Dark Souls 3 Wiki Guide: Weapons, Bosses, Armor, Magic, Builds, Maps, Walkthroughs and more for Dark Souls III — the third installment in From Software's Dark Souls Series!
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Dark Souls 3 Wiki: Everything you need to know about Dark Souls 3
The Dark Souls 3 Wiki covers everything about Dark Souls 3, the third installment in the Dark Souls franchise developed by FromSoftware and published by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc. Find all you need to know from Basic Combat Mechanics and Controls, Weapons, Armor, Skills, Magic, Lore, to Crafting & Cooking Guides, tips for Bosses, Location Maps, Game Completion Guides & Walkthroughs and much more for Dark Souls 3.
When did Dark Souls 3 Release?
Dark Souls 3 was released for consoles in Japan on March 24, 2016. It was then released on all platforms worldwide a month later on the 12th of April, 2016.
Is there DLC for Dark Souls 3?
Dark Souls 3 has 2 expansion DLCs — Ashes of Ariandel released on October 16, 2016, and The Ringed City released on the 28th of March, 2017. Both DLCs add hours of new content with new Locations, NPCs, storylines, and Enemies & Bosses.
What platforms are Dark Souls 3 available on?
Dark Souls 3 was initially only available for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One during it's release. Dark Souls 3 became available for the PC about a month after it's release. There are currently no plans to release Dark Souls 3 for current-gen consoles (PlayStation 5 & Xbox Series X|S), however, the game can be okayed on these consoles due to backwards compatibility with it's predecessors.
Dark Souls 3 System Requirements
Minimum Requirements
- CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 / AMD® FX-6300
- RAM: 4 GB
- OS: Windows 7 SP1 64bit, Windows 8.1 64bit Windows 10 64bit
- Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 750 Ti / ATI Radeon HD 7950
- Directx: Directx 11
- Storage: 25 GB
- Sound Card: DirectX 11 sound device
Recommended Requirements
- CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 / AMD® FX-8350
- RAM: 8 GB
- OS: Windows 7 SP1 64bit, Windows 8.1 64bit Windows 10 64bit
- Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 970 / ATI Radeon R9 series
- Directx: Directx 11
- Storage: 25GB
- Sound Card: DirectX 11 sound device
International Wikis
Check out our Dark Souls 3 Wiki in other languages:
Japanese Wiki | 
Polish Wiki | French Wiki 
German Wiki | 
ItalianWiki
| Dark Souls 3 Wiki | |
|---|---|
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| Publisher | BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc. |
| Developer | FromSoftware Inc. |
| Players | Single-player |
| Genre | Action RPG |
| Platforms | PlayStation®4, XBox One, PC |
| Rating | RP – Rating Pending |
| Localization Voice Over | English |
| Subtitles | English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Portuguese-Brazil, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean |
Latest Dark Souls 3 News
Review - The Ringed City - No spoilers
Review - Ashes of Ariandel - No spoilers
All Dark Souls 3 Maps finished!
Sortable Tables on Magic & Armor categoriesRead our Dark Souls 3 Review
Trophy & Achivement Guide
Forum Discussions
Articles
An Introduction to Dark Souls 3
Dark Souls 3 Story Overview
Yes, indeed. It is called Lothric. Where the transitory lands of the Lords of Cinder converge. In venturing north, the pilgrims discover the truth of the old words. “The fire fades, and the lords go without thrones.” When the link of fire is threatened, the bell tolls, unearthing the old Lords of Cinder from their graves. Aldrich, Saint of the Deep.Farron’s Undead Legion, The Abyss Watchers. And the reclusive lord of the Profaned Capital, Yhorm the Giant. Only, in truth... The Lords will abandon their thrones, and the Unkindled will rise. Nameless, accursed undead, unfit even to be cinder. And so it is. That ash seeketh embers.
Dark Souls 3 takes place in a transitory place, revolving around the first flame and the cycle of fire and dark. You play as a protagonist whose goal is to find and return the five Lords of Cinder to their thrones at Firelink Shrine in order to link the flame again. The protagonist is known as an Unkindled, a kind of Undead, beings of ash unworthy to ascend to become a Lord of Cinder. The five Lords of Cinder are Ludleth the Exiled, Aldrich, Saint of the Deep, Farron's Undead Legion, the Abyss Watchers, the reclusive lord of the Profaned Capital, Yhorm the Giant, and Holy King Lothric, Last Hope of His Line. Lords of Cinder are past beings who were successful in linking the flame, being burned remnants of their past selves.
Dark Souls 3 Combat & Gameplay
Combat Moves
- Dashing
Push the left stick all the way in a direction and hold the ☓/B button while in motion to dash.
Dashing consumes your stamina. Push down on the left stick (L3 button/LS) while dashing to jump in the direction you're going.
You can set this for either the L3/LS button or ☓/B button in the main menu.
- Rolling
Push the left stick in any direction and press the ☓/B button to execute a roll in the direction you pushed. Rolls have i-frames, which temporarily make the player invulnerable at the beginning of the animation. Most players would advise rolling against attacks to help newcomers get the timing right.
A roll can also be performed while the player is getting up after being knocked down, providing the same i-frames as a regular roll but moving a much shorter distance and using a different animation. This roll can only be perfomed during the start of the getting up animation, which is when the player can be stuck again. This is a better alternative to letting the animation finish.
- Backstep
Press the ☓/B button while you aren't pushing the left stick in any direction to quickly step backward. Backsteps do not have i-frames.
- Using Ladders
Go up to a ladder and press the ○/A button to climb or descend it.
To descend more quickly, hold down the O/B button and push the left stick downward.
While on a ladder, press the R1/RB button to attack upward and the R2/RT button to attack downward.
Attack and Defense
- Target Lock-on
Push down on the right stick (R3/RS button) to target (lock on to) a nearby foe.
If multiple enemies are nearby, move the right stick around while locked on to change your target.
Once you lock on to a foe, you'll continually face the foe as you move around.
If there are no enemies nearby, pressing the R3/RS button will reset the camera.
Locking on requires a minimum distance from the target.
- Right-hand Weapon Actions
Press the R1/RB or R2/RT buttons to use the weapon in your right hand to attack.
Press the R1/RB button for a regular attack, which has a smaller stamina cost and does less damage, and the R2/RT button for a strong attack, that takes more stamina but deals more damage. They also can possibly deal different types of damage, the Estoc being an example.
Hold down the R2/RT button to launch a charged attack, which does extra damage. Holding does not need to be done all the way, and can be dropped earlier to change the strong attack's timing.
If the weapon's strong attack has a 2-hit combo, you can also choose to charge only the first, the second or both attacks.
- Left-hand Weapon Actions
Press the L1 button to use the weapon in your left hand to attack.
If you have a shield equipped, hold down the L1 button to take a guard stance. A guard stance allows the player to tank through hits and reduce their damage by a percentage depending on the shield, at the cost of stamina. How much stamina a shield takes to block an attack is dependent on its stability, and heavier weapons tend to take more stamina to block.
- Dual-hand Weapon Actions
Press the △/Y button, and you'll use the weapon in your right hand to take a dual-wield stance.
Press the △/Y button again in dual-hand mode to return to single-hand mode.
Holding the △/Y button lets the player dual-hand the weapon in his left hand.
Dual-handing allows for the use of new movesets, weapon skills, an L1/LB special attack/block, and multiplies the player's strength by 1.5, allowing him to wield more weapons and get better scaling from them.
Special Actions
- Roll/Backstep Attacks
Immediately after rolling or backstepping, press the regular attack button for a quicker attack.
- Skills
Pressing L2/LT will execute the Skill of a weapon/shield/catalyst two-handed or equipped in the player's left hand. Skills are individual to weapons, though many weapons share Skills, and require focus to be performed. Attempting to perform a Skill without Focus will result in a failure, or in a weakened/partial version of the skill.
- Parrying
Most of the smaller shields, some of the medium sized shields and some weapons share the skill Parry. When seeing an attack coming, the player can choose to parry the attack and, if he gets the timing right, the enemy becomes vulnerable for a Riposte. Many attacks cannot be parried, however.
The parrying animation has startup frames, parry frames, and ending frames. To properly parry, the attack must hit the player during the animation's parry frames.
- Dead Angling
Dead angling is the act of hitting another player with the side of an attack's arc rather than the middle, making the attack un-parriable. Doing this typically requires not locking on, and moving to the side while attacking. Weapons with small attack arcs, such as Thrusting Weapons, cannot dead angle. The other player can still get a partial parry. Like the poise, it's here but work partially.
- Pushback Attack (Kick)
Press the R1/RB button as you push the left stick forward to execute a kick that deals stamina damage on opponents using shields. The stamina damage is affected by the shield's stability and may or may not guard break, allowing a Critical strike.
According to quite a few Forum users, the amount of stamina damage a kick deals is dependent on the weapon equipped.
- Jump Attack
Press the R2/RT button as you push the left stick forward to execute a jump attack.
- Plunging Attack
Press the R1/R2/RB/RT buttons while falling to attack your enemy from above.
•The plunging attack is the most reliable move in the game
- Ripostes
Ripostes are special attacks performed on enemies that have been guard broken or parried with the R1/RB button. They deal special damage and are influenced by a weapon's critical multiplier. Many enemies cannot be Riposte'd.
- Backstabs
Backstabs are special attacks performed from behind enemies with the R1/RB button. They deal special damage and are influenced by a weapon's critical multiplier. Many enemies cannot be backstabbed. Backstabs take a moment to begin after the R1/RB button is pressed - you become unstaggerable during the very end of this animation, allowing you to make trades via backstabs if positioned and timed correctly.
- Using Sorceries/Miracles/Pyromancies
In order to use magic (sorceries/miracles/pyromancies), you must have the corresponding catalyst (Sorcerer's Staff/Talisman or Chime/Pyromancy Flame) equipped.
Use the directional buttons (up) to select a magic, and use the regular attack of the hand in which the catalyst is equipped to cast it.
Using magic consumes your focus. Magic cannot be done without focus.
Hold down the button while casting various spells, such as "Heal" or "Sacred Oath" miracles to remain in casting mode, delaying the magic until you're ready.
- Sweet Spots
Sweet spots are the concept that some weapons deal more damage when attacks hit with a certain part of the hitbox. Emphasis on Halberds. Sweet Spots may have influence over stagger.
Hyper Armor, Poise and Stagger
Stagger is when a weapon's hit allows for a follow up. Whether or not a weapon can stagger or for how many hits it can stagger is dependent on the weapon. As of now, poise hasn't been confirmed to have an effect on stagger. As a special note, equip load seems to affect whether or not the player can be staggered at the ending of a roll animation.
Bigger weapons in Dark Souls 3 have Hyper Armour towards the ending of their attack animations. Hyper Armor makes the player immune to stagger temporarily, making their attacks uninterruptible. The amount of Hyper Armor an attack has is influenced by the player's poise, so equipping heavier armor when using bigger weapons is recommended, while it won't make much of a difference for players using lighter and faster weapons.
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im back on DS3
AND THE GAME IS DEAD AS HELL!
IM ONLY ON LOTHRIC WALL AND THIS IS DEAD AS HELL
SOMEONE GET ON I NEED TO INVADE
- Anonymous
True. It’s trying too hard to be Lords of the Fallen. Smh my head.
- Anonymous
Game is not very epic, not as epic as Lords of the Fallen. Too bad :/
- Anonymous
I might go back to this game if i ever get tired or burnt out of elden ring (wich is unlikely for the moment). Having spent more time in ds3 than in er, gotta say there are too many things way better done in er, because the latter game isn't as much of a boss rush/nostalgia run as this game. Elden ring has way more details to pay attention to and it definetly does. The weapon movesets are mostly shared between same weapon classes, but instead of brainless r1 spam there are weapon combos with different multipliers per combo hit like in bloodborne + the inmense flexibility of ashes of war. And, thank the lord, r2 attack is truly useful. Ds3 might have more speed, but it only shines in certain areas. Sometimes it's even detrimental to game experience because, for example, whoever didnt play ds1 wouldn't know that twinblade l1 spam won't make a black knight flinch. Er wins in the map, environment and art department, no discussion. Combat-wise, ds3 has a slight edge for it being more reaction-based, but it's rather limited regarding spells, shield/armor, ranged combat in general, stealth, status effect builds, etc. Ds3 Has way less build freedom, wich is a great con compared to elden ring.
- Anonymous
Bosses aside, dark souls 3 is the weakest souls game easily
- Anonymous
ds1 and ds2 are like red carpet and lights for this masterpiece
- Anonymous
if you feel bored try SL1 or Ashen Estus only runs. A Gael run (no bonfires) is also great.
- Anonymous
if you feel bored try SL1 or Ashen Estus only runs. A Gael run (no bonfires) is also great.
- Anonymous
Ps5.
Hippiefoot420
need some people to play w.
every time I invade it spawns me in a world where it's me vs 3+ people. it's ridiculous
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Looks beautiful. I would play it if it was not basically a horror/terror game.
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Remember two things about PKCS guy: Firstly, if you speak of him he shall come, and secondly he lies dormant in the hearts of all who have ever heard of him. Remember to resist his madness at every opportunity, and the few pages that have not been tainted will remain free of his influence
gam bad i play demons souls i luv dying in 3-1 best game ever!!!!!
- Anonymous
is dark souls 3 worth visiting again? elden ring kind of took up all the spotlight and i wouldnt be used to not having a jump button
- Anonymous
Ah, Dark souls 3. A game that got so fixated in referencing previous games and paying homage tobprevious titles so much that it forgot to be it's own thing.
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Man does anyone have all the covenants items im still stuck to get them
- Anonymous
Elden ring fans when they complain about how their katana bleed/luck build is pathetic and they cannot kill vordt with it
*They do not know that bleed is horrible and sucks so badly in ds3*
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Every boss can be outplayed if you one tap them and time dodges. After 10+ tries you can remember any bosses move set so don’t get discouraged.This game teaches discipline with patience, memory, not to be greedy, and experimentation.
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I wonder how life would be like living in astora, catarina, carim, mirrah, etc.
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Honestly one of the weaker installments. My favorite souls game was probably dark demon ring 4: scholar of shadows die armored kings field prepare to fade edition.
- Anonymous
This must be the shortest, laziest game fromsoft has ever developed. Map progression is more linear than bloodborne's, so many weapons and only 2 or 3 of each category matters because of how bad infusions and scaling works (and straight swords being the dev favorite here.), shields are paper-made, armor is irrelevant, poise is dumbed down to who presses r1 first, magic is useless except for those 4 or 5 meta spells, enemy gank not as prominent as they were in ds2, but close enough (looking at you, lothric castle), completely irrelevant covenants (and lazy design on them), online interaction being a snoozefest for the summons and a waste of time for invaders... Oh, and even less originality than souls like from other companies. It's a damn shame that copy-pasted games like nioh or mortal shell had more original ideas than dark souls 3.
If it weren't for the work put into the bosses and the weapon arts, this game would be a complete downgrade from what came before, and no excuse for such a rushed game. Not with bloodborne right behind it.
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If you truly want hard mode in ds3, bind your r1 button to the emotes menu, and select button to light attack. There you go, only r2 run.
Honestly the only thing that could have improved this game was more lore on things like the pilgrim butterflies, the angels in RC DLC, etc. It's a great reflection of the past games achievements while also keeping you engaged. 10/10
- Anonymous
every single enemy in this game was made perfectly, sure they might be annoying sometimes, but i have never seen a bullshit enemy in my entire DS3 playthrough, which makes this game very very fun.
- Anonymous
I appreciate the listing of recommended levels for the walkthrough pages on here. The only thing about these games that stresses me out is the constant worry that I'm overleveled and missing out on the intended experience/challenge level, so being able to check those made things fell much nicer.
I saw some people discussing the Friede bossfight, with one saying he was level 120 in NG+ fighting her, with others saying 120 is what you should be in NG+3/4 and that fighting her on NG+, lvl 80 would be more appropriate and was kind of baffled.
I had to buy every sorcery, miracle, and pyromancy (on a DEX build), max out upgrades for weapons I never wound up using, and overbuy upgrade mats/consumables and buy every ember -- basically everything short of throwing the souls away -- to be level 100 at Soul of Cinder after the DLCs, and I've never done any grinding in any of these games. I was around 85 fighting Friede in the original cycle (this was after everything but SoC was finished outside the DLCs), so I think I ballsed up something along the way.
Sorry for the random rant/blogpost, it's just something that triggers my 'tism in every From game (Elden Ring most of all) besides Sekiro. Might be partly why that one's my favorite.
- Anonymous
I think I finaly understand. The flame ended the everlasting world of the archtrees for the price of establishing a cycle of birth and death (of the world)
And Gwyn cheated by prolonging the worlds end via the curse mark in order to save his kingdome. But the more often we do that the more stress we put on the world cause it's not able to shed it's old, rotting husk that way. While the original reason to do that is long forgotten to the people and everyone just mindlessly clings to that tradition of linking the flame. To a point where it is completly okay for them that the dead rise again.
- Anonymous
The servers are still NOT active? honestly i think fromsoftware doesnt even care about this issue anymore.
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Under the header "Dark Souls 3 Official website" Is the typo "Dark Sous 3..."
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Im HaVlnG A PArASiTE OF GwYN!!! HEEElP MEEE! HES TrAnsFORMING!!!!...............HAHAHAHAAHA I AM GWYN YOU HUMANS BOW BEFORE YOUR LORD!!!, I SHALL MAKE THY WORLD TO CINDERS AND BURNING IN THE FIRES OF LODRAN I WILL MAKE EVERYONE HOLLOWED!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
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Gywn go tend the flame before talking with your dry ass mouth
- Anonymous
I ****ING WASTED MY TIME ON WARFRAME!!!!!! NOW I LOST MY SKILL!!!!!! I DONT KNOW TO DODGE!!!! I DONT KNOW HOW TO KILL!!!! DARK SOULS IS WAY BETTER THAN WARFRAME!!!
- Anonymous
ill help anyone on ps4 with bosses on sl220 btw I haven't killed aldrich yet cuz I like farming in gank city, however i have killed all the dlc bosses so I can help with dlc
- Anonymous
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hey! i am a max soul level 711 in ds remastered, i said this because the dark souls series are ultimately boring to you after you finished everything Ng's. I'll wait for elden ring, but i have given thou an ancient message of the gods, Lord of Cinder, Gwyn has commanded me to send this message to anyone who defeated Gwyn in ds1, or played any souls game, Gwyn says this - I am the lord, i command you to play other ancient games like planetside 2, warframe the new war. wait for my new released game that my servants is trying to release called elden ring, i hope to find thou and make u rage quit elden ring. From - Lord of Sunlight, Gwyn
- Anonymous
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is it me or the souls series reminds me of berserk (series) did they copy it?
SkeleMann... facking imposter There is only one skeleton. ME!
- Anonymous
The next Dark Souls needs to be set in THE WILD WEST and the player would be a COWBOY!!! YEEE HAAA!!!
- Anonymous
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Hello DS3 player, I am come to you for a little favour, and I will carry this message to everywhere in DS3 community.
There is a glitch that allows you to summon white sign mad phantom in Gael’s Arena (Credit to Dashingsaint), if you keep Shira alived while she invade you (you can escape her simply sprint out her aggro range), you won’t trigger gael boss cutscene, and then you could put down you purple summon white sign or summon other white purple.
Thus, a new fight club is founded, an arena in a long lost dessert under the sunset sky which sprinkle with fainted galaxy.
If you’re watching this, kindly please help me share this and invite any ds3 enthusiast you known to this new fight club, your little effort would be much appreciated.
SL25+2, SL40+4, SL60+6, SL72+8, SL90+10, SL125 Meta, SL 351++, all SL range are acceptable.
Welcome to the Gael’s Sunset Arena, the most beautiful map in the entire series, the last arena at the End of World.
I will await you there, in the End of the World, and we shall fight eternal, shiny and incandescence.
LONG MAY THE DARK SOULS COMMUNITY LIVE
- Anonymous
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Armor looks trashed! ds2 and ds1 had way better lookin armors
- Anonymous
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I have been dying non stop to all sorts of little guys, from dogs to skeleton guys to knights from all variety. Haven’t had issues with the bosses though, killed the first guy and Valtr first try. But I am suffering with the little guys.
Spent 7 hours in the High Wall of Lothric. I also keep getting invaded by hackers
I am using Uchigatana +2 with a fire gem and putting points in health and stamina.
- Anonymous
cyberpunk 2077 is not bad good graphics ds1 is also nice but more medfieval
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why is persona on dark souls 3 wiki???? do u guys just want me to get strikers on ps plus, WELL IM NOT, LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!
- Anonymous
dark souls 1 is my favorite game of all time, and was wondering if Dark souls 3 captured the experience.
- Anonymous
persona1, 2, 3, 4,5 and more is bad, play elden ring instead which is the game that take over persona sht
- Anonymous
this game is bad i kept dying its so bad better of playing persona 2, Even the best player will die
- Anonymous
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I don't like the mixed bloodborne/dark souls combat, level design is bad and linear, multiplayer is bad, game is really short for a souls game, bonfire placement is embarrassing, bosses are a joke, and I hate the poise system and heavy weapons in this game. If you've read through this entire thing you deserve a medal. dumb game and is stupid like the players full of hackers and cheaters. Just play persona 5 its also a japanese game.
- Anonymous
Those kinds of Dark Souls Players: *loses to a boss because of their poorly made build*
"OmG WuRsT gAeM eVeR"
- Anonymous
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ELDEN RING THE BEST!!! IF YOU DISLIKE THIS COMMENT IT MEANS YOU ARE A CAAASSULL!!! IF YOU LIKE THIS COMMENT IT MEANS YOU ARE A TRUE GAMER KNIGHT OF THE ANCIENT LORDS
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They really messed this one up, dark souls 2 had so many improvements to the 1st game, so when this game came around I was hyped. Huge letdown, boring areas and enemies, they think some decent bosses are enough to carry an otherwise boring game but they really dont. Play the 1st 2 games in stead.
- Anonymous
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best thing ever: use Opera to block all Java Script on the fextralife wiki's and permanently turn off the twitch stream!!
- Anonymous
You know in the other dark souls wikis they are saying play XCOM instead, FUN FACT: XCOM IS ABSOLUTEY EXTREMELY VERY, SUPER, TTTRRRAAASSSHHH!!!!!
- Anonymous
Excited for Blood of the dark shadow elden demon new gameplay and release date! Hopefully it meets our expectations.
- Anonymous
Hope... you... rot............... in..... ugly.... souls...
- Anonymous
This game is the Lord/King of video games!!!!! All games are trash,poop, sht, garbage, a banana splat on the ground especially Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland and the SOULS series are the king, respect....
- Anonymous
Tell me, Look at the dragonrider set and look at the elbow, you can see your skin, that seriously bothers me! Please tell me how you can remove that, you say this in the ds3 wiki for it be seen and replied
- Anonymous
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if u go onto sister friede boss page and write anything about her feet you will get a bunch of likes,
why? why do we do this? is this the reason no one plays dark souls? not because it's hard, but because of the feet?
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Answer this question real quick, Will increasing your rank in the Blades of the Darkmoon increase the miracle Darkmoon Blade damage?
smh couldn't get past the main menu. the title theme is just too good.
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