Elden Ring

Had a quick couple of hours blast this afternoon. Think I’m going to like this game, it’s good that you can just hope and explore for a bit before jumping back off.

I’m more and more impressed with this game. Its absolutely vast and its just packed with stuff to discover. Approaching 50 hours of playtime and it feels like i’ve barely scratched the surface I think there are probably months worth of content.

I’m trying to put off buying ER by returning to Horizon Zero Dawn (bloody excellent BTW when you get properly into it) and picking up a copy of the gothic horror classic Bloodborne.

Had another quick blast this am. I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing, I was invaded when I found a hidden cave and died. Loving it though.

It’s completely won me over as someone who didn’t get on with Dark Souls. Some of it is still very difficult but it’s so open and lets you deal with challenges at your own pace. It’s a huge game but everywhere i go feels unique, even the minor dungeons. There’s none of the filler or copy pasted encounters that pad out so many open world games.

I’m trying to put off buying ER by returning to Horizon Zero Dawn (bloody excellent BTW when you get properly into it) and picking up a copy of the gothic horror classic Bloodborne.

There’s a whirligig saw in Elden Ring, as well as a rune which gives you the rally mechanic from BB – very cool.

Goes without saying there’s a moonlight greatsword, although it has a slightly different name.

I’ve set multiplayer group password up as Stweden

It means anyone using this will mostly see messages and the likes from others using that password. You can set this in the game by bringing the menu up, multilayer and group password.

Nice one Drac.

I’ve actually been playing mainly offline. Any ideas if you can still get invaded if you are using a multiplayer password?

Yes you can. The password is to increase the likely hood of joining player using that password. Yup can still be invaded but by NPCs in offline mode too.

If it’s like the other Souls games and I think it is – killing invading NPCs makes them available for you to summon for boss fights. It is massively helpful so it’s worth fighting those battles. I’ve used NPC support in the first two main boss fights

I’ve actually been playing mainly offline. Any ideas if you can still get invaded if you are using a multiplayer password?

You can’t get invaded by another player if you’re solo in this game. Miyazaki caving to the casuls 🙁
Unless you want to be, there’s an item you can use to opt-in. npc invasions still happen playing solo (and offline I would assume?)

Nice idea on the stw pswd @Drac. I have a finished character at lvl125 if anyone needs a summon – the pswd will enable it and just downscale my stats.

Defeated my first demi-god last night!

How are folks building their characters.

I’ve tended in past Souls games to go for Dex or Dex / Strength build and go and hit things in the face with a Katana.

This time I started off down that path but I’ve split my build between Dex and Int. Magic gives me the option to chip away at bosses before finishing them off. And to thin out crowds of normal enemies, before I wade in and slice them up.

Reached Altus Plateau and the city last night before getting absolutely smashed by TWO Tree Sentinels guarding the entrance!

Big update this morning – a lot of things fixed / balanced, quite an impressive response from Bandai imo.

@richmtb I’m playing dex arc on first go – bleed is very strong in this game so things like katanas are popular at the meta. Some savage bleed weapon arts. The moonveil kat for your dex int build was OP but it got walloped in the update this morning.

Most things work, though, you can play all sorts. Magic is really strong for late game bosses – I find pure mage a bit of a boring style (and it always sucks in pvp) but combined with a good weapon it can make for really good interesting play.
You prob know that you can re-spec a certain number of time using a larval tear consumable, so nothing is set in stone.

I’ve tried it again, still not for me.

Every aspect of it that’s hailed as revolutionary just seems a bit of a rehash of basic gaming staples – it seems people have never come across boss characters whose moves you have to learn for example?

And the collision detection is shit.

The moonveil kat for your dex int build was OP but it got walloped in the update this morning.

Say its not true 🙁

Moonveil Katana is exactly what I’m using. The weapon art is briliant

Too brilliant, rich – it’s been nerfed. Might still be decent though.

OP early game put it in the crosshairs (sword of night and flame is the other one that got squashed) – players were picking it up first 5 mins and steam-rolling the game. If it was late game with higher reqs it would be different.

I’m playing it as a bandit so chucking my points into Arcane just now.

I’m playing as a prisoner. I put most of my points into the 3 base attributes Vigor, mind and endurance. As long as I’ve got enough Dex Str Int to access my weapons I find it more productive to scale weapons through smithing rather that increase skill attributes

Had a bit time to play this week. My god it’s absolutely huge!

I’ve barely scratched a corner of the world and I’ve played for about 10 hours. Still learning loads as not played much since the original Souls game.

That is an awesome vid – guy knows Dark Souls.

Parked this up for the time being – played the pants off it. Plat / 100% is very straightforward to get if you like doing that sort of stuff, you just need to play through the game and you’ll naturally pick up what you need. There’s no crazy farming or obscure stuff – does need three playthroughs for different endings (tho I did it in two with a cheeky save scrub).

Put the Dad reflexes to the test and nearly soloed all bosses on NG+ – thought the mimic was awesome to get you through NG, but wanted to try them without as it does carry pretty hard. Some great fights were you go from getting absolutely mashed to slowly figuring them out – Godfrey in particular is really strong. Came up short against the final pair, though, and had to mimic – too hard for me right now, would need a really optimal build.

How is everyone feeling with the game with some hours under the belt? I’ll be interested to see how it goes longer term. I played Bloodborne through to 100% and never played it again – but if you said that game was a complete masterpiece I wouldn’t disagree. Strange how you put some exceptional games down but keep coming back to others that are more flawed.

Well, here’s an alternative version that might appeal to some of you…

https://www.creativebloq.com/news/elden-ring-mods

Finally beat the elden beast and mended the elden ring. 145 hours of gameplay – but I did slightly obsessively complete as much as I could

Hail Elden Lord olddog!

I’ve been playing this again a fair bit – the update to invade / coop anywhere on the map is really good.

Cheers!

I’ve dabbled in the multiplayer a bit – mainly co-op stuff. Now I’ve finished the game once I may explore that aspect a bit more now.

It’s currently reduced to £25 for those who didn’t take the plunge. I’ve not been on in months as the weather has been so good this year.

The Elden Ring DLC is very good – huge amount of content, beautiful map that is cleverly designed for exploration, some hard bosses. Basically more Elden Ring.

Bosses do lack some intangibles imho – after playing the main game plenty they have a great level of challenge but just missing something relative to Bloodborne / DS3. Only Melania really cracks fromsoft ATG boss category.