Starting Dream of the Wise - share some knowledge with me

[devious goon]

Now with Ethereal equipment and graces it feels like the real game is beginning, what are all the other additions of this difficulty I should know about and also how should I farm ethereal items/drops? Also curious about how exactly inheritables work and what the deal is with star effects

[Angel]

ah dream of the wise has some of my favorite graces, susano and tsukuyomi

[xr ඞ]

Graces play a bigger part and build/jutsu usage becomes more important. You can still finish the game all up to Dream of the Nioh without a build of any kind, but it does help.

There's really no need to farm ethereals, unless you want to farm for something special.

Inheritables are just stats that can be transferred to other items, if the item with the inheritable has max familiarity. Orange ones are different in that they are transferred to become a "normal" stat that can later be tempered. Just keep in mind that it can't be in conflict with any stats that are already on the weapon.

[Safarel]

At dream of the wise all enemies (literally everyone, bosses including) getting a some new movies in their moveset, so they could impress you

On dream of the wise and above it's really important to have on items or scrolls starred or common effects "extended curse removing"

[Simbolic]

Think that equipment generally drops the most off the cursed enemies the ones that glow purple.
Also not wrong I felt like DOTW started to really turn up the heat. So can feel like you are finally getting started.

[Mander]

Old enemies, empowered by curses, should begin to spawn in new locations.
You make a turn, expecting the old Bonedaddy you're familiar with, with sword and bow, but you find the Heavy Metal Bonnie, with a hammer that pairs really nice with your face.
Counter them at the right time to dispel the curse, or get killed really fast and in a nasty way. On “Dream of the Nioh”, it’s the same, but worse.

In dream of the wise (and the nioh), the drop of graces is utterly random (but it should be piloted enough: basically, the game tends to help you finishing a set of graces you’re wearing). Only in the Underworld (it will be opened for you once you begin Dream of the Nioh), the loot depends on the “circle of hell” you are. Also, they add more ethereal graces to the loot table.

Star effects, if memory serves, are empowered stats: basically, stronger than normal modifiers to a weapon/ piece of armor property.

Inheritable.
Utterly random drop (but consistently encountered more often the deeper you go in the Underworld) are orange stats with a “I>” before their description. Once the familiarity of the piece of loot with an inheritable is maxed out, you can soul match it to another compatible piece of loot, transferring the inheritable to the donor.
Mind the compatibilities of inheritable with preexisting stat tho! You can’t add multiple bonuses of the same type on a weapon. Therefore: always “preview” the potential result of soul matching before wasting rare pieces of loot..