Elden Ring

[OCH]

^ Yep that's where I was the other day. I must admit, after being caught out by that first dragon landing on the overworld (drink was spat). I haven't engaged any of the optional ones. You're riding the horse, they aggro, the music starts and I just keep riding til the life bar goes away.

But this one, you had to fight and it was an interesting one. I'm finding the same old problem with these larger foes. From haven't really overcome their camera problems. Not helped by the arenas are too small for their ambition. While fighting a giant boss outside is fine. Anywhere else, camera collision will get you killed at least once.

 

@one-armed dwarf You'll know Maf is really a monster if he kills the pope...

 

Just a quick session today (not feeling great). Activated Starscourge's rune. At least the run-up to this one was easier than Godrick's tower. Decided to forego Caelid completely for now. Nothing else in the area really encouraged me to explore further. Went chasing a shooting star instead.. Another new area and a continuation of my current NPC questline. 

 

EDIT: Also ended up with 5 level ups via Starscourge. Didn't put them all into VIG. But now I do have over 500HP...😄

[Maf]

The dragon in the lake is the easiest one I beat so far. There's so much room it's a really not a problem. 

 

There was a dragon I fought on a bridge later which was a much bigger problem and I haven't been able to beat it yet. The space is really limited. 

 

The Moonveil sword I got yesterday was from a dragon boss fight. But it wasn't like the others. It was a big fire spewing, head charging lizard. It's combination of charging at me while spitting fire everywhere caught me off guard first time but killed it second attempt easy. It was like Mexican bull fighter shit. 

[OCH]

^That sounds like something I saw as a regular enemy in the new area of the map. From does enjoy asset reuse in this one, I've noticed. Dark 1's Demon Ruins were the last time I recall them being this avid about it. Which I guess makes sense here, due to the size of the game.

[Maf]

Cleared out the southern area and beat the Castle Morne boss in 38 seconds 😆

 

Spoiler

 

I actually tried to fight him properly but had a bad round and lost 8000 souls to him so I was like fuck it

 

Should have just done that from the start

 

Back to the topic of NPC quests

 

Spoiler

Pretty sure I’ve found the real sorceress Sellen locked up underground but I can’t figure out how to start the quest and free her. At least when I leave she”s not dying so maybe there’s still time

Decided against going to the red area. Seems a bit ominous to me. So now I’m going north up to the academy. Think this is going to be bad because if they all do magic they’re probably resistant to it.

 

Thought the south side was kind of boring. Done everything I could find. The evergoal. The animal tower. All dungeons. 
 

I’m also sitting on 2 sacred tears. My health is still so low that one flask tops me all the way back up so I’m not going to use them yet in case I need them later.

[radiofloyd]

Forwarded a quite interesting sidequest:

 

Spoiler

I found the hidden village of the Albinaurics in Liurnia. I found Albus the old geezer hiding inside a pot. He gave me half of a medallion to give to the wolf lady (Loreta I think) who I had already met earlier in my travels. I talked to her and she asked me to take her to someplace called the Great Lift of Rold, north of the Erdtree, and became an ash summon. Very cool stuff.

 

Also the pot guy who I rescued from the ground, who wanted to go to some warrior’s tournament in the east, I had previously run into him in a cave called the Gael Tunnel, standing in front of a locked door that could only be opened from the other side. I found what I believe is the other entrance of that cave, in Caelid, so hopefully I can open the way for him.

 

[Whiskey_chaser]

I'm about 85 hours in on this now. Currently a lvl 131 arcane blood letter/dragon breathing death machine. There are parts of the game where I feel grossly overpowered (I think Goldrick was the last boss that took more than three attempts), yet i'm now mopping up sidequests in some of the end-game areas (without progressing the story to the final chapter as i'm going for the platinum) and there are still moments where the game puts me in my place - looking at you Assassin Ringleader evergoal.

 

The sense of exploration in this game is second to none. Every once in a while a game comes along which completely sucks me in, and this has all but consumed me since launch. The collective sense of discovery is superb, if you're playing this offline you're missing out on a large part of it IMO. There have been a couple of boss encounters where my arse was saved by a message appraisal just as I was about to die.

One of my top five games ever. 

[radiofloyd]

A message being upvoted gives you health?

[one-armed dwarf]

Yes, which is why you should also be leaving rude messages on every pylon you see

[DisturbedSwan]

No shame in using magic @Maf embrace the staff. Also, where did you get that spell if you haven't been to the red area?  

 

I found the key to get into the academy during a brief session last night when the missus fell asleep, I plan on procrastinating a whole lot more before actually venturing there though lol.

[Maf]

I ended up in the red area by accident coming out of the river area. Had a mad dash around and found the spell and the staff before dying. But when deciding where to go next I'm going towards the academy instead of going back to the red area.

 

I also beat the Putrid boss by the Erdtree in the red area. That was enough for me. 

[DisturbedSwan]

Ah yeah I get you, I did the same thing but didn't find the staff unfortunately.

 

The Caelid Erdtree avatar? If so there's a catacombs right next to the tree as well, I cheesed him into oblivion quite early in.

[Maf]

I don't remember which is which, but either the spell or staff is in a chest in one of those underground fort rooms and the other is directly to the right of it hanging out of a window of a broken building. They're right next to each other.

 

However also by the window is 3 of those small plant enemies and I jumped in, grabbed the item, said oooh. Then died to poison/blood clot whatever it is. After getting them I was like that'll do and went somewhere else.

 

When I was deciding where to go next I found someone who said that in Cali there is a sorcerer town. So I expect there is more magic stuff to get over there. But it can wait for now. 

 

I'm also meant to meet some pot person and go to a castle in the same area but that can also wait. The red is too scary. 

[mmmark]

I beat Patches. Well I got him down to almost dead when he apologised as I was mid attack and hit him causing him to keep fighting me  but there’s a teleport so I used that instead of killing him. 
 

I don’t feel anywhere near as strong as I should be and I really do not understand the upgrade system at all. I don’t know what most of the terms mean. I don’t know what FP is. I don’t know what a jar of tears I have does. I don’t know if I’m best using a shield or two handing a weapon. 
 

Sometimes I’m having fun. Other times I’m just overwhelmed and unsure of anything. 

[OCH]

I agree with @Whiskey_chaser on the sense of exploration. I'm currently on a side quest, following the death of Starscourge. Which feels like a game in itself.

I've beaten two bosses (one I accidently cheesed, the other was technically Bambi) and I've taken to a brand new weapon - a polearm. That I've taken down the Occult path and it is quite beastly. The big enemies all tend to have the same weakness: they stagger if you hit them too much in the head. This polearm has a great skill, wherein you throw a ghost spear. You can't aim it, but it does have a nice overarching lob that hits where it counts. Added to that I found headgear that augments Arcane and it is definitely getting the job done.

 

Current weapons:

Blood Broadsword +18

Banished Occult Halberd +12

Crystal Sword +6

Digger Staff +8

Magma Greatsword +4

 

Oh and I finally remembered to check. I'm about 63 hours in.

[Maf]

43 minutes ago, mmmark said:

Sometimes I’m having fun. Other times I’m just overwhelmed and unsure of anything. 

 

Sounds like the standard experience, honestly. Just have fun in the not knowing as well. If you don't know what something does, try it. You can only fuck it up.

[DisturbedSwan]

54 minutes ago, mmmark said:

I beat Patches. Well I got him down to almost dead when he apologised as I was mid attack and hit him causing him to keep fighting me  but there’s a teleport so I used that instead of killing him. 
 

I don’t feel anywhere near as strong as I should be and I really do not understand the upgrade system at all. I don’t know what most of the terms mean. I don’t know what FP is. I don’t know what a jar of tears I have does. I don’t know if I’m best using a shield or two handing a weapon. 
 

Sometimes I’m having fun. Other times I’m just overwhelmed and unsure of anything. 

 

FP is your magic power (blue bar). HP is red, Stamina is green on the HUD in the top left corner.

 

Put points into Vigour for more HP, put points into Endurance for more Stamina, put points into Intelligence for more Magic damage, put points into Mind for more FP. 

 

Use the tears at a bonfire (site of grace) to upgrade your flasks so they heal you more (or replenish more of your magic). 

[one-armed dwarf]

Best approach in this is pretty subjective I think. Two hand is more damage, less defense, glass cannon. It can be kinda case by case whether it's worth bringing a shield in, or personal preference. I've noticed a lot more people not going with shields, was watching Limmy all day today and he's powerstancing halberds while dodge rolling.

 

I think outside of purely busted stuff that basically just skips encounters, every approach is pretty viable. Probably the worst off are greatsword/colossus sword users, but that's cause they have to work harder to find their openings, not cause the build is shit.

 

Item descriptions (press square on inventory, or X on xbox) should say what stuff does I think, usually it's the first or last paragraph. Next to some lore

 

edit upgrades can be a rough thing to understand though, and I don't think the game(s) have ever really described them in a way easily understood by new players. But the thing where it says stuff like STR - C, DEX - D is how it scales with your stats and the upgrade stones improve the scaling. Ash of war is a special move which can change these scaling values as well

 

Tbh, there are a bunch of numbers on the right side of that screen that I dont understand at all, nor have I ever made the effort to understand them. I mostly just look at the scaling values and go with the higher rank letter and weapon playstyle I like

[OCH]

Also @one-armed dwarf (Spoilers for everyone else)

Spoiler

Sorcerer Rogier wasn't there. I think I've lost him for this playthrough. Probably because D is already dead.

 

 

[mmmark]

1 hour ago, DisturbedSwan said:

Use the tears at a bonfire (site of grace) to upgrade your flasks so they heal you more (or replenish more of your magic). 

Sorry for my poor wording. It’s FLASK OF CERULEAN TEARS that I meant which I’ve now read restores magic. I don’t have any magic as far as I’m aware. Is that was the ashes/ghost allies use?

[Maf]

Yeah, but you need to buy a Ashes Bell to use them