As an avid Dark Souls 2 player with over 500 hours invested, I wanted to provide my insights on the best starting gift in the game. When creating your character, you get to choose one gift that provides an early advantage. While they all have merit, some clearly outshine others.
In this 2000+ word guide, I‘ll be breaking down every gift, their uses, limitations, and value. You‘ll get a detailed analysis on what I and many other veteran players consider the best option. I‘ll also provide suggestions tailored to each starting class.
Overview of Starting Gifts
There are 8 starting gifts to choose from in Dark Souls 2:
- No Starting Gift
- Homeward Bone
- Human Effigy
- Life Ring
- Seed of a Tree of Giants
- Healing Wares
- Bonfire Ascetic
- Petrified Something
I‘ll explore each one in detail, but here‘s a quick rundown:
- No Gift – For an extra challenge
- Homeward Bone – Returns you to the last rested bonfire
- Human Effigy – Restores humanity and health
- Life Ring – Permanently raises HP by 5%
- Seed of a Tree of Giants – Makes enemies attack invaders
- Healing Wares – Assortment of healing/antidote items
- Bonfire Ascetic – Raises area difficulty for better rewards
- Petrified Something – Trades for powerful random items
Now let‘s analyze each starting gift in detail.
No Starting Gift
Choosing no gift is an option for players seeking more of an early game challenge. You gain no advantage, making the opening hours noticeably harder.
I‘d only recommend this for veteran Dark Souls players confident in their abilities. It provides no lasting value beyond bragging rights. Most gifts provide more meaningful benefits.
Homeward Bone
The Homeward Bone allows you to immediately return to the last bonfire rested at. It‘s useful as an emergency escape when in danger or carrying a large number of souls.
However, it‘s a consumable item with a single use. Once gone, it offers nothing else. Homeward Bones can also be easily found from multiple locations as you progress through the game.
It has situational value, but the lack of permanent benefit makes other starting gifts more appealing.
Human Effigy
Human Effigies restore your humanity, enabling online interactions and removing the health penalty when hollowed. They‘re valuable items, but suffer from some limitations:
- Consumable – You can run out if used sparingly
- Don‘t heal HP – Only restore maximum health amount
- Buyable – Various merchants sell them in limited quantities
Having an early supply helps offset annoying "hollowing" health loss, but it‘s not sustainable. Unless you plan to buy lots of Human Effigies later, other gifts provide longer-lasting gains.
Life Ring
The Life Ring offers a permanent 5% increase to maximum health – extremely useful in Dark Soul‘s dangerous world. Reasons it‘s so popular:
- Lasting HP bonus
- Hard to obtain normally
- Aid early game survival
Unlike consumables, the Life Ring continues paying dividends throughout your playthrough. The extra HP goes a long way, especially when first stepping out into Drangleic.
Seed of a Tree of Giants
This peculiar item makes enemies aggressive towards invaders for a limited time. Interesting perk, but some major shortcomings:
- Single use consumable
- Also harms allies assisting you
- Very limited availability in game
The novelty wears off fast. Unless you really love watching AI enemies attack invaders, I don‘t recommend selecting this.
Healing Wares
An excellent starter package for new players, Healing Wares provides:
- 10 Lifegems
- 3 Radiant Lifegems
- 1 Old Radiant Lifegem
- 5 Poison Moss
This diverse healing and poison curing kit enhances early game survivability. The high Lifegem count is especially valuable for less experienced players still mastering combat.
However, veteran players may find the consumable nature underwhelming. Once the items are used up, there‘s no lasting advantage.
Bonfire Ascetic
This item allows you to raise the difficulty of specific areas to New Game+ levels. Doing so also enhances enemy drops and boss soul rewards.
Creative players can use Bonfire Ascetics to acquire certain late-game gear much earlier. The Majula ascetic even unlocks an armor set that reduces fall damage.
The versatility provides lasting benefits beyond other consumable gifts. Just beware the heightened enemies and plan bonfire burns carefully!
Petrified Something
Unassuming at first glance, the Petrified Something offers a game-changing trade. Take this peculiar stone to the crows in Things Betwixt, and they‘ll exchange it for a random high-tier item.
The list of potential drops includes rare gear, upgrade materials, spells, and more. With some saves and reloads, you can keep rerolling until satisfied.
This allows acquiring extremely strong equipment right at the start. Combined with bonfire ascetic usage, you can become insanely overpowered before even the second boss.
Just be warned, this does dampen the early game challenge. Use care not to trivialize areas through over-powering too soon.
Best Starting Gifts By Class
While Petrified Something and Bonfire Ascetic have the most potential universally, some gifts align better with certain classes:
- Knight – Life Ring
- Warrior – Healing Wares
- Swordsman – Petrified Something
- Bandit – Bonfire Ascetic
- Cleric – Life Ring
- Sorcerer – Healing Wares
- Explorer – Homeward Bone
- Deprived – Life Ring
Adjust accordingly for your playstyle, but these complement each class well in my experience. Bonfire Ascetic and Petrified Something still excel in most scenarios.
Conclusion
Starting gifts won‘t make or break your Dark Souls 2 journey, but the right choice does lend early advantages. Prioritize longevity over temporary consumables.
The Life Ring, Bonfire Ascetic, and Petrified Something have tremendous lasting impacts through ongoing health gains, advanced item farming, and access to overpowered gear.
I hope this deep dive analysis helps you pick the best starter gift to jumpstart your Drangleic quest! Let me know in the comments if you have any other gift recommendations.
