Like many roleplaying games, Demon’s Souls on PS5 presents you with a character creation screen before starting out. Like us, you’ll no doubt spend several minutes tweaking the appearance of your warrior, cycling through the various skin tones, hair styles, and facial proportions to make something truly garish.
One choice that you’ll want to pay particularly close attention to is your starting class in Demon’s Souls. Just like FromSoftware’s original RPG, you’ll have ten classes to choose from though it’s not exactly clear which one is best.
The ten starting classes are defined not only by their attributes (which will affect health, stamina, damage, and other stats) but also the equipment they start off with. Some will have immediate access to spells or ranged weapons while others come decked out in heavier armour.
Which class you choose will have a huge impact on those opening hours of Demon’s Souls. However, it’s important to remember that these are only templates – archetypes that can be modified later into the game to suit your playstyle as you progress.
Without bombarding you with a wall of text explaining the finer systems and trappings of Demon’s Souls, here’s a quick guide on the best starting classes to choose, with a couple of extra pointers.
This guide is ideal for those wanting to ease themselves into Demon’s Souls with as little pushback as possible. You’re still going to die – a lot – and will need to get a grip on combat skills, though this should at least give you a decent head start.
Out of all ten starting classes, the two deemed most powerful (and therefore suitable for newcomers) are the Temple Knight and Royalty classes.
Demon’s Souls – best starting class to choose on PS5
The Temple Knight combines hard-hitting melee attacks with good health and stamina reserves. What also sets this starting class rise to the top is their initial loadout which includes the best starting shield, heavy armour, and a healing spell.
While not as strong as or well suited for melee as the Temple Knight, the Royalty class is another great option for beginners, as well a favourite for those wanting to play Demon’s Souls as magic caster. You immediately start with the Soul Arrow spell which can take down most grunts in one or two hits from afar. Their Fragrant Ring also means they will constantly regenerate MP, the rapier/buckler weapon combo offering both speed and precision.
After defeating Phalanx and clearing Boletarian Palace, you can start spending souls on increasing your stats. This gives you the freedom to morph any of the starting classes in Demon’s Souls into something that suits your own preferred playstyle.
With that said, there are some helpful tips to keep in mind. Luck is pretty much useless so avoid wasting points on that, investing them elsewhere. Vitality and Endurance will increase your health and stamina respectively with Strength and Dexterity boosting your damage and allowing you to use specific weapons and armour. Intelligence will raise your MP and when combined with Magic and Faith it will also unlock news spells such as elemental projectiles, weapon buffs, and healing.
For more on Demon’s Souls, you can read our initial impressions of the remake via our review in progress.
