V1.

0, October 2011
Dark Souls
A Rough Guide

Table of Contents
Getting Started
1 Character Selection
2 Starting Gifts
2 How to Succeed at Dark Souls
Game Mechanics
Hu!anit"
# Stats
$ %oise
$ &agic
12 '(grading )*ui(!ent
1+ &ulti(la"er
1, Co-enants
Preferred Equipment
2# .r!or
2+ Shields
2, Catal"sts, /alis!ans 0and 1la!es2
23 4ings
2$ 1ar!ing )*ui(!ent
2$ 5ea(ons
Specific Advice
6, Curing Curse
6, De7aggroing 8%Cs
63 Don9ts
63 )arl" )*ui(!ent
6$ 1ar!ing Souls
1 . %-& build to :S;2#
1 Sticking %oints
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Getting Started
Character Selection Starting Gifts How to Succeed at Dark Souls
Character Selection
E %ick %"ro!ancer, %riest or /hief E
The character type you start the game with is not a binding choice at all like it is in games like Diablo 2.
Very quickly into the game you could spend some of the souls you collect to make your Knight a wizard just
as capable as any of the starting mage classes or a Sorcerer just as capable a melee fighter as a warrior.
Really your starting character mostly amounts to a set of equipment and skills that you will use to finish your
first two or three hours of play and at that point all doors are totally open to you. With that said, Dark Souls
is a difficult game and there are some characters that have an advantage during these two hours.
Probably the two strongest starting choices overall are the Pyromancer and the Priest. The Pyromancer
starts with a powerful spell to help with the odd enemy youre unsure how to deal with in melee and has a
good overall stat distribution, particularly for a mage. The Priest starts with the Heal miracle and so he has
twice the healing capacity between bonfires (which are the continuation and leveling points in Dark Souls)
that other characters have. Their armor and weapons arent a major concern as lots of different sorts
equipment becomes available very quickly in the game, however the Pyromancers robes are actually a quite
good light armor set thanks to their scalability and built-in poison and even curse resistance. The mace of
the Priest is also something other characters wont get ahold of until maybe 15 or so hours into the game and
is, of course, handy against skeletons. Dont take this to say that magic reigns supreme in Dark Souls, its
just that these two characters start with good melee and good magic which can open doors for you early on.
Speaking of opening doors, the Thief starts with a free Master Key and is therefore an interesting choice.
His weapon actually isnt bad either, even if its just a little knife. For more info on the Master Key see the
next section on Starting Gifts. Hes the only character that starts with an item that is otherwise unavailable in
the game. Using him in fights will, however, require a little more finesse than most of your other options.
You should probably avoid picking the Deprived. His even stats may seem like he makes a better option
for min/maxing a character as you go but thats just not the case as he also starts at a higher soul level. His
starting equipment is pretty bad the club is okay but his shield is trash and he has no magic or armor.
If your main concern is having a character who doesnt waste any stats for your build you should know
that builds are only relevant for PvP and, more importantly, the PvP meta is still undefined and therefore
its impossible to even plan a build right now anyway as you dont know what your goals are. There have
been several significant changes from Demons Souls (especially having to do with the relative value of
damage governing stats, weapon scaling, and the use of healing items in PvP) that make formulating these
goals impossible right now. The Pyromancer does seem to get a few more overall stat points for his soul
level than anyone else, but whether these are in the right place for a strong PvP character is up in the air.
Lastly, all items, weapons and armor are now gender neutral, unlike in Demons Souls. Male or Female is
an aesthetic choice only in Dark Souls. As is the facial generator. Just dont pick neon colored hair because
I wont summon you if you look like you fell out of a special edition Sucker Punch DVD case.
1
Starting Gifts
E /ake the %endant or &aster Fe" E
A lot of players agonize over this way too much. To simplify things, all of the gifts can be found easily in
the game, either early on or just before you need them, except for two. The Pendant allows for some extra
plot later in the game and, while available in game, is a real pain to get. The Master Key is a reusable item
that is not present anywhere else in the game. It allows you to open a few (not all!) locked doors early that
you would otherwise have to wait to get access to later. This allows you to sequence break a bit early on and
grab a bit more equipment. All of the doors the Master Key opens you will acquire the actual keys for along
the way. Most of these will be found but a few will have to be purchased, so the Master Key also saves you
a bit of money. Its important to note that the Thief starts with a Master Key anyway, so if you decide to start
with the Thief dont pick the Master Key as your gift as theres no point to having two of them.
A few people choose the Black Firebombs. These are consumable items that you can easily find later on
and you only get ten of them as your gift and they dont recharge or renew. The reason people take these is
that it makes killing a boss in the tutorial level easy (who is otherwise almost impossible thanks to you not
having an actual weapon of any sort at that point) and killing that boss drops a unique weapon if and only if
you kill him on your first encounter (without running away through the portcullis like youre expected to do).
That weapon has a huge strength requirement though and you probably wont even be able to use it until
youre almost done with your first run through the game so you could always just wait to kill that boss for
your second run through the game (called New Game Plus, or NG+, a concept familiar to those whove
played Demons Souls) with that character. Its a decent weapon, actually, but not exactly spectacular.
The Tiny Beings Ring seems like the obvious choice to people familiar with Demons Souls but its
description doesnt match its actual effects. In reality all it does is add 30 HP to your HP bar and it will get
replaced by almost any other ring you come across. Its terrible. The Old Witches Ring also seems
compelling but in reality it just functions as an item to give you some dialog you otherwise wouldnt get and
that dialog has nothing to do with actually interacting with the associated Covenant stuff. You can try it in
one of your later playthroughs as it only opens up a tiny bit more dialog than youd otherwise get.
All of the other items are easily replaced consumables. Might as well take no gift at all as one of those.
How To Succeed at ar! Souls
E Go slow E 'se "our shield E 5atch "our sta!ina E /r" so!ething else E
Even the most basic foe in Demons Souls can usually kill you in a few hits. There are parts of the game that
reward charging through and taking risks, but in general, especially at the start, its important to move
slowly through the level taking out potential threats along the way. Expect to be put in pincer attacks, to
have enemies ambush your or sneak up behind you in both obvious and non-obvious spots. Enemies will
chase you for a long ways and are quite good at following you around corners and up ladders so anything
you leave behind will tend to catch back up to you, generally at the worst possible time.
Every character starts with a shield and this is for good reason. It is, of course, possible to progress using a
two handed weapon and just out-ranging most foes but youll often be stuck into blind turns or narrow
spaces with little to no option to evade. There are many enemies who can parry and riposte your attacks or
2
else who use their shields very well so a willy-nilly offense can frequently get you in to trouble. Often new
areas will have nasty surprises lurking just out of sight. Enter new areas not only slowly but enter with your
shield raised. Until the game tells you differently expect to deal with most foes by letting them attack
your raised shield first and then attacking them during their recovery animations.
Both blocking and attacking (and running away or evading) uses Stamina, the green bar near the top of the
screen that refills quickly whenever youre not doing something too strenuous. Your stamina is your lifes
blood every bit as much as your HP is. People who are brand new to Dark Souls usually die by rushing in or
being careless or not using their shield. After they get over this they often die because they burn all of their
stamina in a flurry of attacks or by sprinting everywhere and therefore arrive at fights without any Stamina,
which means arriving without the ability to fight. When your shield is raised your Stamina recovers very
slowly so in tough fights you will have to mix defending with your shield to leaving it down with attacking
and dodging very carefully so you keep enough Stamina to be safe but make quick enough progress against
your foes HP to kill him before you make a major mistake or get backed into a corner and beaten down.
Stamina management is often the name of the game for this reason always consider upgrading your
Endurance stat when it comes time to level up as every point of Endurance not only lets you stay agile in
heavier equipment (more on that later) but also gives you a few more precious points of Stamina.
Following the go slow and use your shield maxims wont always lead you to success. Some attacks are
too strong for a shield to handle or come from an angle that your shield doesnt cover. Many monsters have
attacks now that bypass your guard entirely even if their normal attacks do not these usually look like
theyre trying to grab you and youll have to learn to use offense or evasion to survive them (and flail on L1
and R1 if they do grab you). Some enemies will just face you and passively guard while their friends catch
up, making and effort to let you make the first mistake instead of them. In some areas it isnt even wise to go
slow, some foes will be nearly immune to your particular weapon of choice, and on and on like that.
There is, however, always a way to succeed there is a Something Awful Forum member Im aware of who
cannot use the L1 or L2 buttons at all thanks to a severely injured left hand and he beat the Gargoyles at a
low level so be aware that there are always options available to you if you look for them. If youve failed
in attempting the same thing five times in a row its probably not because youre under leveled or an area is
cheap, its probably because youre not keeping an open mind and looking for the solutions available to
you. Dark Souls is an extremely well designed game you may have to take this as a point of faith in the
beginning but as you work your way through it youll realize why it has the fanbase it does, and youll learn
to listen to it when it tells you that what youre trying isnt going to work. Either try something different or
come back to the area later when you have new tools to utilize. Ive included some advice for the most
common sticking points in a section called Sticking Points on page 41, but you should generally try to
experiment your way through challenges first as thats likely the reason you bought this game to begin with.
Expect that Dark Souls will punish any whiff of impatience or sloppy play every time you let it happen.
Playing the game when youre already frustrated probably wont lead to much progress. Sometimes you
have to put the controller down before you throw it through a wall.
3
Game Mechanics
E Hu!anit" E Stats E %oise E &agic schools E '(grading e*ui(!ent E Co-enants E
Humanit"
E . second currenc" E /wo sources E 1our uses E
Dark Souls has two currencies that are used to buy different things. Your primary currency, of course, is the
souls you get from killing foes or eating the consumable souls you sometimes find along the way. You use
these souls to increase you stats at bonfires and you use them to buy items from vendors. You lose any saved
souls if you die and fail to get back to your soul sign before dying again. Humanity is the second currency
of the game and it shares most of these traits. It is tracked by a number on your HUD look in the top left
corner instead of the bottom right. It is acquired either from killing enemies or from using consumable items
you find along the way. You also lose it if you die and to recover any banked humanity you need to find and
touch your bloodstain (not your soul sign, thats for getting back souls) before dying again. Most of the time
you will have zero humanity and the number in the upper left corner will read 00.
Humanity is much more scarce than souls. The most common source of humanity is consumable items
you find or buy along the way these are fairly expensive when found in shops (5000 or so souls) and are
only sold in limited numbers, after that they run out. These items are called Humanity or Twin
Humanities and respectively grant you one or two points of humanity in your counter in the upper left when
they are consumed. These Humanity items also are somewhat rare drops from certain enemies the rats in
the Depths (an area of the game) are the most commonly farmed source. You can also randomly get a
point of humanity from killing foes but this only occurs in areas where the boss is still alive. The first
source of humanity is usually called hard humanity and the second soft, free, or liquid humanity by
the Dark Souls community. Along the way you will find items called Fire Keepers Souls and the in-game
description these are a type of hard humanity, however these items have another very important use so dont
eat them for their humanity points (see the Donts section on page 38 for more information about that).
Humanity is used for de-hollowing, Kindling, farming, and for certain Covenants. When youve been
killed and are in zombie form you are hollowed and there are certain things hollowed characters cannot do.
The most important thing is that hollowed characters cannot summon in other players for help in boss fights
or difficult sections of the game through the mulitplayer system (which is described more in-depth on page
16). Hollowed characters also cannot interact normally with some NPCs in the game world there are
others who require you to be hollow to interact with you as well, though. Finally, hollow characters cannot
kindle Bonfires. The act of Kindling a Bonfire costs one point of humanity and increases the number of
Estus flasks you get from resting there by five because Estus is your only practical mid-battle method of
healing and because Estus is normally limited to five flasks per bonfire this is a huge benefit to have in
difficult areas of the game. If youre in a hard area and get a point of free humanity its often a good idea to
go back to your nearest Bonfire immediately and use that point to de-hollow, then consume one of your hard
humanities in order to kindle that fire otherwise you will probably die and lose your free point entirely.
The other two uses of humanity are easy to explain. Banked humanity marginally increases your item
drop rate when farming. There are declining returns here so in general the sweet spot for farming is two to
six humanity depending on how much you have to spare, and there are other items that increase your drop
rate, too, of course. Lastly, certain Covenants ask for you to donate humanity to them to show fealty.
4
Stats
E Changes fro! De!on9s Souls E Cncreasing "our stats E /he eight stats E
Most of these stats will govern at least somewhat expected aspects of the game for people used to RPGs.
Before I get into listing what each individual stat in Dark Souls does, let me first basically outline what has
changed from Demons Souls. First of all the magic system has been reworked quite a bit Second, most
stats are much more oriented toward meeting the requirements to use certain pieces of equipment in Dark
Souls rather than increasing the damage of weapons in general stat scaling has been greatly reduced in
Dark Souls and in one type of magic eliminated entirely. Lastly, there is now a Resistance stat whose effects
were bundled in to Endurance in the previous game.
You can increase your stats at any bonfire if you have enough souls to do so. Each time you increase a
stat the next one costs more souls to upgrade than the last one did. The memory for this is global, so if you
increase Strength five times and then increase Endurance once or if you do each three times you will spend
the same total amount of souls no matter where any of those stats started. This global number of increases is
referred to as your Soul Level and it is visible in your Stats page note that some characters start at a higher
Soul Level than others. Heres what you can expect to spend to reach the stated Soul Level from the level
below, you can use this chart to estimate how many more souls you need to scrape together before running
for a Bonfire. You can continue leveling until all of your stats are at 99 each, which puts you at SL 792.
Practically speaking, 120 should be enough to get through at least one normal and one NG+ playthrough.
#evel 10 1# 20 2# 60 0 #0 +0 30 100 120 ,$2
Cost 311 1# 2+01 6$,0 ##+, $#0# 1,#6# 20,,,, 6,,6,, +0,2+# $0,01 12 !il.
All stats generally have strongly declining returns on investment once they start getting up to 40 or so. In
general in Dark Souls you want to build your relevant stats fairly evenly you probably shouldnt have
any one stat at 50 if some other stat that relates to your character type is still at 12. You wont be able to just
level up your attack and superblast your way through everything, and especially early in the game you
should concentrate on diversifying your characters abilities to cover useful bases. For my specific advice in
this regard you can consult page 41 for a My First Character PvM starter build, but for now just build
your useful stats evenly. Dont move anything to 20 until everything worthwhile is at 10, dont move
anything to 30 if anything worthwhile is still below 20, etc. The following sections below should help you
decide what levels are worth it, but just as rule of thumb know that while you can take any stat to 99 in
general the highest you want to go is 50, so consider that the cap even for stats you really care about.
Vitalit"
This increases how much HP you have. More HP is very useful in Dark Souls, especially when it means a
difference between getting one-shotted or not. This is a good stat to increase early, to 20 or so. Here are
some sample values, but if you care the HP gained per level of Vitality is basically a bell curve starting at 10
and ending at 50 with the greatest gains per point in the middle zone, just before 30, and the smallest gains at
the low and high ends. Above 50 each point of Vitality only increases your HP by 8 or 9 points, in the late
20s you get about 30 points of HP per point of Vitality.
$italit" 10 20 60 0 #0
HP #,2 ,$2 1100 162# 1#00
5
.ttune!ent
This stat determines how many slots you have for spell memorization. Most spells require one slot to be
memorized, others require more, and this process of memorization is done at bonfires from among the spells
you have found or purchased. There are no longer separate slots for different families of spells. If you want
to equip two Sorceries and a two Miracles you need enough Attunement to have four total slots. Heres a
table of how many slots you have at what Attunement levels, note the dropoff rate after 16.
Attn% $ 10 12 1 1+ 1$ 26 23 6 1 #0 $$
Slots 0 1 2 6 # + , 3 $ 10 10
)ndurance
This is perhaps the single most important stat in Dark Souls and only a pure mage could afford to ignore it
entirely (and pure mages have been made less viable than they were in Demons Souls, see the Magic section
on page 9 for details as to why). Endurance has two major functions and one minor one.
The first major function is that it increases how much Stamina you have. Stamina is the green bar at the top
of the screen and is used every time you attack, block, roll, or sprint its the lifeblood of melee combat and
it increases as you increase your Endurance until it caps out at 40. For this reason alone Stamina is a good
stat to increase early as it lets you attack more, block more and evade more making it defense and offense in
one stat.
The second major function is that Endurance determines how high your Equip Burden is. Equip Burden is
how many kilos of equipment your character can feasibly wear at one time. This number doesnt include
consumable items like Firebombs or poison healing herb or arrows, its what you wear on your back and
hold in your hands. Youre given a fairly generous total level of Equip Burden but there are big rewards for
not filling it up all the way. If you are over 100% of your burden you cannot roll at all nor can you sprint
and your Stamina refills slowly youre a big fat sitting duck, basically, and are dependent on your probably
extremely heavy armor to survive. If you are below 25% of your total burden you have a very nimble roll
and use very little Stamina when running around and run faster to boot, however youre probably clad
mostly in cloth and will feel every little thing that comes your way. Your Equip Burden is equal to 34 plus
your Endurance. Most players seem to keep to the 25.1% to 50% range as less than 25% is hard to obtain
even using light armors and as the Medium Roll is only slightly slower than the Quick Roll.
The minor function is that Endurance increases your resistance to the bleeding effect. This is an incredibly
minor concern very few foes have a bleed effect and in Dark Souls its the enemy in front of you thats
going to kill you most of the time, not some BS effect he manages to inflict.
Before I give you the tables theres one rumor I want to deal with. Theres a ring in Dark Souls that gives
you a different, faster, further reaching roll animation when it is equipped. This animation is also bound to
your Equip Burden and has four levels just like the normal roll does. Getting the handspring roll to begin
with, however, is purely a question of wearing that ring neither relative Endurance levels or Dexterity
levels have anything to do with it. I will repeat this in the Dexterity section as well as many players have
been burned by this rumor already.
6
Equip &urden G2#H 2#.1H7#0H #0.1H7,#H ,#.1H to 100H I100H
Effect Juick roll &ediu! roll Slow roll Sluggish flo( Stu!ble onl"
Endurance 10 20 60 0 #0 $$
Stamina $1 110 166 1+0 1+0 1+0
Equip &urden # + , 3 166
&leed 'esist 0 ,6 100 10, 11 1#0
Strength
Strengths main function is to meet stat requirements of various weapons. In Demons Souls there were
upgrade lines that allowed your damage output to scale heavily with Strength but in Dark Souls these
upgrades are no longer present. Instead there are a larger variety of high base damage weapons with very
high strength requirements of up to 50 points. 16 strength is a common early goal.
There is a rumor that the swing speed of your weapon is modified by your Strength. It is just that, a rumor.
The animations you see for the heavier weapons remain the same as when you find them no matter your
Strength level so long as you meet their requirements if you dont meet their requirements there is a
slower, more labored way of using them but since you dont meet the requirements you do almost no damage
with them anyway so thats inconsequential. This rumor probably came about because some of the heavier
weapons have a very pronounced stagger-like animation when you take a practice swing with them. If,
however, you actually hit something with your swing this break in your animation doesnt occur and your
character will ready his next attack fairly quickly. This is probably the source of the rumor and is obviously
a balance decision by From.
De?terit"
As above, Dexterity is now mostly a weapon requirement stat as there arent many weapons whose damage
scales significantly with your Dexterity for it to matter. Katanas mostly require Dexterity to equip but no
longer have the horizontal sweeping animation that made them so versatile in Demons Soul. 14 Dexterity
will give you enough to try out most small Dexterity based weapons. There are also a few large Curved
Greatswords now that require a lot of Dexterity to use.
Let me reiterate something I mentioned above. There is a ring in Dark Souls that causes you to get a new,
faster, farther moving roll animation. This animation has nothing to do with your Dexterity level. There is a
rumor online that having more than 30 Dexterity will allow you to do this special roll but its not true.
4esistance
You can think of this stat as basically being innate armor. Its strongest influence is over physical, fire and
poison damages. A consensus has not emerged about how useful it is yet and the internet seems to think it
doesnt cause armor protection to scale or anything like that your Resistance is thought to have an additive
effect only. A lot of people are basically ignoring this stat presently, but perhaps things will change.
Rewards for investing in this taper off (numerically) quite rapidly after 30.
7
Cntelligence
Intelligence has three major effects. First of all, it determines, largely though decent stat scaling, how strong
your Sorceries and potentially Miracles are. Many of the Catalysts used to cast Sorceries (which are
mostly blueish projectile type magic) scale strongly in the assist they grant your spells from your
Intelligence. There is also one Talisman used to cast Miracles that scales strongly according to your
Intelligence instead of your Faith like most of the others do this is Velkas Talisman, which is sold by the
merchant who shows up in the Undead Parish after you ring the first bell. Second, the one weapon
improvement that still seems to have decent stat scaling, Enchanted, increases that magic damage done by
a melee weapon fairly strongly according to your Intelligence. Third, and this is probably the biggest
change, is that Sorceries now have a minimum required Intelligence so that they can be cast. The game will
still let you buy and memorize any spell, but if you dont have the spells required Intelligence you wont be
able to cast it youll get that Gee, Im confused animation instead.
Note that I didnt say Pyromancies scale with Intelligence. The Pyromancer Flames that are used to cast
this third type of magic can be improved by forging (this is not true of Catalysts or Talismans) and while
Flames list a high Intelligence scaling in fact this only applies to the horrible punching animation thats an
option with a Flame in your hand if you use a strong attack. Please also note that while there is a Talisman
that scales with Intelligence, miracles now require certain minimum amounts of Faith to cast successfully,
just like Intelligence is required for sorceries. 14 Intelligence will give you enough to cast all of the early
available sorceries, but there are a few spells now that require up to 50.
1aith
Faith has a triple use the same as Intelligence. It governs how powerful your miracles are via strong stat
scaling inherent in most Talismans. It is a requirement to successfully cast miracles and the amount required
varies by miracle 12 is enough to equip Heal which is useful for any character but the strongest Miracles
require up to 50 Faith, as was the case with Sorceries for Intelligence. The damage scaling from Faith is not
great (its gone from a typical A or S in Demons Souls to a typical C or B in Dark Souls only one
extremely heavy weapon scales at A in Faith now) so if you are Faith based you can no longer expect to be
just as powerful in terms of raw damage as a character focused on Dexterity or Strength.
Beginning players will benefit a lot from having the Heal miracle available as healing is otherwise done with
strictly rationed items in Dark Souls instead of plentiful purchaseable herbs. Using Heal requires only 12
Faith so consider hitting that benchmark with any PvM oriented character the Great Heal spell only carries
on charge (vs. Heals six, though) so its not really worth the extra two points. There are also a few very
good offensive miracles now (lightning bolts that you throw like javelins, some powerful area of effect
spells) so the overall utility of miracles has been improved a good deal. The flavor of Faith has also changed
a bit before Faith only applied to being good and holy, however in Dark Souls there are a number of
malevolent gods and Faith can refer to your fealty to them now as well, so there are miracles and Faith
scaling weapons that are powered by evil gods now instead of just good ones. This allows weapons that
dont seem very Faith-y as per Demons Souls (like the Schythe) to obtain decent Faith scaling through the
Occult upgrade line.
Faith also has a respectable effect on your defense against magical and fire based attacks.
8
Poise
E Su(erar!or source E How do "ou get (oiseK E
The terms hyperarmor and superarmor originally came from the fighting game world but were used
extensively when talking about combat in Demons Souls, especially in PvP, and this has lead the Dark Souls
development team to make it a bigger issue. In Demons Souls certain attacks by certain weapons are not
interruptable. Once you got to a certain point in the animation it would carry through and these attacks were
said to have hyperarmor. The Great Axe was notorious for this, with its weilders standing up to someone
hovering over them with two katanas and just spamming light attacks that were not interruptable, the result
being a continued combo from the Great Axe that would interrupt the combo of the lighter weapon user. In
Dark Souls this property is no longer tied to weapons. Your un-interruptability is now a scaling property
tied mostly to your armor. Poise has been used, essentially, to make heavy armor an enticing option
whereas in Demons Souls heavy armor was mostly a hindrance.
The lightest sorts of armors, those usually made of cloth, have zero Poise, a stat that is visible in the item
menu if you page through info about a piece of equipment. They dont gain any Poise when theyre
upgraded at smiths, either. However, medium weight and heavy weight armor have at least some Poise
and that amount scales as you have a smith improve your armor. When you are struck the amount of your
Poise is compared to the damage of an incoming blow through some as-yet-unknown mechanic and the
result is that if you have an extremely high cumulative Poise from all your armor pieces almost nothing will
be able to knock you out of your attack animations, potion drinking animations, or slow your advance. This
is a particular advantage against foes using lighter, faster attacks, both human and AI controlled.
A super heavy chest piece might have about 40 inherent Poise to it. The lighter pieces of medium armor
(like chain mail) might have eight or so. There is also a ring you can find that will add 40 flat points of Poise
to your character, plus a ring that increases your Equip Burden by a large amount so that you can wear
heavier Poise-possessing equipment if you need to, plus a Pyromancy spell that adds a lot of effective Poise
to your character for a limited time (at the cost of mobility, of course). Whether Poise is worth it vs
mobility and fast roll is largely situational. From has done a good job of balancing Poise vs. evasion and
mobility in Dark Souls, so if evading isnt working for you in a particular situation you might want to try
tanking up instead. How Poise vs. the fast roll will work out in PvP is long from being determined.
The last thing I want to say here is that shields have a stat called Stability if you check their descriptions.
Stability is a different thing entirely from Poise. Stability determines what percent of an incoming attack
is negated, and the rest of the incoming damage will go after your Stamina bar and, if it depletes that, it will
then go after your HP. For more info on Stability check the Preferred Shields section on page 26.
Magic
E Charges s"ste! E Sorcer" E %"ro!anc" E &iracles E
There is no longer a mana bar and instead you are given a certain number of charges to each spell you
memorize at a Bonfire, and these charges can only be refilled by resting at a Bonfire. Weaker spells
have more charges and most of the more powerful spells have only one cast to them. Sometimes you may be
able to buy more than one copy of a spell scroll (such as during NG+ or when your character starts with one
copy and another is available for sale) and in these cases you can memorize a spell twice to double up on
9
your charges between Bonfires dont forget that you must first own two copies to equip two copies, though.
All of these spells compete for memorization slots granted your character based on his Attunement stat.
To actually use a spell you must 1) Attune it at a bonfire, which requires having at least one slot to Attune
it into, which in turn requires having at least 10 Attunement, 2) equip the correct casting medium for the
spell you want to cast so a Catalyst for Sorceries or a Talisman for Miracles, and 3) press R1 or L1 to cast
the spell once your casting device is readied. If you still dont cast the spell ensure that you meet its
minimum requirements. Pyromancies have no requirements but individual Spells require Intelligence
and Miracles require Faith; if you dont meet the requirements of your desired spell you can still buy and
equip it but will just get a head scratching animation instead of a spell when you try to cast it.
Each type of magic has its own flavor of spells and increases in power in different ways. The three types of
magic are Sorceries, Pyromancies, and Miracles. They each have their associated casting tools, as described
below the only generalization I can make about them here is that while these tools do also have attack
animations they are universally horrible melee weapons and they cant even parry if placed in the left hand.
Sorceries
These include a lot of blue, twinkling arcane type projectiles that do the magic type of damage. Only a
few monsters have appreciable resistance to this sort of magic making it a fairly universal sort of solution.
Also included here are various camouflaging spells and a few debuffs to be cast at foes. Sorceries increase
in power mostly via stat scaling from Intelligence as most of the Catalysts used to cast Sorceries scale fairly
strongly off of that stat. Once you kill the Hydra and the hidden secondary boss behind it you can also
find another spell vendor who sells a Catalyst with higher base damage but worse scaling for those
characters who want to use a few spells but dont want to invest too heavily into Intelligence. If you have a
lot of Faith you can also build a Tin Darkmoon Catalyst that scales the power of your Sorceries off of your
Faith instead of your Intelligence.
The Sorcerer, of course, will leave the Tutorial with a simple spell and a basic Catalyst. Other characters can
obtain these very early by going down the stairs that the depressing blue guy in Firelink Shrine is looking at,
taking the elevator all the way down, and then looking around on the right once leaving the basement
building for another staircase leading down. Lots of great spells can be purchased from several different
vendors in the game, but many of the strongest spells are had through Covenants (page 17) or plot events.
%"ro!ancies
These are mostly fire based attack spells including both thrown projectiles and various gouts of flame. They
do not scale with any stat and instead you increase the strength of your Pyromancy by leveling up the item
used to cast them a glove with a burning ember embedded in the palm called a Flame. These upgrades
require no materials, just souls, so they are quite easy to make. This makes it possible to have very strong
Pyromancy quite early and independent of your stats. Some enemies are very weak against fire as well, but
there are also those who are strong against it.
The Pyromancer starts with the Fireball spell and a basic, non-upgraded Flame. Other characters will have
to advance three or four hours into the game to find the first Pyromancy trainer / vendor. Hell be trapped in
an upright stone pot with his head sticking out behind a couple of butchers in the Depths area, dont attack
the pot to free him though as this will cause him to flag you as a foe use your roll to break the pot instead.
10
He will go back to the Firelink Shrine area on his own and you can find him there. When you talk to him
hell ask you if you have anything against magic. Answer NO to his question and hell give you a Flame if
you didnt start with one and sell you some spells (if you accidentally answered Yes you can just wait a
while and talk to him again). He can also upgrade your Flame up to +15. Later you can find another trainer
who can ascend your Flame which enables you to put five more levels into it. Ive heard that this new Flame
does scale the power of your Pyromancies with your Intelligence stat but have not had a chance to try to
confirm this myself.
Pyromancy makes at least decent attack magic available to all character types. Most of the strongest spells
in this family are had through gifts from Covenants (page 17).
&iracles
Miracles have the predictable heal and cure spells included but now also have very good attack spells such as
tossed lighting bolts or huge malevolent eruptions from below foes, depending on if the Miracle is associated
with a nice god or a nasty one. Either way, your Faith stat largely determines the strength of your cast
Miracles as most Talismans scale strongly with your Faith. All of the attack spells are gained through
various Covenants (again, page 17), however, so expect to work a bit in order to unlock them. The presence
of heal spells is quite a bit more important in Dark Souls than in Demons Souls as healing items are in such
short supply this time around.
If you dont begin with a Talisman (ie: as a Priest) you will have to sign up with the fat holy knight guy in
Firelink shrine to get access to a vendor / trainer. You can back out of this Covenant later simply by asking
the vendor who appears in the Undead Parish after you ring the first bell to let you out of it he does it for
free and will do the same for other covenants as well, getting back in again can sometimes be an issue,
however so dont do this all willy-nilly. Early on you can buy the Thorolund Talisman from the fat knight in
Firelink which has strong, non-scaling power if you just want something to cast basic heals with and dont
want to invest heavily in Faith. Also, if youre a character with a lot of Intelligence you will want to pick up
the Velkas Talisman from the vendor I just mentioned above in the Undead Parish which scales in power in
relationship to your Intelligence instead of your Faith, though you will still need the required levels of Faith
to successfully cast the Miracles in the first place.
Dont forget that if you buy multiple copies of a spell you can also equip multiple copies to get more total
inter-Bonfire charges. So just because you started out a Priest with the Heal miracle doesnt mean you
should pass on buying another copy of it if you use it a lot.
11
(pgrading Equipment
E 'ni-ersali>ed s"ste! E Different stones E Different s!iths E .n u(grade tree E Generali>ations E
The first thing I want to mention is that equipment upgrades have been almost entirely universalized in
Dark Souls. Any weapon that can be upgraded can be made into a Faith oriented weapon or a fire imbued
weapon or a Magic imbued weapon or whatever. Also, any piece of armor can be upgraded as well. What
the upgrade limits and paths and whatnot are are much more complex, as are the branch points for these
upgrades, but the chart near the end of this section should clear that up once you understand the basics. The
actual process of upgrading is usually done by visiting one of the several smiths present in the game world,
but you can also buy an item that lets you do certain, generally basic upgrades from any Bonfire as well.
The various upgrades are fueled by a few special upgrade stones or materials you can find in the game
world plus a few souls. The basic sort of upgrade stone is called just plain Titanite and comes in different
sizes. Shards are the smallest, then there are Large Shards, then Chunks, then Slabs. This basic Titanite
doesnt really change the nature of the weapon youre upgrading, it just makes it stronger at base and
sometimes lets it scale a bit better with your stats. Its also used to upgrade most of the armor you find, and,
in general, when you use this basic Titanite you can upgrade a particular item from +0 or its base state to
+15, burning up more and more Shards and Large Shards and Chunks and Slabs as you work your way up
the ladder. Its an especially good way to upgrade most shields. Anyway, the stones themselves you can
sometimes buy, sometimes farm, and some of the rarer ones can only practically be found hidden away here
or there or farmed through extremely rare drops or monsters that dont respawn or even bosses.
There is, however, more than one type of upgrade stone. In addition to plain Titanite there are also various
colored Titanites (such as Green or Blue Titanite) that generally improve weapons as you would expect them
to. For example, Blue Titanite it required to add Magic damage to a weapon, Yellow Titanite is
required to make it a Lightning weapon. The only ones that dont make apparent sense is that Green
Titanite allows for a few different sort of upgrades, Twinkling Titanite is used for improving unique
weapons, and Demon Titanite is used on items made out of boss souls. The only other stone related hitch is
that you cant use the non-plain sorts of Titanite on base +0 weapons, you generally have to upgrade the
weapons a little bit using basic Titanite first, generally to +5 or +10 depending on the desired final upgrade,
and then start building from there, using your colored Titanite, to reach your final destination point. All of
this will make sense when you consult the upgrade chart on the next page. At a future date I will try to
add a chart listing favorite sources for the various types of needed stones, but as of now just note what
creatures drop what stones along the way for when you decide to go back and do some farming.
The only remaining complication is that not every smith can do every sort of upgrade. All of them can do
black and green Titanite upgrades but only the Parish smith can do Raw, Divine and Occult upgrades,
only the New Londo Ruins smith can do Magic, Enchanted and Crystal upgrades, and only the Giant
Smith later in the game can do Lightning upgrades and forge weapons for you using boss souls. These
smiths will (mostly) not be able to do these upgrades when you first meet them as their forges arent yet
properly equipped. You will find items called Embers in the game world that unlock these upper tier
upgrades (which may or may not be better for your character than lower tier ones, depending on your stats
and the individual weapons and other factors). Bring the Embers to the smiths to enable those forges. Ive
summarized this info in tables at the end of this section as well, and describe where to find the Embers.
The question reguarding should I spend souls on levels or on upgrades is a totally situational one, but in
general I recommend a balanced approach. Anyway, on the next page is the promised upgrade tree.
12
What each upgrade does actually varies a bit from weapon to weapon. Generally they increase the base
damage, some upgrades do this more than others, of course. They also increase the degree by which
weapons scale in power according to your stats this can be thought of as bonus damage in addition to the
weapons base damage. In typical Japanese fashion scaling is ranked with letters, from weakest to
strongest, as D, C, B, A, and S. When you upgrade a weapon the scaling rules and base power of the
upgrade totally overwrites the old values. Some weapons start with a D rank in scaling for Strength. If you
push them through the tree and make them Lightning weapons they no longer get any bonus power from
Strength and instead will have high base physical and base lighting damage. This makes Lightning a stat
independent upgrade type whether it is stronger than a scaling option or not depends on your stats and the
individual weapon.
Ive made some suggestions as to which weapons to use depending on your characters stats starting on page
13
29. Briefly, though, heres a basic description of what each upgrade type does.
Base: Called Base because its unlabeled in the game these items appear simply as Item +1 or
Item +4 or whatever. Enhances the item along the lines you found it in. Scaling is left in place and
whatever its base damage was gets a bit stronger. These weapons can be buffed in battle. This is
usually a good way to upgrade shields as the amount of stamina consumed by an incoming blow is
decreased only on Base upgrades to shields. Most armor pieces can only be upgraded along the Base
(or Found Unique, depending on the armor) line as well.
Raw: Think of them as raw damage weapons. Greatly increases the items base damage but lowers
the contributions from its scaling stats. These weapons can be buffed.
Crystal: Massively increases the weapons base damage and leaves its scaling intact. These
weapons, however, can never be repaired and eventually will break. There is a unique crystal shield
you can make from a boss soul you find along the way thats the only exception it can be repaired.
Lightning: Huge increase to base physical damage and strong added Lightning damage. These
weapons usually do a tiny bit more damage overall than Fire weapons do but are obtained later on,
too. These weapons can not be buffed. Shields upgraded this way get extra resistance to Lightning.
Magic: Adds magic damage and increases the base damage, and also adds good scaling with your
Intelligence. These weapons cannot be buffed. Shields upgraded this way get extra resistance to
incoming Magic attacks. These cannot be buffed.
Enchanted: These are similar to Magic weapons but provide less of a boost to the base damage and
more of a boost to stat scaling. Unbuffable and suitable for characters with extra high Intelligence.
Divine: This upgrade adds magic damage and increases the base physical damage, and it also ensures
that you get some scaling from Strength, Dexterity, and okay scaling from Faith. Divine weapons
also will permanently kill enemies who are self-ressurecting. They cannot be buffed.
Occult: What Enchanted is to Magic, Occult is to Divine. Less of a buff to base damage but stronger
stat scaling, this time for Faith. The scaling here is generally not as strong as what Enchanted
provides (B instead of A or C instead of B, depending on the weapon) this is probably to
compensate for the fact that Faith also boosts magic and fire defense whereas Intelligence does not.
Occult weapons also do not permanently kill self-resurrecting foes and cannot be buffed.
Fire: Similar to Lightning. All scaling is removed and you get high base Fire and physical damage
instead, and shields upgraded this way get bonus fire resistance. Unbuffable.
Chaos: These are a different flavor of Fire weapons. They have high base fire and physical damage,
though not as high as similarly upgraded Fire weapons do. They also do not scale with your stats at
all, however, they do scale with your Humanity. How much power is added depends on the weapon
and it caps out when you have 10 Humanity in the counter next to your HP. At this point Chaos
weapons usually do more damage than Fire weapons do. Whether its worth it or not depends on
how good you are at holding on to your Humanity, of course, as you will lose all 10 of those points if
youre carrying them around and die by any means. Chaos weapons are unbuffable.
Found Uniques, Forged Uniques, and Dragon Uniques: Everything can be upgraded, but Found
Uniques, Forged Uniques and Dragon Uniques dont use regular Titanite for their upgrades. You
obviously find the Found Uniques and they use Twinkling Titanite for their upgrades this includes
many of the rarer sets of armor in the game. Forged Uniques are initially made by taking a +10 Base
item of a particular sort and a bosss soul to the last smith you find which rewards you with a unique
weapon that requires Demon Titanite to upgrade. Dragon Uniques are usually won by hacking off a
bosss tail during a battle and then picking up the item that appears when you do so you hack off
the tail by attacking it instead of some other part of the bosss body and these items upgrade using
the Dragon Scales you find here and there. All of these upgrade items are much rarer than the ones
required for most of the steps above.
14
Let me close out this section with a table re-summarizing which smiths do what upgrades and a table on
where you can find the Embers generally needed to unlock the higher tier upgrades:
Smith )orges #ocation *otes
.ndrei of .stora
4aw, Di-ine,
Occult
.nne? attached to the 'ndead %arish. ;ea-e the
Cathedral and go across the long walkwa".
Sells unli!ited /itanite
Shards for 1000 soulsL
Va!os
1ire,
Chaos
.t the -er" botto! of the s(iral staircase in the
Cataco!bs. Dro( down using the (roMections.
Sells nothing
4ickert of
Vinhei!
&agic,
)nchanted
/urn right when "ou get out of the ele-ator buildings
in 8ew ;ondo 4uins. @otto! of the stairs there.
Sells a few sorceries
and a catal"st.
Giant
@lacks!ith
;ightning, Cr"stal,
1orged 'ni*ues
/oward the end of .nor ;ondo. 8ear the boss door
look for an archer and use the stairs on the right.
Sells so!e giant gear.
;arge Shards of /itanite can be bought in Sen9s 1ortress as can Green /itantie Shards.
1orged 'ni*ues re*uire so!e D10 @ase 5ea(on and a @oss9 Soul.
Ember *eeded )or #ocation
;arge )!ber
@ase D+ to @ase D10,
4aw D0 to 4aw D#
De(ths. 8ear the table with the raw !eat
that the butcher is cho((ing on.
Ver" ;arge
)!ber
@ase D11 to @ase D1#
8ew ;ondo 4uins. .fter draining the water go back to the first building
with the ele-ator and go to the botto! floor. ;ook around down there.
Di-ine )!ber Di-ine D0 to Di-ine D#
Darkroot Garden. .fter the &oonlight @utterfl" boss fight go u(
the far tower and look around for a glowing s(ark.
;arge Di-ine
)!ber
Di-ine D+ to Di-ine D10
/o!b of Giants. Bust (ast the first bonfire there9s a ladder that leads
down to se-eral skeletons. ;ook around behind the skeletons.
Dark )!ber Occult D0 to Occult D#
%ainted 5orld of .ria!is. Get the N.nne? Fe"O and enter the anne?.
Search for a fro>en blacks!ith inside that area.
;arge 1la!e
)!ber
1ire D+ to 1ire D10
De!on 4uins. 8ear the boss door on the left is a hallwa".
/he )!ber is (ast the cluster of gigawor!s.
Chaos 1la!e
)!ber
Chaos D0 to Chaos D#
De!on 4uins. Ct9s behind the horde of /aurus De!ons at the
end of the la-a field. 5ill (robabl" ha-e to die to get it.
;arge &agic
)!ber
&agic D+ to &agic D10
.nor ;ondo P Cr"stal Ca-es. 1inish the boss in the ca-es
for good, the return to the roo! where "ou first !et hi!.
)nchanted
)!ber
)nchanted D0 to
)nchanted D#
Darkroot Garden, rear area. /here is a s!all (ond with two !ushroo!
(arents guarding a chest. /he e!ber is inside the chest.
Cr"stal )!ber Cr"stal D0 to Cr"stal D#
Duke9s .rchi-es. 8ear the le-er that o(ens the stairwa" to the
Cr"stal Ca-es is a chest between two rows of bookshel-es.
Va!os will u(grade a D# @ase wea(on to a D0 to D# 1ire wea(on using Green /itanite, no )!ber is needed.
4ickert will u(grade a D# @ase wea(on to a D0 to D# &agic wea(on using Green /itanite, no )!ber is needed.
/he Giant S!ith can !ake ;ighting 5ea(ons and 1orged 'ni*ues without an" additional )!bers as well.
15
Multipla"er
E General idea E Hel(ing others E Hunting others E . -ariet" of new o(tions E
In an interview about Demons Souls, the parent game of Dark Souls, the games director Hidetaka Miyazaki
was asked where he got the idea for the multiplayer system that that game had:
The origin of that idea is actually due to a personal experience where my car suddenly stopped on
a hillside after some heavy snow and started to slip. The car following me also got stuck, and then
the one behind it spontaneously bumped into it and started pushing it up the hill. That's it! That's
how everyone can get home! Then it was my turn and everyone started pushing my car up the hill,
and I managed to get home safely.
But I couldn't stop the car to say thanks to the people who gave me a shove. I'd have just got stuck
again if I'd stopped. On the way back home I wondered whether the last person in the line had
made it home, and thought that I would probably never meet the people who had helped me. I
thought that maybe if we'd met in another place we'd become friends, or maybe we'd just fight.
You could probably call it a connection of mutual assistance between transient people. Oddly, that
incident will probably linger in my heart for a long time. Simply because it's fleeting, I think it
stays with you a lot longer.
-Hidetaka Miyazaki in an interview published May 27, 2010
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/souls-survivor?page=3
In Dark Souls this basic principle has been unfolded and expanded upon. The essential feel of strangers
whose faces you never see literally bumping into eachother on a snow night remains for all of the
encounters, but in Dark Souls theyve managed to add variety of twists to this idea.
Lets take two basic examples of how multiplayer works. The first option available to you is to put a sign
down using your White Sign Soapstone which Solaire of Astora will give you when you first find him early
in the game hes on the porch near the first big dragon. When you do this Dark Souls Peer-to-Peer system
looks for players who are close to your Soul Level (+/- 10% currently, but expect From to expand this range
in the near future) who are currently not Hollowed and playing the same area as you are. If these conditions
are met your sign appears in their world and they can walk over to it and stand on it to get a picture of your
character and your PSN / Xbox Live name, plus the option to summon you into their world. Once there your
attacks wont be able to hurt the host but you will be able to join him in fighting the foes in his world.
Killing them will net you a good amount of souls and if you see the host through to killing a boss you get a
large soul bonus (often in the five figure range) and are sent back to your own world.
Soon, a second option will open up. Youll come across an item called a Cracked Red Eye Orb. When you
use it the P2P network again searches for a player in human form who is near your soul level in the same
area as you, but this time you wont invade as a friend. The enemies in his world will not try to attack you at
all as youre one of them, bent on destroying a fellow player who is probably only trying to progress
through the game. Your reward for killing him is a goodly portion of souls plus a free point of Humanity.
These two basic options have been expanded upon with the help of various Covenants. These are
explained in the next section, but for now know that theres a way to assault players with your undead
servants, ways that summon you to defend certain areas from tresspassers, a way to hunt notorious PvP
players in Dark Souls, and a few ways to increase the stock of friendly phantoms available in your world.
16
Covenants
E 5hat are Co-enants E Conse*uences of lea-ing E /he nine Co-enants E
Covenants are special deals you can make with different NPCs in the game, generally putting you in the
service of a particular diety or organization. Doing so often applies a few extra rules to your play (being
unable to attack allied faction memebers is a common on) and violation of those rules usually gets you
kicked out of the Covenant. The benefit, of course, is that these dieties and organizations are generally in
possession of certain rare weapons, items, spells and abilities that they can bestow upon you should you
demonstrate an appropriate level of fealty to them. In short, Covenants are task based factions that
reward you with unique stuff. You get some of these by ranking up within your covenant by completing
certain tasks the ranking covenants have four ranks, from a +0 basic member to a +3 top level adherent.
Many (but not all) of the tasks asked of you have a strong focus on the multiplayer elements of the game.
In a true homage to D&D there are nine covenants aligned roughly as follows (note that this doesnt govern
inter-Covenant interactions or anything like that, it just looks better than a list):
;awful 8eutral )-il
Good 5a" of 5hite %rincess9 Guard @lade of the Dark!oon
8eutral 5arrior of Sunlight 1orest Hunter Chaos Ser-ant
)-il Gra-elord Ser-ant %ath of the Dragon Dark 5raith
If you betray a Covenant (generally by attacking other associated members or by leaving them for another
Covenant) you acquire Sin. Sin does two main things. First of all, sinful characters cannot rejoin their old
covenants. Second of all, the Blade of the Darkmoon covenant members receive as an item a hitlist of
particularly sinful players and can invade them willy-nilly to punish them for their transgressions. Sin also
may have an influence on your interactions with certain NPCs depending on how awesome or awful they
think sin is. You can absolve your sins by visiting the vendor who appears in the Undead Parish after
you ring the bell there (a major, early plot point). He charges you 2000 souls for every Soul Level you have
to do this and this amounts to a very hefty fee even later in the game. Absolving your sins also will de-aggro
any NPCs you may have pissed off along the way, generally by accidentally slicing their face open with your
sword, thereby allowing you to interact with them normally again.
Below Ive given a description of each Covenant, how to join it, the rewards you get for joining, and the
items or actions required to rank up. If youre going for a completionist run be aware that by far the hardest
covenant to join is the Dark Wraith one and you may want to read that section before you play too far into
the game however for your first playthrough I heavily suggest just joining and leaving Covenants as
you please and generally just playing around them rather than trying to grind rank or anything like that.
Many obasically require a good knowledge of the game and an understanding about the PvP meta (especially
where you can usually find people to invade or people to help depending on your Soul Level targets and
compatriots must be within 10% of your Soul Level) before you can smoothly complete them, so do yourself
a favor and complete at least one casual playthrough before taking Covenants too seriously.
17
5a" of 5hite
This Covenant is all about being a goody two-shoes, helping others out, and killing horrible monsters
because theyre perverted scum. Its the easiest one to sign up for and, in fact, both the Priest and the Knight
starting character classes actually come out of the gate already assigned to this faction. Its also an
interesting one to stay signed up with if youre playing offline as it supplies optional helpers for many of the
boss battles that you can summon in if youre un-Hollowed (you do this by spending a humanity point at a
Bonfire) look around near the various boss fog doors for any white writing on the ground and approach it
to summon the helpers if you want.
How To Join: Petrus (in the Firelink Shrine area) or Rhea (whom you rescue from the Tomb of
Giants) will happily sign you up even though theyll make snide comments about you being undead
if youre currently Hollowed. The Knight and Cleric also begin the game pre-aligned with the Way
of White. Ive tried hard not to spoil any major plot points in this guide but I have to warn you here
that Petrus has a grudge against Rhea and will kill her shortly after you rescue her if he is still
around. If youre interested in this Covenant I suggest joining early, buying everything off of Petrus,
and then killing him and then paying to have your sins absolved before finding Rhea to avoid any
bumps in the road. You can also optionally kill Petrus immediately after saving Rhea but this is risky
as he kills her after you load any two areas of the game other than the Undead Parish and the one
your rescue her in and this means you have to walk directly to her (she returns to the Undead Parish)
after saving her or else hell get there first.
Rewards and Restrictions: A member of this Covenant gets early access to Petrus and later Rhea as
vendors. They sell most of the miracles in the game and a few unique Talismans. This Covenant also
influences your availability for online interactions it makes invasions of your world very unlikely
and it increases the chance that youll see the white soul signs that other players in this covenant have
left when they are trying to make themselves available to you, generally near Bonfires that are close
to a boss as they get big soul rewards for helping you kill a boss. If you see a white soul sign lying
around go ahead and summon someone up! There is also a punishment of -1 Estus Flask for
betraying the covenant but to get your Estus back just rest at a bonfire (or absolve your sins).
Ranking Up: This covenant has no ranks to climb, a base membership grants you all of its benefits.
%rincess9 Guard
Being a part of the Princess Guard isnt very demanding, all you have to do is just not attack other members.
This faction encourages more online cooperation and grants you a few tools to enhance your player vs. boss
gangbangs, most notably big group heals, which are actually pretty important for big multiplayer sessions
this time around as White Phantoms dont have access to their Estus Flasks and depend on either the host or
their own Miracles for HP replenishment.
How to Join: After the big boss battle in Anor Londo (about 3/4ths of the way through the game) you
will meet Princess Gwynevere. She will give you an important plot item whether you decide to serve
her or not, but at this point you can also sign on to her faction.
Rewards and Restrictions: Upon joining you receive the Princess Ring which increases the power
of your Miracles a bit. The high powered Miracles Bountiful Sunlight and Soothing Sunlight become
purchaseable from Picasa upon joining. Both require very high faith to use (36 and 48 respectively)
and each will eat up two Attunement slots to equip. Bountiful Sunlight heals you over time at a fairly
high rate and Soothing Sunlight casts a huge area heal thats about as effective as Great Heal on any
18
friendly characters within its radius. You lose access to these miracles if you leave the Covenant.
Ranking Up: The Princess Guard Covenant also has no ranks.
@lade of the Dark!oon
This makes you a servant of Lord Gwyn himself. Gwyn has a strong desire to eliminate competition and
will make you a vengeful assassin seeking in particular those who have sinned against the gods of the land.
A lot is asked of you in this Covenant but its quite unique and offers several compelling benefits as well.
How to Join: You can only can begin the process to join this Covenant quite a long ways into the
game. To prepare you first need to find the Dark Moon Seance ring in the Catacombs and then go to
the second bonfire in Anor Londo which is near the bottom of the stairs available by rotating the
tower. With the ring on a statue near the Bonfire will vaporize, approach the fog near there and wait
for an action prompt do NOT actually enter the fog, doing this at any time will cause you to get
kicked out of the Covenant. When the prompt appears press X to kneel (you dont have to know the
kneel gesture to do this). You will then be asked if you wish to join the Covenant. If you do enter the
fog on accident and you want to be a part of this Covenant just let the person inside kill you and then
go absolve your sins and try again. Most Covenants actually lock the related god away from your
aggression (and therefore halt progression in that area while you play around with the Covenant) but
this one does not, so be careful about that fog door.
Rewards and Restrictions: Immediately upon joining you are presented with a Blue Eye Orb and a
ring called The Blade of the Darkmoon Covenant. The Orb can be used to try to invade players in
any spot in the game, but they must have some accumulated sin to be targets (and be within your soul
range, of course). The ring, when worn, will summon you into Anor Londo when sinful players enter
there who are vaguely near your Soul Level and unlike the other invading methods in the game when
you invade by means of this ring your target is not warned that youre coming.
Ranking Up: Sometimes when you slay a target for Lord Gwyn they will drop a Souvenir of
Reprisal. Carry these back to the fog to rank up. To reach +1 in the Covenant you need to donate 10
of them, to reach +2 you need to give 30, and to reach the last rank of +3 you need to donate 80. The
only rewards are had at +1 (reaching +2 and +3 actually grants you nothing extra) where you are
supposedly given the Darkmoons Light Sword and the Darkmoons Talisman. The Darkmoon
Talisman is the strongest Talisman in the game. I havent seen any information about the sword
online or in the Futurepress guide, so perhaps thats just a rumor.
5arrior of Sunlight
The sunlight warriors come from a neighboring country and are here to clean up Lord Gwyns mess, whether
he likes it or not. Solaire of Astora belongs to this covenant, so if he seems like a cool guy to you go ahead
and join up. This covenant emphasizes helping as many players as possible purge demons and other
villainous scum from existence. It offers some pretty nice rewards, too, most of which stick with you if you
leave the Covenant later on down the line.
How to Join: To prepare you need a Faith stat of at least 50, or else you will have had to already
helped many other players defeat bosses. For each boss youve killed while being a white phantom
for another player (use the white soapstone you find early on near bonfires near bosses, or near the
doors to bosses, and hope they summon you in) you get a five point discount on the Faith stat, so if
you start as a Pyromancer with a Faith of eight youll have to kill nine bosses to meet the
19
requirements. Once you have your resume ready find the broken altar to the right of the Bonfire
thats under the dragon spewing flames all over the bridge early in the game its out in the sunlight.
Approach the altar and press X when prompted to in order to join (you dont need the Pray gesture).
Rewards and Restrictions: Upon entering youre granted the Lightning Spear Miracle. This is a
powerful and useful projectile spell that requires 20 Faith (but which can also be found as drop in
Sens Fortress) and has 10 casts. When you rank up to +1 you are also presented with the Great
Lightning Spear which also has 10 casts but requires 30 Faith, and your are given the option to
exchange Lord Gwyns soul for the Sunlight Spear Miracle which requires 50 Faith, has 5 casts, and
uses two Attunement slots. The Sunlight Spear is by far the strongest of the three but you also lose it
if you leave the Covenant you can keep the other two.
Ranking Up: When you are in this Covenant your summon sign appears as gold rather than white. If
you help a player kill a boss after theyve summoned you in you are presented with Sunlight Medals
which you can turn in at the altar back in the Parish. Also if you summon in anyone of the Sunlight
Warrior Covenant to help you with your boss fight you will get a free medal as well, so even if you
arent in the club go ahead and bring in gold soulsigned people if you might join later. Note that
Solaire of Astora counts as a Warrior of Sunlight and if you bring him in for boss battles (as youre
offered to do from time to time, look around for his soul signs near certain boss doors) and win you
get a medal as well. It takes 10 medals to reach +1, 30 for +2 and 80 for +3, but all of the rewards
become accessible at +1 so the others are just for show.
1orest Hunters
Alvina of the Darkroot Wood is a giant communicable cat, and she doesnt care to have a bunch of loot
seeking adventurers traipsing around in her woods. If you agree to help keep her woods free of this sort of
nuisance shell reward you with items that make it easier to do to so.
How to Join: Joining this Covenant is quite easy. All you have to do is find the small stone house
behind the sealed door in Darkroot Garden and peek inside. Alvina will be perched up in a window
(dont shoot at her or shell call you a moron and disappear until you cleanse your sin) and will sign
you up if you agree to her terms. Shell ask you if you will agree to not hunt other members of her
Covenant and if you will agree to kill those who are not of her Covenant. Once youre in its fairly
easy to get kicked out. Characters you can lock on to can still be attacked, even in the woods (there
was an early rumor running contrary to this) but if you crash into or accidentally attack any of the
Stooges or NPC humans residing around Alvinas house you will be discharged from the Covenant.
Also, if they run off a cliff, as theyre prone to do (hence the name Stooges) you will probably be
blamed for it so try to keep them away from the edges of the area by not drawing any targets theyre
aggrod on to near there. Its also important to Quit and then Reload your character immediately
after joining the Covenant to prevent the Stooges from attacking you when you leave the house,
which they sometimes do if you dont bother with reloading your character.
Rewards and Restrictions: Upon joining youll be presented the Cat Covenant Ring. If you put this
on youre put into a queue and once your number comes up youll be called to the Darkroot Wood to
hunt any non-Hollowed player who has trespassed there while not being a part of Alvinas covenant.
Human form players in the Darkroot Woods will sometimes find that they receive a steady stream of
invaders trying to off them, frequently with more than one coming in at a time. The ring can be worn
anywhere in your world and if youre successful in killing your target you will be returned to where
you left off with your Estus and spells refilled (if youre not successful that means you got killed and
therefore will show up at the last Bonfire you rested at). You are given no tokens for offing offenders
but Alvina keeps track of how many you have killed.
20
Ranking Up: After you kill your first target you receive a Divine Blessing item which is a one-
time use full heal that also clears any negative statuses you have. After three kills Alvina will present
you with a Ring of Fog that you get to keep (you can also trade your Skull Lantern, a unique weapon
you can find in the Tomb of the Giants once per playthrough, for a Ring of Fog at the crows nest
back in the Asylum). The Ring of Fog is currently the most overpowered PvP item out there it
makes your character nearly invisible, and, whats worse, it prevents your foes from locking on to
you which means if theyre a mage or using a stabbing weapon theyll never hit you even if they see
you comin Id expect From to patch this out soon so enjoy it while it lasts. This effect can also be
had with the Sorcery Hidden Body which you can buy from Dusk of Oolacile after freeing her
from the rear of the Hyrdas lake her soul sign resides back at the lakeshore if you want to buy it.
Anyway, after youve killed five forest invaders Alvina will let you know that she despises the wolf
that lives further into the woods and, of course, would like you to kill him. There is no reward for
doing so, but if you fail to do it you will be kicked out of the Covenant. There is a persistent rumor
that you can spare the wolf during your fight with him to get a different reward but so far no one has
been able to get this to happen, despite his limping animation when he is low on HP probably this is
just a rumor but it is also possible that the Spare Him dialog or whatever is currently bugged and will
be fixed in a future patch. Right now killing the wolf is your only option anyway.
Chaos Ser-ant
The Daughters of Chaos dont really give a damn about whats going on or which god wants to do what, all
they know if that they like eggs and they like to burn shit. If you like eggs and like to burn shit then this is
probably the Covenant for you!
How to Join: Far below the Undead Parish youll find a giant swamp. At one end of the swamp
theres a giant snarl of tree roots and at the other is a huge spiders nest. After you beat the boss
inside of the nest you can then speak with an egg loving fellow you can find by knocking down a
section of wall. The section youre looking for is in the little room one story down from the lever
you pull to ring the second bell (a major plot event). Dont attack the burdened guy just behind the
wall talk to him instead and hell allow you access to the chamber where you can speak with his
mistress, the Ancient Spider Witch. She will ask you ..? and if you say Yes you are now a Chaos
Servant.
Rewards and Restrictions: Eingyi, the egg covered guy, finds it rather odd that youre not into eggs.
If you ally his suspicions by going and getting an egg attached to you hell brighten up considerably
and offer to sell you the Pyromancies Poison Mist and Toxic Mist (three and one casts, repsectively)
as well as a cure for the egg that has chosen a rather unfortunate part of your body to inhabit. To get
an egg just proceed further down into the lava filled area and punch some of the mobile Eingyi-like
critters down there and then stand there facing them while blocking eventually one will grab you
and implant you with an egg, you know youve been successfully implanted if your character starts
itching when hes idle. The egg will grow up over time (it has three or four stages and it takes four to
ten minutes for it to develop from stage to stage) and will consume half of your incoming souls while
its growing. Once it reaches its adult stage youll get a new Kick animation you can try out it is,
however, unfortunately worse than your old one as far as combat goes. The actual rewards for the
Covenant, however, are had simply by donating Humanity points to the Ancient Spider Witch. Of
course, youre not to attack any of the other Daughters of Chaos while a part of this Covenant, nor
the Spider Witch herself. The Spider Witch is also a Firekeeper and can upgrade your Estus if you
have a spare Firekeepers Soul on you and, of course, if you kill her the nearby Bonfire goes out.
Ranking Up: Upon joining the Covenant youre presented with the Pyromancy Great Chaos Fireball
21
(four casts, requires two slots). After you donate 10 Humanity youll rank to +1 but receive no
reward for this. With 30 Humanity you reach +2 and are granted the Pyromancy Chaos Storm (one
effective cast, requires two slots) which is the biggest, most random version of Firestorm youve ever
seen. At this point a shortcut down to Lost Izalith also shows up. If you give 68 Humanity you reach
rank +3 but this rank has no rewards associated with it.
Gra-elord Ser-ant
The Gravelord Nito has a few rules he lives by. The first is that the living would be better off dead. The
second is that if the living must live they should not do so easily. The third is that those who help him right
the mistaken state of things should be rewarded. If this all sounds good to you then pay him a visit.
How to Join: This Covenant is a bit tricky to join. If you dont join before you complete the Tomb
of Giants youll be completely unable to until NG+, so you have to do it fairly early on. Nito has a
fascination with an item called the Eyes of Death and to sign up you have to have at least one in your
inventory when you go to talk to him you can find three of these behind the Titanite Demon in the
Catacombs or you can farm them as a very rare drop from the Basilisks (aka the Curse Frogs) in the
Depths if youre going to farm the frogs I heavily suggest finding the Gold Serpent Ring in Sens
Fortress first as it provides a much needed huge boost to your item discovery rate. To open a
conversation with the big guy go to the bottom of the Catacombs into the long hallway with the
Titanite Demon and find the coffin sticking out a bit. Hop in there (approach it and press X when
prompted to do so) and wait about 30 seconds and a cutscene will play. You do not have to be
Hollowed to join. After the cutscene go find the napping Nito and talk to him to be offered the
chance to joing.
Rewards and Restrictions: Upon joining youre given the Gravelord Sword, a fairly powerful
curved greatsword requiring 24 Strength and 13 Dexterity to use which also inflicts the Toxic status.
Nito also gives you the Miracle Gravelord Sword Dance which causes eruptions of Nitos weapon
to burst through the floor at your foe the Miracle requires no actual Faith and has one effective cast
and is quite powerful, especially against groups of foes. Nito also empowers you to use the Eyes of
Death yourself. When you do so the location at which you used it will spawn an evil gate in three
other randomly chosen playerss worlds. While this gate is present in their world they will have to
deal with additional very strong monsters that appear concurrently with the gate and to rid their world
of this presence they have to locate the gate and step through it, which will cause them to invade your
world offering you one more chance to kill them it is, of course, possible that all three of your
targets will find the gate at about the same time and you will have to deal with the three of them at
once, so try to place your Eye of Death in a hard to find spot.
Ranking Up: Nito wants more Eyes of Death, so its off to farm Curse Frogs you go. Having a high
curse resistance is of course helpful (the Antiquated Set that appears at the rear of the Hyrdas cave
after you rescue Dusk and tell her that Yes you think magic is cool has massive curse resist, the
Channelers Set from Blighttown has decent curse resist, and you can also find a Cursebite Ring in
the Valley of Drakes or the New Londo Ruins to up it a ton) and having a high item discovery is
mandatory (see page 29 for recommended farming items, the ring mentioned above is the most
important one to have, though). Patches also sells Eyes of Death for 3000 each, but Im unsure
whether he sells an unlimited amount or not. Giving Nito 10 eyes ranks you to +1 at which point he
bequeaths upon you the Gravelord Greatsword Dance, an upgrade of his previous Miracle. 30 more
eyes gets you to +2 which is apparently the highest level, however there is no reward for reaching
this point. People have a very hard time getting the eyes to drop, so be warned.
22
%ath of the Dragon
When I was eleven I wanted to be a rad dragon and breathe fire. Nothing wrong with that, you gotta have
dreams, right? Anyway, if you still want to be a rad dragon and breathe fire then heres your chance.
How to Join: You want to talk to the Great Stone Dragon who resides at the end of Ash Lake. You
can also beat a sword out of his tail, and you can do this without aggroing him or preventing you
from joining this Covenant. Getting to him is a bit of a pain, though. You have to go down to the
Great Swamp, from there make your way to the bottom of the Great Hollow, and then run your ass
through Ash Lake avoiding the threats there to the final structure at the end of the area. Pray to the
resident dragon to join.
Rewards and Restrictions: Upon joining you receive the Dragon Eye and the Dragon Head Stone.
The Head Stone you equip to your item bar and then remove your helmet and you can now use it (by
selecting it and pressing Square) to breath bitchin dragon fire for as long as your Stamina bar will let
you. The Dragon Eye is used to invade other playerss worlds in order to help collect the items
needed to rank up in The Path of the Dragon, which are Dragon Scales. This item will present a
mark of challenge in any nearby players world who currently possesses a Dragon Scale and if he
accepts the challenge you will enter to duel him if he loses you take his scales. Unfortunately there
isnt much in it for the person presented the challenge and currently its very hard to collect Dragon
Scales this way I would expect From to patch this soon to make Dragon Eye invasions involuntary.
Ranking Up: 10 Dragon Scales gets you to +1 which grants no reward, 30 gets you to +2 at which
point you are granted the Dragon Body Stone. Equipping this in your item bar will remove your
armor and allow you to do a powerful shout that staggers foes and buffs your attacks for a period of
time. 80 Dragon Scales gets you to +3 which has no reward associated with it. The other two ways
to get Dragon Scales are to simply collect the few that are scattered around in the game world or to
farm the Blue Drakes in the Valley of Drakes their drop rate for scales is really abysmal though so,
again, consult the Farming Equipment section on page 29k for advice on how to make that process a
bit less painful.
Dark 5raith
Im not the sort of guy who likes to just randomly show up and fuck people over. At least, not in my day to
day life. When I play games like Dark Souls Im exactly that guy. What does that mean? That means this is
the Covenant for me! Its also a notoriously difficult Covenant to join so if youre interested be sure to read
below to understand whats required of you to do this. It was actually intended as a hidden Covenant by
the developers, but in the days of the Internet noting is really that hidden, is it?

How to Join: There are two options and both involve not following the natural course of the game.
The first step is to kill the great wolf in the Darkroot Woods to get the Covenant of Artorias Ring that
you need to survive the trip into the Abyss. You now need a key and have two ways to get it. The
first choice is to completely avoid talking to Framps, get the Lordvessel as normal, and then go talk
to Ingward in the New Londo Ruins to get the key to the Abyss. The second choice must be done
before you get the Lordvessel and requires you to find and kill Ingward and then pick up his key if
you wait until after you have the Lordvessel Ingward will not drop the key when killed. At this point
you now are able to enter the Abyss without dying and upon doing so will have to defeat the
extremely tough boss there. After doing so you will find a gentleman named Kaathe who will sign
you up to the Dark Wraiths if you so wish.
Rewards and Restrictions: Upon joining you are granted the Dark Hand, a fist weapon that also
23
turns into a shield if placed on your left hand that does a great job of blocking Magic, Fire and
Lightning damage but not such a great job of blocking Physical damage the Dark Hand has no
requirements. When used as a weapon the Dark Hand has a grab attack (press R2) that will suck a
point of Humanity out of any Player Character targets (but not out of monsters or NPCs).
Ranking Up: Kaathes request is fairly simple. He wants you to invade everyone and kill them.
After you have assassinated 10 players you will reach +1 and be granted the Red Eye Orb (not
cracked!) which can be used indefinitely to invade players as it doesnt break with use. After 30
victims you will reach +2 and can obtain the Dark Wraith Armor Set and the Darksword. The armor
is a heavy armor set (about the weight of the Elite Knight Set) providing strong physical protection.
The Darksword is a fairly long weapon of the normal straight sword variety (like the Longsword) that
can be upgraded along normal lines and is about 20% stronger in all of its upgrades than the
Longsword is it requires 16 Strength and 16 Dexterity. Slaying 80 players gets you to +3 and has
no built in reward.
24
Preferred Equipment
E .r!or E Shields E Catal"sts, 1la!es and /alis!ans E 5ea(ons E
This section is not meant to be exhaustive. That serves little purpose when the Futurepress guide does a
good job of it and soon the online Wikis will do an even better job. The intent of this section is to make an
effort at digesting the information provided in those larger sources into a more manageable list of particular
items. The different types of equipment Ive enumerated on below will each include a brief commentary
section explaining my approach to picking what Ive picked (if necessary) followed by a table with the
relevant stats. Sometimes youll see that a table starts with an item whose name Ive listed in italics. When
this is the case Ive included that item not as a particular suggestion but as a point of reference.
Because this section is based only on my experiences playing the game and what Ive picked up from
combing through Dark Souls threads online it will inherently have omissions and misjudgements. Its quite
likely Ill miss awesome items here and list items that are actually no good. Additionally, just because I
havent found a way to make a particular item work doesnt mean that you cant. What Im saying is please
take the following advice as a starting point for your own experimentation rather than as a Bible. You can
always send me an email if theres a particular item Ive left out here or there, or something Ive included
that actually isnt that hot.
The advice below is geared toward selections that are worth shaping your character around or that similarly
would justify their stats or be of use throughout NG+ or NG++. This means many of these items will have
stat requirements that are beyond what low level characters can reasonably get to. If youre having trouble
with the early game Ive made some suggestions on page 38 in the section titled Early Equipment.
.r!or
Most armor comes in sets and most of these sets lie on a continuum from lightest to heaviest. The light
armors arent necessarily better than heavy, one set is not usually better than the next and really what you use
will operate on a fairly fluid scale depending on how much mobility you need vs. how much Poise you need
(see page 9 for more about Poise). Most characters will probably eventually pick one set of light armor and
one set of heavy or medium armor to upgrade and wear them piecemeal depending on which weapons they
want to use at the time, which have their own weights to take into consideration as well. With that said,
there is some useful information I can pass along here. Most of these items Ive included because they have
special effects beyond just protecting your character so this section has a format with more description and
fewer stats than youd expect. I have included a few pieces of gear that stand out for their protective
qualities, however, and will probably add a few more of those as the Internet alerts me to them. For those
pieces you will see more stats.
25
Armor +btained escription
Child &ask 3000 souls fro! %atches Cncreases Sta!ina reco-er" rate
&other &ask 3000 souls fro! %atches Cncreases H% b" 1#H
1ather &ask 3000 souls fro! %atches Cncreases )*ui( ;oad b" 1#H
Dark Sun Crown 10000 souls fro! Do!nhall of Qena Cncreases all t"(es of !agic da!age
S"!bol of .-arice
4are dro( fro! &i!ics not in /he Duke9s
.rchi-e or the Cr"stal Ca-es
Hel!et. Cncreases Cte! Disco-er" b" 200 (oints,
a -er" strong effect. Drains #H% (er second.
Crown of Dusk
@ack of H"rda9s ;ake after sa-ing, locating,
and talking to Dusk. .nswer N<es.O
Cncreases &agic .ttack b" 20H and lowers
&agic Defense b" 60H
Sunlight &aggot
Dro((ed b" a -isibl" different Chaos @ug in a
hallwa" in ;ost C>alith late in the ga!e
Hel! that e!its light fro! "our character. Soliare
of .stora wears one but does not dro( it.
Ha-el9s Set
Dro((ed after sla"ing Ha-el who resides at
the botto! of one of /aurus De!on9s towers
. set of e?tre!el" hea-" ar!or that also has the
highest %oise in the ga!e.
%ainted Guardian
Set
1ound in the %ainted 5orld of .ria!is late in
the ga!e
)?tre!el" light ar!or boasting high defense and
un(aralleld (oison resistance, but no %oise.
.nti*uated Skirt
@ack of H"rda9s ;ake after sa-ing, locating,
and talking to Dusk. .nswer N<es.O
/he skirt fro! the .nti*uated set has sk" high
defense and curse resistance, but no %oise.
Cleric Set %urchased fro! %atches for 22,000 total
. !ediu! ar!or with a good balance of defense,
%oise and o-erall weight
/horn" Set
@e hu!an with a li-e boss to kill Firk in three
s(otsA /he De(ths, De!on 4uins, ;ost C>alith
.r!or that !akes "our roll do da!age 0120 total2.
1ound in Daugh. of Chaos roo! if Firk died thrice.
)lite Fnight Set 1ound on a bod" in Darkroot Garden.
See!s to be the fa-orite hea-"7but7not7too7hea-"
ar!or set for use with nor!al weight wea(ons.
Shields
For most characters the vast majority of the time the shield is the single most important piece of equipment.
Before I get to listing items I first want to talk about how shields actually work, and, in particular, describe
the effect Stability has on a shield.
To begin with Ill considering two shields that block 100% of the incoming physical damage and a situation
where some foe hits you with pure physical damage, which is the vast majority of foes in Dark Souls. Well
take two shields as our examples and just focus on their Stability number. A Heater Shield +0 is the most
basic shield you can find that blocks 100% physical and it has a Stability rating of 55. A Hollow Soldier
Shield +15, which is a shield that you also find early but would have to upgrade extensively to get to +15,
has a Stability rating of 85. Lets say Havel or some other hard hitting foe attacks you doing 300 potential
damage and you have 40 Endurance which nets you the maximum possible 160 points of Stamina
(represented in game as a bar rather than numbers, but the number in this case actually is 160). In each case
the shield totally negates whatever percentage of the incoming damage is covered by its Stability number
this means that the Heater Shield negates 55% and the Hollow Solider Shield negates 85%. The numbers
work out to the Heater Shield not negating 165 damage and the Hollow Soldier Shield not negating 45
damage.
This damage is then applied against your Stamina bar. In youre using the Heater Shield what happens is
that all of your Stamina disappears, you take some damage and probably stagger, leaving you totally
26
defenseless and open to the next blow, unable even to dodge. If youre using the Hollow Solider Shield you
lose about of your total Stamina and thats it, no HP is lost, no stagger animation occurs, your character
doesnt flinch, and you can continue to try to position yourself better or counter attack. What this means is
that Stabilty is of primary importance when choosing a shield, its what preserves your Stamina and in
combat in Dark Souls your Stamina is just as important for keeping you alive as your HP is as without it you
cant move well, attack or defend. Since so many foes do pure physical damage in Dark Souls having a
shield with high Stability that blocks 100% of incoming physical damage is very useful.
Sometimes you will run into foes that do lots of magic, fire, or lightning damage. There are no shields in the
game that block 100% of any of those damages and in those cases what happens is the leftover unblocked
part goes directly after your HP while the blocked percentage works its way through the block algorithm as
above. In practice this means you will switch to these shields when you need them and whats usually
considered a virtue in these swaps is that they block as much of the incoming elemental damage as possible.
With those mechanics understood, in my mind these are the standout shields in Dark Souls:
Shield
4e*uire!ent
Stab7
ilit"
Da!age 4eduction H
5ei7
ght
Obtained P 8otes
Str De? %h" &ag 1ir ;it
Hollow Soldier D1# 11 0 ,- .// 60 ,# #0 6.# 4are dro( fro! shield bearing Hollowed
Cr"stal 4ing D# 10 0 0 ,0 0/ ,0 0 6 1orgedA &oonlight @utterfl" SoulL
@lack Fnight D# 1+ 0 , .// 2# 0- +# + Dro(A .ll @lack Fnights
;it. Gargo"le D# 12 0 #+ 3# 0 ,# ,1 Dro(A %arish and nor!al gargo"les
)agle D1# 1+ 0 ,1 .// ## # 2- + 1oundA @lightown. Cannot parr".
Sil-er Fnight D# 1 0 ,3 .// 0 ,# +# # Dro(A S(ear and sword Sil-er Fnights
Dark Hand 0 0 K 30 ,/ ,/ ,/ /%- Co-enantA Dark 5raithLL
;itn. @loodshield 10 0 #6 .// 60 ,0 #+ 3 1oundA %ainted 5orld of .ria!isLLL
L Cnstead of (arr"ing this shield shoots a ring out that does whate-er da!age the wea(on in "our right hand would
do. /his can be abused and will (robabl" be (atched out soon. 1orge it fro! an" @uckler si>ed shield D10.
LL Cn "our left hand this acts as a shield. Cts not u(gradeable. /he Dark 5raith Co-enant is a ton of work to Moin.
LLL /he 1utur(ress guide sa"s this shield increases %oisonP@leedPCurse resistance b" #0H. /he Cnterent sa"s it
negates bleed da!age. C ha-en9t tried it. %eo(le use it with the ;ifehunt Sch"the, !ostl". '(grades are li!ited
to Must the first le-el of Cr"stalP;ightningP&agicPDi-ineP1ire, none of which are i!(ro-e!ents e?ce(t ;ightning.
Cata"lsts and /alis!ans 0and 1la!es2
There are only a few of these to choose between but Ive listed them below anyway. For the most part when
choosing a Catalyst or Talisman theres a right choice is you have both low Intelligence and low Faith, a
right choice if you have high Intelligence, and a right choice if you have high Faith. In the charts below
these are referred to as the Low, Int, and Fth choices respectively and youll see why when you scan
over to the scaling section.
There are only two Flames in the game which I have not listed. These are the base one that you usually get
from freeing the Depths Pyromancer from his pot (use your roll to free him, not a weapon) or can get later on
as well, and a second, more powerful one you get from the master Pyromancy trainer Quelanna. The first
Pyromancer will upgrade your Flame up to +15 at the cost of (only) a boatload of souls. Once you have an
upgraded Flame (at least +10) and only if you havent yet killed the Bed of Chaos Quelanna will appear
27
sitting next to a pillar sort of near the big web mound in the Great Swamp. She can ascend your flame to a
Strong Flame and then bump it up five more times the normal flame has a Magic Strength between 100
and 250 depending on its level, the Strong Flame is between 254 and 270. Read the textural description of
the item in-game to confirm that she has upgraded your flame as it doesnt show up in just the items name.
Catalysts and Talismans cannot be upgraded.
Catal"st or /alis!an
4e*uire!ent
&agic
Strength
Stat Scaling
Obtained
Cnt 1th Str De? Cnt 1th
;owA Oolacile C. 6 0 1$7130 ) 7 C 7 1000 souls fro! Dusk of Oolacile
CntA /in Cr"stal C. 62 0 1$761# ) 7 S 7 Co!(licated (lot dro( in-ol-ing @ig Hat ;oganL
1thA /in Dark!oon C. 0 1+ 1$720 ) 7 7 . &ade fro! a Sorcerer9s C. and Gw"ndolin9s soul
;owA /horolund /. 0 10 1$71#0 7 7 7 D #000 souls fro! %etrus or %atches
CntA Velka9s /. 1+ 0 1$7220 7 7 . 7 #000 souls fro! Oswald in the %arish
1thA Dark!oon /.LL 0 2 1$720 7 7 7 . Co-enantA Dark!oon @lades
L 1ree hi! fro! Sen9s 1ortress. Get ;ord-essel and either (lace it or talk to ;ogan. 1ree hi! fro! the Duke9s
.rchi-es, then lea-e the area and co!e back again. ;ocate hi! in the .rchi-es again and bu" all of his stuff and
kill Seath 0can be done in either order2. /alk to ;ogan one !ore ti!e. ;ea-e the area and co!e back to find a
chest, then go to where "ou first encountered Seath. 1inish off "our foe, get "our ite!.
LL /he C-or" /alis!an, which "ou can get through %etrus e-ents or bu" fro! %atches for #000 souls has as &agic
Strength of 1$726 and an . scaling with 1aith and doesn9t re*uire going through Co-enant hoo(s.
4ings
Rings can make a big difference and because they are mostly interesting for the miscellaneous effects the
format of the following chart is the same as the one I used for armor. You should expect to change your
rings out as you go around to different areas depending on your purpose. The following list isnt exhaustive,
its the just rings I find particularly useful or interesting. The first four are rings you can find early on, the
rest are in alphabetical order.
'ing +btained Effects
4ing of the )-il )"e 1ound near Curse 1rogs in the De(ths Heals 60 H% for each foe slain
%oisonbite 4ing 1#,000 souls fro! Oswald in the %arish Juadru(les (oison resistance
Cursebite 4ing 1oundA Valle" of Drakes or 8ew ;ondo 4uins Juadru(les curse resistance
@ellowing Dragoncrest 20,000 souls fro! Griggs Cncreases all sorcer" da!age b" 20H
Cloranth" 4ing 1oundA Great Hollow or in .sh ;ake Cncreases Sta!ina reco-er" rate
C. Gold Ser(ent 4ing 1ound in Sen9s 1ortress Gain 200 Cte! Disco-er" 0:6? base2
C. Sil-er Ser(ent 4ing 1ound in /he /o!b of /he Giants Get 20H !ore souls for kills
Dark 5ood Grain 4ing Sla" Shi-a9s in-isible bod"guard Changes the roll ani!ation for the better
Ha-el9s 4ing Sla" Ha-el Gain #0H to )*ui( ;oad
Hornet 4ing 1oundA Darkroot Garden P @asin Cncreases Critical Da!age #0H
4ing of 1og Hunter Co-enant or gi-e Skull ;antern to Hawk &akes "ou clearish and untargetable
28
4. of Sun9s 1irstborn 1oundA .nor ;ondo Cncreases all !iracle da!age b" 20H
4usted Cron 4ing 1ound when "ou re-isit the 'ndead .s"lu! 8or!al !o-e!ent in swa!(s and water
S(eckled Stone(late 4. Sla" or do (lot e-ents for Sige!e"er of Catarina Gain 2# &agP1ireP;it defense
Slu!bering Dragoncrest Dro(A Griggs, but onl" in Sen9s 1ortress Silences "our !o-e!ents
5olf 4ing 1ound Darkroot Garden P @asin Gain 0 %oise
Old 5itch 4ing Gift Can understand Daughters of Chaos
1ar!ing )*ui(!ent
In Dark Souls there will be times when you decide to go farm a particular monster for a certain item. Often
this will be Titanite bits, but some covenants require large amounts of certain rare items and there are certain
weapons that can only be had from rare drops as well. In all of these cases putting on some farming
equipment can greatly speed things along. There are only a few things that can really boost your Item Drop
rate, which starts at 100 (ie: if you have zero banked humanity). Banked Humanity refers to what the
number in the upper left corner reads.
4tem +btained Effects
C. Gold Ser(ent 4ing 1ound in Sen9s 1ortress Gain 200 Cte! Disco-er"
S"!bol of .-arice
4are dro( fro! &i!ics not in /he Duke9s .rchi-e
or the Cr"stal Ca-es
Hel!et. Gain 200 Cte! Disco-er".
Drains #H% (er second.
@anked Hu!anit" of 1 See (age on Hu!anit" Gain 20 Cte! Disco-er" total
@anked Hu!anit" of 2 See (age on Hu!anit" Gain 2# Cte! Disco-er" total
@anked Hu!anit" of 6 See (age on Hu!anit" Gain 2$ Cte! Disco-er" total
@anked Hu!anit" of See (age on Hu!anit" Gain 66 Cte! Disco-er" total
@anked Hu!anit" of # See (age on Hu!anit" Gain 63 Cte! Disco-er" total
@anked Hu!anit" of 10 See (age on Hu!anit" Gain #$ Cte! Disco-er" total
@anked Hu!anit" of 20 See (age on Hu!anit" Gain $0 Cte! Disco-er" total
@anked Hu!anit" of 60 See (age on Hu!anit" Gain 110 Cte! Disco-er" total
@anked Hu!anit" of $$ See (age on Hu!anit" Gain 110 Cte! Disco-er" total
5ea(ons
There are a variety of ways I could format this section depending on how finely I wanted to digest my own
experimentation and the Internets apparent opinions about the various weapons out there. Ideally I would
have some bizzare comparative piece involving the quality of the attack animations, reach, stamina
consumption and, of course, the power of the contestably top tier weapons. I dont, however, have enough
time on my hands now (nor probably will I ever) to make such a comparison. I think the best compromise is
for me to just list a selection of weapons based around where your characters stats are and then let you play
around with the other stuff. This is because your stats largely determine both your damage scaling and what
weapons you can equip and so they present a good bottleneck on which weapons will be practical for you.
Because of the way upgrades work basically Ive decided to split this Preferred Weapons category into five
29
sections. Unspecialized or is for characters who are either at low levels or who are at higher levels but who
have spent most of their points in stats that dont help with weapon strength like Vitality and Endurance
which is not to say these are underpowered characters at all (in fact, at the present time these may be the
strongest overall sort of PvM character for Dark Souls well see what From tinkers with in their patches).
The others, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Faith refer to whichever stat your character has really
porked out on. People have yet to playtest this stuff for Dark Souls but if the mechanics have washed over
from Demons Souls much expect returns on weapon scaling damage to severely decline after you get your
damage stat to 50. In other words, no matter how magic-y you wish to be stop pumping Intelligence at 50
and go and invest in Vitality or Endurance or Resistance or something else. Youll get a lot more out of it.
One thing I didnt list below is that almost all weapons have 100 Critical Damage which is only applied
when you either backstab or parry/riposte a foe (or for bows when you shoot them in the head for
crossbows you wont be able to aim at the head since only bows can be finely aimed using L1, so thatll
never happen with them, really). The only weapons that have more are the Mail Breaker (120), the Rapier
(110), the Dagger and Parrying Dagger (131), the Ghost Blade (127) and the Bandits Knife (147). So I
guess if you want to backstab beat a Bandits Knife out of one of the Undead Assassins near Capra Demon,
who drop them occasionally, or start as a Thief.
Often the table starts with a few variants of the same item on a grey field this is merely to give you a
general perspective of what you options are between closely similar variants of the same weapon. Ive tried
to pick the most normal weapon of its sort for this variant listing which is rarely the strongest overall
choice, so dont take my repetition to mean dominance. Its just there so you can see things like oh it looks
like Occult does a little bit less base damage but scales better, okay, I get it. However, this actually changes
very slightly with some weapon types so dont send me angry emails if I list an Enchanted Schythe but you
look at the variant item and decide hah he made a mistake Magic is better and then you make a magic one
and realize its stats dont line up with the variant items stats exactly and it turns out I was right all along.
Anyway, aside from the variant item at the head of each table the singly listed items are what I think is the
best choice for that weapon, given your stats, overall. All weapons are always listed at their top grade and if
I make a typo and list a weapon thats not at its top grade just assume I meant to do so, there are no cases
where a not-fully-upgraded weapon does more damage than a fully upgraded one of the same type.
Damage is listed as Physical / Magical / Fire / Lightining. Stats are always listed as Strength / Dexterity /
Intelligence / Faith, when there are parentheticals after Strength thats because I thought it would be useful to
list how much Strength the weapon requires two handed to find this number for other weapons just divide
its one handed Strength requirement by 1.5 and then round up to the nearest whole number (reduce by 50%).
The grades of scaling are E, D, C, B, A, and S from least to greatest. The contribution of scaling is relatively
untested at this point, however if mechanics from Demons Souls have carried over you can expect that one
S is worth more than two Cs and that lower base damage weapons with high scaling overtake high base
damage weapons with low scaling typically when your relevant stat reaches 40 or 50 if the weapon scales at
an S or A rate, respectively. Weapons that inherently carry anything other than physcial damage can not be
buffed. Also note that Reg or regular damage is a different type than Slash or Strike.
Bonus refers to special effects like poison, bleed, or toxin or whatever. B. Power is the power of the
bonus, listed as something like 30 to 5/s which reads as 30 points of buildup per hit to five damage per
second once it takes effect. Or, for another example, 40 to 30% which reads as 40 points of buildup per
hit to 30% of their HP taken once built up. Once you play with a bonus effect item these descriptions will
make sense to you. Hum dep. here means Humanity dependent and usually applies to Chaos weapons.
It scales with your banked Humanity and the bonus caps at 10 Humanity a lot more playtesting is needed
to evaluate the effectiveness of all of these sorts of bonus damage.
30
In the Notes section 1H means one handed, 2H means two handed and R means Rolling and S
means Sprinitng. So 1H R R1 shoots a carrot out of your crotch means that if you do a rolling one-handed
R1 attack a carrot will shoot out of your crotch instead of the normal attack animation occurring for that
weapon type. Many unique weapons shoot shockwaves and stuff for certain attacks instead of what their
parent weapons did, so try them out usually abuse of these attacks is limited by them costing your weapon
some durability each time you do them which in turn costs you souls to fix them up. Also I realize many
people are playing this on Xbox and dont have R1 or R2 keys but have shoulder and trigger keys or some
damn thing instead but I dont have an Xbox so Im not going to worry about translating that stuff over and
cluttering up my tables with it.
Youll see a couple of vendors mentioned a lot below. Shiva is a vendor who first appears in the area behind
the sealed door in Darkroot Garden (buy the seal to unlock that door from blacksmith Anrei for 20,000
souls). You have to be a member of the Forest Hunters Covenant for him to sell to you. See page 20 for
information on that covenant. The other vendor of note is Patches, who is back from Demons Souls. To get
him to open his shop requires a lot of work and can be screwed up fairly easily. You will probably first meet
him in the Tomb of the Giants after the coffin slides (on the right), but its possible to meet him in the
Catacombs one time before that if you avoid talking to Rhea, Nico or Vince in Firelink until after you meet
him. Each time you meet him he may ask you if youre a Cleric you must answer NO, even if you are a
Cleric, or Patches will never sell anything to you. Patches hates Clerics. Hell pull some jerk moves on you
as well and each time he does you can make your way back to him and complain about it to get a minor prize
resist the urge to stab him in his gut, though.
31
(
*
S
P
E
C
4
A
#
4
5
E

6eapon
amage
amage T"pe7s8
Scaling
'eq9d Stats
&onus
&% Power
6t%
ur%
+btained
*otes
;ightning
;ongsword D#
200 7 7 22
4eg P /hrust
7 7 7 7
10 10 7 7
7
6
200
1000 Souls fro! .ndre the @lacks!ith
1ire
;ongsword D10
22 22 7 7
4eg P /hrust
7 7 7 7
10 10 7 7
7
Chaos
;ongsword D#
13, 13, 7 7
4eg P /hrust
7 7 7 7
10 10 7 7
Hu! de(.
;ongsword D1#
200 7 7 7
4eg P /hrust
C C 7 7
10 10 7 7
7
4aw
;ongsword D#
13 7 7 7
4eg P /hrust
D D 7 7
10 10 7 7
7
;ightning @andit9s
Fnife D#
10 7 7 7
Slash
7 7 7 7
+ 12 0 0
@leed
60 to 60H
1
200
4are dro( fro! 'ndead .ssassins
Critical Da!age of 1, 0-s the nor! of 1002
Drake Sword D0
200 7 7 7
4eg
7 7 7 7
1+ 10 7 7
7
+
6+0
Shoot the ail off the first dragon. @ring
about 100 arrows. %o(ular starting wea(on.
2H 42 shoots a linear shockwa-e that costs
"ou 60 durabilit".
Drake Sword D#
600 7 7 7
4eg
;ightning
Cla"!ore D#
236 7 7 233
4eg P /hrust
7 7 7 7
1+ 10 7 7
7
+
200
1ound near the first dragon in 'ndead @urg
;ightning
1la!berge D#
2,# 7 7 230
Slash
7 7 7 7
1+ 1 7 7
@leed
6+ to 60H
+
1+0
10,000 Souls fro! Shi-a of the )ast
;ightning
Qweihander D#
6#, 7 7 6+
4eg
7 7 7 7
201+2 10 7 7
7
10
200
1ound in 1irelink Shrine area
1H and 2H 42 is a running slash
;ightning
1lachion D#
22# 7 7 22$
Slash
7 7 7 7
$ 16 7 7
7
2.#
1+0
1ound in @lighttown
Dro(s fro! Cataco!bs Skeletons
;ightning
Shotel D#
22# 7 7 22$
Slash
7 7 7 7
$ 1 7 7
7
1.#
100
Shi-a 10,000. 1ound in Sen9s 1ortress.
Cgnores shields so!ewhat. %o(ular in %-%.
;ightning
)stoc D#
20+ 7 7 20+
4eg P /hrust
7 7 7 7
10 12 7 7
7
6
1#0
1ound to right of start of 8ew ;ondo 4uins.
Can attack fro! behind raised shield.
;ightning
@attle .?e D#
2+1 7 7 2++
4eg
7 7 7 7
12 3 7 7
7

2#0
.ndrei for 1000
Di-ine 4einforced
Club D10
1+2 200 7 7
Strike
D ) 7 C
12 7 7 7
@leed
60 to 60H

100
&ale 'ndead &erchant for 6#0. @est
skeleton (er!a7killer. Stronger than &ace.
;ightning
5inged S(ear D#
26+ 7 7 20
/hrust
7 7 7 7
16 1# 7 7
7
.#
10
1ound near 1irelink Shrine. Can attack fro!
behind a shield. ;onger P slower -s. )stoc.
;ightning
%arti>an D#
220 7 7 22
4eg P /hrust
7 7 7 7
16 12 7 7
7
.#
1+0
1ound in Darkroot Garden in narrow
(assage. 42 attacks are hori>ontal swee(s.
;ightning
Great Sch"the D#
2,# 7 7 230
Slash
7 7 7 7
1 1 7 7
@leed
60 to 60H
#
160
1ound in Cataco!bs.
1astest (olear!.
;ightning
Halberd D#
602 7 7 60+
4eg P /hrust
7 7 7 7
1+ 12 7 7
7
+
200
1ound near the large flight of ste(s near the
.r!ored @oar in 'ndead %arish.
/itanite Catch
%ole D#
130 21, 7 7
4eg
D D D 7
1+ 12 7 7
7
+
200
4are dro( fro! %rowling De!on near
@lacks!ith .ndrei
;ightning
Caestus D#
1+# 1+3 7 7
Strike
7 7 7 7
# 3 7 7
7
0.#
600
.ndrei for 200 souls
Dark Hand
0not u(gradeable2
200 7 7 7
Strike
7 7 7 7
7 7 7 7
7
0.#
$$$
Darkwraith Co-enant. 1H 42 is a grab that
steals Hu!anit" fro! hu!an (la"ers.
Juelaag9s
1ur"sword D#
$0 7 2,0 7
Slash
) @ 7 7
11 16 7 7
Hu! de(.
6.#
+00
1orged b" .ndrei fro! Juelaag9s Soul and a
cur-ed sword D10 0such as a sci!itar2
4e!e!ber that !ost of these ;ightning wea(ons could (otentiall" be swa((ed for 1ire P Chaos P 4aw P @ase D1#, si!ilar to the ;ongsword.
5h" ;ightning instead of 1ireK &ore creatures resist 1ire, es(eciall" late in the ga!e, but "ou do what "ou want budd".
32
S
T
'
E
*
G
T
H
6eapon
amage
amage T"pe7s8
Scaling
'eq9d Stats
&onus
&% Power
6t%
ur%
+btained
*otes
;arge Club D1#
600 7 7 7
Strike
. 7 7 7
2+0132 7 7 7
%oison
60 to 6Ps
11
2#0
4are dro( fro! Cnfested @arbarians
in the entr" to @lighttown.
;ightning ;arge
Club D#
660 7 7 66+
Strike
7 7 7 7
2+0132 7 7 7
4aw ;arge
Club D#
2,+ 7 7 7
Strike
D D 7 7
2+0132 7 7 7
&an7Ser(ent
Greatsword D1#
2,# 7 7 7
4eg
@ 7 7 7
201+2 7 7 7
7
10
600
Dro( fro! Ser(ent Soliders in .rchi-es.
Stone Greatsword D#
222 1#0 7 7
4eg
C C ) 7
002,2 10 7 7
7
13
300
Shi-a for 10,000 or Stone Fnights in Garden.
2H 42 e!its ene!" slowing shockwa-e.
De!on Great
&achete D1#
662 7 7 7
4eg
@ 7 7 7
002,2 7 7 7
7
13
+00
Shi-a for 10,000. 4are dro( fro! Ca(ra
De!ons in De!on 4uins.
Dragon
Greatsowrd D#
#0 7 7 7
4eg
7 7 7 7
#0062 10 7 7
7
2
00
Cho( off the Stone Dragon9s tail in .sk ;ake.
2H 42 e!its shockwa-e and costs #0 durab.
@lack Fnight
Greatsword D#
60, 7 7 7
4eg P /hrust
@ ) 7 7
620222 13 7 7
7
1
600
4are dro( fro! Greatsword @lack Fnights.
Has uni*ue 1H and 2H 42 attack ani!ations.
@utcher
Fnife D1#
22# 7 7 7
4eg
@ 7 7 7
201+2 7 7 7
Steals #H%
(er strike
10
2#0
Dro(s fro! &aneater &ildred. @e in hu!an
for! and run around outside Jeelag9s door.
De!on9s
Greata?e D1#
23# 7 7 7
4eg
. 7 7 7
+0612 7 7 7
7
22
+00
Shi-a for 10,000. 4are dro( fro!
/aurus De!on boss.
Dragon Fing
Greata?e D#
#0 7 7 7
4eg
7 7 7 7
#0062 3 7 7
7
2
00
Cut off the Ga(ing Dragon9s tail.
2H 42 is an .o) !agic nuke.
@lack Fnight
Greata?e D#
61$ 7 7 7
4eg
@ ) 7 7
6+02+2 13 7 7
7
1+
600
4are dro( fro! @lack .?e Fnights.
Cts !o-es all can co!bo fairl" well.
&ace D1#
22, 7 7 7
Strike
@ 7 7 7
12 7 7 7
7

2#0
%atches for 6,000.
1ind in Cataco!bs.
Great
Club D1#
66, 7 7 7
Strike
@ 7 7 7
2301$2 7 7 7
7
12
2#0
1ound in the Great Swa!( near the two rock
tossing @arbarians in the corner
Grant D#
13, 1$# 7 7
Strike
@ . 7 7
#0062 7 7 7
7
2
+00
Dro(A %aladin ;eero"
2H 42 is an .o) shockwa-e
De!on9s Great
Ha!!er D1#
6# 7 7 7
Strike
@ 7 7 7
+0612 7 7 7
7
22
+00
Dro((ed b" .s"lu! De!on if "ou beat hi!
without running awa" first. /r" in 8GD.
Dragon
/ooth D#
6# 7 7 7
Strike
D 7 7 7
002,2 7 7 7
7
13
$$$
1ind in .nor ;ondo.
8e-er loses durabilit".
Gra-elord
Sword D#
632 7 7 7
Slash P /hrust
) ) 7 7
201+2 16 7 7
/o?in
60 to #Ps
1orged fro! 8ito9s Soul and a D10 cur-ed
sword, such as a Sci!itar.
S!ough9s
Ha!er D#
12 7 7 7
Strike
D 7 7 7
#306$2 7 7 7
Steals 10H%
(er strike
13
+00
1orged fro! S!ough9s Soul 0!ust kill hi!
last in the fight2 and D10 ;arge Club
Dragon @one
1ist D#
16# 7 7 7
Strike
. 7 7 7
20012 7 7 7
7
3
$$$
1orged fro! D10 Caestus and Cron Gole!9s
Soul. @adl" under(owered.
8ote that !an" (la"ers find the" get !ore da!age fro! the ite!s with o(tions b" going with ;ightning D# and dro((ing the stat scaling
than sticking with D1# and kee(ing the scaling. S(ec in strength if "ou want to tr" out a huge -ariet" of e*uall" huge wea(ons.
33

E
:
T
E
'
4
T
;
6eapon
amage
amage T"pe7s8
Scaling
'eq9d Stats
&onus
&% Power
6t%
ur%
+btained
*otes
'chigatana D1#
22# 7 7 7
Slash P /hrust
7 @ 7 7
1 1 7 7
@leed
66 to 60H
#
30
Shi-a for #,000.
Dro(s fro! !ale undead -endor in 'ndead
@urg. @u" the good stuff first, ob-iousl".
;ightning
'chigatana D#
2, 7 7 2#2
Slash P /hrust
7 7 7 7
1 1 7 7
@andit9s
Fnife D1#
10 7 7 7
Slash
) @ 7 7
+ 12 7 7
@leed
60 to 60H
1
200
4are dro( fro! 'ndead .ssassins
Critical Da!age of 1, 0-s the nor! of 1002
%riscilla9s
Dagger
120 7 7 7
Slash
7 . 7 7
+ 20 7 7
@leed
20 to #0H
1
100
@eaten out of %riscilla the Crossbreed9s
/ail in the %ainted 5orld.
@alder Side
Sword D1#
200 7 7 7
4eg P /hrust
) @ 7 7
10 1 7 7
7
6
120
4are dro( fro! )lite 'ndead Guards in
'ndead @urg 0the ca(e gu"s2
1alchion D1#
20# 7 7 7
Slash
) @ 7 7
$ 16 7 7
7
2.#
1+0
1ound in @lighttown
Dro(s fro! Cataco!bs Skeletons
%ainting Guardian
Sword D1#
1$0 7 7 7
Slash
) . 7 7
, 20 7 7
@leed
60 to 60H
1.#
100
4are dro( fro! %ainting Guards in
%ainted 5orld or .ria!is
Juelaag9s
1ur"sword D#
$0 7 2,0 7
Slash
) @ 7 7
11 16 7 7
Hu! de(.
6.#
+00
1orged b" .ndrei fro! Juelaag9s Soul and a
cur-ed sword D10 0such as a sci!itar2
5ashing
%ole D1#
22# 7 7 7
Slash P /hrust
D D 7 7
20012 1+ 7 7
@leed
60 to 60H
3
+0
Shi-a for 20,000
;ongest katana, shitt" scaling though
Caito D1#
220 7 7 7
Slash
7 @ 7 7
1 20 7 7
@leed
66 to 60H
#
30
1ound on a @lighttown roof, Mu!( fro! the
long entr" ra!(. &ediu! si>e katana.
4icard9s
4a(ier D1#
1,# 7 7 7
/hrust
) @ 7 7
3 20 7 7
7
2
100
Dro(A 'ndead %rince 4icard.
Strong attacks are !ulti(le *uick thrusts.
Great
Sch"the D1#
2#0 7 7 7
Slash
) @ 7 7
1 1 7 7
@leed
60 to 60H
#
160
1ound in Cataco!bs
;ifehunt
Sch"the D#
2, 7 7 7
Slash
) @ 7 7
1+ 1 7 7
@leed
0 to #0H
+
100
1orged fro! a Sch"the D10 and
%riscilla9s Soul
5hi( D1#
200 7 7 7
4eg
7 @ 7 7
, 1 7 7
7
1.#
200
1ound in @lighttown, dro( down inside the
-ertical concrete tunnel. Cannot backstab.
8otched
5hi( D1#
1$0 7 7 7
4eg
7 @ 7 7
3 1+ 7 7
@leed
66 to 60H
2
200
Dro((ed b" Fing Bere!iah. @e in hu!an
for! with boss unkilled in %ainted 5orld.
Claw D1#
1+2 7 7 7
Slash
) @ 7 7
+ 1 7 7
@leed
60 to 60H
1
1#0
Shi-a for #,000 souls
@lack @ow
of %haris D1#
3# 7 7 7
/hrust
) S 7 7
$ 13 7 7
7
1
100
Dro(s fro! %haris. @e in hu!an for! with
the boss unkilled in Darkroot Garden.
.s with strength, (lease note that !an" (la"ers find the" get !ore da!age fro! the ite!s with o(tions b"
going with ;ightning D# and dro((ing the stat scaling than sticking with D1# and kee(ing the scaling.
34
4
*
T
E
#
#
4
G
E
*
C
E
6eapon
amage
amage T"pe7s8
Scaling
'eq9d Stats
&onus
&% Power
6t%
ur%
+btained
*otes
)nchanted
1alchion D#
13 1#6 7 7
Slash
) ) . 7
$ 16 7 7
7
2.#
1+0
1ound in @lighttown
Dro(s fro! Cataco!bs Skeletons
&agic
1alchion D#
1## 1+, 7 7
Slash
) ) C 7
$ 16 7 7
)nchanted
@andit9s Fnife D#
100 10 7 7
Slash
) ) . 7
+ 12 7 7
@leed
60 to 60H
1
200
4are dro( fro! 'ndead .ssassins
Critical Da!age of 1, 0-s the nor! of 1002
)nchanted @alder
Side Sword D#
1 13 7 7
4eg P /hrust
) ) . 7
10 1 7 7
7
6
120
4are dro( fro! )lite 'ndead Guards in
'ndead @urg 0the ca(e gu"s2
)nchanted
Darksword D#
13 1#6 7 7
4eg
) ) . 7
1+ 1+ 7 7
7
+
200
Co-enantA Darkwraith
)nchanted
Cla"!ore D#
13 1$0 7 7
4eg P /hrust
) ) . 7
1+ 10 7 7
7
+
200
1ound near the first dragon in 'ndead @urg
&oonlight
Greatsword D#
7 1$+ 7 7
4eg
7 7 . 7
1+ 10 7 7
7
+
600
@eat out of the ti( of Seath9s tail.
42 attacks are shockwa-es or orbs.
)nchanted
Shotel D#
13 1#6 7 7
Slash
) ) @ 7
$ 1 7 7
7
1.#
100
Shi-a 10,000. 1ound in Sen9s 1ortress.
Cgnores shields so!ewhat. %o(ular in %-%.
)nchanted
'chigatana D#
1+6 1+, 7 7
Slash P /hurst
) ) @ 7
1 1 7 7
@leed
66 to 60H
#
30
Shi-a for #000. Dro(s fro! &ale
'ndead &erchant in 'ndead @urg.
)nchanted
)stoc D#
16 16$ 7 7
4eg P /hrust
) ) @ 7
10 12 7 7
7
6
1#0
1ound to right of start of 8ew ;ondo 4uins.
Can attack fro! behind raised shield.
Velka9s
4a(ier D#
$0 1# 7 7
4eg P /hrust
) C @ 7
3 1+ 7 7
7
2
160
1ound in %ainted 5orld of .ria!is.
2H 42s are re(laced b" -ertical slashes.
)nchanted
Club D#
1#+ 1+2 7 7
Strike
) ) . 7
10 7 7 7
7
6
2#0
'ndead &erchant for 1#0 souls.
)nchanted
5inged S(ear D#
1#+ 1+0 7 7
/hrust
) ) @ 7
16 1# 7 7
7
.#
10
1ound near 1irelink Shrine.
)nchanted
%arti>an D#
1 13 7 7
4eg P /hrust
) ) @ 7
16 12 7 7
7
.#
1+0
1ound in Darkroot Garden in narrow
(assage. 42 attacks are hori>ontal swee(s.
)nchanted
Halberd D#
1$$ 20 7 7
4eg P /hrust
) ) @ 7
1+ 12 7 7
7
+
200
1ound near the large flight of ste(s near the
.r!ored @oar in 'ndead %arish.
)nchanted Great
Sch"the D#
130 13# 7 7
Slash
) ) . 7
1 1 7 7
@leed
60 to 60H
#
160
1ound in Cataco!bs
)nchanted
5hi( D#
1 13 7 7
4eg
) ) @ 7
, 1 7 7
7
1.#
200
1ound in @lighttown, dro( down inside the
-ertical concrete tunnel. Cannot backstab.
)nchanted
8otched 5hi( D#
16+ 11 7 7
4eg
) ) @ 7
3 1+ 7 7
@leed
66 to 60H
2
200
Dro((ed b" Fing Bere!iah. @e in hu!an
for! with boss unkilled in %ainted 5orld.
)nchanted
Caestus D#
103 111 7 7
Strike
) ) . 7
# 3 7 7
7
0.#
600
.ndrei for 200 souls
)nchanted
Claw D#
11, 120 7 7
Slash
) ) . 7
+ 1 7 7
@leed
60 to 60H
1
1#0
Shi-a for #,000 souls
)nchanted
Co!(osite @ow D#
$3 102 7 7
/hrust
) ) . 7
11 12 7 7
7
1
100
1ound near the little tower that connects
Valle" of Drakes to 8ew ;ondo 4uins.
Cntelligence hea-" characters ha-e a broad choice of light wea(ons with decent scaling to choose between, but don9t generall"
get !uch to choose between a!ong the larger, s(eciali>ed wea(ons that are a-ailable for Strength and De?terit" hea-" characters.
35
)
A
4
T
H
6eapon
amage
amage T"pe7s8
Scaling
'eq9d Stats
&onus
&% Power
6t%
ur%
+btained
*otes
Occult
;ongsword D#
16 1#0 7 7
4eg P /hrust
) D 7 @
10 10 7 7
7
6
200
1000 Souls fro! .ndre the @lacks!ith
Di-ine
;ongsword D10
16# 1+# 7 7
4eg P /hrust
D ) 7 C
10 10 7 7
Occult
@andit9s Fnife D#
$3 10# 7 7
Slash
) D 7 @
+ 12 7 7
@leed
60 to 60H
1
200
4are dro( fro! 'ndead .ssassins
Critical Da!age of 1, 0-s the nor! of 1002
Occult
Darksword D#
1# 1## 7 7
4eg
) D 7 @
1+ 1+ 7 7
7
+
200
Co-enantA Darkwraith
Occult
Cla"!ore D#
13 1$2 7 7
4eg P /hrust
) D 7 @
1+ 10 7 7
7
+
200
1ound near the first dragon in 'ndead @urg
Occult
1alchion D#
1# 1## 7 7
Slash
) D 7 @
$ 16 7 7
7
2.#
1+0
1ound in @lighttown
Dro(s fro! Cataco!bs Skeletons
Occult
Shotel D#
1# 1## 7 7
Slash
) D 7 C
$ 1 7 7
7
1.#
100
Shi-a 10,000. 1ound in Sen9s 1ortress.
Cgnores shields so!ewhat. %o(ular in %-%.
Occult De!on9s
Great .?e D#
202 21# 7 7
4eg
) D 7 .
+0612 7 7 7
7
22
+00
Shi-a for 10,000. 4are dro( fro!
/aurus De!on boss.
Occult
;arge Club D#
216 22# 7 7
Strike
) D 7 @
2+0132 7 7 7
%oison
60 to 6Ps
11
2#0
4are dro( fro! Cnfested @arbarians
in the entr" to @lighttown.
Occult Great
Sch"the D#
1,$ 13, 7 7
Slash
) D 7 @
1 1 7 7
@leed
60 to 60H
#
160
1ound in Cataco!bs
Occult
Caestus D#
10+ 112 7 7
Strike
) D 7 @
# 3 7 7
7
0.#
600
.ndrei for 200 souls
Occult
Claw D#
11+ 122 7 7
Slash
) D 7 @
+ 1 7 7
@leed
60 to 60H
1
1#0
Shi-a for #,000 souls
Occult
;ong @ow D#
+# +, 7 7
/hrust
D D 7 S
$ 1 7 7
7
1
100
1ound in (ath between Darkroot Garden and
@asin. Dro((ed b" skeletons in /o!b of G.
1aith offers the lowest o-erall scaling o(tions, C9-e left out !ost of the wea(ons that onl" scale at C. Onl" the De!on9s Great .?e scales at
an"thing higher than @. &aces and ha!!ers aren9t reall" 1aith wea(ons an" !ore, sur(risingl", as aside fro! the ;arge Club the" scale at C.
36
Specific Advice
E Curing curse E De7aggroing 8%Cs E Don9ts E )arl" e*ui(!ent E 1ar!ing souls E
E . %-& build to :S;2# E Sticking (oints E
Curing Curse
E 1e!ale 'ndead Vendor sells the cureE
The Curse Frogs got you, huh? Pretty nasty little buggers. You probably need to buy a Purging Stone to rid
yourself of the HP penalty. Oswald in the Undead Parish sells them for 4000 souls. You can also get them
from the Female Undead Vendor behind the grate in the shortcut leading down to the depths, its easier to get
to her but she wants 6000 for each one. Later on you can farm them off of the giant angry clams and, if
youve managed to get all the way to Ingward in New Londo Ruins (which is quite far into that ghost hell)
you can buy the Resist Curse Sorcery which does the same thing a stone does and requires 16 Intelligence.
The other option is to trade a Cracked Red Eye Orb to the Hawk Girl who started squawking at you back in
the Asylum when you went near her nest. To get back there you have to have the elevator that goes from the
Undead Parish to Firelink Shrine and back unlocked (just use it once from the Parish and there you go). A
short ways up from Firelink you can jump out onto some roofs. Look around up there for a broken column
you can jump on to. From that column you can make it to the big crows nest, once you get to the nest youll
be asked if you want to Curl up into a ball and once you do the crow will take you back to the Asylum.
You get two stones for every cracked red eye orb you find and there are a few orbs to be had in Firelink
Shrine in a treasure chest that you can get to by jumping out a small window.
I suggest buying a few curse cures before you bother going in to the Depths. Those Curse Frogs reappear in
the Great Hollow and theres boss later on who will curse you as well (if you let him). Most armor has
terrible curse resistance. The only real exceptions that you can get early on are the Antiquated Set you get in
Darkroot Basin and the Crimson Set you find lying around in Blighttown. To get the Antiquated Set you
have to kill the Hydra, walk all the way to the back of his lake avoiding the dropoffs, kill the thing you find
back there, talk to the lady that shows up, the leave the area and come back. Find the lady again at the
lakeshore (look for a white signature), talk to her, say that Yes differences between Sorceries are pretty
interesting. Then you have to leave and come back again, and then hike all the way to the back of Lake
Hyrda where a corpse will have appeared with the Antiquated Set on it.
Moral of the story? Curse is a pain in the ass.
e<aggroing *PCs
E Oswald in the 'ndead %arish will do it for a heft" feeE
Oswald shows up after you ring the Parish bell. Hes the guy that looks like he really wants a hug. One
service he offers is to Cleanse your sins and it costs 2000 souls per soul level for you to do this (so if
youre level 25 itll cost 50,000 souls!). Once you pay for this service your sin counter (which you can see
37
on your stats page) will reset to zero, but more importantly any NPCs youve accidentally struck will stop
being angry at you and any gods whose Covenants youve betrayed will give you another shot at signing up
and showing that youre not a jerk. There are obviously a few bugs with this process so if theres a particular
NPC whose stuff you need or a particular Covenant you really want to do try to get it right the first time.
on9ts
E Co!!on !istakes E
This is just a list of stuff I suggest you not do, which I will hopefully add to as different things become an
issue in Dark Souls for the general population:
Dont eat Firekeeper Souls. You can give these to Firekeepers or to Covenant leaders to strengthen
your Estus flasks. Theyre only worth five humanity if you eat them which you could get a number
of other ways. Estus is precious!
Dont bash everything you see. Many of the vendors look pretty nasty when you first meet them
and some NPCs are trapped in a vulnerable position and wont be happy if your clumsy ass cuts their
arm off trying to get them out. The rule of thumb is that if you cant lock on, dont attack. Try a roll.
Dont be stubborn. If being mobile and dodging isnt working try tanking up with Poise and heavy
armor. If your heavy armor is getting you killed take it off. Dark Souls will often require you to go
against your first instinct to get past certain obstacles, so experiement.
Dont let Petrus live too long. This is the jerk cleric guy in Undead Parish. After you buy what you
want from him its not a bad idea to just kill him as he can often kill another miracle vendor you
probably want access to later on if you dont do the plot points involving that just right.
Dont run around everywhere Hollowed! This is a big change from Demons Souls. There are lots
of special NPC invasions you miss if youre never in human form and there are tons of people who
want to play multiplayer but dont have any humans around to make that happen on the other end.
Dont be too stingy with your Humanity if you have five or so saved up thats fine, start spending
your extra ones and have a little fun.
Dont overspecialize. I think I covered this pretty well in the stats section but theres absolutely no
reason to have 75 Intelligence and only 20 Vitality. Slow your roll a little bit and at least keep
Endurance and Vitality roughly in line with whatever stat it is you think is going to kill monsters best.
Earl" Equipment
E . leg u( earl" on E
The first areas are definitely the easiest ones, but you probably wont realize this your first time through. If
you need a little help early on here are a few things you can collect to ease things up a bit:
The Drake Sword. Go buy a bow (not a crossbow) and make sure you have the stats to use it, if you
dont then get them. Halfway across the dragon bridge on the right there are some stairs going down,
sprint to those stairs before you get burnt up. Look around under there for a vantage point where you
can see the dragons tail wiggling around. Get as close as you can, then take out your bow, make sure
your arrows are equipped, and after readying the bow press L1 to enter fine aiming mode. Shoot the
tail until you get a message saying youve gotten the sword. For most people this takes about 40
38
arrows but for me it took nearly 100 so I suggest buying about 125 good quality arrows before
coming down here the male Undead Merchant back in the Burg sells arrows. The sword requires
16 Strength and 10 Dexterity to use its basically the Crescent Falchion of Dark Souls. If you dont
plan to ever have the stats to use it then I suggest getting to work upgrading whatever weapon it is
you do want to use post haste.
The Hollow Solider Shield. Its light, it blocks 100% of incoming physical damage, and its free.
You can get it as a rare drop from the Undead Soliders in either the Parish or the Burg, any of the
ones carrying a large triangular shield can drop it (spear or sword). It has one of the highest Stability
ratings in the game so its well worth upgrading (see page 26 for why Stability is important). If you
cant get it to drop you can find a Knight Shield on a little projection in the maze of hallways
attached to the area you fought the armored boar in.
The Heal Miracle. Petrus of Thorolund is hanging around in the Firelink area. Hell want you to
join the Way of White before selling to you you can always leave it and come back to it later if you
want (at the cost of some souls see the introduction to the Covenants section on page 17 for more
info about that) but for now you might as well. Heal gives you six charges every time you rest at a
bonfire and requires 12 Faith to use. For most of the early part of the game that will more than
double the amount of healing that you can do between bonfires. You need at least 10 Attunement to
have a spell slot to equip heal to (Attune your magic at the bonfire to do this). Great Heal requires
14 Faith but only carries one charge so its not worth going out of your way for.
Basic sorcery. The morose blue knight guy in Firelink is staring at some steps. Go down those steps
then look around by the bars for another set of steps winding off the other way. At the bottom of
these is an elevator. This elevator takes you to an area of the game you wont actually do much in
until nearly the end, but if you go down there and exit the stone building you can find one more
staircase (and an Estoc!) on your right. It stops abruptly so dont run off of it into oblivion, theres a
jailed vendor there who can do some smithing and who will sell you a basic Cataylst and two Soul
Arrow spells for not many souls. The basic Soul Arrow has 30 charges, shoots quickly, does okay
damage, and only needs 10 Intelligence to use (plus one Attunement slot as described above in The
Heal Miracle. Itll give you a more options against clusters of enemies.
Basic pyromancy. Pyromancies dont require any stats for you to use and they get most of their
power from non-scaling stuff as well which makes them great for low level characters. You meet
your first Pyro trainer just after the room with the two butchers in the Depths. The door that leads
down there is one you found that you couldnt open after the first dragon a bit come back to it once
you find the Basement Key. Down there youll find a guy trapped in a pot, free him with a roll and
then go find him back at Firelink shrine to get going on this. By the way, No, you dont have a
problem with magic.
)arming Souls
E 5hite (hanto!ing E /hanks, &r. Dragon E Darkroot hedgecli((ing E /he three Stooges E
One of the best ways to get souls early on is to put down your white soul sign (using the White Soapstone
that you get when you first talk to Solaire of Astora on the big porch that the dragon bridge leads down on to)
and run around killing mooks while waiting for someone to summon you. Help that person kill the boss and
you get half of the souls (they still get the full amount) that the boss normally gives! Popular places to do
this early on are near the entry to Taurus Demon, near the door leading to Capra Demon, and the big one is
the bonfire near the slime hallway before Gaping Dragon. The slimes can be farmed for regular and Green
Titanite while you wait to get summoned in for the last one, which will net you 12,500 souls upon death.
39
After you make it halfway across the dragon bridge once and open up the ladder shortcut down the stairs
there you can use the dragon to farm souls. To do this you start at that Bonfire under the ladder, go up the
ladder, then up to and out of the stairs onto the bridge again. The spearmen will press on you at the top but if
you just walk steadily through them its usually easy to slip past. Once you get past them sprint to the front
of the opposite nook from the one that has the stairs in it and the dragon will roast the bridge, killing all the
Hollowed along it and netting you 300 souls. You can then sprint back across the gap, go down the stairs,
rest at the bonfire and redo the whole process. Sometimes the Hollowed drop items usually these are just
bullshit pieces of armor but they do drop the Hollowed Solider Shield (which is nice) and once in a great
long while a Titanite Shard, so if theres an item glowing there you may want to risk picking it up if you
havent yet amassed a ton of souls.
If you cant seem to get summoned regularly probably the best place to grind souls out early on is the
Darkroot garden. You find this place past the smith under the Parish. Theres a large demon just beyond this
smith who you can ignore for now and just sprint past into the lush area beyond. In this area youll get
attacked by bipedal bushes that give 100 souls per kill be warned that they have a grab attack that will kill
you through your shield, though, so if you see them rear back and raise both arms either get far away or else
hit them quickly to prevent this attack (and if they do grab you with it wail on L1 and R1 and maybe you can
get out before they finish you off). Keep going into this area, mostly straight, until you come to a big stone
door with a glowing seal on it. Whack the stone wall to the left of this seal (there will probably be a message
showing you the right place) to open a secret door leading to a bonfire. From this bonfire you can run
around slaying bushes. The bushes also drop lots of purple and red moss which is used to cure poison and
bleeding, and youll need plenty of those soon anyway so this is a good place to farm.
The last place is actually through that stone door with the glowing seal I mentioned above. To open that door
go back to the smith and buy the seal off of him for 20,000 souls. Just inside the door is a sorcerer who starts
madly casting soul arrows at you, but he isnt the only one in there. All of the foes inside have a lot of HP,
do good damage, and they often work together, so instead of fighting them were just going to make them
run off a cliff. The way I do this is to enter the door from the secret bonfire, run straight past the sorcerer and
around the flat log lying there on the ground, then run back toward the stone steps I came in on. This will
usually cause the sorcerer, a cleric, and a nearly invisible thief to start chasing you these are the Three
Stooges. Instead of running up the stairs run onto the narrow ledge to their right, all the way to the back, so
youre standing on a foot of earth next to a steep cliff. The Stooges usually decide that the best way to get
you when youre standing there is to run up the stairs, then sprint off of them over your head and fall into the
abyss, netting you 2000 souls each. Sometimes the thief gets lost in the woods and sometimes the sorcerer
just stands there blasting away at the cliff but the Bonfire is right there so if you only get 2000 instead of
6000 just go back to the fire and run your circuit again. Note that theres also a Bandit back there but that he
only gives 1000 souls and is too far away to be worth messing with. Also note that theres an invisible archer
back there if youre in human form this one drops a rare bow so dont trick him into running off the cliff.
Later on some people farm Silver Knights or certain demons in the Demon Ruins but the Stooges is probably
faster than either of those methods. If theres a particular rare drop youre looking for, though, you might as
well farm those monsters (once you have increased item drop gear see page 29 for that) instead of the
Stooges all day.
40
A PvM &uild to =S#>-
E How to build "our stats earl" on for good benefit E
What follows is of course just a loose suggestion. If you find a particular item you want to use (a spear or
halberd maybe?) you could stop between any of these steps and build up the stats for them. The following,
however, represent for most people the major changes in the abilities for their characters to handle more
serious threats or to deal with certain foes that their default setups arent well equipped for. Depending on
what character you start with you will already have some of the suggested stats more than covered by the
time you get to that particular step. Thats fine, of course. You can start with any character and still do this.
You can also leave any of the below steps out if you dont want to do a certain type of thing with your
character and still be able to get through the game just fine, of course.
)irst Step Second Step Third Step )outh Step )ifth Step Si?th Step
Shield, bow, arrows Get the Drake Sword Get Heal &iracle Get Soul .rrow Cncrease Vit P )nd Get %"ro!anc"
Stats Stats Stats Stats Stats Stats
Vit 77 Vit 77 Vit 77 Vit 77 Vit .@<>/ Vit 1+720
.tt 77 .tt 77 .tt ./ .tt .> .tt 12 .tt .1
)nd 77 )nd 77 )nd 77 )nd 77 )nd .@<>/ )nd 1+720
Str 77 Str .@ Str 1+ Str 1+ Str 1+ Str 1+
De? .> De? 12 De? 12 De? 12 De? 12 De? 12
4es 77 4es 77 4es 77 4es 77 4es 77 4es 77
Cnt 77 Cnt 77 Cnt 77 Cnt ./ Cnt 10 Cnt 10
1th 77 1th 77 1th .> 1th 12 1th 12 1th 12
@u" a100H (h"sical
blocking shield, short
bow, and 12# standard
arrows off 'ndead &.
Go under the dragon
bridge and shoot the
dragons9 tail off with
"our bow
/alk to %etrus in
1irelink. Boin 5a" of
5hite, bu" Heal and a
chea( /alis!an
Go down the 1irelink
ele-ator, find 4ickert in
8ew ;ondo, bu"
Catal"st and S. .rrow.
Grind souls, get stats.
1ree ("ro!ancer fro!
butchers in De(ths.
Visit hi! in 1irelink for
1la!e and s(ells.
Stic!ing Points
E Ha-ing trouble with a section or a bossK E
Part of the satisfaction of Dark Souls is figuring out how to overcome obstacles on your own so I suggest
using this section sparingly. However, if theres something you cant get past check in here and maybe
theres some advice.
Taurus Demon: The first demon you fight out of the Asylum. When you enter his area do a 180 and
go up the ladder to take out the jerks up there. Then go across the bridge until the demon shows up.
Run back to the tower and climb up it, then quickly go to the edge, lock on the demon (who will be
staring up at you angrily) and run off the edge and attack him while you fall. These diving attacks do
huge damage even with crap weapons. Run away to the other end of the bridge to bait him away
from the ladder, then rush past him when you can and repeat the cycle. If you dawdle around on top
of the ladder tower hell jump up there to fight you so hurry up once you get up there.
The Dragon Bridge: Youll probably get hit but your goal is not to die. First draw the soldiers out
41
from off the bridge with your bow or whatever. The raise your shield and spring (hold O) across the
bridge aiming for the right side. Halfway across there are stairs in a widened part of the bridge. If
you can get into that widened part you will only lose about of your health instead of all of it, if you
can get down the stairs you wont get hurt at all. Down the stairs theres a ladder you can kick down
to loop back to an earlier bonfire and create a really useful shortcut, but you have to make it over the
bridge (halfway!) at least once.
Gargoyles: Work hard on killing one first before going after the other. Bring some spells, like Soul
Arrow, or even throwing knives or firebombs or whatever for when they get close together and
overlap their fields of (literally!) fire. Stay away from the edges of the roof. If youre in human form
youll either be able to summon other players or Solaire of Astora, either of whom being present
should make this fight very easy.
Curse Frogs: After you kill the Giant Rat in the sewers stick to the left side of the effluent ramp to
make it over the gap and avoid dealing with the goddamn curse frogs entirely. Youll also have to be
careful to not fall down any holes while roaming around. However, there is a really nice ring down
there (heals 30HP every time you kill an enemy) so its worth going through the area once really well.
If you get cursed see the beginning of this section (page 37) for help.
Gaping Dragon: Before you start the fight look around upstairs and kill the Channeler thats up
there or hell cast magic at you and actually buff the dragon during the upcoming fight. The dragon
itself is really quite easy once you figure her out. Learn the range of her flop attack, bait her into
doing it, and then charge around to the cleft between her back leg and tail to get a few shots in. When
she flies up into the air or pukes run far away and restart this process. Try to chop her tail off first
(attack the low part instead of the butt part) to take away her most dangerous attack, the tail sweep.
Solaire will help out for this fight again, too, if you are in Human form and find his soul sign.
Moonlight Butterfly: Shes easy. If you dick around for a while shell land and you can wail on her.
If you dont want to mess with that bring firebombs or some Pyromancy.
Hydra: Hes actually quite easy. Run to the lakeshore with a shield equipped that has good Stability
and 100% physical resistance. Hide behind that rock there and lock on to the Hydra while keeping
your shield up. Wait for him to finish a volley of beams and then leave your rock shelter and
approach the shore. When he roars back up a bit and watch his head plunge into the earth in front of
you. Cut that head off with a few swipes. Repeat until his heads are gone. The last head (on the far
right) dives across the shore and youll have to bait it into attacking you as far inland as possible so
you can get close enough to hit it while slogging through as little water as possible to reach it.
The Catacombs: Rushing the necromancers and killing them first or using a divine weapon on the
skeletons will prevent them from resurrecting every time you kill them.
The two knight bowmen in Anor Londo: People seriously hate this part. Lock on to the right one
and run up the left side with your shield raised so that if you get attacked you get pushed into the wall
instead of to your death. Often times doing this will cause one of them to leap to their deaths and
then the other isnt so bad. If you have the Fog Ring or the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring they have a
much harder time locating you to begin their attacks and this section gets much easier.
Ornstein and Smough: Try to keep either the pillars or Smough between you and Ornstein while
you work on killing the fat guy off first. Hes vulnerable to lightning damage. Once you kill him
Ornstein will get more powerful and you kill Smough but his attacks will also get slower so you
should then concentrate on rolling away rather than blocking. There are different rewards for killing
either one last (requiring at least one NG+ run to get everything) if you want to kill Smough last
just keep dashing from one end of the room to the other to draw Orenstein along with you and fight
with him while Smough keeps up. Orenstein is vulnerable to fire damage. Bringing your own
lightning resist gear to deal with Orenstiens attacks is also a good idea.
The Tomb of Giants: Get the Skull Lantern or buy the Light Spell, or, if youre willing to do
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everything backwards, work your way into the Demon Ruins to get the Sunlight Maggot. Now you
can see! Oh boy! To use the Lantern hold it in your left hand and hold down L1.
Ceaseless Discharge: Get the one side, get the other, then charge to the middle and take that out in
there too. Many people dont realize theres a middle section, somehow.
The Four Kings: All attacks here do physical and magical damage so bring a ring or something to
help with the magical portion. This is an extremely hard fight. If you want to win it straight up
youll have to know all of their attacks. Most of the physical ones are best dealt with by staying very
close and rolling. The homing purple orb can only be outrun, its unblockable and will chase you
relelentlessly and is a real pain as it often gives the Kings room to breath that you dont want them to
have. Whenever a king spins around and starts glowing run away as quickly as you can as hes either
going to make a huge blast or try to grab you and both of these will probably one shot you if he
catches you with them. Its important to try to kill one king at a time here even though they respawn
(youll still be making progress against their overall health bar) as it takes time for them to respawn
and during that time youll have less to deal with. The alternative approach to all of this is to put on
the heaviest armor you have, augmented by Havels Ring and possibly the Wolf Ring for more poise
and just wail on them like you were playing Diablo, healing yourself with Estus when you need to let
your stamina bar refill.
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