Burning Bonfire Ascetic multiple times in the same bonfire will increase difficulty each and every time?

Question

The title is self-explanatory. I'm wondering what happens if I burn Bonfire Ascetic multiple times in the very same bonfire.

Answer 1

It will continue to increase the difficulty of the area permanently. All Enemies will return to 'full health' even if they had not yet despawned. This carries across playthroughs as well. If you beat the game and end up in NG+, that area will also respawn as 1 more '+' than it was before. So if you had burned two Ascetics in your first playthough it will be NG+++ in your NG+ playthrough.

Answer 2

To add to Reafexus' answer, you can see the level of the bonfire in the travel menu. There will be a little number in the bottom right corner of the thumbnail for the bonfire indicating the bonfire's 'intensity'. Burning an ascetic increases this intensity by one permanently. Starting an NG+ raises every bonfire's intensity by one. These two effects stack. So, if you burn an ascetic at Crestfallen's Retreat (for whatever reason) in NG, it's intensity will raise to two. Then starting an NG+ will raise every bonfire to two, and that one to three.

Answer 3

To add to the previous two answers, it does continue to increase the difficulty, but only to a certain point, at which difficulty remains static. This point is when the counter reaches 8, I believe. That's either NG + 7, or burning a Bonfire Ascetic 7 times (or some combination of the two). Past this point, burning Ascetics will respawn despawned enemies, but will not increase their difficulty, as this is (and has always been across the Souls series) the difficulty cap.