Elden Ring

[Nag]

I'd say I have at least a couple of weeks before I get round to it either way... Still need to clock Dying Light 2 after finishing Forbidden West.👍

[Maf]

@Nag I've found a good beginner's guide for you 

 

 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Just looking at that video, in my current playthrough I am at the 1:34 mark of a 2:35 video

[radiofloyd]

I’m about 16 hours in and absolutely loving it. I’m still sticking to my axe and shield approach but I’m playing more of a jack of all trades than usual because it’s fun and the freeform nature of the game supports that I think. Exploring in this game is a pleasure, discovering secrets, loot and cool enemies everywhere. I’ve beaten a string of sub bosses in the last few days as I’ve gotten into a rhythm with the game. I got warped to an extremely distant location today which opened my eyes with regards to the size of the map. Amazing stuff so far, I’m hooked.

[one-armed dwarf]

In terms of progress, I'm now right in front of the 'thing' that would flag the endgame part of the game (2 hours 1 minute into maf's video, spoilers obv), but I looked online and apparently this will disrupt a lot of NPC quests I have not complete yet, so I'm going to be full Ubisoft mode for a bit. Cause I do like this part of the game, moreso than the frankly daunting boss gauntlet I'm probably going to be throw into

 

One thing about the bosses I've found is they all really seem to like 'frame traps', tricking you with delayed attacks and catching your mashing. Some bosses even have alternating combo strings that you have to watch out for. Both of which causes tilt in a fashion I've never had with souls (again, summons will mitigate this a ton, but imo it's unsatisfying when I do this). So a timely jaunt through the world to do people's groceries so I can get some lore will be the salve before I put myself through all that lol

 

Also I learned something about horse combat. One, when you summon your horse there seems to be a small number of iframes, so the horse summon can be like a dodge to escape some nasty shit. Also when you dismount you can do things like let off an arrow in the air. I think the horse combat is pretty good, but you need to relearn a lot of things. You will eventually be forced to fight certain enemies on horse or be at a horrible disadvantage. It's clear a lot of thought went into it though. For the basic stuff it's good to remember that l1/l2 and r1/r2 are creating hitboxes on the left and right of the horse respectively, and to respect the stamina cost of jumping and dashing. The standard gallop speed can be enough to resolve some mechanics. There's a timing element you have to figure out between the time it takes to reach an enemy and your swipe hitbox is active, so you can't just mash.

 

I wish I could make the horse gallop while casting spells, that's my main complaint. You can only use mounted 'invisible' sorcery on the horse I find (not sure why it's called 'invisible', you can clearly see it lol)

[DisturbedSwan]

Only had a short amount of time to play last night but managed to get through another dungeon and defeat another boss, this one was much tougher too thankfully and after a few tries I realised I was probably under levelled for it. 

So I set about trying to figure out how to summon, I thought I had all the fingers on me that would let me do this but it appears I didn't. After a quick search I realised I had to buy the crafting kit back near the beginning of the game, before doing this though I saw a figure at the bonfire (church of ellah I think) I'd not seen before and she gave me the ability to summon (spectral summons not MP summons) and the wolf summon. 

 

Once I had the crafting kit I crafted the proper equipment, then warped back to the dungeon and waited for some folks to appear, after awhile one did who helped me out quite a bit, but died when it was at about 1/4 health (it was called something Dog if that helps anyone to recognise it) so it was touch and go me finishing it off on my own whilst avoiding all its minions but I managed it. 

 

Hopefully get longer to play tonight. 

[OCH]

Marge is DEAD!

 

Got him! A little perseverance and the knowledge that bosses aren't completely immune to all status effects now (a first for Souls, I think) and the main obstacle in this playthrough has been overcome. Ironically not a long play session today. Only a couple of catacombs conquered (and finding a friend). But now I feel like I can proceed with the game itself.

[mfnick]

Finally gained a new weapon which appears to be better than my starting Samurai Katana. Also got a cool wolf mask. Starting to get somewhere I think. 
 

I will say I strongly recommend anyone starting this to put quite a few points in one of the magic stats. I haven’t & 95% of the items and equipment I’ve found and earnt has been magic based and unusable. I think I’d have probably enjoyed my time so far a bit more if I’d have been able to experiment a bit more and actually felt I was gaining useful stuff even though I’m nowhere near as keen on the magic as straight combat. Wish I could respec a bit but read up on it and it’s really far in. 
 

Also, quick question, is there a stat which allows me to equip more gear before fat rolling? I can’t use most of the armour I’ve got because it’s too heavy. Guessing it’s strength but don’t want to waste points. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Its endurance, but for spells I have 41 in Intelligence and I wouldnt say its made things more fun. What people are saying is that the sorcery spells are weirdly balanced in that the best ones are the weak ones and the top level ones, with everything in between just nowhere near as effective as it should be, which tracks with my experience

 

What I hear is that faith is the one to go for, you get lots of cool buffs, heals but also if you invest in 'blasphemous' incantations you get pyromancy and dragon magic as well. It kind of gives everything, which makes sorcery seem even more underwhelming

[OCH]

Standard sorcery hasn't really been noteworthy since DeS. Dark 1 was Pyromancy, 2 had Dark etc 

I am quite surprised how good the 'Holy' magic is in this. Considering in previous games your only offensive Faith options were either Wrath of God/Force or some kind of Lightning hybrid.

[OCH]

2 hours ago, mfnick said:

Also, quick question, is there a stat which allows me to equip more gear before fat rolling? I can’t use most of the armour I’ve got because it’s too heavy. Guessing it’s strength but don’t want to waste points. 

Endurance is the equip load stat.

[one-armed dwarf]

I found a secret zone today, name in spoiler

Spoiler

Miquella's Haligtree (sp)

 

Easily the best zone in the game so far, it might be the hardest one I think. A ton of verticality, sheer ledges and status effects to deal with (which is rewarding to deal with if you've done the ton of prep this game allows you to do). Echoes of Blighttown, if you enjoy Blighttown (when the framerate is good, Blighttown is an awesome zone)

 

It's also the only zone I've really seen the level design find rewarding use for the stealth and platforming mechanics, mechanics which feel almost forgotten in every other dungeon. Glad I didn't rush to the finish line anyway, just to find a zone that reminds me of what it felt like to progress through a very fraught environment in Souls, where the structure of the area is as big a threat as the enemies, but your methods to get through are varied. The open world approach means stuff like this is spread incredibly thin unfortunately

[DisturbedSwan]

Managed to squeeze another hour out last night and am still exploring the Whispering Plains (or whatever they're called) to the South.

 

Spent awhile dossing about, found a rat infested village with a few worshipper types who were super easy to put down. Managed to finally find the map for this area which revealed some interesting spots to explore on the map and a huge foreboding Castle at the very bottom with someone firing humungous crossbow bolts at me.

 

Managed to reach the enemy firing the crossbow bolt, put him down and then make my way into the Castle where I left it for the evening. Could this be the first 'proper' boss? Excited to find out.

[mmmark]

 

[OCH]

A little micro managing today. Finished a couple catacombs and even found some NPC quests. One in particular I can see being this games Solaire aka poster child. He is, in fact, on the loading screens anyway.

Then I turned my attention to the castle Marge was guarding. Lots of goodies here. I managed to upgrade my Heavy broadsword to +8, which is nice. I find that, combined with my B scaling in strength, means I hit most things like a truck. It is a massive place though. I decided to call it a day at the third bonfire. No idea how much of the castle is left?

[one-armed dwarf]

There's some pretty interesting shit in that castle off the beaten path

 

Spoiler

Like proper scary and weird 'wtf even is this' shit

 

[OCH]

I found a broken path along some rooftops which lead to one of those Imp Doors. Given those keys are 4K each, I assume you are supposed to revisit these areas when they are more easily acquired? As I've only found about 3-4 of them in the world so far.

[radiofloyd]

Made a lot of progress today.

 

Spoiler

Finished exploring the Siofra River area which I found yesterday. I tried the boss once but then left it because I wanted to fight Godrick again. Went back to Stormveil Castle and found an area i had previously ignored that led back to the main gate, and also to Limgrave Tower. Went back to Godrick and took him down on my third try or so (probably seventh or eighth try in total). Took that to Limgrave Tower and that gave me my first great rune. I activated it to see what it would do and all of my attributes went up by 5 or so. I googled it and this boost is temporary so I decided to make the most of it. Went back to the Siofra River and beat the Ancestral Spirit boss.

 

The boost is still active so I think I’ll keep going on the boss hunt and take on the bosses in the various Gaols I have found (I think the strongest one was called Crucible Knight).

Been playing the game all day. Time for a rest!

[mfnick]

How did you activate the great rune? FFS, I thought it was passive & gave me a permanent upgrade. 

[radiofloyd]

19 minutes ago, mfnick said:

How did you activate the great rune? FFS, I thought it was passive & gave me a permanent upgrade. 

You have to use an item called a Rune Arc.