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

[Utgard-Loki]

I really enjoy From's loot system. I farmed 2 rare drops for 2 hours today. It was such a fun time standing on an elevator for 20 seconds, killing a mob and then warping back to the bonfire. A 1% drop rate item made me have SO MUCH FUN. I didn't find it at all annoying, disrespectful to the players time or a way to pad out game length for people wanting to try specific weapons.

Did I mention I found 7 swords, 3 chest pieces, 4 gauntlets and 5 pairs of legs when I was looking for a single Halo scythe? Fucking fantastic. This is what I play games for. To grind for an hour to get a different weapon art.

please understand, they didn't have any opportunity to give this to you via exploring. they had a "white mushroom flesh" quota, you see.

 

[Hell Swarm]

I really enjoy From's loot system. I farmed 2 rare drops for 2 hours today. It was such a fun time standing on an elevator for 20 seconds, killing a mob and then warping back to the bonfire. A 1% drop rate item made me have SO MUCH FUN. I didn't find it at all annoying, disrespectful to the players time or a way to pad out game length for people wanting to try specific weapons.

Did I mention I found 7 swords, 3 chest pieces, 4 gauntlets and 5 pairs of legs when I was looking for a single Halo scythe? Fucking fantastic. This is what I play games for. To grind for an hour to get a different weapon art.

please understand, they didn't have any opportunity to give this to you via exploring. they had a "white mushroom flesh" quota, you see.

Of course! It enhances the player experience to have the most basic loot system possible where you're forced to pick up everything (and used to have a carry weight limit). It's PLAYER EXPERIENCE to say "That sword is cool, I wish I could use it" and then.. not be able to unless you tediously kill the same enemy again and again. Think how excited people are to finally get the weapon!!

Can you imagine a game world where merchants sold more than arrows and crafting material? Imagine how cool it would be for different merchants to find rare and exotic weapons as you advance the game. How much more rewarding finding a merchant would be if they held something other than mushrooms, bolts and 1 set of armour already well below your stats.

At this point I'm almost ready to become a youtube essayist and listing all the ways Elden ring fails within the bounds of it's own genre and fails within the Souls series it's self. Be like 5 hours long pointing out how woefully outdated the series is without touching on the major problems.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I really enjoy From's loot system. I farmed 2 rare drops for 2 hours today. It was such a fun time standing on an elevator for 20 seconds, killing a mob and then warping back to the bonfire. A 1% drop rate item made me have SO MUCH FUN. I didn't find it at all annoying, disrespectful to the players time or a way to pad out game length for people wanting to try specific weapons.

Did I mention I found 7 swords, 3 chest pieces, 4 gauntlets and 5 pairs of legs when I was looking for a single Halo scythe? Fucking fantastic. This is what I play games for. To grind for an hour to get a different weapon art.

please understand, they didn't have any opportunity to give this to you via exploring. they had a "white mushroom flesh" quota, you see.

More and more i'm convinced you guys are just mongoloids.

Would you lay the same criticism to Dark Souls? Because that had random drops too, but no "mushrooms".

There's of course a simple solution to the issue and it's the reason why FromSoft's implementation of randomized loot is among the best: you don't have to engage in it. There's a billion of other gear you can use. "But muh Halo Syche". Fuck the Halo Syche.

Out of all FromSoft games, the only one i would argue had a bad implementation of randomized gear was Dark Souls 2, purely because there was stuff you had ONE chance to get for NG cycle. One. But even in that game, it was still fine because you didn't need any of that. Your experience of the game wasn't altered irreparably just because you didn't get that piece of armor you weren't going to wear anyway. Like i said, "completism" is a form of autism those games never actively supported. Imagine for instance figuring out all the bird nest recipes on your own without a wiki. That shit was for you to discover across multiple playthroughs and multiple characters over the years.

Lastly, you have shit like Patches' Emporium as a last resot:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PatchesEmporium/

 

[Utgard-Loki]

yes i would actually, you dumbass. getting lucky with dark knight or farming balder drops in ds1 was fucking horseshit.

 

[Hell Swarm]

There's of course a simple solution to the issue and it's the reason why FromSoft's implementation of randomized loot is among the best: you don't have to engage in it. There's a billion of other gear you can use. "But muh Halo Syche". Fuck the Halo Syche.

"It's among the best to have to farm a weapon in a poison swamp or wait until you reach end game to get it". Brilliant Lyric, you never fail to post the dumbest shit.

Thorn sorceries scale off faith and arcane. There are 3 staffs that use faith as a modifier and 1 of them is dropped from a unique enemy in volcano manor with 11% drop rate and the other is a specific type of fire monk with a 2% drop rate. The final one is a fixed drop but has vastly higher stat requirements to the point where using a mixed staff is pointless as you would already have the stats to use a normal intelligence based one.

We could question why From thinks putting faith buiilds spells on an item they can't really use and then requiring 3 stats to make them remotely effect is is a good idea. But then we have to question what From actually think is a good idea. Elden ring being as shallow as a puddle has multiple faith types with unique casting weapons to improve the damage. Instead of fleshing these out and giving you unique builds they're more or less the same 3 spells and often the unique equipment clashes with the build.

Lets take a look at a Madness build. Something new and unique to Elden ring so you would expect it to be reasonably fleshed out since it's got it's own ending.

Base game has one weapon that does Madness. Vyke's spear has an E scaling on strength, this is basically as bad as scaling can get.. But wait! The scared seal also scales off Str, Dex, Int and Faith.. So your madness build gets a near useless buff from strength. But your spells require faith and the only decent scaling is off of Faith so why the fuck does the only weapon option in the base game clash with your primary damage stat? But wait the DLC gave us the frenzy perfume bottle so throwing magic dust is... oh that's dex too. Because faith wouldn't make any sense.

Actually I was joking. The vast majority of the game is immune to madness and every boss is. So your awesome new status and magic type is completely worthless compared to using the basic fire magic which is easier to get, uses all of the same buffs but has better spells and can be built around using almost any weapon with the right ashes of war. But hey.. Madness ending right? This is how bad From's design is. They create a specific ending for a build and give it 5 items and 5(6) spells. It has a built in balancing mechanic of self damage if you abuse it and it's seal is hidden behind a NPC quest line and multiple obscure invasions.. But it's just utterly worthless.

 

[Odoryuk]

Imagine for instance figuring out all the bird nest recipes on your own without a wiki. That shit was for you to discover across multiple playthroughs and multiple characters over the years.

I'm 100% sure most of the initial players learned that trading existed in DS1 through guides, and this also made people aware of all possible drops. It's way out of the way in DS1 compared to DeS and many DS1 players didn't play DeS.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Imagine for instance figuring out all the bird nest recipes on your own without a wiki. That shit was for you to discover across multiple playthroughs and multiple characters over the years.

I'm 100% sure most of the initial players learned that trading existed in DS1 through guides, and this also made people aware of all possible drops. It's way out of the way in DS1 compared to DeS and many DS1 players didn't play DeS.

It's funny how everyone says 'From wants you to learn on your own and doesn't hand hold' when Demon's souls came with a near complete guide book. I haven't checked it in years but I think it went through the arch stones except the end game of the first one to hide the False king reveal. Most Demon's souls players probably knew about trading even though it was out of the way there too. The problem is who the hell would quit to reload the trade? It's so stupid and something even primitive 8 bit RPGs had long solved.

 

[MasPingon]

I agree with Hell Swarm about the drop rates. I've probably spent a full week of my life farming the Aristocrat Headband for different characters. Its hell and I'm never doing it again.

It's so fucking sad. You guys playing Elden Ring like some kind of Diablo/looting grindfest? I would have never thought of that. I thought some of you are just intellectually disabled, but it seems there is more serious background of your condition. Damn, if I knew it before I wouldn't even get mad reading some comments. Can we somehow help you guys?

 

[Lyric Suite]

yes i would actually, you dumbass. getting lucky with dark knight or farming balder drops in ds1 was fucking horseshit.

It's a valid mechanic common to a lot of RPGs. In some of them, it's the ONLY mechanic they have, namely Diablo clones, MMOs and the like.

Personally, i like it in Souls (where as i absolutely hate it where it is mandatory), because it adds a level of variation to the game and you don't have to do it if you don't want. I always quit Diablo clones once i get to the end game because the grinding becomes absurd. It's a very minor thing in Dark Souls compared to that.

In Elden Ring, the only time where i was annoyed by the farming mechanic is when i got stuck with not having enough Smithing Stones [3]. That was an error on their part placing the Bell Bearing a bit too far out of the way compared to the rest, but it wasn't a game ending predictament. Oh, i also wanted a Glintstone Catalyst on my SL1 Wretched a bit earlier so i grinded the mages near where you first meet Sellen. That took a bit, but on the plus side i got the whole aristocrat shit in the process too since i basically just genocided the caravan over and over.

Literaly the only two instances where i ended up grinding against my will. Well, in the case of the Smithing Stones it was against my will.

 

[Hell Swarm]

I agree with Hell Swarm about the drop rates. I've probably spent a full week of my life farming the Aristocrat Headband for different characters. Its hell and I'm never doing it again.

It's so fucking sad. You guys playing Elden Ring like some kind of Diablo/looting grindfest? I would have never thought of that. I thought some of you are just intellectually disabled, but it seems there is more serious background of your condition. Damn, if I knew it before I wouldn't even get mad reading some comments. Can we somehow help you?

Objective : Obtain cool fire sword called Magma blade
How to achieve in game : Kill the same enemy until it drops
Options : Grind the enemy or can't use the weapon you want or cheat and risk online banning

Gee whiz!

It's a valid mechanic common to a lot of RPGs. In some of them, it's the ONLY mechanic they have, namely Diablo clones, MMOs and the like.

Loot games generally have much deeper RPG elements than From games to.

But we get it, you're autistic and you love grinding out 1% drops in From games. Same way you love the broken camera, bad hit boxes and constantly reused enemies with no depth.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Loot games generally have much deeper RPG elements than From games to.

Doesn't make up for the forced grinding, not by a long shot.

Also, some of them can go a bit on the "deeper" end with the mechanics to the point it becomes irritating. Path of Exile is a case in point.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Loot games generally have much deeper RPG elements than From games to.

Doesn't make up for the forced grinding, not by a long shot.

Also, some of them can go a bit on the "deeper" end with the mechanics to the point it becomes irritating. Path of Exile is a case in point.

I have a secret for you Lyric.

The truth

From software games are grinding games. Either you grind exploration to find the exploitable builds or you grind the bosses to overcome their movesets. Souls games have always been grinding games and it's where their reputation comes from.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Aside for the bad and false arguments (no grinding whatsoever is required in any of the Souls games. None), you must have never played those games if you think Souls is even remotely comparable to that. I quit WoW forever after a month of raiding. It wasn't even the raiding but the whole pre-raid grind. Every fucking week i had to do that shit just to get to the raid, and then i had to do the raid. Fuuuuck that bullshit.

More recently i was forced to quit Path of Exile because i couldn't sustain map drops, even after picking all the right nodes. Farming in Dark Souls is a very minor thing compared to that. Most of the time, there's not even a real reason to do it, and if there is it's a short lived affair.

 

[Hell Swarm]

"It's not grinding if you keep throwing yourself at a boss until you win"

Fuck off Lyric. When you die you're going into the abyss because neither heaven nor hell wants someone as retarded as you.

 

[abija]

From software games are grinding games. Either you grind exploration to find the exploitable builds or you grind the bosses to overcome their movesets.

Quoted for mental gymnastics epicness.

 

[Lyric Suite]

The very definition of sophistry if there ever was one.

By that definition, all games are grinding. Why? Because you play them, and that's grinding.

 

[abija]

Why would you stop at games? Learning, problem solving, discovery, everything is grinding.

 

[Hell Swarm]

From software games are grinding games. Either you grind exploration to find the exploitable builds or you grind the bosses to overcome their movesets.

Quoted for mental gymnastics epicness.

Guess you're too dumb to understand the concept of grinding upgrade material in souls games. Or do you consider killing mobs to get drops to be quality game play?

Case in point : There are 3 Large titianite shards before you get into Sen's fortreess unless you grind them from slimes and leeches (also known as From fanboys). If you want a +10 weapon because you're struggling against a boss your options are to grind to get the shards or to grind against the boss until you learn it's move set. Which is literally grinding VS grinding.

 

[Lyric Suite]

There's of course a simple solution to the issue and it's the reason why FromSoft's implementation of randomized loot is among the best: you don't have to engage in it. There's a billion of other gear you can use. "But muh Halo Syche". Fuck the Halo Syche.

"It's among the best to have to farm a weapon in a poison swamp or wait until you reach end game to get it". Brilliant Lyric, you never fail to post the dumbest shit.

Thorn sorceries scale off faith and arcane. There are 3 staffs that use faith as a modifier and 1 of them is dropped from a unique enemy in volcano manor with 11% drop rate and the other is a specific type of fire monk with a 2% drop rate. The final one is a fixed drop but has vastly higher stat requirements to the point where using a mixed staff is pointless as you would already have the stats to use a normal intelligence based one.

We could question why From thinks putting faith buiilds spells on an item they can't really use and then requiring 3 stats to make them remotely effect is is a good idea. But then we have to question what From actually think is a good idea. Elden ring being as shallow as a puddle has multiple faith types with unique casting weapons to improve the damage. Instead of fleshing these out and giving you unique builds they're more or less the same 3 spells and often the unique equipment clashes with the build.

Lets take a look at a Madness build. Something new and unique to Elden ring so you would expect it to be reasonably fleshed out since it's got it's own ending.

Base game has one weapon that does Madness. Vyke's spear has an E scaling on strength, this is basically as bad as scaling can get.. But wait! The scared seal also scales off Str, Dex, Int and Faith.. So your madness build gets a near useless buff from strength. But your spells require faith and the only decent scaling is off of Faith so why the fuck does the only weapon option in the base game clash with your primary damage stat? But wait the DLC gave us the frenzy perfume bottle so throwing magic dust is... oh that's dex too. Because faith wouldn't make any sense.

Actually I was joking. The vast majority of the game is immune to madness and every boss is. So your awesome new status and magic type is completely worthless compared to using the basic fire magic which is easier to get, uses all of the same buffs but has better spells and can be built around using almost any weapon with the right ashes of war. But hey.. Madness ending right? This is how bad From's design is. They create a specific ending for a build and give it 5 items and 5(6) spells. It has a built in balancing mechanic of self damage if you abuse it and it's seal is hidden behind a NPC quest line and multiple obscure invasions.. But it's just utterly worthless.

Madness is designed around the lore first and foremost, and the functionality is then derived from there. This is one of the absolute best things that i like about FromSoft, the way everything is integrated into the world, including the multiplayer. When i first encountered the concept of invasions in Dark Souls 1 i was left wondering why nobody else ever did it this way. It's just so damn cool (one of my main gripes about Elden Ring is the lack of covenants for instance).

The fact madness only works on tarnished creates a certain unique "identity" for whoever decides to go this route. Without those kind of distinctions madness would just be a yellow version of bleed or frost and how fucking boring would that be? If all status effects worked in the same way there would be no point in having any of them to begin with, just have one and be done with it. "Builds" shouldn't just be reduced to doing the same exact thing just in different colors.

There's also more to certain specializations than a status proc. While madness is motly a PvP thing, it's still remarkably strong in PvE. Madness spells are powerful even without the proc. The laser eye beam is the best sniping tool in the game and the other spells are no slouch either. Also, madness has the best buff in the game, but you have to be "mad" to use it, see? You would also have to "mad" to pursue this path which is why it's so well hidden. The journey the player has to go through to follow this path sort of mirrors the concept within the game itself.

 

[Hell Swarm]

The laser eye beam is the best sniping tool in the game a

That would be a bow.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

You farm to get the Halo scythe, I farm on Dark souls 2 to get the desert sorceress gear set. We are not the same.

 

[Lyric Suite]

You farm on Dark Souls 2 to get the desert sorceress set. I farm on Dark Souls 2 to get the desert sorceress set so i can give it to Rosabeth. We are not the same.

 

[Silverfish]

Try to grind a week on a sinlge weapon in Diablo or an MMO without which you cannot even progress the game.

Grinding in Diablo.

Playing an MMO at all.

Imagine how cool it would be for different merchants to find rare and exotic weapons as you advance the game. How much more rewarding finding a merchant would be if they held something other than mushrooms, bolts and 1 set of armour already well below your stats.

Pretty damning that the coolest vendor I ever found in ER was the guy who sells the lantern.

Would you lay the same criticism to Dark Souls? Because that had random drops too, but no "mushrooms".

ER came out eleven years after Dark Souls. From had time to iron out the kinks.

Aside for the bad and false arguments (no grinding whatsoever is required in any of the Souls games. None)

Pure bladestone and DS1 titanite chunks say hello.

 

[Hell Swarm]

You farm to get the Halo scythe, I farm on Dark souls 2 to get the desert sorceress gear set. We are not the same.

You farm on Dark Souls 2 to get the desert sorceress set. I farm on Dark Souls 2 to get the desert sorceress set so i can give it to Rosabeth. We are not the same.

You're both neckbeards with no sexual experience and sore wrists using reddit memes. You're the exact same type of person.

Pretty damning that the coolest vendor I ever found in ER was the guy who sells the lantern.

Best item in elden ring without a doubt.

Pure bladestone and DS1 titanite chunks say hello.

I don't know where you would find the original wiki pre-AOTA DLC but I'd love to see the numbers for drops again. They were not wanting you to max your weapon out.

 

[Lyric Suite]

ER came out eleven years after Dark Souls. From had time to iron out the kinks.

But there are no kinks. They have a system of fixed, handplaced loot with some random drops to spice things up a little bit and not make every play feel exactly the same as the other in terms of exploration and loot progression. None of the gear that is locked behind a loot table (which is relatively small all considered) is fundamental or necessary to progress through the game, and they have a whole mechanic in place to help you edge your bets which also adds a bit of extra strategy to begin with. I don't see what the big deal is.