This sadistic mod makes Dark Souls even harder through a series of debuffs

Everyone knows Dark Souls is hard, but that doesn't mean that experienced players aren't up for making it even trickier. Jack wrote a guide to doing just that last year, and a new mod called The Scorched Contract would slot in nicely. Every time you beat a boss you gain a debilitating debuff, making the next battle even more of a slog.

Beating lower level bosses grants less crippling effects, while the debuffs you get from harder bosses "could be simple challenge runs on their own", according to the mod's creator HotPocketRemix. After every boss battle, you'll get an item that describes the debuff—although some of them are "cryptic", which makes it even more difficult.

The mod's description also says that defeating bosses will "change the world of Lordran", which means certain doors will lock, or enemy positions might change.

If you fancy it, then go to the mod's Nexus page for installation instructions. HotPocketRemix says they'd consider adapting the mod for Dark Souls Remastered in the future.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.