I have not once actually connected to another player in this game and I do not know why. I have PS+, I have the game in online mode, I even have the “worldwide” option set to be able to connect to literally anyone.
Beckoning Bell never has others players show up (or any “signs” if they are like the NPC summons).
Resonating Bell never summons me anywhere. I don’t know if it works like summon signs in DS/ER where another player will see something to summon me where I was standing when I used it, or if it’s like the effigies in Elden Ring where you just get summoned if the game finds a match; but I have tried using it around lamps, at boss doors, etc.
I can’t even seem to invade anyone! Maybe I have the wrong bell? I have the sinister resonating bell and I get the feeling from the on screen prompt when using it that it’s more like the dueling shit from DS where I am not forcing my way in, but being invited. All I know is that I haven’t been able to invade with this either.
What gives? I see notes and ghosts all over the place so I know there is still an online presence in the game. Is it because I am on PS5 and not a PS4? Why can I not connect to anyone? 😩
On notes and ghosts: My hunch is that these never expire, so I don’t think they’re a good indicator of how much activity is in a particular area of the game.
On the Beckoning Bell: This is supposed to summon players who have already used their Small Resonant Bell, but according to the wiki they have to be standing near where you use the Beckoning Bell (if they’re at the boss gate and you’re at the lantern, you won’t find them). I don’t know how many people are still doing co-op.
On the Sinister Resonant Bell: In most areas of the game, you can only invade players who have at least one co-op partner, or who are also ringing a Sinister Resonant Bell, AND who are in an area where the boss is alive. If you’re in an area where the boss is dead, other players can’t invade you even if you’re ringing the Sinister Bell. This significantly limits invasions, especially since as mentioned I’m not sure how much co-op is happening. There are a few areas later in the game where a Chime Maiden ringing a sinister bell will spawn naturally, and you can invade players who haven’t found and killed her, but they aren’t typically hard to find so this is a pretty narrow window.
In addition, there are level restrictions on both co-op and PvP, so even if other people are trying to be summoned or trying to invade, you might not be able to match with them.
The wiki also says you might need to restart your console if you resumed the game from Rest Mode, I don’t know if that’s true but it’s worth a shot.
If you want to set up a time to try multiplayer, I’d be willing to give it a shot. I might need a bit to get a character into the right level range, depending on where and what level you are.
I am BL69 with +9 weapons. I just killed Logarius but I was trying to find help with him when I made this post, since he was the only guy that managed to kill me multiple times until I realized he was just resistant to Arcane (I am doing a pure arcane build). Just switched to pure physical and beat him when I couldn’t get any cooperators after an hour of searching.
All the other Fromsoft games I can kind of intuit the right levels and direction to go because of the upgrade materials you find, but this one is confusing as hell and super easy to get lost in. I’ve only ran through the game once and I still missed like 50% of the game while somehow managing to get an ending. So it definitely could be that I am not the right level/upgrade for where I’ve tried looking. 🤣
I also don’t remember where the Fishing Hamlet is. I need shock gems.
I assume messages work the same as the other games, and they only appear when the person who put them down is actively online (exception being dev messages that you can’t rate). Ghosts I am not sure about. I know they are recordings, but I don’t know if they can show offline players.
Restarting from rest mode is just gonna be because the game will disconnect due to inactivity so you need to go to the main menu to get back into online mode.
If nothing is working, my hunch would be that it has nothing to do with the game. Maybe a firewall or port forwarding issue, that you’d need to fix in your router configuration.
Unfortunately, I’m only guessing. I don’t own any PS consoles. I just didn’t see the suggestion here already.
