A Compilation of Tips and Advice for Dark Souls 3 Newcomers.

Just a spoiler-free guide and advice compilation. Enjoy.

Dear lonley soul.

This guide will feature mostly info about mechanics and approaches.

But first, don't look up too much on the internet or you will ruin your first experience and will more likely than not regret it later.
Avoid those.
Making mistakes and learning from those is the beauty of the first playthrough. Even though its scary to dive into the unknown.
It's really worth it.

Ok, let's start.

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Always exhaust all dialogue options with NPCs. Talk to them. Then again. When they start repeating themselves, you can stop talking to them for now. But talk to every NPC some more before fighting the next boss.

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Read all item descriptions, item descriptions contain useful info but also all the lore of the game.

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Caestus is a great early game weapon, it gives you non stun frames if you two hand it and press L2. This will allow you to trade attacks with enemies while taking reduced damage.

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Don't have more than 69.9% of equip load - fat rolls, very very bad when you are inexperienced. (Ye, i know, sometimes, when the rounding up aligns right, 70% equip load gives you a medium roll, but for newer players, who can't discern rolls, 69.9 is the way to go).

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Leveling vigor + endurance is always a good idea. Vigor has priority though, get it to 30 at least by SL 70. Level dex and str so you can just wield the weapon of your choice (infuse it raw).

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Vitality and strength give you defense, so adding 5 or so points into vitality is not a bad idea.

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Vitality also makes your "max" equip load go up, so you can equip a bit more armor and weapons while maintaining the medium roll.

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Raw infusion is a very good starting infusion. But it removes scaling. So once you start adding extra points to dexterity or strength, infuse your weapon accordingly (sharp to make the dex scaling better and heavy for more strength scaling, refined in case you want to level both. Some weapons are better as dex weapons (curved swords, straight swords, thrusting swords, katanas), others as strength weapons (ultra greatswords, great hammers, hammers, etc). You can select you weapon and look up the parameters bonuses it has uninfused, the ranks from bad to good go: e, d, c, b, a, s. So if for example something scales e in dex and b in strength, infusing this weapon heavy is probably a good idea. Then again, that's only once you have enough vigor and endurance and start adding points into dex/str. Generally you'd want to have at least 30vigor (better 40), 30 end and either 40str 40dex, or 66str and low dex or 60dex and low strength for melee builds.

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To two hand your main weapon, press Y or triangle, this will make your moveset slightly different, the attacks will make more damage. Twohanding your weapon also gives you x1.5 strength in regards to the weapon. so if your strength is at 16, and you want to use a wepon that requires 24 strength, you can do it if you two hand it. because, 16 * 1.5 = 24 If you infuse your weapon heavy, it will scale off strength. so twonhanding such weapons, will add AR (attack rating). Twohanding raw infused weapons, won't do that. To two hand your offhand weapon, hold Y or Triangle for longer.

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While browsing equipment in the menu, you can press the right stick to make the right side of the menu dissappear. Makes it easier to see whats going on ingame while also browsing menus.

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Try out various weapons and test out their movesets. If a weapon resonates with you, upgrade it and level up stats, it scales with. Most weapons in this game are good to use early game as well as end game.

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Try not to block boss attacks unless it's at the end of a combo, so if your guard gets broken from (drained stamina) you wont take damage.

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Holding down on the D-pad goes straight to the first item in your hotbar, so if it's estus, it will go straight to your estus.

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You can estus on ladders.

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We all panic roll, even when conditioned, so don't feel too bad about losing.

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If you encounter a boss whom you seemingly can't defeat, go in without weapons and try to learn the roll timings for every attack. So, learning the moveset. Don't need to ember up for it, just yolo. Once you can roll the bosses attacks and approximately know in which direction to strafe to not get hit, try attacking the boss during the longer recovery frames. Don't attack more than twice, oftentime not even more than once. Test out various weapons and buffs to see, what is the most efficient approach too.

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Simple infused items regen mana/fp (the blue bar).

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Never turtle (hold your shield up for a longer time) in pvp (vs players), especially not with medium and small shields.

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Learn to backstab, parry and about spacing. There are many videos about it.

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Don't trade items while embered. As when you are embered, you can get invaded and invaders will most surely take your items while they are on the ground. Better way: don't ember up and/or be in an area where the boss isn't alive, and summon your friend via red summon sign for trades.

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Don't rely on phantoms, they might spoil the game for you by trivialising the pve.

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On the other hand, phantoms add 20% hp to bosses each, so if you do need help with a boss, don't summon too many phantoms.

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Being embered + boss alive + online opens you up for invasions.

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Invaders normally will use any means necessary to kill the host of the world. So use any means to defend yourself. This way it will be fun for everyone involved, no matter who wins or loses, don't play a punching bag or hide.

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Red, orange and purple summon signs - phantoms that can and possibly will hurt you.

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Yellow and white summon signs - phantoms can't hurt you, but only your enemies. (pve or invaders)

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Never trust purple spirits or phantoms you can lock on to, independent of color. Looks can be deceiving in DS.

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Firebombs are love, firebombs are life.

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Certain enemies drop embers if you let them turn into spoopy monsters and kill them then. Only works one time though.

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Fire damage has an interesting effect on most hollow pve mobs. I suggest taking the fire gem as starting gift and infusing a dagger with fire as soon as you can buy one. Try out the firedagger on dogs, for example, and see how it changes the difficulty of that enemy.

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In your equipment menu, to the right side of the armor and rings is a slot for covenants. These play a role for the multiplayer side of the game. what kind of invader, phantom etc you want to be.

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Most enemies in dark souls have weaknesses and resistances. Some are weak to fire, others are immune to it. Same goes for other elements. You got to use your head and think. Or just go for it and try out various things. Most are weak to r1 though, so you can rely on that.

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Alluring skulls draw attention of some pve mobs (also NPC invaders) for a few seconds.

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If you do want to engage in multiplayer, look up how to find players you've recently matched with, so you can add them if necessary. (recent players tab)

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Learn to back up your save files and do so after every other ds3 session, no matter which platform you use.

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Don't pick up gifts from strangers if you play on pc, as those can be hacked. Unless you back up your save files regularly, then do pick everything up.

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Don't treat any defeat as something bad, no matter how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ it seems, independent if it's pve or pvp. Treat it as a learning experience and don't get salty.

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if you do need help in game from phantoms, check out r/summonsign or r/pumparum for trading of items.

Obligatory:

Kill the dogs first & git gud. :)

[Nixine]

Vigor is a suggestion

[Blizzinc :3]

One thing i gotta add even if its a bit of a necro post. You can be invaded with ember and the boss is dead, I killed a boss and instead of using his bonfire i ran all the way back to the first bonfire of the area and the very second before i got to it i got invaded by a higher level player and was unable to do anything about it while he pegged me with lightning arrows.

[Alyx Eranor]

nice guide,
I didn't know one could estus on ladders :D

addition; sitting at a bonfire will put you in temporary "offline mode"
so go pee and eat something once in a while ;)

[kadushow]

I need help in aldrich, can someone help me?
I'm new to the game

[Skaven Gaming]

thank you for inclulding at the very least one keyboard control, as the only person who plays this with keyboard that felt good.

[mob]

Yes, I AM.

[Shadow_the_1st]

DONKEY!!

[Hunter]

c mon pal , back to BB , let s murder a few beasts together

[mob]

Need call for PETA.

[Gingerbreadman]

Poor dogs.