Hi there! This is my first ever guide... considering the game has very few new players I have absolutely no reason to write this... but I've always wanted to write a guide and , well , Here it is!

But first, let's give some backstory. I've always enjoyed looking up Dark Souls 3 guides and simply laughing at the extremely bad tips popular gaming youtube chanels give... They give useless tips that are mostly meant for people who play a video game for the first time in their lives... pathetic! So I wanted to give you 5 Advanced Dark Souls III Tips, actually useful tips that will keep you alive through the difficulties of the game!


That being said, let the guide begin!

Positioning is a very important aspect of combat in Dark Souls 3. As shields are utter garbage in this game , rolling will be your best friend when it comes to avoiding damage. That's because rolling is safer, more stamina-efficient and will get you right behing the enemy... perfect for backstabs!



As you can see in the screenshot , the enemy's attack will be a sweep from his left (camera's right) to his right. That means , for example , that your best move is to roll 30°-45° degrees to the right - leaving you behind him. If you were to roll left, the end of the attack animation could've still hit you, and , because enemies turn as they attack , he would be facing you, ready for his next strike.

Another useful tactic is to always try to have open space behind you. This way, you won't get cornered as easily - beware though, empty space doesn't mean a deadly fall...

When facing multiple enemies, try lining them up or funneling them through a doorway. If done correctly, this can block them from going close to you and attacking due to collision between themselves.

Estus is the only reliable way of restoring health in DSIII. But , as you probably know, you have a limited amount of flasks to chug from (you start at 3 estus, you can go up to 15 by collecting estus shards that are scattered across the world). This means that conserving it efficiently can make the difference between reaching the next bonfire... or not.

The most important aspect of estus conservation is to only heal if you have more (or equal) missing health than the amount recovered by a flask. You can make exception, especially when in mid-combat.


DO NOT Heal when an enemy is about to hit you! You will basically waste a flask. Instead, run away or wait for an opening , heal up, then dodge the incoming attack.

Your weapon choice in Dark Souls 3 basically means everything about how you're going to play. From playstyle to character build, this is how you should pick a weapon.

I will consider that you are at the start of the game and haven't leveled up that much yet.

Playstyle & Moveset
This is the most important thing when picking a weapon. "Scan" your own playstyle and decide what moveset best suits you. You can do this by simply swinging around weapons in a safe area, toying around with their respective movesets.

Stats & Scaling
The second thing you should look for are good stats. This means damage, scaling , speed and range. You can check the first 2 on the Fextralife WIki[darksouls3.wiki.fextralife.com]. If you did what I said on the above section, you probably already know what your weapon's speed is. Range can be tested by hitting a solid object from different ranges, slowly backing away every time until you no longer hit the respective object.

Requirements & Weight
This is mostly for later-game builds that have already leveled up a bunch. Check the weapon's stats and weight, because you might get the nasty surprise of having your dream weapon encoumber you (>70% equip load).

Critical hits are special attack animations that occur when attacking an enemy under very specific conditions. They deal a lot more damage than any normal attack and can, therefore, be used to effectively 1-shot a weak enemy or severely damage a stronger one. Critical hits in Dark Souls are of 2 kinds : ripostes and backstabs.

Backstabs are straight forward : Go behind an enemy and press R1. This will initiate thebackstab animation. Backstabs can be incredibly powerful as they only require a well timed roll (see Tip 1) and are a good way of getting rid of a troublesome enemy.


Ripostes are a bit more complicated. You can make an enemy go into riposte state in 2 ways:
-By depleting their stamina when they are blocking. This can be done either by attacking (different attacks do different amounts of stamina damage) or by kicking their shields off.
-By getting a parry on them. This requires you to properly time a parry so that it connects with their attack. Only certain shields and items can be used to parry. This can be seen in the weapon art section in the inventory screen. In order to get parries you need to be a bit more skillful, because your timing and prediciton have to be on point. Not all attack can be parried (mostly enemies that don't use weapons to hit you).

Once an enemy is in a riposte state, simply get close to them and press R1 to initiate the riposte animation.

This is a list of things that you should really avoid if you plan on surviving.

---> Don't fight in tight rooms, especially if you have a weapon with a longer range. That's because doing so not only limits your movement, but your weapon can hit the wall, canceling your strike.

---> Be careful around ledges. Falling is a player's greatest foe.
---> Don't go head first into unexplored areas. You don't know if an enemy is hiding behind the corner or if there is a hole in the floor that you can't see.

---> DON'T. GET. GREEDY. If you are asking yourself whether you can land another attack before the enemy strikes back or not, it's better not to find out.

---> Don't chase an enemy. Let him chase you instead. This will allow you to fight on known terrain and will help you massively (Looking at you , Catacombs of Carthus!).

---> Don't summon phantoms for a boss if you only lost a couple of times. Only consider summoning after you've died a lot of times.

---> Don't roll backwards. Like seriously, don't. There is only 1 attack in the whole game that you need to roll backwards to dodge.

---> If you want to summon for a boss , take into consideration the fact that it will increase the health and spread the aggro of the boss, which can be detrimental in a few fights. (Thanks to http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561198296303812 !)

{MORE TO BE ADDED SOON}

Thanks for reading my guide! Any spelling / grammar mistakes that you find - please let me know where they are. English is not my first language, so these sorts of things happen... a lot.

Any suggestions for other tips / tricks are warmly welcome.

Writer ... Negative Zero
Images by ... Negative Zero
Totally original idea by ... Negative Zero
Grammar mistakes by ... Negative Zero
Sponsored by ... nobody :(