How to Beat Black Phantoms in Dark Souls

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Quick intro – I love Dark Souls. I think it's amazingly challenging.

The only problem is I get killed so much by invading Phantoms that I hardly play in Human Form enough to enjoy the whole mechanic.

Typically, I've found Phantoms entering my world will occasionally use very advanced magic or have really powerful weapons. Keeping my character < lvl10 does not seem to stop the Phantoms.

Kicking a Black Phantom off a cliff, while an incredibly satisfying way to win a fight, kind of sucks too because you don't get the souls.

So, guys, how do you do it? How do you defend yourself against Black Phantoms?

Best Answer

There are two "danger" zones when it comes to being invaded:

Right around beginning level, from around SL1 to SL10. At this range, you are in danger of being invaded by specially-designed PvP builds, particularly min-maxing Pyromancers. These players take advantage of the relative lack of skill in newcomers and overwhelm them with specially made PvP builds.
SL40 is where many other PvP builds will max out. You generally won't have as much a problem with these invaders as they tend to hang around end-game areas.

As for surviving invaders, there are several methods. If you can, recruit other players by interacting with their soapstone signs. White signs will summon White Phantoms while golden signs will summon members of the Sunlight Covenant. It really doesn't matter which kind of Phantoms you summon, although members of the Sunlight Covenant (Sunbros) are often considered more skilled and generally have experience with aiding other players.

By summoning allied Phantoms, you have already increased your chances of survival. Black Phantoms can only invade one at time so outnumbering them is a good way to kill them. Don't forget to use Estus Flasks when you have allied Phantoms as they cannot use theirs, but your Estus Flask will recover their health as well.

When you get the message that you are being invaded, don't go searching for the Black Phantom. Often, these invaders are skilled at PvP and will take every advantage they can, commonly lying in wait in areas that easily catch other players off guard. Rather, find a defensible location and wait there. Eventually, the Black Phantom will grow restless and start looking for you, which gives you the advantage.

Related Solutions

Dark Souls – How to Sell Items

There is an NPC, Kingseeker Frampt, that will consume your items in exchange for souls. He appears near the Firelink Shrine after you have rung the two bells. So yes, there is a way to sell item, but not until later in the game.

However, there is almost no limit to the number of items you can have in your inventory (see this question Is there a limit to the number of item in inventory?). You can hold up to 1984 different items in your inventory, and if you purchase the Bottomless Box, from a merchant in the Depth, you can store all those items in it and have a manageable inventory.

However, I think you should just drop the duplicate items because the resell value is really low. This table, from one of the Dark Souls wiki, shows how many souls you'll gain from each class of item:

Weapons                    50
Armor                      100
Dung Pie                   200
Cracked Red Eye Orb        500
Copper Coin                1000
Some unique items          5000

Even if you resell 1000 longswords, you'll only gain 50000 souls. Compared to the time it will take you to sell all of them, and to manage your inventory, I think it is not a good trade-off. There are quicker ways farm souls.

During your second play through, reselling some of the unique items may be a cheap way to get some souls. However, reselling basic items does not seem interesting to me.

How to provide hints in Dark Souls

In order to provide hints you'll need the Orange Guidance Soapstone:

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You can buy this from the Undead Merchant in the Undead Burg, near the first bonfire in the area, for 100 souls:

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The soapstone behaves like a consumable item with an unlimited number of uses. So in order to use it you need to equip it to one of your item slots, than active it with "square" (on the PS3) to use it. This will give you the option to either write a message, delete one of your messages, or rate another users message.

Best Answer

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Dark Souls – How to Sell Items

How to provide hints in Dark Souls

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