Dark Souls Remastered – Survival Guide

My friends, recently, an acquaintance told me that the only game he hadn’t managed to beat in his life was precisely Dark Souls . So, I asked him about the various walkthroughs and guides spread on the internet. What I was told is that it gives the impression that every tutorial is made for those who already play the game, for those who know or are already used to RPG games. Therefore, I decided to make a simplified guide for anyone who wants to finally start playing Dark Souls or, simply, stop dying so much! Making it clear that these tips are for Dark Souls 2, 3 and will also help with the future release, Elden Ring .

Oh, of course, I won’t talk about buttons, specifically because you can play on consoles and PC, and on each of the consoles or even on the PC, the names of the buttons, as well as their positioning, can be different and, as the game already It shows you the basics according to your platform, it doesn’t make sense for me to tell you to run with the B button on the Xbox, if you can have another platform whose button is the circle on the Playstation, for example.

With that understood, let’s go through a detailed walkthrough of the game Dark Souls: Remastered!

For those who don’t know, Dark Souls is a game that had its roots in Demons Souls, released in 2009 for Playstation 3. It was a great success, pleasing some and turning up the noses of others. The game provided increasing difficulty that adapted to the way you played (in my opinion, this game is much more difficult than Dark Souls, its sequels and other derivatives, called Souls-Like), but this created a victory reward never before by sight. It was the factor of overcoming, of dying several times until you were able to understand your enemy and, finally, defeat him. This inspired many games later. Now, let’s take a brief look at the concepts of Dark Souls, so you have a good base.

In fact, Dark Souls (and here’s the first tip) is not an Action RPG of the type that you throw around at random, not really. Even the weakest enemy can give you a lot of trouble and even KILL you. And, when you die in this game, you lose your accumulated Souls and Humanities (I’ll explain below, relax), and you can recover them if you manage to return to the location without dying again. If you die on the way, you will lose your accumulated souls and humanities and there is no way to recover them!

To explain what Souls are, it’s very easy. Think of them as the game’s currencies, which you obtain by killing enemies or finding the remains of the souls (literally!) of other warriors in the game. Now, to talk about Humanities, the deal is lower. The game presents a summary of the main story, right at the beginning, but I’ll summarize it for you.

In short, the land of Lordran suffers from a kind of disease that turns people into the undead and they gradually lose their consciousness until they reach madness and become completely non-human. In this context, we have you, or the character we control, who is trapped in a kind of prison for the undead. You, as the character, suffer from the disease and are practically crazy but still maintain who you are. The lack of humanity makes your character look like a corpse, but by finding humanity scattered throughout the game or earning it in other ways, you can become human again, and this is the process of regaining your humanity. That’s what the so-called personal humanities are for.

When you are not human, you cannot ask for help from friends or be invaded (yes, people! you can summon friends to help you, as long as you have not yet killed the area boss and you can also be invaded by people who want to help you). pass the scythe!). The opposite happens when you are human and also have more luck dropping items from enemies.

Returning to the humanities, they also serve to increase the number of potions (estus) that you can have, by increasing the power of your bonfire, which serves as a checkpoint where you return if you die, and, ahead in the game , also grants teleportation. They also serve to increase your character’s points and some other options. Take a look at the image below and, shortly after, I added a brief explanation of the bonfire options (which are released as you progress in the game), which are more useful at the beginning:

Level up: Here you can evolve your character with the souls you earn by killing enemies or finding pieces of souls from other warriors, and of course, by helping friends when you are summoned.

Assign magic: Here you can place the spells you bought or found in the free spaces (by the knowledge attribute). This also applies to pyromancies and miracles.

Light Up: As you find certain items, you can earn more Estus by using the humanities on your counter. However, you will have to do this for the other bonfires as well.

Remove Empty State: Basically it’s using a humanity to make you human again.

Note: These are the initial options available. The others that appear will be released as you progress in the game.

We already talked about you not endlessly pressing the attack buttons, right? Well, you need to have a strategy and observe your enemies, and try to understand how their attacks work. Therefore, a second tip is to ALWAYS have your shield up. However, be aware that attacking or defending, as well as running and rolling, will consume Energy (stamina), which is the green bar. This bar fills up on its own, very slowly if your shield is raised, or more quickly if it is not raised. Therefore, manage your energy well in your fights, because if it runs out, your character will not have any action for a while.

You can increase this bar, which, incidentally, also serves to define how much weight you can carry. And that’s easy to explain. In the game, armor, weapons, shields and accessories have weight. Therefore, if your energy is at a level that supports, for example, 100, if all your items add up to more than 100, you will become heavy and practically unable to roll, and it will even become heavy to walk and run. Your Energy will restore itself more slowly as well. But, if it is less than 100, say, about 85, you will be less heavy, although a little slow. If it is at 50, which is 50% of the total amount you can carry, then you will be happy. You will be light, your energy will be restored very quickly, and your running and rolling will be very fast too. We’ll talk more about this later.

You have the red bar, which is your life (HP) and which can also be increased. About this one, there isn’t much of a secret after all. We can also talk about how magic works. There is no Magic (mana) bar, but rather numbers that you can use that particular magic, which, by the way, are separated into Spells, Miracles and Pyromancies. They need space to be allocated and this is only achieved through the Knowledge attribute. I will even put an image below and, after it, some explanations of what is marked.

Vitality – Increases the maximum value of life points (PV).

Knowledge – Increases the number of spell slots.

Fortitude – Increases energy, carrying capacity (weight that can be carried) and resistance to bleeding.

Strength – Increases the attack power of some weapons.

Dexterity – Increases the attack power of some weapons.

Resistance – Increases defense against physical attacks, flames and resistance to poisoning.

Intelligence – Increases the power of spells and magical weapons. Required to cast spells.

Faith – Increases the power of miracles and divine weapons. Required to cast miracles.

NOTE: I left Current Load/Load Capacity marked, as this is where you see how much you can carry.

You can carry left and right hand weapons if you want, but I recommend using a shield, this will save you many times. The game gives you the option of a strong attack, which will require a lot of energy, and a quick attack, which will require less. You can also run, if you hold down the action button, the same one used to go up and down stairs and enter new areas (the new unexplored areas have a fog that you can pass through, as well as the boss fight areas), and also can be used to jump. To jump, just hold down the action button and, while running, press the action button again.

Still talking about attacks (and never forget to carry your shield up), there is in the game the option to counterattack (the famous Parry, which is to press the button below the raise shield button, as soon as your enemy attacks , then do the quick attack. Typically, this will put an end to your enemy or, in some cases, take away a good chunk of life). There is also an attack from behind, called Backstab, which is very simple to hit, just position yourself behind the enemy and press the quick attack button. It happens like Parry, most of the time it will be a fatal blow.

Now, let’s talk about some things that are not explained in the game and that, before you start your adventure, will give you a different and more strategic view:

1 – Armor does not defend that much, but it can have special effects such as defense such as poisoning or increasing energy recovery. Heavy armor has the highest balance number (factor that defines how much your character remains firm after receiving an attack. If your armor’s balance number is low you will be left without action, as if you had no energy).

2 – Classes are not that important as you can change everything later, in the character’s points, but the classes already have a predefined points. Therefore, if I were to recommend a class, I would recommend Pyromancer, as it already starts some pyromancies and its level is 1, which means that you will spend less to evolve some of the character’s things, which would not happen in some other classes because, Since you have a higher level, the cost of increasing character points is higher. I would also recommend starting with a mage, although with this one you will have to get used to attacking from a distance at least at first.

3 – Every time you sit at a campfire, that is, checkpoint, the enemies will return. This could be for you to join Souls, but it could also trap you somewhere. Be wise before sitting at the campfire.

4 – At the beginning, before the first Boss (Taurus), focus on HP and Energy points, since you will already have the initial weapon and, if you choose the Pyromantic or Mage, you will have something to attack from a distance. I recommend trying 15 of each, before increasing other points. You can even kill those undead (Be careful, as they are not the Walking Dead type. They are fast!), and then, sitting at the bonfire, for them to be reborn, and you repeat until you think it is taking too long to finish. evolve your character. But keep in mind that you will need strength or dexterity points to use some good weapons. So, manage it well!

5 – Weapons require strength or dexterity points. To hold a weapon, you will need to invest points in one of these characteristics. This will also increase your attack, especially if the weapon has strong characteristics in strength or dexterity. Oh, weapons also break, so always be careful to go to a blacksmith and get them fixed.

6 – If you happen to want to go adventuring, before the second part of this guide, the game will give you a gift in the character creation part. Choose the Master Key.

7 – Always try to leave a sign to help others in boss fights, as they give a lot of souls, however, if you see signs, also summon players to help in the fights. It will be much calmer.

Guys, we talk a lot, in a simple way, about essential things about Dark Souls , which apply to classic Dark Souls and Remastered , and even 2 and 3, and even others inspired by Bloodborne , making it clear that they are not completely the same but, the base helps. Oh yes, it will also help you in the future Elden Ring .

Until next time guys!