Since the dawn of gaming, eager, tech-savvy fans have tinkered with their favorite games, messing around with their assets and mechanics to deliver an all-new experience. This culture of modding has only grown increasingly popular over the years as the hobby has become more accessible, and the scope of those mods has also increased exponentially. Now, it’s commonplace to see a mod that completely reinvents a game, fixing many of the issues fans had with the original experience. Dark Souls 2‘s Bearer of the Curse mod does exactly that.
Initially uploaded last October, Dark Souls 2‘s Bearer of the Curse mod was created by modders AoiYozora and Fromsoftserve (with the credits also citing Moonlight Ruin, TriviaVanille, Lord Radai, Katalash, Aintunez, and nomorevideos). This total conversion mod transforms Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin, adding and tweaking a plethora of features that go a long way in fixing some long-standing complaints about the black sheep of FromSoftware’s Soulslike catalogue.
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Dark Souls 2’s Bearer of the Curse Mod Revolutionizes The Game
How The Bearer of the Curse Mod Improves Dark Souls 2’s Gameplay
Described as a “love letter” to Dark Souls 2 by its creators, Dark Souls 2‘s Bearer of the Curse mod tries to remain as faithful to FromSoftware’s original vision as possible while still providing many of the changes fans have been asking for since 2014. Some of the mod’s biggest changes and additions are as follows:
- ADP no longer has a direct correlation with iframes
- Can now walk while drinking Estus
- Ability to jump from a standing position
- Some bosses have additional magic attacks
- Some bosses can now be parried and riposted
- Boss weapons now have more unique movesets and special weapon arts
- Boss attack patterns, health, and damage output have all been tweaked
- Fall damage has been reduced
- Stamina drain while sprinting has been reduced
- Offline Covenants have new rewards and are easier to farm
- Faster fogwall traversals
- The position of some bonfires has changed
- Additional shortcuts in some areas
- Enemy placement changes (more in line with those in the original version of Dark Souls 2)
- Using an Effigy now restores the player’s health to full
- Improved backtracking opportunities
- Faster chest opening animations
Probably the change that long-time Dark Souls fans will notice immediately is that Dark Souls 2‘s Bearer of the Curse mod finally fixes the game’s ADP issue. In the original version of Dark Souls 2, the player’s iframes (frames of invincibility when dodging) were directly tied to the Adaptability stat. Players would need to level up their Adaptability stat quite a bit if they wanted to receive the same iframes given from the get-go in the first Dark Souls. This mod makes ADP an optional stat, giving players a more reasonable number of iframes off the bat.
Quite a number of changes have been made that affect the general flow of Dark Souls 2‘s moment-to-moment gameplay. For instance, the ability to drink Estus while walking gives players a bit more agency in fights. Boss attack patterns have also been tweaked to be a little faster, giving players less time to heal in between strikes. Some changes have also been made to stamina and its related animations, allowing players to recover faster after swinging a weapon and reducing the amount of stamina consumed while sprinting.
Dark Souls 2‘s level design is also altered in the Bearer of the Curse mod. Some shortcuts have been added to a handful of areas and some more backtracking opportunities have been added, such as ladders that allow players to revisit an area that they’ve just dropped from.
The Bearer of the Curse mod only works with the Scholar of the First Sin edition of Dark Souls 2, and it’s available right here.
Other Improvements That The Bearer of the Curse Mod Makes to Dark Souls 2
The Dark Souls 2: Bearer of the Curse mod also adds a slew of quality-of-life improvements to the decade-old game, with some of the most notable being:
- Maps have additional scenery objects to fill space
- Some landmarks can be seen in adjacent areas (Heide’s Tower of Flame can now be seen from Majula, for instance)
- Lighting changes
- All DLC keys are available at the Majula Mansion at the start of the game
- More NPCs give the player the option to sell wares
Dark Souls 2 may not be as strong as its FromSoftware siblings, but it’s still a great game, and the Bearer of the Curse mod really taps into its true potential.
- Released
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April 2, 2015
- ESRB
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T For Teen Due To Blood and Gore, Game Experience May Change During Online Play, Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Violence