GRRM x From = Elden Ring

[Svejk]

Loving my greatsword with it's jump attack, but it's counter attack is slower and leaves me open to certain faster enemies. 

Cleared a good portion of Stormveil that I could at least currently access.  Fell down a large pit with that giant squid/cluthu looking floor.. while I was dying from the fall, swung the camera around quick enough to see some water area with something enormous that agro's and started to rise from that water, but the screen faded.  Only place to go at the castle that I can access, is the gold fog boss.  Will tackle that after I do some more exploring though.  Still have most the smoldering church area to explore and then some.  Wiped the floor with that ferry boat ghost and that npc invader. Gonna head to that next erd tree there.

Been using the wolves, but have the jellyfish and skeleton crew ones as well.  Need to experiment with them.  Any suggestions on which of those 3 are the better assists?

[Madrun Badrun]

The ones you get from the ferry boat ghost are really good cause they regenerate unless the enemy finishes them off while they are downed. 

Also, beat the Crucible Knight in the castle finally and I faced him face to face like a man and didn't trick him down a well like I'm some kind of Patches mofo.  The version in the evergoal is harder though I think but you get more room to fight.  Also also I killed the creepy merchant and got all the ruins he had stolen from me when I died in the castle back.   

[chronovore]

http://twitter.com/SuperBentendo/status/1500986830614900739

[paprikastaude]

great game you got there miyazaki

spoiler (click to show/hide)

actually pretty polished overall on PS4, but maybe a little less than their smaller games

[close]

[Madrun Badrun]

Beat Godrick on the second try -- though I used barbarian girl.  Cleared the rest of the castle, except a few rooftop places I think.  That right-hand side with all the ballistas was a nightmare. 

[Polident Hive]

This open world nails that thing where you tell yourself you’ll commit to doing the next main quest. Twenty seconds later you spot a glowing item to the left. Four hours later you’re still exploring this marsh and battling a giant bird boss emerging from the sky. It’s been eight hours, you took an elevator down into a subterranean hell site filled with magic mummies and giant ants.

I gave up on my pure strength build. I could do great damage in bursts,but most enemies are too quick and don't follow typical Souls AI patterns.

Gonna try arcane/dex for my next character.

Heard you could respec eventually. I pumped a ton in strength to use this big sword, and agreed, mistake.

[Supermanisdead]

this game is 10/10  i have a cool katana

https://streamable.com/s73upa

[paprikastaude]

I've had quite a few invisible enemies and I'm not sure if it's glitched or intended 

[naff]

this game is 10/10  i have a cool katana

https://streamable.com/s73upa

incredible weapon. I'm maining moonveil in the late game. the special R2 slash deals even mroe damage, staggers and ranges enemies. broken

[Polident Hive]

this game is 10/10  i have a cool katana

https://streamable.com/s73upa

Been using a regular katana (+10) since I found it. Gotta find that one ASAP.

[Joe Molotov]

Elden Ring Diary Entry #7: Dragon Slayer

(Image removed from quote.)

I was kinda at a loss for were to go next after beating Godrick. The Academy seemed like the most obvious next destination, but I'd already been there and the gates were locked until I found a Glintstone Key. So I just explored the marshland around Liurnia, hoping to find a sign. I found the Village of the Albinaurics, and fought a guy there and also found a guy that was disguised as a pot. He gave me half of a medallion to activate one of the Great Lifts, but unfortunately it was a different half from the one already had. I explored a cave underneath the Academy and also found the Glintstone Dragon nearby that I couldn't quite beat at the moment, so I moved on to the northern part of the region.

Up near the Bellum Highway and to the west, I found a mine into the mountains and followed that through a series of elevators and ramparts along the face of the cliffs. There were a lot of harpies up there, including the larger, singing ones that poison you. I started running low on crossbow bolts, which made it a tricky climb, but finally I made it to the top of the cliff and the lair of the Flame Wyrm Makar. There was an NPC summon marker there, so I brought him and we went ham on Makar and took him out after just three tries. Beyond was a site of grace and the entrance into the Atlas Plateau. This was the so-called "coward's path" that bypassed the Great Lift of Dectus. Almost immediately after reaching the top, I got attacked by another dragon, but I just booked it past him and into some nearby ruins to regroup.

(Image removed from quote.)

I was telling my brother that before I fought this dragon, I fought another dragon down near the Academy, and he was like "oh yeah, that's where you get the Glintstone Key, it's right behind him" and I'm like whaaaaat, no way! I fought him like 10 times earlier and I was running all over that area and didn't see anything. So I fast traveled back and sure enough, right behind the dragon was a few bits of loot, including the key. I now had access to the Academy, but first I fast-traveled by to the Roundtable Hold because I'd gotten a lot of smithing stones in the cave on the way to Makar and I wanted to upgrade my Uchigatana some more. When I entered the hold, my character was glowing red and everything looked dark, then all of sudden an NPC starts attacking me! I kicked his ass and then everything went back to normal. I looked around some, and I found that the Edgelord was gone and all his armor was laying on the ground, and then I realized that he was the one that attacked me. I talked to the head guy about it and he said that Edgelord had "gotten ahead of himself" but that "the matter was resolved". The hell does that mean? Whatever. Uchigatana +12 and Skeleton Armor, let's effing go!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, and I went back and finally killed that stupid Glintstone Dragon too.

(Image removed from quote.)

Total Time Played: ~28 hours
Current Character: Lv. 43 Samurai

[mormapope]

Decided to try another run as a strength character. Gonna keep my arcane dude as a side piece.

I can't stop my thirst for hitting shit, I don't have the temperament to play more patiently.
 

[Joe Molotov]

The feel of steel on bone.

[Nuitangg]

I'm sure my opinion may change and I'm not even close to finishing the main story but this is best game ever.

[mormapope]

The setting alone is cool as fuck. This is basically Japanese Skyrim, if Skyrim had great gameplay/combat.

[Madrun Badrun]

Spent 10 minutes trying to hunt pygmies gremlins from horseback before realizing it's easier to just come down to their level.  Little jerks. 

[Joe Molotov]

Easy Mode unlocked.

[Polident Hive]

Cannot wait I unlock respec and go dex and int. Magic looks fun and strength doesn't fit my play style here. I'm managing with a katana and my guy page ashes, but it's beginning to pick up. Two bosses I marked for return to. Could not hang with them at all.

[Svejk]

https://twitter.com/IronPineapple_/status/1501218111235796997

[bork]

[Nuitangg]

Fallingstar Beast wtf 

[Madrun Badrun]

Beat the Moose boss on the first try and ventured into blighted land. 

[Polident Hive]

Finally, after nearly thirty hours, I went to stormveil castle. Amazing how it's that Demon's or Dark Souls loction feeling inside this open world. Spent a couple hours moving through and exploring it.

Felt good to be overpowered for once. Saw how stealth and ranged attacks would've been clutch- if I couldn't kill everything in two hits max.

The bosses? Margit and Godrick in one go. Embarassing for them.

[Svejk]

Beat the Moose boss on the first try and ventured into blighted land.

That thing wrecked me when first attempted, but it was before I even attempted stormveil, so I was definitely under leveled.  Is that blighted land the stone key elevator at the end of that area I presume?

[Madrun Badrun]

Ya that area.   

[Joe Molotov]

Elden Ring Diary Entry #8: Academia

Before hitting up the academy, I went and did a little sidequesting in Caelid. The Gael Tunnel had been on my radar for a while, so I knocked that one out real quick, killing the Magma Wyrm and getting the Moonveil katana. I had looked up sweet katana locations on the wiki, and saw that the Meteorite Ore Katana was in a location not too far away, so I went and snagged that too. I'm not really specced to use either one right now, since they require Faith or Arcane, but maybe I'll respecc. Maybe not, who knows? I just wanted them because I'm an absolute loot gobliln. After that, I just ran around a bit in Caelid, looking for content. I found Sellia, City of Sorcery and lit the bonfires there, took out the two little weakass minibosses and completely by chance picked up the Spelldrake Talisman +1 (reduces magic damage taken), which seems like it'd be good to have for the academy. I also met Captain O'Neill chilling out in the swamp, but he was a little tankier than what I wanted to deal with at the moment, so I made a note to return later.

Back at the academy, it was time to stuff these nerds into their lockers. It's a lot smaller location than Stormveil Castle, but it was still really cool. I liked the cemetery area with the grabby skeletons and the giant lift you had to ride up. I advanced through the level fairly quickly, there were only a few annoying chokepoints, where groups of mages would hide at the top of stairways and spam their spells at you until you lured them down where you could take them out without getting pelted by magic. I spanked the wolf boi and then made it up to Rennala's tower. This fight seemed a little intimidating at first. Phase 1 I got all these creepy kids throwing books at me, and chandeliers falling on my head and OHKOing me. But then once I calmed down and figured out the trick to the first phase it was actually really easy. Phase 2 is when the actual fight starts, but with my Uchigatana +12 I was outputting massive damage, so I just needed to stay calm and avoid her magic barrages, and then Bloody Slash her a new but hole.

(Image removed from quote.)

And now she's dead...oh wait, she's not dead. Also the fight doesn't really give you anything important to the main quest, so I guess this whole area was all rather optional, huh? Oh well, I beat up a mentally unstable woman who will now let me respecc my character, and that's what truly matters. Also D is dead now, LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! I can even wear his armor (as long as I equip the talisman that boosts load max and equip a lighter shield  ). I'm wearing it now with this goofy-ass crown I got for killing a crab.

Total Time Played: ~34 hours
Current Character: Lv. 52 Samurai

[Joe Molotov]

The beast eye quivers, btw.

[Nuitangg]

Other than logging into Halo to buy the cat ears    its been all Elden Ring.  I haven't been this obsessed with a game in quite some time.  I'm terrible, over leveled and I cheese most boss fights.  I dont care. It's so much fun.

[Madrun Badrun]

Crucible knights are my Carol Baskins 

[Supermanisdead]

radahn holy shitttttttttt that was the most intense moment in a game ever. i am shakinggg.

but i beat it 

[Madrun Badrun]

So I haven't been upgrading my weapons but I guess stones are not super rare?  So I should just be upping shit.  Is this also true of the ghost flowers for the spirits?  Also, I found a faster version of the ziewhander that I kinda like.

[The Sceneman]

Found the Leonine boss and fought him like 20 times until he fell. Was very tough at level 21 lol

I'm doing a DEX/INT guy and really need some better gear right now. I've done some research and there's a few items to scoop up nearby. Still pretty early on and wandering around the Weeping Peninsula finding sweet upgrades. Awesome game

[The Sceneman]

So I haven't been upgrading my weapons but I guess stones are not super rare?  So I should just be upping shit.  Is this also true of the ghost flowers for the spirits?  Also, I found a faster version of the ziewhander that I kinda like.

There are mining areas where you can farm the stones I think. Just upgrade your shit lol

[paprikastaude]

I can finally buy smithing stones 

[Let's Cyber]

Decided to fuk around in Caelid just to check it out (lvl 24)...

This is some Nightmare of Mensis shit

 

Jesus this game is wild.

[bork]

I need that Sword Of Night And Flame- holy shit! 

Finally went back to Stormveil and fought Godrick.  I guess I must have been over-leveled for this fight- he didn't hit me once and went down on the first attempt.  I used the skeleton army summon and they and the NPC hunter melee'd him while I sat back firing off spells.  There's still an optional knight fight and I found a wyrm(?) in a lower area that I need to go back and fight.

[Madrun Badrun]

There is also a lion boss there if you missed it.  Think the place has 5 bosses. 

[Lonewulfeus]

Elden Ring Diary Entry #8: Academia

Before hitting up the academy, I went and did a little sidequesting in Caelid. The Gael Tunnel had been on my radar for a while, so I knocked that one out real quick, killing the Magma Wyrm and getting the Moonveil katana. I had looked up sweet katana locations on the wiki, and saw that the Meteorite Ore Katana was in a location not too far away, so I went and snagged that too. I'm not really specced to use either one right now, since they require Faith or Arcane, but maybe I'll respecc. Maybe not, who knows? I just wanted them because I'm an absolute loot gobliln. After that, I just ran around a bit in Caelid, looking for content. I found Sellia, City of Sorcery and lit the bonfires there, took out the two little weakass minibosses and completely by chance picked up the Spelldrake Talisman +1 (reduces magic damage taken), which seems like it'd be good to have for the academy. I also met Captain O'Neill chilling out in the swamp, but he was a little tankier than what I wanted to deal with at the moment, so I made a note to return later.

Back at the academy, it was time to stuff these nerds into their lockers. It's a lot smaller location than Stormveil Castle, but it was still really cool. I liked the cemetery area with the grabby skeletons and the giant lift you had to ride up. I advanced through the level fairly quickly, there were only a few annoying chokepoints, where groups of mages would hide at the top of stairways and spam their spells at you until you lured them down where you could take them out without getting pelted by magic. I spanked the wolf boi and then made it up to Rennala's tower. This fight seemed a little intimidating at first. Phase 1 I got all these creepy kids throwing books at me, and chandeliers falling on my head and OHKOing me. But then once I calmed down and figured out the trick to the first phase it was actually really easy. Phase 2 is when the actual fight starts, but with my Uchigatana +12 I was outputting massive damage, so I just needed to stay calm and avoid her magic barrages, and then Bloody Slash her a new but hole.

(Image removed from quote.)

And now she's dead...oh wait, she's not dead. Also the fight doesn't really give you anything important to the main quest, so I guess this whole area was all rather optional, huh? Oh well, I beat up a mentally unstable woman who will now let me respecc my character, and that's what truly matters. Also D is dead now, LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! I can even wear his armor (as long as I equip the talisman that boosts load max and equip a lighter shield  ). I'm wearing it now with this goofy-ass crown I got for killing a crab.

Total Time Played: ~34 hours
Current Character: Lv. 52 Samurai

That 2nd phase arena was great, absolutely loved fighting there.

[Madrun Badrun]

Got made a clown by an invisible snail. 

[Svejk]

Caelid area is some eerie shit.  Some of these enemy designs are unlike anything else.  I'm sure I've yet to see anything this game has.   

Slow burn for me.. Not focusing on a particular build and just level out certain specs.. feels like it makes my progression slower, but that's how I roll I guess.

Having second thoughts on my greatsword.. just too slow for certain enemies.  May scale back to my short sword.  Would equip boffum, but still low on endurance and fat roll.  I need to find some glovewort too. 

[Madrun Badrun]

The

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Misbegotten Warrior and Crucible Knight

[close]

fight is so hard.  And I can get the first guy dead generally before the second shows up

[benjipwns]

https://twitter.com/CDRNonsense/status/1501810601051529220

[Supermanisdead]

this comet azur spell is fucking nuts

https://streamable.com/eugwxf

[Joe Molotov]

Elden Ring Diary Entry #9: Zanzibart...forgive me

(Image removed from quote.)

With the Academy finished, I headed north to Caria Manor and crashed Thing from the "Addams' Family" family reunion. I hacked my way through the manor and up to Ranni's Rise and met Ranni again, who asked me to join her cause. I also hung out with Blaidd, Iji, and some nerd named Selavus. He wanted me to slip a mickey to Nepheli, but I didn't because that's not cool and also he seemed like a major creep even before that. Ranni said we need to get to Nokron to do some shit, so I went with Blaidd down to Siofra River to find a way in but he said this wasn't the right place. Ultimately I talked to Sorceress Sellen and she said I had to beat General Rahdan to get to Nokron, so I guess that's the next major thing I gotta do. More sidequesting first, though.

(Image removed from quote.)

While I was down in Siofra River, I decided to finish up that area and fight the Ancestral Spirit. No problems there. I also totally by chance while exploring found the fabled trap chest that everyone's mentioned that teleports you from an early part to the game to the Sellia Crystal Mines in the middle of Caelid. I was high enough level that it was nbd, so I just decided to clear it out while I was in there and beat the Fallingstar Beast.  He was tough because he was highly resistant to my Uchigatana in addition to being fast as fuck and hitting hard. The old reliable technique of summon Jellyfish, get behind them, then Bloody Slash eventually took him down though. I got a bunch of Tier 5 Smithing Stones in that area and was able to upgrade my Uchigatana to +14. I decided what I really wanted to use was the Meteoric Ore Blade (+5) though, so I went to Rennala and respecc'd from DEX/STR to STR/INT. The MOB does about double the damage of the Uchigatana, but my Bleed dropped from 75 to 50. I'm gonna roll it for a while though, it seems pretty strong and doesn't have the downside of being almost useless against enemies that are strong to pierce/slash, since it also does magic damage.

In Caelid, I did a few more side quests. I finished up the Sellia, Town of Sorcery plot line by killing Commander O'Neill and taking the unalloyed golden needle to the old man and letting him repair it, then giving it to Millicent to cure her scarlet rot. I also jumped up the cliff behind the Church of the Plague and killed the immobile dragon that just screams at you, and got 75,000 Runes and 5 Dragon Hearts. It's not much, but it's dishonest work. I also killed the stupid scarlet rot dragon on the road to Redmane Castle, he was a real asshole. His rot breath attack was basically instant death if it ever hit you, so just don't get hit, forehead! I cleared out a couple of more random caves and finally made it to Redmane Castle. 

Total Time Played: ~44 hours
Current Character: Lv. 66 Samurai

[Polident Hive]

First time experiencing Commander O'Neill was after escaping that trap crystal centipede hell cave at an early level. Rode around looking for another bongrace. Entered the area and boss life bar appears. Rode up and thwacked him. Life bar didn't go down. Kept on riding.

My map is marked up with skulls to warn me of those open world bosses. Or when I get bold enough to try taking them down. Many, many hours later, parts of Caelid are still overwhelming.

[Svejk]

For some reason, I never noticed the peninsula south of the starting area. After struggling through bits and pieces of Caelid, this place is cake.  Feels good to romp through the fort/castle and took down Leonine with ease. 

Went back to my short sword.  The counter attack is just so much better. 

[Madrun Badrun]

At 50 hours I'm off dicking around and back on the main quest, so doing the academy now.  I'm halfway through like 3 other forts though. 

[chronovore]

http://twitter.com/agentbizzle/status/1503457728655618048

[pilonv1]

Finally got my Steam code from the motherboard I bought last year so I'm getting this now. Haven't played a Souls game since the original and only for about 5-6 hours so cannot wait to ragequit

[Madrun Badrun]

Game is insane



Was fighting a hard knight in the academy who keeps parrying me then took teleport to Pope Turtle.  Also why are there so many blood spots around Pope Turtle?

[Nuitangg]

I don't want this game to end.

[Joe Molotov]

Elden Ring Diary Entry #10: Into the Underdark

The General Radahn fight ended up being not very hard at my level. The hardest part of the fight was just getting to him on the battlefield without getting btfo by his arrows. Once I figured out the timing to dodge his arrow attacks, and summoned the homies to help me, he went down pretty fast. I see people saying stuff like "Oh I'm not gonna use the summons, that's cheating" but I'm not above taking whatever help the game gives me.

After defeating Radahn, I rode up north to a fort full of ghosts and vampire bats that will bite your fucking head off if you're not careful. I just ran past the bats because honestly fuck those guys, and climbed to the top of the fort to get the other half of the medallion to operate the Grand Lift of Dectus (even though I had already taken the back path to the Atlas Plateau). Poking around in the fort a little more, I found Radagon's Soreseal, which seems like a pretty freaking badass charm. It gives +5 to most of your stats, in exchange for taking increased damage. The +5 to my Vigor gave me 200 HP more, and the +5 to my Endurance let me wear some heavier armor, so I think the juice is worth the squeeze (not to mention the +5 to STR and DEX boosting my weapon damage). 

On the way to use the Dectus medallion, I took a little side path up this hill and found the freaking Eye of Sauron on top of this tower. Whenever I got close to it, it hit me with madness, and then I got swarmed by rats, so I started looking for side paths. The cliff around this area was pretty sheer except for the main path, but I finally found a little rock outcropping I could jump on and get around behind it. From there I found some rocks to hide behind until I could get close to it, and then climbed up and killed all the weirdos there and shut off the eye. Once it was disabled, I went to the Flame-Frenzied Town, the Church of Inhibitions, and the Converted Fringe Tower and cleaned out all the goodies there. I got another grape while I was there, so I checked a wiki to find the locations of grape lady and gave her all the grapes. She seems nice.

After a quick elevator ride, I did a bit of exploring around the Atlas Plateau. I'd come here earlier through the Magma Wyrm cave, but I just grabbed a site of grace and bailed out without really looking around much. I rode all the way up to the capital entrance and beat two Tree Sentinels. That was a cool "Look how far you've come" moment, haha. I found THE EVER BRILLIANT GOLDMASK! chilling out on a bridge. He seems like a homie. I told Brother Corwym where to find him and then we all chilled out for a bit and pondered the Erdtree. I also rode over to the Mount Gelnir region to see what was up over there for a minute, and then headed back to the Mistwood Forest to find the entrace to Nokron.

(Image removed from quote.)

Nokron was cool. I got to do some Assassin's Creed shit and parkour around on some rooftops. Had a "Don't trust anyone, not even yourself" moment, fighting Shadow Link. I found the Mimic Ashes which seems pretty badass. I like that it takes HP instead of FP to cast, I've got 11 +5 flasks at this point, so I can easily spare the HP, but I haven't invested much into FP because I just like hitting people with my sword. I found the thing that Ranni wanted from Nokron, and also fought the Regal Ancestral Spirit while I was down there. He was tough, and my Mimic Ashes were kinda crap for that fight because my mimic just kept running through the fire like an idiot. I feel like my mimic knows me too well, smdh.  :'( After a few tries, I managed to hack my way through all his heals and win the fight though.

(Image removed from quote.)

Continuing Ranni's questline, I went to the inverted Dracula's Castle, which was a pretty sweet location. I unlocked Renna's Rise and went back into the underworld to do battle with some giant ants. Yo, we EDF now! I finally found some Somber Smithing Stones(7) for fighting some gross-ass centipede thing and upgraded my Meteoric Ore Blade to +7. Feeling badass, might delete later:   

(Image removed from quote.)

Then I fought some Crucible Knights in Nokron and got knocked back down to Earth. Those bastards can lick my taint. 

Total Time Played: ~52 hours
Current Character: Lv. 74 Samurai

[Raist]

this comet azur spell is fucking nuts

https://streamable.com/eugwxf

Magic, FromSoft games' easy mode since 2009.

[Polident Hive]

Game is insane

(Image removed from quote.)

Was fighting a hard knight in the academy who keeps parrying me then took teleport to Pope Turtle.  Also why are there so many blood spots around Pope Turtle?

Some places are worth visiting at night.

[Coax]

Picked the game up in the last few days. The Storm Stomp Ashes of War as an opening for attacks is

I'm able to momentarily stagger or at the least cancel attacks of various high level enemies with it and the effect has almost build-up time to use, so the moment they come in range for an attack I can hit L2 once, get the stomp in, put them off balance for a split second allowing me to lead into a few hits or continue until they're dead.

It's been a key element to winning various mini bosses (ie: non-Demigod ones), the knights from The Shaded Castle and almost any enemy or groups of them that are highly aggressive and up to maybe twice my height.

[Joe Molotov]

Elden Ring Diary Entry #11: Insomnia

Feel like crap this morning because I stayed up past midnight playing Elden Ring, then I couldn't sleep because I was just thinking about Elden Ring. 

me, rn:


Total Time Played: ~58 hours
Current Character: Lv. 87 Samurai

[chronovore]

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/tfawvu/you_guys_know_the_inspiration_for_this_post/

[Madrun Badrun]

Man we are at the same playtime and I'm 20 levels below you and just cleared the second big boss.  So much time just messing around on me horse.   

[Joe Molotov]

Man we are at the same playtime and I'm 20 levels below you and just cleared the second big boss.  So much time just messing around on me horse.   

It's okay, I see other people posting stuff like "15 hours in, just beat Rennala" and I'm like wtf. The amount of content in this game is amazing. Sometimes I'll return to an area that I thought I already saw everything in and find a bunch of new stuff. On the other hand, sometimes I'll find some fuck-off dungeon and just be like "you know, there's plenty more content out there, I'm not doing this". Like this one I found yesterday that has a lava river and a giant spiked rolling pin and fire-breathing statues, man fuck that place.

[bork]

Found a small dungeon filled with skeletons and necromancers.  Got pretty easy to run through and didn't have trouble with the boss, but it turns out that there's another boss in there, hidden behind a wall.  An assassin who is so fast that I can't even power up weapons or do most magic to kill him.  Can't summon helpers either.


Guess I'll try again in another X amount of levels.