Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

I just found out about a method of farming for xp, and it involves using a portal that there is NO WAY I would have stumbled on if I'd not known to look for it.

My theory is that the entire From story-thesis (that is, no exposition, but tonnes of lore) predicates community involvement— sharing tricks, locations of items, generally a spoiler is [actually a salient point that they wanted you to share]

For example, I would’ve sailed through the game with only a superficial interest/engagement to Who Ranni Is And Who Hurt Her except for the work of some more fastidious commentators

I gave up on Radahn, I’m at 70 but he’s embarrassing me, doing some easy Caelid exploration instead

I agree that community involvement seems key, and while I have played and enjoyed everything offline, I do feel like I have missed something.

i have left some pretty funny messages and have been appraised some times, it feels good. does getting appraised give you something? other than satisfaction

It refills your hp bar!

oh dang, nice! wow, those messages with 1000+ approvals must kind of break the game for them?!

i've only played this and demon's souls on the PS3 right when the servers were being flipped off (and eventually replaced with a private fan server) - i really loved the online aspect of demon's souls, and i don't so much here. i think the difference is that the player base for demon's was so much smaller that those bits of other players really did make the world less lonely. the other people playing felt real and present, whereas every single person on the planet is playing elden ring so it feels like i'm seeing shadows of an extremely popular MMORPG player base.

the open world has something to do with that too, it just feels inherently less lonely and desolate on its own. it's a very lively game world.

There have been a few times where I’m in some location that feels so remote, so obscure, and I’ve felt the thrill of loneliness and frontierism, only to have the ghost of another player drift by and strike a pose at me

I'm playing offline, am I missing out? Probably more Breath of the Wild vibes this way!

If I wanted to play co-op style with a friend, is that possible? Or is this a very solo-mish kind of game

I literally followed an online YouTube guide for noobs when I played Bloodborne and I still enjoyed it

xps to X: using group passwords is a good way to regain the community feel of online. You still see a lot of randos messages/ghosts/bloodstains, but it will prioritize the in-group ones, which will also be visually distinctive. BTW, 'ilg' is the password for this thread, right? I've had it set up for a while, but I haven't seen anything from any of y'all. Whereas I added the password for a medium-sized Discord I'm in the other day and I'm seeing lots from them. Might just be because this is a small group, but I just want to double-check!

Finally defeated Margit after many tries with summoning Rogier & my jellyfish and spamming lots of magic bolts. It felt a little cheap, but I think using the tools the devs intend you to use is always fair game. Now I'm stuck on Godrick, which is in a way more frustrating because he's clearly so much more manageable. Ah, well.

FINE I'll read some getting started guides at least. I'm playing as a confessor because I wanted a shield. Right now I'm in some catacombs fighting gremlins.

I'm playing offline for now too, I haven't been playing enough PS games to justify paying for the online services.

Ha, reading guides is making me more overwhelmed.

it's a bit like working out the rules of a Warhammer game

I agree that the abundance of messages in this one due to its popularity does remove the “specialness” that they had in the old ones. The old games seemed like spectacularly lonely experiences most of the time and seeing a message in some remote corner of the fifth layer of hell was usually welcome, even if it was useless. It’s kinda become graffiti in this one.

THAT SAID. I have found a lot of super helpful messages in this one that have saved my life or shown me something I would have missed. You kinda develop a sense for what’s junk and what’s not after a while by their placement.

I'm a little bit a bit sick of try finger but hole ngl

If I wanted to play co-op style with a friend, is that possible? Or is this a very solo-mish kind of game

Yes and no. You can set up a matchmaking password with your friend and you'll only see their sign, and you can summon them in the overworld and inside castles/dungeons/etc. However:

-Can't use horse travel when have co-op, so it won't be great for pure exploration
-They'll leave your world and need to be re-summoned after beating a boss, including in the overworld
-If they help you beat a boss in your world, that doesn't affect theirs, so you'll need to be summoned by them if you want to progress together at the same rate (ie you'll need to beat all the areas twice, assuming you want to do them together)

I was trying to take on Radahn before work, I can get him down to 1/4 health but keep getting one-shot by the meteors every single time. :(

Maybe it’s me, but it seems like there are the EXACT number of Smithing Stone [3]’s in the world to get your weapon to +9. Unless maybe you travel way out into higher level zones. I know you can get an item that lets you buy them at some point, but I’m not there yet.

Had a hell of a time tracking down the very last one last night, even with online resources. Once I got over that hump, was able to upgrade several more times cuz I had a pile of the [4]’s.

had a terrible time finding smithing stones +2. also uh haven’t been using them wisely. i always do this. my levelling up and weapon strengthening tactics are always so terrible which is why i have to start again.

i'm back in the celestial torrent saddle today, after a couple days off. i'm taking on the ancestor spirit in the underworld - think i've got a good handle on this one since it seems really susceptible to fire damage. good times!

and also, something that might help out my fellow noobs - i always forget that your equipment load counts the 2nd and 3rd slots for both hands. so, if you're not going to be using a certain weapon or shield or whatever for the next area/boss, you should remove it from those slots so that you'll be lighter and faster.

mentioning that because i realized i'm carrying a giant ass shield for this boss fight when i don't even want one at all. now i will be super fast guy

I have no shame about looking up the location of essential gameplay items like the smithing miner's bell bearings (that let you buy smithing stones) or the invasion item.

yeah, i just looked it up...i haven't pushed that far up to Liurnia yet. I take it the general order is Limgrave > Liurnia > Caelid (while obviously recognizing how much you hop back and forth between the three - that's what I've been doing at least)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0SJGn3Akyc

YES, i just revisited stormveil and found Mimic's Veil. it seems useful, but if nothing else it is very fun (and reusable)

How come in this game you can find a weapon and it'll say you don't have the right stats for that weapon but you can still equip it and use it (poorly)?

because it's awesome

it's like, yeah, in real life, you can use that weapon that's obviously way too big for you...and you'd suck using it

games should be reminding of us of how we suck irl haha

(xps lol)
Realism. that’s what would happen if you gave me (str 1/dex 0.25) a flail. I could hurt someone a bit.

( btw you might be able to 2 hand it effectively - I think that gives you… 1.5? effective stats for weapon use)

Also nice for checking out the moveset to see if you want to go for the stats.

I am so garbage at this. I was avoiding literally any baddie bigger than a soldier then decided I couldn't do that forever, so I went back and fought the Erdtree Burial Watchdog, which is supposed to be super easy and it still took me like 10 tries and I had to have the big jellyfish spirit help me. I did finally beat it but I still don't really feel like I know what I'm doing.

having the big jellyfish (aurelia) or any other summon including player characters is a legit and fine and usually fun way to take on difficult enemies

(xps lol)
Realism. that’s what would happen if you gave me (str 1/dex 0.25) a flail. I could hurt someone a bit.

( btw you might be able to 2 hand it effectively - I think that gives you… 1.5? effective stats for weapon use)

That's ok NA, I died to that boss a bunch too when I was still getting used to everything, no shame. Can always come back to something later when your health/damage is better in relation to the boss.

i am also very, very bad NA! i suck very badly. the good news is that with some patience, you'll get a handle on things and at least gradually start leveling up and/or getting more used to how it all works. it's a very accumulative/experiential process, without many tutorials. somehow, over a few dozen hours, you'll come to know much more

I am so garbage at this. I was avoiding literally any baddie bigger than a soldier then decided I couldn't do that forever, so I went back and fought the Erdtree Burial Watchdog, which is supposed to be super easy and it still took me like 10 tries and I had to have the big jellyfish spirit help me. I did finally beat it but I still don't really feel like I know what I'm doing.

Finally managed to find Godric but I must be seriously under leveled because he killed me instantly. I got to him by being stealthy and clever with hidden passages, killing only the enemies I had to and losing a lot of runes on the way. Not really sure how I'm going to level up exactly - most enemies worth getting runes from are really really tough but if I just Goa round killing footsoldiers, that's going to take ages

I guess I could try going back to Erdtree Burial Watchdog but he's really not that easy

lol won my first invasion - extremely unfairly as he and a co-op were also fighting the tree sentinel.

i say he. they. the avatar was a he.

xps
I’m also terrible and yeah exploit that jellyfish and farm some soldier camps to overlevel and maybe google good early game weapons/ashes of war (but find what’s comfortable & don’t get caught up in affinities and scaling) and it’ll make it manageable as you find your feet.

Since I figured out how to beat Radahn I've been acting as a co-op service top

Is this game not completable without co-op? I'm farked.

Mmmmmm idk! It definitely gives you options. I beat Radahn without co-op (having horse access does make the fight easier). There's a recurring optional miniboss called a Fallingstar Beast who I don't think I'd be able to beat without any help, not yet anyway, he's very tough

oh you can definitely do it without co op. in some respects beating bosses without is more satisfying.

Fgti what's your Radahn strategy? I got him to within a few hits last night but couldn't clutch it out.