10 First Person Cam
The Dark Souls community has a frequent saying of «git gud,» which is a humorous parody of typical advice among novice gamers to just simply understand the game better.
If you want to take that to a whole other level, install the First Person Cam mod. This mod will turn the camera from a third-person perspective to a first-person one, making you only able to see your hands and weapon. Good luck trying to time dodges or properly aim spells or arrows. It’s fantastic for taking pictures or playing in a unique way, but it’s pretty clear that the balance of this game never thought about first-person animations. If you’re a masochist, though, nothing can get much more difficult than this.
Download Link: First Person Cam (by Zullie the Witch)
Aggression Mod
By Zullie the Witch
Another from Zullie which ups the ante, and then some. Remember your first trip to Anor Londo in the original Dark Souls? Remember those bastard Greatbow Archer Knights with the incomprehensible aggro detection ranges that, assuming you arrived without the Ring of Fog, would fire at will from a stupendous distance causing you to launch your control pad against the wall more times that you care to admit? I know I’m not alone here. Well that’s pretty much what to expect from the Aggression mod.
«The Aggression Mod is a Cheat Engine script that increases the distance from which enemies become aware of the player, the range from which they will run to attack the player, and how far from their spawn point they will go when chasing the player,» is how Zullie puts it with decidedly less contempt than I.
On top of that, the mod has a neat special effect modifier that, by default, gives enemies glowing red eyes. You can of course choose to disable it if you like, but it’s pretty cool and served as a handy beacon-cum-target for me to expend my displaced Anor Londo archer rage upon. A second modifier can be applied which simulates the Obscuring Ring — where enemies only become visible within melee range. Good luck with that.
Restored Lothric Kinght Armour, Por Artorias Shield and Dragonslayer Greatsword
By mauskal, Niarlatoteph/LAGM4N and EvilDeadAsh34 respectively
Some more eye candy to round things up. While there are plenty of DS3 mods out there that tweak, improve or shoe horn players’ favourite weapons into the game — Restored Lothric Armour, Por Artorias Shield and Dragonslayer Greatsword are my favourites.
From front to back, the Dragonslayer is a retexture of the game’s titular sword that enables it to look like Guts’ variation from the Berserk series. It comes in four different styles — «Bumpy Black Center Blade, Flat Black Center Blade, Bumpy Black Center Blade with Flat Hilt/Guard,
Flat Black Center Blade with Flat Hilt/Guard» — each of which is as cool as the last.
The Por Artorias Shield comes to Dark Souls 3 courtesy of Niarlatoteph who’s borrowed textures from LAGM4N’s work in the original Dark Souls. With permission, this has brought one of the coolest-looking shields in the series to Lothric and I for one am very pleased with that.
Restored Lothric Knight Armour is as superficial as they come, but is lovely nevertheless. Due its well-worn appearance in Dark Souls 3, this mod cleans, polishes and removes rust from the esteemed Lothric Knight Armour, making it instantly more presentable. The mod even replaces the cape for dazzling undead decimating results.
8 StraySouls
If you love the difficulty Dark Souls brings but want an even larger challenge, StraySouls is the mod for you. StraySouls randomizes enemies in the entire game, even allowing multiple enemies to spawn in the same location.
The enemy variety in Dark Souls 3 is astounding, so you will see a plethora of enemies to face in earlier zones, changing your strategy to beat them. These enemies can even include bosses or NPCs. You can fight the Curse-Rotten Greatwood in a small hallway or meet the Irythll Dungeon life-sapping enemies at the start of the game. It’s frustrating and incredibly fun at the same time, bringing back that sense of mystery and terror the original games sold so well.
Download Link: StraySouls (by Jacks0n)
Honourable Mentions
Play as a NPC
By AlphaAshen
Play as NPCs from DS, DS2, DS3 and even Demon’s Souls and Bloodborne.
No More Patchy Beards
By mauskal
One for all the beardies out there who’re sick of misrepresentative facial thatch.
DS 3 Items Checklist
By Braduzz619
So simple yet so welcomed. «I was struggling to keep track of all the items I found in Dark Soul 3,» says creator Braduzz619. «So I had a quick search for a checklist online, but found nothing that was helpful so I decided to make my own list in excel.» Thanks mate!
So, do you reckon these mods will help you git gud? Either way, I bet you die an awful lot trying. If we’ve missed any of your favourites, please do list them in the comments below. If I’ve not then, well, Praise the Sun! (Come on, we couldn’t get to the end of a Dark Souls list without this and you know it.)
Dark Souls 3 is out now on Steam and The Humble Store.
Poise
By unknown
Ah, poise in Dark Souls 3 — such a small change that’s caused such a big rammy. To be honest, the poise statistic isn’t something that bothers me all that much, but I do understand why it’s caused such a furore — especially if PvP is your thing.
To recap: in past games, poise values were tied to both armour and shields and offset the chances of players being staggered. In Dark Souls 3, however, poise is, in essence, an invisible stat that has very little effect — even if you’re kitted out in the most powerful clobber. Upon the game’s release, some players thought the adjustments were the result of a bug, until From Software confirmed otherwise, and while poise is set to become «more effective for heavier weapons and armor» in the incoming DLC, some folks just like it the way it was.
Like the intuitive person that created the Dark Souls 3 Poise mod, which, as you’ve probably guessed by now, reintroduces the poise stat as it were in the series’ prior games.
«A small cheat engine script to turn on the classic Poise system,» reads a disclaimer on the mod’s page. «Using it offline is recommended. Don’t use it while online or you may get softbanned.» Judging how passionately certain facets of the playerbase feel about poise, I bet that’s a risk some people are will to take.
How to install Dark Souls 3 mods
Like many of other games we’ve covered here before, Dark Souls 3 doesn’t have Steam Workshop support — thus its mods are housed within the game’s corner of Nexus Mods. These can be installed manually — details of which are almost always noted on each respective mod’s page — or via the Nexus Mod Manager. Personally, I prefer the latter as it not only keeps things tidy, but also handles updates automatically. This is purely personal preference, though, so please do whatever you’re most comfortable with.
NB — It’s also worth nothing some of the mods featured here are best suited to offline play, due to the fact they may offer an unfair advantage online. To avoid being soft banned, do check for disclaimers/warnings on each mod’s page prior to installation.
Infinite Possibilities
By mouthmilk
If you’re reading this list, I assume you’ve played at least one Dark Souls game before now. Which means, on the off-chance you didn’t believe my habitual expiration-related predication above, you’re well aware just how much death Dark Souls involves. As such, success requires perseverance in spades, and new areas and seemingly impossible bosses often demand long spells of grind, determination and luck.
Unless you can’t be arsed with all that. And that’s where mouthmilk’s Infinite Possibilities comes in, by offering players three unique characters already tooled up, kitted out and ready to rumble. Each set has bespoke weaponry, magic and armour ensembles and is dropped into Lothric at specific times in the game when specific events have occurred and enemies felled.
The Ashen One profile, for example, boasts all weapons besides boss weapons; all boss souls; all armor sets; all pyromancies besides boss pyromancies; all spells besides boss spells; all miracles besides boss miracles; all bonfires unlocked; and a wad of gems and upgrade items. If you’re pressed for time or perhaps find NG+ too much of a challenge/headache, this mod’s the one for you.
2 Champion’s Ashes
Most overhauls for Dark Souls 3 focus on overhauling the PvE aspect of the game, ignoring the PvP aspect of the game entirely. Champion’s Ashes aims to address this.
Champion’s Ashes was built from the ground up with PvP in mind. The Ashes team has done an excellent job not just rebalancing the game but adding depth to it as well. New combat additions like feints add a whole new layer of strategy to the sandbox that the original game was sorely lacking. PvE enemies and bosses have also seen some major changes, so don’t install this mod thinking it’s simply a PvP mod. The developers have even tweaked the lightning to reflect the leaked alpha screenshots, giving Lothric a beautiful color palette and sense of mystery that the base game lacked. Champion’s Ashes is a thoughtful, well-crafted overhaul that takes every aspect of Dark Souls 3’s sandbox into account.
Download Link: Champion’s Ashes (by Halvard — Gabri — Angeluso)
7 Item Randomizer and Auto-Equip (Dark Souls III)
Fans of roguelike video games are going to love this mod. Item Randomizer and Auto-Equip does what it says in the title: every item in the game is now random, and it auto-equips new gear.
You could get a broken sword after the first boss, or you could get a demon hammer. The auto-equip part is optional if you don’t like that feature, but the item randomizer is the real star of the show. Every playthrough is so much different thanks to this mod, letting you get overpowered weapons early game or get terrible gear for most of the game. This mod will truly test your skill.
Download Link: Item Randomiser and Auto-equip (by LukeYui)
4 Cinders
Via: Ayrtonno (YouTube)
Cinders has been compared to Dark Souls 2’s Scholar of the First Sin edition in terms of additions and changes made. That comparison sounds hyperbolic until you realize just how many things Cinders changes.
A few key changes include:
- FP now regenerates
- You can farm bosses after you defeat them
- World progression has been overhauled
- Dozens of new weapons, spells, and armor sets from other From Software games have been added
-
Challenge run
rewards from Dark Souls 2 have returned - Hundreds of balance changes
And that’s only scratching the surface. Cinders is one of the largest overhauls you’ll find for Dark Souls 3 currently. The sheer variety of content in this mod will keep any Dark Souls veteran busy for multiple playthroughs at least.
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Download Link: Cinders (by Vawser)
First Person Cam
By Zullie the Witch
HEATHEN! cries the bloodthirsty third-person action role-playing faithful. BUT LISTEN, I reply, DARK SOULS LOOKS REALLY, REALLY, REALLY GOOD IN FIRST-PERSON VIEW.
Which, if you’ve spied the image above, is a statement I’m sure you totally agree with. Replicating the first-person perspective otherwise facilitated by bows, crossbows and binoculars, Zullie the Witch’s First Person Cam transforms Dark Souls 3 into a wonderfully different game entirely. Minus a wider overview, it makes the game increasingly difficult and while I’ve seen the odd commentator compare this mod’s visual overhaul to the likes of Skyrim, I think that’s doing it a disservice. The next Elder Scrolls really would do well to recreate what’s on show here.
Customisation options include being able to tinker with:
And here it is in practice:
It should be noted that as a cheat engine script, this mod is best used offline.
Incandescent Reshade, 50 Cell-Shades of Dark Souls and iGP11
By Obanon, Axcalay and S17L respectively
Dark Souls 3 is easily the best looking game of the series (and gives Bloodborne a run for its money), however when there are mods, there will always be reshaders and other such ways to tinker with a game’s aesthetic. Incandescent Reshade is probably the best available for DS3, as it removes some of the grey and washed out colours from the original game. It doesn’t saturate or add any unnecessary effects, though, which means torchlight, candles and reflections appear more vibrant and emit more light; while tombs, shadows and areas set after dark appear, well, darker. Choose between the mod’s Incandescent and Lite variations as you desire.
50 Cell-Shades of Dark Souls errs in the opposite direction by transforming Lothric into a Dragon Quest-inspired world of vivid watercolours. Similar to First Person Cam above, this mod makes Dark Souls 3 feel like an entirely different game — one which really must be experienced to understand its potential.
Lastly, iGP11 lets you «dump and replace textures used by the game». Which has led to some modders to replace the game’s textures with faces of Nic Cage, Shrek and, um, crabs. Observe:
Weird.
3 Wex Dust
Invading enemy players is one of the cornerstones of Dark Souls PvP action, but it leaves a lot to be desired. Mainly, entering a match against a fellow player is clunky and unintuitive.
A modder has tried to fix this by adding a new item called Wex Dust in their mod titled Wex Dust. This item lets you invade enemies from anywhere in the world while you’re at Firelink Shrine, making invasions so much easier to pull off. Furthermore, the dust item will try to find new locations every invasion to prevent fatigue from seeing the same zone. This mod is so amazing that it’s a shock From Software didn’t come up with this idea.
Download Link: Wex Dust (by ametalon)
Save Game Backup Tool
By svaalbard
Okay, so perhaps that last one pushed you a little too hard and you’d like to roll things back a little. I get it — Dark Souls can be brutal, my recently deceased hand-to-wall control pads are testament to that very fact. So what if we added an undo button of sorts? Something that rewound every bout of misadventure or autosaved your progress lending less significance to trivial mishaps between bonfires.
Save Game Backup Tool is «a program that creates backups of save games of Dark Souls 3 every 15 minutes (can be customized between 1 minute to 59 minutes using the Time Interval setting),» explains mod creator svaalbard. Better still, there’s no limit to how many saved are backed up, although you’ll want to manually delete your old ‘uns as you go to free up space for new ones.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but having spent an hour or so with this mod, it’s perhaps makes things a little too easy. Think of this as the complete polar opposite of Zullie’s aforementioned Aggression Mod, though, which makes actually lets you more freely explore DS3’s world without worry of being savagely slaughtered along the way.
1 The Convergence
Via: Nexus Mods
Overhaul mods for Dark Souls 3 have become more common as the community figures out new ways to mod the game. The Convergence is one of the most impressive overhauls of the bunch, going as far as overhauling Dark Souls 3’s magic system and altering map geometry to create a new gameplay experience.
The most noticeable change with this mod is the rework to all schools of magic. All schools of magic (Sorcery, Miracles, and Pyromancy) have four subclasses that allow you to specialize in certain damage types or gameplay styles. If you’ve gotten used to Cinders, you’ll feel somewhat at home with The Convergence. Features such as regenerating FP and repeatable boss fights are present here.
Infusions are overhauled, the first few zones have entirely new level geometry and enemy spawns, and new bosses have been added to keep you on your toes. It’s hard to overstate just how many systems The Convergence has changed, yet none of them dampen the experience the modding team was going for. If you want to experience Dark Souls 3 from a new light, give this mod a try.
Download Link: The Convergence (by TigerG92 — CouchJockey — AronTheBaron)
Next: Dark Souls 3: The 10 Most Interesting Optional NPCs In The Game
6 Embrace The Darkness Reshade
Embrace the Darkness Reshade is a fairly new Reshade preset that aims to enhance the atmosphere of Dark Souls 3 while staying true to the vanilla game. Not only did they succeed, but this Reshade is also one of the most performance friendly Reshades you can find for Dark Souls 3. It runs well, gives the world a sense of depth that was missing from the vanilla game, yet it never oversteps its boundaries with post-processing effects. If you’re looking for a good graphics or Reshade mod for Dark Souls 3, Embrace the Darkness is sure to impress.
Download Link: Embrace The Darkness Reshade (by occam_chainsaw)
5 iGP11
If you don’t want to use preset visuals, however, you can experiment with the look of Dark Souls 3 with the fantastic iGP11 mod. Post-processing effects and texture replacements are at your fingertips.
Depth of field, motion blur, anisotropic filtering, and so much more are available for you to customize. Once the effects look the way you want, you can further alter the textures the game uses by replacing them with others. Upscale textures you like or replace all of them with Nicolas Cage. No matter the intention, iGP11 is an excellent graphics mod responsible for many of the great Reshades and texture mods we have today.
Download Link: iGP11 (by S17L)