Best known for its brutal difficulty and deeply interwoven narrative gameplay, Demon’s Souls also has a multiplayer component that many first time players may not even realize exists. For Soulsborne veterans, Co-Op and PvP are, in many ways, more beloved even than the base experiences, with various subreddits and online communities dedicated to both assisting others against bosses and also invading worlds for some one-on-one bouts.

As for Demon’s Souls Remake, multiplayer works much the same as it did in the 2009 original, only now players have the option of utilizing passwords, making co-op all the more streamlined. There are, however, a few things of value to note before leaping headlong hand-in-hand with a buddy into the bowels of Boletaria.

Online Multiplayer Requirements

In order to even play with friends or invade other player’s worlds, new hollows must first acquire two specific stones. The Black Eye Stone can be looted off of the first Black Phantom NPC the player encounters and subsequently kills. The next is gifted to the player after advancing past the first official boss in the game, the demon blob Phalanx. Luckily, this fight is arguably the easiest in Demon’s Souls, requiring only a few fire bomb tosses and apt coordination against the surrounding Hoplites to successfully win.

Once Phalanx is defeated and you have returned to the Nexus, talk to the Maiden in Black to receive the Blue Eye Stone. These two artifacts will beckon you into another player’s world upon use: the Blue Eye Stone drops a summoning sign allowing another player to draw you into their world until you die or a boss is defeated, whereas the Black Eye Stone lets you invade another player’s world as a Black Phantom.

For these two stones to work properly, you must be in soul form and far enough away from boss arenas or areas with an Archstone nearby. While obvious, you will also want to ensure you have a working internet connection for both co-op and PvP to work. There can be up to six players in one world at one time, four in co-op and two in PvP, making multiplayer in Demon’s Souls all the more interesting when put to the test.

How To Play Cooperatively

To play alongside a friend in Demon’s Souls players will have to be within a 10 level range of each other and plus or minus 10%, meaning that a level 50 player can play with anyone from level 35 to level 65, but a level five is stuck with anyone between one and 15. As previously mentioned, to drop a summoning sign you must be in soul form and to accept another player in your world as host, you must be in human form. Do note that drawing in another player boosts the forthcoming boss’s health bar, so asking for help isn’t always the best route of action in Demon’s Souls.

As a Blue Phantom in another player’s world, you can only pick up items dropped by the host and the host can pick up items you drop, as well, thus allowing for a system of item trading. All of the souls collected as a Blue Phantom remain with you when returning to your world, plus you will even regain humanity after defeating a boss. However, progress made in another’s world doesn’t bridge into yours, meaning if you kill Flamelurker as a Blue Phantom, he will still be there waiting to fight in your world upon returning.

The best way to make Demon’s Souls co-op simpler and a bit less time consuming would be to have a password already set, allowing you and your friend to both easily access the other’s world on a whim. The password functionality will also allow players drastically apart level-wise to enter into their world, though the player with a higher level count will be debuffed for balancing purposes. It’s also wise as the host player to stock up on Stones of Ephemeral Eyes, which reverts your body back into human form, allowing you to call upon help whenever necessary.

How To Play PvP

In many ways, PvP is the literal lifeblood of the Souls franchise, allowing the most competitive of players to go head to head in a showdown of ultimate worthiness: who is the most hollow? But, like its cooperative counterpart, PvP in Demon’s Souls isn’t exactly cut and dry, and many might say that’s for good measure. Case in point: Demon’s Souls PvP multiplayer is an unbalanced wasteland, yet that hasn’t stopped the hollows from achieving that necessary kick.

Like with co-op, in order for another player to invade your world, you must be in human form. Note that when you die in human form, it lowers your world tendency, so it’s best for completionists to play offline so no Black Phantoms obstruct that 100% playthrough. This also works in the opposite way, when defeating a Black Phantom your world tendency raises to white on that particular stage.

To invade an unsuspecting player’s world, it’s best to know where to find players that match your skill level. For instance, areas like 3-2, 2-2, the Valley of Defilement, and other late-game stages will most assuredly harbor far stronger players, but it all comes down to preference and where you want to stage your  Demon’s Souls duel. There is also an honor code for proper Souls PvP, which includes the following rules for multiplayer:

  • Don’t heal during the fight. Don’t begin the duel until both parties are ready, which is typically shown via a bow or alternative emote. Don’t stick to mere one-note starts, like solely backstabbing or spamming magic, as it not only dulls the fight but will probably get you immediately killed.

That’s all there is to know about Demon’s Souls multiplayer. On the surface, it may appear to have a far too complex multiplayer component for the average gamer, but once realized Demon’s Souls co-op and PvP no sooner become blessings in their own right.