Covenants are factions you can join and upgrade to earn items and participate in PvP or interact with other players.
Way of the Blue (Co-op):
Location: Saulden in Majula
Upon joining you will be given the Blue Seal Ring that increases your HP slightly and will summon friendly blue phantoms when you are invaded by an enemy player. You do not need to wear the ring to level the covenant.
To level up this covenant you need to defeat invading players or invading NPC phantoms (only the ones that display the invading message on the screen).
Rank 0 = 0 kills, Blue Seal Ring
Rank 1 = 1 kills, Bloodbite Ring
Rank 2 = 5 kills, Hush sorcery
Rank 3 = 10 kills, Blue Tearstone Ring
Company of Champions (PvE + PvP):
Location: Victor's Stone on a cliff at the rear of Majula
Upon joining you will receive the Champion's Tablet, this shows the names of the most accomplished company of champions players. By joining this covenant enemies will inflict additional damage and damage the player deals will be reduced by twenty percent. Summoning is also disabled while you are a member of this covenant. This essentially makes it a more hardcore version of Dark Souls 2. To increase in rank in this covenant you must offer awestones to the Victor's Stone. Awestones can be obtained by defeating invading NPC or player phantoms and the occasional enemy rarely.
Rank 0 = 0 awestones, Champion's Tablet
Rank 1 = 10 awestones, Great Magic Weapon sorcery
Rank 2 = 25 awestones, First Dragon Ring
Rank 3 = 50 awestones. Vanquisher's Seal
Blue Sentinels (PvP):
Location: Targray in Cathedral of Blue (Dragonslayer boss must be defeated first)
To join the covenant you must have a token of fidelity (one can be found in Huntsman's Copse or you can obtain one by helping another player defeat a boss). After joining you will receive a Guardian's Seal Ring which allows you to be summoned to aid members of the Way of Blue covenant when they are invaded. You can also use cracked blue eye orbs to invade the world of guilty players who will increase your rank upon defeating them. You can also duel other members of the covenant in the basement of the Cathedral of Blue by interacting with the statue there (this also increases rank).
Rank 0 = 1 Token of Fidelity, Guardian's Seal
Rank 1 = 50 wins, Spirit Tree Shield
Rank 2 = 150 wins, Wrath of the Gods
Rank 3 = 500 wins, Bountiful Sunlight
Bell Keepers (PvP):
Location: Dwarf at entry to Belfry Luna and Belfry Sol
When you join this covenant you will be given the Bell Keeper's Seal. This allows you to be summoned into other players worlds when they attempt to climb the belltower (Sol or Luna). Your job as a member of the covenant is to stop them from reaching the top by killing them. Each time you defeat the host of a world, you will obtain a Titanite Chunk and gain an extra kill towards ranking up the covenant. Your equipment will be replenished upon exiting the host's world (Estus Flasks and equipment durability).
Rank 0 = 0 kills, Bell Keeper's Seal, 5 Rusted Coins
Rank 1 = 10 kills, Titanite Slab
Rank 2 = 30 kills, Hidden Weapon
Rank 3 = 100 kills, Bell Keeper Armour set
Brotherhood of Blood (PvP):
Location: Gren in Undead Purgatory (only available after Executioner's Chariot boss fight).
Upon joining this covenant you will be given the Crest of Blood Ring. This increases bleed damage and doesn't need to be worn to obtain points in this covenant. This covenant is focused around invading other player's worlds (using Cracked Red Eye Orbs or Red Soapstones) and killing them to increase your points towards higher ranks. You can also participate in duels by interacting with the statues near Gren to increase your rank. You will lose points if you are defeated in an invasion or duel.
Rank 0 = 1 Token of Spite, Crest of Blood
Rank 1 = 50 points, Curved Twinblade
Rank 2 = 150 points, Crescent Sickle
Rank 3 = 500 points, Great Chaos Fireball pyromancy
Heirs of the Sun (Co-op):
Location: Broken statue in Harvest Valley (teleport to the mines bonfire, take a right into the open area, right again to the poison mist area with two dark giants and a sledgehammer enemy. Cross the bridge with the sledgehammer enemy and travel along the low path to the left underneath the windmill blades. Kill the sickle giant within to reach the broken statue).
To gain sunlight medals, you or a player summon belonging to the heirs of the sun covenant must beat a boss or defeat various enemies in new game plus. The summon symbols of members is a more golden yellow colour than the regular symbol. To be summoned you must put down a white soapstone sign.
Rank 0 = 0 medals, Sun Seal
Rank 1 = 10 medals, Sunlight Parma
Rank 2 = 20 medals, Sun Sword
Rank 3 = 30 medals, Sunlight Spear
Rat King (PvP):
Location: The Rat King in Grave of Saints (after second bonfire) or Doors of Pharros
Similar to the bellkeeper covenant, this covenant focuses on preventing a targeted player from making it through the Grave of Saints or Doors of Pharros areas. Unlike the bellkeeper covenant, enemies in the area are friendly to covenant members and will assist in attacking the targeted player as they move through the area. Pharros devices in these areas can also be triggered to increase the difficulty of the area by generating traps or increasing the number of enemies. Defeat the targeted player to be rewarded with a rat's tail.
Rank 0 = 1 Tail, Crest of the Rat
Rank 1 = 10 Tails, 10 Small Smooth and Silky Stones
Rank 2 = 20 Tails, 10 Smooth and Silky Stones
Rank 3 = 35 Tails, Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring
Pilgrims of Dark (PvE):
Location: Grandahl in three locations (must be talked to at all three to join), Secret room under path at black gulch, hidden room below pit fall in Shaded Woods, in third golem door on the left in Drangleic castle in room after first bonfire.
Grandahl is located next to the Abyssal Dungeons, which can be activated by giving him a human effigy. Inside each dungeon you must clear the blue phantoms infesting the dungeon and light a large cauldron shaped torch within. After lighting the torch, find a pit in the area with thick mist at the bottom and drop into it to return to the area you arrived from. There are no light sources in the dungeons, so packing a flame butterfly to light the torches is a good idea. Make sure you have your Abyss seal on when completing these dungeons and attempting to level up your covenant as without it they will not count. After completing all three dungeons you will teleport into a boss fight against the Darklurker. Defeat him and talk to Grandahl one more time to max out the covenant.
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Boss: Darklurker
Personal Death Count: 4
Attacks –
Blink: The darklurker will teleport to another place in the room. Doesn't deal damage but can make him difficult to track.
Dark Beam (Vertical): The darklurker will fly into the air and start a dark beam of energy below him. He will then raise this upwards while tracking the player slightly. Move to the side of be far enough back to avoid this.
Dark Nova: The darklurker will lean back and then huddle forward before releasing a large damaging blast of dark energy in all directions. Roll backwards to avoid the attack.
Dark Spear: The darklurker will move both arms back to his side and then release a dark spear of energy towards the player. The attack is quite quick and he can use it at the same time as his ring attacks making it hard to dodge. Roll to the side when the spear appears to avoid it.
Dark Sword: The darklurker will close the distance to the player and draw his hand back as if to slap them. Dark energy will emerge from it's hand in the shape of a sword and the darklurker will slash up to three times towards the player.
Doppelganger: Once the darklurker has lost half his health, he will split into two. Both will have the same attacks and a single health bar, so attacking either darklurker will kill it equally fast. This can be dangerous as watching both for their attacks can be very difficult.
Invisibility: The darklurker will dissappear but can still be targeted and attacked.
Ring of Darkness: The darklurker will raise his arms overhead and create a circle of darkness over his head. After a couple of seconds another ring of darkness will appear and the darklurker will fire a bolt of dark energy into the one over his head which will teleport to the second ring and target the player from there. To dodge this, look for the second ring and be ready to roll away from the energy when it emerges.
Ring of Fire: The darklurker will raise his arms overhead and create a circle of flame over his head. After a few seconds, three fireballs will come flying out of it towards the player. Time your dodge roll to the side late to ensure all three fireballs have emerged and are heading for one location (as opposed to unemerged ones targeting where you rolled to).
The darklurker can be a tricky foe to deal with, especially in the later half of the fight with two of them, the secret to making it easy is to max out damage and kill the boss quickly. Casters will want to save their best spells for the second half of the battle to bring the boss down fast. Fire attacks work very well against this boss so pyromancy or fire imbued weapons will take nice chunks of health off the boss. Lightning spears also work well in dealing damage to the boss for faith builds. Essentially, slow characters will want to block ranged attacks they can't avoid and get in close when possible to attack. Lighter ranged characters will be able to attack from a distance while dodging his ranged attacks. If you are having trouble dealing damage, make sure your pyromancy glove is as upgraded as possible or your weaponry is fully upgraded. At the end of the game you should be able to down this guy quite fast as long as you keep focused when he splits.
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Rank 0 = Talk to Grandahl in all three locations, Abyss Seal
Rank 1 = Clear an Abyssal Dungeon, Resonant Soul hex
Rank 2 = Clear all three Abyssal Dungeons, Great Resonant Soul hex
Rank 3 = Defeat the Darklurker, Climax hex, Dragon Chime, Xanthous Armour set
Dragon Remnants (PvP):
Location: Give the petrified egg from the Dragon Shrine to Magerold (merchant found in the early area of the iron keep, cross the bridge and head right inside from the first bonfire)
To obtain dragon scales you must place the dragon stone down and be summoned for a duel. Defeat the opponent to obtain a scale. You can also defeat lizard soldiers in the area before the ancient dragon at the Dragon Shrine.
Rank 0 = Give Dragon Egg to Magerold at Iron Keep, Dragon Eye, Ancient Dragon Seal
Rank 1 = 10 Dragon Scales, Dragon Head Stone
Rank 2 = 20 Dragon Scales, Dragon Torso Stone
Rank 3 = 30 Dragon Scales, Black Dragon Greatsword