As many of you know, Dark Souls: Remastered features an item trading system that takes weapon upgrade level into account. Unlike in the original, it is not possible to drop every tradable weapon to every character of another player; instead, you have to take the weapon reinforcement levels into account. While this new weapon upgrade level system for player trade might closely resemble the one of Dark Souls III at first glance, there are some noticeable differences that are easy to overlook and obscure to figure out.
Because of this, we decided to make a post with a comprehensive guide of how the weapon upgrade level system in Dark Souls: Remastered works and what you have to look out for. We'll furthermore use this chance to give a short update about our sub and the upcoming Nintendo Switch release of the game down below, aswell as reiterate a few general trading and trading safety tips that we recommend newcomers to read.
Guide to weapon reinforcement level in Dark Souls: Remastered, or: how to find out what weapons your character can pick up
Each weapon (this includes melee weapons aswell as bows and crossbows!), shield and catalyst that you have in the game has a weapon reinforcement level that is a parameter ranging from +0 to +15. Counterintuitively, this parameter is not always equal to the weapon reinforcement level that a weapon will display in the item menu. This is also one of the main points of confusion as owning a +5 weapon for example does not translate into being able to pick up any other +5 weapon from another player; the weapon reinforcement level relevant to matchmaking and player trade is the „hidden“ one that ranges from +0 to +15.
Furthermore, each character in Dark Souls: Remastered has a (hidden) maximum weapon reinforcement stat that also ranges from +0 to +15 and is equal to the reinforcement level of the weapon, shield or catalyst with the highest reinforcement level that your character had to date. Armor items, despite being upgradable, do not count towards this hidden reinforcement level and can be traded independently of where their visible reinforcement level is at. Rings, consumables and all other items also don’t count towards the maximum weapon reinforcement stat of your character.
The stat always starts at +0 on a new character but is increased as soon as you acquire a weapon of higher reinforcement level, whether it’s by collecting such a weapon or by upgrading one you already own.
This reinforcement character stat can only increase, not decrease, meaning that even if you get rid of upgraded weapons, it will not decrease. The only way to reset it is by starting a new character. This means that if you want to keep this stat low for reasons of co-op or invasions, you should be careful in what items you pick up as there are some items early in the game that will immediately catapult your character to a higher reinforcement level, such as any weapons dropped from Black Knights or the Astora Straight Sword in the Valley of Drakes (both of them are visibly at +0 when you pick them up but have a hidden reinforcement level of +5, more the individual types of weapons in a bit).
That said – if your only concern is trading, then there is no harm whatsoever in increasing your character’s maximum reinforcement stat, as the amount of weapons, shields and catalysts you’ll be able to pick up from other players will only increase as your character’s maximum reinforcement stat increases, never decrease. The only feasible reason to keep your character’s maximum reinforcement stat low is for invasions or random co-op in early areas, which we won’t thoroughly cover in this guide (more on that in the source at the bottom if you are interested in that).
Futhermore, the maximum weapon reinforcement stat of your character is only relevant for online play, it has no effect on everything you do or collect offline. It is a determining factor for which players you can be matched with when not having a password set and for which weapons you can trade with other players.
So, how do these two reinforcement levels relate to each other?
For clarity, we will from now on refer by „visible reinforcement level“ to the reinforcement level of a weapon that is visible in its’ item menu, and by „reinforcement level“ or „hidden reinforcement level“ to the hidden scale ranging from +0 to +15.
First off, the visible reinforcement level is always a subscale of the hidden reinforcement level, meaning that for each individual weapon, each visible reinforcement level corresponds to an exact number of the hidden reinforcement scale. Or in simpler terms, there is no weapon that doesn't fall onto this invisible +0 to +15 scale; each weapon has a hidden parameter that is a number on this scale.
For standard weapons (those that go from +0 up to +15 on the visible weapon scale), the visible weapon scale corresponds to the hidden weapon scale. A Broadsword +2 also has a hidden reinforcement level of +2.
If you choose an upgrade path for a standard weapon that goes from +0 to +10 (Divine, Fire, Magic, all of which require a standard +5 weapon to choose the respective upgrade path), then the visible reinforcement range for that weapon (ranging from +0 to +10) will correspond to the +5 to +15 range of the hidden weapon reinforcement level. For example a Fire +0 weapon will have a hidden reinforcement parameter of +5, a Fire +10 will have a hidden parameter of +15.
If you choose an upgrade path that goes from +0 or +5 and requires either a standard weapon at +10 or a Divine/Fire/Magic +5 weapon for the initial choice of the new upgrade path (these are Occult, Chaos, Enchanted, Lightning, Crystal), then the visible reinforcement range for that weapon (from +0 to +5) will correspond to the +10 to +15 range of the hidden reinforcement parameter, in steps of +1. For example an Occult +0 weapon has a hidden reinforcement parameter of +10, an Occult +5 weapon has a hidden reinforcement parameter of +15.
Unique, boss and dragon weapons have a visible reinforcement range from +0 to +5 which corresponds to the hidden reinforcement range from +5 to +15, with intermediate steps of +2. For example an Astora’s Straight Sword +0 or Black Knight Sword +0 will have a hidden weapon upgrade level of +5, a Black Knight Sword +1 will have a hidden level of +7, and so on, up to a Black Knight Sword +5 which will have a hidden level of +15.
Non-ascended catalysts all have a hidden reinforcement level of +0.
The Dark Hand aswell as ascended catalysts (like the Manus Catalyst or Darkmoon Catalyst), while not (visibly) upgradable, have a hidden reinforcement stat of +5.
The (non-ascended) Pyromancy Flame has a visible reinforcement range of +0 to +15 which also corresponds to its hidden reinforcement range. An ascended Pyromancy Flame will always have a hidden upgrade level of +15, regardless of visible upgrade level.
For shields with a visible reinforcement range of 0+ to +15, their visible reinforcement level will correspond to the hidden reinforcement level, i.e. a Buckler that is visibly +0, +1, +2, etc. will also have a hidden reinforcement level of +0, +1, +2, etc. On the other hand, shields that only have a visible reinforcement range from +0 to +5 (like the Cleansing Greatshield or Greatshield of Artorias) will start at a hidden reinforcement level of +0 and then increase in steps of +3 for each visible reinforcement level upgrade, up until they have a hidden reinforcement level of +15 when they are visibly at +5. For example, a Greatshield of Artorias +0 will have a hidden reinforcement level of +0, a Greatshield of Artorias +1 will have a hidden reinforcement level of +3, one that’s visibly at +2 will have a hidden reinforcement level of +6 and so on.
Armors, while upgradable, can be traded without upgrade level restrictions. Similarly, consumables, rings and all other items aren't dependent on (nor do they affect) the hidden reinforcement level of your character.
So how does this affect trading, what do I need to look out for?
If you meet with another player and drop them a weapon of a certain reinforcement level, then the weapon will only be visible to that player if the reinforcement level of his character is at least of the same level or higher than the one dropped. I.e. if one player drops a +7 Claymore (which is a standard weapon, so it goes up to +15), then the other player needs to have had a weapon with a (hidden) reinforcement level of at least +7 on his character. This restriction cannot be circumvented with passwords.
If you are going to trade weapons where the visible and hidden reinforcement level do not correspond (i.e. Fire/Magic/…-ascended standard weapons, boss, dragon or special weapons), then you always have to account for their hidden reinforcement level when comparing it to a character's reinforcement level to see if it's tradable, not their visible one.
And that’s it. Now while this entire list might have been a tedious read, there’s no need to memorize it all at once. If you have a maxed out weapon or shield, then you can pick up all weapons and shields anyway, regardless of their reinforcement level – and if your character has a hidden reinforcement stat of +0, then you can mostly only pick up the +0 variant of any weapon or armor (with some exceptions, namely of items that start at a higher hidden reinforcement stat of +0!). The only time it can become complicated is if you are somewhere inbetween – in that case, you can check if a trade will work out by first checking in the above list what hidden reinforcement level your highest upgraded weapon or shield (and therefore your character) has, and then looking through the above list again to figure out the hidden reinforcement level of the item you intend to pick up. If your character’s maximum reinforcement stat is equal or higher than the hidden reinforcement stat of the item you want to pick up from someone else, it will work out.
While this guide arrives a little later than it probably should have (I intended to get it out weeks after release, now see how that turned out), I still hope it clears up some confusion, saves some people from a bit of unnecessary frustration and can serve as an easy way to check if a trade will work out. While I checked multiple sources for verification of most things, this is the main source this guide is based upon, credits to /u/JonathanECG for his testing over on /r/darksouls and for providing this information to the community. This is also the source that the above remark refers to as you can find a bit of discussion there about how it affects the invasions/co-op side of things.
If you notice anything that doesn’t seem right or notice any mistake, please let us know. Furthermore, if you have any further questions, feel free to ask them.
The Nintendo Switch version of DS:R is coming!
We’ll use this opportunity to let you know that we’ll soon update /r/snuggly for the Nintendo Switch version of the game which is scheduled to release in the second half of October. We haven’t gotten around to it yet but it will happen in the next weeks. Our automod will currently still remove any threads related to the Switch version as we haven’t set up the platform tag yet; if you want to post a trading request for the Switch version over the next days and the auto mod removes it, message us moderators and we’ll manually approve it – we don't want to discourage anyone from some pre-release trading requests or posts about the Switch version.
Some reminders for safe trades
Finally, here are some other noteworthy things to keep in mind when trading. They aren't anything newsworthy to people who have been around for a while, but are an encouraged read for newcomers, and we figured it won't do harm to reiterate them once in a while.
Here is a list of which items can and cannot be traded in the game.
If you are not sure how our +karma system works, here is how.
Here is some information about the online play in Dark Souls and Dark Souls: Remastered in general, aswell as the summoning ranges (without using a password). Note that using the same password will circumvent the summoning restrictions, but it has no effect on what weapons can and cannot be traded.
Also, unlike in the original game, the red sign soapstone will be visible to hosts who already have the boss of the respective area defeated! So no need anymore to deliberately leave some bosses alive to trade or duel with other people.
While it’s rare, there are sometimes people who try to scam or troll people on our subreddits and won’t stick to the trading conditions they agree to. It doesn’t hurt to check someone’s post history before you agree to a trade. Someone’s +karma is also a good indication on how trustworthy they are – the more +karma they have, the less you generally have to be afraid of, whereas people with no +karma, you generally should be a bit more careful, especially if they offer a suspicious amount of items or an enormously generous mule job. Everyone starts at +0 karma and we don't want to discourage anyone from embracing newcomers into the community, but it is generally a good idea to use your own judgement on how trustworthy another Reddit account looks before agreeing to anything. As long as you haven't agreed to a trade, you aren't obligated to going through with it.
We generally offer everyone a lot of freedom on how to conduct their trades, but we do ask you that once you agree to an exchange, you stick to it. If you do think that someone has scammed you or doesn’t want to hold up their end of the bargain, message the moderators. We also advise to keep as much of the trading agreements in the threads on /r/snuggly to make it easier for us mods to resolve a trading conflict. Here is some more information on how we handle these situations.
On a similar note, please don't post any witch hunting/defamatory threads on /r/snuggly openly accusing someone's Reddit account or Xbox/Steam/PSN ID of malicious trading practices. We know that most of you who post these threads mean it well and sincerely want to warn others, but the problem is that these kind of posts can also be easily abused. If we allowed this then anyone could start a witch hunt against someone they don't like and post accusations against them, no matter if they are true or false. We don't want /r/snuggly become an amplifier for unverified and potentially false and harmful accusations. We have had at least one case like this where an accusation thread got 20-30 upvotes but we later found out that the accusations that person made in the thread we completely unsubstantiated and fabricated to defame another trader.
We highly advise to make regular, manual backups of your save file. It can not only protect you from scammers, but also from losing your items due to a misunderstanding with someone or due to an internet or electricity outage or connection error in the middle of a trade, something that always has a chance of happening, even if both parties of a trade have sincere intentions. (And it protects you from save file corruption and from hackers invading you and messing up your save file or progression…)
Your +karma is synchronized across /r/pumparum, /r/wheelanddeal, /r/snuggly and /r/shinju so you don’t have to build up that number on each sub individually. If you have built up a reputation on /r/pumparum through trading, then we want that to speak for your trustworthyness on /r/snuggly aswell and vice versa!
If you have feedback or suggestions on how to improve the subs or any other reason to step in contact with us, feel free to do that. At the end of the day, we mods are just Average Joe’s like all of you who share your compassion for the Dark Souls series and who want these subreddits to be a dedicated, nice place to make item trades with some basic supervision to protect against scammers/trolls but enough freedom to conduct the trades in whichever way you like.
Happy trading, crows!
/u/ulOrca and /u/rafajafar