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Yoel of Londor is at Firelink Shrine now, and offering me free levels. Some basic research indicates to me that if I accept them, I'll get a Dark Sigil, which causes me to Hollow on death. And possibly other things.

I've also seen some ways I can rid myself of the Dark Sigil.

I'm curious what the pros/cons are to going down this path. Are they basically free levels if you get the Dark Sigil, level up, and then cure yourself after maxxing out the free levels? Is there an upside to keeping it, or being Hollowed? What are the downsides to be Hollowed?

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Yeah, aside from the appearance, nothing really changes.

All rumors about losing souls if we die with a hollowing level of 99 (which is the max) are FALSE!

I just tried, having a hollowing level of 99, letting myself be killed, and I got all my souls back after retrieving the bloodstain.

So, no downsides apart from the appearance, which can be solved by buying an Untrue Dark Ring from Yuria at the Firelink Shrine after Yoel dies, which allows you to keep a human form even though you're hollow.

And if you want to heal completely, there are several tutorials on Google. But it requires you to pay for as many levels as you gained multiplied by the amount required to level up at your current level.

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  • The Fire Keeper told me it would be 180,000+. So maybe it is tied to level?
    – Yorik
    Commented Apr 19, 2016 at 15:31
  • lvl 96, took me ~300k to heal 99 hollowing. I'm fairly sure it's dependent on level.
    – mmatthews
    Commented May 2, 2016 at 19:01
  • I thought that the hollow level keeps counting deaths after 99, but doesn't display them. The cost to fix is based on that I think. Try checking the cost, then kill yourself a few times and check the cost again. It should go up even though you haven't increased your soul level at all.
    – Telestia
    Commented May 13, 2016 at 12:51
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Hollowing affect weapons with the Hollow Infusion.

Weapons and shields infused with Hollow will boost the wielder's Luck based on the upgrade level and the wielder's hollowing. A wielder with 0 hollowing will receive no additional Luck, regardless of upgrade level.

Source: DS3 Wikidot

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You have to pay the equal amount of souls that you would have payed for the "free" levels from yoel, meaning the max cost is the same as 5 levels.

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No downsides to being hollowed, at least where stats are concerned. Indulging yoel just starts his quest-line and gives you access to more spells over time. If you want his full quest-line, make sure you DON'T heal the your hollowing at all, and check back with him for more levels every few deaths. Yoel's quest leads to some really cool stuff.

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No downsides, but keep if it if you want to progress yoel's questline, unfortunately he died early for me, also healing at the statue of Velka is much cheaper than the fire keeper

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The only downside is appearance and the huge upside is the free luck stat which, when used with bleed, will eliminate opponents and bosses fast.

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If you follow the Lord of Hollows questline from Yeol and Yuria and complete it correctly, you will get the Lord of Hollows ending which gives you the usurpation of fire trophy which is the benefit you require. The con you require would be the change of appearance but you can change that with a ring you get from Yuria. Another benefit would be the free 5 levels. Also following Yuria's questline and killing Orbeck will net you his ashes which you can give to Yuria in exchange for a Morion Blade but there's an alternative way to get his ashes by handing him all 4 scrolls, buying all his spells then he will eventually leave the shrine which allows you to grab his ashes from the grand archives after the twin princes fight. All this is linked to hollowing. 1 more con about being hollow is a hollow weapon can damage you more.

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Other then ugly appearance there is NO reason not to become hollow.There is a statue you can find early in the game for a very cheap hollow cure aswell

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The only negative effect is that your beautiful character you spent hours in the customization screen for will turn into a shriveled up prune. Otherwise, there are no negative effects, unless you decide to reverse the hollowing which will take quite a lot of souls. Being fully hollow allows you to complete Yoel of Londor's questline, gaining five free levels every journey, and allows you to summon NPC phantoms like the Londor Pale Shade for some fights. Unless you really value your fashion souls (not actual souls, just the look of your character), then go hollow, because there are only benefits.

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One of disadvantages of Dark Sigil / Hollowing hit me hard.

If you try to keep your character at some exact level, you can easily lose your Hollowing 99 and mess up your Hollow build. Dark Sigils are removed after going to new NG cycle. And there are few ways to clear your Hollowing status. So if you have Luck 99 Hollowing 99 build and accidentally heal Hollowing, there is no way to restore your build without gaining additional levels. That's how I lost my lvl 125 Hollow Bandit Knife character.

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If your hollow it makes it harder to connect online with people and if your hollow goes to high you lose the ability to summon people but one you get a purging stone you can heal hollowing and your normal again till you die and hollow away

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    I'm not sure you lose the ability to summon people. My hollowing is at 99 (I've died a couple times and it wont go higher than that) and I can still summon other players. Yes, it takes forever, but still possible.
    – Memj
    Commented Apr 17, 2016 at 22:10
  • That would be one explanation why I can't coop very well... If I see summon signs, summoning fails in 99% of the cases. It takes forever to find someone I can actually summon. I thought the games matchmaking was broken.
    – Exa
    Commented Apr 17, 2016 at 22:19
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    I have 99 hollow and can coop/sentinel like crazy. I have "summoning problems" too, but it really seems like other people are jumping on the signs before I can get to them. There are crazy levels of coop currently, I rarely have to wait more than about 10 seconds after dropping my sign on the ground.
    – Yorik
    Commented Apr 19, 2016 at 15:29

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