Covenant sequence

Hiyo! Suppose I were interested in getting all the material benefits of the various covenants (chaos pyromancies, sword dances etc.) before settling into my favorite one, in what sequence should I join them?

To elaborate, when I first started playing Dark Souls, I sided with Frampt on my first playthrough. Then, on NG+, I wanted to join the Darkwraiths, except I just couldn't get past the Four Kings. Now I've made a new character and I want to get it "right" this time around by, among other things, meeting Kaathe on NG.

But there's other issues, of course. The Darkwraith and Chaos Servant covenants require a sum of 60 humanities and those might take a bit of time to accumulate. Scraping those 30 dragon scales together could be even more difficult, whereas killing three people as a Forest Hunter ought to be somewhat easier. As a Warrior of Sunlight, I believe co-op opportunities decrease as soul level increases so perhaps I should join that one early to get ten medals. Or would it be a better choice to wait until NG+ so I can offer up Gwyn's soul?

And so on.

Are you looking for a specific end result character or are you just trying to "do it all?" If it's the latter, you can do what I did fairly easily. The covenants that require a good chunk of items (Chaos, Darkwraith, Sunbro, Darkmoon, Gravelord) I waited. Since I was also going for Knights Honor I knew my character would have to beat the game twice, and reach at least as far as Anor Londo to access the Giant Blacksmith in my third run through. Levels weren't a consideration for me. I leveled up anytime I had enough souls.

Anyway, with a couple playthroughs you'll have a good amount of items accumulating. Since I didn't invade etc. humanity ended up stacking well. There's a few sunlight medals and eyes of death to be had each run through which added up. Killing Lautrec three times got me three souvenirs and the rest were easy to farm in the painted world. I was a Forest Hunter for most of the time but honestly I didn't ever invade as a Darkmoon, I haven't gravelorded anyone, I've never co-oped as a sunbro (plenty as a non sunny guy). Anyway, since I knew I was in it for the long haul with that character it wasn't too difficult to level in all the covenants.

if you have an idea for which covenant you want to be apart of, then i would leave that one till the very last. some you can do at any time, others i like to do in a specific order.

i like to join the Grave Bros and the Dragon Bros first so i can get the dragon head stone and the gravelord greatsword. you can rejoin them later once you have enough eyes of death and scales for the rest of the goodies. if i plan on being a full-time Dragon Bro or Grave Bro, i won't donate a single scale or eye to the cov until i have gotten everything i want from all the other covs first.

the Sun Bros are good to join before beating the gargoyles or if you are running around clearing out areas using the master key. i only stick with them long enough to get 10 medals and the two lightning spear miracles. you can rejoin in NG+ for the sunlight spear and it will only cost you 5 more medals which you should have by that time anyway.

then i join the Forest Bros and stick around Darkroot until i get the fog ring then i run to the Depths and farm 30 humanity from the rats (as well as eyes from the basilisks if i feel like it) before meeting up with Shiva in the swamp for some one stop shopping.

after dealing with Shiva and getting the DWGR i kill Quelaag and join the Chaos Bros, consume and donate the 30 humanity i farmed earlier to get chaos firestorm and chaos fireball.

since i don't get anything more from the Chaos Bros (i don't care about the short cut), i sometimes rejoin the Dragon Bros (since i'm close to them already) at this time and just leave a trail of dragon eye stone remnants behind me where ever i go from then on. dueling for scales as you explore is more tolerable than farming the drakes.

before i take on the kings (sometimes i already have the lord vessel at this point and sometimes i don't, it doesn't actually matter), i farm for more humanity so i can get myself the dark armor and sword. once i have that i can leave and rejoin the covenant as much as i like because you don't need to give the covenant anything once you the covs goodies in hand.

the Darkmoon Bros are always the last covenant i join, this is best especially if you want to be a full-time Darkmoon Bro. after joining, i head into the Painted world and do a combination of harpy farming and invading to get my souvenirs. if i don't want to be a Darkmoon Bro, i won't actually join this cov at all.