Recommended staying in offline mode. Will be offline by default in modengine. Also, lowering your graphics settings is recommended as there are a lot more enemies than usual. 

Beefy hack 'n slash.

Take control of an ancient warrior from the era of the Three Kingdoms and lead your armies, the dragons, the Abyss Watchers, and the Outrider Knights against the forces of Londor. Join the Shu or Wei dynasty in a conquest for land. Or, take Londor for yourself by joining swords with the Mercenaries. Lore and story is a new twisted end to the Souls series.

This mod is an overhaul of most things in the game. Completely changes the way you play the game with super poise and sweeping attacks. Game progresses in a completely new storyline and map layout. You are an ancient hero, and it's about time you acted the part. You will face a new kind of challenge, unlike any seen in the Souls series. Strategize, and use the new spells and abilities to unleash chaos unto your enemies. 

Quick romp through the world of DS3. Utilizing underused areas of the game. Play with your current character if you like, you will only miss the firelink shrine lead up. Armour resistances are much more important in this game. Upgrading the new weapons is integral. Leveling helps a lot more due to weapon scaling. Don't forget: you can retreat from a battle to upgrade. 



*** IMPORTANT ***
If you updated from prior to v1.4.0.0, you will need to copy your save file, and change the extension to .sl3
Save file should be located:
..\Users\*username*\AppData\Roaming\DarkSoulsIII\*numbers and letters*\*.sl2 



Feel free to join the discord: https://discord.gg/uTnu6PA

Use mercenaries with your Vanilla DS3 characters by downloading the Mercenaries Vanilla files.

DLC 1 & 2 are required to play.


If you're playing on a potato, and need to reduce some stress on your gear, please take the following precautions:

1. Delete the sfx folder within the Dark Dynasty folder. This will remove bullet vfx from certain enemies, but the game is still playable.
2. Download compressed textures from https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls3/mods/524 by 338866949 and simply put the new folders into the Dark Dynasty folder. No UXM required. 
3. Report any game-breaking bugs you come across, and I can work with you to fix it.


You know the mod is properly installed if:

- you see custom names for new classes on the character creation screen to begin, and they should all be in different armour than you'd normally start with, and
- the first area should have a noticeable increase in characters littered about.


Issues to be aware of:

- Tactical Retreat, quitting, and dying in Londor Castle before the Asylum is bugged and will cause the game to crash. Use Londor Ramparts or Asylum bonfire to leave area (Not Siege Tunnels).
- Do not infuse any of the new weapons; it will cause them to be bugged and unusable.


Installation:

Back up your save files. Located in: ..\Users\*username*\AppData\Roaming\DarkSoulsIII\*numbers and letters*\*.sl2
Download file
Extract to standard DS3 game folder. Should look like: ..\Steam\steamapps\common\DARK SOULS III\Game
Start a new game
Play!


If you experience issues such as corrupted save data upon initializing the mod there are two methods:

Before installation:

Ensure you have an updated version of the game from Steam and a vanilla save file created. The best practice is to uninstall the game completely, delete (backup) your save files(..\Users\*username*\AppData\Roaming\DarkSoulsIII\*series of numbers*), re-install DS3 via Steam, create a new save file in the vanilla version of DS3, then install the mod and start a new game.

Alternatively:

Download the blank save file from the files page, as well as the File Manager. Use the File Manager to allow integration of the new save (allow integration while the game is running). 


Uninstall:

Delete dinput8.dll. Optionally remove modengine and the Dark Dynasty folder.
Then maybe don't use those save files online
Move backed up save files back into save folder


If you're interesting in modding FromSoft games yourself, make sure you join ?ServerName?: https://discord.gg/9NhmB84

Special Thanks:

TKGP for UXM, Yapped and Yabber.
Katalash for DSTools, Mod Engine, and Lua Decompiler.
AinTunez for DarkScript.
thefifthmatt for ESDLang.
L3g for the File Manager.
Pav for research into player stat IDs.
Papa Appa for the inspiration to delve into modding and the tutorial videos to get my feet wet.
Kirnifr for help figuring out some Speffect stuff, especially making just how useful speffects are to event scripting evident
Dropoff for some tips and tricks on the modding discord when I had random questions


Thanks for checking out my mod!