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[mansoor1980]

i am glad i built a tank with a massive health bar , gives me a lot of headroom in fights , fucked margit on my first attempt(thanks to jelly fish)

 

[SkylineRKR]

Lantern is a must. I have it in my pouch. There are lots of dark caves and you don't want to sacrifice a shield or 2h for a torch.

I.. I think I explored Limgrave a tad too much, got to Margit at lvl 34 and killed him on first try.. oh well. I’m sure I’ll be demolished by another boss anyway, I’ll take this one.

Yeah I beat the first lord at a lower level than that. Margit really is suited for low 20's.

 

[drotahorror]

I've seen people mentioning upgrading their summons? I'm about 40 hours in, how do you do that?

 

[DavidGzz]

“Wow what an angelic voice. I wonder wha—OH FUCK!!”

Nightmare fuel.

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

I've seen people mentioning upgrading their summons? I'm about 40 hours in, how do you do that?

Talk to the blacksmith in round table about roderika or whatever her name is, then talk to her, then him, etc

 

[VN1X]

Lantern is a must. I have it in my pouch. There are lots of dark caves and you don't want to sacrifice a shield or 2h for a torch.

Where do you get it?

 

[JetBlackPanda]

The VRR on Xbox series X and my LGCX is doing work. Game is smooth as fuck.

When I turn it off….yikes.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Where do you get it?

A few vendors sell it. I've seen it twice. One is on the starting continent, I got it relatively early. I think its at the southwestern peninsula.

 

[DavidGzz]

The VRR on Xbox series X and my LGCX is doing work. Game is smooth as fuck.

When I turn it off….yikes.

Yep, makes me feel bad for everyone else without that combo. It's already fixed for us.

 

[Chiggs]

The VRR on Xbox series X and my LGCX is doing work. Game is smooth as fuck.

When I turn it off….yikes.

I have a Sony x90j in my bedroom, along with a Series S. Needless to say, the little white box with a VRR TV is shaming my Series X and Sony x950g in the living room.

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

The VRR on Xbox series X and my LGCX is doing work. Game is smooth as fuck.

When I turn it off….yikes.

So is that why I have no idea what people are bitching about? Xsx and a c1 here, game runs great

 

[kevm3]

I think my biggest criticism the more I play is how annoying a lot of bosses are to fight. The fact many of them move or attack so fast and can hit you with 5+ combos that blow past your stamina bar and they can spam their special attacks over and over make it such a slog to fight them because you just have to wait for a tiny opening, get a hit or two in and then roll, block, roll, roll, block, get a hit or two in. To make the fights tolerable and not take forever without summoning, you need to try to poison the boss or maybe use blood loss. Their ultra fast auto tracking also eliminates a lot of strategic movement because they are almost always facing you and the long range attacks that somehow let them stretch out like Dhalsim are annoying as well. I don't remember boss fights in the original Dark Souls being this annoying.

 

[zkorejo]

I thought I was doing well until I met tree sentinal. He whooped my ass like I was nothing. I have beaten every other mini boss uptil now. This guy seems like tougher than anything else I have encountered. Idk if Im supposed to beat him at level 16.

 

[SkylineRKR]

I thought I was doing well until I met tree sentinal. He whooped my ass like I was nothing. I have beaten every other mini boss uptil now. This guy seems like tougher than anything else I have encountered. Idk if Im supposed to beat him at level 16.

Its sort of low but doable. I did it at 17. Put the horse under your pouch so you don't have to scroll when you fall off or worse, have to scroll back to heals.

Hit him when he's just finished attacking. And try to dash away from him when he's up to something nasty. There isn't much more to it except for hitting him and getting out. idk if spirits are allowed but summon one if so.

 

[Rex_DX]

Booted the game for the first time today - immediately sunk 8 hours into it. I knew that would happen so I waited.

Pretty productive start I think? Went Wretch, made it to level 19 with decent points in Vit/End and a handful in Dex/Str - I'm probably going quality with the first character so I can try most of the weapons.

Got Torrent, a +3 Broadsword and ... I finally got some pants! They're basically sweat pants but when you've been rocking a loin-cloth for 8 hours they're pretty great.

Also toppled 4 bosses

Spoiler: Early bosses

Demigod Warchiefs, Stonecutter Troll, Argeel and the Tree Sentinel. Made it to Bloodhound Knight Darrikil (SP?) in the Evergaol but he'll have to wait.

Did some jolly coop afterwards helping folks beat the first two I listed.

How prolific are the spoilers in the thread getting? Still super early on and I know many of you have probably maxed out the achievements and beat it three times.

Also, I know there's an item that allows Ash of War swapping but I haven't found it. Should I keep looking or is it a story-related thing? I'm in no real rush to advance towards Stormveil just yet.

 

[zkorejo]

Its sort of low but doable. I did it at 17. Put the horse under your pouch so you don't have to scroll when you fall off or worse, have to scroll back to heals.

Hit him when he's just finished attacking. And try to dash away from him when he's up to something nasty. There isn't much more to it except for hitting him and getting out. idk if spirits are allowed but summon one if so.

Spirits are allowed but he has this one move that almost one hit kills them. I am supposed to take him with horse combat? The spirit wolves do like 25 damage. Keeps him busy so I go behind and land a few unsheathe shots that do good damage.

 

[Hinedorf]

I think my biggest criticism the more I play is how annoying a lot of bosses are to fight. The fact many of them move or attack so fast and can hit you with 5+ combos that blow past your stamina bar and they can spam their special attacks over and over make it such a slog to fight them because you just have to wait for a tiny opening, get a hit or two in and then roll, block, roll, roll, block, get a hit or two in. To make the fights tolerable and not take forever without summoning, you need to try to poison the boss or maybe use blood loss. Their ultra fast auto tracking also eliminates a lot of strategic movement because they are almost always facing you and the long range attacks that somehow let them stretch out like Dhalsim are annoying as well. I don't remember boss fights in the original Dark Souls being this annoying.

Everything you described is how I know when....brace yourself for this...that I the player am failing to win. It's not cheese, it's not an OP boss, it's you not dancing correctly with your partner

I feel like almost every other From game just had barriers where it was like, you'll get good and figure it out or never pass further. With this game there are so many opportunities/alternatives to any strategy, can't blame the game.

 

[rofif]

And people still try that "niche" argument nonsense. There's nothing niche about these games and ER looks like it's going to be huge.

There are more areas in Elden Ring like what you are describing than in any other Souls game. The open world just scratches the surface of content.

People were talking hype and honeymoon, but it's not that. The game is really that great. 50 hours in, and unless something changes that completely destroys my view on what I've already played, it's my favorite game of all time.

Of course it's a bad take. The person you are talking to think graphics determine how good a game is. They also think the bog standard Ubisoft wannabe HFW open world is "amazing" when it's literally like every other open world complete with towers, waypoints, quest hubs, and a map littered with icons and question marks. I played that game for nearly 40 hours, and not one time I did I discover anything interesting or secret. It's a paint by the numbers experience that leads you by the nose.

But it does let take photos of Aloy with her tongue out shooting peace signs....best game ever!

Are you bugged or just making it more complicated than it is? Each mausoleum allows you to duplicate a SINGLE remembrance. What platform, btw?

Ps5. I was only able to duplicate godrik in first bell mausoleum. I found 2 others and two other souls and when I click examine, there is nothing the list despite me having the souls

 

[SkylineRKR]

Spirits are allowed but he has this one move that almost one hit kills them. I am supposed to take him with horse combat? The spirit wolves do like 25 damage. Keeps him busy so I go behind and land a few unsheathe shots that do good damage.

I did stay on horseback, otherwise he's way too fast and will likely skewer you. The wolves are great for drawing aggro, its not about damage really.

 

[GodLordPaddock]

I just wanna say that

Spoiler

Fire Giant

will cause a lot of people to smash their controllers like Demon of Hatred did. He took me the most tries upto this point at around 10 and being a mage was trash for this fight. Had to respec and use Moonvail as a int/dex build.

 

[DelireMan7]

Also, I know there's an item that allows Ash of War swapping but I haven't found it. Should I keep looking or is it a story-related thing? I'm in no real rush to advance towards Stormveil just yet.

It's kind of on the "main path" but it's not a given. You still have to look for it.

 

[mansoor1980]

just lost 16k runes in the castle . grace points in stormveil castle are few and far between

 

[RafterXL]

I think my biggest criticism the more I play is how annoying a lot of bosses are to fight. The fact many of them move or attack so fast and can hit you with 5+ combos that blow past your stamina bar and they can spam their special attacks over and over make it such a slog to fight them because you just have to wait for a tiny opening, get a hit or two in and then roll, block, roll, roll, block, get a hit or two in. To make the fights tolerable and not take forever without summoning, you need to try to poison the boss or maybe use blood loss. Their ultra fast auto tracking also eliminates a lot of strategic movement because they are almost always facing you and the long range attacks that somehow let them stretch out like Dhalsim are annoying as well. I don't remember boss fights in the original Dark Souls being this annoying.

If your frame of reference is the original Dark Souls it can be frustrating, but From has steadily been moving towards faster, more aggressive bosses for a few games now.

I've found that using all of your available tools works much better than the standard block, roll, hit stuff. Jump attacks, guard counters and charged attacks do massive hyperarmor damage and allow you to stagger enemies, and parries/visceral attacks are as useful as ever, even on bosses.

Basically, you can play more defensive and fights will be longer or you can be more agressive and fights go much quicker. Take Margit, for example, I've posted two no hit videos from players who are around the same level. One took just over 1 minute to kill him the other took just over 4 minutes. It's all about how you attack them and what you are comfortable pulling off.

Booted the game for the first time today - immediately sunk 8 hours into it. I knew that would happen so I waited.

Pretty productive start I think? Went Wretch, made it to level 19 with decent points in Vit/End and a handful in Dex/Str - I'm probably going quality with the first character so I can try most of the weapons.

Got Torrent, a +3 Broadsword and ... I finally got some pants! They're basically sweat pants but when you've been rocking a loin-cloth for 8 hours they're pretty great.

Also toppled 4 bosses

Spoiler: Early bosses

Demigod Warchiefs, Stonecutter Troll, Argeel and the Tree Sentinel. Made it to Bloodhound Knight Darrikil (SP?) in the Evergaol but he'll have to wait.

Did some jolly coop afterwards helping folks beat the first two I listed.

How prolific are the spoilers in the thread getting? Still super early on and I know many of you have probably maxed out the achievements and beat it three times.

Also, I know there's an item that allows Ash of War swapping but I haven't found it. Should I keep looking or is it a story-related thing? I'm in no real rush to advance towards Stormveil just yet.

Spoilers are still minimal. And I seriously doubt anyone has all the achievements yet, it's just too massive. I'm 50 hours in and I think I have less than 5/42 or something ridiculous like that.

As for the item, it's fairly early on, the Whetstone Knife, and you can find it at the Gatefront Ruins

Ps5. I was only able to duplicate godrik in first bell mausoleum. I found 2 others and two other souls and when I click examine, there is nothing the list despite me having the souls

Most likely a bug then. Although I have heard (can't confirm personally) that if the mausoleum doesn't have a bell you can't use it to duplicate. Did yours have a bell?

 

[GymWolf]

Any optimization advices before starting the game on steam?!

 

[Pejo]

Is Glintstone Phalanx not working correctly for anyone else? The projectiles are never launching for me, they just sit there hovering over me. The only way I get them to hit anything is by rolling into an enemy and causing collision that way.

 

[Fools idol]

So I explored the Stormveil castle a little more on my second run. Went down the broken ramparts area from the bonfire at the front gate, anded up chasing the sparkly beetle past some giant rat and fell down a really deep chasm at the foot of the castle... theres a giant fucking face down there and some kind of sewer monster. Noped the fuck right out and up the giant ladder to escape. This game man... I missed so much on my first run.

 

[SJRB]

just lost 16k runes in the castle . grace points in stormveil castle are few and far between

Classic Souls gameplay in Stormveil indeed. incredibly well done.

 

[rofif]

If your frame of reference is the original Dark Souls it can be frustrating, but From has steadily been moving towards faster, more aggressive bosses for a few games now.

I've found that using all of your available tools works much better than the standard block, roll, hit stuff. Jump attacks, guard counters and charged attacks do massive hyperarmor damage and allow you to stagger enemies, and parries/visceral attacks are as useful as ever, even on bosses.

Basically, you can play more defensive and fights will be longer or you can be more agressive and fights go much quicker. Take Margit, for example, I've posted two no hit videos from players who are around the same level. One took just over 1 minute to kill him the other took just over 4 minutes. It's all about how you attack them and what you are comfortable pulling off.


Spoilers are still minimal. And I seriously doubt anyone has all the achievements yet, it's just too massive. I'm 50 hours in and I think I have less than 5/42 or something ridiculous like that.

As for the item, it's fairly early on, the Whetstone Knife, and you can find it at the Gatefront Ruins

Most likely a bug then. Although I have heard (can't confirm personally) that if the mausoleum doesn't have a bell you can't use it to duplicate. Did yours have a bell?

No. Only the first Godrik one did. The others do have the option of examine inside but nothing showed

 

[Termite]

Went in entirely blind. Didn't even watch a single trailer. Now that I'm 40 hours in I think it's safe to start talking about it, lol.

First of all, totally shocked that it's Dark Souls 4. I just assumed that like Sekiro or Bloodborne it'd be it's own thing. It's not. It's Dark Souls with new lore and an open world. (That is NOT a criticism, I just wasn't expecting it.) Same weapons, animations, everything. Which is a brilliant decision as it has clearly let them do nothing but work endlessly on creating content.

The game is obviously a masterpiece, the amount of incredible things in it is insane. But I do wonder if all the dead open world space improves the game or not. My first 10 hours, I was exploring very thoroughly but not really getting anywhere. Once I understood what the game wanted of me, I started scouring only visible points of interest and started making rapid progress. But at that point the space in between became really just... wasted space. And all the best parts of the game are in areas where you can't use your horse, classic souls style.

Secondly, the fact that the game is so huge lends itself to being way under or overlevelled - as does the fact that weapons upgrade to level 20 something. I missed Stormveil castle early and ended up fighting one of the later game bosses

Spoiler

Godskin guy with the rapier

after about 15 hours at level 35. It was basically impossible, and I didn't realize at the time how underlevelled I was. Now, at level 80, many of the places I go are just piss easy. It has turned around. Older Souls games didn't quite have this problem. I just fought two mainline story bosses and beat them both first time without issue... I'd prefer if it wasn't like that.

But I'm nitpicking at something very special here. I remember playing Dark Souls 2 and wondering what it would have been like if they had the ability to really make it one joined up region rather than just a series of levels. They finally did it.

 

[zkorejo]

just lost 16k runes in the castle . grace points in stormveil castle are few and far between

I lost 10k runes... Worse part is I could have gotten them back but I made a silly mistake and jumped carelessly. Really needed those too.

 

[mansoor1980]

I lost 10k runes... Worse part is I could have gotten them back but I made a silly mistake and jumped carelessly. Really needed those too.

need to be careful around the banished knights and their crazy sweeping attack chains combos ,tougher than most bosses

 

[MastAndo]

I've been taking my time, exploring the world and such, but decided it was due time to head into Stormveil Castle. Man, even at level 40, this place was rough. It's tricky to navigate as well and it felt like the grace points were so far apart. The Knights are a pain, helped in no part by the tight locations some of the fights happen in. The annoying ass birds were just icing. After death upon death, made it to Godrick and fortunately ran right through him (with a little help from a particular NPC and Jellyfish, I'm not ashamed to admit).

I must admin, I found myself questioning if this game is for me, but for whatever reason I felt compelled to keep going. I need to relax and just ride Torrent around Limgrave for a while to decompress, lol.

 

[Cyborg]

I have the CE but waiting for the patch, the performance is all over the place.

Question; is Samurai a good class? Would you recommend it?

 

[SJRB]

Awesome tip.

 

[mansoor1980]

so how does neogaf deal with the omen

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Decided to roam around a bit, found spell teacher and even know where is the spell staff that you get as a drop (as opposed to the Meteorite one). Still think going S&S is a better idea than spell casting, makes for a more enjoyable experience.

 

[Fuz]

Git guder.

 

[Ogbert]

Margit and Godrick down.

Which direction did people head after that? North?

 

[ToxicWeeb]

Git guder.

If I used this I'd get hit on purpose, it'd defeat the purpose.

 

[kikkis]

How do you access mt. Gelmir? I just found one broken bridge there.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

Talk to the blacksmith in round table about roderika or whatever her name is, then talk to her, then him, etc

This is a bit of an obtuse mechanic that could have been really explained better but I know this is FROM so they get away with it

Is Glintstone Phalanx not working correctly for anyone else? The projectiles are never launching for me, they just sit there hovering over me. The only way I get them to hit anything is by rolling into an enemy and causing collision that way.

Mine is working ok, it is a very handy pre-shield, but I find nothing is as effective so far as the initial glintblade, I have bought a few sorceries, the sorcerers armament is quite nice as I can now add magic to my flail.

 

[Spaceman292]

I think my biggest criticism the more I play is how annoying a lot of bosses are to fight. The fact many of them move or attack so fast and can hit you with 5+ combos that blow past your stamina bar and they can spam their special attacks over and over make it such a slog to fight them because you just have to wait for a tiny opening, get a hit or two in and then roll, block, roll, roll, block, get a hit or two in. To make the fights tolerable and not take forever without summoning, you need to try to poison the boss or maybe use blood loss. Their ultra fast auto tracking also eliminates a lot of strategic movement because they are almost always facing you and the long range attacks that somehow let them stretch out like Dhalsim are annoying as well. I don't remember boss fights in the original Dark Souls being this annoying.

Just stand behind them bro.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Godrick down.

 

[saintjules]

Not sure why blurring the name out. The search function works

 

[TintoConCasera]

so how does neogaf deal with the omen

Just realized you can break the glowing statue that's in front of him to get some sick smithing stones [1].

I couldn't do so with my weapon, so I went to the stairs that lead to Godrick, asked the giant troll to come with me and smack that statue open.

 

[Spaceman292]

I bet the guy who wrote that comment is on neogaf somewhere

 

[Aesius]

I feel like I made a huge a mistake going with a str build. Ah well, I guess it's not too late to start putting some points into int.

I’m liking my strength build. For a while I was skeptical of it until I got my strength to 30 and could use a great shield. I haven’t used a shield since my first play through of Dark Souls 1 but it’s really effective in this game.

 

[Punished Miku]

I think my biggest criticism the more I play is how annoying a lot of bosses are to fight. The fact many of them move or attack so fast and can hit you with 5+ combos that blow past your stamina bar and they can spam their special attacks over and over make it such a slog to fight them because you just have to wait for a tiny opening, get a hit or two in and then roll, block, roll, roll, block, get a hit or two in. To make the fights tolerable and not take forever without summoning, you need to try to poison the boss or maybe use blood loss. Their ultra fast auto tracking also eliminates a lot of strategic movement because they are almost always facing you and the long range attacks that somehow let them stretch out like Dhalsim are annoying as well. I don't remember boss fights in the original Dark Souls being this annoying.

 

[captainnapalm]

Can someone explain to me why weapon affinities like keen and quality actually seem to make the weapon do less damage than standard? Also under physical weapon damage, why are there two numbers? Like 95 + 33 for example?

 

[FunkMiller]

I see the quest log bullshit has joined the easy mode bullshit as a way for people to whinge about Elden Ring and From Software’s game philosophy.

A quest log would ruin the sense of immersion. In Elden Ring you’re cast adrift in a massive, super dense open world, and you will not see everything it has to offer. That’s a deliberate design philosophy. They don’t want you to just tick off side quest boxes. They want you to explore and discover… even if that means you miss stuff.

Because that’s FUN. It’s engaging. I’ve had more surprises and shocks in the thirty hours of Elden Ring than in any other game. That goes out of the window, if I have a big shopping list of things that have been prescribed for me to do.

Every moan about Souls games basically boils down to “it’s not like other games… waaah”.