Dark Souls III: Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Your Starting Class Doesn’t Matter

As with all the previous Souls games, your starting class in Dark Souls III doesn’t affect a lot outside of what equipment and stats you start with. If you picked the Warrior starting class and decide that you want to become a sorcerer later on, you can always allocate points to your Intelligence stat and start casting powerful spells. Dark Souls III also allows you to respec your character with the use of certain items, so you don’t have to worry about getting locked into one specific play style.

That said, there are a few classes that are a bit more beginner-friendly, and this is important especially for newer players. For beginners, I recommend starting out with either the Knight or Warrior class. The Warrior has higher HP to start with, and the high damage boost will aid you greatly in the first few boss fights of the game. Similarly, the Knight also has good damage output, and he has one attunement slot just in case you want to make use of pyromancy in your run. Alternatively, the Herald could also be a good choice if you want a well-rounded starting class capable of wielding most types of weapons.

We would recommend going with the classic sword-and-shield build for newcomers. To that end, the Knight and Warrior class will serve you especially well in the first few hours of the game.

Choose Your Starting Gift Wisely

Just like your starting class, the starting gift won’t affect too much outside of the early hours of the game. However, I strongly advise against choosing the Sovereignless Soul. You’re going to be accumulating thousands of souls throughout the course of the game, so picking up a few souls early on isn’t going to affect a whole lot.

Some good gifts to consider include the Firebombs, which are great for dealing extra damage to enemies from a range, or the Rusted Gold Coins and the Fire Gem. The Fire Gem can be a great gift to have early on since it allows you to infuse your weapon to make it deal fire damage. Your base physical damage will be lowered, but having a fire infused weapon can allow you to take advantage of enemies who are weak to fire.

I personally went with the Rusted Gold Coins simply because I wanted to get more drops from fallen enemies. Using the Coins increases the item drop rate from enemies until you die or rest at a bonfire. This means you have a higher chance of getting the gear and equipment that your enemies have on them. You’re not going to get a lot of high-end gear this way, but you just might find specific types of weapons or armor that suit your play style better than stuff you can get from merchants and chests.

Focus On a Few Stats

Don’t spread out your stats too much. Try to decide on your build early on. If you want a character that can wield heavy weapons and deal massive amounts of damage, you’re going to want to put points into Strength. If you want a swifter character that’s good with bows and curved swords, put your points into Dexterity. It’s best to focus on four or five stats at the most. I went with a quality build for my first run, and thus ended up putting points into Vigor for higher HP, Endurance for stamina, Vitality for better equip load, and Strength and Dexterity both so that I could switch between my heavy halberd and my bow.

Quality builds won’t deal quite as much damage as a pure Strength build, but it does give you a few options in terms of weapon choices. However, spreading your points out on more than five stats will severely impair your character’s growth. Similarly, you can split points between Intelligence or Faith and Strength, or just pour them all into one dedicated stat. The choice is yours; just don’t neglect your health and stamina

Look Out For Shortcuts

Dark Souls III has great combat, but the exploration aspect of the game is its real draw. The level design is pretty dense, and there’s a lot of verticality in the game, so make sure you explore every nook and cranny of every new area you enter. If you find yourself approaching what looks suspiciously like a boss arena and you don’t have quick path back to the nearest bonfire, turn back and look around some more. From Software may be evil, but they’ll usually give you an elevator or some other shortcut that loops you back to the previous bonfire pretty quickly.

Also be on the look out for illusory walls, barrels, and crates that may be hiding one of Dark Souls III’s many secret paths. Simply swing your sword at a suspicious wall or roll into it to see if it’s fake. Your exploratory efforts just might lead you to a really good hidden weapon or, better yet, an optional area with tons more to see.

Be Wary of Mimics

Treasure chests are exciting to open, but not when they’re actually monsters just lying dormant, waiting to gobble you up. Mimics are back in Dark Souls III, and they’ll catch you when you least expect them. If you open up a Mimic chest, the Mimic will grab you with its jaws and chomp on you until you’re dead. Even if you’re at full health, and in Cinder form, opening a Mimic chest means instant death.

Thankfully, there’s a pretty good way to tell the Mimics apart from the real chests in Dark Souls III. Whenever you see a chest lying around, look out for the silver chain hanging from the right side of the chest. If the chain is curled away from you, it’s safe to open. However, if the chain is pointed towards you, it’s a Mimic waiting to mess you up and give you a bad time. Once you’ve identified the Mimic, there are two ways to deal with it. One, you can hack away at it with your sword and try to kill it. This is inadvisable, especially for lower leveled or inexperienced players. Mimics have a lot of health, and they also have a grab attack that will kill you instantly even if you have your shield up.

Instead of fighting the Mimic head on, buy some Undead Charms from the Shrine Maiden back at Firelink Shrine, and toss them at the Mimic. These Charms are typically used in PVP to stop players from using their Estus Flasks, but here, they’ll actually put the Mimic to sleep, allowing you to safely grab whatever item they were housing. Also, using a Charm on a Mimic will grant you a chance of looting the Symbol of Avarice, which is basically a Mimic head helmet that drains your HP slowly. It’s a good item for the collectors.

Buy the Tower Key

Speaking of Dark’s Souls III’s Shrine Maiden, you’ll notice that she has a certain Tower Key for sale in her inventory. It costs 20,000 souls, which is very pricey especially early on in the game, but I advise saving up for this key and buying it as soon as you can. This key allows you to unlock the decrepit tower behind Firelink Shrine, and it gives you access to some seriously good loot.

You’ll get access to the invisible crows on the roof of Firelink Shrine, and you’ll be able to trade items with them. Also, you’ll be able to pick up a free Estus shard and an especially useful ring, if you can find the path that leads to it. If you venture up the tower, you’ll find a Fire Keeper Soul. On your way down, you’ll find some armor pieces and a ring. That Tower Key opens up a lot of stuff for you, so be sure to grab it as soon as you can.

Talk To Every NPC

As you travel around Lothric in Dark Souls III, you’ll eventually cross paths with various colorful characters. Always exhaust their dialogue as they’ll sometimes give you items, gestures, or even a clue as to where you should go next. Some of them will even offer their services to you and ask to join your cause. This will allow them to go back to Firelink Shrine where you can interact with them and even buy new spells or gear from them. Be sure to return to Firelink Shrine regularly to see what they have to say.

However, some of these NPCs may not always get along well with each other. It’s up to you how you want to deal with possible conflicts or arguments.

Upgrades Are More Important Than Levels

We can’t stress this enough. Just like in previous Souls games, weapon upgrades are way more important than your level in Dark Souls III. Each time you amass a good amount of souls from enemies or bosses, the first thing you should do is see if you can upgrade your weapon. Oftentimes, +2 weapon will do a lot more damage and have much better scaling at a lower soul level than a base weapon at a higher soul level. To upgrade your weapons, you’ll need Titanite Shards for regular weapons, and Twinkling Titanite for special weapons. You can get these from slaying the blue crystal lizards you see around the world.

If a crystal lizard gets away from you before you can kill it, always remember that you can quit out and reload the game to make it respawn. Andre the Blacksmith will upgrade your weapons for you, and he’ll also upgrade your Estus Flasks whenever you bring him an Estus Shard.

That does it for our beginner tips and tricks! Be sure to check out our Dark Souls III Wiki Guide for more helpful guides and tips.