Estus Flasks and Lifegems
The iconic healing item in the Dark Souls games is the Estus Flask, which is a healing potion that refills at each checkpoint. In both Dark Souls and Dark Souls II, using the Estus Flask stops the player in their tracks for a quick drink, healing them so that they are ready for their next challenge.
In the original Dark Souls you can make the flask heal for more hit points by upgrading it with Fire Keeper Souls, and you can get more flasks back at a bonfire by kindling it with humanity. There are other ways to heal in Dark Souls such as Divine Blessings and Elizabeth Mushrooms, but these are rare healing items that have additional properties, so the primary resource a player will utilize will be the Estus Flask. You can take multiple sips of the flask by pressing the Use Item button repeatedly after each chug, and it will heal you pretty quickly.
How Dark Souls II does healing
Dark Souls II makes some significant changes to Estus Flasks and introduces a second, common healing item that comes in three tiers: Lifegems. Lifegems have two downsides compared to Estus Flasks: You don’t replenish them when resting at a bonfire, meaning that if you’re out of souls and having a tough time, you may run out of lifegems. Also, even with the strongest Lifegem variant, you recover HP at a faster rate by drinking an Estus Flask.
Lifegems however have three benefits over Estus Flasks: Although you cannot replenish your Lifegems at bonfires, you can pick them up from enemies along the way and can purchase them from vendors. You can also carry a maximum of 99 of each type whereas the most Estus Flasks you can ever carry is 12. Finally, although the healing speed is not nearly as fast, you don’t have to stop to use a Lifegem, you will continue walking (slowly) while using it.
A fully upgraded Estus Flask in Dark Souls II heals you for 800 HP over a course of 3-5 seconds. Even though the strongest Lifegem heals you for 500 more HP than that, it’s over the course of 29 seconds, meaning that in the heat of the moment, you need to rely on those flasks.
Dark Souls II benefits from having both of these items
This is the dynamic that Lifegems provide alongside the Estus Flask. They don’t compete with each other, they complement each other. In the heat of battle, you want a healing item that’s going to bring your health back up quickly. That’s why it’s important to carry as many of these flasks as possible to the boss room, because the entire fight is the heat of battle.
Remember, you can only ever have 12 Estus Flasks in Dark Souls II (compared to a whopping 20 flasks in Dark Souls which heal faster), and it’s a task to build that number up and upgrade their healing potential. You start with a single, replenishing Estus Flask, and after a bit of snooping around Majula for an Estus Flask Shard (the item you trade in for more flasks), you can enter the first area with two of them in hand.
To start with, you need to rely on lifegems instead, which have the downside, as mentioned, of being a slow burn, but have some mobility when used and can be stockpiled. You should get in the habit of keeping both your Estus Flasks and your lifegems attuned and quickly deciding which healing item to use, because you want to be able to rely on your Estus but it’s a much cheaper proposition to pop a lifegem instead, especially when things get quiet.
Upgrade your Estus Flask whenever you can, because it’s a very reliable healing item, but use them in concert with your lifegems, which help offset the downsides of the Estus Flask and vice versa.
Also, did you know you can use both of these healing items on ladders in Dark Souls II? Just keep an eye out for anyone trying to knock you off. When you run out of stamina on a ladder, that’s your ticket to the ground.