Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

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

A little thought:

I'm sure in one of the trailers they showed a kind of red roaring bear/lion hybrid (not the dancing lion, more like a bear but with a nig red mane). I don't think I've seen this creature, unless it's the bear you fight in the wooded area near the scorpion cave? Doesn't look the same though

Do you mean those lion knight things in Enir Ilim? They are harder than most of the bosses imo, in either DLC or main game.

2.06 in this video. Probably is just a regular bear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8k8R0Q2ubY

Xp yeah those Lion Knights are absolutely ridiculous and I've either had to sneak past them or cheese them for the most part

Jesus, can't believe I don't have to fight him anymore, hands shaking, etc. That was a properly epic From fight (very glad I got him out of the way before I leave on this work trip, lol).

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

Those knights were so tough that I actually wanted to use their spirit ash, just to have them on my side.

they are one of the most aggro bosses in the game, like even running away is hard, they don't fuck around at all.

Well done LocalGarda!

I worry I'm never going to beat him. I suck at parrying and generally don't bother with it

I only killed one furnace fuckface with pots, the one next to the weirdguy church. The rest were simple? Just stay amongst legs and a little behind and time your jumps and run away on horse when it’s a two-leg jump

dog latin what’s your build and level? I was def respeccing for each endgame boss and found them all doable when the knowledge was imparted

dog latin what’s your build and level? I was def respeccing for each endgame boss and found them all doable when the knowledge was imparted

fgti I wish I could see your bonk fight vs Radahn, the recovery time with a big weapon is long enough that I think it would require even more precise timing than parries.

Oh I'm fairly high leveled, 180 with most of my money pumped into faith.

As I say, some bosses (Leda, Romina, Gaius) I've merked on first or second try. It's just the parrying stuff with Radahn really, but I've only given him one go. He seems a bit random and all over the place.

The two times I beat Radahn I was RL 220, 19 Scadu, wielding 2x bloody anchors, had 80 STR and 80 ARC (or thereabouts), rune arc’d, faith high enough for vow/black flame protect/bestial, armoured up extremely (I wear the heaviest gloves and greaves and then fashion the rest), summoned a mimic and Ansbach, claw braid dragoncrest poise, used the white perfume every time I could to bubble myself and my colleagues, used double damage prevention physick entering the second phase. It’s the easiest of easy modes and any video you’d see of my victory would just leave you disappointed in me