Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

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.

Crimson rot! Ha!

I have done zero co-op so far, but might use it if and when I get extremely stuck on a boss somewhere.

I had an elden ring dream last night! I was destroying those 8 torches that light up in the underworld, and realizing that they each are worth thousands of runes. Very sad to wake up

GOT 'EM.

Lol nice. I was starting out by poisoning him in phase ,and considered poisoning him in phase 2 and then running far, far away. But it worked out in the traditional style, just had to stay close and not panic.

At some point I had a dream about the end of the game, except it turned into a retro 2-D format.

when your souls dream turns into Salt & Sanctuary

i want to get a therapist that can interpret my soulslike dreams

Just took out Radahn myself. After many tries. Spammed the Hoarfrost Stomp Ash of War to victory. That thing slays.

i want to get a therapist that can interpret my soulslike dreams

the therapist that you can call Tank

correct.

i think i would be a good tank therapist. maybe a tank navigator build? pay me $90 an hour and, i will tank for you in elden ring and also point out some things in your game surroundings that you might be interested in exploring further

Elden Ring pic.twitter.com/1RwI0AsAPv

— Clark! (@ClarkleBee) March 12, 2022

I switched from poison long swords to a poisonous fang (from a dragon?), with Quickstep. That way I can escape from all the crazy dragon head and katana attacks, and switch the swords to a more useful skill (trying flaming strike first).

No idea where to find Radahn's fallen star , lol.

completely cheesed bloodhound darriwil using the one starting spell you get as a prisoner (i've done most of limgrave and i haven't found a second one yet). magic makes a lot of things really really easy.

also went back and finally killed tree sentinel. was not hard at all with a horse and +4 flail. at the end was considering abandoning the fight and trying again on foot just so i could have some sort of challenge. now i have a weapon i'll never have enough strength for and a negligible amount of souls.

LOL I didn’t mean to complain that much, I knew what I was getting into. I just don’t enjoy feeling stressed out by a game, it’s why I’m not generally into horror games either. Anyways I’m making some slow progress. Got to the Round Table, bought some new incantations, found my first Ashes of War but can’t use it because it’s for bows, opened up some new areas. Mostly just exploring and collecting runes from the easiest sources possible.

this is my first ever FromSoftware game and i am truly terrible at it. never really been big on "difficult" games so the combat in this has been a bit of a step up from my usual casual fare.

have been grinding up through the levels but am still getting killed by absolutely everything everywhere. doesn't bother me in the least, frankly. in fact it is pleasingly reminiscent of playing Super Mario Land on Gameboy as a kid or whatever.

finally beat Margit last night but only realised tonight that there is a whole other area to the south of the original starting location (over the bridge) which is completely doable even at lower levels and with cackhanded non-mastery of the combat mechanics. have therefore spent the last few hours exploring / cleaning out Castle Morne

what a joy this game is!

on at least 3 separate occasions i went down what appeared at first glance to be (at best) a speculative punt of a route and at worst a total blind alley and every single time i ended up exactly where i needed to be. i can appreciate the comparisons to BOTW. you can't see the join, every dicey "ok i guess this might work" bit of orienteering has clearly been so carefully designed. played 8 hours last night and 5 hours again tonight, worried this is gonna start taking over my life quite soon

Be careful! it will take over your life. I'm working ten/eleven hour days these days so I just decided start sleeping four hours a night so I could play more Elden Ring. Happy Daylight's Savings everyone!

I BEAT MARGIT FUCKIN FINALLY