Dark Souls III Wiki

Dark Souls III

Dark Souls III is a 2016 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, the closing chapter of the Dark Souls trilogy. Players take the role of the Ashen One, an Unkindled warrior raised when the First Flame fades and the resurrected Lords of Cinder refuse to return to their thrones, and journey through the kingdom of Lothric to bring them back and decide the fate of the fire. Combat is a deliberate, stamina-based system of light and heavy attacks, rolls, guard breaks, parries, backstabs and weapon arts, fought through interconnected labyrinthine levels against punishing bosses and invading players. The game supports online co-operative summoning and player-versus-player invasion, a nine-stat levelling system, weapon reinforcement and infusion, and the covenant system that structures its asynchronous multiplayer. It was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows in 2016, followed by the Ashes of Ariandel and The Ringed City expansions and the complete Fire Fades Edition.

• Stamina Combat and Estus Flasks: every attack, roll and block spends stamina, while healing is limited to a fixed number of Estus Flasks and Ashen Estus Flasks that refill only at bonfires, making resource management as important as damage.
• Bonfire Checkpoints and Ember State: bonfires restore health and flasks, respawn enemies and serve as level-up and travel points, while using an Ember grants bonus maximum health and enables online summoning and invasion until death.
• Nine-Stat Levelling: souls spent at a bonfire raise Vigor, Attunement, Endurance, Vitality, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith and Luck, which together determine health, stamina, equip load, spell slots and all damage scaling.
• Weapon Reinforcement and Infusion: weapons upgrade to +10 with Titanite or to +5 with Twinkling Titanite and Titanite Scales, and infusions (Heavy, Sharp, Refined, Raw, Fire, Chaos, Dark, Blessed, Lightning, Simple, Hollow, Blood, Poison) reshape their scaling and damage type.
• Weapon Arts and Focus Points: each weapon carries a unique weapon art that spends Focus Points, adding stance changes, guard breaks, buffs and ranged projectiles on top of the standard moveset.
• Covenants and Asynchronous Multiplayer: nine covenants govern summon signs, invasions and auto-summon defence zones, rewarding Proof of a Concord Kept, Pale Tongues, Vertebra Shackles, Wolf's Blood Swordgrass, Human Dregs, Sunlight Medals and Filianore's Spear Ornaments.
• Boss Souls and Transposition: boss souls are consumed for levels or traded to Ludleth of Courland to transpose unique weapons, rings and spells that cannot be obtained any other way.
• Interconnected Level Design: Lothric is built as a vertical knot of shortcuts, elevators and one-way doors, so progress is measured in opened shortcuts and discovered bonfires rather than in a map screen.
• New Game Plus and Hollowing Systems: cleared cycles carry weapons and levels into escalating NG+ runs, while Yoel of Londor's free levels build Hollowing that unlocks the Lord of Hollows ending path.