So after hearing about Demon's Souls (as a result of all the talk of Dark Souls on several recent podcasts), I finally decided to give this game a try. I'm enjoying the combat system (punishing, but highly logical), but am having some concerns... First off, I have started a couple classes now to see how they feel and have settled on a Wanderer, but have not gotten a full hour into one of the characters. What I keep finding is after gaining what seems like a good number of souls, I suddenly die in a VERY unfortunate place and die again on my way back to the souls (my last death was at the very base of the stair well down to the lever to open the gate early in 1-1 BEFORE pulling the lever, for example). Is there any way of knowing how many souls to acquire before starting to spend them? Is it better to spend early on leveling or on weapons?

Also, if I've put say 45 minutes into a character and lose ALL my souls without anything upgraded on my character, is it better to start the whole game over, or just start to grind for souls at the beginning of 1-1? Thanks for any tips y'all.

You can't even start leveling until you beat the first boss so don't bother with lost souls until then.

As already stated, there's no benefit to hoarding souls, just use them whenever possible - unless you are sure you aren't doing anything you can't recover from.

Classes don't mean a whole lot, other than starting equipment. From then on, it's all about how you develop your character. There's a pretty good wiki for that stuff, but it's up to you if you want to check that stuff out or not. Be aware that there are a lot of spoilers there, though.

However, the best tip I can give is... when you do lose all your souls - don't be too bummed out.

And enjoy the atmosphere - it's pretty much in a class of it's own :)

Try and obtain the purple flame shield early game. It is one of the best shields and makes world 2 area a lot easier due to its fire resistance. I would recommend Royalty class for beginners due to the soul arrow spell being able to wipe out a lot of enemies with ease and you start off with an MP regenerating ring. You can obtain the purple flame shield by tricking the dragon to attack the bridge when you first see him then running back to the area where the red and blue are and grabbing as many items as you can -removing clothes helps in your speed-. That, or you can obtain it by farming souls off the red knight in 1-1 by tricking him into falling off the stairs in the tower to your left at the start of the game -where you find the cling ring-.

I remember when I started Demon's Souls and I lost 8000 souls at the start of level 2-1 and I thought that was it for me. At that point it took me a good 40minutes to gain that many souls and I honestly thought I'd gimped myself big. Now I'm about 2/3rds of the way through the game, 8000 souls couldn't buy jack and I routinely run around with double that amount without fear of lossing them all.

My point is at the start of the game lossing souls feels like the toughest thing in the world. Trust me it isn't.

Stop analysing the game and start playing it. You'll be fine and you'll enjoy the game much more for it.

The less you worry about souls, the more fun you will have. I would also recommend using them as fast as you earn them, repairing and buying needed items first (arrows/herbs) and leveling second.

Its more about the atmosphere and punishing (but rewarding) gameplay then min/maxing.

That and if you haven't beat the first Boss yet, you can't even level anyway. Might as well work on understanding how the game wants you to play it.

I apologize for linking to a GameFAQs thread, but this really did help me out a lot when I started playing through Demon's Souls.

THANKS everyone; that was a great help. After playing a bit more (and with the help of a spear) I've been able to beat the Phalanx and now feel like I have a much better feel for what's going on/how to approach this game.

Much more enjoyable once you stop worrying about figuring out what to do and just start doing it. Cheers!