Elden Ring (George RR Martin and From Software)

Zero-Cool

Quality message.

JimBurnley

My first proper bash at a From game, want to give it a dam good go and am aware of the folktakes of the difficulty etc. First impression, what is the point of the bloodstains and messages? They're bloody everywhere and really distracting and seemingly pointless??

Andrew76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118728505#Comment_118728505

The bloodstains show you how other players died and messages are left by other players also - sometimes helpful, sometimes not. You can turn them off by playing offline, although you’ll not be able to summon help from other players (still can summon npcs) but on the plus side you’ll not get invaded either. I think anyway.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118728284#Comment_118728284

In the early days, I got a laugh from those. "No Legs"? then later "Still no legs?".

I was delighted to see my first "don't give up, skeleton" earlier 😀

Also on launch a clever well placed message can keep you in heals big time. Saved my bacon a couple of times so far.

dr.kenneth noisewater

Do you need to do something to see messages? Haven't seen any yet after 10+ hours

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118728638#Comment_118728638

Think you only need to be online but, maybe the tarnished's wizened finger which is picked up in the first room of the game.

johnny_ultimate

Finally went down to the Deep South of the map. Not a bother with some of those mini bosses after clearing Stormveil!

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118728505#Comment_118728505

They're the kind of thing that most of the time, just the fact they're there indicates a possible hazard. An enemy around a corner, a particularly tough/big fight about to begin... and it's always worth checking some of the ones outside boss fight areas as they might suggest you use magic attacks or some kind of tactic. They can also hint at other types of issues or things you should do.

The vast majority are nonsense and not worth paying attention to, or done by people trolling, but the very idea and main purpose of them means they can be very useful.

Have to admit, the first time I played Bloodborne and was reading every message for the first while, I didn't know the people writing them could only pick from select words and phrases. I thought they were all just being sad d*ckheads.

Penn

Think I've made a mistake in making my Uchigatana Keen with quickstep. The quickstep doesn't work that much better than a dodge, and the unsheathe ability it had before was brilliant. Going to have to try find another ash of war to revert it.

JimBurnley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118728927#Comment_118728927

Good to know, cheers, especially re the vocab, thought it was a bunch of teenagers raking a break from fortnight how most are worded.

Some Ahole just invaded my game and destroyed me. I came back and he did it again before I could fetch me runes. Couldn't find how to turn this off invading bullies feature? I've enough to be worrying about!

ShaneU

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118728967#Comment_118728967

Probably an npc invading if it's the same place

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118728947#Comment_118728947

Can you not just swap it back? The only reason you might not be able to is if it's on something else and even then you can still do that. Blacksmith can dupe ashes if you need it on two things. I'm not using actively using them mostly as I'm not two handing but they can increase scaling.

Throp's Barrier is excellent on a shied. L2/LT to parry/block magic attacks. It's not really a parry but is a parry animation with a massive window. Wish I'd had it in a certain place.

TitianGerm

Was having my first decent session tonight and decided to have a wander around. Ended up being chased by a massive bear. I'd the tiniest sliver of health and no flasks left so I hightailed it to the nearest building. Ended up taking a lift down but ended up in an absolutely massive area where I was seriously under leveled.

Ended up being worthwhile though as I got an extra flask, a new Ash of War and a rune arc.

JimBurnley

Spoiler Warning

Thought I'd done well defeating giant crab with some rolling action. Only then did I realise I can't swim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118728870#Comment_118728870

Some real nice ingredients for the physick flask down south too. Not sure if people are using that much but it's something I think is mor essential than the summoning bell for ashes once you have the right stuff to mix.

JimBurnley

Really not sure about this one... combat feels slow and clunky, controls are weirdly and unnaturally mapped, game seems to have zero direction, menus are way too busy and cumbersome, graphically it's struggling with stuttering and pop in.

The world itself is exceptional and intriguing, not sure if its gonna be enough

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118728967#Comment_118728967

As ShaneU said, if it was the same guy in the same place, its likely an NPC. Happens in other Souls games too, it's partly to get you used to being invaded, but they also drop some decent weapons/items when you beat them. The NPCs are also part of the lore in some way, but as with most story/lore things in the game it pretty much needs a VaatiVidya explanation.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118728989#Comment_118728989

No, the Uchigatana came with Unsheathe as default rather than from an Ash of War, so I don't have an Ash of War with Unsheathe to switch it back to. Will have to keep an eye out, and maybe go back to the Warmaster guy, check what he has.

Markitron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118729083#Comment_118729083

I have explored all of Limgrave and Weeping Peninsula and still only have the starter 50% HP item in that flask. I must be missing something

Markitron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118729613#Comment_118729613

This was done really well in Demon's Souls, having to fight Ostrava's phantom right after he kills himself was really tough.

Retr0gamer

Did a lot of exploring last night. Then decided to take the criticial path. Got to Margit. Tough enough fight, good classic tough Souls boss fight. Died a lot but it was good mostly it was my own cack handedness. I had the first phase down but the second phase was very dangerous as he just reacted so quickly at the end of his combos so had to take it very safe.... and use my pack of wolves to get some cheap sneaky damage in.

Never quite figured out how to stagger him, only managed it once.

Mickeroo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118729618#Comment_118729618

You can remove it in the same menu you added it in and it will go back to unsheathe. I've done this several times now (adding a holy art of war for areas with skeletons, then taking it out again after).

gimli2112

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118729001#Comment_118729001

If bears were this fast irl everything else would be dead by now

Markitron

Beat the second main boss last night. I haven't a clue how a non-magic user is supposed to do that fight

Markitron

Interested Observer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118728947#Comment_118728947

You should just be able to switch that back. I changed the Ash on my Uchigatana as well because I had something that scaled better with dex but lost Unsheath, I was able to just go to a grace yokey spot and switch it back. Or else just remove the ash of war from it.

Zero-Cool

Okay, for anyone on PS5 with performance issues, I found that if you download the ps4 copy (if you bought elden ring digitally for ps5), play and crate a save file, then at any time, open the ps5 version app and on the main menua at the bottom is 'Convert save data'. It looks for PS4 save data and overwrites your existing ps5 app game data.

So, I lost my progress but it means I can start a new game on PS4 app in sweet 60fps and whenever/if ps5 app gets patched, I can just move my save over. Only thing is you can't do the other way around, move ps5 save to ps4 app.

Now to start my journey as a Samurai this time and focus on Dex, Strength, Vigor.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118730052#Comment_118730052

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118730814#Comment_118730814

Nice one, cheers will take a look at that again. Though I did Google where there's an Ash of War with unsheathe which should also keep the Keen dex scaling, so that could work wonders. Will take a look for it tonight.

It is one of my main complaints about Souls games that it can often be very difficult to determine what things can be used once, or can't be reverted etc. But this game seems to have a better balance in that regard, I guess due to the open world nature.

Interested Observer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118731094#Comment_118731094

I have that Ashes of War, it does improve dex scaling but also makes str scaling worse so I have only gotten a marginal benefit from equipping it out the gate, but I'll be putting all my points into dex now and none into str. I think my scaling is dex -> B and str -> E now. You can respec somehow so if I get a chance to do that I'll bring str to whatever the minimum I need is.