Dark Souls 2 Seamless Co-op is the chillest way to play FromSoft's most frustrating game

I have always been one of those pro-Dark Souls 2 revisionists, but man, they really chafe your hams on this one. Iron Keep, Shrine of Amana, Dragon Shrine: Mention these levels to even the most hardened Souls veteran, and they're liable to break into a cold sweat, flashing back to waves of frustrating, overlapping enemies rushing them down to ruin their day. That's not to mention the co-op first DLC zones that mercilessly brutalize the solo player.

FromSoft is a longtime co-op innovator, but its focus has always been limited, diegetic systems meant to supplement solo play, not replace it. Enter legend modder Yui, whose Seamless Co-op series removes the speed bumps of FromSoft co-op, introducing shared story progress and a siloed system of servers and saves to protect your vanilla game progress from anticheat scrutiny.

Even though Dark Souls 2 is rapidly approaching its 13th birthday, it is the most recent game to receive the Seamless Co-op treatment. Its mechanical weirdness and lower popularity compared to other entries may help explain why it's gone last. As a longtime fan of this strange, prickly game, I'm delighted to have found a new favorite way to play it⁠—one with way less trial and error, and way more laughs.

I reunited with PCG contributor Tyler Colp and senior guides writer Sean Martin for this adventure. Together, our ka-tet burrowed its way to the maximum Depth Five difficulty of FromSoft's tied-for-most-frustrating game, Elden Ring Nightreign. By comparison, Dark Souls 2 in co-op has been a cakewalk, and I'm not complaining.

Take that Iron Keep area I mentioned: Its first zone puts you through the ringer, a gauntlet of lightning-quick samurai wannabes who swarm you on non-OSHA-compliant catwalks over a lake of lava. Your reward for getting through them? The Smelter Demon, a sphincter-faced lava golem whose most powerful trick is having a trailing, invisible hurtbox behind his every sword swing.

Even though we suffered a few deaths on the way, it never felt frustrating. Part of that is due to your progress not resetting if one player dies. Unless you're fighting a boss or a PvP invader, you just respawn back at the bonfire and can rejoin your fellows. During the two states of exception, you can spectate your still-living squadmates. If everybody dies under any circumstance, it's classic Dark Souls respawn rules.

The Alonne Poseur gauntlet (they're just nerds cosplaying my GOAT, Sir Alonne) became an easygoing war of attrition, as wars of attrition so often are. It's worthwhile to experience Dark Souls 2 "as intended" at least once, but if you've bounced off in the past or want to revisit it, I can't recommend Seamless co-op enough.

Goth WHAT?

One surprise boon has been a lively PvP scene: You can still get invaded even when undead in Seamless Co-op, and it's apparent that a stay-behind network of Dark Souls 2 PvP sickos has been activated, dusting off their Ice Rapiers and Chaos Blades for one last dance.

As in the base game, invasions make for an interesting complication to regular gameplay that I'm always happy to confront, and I really appreciate that Yui's mods make invasions more commonplace than in the vanilla experience. FromSoft typically has PvP be more opt-in, while Seamless Co-op requires you to consciously opt out of the possibility.

As a DS2 PvP old hand myself⁠—I got into a lot of duels on the Threshold Bridge back in 2014⁠—I like to insist we do things honorably and 1v1 invaders. Unless they're really annoying or break etiquette themselves; at that point, it's weapons free. I'm still not sure how I feel about the unfortunately-named invader "Goth Bitch," a naked woman who repeatedly cyberbullied us in the Harvest Valley zone. She was really good at Dark Souls 2 PvP.

There have certainly been technical hitches⁠—mostly weird latency or mismatched details between our instances of the game⁠—but Seamless Co-op mostly just works. Its smoothness and ease of use is especially impressive given that it's a free mod, and Yui was diligently, rapidly squashing bugs in the days immediately after launch. The mod will be there for you whenever you and your friends want to spin up a game, but I'd act soon if you want to take advantage of the reactivated PvP (or get harassed by a nude warrior woman in an evil swamp).

Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin remains available, as ever, on Steam, while you can grab Seamless Co-op over on the Dark Souls 2 Nexus.