Rolling

Rolling is a gameplay element in Dark Souls.

General Information

Contrary to popular belief, all roll types have 11 iframes except for the roll type associated with Dark Wood Grain Ring (also called Ninja Flip) which has 13 iframes. The main differences between roll types is the overall length of the animation coupled with Recovery Frames and Instability Frames. Instability Frames are the most critical aspect of rolling, as these are points in the animation where the player character will take 1.4x additional damage when hit. Dark Wood Grain Ring roll type is the only roll with no Instability Frames.

Roll Frame Chart

Dark Souls 1 visual iFrame Chart

Roll Type By Equip Load	iFrames	Recovery Frames (After Iframes End)	Instability Fames (1.4x Damage Taken	Recovery Frames (End of Animation)	Total Frames in Animation
100% Fat Roll	11	9	25	3	48
83.3% Fat Roll	11	9	25	2	47
66.6% Fat Roll	11	9	25	1	46
50% Mid Roll	11	4	14	4	33
41.6% Mid Roll	11	4	14	3	32
33.3% Mid Roll	11	4	14	2	31
25% Fast Roll	11	3	8	2	24
16.6% Fast Roll	11	3	8	1	23
8.3% Fast Roll	11	3	8	0	22
0% Fast Roll	11	3	7	0	21
25% Ninja Flip	13	0	0	9	22
16.6% Ninja Flip	13	0	0	8	21
8.3% Ninja Flip	13	0	0	7	20
0% Ninja Flip	13	0	0	8	19

Dark Wood Grain Ring Roll - Ninja Flip

To utilize the effect of Dark Wood Grain Ring the player character must be at or less than 25% of their current equipment load. This roll type removes all Instability Frames in the animation and grants 2 additional iFrames to this roll type making the total iFrames 13. This is the most ideal roll type if the player is choosing to roll.

Fast Roll - Light Roll

Players have a Fast Roll if their equipment weight is 25% or less of their maximum equipment load. Within the fast rolling category, there are four categories: Fast rolls have far fewer instability frames than Mid and Fat rolls. Fast Roll is one of the most ideal types of roll if the player is opting to roll, second only to Ninja Flip. While at Fast Roll weight, player movement speed will be at its fastest possible while sprinting and walking.

Medium Roll - Mid Roll

Players have Mid Roll if their equipment weight is 26% to 50% of their maximum equipment load. Just like the fast roll, there are several different categories that affect speed of recovery after the roll: Medium rolls have 14 instability frames in their animation meaning there are more frames where the player takes 1.4x additional damage than they have iframes. This means that if the player is at Mid Roll weight, they should lean into Poise and Defense mechanics rather than rolling. The 1.4x additional damage taken during Instability Frames is enough to partially or fully negate the defenses that player armor provides. While at Mid Roll weight player speed during actions like sprinting and walking will be reduced slightly.

Slow Roll - Fat Roll

Players have a Fat Roll if their equipment weight is 51% to 100% of their equipment load. Fat rolls have vastly more instability frames in their animation than iframes. This means that if the player is at Fat Roll weight, they should lean into Poise and Defense mechanics rather than rolling. The 1.4x additional damage taken during Instability Frames is enough to partially or fully negate the defenses that player armor provides. While at Fat Roll weight, player movement speed will be greatly reduced while sprinting and walking. It is best to never be within Fat Roll weight range.

Should 100% equipment load be exceeded, the player cannot roll and staggers if attempting to do so. Over encumbered players will not be able to sprint, they can only walk in a style that as been affectionally dubbed as "poop walking" by the community.

Trivia

• While special attacks, such as running and jumping attacks, deal increased damage, unique attacks initiated from a roll can deal less damage than the standard weak attack, but with many weapons such as straight swords, the attack will be unleashed incredibly fast.

Videos

Dark Souls Science - there are FOUR different fast roll speeds