The Name-Engraved Ring
As you all likely know, Dark Souls 2 online is done properly unlike 1 which used Games for Windows Live and yadda yadda. It works great. The problem is, there's so many people playing right now that even though the system works it's still an ordeal to play with your friends.
---There is a very simple solution.
Step 1: Gather about 6000 souls (5500 exactly).
Step 2:: Travel to Majula (The starter/hub town).
Step 3:: Talk to Sweet Shalquoir (The awesome cat that keeps covenant records and sells things, in the house across from the armor merchant and near the locked mansion).
Step 4:: Buy the "Name-Engraved Ring" from her with the souls you collected.
Step 5:: Go to where you want to co-op with your friends and make sure you all have the ring. Basic co-op rules still apply as well! (Must be within a certain soul MEMORY range NOT level, be online, not have burned an effigy, NOT be a member of the Company of Champions Covenant, be in the same region or have region restrict turned off, not have already killed the area boss if you want to summon someone etc.).
Step 6:: Equip the Name-Engraved Ring. When you do a list of gods will appear; you and whoever you want to co-op with must all select the same god at this time (The way this works is it prioritizes online connection with those who select the same god, blocking or limiting all other friendly connections. Invasions can still occur regardless).
Step 7:: You may have noticed the vast majority if not all of the summoning signs on the ground have disappeared at this point. You can see the icon for the god you selected in the upper left of your HUD so you can verify. Now is the time to draw your signs on the ground based on who is connecting to who (Those being summoned draw your signs the one summoning look for them).
Step 8:: You should be able to easily find your friends within moments and summon them (After a successful summon you can take off the ring and equip another one instead, simply re-equip when re-summoning is necessary). If you don't see them, some suggestions include taking the ring off and putting it back on, walking out of the area and coming back, and checking your regional settings.
--That's all there is to it, using this method should allow you to greatly cut down on the time spent attempting to co-op with your friends. Mileage may vary due to personal issues/differences of course, but it worked immediately and flawlessly for all those I told ingame and on my friend's list.
If this guide helped you, rate it up and favorite it so it can be seen by others and help them too!
About Co-op And Soul Memory
EDIT: There definitely seems to be some concerns about soul memory amongst the community. Check your character stats, it's the gray soul counter in the upper right which records soul history. It probably is a much higher number than the other two so it's easy to spot. Like I mentioned in the guide, basic co-op rules still apply when using this method, it simply helps you find your friends more easily. In other words, if the summoner and summonee have a large gap in soul memory between them, or any of the conditions that would normally prevent summoning are active, you will still be unable to summon eachother regardless of if you're using the ring or not. With that said, the ring does increase the effective soul memory range by a noticeable amount.
Remember that burning an effigy, being invaded, being a member of the Company of Champions, being offline, not being in the same region (be sure to turn off region restrict if this is the case) and some other circumstantial conditions (not being in a valid summoning area, having already beaten the boss of an area) can also prevent you from being able to summon or be summoned.
FINAL EDIT? : The wiki page finally updated its summoning range information, and now it contains the fully accurate and tested chart created and presented on the forums in which summoning ranges are based on soul memory "tiers" rather than a percenatage difference. In addition the calculator not only works based on the confirmed tier system, but also on the individual ranges of each item. For example, white soapstone ranges versus name engraved ring ranges versus red soapstone ranges versus dragon eye ranges etc. The information located on the forums which I previously linked has all been moved to the wiki and new calulators based on the tiers and items were developed so it is now simply easier to go to the wiki than hunt through the forums. As a result, I am collapsing this section into a more manageable chunk.
All of the summoning range, soul memory tiers, and item information as well as the specific range calculators can be viewed HERE.[darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com]
TL;DR : If you wouldn't have been able to connect to your friends anyway, the Name-Engraved Ring won't circumvent these rules. However, it does allow you to make summons over a larger tier range than normal. A more concrete example is that if you have 12 million souls, you can summon and be summoned by anyone above that. If you have the ring on, it changes that range to be anything 10 million and above. [/b]
EDIT 2: Sadly, I don't know the exact summon range details, it seems to be less concrete than DS 1 and testing is still being done by the community. The estimated range for summoning is +/- 25% of your soul MEMORY, not soul level. More information can be found here: Summoning Range Calculator[darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com]
It turns out the information on the wiki page has been disproven through extensive testing by the people at this link.[fextralife.com] Some of us had suspicions that it was not a percentage system, but rather a tiered system with specific numeric ranges and it seems that was correct. Sadly, this makes it much more of a pain to figure out if you can summon eachother or not.
The chart containing the specific range tiers can be viewed here[docs.google.com] courtesy of the same people found in the previous forum link. All credit goes to them and their hard work; slowely edging up their souls to find the summoning ranges must have been a huge pain.
---Thank you to DragonDance for bringing this to my attention. I'm still curious as to why the wiki wasn't corrected and updated with this when it was posted on their own forums...
White Sign Soapstone Info
I'm going to throw this information in here just to clear up any confusion and to inform people of some new mechanics related to the summoning system.
White Soapstone: The white sign soapstone returns in Dark Souls 2 remaining mostly unchanged. This means that you can only summon "spirits" in certain areas (usually areas with a boss, but there are actually very few areas you cannot place your soapstone the most notable being Majula) and that if you have beaten the boss of an "area" you can no longer summon people to that area. However, you can still be summoned by others to help them in areas that you have cleared. Another unchanged feature is that if you have placed your sign down to be summoned and you are then invaded, your sign will disappear. It's a good way to get a heads-up if there are no fog gates or area transition doorways around.
Small White Soapstone: In addition to the traditional white sign soapstone there is a new item called the small white sign soapstone which has been introduced in Dark Souls 2. I was initially confused about its purpose but after observing I learned a bit more about it. These smaller signs can be used to summon people even if you have beaten the area boss, in this manner small white soapstones can be used to obtain help even in areas that the host has already cleared. It summons individuals as a "shade" rather than the standard "spirit" and lasts for a shorter amount of time. Shades slowely fade out the longer they stay in another world and can have their duty fulfilled by reaching a "souls gathered limit" rather than simply clearing the boss. It also only rewards smooth and silky stones rather than tokens of fidelity or sunlight medals on duty completion. In this manner it can't be used to level up covenants through co-op, but you can gather the stones to trade to the birds. Finally, if you do help someone kill a boss as a "shade" your soul reward is greatly limited and reduced below what it would normally be. As a little bonus, the summoning range for the small sign is slightly larger than the standard soapstone.
They each have their uses so make sure you use the one best suited for the occasion and your goals. As per usual, both the standard white sign and the small white sign will turn gold when the join the Heirs of the Sun Covenant and become a sunbro.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=253227987
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