So much of Dark Souls is a lonely experience. There are fleeting glimpses of others in the same struggle, but you’re largely on your own. It’s why flipping the script and jumping into other people’s games is such a joy.
There are two ways to interact with other players. You can invade worlds and kill them, a requirement for many of the game’s optional covenant quests, or you can help them out and be a shoulder to praise the sun on.
Because I’m not a jerk (and because I’m terrible at PvP), I’ve been doing the latter. I made a list of the bosses who gave me the most trouble in Dark Souls 3, and started hanging out in front of the doors that lead to them.
You know, like this:
Depending on the time of day, it takes anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes for someone to summon me into their world. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that my face looks like a rotted corpse? Hm.
Though every person plays Dark Souls differently, I’m guessing there’s an emotional arc to arriving at the moment where they have asked for my help. They have probably been banging their head against the same boss for more than an hour. Heck, maybe this is the second day they have been trying to take them down, or they figured a night off might give them some perspective.
Unfortunately, it didn’t make a difference, and they’re still dying. “Why do people even play these games?” they ask. We’ve all been there, friend.
(I remembering feeling that way when facing the trio of Ruin Sentinels in Dark Souls 2, AKA the only Dark Souls boss I’ve had to summon help for, AKA do you get how good I am at Dark Souls? Do you even summon, bro?)
You don’t often feel like a hero in Dark Souls. Even after taking down a tough boss, the feeling is exasperation and relief. But you get to play that part when summoned to another world in Dark Souls. After a boss goes down and the other person leaps into the air, you can’t help but smile. Dark Souls doesn’t have voice chat, so there’s no way to know how you’ve made the other person feel; everything happens through emotes.
It’s hard to not feel a little bummed as the other player waves goodbye.
(In Dark Souls, summoned players are dismissed after a boss is defeated.)
Helping players with Dark Souls 3‘s biggest challenges is addicting, and keeping me from New Game Plus. Instead of starting a new challenge with my character, I’m spending evenings camped out in front of boss doors. Given how satisfying that’s been so far, that’s not such a bad thing.
Comments
21 responses to “The Joy Of Helping Other Players Survive Dark Souls 3”
It is all thanks to co-operator
Gee I can’t wait for all the Star Fox related content Kotaku’s got lined up for when that game rel-ahem sorry yes I forgot I’ll be good.
Rolls. Dark Souls rolls. Barrel rolls!
There. Phew.
Do a barrel ro…You Died.
Happy to say I finished DS, DS1, DS2, BB and halfway through DS3 with no summons!
It just goes to prove that I am a souls veteran, but I am not good at them at all. I summon help quite often
Nothing wrong with that, it’s only the elitist idiots of that community that think its worse than murder to summon someone for help lol
I can beat majority of the bosses myself, but if i can’t beat it after like like 10 goes i’ll summon a hand. I’ve got more important shit to do in my life than waste it fighting a digital enemy lol
Only one i’ve needed a hand for so far in ds3 is the boss before the catacombs.
just a correction Dark souls 2 and 3 have voice chat. in the connection menu there is an option to have it on or off. A lot of people don’t use it though but it is there.
*droools*
Gurgle… that frame-rate. So good.
As a new adventurer to the dark souls franchise, can someone explain what you get out of invading other players (i mean this literally, like what rewards and stuff)
You get a whole heap of souls, a specific item for the covenant you’re in and satisfaction that you beat the tar out of another person. It’s handy if you’re wanting to fight a friend or if there’s a covenant item that you really want as it’s the easiest way to farm the items. More importantly you don’t lose anything for failure as an invader, same as when you engage in jolly cooperation with a host. nothing lost when you die.
Okay make sense. How bout on the flip side. What do you get for successfully destroying an invader? apart from immense satisfaction. 😛
You don’t die and that’s about it. It’s also worth noting that invaders don’t get targeted by general enemies unless you use a specific consumable item so you’ll also need to deal with all the standard enemies as well, but on the flip side, invaders don’t get access to their estus flask.
DEPENDS ON THE COVENANT YOUR IN MATEY.
Really enjoying my solo play through but I must admit, my other build which I’ve been running through with a buddy has been much more enjoyable. I haven’t been invaded by a player in my solo build but got invaded 4 times last night when playing with my buddy. Some fool tried to paint us as noobs using his white phantom ring to blend in..hehehe follow me into this narrow corridor (BACKSTAB!) . Sure this could happen when playing solo but then I wouldn’t have anyone to laugh with me when players try this shit/ when I fall off a ledge due to lack of attention
I spent a good hour and a half last night just helping players through on the same boss fight. It helps me rank up with Sun bro covenant, and I feel good knowing I’ve helped people who have been struggling on a fight.
After years of playing offline this is my first Souls online. I was really enjoying the sense of community… until what I was waiting to happen, happened. Some fuckwit invaded my game and killed me. It struck me as being a bit of a metaphor for the human race. There’s some really cool people out there who go out of their way to help people out, help people achieve their goals. Then there’s another group, who go out of their way to make the world a worse place for people, see it as a means to make themselves feel powerful over others who are often weaker than they (usually these individuals have titanic character builds) .
So for a while I took to simply throwing myself off a cliff whenever they arrive. I deprive them of any thrill they may receive of beating up on a casual player (even if I suspect it gives them what they need in the process). But now I’ve just gone back offline. And that’s that.
Most won’t agree (it’s part of the game etc etc) … but in my opinion it’s a part of the game that’s pretty poor – if people want to indulge in PvP let em do so in their own game.
But it occurs to me as i write this, there’s probably some basic item you can carry around that allows you be online and not be invaded. I’ll have to do some research 🙂
The thing that irks me are the cowards that invade and sit with mobs waiting for you to aggro them, then they attack.
There are seeds that drop from a tree outside Firelink Shrine (which don’t spawn enough) that will make mobs in your game aggro invaders. Feels good when used at the right time.
That and they’ll burn through all their estus too. I know there is an item to stop estus usage but I don’t have it mapped to the square menu unless I’m planning on pvp’ing. I had a guy on the ropes near the crystal sage boss room despite his estus spamming, trying to drag me into the path of enemies, I only died when another player invaded me too. Jerks
Great article summed up some of the feelings I get too haha.
Though I’m pretty sure there is voice chat in DS3, I’ve been using it since release :S
I’ll summon as an absolute last resort but there’s no shame in it!!
Ahhh…..FFS another Dark Souls article!!
Anyone would swear that Ratchet and Clank didn’t just release. Where is the review on that?