Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[cassidy]

3 minutes ago, Uzi said:

You can get caught inbetween those if you're not careful so not totally risk free but yes its an intentional power play

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and an homage to a type of boss fight thats been in souls games since Demons.

 

Thanks for the info. 

 

And yes it did take me a few goes to get the timing right. 

[Uzi]

New game plus seems easier in this then other souls games but tbh there is way more insanely powerful spells/incantations and weapon arts than have ever been in from games before. So by the time you amass some of those and some decent vit, the game is pretty trivial tbh bar a few enemies who absolutely stunlock you and give you very little room to breathe. I think the hard mode in the game is basically playing it straight. Use a weapon and maybe a shield and nothing fancy. Dodge/block/attack/heal. Traditional. But if you leave that, boy is there some serious power.

 

An example is go on youtube (came for the lore vids, stayed for the cheese) and every other day you'lll see a new "OMG broken weapon art!!!" (new one doing the rounds is a scythe art that sends a ghost version of you doing a heavy attack a split second before you or a god of war build that melts enemies). When you find so many "broken" things you gotta ask yourself if they're broken or if From basically gave you plenty of ingredients to become the guy who goes to a boss and says:

 

[dug]

43 minutes ago, dug said:

The boss fight is a doozy! With my grafted blade sword +9, a talisman that enhances jump attacks and an armour piece that also enhances jump attacks, I've been feeling OP for a while now, smashing bosses that others have been complaining about how difficult they are. But 

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Mogh

 

is giving me problems. Feels good!

 

And, got him. That fight was fun! His mixture of verrry delayed attacks and instant hits really tests your reflexes and your muscle memory. One of my favourite boss fights so far.

[spanx]

Very stuck at 

 

Spoiler

Rykard

 

How the hell do you avoid this shit? I can’t get anywhere?

 

[Kirby]

3 hours ago, Uzi said:

Brah. How? I'm at 98 hours, lv 200 and at Raya Academy on new game plus lool

 

Possibly by not fast travelling or riding a lot. Investigating absolutely everywhere and gone a bit Pokemon on armour sets:) Just love constantly finding new things despite being so long in. I wonder if you've missed much aside from the "main" storyline?

 

Speaking of which I need to go back and sort out the rest of Sofija River.

 

[Qazimod]

1 hour ago, cassidy said:

Only in the one boss fight @Cosmic_Guru is on about and it was fixed in a patch last week.  IIRC.

 

Ack, there go half of the notes I posted on the battle after I completed it.  

 

Are you still unable to summon after the phase change? I mean, 

 

Spoiler

he wipes them out with his meteor thing at the start of the phase anyway

 

but I always thought that was a prompt to get more dudes...

[5R7]

19 minutes ago, spanx said:

Very stuck at 

 

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Rykard

 

How the hell do you avoid this shit? I can’t get anywhere?

 

 

you may have something in your inventory that can help, read the descriptions!

Spoiler

its a spear type thing, that has a specific attack against big snakes

 

[cassidy]

6 minutes ago, Qazimod said:

 

Ack, there go half of the notes I posted on the battle after I completed it.  

 

Are you still unable to summon after the phase change? I mean, 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

he wipes them out with his meteor thing at the start of the phase anyway

 

but I always thought that was a prompt to get more dudes...

Nope that's fixed. As it worked for me when I did it on Saturday.  Was rather easy tbh. 

[spanx]

12 minutes ago, 5R7 said:

 

you may have something in your inventory that can help, read the descriptions!

  Hide contents

its a spear type thing, that has a specific attack against big snakes

 

Yeah was using the spear. Just done him!!

[NickC]

I'm 75hrs in and I reckon that's around halfway through what I'd consider my likely 1st playthrough. I bounced hard off Bloodborne (too hard) so I wondered if this was going to be another one of those 'you've bought a genre you don't like again' mistakes.

 

How wrong I was. This is a simply incredible game. Already it's my GOAT, there's no doubt in my mind there. There's so much to do. So much variety in the places to explore, the lore, the enemies, the equipment, the tactics available. And it's all a huge challenge for me. I can't wait to start again and play through with a completely different build. And I can't stop thinking about this game when I'm not playing. 

 

Thank you From Software. I didn't think it was possible to make a game this good on so many levels.

 

Spoiler

You don't have the right O you don't have the right

 

[Alask]

Final Boss

 

Spoiler

So I decided to do the quest line far enough that I can buy Pest Threads, but the Elden Beast is still taunting me. I don't feel like they have delivered on their promised level of destruction. I mean they are better than anything else I had, but they seem a bit more like a tickle than a wallop.

 

Using a Godslayer Seal +25 and 50 faith, tickly.

 

 

 

[Uzi]

28 minutes ago, Kirby said:

 

Possibly by not fast travelling or riding a lot. Investigating absolutely everywhere and gone a bit Pokemon on armour sets:) Just love constantly finding new things despite being so long in. I wonder if you've missed much aside from the "main" storyline?

 

Speaking of which I need to go back and sort out the rest of Sofija River.

 

I basically have all of the achievements inc all the legendary spells/taslimans/summons etc (aside from one stupid weapon for armaments I missed in the capital will get it in NG plus), went to all of the optional areas and did all the big side bosses and quests bar a few I didn't know were even there after checking the wiki upon seeing the credits. So I think I saw a good amount. Completed some of the main long side quests too. It's how I got all those runes! Checking the wiki I only missed some caves and some catamcombs and the odd evergoael. 

 

I did fast travel but I've memorised the map by now and didn't want slog runs from one end of Caelid down to say the Academy.

[therearerules]

What is the longest continuous horseback ride on this I wonder?

[therearerules]

Also did Rahdaan earlier, but I think I fluffed it because

Spoiler

I didn't realise it was a summons battle. I summoned one midway through the first battle because I was suprised to see patches name, and I summoned Blaidd on the second, but on the third just summoned some woman who as far as I can tell did nothing, and then just went toe to toe with him. I also forgot to use my weapon arts and change my talisman form the rot prevention one. Ended up being nailbiting still.

 

[Kirby]

46 minutes ago, Uzi said:

I basically have all of the achievements inc all the legendary spells/taslimans/summons etc (aside from one stupid weapon for armaments I missed in the capital will get it in NG plus), went to all of the optional areas and did all the big side bosses and quests bar a few I didn't know were even there after checking the wiki upon seeing the credits. So I think I saw a good amount. Completed some of the main long side quests too. It's how I got all those runes! Checking the wiki I only missed some caves and some catamcombs and the odd evergoael. 

 

I did fast travel but I've memorised the map by now and didn't want slog runs from one end of Caelid down to say the Academy.

 

Dude, skillz is all I can say. 

 

Me, majestically traversing the world of Elden Ring, earlier:

 

 

 

 

[imp]

@Uzi I have indeed started a DEX/ARC character based on another fextralife build (“blood dancer” if you’re interested), and it's been really, really fun putting the pieces together for the build as it involved getting into a lot of places super early. Also ridiculously fun to use so far, more fun even than just blasting everything with Night and Flame. I guess as the strategy is a little riskier - generally playing by two-handing the weapon with no shield, the payoff feels all the sweeter.

 

The weapon for the build is Eleronora's Poleblade, which scales primarily with ARC and secondarily with DEX. It also does bleed. Oh boy does it make things bleed! Its skill, Bloodblade Dance, is a nifty little flurry of slashes and often procs bleed with only one or two uses. And it also staggers lesser enemies with alarming regularity. Honestly, I think it might be my favourite weapon now.

 

Anyway, it's a moderately circuitous route to get it - which is actually possible before you even do a single mainline boss - so I've put the route in spoilers for those interested.

 

Spoiler

The weapon can be obtained at the Second Church of Marika, in the Altus Plateau by defeating Eleonora when she invades you. To get to Altus, you either need to go through the Ravine Veiled Village, and fight a Magma Wyrm, or get the two halves of the Dectus medallion. Since I wanted to get the weapon as early as possible, I thought better of fighting the wyrm.

 

To get the medallion halves my first job would be to find a capable weapon. After getting Torrent I headed to the Dragon-Burnt Ruins just south of the starting area and got the standard Twinblade - I thought it might be good practice before getting Eleonora's. I was wrong - it required 18 DEX, so I was stuck using the club my wretch began with.

 

As a compromise, I went to the Weeping Peninsula, and got the morning star from the chest near the bridge you enter. After levelling a couple of stats to be able to use it, I then headed to Summonwater Village, where I took out the Tibia Mariner and got the invitation to meet Gurranq from D, grabbing the green turtle talisman along the way (which makes stamina refill faster). I went to the warp gate and teleported to Caelid, and then crossed the bridge there, booking it past the dragon and reaching Fort Faroth in Greyoll’s Dragonbarrow. I simply ran through, grabbing the medallion and Radagon's Soreseal (boosts several key stats at the price of increased damage taken) for good measure.

 

Then I went to work on poor Greyoll himself, using the morning star for the bleed effect, and he went down before too long at all (I wouldn’t try it without a similar effect, otherwise you’d be hammering R1 all day). I used the 72k runes from killing him to bump my stats to Eleonora's Poleblade's requirements (possibly a bit silly in retrospect, as I didn't have anything that would take advantage of 21 arcane) and put the rest in VIT. Surprisingly I didn't gain that many levels, only reaching 30ish, IIRC.

 

Next up was Fort Haight, where I slew the knight commander and got the medal without much hassle. I then decided rather than just book it to Altus, I should follow Yura's questline (as I've never done it fully before), so I went and did the invasion event again Nerijus.

 

After basically letting Yura do all the hard work, I needed to meet him again on the North entrance of the Academy of Raya Lucaria. So I ran round the lakes, doing a bit of faff - finding spots of grace and doing the Rya/Blackguard stuff just in case I wanted to engage in those quest lines later - before going to snatch the glintstone key from Smarag. I picked up the glintstone key and used it, teleporting to the north side where I could join Yura on the next hunt. I was still pretty feeble at this point in the game. I started as a wretch so I was still barefoot and only had a baggy Tree and Beast surcoat for a little protection. Needless to say the Ravenmount assassin would have destroyed me solo, so I tactically hid behind Yura as he did the lion's share and was content to simply slip the occasional poke in.

 

Anyway, onward to Altus and I made it to the church. I started fighting Eleonora, without aid this time, and oh boy. I didn't stand a chance. I had a +1 Morning Star and she could one shot me with her dragon summons and weapon skill. I gave it a good 10 or so tries, having to fight a VERY annoying dog before each attempt, who could somehow proc blood loss in one hit through my shield and instakill me!

 

I stood no chance, figuring I should level up a bit before trying again, so I headed to Stormveil. I did a very lean run, going in the main gate and straight to Godrick - no exploration required - and took him out without any trouble. I was in need of smithing materials for my morning star though, and decided to head to Raya Lucaria tunnel for the miner's bell bearing there. Zipping through the cave, I thought I'd test my luck against Eleonora again, now that I was level 36 and had a +3 weapon. I got smashed again, but there was a slim chance I thought I could manage it, so after another half dozen attempts I formed a strategy. I put the No Skill ash on my shield and War Cry on the morning star - War cry turns your R2 charge attack into huge rushing slam attack that can both tank hits and knock the enemy out of theirs. The strategy basically became bait out a move and try to interrupt her counter-poke by charging in with the War Cry R2.

 

I got close a few times. It's a fun fight and I'd really got her moveset down. I was either knocking her out of her dragon magic, or using the environment to dodge the fire and her combo attacks, which felt nice. It was a level of mastery I’d rarely needed to attempt before. After a few tries, I had a stellar run, and got her down to a sliver. Next hit would have done it, she was already on the magic pixel. Good thing my TV decided to turn itself off, otherwise I wouldn’t have got to enjoy the next 30 minutes of repeated attempts until I finally pulled it off!

 

Next up I decided to run around cherry picking easy sombre smithing stones from around the map. I managed to get the weapon up to +6 without any trouble, but 7 required that I run through most of the Volcano Manor dungeon and use the stonesword key right at the end. Not the most fun, and actually ended up doing a little grinding at Mohg’s gaff so I could beat the Godskin Noble. Still, I wanted to go to the VM anyway, so I could do the assassination quests for the armour sets. Getting back to sombre stones, numbers 8 and 9 were very easy, but the Sombre Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone required a little more cunning to grab. In Mohg’s underground area you can run through to the end where there are about 10 albinaurics worshipping one of those robed dudes. I picked them off very carefully one by one and cackled with delight as I held a max level weapon before even killing a second demigod! I tested it out by absolutely romping through the Academy of Raya Lucaria. Rennala barely got a spell off!

 

Now I’d been rewarded with another talisman pouch from defeating a second shardbearer, I wanted something synergistic to go with the green Turtle Talisman and Radagon’s Soreseal. I set my sights on the Lord of Blood’s Exultation which gives me an attack power boost every time blood loss procs in my vicinity - a hell of a thing with a +10 Mimic!

 

To get the talisman I’d have to go to Leyndell Catacombs, which meant getting past the Draconic Tree Sentinel to access the capital. This guy was an absolute pain on my last build that used lightning and a slow-ass great spear, but thankfully the Bloodblade Dance skill staggered the heck out of him and the fight was over in seconds, even if those few seconds were all it took to did kill my poor unupgraded Jellyfish pal.

 

Anyway, that done it was a quick jaunt down to the sewers and into the catacombs for the exultation talisman. Since I was already so close, I thought I might as well have a pop at Godfrey for the last talisman pouch as well. He was much harder than any previous build - he doesn’t get staggered and doesn’t bleed, so my weapon was basically stripped of all that made it good! He went down after I cleaned up my play a little though, which was pretty satisfying.

 

So that’s about as far as I’m up to in terms of completing the build - the next piece requires me to to see Millicent’s quest through to the end for the Rotten Sword Insignia talisman which boosts attack power with successive strikes (from 6-22%) - perfect for a twinblade! Finishing that quest needs me to get to Elphael though, and that’s not gonna get done for a while so I’m leisurely going through the game, gleefully tearing everything to pieces for the moment!

 

Oh, I did invest in a few dragon spells as well - the communion ones, not the dragoncult/lightning themed spells I used last time. I barely ever use them, but they are good fun, shame they drain your FP nigh on instantly though!

 

Err, fuck me that's a long post. Sorry!

 

[joemul]

Got to a boss at a shady castle in Altus. Got him down to half health but just couldn’t avoid his attacks. Couldn’t summon either so I’ll need to practice. 
 

my +14 claymore isn’t breaking his poise so I might go to Roger’s Rapier and float like a butterfly…

[Alex W.]

I’ve been two-handing this with GT7, and it’s struck me that this is every bit as much of a “relaxed” game. You have these moments of focused, technical intensity in both but neither feel like they’re putting some urgent objective in front of me. They’re equally content to just let me piss about and fail and not progress, so long as I’m having fun.

 

I never expected Souls games to be so nice.

[dug]

After the Capital

Spoiler

I'm in Land of the Giants, or whatever it's called. Those twirly-flighty-icy-swordcunts can fuck off. Fuck completely off. Fuck entirely off.

 

[NecroMorrius]

2 hours ago, Uzi said:

An example is go on youtube (came for the lore vids, stayed for the cheese) and every other day you'lll see a new "OMG broken weapon art!!!" (new one doing the rounds is a scythe art that sends a ghost version of you doing a heavy attack a split second before you or a god of war build that melts enemies). When you find so many "broken" things you gotta ask yourself if they're broken or if From basically gave you plenty of ingredients to become the guy who goes to a boss and says:

 

I think their attitude is that if it’s all broken, it’s all balanced. The ease with which you can avoid invasions means it’s less of an issue. 

[Number 28]

Finally hammered this asshole in CFA

Spoiler

 

Gutted that all the ace looking armour I pick up always has lower stats.

[Qazimod]

GFEL/HLW down! Again, not as frustrating as earlier fights such as GD, but there were quite a few things to watch out for and I imagine being a close range class makes it harder! I couldn't break down the battle quite as much as I could for other bosses, but I did pick up a couple of things that close-range players might appreciate:

 

Spoiler

• The two overheads - one after another - seem like something worth baiting out to get some breathing space or sneak a hit in. Also, he does that jump into almost an angled divekick: it has just enough recovery on it to get some damage in - so long as you're in the right position.
• Obvious now but I wasn't doing it for ages: I think when he has around 66% life remaining he has that wispy aura buff and those stomps will chip you, so you have to jump. After I got rocked with it enough times I almost began expecting it. You just assume he's going to use the stomp as an ender for certain strings.
• My +10 ashes buddy was too squishy to last the whole encounter, but pulling it out (mimic tear) when the boss goes into his buff rage phase at the end provides a welcome distraction.

 

• Not really a tip, but his grappler moves in the latter phase are simultaneously terrifying and the raddest shit when you're an observer.  I'm hanging back looking for an opening and he's acting like a roided-up Zangief. Someone please tell me that someone has edited footage of the battle to include Street Fighter sound effects.

 

[scottcr]

Hahah, just found the Slitheen rune farm.

 

are we the baddies?!!

[cassidy]

53 minutes ago, Alex W. said:

I’ve been two-handing this with GT7, and it’s struck me that this is every bit as much of a “relaxed” game. You have these moments of focused, technical intensity in both but neither feel like they’re putting some urgent objective in front of me. They’re equally content to just let me piss about and fail and not progress, so long as I’m having fun.

 

I never expected Souls games to be so nice.

Well you say that still in Limgrave. 

 

It really really isn't nice. I still only really relax at Grace points. 

[robdood]

2 hours ago, joemul said:

Got to a boss at a shady castle in Altus. Got him down to half health but just couldn’t avoid his attacks. Couldn’t summon either so I’ll need to practice. 
 

my +14 claymore isn’t breaking his poise so I might go to Roger’s Rapier and float like a butterfly…

Do you mean you couldn't summon other players or your sprits? 

 

You can defo summon spirits for him.  If you use the item that shows up player summon signs you will not be able to summon spirits any more, maybe you'd done that?

[robdood]

57 minutes ago, Alex W. said:

I’ve been two-handing this with GT7, and it’s struck me that this is every bit as much of a “relaxed” game. You have these moments of focused, technical intensity in both but neither feel like they’re putting some urgent objective in front of me. They’re equally content to just let me piss about and fail and not progress, so long as I’m having fun.

 

I never expected Souls games to be so nice.

Bwahahahah.  MATE.  Just you wait. 

 

[Girth Certificate]

41 minutes ago, dug said:

After the Capital

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I'm in Land of the Giants, or whatever it's called. Those twirly-flighty-icy-swordcunts can fuck off. Fuck completely off. Fuck entirely off.

 

yep, Evil Olegs can fuck right off

[Jamie John]

Volcano Manor question:

 

Spoiler

I'm in the Prison Town bit and have dropped down onto the rooftops submerged in lava, just outside the church with the grace site in it. There's a gravesite full of un-aggroed living jars here and a broken staircase I can't climb. Is there any way to get back up to where I dropped down, or to move forwards to a different section? I don't want to just fast travel back to the grace site because that will respawn all the enemies I've spent a long time taking out.

 

It seems strange that the game expects you to just bone home out of there, but I can't see any other way.

 

[Alan Stock]

5 hours ago, therearerules said:

You're ahead of me north of the map, but I just ventured to Caelid. It's absolutely grotesquely terrifying appearance and death at the erdtree put me off going there, but actually I'm quite overpowered now. Generally you can tell when you're where you're meant to be when you're picking up smithing stones at the current level or plus 1. The mobs here drop level 3 & 4 smithing stones.

 

Ah nice, I will try venturing further into there then. Thanks also @spanx, I will beef up my weapons a bit more if I'm still struggling, though I'm starting to run out of the higher level stones there are still quite a few dungeons etc I've to do in places I've explored.

 

Also people were chatting earlier about upping Mind to get FP for the higher summons, I've just started doing that too but I wish I had done it earlier, you get a measly amount of FP per Mind level! And the first new unique summon I got access to with my 105Fp seems a bit shit, doh!

[joemul]

23 minutes ago, robdood said:

Do you mean you couldn't summon other players or your sprits? 

 

You can defo summon spirits for him.  If you use the item that shows up player summon signs you will not be able to summon players any more, maybe you'd done that?

Cheers bud. Must have been that.