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What's World Tendency? How the heck does World Tendency work? Tendency is undeniably the most cryptic and eclectic thing in Demon's Souls. If you're just stumbling upon this during a casual Demon's Souls playthrough and feeling overwhelmed, that's okay. You can completely ignore World Tendency and still make it through the entirety of Demon's Souls just fine and our Demon's Souls guide is here to help you along the way.

Once you become more familiar with the game's contents, understanding World Tendency in Demon's Souls will be much easier. We highly recommend playing the game for a while before trying to wrap your brain around what's going on here. If you're already a master of World Tendency or are looking to get even more confused, check out our guide on Demon's Souls: Character Tendency to try and figure out how all that works too!

Demon's Souls: World Tendency

Here's everything you should know about World Tendency in Demon's Souls.

What is World Tendency?

Each of the game's five Archstones (or levels) has a World Tendency associated with it. World Tendency is essentially a value that ranges from Pure White to Pure Black, but it'll usually be somewhere between the two.

The World Tendency for an Archstone will change if you perform certain actions within that stage. Different World Tendencies will alter a few minor things within an area, with Pure White and Pure Black tendencies causing the most notable differences in the form of World Tendency Events.

What Does Pure White World Tendency do?

A stage with Pure White World Tendency will be "friendlier" so to speak (or as friendly as a Demon's Souls level can be). You'll still encounter the same old enemies you used to, but they'll deal slightly less damage and they'll be slightly easier to kill due to a decrease in their health and defense.

White World Tendency Events that can occur include friendly NPC's appearing, new weapons or items becoming obtainable, and previously inaccessible areas becoming traversable courtesy of a new path opening up.

What Does Pure Black World Tendency do?

A stage with Pure Black World Tendency gets even tougher. Enemies become deadlier – they have more health and defense, and they'll hit harder than they used to. Some black phantom enemies will also appear throughout the stage which are usually a glowy-red colored version of an existing enemy, except they're much more powerful. Watch out for those guys.

There are also Black World Tendency Events, some of which overlap with the White World Tendency ones. Some areas will become accessible in both Pure Black World Tendency and Pure White, but there are certain specific enemies that will only spawn in an Archstone with Pure Black tendency.

A handful of unique black phantom versions of NPC's will only spawn in this world state, and they usually have some pretty desirable loot. Rare drop rates and soul counts see an increase in Pure Black World Tendency too, so it could actually be desirable if you're doing some farming or grinding.

How Do You Change World Tendency?

To change a World Tendency of an Archstone toward Pure White, do any of the following in that area:

  • Defeat one of that world's main Demon bosses
  • Best an invading enemy player
  • Kill a black phantom NPC that appears in Pure Black World Tendency

The easiest way of achieving Pure White Tendency in an area is to defeat all its bosses while ensuring you don't die while in Body form.

To push the needle towards Pure Black, you can:

  • Die while in Body form
  • Kill a friendly NPC that appears in Pure White World Tendency

The easiest method of pushing things toward Pure Black is to reattain Body form by using a Stone of Ephemeral Eyes item and purposely dying afterwards. Doing this seven times will change an area from Pure White to Pure Black.

It's important to note that World Tendency doesn't actually change until you leave that world by returning to The Nexus. Any World Tendency should then immediately take effect and be present on your next visit to that Archstone.

How Do You Tell What the World Tendency Currently Is?

There is only one way of telling what World Tendency an Archstone is currently in – by selecting the Tendency option from the Options menu. This defaults to showing the World Tendency that all five stages are currently in based on how light or dark the eye icon beneath each Archstone appears.

How Do You Keep From Changing the World Tendency?

If you want to pursue the path of least resistance during your Demon's Souls playthrough, you'll want to keep from dragging things down to Pure Dark if at all possible. The best way to do this is to make sure you're always in Soul Form while playing through a stage.

It's preferable to be in Soul Form while working through a level because dying (which, let's be honest, will probably happen) in Body form will move things toward Pure Black. You'll know you're in Soul Form if your health bar's maximum is being limited. Be mindful as you will regain Body Form after defeating a boss.

However, losing Body Form in The Nexus hub has no impact on World Tendency. Because of this, the best course of action after defeating a boss is to immediately return to The Nexus, fall off one of its high ledges, then return to the checkpoint you unlocked after defeating your last Demon.

Have you figured out how the heck World Tendency works yet? Is there anything we might've missed? Let us know in the comments below and check out our Demon's Souls guide where we attempt to answer as many of your questions as we can.