Do people levels scale up or down when you summon a person to pvp?

[CKaspar]

I have been dueling a friend of mine at the academy gate and the level between us is 100. me being 80 and him 180. I feel like I get one tapped a lot, especially with the moonveil katana. He says when I summon him he scales down, is that true?

[Toad]

Phantoms are scaled DOWN while using a matchmaking password, but off the top of my head it only scales down their HP and AR as far as I know. Their higher stats will still allow them to wear heavier armour, and have a wide set of stats for their build, allowing way more choice in spells/weapons.

Even with downscaling, the duel you're having with your friend is unbalanced.

[Goilveig]

Matchmaking also scales down your other stats, but you still count as having them for the purposes of meeting stat requirements. So the higher-level player will have access to a wider variety of skills and weapons, but they won't hit as hard as they otherwise would have.

[LongParsnip]

The only thing that is scaled is HP, defence and weapon level are largely untouched which is why you are getting one tapped and why password phantoms are such a massive problem for invaders.

[Amica]

high lv player to low lv player world will get scale down , but still very strong (down not enough)
low lv player to high lv player world does not scale up , still same.