DARK Souls 3 How Long To Beat: Story, DLCs, and 100%

How Long Does It Take to Beat Dark Souls 3?

The answer to “DARK SOULS 3 how long to beat” is about 31 hours for the main story, 48½ hours with side content, and 100 hours for completionist play. Your target matters: reaching an ending takes considerably less time than collecting rings across multiple journeys. Leave additional room for both expansions if you want to finish the adventure beyond the base game.

Playthrough goal	Time to budget	What that covers
Main story	About 31 hours	Focus on required progression and reach an ending
Main story plus side content	About 48½ hours	Explore more thoroughly and pursue optional content
Completionist	About 100 hours	Extensive collection, repeat playthroughs, and achievement hunting
Exploratory first run with both DLCs	Roughly 50–70 hours	Base-game exploration plus both expansions, with time for boss retries

These are planning estimates, not deadlines. Spending an evening learning one fight or searching a confusing area can push your playtime beyond them without meaning you have fallen behind.

For a base-game run with side content, 1.5 hours a day works out to roughly five weeks. Choose the longer schedule if you tend to investigate every doorway, read item descriptions, and revisit NPCs.

Official page: DARK SOULS™ III (bandainamcoent.com)

Why Your First Playthrough Can Take Longer

A first run involves learning routes, combat timing, and character development at the same time. An exploratory base-game playthrough can take around 40–50 hours, especially when you spend time searching areas and retrying bosses.

Image: Steam / FromSoftware, Inc.

Boss Attempts and Return Trips

The successful attempt is only part of a boss’s time cost. Repeated deaths also mean traveling back, preparing consumables, and replaying earlier phases.

Pontiff Sulyvahn, Aldrich, Dragonslayer Armour, and the Twin Princes can all interrupt your progress. Which fight slows you down depends on the attacks you find difficult to read and how your equipment fits the encounter.

Open nearby shortcuts before committing to repeated attempts. Practice recognizing attacks and surviving their follow-ups, then add your own attacks when you can identify a safe opening.

Exploration and Optional Areas

Searching hidden areas and revisiting familiar locations adds time to a playthrough. Smouldering Lake, the Consumed King’s Garden, Untended Graves, and Archdragon Peak each contain areas to explore and bosses to fight.

Separate seeing the credits from finishing every area when planning your playthrough. Optional bosses can keep you occupied well after the main story is within reach.

Build Adjustments and NPC Quests

An underupgraded weapon or mismatched infusion can make encounters harder. NPC questlines also send you back through familiar locations, and some steps depend on completing conversations or taking action before progression advances.

Upgrade a weapon you enjoy using, read its scaling, and match your damage stats to it. If you want a particular quest outcome, track that quest’s requirements before moving into the next area.

How Long Are the Two DLCs?

For a first visit with exploration and difficult boss attempts, allow roughly 10–20 additional hours for both expansions.

Image: Steam / FromSoftware, Inc.

Ashes of Ariandel includes the Painted World’s snowy routes and Sister Friede’s demanding fight. The Ringed City adds the Dreg Heap, the city itself, and encounters such as Darkeater Midir and Slave Knight Gael.

Save challenging DLC encounters for when your character and equipment are ready. Access to Ashes of Ariandel appears at the Cleansing Chapel, but its early availability does not make it an easy diversion.

How Long Does 100% Completion Take?

Budget around 100 hours for a completionist goal. A planned all-achievement route can take 80–100 hours, with covenant farming and missed collectibles affecting the total.

Image: Steam / FromSoftware, Inc.

Define your goal before starting a checklist: unlocking every achievement does not require owning every weapon, collecting every armor set, or completing every quest variation.

The achievement targets include:

• 43 Steam achievements in total.
• The Dark Soul, awarded for completing all achievements.
• To Link the First Flame, The End of Fire, and The Usurpation of Fire, the three ending achievements.

Plan Around NG, NG+, and NG++

A standard route to all achievements spans three playthroughs on the same character: NG, NG+, and NG++. Rings appearing in later cycles and the different endings make this a much larger commitment than a single clear.

Follow a collectible checklist across all three journeys. Some NPC choices affect access to rings, gestures, and spells, so checking requirements before major progression can prevent another trip through the game.

Leave Time for Covenant Rewards

Several required rings and spells come from covenant ranks. You can earn the necessary covenant items through multiplayer activities or farm them from enemies offline.

Offline farming can consume a substantial part of the achievement hunt. Equip item-discovery gear, including the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring and Crystal Sage’s Rapier, when gathering rare drops.

Neither DLC is required for the base game’s achievements. Play the expansions for their areas, equipment, and bosses; their collectibles do not need to be added to your base-game achievement checklist.

Can You Beat the Game in Under an Hour?

Yes—a practiced speedrun can finish in under an hour. That requires detailed routing, rehearsed boss strategies, and consistent movement through areas.

An older-patch Any% Glitchless route uses Sharp-infused Sellsword Twinblades and powerful Carthus Rouge bleed damage. Those patch-specific damage advantages should not be used to judge the pace of a normal current-version playthrough.

The finished run also leaves out the preparation behind it. Learning boss openings, practicing individual sections, and restarting failed attempts can take far longer than the final recorded clear.

Use the main-story estimate when scheduling your first adventure. Save speedrun targets for a replay built around learning a specific route.

Can You Keep Playing After the Ending?

You can continue exploring after finishing the main story by declining the immediate move into New Game Plus. Return to Firelink Shrine and finish any remaining activities before beginning the next journey.

Use that time to tackle optional bosses, visit the DLC areas, collect accessible items, or work on covenant rewards. Complete your cleanup before advancing to NG+, particularly if your next goal is collecting later-cycle rings and pursuing another ending.