Games
Someone invaded your game? Here’s how to pay them back in kind.
Unless you’re particularly patient and talented, you’ll doubtless still be slogging your way through the mammoth Dark Souls 2 - or waiting for a new gamepad to arrive from Amazon after obliterating the last one against the wall in frustration. The brutally hard fantasy hack and slasher has gamers around the globe hooked with its near-vertical difficulty curve and rewarding gameplay, but part of its allure is its ingenious multiplayer.
Instead of organising quests through a lobby like an MMO, you can invade the games of others, or pull them into yours to provide help - or hindrance. It’s this unpredictable nature that makes it so satisfying. Having a hard time beating a boss? Vent your frustration by ruining somebody else’s game too, in the world's most hilariously evil multiplayer. Here’s how.
Wrong directions
As you explore the world of Drangleic you’ll see lots of cryptic messages scrawled on the walls - they’re messages left by other players, and you can leave them too from the start menu. It’s in your interest to leave helpful tips (Watch out, boss ahead), since others can rate them and the higher you score the more health you’re granted. If you’d prefer the satisfaction of making someone fall off the same cliff as you did however, you can simply point them the wrong way by telling them treasure lies over the side of a hazardous ledge.
You won’t get to see the poor sucker test this out, but at least you can rest easy knowing you probably made somebody else’s game as hard as yours. If you’re feeling particularly cheeky, you can also just leave unhelpful clues like “Cryptic hint” and watch
There’s no I in teamwork
Dark Souls 2’s ingenious multiplayer lets you join certain covenants to aid or abet players. When you’re sucked into somebody else’s game, usually your intentions are revealed by the colour of your “phantom”, but there are ways around this if you want to bully others. For starters, if you join the Blue Sentinels or Heirs of the Sun you can be summoned to help another player fend off an invading player or a particularly powerful boss. If you’re feeling altruistic, you can do just that, but if not, you could simply refuse to lift a finger and watch them die. Mwahaha.
Hide and seek
Some of these dastardly tactics involve your own character being tough enough to defeat somebody else or risk backfiring, but if you’re feeling particularly puerile this one can be done at any time. Summon another player to help you against a boss, then while they’re loading into your game, immediately run away. The labyrinthine level layout of Dark Souls 2 means the summoned player will be left wondering where you’ve got to, and waste time searching all the nooks, crannies, alcoves and caverns looking for you, or have to take on monsters themselves. One unhinged player has even taken to stripping off all his clothes, summoning players, hiding in jars then popping out naked. That’s a worse surprise than any dragon or skeleton king, if you ask us.
A wolf in sheep’s clothing
It’s one thing to ruin another gamer’s attempt at toppling an iron hard boss by not lifting a finger, it’s another to actively go out of their way to ruin it by stabbing them in the back. That’s exactly what you can do with a little known item called the White Ring. It’s a devious little trinket that gives you the cosmetic appearance of a white phantom come to help others, but if you then join the Rat King covenant you can suck people into your world.
They’ll assume you’re there to help them out, allowing you to slay them cruelly and easily. Where can we get one, we hear your inner devil cry. To find a white ring, trade a Smooth and Silky Stone with Dyna and Tillo at their nest. Like taking candy from a baby.
Turn Drangleic into the Temple of Doom
If you’re feeling trollish, pledge your allegiance to the Rat King Covenant and you can turn the graveyards of Dark Souls 2 into something more resembling Indiana Jones. The Grave of Saints is littered with Pharros’ Lockstone faces which let you set all sorts of traps. You can then yank people into your game and pull all sorts of mischief, from looping two bridges together into an eternal loop to forcing people into a room where a mob of rats then devours them - you can even spill corrosive acid on unwitting trespassers, which burns through their armor in seconds. Much more fun than watching the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull again, we think you’ll agree.
What’s the most evil thing you’ve done in Dark Souls 2? Do you try to play as a hero instead? Tell us what covenants you’ve joined in the comments below.
