There are two types of Blood Stains within the game.

Dark Blood Stains

Like Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, these dark Blood Stains show the last few moments of a player who perished at that spot. You can examine the stain in order to observe a phantom of that player reliving their death. If you see one, be wary of traps, falls, and difficult enemies.

Glowing Green Blood Stain

This blood stain is left after your death in your world. It will be on the spot where you died. If you died by fall damage or by falling down chasms, the blood stain will be on the spot ~5 seconds before the time of your death. This contains all of the souls that the player had on them at the time of death. A second player death will cause the previous blood stain and its accumulated souls to disappear and a new blood stain with the number of souls contained at the time of that second death to appear.

Notes

• If a dark blood stain shows a phantom who gets parried the player will hear the sound that plays when landing a parry in their world. (This also happens with various other sounds, such as the bell sound played when hitting the Watcher's Shield.)
• Using the Darksign to kill yourself doesn't leave any blood stain nor erase any previous blood stain.

Scholar of the First Sin

• If there are many bloodstains in one spot, they will be called a "Pool of blood" and activating one will activate them all.

General Information

Bonfires act as checkpoints in the world of Drangleic. While resting at a bonfire you may fast-travel to any previously lit bonfire, burn certain items, or access your Item Box. Unlike in the first Dark Souls, you do not actually have to rest at a bonfire to return to it after death — you only need to light the bonfire. This is useful if you do not want the enemies that you have killed to respawn.

Resting at a bonfire has several effects:

• Refills your HP and stamina.
• Removes your Status Effects.
• Resets equipment durability to maximum, provided that said equipment is not broken.
• Recharges your Estus Flask uses.
• Recharges your attuned Hexes, Miracles, Pyromancy, and Sorcery uses.
• Resets and respawn enemies (except some unique enemies and bosses)¹.

When resting, you can access the bonfire menu. The menu gives you access to several options:

• You can fast travel across Drangleic (provided you already lit the destination bonfire).
• You can attune spells.
• You can burn items.
• You can access your Item Box to deposit or retrieve your equipment and items.

There are a few instances where accessing the bonfire is impossible:

• Enemies are in close proximity to the bonfire.
• A Blue or Red Phantom is invading your world, whether it is a Player or NPC.
• You have summoned Players or NPCs in your world.

• Note that you can still light unlit bonfires, but you can't rest at them.

Fast Travel Locations

Burnable Items

This is a list of burnable items and their effects:

To perform a Counter Attack, attack an enemy while the enemy is performing, or recovering from an attack. Counter attacks deal extra damage.

It doesn't matter if your attack interrupts the enemy's attack or not, you will still deal the counter damage.

Certain effecst boost counter damage such as Old Leo Ring.

Ripostes and backstabs are not counter attacks: they have their own damage calculations and are not boosted by effects that boost counter damage.

Description

Critical damage is, like its name suggests, a damage much stronger than normal attack damage, often outright killing the target.

There are several ways to do critical damage: Backstab, Riposte, Guard Break and a situational Plunging attack.

Note that critical damage doesn't refer to counter attacks (an attack you deal during an enemy's attacking animation). Do not confuse counter damage (dealt by counter attacks) and critical damage (dealt by ripostes and backstabs and described on this page).
Backstabs and ripostes are not counter attacks and they are not boosted by effects that boost counter damage like Old Leo Ring.

• Backstab
  Walk behind a backstab-able enemy and press the normal attack button (R1 on PS3 / RB on Xbox / H on PC default). The enemy doesn't need to be locked-on. This cannot be done on certain enemies (usually ones much larger than the player) or with two weapons in a power stance.

NOTE: Keep in mind that you HAVE to be wielding the weapon you want to backstab with in your RIGHT hand. You cannot backstab with a weapon in the left hand.

• Riposte
  See Parry. Riposte can only be done after a parry (although the special attack performed after guard break move is basically also a riposte). When the enemy has completed the animation of falling to the ground, stand close to the enemy's front side, then press the normal attack button to trigger riposte. You can also trigger a standing riposte if you can attack before the falling enemy touches the ground: in this case you will see a different animation and will deal slightly more damage.

• Guard Break
  Guard Break can only be done by either using the Guard Break move on a blocking opponent, or by draining your opponent's stamina while they block. When the enemy is Guard Broken, they will be stunned and they will become stunned in a simliar manner to the Dark Souls 1 Parry animation. While the enemy is in this animation, head to their front side, and use a normal attack to trigger the Guard Break Riposte

• Plunging attack critical
  Do a plunging attack as close as possible to the target's center. The "drop zone" is quite large, you can still drop about two steps from the target's center and still trigger the critical.

When you do these moves, you and your target will enter a unique critical animation. The animation depends on the weapon used. For example, dagger users Backstab critical by punching then stabbing the target really hard, accompanied by a gush of blood, while shortsword users critical with a three hit combo followed by a downward slash. Excluding the critical, your target is temporarily invincible for the duration of the animation. You are still vulnerable from taking damage while performing both the Backstab and Riposte animations, but the damage you take will be greatly reduced.

Damage

The formula for the damage caused by a critical attack is currently unknown. That being said, here's what we know:

• Critical damage depends on the weapon, the weapon's total attack rating, and the type of critical attack.
• Critical damage appears to ignore (or greatly reduce) the target's defense.
• A typical weapon can do either 2 or 3 times it's attack rating in critical damage.
• Most daggers do more than 4 times their attack rating in critical damage. The Umbral Dagger has the highest critical modifier in the game, at least for backstabs.
• Critical damage is not affected by the weapon's counter damage modifier, by the weapon's sweet spot, or by whether the weapon is held in one hand or two hands.
• Ripostes appear to do more damage than backstabs.** (Need testing, King's Greatsword deals more damage with backstab (insta-kill) than riposte (~~80% of life). Tested on sanctum soldiers ng +7)
• The damage modifier for ripostes, backstabs and guard breaks seems to vary independently from weapon to weapon or attack type. (Need testing, my mace did more damage than my mail breaker with backstabs, but my mail breaker did more than the mace with ripostes, finer weapons such as daggers, spears and rapiers better suited for riposting?)

Tips

General

• You can do a critical attack while holding the weapon with both hands. Contrary to earlier claims, this does not appear to increase its critical damage.
• Keep in mind that a high critical rating on a weapon doesn't always mean that it's the best weapon for your critical attack. Generally weapons with the highest attack rating, such as great hammers, greataxes, and ultra greatswords, will do the most critical damage even though daggers tend to have the highest critical modifiers.
• Critical damage ignores a weapon's counter damage modifier. So weapons with high counter damage, such as katanas and thrusting swords, benefit the least from a critical attack versus a regular counter attack.

Backstab

• Some enemies are positioned in the map with their backs facing you. These enemies are designed so that you can easily dispatch them by backstab. Walking slowly, or equipping Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring helps you sneak up on these enemies.

• In PvP environment, you rarely have the chance to sneak up on the opponent. In this situation, you can do the technique that's commonly known as pivot backstab:
  1. Lock on to enemy so that you are facing them.
  2. When you see an opening (spell cast or strong attack windup), release the lock and immediately roll past the enemy so that you are behind them. High poise helps.
  3. Without rotating the camera, face the opponent's back by using the movement control only.
  4. Quickly press the attack button to trigger the backstab.

• After you backstab an enemy, the enemy will get floored. Until the enemy is standing right up, the enemy will be in an invincible state. But, you can walk up to the enemy as they get up, wait behind them, and chain backstab them as soon as their invincibility state wears off. You can also use this in PvP, but it will be harder because a skilled player can roll as soon as the invincibility wears off and connection lag may throw off your timing. (Testing required - in pve enemies start taking damage earlier on after receiving backstab, ripostę or guard-break)

• A very rare occurrence. If you should happen to miss a backstab attempt, but the animation hits a different attacking enemy, that enemy will then be Parried.

Riposte

• There are basically three types of riposte:

1. Ground riposte: after you parry an enemy and they fall to the ground you need to stand in front of them and attack. You will stab them through.
2. Standing riposte: after parrying an enemy you have to attack them while they're falling to the ground but not yet lying down. The timing is difficult and you may end up just attacking normally (and if you break the enemy's poise at this moment you will interrupt the staggered ready-for-riposte animation and will bring the enemy back to normal stance). Arguably deals more damage than ground riposte (although testing with Chaos Rapier showed negligible difference). (Test again; some weapons deal more damage on standing and guard-break ripostes than on ground ripostes, and vice versa. Strike-type weapons like the Mace, Iron King Hammer and Smelter Hammer seem to do best damage with Backstabs and Standing/Guard-Break Ripostes, while Slash-type weapons like the Longsword, Pursuer's Ultra Greatsword and Fume Ultra Greatsword deal best damage with Backstabs and Ground Ripostes. In fact, the Pursuer's UGS deals less Guard-Break Riposte damage than Backstab damage, and it's best to circle around for a Backstab if a Guard Break is performed if using said weapon.
3. Guard break riposte: similar to standing riposte but activated after using guard break move (pushing away the enemy's shield; see below). Also has strict timing and requires standing as close as possible to the enemy.

• After you parry an enemy, you may still have time to change your weapon for a stronger critical. Two-handing the weapon doesn't change the riposte animation and doesn't affect the riposte damage.

• You can use special parrying gear to help you train your parrying skill. These items have either slightly longer or faster parrying window. These items are: Buckler, Target Shield, Parrying Dagger, Monastery Scimitar. Different weapons have different parrying window and starting parry animation.

• Riposte damage increases by 50% on New Game Plus.

Guard Break

• Guard Break Ripostes can be made at any point through their animation, however, attacking too early, or chaining attacks after they go into the Guard Broken animation means that they will take one normal attack instead of the critical attack.

• During a guard break, you will have time to change weapon.

• Using weapons with a higher poise break will cause a guard break quicker than a weapon with higher damage. (Needs Confirmation)

Function

Dark Souls 2 expands the player's offensive ability in combat when using two weapons at the same time. When you equip compatible weapons in each hand, you can enter a power stance, which allows new attack animations and the opportunity to inflict greater damage on your opponents.

While in power stance, R1 and R2 will keep the regular attacks of your right hand weapon. Thrusting swords R2 becomes a parry(only the rapier parry which always does it). Your L1 will become a combo attack using both weapons and L2 will be a single powerful attack using both weapons.

Your power stance attacks will vary depending on held weapons. Some weapon types have priority on the power stance attacks type. (ex. dagger < curved sword = straight sword < greatsword)
If two weapons have the same priority (ex. curved sword and straight sword), the power stance attacks type will be dictated by the right hand weapon.

Requirements

In order to enter power stance, you will need to:

• Have 1.5x the max required stats of your equipped weapons.

• Your two equipped weapons need to be compatible. (more testing needs to be done to confirm which weapons work together / at all).

- Example of compatible weapons : Greatsword / Curved Sword, Thrusting Sword / Straight Sword, Dagger / Katana
- Spell tools (staffs, sacred chimes, pyromancy flames) may not be power stanced in any combination.

*Thrusting Sword and Twinblade can only be Power-Stanced with the Thrusting Sword in the right hand, it will not work the other way round.
*Crossbows can also be power stanced, though the one-handed damage drops to ~63% of what it would be non power stanced for only ~26% gain in damage for shooting both crossbows at once. You cannot power stance a repeating crossbow with a non repeating crossbow, though Avelyn can be power stanced with Sanctum Repeating Crossbow as the other crossbow. While power stanced you can't use the scope feature of 2 handed which also means you can't use the special ability of the sanctum crossbow and repeating crossbow when dual wielding without exiting power stance. (tested in Scholar of the First Sin while in Company of Champions covenant). Due to the drop in power it would be advised to only use the double shot feature of power stance and leave single crossbow fire for when not in power stance. Can be considered the "strong" for crossbows as it takes longer to do 2 power stance double shots than to fire one hand and then the opposite hand despite consuming the same amount of stamina
**Table is a work in progress. There are potentially exceptions for dual wield viability within each weapon type.

Tips

• You enter power stance by holding (not just pressing) △ (PS3) / Y (360). If your weapons are not compatible or if you don't have the appropriate stats, you will two-hand your left hand weapon instead of entering power stance. When you are in power stance, your character will hold the weapons differently at rest and your left-attack and left-strong-attack animations will use both weapons together.

• The stat requirement is 1.5x the higher of the two weapons you are attempting to dual wield, rounded down. So if weapon #1 requires 20 str / 13 dex and weapon #2 requires 18 str / 15 dex, you will need to have 30 str (1.5x 20) & 22 dex (1.5x 15 = 22.5, rounded down to 22).

• In power stance, you forgo your shield and your ability to block with the weapons. Therefore, attack and roll timing are crucial to effectively dual wield.

Here's the weapon hierarchy and what it means:

Spears/Lances
Axes/ Hammers
Straight Swords/ Curved Swords/ Katanas
Thrusting Swords
Daggers

The moveset works from the top to the bottom. If you have a spear in one hand and an axe in the other, you will have the spear power stance moveset. This is regardless of which hand the weapons are held in.

The hand in which the weapons are held only matters if they have the same spot in the hierarchy (such as curved swords and katanas, or lances and spears). Then they will take the moveset of the weapon in the right hand. If the weapon has a special attack, for example Ricard's Rapier, it can only be used if held in the right hand.

Note: Estoc/Mace does not work.

Different Strong Attack with Curved Swords in your Left Hand

A curved sword in your left hand can use a strong attack, instead of parrying as normal, when attacking with a weapon in you right hand first. Some of them also have attacks not normally found in the weapon's regular move set.

How do you use these 'different' strong attacks you might ask? Well, for example, say I have a Longsword equipped in my right hand and a Falchion in my left hand. To do the 'different' strong attack I would first need to do a regular attack (R1/RB) with my Longsword then quickly use the strong attack (L2/LT) with my Falchion. Instead of parrying like normal, the Falchion will actually use its R2/RT strong attack even though it is be held in the left hand.

Things to note:

• You can't be in a power stance

• You must have a weapon equipped your right hand

• You must have the necessary stats to use each weapon effectively (needs testing)

• You must have the necessary stats to do a power stance (needs testing)

Compatible Weapon Classes

Basically which weapons you can use in your right hand to override your left hand's curved sword parry animation. Testing was done on a 45 STR/DEX character with one weapon used from each category and using the Falchion as the left hand weapon.

Notes

• This also applies to the Caestus but only if your character's using their Fist or another Caestus in the right hand.

Description

At zero, items break and become ineffective.
Durability is restored by resting at a bonfire, but a broken item must be repaired first.¹

During combat, the durability of equipped weapons and armor degrades. Weapons degrade when you hit something, armor and rings degrade when you are hit.

When an item reaches 0 durability, it is fully broken and it must be repaired at a blacksmith. Armor and rings lose all their stats while weapons suffer greatly reduced damage when they are broken.

Enviromental Causes of Durability Damage

Player Causes of Durability Damage

• Fire Destructive Greatarrows with a Greatbow.
• Cast the Acid Surge pyromancy.
• Throw a Corrosive Urn.
• King's Ultra Greatsword deals increased durability damage to enemy armor.
• Using a weapon's special attack damages the weapon greatly.

Restoring Durability

• Rest at a bonfire.
• Use Repair Powder.
• Cast the Repair sorcery.
• Items that are already broken have to be repaired at a blacksmith.
• Attack the Pagan Tree with any whip and it will emit a mist that has a repair effect. This also repairs items that are already broken.

Avoiding Excess Durability Damage

• Wear the Bracing Knuckle Ring, which increases equipment durability by up to 50%.
• Don't attack corpses of dead enemies or friendly phantoms, as this rapidly lowers weapon durability.
• Don't walk on lava or spikes for an extended period of time.

Notes

• PvE opponents don't have durability, so don't try breaking their equipment.

This is actually false.
Human enemies, such as human red phantoms and invading NPC's, can have equipment broken.
the two red phantoms at the kings door in FOTFG can be used to test this, as at least one of them has a low durability ring to break.

• Attacking Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon with melee weapons damages their durability at a faster rate than usual.
• Ring of Life Protection and Ring of Soul Protection break when you die.
• Gower's Ring of Protection takes increased damage when you are hit in the back.
• Santier's Spear changes significantly when it's broken. See its page for details.

In-Game Description

Maximum weight that can be equipped. Movement slows as your equipment load approaches maximum.

Influence of Attributes on Equipment Load

Maximum Equipment Load without any additional equipment is 120. All character types start with a base equipment load of 38.5 and the vitality adjustment is added on top of this. So, a Warrior, starting with 6 vitality has an equipment load of 38.5 + 6 x 1.5 = 47.5.

Equipment load impacts the rate at which your stamina recovers in a mostly linear fashion. This means that if you are at 47% max equipment load you recover stamina slightly faster than 48% equipment load. Going from 78% to 77% will help roughly the same as going from 38% to 37%. There are no predetermined numbers which cause a large change to your normal stamina recovery rate.

Equipment load also impacts the distance you travel when rolling. Again this increases in a mostly linear fashion like stamina recovery. However there is a change in how long the roll takes to complete at 70%. At that point you will perform what is referred to as a "fat roll" which will take significantly longer to finish than a regular roll. Once you reach 100% equip load, you will steadily get slower until it reaches 120%, it seems to change in a linear fashion. Also, at 120% equip load or higher, you will not be able to roll or backstep; you will instead be "stunned." Your movement will also be very slow. However, you are still able to execute rolling attacks and backstep attacks.

Equipment load does not impact how long you are invulnerable during a roll. Look at Adaptability to see how long your character will be invulnerable during a roll. Even when performing a fat roll it will result in the same amount of invulnerable time. However because the fat roll takes longer, you will be vulnerable for a greater percent of the time when compared to a normal roll.

Equipment load also increases the amount of Falling Damage you take.

Equipment which increase maximum Equipment Load

Increases to max Equip Load stack. E.g. 100 base equip load + Royal Soldier's Ring +2 and Armor of Aurous = 100 * 1.2 * 1.015 = 121.8 = 21.8% larger max Equip Load.

Description

Falling a non-negligible distance will cause players and monsters to take damage based on how fast they were traveling. Damage taken from falling is a set amount of damage, not a percent of max HP. Certain equipment can reduce the amount of damage you take from a fall, which can be very useful in areas like Brightstone Cove Tseldora and Earthen Peak, especially for invading. When incorporating falling damage reduction into your build, there are a few things to consider:

• After a certain height, falls are always fatal, regardless of your HP or damage reduction equipment.
• The threshold for instant death is at approximately 1600 damage, so you will likely never take damage from non-fatal falls with maximum fall protection.
• Fall reduction stacks purely additively, and does not exhibit diminishing returns. For example, The Silvercat Ring (~600) + the Flying Feline Boots (~450) will reduce about 1050 damage.
• Higher equip load causes more damage to be taken.

Equipment which reduce Falling Damage

Fall protection is a hidden stat in Dark Souls 2. There is a spell and several items that increase this stat by a certain amount. Multiplying the fall protection modifier of an item by 150 gives you the approximate damage reduction it will provide.

¹ Falls that would do more than about 1600 damage (with no load) will be fatal regardless of how much damage reduction you have

Information About how Load Affects Fall Damage

The heavier a player is, the more damage they will take from falls. The amount of extra damage is based on percent load, rather than weight alone. Fall damage reduction is also applied before load penalties, so fall protection potency is actually amplified somewhat when you're under more load.

The amount of damage increases linearly with percent load, though the rate of change increases dramatically after 100% load and drops to zero after 120% load. The equations for damage can thus be derived quite simply.

² These equations are left unsimplified to show the similarities between the equations.

Note: In the equations, Equip Load is used as a proper percentage value, meaning that 100% is 1.0 and 0% is 0.0. Base Damage is the damage the player would take from the fall provided they had no equipment load. Fall damage reduction is applied prior to use in the equations.

Notes

• Extra Damage from higher equip load is based on your percentage of equip load, not the total weight you're wearing. This means that equip-load-boosting equipment, such as the Royal Soldier's Ring will slightly reduce falling damage, provided you have other pieces of equipment on; exactly 0.0% equip load will always deal less fall damage.
• Armor has no effect on fall damage, outside of its role in weighing down the player.
• Weight does not cause a great deal of extra damage. At 100% burden, it will cause around 17% extra damage.
• The fall to the first board in the Majula pit deals around 1,342 damage.
• The fall to the floor from the hole next to the Cardinal Tower in Forest of Fallen Giants bonfire deals around 676 damage.
• The fall from the top of the ladder in the elevator room in Drangleic Castle is fatal.
• You can determine if a drop will be fatal by dropping a prism stone.
• Note that due to differences in individual falls, and fall reduction gear having weight of its own, testing exact numbers is difficult.

Used to communicate with other players. The gesture menu is accessed with the Select / Back button.

Motion sensing is enabled for the Playstation 3's SIXAXIS controller. In theory, when the player presses and holds the X button down the game will recognize the pattern of movement and perform the assigned gesture.

Image	Gesture	Description	How to obtain
	Point	Player points forward	Available at start
	I Won't Bite	Player gestures to come nearer	Available at start
	Bow	Player performs a bow	Available at start
	Wave	Player waves	Available at start
	Pumped Up	Player gets pumped.	Available at start
	Warcry	Player performs a warcry.	Available at start
	Righty-ho!	Player performs a quick wave.	Available at start
	No way	Player shakes their head and signals "No".	Available at start
	Welcome	Player holds out their arms, welcoming those around.	Given by Saulden the Crestfallen Warrior in Majula.
	Mock	Player shrugs mockingly.	Given by Straid Of Olaphis in The Lost Bastille.
	Fist Pump	Player jumps with joy!	Given by Creighton the Wanderer, found near Huntsman's Copse
	Praise the Sun	Player raises his arms toward the sun	Learn it at the Heirs of the Sun altar in Harvest Valley
	Prostration	Player kneels down and bows energetically.	Teachable after encountering Laddersmith Gilligan and spending 2000 souls. Found in Earthen Peak or Majula.
	Decapitate	Player taunts, signalling head removal.	Given by Head of Vengarl in the Shaded Woods.
	This one's me	Player thumbs up with both hands towards himself.	Speak to Chancellor Wellager in Drangleic Castle.
	Warmup	Player runs on the spot.	Equip the Ring of Whispers and speak to Manscorpion Tark after fighting Scorpioness Najka. Found in the Shaded Woods
	Joy	Player raises their fist in excitement.	Given by Benhart Of Jugo in Majula.
	Have mercy!	Player kneels down and bows frantically.	Approach and speak to Grave Warden Agdayne without having a torch lit. Found in Undead Crypt.
	Duel Bow	Player performs a more respectable bow	Given by Blue Sentinel Targray in Cathedral of Blue
	Hurrah!	Player leans up and cheers.	In the Memory of Vammar, speak to Captain Drummond.

aka NPC Tombstones

General Information

Many important characters in Dark Souls 2 can be killed, accidentally or on purpose. Most of them can be revived, albeit temporarily, by interacting with their gravestones. Reviving costs souls. Their revival will only last until you load another area.

The amount of time it takes for a Gravestone to appear depends on the NPC. It can range from a couple of hours to several hours.

Losing Special Services

The purpose of the gravestones is so you can interact with NPCs after they've died. Sometimes this allows you to continue using their services uninhibited, asides from the revival cost, but this isn't always the case. In most situations where an NPC is killed before they've arrived at their final location, their gravestone will only spawn where they were killed. It will not move or have available services/ items updated. Here are a few specific examples (but not the only cases):

• If Melentia is killed in the Forest of Fallen Giants, her gravestone will remain there and she will not offer the unlimited supply of Lifegems that become available in Majula.
• If Ornifex is killed in the Shaded Woods, her gravestone will remain there and she will not offer her weaponsmithing services that become available in Brightstone Cove Tseldora.

One important exception to this is the Emerald Herald. Regardless of where she is killed, her grave will appear in Majula and she will retain her normal interaction options.

Additionally, the following functions/ services are lost for all NPCs that apply:

• NPCs that are normally summon-able for co-op will not be available for co-op after they're killed, and their questline will be "frozen" where it was.
• Most NPCs that give rewards based on how many souls you've spent with them will not gift these items at their gravestone. This includes NPCs that do otherwise update their inventories with other goods based on the player's game progress.

Maintaining Special Services

In most cases where an NPC is at their final destination, their inventories will continue to update properly. A couple examples include:

• If in Majula, Melentia's gravestone will have its inventory updated to include slain NPCs' gear, more Brightbugs, etc.
• If in Majula, Chloanne will continue to update her inventory based on your game progress as well.

Check the notes in the table below for more specifics or anomalies.

NPC Revival Info

Notes

• Going to NG+ will resurrect all NPCs.
• Use of Bonfire Ascetics will not resurrect NPCs.
• Deaths and Tombstone Locations of all NPCs (video)

Description

If a player is shot in the head by an enemy projectile (i.e. with a bow/crossbow), the player's poise will be broken and the player will be temporarily stunned.
This also applies to many humanoid enemies with little or no protection on their head.

Notes

• In addition to Arrows, Greatarrows, and Bolts, Spells, Thrown Consumables and special attack projectiles are also able to headshot.

• Deals an additional 50% damage, upped. Armor type may apply a reduction to this bonus like for Dark Souls' Headshots.

• Can be negated by the Old Bell Helm and Ironclad Helm.

• The Minotaur Helm doesn't prevent headshots contrary to popular beliefs.

Bearer of the curse, seek misery, Till this frail hope shatters. Lest this land swallow you whole.
As it has so many others. The curse is a part of life itself.

Description

Your character in Dark Souls II is a cursed undead. Each playthrough starts with your character's full Humanity intact, but with each death a bit of Humanity is lost. This process is called "hollowing". Hollowing has several, mostly negative effects on gameplay:

• Incremental reduction of your health bar with each in-game death (5% of max HP lost per death). Once your character is fully hollow, your available HP will be limited to 50% of max HP.
• Lose the ability to summon other players for co-op.
• Lose the ability to use some items to invade other players.
• Character appearance visually degrades.
• Some NPCs may recognize your hollow status and offer new lines of dialogue.

Restoring Humantity

When you restore your Humanity, hollow status is fully reset and all negative effects are removed.

1. Use a Human Effigy.
2. Help other players in co-op kill bosses. Get summoned by placing a sign using the Small White Sign Soapstone or the White Sign Soapstone.
   You don't need to actually kill the area boss in order to restore your Humanity if you complete your duty before a boss fight.
3. Pray to the Altar of Amana in Shrine of Amana in order to restore Humanity. Does not work if you have one or more Human Effigies in your inventory, in the item box, or on the ground.

General Information

An Illusory Wall is a type of fake wall that will disappear upon interacting with it (Interaction button is X on PS3, A on 360, and Enter key on PC).

Certain Illusory Walls only appear after activating them with a Pharros' Lockstone. Some also have to be destroyed with explosives or regular weapons.

Locations

Forest of Fallen Giants

• In the building to the right of the gate near Mild Mannered Pate.
• Shortcut to Cardinal Tower Bonfire near the Pursuer platform unlocked by exploding barrels with Firebombs, Pyromancies or a weapon with fire damage.

No-man's Wharf

• In the building containing the gate-shortcut and Lucatiel's summon sign. Down the bottom of the stairs opposite the door.
• In a room containing poison pots. Breaks by attacking.

Lost Bastille

• Six around the Ruin Sentinels boss room:
  • One on the left wall giving access to a ladder.
  • One on the second floor accessed by a ladder in the left room.
  • One on the near far left of the first floor.
  • One on the near far right.
  • One on the far right.
  • One on the second floor near the staircase.

• From Straid's Cell bonfire, go down 2 floors to the room with pots in the center (Hiding 2 Undead Citizens. At the end of the small dead end hallway next to the cage. This illusory wall leads to a diagonal hallway, with another wall in the middle of the left wall, that leads outside.
• In the room before the large room with many chests and a Pharros contraption. Unlocked by exploding the barrels along the wall of the raised platform.

Sinner's Rise

• Bottom floor, in the flooded hallway, first room on your right. (Opposite the first Enhanced Undead of the area.)

Huntsman's Copse

• At the bottom of the Great Moth cave, with the mushroom lined-walls. On the opposite wall to the chest. Difficult to miss, since it's the only way out.

Earthen Peak

• From the Central Earthen Peak bonfire, climb the stairs to the next floor, then climb the tall ladder. In the hallway to your left, the wall is just behind the 3 poison jars.
• Two just before Mytha's boss room, on the platform above the entrance. The left one hides the 3rd bonfire.

Iron Keep

• Two consecutively above the staircase near Magerold of Lanafir, guarded by an Alonne Knight.
• After the exit from Belfry Sol, on the right wall leading toward the drop back down to the bonfire.

Brightstone Cove Tseldora

• Just left of the entrance to the Prowling Magus boss fight.

Undead Crypt

• Past the second room full of graves, and the Leydia Witch up on a ledge, up the stairs into the room with the Nameless Usurper invasion. In the middle of the wall to your right as you enter.
• In the grave filled room below the circular hole after the two Imperious Knights. Stand on the skeleton above the hole and drop down, the illusory wall will be behind you, revealing a Pharros' contraption.

Drangleic Castle

• At the top of the second set of stairs outside the castle after the room with the painting of the Queen and the Nameless Usurper invasion (The invasion occurs after leaving the room). Take the ladder on your left down, the wall is just around the corner, in the left section of the two panel wall, revealing the Forgotten Chamber bonfire.

Aldia's Keep

• Left wall near the middle of the staircase leading down to the corrosive acid pool. Contains a bonfire.

Memory of Orro

• Room with second Pharros' Lockstone contraption.

Dragon's Sanctum

• Floor above a room containing empty metal chests guarded by Drakeblood Knights. On the way to Dragon's Rest. Contains a bonfire.

Brume Tower

• Outdoor ash area after first iron door. Guarded by Ashen Warriors. Chests contain Soul Vessel x2, Old Radiant Lifegem x4, and Wilted Dusk Herb x4.
• After the Foyer bonfire in the area with the narrow spiked halls with iron bar gates that open into a central room with lots of explosive barrels. There are two visibly broken walls in the side corridor that can be destroyed by leading a Cask Runner in front of them and then blowing the Runner up. One chest contains Catarina Gauntlets and the Catarina Leggings. The other chest contains Petrified Dragon Bone x8.
• Close to the bottom of an elevator built into the wall. Has to be activated while riding it. Leads to Hollow Skin.
• Taking the right-hand path above the elevator built into the wall, there are two long halls with flaming bull heads that can be pushed down tracks. At the start of the second (upper) hall, there is a cracked wall that can be destroyed by using a Cask Runner. Behind is the Dispelling Ring +1.

Frozen Eleum Loyce

• After the three Facsimile Giants that block a chest near the Inner Wall bonfire, there is a long, empty dead-end corridor with an illusory wall.
• Behind the door opened by four lit sconces, immediately to your left.

General information

New Game Plus in Dark Souls II offers new content that cannot be experienced in New Game, unlike Demon's Souls and Dark Souls.

After defeating the final boss, the final cutscene and credits roll after which the player is placed back in Majula, still in their current playthrough. To progress to NG+ you will need to rest at the Far Fire bonfire and select Journey 2 to Drangleic.

In addition to new content, enemies and bosses become harder and additional souls are rewarded for defeating them. All soul levels and inventory items (except items stated below) carry over to New Game Plus.

Items removed from your inventory when you start your next journey into Drangleic:

• All items in the "Keys" section, including Key to the Embedded
• King's Ring
• Fragrant Branch of Yore
• Crushed Eye Orb

Before beginning Journey 2 to Drangleic

• Farm or buy any upgrade materials you may want
• Defeat any remaining optional bosses such as Darklurker or Old Dragonslayer
• Trade any Boss souls for weapons or spells with Straid of Olaphis or Weaponsmith Ornifex
• Infuse any weapons you want with Steady Hand McDuff
• Join any covenant you want to be in during the next game cycle (as many, such as the Brotherhood of Blood and Heirs of the Sun, are not available until later in the game).
• Resolve any unfinished NPC questlines that were not failed outright, such as those belonging to Benhart of Jugo or Aldia.

Changes in NG+

• NG+ adds completely new enemies and new attacks from old enemies, as well as unlocking previously unobtainable weapons, armors, and items. Most of these NG+ changes can be simulated by using a Bonfire Ascetic to increase Bonfire Intensity which carries over to NG+, raising the area you used the Ascetic in to NG++ on NG+.
• Enemies are harder to kill, deal more damage, and drop increased souls.
• Weapon riposte damage increases by 50%
• Some of the significant new enemies which appear:
  • Flexile Sentry gains two Suspicious Shadow enemies during its boss fight, who drop unique gear.
  • The Lost Sinner gains a pair of Prisoned Sinners at around 60% HP.
  • A pair of Pursuers spawn in the throne room in Drangleic Castle.
• Many merchants will add new items to their inventories in NG+ and NG++. Usually, this cannot be achieved by use of an Ascetic. (For example, Chancellor Wellager sells many items that cannot be accessed until NG++.)
• Many new items become available as loot:
  • Gower's Ring of Protection appears as loot in the Shaded Woods (only in DSII, not in SotFS)
  • The Lost Sinner drops the Old Witch Soul.
  • Belfry Gargoyles drop the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring +2.
  • Skeleton Lords drop the Clear Bluestone Ring +2.
  • Executioner's Chariot drops the Chloranthy Ring +2.
  • Mytha the Baneful Queen drops the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring +2
  • Old Iron King drops the Old King Soul
  • Scorpioness Najka drops the Southern Ritual Band +2
  • The Duke's Dear Freja drops the Old Paledrake Soul.
  • The Rotten drops the Old Dead One Soul.
  • One of the two Pursuers who spawn in Drangleic Castle drops the Ring of Blades +2.
  • Looking Glass Knight drops the Ring of Steel Protection +2.
  • Velstadt The Royal Aegis drops the Royal Soldier's Ring +2.
  • Giant Lord drops the Ring of Giants +2.
  • Throne Defender and Throne Watcher drop the Ring of the Evil Eye +2.

Bonfire Intensity and Scaling

Entering the next New Game Plus cycle will increase the intensity of all bonfires by 1, which increases the scaling of enemy stats. If no Bonfire Ascetics are used, all bonfires in NG+ will have an intensity of 2, and all bonfires in NG+7 will have an intensity of 8.

Bonfire Intensity can be increased to 99, though enemy stat increases max out at 8 (NG+7).
You can still burn Bonfire Ascetics after reaching Bonfire Intensity 99, everything will respawn as normal but the number will not go up anymore.

Enemy Souls Dropped

Enemy HP

HP increase varies from enemy to enemy. Values found so far have either been equal to or less than the souls multiplier.

Online Play

The summoning/invasion mechanics have changed slightly from Dark Souls. Below are items that facilitate online play:

Soul Memory Ranges

Soul Memory is the total number of souls your character has ever obtained (regardless of what was done with them). It is used as a matchmaking requirement, as being within a certain Soul Memory range of another player allows you to connect. There are various tiers of Soul Memory, and the restrictions on multiplayer connections involve how many tiers you are away from another player.

Disclaimer: The specifics of the following information may be subject to change in the future. This was tested during Calibrations 1.05 and Ver. 1.04, on PS3 only.

Tier List

Multiplayer Item Ranges

These ranges are calculated from the perspective of the player using the corresponding items.

Item ranges will require retesting to find if anything has changed since Patch 1.10

Other Notes

• Soul Memory is the only range-based parameter that restricts who can connect outside of the Brotherhood of Blood arena. There is no level range otherwise in Dark Souls 2¹. This means that:
  • A level 1 and a max level player can connect if they have identical or similar Soul Memory.
  • Two players of an identical level cannot connect if they are too far apart in Soul Memory.

* Brotherhood of Blood arena has been given Soul Level matchmaking as of Patch 1.10. Players who are within 5 levels with each other will have higher priority to match, (SL 150 will match with SL 145-155 faster than an SL 200 matching with an SL 150)

• Since the release of Patch 1.10, there is no division between players in regular NG vs higher NG+ cycles.

• The Name Engraved Ring is not just a filter that makes pairing up with friends easier, but it also extends the viable Soul Memory range for co-op when equipped. Belonging to the Heirs of the Sun covenant does not extend the Soul Memory range.

Covenants

• Being in the Heirs of the Sun covenant will increase the chances of being visible, and thus summoned for co-op.
• If you are in Belfry Sol or Belfry Luna then members of the Bell Keepers covenant can invade you.
• If you are in Grave of Saints or Doors of Pharros, members of the Rat King Covenant can summon you into their world.
• The Blue Sentinels can invade you if you have acquired the status of Sinner or greater.
• Members of the Way of Blue can receive help from a Blue Sentinel when they are invaded by a red phantom.
• Members of the Brotherhood of Blood can invade you as a red spirit using Cracked Red Eye Orbs.
• Members of the Dragon Remnants can be optionally summoned and fought.

Other Online Features

• Bloodstains: If you see a bloodstain on the ground, you can stand above it and activate it to see another player's death or the final few seconds before death. If a seemingly innocent place is covered with bloodstains, then that is a good hint that the place is not all that it seems (unless you're over by the cliffs of Majula. It is unknown by me as to why, but people love jumping off).
• Illusions: If you see a light blue illusion, then you are watching another player (who is online) playing. The illusions tend to only last a few seconds and you cannot interact with them, but they do help give the player some solace that others are going through the same strife as themselves.
• Messages: Other players can leave messages around the land of Drangleic and they will appear in your world. You can view them and rate them, as well as leave your own. The message system uses options rather than free typing, which can make messages cryptic at times. Messages are very useful if you are stuck or worried about an area, giving you valuable information about your current location. Leaving messages has an added benefit in that you'll receive a health bonus if you receive a rating from another player.
• Burning: Burning a Human Effigy at a bonfire will prevent summonings or invasions for 30 minutes. Messages and illusions can still be seen.
• Name-engraved Ring: Using this ring and choosing the same gods will greatly increase the chance of seeing each other, and will prevent any possible summons whom do not have the ring on or have not chosen the same god.

Online Play Issues (ports)

If you do not see any online features, then you may need to open certain ports in your firewall and your router. The ports to open are:

PS3

TCP 80
TCP 443
TCP 5223
UDP 3478
UDP 3479
UDP 3658

Xbox Live:

TCP 80
TCP 53
TCP 3074
UDP 88
UDP 3074
UDP 53

Dark Souls II Server Ports:

Dark Souls II server TCP/UDP ports:
TCP: 50000 - 50100
UDP: 50000 - 50100

General Information

A parry is a move that negates an attack and temporarily incapacitates an enemy, giving an opportunity for a riposte critical attack.

To parry, you must have a suitable weapon or shield in hand and face an incoming attack. Performing a "strong attack" with the shield or weapon (button for Left hand: L2/LT/Double Left Click, Right hand: R2/RT/Double Right Click) will begin the parry animation, which must be timed carefully as the successful window is very small. This usually involves predicting or baiting your enemy, especially in PvP.

If successful, the enemy will fall onto their back for a short time. Stand in front of them and perform a light attack with your right-hand weapon, this will execute the riposte critical attack, similarly to a backstab.

Parriable Attacks

Physical

Most physical attacks can be parried, except jumping attacks.

• All attacks can't be parried
  • Whips
• Standing two-handed light attacks can't be parried
  • Halberds
• Standing two-handed light and heavy attacks can't be parried
  • Greataxes
  • Great Hammers
  • Ultra Greatswords
  • Curved Greatswords

• Jumping attacks can be parried
  • Reapers
  • Pickaxe

Quirks

• Reapers must be parried at the "sweet spot" (tip of the weapon).
• Some weapons have the moveset of a different class:
  • The broken Santier's Spear behaves like a Halberd, but the two-handed light attack is the same as a Twinblade, and thus can be parried.
  • The Syan's Halberd's two-handed heavy attack can't be parried.
  • The Crescent Axe is a Greataxe, but all of its attacks except the jumping attack can be parried.
  • Both the Drakekeeper's Warpick and the Archdrake Mace are Great Hammers but behave like a Halberd, thus their two-handed heavy attack can be parried.

Spells

Projectile spells can be parried by shields with the "spell parry" ability, which doesn't result in a riposte opportunity; instead, it nullifies the effect of the spell. If wearing Yorgh's Ring, any parry-capable tool will be able to parry spells.

List of Parryable Spells

• Soul Arrow
• Heavy Soul Arrow
• Great Soul Arrow
• Great Heavy Soul Arrow
• Homing Soul Arrow
• Heavy Homing Soul Arrow
• Soul Spear
• Crystal Soul Spear
• Homing Soulmass
• Homing Crystal Soulmass
• Soul Shower (not recommended, as only the individual droplets can be parried)
• Soul Spear Barrage (same as above)
• Lightning Spear
• Great Lightning Spear
• Sunlight Spear
• Blinding Bolt (not recommended, since you can only parry the bolts themselves, not the mass of lightning)
• Dark Orb
• Dark Hail
• Resonant Soul
• Great Resonant Soul
• Climax
• Affinity (not recommended, as the projectiles are slow, therefore a bit tricky to parry)
• Fireball
• Fire Orb
• Great Fireball
• Great Chaos Fireball (the projectile, but not the lingering lava)
• Forbidden Sun (same as Great Chaos Fireball)

Parryable Enemies

These are 3 videos showing most (if not all) of the parryable enemies in Dark Souls 2.
Credit goes to the owner of the videos.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Bosses

Projectiles

All arrows, bolts and greatarrows^{[needs verification]} can be parried by any parry capable weapon or shield. Similarly to spell parrying, it negates their effect but doesn't result in a riposte opportunity.

Parry-Capable Weapons

All bows can't parry.

All spell tools can't parry except:

• Blue Flame (a Straight Sword)
• Mace of the Insolent (a Hammer)

which can parry while two-handed.

All weapons can parry while two-handed except:

• Twinblades
• Spears
• Halberds
• Lances
• Reapers

which simply block instead.

Some weapons can parry in the left hand:

• Fists
• Curved Swords

Some weapons can parry in either hand:

• Espada Ropera
• Rapier
• Chaos Rapier
• Parrying Dagger

All shields can parry in either hand except:

• Greatshields
• Sanctum Shield (a Small Shield) which casts spells
• Disc Chime (a Sacred Chime) which casts spells

Some shields can parry both spells and physical attacks while in either hand:

• Cleric's Small Shield
• Magic Shield
• Cursed Bone Shield
• Spirit Tree Shield
• Golden Wing Shield
• Grand Spirit Tree Shield
• Shield of the Insolent
• King's Mirror (a Greatshield, can only parry spells and not other attacks)

Exact Frames

This information is for Scholar of the First Sin Patch 1.02 / Regulation 2.02.

The testing is not exhaustive; some categories may need to be split if they have different timing even though they use the same animation, and no testing has been done to see whether or not two-handing shields change the parry frames.

Startup and recovery time are extended when you don't meet the requirements for wielding a weapon.

Chart with visual comparison of the parry data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X3D2v27mAmXp4Pzmu9lfMzOIppeulHkFZpKqFezfB5A/pubchart?oid=1680025796&format=interactive
Back-up visual parry data obtained from Archive.org
https://web.archive.org/web/20210123044542/https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X3D2v27mAmXp4Pzmu9lfMzOIppeulHkFZpKqFezfB5A/pubchart?oid=1680025796&format=interactive

Shields

One-handed Weapons

Two-handed Weapons

¹ A "parry" small shield is designed specifically for parrying:

• Buckler
• Target Shield

² A "slow" small shield is worse than other small shields for parrying:

• Transgressor's Leather Shield
• Manikin Shield
• Magic Shield
• Phoenix Parma

³ Specifically:

• Espada Ropera
• Rapier
• Chaos Rapier

⁴ A "hilt parry" animation is used by many weapons when two-handed:

• Axes
• Black Knight Greataxe
• Hammers
• Katanas
• Straight Swords
• Whips

• Daggers and Thrusting Swords have a different two-handed parry animation but perhaps the same 'hilt parry' frames.
• Claws have the Fists' parry animation, which resembles the slow small shield parry.

Quirks

• Some weapons have the parry animation of a different class:
  • All Greataxes (except for the Crescent Axe and the Black Knight Greataxe) and the Dragon Tooth have the Greatsword parry animation.
  • The Black Knight Greataxe has the "hilt parry" animation.

Other Uses

• A parry is considered a non-damaging hit, but is capable of destroying all breakable objects, e.g. poison shooting statues and doors. This is better than rolling, but still worse than normal attacks (which damage NPCs and enemies). This can be used to identify Mimics, as non-Mimic chests will get hit by a parry but Mimics won't.
• The "parried" animation counts as a Counter Damage opening, as such some weapons with special attacks can get a better riposte output by not riposting but simply attacking, this is especially useful with projectile weapons and/or while Dual Wielding.

General Information

When connected to other players online for co-op or PvP, players who are guests in a host's world will appear as a phantom.
Phantoms are designated a recognizable color to establish their friendliness or hostility to a host.

*Note*
Summoning Co-op Phantoms (Both User and NPC) decreases the amount of souls the host earns.

List of Phantoms

White Phantom Method of Connection for the Phantom Method of Connection for the Host The phantom sends their soul sign to the host by using the White Sign Soapstone. The host chooses to summon a phantom by activating a white Soul Sign. Goal of the Phantom Purpose for the Host Assist the host for co-op. To have assistance. Obtain souls during the process, and a Token of Fidelity when the boss is defeated. -

Shade Method of Connection for the Phantom Method of Connection for the Host The phantom sends their soul sign to the host by using the Small White Sign Soapstone. The host chooses to summon a phantom by activating a small Soul Sign. Goal of the Shade Purpose for the Host Assists the host for co-op. To have assistance. Obtain souls during the process, and a Smooth & Silky Stone when duty is fulfilled. -

Gold Phantom a.k.a Sun Praisers, Heir of the sun Method of Connection for the Phantom Method of Connection for the Host The phantom sends their soul sign to the host by using the White Sign Soapstone while being a member of the Heirs of the Sun covenant. The host chooses to summon a phantom by activating a golden Soul Sign. Goal of the Phantom Purpose for the Host Assists the host for co-op. To have assistance. Obtain souls during the process, and a Sunlight Medal when the boss is defeated. Obtain a Sunlight Medal when duty of phantom is fulfilled.

Gray Phantom Method of Connection for the Phantom Method of Connection for the Host Being in Bell Keepers covenant and wearing Bell Keeper's Seal. The host is in Belfry Luna or Belfry Sol. Being summoned by member of Rat King covenant. Being in Rat King covenant covenant and wearing Crest of the Rat. Goal of the Phantom Purpose for the Host Engage the host, or any other phantom, for PvP Provides an enemy for PvP. Obtain souls during the process, and a Titanite Chunk. (Bell Keeper phantoms) Win souls by defeating the phantom. (Bell Keeper hosts) Defeat the Host or run to the fog wall and win a Pharros Lockstone. (Rat King phantoms) Acquire Pharros Lockstones and Rat Tails by defeating summoned Gray Spirits. (Rat King hosts)

Red Phantom a.k.a. Invaders, disciples of Nahr Alma, brothers of blood Method of connection for the Phantom Method of connection for the Host Using a Cracked Red Eye Orb. Be online. The phantom sends their soul sign to the host by using the Red Sign Soapstone. The host chooses to summon a phantom by activating a red Soul Sign. Goal of the Phantom Purpose for the host Engage the host, or any other phantom, for PvP. Provides an enemy for PvP. Obtain souls killing other phantoms, obtain souls and Token of Spite by killing the host. Obtain souls by killing the phantom.

Blue Phantom a.k.a. Blue Police, Blue sentinels Method of connection for the Phantom Method of Connection for the Host Being in Blue Sentinels covenant and using a Cracked Blue Eye Orb. The host has sinned. Being in Blue Sentinels covenant and wearing Guardian's Seal. The host is being invaded by Dark Spirit. Goal of the Phantom Purpose for the Host Help the host to kill red phantom. To have assistance in killing red phantom. Obtain souls by killing sinners. Provides an enemy for PvP.

Dragon Spirit Method of connection for the Phantom Method of connection for the Host Being in the Dragon Remnants covenant and sends a soul sign by using the Dragon Eye. Interacting with a Dragon soul sign. Goal of the Phantom Purpose for the Host Engage the host for PvP. Provides an enemy for PvP. Obtain a Dragon Scale and souls by killing the host. Obtain a Dragon Scale and souls by killing the phantom.

Abyss Spirit Method of connection for the Phantom Method of connection for the Host Use a Cracked Red Eye Orb or Red Sign Soapstone inside a Dark Chasm of Old. Host is inside a Dark Chasm of Old. Goal of the Phantom Purpose for the Host Engage the host for PvP. Provides an enemy for PvP. Obtain a Bonfire Ascetic and souls by personally killing the host or another invader. Obtain a Bonfire Ascetic and souls by personally killing the invader.

NPC Phantoms

You may summon or be invaded by several NPC phantoms, and you don't need to be online for this to happen.

Summons

• Main Game: All Boss Fights and NPC Summons (NG) (Video)
• The Lost Crowns Trilogy: All DLC Boss Fights and NPC Summons (NG/NG+) (Video)

Invaders

• Main Game: All DLC Dark Spirit NPC Invaders (Video)
• The Lost Crowns Trilogy: All DLC Dark Spirit NPC Invaders (Video)

In-Game Description

The ability to withstand the impact of attacks.

Poise Basics

If a player fails to withstand an attack, they will become stunned and vulnerable to subsequent attacks. Poise is the defensive stat that determines the player's ability to withstand various attacks.

Withstanding Attacks

If you have enough poise to withstand an attack, one of two things can occur depending on what you're doing:

While Attacking

If you take a hit and have sufficient poise while attacking, it is as if nothing happened and your attack animation will carry through without interruption.

While Idle or Moving

If you take a hit and have sufficient poise while standing still, walking, or running, you are put into a "half stagger" where movement speed is temporarily reduced. A player who is "half staggered" may still perform any usual action.

Poise Depletion and Regeneration

Poise essentially functions with an invisible meter that drains as hits are taken. This meter can be refilled in two ways:

• When a player fails to withstand an attack and becomes stunned, their poise is instantly refilled as soon as the stun animation is complete.
• When a player withstands an attack and has some remaining poise, the drained poise refills at 0.56 poise per second.

Note that the regeneration rate for a non-instant refill is very slow, commonly requiring over 20 seconds in various scenarios. This means that if a player withstands a hit, and takes another soon after, they have not regained any significant amount of poise inbetween and are at risk for having poise completely drained during the subsequent attacks.

Hyper Poise

Hyper Poise is a hidden, innate feature that accompanies most great weapons and boosts the effectiveness of poise. Its general purpose is to make it harder to interrupt the attacks of larger weapons.

Hyper Poise is briefly triggered during the attacks of certain weapons, active during the latter-portion of an attack's wind up, through to a few frames after the attack has been completed. While it's active, incoming poise damage is reduced by 50%.

The following weapons and attacks trigger Hyper Poise:

Increasing Poise

Poise primarily comes from your armor, typically heavier armor has higher poise. You can also increase Poise through your stats. Endurance and Adaptability together increase innate Poise by a small amount. It is increased by 0.3 per level until the lowest of Endurance and Adaptability is 30, then 0.2 until level 50 and 0.1 per level thereafter.

How to achieve high Poise:

Poise Breakpoints

Different weapons are categorized by having different amounts of Poise Damage. A "Poise Breakpoint" refers to the minimum amount of poise needed to withstand a single hit from their various attack types:

List By Breakpoints

A more detailed list of poise breakpoints can be found here

10 Poise Damage Weapons

Includes: Bandit's Knife, Black Scorpion Stinger, Chaos Rapier, Claws, Dagger, Espada Ropera, Handmaid's Ladle, Malformed Claws, Manikin Claws, Manikin Knife, Mytha's Bent Blade, Parrying Dagger, Rapier, Ricard's Rapier, Royal Dirk, Shadow Dagger, Spider Fang, Spider's Silk, Thief Dagger, Work Hook.

15 Poise Damage Weapons

Includes: All Reapers (except Silverblack Sickle), All Whips (except Bloodied Whip), Broken Straight Sword, Broken Thief Sword, Caestus, Darkdrift, Mail Breaker, Manikin Sabre, Melu Scimitar, Monastery Scimitar, Shotel.

20 Poise Damage Weapons

Includes: All Katanas (except Darkdrift), All Spears, Aldia Hammer, Black Dragon Sword, Bloodied Whip, Blue Flame, Broadsword, Estoc, Falchion, Heide Knight Sword, Longsword, Scimitar, Shortsword, Silverblack Sickle, Sun Sword, Varangian Sword, Yellow Quartz Longsword.

25 Poise Damage Weapons

Includes: All Twinblades (except Red Iron Twinblade), Barbed Club, Black Dragon Warpick, Bound Hand Axe, Club, Drakekeeper's Sword, Foot Soldier Sword, Homunculus Mace, Infantry Axe, Mace of the Insolent, Red Rust Scimitar, Red Rust Sword, Reinforced Club, Warped Sword.

30 Poise Damage Weapons

Includes: Bandit Axe, Battle Axe, Blacksmith's Hammer, Craftsman's Hammer, Crescent Axe, Dragonslayer's Crescent Axe, Gyrm Axe, Heide Greatlance, Heide Lance, Mace, Morning Star, Red Iron Twinblade.

Notes

• Increasing innate poise through leveling your stats does not provide sufficient poise protection on its own, but it can be stacked with armor to achieve the various breakpoints.
• Hitting someone with the tip of certain weapons will result in reduced poise damage.

• Source of the latest testing results can be found here.

Description

If timed right, one can, with the right weapon, deflect an incoming projectile like a Firebomb by swinging a melee weapon.

Introduction

This article is about Non-Player Enemies' Fire, Magic, Lightning and Dark Resistances, however, they share identical damage calculation formula as Player Elemental Defence
Every Tier has a corresponding Player-Elemental-Defense Number, see Tier-List for details.


Unlike Players who can adjust their Resistance with Gears, Spells and Consumables, Enemies in the game have fixed Resistance categorized into "Tiers". In total, there're 8 Tiers that are consistent for all enemies as well as elements, meaning:

• Using different infused weapon with same elemental attack rating on two enemies with same Resistant Tier towards that element will result in same damage.

As Tier increases, elemental damage are decreased at fixed percentage. See below for Tiers:

Resistance Tiers

None means 100% damage of the spell cast, that tier can be used to determine one's Max-potential.
Water soaked enemies receive 300 Fire defense extra and -150 Lightning defense, thus Medium(200) would become Low(50).

Bosses have the same Tiers, only with an initial 15% reduction compared to Normal-TIER, see BOSS-TIER.

DLC Bosses and enemies follow a different set of tiers.


For exact numbers and test methods used, see Results.

- Normal-Tier Enemy List

For example damage numbers and water affected scale, see Results

- BOSS-Tier List

Notes

- There are no Bosses with None or Immune Tier.
- Bosses who end up as Mini-Boss will retain BOSS-Tier resistance.

Boss Fights that contains Normal-Tier

- DLC Resistance Tiers

Enemies and bosses in the DLC follow their own set of tiers, with resistances varying from element to element. However, the damage taken by each element's tier relative to that element's Medium tier follows a simple 10% increment pattern.

Unlike other bosses, DLC Bosses do not have special tiers. They use the same tiers as normal DLC enemies.

DLC Tiers

*Theoretical. No DLC enemy actually has this resistance

Note: These percentages only apply to spells and arrows. Elemental melee weapon damage depends only on the tier.
This means that if an enemy has Medium Dark and Medium Lightning resistances, then buffing your pure physical weapon with a Lightning resin will be exactly the same as using a Dark resin, despite the difference in reduction %.
Similarly, if an enemy has Medium Dark and Low Lightning resistance, a Lightning resin will be stronger than a Dark resin.

This tier rule does not apply to arrow elemental damage, infused or otherwise. Dark Arrows will generally be the strongest option against DLC enemies for this reason, and a Dark-infused bow will often be stronger than other elemental infusions.

- DLC-Tier Enemy List

*There may be an additional tier between Low and Low+ that takes ~14.2% more damage than Medium tier. The Imperfect's Magic and Dark resistances as well as Ice Rat's and Frozen Reindeer's Fire resistances fit this model.

Full DLC test data is available here: DLC Resistance Data Spreadsheet

Results

Normal-Tier Results

BOSS-Tier Results

Methods of Obtaining Data

• General, all data were obtained:
  • In game.
  • At Bonfire Intensity 8+.
  • On Singleplayer mode / with no summons.
  • While not in Hard Mode.
  • With a Character with 99 Intelligence and Faith (200 BNS in all 4 Elements).
  • When Not using any Gears/Rings/spell that increase spell damage.
  • if available, away from water.
• For Bosses Results
  • Used Urns of the 4 element, Firebomb, Witching Urn, Lightning Urn and Hexing Urn.
• For normal enemies
  • Used Magic Staff of Wisdom+5 with Crystal Soul Spear to obtain Magic Resistance.
  • Used Pyromancy Flame+10 with Flame Swathe to obtain Fire Resistance.
  • Used Lightning Dragon Chime+5 with Wrath of the Gods to obtain Lightning Resistance.
  • Used Dark Chime of Want+5 with Great Resonant Soul to obtain Dark Resistance.
  • In order to avoid extra damage from HEADSHOT or COUNTER, all data were double tested.

DLC Testing Table

Notes

• All data are of patch 1.10
• The DLC bosses data are from the Scholar of the First Sin Edition, Ver. 1.02, Cal. 2.02

Description

In Dark Souls II, however, rolling has only one hard limit at 70%. All rolling below that will have the same animation, but as your equip load decreases, your roll speed and distance will gradually increase. Attempting to roll with over 70% equip load will result in a "fat roll", with its own, slower, animation. Equipping more than 100% of your character's equip load will gradually slow your character's walking and sprinting speed, and equipping more than 120% will make rolling and sprinting impossible. However, even above 120% equip load, one can always perform rolling attacks and backstep attacks.

Rolling Distance and Equip Load

An approximation of roll distance versus equip load can be found below.¹

Staying under 50% weight seems to be the most advantageous, since you can roll 15% farther than you can at 70% weight- the greatest increase in distance.

70-100% weight seems to have no effect on roll distance, but keep in mind that being above 70% makes you fat roll, which is slower.

Rolling Speed and Equip Load

Weight only affects roll distance. It has no affect on iFrames or roll duration. Whether you are at 0% burden, or 70%, your entire roll takes about 25 frames to complete.

Agility's Effect on Rolling

Agility affects the number of invincibility frame (iFrames) counts a roll has.
Agility only affects iFrames. As long as you aren't fat rolling, you get as many iFrames at 70% burden as you do naked.²

The roll at 105 agility is equivalent to the fast-roll in the original Dark Souls.

Quick Roll

A new mechanic that seems to have been introduced into Dark Souls II. The quick roll allows a character to quickly act after performing an attack, allowing them to potentially dodge follow-up attacks from faster enemies at the cost of slightly more stamina that they would not have been able to had they just pressed O to attempt a dodge. It is unknown if this is a glitch that has to do with the new feint mechanic, and it is unknown if it works with all weapons although this should be the case if the principle applies universally.

To perform the quick roll, the player must press an attack button and the "circle" button at the same time or within a very narrow window of one another. While this seems simple at first, the difficult part comes from the strict timing of the maneuver which is additionally unique to each moveset. The player must press Attack+O at the exact same time they would perform a consecutive attack, right down to the earliest frame that they can input to in which the game would be able to recognize the command as a successive attack. If done properly, the player will roll away or backstep almost immediately after the hit connects with an enemy.

Performing the Quick Roll is difficult due to the different movesets of the various weapons in the game and the strict timing. Done too early, and the player will perform the standard roll which leaves them vulnerable for a short period between the attack and the execution of the roll. Doing it too late on the other hand will defeat the frame advantage of the quick roll technique while draining additional stamina for the late quick roll. In addition, the quick roll cannot be done if the player's attack bounces off a wall and goes into the recoil animation.

So far, this technique has been tested and demonstrated to work with straight swords in both the standard and power stances. ADDITON: also works with the Reaper class weapons.

Roll Cancel

Another advanced technique; performed by rolling, initiating a rolling attack, and then quickly interrupting that attack with another roll. If done quickly, this will lead to being able to roll much faster in succession, making a great advanced technique for escaping quickly or catching up quickly to an enemy.

Scaling determines how much additional damage a weapon deals.

A character gains a percentage of their Physical Atk Dexterity, Physical Atk Strength, Magic Atk Bonus, Lightning Atk Bonus,Fire Atk Bonus and Dark Atk Bonus as additional damage of the respective damage type, indicated by a "+" next to the weapons base damage.

The weapon's stat bonus, indicated by a letter grade of S/A/B/C/D/E, determines what percentage of the character's stat bonus is applied as damage. For example, a character with 200 Physical Attack Strength Bonus will gain between 200 and 240 bonus damage from a weapon with S strength scaling (and no other scaling).

• The letter grade represents a range of percentages. Each type of scaling has a different degree of scaling per letter grade. The vague and relative nature of the scaling grades makes it easy to be confused into thinking that your weapon has more or less scaling than it actually does, especially in the case of infused weapons. Therefore, it is HIGHLY recommended that you look up and know the exact scaling percentages for any weapon you are interested in using.
• To find these percentages for each weapon, see here or here. A complete AR caclulator, including infusions and weapon buffs, can be found here. A weapon comparison by practical tests can be found here.

Strength Scaling

Dexterity Scaling

Catalyst Scaling

• The Lightning, Magic and Dark bonuses scale differently depending on the infusion.
• When you infuse a Catalyst, the Scaling letter will not change, but the chart it uses will; resulting in more scaling bonus if infusing it with the same element, and less if not.

No Infusion

Same infusion as the element

Different infusion than the element

The Effect of Sin

In Dark Souls 2, your character is open to invasions from members of the Blue Sentinels covenant when you have 10 points or more of Sin. They can invade you through the use of Cracked Blue Eye Orbs, and they have the ability to invade you frequently. Sinner status is displayed on the "Player Info" screen, directly underneath the character's Starting Class and Covenant listing.

Causes of Sin

• Killing NPCs = 1 point of sin.

• Invading other players with Cracked Red Eye Orbs and killing them = 1 point of sin.
• It seems also possible to obtain sin by being summoned as a grey phantom in the Grave of Saints area. Members of the Rat King Covenant can summon intruders to this area as a grey phantom into their own world. Killing the host player seems to give at least 1 sin. Further research on sins as a grey phantom would be needed for added details on this page.

Note that each individual point of sin is not accounted for on the "Player Info" screen, as certain values must be passed in order to rank up in sin level.

Sin Levels

Having the option to pay Cromwell the Pardoner for a pardon is not a valid means of checking your sin. You must consult the Player Info screen, which informs the player of the sin level that applies to their character:

"—"

• The blank status applies to characters with 0-9 points of sin.
• There is no known adverse effect from remaining in this range.

"Sinner"

• Achieved by gaining 10 points of sin.
• At 10 points and above, you are open to Blue Sentinels invading your world as Arbiter spirits.

"Wretch"

• Achieved by reaching 100 points of sin (permanent).
• With this rank, your minimum HP as a hollow is no longer capped at 50%. It can be reduced all the way down to 5% HP (dying 19 times from human form).

Removal of Sin

Dying to a Blue Sentinel invader will reduce your sin count by 1 point. This means that if you've just reached the sin level of "Sinner" by getting 10 points exactly, the loss will result in having 9 points and returning back to "—" sin level.

However, Wretch status is permanent. This means that once you've reached 100 points of sin, "Wretch" will always display as your sinner level, regardless of how many points you have afterwards. When this happens the player is still able to drop all the way back down to 9 points to prevent further Blue Sentinel invasions, though there's no indication of a change in status from the Player Info screen.

Sin is not erased by progressing to NG+.

Pardoning Sin

Pardoning Sin through Cromwell the Pardoner does not normally remove your sin. It is a separate mechanic for undoing NPC aggression and appears to serve no other purpose. In spite of claiming to remove sin, he is an unreliable source on your sinner status for the following reasons:

• It is possible to achieve "Sinner" status through killing enough players in PvP, yet Cromwell will still tell you that you haven't sinned. This is because the only relevant trigger is if you've attacked an NPC prior to meeting him or not.

• Conversely, it is possible to not have "Sinner" status and still have the option to pay for Pardoning your Sin, because all it takes it having attacked at least 1 NPC, which isn't sufficient for ranking up to "Sinner" status.

Changes with Patch 1.09

Due to a glitch that erroneously caused sin in the Crown of the Ivory King DLC during Patch 1.08, Cromwell was changed to offer 1 pardon for free. Unlike the regular pardon described above, it completely clears all types of Sinner statuses. It can only be done once per character.

Notes

• All NPCs are worth 1 point of Sin exactly, none are worth more or less than others (asides from the Ancient Dragon not counting).

• The following do not count as sin:
  • Abandoning covenants, even without Sweet Shalquoir
  • Defeating the Ancient Dragon (though requires Cromwell to pardon you if for any reason you want a de-aggro Ancient Dragon after using a Bonfire Ascetic)
  • Defeating King Vendrick
  • Defeating the Corrosive Ant Queen

• The following events do count as sin:
  • Completing the Pate / Creighton questline, even if you don't attack either of them
  • Completing the Crushed Eye Orb invasion event

• The Lost Sinner's Sword receives negative damage scaling as sin increases, capping at 30 sin¹.

• Going below 50% HP with Wretch status will not further increase the damage of the Dark Pyromancy Flame, Greatsword of the Forlorn or Scythe of the Forlorn.

Description

Used in online play. Summons a player Phantom or an NPC into your world.

Types of Soul Signs

Image Type Created By Conditions for placing Conditions for Seeing Purpose White Sign White Sign Soapstone Cannot have another player present (true for all signs). Player must be in human form with the area boss undefeated. Summons a White Phantom for co-op. Rewards phantom with a Token of Fidelity. Gold Sign White Sign Soapstone Must be in the Heirs of the Sun Covenant. Player must be in human form with the area boss undefeated. Summons a Gold Phantom for co-op. Rewards phantom and host with a Sunlight Medal. Red Sign Red Sign Soapstone Player must be in human form. Cannot have Dragon Spirit present. Summons a Red Phantom invader for PvP. Rewards phantom with a Token of Spite. Small White Sign Small White Sign Soapstone Same as White Sign. Player must be in human form. Summons a White Shade for co-op. Shades can only exist in your world for a short duration, unlike White Phantoms. Rewards phantom with a Smooth and Silky Stone. Dragon Sign Dragon Eye Must be in the Dragon Remnants Covenant. Cannot have another player present. Summons a Dragon Spirit invader for PvP. Rewards phantom or host with a Dragon Scale

Description

Required to carry out actions.
Actions deplete stamina, which
automatically recovers.¹

Derived Stat that increases maximum Stamina, represented by the green bar at the top of the screen. Stamina is necessary for the execution of most combat or strenuous actions in Dark Souls 2, such as swinging a weapon, preparing to shoot an arrow with a bow, spell casting, dodging, absorbing a blocked attack, sprinting, and many other actions. If you attempt to execute one of these actions when you have no Stamina, your character will generally not react to the attempted execution.

Stamina naturally regenerates over time when not attempting to execute an action that drains stamina, such as walking normally, using an item, interacting with the environment, or merely standing still. Holding up a shield doesn't drain the Stamina bar, but lowers Stamina regeneration.

Influence of Attributes on Stamina

Tips on Stamina Management and Advanced Mechanics

Command Queuing
A relevant bit of information related to the execution of actions, which is tangentially related since a majority of in-game actions drain the Stamina bar, is that Dark Souls 2, like Dark Souls, uses a queue system for button inputs. This means that mashing buttons will often cause your character to execute multiple moves in a row. While button queuing may be difficult to get used to if you have played similar games that don't queue button presses, such as Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, it can be used to your advantage with practice, as the ability to purposefully execute moves in succession can be beneficial as it allows your character to begin the next desired action immediately.

Prolonged Sprinting
In regards to sprinting, if a player completely depletes their stamina bar they will not be able to sprint again for approximately 3 seconds. Every other action that requires stamina can be executed as normal. As a result it is useful to stop sprinting just before the stamina bar empties and to let it recharge a little bit before continuing to run. If a player manages their stamina in this way they will be able to sprint for much longer periods of time and will avoid periods of downtime in which they are forced to walk.

Stamina Regeneration Rate
The rate of stamina regeneration can be improved by the use of relevant consumables or certain equipment.

Stamina regeneration rate is dependant on equip burden. Lowering equip burden by using lighter gear or increasing vitality will increase the natural rate of stamina regeneration. Gains are quite good from 70% to 30% equip burden. Regeneration rate with no equipment (baseline) appears to be 44-45 stamina/sec.

Negative Stamina
It is in fact possible to have negative stamina, and just like in the original Dark Souls, the negative stamina will have to be regenerated before the usable stamina bar begins to refill. However, unlike in original Dark Souls, going into negative stamina in Dark Souls 2 has the additional penalty of reducing the damage of an attack that puts the player into the negatives. While the exact damage penalty is unknown, the penalty is more severe the farther into the negative the attack takes you. For example, an attack that puts a player at -15 stamina will have a greater damage penalty than an attack that brings the player to -5 stamina. It is important to note that since backstabs in Darksouls II consume stamina this damage penalty from negative stamina will still apply, resulting in greatly reduced backstab damage. Spell casts that put the player's stamina into the negatives will also deal less damage, as well as having a longer casting time.

Status Effects

Icon	Status	Causes
	Max HP, Stamina, Equip Load Up	First Dragon Ring equipped Second Dragon Ring equipped Third Dragon Ring equipped
	Attack Rating Up	Lightning Clutch Ring equipped Dark Clutch Ring equipped Fire Clutch Ring equipped Sorcery Clutch Ring equipped Flynn's Ring equipped Ivory Warrior Ring equipped Ring of Blades equipped Stone Ring equipped
	N/A	N/A
	Defense Rating Up	Dark Quartz Ring equipped Dispelling Ring equipped Flame Quartz Ring equipped Ring of Steel Protection equipped Spell Quartz Ring equipped Thunder Quartz Ring equipped Yorgh's Ring equipped
	Bow Range Up	Durgo's Hat equipped Hawk Ring equipped
	Increased Item discovery	Covetous Gold Serpent Ring equipped Traveling Merchant Hat equipped Prisoner's Hood equipped Jester's Cap equipped Prisoner's Tatters equipped Watchdragon Parma equipped and ON HAND_
	Fallen Enemies heals HP	Ring of the Evil Eye equipped.
	Poise Up	Ring of Giants equipped.
	Increased Soul gain	Covetous Silver Serpent Ring equipped Jester's Gloves equipped Warlock Mask equipped Any of Tseldora Set equipped Any of Nahr Alma Set equipped
	Spell Effect Up	Clear Bluestone Ring equipped Lingering Dragoncrest Ring equipped Black Hood equipped
	Status Ailment Defense Up	Ash Knuckle Ring equipped Bracing Knuckle Ring equipped Poisonbite Ring equipped Cursebite Ring equipped Ring of Resistance equipped Bloodbite Ring equipped
	Explosion after Damage Threshold	Old Sun Ring equipped.
	Reduces Fall Damage	Flying Feline Boots equipped Jester's Tights equipped Silvercat Ring equipped Any of Lion Warrior Set equipped
	Increased Stamina recovery	Chloranthy Ring equipped Blossom Kite Shield equipped Shield of The Insolent equipped Slumbering Dragon Shield equipped
	Increased Enemy visibility	Redeye Ring equipped
	Soul Protection but Ring Breaks	Ring of Soul Protection equipped Ring of Life Protection equipped
	Tearstone Ring Activated	Blue Tearstone Ring activated Red Tearstone Ring activated
	Health Restoration	Ring of Restoration equipped
	N/A	N/A
	Select Online activity disabled	Burning a Human Effigy in a Bonfire.
	Gain no souls.	Agape Ring equipped.
	Temporary protection against invasions.	Killing a boss as a host or phantom.
	Ring Broken	Durability of equipped ring at 0
	Head Armor Broken	Durability of head gear at 0
	Chest Armor Broken	Durability of chest gear at 0
	Hands Armor Broken	Durability of hand gear at 0
	Legs Armor Broken	Durability of legs gear at 0
	Walk / Run Toggle	Only available on PC.
	Guard Toggle	Only available on PC.

Status Ailments

Icon	Status	Notes
	Poison	Drains HP at a steady rate.
	Toxic	Stronger version of Poison.
	Curse	Turns player hollow and decreases Max. HP
	Petrification	Turns player to stone and kills them.
	Bleed	Drains 200 HP and reduces Max. Stamina for 10 Seconds.

Environmental Effects

In-Game Description

A torch made by soaking the end of a long
stick in pine resin.

Light the torch on the fire of a sconce
to illuminate areas for a short time.
Find new torches to extend this period.

Torches can even be lit on bonfires,
the flames of which do not normally
set objects alight, due to the coating
of the bones used to fuel them.

Availability

• Treasure near the bonfire in Things Betwixt, behind the wagon.

• One is on body resting on a dead tree in the area with scaffolding and burned bodies in Forest of Fallen Giants.

• In the area with large tree roots and ruined buildings in Forest of Fallen Giants.

• Treasure on a ledge above the firebomb throwing Hollow Royal Soldier overlooking the courtyard with the Old Ironclad Soldier in Forest of Fallen Giants.

• At the end of the hallway after using the Soldier Key in Forest of Fallen Giants.

• Three in a chest after the door requiring Soldier Key that leads to the King's Door in Forest of Fallen Giants.

• Three can be found inside a chest on the top floor of the mansion in Majula.

• Three on top of the wall in the Lost Bastille. Accessible by two illusory walls in the same tower where Straid of Olaphis is.

• One near Lonesome Gavlan in Harvest Valley.

• One right after leaving the first poison mist in Harvest Valley.

• One behind the boards that the nearby Mounted Overseer can destroy after the second bonfire of Harvest Valley.

• In a chest before the Covetous Demon boss fight in Earthen Peak.

• On a body after dropping down from above in the circular room in Iron Keep.

• Three on a corpse in the open area with Lion Clan Warriors in Shaded Woods.

• One is near the golden Lion Clan Warrior in Shaded Woods.

• One at the beginning of the large area filled with water in Doors of Pharros.

• One in the building after taking the first zip line in Brightstone Cove Tseldora.

• One on a body in the spider cave full of webs before the Duke's Dear Freja in Brightstone Cove Tseldora.

• One can be picked up in the room accessed by lowering one of the bridges in Grave of Saints.

• One is inside a pot in the lower levels of the Gutter.

• One on a body near some pots in Black Gulch.

• Three on a body after the first building in Shrine of Amana

• Near the end of Memory of Vammar.

• Five on a ledge in Shulva, Sanctum City, under the bonfire leading to Cave of the Dead. Hop onto a ledge while riding the elevator to reach them.

• Five near the Pagan Tree in Shulva, Sanctum City.

• Five in the second cell gauntlet in Iron Passage.

• Dropped by Captive Undeads carrying torches in Huntsman's Copse and the Gutter.

• Dropped by Undead Laborers carrying torches in Undead Crypt.

• Dropped by Undead Peasants carrying torches in Brightstone Cove Tseldora.

General Information

Image	Damage	Aux Effects	Counter Strength	Poise Damage	Stats Needed Stat Bonuses	Damage Reduction	Aux Effects Reduction	Stability	Durability	Weight
	27/0/134/0/0 (?)	0/0	100	5	0/0/0/0 ?/?/-/?/-/-	25/0/0/0/0	0/0/0/0	15	0	0.0

Move Set

L1/LB: Block

L2/LT:

Notes

• The torch is wielded in the left hand, replacing the player's left equipment.

• The remaining time can be seen on the torch's HUD icon (when equipped) and on the equipment screen.

• The torch is not a consumable item but a pickup that adds to a timer, indicating how long the torch will burn. Each torch found gives an additional five minutes of light, and carries over to the next play-through.

• If you get soaked in oil by the enemies in No-man's Wharf, wielding a lit Torch will cause an explosion.

• Some enemies will notice the player from further away, including Lizardmen in Shrine of Amana.

• Makes it possible to spot Invisible Hollows, only in SotFS.

• The torch can be lit:
  • At a bonfire, press the toggle button to cycle between lighting a torch and resting.
  • At a lit sconce.
  • By using a Flame Butterfly.

• To extinguish the torch:
  • Cycle between left hand weapons or wield the right hand weapon two-handed.
  • Roll in water.
  • Walk through a waterfall.
  • Walk into a blizzard.

• Usefulness:
  • Illuminates the environment, making it easier to see distance objects and enemies.
  • Increases lock-on range by around x1.5.
  • Light sconces in the environment.
  • Igniting every sconce in Things Betwixt will spawn an invader who drops a Petrified Something when killed (SOTFS only)
  • Dark Stalkers in No-man's Wharf will flee from the player.
  • Lighting the sconce in Steady Hand McDuff's workshop in The Lost Bastille causes him to move to his anvil, allowing the chest he sits on to be looted for the Craftsman's Hammer and x1 Twinkling Titanite.
  • Ignite the oil in the locked rooms before the Lost Sinner's boss room; this illuminates the arena, making locking onto her easier.
  • Used to destroy the windmill in Earthen Peak. This will drain many pools of poison from the area, including the one in the boss room.
  • Required to light sconces in Dark Chasms of Old.
  • Makes it easier to see the start of deep water in Shrine of Amana and platforms in The Pit and The Gutter.

• Cannot be upgraded.

Key

Description

Water acts as a damage modifier for both offense and defense on particular damage types.

Water is wet!

Oh yes it is! It was discovered several days into the game that by rolling in water, the character becomes soaked (and will leave wet foot prints).

This has an important in game effect of increasing Fire Defense by 300 points. This is useful when fighting the Smelter Demon or Jester Thomas as well as when getting several treasures on the hot lava rocks in Iron Keep.

Additionally, if you have a Torch lit and you get it underwater in any way, it will be put out.

Water is conductive

Your character and enemies will take additional lightning damage if they are wet or standing in a pool of water. Being soaked decreases Lightning Defense by 150 points.
Note that water only Lowers the resistance, it does not actually increase the damage you deal, meaning most you can deal is your base damage.

Water is clean

If you are covered in oil or poison, rolling in water will clean you off!

Water is dangerous!

In some areas, the water level is very deep. Trying to swim will result in death.

Water can slow down your character

Depending on the depth of the water your character is walking in you can be slowed down when running/sprinting or even have sprinting negated. This makes certain areas of the game very challenging due to the loss of mobility

Water for enemies

Water does NOT slow down enemies! Therefore be extra careful if you are in places like the Shrine of Amana or Doors of Pharros. Invading players (Blue or Red Phantoms) also can sprint through water!
But they do get the resistance increase/decrease coming from either standing or soaked in water.

Introduction

This page is about Enemy's Weakness/Defense towards the three Physical Attack-Type: Slash, Strike and Thrust.

Just like Resistance, there are currently 5 discovered Tiers of Physical Damage Stages for non-Boss enemies. The Factor by which the Damage is determined is called Weakness-Factor and is applied after the initial Offense-Defense calculation. Most Enemies have Average-Tier, but some, like "Thick scaled'', ''Heavy Armored'' receive increased/decreased damage against the three Types.

Tier table

Normal Enemy List

Boss list

// to be added…//

DLC list

// to be added…//

Formula

Normal Enemy

The Offense-Defense calculation works as following:
Offense = Total PHYSICAL Number shown in equip window * Movement Modifier
Defense = Area-Defense (Game's increasing difficulty by area, see Area-Defense) * Enemy Melee/Ranged Defense Factor (see Normal Enemy List)

Final Damage = (Offense-Defense)*Weakness-Factor¹

• Jump-Attack with Any-Type, non-crit, on Undead Travler:
  • (450*1.512-63*1)*1= 617.4 => 617 tested
  • (760*1.512-63*1)*1= 1086.12 => 1086 tested
• Jump-Attack with Strike-Type, non-crit, on Ironclad Soldier:
  • (330*1.512-92*1.25)*1.5 = 575.94 => 576 tested

Area-Defense