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By Mick Fraser
Heading into a new Souls game is always an incredibly daunting prospect, which will be even more terrifying for newcomers to the series who may have been led here from PS4-exclusive Bloodborne, or who have simply followed the heady smell of hype. No matter why you’re here, newbie or veteran, Dark Souls 3 is tough.
Luckily, we’ve been battling through it for well over 60 hours, and we’ve used the sting of our accumulated failure and deaths to bring you 9 beginner’s tips to help you make your way through the first few hours of FromSoftware’s punishing action RPG. It contains spoilers, obviously, so beware...
This isn’t Bloodborne 2
It may be tempting to start as a Thief. For many of you coming to Dark Souls 3 fresh from Bloodborne, sure, Thief offers the closest approximation to that style. It’s quick and nimble and even starts with a quick-step ability for its weapon art but, in truth, Dark Souls 3 is incredibly punishing to newcomers playing this class. First of all, the starting weapons will require multiple hits to take out even grunt enemies, meaning you can be easily overwhelmed when Dark Souls 3 throws multiple enemies at you, which it does, more-so than its predecessors. Moreover, larger enemies with higher health will be difficult to take down, because you need to get in close and pummel them, but even toe-to-toe, the damage will be low compared to, say, the Knight.
As an example, fighting the second boss (which is really the first proper boss) with a thief was something we found very difficult – the kind of challenge that a more seasoned Souls veteran will look for. As a Knight, we breezed past the boss on our first go, despite actually being a level lower than our Thief character. What we’re saying is: yes, this a quicker Souls game, but it’s not Bloodborne, so don’t expect to play it like Bloodborne.
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By Mick Fraser
Heading into a new Souls game is always an incredibly daunting prospect, which will be even more terrifying for newcomers to the series who may have been led here from PS4-exclusive Bloodborne, or who have simply followed the heady smell of hype. No matter why you’re here, newbie or veteran, Dark Souls 3 is tough.
Luckily, we’ve been battling through it for well over 60 hours, and we’ve used the sting of our accumulated failure and deaths to bring you 9 beginner’s tips to help you make your way through the first few hours of FromSoftware’s punishing action RPG. It contains spoilers, obviously, so beware...
This isn’t Bloodborne 2
It may be tempting to start as a Thief. For many of you coming to Dark Souls 3 fresh from Bloodborne, sure, Thief offers the closest approximation to that style. It’s quick and nimble and even starts with a quick-step ability for its weapon art but, in truth, Dark Souls 3 is incredibly punishing to newcomers playing this class. First of all, the starting weapons will require multiple hits to take out even grunt enemies, meaning you can be easily overwhelmed when Dark Souls 3 throws multiple enemies at you, which it does, more-so than its predecessors. Moreover, larger enemies with higher health will be difficult to take down, because you need to get in close and pummel them, but even toe-to-toe, the damage will be low compared to, say, the Knight.
As an example, fighting the second boss (which is really the first proper boss) with a thief was something we found very difficult – the kind of challenge that a more seasoned Souls veteran will look for. As a Knight, we breezed past the boss on our first go, despite actually being a level lower than our Thief character. What we’re saying is: yes, this a quicker Souls game, but it’s not Bloodborne, so don’t expect to play it like Bloodborne.
MORE