Want to get into Dark Souls, anything helps?

[plungiedotsweat]

I love open world sandbox(-ish) games like Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild and Skyrim. I'm just wondering if Dark Souls would fulfill that difficulty and open-worldness that I've been wanting to experience again with different games. Anyone think Dark Souls is a great franchise to grind through? Any tips or advice getting into it? Haven't bought any of the games yet.

[dcy665]

No. It isn't an open world sandbox game.
It is a rather slow, exploration, RPG with attributes (STR, DEX, ...), weapons and armor can be upgraded (mostly, not all).
Combat is slow compared to modern games, which many are more arcade like in combat.
There are paths available to you when you start. One will get you killed very quickly; Until you get the right gear. Another will teach you how even the little mobs can kill you.
It has PVP but is limited, although not possible to avoid completely and still get all achievements (some achievements are wonky - just warning ya).

If you do start it, read ALL the advice/instructions during the tutorial. Hint: The first big demon you encounter you cannot get any help with. It is the tutorial, you're on your own.

If you do join us, well - Good Luck

[Swanky]

It's not really an open world sandbox. It's closer to a Metroidvania in a sense that initially a lot of ways are locked and there are a lot of hidden paths and nooks in the world that you can explore. Once you know your way around you can work out on exploring different paths.

If it's your first time around any soulslike prepare for a good bit of frustration before you get into the game. Enemies are tough but DS1 in particular is slow and methodical, meaning enemies usually have tells for what they are about to do, giving you a bit of time to react.

You can play either online or offline. The former adds signs to help you find some of the more obscure things, and you can summon human help for boss fights (if you're in human form), but you can also get invaded which sucks as there's no way around that and if you're new to the game invaders will usually kill a good amount of progress. Offline means you explore the world at your own pace but also, a lot of the dialogue is rather cryptic. Word of advice: NPCs, even quest NPCs, can die in this game.

There are two important things the game does not tell you about: equipment load and upgrades. It kinda nudges you towards it but it's so cryptic that I've never seen anyone really understand it without further explanation. Spoilers below!


Equipment load determines how much you can carry and how fast you roll and how many iframes you get for a roll. Under 50% equipment load you are midrolling, and under 25% you are fast rolling. So a high stamina character can carry more while also keep rolling faster. The faster you roll the more iframes you have.
Upgrades are kinda hinted at one of the smiths you meet early on but it's not really explained. There's just a lot of numbers that go up and that doesn't really help.
First off, weapons have damage scaling. The better the scaling the better it will scale with your attribute (so an A scaling in strength will scale well with strength builds for example).
Now if you upgrade a weapon it will get better values and at high upgrade levels may also scale better. For normal weapons you can upgrade to +5 before you need items that allow for infusing and upgrading further. Infusing is choosing the path you want that weapon to upgrade in - regular upgrades, raw damage but loosing scaling, fire, magic, lightning etc. Not every smith will allow every upgrade path so you may have to look around for different smiths and embers that allow for upgrading weapons.

Welcome to Dark Souls, and good luck!

[plungiedotsweat]

Originally posted by Swanky:

It's not really an open world sandbox. It's closer to a Metroidvania in a sense that initially a lot of ways are locked and there are a lot of hidden paths and nooks in the world that you can explore. Once you know your way around you can work out on exploring different paths...

...Welcome to Dark Souls, and good luck!

Appreciate it! I'm definitely gonna be looking into getting dark souls now thanks to you, my guy.

Originally posted by dcy665:

No. It isn't an open world sandbox game.
It is a rather slow, exploration, RPG with attributes (STR, DEX, ...), weapons and armor can be upgraded (mostly, not all).
Combat is slow compared to modern games, which many are more arcade like in combat.
There are paths available to you when you start. One will get you killed very quickly; Until you get the right gear...

...If you do join us, well - Good Luck

I'm grateful for the input and info, I'll definitely be checking out this franchise!

[Arcade Bumstead]

It's definitely not open world unless you take the master key, which isn't recommended for first time players.
But if you want a comfy world to live and die in, you can't get any better.

[NOD Flamer]

Dark Souls is not a sandbox game, you will not like DS if you that's what you want.

[Mr. Oibyr]

Originally posted by SchizOrtho:

Dark Souls is not a sandbox game, you will not like DS if you that's what you want.

yes, crafting is almost non-existent in this game. It is more of a challenge than BotW and I've heard it referred to as a 3rd person Skyrim...sorta.

I spend most of my time playing this and Minecraft. I like a good "punishing" difficulty, it keeps me alert when I play.

[plungiedotsweat]

Originally posted by Arcade Bumstead:

It's definitely not open world unless you take the master key, which isn't recommended for first time players.
But if you want a comfy world to live and die in, you can't get any better.

Glad to know, I still feel I'd enjoy the games, thanks!

Originally posted by SchizOrtho:

Dark Souls is not a sandbox game, you will not like DS if you that's what you want.

Good to know.

Originally posted by Mr. Oibyr:

Originally posted by SchizOrtho:

Dark Souls is not a sandbox game, you will not like DS if you that's what you want.

yes, crafting is almost non-existent in this game. It is more of a challenge than BotW and I've heard it referred to as a 3rd person Skyrim...sorta.

I spend most of my time playing this and Minecraft. I like a good "punishing" difficulty, it keeps me alert when I play.

not all that I want, which won't deter me from wanting to play the Dark souls games. I love a difficult game that I can sit down and invest myself in.

[JamestheWicked]

I am late, but if you want a skyrim or breath of the wild souls like you can always mod those games via nexus and emulation with gamebanana mods. Otherwise if you haven't played elden ring then start with that. DSR is alright still needs mods for better textures i think, the world is all connected but isn't like an open world lets say this world is layered, with wrap points, and interconnected maze like. I think if you haven't please play elden ring, allows for much better discovery and build variety.

[MiniEngineer]

Was a huge Elder Scrolls fan too, honestly just forget all about that when playing DS. It's just not that comparable, my tip to you is don't bother with builds or guides, just play how you want just remember that weapons and spells have stat requirements. Many people ruin the fun for themselves by searching online for everything. Dark Souls rewards you for exploration and experimentation.

[MiniEngineer]

Also the start is quite slow, it took quite some time before it clicked. But after that I was hooked af

[Flushing]

Originally posted by Plungie:

I love open world sandbox(-ish) games like Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild and Skyrim. I'm just wondering if Dark Souls would fulfill that difficulty and open-worldness that I've been wanting to experience again with different games. Anyone think Dark Souls is a great franchise to grind through? Any tips or advice getting into it? Haven't bought any of the games yet. :plunger:

After having played all Souls games, the best trick I can offer is that you should buy Elden Ring.

Any other tips you get are garbage.

If you have not played a Souls game before, I have no idea why you wouldn't start at Elden Ring. Especially since you say you like an open world sandbox and only Elden Ring comes close to that.

[o0O§O0o]

Dont kill the gold golem using chaos fireball (seriously you will regret it), check for NPC questline guides, its easy to kill npc's and miss on items.. I think theres items that you need to murder someone to get like uchigatana for example but ending NPC lives prematurely will mostly lead to a loss of resources. you can also miss the chance to get some drops for example BKH may not drop from black knight etc. dragon tails become swords if you cut them, the hellkite drake has a good curved sword without requirements.. theres a blacksmith just under firelink shrine that sells some sorceries....

[plungiedotsweat]

Originally posted by Flushing:

Originally posted by Plungie:

I love open world sandbox(-ish) games like Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild and Skyrim. I'm just wondering if Dark Souls would fulfill that difficulty and open-worldness that I've been wanting to experience again with different games. Anyone think Dark Souls is a great franchise to grind through? Any tips or advice getting into it? Haven't bought any of the games yet.

After having played all Souls games, the best trick I can offer is that you should buy Elden Ring.

Any other tips you get are garbage.

If you have not played a Souls game before, I have no idea why you wouldn't start at Elden Ring. Especially since you say you like an open world sandbox and only Elden Ring comes close to that.

Gotcha, thanks a bunch, man! lol

[alumlovescake]

If you are looking for Skyrim or Breath of the wild games, this is not it.
A lot of people call Elden Ring that but those are the same people who would call every "open world" game that.


None of that would mean you wouldn't like it, but you would be very dissapointed if you wanted something like Skyrim or Zelda

[plungiedotsweat]

Originally posted by alumlovescake:

If you are looking for Skyrim or Breath of the wild games, this is not it.
A lot of people call Elden Ring that but those are the same people who would call every "open world" game that.


None of that would mean you wouldn't like it, but you would be very dissapointed if you wanted something like Skyrim or Zelda

Hey, but something extremely difficult is right up my alley.