Weapons and armor are core to any Dark Souls game, but few talk about the game's vast number of items. Keys, consumables, and upgrade materials are just as essential as having a good weapon or a large list of spells. Dark Souls 2 arguably went overboard with these while the third game neglected them, but the first Dark Souls struck a perfect balance with how important items are.

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Titanite fragments to upgrade gear, Estus Flasks, and keys are just a few examples of items that are core to the series. Dark Souls has a large list of items for players to use, some of which are game-changing. Here are 10 of the most useful items in Dark Souls that everyone should use. This list will not include weapons or armor.

10 Embers

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Not to be confused with the Ember item from Dark Souls 3, embers are items that must be given to blacksmiths to ascend weapons.

Unlike future titles, items in Dark Souls must be upgraded to +5 before they can be ascended. With the respective ember, players can begin to upgrade the weapon to a +10 version or a +5 variant with a more exotic property such as Chaos damage or morph it into a Crystal weapon.

9 Green Blossom

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Via: Dark Souls Wiki - Fextralife

Stamina is a crucial stat in the Souls series. It determines how frequently a player can dodge, attack, or how much damage they can block. Increasing this stat is crucial in every game, but upgrading stamina regeneration is much harder.

Green Blossoms are perfect for this, increasing stamina regeneration by 40 per second for 60 seconds. This stacks with the Chloranthy Ring or similar percentage-scaling stamina buffs. This item allows players to get back to full stamina much faster, granting more opportunities to attack an opponent or block their attacks with a shield. They're also cheap to purchase and easy to farm.

8 Transient Curse

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There are only two ways of attacking ghosts in the first Dark Souls. Players must either be cursed to damage them or consume the Transient Curse item to gain a 5-minute window to interact with them.

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New Londo Ruins is filled with ghosts that players must fight through. Simply running from them is ill-advised as they can easily kill the player by attacking through walls. Transient Curses allow players to attack ghosts without halving their health by being cursed, which makes New Londo Ruins much easier to clear. It can be found in the New Londo Ruins or purchased from various vendors.

7 Rite Of Kindling

Some players will run straight to the Catacombs after the Undead Asylum just to obtain the Rite of Kindling. This item allows players to kindle with bonfires up to 3 times instead of once, allowing players to carry up to 20 Estus Flasks instead of 5 or 10. Pinwheel drops this item, and he can be found in the Catacombs adjacent to Firelink Shrine. While he might be one of Dark Souls' easiest bosses, the location he is in is anything but. It's a great reward for completing a difficult zone and one that skilled players can get incredibly early.

6 Lordvessel

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The midway point of Dark Souls sees players entering Anor Londo to obtain the coveted Lordvessel. This item is needed to open the way to Kiln of the First Flame, the game's final location. However, it also has one other function.

Once the Lordvessel is obtained, players can warp between bonfires at no cost. It only works at certain bonfires, but it effectively allows the player to instantly travel between every major zone in the game. With how large the open world of Dark Souls is, this is an extremely powerful boon that is a massive timesaver for the second half of the game.

5 Humanity

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Via: Dark Souls Wiki - Fandom

Humanities are a crucial item in Dark Souls and tie into the game's core themes and story. Players can use this item for a whole manner of things, ranging from kindling bonfires to increase Estus charges to increasing a player's item discovery.

Merchants infrequently sell them, but Humanity is typically found in the open world or rewarded from boss fights. When used, it grants a stack of Humanity to the player. This can be used to reverse hollowing to allow for phantom summoning or PvP invasions. Alternatively, players can keep this stack of Humanity to increase their item discovery stat to farm certain items. It has diminishing returns and soft caps at 10 Humanity stacks. Humanity can also be used as an emergency heal when players are on the brink of death.

4 Titanite Fragments

Titanite Demon in Dark Souls
Via: Ray Dhimitri (YouTube)

Regardless of what builds a player uses, Titanite is one of the most important items to look out for. These tiered fragments increase the strength of weapons and armor. Rarer Titanite pieces such as Chunks and Slabs are crucial to upgrading an item to its fullest. Bosses such as the Four Kings are meant to test a player's damage output, effectively forcing players to upgrade their gear if they haven't yet.

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3 Fire Keeper Souls

Every Dark Souls game has some way for players to upgrade their Estus Flask charges. While kindling is how players obtain more charges, Fire Keeper Souls are needed to enhance the healing each charge grants.

Unlike future titles, Fire Keeper Souls in Dark Souls are extremely rare. Only 4 souls can be obtained each playthrough without killing a Fire Keeper. If players are desperate for Estus upgrades, however, they can choose to kill other Fire Keepers to increase this number to 7 per playthrough. Fire Keeper Souls can also be consumed to restore a player's health pool and grant 5 stacks of Humanity, but this is a minor benefit when compared to upgrading an Estus Flask.

2 Estus Flask

Healing in Dark Souls is extremely limited when compared to most action titles. Passive health regeneration is limited and weak, healing grasses from Demon's Souls didn't return, which leaves players stuck between using limited Humanities or their trusty Estus Flask. Considering Estus Flasks regenerate charges on rest and don't take spell slots, they are easily the best method of healing in the game. Players get them right at the start by talking to Oscar in the Undead Asylum, but players only start with 5. Kindling bonfires can increase this limit to make the game significantly easier.

1 Master Key

Valley of Drakes in Dark Souls
Via: Dark Souls Wiki - Fandom

Many players praise Dark Souls for its open-world design and interconnectedness. This praise can be seen in the game's first act, but it really shows itself when players obtain the arguably essential Master Key from either Domhnall of Zena or choose it as a starting gift on character creation. Thieves also start with this item for free.

It has infinite uses and opens up nearly every locked door in the game. This is much more powerful than it sounds. Players can go to Blighttown, the Valley of Drakes, or Darkroot Basin right after starting the game. Since these areas are designed for players to explore much later in the game, players can exploit this to obtain mid to late-game items right after the tutorial to completely trivialize the first half of the game. While an overpowered item, Dark Souls wouldn't be the same without it.

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