Demon’s Souls: What Is World Tendency? Answered

When it comes to Demon’s Souls, few elements are as convoluted – or as integral – as World Tendency. Knowing how to use it or leave it alone can mean the difference between an easy-breezy playthrough and one several times more challenging than it should be. If you’re new to the game though, then you’re probably looking at the above sentences and asking: What is World Tendency in Demon’s Souls, and how does it work?

Fortunately, we’re here to give you a full rundown on the mechanic.

What is World Tendency in Demon’s Souls? Answered

To put it as simply as possible, World Tendency in Demon’s Souls is a cross between a difficulty adjuster and a karma system.

Certain actions you take in the game will impact your Tendency, pushing it further toward White or Black as shown by the Touchstones in the Nexus. Good actions, like aiding trapped NPCs, defeating bosses or visiting other players’ worlds to help them beat a boss, push the tendency toward White. Bad actions, like killing NPCs or invading other players’ worlds to kill them for Souls, pushes the scale toward Black.

This in turn will carry consequences for the gameplay. The closer the World Tendency is to White, the easier the game will be, though enemies won’t drop rare items as often. Having a Black Tendency, on the other hand, will make enemies more difficult to defeat, but will cause them to drop rarer items more often.

There are even cases where having an area’s Tendency shift one way or the other will unlock certain secrets, with an NPC appearing to attack you or a door to a secret area opening.

Which Areas Does World Tendency Affect?

It’s also worth mentioning that World Tendency is measured separately for each zone or area of Demon’s Souls.

Your good or bad deeds in Boletaria Palace, for example, won’t impact the tendency in the Prison area. You can only shift that zone’s scales by performing the necessary actions while playing through its levels.

As such, you don’t have to worry about your actions in one zone haunting you in another, and can adjust each zone’s Tendency according to how hard you want them to be, what gear you want to obtain and so forth.

Hopefully this cleared up what World Tendency is in Demon’s Souls. For more on the game, check out some of our other guides on how to dodge roll and how to run faster.