Hero or villain? Honor or glory? It's up to you, so choose wisely.
Using Eye Stones
Please see the Eye Stones page for complete information on using the various Eye Stones for multiplayer modes.
Player vs. Player Strategies
The answer of course is to adapt to the situation. Plan your attacks wisely and don't give the enemy a chance. Even if you are invading another game and the fellow is polite, keep a watchful eye on him. Here are some tips to help keep you going:
Tip #1: What should I be carrying on me?
Healing items are obvious, but do you carry things that cure plague and poison? If you're going to invade, do so. This can be incredibly helpful in case you do get hit with either.
The Phantom's most valuable tool is poison and plague. Now, poison will not deal any damage on its own however it will divide your opponents healing in half! When you have people who carry around tons and tons of dark moon grass, you'll need this if you want to gain the upper hand on them.
Plague on the other hand deals a steady amount of damage per second, which puts pressure on your opponent and will force them to either go back into defensive, or rush into aggressive. Normally people do not carry status-healing items on the quick bar, but it varies from person to person.
A Mercury Rapier and the Baby's Nail are great tools for this. A rapier won't deal much damage but is fast and light, allowing you to get quick stabs on them to apply the poison. The same goes with the baby nail, a few swipes will infect them with plague. If you REALLY want to be a dick, carry a scraping spear with you as well. This spear is terrible for PvE, but in PvP it'll break all of your opponents armor in three to four swipes (depending on the armor)! Not only does this force them to pay a high repair bill (I would know, I've done it a few times myself), but it makes them much easier to kill, maim, and destroy etc.
But later on in the game (Soul Level 100+ or so), the scraping spear really does not do much for you at all since the extremely low damage output really outweighs the fury the other play may have for having a high repair bill.
A shield of course is a must, and I would really suggest a magical-based weapon (such as the Dragon Longsword) and a two-handed weapon (the Stormruler, even with low durability is excellent for this). The longsword can deal a ton of damage if it hits, and the Stormruler will allow you to break past defenses. If your foe has a weaker shield and is heavily armored, you can easily keep them into a knockdown lock by swinging the sword constantly as they attempt to get up. You can't keep all of these equipped obviously, so examine the situation closely. Which brings me to my next point.
Remember, even if you have all the equipment you need in the world, it is worthless if you don't have the skill to use it (no i don't mean attributes, even though they apply). For example, no one wants to die by a Dagger (or a fist) when they are wielding the Keel Smasher, or die by Magic just because they decide to rush in (or stay back) too much. All weapons and equips take skill to use, so get to practicing!
Tip #2: Examine the situation and use the environment.
Even though powerful weapons are incredibly helpful, using your surroundings to your advantage is very valuable as well! Opponent using a 2handed sword? Lure him into a small corridor where he has trouble swinging! Lure them to places where they have to walk as well. Edges and places where you can fall on all sides makes for hectic combat. Just be careful as they have the advantage as well. If you die to anything else but another player as a black phantom, you will lose a soul level. Also if you use a white eye stone to return to your own world you will lose a soul as well. Those dragons in 1-4? If you get burned by them as you chase your foe, say goodbye to your soul level. + annoyingly, if you are banished by the host (by 'banish' miracle) you will also LOSE A SOUL LEVEL
Ideally you want to force them into a situation where they have to brave some dangers to attack you. You know those Soul Remains that you never used before? Here's your chance! If you get far enough in a level you can use the remains to draw the enemies into places your foe wouldn't expect. Lure them to corners and small areas so you can easily gang up. You can also buy some cheap equipment/weapons and drop them on the ground and once he decides to inspect his loot, you can smack him in the face before he can react.
If you can, use other demons to your advantage as well. Wait for them to move in and then nab him while he's busy fighting. Don't worry about striking them either, they won't touch you at all.
Also, be aware of the PvE context, which may give clues how your opponent is prepared (equipment and spells). Many times I have been invaded by a BP in Stonefang 2-2 (one time literally right in front of the Flamelurker fog), and they seemed surprised that Firestorm didn't kill me in one shot. Expect players in 2-2 will have all their best fire resistence ready, and they will probably have Magic offense prepared! As a BP here, using strong Magic attacks and defenses may hit the weak spots of targets optimized for the zone. Any situation where you can watch and gain intelligence on the equipment or spells available to your opponent can allow you to find their weaknesses.
For those on the receiving end of invasion be aware of the warning signs that you are about to have an intruder. If you can't skip a cutscene when you haven't summoned any phantoms or if fog appears between you and the archstone in any stage past the first in each world you are being invaded. So when you see one of those signs take the time you have left to prepare yourself for battle; whether it be re-equiping yourself, prepping an ambush, summoning help, etc. use the time to your advantage.
Tip #3: Use stealth wisely.
I have faced so many players that summon an army of blue phantoms, making it hard to actually nab a hit or two before getting swarmed. This is where stealth is your best bet. A thief ring will make you harder to see by your opponent and, if you yourself are invaded, a Graverobber's ring will make you nigh-invisible to them. Of course because the game gives the player a big warning when you invade, it's very possible for the player(s) to wait at the start of the area and just destroy you as soon as you enter. This is where I suggest wearing light armor before you invade. You can roll past them and hopefully run to where some other enemies are so you can have the advantage.
Use corners as much as possible. You can get a good view of them, but they can't see you at all. Take as much time as you can, the longer you take to actually attack them, the more they start to forget about you and the more paranoid they can get, leading to mistakes. The name of the game is patience, if you take your time you WILL win.
Stealth doesn't just apply to sneaking around corners either. One of the better strategies against an honorable player is to help them kill demons. You build up their trust and act as an additional blue phantom in a sense, just don't hit them. Not yet.
Once you reach an excellent time, betray them! Stab them in the back with your best dagger/sword and go to town! If done right, you can kill them before they even have a chance to react.
Tip #4: Kill some Black Phantoms.
Need to get rid of black phantoms? I've had success in being very aggressive with Black Phantoms. You need to use your advantage: you have either 25% to 50% more HP, and can use two rings without worrying about massive HP penalties for being a soul. You can afford to be more aggressive. You can't be reckless, but you have more room to pursue them when they want a heal. You may also want a good ranged attack to spam on people trying to back away and heal (Firespray is good—they can't chew herbs if they're being bombarded by fireballs by an enemy who is quickly approaching).
Try to capitalize on this advantage however you can. When the phantom invades, equip so that you can press the attack. Go for efficient stamina use (Ring of Eternal Warrior is great for this), weapons with good horizontal swipes and good range that are harder to dodge, and the highest defense you can get without sacrificing mobility (Ring of Great Strength is great for this). Use spells to increase your already significant advantage in straight combat—One Time Revival is generally your best bet since the fight is apt to last longer than Total Protection, but Total Protection can be better if the Phantom's ability to flee or drag out the fight is limited by cramped spaces.
Mobility is important because Black Phantoms will often use trickery or mobility to their advantage since they know they will be at a disadvantage in a straight up fight. If you can move at full speed in heavy armor, you may surprise your opponent when he guesses you are slow and tries to run — I've scored victories by running down such opponents. Be very aware that the Black Phantom starts behind you and will want to get farther in the level so he can set up a trap. Either wait at a choke point with good mobility and a weapon/spell that is not easy to run around, and/or be sure that any dangerous enemies that might be used against you are already dead.
You should also be as stealthy as him; use the Graverobber's Ring plus the Thief Ring to make it more likely that you get the jump on your enemy and can fight him head-on, where you have the advantage. You might also use the Hide spell (or the Blueblood sword, which does the same thing) or Subdue Soul for extra stealth.
Finally, be aware of the tactical situation. For example, many weapons do lots of magic damage that get through most shields. To be safe, if you plan on blocking with a shield and don't have many other defensive options due to terrain (see: World 5), make it one resistant to magic.
Tip #5: I'm playing with Veterans and they are destroying me! I want to destroy others too! Advice PLEASE?
Bear with me this will be long. This is for PvP for veterans in the game with access to most of the upgrades and weapons in the game. (You may add on if you like, just add your name to the list of contributors and create a list of your own below!).
(My ideal Soul level for duels is around 100-120. That's where builds become noticeable and the fights are reasonably of skill and weaponry.)
Ideas Submitted by:
-Insanity
OFFENSE
-Later on in the game, range melee becomes the one of the most important fighting styles in the game. A long weapon with high speed dominates melee (unless you suck at timing or you are just slow in general).
-One Time Revival, ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY! This adds 50% more life to you, actually, even more so since you survive one fatal attack! Make you have this on you at all times. Some may say "Total Protection Rocks! It is way better than Revival!" Again this all opinionated, but trust me. You would rather have a revival spell then a limited protection spell. Once that protection wears off you become very squishy (or as weak as normal without the spell).
-Moral plays a huge role in the game. Play it safe, don't get cocky and over-confident. You can lose to someone who is living on his last drop of blood.
-Bows are nearly useless unless it is for fun or sneak attacks.
-Uchigatana upgrades with high Dex do massive damage for quick speeds (yeah yeah go Samurai on their asses). This katana actually has a faster start up time for swinging in the offhand (left). So if you equip one on the left hand the swing is nearly instantaneous, faster then the main hand swing.
-Rapiers are only for the skilled because of their extremely short range. But on the plus side they can attack with a shield up, they use very little stamina, and some can even do a lot of damage.
-Daggers are good for harassing, backstabbing, and the lucky riposte (i really mean LUCKY because of the inevitable lag between two players). Other then that they are not to be relied on unless you want to piss the other guy off or plan to lose your souls (and life, or ethereal form).
-Straight Swords are the same as daggers, except their stabbing is a whole lot stronger then their slash. Their two-hand style of attack, though, is underestimated.
-Large Swords are fast (when held in both hands) and have a long range. They are ideal weapons for those wishing to do the dodgeroll-slash (this means that you do the regular slash, not the one where you roll the slide the sword on the ground, it is the standing slash). The Claymore is, in my opinion, the best of them all for its unreal range (i do mean unreal, try it for yourself, you wont believe it too, at first of course).
-Keel Smasher. Super Strong and it makes people fly (mostly off edges of course). Otherwise it is use to knock people down and keeping them on the floor. The most effective use is the running strike where you swing the "blade" left to right in a sliding kind of way. That attack knocks them down. It is nearly immune to shields so swing away.
-Meat Cleaver is the way to go for those who like to "whore" STR and DEX attributes. The way people use the cleaver is the roll strike. It is so fast and has such range that you are likely to hit someone, so long as you roll correctly and know your distances. The roll strike is basically stabbing the sword into the ground, which produces a small AOE effect. It is nearly instantaneous.
-Ahh, the Miridan Hammer, the scariest weapon someone can hold. This weapon, when upgraded fully and has tons of boosts from attributes, is both extremely powerful and extremely fast when held in both hands. The range on this "hammer" is longer then on may realize since the tip counts as full damage (even a bit longer then the tip). I have seen many different setups made to try and counter this, the only one I can be confident of using is the Keel Smasher, since it has knockdown and doesn't allow him to spam me with regular attacks.
-Baby's Nail is for putting on plague, nothing else.
-Brand is not worth using for the weight, unless your crazy or a pro.
-Fists are for FUN, not for serious use. Unless you a blue phantom or in a team against black phantoms, dont plan to use your fists other then to beat on people less experienced then you.
-For the opponents that use shields, pop out Blind from Selen. They can't block it, so keep spamming!
-Magic Users are also scary. They may seem easy at first, until you get hit. Once you get hit by that spell, your mostly going to say (or think) "OMG hella strong!" This applies to those who really upgraded their magic, but if they didn't then go to town with them.
-For those planning on using magic, Fireball, Firestorm, Rage of God, Soul Light, Moving Soul Arrow, etc. are all good spells to use. Fireball's splash does wonders if used right and Firestorm saves you if your opponent is very close to you. Make sure you keep a weapon in one hand because you may need it to fend off your opponent just in case you need to eat a spice or just lay some harassment on him. Be careful if you pumped magic, you might be squishy if you don't have good armor/endurance/defense.
-Cursed Weapon (Weapon Enhancing Magic) is very useful and is used often to add damage. It may make the difference from killing the person in three blows to killing the person in two (believe me it makes ALL the difference).
-Many Hardcore players don't use armor, either for aesthetic use, to free up equip weight, or to just look pro. If you are not planning to use armor, be sure of the disadvantages when doing so: You can die in one hit by a very strong weapon. Your squishy. You might become an herb spammer (or user if you are good enough not use it with armor on). Magic still destroys you. If your naked, you show too much skin and become a cause of distraction (and maybe the target of attack).
-Pro-Tip! Non-Locking. Learn to hit people without lock. This solely depends on the weapon though because most need lock to hit someone. But the bigger weapons (Keel and Meat Cleaver) are best used without lock. Practice required!
-Another Pro-Tip! Back-Stab Whores! Remember that backstabs do a lot of damage, and even better knock down the opponent. But be careful, backstabs are double-edged swords that require a lot of skill and timing to use. Best is to learn to Non-Lock before you start backstabbing occasionally. And yes, you can backstab someone that is locking onto you, you just cant be locked onto them for it to be effective (I have backstabbed people with lock on and them locking onto me, but those were few and far between). I'm not going to reveal all of the details because this is a veteren tip that guys like us don't want everyone to learn or it will start to get annoying. Learn it yourselves by either facing us or learning from others (AND practice).
-Riposte is near useless in lag, don't try it often.
-Against popular (American) opinion:
Speed »»»> Everything Else.
Defense
-Remember the 5 D's of Demon's Souls: Dodge, Dodge, Dodge, Dodge, and Die (just kidding, its Dodge). Learn to roll effectively because that is a key part in the game. Don't even attempt to roll when your equip weight is over 50% of your max. Rolling is most (and maybe only for dodging) effective when you can move quickly. Rolling also links to a few useful attacks from some weapons, but most do not have that great of attacks that come from a roll. Learn how far each roll goes because the next bullet is the key to survival.
-Timing. This game is ALL about timing. If you miss your rolls by a fraction of a second (or even in a millisecond) it could mean your death. Rolling determines if you live through a Firestorm (or any attack) or get hit (or die) by it. Timing needs practice and decent memorization. I have killed many people with the Keel Smasher just because they time their attacks wrong or they decide to stand too close to the edge. The window for backstabbing someone that is locking on you is solely dependent on when you click R1 during the few frames where you are behind the guy (the more lag someone has, the larger the window). Now to move on to the next bullet for pros.
-Locking is not only used for linking attacks on the opponent easier, it is also for your OWN PROTECTION. You should not lock onto someone unless you need to face them while regaining stamina or the like. Locking on to them restricts your movements to face him and your running flexibility. Lock onto them when you need to attack or protect yourself from a backstab.
-Don't be slow! The slower you are, the easier you are to kill. It doesn't matter if you packing Brushwood and Towers and Giant Swords. If your slow a naked "ninja" can easily destroy you.
-The shield is very opinionated and varies between people. But most of the people I have seen do not use shields because they just go two-handed or dual wielding (rapiers and spears are exceptions). The only shield worth putting on, in my opinion, is the Adjucator's Shield +3(+). With the health regeneration you can slowly recover health by being sissy and gnawing at his health a little at a time. This may not help for stronger weapons but for smaller weapons it may make a difference (you might not have to use herbs).
-Don't face your back against any opponent. Most likely they will kill you by sticking their pointy (or blunt) thingy into your squishy behind and leaving you on the ground to moan and to slowly rise for another smacking. The only exception to this rule is Non-locking, but only giving our backs away at far distances.
The Good Black Phantom
Please see the Online page for co-op play involving Black Phantoms.
Common PVP builds
Here are some of the more common PVP builds you will encounter online:
Note: Online players don't fight fair, so they will make use of the de-level trick to lower their useless stats, e.g. Luck to -99 and put the extra points in stats that strength their build.
*ADDITIONAL NOTE* The deleveling exploit has been patched, so don't expect to run across this too often. Expect more conventional builds (Pumped up Faith + Large Sword of Moonlight, Clever Rat's Ring + Morion Blade, etc.)
Complete Protection (Garl Vinland build)
Vitality 99, Strength 99, Luck -99.
1900 HP (usually the host)
99 Dark Moon Grass
Full set of Dark Silver Armor.
Dark Silver Shield +5
Weapon choice varies: Usually a weapon that knock you down.
Keel Smasher +5, Brand +5, Meat Cleaver, etc
Strengths: Immune to physical and magical damage; very tough to defeat.
Weakness: Scraping Spear, Acid Cloud, and any heavy knockdown weapon.
Firestorm Mage
Magic 99, Faith 99, Luck -99
Talisman of Beast. Ring of Magical Sharpness, Kris Knife +5. Monk's Head Collar
Spells: Moving Soul Arrows, Firestorm.
Strengths: Strong magic.
Weakness: Anti-Magic Field
Ambush build
Magic 99, Faith 99, Luck -99
Talisman of Beast. Ring of Sincere Prayer, Clever Rat's Ring, Morion Blade.
Main spell: Rage of God
Hide and cast Rage of God when the host player is near. (This will also hit the player through walls)
Ambush Points:
- Summoned as the Black Phantom Boss by the Monk. when the host player is near, cast Rage of God to kill him/her before they can react.
- Stonefang elevators, tunnels
- Etc.
k
Tactical Defence
Used by low levels 20 - 100 (or if you wish higher but i would not suggest it) 100 is high enough
Stat Building
Endurance: Main Stat - you want this high so you can block the players attacks and and when you want to
Vitality: 2nd Stat - just so you can take a lot of hits (if your not blocking at the time) always good to have!
Strength: 3rd stat - we all know what Strength is used for
(Rest of stats): 4th - just have fun with these but don't go to deep into them
Weapon of Choice: (Scraping Spear) - Ive notice that Spears and shield are top PvP Items and the Scraping Spear is very Tactical for Damaging Durability so if they have a shield out use this weapon… if not use a different spear (one with high damage).You can block while you attack. this is why you want good Endurance and Vitality at the start. so you can take hits and in return.
Shield of Choice: (Steel Shield) or (Tower Shield) - I recommend Steel Shield over the Tower shield but if you don't want to dodge and just stand there, Tower shield is a good choice! ( these shields so be at a lower level. Once you get to 5-3 and kill Garl Vinland… I would suggest the (Dark Silver Shield) (but get high enough Endurance so when they hit you while your blocking, your not left Breathless as this shield has low Hit Res compared to the two other shields…)
Rings for Soul form: Cling Ring (A MUST HAVE) and (Eternal Warrior's Ring) or if you have the Tower shield, go for (Dull Rat's Ring or Ring of Great Strength) just to move and dodge quickly!!!
Rings for Human form: for more Endurance use (Eternal Warrior's Ring) and (Regenerator's Ring) or instead of Regen you could go for the (Ring of Magical Dullness) as magic will be your weakness
or
go for both HP Below 30% Rings (Clever Rat's Ring and Dull Rat's Ring) they do help in tight situations!!!
BUT… if you have the (Tower Shield) go straight for (Ring of Great Strength and Ring of Magical Dullness) for Magic seems to be a weakness for MOST shields that are not Dark!!!
REMEMBER: this strategy is all about Defence and waiting to attack NOT the other way around.
HAVE FUN WITH DESTROYING SHIELDS LOL. PEACE OUT
