Soulsborne thead (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne)

[Lostdragon]

12 minutes ago, Austin said:

I will say this, regardless of what build you were originally going for, you can turn it into a more balanced one in no time. For instance, for mine I've pumped up my Faith and Mind stats for the last 15+ levels, despite being a melee build that originally focused on Strength, Endurance and Vitality (all are at 40+ now). Now I have the ability to use a greater variety of weapons (the better ones requiring Faith), some of which have some pretty sweet special abilities that use up FP (so boosting the Mind stat gives me a bigger FP bar to work with). If you don't want to go that route, there's a character you can talk to at one point that allows you to redistribute your stat points, so you can basically fully turn your character into something else entirely on a whim.

 

I feel they really want you to experiment with as much as you can in this game. Boost other stats you might not normally regardless of "build", play with magic, use the spirit ashes for combat variety and to make your life easier, craft items to get particular things you want without having to go shop for them, etc. A lot of those mechanics I just completely ignored for most of my playthrough and I think I was doing myself a disservice in the process. I.e., selling materials "to level up faster" instead of creating useful items that could help me in a variety of situations, not using and upgrading my spirit ashes (which allow for greater strategic options in boss fights), etc.

 

The predictability of the open world is unfortunate, and I 100% know the feeling of reaching a new area later into the game and just groaning because I mostly know what to expect. People that argue this game doesn't fall into the same trappings of other open world games clearly haven't put a lot of time into this.

 

That said, there have been a lot of areas that have just completely taken me by surprise, a few of which I discovered last night. It's worth sticking with to experience these places, and many of the unique bosses they hold. There are a few fights in particular where I think From has really outdone themselves.

 

One tip: Don't be afraid to use guides. Maps online in particular can be extremely useful, especially if you want to figure out how to get to all of the underground areas (highly recommended!). 

I've pointed my friend in the direction of the dormant Dragon lying across the ground that nets a lot of runes once killed, it'll just take him a long time to whittle it's life bar away, given his current stats and weapons, so he can level up key areas at once, once it's dead,of he wants to stick with current build. 

 

 

Which NPC let's you redo your stats? chances are I have encountered them, but he won't have. 

 

# I'm currently downloading the patch now, only hour plus to go ?, so will have a look later. 

 

 

I've started using the spirt ashes a lot more over past few play sessions, mainly because I have so bloody many now. 

 

 

Mixed feelings, some act as great distractions for foes, they focus on them, rather than me, but a lot seem a little too... passive? in terms of how they act. 

 

 

They tend to linger way behind me, rather than follow me into the fray when i engage a pack of foes and thus become useless. 

 

The sense of apathy encountering the now bog standard From Software foe line up, is taking it's toll. 

 

Crabs of differing sizes, ditto rats, skeleton warriors, undead warriors, dragons of all varieties, foot soldiers armed with torches, crossbows, the main 'fodder' as I think of them, they are starting to undo the good work found in the  more creative foes, as they outnumber them so. 

 

 

It's what I call the Gran Turismo syndrome, need to have so many in terms of sheer numbers, you simply have to use variations of a basic model. 

 

 

The 'True' Bosses and key areas of Eden Ring for myself convince me it's a far more  coherent experience than Sekiro ever was,which is a relief, it's just the constant stream of lavish praise articles Goggle is feeding me, i am butting heads with. 

 

 

I don't like guides for From titles, though did buy the physical guide for Sekiro, not that it helped me hating the game. 

 

 

Seems to go against the grain of what Soulsborne games are supposed to be, exploration, learning as you go. 

 

 

I may well have to resort to one to finish Elden though ?

[Austin]

Renalla (the boss a few of you mentioned glitching out) in Raya Lucaria is who will allow you to respec. You need an item to do it, but you'll probably already have one on hand.

 

I hear you when it comes to using a guide, but honestly, this isn't your typical Souls experience in terms of direction and length. It's way longer and you'll be playing for 200 hours if you try to figure out everything on your own. Way too daunting of a task IMO, not to mention life is too short to be running around in circles forever, bored to tears. 

[Razzie.P]

[Razzie.P]

5 hours ago, Austin said:

One tip: Don't be afraid to use guides. Maps online in particular can be extremely useful, especially if you want to figure out how to get to all of the underground areas (highly recommended!). I also suggest looking up how to complete various questlines, because with the world being so damn large, you're going to miss a bunch of them. There are a couple of major ones in particular that can unlock interesting areas, weapons and boss fights.

I tend to agree with that, I think.   I was determined to do it all myself during my “first playthrough,” and didn’t look up anything (that I recall) until the very end of the game, where I then started poking around to see if there’s anything I might wanna do before beating it.

But… I think a LOT of the things I didn’t like about the game would have been a non-issue if I had just looked up where to go next a few times.  I know this is a “to each their own” type of thing, but I was pretty miserable wondering about trying to find what to do, so for me, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had gotten some direction.
 

[Lostdragon]

21 hours ago, Austin said:

Renalla (the boss a few of you mentioned glitching out) in Raya Lucaria is who will allow you to respec. You need an item to do it, but you'll probably already have one on hand.

 

I hear you when it comes to using a guide, but honestly, this isn't your typical Souls experience in terms of direction and length. It's way longer and you'll be playing for 200 hours if you try to figure out everything on your own. Way too daunting of a task IMO, not to mention life is too short to be running around in circles forever, bored to tears. 

Bad day on it yesterday ? my own fault really. 

 

Playing with a splitting headache, which by the evening turned into a full blown migraine, was a dick move on my part. 

 

 

I just wanted to see what the patch had added and level up a bit, managed both and did a catacomb boss, plus found the boss fight for Starscourge Radahn, didn't go well, didn't go well at all. 

[Austin]

15 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

Bad day on it yesterday ? my own fault really. 

 

Playing with a splitting headache, which by the evening turned into a full blown migraine, was a dick move on my part. 

 

 

I just wanted to see what the patch had added and level up a bit, managed both and did a catacomb boss, plus found the boss fight for Starscourge Radahn, didn't go well, didn't go well at all. 

Yeah, don't play games when you have a headache, haha. Or at least take something for said-headache, then play.

 

Radahn is a major boss, yeah. A bunch of interesting strategies for that one... I will say no more for now.

[Lostdragon]

7 hours ago, Austin said:

Yeah, don't play games when you have a headache, haha. Or at least take something for said-headache, then play.

 

Radahn is a major boss, yeah. A bunch of interesting strategies for that one... I will say no more for now.

I was feeling lot better yesterday, but she came home with a continuous cough and was due in work for 12 hour shift at A+E today, myself visiting my elderly mother.. 

 

Out came the Coavid testing kits. 

 

 

Just couldn't shift that headache Saturday, really shouldn't of been playing ?

[zzip]

On 3/18/2022 at 9:50 PM, Lostdragon said:

New areas simply unlock more variations on a theme of enemy, reskin and reskin and reskin again and it not only gets tedioys, it kills the urge to explore as you know exactly what your going to find when you get there. 

I don't really set out to explore,  but I always seem to come across something that side-tracks me and takes me into new areas.   when I do, I always find interesting and unexpected things.   Now maybe it will get tiring by the time I get to the late game, but so far it hasn't gotten tedious for me.

 

I went into this game with low expectation of the open world aspect as many games will give you a huge map and not give you much reward for going off path and exploring.  I think ER handled this much better than many games.

On 3/18/2022 at 9:50 PM, Lostdragon said:

I have yet to download the new patch, but was starting to regret going for the melee build, never using magic, as even with improved armour sets, weapons massively upgraded along with character stats, on some of the tiresome mini boss fights, let alone main bosses, i am barely scratching them, instead having to rely on summounded help, who's characters are all heavy magic users. 

This is kind of frustrating.   I'm also afraid of upgrading my weapons too far, saving my stones in case I find a better weapon.   I have been experimenting with Ashes of War since it's now free to change them out.   Like all Souls games, some enemies are extremely vulnerable to certain types of damage.

 

On 3/18/2022 at 9:51 PM, Lostdragon said:

Not tried any of these yet, think I have 4,maybe 5? paintings in my procession. 

 

Are they worth bothering with? 

I'm not sure.   I saw a video mention them,  but forget what the reward is.   Finding the right vantage point for the one has taken me on quite the adventure,  and I've gotten close, but I haven't quite gotten to the exact point.  I think it might be locked behind a boss I haven't reached yet.   So I gave up on it for now and continued the main quest.

 

On 3/19/2022 at 8:43 AM, Austin said:

I will say this, regardless of what build you were originally going for, you can turn it into a more balanced one in no time. For instance, for mine I've pumped up my Faith and Mind stats for the last 15+ levels, despite being a melee build that originally focused on Strength, Endurance and Vitality (all are at 40+ now). Now I have the ability to use a greater variety of weapons (the better ones requiring Faith), some of which have some pretty sweet special abilities that use up FP (so boosting the Mind stat gives me a bigger FP bar to work with). If you don't want to go that route, there's a character you can talk to at one point that allows you to redistribute your stat points, so you can basically fully turn your character into something else entirely on a whim.

Yeah I've never been a build purist.   I always start off with a strength/melee  character but eventually up INT or something to gain the ability to use spells as well

[zzip]

So what are these "bird's eye telescopes" for?    I get the feeling they are to help you find hidden things.    For instance there's one of these telescopes placed next to an invisible NPC early in the game,  another near a girl who tells you to look for someone hiding in an abandoned house nearby.   Can't find the house, can't see the NPC.   Looked through the telescope but can't see anything there either.

[Razzie.P]

11 minutes ago, zzip said:

This is kind of frustrating.   I'm also afraid of upgrading my weapons too far, saving my stones in case I find a better weapon.   I have been experimenting with Ashes of War since it's now free to change them out.   Like all Souls games, some enemies are extremely vulnerable to certain types of damage.

 

 

I stuck with the same basic axe for the first 60 hours of my playthrough, and only changed it up toward the end bits.   It always seemed to be too much of a pain to start over with a new weapon, because the damage was always much lower than my axe, and way too time consuming to farm for stones.  That's actually been a gripe I've had with all the Souls games, really.  They never seem to encourage playing around with different weapons until after a few patches makes it easier to do so.

 

And on that note... one of the things from the new patch is "supposedly" it's now easier to farm stones to upgrade weapons.  So that should help.

[zzip]

18 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

And on that note... one of the things from the new patch is "supposedly" it's now easier to farm stones to upgrade weapons.  So that should help.

I've noticed more of the soldiers dropping stones lately

[Lostdragon]

On 3/21/2022 at 2:24 PM, Razzie.P said:

I stuck with the same basic axe for the first 60 hours of my playthrough, and only changed it up toward the end bits.   It always seemed to be too much of a pain to start over with a new weapon, because the damage was always much lower than my axe, and way too time consuming to farm for stones.  That's actually been a gripe I've had with all the Souls games, really.  They never seem to encourage playing around with different weapons until after a few patches makes it easier to do so.

 

And on that note... one of the things from the new patch is "supposedly" it's now easier to farm stones to upgrade weapons.  So that should help.

So.. 

 

 

Obtained my first Bell Bearing, which unlocked more item purchase options. 

 

Done a few more Catacomb bosses, found a good few more Ashes Of War Taiisman's, some decent armour sets, great weapons etc

 

 

A lot of spells... 

 

 

Killed an NPC I found bound to the wall in a Catacomb, wasn't sure what else I was meant to do, she kept cussing me. 

 

 

Unlocked a lot more of the map.. 

 

Can no longer find Rennalana, can't remember if I beat her back along. 

 

 

Just freed my first Mausoleum, which is now stomping around, bell ringing. 

 

Not sure what effect that has? 

 

 

My posion Halberd is now +14,great for taking out dragons.. 

 

 

My Axe Of Godrick+6

 

 

There i shall leave it for a few days ?

 

[zzip]

4 minutes ago, Lostdragon said:

Obtained my first Bell Bearing, which unlocked more item purchase options. 

I got one of those from killing a merchant.   The merchant in Roundtable Hold will sell the items that the dead merchant sold once you hand over the bell bearing.    I'll explain why this merchant needed to die in the spoiler below

 

Spoiler

The merchant you meant by the hole when you first enter Stormveil castle..   The one who tells you to "go this way" instead of through the gate.    Apparently he steals some of your runes if you die in the castle.   If you noticed that you don't get all your runes back this is why.    If you kill him before you kill Godrick, you will get all the runes back that he stole and your runes will stop disappearing!

 

[Lostdragon]

15 hours ago, zzip said:

I got one of those from killing a merchant.   The merchant in Roundtable Hold will sell the items that the dead merchant sold once you hand over the bell bearing.    I'll explain why this merchant needed to die in the spoiler below

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The merchant you meant by the hole when you first enter Stormveil castle..   The one who tells you to "go this way" instead of through the gate.    Apparently he steals some of your runes if you die in the castle.   If you noticed that you don't get all your runes back this is why.    If you kill him before you kill Godrick, you will get all the runes back that he stole and your runes will stop disappearing!

 

Wow, I never knew about that Merchant's behaviour, Patches, yes ?

 

 

I got mine from some misc Catacomb boss, had a fellow player helping me, armed with the biggest war axe I'd ever seen, we just traversed the mist, I ran to get behind the boss, the axeman, one hit killed the boss, fight literally over before I had my bearings in the environment. 

 

 

I'm still encountering issues with the games lock on, it'll often target non-threats further away, than the creature about to kill you. 

 

 

Done so many mini bosses /great enemies etc now, i am thinking I must have killed Rennalana, right? optional boss i believe, there's an empty room where I think the fight took place and I have explored the areas around it a great deal, found a natty armour set with higher magic defence as a result, so time not wasted. 

[Razzie.P]

Yeah, you can find lots of bells in the game to take back to the Roundtable Hold to unlock more inventory to upgrade weapons and summons.

With merchants, I believe they’ll all drop a bell if you kill them.  Those bells will allow roundtable hold to sell all of their inventory.   Which seems odd to me, since it removes any penalty from killing merchants it seems.  Well, actually makes things more convenient since you now have a one stop shop for everything instead of keeping track of several merchants.

So if you want, you can kill all the mom n’ pop shops in that world and help Roundtable Hold become the 1st ever Wal-Mart.
 

[zzip]

20 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

Yeah, you can find lots of bells in the game to take back to the Roundtable Hold to unlock more inventory to upgrade weapons and summons.

With merchants, I believe they’ll all drop a bell if you kill them.  Those bells will allow roundtable hold to sell all of their inventory.   Which seems odd to me, since it removes any penalty from killing merchants it seems.  Well, actually makes things more convenient since you now have a one stop shop for everything instead of keeping track of several merchants.

So if you want, you can kill all the mom n’ pop shops in that world and help Roundtable Hold become the 1st ever Wal-Mart.
 

Yeah exactly,  I'm not inclined to kill merchants in general, but on the other hand I've run into so many that I can't remember where they all are or what they stock, so I may end up killing the more out of the way ones and doing this. 

 

Although there supposedly is a 'sin' mechanic so I don't know what the penalty for doing this is.

[Austin]

2 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

I'm still encountering issues with the games lock on, it'll often target non-threats further away, than the creature about to kill you. 

Good 'ole Souls-engine jank. That problem goes all the way back to the beginning of the series and at this point I'm guessing they sadly consider it a "feature". I really wish they would fix it.

 

42 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

So if you want, you can kill all the mom n’ pop shops in that world and help Roundtable Hold become the 1st ever Wal-Mart.

This is actually a really good tip. I'm going to do that.

[Razzie.P]

18 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

Killed an NPC I found bound to the wall in a Catacomb, wasn't sure what else I was meant to do, she kept cussing me. 

 

 

 

That was a weird quest that I didn't fully understand.  That same character is bound to a wall there, but is also a merchant close to the starting area that seems involved in a couple of other quests.   I didn't kill her, but I hit the one against the wall a couple of times and the "other her" got mad and tried to kill me.  So I dunno -- I did find a way to "reset angry NPCs" so that let me continue a pretty big quest that needed her help, but not sure if that works if you kill them.

 

[Lostdragon]

22 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

That was a weird quest that I didn't fully understand.  That same character is bound to a wall there, but is also a merchant close to the starting area that seems involved in a couple of other quests.   I didn't kill her, but I hit the one against the wall a couple of times and the "other her" got mad and tried to kill me.  So I dunno -- I did find a way to "reset angry NPCs" so that let me continue a pretty big quest that needed her help, but not sure if that works if you kill them.

 

She muttered something about her death not being the end if i killed her, so i am expecting her to return at some point, in some form later. 

 

 

So many misc NPC side quests i have started, can you give this letter to my Father, return this dagger to it's owner, give this potion too, find my missing friend, cure me of rot, i just haven't been keeping track. 

 

 

The  mausoleum's are spinning me out, so i am supposed to attack the white build up areas on them, to stop them in their tracks so I can reach the top of them? 

 

 

I've only encountered 2 so far, first was stomping around, bell ringing with ghost army accompanying it, no white build up on it's legs. 

 

Second was stationery, didn't start moving until I busted all the white off it's legs. 

 

 

I'm very confused now. 

[zzip]

11 minutes ago, Lostdragon said:

The  mausoleum's are spinning me out, so i am supposed to attack the white build up areas on them, to stop them in their tracks so I can reach the top of them? 

 

 

I've only encountered 2 so far, first was stomping around, bell ringing with ghost army accompanying it, no white build up on it's legs. 

That's what I've heard.  you attack the stuff on their legs and they collapse.   I haven't tried yet.   I've only encountered the one on Weeping Peninsula so far

 

[zzip]

Been trying to take this one guard out in the Academy.    He's doesn't have a huge amount of health, but he has this crossbow that shoots fire and can take you out in one shot and he is very quick on the draw!  He can also effectively use the crossbow at close range.   He stands at the end of a long hallway so you can't sneak up on him.   He guards a room full of crystals and a staff weapon I think.

 

Finally beat him after I don't know how many attempts.   Ran past him jumping and dodging to make it hard for him to aim, then hid behind the crystal mound in the room he's guarding.   He came in we both circled around the mound for a bit on opposite sides.  When he finally calmed down, I'd get a backstab in,  then do it all again until he was dead.    Was hoping he'd drop than damn crossbow so I could use it but no luck!

 

Not sure how many have found him, you have to take a hidden path across rooftops to even get to him, but once you are in his area you can unlock a shortcut to one of the earlier Grace sites.

[Razzie.P]

Seems like my PS5 is downloading a patch for this one every time I turn it on now.  Wonder what's up

[Lostdragon]

16 hours ago, zzip said:

That's what I've heard.  you attack the stuff on their legs and they collapse.   I haven't tried yet.   I've only encountered the one on Weeping Peninsula so far

 

The second one was definitely walking around, heard it, long before I saw it, first was crouched and stationary, didn't move until i had cleared stuff growing on it's legs

[zzip]

9 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

Seems like my PS5 is downloading a patch for this one every time I turn it on now.  Wonder what's up

The patch notes for 1.03 has some interesting stuff.   Not sure what the other patches are

https://eldenring.fandom.com/wiki/Patch_Notes/1.03

[Austin]

On 3/24/2022 at 9:57 AM, Lostdragon said:

The  mausoleum's are spinning me out, so i am supposed to attack the white build up areas on them, to stop them in their tracks so I can reach the top of them? 

 

I've only encountered 2 so far, first was stomping around, bell ringing with ghost army accompanying it, no white build up on it's legs. 

 

Second was stationery, didn't start moving until I busted all the white off it's legs. 

So yes--you have to whack the white mold-like skull crap off of them. However, that stuff either appears on the feet, or it appears up top. For the mausoleums where it appears on the feet, just knock off every bit you see and it will eventually fold in on itself and fall to the ground. For the others, you have to find a way to get on top of them. I've only figured out the topside solution for one of them.