Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

Which would be fine, my glintstone staff slays, but it has finite juice!

My partner who's been playing the game a lot less time than me has already mashed up Godrick and beaten all the minibosses in Limgrave, so has pretty much caught up if not surpassed me in just a matter of days (a keeper!). I'm still a bit salty about the Edgar quest but hey ho, at least I have a monkey tailor now who actually makes my clothes WORSE when he alters them, great!

My staff is next to useless, just irritates enemies rather than hurts them

I just don't know how I broke Edgar's plotline so easily... This is one of the few things that frustrate me about these games - I like that they don't handhold you or rely on endless fetch quests, but sometimes it's like you're supposed to have a sixth sense about where you're expected to go and who you're meant to speak to in what order to trigger a particular sequence of events. Is it because I neglected to speak to Edgar before killing Lion-O? Why is Irina dead? If this all happened, then where has Edgar got to and why has he vanished? I feel this is a bit unfair really.

Quests get broken so easily and arbitrarily

I'm endgame now and had to do a convoluted thing to advance a very important quest forward, did the convoluted thing, it had no effect, gave up. It was so irritating. I'm like "this game can render the most complicated beautiful environments imaginable but it can't keep its fucking story straight"

Things like the Plaxi Dragon, like how the fuck are 99% of people ever going to find this (very important) boss without looking at a guide? They must have spent aaaages creating/coding etc and they just leave it somewhere completely obscure and arbitrary for everyone to miss.

I wouldn't have been mad if they made the npc quest system a bit more forgiving and easy to follow in this game, I don't think it would have lost anything.

My wife was out last night so I had awhile to play, but I spent the whole time doing invasions and it was more frustrating than fun. I'm at the level now where player damage is so high that the rule is "don't get hit". If I mess up at all (which usually means trying to swap to my dagger with Bloodhound's Step to get away, except oops my left hand still has a shield, so I parry instead of using the right-hand skill) it's instant death. So I'm going to focus on actually progressing for awhile, imagine that.

I did go back and do the Divine Tower of Caelid (or Carlos, as a friend's phone always corrects to), that was fun.

finally fuckin beat fuckin margit

then got killed by some knifebirds

xp to crisp regarding that dragon, i saw some white spirits doing a ~thing~ which clued me in. they come in handy sometimes!

there really are moments when it feels like you're in a secret area within a secret area within a secret area. i found a hidden spot last night that really surprised me. it just like... kept going.

Nice

xp

i beat this last night. cleared all the major bosses, going by the trophy list. not done though, gonna explore a little more then make the call on New Game + or rolling a new character.

this is the best game, i have a zillion hours in it and i'm still not bored. i hope there's DLC in the works.

also hope they flesh out pvp a bit more, cuz invading doesn't feel terribly exciting at the moment. at least at high level. like Jordan said, most of the time you pop into a world with a dude and three of his buddies just waiting there to smash you into the ground. haven't really messed with pvp since Souls 1 (which had cool things like multiplayer covenants that operated in different ways) and this doesn't have the same excitement or variety.

i imagine doing invasions at lower levels is more fun, you have the chance to surprise people just doing co-op stuff. less of the hangin-out-waiting-for-the-next-sucker gank squad stuff i'm consistently running into at higher levels.

You can beat Elden Ring, but can you ever really finish Elden Ring?

after bouncing off astel a few times i read that he's weak to scarlet rot. so i looked up how to inflict scarlet rot and learned i could get an incantation if i got rid of that cranky decaying dragon in caelid. so i went there, got my ass handed to me repeatedly. so then i was like well maybe i should power up godrick's rune. so then i had to go all the way to stormveil and make my way to the tower and restore the rune. then i went back to the dragon and me and my mimic tear +10 hookclawed it to pieces. then i went to the cathedral of dragon communion and got the incantation, and then was like whoops i need a seal. so i went back to the tutorial dungeon, unlocked the imp door, made my way through a dungeon to kill a dude who dropped the dragon communion seal. then i re-spec'd so i could use the seal, the incantation, and the sword of night and flame and twinned armor just for fun. THEN i went back to astel, armed my mimic tear with ekzyke's decay, and together we ran up on him and levitating rot-puked him to death. real GOAT-game territory here.

Those dragon scarlet rot incantations are way powerful. Absolutely melts dudes, bosses included, if they aren’t resistant. Can really amp them up with the right talismans.

I definitely fell back on scarlet rot to beat a couple of bosses who otherwise seemed unbeatable. I like that it's an option! "Can't melee them? can you poison them and stay hidden instead? good, you pass"

Haha Adam, I love how no two games are the same.

My friend texted me "so this guy's impossible" when he got to Astel. Then five minutes later he beat him with comet magic and tanky spirits. Whatever works (I'm stubbornly going to keep trying to press the dodge button at the right time, that's the only way I know how to play these games).

I got kicked into a pit by Patches . The classics never go out of style

this is me, birdie

https://i.imgur.com/PYWtSxg.jpg

I got an awesome summon that requires FP 100, and i'm supposed to be a Confessor, so i'm currently just kind of farming enemies and leveling up my Mind (whoa dude!)

maybe i should power up godrick's rune.

So, I beat Godrick (!) yesterday with a flailing combination of my wolf ashes and a lot of Great Glintstone spamming. yes, I thought, Ive DONE IT.

...and now I learn I still have to re-battle my way through that fucking courtyar full of assholes , to find some lion I have to beat, so I can do this rune thing because its the main point? ARGH.

we have to find elden ring

I must have spent 6 hours Elden Ringing last night and achieving very very little. Other than finally beating Agheel of course.

I spent a bit of time leveling up in Ogre Paddock but keep changing my mind about where to put points, so my build is just a massive shitshow. I want to level up Arcane so I can use a Dragonheart thing but I'm miles off.

Tried to beat the boss next to the Erdtree on Weeping Peninsula (like a big walking tree trunk that throws horrible yellow sparks that merk me instantly) using fire but ran out of FP and pots. I am enjoying my dragon arm though which has an awesome special move.

Other than that, it's been endlessly exploring Liurnia but hitting a lot of dead ends and circle-rounds without exactly being sure where I'm supposed to be going.

Trying very hard to take my time with this game. I'm not interested in completing it in a hurry or reading up loads of guides (which is what I did with Bloodborne). There is definitely more than one way to play this game

want to level up Arcane so I can use a Dragonheart thing but I'm miles off.

i think i might know what's your referring to! i'm not that far ahead of you (if i am at all), but i wouldn't lean too hard on arcane just for that skill. if it's the one i'm thinking of, it has a very, very long cast time that frequently makes it a burden in battle. every once in a while the starts line up though, and it's fun.

my build is also a shit show. i have no idea what i'm doing, and i have zero long term strategy. i just want to beat the bosses, eventually, and of course, find elden ring

just ran across a very helpful message from an ilxor in Road's End Catacombs, helpfully pointing toward a Rune Arc (which I have never used because I am scared)!

(easiest boss in the game too, nice!)

Heh that might have been me? They saved most of the hidden walls for that dungeon.

Idk if getting the great rune is the main point (unless that's the lore?), it's more of a side benefit. Really nice stat boosts, but you need to activate them with rune arcs, which you can find but mostly get through coop or pvp.

silly question, but - so, i only have one great rune, and i think i used it to get a new weapon at the roundtable. so, do i still "have" that rune, to activate via rune arc, or do i need to get another great rune and save it, rather than converting it to a weapon?

that's a remembrance, the rune is a different thing. once you power it up you can make it "active" at a bonfire, then actually activate it by using a rune arc. say, before a big boss fight. the only one i've used is godrick's and it adds 5 to every state, ie 40 levels.

:-o

that would be helpful! haha

i have about 10 rune arcs or so. they're like the P-wing in SMW - i just can't

or the super+ cure-all in FFVII or whatever. if the item is too good, i cannot use it. need to save it for later

I mean that's why I rarely use consumables, yet keep picking up every crafting item I see. But I have like 80 rune arcs from pvp, so I actually use them for boss fights now.

i'm imagining using a rune arc is similar to the dream of what the Power Glove was like. you're just unstoppable, and steam rises wherever you walk

(but in reality you're like "Shit!")

i got grease in every flavor

can the greases stack with ashes of war? like i can have a blood letting sword and then go all Dondarrion on their ass on top of it?

Sorry if this 9is anoob question, but how can you tell if an Ilxor has left a message?

I'm at those catacombs now as well!

I only have one rune arc which I bought off the two wyrd maidens at the Roundtable

Why can you only use grease on certain swords? Seems unfair. Also is there a way to tell from the menus whether you can use grease on a weapon? Trial and error is an annoying way to go about things

Sorry if this 9is anoob question, but how can you tell if an Ilxor has left a message?

Why can you only use grease on certain swords? Seems unfair. Also is there a way to tell from the menus whether you can use grease on a weapon? Trial and error is an annoying way to go about things

I think it's just "special" weapons that you can't grease up. Boss weapons, anything upgraded with somber stones with unique skills that you also can't change.

It's always been that way in these games, maybe because they're already more powerful or have innate elemental damage?

(still haven't used any grease)

Sorry if this 9is anoob question, but how can you tell if an Ilxor has left a message?

When you read them, there is also a unique kind of text /ascii symbol. I’ll take a screenshot next time I see one (which isn’t often, I’ve only seen a handful), but it’s kind of a wavy line with a slash through it ?

I think it's showing the Roman numeral of the multiplayer group - like I have 'ilg' as one group, and then another group with some friends, so it'll show a "II" for the second group.

Ohhh... I did see some messages and bloodstains that look like that and they usually have a Japanese symbol on them as you describe, but I'm not following any groups as far as I know? How do I follow the ILX one? This is all very confusing

I did set up a password just for me and my partner to fight a boss a while back, so maybe it's her messages?

i have begun invading, it's good fun. because i generally hate being invaded i have been just taking out the hunters or maybe aggressive cooperators before using the finger severer to return to my world, though i don't know if that makes it any less annoying for the invaded.

Nice, love it.

If you go to the Multiplayer menu, on the right there should be an option for Group Password. You can put in "ilg" and that'll just give preference to showing messages, summon signs, bloodstains & ghosts, etc from ILG people. That's different from the Multiplayer Password -- if you set that, then you'll only be able to summon other people using that password (ie use if you want to summon a specific friend).

I had some good Elden Ringing over the weekend, made some progress and I'm having fun with invasions again. I find myself very hesitant to make my way into the Capital for some reason, I'm doing everything else I can first.