There are near-endless gestures in the Dark Souls games. From "Well What is It" to "No Way" to the modern-day "Point Down", there's always a couple that are just filled with cancer. So, this guide will help you out with what gestures mean in the Dark Souls 3 community, and whether or not you should be angry that the guy is using the applause gesture after your fight.

Obvious ones such as "Wave" and "Beckon" are not included.

The former of these two gestures is more commonly used in co-op, to direct a friend towards enemies or secrets. If someone Points Forward at you before a match, it means little more than a neutral greeting such as "I'm coming for you" or something similar.

Point Up is the lighter of the point gestures, and is usually seen as a poor man's "Praise the Sun". Apparently, though, some people use it as a "middle finger", so it's more of a wild card than anything. If someone uses it after beating you in a duel, they either have some honor in them or they simply missed the Point Down button.

The Point Down is this game's cancergesture. While it can be used to mock a player that used estus during a duel, or after successfully gank spanking, there are simply too many times where an honorable duel ends in a point down. If this happens, don't feel too bad about it. If they have to point you down after killing your joke build, or they feel the need to after a 5-man gank against you, then their lives must be much sadder than yours.

Mostly just a fun way of greeting someone, though some might see it as a cheeky taunt after their demise. But if they wanted to make fun of you, they have three other gestures for that. It could also be an indication during invasions that you've been spotted from your hiding place. In this case, it's probably just best to wave back instead of immediately pouncing on the poor guy. Otherwise, you're basically asking for one of the more insulting gestures.

Despite the different name, it looks to similar to the good ol Dark Souls 1 gesture to not be used by memelords. If someone uses this after killing you, they're either trying really hard to make a giantdad cosplay or they're too busy living in the past. Alternatively, it could be used as an "are you serious?" taunt after someone summons a phantom just to kill you or pulls out their as-of-new-patch meta weapon.

The emote that doesn't deserve its infamy. It could be used as a genuine compliment to those with cosplay builds or those that put up a good fight, but too many of the aforementioned point-downers have taken this gesture and twisted it into a mocking one. Because of this, unless you're purposely doing a cosplay build it's always more correct to assume they're doing it as an insult. Of course, there are times where its mocking use is warranted, such as when you're summoned to duel the host and he/she uses estus right in the middle of it. If they do that, then applaud all you like.

The edgelord emote. Do it while walking away for maximum edge. Honestly, I'm not sure a single person can take this one seriously.

They all mean the same thing. Someone's genuinely happy over something, whether it's that they get to fight a new person, they just beat a really tough boss, or they managed to overcome a PVP battle by the skin of their teeth. Good for them.

For when you're really into the sunbro covenant or you've just engaged in some jolly co-operation. "My Thanks" is just "Warcry" from Dark Souls 2, so despite the name it's almost never used as one of the insult gestures. Also can be a poor man's Praise the Sun, which it usually is until you reach lothric castle.

There's a surprisingly large amount of "bow" emotes in this game, so pick your favorite. Usually used as a duel greeting/farewell, and doing it after a fight is the best thing you can do.

You've either given up or the man you've killed died in just one or two hits. Usually your disbelief emote.

Reminder that if you kill a joke build or just instantly win then THIS is the gesture you use, not a point down. Did you really do anything special by getting in that lucky parry with a hornet ring riposte?

Honestly, I'm not quite sure myself as to what this one is supposed to convey. I guess if anything it could be seen as relaxing after a tough battle. Really though, don't wrap your head around this one too hard.

This section covers Prayer, Silent Ally, Darkmoon Loyalty, and I suppose the pyromancer's parting flame weapon art. If used after being summoned, it could be shown as a sign of peace, that you will help out however you can. Using it after a fight could be seen as devotion to a god or covenant, especially if that covenant doesn't already give a gesture (such as Rosaria's, Aldrich's, or especially Spears of the Church). If one tries hard enough, then after a match it could also be seen as them praying for you, seeing as how you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dead.

Other various gestures can be seen as covenant devotion gestures. Praise the Sun, Legion Etiquette, even Path of the Dragon. Probably not Proper Bow, though, becuase even though you can only get it with Rosaria's covenant it's nothing more than a third option for bows.

All the other gestures are either unpopular or obvious. Legion Etiquette, while showing devotion to the Watchdogs of Farron, is still just another edgelord emote, Patches Squat is for the guys that don't know stalk dung pies exist, and prostration is-as one would expect-"HAVE MERCY ON ME PLEASE FOR GWYN'S SAKE". The rest are easy enough to understand, so I don't think I need to put too much emphasis on them in the guide.

In the end, let's just be glad that there's not a "No Way" gesture in this game.

As mentioned before, there are some gestures that work as cheap subsitutes for certain items. Sometimes, after beating you, the enemy may use stalk dung pies on your slowly disintegrating corpse. This is considered the most offensive of all insults, as it looks the most like someone taking a ♥♥♥♥ on you. Unless you defeated a 3- or 4-man gank, a host used all their estus during a duel they were summoned for, or you just happened to re-invade and beat the guy who pointed down at you for no reason, YOU SHOULD NOT USE THIS. It's not a very good item on its own, and it only makes you look like you're full of ♥♥♥♥ yourself. After all, you're the one with 600 of these in your stock.

Other taunts include the very popular twohand weapon block spam, which as far as I can tell is just the absentminded "I beat someone but i don't know how to react to it other than mashing L1/Shift". Similarly, they could do the "never stop attacking even when they're dying", which is commonly used by NPCs. So it's most likely that they just don't know that they've won yet. And of course, who could forget the dead stare at your body before walking away? Truly the most insulting yet hilarious emote...even though it's probably just something that happened due to the player going AFK after beating you. There's also the estus chug right after a match, which usually is mocking other people for using it during a duel.

This is always something you'll need to look out for. That way, when you eventually get your ass beat by invaders, ganking hosts, or whatever, you'll already know they'll point down beforehand. Of course, they'll probably also quiet resolve or legion etiquette. Either way, watch out for people with these telltale signs:

-Fallen Knight set (including their peepee pants)
-Full dark set, unless they're cosplaying as a spoopy skeleton
-At least one phantom they're allied with
-You're both invaders and the other guy immediately went for you and not the host
-Dark Sword, Frayed Blade, or offhand Caestus
-Hornet ring while using a strength weapon
-Carthus rogue, budding green blossom, really any combination of 2 or 3 buffs
-Whichever weapon is currently "meta" (ringed knight greatswords/exile greatsword for current patch, etc)
-Anime profile picture
-300+ hours yet no Dark Soul achievement
-Seed of a giant's tree
-Abyss watchers set

Keep an eye out for these and you'll be ready to black crystal out anytime!