Dark Souls 3 Beginner’s Guide
Dark Souls 3 is a challenging and, honestly, a confusing experience. That’s why I’ve prepared a gigantic guide that aims to help make the game a little easier for all new players.
I’ve played through Dark Souls 3 several times, and although it’s not my favourite Souls game, it’s still a joy to play, and I want to make sure all of you can get a similar experience without getting as lost and frustrated as I did in my first playthrough.
Classes: Which Starting Class is Best?
When you first begin Dark Souls 3, you’ll need to create a character. Once you’ve spent a couple dozen hours customising every part of your character (Remember to check the voices – they’re hilarious!), you’ll need to select a Class.
Classes determine your starting gear as well as the way your attributes are spread, which determine your strength, health, agility, sorcery capabilities, and more (I explain more further down!).
There are a total of 10 classes to select from, and I’ve laid them all out below with suggestions on what they are best for. If you want to learn more about each class, including their attributes and starting gear, scroll along and click a class.
Scroll to see all classes.
Click them to learn more!
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Attributes
Attributes in Dark Souls 3 are stats that you increase by levelling up to boost your health, damage output, stamina, and more. Each class comes with different attribute values. The attributes and how they impact gameplay include:
- Vigor: Your health or HP
- Attunement: Your Focus Points or FP for spell casting and using skills
- Endurance: Your stamina and equip load
- Vitality: Physical defence and equip load
- Strength: Physical damage scaling
- Dexterity: Physical damage scaling
- Intelligence: Spell casting power and physical damage scaling
- Faith: Incantation power and physical damage scaling
- Luck: Item discovery and some bleed/poison effects
Generally speaking, by selecting a Class, you’ll focus in on a Build, which pushes you to selecting a type of playstyle. For example, most new players can either choose a Strength (Slow and hard-hitting) or Dexterity (Fast but doesn’t hit as hard) build, which involves levelling up the corresponding stat for optimum damage, or trying for a spell casting hybrid:
- A sorcerer that focuses on Intelligence and Dexterity
- An incantator that focuses on Faith and Strength
- A pyromancer that focuses on Intelligence, Faith, and Strength or Dexterity
Attributes are also important because all weapons in the game scale with attributes and have minimum attribute requirements. This means that someone levelled highly in Dexterity cannot use a high-Strength weapon and visa versa – so make sure to ALWAYS check that you meet a weapon’s requirements before purchasing it or levelling it up, and that it fits with your Build.
Scaling means that weapons become stronger as you increase your corresponding attributes through bonus damage. There are six scale ratings; S (The best), A, B, C, D, and E (The worst).
Someone with 30 points in Strength will deal more damage with an axe that has S-tier Strength scaling than an axe that has D-tier Strength scaling.
The majority of weapons in Dark Souls 3 scale with more than one attribute, but one scale will always be better than another.
For example, the Sellsword Twinblades to the left require 10 Strength and 16 Dexterity to use and scale off both attributes, although it scales better with Dexterity due to its C-tier compared to Strength’s E-tier.
The attribute bonus damage can be seen in the screenshot by the “+22” beside Physical attack power, meaning for every hit, I’m doing a base 108 damage PLUS 22 due to my Dexterity scaling.
It’s also important to understand that by upgrading weapons via Andre at Firelink Shrine (The game’s hub), attribute scaling and change, particularly if you decide to infuse weapons with gems to alter their scaling – more on this below!
Starting Gifts
You can choose one item to start with. Top picks:
- Life Ring: Slight HP boost (safe option)
- Fire Gem: Lets you infuse a weapon with fire early on — great for damage
- Black Firebombs: Help take down early bosses faster
- Young White Branch: Cute but mostly a meme pick
Bonfires and Exploration
Bonfires are your lifeline. Resting at one:
- Refills your Estus flasks
- Heals you
- Respawns enemies
- Lets you travel between other lit bonfires
Always light new ones when you find them.
Souls and How They Work
Everything gives you souls — enemies, bosses, items. You use souls to:
- Level up
- Buy gear and spells
- Upgrade weapons
But! If you die, you drop your souls. Die again before picking them up? They’re gone forever. 🪦
Flasks and Healing
ESTUS SHARD LOCATIONS
UNDEAD BONE SHARD LOCATIONS
OTHER HEALING (MAGIC)
You start with two types of Estus flasks:
- Orange (HP)
- Blue (FP for magic/skills)
Visit the blacksmith at Firelink Shrine to allocate uses between HP and FP. You can upgrade your Flask uses with Estus Shards and increase how much each drink replenishes your HP and FP with Undead Bone Shards. If you’re not using magic, make them all HP.
Levelling Up
Talk to the Fire Keeper at Firelink Shrine to level up. Spend souls to increase your attributes. Early priorities:
- Vigor (for survivability)
- Endurance (for stamina)
- Strength/Dexterity (depending on weapon)
Combat
Combat in DS3 is methodical — no button mashing.
- Manage stamina: attacks, rolls, and blocks all cost it
- Learn enemy patterns
- Don’t be afraid to backstab or use ranged options
- Shields help, but rolling is king
Tip: Lock-on for single targets, free-cam for groups or big bosses.
Bosses
BOSS CHECKLIST
BOSS ORDER (WTH DLC)
BOSS SOULS
BOSS WEAPONS
There are dozens of bosses — some easier than others. Don’t be discouraged if they wreck you at first.
- Every boss has patterns — study them
- You can summon NPCs or other players (via white soapstones)
- Some fights are easier with specific damage types or gear
A few early-game examples:
- Iudex Gundyr (intro boss)
- Vordt of the Boreal Valley
- Curse-Rotted Greatwood (huge optional tree boss)
DLCs
The base game is massive, but the DLCs add some of the most intense and beautiful content in the series.
Ashes of Ariandel
- Set in a snowy, corrupted painting
- Very atmospheric, with tricky terrain and enemies
- Ends in an epic two-phase boss fight
Tip: This DLC scales fast. Don’t jump in too early — level 60+ recommended.
The Ringed City
- Endgame content — one of the toughest areas in the Souls series
- Gorgeous level design and mind-bending lore
- Bosses here will test everything you’ve learned
Recommended after you’ve beaten the base game and feel confident.