Over 10 years ago, files for unknown Dark Souls messages were found in a text dump by Reddit user Retrogameaudio, who's now known as Illusory Wall, a prominent FromSoftware sleuth. Two days ago, on December 12, this cold case was finally closed with the discovery of two messages which did originally exist in the vanilla version of the iconic RPG.
Illusory Wall chronicled this saga in a new video about the Dark Souls Miracle-type spell Seek Guidance. This spell reveals nearby messages which would normally be hidden, and it was key to uncovering the two developer-made messages thought lost to time. One of them ended up being in the last place anyone thought to look, and they were especially difficult to find because FromSoftware apparently replaced them with different messages in post-launch patches before the original messages were even actually used.
For over a decade, players have known the contents of those messages, but not their in-game location. One reads "try light," while the other advises you "try lightning." Illusory Wall consulted HotPocketRemix, the creator of an essential Dark Souls file unpacking tool on Nexus Mods, who found that the files in post-launch updates could be used to "patch existing messages. The interesting thing is that they 'replaced' those unused messages."
By restoring the default, pre-patch version of Dark Souls on PS3 – with help from Diamond42 – Illusory Wall tracked down these lost messages (following a challenge issued by Libralonix). One of them was in an obvious location: FromSoftware initially advised players to "try light" at the beginning of the infamous Tomb of the Giants, a pitch-black area past the Catacombs.
The other message, "try lightning," could hardly have been more hidden. Lightning is a powerful damage type in Dark Souls, it being the weakest damage resistance for over one-third of the game's bosses. So you'd think this message would be near a boss like Iron Golem or Stray Demon, or even the rogue Titanite Demon, which are all especially weak to lightning.
Nope. The tip to "try lightning" was placed near Pinwheel, the boss of the Catacombs area bordering Tomb of the Giants, and also the easiest boss in all of Dark Souls. Hell, it might be the easiest boss in any FromSoftware game barring true-blue gimmick bosses that get one-hit, like Dark Souls 2's Ancient Wyvern. The only memorable thing Pinwheel ever did was drop the Mask of the Father which spawned the legendary Giant Dad build.
Pinwheel is technically weakest to lightning, but only by a slim margin compared to fire and magic. Frankly, Pinwheel is just weak to damage. It's developed a reputation as a joke boss which, like the much more intimidating Capra Demon, is recycled in other areas as a normal enemy.
Illusory Wall theorizes that the message was originally meant to lead players into using lightning attacks on the pool of water in Pinwheel's arena to insta-kill groups of the one-HP clones that the boss summons during the fight. Suffice to say, Pinwheel isn't the type of boss you'd really need extra help for, let alone dedicated messages on what weapons or spells to use. This is presumably why FromSoftware never actually used the "try lightning" message and ultimately removed it.
Fast forward to today and we've got masochistic streamers randomly switching between Dark Souls, Elden Ring, and Sekiro using mods.
