Elden Ring

[Fencers]

I am lvl 73 and not even halfway done with the game. How the fuck people finish this game at around lvl 70-80? DO they skip everything?

A lot of folks run past monsters and/or don't really take riding/exploring everything. So that cuts down on time. However, to be fair the game's main "sections" (if you will) is pretty compact.

[Gref]

A lot of folks run past monsters and/or don't really take riding/exploring everything. So that cuts down on time. However, to be fair the game's main "sections" (if you will) is pretty compact.

I am trying to explore every place in the game. Not looking at any guides. I figured that even with my extensive exploring I am still missing a lot of things. Especially the quests. I have no idea what to do with their little explanations. All those secrets etc. On my second run, I will use a guide for sure to see and finish every quest. THis game is simply awesome. What pisses me of is the fact that even with rx6800 GPU I get stutters here and there and it is fucking annoying. Cant they patch their shit code ffs

[Talon8669]

Yeah! I've spent quite some time in Caelid already, but never met that dark knight on a horse. Then I went afk close to an NPC merchant and from my kitchen I suddenly heard boss music and was like WHAT IS GOING ON. Just ran back to see there's a boss fight in the middle of a road, lol. He just wrecked me and after that I couldn't find him again. I was like... ok?
_____

On another note: I f* hate those tiny caves that you enter from "Ruins" where bosses are as tall as the ceiling and have such large attacks or weapons that they basically cover half of the room already. The two pumpkin heads come to my mind or the royal ghost or what its name was... it's really lazy design and my only gripe with the game at the moment. And you can see that this stuff hasn't been properly tested because you can mount up in those rooms (and that's how I did those fights).

Death birds, nights Calvery and bell bearing hunters show up at night.

[kail]

Great stars mace

Yep, that mace carried my fight with Melania. Damn nice strength weapon with good dmg, native bleed, and some hp on hit. Slap golden land on it and I'm able to easily poise break crucible knights.

[ThatsOurEric]

I must say, Crucible Knight is hard enough without the game being bipolar into deciding whether or not
I successfully rolled away from an attack or not despite my pressing the fucking roll button.

And is there any good reason why your character breaks auto-lock the minute they backstab/riposte?
I mean my target isn't dead. Why the fuck am I dropping the lock on. There is no good reason for this.

[Fencers]

I am trying to explore every place in the game. Not looking at any guides. I figured that even with my extensive exploring I am still missing a lot of things.

This is how I am playing as well. Other than tips given out here in this thread and or a few posts I see on twitter, I have not clicked one video of the release game guides or builds.

I also fight everything in my path unless it's a boss run. And I spend a lot of time just riding up to everything in the game to look at it, think about how it's designed, and make notes in Word about that design. My primary interest in video games is game design, more than actual playing.

This game is simply awesome.

I agree. I have not enjoyed a game this much since maybe Symphony of the Night.

What pisses me of is the fact that even with rx6800 GPU I get stutters here and there and it is fucking annoying. Cant, they patch their shit code ffs

I just have a 1080ti on my PC, it runs crummy. So I play on PS5 mostly.

[Devilyaki]

I must say, Crucible Knight is hard enough without the game being bipolar into deciding whether or not
I successfully rolled away from an attack or not despite my pressing the fucking roll button.

And is there any good reason why your character breaks auto-lock the minute they backstab/riposte?
I mean my target isn't dead. Why the fuck am I dropping the lock on. There is no good reason for this.

Think he is hard cause you can meet him so early on in your run. He was a good boss to teach me parry though.
Then he is just a mob later :/

[minteK917]

I have a lore theory. It's a bit unrefined, maybe someone can help fill in the blanks or tell me where I'm wrong.

"spoilers in the breakdown"



Melina is Godwyn. Marika used the tarnished (us) to free herself.

It requires understanding a few things.

1) The great runes of the Elden Ring dictate the rules of the world. So death is different in this world since Marika removed the rune of death from the Elden Ring, hence why she is called "the eternal". You don't die like you do in reality. So Godwyn is not actually dead in the sense we think of death. Either is Marika.
2) Ranni and Godwyn both "died" on the night of the black knives, which Ranni orchestrated and both had half of the rune of death branded into them. This explains the connection between Ranni and Melina (Godwyn). They share the connection through the rune, though I feel like their deaths on the same night are more than coincidence (haven't figured this out yet)
3) We don't know who Melinas mother is, though she says her mother gave her, her purpose inside the Erdtree. Who is locked inside the Erdtree? Just Radagon and Marika and the Elden beast. So its likely Marika is her mother and this also would fit in with Godwyn, since he's the only child of hers unaccounted for.
4) The greater will (the fingers) chose Marika to be the Elden Ring originally. Not too long ago they started to groom Ranni to replace her. Marika found out and shattered the Elden Ring, which is also literally her physical body. Hence, why you see her husk at the end of the game, but since she can't die she's still alive in some way.
5) It gets a bit confusing since we don't exactly know the rules on how Marika and Radagon are the same entity, but we do know they are also independent of each other since they can mate, Radagon has his own greater seal, and since Radagon had a life with Renalla. There is evidence Radagon and the Elden beast (controlled by the greater will) imprisioned her within the Erdtree after she shattered the ring, since Radagons greater seal on the Elden Ring is literally order. it would make sense that he felt he needed to control her to preserve order after she shattered the ring and sealed her within the tree.
6) There is evidence Marika brought the tarnished (us) to this realm to free her. I also think she used Melina to guide and help us get inside the tree (where we would run into Radagon and Elden Beast). More evidence comes from the blacksmith in Roundtable whom says he was put there by Marika and his purpose was to craft a weapon for the tarnished to kill a god. Well, after you kill the Elden beast it says "god felled".
7) Lord Gideon also mentions that he's seen inside Marika and says it's not possible for a tarnished to be an Elden Lord. It's possible he literally meant it and she tricked us into thinking we would be Elden Lord and instead we just brought her, her runes back and slayed her captors. Freeing her.

Melina is probably not godwyn. For rannis idea to work someone else soul had to die with half the curse. Which was her brothers death. Hes cursed to be a souless undead now it seems like. Its likely melina is just one of her other kids.

Also got to remeber not all Marika/Rodagon offsprings are the same. Only 3 are actual similar gods, Ranni, Miquella and Malenia. Godwyn being a demi god, probably does not have a dual body thing or any claim to godhood.

I put more stake in Melina being the other half of Ranni. But they might not be aware of it. Of the full gods kid of Marika, Ranni is the only one where her origin is not clear as lunara cannot be her real mother. At the start of the game, both characters give you belonging from the same person, the original owner of torrent, someone they are both somehow connected to, we dont know who that is. During the chaos ending, Melina swears to hunt you down, opening her left eye and reveals a blue eye similar to Rannis doll. My theory is that these gods might not be aware they are two people. Why Ranni is two women, i dunno. When ranni used death to kill her body, it might also have done what ever damage it did to melina.

And as for Miquella abd Malenia. They are spoken of as twins, but they might not have been. They picture the same as Marika and Rodagon. A direct opposition. They might not be twins but again the same person. Miquella is cursed to be infinitly young and preserved with his mother golden mane. Malenia is cursed to rot from the inside forever and has her dads red hair. So for anyone else they might seems like twin, but since Marika and Rodagon used to be separated people at some point, the same could be true of Malenia and Miquella.

[Mojo03]

Melina is probably not godwyn. For rannis idea to work someone else soul had to die with half the curse. Which was her brothers death. Hes cursed to be a souless undead now it seems like. Its likely melina is just one of her other kids.

Also got to remeber not all Marika/Rodagon offsprings are the same. Only 3 are actual similar gods, Ranni, Miquella and Malenia. Godwyn being a demi god, probably does not have a dual body thing or any claim to godhood.

I put more stake in Melina being the other half of Ranni. But they might not be aware of it. Of the full gods kid of Marika, Ranni is the only one where her origin is not clear as lunara cannot be her real mother. At the start of the game, both characters give you belonging from the same person, the original owner of torrent, someone they are both somehow connected to, we dont know who that is. During the chaos ending, Melina swears to hunt you down, opening her left eye and reveals a blue eye similar to Rannis doll. My theory is that these gods might not be aware they are two people. Why Ranni is two women, i dunno. When ranni used death to kill her body, it might also have done what ever damage it did to melina.

And as for Miquella abd Malenia. They are spoken of as twins, but they might not have been. They picture the same as Marika and Rodagon. A direct opposition. They might not be twins but again the same person. Miquella is cursed to be infinitly young and preserved with his mother golden mane. Malenia is cursed to rot from the inside forever and has her dads red hair. So for anyone else they might seems like twin, but since Marika and Rodagon used to be separated people at some point, the same could be true of Malenia and Miquella.

The thing about Godwyn soul dying though, is that death isn't possible because of the removal of the death rune from the Elden Ring, so his soul is still around somewhere, just not currently in his body, even if he's not Melina, it's somewhere. I don't totally get how the engraved death rune on Ranni and Godwyn works though, so maybe I'm wrong about that (though Ranni is clearly still around?)

Melina opening her blue eye at that ending does confuse me a bit and potentially hampers my theory on Godwyn, though I think I'm right about the Marika stuff.

One issue I see though, is that the Ranni we interact with, is not actually Rannis real body and she actually looked more Radagon/Melania in both body and hair color (red) based on her body at the top of the tower. We don't know her eye color though. We interact with a doll she created that's modeled after a snow witch she learned and looked up to a child. So the blue eye on the Ranni we interact with is from the doll, not real Ranni. Maybe that snow witch is Melina?

There is also dialogue that suggests Melina is the true leader of the black knives. The theory gets even more interesting when you consider that Melina's moves and weapon she uses to fight on Morgott (if you choose to summon her) are extremely similar to the black knife assassins we fight in the game. The dagger is literally a holy version of the black knife blade. Same shape and size, etc, but instead of black it's holy (Godwyn was head of the golden order and poster child for holy magic)

Torrents previous owner could just be another tarnished that failed before us and were just next in line. Who knows how many came before us and tried and failed to get to the Erdtree, but that's just a guess. There is dialogue that suggests he only helps who is "worthy", so maybe just the best of the best candidates.

I'm not sure if we'll get answers before the DLC (which seems likely to happen), but I'm definitely curious. The lore is actually pretty interesting after watching a few YouTube videos on it!

[Jastall]

Respecced from DEX/STR to DEX/INT. Not sure about my choice. I play with mouse and fiddling around changing weapons, flasks and spells with the arrow keys is a truly miserable experience, but then I figured I need a special item to enable respec and only had 1 of them, no idea where I found it in the first place. Guess I'll power through until I nab another. I almost do better just switching back to old Bloodhound's Fang than using the items relevant to my build.

[RobertoCarlos]

Respecced from DEX/STR to DEX/INT. Not sure about my choice. I play with mouse and fiddling around changing weapons, flasks and spells with the arrow keys is a truly miserable experience, but then I figured I need a special item to enable respec and only had 1 of them, no idea where I found it in the first place. Guess I'll power through until I nab another. I almost do better just switching back to old Bloodhound's Fang than using the items relevant to my build.

Larval tear is what you are after. There are plenty of them around.

Also you're probably using it already but dont forget about the short cut menu for assigning spells/items

[Jastall]

Larval tear is what you are after. There are plenty of them around.

Also you're probably using it already but dont forget about the short cut menu for assigning spells/items

I do, but instead of hotkeys they're bound to shift+(insert key). Not helpful, especially in the heat of combat where it's easy to press shift+attack which just switches between dual and single wield when you might not want to. Then I try to use my special, stand around like a doofus and get smashed for half my health bar.

I'll see what I do. But the controls are likely just too awful for me to bother with anything but the basic mongo builds with big swords. A shame but it is what it is.

[RobertoCarlos]

I do, but instead of hotkeys they're bound to shift+(insert key). Not helpful, especially in the heat of combat where it's easy to press shift+attack which just switches between dual and single wield when you might not want to. Then I try to use my special, stand around like a doofus and get smashed for half my health bar.

I'll see what I do. But the controls are likely just too awful for me to bother with anything but the basic mongo builds with big swords. A shame but it is what it is.

Shift+D is quite different to Shift+left mouse click.

ive done it a few times myself but hardly enough times for it to be noticable. I'd say just stick it out a bit longer and get more muscle memory for your new style

[Poppincaps]

Level is entirely relevant, you have over 2k in Elden Ring without even trying that hard along with over 10 healing flasks even from moderate amounts of exploration if the bosses didn't hit hard it would be literally impossible to die. Also if we're talking % of health wise nameless king, soul of cinder and princes all hit pretty damn close to what the later bosses in Elden Ring do. On top of this your character is capable of chunking bosses way harder then in previous games due to the ridiculously high scaling from level.

Even still with all the crazy scaling, outside of a single exception in Malenia imo Elden Ring gets easier the deeper in the game you are so I can't even imagine a world where the bosses hit weaker. It would be an absolute joke. Early and mid game main story bosses are significantly harder then the late games ones if you don't out level them, though I guess they nerfed Radahn so that might not be true of him anymore but haven't seen him post nerf.

Honestly, I think bosses are actually balanced pretty well. It's mainly random enemies and I guess certain overworld bosses like that Death Rite Bird in the Mountaintops of the Giants that felt like they were hitting harder than they should. Those archers in the town with the invisible assassins would chunk my health out of nowhere. It was pretty annoying. Personally, other than the fact that I feel like they should've had more health I feel like the final 3 main story bosses are harder than like Godrick, Rennala, and Rykard. I haven't done Radahn since the nerf but he'd probably be like the 2nd or 3rd hardest boss in the game though.

[RobertoCarlos]

Death Rite bird in mountaintops hits hard but so does holy damage to undead.

Enchant weapon with holy damage melts that boss.

[exochaft]

That fucking bear in the woods needs a serious hard nerf.

The large bears were something I was struggling with for a while, but I was used to ranging enemies to try to blast them while maintaining range. Eventually, I changed up my strategy and stuck close to the bears as their speed and attack range is huge. Bears got a lot easier when I would strafe right next to them as their attacks then to overextend, giving you free hits on their legs and butt. I tend to strafe counter/anti-clockwise out of habit, so I don't know if the attack swipes are easier in that direction of the opposite. Give it a shot and see if the bears become less of an issue... although I do find them still to be some of the most dangerous non-boss mobs in the game.

- - - Updated - - -

A lot of folks run past monsters and/or don't really take riding/exploring everything. So that cuts down on time. However, to be fair the game's main "sections" (if you will) is pretty compact.

Yeah, my first playthrough while exploring everything I could had me starting NG+ at level 210... so I was sliiiightly overleveling things. Almost got all the achievements done for the game as well, just missed a couple things somewhere that I'll hopefully find in in this playthrough. After starting NG+, I realized that what you need to do to rush to the last boss is surprisingly little, as almost the entire game can be considered optional in the grand scheme of things if you speedrun it.

[Fencers]

Honestly, I think bosses are actually balanced pretty well. It's mainly random enemies and I guess certain overworld bosses like that Death Rite Bird in the Mountaintops of the Giants that felt like they were hitting harder than they should. Those archers in the town with the invisible assassins would chunk my health out of nowhere.

I thought many bosses were tuned pretty well. A lot of bosses can be cheesed to defeat the encounter. Even not using a cheesy strategy, you can be pretty safe by using a lot of consumables/ranged stuff.

I have seen my husband take down some bosses in seconds by using throwing knives, bombs, and sleep items. Many 'trash' bosses I took out similarly with just avoidance, ranged spells, and throwing items. It was honestly pretty simple/low effort relative to fighting 'normally'.

Elden Ring has a wide spectrum in how challenging the player might want to make an encounter. Encounter design is excellent in the game, but that doesn't mean players have to abide by it.

I mean, like...



Game design, Width.

Yeah, my first playthrough while exploring everything I could had me starting NG+ at level 210... so I was sliiiightly overleveling things. Almost got all the achievements done for the game as well, just missed a couple things somewhere that I'll hopefully find in in this playthrough. After starting NG+, I realized that what you need to do to rush to the last boss is surprisingly little, as almost the entire game can be considered optional in the grand scheme of things if you speedrun it.

Yea, I forgot which NPC tells you flat out you only need two great runes to go straight to the tree. So really only Godrick and whatever other boss you kill are "required". If it's the Academy Queen, that's a cakewalk honestly. Two of the easiest bosses in the game really.

I am sure this game is beatable in say 10-15 hours without using speedrun tricks. Just playing straight through from the tutorial to Radagon doing the necessary steps.

[minteK917]

I thought many bosses were tuned pretty well. A lot of bosses can be cheesed to defeat the encounter. Even not using a cheesy strategy, you can be pretty safe by using a lot of consumables/ranged stuff.

I have seen my husband take down some bosses in seconds by using throwing knives, bombs, and sleep items. Many 'trash' bosses I took out similarly with just avoidance, ranged spells, and throwing items. It was honestly pretty simple/low effort relative to fighting 'normally'.

Elden Ring has a wide spectrum in how challenging the player might want to make an encounter. Encounter design is excellent in the game, but that doesn't mean players have to abide by it.

I mean, like...



Game design, Width.


Yea, I forgot which NPC tells you flat out you only need two great runes to go straight to the tree. So really only Godrick and whatever other boss you kill are "required". If it's the Academy Queen, that's a cakewalk honestly. Two of the easiest bosses in the game really.

I am sure this game is beatable in say 10-15 hours without using speedrun tricks. Just playing straight through from the tutorial to Radagon doing the necessary steps.

You can skip godrick also. Theres so many way to grt anyhwere and a couple of bottleneck like fire giant and morgoth.

[Zenfoldor]

How to DBZ this mofo:

So, if you go ahead and get the spell Azur's Comet, then get 60 into to use it, then mix it with the staff that increases FP cost and damage, then mix your flask to increase int and also make spells cost no FP for 10 seconds, get terra magica, and later the hat that increases Azur comet's damage you do this:

1. Summon mimic or skeletons or whatever boss distraction you have
2. Put them between you and the boss until they draw agro
3. Cast TERRA MAGICA and stand in it(+35%)
4. Line up your shot, try to time it for when the boss will be least stationary
5. Pop your aforementioned flask
6. Fully hold down the button for your cast of Azur's comet

It should stay casting for the entire duration of the flask plus your mana bar, so 12-14 seconds if you had a full bar. Terra Magica will significantly boost the damage it does, as will the hat, your int flask, rune, and the staff that increases fp but also increases damage.

With a base 60 int, it will do a ton of damage. Enough to 1 shot most world stuff and bosses before finishing the capital. The best boss that I haven't beaten that I have tested it on is the tree spirit boss in the cave found in the same "room" as Rahdan. That boss is VERY tough(he's a scarlet rot tree spirit that I found numerous help requests for on reddit at 100+ levels, and has a ton of health in this instance, so I thought he would hold out the best), but on the 3rd try I managed to line up the spell without Terra Magica and it took about 75% of his health, I think Terra Magica would have raised that by 35% so, a one shot. If not a one shot, it can take a chunk, chunk, chunk off anything's life in this game. I also have the mage hat that inc int by 6, so once I get 64 int, I will try that boss again(I didn't beat him) by casting Rennala's Full Moon beforehand, and I bet it still 1 shots it even without terra magica. I also don't have the hat yet that increases damage for Azur comet, so that will make it even better. It's a lot of setup, but one shots a LOT LOT LOT of bosses or even just random hard enemies in this game so far.

How's that for easy mode? Are casting spells cheesing now, lol? No other boss besides the tree spirit above, have I not been able to 1 shot(or would have done so if boss had not moved), and I'm not even getting warmed up with how strong I can make this. 1 shot on Radhan, got him down to 50% on the first attack but he jumped away and I finished with carian slicer. Would have 1 shot him EASY if he had jumped straight back instead of horizontally. I 1 shotted the scarlet rot dragon they just nerfed too. Can't kill the alien boss in Ranni's questline(right after the wolf-guys phantom) with it though, because he constantly hovers and can only target certain spots along his moving body, so he is probably immune to this. I prefer melee + shield with longsword, but also can snap away half the game like thanos with this if one so chooses, and it isn't hard to setup either, I have never grinded 1 level and just happened on half the stuff or more.

As for the DBZ reference, Azur's comet looks and acts like a kamehameha wave.

My one pro tip that I believe is 100% true, is plan on an end game respec and don't completely forget about vigor. Some enemies have attacks that come in pairs. If they can 2 shot you, often that turns frustrating when a combo landing is basically the end of the road. I always aim to have a little more than 2 hits worth of HP(or 1 hit + ANY extra in the later game, but basically 1 shots are bad). That means now, you will live until you run out of flasks, instead of dying with flasks in the tank. If you are dying with flasks in the tank, no matter WHAT anyone else says, more health might make a big difference. It's math translated into practicality really. There are other ways besides leveling to get your health up, too, so it is worth working out a way to max your hp in some cases to try and survive those 2 hits, so you can safely roll away and heal. Most people who struggle that I have found, are following an end game build, putting points into faith, str, int, or even dex, and never even worrying about or focusing on vigor. Then they start getting 1-2 shot and though they are powerful on offense, they die with health flasks in the tank, and thus are dying and frustrated due to survivability before the build comes into its own. Get 900-1000 health even as a mage in mid-game, and the game will be even easier, and you probably won't die much with health flasks left unspent. There is too much time involved in dying and running back because your low hp didn't offer an opportunity to escape and use your healing flask charges. It takes longer to kill stuff, but you probably aren't losing as much damage as you think vs the increase in survivability being able to exhaust your health flasks provides.

If you are dying a lot, and if during those deaths, you are dying not because you ran out of health flasks, but because you couldn't use them in time, you may be relying too much on your skill and not enough on mathematics. If you can live until the breather, even with just 1 hp, that will give you so much more time in combat and so much less running back, that just the extra practice makes it worth it, not even counting the frustrations it removes. Many focus only on their scaling stat and ignore survivability stats completely, and the game probably seems very hard to them.

[Fencers]

Holy shit I beat Malenia! I don't know how many hours it took but FUCK YOU BITCH!!

I am fucking shaking with adrenaline. It was like I was in some kind of pure zen state of dancing with this bitch. I did it!