Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

you know that tiny little head that says "Hi?" when you use it? i keep that in my pouch.

;_;

HULLLLOOOO

Mimic's Veil is def going in the pouch.

i LOVE how arrows stick in you and enemies in this game :)

I haven’t played this because my pc sucks but please tell me they still have the “VERY GOOD” voice item thing

Ah looks like not, but this one might be just as fun: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Prattling+Pate+You're+Beautiful

Can't wait until I find the "APOLOGIES" one

found the "thank you" one, died shortly afterward to four skeletons who woke up immediately afterward in the same room (i suck), then returned to the same room, killed them all, and said "thank you"

*csi: miami sunglasses*

the singing bird by the minor erdtree in limgrave!! amazing moment

Took a break and elected to investigate the Bridge Of Sacrifice which seemed to lead to the end of the world map. Nope! There’s a whole other area south of here

Elden Ring rule #1: there's always another area.

the singing bird by the minor erdtree in limgrave!! amazing moment

― the world's undisputed #1 fan of 'Spud Infinity' (Karl Malone), Friday, March 4, 2022 12:39 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

no matter how bright it can get, nothing ever really lets up in this game

I thought those minor erdtrees would provide some peaceful solace but nope, they're all guarded by those dumb giant tree avatars.

So I'm not sure what Ive managed to do here. I got to that Stormhill gate, a huge boss thing fell down from above and I realised I couldnt fight him.

Then I came back on my horse and just... powergalloped through all the gates/fences and out the other side, and ended up at a collapsed bridge. I figured I could walk down the side of it and went round what felt like an alt/secret route? And ended up at Liunria of the Lake and met someone who transported me to the Roundtable place.

But I didnt defeat the Stormveil boss

Have I somehow skipped something? The guides say I cant skip thisMagrit boss but I never saw this place?

Ohhh wait I see what I did - I'm on the cliffs ABOVE the lake, I skipped the castle by going round it, ha no wonder I cant get down to the road.

I did pretty much the same thing trayce! I panicked and sped through the gate, then went around the castle and a crazy journey beyond that. Still haven’t taken on stormveil at level 36!

Hehe we all ended up at the same spot apparently. I can’t quit this game! I had a dream about it!

I'm at a very early point where I realise I need to do some grinding - I was so focussed on just working out how to use all the gear/weapons/my staff that I forgot to even bother with any levelling up. I've lost more runes than Ive earned.

I beat Margit. They buffed up the boss strength when you summon NPC help! I summoned Sorcerer guy a few times but found it easier on my own

I liked the Godrick fight and the darkly comic scene that ensues afterwards

Kept on getting close and then running out of healing while trying to be cagey at the end of his second phase, then just got him in a very short fight by being as aggressive as possible

The cutscene in the middle where he just starts going "AAAAAAAGH" in the most insane voice possible was perfect "ah, fuck, what now" Souls foreboding

moving v slowly thru this but it’s extremely amenable to that.

had a fairly easy win over the ghostly Mariner, realised i was hopelessly underpowered for the mobs in Siofra, reached the Roundtable, got hammered by the giant bear, *again*, (indiscipline really, feels fairly standard rolling should make this easy enough), i’m due another go at Margit next time i sit down.

think i’m going to level up stats for some ranged magic/incantations - having options for the bosses seems sensible.

this was mildly interesting:

Video game soundtrack composer Christa Lee made a really interesting point on Twitter: she said the fights actually work more like turn-based battles from classic Japanese RPGs. You make your attack move, then you need to wait to see how the enemy responds, counter that with a parry or a dodge, then take your turn to strike again. It’s all about reading attack patterns, working out the best distance at which to engage the enemy, and ensuring you have the correct weapons and knowledge for the job.

it feels truer in ER than DS even - the bosses are going to exploit the range of tactics available to you and given the range of attacking options is wider than before, so is the requirement for tactical flexibility.

Yes! I've been saying for years that the secret precursor to this series is Vagrant Story

After a week off, I got back on last night and explored the first-ish areas about to my heart’s extent. Put me around level 26. Decided to suck it up and start clearing bosses. Surprised myself by spanking Magrit then Godrick and his level in only a few tries. Went back to clean up every mini boss in the land above, below, and over after ‘Rick. Maybe like eight or so guys? I was on a warpath. Leaned on my spirit ashes, NPC summons, and horse in some variation for all of them.

Feeling cocky, I decided to try a stone sword key level and got absolutely smushed by what was waiting for me at the end. Plenty of struggle ahead!

People are gonna have some wildly different experiences with this thing.

But yeah, so far all time great game, I love it to death.

some seriously irritating souls loss up at Caelid ffs.

I gotta say, npc quest lines are as inscrutable as always. In a world this big, it's even harder to randomly stumble upon their next location. I looked up the one to get the reusable invasion item because I didn't want to mess it up, and I don't know if I ever would have gotten there on my own.

On another note, I won my first invasions in the Academy. :)

Elder Horse

Went over to Morne Castle, murdered a Leonine something. Finally got my strength level up to 30 so I switched over the two-handing the Golden Halberd. I'm feeling like the guard riposte mechanic is so overpowered in this game, like you can pull off Bloodbornes "parry" mechanic but you only have to hold the block button and wait til the right moment. I dunno if this means that I should be looking toward a one-handed-with-shield eventuality. Two-handing is how I enjoy melee in this series in general though so idk!

Also ventured into a sending gate, met a hungry-for-death beast, elected to sneak past a hilarious dragon giant thing, killed a few deadly-but-wimpy smallmen in the tallgreygrass and was collecting 1000 runes apiece (insanity!), levelled up some more and idk what to do now! Greyveil or what's it called I guess?

There is little-to-no armor in this game and I've found next-to-no spells and zero bows. (Wasn't planning on using spells or bows anyhow). I think I've kinda naturally settled into a strength build with a faith-y aspect to it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnaii1piTrM

out on the weeping peninsula. just generally rocking around. need to find the three wise beasts. hope one of them wasn’t that spectral turtle i slaughtered.

will do margit tomorrow.

I have found a ton of spells I won't be using, but no armor worth switching to. I've been two-handing as well mostly, with a buckler for parries.

Just beat the second story boss in Liurnia! Fun fight, not too difficult. Not sure where to go from here so I guess it's wander time.

I bought the classic Knight armour from the creepy maiden husks. Using mace+5, golden halberd+2 and crepus crossbow+2; the sombre stones are a bit hard to come by but I assume pushing on from Limgrave will turn some up. Haven't put enough points into faith to get any big time miracles yet

Might have a go on the grafted greatsword when I get my strength up but I've got to kill a few big bosses to pay for my levels at this stage

This game is amazing, I wasn't sure I liked the directionless freedom on my first couple of sessions but realising you can go in basically any direction and get a unique souls-quality experience really hits you after a while

My only complaint is that YOU DIED takes too long to appear and you lose some time to aimless enemy slashing at thin air while your corpse decides when to disintegrate

My only complaint is that YOU DIED takes too long to appear and you lose some time to aimless enemy slashing at thin air while your corpse decides when to disintegrate

HOw are you guys levelling up so fast? Compared to Skyrim I am finding levelling extremely tedious in this game. Nothing levels you just by doing day to day spellcasting or skills, you simply have to kill heaps of things and then still find a grace spot to sit and spend the runes at. It just feels really cumbersome to me, it breaks up my flow of play cos I am forever getting a good swarm down then running back to a grace point just to level up so I dont lose all the runes dying. I started a new Prisoner class guy (his staff spell is wicked good but a little slow), and I'm still only on like level 14. Are you lot just playing for hours and hours? Ive been at it since 8 this morning, its 3PM now and I feel like I'm getting nooooowherrrre.

Being able to level at rest points and fast travel to them is more convenient than some of the games, ha. But levels aren't everything, and runes come and go.

Imo the most important thing you can level early on in this game is vigor. Aside from basic stat requirements for weapons/spells, that gets you a lot of hp for your buck, and upgrading weapons seems to have way more impact then scaling?

Yes a few things Ive read have said that too, though I guess it depends on both yr playstyle and yr chosen class. This prisoner dude I now have had a much better starting staff spell, and with it, I can pick off a lot of dudes from a safe distance without getting a scratch on me. I was also lucky very early on to get a weapon drop and some armour. I think I just need to break the long-held Elder Scrolls habit/playstyle Ive always had (slow exploration/lots of crafting/very little close up melee) bcs that playstyle doesnt work well in this game. No cheat-grinding by making dozens of potions, lol.

Idk, you could probably make a magic + archery character that does just that!

True! The guys I have is good hands off combat too, but I guess I dont like that all the other stuff - crafting, talking to NPCs, learning spells etc - gpes toward XP/levelling!

All that said I'm really enjoying this, what a time sink. I'm grimly determined to git gud.

I dont like that all those things DONT go towards levelling that should say obv. Yay run on sentences.

Speaking of crafting, is anyone finding much use for it? Maybe Idont have enough recipes yet but none of them seem terribly useful, aside maybe from that soft landing/silence one and the firepots.

The thing that will get you runes is killing shit, especially big or difficult shit.

i don’t think those other things go towards levelling, Trayce, other than tangentially, ie talking to NPCs will sometimes direct you towards specific areas or give you useful info (obliquely obv), and spells will help you kill shit.

with death so lightly punished and so integral to the games, it sounds like you may want to bias a bit more towards just fighting things, especially challenging things, though the game usually does a good enough job of that for you. and tbh i’m v much playing slowly, and exploring the relatively easy but unknown areas in Limgrave and Stormveil. Only level 24. A nice thing about ER is that it’s really relaxed about how you approach it.

Still. Time for Margit.

i haven’t done any crafting though some stuff looks like it might be useful - like trailing a fire pot off the back of your steed, which by the way i quite like the way it looks a bit more like a shaggy auroch than a thoroughbred.

one other thing - weapon descriptions were a great way to get into lore and story in DS and Bloodborne - but they seem pretty thin in ER. am i missing something?

It's funny, but invading after I think I've explored an area is a great way to find what I missed. As in, where the hell is the host? Oh, I apparently he went in this secret passage and dropped down into that room with the closed door, cool.

Also a good way to see so much wild gear, like someone using a jellyfish as a shield.

did margit, with co-op, but fuckit. lost a *lot of souls* in this session. a lot. love the music in stormveil castle (in the game generally in fact - it’s v good)

still haven't been able to defeat Margit. :( I really want to do it myself, without calling in a player summon / co-op, but my character is just too squishy. I'm able to get Margit down to about 20% but at that point my summon pals (wolves+1 or a giant jellyfish+1) usually die and i'm not strong enough to bring Margit down 1 on 1.

do smithing stones regenerate in the mines/caves? i ask because although i have a surplus of smithing stone[2] and somber stones, i can't level up my broadsword+3 any more because i can't find any. more smithing stone[1]

sorry for many typos

i'm just realizing...i need to upgrade my fucking armor!!!!!!!

maybe that's my problem?! god i'm an idiot. i'm still mostly using my starting gear, as the drops around limville and cato caelin haven't provided me with much of a better option. but i think i've only upgraded my weapons and completely forgotten about my armor? going back in.

maybe you can't upgrade armor? (by "armor" i mean my helmet, greaves, etc. by "upgrade" i mean "pay a guy and use some smithing stones to add a +1")

Nope, smithing stones don't regenerate, I don't think (although enemies in the mine still drop them, and there are other mines).

I don't think you can upgrade armor? I hope not anyway. Maybe just explore another area and come back?

HOw are you guys levelling up so fast? Compared to Skyrim I am finding levelling extremely tedious in this game.

Generally, I ensure that I am levelling up once or twice after every mini-boss. Yesterday I killed that dragon on the lake near the starting point, got sidetracked into a weird helldungeon and lost about 6k runes as a result. Usually I'm not so hubristic.

One thing that I tend to exploit in this game and other From games is that when I realize there's an opportunity to do some soul/rune farming, I take it when necessary. Somebody (D? I think?) told me about a "sending portal" to the East of the start and put it on my map. I went there, was teleported to some advanced area, and met this beast god I think I was supposed to meet. I peeked outside and there was a present-tense-unkillable dragon fucker who would not attack me if I snuck by him. Behind him? a field full of deadly-but-easy-to-R1-spam creatures who netted 1200 runes each.

So I killed about 12 of them, mostly by sneaking up and criticalling them, and walked away with 15k runes. I decided I was going to buy the Knight set from the two-headed creature in the Round Table area, which was gonna cost about that much, so I warped back out to that field, murdered 12 of those creatures, went back and bought it.

I'm Level 36 or so now, have beaten Margit but not Godrick, have killed every mini-boss in the first three areas (I forget the names, but like main area one, the Weeping Peninsula, and that woodsy place immediately to the East). I haven't killed the Ball Bearing Bastard (I gagged when he first showed up), or that one evergaol dude on Stormhill or whatever. Haven't finished the underground river starscape place either. Wow this game is big

Speaking of crafting, is anyone finding much use for it?

So far, bone darts and that's it. I use bone darts to pick off groups one-by-one and to trigger those catacomb fire pillars from a distance. I've crafted some of the "I wanna summon somebody" items, too.

i'm just realizing...i need to upgrade my fucking armor!!!!!!!

You can't! Shields can be upgraded. I'm unsure as to whether or not it's worth it, though, the upgrade table only gives information about "increasing damage" of shields, which is not useful. I assume there is some increase in guard counter stats or something but it doesn't say so, so idk

fwiw: I'm wearing boring-ass Knight armor, my Wretch was wearing hand-me-downs and I needed SOMETHING, so I bought it. I switch between the Golden Halberd 2H (which looks ugly with the armor) and a more-appropriate Heater Shield + Longsword combo. I did a sneaky suicide run into a distant castle to grab a Fire Ash for the Longsword (at Level 36 my stats are still low enough to justify some of those high-base-damage-but-poor-scaling options).

Oh, I accidentally smacked a key ally when she was imprisoned and so I did some googling about how to save our relationship and it is looking bleak but I'm hoping I'll solve it when I beat Godrick and get to the next area