While at first glance it might seem like any
differences between the male and female characters in Dark Souls are purely visual, you might be
surprised at just how many things work differently based on the chosen character. The basis behind
these disparities is a potential oversight the developers at From Software made when programming
female exclusive animations. Let’s take a look at its male counterpart first, as their animations
are first on the list and cover 99% of the player character’s behavior. A double zero is the male
idle animation and the DS Anim Studio reveals it’s made up of the animation visual itself,
a sound effect spawner, an animation blender and several cancellation conditions labelled as
“End if action X is queued”. Action X includes queuing up left or right-handed attacks, queuing
up switching weapons or queuing a consumable use. If we on the other hand explore the female idle
animation labelled a200, I’m sure you can spot the difference. Indeed, all of the cancel
conditions present in the male animation are completely absent in the female version. We
could speculate as to why this is the case, but I suspect that with the distinct female animations
being labelled with the highest index, they were last additions to the animation set. It would make
sense to first create all the shared animations and only then add the distinct ones. Why the
cancel conditions are missing, however, I’m not sure. It was either an oversight, or they used a
different system of cancelling animations by that point of development. There are also other minor
variances like a different number of blending frames between the respective jogging animations.
Whatever the reason for these changes may be, it creates several interesting scenarios where the
male and female characters operate diversly and which we will now explore in further detail. Strap
yourselves in, as this is about to get technical. First off is a small discrepancy in
acceleration between the two characters. When transitioning between standstill and
jogging and also jogging and sprinting, or dashing as the game calls it, there is a
brief period of time, where the character’s speed gradually adjusts, instead of the transition
playing out instantaneously. Testing done by the glitch hunter AndrovT utilizing special tools
to attain maximum input consistency revealed that these transition periods differ
in speed between the two characters. The transition is faster for the female
character as opposed to the male character. The true reason for this is unfortunately unknown,
as it is most likely hidden within the ESD – the game’s state machine in this particular case
handling the entire character and what it may do at any point. Probing the ESD is, however,
a strenuous process and something we just don’t know much about yet. That being said, thanks to
Androv we do know that the speed difference is present for both acceleration and deceleration,
meaning although the female character reaches top speed faster, it also reaches the lower
speed faster while decelerating, resulting in roughly even speed overall between the two
characters, assuming equal amounts transitions. In a speedrun, however, very rarely will
a running sequence end with a simple deceleration to jogging or standstill. Instead,
the character will transition into opening doors, lighting a bonfire , entering a fog gate or
other similar action, where the last deceleration isn’t present, giving the female character a
slight edge, as over the course of a speedrun, such events occur many times. This should mean
that playing as a female should generally be faster and especially the speedrunners
should be selecting it every time, right? Well, not really. It wouldn’t be Dark Souls if
things didn’t get a little more complicated. Androv’s testing further revealed that performing
an upper body animation during the transition between two speed levels completely skips that
transition. Again, the true reason for this is unknown, as it is most likely some combination
of animation blending and ESD operations. Upper body animations include: Weapon switching
with a d-pad, even with no weapons equipped. This is commonly called “toggling” within the
community. Blocking, swapping between arrow types with a bow equipped, that’s the L2 action when
handling a bow. Again, just like with toggling, no arrows need to be equipped, and finally
switching between one-handing and two-handing . Of course, these upper body animations only save
time when transitioning to a higher speed, as skipping the deceleration is undesirable, since
it allows for the higher speed to be maintained for a little longer. This trick works for both
the male and female characters, making their acceleration equally quick. If utilizing upper
body animations while starting to move faster but not while slowing down, the female character is
the one being disadvantaged, as it still keeps its faster deceleration. This should answer the common
question of why speedrunners constantly swap their weapons around when running around Lordran and why
the top speedruns opt to use the male character. Additionally, regenerating stamina is done in
the smallest chunks possible in order to provide more opportunities for time save with the upper
body animation speedup. Please note that these time saves are marginal, but I estimate that over
the course of an All Bosses speedrun lasting about 62 minutes, roughly two to three seconds might be
saved with the male character and good toggling. That doesn’t seem like much, but I have
personally been a witness to speedrun races, where one second was enough to decide
between the winner and the loser. If you are interested in the exact numbers from
Androv’s tests and how exactly the speed changes if an upper body animation cancel is performed,
I have linked his insane scientific paper in the description below.
DUPING Besides the direct speed difference, there
are also other significant instances of the animation disparities substantially contributing
towards selecting one or the other character. Instances which might play a bigger role than
saving a couple of frames throughout a speedrun. Confirmation box duping is a
well-known and highly utilized exploit, especially in the original version of the game.
It allows for consumables such as Boss Souls or Homeward Bones to be used without being depleted.
Simply put, it is achieved by queuing up using a consumable with a confirmation box such as
this Soul of Sif while fixed in an action, such as a roll , and then opening the menu
which delays the appearance of the confirmation box , followed by using a different consumable
from the inventory. Upon confirming the box, the newly selected consumable is depleted,
here costing us one Estus Flask charge, while attaining the properties of the stored
consumable, resulting in obtaining 16 000 souls without losing the Soul of Sif. If executed
properly, this works every time as a male, but because we are transitioning from a specific
action, in our case rolling, to being idle, as we now know an animation the female character
has an exclusive version of , the female character runs into issues and instead of the confirmation
box showing up when Estus is selected, the Estus Flask is drunk from regularly. So, what exactly
is at play here and is there a way to fix it? The difference between the two characters
is not whether an action can be queued, but rather when it can come out. Let me explain. If we roll and stop moving , we are transitioning
from the rolling animation to the idle animation. When an action is queued during the roll, it will
play out between the end of the rolling animation and the start of the idle animation, hence why
regular action queueing works without issues for both characters. As you can see, the confirmation
box for using the Soul of Sif appears in either case. Delaying the confirmation box popup by
opening the start menu, however, prevents it from playing out between the two animations and
while the character enters idle, using the Soul stays stored in the game’s memory. Closing the
start menu should let the stored action manifest and the confirmation box should show up. This
is indeed the case for the male character. The idle animation is briefly
cancelled by the stored action; the box shows up and then the idle
animation immediately resumes. As I have already explained, the female idle
animation doesn’t include the necessary cancel conditions and that’s why after closing the menu,
the confirmation box never shows up. The queued action cannot manifest, because female idling
cannot be interrupted. However, using the Soul of Sif still remains stored in the memory. We can
showcase it by simply blocking. Blocking doesn’t disrupt the action queue and shares the same
cancel conditions with the male idle animation. As soon as we block, the confirmation box
shows up. This is the reason the confirmation box never shows up when we input drinking
from the Flask. It simply cannot interrupt the idle animation, while drinking the Estus is
a completely new action playing out as intended. The issue is clear then, as long as the animation
following the queued input cannot be cancelled, the confirmation box dupe won’t work, so
getting rid of the female idle animation would solve this problem. But how? Well,
the answer is actually quite simple. When two-handing any item, a different idle animation
shared between both the characters is utilized. This animation uses the male cancel conditions
and thus can be interrupted with a queued action. T he same is also true when wielding one of
the following weapon types in the right hand: Greatswords, Greataxes, Great Hammers, Spears or
Halberds. While these relatively basic ways of circumventing the female disadvantage exist,
there might be scenarios where duping off a parry might be beneficial and without the
listed weapons equipped in the right hand, the female character would simply have
to resort to a different strategy. Both toggling and confirmation box
duping put females at a disadvantage, but for some, this next difference is enough
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the link is in the description. Another practical example of male – female
differences playing out is an exploit called Still Moveswap. What we just covered about
action queueing is also key for understanding this instance. Moveswap is a glitch where the
action to two hand a bow in one’s left hand is queued up and before the game executes it, the bow
is swapped out for a weapon of choice. This swap doesn’t interrupt the action queue and as such the
newly equipped weapon will be two-handed instead. In the first Dark Souls, the only weapon one
can two-hand in the left hand is the bow and the bow does not have any information for rolling,
plunging or running attacks, it can only shoot an arrow, so when a different weapon is forced to be
two-handed in the left-hand slot through moveswap, the game fetches the data for these attacks from
the right hand. This is generally abused to use a heavy hitting, but slow weapon and give it
the running attack of a thrusting weapon, which is not only quick, but hits in two-ticks,
essentially providing double the damage. Moveswap is normally done out of a jump roll, but
for beginners, this method can be quite difficult to learn at first and can present a pretty big
entry-barrier into the Prepared to Die Edition speedruns. Fortunately, another technique much
more welcoming to the newcomers was discovered. Pressing L1 while two-handing can result in two
outcomes , either blocking with a two-handed weapon , or aiming down sights with a bow. In both
cases the L1 input is kept in the game’s memory. The exact reason for this is unknown, but once
again it’s most likely the ESD state machine, which doesn’t handle blocking or aiming as a
fully-fledged animation, and thus doesn’t remove it from the action queue properly. This can be
proven after getting rid of the two-handed state. Simply using the keybind wouldn’t work, as that
would clear the stored L1 input from the action queue. Instead, we need to use a little workaround
by unequipping a weapon in the equipment tab. Now, the male character proceeds to
immediately punch, as the stored L1 input can interrupt the male idle animation.
As a female, repeating the same process doesn’t actually make the character punch. This is because
yet again we are in the one-handed female idle animation a200 and it cannot be interrupted
by the stored L1 input. The stored L1 input can nevertheless still be triggered even
as a female and that is by entering a different cancellable animation which doesn’t
clear the L1 input from the action queue. One animation meets these conditions
and that is the turnaround. The turnaround has the regular cancel properties
and thus the L1 input will follow through, demonstrated by the punch being executed.
If you’ve been following closely, you might wonder whether the turnaround could
also be used to let a confirmation box play out and make confirmation box duping work
better . That is indeed a great question, but the stored confirmation box
seems to get cleared by a turnaround while an L1 input doesn’t. More ESD magic.
Okay, but how is this connected to moveswapping? Unequipping a weapon isn’t the only action
reverting a two-handed state, equipping or swapping a weapon achieves the same outcome.
It is thus possible to store an L1 input while one-handing the bow, which would, if triggered by
turning around, proceed to two-hand it. During the turnaround process, however, swapping out the
bow for a different weapon is possible and with proper timing a moveswap is executed. Let’s show
the entire procedure. First, we store the L1 input by blocking, then, equipping the bow makes our
character unblock. A turnaround animation will trigger the stored input, so as we turnaround,
we also swap the bow for our weapon of choice. This process is fundamentally identical to a
regular moveswap, but since the stored input is executed at will, the player can navigate the
menus comfortably without any rush. Because this method of moveswapping is performed while standing
still, it was conveniently named Still Moveswap. This is true as a female, but for once the
male’s idle animation means trouble. Since male idling can be interrupted, the stored L1 is
executed immediately after the bow is equipped, two-handing without an opportunity to swap
out the bow for the desired weapon. Instead, the execution of the stored input needs to be
delayed, which can be done by constantly staying on the move. As long as we are moving, the running
animation takes priority and the stored L1 input won’t play out. When ready to swap the weapon,
we need to stop and time equipping the weapon, as going back into idle will make the L1 execute.
When done correctly, we are also moveswapped, just like the female counterpart, but the inconvenience
is obvious. The character needs to be in motion the entire time menuing is being performed. That
can be tricky in areas, where running up against a wall or into a corner isn’t feasible. Furthermore,
timing the weapon swap is much easier if also inputting the turnaround, instead of just stopping
the movement. If you ever see speedrunners exploiting the Still Moveswap, you can bet they
will be doing it with the female character, despite other drawbacks it might present. That’s
how convenient the female Still Moveswap is. After breaking the rule, we are going right back
to Miyazaki discriminating women . Homeward Wrong Warping is a groundbreaking glitch allowing for
regular warp locations to be manipulated and swapped for another. I have a full video covering
it in detail and will link it in the description for those interested about the specifics. In order
to trigger this style of wrong warp, a different glitch called Spellswap is utilized. Spellswapping
basically casts one spell with the effect of another spell. This is useful for bypassing the
requirements a spell might have, such as wielding the appropriate spell casting tool. It also means
the animation of the original spell is used and this is where the magic lies . The Homeward spell
sends the player to a place of their last bonfire. Homeward’s animation is long enough to keep
the player occupied all the way until the warp is performed. Spellswapping Homeward’s
effect on a spell with a shorter animation, such as Fireball, however, gives the player
an opportunity to move around for a couple of frames before the warp executes. This
freedom can be used to rest at a different bonfire than the player is being warped
to, which in return triggers a Wrong Warp. Spellswapping only works if the animation
the player is currently in has the proper cancellable properties. This means it cannot be
done moving and needs to be performed while idle. And you already see where the issue is. As we
now know, the female idle animation cannot be properly cancelled and because Spellswap requires
two spellcasting tools to be equipped, simply two-handing like in the case of confirmation box
duping is not possible. Female thus has a hard finding a substitute. Our trusty turnaround
animation does not work either . Luckily, there is a suitable alternative in the failed
spell cast animation, or the head scratch as we might call it. This animation can be cancelled
and Spellswap thus works out of it properly. T his nuisance caused by From Software coding
presents not only a slightly more difficult version of Homeward Wrong Warping, but also
introduces a time loss, as the failed cast animation needs to play out first. It might not
seem like big deal, but in shorter categories such as Any%, this time difference can play a
pivotal role between achieving a record or not. So, these are the major differences between the
two playable character models. Common questions about differing hitboxes or anything similarly
obvious can now be swept under the table, but it wouldn’t be From Software if there
wasn’t more detail than might seem at first. Late addition of female exclusive animations
in the development cycle caused them to use different cancelling functions, resulting
in several substantial inequalities. The speed of movement , Confirmation Box Duping
and Spellswapping all present a disadvantage for the female character. However, the ability
to Still Moveswap can be such a deal breaker for some players that they might opt to use it
anyway. One small difference between animations resulting in complex interactions is something
that shouldn’t even be surprising at this point, as time and time again we are reminded of
the depth this fantastic game carries. Depth, which makes it such a fun speedrun to play and
watch. I hope that thanks to this video, next time you watch your favorite Dark Souls speedrunner,
you might have an idea of why they start as a male or a female. If you found the info presented
interesting in any way, consider subscribing to the channel and liking the video. It takes about
2 seconds, really helps me out and also lets me know that you enjoy this sort of stuff. Until next
time, thank you for watching and have a great day.
