There two states of being in Dark Souls Remastered — Hollow and Human:

• Hollow. Without Humanity, you’re Hollow and you look like a zombie. Hollowness is the default state of being in Dark Souls Remastered. Do nothing, and you’re a Hollow zombie.
  
• Human. Use Humanity, and you can become human. You look like a person, not a raisin.

When you kill something in Dark Souls Remastered, you get Souls. That follows a certain kind of logic: When something dies, Souls leave their body. So if you kill something, its Souls leave its body. The same thing happens to you when you die.

But just having Souls isn’t the same thing as being human. You can be full of Souls and still be Hollow zombie. To become human, you need Humanity.

Humanity is simultaneously a concept (humanity, as in the state of being a human, as opposed to a zombie raisin) and a consumable item (Humanity, the item you carry or earn).

Talking about Humanity (or humanity) gets complicated quickly, which is why we need to add some terms that Dark Souls Remastered doesn’t use. They’ll help you distinguish between everything.

• Regular humanity with a small h, meaning the state of being Human (by definition, the opposite of being Hollow).
  
• “Hard” Humanity, the consumable items Humanity and Twin Humanities in your inventory.
  
• “Soft” Humanity, the number in the circle at the top left of your screen.

All of these concepts are related because you have to use one to become the other.

You can use the “hard” Humanity consumable item (or the Twin Humanities consumable item) to increase the number in the upper left of your screen. In other words, “hard” Humanity (an item) increases your ”soft” humanity (a stat).

Carrying “soft” Humanity grants stat bonuses. The higher that number in the upper left of your screen, the more defense you have against physical and elemental damage, and your Item Discovery stat increases (which means you’re likely to find more items when you defeat enemies).

You lose “soft” Humanity when you die, just like the Souls you’re carrying. You regain it if you reach and interact with your bloodstain — again, just like Souls.

As long as you have “soft” Humanity, you can use it to Reverse Hollowing and become Human, which we’ll cover in the next section below.

Just having “soft” Humanity doesn’t make you human. That number in the upper left of your HUD could be 11, but you may still be a zombie. To become human, you need to rest at a bonfire and select “Reverse Hollowing.” You’ll consume a single “soft” Humanity from the upper left of your screen — 11 will become 10, and you’ll look like a normal person until something kills you and you go back to being a Hollow.

Reverse Hollowing and restore your humanity, and you’ll be able to summon other players into your game. They’ll help you. The downside of restoring your humanity is that it makes you vulnerable to invasion. Other players can appear in your game uninvited and kill you. (Or you could kill them, if you’re good and probably lucky.)

Humanity is a consumable item in Dark Souls Remastered, so its availability is limited. You can get more Humanity in a few ways.

To get more “soft” Humanity (the number in the upper left of your screen), you can:

• Kill enemies in an area before you defeat the area boss.
  
• Use the Humanity consumable item.
  
• Use the Twin Humanities consumable item.
  
• Use the Firekeeper Soul consumable item.
  
• Join another player’s game and help them defeat a boss.
  
• Kill invading spirits.
  
• Kill other players as an invading spirit.

To get “hard” humanity, you can:

• Find it in the world as an item.
  
• Collect it as a drop after killing an enemy.
  
• Earn it after you defeat a boss.