Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

I’ve moved from blind exploration to ‘check some stuff, avoid looking at other stuff’. Names def don’t bother me.

I am sure I have missed some of those twats with the sparkly pots early game, so I am going to find out where they live and kill them. I want my scooby snacks.

I may also look up some npc quest stuff soon because idk wtf is going on, hornsent this, hornsent that

fave NPC so far - the one who just goes PAAAAIIIIN I'M IN SO MUCH PAIIIIIIN (bcos Bayle).

He seemed really unhappy. I'd like to help him out! But maybe I shouldn't. That's elden ring for you.

I just met him, think I am sort of on his quest now but I didn't consciously choose to help him.

Also killed Messner this evening, found him towards the easier side of bosses.

Back to bonk. I will be trying out that blinky long haft axe and the fiery knight sword when I find them. I'm pleased to be wearing my favourite outfit again! (Fire Prelate gloves, Fire Prelate greaves, Blue Silver chain mail and an exposed head so you can see my stylish hair and eyeballs)

Keep finding more and more places to go. Can't believe I missed the Cerulean Coast path the first time I went down that valley, but then again the map is a multi-layered quadruple helix with branches peeling off it at every turn. Wouldn't surprise me if the map itself didn't look like some sort of tree

I just got there last night having missed that entire area and lots of adjacent stuff. A lot of paths branch off very closely around there.

I did all the Dragon Pit stuff last night also, some breathtaking scenery. I'm enjoying in this game how when something is high up, it's higher and higher and higher, then higher again, and the same when something is below ground. I never realised how boring it is for games to just make physical height/depth into sort of one up one down wallpaper. Maybe this spatial awareness is the best thing about these games.

As for dragon pit, I never find dragon fights too difficult even the major ones. Hit the legs?

I did dragon pit a while back.

Absolutely did not clock the big doors at the back after you've beaten up mr dragon man.

So I only got to experience the majesty of jagged peak last night, after having a quick 'what's the deal with this moaning Igon guy?' wiki check.

And LG otm on the visceral verticality of the game - the fissure was a wild trip.

I'm on a big scadutree fragment gathering fest before I go back to Commander Gaius again.

otm on verticality - the way the map is almost misleading/enticing with actual dead ends and channels that only look like dead ends because they go under the surface terrain. it’s so cleverly done.

I'd love to see how they design the world or how they start from nothing or whatever, must be a very specific art in itself.

dumpling cosplaying soulsborne dogs imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkk8Ac19K48

This is the first time I've played a From DLC contemporaneously. As such, I've already spent so much time in the game that many things have lost their currency. I'm levelled to where I desire (175), my armor and weapon choices are set (dragon greatshield + Ordovis), my build is one I'm extremely content with. The constant stream of smithing stones that the DLC feeds me are essentially irrelevant, as there are few weapons I even desire to experiment with, I feel like my current build and playstyle is honest and interacts extremely well with the challenges ahead.

With that in mind, the reported-upon density of the DLC is somewhat absent for me. Aside from maps, upgraded versions of talismans I like, and Scadutree Fragments, I feel short of rewards. This is fine! The catacombs are designed well, the scenery is breathtaking. After making it to Scadutree Level 5 I stopped getting one-shot by randoms, and now it just feels like a very long and opulent 100-course meal. The bosses kill me once and then I kill them the second time. It's great!

That said, the feeling of combing through every room and environment for treats, that wonderful feeling I had especially in Demon's Souls and DS1, the architectural twistiness and the dopamine rushes that the interlocking paths would trigger, they're just not there. Instead there's something else... upon descending down the river, waterfall after waterfall, thinking "how low does this world go?", I started to wonder if the designers planned to have the bottom of the world end at its top, in an infinite loop, like that Ted Chiang short story. The increasing feeling of loneliness in the descent, and then suddenly The Cerulean Coast appeared out of nowhere, and I shuddered with pleasure. What the heck, this game is so beautiful

Yeah there are some very open and empty areas. I got to the Cerulean Coast recently too and wow...
But then there's Shadow Keep and that's definitely dense

Fuck this game. I’m trying to read Kafka before bed and just keep seeing it as Miyazaki levels. Elden Ring is just a really long version of Before the Law with bonk, fine fine

Ok I'm setup to get back to this for my 30 min a day cardio, and I've arrived at the Scadutree Avatar. Ok, guess I'll be here for a little while.

some beautiful areas indeed. the path to charo's hidden grave is incredible.

tonight i finally killed commander gaius, prob the hardest boss for me across main game and dlc. to the point where i levelled up and went back twice and still could only get him down to about 25%. tried a different tactic tonight and it made it really easy. i won't spoil but if anyone is having difficulty i can share. i think i must be near the end now, have discovered lots of areas and i know i'm near enough to the final boss. the lead-up to that is horrible tho, just a really grim difficult level, and not so enjoyable.

fwiw me and mimic tear hit him with a big sunflower over and over and over again and eventually he died

he felt almost broken to me, couldn't get even near killing him even with beloved mimic. plenty of times he'd kill me in three hits and about ten seconds, and i am like level 215.

part of my secret to eventual victory was using a greatshield, which goes against everything i believe in. embarrassing.

also greatshield soldier ashes are p cool for some bosses, they sort of swarm around and slow them down.

The final boss is very hard :/

Time to go and do any minor dungeons I didn't do.

Oh also, a funny thing about this game is the unpredictability of how difficult something will be. Had this huge pompous cut scene for an enemy that took about thirty seconds to kill. Then of course some random lion knight is ten times harder than half the bosses.

Shields were great in DS1, irrelevant in BB and DS3, glad they’re back in a big way, here

So you're telling me there are at least SEVEN FLOORS of that Storehouse in Castle Keep and I'm going to have to fight all those bastarding fire knights and little annoying vulgar militia every time I try to get a bit further up??

not exactly? i left for a bit and ended up coming back by accident as other threads rejoin it at different points. many other threads i think. saying that as solace rather than any one spoiler cos i don't know it inside out by any means.

I'm currently trying to explore it thoroughly as I can. I kind of want to map out Shadow Keep in my head as exactly as I can, but it's massive and lots of places look similar to each other

I accidentally got up to the top, feeling good, wandered into a clearly-very-premature confrontation with a late-game boss, had to use a twig to get my millions of runes back. The main area of Shadow Keep did feel a little like that old Kung Fu arcade game, floor after floor fighting the same dudes over and over. (Like that old Kung Fu game, it was still fun!)

As for dragon pit, I never find dragon fights too difficult even the major ones. Hit the legs?

They're usually ok but every now and again I'll hit one who puts me on tilt. The magma wyrms (minor dragons!) destroyed me in base game and in Shadow my strategy (be overlevelled) and tactics (rotate weapons/affinities to test and exploit weaknesses, then hit it with bloodhound's fang or a sunflower) have meant I've cut through every boss in < 5 attempts but Bayle is the first roadblock.

You guys, after a few cumulative hours I almost have this Scadutree Avatar, I swear. The timings get pretty tricky in the latter phases.

There we go, dodging & bonking my way to success. Fun fight in the end.

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

I found Messmer! :-O

How are you all finding NPC quests? I thought I was versed in the language of FromSoft's arcanity enough to know that every time anything new happens, you should go back and speak to everyone at least three times, and sometimes rest and come back.

But recently I've resorted to cross-referencing online guides, which I think is maybe the only real way to do it. Even then, some NPC events don't trigger first or second time. Apparently there's a bit where two opposing NPCs are meant to fight and you have to choose between them, but I'm not seeing their summon signs anywhere.

xp Jordan, that's incredible. I watch stuff like this and think I must be a really bad or basic Souls player.

Also, what are you playing on? Looks so silky smooth even compared to my PS5

xp yeah I found him too, well before exploring many of the more outlying areas! He destroyed me obv.

I actually got him down to his second phase on second try, so maybe I'm roughly the right level. Second phase was tough, mind. Getting strong Godrick vibes off him for some reason

They're usually ok but every now and again I'll hit one who puts me on tilt. The magma wyrms (minor dragons!) destroyed me in base game and in Shadow my strategy (be overlevelled) and tactics (rotate weapons/affinities to test and exploit weaknesses, then hit it with bloodhound's fang or a sunflower) have meant I've cut through every boss in < 5 attempts but Bayle is the first roadblock.

I think Bayle took me maybe three goes. The hardest by far was Commander Gaius, that took many, many attempts and I came back to it more than once thinking I'd be strong enough to succeed but it wasn't the case. Then Scadutree Avatar. Tho the final boss seems really hard based on the two or three goes I've had. Messmer was really easy for me for whatever reason.

Oh yeah Gaius I found the other day and I was like "Nopenopenope" haha

he is the worst.

Nice fight Jordan. You are taking so so so much more damage than me, I don’t know why, but a hit from that guy would bring me down 1/4 health, not 1/2. Amazing playing!

I hate that third stage unblockable flash, it’s so dumb

i really need to get better at guarding/parrying. i just don't really do it. probably because i don't usually wear a shield and i've usually got some sort of casting tool in my left hand and an ash of war on my right, but watching others play it seems the DLC is really trying to encourage a return to this kind of play which has kind of been optional since Bloodborne

(Sekiro excepted ofc)

Thanks dl & fgti! Guessing the damage difference is down to scadutree blessings? Can't remember what mine is at, 6 I think. I just watched someone else's video and it looks like you can roll through those big phase 3 flashes, I wasn't sure about the timing though so just tried to get distance and panic roll.

DL, I'm playing the PS4 version on PS5, that's always worked well for me. For some reason the PS5 version was borderline unplayable for me, super choppy frame rate (and I'm not someone who cares about that usually).

I know I've said this before but I do think it's great how flexible they made this in terms of play style, like you can approach a boss as if it were Dark Souls or Sekiro but you totally don't have to. I've avoided learning about the last boss so far but a friend was complaining about it being unfair, that you don't have a chance to get spells off and need to change your build, etc. I'm sure that's not the case but look forward to finding out, lol.

xp

Yeah I really need to try that deflecting hardtear, I imagine their thinking was along the lines of "ok, so nobody is using our guard counter mechanic, so what if we made it unspeakably powerful?"

I've totally lost the instinct for blocking but do love a parry, I keep a shield on all my builds for that.

I’m no good at parrying in Elden Ring. I’ve tried! I’m bad.

I do like deflecting tear. Didn’t notice any crazy wild damage boosts when I did the perfect block, but I did notice a huge reduction in damage/stamina usage when I did it.

Blocking when two-handing is worth it for small pokes, sometimes.

@ Jordan, ah I see, I’m Scadu 12 now and was Scadu 10 when I fought the sunflower. I beat him second try! Sliver of health and no flasks at the end, wasn’t expecting the flash AoEs and he nearly murdered me. Full disclosure: I read a “try fire” message going in and tossed on the Blasphemous and the fight wasn’t so bad as a result

Despite my Greatshield/Greatsword predilection, I really wanted something else. I want a rolly build so I can actually feel like I’m playing, not just tanking.

I didn’t respec, I just did some research. Running a two-handed great katana user now, heavy with faith buffs, bleed emphasis (but not reliance), and playing with storm ashes— stomp, assault, blade and caller— all buffed with the divine beast talisman

It’s nice to be kitted out poise and damage-reduction-wise without the great jar. Greatshields are heavy!

Interesting, I've seen some people demoing crazy damage with the deflecting tear, but the biggest benefit might be in pvp where you can block and counter with a weapon that people wouldn't normally expect (like a katana or straight sword).

I was also reminded that even without the tear you can do a perfectly timed block and it will use much less stamina, which apparently has been in the games since Demon's Souls.

Finished Midra's Manse tonight. The whole Abyssal Woods bit was fairly unsettling, was glad to be out of there, never going back.

I then spent an hour going back and finding any revered spirit ashes I had missed. Took a while and I had to use the internet but the last boss seems so hard based on my the couple of attempts I had that I wanted to max myself out. I had only missed like two or three but now I am ready. After that, however, I am too tired now to expend the energy on a few attempts at beating last boss, so I turned it off.

And I am now max scadu 20 also, lol.

Ok, I broke my own rule and summoned the Hornsent for the hippo fight. I thought that because the npc summon signs were appearing even when you hadn't used a furlcalling finger, that they might be necessary for the quests? But then he died before the fight was over anyway, and I always mess up the npc quests, so whatever. That hippo needed to calm down.

I went into Shadow Keep through the church district entrance, and I'm not sure if the whole point of that area is the Scadutree Avatar fight, or if I'm missing some connection back to the main keep (if so, I couldn't find it, I gave up and went around to the front entrance).