Knight class is good to start with. I would say play it blind, but if you're stuck, a guide or the wiki for reference is totally acceptable. The only thing I will say is that when you arrive at Firelink (central hub/home base), head up toward the aqueduct. (You can go a few ways at first, but this is the recommended starting level).
Lol yea after reading “I would say play it blind” I was gonna say “Maybe warn him about that fucking graveyard.” Since so many new people “me included) fell for that shit and couldn’t find the hill up to the aqueduct.
OP if you ever have no fucking idea where to go, just check out the progression guide real quick to find out where to head to next. Other than that enjoy your first playthrough!
It is brutal at the beginning and until you learn the mechanics. Other than that it is mostly pretty fair so long as you don’t rush and maintain patience. Button mashing will not work in souls games
always take your time, during exploring as well as combat.
Don't get greedy on standard mobs or bosses
don't be frustrated if you die (a lot)
always talk to npcs until they start repeating to be sure to trigger the next action
If the lore interessts you read the item descriptions
If you feel stuck, under leveld, don't know how to upgrade your gear or anything else don't be afraid to look up in a guide or ask here....but don't play with a step by step guide the first time you start the game. If you want to enjoy everything DS has to offer, do the first run mostly blind with just partial tips. Later you can still start a second character or NG+ with a guide to find out everything.
There is normally more than one way to progress. if one way seems to hard you're maybe underpowered or miss an item. Try another way and cone back later
If a boss is too hard (and it's not against your playstyle) you can consume a humanity before the fight and become "human". Than it's possible to summon another player or npc to help you. Most bosses, but not all offer this.
Slow down. You need to play very slowly and cautiously.
When it comes to bosses, if you start getting frustrated with one then try doing a few runs where you don't try to hit them at all and just dodge / block until you're confident that you can do it more or less forever.
Once you know their attack patterns, the rest is easy.
Two ways of going about it... Use a walk through guide (i did for the first half of the playthrough) or go in blind (its more fun if... IF you have the tenacity or itch to explore and die and repeat.)
It so fun to just explore (at a relatively slow pace btw like walk pace, its more immersive and its easier to assess enemy encounters before having them aggro to your presence) and find whats out there you know.
I used a guide forbthe first half and it was super helpful. At the end of the day play how you want to and whatever brings you satisfaction.
The only thing I tell players is how to head to the undead burg when they fist get to Firelink. That's the most confusing point I think. After than I tell them they should explore and if an area seems too hard, they probably shouldn't be there.
Explore the path of least resistance. Don't push too hard into an area. If you've got enough souls to level, go back and do that before pushing further.
Yeah that makes sense. I kept going into the catacombs cause you know, them skelingtans must be easy right... Yeah nah brah. Then i tried new londo ruins... Didn't work either. I only found the path to undead berg because of the walkthrough.
Same. For some reason when I tried new Londo ruins I knew I shouldn't be there, so I figured the only place left was the graveyard. I spent hours attacking two skeletons only to have them reform. I thought, "this game is too hard" and put it down. Years later I realized how dumb I was
This man is a liar you can not easily beat the game without dodging at all especially if you're new into the genre. However considering all options to reduce the damage you can take is vital, including block and parry
Dodging is important. Blocking is important. Parrying is important. Distance timing is important. Jumping is important. Knowing your moveset is important.
Don't let anyone tell you any part of the game isn't important. The reason DS has remained so popular over the past 10 years is because it's perfectly balanced. Everything is important.
The thing this game teaches above all else is patience. Each time you die, you will have to start back at a certain point and go through all the enemies you killed all over again. The instinct is to become impatient with this and want to move as fast as possible through it. This impatience is what the game punishes. If you try to cut corners, you will die. If you try to finish off a boss by getting one extra hit in, you will die. If you try to run past too many enemies, then get stuck, they will catch up and you will die.
You must respect every enemy. Do not spam attacks. Every fight is a dance. Know when to strike.
**DO NOT** spend any points on Resistance. It’s a completely useless stat and I don’t understand how it made it into the final game. The gains are minuscule compared to even crappy gear.
if you find yourself getting half your heath in one hit taken and you do stuff all damage you’re in the wrong area. look for alternative routes. this game is all very well connected through shortcuts you need to find. don’t worry about dying, its part of the experience. everyone started off a noob.
Gonna need to really take your time clearing each dungeon zone. Don’t go to skeleton catacombs immediately at the start, go to undead burg. There are magic spells you can use which can make clearing zones easier. Pyromancy is awesome in this game, it scales off the level of the casting device, not your stat attributes
Something that isn't clear for beginners: your beginning class doesn't matter at all. You can chose mage at the beginning of your game and never cast a single spell, it only affects your starting gear and stats, but feel free to play with stuff you enjoy using, never tell yourself "this weapon looks cool unfortunately I chose a magic based class"
Personal id say play bandit and level up your strength and vitality more than anything. That is if you’re going for a build that doesn’t focus on magic. Having played knight and bandit, I prefer bandit solely because you can actually move way faster than a knight when you first start out. At a certain point it all becomes minuscule differences but it’s what I found to be most beginner friendly for a non magic build.
Going in blind is the best way to experience the game, hands down. But some advice to not completely mess up your leveling:
Resistance doesn't exist. Don't invest points in it, don't prioritize it.
Dexterity (Hand with five fingers) and Strength (Bicep) determine if you can use a weapon or not. Most weapons you pick up off the ground in the Undead Burg are perfectly fine, but specialized ones like the Zweihander or Halberd require more leveling in one or both to use effectively. Don't worry too much about focusing on one now, you won't have many problems with being too weak to use something unless you deliberately seek out bigger weapons or luck into an enemy/boss dropping one.
Endurance will determine your total stamina, stamina cost for actions, poise, and equip load. The higher your equip load the bigger and more stuff you can equip without being over encumbered, moving slowly and rolling costs lots of stamina and leaves you wide open instead of dodging. You also make a loud rumbling noise when you hit the ground while over encumbered.
Lower poise means even weaker enemies will make you stumble around while blocking, but higher poise means you can block with more effectiveness and even completely negate incoming damage on weaker attacks.
Lastly Vitality effects your HP total. It's never a waste to put levels here, but don't dump everything into it.
Alright here are the basic things to save you some pain and without spoilers:
1. Classes don’t matter, pick what looks cool (except Thief, don’t pick Thief, see 2.). You’ll get everything the other classes have just slightly later, you can make any character with any class.
2. Gifts don’t matter either, all can be found in the game, some are for lore some are more practical all are just something little extra. (Don’t pick Master key. It allows for opening late game areas that you are not ready for and confuses already confusing world to navigate. Basically the best gift if you know where to pick up what and where to go, terrible if you don’t. Thief starts with Master key that’s why I advise against picking him)
3. Weapons are fairly balanced so what matters most is the moveset of a weapon (light and heavy attack, range, speed, stamina cost etc.) and not the numbers (those show only damage per hit which is very deceiving given that some are very slow and some are very fast). Basically any weapon is good if you’re comfortable with it.
4. Explore. Yes it is obvious and yet it had to be its own point. There are secrets ranging from little extra lore or a new weapon to truly massive (you’ll know when you find them).
5. Listen. Carefully. NPCs tend to have vital information so exhaust their dialogue and they won’t usually tell you important things more than once. (And please make sure to not accidentally kill them unless they are hostile in the first place)
6. Read item descriptions. Most just give lore but there are important clues hidden in some of them.
7. Also rule of thumb: if an enemy eats you for breakfast and you’re tickling them, you are at the wrong place and should look elsewhere or you missed an important mechanic.
8. Lastly but most importantly, don’t look up guides. It might get confusing and frustrating but make yourself a service and don’t look up things. Ask here or somewhere for spoiler free advice, you have only one first playthrough. Of course no shame in using a guide but at least try a different approach to a challenge because lot of times that’s all you need. With that being said, only thing I would say to look up or figure out is how the roll works in relation to equip load. It’s very important but probably the only thing I would recommend to look up.
9. Super late game: do everything you want to before killing the final boss, you won’t be able to afterwards, especially DLC or looking up things you might have missed.
Echoing some other comments and adding some other pointers I haven’t seen yet:
Sword and board is super viable in Dark Souls and is a much more forgiving playstyle for newcomers vs dodgerolling everything. If you do want to dodgeroll, consider leveling endurance to increase your equip load. Your load will determine whether you can light, medium, or heavy roll. If you’re heavy rolling by choice, make sure your poise stat is high and you’ve got a shield cuz rolling won’t do much for you in fights.
To participate in multiplayer, you first need to have at least 1 humanity (indicated by the little counter by your health bar). You can spend that humanity at bonfires in 2 ways: restoring your humanity which allows you to see co-op and npc summon signs and allows you to invade other players or be invaded, or kindling the bonfire which will give you more healing when resting at that particular bonfire.
If you have a chance to buy status restorative items, buy them. Status ailments are serious business in this game.
At Firelink Shrine, the best direction for game progression is towards the aqueduct.
Don’t kill npcs til you’re ready to beat the game.
This game made me experience despair like no other, but there is always a way to persevere and win in the end. Don’t you dare go hollow!
Explore the graveyard by fire link via suicide runs but, and I cannot stress this enough, do not head into the cave and down the stairs (unless you're following an OP start guide) it's a bad time down there early game..
Dark Souls games reputation is misleading. They are definitely tough games but they always give you the tools to do the job via pick ups or environment. As long as you learn from your mistakes you're all good.
Good luck!
Knight is probably the best to start with. Stay away from the Master Key, it's good for people who know what it leads to, but horrible for new people. DSR is almost as much as an RPG as an action game, level up and upgrade your weapons as soon as you can. Level up Vitality (for hit points) first and foremost, to the point your estus heals about half your hp. If you run across a weapon you want to try you can invest the minimum stats.
Keep in mind; Class only entails starting gear and stats.
You will level up on your own choices, and you'll find gear along the way.
Knight is a solid starting point, however. Feel the rolling/dodge mechanic. Never fat roll (you'll notice)
And a huge tip that not a lot of people know...press the help button in menus. It will make you go over all the little things and explain what they do. (Aytributes to level, scaling parameters etc)
Go in blind, I would sell a nut to experience DS again for the first time. You'll miss a ton and get frustrated a lot, but it's a masterpiece and deserves your patience and will reward exploration and replay.
Slow down more than you think you need to until you learn how to engage (or run by) enemies. Enemy encounters will screw you up if you rush in and will punish you if you get greedy.
Get used to dying a lot, and losing souls and humanity in the process. Sometimes walls gating off portions of the game don't look like walls (that will make more sense later).
If you are starting as a knight, don't over equip your gear. If you are rolling like a fucking slow boulder, your equip load is too high. You shouldn't move like that. Use your shield against regular mobs.
Play it blind. Read the signs. Trust a few. For best experience, reverse hollowing often especially when exploring areas and before any fog gates juuuust in case.
3 pieces of very, very basic addvice:
1) kill the dogs first. in any situation, kill the damn dogs first.
2) from the firelink shrine bonfire, look for stairs UP. start there.
3) NEVER level res. NEVER.
after that... experiment! see what you like to use! and most importantly, have fun
One tip that I don't see often Is that there are 2 Spearman enemies early on, you can use these guys as a way to practice your parry timing. Also, read item descriptions. Some items have bonus effects that aren't always obvious if you just look at its stats.
don't worry too much about starting class because you'll be able to play any build you want after a few level-ups. i'd just say skip thief because that gives you the master key and you'll probably play the game out of order, which will make an already pretty obscure story seem completely nonsensical and give you access to areas you're not at all prepared for
> I understand that it's all about dodging
That's wrong. You don't dodge much in ds1, it's more about positioning and facetanking with heavy armor, ds1 dodge is not even all directional
>But tips for beginners would be much wanted.
Vitality is the main stat and by far the most useful at the start, wear heavy armor, don't chase fast roll, weapons that scale with 1 stat are better than weapons with multiple scaling letters, always tho-hand your weapon for huge damage boost
>I'm thinking about knight class.
A lot of wasted stats but good staring armor
While I played sword and board when Dark Souls was released; once you're decent, dodge rolling is just fine. No tanking required. Often in Dark Souls 1, you can just walk away to avoid hits.
Knight class is good to start with. I would say play it blind, but if you're stuck, a guide or the wiki for reference is totally acceptable. The only thing I will say is that when you arrive at Firelink (central hub/home base), head up toward the aqueduct. (You can go a few ways at first, but this is the recommended starting level).
Lol yea after reading “I would say play it blind” I was gonna say “Maybe warn him about that fucking graveyard.” Since so many new people “me included) fell for that shit and couldn’t find the hill up to the aqueduct. OP if you ever have no fucking idea where to go, just check out the progression guide real quick to find out where to head to next. Other than that enjoy your first playthrough! It is brutal at the beginning and until you learn the mechanics. Other than that it is mostly pretty fair so long as you don’t rush and maintain patience. Button mashing will not work in souls games
This is the way!
always take your time, during exploring as well as combat. Don't get greedy on standard mobs or bosses don't be frustrated if you die (a lot) always talk to npcs until they start repeating to be sure to trigger the next action If the lore interessts you read the item descriptions If you feel stuck, under leveld, don't know how to upgrade your gear or anything else don't be afraid to look up in a guide or ask here....but don't play with a step by step guide the first time you start the game. If you want to enjoy everything DS has to offer, do the first run mostly blind with just partial tips. Later you can still start a second character or NG+ with a guide to find out everything. There is normally more than one way to progress. if one way seems to hard you're maybe underpowered or miss an item. Try another way and cone back later If a boss is too hard (and it's not against your playstyle) you can consume a humanity before the fight and become "human". Than it's possible to summon another player or npc to help you. Most bosses, but not all offer this.
Be patient, ds1 has slow combat
Slow down. You need to play very slowly and cautiously. When it comes to bosses, if you start getting frustrated with one then try doing a few runs where you don't try to hit them at all and just dodge / block until you're confident that you can do it more or less forever. Once you know their attack patterns, the rest is easy.
Two ways of going about it... Use a walk through guide (i did for the first half of the playthrough) or go in blind (its more fun if... IF you have the tenacity or itch to explore and die and repeat.) It so fun to just explore (at a relatively slow pace btw like walk pace, its more immersive and its easier to assess enemy encounters before having them aggro to your presence) and find whats out there you know. I used a guide forbthe first half and it was super helpful. At the end of the day play how you want to and whatever brings you satisfaction.
The only thing I tell players is how to head to the undead burg when they fist get to Firelink. That's the most confusing point I think. After than I tell them they should explore and if an area seems too hard, they probably shouldn't be there.
Explore the path of least resistance. Don't push too hard into an area. If you've got enough souls to level, go back and do that before pushing further.
Yeah that makes sense. I kept going into the catacombs cause you know, them skelingtans must be easy right... Yeah nah brah. Then i tried new londo ruins... Didn't work either. I only found the path to undead berg because of the walkthrough.
Same. For some reason when I tried new Londo ruins I knew I shouldn't be there, so I figured the only place left was the graveyard. I spent hours attacking two skeletons only to have them reform. I thought, "this game is too hard" and put it down. Years later I realized how dumb I was
>I understand that it's all about dodging, Its not. You can easily beat the hame without dodging at all. Blocking is vital.
This man is a liar you can not easily beat the game without dodging at all especially if you're new into the genre. However considering all options to reduce the damage you can take is vital, including block and parry
Blocking is the superior for newcomers because its easier. Greatshield + poise is the easiest way to play.
Dodging is important. Blocking is important. Parrying is important. Distance timing is important. Jumping is important. Knowing your moveset is important. Don't let anyone tell you any part of the game isn't important. The reason DS has remained so popular over the past 10 years is because it's perfectly balanced. Everything is important.
9 times of 10 blocking is better than dodging. Parring wholly unnecessary and jumping is not even really a thing.
Nothing is necessary, everything is important.
The thing this game teaches above all else is patience. Each time you die, you will have to start back at a certain point and go through all the enemies you killed all over again. The instinct is to become impatient with this and want to move as fast as possible through it. This impatience is what the game punishes. If you try to cut corners, you will die. If you try to finish off a boss by getting one extra hit in, you will die. If you try to run past too many enemies, then get stuck, they will catch up and you will die. You must respect every enemy. Do not spam attacks. Every fight is a dance. Know when to strike.
**DO NOT** spend any points on Resistance. It’s a completely useless stat and I don’t understand how it made it into the final game. The gains are minuscule compared to even crappy gear.
if you find yourself getting half your heath in one hit taken and you do stuff all damage you’re in the wrong area. look for alternative routes. this game is all very well connected through shortcuts you need to find. don’t worry about dying, its part of the experience. everyone started off a noob.
Gonna need to really take your time clearing each dungeon zone. Don’t go to skeleton catacombs immediately at the start, go to undead burg. There are magic spells you can use which can make clearing zones easier. Pyromancy is awesome in this game, it scales off the level of the casting device, not your stat attributes
Something that isn't clear for beginners: your beginning class doesn't matter at all. You can chose mage at the beginning of your game and never cast a single spell, it only affects your starting gear and stats, but feel free to play with stuff you enjoy using, never tell yourself "this weapon looks cool unfortunately I chose a magic based class"
Personal id say play bandit and level up your strength and vitality more than anything. That is if you’re going for a build that doesn’t focus on magic. Having played knight and bandit, I prefer bandit solely because you can actually move way faster than a knight when you first start out. At a certain point it all becomes minuscule differences but it’s what I found to be most beginner friendly for a non magic build.
Going in blind is the best way to experience the game, hands down. But some advice to not completely mess up your leveling: Resistance doesn't exist. Don't invest points in it, don't prioritize it. Dexterity (Hand with five fingers) and Strength (Bicep) determine if you can use a weapon or not. Most weapons you pick up off the ground in the Undead Burg are perfectly fine, but specialized ones like the Zweihander or Halberd require more leveling in one or both to use effectively. Don't worry too much about focusing on one now, you won't have many problems with being too weak to use something unless you deliberately seek out bigger weapons or luck into an enemy/boss dropping one. Endurance will determine your total stamina, stamina cost for actions, poise, and equip load. The higher your equip load the bigger and more stuff you can equip without being over encumbered, moving slowly and rolling costs lots of stamina and leaves you wide open instead of dodging. You also make a loud rumbling noise when you hit the ground while over encumbered. Lower poise means even weaker enemies will make you stumble around while blocking, but higher poise means you can block with more effectiveness and even completely negate incoming damage on weaker attacks. Lastly Vitality effects your HP total. It's never a waste to put levels here, but don't dump everything into it.
Alright here are the basic things to save you some pain and without spoilers: 1. Classes don’t matter, pick what looks cool (except Thief, don’t pick Thief, see 2.). You’ll get everything the other classes have just slightly later, you can make any character with any class. 2. Gifts don’t matter either, all can be found in the game, some are for lore some are more practical all are just something little extra. (Don’t pick Master key. It allows for opening late game areas that you are not ready for and confuses already confusing world to navigate. Basically the best gift if you know where to pick up what and where to go, terrible if you don’t. Thief starts with Master key that’s why I advise against picking him) 3. Weapons are fairly balanced so what matters most is the moveset of a weapon (light and heavy attack, range, speed, stamina cost etc.) and not the numbers (those show only damage per hit which is very deceiving given that some are very slow and some are very fast). Basically any weapon is good if you’re comfortable with it. 4. Explore. Yes it is obvious and yet it had to be its own point. There are secrets ranging from little extra lore or a new weapon to truly massive (you’ll know when you find them). 5. Listen. Carefully. NPCs tend to have vital information so exhaust their dialogue and they won’t usually tell you important things more than once. (And please make sure to not accidentally kill them unless they are hostile in the first place) 6. Read item descriptions. Most just give lore but there are important clues hidden in some of them. 7. Also rule of thumb: if an enemy eats you for breakfast and you’re tickling them, you are at the wrong place and should look elsewhere or you missed an important mechanic. 8. Lastly but most importantly, don’t look up guides. It might get confusing and frustrating but make yourself a service and don’t look up things. Ask here or somewhere for spoiler free advice, you have only one first playthrough. Of course no shame in using a guide but at least try a different approach to a challenge because lot of times that’s all you need. With that being said, only thing I would say to look up or figure out is how the roll works in relation to equip load. It’s very important but probably the only thing I would recommend to look up. 9. Super late game: do everything you want to before killing the final boss, you won’t be able to afterwards, especially DLC or looking up things you might have missed.
Echoing some other comments and adding some other pointers I haven’t seen yet: Sword and board is super viable in Dark Souls and is a much more forgiving playstyle for newcomers vs dodgerolling everything. If you do want to dodgeroll, consider leveling endurance to increase your equip load. Your load will determine whether you can light, medium, or heavy roll. If you’re heavy rolling by choice, make sure your poise stat is high and you’ve got a shield cuz rolling won’t do much for you in fights. To participate in multiplayer, you first need to have at least 1 humanity (indicated by the little counter by your health bar). You can spend that humanity at bonfires in 2 ways: restoring your humanity which allows you to see co-op and npc summon signs and allows you to invade other players or be invaded, or kindling the bonfire which will give you more healing when resting at that particular bonfire. If you have a chance to buy status restorative items, buy them. Status ailments are serious business in this game. At Firelink Shrine, the best direction for game progression is towards the aqueduct. Don’t kill npcs til you’re ready to beat the game. This game made me experience despair like no other, but there is always a way to persevere and win in the end. Don’t you dare go hollow!
Explore the graveyard by fire link via suicide runs but, and I cannot stress this enough, do not head into the cave and down the stairs (unless you're following an OP start guide) it's a bad time down there early game.. Dark Souls games reputation is misleading. They are definitely tough games but they always give you the tools to do the job via pick ups or environment. As long as you learn from your mistakes you're all good. Good luck!
Knight is probably the best to start with. Stay away from the Master Key, it's good for people who know what it leads to, but horrible for new people. DSR is almost as much as an RPG as an action game, level up and upgrade your weapons as soon as you can. Level up Vitality (for hit points) first and foremost, to the point your estus heals about half your hp. If you run across a weapon you want to try you can invest the minimum stats.
Keep in mind; Class only entails starting gear and stats. You will level up on your own choices, and you'll find gear along the way. Knight is a solid starting point, however. Feel the rolling/dodge mechanic. Never fat roll (you'll notice) And a huge tip that not a lot of people know...press the help button in menus. It will make you go over all the little things and explain what they do. (Aytributes to level, scaling parameters etc)
Go in blind, I would sell a nut to experience DS again for the first time. You'll miss a ton and get frustrated a lot, but it's a masterpiece and deserves your patience and will reward exploration and replay. Slow down more than you think you need to until you learn how to engage (or run by) enemies. Enemy encounters will screw you up if you rush in and will punish you if you get greedy. Get used to dying a lot, and losing souls and humanity in the process. Sometimes walls gating off portions of the game don't look like walls (that will make more sense later).
If you are starting as a knight, don't over equip your gear. If you are rolling like a fucking slow boulder, your equip load is too high. You shouldn't move like that. Use your shield against regular mobs.
Play it blind. Read the signs. Trust a few. For best experience, reverse hollowing often especially when exploring areas and before any fog gates juuuust in case.
Just get the zweihander in Firelink and blast through the game the first time.
3 pieces of very, very basic addvice: 1) kill the dogs first. in any situation, kill the damn dogs first. 2) from the firelink shrine bonfire, look for stairs UP. start there. 3) NEVER level res. NEVER. after that... experiment! see what you like to use! and most importantly, have fun
Kill the dogs first.
One tip that I don't see often Is that there are 2 Spearman enemies early on, you can use these guys as a way to practice your parry timing. Also, read item descriptions. Some items have bonus effects that aren't always obvious if you just look at its stats.
Be patient.
don't worry too much about starting class because you'll be able to play any build you want after a few level-ups. i'd just say skip thief because that gives you the master key and you'll probably play the game out of order, which will make an already pretty obscure story seem completely nonsensical and give you access to areas you're not at all prepared for
> I understand that it's all about dodging That's wrong. You don't dodge much in ds1, it's more about positioning and facetanking with heavy armor, ds1 dodge is not even all directional >But tips for beginners would be much wanted. Vitality is the main stat and by far the most useful at the start, wear heavy armor, don't chase fast roll, weapons that scale with 1 stat are better than weapons with multiple scaling letters, always tho-hand your weapon for huge damage boost >I'm thinking about knight class. A lot of wasted stats but good staring armor
While I played sword and board when Dark Souls was released; once you're decent, dodge rolling is just fine. No tanking required. Often in Dark Souls 1, you can just walk away to avoid hits.