Basics
To work your way through Demon's Souls, you'll need to master some Basics or you'll spend much of your time confused and dead. The game can prove quite challenging for the uninitiated. Read through our notes on the general flow of the game to make sure that you're prepared, then consult our Walkthrough if you need more specific assistance.
Character Creation & General Overview Video
In Demon's Souls, you don't progress through levels like you would in a typical RPG. Instead, you have a soul level. When you first begin the game, you'll be able to choose from one of several classes. The choice you make affects the equipment with which you begin your adventure. It's even possible to start with access to healing magic.
As you advance through the game, you'll soon pass the first real stage. You can then begin spending souls to increase your own soul level. Each time you turn in souls for a new soul level, you can upgrade one statistic (out of eight options). Then you'll have to reach another soul level before you can pick a stat to upgrade. Whether you pour all of your upgrades into one category or space it out, the cost to reach the next soul level will increase by the same amount.
This system allows for a great deal of freedom. You basically decide how you evolve. For instance, you might prefer to focus almost exclusively on stats that will improve your ability to cast devastating spells, or you might lean toward a buff physical warrior. Since your defense rating gradually increases as you gain soul levels (no matter what other areas you upgrade), there's no wrong way to progress. You do need to keep in mind how you want to play, however.
If you want to have an easy time with the game, you should improve your Intelligence (so you can use spells more frequently) and your Magic rating in general (so that each spell cast does more damage). Powerful magic users get all the breaks. Those looking for more rewarding combat should opt for ratings that affect their stamina and the length of their life meters.
One final wrinkle is online play. You can only against other characters within a certain level range of your own, so you need to make sure that your choices result in a character that can win quick and dirty battles. For instance, suppose you have a well-rounded character at a soul level of 140. If someone else comes along at level 135 that put most of his energy into creating a powerful magic user, odds are good that you'll be in a world of hurt from the moment a battle begins. Then you'll have a more difficult time developing in a new direction because you've already gained so many levels that each new one requires a ton of souls.
If at first you don't succeed... |
There's no getting around it: for most gamers, Demon's Souls will be a challenging adventure. That means that you're likely to die a lot. That can be fun for awhile, but you'll still want to make progress at a reasonable rate. If you find yourself dying a lot, keep the following in mind:
- It's okay to level grind. There are some regions that are especially good for this and you should take advantage of them. If you're constantly dying in battle just before you have enough souls to go up a level, or if you have enough souls but can't make it back to save that progress in time, start grinding for awhile until you're more powerful. It's better to spend a few minutes or even hours grinding than to spend that time—and then some—almost getting somewhere but repeatedly falling short.
- Don't clutter your equipment if you don't have to. Are you fighting a tough boss and he keeps killing you while you're trying to cycle through the different healing items that you've assigned to the 'Square' button? Maybe you have too many spells and miracles memorized? Change that. You always know when you're about to face a boss, so just equip the items that you'll most need. Likewise, don't head into stages with a bunch of amusing but mostly useless magic. Focus on bringing only the stuff that you'll actually use so that you can more rapidly cycle through everything when the time comes to face that brutal boss. That way, you can focus on what matters most: staying alive!
- Target wisely. If you are dying a lot because you can't see where you're stepping, it probably means that you've let the camera become locked on things you didn't really need to see. Remember that you can easily tap the 'R3' button to lock onto an enemy, then tap it again to regain control of your camera. If you have to target multiple enemies, lock onto one and then move the stick left and right to shuffle between targets. Sometimes it's really useful if you know where your nearby enemy is at all times and sometimes there's nothing worse. Learn to know when to watch the enemy soaring across the sky and when to focus on the stuff that's right at your feet.
Keep all of the above in mind and Boletaria may very well have found in you its savior!