March 11th has arrived and it’s time to go beyond death. The Dark Souls II servers are live and we’re excited to see everyone online and exploring the world of Drangleic. Today, we wanted to give an extended look at some of the Covenants that you may be joining in Dark Souls II. This is not a complete list as we wouldn’t want to spoil the secrets that await you on your quest.
Covenant masters are scattered throughout the world of Dark Souls II and, under certain conditions, may invite you to join their ranks. Seek the protection of a noble order of knights. Defend against invaders from other worlds. Set out on a lonely and arduous journey. Lay a trap and draw other players into your world. Protect a long-forgotten tower. Thirst for more blood. These tasks and more are laid before you as you deceive, challenge, and offer aid to fellow players online.
Way of the Blue
Not everyone seeks to challenge other players online. Joining the Way of the Blue will give a player access to a ring that will summon a member of the noble Blue Sentinels if invaded by an enemy player from another world. If you’re not comfortable battling online in a PvP scenario, this Covenant is for you. Perfect for holding on to that human form as long as possible.
Blue Sentinels
Not everyone is fit to join the Blue Sentinels. When you first encounter this Covenant’s master, you won’t be able to join until you prove that you’ve assisted another player already. Once a member of the Blue Sentinels, PvP arenas will be opened up that allow you to duel fellow members. Blue Sentinels represent a noble cause and are encouraged to always be wearing their Covenant ring to assist other players in need.
Champion’s Covenant
Only the fittest are recommended to join the Champion’s Covenant. Accessible very early in the game, players will be asked “Are you sure?” when joining. Members of the Champion’s Covenant will find a more difficult and unforgiving world of Drangleic as they explore Dark Souls II. These players may also have difficulty summoning friendly phantoms. But surviving in this harsh world will net you special stones that can be offered to advance your rank within the Covenant. Champion’s Covenant members also have access to a leaderboard that displays players with the most offerings. Only the bravest will remain on top.
Rat King Covenant
Join the mysterious Rat King Covenant and the sewers, dirt, and slime will be your new friends. Equipping the Rat King ring and lurking in one of the designated areas will draw other unsuspecting players into your world. You may also find that the denizens of these areas are a bit more friendly to one of their own. Will they escape with their lives, or will you cut them down as they try?
Bell Keeper’s Covenant
Not everyone will find the old Bell Towers. And once they find them, not everyone will want to stay. If you do wish to join the ranks of the Bell Keepers, then you’ll be provided a Covenant ring to equip. While patrolling the long forgotten towers, if an intruder wanders into the area, you’ll be drawn into their world to stop them. This covenant functions similarly to the Forest Keeper Covenant from Dark Souls.
Brotherhood of Blood
Blood, blood, and more blood. Some evil might never be sated. Members of the Brotherhood of Blood vow to spill as much blood as possible as often as possible. You’ll not be welcomed into the ranks of this Covenant until you offer proof that you have the will and the means to slay a fellow explorer in the world of Drangleic. Similarly to the Blue Sentinels, the Brotherhood of Blood offers its members PvP arenas to see who is the true champion of the Brotherhood.
For those who choose not to interact with the game’s online systems, offline play is always available. But we do encourage everyone to play online as From Software put a great amount of work into improving the online mechanics to be deeper and more rewarding for all players.
We’re very excited for everyone to dive in and explore the world of Dark Souls II. It’s a special launch day for many people as there’s a vast amount of mystery to explore and experience.
I will never ever pre-order on the PSN anymore!
Frustrated enough to not get my stuff on paying in advance.
Still no preorder weapons for Dark Souls 2 off PSN. I contacted Sony and they told me to delete the game then redownload it and the weapons pack will be there but after all that wasted time it wasn’t. When I contacted them again they just directed me to this blog…very frustrating.
@152 – When I contacted Sony yesterday about not having access to my pre-order items they told me that they will be available when the store updates for tuesday. However that ended up getting delayed, and still to this point has not updated. So we shall see when it does.
I was going to say I hope the potential PS4 version does the $10 upgrade that uses the PS3 disc, but then I remembered I bought the digital version from PSN… Here’s hoping for the upgrade option that could still earn you guys some extra $$$ without destroying the consumer’s bank account. The Souls saga is one of my all time favorites and I’ve yearned for DS2 for a few years AND the idea of using the PS4’s share button to save clips and screenshots for social media and montages is one of the best ideas ever BUT I will NOT be dropping $60 on a PS4 version just because you guys waited forever to roll one out.
Please consider the $10 upgrade to PS4 option (even for us digital purchasers) and you’ll seriously make my 2014.
welp its 3 almost 4 pm no update on psn store…
This beyond belief. Never again will I make a purchase from Playstation. Who in the hell is running this clusterf&%#. We paid you your funds in advance, now you need to make good on your advertised product. You have not even issued a statement as to when we can expect are bonus pack. If I was in charge of this mess, a bunch of employees would not be returning to work this morning. Fix the problem!
yeah this is garbage. I will try NOT to pre-order from PSN after this (being my first time )
so did you guys take out the soul farming? because i was killing some enimies in the forest area and now when i rest at bonfires they no longer respond??/ whats going on???
After awhile mobs will vanish throughout the game. Not sure what exactly the limit is. Though I’ve had no trouble gaining souls so it hasn’t been a big deal so far.
What in the world have you done to this Souls game?? I’ve been getting killed and running through the same level a few times now and I’ve noticed enemies are not respawning anymore.. what in the HECK?? The whole level is almost completely empty!!!. You’ve just made this game so BORING.. I have no one left to kill or fight but the boss?? What the heck? I hope this is a bug or glitch because if not this game just became a complete bore-fest.. unreal..
@160 – They did that intentionally to prevent farming. After you kill an enemy enough times the bonfires won’t respawn them without an item. I agree it sucks, but eh. Leveling seems fast either way.
The mobs stop respawning after being killed about 15 times.
I’m guessing its to reduce farming souls to the point the game becomes trivial.
If you’ve killed every trash mob 15 times but haven’t finished the boss exactly what are you waiting for?
You should be way over leveled.
That’s the thing, I’m not over leveled. I’m not power leveling, I’m just having fun playing the levels. I’ve lost tons of souls but I was just having fun fighting the enemies and now they’re disappearing. None of the Souls game did that before, why change that? Why in the world should enemies not respawn anymore? Running through empty levels just doesn’t seem right for a Souls game. This really sucks.
preordered on playstation store still havnt got my weapon set
I agree with post 148. I STILL haven’t received preorder bonus. I chose digital version BECAUSE of the preorder bonus. I will NOT be preordering through psn again. Amazon and gamestop just got another customer. I’m seriously close to demanding a refund and going and buying a disc! I just got off the phone with a sony PSN rep and I was told to call (714) 816-9560. I also tweeted J. Kartje earlier today and haven’t gotten a reply.
To everyone that pre-ordered digitally asking about items. The reps told me tuesday morning that we would get the items when the PSN store does the tuesday update. The problem however, is that it is now thursday, and the store still hasn’t been updated. lol
seriously Sony absolute trash.
three days with no ps store update? Awww man, we could have made THIS blog post the one to break the record. but it doesn’t look like there are enough people angry. T-T
Oh well. I guess this means we can still take advantage of that tomb raider sale from last week. o_O
darn still havent gotten preorder items, im going to beat the game before I use them
i wonder if they actually would allow refunds since you know, they didn’t follow through with their own agreement.
So. Where is it?
On the Europe side, Jawad Ashraf from their PS Store team posted:
— quote —
13 March, 2014 @ 9:47 am
Morning all,
We are experiencing some technical difficulties with this week’s publish so some content is yet to go live. This is currently being worked on and we’ll keep pushing to get the missing content up as soon as possible for you to enjoy.
Apologies for this delay.
— end quote —
I won’t accuse him for being responsive but hey everyone here is MIA. As I said, the ‘bloggers’ here only babysit their post for an hour to answer the easy comments (“thanks”, “beyond”, “buy it”). After that, another day in the office is over, no one reads comments beyond page 1.
Even the tweeter update was over 24 hrs ago, saying they were targeting Wednesday. (What day is it now?)
I can understand, and forgive, technical difficulties. Lack of communication is inexcusable.
Hello guys any update ?
I would like download extras packages but I get error code – 80025B07
@170 They *are* following their agreement. Read the contract you agreed to when you signed up. It says Sony isn’t required to do anything and you have no recourse.
After contacting support multiple times about the missing preorder DLC from the digital copy of this game I finally had enough and just asked for a refund on the game. That’s the only recourse here. The “support staff” will just give you the runaround or tell you to “wait and see” but those aren’t solutions. I was told the same thing with Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag Gold Edition and Arkham Origins about missing content from those games. I spent a week each contacting them about those games and I spent 2 days contacting them about this one.
This is a recurring problem with PSN digital preorders and Sony shows no interest in getting it fixed. The only thing that will get them off their butts to fix this problem is if it hurts their bottom line. You don’t get what you paid for? Get a refund. No more waiting. No more getting the runaround. No more getting blown off. No more dealing with incompetent support staff
@175 stop buying digital retail games at full price idiot
@176 – stop telling other people how to spend their money. If I want to spend it on a box of rocks it’s none of your business. Full price digital retails aren’t going to make or break my bank account. I buy digitals because I don’t like keeping up with discs that get scratched and damaged over time even if they’re left in their cases. Try educating yourself before calling somebody an idiot
http://www.si.edu/tbma/digitalpreservation
Its too bad that even though the game was available to preorder customers at 12:01 PST as promised the entire PSN launch is tarnished by the simple matter of missing DLC.
The easiest way they had to avoid this was to just message us the codes when the order was completed.
A lot of people don’t understand why people are upset about this since the game is available to play. It is because the doc was meant to make the first few hours of the game easier and 99% of the preorder customers have already played past the point where the weapons matter.
The whole reason most of us in North America preordered off the PSN was for the bonus items. It’s not like they would run out of the digital game or not get enough of them. Unlike in Europe we can no longer predownload which would also be a great incentive. Oh well, I’ll just start preordering games at Amazon or a physical retailer again. Not that they are problem free but at least they are generally better at communicating issues and resolving them in a timely manner. Dark Souls 2 is awesome at least. I’ve no regrets buying the game.
@177 although to be fair, you have to be pretty rough with a bluray disc to scratch it. Anyways, what’s everyone’s favorite covenant so far?
@180 – I wasn’t speaking of just scratches. Over time the data layers of discs get pitted and degrade. This happens to all discs. Eventually they all become unusable. Some discs this happens in under 5 years. In 5 years I’d still be able to use my digital copy. Well, in theory that is. It all breaks down when the distribution service is busted like it is right here with PSN
@180 I’m covenant of the rat atm. I don’t want to spoil anything in explaining why I enjoy it though. It’s only the 3rd covenant I’ve tried so far though so my experience with them is fairly limited.
can i haz teh bonus weapons plz?
thx
I’m having an issue with my male characters all changing gender after I die. What the heck? Fix this problem please.
hey is anyone having a problem where you can not use any of the soapstones or the eye orbs for multiplayer? i am connected to online but cant use in human or undead form i see other players phantoms but never any signs. can anyone help me?
“I preorder the game, got the theme, and downloading the game now.
But when will I get the preorder bonus of the weapons?”
@184 Return to the area right after the first bonfire and inspect the coffin on the beach. It will switch your gender…you know, as coffins often do.
Gender switch? Coffin? Wow, I’m going to look for this when I start my game. Sounds pretty funny.
@RevLux Oh, you mean that thing you can climb inside in the tutorial section? Huh, I was wondering what that was for…
@189 Yes, the one near the end of the tutorial section guarded by two “rotund” enemies. I got about 2hrs into the game and realized that my male character was screaming like a girl when he got hit…literally.
At first I thought I must have pressed something wrong during character creation but then I remembered the strange coffin on the beach. When I hopped in it again I returned to being male.
Must be one of the strangest things to use a coffin for -and that’s saying something for a video game.
Hey, BlueBl1zzard, did you say earlier that you were new to the Souls universe? Because I have a tip if you are. Otherwise I’ll butt out.
Rex, that’s really odd. In Dark Souls, as you probably know, there was a coffin, too, but was used for something entirely different.
I’ll look for it when I start my game. I’m thinking about Sorcerer as I like having ranged options. Some dude on Twitch said that the Explorer (which he called Wanderer) was awful but the Knight was good.
@lisatsunami Oh no no no, I’m not really one to brag, but I kinda….platinumed both of the other Souls games lol ;)
Tips are very welcome though!
Blue, you platted both? How embarassing…for me. Hee, hee, you can check my trophies to see I’m not worthy, so I’ll exit slowly, trying to maintain what little dignity I have left.
My only tip was about using the Cloud save to overcome From Software’s cruel “no manual saves, no do-overs” policy. You have to wait 24 hours, but you can reload an earlier cloud save if you really, really regret something. It has to be cloud. No saving to a thumb drive. I’m sure you know this but I just want newcomers to not totally despair.
@lisatsunami Hahaha ironically enough I actually remember you posting that tip on here a while back, and that’s how I learned about it, so thanks! Although, as of yet I haven’t needed to make use of it yet, so that’s good. But the one day I put down my controller the wrong way and accidentally kill an important NPC (like a blacksmith) I most definitely will be reloading that earlier cloud save lol.
@lisatsunami I went with the sorcerer class and am loving it so far (lv 81.) I picked up some sword skills as well though as it is tough to keep that distance with every mob. The knight and dual sword wielding class are also fun. Though I haven’t played them as much.
Pretty sure neither sony or namco bandai care if people get their pre order armor and weapons
The PSN update has finally come through but even after deleting then redownloading and installing Dark Souls 2 again the Black armor weapon pack preorder bonus is STILL not showing up. It’s not in the game nor does it show up under downloads.
That was the 2nd time I deleted my game and the 3rd time that I downloaded and installed it -as instructed. I’m very disappointed in how terribly this has been handled. Especially considering it is relatively easy to fix. Just give us the codes for the dlc.
It’s just sad that the launch of such an awesome game has been sullied for many of us who preordered off the PSN.
I preorder the game on PSN, installed the theme, and downloaded the game.
When will I get the preorder bonus of the weapons?
guess who’s got 2 thumbs & will never preorder a game on the psn again? this guy.