How to Manipulate Tendency in Demon’s Souls Remake

The Demon’s Souls Remake for the PS5 brought back FromSoftware’s cult classic, and its celebrated combat system. However, there is a mechanic that sets Demon’s Souls apart from other FromSoft Souls games. This mechanic is called Tendency, and although it functions similarly to the original game, it was changed in one significant way.

Tendency in Demon’s Souls works much like a morality or karma system. Players will start a new game with a neutral Tendency. As “good” deeds are performed, the Tendency will shift towards white while “bad” deeds will shift towards black. Additionally, there are two types of Tendency, World and Character. As the names might indicate, the first affects various worlds players will visit, while the latter affects only their character.

In the original Demon’s Souls for the PS3, World Tendency was affected by the actions of other players on the server when playing online. This meant that keeping worlds in pure black or white was very difficult as the world’s Tendency would shift towards a hidden value representing the server’s average. In the Demon’s Souls Remake, however, this was removed, and players will have full autonomy over both types of Tendency even when playing online.

How to Change Character Tendency in Demon’s Souls

To shift Character Tendency in Demon’s Soul Remake towards white, players will need to defeat Black Phantoms. This includes all online Invaders but not all named NPC’s. The Black Phantoms that affect the Tendency when defeated are:

• Executioner Miralda in Gates of Boletaria
• Scirvir, the Wanderer in The Tunnel City
• Lord Rydell in Prison of Hope
• Old Monk in The Ivory Tower (requires online mode)
• Satsuki in Island’s Edge
• Selen Vinland in Swamp of Sorrows

To shift Character Tendency in Demon’s Soul Remake towards black, players will need to get killing blows on harmless NPC’s or on Hosts as a Black Phantom. A good way to get pure black Tendency, without having it affect quests in the game, is to wait for the end game and do Mephistopheles’ quest before beginning New Game+. Otherwise, these are some of the NPC’s which can be killed without overly disrupting the game:

• Dregling Merchant in Gates of Boletaria
• Filthy Man in The Tunnel City
• Once Royal Mistress in Prison of Hope
• Graverobber Blige in Island’s Edge
• Filthy Woman in Swamp of Sorrows
• Ostrava, of Boletaria in The Nexus

How to Change World Tendency in Demon’s Souls

Changing the World Tendency in Demon’s Souls may prove to be less straightforward. Changing it to pure black is the easier option as dying in body form pushes the Tendency of the World players are in towards black. This means that any time players acquire body form, they can travel to the world they aim to see in black Tendency and have their character die there. Another method is to kill the various NPCs present in the world. Although this is one of the fastest ways to shift the world to pure black, it may make some quests unavailable.

Pushing Tendency towards white can be a bit more laborious. Killing demon bosses in a world will change Tendency towards white. To prevent accidentally shifting it towards black, players can get rid of their body form by falling off the upper ledges of the Nexus. Although the Nexus technically also has a tendency, there are no effects associated with it.

The multiplayer PvP in Demon’s Souls can also affect the Tendency of a world, however, it can prove to be a bit risky. While in body form, players can be invaded by the Black Phantoms of other players. If players manage to kill the invader, that world’s Tendency will shift towards white. But, if they die and because they are in body form, the Tendency will push towards black.

Demon’s Souls Remake is available on PlayStation 5.

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