The covenants in Dark Souls 3 are a mess for offline players or those with limited time (in 2021)

[Worldshaker]

Trying to engage in PVP to actually get the covenant items is really hard in 2021 unless you play at the right time, level range, weapon range, and area. Reading over various forums, and YouTube confirms this and makes me wonder why FROM is so anti-offline players in terms of covenant rewards?

The PVE enemies who drop the items have extemely low drop rates, even with high luck, and item discovery. I believe the drops are around 1% with very few enemy spawns for said items requiring you to load back and forth trying to farm them. Even when I do engage in PVP its rarely a good time. The invaders troll around into enemies, and just play dirty (as they should) to get a kill on me. I'm not afraid to grind in games, but this is insanely frustrating.

I don't want them to be easy to achieve, but maybe they could make them purchasable from an NPC like it was in Dark Souls 2 (if you make it to NG+2 or whatever it was)

Sorry for the rant.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Ah, I remember grinding down these trophies.

That was slow goings. :(

 

[Deleted member 36578]

I know it sucks I agree. The best time to play any Souls games online is when they initially launch. I have a feeling Elden Ring will be the same way.

 

[Fhtagn]

This was broken even at launch for DS3, some players (like myself) never got summoned for the PVP covenants...

and the drop rate for PVE is genuinely absurd, so I abandoned even trying to platinum it at some point, because it was just a pointless grind.

 

[Deleted member 24021]

I grinded all the covenant items I needed from PVE to get the platinum trophy. Never again.

 

[FF Seraphim]

Dude... I had to grind so much for the Wolf Blood Grass because I never got summoned... It sucks. I hope there is nothing like that in Elden Ring.

 

[Ruisu]

Isn't that only a problem if you're a completionist though? Like, sure the rewards are cool but you're mostly not missing out.

 

[Scruffy8642]

Even at release I recall offline grinding still being the better option for some of them. I remember running up and down the Anor Londo stairs for like 25 hours grinding the knight drops 2 months after release.

 

[ScottVan96]

I just platinumed DS3 today. It was an absolute grind but the best way to get most covenant items imo is invade near the Sulyvahn bonfire. There's often some decent action there.

 

[scare_crow]

I kind of think if anything feels "insanely frustrating" in a game, you should just stop doing it. Not worth it.

 

[Blu]

Give a drop rate percentage you think would think be good then.

 

[dancingphlower]

I remember giving up on the covenant items because of the ridiculous RNG. :(

 

[KennyLinder]

I've just started DkS3 as I never got round to playing it when it came out. I've got Platinum in 1, 2, Bloodborne and DeSremake so would be cool to do it in 3 too. So it's a total pain? I am using a YT guide which seems quite cool. Anyone else use and recommend a specific one?

 

[Pyro]

I listened to a lot of podcasts when doing this myself.

 

[shadowsdarknes]

I'm fine with some rewards being unique to multiplayer.
If I had to guess, the game is still plenty active.

like someone said, the bonfire after Sulyvahn is usually crazy active. Just invade or use the dried fingers and you'll get lots of action.

 

[Waters]

Trying to engage in PVP to actually get the covenant items is really hard in 2021 unless you play at the right time, level range, weapon range, and area. Reading over various forums, and YouTube confirms this and makes me wonder why FROM is so anti-offline players in terms of covenant rewards?

The PVE enemies who drop the items have extemely low drop rates, even with high luck, and item discovery. I believe the drops are around 1% with very few enemy spawns for said items requiring you to load back and forth trying to farm them. Even when I do engage in PVP its rarely a good time. The invaders troll around into enemies, and just play dirty (as they should) to get a kill on me. I'm not afraid to grind in games, but this is insanely frustrating.

I don't want them to be easy to achieve, but maybe they could make them purchasable from an NPC like it was in Dark Souls 2 (if you make it to NG+2 or whatever it was)

Sorry for the rant.

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Play offline, it seems to really make a better drop rate when grinding

There are some covenant rings that you can get from a friend and reduce the grind. I did it to get the rings trophy and avoid multiple playthroughs because of the grind

 

[CloudWolf]

I really hope that for Elden Ring they either upped the drop rate of covenant items offline or just made the rewards much easier to get.

Because Dark Souls 3 is hell when it comes to this. I just wanted that cool Darkmoon miracle...

I've just started DkS3 as I never got round to playing it when it came out. I've got Platinum in 1, 2, Bloodborne and DeSremake so would be cool to do it in 3 too. So it's a total pain? I am using a YT guide which seems quite cool. Anyone else use and recommend a specific one?

Click to shrink...

Platinum/100% in Dark Souls 3 is absolute hell and I wouldn't recommend doing it, mainly because of the reason OP mentions. Most covenant rewards aren't actually that bad as long as you have people to help you out, since the invasion covenant items for example can easily be gamed by using passwords and invading and killing each other (it's just tedious).

However, you can't do this trick with the miracles achievement. One of the miracles (Darkmoon Sword) requires you to hand in a certain amount of Ears, which you get by joining one of the two covenants that's based around defending people from invasions. Whether you get summoned for this is completely random and you can't game it by making online appointments as the password system doesn't work with these covenants IIRC.

So you end up waiting around a lot until you maybe get summoned when somebody in your level range gets invaded and that person was nice enough to equip the covenant that activates the summon. And then of course when you do get summoned, you might find you got summoned in a gank (multiple invaders attacking one dude) with no way of winning. There is a way to get ears that count as 2, speeding up the process but you can only get these at the most invasion heavy area of the game (which is populated by griefers, gankers and OP players), so the chances of winning there is small unless you are really good at the game, and only against players who are a certain other covenant.

"Luckily" there is a way to collect the ears offline, but they only drop from one type of enemy in one specific area of the game with a drop rate of around 0.05% if not lower.

I got it eventually but it took me actual weeks of playing every day for a couple of hours, grinding that one location you can get the ears offline and hoping I get summoned. I wouldn't recommend it anyone.

 

[JJD]

If you are on PC, and the grind is bothering you that much just use the honest merchant mod.

 

[Worldshaker]

Isn't that only a problem if you're a completionist though? Like, sure the rewards are cool but you're mostly not missing out.

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I guess so, but its fun to try all of the spells out when going into NG+ and beyond. Who doesn't want to use all of the spells?

I kind of think if anything feels "insanely frustrating" in a game, you should just stop doing it. Not worth it.

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I guess I should've said "its annoying game design". I wouldn't spend my time on a game if it made me upset, but I know what you mean.

Give a drop rate percentage you think would think be good then.

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The items should scale based on your LCK and item discovery and end up at around a 10% drop rate with those stats maxed out. I think even with the best gear they're still very uncommon.

 

[Deleted member 1003]

Ah, I remember grinding down these trophies.

That was slow goings. :(

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Farming Knights in Anor Londo…

 

[radiogra]

i 100%'d this at launch with a mix of online and offline farming and yeah, even then it was a bit tedious. most fromsoft games are pretty grind-y 100%s. all rare items/ multiple boss soul uses in DS1 and 2, chalice dungeons (and figuring out which fuckin chalice you needed) in BB, DeS limited crystal lizards.

haven't done sekiro yet even though i also love that game, but the nature of that game might make it better? i dunno, i'll prolly do it before ER.

 

[MrWindUpBird]

Are you trying to go for 100% or something? If you've got limited already, I can't imagine wanting to go through the headache of doing that.

 

[entremet]

Isn't that only a problem if you're a completionist though? Like, sure the rewards are cool but you're mostly not missing out.

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some of the rewards are some of the best in the game, especially for PvP.

I never did these. It was too much.

 

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Dark Souls 1 is the only one that got it right after a certain patch, the covenant item drop rates became okayish.

i 100%'d this at launch with a mix of online and offline farming and yeah, even then it was a bit tedious. most fromsoft games are pretty grind-y 100%s. all rare items/ multiple boss soul uses in DS1 and 2, chalice dungeons (and figuring out which fuckin chalice you needed) in BB, DeS limited crystal lizards.

haven't done sekiro yet even though i also love that game, but the nature of that game might make it better? i dunno, i'll prolly do it before ER.

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There's the skill points grind in Sekiro.

 

[Zemst]

I haven't 100% but is it worse than demons souls pure bladestone drop rate?

 

[99humanity]

I haven't 100% but is it worse than demons souls pure bladestone drop rate?

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Yes because you need 30 of each of the rare covenant items for every achievement instead of ONE bladestone

PBS is also way more common in the remake

 

[War95]

I still remember the grind for ears in the stairs of Anor Londo. Never again

 

[KennyLinder]

I really hope that for Elden Ring they either upped the drop rate of covenant items offline or just made the rewards much easier to get.

Because Dark Souls 3 is hell when it comes to this. I just wanted that cool Darkmoon miracle...


Platinum/100% in Dark Souls 3 is absolute hell and I wouldn't recommend doing it, mainly because of the reason OP mentions. Most covenant rewards aren't actually that bad as long as you have people to help you out, since the invasion covenant items for example can easily be gamed by using passwords and invading and killing each other (it's just tedious).

However, you can't do this trick with the miracles achievement. One of the miracles (Darkmoon Sword) requires you to hand in a certain amount of Ears, which you get by joining one of the two covenants that's based around defending people from invasions. Whether you get summoned for this is completely random and you can't game it by making online appointments as the password system doesn't work with these covenants IIRC.

So you end up waiting around a lot until you maybe get summoned when somebody in your level range gets invaded and that person was nice enough to equip the covenant that activates the summon. And then of course when you do get summoned, you might find you got summoned in a gank (multiple invaders attacking one dude) with no way of winning. There is a way to get ears that count as 2, speeding up the process but you can only get these at the most invasion heavy area of the game (which is populated by griefers, gankers and OP players), so the chances of winning there is small unless you are really good at the game, and only against players who are a certain other covenant.

"Luckily" there is a way to collect the ears offline, but they only drop from one type of enemy in one specific area of the game with a drop rate of around 0.05% if not lower.

I got it eventually but it took me actual weeks of playing every day for a couple of hours, grinding that one location you can get the ears offline and hoping I get summoned. I wouldn't recommend it anyone.

Click to shrink...

Christ! Thanks for the explanation. That does sound really rough. I don't have huge amounts of gaming time, and let's be honest, I want to be done by the time Elden Ring is out. I'll play through the game at least and make a decision then. Ugh!

 

[radiogra]

There's the skill points grind in Sekiro.

Click to shrink...

oh, yeah those starting coming slow even at the end of my casual playthrough. sounds kinda rough... but at least you could get it by just playing ng+s i guess? nothing's as bad as farming one area for hours.

honestly even though these are my favorite games i don't know why i still 100% them lol. it makes me play the game in a way i find less fun, rather than just making new builds and exploring different systems/mechanics/multiplayer if i want replay value. maybe now's the time i kick the urge.

 

[99humanity]

Christ! Thanks for the explanation. That does sound really rough. I don't have huge amounts of gaming time, and let's be honest, I want to be done by the time Elden Ring is out. I'll play through the game at least and make a decision then. Ugh!

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There are plenty of ways to enjoy spending 300 hours in a Souls game, and grinding covenant items just for achievements is not one of them

 

[Boomchil]

I kind of think if anything feels "insanely frustrating" in a game, you should just stop doing it. Not worth it.

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Yes. A long time ago I've been an achievement whore (not to the point of buying easy 1000G games, but I wanted to have 1000G out of all my games), until one day when I took a moment to realize that I was spending a lot of my free time doing annoying tasks just to see a number grow up. It might be a dumb thing to say but I feel really better now that I don't give a shit about achievements and trophies (I've even hidden every notifications).

However there are times where my old demons come back to me, and after finishing a game that I loved I think that it would be nice to platinum/1000G it. Dark Souls 3 is the most recent one, but as soon as I started to get the stair knights drop I said fuck it, my time is better spent playing other games.

OP you can do it.

 

[Auron.90]

They should simply increase the drop rates after a certain period of time, when servers are less crowded. DS1 and 2 were much more bearable in that sense.

 

[Nephtes]

No lie, the majority of my play time in DS3 was spent farming Silver Knights for Proof of Concord Kept for the damn achievement, and not for lack of trying to get these legitimately.

The game rarely ever let me spawn in to help another player. And this was at launch when the player base should have been the highest.

Absolute slog. One of the worst achievement slogs of all time. Elden Ring better not pull this shit.

Edit: TBF, the achievement to get all the rings is somehow worse, but at least that's obtainable without RNGesus.

 

[Arithmetician]

Trophies are a mess. In my experience, getting all trophies for most games from 2013-16 is very difficult and very tedious, while for recent games the Platinum is too easy and leaves a significant amount of content out. For Ratchet & Clank Rift apart I didn't even need to fully upgrade all weapons, just felt wrong. Meanwhile, a lot of older games have grindy BS like this or Uncharted.

Sony (and MS) should really give some stronger guidelines as it's all over the place as it stands.

 

[Mifec]

Sony (and MS) should really give some stronger guidelines as it's all over the place as it stands.

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No they really shouldn't give any guidelines to give devs more work. Achievements are meaningless.

 

[Bee.Cups]

The wolf sword grass and pale tongue aren't hard to get but every other covenant item is just a massive chore that isn't worth it.

 

[Se_t]

I still dream of those stairs with the knights on top. Took me like 7h of grind to get those ears.

 

[Arithmetician]

No they really shouldn't give any guidelines to give devs more work. Achievements are meaningless.

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They are frequently meaningless... but they could be otherwise. I quite enjoy seeing a trophy pop up every time I beat a boss. It's something I'm going to do anyway, but it's nice to have a picture and a timestamp recording that moment for many years.

The best way forward is, I think, to have achievements pop up for things that the player would want to do anyway, even if the achievement didn't exist. The task should be fun enough for people to do on its own, and the achievement should be a record, not a reward

 

[Red Liquorice]

It's not worth doing, and I did it lol. The Silver Knights are the only enemies in DS3 I can consistently parry because of the grind!

If ER has similar trophies I won't be bothering to platinum it (a lie.)

 

[SmittyWerbenManJensen]

These are the exact trophies I would never even bother to get if I was only playing offline. I passively earned the items needed for the spells/etc. through hundreds of hours of online multi, but those drop rates are truly terrible.

 

[Meatwad]

I just recently went back to the game to finish getting the platinum and grinding those items was the worst part of it. I don't know why From insists on locking multiple items needed for trophies/achievements behind Covenant rewards but I wish they wouldn't.

 

[CPlus_Gamer]

Trying to engage in PVP to actually get the covenant items is really hard in 2021 unless you play at the right time, level range, weapon range, and area. Reading over various forums, and YouTube confirms this and makes me wonder why FROM is so anti-offline players in terms of covenant rewards?

The PVE enemies who drop the items have extemely low drop rates, even with high luck, and item discovery. I believe the drops are around 1% with very few enemy spawns for said items requiring you to load back and forth trying to farm them. Even when I do engage in PVP its rarely a good time. The invaders troll around into enemies, and just play dirty (as they should) to get a kill on me. I'm not afraid to grind in games, but this is insanely frustrating.

I don't want them to be easy to achieve, but maybe they could make them purchasable from an NPC like it was in Dark Souls 2 (if you make it to NG+2 or whatever it was)

Sorry for the rant.

Click to shrink...

How do you purchase them from NPC in DS2? I never got the platinum because I needed SunBros and Bell Keeper rank rewards but was on NG +6 and never got summoned.

 

[SweetBellic]

One of many reasons why I ignore all the covenant stuff in every single one of their games.

 

[DPB]

How do you purchase them from NPC in DS2? I never got the platinum because I needed SunBros and Bell Keeper rank rewards but was on NG +6 and never got summoned.

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Chancellor Wellager (the ghost in Drangleic Castle) sells the spells.