The Forest does have level restrictions, right?

The forest is often described as being without level restriction, but I'm increasingly confident this is a common misconception. If anyone has carefully tested this before and can agree or disagree with me, it'd be highly appreciated.

I believe the Cat Covenant ring likely has the exact same level parameters as the Red Sign Soapstone, and a bit of testing so far agrees with this. This means Forest Invaders can invade far above their level, but not far below.

The wikispaces wiki has contradictory or unclear information on how the ring works -

The Cat Covenant Ring ignores the normal level range for invasions. As a result, a level 20 player may invade the world of a level 50 player ( not vice versa). (At level 52 I have consistently been invaded by my friend in this covenant at level 68.)

If we break that down, the first sentence makes it sound like there might not be a level restriction. However, the second sentence clarifies that there is indeed a lower-level limit (with the "not vice versa" part), not allowing a player to invade far below themselves. Then in the third sentence, the specific example agrees with the formula I believe applies to the ring:

-The lower level limit is the bottom end of co-op range, which is Your SL, - (10 + 10% of Your SL).
-There is no upper limit.
-This means a level 100 player using the Cat Covenant ring can only invade players between the levels of 80 - 713, not 1 - 713.

Other invasion/ co-op items seem to work as normal in the forest as well. So if this formula holds up to further testing, this means that the idea that the forest is without level restrictions is completely wrong and the ring finds players just like the Red Sign Soapstone.

Thoughts?

I dunno.

I always assumed the misconception was the rule, I guess not.

Good work with the tests, though.

Here's my data so far -

A level 144 character has killed hosts with the following souls / levels:

9040 - 120
9385 - 122
9737 - 124
9918 - 125
12243 - 137
15368 - 151
16597 - 156
17625 - 160
19244 - 166
20375 - 170
35369 - 213
38340 - 220
56222 - 256
100983 - 321
165747 - 387
193520 - 410

A level 70 character has killed hosts with the following souls / levels:
(started keeping track of repeats with x's)

1627 - 53
1688 - 54
1749 - 55
1812 - 56
1877 - 57
1942 - 58 xx
2077 - 60
2218 - 62 xx
2290 - 63 xx
2364 - 64
2439 - 65 x
2672 - 68
2753 - 69 x
2835 - 70 x
3003 - 72
3090 - 73 x
3451 - 77
3737 - 80 x
3836 - 81
4247 - 85 xx
4462 - 87
4912 - 91
5029 - 92
5268 - 94
5895 - 99
6026 - 100 x
9040 - 120 x
9738 - 124
29891 - 199
874019 - 709

If there is no level restriction I should be able to invade below co-op range at some point, but I'm currently around ~75 kills with none below co-op range, and the lowest levels being co-op range exactly.

hmmm. Based on the souls Ive gotten on my SL 55 I would think it has no restrictions. You also have to consider it will seek out the people closest to your level first too. It probably needs more testing.

DoughGuy wrote:hmmm. Based on the souls Ive gotten on my SL 55 I would think it has no restrictions. You also have to consider it will seek out the people closest to your level first too. It probably needs more testing.

I will continue testing, but I'm over 50 kills with none below co-op range. The lowest level for both also happens to be what I get when I calculate co-op range (just managed to hit 53 with my level 70), which would be a pretty bizarre coincidence if the formula is incorrect and that isn't the lower limit.

What kind of souls were you getting with SL 55? If my suggested formula holds up, the lowest number of souls obtained from a host for you should be 906 or 950. Anything lower would disagree with what I think is the limitation. As the lowest level should be 39 or 40 (I'm pretty sure the 5.5 from the 10% rounds up to 6, but I'm not 100% positive).

It would also be within the boundaries of my formula if a white phantom (when you're a level 55 invader) drops as few as ~427 souls, since I believe the lowest your invaded player can summon is around level ~26.

Actually I got confused, my SL 55 hosts, not invading. So the souls have actually been correct. You might be right with this.

Yeah, I can see how from the host's perspective it could look like there's no level restriction.

If you're hosting and you ask the question "what levels will my invaders be?", under the right conditions you can be invaded by a player of any level. But that's only because of how the different invasion types work and manage to span the entire level spectrum when combined. But that's true for any area of the game and not just the forest.

Add in Darkmoon players that some hosts might confuse for Forest Hunters, lots of traffic and diversity, and it's easy to see how people might mistakingly think the forest is without level restrictions.

The forest has level restrictions of some kind, I don't entirely know what they are but it has something. As a level 120 I constantly come across 2000 vitality characters without mask of the mother using Black knight great axes and ninja flipping but they also use sorcery.
Based of my experience as a forest hunter it is also the co-op range. I have however had level 60's invade these characters so there may well be no upper level limit but there is a lower level limit.