Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[robdood]

2 hours ago, John0 said:

 

Don't suppose anyone knows of any videos or anything demonstrating this?

Do you mean (for some enemies) you have to kind of chain parrys in order to get the "dunnnn" sound and a chance for a critical? Or is a reposte something else?

Yes I mean you have to kind of chain parries to get the DUUUUNNNN. but parries aren't the only way, any attack works too for tipping the invisible meter over the point of breaking. Heavy attacks are particularly useful 

[robdood]

34 minutes ago, Thor said:

Conversely, I got almost right to the boss grace point, but didn't spot it, turned back and went off all over the bloody castle. It was only after I died to Godrick that went back and "Oooh, what's up there? Wait, this looks ... Oh you are fucking shitting me!"

Having just got to Godrick myself, that last grace point does seem hastily added later in development.  I feel a bit like the castle was only going to have one grace point at the beginning of its design.. You unlock shortcuts in the form of lifts etc but they're basically pointless because you just find more resting zones. It's weird! 

[Kazit]

1 hour ago, Hexx said:

So Caelid's horrible. Everything murders me

 

I stumbled into that place tonight, couldn’t get out of there quick enough 

[CheekyMonkey]

7 minutes ago, robdood said:

Having just got to Godrick myself, that last grace point does seem hastily added later in development.  I feel a bit like the castle was only going to have one grace point at the beginning of its design.. You unlock shortcuts in the form of lifts etc but they're basically pointless because you just find more resting zones. It's weird! 

 

I found this in general in the game so far - they've been extremely generous with grace points. On one hand it's taken away some of the fear factor when pushing ahead, but it has made the game waaaaaaaay less frustrating than the rest of the Souls series.

 

edit: or has it? Being able to quickly restart a boss battle (eg Godrick) only to be soundly beaten over and over again... Maybe not quite as frustration free as I thought. 🙂

[Number 28]

Is there any difference between fletched and unfletched arrows? Do fletched travel further?

 

Edit: It looks like it's distance and accuracy, but it doesn't really say anywhere at all?

[therearerules]

Godrick down! All it took was being level 41 and a big sword. Question is, where next? East to the Redlands? North to the unknown? Or

Spoiler

Underground

 

Seriously, which is recommended?

[robdood]

5 hours ago, moosegrinder said:

 

That'd what we were doing. I just hadn't touched the statue to activate it.

The statue pooling thing is always going to be more awkward to use though..  You can put a sign down anywhere in the map (no where near a pool statue) and anyone else can see and use it. No need to interact with the pooling statue. Set a password and you should be able to join each other in moments. 

 

 

For those who may be confused about how it works.. My understanding is:

 

So you have this thing

 

 

This makes summon signs appear. That's all it does. You have to use one to see signs (except for npc summons) 

 

You put a sign down with this

 

And it'll put a sign in one spot.  Ie classic souls summon sign. 

 

Then you also have this

 

 

This puts your sign down in front of ALL the Martyr statues you've touched in the map zone you're in. I think this is true because i always get summoned to the same few locations in Limgrave when I use this.. I hardly ever  'used' the effigy statues while exploring.  

 

To be clear, the people who should use the statue are the ones who want to be summoned, not the ones seeking help. 

 

I tested this while in the lake area earlier this evening.. I couldn't use the effigy / pool sign item there until I interacted with a statue in a dungeon. Now I've interacted with two, I get summoned to those two places when I use it. 

 

What seems annoying about this is there doesn't seem to be a way to 'deactivate' a statue - has anyone seen anything about that? I haaaaate that I keep getting auto summoned for the stupid easy bosses in Limgrave, I'd like to set it so I can go help with some good bosses easily! 

 

 

 

[robdood]

19 minutes ago, Number 28 said:

Is there any difference between fletched and unfletched arrows? Do fletched travel further?

 

Edit: It looks like it's distance and accuracy, but it doesn't really say anywhere at all?

It says in the description of the item!! Press Square while looking at it in the crafting screen. 

[Number 28]

I thought I had tried that. Oh, you have to press square three times...

 

Spoiler

I've reached the first part of the game that feels very unfair and is making me think fuck this.

 

[Retroid]

Spent the whole day playing and I still want to play it. That's not happened since I was a kid.

[Retroid]

Also:

 

[NexivRed]

Okay, found the Margit person. Lol. Got him a third of health down at level 27 with my starting sword. Gonna need a bigger boat. 
 

Getting more confident to go and try things though. Cleared out the 

Spoiler

fort for dear Kenneth. 

Horseback combat is so much fun. Nowhere near skilled enough to be able to take down the golden nonce by the start though.  

[Bushtopher]

The game fooled me pretty well in a cave earlier. 
 

Spoiler

I headed into the darkened and saw a glowing chest right away. A message said ‘trap’. A-ha, I thought. I know what’s going to happen here!

 

I walked towards the chest, ready to open in and immediately step back to avoid being teleported somewhere horrendous (again), only for the floor in front of the chest to fall away and send me plummeting into a dark, rat infested hole! Really made me jump. 

 

Very sneaky, Elden Ring. Love it. 

 

[Number 28]

For the first time I'm putting my summoning sign down and feeling very bad that it's the same guy repeatedly summoning me. One of us keeps getting insta-killed. 🤦‍♂️

 

Edit: YES!!! WE DID IT!! Now somebody has to help me, damn. 😭

[CrichStand]

Man, I can’t believe I’ve done this. It’s the kind of daft shit I pull from time to time. Up there with when me and a mate were playing through Tomb Raider 2 back in the day, and got stuck on the section were you pilot a speed boat. Just couldn’t get through a certain gate after pulling a lever in time. After something like 2-3hrs of trying everything and scouring the level I said “It’s almost like there’ should be a turbo button for the boat”. We both looked at each other and were like “nooooo fucking waaaaay”. Checked the controls......proper facepalm! 
 

Anyway, I’ve only gone and played over 45hrs of the game and not bothered to use the horse for combat! I’ve been fighting everything on foot. Lol. Just tried using the horse for the first time and it’s like turning on “easy mode”. Now flying around and going.....”you can have some........you can have some.......hello, like my spear? You can have some”. Literally smashing everything to pieces. It’s ludicrous amounts of fun. They’ve really nailed the horseback combat. So cool! 
 

There just aren’t enough hours in the day to play this game. It’s like time goes on fast forward as soon as I put it on.

[Alan Stock]

Had a bit of a shorter session tonight, where I ventured to the south peninsula:

 

Spoiler

First of all I finished my explorations of the dungeon of doom in the starting building, continually getting mobbed by ghosts or flattened by the roller of death. I found a boss door right at the bottom, and wasted ages exhausting all the other routes checking I hadn't missed anything - I hadn't. Inside the boss door I was greeted by another huge slug beast like the one in Stormvale. It took me to 1 HP on its first attack and I lasted one second later before getting squished. Definitely one for later! I don't like these big beastlike bosses, they are like Bloodborne's, too hard to read in attacks and too big to see what's actually going on. I'm not strong enough to tackle the other route with the spider things and the ghost knight either, so this dungeon goes on the to-do list for now.

 

Wanting to break up the main progression a bit I thought I'd explore the Weeping Peninsula in the south, which I only reached the first grace site of last night. Heading down the road I met a lady who asked me to deliver a letter to her husband/relation (I forget), who resides in Mourne Castle, where the workers have gone mad. Being the gent that I am, I agreed, and galloped down to find some horrible dogs and some deranged looking pygmy types with big mouths and cleavers in the aftermath of a caravan raid. They weren't too hard if you timed your rolls, and spirit summons helped out quite a bit, the Godrick Soldiers are great for this type of fight. I also put the sleeping giant there to sleep permenatly, who for some reason never woke up as we fought his buddies.

 

Past this was the next grace point and a vendor, who I would return to multiple times in the night to spend all my runes on his armour set and various trinkets. As I seem to be at the right level for this area, maybe a little above, I didn't want to spend runes levelling up. My level estimate was wrong in my last writeup, by the end of the previous session's spending spree of Godrick's rune reward and dipping into my savings, I'd levelled up to 28. I probably did Godrick at about level 23/24, with stats mainly in strength, dex and faith.

 

Ignoring the side paths for now I continued over the hill to see a long road through open grass leading to Mourne castle, a very boxy affair that I'd seen from some of the vistas earlier, now I was finally here. As I headed towards a map marker column along the road, I was rudely interrupted by a giant arrow landing beside me. Sure enough a cheeky golem at the castle was firing miles to get to me, so Torrent and I paid him a visit before returning to the map column. One again the map expanded, it seems the peninsula is quite a bit bigger than I thought, I especially wasn't expecting the area of it to the west to be so large, around the smaller tree. I rocked up to Castle Mourne and peeked inside, going up the entrance lift I was met with carnage, the pygmies had taken over, cheering over burning piles of bodies. I left to do a bit more exploring before doing yet another castle.

 

Not much to find within the castle's outer wall, another golden seed (I won't use it until I get to harder areas), and the main point of interest being a big poison pool with more crucified bodies, this time burning and screaming. Some poison plants to collect and a giant crab I took care to avoid. Interestingly the crucified wails are the same as the sounds of pain you hear sometimes in the starter zone, yet there are hardly any crucifictions taking place there and no burned bodies. I'm sure I'll learn more about this later because its intriguing. I already found a similar burned body in a bed in the Roundtable as well. Who is doing this and why? Who is being tortured? Is it the two fingers punishing the corrupt, maybe? Rhetorical question. I will find out one day! Oh, and I found another instance of zombie priests dead on chairs, this time at a beach where angry jellyfish had clearly ended their worship, or whatever. What is the deal with these chair guys I keep finding out and about? Another mystery. 

 

So it was time to tackle Mourne. A short and sweet castle where I only died a few times. The layout's simple, with only a few optional walkways that I found. What's cool about this place aside from its depraved atmosphere with bodies hanging from nooses and corpses everywhere, is that the Godrick soldiers are still on hand, fighting the pygmies in lots of places. I usually just let them fight it out as I hoovered up items, and returned once one side had won to finish off the stragglers. The flying archers killed me forcing me to resort to the bow for my next attempt. Up on the walls I found the human chap in charge, and gave him the letter. He refused to leave until the safety of some precious sword was guaranteed. The only other route was to drop out the back of the castle, to a little gaol, onto a roof and the cliffs beyond. Below was an island with a big stone monument, waves lapping around the shore. Cool visuals and atmosphere here. Some slimes caused annoyances until I realised I had loads of firebomb materials and so the slime reign was short lived from that point on.

 

 A little jaunt on the cliffside and then it was classic dropping down using narrow rafters through a tower to the ground floor, where the next grace site was. And there at the gate to the little island was a boss gate. After mopping up the small area and admiring the floating jellyfish around, I ventured through the fog wall. The pygmy boss, bigger and more beastlike than the regular pygmies, has some long name beginning with L. I'll call him Laurence. Anyway, Laurence is a great boss, with greatsword swipes and leaps straight out of Slave Knight Gael's playbook (Dark Souls 3). Really fun boss. I didn't use spirit summons as I was already doing decent damage, and I love this kind of boss. He did kill me a fair bit, but I was learning the dodge timings and having a blast, using the Grand Epee rapier to stab the bugger. In the winning run I took off his last quarter bar with a sliver of my health remaining, I wanted the challenge of not getting hit in the final bit of the fight, and pulled it off. Love this boss, the calibre of nearly every main boss in the game has been excellent so far, they clearly learned a lot about what people enjoyed most from boss fights in Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3. Clearly telegraphed moves, baits, wide movesets, strict timing windows for healing, mobility, great animations, no bullshit attacks. Excellent. This is one I'll definitely help with in co-op. I hope there is some way to replay bosses solo in this game (don't tell me either way).

 

As a reward I got the greatsword the chap upstairs wanted, and so ported back to give it to him. He didn't take it which surprised me, but its a 40 STR beast of a sword so I won't be using it any time soon! He said he could now get out with his missus. I decided to port over to her to see if I would get any extra lore... and she has been murdered, a big cleave type weapon sticking out of the ground next to her! Ah man! Not sure if I should have gone back to her earlier in the questline, or maybe one of the player choices matters here. Or, its part of the storyline. I stopped there for the night, I guess I'll port back to Morne next session and see if the chap is still there. Hopefully I get some answers. Maybe its a revenge quest? For next session I think I'll finish off more of the peninsula, I'm very curious about the smaller tree.

 

[Alan Stock]

Also people keep talking about this Kenneth chap, can someone hint me where I can find him? I feel like I've overlooked somewhere really obvious, or is he not in Limgrave at all? A number of times I've completely walked/rode past NPCs in this game and missed them entirely, I tend to get blinkered vision.

 

Also regarding Margit

Spoiler

Is Kenneth the NPC that can join you with Margit?

 

[Number 28]

@Alan Stock

Spoiler

Kenneth is just along the road that passes north of Mistwood (the place with all the bears.) He's hard to miss if you stick to the path.

 

Rogier joined me with Margit.

 

I've used a finger remedy to see summon signs and there's...nobody. Surely there are millions playing this, how can that be? I guess I'm strictly solo for now.

[NexivRed]

22 minutes ago, Alan Stock said:

Also people keep talking about this Kenneth chap, can someone hint me where I can find him? I feel like I've overlooked somewhere really obvious, or is he not in Limgrave at all? A number of times I've completely walked/rode past NPCs in this game and missed them entirely, I tend to get blinkered vision.

 

Also regarding Margit

  Reveal hidden contents

Is Kenneth the NPC that can join you with Margit?

 

 

Spoiler

He’s on top of a piece of ruin that arches over the path like a bridge, where some troll things hang out.

 

[NexivRed]

6 hours ago, cassidy said:

There's local people and then there's local people. 

 

What does he Juice? Dare I ask? 

 

Hopefully you’re finding out in your dreams 😉

[Alan Stock]

Thanks guys, I haven't been there yet so makes sense. Just assumed he would be in 'zone 1'

[Number 28]

I can't summon help and there's no hope of doing this so my game is basically softlocked now. Fucking hell...

Spoiler

Think Snatcher/Hypogean Gaol, except instead of running a couple hundred yards to the nearest lamp to escape, you have to defeat Ornstein and Smough.

Edit: Ugh, false alarm everyone, you can warp out of there once you've reached the grace point. Trolled by Miyazaki. There's even an IGN article which seems to think you're stuck! https://www.ign.com/wikis/elden-ring/How_to_Escape_the_Abductor's_Inquisition_Chamber Anyway, Christ, time for bed.

[Len]

My pc version just updated again. Thriling I know.  

 

 

edit:

 

[CrichStand]

Fucking hell! I’m now riding around like one of the Horseman of the Apocalypse!!! Lol. I’ve just slaughtered an insane number of enemies in the opening area and got 20000 Runes with ease. So much fun!!! Took out the carriage procession that was in the early teaser trailers. Absolute carnage! Bodies and items strewn all over the shop.

 

Also, after almost 48hrs and having thoroughly explored, I’ve found loads of stuff I missed in the opening area, including more of the Tutorial. Absolutely crazy! Done the Coastal Caves and the Mines and a few dungeons and found loads of items I’d somehow missed. Got loads of weapons to now choose from (settled on a Spear), an Octopus Shield on my back and some snazzy new togs. I’ve now come to the conclusion this is the best game ever made. Reminds me of playing Y’s the Vanished Omens on the Master System when I was a kid. That and OOT. Its just totally next level right across the board. This is the new benchmark. Need to savour every last moment, ‘cause there’s not likely to be anything this good coming along for a very long time.

[Flub]

I couldn't sleep earlier so I made an astrologian. Teleported to the ball farm. 90 minutes later I'm level 37 and have gotten myself a nice new staff. Magic boi is fun. Next stop some new spells.

 

What's a sensible melee weapon backup for a mage?

[Len]

Stormveil Castle is just genius. Decided to finally tackle it earlier and everything just clicked in to place even more. 

 

Got so much new stuff to go through tomorrow and crack on in to that courtyard. 

[Davros sock drawer]

Finally getting my shit together with pix (via USB on PS4) and Videos (via YouTube).

 

Satisfying end to this scruffy scrap with the Erdtree Avatar:

 

Spoiler

 

Also of course mobs can be drawn into open world boss fights now. Bet that guy wishes he hadn’t been though

[Broker]

12 hours ago, robdood said:

Another thing that's weird.  Anyone else got that skill Bloody Slash?  You get it near mistwood..  It seems insanely strong, I've put it on my main greatsword and it uses fuck all FP and is killing things like the knights in Stormveil in 2 shots. 

I’m level 50 and it’s still my go to attack, it shreds everything. I used my first duplication ash on it just so I can apply it to a second weapon.

 

12 hours ago, robdood said:

 

To confirm, I hadn't managed to get it to +3 like I thought!  I just did, and i looks like the next upgrade (+4) will increase the guard boost.  Yay! 

 

What's max level in this? +15?  I guess that means about +5 to guard boost for most shields then. 

 

It goes up to at least +20 based on my friends experience. 
 

8 hours ago, Number 28 said:

I can't find the cocking map piece for the north west area. There's no visible little pillar I can go to.

I ended up entering a cave up there filled with

  Hide contents

sorcerers, once of which had a huge blue donking hammer. I managed to put him down but was destroyed by the later two bosses made of crystal...

 

The mountain? I can’t find the one for there, every direction seems like a dead end. 

[Calashnikov]

I’ve got 25 hours and haven’t once messed with the ashes stuff. You assign mad moves to your weapon’s L2/double handed attack with them, is that right?

Problem is, I kinda like my Uchigatana’s default L2/double handed attack (it’s a rad samurai sword unsheathing typa thing). Will that move be lost if I assign an Ash of war to it?
 

I suppose it wouldn’t be lost for good, there’s no doubt an item or an NPC who can scrub it, but in that instance, won’t the Ash itself then be lost for good?

 

Is it even possible to unbind it from a weapon once it’s on there? I understand there are ways to duplicate ashes as well.

 

I feel like I’m missing out. I’ve accumulated loads of them, but I’m scared to apply them to my weapon, only to not like the effects/moves, which might see me burning through the lot of them, looking for something that I like, all the while losing my unsheathed Uchi badness that I actually quite like.

 

The knights in Stormveil suggest I need to mix things up, however! 
 

EDIT: Asked in the ‘How Do I?’ thread  

[Yiggy]

 

Edit: Apols. Moving to the other thread.