Dark Souls Remastered Tips & Tricks
A secrets-and-shortcuts guide for new players covering class selection, the plunging attack's reliability, the coffin shortcut to Blighttown, soul duplication, fall damage cancels, the Sen's Fortress skip via Tarkus, and the Death Cam method to access Duke's Archives early.
14 Tips · 4 categories
4 tipsProgression
Any Starting Class Is Viable
Every starting class in Dark Souls Remastered can complete the game. The choice affects your early stat spread but not your long-term options, so pick whatever playstyle appeals to you rather than agonizing over the optimal pick.
Avoid the Master Key as Starting Gift
The Master Key unlocks shortcuts throughout the world, but using them as a new player skips crucial progression in the wrong order and leads to extremely difficult areas before you are ready. Pick a different starting gift on your first run.
Skip Sen's Fortress by Falling With Tarkus at Anor Londo
At Anor Londo, the giant knight Tarkus can be maneuvered off a ledge. His fall clips the game into treating you as having completed Sen's Fortress, skipping the entire area. This requires reaching Anor Londo first through an alternate route.
Access Duke's Archives Early Using the Death Cam Method
By triggering the Death Cam state with Fall Control and quitting out within 67 seconds while positioned correctly near Anor Londo, you can load into Duke's Archives before completing the normal prerequisites. This opens a large portion of late-game content well ahead of schedule.
5 tipsCombat
Use Plunging Attacks as Your Most Reliable Move
Dropping onto an enemy from above and pressing the attack button deals a plunging attack, which is one of the most consistently powerful moves in the game. Many enemies and even some bosses are highly vulnerable to it, and it staggers most targets on contact.
Roll Mid-Air to Cancel Fall Damage Under 29 Equip Load
Keeping your total equip load below 25 to 29 allows you to cancel fall damage by pressing the roll button while airborne just before landing. This makes many otherwise deadly drops survivable and opens up traversal options across the entire world.
Upgrade Pyromancy Flame at Quelana and Use Poison Mist on Quelaag
Quelana of Izalith, found in Blighttown, can upgrade your Pyromancy Flame to dramatically increase its damage. Once upgraded, using Poison Mist on the Chaos Witch Quelaag boss deals heavy sustained damage and makes the fight considerably easier.
Stack Power Within, Red Tearstone Ring, and Crown of Dusk
Equipping the Red Tearstone Ring below 20 percent health, wearing the Crown of Dusk, and activating the Power Within pyromancy simultaneously creates one of the highest damage multipliers in the game. This combination works especially well for boss kills when you need a single burst window.
Parry the Fog Gate Fist to Clip Through and Trigger Gargoyles Remotely
Near the Bell Gargoyles fog gate, you can parry a specific attack to clip your character through the gate geometry. Once through, you can activate the gargoyle encounter trigger without having crossed the fog gate, allowing you to manipulate the fight from outside.
3 tipsExploration
Stay in Human Form to Improve Appearance
Reversing Hollowing at a bonfire restores your full human appearance and allows other players to invade your world or be summoned as phantoms. Human form has no downside beyond the invasion risk, so stay human as often as possible.
Use the Coffin in Quelaag's Domain to Reach Blighttown
In Quelaag's Domain, interacting with a coffin near the boss arena equips the Eye of the Dead item and teleports you directly to Blighttown. This bypasses the normal entrance and places you much closer to the area's objectives.
Use Fall Control and Quit-Out to Survive Fatal Falls
The Fall Control sorcery reduces fall damage significantly. On drops that would otherwise kill you, cast it mid-fall and immediately quit to the main menu before landing. Reloading places you safely at the bottom of the fall with no damage taken.
2 tipsEconomy
Buy All Arrows and the Residence Key From the Hollow Merchant
The Undead Merchant in the Undead Burg sells arrows cheaply and also stocks the Residence Key, which unlocks a cell holding a useful NPC. Buy out his arrow supply early so you always have ranged options, and pick up the key before you forget it exists.
Duplicate Souls With Arrows and a Corpse
In the Remastered version, placing arrows on a corpse that already holds souls and then retrieving them multiplies the soul total. Repeating this at a high-value corpse rapidly accumulates souls. This duplication method does not work in the original Dark Souls.
Verified: 2026-05-26 · All content is original with full credit to original creators.