Elden Ring

[Maf]

The north side of this map is destroying me holy shit. It’s not even that the fights are that hard it’s just that everything does so much damage. Starting to take it in turns when levelling up HP and mana. But it’s a shame because I feel like I want to be topping up other stats. It would be nice to be able to try new weapons at this point. Especially because I ran in to some crystal dudes and they don’t care about magic at all. 
 

Looking at the spells and stuff I really wish I went for a holy build. Might not be as ranged as magic but it looks like you get cool spells and a lot of weapons that scale with holy. 
 

Hmm I dunno. I made progress, but nothing that meaningful. Met more NPC’s. Beat a couple of dungeons (Man these things are samey). The north area is hard to navigate too. Especially when in the marsh bit. A really flat surface obscured by trees and nothing sticks out.

 

How does co-op work in the game? Can you only summon at statues or can you get a friend in and just run around and do shit together

 

That’d be nice 🙁

[radiofloyd]

Every time I say I’m gonna do Caelid I go off and do something else.

 

Spoiler

I went back through the ant cave in the Ainsel Well and eventually this led to a boss fight with the Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella, which appeared to be a dead end. There certainly seems to be more to this Ainsel River area (jumping to my death triggered a new area location) but I don’t think it’s accessible from this side.

 

I also went back to the Three Sisters area and went to the third tower, which I had ignored. Lo and behold it was Seluvis’ Tower, who Blaidd had said he needed to talk to about finding the Eternal City of Nokron. He gave me an introduction letter to a sorcerer in Limgrave called Sellen, who I don’t think I have met in my travels. He also gave me a potion to give to Nepheli, the daughter of Gideon who I have encountered a few times (The Roundtable Hold, the Village of the Albinaurics). But it seems like a death potion lol. Not sure I want to give it to her.

 

I also fought the dragon in that area but he fled. A disgrace to all dragons.

 

[Maf]

I just did that Well stuff too @radiofloyd. The map clearly shows lots of sections but I couldn’t figure it out either. I assume there is more entrances from the over world.

 

30 hours deep, level 57, I am here

 

Spoiler

I have no idea what I’m doing anymore. I need another half of a coin to use a lift. I think I found the lift but an old hag said that since I don’t have the other coin I’m scum but there’s always a tunnel for scum if I can find it.

 

SHE LUCKY TO BE ALIVE

 

This area is so confusing. I don’t know if it’s well designed but I’m confused so finding it annoying or it’s just annoyingly designed. There’s so many things. I don’t know what I’m doing or where I’m going anymore. 

[radiofloyd]

I found out what to do for one of the sidequests.

 

Spoiler

I love how different things work in tandem in this game. I was exploring Limgrave looking for Sellen (and in the process found Patches which was a funny throwback), and I remembered I had a note about someone hiding in the Waypoint Ruins, from way back at the start of the game. I went there and it was exactly the person I was looking for. She told me that I needed to defeat Radahn in order for the way to Nokron to appear. So all roads point to Caelid for me now.

 

By no means have I done everything in Limgrave and Liurnia but i’ve certainly done a mountain of stuff. Probably the biggest thing I haven’t done is find out how to proceed in the Study Hall of Carian. I don’t have the item that goes on the pedestal. A nearby NPC says something about a Celestial Globe. I’m sure I’ll find it in good time.

 

[OCH]

I'm a little confused by the mark of graces. Sometimes they go when the area boss dies. Sometimes they don't? I just hope with Caelid they aren't pointing to all the Dragons. I'm not doing that.

[one-armed dwarf]

My current build is all about fist weapons, I messed around with it on NG+ and it gives you a diff perspective on mechanics in this game, cause you got to get into the safe spot between all the hitboxes but also not every boss can just be approached in neutral. Thinking I'll go STR/DEX.

 

limgrave

 

Spoiler

 

 

level 25 in first vid, 28 in 2nd

 

 

I more or less cleared limgrave on this character and didn't need to level beyond 25 (28 if you include stormveil I guess), so 25-30 feels sort of like the intended 'range' for this part of the map without being too OP. Because godrick is less difficult than margit if you can beat the latter you're already ready for the former, imo, with a few weapon upgrades maybe.

 

if you're having trouble remembering the main throughline maf have a chat with gideon, he's basically the 'guide' for the main story.

[Maf]

I’m not sure who that is. But it’s ok. I’ve come across some better leads now.

 

I did quite a lot today. Beat 2 big optional bosses. 
 

Spoiler

I ain’t worry about no dragon

 

 

This boss felt gimmicky in a way. It’s just a case of dodging at the right time. You don’t even need to dodge correctly as long as he doesn’t get you, you’re good. But if he gets you it’s over. Also the whole trail leading to this boss. Eh. Fun idea but obvious and boring.

 

 

I’ve found so many spells now and they’re all rubbish lol. Lucky I got this rocks spell to save my ass I would be in trouble without this. 
 

I did get my Moonveil sword to +5 and pound for pound it’s my most powerful weapon. But it takes skill and getting in close when I can just rock the fuck

I got tonnes of stuff done today, though. Here’s a small list of the things I can remember. Most recent to earliest because my memory is terrible

 

Spoiler

• Found the 3 grapes/eyes for the girl. Dunno what happen next.
• I got attacked at base by a scripted phantom and the silent guy is dead
• Found the black knife blueprint for a NPC
• Found a secret back at Stormveil which lead me to some golden knight nightmare who might be the realest muthafucka in the game
• Think Boc side quest is finished. He now my sewing bitch. Not sure the point in this system. All the alternate forms have worse stats
• Got the Glintkey
• Got to the top of Raya Church and got a magic spell which buffs my magic if I’m within the zone. So useless
• Found a burnt village and a NPC was like “Oooh revenge”. A player sign said to wait until night so I did. Nothing happened but she’s back at base

And maybe other stuff besides I forget.

 

Basically now I can go even more north and push in 3 different directions. There are what looks like 2 fortresses on either side of the hills and a cave at the end of the lake. I could also go to the academy now, I guess. But I’ll leave that.

 

Stats at 32 hours

 

 

I think out of all the Souls games this is best in terms of playability. It’s really hard to put down. At the same time there’s just something stopping me from going mad over this game. I really, really like it. But I can’t quite get to where other people are. There’s just something missing.

 

EDIT: What is that build @one-armed dwarf? It’s cool but what is the weapon/buff? Also your health and stamina are through the roof for lv 25

[one-armed dwarf]

Radogan's soreseal is equipped, or something like that, which boosts a bunch of stats. And I drink a stamina physick. Im level 34 now and it looks like this. HDR makes it grey and hard to read on the website, meh

 

 

Generally, I try to put extremely little points into endurance in these games cause you only really need it for shields and wearing heavy armour without fat rolling, or greatsword users. You don't need much stamina in this game beyond what you start with

 

The weapon in the first one is some sort of hand knife you find in limgrave, cant remember wear. In vid 2 it's powerstanced with a caestus which you can buy from... oh, you killed the guy who sells it. shame

[mfnick]

Niall is dead. Stupid cunt. Hated that, probably worst boss I’ve encountered in one of these games so far. Shame as he was actually a cool boss but his helper twats just ruined it. 

 

[Maf]

Fucking faith builds getting all the coolest shit 

 

Spoiler

🙁

[OCH]

That's the academy done. I'm pretty sure there were paths/areas I didn't find. But the boss is dead, so that will do. That's all for today. So next session will be activating her rune. Also onto the next phase of the side quest. Which is nice.

[Maf]

I guess there’s no cost to summoning for this Radhann guy? I can’t be bothered to deal with this at all. 

[one-armed dwarf]

You are supposed to summon for that fight, 1 v 1 isn't remotely the intended design, even with the nerfs rhadan got 

[Maf]

Now you say. I beat him anyway. Rocks have to be the best weapon in the game

 

Spoiler

 

I even found a better rocks spell called meteorite but it’s not as good because it takes too long to cast and the meteorites go in 3 directions instead of homing in. Maybe good if I need to kill a crowd.

 

Maybe I’m being stupid. This is going against my own advice in the news thread. But I’m thinking about late game spec to faith. So much cool stuff that I can’t use, at the same time it will never get OP at this point because it’s too late. Not sure.

[one-armed dwarf]

I mean I'm not sure how it could be too late when you can respec

 

Was trying to find a fun new gimmick, found a talisman which boosts your damage on rot/poison proc, as well as a bunch of mushrooms you can wear to improve immunity. So I crafted a bunch of shit pots and threw them at stuff, to poison both of us and get that boosted damage

 

But I found out later on this talisman isn't that good cause it only gives you a few seconds boost on proc, and doesn't re-register with the damage over time of the poison/rot. So when you're rotted/poisoned or your enemy is you have to wait for it to wear off to get the proc again. This sorta feels like an oversight, shame. So that's that gimmick dead

 

(rando nobody boss fight)

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

Was level 43also for beating the raya lucaria boss, and level 50 now in caelid sorta feels on the low side of tolerable for this region. Just that vigor becomes much more important

[Maf]

I haven’t figured out how to respec yet. It would be great if I could just take the 11 points out of ARC and stick them in faith. 
 

Cleared Calais kind of. Very scared of everything here so zig zagged around the map and hit a lot of different points. Activated a lot of bonfires for later. Cleared a few optional bosses and looted some areas. But feels like I really need to go over the area better than I have been. 
 

Struggling to do Blaid’s quest as well. 
 

Spoiler

That was the reason I ended up at Radhan to do the festival. Didn’t realise it was going to be a big boss. I know before he said that we need to get the stars moving and Radhan was the key to that. But I can’t remember what exactly he said and now I dunno where he is

Got to the top of the tower in cali as well and had a brief look around that area. Very cool but don’t want to fuck with it right now.

 

Need to have a couple days off because I’ve been playing this about as non stop as a person could, I think. I did about 10 hours today. So have a little break then come back to it later next week. Need to refocus and decide what I actually want to do. I got a strong lead for the very north of the map for a item. Need to remember what Blaid was saying about the thing. A lot of other NPC’s have disappeared off the map. Hope you’re still alive guys! 

[one-armed dwarf]

What do you mean you dont want to fuck with the tower? You just do one thing there

[Maf]

I meant the area. There’s a lot of cool and dangerous stuff around there. I don’t want to do it yet.

 

Actually the tower has it’s own mystery too but I didn’t stop to figure that out. Activated the thing and bounced 

[DisturbedSwan]

Watched Maf fight Radahn alone and beat his ass, impressive. I was putting it off as I thought I’d be under levelled but think I should be ok maybe?

 

Will do a longer post tomorrow but think that might be where I’m heading next, either there or exploring the Altus Plateau which I reached yesterday.

 

I finally remembered to take a pic of my stats as well

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Maf did you name your character Cartman