Elden Ring

[Golgo]

Use the item you received and you'll be back to normal. I wish I knew that before going through all of Stormveil, bosses included.

Ah, OK great. In that case I might be tempted to have a 'cuddle' again.

What 'builds' are people here using, btw?

I went for the 'samurai' starter as previously I've inclined to tank builds or priestly/magic tanks. I've never played a Souls with a Dex build before so I'm focusing on that, and have never used bows and arrows before so they're getting tried. The crafting really helps as previously it was a faff to go shopping for arrows. I'm enjoying it, although I'm hanging out for just a bit of magic to add to my death-dealing portfolio.

[briareos_kerensky]

Knight as usual, but shifted to dex after a boss dropped my current curved greatsword. Blood loss is good extra damage to bosses and sturdy enemies.

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[endo]

Yeah, I started with samurai too and I'm currently levelling STR and DEX. Would like a bit of magic at some point though.

[Ouenben]

Started with the Samurai class. Mostly upgraded Strength, endurance and vigor but working on int now so I can still attack a few foes from afar.
Had a heavy hitting tank in DS1, a strong cleric with very good magic stats in DS2 and a greatsword wielding knight in DS3 (who could also do decent magic damage when needed)
Enjoying the starting weapon for the Samurai so far, at +4 upgrade.

Very happy with Elden Souls so far, after not managing to get into Sekiro.

[Golgo]

Samurai FTW it is, then. The unsheathe 'special' with the katana is an awesome move to get to start off with.

[Tobal]

Found the bagman type enemy which i lost to and woke up in a new location... which could be a game ender for some as it's quite easy to get there underlevelled and be forced in to 2 v 1 boss fight in a small room with instant death grabs and large AoE moves and no chance to warp out as you are trapped unground. Lost about 30k in runes between being warped to place i couldn't get out of straight away and another bunch making my way to the boss room and losing in there

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Managed to beat it using Oleg+2 spirit to keep one of the abductors busy while i dealt the one that charges and grabs, smacking it around with lightening damage took it down quite quickly, however to get to that point i'd tried all sort of damage types and spirits wracking up loss after loss.

Looked up a wiki afterwards, there is no way out the subterranean inquisitor area if you tag the bonfire, but seems people found a route by a long jump off a cliff into the lava and healing/running to the shore right where you get snatch to, after that you have run/sneak for a while to get outside.

after beating the bosses i could escape out to some northern mountain range where i found a cave

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full of poison and a cool mushroom outfit which gives double the immunity you find on the average light armour.

After that detour i went back to the Academy in the lakes of Liuruna (which i had been calling northern Limgrave) to start my second of the 5 major bosses (so far),

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lots of classic hidden doors, tons of running on roof tops and in the rafters which is love doing. Got to the Queen of the Moonnight (or something like that), nice surprise of a double whammy boss, with the second boss being like bloodbornes Rom.... not beaten it yet as the 2nd phase of the 2nd boss i've been unable to deal with the fast moving summons and her damage magic ranged magic attacks at the same time, specially the dragon spirit.

Still need to find the vendor for smithing[2] stones, found the somber one so therefore must be npc selling NQ[2] stones so i can start experimenting with different weapons, got a pile of sombers unused ready to use on a frost and blood/fire combo weapons i've found should i need them later, as i've definitely found that mixing weapons to match the enemies helps more than it has in previous souls games even if they are underlevelled, i have +8 piercing/slash/holy with a polearm and +8 blunt/bleed club to cover most of the bases.

[nonny]

I just took out the Tree Sentinel at level 34... took me a good 15 attempts but I wasn't giving up on principle... in terms of story in 5 only about halfway through Stormveil Castle taking my sweet time with it but I've cantered around a good 3/4 map grabbing grace points.

What a wonderful game. I do wish it had a few more methods of exposition though equally I do appreciate they're opposed to holding your hand.

I'm a vanguard btw though I'm building up dexterity, faith and intelligence right now to wield some stuff I've picked up.

I understand you can re-spec later in the game if needed?

[briareos_kerensky]

I'm exploring the area past the first "true boss",

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and somehow I end in a battle between normal soldiers and blueish phantoms; after the battle ends I notice the road goes into a ravine that looks straight out the Return Of The King extended edition, so I decide to explore elsewhere. I find a second Mariner. I know it's a ghost, but it's riding a boat, so it was quite surprised to see it teleporting on the grassy fields around its starting position...I defeated it close to the Statue of Marika I approached from!
Oh well.
I find my way to a small building northeast of there, guarded by a stone fire giant, which goes down almost disappointingly easy. I step into the building, ride an elevator down to an underground river infested by giant red ants. I explore a bit and find their queen (goes down with an arrow to the abdomen) and deeper I end in a ruined temple with a..."thing" attached to the ceiling shooting purple meteors. I sneak my way yo to it, defeat it, and the room past it is empty. Oh.
I trace my steps back to the lower floor and find a merchant, along the map of the location...wow, this place has a map? And an hour of exploration only covered about a third of it? OK...
I make my way to a large cave with one of the things/characters from the loading screens, and...giant dragonman thing that attacks with frost. I give a couple of attempts, it doesn't seem to hard but I decide to go outside...before that I stumble on a few basilisks and one of the caves lead to a place further down that looks like Lost Izalith.
Back outside, I find another small tower with a sorcerer NPC inside with a long range magic that makes me go scream "SHINING ARC!", I defeat it after a couple of tries, and I reach the top of the tower, though i don't know how to continue. I see stairs but don't know how to reach them.

[Tobal]

I understand you can re-spec later in the game if needed?

you can respec but requires

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getting to top of the Academy and beating Rennala, 1 of 5 story bosses

also found the npc forgiveness stuff to

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there is a huge turtle wearing a pope hat in place called the Church of Vows in the Lakes of Liuruna, you can get there easily by horse or there is a trick teleport outside academy big boss room which takes you there, which makes sense storywise as to why it would be there if you speak to the turtle.

A full Saturday of elden ring to explore area of Liuruna as much i could:

Took a fair few attempts but i finished the Academy in the lakes of Liuruna, sadly the boss soul rewards are meant for sorcerers, unsurprisingly. Then i wasted hours scouring the academy to pick up all items which included all the dad masks

Decided to speak to the desk jockey at the roundtable for some instructions

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and got a new quest line to find some lady about a key, found the cave in the lakes to the west, i was quite over levelled for it so breezed through and found the npc which turned friendly already for 'saving' some old man at the capra demon village much earlier in my adventures, now i have a new strong archer spirit, but i'll stick Oleg he's just so tanky and a good distraction (though costs 100FP).

Sticking with the west of Liuruna, i found out what happened to the blue knight that asked me to find some girl very early(never found her) on but vanished from roundtable about 20 hours in game ago. Found some shack full of dead noble types and got attacked by the knight now in red, beat time 1st go but had some trouble with his magic move that caused push back. From there i went north up the west side to Carian Manor, got my ass kicked by spider hands... and ran off following the north of the lake in to a river which lead to a out door dungeon, probably my favourite of side dungeons so far, lovely long claim up the side of ruins and cliffs, followed by a Dragon boss which i cheesed with miner looking NPC and Olega which together with my bleed club made him stagger for a critical twice with the reward being a dragon greatsword that bleaches out lava. Wasn't the end of that area either as it lead to an exit out to the northern mountain i'd been teleported to different bit of it earlier in the week.

Going to head back to Carian Manor/House and see if i can take on the bosses from Ainsel well.

[briareos_kerensky]

Finally beaten

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the Magma Wyvern, which dropped a katana I cannot use (scales with dex and int).

Emboldened by this success,

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I killed the dragon in Limgrave lake, which was relatively easy, and now I cannot thing any other way to fight dragons/wyverns if not on horseback.

Discovered a location called

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the Four Belfries, three of them have teleports which can be activated by a special stonesword key; the fourth belfry gives one of those, and the teleport I activated brought me back to the starting zone.

Talking of starting areas,

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I unlocked the fog wall near the very first Limgrave grace, which opened with a small poisonous area, continued with Chariot 2.0, and ended with a boss fight against a tree-dragon thing which I defeate by the skin of my teeth and got a spirit ash I cannot use (100 FP).

Teleported to the

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Roudtable Hold, only that lights were off and I could swing my sword, and the place was invaded by a red phantom NPC. Defeated it, and everything went back to normal. I wanted to try my hand against the other invading NPC down the balcony, and got him too.

All because I don't want to do that

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hand-infested Carian Mansion.

[Tobal]

Talking of starting areas,

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I unlocked the fog wall near the very first Limgrave grace, which opened with a small poisonous area, continued with Chariot 2.0, and ended with a boss fight against a tree-dragon thing which I defeate by the skin of my teeth and got a spirit ash I cannot use (100 FP).

All because I don't want to do that

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hand-infested Carian Mansion.

there is alot of hidden stuff in that dungeon,

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i found a 3rd secret route in there but haven't managed to do the environmental trick to get whatever the chariot drops yet, as you only get 3 chances to get the timing right

cleared the Carian Mansion,

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Fire based weapons/spells are your friend in there. I levelled up a 3 pronged candlestick i got off the abductors boss from losing to the 'bagman' iron maiden at the bottom of the academy lifts. Does bleed and fire damage together and attacks very quickly for a spear with R1, so while the hair on the hands burns and they squirm around in pain so you can get ton of hits in

[briareos_kerensky]

Found a small cave

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at the end of a root coming out of a cliffside with a wondrous item inside, the Golden Scarab amulet to increase runes gathered from enemies. The cave might be small but it's infested with poison, scarlet rot, and the are no intermediary Stakes or graces, it's a rush towards the boss(es) with careful stepping and a lot of resting. Bosses are pretty easy though.

[RobRoy]

i dont like souls game...

... this game has me hooked!!

Just took down

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Magrit

I was soooo hyped!!!

[Finsbury Girl]

I spent the weekend just riding around looking for and clearing dungeons ; managed to beat

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Godrick finally

yeah I summoned and proud of it Oh and my 3 wolf brothers are absolute lifesavers. I found some absolutely farking massive

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dragon

pooed myself but saw he wasn't aggro but my goodness what a surprise it was

[fuse]

Up to about 30 hours on this now. Taken down two big bads and have made it to another, but have wandered off to do more exploring and gathering instead of bashing my head against that for now. I am absolutely gagging for a new weapon... it may now be at +13, but I cannot escape the fact that I'm still using something I found in the first hour of the game.

I've avoided open world games for some time, and while this nimbly dodges most all of my issues with that kind of game design, it's still quite intimidating that there is just so much of everything. I'm definitely in for the duration now, but it really is blowing my mind how at how crafted it all feels despite being so bloody huge.