Health and Survival

HPs and FPs let you take damage and cast spells. Both of these limited resources are fixed; they won’t regenerate over time. You either have to visit a Bonfire to restore them, or you need to use Estus or Ashen Estus Flasks to recover. There are a few spells and some equipment that can provide recovery, as well. It’s time to quickly discuss these options.

Bonfires

Every time you stop at a Bonfire, you get to restore all of your HPs and FPs, free of charge. You can do this as often as you like, so it’s possible to return after every fight if you want. Monsters replenish whenever you visit a Bonfire, so you can’t really abuse anything with this system. It’s just there to make sure that you always have a fighting chance against the enemies that surround you.

If you find a great area for farming Souls or items, it’s completely acceptable to run through a few fights, hurry back to a Bonfire, and rest to regenerate the monsters. Rinse and repeat, as needed.

Spells and Equipment

While exploring the world, you can use several Miracles and a Pyromancy spell to restore your health.

Casting healing magic in combat is generally riskier than drinking from your Estus Flask due to casting speed. However, being able to restore your health using your FP can significantly extend the time you can spend in the field before you need to return to a Bonfire and heal.

Certain equipment (both rings and weapons) can provide some healing or regenerative powers for both HP and FP. Most of these heal too little to help you survive in the middle of a dangerous fight, but they can extend your survivability overall.

Estus Flask

You start the game with an Estus Flask that restores health when you drink from it. You only have so many uses of the flask, but they are restored when you visit a Bonfire. This is usually going to be one of the items that you keep on your quickbar because it gets used all the time.

Because it takes a couple of seconds to drink from your flask, be careful. Do this in the middle of combat only when you must, and always put some distance between you and your enemies before you drink. If possible, block any foes’ line of sight with a wall so that they can’t even launch ranged attacks while you’re vulnerable. You cannot dodge or move while drinking, so you’re liable to take damage if anything gets the drop on you.

If you’re badly wounded, it’s possible to take a couple of swigs back-to-back by pressing the item key again while you’re already drinking. This saves on the animation time and thus gets you healed much faster than if you drank, did something else, and then took another pull off of your flask.

The Ashen Estus Flask

The Ashen Estus Flask works similarly, but it restores your FPs instead of health. Use it when you need to keep casting spells or using skills but have run out of juice. You find this flask only seconds into the game.

Flask Ratios

Estus Flask uses (both regular and Ashen) are not unlimited. When you’re resting at the Ashen Shrine, talk to the Blacksmith and determine how many flask uses are for health and how many are going to be for FPs. This can be a tough decision for certain character builds. Experiment heavily with these numbers, and find out which resource is tapping out first. If it’s always one of them, try changing the ratio to favor that flask a bit more.

Upgrades

Your flasks improve throughout the game. There are special items that let you drink more often and gain more per drink from your flasks. Be tireless in your search for these items because they’ll save your life time and time again.

Estus Shards grant you more sips from your flasks. Give these to the Blacksmith to increase your total count of flasks to assign.

Bone Cinders are burned in the Bonfire at the Ashen Shrine. They increase the power of each sip from the flask. In a very real way, they’re just as important as the Estus Shards. Not only do they make your flasks last longer, but they reduce the amount of time you need to spend drinking during boss battles. That is huge because drinking leaves you vulnerable, sometimes even giving bosses the opportunity to finish you off before you’re able to restore yourself.