One of the most unique aspects of the original Dark Souls is how mysterious everything is. Not only is the world explained in pieces through item descriptions, but most of the game's mechanics are left unexplained.
Fortunately, members of the Dark Souls community have worked tirelessly to uncover some of the game's most intricate secrets. From gaining free Humanity to spawning crab monsters, here are ten secret mechanics or details most don't know about in Dark Souls. Due to their popularity, this list will not include the Painted World of Ariamis and betraying Gwynevere.
10 Free Firelink Shrine Kindling
Some veteran Dark Souls players will focus on killing Pinwheel at the start of their playthrough to obtain the Rite of Kindling, an item that is required to achieve 20 Estus Flask charges. For those that don't wish to brave the Catacombs until much later, they might not even need to kill Pinwheel to obtain 20 Estus charges.
After players place the Lordvessel for Frampt, place one Lord Soul into the Lordvessel. This should please Frampt, putting the serpent on good terms with the player. Talk to Anastacia of Astora underneath the Firelink Shrine bonfire. Assuming players have completed Anastacia's questline, she will tell the player that she has heard of Frampt's plan and will help in any way possible. Firelink Shrine will now be at maximum Kindling for the rest of the playthrough.
9 Cursed Statues And Awakening Bells
As long as players are connected to the Dark Souls servers while playing, they might hear the Bells of Awakening ring on occasion. This isn't random. Every time a Bell of Awakening rings, a player from another game has successfully rung the bell on their playthrough.
Cursed statues use the same principle. Whenever the player sees a cursed statue in their game, that exact position is where another player became cursed and died. This is also why Seath's first encounter is littered with cursed statues.
8 Blightown's Elevator Is Operated By A Dog
Players that want a quick path to Blighttown's poisonous waters can use the elevator that runs parallel to the wooden hellscape players must descend from. While this is typically well-known by the Souls community, what players might not notice is what's causing the elevator to function.
A single Flaming Attack Dog is responsible for keeping the elevator running. From atop Blighttown, players can see that the wheel elevator is operated by a dog running at a steady pace. Why it's running is a mystery. The dog cannot be damaged or interacted with through any means.
7 Sif's Alternate Cutscene
During the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, players can save Artorias's faithful companion, Sif, who will later assist the player in defeating Manus. While Sif might be a fantastic summon for the DLC's final boss, does this change the boss fight against Sif in the main game?
Turns out, From Software thought of this. When players enter Sif's arena after the DLC, as long as they saved it, the game will play an alternate cutscene where Sif remembers the player. After he lets out a mournful howl, the wolf will grab its master's sword and reluctantly fight the player. Some have stated Sif's AI is less aggressive if this cutscene plays, although this has not been definitively proven and is purely speculation.
6 Humanity Drop
Humanity is a key resource in the original Dark Souls, as it allows players to connect to other player worlds while granting increased item discovery. Most farm this resource by playing co-op or invading, yet there is a way for hollow players to earn this resource.
Killing a set number of enemies in the game will cause the player to gain a free point of Humanity. This mechanic is typically referred to as "Humanity drop." Every enemy is worth a different amount of points with tougher enemies generally being worth more. This mechanic is also the reason why players will always obtain a free Humanity when exiting the prison cell tower in the Duke's Archives for the first time, as it appears to be bugged in certain zones.
Only ten Humanity can be obtained this way from each zone. Killing the boss or assisting a player as a phantom with killing the boss will disable the Humanity drop mechanic for that zone.
5 Message Icons
Every message in Dark Souls has an icon beside the message text. Most will see the Undead Merchant when reading messages, but this icon actually changes based on either the message's origin or how many positive ratings it has.
Messages left by a developer will always have an elite knight character icon. Any player that leaves a message can have their message icon change based on the number of positive ratings. The icons change as follows:
- 0-100: Undead Male Merchant
- 101-200: Solaire of Astora
- 201-300:Â Domhall of Zena
- 301-500: Darkmoon Knightess
- 501+:Â Primordial Serpent (Frampt/Kaathe)
4 Egghead Status Effect
Delving into the Demon Ruins will reveal a few humanoid foes covered in eggs. These enemies will try to grab the player if they get too close and will explode in a shower of blood when killed. If players get grabbed by one or stand in the blood shower a few times, they will gain the Egghead status effect.
After the player scratches their head a few times, a cluster of eggs will burst from their skull. This status effect prevents players from wearing helmets and makes them more vulnerable to fire damage. It also absorbs half of all Souls a player earns. Should the egg absorb 100,000 Souls, it will mature. A matured egg will grant players a unique kick attack that can knock back most targets and deals a small amount of damage. Players can cure this status effect with an Egg Vermifuge.
3 Moonlight Butterfly Eats Plants To Heal
To give melee characters a chance at killing the Moonlight Butterfly, this boss will land its horn near the player and leave itself open to attack. When the Moonlight Butterfly does this, it will begin to eat plants to slowly restore its health. Letting the Moonlight Butterfly do this will cause its health to slowly recover.
2 Miracle Resonance Rings Stack
Whenever a player casts certain Miracles in their world, it will create a Miracle Resonance Ring at that exact spot in someone else's world. Standing near a Resonance Ring will increase the strength of certain miracles by a varying amount, ranging between 5-20%.
However, what players might not know is that these Resonance Rings stack. Casting a miracle near three rings will make the resonance buff twice as effective, casting near six rings makes the buff three times stronger, and casting near ten or more rings quadruples the bonus. As an example, every resonance level grants a flat 25 extra HP to the Heal miracle. Casting this miracle near one ring grants 25 extra HP, three rings grant 50 extra HP, six rings grant 75 extra HP, and ten rings grant an extra 100 HP a cast.
Note that Dark Souls Remastered seems to have broken this mechanic as it is significantly less common than it was in the original version. Thanks to YouTuber illusory wall for most of this information.
1 Vagrants
Vagrants are by far the rarest enemy in Dark Souls history. These strange creatures spawn when players either lose a Bloodstain with five or more Humanity or drop an item. The items that are discarded this way are actually given to another player in the form of a Vagrant.
These strange creatures actually have variants. Egg-shaped Vagrants or "Good" Vagrants are created when players leave items on the ground. Good Vagrants downgrade these items significantly before reaching other worlds, although the items they carry become more valuable if they can successfully escape the world they have spawned into.
Should players lose Humanity from a Bloodstain, their Humanity will manifest as an "Evil" Vagrant that has crab-like pincers. Instead of fleeing, these enemies will attack the player on sight. When slain, they will drop Humanity.
If any type of Vagrant survives long enough, they will become Black Phantoms and drop better items on death.