Demon's Souls FAQ and Beginner's Guide

by ArsenicKnife (PSN)

Demon's Souls has been touted as one of the most difficult games to be released this generation.
It's certainly a formidable opponent, but by no means is it impossible to conquer. The most
important thing to remember for any newcomer into the Kingdom of Boletaria is patience:
patience to observe enemy movements and your own surroundings; patience to try, try, and try
again every time you die; and patience to develop your character into the ultimate warrior as you
see fit. With ten starting classes to choose from, you may find yourself stuck at the character
creation screen longer than intended, trying to decide on how you want your fighter to play. But
remember this: Demon’s Souls allows you - the player - to customize the progression of your
character in every way you want to. From his or her stats, to equipment, spells, items, and so on.
You are not limited to what types of magic you can use or weapons you can wield simply based
on the class that you have chosen, but instead, your stats determine how you fair in combat. This
brings us to lesson #1:

1: Stats and You

There are eight stats to which you will distribute souls and level up: Vitality, Intelligence,
Endurance, Strength, Dexterity, Magic, Faith, and Luck.

Vitality determines your total HP (health points) as well as your Item Burden, which is the total
amount of weight you can carry in your inventory space.

Intelligence determines your total MP (magic points) as well as increases your Spell Memory,
which directly affects the number of Spell-based magic you can have equipped at any given
time.

Endurance measures your total stamina, one of the most vital aspects of any melee-oriented
fighter. Similar to Vitality, Endurance measures your Equipment Burden, which correlates to
the total weight of armor and weapons you can physically have on your character’s body. If
your equip burden is over 50%, your character will suffer a speed reduction while sprinting
and will also roll much more slowly. Any action - from swinging a weapon, to sprinting, to
rolling, and to successfully blocking an attack with a shield - will deplete your stamina slightly.

Strength directly affects the damage output of many melee weapons and is one of the most
important stats for melee-oriented fighters.

Dexterity, also like Strength, can directly affect the damage output of certain melee weapons,
but also corresponds to the damage done by arrows and bolts from bows and crossbows,
respectively. Strength and Dexterity are the two primary physical damage stats one must
consider when deciding how to orient their player. Many weapons receive a bonus from a
stat; should you choose a weapon that is linked to Dexterity but NOT Strength, then you will
receive a very minimal boost to your damage if you were to increase Strength as opposed to
Dexterity. This stat will also decrease the damage you take if you were to fall from high
places.

Magic increases the amount of damage done by offensive Spells.

Faith, similar to Magic, increases the potency of Miracles. Most Miracles are directly linked
with support magic such as healing or cleansing of ailments. Increasing the Faith stat will also
increase the Miracle Slot, similar to Intelligence’s correlation to the Spell Memory.

Luck affects the occurrence of item drops from enemies, but does not increase the chance of
rare items dropping. Additionally, Luck raises the character’s resistance to Plague-ailments.
There are two final invisible stats called Physical and Magic Defense. There is no specific
attribute for each, but rather every stat listed above will raise Physical and Magic Defense, and
specifically, raising Faith will boost Magic Defense more than any other stat will.

When developing your character, take note of the weapons you are using. Four stats directly
affect their performance: Strength, Dexterity, Magic, and Faith, and they will be represented by
symbols instead of names, but are listed in that order. Determine early in the development of your
character what type of fighter you wish to be and focus the progression of the appropriate stats.
Dexterity-based fighters generally excel at the use of bows as well as quick melee weapons such
as Curved Swords or Katana. Strength-based fighters will do well sticking with Swords, Large
Swords, and Axes, although there are many instances of weapons using both stats, so always be
on the look-out. Similarly, Faith and Magic can be used to increase the damage of few melee-
weapons (namely some of the unique weapons in the game), but their primary function is to
increase the potency of Miracles and Spells.

Weapons can also be enchanted using various ores found in game, and likewise, new, more
powerful weapons can be forged using the souls of many bosses.

2: Enchantment and Blacksmithing

An enchantment is one of the most direct ways to increase the capabilities of a weapon outside of
raising the appropriate stats. Many ores in the game serve different effects when forged into the
steel of a blade.

Hardstone and Sharpstone are the two most basic types of ore found in the game, and are
used to simply increase the basic stats of the weapon (primarily an increase in physical damage).
Weapons can be upgraded to a +10 with these stones and can only be started with a weapon that
is currently at a base level.

For many of the remaining enchantments, the weapon must meet certain level-prerequisites. Use
the Hardstones and Sharpstones to upgrade the weapon to the appropriate level to begin the
second-tier enchantments listed below. In addition, all of the following enchantments can only
reach a maximum of +5. (I will indicate at the end of each point the required level of the weapon
to begin that stage of enchantment).

Clearstones alter the effects of a weapon’s Strength and Dexterity bonus so that they evenly
increase the damage of a weapon. (Required Level: +3)

Greystones increase the bonus added by the Strength rating at the cost of completely
eliminating any bonus received from Dexterity (Required Level: +0 or +3)

Bladestones increase the bonus added by the Dexterity rating at the cost of a reduced bonus
from Strength, but it does NOT completely eliminate it. (Required Level: +0)

Dragonstones add a high base damage to the weapon as well as the added benefit of fire
damage; however, this completely removes the bonuses from ALL stats. (Required Level:
+3)

Suckerstones increases the damage inflicted by the Bleed ailment on enemies, as well as
increasing the bonus received from Dexterity and decreasing the bonus received from Strength.
(Required Level: +3)
 2.
Mercurystones give the weapon a chance to inflict an opponent with the Poison ailment.
(Required Level: +3)

Marrowstones add damage to backstabs and riposte counter attacks but lower the base
damage of the weapon. (Required Level: +3)

Moonlightstones add magical damage to a weapon’s attack. This enchantment scales with
the user’s own Magic stat. (Required Level: +6)

Darkmoonstones add magical damage to a weapon’s attack as well as offer a slow but
steady regeneration of the user’s MP. This enchantment also scales with the Magic stat, but
completely eliminates any Strength or Dexterity bonus. (Required Level: +6)

Faintstones add magical damage to a weapon’s attack and offer a slow but steady
regeneration of the user’s HP. This enchantment scales with the Faith stat and lowers the
bonuses given by Strength and Dexterity. (Required Level: +6)

Spiderstones can ONLY be used on bows (crossbows not included) and greatly increase the
bonus received by the Dexterity stat while reducing that which is received from Strength. This
also increases the range of a bow’s shot by 5 at +1. (Required Level: +3)

Cloudstones can ONLY be used on shields and raises the magic damage cut percentage
while resetting the Hit Resistance to its default number. (Required Level: +6)

In addition to the enchantments provided by forging ores onto weapons, one can also enchant
their equipment on-the-move using various items (turpentine to add a fire bonus), or certain
Spells to increase the damage output. But simple enchantment is not the sole purpose of a
Blacksmith. At the beginning of World 2, Stage 1, you can find one of two Blacksmith’s in the
game: Ed. This is the man whom you will be going to for most of your high-level enchantments as
well as all of your primary forging needs. Before he will be able to make any of the game’s unique
weapons, however, you will need to give him the Red Hot Demon’s Soul dropped by the boss of
Stage 2 in World 2, infamously known as Flamelurker. After this trade, you can begin to create
those legendary weapons.

Weapons are not the only use that these boss souls have. You can trade them to several of the
game’s NPCs to learn many high-end Spells and Miracles; you must first rescue these three
characters across various stages in the game, however, so keep an eye open for them. To view
all of the uses that each soul has, check out this image: http://i46.tinypic.com/vpuavk.jpg

Now that all of these basics are out of the way, let’s get on to some of the most frequently asked
questions about Demon’s Souls.

3: Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What’s the best weapon or armor in the game?

A: This is perhaps one of the most frequently asked question across any RPG, let alone Demon’s
Souls, but the answer is certainly not the same. For this game in particular, there is no “best.”
There is only what you as a player feel comfortable using and what will most benefit the way you
develop your stats. Weapons swing slow or fast depending on their weight and category, and
because of this, someone may choose to use a much smaller weapon for speed. It’s a phrase
tossed around far too often, but it almost assuredly applies to this game: skill is more important
than equipment. How you play will determine how well you do.

Q: What is Soul Form? Body Form?

A: Simply put, body form is when your character’s HP is at maximum and Soul Form is when your
character’s HP is reduced. To go into slightly more detail, any time you die while in body form,
you will return back to the beginning of that level in Soul Form with a reduction to your HP.
Initially, this reduction will be at 50%, but after you get a certain ring in the first world, this
increases to 75%. Additionally, players in Soul Form will receive a slight increase to the amount of
souls gained from killing an enemy and will also deal more damage to them compared to Body
Form. Upon death, you lose all souls you had gained up to that point, but you may venture back
to the place of death and touch the bloodstain that remains. Should you succeed, you will regain
those souls (but not your body form). Should you fail to get back to the bloodstain before dying a
second time, you lose those souls forever. Any time you defeat a boss or an enemy player (which
I will explain in the next question), you will regain your body form.

Q: I heard this game has online, but that it’s not exactly “online” - explain.
A: Demon’s Souls online features are both innovative and engaging. If you are connected to the
PSN, then you are always connected to the online world of Demon’s Souls: as such, you will
often come upon glowing inscriptions in the ground. Clicking on these inscriptions will reveal a
message left by another player, perhaps warning you of an ambush ahead, alerting you of a
secret passage or hidden treasure, or sometimes trying to trick you into taking the wrong way.
The way you can distinguish the helpful messages from those that are not is through the rating
system: for any message you come across, you have the ability to recommend it. If you found it
helpful, than give it your approval. If it was false information, ignore it. Messages that infrequently
receive a recommendation, or receive no recommendation at all, will be deleted from the game
world after a certain amount of time, weeding out the good from the bad.

But the online doesn’t stop there: the game has a unique co-op and PVP feature as well that
allows players to team up with two other people to explore worlds and topple bosses, or forcefully
invade another player’s world to fight and kill him or her. Soul form and body form directly relate
to how the mechanic of co-op and PVP works.

While in Soul Form:

You can invade another player’s world for PVP
You can get summoned by another player for co-op

While in Body Form:

You can summon a player into your world for co-op
You can be invaded by another player for PVP

The way summoning works is quite simple: the person in soul form will lay down a blue eye
stone, an item they receive early in the game. This blue eye stone will be visible to all players in
body form within ten levels - above or below - wherever it has been placed down. That player can
then choose to interact with it and summon them if they wish. A similar level-restriction applies to
invaders, as well; using the black eye stone, a player in soul form can invade anyone within ten
levels of themselves currently in that stage. There is only one catch to PVP. Each Stage of every
World has a boss at the end of it. Worlds and Stages are commonly referred to with numbers. For
instance, 1-1 would signify World 1 Stage 1. Using this shorthand, if a player has defeated the
boss of 2-1, then he or she can no longer be invaded in that stage. If the boss of 2-2 is still
unbeaten, then he or she can be invaded ONLY in 2-2, but not in 2-1.

The benefits of invading another player’s world besides the sheer satisfaction of killing them is
that, should you succeed, you will reclaim your body form as well as a bundle of souls directly
correlating to their level versus yours.

Q: Is the game really as hard as everyone says it is?

A: Yes and no. It is hard insofar as it punishes rash and careless behavior and shows no pity or
mercy on the fallen. As stated above, if you die, you lose your souls, and for those who do not
know, souls are used for EVERYTHING. Losing your souls could mean the complete disregard of
the last three hours of work you put in to getting them, so if I may give one word of advice, spend
the souls often. However, the best piece of advice I or anyone could give about this game is what
I said at the very beginning: have patience. If you take your time, if you use that shield in your
hand the way it’s meant to be used, and if you observe your surroundings and take note of any
dangers and pitfalls, you will find the game is not all that difficult in the end.

Q: I heard there’s a New Game+, and that it actually gets harder. Is this true?
A: Absolutely. Upon completing the game for the first time, you can then go back with that same
character - retaining all souls, equipment, spells, items, and everything else - to venture once
more through Boletaria. But the enemies will not be the pushover you expect. The first New
Game+ will receive a difficulty boost estimated to be about 150% more (health-wise) than the first
game. But not only that, every subsequent New Game+ file you continue to do on this character
will continue to increase another 8% before it finally reaches at maximum limit on the eighth New
Game+.

Before I close this out, I just want to give a few more little helpful hints to beginners:

You can kill any NPC in the game (except the Maiden in Black), so be careful that you don’t
accidentally swing at one of them. If you should hit them with a weapon, prepare to fight them:
there is no apologizing and there is no reloading. The game ONLY has an auto-save feature and
it‘s used very, very often. Any time you pick up an item, open or close a menu, talk to an NPC, or
perform any kind of meaningful action, the game auto-saves. If you kill that NPC, he or she will
remain dead for the rest of the game until New Game+. So BE CAREFUL.

Stockpile Thomas is perhaps the most useful NPC in the game; he will store anything you
give him, and has an unlimited amount of space to do so. This is vital because you cannot sell
anything in this game, so expect to get that same shoddy piece of equipment a dozen times. You
could simply discard it or give it to Thomas. Additionally, GIVE THOMAS ALL OF YOUR
FORGING ORES. These do not need to be physically on your person when you forge or enchant
a weapon, and they tend to add up to a ludicrous amount of weight in your inventory. So always,
always, always store your ores.

The game has many side quests, but none of them are overt or even obvious. It takes
exploration and talking to uncover them. As mentioned earlier, few NPCs need to be rescued from
imprisonment in the game, and many of them will even aid you in battle or teach you powerful
magic. Similarly, some NPCs are looking for an item that can be found in the game. Talk to these
NPCs often and take note of what they say, so that if you were to find this item, you’ll know not to
discard it as trash. Very often you will get an item in return and it is ALWAYS better than what you
exchanged for it.

The beauty about Demon’s Souls is that it really is all about YOU. You play how you want to
play. If you want to be a heavily-armored warrior wielding a large sword a la Guts from Berserk,
you can most certainly do that, but you must understand that there are always risks to wearing
heavy armor. Likewise, if you want to be a quick and agile fighter with light or limited armor and a
rapier, curved sword, or katana, go for it, but try not to get hit - the damage will be substantial.

And that’s about it, Demon’s Souls brethren. My beginners guide to this game, and the little bit of
info I wish to share with all of you. The rest of the game is yours to explore, so I wish you all the
best of luck in your many certain-deaths. For more in-depth Demon’s Souls information, visit:
http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/