Hey I am a little confused on these two and was wondering if someone could shed some light on it before I continue playing. I know the different covenants give different rewards for invading another player's world and defeating them. But my main interest is gaining humanity. So after looking at the rewards and what's available to each covenant it would seem Darkwraith is the best way to go. Not only is the reward Humanity but you get access to the Red Eye which is an unlimited use item. So my question is, am I wrong in this assumption? Do you get a Humanity no matter what covenant you join -plus- the individual rewards? I just got the Lordvessel so I'm trying to figure this out now since if I have to go Darkwraith I can't turn it in yet til I find Frampt evil brother.

No matter what covenant you join when you defeat people in PvP you're going to get humanity for beating a real player no matter what. It does not matter what covenant you're in or if you are in one at all. The only difference is that certain covenants give you extra items that are otherwise basically unobtainable form any other means. For example, the Darkmoon covenant will reward you with ears from the people you kill which can then be turned into the covenant or the Dragon covenant will reward you with Dragon Scales upon victory. Obviously ears and Dragon Scales are obtainable through regular means, but only "X" amount of them can be gained from non-pvp means per play through. So, unless you want to have to beat the game 10 times to get 10 ears you might want to think about joining the Darkmoon.

Also, yes, Darkwraith is a good covenant for invading.

If you want to get a lot of humanities the best way i have found is to throw on the magic-find ring and go to the room right before your encounter with Nito. It will be unmistakable as there are Pinwheel demons around the room and baby skeletons running around the water. Kill the Pinwheel demons and then farm the baby skeletons which die in one hit. For your other ring slot put the ring that heals you each time you kill something. The baby skeletons respawn and never die permanently. They have a high humanity drop-rate, but the catch is that for some reason the item that they drop will only last for like 2-3 seconds. So, you have to kill them and kind of spam the loot button afterwords. I did that for an hour and i got like 200k souls and 73 humanities.

Lastly, just for random info, there is no reason to stack more than 30 humanities. Chaos weapons' damage and item discovery rate cap at 30.

@TerraMantis said:

Lastly, just for random info, there is no reason to stack more than 30 humanities. Chaos weapons' damage and item discovery rate cap at 30.

I've never had more than like 2 or 3 hehe. But thanks that info was VERY helpful.

humanity also increases curse resist. and im pretty sure i read somewhere that 30 humanity stack with the item discovery ring. citation needed on that tho.

@zoskia

Yes, humanities stack with either the ring or the item find helm. 410 (20%) Item discovery is maximum though so there is no reason to try and wear two rings, the helm, and have 30 humanity for what would essentially be 810 Item discovery. Also, the helm and the ring do not stack regardless. So the only way to reach max item discovery is with either 30 humanities and the ring OR helm. You cannot do it by having zero humanity and wearing the ring and helm.

@TerraMantis said:

@zoskia

Yes, humanities stack with either the ring or the item find helm. 410 (20%) Item discovery is maximum though so there is no reason to try and wear two rings, the helm, and have 30 humanity for what would essentially be 810 Item discovery. Also, the helm and the ring do not stack regardless. So the only way to reach max item discovery is with either 30 humanities and the ring OR helm. You cannot do it by having zero humanity and wearing the ring and helm.

Where do you get either of these rings? I think I found one on my first playthrough but then my save got messed up...

Also I didn't even know there was a helm in this game... Goodness what would people do with out dark souls wiki.

@senorfuzzeh

The Item discovery helm is a rare drop from a mimicry chest and the item discovery ring is found in Sen's Fortress. In Sen's Fortress it is located (actually) just before the first ever encountered mimicry chest. At the ramps prior to the room with the mimic chest where the boulders stack-up which they are then stacked to a point where they're level with the ground and break through the wall. The item find ring is on a body in the room that is revealed after the passage is smashed open by the boulders.

Hope that description is good enough to lead you there.

If you have killed the mimicry chest in Sen's Fortress and cannot remember its location it was in the room with the elevator that if stayed on for too long will go up even farther into a bed of spikes.