The concept of Stealth is to stay hidden from the enemy when utilising the effects of the Thief's Ring, Graverobber's Ring or the spells Cloak and Hidden Soul. The Graverobber's Ring and the Hidden Soul spell only affects Black Phantoms, while the Thief's Ring and the Cloak spell affects all enemies. Wearing a ring in combination with the corresponding spell will not double the effect, rather the spell will override the ring's effect while the spell is active.
For PvE purposes this is the only parameters the player need to know, for PvP on the other hand, a whole list of other features comes into play.
Some rough percentages for the visible distance reduced (Measured from PvE)
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Player versus Player
A lot of variables comes into play that will break the Stealth Mode, be it playing in Soul vs Body form, wearing different Rings, Weapons or using Spells in combination with the Rings and Spells that hides the player. The player will still be hidden, but some gear will give an aura effect that can still be seen by opposing players. Most items that create a symbol under the Endurance bar, excluding the fog symbol that represents stealth, will also create an aura.
Most invading PvP players will use the Thief's Ring, and cast Cloak when close to the target, usually with the intention of inflicting a critical backstab. For Hosts and Blue Phantoms, this can be countered with utilising the Graverobber's Ring and the Hidden Soul miracle, which will give marginally better stealth against invading Black Phantoms than they are able to produce. Cloak and Hidden Soul will also shorten the lock-on range, which in turn makes it hard to fight against with some weapon classes.
List of gear that will break Stealth Mode
Reference images of auras generated by equipment can be found here
Rings
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Weapons
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Shields
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Gear
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Spells
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Buffs
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Other
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Inflictable Ailments that will break Stealth until cured
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Attacks not affected by Stealth
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Things that show up on HUD, but won't cause an aura
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Player versus Environment
For PvE play, no Aura or Buff will break the Stealth Mode.
The Rings and Spells are used to sneak up on enemies, divide and conquer, or bypassing them altogether. If the player want to lure out enemies without alerting nearby Black Phantoms, wearing the Graverobber's Ring will do this. The Graverobber's Ring is also a tiny bit more potent than the Thief's Ring, so both can be used in certain situations. The Thief's Ring and Cloak works on all enemies.
Enemies not affected by stealth
- Red Dragon (only affected on bridge 1-1)
- Blue Dragon (unverified)
- Dragon God (unverified) - I have seen no difference in his behavior with or without the Thief's Ring equipped. Have not tried Cloak.
- Storm King, but it will help against the smaller Storm Beasts.
Large weapons effect
This might be a bug, but it works none the less.
- Stealth effect even better than having the Thief's Ring equipped is achieved when two-handing a big weapon and approaching the enemy from the rear. It's possible to run up to, and backstab, any enemy when approaching them from their rear. For instance, it's possible to sprint up behind the Blue Eye Knight, if you backtrack from the Tower Knight Archstone, and backstab. (Mind Flyer beware!)
- The criteria being that the equip burden must be below 50%, and the weapon has to remain on your shoulder while sprinting.
- If you try the same with one-handing the weapon, or two-handing with an equip burden above 50%, you will be noticed as usual.
Notes and Findings
- It appears to be no difference in radius from different World Tendency, Character Tendency, Soul Form, Body Form or Equipment (light/heavy).
- The radius however are different from one enemy type to another, some will also notice you at a certain distance but will not engage until you get closer.
- Archers and other enemies with ranged attacks will spot you from a further distance than their melee equivalents.
- Some Scale Miners will also spot you at the same distance, with or without the Thief's Ring equipped, but once spotted the Ring will hide you if you run away.
