Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

Ive never played any Souls games before and I am getting my arse kicked nine ways til Sunday because I cannot get my head round all the controls. How do I assign things to my hands, like the horse-calling ring? Do I get runes simply by killing enemies? Why was I stupid enough to stumble upon Agheel almost immediately and get mashed by a giant crab.

Any really good complete-newb pages anyone can recommend for never-played-Souls players? I found https://gameplay.tips/guides/elden-ring-beginners-guide.html which seems ok but I am more overwhelmed by things like why cant I pick some stuff up (glowing skulls etc), where do I find spells/make spells, and like... everything ahaha.

it's worth noting we all get mashed by the giant crab

-Soooo if you go into your menu > Equipment, you can select what goes on your quick slots. You can cycle through those with the Down button on the d-pad. HOWEVER, there's also the new pouch, where you can assign things to be used with Triangle + a d-pad direction. I assigned the horse ring to Triangle + Down, so that I never have to cycle through items for it.

-You do get runes by killing enemies, and if you ride around on the horse and stomp on those glowing skulls, you can pick up golden runes that show up in your inventory and can be used later.

-Stumbling on ridiculous enemies early is as it should be, best to just ride around and avoid them, come back later when they'll be no big deal.

I think these are good to start with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLdZ8Zex1cw

Good random mechanic tips, you don't need to worry about all them at first:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVE1PZgCgqA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg_hveDzzvo

bringing back memories of when i first played bloodborne and i was “how does anyone get beyond the first section ffs?”

on the horse whistle, i’ve put mine in a pouch, activated by (playstation) triangle and relevant arrow button.

generally you’ll assign weapons to hands in the equipped screen, also rings to the relevant slots, and items to your uh… things you can hold slots (ie where you’ve got your health flasks).

you do get runes simply by killing enemies.

this is my users guide to elden ring.

like woof i’m trying to avoid reading anything and am just enjoying wandering around finding stuff and going from waling on mobs with a big sword and getting the shit kicked out of me.

I assigned the horse ring to Triangle + Down, so that I never have to cycle through items for it.

alternatively put it in your items, call your horse, forget to switch to health flasks, so when you’re low on health in the middle of a battle, you can blow your horse whistle instead and make your steed disappear before getting rapidly YOU DIED.

Legend, thanks lads.

I'm prob gonna start afresh soon as I get the hang of things, at present I'm an Astrolger and early-game magic-dealing via staff is not turning out to be as useful as Id've liked.

How do y'all dismount usually? I always use L3 crouch (sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally), but maybe there's a better way. Especially for those dragon-type bosses where you want to ride out, and then come in and use an ash of war attack or something.

xp, magic in these games gets pretty powerful, but can be a slow starter. On the other hand, magic ranged combat will give you a lot of breathing room with bosses? In case learning the melee combat feels overwhelming. Maybe prisoner would be better? I haven't messed around with the magic yet tbh.

I feel like some of the button mapping is really unintuitive but that might be me being used to Nintendo. R3 to target is really cumbersome!

i strongly recommend restarting a few times while you're still getting the hang of the game! it's a good way to try out different playstyles.

Usually I'd say starting class doesn't matter that much and you can always shape it into what you want, but they don't exactly shower you with new gear in the beginning, and here I am 20 hours in still mostly using my starting katana and samurai armor. :)

Yeah I think starting class matters way more in this game as you don't really pick up too many new transformative gear/spells/incantations for a while, mid and late-game I'm sure you have way more flexibility

I'm in a weird place with my lvl 30 prisoner character where I can kill some pretty high level things with spells (really one spell in particular) but get wrecked by other things immediately (those spider scorpion things that shoot homing missiles at you) that I think I'm over-leveled for.

So I just wasted my whole 1 hr lunchbreak playing this instead of eating anything, ha ha ha oh dear.

welcome, now you can never leave

alternatively put it in your items, call your horse, forget to switch to health flasks, so when you’re low on health in the middle of a battle, you can blow your horse whistle instead and make your steed disappear before getting rapidly YOU DIED.

Been clearly warned, still 100% going to do this several times in the coming weeks.

oh hi, here's margit

I totally walked past Stormveil and thought I was meant to keep going through Lake Liurnia to get there. Belatedly went back to say hello to Margit and was horrifically over leveled, poor guy

All doing his little speeches as his health bar drains two inches at a time

i have acquired a big sword. everything is going to be fine.

Haha, welcome Trayce.

I've been back to Stormveil TWICE since clearing the boss because I've seen or heard about things I didn't find, and while I've found a lot more, there are still paths I'm missing.

Omg apparently there's a whole second boss (aside from Godrick) in Stormveil! This game.

waht, where is???

"hidden crypt section" :(

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Lesser+Ulcerated+Tree+Spirit

I killed my first giant today (the one hanging out by the Third Church of Marika). I felt so good about this, I immediately went back to the grace site in the church, respawned him, and killed him again.

Also if Capcom ever makes a Dragon's Dogma 2, they're *really* gonna have to come up with something interesting to compete with this.

I finally enjoyed to play this for three hours last night! So far this game reminds me far more of Skyrim than anything else, the new summoning mechanic gives me flashbacks to atronachs

I am playing as a wretch as promised, have levelled up vigor and strength each five times, found a cool longsword that I'm just strong enough to use two-handed

Have fought and killed a couple of dungeon bosses, was rudely teleported to someplace scary but made it back.

I have beat a few giants even in these first few hours but it's been cheesy and there was a horse involved

How do y'all dismount usually? I always use L3 crouch (sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally), but maybe there's a better way. Especially for those dragon-type bosses where you want to ride out, and then come in and use an ash of war attack or something.

i think this is L3 crouch tbh. v good for doing flying attacks at enemies.

also v good for triggering “dismounts” during really tense moments where you’re desperately trying ride in circles to get in an attack or escape on your all-too spectral steed and you’re holding your controller like it’s a fuckin safety bar on a rollercoaster, popping that L3 for fun.

you know that tiny little head that says "Hi?" when you use it? i keep that in my pouch.

;_;

HULLLLOOOO

Mimic's Veil is def going in the pouch.

i LOVE how arrows stick in you and enemies in this game :)

I haven’t played this because my pc sucks but please tell me they still have the “VERY GOOD” voice item thing

Ah looks like not, but this one might be just as fun: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Prattling+Pate+You're+Beautiful

Can't wait until I find the "APOLOGIES" one

found the "thank you" one, died shortly afterward to four skeletons who woke up immediately afterward in the same room (i suck), then returned to the same room, killed them all, and said "thank you"

*csi: miami sunglasses*

the singing bird by the minor erdtree in limgrave!! amazing moment

Took a break and elected to investigate the Bridge Of Sacrifice which seemed to lead to the end of the world map. Nope! There’s a whole other area south of here

Elden Ring rule #1: there's always another area.

the singing bird by the minor erdtree in limgrave!! amazing moment

― the world's undisputed #1 fan of 'Spud Infinity' (Karl Malone), Friday, March 4, 2022 12:39 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

no matter how bright it can get, nothing ever really lets up in this game

I thought those minor erdtrees would provide some peaceful solace but nope, they're all guarded by those dumb giant tree avatars.

So I'm not sure what Ive managed to do here. I got to that Stormhill gate, a huge boss thing fell down from above and I realised I couldnt fight him.

Then I came back on my horse and just... powergalloped through all the gates/fences and out the other side, and ended up at a collapsed bridge. I figured I could walk down the side of it and went round what felt like an alt/secret route? And ended up at Liunria of the Lake and met someone who transported me to the Roundtable place.

But I didnt defeat the Stormveil boss

Have I somehow skipped something? The guides say I cant skip thisMagrit boss but I never saw this place?

Ohhh wait I see what I did - I'm on the cliffs ABOVE the lake, I skipped the castle by going round it, ha no wonder I cant get down to the road.

I did pretty much the same thing trayce! I panicked and sped through the gate, then went around the castle and a crazy journey beyond that. Still haven’t taken on stormveil at level 36!

Hehe we all ended up at the same spot apparently. I can’t quit this game! I had a dream about it!

I'm at a very early point where I realise I need to do some grinding - I was so focussed on just working out how to use all the gear/weapons/my staff that I forgot to even bother with any levelling up. I've lost more runes than Ive earned.

I beat Margit. They buffed up the boss strength when you summon NPC help! I summoned Sorcerer guy a few times but found it easier on my own

I liked the Godrick fight and the darkly comic scene that ensues afterwards

Kept on getting close and then running out of healing while trying to be cagey at the end of his second phase, then just got him in a very short fight by being as aggressive as possible

The cutscene in the middle where he just starts going "AAAAAAAGH" in the most insane voice possible was perfect "ah, fuck, what now" Souls foreboding

moving v slowly thru this but it’s extremely amenable to that.

had a fairly easy win over the ghostly Mariner, realised i was hopelessly underpowered for the mobs in Siofra, reached the Roundtable, got hammered by the giant bear, *again*, (indiscipline really, feels fairly standard rolling should make this easy enough), i’m due another go at Margit next time i sit down.

think i’m going to level up stats for some ranged magic/incantations - having options for the bosses seems sensible.

this was mildly interesting:

Video game soundtrack composer Christa Lee made a really interesting point on Twitter: she said the fights actually work more like turn-based battles from classic Japanese RPGs. You make your attack move, then you need to wait to see how the enemy responds, counter that with a parry or a dodge, then take your turn to strike again. It’s all about reading attack patterns, working out the best distance at which to engage the enemy, and ensuring you have the correct weapons and knowledge for the job.

it feels truer in ER than DS even - the bosses are going to exploit the range of tactics available to you and given the range of attacking options is wider than before, so is the requirement for tactical flexibility.

Yes! I've been saying for years that the secret precursor to this series is Vagrant Story

After a week off, I got back on last night and explored the first-ish areas about to my heart’s extent. Put me around level 26. Decided to suck it up and start clearing bosses. Surprised myself by spanking Magrit then Godrick and his level in only a few tries. Went back to clean up every mini boss in the land above, below, and over after ‘Rick. Maybe like eight or so guys? I was on a warpath. Leaned on my spirit ashes, NPC summons, and horse in some variation for all of them.

Feeling cocky, I decided to try a stone sword key level and got absolutely smushed by what was waiting for me at the end. Plenty of struggle ahead!

People are gonna have some wildly different experiences with this thing.

But yeah, so far all time great game, I love it to death.