Elden Ring

[RichFN2]

It is indeed an absolute joy but only once you have an understanding of the basics of leveling up, upgrading weapons, talismans etc.

Only then can you begin to make progress without dying every 5 minutes. But once your at that stage the game just keeps delivering

[Steven_RW]

I've just started getting my head round Sekiro. I have played all the souls games multiple times through but didn't manage to get any traction with Sekiro and felt a bit useless with it. But I have come back to it again and now beaten a couple of bosses and got to quite a few sculpters idols across two locations/areas. So I can appreciate the journey people went on with Elden Ring. Until it clicks, it will be a nightmare but once it does, it's a joy to explore and work your way through.

[Turtle Shed]

RichFN2 said:

It is indeed an absolute joy but only once you have an understanding of the basics of leveling up, upgrading weapons, talismans etc.

Only then can you begin to make progress without dying every 5 minutes. But once your at that stage the game just keeps delivering

Yes it does look joyful. I have a horse and can ride around admiring the view for ages. Then I get into a fight and die.

At almost 60 years old I do recognise that'm not exactly target audience, but just how the hell do you even begin to get a little more powerful and make a little bit of progress? The only thing I seem to be able to kill is zombies and some kind of big tortoise things.

I've looked at some beginner videos on Youtube, but there are beginners, and then there are beginners like me. (I'm not a complete numpty though, I managed a fair chunk of Dark Souls 3).

[Ruskie]

Turtle Shed said:

RichFN2 said:

It is indeed an absolute joy but only once you have an understanding of the basics of leveling up, upgrading weapons, talismans etc.

Only then can you begin to make progress without dying every 5 minutes. But once your at that stage the game just keeps delivering

Yes it does look joyful. I have a horse and can ride around admiring the view for ages. Then I get into a fight and die.

At almost 60 years old I do recognise that'm not exactly target audience, but just how the hell do you even begin to get a little more powerful and make a little bit of progress? The only thing I seem to be able to kill is zombies and some kind of big tortoise things.

I've looked at some beginner videos on Youtube, but there are beginners, and then there are beginners like me. (I'm not a complete numpty though, I managed a fair chunk of Dark Souls 3).

Part of the challenge is working out how to defeat various enemies. Don’t forget you can summon other players if you need help in those early stages.

[RichFN2]

Ruskie said:

Turtle Shed said:

RichFN2 said:

It is indeed an absolute joy but only once you have an understanding of the basics of leveling up, upgrading weapons, talismans etc.

Only then can you begin to make progress without dying every 5 minutes. But once your at that stage the game just keeps delivering

Yes it does look joyful. I have a horse and can ride around admiring the view for ages. Then I get into a fight and die.

At almost 60 years old I do recognise that'm not exactly target audience, but just how the hell do you even begin to get a little more powerful and make a little bit of progress? The only thing I seem to be able to kill is zombies and some kind of big tortoise things.

I've looked at some beginner videos on Youtube, but there are beginners, and then there are beginners like me. (I'm not a complete numpty though, I managed a fair chunk of Dark Souls 3).

Part of the challenge is working out how to defeat various enemies. Don’t forget you can summon other players if you need help in those early stages.

Honestly at the beginning I was probably worse than you, to the point all I could do was kill enemies at the beginning of limgrave and collect plants etc to sell to the merchant in the church. I kept doing this to level up and got the first decent sword out of the chest in the cart.

It's a little tedious but if your struggling earn some rumes by doing the above and level up for more strength, helalth, dexterity etc.

[Squirrelofwoe]

Turtle Shed said:

Yes it does look joyful. I have a horse and can ride around admiring the view for ages. Then I get into a fight and die.

At almost 60 years old I do recognise that'm not exactly target audience, but just how the hell do you even begin to get a little more powerful and make a little bit of progress? The only thing I seem to be able to kill is zombies and some kind of big tortoise things.

I've looked at some beginner videos on Youtube, but there are beginners, and then there are beginners like me. (I'm not a complete numpty though, I managed a fair chunk of Dark Souls 3).

Check out FightingCowboy's walkthrough on Youtube- the first couple of episodes show you how to to easily collect a handful of very decent weapons and upgrade materials right at the start without having to fight barely anything (just riding round on Torrent picking stuff up). It gives you a huge leg up at the start if you are struggling.

Just be warned that going more than a couple of episodes into the walkthrough will start to reveal spoilers etc (as its a 100% completion walkthough), just something to be aware of if you are bothered about that.

[Turtle Shed]

Thanks all. I do indeed have that bigger sword from the cart. Forgot about selling stuff.

[FourWheelDrift]

Shadow of the Erdtree gameplay trailer live at 3pm

[FourWheelDrift]

DLC is £35 on steam or as low as £26 from a steam key vendor, not available for 3 months so don't buy just yet wait for other prices to appear.

https://www.allkeyshop.com/blog/en-gb/buy-elden-ri...

[Aces_High]

Well, there goes the Summer!

Not played this for months….might have to dip back into NG+ to get my mojo back before getting repeatedly slaughtered on the DLC.

Added issue is I played ER on PS5 but am about to buy a good spec PC…wish I could port across my build

[Calza]

Little bump here.

I picked this up last week (finally) and like many in this thread I can't decide if I like it or not. I am unsurprisingly new to the series.

It's a massive time sink which is only a plus (oh my god how am I ~10 hours in?!) but I still feel so absolutely clueless. I'm around level 20 and have followed a few guides to get some basic incantations, upgrade my flasks etc.

Am comitting to my first boss now (Crucible Knight) to get my nice AOE spell (not spell) and oh my god. I wonder if I just don't have the patience?

Throw a lightning bolt, run away for a bit and throw another one in an opening. Rinse repeat. Easy. Except I simply can't do it without making a mistake at which point I'm dead. I can take 2 hits from him but he hits too quick for me to heal / move after the first.

Gah!

[FourWheelDrift]

Regarding how to start the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/elden-ring-shadow...

So if you have played through and are on NG+ you'll need to do all that again before accessing it.

[Ruskie]

I’m going to start a new game and try and beat everything without using summons but I suspect it may be beyond my skill set, we shall see. Looking forward to it but may save it for winter.

[Squirrelofwoe]

Calza said:

Little bump here.

I picked this up last week (finally) and like many in this thread I can't decide if I like it or not. I am unsurprisingly new to the series.

It's a massive time sink which is only a plus (oh my god how am I ~10 hours in?!) but I still feel so absolutely clueless. I'm around level 20 and have followed a few guides to get some basic incantations, upgrade my flasks etc.

Am comitting to my first boss now (Crucible Knight) to get my nice AOE spell (not spell) and oh my god. I wonder if I just don't have the patience?

Throw a lightning bolt, run away for a bit and throw another one in an opening. Rinse repeat. Easy. Except I simply can't do it without making a mistake at which point I'm dead. I can take 2 hits from him but he hits too quick for me to heal / move after the first.

Gah!

Going after a crucible knight as your first boss might be part of the issue! Even after 170 hours and getting the platinum, i still only fought the crucible knights that i had to, and left them until the near the end when i was relatively OP and could cheese the fights with OP range attacks and max-upgraded weapons!

They are proper "skill-check" enemies and i realised that even after completing the game 100% i still didnt have the skill to fight them 'fairly'. Hateful things!

I did not have the skill to play the game on its own terms, so levelled until i could obtain more stats and better weapons, and found it incredibly satisfying finding the easiest ways to defeat certain bosses that i couldn't beat in a 'fair' fight. Loved every minute of it and looking forward to the dlc.

[RichFN2]

As above those put up a tough fight, no matter how levelled up you are coming across one will be a test and if it's late on in the game you can be dead in 3 hits before you had chance to land a counter attack.

I absolutely sucked at the beginning, my first From software game and I had to literally beat up sheep and pick flowers to get runes to level up.

You need to level up a little more, find a decent early game weapon and get some smithing stones to upgrade it.

If you just go off and explore you may have accidentally gone to an area that you aren't ready for. I found this map handy:
https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Game+Progres...

Watch a few more YouTube videos (early weapons,game order, tips etc) play, upgrade, level up if you keep dying and explore the area when your not getting destroyed. Rinse and repeat.

It wasn't until Stormveil Castle when the game finally clicked for me and I thought 'wow' but it isn't for everyone

[Steven_RW]

Crucible knights need parrying. If you can get your timing right they become much easier. Having played countless souls games to completion, the first time I met a crucible knight was awfuil and was annihilated about 20 times till i convinced it to fall to its own death. But near the end I was just parrying them and counter attacking.

One thing about chosing the mage (easy) option I guess is for enemies that really need a parry, i am not quite sure the mage build gets the same easy solution.

I'm just going to play through the main game in time for the DLC again. Will be third time through.

[Calza]

After about 20 more goes last night I managed to get him, didn't even take a hit till he was around 20%.

I'm sure it will be worth it for my aoe incant!

Look out my next update another 10-20 hours in