From Software Elden Ring - From Software's new game with writing by GRRM

[Silva]

Apparently this weapon art makes Radahn manageable..

 

[Shrimp]

I just reached a place called Ordina, Liturgical Town.
I'm now starting to be convinced that the developers suspected this potentially would be their last Souls-style game and just decided to go with every retarded idea that they ended up scrapping for their previous games.

 

[Curratum]

After beating Radahn and just chilling out for a bit, I decided to find the church where you get absolution so I can fix my stuff, because I think I accidentally killed the masked sorceress woman and I don't want to give my special scroll items to that pompous poof Seluvis.

So I was making my merry way to the church when I saw a huge giant guarding a small rotund and went to check it out...

1.5 hours, 2 unexplored potentially large branches and one boss and a massive yet-inaccessible area later (full map for scale):

Spoiler

All is forgiven, Miyazaki. I anger easily, but am also quick to forgive :D

 

[Mortmal]

Gurranq turned hostile too, problem is i finished him by one comet strike, while it was supposed to calm down . Any idea how i could bring him back ? I don,t see any option at the church of absolution.

 

[Silva]

Anybody else finding stats upgrade kinda nonsensic? I mean, I'm only after Raya Lucaria but so far the only meaningful stat to upgrade has been Body (or whatever increases your life bar is called this time). Anything else gives a +1 or +2 to damage or stamina. Bloodborne was already dull in this respect in early stages because it didn't make sense to increase anything else besides Body, but here its even duller. I'm raising Body to almost 30 even if it doesn't fit the character concept I have in mind, because of this.

 

[Shrimp]

I'm starting to get really annoyed with the upgrade material system.
I've been using a special weapon (the ones that require somber stones) and the only reason I have a +10 is because I happened to stumble upon an optional late game boss and his area that technically is accessible very early on in the game. If it wasn't because of the one upgrade material I found in there that allowed me to upgrade my weapon from +9 to +10 I'd still be using a +9 even though I could go and end the game in a couple of hours if I wanted to. However, I'm currently exploring what I believe is an optional part of a late game map since I like to scour through the maps to uncover as much as possible.
Up until now I hadn't found any of the stones required to upgrade a regular weapon from +24 to +25, but in the final stages of the area I'm currently in I just randomly stumbled across four of those items in the span of like an hour. Similarly I also found a place that give me two Great Ghost Gloveworts (the item needed to upgrade spirit summons from +9 to +10) at once.
In DS1 and DS2 you could get Titanite Slabs during the mid-game if you already knew where to look for them since they were spread out across the game, although obviously a majority of them were placed towards the later stages. While I don't doubt that people eventually will discover more ways to get final upgrade materials in Elden Ring (like how I managed to find the +10 somber stone that I think can be accessed just after Godric) I'm still feeling frustrated that so far the only ones I've found at all were just casually strewn in the final stages of this game. It feels like a cheap way to artificially gate people from getting upgrades early in the game, especially in subsequent playthroughs if you are mad enough to do one of those. The upgrade material scarcity is also a part of the reason why I've reluctantly been using the same tiny pool of weapons throughout the entire game. Ashes of War being fully customisable is great for experimentation, but it feels pointless if you're still stuck with the choice of using an almost fully upgraded weapon vs using a mid-tier weapon solely because the item that unlocks the required upgrade material in the Roundstable Hold isn't even located in an area you can access.

Has anyone else who has beat the game (or is close to) had similar experiences? Again, I won't rule out the possibility that I've missed some final stage materials at some point, but I still feel like the game tries very hard to gatekeep you from actually upgrading your weapon completely.

I've picked up two more Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones (the ones needed to upgrade a regular weapon to +25) since I wrote this post, but somehow I have yet to find any Somber stones outside of the one (1) I found some days ago. I guess they're just placed even further into the game? Feels like they couldn't even be bothered coming with creative ways for players to get materials early.

 

[Removal]

Has anyone else who has beat the game (or is close to) had similar experiences?

yeah, it's area dependent, so you won't get the final tier stuff till absolute end game. The other issue is that upgrading special weapons is way easier and more rewarding than upgrading normal weapons, just in terms of rune costs and materials. You need 12 of each stone level for upgrading a basic weapon 3 levels while only 1 somber stone to upgrade special weapons 1 level.

 

[Shrimp]

Anybody else finding stats upgrade kinda nonsensic? I mean, I'm only after Raya Lucaria but so far the only meaningful stat to upgrade has been Body (or whatever increases your life bar is called this time). Anything else gives a +1 or +2 to damage or stamina. Bloodborne was already dull in this respect in early stages because it didn't make sense to increase anything else besides Body, but here its even duller. I'm raising Body to almost 30 even if it doesn't fit the character concept I have in mind, because of this.

This is fairly standard Souls levelling. Grab the stat requirements for your weapon of choice early, then just put everything else into HP and stamina until you either reach their soft caps or feel like you have more points in those than you need.

 

[Curratum]

Room beyond the doorway has no roof so I doubt you're supposed to get it coming from the opposite way and walking over the roof. I mean, usually when I can at least see it, it takes me 5 minutes to figure out a way to get it, but not this time, unless there's a flying spell later on :D

 

[Shrimp]

Room beyond the doorway has no roof so I doubt you're supposed to get it coming from the opposite way and walking over the roof. I mean, usually when I can at least see it, it takes me 5 minutes to figure out a way to get it, but not this time, unless there's a flying spell later on :D

If that area is what I think it is then you won't come back there for some time. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[Lutte]

Tbh, so far it seems to me that most weapon arts are pretty shit except a few which are excellent and you want those.

I think most of the unique weapons have good weapon arts. I found one that does the multi explosion from Astel for example as a weapon art and as always, magic weapon arts always do better than real spells.
But one hell of a bullshit art is the one from Rivers of Blood. I just temporarily respecced to have another go at this malenia bitch with the most broken build I could think of, upgraded Rivers to +9, and went full arcane, upgraded mimic to +10 and oh man this combo brought this bitch so down.

That attack reminded me of the mortal blade in Sekiro, it dramatically extends the length of the blade except that instead of raw damage it deals extraordinary levels of bleed build up, it quickly spams stagger damage and with the mimic also doing it she was literally stunlocked and wasn't doing a single move at all.
The length of the blade in weapon art mode is such that you are always at a safe distance from the enemy, there's enough distance that the few times she got out of staggerlock even her bullshit 5 step multihit of instadeath combo didn't kill me this time.

It was such a broken thing to do, but I'm happy to see this bitch broken too.

So far I'm impressed by how every katana in this game is OP bullshit after OP bullshit, they really went far into pleasing us katana users.

 

[Silva]

Anybody else finding stats upgrade kinda nonsensic? I mean, I'm only after Raya Lucaria but so far the only meaningful stat to upgrade has been Body (or whatever increases your life bar is called this time). Anything else gives a +1 or +2 to damage or stamina. Bloodborne was already dull in this respect in early stages because it didn't make sense to increase anything else besides Body, but here its even duller. I'm raising Body to almost 30 even if it doesn't fit the character concept I have in mind, because of this.

This is fairly standard Souls levelling. Grab the stat requirements for your weapon of choice early, then just put everything else into HP and stamina until you either reach their soft caps or feel like you have more points in those than you need.

Not exactly. Previous games, by having less granular weapon upgrade progression, gave increased returns on lower levels. In BB for example, I usually see tangible benefits in increasing Dex/Str for damage when my body is around 20. Here its reaching 30 and it's still not making sense to raise Dex or Str except for requirements or LARPing.

TL; DR: yes this was always a trend, but never to the degree ER does it.

 

[perfectslumbers]

Room beyond the doorway has no roof so I doubt you're supposed to get it coming from the opposite way and walking over the roof. I mean, usually when I can at least see it, it takes me 5 minutes to figure out a way to get it, but not this time, unless there's a flying spell later on :D

Spoiler

Peep the Mistwoods in Limgrave, near Fort Haight

 

[toro]

Replaying with a melee build and wow this is absolutely infuriating. Why does every random enemy have infinite stamina??

Because BB introduced, DaS3 abused it and now it's part of FS design philosophy.

Anyway, welcome to my world!

 

[Cromwell]

upgraded Rivers to +9, and went full arcane,

Due to a bug, this weapon currently doesn't scale with your stats at all. (04/03/2022)

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Rivers+of+Blood

 

[perfectslumbers]

Because BB introduced, DaS3 abused it and now it's part of FS design philosophy.

I can't believe 15 year old me played DS3 as a dexfag and thought the infinite Stamina bosses were fun. I refuse to play dex in Elden Ring as an act of protest, for once upon a time I was the kind of player that lead to the great From Soft decline...

 

[Lutte]

Due to a bug, this weapon currently doesn't scale with your stats at all. (04/03/2022)

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Rivers+of+Blood

Wow I didn't know, but considering that it let me win a fight I didn't even want to handle otherwise, I think they might want to not fix this bug. If this weapon is so strong without scaling, what is going to happen... afterwards? This weapon is absolutely bonkers.

 

[Lutte]

When people say "infinite stamina" they don't necessarily mean "wew lad they removed an actual stamina bar from the NPC", people don't care about implementation details. What is meant is that the mob just keeps spamming just like a player who wouldn't have a stamina bar. It was a very rare thing in previous souls games (before DS3 I mean), Bloodborne mostly does it on NPCs, DS3 brought this bullshit to quite a few mob types (my top three obnoxious : shield/spear lothric knight, boreal outrider, pus of man), ER does it on almost everything, even the rats (I'm still impressed by how you literally can't r1 back a rat after it hits you, you NEED to move away because it'll keep biting until you're dead).

 

[Cromwell]

it'll keep biting until you're dead

it doesnt, it stops for a moment. But that doesnt matter because it isnt one, its a hundred and their mother and then you die.

 

[Shrimp]

When Dark Souls 2 came out a specific mace-wielding drakekeeper in the dragon shrine had become notorious among the players for 'having no stamina' since it would attack the player by swinging its huge mace rapidly numerous times in succession with almost no time in between the swings. Players felt that this was a big contrast to their own characters who'd typically run out of stamina after 2 to 4 swings of a similar heavy weapon.
The reason this particular enemy stood out back then was because it was one of the few enemies in the game who behaved this way. In DS3 and Elden Ring almost every type of enemy has this same behaviour.

 

[cvv]

Fuck those rats. I like how I'm swinging an iron slab the size of the Empire State building at them and one little bite interrupts me because what the fuck is poise, I suppose?

That makes me wonder - does poise actually work this time around? I wouldn´t know coz I´m running a lightweight katanu build and I´m not watching a late game videos with heavy armors yet.

 

[perfectslumbers]

does poise actually work this time around?

Yes but it seems shit, maybe it's good if you minmax hard.

 

[Shrimp]

Fuck those rats. I like how I'm swinging an iron slab the size of the Empire State building at them and one little bite interrupts me because what the fuck is poise, I suppose?

That makes me wonder - does poise actually work this time around? I wouldn´t know coz I´m running a lightweight katanu build and I´m not watching a late game videos with heavy armors yet.

My guess would be that poise works the same way as in DS3 since it seems like that's what the game is built upon.

 

[Reever]

I've finally finished the game after ~60 hours. The only "major" boss I haven't done as far as I know is

Spoiler

Malenia

because I don't have the patience to go through Miyazaki's bullshit. I don't know what happened, or if there are different teams but I felt like the boss design in Sekiro was better. There are quite a few fights in ER where you literally can't tell what's going on because of the amount of particle effects on screen or the way the bosses telegraph their attack. Astel is prime example of this but there are more including the final boss. And god forbid you play a build with a slow weapon when a lot of the end-game bosses have a half second window to punish their attacks because afterwards they just dash to the other side of the arena.

 

[Ghulgothas]

Is Raya Lucaria the gate that needs to be passed before you can go further north to Mount Gelmir? I don't think I'm going to go further east into Caelid until I'm a bet more beefed.