General Gaming Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree - Information Thread, update (06/21): Fextralife guides posted

[Bacon]

47 minutes ago, stepee said:

I’m level 85 strength

Are you level 85 or do you have 85 points in strength? That boss is like part of the last 10% of the mandatory game.

 

Either way, that makes me want to bring up something I keep seeing. A massive level discrepancy between players. I've played this game and watched a lot of "veteran" souls players and we were always around the same level give or take 10-20. None of us grinded out souls, we just played the game and exhausted every bit of content as we arrived at it. What that means is that we had the underground portions of the map almost, if not entirely filled out. Every dungeon in Limgrave, Caelid, and Liurnia was cleared out with no optional boss left alive. Some of us were triple digits going into the capital the first time. What is crazy to me are the people who encounter Morgott at level 60. I was level 69(ayy) when I fought and beat Radahn. Like, I don't want to judge those people, but are you even playing the game? What have you been doing all this time? 

 

And, just in case, this isn't me calling out anyone here in particular. @stepee's post just reminded me of this again and I wanted to bring it up. 

[stepee]

4 minutes ago, Bacon said:

Are you level 85 or do you have 85 points in strength? That boss is like part of the last 10% of the mandatory game.

 

Either way, that makes me want to bring up something I keep seeing. A massive level discrepancy between players. I've played this game and watched a lot of "veteran" souls players and we were always around the same level give or take 10-20. None of us grinded out souls, we just played the game and exhausted every bit of content as we arrived at it. What that means is that we had the underground portions of the map almost, if not entirely filled out. Every dungeon in Limgrave, Caelid, and Liurnia was cleared out with no optional boss left alive. Some of us were triple digits going into the capital the first time. What is crazy to me are the people who encounter Morgott at level 60. I was level 69(ayy) when I fought and beat Radahn. Like, I don't want to judge those people, but are you even playing the game? What have you been doing all this time? 

 

And, just in case, this isn't me calling out anyone here in particular. @stepee's post just reminded me of this again and I wanted to bring it up. 

 

I’m level 133 lol, strength is 85. I mentioned strength because of what a fucking time sink the thing still is.

[Bacon]

3 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

I’m level 133 lol, strength is 85. I mentioned strength because of what a fucking time sink the thing still is.

Oh. I guess 85 isn't too much considering I had 50 in dex and 50 in str. But, just so you know with that boss

Spoiler

break his one ankle bracelet and attack the sweet exposed ankle meat 

 

[skillzdadirecta]

26 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

That's not true. It's actually easier to nope out of a boss fight in earlier games because of the Homeward Bone. It allows you to travel out of a boss encounter with all your souls to the last bonfire you visited. As far as I've seen there is no such item in Elden Ring.

Try using a homeward bone in the middle of a boss fight and watch yourself get smacked right out of the animation before you're teleported away. It's much easier to get out of boss fights in Elden Ring than in the other Souls games is my point.

[Bacon]

Just now, skillzdadirecta said:

Try using a homeward bone in the middle of a boss fight and watch yourself get smacked right out of the animation before you're teleported away

lol no

[skillzdadirecta]

Just now, Bacon said:

lol no

Ok... not gonna get into a back and forth because I really don't give a shit. Carry on.

[stepee]

4 minutes ago, Bacon said:

Oh. I guess 85 isn't too much considering I had 50 in dex and 50 in str. But, just so you know with that boss

  Reveal hidden contents

break his one ankle bracelet and attack the sweet exposed ankle meat 

 

Im not super far off but I just can’t stand doing the same thing over and over again, I’ve been on his second phase a few times but it’s harder for me to hit the hands at least without being able to practice it as much. I’m only 21 dex, hopefully another 10 levels will push through that last 20% of his health better. I’m doing the rot now and this seems better for my current level.

[Bacon]

Just now, stepee said:

second phase

Oh, so for that I just attacked the other leg. I attacked the hands literally 1 time before saying fuck this and just attacked his other drumstick. 

 

It was an EZ one shot for me with spamming jump attacks behind his ass.  

 

 

I also didn't use the horse cuz the horse is almost always the worse way to fight a non-mounted boss. Never even noticed his mechanics. Sometimes there would be random fire and then the idiot would roll like an idiot. 

[Bacon]

Also, if any one here does find the need to quit out of a boss arena they weren't prepared for and you don't want to risk losing your souls you can just quit the game from the menu and when you load your character back up you'll be outside the fog wall. 

[Keyser_Soze]

1 hour ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Try using a homeward bone in the middle of a boss fight and watch yourself get smacked right out of the animation before you're teleported away. It's much easier to get out of boss fights in Elden Ring than in the other Souls games is my point.

 

In Elden Ring, unless the boss fight is out in the open, you cannot get away. You're locked in to the fog door.

In another game you could step through the door and immediately say nope and back out and even if you're in the scenario you decide you want to fight and back out that's still more of a chance to get out than you do in Elden Ring.

[Keyser_Soze]

1 hour ago, Bacon said:

Are you level 85 or do you have 85 points in strength? That boss is like part of the last 10% of the mandatory game.

 

Either way, that makes me want to bring up something I keep seeing. A massive level discrepancy between players. I've played this game and watched a lot of "veteran" souls players and we were always around the same level give or take 10-20. None of us grinded out souls, we just played the game and exhausted every bit of content as we arrived at it. What that means is that we had the underground portions of the map almost, if not entirely filled out. Every dungeon in Limgrave, Caelid, and Liurnia was cleared out with no optional boss left alive. Some of us were triple digits going into the capital the first time. What is crazy to me are the people who encounter Morgott at level 60. I was level 69(ayy) when I fought and beat Radahn. Like, I don't want to judge those people, but are you even playing the game? What have you been doing all this time? 

 

And, just in case, this isn't me calling out anyone here in particular. @stepee's post just reminded me of this again and I wanted to bring it up. 

 

I pretty much agree with this. There really is no "incorrect" way to play the game but if you're grinding you're doing it wrong. The game is designed for you to get levels as you explore the map naturally. I'm around level 70 with no grinding, just exploration and don't have trouble with most bosses.

 

Levels don't matter in this game for the most part. Tamoor Hussain said something similar in that levels don't matter, if you don't have the fundamentals to play the game. You could be level 100 but if you haven't worked on your blocking, dodging, recognizing patterns etc your level won't matter you're going to get killed in 3 shots no matter what. Just like if you were playing a fighting game if you can't input a fireball command or do an anti air you're probably going to lose at the game.

[stepee]

Well that was dumb I tried again without leveling up yet for about an hour and just wasted time. There’s something I’m not getting in the second phase, it seems so much harder to me like impossible to even get a good view of the hands with the camera. I tried hitting him in the leg still and it just did no damage so it seems it’s gotta be hands idk. 

 

Tried coop even and that didn’t help any which is unfortunate. Not many people were at the gate so I actually only got one shot in with three people. One other time I got three people and I got sniped by an invalided before we entered the gate so that was super fun.

 

Its a shame because it would actually be a fun/cool looking fight but they just couldn’t help themselves from pumping up the hp to absurd. 

 

Edit: Before that I did finish the lake of rot area and beat the

glintstone dragon at the end

and that was cool at least.

[XxEvil AshxX]

14 hours ago, Slug said:

 

I know the knight with the greatshield in that big group of soldiers leading up to Gatefront Ruins can drop his, but that's not guaranteed (easy farm though since the bonfire is right there).  I don't remember any specific guaranteed ones in Limgrave.  I know in Liurnia if you make your way up to the area near Four Belfries, there's the jellyfish greatshield on a body or something by a busted up cart surrounded by like 4 jellyfish.  But that's not Limgrave.

 

14 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

Should still be a tower shield on the "captain" of that area. Use Silver Toed Fowl Feet if you have any, they work well.

 

Okay, something had to have changed. I have literally been farming those soldiers for a few hours and they have not dropped a single fucking shield. The Knight did drop his Gilded Great Shield, but it has a Strength requirement of 36 and I'm nowhere near that. I tried using it but it doesn't really do much at my current strength level.

 

But these fucking Godrick soldiers have been dropping swords, gauntlets, a ton of helmets, etc. but not one goddamn shield. I know they patched it to where they now drop smithing stones as I've gotten quite a few now but whatever they did, they fucked up the shield drop. I definitely should've gotten one by now. I was selling them off with my other character (pre-patch).

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[vaxick]

Decided to start over with a new class.  Wasn't feeling the weapons with the vanguard, and didn't want to grind through the game until I can make my character what I want.  Switched over to the samurai and am having a whole lot more fun with it.  Feel much more in control in battles and defeated a few dungeon bosses with ease that were a pain in the ass prior.  Around 9 and a half hours in at level 27 now.  Still terrified to fight Margit, but I'm having a lot of fun roaming around finding whatever I can as well as spotting dungeons to do at some point.

[Slug]

7 hours ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

 

 

Okay, something had to have changed. I have literally been farming those soldiers for a few hours and they have not dropped a single fucking shield. The Knight did drop his Gilded Great Shield, but it has a Strength requirement of 36 and I'm nowhere near that. I tried using it but it doesn't really do much at my current strength level.

 

But these fucking Godrick soldiers have been dropping swords, gauntlets, a ton of helmets, etc. but not one goddamn shield. I know they patched it to where they now drop smithing stones as I've gotten quite a few now but whatever they did, they fucked up the shield drop. I definitely should've gotten one by now. I was selling them off with my other character (pre-patch).

 

The gilded greatshield is the one I was talking about.  I don't know of any other tower/greatshields in Limgrave off the top of my head.  If you need to block shit, find a heater shield; there are a few of those in Limgrave and they're great.  Most heater shields do 100% phys damage blocking, low stat requirements and they weigh way less than towers.  Their guard isn't as high as a greatshield so you'll have more stamina eaten when you block, but they'll absorb all the damage.  The Beast Crest heater shield is north of Agheel Lake at a campsite near Stormhill or just buy the regular Heater Shield from the Twin Maiden Husk merchant at Roundtable hold.  That should hold over your blocking game until you get find a greatshield you want and have the stats to use.

[XxEvil AshxX]

9 minutes ago, Slug said:

 

The gilded greatshield is the one I was talking about.  I don't know of any other tower/greatshields in Limgrave off the top of my head.  If you need to block shit, find a heater shield; there are a few of those in Limgrave and they're great.  Most heater shields do 100% phys damage blocking, low stat requirements and they weigh way less than towers.  Their guard isn't as high as a greatshield so you'll have more stamina eaten when you block, but they'll absorb all the damage.  The Beast Crest heater shield is north of Agheel Lake at a campsite near Stormhill or just buy the regular Heater Shield from the Twin Maiden Husk merchant at Roundtable hold.  That should hold over your blocking game until you get find a greatshield you want and have the stats to use.

 

The soldiers near the gate ruins used to drop the big square shield they carry. It had pretty low strength requirements so it was pretty effective right off the bat. I have a few of the heater shields but I was going for a strength/endurance build. My stamina is decent but not the best so some of the bosses break my block pretty quick. Not having that great shield is really cramping my style. 

 

Maybe I'm just doing it wrong (again) but I really don't want to start yet another new character.

[BloodyHell]

7 hours ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

 

 

Okay, something had to have changed. I have literally been farming those soldiers for a few hours and they have not dropped a single fucking shield. The Knight did drop his Gilded Great Shield, but it has a Strength requirement of 36 and I'm nowhere near that. I tried using it but it doesn't really do much at my current strength level.

 

But these fucking Godrick soldiers have been dropping swords, gauntlets, a ton of helmets, etc. but not one goddamn shield. I know they patched it to where they now drop smithing stones as I've gotten quite a few now but whatever they did, they fucked up the shield drop. I definitely should've gotten one by now. I was selling them off with my other character (pre-patch).

I would grab a heater shield, or a bronze shield. I have barely ever used tower shields in this game. Even at 40 endurance and using an endurance talisman, I'm usually fat rolling if I use it with any sort of heavy weapon. 

 

I have a level 24 broze shield, and it's guard boost is incredible. I use almost no stamina to block, and it is 100% physical.

4 hours ago, vaxick said:

Decided to start over with a new class.  Wasn't feeling the weapons with the vanguard, and didn't want to grind through the game until I can make my character what I want.  Switched over to the samurai and am having a whole lot more fun with it.  Feel much more in control in battles and defeated a few dungeon bosses with ease that were a pain in the ass prior.  Around 9 and a half hours in at level 27 now.  Still terrified to fight Margit, but I'm having a lot of fun roaming around finding whatever I can as well as spotting dungeons to do at some point.

Margit isn't that hard. You can absolutely beat him at level 27 easily.

 

When I started this game I was very much playing the level up game as well, and I stopped it right after I killed Renalla, because I killed her so easy she felt like a joke. At the beginning I had the same fear, I didn't think I had the fundamentals to play the game normally, but I soon realized the game really isn't that hard to play once you understand the fundamentals and learn to see the telegraphs. I beat Radahn at lvl 74, I think I was 69 for Renalla. It felt much less trivial. Right now im level 134, but I've beaten the game and now it's time to become superman.

 

I had a hard time with Bloodborne, but I realize now that I was getting in my own way. I'd get to a new boss, lose all of my souls, get frustrated after 2 or 3 tries, and then put it down. I had at least 6 or 7 "false starts" (play for an hour, get to Cleric Beast, quit) before I decided that I was really going to try to beat it. If I had exercised a bit of patience, and continued fighting bosses instead of stopping for days at a time out of frustration, I would have learned that before this game.

 

I can't wait to fight Margit at level 150 on NG+. Im guessing it's going to be quite a joke. 

 

 

[BloodyHell]

9 minutes ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

 

The soldiers near the gate ruins used to drop the big square shield they carry. It had pretty low strength requirements so it was pretty effective right off the bat. I have a few of the heater shields but I was going for a strength/endurance build. My stamina is decent but not the best so some of the bosses break my block pretty quick. Not having that great shield is really cramping my style. 

 

Maybe I'm just doing it wrong (again) but I really don't want to start yet another new character.

Yes, the one that isn't a captain but still has a tower shield drops his shield. I forget its name. Again, have you tried silver toed fowl foot? That definitely helps drop rates. I get whole suits of armor dropping from Banished Knights when using it. 

[Bloodporne]

I don't know what the deal was but I just could not kill that Dung Eater asshole in the sewers. Finally did it last night after the tenth attempt or something. That giant spider hand enemy before him was REALLY wearing me down...

 

I also beat that Amygdala looking space monstrosity in the underground area last night, phew, what a fight. Only afterwards I was greeted with a nice "magic wall", so...yay?

[BloodyHell]

7 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

I don't know what the deal was but I just could not kill that Dung Eater asshole in the sewers. Finally did it last night after the tenth attempt or something. That giant spider hand enemy before him was REALLY wearing me down...

 

I also beat that Amygdala looking space monstrosity in the underground area last night, phew, what a fight. Only afterwards I was greeted with a nice "magic wall", so...yay?

You mean Astel in Lake of Rot? 

 

 

[Bloodporne]

2 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

You mean Astel in Lake of Rot? 

 

 

I don' tknow if we're even still trying with spoiler tags but I'll go ahead:

 

Spoiler

I just beat that "Voidborn" or whatever cosmic abomination that's basically ALL the way at the end (or seemingly so) of the whole underground area. I took the coffin after the whole Lake of Rot segment and was transported to a giant underground boss lair. It kind of looked like Amygdala from Bloodborne and you get a Flail weapon from it. There's another massive magic seal afterwards and while I don't want the answer, these magic seals everywhere are starting to frustrate the shit out of me in a fun way I guess lol 

 

[BloodyHell]

5 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

I don' tknow if we're even still trying with spoiler tags but I'll go ahead:

 

  Hide contents

I just beat that "Voidborn" or whatever cosmic abomination that's basically ALL the way at the end (or seemingly so) of the whole underground area. I took the coffin after the whole Lake of Rot segment and was transported to a giant underground boss lair. It kind of looked like Amygdala from Bloodborne and you get a Flail weapon from it. There's another massive magic seal afterwards and while I don't want the answer, these magic seals everywhere are starting to frustrate the shit out of me in a fun way I guess lol 

 

Yup, thats it.

[Bacon]

I don't mind the repeated bosses as much as a good number of players do, but I hate how there are some unique bosses that get copy and pasted. Encountering a duplicate special boss is a bummer. It felt like the game went out of their way to make it feel like these bosses were a one of a kind encounter and then they just took it away. 

[Slug]

1 hour ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

 

The soldiers near the gate ruins used to drop the big square shield they carry. It had pretty low strength requirements so it was pretty effective right off the bat. I have a few of the heater shields but I was going for a strength/endurance build. My stamina is decent but not the best so some of the bosses break my block pretty quick. Not having that great shield is really cramping my style. 

 

Maybe I'm just doing it wrong (again) but I really don't want to start yet another new character.

If you continue up the road toward Stormveil there are random groups of soldiers along the way.  Some of them have a tower shield and spear and they can drop that shield (Lordsworn's Shield).  Other than that and the Gilded Shield which you already got I don't know of any other greatshields in Limgrave.

[Keyser_Soze]

3 hours ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

My stamina is decent but not the best so some of the bosses break my block pretty quick. Not having that great shield is really cramping my style. 

 

Maybe I'm just doing it wrong (again) but I really don't want to start yet another new character.

 

You should roll not block.

[XxEvil AshxX]

1 minute ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

You should roll not block.

 

I try, but some of those bosses just don't stop swinging. Some of them, especially a few of the early bosses, were much easier to stagger. Obviously when I'm fighting a giant or something big I don't try to block, but some of the smaller faster enemies kick my ass cuz my reflexes just aren't fast enough. I prefer to try and stagger them (and if I could get the damn shield to drop, would be having a MUCH easier time of it).

 

Admittedly, I'm getting a bit impatient because I spent 30 hours on a character that I hit a wall with because he was a jack of all trades and not particularly strong in anything. I looked up how to respec but couldn't even get far enough into the game to reach that point. So I created a new character dedicated to a specific build and he's doing much better, but I can't get the damn shield to drop to top it off. I'm doing alright in other parts of the game but there's just a boss here or there that's giving me fits (haven't approached Margit yet, just trying to do the stuff in Limgrave that I had already done).

 

The boss at the first eargol(?) near the south bridge is one particular headache. I was having a really hard time with him until I realized he couldn't get through a great shield. I blocked/countered him and he was dead within a minute. I don't want to rely specifically on the great shield cuz it is pretty heavy but I would like to have the option for encounters like that.

[BloodyHell]

3 hours ago, Bloodporne said:

I don' tknow if we're even still trying with spoiler tags but I'll go ahead:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I just beat that "Voidborn" or whatever cosmic abomination that's basically ALL the way at the end (or seemingly so) of the whole underground area. I took the coffin after the whole Lake of Rot segment and was transported to a giant underground boss lair. It kind of looked like Amygdala from Bloodborne and you get a Flail weapon from it. There's another massive magic seal afterwards and while I don't want the answer, these magic seals everywhere are starting to frustrate the shit out of me in a fun way I guess lol 

 

So, I raised my int to 20 for fun, and damn, you were right about the Wing of Astel. I have it at +8, and it smacks shit.

[skillzdadirecta]

Radahn down. I was probably overleveled for him to be honest... his meteor attacke still only left me with a sliver of health though.

[stepee]

11 minutes ago, Dimden said:

 

Yeah, at the rate I progressed i was earning about 1 level per hour of play and it was consistent to the point that at hour 150 I was literally level 150. I did next to no farming, but I did use every Rune item I came across. And yeah, it's true, I think Malenia is a really good skill check in that regard. If you're beating your head against the wall with Haligtree down to Ephael and finally Malenia, you've probably been carried the entire way or used some sort of cheese tactic that worked up until that point. I mentioned my nephew in a previous post, he absolutely hated Haligtree and Epheal and believes it to be the absolute worst area in Elden Ring. On the other hand, I breezed through it with little effort despite the fact that we were pretty much 1:1 in terms of game progression, level and quality of equipment. He got skill checked pretty damn hard.

 

 

 

The big eye in the center of his chest is his weak spot in phase 2. If you want to take some heat off of you, use your summon in phase 2 - preferably something either really quick or really tanky, I used Black Knife Tiche - hang around the ankle you just broke until he gets low enough to where you can attack the eye. He goes down extremely quickly once you start whacking away at that. If you did the Iron-Fist Alexander questline up to that point, he becomes a summon just before the boss and is extremely useful at drawing aggro. Between Alexander and Black Knife Tiche, the boss barely aggro'd me. I do recommend using a 100% physical block shield in phase 1 in case he tries to smack you with his giant plate. All the other attacks can be rolled through.  Whereas Malenia is a skill check, The Giant is a damage check, if you're doing good damage the Giant fight should be over in about 2 minutes. What level are your weapons currently? They should be at least +20 at this point and if you're spec'ing heavily into strength, they should be heavy scaling with whatever ash of war you're using. 

 

I’ve tried using my two main weapons, greatsword +21 with giant killer ash and grafted greatsword +9 (one level below max though it uses somber stones) 

 

Dont have the alexander or black knife summons unfortunately but I have my mimic at +10 though yeah it doesn’t last the second wave too long so good idea summoning him on stage 2. Haven’t tried attacking the eye either so will try as well! Seems like I’ll have to not use lock on or something because it keeps grabbing the hands and throwing the camera all over the place. 

[Keyser_Soze]

30 minutes ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

The boss at the first eargol(?) near the south bridge is one particular headache. I was having a really hard time with him until I realized he couldn't get through a great shield. I blocked/countered him and he was dead within a minute. I don't want to rely specifically on the great shield cuz it is pretty heavy but I would like to have the option for encounters like that.

 

If only you realized there was an even easier way to beat him

[stepee]

7 minutes ago, Dimden said:

 

Hey, just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS (Radahn was harder before 1.03) on your RADAHN (you actually didn't beat him after the nerfs) CLEAR. I know you've been working really hard (doesn't count with a bleed build btw) at it, and I'm happy that you've (Radahn used to be harder) achieved your goal of completion. I know your journey through (smithing stones were more expensive before 1.03) the content was filled with ups and downs, but you and (somber stones too) your horse stuck (if you used a horse you didn't beat him) together through them all, and you were rewarded for your patience and (if you summoned NPCs or did it in coop you didn't beat him) tenacity. Congratulations (your kill didn't count actually) once again, and here's to more success in your future (you won't beat Malenia) endeavors!!!

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

It's a copy pasta from Final Fantasy edited for Elden Ring 

 

 

Was that person originally being serious lol

[XxEvil AshxX]

7 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

If only you realized there was an even easier way to beat him

 

I wouldn't be surprised, but unfortunately I'm too much of a noob to figure these things out.

 

I do want to ask though, to anyone that might know... I fought a boss in one of the catacombs. I don't remember what it was called, but it was in the northern part of Limgrave, across the path from where you find the talking..pot.. guy. Anyways, it was a dude that kept teleporting around, but when I walked through the mist and he appeared, he only had half a health bar. I killed him pretty quick, but I don't know what the circumstances were that made that happen.

[Zaku3]

The mimic ash has robbed me of the sense of achievement for beating a boss. It was fun in fairness. I think it's best just to continue and take my time on new gsme plus or start a new character to do the fights myself. 

[skillzdadirecta]

1 minute ago, Dimden said:

 

 

As far as I know, only a couple bosses have this feature where you may have fought them in a different area and when you fight them again later on, they will have less health. I've seen this with a couple dragon bosses.

Definitely the Dragons.  I have three unfinished fights with Dragons.