How to get a pvp character quickly made and other beginner questions

I'm not sure about fast ways through the game unfortunately but might be able to help with the other bits.

To be honest I think you'll find PvP at any SM but the meta in the arena is 150 and, from what I've seen, the general consensus for invasions, summoned duels, etc is up to 200. I'd probably just recommend levelling up until your character feel finished to you.

Now as for all the weapons, I saw you are on PS4, so I can tell you how I did it. I'm not sure if this is considered a cheat or an exploit, apologies mods if it is, but here you go.

With PS Plus you have the option to upload a save file to online storage. So you get your character to a point where you would like to stay, let's say SL 200, SM under 5 million. You save the game and upload the save file. Return to your character, unequip the Agape ring (if you were using it), consume all your souls, boss souls, grind mobs, PvP, basically do anything to get lots of souls to spend. Then use this to upgrade all the weapons, armour and equipment you want to have available. Your SM will have gone up by a lot but that's not important.

The next step is to summon or be summoned by a friend, preferably someone you trust. Drop them all of the newly upgraded stuff that you will want to use. You then exit the game and download your save state from earlier, i.e. when you were still in your desired SM range. Get back into the game, meet up with that same friend and have him return all the gear you dropped.

I would at this point then reupload my save file, just in case I messed up in the future, like forgetting to equip the Agape ring after an arena session. But that's it, you are now in your desired SM range and have fully upgraded equipment to play around with.

/r/DarkSouls2 Thread