We show that a conceptually simple covering technique has surprisingly rich applications to density theorems and conjectures on patterns in sets involving set differences. These applications fall into three categories: (i) analogues of these statements to distance $2$ versions of the pattern, (ii) reduction of these statements to relative versions, and (iii) reductions of these statements to a quasirandom case with respect to some quantities that affect the number of realisations of the pattern.