Just about to start Dark Souls, any tips?

[The_Blue_Rider]

So I finally got around to buying Dark Souls today, I havent played it yet as I'm planning to start tonight, so I thought I'd ask The Escapist for some beginning tips when starting the game. I know that apparently the game can be quite vague with some things, so are there any things I should know before jumping in?

EDIT: Thanks for the tips guys, Ill make sure to read up on them again when I've played for a few days. I started as a Pyromancer and chose the Tiny Being's ring as my gift (Damn thing lied about what it does). Im at about level 18 now with most of my points in Endurance, and a few in Strength, Intelligence and Vitality.

Im wearing the standard Pyromancer gear at the moment, with a Wooden Shield and a Battle Axe. In regards as to where I'm up to, I've just opened the gate behind the Armoured Tusk in the Undead Parish. Just thought I'd mention this to see if it helped with any specific advice.

Also how do I upgrade my weapons?

 

[King Billi]

Consider choosing the Master Key as your starting gift, alot more areas and secrets are open to you early in the game if you have this item.

 

[Kururu999]

Don't get any cute ideas about playing thief or sorcerer or cleric your first time. Just pick the damn warrior. Pros will tell you to pick pyromancer, which isn't a terrible choice, but you can get pyromancy after you've learned to not die without it. And play offline, you'll be swearing enough without some asshole twink jumping into your game and steamrolling you.

 

[Eddie the head]

The pause button doesn't pause the game. So if you expecting a phone call or something don't play the game.

 

[Benpasko]

Make sure your equip load is below 50%.

Poise is a secondary stat that determines how much it takes to stagger you.

Ignore the damage rating on a shield and look at the stats on the right, specifically stability(How much stamina you lose when you block) and the percentages.

 

[Newtonyd]

Are you playing on the PC? If so, I hope you have a Xbox 360 controller because the PC controls are basically impossible to use.

Kill the Black Knight below the bridge in the first undead town. It has a pretty good chance of dropping a ridiculously awesome sword. The best way to kill him is to riposte his attacks. He will probably kill you a few times before you get the timing down.

Also, if you die, your souls are dropped where you died. If you die again before you can reach them, the souls are lost.

Invest into stamina fairly early. It's what will keep you alive in most boss fights.

Explore around and take your time with the game. Keep your shield up when going into new areas.

Also, you probably won't have to worry about it for a while, but when you do run into the lizard-like basilisks, do NOT let yourself get hit by their gas. They're pretty easy to kill, but being cursed early in the game can lead to headaches.

 

[cgmetallica1981]

Consider choosing the Master Key as your starting gift, alot more areas and secrets are open to you early in the game if you have this item.

Master Key for sure! Also grab a bag of patience and chow down!

Seriously? It's probably too late, but don't choose the Master Key for your first playthrough. It lets you skip big chunks of the game (not good for a first playthrough)and also gives you early access to tougher areas meant to be challenged later in the game.

Whatever you do, don't use a guide from the internet for your first playthrough. It detracts a lot from the experience, and you will be rewarded much more if you don't.

 

[Nomanslander]

The game is all about taking precautions and studying your opponents (also environments). Of course, you could say that about every game, but never did it matter more than it does here. The difficulty in the Souls series is all about avoiding to make rash and silly mistakes; there's no button mashing here. No God of War dance of swords while your enemies turn into spaghetti sauce all around you. You make one badly timed swing, and almost every enemy will jump in and cut your lips off. Although the tempo of the game is way way much more slower than any hack n slash you've ever played. So it's not like enemies will be doing their own spaghetti dance around you.

I feel hungry now.

As for the environments: there are no maps in this game or directional arrows, and no clear paths to your objective; so you're going to have to memorize the territory and figure out the best means of getting from point A to point B. Also, some paths can lead you the wrong way, or into enemies that aren't meant to be faced until way later in the game (when you've had a chance to level and upgrade, to become stronger). Keep that in mind.

Finally, level as fast as you can. Once you find a bonfire, do a bit of farming around it, then head straight to the bonfire to level your stats (also, learn what the stats do what, immediately). But then again, don't spend too much time farming, for this isn't a grinder; to truly level, you need to advance in game and discover new territory, vanquish bosses, upgrade gear.

And, that's it, really!

you'll be swearing enough without some asshole twink...

A twink?

LoL

I haven't heard that term in a long time, not since I use to play WoW back in '07.

 

[Rack]

1) Don't level resistance. It has a pretty poor impact compared to other stats.
2) Increase your strength and dex to the level required to use whatever weapon you want to use and no more. The increase in damage isn't worth it.
3) Pick a kind of magic, sorceries scale off int, miracles scale off faith, Pyromancy, despite what the instructions tell you, has no scaling at all, beyond the level of your glove. Level that stat in line with the abilities you need to use (if you're planning to use big heavy weapons Pyromancy is recommended.
3a) Put the rest of your points in Vit and endurance. These certainly aren't dump stats or lower priority in any way, try to keep endurance in particular high and if you have weapons and spells you are reasonably happy with then you should focus on these.
4) Pick the Pyromancer at the start, the only disadvantage he has other than maybe for very specific pvp builds is he is too good. The starting pyromancer flame can trivialise some combat lessons you need to learn. you'll probably just learn them later.
5) Keep your equip weight below 25% or 50% to maximise your movement speed.
6) Pause doesn't pause but if you quit out you'll return to pretty much your exact last location. Two exceptions. If you are in human form and get invaded you won't be able to quit and if you quit during a boss battle you'll get dumped outside (I haven't tried this myself, feels a bit like cheating, it might not go well.)
7) Humanity is an item that will return you to human form and can also be used to kindle bonfires, increasing the amount of health potions you get. Try not to waste this, by all means use it if you need to summon help and kindle every bonfire you come across but don't just revert to human form just because. Most of the time you'll die way before it makes any difference.
8) Especially in the early game PVP invasions are instant unavoidable death. Get close to the bonfire to increase the chance you'll recover your souls and prepare to be one shotted by an invincible enemy.
9) Similarly summoned help can be VERY effective. If you're really stuck it's potentially a nuclear option.
10) This is because gear matters way more than levels. Find something you are happy with and keep upgrading it. Don't worry about finding late game gear that will eclipse it, properly upgraded the gear you find in the early and mid-game are hjust as good as powerful items you find.
11) Dark Souls is somewhat non-linear, if an area seems WAY too hard you may be better off finding another way.
12) Try not to attack anything that doesn't attack you first, there's a way to get npcs to forgive you but it's expensive. When they're dead though you're out of luck.

I think those are all the non-spoilery hints I can think of. Be careful, take it slow and have fun.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

snip

What exactly does Humanity do btw? I've noticed it lets me become Human (I dont know what benefits thats giving me) and it lets me Kindle Bonfires which seems to upgrade my Estus Flask

 

[Warachia]

Don't ever save your souls if you are going to enter a new area.

 

[geldonyetich]

I understand Dark Souls is now called Dark Souls: Prepare To Die edition.

That's actually very good advice. Dark Souls is notoriously hard, expect to die a lot until you're good at it.

 

[Windcaler]

1. Slow down and take your time. When you're approaching an encounter stop and look around, take in the surroundings to see what kind of environmental dangers there are. While you're looking around take a moment to enjoy the beautiful scenery but also look through that inventory at the various items you have and read about them. Its amazing what you can learn from them

2. Start with the master key as your starting gift (or a different one if you start as a theif). Most of the starting items arent all that useful through the rest of the game and can be earned in game (so can the key) easily. However the key is the most useful gift IMO.

3. Observe how enemies fight. When you come up on a new kind of enemy keep your shield up or dodge its attacks and just watch it. Learn its "tells". Many enemies have unblockable attacks but they're also increadibly predictable when you see the appropriate tell. So by keeping your shield up you'll learn to spot these unblockable attacks faster since you wont be blocking them.

4. Explore every nook and cranny. That might seem like a "no kidding" remark but its really true for dark souls. Sometimes that one path that looks like it goes nowhere has something at the end. Sometimes when you enter a room and find something, that isnt the only thing to find. This will also help you learn the maps

5. Try all the weapons. A lot of them are similar but have just slightly different move sets. For example the Claymore and bastard sword are functionally the same except the bastard sword does slightly more damage but the claymore has that nice one handed forward stab motion many players swear by

6. Find a suit of armor that you like. Some people like speedy character, some people like heavy ones, some people are in the middle. Find some armor that works for your playstyle. Dark souls is a game where every build is viable just find a style that works for you and go with it

7. Know your equipment. Going up against a magic wielding foe? Well that heater shield wont block much damage from a soul arrow. Going against heavy phyiscal attacking enemies? Well you probably dont want that cracked round shield with its low stability and small % of physical damage blocking. Be sure you go into the in game menus and pick pieces of equipment for the right situation whether that means a good shield for physical, magic, fire, etc damage or a bow for ranged encounters

8. Dont be afraid to ask for help. The souls community has an excellent track record of helping people (despite what many claim as us being close minded elitests). We have two great wiki's full of info, youtube channels everywhere, and a great character planner if you want to experiment with builds.

9. Dont be afraid of dying. Its going to happen, The game says prepare to die after all. Thats not a threat though, its good advice. Mentally prepare yourself for in game deaths. The game is tough but fair, you'll almost always know what you did wrong when you die and you can use that knowledge to better prepare for the next encounter. Remember a death does mean a run back and having to retrieve your souls but thats about it.

10. Try to kill every boss solo. I cant stress this one enough. I never played Demon's souls but even though I didnt I came into Dark souls wanting to solo everything. That was my goal and I did it on my first play through. While its true I could summon people it was far more rewarding for me to kill every boss without the aid of summons. Finding that right mix of gear and strategy made the eventual win all the sweeter.

I hope this helps

 

[kommando367]

Start with pyromancer.

Grab drake sword (look up on youtube).

Use the Dark souls wiki to help fight bosses and find better equipment.

Kill every mook with drake sword and every mini-boss/boss with fire spells.

Use youtube to find pyro spell trainers.

Level that fucker up until you can kill everything else easily.

Notice that the game is not actually that difficult.

Intentionally gimp yourself until game is difficult again.

Enjoy!

If someone mentions that the difficulty is completely artificial, be sure to chew them out because clearly they don't now what real difficulty is (!)

 

[T3hSource]

If you die,don't worry dieing is NOT a failure state.It is a core part of learning during your journey.
Also if you want more enjoyment from the game,like everyone else said: PAY ATTENTION TO EVERYTHING! And I would add that to dialog and item descriptions.Once you start thinking about the things said/written....yeah,welcome to another realm of Dark Souls.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Snip

I got the game, played for a dozen hours and then got stuck, but I've been wanting to start a new and I think you've just helped me

 

[chadachada123]

So I finally got around to buying Dark Souls today, I havent played it yet as I'm planning to start tonight, so I thought I'd ask The Escapist for some beginning tips when starting the game. I know that apparently the game can be quite vague with some things, so are there any things I should know before jumping in?

Dying. Is. Normal. Expect to die, and don't consider it a big sign of failure or anything. At least for the beginning.

Also, take things slow. This can't be emphasized enough. Keep your shield raised at all times when entering a new area, and for each and every new enemy you fight: WATCH them. Every enemy has strengths and weaknesses, each has their own attack pattern and openings. Pay attention and figure out when to attack, when to dodge, and when to shield.

Note that your stamina increases more quickly when your shield isn't raised.

This is NOT a hack-and-slash game, so don't treat it as one. Button-mashing will only get you killed. Treat every fight like a short game of chess, and only fight one enemy at a time (a bow is very useful for pulling single enemies from afar).

Now, assuming you've read all of the above, we can get into some of the nitty-gritty. If you're directly behind an enemy while your shield is down, you can use a normal attack and back-stab them, doing a TON of damage. If you're in front of an enemy and use your strong attack with your shield while they are attacking, you'll knock their attack aside (parry) and have a chance to do a "riposte," a backstab from the front.

Your roll and run speed will vary based on how much equipment you are equipped with. The fastest roll speed is 75%.

Edit: Contrary to the other posters, I find it much better to NOT have the Master Key as your starting gift, because I feel that it cheapens the experience. Every door can eventually be unlocked (so long as you don't kill an essential NPC), but the Master Key lets you open some of them earlier. Take of that what you will.

Also, NPC DEATHS ARE PERMANENT. Don't kill people that don't attack you unless you're going for an evil character or want to steal their gear.

Double edit: If you're playing on PC, I highly recommend getting a USB controller (particularly a 360 controller) and using that instead, or, alternatly, mapping all controls to the Keyboard, since the mouse is shit (I recommend camera controls on the NumPad). Also, if on PC, then you ABSOLUTELY need the DSFix, available via this blog:

http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/