What is The Duskbloods? Explaining How FromSoftware's Switch 2 Exclusive Works

What is The Duskbloods? When Nintendo first revealed that it was partnering with FromSoftware on a Switch 2 exclusive called The Duskbloods, everyone paid attention. It was just a short teaser, but it was enough to pique fans’ interest. Afterward, though, most were left wondering what the game actually was.

In the time since that initial announcement, FromSoftware has revealed a few pieces of information about The Duskbloods but kept a lot of it a mystery. Having now spent two days playing the game’s upcoming Network Test, I have a greater understanding of what The Duskbloods is, and the most important part is that it’s a lot of fun. You can read my full thoughts in my Duskbloods preview, but it’s important to understand the fundamentals of the game before diving into impressions.

How Does The Duskbloods Work?

The Duskbloods is a PvPvE experience that borrows a bit from a lot of different genres. It’s got a little Battle Royale flavor mixed in with a Bloodborne-esque aesthetic. It doesn’t fit neatly into one particular genre, but there’s no denying that it feels inherently FromSoftware. And even if you’re not a huge fan of the PvP offered in games like Dark Souls or Elden Ring, this has a lot going for it beyond that.

You play as a Bloodsworn in The Duskbloods, a pre-fab character with its own melee and ranged weapon, Bloodsworn skills, and passives. In the Network Test, there were 6 different Bloodsworn available, each one completely unique from the other. One was agile with fast melee attacks and an SMG that does moderate damage, while another was protected by heavy armor and therefore slower to dodge but whose massive club-like weapon packs a massive punch.

Combat fits the familiar light and heavy attack variety, but it’s the introduction of a ranged attack (with unlimited ammo) that mixes things up. There’s also a howl that serves as a type of parry, opening up opponents for a classic vampire feast that, on most AI-controlled enemies, actually turns them into an ally while replenishing some of your HP bar. On top of that, each character has their own set of skills (one unlocked by default and one that unlocks when you reach a certain level in a match) that give each one a personality.

If you want to heal the old-fashioned way, Gold Blood Stakes act like Blood Vials in Bloodborne. They are a limited resource, but you can pick them up by defeating mobs. The Duskbloods even has a full suite of consumables to put on your quick use toggle, from buffs to throwables.

The rocket man Zork is arguably the most iconic of the 6 available in the Closed Network Test, but each had some fun skills. Trang Lanh uses swirling circlets as melee weapons, throws them for ranged attacks, and can summon a giant snake form for a devastating skill attack. Senator Samir Patres could transform into a dinosaur, charge at an enemy, and, if successful, grab them in his dino teeth for a good chomping. Layla has a sniper rifle that had a lower ammo count but could do devastating damage at range, and one of her skills involved pulling out a Gatling gun and letting loose. Bloodhand Jan carries a big axe and one of his skills was focused on buffing damage. Meanwhile Albert was your “starter” character whose primary skill was sending out ranged blood slashes.

Character archetypes are nothing new to FromSoftware experiences — most recently, we saw them in Nightreign — but here it’s about investment. You know at the beginning, every one of these characters is going to be weak, but as the match progresses, they will get stronger and more viable. Spend a little time with each, and they will begin to show their value. By the end of my two days playing The Duskbloods I had a favorite or two, but I never felt like any character couldn’t make it to the end. It was all about a combination of my luck in the early phases of the match, combined with my skill when facing other players.

Map Design In The Duskbloods Takes Advantage Of New Movement Tech

There was only one map available for The Duskbloods preview, Lowanro City, which has a little bit of everything. There was a beautiful gothic cathedral, a ramshackle series of caves, and the classic FromSoftware swamp, complete with poisonous rats. This particular map was very Bloodborne in its visuals and fits right alongside From’s other titles.

Where things are a bit different in The Duskbloods is the verticality. Unlike almost all of FromSoftware’s other Soulsborne games, The Duskbloods has no fall damage. On top of that, you can jump up to 3 times and even dash in the air, almost as if you are playing a 3d person action platformer. You can even charge up the jump to get some extra height, and then chain together additional jumps to scale large walls or cross large chasms.

That movement alone makes The Duskbloods faster and more fluid than any of the studio’s past character action games, incorporating movement tech that becomes as much a part of a player’s arsenal as their character’s weapons and abilities. It also becomes a key part of combat, allowing you to get in air attacks or ground pounds at will. Interestingly, movements like dodges are the only things that cost stamina; basic attacks are “free.”

Even that explanation of the combat feels like a truncated explanation of what makes up the fundamentals of The Duskbloods. The character you choose, the tools at your disposal, and the arena with which you compete set the foundation for what is, in my opinion, FromSoftware’s most unique game yet.

For The Duskbloods preview we only had access to one map and 6 Bloodsworn to choose from. Every Bloodsworn is set in terms of its load out and skills, but FromSoftware hinted that there will be customization in the finished game. But for now, the focus was on seeing how a match of The Duskbloods works.

The 4 Phases of a Dusk Battle

The Duskbloods pits 8 players against each other in a Dusk Battle comprised of 4 phases. For each of those phases, you select a starting spawn area, and then begin exploring the map, killing AI enemies and picking up practically anything and everything you see. The goal of each phase is to make the cut and progress to the next phase, and doing so requires collecting Virtue.

Virtue is the point system that determines your place on each phase’s leaderboard. You can earn Virtue in several different ways, from defeating challenging enemies to collecting skulls dotted around the map. There are also two commendations for each phase that reward Virtue, one for being the player with the most AI enemy kills and one for collecting the most items. It’s less important the categories of Virtue that you earn and more so that you earn it to raise your score.

While every Bloodsworn starts at level 1, you can both level them up to unlock a second skill as well as collect upgrades like imbuing your weapons with lightning, poison, or fire. It’s a little like the early moments of a Battle Royale match, only here you are cobbling together a build based on what is readily available. Just as you would in Elden Ring or Dark Souls, the glowing orbs are everywhere, offering everything from chunks of XP to fire flasks. There are also rewards for defeating challenging enemies that offer more meaningful upgrades like stat boosts (higher HP, better Defense, etc.) or a choice between two upgrades for your skills (e.g. more uses, faster cooldown, more attack power).

As a counterpoint to the Bloodsworn, every map has a series of Trespassers that serve as boss-level enemies within a map. It wouldn’t be a FromSoftware game if you couldn’t go toe-to-toe with top-tier foes that range from a disgusting, gigantic frog lady to a sleek flying knight covered in spikes. The reward is great for taking on these foes (more on that down below), and what’s really cool is that anytime someone faces off against one of them, everyone else gets the option to teleport to the Trespasser and join the fight. There may be a lot of The Duskbloods that is PvP in nature, but if you are looking for a cooperative boss fight experience, those are still present in the game, and there are plenty of them around the map.

If you’ve been along for the Soulsborne ride over the decades, then a lot of this should feel familiar. Fighting mobs, taking on larger enemies, challenging bosses, and getting stronger along the way. How you choose to do so is up to you, though.

Where things are most unique is in The Duskbloods”s “build crafting” is the addition of a Kin, an AI-controlled teammate that works a lot like a summon. They come into the battlefield via a portal (a symbol above the portal identifies their archetype but who you get is random) and have their own HP bar, abilities, and will earn XP alongside you.

Kin help you from feeling alone in this oppressive and challenging world, and they can also round out your build. If you favor a more offensive play style, for example, you might seek out a support Kin. Regardless of who you choose, though, they are equally invested in your success and are a huge boon in every fight.

But even as you are trying to build out your Bloodsworn, you must always keep an eye out for Virtue opportunities, either ways to earn it or ways to collect it. That Virtue score looms large on the game’s HUD, which displays significantly more information — like a ticking clock for the phase — than most of FromSoftware’s previous work.

How Does PvP Work in The Duskbloods?

You might be wondering where PvP comes into all of this, and it’s true that this first phase is the most PvE-like of the four. You can engage with other players in battle if you so choose, and defeating them will reward one of those stronger upgrades I mentioned. Still, it’s not something that is actively encouraged. That all changes in Phase 2 and beyond.

Phase 2 starts with selecting a starting zone once again, and players are free to continue building up their Bloodsworn, making tweaks like changing Kin or swapping one weapon modifier for the next. Virtue is still the name of the game, but about halfway through the second phase, a Ritual Site activates and all players are called to that section of the map.

Each Ritual Site becomes its own battle arena where the gloves come off. If you defeat a player, you will earn Virtue and they will need to wait to respawn and get back into the fight. There’s also a way to boost the Virtue you earn for each player kill by picking up a Redstone from a special altar within the Ritual Site, but dying with the Redstone means you need to pick up another, which might not always be worth it depending on your place in the leaderboard and the time left in the phase.

The Ritual Site battles, where 8 players descend on the same zone and duke it out for score, are where the PvP first becomes a core part of the gameplay loop. However, it isn’t the only way to boost your score within the Ritual Site. Throughout the zone, there are different altars where, if you hold Y for a short period, you can earn Virtue so long as you are still in control when the Phase ends. So while you can throw yourself right into the thick of it and earn Virtue that way, there is a way to rise up the leaderboard without directly engaging.

Granted, most players will try to stop you from claiming the altars if they see you, and anyone can reclaim an altar for themselves, but there are enough around the Ritual Site (roughly 4 or 5) that you could earn a good chunk of Virtue just by sneaking in the periphery of the fracas. On top of that, if you pick up a Goldstone from a different zone within the Ritual Site, you will earn even more Virtue for laying claim to an altar when the Phase ends.

If you don’t get within the boundaries of the Ritual Site, you slowly take damage.

Regardless of how you are making a play for Virtue, when the clock hits 0, you either make the cut or not. After Phase 2, two players are eliminated, and Phase 3 begins. Phase 3 is exactly like Phase 2 in terms of its construction — it starts with the exploration and then the Ritual Site activates — only this time 3 players are at risk of elimination if they aren’t in the top three of the Virtue leaderboard. If you do make the cut, it’s onto the final round: the Moon Blood Bestowal.

It’s 1v1v1 in the Final Phase of The Duskbloods

For the Moon Blood Bestowal, the remaining 3 spawn into a smaller arena, and it’s kill or be killed. Dark Souls and Elden Ring have PvP that feels a little like this, but the addition of the mobility, the Kin, and the Bloodsworn archetypes make this its own thing. Each player gets one respawn, but after that, if they are defeated, they are out. Only one player can remain victorious and claim the First Blood.

Besides a cutscene, what you get for your victory, or even what you earn for finishing last, was not revealed as part of The Duskbloods Closed Network Test preview, but FromSoftware did tease that there would be opportunities to unlock pieces of the narrative and customization options in the game’s HUB area, the House of Night. You can also practice on a test dummy and set up your matchmaking parameters in this space, before jumping back in.

It’s a lot to explain, and that’s not even getting into additional wrinkles that can further vary your match-to-match experience. They are Sigils that influence how you interact with other players, like one that encourages you to find your sworn enemy and defeat them for a bunch of Virtue or one that, in perfect FromSoftware fashion, encourages you to find your lost love and convince them to accept your proposal. These are optional and can be turned on in the character select screen.

You can even make alliances with another player to work together, which prevents you from damaging them and rewards you if you both make it to The Blood Moon Ritual. However, if you choose to betray your allied player, the game punishes you and gives your former friend an HP boost.

There’s so much going on just from a base level perspective, but there are tons of systems that are completely optional but go a long way towards crafting fun narratives within your given matchmade experience. There’s even a duos mode, where 4 teams of 2 earn a shared Virtue score, and the final phase is a 2v2 face-off. Not to mention there are aspects of the game that FromSoftware hinted at, like a Ranked playlist and a more PvE-focused final round where the trio faces off against a tough boss for shared glory.

Even for what felt like an overwhelming introduction to a dense game whose concept cannot be succinctly explained, there was still plenty more I didn’t see, and that will assuredly expand every layer of the experience I covered above. The Duskbloods is not just a PvP mode within a larger single-player game; FromSoftware is taking a huge swing and packing in all of those systems and mechanics that have made them one of the most prolific developers in the business. It’s something new, but with familiar pieces of the games you love.