Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

I played for about 30 minutes. Duelling feels the same, but the Battle Royale format means a completely different approach. I've steered clear of Somber weapons (in general) because in a duel or an invasion, they become one-trick. Not so in Battle Royale. Massive AoE stuff, breath attacks, these seemed to rule the school. Insipid stuff like Mohg's weapon art, rot and frost breath, Marika's weapon art, dragon claw slam, these were doing the business. My duelling skills had no carry-over.

^ this isn't meant to be a sour post, quite the opposite. It does feel as if certain "good weapons" I've shied away from because of their seeming inflexibility (Stormhawk Axe, Axe of Godfrey i.e.) are going to prove themselves very useful in this format

Your description has me more curious to play arena pvp now than I mightve otherwise. TBH I've avoided it 100% so far, because the way it is talked about on Reddit puts me off trendously (I'm gonna be "doing it wrong" somehow because I'm a noob/female/playing a mage)

I watched a few clips of people fighting and it looked pretty fun ... to watch, lol. It does seem very different from the standard duels or invasions I've watched in that you are obviously much more limited in terms of environment (and iirc what powers you can use, depending on the colosseum). But it was def. enjoyable as a spectacle, all these power players going nuts with huge AOE attacks and whatnot, like watching a fireworks display. Honestly, gave me a shudder of PTSD, too, since I didn't immediately recognize some of the weapons/attacks, and then when they clicked made me realize how huge this game is and how long it would take, starting over, for me to get to some of the levels/powers these players were at.

The biggest thing about arenas is that stamina management is now much more in-line with the Souls games (no more mashy-mashy)

I didn't notice that, but I finally tried the arena part night and was surprised at how much fun 3v3 is. Very chaotic, but there's a gleeful energy to it.

Can't wait for Armored Core btw. :)

Running the Elden Ring half-marathon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN3P4HrOX7E

Wow:

https://kotaku.com/elden-ring-geoguessr-geography-map-world-pois-1850007231

time to merge this thread with Guess the City

i am not good at elden ring or geoguesser, but it seems like the elden ring version would be a lot easier because there's the constant landmark of the giant erdtree, and often the minor erdtrees as well.

i have kind of a sad/fun elden ring update. after several months, i picked it up again. i had stopped at the foot of the Fire Giant, where i needed to level up a bit and just didn't have the endurance (irl) to do it. so when i came back, i finally googled "rune farm". the last week or so i've just been shooting an arrow across the chasm at the giant bird by the Mohgwyn Palace Approach Ledge-Road site of grace. before that, i went back to the get the rune bonus talisman and a cookbook i had missed which allows the crafting of gold-pickled fowl foot. each little arrow in the bird (which causes it to freak out and immediately leap to its death) is worth about 17K runes. so now i'm just leveling like crazy. i went from 35 vitality to 60, which helped a lot, lol

Fire Giant can go jump off a conveniently-located cliff. What a jerk >:( ...actually, it would kinda own if you could lure him off the edge of the arena.

I decided to roll a new character out of boredom the other day, and got sucked back into this pretty quickly. It's obviously a very different experience than the first run, but the replay value is definitely there. There's a satisfaction in knowing a Souls dungeon/area like the back of your hand. I've been challenging myself to get past bosses without using summons, and I've managed to get past both Margit and Godrick this way. IDK how much of that is me getting gud and how much is be From's tweaking the difficulty in updates, but it's been a rewarding experience nonetheless.

The cliff-bird is easily the best way to grind, especially late game. Earlier, there's a great farming method with a giant ball you can repeatedly run off a cliff in Caelid.

I know these games can be won level one, in your undies, blindfolded, but for the average gamer (me) I can't imagine how long they would take to complete if I didn't farm to level up faster.

I still enjoy playing this game. I've tried other games since I got it but I just keep wanna dipping back into it. I'm running a very traditional paladin dude right now and it's very rewarding

Yeah I still grind via the bird in Mogwhyn approach road too.

I got to fire giant, got stuck and lost heart. Went back to Cities Skylines during my summer holidays :/

so did i! only it was my winter, but yeah. Birdieville was once again a bustling 22,000 pop town with the traffic of NYC at rush hour

BTW re farming, my farms were:
- initial/really early game: that spot along the northern liurnia road where all those ghost soldiers spawn fighting each other. With any ranged spell/the wolves you can take them all out, go back to the gracepoint, rinse and repeat.
- early/midgame: find the chest that sends you all the way up to Bestial Sanctum. Carefully run around the grassy areas beneath it and take out all the militiamen. They have a high rune rate, but careful if your vigor is low!
- later game: the high point in deeproot depths has some nice areas to snipe at gargoyles without any risk, as long as you have strong ranged weapons (I used rock sling or Lorettas greatbow) Then there's the bird at Mogwhyn at this point too.

xpost hahah nice, maybe I should revive the cities skylines thread.

You bird farmers also know that the Albinaurics on that hill are worth a whole bunch of runes too, right? Once you have a strong AOE weapon it's so easy to just kill all of them and trap the rewards

*reap

I dont have any AOE weapons. I tried using founding rain of stars and all that did was piss them all off and they came after me!

Every time I look up a cheese solution, it is "find X in Farum Azula" or "find Y in brace of the haligtree".

Wait maybe I'm misunderstanding how the albinauric area works now Ive looked it up. I assumed there was a spell/incantation that'd just sweep thru and wipe them all out but it seems not? I mean I could just run around with adzula's sword or something.

There is, yes. But you kind of need to have completed the game once as it's a weapon you get from the end boss. Still, if you've got a fairly good weapon or magic skill it should be fairly easy to pick a few off. Depends how far into the game you are. it does become a much faster way than shooting the bird

Ah. I fear I shall never arrive there :(

Aw you will. Where you up to now, Fire Giant? After that it's the last leg.

Something I thought was really cool was that it's been pointed out that the random ruins scattered around Limgrave/Liurnia/Altus etc. are all chunks of Farum Azula. The clue connecting this is apparently found in the lore of the ruin fragments you can always pick up? Anyway I thought that was very very cool

Man, I would LOVE it if the DLC involves some "going back in time", like I would love to explore Farum Azula and Lucaria in a pre-ruinous state

ohhhhhhhhh

Last night on a long streetcar ride I was scrolling through a subreddit called something like DarkSoulsSliders where people get very obsessive about using the face-creation utility to turn their characters into celebrity look-alikes or recreations of fictional characters. The intensity that some people have with such a seemingly inconsequential aspect of this game is really beautiful imo

Elden Bling is a whole thang.

Glamour DeCore

i think i posted this awhile back but it's on chapter 14 now so:
https://mangabuddy.com/elden-ring-the-road-to-the-erdtree

I FINALLY BEAT THE GODDAMN FIRE GIANT. I had to do what I imagine some would call cheating - fired Alexander up, let him tank/take alot of hits while I chipped away, then fired up my mimic tear just before the halfway mark. After that, I was mostly able to just stay out of the way after 1 or 2 hits with comet azur.

Ugh now I have to deal with Farum Azula and the ending. Wheeee.

BTW I have now compared farming albinaurics vs the bird. For me personally the bird's still easier. I use rock sling, gold scarab/gold fowl foot, and I can do 100K runes in like a minute or so, because the bird jumps off the cliff after 1 or 2 shots.

Sure the albinaurics go down in droves with Adulas moonblade but its more annoying, and sometimes I still get killed (not that it matters, the runes are right there to collect after). About the same amt of runes, so... eh I dunno?

Well done Trayce!

Farum Azula has its moments but can be the most annoying to play through on subsequent games.

I'm seriously thinking of playing this through again from scratch before DLC comes out. It's a bit of a shame I can't get back all my Sites of Grace from my first playthrough - I was a bit completist about it that time

If any DLC is intended, it's got to be a long way off, right? They only just opened up all those arenas, and I assume the From focus will be on Armored Core for a while.

I'm still finding the ocasional out of the way site of grace even after this many hours lol. I'm doing a sop-up run, finishing off all the avatars and gaols before the final push.

Once I learned that this dude is good people I felt more comfortable with his persona. Anyway, here he is playing Elden Ring with a double mod, one of which randomizes enemies and loot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FwaPgn5ZUk

Love that you're still fighting the good fight Trayce!

From the Demon's Sould thread:

I played Elden Ring as a wretch on my first play through and it ruled. Every random drop felt like mana from heaven

I'd have found this intimidating on my first playthrough but this time round it feels like the only, most natural way. I did a fair bit of farming first time round, so my character is a bit over-leveled even to do PvP. This time I've told myself I'm not going to do any serious farming unless it's to just rack up a few extra runes before a tough bit.

This way it really feels like my quest has purpose, drive - I'm not just randomly bouncing off things or banging my head against walls. I'm methodically working through Limgrave and Weeping Peninsula and the difficulty level is really smooth. Enemies I had real trouble with the first time round - Erdtree Burial Watchdog, Farum Azula Beastman, Leonine, even Margit - I'm beating first or second time.

And yeah, I more or less know my way around and what to do of course (although I found Highroad Cave semi-organically this time round, which I was proud of), but I'm still discovering/re-discovering new things. I think the first time round it was so overwhelming and new, a lot of it is a bit jumbled up in my head. I'm now taking time to really scope-out the map, to read every item description, analyse the weapon arts, attempt to do NPC quests in the way the game encourages me to etc, and not try to rush through the main quests (which is what I was doing on NG+).

I can't believe how much enjoyment I've got out of this game. I platinumed it a while ago and thought I was done with it, but clearly not.

NB: I'm playing the PS5 version this time. I'm not sure if it's a marked improvement on playing the PS4 version on a PS5. There are a few minor details that look nice (sunlight dappling off trees in Liurnia) but I've also noticed a few of the backgrounds sometimes take a second or two to render.

Yeah I really sunk a year of my spare time into this game. Still finding new things, can you believe it? A grace I never discovered, a cookbook I didn't know existed and didn't notice I'd never found.

Going back to Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 3 (after hoovering up a truckload of Elden Ring cocaine) was really interesting insofar as the options of weaponry are so, so limited. Upgrading weapons was so much more restrictive, to a point that in Demon's Souls I only had two viable options, and maybe five viable options in Dark Souls 3? Like you really got to commit to what your weapon choice is gonna be. Not so in Elden Ring. So many hardware options, and then the software (ash of war) customisability? infinite possibilities

The Fightin Cowboy stream I posted kept my attention for a long while for a lot of those reasons. With the randomizer mod, there is no more set path/progression, since enemies and bosses and items are scattered all over the place. There might be tried and true go-tos you never get on a playthrough. Likewise, you might get something really useful and powerful early on. He's famous for doing thorough 100% guides, so having the randomizer on predictably keeps things fresh and fun for someone teetering on the brink of burnout.

Maybe I should try a slow run to really experiment with some different options, but even though I'd like a few more options for invader characters, the prospect of replaying the early game again feels unappealing. I hit 999 furled fingers on my main level 40 invader, which shows how much I'd rather just use a build that works rather than make a new one, lol.

Wow that's a lot of invasions haha

I was more of a duelist and co-op'er than an invader, me. It has been intriguing to keep tabs on the meta discussions, people realising that every weapon has its use. Apparently the supremely useless flails have secret sweet spots? and there's a thing where an L1 block (either with a shield or a 2H weapon) gives a 2-frame possibility of a parry? Fascinating

I've stopped playing for now, though, I'll come back when there's proper DLC. There are few games out there that have captured me as utterly as this game has done

I finally unlocked my last colosseum on my main game, but couldn't seem to matchmake. I'm surprised - I know I'm on, like, level 250 or something silly but no one at all to fight?

I mean... I have so many other games waiting to be played and even though I've platinumed ER I still find myself coming back to this world.

Man, I tried to do everything I could in Limgrave before tackling Stormveil and the latter is still tough as anything. You only need to slip up once and you are dead dead dead. Still my favourite level of any Souls game in terms of layout and design

As already mentioned, I've been re-playing ER from scratch, starting as a Wretch and I have to say it's almost as enjoyable as the first time I played it. I have a much better handle on the overall lore of the story than the first time I played it, and as such I'm much more involved in what's happening, where to go next, how to progress certain quests etc.

Limgrave is an amazing landscape. I also think Stormveil is one of the most well-designed dungeons in any game I've ever played - compact but sprawling; full of little twists and turns (I'm still discovering new parts of it even on my fourth play through); challenging but never unfair; meticulous enemy placement. It's just perfect.

That said, I've just hit Liurnia and this is where I feel the game sags ever-so-slightly for the first time. Despite it being an open world, Limgrave does a better job of funnelling me through towards the various quests and sidequests. There seemed to be a natural route through the ticklist of things to do so that by the time I was ready to face Margit and tackle Stormveil itself, I had also met Blaidd, fought Darriwal, completed Irina and Edgar's quest and beat Agheel. It felt tidy.

Now I'm in Liurnia, the route feels a lot more diffuse. I feel like I'm just riding in various directions until I hit a landmark, hoovering-up Grace Points, bumping into NPCs, but it's kind of aimless so far. The only thing I know I need to do is to find the key to get into Raya Lucaria - and that's fine. But last night I accidentally stumbled on the Albinauric Village and carried-out the Nepheli quest there a little earlier than prompted. It didn't feel like a natural continuation of the story - just "Ah I know what to do here because I've done it before".

I'm also not sure how excited I am about going through Raya Lucaria again. Stormveil is always an exciting prospect, but Raya, despite having some fun rooftop action, isn't quite the 5D maze of the former. I can see myself dolefully rushing through it and having to make that awful run-back to Renalla over and over again.

I also find Liurnia to be laid-out in quite an annoying way. Especially the Northern part - trying to find the Mausoleum Graveyard or the Madness Village always feels like a rigmarole where I can never quite find the entrance, meanwhile being attacked by Runebears and being shot constantly by archers. There are also a ton of quite annoying grottos, one of which is non-optional if you want to progress a certain quest.

Does anyone agree, or can anyone make a counter-argument for Liurnia?