Regions and Interoperability Note: There is no region locking for online play based on the region your account or the console are in. However, the three Asian/import versions and the Atlus N.A. release of the game use different servers. So, you cannot connect for online play except with players using the same version of the game as you.
Offline Option
You can choose to play the game offline. The game uses your account PSN login. If you are not logged into the Playstation Network when you launch the game, it will ask if you want to login. Cancel the login to start the game in offline mode. If you are already logged in, you can use the XMB interface to logout by going to the Account Management menu with the Triangle button. For more information on signing in or out, please see the PS3 online manual.
The information on this page assumes you are playing online. If you choose to play offline instead, you will not be able to create or view messages. Also, you will not be able to use the blue, black, or red eye stones to interact with other players.
Messages
Demon's Souls offers a special kind of Educational multiplayer with simple communication that offers tools for players to help each other. By selecting from a stock of pre-written messages involving monsters, locations, situations, items, and various other subjects, players can leave Twitter-esque messages on the ground for other players to view. Not only that, but these messages can also be "rated" by other players, which is like a vote that the message is correct or useful. You can view the number of ratings a message has received in order to judge whether or not you should trust the advice. "Beware of false messages!" As an incentive to leave helpful messages, you will be healed if one of your messages receives a rating. Also, messages with high ratings stay present on the ground much longer than unrated (incorrect or unhelpful) messages. If you feel like you could make a useful contribution, put it down on the ground. You never know when a boost of healing may come in handy.
Messages can be composed using a template of possible comments. For example, a template may consist of a nearly complete sentence with a missing phrase: "Be wary of _ ahead." The author can then select from a large list of possible words to insert into this missing phrase in order to create hints or comments that other players can see. Authors can also write single words from the preset lists. It is not possible for players to create their own original sentences and words.
To access the message menu, press Select. You see your own messages on the ground as Green. All other messages are a dull Red.
Bridging Between Worlds
The ghostly white figures you sometimes see moving through the world are an indication of other players in parallel worlds adventuring in the same location as you. You can bridge across to these parallel worlds to join another soul, for good or ill, using different colored Eye Stones. The servers do enforce level restrictions (believed to be +/-10 levels below level 100, and the range expands above that), so a host cannot summon co-op helpers or be invaded by enemy players who are not close to the same level.
Using Eye Stones
Please see the Eye Stones page for complete information on using the various Eye Stones for multiplayer modes.
Co-op
In Demon's Souls, a host player can team up with two (sometimes three*) other players online to form a group of adventurers for a single level! The host, who must be alive (in physical body form), will see a bright Blue Soul Sign (a message marker left by another player in soul form, using "Blue Eye Stone"). The host can view how many times that player was online, and that player's ranking. The host can then choose to summon that player, who will arrive in soul form as a "Blue Phantom."
*Sometimes, the server issues a "Summon Failed" message when a host is attempting to summon a Blue Phantom. However, this message is sometimes premature, and the Blue Phantom arrives anyway. If this happens when one Blue Phantom is already in the game, and the host attempts to summon a third Blue Phantom immediately after receiving the error message on the second, two additional Blue Phantoms can arrive, for a total of three.
The host and Blue Phantoms all receive souls for their hard work, and can team up to take out bosses even faster and safer, but the host may only summon blue phantoms for co-op in levels that have not yet been rid of their Boss Demon. After beating a boss, all surviving Blue Phantoms will regain their physical bodies, and go back to their own worlds, but they will not progress in their own games (for example, you will not get a trophy for helping a host player beat the boss; you have to beat it in your own game).
As the co-op session ends, each player is permitted to rate the other player(s) on a grade system which stays with the character, so that in the future, other players can know how good (or bad) a certain player is. From best to worst, the ratings are "S", "A", "B", "C", "D", and "E."
Because the co-op system is not based on your friends list or explicit in-game matchmaking, it can be hard to coordinate co-op with specific players. If you are trying to co-op with someone specific, it can be done, but be attentive to the rules above, especially the level restrictions and the ability for the host to summon only in levels with the boss not yet defeated. It can help if the blue phantom puts their Blue Soul Sign in an uncommon place, since it can be annoying to get summoned to a random host if you were trying to meet someone specific. If you want to find someone to play with, here are some PSN IDs you can contact to try and arrange co-op.
Player vs. Player (PvP)
In addition to the Blue Eye Stone, Demon's Souls has the "Black Eye Stone" and it has a slightly different function. It allows a Soul form player to force their way into another Body form adventurer's game to hunt down and try to kill the opponent player. The adventurer who uses the Black Eye Stone becomes the "Black Phantom" and must either be defeated by the defending adventurer or kill the adventurer to gain Souls! When you are an invading Black Phantom, the enemies in the level are not hostile to you, but you can choose to attack them anyway (souls earned go to the host).
If the invading player fails to kill the host, because they somehow die by the environment of the stage (falling, rolling ball trap in 1-x, but not killed by the host or a blue phantom player) your Soul Level will decrease, deducting a level from your highest stat.
Another aspect of PVP is using the "Red Eye Stone", an item you gain once you get the "bad ending" of the game. Again in Soul form you can place a bright Red message marker on the ground which other Body form players can see. If they use it they will summon you to a duel. You can gamble on how many souls the winner of the duel will recieve.
Video of a Black Phantom stalking then taking out the target.
The Good Black Phantom
Occasionally you may encounter friendly/good Black Phantoms. They know that some players may have problems with the game so they go an extra mile to help. Enemies don't react to Black Phantom, so as a Black Phantom you basically can just kill all the enemies without worries that you will get killed. All souls dropped by enemies will be given to the host. Also, near the end, good Black Phantoms will let the hosts kill them in order to get a Whiter world tendency. Such acts of kindness are rare but there are players who have done it.
If you decide you want to help other players whether they like it or not, you'll have to overcome quite an obstacle before you can do so. Namely, that the other player is going to assume you're there to stab them repeatedly. You're going to have to prove you're not out for blood before they decide to attack you themselves.
#1:If you load in wearing a Meat Cleaver, a Tower Sheild, and oh, say, the Old Monk's wacky helmet, you're going to look far too intimidating for a helper. Since the only thing that will be attacking you is what you're trying to help, unequip your weapons and any headgear suggestive of a bloodthirsty nature. Keep a weapon to 2-hand in your secondary right hand slot, though. You'll need something to hack up all those oblivious monsters, but remember to put your weapon away when you're not fighting. Accidental backstabs can ruin relationships.
#2: First thing you're going to want to do when you load in is standard for any Black Phantom. If you can't see them in front of you, roll and run until you're sure they're not waiting behind you to backstab you. If they are nearby, try and run past them to a safer place.
#3: Kill some monsters for them. That's what you're here to do, right?
#4: Slow movements. After you've ran past them (if they happened to be at the start) don't continue to roll circles around them until after they know you're friendly. Also, stay away from their back. No one trusts a Black Phantom that's behind them. (At least they shouldn't.)
#5: Excessive bowing and other emotes. With some players, a single unarmed bow will be enough to stop them from cutting you to shreds, but others will need more assurance. Make sure you do it from a safe distance, though. Spears in the gut tend to interrupt emotes.
#6: If there's time, and if you're not immediately pounced upon by the host and his two Blue Phantom henchmen, send a quick email to the host with the title "Want help?" or something to that effect. The host might decline, or simply not trust you, but sometimes you'll get an enthusiastic response, such as "Yeah! Sure! Just don't kill me!"
Follow these tips and you should be well on your way to getting other players to trust you, you red-glowing demon-corrupted soul, you. However, there are some players who will kill you, either because they didn't understand what you're trying to do or because they've been backstabbed by a "friendly" Black Phantom right outside the boss door before. You wouldn't use these tips to betray someone, would you?
Emotes
Note that there is no voice chat in Demon's Souls. Instead you communicate in-game through messages as above, or with emotes. Of you hold the select button ('X' in North American and Chinese, 'O' for others) for a short time it will display a menu in which the emote can be selected with the d-pad or through the slightly awkward six-axis control system. When using the six-axis method of emoting, a short press of the select button ('X' or 'O') in combination with the appropriate movement is all that is needed.
With PS3 Firmware update 2.70 or later, XMB text chat is possible.
Item Drops/Trading
Trading with other players is possible in Demon's Souls. In order to set up a trade, one player needs to be in human form, and the other in soul form. Like any co-op game, the human-form player would invite the soul form player into his/her game. While in a game together, players may drop and pick up items as they like. There is no "Trade-window", so trading needs to occur under the honor system in Demon's Souls. Don't trade with someone you don't trust. Note that blue and black phantoms cannot directly interact with items/loot or NPCs, only the host player can, so unless the items are dropped by a player they won't be taken.
More information about Demon's Souls' Online
Interesting Read-up: Innovative/Interesting Online Components (Demon's Souls Case Study)
