Hello!

I like to write guides, and this is one of those games that many new players could really use a guide to help them get started.

The game is well-known for its legendary difficulty, and with its plethora of weapons, armor, spells, mechanics, secrets, and many more things along with an intricate stat system, one might be scratching their head wondering what any of it actually does, what's useful, what's not, and how to get started learning the game.

This guide aims to do just that! You'll find other similar guides around, but this one is going to do its best to just get you started on the basics, and get you to a place where you can build a good solid foundation and do... pretty much anything else, building off of it to go do whatever it is you'd like to do in the game.

I am writing this assuming you are playing the Remastered version, that you're on Steam-PC, and that you start in Offline Mode (you can choose this in the option menu). Once you choose Offline, you'll need to exit the game and start it again and it should pop up a box saying "Starting in Offline Mode".

This disables all PvP but also makes it so you don't have co-op either. It's a double-edged sword, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives. You can always gain more levelups and make yourself more powerful, and not having to deal with PvP is a Godsend.

From the moment you choose New Game, it should be clear that this game is quite complicated and it can be intimidating for the first-time player. You're greeted with a screen full of stats, you're given classes as a choice, some aesthetic options, and the choice of an item to start with.

First, let's cover the Classes.

The Classes do a few things:

1). They determine what Armor, Weapons, and Spells (if applicable) you start with.
2). They determine what your starting Soul Level is (more on this later).
3). They determine what your starting stats will be.
4). Thief always starts with the Master Key (no need to choose it as a starting item).

What to Pick:

In my opinion, in order of preference with the new player in mind, the three best:

1). Warrior
2). Bandit
3). Pyromancer

Warrior: Good, solid all-around choice. You start with decent beginner armor, and most importantly, you start with a Longsword and best of all, a Heater Shield. Your starting stats are reasonable, as well. The Heater Shield will be very helpful to a newbie, as it is one of the few starting shields that has 100% physical block (meaning you take no damage from blocking most physical damage hits).

Bandit: Also decent, though he starts with an axe that might be a bit more cumbersome to use. The main difference between the Bandit and the Warrior, is the Spider Shield. Like the Heater Shield, it also has 100% physical damage blocking, but it also has 100% Poison Damage block. There's 1 small area in the game where this may become relevant, but given that you can find a spider shield early-ish on, this is not that big of a deal which is why I place it #2 on the list.

Pyromancer: Starts with a very good set of poison resist armor, which will help you in a certain area later on. Not that big of a deal because there's other ways of dealing with the poison in this area. The main attraction to Pyromancer is the fact it starts at Soul Level 1, and most importantly, starts with a Pyromancy Flame. This lets you do some farming a little earlier than you could otherwise. Not that big of a deal, to be honest. The Pyromancer's starting shield is one of the worst shields out of the classes, and it will be a little while until you can buy a heater shield.

The Rest:

You could potentially start out as a Thief to get an extra item (since you always have the Master Key) but the thief is probably not for beginner players. You are fast, but very lightly armored, your shield will not block 100% physical damage, and is more geared towards parries rather than blocking.

There is also the Knight, but he is slow. His starting armor is decent (but heavy, thus making you slow), but this guide will lead you to better armor.

IMO, just pick the warrior.

Next up, we have the choice of starting items. For any Non-thief, always, always, always choose the Master Key. If you are a thief, it's a tossup. I would personally recommend the Tiny Being's ring, as a decent boost in health is helpful early-game, especially for the thief who doesn't start with a huge health bar to begin with.

As you go through the Undead Asylum and find yourself at Firelink Shrine, you will be notified that you can spend souls to level up your character.

Upon doing so, you're presented with a huge stat screen which might make you scratch your head, wondering what of these stats should you be leveling.

If you're doing Offline Mode as I suggested, there's really no penalty for leveling as much as you want, the only limiter is your patience as each level increases the number of souls required for the next level, and every level you can increase one of your stats by 1 point which has various effects.

For purposes of this guide, I will tell you what to spend points on, and when.

Start with getting your Strength to 16 and Dexterity to 10 if they are not there already.

Once you have these, any levels should be spent pumping Endurance up to at least 20-25.

By the time you get this far, you will likely be at a point in the guide where I will suggest different stats to level by then.

During this guide, you may notice that I do not guide you to kill certain bosses that are available and reasonably defeatable until later. There's a reason for this!

See that big ole "00" next to your health meter and ever wonder what that means? The game doesn't tell you this and you pretty much have to look up a guide (like this one...) to figure out what that is. The game itself doesn't even give it a name.

There are various names for this: "Soft Humanity", "Held Humanity", and the like. It is different from the Humanity items that you carry as items on your person and find as drops from enemies such as rats.

It has a couple effects, it increases some stats like resistance, and most importantly, it increases Item Discovery Rate (how often you find items on fallen enemies). You can hold up to 99, but the item discovery rate maxes out at 10. Also, some weapons (such as Quelaag's Furysword which I recommend in the guide that you build) will become more powerful as you have Held Humanity, up to 10.

What does this have to do with bosses? Well, if the boss of an area is still alive, the game keeps track of how many humanoid enemies (hollows, knights, etc) you've killed in any area where the boss is still alive. At certain intervals, you will gain a Held Humanity when enough of these enemies are killed up to 10, and as you progress through this guide, you might notice the number increasing.

It's best, for this reason, to not kill bosses where humanoid enemies are unless they are directly barring your path and you must kill them to progress or if they are guarding items that you want or need right away.

Start the game by grabbing some of the stuff around Firelink Shrine, you can drop down those two holes where the elevator should be if you go past Petrus (the guy standing near all the pots) for a few starter items (none of which are really much good except for the Homeward Bones). Just be aware that on your way out you'll find yourself in the cemetery. Don't try to kill the skeletons here, they are too powerful and will likely murder you and even if you could kill them, they'll just get back up again. Just dash up the stairs and towards the bonfire and rest at it ASAP to reset the skeletons back to where they should be.

Do not bother with the graveyard, nor any of those tempting items you see laying around; you can get these later and none of them are particularly good for you right now in the game. If you want, you can spend all of your souls that way you won't care if you die, but it really is mostly a waste of time.

Instead, proceed up the cliff face towards the aqueduct above, past the hollows with the swords and axes. Don't be discouraged if you die a few times, all newbies do. One of the most effective ways to fight as a newbie is to hold up your shield and block a strike and then immediately swing back. You'll usually hit the enemy before they can raise their defense again. It's slow, but effective and works on many enemies early-game.

You can do parries and backstabs, and if you want you can practice these techniques, but I wouldn't sweat it just yet. There are better places to practice these later, that don't involve narrow cliff faces where you can fall to your death or get firebombed in the head.

As with any unfamiliar area in this game, use caution as you proceed, keep your situational awareness up, look around corners, and keep your shield raised as you progress into new areas.

You'll find a bonfire near a soldier with a crossbow, after resting there and killing the crossbow soldier, take a side detour past those spear hollows. You'll see a bunch of crates and barrels, breaking them will reveal a stairway that goes down. Here, you will find a very important NPC, a merchant. Do not attack him or accidentally hit him, you will want the things he sells.

First, buy a bow. This is incredibly important. If you don't have enough souls, go farm them (resting at the bonfire respawns enemies if you didn't notice this already), and get enough souls to buy 500-600 wooden arrows (they are only 3 souls/each).

Once you have the bow, equip it in the other L-weapon slot (not the R-one, you'll understand why later). Might want to practice how the bow actually works, pressing Left on the + pad (assuming you're using an xbox controller) will swap between your shield and the bow in your left hand. Press LB (the block button) again to actually grip the bow in both hands, and to ready it to fire. Pressing LB once more will give you First-Person aiming with a crosshair. Alternatively you can lock-on to an enemy to stay in third person so you can move and fire at your locked-on target instead. Both are useful techniques you should get the hang of when the opportunity presents itself.

You will not be killing things often with your bow, the bow is more used to get an enemy's attention without getting more of his friends, or other similar uses. I'll mention in the guide when you want to use the bow.

There's a good place to practice right nearby: see those guys on the rooftops throwing the firebombs onto the bridge near the crossbow guy? Pop a few arrows in their heads (headshots on humanoids do more damage and make a special sound effect when you succeed at one) to make this next section much easier.

If you killed the firebombers on the roof, you can shoot the hollow you see in the room up ahead to get him to run out, and you'll be glad you did: he's got 2 more friends with him in the room that will flank you the moment you step in there (which is why I mentioned situational awareness and caution earlier).

Anyhow, once you get to a stairway where a hollow kicks a flaming barrel down it, whatever you do don't turn right, or you'll face a knight that will probably end you fast. If you're really good at blocking, parrying, and backstabbing, you could potentially kill him, but I suggest you don't just yet. The item he guards is mostly useless (Blue Tearstone Ring, raises Defense when you're almost dead), and he has a chance of dropping a really nice weapon. You will want to be prepared for this, as there's a way to raise item drop chances later on.

Next up, is a tower with a winding staircase. Whatever you do, don't go down. You'll run into a monster of an armored man who will quite literally kill you in one hit, even if you're blocking. You're not ready for this yet, and if you die it's a long way back to your corpse. There's a way better way of confronting him later, which you will want to do for the ring he drops. You don't need the ring quite yet, though so just leave him be for now. Go up instead. Don't worry about killing the lizard, you can just leave it alone and it'll be there until you do kill it, it does not respawn sadly.

The Minotaur Demon boss will be your first major challenge. Once you pass through the fog door, turn around and climb the stairs and kill those two idiots with the crossbows. Last thing you need is bolts in the back while fighting a boss. Go back down the ladder, and as soon as you see his health bar on the screen, turn around and RUN, RUN as fast as you can and hurry and climb the ladder. You should be able to get up the ladder before he can hit you. Don't spend too much time up here, though, as he can knock you down off of the tower. Instead, jump down and hit RB (the sword attack button) on your way down to start the fight off by shearing a large amount of its health off.

From there, you will want to block his hits (all but one, you can safely block). Back away from him, use RT (the strong thrust) attack after he swings and misses at you. If you die, don't sweat it, just keep at it until you get him.

Once he's dead, proceed forward, make sure you talk to the guy standing at the balcony several times, answer Yes to his question, though this item is useless in Offline Mode, but the conversation opens him up to be an NPC helper for some bosses later on.

Next, you will see a long bridge with several hollows standing on it. Before attempting to cross it, unequip your armor (yes, you read this right). Unequipping your armor reduces your Equipment Load which makes you move faster (do this in situations where getting hit either doesn't matter, or you will die if you do get hit). What you will want to do is RUN, RUN very fast across that bridge and towards the right edge of it. About halfway down that bridge you'll see a staircase which you will want to go down immediately. Don't stop for anything unless you want to die. Roll past any hollows' attacks and keep running. A wyvern will fly in and light the whole bridge on fire, killing all the hollows (giving you the 555 souls in the process!). Once down the stairs, you can re-equip your armor. You'll see a ladder which prompts you to press Confirm to kick the ladder. Do so, and once down this ladder, you should be in a very familiar area.

Here, you can do some farming: rest at the bonfire, go up the ladder and up the stairs to the bridge. Step out onto the bridge and very quickly run back down the stairs to trigger the wyvern's breath attack which will kill all the hollows on the bridge, giving you 555 souls each. To make this faster, you can jump off the top of the ladder. You'll take some damage, but unless you got hit with the fire breath (drink some estus if so), you can survive it. It's much faster than climbing or sliding down the ladder.

Next thing to do, is to get what the community likes to call the "Noob Sword".

You may have noticed you can step out into an open area underneath the bridge. Head to the right, and carefully walk along the edge to peek around the central pillars of the bridge. Don't go too far: there's a pair of hollows. Instead what you're looking to do is get a clear view of the wyvern's tail dangling in plain sight.

Remember that bow I told you to practice with? Hopefully you bought several hundred arrows like I told you to. Shoot the end of the tail, and the wyvern will roar and jump onto the bridge above, walk around for a few moments, and then fly back over to the building he's perched on.

It is possible, with some practice, to hit the tail one or two times while he jumps over but if you can't get it, don't waste too many arrows on this.

Eventually, with enough arrows in his tail, it will break off and you'll be awarded the Drake Sword.

The stats on this sword are more than double the stats of your weapon (unless you started as a bandit), and it looks like a very awesome weapon.

It is, at this point of the game but it will quickly lose its luster later. That's why it is called the "noob sword", it's a newbie trap. It starts off powerful, lures a newbie into thinking it's good, and later in the game when you should have a better weapon, you're probably still using the noob sword and wondering why you can't kill anything.

I'll guide you away from doing that, though, and it's OK to use the Noob Sword for awhile.

This sword is why I asked you to raise Strength to 16 and Dexterity to 10 earlier: those are the requirements to use this weapon one-handed without penalties.

Note that the Drake Sword does not have that awesome thrust attack the Longsword does, so be wary of that.

Anyhow, continuing on, be careful of the hollows, and the rats. You can actually draw one of the rats out by shooting it with the bow as you have line of sight of it from the bridge. This makes that room much easier as there'll only be two rats instead of three to contend with. If you get poisoned, back up and just jump off the bridge near the stairs, so that your bloodstain will be easy to retrieve.

When you get to the area with the boar at the top of the stairs (don't go up the spiral staircase, there's a knight with a huge greatsword that will end you fast on top of that tower), keep to the right, and duck in the passage on the right when the boar charges (he can't go in there). Kill the hollows, and step out to get the boar to charge again, and duck back into the passageway. Wait for the boar to turn around and smack his rump once or twice and quickly back up. He can't go in there but if you're too close, he CAN reach you with his tusks and they hurt-a-plenty.

Proceed through the rest of the Parish, the Balder Knights (the guys with the capes) might be challenging at first, but remember what I said earlier: hold your shield up, let them smack your shield and then immediately retaliate. Just don't swing at the ones with the small round shields when they hold their sword up pointed at you. They will kill you fast when they parry you.

The huge knight with the tower shield does plenty of damage with his mace, but he's also slow. Might be a good time to start practicing backstabs, wait for him to swing, block it, step behind him, don't have your shield raised, and walk towards him and hit RB to backstab him until he's dead. Don't worry, he won't respawn. Pull the lever at the bottom of the stairs to open that gate for a shortcut.

Use your bow to draw the balder knights out of the church itself one by one instead of getting two or three on you at once, and use the bow to kill the caster standing on the ledge above (duck in and out of cover of the pillars in the room).

There's a bonfire nearby, and the blacksmith at the bottom.

Now that you're here, this is a farming spot.

Rest at the bonfire, go up and kill the 3 hollows and the 3 balder knights in the main church area, plus the one on the stairwell and repeat. Do not spend your souls just yet, you need 20,000 souls for the Crest of Artorias the Blacksmith sells. Each run nets you about 900 souls so it will take a little while but isn't too bad.

Once you have the 20,000 souls and the Crest of Artorias in hand, if you want you can continue to farm the knights and hollows for enough souls to buy the other items he sells, mainly the three toolboxes he sells, top off your arrows, etc.

Once you're done with that, go downstairs from the Blacksmith into the basement. There's a very nasty monster down here, but you can win.

There are two ways you can try to take the Titanite Demon out:

1). Stand near the rubble halfway between the entrance and him, there's a fallen pillar. If you stand at precisely the right location, you can shoot him with your arrows and his lightning will hit the rubble instead of you. Finding this can be difficult, but if you do, you got it in the bag.

2). Melee him. This is more consistent, but obviously requires some skill to do. He has three attacks: if you're far enough away, he will shoot lightning at you. If you are at mid-range, he will leap into the air. Roll back away from him immediately because you cannot block this attack and it does hurt quite a bit. His third attack is to swing his huge staff at you. Beware, that he will swing once, twice, or three times, and his windups are a little different but the pattern should become pretty clear if you watch him enough. If you think you're about to die, try running closer to the entrance so your bloodstain will be easier to retrieve. Another tactic to try, is when you have an opportunity to swing, quickly 2-hand your Drake Sword, swing, and then switch back to one-handing it to block with your shield. Each strike will deal more damage this way.

Or, alternatively,

3). RUN! You can simply run past him, roll if he swings at you and just run out the doorway on the other end of the room. Doing this means you need to contend with him on your way back, though. Also, if you die in the forest, you may have to deal with the demon again as well.

Once you've dealt with the demon (or not), you'll find yourself in the forest outside. The living trees here have a grab attack, if you see a tree raise both of its "arms" into the air, roll backwards to dodge it. You can't block this attack and it hurts plenty. Right after the first tree, there's a path to your right. If you killed the Titanite Demon, take this path now. If not, continue forward until you see a big glowing door. Strike the wall next to this door to reveal a bonfire, and rest there (so you don't have to go past the demon again should you die in this next part).

You'll find yourself at the edge of a cliff with narrow paths downward, there's only one enemy here and he is a doozy. Remember those huge knights I told you to avoid earlier? There's one at the bottom and you will need to kill him, sadly. These guys hurt like hell, but you have a heater shield. Like the Taurus Demon, you will want to block an attack, lower your shield, and then raise it again for the next attack to regain precious stamina between blocks or you WILL run out and your guard will be broken. Treat this guy like you did the huge knight with the mace in front of the church, only this one's faster and his spear has way more reach. Hopefully he drops said spear, but if he doesn't don't sweat it, there's other opportunities to get one.

Once you manage to get past this guy, you'll find a bonfire in a cave, rest there and unequip all of your armor. Unequip everything except for your Drake Sword, and spend as many souls as you can: level up, repair, whatever.

From the bonfire, go up the ramp to the "floor" above, and go straight a bit and you should see some glowing white things in the distance. These are Crystal Golems, and you don't want to get too close to them yet. Instead, turn left a little and you should see a tower in the distance if you look up at the sky, that's where you're headed, go up the hill to the tower, but be careful. Don't stand up against the wall or the door too long. Unlock and open the door and quickly roll backward because the guy inside (remember that dude I told you not to go down the spiral staircase before the Taurus Demon earlier?) can hit you through the wall (cheap, I know).


The Tower as seen from the top of the ramp.


This guy has a huge club, with slow swings. If he hits you, you will die, fullstop. The only exception is if he pounds the ground right next to you, you'll hear a "got hit" sound but you'll take zero damage. He has a one-handed stance, and a 2-handed stance just like you do and frequently switches between the two.

What you want to do, is go for backstabs here (while 2-handing your weapon), like you did with the knights. Wait for him to 2-hand his weapon and do an overhead ground pound swing. Roll away from all of his attacks and when he does the ground pound attack, step behind him and backstab him. Don't let him box you in near the staircase, and don't get up against a wall. If you die, don't worry, it's easy to get your bloodstain back later, just wait for an opportunity to pick it up. Do not attempt to backstab him while he is one-handing his weapon; he is deceptively fast in recovering from his one-handed swings.

Once you kill him, you'll get a ring you will want to equip immediately. You will probably wear this ring for the entire game, or a good portion of it.

Once the ring is in hand, re-equip all of your stuff, you may notice you move significantly faster now.

Go back up the winding ledges up to where you came from, and back to where the Titanite Demon was and this time go to that glowing door I mentioned above. Reveal the Bonfire if you haven't already, and rest there.

Open the door (this is why you bought that Crest for 20k souls).

There are semi-transparent people here, and they hurt like hell at this point in the game, but there's an exploit. See that staircase you walk down right after you go through the door? There's a tiny ledge next to it. Go out and get 1 of them to chase you, and then RUN like hell back to that little ledge, stand there, and hold your shield up. The NPCs will run up the stairs, jump down to your ledge, boop you on the head and then fall to their death.

The Knight who comes first will not respawn. There's a sorcerer just a little further in, sometimes he's annoying because he just wants to cast spells, but he'll eventually come (you can try meleeing him, he's not that hard, just don't let him hit you with a spell).

Once the sorcerer is dead, look in front of you, and you'll see a fallen log laying on the ground. Walk up to it and immediately turn and run back to that safe ledge next to the stairs. A thief and a cleric should be chasing you, and they will do exactly what the knight did earlier, jump ontop of you and fall.

Go and rest at the fire and the sorcerer, bandit, and cleric will respawn. Each are worth 2,000 souls and you can do this for some levelups. I suggest getting Endurance to 20-25 here, maybe 30 if you're patient. I wouldn't go much higher than that, as you might need to increase other stats soon, but you want at least 20-25 Endurance.

Once you're done with that, take the path past the door you opened. There'll be a room on the right with an item there, that's an ambush and the item is just a soul. Further down, stick to the right and there'll be a tree that pulsates and makes noise. Kill it for a secret passage, and follow that to another tree like it. In this area, it is a good idea to progress slowly and use a bow to shoot enemies so that you don't get swarmed. If you look close enough, you can see the ents before they wake up, and popping one with an arrow will make it angry at you but won't bring its friends or anything else nearby (you can try this in that ambush room just before this, too!). The stone knights might be a little challenging until you get the hang of them but don't be too intimidated. The spell they cast will stop you from running or rolling so you will have to block everything they throw at you (another reason for increasing Endurance!). Just retaliate when their swings are done. At the end of this path, you'll find the Wolf Ring which you will want to equip right away, +40 Poise is actually fairly good as it will let you take some hits without flinching. Don't jump off the ledge, that just takes you back to the stone door.

Instead, turn around where you came from, and explore the rest of that room from before the secret passage until you find a corpse with the Elite Knight's armor set. This is the armor that I suggest you wear, it's one of the best all-around armors around, you definitely want this. Once you find this, go back to the bonfire or use a homeward bone.

Go back to the Parish, we're going to do some more farming.

While you were farming earlier for the 20,000 souls, did you notice any Titanite Shards dropping? You will need quite a few of these. The Blacksmith also sells them for 800 souls, however there's a chance you might not have gotten the other item you will need from there: a Balder Side Sword.

This is a rare drop from, you guessed it, the Balder Knights. I advise farming those knights until you get your hot little mitts on one.

Once you have said sword, you can farm the guys beyond the door for the souls to buy the shards you need, instead of farming the shards themselves from the hollows and knights, your choice.

Either way, you will want to upgrade the Balder Side Sword to +5, and the Elite Knight's Armor (all four pieces of it!) to +4 (you can't go any further because you need Large Titanite shards, which you don't have access to yet).

The Balder Side Sword looks and feels just like a Longsword with a couple notable differences: you get a bonus to thrust, backstab, and parry attacks, and the RT combo is different. The first attack is the same as the Longsword's thrust, but instead of vertical swing as the second attack, the Side Sword will thrust again, and then a third even longer range thrust will follow that. This combo is far superior to the Longsword's, which is why I suggest you make this your main raw damage weapon and/or weapon to use on anything you'd be backstabbing.

Do not upgrade the Heater Shield, you'll be getting a better shield here soon. If you started as a Bandit, go ahead and upgrade the Spider Shield in like fashion. Note that Shields are considered Weapons for purposes of upgrading when it comes to the bonfire resting menu.

Once you have a full set of Elite Knight's +3 and the Side Sword +5, get 9 Titanite Shards before moving on (these are for the Spider Shield you will find later), and make sure you have the toolkits Andre sells, so that you can modify equipment at bonfires rather than backtracking all the way to Andre. Note, to Ascend a weapon (for example, +5 to +6), you'll still need Andre.

I also (optionally) recommend upgrading that Longbow from the forest (if you missed it, you can simply buy one from Andre) to +5 and buying Standard Arrows, and getting and upgrading a Scimitar (which you can buy from the Undead Merchant in the Burg) to +5 (for another weapon later) before setting off for the Depths, or you could do it later. Upgrading a Bow will make the few times you need to kill something a lot faster. Note the Longbow needs 14 Dex (you'll start with 13 if you started as a Warrior).

Given how many of the great weapons (such as the ones I recommend in this guide) in the game scale with Dex, it's certainly not a bad idea to increase your Dex a little (or a lot later on, once you've gotten to the end of the guide).

I recommend going to the 2nd floor of the Parish. Do not climb up to the bell tower, but rather go up a staircase. There's a boarded up doorway that leads to a prison. You should have the key to this door unless you missed it earlier. Open it to free the knight in it.

Head down the Elevator in the Parish to get back to Firelink Shrine. Now that you have the Firekeeper's Soul from the Parish, you can talk to the lady behind the bars if you go downstairs from the bonfire and reinforce your Estus Flask to +1 (which makes it heal more per use).

Go back to the elevator, ideally you want the elevator on the left, and as it is going up, get ready to step off the elevator. Once you do that, follow the ledge and look towards the tower, there's an obvious spot you can roll off the edge and land on a buttress and then get to the staircase on the tower. Go up until you have access to the peaked roof building with the corpse on it, roll off and onto that rooftop and get the item (the Undead Asylum F2 West key) and then follow all of the above steps to get to the very top of the tower, and curl up like a ball in the nest, and wait for the Raven to once again take you back to the Asylum.

Once there, beware the room where you fought the Demon at the beginning of the game. Stay away from the center section of this room, as the other Demon underneath the floor will smash the floor out from under you and force you into a boss fight with it, and this demon is far more powerful and will murder you fast. Stick on the edges of the room.

There are three black knights here, hopefully one of them drops a sword. Fighting them in these narrow hallways might be tricky, but there's lots of bonfires and the runs back to your bloodstains ought to be short, and don't worry if you fail to retrieve at this point in the game.

Make sure to use that key on its door on the 2nd floor, and get that item you saw in the beginning but couldn't get to, the Rusted Iron Ring. Don't equip it just yet, you don't need to wear it until you arrive at certain areas.

Also of note, is the knight who gave you the Estus Flask at the beginning of the game. He will attack you because he's gone hollow. Kill him to get his shield, you will want it. Don't equip it just yet, while it is an awesome shield, it's used for one particular spot in the game (the 4 Kings Boss and optionally Moonlight Butterfly), but otherwise, your other shields are better all-around shields.

Once you have all of the black knights dead, grabbed the doll out of the starting room, and got the shield off the knight, go back to the nest, curl up again, to go back to Firelink Shrine.

We're getting there!

This next part, though... oof.

Okay, start by going to the Undead Burg, to the tower where you fought the Taurus Demon. Go up said tower, go across the battlement where you fought said demon, and go back to that area where you met Solaire (the knight who gave you that soapstone). There was a locked door there, and assuming you didn't miss it in the Parish, you're holding the key to that door. Unlock it and proceed, take note of the staircase right next to where you come out, go to the top of it to unlock a door that leads to the bonfire next to the bridge where the wyvern is for a huge shortcut.

Once you've done this, you can proceed into the Lower Burg. The dogs here inflict bleeding which, when the meter is filled, shears off a large portion of your health. Just block and swing, the dogs should die in one hit from the Drake Sword. Also, be careful of the thieves hiding behind the doors, they'll all ambush you once you go far enough. And also beware of the torch hollow, if you run up to him to kill him, a bunch of his friends will be waiting to ambush you, use the bow to draw him out.

When you arrive at the white fog door, DON'T touch it whatever you do. Instead, look to the right to see stairs going down. Proceed carefully here, there are thieves hiding behind corners waiting to ambush you. Proceed until you see a door at the top of the stairs on the left, this leads you back to Firelink Shrine. There's also a merchant behind the bars here that sells awesome items. Anytime you're doing a run to the next boss and you have a few souls on you, you can dump your souls at this kind lady, to buy the following in order of importance:

1). Blooming Purple Moss Clumps (get a minimum of 10 of these)
2). Poison Arrows (get at least 30)
3). Homeward Bones
4). Transient Curses (get 2-3 of them for later).
5). Wooden Arrows

Once you save at Firelink Shrine, go back down to that fog gate to fight the Capra Demon.

This guy ends a lot of people's playthroughs. This guy frustrates a lot of players. I seriously would not bother trying for a Retrieval unless you are absolutely sure you can do it safely. Just let the souls and humanity go, you can get them back later.

When you first step in, he and his 2 mutts immediately assault you, and the room in which you fight him in, is rather cramped. There's a stairway to the left which might buy you some time. The objective is to try to kill his dogs first (again, they should die in 1 hit to the drake sword) and once his dogs are down, you can focus on the demon himself.

Getting the dogs dead is the hardest part, once it's down to just him, you've got it in the bag if you're careful. Don't try to block his double overhead swing, you'll still get hit. Everything else can be blocked, just remember to lower your shield for a second or two between swings to regenerate stamina so your guard doesn't get broken in the middle of a flurry. Wait for him to stumble after his swings, and retaliate with a swing of your own. It shouldn't take too long to put him down.

Once's he's dead, he drops the key to that door next to the door that leads to Firelink Shrine. I suggest going to Firelink to spend the souls you just got before moving on.

Once you're through the door, proceed past the hollows carefully. These guys are nothing new, but there's more of them and sometimes they are in inconveniently narrow places.

The Drake Sword is going to really start to show some of its biggest flaws in here, the wide swings oftentimes smack off of nearby walls and these are some cramped quarters down here. Still, you'll just have to put up with it for a little while longer. Don't jump into the water when you see a dropoff, instead continue along and you should find a couple dogs and a butcher. Draw the dogs with an arrow, and then engage the butcher who doesn't have anything particularly dangerous you can't block. The double overhead swing will eat a lot of stamina, but if you followed my earlier suggestions, you can block it just fine.

Once she's dead, get the ember out of the chest (very important!), backtrack to the previous room, and drop down into the hallway there, to find another butcher, and a room full of barrels. Whatever you do, DO NOT swing your weapon in here. There's a man trapped in one of the barrels. You can break the barrels by rolling, as swinging your weapon might hit the man. Talk to him a couple times, and then leave the room, and drop down into the water, which brings you back into the room where the first butcher was. Kill the dogs in the water and then break a crate in the room to reveal a hole.

Drop down this hole and make sure you stay up on the ledge. Kill the huge rat with arrows (it won't respawn) and finally, FINALLY, get your Spider Shield off the corpse nearby. Once you've got the shield and anything else, drop down where the rat was (don't miss the Key next to a grate in this room). You'll hear the sound of rushing water, and at the end of the room, you'll see slopes going down. Stick to the far left, and step onto the slope and hold left. If you fall down the hole, use a homeward bone. Do NOT linger down there. If you get cursed, the old lady sells an item to break said curse (she will only sell ONE such item, though).

Assuming you survived the slide down the slope, go across the area (be careful of the slimes!), you can unlock a door there and go up a set of stairs, and then up a ladder, and then up another staircase and there will be a room with a bonfire to your left behind a locked door (the key is in the room where the giant rat was, you can get said key from either side of the bars).

Once you rest at this bonfire, I suggest restoring Humanity and Kindling this fire so you can have 10 Estus Charges. Kill the slimes (they will be hard to kill, I know) until you get 4 Large Titanite Shards. This means killing the slimes with a sword, which will be slow but it is possible. To get out of here, leave the room and kill the torch hollow. Make sure you RUN through this hallway because slimes will drop from the ceiling but they are timed to hit you if you were coming the other way. There's another torch hollow at the end of this hallway, and beware of the slime on the ceiling in the next room. From here, you should know how to get back to Firelink Shrine. Go back to Andre in the Parish and give him the Ember, and use the Modify Weapons menu to finally get your Balder Side Sword to +6. If you haven't already, upgrade your Spider Shield to +5 as well (this is why I told you to bring 9 small shards earlier).

Go to the Forest, and get 25-30k souls from the people beyond the door, and return to Firelink Shrine. The man from the Depths (Laurentis) will be seen sitting Indian-style near the bonfire, and answer No to his question. He'll give you a Pyromancy Flame (you equip this like a weapon, put it in the L2 slot next to your sword). Buy a Fireball spell, and use the rest of the souls on upgrading the Pyromancy Flame to at least +5.

You will also need to get 10 Attunement (a levelup stat) to get 1 attunement slot to equip the Fireball spell, which can only be done at a bonfire under "Attune Magic" in the menu.

Before going back to the Depths, I recommend killing Lautrec. You'll find him sitting near the Firekeeper. Make sure to rest at the bonfire in case he kills you (quite likely until you get used to fighting him). You can try kicking him to push him off the ledge (he won't attack you unless you do damage to him), or if you accidentally swing instead of kick, just hold your shield up and get in his face. He likes to keep a small bit of range and will keep backing up and will even step off the ledge. If you kill him now, you won't have to worry about him killing the Firekeeper after you ring the first bonfire in Blighttown. If you push him off the ledge, you can loot his corpse by saving and exiting, and loading your save; the items will be laying where he was sitting. The ring he drops is nice, but don't equip it yet; if you take it off, it's gone for good.

Once you've done this, return to the Depths Bonfire, and now, with the Pyromancy Flame, you can repeatedly kill the slimes in the hallway next to the fire. They drop Green Titanite and Large Titanite Shards. You will want 9 of these to get the Balder Side Sword to +10. Also take the time to go down the stairs and into the tunnel nearby (don't go down the ladder) to find 9 rats. These can drop humanity items (very important!) each run. Get 20+ of them for now.

Once you get the Side Sword to +10, you can stop using the Drake Sword altogether. Regular swings will do almost as much damage as the Drake Sword, while R2 attacks will do more.

You could also get shards to upgrade your armors to +6, but this will take an extremely long time. We can do this later, after we get another certain item.

But before we can do that, we need to ring the 2 bells, and that will be a long journey. With the Side Sword at +10 and some humanity in case you fail a retrieval, we're prepared for what comes next.

While you're doing this, get your Faith to 14 when you level up. You don't need to go higher than 14, just 14 will do. Once you have Faith 14, if you got a Black Knight Sword, you might consider getting your Strength to 20. Otherwise, start raising your Dexterity as your Side Sword's power will increase with Dexterity (it will soon surpass the Drake Sword if it hasn't already).

Start by going to the Depths bonfire.

From there, go down the ladder in the metal grate room, and proceed downwards, and you'll eventually come to a fog door, where you'll find the Gaping Dragon boss.

This guy should not be hard at all, if you fight him correctly. Wait for him to go on all fours, move to the side of him and let him charge into a wall. 2-hand your weapon (stay away from his tail) and stab him with R2 a couple times, and when he gets back up, pull your shield out and run away from him.

While he's "standing up" he turns quickly but moves forward slowly. While he's on "all fours", he moves forward fast in a charge but can't turn. He'll occasionally spew a bunch of ♥♥♥♥ in front of him, just don't stand close-range and you probably won't get hit by that attack.

Once you kill him, you'll get the key to Blighttown.

You'll find Blighttown by going back up to that water area, there was a locked door up there with a merchant sitting next to it.

Blighttown itself is....

It's mazy, complicated, and confusing. You may want to consult another walkthrough or guide for this, all I'm going to say is good luck, and have fun. A couple tips:

1). The Spider Shield can block venom darts (and ogres' clubs) without consequence.
2). Use a bow and arrows on the giant leech without getting close to it.
3). Two R2 stabs from a +10 Side Sword should kill the hollows here. It can kill the dogs in one.
4). Torches are always placed at the tops of ladders to help you get around.
5). The fire spiders at the bottom die in 1 R2 stab from a +10 Side Sword
6). Don't miss the bonfire at the very bottom where the swamp area is. Kindle this one, and when you leave you'll get invaded by an NPC named Maneater Mildred. Make sure you kill her. If you die, humanize yourself and try again.
7). The Rusted Iron Ring lets you move normal speed through the swamp.
8). If you started as a Pyromancer, the starting armor makes traversing the swamps without getting poisoned much easier (just beware your physical defense is nil while wearing it). Otherwise, just use non-Blooming Purple Moss to cure it. Save the Blooming ones for the venom the darts give you.
9). When heading towards the large mound with the cave, stick to the left to avoid all but 2 of the ogres there.
10). Keep human so that you can summon Maneater Mildred for the boss (Quelaag). Her summon sign is right next to the fog door (assuming you defeated her earlier), but you won't see it if you're not human. She is ridiculously useful against the boss, and will make the fight 10x easier.
11). Do not for any reason hurt the egg zombies there. They won't attack you.

When fighting Quelaag, watch out for her short-range fireblast attack, she likes to use it when she's halfway dead, use hit and run tactics. Let Mildred tank her, and keep away from her until you're ready to run in and stab and run back out. Pay attention that you don't step in lava.

Once you defeat her, you'll get her soul. Do not, under any circumstances, use this soul. It is needed to make a ludicrously powerful weapon later.

Continue on to pull the lever (which rings the bell) and save at the bonfire which is behind a fake wall in the room with the lever. Talk to the spider on the wall, join her covenant, but don't do anything else here yet.

Go back to the bonfire where you fought Mildred, and find the water wheel, and go up. On the way up, there's a way into a green stone area with lots of venom dart guys. You'll want the Firekeeper Soul that's in here, but it'll be awhile before you can use it. Go to the very top to exit out into the Valley of the Drakes.

Once up there, follow the cliff to a large wooden bridge, and you should see the corpse of a dragon hanging onto the cliff face. Use your bow and kill it from a safe distance (this will take a couple hundred arrows). Once its dead, grab the items there, one of which is a very nice sword that you'll need later (it's the reason why I told you to get Faith 14). Go back the way you came, cross the narrow bridge, and go in the tower, down the stairs, and then up the elevator to go back to Firelink Shrine.

The fire will be out (if you didn't kill Lautrec like I suggested), and there'll be a firekeeper's soul with some clothes where the lady behind the bars was. DO NOT upgrade your Estus Flask until you restore her if you ever want to use Firelink Shrine as a bonfire.

Now that we're back in Firelink Shrine, you'll want to go to the Parish again. Save at the bonfire next to the blacksmith, and climb the church. There's a boss up there (the Bell Gargoyles), but with a +10 Side Sword and +3 Elite Knight's Armor, they'll be easy. Don't get TOO cocky, though as they can still kill you if you're not careful.

Once you dispatch them, ring the bell and you'll get a cutscene of a huge gate being raised. That's the gate that's across from the bonfire next to the blacksmith, so go ahead and homeward bone there.

This next area, Sen's Fortress, is rather dangerous. You might die here a few times, so be prepared to lose your souls and humanity. The path is rather linear, the snake guys are a basic block-and-backstab thing, though the ones that throw lightning are annoying.

In the first room, be careful of the floor plate trap. You can stand way back and drill one of the snakes with an arrow to get one to come instead of trying to fight them both. Optionally you can try to use the trap to hit the snakes, but with a +10 Side Sword, a few R2 stabs after blocking their swings will kill them easy.

In the next room, you can stand in the entrance, and look up and to the right, you'll see a snake standing up there, a lightning-caster. Shoot him with an arrow and he'll start throwing magic at you, but he shouldn't be able to hit you because the slow projectiles will get blocked by the swinging blades. If you hit him with enough arrows, you'll push him off the ledge. There's also a snake standing on the bridge ahead after you pass the first set of blades. Give him an arrow and he'll rush at you in anger... only to get thrown off the ledge to his death by the blades.

Once through there, turn left, go up the stairs, and that lightning snake that you pushed off the ledge is no longer here. He's seriously annoying to deal with if you didn't get him before. Proceed onwards, but beware the doorway to the outside. This is a boulder track, and boulders will roll here. The snake here will show you what happens if you stand out there too long as he'll get nailed with the boulder, but it won't kill him. Finish him off and wait for a boulder and run up the track and duck in the doorway to the left.

Shoot the lightning snake above with an arrow and he'll come towards you, only to get mowed down by a boulder. Once this happens, run up the track and duck in the next doorway into a small room. There's a pressure plate on the floor here and a snake in the room beyond, stand just in front of the plate (don't trigger it), and the snake should be stepping around the corner. Step forward onto the plate, immediately roll back and then roll to the side. The snake will usually block one of the three bolts which leaves it within 1 hit of dying to an R2 stab. Alternatively, let the snake come to you, kill it safely in the room, and then hold your shield up and step back onto the plate and block the bolts.

Soon, you'll eventually come to a long indoor hallway where there's a boulder track, you're able to go right up a slope, or left down a slope. Wait for a boulder, make sure you're full of health, and run left down the slope. You should be able to reach a doorway on your left before the next boulder mows you down from behind.

Stand in the doorway and wait for a few boulders to fall into that hole, it will eventually fill and the next boulder will break the wall. Wait for a final boulder, run in, and loot the corpse which has a Gold Covetous Serpent Ring. The passage the boulders will roll through now is a dead-end, don't bother or you'll get killed.

Do not touch the treasure chests you see nearby, one of them is a mimic who will likely end you fast. You can always come for him later once you've upgraded your armor and perhaps after getting the Furysword.

Immediately Homeward Bone out instead to keep your humanity and souls intact if you had any.

Now, for the grinding.

With that ring in hand, go to the Depths bonfire.

Use humanities to get your Soft Humanity (the number next to your health) to 10, equip the Gold Covetous Serpent Ring and farm the Rats and Slimes there for humanities and large titanite shards, until your armor is +6, your spider shield +10 and you will want lots of humanity.

Once you've done this, go back to Firelink Shrine, and use that Straightsword you got from near the zombie dragon to go into the Catacombs (remember that graveyard at the beginning of the game?).

Since that sword is a holy weapon, skeletons killed with it will not regenerate.

Once you kill the necromancers in there, you may kill the skeletons with any weapon, as they are the ones re-animating the dead.

I won't provide a detailed guide here, as by this point you should be proficient at the game to either explore it yourself, or find guides/videos, but what you're seeking in here, is the Pinwheel boss fight and the bonfire right after him. This lets you kindle bonfires further, and you will be able to warp down to here later once you've unlocked that.

From here, the world of Dark Souls is your oyster.

You can make any build you want, explore any area you want, and not have to worry about getting the game to some unwinnable state.

Remember Quelaag's Soul I told you to keep safe? Once you get to Anor Londo (after Sen's Fortress), you can use that to make a really awesome sword (you'll need a curved sword such as that Scimitar I recommended that you buy earlier up to +10 first) that I highly suggest using.

You can upgrade the Furysword to +5 using Demon Titanite, which is a reason to kill all of those Titanite Demons throughout the game, there should be just enough to do this without having to farm the one and only that respawns down in Izalith.

With the Furysword, and a Balder Side Sword +10 (or higher!), you should be able to take on most of what the game can throw at you, but you can also pursue other weapons, spells, whatever.

The trick is those rats and the humanity: dying is nothing to worry about since you can return to the Depths anytime you want to farm humanity, so you never need to worry about running out of it.

Once you get the ability to warp and you get yourself a light source, there's a 2nd bonfire in the Tomb of Giants near a bunch of large skeleton dogs that give lots of souls when killed, that's my usual spot for farming souls.

If you're looking for Titanite Chunks, you'll have to drain the water out of New Londo Ruins, and kill the Darkwraiths there (the black-armored knights). they aren't too terribly hard, especially since you should have the Furysword by now. One backstab + hit while they're standing up should kill them quickly.

After getting the Gold Covetous Ring, you can farm humanities. I suggest getting 30, and returning to Quelaag's sister once you've unlocked the ability to fast-travel (it's the "Daughter of Chaos" bonfire in the list). Use 30 humanities, and then give her those 30 humanities. This will open a shortcut later; just before the Demon Ruins 2nd boss's Fog Door, you can instead find a shortcut that this opens, kill all the maggots in the room beyond until you get the Sunlight Maggot helmet (which is invaluable for lighting up the dark Tomb later!). This will prevent Solaire from becoming hollow, as he is the only person who can help you with the final boss of the game.

One final thing to note, is before going after the Four Kings and/or while going through the game, make sure to go to the Forest as a human and summon Witch Beatrice to help you with the Butterfly, not that you should need her help. This is required if you want her help with the Four Kings (a much harder boss). Fighting the Kings without Beatrice is easily possible with the Furysword+5 and the Crest Shield's magic defense, but having Beatrice makes the fight significantly easier.

Hope the guide helped you, good luck and have fun in Dark Souls!

v1.0 (Dec 4 2023): Original Version.
v1.1 (Sept 15 2024): Added a few clarifications and cleaned a few things up.
v1.2 (Sept 16 2024): Revised a few bits, particularly the Sen's Fortress section.
v1.3 (Oct 02 2024): Revised the Forest Section to clarify where and how to find the tower and other small changes.