Gah, I already knew that!!!
Yeah, saw that on Digital Foundry video. Wish the Xbox Series S had that option for last gen games instead of auto update to X/S versions.
There are ashes that both cast a specific spell and briefly buff the weapon.
I have some of those but they seem inferior to the spell cast with my instrument, probably due to sorcery scaling as @ShivaX mentioned.
JeffL
1612
When I bought it today I just downloaded the PS5 version. What do you give up if you’re using the PS4 version?
I noticed two curious things today which I don’t have explanations for.
The first is a buff (gold bird-foot up-arrow icon) that appears on its own sometimes, seemingly after killing several enemies. I don’t recall seeing this earlier in the game. Maybe it increases rune income like the gold bird foot consumable item. I don’t think it’s related to my gear, but I may have missed something.
The second is having my dropped rune pile decrease with repeated death/pickup cycles. I was dying to a pair of enemies that both used Ashes of War skills, and I noticed the pickup value decreased from roughly 7k to 6k to 5k before I managed to kill them. Normally it gets bigger as you kill enemies en route to the fight, and dying in boss rooms and evergaol fights seems to return the same pickup value as was dropped. Maybe it decays over time or in some specific circumstance or location (I was in Stormveil Castle). I never lost that pile by dying twice, but it was an out of the way place with several enemies on the path.
I wonder if these things are related, like a curse that increases rune income but adds a death tax.
You give up a little bit of extra grass and some pop in. You gain framerate and smooth gameplay all the time.
Fozzle
1615
@Bobtree First, check the weather when that happens. This might be a gold snow thing that happens from time to time. It’s like gold flecked light snow or something.
The second is interesting, I will have to watch out for that!
Minor multiplayer spoilers:
Speaking of recovering your runes… there’s an item to put yourself into the hostile summoning pool and usually you’ll get summoned for a duel. But if you die, your runes drop at the location you died in the other world. Normally those summon pool items are nice because you can keep them running while you explore. But then you have to warp back to pick up your runes.
Overall, the whole summoning pool system is honestly pretty stupid so far. Most of them are in the caves and catacombs, so random idiots summon me for co-op in a 60 second dungeon with a pushover boss at the end. Putting your sign down for a boss fight is the only consistent way to do it, though I’m realizing now there are certain bonfires where you should get a good co-op experience, like in Siofra River. I’ll give that a try tomorrow, hopefully it’s a prime area and we get a few good invasions too.
I wonder just how many times I’ve died in these games while yelling “Serpentine! Serpentine!”
Gotta be at least approaching triple digits.
I can’t find the quest log or the objective marker.
Scuzz
1619
There is a reason for that. They don’t exist although you can mark somethings yourself on the map.
Bateau
1620
That’s awesome, thanks for testing!
Kolbex
1622
I still don’t understand why enemies release a puff of runes that you suck up when they die. Souls I understood. It made even more sense in Demon’s Souls but they still made it work in Dark Souls, but runes? What’s going on here. Will they ever explain it?
Kadath
1623
I had to teleport there to get her to show up. Per Reddit she’s a bit bugged. Using the time dial doesn’t always work
We all know what you want from Secret Santa this year.
we are made out of runes and when we die they are up for grabs for whoever is nearest. Runes are like ancient NFTs… I find it funny that they rename the things in almost every game, but they do mechanically the same. Like humanity, effegy, ember or stone of ephemeral eyes.
But in this game they got rid of ember/humanity concept? You only have one form?
open the map and hit the button to show multiplayer info, that will show you where to put down coop or comp signs for best results.
they are still called flasks, so that one isn’t any different. I find myself saying grace instead of bonfire too. I do constantly say souls though instead of runes.
