Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

HOw are you guys levelling up so fast? Compared to Skyrim I am finding levelling extremely tedious in this game.

Generally, I ensure that I am levelling up once or twice after every mini-boss. Yesterday I killed that dragon on the lake near the starting point, got sidetracked into a weird helldungeon and lost about 6k runes as a result. Usually I'm not so hubristic.

One thing that I tend to exploit in this game and other From games is that when I realize there's an opportunity to do some soul/rune farming, I take it when necessary. Somebody (D? I think?) told me about a "sending portal" to the East of the start and put it on my map. I went there, was teleported to some advanced area, and met this beast god I think I was supposed to meet. I peeked outside and there was a present-tense-unkillable dragon fucker who would not attack me if I snuck by him. Behind him? a field full of deadly-but-easy-to-R1-spam creatures who netted 1200 runes each.

So I killed about 12 of them, mostly by sneaking up and criticalling them, and walked away with 15k runes. I decided I was going to buy the Knight set from the two-headed creature in the Round Table area, which was gonna cost about that much, so I warped back out to that field, murdered 12 of those creatures, went back and bought it.

I'm Level 36 or so now, have beaten Margit but not Godrick, have killed every mini-boss in the first three areas (I forget the names, but like main area one, the Weeping Peninsula, and that woodsy place immediately to the East). I haven't killed the Ball Bearing Bastard (I gagged when he first showed up), or that one evergaol dude on Stormhill or whatever. Haven't finished the underground river starscape place either. Wow this game is big

Speaking of crafting, is anyone finding much use for it?

So far, bone darts and that's it. I use bone darts to pick off groups one-by-one and to trigger those catacomb fire pillars from a distance. I've crafted some of the "I wanna summon somebody" items, too.

i'm just realizing...i need to upgrade my fucking armor!!!!!!!

You can't! Shields can be upgraded. I'm unsure as to whether or not it's worth it, though, the upgrade table only gives information about "increasing damage" of shields, which is not useful. I assume there is some increase in guard counter stats or something but it doesn't say so, so idk

fwiw: I'm wearing boring-ass Knight armor, my Wretch was wearing hand-me-downs and I needed SOMETHING, so I bought it. I switch between the Golden Halberd 2H (which looks ugly with the armor) and a more-appropriate Heater Shield + Longsword combo. I did a sneaky suicide run into a distant castle to grab a Fire Ash for the Longsword (at Level 36 my stats are still low enough to justify some of those high-base-damage-but-poor-scaling options).

Oh, I accidentally smacked a key ally when she was imprisoned and so I did some googling about how to save our relationship and it is looking bleak but I'm hoping I'll solve it when I beat Godrick and get to the next area

Smithing stones are rare drops from imps, and apparently (1) and (2) varietals can be purchased at some point.

godrick kicked my ass.

Yeah, my one complaint so far is that there’s really not a lot of armor. At least in the earlier part of the game. I think I’ve got 40 hours in and my collection’s pretty pitiful.

MARGIT HAS FELLED YESSSSSSSSSS

finally i can face the world with some dignity

the weapons, buffs and summons that ended up working for me were:

claymore+2, both hands.
ash of war: golden vow (sacred, gives you this skill: "granting self and nearby allies increased attack power and defense"
wondrous physick: one that boosts faith, one that boosts charged weapon attacks
talisman: boost charged weapon attacks
summon: wolves+2

before going in, i summon rogier, my old friend, who, at this point, i have spent more quality time with, accumulatively, than some of my own friends, and we traverse through the mist. immediately summon the wolves, huey, dewey, louie, moe, curly, larry, domingo, carreras, and pavarotti. i use the cerulean flask to fill my FP back up, then use the Golden Vow skill described above to buff all the wolves and old rogier's attack and defense, as well as my own. THEN i use the wondrous physick to boost faith (which boosts the sword, which is sacred) and charged weapon attacks.

then i let that mess of friends distract Margit, until i get behind it and do a full charged attack. get one in, back off, let others distract him again, repeat until the stance is broken.

and that's it. suddenly it was so much easier than all the other times, and it was because i was double boosting a couple different things (charged attacks and sacred/faith stats)

I can't tell, but I am intuitively feeling like "armor means more" in this game than previous Souls games.

I just want to say, too, that I've had a couple ermagerd moments:

The first time I went back to the Warmaster shack to buy something nice, I came at night without knowing better and the Ball Bearing Hunter walked out of the wall glowing like the fires of Hell and I screamed holy shit and died soon thereafter

Arriving at the second bonfire in the Siofra River Ruins, seeing the roof of the cavern as a starry sky, I thought "wow they really killed every chicken in the coop for this feast huh"

i now feel slightly overleveled for stormveil proper, and it's a good reward :)

So, I know all the little monsters/soldiers etc all just respawn as soon as you save but please tell me once Margit/Godrick et al are done with they stay done, right? What about Agheer?

BTW does siofra ruins remind anyone else of Blackreach from Skyrim? I ended up there by accident and noped back out, I figured Bad Things lay ahead.

Siofra River, i meant.

once the bosses are done, even the mini-bosses, they're done! like, remember that guy on the horse near the very beginning of the game? you kill him, he's gone gone

So for all you folks that are playing this, will it even be possible for people to post 100% walkthroughs or even just regular walkthroughs? It seems like it might not lend itself to that.

nah, any game has a walkthrough

there are five main bosses (i think), five main lands (i'm guessing). go in this order to defeat them, optimally. there are already 1000s of guides for elden ring

Oh! I just remembered something else I'm not clear on. Side quests - how to keep track? I think Ive been given a couple (old weird witch lady on the bridge, something about 2 crescents joining?) and... there seems to be no quest log in the menus. How do I keep track of what NPCs ask me to do, do I have to just write it in Notepad or something? What is this, 1994.

You gotta keep track yourself. Also, for a lot of them, you kinda gotta look it up. Not entirely clear what to do next.

And yes, these games are deliberately old school in many ways.

I saw a little starters guide that recommended just writing it down irl. There are markers you can use on the map, as well, but they’re not too useful

xp!

I am not writing anything down, and intend to consult guides when I’m done an area to see what I’ve missed

Played co-op with a friend and it was surprisingly easy. She helped me with Godrich, and her help was helpful? but I murdered the guy, got two guard-break into critical during the fight, very rewarding!

@ Trayce: I have discovered but not explored two underground areas incl Siofra and they are not esp difficult and they have amazing upgrade materials, both

They link between each other, map-wise, the underground worlds. Like a Dark World. I’m reeling

What impresses me most about this game weirdly— I mean, the design and the bosses and the landscape yes yes— but it’s the adaptation of all the best elements of previous From games into something that is simultaneously more accessible/easier but still retains its extreme difficulty. I’m taking a particular pleasure in the Ash mechanic, being able to hot-swap your upgrades, compare damage rates between them, it’s ingenious

A weird thing which is so obvious but so good is the No Skill Ash; put it on your shield and you can use the Weapon Art in your RH (via L2) without issue

Re: guides. I’m staying spoiler free as much as I can. I did spoil myself for some suicide run Ash stuff— a fire plug in for my longsword, and the withstand-everything plug-in for my shield

people are really going wild for this game

It’s one of those games that’s going to make everyone else have to confront what’s possible. The people who spend a hundred million dollars making Assassins Creed games will have to look at it and go “oh shit” https://t.co/gEih4YrCs0

— plainclothes goth (@Arr) March 7, 2022

Improving on Margit but he whoops me at last minute every time with combos I just can't seem to get out of. I've got my twinblade and even an advanced ash I found that gives him scarlet rot. I just can't seem to stay alive quite long enough

I just noticed the 'underground' toggle on the map, wild.

I know no one else is doing this, but I've decided invasions are fantastic in this game. I'm addicted to invading in the Academy, in the area before marble madness. The fact that there are no (or very few) true combos means you use all the moves & tools at your disposable, and everything has a place. It's like a microcosm of what they did with the game as a whole.

Also it made me realize that while the katana is fast enough for pve, I needed something faster for pvp (at least for my style, running around unlocked interrupting people's attacks and weaving in and out).

Theres no map mode while in a cave, is there? I got hopelessly lost in one of the smallest caves in the start area full of wolves cos I had no torch.

That Thai ad is fucking bonkers btw

xp you can find cave maps, I got one for Siofra and for another cave/river area I've discovered. Check the icons at the bottom of the map to toggle from underground to overground and vice versa too.

I've now got a magical rapier +10 and have begun to tune my spirits, gitting gud. Agree on the armour thing, presumably sets begin to show up more often deeper into the game, IIRC that was the model for DS3...

Watching that amazing Thai ad (thank you I now vaguely understand the back story after as usual completely blanking out on the game intro) and finding it trying to stick to my no-serious-investigation principle and resist the 'Get Overpowered Early in Elden Ring!' video in the sidebar (especially since I'm working and I'm at the stage where if I can't play it, I want to browse about it. Also its Vaatividya who iirc is reliable and has a pleasant voice).

Anyway, only a few hours logged so just exploring and levelling (cynically doing the usual kill-rest-rekill cycle on manageable groups - is there any downside to that in this one?). Took down a couple of little dungeon minibosses - I'd forgotten the joyous & visceral rush of managing it after repeatedly you-dieding, even if I had a jellyfish to help me this time.

Only minor complaint is, like Trayce, I feel like crafting should level something - nothing serious, just a separate good-at-crafting stat.

RE: crafting, I could sorta see replacing the mechanic of buying recipes with unlocking recipes via leveling up a crafting skill. Though actually leveling up your character via crafting would be kinda wack imo. You get useful items from crafting, don’t think you need more incentive than that.

just met a giant tortoise wearing a mitre!

Oh yes! I met him yesterday and I hope a certain NPC isn’t mad at me any more, too

xp right - I wouldn't want actual levelling, just extra recipes etc. I think it's the ex-WoW player in me that likes having low-stress by-ways to wander along.

I'm addicted to invading in the Academy, in the area before marble madness

Well, now I have to make a beeline to the academy!!

The academy also has tons of spells for the sorcerery-inclined, as you would expect.

I have not met the Bell Bearing Hunters, but I would like to!

Only noticed the "underground" toggle on the map yesterday, it's truly insane to think that there is an equally large world to explore underneath the main one. I've only dipped into Siofra so far.

I made it to Godrick last night, will probably do a bit more exploring before coming back, but I don't expect it to be an epic Margit-like humiliating experience this time around either, ha!

I have not met the Bell Bearing Hunters, but I would like to!

1. Warp to the Weaponmaster's Shack in Stormhill
2. Rest until nightfall
3. Say goodbye to your friend, the weaponmaster
4. Rest at the state of grace again to reset the area
5. Go back to where the weaponmaster normally is
6. Die

Excellent ty.

My friend who rode all over the world before doing anything got to Godrick at lvl 44 and smote him on the first try. Being overleveled is a valid strategy, but I think I'm going to keep following the main story quest to try and stay 'level-appropriate', before going off on too many tangents. It's a constant tension though, so many places to go and things I've missed.

an ashes of war question, sorry. for most of them, when you apply them to a weapon, you can choose either "standard" or the type of ash of war you just selected (blood, sacred, heavy, etc). what is the difference between the two? is it that if you pick standard, your weapon damage/type stays the same but you get access to the ash of war's skill? and if you pick a certain type, instead, like Sacred for example, your weapon's stats will also change, and it would do holy damage instead of the previous type of damage?

hopefully that q makes sense, sorry

I could be wrong but I believe it changes the scaling stats of a weapon, so for a example heavy will make it scale with strength and keen will scale it with dexterity etc

I think that's right, but for scaling (what stats it works well with) as well as damage type

Xp

I was over leveled for Margit to the point where the fight was so short I barely remember anything about it. Godrick was good clean, deranged fun and a challenge but probably not the "oh shit" skill check it was intended to be.

I think I might start fussing less over trying to catch everything in an area, I guess you can always do a second playthrough and use a guide to identify which areas you haven't already found to keep it fresh

Yeah, that's just the scaling. If you found the iron whetblade in Stormveil, you can freely change the scaling. So you can take your standard katana, apply a different skill, and also make it keen (scales better with high dex), heavy (strength), or quality (both). I assume there are other whetblades later on that let you change weapons to scale with int/faith/etc.

xp yep

Apparently there are some hilariously busted weapons in late game pvp right now, related to the madness and 'death' status effects

thanks everyone! that makes sense.

i just picked up the Clayman's Harpoon. I might switch to that after doing a lot of broadsword/claymore for the first...50 hours i've played this? i think i'm around there. anyway, it has both physical and magic damage, seems to cut a wide swath, and i'm assuming it'll do decent armor/piercing damage as well.

the iron whetblade in Stormveil

hmmm...don't think i've found it yet, but I have definitely have more exploring to do in stormveil. i'll keep an eye out for it!

It's behind one of those stone imps that requires a stonesword key, iirc

Another thing about invasions, it makes me actually explore my tools more. I'm starting to actually use incantations, because when a party is passively sitting in a small room, it will be cool to cast a globe of darkness or breathe fire. Or if they're surrounding me, I can cast Rejection.

Also will have to find and start crafting the new healing-preventing pot that some people keep throwing at me.

The different infusions for each Ash are a throwback to earlier Souls games, where you could spend a lot of time/energy/souls/research in infusing a weapon in a certain way. In DS1 it was fairly permanent, by DS3 it was semi-swappable, and with Elden Ring (thank goodness) it's an easy plug-and-play situation.

I have myself found that "scaling" is far less important than people make it out to be... you only really see significant damage increases once the pertinent stat gets past, like 40 (at least). I remember in Demon's Souls, despite having levelled up my Strength to 50, using an A- or S-scaling weapon resulted in STILL comparable damage to, say, a Dragon Scimitar upgraded to the same area

I personally find it more important to figure out situational-solutions. I LOVE having a fire-infused weapon all the way to the late game because it's the easiest way to deal with things at lower levels. (Fire infusions have bad scaling but high output, so they are good early on and less-good later on). Already my game got a lot easier when I got a Fire (TM) Ash in a suicide run in some distant Caelin castle, slapped it on a basic sword, and there it is

In short, I wouldn't put too much worry into infusions (Heavy/Quality/Keen/Sacred/etc.), just see which one works at the time, and maybe think about Whetstone if there is one infusion that you extremely prefer. But this is just me! Some people are scaling nuts, I've just become not-one-of-them