A Dark Souls 3 private server announced that they will be hosting a PvP tournament on May 22, 2022. Ever since a RCE exploit was found in Dark Souls 3, Bandai Namco and From Software shut down the online PC servers for the game, as well as previous titles in the Dark Souls series, until they could figure out a solution.
But with the overwhelming success of Elden Ring, it appears that these two companies are currently preoccupied with managing numerous glitches, exploits, and balance tweaks in order to accommodate their largest player base to date.
For long time fans of the Dark Souls series, news that the servers went dark with no clearly defined plan to restore them was devastating. Fans have continually showed support for older titles in the series.
One noteworthy example is how they patched nagging performance and connectivity issues for the notorious Prepare To Die edition of the first Dark Souls PC port. They even generated enough enthusiasm to prevent Atlus from shutting down the Demon’s Souls servers back in 2012, keeping that game’s online community alive until 2018.
Although Bandai Namco have made statements of their intention to bring Dark Souls 3’s PC servers back online, fans aren’t holding their breath. Instead, a sizable community of fans have started running private servers alongside the Blue Sentinel anti-cheat mod in order to safely resume playing the game online.
Speaking from my own experience, I can say that this solution works just as well as the authentic Dark Souls 3 online experience for both co-op summons and PvP invasions; all that’s missing is the large community of players.
If you want to participate in the Dark Souls 3 private server tournament, all you have to do is install the Blue Sentinel mod and download the latest version of the Dark Souls 3 Open Server project from Github.
Then, you just need to join the Dark Souls 3 Open Server Discord Channel (this invite link will be valid until the day of the tournament) and react to moderator River’s message if you want to enter.
Currently, there is a SL 125 limit for participants. The tournament is scheduled for May 22 at 10 AM EST. Here’s the current banlist:
Dark Souls 3 Private Server ban list
- Orange Estus, Divine Blessing, Hidden Blessing, Siegbrau
- All forms of cheating, third party software (such as Cheat Engine or Macros) and modifications that impact PvP
- All glitches/exploits (including RKSS RC and Pivot Cancel)
- All forms of passive HP Regeneration.
- All Healing Miracles (excluding Lifehunt Scythe).
- Warmth.
- All two handed fast Curved Swords (Sellsword/Warden Twinblades and one handed fast Curved Swords are allowed)
- Use of the Quickstep weapon art (Using weapons that have Quickstep is allowed so long as Quickstep itself is not used)
- All forms of Perseverance, including Dragonhead Greatshield WA.
- Murky Hand Scythe
- Harpe
- Corvian Greatknife
- Fire Surge
- Homing Soulmass
- A maximum of six exploding bolts may be used.
- A maximum of three Ashen Estus may be consumed.
Although the current player base for Dark Souls 3 online is small, events like these can kindle interest and hopefully bring it back from the brink of oblivion.
Hopefully, this Dark Souls 3 private server tournament will attract enough player interest to inspire future tournaments and help regrow the online community around one of the best online action RPGs ever made.
Dark Souls III, has been available for Windows PC (via Steam), Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. In case you missed it, you can find our review for Dark Souls III here
