Dark Souls 2: How to gain and lose sin

One of the less talked about aspects of Dark Souls 2 is sinning. When your character earns sin, your character will be open to Invasions from members of the Blue Sentinels covenant, delaying your journey and essentially punishing you for your sins. Sinning is not recorded by any sort of numerical system, but by three stages: no sin, Sinner, and Wretch. You can check the player status menu at any point to check your sin level, and you won’t be open to invasion from Blue Sentinels until you have reached Sinner status.


So how do you know if you’re accumulating sin? Well, there are a few different actions that you can take to becoming a Sinner in Dark Souls 2, and they’re all quite obviously ‘sinful’ actions!

- Killing an NPC
- Invading and killing another player via a Cracked Red Eye Orb

If we think about it in terms of points, with each instance of the above actions being worth one point, it will take 10 points for you to reach the level of Sinner from having no sin. It is as yet unconfirmed how many sinful actions it takes for you to reach the level of Wretch, but we will keep you posted when we find out! It is also worth noting that if you die to a Blue Sentinel invader, it will deduct one ‘point’ of sin, so if you have just reached the Sinner stage, dying to a Blue Sentinel will place you back at the ‘no sin’ level, leaving you at 9 points.

You can also reduce any sin you have accrued with NPCs by speaking to Cromwell and paying him a sum of 1,000 souls multiplied by your level. Take note that this ONLY removes NPC aggression and not your actual sin level, despite the fact that he rather confusingly claims he will remove your ‘sin’.


If you have the Sinner’s Ultra Greatsword, you should be aware that the more sin you accumulate, the weaker this weapon will become.

So what’s the point of becoming a sinner? Generally it is done in order to gain unique items that the NPCs drop upon death, such as their armour and equipment. It is also a way to increase the frequency of invasions if you enjoy PvP play. Is it worth it? We’ll leave that up to you.

If you enjoyed this, you should take a look at some of our other Dark Souls 2 hints tips and guides! 

Dark Souls 2 Magic Guide
Dark Souls 2: How to earn more souls and upgrade your Estus Flask (Video)
Dark Souls 2: Ultimate Bosses Guide