It is a weird thing to love. Honestly, if you ask a room full of FromSoftware fans about their favorite entry, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin usually gets the cold shoulder. People call it the "black sheep." They complain about the ADP stat or the "ganky" enemy placement. But they're missing the point. After a decade of playing these games, I’ve realized that Scholar isn't just a Director's Cut; it is a total subversion of what we expect from a sequel.
It’s messy. It’s huge. It’s arguably the most ambitious thing Hidetaka Miyazaki’s team ever let someone else lead.
The game didn't just add DLC and call it a day. It rewired the entire logic of Drangleic. If you played the original 2014 release, Scholar felt like a prank at first. The Heide Knights—those white-armored guys who used to just sit around—now wander the map or ambush you after you kill a boss. It changed the "rules." Most sequels just give you more of the same. This one decided to gaslight the player base.
The ADP Problem and Why Your Rolls Feel Like Trash
Let's address the elephant in the room. Agility.
In every other Souls game, your "invincibility frames" (i-frames) are tied to your equipment load. Not here. In Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, if you don't level up your Adaptability (ADP), you will get hit even when you think you dodged perfectly. It feels broken. It feels like the game is lying to you.
But here is the nuance: this was a deliberate design choice to force specialization.
You can't just be a "jack of all trades" early on. You have to choose between being a tank who absorbs hits or a nimble rogue who actually invests in the Agility sub-stat. Most players ignore ADP and then rage-quit when the Forest of Fallen Giants bosses clip their heels. Is it a good mechanic? Maybe not. But it adds a layer of RPG depth that Dark Souls III eventually stripped away for a more action-oriented feel. To get a "fast roll" equivalent to the first game, you generally need an Agility score of around 92 to 96. If you want the "ninja" feel, you’re looking at 105.
It changes the math of the early game entirely.
Drangleic vs. Lordran: The Geography of a Nightmare
The world-building in Scholar of the First Sin is dream-like. Not the "good" kind of dream—more like the kind where you walk through a door in your house and suddenly you're at your high school.
Think about the elevator in Earthen Peak.
🔗 Read more: Blox Fruit Current Stock: What Most People Get Wrong
You climb a windmill, get to the top, and take an elevator up into a sea of lava and a sunken iron castle. It makes zero physical sense. In the first Dark Souls, everything was interconnected with surgical precision. Here, the world is splayed out like a dying star.
Some call it lazy level design. I think it fits the narrative theme of "hollowing." Your character is losing their mind. Time is convoluted. Space is breaking. The game isn't trying to be a map; it's trying to be a mood. You aren't just traveling across a continent; you are traveling through the fading memories of a dozen dead kingdoms.
The Impact of Enemy Placements
Scholar earned a reputation for being "unfair" because of its enemy density.
Iron Keep is the prime example. In the base game, it was manageable. In Scholar of the First Sin, the Alonne Knights have the vision of a hawk and the stamina of a marathon runner. They will pull from across the bridge the second you step foot on the iron floor.
This forces a different playstyle. You cannot "boss run" in this game. If you try to sprint past enemies to the fog gate, the game's slow fog-traversal animation will leave your back open to a backstab. It demands that you actually clear the room. It’s a slower, more methodical approach to combat that rewards patience and—dare I say—ranged weapons. Yes, even for melee builds, a bow is a survival tool here, not an afterthought.
The Lore of the First Sin
The "Scholar" himself, Aldia, is the best thing that happened to the story.
He pops out of bonfires, scares the life out of you, and then starts questioning the very foundations of the series. He calls the "Cycle of Fire" a lie. He calls Lord Gwyn a tyrant.
"There is no destiny. All things will succumb to the flame, but what happens when the flame dies? We are all just puppets in a play written by a god who feared the dark."
Aldia’s presence turns the game into a philosophical debate. While the first game was about sacrifice and the third was about legacy, Scholar of the First Sin is about the futility of it all. It asks if it's better to live a beautiful lie or exist in a cold, dark truth. It’s the most "existential" the series ever got.
💡 You might also like: Why the Yakuza 0 Miracle in Maharaja Quest is the Peak of Sega Storytelling
Power Stancing: The Best Mechanic We Lost
I will never understand why FromSoftware waited until Elden Ring to bring back Power Stancing.
In Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, if you have 1.5x the required stats for two weapons of the same class, you can dual-wield them with a unique moveset. It’s glorious. You can dual-wield Ultra Greatswords. You can swing two giant clubs like they’re toothpicks.
It offered a level of build variety that even Bloodborne couldn't touch. You could be a poison-climbing assassin or a double-shield-wielding wall. The sheer volume of weapons—and the fact that almost all of them were viable—is why the PvP community stayed with this game for so long.
The DLC Crowns
We have to talk about the Burnt Ivory King.
The three DLC chapters included in Scholar—Crown of the Sunken King, Crown of the Old Iron King, and Crown of the Ivory King—contain the best level design in the entire franchise.
Shulva is an underground ziggurat filled with shifting pillars. Brume Tower is a vertical gauntlet of fire and ash. Eleum Loyce is a frozen wasteland that requires you to find "Loyce Knights" to help you in a literal war during the final boss fight. These areas fixed the complaints people had about the base game. They were intricate, difficult, and visually stunning.
The fight against Sir Alonne is still, to this day, one of the most mechanically perfect duels in gaming history. If you beat him without taking damage, he actually performs seppuku. That’s the level of detail we’re talking about.
Why You Should Replay It in 2026
If you’ve only played Elden Ring or Sekiro, going back to Drangleic feels like moving through molasses. It's slow. Healing with an Estus Flask takes forever. Lifegems—the consumable healing items—feel like a "cheat" until you realize how many enemies the game throws at you.
But there is a rhythm here that no other game captures.
📖 Related: Minecraft Cool and Easy Houses: Why Most Players Build the Wrong Way
It’s the longest game in the trilogy. It’s the weirdest. It has "Small White Sign Soaps" that let you play co-op even after the boss is dead. It has the "Covenant of Champions" which turns the game into a Hard Mode for those who think it’s too easy.
It’s also the only game that does New Game Plus (NG+) correctly.
In most games, NG+ is just "enemies have more HP." In Scholar, NG+ adds new enemies, new red phantom invaders, and even new boss mechanics. The Duke's Dear Freja ambushes you way before her arena. The Twin Pursuers show up in the throne room. It keeps you on your toes even on your third or fourth playthrough.
Common Misconceptions That Kill Your Enjoyment
People often say the "hitboxes are broken." Sometimes, they are (looking at you, Mimics). But 90% of the time, what people think is a broken hitbox is actually just a low Agility stat. When the game registers a "hit," it plays the animation of you getting hit, even if the weapon didn't visually touch your skin. It’s a technical quirk of the engine.
Another myth: "Soul Memory ruins the game."
Soul Memory tracks every soul you’ve ever collected, and that’s how matchmaking works. It was meant to stop "twinking"—high-level players invading low-level players with end-game gear. It didn't work perfectly, but it created a more level playing field for the average person just trying to get through the Forest of Fallen Giants. If you want to play with friends, just buy the Name-Engraved Ring from the cat in Majula. It basically functions as a password system.
The Verdict on the Scholar
Is it the best Souls game? That’s subjective. But is it the most rewarding for those who stick with it? Absolutely.
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin doesn't want to be Dark Souls 1.5. It wants to be its own, strange, sprawling epic. It rewards exploration more than any other entry. It hides secrets behind "Illusionary Walls" you have to interact with rather than hit. It gives you a hub—Majula—that is arguably the most beautiful and melancholy "home" in all of gaming.
The sun is always setting in Majula. The waves are always crashing. It feels like the end of the world, but it’s a peaceful end.
How to Actually Enjoy Your Next Run
If you're going back in, or playing for the first time, follow these steps to avoid the "DS2 Rage":
- Prioritize ADP immediately. Get your Agility to at least 92 before you even think about touching your Strength or Dexterity. It will make the game feel "fair."
- Carry a bow. You don't need to be a dex build. Just get the minimum stats to pull a string. Drawing out enemies one by one is the intended way to play many of these areas.
- Don't fear the Lifegems. Buy them in bulk from Melentia. Estus is for emergencies; Lifegems are for keeping your health topped off between skirmishes.
- Burn a Human Effigy at a bonfire if you’re getting invaded too much and just want to explore. It shuts down the multiplayer for 30 minutes.
- Talk to everyone. The NPCs in this game have long, winding questlines that actually move around the map. Lucatiel of Mirrah has one of the most heartbreaking stories in the series—don't miss it.
Stop trying to play it like Dark Souls 3. Stop trying to roll-spam. Stand your ground, watch your stamina, and let Drangleic get under your skin. You might find that the "black sheep" is actually the most interesting member of the family.