In our ongoing discussion and coverage of Dark Souls leading up to its launch October 4 on PS3 and Xbox 360, we're compiling everything we're learning along the way on all things Lordran.

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+Bonfire+Strengthening+(Kindling)

Vagrants

Shared+Events

Bonfire+Phantoms

Miracle+Resonance

Covenant+

We've kept tabs on our own Keza MacDonald's intrepid trial by death progress of reviewing Dark Souls Today we've assembled the latest impressions on the multiplayer aspect, arguably one of the more compelling and currently more mysterious features of Dark Souls. We've been testing said elements in a closed sense, ie the servers aren't fully populated, so we're playing with other writers and who we gather are Namco QA testers.Or they could just be wandering spirits.Regardless, we've reached out to team Dark Souls for confirmation regarding the below cobbled-together details and received confirmation on the following info:If someone strengthens a bonfire, this will be transmitted to people "nearby" (in network terms) who are using the same bonfire, giving them an extra Estus Flask. Strengthening a bonfire costs valuable Humanity, but you can use it to help out strangers and gain a sense of solidarity with your fellow strugglers.Things like discarded items and lost Humanity transform into different forms and wander through other people's game worlds. If people leave them alone without picking them up, they keep moving, eventually transforming into very valuable items. This is another way for players to help each other, with the sense that everyone is helping to bring these items into existence.When someone rings a bell, the sound reverberates to players nearby in the network. Hearing someone else's victory is intended to stimulate other player's own drive to succeed. NOTE: There are two known 'Bells' in the world of Dark Souls that must be rung at some point in a players quest to learn how to break the curse of the undead.Near bonfires (and only near them), the phantoms of other players are more distinct and visible than elsewhere in the game or anywhere in Demon's Souls. Seeing other people resting at the same bonfire helps players realize that these people are probably facing the same challenges.Some miracles have a "Resonance" property. If multiple players nearby in the network use these miracles, the effect for everyone is amplified.This covenant is for helping out other players online. Players who are in this covenant will automatically be drawn closer to each other on the network. This makes the abovementioned Miracle Resonance easier to perform, as well as helps block people from antagonistic covenants from coming closer on the network.The setup for the various covenants affects multiplayer situations in many different ways, especially the parameters of versus play, expanding the scope well beyond Demon's Souls. The game is designed to introduce multiplayer events as an extension of each character's role-playing in these covenants.That's it for now, please keep it tuned for more Dark Souls coverage.