Board Thread:Dark Souls II/@comment-1687225-20140403042400

There's so much confusion and speculation regarding the Brotherhood of Blood that I'm just going to attempt to put all accurate information and constructive discussion here. This post aims to establish what rumors floating around the internet and what are false. As I am still relatively new to the game myself, I am asking all of you to contribute to whatever knowledge is available here.

Naturally, more speculation doesn't help anyone, so I am requesting that people posting information here have either A REPUTABLE SOURCE and link us to it, or to have confirmed to test and prove theories themselves (ideally with a video or pictures for proof).

Here are my questions and the theories I've heard so far. I'll cross them out if they are answered/proven/disproven.

1. What kills add towards the kill tally, which in turn leads to increased covenant rank? Is it just tournaments at the statues, cracked red eye orb invasions, red sign soapstones, or a combination of the three? I have personally killed 48 people using the red sign soapstone and 2 people using cracked red eye orb invasions, yet I cannot rank up.

2. I've heard that being defeated while being a red phantom decreases your kill count by one. So for example, you kill 100 people using whatever method ranks you up in the covenant, but you also are defeated 50 times; therefore your count is 50. Is this true?

3. Is it required to wear the Blood Seal Ring to have kills count?

4. I've seen people claim that you are supposed to lose a token of spite for each duel you lose in the arena, and that the current situation of not losing anything upon the loss of a duel is false. Is there any credence to this claim?

Remember, post ONLY INFORMATION FROM REPUTABLE SOURCES OR FROM PERSONALLY CONFIRMED TESTING. 