Tips for Dark Souls

Important Tips for Surviving Dark Souls

If you're just starting out in Dark Souls, chances are that you about to head over to your local Gamestop and trade it in because you're sick and tired of dying in that stupid Undead Burg.  Or at least that's what I nearly did when I first started playing.  It was one of the best gaming decisions of my life to persevere and enjoy an incredible game. Here's a few tips to help you make it through your first couple hours

1. Character Creation 101

If it's your very first play through, it pays dividends to choose a starting class with a ranged attack.  That means either the sorcerer or the pyromancer.  Now, of these two, the sorcerer starts with a dagger and the pyromancer starts with an axe so make your own choice but... the axe is better. If you decide that you don't want to be a pyromancer part way through the game, switching is easy as pie as equipment is what truly determines class.  Secondly, as a starting gift, choose the MASTER KEY.  Non-negotiable, this is a must. None of the other gifts are worth it and that key helps a lot, especially when face the first boss.

2.  Lock-On!

This may seem like an obvious point but this is an absolute necessity for the first few hours of Dark Souls.  If you get into a battle, click down your left stick to make the targeting reticule appear on an enemy.  Now your attacks will focus on that enemy until you either kill them, you move too far away, or you switch targets.  So instead of wildly swinging into mid air, you will actually make contact on a regular basis. 

3. Blocking Saves Lives

You can block with your L1 button and most, physical attacks will be deflected off your shields.  The majority of shields negate all physical damage but some do not.  You can check this by selecting the item and seeing what percentage of physical damage they block. When an enemy hits your shield, that's a great moment to swing back at them.  Don't get greedy though and always be prepared to bring up your shield for another hit.  This brings up another important aspect of Dark Souls: Stamina management

4. Death is not Failure

The back of the box states it plainly: Prepare to Die. You're going to die and you're going to do it a lot.  Don't get discouraged because it's all part of the process whether you picked up a new item, learned a new strategy, or discovered a new path.  The worst thing you can do is try and rush back to your souls or a boss after a death.  Just calmly take what you've learned an apply it and you'll be a lot more successful.

5. Stamina Management

The green meter beneath your health bar is your stamina. You will use stamina every time you perform a physical action aside from simply walking.  That includes running, blocking, swinging your weapon, and dodging. If you don't have stamina, you then can't perform any of those actions and, subsequently, you allow enemies an excellent opportunity to ruin your day.  If your swinging your sword gleefully into an enemy, make sure to watch your green meter as it decreases to leave yourself enough to either block or dodge.  Honestly, as long as your aware of the existence of the bar, the game will quickly teach you it's importance.

6. Explore, Explore, Explore

While you lose your souls when you die (if you don't make it back to your blood stain), you keep your items, meaning that every time pick up an item, it's with you after death.  New areas have new items and those items usually have some significant use whether its a damage increase or a high resistance to poison.  Also, since there are no waypoints in the game, exploring is the only way to ensure progress in the game.  If you stumble into an area where the enemies just wreck you, you're probably not supposed to be there at this point in the game.  Finally, perhaps the best reason to explore is that you could find a shortcut back to a bonfire enabling you to skip all the previous enemies that respawn when you touch the bonfire.  Anyway you slice it, exploration benefits the player.

7. Love for Backstabbing

Pulling off a successful back stab or riposte is not only highly damaging but one of the best feelings in Dark Souls, especially on your first play through.  In order to accomplish this, lock-on to an enemy (this is much easier if they are alone), hold your shield up and cirlce around the enemy.  Make sure you are right next to the bad guy as you circle and when they attack, continue to circle to their back, drop your shield and attack when your right behind them.  You'll be treated with an awesome animation and do a ton of damage.  It can really turn the tide if your in a fight against a powerful enemy.

8. Oh, the Humanity

Initially, it seems like a waste of item space for humanity.  Believe it or not, it's extremely helpful.  In order to become human, you have to use a humanity, then go to a bonfire and select the 'reverse hollowing' option and you will go from that disgusting, zombie like appearance to what you actually chose during character creation.  Now being human allows you to summon players for boss fights, boosts defense, and allows you to kindle bonfires.  If you're human and you use another humanity, you can go to a bonfire and select 'Kindle' which will make the bonfire brighter and, from that point on, you will get 10 Estus flasks from that bonfire.  Hopefully, I don't need to explain the helpfulness of this.  Be warned though, if you're playing online and are human, you stand a chance of being invaded by a similar level player. Chances are if you're invaded, you'll be killed so try and summon a new player if you can find a summon sign and make sure you are in a spot where it's easy to recover your souls.

9. Dodging is a Man's Best Friend

Pressing Circle or B in a direction will allow you to roll in a the specified direction.  If you weigh less than half of you equip burden (which can be changed by selecting lighter armor, weapons and shields), you can make a quick roll.  If you have less the 25% of your equip burden, you can do really, really fast roll.  Rolling assists in nearly every situation.  Surrounded by enemies on three sides? Roll away.  About to be smashed by a boss's hammer? Roll away.  A boulder rolling down a hill at you? Roll away.  If you can perfect the roll, you can perfect Dark Souls.  One last note is that during a roll you gain a few frames of invincibility.  They only last a split second but it's good know that they exist.

10. Choosing the Right Weapon

A quick few tips on Weapons:

• You can attack with a spear while holding your shield up.
• If you want a really good weapon for the first parts of the game search 'Drake Sword' on Youtube.  If you want to manage by yourself, more power to you. 
• Weapons gain increased damage if they scale off of a stat.  On the bottom of a weapon's info sheet is four icons followed by either a dash or a letter.  You gain extra damage if that icon is followed by a letter.  The letters range from A-E and you gain a bigger damage bonus the closer it is to A.  The four icons correspond to Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Faith, in that order.  If a weapon has B scaling in Strength, you gain additional damage for how high your Strength stat is. 
• Bows are excellent for pulling enemies... and not much else.  Pulling an enemy means separating them from a group and getting them to attack you alone.
• Blacksmiths can upgrade your weapons using various titanite shards.