Elden Ring

[DisturbedSwan]

Ah yeah that's fair enough, damn impressive! 

 

Congrats on clocking your second Souls game as well, I think I'll ultimately come to the same conclusion as you in the end, that the game is great most of the time, the open world underwhelming and overall not as good as Sekiro.

[radiofloyd]

After doing some leveling up, I finally unequipped the talisman that gives you +3 to several stats but you take more damage, as I think it has outserved its purpose at this stage, and replaced it with the talisman that gives more runes. 
 

Found some good bosses. Finally some bosses that start to show some teeth.

 

Spoiler

The Putrid Tree Spirit in the War Dead Catacombs is a good one. Also, the Valiant Gargoyles in the Siofra Aquaducts is finally a proper old school Dark Souls boss fight. 

 

[radiofloyd]

Made some more progress yesterday and today:

 

Spoiler

Explored the Nokron area which gave me the treasure Ranni was looking for (I assume), the Tear Mimic Ash and another boss fight against a deer. Upgraded the Tear Minic Ash to +5 and I now have a pretty badass battle companion. I beat the gargoyles in the aquaduct which was one of the best boss fights in the game so far. Jogged around the area looking for a way forward, missed  it first time around but gave one more look and stumbled onto the coffin. That transported me to the Darkroot Depths (I think that was the name) where my old friends the ants are back, and the frogs who spew deathblight.

Currently level 82 after 80 hours.

[DisturbedSwan]

3 hours ago, radiofloyd said:

Made some more progress yesterday and today:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Explored the Nokron area which gave me the treasure Ranni was looking for (I assume), the Tear Mimic Ash and another boss fight against a deer. Upgraded the Tear Minic Ash to +5 and I now have a pretty badass battle companion. I beat the gargoyles in the aquaduct which was one of the best boss fights in the game so far. Jogged around the area looking for a way forward, missed  it first time around but gave one more look and stumbled onto the coffin. That transported me to the Darkroot Depths (I think that was the name) where my old friends the ants are back, and the frogs who spew deathblight.

Currently level 82 after 80 hours.

Spoiler

I think we're pretty much in the same place again, I may be a bit ahead of you in Ranni's quest though as I'm now in a different area. But yeah, my last session was going through all of that, I also updated my Mimic Tear to +5 as well and that Gargoyle fight was indeed awesome, probably one of the more challenging in the game so far for me alongside the other duo boss outside of Redmane Castle which I went back to after Redahn had been defeated.

 

Darkroot Depths is an awesome area, loved it down there.

 

[one-armed dwarf]

RE Darkroot depths (dont read until the area is complete)

 

Spoiler

Did you guys discover the tree with the 'corpse'?

 

[Maf]

It’s better without sound

 

 

[radiofloyd]

Made some more progress in relation to the underground:

 

Spoiler

Near the Nameless Eternal City bonfire in the Deeproot Depths (I made a note to check whether it was Darkroot or Deeproot lol, it’s Deeproot), I took a ride in another coffin that took me to the Ainsel River area. This eventually led to Nokstella, the other eternal city. Gonna explore Nokstella next, but that’s enough for today.

 

I also increased my faith to 18 so now I can use the Magma Wyrm Greatsword. So now I have a Golden Halberd +6 (physical/holy) and a Magma Wyrm Greatsword +6 (physical/fire). Of course, at this stage I have the ashes of war to apply all kinds of affinities to standard weapons, but I haven’t bothered yet. Could probably make short work of most enemies though using weapons with the poison or blood affinity.

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Vatti finally released his lore video

 

Spoiler

 

 

I ain't watching this shit ever lol

[OCH]

MWG is a really good Greatsword @radiofloyd One of my little rotation of weapons. However, the two-handed R2 attack is very odd and largely ineffective.

[radiofloyd]

I’ve spent about 15 minutes of my 80 hour play time wielding two-handed, I use my shield way too much. Two-handed was my preferred play style for the Dark Souls trilogy though.

[OCH]

It's funny, I have a +12 shield (I was experimenting with tactics against some big fat guy on a bridge) but since I abandoned learning the parry for this game. I actually rotate between two weapon types with each hand. Staff and Finger thingy on the left and about half a dozen offensive weapons on the right. Two handing the Greatsword when exploring the mines. My other weapons tend to bounce off the miners without affecting their poise.

[OCH]

As opposed to what you would logically think. Recovering from surgery, I haven't really been in the mood to play much of anything this week. The last couple days, I've kinda got back into it. Clearing up some catacombs & caves. The stuff that doesn't take up too much time. Including this really obvious cave on the map between Limgrave and Caelid that I didn't notice before, for some reason? Fought a very familiar Dragon boss and got my second katana in the Moonveil. The definition of an anime weapon, especially the L2 attack. Tried power-stancing with the Uchi and it is quite effective as a bleed build. I'm sticking with my +6 Crystal Sword mostly though. But the options are nice. 

 

Cleared out Raya Lucaria also. In particular, I found a classic Fromsoft trap at the bottom of the lift mechanism and ended up somewhere new. The boss of that section wasn't particularly fun. As it is one of those that like to rush you as soon as you enter the fog. Eventually overcame it. Ended up outside again and met up with one of the ghosts in a boat. Who had a new gimmick! It took a couple of attempts this time. As it hit a lot harder than I was expecting (new area and all that).

[radiofloyd]

Made a little bit more progress underground.

 

Spoiler

Starting to level up more quickly now that I have the Golden Scarab. Up to level 88 now. I explored all of Nokstella, found the treasures there and made it to the Lake of Rot. It’s amazing how many areas are hidden within areas. Nokron leads to the Sofria Aquaducts which leads to Deeproot Depths which leads to the Ainsel River which leads to Nokstella which leads to the Lake of Rot…and some of those are not directly obvious continuations either.

 

For now I think it’s back to the Deeproot Depths. 

 

[OCH]

Oh yes, one important bit I actually got around to doing. A while ago, I found the underground well and explored upto the boss. Dragonkin something. Way underleveled for that, at the time. So I abandoned the area and went elsewhere. The time, crushed him first try!

[radiofloyd]

Beat probably the strongest boss I’ve fought in the game so far.

 

Spoiler

Astel, Naturalborn of the Void in the Lake of Rot. But I need something called a Ring of Oath to continue, which i assume is related to Ranni’s quest. I went back to Ranni and gave her the item from Nokron…ultimately led to her going off somewhere and me climbing the Divine Tower of Liurnia and getting a special item which seems to be linked with her.

 

I’m going to go back and explore the Grand Cloister and Lake of Rot areas a little more, and then back to the Deeproot Depths.

 

[OCH]

Meanwhile, back on Mt. Gelmir. Cleared out a Fort, with an obnoxious giant hammer as a prize. Trying to work my way around to the manor. I hit a sheer cliff and couldn't workout how to get around it. Which left me with no choice but to backtrack. 

 

Since Scarlet Rot is a problem due to my level of HP, I had to abandon Ranni's quest pretty much where Radiofloyd has just finished it. So I finally decided to turn my attention to the one area where I only have five bonfires - Caelid. Yes, the irony of decrying Scarlet Rot and exploring Scarlet Rot Central isn't lost on me. Explored Sellia - what a cheap area. I only ran through here before, escaping the crystal mine trap. Decided to clear it out. Even discovered the boss of the area. Who was a pushover. With that clear, next session it is time to go back into the crystal mine...

[DisturbedSwan]

You should already have the ring of oath (dark moon ring) if you fought that boss @radiofloyd there's another area you can get to straight after that boss. 

 

As for my own progress, I'm now at Level 98 with about 76 hours under my belt (according to the game clock). 

 

I finished off Ranni and Fia's questlines. Ranni's quest took me to the Divine Tower of Liurnia via the Carian Study Hall - I found much earlier in my travels - and then to another Underground City in Nokstella. Had a good ol' explore down here and didn't find it as interesting or engaging as Nokron, eventually stumbling into the Lake of Rot which was not a fun place whatsoever. Had to look up where to go here as I kept dying on every possible avenue I tried to explore, even when I knew the direction I was meant to be heading in I had serious issues from trying to stop dying of Scarlot Rot before I reached my destination. Was at it for quite awhile but eventually reached the other end and with it a boss, Astel, who was a pushover for me with my now fully upgraded Mimic Tear +10 in tow. 

 

Followed the path after the boss which led me to a whole new and rather large plateau in the South West of Liurnia. This seemed to be Dragon HQ because there is just so many of them here it's pretty crazy, I think I had to defeat about 5 or 6 dragons in the area before I was left to my own devices and could fully explore the place. Once here I eventually made my way to the end point of Ranni's quest and that was that. 

 

After finishing off Ranni's quest I immediately headed where I left off in the Deeproot Depths and fought a boss here. After this was done I found Fia, gave her an item then nothing really happened? I reloaded the area about 2-3 times but no dice, ended up travelling to Caelid quickly and then back to the correct Bonfire and that managed to trigger a new teleport which led to another really cool boss battle, which again, wasn't up to much in terms of difficulty and the end of Fia's Questline. 

 

Not knowing where to go after this I headed for the huge, largely unexplored region to the North which I have been putting off for a long time now, Altus Plateau. Spent ages going around here, largely bored as I no longer had a no longer had the carrot on the string that was Fia and Ranni's Questlines. I was left to my own devices and whilst a cool region to explore with some fantastic vistas (similar to all previous lands) I was just very bored overall. I mostly explored the Eastern side of the Plateau closest to (what I assume is) the Capital. 

 

Went all round here finding some weird little Windmill towns with weird dancing people (all very Wicker Man) and a mini-boss to the North and then two more mini-bosses close to the Capital walls, one of which (dual Tree Sentinels) gave me quite a bit of trouble so I ended up skedaddling and exploring more to the North where I found another entrance into the Castle walls which led to the Capital outskirts and another mini-boss fight with Margit (who was now a normal enemy with no big health bar?).

 

Did a bit of exploring around here and it eventually led me to a bonfire that was behind where the Tree Sentinels were, levelled up here and then set about defeating them. Still took me quite awhile and I made a right meal of it but managed it eventually. 

 

Once I'd finished up exploring around here, I didn't want to enter the Capital yet so I transported back to the Western side of the Plateau to a bonfire I'd unlocked quite a few hours ago and set about exploring this side of it before clocking out to end my session. 

 

So yeah, I really enjoyed doing the two questlines but now that's over it's back to being largely bored again. 

 

Pics:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Maf]

27 minutes ago, DisturbedSwan said:

eventually stumbling into the Lake of Rot which was not a fun place whatsoever.

 

😆 Yeah, doesn't sound like a great holiday destination

 

I got past this by just spamming the cure blood clot spell every 10 seconds. Like @radiofloyd I beat Astel without the ring of Oath. I've never heard of a Dark Moon Ring. That's news to me. 

[OCH]

The Lake of Rot was the point I had to turn around. Even with the Cleanse Me spell, I just didn't last very long once I hit The Rot. Especially when I stumbled on the boss. Kudos to Fromsoft for making something more obnoxious than Dark Soul's Toxic* 😒

 

It is funny to see people finishing the quest I started a while back. Meanwhile I've had to pause it for now.

 

Last I checked I was still level 70. Haven't found a reasonable farming spot yet. The one I first found in Liurnia, is too low level for me now. I think I saw another named Dragon on a bridge in Caelid. After I finish up with the mine, I'll be Dragon hunting. Nice to see we are past spoilers now too...

 

*Not including Bloodborne's Frenzy. Since that did make it into this game, in a fashion.

[radiofloyd]

Not past spoilers! I don’t know anything about the game other than what I have found.