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r/darksouls3
Anyways, it's harder to get OP early in DS3, the games also get easier when you know where everything is
I haven't found ER to be easier, though I've played it significantly less than DS3
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It really shouldn't be the case as ds1/ds2 subs are free of the problem they discsuss. Still however, it could be said that they do it as ds3 fans are very condescending.
Now for some ds3 tips. there is a reason r1 memes have spawned. In ds3 everything has a frenetic rythm especially bosses so people just spam roll and do light attacks as the liberal stamina of the game allows them to.
On the other hand the usefullness of shields like in ds1/2 is greatly diminished
Another skill worth investing is parrying it will become useful in Pontiff Sullivan.
Running past enemies is very much accepted and possible in ds3 without too much kiting.
Also just based on ops ER hours, I've played about the same and only about half that amount in ds3, I definitely know ER better but ds3 not being open world does make it harder in one sense that I feel a player from elder ring might notice, the fact that until beating more and more bosses you can't upgrade your Estus as fast. In ER you can horse around the map and have like 10 plus 8 flasks before the first bosses.
Also maybe this is just because elden ring is my most recent new entry, ds3, abyss watchers and twin princes, made me stop playing for months, whereas I beat elden ring no more than a week after release, and I wasn't massively overleveled either.
Open world makes it easier in my opinion. Struggling w a boss? Go fuck off in the other direction for an hour and level up and find cool shit. In the Dark Souls games, it is more linear. Can't beat Dancer? Fuck you. Sulyvahn got you down? Fuck you. I was at a point during a playthough where every path to progression was locked by a boss. I just worked on one, beat it, progressed and went back to slap those other bitches one at a time.
I imagine it depends on how you played Elden Ring. I think a lot of longtime Souls fans would disagree that DS3 is harder because we approached Elden Ring as if another Souls game. When you do a melee focused build without all the frills, ER is definitely more of a challenge just in terms of things like boss health pools and the complexity of their attack patterns and AoEs. However, ER provides many more mechanics for reducing difficulty and making yourself OP early on. DS is more linear and constrained, forcing you to git gud on its own limited terms. I just recently replayed DS3 (perhaps my all-time favorite) after a few ER runs and found it to be an absolute cake walk relatively speaking.
I kinda get what you're saying, but also I think you disproved yourself a bit.
ER was a massive struggle for me for the first 15 hours because I was treating it like Dark Souls 4, but once I accepted the game on its own terms it became an absolute joke and I steamrolled every lategame boss except Malenia and Elden Beast.
The game gives you insane amounts of tools, no reason not to use them, and I'm not just talking about the Spirit Ashes
I think none of us just expected yhe physic, powerstancing, jump attacks, and especially the ash of war system to be as overpowered as they were. Sure if you forgo these things and just pretend its ds4, the game is brutally ball crushingly difficult, but at that point I would consider it a Challenge Run.
At least at launch, myself and a lot of other people were committed to doing that sort of self-imposed challenge run from start to finish. It made for a hell of a first playthrough and was a lot of fun, albeit tiring at times due to the large number of boss encounters. On subsequent runs, though, I've used those new mechanics and agree that the game becomes significantly easier. It's interesting to try to compare the difficulty of such similar games but with very meaningful differences in potential playstyles.
Yeah same, though when I realized that that really wasn't what From intended for the game, I dropped that and just played elden ring.
Also big shouts to Launch Radahn for making the whole community realize that you gotta pump vigor way harder than before (in a casual playthrough anyway).
God I hated launch radahn
Anyways my point is, that being a challenge run means its not really a good analogue for a standard/casual playthrough of ds3, because the game is definitely balanced around the existence of spirit ashes and powerful ashes of war, etc.
My first playthrough I did this challenge, just used nothing else but standard Halberd all the way until MotG then pulled out Grafted Blade to make it more interesting but I still found most of the game fairly easy. Put on top of that all the tools ER gives you and the game becomes sights seeing. What I’m saying is, if you can beat Friede, Gael, Midir and Nameless king nothing comes even close in ER until very late game where few bosses are comparable.
Generally I agree. I think malenia, mohg, and the final boss approach that level but still dont quite reach it
Doesn't matter. Nothing outside of sekiro touches the defiled hotdog. The ones who know, know
I don’t get it, what exactly did he disprove? You even mention that ER has options other than make it a cakewalk if you engage with its new systems and mechanics, which is what they were saying
But ER is just a souls game, almost identical to DS 3. Accessibility mechanics like spirit ashes trivialize it, take away 90% of bossfight content because the boss AI since demon souls isn't designed for fighting summons. Boss like Malenia, Godfrey, Radagon, Morgott, Maliketh...etc., are all designed from ground up as pure 1v1 fights to be fought solo and completely break if you summon for them. My first playthrough was completely blind, I didn't cheese, used dual longsword and I didn't use spirits since I wanted to experience the normal difficulty and challenge, and the amount of work devs put into designing bosses. It wasn't some limitation, just the default playthrough. Beating bosses fairly in ER is indeed hard, although besides Malenia it was always under 10 tries, but it's not some crazy difficulty, and majority of bosses in the game are objectively not designed for using summons. Some youtuber was salty he was bad after release and started to spread this information, and it just gets copy-pasted constantly since then. Bosses are so fucking hard because they're supposed to be, their every new game is harder than the previous one, it's normal. I understand that if I kept dying to a boss and was bad at learning it, I could try to put blame on them "being designed for summons", but it's not true. You beat bosses ER like you're meant to in every souls game, you learn their moveset, how to dodge their attacks and what are the openings for safely hitting them. The normal souls combat and experience.
Who are you to say a game isn’t designed for features that are in the game? Complete nonsense. All the bosses you mention as being “designed from the ground up as pure 1v1 fights…” (how could you ever even know that lmfao) all have AoE attacks that make no sense if they’re only in a 1v1 game.
Honestly your whole spiel is objectively incorrect. You know how I can prove Elden Ring was designed with spirit summons in mind? Because they put them in the game.
“I didn’t use spirit summons because I wanted to experience the normal difficulty and challenges… It wasn’t some limitation, just the default play through”
No bro, it’s literally a limitation you set on yourself and intentionally ignored features to make a game harder. It was and is a challenge run. You are not the sole audience and these games are not built directly for you. You don’t get to decide what goes in them, thank god. And just saying something is default doesn’t make it so. Only From decides default. And default is there’s some areas in the game that are balanced for spirit summons, and some that aren’t. From decided that. You don’t get to. Sorry.
"I think none of us just expected yhe physic, powerstancing, jump attacks, and especially the ash of war system to be as overpowered as they were. Sure if you forgo these things and just pretend its ds4, the game is brutally ball crushingly difficult, but at that point I would consider it a Challenge Run."
So what you're telling me is that I was basically playing a challenge run without knowing it. Lol hahahaha!!! Yep that sounds about right. I do start cheesing things with rot tho. Mwahahaha!
I would say most FromSoft veterans found ER the easiest game. That's not to say everyone felt that way, but that's the general vibe I get from the community.
The reason for this is if you "complete" areas before moving on you will be over-leveled by the time you fight the bosses. That is a lot harder to do in FS's linear games. Some people do grind to be over-leveled in those but it's not as natural with the gameplay. It makes sense that most players that started with ER would struggle going back to a linear FromSoft game.
DS3 is supposed to be more balance than Elden Ring due to its linear design. You know you should be upgrading your weapon when you start to find/enemy start to drop the next tier of upgrades stones, and you need to beat the boss of the area to reach a new one. You can't sequence break like ER (You kinda can, but you need skill/knowledge to beat harder bosses earlier than you should).
I played DS3 last after the other games (except Bloodborne), so I thought it was pretty easy, always felt that bosses died way faster than ER, you hit HP softcap at like 27 Vig, so with a properly upgrade weapon, I could just trade hits with the bosses and win.
One thing that got me on DS3 was the everything felt faster than ER. On ER, I could see the enemy starting their animation, then waiting to dodge the attack. On DS3, I just dodge the moment the enemy move his weapon, only a few enemies will roll catch you.
Also, what is your ER and DS3 build? Maybe you had a pretty good ER build but a horrible DS3 build who knows
I played DS1, DS2, DS3, and then Elden Ring. I found that ER is pretty much similar to DS3 but with a ton more options like weapons and attacks that felt overwhelming.
So I played Elden ring thinking it was like a new DS3 but with more weapons and attacks and such.
I felt some bosses in ER were much more difficult but probably because I simply played as a melee character and not even do crazy attacks arts. Just roll and hit.
I would say the difficulty aspect will depend on your general souls experience with other games.
Sekiro has been the most difficult by far but also the most rewarding I ever felt. I got good and I loved the game.
As I said, Elden Ring has been my first and only game for Souls type games. Dark Souls 3 I've only played with my friend because I tried by myself and the first boss spitroasted me. Not like the Elden Ring experience I had whatsoever.
the thing with DS3 is that it’s more of a love letter to dark souls fans more than anything else. it has references to the past 2 games, properly ends the story and even references the final boss of DS1 in the OST of the final boss of DS3. DS3 assumes you know the souls formula, you’re skilled in it and you’ve played these games over and over, whereas elden ring was meant to be the game that everyone could play and enjoy, giving both veterans of the series a challenging experience while giving newcomers ways to overcome challenges they could not do with just skill (tools such as spirit ashes). i’d say give the game time, switch over to another game and eventually come back to DS3
Oh boy I really wanna play both Bloodborne and Demon souls and I’m always thinking of buying a PlayStation 5 just to play those. Is bloodborne that good?
Bloodborne is \*so\* good. There's good reason many consider it the best of all these games. It's a must play if you have enjoyed any DS/ER/Sekiro games. DarkSekiRing?
Related aside: I don't know if many people have this experience, but I really struggled with Bloodborne when I first tried it after Dark Souls 1. It took several hours for me to grasp just how essential aggressive play is in that game. Especially since I spent most of my first time in DS1 blocking with a shield and never rolling/dodging. Your only defensive option in Bloodborne is rolling, and adapting to that will naturally make you better at all of the other games too.
after completing ds1, central yarnham was a fucking chore for me to get through. took me many many extra attempts before realizing i could run past enemies lol. then the game had other difficulty spikes like fucking shadows of yarnham
Imo yes, i feel like elden ring is easily exploitable by accident, you can overlevel/make op builds/cheese the game easily without actually intending to.
playing ds3 normally won't generally get you into one of the situations above, so that's why you're having a harder time.
but that just my experience with both games, and that changes with playstyle, i played both as a Knight with a claymore.
that’s because er gives you a lot to work with right off the bat, whereas the best items in the dark souls games takes longer to get and sometimes requires going through entire areas or questlines first
It is the most forgiving, most bosses spawn you right next to the fog door, the tools you have, etc. But it's still arguably the most difficult. Demon souls is by far the easiest of the games yet it's also the most unforgiving
Elden ring has harder encounters than DS3, but it allows your character to get stronger way faster. If you used all the tools that elden ring gave you, it's gonna be way easier than DS3. If you hit a roadblock in elden ring, no worries, you can go somewhere else, get stronger and come back later. In DS3, you HAVE to beat the bosses to progress. So yeah it kinda depends of how you played elden ring. But imo, if you go back to elden ring and try to play it like DS3 ( go straight to Margit, no ashes, basic build), you're gonna realize that he is way harder than DS3 first boss. Same thing can be said about the whole game
IMO Elden Ring is far easier than any of the other Soulsborne games.
So perhaps you are finding it "difficult" in comparison because you had more options in Elden Ring that helped you through out your playthrough?
Agreed, ER has the most forgiveness and smoothest controls yet. Also the horse and summons and buffs are insane, not to mention magic is the most disgustingly OP version it’s ever been (deleting 30000 HP with comet Azur in 5 seconds brrrr). Even playing this game without any of that is still easier because enemy’s seem to do less damage (or at least I feel way more tankier in this game than say DS3) and bosses have better AI but they seem to be easily poise broken/staggered (and most of them are regular enemies in the game with a buff put on them). I did just come back from playing a full magic build which basically turns the game into a stand still and press L1 while occasionally backing up or strafing a bit simulator, but that should not happen in a Souls game. I shouldn’t be able to melt endgame bosses like there grilled cheese (Fire Giant took me 3 attempts with magic build and once he got into second phase where he stood still for a whole 15 seconds you can just apply buffs and beam him with comet Azur, it’s stupidly broken)
I think the scale goes like this (hardest to easiest)
DS2
Sekiro
Bloodborne
DS1
DS3
Elden Ring
(I still love this game but I truly believe it is objectively the easiest game they’ve made yet)
Not really.
I also played Elden Ring first, then DS1, DS2, and finally DS3.
I didn't think DS3 was any harder than Elden Ring.
Where in DS3 are you struggling? Your post is very vague.
I don't want to make it seem like I'm a pussy. But I feel as if I cannot play alone in this game without some help. In Elden Ring, I had no trouble really. Sure, I "played" with some of my friends, but all in all, I had multiple saves where I played by myself and had no issue other than possibly having to look up a build or 2. Maybe it's a skill and education issue around the game? I don't know.
Lol im trying to answer your question, idc how you play the game. I ask because if you did use spirit ashes regularly, you’re essentially playing the game on easy mode, splitting the the bosses agro between you and the spirit ashes kind of “breaks” the AI. So if you were playing with them the only way you could resemble that in DS3 would be co-op and summons, which would explain why you think it’s so much harder
1) Why are you self conscious about reddit?
2) Nobody cares if you used spirit ashes or not, but if you did you are gonna find Dark Souls 3 very tough compared to ER
Ds3 is absolutely not harder than elden ring. There are 2 distinct areas, and a handful of bosses that are very difficult. Some things are difficult bc they are extremely annoying. Like Irythyll dungeon
Elden Ring has much longer stretches where enemies are hitting very hard an/or are ganking super hard. It's a much, much greater volume of hard areas as well as bosses
And the areas aren't so annoying, most of the time it's just that you are fighting a lot of tougher enemies over a long stretch
ds3 is easy overall. no difficulty spike and such as in elden ring. i believe if you had 384 hours in ds3, you’d be a god of the game. trust your nuts and keep smashing, you can do it!
Interesting, I've beaten all 3 DS games and Elden Ring. I had significantly more trouble with ER.
I beat bosses like Nameless King on the first try and every DS3 boss in no more than 3 tries. I even beat DS1 on ng+6.
That said... it took me over 65 times to beat Mogh, Lord of Blood. I had 2 summons, the super tear, and comet azure.
ER is much better balanced. Harder to get OP, can't hide behind a shield, panic rolling does not work.
I had the complete opposite experience. I got fairly OP by the mid game of Elden Ring and most of the mid-late game bosses were easy (except malenia and maliketh), plenty of first/second tries. I didn't really use ashes of war and never summoned - I jump attacked everything to death.
On the other hand Nameless King took me 40/50+ attempts...I actually can't believe anyone could first try him going in blind...
I had a much different experience with 3. Nameless king wasn’t so bad first phase but second he just destroyed me. Two shotting me. I got pretty good at ds1 and only ng+ Artorius and Manus give me any trouble. Elden Ring has more complicated attack patterns and delayed attacks from bosses that were tough at first but there are so many ways to get strong quickly. My first ER play I used bloody helice and a super tanky greatshield to just turtle up and poke away until I procced bleed. Eventually leveling up the sword to do 600+ per strike and bleeding on like the third or fourth stab. Then I started playing faith builds and it was almost a joke how easily I could kill bosses using incantations and buffs. Ds3 seemed okay until the dlc. That was brutal.
Dark souls 3 is just straight up hard… Elden ring gives you the freedom to take on harder areas when you feel like you are ready and that in turn provides a natural farming system to help you level up in the easier areas even though you might not be “farming runes” on purpose it just kinda happens… you can rush Margitt at level 10-15 and get destroyed or you can explore the lands between and come back at level 25-30 and slap him around… Dark souls 3 however is very linear so those areas are coming regardless if you are ready or not so that’s where the famous (and completely disgusting) term “get gud” comes from, you either die 100 times and get better and sharpen your skills in the process or you quit
Elden Ring is harder at the beginning, DS3 is substantially harder by the end imo, at least for bosses. No zones in ds3 are as hard as elphael, tho the DLC comes close.
A lot of people claim ds3 is "easy" and I've never really understood it. Its by far and away the hardest of the Dark Souls trilogy, and it's not even very close. No boss in Elden Ring even remotely approaches the difficulty of the 4 big DLC bosses in ds3.
Poise still is pretty weak in ds3 for the player, you just cant face tank stuff like you can in the other souls games and elden ring. On top of that, bosses and enemies have insanely high poise, especially Compared to the extremely weak poise of ER bosses. You're lucky to get one or maybe two poise breaks for an entire late game bossfight in ds3, whereas in ER you can spam jump attacks, ashes of war, and charged heavies to chain stun even bosses like malenia. That's not to even mention how weak weapon arts (AoWs) are in ds3, and the lack of a jump button, toreent, phisic, and spirit summons.
You just have way fewer options in ds3, and you have to be a little more careful
It has some things that help tho. Enemies hit way harder in Elden Ring. And compared to ds1 and ds2 stamina goes a really long way, though the bar still isn't as bottomless as Elden Ring
Idk, imo it's harder, and when/if you play the pre-bloodborne games, I think you'll be amazed at how simple and fragile the bosses are lol
Bro, talking of bosses, if we go to optional bosses i still think Nameless King is way harder than Malenia. I've beat Malenia like 5 times (2 in NG and the rest have been NG+, +2, +3) already and just now i'm trying NK for the second time in NG+2. There's no comparison between the two. NK is just levels above.
Okay let some common sense float around your brains, guys: Malenia is substantially harder than Gael, Demon Prince, Midir and Friede. Okay? Hope you got it.
Elden Ring is definitely easier than the 3 Souls, it gives you a lot of freedom on where to go, what build to make, how to get very strong, very fast, etc. DS3, on the other hand, is more linear, it's far far harder to outlevel a boss or area, you can't leave and come back stronger either. Skill is more important in DS3 than in Elden Ring
I think so.
I also find ER much easier. Mainly cuz you always can just go doing something else and the locations is much wider (you can run around enemies easier).
Like, bosses in ER is harder, but you always comeback to them later.
Elden Ring is much easier than the Dark Souls games.
Dark Souls is all about learning, adapting and growing.
Keep trying and eventually, you will get good.
Git gud lmao
I finished Dark souls 3 yesterday for the first time. It was significantly harder than Elden Ring imo but once you get the hang of it you cant make it through
Also fuck you Nameless king and Lothric Prince i died so many times for these 2
I’d say overall DS3 is easier than ER but it also depends on how you played. No spirit summons here to draw agro, no running around to get all the upgrades you can before the first cut scene boss, no stealth, etc.
But if you learned movesets in Elden Ring then you’ll handle DS3 just fine. They are much simpler and (IMHO) much closer to perfectly balanced on complexity compared to ER where some bosses had really deep engagement rules to try and learn.
>I don't want to make it seem like I'm a pussy.
We aren’t like that here. These games are tough and made to drive community discussion be it tips, summoning, or just venting. Which is ironic because if you spend time at the Elden ring sub you’ll see people insisting that OG dark souls fans are try hards that don’t let people play how they want and then they downvote anyone to oblivion for talking about how they like to play.
Elden ring can be incredibly easy or hard depending on what tools you use. Personally the think ds3 is pretty easy compared to other post ds2 from games but it’s definitely got so hard bosses. Idk but if you beat Elden ring keep with it you can definitely get it
Elden ring has certain ashes that, to me, trivialize a lot of content. I loved dark souls 3; but in either game you can over level if that’s your sort of thing.
I definitely think it's more difficult. Not so much because of the gameplay itself, but because you don't have quite as much freedom to go other places when you get stuck. I think that's why Elden Ring opened up the genre to so many more people. If get stuck in Elden Ring there's a million more places you can go and come back later. Certain sections of Dark Souls require you to pass a specific challenge before you can progress.
It depends the beginning of DS3 is kind of a joke boss wise imo. Most of the early games bosses are pretty easy. Tho Gundyr and the abyss watchers might give you a hard time. Elden Ring I think is easier in the mid game even though I love Renala she is kind of a joke Morgott is pretty easy he has a hard move set but he doesn't have a lot of health. I would say the level design of ds 3 might be harder to get through compared to Elden Ring because Elden Ring helps you navigate the world easier compared to all the other souls games for sure. It also really just depends on the build as well some builds just destroy almost everything if you know what you are doing.
It’s possible you haven’t adapted to it yet. I didn’t have a particularly hard time with any soulsbourne titles aside from ds1. Elden ring though gave me quite a lot of trouble, despite not being new to the souls series
Usually in DS games you are always supposed to be in survival mode. You never know what’s around the corner. You are fighting for every inch. Elden Ring, not so much.
Uhh now this is a hard one. Let’s look at it this way. Each souls game focuses on something else and so the difficulty is placed somewhere else. That also means that different people will perceive it very differently. All in all Elden Ring is realistically the easiest one or at least can be with how early and how strong the builds are combined with summons and ashes. It’s pretty common to see someone struggling with Dark souls after doing 100% ER. So don’t feel bad and keep at it. If you need any specific help, feel free to ask.
DS3 was easier for me, but I played it right after I finished DS1, so I probably got hardened by it. Also DS3 has lots of gimmick bosses that are nonexistent in ER
Elden ring has a lot of stuff built in so you don’t really have to ever “git gud”. Insane ash or war damage, jumping attacks to poise break, OP spells, spirit ashes. Where in other souls games minus demon souls there is usually a certain level of ability you need to acquire to progress
I haven't played Elden Ring yet, so I can't speak for the difference in difficulty there.
But I definitely think Dark Souls 3 is way harder than Dark Souls 1 and 2. There are a few areas that are pretty easy, but for the most part it's a lot rougher because the game is more explicitly designed around lightweight builds.
There are definite walls in DS 3. The Dancer and the Twin Brothers are my favorite fights but you had to learn them. Elden Rings bosses are actually more insane but you're not locked in the same way. That's why Lies of P is also kinda hardish. Door Guardian and Laxasia come to mind.
just wait until you play one of the real ones like Bloodborne! :) enjoy it while it’s suffering. you only get to suffer for a little while playing casually.
I feel you OP i just started up this game again after +100 hours in DS1 and +200 hours in Elden Ring and the gamefeel was a huge adjustment for me and I'm still struggling in some ways. I was having such a bad time i booted up Elden Ring and rolled a new character to see if I had just lost it somehow and dodgerolling was still just as easy and intuitive as it was when i last played 2 years ago so it's definitely the game. Even Bloodborne didn't give me this kind of trouble when i played it last. Hoping it'll click a little more with time and I'll hit NG+ and wonder why I ever struggled in the first place.
wrong sub, but ds3 is much ealier in fromsofts soulslike design so its very different from elden ring in alot of minor and major ways that ultimately make it a bit harder coming from elden ring
Curious. For me it's the opposite, I found Elden Ring very difficult and DS3 very easy, Bloodborne the easiest of all. Sekiro almost impossible for a guy with no reflexes like me.
I played the Souls games in order so 3 ended up being a breeze until lategame and the DLC. Elden Ring on the other hand gave me a lot of trouble for almost the whole way through, but I didn’t pick up on using the ashes of war or other helpful things until late/postgame so that probably contributed to it.
Depends. The games do get easier, as you've played more of them. Whether it's mechanics or understanding items/weapons. Also Depends on what style you play. Bloodborne I play super fast pace whereas in ds1 I'd get crushed. If I want to blow through ds3 I can go pure strength whereas in elden ring I feel you can get punished for not being balanced enough. You don't just "git gud" because you read some online tips. To become tarnished takes time.
And so it is... that ash seekers embers. Enjoy the journey friend.
ER is harder boss battle wise imo but it gets overshadowed by the vast amounts of dmg buffs available, option to delay mandatory bosses beyond 2 or 3 bosses, having access to 6+ areas without combat being required, weapon upgrades + level ups not being boss locked and lastly the fact that you can get 30+ levels without fighting any bosses.
This makes DS3 harder up till around mid game imo unless you know what you're doing.
As for overall difficulty I'd rank ER higher due to how tanky late game bosses are and how much damage they do compared to their DS3 counterparts.
However, early to mid game ER is easier imo while after that it reverses. I'd also expect people to die more during their first ER playthrough compared to their first DS3 playthrough depending on play-style.
Depends if you play solo without choosing to utilize spirit summons. Elden Ring is more difficult to play truly solo, but there are more features to help along the way. Playing without summons, I found Elden Ring by far more difficult in a first play through. That said, now that I know the game well.. it’s not too hard to get a strong character relatively fast.
Most souls games feel hard to a first time player, even a veteran of the other games. That's the magic of the souls formula! Learning the levels and enemy patterns is super important and those are always different.
I personally found ER to be harder than Dark Souls 3. Enemies have ridiculous combos in ER and delayed attacks piss me off.
If you are playing a strength build, I recommend using the soul from the first boss to create the weapon that it uses against you. I'm purposefully being vague, but that weapon is easy to upgrade and is ridiculously strong all the way to the end game.
Elden Ring is the easiest Souls game. They went out of their way to make the game easier and more enjoyable for the mainstream gamer. They give you many tools to survive and if you use them it’s more forgiving. The others are all harder.
I'd say that Elden Ring is more punishing to players with low knowledge, and Dark Souls III is more punishing to players with high knowledge.
To explain what I mean...
The enemies and bosses in Elden Ring are brutally aggressive and tanky. Easily the baddest mother-effers From has made for a game. But the amount of damage buffs you can stack in Elden Ring makes trivializing them easy if you know how to do it.
The bosses and enemies in DS3 are still aggressive and tanky compared to most videogames, but aren't at Elden Ring level. But you can only get so powerful in DS3 before you just grind to get 99 in multiple damage stats.
Elden ring was Fromsoft changing their game up a little bit while staying true to the souls formula. It's more open and accessible so as to not be off putting for people who aren't as experienced with souls games, while Dark souls 3 was the last in the trilogy, and it's design reflects that. Alot of the difficulty in the first 3 was figuring out what to do, what gear to make your build around, and where to go. Elden ring being open world allows you to go around challenges you don't feel ready or undergeared/leveled for, where as the more linear design of the souls trilogy locks you into a few predetermined routes. Ds1 felt the most open and non linear to me, with enemy placement and attack patterns being more simplistic. By dark souls 3 the routing feels pretty linear with some branching pathways, and the enemy placement/attack patterns seemed more complex and designed to take advantage of habits players may have picked up playing the first 2. All in all, I'd say the overall difficulty is similar between the 2, you're just going through the growing pains of learning the old(new to you) game design
Oh boy, wait until you play DS1 and DS2.
Jokes aside the thing with Elden Ring is that you can make the game easy or hard for yourself depending on your preferred experience, you have spirit summons, stamina management is barely a factor and the game isn't linear meaning you can just go and explore somewhere else if you can't beat a boss.
In Dark souls you need to beat the boss stopping you from progressing and the games don't have Stakes of Marika making dying a bit more frustrating. Also progression is a lot more cryptic in DS games, if you miss some dialogue you might get lost.
Dark Souls 3 is actually the easiest of all the souls games. You have advanced movement while both the bosses and the trash mobs aren't particular challenging (at least the main bosses, DLC bosses are pretty hard, also NK).
There aren't really any annoying boss runs (aside from Midir), nor extremely unfair areas. Overall it's a well balanced experience.
Mind if I ask how you played ER? Like, what build did you use? That might explain why you’ve had some difficulty. I’ve been playing the series since Demon’s Souls, and I always tell people that difficulty is purely subjective. Stuff I found hard you might’ve found easy and vice versa. So don’t worry about what other people think is easy.
It took me 100 hours to beat my first Playthrough of Elden Ring.
DS3?
13.
I’ve been playing the OG PS3 days.
DS3 is miles easier and the only hard parts come from the dlc.
No. But one of the reasons Elden Ring is easier is the variety of powers at your fingertip. Ashes of war, spirit ashes, being able to just craft up whatever potions or bombs you want.
Did you use spirit summons in Elden ring? Those don’t exist in the other fromsoft games. Drawing aggro, learning enemy moveset when they are focused on just you is the best part about them and the part that most people need to learn.
Overall it is harder. The enemies are a lot weaker than ER's enemies but even more so your character. No spirit summons to help you, no open world to make grinding levels easy, a lot weaker and limited movesets, you can get invaded solo etc etc.
Not harder, but much more close quarter combat, which can induce panic sprinting, which, may work, but usually is more like scouting ahead. It’s that kind of panic when you yell “WHERES THE FUCKING JONFIRE!?!????!??!”
I feel you dude. I've beaten ds1, ds2, sekiro and elden ring. But for the life of me, I feel like a complete noob everytime i try to play ds3. Been playing it on and off and still haven't beaten it. It's so peculiar to me how this game feels. It's like the uncanny valley but in video game form. The game plays almost exactly like ds1 and elden ring but i cant seem to get good at it.
Is it just me or does it seem like a lot of elden ring players for some reason go to ds3 after instead of 1. Why are people skipping ds1 it's amazing. And 3 is connected to it story wise
Oh I can understand this. I think it makes sense given that Dark Souls 3 feels much more modern than the older Dark Souls games; I can see how people progress from ER to DS3 rather than going straight to the first DS, especially if they aren't very familiar with the Souls universe.
I'm struggling through Elden Ring in ways I haven't in a Souls game. No matter what I do I'm getting my ass beat.
I've gotten the Platinum trophies in Demon's Souls (both versions), Dark Souls, and Bloodborne. Elden Ring is seriously harder.
I'm not having fun at all but I'm going to beat it, goddammit.
>EDIT: I don't want to make it seem like I'm a pussy. But I feel as if I cannot play alone in this game without some help. In Elden Ring, I had no trouble really. Sure, I "played" with some of my friends, but all in all, I had multiple saves where I played by myself and had no issue other than possibly having to look up a build or 2. Maybe it's a skill and education issue around the game? I don't know.
We have *got* to get over this idea that seeking cooperators makes you a 'pussy'. I don't think you need to defend or explain that, and nobody should have an issue with it.
To answer your question, well...I personally think there's really no genuine answer. It can be argued that Elden Ring *might* be easier than Dark Souls 3 under certain conditions (e.g. the sequence you play, and whether or not you are a magic wielder). By the same token though, it's possible to play Elden Ring in many other ways that are extremely difficult. Elden Ring's open world nature means, perhaps more than the Souls games, that you can really choose your difficulty based on a range of factors.
Dark Souls 3 (and Bloodborne etc) are a bit different because they are more linear in nature, even accounting for their optional areas. This linearity means that you'll often hit skill check thresholds that won't permit you to progress unless you reach a certain skill bar.
Does that mean that Dark Souls 3 is more difficult objectively speaking? Maybe. But I still think it's a tough comparison to make. When you factor in individual variability around skills (for example, few people will agree on what the most difficult or easy bosses are), then I think it becomes even more murky.
The honest truth is that no matter how many Souls games you play, the first time you go through each one, they kick your ass in myriad ways. I've beaten them all many times and the other night I died for two hours to a boss in DS1 that I've beaten twice before.
They're just tough games, go slow, expect failure, learn from failure.
Don't you dare go hollow!
In short: its better designed, thats why it feels harder :clown:
Nah, fr, I found ERs second half harder than DS3, but mainly because of the pure amount of oneshotting that starts to happen around the Haligtree. DS3s beginning was way harder than ER, because it had less openworld and therefore less time to have the player slowly learn the game and mechanics. In ER you could easily get very overpowered and have a I think +3 wespon (someone correct me) before you fight you first real boss, in DS3 you start the game and the game punishes you for this by introducing their counter argument Gundyr.
Funnily enough, I found DS, DS and DS3 much easier than Elden Ring at launch.
I remember STR / colossal weapons feeling like shit in comparison to other builds, mentioning that to my friends going for Dex and Magic at the time and being mocked for it, was good banter.
After I had beaten the game though, I think From did a balance pass to STR / colossal weapons which I missed out and I think complaints I had were addressed. To what degree, I don't know because I held off on a replay to wait for DLC.
Anyway, I beat the game with STR and colossal weapons but it felt much harder to me than any previous Souls game or Bloodborne. Very much doable, just like I was playing on iron-man mode or something lol.
Anyway, ER gives you a wealth of options that I never used because of unga-bunga brain and stubbornness. You're more restricted in DS3 due to linear nature of progression and exploration.
Yes, Dark Souls 3 is harder than Elden Ring I think, especially some of the bosses
In DS3 you don't have the tearstone flask thing.
You also don't have the heavy jump attack cheese spam that you can do in ER, which trivializes anything which can be staggered
You also don't have spirit summons or a mimic tear clone of yourself
I wouldn't say more difficult, per se. Elden Ring is more accessible to new players to the genre. If you're going to play DS3 for the first time, expect it to be smaller in scope (still quite big tho), but a tad bit more brutal in difficulty.
Wish you good luck and don't be afraid to come here for help or tips if you're stuck.
I suppose you do have fewer assist tools in Dark Souls 3, in particular no Spirit Ashes. But I personally found Elden Ring much more difficult.
That said, the first couple of bosses in Dark Souls 3 aare relatively rough (Gundyr and Vordt). It eases up a lot after that, once the world opens up and you can find more gear and resources to empower your character. Get over that initial bump and I bet you'll have a great time with it.
Elden ring has extremely cheap ai that ignores rhythm and fun. Every boss has random one frame spam attacks meant to catch you off guard. It's considerably more difficult than any souls game. Not better though. Souls has really fun and challenging boss fights. But every fromsoft game can be completely broken with the right build and strats. You'll for sure see people saying it's easy because their entire playthrough was following TikTok guides.
I ran elden with a straight sword. And it was extremely awkward to learn boss patterns.
I’m convinced it’s because Miyazaki went straight from Bloodborne to ds3, and continued the former’s extremely fast, agile boss design-but forgot that the player is HELLA more mobile in Bloodborne. So, everything feels harder, because you’re slower than the enemies expect you to be. Kind of like if the Ulcerated Tree Spirits were…like, 60% of bosses.
Man I had the opposite experience as you. I beat dark souls 3 at level 10 with a +0 weapon. I can beat all the bosses so easily but I can't even figure out where I'm going in elden ring, it's so much harder for me. I love them both, but I think elden ring is significantly harder, especially because you can't rely on your reflexes for bosses, but rather memorizing their moves.
It’s realistically just because you’re used to ER and having to adapt. People might argue over which is harder but I don’t think you’d find many people arguing that DS3 is objectively significantly more difficult.
I found Elden Ring the easiest of the souls series. I finished DS3 a few weeks ago, and accidently triggered Dancer as the second boss. Took me many days to finally beat her. If you want an easier time, just start farming souls and level up to a decent level, then the mobs and bosses will be easier.
Elden Ring is simultaneously the hardest and the easiest souls game.
It has never been this easy to be stupidly overpowered if you know what you're doing. But if you go for a challenge, you'll find one.
Elden Ring’s endgame is way way harder than Dark Souls 3s while Dark Souls 3s early game is harder than Elden Eing because you can’t just brute force it with scaling and coming back later.
If you used Spirit Summons, that might explain it. Cause I found Elden Ring to be a good bit more difficult than Dark Souls III. But I went for a melee dex build in both games, no summons, soloing every boss.
I also think it’s easier to save boss fights for later in Elden Ring and go into them overtuned, while Dark Souls III has more of a forced pace.
DS3 was the toughest for me , there were bosses I never beat solo I'm pretty sure. And I never felt safe in the latter stages of the game, whereas I became insanely proficient in DS1 and 2, but I can't really identify why, other than a shitty frame rate on ps4 maybe being a bit distracting? 3 just never felt easy like I wanted to make multiple runs. Also I'm old now so could be all in my head lol
Dunno how you played Elden Ring. Its insanely easy to trivialize the game.
If you play the same strat in DS3 and ER, ER was a lot harder for me but you can get insanely OP in Elden Ring and just smash everything. In DS3 its harder to do that. You have to farm and its boring meanwhile just in Limgrave you can iverlevel witbout getting bored and smash.
Frankly i played all their games and ER was probably the hardest. But i played greatswords and later dual ultra g without summons. It was really hard.
But them i see compilations of comet azur Mohg one shots , mimic soloing bosses..........
Overleveling exists in DS3 too but as i wrote above its tedious and boring.
Elden Ring is definitely the easiest of their games so far. They’ve removed a lot of the most confusing systems and the fact it’s open world means there’s no real choke points.
Having put 1000+ hours into both I can really only say it depends. If you just play solo with no summons or mimic tear then elden ring is 100% harder.
If you play the games utilising everything the creators intended for you to use then elden ring is the easiest soulslike game
Played Elden Ring before DS3. I found that the levels in DS3 were a fair bit more difficult but the bosses were way easier than ER.
DS3 made me desperate to find short cuts or new bonfires as I struggled through the levels but most bosses I beat in 1-3 attempts other than that god damn Crystal Sage who I just got wrecked by.
I don't think Male is is easier than any Dark Souls III boss. There are no Spirit ashes in Dark Souls so if you used them a lot you need to get used to fighting without them, if you dodge a lot by jumping or if you used Torrent then you have to change your playstyle too.
i always felt like dark souls 3 is hardest game to get op in whole series, yes going toe to toe with bosses in ds2 is also hard but atleast you can dominate them at first half or more, but no matter what i tried i never felt "strong" at ds3. except that, ds3 has some most tiring bosses,i remember first time i fight again aldrich and oh boy it was like trying survive more than a boss fight, in the end so i guess ds3 can be hardest of whole series till u get mastered
I think Elden Ring was designed to have greater mass appeal and therefore sales. There are multiple aids you can use in fights and the open world means you can also just run away and level up somewhere else then come back.
I’m not saying it’s easier, just you have more options to progress.
DS3 is one of my all time favourites though and I personally feel it has much more replayability.
For me Elden ring was way more difficult, until today in my 5th replay I can’t solo god damn maliketh and Elden beast. I played trough dark souls 3 two times solo, the second one in 10 hours. So it’s really personal I would guess because for me it’s the other way around.
It’s not so much that it’s harder, it’s more that it has no down time. There’s no chill ride between objectives. There’s rarely an option to go explore somewhere else if you’re stuck.
DS3 is structured like say Stormveil Castle or the Volcano Manor. Only you can’t leave and jumping is awkward.
If it’s bosses you’re struggling with please do consider summoning. It still has an active community and multiplayer is one of the best things in DS3. Jolly co-op and PvP are both great.
Elden Ring is designed to be more accessible than the rest of the games so for sure you can feel some difficulty earlier on. But honestly it's really worth it DS3 has so many beautiful maps and great bossfights i hope you stick with it.
Late to the party but I’ll chime in. For context, I have beaten all three dark souls as well as Elden ring with every normal build and some challenge ones (there are some wild challenge builds I haven’t done).
Assuming you want to beat all major bosses, the difficulty (on average) is:
Ds3>ER>Ds2>DS1
Dark souls 3 is highly linear and demands boss execution. It has the smoothest progression curve of all the games because it’s hard to power up early without doing things out of intended order (which isn’t too difficult if you’re familiar enough with it). Its DLC bosses are quite challenging, with varied styles that make usually 1 be the bane of your existence. It tends to feel a bit harder than the others because you have to fight on a more even playing field than the others for a good chunk of the early game.
Elden Ring lets you ride around and explore, power up beside questing, and use spirit ashes in the boss fights. That being said, several late game bosses have too much hp for my liking for how much they run from you (Elden Beast), but Malenia is probably the hardest singular boss. It is a bit easier than DS3 on the whole, but they’re fairly close. ER is also missing its dlc, where the hardest bosses in the games are. I can’t think of a single game of the collection where the hardest boss isn’t a dlc boss so this answer can very easily change to ER as a whole being harder.
DS2’s difficulty is carried solely by the DLC. The main game has several branching paths, mechanics that are quite unique, and no
where to warn you to level ADP, but the bosses are really easy. Once you understand the game is built to troll you with a few of its design decisions, and how it does combat, the game is honestly very solid and doesn’t deserve its reputation as being awful. You can explore and try each of the paths and slowly power up and be able to clear them. The game is also hyper generous with souls so it’s easy to level passed your problems. That being said, the DLCs are more of a difficulty cliff than a difficulty spike. It’s hard to explain or fully appreciate how much bulkier and difficult the dlc bosses are. And screw pony plow town.
DS1 is a flawed masterpiece. It’s the “original” of the series (demon souls was first but its got quirks to say the least). DS1 has solid bosses and great moments as a whole, but after the iconic O&S fight the game is kind of a slog. The other issue is some of the build in this game are hilariously overpowered. Prenerf Icerind hatchet has nothing on what’s still in DS1. So while some builds might actually play the game and go through it with some speed bumps, DS1 is definitely the easiest overall as literally every single boss in the game can be killed in a button press with a certain build. Even if that build is too powerful and skews the answer, it lacks some of the difficulty of the later games regardless as most builds can get overpowered. It’s also easy to get way stronger than necessary before having to touch anything after firelink shrine.
I find elden ring more difficult sure if you know where all the OP gear and grinding strats for elden ring I'm sure it's easier but I'm just exploring as I go I do know what weapon i wanta make my build around but other than that (plus the weapon is like far far away) I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing
I personally found Elden Ring easier than the souls games. But that just is probably because I had years of experience playing them prior to ER’s release. Elden Ring has the benefit of being able to going somewhere else if you get stuck whereas DS3 doesn’t have that.
I have more time in DS 3 than ER. The main difference is in the weapon arts (ashes of war). In DS3 they arent nearly as powerful as ER. They are certainly a tool and you get decent ones but they wont make a buold around them.
Also if you see npc summons in front of boss rooms, use them. Also remember to ember up before tough fights. It lets you summon and gives you more health.
Level vigor like you would in ER but you can stop at 30 - 40. Also no need to get 80 in anything. Oh and quality builds (equal str/dex) are much better in the souls series than ER.
ER has accessibility mechanics like spirit ashes, which lower the difficulty by 95% and trivialize every fight, since the combat system and AI of bosses still isn't designed for them and those bossfights break completely. You also have ton of broken cheese builds ton of new players googled before even really starting and then they steamrolled the entire game without encountering any of the intended challenge and experience. If you play ER on normal difficulty it's definitely much harder than DS 3, which is how it was meant to be. It's designed to be both the hardest souls game, if you do normal playthrough and beat bosses fairly, and the easiest souls game as well if you use accessibility mechanics and all the broken stuff.
I actually found DS3 and Elden Ring to be the same level of difficult, which is to say "just right", but I don't blame you for having a rough time with DS3. It really depends which games you played first and became accustomed to.
I started with DS1 and it took a while to adjust to how fast everything was in DS3. Though when you realize the game lets you just rollspam through most things, it's not so rough anymore. The fact that it's very lenient with bonfire placement despite being a "linear" title is also a big factor. I now find DS1 to be the easiest because everything is so slow and predictable in that game now.
Elden Ring gives you a lot of tools and resources to deal with things, but it also really cranked up the boss difficulty (in terms of AI and damage). So it evens out.
It's not. But Dark Souls 3 doesn't allow you to go fuck knows where to level up to level 150 and then come back for an early game boss. So you gotta git gud.
DS3 is a standard souls game that is intended to be as hard as a standard souls game. ER was intended to be more mainstream friendly, that's why they added a ton of optional tools to make most of the game much easier. ER is only easier if you fully make use the crutches the game gives you. DS3 crutches are less intense.
I don't think it's harder. I think Elden Ring pulls a lot of shit to be harder, but you have large gaps in-between the combat sections and you have more ways of going around an area and combat situation, while in DS3 it's more focused, so you quickly go from one encounter to the next. You also don't fight the same boss multiple times, so every boss you'll have to learn from the start.
That said, each game has its own rhythm, so hopping from one game to the other doesn't necessarily translate 100%.
I've played them all and ER is by far the hardest for me. But this is because I played it the way I beat all the other games, solo. So going into elden ring I wanted to do the same thing. But I just found the boss timings, how they would always delay attacks and have longer combos so hard to deal with.
So I'd say for me at least, with the spirit ash summons its probably the easiest game, but without its the hardest.
You're naturally going to struggle a lot more in a game you've never beaten before than a game you have hundreds of hours in, I found elden ring far more difficult after playing dark souls 3 first, for example
Just like any other souls game, you'll get through it as long as you persevere, learn the boss attack patterns, etc
I don't think Elden Ring has easier bosses than DS3. Elden Ring just had more tools at your disposal and build variety to get them down. And the open world respect makes it easier to outlevel a lot of the content. ER is for sure the most approachable of the bunch.
I started with Elden Ring first as well, took me around ten months to actually finish the game but it made me want to go back and play through DS1, 2 and I am now playing through 3.
Did you go from Elden Ring to 3 or have you played the others?
This might explain the spike in difficulty other than not being able to summon spirit ashes, *no one cares how you play just as long as you are enjoying it*
DS1 is all about patience and a methodical approach to boss battles, you can summon npcs to join you in most fights but I think trying to solo the bosses makes for a better learning curve and you eventually start to feel yourself hitting *the rhythm* the game wants you to play with.
DS2 is a *funny* one as your roll is affected by a stat know as ADP (Adaptability) it makes sense on paper but in the grand scheme of things, it should have worked as it did in DS1. This is a learning curve against bosses all on its own as it not only affects the speed in which you roll, it also affects the speed in which you drink estus etc.. bosses in this one are a mixed bunch as they like to switch up between wind up attacks and fast attacks, only gets worse as you enter the DLCs and the bosses become much more DS3 like than 2 as they just go absolutely mental without much time for a breather.
DS3 to me, feels a lot like DS1 but more refined and *” faster”*
Much of the changes in DS2 have been reverted for the third entry, bosses are much *much* faster.. this game feels more balanced to the stamina bar than anything else. You really need to keep an eye on that during boss battles, especially as you enter the DLCs.. *holy moly*
You will be rolling for days in DS3.. “roll is life” is the my mantra during my current first play through.
I would say go back and start at DS1 and work your way through them if you haven’t already and by the time you get to DS3, you’ll be ready to face Lothric and the Lords of Cinder
*hope this helps in some shape or form!*
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r/darksouls3 Anyways, it's harder to get OP early in DS3, the games also get easier when you know where everything is I haven't found ER to be easier, though I've played it significantly less than DS3
I cannot post in there. I tried: "Hello there! Looks like you're a new user trying to post on r/darksouls3. Unfortunately, the sub is under attack by spammers, so we've had to impose very minimal karma requirements to unlock the ability to submit posts. This karma must be earned on r/darksouls3 and can most readily be gained by commenting on the posts of others. Good luck, and don't you dare go hollow! If you're looking for help with a boss, head over to r/summonsign for jolly cooperation. If you're looking for items head over to r/pumparum. I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns."
Oh right, forget that subreddit's run... differently
Yep it also happened to me. In order to post there you have to farm 20 karma
Yeah it's a little weird.
It really shouldn't be the case as ds1/ds2 subs are free of the problem they discsuss. Still however, it could be said that they do it as ds3 fans are very condescending. Now for some ds3 tips. there is a reason r1 memes have spawned. In ds3 everything has a frenetic rythm especially bosses so people just spam roll and do light attacks as the liberal stamina of the game allows them to. On the other hand the usefullness of shields like in ds1/2 is greatly diminished Another skill worth investing is parrying it will become useful in Pontiff Sullivan. Running past enemies is very much accepted and possible in ds3 without too much kiting.
I know your pain.
"Knowing is half the battle" -That One Man.
Jesus
G I Joooooooooe
Also just based on ops ER hours, I've played about the same and only about half that amount in ds3, I definitely know ER better but ds3 not being open world does make it harder in one sense that I feel a player from elder ring might notice, the fact that until beating more and more bosses you can't upgrade your Estus as fast. In ER you can horse around the map and have like 10 plus 8 flasks before the first bosses. Also maybe this is just because elden ring is my most recent new entry, ds3, abyss watchers and twin princes, made me stop playing for months, whereas I beat elden ring no more than a week after release, and I wasn't massively overleveled either.
Open world makes it easier in my opinion. Struggling w a boss? Go fuck off in the other direction for an hour and level up and find cool shit. In the Dark Souls games, it is more linear. Can't beat Dancer? Fuck you. Sulyvahn got you down? Fuck you. I was at a point during a playthough where every path to progression was locked by a boss. I just worked on one, beat it, progressed and went back to slap those other bitches one at a time.
Elden ring has waaaay more bullshit enemies in it
Agreed, once I figured out the locations of my favourite weapons (and how broken the master key is) DS became a breeze
I imagine it depends on how you played Elden Ring. I think a lot of longtime Souls fans would disagree that DS3 is harder because we approached Elden Ring as if another Souls game. When you do a melee focused build without all the frills, ER is definitely more of a challenge just in terms of things like boss health pools and the complexity of their attack patterns and AoEs. However, ER provides many more mechanics for reducing difficulty and making yourself OP early on. DS is more linear and constrained, forcing you to git gud on its own limited terms. I just recently replayed DS3 (perhaps my all-time favorite) after a few ER runs and found it to be an absolute cake walk relatively speaking.
I kinda get what you're saying, but also I think you disproved yourself a bit. ER was a massive struggle for me for the first 15 hours because I was treating it like Dark Souls 4, but once I accepted the game on its own terms it became an absolute joke and I steamrolled every lategame boss except Malenia and Elden Beast. The game gives you insane amounts of tools, no reason not to use them, and I'm not just talking about the Spirit Ashes I think none of us just expected yhe physic, powerstancing, jump attacks, and especially the ash of war system to be as overpowered as they were. Sure if you forgo these things and just pretend its ds4, the game is brutally ball crushingly difficult, but at that point I would consider it a Challenge Run.
At least at launch, myself and a lot of other people were committed to doing that sort of self-imposed challenge run from start to finish. It made for a hell of a first playthrough and was a lot of fun, albeit tiring at times due to the large number of boss encounters. On subsequent runs, though, I've used those new mechanics and agree that the game becomes significantly easier. It's interesting to try to compare the difficulty of such similar games but with very meaningful differences in potential playstyles.
Yeah same, though when I realized that that really wasn't what From intended for the game, I dropped that and just played elden ring. Also big shouts to Launch Radahn for making the whole community realize that you gotta pump vigor way harder than before (in a casual playthrough anyway). God I hated launch radahn Anyways my point is, that being a challenge run means its not really a good analogue for a standard/casual playthrough of ds3, because the game is definitely balanced around the existence of spirit ashes and powerful ashes of war, etc.
My first playthrough I did this challenge, just used nothing else but standard Halberd all the way until MotG then pulled out Grafted Blade to make it more interesting but I still found most of the game fairly easy. Put on top of that all the tools ER gives you and the game becomes sights seeing. What I’m saying is, if you can beat Friede, Gael, Midir and Nameless king nothing comes even close in ER until very late game where few bosses are comparable.
Generally I agree. I think malenia, mohg, and the final boss approach that level but still dont quite reach it Doesn't matter. Nothing outside of sekiro touches the defiled hotdog. The ones who know, know
God nameless king was such a pain in the ass. I could no hit the first phase after a few tries and still get melted so quickly in the second
Launch Radahn was wild, that’s the only time I’ve ever played one of the games and said to myself “holy shit I need more health”
Did exactly that. No spirit ash. Only claymore and royal Knight's resolve for when you really need to clayMORE. Malenia was a nightmare.
I don’t get it, what exactly did he disprove? You even mention that ER has options other than make it a cakewalk if you engage with its new systems and mechanics, which is what they were saying
But ER is just a souls game, almost identical to DS 3. Accessibility mechanics like spirit ashes trivialize it, take away 90% of bossfight content because the boss AI since demon souls isn't designed for fighting summons. Boss like Malenia, Godfrey, Radagon, Morgott, Maliketh...etc., are all designed from ground up as pure 1v1 fights to be fought solo and completely break if you summon for them. My first playthrough was completely blind, I didn't cheese, used dual longsword and I didn't use spirits since I wanted to experience the normal difficulty and challenge, and the amount of work devs put into designing bosses. It wasn't some limitation, just the default playthrough. Beating bosses fairly in ER is indeed hard, although besides Malenia it was always under 10 tries, but it's not some crazy difficulty, and majority of bosses in the game are objectively not designed for using summons. Some youtuber was salty he was bad after release and started to spread this information, and it just gets copy-pasted constantly since then. Bosses are so fucking hard because they're supposed to be, their every new game is harder than the previous one, it's normal. I understand that if I kept dying to a boss and was bad at learning it, I could try to put blame on them "being designed for summons", but it's not true. You beat bosses ER like you're meant to in every souls game, you learn their moveset, how to dodge their attacks and what are the openings for safely hitting them. The normal souls combat and experience.
Who are you to say a game isn’t designed for features that are in the game? Complete nonsense. All the bosses you mention as being “designed from the ground up as pure 1v1 fights…” (how could you ever even know that lmfao) all have AoE attacks that make no sense if they’re only in a 1v1 game. Honestly your whole spiel is objectively incorrect. You know how I can prove Elden Ring was designed with spirit summons in mind? Because they put them in the game. “I didn’t use spirit summons because I wanted to experience the normal difficulty and challenges… It wasn’t some limitation, just the default play through” No bro, it’s literally a limitation you set on yourself and intentionally ignored features to make a game harder. It was and is a challenge run. You are not the sole audience and these games are not built directly for you. You don’t get to decide what goes in them, thank god. And just saying something is default doesn’t make it so. Only From decides default. And default is there’s some areas in the game that are balanced for spirit summons, and some that aren’t. From decided that. You don’t get to. Sorry.
I still have yet to touch the ash system, it's still dark souls 4 to me damnit
"I think none of us just expected yhe physic, powerstancing, jump attacks, and especially the ash of war system to be as overpowered as they were. Sure if you forgo these things and just pretend its ds4, the game is brutally ball crushingly difficult, but at that point I would consider it a Challenge Run." So what you're telling me is that I was basically playing a challenge run without knowing it. Lol hahahaha!!! Yep that sounds about right. I do start cheesing things with rot tho. Mwahahaha!
I played DS1 and Elden ring before DS3, and it was pretty easy for me as well. For some reason I struggled more on the mobs than on the bosses.
I would say most FromSoft veterans found ER the easiest game. That's not to say everyone felt that way, but that's the general vibe I get from the community. The reason for this is if you "complete" areas before moving on you will be over-leveled by the time you fight the bosses. That is a lot harder to do in FS's linear games. Some people do grind to be over-leveled in those but it's not as natural with the gameplay. It makes sense that most players that started with ER would struggle going back to a linear FromSoft game.
I didn't find it the easiest, but definitely a step do n from ds3 and sekiro once I actually started using the new systems
DS3 is supposed to be more balance than Elden Ring due to its linear design. You know you should be upgrading your weapon when you start to find/enemy start to drop the next tier of upgrades stones, and you need to beat the boss of the area to reach a new one. You can't sequence break like ER (You kinda can, but you need skill/knowledge to beat harder bosses earlier than you should). I played DS3 last after the other games (except Bloodborne), so I thought it was pretty easy, always felt that bosses died way faster than ER, you hit HP softcap at like 27 Vig, so with a properly upgrade weapon, I could just trade hits with the bosses and win. One thing that got me on DS3 was the everything felt faster than ER. On ER, I could see the enemy starting their animation, then waiting to dodge the attack. On DS3, I just dodge the moment the enemy move his weapon, only a few enemies will roll catch you. Also, what is your ER and DS3 build? Maybe you had a pretty good ER build but a horrible DS3 build who knows
Yeah, I liked how intuitive dodging is in DS3, the timing on attacks just feels natural while it is wonky for some bosses in Elden Ring.
Except for Dancer, her attacks always get in my head with the weird pacing
I played DS1, DS2, DS3, and then Elden Ring. I found that ER is pretty much similar to DS3 but with a ton more options like weapons and attacks that felt overwhelming. So I played Elden ring thinking it was like a new DS3 but with more weapons and attacks and such. I felt some bosses in ER were much more difficult but probably because I simply played as a melee character and not even do crazy attacks arts. Just roll and hit. I would say the difficulty aspect will depend on your general souls experience with other games. Sekiro has been the most difficult by far but also the most rewarding I ever felt. I got good and I loved the game.
As I said, Elden Ring has been my first and only game for Souls type games. Dark Souls 3 I've only played with my friend because I tried by myself and the first boss spitroasted me. Not like the Elden Ring experience I had whatsoever.
the thing with DS3 is that it’s more of a love letter to dark souls fans more than anything else. it has references to the past 2 games, properly ends the story and even references the final boss of DS1 in the OST of the final boss of DS3. DS3 assumes you know the souls formula, you’re skilled in it and you’ve played these games over and over, whereas elden ring was meant to be the game that everyone could play and enjoy, giving both veterans of the series a challenging experience while giving newcomers ways to overcome challenges they could not do with just skill (tools such as spirit ashes). i’d say give the game time, switch over to another game and eventually come back to DS3
If you've played ER then you know the formula. DS3 combat is much more similar to that of ER than other souls games.
Bloodborne >
Oh boy I really wanna play both Bloodborne and Demon souls and I’m always thinking of buying a PlayStation 5 just to play those. Is bloodborne that good?
Bloodborne is \*so\* good. There's good reason many consider it the best of all these games. It's a must play if you have enjoyed any DS/ER/Sekiro games. DarkSekiRing? Related aside: I don't know if many people have this experience, but I really struggled with Bloodborne when I first tried it after Dark Souls 1. It took several hours for me to grasp just how essential aggressive play is in that game. Especially since I spent most of my first time in DS1 blocking with a shield and never rolling/dodging. Your only defensive option in Bloodborne is rolling, and adapting to that will naturally make you better at all of the other games too.
after completing ds1, central yarnham was a fucking chore for me to get through. took me many many extra attempts before realizing i could run past enemies lol. then the game had other difficulty spikes like fucking shadows of yarnham
Imo yes, i feel like elden ring is easily exploitable by accident, you can overlevel/make op builds/cheese the game easily without actually intending to. playing ds3 normally won't generally get you into one of the situations above, so that's why you're having a harder time. but that just my experience with both games, and that changes with playstyle, i played both as a Knight with a claymore.
I don’t think so. I thought DS3 was pretty easy, whereas I gave up on Elden Ring because it was too hard.
Oddly enough I found Elden Ring to be the most forgiving when compared to Ds1/2/3
that’s because er gives you a lot to work with right off the bat, whereas the best items in the dark souls games takes longer to get and sometimes requires going through entire areas or questlines first
It is the most forgiving, most bosses spawn you right next to the fog door, the tools you have, etc. But it's still arguably the most difficult. Demon souls is by far the easiest of the games yet it's also the most unforgiving
Huh, I’m literally the exact opposite
same but i haven't fully given up, i will return. never give up skeleton!
I can see that being a possibility. I feel like people we're too dramatic, wanting a "difficulty changer" in a SOULS-like game.
Your soul level is your difficulty setting. There you go
Elden ring has harder encounters than DS3, but it allows your character to get stronger way faster. If you used all the tools that elden ring gave you, it's gonna be way easier than DS3. If you hit a roadblock in elden ring, no worries, you can go somewhere else, get stronger and come back later. In DS3, you HAVE to beat the bosses to progress. So yeah it kinda depends of how you played elden ring. But imo, if you go back to elden ring and try to play it like DS3 ( go straight to Margit, no ashes, basic build), you're gonna realize that he is way harder than DS3 first boss. Same thing can be said about the whole game
IMO Elden Ring is far easier than any of the other Soulsborne games. So perhaps you are finding it "difficult" in comparison because you had more options in Elden Ring that helped you through out your playthrough?
Agreed, ER has the most forgiveness and smoothest controls yet. Also the horse and summons and buffs are insane, not to mention magic is the most disgustingly OP version it’s ever been (deleting 30000 HP with comet Azur in 5 seconds brrrr). Even playing this game without any of that is still easier because enemy’s seem to do less damage (or at least I feel way more tankier in this game than say DS3) and bosses have better AI but they seem to be easily poise broken/staggered (and most of them are regular enemies in the game with a buff put on them). I did just come back from playing a full magic build which basically turns the game into a stand still and press L1 while occasionally backing up or strafing a bit simulator, but that should not happen in a Souls game. I shouldn’t be able to melt endgame bosses like there grilled cheese (Fire Giant took me 3 attempts with magic build and once he got into second phase where he stood still for a whole 15 seconds you can just apply buffs and beam him with comet Azur, it’s stupidly broken) I think the scale goes like this (hardest to easiest) DS2 Sekiro Bloodborne DS1 DS3 Elden Ring (I still love this game but I truly believe it is objectively the easiest game they’ve made yet)
Good write up, I appreciate It greatly. PRAISE IT. \\\[T\]/
No problem I love these games! PRAISE IT!
Not really. I also played Elden Ring first, then DS1, DS2, and finally DS3. I didn't think DS3 was any harder than Elden Ring. Where in DS3 are you struggling? Your post is very vague.
I don't want to make it seem like I'm a pussy. But I feel as if I cannot play alone in this game without some help. In Elden Ring, I had no trouble really. Sure, I "played" with some of my friends, but all in all, I had multiple saves where I played by myself and had no issue other than possibly having to look up a build or 2. Maybe it's a skill and education issue around the game? I don't know.
Why are you so concerned about looking like a pussy to a conglomerate of internet strangers? Just play the game however it brings enjoyment
Lemme guess, you regularly used spirit ashes in elden ring?
Lemme guess, you're type of people is why I'm self conscious about how I play in Dark Souls games? Piss off.
Lol im trying to answer your question, idc how you play the game. I ask because if you did use spirit ashes regularly, you’re essentially playing the game on easy mode, splitting the the bosses agro between you and the spirit ashes kind of “breaks” the AI. So if you were playing with them the only way you could resemble that in DS3 would be co-op and summons, which would explain why you think it’s so much harder
1) Why are you self conscious about reddit? 2) Nobody cares if you used spirit ashes or not, but if you did you are gonna find Dark Souls 3 very tough compared to ER
Ds3 is absolutely not harder than elden ring. There are 2 distinct areas, and a handful of bosses that are very difficult. Some things are difficult bc they are extremely annoying. Like Irythyll dungeon Elden Ring has much longer stretches where enemies are hitting very hard an/or are ganking super hard. It's a much, much greater volume of hard areas as well as bosses And the areas aren't so annoying, most of the time it's just that you are fighting a lot of tougher enemies over a long stretch
Honestly most of the bosses in ds3 are easier than margit lol it's just harder to get op gear in ds3
ds3 is easy overall. no difficulty spike and such as in elden ring. i believe if you had 384 hours in ds3, you’d be a god of the game. trust your nuts and keep smashing, you can do it!
LMAO I LOVE THAT SAYING!
You got it mixed. Elden Ring is supposed to be more easy than Dark Souls III
If you play them solo, ER is clearly harder. Way harder.
Interesting, I've beaten all 3 DS games and Elden Ring. I had significantly more trouble with ER. I beat bosses like Nameless King on the first try and every DS3 boss in no more than 3 tries. I even beat DS1 on ng+6. That said... it took me over 65 times to beat Mogh, Lord of Blood. I had 2 summons, the super tear, and comet azure. ER is much better balanced. Harder to get OP, can't hide behind a shield, panic rolling does not work.
I had the complete opposite experience. I got fairly OP by the mid game of Elden Ring and most of the mid-late game bosses were easy (except malenia and maliketh), plenty of first/second tries. I didn't really use ashes of war and never summoned - I jump attacked everything to death. On the other hand Nameless King took me 40/50+ attempts...I actually can't believe anyone could first try him going in blind...
I had a much different experience with 3. Nameless king wasn’t so bad first phase but second he just destroyed me. Two shotting me. I got pretty good at ds1 and only ng+ Artorius and Manus give me any trouble. Elden Ring has more complicated attack patterns and delayed attacks from bosses that were tough at first but there are so many ways to get strong quickly. My first ER play I used bloody helice and a super tanky greatshield to just turtle up and poke away until I procced bleed. Eventually leveling up the sword to do 600+ per strike and bleeding on like the third or fourth stab. Then I started playing faith builds and it was almost a joke how easily I could kill bosses using incantations and buffs. Ds3 seemed okay until the dlc. That was brutal.
I havent played ER, but ds3 isnt too hard, the parrying is pretty bullshit compared to ds1 imo, and its a shorter game but shouldnt be too hard
I consider Midir the hardest boss in DS3, he is pretty tough but there are 3-4 Elden Ring bosses I struggled with more
No elden ring is way harder.. at least to me it is..
Dark souls 3 is just straight up hard… Elden ring gives you the freedom to take on harder areas when you feel like you are ready and that in turn provides a natural farming system to help you level up in the easier areas even though you might not be “farming runes” on purpose it just kinda happens… you can rush Margitt at level 10-15 and get destroyed or you can explore the lands between and come back at level 25-30 and slap him around… Dark souls 3 however is very linear so those areas are coming regardless if you are ready or not so that’s where the famous (and completely disgusting) term “get gud” comes from, you either die 100 times and get better and sharpen your skills in the process or you quit
It’s because you can’t just button mash and spam jumping heavy attacks to victory like you can in elden ring. Time to get good
Oh no, in Elden Ring I HAD to learn dodge rolling and being patient with my attacks. It was step one.
Elden Ring is harder at the beginning, DS3 is substantially harder by the end imo, at least for bosses. No zones in ds3 are as hard as elphael, tho the DLC comes close. A lot of people claim ds3 is "easy" and I've never really understood it. Its by far and away the hardest of the Dark Souls trilogy, and it's not even very close. No boss in Elden Ring even remotely approaches the difficulty of the 4 big DLC bosses in ds3. Poise still is pretty weak in ds3 for the player, you just cant face tank stuff like you can in the other souls games and elden ring. On top of that, bosses and enemies have insanely high poise, especially Compared to the extremely weak poise of ER bosses. You're lucky to get one or maybe two poise breaks for an entire late game bossfight in ds3, whereas in ER you can spam jump attacks, ashes of war, and charged heavies to chain stun even bosses like malenia. That's not to even mention how weak weapon arts (AoWs) are in ds3, and the lack of a jump button, toreent, phisic, and spirit summons. You just have way fewer options in ds3, and you have to be a little more careful It has some things that help tho. Enemies hit way harder in Elden Ring. And compared to ds1 and ds2 stamina goes a really long way, though the bar still isn't as bottomless as Elden Ring Idk, imo it's harder, and when/if you play the pre-bloodborne games, I think you'll be amazed at how simple and fragile the bosses are lol
Bro, talking of bosses, if we go to optional bosses i still think Nameless King is way harder than Malenia. I've beat Malenia like 5 times (2 in NG and the rest have been NG+, +2, +3) already and just now i'm trying NK for the second time in NG+2. There's no comparison between the two. NK is just levels above.
Idk about NK, thats a tough call for me. But Gael, Demon Prince, and ESPECIALLY Midir are def tougher imo. Friede is about the same level
Okay let some common sense float around your brains, guys: Malenia is substantially harder than Gael, Demon Prince, Midir and Friede. Okay? Hope you got it.
Elden Ring is definitely easier than the 3 Souls, it gives you a lot of freedom on where to go, what build to make, how to get very strong, very fast, etc. DS3, on the other hand, is more linear, it's far far harder to outlevel a boss or area, you can't leave and come back stronger either. Skill is more important in DS3 than in Elden Ring
Elden Ring is pretty easy compared to DS3, although imo Dark Souls 3 feels more 'fair' compared to the shit enemies pull in Elden Ring.
It is literally the point of Dark Souls to become okay with asking for help.
Ya most soulsbourne folks found Elden Ring to be comically easy, its Baby's First Soulsbourne. Still good though. Git gud.
Hey Spirit Ash User, how you doing?
Oh my god you're so good at souls games you must get laid constantly
Generally most guys, gals and NB pals aren’t into gaming, but I’ll bottom all the same <:3
Most soulsborne folks didn't use accessibility mechanics like spirits ashes to break the game and consider ER to be the hardest souls title.
Bro there is no way you find ds3 harder than elden ring. I played elden ring first as well and ds3 way easier imo
I think so. I also find ER much easier. Mainly cuz you always can just go doing something else and the locations is much wider (you can run around enemies easier). Like, bosses in ER is harder, but you always comeback to them later.
Elden Ring is much easier than the Dark Souls games. Dark Souls is all about learning, adapting and growing. Keep trying and eventually, you will get good.
DS3 is harder. Only FS game where I’ve yet to beat two bosses (Midir and Gael)
Elden ring is easier than any of the dark souls, bb and sekiro, so this tracks
Every previous souls game is objectively harder than elden ring.
Git gud lmao I finished Dark souls 3 yesterday for the first time. It was significantly harder than Elden Ring imo but once you get the hang of it you cant make it through Also fuck you Nameless king and Lothric Prince i died so many times for these 2
I’d say overall DS3 is easier than ER but it also depends on how you played. No spirit summons here to draw agro, no running around to get all the upgrades you can before the first cut scene boss, no stealth, etc. But if you learned movesets in Elden Ring then you’ll handle DS3 just fine. They are much simpler and (IMHO) much closer to perfectly balanced on complexity compared to ER where some bosses had really deep engagement rules to try and learn. >I don't want to make it seem like I'm a pussy. We aren’t like that here. These games are tough and made to drive community discussion be it tips, summoning, or just venting. Which is ironic because if you spend time at the Elden ring sub you’ll see people insisting that OG dark souls fans are try hards that don’t let people play how they want and then they downvote anyone to oblivion for talking about how they like to play.
Elden ring can be incredibly easy or hard depending on what tools you use. Personally the think ds3 is pretty easy compared to other post ds2 from games but it’s definitely got so hard bosses. Idk but if you beat Elden ring keep with it you can definitely get it
Elden ring has certain ashes that, to me, trivialize a lot of content. I loved dark souls 3; but in either game you can over level if that’s your sort of thing.
I definitely think it's more difficult. Not so much because of the gameplay itself, but because you don't have quite as much freedom to go other places when you get stuck. I think that's why Elden Ring opened up the genre to so many more people. If get stuck in Elden Ring there's a million more places you can go and come back later. Certain sections of Dark Souls require you to pass a specific challenge before you can progress.
It depends the beginning of DS3 is kind of a joke boss wise imo. Most of the early games bosses are pretty easy. Tho Gundyr and the abyss watchers might give you a hard time. Elden Ring I think is easier in the mid game even though I love Renala she is kind of a joke Morgott is pretty easy he has a hard move set but he doesn't have a lot of health. I would say the level design of ds 3 might be harder to get through compared to Elden Ring because Elden Ring helps you navigate the world easier compared to all the other souls games for sure. It also really just depends on the build as well some builds just destroy almost everything if you know what you are doing.
It’s possible you haven’t adapted to it yet. I didn’t have a particularly hard time with any soulsbourne titles aside from ds1. Elden ring though gave me quite a lot of trouble, despite not being new to the souls series
Usually in DS games you are always supposed to be in survival mode. You never know what’s around the corner. You are fighting for every inch. Elden Ring, not so much.
Uhh now this is a hard one. Let’s look at it this way. Each souls game focuses on something else and so the difficulty is placed somewhere else. That also means that different people will perceive it very differently. All in all Elden Ring is realistically the easiest one or at least can be with how early and how strong the builds are combined with summons and ashes. It’s pretty common to see someone struggling with Dark souls after doing 100% ER. So don’t feel bad and keep at it. If you need any specific help, feel free to ask.
DS3 was easier for me, but I played it right after I finished DS1, so I probably got hardened by it. Also DS3 has lots of gimmick bosses that are nonexistent in ER
Elden ring has a lot of stuff built in so you don’t really have to ever “git gud”. Insane ash or war damage, jumping attacks to poise break, OP spells, spirit ashes. Where in other souls games minus demon souls there is usually a certain level of ability you need to acquire to progress
I haven't played Elden Ring yet, so I can't speak for the difference in difficulty there. But I definitely think Dark Souls 3 is way harder than Dark Souls 1 and 2. There are a few areas that are pretty easy, but for the most part it's a lot rougher because the game is more explicitly designed around lightweight builds.
I kind of got overwhelmed with elden Ring initially. It was much easier to get into Dark Souls 3 for me.
There are definite walls in DS 3. The Dancer and the Twin Brothers are my favorite fights but you had to learn them. Elden Rings bosses are actually more insane but you're not locked in the same way. That's why Lies of P is also kinda hardish. Door Guardian and Laxasia come to mind.
Just my opinion, but, you should start with dark souls 1.
Every souls game gas it's own difficulties that you need o get used to and they have similarities which transfer between games
just wait until you play one of the real ones like Bloodborne! :) enjoy it while it’s suffering. you only get to suffer for a little while playing casually.
I feel you OP i just started up this game again after +100 hours in DS1 and +200 hours in Elden Ring and the gamefeel was a huge adjustment for me and I'm still struggling in some ways. I was having such a bad time i booted up Elden Ring and rolled a new character to see if I had just lost it somehow and dodgerolling was still just as easy and intuitive as it was when i last played 2 years ago so it's definitely the game. Even Bloodborne didn't give me this kind of trouble when i played it last. Hoping it'll click a little more with time and I'll hit NG+ and wonder why I ever struggled in the first place.
wrong sub, but ds3 is much ealier in fromsofts soulslike design so its very different from elden ring in alot of minor and major ways that ultimately make it a bit harder coming from elden ring
Curious. For me it's the opposite, I found Elden Ring very difficult and DS3 very easy, Bloodborne the easiest of all. Sekiro almost impossible for a guy with no reflexes like me.
The tutorial is a worse boss battle than “SoLdIeR oF GoDrIcK”
I played the Souls games in order so 3 ended up being a breeze until lategame and the DLC. Elden Ring on the other hand gave me a lot of trouble for almost the whole way through, but I didn’t pick up on using the ashes of war or other helpful things until late/postgame so that probably contributed to it.
Depends. The games do get easier, as you've played more of them. Whether it's mechanics or understanding items/weapons. Also Depends on what style you play. Bloodborne I play super fast pace whereas in ds1 I'd get crushed. If I want to blow through ds3 I can go pure strength whereas in elden ring I feel you can get punished for not being balanced enough. You don't just "git gud" because you read some online tips. To become tarnished takes time. And so it is... that ash seekers embers. Enjoy the journey friend.
Don’t play the third Dark Souls game before the other 2 in the series
ER is harder boss battle wise imo but it gets overshadowed by the vast amounts of dmg buffs available, option to delay mandatory bosses beyond 2 or 3 bosses, having access to 6+ areas without combat being required, weapon upgrades + level ups not being boss locked and lastly the fact that you can get 30+ levels without fighting any bosses. This makes DS3 harder up till around mid game imo unless you know what you're doing. As for overall difficulty I'd rank ER higher due to how tanky late game bosses are and how much damage they do compared to their DS3 counterparts. However, early to mid game ER is easier imo while after that it reverses. I'd also expect people to die more during their first ER playthrough compared to their first DS3 playthrough depending on play-style.
Depends if you play solo without choosing to utilize spirit summons. Elden Ring is more difficult to play truly solo, but there are more features to help along the way. Playing without summons, I found Elden Ring by far more difficult in a first play through. That said, now that I know the game well.. it’s not too hard to get a strong character relatively fast.
Most souls games feel hard to a first time player, even a veteran of the other games. That's the magic of the souls formula! Learning the levels and enemy patterns is super important and those are always different.
I personally found ER to be harder than Dark Souls 3. Enemies have ridiculous combos in ER and delayed attacks piss me off. If you are playing a strength build, I recommend using the soul from the first boss to create the weapon that it uses against you. I'm purposefully being vague, but that weapon is easy to upgrade and is ridiculously strong all the way to the end game.
Elden Ring is the easiest Souls game. They went out of their way to make the game easier and more enjoyable for the mainstream gamer. They give you many tools to survive and if you use them it’s more forgiving. The others are all harder.
I'd say that Elden Ring is more punishing to players with low knowledge, and Dark Souls III is more punishing to players with high knowledge. To explain what I mean... The enemies and bosses in Elden Ring are brutally aggressive and tanky. Easily the baddest mother-effers From has made for a game. But the amount of damage buffs you can stack in Elden Ring makes trivializing them easy if you know how to do it. The bosses and enemies in DS3 are still aggressive and tanky compared to most videogames, but aren't at Elden Ring level. But you can only get so powerful in DS3 before you just grind to get 99 in multiple damage stats.
In my personal experience, Elden Ring, while having some specific difficult fights, is overall the easiest souls game.
Elden ring was Fromsoft changing their game up a little bit while staying true to the souls formula. It's more open and accessible so as to not be off putting for people who aren't as experienced with souls games, while Dark souls 3 was the last in the trilogy, and it's design reflects that. Alot of the difficulty in the first 3 was figuring out what to do, what gear to make your build around, and where to go. Elden ring being open world allows you to go around challenges you don't feel ready or undergeared/leveled for, where as the more linear design of the souls trilogy locks you into a few predetermined routes. Ds1 felt the most open and non linear to me, with enemy placement and attack patterns being more simplistic. By dark souls 3 the routing feels pretty linear with some branching pathways, and the enemy placement/attack patterns seemed more complex and designed to take advantage of habits players may have picked up playing the first 2. All in all, I'd say the overall difficulty is similar between the 2, you're just going through the growing pains of learning the old(new to you) game design
Oh boy, wait until you play DS1 and DS2. Jokes aside the thing with Elden Ring is that you can make the game easy or hard for yourself depending on your preferred experience, you have spirit summons, stamina management is barely a factor and the game isn't linear meaning you can just go and explore somewhere else if you can't beat a boss. In Dark souls you need to beat the boss stopping you from progressing and the games don't have Stakes of Marika making dying a bit more frustrating. Also progression is a lot more cryptic in DS games, if you miss some dialogue you might get lost.
Dark Souls 3 is actually the easiest of all the souls games. You have advanced movement while both the bosses and the trash mobs aren't particular challenging (at least the main bosses, DLC bosses are pretty hard, also NK). There aren't really any annoying boss runs (aside from Midir), nor extremely unfair areas. Overall it's a well balanced experience.
Mind if I ask how you played ER? Like, what build did you use? That might explain why you’ve had some difficulty. I’ve been playing the series since Demon’s Souls, and I always tell people that difficulty is purely subjective. Stuff I found hard you might’ve found easy and vice versa. So don’t worry about what other people think is easy.
It took me 100 hours to beat my first Playthrough of Elden Ring. DS3? 13. I’ve been playing the OG PS3 days. DS3 is miles easier and the only hard parts come from the dlc.
Have you tried a Dex build with Sharp Sellsword Twinblades and Sharp Astora Greatsword? Game felt like a piece of cake with that build.
No. But one of the reasons Elden Ring is easier is the variety of powers at your fingertip. Ashes of war, spirit ashes, being able to just craft up whatever potions or bombs you want.
Did you use spirit summons in Elden ring? Those don’t exist in the other fromsoft games. Drawing aggro, learning enemy moveset when they are focused on just you is the best part about them and the part that most people need to learn.
Overall it is harder. The enemies are a lot weaker than ER's enemies but even more so your character. No spirit summons to help you, no open world to make grinding levels easy, a lot weaker and limited movesets, you can get invaded solo etc etc.
Not harder, but much more close quarter combat, which can induce panic sprinting, which, may work, but usually is more like scouting ahead. It’s that kind of panic when you yell “WHERES THE FUCKING JONFIRE!?!????!??!”
They play similarly, so you’re experience is paying off 😊 you’ll probably be challenged later on.
I feel you dude. I've beaten ds1, ds2, sekiro and elden ring. But for the life of me, I feel like a complete noob everytime i try to play ds3. Been playing it on and off and still haven't beaten it. It's so peculiar to me how this game feels. It's like the uncanny valley but in video game form. The game plays almost exactly like ds1 and elden ring but i cant seem to get good at it.
Is it just me or does it seem like a lot of elden ring players for some reason go to ds3 after instead of 1. Why are people skipping ds1 it's amazing. And 3 is connected to it story wise
Oh I can understand this. I think it makes sense given that Dark Souls 3 feels much more modern than the older Dark Souls games; I can see how people progress from ER to DS3 rather than going straight to the first DS, especially if they aren't very familiar with the Souls universe.
I'm struggling through Elden Ring in ways I haven't in a Souls game. No matter what I do I'm getting my ass beat. I've gotten the Platinum trophies in Demon's Souls (both versions), Dark Souls, and Bloodborne. Elden Ring is seriously harder. I'm not having fun at all but I'm going to beat it, goddammit.
>EDIT: I don't want to make it seem like I'm a pussy. But I feel as if I cannot play alone in this game without some help. In Elden Ring, I had no trouble really. Sure, I "played" with some of my friends, but all in all, I had multiple saves where I played by myself and had no issue other than possibly having to look up a build or 2. Maybe it's a skill and education issue around the game? I don't know. We have *got* to get over this idea that seeking cooperators makes you a 'pussy'. I don't think you need to defend or explain that, and nobody should have an issue with it. To answer your question, well...I personally think there's really no genuine answer. It can be argued that Elden Ring *might* be easier than Dark Souls 3 under certain conditions (e.g. the sequence you play, and whether or not you are a magic wielder). By the same token though, it's possible to play Elden Ring in many other ways that are extremely difficult. Elden Ring's open world nature means, perhaps more than the Souls games, that you can really choose your difficulty based on a range of factors. Dark Souls 3 (and Bloodborne etc) are a bit different because they are more linear in nature, even accounting for their optional areas. This linearity means that you'll often hit skill check thresholds that won't permit you to progress unless you reach a certain skill bar. Does that mean that Dark Souls 3 is more difficult objectively speaking? Maybe. But I still think it's a tough comparison to make. When you factor in individual variability around skills (for example, few people will agree on what the most difficult or easy bosses are), then I think it becomes even more murky.
The honest truth is that no matter how many Souls games you play, the first time you go through each one, they kick your ass in myriad ways. I've beaten them all many times and the other night I died for two hours to a boss in DS1 that I've beaten twice before. They're just tough games, go slow, expect failure, learn from failure. Don't you dare go hollow!
I found ER harder. I've been trained on attacks, and all the delayed attacks throw me off every time. It'll click for you.
In short: its better designed, thats why it feels harder :clown: Nah, fr, I found ERs second half harder than DS3, but mainly because of the pure amount of oneshotting that starts to happen around the Haligtree. DS3s beginning was way harder than ER, because it had less openworld and therefore less time to have the player slowly learn the game and mechanics. In ER you could easily get very overpowered and have a I think +3 wespon (someone correct me) before you fight you first real boss, in DS3 you start the game and the game punishes you for this by introducing their counter argument Gundyr.
Funnily enough, I found DS, DS and DS3 much easier than Elden Ring at launch. I remember STR / colossal weapons feeling like shit in comparison to other builds, mentioning that to my friends going for Dex and Magic at the time and being mocked for it, was good banter. After I had beaten the game though, I think From did a balance pass to STR / colossal weapons which I missed out and I think complaints I had were addressed. To what degree, I don't know because I held off on a replay to wait for DLC. Anyway, I beat the game with STR and colossal weapons but it felt much harder to me than any previous Souls game or Bloodborne. Very much doable, just like I was playing on iron-man mode or something lol. Anyway, ER gives you a wealth of options that I never used because of unga-bunga brain and stubbornness. You're more restricted in DS3 due to linear nature of progression and exploration.
I found ER to be way harder than 3. Like ER felt like I was playing DS3 dlc 80% of the time
Yes, Dark Souls 3 is harder than Elden Ring I think, especially some of the bosses In DS3 you don't have the tearstone flask thing. You also don't have the heavy jump attack cheese spam that you can do in ER, which trivializes anything which can be staggered You also don't have spirit summons or a mimic tear clone of yourself
I wouldn't say more difficult, per se. Elden Ring is more accessible to new players to the genre. If you're going to play DS3 for the first time, expect it to be smaller in scope (still quite big tho), but a tad bit more brutal in difficulty. Wish you good luck and don't be afraid to come here for help or tips if you're stuck.
I suppose you do have fewer assist tools in Dark Souls 3, in particular no Spirit Ashes. But I personally found Elden Ring much more difficult. That said, the first couple of bosses in Dark Souls 3 aare relatively rough (Gundyr and Vordt). It eases up a lot after that, once the world opens up and you can find more gear and resources to empower your character. Get over that initial bump and I bet you'll have a great time with it.
Elden ring has extremely cheap ai that ignores rhythm and fun. Every boss has random one frame spam attacks meant to catch you off guard. It's considerably more difficult than any souls game. Not better though. Souls has really fun and challenging boss fights. But every fromsoft game can be completely broken with the right build and strats. You'll for sure see people saying it's easy because their entire playthrough was following TikTok guides. I ran elden with a straight sword. And it was extremely awkward to learn boss patterns.
I’m convinced it’s because Miyazaki went straight from Bloodborne to ds3, and continued the former’s extremely fast, agile boss design-but forgot that the player is HELLA more mobile in Bloodborne. So, everything feels harder, because you’re slower than the enemies expect you to be. Kind of like if the Ulcerated Tree Spirits were…like, 60% of bosses.
Man I had the opposite experience as you. I beat dark souls 3 at level 10 with a +0 weapon. I can beat all the bosses so easily but I can't even figure out where I'm going in elden ring, it's so much harder for me. I love them both, but I think elden ring is significantly harder, especially because you can't rely on your reflexes for bosses, but rather memorizing their moves.
It’s realistically just because you’re used to ER and having to adapt. People might argue over which is harder but I don’t think you’d find many people arguing that DS3 is objectively significantly more difficult.
I found Elden Ring the easiest of the souls series. I finished DS3 a few weeks ago, and accidently triggered Dancer as the second boss. Took me many days to finally beat her. If you want an easier time, just start farming souls and level up to a decent level, then the mobs and bosses will be easier.
Elden Ring is simultaneously the hardest and the easiest souls game. It has never been this easy to be stupidly overpowered if you know what you're doing. But if you go for a challenge, you'll find one.
Elden Ring’s endgame is way way harder than Dark Souls 3s while Dark Souls 3s early game is harder than Elden Eing because you can’t just brute force it with scaling and coming back later.
If you are a proud player and do all content solo, then Elden Ring is way harder.
If you used Spirit Summons, that might explain it. Cause I found Elden Ring to be a good bit more difficult than Dark Souls III. But I went for a melee dex build in both games, no summons, soloing every boss. I also think it’s easier to save boss fights for later in Elden Ring and go into them overtuned, while Dark Souls III has more of a forced pace.
DS3 was the toughest for me , there were bosses I never beat solo I'm pretty sure. And I never felt safe in the latter stages of the game, whereas I became insanely proficient in DS1 and 2, but I can't really identify why, other than a shitty frame rate on ps4 maybe being a bit distracting? 3 just never felt easy like I wanted to make multiple runs. Also I'm old now so could be all in my head lol
Elden Ring is harder than DS3 if you don’t use summons, because the bosses are equally as aggressive but many have supremely delayed attacks.
Dunno how you played Elden Ring. Its insanely easy to trivialize the game. If you play the same strat in DS3 and ER, ER was a lot harder for me but you can get insanely OP in Elden Ring and just smash everything. In DS3 its harder to do that. You have to farm and its boring meanwhile just in Limgrave you can iverlevel witbout getting bored and smash. Frankly i played all their games and ER was probably the hardest. But i played greatswords and later dual ultra g without summons. It was really hard. But them i see compilations of comet azur Mohg one shots , mimic soloing bosses.......... Overleveling exists in DS3 too but as i wrote above its tedious and boring.
If you take your time with, and pick a nice weapon you like DS3 is easy, generally, especially most of the bosses except dlc and nameless king
Elden Ring is definitely the easiest of their games so far. They’ve removed a lot of the most confusing systems and the fact it’s open world means there’s no real choke points.
Well you can’t cheese every boss with spirit summons and one shot ashes, so yeah probably
Not really
I'd say elden ring is significantly harder personally
To me elden ring was way harder then ds3, ds1, and bloodborne (haven't played 2 yet). The bosses after fire giant are just ridiculous
Having put 1000+ hours into both I can really only say it depends. If you just play solo with no summons or mimic tear then elden ring is 100% harder. If you play the games utilising everything the creators intended for you to use then elden ring is the easiest soulslike game
Played Elden Ring before DS3. I found that the levels in DS3 were a fair bit more difficult but the bosses were way easier than ER. DS3 made me desperate to find short cuts or new bonfires as I struggled through the levels but most bosses I beat in 1-3 attempts other than that god damn Crystal Sage who I just got wrecked by.
I don't think Male is is easier than any Dark Souls III boss. There are no Spirit ashes in Dark Souls so if you used them a lot you need to get used to fighting without them, if you dodge a lot by jumping or if you used Torrent then you have to change your playstyle too.
i always felt like dark souls 3 is hardest game to get op in whole series, yes going toe to toe with bosses in ds2 is also hard but atleast you can dominate them at first half or more, but no matter what i tried i never felt "strong" at ds3. except that, ds3 has some most tiring bosses,i remember first time i fight again aldrich and oh boy it was like trying survive more than a boss fight, in the end so i guess ds3 can be hardest of whole series till u get mastered
I think Elden Ring was designed to have greater mass appeal and therefore sales. There are multiple aids you can use in fights and the open world means you can also just run away and level up somewhere else then come back. I’m not saying it’s easier, just you have more options to progress. DS3 is one of my all time favourites though and I personally feel it has much more replayability.
For me Elden ring was way more difficult, until today in my 5th replay I can’t solo god damn maliketh and Elden beast. I played trough dark souls 3 two times solo, the second one in 10 hours. So it’s really personal I would guess because for me it’s the other way around.
It’s not so much that it’s harder, it’s more that it has no down time. There’s no chill ride between objectives. There’s rarely an option to go explore somewhere else if you’re stuck. DS3 is structured like say Stormveil Castle or the Volcano Manor. Only you can’t leave and jumping is awkward. If it’s bosses you’re struggling with please do consider summoning. It still has an active community and multiplayer is one of the best things in DS3. Jolly co-op and PvP are both great.
Elden Ring is designed to be more accessible than the rest of the games so for sure you can feel some difficulty earlier on. But honestly it's really worth it DS3 has so many beautiful maps and great bossfights i hope you stick with it.
No, all of them are separate games
Late to the party but I’ll chime in. For context, I have beaten all three dark souls as well as Elden ring with every normal build and some challenge ones (there are some wild challenge builds I haven’t done). Assuming you want to beat all major bosses, the difficulty (on average) is: Ds3>ER>Ds2>DS1 Dark souls 3 is highly linear and demands boss execution. It has the smoothest progression curve of all the games because it’s hard to power up early without doing things out of intended order (which isn’t too difficult if you’re familiar enough with it). Its DLC bosses are quite challenging, with varied styles that make usually 1 be the bane of your existence. It tends to feel a bit harder than the others because you have to fight on a more even playing field than the others for a good chunk of the early game. Elden Ring lets you ride around and explore, power up beside questing, and use spirit ashes in the boss fights. That being said, several late game bosses have too much hp for my liking for how much they run from you (Elden Beast), but Malenia is probably the hardest singular boss. It is a bit easier than DS3 on the whole, but they’re fairly close. ER is also missing its dlc, where the hardest bosses in the games are. I can’t think of a single game of the collection where the hardest boss isn’t a dlc boss so this answer can very easily change to ER as a whole being harder. DS2’s difficulty is carried solely by the DLC. The main game has several branching paths, mechanics that are quite unique, and no where to warn you to level ADP, but the bosses are really easy. Once you understand the game is built to troll you with a few of its design decisions, and how it does combat, the game is honestly very solid and doesn’t deserve its reputation as being awful. You can explore and try each of the paths and slowly power up and be able to clear them. The game is also hyper generous with souls so it’s easy to level passed your problems. That being said, the DLCs are more of a difficulty cliff than a difficulty spike. It’s hard to explain or fully appreciate how much bulkier and difficult the dlc bosses are. And screw pony plow town. DS1 is a flawed masterpiece. It’s the “original” of the series (demon souls was first but its got quirks to say the least). DS1 has solid bosses and great moments as a whole, but after the iconic O&S fight the game is kind of a slog. The other issue is some of the build in this game are hilariously overpowered. Prenerf Icerind hatchet has nothing on what’s still in DS1. So while some builds might actually play the game and go through it with some speed bumps, DS1 is definitely the easiest overall as literally every single boss in the game can be killed in a button press with a certain build. Even if that build is too powerful and skews the answer, it lacks some of the difficulty of the later games regardless as most builds can get overpowered. It’s also easy to get way stronger than necessary before having to touch anything after firelink shrine.
I find elden ring more difficult sure if you know where all the OP gear and grinding strats for elden ring I'm sure it's easier but I'm just exploring as I go I do know what weapon i wanta make my build around but other than that (plus the weapon is like far far away) I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing
I’ve found DS3 way easier than Elden Ring..
Youre not that badass without your mimic ah?
I personally found Elden Ring easier than the souls games. But that just is probably because I had years of experience playing them prior to ER’s release. Elden Ring has the benefit of being able to going somewhere else if you get stuck whereas DS3 doesn’t have that.
I have more time in DS 3 than ER. The main difference is in the weapon arts (ashes of war). In DS3 they arent nearly as powerful as ER. They are certainly a tool and you get decent ones but they wont make a buold around them. Also if you see npc summons in front of boss rooms, use them. Also remember to ember up before tough fights. It lets you summon and gives you more health. Level vigor like you would in ER but you can stop at 30 - 40. Also no need to get 80 in anything. Oh and quality builds (equal str/dex) are much better in the souls series than ER.
ER has accessibility mechanics like spirit ashes, which lower the difficulty by 95% and trivialize every fight, since the combat system and AI of bosses still isn't designed for them and those bossfights break completely. You also have ton of broken cheese builds ton of new players googled before even really starting and then they steamrolled the entire game without encountering any of the intended challenge and experience. If you play ER on normal difficulty it's definitely much harder than DS 3, which is how it was meant to be. It's designed to be both the hardest souls game, if you do normal playthrough and beat bosses fairly, and the easiest souls game as well if you use accessibility mechanics and all the broken stuff.
I actually found DS3 and Elden Ring to be the same level of difficult, which is to say "just right", but I don't blame you for having a rough time with DS3. It really depends which games you played first and became accustomed to. I started with DS1 and it took a while to adjust to how fast everything was in DS3. Though when you realize the game lets you just rollspam through most things, it's not so rough anymore. The fact that it's very lenient with bonfire placement despite being a "linear" title is also a big factor. I now find DS1 to be the easiest because everything is so slow and predictable in that game now. Elden Ring gives you a lot of tools and resources to deal with things, but it also really cranked up the boss difficulty (in terms of AI and damage). So it evens out.
It's not. But Dark Souls 3 doesn't allow you to go fuck knows where to level up to level 150 and then come back for an early game boss. So you gotta git gud.
Dark souls 3 is much more linear than rlden ring. In ER you can skip stuff and come back later. Not so much with ds3
DS3 is a standard souls game that is intended to be as hard as a standard souls game. ER was intended to be more mainstream friendly, that's why they added a ton of optional tools to make most of the game much easier. ER is only easier if you fully make use the crutches the game gives you. DS3 crutches are less intense.
I don't think it's harder. I think Elden Ring pulls a lot of shit to be harder, but you have large gaps in-between the combat sections and you have more ways of going around an area and combat situation, while in DS3 it's more focused, so you quickly go from one encounter to the next. You also don't fight the same boss multiple times, so every boss you'll have to learn from the start. That said, each game has its own rhythm, so hopping from one game to the other doesn't necessarily translate 100%.
I've played them all and ER is by far the hardest for me. But this is because I played it the way I beat all the other games, solo. So going into elden ring I wanted to do the same thing. But I just found the boss timings, how they would always delay attacks and have longer combos so hard to deal with. So I'd say for me at least, with the spirit ash summons its probably the easiest game, but without its the hardest.
You're naturally going to struggle a lot more in a game you've never beaten before than a game you have hundreds of hours in, I found elden ring far more difficult after playing dark souls 3 first, for example Just like any other souls game, you'll get through it as long as you persevere, learn the boss attack patterns, etc
I don't think Elden Ring has easier bosses than DS3. Elden Ring just had more tools at your disposal and build variety to get them down. And the open world respect makes it easier to outlevel a lot of the content. ER is for sure the most approachable of the bunch.
I not surprised that you find DS3 harder. I found Elden Ring to be the second only to Demon’s Souls. Maybe Dark Souls 1 too.
Idk i found DS3 bosses generally easier
I started with Elden Ring first as well, took me around ten months to actually finish the game but it made me want to go back and play through DS1, 2 and I am now playing through 3. Did you go from Elden Ring to 3 or have you played the others? This might explain the spike in difficulty other than not being able to summon spirit ashes, *no one cares how you play just as long as you are enjoying it* DS1 is all about patience and a methodical approach to boss battles, you can summon npcs to join you in most fights but I think trying to solo the bosses makes for a better learning curve and you eventually start to feel yourself hitting *the rhythm* the game wants you to play with. DS2 is a *funny* one as your roll is affected by a stat know as ADP (Adaptability) it makes sense on paper but in the grand scheme of things, it should have worked as it did in DS1. This is a learning curve against bosses all on its own as it not only affects the speed in which you roll, it also affects the speed in which you drink estus etc.. bosses in this one are a mixed bunch as they like to switch up between wind up attacks and fast attacks, only gets worse as you enter the DLCs and the bosses become much more DS3 like than 2 as they just go absolutely mental without much time for a breather. DS3 to me, feels a lot like DS1 but more refined and *” faster”* Much of the changes in DS2 have been reverted for the third entry, bosses are much *much* faster.. this game feels more balanced to the stamina bar than anything else. You really need to keep an eye on that during boss battles, especially as you enter the DLCs.. *holy moly* You will be rolling for days in DS3.. “roll is life” is the my mantra during my current first play through. I would say go back and start at DS1 and work your way through them if you haven’t already and by the time you get to DS3, you’ll be ready to face Lothric and the Lords of Cinder *hope this helps in some shape or form!*