Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[Number 28]

Came back to the game fresh, changed around my talisman and armour...the first try I got the final boss to about 1/4 HP and I thought, ok this is going much better, I can do this...

 

Spoiler

An hour later and I'm tired, frustrated and furious. I've gotten no further than my first attempt.🤡

 

[Strafe]

2 hours ago, Monkeyspill said:

I’ve just got to the Mountaintop of the Giants. I don’t know if I’m playing it wrong, but I’m finding the bog-standard enemies there far harder than even any of the bosses I’ve fought so far. Even one on its own kills me, let alone a group.

The difficulty spikes a bit there for sure.

[Benny]

Credits.

 

My God.

 

A game of a lifetime.

[Majora]

Just found the real Volcano Manor. I knew there had to be more to it given how long the journey there was. Bloody hell.

 

I actually really like Mt Gelmir with hindsight. Not the most visually striking or attractive area by any means but it feels like a really nice mix of open-world and dungeon in a way. More structured than some of the other open world areas.

[Alan Stock]

4 hours ago, therearerules said:

I think of ourselves as being at the same points from your posts in here, but all I'm putting points into are Vig, Endurance and Strength. Very much a swords and boards boy, and it's stomping through everything.

 

Just hit 90 hours, over level 100, and I've only just got the second equippable rune powered up. That feels like a really wonky economy, or I'm doing things in a very wrong order.

 

Yeah I still don't have a second rune, haven't got enough damage yet to deal with the guardian of the Caelid tower. I'm around level 72 now, haven't ventured into the Capital yet and have been going back with my slight re-spec/better weapons to mop up dungeons, mini bosses, Evergaols, progressing some NPC quest lines and so on.

 

I've now got about 21 Vitality and its made a big difference to survivability and honestly enjoyment, instead of getting constantly one-shot by bosses now only some attacks one-shot me (at least for bosses around my progression in the game). Still not doing great damage for some of the bosses but better than I was, and I managed to take out a few of the bosses today that I'd been stuck on for a while, like two on Mount Gelmir. Going to spoiler some areas I have now on the to-do list:

Spoiler

- Roadblocked on the first boss of Volcano Manor, the basement of Caelid Tower and the bosses at the end of Dragonbarrow.

- Still have some parts of western Altus Plateau to explore, mainly the forest and a castle in the north that looks like its in a swamp.

- I have all the keys for the Belfries in Limuria, but only went through one once and immediately left as it looked spoilery, but I'll probably check them out soon.

- I haven't gone further than the cave entrance to Ainsel River and now have a quest for there, so might check that out shortly.

- Still have some dungeons in Caelid to do, I'm a bit sick of dungeons now so have been trying to do them only occasionally.

- The Capital will be the next big thing, I think I'll check that out next, but leave from time to time to do some of the above things. Lots to do!

 

This might sound mad but I'm on over 200 hours now, I think its something like 240 hours, but bear in mind I leave it AFK quite a lot. Even then I can't be looking at more than 20-40 hours AFK cumulative so thats a lot of game time! A quite substantial chunk of that will be getting repeatedly killed in boss fights/dungeons though, thoroughly exploring every nook and cranny, and revisiting areas a lot.

[Minion]

5 hours ago, Alan Stock said:

 

Yeah I still don't have a second rune, haven't got enough damage yet to deal with the guardian of the Caelid tower.

 

Have you not activated Radahns rune yet? If so is that because you think you have to kill the boss down there? I thought that too, you'll kick yourself once you realise like I did

[scottcr]

28 minutes ago, Minion said:

 

Have you not activated Radahns rune yet? If so is that because you think you have to kill the boss down there? I thought that too, you'll kick yourself once you realise like I did

wat?

 

can I avoid that shitehouse boss bit?

 

also - folks raving about Mimic Tear? Must’ve been before the nerf as I’m not that impressed with it.

 

shouldn’t have nerfed this stuff. Finding arcane but hilariously OP stuff for your level is part of the fun of these types of games.

[spanx]

@scottcr upgrade the mimic tear a bit… then you’ll see why everyone raves about it

[Monkeyspill]

18 minutes ago, scottcr said:

wat?

 

can I avoid that shitehouse boss bit?

 

also - folks raving about Mimic Tear? Must’ve been before the nerf as I’m not that impressed with it.

 

shouldn’t have nerfed this stuff. Finding arcane but hilariously OP stuff for your level is part of the fun of these types of games.

Mimic Tear is kind of amazing when levelled up. It’s made some of the boss fights too easy though - even with the nerf!

[scottcr]

2 minutes ago, Monkeyspill said:

Mimic Tear is kind of amazing when levelled up. It’s made some of the boss fights too easy though - even with the nerf!

Ace… sounds ideal to me. I really enjoy the exploration. But the sounds of a boss rush at the end just makes me sigh. 

[df0]

Did Radahn yesterday on NG++. Glad to see the speed of the arrows is reduced, the tracking of that arrow rain seems much less and Torrent can simply outrun the attacks now. Also, he barely did any damage to me and het got a couple good hits in. I swear one hit took like 10% of my HP 🤔 I went from "ah crap, I messed up!" to "ow. that's it?"

 

Happy to see it, Radahn was a massive roadblock for me on NG.

[df0]

8 minutes ago, scottcr said:

Ace… sounds ideal to me. I really enjoy the exploration. But the sounds of a boss rush at the end just makes me sigh. 

@scottcrThere's no Boss Rush per se. Towards the end of the game it's less than a handful of bosses without substantial gameplay section between em. The game is still completely open to you, so you can fast travel, rest at Graces and whatever else. You are never "stuck" fighting bosses.

[Minion]

31 minutes ago, scottcr said:

wat?

 

can I avoid that shitehouse boss bit?

 

also - folks raving about Mimic Tear? Must’ve been before the nerf as I’m not that impressed with it.

 

shouldn’t have nerfed this stuff. Finding arcane but hilariously OP stuff for your level is part of the fun of these types of games.

 

 

I'll spoiler it but you'll kick yourself like I did after defeating the boss and realising that I still couldn't activate the rune.

 

 

Spoiler

The main grace outside the tower, like on the balcony, rather than go the way to get inside the tower go the other way and open the door - hey presto lift to activate the rune looool!

 

That boss is pretty much end game level tbh.

[Uncle Nasty]

9 hours ago, Davros sock drawer said:

 

How!?

 

Spoiler

At certain points of the chariot's journey it will be beneath a hanging item that can be shot, when shot it will fall down and destroy the chariot. Bring a bow.

 

[df0]

2 minutes ago, Uncle Nasty said:

 

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At certain points of the chariot's journey it will be beneath a hanging item that can be shot, when shot it will fall down and destroy the chariot. Bring a bow.

 

WHAT!

 

I might just stop by those Graves now and destroy those out of sheer spite.

[Benny]

I literally haven't slept despite actually having finished it last night. I can't get it out of my head.

 

I think I basically scoured the whole map and game over the 300 odd hours I was in it.

 

It's like saying goodbye to an old friend.

[Uncle Nasty]

@df0It's permanent as well. They don't return once destroyed.

[Kirby]

On 30/03/2022 at 20:46, robdood said:

I can't believe that after 120 hours it's only just occurred to me to try sleep pots against my most feared enemy: Lobsters. 

 

 

Sleep pots work on lobsters?

 

[Benny]

I don't think in 300 hours I have ever used or been the victim of Sleep.

 

Almost completely ignored all the crafting too!

[robdood]

8 hours ago, Kryptonian said:

 

I just used a warp gate after

 

  Reveal hidden contents

beating Fia's champions in deeproot depths

 

and was transported to the capital - is this the same one?

 

I hadn't been there before, exciting but time to turn off now.

Yes sir, thats the one I meant. 

 

And @Uncle Nasty I know you can do that in ONE of the Graves, but haven't spotted the things to shoot in the others..  Am I blind? 

 

 

[scottcr]

19 minutes ago, Minion said:

 

 

I'll spoiler it but you'll kick yourself like I did after defeating the boss and realising that I still couldn't activate the rune.

 

 

  Hide contents

The main grace outside the tower, like on the balcony, rather than go the way to get inside the tower go the other way and open the door - hey presto lift to activate the rune looool!

 

That boss is pretty much end game level tbh.

but the door is closed?

[Benny]

I'm itching now to get into a bit of the Elden Ring Fight Clubs equivalent. I played in them for hours in Dark Souls 3. Maybe we should get a Rllmuk duelling session going. I'd suggest lvl 160 ish is probably a good max cap.

[Benny]

1 minute ago, scottcr said:

but the door is closed?

 

"Oooooh, you don't have the riiiiight..."

[scottcr]

I might moan a lot but I do love the game. The biggest thing for me is that I, personally, need a but more narrative direction. I know that’s what people like about this but it doesn’t work for me.  The NPCs are characterless. Just random northerners who speak vague hints.  
 

some kind of way of building up hints, relations etc so I can still piece things together but in game… like Outer Wilds would be good.

 

The gameplay is great, the exploration is great - but I really don’t care at all about what I’m doing and why and that’s a constant niggle for me.

[scottcr]

1 minute ago, Benny said:

 

"Oooooh, you don't have the riiiiight..."

And… back to a guide online. I really don’t enjoy this part of the game at all.

[Davros sock drawer]

1 minute ago, scottcr said:

The NPCs are characterless. Just random northerners who speak vague hints.  
 

 

Alexander man! Come on!

[Benny]

My solution to these kinds of barriers was simple: do more exploring, then eventually a solution will present itself.

[Davros sock drawer]

21 minutes ago, Uncle Nasty said:

 

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At certain points of the chariot's journey it will be beneath a hanging item that can be shot, when shot it will fall down and destroy the chariot. Bring a bow.

 

Cool! Is that the case for all such Grave sites?

[Alan Stock]

I'm not reading the spoilers about the Caelid tower but also wut? I thought I had explored everything there. But then again hmmm

Spoiler

Last night I reached the top of the Limgrave divine tower and now it occurs to me, I didn't get the option to do a rune there either. Maybe Rennalas one is activated already? More investigation required!

 

Not that there's any urgency, I haven't used any rune shards so far, I guess I might pop some near the end of the game as the bosses sound pretty rough according to rllmuk.

[df0]

3 minutes ago, scottcr said:

And… back to a guide online. I really don’t enjoy this part of the game at all.

That's unfortunately what Miyazaki (producer of all everything Souls) believes is part of the DNA just like the high difficulty. I'm convinced it's neigh impossible to complete Elden Ring without any guide, it's needlessly obtuse. I'm not saying they need to follow Ubisoft with on-screen markers and quest journals. But just something would be nice. Heck, you can summon Melina at a Grace, why not have her give you general directions.

 

That said, the very first NPC who insults you for being maidenless gives out hints about what to do next. Or maybe I just interpreted what he said as such.