Items

Nothing in Dark Souls 3 is labelled. A shard on a corpse might add a swig to your Estus Flask or unlock a whole shop, a ring can be the difference between fat-rolling and dancing, and half the game's keys and tomes only matter once you know which NPC wants them. This guide is our Dark Souls 3 items coverage arranged by what you are trying to do: heal more, wear the right rings, cast, open doors, and finally choose the weapon, shield and armor that carry the build. The blacksmith side of gear, reinforcement and infusion, lives in our mechanics guide.

Estus first: 11 shards and 10 bone shards

You start with three Estus Flasks and one Ashen Flask. Every Estus Flask Upgrade Shard handed to Andre adds a flask, and all 11 take you to 15, while Andre will also shift flasks between Estus and Ashen at will. The 10 Undead Bone Shards work differently: burn each one in the Firelink Shrine bonfire and every flask restores more. None of the 21 is missable, and collecting the two sets unlocks the Ultimate Estus and Ultimate Bonfire achievements. The table pairs them by area so one loop through each zone clears both.

Rings

Four ring slots, and a long list to fill them from. Our rings locations page covers the whole set with effects and pickup spots; the table below sorts the ones that decide builds by what you want from them. Many rings also exist as +1, +2 and +3 versions that only appear from New Game Plus onward, which is covered further down.

The New Game Plus rings

Unless the page says otherwise, a +1 ring waits in New Game Plus and a +2 in the cycle after that, usually in a different spot from the base ring. The ones worth planning a route around:

Catalysts

A spell needs an attunement slot and something to cast it through. Our catalysts page splits them four ways, plus a rare hybrid class that works as a weapon in the right hand and a catalyst in the left: the Cleric's Candlestick (transposed from the Deacons of the Deep), the Heysel Pick and the Golden Ritual Spear.

The pyromancies themselves, with their FP costs and Intelligence and Faith requirements, are listed on our pyromancy locations guide.

Key items, sorted by who wants them

Our key items page lists tomes, scrolls, coals, ashes and keys alphabetically. Almost all of them are only useful once carried to a specific person in Firelink Shrine, so here they are grouped by that person.

The keys are fewer. The Cell Key sits beside a dog in the High Wall room overlooking the Executioner and frees Greirat. The Grave Key costs 1,500 souls from the Shrine Handmaid once she has the Mortician's Ashes and opens Irina's door and the Velka altar. The Tower Key, 20,000 souls from the same vendor, unlocks the tower behind Firelink Shrine with the Fire Keeper Set, the Estus Ring and a shard behind it. The Jailer's Key Ring, at the end of the poison swamp route from the Profaned Capital down into Irithyll Dungeon, opens most cells, and the Lift Chamber Key from Leonhard opens the lift under the Tower on the Wall bonfire. Story items look after themselves: the Coiled Sword from Iudex Gundyr, the Small Lothric Banner from Emma, the Basin of Vows for the statue behind her once she is dead, and the Small Doll from the Deacons.

Weapons

Our weapons locations guide walks 22 weapon classes with each weapon's Weapon Art, stats and pickup spot. Every weapon has a Weapon Art that costs FP, so the Ashen Flask matters to melee builds too. Most classes have a member you can hold within the first hour, and the table shows where.

Two weapons on that page have quests attached. Storm Ruler, which our page lists from Siegward of Catarina, is built for giants; and the Wolf Knight's Greatsword and Farron Greatsword both come from the Soul of the Blood of the Wolf, so you choose one per playthrough. For which stats to scale, and why a +10 regular weapon beats a +5 boss weapon on paper, see the reinforcement section of the mechanics guide.

Shields

Our shields guide is blunt about the category: a shield is optional, and only the 100 percent physical ones are worth raising for ordinary blocking, because most bosses drain a whole stamina bar through anything lighter. Three shapes matter. Standard shields, the metal ones with full physical block, are the pick for a quality build and mostly carry a parry art or pass your right-hand weapon's art through. Parry shields look useless on paper and are: they exist for a faster parry animation and a slightly larger parry window, which is why PvP players carry them. Greatshields block everything with huge poise, but need 32 to 50 Strength and enough Vitality to stay under the 70 percent equip load that turns rolls into fat rolls; most carry Shield Bash, and Havel's Greatshield is the best and heaviest of them. Infusing a shield changes its numbers so little that the page tells you to spend gems on weapons instead.

Armor

Armor cannot be reinforced in Dark Souls 3, so a set is finished the day you find it, and our armor sets guide treats the 70-plus sets accordingly: as Fashion Souls first and defense second. Where a set comes from usually follows one of five patterns.

The Armor of Thorns is the one set with a gimmick: rolling into an enemy deals a small amount of damage, stacking across the four pieces but never amounting to much. To get it, wait in the flooded ground floor of the Cathedral of the Deep before killing the Deacons; Longfinger Kirk invades there, and once he is banished the full set appears in Rosaria's bedroom. For heavy builds our armor page points to Havel's set, which waits behind the Stray Demon over Farron Keep once Havel is dead in Archdragon Peak, as the highest protection and heaviest set in the game.

Frequently asked questions

Can I miss an Estus shard or bone shard?

No. Our pages state that none of the 11 shards or 10 bone shards is missable, and all can still be collected after finishing the game.

Do rings carry into New Game Plus?

Yes. Rings, weapons and upgrades all stay when you start the next cycle, which is how the +1 and +2 versions become additions rather than replacements.

Which catalyst has no requirements?

The Pyromancy Flame. Any build can equip it and cast Fireball, although stronger pyromancies still ask for Intelligence and Faith.

Why does my new weapon feel weaker after infusing it?

Every infusion that raises one scaling stat lowers the weapon's base damage and usually another stat's scaling. Compare the numbers in Andre's menu rather than trusting the letter grades, as the mechanics guide explains.