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Some Demon’s Souls tips are essential for the PS5 remaster if you don’t want to spend months working it all out yourself. We’ve got help with surviving, leveling up, the best way to grind, as well as a breakdown on how to best use souls, weapons and more. Coming up are a solid set of basic tips that should ease you into Demon’s Souls (opens in new tab) on PS5, and make progressing in FromSoftware’s brilliant but punishing fantasy.
We cover a good range of Demon’s Souls tips here for PS5 that will help you get more souls and more importantly keep them, as well as the best decisions to make when things aren’t always clear. We’ll also help you avoid that very Souls-like trap of throwing yourself against impossible odds endlessly, without being entirely sure if it’s the game being hard, or you trying something you’re not ready for.
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1. Take your time and grind
Demon’s Souls is not a game you should expect to end the same year you start it. Lengthy leveling up and progression is part of what makes it what it is, so expect to grind. Because you’ll often encounter areas, enemies and bosses that are impossibly hard below a certain level, you’ll have to replay areas you have conquered and gather souls to level up and buy any consumables you might need.
2. The Shrine of Storms is a great place to earn souls early on (and later)
The Shrine of Storms, also known as 4-1, is a good place for grinding – the skeletons there are tough but easy to outmaneuver and net you nearly 300 souls per kill. If you keep leading them back to the opening area to fight them (just run back once you have one following you) then even if you die, you can touch your bloodstain and reclaim souls easily. In the early stages of the game you can easily grab 3000-5000 souls in a relatively quick run, dealing with only the first few enemies. Even later game it can still be profitable, although when you unlock the Fool’s Idol Archstone in the Archstone of the Tower Queen, the gargoyles are also lucrative as they give you around 275 souls on death and drop either an Unknown Soldier or Hero’s Soul, worth 200 and 400 souls respectively.
3. Have a plan before leveling up as you really need to stick to a stat
The cost of leveling up in Demon’s Souls almost increases exponentially and it’s not long before you’re trying to gather tens of thousands of souls for one more stat point. Because of this it’s a good idea to think about what you’re aiming for. This isn’t a game that rewards a nice general leveling, spread evenly between points – it is all about min maxing. In other words, pick a stat and put all your points in to maximize it, leaving all the others minimized. If you want to use magic then put all your points into magic and rely on being able to blast things from a distance before they can one hit you because you have no health. If you want to go melee, then pick strength or dexterity according to the weapons you want to use. If you don’t build everything around one stat you’ll likely find what power you have ends up spread too thinly and you’ll struggle.
4. Don’t be afraid to blow a stack of souls on healing items and resources
With the fight it can sometimes take to get a pocket full of souls, it’s easy to feel like using them on anything other than leveling up is a waste. Don’t worry about it – you can always grind for more. Sometimes it’s worth getting souls and blowing them all on things you might need like healing grass, arrows or magic boosting Spice. Some areas can have long runs between checkpoint archstones, which always require a boss battle to unlock. So the last thing you want to do is get there and realise you’ve run out of vital supplies.
5. Test out other weapons for better damage
Like focusing on one stat for your character, you’ll want to really pick one weapon and put everything into making it as powerful as you can. However, don’t discount all the other options completely – damage types and enemy weaknesses can mean a weapon that looks less powerful in your inventory might actually hurt a certain enemy type more. This is especially the case in the early game when you haven’t had the chance to specialize. If you’re finding a certain area’s enemy tough, then check what damage your weapon is doing and see what else you have. The Scale Miner enemies you meet in Stonefang Tunnel are weak to piercing and magic damage for example, but resistant to almost everything else. If you’re not using something with the relevant damage type you might find a weaker weapon of the right type hurts them more.
6. Release block between attacks to charge stamina faster
Stamina can quickly be drained by incoming attacks and while you might be tempted to keep your shield up all the time while under attack, you’ll affect the rate it recharges. As long as you can make some space, or feel confident reading the timings of your enemies, let your shield down as stamina will recharge almost immediately. That way you can take more of a pounding without your guard breaking.
7. Consider backtracking whenever you have enough to level up rather than risk losing it
It doesn’t take long in the game before you’re needing 10-15K to level up and beyond. When you’re still building out your character you can find yourself needing lots of souls but struggling to get them. Because of that always consider backtracking to the nearest archstone and banking what you’ve got back at the Nexus rather than risk losing it by taking risks. Yes, you might well have to replay a tricky chunk again, but that’s preferable to dying, not being able to recover your stuff and ending up with zero. It’s especially worth bearing in mind if you enter a new area and aren’t sure what to expect.
8. Don’t be ashamed about cheesing and exploiting
Like all FromSoftware games, you need every advantage you can get. Exploiting the game can often be a vital leg up when you’re starting out. Whether that’s using pillars to avoid incoming projectiles, or knowing exactly where a certain boss can’t hit you, use whatever you can to help you. Once you’ve leveled up loads, or finished the game and started a NG+ run, then you can’t start testing yourself.
9. Don’t consume boss souls before you’ve checked if they can be traded or crafted
Whenever you defeat a boss you’ll get a load of souls to level up with and their unique soul. The latter is a specific item in the game which can be traded for items or crafted within upgrades. Because of that, always check that you don’t want what a boss soul might get you before you think about consuming it for the soul value alone.
10. If you become human kill yourself in the Nexus to avoid affecting World Tendency
While this might be more important if you’re playing offline, where you can only affect World Tendency, consider killing yourself if you ever become human. Dying in human form is one of the most impactful ways of affecting World Tendency, pushing it into the black and making levels tougher, albeit more rewarding if you can survive. You’ll regain humanity whenever you defeat a boss or use a Stone of Ephemeral Eyes, and if you die as a human too many times in one location more phantoms will appear, and enemies will be harder. You will get better items and open up new areas but it’s not really a first time playthrough activity. If you head up to the second level in the Nexus you can jump off and kill yourself, returning to spirit form without affecting anything (and you can just pick up your souls afterwards).
11. Take a break
It’s easy to get caught in a loop of throwing yourself against a tough area or enemy, doing nothing but getting more and more angry and frustrated. You’ll get nowhere and just make yourself sad, so take a break, do something else and comeback to it later with a clear head.
