DRAW OUT YOUR STRENGHT?

[Raskurotina]

Should are do it? What are draw backs?
Nothing in dark souls comes for free :P

[boo]

you get a dark sigil in you inventory for each time you draw out true strength. it basicly gives you 1 level up per 2 deaths so after suiciding 2 times you can visit him again for another free level up up to 5 times. you turn more and more hollow and this can only be cured by giving the firekeeper soul to the fire keeper and paying 5 levels worth of souls to her. you have to turn hollow for the secret ending.

drawbacks: you look ugly

[Star-X]

Drawback is you gain hollowing, which gives you access to the Usurpation of Fire ending, among other things, but makes you look like a crispy critter.

If you wear armour that obscures your skin, there are literally no downsides, as the crispiness is only visible on exposed skin. If not, however, there are workarounds. Yuria of Londor, who shows up after drawing your strength out 5 times, has a ring for sale that bypasses the hollow look. She also sells purging stones, which, in DaS3, simply restore the hollowing count to 0 (though dying repeatedly will get it back up there). Finally, when you obtain a Firekeeper's Soul (obtained through a room that is accessable after buying a 20k soul key from the shrinemaiden), you can get rid of the Dark Sigils that drawing out your strength gives you, but doing so will make Yuria hostile and make the Usurpation of Fire ending impossible, so save that for a second or third playthrough. Incidentally NG+ resets the Dark Sigils to 0, so that is another option.

[Raskurotina]

ok thanks, so no harm for first playthrought to get all 5 lvles.
I ds2 if i am not mistaken we were losing max hp?

thank you for answers. Have a nice day.

[boo]

Originally posted by Raskurotina:

ok thanks, so no harm for first playthrought to get all 5 lvles.
I ds2 if i am not mistaken we were losing max hp?

thank you for answers. Have a nice day.

no, no harm at all. gl with your first playthrough if you need any help just message me :)

[John]

Basically it progresses the storyline of Yoel. Sorry that some a-s-s just spoiled it all for you but you probably came prepared for that anyway. Do know that this questline involves another and their endings are mutually exclusive, you should recognize it when you progress.
Gameplay wise, each time you draw strength, you gain a free level and a dark sigil. Dark Sigils each inflicts 1 level of Hollowing every time you die. (i.e. you get 5 Hollowing when you die with 5 Dark Sigils) The only penalty for hollowing is that you look absolutely horrible (and cast no shadow).
Dark Sigil can be cured but the cost is the equal amount of souls you were spared from the free levels. Hollowing can be reversed by praying at Velka's statue (the price is based on your soul level), or using a Purging Stone which can be acquired mainly from a vendor.