Dark Souls II

- Dual wielding swords sounds cool in theory, in practice it's far less awesome. So, avoid a DEX heavy starting class. You'll eventually get some items you can use to respec all your points, but you can never respec those starting stats.

- Your starting gift isn't super important, but the Petrified Something can get you a good item right away or the tree seed can make a future invasion by an enemy player very hilarious.

- If you picked the Petrified Something, you drop it in the large bird nest in the starting area with the invisible talking NPCs. Go into your inventory and pick the "leave" option (NOT DISCARD) while standing in the nest to drop it and turn it into a random item, possibly a very good one.

- Always talk to NPCs until they repeat their dialogue. Always.

- There's two covenants you can join in the hub town. One is by talking to the stone slab on the hill, the other from the NPC sitting by the monument. The stone slab covenant makes it so you can't co-op. The other summons Blue Knight players if you get invaded by another player while wearing their ring. Neither is particularly good unless you want to solo the game, but you get an achievement for reaching the confirmation box to join them.

- The armorsmith sells better armor the more you spend at him, up to 16,000 souls. The Alva armor he sells can last you almost the whole game with a few upgrades. But you can find even better sets later on.

- For god's sake do not attack the pig things in town. You will regret it.

If you're at a higher level later on, you can kill them for a chance at Cracked Red Eye Orbs.

- Knock down the rock on the well.

- Don't jump down the big hole, you can't survive it without the ring that reduces fall damage and more HP. An NPC will also show up later in the game that you can buy a ladder from instead.

- Don't carry any more souls than it takes to level up.

- If you're a magic user, roll up the rock next to the entrance to the path along the cliff by the bonfire. There's binoculars there that will let you first-person aim your spells.

- That path also leads to one of the first two areas you can go, also the easiest of the two. The other is through the small stone door by the houses.

- You should also go the easy way first because the NPC that has the blacksmith's key and infinite lifestones is found along that path. Remember to exhaust her dialogue. The key is only 1000 souls.

- Bonfires refill your magic and Estus flasks, but also respawn all the enemies. You can light a bonfire without resting at it though, which functions as a checkpoint.

- When you die, you become Hollow. This means your max HP goes down every time you die down to 50% until you turn human. This is accomplished by using a Human Effigy. Don't make the mistake of burning it though, that won't turn you human. You have to be human in order to see other players summon signs, but you can still place yours. When patch 1.03 comes, completing your duty as a summoned phantom will also turn you human. Regardless, completing your duty also refills flasks and spells so it's a good idea to place your sign before any boss fight and do a "dry run".

- You get the White Soapstone (places your summon sign) from a guy named Pate you encounter in the first area outside the town. You'll get separated from him, but if you find your way back he'll give you the stone when you talk to him again.

- There's quite a few optional bosses. The

Smelter Demon

is one of the big tough ones lots of people don't know you can skip.

- Dodge rolling is garbage until you get your agility up, which is accomplished by raising your Attunement and Adaptability. Your Agility only goes up when one of the stats is even or less than the other, so plan accordingly.

- Once your dodge actually moves you, you'll have a couple invincibility frames at the start of it. Learn to exploit this.

- Keep your gear load under 70.0%, or you will be doing what's colloquially known as "fat rolling"

- The letters under the weapon requirements determine how much bonus damage it does. S > A > B > C > D > E.

- When you get the opportunity to infuse elements and such into weapons, you can do something like infusing lightning into a chime for miracles to do more damage, or magic into a staff for sorcery. Just be careful it doesn't reduce the bonus scaling.

- If you want to use giant swords and axes and such, you'll need lots of Strength obviously, but also a small amount of Dexterity. 18-20 will cover everything though.

- Spellcasters benefit from both Faith and Intelligence, weighted toward whatever your main requirement is.

- Attunement determines your cast speed, spell uses, and how many spell slots you have. Generally, every 5 or so ATN will get you a new spell slot. Spell uses depends on the spell itself. Stronger spells mean less casts.

- Poise is what keeps you from getting stunlocked when hit. It's also raised by your armor, plus your points toward agility.