Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

No matter what happens, I generally find Str/Int is the way to go for the first part of the game respeccing to Str/Fai shortly after Caria Manor

Shamelessly nicked from reddit;

https://i.imgur.com/ktPS0Ip.jpg

This is perhaps the most useful thing I could imagine for anyone playing the game. A diagramatic guide to all the various NPC quests

https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/11lfopv/guide_all_npc_quests_endings_w_points_of_failure/

Played through the whole of Ranni and Fia's quests over the last few days. Needless to say, a highlight of the game but also absolutely and easily skippable if you don't know what you're doing.

Now I've married Ranni though, I'm unsure as to whether I've got the stamina to play through the rest of the thing yet again.

If I have a qualm about this game (and it's a small one) it's that no matter how you play it, you're always forced to play Leyndell, Mountaintops and Crumbling Farum Azula on every playthrough. And man, I just cannot be bothered - especially with CFA. That said, I think I'm still interested enough to revisit Volcano Manor and the Haligtree

Still think they should make a Souls game based on the film Mandy

i would like to hear more about this idea

I mean, it writes itself. Film has psychotic hippie cultists, chainsaw-wielding demons, flasks of stuff that makes you go insane, vodka, chainsaws, super long chainsaws, crossbows, a cool forest, underground dungeons, a mystical horn you can blow, a soundtrack that swerves from neoclassical ambience to prog to death metal, eye-wasps, motorbikes, pickup trucks, lore you can glean through TV adverts and food product packaging, cheddar goblins...

At least make a mod

Get fuckin SunnO to do the soundtrack. Boom.

also, caelid

i would like to see caelid at night, with ATVs buzzing

Film has psychotic hippie cultists, chainsaw-wielding demons, flasks of stuff that makes you go insane, vodka, chainsaws, super long chainsaws, crossbows, a cool forest, underground dungeons, a mystical horn you can blow, a soundtrack that swerves from neoclassical ambience to prog to death metal, eye-wasps, motorbikes, pickup trucks, lore you can glean through TV adverts and food product packaging, cheddar goblins...

Kinda sounds a bit like FarCry 5 tbh!

“…”#ELDENRING pic.twitter.com/x0ufnLNKtq

— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) April 4, 2023

So I ended up getting this game over Cyberpunk. Started it out in earnest back in April/May, mostly blind, and just got pummeled into infinity, even with the Confessor. Definitely was not used to the controls and some of the basic ways to go about playing and exploring. First 10-15 hours of game play were just not very fun, honestly. Stuck with it because the art direction and immersion are truly compelling.

What helped me finally appreciate the game and make progress was remapping the controls to be more Breath of the Wild like (R1/R2 is now Square and Triangle), diving into some guides for rune farming early, and realizing instead of continuing to attempt bashing my head towards Stormveil Castle, I should head south to the Weeping Peninsula. Was able to level up nicely near the Bestial Sanctum, spamming those ninja like vulgar militia dudes that drop 1000 runes each and eventually that giant dragon. After finally feeling buffed enough to take care of most of Limgrave's bosses and dungeons, including the Tree Sentinal I went up north to the castle. BTW that bleed knife Reduvia is super dope and happy to push towards a faith/arcane build with it in tow.

I just beat Godrick the Grafted and am now in Liurnia. Finally have been feeling the joy of the game loop and appreciating the rewarding nature of a Souls game. Definitely feel a bit over buffed now (beat Godrick on level 50), but perhaps that is best for my newb ass.

Pretty stoked for the rest of this game now, and was def not feeling that a month ago.

enjoyed this post ob. how did you get on with the rest of it? v recently completed tho haven’t yet finished haeligtree or indeed killed moghwyn (not sure i cbf’d on that one tbf)

Wired: For the DLC

Tired: It's a bit frustrating that I spent my first playthrough combing almost the entire game (a good 200-300 hours) for every hidden nook and cranny, only to have all my gracepoints wiped on subsequent games. I also started a fresh game a while back on PS5 but wearied a bit around Altus Plateau / Gelmir.

I'm hoping this won't affect my ability to play the DLC once it comes out, if you see what I mean, i.e. I don't know how far through the game I need to be to access it. I wish I could just reload my original game with all the Grace sites intact - that would be sweet

You mean after going into new game+ with the same character?

I've lost track I think.

Playthrough one: Did absolutely everything there was to do, all the quest lines, Age Of Stars ending

Next two playthroughs: Bit quicker just for the sake of platinuming the game. By the third time I was just running through it as fast as possible.

Then I think I started a fourth NG where I was just mucking around, killing merchants and generally being a nobber but soon giving up.

Then I started a brand new game with a clean slate on PS5 as a wretch. And that's where I am now, but I'm only just at Altus really

Aside from a week of snoofing Slay The Spire like it was crack cocaine, I've been video-game free since March, hoping to keep it that way until a major illness or something

I did peek at a Chase The Bro video yesterday, and it seems that poise has been revamped? to a point that Hand Of Melania is now a viable AoW? sounds fun. Probably won't be coming back for the DLC until years from now if all goes well

It struck me just now watching the latest Vaati 'Prepare To Cry' video how many of the NPCs remind me of Game of Thrones characters.
Had to Google to see if Seluvis and Varys are the same actor, but they're not.
Fun aside, I found out recently that I have worked more than once by the guy who voices Patches, and didn't even know!

Yeah, apparently there was a huge pvp patch that changed a lot (poise, easier backstabs, lots of weapon and magic values). But I lost interest a few months ago for some reason, to the point where I don't even know if I'm particularly excited about the DLC? I've just been playing the older From games a bit, although mostly doing a video game fast before Armored Core. I'm sure I'll get back into it at some point.

Xp !!!

A lot of the voice actors *have* been in TV shows. Pip Torrens is the obvious one of course, but also Kenneth Haight was him off of Silent Witness, Mohg of course was in Our Flag Means Death and Happy Valley and a few of the other guys pop up in random procedurals all over.

Haha yeah, I had to look up Pip Torrens after seeing him on Succession and recognising his face. Very pleasantly surprised to find out who he played

enjoyed this post ob. how did you get on with the rest of it?

Thanks! Even at that point of beating Godrick I wasn't locking on enemies until that fight! Literally played for 30 hours, getting to level 45-50, and hadn't locked on a single enemy. One of my friends actually was impressed at my ability to get as far as I did without this tactic. *sigh* But suffice to say, I was playing the game very inefficiently while blind those first hours.

At the time I wrote that, my character was not really yet specializing. I waffled and leveled Strength, Endurance and Dexterity in an effort to try early weapons and wear better armor and I ended up creating an overall weaker character who under performed at level 50. I'm now extremely buffed out at level 140, with a really focused build and direction. Love the dragon incants, using the Dragon Communion Seal, and focused most of my levels on Faith and Arcane. Using bleed weapons like Reduvia, Mohg's Staff (which is incredible), Rivers of Blood and Star Fists. Just got the Blasphemous Blade, too. I'm moving around and able to kill most things, bosses I beat within the first 1-3 tries (with some exceptions - the Valiant Gargoyles still smash me) and now I'm at Mountaintops of the Giants. I consider my build a "Dragon Blood-Priest" and I'm loving it.

Sadly, while I've focused most of my "what should I do next" actions on pursuing specific items and rune farming, I have closed off or stunted some quest lines: Rogier, Nephali, Kenneth Haight, possibly others, which sucks. I guess I can pursue those on a NG+. This game is probably TOO inscrutable, honestly. For the size of it, it really doesn't need to be this "mysterious" with certain quest lines and definitely detracts a bit from the experience. I get that this is a very "From Software" thing, but it's still not ideal. Many of the quest lines/NPCs offer some hints, but it's already a challenging and rewarding enough game when you're constantly referencing guides and online wikis to sometimes move things forward.

Not played online at all - so I suppose I'm missing out on the rich interactive culture of invading and being invaded, as well as PvP arena play etc. Not really caring about that.

Leyndell, Volcano Manor and Altus Plateau are really beautiful. The capital especially. The mystique of the stone dragon Gransax, the music, and just how massive both the city and Erd Tree feel. It's a marvel just wandering around that space and despite my many tools of death, there's still challenges and places I've yet to bust through. Yet to hit up the Haeligtree, Farum Azula (whatever that is, only seen the name and location here and there online) and Deeproot Depths.

When the DLC drops I'm there day 1 lol. This game is pretty incredible - I've stopped playing TotK entirely, and it almost feels unsatisfying to play now.

Blasphemous Blade is OP. I love it

From experience: I wouldn't worry too much about breaking some quests or even missing a few things on your first playthrough. I tried to do EVERYTHING, but it was impossible and by the time I completed it, I wanted to try a second run immediately afterwards but was disappointed there wasn't too much more to discover, save the few quests I'd broken.

I'm up to the Rennala fight and this meager progress is easily the furthest I've ever progressed in a From game. There is a lot of opportunity to level up even if you aren't progressing the story forward.

xp Yeah it's all good - I definitely want to reclass and try different builds and play styles too. I'm only using a small slice of weapons, spells and armor and would be much more curious to play through as a pure Strength/Dexterity build or Int build and rain down comets and moons on fools. Also really need to get buff enough so my drip/fit can be tops and be not so concerned about getting reamed.

I got as far as Farum Azula then TotK came out and I havent touched this since lol. I must get back into it. But Cities Skylines is also calling to me. Argh.

This will be the first of the From/Souls etc. games I've bought and beat *before* the DLC was released. How did all y'all handle backsliding skills in the past? My game/character is still where I left it, but there is no way I'll be able to remember the tricks and rhythms of the game if I were to suddenly dive back in for the DLC. Or will I? Or will I have to start over?

I stopped playing this game abt a year ago, but not before preparing two characters I hoped to run through the DLC when it arrived. I don’t even remember their builds now. Idk if I’m even pressed! Hardcore gaming is such a lockdown thing for me. I had a pint last night with a friend and the bar’s insouciantly nerdy staff set the bar’s TV to play a TotK playthrough (I crushed BotW but haven’t played TotW at all) and felt a weird allergy, seeing it play out. Don’t cast my mind back to 2020-2022, you know?

That said, given From’s batting average with regards to Good DLC I will surely reboot Elden Ring when it does drop. Pretty sure my character was an RL 127 strength build. I’ve logged days of my life watching ChaseTheBro weapon testing videos

I've played these games so much that the mechanics come back extremely quickly (and I still fire up my low-level invasion character every now and then), but I've forgotten everything about builds and where everything is in the world. Like, I thought it might be fun to make a new build before the dlc came out, but after looking up build ideas the thought of going through everything again did not seem enticing at all.

Still very much looking forward to the dlc though.

Ok I started a new character that's pretty vanilla so far, basically forcing myself to find a strength build I actually like to play, probably with some pyro or madness mixed in? It feels good to play after time away, but I'm also reminded what a huge game it is.

I saw a post on a Playstation forum asking, rhetorically, where people leave their characters at the end of a game. Some people were like, the second the game ends I'm done, and I leave them wherever they are. Others were like, I bring them back to a place where they will be happy, like a home, or their start. And then others were like, I usually leave them wherever, but now I feel guilty and want them to be happy.

Which is a long way of saying, having finished this specific game but not deleted it or anything in the off chance I play my probably (iirc) OP character for the DLC, I have no idea where my character is! Or how to find my way out of that place, in the most mechanical and geographical senses.

Ha. I can't remember where you actually are after beating the final boss, but I did a bunch of pvp after finishing the game so I was definitely able to fast travel out of there.

I was really enjoying coming back to the game, I made it to Liurnia in fairly short order, then got gobbled up by the Abductor so that I could fight my way out of Volcano Manor and fast forward to Altus Plateau to get the weapons I thought I wanted. Currently messing around with some combination of Great Stars (big mace), morning star, and the starting halberd and longsword.

Then I started invading around level ~37 and I had forgotten how silly that can be in this game, you have to accept many more losses involving being rushed down by two phantoms with end game gear and crazy spells/ashes of war. So I guess I'll go back to enjoying pve again, and hopefully figure out a decent build with some tools to deal with those situations. And maybe it'll be nice to have an alt build to try more of the crazy weapons that the DLC will surely bring.

Funnily enough I stopped my last playthrough in that part of Volcano Manor you just described

That was the hardest part so far, lol. It felt like a bit of rng, I got better at dealing with the two of them but also one time my spirit summons lasted more than two seconds for some reason.

Getting the hang of my build, it felt a bit better tonight.

just dived back into this after giving Sekiro another play-through (though I've never been able to beat the final bad guy in that). I've gone for a two-hand Samurai build, thinking of focussing on bleed build-up. I'm a shield guy so it's a learning curve! Guides to builds seem to either be far too specific (Fextralife- Samurai Moonveil build anyone?) or so generic as to be meaningless. Does anyone have recommendations for build guides?

What's the sweet spot for you? I used to be bleed, and this looks basically accurate & not too specific:
https://www.vg247.com/elden-ring-arcane-dex-bleed-build

that looks like a happy medium, thanks. I'll go down that sort of route and then maybe specialise further later on with one of the builds listed here: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Builds

I can't remember what the build I did was, but once I had one that inflicted (I think) something like four different status effects at a time, which was pretty funny. Useless for PVP of course, but kind of hilarious

arcane/bleed is good as well because iirc it massively scales scarlet rot dragon breath attack. i’ve gone in again with a strength build to warm up for the dlc. haven’t completed haligtree yet with my main build either. thinking of respeccing.

Yeah my initial build was a pretty epic Faith/Arcane build - a dragon blood priest if you will, used Mohg's spear and Rivers of Blood as weapons and all the dragon communion spells coupled with that epic Dragon Communion Seal, which scales with arcane insanely well. Was a ridiculously powerful beast of a build.

FWIW I'm now one three fingered Flame of Frenzy ending away from platinuming this game. Holy shit. And I was hesitant to play this at first - I'm now nearly at 200 hours of gameplay wtf

DLC can't come quick enough

I'm not a big fan of fextralife/youtube builds, I say use whatever feels fun and build around that. Moveset is queen. A lot of weapons put out a lot of damage, but are too slow or not versatile enough (I like to have a good selection of horizontal sweeping attacks, pokes, etc). And in this game it's pretty easy to fit in magic and adapt weapons to whatever stats or hybrid build you want.

I wouldn't say my main build was a 'bleed build' exactly, but the katanas do build up bleed naturally, I used Bloodflame Blade as my main buff, and kept some (frozen?) claws on as well for bloodhound's step and extra burst damage.

yeah that’s a good point. the whetstones pretty much allow you to do what you want in terms of effective scaling iirc.

thanks all. I agree on the Fextralife builds, a lot of them seem to be "get this very specific weapon and this Ash of War then spam this one attack through the whole game". Not much fun. That said some of the routes they identify are pretty amazing- the flexibility is astonishing even compared to previous Soulsborne games.

The first trailer for #ELDENRING Shadow of the Erdtree will be revealed in 16 hours. Join us at 15:00 UTC.https://t.co/vdG8dJvcet pic.twitter.com/lBbKJYxW2z

— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) February 20, 2024

(that's in about 45 minutes, fwiw)