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Demon's Souls :
Char and World Tendency Explained
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Char and World Tendency Explained
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Obsessed
Posts: 1193
Registered: 03-10-2009
Message 1 of 30
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Tendency From Wikidsouls Tendency affects each of the five worlds as well as your character. It can range from pure white to pure black. Tendency is shifted towards white when major demons are defeated and shifts towards black when players die or kill other players (including NPCs). The tendency of each of the 5 archstones as well as your characters tendency can be viewed from the Tendency tab in the Start menu. World TendencyEach of the five archstones has it's own separate world tendency. A world tendency that is closer to white will have weaker demons in it, but the drops will not be as valuable. A world tendency that is closer to black will have stronger demons but the spoils will be more worthwhile. Some pathways and characters will only be available when the tendency has shifted a certain way. Character TendencyYour character also has a tendency that ranges from white to black depending on your actions (whether or not you kill demons or other players). Certain items and equipment are only accessible when your character's tendency shifts a certain way. Online TendencyDuring online play, tendency of other players affect the base world tendency of each area. If you find that the tendency is automatically shifting toward white or black every time you re-enter an area, that is the result of the base online tendency affecting your world tendency. Official Atlus Blog  THE OFFICIAL BLOG — Entry #4 — World Tendency System
(Written by Quality Assurance Lead Richard Rodrigues)
Part 4 of Demon’s Souls: The Official Blog aims to fully explain the unique World Tendency System and how your actions and decisions can have a dramatic affect on the game world and your experience in it.
Introduction to World Tendency System
In Demon’s Souls, your actions in the world of Boletaria will weigh heavily against your character. This should be familiar to all you gamers out there—maybe you’ve experienced it in the form of “morality,” “karma,” or by another name before. In the world of Demon’s Souls, it’s known as Tendency, and it’s attributed to both your character and each of the regions you’ll traverse.
When you begin play, both Character and World Tendencies start off at neutral. Depending on your actions, they can shift to white or black (Captain Obvious chiming in: good deeds make it go white while... yeah, you get it). But of course, it isn’t as simple as being either black or white, as there are shades along the way that determine the level of Tendency’s effects. So if you’re just a little evil, enemies will only be a little more difficult to down, whereas if you’re a true miscreant, well then you’ve gone and made an already brutally difficult game a lot more brutal.
At any given time you can jump into your Main Menu (although it’s worth noting that accessing the menu does NOT pause the game… stay on your toes) and navigate to a convenient Tendency tab to try and gauge what state your actions have left the world and your character in. Each region’s Archstone is there to represent its respective World Tendency, whereas Character Tendency is represented by a human figurine in the center. For both representations, they’ll gradually shine with an increasingly brighter glow or shift towards a darkness void of any light to depict white and black respectively (hey, who let that guy back here!?).
 Good or evil, Light or dark... the choice is yours.
Now that we’ve covered the broader details of Tendency as a whole, I’m sure you’d like to know about the specifics of each—actions and consequences, causes and effects, and what have you. So on that note...
World Tendency
As stated before, each Archstone region has its own World Tendency. These are all completely independent of each other; your actions in one Archstone can never affect the Tendency of other Archstones, and there’s nothing to stop you from simultaneously having one Archstone be a shining beacon of hope and good will while another acts as a blackened bastion for all things unholy. You’ll want to use this to your advantage, since you might find greater benefits in keeping a certain region white while the allure of turning another region black draws you.
I’m supposed to be getting into the finer details, no? Well, I’m going to do things a little backward and start with some effects first and go over causes afterward. In worlds of black Tendency, you’ll find that enemies give you a lot more trouble than usual but also give you more Souls and better drops once defeated. That former point is the result of their attacks being stronger and your HP being lower, a combination we’re sure you’ll love. When World Tendency is white, the opposite is true: enemies aren’t as difficult, your HP is at its max potential (depending on form, of course), but the rewards for putting down enemies aren’t as great as they could be. And as mentioned before, the degree of these effects will grow with how white or black the region is.
So now that you know what you can strive for, here’s what you need to do to get there. When you defeat a boss within a world, it’ll shift Tendency towards white. If you lose your body within a region (which is to say, you die while not in Soul form), it’ll shift Tendency towards black. These are your most basic ways of changing World Tendency, and your only options to initially stray from neutral Tendency. Once you’ve pushed things enough to white or black, new options will open up to help you shift back in the opposite direction. For example, in regions that have achieved a certain level of black Tendency, a special Primeval Demon will appear. Killing it will help shift Tendency back to white. This is the more basic example, however.
 Tendency can often determine where you can and cannot go...
Each Archstone region has a special NPC that is deeply rooted in World Tendency. At the further end of white World Tendency, you’ll open up access to this NPC, and will find yourself rewarded with typical RPG goodness: new quest, new item, etc. However, should you not be happy with your white World Tendency, you’ll find that offing the NPCs spawned by it is quite convenient for taking things the other direction. Should you blacken the region enough, you’ll find yourself greeted by its special NPC once again, only you might notice they have a different aura about them this time... Now they’re a Black Phantom NPC, and like most characters in Demon’s Souls, they want you dead. As you might already have guessed, killing these Black Phantom NPCs can greatly shift World Tendency back toward white. As an aside, whether the NPC you’re killing happens to be good or evil, you can always count on their corpse to yield new, usually rare goodies, which will differ depending on their friendliness at time of death. It’s incentives like these that’ll ensure you won’t simply leave World Tendency be.
Character Tendency
Hearing all that talk about Tendency-specific NPCs, you might be wondering about the usual NPCs you’ll find wandering about Boletaria and the Nexus. Wouldn’t sending them to their demise just for the fun of it darken one’s soul a bit? Well that’s where Character Tendency comes in. The blacksmiths kind enough to forge weapons for you, the magic-users always willing to teach you a new spell or miracle, the vendors braving the demon hordes to sell goods out in the field—taking any of their souls or even those of less-important NPCs will shift your Character Tendency black. Although that’s probably the least of your problems, since ending these characters’ lives also means they won’t be forging you new weapons, teaching you magic, or selling you items anymore. That said, the effect on Character Tendency will differ depending on the NPC, so killing that one particular NPC whom you simply can’t stand, might not see you penalized as much.
 Choosing to attack friendly NPCs can darken your Tendency...
The special NPCs that factor into World Tendency will also affect Character Tendency in the same way. Slaughtering their friendly forms will darken that figurine on your Tendency menu while taking out their Black Phantom forms will brighten it up. This also serves as your primary method for achieving white Character Tendency, save for one last element of the whole Tendency system that I’ve yet to touch upon.
I’ll let that last segue simmer for a bit while I go over the effects of Character Tendency. As with World Tendency, your max HP is lowered even further if you have black Character Tendency. Another familiar effect is your attack power as a Blue or Black Phantom, which will increase with white and black Character Tendency respectively. In both these cases, the degree of the effect is dependent on how black or white Character Tendency, and yes, they do stack with the similar effects of World Tendency. Should you reach the extremes of the Character Tendency spectrum, you’ll find new things to do in the Nexus. And these new things might just lead to new items, including ones with effects based directly on Character Tendency. Did I forget to mention there was equipment like that? Well, there is. Now about that simmering segue...
Multiplayer
In Demon’s Souls, your actions in the worlds of other players will weigh heavily against your character (feeling of déjà vu entirely intended). You didn’t possibly think that everything you read about in the last blog—invading other worlds, summoning other to help defeat bosses—wouldn’t factor in here too, did you? Well it most certainly does, and you’ve probably already assumed the basics of it.
 Usually, red things want to hurt you in this game.
If a Black Phantom invades your world and succeeds in killing you, that’s black points for his Character Tendency. If you happen to have any Blue Phantoms with you that he dispatches, then that’s bonus black points for him. However, should you send a Black Phantom back to their own world in shame, then that’s white points for both your Character Tendency and your World Tendency for wherever it happened. Your secondary means of gaining white tendency in multiplayer scenarios is through co-op play. Should you help a Blue Phantom earn their body back by summoning them and defeating a boss demon, it’ll net you points toward white Tendency, and the more Phantoms you help revive at once, the better. As with defeating a Black Phantom, this will affect both Character and World Tendency.
Methods that work for me Changing Character Tendency- Towards White
- Defeat Black phantom that invaded (Player Killer).
- Defeat Unique Named NPC Black Phantoms which appear only with Pure Black World Tendency. This applies only to these five unique "named" NPC Black Phantoms (Miralda, Scirvir, Rydyell, Satsuki, and Selen). There are other Black Phantoms which won't adjust your character tendency (tested after Patch 1.04) such as the two BPs in the Crystal Gecko nest tunnel in Stonefang (2-2) or the three BPs that appear just beyond the Penetrator's hall (1-4). Killing Black Phantoms Ostrava and Garl Vinland will also not adjust your character tendency, even though they are named.
- 1-1 Defeat Black Phantom - Executioner Miralda (Note: you need to deliver the final killing blow. Don't let her fall to her death in the stairwell)
- 2-2 Defeat Black Phantom - Scirvir the Wanderer
- 3-1 Defeat Black Phantom - Lord Rydyell
- 3-3 Defeat Old Monk in Online Mode (counts as Black Phantom PK)
- 4-1 Defeat Black Phantom - Satsuki
- 5-2 Defeat Black Phantom - Selen Vinland (Note: don't kill her with Soulsucker or there will be no effect in Character Tendency - verified by meng-huo from GameFAQs forum)
- Note: Killing these 5 Black Phantom NPC in certain manner (details uncertain) will not trigger the shift in Character Tendency. Here are some tested examples:
- Killing Black Phantom Selen with Soulsucker.
- Let Black Phantom Miralda fall to her death in the stairwell. (A blast from Rage of God or fighting in the stair well may cause this)
- Let Black Phantom Scirvir the Wanderer fall to his death
- Killing any Black Phantom exclusively with Poison Cloud seems to prevent the shift in character tendency. (I tested this with Rydyell and Scirvir, with update 1.04 installed. -StefanieTN)
- Summoned as a Blue Phantom, get yourself killed before defeating the Demon Boss. (Doesn't work for me with update 1.04 installed. -Novril)
- Towards Black
- Kill harmless NPC.
- Invade as a Black Phantom, kill host.
Here's a list of relatively harmless (won't hurt your game if dead) NPCs that you can kill to shift the character tendency.
(Note: please add to it from time to time.) - 1-1, 1-2, 1-3: Dregling
- 2-1, 2-2: Filthy Man
- 3-1: Once Royal Mistress
- 4-1, 4-2: Graverobber Blige
- 5-1, 5-2: Filthy Woman
- Nexus, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3: Ostrava of Boletarian (body form)
- Nexus, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4: Biorr
- Nexus: Blue Phantom NPC (If you don't speak to him, he'll remain in the Nexus for the duration of the game, or until you kill him.)
- Killing four or five (depending on World Tendency) will take you from Pure White to Pure Black.
Notes:
Killing the following Named Black Phantom NPCs has no impact (either way) on Character Tendency (both confirmed). - 1-4 Black Phantom Ostrava (He appears during any world tendency.)
- 5-3 Black Phantom Garl Vinland (He appears only during Pure White world tendency.)
Sources
http://demonssouls.wikidot.com http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4118 http://www.demons-souls.com/wiki/ Ok Hopefully this will help wit all you he pmed me about it once and for all.
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10-09-2009 04:15 PM
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Re: Char and World Tendency Explained
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Game Fanatic
Posts: 3777
Registered: 03-12-2009
Message 3 of 30
Viewed 6,014 times
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wow thanks!
My Games/Signature=
PS3- Darksiders, Demon's Souls, Assassin's Creed 2, MGS4, RE5, Dead Space, Valkyria Chronicles, Disgaea 3, STF4, LBP, Ratchet and Clank 1,2, Uncharted 1,2, Batman AA
PS2- Persona 3,4, FFX, FFXII, Rogue Galaxy, DQ VIII
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10-12-2009 09:19 PM
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Re: Char and World Tendency Explained
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Time Splitter
Posts: 2103
Registered: 05-19-2008
Message 7 of 30
Viewed 5,893 times
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Agnoth wrote:
HemphillMorris wrote:
Not trying to be mean, but we've been asked to avoid using wikidot by Atlus, as the NA and other versions are different.
Can I ask by who? I've been using the Wikidot and it seems pretty informative but I'll admit NOT all the information is there -- specially for specialized Weapons.
http://demons-souls.com/wiki/ Read the bottom part about editing the wiki. Pretty much self explanatory.
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10-13-2009 12:18 PM
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Re: Char and World Tendency Explained
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Firble
Posts: 114
Registered: 10-30-2008
Message 8 of 30
Viewed 5,884 times
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HemphillMorris wrote:
Agnoth wrote:
HemphillMorris wrote:
Not trying to be mean, but we've been asked to avoid using wikidot by Atlus, as the NA and other versions are different.
Can I ask by who? I've been using the Wikidot and it seems pretty informative but I'll admit NOT all the information is there -- specially for specialized Weapons.
http://demons-souls.com/wiki/ Read the bottom part about editing the wiki. Pretty much self explanatory.
Sorry. I was talking about the wikidot. http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/
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10-13-2009 12:41 PM
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Re: Char and World Tendency Explained
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Pixelated
Posts: 501
Registered: 12-15-2006
Message 10 of 30
Viewed 5,624 times
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Good so its finally confirmed by ATLUS. Kiling a boss (regardless of form) +1 White! Losing body +1 Black!
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10-16-2009 09:20 AM
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