Elden Ring (From Software RPG)

I didn't even notice the wolf (Blaidd) there when I went to the ruins, I thought the howling was background noise, but I was an Archer so I frequently went to Kale to buy arrows, then I got the dialogue prompt about the Howling in Mistwood. But yea now that I think of it there is likely no way to figure this out without randomly needing to buy something from Kale.

Yep, didn't meet him until I started Ranni's questline.

On the google thing again: as I mentioned those goddamned somber smithing stones 6 and 7. There are a couple of places that you can get them, but both are pretty out there for where I was in the game. The fact that I had 8 and 9 from just wandering and exploring was REALLY pissing me off, because I wanted to use them. Couldn't without 6 and 7. I started guessing on locations that would have them based on where I found the other ones. Never once did I go to the place(s) that you can actually get them, and the place where the bell bearing is that I could use (If I remember correctly) is still closed off to me until I get one more large rune. So, I googled where I could find those two. Luckily I could get them both in one place. Funny thing was, I had been there by accident once due to a trap, but left as quickly as I could because A, I was underpowered, and B, I didn't realize they were there at the time. It was still tricky to go through there the second time. Interesting trap though. :D
 
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I still have yet to cast a single spell. I feel like I'm doing quite a bit of damage to most enemies, but there are a few where I'm wondering if I need a backup weapon or some kind of magical enhancement. The Flying guy outside of Gurranq's room and the Tree boss south of there just aren't taking any damage at all. That's with a +21 Uchi (Heavy) and a 40 STR. Both do really heavy damage to me, too. I'm going to play around with some of the random items I have and see what I can do. Pretty much everything else tends to be manageable. Even the Bell Knights aren't too awful now.
Do you throw any items? Knives, fire pots, magic pots, etc, can be really useful. You can also put various grease on your weapon for lighting damage, etc. you can also do similar, to boost defence. Its all craftable.
 
Saved this from one of my Radahn attempts. Now I know the pain.


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you have to talk to the npc merchant near the start of the game
You needed to return there during the starting hours of the game multiple times to upgrade your weapon. It's how I found that line of dialogue, and probably most other people as well.

why the hell is <emote> some magical specific thing he responds to?
Been like this for a while now in the Souls games, using specific emotes at certain areas of the map 'unlocks' things. Wouldn't have felt weird if you've completed quests in previous Souls games.

But yes you do raise a very valid point, the open world has made the Souls way of doing quests almost impossible without a guide of some sort.
 
I stayed just behind my summons, then ran in on foot, hit him with the two attack charged combo of my sword, then tried to stay in close. I actually got him down to about 15-20% that way. I ran out of time though, and haven't been back yet. I'll probably utilize my horse a little bit on the next try, to get a bit of distance in before hopping off, and using that same attack strategy again.
I was about to write that you must be out of your mind, there's no way that you can get anywhere near Radahn on foot. But then I tried it and it turned out to be one of the easiest bosses in the game. All I did was button mash R1.

 
I was about to write that you must be out of your mind, there's no way that you can get anywhere near Radahn on foot. But then I tried it and it turned out to be one of the easiest bosses in the game. All I did was button mash R1.


I'm 100% melee and Radahn was melee as well. 🤷‍♂️
 
I was about to write that you must be out of your mind, there's no way that you can get anywhere near Radahn on foot. But then I tried it and it turned out to be one of the easiest bosses in the game. All I did was button mash R1.



Heh, I didn’t even think to try hopping on the horse :D
 
Finally caved in and went to, what I'm assuming, is the final floating island area at lvl 120.

I'm sure I'm still missing stuff.....but everything is getting way too easy now. Except for the Haligtree area. Fkkkkk that entire area. Stupid.
 
Do you throw any items? Knives, fire pots, magic pots, etc, can be really useful. You can also put various grease on your weapon for lighting damage, etc. you can also do similar, to boost defence. Its all craftable.

Not really :p I have boatloads of them, but haven't needed to. I'm used to hoarding items for specific Dark Souls bosses, and it seems like I've finally hit a couple foes where I might need them.
I started looking through my talismans (I just found another talisman bag) and setup a build where my STR is boosted up to 50. If I respec, I could easily do the same with DEX instead, too. I'm committed to the melee approach and I'm very confident in the Uchi, but I might be able to better optimize it.
 
I got stuck forever on the misbegotten warrior and crucible knight outside of Radahn. Finally I googled it and realized they despawn if you start the festival, so I did that and beat Radahn in two tries. Now I feel dumb.
 
I got stuck forever on the misbegotten warrior and crucible knight outside of Radahn. Finally I googled it and realized they despawn if you start the festival, so I did that and beat Radahn in two tries. Now I feel dumb.
I was a little mislead because of some NPC dialogue, I think an NPC told me to go fight in the festival (I forgot which), so I went there and fought Radahn (like 20 times), then left. I thought that was all that was there.

Then like 100 hours later I came back to the location an realized I missed everything. The place was literally empty the first time I went, so not sure what triggered it, maybe some obscure path I took into the place.
 
Its so strange that you can't jump on top of a glowing skull, to break it. However, jump next to it and brush it with your toes on the way up----and it breaks.
 
Huh. I haven't gone back to the castle with Radahn. There were some boss-level enemies in there before, but it was mostly empty for me, too. I ended up there because of a teleporter. In fact, I think most of my exploration in that region was via teleporters.
 
Its so strange that you can't jump on top of a glowing skull, to break it. However, jump next to it and brush it with your toes on the way up----and it breaks.
You can break them at the end of a roll too. Or the more obvious swing at it with a weapon. I prefer to use torrent because pickup is instant.
 
Is there some kind of special armor that I'm supposed to be wearing against the putrid tree spirit? Every one of his attacks are one shotting me. This is the first time in my 82 hours of play that I consider the game genuinely unfair.
 
Is there some kind of special armor that I'm supposed to be wearing against the putrid tree spirit? Every one of his attacks are one shotting me. This is the first time in my 82 hours of play that I consider the game genuinely unfair.
What's your vigor at? I survived all his attacks and grabs with some life left over wearing the armor you start the game with and about 48 vigor.

The Vigor stat is not like previous Souls games where you can take it to like 30-40 and be done. In this game (for melee characters) you probably want it to end up around 58-60. All the stats in fact have different breakpoints to previous Souls games.
For melees it's about 60 for vigor, about 50 for str/dex
For casters it's about 60 for vigor, about 60 for int/fai, about 30 for arcane
There's even higher breakpoints (like in the 80s) but those are for those doing specialized builds or those going into NG+

(obviously pro players or ranged builds don't need the high vigor)
 
Is there some kind of special armor that I'm supposed to be wearing against the putrid tree spirit? Every one of his attacks are one shotting me. This is the first time in my 82 hours of play that I consider the game genuinely unfair.
Is this the one at the end of the War Torn Catacomb? That one is pretty bad (probably the worst of all the tree spirits) as I think it does scarlet rot on every hit, plus lots of physical damage.
 
What's your vigor at? I survived all his attacks and grabs with some life left over wearing the armor you start the game with and about 48 vigor.
Oh damn, my vigor is only 21. That explains it. Still, I went through 82 hours of the game with < 21 vigor just fine, and some rando dungeon boss happens to hit harder than all of the main bosses so far, including the great Radahn himself? Seems really unbalanced.
Is this the one at the end of the War Torn Catacomb? That one is pretty bad (probably the worst of all the tree spirits) as I think it does scarlet rot on every hit, plus lots of physical damage.
That's the one! I'm giving up for now. I hope beating it gives a good item, perhaps the elden ring itself considering how hard it is.
 
That's the one! I'm giving up for now. I hope beating it gives a good item, perhaps the elden ring itself considering how hard it is.
My vigor is at... 23? I equipped armor trying to get as high of an immunity rating as possible. I have an Oleg summon at +5 and he dies around 1/3 of the way in. The moveset on the boss is not overly complex, and I really only had to worry about the grab and the scarlet rot AOE. I was using a greatsword with bloody slash and I was pre-emptively healing when I reached about half health.

I was at it for just under an hour, I think? The entire dungeon is B.S. I hated it LOL.
 
Commander Niall has been my wall so far... I'm not sure why. I can kill his two guards easily enough, tried just kiting one and fighting Niall to his second phase but as soon as his second phase hits, I have a hard time getting hits in.

I'm finding it difficult to get a hit in before he starts his next combo string. I've got him to do his full combo where he needs to take a breather, but those seem rare.

Leveled up my Nightglaive to apply a frost to it (suggested by a player message) and frost does seem to be an improvement over my golden halberd.

Still, not sure why I'm having such a hard time here. His moveset is not complicated, I *think* I know when I'm supposed to strike, but so far I have not defeated him.

Oh, also the Rykard character design is so good. Battle itself was a bit gimmicky, but that boss was so cool (and gross).
 
A couple of those damned tree spirits can be tough. Especially when they start spamming tough to punish attacks. I typically find the best way to fight them is to stay right at the end of their swing range and move in and out. They will do a 3-swing combo, but only if you stay in that specific range. Otherwise, they'll only swing once or twice...and they aren't particularly open after either of those. It's that 3rd swing that leaves them wide open.
 
I'm glad that I jumped into this game on release. This is probably a Top 5 GOAT for me and the community and memes that have built up around it while I'm immersed in it just make it better. I've put about 90 hours into it in the last month and am still exploring Altus and Leyndell so I'm pretty far behind some but I take solace in the fact that some of you bastards may have wandered across one of my many many bloodstains and had a laugh.
 
I'm still in awe of how damn big this game is. There are huge chunks of the game I haven't even seen yet. I'm trying to be diligent with exploring as much of each area as I can before moving on, but that isn't always possible. It's Dark Souls and TES rolled into one, and I'm having a blast with it. It's only April, but I don't see how anything else can possibly beat it out for Game of the Year.
 
So I have backtracked to hit a couple of areas I missed before proceeding but am now at the Land of Giants. For those that finished, how much of the game is left? I will be sad when it ends and am trying to be thorough so it lasts as long as possible.
 
Not sure if this is everyone's experience, but once I reached Lyndell (and the surrounding areas), I started gaining levels really quickly. I was around level 80-85 when I started those areas. Gaining levels felt like it had slowed down quite a bit. Now I'm gaining like 100K runes per boss if not more, and tough normal enemies are dropping multiple thousand. I went from 80's to 115 in a flash.
 
Not sure if this is everyone's experience, but once I reached Lyndell (and the surrounding areas), I started gaining levels really quickly. I was around level 80-85 when I started those areas. Gaining levels felt like it had slowed down quite a bit. Now I'm gaining like 100K runes per boss if not more, and tough normal enemies are dropping multiple thousand. I went from 80's to 115 in a flash.
The dumb bird farm can pump a huge amount of runes in a short time, but instead of that I also found that at the point of reaching Altus Plateau I was getting levels by exploring and progressing just as fast. I took a detour to do Nokstella and all that garbage which was also netting a bump in runes.
 
Misbegotten warrior + crucible knight double boss fight is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. This game just doesn't have the mechanics to support fighting two bosses at the same time. To top it off the arena is horrendous. So many tables and objects blocking your movement until you roll through them all. Really not enjoying my Caelid experience so far. Between this and the putrid tree I'm about to have an aneurysm.
 
Misbegotten warrior + crucible knight double boss fight is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. This game just doesn't have the mechanics to support fighting two bosses at the same time. To top it off the arena is horrendous. So many tables and objects blocking your movement until you roll through them all. Really not enjoying my Caelid experience so far. Between this and the putrid tree I'm about to have an aneurysm.

For what it's worth, I just completed that fight and I actually killed the Misbegotten Warrior before the Knight showed up. That was a first for me in boss fights that involve 2 enemies. What level are you and what type of weapons are you using? Are you using a summon to distract either of them? There's no shame in that, especially in multi-enemy boss fights. There's a shot you're just not powerful enough for them yet, too. The putrid tree in Caelid is an absolute sonofabitch no matter what, though.
 
I could easily kill the warrior but never could get past the Crucible knight. I accepted my lack of skill and just ended up bypassing them to get to radahn.
 
I could easily kill the warrior but never could get past the Crucible knight. I accepted my lack of skill and just ended up bypassing them to get to radahn.
You can parry most of his attacks which makes his phase two a lot easier. Example
The overhead is the easiest one to parry.
Even if you trigger Rahdan's ceremony which removes that fight, there's a few crucible knights scattered throughout the game.
 
You can parry most of his attacks which makes his phase two a lot easier. Example
The overhead is the easiest one to parry.
Even if you trigger Rahdan's ceremony which removes that fight, there's a few crucible knights scattered throughout the game.
Thanks I’ll try it, I just found it very annoying to have to kill the warrior every time then try and get used to the knight after. Phase 2 with the tail whips is what really threw me off.
 
Even if you trigger Rahdan's ceremony which removes that fight, there's a few crucible knights scattered throughout the game.
You can still do it after defeating Radahn. Just gotta talk to the ceremony announcer dude (he's just before the lift area that you used to get to Radahn), leave the castle, and come back. The castle gets repopulated with enemies, all of the once closed wooden doors are now open, and you can fight the misbegotten warrior and crucible knight.
 
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What level are you and what type of weapons are you using? Are you using a summon to distract either of them? There's no shame in that, especially in multi-enemy boss fights. There's a shot you're just not powerful enough for them yet, too. The putrid tree in Caelid is an absolute sonofabitch no matter what, though.
I'm at level 65 with 22 vigor. I'm gonna pump the vigor up and come back to it. Using a +10 guardian's swordspear at the moment with a fire ash of war.

I did use my very first summon for this fight, but even so, I can only get the misbegotten warrior to 15% or so before mr. crucible shows up.
 
I was having trouble with crucible knights at level 80 or so. I found Radahn easier than them and I actually beat him before I beat any.
When I went to fight Radahn, the whole castle was empty though, and the whole experience was preferable to most of Caelid.

Not sure if this is everyone's experience, but once I reached Lyndell (and the surrounding areas), I started gaining levels really quickly. I was around level 80-85 when I started those areas. Gaining levels felt like it had slowed down quite a bit. Now I'm gaining like 100K runes per boss if not more, and tough normal enemies are dropping multiple thousand. I went from 80's to 115 in a flash.
I was rather slow going from like 60-80, but this was partially because I was attempting stuff WAY above my level. I eventually found Radahn around level 70 and then after that I went into the crater. After my time down there and somehow ending up at Nok I jumped from 75 to 90 in a single rather unstressful evening.
At this point, I can equip my weapon and armor preference so 19/20 of my last levels were all straight HP, combined with getting some good smithing stones down in Nok and getting my weapon (Angels Wings Scythe.) up to +9, the games difficulty actually got quite a bit easier.

I do have the golden scarab equipped, which likely made a pretty substantial difference. Also found that in a rather terrible dungeon in Caelid.

Oh yeah, I also came across a hero grave with those fucking spiky wheeled chariots and I hated that bullshit so much.
 
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Thanks to whoever mentioned going back to Redmane and talking to the overseer to reset things. I ended up teleporting initially into the castle area for some reason and started the festival, so missed the misbegotten + crucible knight boss and the whole castle section. Pretty easy at level 108 with a +9 bloodhound fang … beat it first try in like 45 seconds 🙄 I’m feeling a little OP at the moment when it comes to bosses. Also beat the Godfrey one in the capital that I stumbled upon first try pretty quickly. That said I‘ve been dying in the capital plenty. Place is huge, it feels like the size of some entire video games …
 
Yeah, that gold ghost Godfrey didn't feel like a boss at all, some of the field enemies in the capital put up a tougher fight.

Beat Niall, Fire Giant, and Mohg today. Niall was definitely the toughest for me.
 
Thanks to whoever mentioned going back to Redmane and talking to the overseer to reset things. I ended up teleporting initially into the castle area for some reason and started the festival, so missed the misbegotten + crucible knight boss and the whole castle section. Pretty easy at level 108 with a +9 bloodhound fang … beat it first try in like 45 seconds 🙄 I’m feeling a little OP at the moment when it comes to bosses. Also beat the Godfrey one in the capital that I stumbled upon first try pretty quickly. That said I‘ve been dying in the capital plenty. Place is huge, it feels like the size of some entire video games …

In same spot...hardest boss fight for me recently was the two gargoyles down in the Neocron or whatever it's called. took me quite a few tries even with mimic tear ashes. Finally had a round where neither one used much poison.
 
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