I know there are a lot of you whose first Souls game was Elden Ring, who loved it, and are now looking to experience what started it all.

(I know Demon's Souls started it all but that's not on PC innit?)

Well first of all, conga rats! If you beat Elden Ring that means you've mastered a very difficult game. However, Dark Souls is old, and while the core mechanics are the same, there are a lot of subtle differences that make the overall experience different and maybe a bit jarring at first. This might make the game seem difficult and hard to approach, which is exactly why I'm here. Here are some essential tips I could think of.

It's practically, theoretically, philosophically and theologically useless. Just don't. Don't even look at it. Unless you're doing a joke run, in which case only level up resistance.

Every Soulsbornekiro game after DS2 has been very fast in its tempo. Actions are quicker and cost less stamina, which regenerates faster. You can roll for days.
Not so in Dark Souls 1.

The game might seem outright sluggish at first. Every action is more of a commitment, because you perform them slower and they cost more stamina.

Fortunately, the same applies to your enemies. Their attacks mostly have slow wind ups, and they generally don't do crazy never ending combos.
So, take a deep breath, observe what the game is throwing at you and react accordingly. Don't spam anything, you won't have the stamina for it, and you will get punished.

When you're locked on an enemy, you have four directions to roll. Forward, back, to the left, to the right. This is the most glaring indication of the game's age and clunkiness. The sideways rolls also circle the enemy a bit, which has its uses. Still, overall, this sucks. How to deal with it?

Well, the best way is to learn to play unlocked. I don't mean all of the time, just situationally. This means you have to forego blocking with your shield when preparing to dodge slightly past of the enemy facing you. Fortunately the enemies still attack slow and they mostly don't home in on you very much, so it's not too bad.

Humanity is a gameplay mechanic that might seem a bit confusing, so let me try to explain. There are two types of humanity:

• Hard humanity, and
  
• Soft humanity.

Hard humanity is an item called "humanity" or "twin humanities" that you find throughout the world and collect in your inventory. If you use a humanity item AKA hard humanity, you will consume it to gain soft humanity.

Soft humanity is humanity that you have accumulated on your person. It is represented by the number in the top left corner, that goes from 00 to 99. There are a number of benefits to having soft humanity. First and foremost:

You can use soft humanity to turn human at bonfires. Congratulations, you're no longer a beef jerky zombie. Furthermore, this allows you to summon co-op phantoms, be invaded and it allows you to use further soft humanity to kindle bonfires. Each kindling will make that bonfire give 5 more estus flask when you respawn at that bonfire. You can initially kindle up to 10 flasks, but as the game progresses you will be able to kindle them up to 20 flasks.



Other benefits to having soft humanity are it will boost your defenses a little bit, and up to 10 it will also increase your item drop chances and the damage you inflict with chaos weapons. You can also level up your rank in covenants by offering soft humanity.

Consuming hard humanity is not the only way to acquire soft humanity. Helping other players beat bosses as a white/gold phantom will grant you a soft humanity. Beating the host as an invading red phantom will grant you a soft humanity. There is a weapon called darkhand, whose special ability is stealing soft humanity from other humans, either NPCs or other players. Killing enough enemies in an area will grant you a soft humanity. This can be repeated, but the amount of enemies that you need to kill increases after each time. There might be some other ways, but this is all I remember for now.

BE AWARE! Dying will make you drop your soft humanity along with your souls. If you die again before touching the bloodstain, it's gone.

There are 5 tiers of movement speed in Dark Souls 1.

• 1. Ninja flip. <25% equipment burden and darkwood grain ring.
  
• 2. Fast roll. <25% equipment burden.
  
• 3. Medium roll. <50% equipment burden.
  
• 4. Fat roll. >50% equipment burden.
  
• 5. Slow walk. >100% equipment burden. Cannot roll at all.

Of these, ninja flip is best and fast roll a very close second. But calling the Dark Souls 1 medium roll "medium" is high praise. Whereas Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring medium roll is better described as "another fast roll," medium roll in DS1 is much more committed to being somewhere between fast roll and fat roll. You will also walk and run slower, and with a different animation. I would recommend you avoid going above 25% equipment burden, unless you're intending to tank hits with heavy armour and shield. While we're on the topic...

(this gif is an accurate representation of what wearing just Havel's helmet is like)
Fortunately, if you do decide to get chonky by packing heavy armour, you should at least be well protected. After Dark Souls 2 the series have put an emphasis on fast paced, hectic combat and hard hitting bosses where dodging is paramount. But this is tank country. With the heaviest, tankiest armour some of the bosses will have a hard time making you flinch. With fully upgraded giant's armour, the damage negation is off the charts and the poise is godly. Oh yeah, you can upgrade armour.

Well parry is really good in all of the Souls games. But in Dark Souls 1 it is also easy. No matter the shield, you parry instantly. You press the button just when the attack is about to land. Not a little before you think it's going to.

Elden Ring is open world, so you might have thought that its non-open world predecessors are more linear in structure. Not so. You're on a path, yes, but it constantly splits into many different directions that take you to wildly different locations. Some of these will kill you again and again if you're not high enough level.

Basically what I'm saying is that after arriving in Firelink Shrine, do not go to the graveyard. You'll die. You can suicide run the items, though. Beyond that, you're just bashing your head against a wall.

This is another reason to not stubbornly push into a direction that seems much too difficult. You might find yourself stuck in the pits of hell, and the only way back is, well, the way back. All that horrible struggle that you've gone through to get here? Well you're gonna have to experience it again.

When you do head in the right direction, it is also a commitment. So think. Plan ahead and prepare for a bit. You've just cleared an area, killed the boss and are ready to continue. However, you didn't seem to be doing too much damage, you have a lot of souls and the blacksmith is right next door. Maybe it's not a half bad idea to see if you can upgrade your weapons and armour BEFORE heading into who knows where? Might save yourself a lot of trouble.

There's no Stake of Marika to spawn you next to the bossfog. This is probably the biggest reason I've seen Elden Ring players give when they describe Dark Souls 1 as the most difficult Souls game. While the bosses themselves are easier with their slow non-combo attacks with even slower windups, it takes forever to get back to learning their attacks. Just frigging leg it, dude. Don't fight one enemy. If there's an elevator to take, make sure you send it back up/down before you continue, so that you don't have to wait around for it in your next attempt. Also, make absolutely sure you've explored every nook and cranny of the area you're in. There might be a bonfire closer to the boss that you've missed.

I have a low level PVP guide for Dark Souls 1 that you might be interested in, but I will mention this here as well.

Dark Souls 1 is very much a backstab game in PvE and ESPECIALLY in PVP. It is very, very easy to pull off and does a lot of damage. In PVP it will also be very wonky due to how the game handles online gameplay via p2p. So, just know that you're going to get backstabbed a lot in PvP. Sometimes from across the room, or while the enemy is standing in front of you.

Also, in PvP, do not try to backstab your opponent as you would bacsktab an enemy in PvE. You will get punished for it.

Prepare enjoy to the flawed masterpiece that is Dark Souls. The graphics might be old and the gameplay might feel clunky, but if you can manage to get over that you're in for one of the official games of the forever. I envy you for getting to experience it for the first time.

If commentors have any good further tips to give, I will add them here.

Thank you for reading!