phantom clarification

I just picked up the game the other day and I wanted to make sure this experience I had with a phantom is normal.

I summoned a phantom from his message on the ground, he came into the world, killed a couple dudes to clear a spot so he could then proceed to drop what I can only describe as a tremendous amount of loot, souls, armor, weapons....it was no joke about 20 minutes of just picking up all the stuff he was giving me. The amount of souls alone he gave me was able to boost all my stats by about 6-8 points.

Is this manner of generosity common to come by? I got the game thinking this kind of reward and progress was supposed to be earned for, oddly enough I feel cheated that I didnt earn all these things myself.

I wouldn't say this is common, as I've only seen it happen myself about 4 times in +1000 hours of Co-op and PVP. It certainly isn't a 'normal' way to progress.

In general, if you are feeling cheated start your game over and play mostly offline or without summons. If you DO summon try to get help from people wearing the starting gear, you can familiarize yourself with these from the character creation menu.

All in all its rather unavoidable, and if you really don't want to see this sort of thing then you can use an item called black crystal to return a phantom to their world when you notice suspicious behaviors. All-in-all its going to happen, but its up to you as the player whether you use it or ignore it your first play through. Good luck, and welcome to the forums.

ah interesting. side note, I'm now in an area where there is someone who keeps invading and killing me. he's way more powerful and clearly has nothing better to do with his time. is there a way to keep him away?

Are you on PS3 or Xbox? I believe you can block a player and that will stop their invasions from your main menu in whatever system. I don't know how its done on xbox though, but in ps3 its the last menu and players met,

yeah im on ps3, ill give it a look thanks a bunch

Unfortunately this kind of glitch gifter is very common. As hard as it is to do I recommend dropping everything he gave you. Don't let him ruin your first playthrough. If you hold onto it for NG+ it'll take crazy levels of self-restraint to not resort to his glitched gear at some point, so drop it, drop it, drop it.

Run for the boss. If he's to powerful to fight, flee and make a beeline for the area's boss. Or you can wait it out, depending on the area, they might get bored and move on.

And the final solution is to keep yourself hollowed. He can't invade you then, but you won't be able to summon.

The hallow thing definitely helps with invasions, but if you wanna play online and get invaded less, join the Way of White. Last time I checked (which was awhile ago) they only get invaded if your one of the only people playing on the server.