Demon's Souls for PS5 guide: World Tendency explained

Demon's Souls has been released for the PS5 and while new players will be able to grasp many of the mechanics without much help, there is a feature called World Tendency that can be difficult to understand at best. At worst, figuring out how it works is an absolute mess. The thing is, many of the game's most interesting secrets, from special items to NPCs, are locked behind having a particular Tendency. Fortunately, we're here to explain how the system works and what you need to do to achieve your desired World Tendency.

Demon's Souls PS5 World Tendency explained

Demon's Souls PS5 World Tendency

World Tendency slides on a scale of Pure Black to Pure White. It's a kind of morality system that measures the affect your actions have had on the world. By achieving a Pure Black or Pure White world, you'll unlock special pathways, items and NPCs that aren't available otherwise. You can check this tendency by looking at the eye sigil for the Archstone of your choosing under the Tendency. We're still verifying that nothing has changed from the original game in regards to what is unlocked, so we'll be updating this shortly with confirmation.

There's actions you can take to increase White Tendency:

1. Kill Bosses in any of the Archstones. Being summoned and helping that way counts.
2. Kill unique Black Phantom NPCs.
3. Kill Primeval Demons.
4. Kill invading Black Phantom players.

There's also things you can do to increase Black Tendency:

1. Kill unique NPCs.
2. Die while in Human Form.

Demon's Souls PS5 Character Tendency

Character Tendency also scales from Pure Black to Pure White. Unlike the World Tendency, this is specific to your character's morality and as such, it doesn't affect as many different things. By achieving Pure Black or Pure White, you can speak to The Monumental in The Nexus and get a unique ring, the Foe's Ring or Friend Ring, respectively. Both rings are needed for the "King of Rings" gold trophy.

Your attack power in Soul Form is also increased at Pure White, while Pure Black will unlock a special NPC in The Nexus after killing Yurt, the Silent Chief. Her name is Mephistopheles and she has a sinister line of tasks for you.

To trend towards Pure White, you'll need to kill online invading Black Phantoms or special Black Phantom NPCs. Meanwhile, to trend towards Pure Black, you kill living NPCs.

Armed with knowledge

In our review, we stated that Demon's Souls is an excellent remake and one of the main reasons to grab a PS5 right now, even if World Tendency could be explained better. Now that you know how to affect Tendency, you'll understand why the world or your character is trending a particular way.