Vote for best Elden Ring legacy dungeon

Are we not counting Siofra/Nokron and Deeproot Depths as dungeons?

Stormveil is second only to Hyrule Castle as my favourite designed castle in a game

Leyndell is spectacular, “the Paris of gaming”

Rays Lucaria is enormously underrated, traipsing across the rooftops is wonderful

But I had to vote for Haligtree/Elphael because there is no other place like it in gaming or the real world

I loved Raya Lucaria's music and atmosphere. Its hard to choose though.

I can easily vote for worst based on ugly or fucking annoying: Castle Sol and Volcano Manor.

I think Stormveil is hard to beat.

Miquella's Haligtree was a pain in the ass, probably died more there than anywhere else. But I thought Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree was dope. Like an infiltration mission.

Volcano Manor definitely my least favorite.

It's Stormveil for me. Even when I occasionally invade there now, which has the benefit of giving you more random spawn points and letting you wander around without worrying about enemies, I find new little parts and connections, it's really insane.

And even though I can generally get around it's one of the few From areas where I don't really have a map of it in my head, I have to feel it out every time. This could be seen as a mark against it but I think it's a testament to the labyrinthine complexity.

What do people not like about Volcano Manor, the ugly lava? It's more of a traditional giant loop, but I liked the dawning realization that it was so much larger than I initially thought.

Are we not counting Siofra/Nokron and Deeproot Depths as dungeons?

― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Friday, May 5, 2023 2:50 AM (fourteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Good point. I took these off Fextralife. I guess maybe these count more as open areas than dungeons? I do think they're great though.

For me, Stormveil is one of the best designed levels in any game I've ever played.

I've replayed the game maybe four times now, and every time I get to Stormveil I seem to find a new bit I didn't know existed. It's also full of those "I can see my house from here!" moments where you'll be able to see a rampart you walked across five minutes ago from a new angle.

I also LOVE how, if you go to the Precipice Of Anticipation (where you start off and fight/get killed by the Grafted Scion), you can grap you telescope and examine from afar the whole outer wall of the Castle, see the part where the Stabhawks get you, and where you can jump off a ledge and fall down and down before battling with the Crucible Knight.

It's just so good.

Rays Lucaria is enormously underrated, traipsing across the rooftops is wonderful

Yes, this

I can easily vote for worst based on ugly or fucking annoying: Castle Sol and Volcano Manor.

― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Friday, May 5, 2023 6:58 AM (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I am a big big fan of Volcano Manor. What's not to like? I love the inside of the building itself and the way it's mostly a hub where you talk to characters and get new missions - that's the closest to a populated world that I believe FromSoft have dared to go. I think it's a bit of a shame that Leyndell wasn't a bit more like that. I think it would have been really brave to have Leyndell seem like an actual populated city, even though I know this isn't the Witcher 3 or whatever.

Castle Sol, though, I thought was a bit undercooked? I've got to say that pretty much everything north of Leyndell has a slightly unfinished feel to it - it's sprawling and empty, and lacks the pleasing conciseness of earlier parts of the game. Castle Sol is the epitome of that - it's a bit eerily quiet and doesn't really feel like a properly established thing with its own vibe, more just an empty mini-dungeon with a handful of very tough enemies (like the teleporting Crucible Knight who can fuck right off)

Volcano Manor has some of the creepiest enemies in the game - those Albinaurics with the thing on their head that clamber towards you really fast while shrieking is pure horror movie stuff

^ that’s a Banished Knight, and I LOVE the hyperpowered one guarding some talisman— also iirc the only source of the unaltered banished knight headwear in the game?

Castle Sol is such a superlative PvP arena that I can’t dislike it;

Volcano Manor is prob my least-favourite; I don’t like the town area with the poison flung from rooftops and random dogs and an abductor, I don’t like DUMPLINGS! in the dark, I don’t like Rya’s quest line or it’s denouement, I hated Rykard (and would always sever when summoned to help kill him), I hated the fact that two weapons had to be farmed there (Magma Blade, Gelmir staff), I hated the random magma wyrm. I liked the little detour to find the dagger talisman, and I liked Godskin Dude as a mini-boss, that’s basically it

I asked my Elden Ring fan bf and he's putting in a vote for Crumbling Farm Azul.

*Farum?

And Azula, jfc I need to read over my posts before posting.

It's Farum but I would play a From farm sim.

If you hate Rykard you hate fun, and if you hate Rya you hate my life. sorry fgti

Rya was one of my fave NPCs, definitely one of the most memorable. Did not love Rykard, even in the tradition of From gimmick weapon bosses (Storm King, Yhorm).

I like gimmick bosses generally I guess, but just found Rykard to be tedious in comparison to Yhorm and Storm King and Dragon God and so forth. Worse: if you get summoned to help but aren’t in the habit of carrying around a *cough* “shunter” then you either go home or slap on the Firedrake talisman and stand in the lava pressing L1 and it sucks

Also he’s ugly to the eyes and I never really liked the Blasphemous Blade as a weapon (despite how popular and powerful it is, I just found Taker’s Flames to be boring)

Fighting Tanith’s Crucible Guardian was a good fight tho and I love that after spending your entire acquaintanceship being the embodiment of poise she ends her star turn gorging herself to death at the buffet, now THAT’S an ending

stormveil is the best but elpahel is my favourite so voting for the latter

My fave NPCs were Fia, Patches, Grape Lady, Pope and Kenneth. Grape Lady in particular was exceptionally creepy. Wish there was more to learn about Vyke, his story fascinates me

i liked rykard solely because of the va hamming it up

RARRRRGGHHH join the serpent king as famileeeee

Re: “the Haligtree is annoying”, the actual tree and the obscenely difficult bubbly trench run are just the beginning, the second half (with the misbegottens and the hyper-powered Haima sorcerers) was very cool

As for Elphael, I tended to hang out there with my co-op sign turned on and attempt to clear out every enemy without taking a hit. Between the Cleanrots, the Haligknights, the Crystalleans and the Revenants, it was a heavy task, and I never got bored of it (until I did)

forget not getting hit, how the fuck anyone can take out a revenant at all is a mistery to me...
no wonder i gave up on sekiro

Rykard performance is all time and the perfect meme

Revenants are so much harder than anything in Sekiro, lol. They're sooo aggressive and jerky, Sekiro is like playing chess by comparison.

(I know about the trick to use healing spells on them but I did not have any healing spells)

I'm not a big fan of Crumbling Farum Azula. Maybe it's because I've played through it a lot of times and it's kind of monochrome with similar enemies throughout? I dunno. Placidusax is pretty incredible. The rider on the steps before you get to Malikech is really tough!

It's super weird to me that this game, which I played more recently than the rest of them (bar Demon's Souls Redux), has proven less memorable to me than some of the other games. I mean, I remember tons! But some of the best stuff from the other games (particularly DLC) sticks in my mind more, for some reason. No idea why. Surely when the DLC drops and I dive back in it will all come back to me. I hope!

I still havent completed farum azula or haligtree. And I've not dared try the shunning grounds at all ha.
For sheer beauty I want to vote for Leyndell but as stated above, its a pity so much of the infrastructure wasnt able to be explored.

BTW did y'all know revenants are *really* easy to kill by just using a big AoE healing spell?

Shunning Grounds are infamous but I guess I kind of like them for their fiendishness. I wouldn't bother with them first time round unless you're specifically going for the Chaos ending, but they're worth doing on a subsequent playthrough

I still need to try the revenant trick. What horrible things they are

The whole Prince of Death thing in Stormveil has to be one of the greatest things in any game though, right? Just, such an important and integral part of the lore but so easy to miss. And there's a lot to miss but likelihood is, you could just stumble onto it by accident anyway

Ha I happened across a cheese for that tree spirit by chance when i was online looking for something else nearby. theres a ladder you can scale (if you can sprint past the treet spirit quick enough). follow a few corridoors and you come out ona lege way above the pit and you can *just* hit the boss if youve a longrange enough spell. Took a while but dispatched him nicely, so I could then get all the pits loot easily.

Oh man, I don't think I know about that ledge. Mad. It's really silly how there's a bloodstain near the big goofy face and if you click it, you see how Rogier got injured. I think it actually triggers extra dialogue, but if you didn't know it was there you'd think it was just a regular online bloodstain

Guessing this will be a Stormveil walkover but I cannot vote for anything else - first love, and the endless interconnections & blinding realisations.

Tempted by the late game ones that are comparatively on rails - like my Miquella's Haligtree/Elphael stretch felt like a really tight challenge, exploiting every tool & advantage I had to bash & sneak my way along a narrow path. But I didn't love the MH half, pissing about on branches.

Shaded Castle was the one that I came across basically accidentally & so I've got a soft spot for it - organic confusion and fear & trying to bomb across the filth to get safe.

Ruin-strewn precipice was similar - less fear, but this fun sense of 'ok, keep climbing and let's see what happens' when I didn't know where I was going or where it would lead.

Agree on Leyndell's underpopulation, but it is lovely & pleasingly complex. I don't really know it well enough yet.

Sol and Redmane probably towards the bottom of my list - not many real memories of them.

Leyndell for me. Love the atmosphere, the opulent rooms with the perfumers, the lone page playing the violin, the cliff with goldmask and the climb up the tree to the boss. And probably my fave music.

Leyndell for me. Love the atmosphere, the opulent rooms with the perfumers, the lone page playing the violin, the cliff with goldmask and the climb up the tree to the boss. And probably my fave music.

Leyndell for me. Love the atmosphere, the opulent rooms with the perfumers, the lone page playing the violin, the cliff with goldmask and the climb up the tree to the boss. And probably my fave music in the game.

Leyndell for me. Love the atmosphere, the opulent rooms with the perfumers, the lone page playing the violin, the cliff with goldmask and the climb up the tree to the boss etc. And probably my fave music in the game.

Haha sorry

Haha sorry

No problem no problem no problem

The infamous pipey maze of the SubShun Grounds was not-as-punishing as the lobster hell and the pretty music death shaft

My least-favourite area I think tho was Caria Manor. The enemies were so repetitious (hands, surprise ghost knights). Learning that “fire kills hands easy” prob would make it simpler but I still hated it

Not a legacy dungeon proper or anything but I do have a sweet tooth for the extreme challenge of Ordina— the deadly Albinauric snipers both within and without, and the treacherously difficult Black Knives

I liked Ordina! But I was a mage with useful tools for that one - with an invisible spell/silence footsteps combo, the black knives dont see or hear you, so you only have to deal with a couple snipers. And it felt like a snow version of Sellia, which I also enjoyed (the puzzle of how to get to each tower lantern).

I feel alone in my reluctance to vote for Stormveil haha. It felt like the grimmest/grimiest/hardest, it was the one I had to play most repetitively (bcs I was so useless at this game when I started).

Decided my Sellen-shaded heart had to go for Raya Lucaria.

(But I have to say, I'd hve voted for Sofria/Nokron if it was a choice).

Yeah I voted Haligtree/Elphael #1, but Stormveil would've been my #2 and Leyndell my #3... and Farum Azula my #4, kinda surprisingly, it's such an amazing idea/execution, marred only by that pointless blightvomit dead-end section and randomdragonboredom

not going to vote bc i never finished the game and there are several dungeons on here i didn't see or didn't fully explore, but leyndell is definitely my favorite of the ones i know. especially when you first arrive and are looking down from the cliff and can see this whole huge open city in front of you

It's either Stormveil or Leyndell mk. 1 for me. I love how Stormveil somehow manages to be simultaneously tight *and* sprawling. Leyndell is more like a big, weird amusement park.

I’d be interested in everyone’s POOs, armament-wise

I mained about half the available weapons at a certain point; I love the Miquellan Knight Sword and the Guardian Sword Spear but if I could only pick one it’d be the shameful and wonderful lance

Sellia and Ordina and anywhere you need to go around lighting torches can go suck a fuck imho

POO? I love the Envoy's Long Horn. Bash bash bash + bubbles.

But… I default to katanas. I went in last night after a long break - found myself with the long horn equipped but switched back to Uchi/Naga while I was finding my feet. Muscle memory follows their rhythms.

I’m the opposite, I’ve never been a serious katana user in any From game. When I was playing a bloody build in ER, Rivers made the most sense (but I think I used dual curved swords instead); when I played a mage, there really is only Moonveil, it’s just too good— aside from that, no katanas for me

I love the idea of the dual wield Uchi/Naga w the Wakazashi, tho, such a neat idea, never once came across another player running it tho

Same woof, I always start with basic katanas in these games (and in ER I ended with them too). I think the only aberration was DS3, where straight swords were just too good and every character was Lothric Knight Sword plus some long offhand weapon (scythe or halberd).

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Stormveil for me. Really enjoyed the secret passage into Bloodborne vibes of Volcano Manor. Farum Azula is neat but nowhere near as enjoyable (and yes those dragons and that really irritating and pointless deathblight spur).

i really enjoyed Lleyndell and Raya Lucaria. But none match the intricate labyrinth of Stormveil.

Haven’t done Haligtree/Elphael yet. Just taking my time, strolling around.

Currently dual wielding the unfortunately named rivers of blood katana and uchigatana, and yeah, it feels v like the dex build i first used to complete bloodborne so i’m happy.

I'd forgotten my initial discomfort with RoB's name.

Currently overlevelling a STR/FAI build & dumping points into END so I can just stand there behind my big shield, in my big armour and hit things with my colossal sword. It's fun!

see you’re not getting the fun of mistiming iframes and shouting FUCK! at the telly.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Lol at the Lake of Rot vote.

Surprised Leyndell only got one vote

Would you vote for anything different after Shadow Of The Erdtree?

I enjoyed Midras Manse - that's exactly what I come to these games for - although it was a bit short and presaged by a long, kind of boring area.

Overall I'd say Shadowkeep is a pretty effing good dungeon. I can't really tell you where it starts and ends though as it's sprawling and envelops/includes the Specimin Storehouse (which is cool + infuriating in equal measure). I really liked the New Londo Ruins-style water drainage feature at the Church District entrance - think that was one of the best bits of the DLC.

What are your thoughts on SOTE in general now it's been out a while?

There was a generally-more DS1 vibe to the legacy dungeons/mini-dungeons. Enir-Ilim was probably the most visually interesting, but none of the dungeons themselves topped anything in the base game, for me. What blew my mind was the verticality of the whole world, especially that waterfall-descent and the eventual abyss dive. Definitely SOTE is less tattooed on my brain compared to the base game

A lot of these places and bosses tend to blend together for me, as far as From goes, but there are a couple of areas in SOTE that have stuck with me, like the place with the purple flowers or the spooky frenzy woods, though I wish there was more to do in those places. I like the attention to detail in Midras Manse (which I had to google), reminded me of various other moody libraries in various From games.

I do like how Erdtree is basically a whole separate open world. Iirc past From DLCs have been more self-contained areas that you have to find your way into.

For those that have played Elden Rings more than once, if not several times, does the world start to feel less open, or more empty? I was watching that video about Red Dead Redemption 2, about how even on a fifth playthrough you can discover new secrets, conversations, essentially hidden cut scenes. I know that's never been the case with Souls games, not really, but does the I-now-know-where-everything-is Souls formula hold up in Elden Ring's open world?

I wish I would have come across Midra's Manse earlier, instead of it being the very last thing I did.

I agree that Shadowkeep is insane, but also for how it connects to all these different parts of the overworld map. When the dlc is working at its best it feels like one big legacy dungeon, and it's cool how they were able to blur the lines somewhat.

I watched some of those Bingo Brawlers vids that Josh recommended and it's fun, but also made me realize how little I remember how parts of the map connect and where everything is (compared to most of the base map and the other From games that are definitely "tattooed on my brain", but SOTE is also knottier and more mysterious in a good way).

I don't have a strong urge to play SOTE again after my first playthrough because unlike the base game I strongly doubt there's much more for me to discover or revisit. I'm fairly confident I found about 80-90% of it in my first playthrough whereas with the base game there was always a different ending or a hidden cave or a different way to play through it.
For all of SOTE's map complexity, there wasn't quite this sense that I would happen upon a new cool thing if I kept poking around its corners

I wish I was wired into wanting to replay games, because I would be less resolved to discover or look up everything on my first playthrough, wanting to complete as much as possible (silly benchmark "kill five whatevers"-like challenges aside). SOTE was the first of these I started relatively blind, but then I relented. Too much From shit locks you in or out of things based on decisions you unwittingly make. Oh, you killed this one guy? Tough, now you're stuck doing this other thing. Oh, you crossed this invisible barrier? Oh well. You missed the hidden room behind the other hidden room, with the hidden level within in? I guess you'll never see that until you start over. That sort of thing drives me a little nuts, especially when the games are notorious for not giving hints or help when it comes to progression, proper or not. It's cool to discover things, but more frustrating not to.

It's a bit of a shame (and also perplexing) there's no trophy system in the DLC. That's a big reason I replayed the base game a bunch of times