Assassin's Creed Origins Phylakes' Prey, Mysterious Letter, and the Black Hood - Phylakes locations and how to get the Black Hood outift
Everything you need to know about the ten Phylakes and the powerful reward for taking them down.
Phylakes' Prey is a slightly mysterious mission you'll encounter after making it a decent chunk of the way through the main story in Assassin's Creed Origins, and it offers some pretty great as a reward for completion.
Here on this page, we'll detail everyting you need to know about the Phylakes, including how to get the Black Hood outfit reward,all ten Phylake locations, and more.
For more guides though, be sure head to back to our main Assassin's Creed Origins walkthrough and guide hub.
Phylakes' Prey, Phylakes locations and how to get the Black Hood outift
After completing the story mission Gennadios the Phylakitai you'll have 10 Phylakes, high-level elite warriors, following you. They're best avoided to start with, but once you reach around level 20 you can start to take them on; The Outsider that patrols Alexandria is the best place to start, and as you continue to level up you can tackle the others.
(The paths of the Iron Bull and The Galatian meet occasionally; either wait for them to split up or try and kite one away if they're together - taking on both at once is foolish.)
| Name | Location | Level | Loot |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Outsider | Alexandria | 20 | Golden Wolf (regular sword) |
| Ptolemy's Fist | Sap-Meh Nome | 22 | Copper Mace |
| The Iron Ram | Ineb-Hedjet Nome | 25 | Smoke and Mirrors (predator bow) |
| The Stranger | Memphis | 28 | Ornamented key, Sarissa (sickle sword) |
| Ra's Mercy | Faiyum | 30 | Storm Blades (dual swords) |
| The Hill | Faiyum Oasis | 32 | Ornamented key, Headsplitter (heavy blade) |
| Bane of Hathor | Atef-Petu Nome | 35 | Deathstorm (hunter bow) |
| Half Horn | Im-Kent Nome | 38 | Ornamented key, Composite Bow (light bow) |
| The Iron Bull | Giza, Isolated Desert | 40 | Djoser's Pride (shield) |
| The Galatian | Isolated Desert | 40 | Ornamented key, The Fourth Plague (warrior bow) |
We'd suggest tackling all of them on horseback, and starting your fight doing as much ranged damage as you can; bows that inflict damage over time with Bleed, Fire, or Poison are ideal as you can shoot your target, let the DOT drain him a little, and then fire another. If you've taken a lot of damage you can attempt to hide and retreat just far enough to get out of combat to allow yourself to heal; as long as the Phylake doesn't get too far away they won't regain any health.
Once you're out of ammo you'll have to finish them off by hand, but remaining on horseback means you can literally run circles around them - just mash attack whilst keeping a loose orbit around them and you may be able to take them down without even getting hit.
Need more help? Our Assassin's Creed Origins walkthrough and guide will take you through every step of the main story and quests, whilst we also have guides on how to grind XP and level up, plus explainers on how Assassin's Creed Origins sidequests work, alongside how to get crafting materials and animal goods, and even complete solutions and walkthroughs to all Assassin's Creed Origins Tombs, Silica, and Anchient Mechanisms. We also have a list of all Papyrus Puzzle locations, Origins' cursed and legendary weapons and how they're acquired, and finally a detailed page Phylakes, Phylakes' Prey and how to get the Black Hood outfit.
Mysterious Letter and how to get the Black Hood outfit
When you've killed all 10 the final one will drop a mysterious Letter:
Abar refuses to hand over the last key. She busies herself with simple tasks in that pathetic fishing village east of Herakleion, telling the children tales of her past glories. Of coure, I could easily steal the key, but she deserves the respect due a war leader. I will try again to speak to her, as I know we all want to see this "great treasure" of hers. More news as it comes.
Head for Yw Huts in the islands east of Heraklion, use Senu to pinpoint Abar's location, and then speak to her - depending on the time of day she'll either be sleeping in one of the huts or wandering around the village.
She'll send you off to kill some nearby crocodiles that have been terrorising the village (there are at least half a dozen of them, many of which are level 40, so this isn't an easy task), and when you return victorious she'll give you the location of a nearby chest containing the Black Hood legendary outfit.