While the actual choice of covenant may not affect gameplay much – aside from a few automatic invasions or a different phantom color, it’s the rewards that really set them apart! Rewards are gained twice, based on your rank – one at rank 1 for offering 10 of the covenant -specific item, and another at rank 2 after offering 30. But what are the rewards? And which ones are best? In this list, I’ll be taking a look at them all – the good, the bad, and the must-have!
13. Great Lightning Spear
Warriors of Sunlight, Rank 2 I cannot find nearly enough people complaining about this miracle online. Outside of needing it for the DS3 platinum trophy, I have never sought this miracle out, as it needs a whopping 30 medals to acquire and is just a strictly worse version of sunlight spear! Sure, you need to beat the final boss for sunlight spear, but 30 medals is even more of a grind in my eyes, so it takes our bottom slot.
12. Great Deep Soul
Aldrich Faithful, Rank 1 Great deep soul is a dark sorcery that fires a high-damage slow-moving projectile after your target! It’s sad to see this one so low on this list, but since the ringed city DLC added the strictly-better ‘great soul dregs’ sorcery, there’s just no need for this spell anymore. To make matters worse, great soul dregs is just… found. As opposed to having to grind the human dregs for this worse version. While not as offensive as great lightning spear, it still sits near the bottom of the barrel.
11. Wolf Knight’s Greatshield
Watchdogs of Farron, Rank 2 In a similar vein of redundancy, the wolf’s greatshield is quite underwhelming for requiring a huge 30 swordgrass… It may have 100% physical block, but falls short with its jack-of-all-trades elemental defences, making it not particularly outstanding at any specific job. To make matters worse, it has less stability than a decent chunk of the other greatshields! However, it’s good fashion, and has a niche little passive of granting the wielder bonus status resist, so it’s not quite the worst.
10. Darkmoon Ring
Blades of the Darkmoon, Rank 1 The darkmoon ring is a rarely-used piece of gear that adds 2 additional attunement slots to your build. It’s not totally useless, but thanks to the ashen estus system in DS3, you’ll likely only need a handful of spells in the first place! I get great use out of it personally, because I forgot to level attunement when I respecc’d my character… However for most, it’s but a steppingstone on the way to the much sought-after ‘darkmoon blade’ miracle.
9. Bloodlust
Mound-Makers, Rank 1 Bloodlust is an awesome katana that boasts some of the highest bleed damage in the entire game – especially when paired with its unique skill. So why is it number 9? Well when you use the skill you… stab yourself in the gut. This does big damage and can even proc bleed on yourself. And while in exchange you may get +200% bleed damage and 30% weapon AR, the AR buff still makes this weapon weaker than most katanas thanks to its low base attack. It’s fantastic against bleed-weak foes and sees very niche use in PvP, but outside of that you’re best off using something else.
8. Warmth
Mound-Makers, Rank 2 Let’s be honest for a second – mound-makers rewards just aren’t very good. Warmth is a pyromancy awarded after offering 30 vertebra shackles, and creates a gentle floating flame that heals HP in an area. It’s the only healing pyromancy, so surely must be useful, right? Well it heals enemies, too. So no. The heal is pretty slow too, so won’t save you in most scenarios, and the healing amount does not scale with your stats. Plus, if you’re building a pyro you have faith! Just use a miracle if you’re that desperate!
7. Wolf Ring
Watchdogs of Farron, Rank 2 The wolf ring grants poise – which is a point of much conjecture amongst DS3 fans. Unlike in the original Dark Souls instalment, poise in this game only works whilst you’re attacking, meaning you can’t simply shrug off blows whilst running around the world. And while that may not seem as immediately useful as it used to be, it’s still very important in combat, as it’s what dictates whether you can trade hits with an opponent, or be stunned out of your swing. But much like the earlier spell entries, this ring is outclassed by the +3 version, which can be found in the ringed city, granting over double the effect – though this is much later-game.
6. Obscuring Ring
Rosaria’s Fingers, Rank 1 If you’ve read our ‘top rings to try’ list, you’ll know that this one is great for messing with people during invasions. The obscuring ring makes you completely invisible to enemy players when over 10 meters away! This is perfect for hiding when being ganked, or for sniping foes from miles away, and can lead to some really fun moments! There are entire builds dedicated to long-range one-shots, and I strongly recommend you try some out for yourself!
5. Archdeacon’s Great Staff
Aldrich Faithful, Rank 2 Archdeacon’s great staff is extremely similar to the golden ritual spear, except this is a pure catalyst, not a spear hybrid. This staffs makes sorceries you cast scale entirely with faith! It hits a really good spell buff, too. And while you may still need to invest in the intelligence needed to use the sorceries, most of them have a surprisingly low requirement! It’s a great tool to mess around with, and you’d be surprised how good it can be. It opens the doors to a whole host of new hybrids.
4. Man-Grub’s Staff
Rosaria’s Fingers, Rank 2 Sticking to the catalysts, the man-grub’s staff is another interesting one – causing sorceries to scale with luck. This staff has a great spellbuff, and also only requires minimal intelligence investment for most sorceries. This is actually one of my favourite staves in the game, purely because it makes luck builds just that little bit more diverse. It’s likely most players haven’t even considered them an option, but trust me, they’re really fun!
3. Old Wolf Curved Sword
Watchdogs of Farron, Rank 1 I hate this sword. It destroys me in PvP. The old wolf curved sword is a really cool weapon though – on top of its B scaling in dex and awesome combo-capable weapon skill, it has the built-in effect of both Pontiff eye rings! Namely, continuous attacking heals you and buffs your damage by 10%! What’s even cooler is you don’t need to be using the weapon, just having it on your back procs the effects! You don’t even need the stat requirements. I’d have this on my back for quite a few boss fights during my challenge runs – you’d be surprised how effective the passives are!
2. Sacred Oath
Warriors of Sunlight, Rank 1 The fact that you get this miracle before great lightning spear is a sick, sick joke. Sacred oath requires only 10 sunlight medals and is one of the best miracles in the game. It boosts all sources of damage for both you and surrounding allies by 10%, and reduces damage taken by 10%, too! It’s a must-have for melee-focused faith builds, just be aware that the effect is cut in half during PvP, so it’s not as useful there.
1. Darkmoon Blade
Blades of the Darkmoon, Rank 2 And here it is, the best reward. Now before you say ‘darkmoon blade is identical to lightning blade and so much harder to get!’ I’m going to have to stop you. It makes my things sparkle. It’s all about fashion, and darkmoon blade is easily the best-looking weapon buff, hands down. (It’s also a fantastic damage-increasing buff I guess) Getting it is a pain, though. Blades of the Darkmoon has an issue where it rarely summons players, so for the most part you’ll be grinding the extremely low drop chance from silver knights in Anor Londo. Did I do it? Yes. Did it take hours? Also yes. Was it worth it? Yes.
