Topic: Elden Ring Hype Thread

@AgentCooper excited for you dude, a modern great that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. The only advice I’d give is to maybe do a bit of research on builds before you start, so you can begin crafting your character straight off the bat.

I just went straight UGS (or Colossal Swords as theyre referred to in Elden Ring) as I always do, when I played it but remember seeing a load of stuff about the Rivers of Blood build that supposedly cut through bosses like a hot knife through butter. I know that you’re still relatively new to souls-likes, so it might be worth your while maximising your potential to get the most from it.

@AgentCooper Upgrade your Vigor (health) and Endurance (stamina) which will help you early doors.
Equip talismans that boost your leveled up stats, as there is not much point in boosting say Intelligence if you don't use any weapons that need it.
Once you have a weapon you find useful, concentrate on upgrading the stats that scale with it. For instance, most Katanas (which Rivers of Blood is one them but you probably won't get that till later on) scale best with Dexterity, so when you level that up your damage for those weapons will increase the most.

@AgentCooper I would’nt go Colossal Sword mate, although it’s my preference I wouldn’t consider any builds around the weapon type particularly strong. The Rivers of Blood build is a build that you can complete pretty far into the game but if you know the stat requirements going in, you can have everything in -lace by the time you have access to the weapon.

@AgentCooper sounds perfect for someone new to the genre mate, think that would work well.

@AgentCooper Good luck, tarnished.

A bleed build is a solid choice, it is what got me through most of the game.

There are also buffs which you can craft, but you will need recipes from cookbooks found around the world. It is something I've only really delved into playing the DLC.

@AgentCooper Welcome to ER!

Its a great game, and honestly it can also be pretty forgiving in terms of difficulty (especially vs other games in the genre).

My #1 tip would be this - early game, focus initially on placing your early level-up stats into - - > Vigor (aka health bar). Perhaps even get your Vigor to level ~30 before you start increasing any damage stats and/or endurance.

Early game can be fairly brutal, and survivability is maybe the greatest currency in those beginning areas. In terms of damage output, weapon upgrades will do you well (whilst you invest level-up stats in health). Then once vigor is high enough, you can invest in your chosen damage/magic stat as well as endurance

EDIT - For reference, most players look to finish the game at around ~60 vigor. Unless you're an Elden Ring God player (for reference, I am certainly not this!) then 60 vigor is pretty decent, allows you to take a few hits before being wiped out. Also, assuming you'll get to the DLC... 60 vigor IMO would be the minimum to go in with, as most enemies can 1-2 shot you (prior to collecting the Scadutree upgrade items)

@AgentCooper Yeah correct but you won't lose Unsheathe as you swap them out as you please. You pick up loads as you explore, and tou can duplicate them once you have unlocked the blacksmith.

It is something else I've only dabbled in during the end game and dlc. I had so many maxes out weapons that had different Ashes of War that I was able to cope ok.

Another tip, make sure you add shortcuts for your flasks and other useful items you use regularly. It makes like much easier than the default method trying to regenerate your health during mid fight.

I've stuck to my guns, avoided reading anything online and managed to play through the DLC blind. Well.....up to the final boss that is. I've found every area (not every scadutree fragment/ ash though), beaten every boss - without needing to resort to multiplayer/ coop but using every other tool availabl. However, it feels like the final boss is just beyond me. I even tried summoning help last night and it didn't help that much. I can get through the first phase pretty consistently and often without using many or any flasks but after that....

Might be Sekiro all over again (I never managed the final boss).

@woollypump in the base game I found my build that I just casually made up on the fly was really good at melting bosses, until the final boss which I just kept getting blitzed by 75% of the way through. So, I just decided to go to sleep and the next day I changed some of my abilities and gear and it really helped get over the line eventually.

Not sure if it's applicable here, but sometimes time away and a new approach, or even a full respec, will unlock new opportunities in the fights. Good luck either way

@Ravix I think part of it is that I haven't been in the right frame of mind for it since I made it to the final boss on Sunday evening. I broke my blind playthrough and did look into strategies to beat him but I am a bit loath to respec drastically (from current dex/ faith). I did do a bit better at avoiding attacks in the second phase last night so it's not like I'm making zero progress. Ironically perhaps I really liked that the DLC forced me to experiment more with different weapons, incantations, spirit ashes etc... to beat bosses. This was my experimental build to play around with incantations. I still have my "main" charachter which is pure strength + big hammer ready to play the DLC, but i was planning to have a break from ER after beating the DLC and re-play it down the line with that character.

@woollypump yeah, sometimes it can be as simple as chilling and letting your subconscious mind unpack why you are getting smashed by a boss too. The brain can work wonders when it's not actually focused on the task at hand 😆 and if you are making progress it should be fine and click at some point.

Ah, a fellow Dex/Faith. My reasoning for mine was I'd get bored just having a sword, so wanted a bunch of spells to mix it up. I still haven't been drawn back to the DLC, but I think my character was level 200 when I finished the base game. Maybe one day, but I fear my playstyle was too powerfully cheesy with my build and my mimmick, as I'd end up beating the hardest bosses first time, and never actually learned their attack patterns. So most of the fun I got was from helping others beat bosses and learning by winning multiple times, rather than go through the punishment of losing 😅

@Ravix I was the same for the final boss in main game! Only had to slighty fudge my stats so I could use certain peices of equipment and use some buffy spells.

I'm on the final boss in the DLC, and phase two is certainly tough but not feeling impossible for me.

I've got a bit of a mixed history with final dlc bosses, as I never beat the ones in Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3.

@JohnnyShoulder haha, for me in ER, I went through the whole game looking like an emo/goth, no helmet, gear picked on looks rather than stats, but the Elden Beast, oooh, that damn thing made me dress like a snowman in a wedding dress for faith resistance 😅

Actually, I can post these to show the transformation it made me go through 😆

@Ravix I did it!

I fired it up just planning to play around for 30 mins or so without any expectation of even making progress.

I did re-spec in the end and used mimic tear plus one of the NPC summons I used Godskin Stitcher for poking from behind a shield and pierce damage, to which I added Royal Knights Resolve and Bleed affinity, and re-specced to dex/arc with just enough faith to use Golden Vow and Flame Grant Me Strength. Improved at dodging his attacks and did it!

Thoughts?

Whatever is it, I'm here day one for it!

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I hear they are working in mulltiple titles. Let's hope at least one of them has a Mooonlight Greatsword!

Fextralife did a video on this very subject.

@JohnnyShoulder Thanks for the link man, I'll have a look at it later or at some point in the next few days hopefully.

@Th3solution Sharing some early impressions of ER as you said you'd be interested. At the site I am currently farming at, some stealth-like mechanics have been employed/are necessary in order to farm properly, as there is an enemy who will alert the whole camp if he sees you before you kill him, and another more powerful enemy who it is best to kill with two backstabs, running away/out of range in between them as he will most likely kill you at this early stage in the game if you try and tackle him directly. So maybe that is something inspired by Sekiro, as I hear there is a lot of stealth in that game - also it has a fast-paced action feel to it (the direct combat in the game as opposed to the stealth-related combat - most likely inspired by Dark Souls 3/Bloodborne).

Edit: It is also harder to farm at first, it's taking me longer to level up than in previous games as the fodder enemies drop like 60 souls each, apart from the aforementioned big bad who drops 260 , and I am not yet powerful enough to farm the 1000 soul dropping enemies who languish nearby.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN There will be certain places where the enemies will be too strong for you, but the beauty of Elden Ring is than you can generally just go off in another direction and find some enemies that you are better to dal with. Just watch out for thr rune bears, as they can pack a punch.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN That’s really notable about the lite stealth mechanics. Having not played Sekiro, I actually didn’t know there was substantial stealth in the FromSoft library. There’s some rudimentary stealth in Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 with the thief ring and the spells the reduce enemy detection, but I’d never consider it much of a stealth option to rely on. More like it’s just a few tricks to get you past a tough encounter from time to time, but nothing you could build a character around.

And I’m not surprised that the game as a more action-heavy combat style like Bloodborne/DS3. I think the slower combat of the earlier games is more niche. The mainstream gamers want things more dynamic.