Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

Haha I killed the Draconic Tree Sentinel the other day and thought "Cool, what's behind this door?" But it turned out it was just another way to get into the Capital. Can't remember how I got there originally, but it wasn't that way

Really!? I went that way cos thats where the walkthrough said to go. I couldnt figure out any other way in - I marched up the stairs to the main big gate thinking me greatrunes would open the door and nothing happened.

And once in, I was amazed to find new enemies I'd somehow never seen images or video of in all this time. Those marshmallow bois with the bubble-trumpets, what the hell! If I'm going to die, thats a way to go out. TOOT.

The other way into Leyndell interior (that is, not past the Draconic Tree Sentinel) is pretty convoluted. You have to progress through the meteorite -> Nokstella -> Valiant Gargoyles route, then pass through Deeproot Depths and dispatch Fia's Companions in order to get the warp into the interior.

Love those little guys.

That video I posted is just a satirical riff about how 80% of the players you run into are using the Rivers of Blood katana, and he's trying to make a samurai build without using it. That's basically what I'm doing, although glintstone pebble is pretty ridiculous too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCxFIV0VAvk

Pvp has been really hit or miss, but I liked this invasion, where the person seemed appreciative that I let them kill the dragon, then wanted to duel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxaqVP2Rs3w

ou have to progress through the meteorite -> Nokstella -> Valiant Gargoyles route

Oh lord, I've been struggling with that area. But I'm in Nokstella for the Ranni questline. Fia straight up disappeared after she killed D and I dont think Ive seen her since?

I got pinned into a corner by those fucking giant marbles, literally couldnt duck/roll out of the way. Some desperate rock sling spamming got me out but that felt like quite a poor design that I could get stuck like that.

Ainsel river Ive only snuck around and fought the Dragonkin Soldier so far. Got to a cliff over the lake of rot and went "fuck this" and left haha.

But if I havent seen Fia should I even bother with it?

Wait, some googling shows me Fia isnt gonna show up again til I beat the valiant gargolyes. Ugh, I havent done that bit yet.

Fia's quest is pretty forgiving, I thought I had bungled it and then did it all in one go once I got to Deeproot Depths.

Those boulders are really silly, I used heavy attacks/charged R2s to keep them at bay. Not sure if it has to be a thrusting attack or not.

Yeah rock sling was the only thing I could stagger/stop them with. I heavily favour glintstone spells and theyre brutally efficient on most things, but not those damn boulders. Or those lava/rock dudes in Ainsel. Golems too I think? And my upclose fighting skill is shit.

Oh and: That's basically what I'm doing, although glintstone pebble is pretty ridiculous too

I use large glintstone shard, which is like a beefed-up glintstone pebble. With a demi-human queen staff +15, it slays. I can 1-2 hit a LOT of enemies.

You don’t need to deal with Gargoyles to complete Fia (provided you go deep in the sewers below Leyndell, cosplay as Shitty Mario, have your heart broken twice and find no less than four illusory walls)

Sitting on the couch talking about the game:
Me: Wolves just fall out of the sky on you, its like a Wolfnado.
Oh and there are goats that will roll away!
Barn: ...they got wheels?

BTW does that heartbreak involve Boc, I dont want to do his bit its too sad.

The rain of wolves is hilarious, I'm surprised that hasn't been the subject of more memes. Does any other enemy just drop from the sky instead of loading in?

Btw Salt & Sacrifice comes out tomorrow, the sequel to the best 2-D Soulslike I've played. I'm a bit burnt out on Elden Ring so I'm excited to switch to that for awhile.

Oh gosh, salt and sacrifice is coming out???


I can’t even think about that until I at least get through volcano manor

you know what's a trip is reading the gormenghast trilogy at the same time that you're playing elden ring. the whole part where steerpike is living on the gormenghast rooftops gave me flashbacks to running around on the roofs of raya lucaria.

Xp I’ve never played that first one but I have apparently downloaded it at some point. I need to dig into that.

suddenly, however, Titus encountered a low level rat. he swung his great claymore+8 and completely missed. he panicked and swung again, and missed by an even greater distance. Titus then reached for his trust clawmark seal, intending to light up the darkness with great swarms of fire breath. but instead he pulled out a bow and zoomed into an empty corner with great intensity. now there were 4 rats and an alerted guard, and Titus was out of stamina. He called for his horse, knowing that he was in town and it was impossible. and then Titus did run away as quickly as he could, with the auto-lock-on continually targeting new rats that had found him and completely messing up his attempts to see where he was running. it was just then that Titus realized he was carrying 84,233 runes and that he was about to die in a place he had never seen, again

needs a lot more adjectives

I did quite a bit of volcano manor yesterday, and for some reason (prob my build) it's been the most thrilling part of the game so far. Really reminded me of the first time I was playing DS1 and running around the rooftops at the beginning not knowing what was going to happen. Overall though, what a game.

I'm now powerstancing the godskin stitcher and great epee which is pretty cool. It's strange how for heavy thrusting swords, the timing you get when one handing them almost feels better than two handing or powerstancing, although with the powerstancing you can get really long combos off

Is there much to the actual manor? I've gone in there and spoken to everyone who is laying about (couldnt kick Patches in the face mores the pity), and theres one room where I get invaded so I noped out. IMmediately outside is just loads of trolls and crap. I cant even do the first quest she gave me (kill Sir Istvan) so I'm not sure Im gonna bother with that bit.

I did run right round the outside of the volcano yesterday after finding I had to for my Sellen quest. So I've got Sellen and Ranni all lined up to be finished soon, but I suspect I'm gonna be faced with a "one or the other" choice at some point shortly.

I think I just want the Azur clothing, it looks awesome!

happy meal for rya#ELDEN_RING pic.twitter.com/fL7cUfzlHG

— SurelyO (@Surely_O) April 27, 2022

Trayce, there's a hidden wall in one of the rooms (I think the npcs talk about it) that leads to a much larger area I think ILG consensus is that it's one of the most satisfying ones in the game.

Ooh! I shall have to poke about some more then :) I'm yet to see Snek for starters

Ohhh wait, I see why I know none of this, you gotta beat Istvan before any of it kicks off. Ugh hes so hard though for some reason he kicks my arse every time.

The Lands Between#ELDENRING pic.twitter.com/rrdpl4TxfG

— ♥️ Lucky Bun (@Lucky_BunTTV) May 10, 2022

xp
I don't think you have to beat Istvan - I think it's literally just a hidden wall in the manor and you can ignore all the assassination quests.

(I stopped doing their quests because I don't have access to the zone for the final one and also f u Patches I'm not killing my mate Tragoth. Him, me and the Blackguard vs Magma Wyrm Makar, good times).

Currently: underground doing a job for tiny little ranni doll; meeting Mogh, but thinking I might explore the whole dirty bloody area before I head back and beat him up; touring the beautiful capital city of Leyndell.

oh and at first grace in VM dungeon, just waiting before pressing on.

Yeah, the wall is just in one of the rooms in the manor, Trayce, I believe behind a dead body they've nicely left out for you

Volcano Manor environs is definitely my favourite part of the game so far

https://y.yarn.co/35e41b21-67f4-40ee-bdbe-ffc556cd2327_text.gif

Me purposefully striding into the fields beyond the Farum Greatbridge site of grace for the fifteenth time today

Oh god farming that field with its hideous keening background noise and sheeting rain gives me nightmares.

But, I can net 7k per go round, more if I eat a gold fowlfoot, so its been handy.

It took me a minute to discover where that field was. Glintstones are great for it. Basically from the Greatbridge you go north then turn east, kill the wee man just to your right; continue and I think there's another one just a bit further up. Then you turn back a little and continue north east and there should be about three or four more. There's one more lad snuck behind a fallen tree if you turn back round again. Should be about 7 in total, then fast travel back to where you were and repeat.

Good for a while, but if you like farming, nothing beats the Mogh bird + Albinauric slaughter farm though

I have grown fond of the Farum Greatbridge Vulgar Militia through my time ruthlessly farming them, they are kind of the successors to the Dark Souls 3 Undead Settlement gremlin men with their silly hats, high pitched gibbering and propensity to take hilarious flying bumps when staggered with magic

There is also the minor layer of intrigue added by "hold up is that one just...a goat?"

apparently there's a marble you can farm near the greatbridge area too, but i've never seen it. I tend to just run through Caelid when I'm there, and I rarely stop to smell the poison flowers.

There's so much stuff you can miss in this game. Even when I feel like I'm following quests properly, there are details that somehow get skipped. I realised today that I didn't really understand Sellen's quest even though I liked her as a character - why is her body in more than one place? What is going on? And what about Seluvis - I kept hearing reference to his puppets from various NPCs like Pidia but don't think I ever actually saw any?! Reading back, apparenlty the puppets just look like normal people but slumped in different positions (so they just look like all the other dead bodies in the game). Maybe they could have made them more puppety!

probably rhetorical questions but in any case: sellen's body only comes into play after you've found lusat's, which she only asks you to after you find azur on your own, and seluvis' puppets are in the cellar of the ruins to the north of caria manor, near ranni's rise. there's a note you can buy at some merchant talking about it

Yes I worked it all out and finished it off last night. Now I have a sporty glinty pointy crystal crown!

But I'm still too underpowered to use my new tools :( I'd like to start using night comet and stars of ruin but my INT still isnt high enough even after respeccing. I should prob stop hedging my bets and having just enough in DEX/STR/FAI as well lol

I have grown fond of the Farum Greatbridge Vulgar Militia through my time ruthlessly farming them[…]

I feel like I have a real personal relationship with the whole Gatefront crew - Sentry Backstab, Mr Toot Toot, the hard man, Static Home Spear Guards One and Two, etc. Nightmarish existence for them… yesterday I got them to gather round to see if an upgraded seal made much difference to Rotten Breath. Makes a change from being jump-R2ed with a colossal weapon I guess.

I never farmed souls, but I've definitely farmed weapons for trading online. I respec'd for a high Arcane (bleed and item discovery) and netted myself a pile of Magma Swords and Bandit Curved Swords and Noble's Slender Swords and Haligtree Knight Sets and other farmable items that people seem to desire so strongly

I have grown fond of the Farum Greatbridge Vulgar Militia through my time ruthlessly farming them

there is a poem to be written or a hard-hitting documentary to be made about the miserable existence these poor fuckers lead. sometimes i will approach and deliberately antagonise the three little creeps looking out over the cliffs on that lower level immediately to the east of that site of grace, just cuz i feel so guilty about the whole thing and think they deserve to get a few licks in

also idk what this 7k runes, takes too long, where else can i farm stuff is

you can collect c.20k in about 15 mins doing a full circuit of that part of the map and then you just rest at the site of grace or let them kill you and go round again.

assuming of course that you are a miserable coward with shite reflexes and are not very good at video games generally

otherwise you might like to play the game as its creators probably intended

I am at like level 80 rn and I've only now realized how elden ring is way more open ended in terms of builds than other fromsoft games, like I have a character that's almost all intelligence and I'm able to be an extremely effective melee guy with weapons leveled up and cold infused

This speed run is pretty crazy, especially the late game boss strats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Ffchik4BA

I'm having a surprising amount of fun dueling at Raya Lucaria Main Gate, considering that I'm not a big fan of honorable no-heal duels. And while there are builds and players that are not fun to fight against, I've also had a lot of good ones. And since I wasn't having a lot of fun in invasions lately, it makes sense to go back to basics since you have to be able to win a 1v1 before you can win a 3v1, and it's a good way to learn the different weapons & builds you come across.

I did it! 180+ hours and 161 levels in, I beat the Elden Beast & got the Ranni ending.

I kinda don't get the point of new game+ but that might just be because I am pretty close to total burnout with this game.

Around 250 hrs here and I'm at the Haligtree / Crumbling Cheesecake Azula.

Nice. The Sentinel outside the Farum Azula boss room is the only enemy in the game I legit could not get past without cheesing. And when I say "cheesing" I don't just mean using OP spells and such; I legit had to game his AI by positioning myself in weird places, etc.

Congrats zchyrs!