|OT| Elden Ring - Foul Tarnished, in search of the Elden Ring

[Panda Pedinte]

I finally finished it!

Clocked 150h on that save though there were a lot of hours where I was just away doing chores around the house. I explored a lot and even though I did not even farm my character ended being level 163 if I'm not mistaken. There are some achievements that I missed and I keep some save backups so I may go back to get the different endings.

 

[Avern]

Question: Is there anything that can lock you out of endings? I normally platinum these games with 3-4 playthroughs, but with how insanely long Elden Ring is, I think I'd rather grab them in one go with save backups.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

Question: Is there anything that can lock you out of endings? I normally platinum these games with 3-4 playthroughs, but with how insanely long Elden Ring is, I think I'd rather grab them in one go with save backups.

There is an event that locks you out of two endings but is required for the other ending.

I recommend keeping some save backups if you want to do all the endings in a same playthrough.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I think i'm a bit late for that, i've got a feeling i;m on a certain path but i'll carry on and check guides for my next run. Probably dig out my save file monitor script to get autobackups sorted. Depends on how frequent the saves are tho, i might do it manually just to keep notes in OneNote as to what save contains what triggers etc.

edit: by that time there should be some good clear guides to endings and decision impacts and links too.

 

[QFNS]

I'm really glad I decided to sidetrack a bit and do Ranni's quest. The Eternal Cities are gorgeous to look at and great fun to explore.

I did this tonight. Some really amazing areas here. I can't believe these are totally missable! Insane that so much art and so many unique enemies would be put here. FROM is truly out of their minds in the best way.

 

[Li Kao]

I feel really let down by From with this game. The whole difficulty thing is subjective and personal. The quality of the open world too, and I’m not saying it’s without merits, I clocked 100+ hours like a zombie on it.
But seeing the dev patch in quest chains is souring a little. I mean, From are not know for their technical prowess, but broken quests is a new low.
You could argue that it comes with the territory in this always updated, never totally finished game landscape, but really, you ship your game without checking the quest chains ?

 

[Stevey]

I dunno I mean most of the NPC quest lines are optional so I'm not too bothered by it. But yeah they should have been in at release really.

 

[fokkusu]

Be careful

 

[Joe Spangle]

Why do people do that shit. What do they get out of it.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

Why do people do that shit. What do they get out of it.

It's sad that there are people that finding enjoyment in ruining another player game.

 

[LEANIJA]

Another reason to play offline

 

[kio]

Friendship ended with Uchigatana+17, now Dragonscale Blade+9 is my best friend!

 

[toxicitizen]

....all those messages.... maybe they weren't lying...

 

[fantomena]

Just reached 60 hours on Steam, still not done and have a lot more to discover. Steam says DS3 took me 66 hours and I did 3 playthroughs on that time.

 

[Le Pertti]

My quest to be all shiny is complete!

I had to manage that without being too heavy so I could move around nicely.

 

[Le Pertti]

Been revisiting crypts to find those "secret ahead" messages that Ive seen so often, of course I don't find them anymore!T_T

 

[toxicitizen]

Been revisiting crypts to find those "secret ahead" messages that Ive seen so often, of course I don't find them anymore!T_T

I think if a message is downvoted enough it disappears eventually. I've started coming across lots of "liar ahead" messages a little distance from walls but with no other message between them and the wall lol.

 

[xinek]

I ruthlessly disparage messages -- trolls about hidden walls or jump to your death spots, any "but hole", "dog", "fort, nite" or "pickle" joke. Anything overdone. So tired of the same stupid crap. There's a place for that stuff, but the overwhelming amount of it in this game is due to its popularity, I guess. I suppose I hate fun.

 

[Arc]

Late game boss rant:

Malenia's lifesteal completely ruins the fight and makes her unfun. I like her patterns, but the lifesteal mechanic is just terrible.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

Late game boss rant:

Malenia's lifesteal completely ruins the fight and makes her unfun. I like her patterns, but the lifesteal mechanic is just terrible.

The lifesteal can be really annoying in that fight.

I used Black Knife Tiche spirit summon as she has an attack that apply a temporary debuff to the enemy, she also can avoid some Malenia's attacks.

 

[Le Pertti]

So, those of you who've been souls lovers since day one, how do you feel now that ER has so many casual fans? Are you hipster bitter ?

Because ER is one of the best games I've ever played!

 

[Alextended]

Oh neat, out of the blue Nepheli got unstuck from the council basement and her quest line progressed (finished?). Must have been a patch that did it. Would have been nicer if it occured way earlier in the game than this random point 100 hours later without doing anything new to trigger it but oh well.

 

[yuraya]

So, those of you who've been souls lovers since day one, how do you feel now that ER has so many casual fans? Are you hipster bitter ?

Because ER is one of the best games I've ever played!

Its great. I think the best thing about it is so many of these casual fans will go back and play their older titles after Elden Ring.

And those older titles still hold up so well.

So many getting to experience these type of games for the first time makes me happy. There has been a few people here on meta who have done lttp with those old titles already.

 

[Joe Spangle]

Yeah love that more people are getting into Souls games off the back of Elden Ring.

I think these games are truly special and the more people that get to have a go at them is great.

 

[low-G]

So, those of you who've been souls lovers since day one, how do you feel now that ER has so many casual fans? Are you hipster bitter ?

Because ER is one of the best games I've ever played!

As someone that has been on since King's Field, and was one of those Demon's Souls importer hype-men, I'm super happy it has come so far without yet sacrificing the core stuff I love about it. I'm more hipster proud.

 

[LEANIJA]

So, those of you who've been souls lovers since day one, how do you feel now that ER has so many casual fans? Are you hipster bitter ?

Because ER is one of the best games I've ever played!

I never could get into Souls-like games so I cant speak from that, but I got a friend who loves those games to bits and talks about them a LOT, and he is VERY happy I am playing Elden Ring

 

[Arc]

I finally beat her. I straight up had to cheese it by respeccing to a full DEX build, using Rivers of Blood and a summon, but after 5 hours of grinding it, I am beyond the point of caring.

 

[SaberVS7]

Anyone else having a problem with invaders using Carian Retaliation? It seems there's a bug going around in the latest patch that allows it to be used as an effectively undodgeable instant-kill.

 

[low-G]

Late game boss rant:

Malenia's lifesteal completely ruins the fight and makes her unfun. I like her patterns, but the lifesteal mechanic is just terrible.

I beat that boss today. I don't know how people with a different build than me would handle it.

My 'strategy'

Spoiler

Key for me was HIGH armor (donning all the max armor I've literally found so far, under medium load), so my silver tear clone boy would survive the entire fight, and just getting lucky with us stun locking her... probably took me ~25 attempts. I tried with a light load and my clone died really quickly (P.S. clone is at +10)

I dual weild (for most of the game), so 4 attacks coming at her in rapid succession at times really dominates. (+25 and +23 uchigatana)

 

[QFNS]

I finally beat her. I straight up had to cheese it by respeccing to a full DEX build, using Rivers of Blood and a summon, but after 5 hours of grinding it, I am beyond the point of caring.

Fuck what anyone calls "cheese" in these games IMO. Did you beat it? You win. These games are hard enough without needing to accept other people's definitions of what "counts".

Use those summons, respec, find every broken spell or weapon in the game. They put it there to be used. ESPECIALLY in PvE content who cares what anyone does? Let people get the W in whatever way they want.

I'm not there yet but I'm probably getting close. Not excited to see how badly I get my behind whipped.

 

[Avern]

The changes they made to how stuns work in this game are sooooo good.

In every Fromsoft game, my intended build gets thrown out the window the moment I get an ultra greatsword. But here, using an ultra greatsword practically feels like a new build. Figuring out when and where I can go for charged R2's and jump attacks is fun, and if a boss isn't doing enough damage to really scare me, I can do some pretty degenerate stuff to get through the fight.

Truly summons, ashes, and magic are all easy mode compared to my colossal, big-brain strat of spamming jumping R2. You can't even imagine the genius required to press L2, facetank the enemy's attack, and stun them with Lion's Claw.

People whining about how things like magic are easy mode has always been dumb, but it seems even dumber in Elden Ring where I can get away with nonsense like this.

 

[fearthedawn]

that very late game boss/area

I finally killed Malenia yesterday and it came down to killing her faster than she killed me by maximizing every opportunity to get damage in, still don't know how to properly dodge that one move. Thankfully my dual curved swords can dish out tons of damage really quickly, i was even considering respeccing to weaken myself before getting to this area of the game because everything just died.

The hardest fight in the game so far is the rotten erdtree avatar with its two healing knight buddies in front of a door though, i got stubborn about it, refused to sneak around and took them head on and oh boy, not a good decision for my blood pressure.

 

[curi0usBystander]

Souls games are always about cheesing your way through.

I started using the Mimic Tear recently and it's pretty broken add to that my dual katana set up (poison + bleed) and if the boss is weak to either they get inflicted fast.

I'm in the area where you fight Melenia, I'm a bit scared reading your horror stories but we'll see.

Also another achivement glitched the one for getting all the legendary weapons. I found a lame way to get it leave all the legendary weapons and pick them back up.

 

[LEANIJA]

I just horribly murdered Radahn ... I heard hes hard but I might just be overlevelled now, as soon as I actually managed to get my bearings and dodge his spears, summon all the helpers, I beat him on first try.

edit: technically it was probably 5 tries altogether, but the first few ended very quickly – as i said, as soon as I got a hold of whats going on, it was fast. but Im also level 80 now, so... overlevelled surely.

 

[fearthedawn]

I just horribly murdered Radahn ... I heard hes hard but I might just be overlevelled now, as soon as I actually managed to get my bearings and dodge his spears, summon all the helpers, I beat him on first try.

edit: technically it was probably 5 tries altogether, but the first few ended very quickly – as i said, as soon as I got a hold of whats going on, it was fast. but Im also level 80 now, so... overlevelled surely.

Similar experience for me, quickly went from "clearly this is a fight designed for having summons, let's get some" to "maybe i shouldn't have because this turned out to be entirely underwhelming"...

pretty sure the warnings about a hard fight came from the "never summons" crowd that got there lower in level

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I am definitely overlevelled from exploring so much yet I am still a glass cannon that will get 1-hit by boss or bigger enemies or stunlocked by low-level mobs easily but if i can survive a hit and then roll like a maniac away from the boss i can usually get a couple of good Rock Slings in before running away again. I also seem to have one of the really good summons which helps as poor ol' jellyfish was starting to get wrecked more quickly.

I also have no problem being overlevelled for bosses and also cheesing them especially those huge Rune Bear things. I'll happily cheese those all day long as they mess me up easily if they get close or stun me with the shouty thing they do. Assholes.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I just horribly murdered Radahn ... I heard hes hard but I might just be overlevelled now, as soon as I actually managed to get my bearings and dodge his spears, summon all the helpers, I beat him on first try.

edit: technically it was probably 5 tries altogether, but the first few ended very quickly – as i said, as soon as I got a hold of whats going on, it was fast. but Im also level 80 now, so... overlevelled surely.

Similar experience for me, quickly went from "clearly this is a fight designed for having summons, let's get some" to "maybe i shouldn't have because this turned out to be entirely underwhelming"...

pretty sure the warnings about a hard fight came from the "never summons" crowd that got there lower in level

His difficult was toned down a bit in one of the patches, though the hardest part for me pre patch was avoiding his meteors.

 

[Durante]

Yesterday I got my first legendary sorcery, which then apparently also unlocked progress in Sellen's quest. I've been waiting for that to happen for something like 100 in-game hours, so I was really hyped and continued for a while more. Now I have another legendary sorcery, and this one actually seems useful rather than just silly!

I also found the (weapon) Wing of Astel a bit earlier and now use it as my melee/fallback weapon. I'm not really specced into Dex but I love the moveset, so I'm using the Dex talisman to be able to wield it.

 

[Le Pertti]

I'm at the sorcery school and wow its hard! That mother fucker with those magic arrows sucks so bad!

 

[Li Kao]

I'm at the sorcery school and wow its hard! That mother fucker with those magic arrows sucks so bad!

I don't remember that motherfucker. I remember plenty of motherfuckers in the school, but magic arrows ? You mean the wizards with stone face ?

 

[Le Pertti]

I don't remember that motherfucker. I remember plenty of motherfuckers in the school, but magic arrows ? You mean the wizards with stone face ?

Hmh don't think he has a stone face, but he has a bow and everything!

Edit, no wait maybe its not the school, but it is like a library, doesn't seem to be too big. Carian Study Hall.
This one! I'm always so close to beat him but he constantly teleports.

(not my pic)

 

[Li Kao]

Hmh don't think he has a stone face, but he has a bow and everything!

Edit, no wait maybe its not the school, but it is like a library, doesn't seem to be too big. Carian Study Hall.
This one! I'm always so close to beat him but he constantly teleports.

Ohhhh, that one is a bitch.
I cheesed her with ranged weapon and just enough space to shoot I think.

edit - obviously not in the first phase of the fight where it's a little crowded.
And at the risk of being spoilery, I think I cheesed her

Spoiler

the second time

 

[Panda Pedinte]

Hmh don't think he has a stone face, but he has a bow and everything!

Edit, no wait maybe its not the school, but it is like a library, doesn't seem to be too big. Carian Study Hall.
This one! I'm always so close to beat him but he constantly teleports.

(not my pic)

She is so annoying with the teleporting bullshit.

 

[Alextended]

It's a fun difference from other fights in the game and feels awesome when you get it down. But yeah even with my full STR build I had to use ranged weapons a lot for at least some damage & really understand how the AI behaves, when it prepares to shoot and how it throws teleportation in to not dodge my stuff etc. They could easily make it unfair by not having rails and what not that basically protect you every phase from her spells while you deal with the minions first. I still took a ton of damage as I went there rather early the first time around and even my best anti-magic gear didn't seem to reduce it much at all.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I started a new character, I choose Wretch so it has been an interesting experience starting the game with basically nothing. The only other souls game that I did it was in DS2.

 

[QFNS]

Yesterday I got my first legendary sorcery, which then apparently also unlocked progress in Sellen's quest. I've been waiting for that to happen for something like 100 in-game hours, so I was really hyped and continued for a while more. Now I have another legendary sorcery, and this one actually seems useful rather than just silly!

I also found the (weapon) Wing of Astel a bit earlier and now use it as my melee/fallback weapon. I'm not really specced into Dex but I love the moveset, so I'm using the Dex talisman to be able to wield it.

Yes!!! I have been wanting to have a talk about this weapon and this is a good opportunity!

Wing of Astel RULES. The R2 produces a really nice projectile. The charged R2 does 2 projectiles back to back! Neither move costs any FP! Amazing. The combo for the curved sword has more hits than the katana (ye olde Moonveil) too which can be really handy in keeping the pressure on when you find an opening.

The weapon art has multiple hits too, but is harder to hit with due to the arc it creates. That said though you can really knock around enemies if you catch them in the arc. It also can hit small groups if you time it right.

Only real downside is the shorter range on the blade vs something longer like Moonveil. I have been using it quite a lot (at +8 ATM), and alternate between it and a thrusting sword and a (poorly upgraded) flail or something for enemies that need Strike damage and somehow resist magic.

Also finding it is pretty annoying. Moonveil is much easier to get and you can get it earlier. Wing of Astel is a worthy successor however if you can deal with the shorter range.

 

[Le Pertti]

So I beat the magic bow type, but now I'm not sure what there is to do in the tower. I can see stairs but can't get to them and can't find what one is supposed to do. No hints in messages either. BUT it is a good spot to farm, quick runs that give 5000, not too bad.

 

[Alextended]

Just loot whatever you can in all currently accesible areas (via ladder also at one point before the wizard's final stand area) and that's all there is, for now.

 

[sprinkles]

So I beat the magic bow type, but now I'm not sure what there is to do in the tower. I can see stairs but can't get to them and can't find what one is supposed to do. No hints in messages either. BUT it is a good spot to farm, quick runs that give 5000, not too bad.

You come back way later to that tower during Rannie's questline

 

[kio]

So I beat the magic bow type, but now I'm not sure what there is to do in the tower. I can see stairs but can't get to them and can't find what one is supposed to do. No hints in messages either. BUT it is a good spot to farm, quick runs that give 5000, not too bad.

You did a couple of things out of order as you didn't need to go there until much later (you'll almost surely lack a key item). Just explore the map. Liurnia is a great place.