In Dark Souls keeping Humanity is crucial for all the trophy hunters who want to get their hands on the rare items that would only drop off bosses that you defeat in your human form. You start as a hollow in Dark Souls, your stats are cut, and your item discovery is the minimum in hollow form.
In order to become human, you need to defeat a semi-boss and get a humanity point. Once you have received a humanity point, visit a bonfire and click Reverse Hollow to get your human form.
Once human, your item discovery is increases and there are more chances that a rare item would drop off a bosses when you defeat them. The amount of Humanity that you have is shown by a number in the top left corner of your HUD.
You can consume items to increase that number but you also put it at risk by doing so since upon death, you will drop your humanity and your Souls, which increases the price of dying twice.
You can also choose to Kindle any bonfire by spending Humanity Point there in human form. This increases the maximum number of ‘Swigs’ your Estus Flask recovers from staying at that fire. In human form, you can summon phantoms for guidance but you are also vulnerable to the attacks of hostile Black Phantoms.
The level of humanity increases your resistance to being cursed and item drop rate. Each humanity held raises the item drop number by 5, but as your level of humanity raises higher, the resulting increase in item drop rate decreases.
Your level of Humanity also affects the damage of various items/spells that do chaos damage. These items and magic spells do maximum damage at Level 10 Humanity.
How To Earn Humanity ?
There are several ways you can earn Humanity in Dark Souls. Kill Evil Spirits – invading player or invade other Worlds. Help other players and if your hints get voted up, you earn humanity.
When the boss is alive, kill all the enemies in that area and you can earn up to Level 10 Humanity but remember, dying and using the bonfire or leaving the area will not reset your monster kill count for that area.
If killing is not your thing, I mean I can hardly imagine someone playing Dark Souls and not into killing but still, If you don’t want to take on bosses and monsters, you can buy Humanity from Merchants or loot other enemies and you may get lucky. Humanity can also be found as a consumable item, Sewer Rats drop it.
You can store these consumables and the best part is, they aren’t lost when you die. Consuming these items will restore your health, so having a stock of these can really help fight a bad-ass monster or big boss. Finally, you get humanity for killing a boss.
How To Regain Your Humanity ?
When you die, you lose all your humanity and you only have one chance to retrieve it. To regain your lost humanity you need to reach your bloodstain. You will find your bloodstain where your death occurred.
When you die as a human, you respawn as a hollow. When you are hollow, another player in another World can summon you to assist as a Phantom. Your stats are decreased in hollow form but your health is maximum. Regain your humanity by reaching your bloodstain and get the human form by visiting the bonfire nearby.