The Anti-Noob Guide

This guide will help insure you to be effective at beating Dark Souls but also seeing some level of enjoyment while still being new. Some of the advise I give may be helpful but others like the 2bskip is really up to you as a player if that is your goal. However i do encourage you to only listen to the advise you prefer. before reading any information online it is always best to play blindly due to some misconceptions in the community that might of not aged well even back when i first played when i got this game free with gold on the xbox 360. This guide can only offer a different outlook but that can make a huge difference in actually enjoying the game.

This sword is only as good as you make it out to be. If it's you first time get it for the achievement although you can come back later on and get it easier. There are plenty of weapons early on that surpass it after upgrading to +5. It's lack of scaling does not help it's case much. That and dragon scales are a b*tch to farm and later game dragon weapons are far superior.

Here are some weapons below that are great alternatives this early in the game.

• The bass cannon: can be found in the graveyard area in front of a giant tombstone guarded by a giant skeleton next to Firelink shrine.
• Reinforced Club: Exclusivly purchased from the Male Undead Merchant in the Undead Burg. It has a high damage output with little scaling making it perfect for low levels & SL1 playthroughs. It also has built in bleed damage which the drake sword lacks. Only downside is if you actually level up the regular club may be more worth your while.
• Claymore: On the bridge guarded by the red drake after the Taurus Demon boss fight. Has a better moveset than It's rival counterpart the bastard sword despite the bastard sword having better base damage with the exact same scaling. Your call on either of them as both are are good options.
• Halberd: Can be found before entering the front of the church in the Undead Parish. Past the gate guarded by the armored boar.
• Astora Straight Sword: Found in the Valley of Drakes guarded by an ancient dragon. Scales with faith and deals divine magic damage which allows you to kill the skeletons in the catacombs early (Although a blunt divine weapon would be better).
• Great Scythe: Although tough to get. It is very well worth the trip to the catacombs along with the fire reinforcement you can put on it while there.

• 

  Black Knight Weapons: Can have a chance to be dropped by black Knights. The upgrade material can be acquired very early on making them both versatile & formidable due to scaling and impressive base damage. Although they cannot be buffed.

  This is also not to mention Andre of Astora sells some pretty decent gear alone.

  On a side note;
  
  The Drake Sword can be useful for 1 certain situation such as killing the red-eyed chaos bug through the other side of the chaos servant shortcut with the strong attack to save Solaire[darksouls.wikidot.com]. But most people would be fine leaving the bug alive to get his armor set anyway and it's not like you can't agro him at the lost Izalith bonfire right outside the centipede demon boss arena to "pause" his quest state allowing you to kill the bug the unintended way. You still have to pay off your sins so that really depends how high your soul level is.

I have to admit getting his ring early helps a LOT of noobs. However, if you don't want to rob yourself of some decent quest exclusive equipment later on down the road then don't. If it's out of fear of loosing the firelink bonfire or his ring let me rest those tensions below.

Let's look at a cool baller thing called Game Progression.

Once you ring the 2 bells of awakening OR pick up the fire keeper souls in both the undead parish church and the one on your way out of Blighttown in the room with the blowdart snipers. Yes he will kill the Firekeeper (Anastacia of Astora[darksouls.wikidot.com]). The thing is most people are already on their way out of Blighttown after ringing the second bell and your next destination should be the cut scene you saw when ringing those bells (Sen's Fortress). The game is actively telling you to move forward to the Undead Parish bonfire and so long as you've unlocked the shortcut to the parish from the shrine you should be fine. If you die to the 3 armored hollows after killing Quelaag on your way there then you kinda deserve to make the trip back. That's all I have to say on the matter. Simply progress through the game normally. Invade him at Anor Londo and defeat him. He will drop his ring as a reward as well as Anastacia's Firekeeper Soul to revive her.

Unless you are doing a specific build that doesn't require his quest items then yes but this guide is mostly for noobs that are robbing themselves of both the Dingy Set and The Set of Favor all because of bad advise given to newer players that honestly didn't age well even back when this game first came out.

The Dingy Robe has the highest magic defense a chest piece has to offer when maxed out even beating Havel's Armor. It pairs well with the crown of dusk by compensating for the low magic defense.

You also get some extra goodies that I won't spoil here.

One note worthy thing about Dark Souls 1 is the amount of early game shields that have been neglected over time. Newer players fond of the later titles expecting the payoff of spam rolling will get you somewhere here. While it can payoff, DeS & Ds1 have a slow and methodical approach to them. As such the only advise I can give to newcomers is: Try blocking.

Here is the breakdown. Damage reduction is based on percentage. The reason you are taking damage while blocking is that you have an inferior shield. Most starting classes are balanced out to fast roll, lack a decent shield or have a decent shield (and better/mid gear) but lack fast rolling. So to block damage better we need a shield that blocks 100% Physical attacks.
However you may have noticed some shields taking more stamina than others per hit.

That is where Stability comes into play. The higher the number. The less stamina takes to block the attack.

So that's it you just need the best phys and highest stability shield right? Well not necessarily. Some of the game's lowest shields can be formidable so long as you upgrade them which increases their stability. So here are some great starter shields that can carry you through the game.

Early Game:

• Heater Shield: It's starting phys reduction makes it perfect. You can even buy it from the Male Undead Merchant. However it's low stability makes the Grass Crest Shield more favorable in this regard as it's not too far off in stability but the effect that Grass Crest Shield Offers may be better for you than a few extra numbers. Same goes for the Sanctus late game.
• Kite Shields: They have a slightly higher stability with gain in weight by 1.0 making them just right for clearing the game with. So long as you upgrade them.
• Balder Shield: Although obtained through farming the correct balder knight which can take a while. It can also be purchased from the Crestfallen Merchant in Sen's Fortress. It's stability surpasses the kite shields despite weighing more.
• Grass Crest Shield: Honestly probably a goated shield as it gives you extra stamina regeneration while freeing up your helmet slot. It's not meant for blocking with unless you have better defensible armor though. It's your choice in the matter because admittedly not all shields are meant for blocking. Are we cool yet?
• Crest Shield: A decent early game high magic defense shield that can assist you with the Moonlight Butterfly boss fight and debatably Gwyndolin. Though you may need to watch a video on how to get back to the Undead Asylum to acquire it.
• Dragon Crest Shield: Decent fire defense paired with 100% phys reduction. The heater shield not lookin so hot now. It's located in the Valley of The Drakes next to Astora's Straight Sword and unfortunately you will have to wake up the ancient dragon that's guarding it.
• Sanctus: The Sanctus may not be considered an early game shield but it can be acquired early if you're skilled enough to take on Paladin Leeroy. It's somewhat worth it as it has a passive health regeneration effect. Mostly recommended for faith based builds.

  Late Game:

• Silver Knight Shield: Surpasses even the balder shield in stability and is the most stable regular shield in the game.
• Greatshield of Artorias: Within reason, This greatshield is the most stable shield in the game. It's reliable but mostly for later new game + playthrough.

  Honorable Mention

• Tower Shield: Throwing reason out the door the Tower Shield if reinforced with crystal can surpass the greatshield of artorias and if buffed with Strong Magic Shield. You will have virtually no stamina loss when blocking attacks. But it isn't practical due to Crystal reinforcement's unrepairability. The same goes for The Balder Shield vs The Silver Knight Shield.

  Not worth It

• Lightning Defense Shields: There is no real benefit or gain by having high lightning defense. Even if we go by PvE rules the only bosses this applies to are O&S and The Sanctuary Guardian. Though they can be useful for Drake farming but even then i don't think they help.

  There are many other shields in the game worth trying out as there doesn't seem to be a lack of variety of them. So don't be afraid to get creative.

Boosting damage. That's the name of the game.

The Crown of Dusk [darksouls.wikidot.com] Is superior to the Crown of The Dark Sun[darksouls.wikidot.com] Both give a magic damage buff to all offensive magic (Including Pyromancy & Micracles). The only difference is that the Crown of Dusk offers 20% Spell damage but reduces magic defense by 30%. Dark Sun only offers 10% with no penalty to defense. On NG+ 7 it is possible to one-shot bosses. You just need the Red Tearstone Ring[darksouls.wikidot.com] + Dusk Crown Ring[darksouls.wikidot.com] while afflicted with a curse to half your health enough. You do have to use Power Within[darksouls.wikidot.com]. This creates time pressure and a game of chicken. The Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring can boost both pyromancy and sorcery damage by at least 20%. Ring of the Sun's Firstborn is used for boosting Miracles by 20%

Both of these rings stack before damage calculation resulting in massive damage.

Order is just. You may find obtaining souls to be a problem sometimes. To rid yourself of this problem consider getting good at quick swapping gear in your inventory. You can change the order of items in your inventory for easier swapping otherwise known as quick swap. This can be useful for a certain scenario I know of.

You can quick swap out to these items after killing a boss to gain extra souls after the fight since the delay of acquisition of souls is generous.

• For the ring simply summon Leroy Jenkins[darksouls.wikidot.com] at the start of the game to ham slam pinwheel. It helps if you focus on the clones. Use the bone to level up. Make your way back down to pinwheel's boss arena and obtain the silver Serpent Ring.
• There are a bunch of chests in Firelink that has Lloyd's Talisman and you can buy some from the Male Undead Merchant to use them on the mimic in Sen's Fortress to obtain the Symbol of Avarice. You can pick up the Gold Serpent Ring that's right next to it for an increased chance of getting it.

  (Note: picking up the lightning spear the mimic drops will increase your weapon level requirement for online matchmaking)
  

When playing offline and all you have is your whits.

The Chaos Blade[darksouls.wikidot.com] can be extremly helpful in farming Souvenir of Reprisals[darksouls.wikidot.com] for the Darkmoon covenant as the additional poise circumvention helps tremendously. This blade can even help stagger those Drakes for scales. I mostly recommend this weapon for it's quick attacks but it is not the highest poise damage[darksouls.wikidot.com] dealing weapon so any chaos reinforced weapon will do

(Recommended: 10 soft humanity on character for chaos weapons).

There is simply no such thing. Unless we are talking strictly PvE then you would go by souls spent per level which then Wanderer takes the crown as the cheapest option. This does NOT mean that any other class is without it's advantages as well. Especially considering Online Play as our expanding factors. For Example; If you are trying to min-max and the best class finder on mugenmonkey suggests to go with wanderer. You've hit a brick wall. Meaning if your stats are both too high and even with each other then you're focus lies on something else other than min-maxing. This is because min-maxxing's goal rather is to both min/max by leveling up a cheaper build with the focus more narrowed than wanderer at a more lower level than what wanderer can offer. If it suggests wanderer than you may need to do more minimizing optimizations. This makes it more difficult to determine the best class. As all of them have a purpose in Dark Souls.

The Warrior has an ironed out stat pool. It's not the worst but can manage.

The Knight is the only starting class that teaches players about Poise. The more armor you have on that has poise the better. Poise is important only if you are tired of getting stunlocked and can't get your attacks off.

The Wanderer A min-max brick wall. Has a decent overall stat balance for flexible gameplay. I would choose this over Deprived any day. It is the cheapest to get to max level which is why i recommend it as your max level,100% achivement/Mule character. (Good luck with that).

The Thief starts out automatically with the Master Key which can allow you to get a second gift. Allowing you to still get to Andre quicker or present yourself the challenge of defeating Quelaag early. It is also favored for it's high starting dex.

The Bandit class spawned waves of Giantdads making it the perfect option for tanking in online pvp.

The Sorcerer has a high intelligence stat and if you plan on getting it to 50 or higher for enchanted weapons, They can and will destroy bosses and players. I recall testing the damage rates a long time ago for each upgrade path and it turns out Enchanted does the most scaling damage. Perfect for Dex intelligence builds. However due keep in mind that there are other alternatives such as Crystal or Regular +15

The Pyromancer is an interesting class as it has just enough Intelligence to buy the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring which does increase Pyromancy damage. Stack the Crown of Dusk on and you will be unstoppable. Even when at Soul Level 1.

The Cleric isn't to be ignored either with it's high starting faith which allows you to use spells like Homeward without the need for bones and not too later on offensive miracles like the Lightning Spears, Emit Force & Wrath of Gods.

Deprived Is probably the worst starting class as it's clearly noob bait with it's equaled-out stats. It does come with a Club which can aide you in fighting the skeletons easier at the start due to blunt damage being their weakness. However, The catacombs's level design makes it less of a chore to get to pinwheel as you can sequence break most of it making this class a nothingburger with no upsides. Go wanderer instead if you want evened out stats.

After some hefty digging into this mechanic I find that it actually makes Twink builds far more dangerous than before as even if you decide to hold off getting a +5 weapon. You will still be invaded by other +5s. Including spell spam builds like Tranquil + Wrath of Gods & Dark Beads. The only thing this mechanic nerfed was pyromancy but even then a +5 pyro glove paired with Black Flame is more than enough to twink with. That being said it does sadden me we no longer see the typical Quelaag's Furysword co-op summon in the Undead Parish as it's considered a +10 weapon. Don't be afraid to upgrade like the people over on reddit. Just know you are also effecting co-op summons by holding off upgrading.

The real downside to this mechanic would be the fact the Red Eye Orb no longer invades to the level cap like it did on Prepare to Die Edition / Vanilla. Leaving SL1s and higher levels with little to no matchmaking all the while shrinking the online matchmaking into a pool of soul levels (approx) 20-120. Needless to say this kind of backfired as Twink builds can still be made regardless if you're playing carefully and worse since it's all consentrated at those levels. But at least the Red Eye Orb added a bit of randomness to invading as an SL1 since back in the day it invaded to the level cap meaning a level 1 could invade a level 700+. It was kind of a form of karmic justice but i guess we won't have that anymore. I really think the problem here isn't Twink builds but rather the community that complains when they get invaded by some god tier legend when that could just be a problem on outlook. Because Contrary to popular belief. That invader who killed you could assist you if you just asked.

You can become as strong as that guy who killed you so effortlessly so why not ask him for tips if you're new?

Here is a calculator from Fextra: https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Summon+Range+Calculator

Here is a breakdown of Weapon matchmaking from Project Goof that gives us a better idea into this mechanic. https://youtu.be/M3VI0wwWNEk?si=zG_twsxrnBrO3YLV

Bottemline is play your own way.

If you are doing something like a giantdad build then it is understandable you would kill Lautrec early. If you find it difficult to pass the drake then it is understandable to get the drake sword. However I feel sometimes we make things harder than they have to be when teaching newer players about the game.

https://www.mugenmonkey.com/
This site has been out since the stone age of souls games. It can assist you in making builds for all Dark Souls games including Demon's Souls and Bloodborne (Excluding Elden Ring). Hope it finds you well and get creative!

SOFT-LOCK WARNING: THIS SHOULD ONLY BE DONE BY TRAINED PROFESSIONALS IN A PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Before you read I recommend only doing this after you first beat the game. Save some things like this for repeat playthroughs but if you want more of a challenge then be my guest. You can skip the Sen's Fortress Gate but at a cost. If you find yourself at a bonfire past the locked gate. You are at the point of no return. This means not being able to do anything that requires you to backtrack. Alternatively, you can simply not rest at any bonfires and it's actually kinda fun that way as a little challenge for yourself. Just make sure you upgraded that Undead Parish Bonfire for 20 Estus because you will surely need it. You can obtain a Symbol of Avarice early and much more.

Here is the modern way of doing the glitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsAQN1mVrFU

Here is some of the oldest documentation of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCAUGXEulUc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT_4Sp2Ok3E

Back when the game first came out there were a few mixups likely due to last minute changes.

Tiny Being's Ring The biggest noob trap of them all. It may be a moot point now since the remastered version fixed this but many souls vets remember the Tiny Being's Ring having a far different item description that goaded many players into it's trap.

Kinda takes me back to when i was a noob realizing this one ring made me feel so much dismay when I realized all it did was increase my max hp not regenerate it.

This ring is a symbol of me growing up as a souls player and learning. I did not make this guide to boss you around. I made it to show you that you can too and my hope is one day this game can help you to improve not only your skill but your outlook of these games. There is so much to do in this game that one stupid person cannot cram it all into one guide. But I do hope this helps.