What do all the stats mean?

[RESIST AUTHORITY]

On my first playthrough, and I am lost as to how to upgrade my character. The only advice I've gotten is to not try to evenly level up all the stats and focus on a few instead, but I don't know what stats do what and what I should level up. Any advice for me?

[Average Juice Enjoyer]

well what weapon and play style do you have?

[Average Juice Enjoyer]

like do you prefer blocking with a sheild and then getting a hit in or just smashing stuff with a large club

[Dashiell]

Vitality - hp, never wrong
Endurance - stamina and eq load, never wrong
Attunement - every few points give you 1 new slot for spells but you're on 1st playthrough so I would advice against using any magic because it makes char management harder
Strenght - affect weapons that have any scaling in strenght (letters from E to S in weapon stats menu)
Dex - affect weapons that have any scaling in dex (letters from E to S in weapon stats menu) and raises casting speed.
Resistance - so useless
Int - raises dmg for spells
Fth - raises dmg/healing for miracles

[RESIST AUTHORITY]

Originally posted by Dashiell:

Vitality - hp, never wrong
Endurance - stamina and eq load, never wrong
Attunement - every few points give you 1 new slot for spells but you're on 1st playthrough so I would advice against using any magic because it makes char management harder
Strenght - affect weapons that have any scaling in strenght (letters from E to S in weapon stats menu)
Dex - affect weapons that have any scaling in strenght (letters from E to S in weapon stats menu) and raises casting speed.
Resistance - so useless
Int - raises dmg for spells
Fth - raises dmg/healing for miracles

Exactly what I wanted, thank you.

Originally posted by Paladin Leeroy:

like do you prefer blocking with a sheild and then getting a hit in or just smashing stuff with a large club

I like to switch back and forth between using a shield and a fast weapon and two-handing a heavy weapon.

[Dashiell]

Generally soft cap for stats when they no longer give big benefits is 40, endurance won't give any more stamina after 40 but still gives small eq load, dmg gain is minimal.

E(worst)-S(best) scaling on weapons shows how much bonus dmg you will get from stats so it's pointless to invest into some stat if your weapon doesn't use it.

In top left corner you have soft humanity counter, you can use it to revert hollowing, kindle bonfires or give to covenant leaders, also up to 10 it gives bonus dmg to chaos weapons and up to 10 it raises loot drops also raises curse resistance.

Shields only look at the right part of their stat menu, there are % of dmg blocked.

Also magic catalysts and faith talismans aren't straight forward and you're better refering to wiki here.

[Frengler]

Do yourself a favour and take a peek at the Steam guide called "Prepare to Die (less)". It gives great info about pretty much all aspects of the game, including the status :)

[Average Juice Enjoyer]

Originally posted by Paladin Leeroy:

like do you prefer blocking with a sheild and then getting a hit in or just smashing stuff with a large club

I like to switch back and forth between using a shield and a fast weapon and two-handing a heavy weapon. [/quote]

in that case your going to want a 'Quality' build you could search on youtube some good quality builds and weapons basically you just need even STR and DEX until your a much higher level and put as much into Vitality and Endurance:) these are in my opinion the best builds in the game as you are not restricted to certain play styles

[Vinyl Scratch]

It tells you have all the stats do in-game if you toggle the display while in the menues.

Ignore INT, Faith, attumenet (since it's your first playthrough, you won't know where to get spells)
and ignore Resistance on all accounts

Next you'll need to figure out which weapon you like, which will take experimenting on your part. When you find a weapon you like, see how it scales with stats, and raise them accordinly.

[Stoko_Prime]

In real terms, offense is going to give you more utility than defense. For every 4 levels, dropping 2 in STR (or DEX if you're using weapons that scale on it) and 1 each in VIT and END is "safe" if you don't know what else to do.

You should check what the caps are on each stat, though...there's diminishing returns once you get past a certain point with each one.

As others said, stay away from RES at all costs. Passive defenses (ie poison, fire, lightning resist) are easier to increase by changing your armor, shield, and rings than by dropping levels that could be better used to up your attack power, health, or stamina.

[Tooslow]

Originally posted by Stoko_Prime:

In real terms, offense is going to give you more utility than defense. For every 4 levels, dropping 2 in STR (or DEX if you're using weapons that scale on it) and 1 each in VIT and END is "safe" if you don't know what else to do.

I'm pretty clueless but putting points into either Strength and Dexterity before you're sure what weapon style you want to utilise seems sub-optimal. You're dead-on about Vitality and Endurance though, they are always useful. Whereas putting points into Str or Dex is going to depend not just on the weapon you have, but the weapon you want to use later. Levelling the weapon you have, as opposed to levelling your stats is better, early on.

Again, as I understand it.

[toroid]

Originally posted by Raptor1138:

On my first playthrough, and I am lost as to how to upgrade my character. The only advice I've gotten is to not try to evenly level up all the stats and focus on a few instead, but I don't know what stats do what and what I should level up. Any advice for me?

It's simple:
What class did you choose at character creation? Reinforce the stats that define that class.

[Dashiell]

Originally posted by DJ Big Breakfast:

It's simple:
What class did you choose at character creation? Reinforce the stats that define that class.

That's not really the way especially that new people don't know what they want yet and only wanderer, thief, bandit, sorc, cleric have one stat significantly bigger than the rest so it's not so obvious either and most people come from other games where str is for dmg, dex is for dodging etc.

[Nellvan]

Yeah I think that is something new players should be aware of, the class does not dictate any playstyle. It's just a starting point and while some are ofc better for this or that direction you want to go, you're still pretty much free to develop as you wish.

Originally posted by Tooslow:

I'm pretty clueless but putting points into either Strength and Dexterity before you're sure what weapon style you want to utilise seems sub-optimal. You're dead-on about Vitality and Endurance though, they are always useful.

There's a good variety of quality weapons (those that scale with STR and DEX), so this can work just fine. That said I'd recommend focusing on END and VIT a first, too.

Search the graveyard (be prepared to die), take a look what's down that elevator (if you meet ghosts you're too far), explore the Parish once you reach it. Then you'll already have some very different types of weapons to try.

Finding one with a moveset you like and upgrading it to +5 is the most important part in the beginning.