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The Duskbloods Network Test Failed. So I Read the Official Manual
The initial The Duskbloods Network Test was supposed to give players their first real opportunity to experience FromSoftware’s mysterious multiplayer game. Unfortunately, the first scheduled session was shut down because of game-server issues. That was obviously disappointing for anyone who was ready to jump in, but it did give me a reason to do something I probably wouldn’t have otherwise done: sit down and actually read through the official The Duskbloods Network Test manual.
And I’m glad I did. Going into the test, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what The Duskbloods was. It’s an eight-player multiplayer action game from FromSoftware, and the basic premise seemed straightforward enough: enter a match, fight the other Bloodsworn, and try to be the last one standing. After digging through the official information, though, that description feels incredibly incomplete. There is considerably more going on here than I initially realized.
More than an Eight-Player Deathmatch
The biggest thing I didn’t realize is that a Dusk Battle is broken into four phases. You’re not just dropped into a map with seven other people and told to kill everybody. You’re actually building toward something. You get to explore and fight enemies while getting stronger and collecting things that will help position you for the win. It reminds me of ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN in some ways, but only on a foundational level.
In The Duskbloods, you’re trying to build up something called Virtue, and that actually matters because, as the match goes on, players with low Virtue can be eliminated through something called the culling. So you could technically survive the combat and still lose because you didn’t do enough during the match. I really like that idea because it won’t simply be about whether you can beat other players or not. It’s more focused on whether you’re playing the match correctly and strategically enough, and that appeals to me quite a bit.
Multiple Ways to Build Virtue
I started looking at how you actually get Virtue, and there’s not just one way. You can earn it by defeating other Bloodsworn at ritual sites, claiming blood pledge pillars, killing powerful enemies, collecting items and completing other objectives. Then there’s something called Flame Virtue, which apparently involves lighting flames in the skulls of corpses sitting in chairs. I don’t even know what to say about that one, but that’s the kind of thing where I started thinking, okay… this is cool.
You’re not necessarily going into every match with the same plan. You might be looking for players, hunting monsters, going after an objective, or just trying to get enough Virtue to survive the next phase. That’s something I can’t wait to see for myself, because reading about it is one thing. Seeing actual players make those decisions in real time is going to be completely different.
Working With Other Players
When I got to the alliance system, this was probably one of the things that surprised me the most. You can actually team up with other players. You can form an alliance, and while you’re allied, you can’t damage each other and certain Virtue is shared. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re friends for the entire match because you can eventually break that pact. So you could potentially spend part of a match working with somebody and then eventually decide that you don’t need them anymore.
I really want to see how players actually use that. Because on paper, that’s one thing. In an actual match, you’ll have people making decisions about who they trust, who they want to fight and who they might need to work with. That’s where I think this could get really crazy.
The PvE Side Is Important
It’s not even just about PvP. There are these powerful enemies called Trespassers, and players can actually join together to fight them. So you could be competing against somebody one minute, a greater baddie shows up, and suddenly you’re fighting alongside each other because dealing with that threat is more important. Then the fight’s over and you’re back to being competitors again. I don’t know how this is actually going to play out, but I really want to see it for myself.
Then there are Kin, which are basically companions that can fight alongside you. Apparently some enemies can even become spellbound after you stagger them and drink their blood, allowing them to fight with you. So now you’ve got eight players, companions, enemies, huge PvE encounters and all these different objectives potentially coming together in the same match. I honestly have no idea how chaotic this is going to be, but it sounds pretty epic.
The Combat Is Interesting
The combat itself is also a lot more mobile than I initially expected. You’ve got sprinting, climbing, dodging, ranged weapons and even up to three air jumps. There’s the stagger system I mentioned, where you can drink an enemy’s blood to damage them and restore your health, and apparently you can even Howl to interrupt certain attacks and deflect some ranged attacks.
There are also Sigils, which give players their own objectives involving other players, and that’s really where I stopped trying to figure out exactly how all of this is going to work. I still haven’t played the game, and I don’t want to pretend that reading the manual is the same thing as actually experiencing the game because it’s definitely not.
What I Want To Figure Out
That’s why I was so disappointed when the Network Test went down today. Because now I actually have questions. How does Virtue feel in a real match? How useful are the Kin really going to be? Will people actually cooperate? How quickly will alliances fall apart? How chaotic are the Trespasser battles? How does all of this come together when eight actual players are making completely different decisions?
I don’t know yet. But hopefully I will sometime soon. FromSoftware has said that the first session was closed because of game-server issues and that it is continuing to work on the servers, with information about future test scheduling to be announced later. The Network Test is also a pre-release technical test rather than a demo, so some of what we’re seeing now may change before the full game releases.
For now, we’re left with what FromSoftware has officially told us and a lot of questions about what it will actually be like to play.
What’s Next for Gotta Get Geek
I’m going to keep following The Duskbloods as more information becomes available. Over the next few days, I’ll be building out dedicated coverage on Gotta Get Geek for systems like Dusk Battles, Virtue, Kin, Sigils, combat and other mechanics that we can actually confirm through official information and, eventually, hands-on testing.
Once the Network Test is back up and we’re able to actually experience these systems, that’s when things get even more interesting. We’ll be able to compare what FromSoftware tells us with what actually happens in the game, and that’s what I’m really looking forward to.
I wanted to play The Duskbloods today. I didn’t get the chance. But after reading through the official manual, I’m actually more interested in the game than I was this morning. There’s clearly a lot more to The Duskbloods than I initially realized, and hopefully, when the network issues are sorted out, I’ll finally be able to stop talking about what this game might be… and start talking about what it actually is.
— Alor
Gotta Get Geek
