Souls veterans jumping into for the very first time will be in for something of a rude awakening. While far from the hardest entry in the franchise, Demon’s Souls features several experimental mechanics and secrets that can make ’s freshman Souls gamᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚe overwhelming. In typical Souls fashion, this mainly stems from a lack of clearly conveyed information.
For better or worse, Demon’s Souls on is content to simply let players thrive and fail on their own accord. It’s only under strangle new players would want some advice when Demon’s Souls💞 i🍎s as freeform as it is. Even in comparison to its successor games, Demon’s Souls indulges itself with a passion.
10 The Nuances Of World Tendency
World Tendency is one of the core tenets of Demon’s Souls and one of the hardest mechanics to get a full grasp of. Each Archstone in the game has its own Tendency, shifting from White to Black. Certain actions will influence a worl🅰d’s Tendency, with White & Black offering their own benefits – from opening up new areas to triggering new enemies and effecting item drop rates.
The easiest way to build White Tendency is by defeating bosses. Since dying in body form lowers White Tendency and raises Black Tendency, it’s important that any players wishing to make the most out of a Pure White Tendency world die in the Nexus & not during gameplay proper. It’s also worth noting that playing offline is idea♎l when trying to manipulate Tendency, as the online server ebbs &🗹amp; flows.
9 It’s Safer Staying Dead
On that note, it’s generally a better idea to stay in soul form during a first playthrough. While there are obvious benefits to playing in body form – most notably the increase in health and ability to summon other players – there are also specific challenges tꦰhat can⛎ make the game much harder on newcomers.
Beyond dying in body form raising Black Tendency (in turn making stages considerably more difficult in the process,) the threat of being invaded is arguably more daunting than in any of the games. Demon’s Souls levels are tight, cramp🅠ed, and p⛄erfectly suited for invaders to run amok.
8 How Summoning Works
Veterans of the origin💞al game will be in for a bit of a surprise when it comes to playing co-op. The entire summoning system has been reworked to better match modern Souls entries ala and Bloodborne. Demon’s Souls now features a password system t𝓀o allow friends to play together, along with allowing more summonable phantoms at once. The original summoning rating system has also been removed, adhering to the completely neutral tone the first Dark Souls codified for summoning.
7 Shortcut To Flamelurker
Flamelurker is one of the hardest bosses in Demon’s Souls as is, but getting to him is in itself a challenge. The path to Flamelurker is filled with exploding mine carts, plenty of lava, relentless miners, and some of the sturdiest enemies in the game for anyone playing a melee character. Throw Patches into the mix and Stonefa🐷ng Tunnel ends up one 🌊of the largest spikes in difficulty throughout the whole story.
Luckily, there’s a quick (albeit extremely dangerous) way of getting to Flamelurker is just a few short minutes. Simply hoඣok right from the Armored Spider Archstone and drop down the mineshaft by strategically landing on the broken bridges below. It’ll take some trial and error to find out where exactly to drop – and whether to roll or run off a bridge – but taking the time to chart out a path making getting to Flamelurker a breeze.
6 Weapon Upgrade Tiers
While Demon’s Souls is kind enough to give players a blacksmith right i💙n the Nexus, Baldwin can only upgrade weapons with Hardstone, Sharpstone, and Clearstone, ostensibly locking out most upgrade paths. Baldwin is best used for quick equipment repairs while plays instead go see Blacksmith Ed at the very start of 1-1 (just down the makeshift elevator) to experiment with all sorts of upgrade tiers.
Ed can smith with any kind of stone, giving players access to the li𝕴kes of magic infused Crescent weapons and overwhelmingly strong Crushing weapons. Ed can also smith boss Souls into brand new weapons for an added bonus.
5 No Sixth Archstone
Disappointe🗹dly, BluePoint Games did not take the time to rebuild the sixth Archstone – the Land of the Giants. Titled the Northern Limit, FromSoftware planned six total Archstones for Demon’s Souls. The Northern Limit would have been a snow covered land with enormous architecture befitting its denizens, but the development ran out of time to include the sixth world.
With BluePoint Games remaking Demon’s Souls, fans were naturally excited at the thought of visiting an unbroken sixth Archstone. Unfortunately, the Land of the Giants remains locked off and only time wil✱l tell if the remake will get any DLC.
4 The Secret Bosses
Demon’s Souls barely has any optional bosses unlike the Dark Souls games, but it does have a few secret bosses to round out its roster. Interestingly, they’rღe all located in Boletaria and can be fought in 1-1 (thought not necessarily as early as the first stage.) Demon’s Souls three secret bosses are: the Red Drag🔯on, the Blue Dragon, and King Doran.
Of the three, Doran is the only one who acts like a traditional boss fight while the Blue Dragon is the only one fought during the course of the story (though he doesn’t need to be beaten and the intent is for players to run by them.) The Red Drag🐲on can be easily sniped in 1-2, the Blue Dragon can be fought in 1-1 or 1-4, 🦩and King Doran is hidden in 1-1’s Mausoleum – only accessible after getting the Mausoleum Key from Ostrava.
3 Fractured Mode
Very little detail was given in regards to Fractured Mode in advance, which has helped in making the arrange mode almost too obscure for most players. Contrary to popular belief, Fractured M💞ode is not locked behind New Game + and is available as soon as players start their game.
All a player needs to do is make an offering of 25,000 Souls to the resurrection statue in the Nexus. This will require a bꦕit of grinding for those who want to unlocked Fractured Mode ASAP, but the new mode mirrors the entire game world to offer a more disorienting replay – not too dissimilar to ’s relationship with .
2 The Archdemons Of It All
Considering just how much build-up the Archdemons get throughout Demon’s Souls (effectiv꧑ely the game’s version of Lord Souls,) it’s easy to be disappointed by just how gimmicky they are. King Allant is the only Archdemon who offers a proper one on one fight comparable to later entriཧes in the series, so temper expectations.
With this in mind, however, the Archdemons aren’t bad fights. Their gimmicks simply make their battles more memorable and elevate them as set ꦿpieces. It’s a priority the Dark Souls games would stray away from with time, but it also means majo🌳r bosses like the Dragon God, Old Monk, and Storm King are quite unlike anything else in the franchise.
1 King Allant’s Soul Drain
Soul Drain decreas൲es the player’s highest stat by one, potentially doing quite a bit of damage to builds in the process. It’s fortunately a ver🍎y rare technique to see in practice, but it is used most famously by King Allant – one of Demon’s Souls Archdemons and final bosses. When Allant’s hand glows white, make sure to dodge and create some distance.
Allant will only ever use Soul Drain in close range, some♉thing mages will be able to work around easily but knights & the sort will need to dodge against actively. Conversely, Soul Drain can be abused by savvy (and patient) players in order to respec their characters.