Why do you feel that? I’ve never used them myself, I just figured the wolves you get are fine for a starting ash. Plus, you can’t use them till you get the bell, right?
Ya, that dungeon sucks. You’re probably best off ignoring it right now. Later come back to it, then watch a video about how to do it. It’s one of a very few trap dungeons - where the entire dungeon is about avoiding a giant trap - trial and error for these suck, and even watching the video, be ready to die. Probably a lot. The boss at the end of this one isn’t even easy.
Also a tip for anyone who doesn’t know - all stonesword locations take two keys! Fortunately most already have a first key already inserted (so they only need one more) - to see whether you’ll need one or two keys, look carefully at the imp statue, if it only needs one key, you’ll see one key already inserted in the head of one of the imps.
They are just way more useful than any of the consumables. The imps throw bombs and melee and they tend to survive better than the wolves vs bosses with AoE attacks. Once you get a good summon (and the mana to use them) you’ll never go back to the imps or the wolves. But against some early game bosses I found the imps very useful.
Having an extra heal or mana flask (golden seed) right off the bat is actually far more important to me as that applies to the entire game, not just specific areas with a boss.
I went with Golden Seed, but in a lategame area, there is a rise/tower where the easy solution is to use the Fanged Imps ashes – I ended up buying them from a random merchant.
FWIW, the Fextralife wiki outlines the below as recommendations:
Keepsakes provide an opportunity for a personalized early-game advantage. Below are reasons for taking some of the more popular among them:
Stonesword Key x2 - Can be used to gain early access to areas gated by imp statues. Alternatively, invest into saving future Runes as these start at a price of 2000 Runes when purchasing them from Merchants.
Conversely, their recommendations AGAINST certain items:
Keepsakes will not have a significant impact on your overall gameplay experience. However, below are reasons for why some of them fall short of a recommendation:
Bewitching Branch x5 - While they can charm enemies, their inconsistency against certain enemy types and limited quantity make them less desirable.
Boiled Prawn x5 - While these have a strong Physical Damage negation effect, 15% for 60 seconds, their limited quantity can make players hesitant to use them at the right time, if at all.
Shabriri’s Woe - Generating enmity can be situationally powerful. However, it typically relies on the player investing into summons/companions which they may not have access to early on.
Thanks for this. I have tried everything listed and it is still unplayable. I get a 1 second stutter followed by my character looking like he is fast forwarding.
I have tried just about everything listed above but no luck.
Currently I have uninstalled it from my second drive and am re installing it on my main C drive having made enough space and hopefully this may improve things otherwise i am stuffed.
I am running an Omen HP17 with a 2070 and everything updated
It should hopefully get better over time. I’ve been told there’s shaders that have to compile every time you encounter anything new in the game that you haven’t seen before, whether that’s an animation or an object. So it will happen constantly.
My own personal stuttering was because of that, and that I don’t have enough cooling on my CPU, the worst of the stuttering starts happening for me when my CPU temperature hits 97/98 C, when my Ryzen 5600X starts throttling performance so it won’t overheat.
While I don’t personally use the Cracked Pot consumables a whole lot a case could be made that, because they are a finite resource, only so many to be found or bought, that an extra three, esp. early on, could be a good choice.
Congrats on beating it! I’m incredibly happy to see FromSoftware’s magic connecting with more folks. I find Elden Ring to be a staggering achievement of artistry and design, a Baroque masterpiece.
What convinced you to give this a try after Dark Souls didn’t kindle a flame in you? When did you know Elden Ring was going to be worth finishing? (Stormveil Castle for me. I wasn’t too sure about the open world aspects, and it assured me there were still amazing, labyrinthine locales to explore.)
I just completed it too. I have 230 hours in the game but 127 with the character I won it with. Level 157 shield and 90%+ I used Treespear. I had to summon help for 3 battles The game is a masterpiece and might be my favorite all time game but I need time for things to settle.
My son beat this game at around level 110. He put all his points into Strength and Vigor. He used the anchor the entire game, 2 handed with no shield. It was unreal. Elden Beast didn’t even get into it’s second phase. He just beat it up, stunned it twice and did the crit. I watched. The boss’s health bar would just melt.
Kid is 10 and already mastered souls games. He even beat Malenia by himself. Just with that dumb anchor.
Don’t let anyone tell you melee builds aren’t viable.
3000 