| Build summary | The building blocks for any successful and versatile pvp/pve build |
| Recommended starting class(es) | Knight, Soldier, Royal |
| Recommended Soul Level | |
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Recommended stats (Leave at default (**) if not raised) |
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| Vitality | 20 |
| Will/Intelligence | 18 |
| Endurance | 20 |
| Strength | 18 |
| Dexterity | 16 |
| Magic | 10 |
| Faith | 16 |
| Luck | ** |
| Recommended equipment |
Weapons: 18 strength and 16 dexterity are a great base for using a wide array of weapons in Demon's Souls. 18 strength is enough for you to use all of the smaller weapons and a lot of the large weapons in the game like the great axe/sword, but you will only be able to two hand the larger weapons (which is how they are most often used anyways), and you will only be able to 2 hand the weapons that require 26 str or less. 16 dexterity is enough for a compound short bow and the parrying dagger, shotel, etc. You will have access to atleast one weapon of every type, allowing you to experiment and find what works best for you. Shields: This base in stats also allows you to use all but 4 of the shields in the game. Until you have decided on a build, you will have access to enough shields to experiment with all the different playstyles, and you will have access to the two most used shields in the game (the knight's shield and dark silver shield) Rings: The Cling Ring, since you should be playing in soul form at all times (see character tendency). Your second ring should be situation specific (use the thief's ring for sneaking, mp regen ring for magic, etc…) Armor: Whatever works for you. You have enough equippable weight to wear just about any combination of armor/weapons in the game. With heavier weapons, you might want to consider wearing lighter armor so your stamina regens quicker, and you will still be able to roll. If you like the heavy armor turtle playstyle, you will be able to do that as well, but until you up your equippable weight you will have to be weary of your stamina, and your rolling won't be nearly as effective (This is a completely acceptable and effective playstyle though) |
| Recommended spells/miracles |
18 will and 16 faith give you access to 3 magic slots and 2 miracle slots, making it the most economical investment of soul levels for spells. Your magic won't be very powerful at a level of 10, but its the minimum to use magic, and will be enough when magic is beneficial. 18 will will also give you enough mana to use every spell in the game, and enough slots to memorize every spell in the game, although you will be limited on how many spells you can have memorized at one time. You will be able to use Firestorm or God's Wrath on your first playthrough which are the only 2 major aoe spells in the game. However, I do not recommend puchasing either spell until you are sure how you want to invest soul levels into magic and faith, as you will probably only end up using one or the other. The really usefull spells you should get during your first playthrough are: Magic: Soul Arrow, Flame Toss, Soul Ray and Warding Learning these spells either cost souls or cost a Demon's Soul that aren't used for anything else (the execption being Warding, which you lose the ability to make a large sword of searching on your first playthough which isn't a big trade off since Warding is a lot more useful). These spells are the bread and butter of Demon's Souls' spells and will make your character very very flexible. |
| Gameplay tips and progression |
I spent hours upon hours mulling over stats, items, weapons, spells, etc. trying to figure out how to level up my first character without wasting points until I had decided the path I wanted to take. After Leveling 2 characters, I can safely say this is the best route to go until you have found what you really like doing in the game. Your Character won't be particularly strong, but they will be flexible. The most important part of this build is that none of the stats will have been wasted once you decide what direction you want to take your build. Every build in the game is achievable with this base, and with the exception of EXTREMELY pure builds (which you shouldn't attempt on your first character), EVERY point will help you in high end pvp. Having access to Magic and Miracles is essential for pve and pvp even if you are a melee character. If you want to be a caster, you still need to use weapons and you will have access to the majority of them right off the bat. As far as leveling goes, The first stat you will want to level up is Vitality so you have some breathing room with survivability. After Vitality, go in any direction you want. You will most likely want to level a mix of strength and dexterity so you can use the weapons you start picking up in the game, and make sure your magic is at 10 so you can start playing around with spells. If you reach the end of this build and still aren't sure what you want to do, but you need to spend soul levels in the meantime, put your points into Vitality and Endurance. 40 Vitality is widely considered to be the standard for pvp in the higher soul levels, and 30 Endurance is about as low as most pvp builds will go. Every build will require you to have more Vitality and Endurance than I have listed here, so its the safest way to spend your points until you have decided on a build. After that, you can choose an of the build listed here, as this is just meant to be a stepping stone, or you can create your own build from scratch, going in any direction you want. You can also use a lot of the leveling guides other builds suggest, since the base stats here will work for the first 20-30 soul levels of just about all the builds on this wiki. As far as the starting classes go, I chose classes that had a low soul level, low luck, and demonstrated the 3 major playstyles in the game. Any starting class can achieve this build, but these three will be able to take advantage of it sooner than later. Luck is a stat only used for one weapon, and for item drops, making it the least suitable stat unless you want to use that weapon, so it saves you soul levels by having lower luck. Start with any of the 3 classes you like. A Knight is a more defensive class with a strong weapon, a Royal is a caster that comes with a mp regen ring and a nice headpiece for more starting int., and the soldier is just a good all around choice if you have no idea or preference. You aren't locked into any of the 3 starting class' playstytles (or any class for that matter. You can take a Royal and make it a strength based melee fighter with this build or vice versa. This build is essentially a clean slate, a pure starter build for anything you want to do. |
Wayfaring Stranger
Sorry for the wall of text, I wasn't sure how the formatting would work, so the layout isn't very intuitive.
Woah woah woah:
If you like the heavy armor turtle playstyle, you will be able to do that as well, but until you up your equippable weight you will have to be weary of your stamina, and your rolling won't be nearly as effective (This is a completely acceptable and effective playstyle though)
This is rather terrible advice for new players, especially included in a build guide that clearly caters to new players who don't have any idea what they want to do. There are lots of new players that think that heavy armor at the cost of mobility is an acceptable sacrifice ("Oh I want to make a big tough knight! I need to wear the heaviest, strongest armor avalilible!"), but in 99% of cases, being able to roll will serve you much better than having a tiny bit more defense. Especially for a new player, where they need to learn the importance of dodging.
Being a turtle by blocking with a shield is good for new players, yes, but it's never a good idea to give up your rolling ability to wear heavy armor. I would recommend the Ring of Great Strength for players who want to use heavier equipment, but make sure that they keep their equip burden under 50% at all times.
Overall, this is solid stat allotment advice to players who aren't sure what to do one a first or second character, but as you already pointed out, this will not work to progress to some of the more focused builds on this site (which is a vast majority of them). This looks like a jack-of-all-trades type way to start a build, which is usually much more of a hindrance rather than a help, and would likely get deleted once the player becomes more experienced.
Well put agreed 100%
Well said. Not only is it important to be able to roll, but the character will speed up somewhat when walking/running. Very important for those boss fights when you want to get behind the boss to smack them.
I agree about the heavy armour compared to dodging demon souls is all about mobility when it comes to defense wether your avoiding attacks or spells i do think this build would help a player who is new be welcomed to the game even if they delete the character which would be likely
First of all, none of the stats imply that you should be playing a turtle style. In fact, the stats favor wearing lite armor and dodging. I don't think its right to discourage people from playing the way they want to play. If they play the game and decide they want full brushwood and a giant sword, what difference does it make? It's actually a lot of fun to go toe to toe with flame lurker instead of doing the usual roll fest. I've also seen plenty of people pvp very well without the ability to roll. But besides all that, the stats don't favor any type of playstyle.
I completely agree, but that has nothing to do with this build. That information is in the pvp section of the wiki.
What I am trying to achieve with this build is a starter build that is NOT a jack of all trades build. A jack of all trades build has no focus, this is a build before a focus has been chosen. I think most builds can afford to use magic and miracles and can benefit from using a variety of weapons. Most pvp builds seem to require you use second chance, so the faith requirements are right on par. If you want to even be able to cast God's Wrath, you need 15 will, and bumping it up 3 more points, allowing you three spots of magic isn't a huge sacrifice on your build (and is required if you want firestorm anyways) even if magic isn't the direction you are going. Being able to cast warding and even a weak version of soul arrow can really help you in pve. As far as strength and dexterity go, I would like to get more input on the values I put. I think 18 strength is great because you have full access to uchigandas and you can play around with a two handed great axe, etc. 16 dex is a lot more debatable, a short bow, parrying dagger, and shotel are the only real gains you get, so I can definitely say lowering dex could be a good idea.
I used this exact build to make a spellsword build, and because of diminishing returns, I'm not losing out on that much dps because I wanted a little extra dex in my build so I could play around with weapons that most hardcore players deem a waste of time.
I really don't want people to write this off as a jack of all trades build, because I agree that they are terrible. All I'm trying to do is have a starting point for people who aren't sure what they want to do, without ruining end game because they have a jacked up build that won't work. Yes, you sacrifice a few soul levels depending on what your final build decision is for flexibility, but I definitely think you could be competitive with your first or second character if you use this build and then morph it into any of the competitive builds on this wiki. 3rd or 4th character, you should definitely know exactly what you want to use and do, so obviously you wouldn't use this build.
This wiki has a lot of great information, but I think its wrong to tell a new player they have to decide on a playstyle before they even know what it is like, and I think it is false information that they can't be competitive if they don't start the game with that mind set. I would be a lot more frustrated if I leveled a build to 50 and realized I hated it and couldn't fix it than I would if I leveled this build to 50 before decided on what I wanted to do and only sacrificed a few soul levels for the chance to try everything out, knowing I would still be competitive and viable late in the game.
Yeah, Faith is good, INT is good though not every build requires the 3 slots (I usually go for 18 myself though), and VIT and END are obvious to raise. Depending on your starting class,10 magic can waste a few levels (I recommend Temple Knight, EXREMELY easy to use and can power through the start of the game even with starting equipment), though I think the ones you listed already start off that high. 18 Str AND 16 Dex are likely the big wastes of points, as usually at least one of those stats gets untouched (normally Dex), always depending on the build.
Spellsword works for this, yes (their stats are spread out anyways). Full-out Mage not so much, as they don't need so much dex or str (16 str is good for DSS on 99.9% of all builds though). Faith builds usually will keep these stats low depedning on the weapon they want to use (again, likely ignoring dex due to lacof Blessed options). The North Regalia build will not be able to come from this. STR/DBS builds ignore Dex. Dex builds often rely on the Uchi, so the stats work for that I suppose (never made a dex build). Good way to start a Meat Cleaver build, too, I suppose (though I ruined my first 2 characters trying to get the stats to weild it). I'd say those are many of the common builds, but there's tons more out there that I can't/won't vouch for.
I could see lowering str to 16. you lose the ability to use the big two handers, but you still retain access to good shields. I could also see lowering dex to 12 so you still have access to poles and a bow. Granted, poles and bows might not be used with your build at all, but pve can really call for them sometimes. Those changes alone would save 6 points, but you would definitely lose out on a lot of flexibility. Granted, you would still have access to enough to decide on a playstyle.
vit and end will be raised in any build, but I think you would want to raise them after you picked a build. NG, 20 vit and end should be plenty, I've leveled my second character with 15 vit for most of NG and had no problems. At sl 40 or 50 you would definitely want to start pumping your dps stat before getting more, but yes, every build is going to require more than what I posted.
I'd also like to clarify, if you use this build you won't have awesome dps until you decide on a final build and start pumping your dps stat. In the first 50 levels that really shouldn't matter though, you can get a dragon weapon and pretty much destroy anything in the game until then.
stats look good could always delevel if a soldier and like he said they are not that big of a waste for new people +1 from me.