2766

Look for mines. Even now I keep running across mines.

2767

I was rolling along pretty good (not one shotting bosses, but winning fights pretty easily). I’m in the land of the giants - castle sol. The boss there keeps kicking my butt. Twice I got him down to almost dead after a couple dozen tries or so. It seems optional, so I may give up.

2768

Apparently just like they hacked Dark Souls games, Elden Ring has been hacked too?

2769

My brother cooped with me tonight. Kind of hilarious. He’s 40 levels above me, but it scaled him down and he wasn’t used to being so weak so died very quickly several times before he got the hang of it.

2770

I agree with above, you are expected to look things up. For example, i read online there was a talisman that would increase the damage of certain attacks that i do a lot of by 15%. I looked further to see where it is and i had already passed this area, then i watched a video to see where to go which involved jumping on some rooftops and falling down in certain places. There is no way I would have ever found this by myself.

2771

With enough experience in From games you eventually get a feel for these things. That said, some of the stuff is hidden extremely well.

2772

2773

I’ve played all of the souls games, I guess I just don’t have the time to search every nook and cranny.

2774

I find the exploration to be one of the most satisfying parts of Elden Ring. IMO, the expansive overworld and ability to explore everywhere, often even places that seem off limits, is what pushes this game into the upper echelons of all video games.

You not only have the incredible breadth of weaponry options at your disposal as well as multiple ways to wield them (two hands, with magic, on horseback, with shield, at range, etc.), you now have this gigantic contiguous field of play to apply them to! Hell, there’s some stuff you find by doing awesome action platform type stuff that’s Mario-esque.

So many games today hold your hand the entire time. Thank god this one doesn’t.

2775

And let’s not forget that loot is meaningful. Tarnished would literally kill to get their hands on another golden seed or sacred tear, or a cool weapon, or a talisman pouch…you get the idea. And that’s before you even get to the cool spells and ashes of war and a myriad of other things.

And then I think back to my Witcher 3 memories, where I sold a big story reward (sword) the moment I got it because it was just another generic item. It really makes you wonder if some developers/designers actually play games themselves.

2776

This is like Zelda through their own lense.

Like the original where a weird guy in a tiny cave gives you a shitty sword and tells you to be careful, but nothing else is explained and you’re on your own.

It’s pretty glorious.

2777

Just found out there’s a NPC in the Roundtable hall who’ll sell tier 1 and 2 smithing stones if you beat the boss of the Raya lucaria crystal tunnels. It drops a bell you give the NPC. And those tunnels drop lots of tier 3 stones, so my naginata is now at +8. Fun, fun.

2778

There are hidden away mines all over the ER world. If you enter a cave you should always explore it. Some have smithing stones, some crystals and some mini-bosses.

2779

This is pretty spoilery IMO.

2780

I’m only at whatever level is one or two above where you start with the Astrologer. Armed with the Meterorite Staff and the Morning Star mace, which I have to use with both hands, So far I’ve used my leveling up runes to increase intelligence only. Is that a mistake at this point for this build?

I can’t even beat the NPC guy you see when you jump off the balcony in the round table. The red guy. I was in the Round Table for the first time, and tried 3 times, but he doesn’t seem to take much damage from magic and he has all kinds of ways to hit me and I can’t seem to hit him then get away from his attack. The huge monsters I see in the world don’t seem to take much damage at all from my Pebbles spell (I only have Pebbles and Arc at this point.) So I’m avoiding anything “Big” at this point.

2781

Yes, If you started off as an astrologer I would say you need to pump Vit. For awhile. Like 9 vit is a huge handicap. Everyone gets hit eventually, even if you try and stay as far away as possible. Stuff happens. I would go so far as to say I would see that at 20 before you get out of Limgrave, but that’s me. I like vit =)

2782

I am thinking about this game a lot and exploring a lot and trying things that I know will get me killed. Also reading this thread where people here who are actually “gud” at Souls games are frustrated at how hard some of the bosses are and need to get other people to help them etc.

I realize that this is pure blasphemy, but I really wish that when they made the move to an open world, they also added a difficulty option. Leave the “Souls Veterans” level it’s at now, but add an easy, normal, challenging, and Souls Vet levels. It wouldn’t change the game at all for those of you who love how hard Souls games are, but it would make it more accessible to people like me. I don’t want it to be easy, I don’t want to lose the challenge and the satisfaction of accomplishing something I have to figure out rather than just swing my mace randomly. But I can already tell, especially reading here and elsewhere, that I’m going to hit a spot where the game is simply too difficult for me and I’m going to just move on to something else. For the same reasons that I tried and tried Demons Soul and moved on.

I already know one hard core gamer, my son actually, in his 30s, has the reflexes of a (insert animal with super reflexes) loves hard games, and he has put a LOT of time into the game, high level, and he’s gotten frustrated enough at “having to learn the tricks” and having to spend time online to figure how out to beat some of the bosses, and he’s said “Yeah, the game’s just not enjoyable for me anymore, loved the open world and loved a lot of the challenges and so many options, but I’ve reached a brick wall. Moving to Destiny 2.”

FWIW

2783

So I’ve heard that argument before, but it’s nothing new for a souls veteran. If you think some of this is obtuse, you would’ve hated Demon’s Souls.

As for the difficulty, that is kind of built in. If you are having trouble in an area, you can always farm up more levels, which makes you tougher, which makes the bosses easier. That being said I will say some of the optional bosses in here are really REALLY tough.

If it’s any consolation, I’m a 55 yr old souls fan, and I managed to get to NG+ with my crusty reflexes. I am going to try Astrologer next (played as a paladin this build) and see how the glass cannon life is.

2784

Jeff,

Some tips for your Astrologer:

First, Red Guys should not be engaged! Not until you are level 40 at least.

  1. As @Fozzle says, your priority is to get your Vit to 20, so that you can take a hit.
  2. You are extremely squishy, so only engage in melee if you have no choice, until you get that Vit up.
  3. You are a mage, stay away from enemies as much as possible.
  4. Your starting shield is made of papier mache; see above.
  5. You start with an incredibly powerful spell, relatively speaking - Glintstone Arc. I’d be surprised if any of the other starting classes are doing 140 damage to multiple enemies straight out of the gate.

  1. I am still using Glintstone Arc as my bread and butter spell at level 70.
  2. If you are engaging more than one enemy, bait them into grouping together and then hit them.
  3. There is no silver bullet where you can go and suddenly discover an item or playstyle where you can lay waste to everything around you. To some extent, you already have that, in the Meteorite Staff, so it’s a matter of making your peace with your playstyle.
  4. Think of it like a strategy game, with a lot of planning, then a couple of minutes action during the execute phase :)
  5. Lock on to your enemies and keep your distance - I played the first two From games without doing this, because that’s how I liked it, but it is much easier to manage if you lock on, at the beginning at least.
  6. I feel you - it took me 12 hours to get past the first level back on Demon’s Souls, because I really had to shift from the expected run and gun approach to action games. It will click eventually!
  7. Level up each time you have enough runes; you don’t need to kill all the enemies in a group if you’ve reached that threshold. The Stats screen will tell you how many runes you need.

I hope that doesn’t sound too flippant. But just to repeat, there’s no one thing that will suddenly make the game a breeze - you just need to be calm and considered. Don’t get distracted with talk of re-specs, or pie in the sky stuff way down the line. Just get comfortable picking enemies off from a suitable distance and you can take it from there.

When you reach Vit 20 you can mix it up a bit. Slow and steady as it goes.

2785
  1. As an astrologer, the only time you should be doing melee against anything more powerful than the initial guard enemies is if you are doing it on your horsey. You will need to Git Gud on your horsey (i.e. learning when to lock on and not lock on, when to boost, and – critically – the timing window to hit with your weapon, since they’re all different).

Gitting gÜd on your horsey will let you a)plow through mass open world melee fodder without undue magical expenditure, and b)let you take down giants and other semi-boss trash in the open world. This will also help when you decide that you hate your “OMG I hate it when enemies get close” Astrologer, which happens after you put Margit in the ground and enter the castle. If you’re good at horsey with Astrologer, you’ll be good with the sword & board warrior you roll up next.

  1. It doesn’t hurt to put 2 points early into STR for astrologers. This allows them to weild the starting guard longsword (eventually obtainable by… killing starting guards). The STR buff plus the weapon damage will allow you to one-shot backstab most Lingrave trash mobs. (You almost are able to one-shot them to begin with, but trash mobs will still have a sliver of health left… and, for some reason, hitting enemies as they’re getting back to their feet is wonky, and not to mention that that not ending a fight quickly invites others to join up).