How to enable multiplayer in Dark Souls III

In our Dark Souls III review we mentioned multiplayer but didn’t go into too much detail about it. The multiplayer component for FromSoftware games , or at least in regards to the Souls series , hasn’t always been one of the most clear-cut or ‘direct’; there are no lobbies to join games in, but to do so, and to select one type of experience or another – competitive or cooperative – you have to follow specific steps . In this guide we’re going to talk about them.

How to enable multiplayer in Dark Souls III

The first and essential thing to be able to access the game’s multiplayer is to make sure that our game session is ‘online’. We do this by selecting the corresponding option in the main menu of the game as soon as we start it. Once this is done, there are a series of requirements that we must meet in order to access other players’ games or kingdoms or allow them to come to ours.

  • Getting to the Link Shrine
  • Buy White Soapstone for 500 souls (to join games)
  • Buy Embers for 2,500 souls (to host the games)

Once we have these two items , we can use them to join a game or be the host and allow others to join us. Now the important thing is to know how the elements that appear with these two items work.

Marks on the ground and ghosts

The elements of the multiplayer component of Dark Souls 3 are as follows:

  • Messages you or other players can leave written down: There is a pre-recorded message editor that somewhat limits the information that can appear, but they are usually tips about traps or enemies.
  • Blood stains from other players that, when touched, reveal a recording of their last seconds of life. Whatever killed them, you can get a small idea of ​​what awaits you later.
  • Soapstone Signs . They come in a variety of colors, and while some belong to Oaths, the most common are white and red. These are the ones we’re interested in for playing with other users. Summoning a Spectre from a white soapstone allows you to play cooperatively, and doing the same with a red one competitively. To summon Spectres you need to be in Lord of Cinder mode consuming Ember, similar to Humanity in previous games.
  • You’ll occasionally encounter ghosts of other players passing through the same place as you. They’re not really useful and don’t usually tell you anything, but it’s good to remember that you’re not alone.

Every online game in Dark Souls has at least two elements: a host and a guest . The game is always played in the host’s world, which means you’ll be playing on the map exactly as the host has it. If you’re a guest, you’ll see all the enemy corpses left behind by the host, for example. Guests always appear as wraiths , and depending on their intentions and how they got there, they’ll be assigned a side and conditions. White wraiths are meant for cooperative play, while if a red wraith joins you , that means they’re looking for a competitive fight – they’re running an Invasion.

Differences between competitive and cooperative in Dark Souls 3

Cooperative (PvE)

competitive (PvP)

A player can host allies if they have consumed Ember and entered Host of the Flames mode.

There are two essential ways to invade any world: using a Red Eye Orb or a Red Signal Soapstone.

The host must touch a white soapstone mark on the ground, which another player (guest) has left in their world, to summon it.

The normal red eye orb has indefinite uses, the broken red eye orb only one.

The host and his/her maximum of two allied guests must progress together through the map fighting off the machine, any potential invaders, and killing the map boss to win the match.

Invading another world via the Red Eye Orb turns you into a hostile guest. Your mission is to locate the host and kill them before they can reach the boss of the map.

If the host has already completed the map and boss in question, they cannot summon allied specters.

Invading another world via Red Sign Soapstone makes you a “friendly” enemy, a guest to fight. The host has voluntarily summoned you to duel with you, and you do not start with any health penalty.

Whether a guest or the host dies, the guest returns to their world.

Using Red Signal Soapstone, a host can fight invaders even on a map they have already completed; hosts cannot be invaded on maps they have already completed.