Elden Ring - From Software + George RR Martin

Thanks for the beginner tips!

Yeah Im basically a Souls noob. I have never beat any of the fromsoft games. Only played the original Demons Souls for ps3.

I just figured out how to block and counter which has made the game much more enjoyable. I havent found a shield that can parry yet, but the block and counter version is effective AF. Now im gonna try to kill the bosses with block counters.

The talk about being a shield pussy got in my head when I first started, so until now I have been using 2H sword the entire time. Using a shield and tactically parrying/countering is much more fun IMO.

I finally got time to play this weekend, I did the assassination missions as well as the full volcano dungeon, made it to Rykard and detoured to explore more in the mountaintops.

The sadist part of me wants to kill Rykard without the weapon but after a few attempts I could only get his first phase down to about 40% before I was out of flasks, I'm not even sure it's possible without using magic or something else.

Intrinsic said:

I think this question came up a few pages ago, but thought I’d ask again.

After Fire Giant I didn’t do anything with the forge, instead detoured to Consecrated Wastes to do Ordinal. Is there any impact in the order there? I’ve tried to explore and do everything possible (which is reflected in my 160hr playtime and level 140 after the extra dungeons and Death Bird). Finished Letenna quest. May just say screw it and get my gaps on a second play.

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Doing the forge "starts" the endgame, so I don't think you are doing it wrong. I missed like 90% of the quests at the start of the game but ER is really forgiving, I started picking them up soon after I visited the capital and most NPCs will "pick up" at a later point. Definitely get everything in Leyndell done before you visit the forge. Volcano Manor is imo a must visit and spawns a TON of things to do. Visit every gaol, dungeon, Haliqtree, etc before you head up to Giants Forge.

The patch that added their icons to the map is a HUGE help, basically just look at every square inch of map and find every NPC and progress their quest, imo the only ones that really change the end game is Ranni and Dung lord (5 cursed seeds) so that should be a priority to get their quests done.

cyrusreij said:

Of the three endings, they are all essentially resetting the order of the Lands Between. For all of the versions of Elden Lord (whether you do the generic, or sub in one of your own runes from Dung Eater, Fia or Goldmask) essentially you are reviving Marika and becoming her consort and the new Elden Lord. The different runes are just a twist on the world, but essentially you are the new Lord and things continue on mostly as they were before the Shattering.

Ranni ending & Frenzy ending both kill off Marika. Frenzy is essentially the Erdtree burns down completely and chaos reigns. It uh... doesn't look to be a pleasant world for anyone. Ranni becomes the new Marika (she is an Empyrean, just like Marika, which is essentially a race of Gods). Instead of ruling under the grace of the Erdtree you will rule under the guidance of the Moon as her consort.

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yeah i'm just dumb like i have no idea what the fuck The Lands Between means. Is that that underground city place or is it supposed to be the afterlife/Hell? I don't understand what Marika is. Having so many characters with names starting with M isn't great either for my old ass, I literally am not sure who someone is talking about when they start talking about Malenia, Marika, Melina, etc. C'mon, why the fuck do you have one character named Malenia and another named Melina lol

still great and creepy shit though, that one guy vaatividya makes amazing dark souls lore videos so I look forward to one day watching him explain what the hell is going on in the lore of Elden Ring.

I just found out that rannis dark moon spell increases all spell damage by 10% after it hits

Chris said:

There's actually two phases to this.

Resting at the forge grace after Fire Giant breaks all the quests.

Finishing Farum Azula makes Leyndell change to it's endgame version.

I'm inbetween these two phases right now.

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Definitely not going to tell people to risk it, but I finished several quests after lighting the forge - but before finish Crumbling Farum Azula.

Seananigans said:

I’m at final boss, and Blasphemous Blade is feeling underwhelming. Any suggestions on STR or STR/FAI weapons to mess with? I’m eyeballing Godfrey’s Axe, Maliketh’s Blade, and Moghwyn’s Spear (this one requires an ARC respec).

I likely won’t do another fat boy STR build so I’m hoping to try out some of the more fun heavy weapons. That Crozier hammer (like smough hammer from DS1) is interesting and it’s one of the only ones that allows buffing. Speaking of, it’s super frustrating that something like Godfrey axe isn’t buffable, despite only dealing phys damage.

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Mog spear is nice


This screen grab came out goog too

Chris said:

Well Dung Eater despawned. May be just Roundtable stuff. Fia's quest isn't reaching the last stage either, not 100% sure on that.

I was running around Leyndell looking for the sewers (and failing) and it was the old version.

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Down the stairs after that one site of grace with the greatbow knight guy, hug left to the balcony, jump down the well you see on the left

Fogel said:

If you find a weapon you like and you can apply an ashes of war, you can change it to keen which increases the dex scaling

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My uchigatana is keen, but that advice doesn’t really help me. Changing ashes of war doesn’t alter the required attributes to wield it effectively. If everything decent I’m finding has str or int requirements I can’t use it no matter which ash I try, keen or otherwise.