Much like the Dark Souls PVP Watchdog before it, DSR Watchpup aims to arm players with more defenses against less-than-honorable players. The anti-cheat present in the remaster limits the capabilities, but it does its best. Features include:

• Rudimentary player anomaly detection
• In-game HUD for borderless and windowed mode (no fullscreen)
• Viewing current matchmaking brackets given the player's current Soul Level (SL) and max Weapon Level (WL)
• Automatically create backups on application start, whenever someone is attempting to connect to you, and when an anomaly is detected
• Viewing all connected peers' names and phantom color
• Viewing player's steam names for easily friending, blocking, or messaging players found. Click on them to find them in Steam
• Identifying the last dropped item by any player
• Gathering matchmaking data for analyzing potential new anomaly detection methods or gathering stats on the current pvp activity
  

Avast users: there have been reports that Avast causes a BSOD immediately upon running Watchpup. It has reportedly been fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling the newest Avast version

To use, simply unzip and run DSRWatchpup.exe before or while you have the game open.

Disclaimer: I minimized risk of getting hit by the cheat detection as much as feasibly possible. Myself and a few others have tested the app for almost a month and have not been penalized. While I am confident that this application is safe, there is always risk that that may change in the future. Use at your own risk and discretion.


For more info, read below

Player Anomaly Detection

The detection is very limited due to how oppressive the anti-cheat is. Watchpup only interacts with the game in a readonly way to keep the user safe and prevent potential bans. More invasive measures are being researched but it's critical to verify those would work correctly without consequence. Watchpup cannot prevent most nastiness, but arms you with the ability to easily block offending users and restore your save to the point right before they arrived. This includes stuff like attribute mismatching, but can't revive Andre or remove your egghead.

To enable anomaly detection, check the "Search for Anomalies" checkbox, and if a cheater is identified their name will be highlighted with a yellow bar. If "Play Sound on Anomaly Detected" is also checked, it will play a sound to notify you. Finally, if "Backup on Anomaly Detected" is checked, a backup will be created when a cheater is identified

In-Game HUD

The application also comes with a small HUD to overlay the game when played in borderless or windowed mode. This can be enabled by checking the "Enable HUD" checkbox and be positioned with the "X" and "Y" sliders.

Matchmaking Brackets

Going to the Matchmaking tab will allow you to see what peers you can match with according to your current character's Soul Level (SL) and max Weapon Level (WL). It will show you which hosts you can match with if you are the one being summoned/invading, or what summons/invaders you can match with when you're the host for all covenant and PvP interactions.

Weapon level matchmaking is new to Dark Souls Remastered and involves matchmaking based on your highest upgraded weapon that you have ever picked up on the character. This is a very simplified explanation, but more information can be found below:
Online Matchmaking on wikidot
How DSR calculates WL
How WL is used in matchmaking
"What WL is X Weapon" chart

Backups

DSR Watchpup will generously create backups as to revert any damage that cheaters may impose in the absence of more direct methods because of the anti-cheat. These can be used in the Backups tab. A backup will be created every time the game or DSR Watchpup is started, before anyone joins your session (if "Backup on Session Join" is selected), and whenever an anomaly is detected (if "Backup on Anomaly Detected" is checked).

Backup saves are named as follows: {STEAMID}_{TIMESTAMP}_{REASON}_BACKUP_DRAKS0005.sl2

Viewing Current Session

When DSR Watchpup and the game are running, you will always be able to see your current character and their SL and WL used for matchmaking. Additionally, you will see when other users are attempting to connect to your game, and when they are there you can see their character name, steam name, and their phantom color. If you click on a peer, you can find them in steam to contact or block them. If you miss your chance you can see the people you've recently played with by going to 'Documents\NBGI\Watchpup\RecentlyPlayed.txt'

I've verified that blocking all communications with a player will prevent them from joining a session with you in the future, however it will not force them out of your game if they are already there.

NOTE: Currently, there are some issues linking steam names to players that may cause inaccuracies when multiple phantoms join at the same time or if you join a session that already has more than one phantom.

DSR Watchpup will also identify the last item dropped by any player in a session and in what quantity. Hopefully people will start picking up my indictments instead of disconnecting. #FullDarkMoon

All current session information is also available in the HUD.

Gathering Matchmaking Data

When "Gather Matchmaking Data" is enabled, DSR Watchpup will take a snapshot of basic information whenever someone joins your session. This includes data like:

• Location
• Character creation data
• Covenants
• Invasion/Summon method
• Stats
• Equipment
  

Once you've played for a while, you can submit it by pressing the "Submit Data" button which will give you further instructions on how to submit the data.

Participation is completely optional, but I hope to put together some nifty charts/infographics to show trends for pvp. A big curiosity of mine is figuring out if WL has any weighting within the legal range and what the SL/WL/Location hotspots are.

Special Thanks

u/Superspookyghost For helping me test the application, giving feedback, and gathering data
u/illusorywall For their continued contributions to the Soulsborne communities and recent SL matchmaking data
u/eur0pa For creating the original Dark Souls PVP Watchdog

You can reach out to me on Reddit at u/JonathanECG