Difficulty of DS3 vs. Elden Ring

[BorisTheKittyCat]

Elden Ring was/is my first FromSoft game. I got about halfway through ER (100% completion for Limgrave/WP/Liurnia/Moonlight Altar/Caelid/DB/Siofra/Nokron/Deeproot Depths/Ainsel/Lake of Rot) and started getting a bit sad to think that a game that I'm having so much fun playing is drawing to an end. As a result, I purchased and started playing Dark Souls 3 to go back and see what I previously missed (always heard DS3 was awesome but never got around to playing it). The only other game I've enjoyed playing enough to do the same thing was Doom 2016. I was so blown away by that game that when I finished Mission 7 (destroyed argent facility) I went back and finally played the one Doom game that I could never get myself to play (Doom 3) before finishing D2016.

Is DS3 harder than ER? I'm playing both games as a heavily armored melee character. FWIW, I just finished the Cathedral of the Deep and Farron Keep areas in DS3.

Coming in as a noob to FromSoft games, my answer (and I'm not saying this as either a good thing or a bad thing) is that DS3 is definitely harder. Curious to hear what other people have to say, especially if they've played all of the previous FromSoft titles. A few key things I've noticed:

(1) There's usually no checkpoint right before boss fights in DS3, like the Stakes of Marika or Sites of Grace in ER. As a result, you often have to run halfway back through a dungeon to get to a boss, trying to use as few Estus flasks as possible before starting the boss fight.

(2) The stamina bar in DS3 actually matters. In ER, you're not quite as effective when out of stamina, but you can still attack/avoid damage fairly well. In ER, I'm mainly just looking at the health bar and to a lesser extent FP (for purposes of weapon arts). However, in DS3, I've basically stopped trying to attack anything unless my stamina bar is at least half full, and the stamina bar takes a lot longer to fill back up. I probably pay attention to the stamina bar in DS3 as much as I pay attention to the health bar.

(3) No spirit summons. Nuff said. I guess you can summon NPCs, but I believe that each NPC you summon in DS3 increases the boss's health.

(4) In DS3, if you want to farm souls, I guess it's still possible to do that. But, there's no fun/engaging open world stuff to do in order to level up without feeling like you're explicitly grinding for souls/rules in order to purchase additional levels. In other words, if you're doing a 100% run in ER, you really don't need to explicitly farm runes in order to stay high leveled enough to comfortably handle difficult boss fights in the legacy dungeons or big underground areas.

Anyway, curious to hear other people's thoughts. Again, I'm not saying the difficulty level of one versus the other is a good thing or a bad thing.

[urabe mikoto]

ER is easier overall, but if you are a pure melee str/dex char (and is not abusing BHS/heavy shields and spirit summons), I would say ER is definitely harder

[Slade]

Played ER for 10 hours and after DS3 it actually was boring. Sometimes it felt like some enemies had a lot more HP, and runes are growing much slower than souls in DS3. Heard a lot about open world in ER that it's just a copypaste mostly. Harder or not, i think it doesnt matter, DS3 is just more entertaining.

[ODTech]

I'm not a fan of the open world in ER, it totally killed the experience for me and i will probably not play it again after 230 hours. They had a good formula going that worked for all their other games so far, it's beyond me why they went the open world route.

I'd say the difficulty in DS3 might be harder initially but it's more fair so If you do the bosses a few times you can learn their patterns. My experience with ER is that bosses just spam attacks so it's difficult to find openings to attack. Maybe i didn't give the game enough time to learn it better but can't argue with the boredom.

[TrumpetBoiTrey]

I'd say the enemies and bosses in ER are harder but the fact that you can play the game in pretty much any order you want takes away a lot of the difficulty. DS3 bosses are a little bit easier (imo) but you're not allowed to roam around the world and get better gear, so they may seem harder

[Nico]

DS3 hits harder since it will put you to fight against other people. Even though the bosses are hard on his own, ultimately they are just sparrings to train you in this wonderful fighting-rpg game.

[wheatyman]

Prove me wrong: Elden ring is only fun the first playthrough. After that its just annoying.
Dark souls 3 however i feel like has much more replayability. and dont even get me started on that god awful ER PVP. What a joke

[David Benioff]

Ehhhh I would say that facing the common mobs (not the harder knights) in DS3 is much easier than ER. However, the level of aggression that everything in ER has (weirdly timed combos that deal insane damage, constant one shot potential) makes it much harder imo. I've never just given up on a Fromsoftware game, refusing to put the effort in to learn bosses/mini-bosses before Elden Ring lol

[Sparhawk 59]

The only thing hard about ER is the connection errors and random crashing.

[Zozo]

Coming back from ER and trying Dark Souls 3 again in my opinion Dark Souls is way easier than ER. Enemies and bosses feel way easier and weaker compared to ER. I still get my ass clapped by bosses in ER. In DS3 its a cakewalk.

[TrumpetBoiTrey]

Originally posted by wheatyman:

Prove me wrong: Elden ring is only fun the first playthrough. After that its just annoying.
Dark souls 3 however i feel like has much more replayability. and dont even get me started on that god awful ER PVP. What a joke

I disagree wholeheartedly. I played through the game 5 times, each time with a different character and experimented with different builds and playstyles with each character and had an absolute blast. Elden Ring PVE is great, it's just the PVP that sucks ass

[NisseDood]

Ds2 stamina matters even more so you cant spam dodge rolls like you do in ds3 and Er because it consumes way more stamina.

[Almaz]

Originally posted by wheatyman:

Prove me wrong: Elden ring is only fun the first playthrough. After that its just annoying.
Dark souls 3 however i feel like has much more replayability. and dont even get me started on that god awful ER PVP. What a joke

I'm afraid elden ring gets annoying even on first playthrough...

[Superboniato]

ER is harder, without a doubt. But only if you compare in the same conditions.
In ER you have MORE TOOLS than in DS3 (ashes, spirits...), so it compensates the extra difficulty (delayed attacks, area attacks...)
A SL1 naked solo club run, is harder in ER.
Using every available tool, ER becomes easier (although enemies are stronger).

Originally posted by BorisTheKittyCat:

my answer (and I'm not saying this as either a good thing or a bad thing) is that DS3 is definitely harder.

(1) There's usually no checkpoint right before boss fights in DS3

(2) The stamina bar in DS3 actually matters.

(3) No spirit summons. Nuff said. I guess you can summon NPCs, but I believe that each NPC you summon in DS3 increases the boss's health.

(4) In DS3, if you want to farm souls, I guess it's still possible to do that.

1. Every level in DS3 is designed through shortcuts so you can run past everything to the fog wall. You only waste some time to run past everything. I think the longest is midir. So that does not add difficulty, only time consuming.

2. At SL1 in ds3 you have less stamina than in ER, but in both games you have enough to spam a lot of movements.

3. That is the key question in my opinion. ER is made taking in account that you have more tools. So bosses and enemies are harder. They have more "complex movements" (delayed attacks, AOE...)

4. there are some "farming areas", in both games. In DS3 soft cap levels are lower than ER, so you can reach the "suggested level for the area" just playing normally, the same for ER.

[Freak4Leeks]

elden ring is easier since it gives you more options, but if you played it like dark souls and used none of the new mechanics that ELDEN RING added then it is alot harder then the dark souls series.

[Lylliana of Mirrah]

Originally posted by BorisTheKittyCat:

Elden Ring was/is my first FromSoft game. I got about halfway through ER (100% completion for Limgrave/WP/Liurnia/Moonlight Altar/Caelid/DB/Siofra/Nokron/Deeproot Depths/Ainsel/Lake of Rot) and started getting a bit sad to think that a game that I'm having so much fun playing is drawing to an end. As a result, I purchased and started playing Dark Souls 3 to go back and see what I previously missed (always heard DS3 was awesome but never got around to playing it). The only other game I've enjoyed playing enough to do the same thing was Doom 2016. I was so blown away by that game that when I finished Mission 7 (destroyed argent facility) I went back and finally played the one Doom game that I could never get myself to play (Doom 3) before finishing D2016.

Is DS3 harder than ER? I'm playing both games as a heavily armored melee character. FWIW, I just finished the Cathedral of the Deep and Farron Keep areas in DS3.

Coming in as a noob to FromSoft games, my answer (and I'm not saying this as either a good thing or a bad thing) is that DS3 is definitely harder. Curious to hear what other people have to say, especially if they've played all of the previous FromSoft titles. A few key things I've noticed:

(1) There's usually no checkpoint right before boss fights in DS3, like the Stakes of Marika or Sites of Grace in ER. As a result, you often have to run halfway back through a dungeon to get to a boss, trying to use as few Estus flasks as possible before starting the boss fight.

(2) The stamina bar in DS3 actually matters. In ER, you're not quite as effective when out of stamina, but you can still attack/avoid damage fairly well. In ER, I'm mainly just looking at the health bar and to a lesser extent FP (for purposes of weapon arts). However, in DS3, I've basically stopped trying to attack anything unless my stamina bar is at least half full, and the stamina bar takes a lot longer to fill back up. I probably pay attention to the stamina bar in DS3 as much as I pay attention to the health bar.

(3) No spirit summons. Nuff said. I guess you can summon NPCs, but I believe that each NPC you summon in DS3 increases the boss's health.

(4) In DS3, if you want to farm souls, I guess it's still possible to do that. But, there's no fun/engaging open world stuff to do in order to level up without feeling like you're explicitly grinding for souls/rules in order to purchase additional levels. In other words, if you're doing a 100% run in ER, you really don't need to explicitly farm runes in order to stay high leveled enough to comfortably handle difficult boss fights in the legacy dungeons or big underground areas.

Anyway, curious to hear other people's thoughts. Again, I'm not saying the difficulty level of one versus the other is a good thing or a bad thing.

DARK SOULS III is harder because you haven't learn boss moves or weapon Movesets and Weapon Arts.


ELDEN RING has two option Easy Mode using Spirit Ashes, abusing BHS/Quickstep, Bleed Build.

While in DARK SOULS III Case is more about finding that openings and flaws in boss moveset, you use that flaw to your advantage, and DARK SOULS III encourage Aggressive Playstyle where dodging and attacking was more prevalent in this game than in ELDEN RING.

in ELDEN RING's end Game bosses felt like it was design for Bloodborne type of fight where you need lot of iframes to dodge their attacks, and it felt like that they pusposefully make medium/fast roll suck so people will use BHS or Quickstep to conpensate with the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ combos that end game bosses do in ER.

so overall DARK SOULS III was more forgiving and wants the player to win through trials and errors.