Alright, a friend of mine got to NG++ and just walked in the front door of the castle, talked to Wellanger, and got all 3 spells. In process of proving this now, might be done late thursday, will post the findings.

you cannot trade spells, boss souls, or major items. To check what can/can't be traded, go to the item, hit "leave selected" and whatever is lit up can be dropped, and what is grayed out cannot. Nice try though, you have to join the club in going through NG++, and some of us are having a harder time than others… I used 6 ascetics on the king's gate fire, 3 on the one before the glass knight, and 2 before each primal boss (in an effort to bypass NG++ and get the stuff ahead of time, but the merchants don't change, only drops and pickups… now Nashandra on NG++ is like being on NG 7…lol)

the souls you are referring to are souls of giants. these WILL lower the defense of a later optional boss, Vendrick, SUBSTANTIALLY. The giant souls you collect in various areas throughout the game, but not until quite later, after the ashen heart (you will know when you get it, trust me…). Also, if you trade some souls to Straid, some give good spells of various types for the souls, not just weapons. The LAST GIANT soul is the only giant soul that will not lower Vendrick's defense.

no, just collect them. warning, chaos fireball/wrath/bountiful sun need tier 3 in blood and sentinel covies (500 kills each covie). Or you can go to NG+++ (4th play through) to buy them…lol

lol, that is why I started as a mage, and became the battlemage that I am. Also, that is why almost EVERY starting class has super dodge. FS did not want players to turtle right off the bat of the game. They wanted us to learn how to do something other than block it all. Now, personally (using the tower great shield and full Havel) I do some of that seeing parrying is a joke, but I used dodge and stun lock to my advantage through the most part of the start.

Spearmen, an in halberds, somewhat, lol they get worse…but, no spoilers…haha. Best tactic is to invest in some kind of bow/magic, kill them before needing to use that shield.

could be, but a few problems with that. DS1 had 2 endings, thus it did not have a set in stone ending like DS2 does. Therefore there would have to be another item with the opposite ending. Also, the Lost Sinner boss *WARNING LORE SPOILER* "attempted to relight the first flame and possesses the remnants of the Old Which of Izalith" So, does that mean she was the player in DS1 who relit it? It just means it was never lit, thus voiding the ending from DS1.

Might be over examining it, but as a person who 100%d every souls game, and tracks the lore carefully, that is what I do...

both of those are true. there are actually 2 ways to rank the bell keepers: invade and kill host 30 times, or kill black spirits in belfries. easy way to do this is go to belfry sol in the iron keep. from the bonfire go up the ladder, kill the first 2 gray gnomes, go to the central pillars, and look left. There is a little corner by the room with the ladder going to the next level. a black phantom will randomly spawn there (he has a predator-looking mask, 2 katanas). If he is not there, just go back to the bonfire again, sit, and go back. rinse and repeat. Took me about 1-2 hours (he was not cooperating) to do. be sure to kill all gnomes each time to despawn them, just for the sake of making it easier. 10 kills, that is all you need.

My friend and I have found, different areas might have level caps of where summoning/invading can happen. I was helping him with the drag covey, and I could not place my eye where we started (giant forest). So we went down the list of bonfires, and ended up at dragleic castle (we are both in our late 100s). Everywhere past that point was accessible. I'm not sure what or how the system works now, but if it is the same as DS1, then there are "servers" or "worlds" that the game runs on, both of you might be on separate ones. Try dash boarding (on xbox, no idea what the PSN version is) and start the game at the same time, i.e. start the calibrations at the same time. Idk, that's what my team (by which I mean a group of 3 that have been co-oping all souls games since Demons) discovered. Also the fact if one is in NG+ and the other is not, but by those ranks, I doubt it, unless someone used a bonfire aesthetic.

Alright, so I let Navlaan out, semi-knowing the consequences. I knew I would get invaded, and wanted to use that to gain rank for the way of blue. What I did not know is that the spells he gives for the assassinations would be voided and unable to receive. I have been hearing if you kill him (some say while hollow, some say it doesn't matter), he will drop the spells. Can anyone confirm this, or is there another way to get those spells aside from +ing? I have killed him at every invasion point, and talked to him both hollow and human.

sadly, the crypt is not until you have gathered all 4 "major souls" (primal bosses: lost sinner, iron king, dukes dear freja, and the rotten) and gone through a large part of the game past the shrine of winter, but here is a start. Alvas is from the merchant in macula (not the smith, the guy in yellow) and her armor is unlocked after spending 16k on him.Just a FYI, the gargoyles are optional, not much past them, so it wouldn't hurt leaving and coming back (same with chariot). If you want to find summons, try the bonfire before it, usually more traffic there.