I put together a small guide on the basics of Dark Souls 3 to hopefully encourage people to give it a try, and to maybe answer some of the basic questions they may have. While I'm intending this for totally new players, feel free to ask me any questions you may have even if you're a Souls veteran.
What is Dark Souls 3?Dark Souls 3 is the fourth installment in From Software's acclaimed
Souls franchise. The game mixes indirect, inferred storytelling with a darkly medieval, Gothic atmosphere. The series, including this installment, is renowned for its relentless and demanding combat while still being a fair and beatable challenge. In essence, Dark Souls 3 is an action-RPG which demands that you pay careful attention to every enemy and forces you to adapt to each encounter.
The player character is the Ashen One, an "Unkindled" undead risen from the grave with the tasking of linking, and thus rekindling, the First Flame.
Sounds okay, but why should I play it?Dark Souls 3 presents an unconventional but very elaborate mythology quite unlike any other video game franchise that I'm aware of. There is a rich, vibrant, and interconnected story spread between the three Dark Souls games which explores philosophical concepts such as rebirth, reincarnation, nonlinear time and space, and subverting your expectations of typical "good" and "evil". Yet it's largely tasked to the player to uncover these bits of lore by hunting down clues in item descriptions, observing the environment around them, and being thorough in their exploration.
If that fails to engage you, the combat is by far one of the most satisfying video game experiences you'll have. Many people are discouraged by the almost completely absent hand-holding; the game sets the expectation of danger and death within the first ten minutes of gameplay. Yet, for all of its legendary brutality, the game is seldom unfair. Instead, it asks that you pay careful attention to your foes, learn the capabilities of your weapons, and be methodical and precise in your attack. Every minor victory feels like an accomplishment in
Souls, and toppling every new boss is an exhilarating experience.
There is both a very dynamic PvP system along with a scaling single player difficulty system that allows you to re-play the game from the start at significantly higher difficulties once you've completed it.
Cool, but this character creator is crazy. What are these things?When you first launch the game you'll be tasked with creating your character after you watch the introductory cinematic (I normally hate these, but it's a very good one and worth your attention).
You can customize the physical aspects of your character to your liking, but then comes the trickier choices; your class and your burial gift.
Gender and appearance have no effect on your gameplay experience, so make your characters as hideous as possible.
Classes and Burial Gifts:You'll have the choice of one of ten classes to start off with in
Dark Souls 3. However, unlike more traditional RPGs, this is not a binding choice; you will be able to build your character to play however you would like. Rather, it presents more of a vague archetype to get you started off, and determines the type of starting equipment you will have. I recommend that you experiment with several before deciding. The tutorial area and boss are great tools to let you get a feel for the equipment and spell(s) that each class begins with. The classes are as follows:
• Knight - The typical heavily armored sword-and-board mainstay of fantasy games. You will begin with a very good set of heavy armor, a 100% physical damage reduction shield, and an incredibly potent Longsword along with the necessary stats to wield this all effectively. This is an ideal choice for newer players who want to be able to go toe-to-toe with enemies.
• Mercenary - A lightly armored fighter that focuses on making use of fast weapons in direct combat. This is a great choice for people who prefer to engage directly, but would rather rely on dodging and evading than taking hits with a shield.
• Warrior - An armored fighter that makes use of a battle axe and lighter armor than the Knight. This class begins with a focus on using a weapon in two hands to deal devastating damage, at the expense of lower survivability than the Knight.
• Herald - A more lightly armored version of the Knight which begins the game with a healing Miracle and a spear for poking enemies from a distance. This is a good choice for more cautious players, as you'll have access to a healing spell and a shield.
• Thief - A very lightly armored class that starts off with a dagger and a bow. This class begins the game tailored more towards players who prefer to engage from a distance and utilize dodges and rapid attacks in close range.
• Assassin - Another very lightly armored class, but augmented with a very useful Sorcery, the Assassin focuses on sneaking up on enemies using the Spook spell for massive backstabbing damage. To finish off wounded foes, the assassin relies on parrying with a small buckler and riposting with a thrusting sword.
• Sorcerer - The traditional wizard class, this one focuses on whittling down enemies from a distance with pure magical damage rather than engaging in melee combat.
• Pyromancer - A hybrid of melee and magic, the Pyromancer utilizes flame magic to deal damage along with engaging foes in melee combat with an axe.
• Cleric - Similar to the Herald, the Cleric is a class initially set up to cast Miracles and comes equipped with a heal and with Force (a spell to knock foes away from you). Unlike the Herald, the Cleric is intended to be primarily a spellcaster rather than a melee combatant.
• Deprived - A deceptively frail looking class which begins the game with an even distribution in all stats and comes equipped only with a loincloth and a club. While I would only recommend this for more advanced players owing to the relentlessly unforgiving starting experience, it is a fantastic choice for developing characters later in the game.
Burial Gifts are an assortment of items from which you may choose one to begin the game with. The vary in usefulness but are by no means gamechangers; choose the one which sounds best to your intended playstyle. I will recommend the Fire Gem for beginners as it'll allow you early access to infusing your weapon with Fire. Many enemies in the first few zones are weak to fire.
Great, I chose a _____! What do all of these stats and numbers mean though?Stats determine various qualities of your character, such as the maximum weight of the equipment you can wear or how much raw health you have. Before we go deep into these, it's best if you first understand what the bars on your screen mean.
The red bar is your Health Points. It's a mostly straight forward affair; when this reaches zero, you die. You can buff your health by beating a boss or consuming an Ember. This buff persists until you die.
The blue bar is your Focus Points. These are used for casting spells or using your weapon's special abilities.
The green bar represents your stamina. While you may be thinking that your Health Points are the most vital aspect of your character, it often turns out that your stamina is far, far more crucial. Stamina dictates how long you can block with your shield, whether or not you can roll away from attacks, if you can swing your own weapon or cast a spell, if you can sprint, and whether or not you can parry an attack. Stamina replenishes very quickly, but running out at the wrong moment can quite literally be life or death.
Now we'll take a look at how your stats directly impact these things.
• Vigor - this is just a raw increase to your health. Every build can benefit from a bit more of this and so it never hurts to sink a few points in here. You'll want enough HP that you can survive more than one attack (yes, many enemies can one-shot you if you're unwary).
• Attunement - This dictates your total FP and how many spells you can equip. While obviously more important for casters, this stat is not entirely negligible for hybrids or even melee builds which make heavy use of special weapon skills.
• Vitality - increases your maximum equip load
• Endurance - This stat determines your total stamina, and has a soft cap (a point at which heavy diminishing returns begin to apply) of 40.
• Strength - A physical damage stat, this increases the effectiveness of weapons which benefit from strength scaling.
• Dexterity - A second physical damage stat, this one increases the effectiveness of weapons which benefit from dexterity scaling.
• Intelligence - A spell damage stat, leveling this increases the effectiveness of your spells and allows you to equip more powerful Sorceries, Miracles, and Pyromancies.
• Faith - The second spell stat, this increases the effectiveness of your Miracles and Pyromancies while allowing you to equip more powerful version of the two.
• Luck - A peculiar and seemingly useless stat at first, this most obviously increases your chance to find items. For certain advanced builds, it can become a very potent source of damage.
What the Hell Are All of These Numbers, or Defenses and Resistances.The character sheet can be a bit intimidating at first, being a vast assortment of numbers and percentages. I'll explain the basic principles behind those.
You'll see a section labeled "Defenses". This will list the raw reduction your character possesses for each named source of damage. While defenses can be vitally important, the surest method of damage reduction is to
not get hit at all. In other words, don't freak out over a damage reduction of 9%. While it may sound low, it is by no means impossible to beat the game with even lower than that (I did it with a character having -3.5% physical reduction!).
The second one is a bit more complex, and it is labeled "Resistances". Here you will see several named sources, those being Bleed, Poison, Frost, and Curse. These are debilitating character effects which can be applied to you by various enemies and rather than dealing direct damage, they accrue over time. This fulminates in massive, often fatal, damage or lethal Damage Over Time effects.
Your resistances will slow the rate at which these effects are applied to your character, giving you some often-needed breathing room. Unlike Defenses, things like Poison and Curse are often unavoidable. Thankfully, you'll only encounter these at certain points in the game and so focusing on raising your resistances isn't always imperative.
Got it. So what is Equip Load, Poise, Attunement Slots, and Damage?There are some more stats on the page which we'll need to go over before you run off to your death.
Equip load determines how much equipment you can wear before becoming over encumbered and subsequently unable to run or roll. At different breakpoints, your stamina regeneration and ability to roll are impacted: Below 30% your stamina regenerates very rapidly and you roll much farther than normal. Between 30% and 69% your stamina regeneration is normal and you roll the normal distance. However, over 70% your stamina regeneration is stunted and you begin to roll short distance and very slowly. I'd recommend most newer players aim to be in the 30% to 69% group; this is a good compromise between solid armor and weapons without being crippled by the >69% impositions.
Attunement Slots are your spell slots and can only be increased by leveling your attunement stat or equipping certain rings. Most spells occupy one slot, some require two.
These are largely unnecessary for most melee characters unless you deliberately want to use spells as well.
Poise is a much more complicated stat than the others, but the gist of what you need to know is that it increases your threshold for being staggered by enemy damage as your poise increases. Poise is found almost solely on armor and some weapons and is not determined by your attributes.
Damages listed reflects the values for your equipped weapons and will change depending on whether or not you are currently using your weapon one-handed or two-handed. You can toggle between the two stances by pressing "triangle" or its Xbox equivalent.
Leveling Up: Leveling up is accomplished by spending Souls which you acquire by defeating foes and using certain items found in your adventures. These souls are spent at the Firekeeper and every level that you gain earns you one stat point of your choosing.
Smart players will use various calculators and tools to optimize their stat distributions through a process known as min-maxing in RPG lingo. This signifies “minimizing-maximizing”, or taking as little sub-optimal stats as possible and as many beneficial stats.
You do have the opportunity at one point in the game to visit a NPC who will allow you to redistribute your stats up to five times per play. What I recommend is that you determine in advance what sort of character you’d like to play and distribute your stats in that direction.
The curious part of Dark Souls is that there is really no effective level cap. You can level up as much as you’d like so long as you can afford it, though it will become very impractical after a point. Most people settle at level 120 for the purpose of PvP and co-op.
However, for your very first time through the game, don’t be afraid to experiment. Do whatever feels fun. In the end, being successful at
Souls is about your ability to react and fight well, not your stats. People have beaten the most brutal bosses in the game without leveling up a single time, using only a crude wooden club. Anything will work if you’re good enough to do it!
Weapon Types: Now that you've chosen a class and presumably gotten into the game a bit, I'll start to detail the different pieces of equipment which you'll find on your journey and how you can best utilize them.
First and foremost are weapons. They are, without a doubt, your most important pieces of equipment and should be chosen carefully; you'll be spending your precious and hard earned Titanite to upgrade your weapons.
You also need to learn what the different attack types are. I’ll list the basics:
• R1 – Quick attack
• R2 – Strong attack (hold down to charge for more damage)
• L1 – Uses your off hand equip, or blocks with your weapon if 2H
• L2 – Parries with your shield. Activates Weapon Art in 2H stance.
• O+R1 – Leaps backward and performs a lunging attack
• Left stick in any direction+O+R1 – Performs rolling attack
• Left Stick Up + R1 – Performs a kick, breaks enemy block
Weapons can be roughly categorized into a few main groups, each with subcategories:
• Small melee - Longswords, shortswords, katanas, curved swords, thrusting swords, daggers, axes, maces, whips, cleavers
• Large melee - Greatswords, ultra greatswords, nodachi, greataxes, lances, spears, halberds, scythes, large maces
• Bows/Crossbows – Self explanatory
• Miracle catalysts – Chimes, talismans
• Sorcery catalysts – Staves, a few miscellaneous weapons
• Pyromancy flame – there are only two of these in the game.
Each category possesses its own strengths and drawbacks, unique move sets, and every weapon has a special "Weapon Art" which is activated by holding the weapon in both hands and pressing or holding L2.
Weapons can be wielded in a single handed or in both hands. One-handed usage allows you to use your shield or a second weapon in your off hand.
Two-handed usage offers great damage and access to your Weapon Art, but doesn’t allow you to make use of your off hand equipment. Good players will quickly switch between stances in combat to make the most effective use of their full loadout.
My suggestion is that you find a weapon that you enjoy and then master it; learn all of its moves and combinations. Experiment with rolling R1 attacks, charged R2 attacks, L2 (Weapon Art; only usable 2-handed or 1-handed with special shields) and using all of these together. When you find one you really like, consider upgrading it.
I also recommend hoarding one of every weapon you come across, as they typically don’t sell to vendors for much and you may find a weapon to be useful later on in the game. You have limitless storage space and can hold as much stuff as you’d like.
A, B, C, D, E… S? Weapon Scaling! Every weapon benefits from different stats, which are represented in the inventory description of the item by icons for each main stat. Beneath these icons you will find an assigned letter grade from E backwards to A, with a possible S, designating how well the weapon scales with each stat. A blank signifies no scaling benefit from that stat. E is the lowest level of scaling and receives very little benefit from the stat. S is the best and benefits greatly from the stat.
For example, a weapon with C beneath Dexterity and Strength will receive a modest boost in damage from those respective stats.
Weapon scaling can be increased by upgrading the weapon with Titanite at the blacksmith, and by infusing them with certain gems. The idea behind your build should be to support the scaling of the weapon(s) you’ve chosen to primarily use.
Killing in Style – Fashion Souls: Armor is, curiously enough, one of the least important aspects of your character but also one of the most satisfying. Successful players have completed the game stark naked without any sort of shield, yet the community thrives upon coming up with great looking outfits from the pieces of armor that you’ll acquire in your travels.
There are a few things to keep in mind when choosing your armor pieces, principle among them being your Equip Load. A heavy plate helmet may be tempting, but it could also tip you over the point of >70% equip load depending on your Vitality stat.
Heavier armor can also increase your Poise, making you harder to stagger, but it becomes a constant game of micromanaging your equip load and usually requires a very heavy investment into vitality.
Ultimately, like most things in
Souls, your armor choice will not be a game breaker. While it can simplify some encounters by certain armor sets offering different magical resistances, they’re by no means necessary to complete the game. Experiment with what looks best to you, come up with a unique look, and don’t be afraid to stay away from the heavy suits of armor.
Shields, however, are crucial pieces of equipment which should not be ignored. Shields range from tiny bucklers for swift parrying all the way to massive chunks of dragon bone or tower shields of heavy metals which offer complete physical and near total spell damage resistance.
You should determine whether you prefer blocking or parrying and find a shield which suits your purposes while managing your equip load. Casters should not overlook shields either; you will get powerful magic which can turn even the most humble buckler into an impenetrable bastion of defense.
Dark Souls Bling: Rings. Your character has access to four slots in which you can equip rings. Rings are some of the most interesting equipment choices to make in the game, having a variety of bonuses from damage increases to your spells to negating falling damage, increasing your stamina regeneration rate, reducing your equip load, and lots more.
While it takes some time before you begin to find the most effective rings in the game, you should hold onto all of the rings which you do find. Rings work most effectively when you equip ones which complement one another. For example, a heavily-armored character may take a ring which reduces his equip load, a ring to increase his stamina regeneration, and a couple of rings which offer defensive bonuses. Meanwhile a Sorcerer type may take two rings to increase the potency of his spells, a ring to increase his casting speed, and a ring to increase the duration of his beneficial spells.
In addition, there’s a Trophy for obtaining every ring in the game, so it’s worthwhile to store every ring that you come across; not only will this grant you the trophy, it’ll give you a surplus of options to work for any situation.
You’re a Wizard, Larry: Spellcasting. Spells in
Dark Souls 3 are broken into three major categories, each requiring a unique form of “Catalyst” (an object wielded in hand for the purpose of enhancing your spells) to cast. Each catalyst has different scaling and a unique stat called spell buff, which dictates how much it enhances the effectiveness of the spells cast by the catalyst.
Sorceries – Pure magic damage in the form of magic arrows and larger projectiles, utility spells in the form of weapon and shield buffs, invisibility, etc. Has access to sorceries which deal Dark damage rather than Magic, for diversity. Sorceries are for those who enjoy the Wizard archetype and enjoy having access to spells like invisibility. Sorceries are cast with a staff, a certain unique chime, or one of a couple of unique weapons found in the game.
Pyromancies – Fireballs. A lot of fireballs. Exploding fireballs, melting fireballs, small fireballs, large fireballs. In addition to this staggering assortment of fireballs, you’ll have access to some really cool melee-range fire abilities, weapon buffs, defensive buffs, mind control, and Dark damage black fire spells for some damage diversity. Pyromancy is a ridiculously potent option given how weak to fire many foes in
Dark Souls 3 are. Pyromancies are cast exclusively with one of the two pyromancy flames in the game.
Miracles – Lightning bolts are your primary damage dealing spells, which function curiously by dramatically enhancing their damage at close range to your targets. In addition, Miracles have a great deal of utility and diversity, having access to all manner of healing and restorative spells, defensive buffs, offensive buffs, weapon buffs, and numerous dark Miracles for damage diversity. Miracles are a great choice for people who enjoy having utility along with offensive spellcasting at close range (following up a parry with a lightning bolt to the face is awesome!), plus most bosses are weak to Lightning damage. Miracles are cast with chimes or talismans.
Keep in mind that you’re not restricted to one class of spells. You can mix and match your spell assortment to your desire, just remember to bring a catalyst for each spell type.
Diamonds Like Africa: Gems for Weapon Infusions. As you go through the game, you’ll start to come across different sorts of gems dropped by glowing blue lizard critters at first, and eventually by all sorts of enemies. If you chose the Fire Gem burial gift, you’ll begin the game with one. You’re also probably wondering how the hell you use the thing.
The Blacksmith at Firelink shrine offers some very useful services, one of those being weapon infusions. This empowers a chosen weapon with the benefits of whichever gem you have chosen for it. The effects of gems can be broken down into two main categories: those which offer stat scaling and those which do not.
Early in the game you will find that gems which completely remove the stat scaling from your weapon, and possibly add a second
elemental form of damage to your weapon as in the case of the Fire Gem, offer far more of a damage increase than those that do offer stat scaling. That is a result of the way in which those gems raise the base damage of the weapon beyond what your stats could achieve with scaling present. This is a simple tradeoff to give you a damage increase early in the game when your stats are still low, while having a relatively low damage ceiling later in the game. As you level up your damage stats, you'll find that scaling infusions begin to offer considerably more damage.
However, gem infusions are not irreversible. You can overwrite a gem at any point in the game by merely speaking with the blacksmith again and choosing a new one. This process can be repeated as many times as you desire.
You should aim to choose a gem which complements your build; if you have high strength and dexterity, try a Refined gem. If you have high faith and int and like fire damage, try a Chaos gem. If you’re level 10 and have low stats, try a Fire gem or a Raw gem.
Keep your eyes out for the four different “Coal” items in the game, as the Blacksmith will require these to perform more advanced infusions.
Upgrading Your Weapon:Early in the game you’ll start to loot things called Titanite Shards. These are the first, most basic and most common upgrade items you’ll encounter. Hold onto them, as they’re quite precious at first. The blacksmith can upgrade your weapons for Titanite, using an increasing system of materials. Certain rare weapons require special upgrade materials which can be found in key areas of the game.
There are Titanite Shards, Large Titanite, Titanite Chunks, and the ultra-rare Titanite Slab (only 11 per game). Each tier of upgrade item besides the last requires 2, 4, and then 6 of each material to upgrade. The final tier requires only one Titanite Slab.
Consider your upgrades very carefully, though you’ll eventually be able to purchase everything besides Titanite Slabs from the Firelink Shrine vendor.
But what does this do, you ask? Every time you increase the level of a weapon, its base damage goes up and its scaling increases. In some cases it will increase your weapon’s scaling by an entire letter grade, making upgrades a tremendous source of damage potential. As such, they should be chosen carefully.
External Resources:The following links provide useful resources for both new and experienced plays alike.
Mugenmonkey's Character Planner - a very useful calculator to help you determine what class you should choose if you have a desired build in mind, what level your ideal build will require, which equipment works best for an intended purpose, and a myriad of other possibilities.
Mugenmonkey's Weapon Attack Rating Calculator - determines the damage of a weapon at +10 upgrade based on user-defined stats, lists damage with all possible infusions as well.
-more to come-