Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[Alan Stock]

Dunno if anyone knows the answer to this, but if you have the option to NPC summon at a boss, but don't take it, are you effectively ending that NPCs questline?

[Retroid]

I don't think so as I didn't summon one at the castle and they showed up again. NPC wise I feel like I've missed a whole shedload of content as I never ran into that witch at the beginning.

[imp]

5 hours ago, kensei said:

 

The soreseal increases all damage received by 15%. At lower levels it's definitely worth it, as that will be mitigated by both the vitality increase and endurance enabling heavier armour.

 

Now I'm over level 100, I'm not sure. Enemies hit like absolute trucks, and that 15% is going to bite. The additional health at 40 Vitality is also relatively less. 

 

Anyone got any experience on whether it stops being worth it?

 

 

I used it to the end of my last playthrough - finished with 40 VIT, but TBF I was capable of killing almost everything that wasn't a boss with a quick press of L2, maybe followed up by a crit front stab. I didn't have a problem using the soreseal against the two most infamous optional endgame bosses, but did suffer against a couple of others:

 

Spoiler

The dragons:

 

Spoiler

Placidusax and Fortissax

 

 

But I put that down to my choice of weapon, which did bleed and fire damage, making those fights take a bit longer than they should have. I will probably remove it if I go to NG+, but it was basically fine all game. 20 stat points is still a lot, even late game!

[Jamie John]

From looking at the Wiki it seems I've completely missed out on Rya's questline, which is annoying.

Spoiler

Apparently you're supposed to talk to her when she's in snake form, which never happened to me. And now that I've killed Rykard she's disappeared, never to be seen again, by the looks of it. Sigh.

 

[kensei]

The Land of the Giant seems to be a step change in the amount of damage I give and receive.

 

Lake of Rot was proper wtf From.

 

Also, not a fan of multiple types of what amounts to the same status. It just means you have to manage multiple resistances and healing items.

[NexivRed]

1 hour ago, Jamie John said:

Just defeated the boss of Volcano Manor...

 

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Lol, that was goofy as fuck. I literally picked up the spear thing by the door, equipped it and then spammed the special attack on it for the entire fight, both stages! He didn't hurt me once, apart from some lava when I had to pause to top up my FP. I staggered him three times.

 

This seems completely borked. Is this what you're supposed to do?

 

I equipped it, looked shit and didn’t read it, got him down to 25% 2nd phase with my normal sword, got annoyed cos it was shit being up close to him, googled it, equipped it, stood a long way away, lol. 

[Kirby]

6 minutes ago, kensei said:

The Land of the Giant seems to be a step change in the amount of damage I give and receive.

 

Lake of Rot was proper wtf From.

 

Also, not a fan of multiple types of what amounts to the same status. It just means you have to manage multiple resistances and healing items.

 

I've just started it and fuck this area.

 

Especially the first dungeon. Which is confusing as a confusing thing.

 

 

 

 

 

[NexivRed]

Has anyone successfully used bewitching branches on Commander Cunt’s adds? Because they go down in like five seconds so I call bullshit on it. Doesn’t work anything like the video I’ve seen. 

[Kzo]

Took down MBoM tonight. Wow what a fight. Quickly gave up on doing it without ash summons, it'd take me days.

 

Even with the Mimic it took a good few goes, she doesn't fuck around with the 1 shots.

[Broker]

Done. Faith build next I think. I’m up to around 170 hours now and still loving every second.

 

[Popo]

On 11/03/2022 at 12:37, Stoikovich said:

The massive problem I have is there’s too much stuff to do IRL.  My employer and customers somehow aren’t playing this, so I have to carry on working.  Then my family expect me to interact with them on evenings and weekends.  Unforgivable.

 

i can’t juggle that, plus everything  Elden Ring’s loaded with.  Did anyone mention how big it is?

I’m exactly the same, and can only stare on in mild disbelief at the speed with which many people are getting through the game. The real Elden Ring starts… on the weekend, it seems. 
 

And let’s not even get into how bloody nice and sunny it’s been since this game came out. Even if I wanted to sit at home and not take advantage of it - and sometimes I do - it’s impossible to play without drawing the curtains and going full goblin mode. 
 

There was some chat about a siren’s call a while ago - some singing you can hear, coming from somewhere - but I never found it. Could I get a hint on that?

[jonny_rat]

8 hours ago, Jamie John said:

Just defeated the boss of Volcano Manor...

 

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Lol, that was goofy as fuck. I literally picked up the spear thing by the door, equipped it and then spammed the special attack on it for the entire fight, both stages! He didn't hurt me once, apart from some lava when I had to pause to top up my FP. I staggered him three times.

 

This seems completely borked. Is this what you're supposed to do?

 

This lad has my favourite voice acting in any from game ever. New champion, replacing the thief chap in DS3. ("Ah heavens, she was already dead")

[Qazimod]

9 hours ago, Jamie John said:

Just defeated the boss of Volcano Manor...

 

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Lol, that was goofy as fuck. I literally picked up the spear thing by the door, equipped it and then spammed the special attack on it for the entire fight, both stages! He didn't hurt me once, apart from some lava when I had to pause to top up my FP. I staggered him three times.

 

This seems completely borked. Is this what you're supposed to do?

 

Yes it is. In typical From fashion it’s not explicitly spelled out (although the weapon’s name is a little on-the-nose) but it worked wonders for me too so it’s clearly there for that reason.

 

9 hours ago, El Spatula said:

Dunno, he kicked the fuck out of me first time even using the spear. Seems you got lucky....

Even with the weapon it’s not a free win, but the range and damage is still superb. At worst, it turns it from a “fuck this encounter” moment to a normal boss battle.

[Captain Kelsten]

21 hours ago, Hexx said:

 

I think you've got a couple of bits off...

 

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Demi Gods and  Empyreans aren't interchangeable.

 

 Empyrean are the only ones capable of holding the Elden Ring. 

We don't know Marika's parentage before she came to the Lands Between  but she is  Empyrean.

 

 Empyreans, we're told, come from being born from a single god - which is why Mal&Miq are as Marika and Radagon are the same being.

Which makes Ranni an odd one out - there's no explanation for it in game, but we are told Miq, Mal and Ran are the only  Empyrean candidates. 

How Ranni is  Empyrean isn't explained in the game - it might be something to do with Egg/Rebirth. Another theory is she's adopted. 

 

It's also worth mentioning Marika (way before the Shattering) already took the Rune of Death out of the Elden Ring. She gave it to Maliketh who turned it into sword he wielded. Ranni's Assassins stole pieces of it to make their own black knives that could then kill Gods. After that it took the rune into himself so no one could steal it again - that's why he's constantly hungry for death.

 

I think this is FROMs worst story. Ignoring all the confusingly very similar names, it's just incomplete.

And while Bloodborne is  interesting and opening to interpretation due to carefully crafted gaps or conflicting stories, this just straight up doesn't tell you key bits in an attempt to be "mysterious".

Aah thanks, knew I’d missed a couple of bits. Have added those in now!

 

[Girth Certificate]

6 hours ago, NexivRed said:

Has anyone successfully used bewitching branches on Commander Cunt’s adds? Because they go down in like five seconds so I call bullshit on it. Doesn’t work anything like the video I’ve seen. 

 

I thought it was crystal darts they were using but no it didn't work for me either  

[jonamok]

6 hours ago, NexivRed said:

Has anyone successfully used bewitching branches on Commander Cunt’s adds? Because they go down in like five seconds so I call bullshit on it. Doesn’t work anything like the video I’ve seen. 

I burned through a few, but was still dying. Wasted one as the bewitched idiot started attacking the arms of one of my pursuers through the fog door. 😆

 

Now I have mimic tear, I’ll go back and try again.

[ox1973]

6 hours ago, Kzo said:

Took down MBoM tonight. Wow what a fight. Quickly gave up on doing it without ash summons, it'd take me days.

 

Even with the Mimic it took a good few goes, she doesn't fuck around with the 1 shots.

 

Same here. Took me a little while to learn her moves and the Mimic, really, really pulled their weight, but what a great feeling when sweet, sweet victory arrives.

 

Onwards to Tornado world!

[robdood]

2 hours ago, Popo said:

I’m exactly the same, and can only stare on in mild disbelief at the speed with which many people are getting through the game. The real Elden Ring starts… on the weekend, it seems. 
 

And let’s not even get into how bloody nice and sunny it’s been since this game came out. Even if I wanted to sit at home and not take advantage of it - and sometimes I do - it’s impossible to play without drawing the curtains and going full goblin mode. 
 

There was some chat about a siren’s call a while ago - some singing you can hear, coming from somewhere - but I never found it. Could I get a hint on that?

Re the siren. 

 

Have you explored weeping peninsula yet? 

[Steven]

2 hours ago, Popo said:

I’m exactly the same, and can only stare on in mild disbelief at the speed with which many people are getting through the game. The real Elden Ring starts… on the weekend, it seems. 
 

And let’s not even get into how bloody nice and sunny it’s been since this game came out. Even if I wanted to sit at home and not take advantage of it - and sometimes I do - it’s impossible to play without drawing the curtains and going full goblin mode. 
 

There was some chat about a siren’s call a while ago - some singing you can hear, coming from somewhere - but I never found it. Could I get a hint on that?

 

It happens in a few places - you will hear it eventually. The first instance for me was on the WP on some cliffs.

[Jamie John]

I'm enjoying going round Caelid at level 104 absolutely merking motherfuckers who I had to run away from when I first came here to do suicide runs at level 20 or so.

 

Comedy giant dogs? Merked.

Crows with teeth? Merked.

Big horrible dragons? Merked.

Nasty fuck centipede spearmen? Merked.

 

I read that you're supposed to come here after the AP, so that's what I've done, but enemies drop significantly fewer runes, so I reckon it's Limgrave, Liurnia, here, then the Plateau.

[Kzo]

6 hours ago, Broker said:

Done. Faith build next I think. I’m up to around 170 hours now and still loving every second.

 

 

I'm still on the faith build with a few bosses left to go. While a lot of the incantations are underwhelming on their own, as a whole a faith build is great in its versatility. It absolutely gives you all the tools to make any encounter significantly easier if you switch out to the right stuff. 

 

Some incantations and combos I stopped using as they just trivialise the game (e.g. Rot Breath). Many, many others need a good buff to be viable. Loads of the end-game spells are basically unusable due to high wind-up time and you get knocked out of them by a single dagger poke. Adding a bit of poise to them would be great.  (Edit: I should say not worth using rather than unusable. You can get them off with timing but you could've done same damage for less effort with Lightning Spear etc.) 

 

By end-game I've basically stopped using any offensive incants. I'm running round in Black Knife cosplay with 2 daggers spamming weapon art a lot or 2 greatswords if I want to smash. The Dagger of Calling WA is better than Lightning Spear, cheaper and knocks everybody over. Also run dual scythes if I need to bleed something (FG!). Winged Scythe weapon art is pretty fun. 

 

Golden Epitaph is a cool sword that kills skeletons first go. The WA basically buffs you with double damage against them too. 

[Alan Stock]

1 hour ago, Jamie John said:

I'm enjoying going round Caelid at level 104 absolutely merking motherfuckers who I had to run away from when I first came here to do suicide runs at level 20 or so.

 

Comedy giant dogs? Merked.

Crows with teeth? Merked.

Big horrible dragons? Merked.

Nasty fuck centipede spearmen? Merked.

 

I read that you're supposed to come here after the AP, so that's what I've done, but enemies drop significantly fewer runes, so I reckon it's Limgrave, Liurnia, here, then the Plateau.

 

Yeah, since @therearerules directed me over there I definitely think its the next step before entering the capital. Not sure I would have survived Caelid without the levelling up doing the plateau outside the Capital though (and most of Mount Gelmir and the start of the Manor). The problem with Caelid is that it strongly gives the impression of being higher than it is due to the giant beasts which are much harder than the rest of its inhabitants, but you can mostly avoid them or at least only take them on if they're in the way of a critical route. That's what had put me off Caelid earlier, but now I've done a good chunk of the lower half. In terms of bosses in Caelid, I killed one in the overworld in only a few tries, and the next one at Sellia I've had to artificially handicap myself with a low weapon and limited flasks because I was taking off half a boss HP bar in a few hits! I've also reached the main castle but haven't gone too far inside.

 

Not sure about north Caleid though, it seems significantly harder, but that's where supposedly the lift objective is - so either its git gud time or maybe there is an easier route, stealth or secret way to bypass some of the roadblocks there.

 

The smithing stone difficulty curve analysis does seem to be true in Caelid, mostly +3 and +4 stones as rewards (getting regular weapons up to +12) with the occasional higher one thrown in. Still they are miserly in their handouts so I'm really glad I can already buy them from the shop as its allowed me to get a bunch of weapons up to half decent levels, with a bunch at +9 to +12.

 

Edit: I should note I'm now about level 63, still with spread out stats - low Vit, Faith 25, pumped some stats into Mind to get FP to 100, and finally upped my Dex to 24 which has helped a little with my damage output. The stuff I did in the plateau/manor was between level 55 to 60.

[Ste Pickford]

I just entered the Plateau and Volcano Manor last night.  The Plateau was the least impressive first view of a new area so far - it didn't wow me like all the others did.

 

I might wander into Caelid and see what that's like, before deciding where to plough on.  Level 44 now.

 

Oh, and happy 1 month anniversary to Elden Ring!

[Davros sock drawer]

Mammoth session on this yesterday. Did so much I can barely recall it all. Ranni’s quest spoilers:

Spoiler

Following Ranni’s quest and realising that despite the seemingly never ending unraveling series of areas it’s ALL OPTIONAL was quite mind blowing. It’s not as if this is just some side area like Painted World or Cainhurst Castle. It’s a huuuge chunk of game that anybody could easily miss. My eyes were out on stalks most of the time - “There’s more?!”
 

Killed a few bosses - Gargoyles, and the Space Bastard at the end of Lake of Rot. Fun place that was! Did some classic Dark Souls style puzzling in Snow World, and had a sort of general explore on horseback of that area. Only one bit of the map unlocked though. Oh, and I finally have the Mimic everyone talks about. Even nicer is I was able to immediately get it to +10 as I found the (9) and (Great) almost as soon as I set off down the Ranni hole. 

 

170 hours in. Still not bored. Still would rather be playing this than doing anything else. 

[imp]

I've been a bit underwhelmed with faith builds so far, but I haven't ever specced for full casting, more as a supplement to melee. Thinking about it I haven't done much flame stuff since early in my first character run, focusing on lightning instead. As the most easily useable damage spell for faith, I just wish the lightning bolt had a little bit more range. Also, as I've been playing melee builds which boost damage using stacking buffs, it can be a real pain getting everything set up, especially when repeating fights.

 

I'm doing a build from another fextralife video atm, where I'm dual wielding greatswords and spamming jump attacks which uses faith as the main damage scaling stat, so who knows, I might go off in a full caster that direction nearer the end game where tanking hits is probably less viable. For the moment though it's pretty fun just rushing at everything and slamming them!

 

 

[Jamie John]

Anyone else approach that HUGE living jar in Caelid?

 

Spoiler

Apparently you have to fight three NPC invaders in a row without dying for it to give you something. It wouldn't be so bad, but the closest bonfire isn't that nearby and you have to run the gauntlet past those fucking magic golem archers each time, which is a massive pain. Mostly, the game does a pretty good job of giving you a checkpoint near to tough encounters, but that's not the case here. There are a few other really annoying bonfire runs, too.

 

[Chadruharazzeb]

Completed Ranni's quest last night. 

Spoiler

1. That weird boss was hilariously easy. 

 

2. Why, Blaidd, why??? Why... 

 

[imp]

1 minute ago, Jamie John said:

Anyone else approach that HUGE living jar in Caelid?

 

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Apparently you have to fight three NPC invaders in a row without dying for it to give you something. It wouldn't be so bad, but the closest bonfire isn't that nearby and you have to run the gauntlet past those fucking magic golem archers each time, which is a massive pain. Mostly, the game does a pretty good job of giving you a checkpoint near to tough encounters, but that's not the case here. There are a few other really annoying bonfire runs, too.

 

 

Yeah, the runback is definitely a pain. Possibly the worst in the game, actually. Just think of it as nostalgic!

[Triple A]

Is it possible to get more than one Star Fist weapon on the first playthrough?  I quite fancy being a lean, mean bleed machine if possible.

[Lovelyman]

2 minutes ago, Triple A said:

Is it possible to get more than one Star Fist weapon on the first playthrough?  I quite fancy being a lean, mean bleed machine if possible.

Each instance of the weapon iS two of them.