Elden Ring Catch-all

imbiginjapan wrote:

Patrice Bergeron is having a blast taking down Stormveil now that his NHL season is over. I took him through the front door just to change things up - it was an interesting puzzle as it had to be a systematic process of taking out the enemies in just the right order.
Godrick only took a couple tries and the rest of castle is falling quickly. The Bloodhound's Fang is an amazing weapon.

You provided the final straw that got me to play Elden Ring again. I started up a new character, did a little power leveling, and made it to the guy that drops the Bloodhound Fang. I saw that you could summon Bladd to help out, but I had thought that you had to be much farther in the game. Nope - you can find him in the opening area. I also ran into another NPC that I never found in my original play though. This game is huge.

I also beat Margit on my first try, which felt really good.

Dung eater spoilers.

Spoiler:

I freed the poop eater and went to the outer moat. I angered Blackgaurd so he wouldn't be killed by said person. I was invaded and the giant crab spawned there and took out both Dung and Blackie.

What?

Caelid is so horrible and oppressive. I hate being there. It's brilliant.

Melina can light my fire.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/DfyYlKh.png)

Edit: Also lost 3.1 million runes at the bottom of Subterranean Shunning-Grounds.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Edit: Also lost 3.1 million runes at the bottom of Subterranean Shunning-Grounds.

The Shunning Grounds are why I've shunned the game for over a week now. I'm irked I ever searched around for that well.

WizardM0de wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

Edit: Also lost 3.1 million runes at the bottom of Subterranean Shunning-Grounds.

The Shunning Grounds are why I've shunned the game for over a week now. I'm irked I ever searched around for that well.

I went & looked up optional bosses just to see what I've missed & ended up finding out about Nokron, Eternal City so I'm down there, it's been pretty comfortable so far to be fair but I'm level 141.

Quick question, once you use your Sombre Ancient Dragon Stone is there any way to get it back from a weapon? or if the choice final?

I've used two & have one left so want to make sure I pick the right weapon to use the last one on.

Spikeout wrote:

Quick question, once you use your Sombre Ancient Dragon Stone is there any way to get it back from a weapon? or if the choice final?

I've used two & have one left so want to make sure I pick the right weapon to use the last one on.

You can't get it back from a weapon upgrade, but there are eight to be found within each NG cycle (eight in NG, eight in NG+, etc).

Just reached the capital. Its good stuff. All the rooms and hallways and roofs to run around on feels like dark souls.

Edit: Aaaand I left it. It was HARD. Decided to try to find the map for mt gelmir instead. Got thoroughly lost and eaten by a bear. Good times!

Fredrik_S wrote:

Just reached the capital. Its good stuff. All the rooms and hallways and roofs to run around on feels like dark souls.

Edit: Aaaand I left it. It was HARD. Decided to try to find the map for mt gelmir instead. Got thoroughly lost and eaten by a bear. Good times!

Yeah, I also wandered a round for a while after I got to the Capitol. It's definitely a step up in difficulty.

Back on the horse/goat after a 2 week break ... Killed the Lleyndell bosses and Rykard and just started in the snowy areas and hitting that "new area, feel weak again" feeling.

I'm a mage that mostly uses spells (duh). I finally got a staff that outscales the Meteorite Staff -- using the Carian Regal Scepter cos I don't like the tradeoffs with Lusat's or Azur's staff. I just want buffs, no debuffs.

I like being able to ping from afar but take a hit when I mess up. I use Radagon's Soreseal so I can also use moonveil katana cos it's cool and useful in a pinch. I have put points into stamina to wear 'light' heavy armour & keep medium load. I can currently wear the scaled armour plus Blaidd's or Twin gloves & greaves (with Rennala's hat), but I wonder if I'm doing it wrong? Should I just lean into my mageyness and wear robes?

As for my son -- he's not just lapped me but gone up to a higher league, finishing it 3 times with 3 builds. Now he wants me to get it on PC so he can play it with the enemy/loot randomiser mod. (PC doesn't have a good enough gfx card for it, unfortunately)

Fredrik_S wrote:

Just reached the capital. Its good stuff. All the rooms and hallways and roofs to run around on feels like dark souls.

Edit: Aaaand I left it. It was HARD. Decided to try to find the map for mt gelmir instead. Got thoroughly lost and eaten by a bear. Good times!

There's a way to Mt. Gelmir without beating the boss in the capital?

merphle wrote:
Spikeout wrote:

Quick question, once you use your Sombre Ancient Dragon Stone is there any way to get it back from a weapon? or if the choice final?

I've used two & have one left so want to make sure I pick the right weapon to use the last one on.

You can't get it back from a weapon upgrade, but there are eight to be found within each NG cycle (eight in NG, eight in NG+, etc).

Thanks for the info! I've 5 to find then

Balthezor wrote:
Fredrik_S wrote:

Just reached the capital. Its good stuff. All the rooms and hallways and roofs to run around on feels like dark souls.

Edit: Aaaand I left it. It was HARD. Decided to try to find the map for mt gelmir instead. Got thoroughly lost and eaten by a bear. Good times!

There's a way to Mt. Gelmir without beating the boss in the capital?

Honestly I have no idea. I went exploring from around the place where the boatman boss summons the gigantic skeleton (sorry i cant remember the names) and found a ravine you can drop into on the backside of that. That ravine lead me in a huge circle into a slow ascent up a mountain and then into a fort with a bunch of those fire chariots and a free range boss and it continues from there. Really not sure if I am on the right track or not but it feels more doable than the capital right now! Oh! And I found another magma wyrm and Alexander the jar chilling out in some lava.

Felix Threepaper wrote:

I like being able to ping from afar but take a hit when I mess up. I use Radagon's Soreseal so I can also use moonveil katana cos it's cool and useful in a pinch. I have put points into stamina to wear 'light' heavy armour & keep medium load. I can currently wear the scaled armour plus Blaidd's or Twin gloves & greaves (with Rennala's hat), but I wonder if I'm doing it wrong? Should I just lean into my mageyness and wear robes?

I do wish there were more armor varieties in the game for how long it was. I found myself playing with less than a handful of sets for the entirety of the game. For my medium (leaning high) build it came down to ugly and effective or significantly worse but cool looking. This is just coming from what I came across. I didn't look up any armor locations.

Felix Threepaper wrote:

I like being able to ping from afar but take a hit when I mess up. I use Radagon's Soreseal so I can also use moonveil katana cos it's cool and useful in a pinch. I have put points into stamina to wear 'light' heavy armour & keep medium load. I can currently wear the scaled armour plus Blaidd's or Twin gloves & greaves (with Rennala's hat), but I wonder if I'm doing it wrong? Should I just lean into my mageyness and wear robes?

I don't think there's any right way to play. Wearing light armor only matters from a mobility perspective if you can get it down to Light, which tends to be pretty hard to do and you need to be a decent roller and/or have lots of Vigor , at that point robes tend to have better resistances to status effects per pound. If you can't get down to Light the only other reason to lose armor is if you need to gain weight elsewhere in order to maximize damage (eg, drop arsenal charm to use a magic damage boosting talisman). Otherwise there is no benefit to a light medium versus a heavy medium. Even the Blue Dancer charm doesn't do enough IMO to matter if you aren't rolling light.

imbiginjapan wrote:
Felix Threepaper wrote:

I like being able to ping from afar but take a hit when I mess up. I use Radagon's Soreseal so I can also use moonveil katana cos it's cool and useful in a pinch. I have put points into stamina to wear 'light' heavy armour & keep medium load. I can currently wear the scaled armour plus Blaidd's or Twin gloves & greaves (with Rennala's hat), but I wonder if I'm doing it wrong? Should I just lean into my mageyness and wear robes?

I don't think there's any right way to play. Wearing light armor only matters from a mobility perspective if you can get it down to Light, which tends to be pretty hard to do and you need to be a decent roller and/or have lots of Vigor , at that point robes tend to have better resistances to status effects per pound. If you can't get down to Light the only other reason to lose armor is if you need to gain weight elsewhere in order to maximize damage (eg, drop arsenal charm to use a magic damage boosting talisman). Otherwise there is no benefit to a light medium versus a heavy medium. Even the Blue Dancer charm doesn't do enough IMO to matter if you aren't rolling light.

On my first play through I constatly chage armor based on whatever boss/area I am trying to get through. Only in subsequent play throughs do I go for a build or look.

You can get to Mt Gelmir multiple ways. The easiest is getting eaten to death by

Spoiler:

the Virgin Chariot at the bottom of Raya Lucaria.

Fredrik_S wrote:

Just reached the capital. Its good stuff. All the rooms and hallways and roofs to run around on feels like dark souls.

Edit: Aaaand I left it. It was HARD. Decided to try to find the map for mt gelmir instead. Got thoroughly lost and eaten by a bear. Good times!

I hit a weird plateau at this point. In the end I used a combination of grinding and weapon upgrades -- suddenly everything started working. IIRC, this is about the time I went for the Mimic Tear Ash, and made liberal use of the sequence from the East Rampart Grace which picks up about 15k runes fairly quickly and safely.

I think I even went back and made sure I finished every single tunnel and catacomb I had found. Just needed a little new equipment and a few levels and voila.

Balthezor wrote:

There's a way to Mt. Gelmir without beating the boss in the capital?

You can get there from the plateau. There's a bridge. IIRC you have to take the long way west around the road on the north side of Altus. I think I rode North through the middle forest full of death spitters.

Felix wrote:

stuff

One consideration is don't settle. I'm a melee build mostly (some incantation). I frequently switched between my "magic defense" and "physical defense" getups depending on what I was fighting. I change out talismans a lot to meet current needs (e.g. Crimson Assassin great for heavy sneak/backstab, otherwise not great).

Also -- always remember that the game has all sorts of enemies, balanced against pretty much all play styles. Some things are easy to take out from range, some things are best to get in their face. We all get exasperated at times fighting "that f*cking thing" (looking at you flying dragons), and then you wallop a boss in try two.

---

Think I'm winding down on my first run. Took down Mohg easily (really, the Lord of Blood is weak to bleeding?!). Finished Ranni's storyline. Actually grew a little bored/annoyed in Volcano manor and left. Killed the Fire Giant on try three. Running around in the Twin armor with +10 Eleanora, +9 ROB, and +10 Mimic Tear. Level 106 or so. Corpse Piler on the ROB is a frickin' easy button.

My son is digging magic now, so I think we might try a run together. He's been helping a friend and enjoying it. Maybe I'll tank for him and be able to take a hit for once.

My philosophy is always Fashion Souls until I hit a wall. Once I start struggling with something, I examine my gear and make swaps to help me solve that problem, which usually involves putting on the best armor I can use without tipping into Heavy Load.

It also involves a close look at my talismans, which can make a massive difference in certain instances.

Balthezor wrote:

There's a way to Mt. Gelmir without beating the boss in the capital?

Yeah there are a few different ways to get up there, I think. It's pretty confusing though.

You can't get to the

Spoiler:

snowy mountain tops with giants

without clearing the Capital Boss though, afaik. Although presumably the speed runners have figured out a skip.

I'll echo the armor as fashion sentiments. Generally if you get hit a lot armor won't save you. But sometimes small adjustments can give you some latitude. I try to avoid fat rolling as well, though once I was fat rolling and did not notice and accidentally dodged through the hardest boss attack in the game. I should have retired right then.

psu_13 wrote:
Balthezor wrote:

There's a way to Mt. Gelmir without beating the boss in the capital?

Yeah there are a few different ways to get up there, I think. It's pretty confusing though.

I found it! It's a ladder on a mountain wall very close to the Bridge of Inequity grace. Multiple ladders and multiple camps (I just ran through the whole thing to get to the map). The last bit was a bit confusing, but I got there in the end.

Thanks for all the comments -- it's a good point to remember to switch up for different enemies and their damage types. I haven't been selling armour much, so have a ton of sets.

I can't do pure Fashion Souls, my brain keeps nagging me about the stats!

I feel, gear-wise, mages are spoilt early -- Liurnia is obviously a very happy hunting ground -- then from Altus Plateau onwards, the drops seem to favour faith builds. Comet Azur is about the only thing I found post-Liurnia. I dunno, we'll see what the snowy area gives.

Mohg keeps kicking my butt

JohnKillo wrote:

Mohg keeps kicking my butt

There's a specific item for that fight that makes him MUCH easier.

New patch is out. Mostly bug fixes. Some highlights:

* In transactions with the NPC "Twin Maiden Husk", the following Bell Bearing items have been changed so that their liberated status will be carried over to the NG+ play: Bone Peddler's Bell Bearing/Meat Peddler's Bell Bearing/Medicine Peddler's Bell Bearing/Gravity Stone Peddler's Bell Bearing/Smithing-Stone Miner's Bell Bearing/Somberstone Miner's Bell Bearing/Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearing/Ghost-Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearing.

* Improved loading times for the Xbox Series X|S version

* Improved stability of online multiplayer.

* [On PC]: Added "Return to Desktop" to the system item on the main menu for exiting the game.

I hope it's all the smithing bell bearings and not just the (1). I'm sure it is but not specifying makes it ambiguous. Other than the the only thing that stands out is the Pulley Crossbow fix. They need to address the spells that can be chained without animation delay.

Tasty Pudding wrote:

* [On PC]: Added "Return to Desktop" to the system item on the main menu for exiting the game.

Oh thank god

Man, Maliketh is whupping me. Even his yellow blockable attacks, that I have the thing for, come at the end of a chain that destroys me already. Decided to go and explore elsewhere in Crumbling MF Azula for a break, then find this other 2-headed dragonlord boss fight that destroys me in other ways. Now I'm bouncing between these two unwinnable boss fights. Argh!

I beat Maliketh!!

Turns out, the winning strategy was running away. I wasn't keeping enough distance before, but when I kept sprinting away from him and around pillars, pinging off comets when I could, I whittled him down without being demolished. Didn't end up using the parry thing. Cowardly, but effective!

I just took down Maliketh yesterday too! I died at his hands more than most other bosses (so far). That second stage was just incredibly tough for me. I even ended up beating him in a similar way, which was hitting him with a good old Rotten Breath and then running away (bravely) and hiding behind pillars for the rest of the fight while his health went down little by little on its own.

The official strategy guide by Future Press is up for pre-order. They are releasing it in two volumes at the end of July and the end of September.