So the Dark Souls remaster has been released and you’re thinking about finally giving the series a try. But at the same time you’re a little bit worried about the game’s legendary difficulty and reputation for frustration. Maybe the game isn’t for you?
Well don’t worry!
It’s true that Dark Souls is a difficult game that requires patience, practice and lots of trial and error. But most of the worst frustration comes from the game’s steep learning curve. A learning curve that I’m going to try and smooth out for you with some spoiler free tips.
Tip #1: Dark Souls Is a Puzzle Game as Much as Anything Else
A big part of enjoying any game is understanding what kind of game it is, and Dark Souls has strong puzzle elements to go along with it’s action RPG core.
Figuring out how to get from one bonfire checkpoint to the next requires you to figure out where all the enemies and traps are, how they behave and how to outsmart them. This requires a lot of trial and error and, yes, death. Now if you think of each death a sign that you are “losing” this can be very frustrating. But instead I would encourage you to think of each death as one more piece of the puzzle. There is no more shame in dying in Dark Souls than there is in twisting a Rubik’s Cube and finding you moved some colors into the wrong spot.
Did you try to cross a bridge only to get ambushed by enemies throwing fire bombs from above? Don’t think of that death as a loss, think of it as the price for learning an important piece of information. Did your next three attempts to get past that bridge also end in death? Still not failures, those were experiments on different strategies for solving this particular puzzle. Just keep thinking and experimenting and practicing and you’ll eventually find the “solution” that will let you dodge traps, avoid ambushes, outsmart enemies and fight on your terms.
Tip #2: Equipment (almost) Never Goes Obsolete
In most RPGs you expect find better weapons and armor on a pretty regular basis. Some games (looking at you Diablo!) even revolve around enemies dropping better equipment every few minutes.
Not Dark Souls.
The equipment from the first few hours of the game, when fully upgraded, is only a few percentage points behind the best late game hidden weapons and armor. And since those late game weapons and armor often require extremely high stats you might decide to not use them even after you find them!
That means that, depending on your character build, you might only switch to new weapons and armor two or three times throughout the entire game. This means that you can safely spend resources upgrading early game weapons and armor without feeling like you’re going to find something better in just a few minutes. Speaking of which…
Tip #3: Leveling Up Your Equipment Is More Important Than Leveling Up Your Character
Dark Souls doesn’t have gold and XP like most fantasy games but instead just gives you universal “souls” that can be used for everything from shopping to upgrading weapons to leveling up and buying new stat points. In the long run you’ll want to do a little of all three but for most of the game you won’t have enough souls to focus on everything you want.
So if you have to make a tough decision on what to do with your most recent haul of souls here’s a good rule of thumb: Leveling up your equipment at the blacksmith once is worth several character levels. Simple put the benefit of boosting your sword from +2 to +3 is just down right better than boosting your character from 20 to 21 or even 25.
And don’t worry about upgrade materials! The game has an unlimited supply of all the non-top-tier upgrade materials so there’s no risk that upgrading your early game weapons is somehow going to get in the way of upgrading future equipment.
There are, of course, some exceptions. If you’re only one point of strength away from being able to use a new sword or a couple points of endurance away from being able to wear heavier armor than by all means focus on that. But in general when you have a ton of souls and aren’t sure where to spend them a quick trip to the blacksmith to see if there are any upgrades available is a good choice.
Tip #4: Find a Shield with 100% Block ASAP
Just because you have a shield doesn’t meant you can fully prevent being injured by enemy attacks. In fact, some of the weaker shields only prevent half of the damage you take, meaning you can still wind up dead even if you block every incoming attack.
To prevent this take a good look at the stats of every shield you find. You should notice a set of defensive numbers listing what percentage of each type of damage it blocks. You want to find one that blocks 100% of physical damage. This will let you fully block the vast majority of attacks in the game, perfect for staying safe while trying to learn the attack patterns of new enemies.
Don’t worry about this too much. There are a lot of 100% physical block shields in the game. You’ll probably find one within the first few hours no sweat. The only trick is knowing what they are, how to recognize them and why you want them.
Tip #5: Level Up Vitality, Endurance and Enough Attack Stats To Use Your Favorite Weapon
Dark Souls has a lot of stats and deciding which ones to raise when you level up can be very intimidating. Here is a basic run down for a solid build to help you through your first playthrough:
Vitality gives you more health. As a new player you absolutely need this. A good place to put a couple dozen points.
Endurance gives you more stamina and equipment load. Stamina lets you run, dodge, attack and block for longer. Equipment load influences how much armor you can wear before slowing down. This means high endurance will let you move quickly while wearing heavy armor and continue fighting for longer without having to rest. Definitely worth a few dozen points.
Finally every weapon you find will have minimum stat requirements. These are a good guide for what you need to raise. Do you like fighting with axes? Notice that late game axes need a lot of strength? Raise your strength. Prefer spears? Notice they need medium amounts of strength and dexterity? Make that your goal.
This basic approach should give you a nice solid foundation. You can worry about the exact benefits of every stat later on when you’re more comfortable with the basics. (Hint: While all stats can be raised to 99 there is almost to benefit to raising them higher than 50)
Tip #6: Watch Your Equip Load
You’ll probably notice pretty quickly that the heavier your weapons and armor are the slower your character moves. Load yourself up too much and dodging becomes almost impossible.
Prevent this by keeping track of your equip load, which is a comparison of the weight of your current equipment compared to the maximum weight enabled by your endurance. Keep this below 50% to move and dodge at a decent speed. And note that only equipped items count. You can have 500 pounds of spare swords in your inventory no problem.
What if your maximum weight isn’t enough for the weapons and armor you want? Either settle for lighter armor or raise your endurance until you can handle a higher equip load.
Tip #7: Consider Avoiding Magic For Your First Playthrough
Magic spells in Dark Souls aren’t skills you learn by leveling up but are instead pieces of equipment you have to find from hidden treasures or buy from hidden merchants and teachers. On your first playthrough it’s entirely possible you’ll completely miss most of the spells, leaving a magic focused character crippled.
So for your first, blind attempt at the game play it safe and focus on using weapons. Then after you’ve beaten the game once and know where to find the spells (or don’t mind the spoilers involved in looking their locations up) you can start a second magic focused playthrough.
