Topic: Elden Ring Hype Thread

@Jimmer-jammer No worries! I just landed in Caelid, after one of those pesky chests transported me there. It is.... quite a bit different to to what I've experienced so far visually! I couldn't a way outta there so fast travelled back to cosy old Limgrave.

Made it to a point to get to the round table, after following a tiny path im sure I would have missed many time. This game is fantastic. Each twist and turn seems to bring you something new.

@velio84 Glad you are enjoying it! I love the sense of exploration and discovery. Not having a gazillion question marks and such pop up on the map helps a hella lot. I think only Zelda BOTW comes close in that respect.

23 hours in and I have my first trophy lol. Decided to finally make my way up to the castle and got to the first grace. Did a bit more exploring and found the dude that sells Ashes of War. And that massive Knight Troll thing that springs to life made me squeal out loud.

Also forgot to mention, I switched my potions and Torrent ring to my pouch, which is accessed in the top right right corner of the menu. Now it is so much easier, as you just press and hold triangle and up on the d-pad to heal. If you do wanna use the quick items, if you press and hold down on the d-pad it will quickly go to the first item.

It's kinda sad. There are so many weapons, so many things to customize, and I'm just never gonna move away from my Uchigatana, or change the Unsheathe ability. So all those weapons and ashes of war are just a waste for me.

Kinda funny. I just realized when I beat Godrick that I completely forgot about that summon spell I have with the wolves. Might've made that fight a little easier.

Stumbled on a teleporter chest, but the fast travel system means I wasn't stunk in the new location, thankfully, although I did manage to find and slay a boss in that area. Some sort of giant golem thing. Thankfully, he's super easy to stagger with Unsheathe.

Also managed to figure out how to access that walking mausoleum thing completely by accident after I noticed you could chip off the rocks around its feet. Although I don't think the function of that location is going to be particularly useful for me.

Found a few magic spells, but still haven't found a staff my dumb-as-rocks character is able to wield, unfortunately.

Played for another five hours today. I have a headache. Might hang it up for a couple of days.

Definitely way more fun than the FS games I've played previously.

Decided to patch the castle for now and just see how far I can go without doing it. Beat Magma Wyrm Makar instead which was bloody tough but better once I realised I could summon an NPC to help. Thankfully I have both the items to progress as I’d picked them up earlier!

Turns out the progression item I had was actually to go back down the way I came in a big lift. Technically I skipped the academy though!

@Ralizah I feel you re. The Uchi & 'Unsheathe' ability... it is just TOO good to walk away from, and as such it seems that all the other extras/upgrades for weaponry are pretty worthless for my playstyle.

Are you mainly 2-handing? Or do you also use 1-hand with a shield? I got a 100% shield (Heater I think?) from the Roundtable merchant, but am wondering if there exists a lighter/better option around.

Working to tackle Castle Mourn today as an appetiser before attempting Stormveil Castle. Margit wrecked me plenty before I prevailed, and am conscious of levelling up a bit more before SC...

Have you managed to upgrade your Uchi yet so it scales better vs DEX stat? I am still having to work the conventional upgrade path, I think it is +4 now but the scaling doesnt seem to have improved

@CJD87 It's the best weapon for this specific class, and the game hasn't provided any reasonable alternatives that make sense given the stat spread of this class (especially if you lean into a vigor/dex build like I have, with a bit of mind on the side so I can squeeze in a few more unsheathes during boss battles).

I 1-hand whenever I'm not specifically going for Unsheathe spam on an enemy. No reason not to have the shield around to to absorb damage when possible.

I could probably go for lighter armor, since I'm under a mid-to-heavy load at all times, but I like having wiggle room when I screw up, and it's not like this is Bloodborne where my reflexes always have to be lightning.

Castle Morne is a good early game challenge: easier and shorter than Stormveil Castle, but a lot more satisfying than those random little caves you'll find. The boss, also, isn't too horrendously difficult.

Yeah, I haven't seen substantial gains from my Dex build yet in terms of raw damage (+5 on Uchigatana currently), although it still makes more sense for my build than strength. Especially since it supposedly makes it harder to fall off torrent, and I fight on horseback whenever possible.

@Ralizah I agree completely, and unsheathe is just too good to pass up...

I came across something that really helped my build and playstyle - you might have this already, but I'll mention just in case!

Just east of 'Stormhill Shack' is another gracepoint called 'Warmaster Shack'. For 600(?) runes you can buy an Art of War Skill called "no skill". You can then 'equip' this to your shield, and it will negate the auto-skill of parry.

Long story short, if you add that particular Art of War "no skill" to your shield, negating the default 'parry' skill, this then allows you to use Unsheathe when 1-handing the weapon! Of course the damage is not so great vs 2-hand, but it allows you to keep a more conservative playstyle - still using the shield and 1-handing the Uchi... but still having access to unsheathe when just using 1 hand.

On a side-note, I copped a 2nd Uchi earlier and might work to upgrade both and start a dual-wielding playstyle. Will probably get me killed, but just looks so good ha!

@CJD87 @Ralizah Strange, the last thing I did last night just the game was buy that Act of War!

I'm using the Blue-Gold Kite Shield bought from the Nomadic Merchant, who can be found in Limgrave, next to the road between Mistwood Ruins and Fort Haight. I think it is slightly better than the Heater shield as I didn't buy that one. It also fitting at the moment as it has similar colours to the Ukraine flag.

Same with the Unsheath skill, I doubt I will be changing that or the Uchigatana. I'll may swap now if I fancy a change, but that will be my main weapon.

@nessisonett there is actually a path around the outside of the castle that comes out right where you come out when leaving the godrick fight, so you can skip completely

@CJD87 I started as a vagabond and had been using a grand epee blade but I found myself an Uchi in a dungeon and oh my days its amazing! Found a whole bunch of weak foes trailing a carriage being drawn by two trolls past night and destroyed them on horseback using it, it felt so good! Will look out for that shack 👍

@Mega-Gazz Yeah, that’s how I’ve been wandering around the rest of the map without even going near the castle 😂

I also found a talisman that heals you quite a bit whenever you get a critical hit - backstab or parry/poise break crit. It’s really useful if I can resist chugging potions

@R1spam Yes mate the Uchi is solid... and the 'Unsheathe' art is brutal! Definitely look to find the 'Warmaster Shack' and purchase/equip the 'no skill' Art onto your shield. When you can then use unsheathe when 1-handing (shield in 2nd hand) it really let's you adapt your playstyle!

You running DEX then? Or quality?

Wow, that fight with Smarag was awesome. Huge Monster Hunter vibes there.

Got killed a few times, but I won once I accepted the path to victory involved staying on my horse, keeping my distance, and making sure I'm always galloping toward it so it doesn't hit me with its fire beam. Staggering it with Unsheathe is fun, but it spends too much time in the air to make the risk worth it.

Staying out of Caelid, though. It's pretty clear I'm underleveled for that area, and I barely managed to kill those obnoxious Tigrex-ish things wandering around. Once the monster bird showed up... yeah, no, staying away from there for now.

@CJD87 I saw that AoW at the warmaster shack before, but since the game doesn't really describe what it does. I just ignored it. That's actually tremendously helpful advice, since it means I no longer have to swap between dual-and-single handing my weapon. Thanks!

@Ralizah Not sure what is is on PC, but on PlayStation by pressing Square it will switch the middle display panel, and it will display a better description for the item. Some of them can still be quite cryptic though!

Got my wolves back, they started working at the same time the bloodstains did, don't know if there's any link. I've also got a shield which blocks 100% damage.

As a result, after struggling since I started, I'm suddenly slaughtering everything. Margit is down, as are couple of mini-bosses. I've even ventured out of Limgrave a couple of times. Things are hotting up now.

@CJD87 I'm doing a dex build but hoping to add in a bit of magic later. I found a sorceress to buy spells from, I just need a staff/wand and an idea of minimum requirements!

One thing I just can't work out - every so often, in the middle of a fight on horseback, Torrent will just disappear, as though I've un-summoned him. It's not because Torrent has died or I've been knocked off horseback, I can only assume I'm triggering some combination of buttons or something that the game is interpreting as "get off torrent now", has anyone come across this and any idea what I might be doing?

I have torrent set as the "up" option in my pouch, but I'm definitely not pressing those buttons (I'm on PC but using a controller, I'm assuming the control scheme is the same between PS5 and PC - with the exception that I press the "share" button to go into the map, because steam interprets that as whatever button it corresponds to positionally on an xbox controller)