Overview — Dark Souls III eGuide (Steam)

While exploring the beautiful world of Dark Souls III is a pleasure, it is the monstrous foes you encounter that bring the pain.

From the lowliest undead dreg to the most massive boss encounters, every enemy in the game is capable of sending you to your grave time and again. Learn each foe, and you can overcome what feels like an insurmountable challenge at first.

The beasts you face are gathered in this chapter, grouped by the area that they appear in. Some enemies do reside in more than one location, and there are some variant enemies that behave in the same way, but they are simply tougher and more damaging when encountered later in the game.

Should you travel on to New Game Plus, all of the foes in the game become stronger, so make sure you are well prepared before you complete the game, if you plan to travel onward!

Combat Notes

As a rule, we assume you are tackling the game your first time as a generalist—you have a one handed weapon and a shield, a ranged weapon, access to at least basic spellcasting, and some early low requirement spells.

If you are choosing to play through with a two-handed weapon or dual wielding, much of the advice still applies, but when we’re discussing shield blocking tactics, you’re going to be relying more on your dodge roll to avoid incoming damage.

You can block with a weapon, but weapons always have worse block ratings than shields, and critically, without 100% physical absorption, you’re always going to take damage when you block with a weapon.

If you see no other option to avoid an incoming blow when using a two-hander (or dual wielding), go ahead and block, but otherwise, stick to dodging!

If you are choosing to play without a ranged weapon or any magic, understand you are choosing to make the game more difficult. It’s certainly possible (and even enjoyable to experiment with once you’re experienced), but we definitely don’t recommend doing so for your first playthrough.

Enemy Data Notes

Many of the enemies encountered throughout the world of Dark Souls III have basic variations, typically common humanoid foes wielding different weapons. Likewise, enemies may be encountered in multiple areas, and they are usually tougher when encountered later in the game (and usually drop a few more Souls in recompense).

Red-eyed versions of some foes behave identically to their normal counterparts, but they are tougher to take down.

In almost all cases, if there are variants of a humanoid foe that uses multiple weapons, it has a chance to drop whatever weapon it is wielding.

In cases where there are many variants of a common foe (such as the Hollow Soldier), we list their “most complete” drop list, and variants wearing/using less gear have less drops.

In each area, any new enemy type is described; enemies from previous areas are shown in the data table.