• Dark Souls 3 Covenant Of The Sun Walkthrough
• Dark Souls 3 Covenant Of The Sun Lyrics
• Dark Souls 3 Sunlight Covenant

Covenants are sacred contracts in Dark Souls 3. Joining a covenant makes you part of a group – you promise to obey certain rules in exchange for rewards. Different covenants give out different rewards when ranking up. This guide will show you how to join covenants in Dark Souls 3, where to find.

I think the covenant system is the biggest missed opportunity in the whole series. Every successive game in the Soulsborne series handles covenants worse. In Dark Souls 1, jumping between covenants to get all the rewards was still possible, but because there was a penalty for leaving, you were still building 'toward' one, and you couldn't just do all of them at once. Even if you hopped from one to the next, you still had to focus on one at a time. In addition, not only did the covenant you take change how you play the game after you join, but if you want to be optimal it would change your path leading up to joining. Want to be a Darkwraith? Try and kill the Four Kings as soon as you can then, and that means either killing the Hydra, somehow getting past it, or scrounging up 20,000k souls before you begin the end game. Are the Forest Hunters right for you? Be sure you've killed Pharis first or you never will. Feel like punishing the guilty? Your best bet is to take an early trip to the catacombs to get the Darkmoon Seance Ring, and you better be sure you want Darkmoon Blade more than Sunlight Blade. After you've seen both endings, the covenant system gave the game so much more longevity just by giving you new directions to take at the start of a new game on top of changing the way you play online.

Now the actual covenants you could join in Ds2 were good, creative, and had fun lore (Wait, the rats can talk!?) but the ability to switch between them with no penalty was just so..casual. Although the Ds2 covenants kept that feeling of being a faction that you belong to, and even improving that aspect in some ways by giving most covenants physical locations to call home, the way you're not only allowed but encouraged to switch through covenants like you're out shopping really undercut that feeling. I especially think it was stupid to give the player the ability to see all their covenant levels on a chart, all lined up like collectibles in Banjo-Kazooie. Each individual covenant was fun and involved, but that feeling shatters because the mechanics discourage dedication.

Even in Bloodborne, at the very least they logically made it so you were the enemy of your opposing faction; if you side with the Vilebloods you shouldn't be expecting any jolly co-operation with the Executioners.

But good lord, I have never seen a faction system more terrible than the one in Dark Souls 3. the idea that they decided to make covenants equippable, and didn't realize that that made the entire system pointless, is a failure of game design that's impossible to believe from a studio that's been around as long as From has. Why didn't they just make it so that you always get a Sunlight medal for co-op if there's no reason to equip any covenant other than sunbro's before putting your white sign down? Why didn't they just make it so you automatically become a Hotdog of Farron Watchdog of Farron if you use your Red Eye Orb while standing in a compatible area? WHY DO YOU EVEN INCLUDE THE WAY OF BLUE AS A COVENANT IF, AS A HOST, NO OTHER COVENANT GIVES ANY BENEFIT WHATSOEVER!? This is especially idiotic because the latest patch lets you switch covenants while you're being invaded. Why not just make Way of Blue a usable item then, like another version of the Dried Finger? Hell, why don't you just make it so the dried finger does that!?

On top of that, the role-playing aspect of the system is completely swept under the rug. Shouldn't you be kicked out of the Watchdogs of Farron for killing the Abyss Watchers? Same goes for the Faithful and offing Aldrich. Why does Sirris, a former 'servant of the divinity', hate you for serving Rosaria, a goddess, but not Aldrich, who ate gods (including being right in the middle of eating the one Sirris is implied to have served directly)? The answer, I'm sure, is that no one thought about it at all. They were too busy polishing the main PvE element that is apparently more important than the element that encourages your most die-hard fans to keep the game alive. Also, goodjobmakingPvEpolished,guys. I guess if that is what the 'focus' looks like it makes sense that the 'secondary' elements are designed with all the skill of a monkey mashing a typewriter, aka the guy writing the patch notes describing (or more accurately failing utterly to describe in any detail) the myriad of problems they fail to fix even after they've been pointed out dozens of times and each time they either fuck something new up or it doesn't even slightly help TOTALLY FIXED THIS TIME YOU GUYS, REALLY.

Dark Souls 3 Covenant Of The Sun Walkthrough

I don't understand the idea behind Ds3's version of 'covenants' at all. Every possible mistake they could've made with it was made. Every elemental of what made the covenant system work is gone in this game.

• Functionality: You've got three choices: invade, purpal, or sunbro. And even purpal is really just a Dark Spirit of a different color, because the player has no actual reason to be the wild card they're supposed to instead of teaming up with the other invaders and killing the host.

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• Effect on gameplay: virtually none. Those of you who have played the game more than once: did you stick to one covenant or another? If you did, do you think that effected your play through in the slightest?

• Dedication: Less than none. Covenants are literally loot. You have to have a real serious disorder to take a system that is, for all intents and purposes, named the promise system and make it as big of a commitment as what tie you're going to wear to work today.

• Lore: The strongest element of Ds3's covenants, but still worse than all the others. For a good example, there's the Warriors of Sunlight. Unlike Ds2, a decent explanation is given why the Warriors of Sunlight still exist: the Lothric Knights were sun-praising dragon slayers, which is why they have a Sunlight Altar in the castle. For a bad example, Rosaria's Fingers. I understand that the Darkwraiths are a tough act to follow, but god is this covenant bland. A goddess(?) was just completely made up who is never really said to do anything other than lay around turning people into Grubs and generally just not doing anything. For some reason she wants to collect tongues because she..doesn't have one? And she apparently can't use Rebirth on herself..even though she won't die when killed? Overall, this is the lamest invader group in terms of style. I wasn't a big fan of the Brotherhood of Blood but at least they kept it simple. Goddess of bloodshed. Boom, that's all you really need. Is it as good or interesting as the Darkwraiths? No, but as far as reason to be murderous assholes go, 'BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD' isn't a bad one. It's definitely better than 'TONGUES FOR THE RESPEC GODDESS WHO WE DON'T KNOW WHY SHE WANTS THEM'.

Dark Souls 3 has had the biggest player base drop off in the series. There was a peak of 129,831 people playing it in April, and the peak last month was 34,813. That's a 47.12% decrease. The peak today was 10,975. For reference, that's only twice as much as Dark Souls 1, a four year old release that's barely even playable on PC (yes, it's even worse than this one somehow). So many people got their fill of Dark Souls 3 so quickly, and it's really not hard to see why. The already very short PvE playthrough is the only real draw, and even if/when they patch out all the PvP bullshit (and we finally find out what Poise actually does), they can't patch out the fact that the game has less than half of the staying power of the original. I won't be surprised if Ds1 actually matches the 24 peak players at some point after the DLC comes out. Even if the DLC does something with covenants that's fresh and new, it's way too little way too late. Thank you Steamcharts.com/.

And that's what Dark Souls 3 feels like in general: too little too late. It is, and only is, the exact minimum of what it needs to be. There's a co-op covenant, an auto-summon invader covenant, and a normal invasion covenant (although that covenant does literally nothing, at all.) There are dogs that are annoying and a poison swamp because those are things Dark Souls has. It doesn't matter if people hated them, it doesn't matter if the series could and should've moved on from their past mistakes, they were in other games so they're in this one. Am I really the only one who feels like I payed 90 dollars for an early access game when I believed I was getting a completed product?

TL;DR: I don't think a single person at From looked at the covenant system twice. It has the most barebones requirements for what people would expect from it, and it utterly fails at what the covenant system was supposed to do: extend the game's life and allow roleplaying.

Side note: This post began as a comment on another post complaining about the shitty covenants, but I realized I had so much venting to do I decided to make my own post instead.

The Dark Sun Gwyndolin first appeared in the original Dark Souls as a covenant leader and as an optional boss. He was a character who could be easily missed, as finding him required some additional actions and items, yet he played one of the key roles in the game’s story, and elements like that are one of the reasons we love Souls games. According to what we can find in the game, Dark Sun Gwyndolin is the last deity remaining in the once proud capital of Anor Londo. Now deserted by the gods, he secretly rules it, maintaining an illusion of the Sun, the Princess and the Knights of Anor Londo. In fact it’s him, not Gwynevere, who is responsible for guiding the Chosen Undead to link the fire according to the will of Lord Gwyn. It’s not shocking that he just secretly does so, it’s that we could beat the game several times without even realizing that he was the one behind all of the game’s machinations.

As for his personality, we know that he was Lord Gwyn’s lastborn, raised as a goddess, due to his affinity for the moon, which makes his character even more interesting. As for the meaning of his name, it’s composed of words “White/Blessed/Fair” and “Ring”, while his father’s name is the word for “White/Blessed/Fair” in Welsh.

And so, Gwyndolin makes his return in Dark Souls III, but now it’s somewhat of a saddder scene. We find him devoured by Aldrich, the Saint of the Deep, and even if he’s still somehow alive, he shows no signs of resisting the Devourer of Gods, making him lost anyway.

But what does he leave for us to discover? We all know that he fell stricken by some illness and was imprisoned by Pontiff (or Pope, in a more literal translation of original term in Japanese) Sulyvahn to be fed to Aldrich, and we know that from a certain girl, who claims to be his sister (and being a half-dragon girl, this is rather unusual).

But it seems there’s more to the story than that, as it was in Dark Souls and Gwyndolin once again had one of the most significant roles, which, could be easily overlooked.

In the video I discuss all the points about him, his heir as the Darkmoon covenant leader, Yorshka, the one responsible for his current state, Sulyvahn and the old city of Irithyll, to find what exactly happened between the events as they’re shown in Dark Souls I and Dark Souls III, and the legacy that Gwyndolin leaves behind himself.

For example, we can find some statues in the Pontiff Sulyvhan boss room.

The faces of these statues are covered with hoods, so we can’t discern their identity, however the clothes they wear are very much the same as the robes worn by Dark Sun Gwyndolin in Dark Souls I. And if we look at the catalysts the statues are holding, they are in fact the catalyst used by Gwyndolin in Dark Souls I.

And more than that, we can find symbols of the Dark Sun around the Irithyll Cathedral:

The word Irithyll means “Moon” in the Elvish language developed by J.R.R. Tolkien for the Lord of the Rings and his other stories. Similarly “Anor” in “Anor Londo” is the Elvish word for “Sun”. So putting all of this together we can see, that being left alone, at some point, Gwyndolin is forced to come out from the shadows, and guide humans (undead) directly, no longer hiding behind the images of Sister Gwynevere and Father Gwyn. At the place of what once was Anor Londo he establishes a new moon capital in the twilight of the frigid valley, with a cathedral built in the name of Dark Sun, where he leads humans as the “Nameless Moon”.

Dark Souls 3 Covenant Of The Sun Lyrics

However, as we know, at some point Pontiff Sulyvhan appears. Waiting for a moment when Gwyndolin falls stricken by illness, he uses his magic and profaned flame to take over Irithyll. And as we can see, when fighting him, Sulyvahn wears robes over his armor and clothes that are suspiciously similar to Gwyndolin’s:

Dark Souls 3 Sunlight Covenant

So, he simply usurps power in the church, but at the same time he sticks to tradition. Not only because of the robes, of course, as there are more points that hint to that discussed in the title video. We also know that Sulyvahn uses the “Small Dolls” as the keys to Irithyll; he gives them to the most valuable subjects so they would be able to return to Irithyll. However, at the same time, he bans similar statues of the young squires – we can find the large statues piled up in Yorshka’s church and other places where they’re taken out of sight. These “Young Squires” are the future Silver Knights, as they hold the Silver Knight Swords in their hands. So it gives us yet another piece of the picture of what kind of city Irithyll was during Gwyndolin’s rule.

There are more points in the title video, some facts, theories, speculations, about Gwyndolin, Yorshka, Sulyvahn and his reasoning and involvement in Irithyll’s fate that should be of interest for lore enthusiasts. It was riveting to discover the role such a compelling character as Gwyndolin plays once more, and how much of himself remains, even after being devoured.

We also see how he grows: in Dark Souls I he ruled by hiding behind the illusions of his Sister and the authority of his Father, but in Dark Souls III we see that he, at some point, began ruling on his own, no longer hiding in shadows behind the names of his legendary Father and Sister.

Thoughts on the ideas presented here? Let’s get a compelling discussion started in the comments!

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