Bosses
Prepare to die.
Having decided to settle with taking on regular enemies and see where that takes me, I found myself up against the first main boss, Iudex Gundyr. This boss nearly broke my spirit. I was very close to giving up on Dark Souls III, thinking I didn’t have what it took to play such a monster of a game, but after a few battles and video tutorials I did it!
Here was me thinking you’d have to watch the boss closely to learn it’s pattern and get off some well timed parries in order to defeat his first and second form, but really all I had to do was constantly roll around like a spear wielding Sonic the Hedgehog until I found a gap in Iudex’s attack pattern to thrust the tip of my spear into him. Lesson two learnt: tactics aren’t always necessary.
After beating Iudex I realised that I had a good four thousand souls racked up from my exploits. So I decided to take a look around the menus and see what I could do with both the souls I had earned as well as the items I’d picked up. Opening up the Status and Inventory screens I became slightly baffled. Assuming I had to do something else, I pressed on, killing more enemies and taking in the sights.
A little bit of customisation never goes astray.
That’s when I came across the Firekeeper. The first NPC who didn’t want me dead! It’s at the Firelink Shrine that you’ll find yourself frequenting a lot throughout your adventure in order to level up your character and spend your hard-earned souls.
As I mentioned earlier, I started the game as the Herald class. There are a good deal of other classes to choose from depending on your desired playstyle. For example, long-ranged lovers can choose the Sorcerer or Pyromancer, whereas shield-wielding fans can opt for the Knight or Herald. Each class can be customised to look the way you want, and each also starts off with pre-determined stats. These can be increased as you level up. And if you’re a little bit crazy and want an even harder experience, you can choose to play as the Deprived. This class starts off at level one with no armour as well as a club and shield that are nearly broken.
Checkpoints
Between certain areas are places that act as checkpoints. These are indicated by a sword sticking out of the ground and are known as bonfires. By coming across a bonfire you not only get to unlock the area as a place to continue from if you die, but you can also teleport to bonfires around the game. But be careful, if you activate a bonfire, all enemies after the bonfire will respawn.
If you’ve had enough dying in Dark Souls III for the day, you can save and exit. When you come back to the game, you’ll be brought back to exactly where you left yourself. No starting back from a previous checkpoint and having to clear enemies again. I love this.
PVP
To help make things a little more fun, you can join Covenants. Unlike the Covenants in Dark Souls II, this time they are mainly focussed on providing extra PVP features. Some Covenants are meant to aid other players through co-op or defensive summoning, whereas others encourage hostile invasions and competitive PVP.
Summoning allows you to play with others in the game against harder foes. The game will increase the difficulty of enemies and bosses depending on how many people are in the group. But you’ll also get better loot drops. You can also make use of other players to help defend against invading players.
Invading pits you against the player who’s world you are invading. But don’t worry about hardcore players invading you whilst you’re still learning. Only “Kindled” players can be invaded. So if you don’t want to be invaded, never burn something called an Ember.