Which Souls game has done the covenants system best?

Which Souls game has done the covenants system best?

I'm liking 3's mostly because you can swap anytime anywhere with no recourse

Dark Souls 2

Of course Dark Souls
With Sin and shit

This. Pretty fucking convenient.

Dark Souls 2
Dark Souls 3 has no covenants, they're all pvp based, it's shit

Dark souls' covenants are the best, followed by 2's, 3's are convenient but shit.

PvP, Co-op and one that covers both. Mostly locational shit, which is garbage. It's not much different to the rest, but they all fucking suck. Covenants are wasted potential.

Best covenant per game
>Gravelords
>Bell Keepers
>Moundmakers
Honorable Mentions
>Rat King
>Company of Champions
>Every Sun covenant

Gravelords and Champions should come back in some form in 3.

Dark Souls 1 had the best variety, and they all could be done in single player if you wanted. I'm very partial to DS2's Champions, though.

Sunbros. Gets medals. For invading.

DaS2

>no covenant of champions
It's like you hate fun

>Honorable Mentions
>>Company of Champions

I think 1

3's are few, but even though they're conceptually concise, they don't work for half the playerbase

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Salt and Sanctuary

Demons Souls

Bloodborne of course

In theory? DaS. Actually? DaS2 even though I hate it.

no eye orbs fuck off

DaS2, DaS1 was pretty good at that department too though.

DaS3 falls incredibly short, and BB was just pure garbage, the game barely had covenants.

But still most of them worked.

With less emphasize on loyalty n shit like that.
I don't like it.

I liked 2 because it felt like thete was more weight to your choice or you could just be a rat asshole and that was cool too.

Three would win out if Blues and Darkmoons fucking worked.

Variety? I disagree a bit with this, due to there being bad guy invader, good guy invader, Gravelord (requires NG+), boss killers, shortcut girl, and everything else being useless.

Dark Souls 2
The covenants themselves were better, gave better rewards.
They had reasons to be in in them.

1 suffered from covenant abandonment penalty and really, bad connections gimping PvP / summoning.

3's covenant rewards were beyond terrible besides Obscuring Ring.
No +3 rewards, no genuine benefit like Blood Dregs / Titanite, etc.

2.

3's covenants and PvP are worse than vanilla 2 which is absolutely pathetic.

I think it would have been nice if each covenant had some special ability or some other benefit to make them feel different beyond just phantom color and some items. Dragon covenant was the best in my opinion just because it had the most unique offering compared to the others.

Going to say Dark 2.

Didn't like that the invader/police faction required dueling for its orbs, but at least they were purchasable at NG+

Bellbros were better than Farron and Aldrich, Rats were fun, I like that the dragonbros were a lot more active in 2, Pilgrims was an enjoyable PvE covenant, and Champions for those who want to fist it and have a harder challenge.

It was also nice that each covenant ring gave an effect as well.

>can finally offer all items at once
>covenants stop at +2
>Yorshka won't even mind if you have 99 human dregs
>Obscuring Ring is the only decent reward, everything else is bad or literally useless (looking at you, Wolf Ring)
>Can't purchase spells in NG++, forced to farm

Yeah, and?

No one, it's always shit.

DaS1
>full orbs
>only half the covs were good or worked
>blues and reds at their best
>some spells required you to stay in that cov
>forest hunters were great

2
>Territorial covs at their best (bellbros and rats were great)
>no full orbs for literally no reason
>changed Way of White to little blues, making it actually useful
>SM threw a spanner in the works, though

3
>all invaders nerfed, severely hampering covenants
>no "fun" covenants (gravelords, rats, etc)
>territory covs areas aren't really made for it compared to previous games
>stop and swap system is good
>autosummons completely fucked

I honestly never thought 2 would be the best at anything, but here we are. Covenants went from being tacked on, to integrated in a fun way, then tacked on again

I prefer how dark souls 3's covenants encourage convenience, but dark souls 2 had the best ideas

Dark Souls 3 should have a covenant of the angelic faith in lothric castle, grand archives and the garden, that works like the rat covenant, and aldrich's faithful should also work in cathedral of the deep.

Farron Watchers should also work in undead settlement/catacombs/smouldering lake

In addition, there should be a covenant like the champions covenant, and a proper dragon covenant with arena like duels which promotes this idea of "the true dragon" like the hawkwood fight.

I feel that was their original intention, but they ran out of time.

None of them are especially good at handling the system overall and all of them have at least one covenant which is pure shit. DS3 probably has the most effective covenant system but also has bizarre boners like the red invasion covenant not actually getting anything useful for invading, there being TWO autosummoned helper covenants when hardly anybody uses the autosummon anyway, and the dueling covenant from the last two games mysteriously vanishing.

I'd like to see a Souls game where your covenant choice is a little more like god choice in Dungeon Crawl, it's a serious character building decision that unlocks additional abilities as you progress through the game. The player is discouraged from switching between them and may have to obey some basic rules to not piss their god off/break their covenant. I've always felt like covenants were inspired by the religion systems in Nethack based games and I'd like to see that taken to its logical conclusion.

>leave sunbros as is
>merge the two cops together, and let cops be summoned to other blue worlds if they're invaded as well as to babby blue worlds
>red are fine
>purples are in a strange place. There's no reason to summon a "friendly" one, and there's not much point invading as one. Could honestly be scrapped without missing anything
>Move Farron Watchdogs to the Carthus Catacombs and add some fun shit to them like the Rats had
>Change Anor Londo to more like Dragon Aerie/pvp focus and leave the Faithful there. Let faithful be summoned in to help other faithful like blues

DS3 has no dragon covenant, so not that one.

I want to fuck that.

I don't, a covenant shouldn't be a hat I can switch out at will with no consequence.

Her name is Dragonsis, user.

The only reason 2 wasn't the best was the lack of infinite use orbs.

Having to cheat engine them in after using a stack of 99 was bullshit.

>Her
Never mind

This game's Dragon form was such a letdown, but it's still better than DaS2's.

It's okay user, there are Dragonbros too. They have bigger horns.

Dark Souls 2. This isn't even up for debate.

I think all of the games fucked covenant up in some way or another.
DaS
>Covenants not working
>Pointless covenants
DaS2
>Unbalanced covenants
>No Full orbs
>Arenas fucked pvp
DaS3
>Shit rewards
>Only MM as a "creative" covenant
>MM is based entirely on roleplay, players have no reason to be madman, in the end MM is basically another red.

I think DaS2 may have the best covenant system, but they are all bad.

>They all have no reason to keep playing after getting to max rank, other the "fun".
This could be improved by allowing you to buy stuff with your covenant item.

For all the hate, I'd say 3. 2's covenants were all over the place and the addition of Mound Makers is just too good.

Bloodborne
Why it's even a question?

Buff dragonsis best dragonsis.

You could buy infinite blue orbs in NG+ and beyond.

But yeah there should've been a red orb that was really hard to obtain. Make it so you have to gain X points, and points are gained by killing hosts, phantoms, sunbros and blues, so the skilled invader is rewarded for hunting down the phantoms too, instead of just 1-shotting the host and leaving. Or just have successful invasions reward a cracked red orb, so skilled players who consistently win will take longer to run out.

Yeah that sucked but it wasn't an issue in NG+

>no full orbs for literally no reason

I'm guessing it's because you could invade people even when they're hollowed.

>>purples are in a strange place. There's no reason to summon a "friendly" one, and there's not much point invading as one. Could honestly be scrapped without missing anything


Allow people to summon purples without being embered.

Darkmoon ring is pretty good
And darkmoon blade is a prettier version of lightning blade
Why the fuck is lightning blade not called sunlight blade?

Good joke

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Bloodborne covenants were awful

The Untrue White Ring should disguise your purple sign as a white one, and there should be no way to disguise your sign as a golden one, so sunbros are always safe summons and whites could be wildcards.

I completely disagree, at least Ds2's was physically imposing.

You just jelly, pc "master race"

I don't particularly get it.

I'm a big fan of Bloodborne, but if there's one thing even the fanbase agree is shit, it's the covenants and multiplayer in general.

Okay

>I'm a big fan of Bloodborne
Nice try

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I would have liked that set if had explicitly been a "Dragon armor" set, but no, it's the actual transformation, which is still retarded.

I like the idea of a dragon transformation that gives some defense-points, but it needs to actually look like a dragon. Every game has found a way to fuck dragonform up.

>Dark Souls 1: Goofy ass dragon, but the unarmed moveset was unique
>Dark Souls 2: Weird ass dragon cosplayer
>Dark Souls 3: Skinny holocaust dragon, looks totally autistic

Why couldn't they just make a sort of ashen dragon version of the Dks1 dragonform, make it a bit more intimidating, give it a viable and badass unarmed moveset and call it a day?

Post more dragonwaifu

I miss old thicc
but prefer 3's head

Considering how much embers, if that was the case, the only reason people would summon purples was if they're afraid of invasions.
I think some good reason would be if the host also got something if the purple were to win, by killing some red or blue phantom (no white, cause it would allow for a bad play from the host)

Im torn on it, because it allows you to change up your playstyle on the fly, but then it also feels like youre less dedicated to these things. They're called covenants, Id expect more devotion toward them.

on the other hand, they never did covenants very well, there's always been at least one that is just completely absolete and useless cause it just doesnt work.
Allowing people to switch covenant without consequences and getting rid of the sins system also means less potential targets for the dorkmoon covenant.

The only fucking problem with DS1's dragon form is that it's neck was too fucking long. I honestly don't see why they need to start over from scratch with each Souls game, just keep the dragon form and fix it accordingly.

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Dragonsis is thicc.

DaS1. DaSII's is objectively worse, and DaSIII somehow managed a way to be twice as bad as that.

Just once, I'd like the games to do it right. A dragon ascendant that is actually memorable. No rubber suit appearance, no skeleton lizard, no dragon armor set.

This was what DaS1's dragon was supposed to look like. But deadlines...

Covenant of champion is the opposite of fun though. It could've been done much better than "grind invaders and forget multiplayers".

Covenant of champion should be something that you can only pick at the beginning of the game and if you leave it you can't join it back until NG. You should get rewards for beating bosses, not invaders. You should be able to get summoned and invade (because why not?) but not summon.

It should've been a real hard mode, not that tedious grindy shit.

To be fair, replacing the character's skeleton on a whim like that to make the legs digitigrade could fuck up the character model if the transformation or death bugged out
But I guess if bethesda could do it, from can

Yeah deadlines, Fromsoft's go to excuse.

>There could be bugs
Worst excuse I've ever seen.

I think the dragon form would be fine if the head wasn't so awkwardly small.

I kinda like the idea that there was a covenant, but the place got fucked up by something and it went extinct.

The problem is that From would have to make new animation for everything, to much effort for such a small optional thing.

nice edit

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DS2 wins by the virtue of all the others being total shit. Miyazaki is good at designing deep miminmalistic games, but he is shit at designing mechanics.

I's unnerving how any work that has half-human/animal will spawn porn of them. Even when they are meant to be ugly/hideous and asexual. What the hell is up with this shit?

HOT

DS3 should have had a Londor/Hollow Covenant. You'd automatically get summonned to help hollowed players in any situation (so including them they invade someone else). You could also place your sign but only other hollowed players could see it (while invading as well).

The Dark Hand would scale with hollowing. Leveling the covenant would greatly increase the power of the Dark Hand, making it block more, absorb more and be faster. You could reverse use it on a host to heal them, at the cost of your own health.

Best online is
DeS > DaS3 > DaS2 > DaS1

DeS:
+ Both PvP and co-op items available early.
+ No covenant bullshit to get in the way.
+ Both PvP and co-op are encouraged for all people through the scarcity of resurrection items. Online is a proper extension to single player.
- Balance and twinking issues.

DaS1:
+ Blue Eye Orb, PvP sin and dark Anor Londo invasions
+ Path of the Dragon for duels
- Gravelords don't work outside NG+
- Princess Guards just exist to lock down co-op miracles despite there already being a better co-op covenant.
- Darkwraiths can't invade unless human, despite the MAIN REASON they invade being getting their humanity back.
- Even worse balance and twinking problems than DeS, even after patches.
- PvP covenants that matter being hidden in late game and easily missable, encouraging only guide using faggots.
- No reason to ever go human in solo play as your HP won't increase.

DaS2:
+ Mechanical improvements to old DaS1 covenants (like arena), removal of useless covenants like Gravelord or Princess Guards.
+ Best PvP balance. Removal of non-scaling upgrade paths and spells that previously allowed you to forgo offensive stats altogether.
+ Most build variety, almost everything including boss weapons is infusable and enchantable. Not shit elemental resistance armor.
+ PvP accessible early again.
+ Human form matters again. Semi-hollow people can be invaded (though less likely).
- Soul Memory
- No infinite Red or Blue Eye orbs.
- No real rewards for invasions apart from grindable ones.

DaS3:
+ Early accessible PvP.
+ PvP items don't need to be spammed nor take ring slots.
+ PvP is lucrative as success is instantly rewarded with Embers and Ember form like DeS again.
+ Different Red Eye Orb invaders have different matchmaking preferences.
+ Twink prevention system that actually works.
+ Password matchmaking for co-op with friends.
+ Changes to Dried Finger
- No Blue Eye Orb
- Darkmoons and Sentinels outright don't function.
- No Dragon covenant.

Das 2

>+ Twink prevention system that actually wor

Yeah no. Just try making a fresh character, rush to get the free 5 cracked red eye orbs and use them. I guarantee you'll get 5/5 twinks/cheaters/ganksquads.

>arenas fucked pvp
W-what? Arenas is one of the best thing about 2 pvp. There's was still plenty of fight club, invasions and world pvp when the player base was active

If they all worked, 3 by far is the best.

But since half of them are nearly broken, 1 wins.

Works much better than DaS1 or DaS2. DaS1 had no anti-twink system, meaning you'd end up against max chaos / dark pyromancy twinks in Undead Burg, while the twinks themselves couldn't be invaded since they killed the area boss in their own world.

DaS2 had soul memory which only served to permanently punish worse players who lost their souls or didn't use them properly / weren't aware of how the matchmaking system worked.

DaS3 counts both weapon level and soul level, meaning you can't permanently fuck your character by misspending souls, while also preventing the worst type of twinking. On the other hand non-scaling weapons are an issue, though not to extent that was the case with DaS1.

>+ Twink prevention system that actually works.
Lol, tell that to my sl30 with +2/+1 errythang. I'm mining salt with my washing pole as we speak.

Yeah I agree that it's the least bad. Imo if we couldn't give items to other players it would be much less of a problem. Or at least limit it to item they technically have access to.

Tbh at this point I'd be willing to have a multiplayer sub for centralised servers that do proper cheat detection. I refuse to believe that all the players in full havel with dragonslayer greataxe that can fastroll in the undead settlement at like lvl 18 are legit.

What's so great about being a dragon gameplay wise?

Lack of orbs and Soul Memory.

If it had whole orbs and SL matchmaking it would have had the best multiplayer by far.

If you're already doing a naked build it's good. However the only dragonstone that's not complete garbage is the normal torso.