What's the best amount of "humanity" to play with?

[Xanta Xlaus]

Hi, following problem:

I just rang the 2nd bell,
but I still run around with the axe from the beginning of the game
(I started as bandit).

I barley get any good loot.
And the loot that I got, I cannot use right now due to lacking attribute points.

I know that you get more loot when you're human and got humanity points.
But I only got so little humanity to use in my inventory and I don't want to waste it and lose it all the time.

Someone got any advice for this dilemma (except git gud)?

[Scraps]

I personally only go around with 0-2 humanity throughout my first playthrough, since I tend to give 30 humanity to both Chaos Servants and Darkwraiths, and the rest goes into kindling bonfires.

Subsequent playthroughs though, the softcap for humanity bonuses is at 10 humanity, any more and I believe it only increases your Curse resistance.
EDIT: It's also good to run around hollow throughout the first point of the game because of twinks. Only time I'd go human is if I intentionally want to ♥♥♥♥ with them via NPC summons or racing them to the fog wall via Ring of Fog.

[Xanta Xlaus]

Originally posted by Sassy Rat Dude:

I tend to give 30 humanity to both Chaos Servants and Darkwraiths

What's the benefit of that?

And do you go with humanity to a new area or did you first explore it and then came back with some humanity on you?

[NightmareGats]

with 10 humanity, your item discovery is 210 ( maximum 410 with a certain ring and "helmet" ) above 10 you don't get more item discovery, just more curse resist and defense ( with 99 you get 50 defense in all categories).
So, it's good to saty with 10 soft humanity :D

[Scraps]

Originally posted by Xanta Xlaus:

Originally posted by Sassy Rat Dude:

I tend to give 30 humanity to both Chaos Servants and Darkwraiths

What's the benefit of that?

And do you go with humanity to a new area or did you first explore it and then came back with some humanity on you?

Just get everything from those covenants, Chaos Servants at rank 2 have Chaos Storm and a potential ally on the final boss, Darkwraiths have the full red-eyed orb (10 humanity), Dark Set, and Dark Sword.

as for the second question, depends on the area. High invasion areas like Undead Burg or Anor Londo I walk around Hollow and explore later, weaker areas like Blighttown and the Catacombs I tend to walk around human.

[Velasiped]

As far as I remember 30 humanity for chaos servant gives access to shortcut in Izalith and chaos fireball pyromancy.

[RedPhosphorus]

10 for item discovery, 30 for defense, anything beyond that is a bit overkill, but it can't hurt. I'd say that "more is always better" when you're considering humanity, so the best number is 99.

[Xanta Xlaus]

Thanks :D
It's not like I don't want to get a nice degree of humanity, but it is not so easy to come by.

Or I have to farm it somewhere.

I would like to read more advice online, but I always feel so incredible noobish when I read in a walkthrough or in a wiki... and in the next moment I feel pissed again because i died due to a lack of knowedge

P.S. I never noticed that steam auto-censors swearing... damn

[Scraps]

I think it should be worth noting that Chaos weapons (Including Quelaag's Furysword, Chaos Blade, and Demon weapons) all scale with Humanity with the cap at 10 humanity.

[RedPhosphorus]

The rats in The Depths will drop humanity, so you can spend some time there "farming". Additionally, the undead babies in Tomb of the Giants have a high humanity drop rate, and the humanity ghosts in the Chasm of the Abyss will drop humanity, so you have some options to acquire the stuff in abundance.

[Jamchow]

99

[Ixen]

I'll add this: as much as you feel comfortable losing.

[The Fountaineer 🖋]

99 if you want some comfy extra defenses, but if you're not good enough to defend yourself then you might as well only go with the amount you need for a bonfire or something.

[nomoreblues]

Originally posted by Xanta Xlaus:

Hi, following problem:

I just rang the 2nd bell,
but I still run around with the axe from the beginning of the game

I barley get any good loot.
And the loot that I got, I cannot use right now due to lacking attribute points.

that's fine. It's more about upgrading just any weapon than finding "good loot". All the really good weapons can be found without much fuss and guaranteed, they also don't need very high stats (halberd, claymore, zweihander, longsword).
by now you should be able to modify at a certain blacksmith any weapon until +10 (later until+15).
Find one weapon u like to do that.

why do you think you need extra humanity for counter, what do u want look for as "loot"?

-> turn human to kindle bonfires for more estus is never wrong

[Time Nomad]

As far as I know, there is no reason for intentionaly having >0 humanity (in PvE runs), unless you're either using any chaos weapon(or some boss weapon which has a humanity scaling) or farming some item. In both of these cases, 10 humanity is optimal. Also, 1 humanity is good at farming, when you're low on humanity(increases item discovery by whooping 50 points).