Video Games

[laxu]

The SSS itself is unique in that it's a somber straight sword that does strike damage (only one in the game) and it has Square Off which is one of the best ash of wars in the game IMO. Poise breaks for days

The Darkness/Light versions just turn it in to a generic non-strike faith sword with extremely shitty (though admittedly very strong) AOE ash of wars

If anyone on playing on PS5 has a +10 Stone Sheathed Sword I'll trade you a +10 Sword of Light for it

Yeah didn't think about the strike, that's certainly useful. According to the wiki there are 2 more places where you can another Stone-sheathed Sword but I haven't found them yet.

 

[Jynx]

Cleaned out Fog Rift Catacombs last night. Relatively easy if you take your time... but I did bring in a summons for the boss.

Still no Backhand Blades.

There's a backhand blade right at the start of the DLC. It was the first weapon I got. Just walk ahead from the starting point and it's in the ruins on your right somewhere.

 

[laxu]

There are sooo many new weapons, especially considering the ones you can get as random drops from enemies

I haven't even tried a quarter of them that I've found so far tbh

The way I usually try them out is just give the moveset and special moves a spin and if I like it, consider upgrading them. If it's too much of a "eh, just a hammer or basic sword with a unique special skill" then I can't be bothered.

There's some cool ones like throwable weapons that respawn in your hand.

The kung fu fists (pretty much Sekiro monk special moves) are also really fun but I hope there are more powerful versions of those found later.

 

[Jynx]

I actually started Elden Ring again altogether. I felt quite out of practice for the DLC. I'm going to 100% the whole thing.

 

[mbenigni]

There's some cool ones like throwable weapons that respawn in your hand.

That sounds awesome! (Shades of Nioh?)

I've been pretty lame in this regard, typically finding one effective weapon and sticking with it for long stretches of the game. Partly because (until I found my way to some optional bell bearings the other night) smithing stones were limited; partly because I was hesitant to spend souls on weapons upgrades instead of levels; partly because the weapons I had already suited my build. I ran nearly all of the base game with a longsword dropped at the first camp, only switching to the Magma Wyrm Blade toward the very end.

All of the weapons in the DLC must be a lot of fun with new characters, but it's hard to talk myself into bothering with any of them when e.g. my trusty Magma Wym Blade is literally melting faces.

 

[mbenigni]

I actually started Elden Ring again altogether. I felt quite out of practice for the DLC. I'm going to 100% the whole thing.

See you in 250 hours.

 

[laxu]

That sounds awesome! (Shades of Nioh?)

I've been pretty lame in this regard, typically finding one effective weapon and sticking with it for long stretches of the game. Partly because (until I found my way to some optional bell bearings the other night) smithing stones were limited; partly because I was hesitant to spend souls on weapons upgrades instead of levels; partly because the weapons I had already suited my build. I ran nearly all of the base game with a longsword dropped at the first camp, and then switched to the Magma Wyrm Blade toward the very end.

All of the weapons in the DLC must be a lot of fun with new characters, but it's hard to talk myself into bother with any when e.g. my trusty Magma Wym Blade is literally melting faces.

Yeah I did the same on much of the basegame, Moonveil spam got a lot of mileage.

But after finding the bellbearings and the store selling the upgrade materials, it just becomes a question of farming the funds to buy them, so upgrading anything to at least +23 or +9 becomes easy.

My main atm is the frost spear Cross-Naginata. It does both bloodloss and frost damage so enemies will often get hit by one of them depending on their defences. The ice spear skill on it gives me a ranged attack that is surprisingly powerful against many enemies. It's just pretty slow for standard attacks so I tend to swap it as the situation arises.

The other weapon getting a lot of use is the Rotten Battle Hammer. It does rot damage so you either smash enemies with strike damage or they get rot on top draining their health.

For fast, I have the Antspur rapier which also causes rots while having thrusting attacks so it can be used with a greatshield.

I think you want to consider some other weapon to add because the whole Shadow Keep is full of fire resistant enemies.

 

[mbenigni]

Yeah I did the same on much of the basegame, Moonveil spam got a lot of mileage.

But after finding the bellbearings and the store selling the upgrade materials, it just becomes a question of farming the funds to buy them, so upgrading anything to at least +23 or +9 becomes easy.

My main atm is the frost spear Cross-Naginata. It does both bloodloss and frost damage so enemies will often get hit by one of them depending on their defences. The ice spear skill on it gives me a ranged attack that is surprisingly powerful against many enemies. It's just pretty slow for standard attacks so I tend to swap it as the situation arises.

The other weapon getting a lot of use is the Rotten Battle Hammer. It does rot damage so you either smash enemies with strike damage or they get rot on top draining their health.

For fast, I have the Antspur rapier which also causes rots while having thrusting attacks so it can be used with a greatshield.

I think you want to consider some other weapon to add because the whole Shadow Keep is full of fire resistant enemies.

Yes, this is exactly what I'm finding now as well. I'd resorted to Googling where to find various smithing stones just before you posted your advice re: bell bearings a couple of days ago, and ran through some optional mines that I'd missed in my first pass through ER. Now I'm upgrading much more freely.

As for farming souls (or whatever ER calls them) every FromSoft game seems to have a couple of points that offer excellent farming for near-zero risk. In the first Dark Souls it was the dragon you could lure off a ledge, who would then murder all the mobs on the bridge while you fell to safety below, rinse and repeat. In Shadow, there's a knight just before you get to the Castle-Lord's Chamber. Once you've rested at that checkpoint, you can ride the elevator back down and take him out over and over again. No risk apart from over-levelling or dying of boredom.

 

[Devin]

Yeah didn't think about the strike, that's certainly useful. According to the wiki there are 2 more places where you can another Stone-sheathed Sword but I haven't found them yet.

From some light googling it seems like it only shows up once at all three locations - as soon as you pick it up at any of them the other two disappear and then you can only transform the sword at the remaining locations

Could be wrong but that seems to be the case from my experience

 

[laxu]

Yes, this is exactly what I'm finding now as well. I'd resorted to Googling where to find various smithing stones just before you posted your advice re: bell bearings a couple of days ago, and ran through some optional mines that I'd missed in my first pass through ER. Now I'm upgrading much more freely.

As for farming souls (or whatever ER calls them) every FromSoft game seems to have a couple of points that offer excellent farming for near-zero risk. In the first Dark Souls it was the dragon you could lure off a ledge, who would then murder all the mobs on the bridge while you fell to safety below, rinse and repeat. In Shadow, there's a knight just before you get to the Castle-Lord's Chamber. Once you've rested at that checkpoint, you can ride the elevator back down and take him out over and over again. No risk apart from over-levelling or dying of boredom.

Palace Approach Ledge-Road is still unparalled in Elden Ring to my knowledge.

Using the Golden Scarab talisman (more runes) and the Sacred Relic sword skill, you can rack up something like 30-35K runes every 20-30 seconds or so. Just run into a specific spot, unleash the skill, run back to the grace. 100% safe too.

I appreciate that there are farming locations because hanging onto lots of runes just to get a level can be really stressful.

 

[Devin]

The kung fu fists (pretty much Sekiro monk special moves) are also really fun but I hope there are more powerful versions of those found later.

For sure you can get additional ash of wars for them

 

[laxu]

Some NPC quests in the ER DLC seem bugged.

Spoiler: NPC does thing

Hornsent was supposed to invade later if you don't have him help in the Messmer fight,. but he never did.

Also, ran into a "same boss again" situation. That was lame as the boss being there doesn't even make any sense lorewise. At least it had an extra attack added that was kinda cool.

 

[Devin]

Some NPC quests in the ER DLC seem bugged.

Spoiler: NPC does thing

Hornsent was supposed to invade later if you don't have him help in the Messmer fight,. but he never did.

Interesting

My experience with that:

Spoiler

I summoned him during the fight and still got invaded by him later

Location spoiler:

Spoiler

="He invaded me right outside the scarlet rot bug lady boss fight "]

 

[Aelred]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: "soulslike" and "open-world" don't actually complement one another all that well.

I can see why people say this, and everyone has their own reaction, but given this is a first attempt at doing it, and making Dark Souls 4 probably didn't appeal to the creator very much, I'll forgive it many of its obvious flaws and weird choices. I still think bad colosseums for the PvP crowd a very bad choice in terms of gameplay as well as loyal audience - the PvP crowd love to duel but also like more than just an open circle. Fight Clubs at the Academy were already a regular feature. Invasions in Shadow are usually difficult 'coz the Invaders left playing are either really good or never done it before - mostly the former.

And Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was so much fun to play... some kind of Open World Souls could easily be presented as a money maker - and was. And still is, and I'll be playing co-op for years to come.

Except for GRR Martin and his Lore. That deserves some kind of Hex upon them. Rellana?!? WTF?

I guess I'm weird in that I like Dragon fights, and laugh when I find some almost-impossible shiny to get to and find it's a piece of rubbish. Bloodborne's Madman's Knowledge placements I thought a clever inside joke. If the area didn't have at least one dragon and a new breath spell I for one would have been disappointed. I want weeks of exploratory gameplay before I just do co-op assists, although I'm already liking that. So many new ways to get fragged at the last second by a combo I've never seen from nowhere! Cool!

The sacred relic sword and summoning Tiche every time I see the symbol appear make gank squads much easier to deal with. I need to get all the new weapons I've found to +10/25 after I pass them un-upgraded to a low level build, but not sure about new Spirit Summons yet with their Blessing upgrades. My level 55 (not in DLC) is loving Milady and the bleed Cirque thingy, as well as the new Ashes of War found. Two Handed Talisman to the lower-level Colossal Sword wielder... This new stuff livens up some old bosses I've been fighting for years. Lots of low level co-op activity by people making builds to get to Shadow, so showing off a couple of new weapons seems appropriate.

Aspect of the Crucible: Wings is a stylish new way to jump off a cliff after defeating a boss as a co-op summon for the scream of victory as I fade out. I need to look at some of the armour and if Altering them does anything cool.

The Forges are a bit odd and need getting used to, but I loathed the Hero's Graves in the main game so don't mind that I haven't found one yet.

The Hidden paths just make me ride and walk around areas more to find them. I found one way by falling down a hole in a ruin I thought I had explored, not dying and finding a way out. It's a full-bore massive DLC and maybe they didn't want everyone breezing through it, easily trouncing bosses and finding every item in 2 days. I won't figure out any of the Quests first playthrough, so I'll Wiki them next time.

Make the Wiki and Video Walkthrough crowd earn their money! Same for the Lore, really - make it even more vague so Vaati can make his living off the Lore videos. Imagine how disappointed the designers and developers who put years of effort into this would be if it was a doddle and no one howled about Too Hard! Too Hard! and Nerf it now! Nerf it now! That would not be a FROM way of getting satisfaction, imho.

Nerfs have already been promised - use your good new weapons and spells soon before they are turned into wet tissues!

Now how the hell do I find that map fragment way East. Down the path with all those poison plants? Off the back of the Fort above it?

Hmmm... don't look at the wiki, don't look at the wiki...

 

[Aelred]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: "soulslike" and "open-world" don't actually complement one another all that well.

Sorry about my probable tl:dr response above. I'll try being brief:

For a co-op fool like me, adding the Near/Far to co-op sends was sheer delight – my DLC build can be summoned to Groveside Cave, Crumbling Farum or now Shadow pools and bosses.

I spent so much time in previous titles going from bonfire to boss door all over the place to put down a sign and wait. The map menus had little red glows over bonfires that were active. No way I want to go back to Souls-linear after this!

 

[laxu]

The recent update that increased the damage multipliers received from the Scarutree Blessings really does help. Took down a couple of bosses yesterday and they didn't feel too tanky. Actually really enjoyed the

Spoiler: Boss

Rot bug lady

fight. It didn't have any "your screen is full of fx so you can't see anything" attacks and had good tells for attacks.

Or maybe I finally have enough of the blessings (I think level 10 or 11) that it starts to feel more like the base game. The blessings seem to taper off after about level 13 and then you get pretty small increases between levels 14-20.

One problem with the game is that it's hard to know what attacks you can jump over. The ground stomps are obvious, but most other attacks are not.

 

[laxu]

As for the open world...the issue is really more about From Software not doing enough to change their existing functionality. NPC quests worked reasonably because the older games were more linear, so you were at least more likely to encounter an NPC in a new location. With the open world, all that goes out the window. This extends to those stupid co-op limits where you get kicked out of the session after defeating a boss, clearly not impossible to work around since the seamless co-op mod exists.

On top of that From didn't figure out what they want people to do in the open world. As it is, there's only a few things you can do:

• Harvest crafting materials. Crafting sucks in this game so this is not fun.
• Pick up items.
• Fight roaming enemies.
• Hunt animals for more crafting materials.
• Travel between set piece areas.
• Talk to an NPC or merchant. If you can find them.

It feels perhaps even more desolate than the more linear games as 95% of the denizens are immediately hostile. Compare this to something like Witcher 3 where cities are full of people going around their business, every NPC has at least some line they will say as you pass by. It feels much more like a living world.

 

[mbenigni]

I feel like the spoiler is warranted since you should have them already but ignore this if you'd like :)

Spoiler

They're laying near a coffin right off the road north of the very first site of grace in the DLC if I remember right. The grace right off the road that runs thru the middle of the big ruins

I spent half the night last night and finally found the Backhand Blade. It was a little further off the beaten path than your spoiler implied. I finally gave up and Googled it. Upgraded to +24. "Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone" sounds important, so I'm saving them LOL. A-a-n-d then I had to go to bed.

Looking forward to seeing what this weapon is capable of tonight. In all my years of "soulsliking", I've never focused on fast weapons, e.g. daggers and fists. Do I need to find another Backhand Blade in order to dual wield, or is this just a different technique/ stance with the same weapon equipped?

 

[mbenigni]

Sorry about my probable tl:dr response above. I'll try being brief:

For a co-op fool like me, adding the Near/Far to co-op sends was sheer delight – my DLC build can be summoned to Groveside Cave, Crumbling Farum or now Shadow pools and bosses.

I spent so much time in previous titles going from bonfire to boss door all over the place to put down a sign and wait. The map menus had little red glows over bonfires that were active. No way I want to go back to Souls-linear after this!

My main issue with open-world is as @laxu describes above.

The best content is shoe-horned into relatively linear structures anyway, where the sequence of events feels more curated. At its best, a soulslike will have a bit of metroidvania in its DNA. It's harder for this to present reliably when NPCs, items, etc. are scattered around at random across a vast open terrain. (I was exploring the first section of Shadow last night, getting bored/ frustrated. At one point I thought, "I should really just head to the state park around the corner and go for a hike.")

As for the lore... I'm not sure I'd point the finger at G.R.R. Martin. The scattershot half-baked lore thing has been a From staple since Demon's Souls. (It was charming enough then; but also, that was 15 years ago.) I'd sooner suspect/ complain that G.R.R. had almost no real impact on Elden Ring. There just isn't enough of a story arc or dialog to suggest his hand was in it, beyond, "Hey, have your people sign the papers that my people drew up, and then you can be more relevant because of our game, and our game can be more relevant because of your show."

 

[Devin]

Looking forward to seeing what this weapon is capable of tonight. In all my years of "soulsliking", I've never focused on fast weapons, e.g. daggers and fists. Do I need to find another Backhand Blade in order to dual wield, or is this just a different technique/ stance with the same weapon equipped?

No just two-hand it and you'll get a blade in each hand

You'll definitely want to do this too because the one-handed move set sucks in comparison

The Blind Spot ash of war is so damned good