This page is meant for people trying to get into speedrunning Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition (PTDE).
Before you consider speedrunning, you want to be quite familiar with the game, its mechanics and the level/map layouts. Having one or several challenge runs under your belt (such as SL1, No Armor, No Healing, No Shield, No Hit, No Roll etc.) can help getting into speedrunning as well. Most players in Souls games are used to taking their time to approach enemies or other obstacles and rely on safe strategies, which can be done to some extent when starting out but as you approach faster times will no longer be possible.
That being said, there are runners who have started speedrunning shortly after finishing the game once or without having played it at all beforehand. You can get into speedrunning from any prior skill level just like any hobby or interest, it all depends on your preferences and how you want to go about it.
In the following sections, you will find important concepts and information that you may find useful for starting out with Dark Souls speedrunning.
As is true for learning any Souls title, it is highly recommended to join the SoulsSpeedruns Discord server. There are various channels dedicated to each game, including help channels, with knowledgeable people around that can help with just about any question.
One difficulty nowadays for people wanting to get into speedrunning Prepare to Die Edition is that the game simply is no longer readily available for purchase on Steam or elsewhere. The game is effectively abandonware. If you are looking for the game online, you may find the game for a lot of money on some third-party key sites, but we highly discourage paying those sums and supporting those scams. There is plenty of places you can download the game online elsewhere. While we do not condone piracy, this is the only reasonable way to get the game if you do not already own it. If you wish to support FROMSoftware, you can choose to buy the Remastered version if you have not already, even if you only end up playing PTDE.
No matter how you end up obtaining the game, make sure that you are getting the Steam version. There is also a GFWL version, but it is less compatible with the speedrunning tools we use. You can generally tell whether you own the GFWL version by the main menu messages referencing Games for Windows LIVE.
There is a great introductory playlist by AtiTheHedgehog that explains everything you need to know about getting into the game. It covers general practice tools and learning resources, controller rebinds via Steam, as well as setting up the LiveSplit timer program. It is a great one stop resource for beginners. Make sure to check the rest of the channel, too, for more potentially useful videos.
Link to the playlist.src="https://youtu.be/6L5czTfolMk?list=PL94r3kPzSJlhSZTiHfwk3Z31D-iQiLNAE" /%}
You can refer to the main categories here and make your choice. You often have the option between multiple routes. You may choose to immediately go for the fastest (and usually world record) route, but these can require a high execution level. If you are willing to jump right into one of them, feel free to do so. If you wish to take it easier first, there is good beginner alternatives you can start out with and still achieve great times.
Here follows a list of current options for the categories a beginner might choose:
For routes requiring a random drop, such as the Black Knight Greatsword and Black Knight Halberd, there is a tool called Gadgetlemage. Download the .zip, extract the .exe, run it and set it to whatever weapon it is that you are going for. Whenever the weapon does not drop after killing the Black Knight, the program will automatically insert it into your inventory. This makes it a great way to run and practice the route without needing to get a weapon drop, while not altering the game if you do get a drop by the game. (Runs without a drop are not valid for leaderboards at the present time.)
Moveswap is a bread-and-butter glitch used in many speedrunning routes in Dark Souls. It is very important to understand the concept of it and to be able to execute it consistently. We highly suggest you start by learning and mastering this glitch. Learning moveswap properly can take several hours of practice, so do not be discouraged if you are not able to achieve it in your first couple of attempts. Actual consistency is often only acquired after longer periods of time.
For beginners there is a very easy method of moveswapping that can be used when starting out. It is called 'Still Moveswap'. A tutorial can be found on the page linked above.
Refer to the Tricks section on the Dark Souls main page for skips and glitches relevant in Dark Souls speedrunning. You can find explanations and tutorial links for a particular skip or glitch on the corresponding pages.
When learning Dark Souls, you might find out a lot about the game yourself, but when starting off with speedrunning, there might be some terms you will not be aware of at first.
Movement is a key element in Souls games that is often underrated. The more efficient your movement is, the more time you will save, obviously.
Enemies and bosses in Dark Souls often have a variety of attacks. Some of their attacks involve rather precised ranged hitboxes which allow you to strafe the attack. Some attacks can therefore be strafed without the necessity of rolling for iFrames to dodge the attack. By learning what attacks are strafable, fights will get easier and you as a player will preserve more stamina in the process. Strafing and dodging go hand-in-hand with locking on and off to enemies and bosses in Dark Souls. Most of the boss fights are generally easier locked off. This is mostly because Dark Souls lacks the feature of omnidirectional rolling while locked onto a target. Though, some boss fights are a lot easier locked on. In some cases, boss fights get easier when they are partially done locked off, and then locking on at the right moments.
Managing your stamina is not very complex, but throughout the whole run it can lose you a lot of time if not done properly. The basic concept is that you neither want to fully run out of stamina nor let your stamina regenerate to full at all times while running. Running completely out of stamina forces you to wait exactly 3 seconds before you can start sprinting again. Being at maximum stamina on the other hand wastes time, when it could regenerate or be used for actions like attacking or running. As long as you stay between 0 and max stamina, you will not lose time while running.
For using objects like doors or levers, or using items from your hotbar, it is best to be as low on stamina as possible while doing so. This is to maximize the use of the time where you would not be sprinting anyway and to, therefore, minimize the time loss. This aspect is the most important when it comes to stamina management and can lose you the most time if not done properly.
Menuing goes hand-in-hand with stamina management and is an important part of Dark Souls speedrunning. Generally speaking, you want to menu when you need to wait for other reasons already, such as while climbing a ladder, on an elevator, or while traversing a foggate. Should that not be possible and you need to menu while running, you want to menu while regenerating stamina so as to not waste time where you could be sprinting.
Other considerations are to keep your inventory as lean as possible, dropping unnecessary items, as well as specifically practicing menuing outside of your runs. This can be merchant menuing, level up menuing, or simply practicing your quit outs. All of these are very important, with the latter example being essential to execute certain glitches such as Fall Control Quitouts.