Dark Souls: The Board Game Playthrough #1

Join the Steamforged staff on a stormy night, as we try and take on the Winged Knight mini-boss.
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[@MarcBryan]

This is the second video I've watched with Alex in it and I cannot stress how good he is at explaining the game. Thanks for answering some of my questions!

[@zer0zer082]

You guys made one hell of a game. I'm really enjoying it.

[@lukesmolinski304]

Just watching a bit of this has already cleared up some language confusion we had when playing the game (example: knights heroic action is for BLOCK only not for magic RESISTANCE, never crossed my mind) Thanks for the video guys, loving the game so far and can't wait for the stretch goals and add-ons coming!

[@ddmalarkey]

Great play through. Thanks for sharing!

[@PBoogerwood]

I sincerely appreciate the video, but like the manual, your instruction is still vague, bordering on maddening. Hopefully this can be fixed soon. I do appreciate the work behind this game. You're clearly huge fans of the series and have surprisingly captured its spirit. Edit: Watching several "let's plays" has vastly helped. My son and I finally played óur first miniboss and had a blast! I've never... NEVER played a board game with more cheers and high fives and moments of rage! For a board game. Well done all! Fantastic game you've created.

[@VexedOcelot]

PBoogerwood can’t wait to play my first match with the wife and friends! PRAISE THE SUN!

[@Fraaip]

Which videos did you find helpful?

[@loopyd2]

i can imagine with enouugh playthroughs any confusion can be fixed from a list of agreed upon house rules

[@DazsdWTP]

@@loopyd2 i played my first today, playing solo (for corona reasons) let me learn it so hopefully now it will make it alot easier to teach my mates when lockdown is lifted here.

[@reniefuwa]

@@loopyd2 I think "house rules" is where our household will be going with it

[@ramenlewdles1998]

Great game although this video series proves this game is not 90-120 mins it says on the box lol since it takes that long just to get to the miniboss

[@nov4star1]

Had the game for some time now and is awsome. I am very happy as a KS backer. Congratulations on the great job.

[@TastyMcFunk]

Really enjoyed this play through, cheers all involved. To those complaining about not getting their copy, these guys are in no way involved with shipping, so having them do a play through has zero impact on you getting your game. Looking forward to the Ks extras in the near future (and episode 2)!

[@MatteeTheRogue]

This is actually a mental game but jesus you really need to commit to play it haha. Do a mini boss in one session and then do a boss in the next is my personal opinion. These sessions can take hoooooooooours.

[@auracle6184]

I just picked this game up, trying to learn the ropes solo before I take it to a local gaming group... so far I've managed enough spare time to set the game up and play two encounters. :v

[@MatteeTheRogue]

@@auracle6184 You really need to dedicate an area for it and just leave it if you can. Setting up can take forever...

[@auracle6184]

@@MatteeTheRogue I ended up finding a faithful recreation for Tabletop Simulator so I can practice the mechanics without too much setup time, and save the physical game for when I go to play with friends :D

[@domwatt5486]

Played this last night and it was amazing. 4 and a half hours later and we defeated the Boreal dancer On our first try. There was a bit of confusion about the souls when playing with multiple players.

[@LordDathka]

Add up all encounter enemies threat value then divide the total up by 2. That is the most fairest way to earn souls in an encounter. Hope it helps

[@mysticmouse7983]

@@LordDathka no threat level is just an initiative rating. Not a good idea to base soul rewards on this stat. The party gets 2 souls per character in play when succeeding at an encounter. Simple. I play RAW with four characters always now. Game is balanced this way. Great fun.

[@jacobvega8256]

Mystic Mouse, the party shares the 8 souls or its given to each player individually? That’s what I was trying to figure out.

[@mysticmouse7983]

@@jacobvega8256 so by the book each encounter gives 8 souls to the soul cache in a 4 player game. The party decide how best to spend them. That's just 8 souls to spend between the party not 8 souls each player. For example you could spend a soul on a loot draw, then repeat then spend 6 souls to level up a character ...all souls gone!

[@jacobvega8256]

Mystic Mouse, is a treasure 1 or 2 souls? Because when they played they only spent one soul?

[@Panazooo]

Amaizing, i hope, can buy the game in the next days.

[@ogram008]

I'm Japanese board game lover. This is the one of very favorite board game. It's hard to understand how to play. Thanks to the video,I can play without problems. I really appreciate for steam forge stuff menbers😂

[@Steamforged]

Thank you for the kind words, we hope you enjoy!

[@chris_henning]

Take it easy on Rick, man!!

[@w0nd3rnut]

Waited two hours for a heart of the cards reference. Worth it.

[@lukha3349]

isnt there a rule that after every round/fight in an encounter, you can remove 2 stamina cubes?

[@JEFFALITY]

Every character activation. So if you go last, your waiting for 7 enemy activates and 3 of your friends turns before your first turn. Then another 7 before you recover that 2 stamina. The more you know

[@primogengames8328]

Thanks for the video - if you could find a way to get a closeup camera on those cards it would really help! Thanks Again. I can't wait to get into playing this game this weekend.

[@DaKloneLiving]

Behold! 1:28:11 The Silver Knight Straight Sword! So it has +2 atk (x2 black die for 0 stamina) or pay 3 stamina and get one additional black die and one additional blue die for attack. It has x2 upgrade slots and +1 dodge! What a cool weapon! I'm about to watch you guys try the boss, but had to post that real quick. I watched half yesterday and I'm watching the other half now. What a cool game! My ears perked up when I heard Dark Souls Board Game 🤣 You guys are a team, playing this map together! I've followed this game, mostly, I've a few questions - I would love to play with a good MC so I could ask all the questions 🤣 🤙🏻

[@PjCFenix]

Currently waiting for you guys to send new full italian games to Italy! Retailers are waiting for you to ship! Please hurry, can't wait anymore!

[@AdrianFC1]

When Rick he tries to dodge and didn't work was really funny. In the first Miniboss encounter i thought Rick would die first. i want this game really bad

[@Eclips495]

I really like this game and the models are great for painting, but some of the rules in the rule book could be more clear. Before watching this vid I didn't know you could choose who get aggro every time, as well as that enemies that go for the closest enemy actually prefer aggro token over taunt/threat? level.

[@LiamoLuo]

Eclips says on page 24 of the manual

[@HistoricalConflict]

It only.says so right in the rulebook

[@fernando47180]

This is incorrect. You do not choose who gets the aggro token for each encounter. At the end of the first encounter in a playthrough, and for every encounter after it, the player that goes after the player in turn at the end of an encounter gets the "First activation" token, which means this player is forced to get the aggro token at the beginning of the next encounter played. As for the aggro token acting as tie breaker for enemy aggro, it is clearly explained in the rulebook

[@atheist101]

​@@fernando47180 Wow this just seems convoluted as hell. Don't get me wrong I'd love to try it but it feels like a calculus text book being read to me

[@fernando47180]

@@atheist101 TLDR: The aggro token is always passed to the next turn player. after combat, give first activation to whoever would have taken the next turn

[@haxanlord]

Received it last week and fucking LOVE it

[@osamabonjovi6764]

“What does a titanite shard do?” Me: 👁👄👁

[@LuchoGamingLB]

Thank you guys. Watching you play I've learnt by example. Whenever is possible, update the Core Rulebook with an examples section, that would rock. Also, I've read the core rulebook many times and also checked on forums. And the tendency is that some players make their own house rules because the game seems unbalanced/unfair/not fun to them, which I'm not against, but do not apply these myself on my games as I want the true experience you guys wanted us to have, a very punishing hard-thinking strategy game (like the videogame). Thank you!

[@reniefuwa]

That's a valid assessment. I disagree, if only because, for a game like Dark Souls where to win you have to "git gud", this game relies awfully heavily on *luck* instead. While Soulsborne games DO have that element, it's not relied upon like it is here

[@David_Depes]

1:53:37 Can the character be moved to the boss in this place even though the boss stands for the wall?

[@ethanquarrell9114]

This board game is the biggest board game ever, i swear

[@VexedOcelot]

Great play-through. I’m one happy souls fan with my copy! PRAISE THE SUN!

[@Junchi]

Little Rich's facial hair! so manly, so dreamy! Get him back on camera!

[@KingThor128]

Liking the game, just still learning it. Its pedantic, but I noticed the graphics for the silver knight str. Sword and the balder side sword used the pictures for the lothric knight sword and the estoc respectively instead of their actual images.

[@sentient02970]

This was pretty fun to watch. Cool game.

[@villain19192]

We all have that one friend that gets picked on relentlessly.. unfortunately Rick was that friend.

[@captaincorundum9788]

And unfortunately Jamie was kind of a dick the entire game

[@muchochismemuchochisme6191]

1:50:00 The Assassin tries to dodge and fails. Shouldn't he be moved one space away (this is including in dodging even if failing) and so he would spend one stamina less in getting to the corner)?

[@ivanprigortsenko5673]

1:49:30 why did you say that character could have been moved to this node only, while left node( from boss on 9oclock(NE from mini boss red starting node)) is still in the boss ark, which just borders the sector?

[@numberssection8009]

Your comments mean F all. Learn how to play the game, little boy/girl.

[@fernando47180]

Because keeping up with a lot of rules at once can be very difficult, haha. You are entirely correct

[@xskyzel]

How can people say this game is boring? It's super cool, it's unpredictable, it's hard, this is Dark Souls!

[@jalbaugh24]

Could someone explain the aggro token to me? I understand most of it but why/when does it shift? Whenever a player is about to attack?

[@ExileTwilight]

One player gets assigned the Aggro token when you "kick in the door" to a room, players choice. Then a player gets the token assigned to them when they activate, regardless of whether they attack or not.

[@JV-dx5uv]

@@ExileTwilight okay and what's the difference with the first initiative token?

[@ExileTwilight]

@@JV-dx5uv What? There is no initiative token. If you mean the Agro token being assigned on first entering a room, then that is there to let the AI monsters know whom to focus on before the players take their first turn.

[@qwertyman459]

i got my game from argos as there the best at delivery, 3 days and its here, read rules watch vidios and understand rules play for half a day get beat a ton, wow this is hard i love it. going to fight that winged knight one of them times.

[@asnpogi]

Question about character activation: it says only at the very start of activating, players can choose the order of characters to activate. And from then on the activation goes clockwise around the table. I guess thats the... Con? I guess...compared to other DC where you can choose any order of characters to activate. Comes with the planning and strategy of defeating an enemy. Back to my question, so if we have to go clockwise, do players have to physically move around the table to activate a plan/strategy?

[@masochistgaming8500]

At the end of the day it's a board game, I doubt the police are going to come through your door for cheating in such a miniscule fashion.

[@chedmeawasige1216]

Yo how does collecting the souls after each encounter work(for 2 player)?

[@JabbatheBen]

Ched Meawasige It is two souls per player per room no matter what soul level the room is. So for two people, you would get four souls total every time you beat a room.

[@bmperdue]

Do some more playthroughs!!

[@ajdayton101]

I didn't see them use a spark or reset the tiles when they rested at the bonfire.

[@mattkay7915]

this looks great but what i really want to know is where you got 1980's simon pegg from?!

[@TheAcroninja]

do the encounters reset? me and my friends have always been kinda confused on it. so much so we ended up going by the actual video game logic, so everytime we went back to bonfire we re-cleared the rooms (but obviously we didnt loot any chests again) or do the rooms stay cleared ONLY if you go back to bonfire without dying or both returning and dying? or neither?

[@Steamforged]

Hi Born, anytime you go back to the bonfire and use a spark (whether by choice or by death) everything resets, excluding chests.

[@andrealmeida1996]

I have a question!! When they clear the room before the boss for the first time they say that they'll rest at the bonfire... They didn't do that on all the other rooms, right? They just went there and searched for materials... So what's the difference of resting or not? It just resets the rooms?

[@hamoosongaming7694]

André Almeida they decided to rest so that the rooms could reset, which means they can get more souls and better gear before moving onto the boss. If they didn’t rest they would have to fight the boss

[@julianfermin8020]

Hi all. I love this game, got it a couple of years ago. I have some questions in regards of luck token and heroic action. On the manual says that u flip then back to ready when u rest and spend a spark, however in this video it seems u spend one soul to get the luck back. Please clarify

[@kianellis7440]

You can spend 1 soul at the firekeeper to restore the luck token

[@tommyschembri485]

If you have a shield in your back up slot, do you still get the die for its defence/resist/dodge stat? or do you have to have it equipped to your hand for it to count?

[@snowtrooper1188]

It must be equipped

[@Shawn_Boyce]

look like more fun to watch then playing

[@SamuelRohr]

Around 13min27s they spend 1 soul to get the luck token back. It can be done for eastus and spark tokens too? Or these are refreshed only when rest at bonfires?

[@SamuelRohr]

QuickStrike0065 but when I rest at the bonfire all tokens come back again...right?

[@nuggetsschumaker4371]

Only the luck token can be flipped back with a soul cost. The other two, heroic action and estus, only recharge by resting at the bonfire and using a spark.

[@asnpogi]

Question: if you die in an encounter, but you have past other encounters, do you reset the all past encounters?

[@sonicpsycho13]

Yes, every encounter/room resets. Therefore, if you died in the room before the boss, you reset every room and need to fight through those again.

[@tjman131]

Why didnt the boss attack the character that was in his node when the boss's first action was to attack? Was it because he was not facing the character?

[@JabbatheBen]

Jay Thrall I haven’t gotten there on this video yet but it is most likely that the character was in an arch that was not being attacked. For example: the Titanite Demon has an attack called Tail Whip where he attacks everyone on his left side, right side, and directly behind. However, he does not attack the character in front of him, even if he’s right on the node.

[@swemx7403]

I can almost smell the virgin power in there. Joke aside, Great game guys!

[@MrPiva0]

Hey x) @22:10 u move After attack .. didnt know thats possible ?? Are u allowed to First attack than move ?

[@nuggetsschumaker4371]

You can choose between moving before or after an attack, but not both. There are special weapon cards that allow movement together with the attack, which can allow you to [move, attack] from the weapon, and then move away.

[@Kojimalosophy]

so this is what Benji from Mission Impossible used to do when he was young, interesting.

[@CannibalPedroX94]

which bosses and mini-bosses are into the standard game pack?

[@ItsYaBoiThrawn]

The_Pedro mini bosses are Gargoyle, Titanite Demon, Winged Knight, and Boreal Outrider Knight. Main Bosses are Dancer of the Boreal Valley, and Ornstein and Smough.

[@96superman12345]

Why did you receive 8 souls at the end of the 1st lvl 1 encounter? in the rulebook it states that you receive 2 souls per encounter

[@lordbiscuitthetossable5352]

It's two souls per character per encounter. Thus the more players there are, the more souls in the pool.

[@brendanwomer473]

The rule book says you can attack with all equipped weapons, but can only dual wield one handers and obviously wield one 2h

[@asnpogi]

Can I please suggest a change in rules for your next arata: So what ive ive thought is that you get three souls each when you finish an encounter (instead of the original 2 souls each) When you die, that player goes back to camp and stays there until the enouncter is finished. The number of spawn doesnt decrease unless the whole team or 2 players dies. (unlike the original when 1 dies, the whole goes back to the campfire and the number of spawns goes down by one) In relation to the second rule when a player dies, the souls that are in the soul cache gets placed in the node where they died and it gets collected when another player goes on to that node. Oh if you die on an encounter, and that encounter finishes is a success, youd get 0 or 1soul reward.

[@lordbiscuitthetossable5352]

The reason that the entire camp goes back to spawn is to reflect the greater potential advantage multiple characters has in general encounters. The way the game works is that generally, more characters are likely to have survivors which can unbalance an encounter; given that the number of enemy models can't really change the compromise was higher stakes was introduced by focusing heavily on the cooperative element. So characters aren't just "lemminged" and side lined. It generally makes players greatly value themselves and each other in the combat narrative, with an enthesis on teamwork. Initially I wasn't too keen on that idea myself, but after losing a game a couple of times to someone "wanting a killing blow", it taught us all individually to be team players, even if sometimes we weren't able to attack.

[@youngcao2805]

How is it possible to use the "heal" twice in one activation? I thought it's only use a weapon once per hand. Am I missing something here?

[@sarky5447]

I thought the same

[@dragen3]

Think he had two items that offered heal powers and used each of them once.

[@XaeroDegreaz]

Hey thanks for the video. More than learning how this game is played, I feel like I learned a bit about some of the languages spoken in the U.K. "Is that your done?" as an American we would just say something like "Are you done?" or just "Done?". Is it more of a U.K. slang to say "Is that you done?" or is that just common language? Also, I heard a lot of referring to the enemy characters as "boys". I understood what you meant, but again is it a commonplace term, or is it more of a slang term? In America, calling someone "boy" can be considered offensive in some parts of the country. Thanks!

[@Ben-fk9ey]

It's all regional accents, for example in Yorkshire they don't say "the". So instead of saying "I'm going to the shops" they'd say "I'm going to shop" but the "to" sounds more like just saying a "t". So them saying "Is that you done?" In other parts of the country would be said as "done?", "You done?", "Are you done?".

[@JV-dx5uv]

So you can remove you're stamina & damage cubes all after winning an encounter? Not only by resting att the bonfire???

[@auracle6184]

Yes, after winning an encounter all stamina and damage is cleared. Luck, Estus and Heroic tokens (and chests, until 2nd edition rules changed it) are only reset after dying or resetting.

[@mateope10]

would like to see the board and the components more often and close up than the players, we come for the game you know

[@ExileTwilight]

So about that 90-120 minute playtime... :P

[@bobdole7292]

@QuickStrike0065 its false, not ironic. they're not synonyms

[@ikaros110]

still on my first playthrough, 4 characters, we're 9 hours in and defeated the mini-boss close to the main boss now. x)

[@officialteaincorporated243]

@QuickStrike0065 Wow, how defensive do you get at someone calling you out on a mistake. They were being helpful.

[@officialteaincorporated243]

@QuickStrike0065 How were they obtrusive? You made a massive mistake that needed to be corrected. If they called out say a missing capital, I would be on your side.

[@mikku28]

I wonder how u could spent ur souls every time u clear a Room at the bonfire and the enemys in the rooms wouldnt respawn? They only respawn if the Party dies?

[@Sandflaxe]

yes if the party dies, they must rest at the bonfire, turn their sparks down by 1 and reset all encounters. They can also choose to rest at the bonfire without dieing though. But generally this is only done when you cleared all the encounters and want to reset them to farm more souls. (However in my games sofar i never did this, and we just tried to kill the boss. Dieing to the boss or resting yourself does not make a difference, so i think its better to just fight the boss and learn his behaviour cards if you die.) Souls can always be spent if you are not in an encounter. You buy treasure for 1 soul at andré (who is on the bonfire tile) and you spent souls to level up at the firekeeper (like you do in dark souls 3 ). Hope i helped you out :)

[@mikku28]

Sandflaxe thx. I think that is the safty way for the souls.... In DS(3) ill had to use the bonfire to spend souls at André etc and this will return all hallows. So these seems a little bit different to me... But nevermind, i offen chose The safty way in DS too ^^ \[T]/

[@DaKloneLiving]

How do you guys run through this game without drinking anything? No coffee, no soda, no beer, not even water?! I need refreshment while I play LOL!!!

[@asurk533]

1:48:45 the moment everything goes sideways...

[@asaucedude]

90-120 min play time tho

[@HistoricalConflict]

32:20 fan fiction rip was awesome thanks from all of us that hate that shit

[@robertlatchford4774]

You took my soul with this terrible sound

[@HCSR2]

2:32:36 Yare yare..

[@Draughammer]

Nice playthrough! Btw, its "one Die", "two Dice". Not "one dice", "two dice". Nobody cares but its the correct way to say it.

[@freememes4683]

How do people remember how to play this?!

[@Howard.Stern.]

With the new expansions there are triple the number of rules to remember. You just need to take things slowly and keep the manuals on hand. There are board games that are enormously more complex than this.

[@ellipsis530]

Watching pink face guy dis the dude to his right the whole game was cringe. At least I learned some 4 player encounter strats and how the aggro token assignment works!

[@richardneat211]

TheBrotherhoodOf Ellipsis you clearly aren't British. If we don't call someone a bellend at least 3 times a minute then they aren't really a mate at all.

[@b-92s25]

Sort that vile audio out.

[@FangerZero]

Playing the game is great, how long the game takes to get through a "full" game is not so great.

[@lordtabaro302]

Good lord, how red that dude's face gets... Looks like a beet

[@frosttroll3411]

Expensive. £80

[@Sciencebeard]

Seems like "A LOT" of work to learn how to play this game

[@CodeSiber]

No not really just hard to teach three different class’s plus the game and the boss mechanics to three different people.

[@DM-rb2qt]

Rick is the best

[@notDiru]

Its so fun to play, but its too expensive

[@lermure]

Where is my French Dark souls? Lost in Canada Post mail somewhere? you announce that we will get 2 weeks after 10 june. If you know your MAth SFG, you again wrong or lie.

[@aereoka]

And i have sent a tons of mails. really i maybe sent like 20 mails at leats and you never give to me a answer, you just dont care

[@kisnord7611]

No game here either, support is not responsive, if they do, then its general bullshit, not real information. So yeah, instead of making hype videos, start to solve the shipping issues. Thank you!

[@Steamforged]

Hi Kis, Apologies on behalf of the support team for their delayed response. None of the team involved in these videos are connected to the shipping arm of the business, so wouldn't be of much use there anyway!

[@kisnord7611]

Yeah, yeah, i know, pointing fingers to another "arm of the business" is a good way to shake off responsibility. Either way, your company handling this situation terribly.

[@Sandflaxe]

I don't think you understand the demand for this game. EVERYONE who is a fan of dark souls wants this game, I don't know the exact numbers but i think that at least gonna be over 100k, maybe even over a million people that want a copy. The company is small, they are cooping with it the best they can. Cut them some slack. And yes i had to wait longer for my copy as well. The price even went up for me.

[@kisnord7611]

So what? Im still waiting and im still dont have a clue when will i get my copy. I dont care how big the company is, because i backed lots of games and a small company is able to do it right too. Not with a ton of misinformation or simply no information at all. So please, dont create excuses for the company, this part they can do it right.

[@WnIyLkLvIiAsMt97]

Kindlesmith80 maybe he defines fan diferently.

[@aereoka]

SFG is one of the worst companys ever, i run a store and they said stores will have the core 2 weeks early to the worldwide.. and is 10 july and i dont even have my cores yet!!!

[@Bahgra]

How about you get all the games delivered? Months and months of delays.... I wish BandaiNamco and From software never let you make this game. Absolutely terrible.