How Long To Beat Dark Souls

Dark Souls is an established and influential property within the gaming industry. People from all over the world have come to know about FromSoftware through this franchise, and the series is regularly used as a reference point for comparisons to other titles. It also cemented a new genre, Soulslikes, that is defined by its fair but punishing difficulty and sprawling deep lore. As such, Dark Souls is essentially a household name.

Fans can sink countless hours into learning the Dark Souls maps and stories, with many exploring the wide variety of different build options they can choose from. In February 2022, FromSoftware released Elden Ring, which is something of a spiritual successor to Dark Souls. The open-world RPG received universal acclaim and became the developer's most popular release to date (even after the successful debut of Armored Core 6), and a return to this universe is pending as an expansion is due to launch in June 2024. While Elden Ring is, once again, the talk of the town, some people might find themselves wishing to revisit FromSoftware's Dark Souls trilogy, or even play them for the first time. How long are the Dark Souls games?

Updated March 13, 2024 by Mark Sammut: After more than two years, Elden Ring's expansion finally has a release date, with FromSoftware confirming that Shadow of the Erdtree will launch on June 21, 2024. While the wait has been excruciating, the developer's track record for expansions is fantastic, and the upcoming addition could prove to be FromSoftware's greatest masterpiece yet. If someone is looking to pass the time until then, they might wish to revisit a few of the Dark Souls games, although they are time-sinks.

Dark Souls

Main Story: 42 Hours

Dark Souls was a follow-up to the cult-classic Demon's Souls, and its wider availability helped it bring the genre to a larger audience. The first Dark Souls largely established the foundation that the following two games would build on, including the use of an interlinked world, PvP invasions, and a world that manages to find beauty in desolation and despair. The game's 40+ hours see players exploring an expansive map while taking on a plethora of challenging enemies (and bosses), all the while gradually uncovering lore through item descriptions. However, the estimate does not account for how easily players learn the game's combat mechanics, as well as how many of Dark Souls' shortcuts and secrets they discover.

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The completionist time sees players killing all the game's bosses, unlocking all of its achievements, and completing all the game's DLC. The optional Painted World area also adds an entirely new aspect to the lore of Dark Souls as well as numerous new challenges that will push players even further than the compulsory campaign. The Artorias of the Abyss DLC introduces multiple new locations and bosses, some of which (Manus and Knight Artorias) rank among the hardest fights in the franchise's history. Thankfully, Dark Souls was remastered, so players who want to see where it began can check it out with some great new visuals on modern platforms.

Dark Souls 2

Main Story: 44 Hours

Dark Souls 2 is the only entry in the trilogy not directed by series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki. Instead, Dark Souls 2 was directed by Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, who brought some new ideas. These included a world map that focused on a wheel and spoke design with a central hub that reacts to the player's actions. Dark Souls 2 also punishes players by decreasing their maximum health each time they die, although this can be reversed. While receiving a mixed reception from some fans of the series, this game is still beloved among many others, even if Dark Souls 2 will be forever treated as the trilogy's black sheep.

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By  Sid Natividad

On average, Dark Souls 2's main story completion is only slightly longer than its predecessor's, but players who want to see everything it has to offer will have to spend a bit more time with the title. This also includes Dark Souls 2's three DLC packs – Crown of the Ivory King, Crown of the Old Iron King, and Crown of the Sunken King – which each contribute around 4-10 hours of content to the game. Completing Dark Souls and its sequel brings the Main Story playtime up to 86 hours, while players looking to fully complete both titles will have to play for more than 200 hours.

Dark Souls 2: Scholar Of The First Sin

Main Story: 37 Hours

Unlike Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition, Scholar of the First Sin is not simply a straight port of the 2014 game. This version significantly changes the Dark Souls 2 experience, be it through alterations to enemy placements, the introduction of new summons and invaders, small tweaks to fundamental mechanics, or a new boss in the form of the titular Scholar. Ultimately, this is not an entirely different experience from the original incarnation, but Scholar of the First Sin is unique enough to justify a playthrough if someone loves DS2.

Scholar of the First Sin's Main Story has an average completion time lower than the vanilla game, but this discrepancy could be because there were returning players who had an edge since they had already beaten the 2014 release. Scholar of the First Sin is generally considered to be harder than the original version, and it also comes packed with all the expansions.

Dark Souls 3

Main Story: 44 Hours

Dark Souls 3 features the shortest average playtime out of all the games in the series. However, some players spend much more time in this entry thanks to its active multiplayer community. Dark Souls 3 saw Hidetaka Miyazaki returning to the franchise, and it was extremely popular among the series' fans when it was released. The sequel expanded the universe of Dark Souls even further, with some of the most memorable bosses in the entire series. Dark Souls 3 also introduced many new weapons to the franchise, some of which offered entirely new ways to approach encounters and boss fights. The game also sped up the combat, which was a wise change following the positive reception of FromSoftware's other title Bloodborne.

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Dark Souls 3's shorter runtime helps encourage players to play through it multiple times to experiment with different builds, and to discover all of its numerous secrets without the assistance of guides. This means that one's experience with Dark Souls 3 may very well run much longer than its averages of 32 hours for the main story and 96 hours for a completionist run.

The Dark Souls games have become extremely popular and influential across the gaming industry, and they are well worth a playthrough because of that. For fans who do enjoy the games, FromSoftware's other titles like Sekiro, Bloodborne, and Demon's Souls should be experienced as well, and this goes double for the recently released Elden Ring. The latter implements the Dark Souls formula in an open-world setting, delivering FromSoftware's most expansive project to date.

For fans seeking to complete all three Dark Souls games, this brings the playtime to roughly 120 hours and a completionist run to 320 hours.

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