Kin

Ring, Blade, and Eye

The gameplay guide’s examples of the eight test kin include a clandestine swordswoman, a flame sorcerer, a singing prisoner who can protect allies, and a black wolf that lords over a forest. Those are types, not slugs, so this wiki does not invent character URLs for them. Ring, Blade, and Eye are the three circle classes. Regional kin-enhancement features spawn smaller circles that grant a large amount of experience to a partnered kin during a phase.

Hold the function menu to summon or dismiss a compacted kin. Creators Voice says each character can summon an entity to assist in combat; the first-party match term for that entity in the guide and manual is kin. The winged-cat eShop still on this page is a Nintendo product plate, not a named companion portrait.

Leveling, death, and swapping

When you defeat enemies while accompanied, your kin gains experience and levels, raising health and attack, and some kin unlock new attacks by level. That makes a mid-match circle swap costly if you already invested. Death dismisses the kin until the cooldown elapses. HP regenerates slowly while they are away. Instant-travel and revival points on the map do not replace the compact; you bring the same kin unless you break it at a new circle.

Alliances do not share kin. Bloodbound pairs still compact separately. Sigil objectives can point you at another Bloodsworn while your kin holds a lane. If you want a Bloodsworn whose kit already leans on summons, read the six test kits — the kin system is available to all six rather than locked to one name. A dismissed kin regenerates HP slowly while away, and the function menu is the same hold cluster used for alliance petitions, so learn the summon face button before you hold it beside a Bloodsworn you meant to ally with.

Courtyard practice

House of Night’s Courtyard lets you compact with any kin and set Bloodsworn level on the Graveyard Scarecrow. Use that to learn summon/dismiss inputs and to see a kin’s attacks before a live cull. The Archive records kin you compacted with during Dusk Battles so you can review them later, including from the in-match info screen. Battle Remembrance can include kin so the first live match is not the first time a circle appears on your compass.

Network Test Ver. is online-only with autosave. Leaving a session can incur a penalty. Kin progress in a test match does not carry into retail; the official FAQ is explicit that test saves do not transfer. Learn the three circle types and the swap penalty here, then spend live matches on Virtue rather than on relearning the function menu. Battle Remembrance can include kin so the first live Casual Match is not the first time a circle appears on the compass, and Archive stores compacted kin for review from the in-match info screen.

Finding circles on Lowanro

Summoning circles sit at the base of chains of light that stretch into the sky. That is the first-party tell, not a pin you invent. Regional kin-enhancement features spawn extra small circles during a phase and dump experience into a partnered kin. If your map legend shows kin enhancement for this phase, that is the window to invest. If it shows weapon or skill enhancement instead, you may be looking at Alchemy Forges or Bloodsacs rather than a new compact.

The function menu that summons kin is the same hold-input cluster that petitions for alliance, plants pins, and opens emotes. Learn which face button is summon before you hold it next to a Bloodsworn you meant to ally with. Confederates cannot hit each other, but they do not share kin. A Bloodbound pair can still compact two different kin and take both into Moon Blood Bestowal because that rule does not disband the pair.

Guide examples — clandestine swordswoman, flame sorcerer, singing prisoner, black wolf — are enough to know the eight test kin are not all clones. They are not enough to build eight entity pages. When FromSoftware names them with first-party spelling, this wiki can add slugs. Until then, pick a circle class and a Bloodsworn kit, and treat the kin as a loadout slot rather than a second roster.

Kin HP and name sit on the HUD while compacted. Instant travel does not dismiss them. Death of the Bloodsworn still uses revival points and Goldblood replenish-to-two; the kin’s own death is the separate dismiss timer. Regional kin-enhancement is the only first-party way the guide names to dump a large experience packet into a partner mid-match without a new circle swap. If the phase legend shows skill or weapon enhancement instead, you are in a Bloodsac or Alchemy Forge neighborhood, not a kin farm.

Kin with the six test kits

Every Network Test Bloodsworn can compact. Albert’s Blood Blade and Layla’s rifle do not replace a kin occupying a second target. Jan’s Blink does not teleport the kin. Zork’s Human Rocket does not take the kin airborne as a rider. Lanh’s Darkmoon conceals Lanh, not necessarily the partner. Samir’s Saurian Form is a self-commit. Treat kin as a shared system across the six kits rather than a hidden seventh weapon column.

Courtyard practice can compact any of the eight test kin regardless of which Bloodsworn you selected, which is the first-party way to preview a Blade swordswoman next to a sniper kit or a black wolf next to Zork. Archive then stores what you actually compacted in live matches. If you never open a circle on Lowanro, you will still have a Dusk Battle — kin are support, not an entry ticket. Virtue still decides the cull.