Belief is game mechanic used in Black & White. It consists of a numeric value which indicates how much belief a certain village has in the god who controls it, or how much of it is needed for a rival god to take control of a village. In villages under control of a player character, belief has a cap of 9500. After that, actions will still show up as yielding belief, but the value on the village center will not increase any further.
By hovering the hand over a village center, the player can have access to information regarding belief in a particular village.
Nearly every act performed by a god or his/her creature while in presence of the villagers will yield some amount of belief. Repeating a same act over and over will yield less and less belief until the act itself becomes unimpressive. At this point, it will not yield belief until some time has passed without the villagers seeing it.
Belief isn't used in Black & White 2.
Gaining Belief[]
As mentioned above, belief can be obtained by nearly every act performed by a god or creature.
Belief itself is influenced by three factors: the impressive act itself (flock miracle is more impressive than throwing a rock, for instance), how much time has passed since the villagers last saw the impressive act (the longer it is, the higher the belief obtained) and how many villagers see it at the same time (once again, the more, the better).
So, the best strategy is to use the most impressive acts sparingly and on a large concentration of villagers.
Tips and Tricks[]
- Artifact rotation is one of the best ways to gain and maintain belief high. The player must have two or more artifacts (preferably large ones, which will yield more belief and if it is indestructible, its even better). Once the player has said artifacts, he can then rotate them between villages, for a huge chunk of belief.
- Most miracles are also impressive, with flock of birds being specifically designed to gain belief. If a village is low on a need which a miracle can take care of, (like miracle food for food desire) this miracle will generally yield more belief than normal.
- Also, if a village is low on food or wood, and the player has enough influence to reach its village store, he/she can pick up 20,000 food/wood (the maximum amount the god hand can carry at once) and dump it all at the village store, yield incredibly high amounts of belief.
- The mere sight of a creature is enough to impress villagers. The larger his size, the better.
- Leashing a creature to a desire flag will cause him to tend to that particular need as best as he knows how.
- The player can tie the creature to the village center with the leash of learning and then leave the hand on top of his/her creature to read its thoughts. If the message "Your creature wants to impress someone" pops up, the player can stroke him to make sure he wants to do that more often. The creature will then dance and cast impressive miracles (if it knows any) on the villagers.
- Good gods can rely on evil miracles to scare villagers instead of attacking them. Casting a mega-blast or fireball that doesn't hurt anyone will not cause an alignment drop and will still impress the villagers. This doesn't work with the Storm miracle, however, as it is always considered evil.
- Tossing rocks, trees and people around can yield a significant amount of belief if enough people see it.
- When a rival creature is on a village, the player can use his own creature to start a fight. The winner will gain belief for his/her god.
- Besides giving belief, shields will prevent enemy gods and creatures from impressing villagers beneath them.
- Enough missionary disciples can be a steady source of belief for a player. These can be created by placing a villager near any rival building other than a village store.