Recently a few different content creators and websites shared a Dark Souls 3 mod that allows you to use firearms. Naturally, the powerful firearms completely annihilate enemies, bosses included. While it’s a fun gimmick, it’s not quite in the spirit of the souls-like genre, is it? Don’t worry, we’ve found a mod that is, and it’s called Challenge Mods.
Challenge Mods is a collection of scripts that have been designed to change Dark Souls 3 in a set of specific ways. Some of them make the game more challenging, some just make it more fun, and others offer something completely unique. I picked up on this mod when I was watching Souls livestreamers.
Instead of subjecting you to hours of other people using Dark Souls 3 Challenge Mod in different ways though, I’m going to suggest some different playthrough styles that you could use with it. You can download the mod here.
First-Person Camera and Aggression
This first part of this part of the mod is very simple. It changes your view from a third-person to first-person perspective. It also removes your character’s body, so there’s nothing getting in the way of immersing you into the world of Lothric. The aggression aspect of this segment of the mod is the more interesting part. It shrinks the range in which enemy NPCs will agro to you, and increases the tenacity with which they’ll give chase. This means that you can’t just run through an area anymore, because you’ll be ripped to shreds when you run out of stamina.
Suggested playthrough style: Standard
I think that with this part of the Challenge Mod, you don’t need to do anything other than use what’s there. I’ve seen how different the game looks and feels in first person, and that would honestly be enough to make it fresh for an entire playthrough for me. However, the increased aggression is interesting. You feel faster and more powerful in first-person mode, but balancing that with more aggressive enemies would make this playthrough much closer to a standard one.
Once you’ve finished a standard playthrough with these enabled, then you could move onto some of the other parts of this mod.
Third-Person Shooter Cam
This part of the mod isn’t quite what you think. This changes the game’s camera so that it sits behind your character’s shoulder. If you imagine the camera from Resident Evil 4, then you’re on the right track.
Suggested playthrough style: Firearm
This part of the mod is actually designed to be used with the Firearm Mod (available here). Some players might get something out of playing the game normally with this camera, but personally I think this is the best way to play with guns in the game. Outside of that, I don’t see the point in this part of the Challenge Mod.
Topdown Cam
Another pretty self-explanatory part of the mod. This one switches to what speedrunners refer to as the ‘death cam.’ It moves the camera up to be directly above your character, basically transforming Dark Souls 3 into an old-school action RPG, but keeping the same controls.
Suggested playthrough style: Boss rush
This camera will get annoying very quickly. The controls don’t change to take the change of perspective into account, so the best way to play the game is by doing a boss rush. This doesn’t mean that you need to employ glitches in order to rush through every boss. Instead, I’d recommend that you just avoid all of the side quests in the game, and stick to pushing through and killing the bosses as quickly as possible. This will ensure that you don’t get too bored of the camera and controls. If you think you can handle the change though, a full playthrough could be fun.
Barrel Souls
This is a nightmarish part of the Dark Souls 3 Challenge Mod. It applies the effect of Chameleon to every NPC enemy, making them invisible to you until they begin moving or attacking.
Suggested playthrough style: Stealthly
Every room that you think you know will be completely different. Enemies are now an item from the area that they occupy, and that makes them all the more dangerous — like the mimics in Prey. This is the perfect time to create a stealthy build, one that uses invisibility and speed to their advantage. Run through every area, avoid as many enemies as you can, and get good at taking down bosses without having a huge Strength stat. You’ll never be more on edge than when you use this part of the mod. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that this is as close to survival horror that Dark Souls 3 can get, and it’s already pretty scary.
Size Modifier
This part of the mod is really just for fun, and doesn’t really have any sort of playthrough style that would match it. What it allows you to do is completely change the size of your character. This means that you can have a giant character, or an absolutely tiny one. The hitboxes change with your size, as do movement speeds and every other stat. This can be punishing, but it can also be a great bit of fun when you’re trying to complete the game as a literal giant. Just load this one up and have fun, because I doubt you’d want to finish the game with these sorts of changes enabled.
Speed Modifier
This is one of the best parts of this mod. It lets you change the base speed for your character, and any enemy in the game. You can also freeze time in areas to make it look like time is standing still. It also has a speed randomizer that will randomly change the speed of everything in the game.
Suggested playthrough style: Quantum Leap
This part of the mod leaves the game open for some very crazy playthroughs. The one I recommend is called Quantum Leap. Simply turn on the speed randomizer and try to get through the game. You will find that Dark Souls 3 is even harder when everything randomly speeds up, slows down, or freezes entirely. I like to think of the lore of this playthrough being that a scientist has somehow shattered time around them, and they’re now stuck in Lothric. They can only escape by killing the Soul of Cinder, because they’re stuck in a death loop otherwise. However, their manipulation of time has caused problems with everything in this world, forcing them to have to think around time as well as each enemy’s moveset.
Lighting Modifier
This section of the mod simply affects the light, but also has a nightmarish setting called Darkest Souls.
Suggested playthrough style: Darkest Souls
For this playthrough, you just need to complete the game in Darkest Souls. It’s the darkest the game can possibly be, and it will be terrifying. You’ll never want to play the game again with this enabled, but you’ll also never stop until you’ve finished.
NPC Stat Modifier
This mod allows you to change the stats of any NPC in the game, making combat easier, or much harder. You can tweak it as much or as little as you want, but either way I think you’re guaranteed to notice in your next playthrough.
Suggested playthrough style: Easy/Hard Mode
Turn all the stats down to 1 and watch as you run through the game with your starting weapon, never upgrading it. Or turn everything up to 11, and have to fight harder than you ever have before just to get through the first boss. This is a great mod for anyone who wants even more of a challenge than what vanilla Dark Souls 3 can offer.
Skeleton Swap
This mod lets you swap skeletons with any NPC. It’s not what it sounds. Basically, the mod changes your base model to use that of an NPC. For example, you’ll become a version of the Crystal Sage if you use their skeleton.
Suggested playthrough style: Skeleton Game
This playthrough style might be hard to get your head around. Essentially, it’s gun game with skeletons. Each time you die, you need to swap to a new skeleton, and keep swapping every time you die. It should allow you to try out every skeleton in the game, and make for a very unique playthrough to say the least. Of course, you might just realize how good one skeleton is and never move to another one. That’s fine too.
Jojo Script
This script actually just makes your character attack enemies for you. It simulates the script that plays out when NPCs attack enemies for you in the game.
Suggested playthrough style: Lazy
Never press the attack button ever again. Just run through the game and let your character fight as they choose. You might die a lot, but you can just level them up and try again right? I think this would be quite boring to play, but great fun to watch on Twitch or something like that. You never know, this might actually help you beat a boss if you’re really terrible at the game.
