Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[Davros sock drawer]

PSA! If you press R3 in the inventory to go into Simple View, you can repeatedly consume Runes without having to keep re-entering the inventory screen.

 

This may already have been widely known, but not by me! 

[robdood]

Hey @John0 here's how crucible knight did against my str boi..

 

Spoiler

 

 

[NexivRed]

11 hours ago, Qazimod said:

 

Rare consumables, combined with the auto-saving, make certain decisions more difficult than they need to be. During my GD attempts I knew that there was an effective status ailment I could use, but my pots, grease and crafting ingredients only give me so many attempts with that knowledge before I have to go and find ingredients for more. Contrast with Bloodborne, where you get hold of a key item and then new stuff is permanently unlocked for sale in the dream, as long as you have the cash.

 

I like the idea of crafting in theory, but I wonder if there's a way they could streamline things (without making the crafting entirely redundant.)

There’s an easy fix; give them a time duration rather than disappear on death. 15 minutes, 30 minutes. Whatever. Would mean you could choose to use them during a particular session or area nicely. 

 

 

7 hours ago, Alan Stock said:

Thanks @therearerules and @robdood , just got it!

 

  Hide contents

I'd been to that cave before but assumed I didn't have the right affinity or special item to take on the crystal boss because I couldn't do damage to it, just like the dual crystal bosses I'd met in another dungeon. So gave it another shot just now and seems like if you do enough damage or get enough stagger damage and you can shatter the outer shell making him vulnerable. I guess I wasn't being aggressive enough before, also I was using a frost weapon but it didn't proc the frost until after I already destroyed the shell, so not sure if that was it. Not a fan of the game design, it makes it seem like you are doing the wrong thing and need to come back because you do almost nothing to the health bar. If only I'd known I could have had this many hours ago, I found this cave before I did any of the great lift stuff/manor/capital outskirts! Thanks! Now I finally have stuff to spend runes on!

 

The Morning Star you get early on is great for Crystal stuff. 
 

I don’t think Smithing Stones reliably get dropped by mobs. I’ve not seen any smithing stone guide suggest farming mobs. So I think there’s almost a finite amount other than buying them. 
 

Are you picking them up off the floor? They’re the yellow and white nodes in those caves. 

 

 

5 hours ago, Jamie John said:

 

Having just done the capital over the last couple of days, it's not quite as labyrinthine as it first appears, and you spend so long there that before too long you begin to map it out in your head. You will naturally break it down into sections, too, and there are a fair number of grace points and shortcuts.

Yeah…that’s not gonna work for my brain 😅

[Uzi]

Turned out I had missed one optional area (of the infamous bird farming spot) so went back and just mopped up the boss there who went down pretty easy but dropped around 400k runes??

 

Goodbye sweet nutbuster (named after the signature spell of the build the azur comet). Next will be a str/faith based build I think

 

[Broker]

On 19/03/2022 at 23:46, Moz said:

No, there are dungeons in which I can oneshot every enemy or group of enemies, and then can’t even see the boss before it oneshots me. What’s the point? It makes some sense in the overworld, but why should I piss through a boring dungeon with a tileset I’ve seen 20 times already to be rewarded with a fight I can’t win which bears no difficulty resemblance to the rest of the dungeon? And then the reward’ll be a spell, talisman, weapon or incantation I can’t use. Rinse repeat. Am I meant to summon? Unable to summon. For days now. Am I meant to summon ashes? Dead before I’ve rung the bell. All I want is an area I can go to and play the game which isn’t far too easy or far too hard (or both). 

Sounds like you need some more VIT. There’s no areas where the balance of damage between the enemies and bosses is that bad as far as I’ve found, so maybe you’re just murdering everything normal before it can hit you with good damage output? If so though the bosses should take fuck all hits. And it seems weird that you’d be ploughing through dungeons without taking damage but not be able to roll the bosses first attack. 

 

13 hours ago, Doctor Shark said:

Last boss is a bit of a slog.  

Yeah it sucks. Shame because the first stage is great, but the second is shite. 

[Jamie John]

Despite saying that I'd be heading to Caelid after taking down the Capital's bosses, I completely forgot that I still have the entire west side of the Atlus Plateau (and a particularly fiery manor) to explore. Despite that, my entire two hour session last night was spent mopping up bosses in the Capital areas I hadn't yet been to, and at level 95 I was able to take most of them out first time.

 

First up was the entire 

Spoiler

Leyndell Catacombs area, beneath the sewers (which are, in turn, beneath the Capital itself). This was a pretty cool repeating dungeon with some Lost Woods-style mind fuckery going on, but I got through it in the end and found the lever. The gnome like invader boss here and its two dogs gave me a bit of trouble to begin with, until I holy butt slammed them three times, and that was the end of that.

 

Back on the surface I took out the two 

Spoiler

Tree Sentinels guarding the main entrance that I had avoided before. I managed to aggro them one by one back through the door and they weren't shit.

 

I then ran into one of those big horrible 

Spoiler

Gargoyle fellas on some stairs. He was a tricky customer, but I was able to whittle him down with lightning bolts and arrows before going in for the kill.

 

Then, I found a cave I'd completely missed and which wasn't on the map

Spoiler

guarded by a giant flower. Inside there were a load of perfumers and the boss was an Omenkiller and another one of the flowers. Oleg and I set to and made short work of them. There was a great bit where I looked across a chasm and saw *another* cave that I'd found hours before.

 

After that, I went and fought 

Spoiler

Some disgusting rocky, centipede bull thing that came out of a big purple crater in the ground. That was weird. I'm not sure what the lore is with these things. Strike damage and lightning worked wonders, however. 

 

Finally, on my way back to a grace point I rode past a non-aggressive enemy who just randomly transformed into 

Spoiler

Margit! He didn't look like a ghost or anything and had exactly the same moveset as before. This time, however, I could use my horse and so just circled him, pelting him with lightning bolts. That was odd. Can Omens just respawn like that?

 

Anyway, a productive evening, all told. Tonight I'll head for the other side of the Plateau.

 

I'm going on holiday in three weeks and originally thought this would be long-completed by then, but thinking about it now, I'm not so sure. The game is just...massive. I only feel like I'm half-way through. Still haven't done 

Spoiler

Volcano Manor

Most of Caelid

Nokron

Any of the mountain top stuff

The Haligtree (???)

Crumbling Tornado World

 

And a load of other places I've heard tell about.

 

[moosegrinder]

Ulcerated Tree Spirit can fuck off. Stupid bloody thing.

[Captain Kelsten]

Which one?

[moosegrinder]

3 minutes ago, Doctor Shark said:

Which one?

 

The one I can't summon no cunt on. It's 

 

Spoiler

At the bottom of the place near the beginning with the chariot that takes up the width of the tunnel.

 

[Captain Kelsten]

I got so fed up of the last boss running away from me last night, I went and played Dark Souls 3 instead. 

[Kevvy Metal]

9 hours ago, Davros sock drawer said:

Took out the horsey chap blocking my way into the capital tonight and now very much enjoying his weapon. I hadn’t used any Sombre Stones, so I was able to get it up to +7 immediately, at which it is easily out performing the Zweihander. Satisfying!

 

The capital itself is just jaw dropping.

 

130 hours played and it just keeps getting better and better.

Any tips on how to avoid his red lightning? I can quite easy get his health down, but then he just zaps me  

[Lovelyman]

3 minutes ago, Kevvy Metal said:

Any tips on how to avoid his red lightning? I can quite easy get his health down, but then he just zaps me  

Worry his bottom. 
 

If you stay on his arse chipping away he doesn’t tend to use it

[scottcr]

Worked my way to a castle in the SE area of Caelid - the gate was shut but could work my way in by going round the back and climbing up a tower to get in.  But I couldn't actually make much progress into the castle - was blocked by a battlement wall that was just slightly too high to jump over.  Seemed a bit of bad/unusual design - am I missing something?

 

In other news, I've upgraded my claws to +10 and it's hilarious the amount of damage they do.

[Schnibbles]

On 19/03/2022 at 23:12, Curtis said:

  

 

My point was: feel free to ask before giving up entirely, because its highly likely you aren't getting the most out of your set-up. I've been tutoring fellow forumites since Demon's in 2009, and they even dubbed me Sir Curtis. 😆

 

Since then i've clocked 7000+ hours on Soulsborne games. All that aside, i'm not a 'great' player, my enjoyment comes from figuring out the best way to abuse the systems in place. The purists who love the thrill of solo-ing everything might smirk and say, "nah thats not how its done", but what does it matter? Each to their own!

 

Also, do what i do: never try a boss more than 3-4 times. Take a break. Think about it. Sleep on it. If you're doing pitiful damage then your gear clearly isn't up to spec for that particular fight. Its not about learning every move and when to evade. Thats too clinical for me. Bashing your head against a wall repeatedly will only lead to a headache.

 

The beautiful thing about the open world nature of this game is even if you hit a roadblock (or two), you can still explore and find all sorts of distractions. Thats what this game is about. After beating Margit i went all over exploring, dying, suiciding for an item, and by the time i got back on the main story path, i was proper tooled up!

 

I'm always available for jolly coop. 

 

Yeah I remember you from the previous Souls threads - I used to read them to enjoy what other people were getting up to, even though I wasn't interested in getting repeatedly squelched by bosses myself! You are a very helpful chap who might like Souls games too much. 

 

I appreciate the offer of co-op and I'll probably get back into the game at some point in a couple of months when I've moved house. You'll still be playing it by then, right? 😉

[kempstar]

10 minutes ago, Kevvy Metal said:

Any tips on how to avoid his red lightning? I can quite easy get his health down, but then he just zaps me  

Its got a very obvious tell. Dodge to the left or right, when he raises his sword in the air.

[Alask]

Anyone got any recommendations for useful ranged incantations I may be missing for fighting boss at range? Once a boss gets above a reasonable size for fighting and I know all I'm going to see if I'm in melee is feet I prefer not to be in melee. Currently my go to options in order of effectiveness against bosses are:

 

1. Dragon Rot Breath if they aren't immune, doubly so if I can then run away and just let them die. 

2. Takers Flames off my sword.

Then a very a big gap.

3. Lightning Bolt, but it's slow to charge.

4. Black flame, but it's slow to charge and awkward to throw.

 

I'm quite late game, so most things are probably available by now? I've pretty much stuck with my 3 reliable incantations above though for most of the game (Having a weapon I can't enchant does feel a bit like I'm missing half the cool incantations. I'm not giving up my creepy flesh sword though.)

 

Also for the non-faith/non-sorcery lot, when you've got an enemy you don't want to melee are bows good enough to get the job done? Or if you've no spells, do you just have to accept you're only killing big bosses in melee and you've got to suck it up and get stuck in? Presumably Hoarfrost stomp used to be the answer, but what is it now?

[robdood]

22 minutes ago, Kevvy Metal said:

Any tips on how to avoid his red lightning? I can quite easy get his health down, but then he just zaps me  

 

Do you mean the single bolt? He lifts his sword up, and then pulls it down.  The moment you see his arm come down, that's when you roll.  

 

I love that a few people on here were complaining last week that it was bullshit/impossible to avoid.  YOU GUYS. 

 

For the red bolts everywhere, just watch for the areas of effect on the ground, you don't need to run far away, just not be stood where you see it coming.. 

[Anne Summers]

On 19/03/2022 at 18:39, Totoro said:

 

Same. Gave up trying as it was a complete waste of time. Just google a questline and follow it now.

Yeah, as has been said multiple times throughout these threads, these games are designed to be played (on a second playthrough, at least) with guides and all the help available thanks to the wonders of the internet and mass communications. Even the far smaller previous games like Bloodborne or DS3, you won' have a chance at seeing everything and experiencing all of the NPC quest lines without using a wiki or walkthrough or something - certainly not if you haven't got hundreds of hours to spend on trial-and-error. 

Oh, and if anyone is ready to tell me that they have experienced everything in one of these games without looking at a guide ... how do you even know you've experienced everything? It's not like there's an in-game checklist of objectives and side quests. 

 

My MO is usually to blindly stumble through the game on my first playthrough, content with the knowledge that I will almost certainly end up missing 75% of the optional content. Then I open up Google to start looking into what I've missed, and subsequent playthroughs will involve much looking-up and wiki usage. It's a different way of playing games for sure, but it's just one of the many ways in which Miyazake's games force you to re-think decades of accumulated gaming behaviours and practices. 

 

 

 

[Davros sock drawer]

27 minutes ago, Kevvy Metal said:

Any tips on how to avoid his red lightning? I can quite easy get his health down, but then he just zaps me  

 

I think I just either ran far, far away, or tanked it and took the damage (I've heavily invested in vigour), but towards the end it was just a desperate toe to toe, as I could see his health bar nearly down to nothing, and he happened not to use it. Oh, and I managed to keep Aurelia alive for quite a while. 

 

I'll check my video in a bit.

[Flub]

 

[Davros sock drawer]

5 minutes ago, robdood said:

 

Do you mean the single bolt? He lifts his sword up, and then pulls it down.  The moment you see his arm come down, that's when you roll.  

 

I love that a few people on here were complaining last week that it was bullshit/impossible to avoid.  YOU GUYS. 

 

For the red bolts everywhere, just watch for the areas of effect on the ground, you don't need to run far away, just not be stood where you see it coming.. 

 

I think he must mean the latter, the AOE lightning that comes out of the ground.

 

The move I struggled with was the close range fireball to the face.

 

I'm glad beat him quickly (5 attempts maybe?) as I'm guessing that's a rare roadblock unless there's another way in?

[Padaxes]

Im 30 hours in and have just progressed through the castle and the first story bosses.  Challenging fights but (obviously) not impossible. I also went back and killed the horse dude and the dragon at the start which was satisfying.

I had a few tries against the grafted when i was quite close but failed and was getting frustrated so i decided to try coop, no matter what i did I seemed to end up in someone elses world doing random stuff. Which was fine but not my intention. After that diversion i went back and trounced him solo so alls well that ends well.

Prior to this I had for the first time felt like the game was being a dick, it locked me in a dark room with some armoured guy and when i went back I slipped off a stairway and died losing my 16k runes   Some of the stuff this game pulls is just cheap right ?  I've never played any darksouls mind you, but it seems like the castles and dungeons are more like DS than the rest. I much prefer roaming around on my horse twatting things than getting ambushed etc in the cheesy set pieces or trapped in a room with a powerful enemy.

 

That being said Im flying high on my recent victories and really enjoying it overall.

 

My build is ridiculous though,

 

I have a longsword and shield, a bow, a staff and some incantations.  20 Str/20 dex / 20 Vigor and a little bit in endurance, and intelligence.  So yeah jack of all trades master of none.

[Qazimod]

6 minutes ago, Alask said:

Also for the non-faith/non-sorcery lot, when you've got an enemy you don't want to melee are bows good enough to get the job done? Or if you've no spells, do you just have to accept you're only killing big bosses in melee and you've got to suck it up and get stuck in? Presumably Hoarfrost stomp used to be the answer, but what is it now?

For me it’s sometimes items (throwing pots), but also there is Strength gear that has ranged attack stuff such as the

 

Spoiler

Watchdog’s Staff

Also, bringing in AI buddies with the ashes if I just want someone to get off me!

[PeteJ]

2 hours ago, moosegrinder said:

 

The one I can't summon no cunt on. It's 

 

  Hide contents

At the bottom of the place near the beginning with the chariot that takes up the width of the tunnel.

 

I did that last night!

 

You can summon, I had my jelly tanking. I couldn't summon on the one in the castle though. 

 

Tips: when it pulls right back it's about to charge and do the bite attack. Roll away. 

When it starts glowing back away as the AOE is nasty

When it's flying around the place to be honest it doesn't appear to attack at all so swipe away. You can get in a surprising number of attacks. 

You can block some of its swipe attacks quite easily, my stamina is less than 20 as well. 

 

It's a scary aggressive boss but to be honest it's mostly just bluster. That said I couldn't do the version of it just on my own so it's still an arse. 

 

[Lovelyman]

12 minutes ago, robdood said:

 

Do you mean the single bolt? He lifts his sword up, and then pulls it down.  The moment you see his arm come down, that's when you roll.  

 

I love that a few people on here were complaining last week that it was bullshit/impossible to avoid.  YOU GUYS. 

 

For the red bolts everywhere, just watch for the areas of effect on the ground, you don't need to run far away, just not be stood where you see it coming.. 

people say that, but i do the whole fight on torrent and there doesn’t seem to be a good point to dodge. I guess dismount and re-mount when he does that. 

[Sane]

10 minutes ago, Padaxes said:

Im 30 hours in and have just progressed through the castle and the first story bosses.  Challenging fights but (obviously) not impossible. I also went back and killed the horse dude and the dragon at the start which was satisfying.

I had a few tries against the grafted when i was quite close but failed and was getting frustrated so i decided to try coop, no matter what i did I seemed to end up in someone elses world doing random stuff. Which was fine but not my intention. After that diversion i went back and trounced him solo so alls well that ends well.

Prior to this I had for the first time felt like the game was being a dick, it locked me in a dark room with some armoured guy and when i went back I slipped off a stairway and died losing my 16k runes   Some of the stuff this game pulls is just cheap right ?  I've never played any darksouls mind you, but it seems like the castles and dungeons are more like DS than the rest. I much prefer roaming around on my horse twatting things than getting ambushed etc in the cheesy set pieces or trapped in a room with a powerful enemy.

 

That being said Im flying high on my recent victories and really enjoying it overall.

 

My build is ridiculous though,

 

I have a longsword and shield, a bow, a staff and some incantations.  20 Str/20 dex / 20 Vigor and a little bit in endurance, and intelligence.  So yeah jack of all trades master of none.

That room is something that just happens in these games, you always gotta be prepared for stuff like it. It may seem unfair at first, but it reminds you to use a light source and that enemy is only difficult because of the circumstances: locked in a dark room unexpectedly. The next time you get there it's easier because you know it's coming. And the way there also becomes easier. And then the next time you meet that enemy outside but accompanied by other enemies you are prepared to take them on. This is the Souls way .

 

Edit: as for your build, I'd chose either STR or DEX for now. And pump endurance to atleast 15 to make your green stamina bar longer. And skip INT unless you actually use it to cast spells.

[feltmonkey]

In case anyone is following my troubles with the game crashing, after a reinstall, I played the game for an hour last night without any crashes.  Hopefully the situation might be improving.  

 

I'm playing as a samurai, which means that I'm rejecting any gear I pick up on the basis that it doesn't look as cool as what I already have, never mind the stats.  I've spent some time killing the low-level guards patrolling near that church at the start and picking flowers, so that I got a crafting kit and went up a couple of levels.  I even killed a boss - some guy I found in a cave. I peppered him with arrows because I forgot to summon my dogs.

 

Playing offline has meant that all the messages are gone, which I much prefer. I find them immersion-breaking, particularly the ones where people are trying to be funny.

[Padaxes]

1 minute ago, feltmonkey said:

In case anyone is following my troubles with the game crashing, after a reinstall, I played the game for an hour last night without any crashes.  Hopefully the situation might be improving.  

 

 I was fine until the castle since then Ive had 2 hard crashes    (Im on PC) will a reinstall help me do you think ? Or is it just some areas are more likely to crash than others ? 

[robdood]

13 minutes ago, Lovelyman said:

people say that, but i do the whole fight on torrent and there doesn’t seem to be a good point to dodge. I guess dismount and re-mount when he does that. 

You can't dodge while on Torrent, dude.  I did the whole fight on foot, much easier to manage! 

[robdood]

19 minutes ago, Padaxes said:

Prior to this I had for the first time felt like the game was being a dick, it locked me in a dark room with some armoured guy and when i went back I slipped off a stairway and died losing my 16k runes   Some of the stuff this game pulls is just cheap right ? 

It's a little cheap, but it's memorable!  Its to make you scared.  And boy oh boy, that's childs play compared ot some of the nastiness that happens later.  Try not worry aobut losing runes.  They aren't that important - plus if you think you're carrying a lot, go spend them before continuing!!  Or, just accept that sometimes you're gonna lose some, and that's ok