Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

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.

Are the prattles just for PVP use?

Or co-op. Although I suppose you can amuse yourself by talking to turtles or whatnot.

Im too scared to even turn co op on, i dont want to be invaded :( and the only ppl I could co op with would be you lot but the timezone wont allow it I imagine.

i have never participated in the co-op, either. i suck so bad, against everyone. if someone invades me, i'm going to panic

Ive just been reading on the ER subreddit that rolling INTO most big bosses is the way to survive, ive been panic-rolling AWAY from everything, no wonder i keep getting killed.

xps the specific prattle mentioned can be used in a specific location for a nice little Easter egg

Does zombie James Blunt appear?

Halp. Spoilerhiding Jordan's Fia comment here...

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

After reading this I went back to her to see what would happen and she was gone! I found her in another room, guarding D Hunter's dead body - I guess he'd gone off to return the weathered dagger? Is she now unavailable for her quest? No one seems to be left now except for Rogier!

I just keep forgetting to talk and re-talk to people!

Ummm you can find her later in the world, in an area you get to by following someone else's quest.

Haha I appreciate you being vague :D I am trying my best not to just look things up. I did that a lot with BOTW.

Ive found this side tunnel area next to the Dectus lift, where I'm climbing endless ladders and theres this ultra creepy glowing gold thing that looks like a monk singing prayers... but noooo....

that bit is amazing and tough too!

so this is totally not worth getting on the xbox one, right?

That song is sung in Latin, and it was translated by a Redditor thusly:

O locus ille beatus quod nondum deminuit
Nos destinatem matribus nunc fiunt turpes
Ploravimus lacrimavimusque sed nemo nos consolatus
Aureum qui irascebaris

O, that land, formerly blessed, now withered
We'd been destined for motherhood, but now have become disfigured
We wailed and wept but no one comforts us
Golden One, at whom were you so angry?

I think it makes more sense grammar and context-wise for that last line to be translated to "Golden One, who did you anger so?" but Latin 101 was a long time ago for me

Oh thats neat!

Its no BOTW, but some of the soundtrack work in this game is nice. Its more repetetive than I'd like which is a shame.

One that really struck me was up in the Stormveil tower where you activate the rune. It just plays this tiny, subtle pinging note.

Kept dying so I decided to go back to Stormveil and guess what - there's still so much I haven't explored. Every time I go, I find another web of different hidden passages and secret bits full of items. I collected so many runestones I was able to upgrade my key weapons about four or five times. That should level the playing field a bit!

Which monsters disappear from there once you best them?
- godrick and margit obv
- the big lion dude?
- the spideryman in that kitchen room?

So much hate for Spideryman

I meant smithing stones a couple of posts above, apols

Something I've realized is that greatshields are wonderful

On a lark I started a new character and struggled extremely with the kitchen spideryman. Mixed a physick flask that boosted my STR from 20 to 30, allowing me to equip the Manor Greatshield, then just guard countered the spider shithead over and over.

The greatshield advantage is that you can take a great deal of blocked hits with negligible effect on your stamina. The disadvantage is that they're heavy and the ones with 100% damage reduction need a hefty STR stat.

They are useful in dealing with the current blood-damage-festival that is PvP too

anyone know if there is any reason to increase STR for a 'swashbuckler' build (aka a bandit with a rapier and a buckler shield that i am running as an alt)? i'm trying to parry (or guard when necessary) and idk if increasing STR is beneficial or if END is better (when you've got to take some lumps)

that sounds like dex (rapier) and end for me. end helps you weather mistimed parries right? can’t see a strength need there other than the minimum stat stuff you need to do to get through some bits.

(i’m on an INT kick at the moment - struggling with rennala atm)

I'm coaching a friend for whom this is his first Souls game, he's on Rykard with a 150 (!) lvl mage build. Sounds like he's trying to brute force annihilate bosses using the infinite fp physick + comet azure, but is having trouble with 2-phase bosses because he uses up all his juice on phase 1. :)

see i wasn't sure if STR made actual shield-blocking more effective, but i've been ignoring it on the assumption that yeah, it should just be DEX and END (and ARC since the bandit starts with that)

also thus far i've noticed that having ARC boosted really does increase loot drops (eg smithing stones) and a dumb little thought i had was that ARC makes the game a bit more 'arcade' like since you don't have to spend as much time grinding/exploring, you can stick to the main story and still get most of the stuff you need to progress. i'm spec'ing the rapier with BH step to scoot through mobs and stuff, trying to focus entirely on boss fights to the extent that that's possible

my main dude is a spellsword with meteorite staff and moonveil, makes exploring through unknown areas much less stressful

despite being 90 hours in and having a faith/incant build, along with decent INT and several sorceries, i've never tried casting a sorcery! for a long time, i just didn't have a staff. i should check it out, but i'm assuming i can't really be an effective dual INT/FTH caster while also being a decent sword/shield kind of fighter, as I am now.

Oh, you know what does help shield-blocking? Upgrading shields. Pretty sure that in this game it reduces the amount of stamina used when blocking ('guard boost').

Also, if you want a very safe setup, use a thrusting sword or lance along with a shield that has 100% physical defense and a lot of guard boost. You'll be able to attack while still holding up the shield, so you're constantly blocking (just watch your stamina - you don't regain stamina while blocking, I'm pretty sure).

yeah you don't, learned that the hard way

shield upgrades are supposed to increase guard boost but it appears to be...very modest? seems dumb that upgrading a shield wouldn't yknow make it better at its job

There's also this:
https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Barricade+Shield

How I beat that kitchen spiderydude in Stormveil - stood on the balcony above him and spammed him repeatedly with my staff. Heh.

i was insanely OP when i got to stormveil so i just barraged him with rock sling a few times. this worked on godrick, too, beat him first try

Barricade Shield (Dropped by Night's Cavalry at Weeping Peninsula. )

Welp, forget that then lol.

anyone know if there is any reason to increase STR for a 'swashbuckler' build (aka a bandit with a rapier and a buckler shield that i am running as an alt)? i'm trying to parry (or guard when necessary) and idk if increasing STR is beneficial or if END is better (when you've got to take some lumps)

My rules of thumb: plan to level VIT to 60 by end game, no real need to level END beyond 30. Level STR as far as your gear requirements dictate (~16 for most weapons, ~30 for greatshields), unless you're planning on making it your primary stat.

I think Elden Ring is challenging certain Souls precepts. Hybrid builds are far more powerful and durable than in previous games. Shields are awesome and using a greatshield (in particular) makes the end game feel much more methodical and precise instead of a manic slashing hope-this-works experience