10 Things That People Often Miss While Playing Dark Souls 3

Dark Souls 3 is one of the most challenging videogames ever created – the maps are big and filled with traps, with vicious enemies ready to chew your head off. Furthermore, there are barely any tutorials incorporated inside the game, as you are expected to learn the ropes by yourself. Because of that, during their first playthrough, there are a lot of essential things that can be missed.

This article will reveal the top 10 things that people often missed when playing Dark Souls 3!

Fight the Dancer Early

It might seem off but you can trigger the Dancer of the Boreal Valley fight right after the first area of the game, which opens you up for the second branch of the story way earlier than expected – best for speedrunning. After receiving Emma’s Lothric Banner, just kill her - this event will cause the Dancer to drop down from the ceiling.

All the bosses in Dark Souls are tough – the dancer is not an exception. Fighting her when you are just starting out (especially if you are a new player) is a terrible idea. However, if you are a returning player, killing her is not an impossible task.

Removing the Carthus Sandworm

People who enter the Smouldering Lake usually just avoid the worm because of its size, speed, damage and lastly, appearance. The thing is like a tower filled with spikes that are constantly moving! The worm might seems un-killable, but there are actually a lot of ways to dispose of it. Firstly, you can bait the Giant Avelyn to shoot it, which is the best and fastest way since you are constantly getting shot at. The worm is also vulnerable to ranged attacks like arrows or magic. To characters specialized in close combat, you can bait out the worm’s lightning attack then slash away. Killing the beast net you 6,000 souls, the Lightning Stake Miracle, and an Undead Bone Shard.

How to use the Undead Bone Shard

Burning the Undead Bone Shards might seem like common sense, however, a lot of people have missed this playing through the beginning of the game. Only by burning those Shards would the power of your Estus Flask be unlocked – some casual players would simply pick up those items without knowing. Each Burned Shards would increase the amount of healing that Estus Flask provided each time.

How to cure hollowing

If you die when holding a dark sigil in your inventory, you would accumulate something called “hollowing”. After 15 times, your character appearance will become “hollow” with wrinkled skins and bones just like an undead. This is a nod to previous games, as the change in appearance does not affect your combat abilities. You can either use the Untrue Dark Ring to mask your appearance or cure it by giving the Fire Keeper a Fire Keeper Soul. Using Purging stones, visiting the Purging Monument and talking to Velka also reverse your hollowing.

Consuming all Souls by using the Shrine Handmaid

It is possible to accumulate hundreds of thousands of souls in the form of items inside your inventory, which you could then convert to soul points by eating the items one by one. However, there is a way to convert them all to soul points quickly: by selling soul items to the handmaid. You are not losing anything in the exchange since the maid buys souls with equal value. This action would save you a lot of time using those items over and over.

Get to the roof of firelink shrine

You can get to the roof of Firelink Shrine without having to obtain the tower key. Firstly, go to the upper part of the shrine, with a tree outside leaning against the roof. It might be hard, but you would have to jump and use it as a ramp to access. This might sound easy, but it is actually really difficult in practice. However, if you managed to do it, you would be able to access an assortment of rewards, including the Sunlight Armor of Solaire.

The mound-makers covenant.

The easiest to miss covenant. Before fighting the Curse Rotted Greatwood, you have to turn right at the burning tree in the Undead Settlement, break some barrels, then circle around the right side of the building next to the bridge. A ladder would appear in front of you – climb it and walk across the rooftop to a monster who’s carrying a giant cage.

Approach the cage and get inside it – your character will be teleported to a secret area in which Holy Knight Hodrick would give you the Mound-Maker covenant. Players who join the Mound Makers would become mad phantom upon entering others’ worlds.

Befriend the lonely giant on the top of the undead settlement

At one of the largest area in the undead settlement, you would see numerous spears pierce the ground everywhere – and that is the sign of what to come. On the top of the tower nearby, there is a friendly giant that throws huge spears at everything that moves. Talk to the guy and he would give you a white branch – which prevents you from taking damage from his spears. With this ability, you would gain a new ally and your journey in the Undead Settlement would become much easier.

Remove the maggots with your torch.

There are a lot of terrible enemies in Dark Souls 3, and Corpse-Grubs are the most annoying of them all. They are giant blobs of wiggling maggots that spawn in the Cathedral of the Deep and the Smouldering Lake. These guys are not that dangerous by themselves – the effect that caused by their attacks is. With just a swing of their arm, the player character would be cover from head to toe with maggots – which slowly buildup bleed damage until you are dead. There is only one way to shake those creatures off: with fire. Whipping out your torch would scatter them away from your body. This little trick would ensure that your journey through the Cathedral would be maggot-free.

Interacts with the Fire Keeper

Your one and only companion throughout the game, speaking with the Fire Keeper would reveal more about the world of Dark Souls 3 and its lore – most importantly, she is the only one who can level up your character. Adventuring in an unforgiving game like Dark Souls require you to be at your best to progress and that is why the Fire Keeper would be your best friend.

How to communicate with the Fire Keeper without talking? Just stand in front of her and make gestures. After that, she would respond in various ways like bowing, twirling or cradling her face, which is all infinitely cute. FromSoft did a good job in providing you with a way to communicate with your closest ally and companion.