Multiplayer in Dark Souls requires many things to take place before it can happen. Unlike most other multiplayer games, matchmaking here is done in game via items, and the existence of multiplayer is integrated into the very lore of the game's world. As such, much of the mechanics of matchmaking are hidden. Fortunately, many dedicated players have spend years exploring and researching and experimenting, and while we don't have 100% knowledge, we do know quite a bit now.

The multiplayer here is always present, but at first it is a background element. Messages on the ground left by other players, brief images of polygonal phantoms running around, bloodstains on the ground, and sometimes even audio cues (ringing of a nearby bell when another player rings that bell) are all indications of other players doing things in their worlds. Active multiplayer though is where the action is. There are a number of different ways to participate in multiplayer. Each has a different method of initiating and determining matchmaking, overall purpose, and rewards.

There are basically 3 forms of multiplayer: Co-op, PvP, and Background. All of these have some overlap as well. Background is always there, and is in the forms (mentioned above) of messages, phantoms, bloodstains, and some sounds as well. So long as you're not in offline mode, and even if you solo the game, you will interact with other players via these moments, juxtaposing the feeling of loneliness playing this game solo can bring with the knowledge that there is a community out there suffering and progressing along side you.

Co-op and PvP require at least one person to use an item to either try and invade a random world, or to leave a summoning sign for someone else to find and activate, summoning that player into their own game world. The host player must be human, and the boss of the area the host is in must also be alive.

While multiple players are in the same world, the area they are in becomes sealed off, and bonfires become unusable. The multiplayer session takes place only in that area, and ends when either the host dies, all the phantoms (friendly and hostile) die, or when the area boss is killed. Entering a boss fight will automatically banish all hostile phantoms, but helpful phantoms can join you in fighting the boss.

Once an area's boss is killed, any helpful phantoms are sent back to their own worlds and that area becomes a solo only zone. No more co-op can take place, and no more pvp can take place there either.

Each world can have up to 4 people in it. The host takes up 1 spot. 1 spot is always reserved for invaders. The other two can be either more invaders or helper phantoms (any combination).

If you visit the steam forums asking for help with an area of a boss, or even to invite others for duels or fight clubs, it is highly recommended to include not only the area the multiplayer activity will take place in, but also include your character's level, and your current steam download region as well. I will go into much more detail on these points below.

Also, Dark Souls uses your Steam Nickname in game when interacting with others, NOT your character's name. The game also still uses it's old console code for sharing player information. As such, Steam Names longer than 15 characters will cause anyone interacting with that name to have their game crash. PVP Watchdog fixes this issue, but it is still recommended to ensure your steam name is shorter than 15 characters. (more on PVP Watchdog below)

The host must be human.

The host must be in an area where the boss is still alive.

The host must NOT have placed their own sign down. Placing a sign makes all other summoning signs vanish, barring you from summoning others while your sign is down.

The helper must have their sign placed (the sign will appear in other worlds in the exact same location as it is placed)

The host and helper must be within a specific level range of each other (see below for level ranges).

The helper should NOT replace his sign often. Sometimes it takes time for the signal to go to other players, and it likewise can take some time for a cancelled signal to vanish. Replacing it often will create fake signs that only result in "summon failed" messages when clicked.

The helper does not have to be human, but he does have to have a White Sign Soapstone and used it to place his sign. The White Sign Soapstone is given to every player by Solaire of Astora when he is talked to at least twice. Solaire is first encountered in the Undead Burge, just after the Taurus Demon boss fight and just before the Hellkite Bridge ambush, gazing lovingly at the sun. He can be talked to multiple times in that location to receive the White Sign Soapstone. Say "Yes" to everything he asks.

Be warned: While the host must be human to summon help, being human also opens the host up to invasions (pvp). There cannot be one without the risk of the other.

While there are methods to duel and invite specific people for pvp, the majority of pvp happens via invasions. Invasions happen at the whims of the invader. The host has no control over when or where these invasions will happen. However, the invader does not get to choose who he invades either. It is randomly determined by the game.

The host must be human.

The host must be in an area where the boss is still alive.

The host and the invader must be within a specific level range of each other (see below for level ranges).

The invader must be in an area with potential hosts*.

The invader must use their invasion item.

Invasion items are: Red Eye Orb, Cracked Red Eye Orb, Blue Eye Orb, Eye of Death, Red Sign Soapstone, Dragon Eye, Darkmoon Blade Covenant Ring*, and the Cat Covenant Ring*. Each of these items have their own quirks. Some of them can only be used while in a specific covenant. Some of them search other worlds to (randomly) invade for you, while others send out signs for other players to click on, summoning you to them at their discretion. I suggest looking each one up at http://darksouls.wikidot.com/

Most forms of invasion also put the host/victim on a hidden 15 minute timer where he can not be invaded again until those 15 minutes pass. If the host/victim uses the Dried Finger item (found in the Painted World of Ariamis) it will remove this timer, allowing that host/victim to be invaded again right away.

* These two rings can be worn while in almost any location to invade specifically into Darkroot Garden and Dark Anor Londo respectively.

Who you are able to connect with in game is based on level ranges. The formula that determines this range is tied to the various methods of multiplayer.

For co-op via the White Sign Soapstone, and for pvp via the Eye of Death and the Dragon Eye, the formula is: 10 + 10% your level higher and lower.

For pvp via the Red Sign Soapstone and the Cat Covenant Ring, the formula is: infinitely higher, 10 + 10% your level lower.

For pvp via the Red Eye Orb and the Cracked Red Eye Orb, the formula is: infinitely higher, 10% your level lower.

For pvp via the Blue Eye Orb and the Darkmoon Blade Ring, the formula is: 10 + 10% your level higher, 50 + 20 % your level lower.

Here is an online calculator that will tell you the ranges you have for all multiplayer methods given the level you put in. https://mpql.net/tools/dark-souls/

Beyond the in game requirements, matchmaking is still semi-random based on several factors outside of the game itself.

There are no dedicated servers, so instead it uses your steam download region as a temp server to facilitate this game's semi-random version of a peer-to-peer system. After making some initial connections, it will start checking other regions for more players, so while it is possible to connect with anyone anywhere using any steam download region, people using the same steam download region get first dibs and preferential treatment.

Steam Download Region is not (always) the same thing as where you live. Check Steam > Settings > Downloads > Dropbox on the right to see exactly which region you are currently using (and to change it if you wish). Changing your region does require you to reboot steam (and thus any steam games running at the time as well).

I recommend LAN Event ___ (whichever one is closest to you in real life so as to minimize potential latency issues), or Luxembourg. However, even these can have issues. High traffic or required maintenance can slow or even prevent Dark Souls connectivity, so sometimes changing it can help.

dsptde-2.0 Beta and default (non-beta) players cannot interact with each other at all, so if you want to play with a specific person, make sure you and that person are using the same version. Beta's only purpose was to smooth the transition from GFWL to Steamworks. This happened a while ago and updates were since made, so beta is outdated and obsolete... so for a larger player base I recommend default.

To find out if you are in beta or not, and to change that, go to Library > Games > Right click on Dark Souls: Prepare to Die edition > Properties > BETAS tab > Dropbox at the top. You want it to say "NONE - Opt out of all beta programs"

Steam has it's own beta programs on top of this (Steam > Settings > Account to see it). This is also not recommended, as a recent update to it (February 6-7th, 2016) does not interact well with PVP Watchdog and makes the game unplayable with both active.

I highly recommend this mod. While it is advertised as an anti-cheat program (it is somewhat limited in that regards, but it definitely helps), I find it most useful due to it showing how many nodes I have at any given time.

Nodes are essentially your active connections to other players. 0 nodes means you are essentially in offline mode. The game defaults to a max of 20 nodes, and supposedly each node also act as proxy to everyone that person is also connected to, thus giving a potential max of 400 players connected to at once if everyone in that pool of players has 20 nodes each.

The game checks for new connections at start-up then in 5 minute intervals. So sometimes it can take a few minutes before you get connected to others. Sometimes the game itself fails to establish connections even if everything on your end and on steams end is perfect. If after 10 minutes or so you're still at 0 nodes, it may be worth rebooting the game (the whole game, not just your character save) to give it a fresh chance.

If after doing this you are still at 0 nodes after 10+ minutes, it may be worth changing your steam download region and trying again. Sometimes a specific region/server gets flooded with high traffic or even goes down for maintenance, which can negatively impact Dark Souls connectivity.

You can download this mod via the following link:

https://bitbucket.org/infausto/dark-souls-pvp-watchdog

While it's unlikely, sometimes your firewall can block Dark Souls, preventing multiplayer/online play.

Port Forwarding might be an issue as well. I've never had to do it, but it's worth looking up. If you do this, port forwarding must be enabled on the UDP and TCP port 3074. UDP 3478 (Outbound), UDP 4379 (Outbound), and UDP 4380 (Outbound) are also recommended.

The following guides are also highly useful:

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406159566
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=523595950
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=474892995

There are also a number of wikis:

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/
http://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Dark+Souls+Wiki
http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Souls_Wiki

And these links are simply so useful that I'm including them again (level range calculator and pvp watchdog):

https://mpql.net/tools/dark-souls/
https://bitbucket.org/infausto/dark-souls-pvp-watchdog

If you want to connect with specific people, co-ordinate with them so that all of the above matches and is good, and decide where the helper will place their sign, and communicate while you're waiting for the connections to be made so no one is waiting in vain. If you want to connect with random people, then make sure you are in an appropriate level range for each area.

Undead Burge and Parish: 1-20
Lower Undead Burge: 10-25
Depths: 15-30
Blighttown: 20-35
Sen's Fortress: 30-50
Anor Londo/Painted World: 40-60
Dukes/TotG/Demon Ruins/Lost Izalith/New Londo Ruins: 50-80
DLC/Klin: 70+

Catacombs is kind of all over as many people don't go there until after Anor Londo despite it being accessible right from the start.

Darkroot is also all over the place, but 15-70? I know it's a large range. Some people go there early, other's don't go there until they're about to face the 4 kings (as you have to beat Sif first). Darkroot is also a pvp hotspot, so pvp meta applies there as well.

pvp meta is 125.

The other pvp hotspot is Oolaciel Township (in the DLC).

Undead Burge and Undead Parish can see a fair amount of pvp action as well, but most of it is from Twinks.

The following areas are solo only: Undead Asylum (tutorial and returning to it), Firelink Shrine, Valley of the Drakes, The Great Hollow, Ash Lake, New Londo Ruins before draining the water, the beginning of the Demon Ruins where the 7 Taurus Demons are, the very beginning of Anor Londo up to the first elevator, the beginning of the Duke's Archives before your first encounter with Seath, and the Duke's Archives Prison tower.

For co-op, it should be noted that very few people are willing to place their signs down and wait for an uncertainty. Putting one's sign down is no guarantee you'll be summoned, and placing it essentially limits you to the area you are in (you can leave, but your sign will be automatically removed when you do). So it really is best (imo) to search for co-op on the steam forums if you need help (some of us, like myself, thrive on co-op and are happy to help), or get some friends who are on the same page with all of the above and co-ordinate with them. However, placing your own sign down and waiting can see great results if you are patient enough for it. I do it on occasion and have been summoned by random hosts dozens of times in a single evening.

Good luck in all your multiplayer endeavours, and never forget to PRAISE THE SUN!!! \[T]/

• Black Separation Crystal: Item. Used to send helpful phantoms away or to leave the hosts world.
  
  
• Blade of the Darkmoon: A PvP covenant that invades sinners.
  
  
• Blue Eye Orb: Covenant Item. Used to invade players who have sinned. Infinite use.
  
  
• Blue Phantom: Also called a Spirit of Vengeance. Another player that has invaded a host for pvp.
  
  
• Book of the Guilty: Item. Lists all players who have sinned, and shows how much sin they have.
  
  
• Cat Covenant: See Forest Hunter.
  
  
• Cat Covenant Ring: Covenant item. Wear to be summoned as an invader to fight
  trespassers in Darkroot Garden.
  
  
• Co-op: Co-operative play.
  
  
• Covenant: An in game organization or group of players, each with it's own unique goals, rewards, and often times multiplayer mechanics.
  
  
• Cracked Red Eye Orb: Item. Used to invade other players. Consumable.
  
  
• Darkmoon: A member of the Blade of the Darkmoon Covenant
  
  
• Darkmoon Blade Covenant Ring: Covenant item. Wear to be summoned as an invader to fight sinners specifically in Dark Anor Londo.
  
  
• Darkwraith: A member of the Darkwraith Covenant. Also an enemy in New Londo Ruins.
  
  
• DL Region: Your current steam download region.
  
  
• Dragon Eye: Covenant item. Used to place a summon sign to be summoned to other worlds as an invader for a duel.
  
  
• Dragonbro: A member of the Path of the Dragon covenant.
  
  
• Dried Finger: Item. Allows PvP to happen more frequently.
  
  
• Estus: Item. Used to heal yourself a limited amount. Also heals any helpful phantoms a limited amount.
  
  
• Eye of Death: Item. Used to join and level up the Gravelord Servant Covenant. Also used to infect other players worlds and lure them into your own for pvp.
  
  
• Forest Hunter: A PvP covenant that invades specifically in Darkroot Garden
  
  
• Ganker: A person who teams up (2v1 or even 3v1) against someone else in PvP.
  
  
• Gravelord: A member of the Gravelord Servant Covenant.
  
  
• Hollow: A specific state of being undead. Prevents invasion and prevents being able to summon helpful phantoms.
  
  
• Host: Player that is summoning others for help, for duels, or is being invaded. Hosts must be Human.
  
  
• Human: A state of being undead. Allows one to be a Host for co-op and for pvp.
  
  
• Humanity (hard): Item. Used to heal to full health and used to increase your (soft) humanity stat.
  
  
• Humanity (soft): A stat that increases your defences and weapon damage with specific weapons. Is reduced by 1 when reverse hollowing (turning human) and when kindling at a bonfire.
  
  
• Indictment: Item. Used when killed in PvP to give your killer more sin.
  
  
• NG: New Game. Your first play through.
  
  
• NG+: New Game Plus. Your second time through the game. All enemies are given stat and health upgrades.
  
  
• NG+#: Each NG+ iteration increases enemy stats and health by an amount, up to NG+7.
  
  
• Nodes: Essentially your active connections to other players.
  
  
• Orange Guidance Soapstone: Item. Used to leave messages on the ground for other players to see and read.
  
  
• Phantom: Usually refers to another player that is in the Hosts world, either to help or to hinder. Can also refer to the polygonal phantoms that briefly appear, which are shadows of other players in that same area moving about.
  
  
• PvE: Player vs Environment.
  
  
• PvP: Player vs Player.
  
  
• PVP Watchdog: A 3rd party mod that gives you some anti-cheat capabilities and shows you your Node count.
  
  
• Red Eye Orb: Covenant Item. Used to other invade players. Infinite use.
  
  
• Red Phantom: Another player that has invaded a hosts world for pvp.
  
  
• Red Sign Soapstone: Item. Used to place a summon sign to be summoned to other worlds as an invader for a duel.
  
  
• Sign: See Summon Sign.
  
  
• Sin (pve): An invisible stat that accrues when you make an NPC angry.
  
  
• Sin (pvp): A semi-invisible stat that accrues when you are indicted or make an entire covenant mad at you. Is reduced by being killed by a Darkmoon.
  
  
• SL: Your character's level. The community has grown to call it 'Soul Level'.
  
  
• Summon Sign: A marking on the ground that when approached will show an image of the player that placed it, and when clicked will summon that player into your world.
  
  
• Sunbro: A member of the Warriors of Sunlight covenant
  
  
• Twink: A player who stays low level but has high level end game equipment and spells who then invades low level/new players in order to get easy kills.
  
  
• White Phantom: Another player summoned to the hosts world as a helpful phantom.
  
  
• White Sign Soapstone: Item. Used to place a summon sign to be summoned to other worlds as a helpful phantom.
  
  
• World: A players game.

Opt out of Beta. All betas.

Get PVP Watchdog, it tells you your Node count. Nodes = active connections to others.

0 nodes = essentially offline mode.

Nodes take time to accrue. Game checks for new connections in 5 minute intervals.

Region lock is "dead", but your steam download region still matters. LAN Event ___ are popular, as is Luxembourg.

There are no dedicated servers. Your download region is used as a temp server to initialize and facilitate the games unique peer-to-peer system, then (usually) starts checking other dl region servers for more connections.

Matchmaking is random. To connect to someone specific you must be patient (and read the guide for details on making it more likely)

Your character level matters. You can only play with people in a specific range of your level.

To host: be human (reverse hollowing at a bonfire), area boss must be alive, do not place your own sign down.

To help/invade: must use your in game multiplayer item. If via signs, do not spam it. Be patient.

Game uses your Steam name, not your character name (so you know who you're playing with). Having it less than 15 characters ensures you do not crash other peoples games.

Staying hollowed keeps you safe from invasions (pvp), but you can not summon help for co-op either.

pvp meta is 125.

pvp hotspots are Darkroot Garden (forest with the NPC hunters in it) and Oolacile Township.

...and most importantly... PRAISE THE SUN! \[T]/