Dark Souls is filled with quirky characters and you never know where their quest will take you and what future interactions will you be presented with. There are times when these quests can make a u-turn and totally surprise you while others are somewhat orthodox, though mind you orthodox in From Software case is very different than how the rest of the industry goes about creating their quest patterns.
One thing that is very unique to Dark Souls NPC interactions is that you can kill almost all of them and and they will in turn give a unique reward or a special dialogue to piece together the lore. The most diehard of fans end up going for a murder-only run where they kill any character on sight to get a different perspective of the world all the while playing a tyrannical role.
In Dark Souls 2 you can kill Pate or the Patches of this entry as theorized by many. He gives an important multiplayer item, White Sign Soapstone, if you follow his quest but that can be acquired by other means. Though killing him will render you to forego the intersecting quests of Pate and Creighton the Wanderer.
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Pate in Dark Souls 2
Patches is a recurring character in SoulsBorne games and is a treacherous thread that weaves all these worlds together one can say. He is a weird character but his back-stabbing traps are the ones that are the best known in the community and he always plays an innocent card as soon as you fight your way back to him after the betrayal. Patches make this dreary world a fun place to be if you are willing to take out the knife in your back and forgive him.
There is no official Patches character in Dark Souls 2, maybe that is why people rate this game as the lowest SoulsBorne. But we can say that Pate is the same deceitful archetype as Patches and thus maybe his relative. And with this betrayal at his core people end up killing him the most only to realize they might have missed out on some important item.
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Pate’s Quest In Dark Souls 2
Pate’s questline has you following these steps given below with the location:
- Forest of Fallen Giants. Pate can be found sitting next to a gate that locks when passing through it. He will mention to you that he was with another traveler previously who became locked in a similar contraption. He will warn you of the danger and will continue to tell you that he still has the ring from the unfortunate traveler who became trapped. After escaping from the trap or coming back after dying, talk to Pate again. When you exhaust his dialogue, he will give you the White Sign Soapstone. Pate can be summoned as a White Phantom for The Last Giant boss fight.
- Earthen Peak. From the second bonfire, proceed upstairs and then up the ladder. Head right towards the room with the fan blade and Desert Sorceresses on the other side, then drop down, and look for a room off that hallway with lots of vases. He will be leaning on the wall in this room below the stairs. You need to talk to him again after you found the treasure (jumping passage along the way) for him to move on.
- Brightstone Cove Tseldora. Right before the Chapel Threshold bonfire to your left, there is a cliffside you can descend off of to land in front of a house below. You will find Pate and Creighton the Wanderer fighting inside.
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Killing Pate
If you happen to kill Pate then after reloading the area at the bonfire or in some cases waiting for some time and visiting the first area you met him you will encounter his gravestone. If you have 2000 Souls you can pray at this site and his ghost will appear and will have the same dialogue as when he was alive. If you exhaust dialogue in this state he will reward you with White Sign Soapstone. So the only thing you will miss out is his quest with Creighton the Wanderer.
The White Sign Soapstone is used to place a White Summon Sign onto the ground, which other players can interact with to gain assistance in their world.
Though this potential Patches is different in his demeanor he will trick you at the end of his quest when you are going for the reward, we will keep the exact details a surprise for you. You can always follow along with his quest in one of many playthroughs of the game but it’s a nice detail that From Software has planned for angry players killing anything in sight.