Dark Souls Invasions: Opting in to Murder
The Dark Souls series has taken over the Action RPG genre zeitgeist, and has become one of the most influential series of the modern day. Synonymous with tough-but-fair difficulty, esoteric story telling, and what some would describe as âmeanâ level design, Dark Souls has become a canonical title within the history of gaming generally. However, while its acclaimed action combat and level design have been taking up by widening audiences, Dark Soulsâ multiplayer features havenât been adopted the same way.
Asynchronous multiplayer features like cryptic messages, created using a bank of pre-determined words and phrases, blood stains and ghosts that show the paths other players took through a level or before meeting a gruesome end, and more archaic features like the rare and coveted vagrant have had some legs. Nier Automata recaptures some of the same in-universe environmental story telling these features offer by leaving corpses on the ground where other players have fallen, allowing other players to pick up some of their upgrades or revive the corpse to fight alongside them as a temporary boost in fights where players struggle. Subnautica gives players who finish the game the option to leave behind a capsule with a photograph of their playthrough and an item they hope will be useful for whoever finds it. These features add a level of dynamism to the play experience that melds the experience of the game with the meta experience of playing it alongside others. It communicates to players in the game that they are playing the game with others whose experiences are similar and different. Itâs a fourth wall break that enhances the base experience.
A Web of Motivations
Dark Souls also provides a novel and experimental platform for synchronous PvP. While some of the games in the series, and its cousins like Elden Ring, have isolated PvP arenas, more often the basis of PvP combat is invasions. An invasion is when one player (invader) âinvadesâ another playerâs (host) world instnace for impromptu PvP. The invader is usually considered part of the environment, highlighted in red, and immune to NPC aggro. Invaders usually use an item to begin matchmaking with an eligible player, while hosts are made eligible only by first using an item like a Humanity or Ember. When the invader kills the host, the invader is awarded with a Humanity or Ember, and the host drops their souls and returns to their last bonfire as if they were killed by any other obstacle. If the host kills the invader, the host is awarded with a Humanity or Ember, some souls proportional to the strength of the invader, and can continue on their way with a background timer making them immune to further invasions for some time.
This system also hooks in to cooperative play. Like invasions, a host needs to be human or embered to summon other players to their world. Like invasions, the summoned player needs to use an item to add themselves to the multiplayer queue â though this time they do so by leaving a message on the ground that potential hosts can choose to interact with to invite them in. Like invasions, upon accomplishing a goal the summoned player is given a token award and leaves. Unlike invasions, the goal is to clear the areaâs boss. Players will often leave their summoning signs near boss entries to minimize the time the host is required to be human or embered, and maximize the chance of getting their rewards. Summoned players are incentivized to help their host through any means necessary as their own risk is low and the host falling will unsummon them.
These two modes of multiplayer interact constantly. If you are eligible to host for coop, you are eligible to be invaded. If you are hosting a friend, you are eligible to be invaded. But like the asynchronous multiplayer options, the synchronous multiplayer is integrated into the setting through coop and PvP factions called Covenants. Covenants are, mechanically, in-world justifications for PvP. They are competing rivals, followers of different people and deities, or deranged lunatics seeking to cause or contain chaos. While a typical, bog-standard invasion might award a Humanity or Ember so you can go again, an invader whoâs sworn allegiance to the Mound Makers and wears their emblem will be awarded a Vertebrae Shackle. Submit enough shackles to the Mound Makersâ shrine and you will be rewarded with the Warmth pyromancy. The Mound Makers are a straight forward incentive for invaders, but the Blade of the Darkmoon seeks out players who have sinned by invading others and punishes them. Other covenants might automatically be summoned to defend hosts like the Blue Sentinels, defend a certain area like the Watchdogs of Farron, or be awarded some of the most powerful miracles in the game in return for being summoned in coop like the Warriors of Sunlight. Covenants make the synchronous multiplayer function both by creating variety and carrots for players to chase, while also lending in-universe verisimilitude to what is really a web of queues and matchmaking systems.
In sum, the PvP and coop systems in Dark Souls create a multiplayer environment where the primary concern is risk taking. Hosts choose to summon help by becoming human or embered â given them increased chances of getting rare drops or a higher health pool respectively â and insodoing open themselves up to the downside of being invaded. Players who find each other through these systems often have slightly different goals, and their motivations can lead to a push and pull of negotiation, disagreement, and often goofy attempts at hindering each other. Itâs an incredible system that creates constant opportunities for skill expression, emergent strategies, and social experimentation. I wish it was more common! And yet...
They want to kill me?
It's not hard to reason why these systems havenât been adopted as rapidly as other Dark Souls features. So-called âPvPvEâ, a term that describes PvP systems where players have objectives both in killing NPCs and other players, is highly divisive. Extraction games like Escape from Tarkov or the recent Arc Raiders have found a space within the broad collective of games with PvPvE environments that can succeed, but games like Albion Online and EVE are mostly relegated to a dedicated niche rather than breaking into the broader gaming public as Dark Souls did. Even extremely popular games like Oldschool Runescape have had major difficulty encouraging players to take part in their open PvP zone (âthe wildernessâ), and often players who donât like PvP will actively try to sabotage proposals for new PvP-oriented content out of spite.
PvP for in-game stakes in the form of items and loot, even minor ones, is seen as a relic of the old days of MMO design, and primarily a niche for hardcore PvP fanatics. While not all PvPvE games involve taking another playerâs items, they all create a tension of opportunity cost. If youâre killing an enemy for loot, and another player wants that loot, ultimately it doesnât matter whether they get that loot through killing you before you kill the monster, thus taking the kill from you, or after you kill the monster, taking the loot from your corpse. The experience is that of losing the item you tried to get and losing time (and, for the pessimist, the loot you would have earned).
Keen eyed then might say âbut invader canât take your loot in Dark Souls, can they?â And of course the answer is no. However, as Dark Souls level design is often considered âmeanâ, âbrutalâ, etc., the perceived loss of progress that comes from dying can affect players much the same way. Being close to a bossâs foggy arena entrance and being backstabbed by a red phantom player can be a frustrating and session-ending experience. At best, it tends to breed the same sort of frustration-induced spite that leads Oldschool Runescape players to resent PvP-oriented players and content.
That said, the severity of many of these responses can be quite staggering. I began writing this piece in reaction to a youtube comment made under Dark Souls data miner and content creator Illusory Wallâs PSA about hackers in Dark Souls Remastered. It reads as following:
âŚthe line âfeeling like youâre forced into offline mode because of the presence of hackers is giving the hackers a wn they donât deserveâ is crazy considering Iâve been calling invaders scumbags since the original came out. But now that itâs something Real Gamers⢠care about, it MUST be stopped! This is important and it ruins MY fun!— via Illusory Wall (@illusorywall.bsky.social) Nov 15, 2025 at 17:47
Iâve seen similar sentiments before. Some twelve seconds into a google search for examples has posters telling me about how hosts âarenât sending you an invitation...Invaders are an irritation.â Another poster describes their experience of being invaded: âNever had I been more mad.â. Everyone who actively engages in invasions and enjoys them can share a story about someone they know going on tirades about how awful invasions are, or has seen someone equate invaders to real-world serial killers and psychopaths. Itâs a fascinating trend, and one thatâs incredibly difficult to actually engage with. In the same way itâs hard to convince someone who thinks Pikachu might spring out of the grass to electrocute them if they go outside, someone who thinks a player engaging in a deliberate, opt-in, fairly low stakes game mode is acting out a fantasy of killing real living humans isnât generally going to be open to a nuanced conversation about it. They wonât be talked down because their venom is a manifestation of rage at dying and feeling persecuted, not at the actual system of invasions.
Dark Souls doesnât invite this particular line of thinking in any unique way â Iâve seen it in Oldschool, and even in extractin games and Albion where the PvP is the primary focus â but itâs a sentiment that seems to have grown in the wake of Elden Ringâs 2022 launch. Primarily, these players are coop players who want to play through the game without interruption entirely in coop. Post launch, there was a more dedicated coop-focused mod that allows players to play coop in a persistent way without invasions or allies being unsummoned upon clearing a boss. Its release was divisive but Elden Ringâs lack of covenants and PvP-oriented rewards, and the fact that hosts are only eligible for invasions, not when using Elden Ring's Humanity or Ember equivelant, has meant that the PvP scene in Elden Ring is mostly focused on duels â where two players engage in a âfairâ structured 1v1, instead of a typical invasion. The coop mod wounded the pool of possible invasions, but not more than the game's own systems. Nonetheless, the hostility to invaders continues.
The irony here is that invasions, at least since Dark Souls III, have emphasized a heavy advantage for the host. FromSoftwareâs matchmaking system post-Dark Souls, including in Dark Souls Remastered, uses a system that ensures that almost all hosts will have a strict level advantage over invaders. As mentioned before, hosts will also be under the effect of an Ember or similar and that offers other benefits. The invaderâs only real advantages are the local wildlife and often using a more optimized character build. In general, a skilled host will beat a skilled invader. And thatâs before you add back in to the fold coop players. If hosts will usually win a 1v1 encounter, a host with summoned ally are nearly insurmountable without making use of some particularly clever spells, items, and tactics. Winning consistently at invasions requires mastery of the games combat and will frequently demonstrate a huge degree of familiarity with the levels geography. The grumpiest hosts donât see it that way.
If they die, the Covenant dies too
Broadly, much of the discourse over invasions can be written off as irritated coop players who donât want to engage with the broader system of multiplayer that Fromsoft has designed. To them, the risk of invasions is less about gaining additional loot or having a boon against a boss thatâs giving them difficulty, and more about having to once again try to game Fromsoftâs system designed for players to cross between worlds only in transient, ephemeral ways, in an attempt to play through the entire game with their friend. A smaller demographic is hostile to PvP in general, regardless of the issues. While the former group has ever opportunity to simply kill their disadvantaged invading opponents, the latter group can simply play offline â opting out of the system wholesale â or play without Humanity or Ember. The system is designed to be opt-in, and not doing so is easy.
But Iâm fascinated by the equating of the invader with the murderer, the PvPer with the sadist. Itâs such a simple category error to think that someone who enjoys killing a digital adversary would also enjoy killing a physical adversary, one easily disproven and obviously wrong, and yet one that persists. In a world where hobby factions of all sorts spend ungodly hours bickering and flinging shit at each other across the battlefields of social media (often borrowing similar category errors to smear their enemies with horrific labels) however, the hyperbole has its value as ammunition for lobbying game developers and justifying angry diatribes.
Itâs saddening in the case of Dark Souls how pervasive this attitude has been. The absence of Covenants and reduced eligibility for invasions in Elden Ring threatens to reduce a system that was previously a major component of the Souls series to a series of discord-based fight clubs and coop âgank squadsâ waiting to eviscerate any poor invader who happens to be placed in their world. As the Souls IP sits dormant in favour of Elden Ring, Armored Core, and the upcoming Duskbloods, this multiplayer niche has been unfortunately abandoned. A small dedicated group of Souls players still partake, and many swear by the Dark Souls multiplayer formula, but as the gamesâ release dates move ever further into the past, many leave.
Players like that youtube commentator are getting what they want, and thatâs a shame. Developers continue to experiment with new ways of creating dynamic PvP experiences and Iâm excited for what comes next, but I hope they also look to this series and mine it for its phenomenal ideas. Covenants are one of the most compelling backdrops for PvP Iâve ever experienced, and one that I would recommend literally anyone engage in. After all, they have nothing to lose but a bit of time.