What do you lose if you decide to play offline-only?

I'm wondering what in-game experience you may lose if you decide to play offline-only in Dark Souls 2. Of course you can't invade or be invaded or request for help but I'm more concerned about the story / NPC / secrets. Do you lose something by playing offline?

Solution 1:

I haven't discovered every last secret in the game, so I can't claim to be authoritative, but based on what I've experienced in this game so far and from my experience with prior games in the series:

• You can't participate in any kind of co-op or PvP, obviously.
• You can't read or write messages.
• You can't meaningfully participate in (or earn rewards from) any convenants that require PvP or co-op interaction to do so.
• Certain boss fights or protected areas that are designed to bring in other human players as opponents will probably use AI-controlled NPCs in those players' place.
• All of the story/NPC elements are almost certainly still accessible, as NPC progress is solely based on your solo exploration and interactions, which are mechanically unchanged in offline mode. This is also how it worked in both previous Souls games.
  • The sole exception to this may be any covenant NPC dialog or events that are only accessible after you've ranked up in one of the aforementioned co-op or PvP-oriented covenants.

Solution 2:

The answer above basically sums up the consequences of offline play. However, although your in-game experience will be different and you will be losing out on multiplayer related activities, playing offline should give you a much greater sense of satisfaction and instill into you a greater sense of excitement. The reason being is that the game is MUCH harder if you play offline. In Dark Souls II, the pvp is generally concentrated in certain areas and thus, you are mostly able to co-op with other people without consequence. By co-oping with other people, you are able to net experience by traversing throughout another person's area as a white phantom (there is no consequence upon death), reverse the consequences of death in your own world by helping other people as a white phantom, get help with your own area bosses, and are able to level up extremely fast by farming bosses. Generally, by playing offline, you will be able to truly appreciate the Dark Souls series for its difficulty and feelings of hopelessness, despair, and desolation. In the end, what I mean to say is that you need to limit co-oping to truly experience the greatness of the Dark Souls.