Dark Souls beginners guide (basic builds / dmg scaling / staring weapons) 

Many say Dark Souls is best expirienced blind. And that can be an awesome expirience if one is already familiar with the genre. However if one is a total beginner (like me) this will only lead to unnecessery hardship and frustration. In fact I almost gave up on the game when reaching the depth (which btw took me hours to find. Who remembers that one random locked door by the bridge after fighting the Gargoyls for the last week? Srsl.) Luckly I swallowed my pride and looked up some tutorials. Thanks to great guides (like yours) I managed to fully embrace this gaming epic for over 100 hours and I'm not stopping anytime soon! So in conclusion: Dark Souls is best expirienced, when it can be enjoyed!

4:31 Weapon Scaling; 5:27 The Weapons; 5:37 Estoc; 6:01 Upgrading Weapons (link provided); 6:25 Zweihander; 7:20 Astora's Straight Sword (cleric, etc.); 8:37 Claymore; 10:07 Great Club (bandit etc.); 11:21 Gravelord (warrior/bandit); 12:40 Drakesword; [13:15 Undead Merchant Locaton, for bows/arrows] .... 14:49 Rings; 16:13 Shields; 17:43 Fast way to Blacksmith

This video helped me even though it's so old, thank you :)

It's so easy to get all the weapons from the graveyard at the start. I always run through and grab everything from the spear, zweihander, shield, binoculars, souls of fallen soldiers etc. Spend all your curent souls on leveling up, stay hollow and then do as many runs as you can to get all the loot from the graveyard, doesn't matter how many times you die and if you don't reach your bloodstain as you will still have 0 humanity and souls.

Just a note that you only need 16 END and a Heater Shield to block Havel with full stamina and take no HP damage. Heater is 100% damage reduction for 2.0 equip load. Warrior starts with it or it can be purchased from the Undead Merchant.

I am one of the people who initially abandoned the game because I felt lost. After a while I decided to play again and in the end I managed to progress somehow, but now watching this video with some knowledge of the game, I regret not having seen it before, it is a perfect introduction and explanation of absolutely everything, congratulations for this great video man.

Thanks dude! Just picked this up because my friends said I had to play it. I was totally lost at first, but this video really helps!

This is a super helpful video yet somehow it only has 416 likes??? You deserve more credit than that, good stuff man!

I'm just getting into this series. Started with Demons Souls Remake and instantly fell in love. I am currently playing Dark Souls 2 and am having a blast so far. DS remastered and DS 3 are next up on my play list.

This is an amazing video -- deserves way more views! Thanks man!

Great video! I’ve already beaten the game before without knowing a bunch of the stuff you showed. Everyone and their mother should see this video before playing the game!

i had no clue about the scaling system in the game so i learned alot from this video :)

great video man. needed that like 30 hrs. ago. just got the lordvessel. but i somehow found the gravesord myself because i was stuck in down there and tried everything.

So I came back to Dark Souls after Skyrim. I played mage in Skyrim and the magic was strong so I thought it would work in Dark Souls. I found that magic, at least in early game, is just nonexistent. At least it’s not as cool or powerful as the swords you pick up off of the enemies and in early game you get so many opportunities to upgrade and infuse your weapons as well. I guess I am restarting as a knight lol

I’m just getting into the series Starting with Dark Souls 1 and planning to play Dark Souls 2 and 3 as well so I could kind of train myself for Elden Ring.

I picked up Dark Souls Remastered in the recent PS4 spring sale, and I really need some help lol. Thank you for this!

hey man nice video but just to let you know, your microphone is picking up a lot of low frequencies that masks some of your annunciation. Try adding a high-pass filter of -10dB or so and boost your 1khz range. would make your speech much less muffled

Regarding the Gravelord Sword mentioned in video: Great for relatively low level builds, but note you CAN'T buff it. Also not great damage-wise beyond 24 Str (16 Str when 2-handed) due to low scaling. If you're the player that likes to "turtle" (block, stab, block, stab), use WINGED SPEAR found in the graveyard as the Zweihander. Requires 13 Str and 15 Dex so Warrior is a great starting class. Sold by the Merchant in the Undead Burg for CHEAP, the HAND AXE is a decent strength weapon. Hand Axe is the starting weapon of Pyromancers and it is probably the fastest hitting Strength weapon in the game. It also has low stat requirements and better recovery than other Strength weapons, though it (ironically) sacrifices damage output, scaling (Only C scaling in strength), and range. Still, can carry the dedicated user the entire game, though it shines even more as a side weapon for purely Strength builds (i.e. low Dex). Pyromancer (who starts WITH the weapon) and Bandit can benefit from using the Hand Axe, though ANY class can use it from the start due to the measly 7 Str. requirement. Another CHEAP weapon courtesy of Undead Burg Merchant is the REINFORCED CLUB. Has the same 1-hand and 2-hand attack animation as other "1-hand" axe/hammer weapons (e.g. mace, battle axe), but the 1-hand and 2-hand Strong attacks are guaranteed JUMPING attacks for even more damage (so be careful using it in terrain where it's easy to fall off). Hits like a truck, Has BLEED effect, and PURELY scales with strength, but has relatively low durability (i.e. not much of a problem as it's not THAT low) and short range (being a 1-hand axe/hammer). It is the hardest hitting weapon for anyone doing SL1 Pyro runs, and can carry the dedicated user for the entire game. Also, what's not to love about what's basically A BAT WITH NAILS ON IT (some ghetto swag, right there)? ANY class can use the weapon from the start due to its measly 12 Str requirement (even low-str. classes can 2-hand it from the start without leveling), though it definitely OPTIMIZED for Low Dex and high Str classes like the Pyromancer, Cleric, and Bandit.

Bro, I beat this game with only shields. What am I doing here Very good vid

I think something similar to this could've been in the tutorial, like Oscar showing up at firelink and teaching you about this stuff, if he didn't go hollow. It would've been great to teach stuff they didn't, like humanity, equip load, all the damage stuff, and scaling/requirements.

You made it more complicated than necessary to get to a blacksmith. Sure, Andre is better but you can safely access one as soon as you reach the firelink shrine. You don’t even need a master key. Just go down to New Londo Ruins, turn right, pass the tower leading to the valley of drakes, and take the path along the edge overlooking the water. There’s one hiding away in a cell there.

All those guides that first take 20 minutes telling me that I shouldnt use guides and then only explain basic stuff like "Vitality helps with the Vitality" and now I finally found a guide that does what I needed. THANK. YOU!

Meanwhile sorcerer wrecking everything with a BSS in my pocket for oshit moments.

In my ng+ run, but never knew what the scaling stat was for. Very nice vid. :D What is the song you use in your intro? Sounds really good.

Gracias por tu video! :)

Time to revive this comment seciton. I gave up dark souls in 2014 or so, now i'm giving it a try after playing remnant 2 and get more alike to this kind of game, the mistery and surprising ways of getting stronger are fun now.

quick question. started yesterday i wanted to make something of a warior mage hybrid, like, 1h weapons, spells in ofhand is it ok to lvl up str + dex + int or fate, but im afraid of just being too weak in vitality and endurance how many points shod i invest more or less in this kind of stile?

Great video

I went with wanderer with master key and I’m going for pure dex and I have a plus 5 scimitar plus 1 bandit knife target shield wooden shield and the starter armor

A huge Zweihander enjoyer right here

No Uchigatana? You can get it early by killing the merchant in the undead burg.

Omg I love final fantasy. At 2:18 that is Ark from final fantasy III Yes? Haha but yes dark souls and other rpg classes are completely different. I realized that very quickly

I'll try it do you got video about upgrades?

I love you so much

great video... :)

i wish my weapons would stop staring at me.

How about the Katana? I have seen it in a video and I'm thinking about using that for my first playthrough.

but what about the bs in the underground? is he not good?

11:21 that is a loong loooong way lmao xD

I went to 27 vigor so I can have 1000 hp now I’m good and can level all my other stats

Wrong again I usually go for a melee build but could the mage build is OP right out the gate as it gives u the range the melee classes are miasing

What about the depraved

the garlgoyles lol, u don t actually need a good weapon, all you need is to buff your weapon with lightning but it took me so long to figure that out in the past cuz it didn t make any sense in my opinion why lightning should be effective against stone lol

Totally disagree with the starting gift. Get the Master Key so u can trek down and suicide run for a great legendary sword n shield. I had upgraded a long sword +3 who gave 121 damage. The legendary sword gives 196 right out the gate

Why my weapon is staring at me

i dont think the astora straight sword is very good, the damage is insanely low, im pretty sure a +5 normal longsword/base drakesword already outdamages it completely. also you dont wanna waste your twinkling titanite on a shitty weapon, you wanna use them on black knight weapons if your lucky enough to get one. the great club and zweihander are the only 2 weapons that i would recommend out of all of these, also i would suggest a new player to save up the 20k for the artorias crest, or kill the hydra, an early stone armor is insanely good, just having this means you have beaten capra demon already pretty much and it doesnt even mattter if you fatroll, defense and poise are super op in pve, it pretty much also trivializes new londo as well, ghosts tickle your hp bar if you have that, i value the stone armor more than even the rings, but those are nice to get as well ofc. also some other tips: i would take the twin humanities as a starting gift and use up every humanity that you find as soon as you get them until you reach 10 humanity at least, this will significantly increase your item droprate, defense and curse resistance but the most important thing is the item droprate, with 10 humanity you should have a 40% droprate for a black knight weapon each time you fight one, you can even make a cloud save before you fight the ultra greatsword one and reset until you get that. using that weapon is almost like cheating the game, you can get 1 twinkling from the crystal lizard before taurus demon, 1 from one in darkroot garden and you can also get 4 more by farming the tree guys in darkroot as well and trading one of each of the mossclumps for another one with the crow (the blooming trades for 2 twinkling) and with that you can have a +4 black knight greatsword right from the start, this takes like 20 minutes or so, grabbing the stone armor along the way, you can then also go to blighttown if you have the master key and grab power within as well for stupid damage and you could even go to the great hollow while your there and fully upgrade your sword without having fought a single boss yet. you also could do this with the astoras straight sword as well ofc, if you are allergic to damage and wanna deal 10 times less for some reason xD

Kill the merchant in undead burg take his sword

uchigatana pyromancer >>>

my black knight sword trumps all of those XD

Git Gud Bro is the most toxic thing anyone can say

this didn't age well