Souls. Yeah yeah, they're supposed to show up in dangerous places and present a challenge. But I've heard enough complaints about 'em to start thinking about how they could be improved.

They're just lagballoons of dmgsplosions, knockaround, and status. I think they could be more interesting, and more importantly, less despised by the playerbase with a few significant changes. Well maybe not. IMO the worst thing about them is the knockaround. Anyway...

Let's have them be a sort of curse. They're lost souls, right? That sounds pretty cursed to me. Doomed to wander forever lost and be hated by players because some developer cursed them to. They can bob around after players, but instead of going BOOM, they latch on when they bubble up to you. So, what happens then? You get a bobbing soul helmetaura and....?

-About 3 seconds after the soul latches onto you, your shield is gradually depleted until it breaks, at that point, the player will be inflicted with the soul's status. If your shield is up while a soul is snuggling you, it gets depleted three times as quickly. Lore here could hint that they feed on your shield's energy, and that is the initial attractant. After that, they're just there for, well, you. As an interesting side mechanic, we could have unattached souls tend to ignore players who have broken shields. Tend to. As in the aggro magnet is not...yeah you get it. If you're alone, obviously this won't apply. This will sort of get back to the old "more players = less soul trouble," though not exactly. Obviously, your shield will not regenerate after it breaks if a soul is still attached to you.

-If the player tries to use any weapon or pickup while a soul is stuck onto them, then they will take damage similar to curse, but not as much, and be inflicted with a status relevant to the soul's type (Normal/Void souls could be associated with stun status). The intensity of this pseudo curse is related to the amount of defense the player has against the soul's status type. With maximum possible resistance, one soul will be unable to inflict its status. But...

More than one soul can latch onto a player at a time. More souls = faster shield depletion and more intense (damage, length of infliction) psuedocurse. After the first soul, each additional soul will penalize the player with MSD:Low.

How to shake them off? Dash. If you're fast enough, shield bash will also do the trick. You have 3 seconds before bashing is no longer an option. Dashing will still have the loss of aggro effect that it has on current soul mechanics.

Alternatively, walk around with your soul bros like it's a fashion statement.

Souls become invulnerable when attached to a player, but same "one hit wonder" mechanics would apply otherwise. So you can't swipe/shoot your squadmates to get rid of souls. The only way to shed attached souls is to dash. Interestingly, another player's dash - if close enough - could have a chance to dislodge them. The burst of energetic life a knight uses to dash is just too much for them I suppose. Shield bashing could do the same. There is such a thing as too much energy/food at once!

Certain sprite abilities could also dislodge souls. Perhaps certain pickups could as well. Thoughts?

In addition to one or more of these mechanics, please reduce the spawn of these things just a little bit. Instead of the steady flood we have now, make it so one or two souls show up (1-2 per player in party?), then more and more and more if you choose to ignore them and let them latch on. FEAST. FEAAAAST. Ring the ghost bell for dinner! Actually, just this change would be fine IMO. 1-2 per squad member then more the longer each soul is left undefeated.