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

Brokencontroller

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Dex, Str & Vit had most of my points, but they were very spread-out (except for arcane). Used Bloodhound's Fang with the finesse skill on it, and Dragonice just for the very start of phase 2.

I'm sure min/max-ing makes stuff a bit easier, but I always wanted the widest variety of stuff I could use.

What level were you?
I was around level 140ish. I dont remember she was one of the last things i did before beating the game though.
 

Brokencontroller

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Don’t you mean you were bloody freezing shit? I keed, but actually that’s my current melee combo too.
Hoarfrost stomp, and corpse piler from the rivers of blood katana. Basically swapping back and forth which contantly procs bleed and frost damage, both of which deal 10% of max hp when they proc.

I killed most end game bosses in like 30 seconds with this because i can apply the shit so fast they cant even move.

Plus minic tear also doing it with me. Gg ezgame.
 

SilentPony

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I mean the tricky strategy is get him near the land squirts, shoot them with poison arrows a couple times (or poison whatever) and they explode like tactical nukes. The other one is there's some way to do the jumping heavy attack off your horse that I have not managed to replicate on PS4 at least.
Hey great tip! Managed to get the dragon to get stuck on this little outcrop island thing that was just surrounded by those little gas bombs and I stabbed a few and they exploded and I just waited while the dragon was slowly poisoned for like a good 30seconds before it tried to fly away.
 
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sXeth

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Hey great tip! Managed to get the dragon to get stuck on this little outcrop island thing that was just surrounded by those little gas bombs and I stabbed a few and they exploded and I just waited while the dragon was slowly poisoned for like a good 30seconds before it tried to fly away.

I think you can do the same thing to Nights Cavalry there too. There may even be a gimmick with the Cavalry cause I noticed they all spawn near poison traps of some kind. And the one time I put this into practice, it somehow instakilled the Cavalary way before the actual HP loss did.

(Alternatively I may have just run it to leash range and since it spawned on a bridge that was now out of render distance, it fell to its death. Who knows)
 

Dalisclock

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So I've seen numerous people compare ER to Dark Souls 2(at least the intent of DS2) and honestly, I see a lot of truth in that. It's detached enough from the Dark Souls games to limit direct comparisons to some extent, it has a more open world(what Dark Souls 2 was trying to do with it's 4 big paths), Power Stancing is back, build variety, more concerned with people making awful decisions then the end of the world is coming(I mean, civlization isn't doing great in ER but the world feels less completely fucked then DS1 or DS3), You show up in the lands between because....reasons, etc.

Also repeated bossfights all over the place, the pharros lockstones(the sword keys), more use of dark areas(like DS2 wanted to do), they brought back the damn DS2 chariot for the hero graves seem to support this as well.

To be fair, it's pulling elements from every previous Soulslike game as well as referencing them(Fort Gael, Morne Tunnel, Alexander might as well be Siegmeyer but a jar) but I am warming to the idea that ER is a better executed take on Dark Souls 2.
 

CriticalGaming

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So I've seen numerous people compare ER to Dark Souls 2(at least the intent of DS2) and honestly, I see a lot of truth in that. It's detached enough from the Dark Souls games to limit direct comparisons to some extent, it has a more open world(what Dark Souls 2 was trying to do with it's 4 big paths), Power Stancing is back, build variety, more concerned with people making awful decisions then the end of the world is coming(I mean, civlization isn't doing great in ER but the world feels less completely fucked then DS1 or DS3), You show up in the lands between because....reasons, etc.

Also repeated bossfights all over the place, the pharros lockstones(the sword keys), more use of dark areas(like DS2 wanted to do), they brought back the damn DS2 chariot for the hero graves seem to support this as well.

To be fair, it's pulling elements from every previous Soulslike game as well as referencing them(Fort Gael, Morne Tunnel, Alexander might as well be Siegmeyer but a jar) but I am warming to the idea that ER is a better executed take on Dark Souls 2.
I think this just highlights how much Miyazaki needs to tackle a different setting. He needs something that mixes up his approach because all the games are looping the same shit.

Here's the castle, here's the posion area, here's the lava area, the gameplay zone progression feels very much the same in game to game. I can't help but think he is either reclutant to break away from the formula, or he is in a rut design or premise wise.

It's hard to say because Sekiro didn't really follow that map. So he CAN break out and do different things, I just don't know why he doesn't. He didn't want to make another dark souls game so he went ahead and made another dark souls game with a different name. Doesn't make sense.
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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I think this just highlights how much Miyazaki needs to tackle a different setting. He needs something that mixes up his approach because all the games are looping the same shit.

Here's the castle, here's the posion area, here's the lava area, the gameplay zone progression feels very much the same in game to game. I can't help but think he is either reclutant to break away from the formula, or he is in a rut design or premise wise.

It's hard to say because Sekiro didn't really follow that map. So he CAN break out and do different things, I just don't know why he doesn't. He didn't want to make another dark souls game so he went ahead and made another dark souls game with a different name. Doesn't make sense.
It’s tough not to get the impression stretching even way back to their games before Souls that dark fantasy is just his thing. Well, maybe gothic Lovecraftian stuff more specifically, but I guess Sony holds the key for more of that and they ain’t saying shit yet.

If word on the street holds any value, there’s a good chance their next game could be a new Armored Core. Not sure where his profuse love of swamps will fit in there, but if anyone could pull it off it’d be him.
 
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sXeth

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I think this just highlights how much Miyazaki needs to tackle a different setting. He needs something that mixes up his approach because all the games are looping the same shit.

Here's the castle, here's the posion area, here's the lava area, the gameplay zone progression feels very much the same in game to game. I can't help but think he is either reclutant to break away from the formula, or he is in a rut design or premise wise.

It's hard to say because Sekiro didn't really follow that map. So he CAN break out and do different things, I just don't know why he doesn't. He didn't want to make another dark souls game so he went ahead and made another dark souls game with a different name. Doesn't make sense.
I think this just highlights how much Miyazaki needs to tackle a different setting. He needs something that mixes up his approach because all the games are looping the same shit.

Here's the castle, here's the posion area, here's the lava area, the gameplay zone progression feels very much the same in game to game. I can't help but think he is either reclutant to break away from the formula, or he is in a rut design or premise wise.

It's hard to say because Sekiro didn't really follow that map. So he CAN break out and do different things, I just don't know why he doesn't. He didn't want to make another dark souls game so he went ahead and made another dark souls game with a different name. Doesn't make sense.
Sekiro was commissioned by Activision though, so the concept shift and focus on some kind of story may have been mandated down (for the record, that could've been Bloodborne as well, who knows.)
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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Sekiro was commissioned by Activision though, so the concept shift and focus on some kind of story may have been mandated down (for the record, that could've been Bloodborne as well, who knows.)
IIRC FROM wanted to do a Japanese themed game in the vein of Tenshu, but needed a publisher to promote the game in the west as ironically BN apparently wasn’t interested. Activision miraculously gave them support, and without interference past the title screen. Still amazed by that personally.

Bloodborne came about as Sony wanting FROM to make something new specifically for PS4, and pretty much gave Miyazaki cart Blanche to go wild which resulted in what he called his personal favorite project as of a few years ago.

Not sure where Elden Ring fits in, but he’s gone on record to say that aside from being a culmination of past projects starting with Demon’s Souls, its genesis was also influenced by his love of GRRM books, specifically Fevre Dream. This might be the best insight behind the game -

 
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EvilRoy

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IIRC FROM wanted to do a Japanese themed game in the vein of Tenshu, but needed a publisher to promote the game in the west as ironically BN apparently wasn’t interested. Activision miraculously gave them support, and without interference past the title screen. Still amazed by that personally.

Bloodborne came about as Sony wanting FROM to make something new specifically for PS4, and pretty much gave Miyazaki cart Blanche to go wild which resulted in what he called his personal favorite project as of a few years ago.

Not sure where Elden Ring fits in, but he’s gone on record to say that aside from being a culmination of past projects starting with Demon’s Souls, its genesis was also influenced by his love of GRRM books, specifically Fevre Dream. This might be the best insight behind the game -

That explains a fair amount. Martins books are super dense with dozens of characters doing different things in different places. Its been a while but I distinctly remember reading about one character at the start of Fire and Ice, getting to the end and hearing more about them, and then realizing that they've been doing important shit this entire time and we just didn't see it because we were following other people and cell phones don't exist.

So we know why the NPCs wander as much as they do - they're involved in their own personal stories that involve running back and forth and carrying out quests regardless of the players interference. From a gameplay perspective that certainly frustrates at times - now that I've helped basically sort out Yura's quest I don't feel the need to go looking for another to work on - but from a worldbuilding/storytelling standpoint I do respect it quite a bit. These guys doing their own thing makes the world feel a lot more alive, and randomly running into Alexander and hearing about his latest quest to become even stronger gives the impression that no matter how empty the world feels at times, there are definitely other people doing their own thing. Millicent is another one. Bumping into her as you quest is kind of neat, especially if you know where her final destination is on a map, because you can more or less tell she is driving with the GPS off - she knows where the final destination is, but she has no concept of how to get there, so you run into her in weird places as she consistently bumps into geographic barriers and then has to circle around them weirdly to right her path.
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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@hanselthecaretaker have you beaten the game yet?
I haven’t had much time to play lately but just got to the Royal Capital area. However there’s still likely a ton of stuff I haven’t seen yet, as I’ve kinda been progressing in a crescent arc finding maps and grace sites from the east side of Caelid and generally doing a first pass through most locations. Currently level 58 and haven’t even fought another shard bearing/cutscene boss besides Godrick yet.
 

CriticalGaming

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I haven’t had much time to play lately but just got to the Royal Capital area. However there’s still likely a ton of stuff I haven’t seen yet, as I’ve kinda been progressing in a crescent arc finding maps and grace sites from the east side of Caelid and generally doing a first pass through most locations. Currently level 58 and haven’t even fought another shard bearing/cutscene boss besides Godrick yet.
You got to the capital at only level 58!? Bro....how?
 

hanselthecaretaker

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You got to the capital at only level 58!? Bro....how?
I had to double check but it’s just at the wall, by the Erd Tree Church site. Yeah idk I kinda ended up there I think by randomly riding around from Altus. I’m sure there’s still some shit I’ll have to do to open the gates or something though since I’m still playing pretty blind. Wretch too which is automatically a handful of levels less.
 

CriticalGaming

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I had to double check but it’s just at the wall, by the Erd Tree Church site. Yeah idk I kinda ended up there I think by randomly riding around from Altus. I’m sure there’s still some shit I’ll have to do to open the gates or something though since I’m still playing pretty blind.
I think I was over level 100 when i entered the capital for the first time. So 58 is shockingly low to me.
 

sXeth

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You got to the capital at only level 58!? Bro....how?
Use an Ash to distract the bloody knight after you run by the rest of Fort Haight so you climb up the ladder and grab the left Dectus medallion. Then just horse-zip over to Fort Faroth and run past the bats and ghosts to get the second one.

Then take the lift up.

Can do it as a level 1 Wretch in like, half an hour tops. (I"m assuming he's exploring more, but still)


- Going up through the Ravine Mine (requires defeating a Magma Wyrm, but thats one of the easier enemies in terms of predictable moves and all)
- Use the teleport from fort of return (requires two runes though)
- Use Fia's portal in Deeproot
- Get kidnapped by the Iron Virgin in the Lucaria basement and escape
- 2 or 3 derpy things involving jumping off places and respawning at Marika stakes (you can actually trigger Capitla of Ash without ever doing Capital this way involving the Farum Azula belfry side area)
 

hanselthecaretaker

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I think I was over level 100 when i entered the capital for the first time. So 58 is shockingly low to me.
Well like I said I haven’t even tried to enter the innards yet so there’s probably story stuff locking me out. Still pretty cool to see how fuckin huge it is. I really haven’t farmed anything yet either and there’s been a few times I’ve lost a few levels worth of runes.


Use an Ash to distract the bloody knight after you run by the rest of Fort Haight so you climb up the ladder and grab the left Dectus medallion. Then just horse-zip over to Fort Faroth and run past the bats and ghosts to get the second one.

Then take the lift up.

Can do it as a level 1 Wretch in like, half an hour tops. (I"m assuming he's exploring more, but still)


- Going up through the Ravine Mine (requires defeating a Magma Wyrm, but thats one of the easier enemies in terms of predictable moves and all)
- Use the teleport from fort of return (requires two runes though)
- Use Fia's portal in Deeproot
- Get kidnapped by the Iron Virgin in the Lucaria basement and escape
- 2 or 3 derpy things involving jumping off places and respawning at Marika stakes (you can actually trigger Capitla of Ash without ever doing Capital this way involving the Farum Azula belfry side area)
I used the lift somewhere around late 30’s/early 40’s, then did the first alt option shortly afterwards with the worm. That was more fun, plus it had more singing bats.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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Because he's that damn good! You underestimate @hanselthecaretaker.
Lol I’d like to see what my death count is. Still straddling between INT/Dex but mostly playing melee outside of a few bosses. Can assure you I’ve died a similar amount to prior games but they’re probably more spaced out and concentrated mostly around bosses.
 
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