Dark Souls Remastered Version 1.04

If you are starting fresh in v1.04, knowing the sequence breaks is vital for a strong build.

Darkroot Garden: Run to the Black Knight near the ladder. Kill him for a chance at the Black Knight Sword or Black Knight Shield. In v1.04, this weapon carries you through the entire game.

Grinding: If you need Titanite, run to the Basement of Undead Burg. Kill the rats for Humanities. Use the Humanity to reverse hollowing and kindle bonfires for 10 Estus flasks early.

While official patch notes were sparse, datamining and community testing revealed the following comprehensive changes. dark souls remastered version 1.04

Many players assume that updating to Dark Souls Remastered version 1.04 patches every exploit. This is false. The following remain functional: If you are starting fresh in v1

The developers chose to focus on stability-breaking bugs rather than fun, non-invasive glitches—a decision the speedrunning community appreciated. Darkroot Garden: Run to the Black Knight near the ladder

Verdict: For 99% of players, Dark Souls Remastered version 1.04 is mandatory and beneficial.

A new glitch emerged in 1.04 that allowed players to swap weapons during a riposte animation while retaining the critical damage of the original weapon. This meant you could riposte with a Dagger’s speed but deal damage as if you were swinging a Demon’s Greataxe. Duels lasted about four seconds.

Original Dark Souls poise was binary: stack enough, and you could walk through a greatsword swing like a Terminator. Remastered had already nerfed this. But 1.04 went further. It introduced a bizarre hybrid system where poise only worked during active attack frames (similar to Dark Souls III). The result? Heavy armor became useless. Havel monsters suddenly staggered when a rat sneezed on them. The meta collapsed overnight.