Phantom Of The Dark Hollow

[Agnella Datson]

Back in Dark Souls, being a white phantom that helped to kill a boss gave you a significant amount of reward. Not only did you get the souls of the monsters you helped to kill, you got half the souls of the boss you killed, a sun token if you had a person from that covenant, and you got humanity for your troubles. At least I'm pretty sure that those were the benefits.

Now, in Dark Souls 2, it seems you still get tokens (either sunlight or fidelity), but you don't always get your humanity back. There were a number of times I remember finishing a boss with a group of people and I would go from hollow to human. There were other times that I stayed hollow.

From what research I did on the internet, it sounds like FromSoftware didn't intend you to get humanity back from helping to kill a boss, or even beating a boss in your own game session. So, that leaves Human Effigies the only way of going back to human. And with them being a very limited commodity, I question if there will be enough for one play-through in the game.

Since Patch 1.03 the bug of randomly getting human form back after multiplayer sessions has been fixed. According to the patch notes, you now get some humanity back for helping others as a white phantom, meaning your health penalty will decrease. When all your health is back, you will regain your human form (I have just tested this). This means you are no longer dependent on human effigies to get your humanity back in online mode.

Before Patch 1.03, you got revived by playing co-op at random. It does not matter whether you defeat the boss or die, sometimes you will return to your world revived, although you placed your summon sign hollowed.

There are several rumours on the internet, that it gets less likely to revive the more often you fight the boss, or that the amount of human effigies you have has an influence on your chances to revive, but they are wrong.

I once got revived although the summoner died in a boss fight, and once it took six times killing a boss and then only one time killing the same boss to revive, although the circumstances had not changed.

This random procedure indicates, that you are not actually meant to revive. In From Software's twitter post, that has been partially translated at reddit, it has been confirmed, that phantoms reviving is a bug and not actually supposed to happen:

Human effigies are limited in Dark Souls 2, as long as you don't use Bonfire Ascetics, which practically turn areas into New Game + difficulty, but as long as you use them rarely and with care, you shouldn't run out of them. You can find a lot of them as treasure and they also drop from (limited) enemies. For more information on that, see How do I farm Human Effigies?.

Should you find yourself running out of effigies anyway, you can either try to find the Ring of Life Protection, which makes you practically immortal as it can be repaired, or you could try to get summoned and ask other players through private messages to give you an effigy.

In the Shrine of Amana, there is an altar you can pray to and you can become human. After you defeat the boss, proceed to the right and follow this path. Take another right and you'll come to a staircase leading to a door. It only becomes unlocked if you're hollow. Follow this path and you will come across the alter. To become human, a few things are required. You must have talked to the Milfanito (the woman before boss) so she disappears. You must also not have killed any of the other singing women in the Shrine of Amana. Also, you must not have a high Sin level and have no Human Effigies in your inventory or your item box.

A panting coyote sat on his house at a little distance, watchingthe pair, and vaguely conscious that he was very hungry;a mule-rabbit under an adjacent tiny shrub tremblingly watchedthe coyote, starting violently at the slightest movement ofthe latter; and a huge yellow serpent, long and supple,dragged his scaly body up the bluff toward the rabbit.

He soon saw it. On the barren banks he could have seena mouse at a long distance. The object he saw was the exactreverse of that diminutive quadruped, being a large, stalwart,swarthy man, on a large black horse.

He appeared suddenly, riding over the crest of an adjacenthillock. He stopped on the summit, glared keenly around,then rode down into the river. He stopped in the river wherethe thirsty horse drank greedily. Then, after dismountingand drinking deeply himself, he boldly rode up the oppositebank.

Riding up the bank, he halted and sat for a moment buriedin profound thought. He was a Mexican, a giant in proportions.His visage was that of a crafty, wily man, and hiskeen black eye was one that never quailed. His dress wassimple, being in the American manner, of well dressed buck-skin.He however still clung to his sombrero, which, insteadof being cocked jauntily on the side of his head, was drawndown over his eyes to shield them from the hot sun. Hiswhole equipment was that of a mounted ranger, and this styleof dress has so often been described as to be familiar to all.

The sun gleamed redly through the haze as Pedro lookednorthward, with his raven eye toward the spectered Land ofSilence. It was an ill-fated land. Many dark and mysteriousdeeds had taken place there, many deeds of which theworld would never know. Indians and hunters avoided itand deemed it haunted by evil spirits. Well it might be; itwas a ghostly, hazy, quiet place, where the sun shone fiercely,and water was scarce.

As the last wink of the setting sun gleamed out over thesilent plain, a new form appeared on the southern bank ofthe river. He, too, peered sharply about him when he reachedthe crest of the knoll, and he was very wary and watchful.When he had finished his scrutiny without seeing any thing toalarm him, or arouse distrust, he rode down the bank.

In the twilight soon horse and rider became blended in oneblurred mass as they receded, rapidly growing fainter to thesight, and further away. In half an hour darkness had fallen,and they were no longer visible from the river bank.

His exchequer ran low; marauding savages and violent[Pg 9]disease thinned his flocks; his native servants plundered him;until, completely disgusted and homesick, he packed his goodsand chattels and started, en route for his old State.

Like many others of his calling he was reticent in the extreme,scarcely speaking save in monosyllables. He had severalreasons for this: one was that it kept him out of trouble;another, that he was not annoyed by a cross-fire of questions,which guides detest.

The teamsters were Kit Duncan, an American, and Napoleonand Louis Robidoux, two brother Canadians, whom JoelWheeler had brought from New York. They were now returningwith glad hearts toward their northern home.

All hands went to work to prepare for the night. Whilethe preparations for camping were going on, the cook, KitDuncan (the hardest worked, and consequently sourest andsnarliest man in the party), who was also a teamster, wentdown to the stream to fill his kettle with water.

Christina was quick-witted. She had no sooner found thewagons were not in sight when the above reflection ranthrough her mind. She was impulsive, decided; and knowingthis to be the only means of again finding the wagons,started back, with her shadow over her left shoulder.

She soon discovered that. No sooner had she started onthe return track, than, as if to vex and annoy her, a bank ofsnow-colored clouds rose rapidly in the south. At the samemoment a southerly breeze came lightly over the plain.

As said before, Kissie was a girl of keen and quick perceptions.She saw the bank of clouds arising; she knew ifnot breeding a terrible squall, they were at least rolling on toobscure the sun; then what were her chances of regainingcamp?

On the Southern plains, as with the Southern people,changes come and go with great speed. It was so in thepresent case; for before the sorrel pony had cantered a milethe heavens above were clouded; the sun was obscured.

It came with a roar, and striking Dimple, almost took heroff her feet; but the sturdy little beast spread her legs andstood like a rock. Almost as soon as told it was past, rushingtoward the north, gathering strength every moment: and, beyonda steady breeze, and a few floating particles in the air,the atmosphere was quiet.

For a very good reason, for example: blindfold a personand after doing so turn him twice in his tracks. He thenwill be unable to tell with any degree of certainty to whichpoint of the compass he is facing. So it was with Kissie.Though not blindfolded, she might as well have been, andmight as well have turned round fifty times as twice. Theflat plain was everywhere the same monotonous expanse, nowhereshowing any landmarks, by the slightest depression orelevation.

Had she known it was a white man, had she any reason tosuppose he was not an enemy, she would have at oncespurred toward him; but, knowing that numerous Indianswere at all times scouring the plains, she desired rather togive him a wide berth, fearing he was one of that dreadedrace.

She raised her whip, and striking the mustang sharply, wasriding away when a new object appeared on the horizon, oppositethe Mexican. Object? rather a number of blots, movingtoward her. This she could tell as they appeared stationarywhile they rose and fell, like a galloping horse.

She had seen such objects before, and knew they were gallopinganimals. Knowing that scarcely any animals frequentedthe plain, from its sterility, she readily became awarethat they were a band of mounted men.

In a south-easterly direction from him was a train encampedon the Gila, for the night. All the work had beenfinished. The horses were lariated at hand; the rude kettlewas boiling merrily; the cook was swearing and grumbling,as usual; but all was not quiet.

Fifteen minutes later, on pausing and waiting a few moments,Kissie heard them gallop by in the darkness, not tenrods away. Then she turned and rode for an hour in an oppositedirection; for the present she was safe.

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