Now is a good time to return to Dark Souls 2

If you fancy going back through all Dark Souls before the series wraps up with the final DLC in March, now's a great time to return to Dark Souls 2 [official site]. Today sees the start of Return to Drangleic, an unofficial community-run event to draw players back and revitalise multiplayer. Souls just isn't the same without online invasions, summonings, ghosts, and messages bringing life to the world, so players are returning en masse to rekindle that spark. Fancy joining them?

Return to Drangleic started today and has an unofficial end date of March 11th, but obviously playercounts are likely to spike near the start. The event is focused on the Scholars of the First Sin edition but hey, plain old Dark Souls II is fine - the more players, the merrier, everywhere.

This Reddit thread explains the plan. Players are encouraged to create a new character, buy the Name Engraved Ring, and dedicate it to Kremmel, God of Struggle. This ring means Return players will be more likely to summon each other for co-op, adventuring together.

Also in the sharing spirit, it's suggested that players leave a message of "Don't give up, skeleton!" by the Majula bonfire and rate others' messages. Ratings give players a jolt of health, so it's a nice gesture.

If you'd rather murder everyone, hey, Return to Drangleic means plenty more targets are around. And isn't being murdered at inopportune moments part of the Dark Souls experience? Your victims would surely thank you if they could.

Maybe I'll take Return to Drangleic as an opportunity to fire up Twitch and my huge Dark Souls Nites jazzfunksoul playlist for more calm play and chill chat. I never did get around to hosting Dark Souls 2Nite, and I do now have a far better streaming setup.