A Quick Beginner's FAQ

A brief and simple explanation of Dark Souls basics including the details of how certain less intuitive mechanics work.

Technical Stuff

So this game has a lot of issues from what I understand, what mods do I need?
The single, most notable fix you will want to use for Dark Souls is DS-Fix[blog.metaclassofnil.com] which by following the readme instructions allows you to unlock your framerate, change you resolution and just generally fiddle around with a multitude of settings you simply cannot otherwise change via the in-game options. Two useful multiplayer fixes you may wish to install are Dark Souls Region Filter which allows you to adjust which regions you connect to online, thus enabling you to minimize latency and failed invasions, and PvP Watchdog[bitbucket.org] which enables you to see if the people connecting to you are using cheats and enables you to disconnect or block them, as well as protect you from assorted cheats that can permanently damage your character.

General Gameplay Tips

Pay attention to your surroundings!
A lot of the time in Dark Souls the environment gives you important clues to possible dangers in the nearby vicinity, sometimes you can even see bosses before the fights themselves! A good example is before your first encounter with the Asylum Demon; if you look up, you can see it waiting to drop down on you. Never take decoration for granted, a charred corpse likely means something nearby can use fire, and always be aware of environmental objects you might get stuck on or fall off of, a huge percentage of deaths in Dark Souls are a result of falling.

Manage your stamina!
Dark Souls combat is more about spatial awareness and stamina mangament than anything else. Everything you do will drain your stamina whether it be attacking, blocking or evading, you need to keep an eye on your stamina bar and always think ahead, never start attacking if you won't have enough left over to evade or block afterward if need be!

Evading or parrying are almost always better than blocking
There is more or less no single attack in Dark Souls that is better to be blocked with a shield rather than dodged entirely or parried if possible. A common mistake new players make is trying to tank things constantly and as a result die easily, enemies in Dark Souls hit hard but they telegraph their moves blatantly and all have obvious openings, so knowing when to evade or successfully parry an attack will help you out immensely. If you want to learn how to parry here is an excellent video guide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hrh94Dc-h0. If you do intend to block, make sure your shield has high stability.

Be weary of Orange Messages
The Orange Soap Stone is an item that allows players to leave messages on the ground that will appear in the online worlds of other players, potentially giving them helpful advice... or being mischievous traps! Always read messages, but always think through the contents, a message at the edge of a cliffside saying "secret ahead" may well just be someone getting their jollies off rather than an actual secret.

How do I beat the first boss, I do no damage and it keeps killing me?!
The first fight against the Asylum Demon is more or less a death trap, your objective isn't to kill it but to run past the boss and turn left; there's a door you can escape through. However, if you chose the the Black Firebombs as your starting gift you can kill it with those, or if you're up to the task you evade through its attacks and slowly beat it to death with your fists!

I'm stuck at Firelink Shrine, the skeletons/ghosts keep killing me!
There are three paths you can take from Firelink Shrine, two of which are packed with enemies that are probably too difficult for you to handle at this point. The correct path is to head up the cliffside past the well near the bonfire.

Can I sell items?
You gain access to an npc you can 'sell' items to for souls after you have rung both Bells of Awakening.

Woah hey there's this neat black knight fellow here, I'm gonna pick a fight with-oh ♥♥♥♥
Black Knights are rare enemies scattered about Lordran whom drop items required to upgrade weapons later on (And potentially dropping their own unique gear). They're also quite dangerous if you're inexperienced, so engage them at your own risk. You can however cheese the first two for easy kills if you wish, the one in the Undead Burg can be exploited by luring it back to the previous opening and then repeatedly using plunging attacks by climbing the ladder (The Knight cannot follow you) meanwhile the one in Parish can be lead down into the clearing when the armoured boar is and then led into the fire (The fire can also be used to cheese the boar as well!)

Mechanics Explanation

What starting class should I choose?
Honestly, starting class isn't hugely important in Dark Souls, all the starting items can be found in the world and stat distribution is easily remedied as you level up, unless you're looking to make a PvP build where wasted points really count. That being said there is no way to 'respec' in Dark Souls without mods, so you should at least have a vague idea of what you'd like to do (slow weapons, fast weapons, magic, pyromancies, whatever) and choose from there, although honestly your starting class is far less important than how you spend your points whilst levelling up.

What starting gift should I choose?
The Master Key is pretty universally regarded as the best gift since it lets you explore a lot of the world pretty early however because it opens up so much of the map to you it makes it much easier to wind up in extremely difficult areas near the beginning of the game, thus you should only take the Master Key if you're really into the idea of exploring rather aimlessly; if you're easily frustrated or don't enjoy getting lost much avoid the Master Key entirely for your first playthrough. The Black Firebombs can be used to kill the Asylum Demon in the first fight and earn a special weapon which is neat if you want to run a Strength build, otherwise getting some extra humanity or the divine blessings is your best bet. The Old Witches' Ring isn't a pragmatic choice, but it does let you access a bit of dialogue with a certain character later on, for anyone that cares about lore. Ultimately though your gift is unimportant, all the items can be obtained in one way or another in the main game regardless.

What's the deal with bonfires?
They replenish your health and your supply of Estus Flasks, allow you to spend souls and level up, attune your magic, change from hollow to human, and repair/upgrade your equipment after you purchase the relevant items from blacksmiths. They also act as checkpoints should you die, which makes them exceptionally important and you want to light bonfires whenever you come across one.

Should I 'kindle' them?
Kindling a bonfire will use humanity, but in exchange that bonfire will get you five extra Estus Flasks whenever you rest at it (Like the one in Firelink does by default). This is useful, but you don't want to spend humanity constantly so picking the bonfires you kindle carefully is quite helpful on your first playthrough, especially since kindling does carry over to New Game+. Once you acquire the Rite of Kindling you will be able to kindle bonfires an additional two times, each level providing 5 more flasks for a total of 20.

What stats should I level up?
This really depends entirely on what character you want to play as! Vitality and Endurance are the two safest stats to level since all kinds of characters will benefit from them, and Endurance is especially useful in the early game for increasing your stamina bar and max equip load. Strength and Dexterity are a matter of what kinds of weapons you want to use, so I suggest trying different kinds of weapons out before commiting to either. Intelligence and Faith are for magic builds; enabling the use of Sorceries and Miracles respectively. Additionally you'll need to boost your Attunement to use magic since they're equipped to your attunment slots. The only stat you never want to touch is Resistance; it's basically a worthless and you should never level it up. Also keep in mind that you Strength stat is multiplied by 1.5x while you are _two-handing a weapon_ meaning that if a weapon requires 21 Strength to wield, you can use it with only 14 Strength as long as you're two-handing it!

Why is my character walking funny, oh god I can't roll, help!
Your movement & roll speed are determined by your equip burdern. Every bit of gear you have on (Armour and weapons) contribute to this total. These are determined by a percentage value:

• If your gear's weight total adds up to less than 25% you can run fast, and roll fast.
  
• If your gear's weight total adds up to more than 25% but less than 50%, you roll at a medium speed.
  
• If your gear's weight total adds up to more than 50% but less than 100% causes you to have a slow roll.
  
• If your gear's weight total adds up to more than your equip burdern (101% or higher) you will be unable to roll and your character will move slowly.
  
• These are general values but there are minor differences even within these brackets, to read more visit this[darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com] page.

What is poise?
All armour pieces have a certain pose value, whether it be as low as 0 or as high as 47. Your total poise is the added poise values of all your armour pieces together. As for what it does, poise determines whether or not you can take an attack without being flinched. The more poise you have, the less attacks there are that can stagger you, which makes it harder for enemies to combo you, and easier for you to hit with slower weapons. The downside to this though is that poise tends to be tied to armour weight, the more poise a piece of gear has tends to correlate with said piece of armour being heavier, so if you aim for high poise values you'll be sacrificing your ability to evade, which is generally more important. Honestly poise is relatively easy to ignore in PvE, it's only hugely important for PvP where you'll want to check out this guide[darksouls.wikidot.com] on poise breakpoints to see what numbers to aim for.

Oh god I made an NPC angry and they're trying to kill me, what do I do?!
Fear not, all you have to do is repent your sins to Oswald of Carim (He appears after the boss of Undead Parish) and everyone with magically forget your sins. He can't bring dead npcs back to life though, so try not kill them in these instances.

... What if I killed Oswald?
Well, you still have the option of murdering all the angry npcs, your sin won't carry over to New Game+ so it's not like your character is tained forever. Do be weary though since the more sin you stack up, the more like you are to be invaded by members of the Darkmoon Blade covenant. Seriously though don't murder Oswald, he's really helpful in case you accidentally make an npc hostile.

Can I just murder NPCs?
You can, and some even drop neat loot. But you won't be able to access their services anymore so I recommend against it on your first playthrough, at least until you know who does what. Once you know you don't need someone, knock yourself out!

Oh cool I found a shiny lizard thi- oh hey it dissapeared :(
Crystal Lizards are rare enemies scattered about the world that upon death will drop rare materials you can use for upgrading your weapons! They're often well hidden so finding them is half the battle, but then you need to kill them before they vanish! Fear not though, as simply saving and reloading will make an escaped lizard return, and you can then try, try, try again until you heartlessly slaughter an adorable creature for shiny stones, you monster.

Mechanics Explanation (Cont.)

So how do I upgrade my weapons, and should I?
In order to upgrade your weapons you will need to find a blacksmith (The first two are in New Londo right below Firelink and in the Undead Parish near the second bonfire) and then using a small fee of souls and Titanite Shards you can begin upgrading your weapons and armour. As for whether you should, the answer is yes, upgrading your weaponary is extremely important in Dark Souls as it makes for a huge difference in damage. Your armour is less important and generally speaking can be ignored, but you want to be upgrading your weapons whenever possible. Additionally as you progress you'll find Embers, special items that can be given to blacksmiths that will enable them to upgrade your weapons even further. There's a whole bunch of different upgrade paths that don't really matter until you're further into the game, but for a more extensive guide read this[darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com].

What's a Firekeeper Soul and should I use it?
A fiendish trick. Firekeeper Souls can be given to the Firekeepers at certain bonfires (Such as the mute girl below Firelink's bonfire) in order to reinforce your Estus Flask, letting you heal more. However these souls also have a 'use' option that gives you five humanity. This is a terrible waste (There are only 7 souls in a single playthrough) and honestly exists purely because From Software are jerks. Do not use Firekeeper Souls, always give them to Firekeepers.

I got cursed, help!
Curse is an incredibly rare status effect that you usually won't encounter until the Depths in an average playthrough, if you're inflicted with curse you instantly die and upon respawning you'll find your health is permanently reduced to half of your maximum until you can cure the curse. Two NPCs sell Purging Stones in the early game, Oswald (Whom is located directly below the first Bell of Awakening) and the second Undead Merchant; who resides in the passage linking Firelink Shrine to the Lower Undead Burg (Which needs opening from the latter area). Luckily getting cursed is generally easy to avoid, if you see a frog like thing puffing black smoke at you, run.

Explain covenants to me
Basically they're 'clans' that give you certain mild benefits that for the most part have little to no impact in singleplayer. I won't dedicate a whole section to them because there is already an excellent guide you can read here;

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121136547

Multiplayer Mechanics

How do I play co-op?
The co-op system in Dark Souls is quite unique, players use an item to leave a "Summon Sign" down on the ground which other players may then interact with to bring them into their world as a phantom to help them complete the area (Defined as killing the area boss). In order for you to summon other players you must be in human form, and the person looking to be summoned must be within a certain range of your soul level which is your level +/- 10 and an additional 10%, so a Lv20 player may summon players between lv8 and lv32. Be weary though, if you're in human form you may be invaded by other players.

How do I get summoned then?
You need to use a White Sign Soapstone, acquired from a character you encounter shortly after the boss of Undead Burg. In order to maximize the likelihood of someone summoning you, your sign should be placed in an easy to access location players are often going to pass through; at the beginning of an area, near bonfires and right outside of boss fog doors tend to be good spots. Once your sign is down you need to wait, do not repeatedly place your sign back down over and over again as this will likely cause a lot of 'Summon Failed' messages for folks trying to grab it. Additionally I highly recommend you kill the boss of the area you're in or go hollow before trying to get summoned, otherwise you risk being invaded and while you're being invaded you cannot be summoned.

So there's no way to play with friends easily?
Technically speaking there is no way to specifically seek out a friend's summon sign besides the obvious co-ordinating where they put it down so you can look for it. There are mods though that make it easier.

What's all this "invading" you keep blabbing about?
Using certain PvP items, a human player is able to invade the worlds of other players in human form as a red phantom and then kill said player for souls and humanity. As long as you're in human form and in an area where the boss is still alive, you're vulnerable to invasions. Naturally these are also the prerequisites to summoning people, being invaded is the risk/reward of getting people to help you. You can however reduce your chances of being invaded by joining a co-op oriented covenant such as Way of White or Warriors of Sunlight.

Bear in mind when invading that you also have a level restriction; the same 10+ 10% below your own level, but infinitely upwards, so whenever you invade, you may well run into players several hundred levels higher than you, although this is for the most part an extremely rare occurence.

Man I want to invade people too! But I don;t know where to find the items :(
Your first set of Cracked Red Eye Orbs is actually in Firelink Shrine itself! Head past Petrus and drop down the broken elevator shaft nearby, you'll find a hidden alcove with chests containing not only them, but a few other goodies. You only have four though, so make 'em count! You will of course get access to more later on if you join certain covenants.

I keep getting invaded and killed, what do I do?
Summoning and Invading are two sides of the same coin in Dark Souls. Unlike in most games where these would be seperate game modes entirely, they're an optional, but intertwined feature here. The first thing to do is to throw out your misconception of what Dark Souls is; this is not a co-op game. Dark Souls is a singleplayer game, that uniquely makes its online component a risk vs reward mechanic; you can summon other players to help you progress, but in doing so you make yourself vulnerable to invasions; ergo risk and reward. That being said for newer players this can be incredibly daunting to deal with so here are some general tips;

• Due to the way level restrictions work, you will never be invaded by someone who is "overlevelled". You may however find yourself being invaded by players whom have progressed through the game at a lower level in order to get better gear, to then invade low level players with. If someone is too strong for you to fight then...
  
• You do not have to fight an invader. If you get around them and make it to the boss fog, they "lose". Their objective is to kill you; yours is merely to make it to the boss of the area without dying.
  
• If you are going human, remember to check every summon sign you see! If you spot a player that looks powerful, gambling on summonng them may well save you if an invader pops into your world, not expecting someone that can fight on equal grounds.
  
• And this is perhaps the most important; if you are killed by an invader, there is a fifteen minute time period in which you cannot be invaded by that same invader again. Bear in mind that if they've invaded you once your ip pools are linked; they are likely to successfully invade again once that time is up; so use that brief window to progress!
  
• Finally, you'll no doubt find yourself constantly being invaded by players with maxed out gear in the Undead Berg and Undead Parish. Past these areas however, there's a massive drop-off in players engaging in these sorts of tactics, not to mention as the game opens up past that point you'll quickly gain the skill and equipment to be able to fight back against invaders. Do not be discouraged by PvP in the earlier areas of the game.

[NightmareGats]

I started this game today and your guide really helped me :3

[Sanguine Regis]

This is a very well structured guide, and given by the comments, it seems to have most certainly helped new players. Well done.

[Cam-Waaagh]

Thank you so much, finally wrapped my head around this game with this info, appreciate you're time and effort!

[Thojtt Troll Father]

Thanks for this guide. I might actually play dark souls now. Appreciated +1

[Hamhurlglar]

Thanks. I just started the game last night. Pretty cool stuff. Killed the first merchant by accient. Pressed the wrong button and it made him angry.

[Splat]

You gain the ability to sell items after ringing both bells, although generally speaking the amount of souls you get is relatively low.

[Hamhurlglar]

I have some useless gear. Do I just get rid of it or can I somehow sell it?

[anderson.rs]

thanks, very good guide, this helps a lot for those starting.

[MrBreast (REAL)]

I highly recommend you to add Darkroot Garden (where Shiva the East is) and the Bonfire after defeating Arthorias in Oolacile as the main PvP arena's in your guide. That should raise the PvP activity a bit. And maybe put it in eary in your guide, because most new player wander around for ages looking for duel's. It would also help if you mention DSfix. Just because its the main key to multiplayer.

[Chuckapotamus]

Well thanks for the twinking explanation. Excuse me while I cry in a corner.

no but seriously, good guide thank you. :P