What is World Tendency in Demon's Souls?
Contributor: BlueLizardJello
World Tendency is the state of each individual Archstone based on actions the player character has taken. Managing World Tendency is a risk vs. reward system. World Tendency affects enemy strength, upgrade stones and healing item drop rates, and player character attack power. As you perform actions that move a given Archstone toward White World Tendency, enemies have lower HP, attack power and defense, but drop upgrade stones and healing items less frequently and give fewer souls, and the player's attack power is increased so long as they are in Soul Form. As an Archstone moves towards Black World Tendency, the adverse is true: enemies have higher HP, attack power, and defense, but drop upgrade stones and healing items with more regularity and give more souls, and the player's attack power does not benefit from the attack boost of White World Tendency while in Soul Form. As an added deterrent, the player's maximum HP is reduced in Black World Tendency while in Soul Form. Certain events are only triggered in particular World Tendencies.
How Can You Determine the World Tendency of an Archstone?
The Demon's souls in-game menu has a World Tendency tab which displays the five intact Archstones. The stone's brightness indicates the current state of its World Tendency. There are five states of World Tendency: Pure White - White - Neutral - Black - Pure Black. While in a level, the icon in the top-right of the screen displays the same color-coded reference as the World Tendency menu.
It is also possible to keep track of an Archstone's World Tendency by understanding how many steps are taken towards Pure White or Pure Black World Tendency. Every Archstone begins at Neutral (unless playing online which will be discussed below), which we can assign a score of 0. From Neutral, Pure White can be considered +3 and Pure Black can be considered at -4.
| World Tendecy Points | World Tendency |
|---|---|
| 3 | Pure White |
| 2 | White |
| 1 | Neutral |
| 0 | Neutral |
| -1 | Neutral |
| -2 | Neutral |
| -3 | Black |
| -4 | Pure Black |
How do you change World Tendency?
In order to control World Tendency, it is highly recommended to play offline. When a player connects to the Demon's Souls online server, the World Tendencies of all Archstones shift towards the global average. Unfortunately, as this happens each time the player connects to the online servers, any progress made towards Pure White or Pure Black World Tendency will be overwritten by the global average on reset.
The following actions impact World Tendency in each Archstone. The plus and minus values correlate with the White Tendency Points in the table above and can be used to track World Tendency.
| World Tendency (WT) Event | WT Change |
|---|---|
| Eliminating a boss | 1 |
| Defeating the Red Dragon | 1 |
| Defeating the Blue Dragon | 1 |
| Beating an invading player | 1 |
| Beating a named Black Phantom NPC | 1 |
| Defeating a Primeval Demon (a) | 3 |
| Dying in Body Form (unless in Nexus) (b) | -1 |
| Beating Old King Doran | -2 |
| Beating the Body Form of Named NPCs (c) | -3 |
(a) Primeval Demons appear once an Archstone reaches Black or Pure Black World Tendency, have a high chance to drop a Colorless Demon's Souls when killed, and do not respawn.
(b) Using the high staircases of the Nexus while in Body form is a safe and effective way to enter Soul Form before adventuring in an Archstone, protecting the World Tendency.
(c) These five named NPCs are Executioner Miralda (1-1), Scirvir, The Wanderer (2-2), Lord Rydell (3-1), Satsuki (4-1), and Selen Vinland (5-2). The Body Form versions appear in Pure White World Tendency while the Black Phantom versions appear in Pure Black World Tendency.