The game that kicked off a franchise, 2009’s Demon’s Souls may not have seen the fire spreading popularity of its spiritual successor – Dark Souls – but the formally PS3 exclusive established its status as a cult classic in no time at all. With BluePoint Games remaking the action RPG for the PS5, an entirely new generation of fans have the opportunity to dive into FromSoftware’s codification of the Souls series.
Like its successors, Demon’s Souls’ reputation was built on a level of challenge that other titles in the medium had strayed away from. Unlike later Souls games which offer players quite a bit of build variety, Demon’s Souls is a bit more limited, and investing in the wrong stats can have negative consequences come late-game. While just about any build can get through Demon’s Souls, Boletaria is in need of a knight as overpowered as humanly possible.
Updated on February 26, 2022 by Ryan Bamsey: The Souls games are timeless classics that honestly, will never go out of style. Especially if you like playing as knights. The feeling you get when storming through Boletaria in a set of heavy armor and is unparalleled, so we've added some tips on how best to accomplish this.
Prioritize Strength
Although seasoned fans will advise newcomers against stats like Resistance in Dark Souls, the fact of the matter is that Dark Souls accounts for leveling errors through weapon variety and complex upgrade systems. Demon's Souls doesn’t. Investing in the wrong stats can ruin a build, so tread carefully.
The key to creating an overpowered knight is pumping Strength as early as possible. While players will be at a disadvantage as far as their defenses go, the early game can be brute-forced to a reasonable extent if you know what you're doing. Raise Strength up to around 25 before moving onto other stats, but make sure to cap off anywhere between 40 and 50.
This will help you deal more damage. Dealing more damage means you kill your enemies quicker, which means they have less time to kill you. Easy, see?
Invest Heavily In Endurance
One of the main advantages of playing a knight over a mage is that the former generally has stronger weapons and sturdier armor to pick from. Of course, the tradeoff here is that knights will have to frequently deal with stamina drain along with any weight put on by their gear. The only real workaround is to raise Endurance.
Endurance in Demon’s Souls raises Stamina, Equipment Burden, and Elemental Resistances. How far to raise Endurance is up to the discretion of the player, but it’s strongly advised to have enough Stamina to at least get through one full combo and a dodge roll. Endurance soft caps at 40 and is best left untouched from there.
Stay Healthy
As dying in Demon’s Souls cuts a player’s health in half until they revive, it’s arguably more important than ever to focus on Vitality. A Strength-heavy knight will stay in the heat of the battle more often than not, realistically taking a fair bit of damage.
Dying is almost inevitable, though. Investing into your Vitality stat will stave this off a bit, but what you'll really want is the Cling Ring. This excellent piece of equipment nerfs the huge HP drop that being in your soul form imparts, so you'll want it equipped as much as possible.
You can find the Cling Ring at the Gates of Boletaria (1-1), quite early on in the game.
Give Stockpile Thomas The Jade Hair Ornament
Unlike later Souls games, Demon’s Souls features a weight system that forces players to store away their items. This is done in the Nexus via Stockpile Thomas, an NPC whose wife and daughter were killed when the fog initially set upon Boletaria. Stockpile Thomas is understandably depressed, but players can help his mood by finding the Jade Hair Ornament in the first stage.
Inside the tower past the Blue-Eyed Knight on top of the castle wall, players can find a balcony where two bodies are hanging over chains. By cutting the chains, the bodies will drop where they can be looted. It turns out that the two corpses are actually Stockpile Thomas’ wife and daughter, with the latter dropping the Jade Hair Ornament. Upon giving him the ornament, he’ll trade the player a Ring of Herculean Strength.
Now, Never Take Off The Ring Of Herculean Strength
In a normal playthrough, it wouldn’t be advised to keep the Ring of Herculean Strength on at all times. Increasing the player’s equipment load by 50 percent, the Ring of Herculean Strength makes loot management a far simpler process.
In practice, it’s safer to only equip it when in need of more equipment load, but Strength builds are better off popping it on and never taking it off. Taking into consideration how heavy the best knight gear is, acquiring The Ring of Herculean Strength is an important bit of housekeeping.
Consider Miracles
Something that synergizes really well with the heavily armored, bruiser style of a knight is the Miracle list offered by Demon's Souls. The first thing they offer is another way to heal yourself, and with bulky armor and a close-up fighting style, you might need that more than others.
Another bonus is that Miracles provide more defensive options that may be useful, such as Evacuate in times of panic, or God's Wrath when you need some personal space.
Get The Binded Cross Set (Body Type A)
Demon’s Souls has radically altered how character customization works, to the point of removing gender in favor of Body Types, but this has done nothing to mitigate otherwise gendered sets of armor. Those playing Body Type A (female in the PS3 release) will want to wear the Binded Cross Set.
To obtain the Binded Cross Set, players must first have either Pure White or Pure Black World Tendency for World 1. When triggered correctly, Executioner Miralda will appear behind the gate inside the Boletarian Palace, where she can be killed for her gear. The Binded Cross set functions just like the Ancient King’s set, offering incredible resistance and an Endurance boost.
Get The Gloom Set (Body Type B)
Although the Ancient King’s set is the best armor for those playing with Body Type B, slaying King Doran as a knight at any point in the game is going to be a challenge. It’s easiest near the end, but at that point, players will have gone most of their playthrough without endgame armor. Instead, it’s wise to kill off Yurt for his armor ASAP.
Not only does Yurt start picking off NPCs in the Nexus should players rescue him in 3-2 (Tower of Latria), he drops one of the best armor sets in the game: the Gloom set. Although not as potent as the Binded Cross or Ancient King’s set, Gloom armor is a perfectly viable alternative.
Kill Flamelurker ASAP
For better or worse, Demon’s Souls hides the full scope of its upgrade system behind one of the hardest bosses in the game: Flamelurker. Stonefang Tunnel is a step up in difficulty from Boletarian Palace in general, but Flamelurker takes things to the next level.
Ruthlessly fast and a challenging fight without magic, knights will be fighting an uphill battle until they can kill 2-2’s boss. Once Flamelurker is defeated, however, players can exchange the Red Hot Demon’s Souls to Blacksmith Ed at the start of 2-1 in order to gain access to the rest of the weapon upgrading system.
Defeating Flamelurker as a knight requires quick thinking and a smart strategy. Flamelurker's rapid attacks make it dangerous to keep up close, but you don't have a choice as a melee character. Equip the Purple Flame Shield for the fire defense buff and only attack once or twice whenever you have the opportunity – saving the rest of your Stamina for dodging. This'll turn the fight against Flamelurker into an endurance match, but you should be able to reliably take him down with enough patience.
Get The Dragon Bone Smasher
It’s imperative not to upgrade anything until knights get their hands on what’ll ideally be their mean weapon: the Dragon Bone Smasher. Obtainable as soon as Flamelurker is defeated, the weapon will appear in 2-3’s starting arena before the Dragon God can even attack– so long as Stonefang’s World Tendency is Pure White.
To keep the Dragon Bone Smasher active, you'll need to retain Pure White – so try not to die by rushing right into 2-3. The Ancient Dragon can kill most players in a single punch and will move his head from side to side, looking for you. The Dragon Bone Smasher will be to the left of the boss arena. Take a quick hook left when the Ancient Dragon starts searching towards the right and grab your new sword.
Dying in your human form will reduce World Tendency wherever you are - unless you manage to die in the Nexus. If you're going for Pure White Tendency in any area, make sure you return to the Nexus and... ahem... find a way to return to your soul form whenever you beat a boss and become human again. Falling from somewhere high-up works.
Keep in mind that the Dragon Bone Smasher is extremely heavy, weighing in at 20kg. Make sure to allocate space before pulling the DBS from its pedestal. Obscenely powerful and faster than it should be, the Dragon Bone Smasher is the perfect weapon for anyone who used the Zweihander in Dark Souls.
Upgrade A Crushing Claymore
For those who aren’t keen on the Dragon Bone Smasher (or aren't able to keep Pure White World Tendency in Stonefang), the Crushing Claymore makes a fantastic alternative. Not only can players comfortably let their Strength stat sit in their late 20s for quite a while – allowing for even more pumps into Endurance and Vitality earlier on – the Claymore’s playstyle offers variety with a mix of speed that’s perfect for a knight.
The Crushing path brings out the Claymore’s raw power, essentially perma-buffing the blade at all times. The Claymore can either be purchased for 6,000 Souls from the Dregling Merchant in Boletarian Palace or dropped by Blue Eyed Knights. The Crushing Upgrade path specifically requires Greystone to build (easily farmed from worms in 2-3), scaling with Strength throughout.