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Modder Superior - Dark Souls Trilogy RemixedThe Dark Souls of mod columns
The Dark Souls of mod columns
PSA: Dark Souls anti-cheat and you
Beyond that, installation of these mods is mostly straightforward. Just make sure you have a clean install of the game in question and follow the installation instructions on the Nexus page. No mod managers here, sadly, but it’s nothing too fiddly; sometimes it’s just as simple as unzipping something into the game directory and playing as normal. Have fun storming Sen’s castle!
Dark Souls Remastered
Some of you might be asking “why Remastered, and not the original Prepare To Die edition?” Two reasons. The first, and more personal reason, is that I’m on a laptop with a 75hz-native monitor which the older version of the game just doesn’t play nice with. Second, and possibly more important, is that the original release of the game is no longer for sale on any major storefront. So, Remastered it is. Which is fine, as it means you still get to play the biggest and best version on offer.
Watch on YouTube"Wikloe" on YouTube challenges a ‘new’ boss recovered from Dark Souls' cut content vault.
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Probably the largest and most fleshed out of all the mods here, Daughters Of Ash stretches Dark Souls' assets to new limits. While unable to add new models or creatures to the game (though some are restored from cut content) or drastically remodel areas, modder Grimrukh has somehow created what feels like an elseworlds version of the game. The stated goal is to recapture that sense of playing Dark Souls for the first time, and I was certainly on edge the first time I delved into the dead city beneath the Firelink shrine. This time, though, instead of ghost-murder hell I found a quiet, sad place, and an easy path to a far more lively Valley Of Drakes.
Even before that, this mod had surprises for me. Previously easily-reached areas are locked off, and new paths are opened up, making progression through Daughters Of Ash a remarkably fresh-feeling experience. The Asylum Demon fight took on a scary twist when a rotund demon butt-stomp plunged us into the basement.The mod wiki(which I recommend skipping on until you’ve played) says that this was a random event, and results in a tougher fight later on.
Daughters Of Ash saves a lot of its best for later. Several boss fights are now multi-phase encounters that reference the mod’s new expanded lore, and brutal challenges await those who uncover the dark secret of Anor Londo. There’s some technical rough edges like objects popping in as you cross room thresholds, but this one is a must-play for Souls fans. While I played the version of the mod for Dark Souls Remastered (which is easier to set up), there is a multiplayer-compatible version for the older Prepare To Die Edition of the game,available here. Daughters Of Ash is especially eye-opening if you’ve played Dark Souls to death, with many surprises I don’t want to spoil.
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If Daughters Of Ash and its sweeping changes was a bit much, Prepare To Die Again: Lordran Reborn might be more to your tastes. On paper, it does a lot of similar things - reshuffling and rebalancing encounters, adding new scripting and events to boss battles and pouring in a bucketload of new rings and spells to collect. Handy, as the overall difficulty has been boosted a little. Not surprising, as Dark Souls modders tend to be players who have mastered the game in its entirety, but perhaps something to look out for if you’re just a casual fire-linker.
Dark Souls 2: Scholar Of The First Sin
Before we get into the game-changing mods forDark Souls 2, a quick shout-out for this little fix, without which I might not have been able to stomach a return trip. If you use an XInput controller or emulate one, this lets you remove the huge dead-zones from the centre of the analogue sticks and along the cardinal directions, making for a far more controllable game.
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While it might seem that Augur Of Darkness is preoccupied with murdering you to death (and it is), there’s a lot more to it. Through careful placement and removal of scenery objects, Vempirick has created whole new paths through familiar environments. Battles play out entirely differently, as you access rooms in wildly different orders. Those rooms will all be full of terrifying deathtraps and powered-up invading dark spirits, but at least it’ll be a fresh experience after so many years of wandering familiar halls.
If you’re a masochist, you might also want to consider using the optional Speed Demon patch listed on the mod’s Nexus page to increase the speed and aggression of monsters.
Randomiser mods are the ‘in’ thing these days. There are ones for Metroid, Zelda, and the entire Souls trilogy. While there are versions forSouls 1andSouls 3, the weird and wild collection of items in Souls 2, combined with item-centric progression make it a natural candidate to roll the dice on. As such, this may not be the biggest or most technically impressive of Souls 2 mods, but it’s the most popular, especially among Twitch streamers.
It takes skill and knowledge of the game to adapt plans and travel routes on the fly, as you find yourself gaining access to areas in an unpredictable order. Thereused to be a modfor randomising enemies as well, but apparently it’s hit some technical snags and is unavailable until it’s fixed. When is what happening? Possibly never. Dark Souls 2 never got much respect.
Dark Souls 3: Deluxe Edition
Souls 3 modding is in the wild and experimental phase. New tools are being created every day, giving modders deeper access to the files than in any other FromSoft game. Entirely new weapons, armour sets and spells can be created, although map editing is still a work-in-progress.
Watch on YouTube"Iban The Dude" showcases Cinders' impressive range of new magic.
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Cinders is the biggest Souls 3 mod, and still in active development, offering both regular andexperimental ‘playtest’ versions, depending on how bold you’re feeling. Seemingly unconcerned with lore or telling a coherent story, Cinders feels like a free-wheeling sandbox variant on the game. There’s tons of new classes to pick from, some of which have entirely new gear, and progression is faster than the vanilla game, geared to getting you into the juicy mid-game character building part more quickly. Magic users will find scads of new spells to play with, too. Progression through the game is vastly more open in Cinders, thanks to the placement of some interesting shortcuts, including one that leads straight to Archdragon Peak from the beginning of the game.
