The Phantom

The Phantom is a Dark-elemental gun available for Lance in Epic Battle Fantasy 4. It is exclusive to the Steam release of the game and the post-Battle Mountain update version of the Premium Pack.

Description

The Phantom is a black cannon with mysterious red patterns decorating its body and large rectangular barrel; a red-orange glow is visible in the interior of the latter. A grated silver piece encases most of the barrel, matching the large screw and the small metal plates on the sides and back of the gun. The forward-angled grip has a long, thin projection on the front to accommodate a second handle. A long, blood-red blade protrudes above the barrel; it somewhat resembles part of the Praetorian's katana, but with rectangular notches along the blunt side of the blade.

Physical offense is The Phantom's forte; it has the highest Attack of any gun in EBF4, being more than half again stronger than the next-best option (the Chainsaw Gun). It also has a modest Evade boost, but it also halves Lance's defenses to make him much frailer overall. Its weapon-elemental skills have a great Dispel chance, and single-target skills can also unleash Antimatter to benefit from its Dark boost. Unfortunately, the unleash suffers from the lowest power multiplier of all damaging bonus skills in the game, and it runs off of The Phantom's mediocre Magic Attack.

The Phantom is essentially the gun version of Anarchy, being a lethal "glass cannon" option for physical Lance builds...which is problematic, since Lance is fundamentally better with magic than physical attacks. Of course, it can deal blistering damage with Unload and Double Shot, but this is far less useful than firing off an Antimatter with the likes of the Shadow Blaster or the Vortex Cannon. The Phantom's high Dispel chance is somewhat notable, but the party has other means of removing enemy buffs; notably, Lance himself can use Crush to similar effect in most cases (although it hurts quite a bit coming off of The Phantom's high Attack).

Ultimately, The Phantom is an interesting weapon on paper that falls flat in practice; its poor synergy with Lance's stats and skill set relegates it to a niche that he has little use for. Even the nebulously-effective physical builds will likely get more mileage from the Chainsaw Gun or the Heavy Claw, which sacrifice raw power for usable bulk and more broadly effective bonuses.

The Phantom resists Dark and Dispel, becoming immune to both of them at Level 5.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

The Phantom is found on Battle Mountain, specifically in the left chest on the spike puzzle screen, after defeating the Praetorian MKII on the previous screen. The Hammer is required to get this far.

	The Phantom
	May dispel targets. Boosts the power of Dark skills. May cast Antimatter with certain skills.

Statistics
Stat Bonus												Resistance
	LV1	LV2	LV3	LV4	LV5		LV1	LV2	LV3	LV4	LV5		LV1	LV2	LV3	LV4	LV5
	-	-	-	-	-		-	-	-	-	-		20%	40%	60%	80%	100%
	40%	55%	70%	90%	120%		-50%	-50%	-50%	-50%	-50%		20%	40%	60%	80%	100%
	-	10%	20%	30%	40%		-50%	-50%	-50%	-50%	-50%	-	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-		-	-	5%	5%	10%	Element		50%
Spells & Statuses
			Power					Chance Modifier				Attack Status
Auto Skill			--					--					30%	40%	50%	60%	80%
Bonus Skill			(18%)					--					-	-	-	-	-
Auto Status			--					--				-	-	-	-	-	-
--													-	-	-	-	-

Forging Information
Lvl	Requirements			Lvl	Requirements
2	x 2	--	--	3	x 2	x 3	--
4	x 5	x 1	x 3	5	x 1	x 12	--

Trivia

• As with many other weapons found on Battle Mountain, The Phantom metaphorically represents one of the bosses in the main game; in this case, the Praetorian (although its Dark affinity may be more evocative of the Praetorian MKII).
• The Phantom has identical Attack and defensive penalties to the Anarchy, but with additional Magic Attack and Evade bonuses.