Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

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.

Also the last patch must have made a change so that the map shows a list of the npcs at a given place? That's pretty nice.

It's mad that this has been out for a month. Been playing for 55 hours and have done like two of the main shardbearer bosses. It just feels like it's part of life now, you get home from work and play 0.1% of Elden Ring for three hours

ha i don't even have that much time, i'm only in stormveil and am overwhelmed by how big that is

thanks Jordan!

so i'm not sure where the mysterious stains and messages are coming from. my partner says she's only left about three so far, so it's probably not her

This game will go down in history as being the equivalent of reading Middlemarch or Ulysses. I don't think it's the kind of thing you should race through with a view to completing as soon as possible. Take your time, enjoy it, find new things in it every day

i am very slow because i don't have huge chunks of time to play and also because i'm scared so i creep around and snipe at things with arrows

This game will go down in history as being the equivalent of reading Middlemarch or Ulysses.

on some college campuses, it will become an annual tradition to meet up at the quad during the spring semester and play through the entirety of elden ring together, with several people dropping out of school in the process

I am also slow for reasons of Life Getting In Way. Ive prob done less than 50hr I would imagine - I'm lucky if I can get in an hour or 2 thrice during the week and maybe 5-8 hrs of weekend play tops.

I hope everyone getting jillions of hours in is not doing so at the expense of their other halves/kids carrying the can of housework :P

But, I activated Godricks Rune finally. I have only now realised that hey, you dont HAVE to fight everything you encounter, just sneak past it or run/gallop like the billy-o. Thanks to working this out Ive opened up large swathes of Caelid and Leyndell by just running through them like my arse is on fire. Ive even managed to nab some good loot just by setting off some sodier ashes, letting them distract BigBads, running like mad to the item/chest then either fucking off or getting killed but I have it, so it dont matter.

...this may also be why I am so slow to level up though ha.

I play for 1/2 an hour a day while on an exercise bike, a few hours on the weekend, and then sometimes I'll wake up at 5 or 6 am and have to decide "should I lie here and see if I can fall back to sleep for an hour or two, or just go play Elden Ring?"

Ooo biking while playing is great idea, if only I could somehow fit mine into the room the PS4 is in.

I hope everyone getting jillions of hours in is not doing so at the expense of their other halves/kids carrying the can of housework :P

hah if anything I do more housework to ease the guilt and shame I feel when accounting for myself to a partner who sees computer games as a profoundly boring infantile activity that her otherwise functional husband slumps into sometimes. Cutting back on sleep instead. The first week I was also maybe turning on the PS4 and just leaving email and Slack open for the last hour of the working day. Multitasking.

Putting in fewer hours now - calmer relationship with the game.

& yes I've also got a lot better at just running through or away from shit - never confident at that in previous From games & tended to see crowded areas as violent puzzles to be solved then optimised. Some of the most fun in this one has been desperately madly scrambling through a chunk of dungeon or castle & zig-zagging & rolling & trying to grab glowy things & finally making it somewhere relatively safe.

I am at a fun stage now, having won the game, collected everything, but not moving on to NG+ just yet. I'm hanging out around the final areas, helping people kill bosses, making tonnes of runes in the process, upgrading all my gear so I can try out different play styles and such

I had a really fun time with a particular lance + great shield build. It's so out-of-character for how people are playing, it was really fun in PvP, breaking people's poise like it was nothing. Too bad it was difficult/impossible to actually damage anybody

i'm in the same boat, post game, but not ng+. i am either being a cooperator or hanging out in limgrave and invading with people who seem to be post game as well. there's a person whose character is called guts and i don't know how they are doing it but multiple people are invading and fighting each other while guts stands on the rock right next to the first steps grace and does the clap gesture every time an invader kills another. i've invaded guts three times and it's always been the same.

just invaded Anos, a character with no bottom half

There are always 8 million "Guts"-s in every one of these games, apparently it's from one of the big anime influences on the games (Berserk). Sounds like they're using the Taunter's Tongue to hold a fight club?

I've been doing some google-assisted npc quests for those npcs that are still alive (spoilers hidden below). Otherwise I think I'm finally ready to delve into the Capital. Been having fun invading again now that my level (mid-90s) is commensurate with my weapon upgrade. My main problem is that the white apostle robes I've been wearing are impossible to keep clean, they keep getting blood all over them!

After thinking I had broken Fia's quest because she never talked to me aside from the hugs, I got some more hugs and ended up doing the whole quest in one fell swoop (dragon included). The Fia's Champions fight was pretty hilarious, they were chasing me all over the arena and I squeaked by with just a couple hp.

I thought Nepheli's quest was done for too, since I had lost track of her and Seluvis is dead. But apparently I had already gotten his potion, and we're still in business?

I'm getting the sense that I'm going to have to choose my allegiance between all of these cool NPC ladies for the eventual ending

Oops, I meant to have all of that text hidden, sorry. :(

yeah after thinking about it for a minute, i realize that Guts is using taunters tongue, and is constantly summoning cooperators at the summoning pool right by their perch so it's just a stream of cooperators and invaders facing off. it's a great idea.

I've never seen Berserk, but apparently the Greatsword was intended by Hidetaka Miyazaki as a tribute to the character Guts from that series, and so it's a popular choice for people

Btw the "YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL" prattling pate is my favorite thing, and has been become my new post-invasion closer. Yesterday I killed the host, told the summon that they're beautiful, and they gave the fancy twirl gesture right on cue.