Elden ring gameplay thread [SPOILERS]

[Brethren]

I'm pretty much where you are Duck, just finished up the Capital and Gelmir, and am heading to the northernmost parts of the map. Killed off Valiant Gargoyle, Astel, Elemer, Godfrey, Morgott, Godskin Noble and Rykard in the past 5 days or so. Starting to feel some Elden Ring fatigue, I'm over 130 hours in and have been trying to kill every boss in every dungeon, but now I'm feeling like I just want to finish the thing. I'm guessing I'm about 2/3 done. I'll probably go a lot less "completionist" the rest of the way thru.

I'm a little surprised they still haven't fixed the stuttering issue, I've just gotten used to it but it doesn't seem to have improved at all. I'd like to play DS3 or Sekiro on PC when this is done, but now I'm wondering about any technical issues with those games, and thinking maybe console is the way to go instead.

[Mr.Duck]

Very nice, Brethren! I took a week off from Elden Ring and have returned for the past few days completely invigorated, but I certainly can see how game fatigue can creep in. Also not trying to do a 100% run. Ugh, no.

I finished the cold mountains, beating the Fire Giant on my third try. That shit was EPIC! I didn't progress further on the main campaign 'cuz after burning the Erdtree all sidequests go kaput, and there's probably one or two that I may try to finish, besides the ones I already did.

After that, I headed over to Miquella's Haligtree. VERY cool level with some pretty tough enemies. I struggled a bit, but managed to reach all the way to the bottom, to the very roots of said tree, and I am now facing the Queen of Pain herself. Oh, yes, I'm talking about Malenia, the Blade of Miquella. After fighting her for a few hours, I can verily attest to the following:

1. 1. Her name is Malenia.
2. 2. Her role is being the Blade of Miquella.
3. 3. This fight's going to be a stiff challenge, far greater than Margit ever was.

Nonetheless, I will beat her with my true melee form, solo, and it will be awesome, woooo!

[Mr.Duck]

This merits a double-post. *AHEM*

Malenia, Blade of Miquella, is dead.

<3

[Aja]

Congrats! I haven't touched the game in a few weeks, but I think I'm almost ready to get back in.

[reizak]

Apparently I last played on March 30th, which is way longer than I thought. I originally stopped because I got to the point Ducky mentioned and wanted to finish all the side stuff before moving on, and chasing down the night spawns and dungeons I might've missed got tedious and turned the game from an adventure into a checklist. I'll get back to it any day now, probably, maybe.

[Mr.Duck]

You can do it, guys!

<3

Also...Dragonlord Placidusax and Malekith are DEAD.

:3

Alas, I had to fight and kill Sir Gideon...aw, I had no beef with'em Oh, well.

[Mr.Duck]

...chasing down the night spawns and dungeons I might've missed...

Do what I did: explore the world organically and tackle the dungeons as you encounter them, and don't try to do a completionist playthrough 'cuz that shit's tiring. :3

[Brethren]

But - there are so many cool, optional areas in the game that you can completely miss. Once I feel like I've completed a region, I'll check some maps online and go back and see what I missed and check it out. You can find some great items and fun new places this way.

I'm getting close to the endgame now, I've beaten Maliketh, and then went back to work thru the Haligtree. Still haven't found a way into Mohgwyn Palace yet, but I'm assuming I'll run into it eventually.

[Mr.Duck]

It is done.

Radagon/Marika and the Elden Beast are slain.

<3

[Brethren]

Congrats Sir Duck, nice work there. But inquiring minds want to know, what level were you when you finished everything up?

[Phatose]

Been banging my head up against a solid wall for a week. Then decided saving all those respec items without ever respeccing even when up against a wall made me an idiot, respecced from wizard to blood ninja, and rapid fire took down Malenia, Mohg, and Malekith. Goddamn, never before did killing an amputee feel quite so satisfying.

[Mr.Duck]

Congrats Sir Duck, nice work there. But inquiring minds want to know, what level were you when you finished everything up?

Somewhere in the 170s. :3

[Brethren]

One question I had for the vets around here, since I'm getting close to the end of the game. I've never tried any kind of NG+ before, but I'm wondering how the difficulty is, typically. As a player, you're very high level with lots of weapons and tools that come with you, but I know enemies are made more difficult as well. So does everything come out fairly even, as in, will the game (and the bosses) be equally as tough the 2nd time through as it was the first time?

[Aja]

In my experience, having done NG+ in Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, and Sekiro , it's usually on par to slightly easier. The enemies get stronger, but you have so much more equipment and, more importantly, experience. It's usually a pretty natural progression.

[Mr.Duck]

*Tears through several bosses like it was nothing*

Yeah, defs gets a bit easier.

[Brethren]

Finished! What a ride, definitely one of the greatest games I've ever played. I'm sad it's over, but after 180 hours I definitely need a break. I struggled badly with the end boss because it was a 2-for-1, and I rely heavily on my spirit summons to do a fair share of the work for me. But I guess that made it even more satisfying to emerge victorious.

Elden Ring 2 can't be far behind, right? (hopefully they'll have fixed the stuttering issues by then)

[WhiskeyBob]

Bosses... End bosses are the most reason I didn't complete many games. This one, Risen 1, Lands of Lore, etc. No patience to repeat again and again.

[Mr.Duck]

C'mon, Whiskey. Give it another go. Use ash summons (or regular co-op summons) for extra help. Buff your weapons and character. Spice it up and tear ass!

[Aja]

Malenia. Aye yay yay. I spent 40 minutes trying to beat her solo, then maybe an hour with summons, until I ran out of summons. Then I watched a 40-minute guide on how to beat her, and after another hour or so I can consistently get her first phase down to half health and once I even got to her second phase. I'm not quite ready to say that she's harder than the Sword Saint or Owl (Father), but she may very well be the most difficult one-on-one Souls boss. I'm just going to chip away at her over the coming days and weeks.

[Mr.Duck]

Owl (Father) and Sword Saint Isshin are marvelous, and quite challenging, bosses. Owl made me suffer for a bit, and Isshin took me less than 15 tries to kick his ass, but it was glorious. Malenia took me a few days, but once I changed my strategy a bit (or in this case, my weapon), I was able to solo melee her. Good times.

Man, I kinda wish Malekith had a full bar for his second phase...so good but can be over rather quickly.

[Aja]

I gave in and summoned some help, but a jolly good time was had by all. I think all my practicing did make a difference since I was able to avoid getting one-shotted (that waterfowl move of hers is absurd), but I knew that if I kept it up solo it would be a week before I got it, and I wanted to move on. Me and two cooperators made very short work of her although it was a little anticlimactic because I had turned off music and voices for my practice runs and forgot to re-enable them. A quiet, dignified fight.

[Brethren]

Even though I've beaten the end boss, I've not been wanting to leave the world of ER. So I've been traveling around the map, since I have full access to just about every area now, and moping up missed sub-bosses and tying up loose ends. One fun thing to do I've discovered is to try to collect every talisman - there are over 100 of them. Just in doing that, I've discovered some new areas and interesting quests that I hadn't known about previously. Unfortunately, a few of them can only obtained by killing an NPC, which makes me feel a bit dirty. But hey, they will be reborn again in NG+ so no worries there.

I've only got about 10 talismans left on my list, but some of them will not be obtainable on this run, due to certain quests being closed off. After that, not sure. Maybe I'll upgrade some different weapons or Spirit Ashes before moving on to Journey #2.

[Mr.Duck]

(that waterfowl move of hers is absurd)

I feel like I'm in the minority of people that didn't mind her waterfowl dance move and was able to avoid it successfully most of the time, and even get a bit of a thrill when she used it. :3

[Aja]

I had to upgrade my shield to like +20, and then I'd just hold it up for the first half and start rolling once my stamina was gone. It worked, but it wasn't elegant.

[Mr.Duck]

I used to do that at first.

Roll from the start. Doesn't take much to get the timing down, then you roll and roll.