Magic goes a long way in Demon’s Souls, more so than the rest of the Soulsborne franchise. Boletaria is filled with aggressive demons who’ll gleefully tear players limb from limb, but spell casting helps mitigate the difficulty curve considerably. While Demon’s Souls on PS5 will prove a genuine challenge for anyone trying to sword & board their first playthrough, mages will be ripping through enemy after enemy.
It’s almost unfair how overpowered magic inherently is compared to melee builds, but this makes the class ideal for newcomers. Demon’s Souls is a hard game and an overpowered mage not only makes the experience manageable for beginners but also more fun for series veterans.
Updated on June 4, 2021 by Renan Fontes: Creating an overpowered mage in Demon's Souls is obviously easier said than done, but it's remarkable just how powerful the average player can get just by allocating their stats intelligently or picking the right spells to learn. Becoming an overpowered mage in Demon's Souls is all about understanding the tools at your disposal, and the sheer volume of spells you can learn turns even the most basic mages into Weapons of Magical Destruction.
Play A Royal
While logic dictates that any would-be mage should start with the Magician class, there are several immediate advantages to starting out as Royalty. Not only does every Royal come with the Wizard’s set already equipped, along with a Silver Catalyst and Rapier, but they also begin the game with both Soul Arrow and the Fragrant Ring – two essentials for any mage in Demon’s Souls.
Royals also start out at SL1, giving players far more freedom in regards to character customization and stat layout. When all else fails, a Royal will get through Demon’s Souls with ease.
Raise Intelligence
Intelligence is a mage’s best friend. In Demon’s Souls, raising Intelligence increases both MP – a vital star for any spellcaster – and Spell Memory slots. Of the two, Spell Memory is arguably the more important. It’s through Spell Memory where players can actually equip different spells. Spell Memory caps out at 6 slots, starting at 40 Intelligence.
As players will have more than enough MP to cast whatever they want by that point, it’s advised to stop leveling Intelligence as soon as all 6 Spell Memory slots have been unlocked.
Pump Magic
It goes without saying, but a mage will have to invest in their Magic stat quite a bit. Magic isn’t as all-purpose as Intelligence, but it’s the only means of raising the damage output of spells. With very few exceptions, Magic makes Demon’s Souls’ already powerful spell set even more intimidating.
Magic also plays into Weapon Requirements, which should offer a mage some gameplay variety even if they shouldn’t be focusing on their weapons to begin with. Unlike Intelligence, Magic can be left soft capped at 30, allowing mages to round out the rest of their stats with Vitality and Endurance.
Use The Wooden Catalyst
It might seem contradictory to stick with what’s – on paper – the weakest Catalyst in the game, but the way Demon’s Souls handles its Catalyst system does mean the Wooden variant is debatably the best of the lot. Keeping this in mind, this also means Royals will need to “downgrade” their Silver Catalyst at some point in the game.
The Wooden Catalyst is the only wand in the game that doesn’t offer some sort of MP penalty, allowing mages to make the most out of their abilities with very minimal damage tradeoff. Wooden Catalysts can be found either on top of the first watchtower in 1-2 or inside of a 3F jail cell in the Tower of Latria.
Find The Crescent Falchion
Mages should ideally avoid close-range combat as much as possible, but this isn’t always possible. Fortunately, there’s an excellent magic-based weapon available as soon as players defeat Phalanx and gain access to the rest of the Nexus’ Archstones. Crescent weapons specifically scale with the Magic stat, and the Crescent Falchion is easily found in 4-1.
Simply warp to the Shrine of Swarms, fight through the Silver Skeletons up the hill, and the Crescent Falchion will be guarded by a Black Skeleton on a smaller path left of the watchtower’s entrance. Not only does the Crescent Falchion play off a Mage’s best stats, but its move set is also as fast as it is varied.
Find The Phosphorescent Pole
The Phosphorescent Pole is perfect for mages who want to be a bit bolder in combat or have simply spent some Souls into upgrading Strength and Dexterity. Getting the Phosphorescent Pole requires shifting the Tower of Latria’s World Tendency to Pure Black (as easy as dying while in body form seven times) and then killing Lord Rydell’s Black Phantom.
As Black World Tendency makes enemies harder (while spawning new foes), it’s important to go after the Phosphorescent Pole only after the Tower of Latria has been completed.
Learn Homing Soul Arrow
Soul Arrow is already one of the best spells in Demon's Souls and Homing Soul Arrow only makes it better. Learnable by giving Sage Freke a Golden Demon Soul (obtained by killing the Old Monk at the end of 3-3), Homing Soul Arrow summons several orbs around the player that'll automatically shoot out Soul Arrows at nearby enemies.
Any targets in your vicinity will be pelted with Soul Arrows naturally, allowing mages to focus on other hazards while enemies drop around them like flies. Worth keeping in mind is that Homing Soul Arrow doesn't work particularly well in tight spaces.
Learn Soulsucker
Soulsucker is a late-game spell that can only be obtained on New Game Plus since it requires the Maiden in Black's Souls (which is unlocked only by attaining the Good Ending). Once you're on your next cycle, you need to rescue Yuria, the Witch all over again before you can hand over the Maiden in Black's Soul in order to learn Soulsucker.
When used, Soulsucker allows the player to decrease their opponent's highest leveled stat by 1 during PvP. When used against enemies in PvE, Soulsucker doubles the number of souls dropped by two – making it the perfect spell for grinding.
Learn Firestorm
Firestorm might very well be the best spell in Demon’s Souls, but learning it requires quite a bit of busy work and is tied to one of the most obscure side quests in the game. Firestorm can only be learned by Yuria, the Witch.
Yuria is imprisoned inside of the law watchtower in 1-2, but getting inside necessitates the full Official’s Set – its four pieces dropping from Fat Officials in 1-2, 2-1, and 2-2. Once all four pieces have been collected, players will be able to enter Yuria’s cell in 1-2, rescue her back to the Nexus, and then trade in the Dragon Demon’s Soul to learn Firestorm – an AoE spell that will kill just about everything in its path.
Learn Cloud Spells
Demon’s Souls' Cloud spells are lethal in the hands of the patient. After rescuing Sage Freke from his cell in the Tower of Latria, two supremely powerful spells can be attuned from the visionary. Trade in the Wriggling Demon’s Souls from Leechmonger to learn Poison Cloud or the Pureblood Demon’s Souls from Astraea to learn Death Cloud.
Both spells work on virtually every enemy & boss, slowing draining their death while allowing players to sit comfortably from afar. Death Cloud in particular is one of the most reliable ways of killing the game’s secret boss, King Doran.
Get The Rogue’s Gear (Body Type A)
One of the best light armor sets in the game, the Rogue’s Gear can only be worn by characters who are Body Type A, and finding 3/4s of the set is reasonably simple. By pushing the Tower of Latria to Pure White Tendency, a pile of rubble will disappear on the third floor, leading to a cell with the Rogue’s Clothes, Rogue’s Gloves, and Rogue’s Boots.
The helm, the Gold Mask, can either be dropped by killing Mephistopheles or found in 4-2 after the heart has been dropped.
Get The Ancient King’s Set (Body Type B)
The Ancient King’s set is the best armor for Body Type B characters and arguably better suited for knights, but mages will have a much easier time killing Doran in order to take his armor. As the set regenerates stamina, the Ancient King armor can go a long way for a mobile mage.
Simply drop Death Cloud on top of Doran, lose his aggro, and watch as the once great king suffers a slow death. When equipped, the Ancient King's set will more or less make up for any of your defensive drawbacks, covering bases that'll make you a deadlier mage.