Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

As beautiful-but-incredibly-scary environments go, the Abyssal Woods is really top drawer

it is so bleak, i honestly couldn't spend much time there. first time i abandoned it on first encounter with those things, second time sneaked around, finished what was there and decided to never go back.

yup and especially loved getting the map fragment for AW and it just telling me 'yeah it's a big horrible area with nothing in it. go f yourself. Find your own way to this manse you've heard about'

I've only poked my head into the Abyssal Woods. I couldn't work out what was supposed to be so scary about them (compared to other parts of the game) that Torrent wouldn't come out to play. In fact they seemed kind of pretty. Then I got chased by one of those eye-head guys and died.

Maybe I'm over leveled now as I managed to beat both Bayle and Gaius in one sitting without too much trouble on each one. Looks like I'm getting to the end game now

Thanks for the tip on parrying those beholder head guys, it was a pleasure to scoff at all the messages telling me to hide in the bushes.

Midra's Manse was a fun little jaunt, I didn't expect to get one more castle for the road. I went through it with the Taunter's Tongue on, because it seemed like a pretty chill dungeon and I don't have many areas left where I can still be invaded (I think I might have missed a gaol or two though). It was a fun game to try and quickly clear out a room before an invader arrived.

Maybe I'm over leveled now as I managed to beat both Bayle and Gaius in one sitting without too much trouble on each one. Looks like I'm getting to the end game now

I turned to Fextrasuggestion for those guys, and it helped a lot. Bayle is charmingly much-easier when you are light-rolling!

The weird ish for me was that I turned back to my old-faithful Strong Anchor Jumper Lady build for Enir-Elim. The grand melee took me a few tries, but the Consort? one try. I buffed, I brought Ansbach with me, a Mimic Tear, and I killed him first try. Weird, but running Double Anchor + heavy armour and buffs is kind of unstoppable, I guess.

After reverting to a backup (just before Bayle), and coming back to Consort with my Dexitydex build, man, what a headache. It took me all evening to even make it to his second stage.

I beat Bayle first go, no real problem. Gaius maybe the hardest boss in all of Elden Ring for me, but the first time I used a shield, which was the first time I've used a shield in the entire game, I beat him.

All that said still haven't bothered doing the final Radahn fight. No real motivation now, the game is over whether I do it or not. I remember a friend saying this about the main game but I was very determined to beat the Elden beast, yet don't care now for the DLC.

Loved this silly guy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vD9B8MY6jQ

And here was probably the most fun pvp fight I had found through the Manse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2YFQGlFF-w

I gotta say, I don't think I can be bothered with these furnace golems, they're both hard and boring to fight.

I finally killed my first the other night. I needed to summon a spirit ash and spammed a dragon lightning incant on it while repeatedly stabbing its feet after critical hits. They seem to give you unique crystal tears.

I am pissed I missed the route to the cerulean coast. I walked right by it early in the game. There I think I found the lowest point in the shadow realm. Was a bit over leveled for it.

I also missed the hidden door to find the route to the last map fragment. Needed online help for that. Alas.

At least I got through Rauh eventually and found that map fragment too finally. It’s crazy how vast this world is. I go back to the main game and it feels like ages ago and almost like a prequel

i killed one. but have never killed one with the hefty firepot method, which i assume is easier?

mainly cbf’d tho.

I tried, but I missed too many times and ran out of fire pots, then gave up.

(and I don't think I really need any of the tears for my build, besides the deflecting hardtear from the very first golem)

yeah i killed one but agree i can't really be bothered with the rest.

Furnace Golems suck, but not too difficult to clear once you get the rhythm down. Fights are still long and annoying though, lot of bouncing around on Torrent, only did it for completionist’s sake. Fire pot method only really viable on the ones with armored legs iirc.

tell you what i’m behind all of you but methyr mother of fingers is a fucker. i’ve had her down to a fraction of a centimetre health a couple of times but her slam and sideways finger attacks are rly irritating.

Midra down (easy)
Bayle the Dread Bayle the *Dead* more like, mainly difficulty was that for several of the fights Igon and my Mimic decided to go to some secluded part of the arena and play hopscotch and patty-cake or something so that Bayle could focus its attentions exclusively on me.
Methyr also down.

Now finally in Enir-Ilim.

also did end up partying the fuck out of the lanterns. result: no more lanterns.

also parrying.

ain’t no party like an abyssal woods winter lantern party.

:/ :/ :/

Was trying and trying and trying to beat the Consort with any kind of build aside from my favourite bonk bonk but it just wasn't happening. It no longer felt like Elden Ring, it felt like Lemmings. I gave up. Respec'd to strength, and again, beat him first try. Entered into NG+.

NG+ is a breeze so far, I'm like "oh I remember this NPC, that NPC." I think I'd forgotten that Fia even existed. She tried to hug me and I said no, not falling for that again. Busted up Margit and Godrick and Renalla and the Crucible/Misbegotten without even thinking about it. Switched back to classic 2x Bloody Bandit and it's been as smooth and fast as a bullet train. Gonna try Radahn-with-no-summons later tonight just to see how bad/good I actually am.

I kinda want to plunge right back into the DLC so I can complete quest lines more accurately and get the things I'm missing. I'm reading that as the +'s pile up, and you approach NG+7, that it's INT/FTH or nothing, you basically can't melee any more, unless you're prepared to have no-hit fights. I wonder if/when I should respec to that.

I will just say that it the think about "bleed" and "burst damage" builds is that they typically require two weapons (powerstanced) and are optimised by three talismans (Blood Exult, Hand, Rotten Winged). But what's the point when you're fighting enemies with exceptionally brief vulnerability windows? Isn't it better to just get a good jumping L1, or an R2, or a quick-fix ash of war? rather than attempting to land a series of hits? This is why I like bonk. Evade evade evade and BONK. No burst damage, no worrying about resistances/immunities. Just methodical and profitable violence.

Just needs to be a really big BONK

I agree with that fgti, that's why I've been enjoying my bonk build in the dlc and I never used one in the base game. Something quick like the backhand blades are great against the humanoid opponents in the masoleums, but less so against the main bosses. You might be able to sneak in an extra attack during their combos and the fast recovery time does give you more room for error, but it's a lot harder to stack that damage up.

That said I'm still looking forward to my 'hard mode' dex playthrough next. Still haven't tried the Consort though, I'm cleaning up loose ends...Lamenter's Gaol was cool, there are some caves and masoleums that I missed, and I'm only at scadu level 17 so I've obviously missed a lot of fragments, lol. That's fine though, I don't feel the need to go scavenge them all.

NG+:

Grabbed the Dectus
Hit Altus
Killed Radahn (solo no summons!)
I invaded three times (with three victories, this is new for me, historically I've been great at co-op and dung at invading)
Went to Mohg and it took a few times to kill him, he really gets more robust after his nihil nihil nihil moment
Scrammed back into DLC
Finally got 25/25, 10/10
Immediately I was finding everything significantly more challenging than before, I cannot imagine a world where I'll be able to take on those late-game DLC bosses with this ramped-up difficulty
Balefully looking at my PS5 like "there's a reason why I told myself 'no more Elden Ring' a couple years ago"
Tonight the PS5 stays switched off and I'm gonna read "The Cheese And The Worms" instead

I've never really used a big bonk weapon, always two blood weapons in power stance. I find with a lot of bosses getting in close and being very aggressive is enough to kill them without any real hassle. But I do wonder with a couple like Radahn or Gaius if maybe it just completely doesn't work.

I mostly moved away from from dual wield in the DLC - dual katanas used to be my comfort weapons, but they did not feel right on this run. Spent a lot of time with bonk and with poke.

Wow I missed so much stuff in the early areas of the dlc, I was too tempted by all the paths leading away from it. Found Rivermouth Cave, and I never even did Fort of Reprimand! And now I'm rolling around with (literally) one million souls and nothing can harm me.

I got to Ennis Ilim or whatever it is. Beat Bud Church boss first go and without any trouble. I must be overpowered by now.

Bit weird that you burn this tiny tree and that some how sets light to all the thorns, and then you automatically teleport over a gap appearing only a short way away from the door that originally blocked you from coming in. Is that not a bit messy? Like, why not make the Dancing Lion a non-optional boss you have to get through to reach the next area?

I like Rauh though - absolute labyrinth and SO MUCH stuff to discover. I even found a secret invisible walkway that leads to an altar with a special sword which apparently can be transformed at similar altars in areas of the game I have been to but not found(?!?)

Well anyway, I've also been playing through the Abyssal Woods. Not sure what to make of this place. It's another massive empty area full of dead ends and very little going on, and I don't see why this place ought to be more foreboding than any other that Torrent won't come out of hiding. Those Aging Untouchable monsters are pretty cool, but once you figure out how to get past one of them, the rest aren't too difficult, and it gets pretty tedious by the fourth one.

Oh yeah, transforming the sword is another thing I haven't done!

Ok, here's a question for all you map-knowers. I had the Taunter's Tongue on in Fort of Reprimand, and normally after you kill the boss you can no longer be invaded in a zone. I already killed the surprise boss you find in a random room (Black Knight Edredd). And I'm pretty sure I've explored the rest of the fort thoroughly. I also killed the Ghostflame Dragon that's nearby (the one fighting all the horseback knights and archers). However, I'm still getting invaded. Not that I'm complaining, I like getting invaders, but --

-Is there another boss in the Fort that I'm missing?

-Or, maybe it's being considered part of the larger Scadu Altus zone? In which case I still don't know what boss has escaped me.

no other bosses in Fort of Reprimand iirc. yeah, no idea.

Apparently forts are considered part of the open world, so it must be because I left a furnace golem wandering around somewhere. That's pretty cool actually.

I think I finally have covered a majority of the map - Only major things left I need to do is kill Bayle and finish up Enir-Ilim, though I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of smaller things.

I am still fully decked out as an int/dex build. I'm leveled pretty high in both and using Rellana's double sword thing and spamming shit like Comet and Adula's Moonblade. It's still quite viable, but I confess I'm starting to get excited to respec to more of a pure strength build soon. It just feels like at this point in the game "I am who I am" and need to let chaos take the world in my current form (yes I gave the three fingers a nice hug this run). Despite what I've heard many of the DLC bosses are quite beatable with casting along with a well paired sword.

I’m at a crossroads. I don’t know if I’m gonna continue playing this over-familiar game into the +’s but it does seem that most viable builds moving forward are casting-focused. Never loved casting!

I leveled up to 255 and everything is possible tho. I might keep levelling, why not, I’m not doing multiplayer so much any more and it’d be fun to have 80s across the board

I'm sort of trying to stop leveling up, but you walk around for five minutes in this dlc and all of a sudden you have half a million runes again, what am I supposed to do with all this money? Story of my life.

lol I'm at level 280 now I think. On ng+2, so third play through. I'd probably put 60 in vigor, 30 in mind, 99 in endurance, 99 into strength, and maybe whatever's leftover into faith and arcane for the ability to use certain incants and get some rare drops.

I definitely don't mind leveling up further, but I'm much less concerned about losing amounts of runes less than say 400k

I will probably throw in on ng+3 for playing around with a bonk build and do some different stuff in the DLC but I'll probably start finally moving on to a new game ha

I'm not aware of any other game so I guess I'll just keep playing this one.

Last night I found a whole fort (fog rift) and forge (Starfall Past) that I had missed, at this rate I'll never fight Radahn.

SOTE is fun, although I'm not sure how necessary it would be for me to replay it really, seeing how it's relatively linear with fewer diverging plots compared to the base game, and no trophy system either (which is a shame)

The game is now "let's parry Radahn". I can get to phase 2, oh, 2 out of 5 attempts. And that's about it so far, lol.

Oh you get a unique gesture for failing twice to dodge the grab attack, that's nice.

God, Enir Illim is not mucking about is it? Some of those enemies are tough tough tough - especially those lion-faced divine hornsent dudes; they can suck a fuck

I'm not aware of any other game so I guess I'll just keep playing this one.

#onegame

Definitely feel that at times. This game is a freaking drug. I don't think I've played any game more in my life.

Beat Bayle, boy that fight was fun! I am way low on scadu fragments though. Only level 15. Going to need to scour the map for the rest. Kinda surprised and not surprised that I missed so many - but to my eyes it appears I've hit all the areas in the map?? Lord knows what I've missed. Ugh

Maaan, phase 2 is so punishing. You miss one parry or roll and you're getting hit by the holy magic explosions and whatever the follow-up combo, and you're done. Meanwhile phase 1 is now down to a science and feels cozy. I think I need to stop panicking/rolling backward in phase 2 and start blocking if I'm not sure what he's doing (so many moves!). Well, I wouldn't want him to be easy.

I guess I could try and get scadu fragments for the last three levels but I'm in the same boat as you, I feel like I've now explored everywhere and I wouldn't know where to look (even watching a video with all of the locations, idk it all seems familiar and I don't know which ones I've missed). And it doesn't matter how much damage he does if you don't get hit. :)

Impressed I'm near the end game and managed to get up to scadu 19 without looking up guides

What is it with these games and the difficulty factor being all over the place towards the end game?
This isn't really anything new - it's something that's been prevalent since Demon's Souls and continued through that final boss rush in the base game of Elden Ring.
I struggled with the Divine Beast Warriors I'm Enir Illim, and actually had to cheese the last one who does stormcalling by luring him to the elevator and making him fall down it.
Then the Leda + allies fight was over before it had even started.
Now Radahn Consort is absolutely flipping impossible!

And despite being scadu-level 19, I still have only managed to kill one furnace giant. They just won't die. And I never seem to have enough materials to craft the pots you're meant to throw into them