The Shattered Elden Ring Thread: Tarnished Edition - (Shadow of the Erdtree p. 85)

[Dalisclock]

As much as I’d like to watch a Max playthrough of this I just don’t have the time; especially when I don’t even have half that time into it myself yet. I suppose I could skim the playlist for more interesting looking sections to see how his progress looked.

There's a couple ER playthroughs from people I'm interested in.....and I'm not even keeping up with the one I chose to go with(Plague of Gripes, BTW). I'm sure when I'm out of other stuff I'll pick it back up. At least there's no chance of him finishing it before I do.

Woolie would be my other choice if I had time for a 2nd.

 

[BrawlMan]

As much as I’d like to watch a Max playthrough of this I just don’t have the time; especially when I don’t even have half that time into it myself yet. I suppose I could skim the playlist for more interesting looking sections to see how his progress looked.

Nothing wrong with that. I exactly don't have the time and patience either. I didn't even expect him to play that long. Do whatever works for you. I only posted that for those that were curious.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Beat Godrick
I'm so tired.
From games are like long novels for me- I spend like 80% of my time on the first half.
I dunno why this game is so much harder for me than the others. Maybe I'm just burned out, or it's too BIG for me.
But I do like it when it all clicks together. I got me a nice new dex sword that fell off a bird, that's fun. I like how the gatekeeper is kicking Godrick's arm, lol.

I am annoyed that I took the time and effort to level Int to 25 and my spells do no damage to big enemies.

I need a break so I'm gonna go back to the comfort of easy Assasssins Creed. It is going to take me months to beat this game but that's cool because it's something I'm alternating with other stuff.

 

[Silvanus]

I like how the gatekeeper is kicking Godrick's arm, lol.

He's stamping on his head, isn't he?

 

[Brokencontroller]

He's stamping on his head, isn't he?

Yep. I feel like he had something bottled up tbh.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Beat Godrick
I'm so tired.
From games are like long novels for me- I spend like 80% of my time on the first half.
I dunno why this game is so much harder for me than the others. Maybe I'm just burned out, or it's too BIG for me.
But I do like it when it all clicks together. I got me a nice new dex sword that fell off a bird, that's fun. I like how the gatekeeper is kicking Godrick's arm, lol.

I am annoyed that I took the time and effort to level Int to 25 and my spells do no damage to big enemies.

I need a break so I'm gonna go back to the comfort of easy Assasssins Creed. It is going to take me months to beat this game but that's cool because it's something I'm alternating with other stuff.

Good deal. I’ve been doing the same thing as it’s good to have some game contrast to avoid burnout and gain perspective. Whenever you get back to it there is a good staff for early-mid game in Caelid that can smoke even dragons pretty easily with the Rock Sling spell. You might’ve wound up there already via teleport, and it’s pretty close to the first grace site. Torrent is pretty much essential to make looting easier for that area too since it’s, well, you’ll find out lol.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Good deal. I’ve been doing the same thing as it’s good to have some game contrast to avoid burnout and gain perspective. Whenever you get back to it there is a good staff for early-mid game in Caelid that can smoke even dragons pretty easily with the Rock Sling spell. You might’ve wound up there already via teleport, and it’s pretty close to the first grace site. Torrent is pretty much essential to make looting easier for that area too since it’s, well, you’ll find out lol.

Honestly I'm hesitant to do that but, I dunnno, we'll see. I know the staff you're talking about, it came up in the streams, Marty was talking about it.
I got the Queen's staff which is a bit more powerful. I dunno I'm just not crazy about running to some other area for an item I read on the internet.

But also... I already tried that for the Moonlight Veil Kitana. And I can't beat the Magmy Wyrm because, you know, it's in a higher level and two-shots me and my +5 weapon barely touches it so, there's that. So to hell with that. I'm just gonna go through the areas "in order." It's not like I'm struggling to deal with most enemies, I did go through Stormveil Castle with very little internet help.

It is just hard sometimes to decide if I can't beat something because I'm underleveled or I just suck. But in that sense, yeah, it is absolutely a Dark Souls.

I had 20 minutes to kill this morning so I just ran my horse around the newly exposed lake area and was quickly able to dispatch some field enemies, find some items and meet a couple NPC's. I even gave the grape lady two grapes- and this is a side quest I had heard people complain about not understanding so I'm proud of myself of that.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Honestly I'm hesitant to do that but, I dunnno, we'll see. I know the staff you're talking about, it came up in the streams, Marty was talking about it.
I got the Queen's staff which is a bit more powerful. I dunno I'm just not crazy about running to some other area for an item I read on the internet.

But also... I already tried that for the Moonlight Veil Kitana. And I can't beat the Magmy Wyrm because, you know, it's in a higher level and two-shots me and my +5 weapon barely touches it so, there's that. So to hell with that. I'm just gonna go through the areas "in order." It's not like I'm struggling to deal with most enemies, I did go through Stormveil Castle with very little internet help.

It is just hard sometimes to decide if I can't beat something because I'm underleveled or I just suck. But in that sense, yeah, it is absolutely a Dark Souls.

I had 20 minutes to kill this morning so I just ran my horse around the newly exposed lake area and was quickly able to dispatch some field enemies, find some items and meet a couple NPC's. I even gave the grape lady two grapes- and this is a side quest I had heard people complain about not understanding so I'm proud of myself of that.

A rule of thumb so far for me seems to be if a weapon can’t kill most common enemies in 3 or 4 hits, or take chunks out of a boss’s health with the appropriate weapon ashes, then it’s best to try something else or save it for later. For example, the miners have tough exteriors so swords won’t really do much to them compared to blunt weapons, but the tree sentinel horse rider is designed as a trick of sorts to get the player to go out and get better stuff first, which is preferable to beating head against wall early on.

Torrent makes tough areas in the open map easy for looting though too, so it’s kind of a way to cheat the game honestly.

 

[Dalisclock]

Finally finished Ranni's Questline. Man, that just takes you all over the damn place, especially the Underground areas. I got stuck on the INVADER!Blaidd mini-boss for a while because he hits really fucking hard and can heal. And after that is the FUCKING ROT POISON SWAMP which, yep, it's a BIG POISON SWAMP for reasons. Thanks Miyazaki. I'm not even sure why it's there to be honest. You can book it across the islands and just keep healing and there's a grace on the far side in the ruins. There are some of those fucking death lizards but I didn't even need to fight them.

Big Alien dude was an interesting fight and feels like a BB Boss or something....maybe. It's certainly very pretty. And after him finally reached that isolated Plateau in SW Luneria to finish Ranni's Quest. Again, what was probably meant to be a BIG EPIC FIGHT with the glintstone Dragon guarding the Cathedral ruins is undermined by the fact you can just ride past him into the ruins and he won't follow you. Not only that, there's a grace inside so you can reset him.

The same thing happened with the dual Tree Sentinels on the outer wall of Lyndell where the Boss bars appear, but since the door is open you can just ride past and they'll eventually get bored and stop chasing you after a mile. I feel this is one of those bits where the Open World and the epic FROM Boss fight don't really mesh because unless you're locked in by a fog gate or stuck on foot in a place that kiting the boss is difficult(and it's wierd what part of the map allow you to use torrent, because some parts of the underground do and some don't and it's not clear why) or something, they might as well be guarding nothing because you can just ride past them to bypass whatever they're guarding or grab the chest they're guarding and there's little they can do about it. At worst you lose your ruins until you get back and grab them again. The only time you really need to fight such bosses are if they are holding something you need and they only drop it if you kill them.

Also, Poor Blaidd and Iji.

i did try to kill the Assassin in the Evergoal a couple of times but so far no luck. She's quite tough and murderery so I'm gonna have to figure out her weakness. I wouldn't bother but she apparently has a really good spirit summon she drops.

 

[sXeth]

And after that is the FUCKING ROT POISON SWAMP which, yep, it's a BIG POISON SWAMP for reasons. Thanks Miyazaki. I'm not even sure why it's there to be honest. You can book it across the islands and just keep healing and there's a grace on the far side in the ruins. There are some of those fucking death lizards but I didn't even need to fight them.

Lake of Rot/Lost Cloister seems like it was probably made for Milicent/Gowry's questline, but that questline also seems incomplete so it may have been cycled over there.

Particularly given it has an elevator down to it, I think it was probably originally meant to be underground below either Aeonia/Sellia or the Haligtree.

 

[Dalisclock]

Lake of Rot/Lost Cloister seems like it was probably made for Milicent/Gowry's questline, but that questline also seems incomplete so it may have been cycled over there.

Particularly given it has an elevator down to it, I think it was probably originally meant to be underground below either Aeonia/Sellia or the Haligtree.

Yeah, I think I missed that quest somehow. I found the mage town full of ghost wizards in Caelid and some guy told me something before a dog abomination killed him while he was still talking. I explored the town a bit but never went back so maybe it's there?

Honestly, I keep thinking about how I've lost track of Hyretta the "grape" eating blind girl yet again, though I think she's part of the Frenzied Flame so I don't care much about her. I'm more upset I've lost Track of Alexander the pot onion because I like him. I've checked Jarburg(How does anyone get up from there?) and nope, not there.

Anyway, yeah, I get the feeling a lot of stuff got moved around or cut as far as quests ago. And i did find it wierd the Lake of Rot is basically way on the other side of the map but doesn't seem to affect anything else. Hell, you ride a coffin down the river(does everything travel by coffin down there?) which empties into a water cave....quite a long way away.

Seriously, how do any of these coffins work? How do these rivers work? How do Stone Coffins float down waterfalls? Why do I keep getting into them? How am I even closing/opening the lid on these things? I mean, yes, a get it's a throwback to DS1 and DS2(were there coffins in DS3?) but beyond that?

 

[sXeth]

Yeah, I think I missed that quest somehow. I found the mage town full of ghost wizards in Caelid and some guy told me something before a dog abomination killed him while he was still talking. I explored the town a bit but never went back so maybe it's there?

Honestly, I keep thinking about how I've lost track of Hyretta the "grape" eating blind girl yet again, though I think she's part of the Frenzied Flame so I don't care much about her. I'm more upset I've lost Track of Alexander the pot onion because I like him. I've checked Jarburg(How does anyone get up from there?) and nope, not there.

Anyway, yeah, I get the feeling a lot of stuff got moved around or cut as far as quests ago. And i did find it wierd the Lake of Rot is basically way on the other side of the map but doesn't seem to affect anything else. Hell, you ride a coffin down the river(does everything travel by coffin down there?) which empties into a water cave....quite a long way away.

Seriously, how do any of these coffins work? How do these rivers work? How do Stone Coffins float down waterfalls? Why do I keep getting into them? How am I even closing/opening the lid on these things? I mean, yes, a get it's a throwback to DS1 and DS2(were there coffins in DS3?) but beyond that?

Hyretta/Frenzied Flame

Spoiler

In Weeping Peninsula south Limgrave, you meet Irina the blind girl, and her father Edward is some kind of authority at Castle Morne. You can piece together by the nearby Frenzied Flame village, that the "suddenly violent" uprising amongst their servants and demihumans was probably supposed to be Frenzy based, but they didn't give the enemies in Castle Morne the eyes or anything. Anyhow if you do finish the half-quest in there, Irina dies and Edgars is enraged.

That should be a pre-requisite for Hyetta appearing, but it is not encoded as such. Why? Because Hyetta is the same model, and VA as Irina. You learn later on that the flame re-animates the dead so this seems a clear indicator that Hyetta is a ressurected Irina. If you give her all 3 grapes she basically disappears though.


To find her again, you can get a hint at the Mountain Top of Giants when you meet Shabriri who is possessing Yura's corpse. He actually does tell you to find the altar under Leyndell. Which is at the bottom of the sewers in the fake-Mohg's boss fight room. If you roll into it it opens up another (obnoxious platforming) section to get down to the Frenzied Flame, where Hyettsa somehow already is and you can engage with that how you wish

Gowry

Spoiler

Gowry is in the shack outside of Sellia, and his dog is (supposed to be) passive. If you talk to him he tells you to get the needle form the commander in the swamp and then will tell you how to open the Sellia gate to find "Mililcent" guarded by "worshippers" (Who are Pests/Kindred of Rot/Bug dudes).

If you carry on with Milicents stuff and eventually get her the Valkyrie prosthesis that is (inexplicably) in the Shaded Castle, and go back to Gowry, he will offer you Incantations of Rot. There's only one of them and while he hints at more, his role stops dead there. He does tell you to help her sisters kill Millicent to complete a transformation.

If you do Milicents stuff all the way to end, and do kill her. Gowry simply disappears and you can get his talisman and bell bearing from the chair. No followup. If you help her win and return, he just says that Millicent has disowned the Rot as Malenia did.

If you kill him he just turns into a Kindred of Rot but implies he was only using it as a vessel (much like Shabriri does)


All put together, it would indicate there probably was a Lord of Rot ending that got chopped out. Because if you attempt to do Gowry's instructions it stops dead just like Patches quest did.

 

[Ezekiel]

​

"It's worth noting that nobody is actually impressed if you're good at video games. None of us actually care."

He just says things. If that were true, there wouldn't be so many skill videos with tens of thousands of views.

 

[BrawlMan]

"It's worth noting that nobody is actually impressed if you're good at video games. None of us actually care."

He just says things. If that were true, there wouldn't be so many skill videos with tens of thousands of views.

Sterling is mainly referring to the people who act like dicks, bitches, and assholes about it. There are plenty of skilled people in games who go on about their day, and don't constantly troll nor harass people for being less skilled.

And you are correct, there are many a skill video with over 10K views.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

There are more tips in the comments too.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Yesterday I enhanced my enjoyment of this game by about 50% when I finally started to accept the idea that I just don't have to kill everything.

This came to me when I encountered a creature in the lake guarding a portal. It is this human-centipede thing with a crown on it that- well, it jumps at me no matter where I am and hits me 100x and I can't move. Great. Oh and it's also surrounded by spell casters.
So I dedicated myself to killing it and I actually got super close. Which of course made me give up (I just ran past it and accessed the portal anyway).

Then I encountered another one of these things as a mini-boss in a cellar in some ruins. F*** that.

So off to the internet I go. They are called Royal Revenant and the wiki says not to fight them melee, lol.. thanks (as if casting is better if it just runs at you in light speed anyway). In fact, apparently the way to kill it is to cast Heal, which requires a Talisman and 12 Faith. I chose to be an Int caster not faith so I can't do this so... I can't kill these things. So I won't!

Now I just have to hope there will never be a required Revenant. Along with lobsters, crabs, and bears, they're just going on my do-not-bother-with list at least for now.

On the flip side, I've embraced the grind. Spent my time listening to Slightly Something Else while grinding runes for Vigor. It is what it is. Same for weapon upgrades- I found a cool new sword, I want to try it, so I googled where to get the bell thing so I can just buy stones and upgrades already.

Best feeling in the game is to get into some mini-dungeon and polish it off relatively quickly (got the crystal lady in that cave on the 2nd try).

Current situation:
Got into Raya Lucaria and explored the outside a bit so next will be going down that elevator to see what's good.
Level 47(ish). 26 VIG, 13 END, 16 STR, 19 DEX, 25 INT
Last thing I did was upgrade a big curved sword called Grossmesser up to 10. I also have a hawk talon sword at like +6... I guess I'm just attracted to R2's that have double strikes. woosh-woosh! Fashion-souls is the blue set from the merchant near the entrance to the academy so now I look and fight like some Arabian fantasy princess (yes I play as a girl in games cause usually it looks better), or vibes like the Offieri from Witcher 3 expansion.
I was going for dex-battle-mage I guess. I think I'm just gonna spam my VIG up to 40.. so tired of getting two-shot by everything.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I think I'm just gonna spam my VIG up to 40.. so tired of getting two-shot by everything.

You'll still get two shotted. 40 Vig is basically required for endgame to not get 1 shot by everything. But you'll still get two shot.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

You'll still get two shotted. 40 Vig is basically required for endgame to not get 1 shot by everything. But you'll still get two shot.

Ugh.. then why bother with character building and stats if we all just need 40 VIG?!
(Yes, I know it was this way for Souls games, just... annoying).
So then what should I invest in? I want to swing my cool sword and shoot magic at beasties and not be punked by everything.
I was thinking my END is frightfully low but since I don't want to wear heavy armor or use big weapons I figure why bother with that, so far I'm rarely in a situation where I'm running out of stamina. But my new sword is a little bigger so we'll see.

 

[CriticalGaming]

So then what should I invest in?

Investment is entirely dependant on what your build is. The bigger priority is find yourself a weapon you like with a weapon art you like and invest in whatever the best scaling of that weapon is. This game is less about stats and more about getting a build together.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Investment is entirely dependant on what your build is. The bigger priority is find yourself a weapon you like with a weapon art you like and invest in whatever the best scaling of that weapon is. This game is less about stats and more about getting a build together.

Right, I mean I would like a build that is a dextrous sorceror, you know, small swooshy weapon like a rapier curved sword in the right, and a magic staff in the left, so I know that over all INT and DEX are my two main stats. I'm just wondering for the next 10 - 20 levels, how much to put into VIG and END.
Eh, no big deal, when in doubt, VIG.