3241

yes, but if you do it like me, Boletaria was +1 after Tower Knight, then I killed the boss in stonefang, so stonefang was +1, but I died afterwards in stonefang. I was human when I came back to stonefang and died again, and it went -1 …

or I wanted to open the gate in Boletaria 1-1 and I went -4 by using ephemeral stones and killed myself in the level several times

3242

Yeah, it’s not all that complicated under the hood, but the game doesn’t provide you that information. If you’re just playing normally rather than following a wiki, you can easily wind up making things harder for yourself.

Especially since the ways to shift toward white are limited, but the ways to shift toward black aren’t. So, playing blind on the original PS3 version, I wound up with some worlds in nearly pure black, then went to look things up after I was mostly done with the game and wanted to see what I had missed, and realized I’d have to go through two full NG+ cycles to get to pure white.

And the online stuff and character tendency complicate it further.

3243

Does 4-2 mean past a fog door?

3244

It means past the first boss of that world. So the bridge you were stuck on after beating Phalanx is 1-2.

3245

Ahh thanks.

3246

5-1 has a blessed mace early on in that level. Wrecks skellies. Also don’t forget to 2 hand weapons when you’re going in for the kill.

3247

Don’t forget you can become human again by also helping someone kill a boss while in soul form.

Back in the day I did a second run where I tried to only make progress while in Human form and summoned in co-op partners as much as I could. If I lost human form I would camp in soul form at a boss gate, usually flame lurker, to become human again in order to continue to progress.

We’d get invaded a bunch too which kept it interesting, but overall it was a pretty cool, super chill second run through the game.

3248

I rerolled as a Royalty last night. My god this game is so much easier when I have Soul Arrow.

I also have been doing the thing where I suicide in the Nexus so I don’t get a black world. If feels cheesy af and I hate it. But my OCD forbids me from not getting a White world because that opens up things. Every time I see some message, “If you have white world tendency you can proceed…” I get anxiety.

Definitely missing my spear in some situations. I’m wondering how I’m going to handle those Mind Flayers now. I expect they have big Magic defense and I’m kind of a one-trick pony at the moment.

3249

There’s some cool stuff only available as pure black too. The game is evil that way.

3250

Pure Black is easy to get! I did that entirely organically with my other character before I knew what was going on XD

3251

I don’t know what I’m doing and die all the time, and I’m still in white. What am I missing?

3252

You have to be human, not a ghost. I tend to drop my summon sign with the blue stone before a boss to help someone before I go in myself. Learn the fight. If you win, you become human again. Same if you invade someone’s world with the black stone and kill them.

Before I understood (googled) world tendencies, I noticed these red phantom enemies showing up in one of my worlds where there were none before, and some enemies taking an extra shot to take down. Turns out it was because I had died a few times on a boss as a human. I think it was that stupid witch who duplicates herself. I didn’t understand the traps were still there after the symbols faded, died a couple times to that, then I killed her, and my summon bro had to run out and kill some NPC that resurrected her. Then we went back in and I died again getting triple whacked by her soul arrows. By then I had died 4 times as a human and I started seeing red phantom Mind Flayers lurking around, who had a ton of health and were super aggressive.

Then I died again on Maneater as a human and my world went to Pure Black, and I rerolled as a wizard :P

3253

Is it better to just play as a soul then?

3254

If you play online the server auto-adjusts your tendency towards white/average/some-bullshit so pure black is actually the hardest to maintain unless you only play offline.

At least this is totally how it worked when I played the OG FromSoft version.

3255

I think matchmaking with a friend and playing together is improved over the original. Just using password sharing. Host needs to be human and friend needs to put down his summon sign.

I had a great time playing through Dark Souls 3 with a friend. Sometimes you get invaded, but you are 2 against 1 … that’s fun!

3256

I don’t think the new one does this. At least, not based on my googling.

3257

Having to always play in soul form by nexus suicide is the worst part of the game by far. My character looks so cool in the remake as a human. It’s an unfortunate necessity since otherwise getting to full white is a lot harder than getting to full black.

3258

What does going full white do for you?

3259

There are certain areas/npcs/items/enemies you can only get in pure white or black. Pure black I think increases item drop rate too. For your first playthrough probably not really worth worrying about.

3260

It also applies some modifiers to enemy stats and stuff, so things are a bit easier the lighter the tendency gets. The issue with ignoring it for a first play is that you can make the game harder for yourself by doing something that appears natural like resurrecting yourself several times to have full hp against a tough boss.

If you want to see the world tendency stuff, you don’t have to understand the nuances of the system. Just:

  • Suicide in the nexus after every resurrection.
  • After finishing all the bosses of a world, you will be in pure white. Look up what opens up and go check it out.
  • If you want to try black too, kill the NPC that appeared in white, then repeatedly use stones and die in the world.