Dark Souls can be an unforgiving game. This guide prevents you from falling for the classical noobtraps, by showing handpicked skill builds that make the early game easier without regrets and minimum frustration. However these ideas are only meant to get you started, so that you're able to experience the game and its world with less frustration.
Be inspired to create own builds.

If you like this guide/hate this guide, leave me a comment.
I'll be adding additional content to this guide in the next days/weeks.

-Choose the right starting gift:
You can choose among eight items that your guy starts with. Most of them are useless because they are one time use only or can be found early on in the game.

-Divine Blessings: Useless, you have enough heals already.
-10 Black Firebombs: Useless if you can fight, usefull if you want something dead in the early game. You can buy them later on in the game from a merchant.
-Binoculars: Useless, because you can find them for free near the Firelink shrine.
-Pendant: Useless, does litarally nothing.
-Twin Humanities: Almost useless
-Master Key: Usefull as hell
-Tiny Being's Ring: Useless, 5% HP increase means next to nothing, especially in the beginning of the game.
-Old Witch's Ring: Useless, opens a talk option with a certain NPC. That's all.

Picking the Master Key does not automatically make you a speedrunner. You won't miss any part of the game. All it does is making certain parts accessable earlier.

-If the enemies are too tough you're probably going the wrong way: you will notice, some enemies are way to hard for you. e.g. don't get frustrated on the Skeletons on the Graveyard. The game progresses nonlinear so you have the chance to return and face the music.

-Equipment related Noobtraps
-The Drakesword: there are literally dozens of videos that show you how to get this artifact. A weapon that does incredible base damage. You pick it up, suddenly you can one hit any enemy you come along. At first glance this weapon may look tempting BUT: there is no scaling on this weapon.

Where most weapons give you bonus damage, based on how high you have leveled a certain stat in your game, the Drakesword has no such thing as scaling That's why it's falling behind in damage really quickly.

-Don't use too heavy Armor: blocking and rolling are important to survive. Many novice players instead make the error of using heavy armor. They might get reduced damage from one hit, but they become so clumsy that they end up taking more damage than before.
This game has 4 Stages of encumberance. Fast rolling, mid rolling, fat rolling and the slow walk.

Items that add up a lot to total weight belong to the no-go list for you. Common examples are Fang Boar Helmet, Stone Armor, Knight shield, Gargoyle Helmet or basicly anything that prevents you from mid-rolling.

For more information on Endurance and Encumberance take a look at this Page:
http://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Stats#endurance

-Upgrading your weapons: have you ever wondered what to do with the titanite shards you might have found on your way through the undead burg? Those are for upgrading your stuff. Weapons, Armor, and shields can be upgraded by blacksmiths that you'll encounter during your journey. There are specific Embers scattered in the world, that unlock new Upgrade paths that'll allow you to enchant your weapon with the power of the elements. By sacrificing the scaling, you can do massive fire damage - even with a sword you're barely strong enough to hold.

For more information about the upgrade paths, check out this page:
http://darksouls.wikidot.com/upgrade

If you don't have enough funds to buy the required upgrade materials to upgrade everything you own, ALWAYS upgrade your weapon first.

-Stocking up on Humanity:
Once you've reached the Depths, you've found a great place to stock up on Humanity. When leave the bonfire and go down the small stairway you'll encounter a small group of rats which can be continously farmed. Before you start your farming, keep your humanity stat at about +5 because it gives you a higher item discovery rate.

-Kindling Bonfires:
By sacrificing 1 humanity (stat) you can permanently increase the amount of estus you'll recieve from a bonfire. This is especially usefull if it's a bonfire before a particular difficult boss.

-Strenghtening your Estus flask:
You will find firekeeper souls scattered around in the world. If you have one of these items in your possession you can talk to any firekeeper and strenghten your estus flask.

-Have a bow ready: you'll encounter many situations in the game where you can use a ranged weapon to snipe of strong enemies or lure them away from a larger group of foes.
Always have a bow ready.

-Using consumables: Watch out and use elemental rasins and buff items like the Green Blossom. They give you a huge damage or power boost that allow you to deal with imminent threats (bosses and invaders) If you choose the masterkey you can find 3 gold pine rasins in a chest behind a house in the undead burg (near the black knight)

-NEVER level up Resistance: never, ever level up Resistance. NEVER. The Resistance stat itself is a noob trap. There are many armors and shields in the game that will increase resistance versus various damage types, so leveling Endurance to be able to wear the armor is the better idea.

-Do not Cry over a few lost Souls/Humanity: so you got killed twice in a row and all your 'manities and souls are gone. What now?

You MAN UP and go on of course. Believe me this: losing souls does not matter at all.
Keep in mind that you'll get an enormous amount of souls each time you defeat a boss.
The amount makes up for any souls you've lost on the attempts on killing the boss.
But this is getting even better. You can milk off some more souls off a certain boss. All you have to do is don't level up straight ahead. Keep you level low enough to be summoned for Co-Op and drop your white sign and kill that boss over and over again. Do it untill you have enough souls to level all the way up for the next boss fight. rinse and repeat for each boss.

Use this chart for reference on which level to do what boss:

Undead Burg ( 5 – 10 ) – BOSS: Taurus Demon
Undead Parish ( 10 – 20 ) – - BOSS: Belfry Gargoyls
Lower Undead Burg ( 20 – 30 ) – BOSS: ????
The Depths ( 20 – 30 ) – BOSS: ????
Blighttown ( 30 – 40 )
Quelaag’s Domain ( 35+ ) – BOSS: ????
Darkroot Garden ( 35-50 ) – BOSS: ????
Darkroot Basin ( 35-50 ) – BOSS: ???? / ????
Sen’s Fortress ( 35-45 ) – BOSS: ????
Anor Londo ( 45-60 ) – BOSS: ????
The Abyss ( 50 – 70 ) – BOSS: ????
The Duke’s Archives ( 50-70 )
Crystal Cave ( 55-75 ) – BOSS: ????
Tomb of the Giants ( 55-75 ) – BOSS: ????
Demon Ruins ( 60-75 )
Lost Izalith ( 65-80 ) – BOSS: ????
Kiln of the First Flame ( 70 – 100 + ) – BOSS: ????

The Warrior Build [Vitality and Endurance]

"“A warrior acknowledges his pain but he doesn't indulge in it.
The mood of the warrior who enters into the unknown is not one of
sadness; on the contrary, he's joyful because he feels humbled by
his great fortune, confident that his spirit is impeccable, and
above all, fully aware of his efficiency. A warrior's joyfulness
comes from having accepted his fate, and from having truthfully
assessed what lies ahead of him.”
― Don Juan Matus

Enough of those words of a dead man.YOU are the warrior! You will be arguably the strongest character class in Dark Souls. Soon you can wield swords, axes or maces - Whatevers does the trick for you! Two-handed weapons will be more more useful to you in the beginning, but as you progress your enormeus Strenght will allow you the use of a shield. Your amazing stamina makes sure that you'll stay nimble even when wearing the heaviest of armor.

In Singleplayer, Coop or PVP you steamroll through your enemies, dealing tons of damage whilst tanking all their counter attacks. Dodging is less important for this playstyle, therefore it suits well for newer players.
In short: Become unstoppable.


Starting Classes:
Pyromance/Bandit

Reason: Pyro may sound strange at first, but it makes the early game very easy. Most nasty enemies can be scorched away with a well placed firebolt. They start with enough attunement slots and decent endurance to justify choosing them.

If you don't bother with Pyromancy at all, pick the Bandit.


Stat Goals:
Vit ~ 40+
Att - x
End ~ 40+
Str - 16
Dex - 10
Fai - x
Int - x
Res - x

Level up Str and Dex first to get the minimum required stats for using your weapon. After that DON'T level Str and Dex further.
You will be using non-scaling elemental weapons for maximum damage output.
Leveling to around sl99 will allow you to pvp at most hotspots (Kiln of the First Flame, Forest, Oolacile, Undead Burg) but you can keep it lower/higher if you like.


Weapon and Shield Options:
[Fire, Lightning or Chaos] Zweihander +5 (twohand only!)
[Fire, Lightning or Chaos] Claymore +5
[Fire, Lightning or Chaos] Bastart Sword +5
Grass Crest Shield
(Ascended Flame +5)

Armor:
Early Game:
Chain Set
Knight's Set
Elite Knight's Set
Mask of the Father or Mask of the Mother (For Endurance or Health boost)

Late game:
Black Iron Set +5
Giants Set +5
Steel Set +5
Havels Set
Mix and match any parts of these sets until you have your desired look/defensive values. Keep an eye on your Weight ratio. E.g. In Order to fastroll with Giants set you need 60is Endurance.

Rings:

Early game:
Wolf Ring
Havels Ring

Late Game:
Ring of Favor and Protection (Switch Wolf Ring if you have enough Poise)
Cloranthy Ring (switch Havels if you have enough Endurance)

This build plays similar to the Warrior, but it requires more skill to play.

Since you are a strong badass, you will mostly be using the heaviest weapons. This build requires more skill from the player and knowledge of the enemies movesets.
Your starting weapon takes care of the early game, but if you don't like the moveset you can grab the Zweihander from the cemetary or get the reinforced club from the male undead merchant.

The Serpent Great Sword is your "fast" weapon that's best used on smaller and quicker enemies. You need to farm this weapon from the Serpents in Sen's fortress.

The default weapon against stronger and slower opponents is the Large Club. It requires a "Sniper playstyle" as I'd like to call it. Try to take advantage of the pause between enemy attacks. Dodge and as soon as the enemy is exhausted from his attack, hammer him to the ground.

The Demon Machete can be bought from Shiva, once he moves to Blighttown.

Starting Class:
Bandit

Reason: Bandits have the best starting stats in Strenght, Endurance and Vitality. Those are the stats we're be focusing on. Their starting axe is an awesome weapon that takes care of most early game threats. The shield raises the poison resistance and can be used to completely block poison attacks. This will be invaluable once you reache the Dephts and Blighttown.

Stat Goals:
Vit ~ 36 - spare points.
Att - x
End ~ 40ish
Str ~ 40ish
Dex - x (only 1 point if you want to use certain weapons!)
Fai - x
Int - x
Res - x

Weapon Options:
Early:
Battle Axe
Zweihander
Reinforced Club
Late Game:
Man-serpent Greatsword +15
Demon's Machete +15
Large Club +15


Rings:
Havel's Ring
Wolf Ring
Cloranthy Ring
Ring of Favor and Protection

The first thing to do after getting to Firelink Shrine is leveling up your Strenght to 16 and Dexterity to 10. Make sure that you spend as many souls as possible. You might die during the next part: You'll be jogging to the graveyard section and do a little tour de loot hoarding.
Do not bother fighting the skeletons. Just grab the loot and RUN. Being a chicken is okay. For now.

The primary goal is to get the Zweihander.
The secondary goal is gathering all the Souls of a Lost Undead that are scattered around. There are 5 small ones and 2 bigger ones. In total this yields 1800 souls. This will speed up the leveling process. To find them all check out this map[img3.wikia.nocookie.net].











Congratulations. You are allready overpowered. Make sure to Two-Hand your weapon.
Try out your newfound weapon of mass destruction as you progress to the game the regular route. Most enemies you'll encounter are easy meat. If in doubt R2. If it's still moving R2 again.
Turn on some dubstep to get a hidden 5% damage bonus.
Your armor of choice is the Chain Armor and the Chain Helm. Both offer enough protection and you'll still be able to mid-roll.

Getting Havels Ring:

Havel is lovated in the Tower beneath the Fog gate of the Taurus Demon. You need the Master Key to enter his domain.
If you're having a hard time killing him, let me give you two hints:
-Fight him with Firebombs, sold by the Undead Merchant (50 souls each) throwing one at a time.
-Lure him all the way up the stairs as it gives you more space to maneuver.

Don't forget your battlecry when Havel's going down as you grab the reward for this battle.

Location of the Grass Crest Shield:
Leave Havels room at the bottom of the tower. Outside hug the cliff on the left side. Follow the path until you encounter a small drop down. The shield should be visible. Be wary of the Halbert Knight that is guarding the treasure.



How to get the Elite Knight Set and the Wolf Ring:

If you just picked up the shield, climb up the cliff all to the top. Follow the path to your right. Go down the path to the right of the large Crest sealeddoor, (next to the hidden bonfire.) Go past the area with the 3 demonic foilage ambush, enter the fog and turn right at the clearing with the sleeping stone giants. The armor set is the item you should see (it's guarded!)
To get the ring, Cut down the living tree on the right that hides a trail. Follow the trail and once past the second living tree stay to the right, there is a path right before the rubble which leads back upwards to the ring. The sleeping stone giant close to the lower path entrance will ambush you, if you don't kill him and walk up the path instead. Another stone giant is guarding the ring.

How to get the Ring of Favor and Protection:

This Ring belongs to Lautrec. A dorky knight clad in golden armor. He's got busted for dealing cocaine and is kept locked away in the Undead Parish. To get to him, go up the stairs to the right of the elevator. You'll encounter his guards an Balder Knight, then a room full of Zombies and a Channeler. In the left corner from where you entered, there's another passage with another Balder Knight. At the top of this passage is a hole in the wall that's boarded up. Pull out our Zwei and break the boards to reveal the room containing Lautrec. Free him, and he'll give you some Sunlight Cocaine. Drugs are bad for warrios, that's why he's getting the R2. The reward for killing Laurec is the ring of Favor and Protection. You can use the Ring right away but i recommend using Wolfs ring instead, because Poise is more important in the early game until you have acess to better armor.

As a rogue you are the most versatile character in this game. With a wide range of skills it is easy to customize your playstyle, especially if you like to play sneaky rather than relying to brute force. Magic, Strength and Vitality are intermediate, same as Endurance which is mostly needed for using light to medium armor since your damage comes from your key Attribute: Your dexterity. It is much higher than that of the other two classes. That allows you to use bows effectively, since other classes lack the Skill needed for higher bow damage. Still you're far from beeing helpless in melee. With a dancing Curved Sword style, you'll create Kebab out of any enemy that dares to linger too close to your presence.


Starting Class:
Hunter

Reason: Starting with 12 Str and 14 Dex the Hunter is almost able to use the Uchigatana right from the start. They also are the only class that starts with a short bow.

Stat Goals:
Vit ~ 36ish
Att - x
End - 40ish
Str - 14
Dex - 40ish highest priority
Fai - x
Int - x
Res - x



Weapons

Early game:
Uchigatana
Estoc


Late game:
Balder Side Sword +15
Iaito +5
Ricard's Rapier +15

Pharis' Bow
Avelyn

Armor:
Light and Medium Sets that allow you to fastroll

Gold Hemmed Set
Wanderer Set +5
Elite Knight's Set +5
Eastern Set +5


Rings:
Hornet Ring
Cloranthy Ring
Ring of Favor and Protection
Darkwood Grain Ring
Wolf Ring
Havel's Ring

First thing we need to do at Firelink shrine is level up so Str and Dex are 14. As I've described it in my warrior build you should do the scavenging tour of the nearby graveyard to get some "Souls of a Lost Undead" to speed up the process. Just run through and grab as many items as you can. Roll if you're attacked by skeletons. Do not fight back! This is your first dodging exercise. You'll be doing this a lot as a Rogue.

If you have progressed to the Undead burg and have the appropriate stats, it is time to get the Uchigatana - a curved sword with some nasty swings that scales perfectly well with Dexterity. I highly recommend to use this weapon for melee jobs. The only way to get this weapon is to kill it's former owner - the Undead Merchant. I.

If you are having trouble with the Hollow soldiers, just evade them. They can't follow you downstairs. Before you kill the Undead Merchant, you should buy the Buckler (800 souls) - a great shield that makes parrying easy.
If you are worried about killing the merchant, trust me: there is no reason to be upset. He will drop any usefull items you could have bought from him upon death. The only disadvantage of killing him is, that he is the only source of arrows in the early game. Thing is, you don't need arrows in the early game. The bow damage is still too low and your newfound weapon will do a better job. If you want you can stack up on arrows. There is another merchant that sells em later on. Also, you will see: Once you've got the Uchi the fights are getting easier.

I highly recommend two handing the Uchigatana to maximise the damage. Instead of blocking by now, you should be familiar with the principle of dodging by rolling. (Similar to Darksiders 2 gameplay). Taurus Demon should be little of a problem if you use one of the Gold Pine Resins, found in the chest near the Boss Fog Gate.


Havel is lovated in the Tower beneath the Fog gate of the Taurus Demon. You need the Master Key to enter his domain.
If you're having a hard time killing him, let me give you two hints:
-Fight him with Firebombs, sold by the Undead Merchant (50 souls each) throwing one at a time.
-Lure him all the way up the stairs as it gives you more space to maneuver.

There is a slightly better armor located in the lower undead burg. You need the Key to the lower Undead Burg to enter this section. (Found on a corpse on the stairs leading up to the church in Undead Parish, next to the lever that opens the gate back to the area with the Armored Tusk)
The door to the lower undead burg is next to where you first met Solaire (the dude that keeps talking about the sun) Unlock the door and slide down the ladder. Downstairs you can open a shortcut to the Undead Burg if you walk up the long starway and open the door. Downstairs next to the flaming pile, you will immediately be rushed on the staircase by 3 Undead Attack Doges. Take them one at a time. Head down the stairs pulling each dog one at a time if possible.
Proceed along the road very carefully. Most of the doors are locked and have one Undead Assassin waiting for you; the doors will open automatically once you walk far enough to be ambushed. You can try and hit them trough the doors to kill them before.

There is a Thief Armor set inside one of the tiny rooms, which looks cool and offer better protection - for now.

Remember: you can always try out armor combinations which you think that'll work. But your build is not about armor. It's about striking fast and efficient. Hits will hurt you, even if you're using good protection. Beeing slow however KILLS you.

You should have found Andre the Blacksmith by now. It's time to visit him, because we have a job for him: Upgrade our Uchigatana to +5. Lucky for you he sells the required materials.




Save the Souls from the Bell Gargoyles fightt. Make it to the Blacksmith in one piece and and buy the Artorias Crest for 20.000 souls
Enter the Forest and go straight along the path till you reach the locked portal. Before you enter, hit the wall left to the rubble to reveal a secret bonfire.

The next section is the favourite spot for Intermediate players to grind souls or for experienced PVP. If you enter you should do it as a hollow or you'll get invaded.

There is an easy cheesy way to get rid of the npcs in the area. Just run in and aggro (get their attention) as many as you can. Dodge everything, as you've learned it till now. Then run back to the Entrance and hide on that small ledge near the chasm. Look away from the wall and raise your shield. make sure that you are as close to the wall as possible to NOT get hit by the magic missles of that douchebag sorcerer.

If done correctly all the NPCs will run/bounce over your head and fall into the chasm.

Getting Pharis' Bow:

Now it is time to find our Target. Her name is Pharis and shes located in the middle of this Forest. It can take some time to find her. The fact that she is wearing a Ring of Fog, which grants her near invisibility makes the job especially difficult.
If she rolls over a cliff during the fight, just save and reload the game and her stuff should be waiting for you.

To use the bow, you have to raise your Dexterity to 18.

That's it for now, allthough our build is far from being complete, we've aquired our basic Items: decent armor, weapons and equipment.

Enjoy.

If you want to use magic as your primary offensive tool, then the sorcerer is the best class to begin with. However I highly recommend to make yourself familiar with the game first, espacially ranged combat and dodging. Primary source of your damage throughout the game are your spells. Using physical weapons will be a struggle, though, so you’ll be limited to light weapons inthe early game. We'll be leveling Str and Dex to meet the in requirements for stronger weapons, that' help you when you run out of spells. Use close combat to finish wounded foes whenever it's possible.

Your dexterity is decent, so using spears that you can find early on is also an option. I recommend to raise it to gain the benefit of a Dex scaling along with the spell "Magic Weapon". This can provide you with a fallback at times when you need a damage burst or when you run out of attack spells.

The sorcerer definitely remains to be a tough class to use during the early and mid-game, but pays off once you obtain access to higher-end spells and catalysts.

Starting with sl1, we're not wasting any points in stats we don't need. The Pyroflame and access to fire magic as starting equipment makes us even more overpowered.

Starting Gift: Master Key

Vit - Keep it close to your Int value till it'sat about 35ish
Att - 16 Can beleveled further if you wish
End - 30ish level that its about 2/3 of Vit.
Str - 16 - Level First. It's needed to wield melee weapons
Dex - 12 - Level this early, it's required for using the composite bow & bandit's knife.
Fai - x
Int - 44 OR 50 - 50 to use the White Dragon Breath. (late game spell)
Res - x


Weapon Options:
Early game:
Tin Banishment Catalist
Heater Shield

Late game:
Enchanted Claymore/Bastart Sword +5
Enchanted Composite Bow +5
Bandit's Knife +15 (w/ Crystal Magic Weapon) good against bosses
Tin Crystallization Catalyst - Use to powershot enemies
Logan's Catalyst - Best when Int is >40
Sorceror Catalyst - Use while Int is <40
Moonlight Greatsword +5 (goal weapon)

Armor:

Early game:
Crimson Set

Late game:
Crown of Dusk
Xanthous Set
Witch Set
Black Set

Spells:
PVE:
Soul Arrow
Great Heavy Soul Arrow
Soul Spear
Crystal Soul Spear
Homing Soulmass
Crystal Magic Weapon (with bandits knife)

PVP:
Pursuers
Dark Bead
Great Combustion

Power Within - If you're comfortable with the HP drain.

Rings:
Ring of Favor and Protection
Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring
Lingering Dragoncrest Ring
Dusk Crown Ring

How to obtain your Starting gear
After finishing the tutorial (which should not be too hard as starting Pyro) you find yourself at the Firelink shrine. From the first bossfight you should have some excess souls. Use them to level Up Dexterity to 10 and Intelligence to 12, to meet the requirements of the gear we're about to get. If you're missing a few souls, go kill some of the Hollows nearby the bonfire.

The first task at hand is obtaining an awesome armor set and a perfect weapon. Therefore we have to pay Blighttown a very early visit. Take the stairs down near the firelink shrine bonfire. Ride the elevator down to the ruins of New Londo. Once you've arrived roll down the next stairs and hug the right wall till you find a locked door. Your master key will open it. Carefully step over the bridge and enter the cave. Now the real fun begins.
Run past the three Infested Barbarians. They have poisoned clubs and are slow but have good reach and pack a punch. Don't bother locking on. Instead take advantage of their lack of speed and keep running if any of them do a warning roar. Roll if they swing your club at you and to evade.
Once past the barbarians do not despair if you die prematurely. Try to memorize your quickest way down using rolls and jumps.
When you reach the end of the platform, go down the next set of ladders and take an immediate right when you see a treebranch over a chasm. There will be bugs trying to eat your face and guys shooting blowdarts at you. Evade them. Don't bother with the poison. You are here to kick a*s and drink Estus.
Carefully walk across the tree branch until you walk onto a new wooden platform, continue your way and a Cragspider will stand in your way. He is very slow so try to roll around his left before he can do his dance of fire. You've almost made it. At the end of the path you'll find the Crimson Set, the Tin Banishment Catalyst as well as the Remedy spell. You don't have to run all the way back so just suicide out of blighttown.

Enjoy your new awesome looking robe along with a very powerfull weapon. Note that the Catalysts heavy attack is a melee strike with good damage.


Binoculars and first Sorcerer Spells

Back at the Firelink Shrine it's once more time to do the looting tour of the nearby area, including the skeleton filled cemetary. Check this link[img3.wikia.nocookie.net] for the item positions. We're looking to get as many "Souls of a lost undead", the Binoculars (for sniping enemies), and a winged spear (for later use as a melee weapon).
Pop all the souls you've gathered, it's time to pay our first magic teacher a visit. Once again ride down the elevator to New Londo. Exit the lift down from the Firelink Shrine and into the first open area with the ruins in the distance. Go to the far right and follow a set of broken stairs down towards the water. Be careful not to fall off the stairs and on the left hand side at the bottom of the steps behind some bars is Rickert of Vinheim. He sells basic magic spells. For now learn the spell "Soul Arrow".


Heater Shield and Ring of Favor and Protection
A decent shield for the early/midgame is the Heater shield, sold by the Male Merchant in the Undead Burg. For 1000 Souls it offers really great protection, good stability and 100% physical reduction. Keep in mind that you don't have much Endurance as a Sorcerer, so you should keep an eye on your stamina.
As you might have noticed by now, I am a great fan of the Ring of Favour and Protection (FAP-Ring). It is one of the best rings in the game. Most of my characters have this ring on. Your sorcerer will need this ring as well for the early game.
To get the ring you have to kill Lautrec.
He is Locked in a cell located on the upper floor of the church. Before climbing the ladder that leads to the Belfry Gargoyles, continue counter-clockwise around the top floor. After fighting a Balder Knight, there is a broken door that can be smashed, revealing a staircase. Go up the stairs to find Lautrec's cell. The cell can be opened using the Mystery Key or a Master Key. He'll be sitting on the firelink shrine later on, where you can kick him of the cliff. Save and Reload and the ring will be waiting for you.


You're allready set up for the early game. Keep your eyes open for further updates on this guide with more advanced build suggestions.
(to be continued...)

Searching the Internet you will find many pages that list the available spells.
I personally prefer it to group the Spells in "Schools" to give you an Introduction on what your magic abilities can do.

The Schools of Magic

Flames of the great Swamp:
The ability to perform various kinds of fire arts is known as Pyromancy to the common man.
As a fierce form of magic derived from the ancient power of the witches of Izalith, it has a rather primitive aspect to it that meshes poorly with the advanced culture, of modern Magic schools. Therefore pyromancers are considered rather unsavoury. But still, the fire damage caused by these ancient spells make them effective against all corporeal beasts and Undead, who by nature fear flame.
These spells range from elementary pyromancy, like producing small brusts of flame from your hand or throwing bolts of fire, to the art of weaving mighty firestorms. Some belive, hidden spells, able to change the structure of matter itsself, exist somewhere.
Notable spells: Combustion, Fireball, Iron Flesh

Vinheim School
The scholars of Vinheim are the creators, researchers and Masters of Soul Magic. Based in the famous Dragon School, which researches such arts. Their intelligent and scholarly looks often invite insult. The majority take much pride in their talent, having studied at the academy but look down on other kinds of magic.
Vinheim school spells offer a variety of missle-like spells combined with buffs that strenghten weapons and shields.
Notable spells: Soul Arrow, Magic Weapon/Shield, Homing Soulmass

Logans Teachings
Big Hat Logan, once a royal member of Dragon School, is a scholar of the soul arts. He turned Undead over a hundred years ago, and has been roaming Lordran, searching for more wisdom, ever since.
He invented modified versions of the Vinheim techniques, that are somehow connected to the power of Crystals, associated with the Dragon Seathe.
Notable Spells: Crystal Soul Spear, White Dragon Breath

Oolacile Mysticism
The lost Kingdom of Oolacile was home of sorceries that differ from the magic of the modern age.
They are somewhat of an approximation whereas common sorceries are more straight forward, negating all but themself.
This school of magic contains some powerfull Stealth and Illusion Spells.
Notable Spells: Chameleon, Hidden Body/Weapon

Chaosspells of Izalith
The Witch of Izalith, in an ambitious attempt to copy the First Flame, created instead the Flame of Chaos, a twisted bed of Chaos in which Demons were born. The tempestuous raging flames of these spells resemble those summoned by the Daughters of Chaos when they challenged the ancient dragons and scorched the very earth.
Has some of the most powerfull Pyromancies.
Notable Spells: Great Chaos Fireball


Abyssal Gifts
Abyss sorcery discovered by an Oolacile sorcerer on the brink of madness. A twisted form of their Mysticism. Not much is known on how these Spells were created.
In contrast to standard soul sorceries, Abyss sorcery is weighty and inflicts physical damage.
Notable Spells: Dark Bead, Pursuers



There is no limit on how many spells you can learn. But I've experienced that with every school comes a certain playstyle. Just with the equipment it's okay to mix and match spells from different schools, but it's good to have a plan on how you're be dealing with your enemies, when attuning spells. If you go full AOE spells or buffs only, chances are high, that it wont work.
(writing still in progress...)

If you don't have a clue what you want to become and what your playstyle will be, let me try to help you by showing some of the weapon options, their locations and requirements.
Please note that these do not include all possible lategame weapons as this guide is for the early game (obtainable within 1 hr into the game) If you think i missed a very important weapon let me know.

Strenght:

Astora Straight Sword: Treasure from Valley of the Drakes, nice speed and scaling, does holy damage, (Req 10 Str / 10 Dex / 14 Faith)

Bastart Sword: Sold by Andre of Astora. Combines good damage with medium reach, usefull throughout the game (Req 16 Str / 10 Dex)

Battle Axe: Sold by Andre of Astora. Good damage but somewhat unflexible due to moveset and low reach (Req 12 Str / 8 Dex)

Claymore: Treasure on the Bridge, guarded by the Red Drake. Strong Swings, good speed and reach. (Req 10Str / 10 Dex)

Drake Sword: Treasure from damaging the drakes tail, good base damage but no scaling, gets useless quick (Req 16 Str / 10 Dex)

Zweihander: Treasure on the Cemetary, huge damage and poise break but slow and heavy
(Req 24 Str / 10 Dex but only 16 Str is needed to two hand it)

Dexterity:

Balder Side Sword: Dropped by Sword wielding Balders. Exceptional Straight Sword for DEX due to "A" bonus when fully upgraded. Powerfull thrusts with good reach for a dex weapon. (Req 10 Str / 14 Dex)

Estoc: Treasure on a corpse early in new londo. Kind of a Balder Side sword "light" with longer reach (Req 10 Str / 12 Dex)

Uchigatana: Drops from the male Undead Merchant. Quite overpowered weapon with some serious speed and scaling (Req 14 Str / 14 Dex)


Mix of Dexterity/Strenght

Halberd: Treasure in the Undead Parish, fine damage and poisebreak, highest reach (Req 16 Str / 12 Dex)

Winged Spear: Treasure from the Cemetery, very high reach, good speed hard to hit multiple targets (Req 13 Str / 15 Dex)


Important: There are several Improved versions of these early game weapons that use similar movesets but have slightly better overall stats. (e.g. Uchgatana -> Falchion) Keep your Eyes open!

Now you can create your own playstlye. All you have to do is:

-Decide for once if you want to go the Dexterity route or the Strenght route, or if you want to do a mix of both.
-Find the weapon you wanna use in the list
-See that you meet the requirements
-Get the weapon

You can then decide if you want to benefit from the scaling system and Upgrade it the regular way. (more Stats more Damage)
Or you can enchant it, get rid of the scaling and get as much Damage as possible for meeting the required stats.