Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

Been up the last two nights till stupid o'clock trying to get my current playthrough ready for the DLC. Ugh, much as I love this game, I don't miss my addiction to it.

Great to go back and refamiliarise myself with certain areas I don't already know like the back of my hand. Also, as this is a "no-farming" playthrough, I'm having to think harder about the order I tackle it in. Still use mimic tear where I can though.

Also, now I'm pretty familiar with the lore and how to "read" Elden Ring the correct way, it's very rewarding. I'm trying to do the NPC quests "correctly" - without a guide this is almost impossible, but I've got a pretty good handle on who to speak to and when these days, and I'm even finding some fun dialogue I hadn't heard before: Jarbairn talking in his sleep about how lovely and soft Diallos's hands are made me laugh.

Shaded Castle was never my favourite area (poison swamps, royal revanants), but fighting Elemer of the Briar was a blast. In my initial playhthrough I came to him quite late-game but he's a tough dude if you're only about Level 90.

Had a good old poke around Dominula Village too. A strange area that's more about vibe than difficulty. Bit strange that it's flanked on either side by similar-looking mini villages though - not sure about that decision really.

Last night I also did the majority of Volcano Manor. It's such a good legacy dungeon, and like all the best ones in this game I still get a bit lost and confused even though I've played it through a lot of times - especially the last part after Temple of Eiglay. It's much bigger than it is in my head.

I need some sleep

Ha I saw you were online when I was playing. I saw that all the big Souls youtube people dropped their 'I got to play the DLC for 3 hours' videos, do not want to see those. Although I did strategically click on one just for the new weapon classes, which sound extremely fun. Lots of throwing weapons that are non-consumable!

I took a peek at Vaati's one and he is known for getting straight to the matter with no intro, so I immediately switched it off. I am so excited for the DLC.

Also, I've been dipping my toes into multiplayer - something I never really fucked with before, mostly because I rarely seemed to match with anyone. But I've been putting down my sign for co-op a few times and if anything it's a neat way to experience these areas in a new way while earning some extra runes.

Might even try some pvp at some point.

I'm still confused about all these different multiplayer options though: What's the difference between half of them? Does it make a difference if I'm a recusant or a bloody finger? What are all these things?

Recusant & bloody finger are the same thing, no differences once you get it, just different quest paths. The other ones are basically the difference between putting your co-op sign down in a specific place vs sending it to a summoning pool (either nearby or faraway).

There's also the duelist sign - everyone used to have duels outside of the Raya Lucaria main gate, but I think that stopped after they introduced the arenas (although I don't know how active those are right now either?). If you try pvp I definitely recommend a lot of duels before invasions, which can be very frustrating in ER compared to the other games. Invasions require a lot of caution and a lack of mercy because everyone is capable of high damage weapon arts /spells/status effects, so they can end very quickly. In Dark Souls 3 there was a lot more room for playing around and silly hijinx imo.

Man if you don't get to fight Lady Tannith Snakegod in this DLC then it's no star

Haha. I killed her in Rykard's arena in my last playthrough so that I could fight her knight.

Seriously though, I'm hoping there are a few harkbacks and loose ends tied up in this thing beyond "here's some other bullshit and a bunch of new charcaters that are only tangentially related to the rest of the story".
Like, Rykard strongly hints that he will be back after you kill him, and the fact this major (but optional) sidestory doesn't have its own ending always felt sus to me

I feel you, but I'm wondering if they won't do anything that could conflict with the main game (ie you might not have encountered Rykard yet when you play the dlc)? Or maybe Final Form Rykard would make sense regardless of whether or not you killed him in the base game.

Very true. It's hard enough getting the npc quests to work properly

I've made it to the Mountaintops, which heralds the start of the part of the game I'm least interested in.

That said, one of the reasons I rushed through Leyndell is because I've come to realise my current quest this run-through is NOT to become Elden Lord.
It's to track down and kill Juno Hoslow. Not because I want to progress Diallos's quest. Not even because I want his whip. But because I want to finish all the Recusant quests before fighting Rykard and getting that sweet Blasphemous Blade.

It's interesting that you have to wait till you're well into the Mountaintops before you can finish that whole Recusant questline. My guess is that most people will just end up fighting Rykard before then.

Leyndell continues to confuse me, layout-wise. Even on my fourth playthrough, I don't feel like I truly understand the map of the city at all. There are so many side-streets, so many crossroads and distractions. Plus the enemies are SUPER TOUGH, so in having to fight them, I'm constantly being disoriented about where I am going. I can't even find the area with the well that takes you to the Shunning Grounds. It's HUGE even when compared to the other legacy dungeons in this game.

On my last playthrough Leyndell was the place that really stuck out as being just as labyrinthine the second time around. It took me forever to figure out the sewers, and I still have the sense that I missed things.

At a friend's 44th birthday party last night he asked if I could drop him the Magic Scorpion talisman, but I've never ever done Seluvis' quest properly.

Ah yeah I did that one on this playthrough (I'm trying to do all the quests "properly"). It's pretty convoluted

I did loads of Elden Ringing last night: Explored the first area of Mountaintops, fought Juno Hoslow, completed Diallos's quest in Jarburg, fought and killed Rykard, finished Tannith's quest, watched Patches expire(?!?!)

Thoguh it would be fun to livestream it from PS5, although wouldn't expect anyone to watch all this. If you do, apologies for the odd bit of seasonal allergy-related sniffling. After I stopped broadcasting I managed to get all the way to Mohg, but he kicked my arse.

I'd love to know how to edit videos down in YouTube but for some reason whenever I follow tutorials, my UI is different to the one I'm being shown.
Also, people were livechatting me during the broadcast but I couldn't see the comments - they were flashing up in the corner of my screen but I couldn't see them on my phone for some reason. This morning I logged into YouTube on my computer and I could see them there, but it was a bit annoying. Why is YouTube such a fiddle?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5It1WHaD3o

Beat Mohg after a fair bit of difficulty. Then I figured I'd start playing through to the Haligtree rather than re-do the Mountaintops/CFA again, since that's an area I've only played through once.

I'm a pretty big fan of Castle Sol on a ludic level. It's relatively bereft of enemies, but the ones you do fight are tough as nails, and some are partly invisible so you have to be on guard for the whole thing. On a lore level it's a little confusing though. My understanding is that the Lands Between don't have a celestial Sun, and most of the light comes from the Erdtree. But here's a faction who use the Sun as their banner symbol, and there's evidence that Miquella came here intending to cause an eclipse - but why and how, I don't know.

Once I got the secret medallion and took the Grand Lift Of Rold to the Consecrated Snowfields, I noticed a severe difficulty spike. Depending on your level, you can easily get one-shot by those Albinauric archers in the Snowfields. I also had tremendous difficulty fighting the Sanguine Noble that invades you when you get to the transporter that takes you to Mohgwyn Palace. Interesting that they place this so late into the game, whereas I could imagine the vast number of players take Varre's shortcut from Liurnia.

There's more to Consecrated Snowfields than first meets the eye - for those who plough through it due to the empty-looking whiteness of the area, it's worth poking around its peripheries. There are some cool things going on there you might have missed.

I, however, was keen to get to the Haligtree so I went to Ordina Liturgical Town. Man, I hate this area. I also hate Sellia for similar reasons. Zelda-style gamey puzzles while trying to avoid very tough enemies who can appear out of nowhere and one-shot you. Also my Faith build doesn't have that much in the way of ranged weapons.
The trick to this one turns out to be the use of the talismans that cover your sound and make you partly invisible. Carrying the Sentry Torch also means you should be able to spot the Black Knife Assasins, who can still find you and attack you if you're not careful. Thankfully they do not respawn if you get them first.
As for the archers on this level, it's a pain in the arse. Even with a good ranged weapon, their own range and ability to fire multiple arrows at a time can do serious damage to you. I've never enjoyed this place.

I'm now in the parkour-y section of the Haligtree. It's alright - the enemies aren't super tough, but it's easy to get lost in the network of branches, and when those marshmallow guys start trumpeting bubbles from on high, it's very off-putting.

I love the haligtree. Such a cool design. The whole thing including the legacy dungeon part.

I liked the Haligtree more on my recent playthrough when I thought of the upper section as one of those Sonic the Hedgehog bonus levels, with running past everything as the intended strat.

The Haligtree never posed a problem for me as a platforming area, but I found the bubble blowers extremely difficult to deal with. That trench run down the scarlet rot branch toward the trio of shitheads is nightmarish.

Elphail in comparison is prob my favourite single FromSoft area, perhaps tied with the entirety of 1-X in Demon's Souls and/or Undead Burg circuit in DS1

I'm running as an int/dex character in NG+2 currently (my only character, and the one I'll be using for the DLC), and attempted Ordina again dreading it. This time around, I retraced the steps to each candle and honestly I only really needed the Sentry Torch to off the black knife assassin for the first candle.

The other three I just needed to find the right path to, and for the last one, was able to block and then confront the archers enough to push them off the roof to get to the last candle. Only died twice in the process and it was much smoother. Didn't need to consult a guide.

For the Haligtree, which I have mostly cleared with the exception of Malenia (still need to beat her, took a break after like 20 attempts), I loved playing the first part as a magic user. Was able to mostly shoot down all the envoys and ants and get all the important items for once. Easily one of my favorite areas in the entire game - from the branches to the roots!

Malenia is such a pain though, she's extra challenging against a magic user I feel. Almost tempted to respec super bonk style (dual Great Stars, perhaps?) or back to my blood priest build of my first playthrough to off her.

If the DLC has at least one or two legacy dungeons on the level of the Haligtree or Farum Azula, it'll be legendary indeed.

this reminds me - didn’t i see an interview where they said they were tweaking the open world / legacy dungeon design approach? it wasn’t this one but this is something similar to what i saw. sounds like it will be v structured and maybe a bit less open.

“"Obviously it being exactly the same, but smaller, wouldn't quite cut it, so we wanted to approach from a sense of granularity, is the word we're using," he said. "How dense this map is, and the ratio of legacy dungeon to open field areas, and how they intertwine. This is something we wanted to explore anew in the DLC: In terms of recapturing that sense of scale but in a slightly different way with a slightly different granularity."”

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/hidetaka-miyazaki-erdtree-size-sense-of-discovery/

Yeah I'm guessing there's multiple "legacy dungeon" areas, but they'll be more integrated into the surrounding environs. So rather than Stormveil Castle being self contained, having it more integrated into Limgrave or something. If anything, I would be willing to bet we'll get something like Leyndell and Stormveil type areas somewhat closer together, with interconnecting passageways between each.

On another note, I'm super torn because the weather is so nice right now the last thing I want to do is mad binge video games, but that's precisely what I'll likely be doing next weekend.

Fr, why can't these games come out during winter.

right. sun’s come out for the first time in years in the UK.

Listened to a review on youtube (didn't want to watch visual spoilers) and it basically went so far as to say it's a whole game length addition. Between 40-120 hours of gameplay depending on how good or how complete you explore it. Nearly 100 new weapons and 4 legacy dungeons (to the main game's 6). JFC. SotET is essentially larger than Dark Souls 3. Then you have replay value with being able to use the weapons from the DLC in the main game on a new play through and alternate options in some NPC quest lines that have yet to be really sussed out yet.

XPs this really is a lousy time for this game to come out, but I'm booking Friday off anyway

Hey, you like revenants? You'll LOVE Elphael Brace of the Haligtree

I try and avoid that part

Farrrrk I need to git more gud, or I'll never be able to manage the DLC :(

I try and avoid that part

― octobeard, Wednesday, 19 June 2024 01:57 (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm trying to be a bit more thorough about parts I skipped over first time round. It does mean dying a lot though.
I mean, the Royal Revenants are just the start. There are ulcerated tree spirits and also putrid avatars that can fire multiple continuous two-shot homing-missiles at you from far away. I've always semi-cheesed the latter; never worked out quite how you're supposed to fight them properly.

My faithy knighty person would always cast heal on the revenants

What are these putrid avatars? I don’t recall anything with two-shot homing capability

I watched the IGN review of Erdtree and have elected to not break my gaming fast for this DLC. Looks fun! But I’m not gonna do it

Putrid avatars are those big lumbering tree Guardian minibosses. There are two in succession soon after the start of the Brace - one walking along a catwalk, another waiting for you further along the route, flanked by crossbow snipers. Both a severe pain

Yeah I learned the heal trick on the revenant only recently. They're so fast though, they sometimes reach me before I can cast. Plus there are ao many of them. I find I'm coming to the end if my FP flasks by the end, and then I have Cleanrot Knights and Crystallians to deal with straight after

Re: putrid avatars, oh right!

I think I spent four months of my life just running and re-running through Elphael. Cleanrot and Haligtree Knights made excellent dummies to test new builds and weapon choices and so on. Generally I found I was able to fight-back against most of the comers in that zone: wield a bonk for the Crystallians, heal the Revenants, learn the patterns of the Avatars. Aside from the trio of Crystallians guarding the Rotted Crystal Spear (I think?), those three guys I had to suss out one at a time, real danger zone there.

But the absolute hellbeast I never figured out an easy pattern are the Ulcerated Tree Spirits. Fuck those guys.

The putrid avatar on the Elphael bridge is the toughest one imo, between the poison and the confined space. I did better last time, the whole game is recognizing when they're going to do the homing missile as soon as possible and getting enough distance (normally circle strafing works, but not on the bridge).

I've got a soft spot for that second one because iirc I ran past and made it to the grace immediately beyond him before taking him on. Took the pressure off.

& it had been a bastard stretch of you died to get there

Oh yeah I think cheesing that one from the grace is the only way to go, lol.

thank you I'll have those runes back now let's go again

Oh I always had far more difficulty with the avatar guarding grace #2. I’d sneak through the Cleanrot dark room, deal with the crossbowfuckers, climb up the branch to the Halighelm room, save to grace, and bait the Halig Knights to come in before attempting that avatar

Best Mohg guide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dN7HCjqfxc

Oh my god, using Glintstone blades to kill the invisible scarabs is good -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDhoDThUIHc

How much do you all use shields in this game? Me, barely, apart from maybe right at the start...

But in DS2 I've got my shield up pretty much all the time.

Another difference is that in DS2 I'm basically rolling naked with no armour and the highest strength weapons and shield I can wear

i’m just always walking around with my shield up basically and relying on the very dodgy and not at all universally useful idea that i can get a guard counter in. also one of my builds is a tank so…

but i had covid last week and fancied a dex build play in limgrave, getting used to parrying etc. it takes some getting used to.

bloodborne was my entry to soulsborne and i completed with a dex build so i’m used to rapid sidestep as part of dancing round the enemy (ie zero shield usage). the sidestep weapon art isn’t close enough to do that reliably or responsively enough to make it useful.

Not at all except for parrying (especially Carian retaliation), but shields are still super good. It lets you pressure and do mix-ups, but I still have dumb biases against shields from my Dark Souls 1 days.

I did my very first playthrough as many do, with the biggest shield I could find (tower) and the highest damage weapon I could wield one-handed. Never really learned to roll properly, was scared of everything, just blocked and then counterattacked. Then I started watching youtube vids of people playing with two-handed katanas + no armor + dodging everything and I never really went back to shields. In DS3 it was always left-hand weapons or caestus parries for me. And I don't really like the uncertainty of not knowing whether an attack is going to break my guard, especially in pvp. I also try to minimize the number of things I need to think about, so would rather just focus on dodging rather than deciding whether to block or dodge. So while I do think there are advantages to not using shields (your left hand is free for spells or other weapons), a good player with a shield can be scary.

These Revenants! They kill me before I can even use that healing spell, every time!

the guts sword is one of the better shields in the game so all the time i guess

Best Mohg guide

I just watched my partner summon her Mimic and smash Mohg with repeated blasts of Comet Azure fueled by the Cerulean Hidden Tear before he even "nihiled". What other strategy do you need? Just get a couple larval tears and make quick work of him.

I remember spending an entire afternoon guide digging to get his shackle and the Purifying Crystal Tear to even get to his 2nd phase.

Spending an hour+ repetitively learning a boss's moveset so that my reflexes can respond to their cues on a subconscious level is how I get my kicks I guess

First playthrough I was drawn to dual wield, roll at random, hit the buggers more than they hit you and make them bleed. Sort of didn't believe that shields actually protected you against big things and guard breaks/staggers made me nervous. NG+, with a lot of stamina, learned to stand my ground and counterhit & came to love my no skill brass shield +25.

Also experimented with carian parry - a lot of fun but never really got consistent. Keep it on a back-up shield tho.