The Darksouls community has been eagerly awaiting the release of Dark Souls: Remastered, and for good reason. One of the most integral parts of the Souls series has been covenants, invasions, and jolly cooperation. In fact, lead game director and father to all Souls games, Hidetaka Miyazaki, said he was most proud of covenants over everything the series has accomplished. Dark Souls: Remastered would breathe life into Lordran by pouring thousands of players back into its desolate walls to invade and help one another. The only problem is that From Software has changed how Co-op and PVP works for Dark Souls: Remastered, and fans are furious.

The Dark Souls Reddit community is aflame with what they consider a change to the game that has broken Co-op and PVP. User draga_braga is the man leading the charge with a number of other Redditors conducting research to discover what has changed about the system. The issue is that in addition to the normal methods of determining cooperation and invasion, From Software has added Weapon Level (WL) as a factor. The only problem is that no one is certain how this works, but after dozens of tests, many fans have a theory.

The idea is that the game now matches users for Co-op and PVP based on their Weapon Level. So if a player has an un-upgraded weapon, they won’t be invaded by someone trolling newbies with a +10 Claymore. It sounds great, but the only problem is that the system is far more complex than that.

See, if a player even picks up an item, they are now considered to be that Weapon Level, even if they never use the item. To make matters worse, special weapons, like the Black Knight Sword, start off as a Weapon Level 5, with the highest Weapon Level in the game being WL 15. That means that just picking up unique weapons – even if a player never uses them – will immediately raise their WL.

As many have pointed out, this means if a low level player happens upon Astora’s Straight Sword – an extremely powerful weapon for many builds – they may unknowingly deny themselves any help in battles just for upgrading that weapon. The WL matchmaking system is is also in addition to the requirements for Co-op and PVP which already exist within the game, making allied summoning even harder.

Traditional matchmaking within Dark Souls is based on a simple system. The math is x +/- (10 + .01x). That means that a level 50 character could be matched with someone level 35 – 65 for cooperation in zones or against bosses. If a player levels too high in a zone, they will be unlikely to receive help, as the game thinks it would be made too easy. Similarly, if a character is too low a level, they cannot receive extremely high level help.

However, once this system is coupled with Weapon Level, it makes finding allies particularly brutal. Now a player must fit into the perfect parameters of Soul Level and Weapon Level, something which could easily be thrown out of whack by investing souls into making a great weapon than in leveling up. If a player does this, they will have a very powerful weapon at a low Soul Level, meaning they most players will be too high a Soul Level to match and too low a Weapon Level.

Invasion also runs off a similar mechanic. The difference is invading has always been rather generous to the person being invaded. A level 50 invader, for example, can invade someone from levels 45 – 713. So while Weapon Level has made it harder to invade as well, the top end of invading will always include anyone stronger than the invader.

While this system certainly won’t ruin the game, fans are quick to point out how broken it can make it. Even having allies come to your aid from covenants or the like is made much harder because of Weapon Level, altering the entire feeling of Dark Souls.

For purists, who would like to avoid WL, it will mean dramatically changing how they plays. As Redditor JonathanECG points out, avoiding Weapon Level weapons means avoiding all Black Knight weapons, unique weapons like Astora’s Straight Sword, all dragon tail weapons, some covenant rewards, and even treasure chests like the lightning spear from the Mimic in Sen’s Fortress. That spear alone will bump a player all the way to WL 10, even if they never use the weapon.

While it is possible WL has less to do with matchmaking than some players think, many have lamented the fact that one of the earliest bosses, the Gargoyles, have been devoid of summon signs for help. This is because the Gargoyles are an early boss – usually the second of the game – and veteran players often already have powerful weapons compared to new players.

While none of this exactly ruins the game, it is certainly enough for many to begin getting the pitchforks and torches to go after Dark Souls: Remastered. For now, From Software has made no comment.