Elden Ring (George RR Martin and From Software)

Retr0gamer

Finished up finally. Level 170 / 133 hours. It's one of the best games I've ever played but I'll also enjoy uninstalling it tonight! Found the last few bosses quite easy. Malekith fell after two combos because rivers of blood is just insanely OP. Godfrey and the final boss again no so tough. Even the Dragonlord optional boss couldn't keep up with the Bleed damage. I didn't realise how close I was to the end when I finished up before the weekend and bascially got through all that in three hours.

Really wish I'd been using rivers of blood of fecking Malenia.

sweetie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118971232#Comment_118971232

I just benny-hilled it past the door guy, never got near me.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118972732#Comment_118972732

I had far more trouble with him than Malekith. He's a damn monster.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118972809#Comment_118972809

Rivers of Blood tbh :D

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118972942#Comment_118972942

I'm doing a Faith/Dex build for this play, but I am fully prepared to have to completely respec to a bleed build when it comes to late game.

seraphimvc

yes same i died to the horse dude more than Malekith ha. Try coop, Malekith actually doesn't die that fast ha.

but also i think this particular version of knight is easier than i first fought the tree sentinel aha - of course i was low level and i am used to their moves by now but this one outside malekith doesn't move much and the new fireball is very manageable.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118972982#Comment_118972982

From memory, it was more the physical attacks that got me most. That and he gives very little scope for flask use.

johnny_ultimate

There was only a handful of bosses or major world enemies where I could easily pull off the one-shot Comet Azur cast - the knight before Malekith was one of them.

seraphimvc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118973489#Comment_118973489

indeed yes he hit hard iirc but i just roll roll roll ha, i think i get hit by his lighting spell more caused' hard to see ha. the flask use i think this is one of the annoying input reading boss, will fireball you when you take a sip (still dodgable if you keep the distance).

I started another new character as well - going for str+faith this time, gonna do some incantation and dragon spells while also go colossal weapon ha.

Retr0gamer

I'm not sure I could new game plus this unless there's DLC much further down the line. I've put enough into it and ready to move on. Going to play some nice short 8-bit and 16-bit games.

johnny_ultimate

Out of curiosity, what two or three bosses did everyone find to be their biggest 'sticking point' bosses on their first playthrough? And with what kind of build?

As a primarily INT-focused build (Moonveil Katana as my main non-staff weapon, with some Rivers of Blood for later fights) I'd say:

Malenia - obviously

Elden Beast - mainly due to the constant teleporting and relentless homing attacks towards the end of the fight

Radahn - easily manageable when I figured out to keep my distance and summon summon summon, but the homing meteors in his second phase wiped me out an infuriating number of times on the path to figuring that out

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974083#Comment_118974083

Was also a Dex/Int build, mostly spamming Moonveil weapon art and rock sling.

Malenia - Absolutely numero uno. Demolished me too many times to count.

Crucible Knight in the Evergaol - Just could not get his attack pattern down. Got to the stage where I could parry a good few of his attacks, but once I lost the rhythm or he got to half health and used his magic attacks, he always punished it.

Magma Wyrm (the one you have to beat for the Moonveil Katana) - I was probably a bit underlevelled for when I attempted it but I wanted the Moonveil so just had to keep at him. Though what I learned from that fight made the later ones much easier.

Honourable mention to the catacomb with two Erdtree Burial Watchdogs. At the time I tried it my summons weren't that great and never lasted long, so I'd have both watchdogs chasing me. One had an AOE with their slam attack too which always got me.

A lot of the main bosses I didn't have too much trouble with, or at least their fights/designs were so interesting that I never really noticed how often I died. Some of the minor bosses though, you can come across them at the wrong time and really just not be strong enough for them. It is one trouble with the open world format; you can find a boss you're underlevelled for and really struggle, or you can have done so much side stuff that you're too strong for bosses you should have more difficulty with.

seraphimvc

totally understandable retro ha

i dont feel burnt out yet as i take my 2nd walkthrough quite chilling and really role play to experience the world (1st playthrough was quite rushed and i missed so much stuffs + i only played on weekends). but honestly i will take a break too playing less (summer has arrived!).

just 2 days ago i actually did a spreadsheet to map out what did i miss out lol (actually i should share it later, maybe could be useful for people), there is a total of 23 types of melee weapons, and many of them are droppable from enemies (that these i am not too bothered to collect them all lol). And then ya there are near 500 weapons (including range, staff, shield etc) iirc, and i havent even looked at the armor set/pieces i missed (not gonna do that anytime soon ha).

Retr0gamer

My build was sword and board with a uchigatana set to keen. Had a good bit in faith as well for buffs, mostly bleed but would go for lightning and holy for enemies immune to that. Also some lightning and black flame projectiles occasionally. Once I switched to Rivers of Blood I had very little trouble.

Malenia - She is a great fight but that anime flurry attack was instant death until I figured it out (on first attack walk around her, don't roll. Not intuitive). My mother rang me during this fight and gave out to me for being so angry.

Commander Niall - I just don't like gank fights. My character just wasn't doing the DPS to take out his two minions before they became a problem. It was just pure frustration for me until I managed to find a way to take the dual wielding guy out as quick as I could. Even then it wasn't a sure thing as I'd be short of flasks and he hits hard.

Alecto, the black knife ringleader - Just you and and this fecker, one on one and no summons. Good fight, tricky little fecker. Took a loooong time to learn the pattern, when was safe and when was a good time to attack. Thankfully the reward of the Tiche ashes was well worth it. Totally replaced the mimic tear as my go to summon.

Had a lot of trouble with the triple crystallians fight but it was because I didn't realise jump attacks and shield counters where what I should have been using. Double watch dogs was well were a pain in the arse.

J. Marston

Malenia.

Ulcerated Tree Spirit in an enclosed space.

Radagon.

Kiith

Worst bosses?

• Birds with swords on their legs
• Bug looking things with spears that shoot mad ranges things at you (that's their scientific name)
• Giant Raven

Anything else i can handle.

seraphimvc

1st run Str melee GS build: (missed alot of contents) I do miss the pre-nerf mimic (so strong that mad AI), but Radahn (pre-nerf, the 1 fight i won it took like 45mins iirc lol) and Elden beast (hard to go near to hit him) were soul destroying ha.

2nd run Astrologer 'Int build' (pebble rock sling lvl10-40; hybrid Int+Faith for Sword of night and flame lvl40-80; full Int for Adula moonblade+moon+azule comet between lvl80-150; RoB bleed arcane build lvl150-170): Melania hardest for sure. Alecto comes second actually. Both required my full attention after countless retries (Melania took me near 3hrs at ~lvl140, Alecto near 1hr at lvl120). Honourable mention the last Astel as somehow i struggled with adula build but then ended up killing him with the good ole rock sling aha.

And oh this reminds me of that magical Golem guy when you need to resolve the painting puzzle (Redmane painting), I died countless times from platforming and then this golem has insane lasers and HP - i gtfo on that guy after like 5 tries 😂 (after i checked that he doesnt drop anything special, just 5k runes...). The only enemy I haven't beaten in the game ha.

and ya the platforming under capital city...pretty sure thats my highest death count place lol.

Retr0gamer

You're feeling super confident after finding a safe way around an ambush area to take out all the archers and spell casters so you can take on ringleader with a massive tower shield and even bigger sword without any annoying projectiles.

A tough fight follows but you scrape through with some well timed dodges and back stabs.

You enter a room, take a swing at a rat and then get posture broken and gnawed to death in a corner by all of his friends.

gimli2112

Malenia is a problem I still haven't solved.

The Ulcerated Tree Spirit in the enclosed space although now I find it relatively easy, at the time I was ready to flip something or someone irl.

Malekith. I genuinely thought I'd never beat him and while I wasn't actually stuck on him that long I was sure it was outside my particular skill set.

I went with a strength / dex build and the bloodhound sword. The backward sweep into a lunge attack is pretty much all I can do and when that doesn't work I'm in serious trouble.

had to edit this to include the bear in the cave

gimli2112

There were a few I got flummoxed by but were suprisingly easy to beat with a bow and arrow - Astel, a couple of Gaol bosses Godrick was one and that fecking ox on the mountaintop

gimli2112

I'm fighting Godrick atm actually in Leydell, it's the one where he has the second form that grabs you. He just swarms all over me. I watch youtube videos and think that looks grand and then it's just constant non stop attacks, nothing like as advertised on youtube

seraphimvc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974984#Comment_118974984

That's Godfrey, Godwyn's father, you fought his ghost form before. Godrick is like some distant relation of their lineage.

and ya Godfrey the street fighter boss😂 he was alright when i solo him, but when i go coop to help out he is a beast (with the bonus resistance+hp). I think generally you should be around lvl120+ to fight him (i was around lvl150 i think).

Andrew76

How cool is this! It shows various different locations so not sure if that counts as containing spoilers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ9RU7pznTs

McFly85

Finished up over the weekend. Like others have said, amazing game but I’m happy enough to take a break for a while! It’s something that will live long in the memory though.

Worst Bosses?

Malenia, obviously! I had a decent bleed build(not rivers of blood) and took ages, and probably got a bit lucky.

Death Rite Bird in the consecrated snowfield. Thought it would be handy enough but could not get into any rhythm against him, took longer than most story bosses

Godskin Duo, incredibly annoying. After multiple attempts getting nowhere I find out they’re susceptible to sleep, which was fine except my mimic didn’t care about that and would snap them out of it whenever he felt like it. Eventually managed to get a rhythm of killing one just as the other was being summoned back, it was like keeping plates spinning for a while

But I have a few games on my switch that I’m looking forward to now, it’s Kirby & Chrono Cross for a while before a long weekend of highly competitive bowling with the family in Nintendo Switch Sports!

Penn

Had a horrid time last night in the Sellia cave with the Kindred Rot and Fallingstar Beast boss. Those f*cking ant f*cks.... Half the time I'd get one hit in but they'd fall off a ledge, meaning I either had to go back down after them, or try tank them spamming their damn string attack thing. And Fallingstar Beast is such a prick of a boss that it's so easy to die to, meaning I'd be back at the start of the cave again with those f*cking Kindred Rot...

There are a lot of annoying standard mob-type enemies in the game, but they surely have to rank near the top of most annoying.

Vicxas

My worst boss was Rennala, as a PURE Int build she wiped the floor with me.

Zero-Cool

Is everyone acting like Margit was a walk in the park. I had to come back to him multiple times but I suppose he did his job as it made me go exploring down south instead. If I had beaten him earlier, I would have kept going north and missed a ton of stuff.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118977593#Comment_118977593

Not sure if it helps but he can be stunned out of his charge with a projectile attack. Nice bit of revenge when you slap him in the face with a lightning bolt.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118977632#Comment_118977632

I definitely struggled with Margit first time around, but I think at that point it's always more down to not being good enough at the game at that stage, or not having upgraded weapons or skills correctly. Margit isn't a tough boss, it's just unfamiliarity with the game or being underpowered for it.

On my current playthrough, got Margit maybe third time. Beat Godrick first time too and barely even took a hit during that one. But I was much better at knowing how to upgrade weapons, what skills to focus on upgrading early etc. Plus I had fewer deaths up to those points so hadn't lost as many runes along the way.

Retr0gamer

I'm beginning to think HLTB is bullshit. I started FF13-2 because it looekd like a short '30 hour' RPG which took 120 hours to beat and Elden Ring has a time of 50 hours to beat. Sure...

Also I saw Quantic Dream mentioned in the credits. Does that mean David Cage has finally made a good game?