Dark Souls 'Daughters of Ash' mod adds new bosses, new NPCs and much more

Although the community has been around for years, it feels like the Dark Souls modding scene is really hitting its stride – especially if new twists on the game's formula is more interesting to you than, say, only being able to roll or playing as CJ from GTA San Andreas.

Dark Souls: Daughters of Ash isn't a total conversion mod, but it's probably the closest we've come to one for Dark Souls: it's described as an "enormous fan-made overhaul" by creator Grimrukh, who claims to have spent two years and around a thousand hours making it.

While there are no new game assets, the mod does feature new bosses and enemies – most of which are drawn from cut content. There are new NPCs with brand new questlines, new weapons, items and mechanics, expanded lore and new secrets. "Forget what you know about exploring Lordran. New world-changing events, key items, and unexpected pathways await you," so reads the mod's description.

"Daughters of Ash has approximately twice as much content as the original game, much of which cannot be seen in a single play-through due to the complex interactions between storylines," Grimrukh writes. "It contains no new game assets (e.g. character models, map assets, dialogue recordings, visual effects) but accomplishes a great deal through modifying the game's event scripts, placement data, and entity logic." 

Oh, and if you like the dwindling HP mechanic from Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 2 – prepare to die, I guess.

Daughters of Ash currently only works with the first, Prepare To Die edition of Dark Souls, though it should become compatible with Dark Souls Remastered some time later this year. You can check the mod out here. The video below (via ahmz1404) shows how Daugthers of Ash tweaks an early game mini-boss from vanilla Dark Souls.

As for some other recent Dark Souls mods that have impressed us, Prepare to Die Again randomises a lot of key aspects of the game, while The Breath of the Soul introduces some survival elements borrowed from the most recent Zelda game.