above the bridge perse.
I did the drake drinking game with coffee. I can now see time as it flows and hear gravity affecting the very fabric of spacetime itself
You kept me very hydrated
As an alcoholic, this is one of my favorite videos!
you know, if you take the noob strat of leveling health and stamina, and focusing on becoming a master pyromancer which takes no stat investment, combined with the Drake Sword's good early damage and no stat investment required... this sword could make for an effective add on to a pyromancer build!
13:40 I mean, even according to the wiki, occult/divine normal bows do more damage with Moonlight arrows than the Darkmoon bow does.
The word "drake" and its derivatives were used 80 times in this video (this includes the 5 times it was used before the proposition of the drinking game as well as the outro speed-draking that included 18 mentions or the word "drake"). Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
My chosen beverage was water, so the drinking game made me fulfill my daily hydration quota for the first time in a long while.