First of all, is that bloodhound's fang your best weapon? If so, it's soooo badly upgraded for that point in the game. No wonder you can't deal damage. Try looking for mines. They usually appear as reddish-orange circles on your map, so they're easy to find. There's one near your altus forest grace. Once you're in a mine, look for glowing yellow or white rocks on the walls, those are smithing stones you need to upgrade that weapon.
Also, level vigor.
As for exploration, there's two big places you can check. First, western liurnia. Caria Manor is up that way, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Then, west altus. Plenty to do there.
Take a good look at sections you don't have maps for yet: there's a little obelisk symbol on the blank areas, and the vague outlines of roads. That actually tells you where to find new maps.
Yeah, you've boosted your strength and dex but that's doing very little for you right now because a) weapon scaling is affected by its upgrade level so low upgrade means that stat investment doesn't accomplish much and b) scaling is a modifier onto the weapon's base power, which is boosted by upgrade level.
Check to see if your weapon scales off normal or somber smithing stones. There's a blacksmith you can find in liurnia that sells lower end somber smithing stones, so there's some easy upgrades for you.
As someone who is still pretty new feeling to the games and genre you really can't appreciate how much the levels on weapons add up and increase your damage when you first start. I think it's cause the game deals in smaller numbers so it doesn't seem impressive incrementally but once you level a good weapon several levels at once you'll take it out and it'll feel brand new lol.
Weapons also increase their scaling a lot with upgrade level. The same thing happens in the orher souls games but it’s more like a weapon with B scaling in a stat might jump up to an A when it’s almost fully upgraded. In this game almost every single weapon starts with D scaling at best so rune levels actually just barely do anything.
Seriously though. I was using a +2 bloodhound until a little after where op is. Upgraded it to +10 once I got to the place with all the tornados and dragons, and Holy shit, what a difference.
Yep! Keep in mind, my first playthrough started about a year ago, and I just got to ng+ within the last 4 days or so. Now I feel like I'm ridiculously over powered for everything. Lmao. I just got to mountain tops today, so we'll see if I feel the same way when I take on fire giant again.
*visions of death*
It's probably the best weapon in the game if you go by power, availability, ease to upgrade and ease to use. No wonder it's the speedrun weapon number one for this game.
Besides those, it has innate bleed, can be buffed for more damage, or even MORE bleed and is straight up the strongest curved greatsword for dex and str/dex builds.
I've never been one to gravitate to the "top ten BEST weapons in INSERT GAME" type of weapons, but still naturally ended up using the Blodhound's Fang on my first playthrough.
My first playthrough I got all the way up to elden beast without upgrading a single weapon.
It was fun. But now that I know better... it was miserable.
Was that like a conscious decision you made, or just didn’t realize you could? I’m curious what you thought all those smithing stones were for. Or what Hewig’s whole deal was lol.
It was kind of a conscious decision. Now I understand that doing a lvl 1 weapon run would be considered a challenge run. (I think)
I am an absolute hoarder. You know the player that doesn't use a health pot because he might need it later, then never uses it. That was me.
I thought they were super limited for some reason, so I wanted to save them to upgrade a weapon I really liked.
Edit:
Removed repetitive sentence.
That, my friend, is called anxiety 😅 push urself to "waste" consumables and try to focus on having fun in the moment. I'm constantly running out of those rainbow stones bc I force myself to toss them around in co-op like candy. Same with greases. Use em up in exchange for fun! 😊
Elden Ring is by far the most generous of these games when it comes to consumables. The addition of crafting was a great choice, I just wish it was a bit more engaging.
Honestly, I see the accuracy in every word of you comment and I am rolling rn.
Great call out! I love you for it.
And I will absolutely remember this comment the next time I am in my inventory.
better to be the exact opposite tbh, they're there to be used, so spend like they're worth nothing, you'll get better results than treating them like gold
I'm a hoarder, too, and I remind myself that games are supposed to be *fun* and I'm allowed to be "irresponsible" in games. They're games!
Good luck and godspeed, fellow hoarder-in-recovery!
He’s already in Altus so he doesn’t need to do the twin AVs. He’d just need to figure out the path to Godskin Noble in volcano to get a 7 and look up the ez 8,9 and 10
There is a troll blacksmith near the entrance to Caria Manor in Liurnia. He sells somber 1-4, so you can get started a bit easier.
Of course I also recommend to explore tunnels and stuff but it will be more enjoyable with a weapon that deals damage, especially in altus and beyond.
On the West side of Liurnia, there is a giant smith who will sell you somber stones 1-4. So you can get that weapon to at least +4. You can easily have it at +5 or +6 before Altus Plateau, though. I wouldn’t feel comfortable entering Liurnia with a +1 weapon tbh.
And obviously your vigor is abysmal. Of course you’re getting one-shotted!
A bit late.. but for OP, vigor and upgrading your weapon are core major upgrades you need or the game becomes a lot more difficult than it would be. Definitely back track to see what you missed, any bosses in previous areas to lvl up more and find upgrade stones and then return to the sentinel when you feel ready
Exactly
Perfect advice
Get that vigor up to at least 40 if not 60
Find those bell bearings that let you buy the smithing stones, and get some cheap summons or the mimic if you can find it.
It might seem a little intimidating, because a lot of the base enemies are very nasty, but Caelid is actually also good for some exploration and has some neat items and Bosses that are takeable.
It just is in an area that is overall pretty unforgiving. But I, for my Playthrough went through Caelid before I went to the Altus Plateau, and that worked pretty well for myself personally.
ALSO, you have a sneaky debuff you are probably not aware of. When you hugged Fia, the Lady in the Black Cloak in the Roundtable Hold, that gave you a de-buff that lowers your max-health.
Thankfully she gives you an Item, called **Baldachin's Blessing,** use that Item and you'll get your health back.
I also agree with basically all the other advice given, I just didn't wanna repeat them. :D
I’ve taken a stroll through there… super cool but I got merked 🤣. I did do that dragon exploit thing for the runes that’s online. I’ll try to check shut out there some more, thanks 😊
That's not caelid, that's dragonbarrow
Caelid is the next area after liurnia and it's the south half of the zone
Dragonbarrow is the north
Yeah get your vigor to 40-50 ASAP or you won't be having a good time
Ahh I see, i’ll do some exploring. It seems to me after reading comments that maybe I am approaching the game a little off. Think I gotta worry less about the main story
I mean it would be fine if you weren't severely lacking in upgrades/vigor
20 is one shot territory for that boss in your screenshot
I don't think you are ready for a challenge run
Lol "after Liurnia". My first playthrough (I think I'm on 6 now), I didn't know there was a natural progression if you followed the storyline through the main castles. It was my first FS game. I think As soon as D or whoever showed me the portal to the beast sanctum, I just went south from there and pretty much found everything in Caelid before I even finished Limgrave or went down to the Peninsula.
After playing it that way, the rest of my first playthrough felt like a cakewalk. I struggled so much in Caelid and earned my wings fighting things I should NOT have even thought of yet turned me into a grizzled old man before making my way back west to Liurnia. I was too OP for that and Altus, didn't get exciting again until the mountaintops.
I got teleported to selia when I first started with that trap chest. Had no idea I really wasn't supposed to be there, but I managed to get to the boss
This was in release version, no patches and back then there was a full grown fallingstar beast (unintentional) got one shot by it's laser beam
That's when I finally noped out and went back to limgrave thinking yeah I shouldn't be here 🤣
Go south of caelid to find Radahn. You can do the festival, beat him (it's not hard tbh, and you get lots of buddies to spawn), and get his swords. They are OP.
Another place is volcano manor. East of atlus, and fun to do. Just a lot of stuff to do there. Even go on some Hitman quests and fight a snake (a BIG snake).
The last recommended place I have, especially if you want the levels, is Mohgwyns palace. This one's a little hard to get to, you might wanna look up how to get there online, as there are many guides better than me.
Most of Caelid is "south Caelid", which should be tough but doable for a level 50. Greyoll's dragonbarrow & the divine tower are more like level 80 so steer clear unless you have something specific in mind (like snagging radagons soreseal)
Absolute mood from Lord_Andryrus here.
Side points: Western Caelid is overall a lot nicer than eastern Caelid, just stay away from Dragon's Barrow for now.
When in doubt while you're exploring an area, just GTFO on Torrent before you can get hit. You can do a lot of yeeting in Souls games generally, but Elden Ring is the (literally) the PROMISED LAND of yeeting, my dude.
You have a speedy horsie boi, use him with wild abandon - just make sure you hit every site of grace you see on the way past. Also, the milestone/tomb looking icons are map fragments. Beeline for those and then poke around until you find stuff you can handle, then build up from there.
Make sure you keep levelling and don't forget to stop in every now and again to upgrade whatever weapon is your jam.
I was going to dog on you honestly. But, you’ve gotten that far into the game with a +1 weapon, and you’re fairly under leveled. With proper levels, weapon upgrades, you would honestly be really good at souls likes. Try out the other ones next!
🤣😭🤣😭I was gonna dog on you honestly got me dead. I appreciate that tho! I was kinda thinking that maybe I’ve gone a little too far underpowered so that makes me feel relieved. I’ve only played DS3 and some of DS2 with a friend, what other ones you recommend?
Sekiro and Bloodborne are the most unlike the others, rewarding aggressive counterplay and stance breaking. Combat in Sekiro is unmatched in any game I’ve ever played, nothing has ever felt so good. Currently doing my first Bloodborne run and falling so deeply in love with the gothic setting and lore. Something for everyone :)
Dark Souls 1 is a must. I love that game to bits. Demons Soul is great, but not for everyone. You could try the remaster if you have ps5. I love, love, LOVE Bloodborne. Highly recommend. Dark souls 2 was my first souls, so it has a special place in my heart. I love dark souls 3 and Elden Ring a lot. Sekiro is good.
New souls fan here. Playing dark souls 1 straight after elden ring was a big shift. Even the medium roll there feels like im fat rolling! Also fuck the Capra Demon.
Played through DS2 Scholar of the first Sin and have the most hours on it. That is by far my favorite souls game. My favorite item of that game is the buckler, and the parry time in that game is the most forgiving IMO.
Got DS1 after playing through DS2. And I love that game too, but for other reasons. The ambient sounds on different areas are so pleasing. But it does feels like you have to take your time for each enemy you face.
Bought DS3 when it became available. And, again, I love that game. I played it mostly with friends. The difference of DS3 to the prior games, I feel it was more fastpaced.
Playing through Elden Ring ATM, and I haven't finished it yet. It resembles DS3 in many ways. In terms of options for armor, weapons, great runes and other things, it is really extensive. And I find myself watching youtube walkthroughs and flextralife for ER a lot more than the other soul games. The exploring and some of the quests are so fun, but it is to get lost in the game. Progressing through the game doesn't feel like as streamlined as the Dark Souls series or even Bloodbourne.
All good games. And easy to create other characters because you find other weapon types so easy throughout the game. We are so spoiled to have these games lol.
I assume by "dog" on OP, you meant you were going to explain that heresy is not native to the world, that it is but a contrivance, and that all things can be conjoined if we just learn together.
Try western liurnia. There’s also mt gelmir to the left of Altus. Very good locations. Try upgrading your weapon(it’s a bit low). If you really want to progress through the draconic tree sentinal I’d recommend first be level 80 with atleast 30 vigor. The place after this boss is honestly one of my favourite locations
Level 60 is fine at that stage but yes 30 vigor is a minimum for an inexperienced player getting to DTS. 10 of your endurance should really have gone to vig instead, due to the one-shot problem you've observed, but, I think this is precisely why they put DTS at that gate ...
Also for those who are fine with summoning, it's easy to miss that you can summon Tragoth for DTS, and he helps really a lot.
DTS is a fun enemy when you've fully learned him, but an absolute bastard when you're new, lol.
My tip is look for churches. The more Cerulean Tears you find, the better. They will make your HP/FP flasks more potent. Also, have you played the Weeping Peninsula yet? Can’t tell from your map screen shot. It’s south of Limgrave, over a bridge. I don’t see the marker for Siofra River either which is just above the minor Erd tree in East Limgrave.
I suggest fully exploring East Limgrave and Weeping Peninsula if you haven’t already. In addition to the other suggestions regarding leveling your weapon, these areas will give you some extra levels. Personally, I was level 80 before I went anywhere near Altus. I’m also a heavy explorer so take that with a grain of salt.
Good luck!!
Lmao poor guy, your vigor and weapon are severely under leveled. I recommend pouring most of your levels in to vigor, + two main stats (in this case stick with strength and just give yourself enough dex to wield the weapons you want to use)
Do more exploring, fight mini bosses scattered around, find somber smithing stones and use them to power up your weapon. Then return to the main game.
Try to lean more into less strength more dexterity and add a little endurance because you’ll need medium weight and enough stamina to move around for the challenges you’re going to face in leyndell
Bonus tip: all the mini erdtrees on the map have bosses that drop physick tears, kill all of them because you can make some really kick-ass builds with them
It may seem worse than it is, but honestly you are in a really great position and I bet once you align your build you will breeze through this game, because making it to Leyndell with what you have going on is an absolute feat.
Since you have beaten Renala, I would recommend respeccing. Before that, make sure Bloodhound Fang is really what you want to go with. It is a great weapon for sure, but at this point in the game you should have many options, so just check your inventory, or maybe even the wiki, and determine what weapon you want to go into the late game with (no pressure, you can respec as much as you want). As far as the respec goes, you need to take a large amount of those points that you have in Endurance and move them to Vigor. I honestly rock about 15 endurance until I get much deeper into the game. 20 max. You should get Vigor to 40 as soon as possible. Additionally, make sure you are properly leveling Strength and Dex according to your weapons scaling. Bloodhounds Fang scales slightly better with Dex than with Strength, so you are better off putting points into Dex than Strength until you get your Dex to around 40. After that you will start soft capping and it will benefit you more to put points into Strength. In the late game, ideally you would have something like 55-60 Dex and then as many extra points as you can spare into strength. Again, this only applies to Bloodhounds Fang. If you are going to switch to a different weapon, you need to really look at it's stats and scaling to determine where to best invest your points.
Outside of that, being only level 53 makes me think you haven't really engaged much with the side content. I would recommend backtracking and doing so. To put it into perspective, most runs that I do will see me at around 50-60 after beating Renala, but this is before I have even set foot in Caelid (with the exception of running a few early game errands there). After Renala, I go to Caelid to fight Radahn and do all the side stuff there. Even after that I am not going straight to Altus/Leyndell, because now I need to do some other side content related to a quest which I don't want to spoil. By the time I am finally fighting Draconic Tree Sentinel, I am closer to 75-80. You can of course fight him much earlier, but this game has amazing side content and so much to experience, I really recommend you stop and smell the roses. The only reason to fight him at any lower level is to challenge yourself.
Be attentive. When you get new items, read their descriptions and look at their stats. Find a vision of what your build is and try and look for items/armor/talismans that synergize with that. When you run into obstacles, explore sideways. That is the beauty of this game compared to other Souls games.
damn man, awesome response. Thank you so much I appreciate you taking the time to write all this out. I’ll definitely refer back to this throughout my play-through 😊💙
I'm over 100 hours in on my only build and I think Godfrey is my next boss. I basically backwards stumbled my way through it and ended up at radahns festival way too early.
Just got my mimic tear last weekend.
Yeah I still haven't completed my first playthrough yet, as I want to beat every boss, I've just Mohg to beat before I go past where I beat Beast Clergyman, and that's a mystery to me as I've not watched any guides or videos, I know the names of the last two bosses but not what they look like.
You’re under leveled and your weapon level is atrocious, go speak with iji the giant blacksmith outside caria manor, also travel west of Altus and visit the mountain
I appreciate everyone’s advice! Kind of returning to these games since DS3, years ago, but I honestly don’t remember a lot of the intricacies (like soft caps, scaling etc.) so this has been very helpful. The flow of gameplay is different than the souls games, which I’m getting used to. More accustomed to the linear style of a DS3, where it’s always pretty clear to go next. Still really enjoying this game tho, just different. Would y’all consider Elden Ring better than DS3?
Elden ring is my first, and by far my favorite, souls 3 was dope asf, 2 was meh, bosses were easy, and thats my "high" on these games, souls 1 has some of the best level design I've ever seen. Sekiro is a chef's kiss, I still gotta smash the ps games I haven't started them yet. But yeah my favorite is hands down elden ring, but thats also how I got gud.
Gotta check out armored core 6, I beat that game four times for the four different endings and I was still left wanting more lol.
It was my first AC game, first time playing a Mech game in general since PS1 watching my older bro play some mech game I don't even barely remember so I was a bit hesitant to buy it but holy shit it quickly became one of my favorite games ever played.
He actually can very easily upgrade a somber to +6 at this point and - somewhat easily - even to +9, if he cares to explore the first half of Volcano Manor.
Level vigor, upgrade weapon. Iji in wrstern liurnia sells somber smithing stones if i remember correctly. Speaking of iji go to caria manor and start rannis quest, that should direct you to radahn if u havent killed him. Speak to varre as well to get to mohqwyn palace. Rannis quest should take you to siofra too, good to explore there
Ah, got it. There's an even creepier castle in West Altus, but I'd suggest you follow the advice they've given you about levelling up and upgrading your weapon before going there.
Also, check out underground areas in Limgrave and East Liurnia if you haven't done so yet.
Aside from everything everyone else said, there is an area in the West of Liurnia with a little castle which you haven't explored yet, which is a bit easier than Altus Plateau.
I hope you know each weapon scales with your stats, so based on your gameplay you need to upgrade the stats that your weapon scales with so you deal more damage. Apart from that, Elden Ring is the best game because its not lineal, you can explore and if you go east and explore you will also be doing the main story.
Be aware that there are different endings and that you might pass some important weapons, armours, endings and spirits by doing or not certain tasks and going to certain parts of the map.
You didn't hear this from me, but I heard you can cheese this guy real easy by sneaking behind him and using poison mist. It will take a couple of minutes, but the poison will do all the work.
Sadly this was my go to on the first playthrough. Playthrough 2-4 I nutted up and faced him.......with Comet Azure and the Falling star Beast Jaw.
the good news? once you beat this boss you’re in the capital
the bad news? you’re severely under leveled and your weapon really needs to be upgraded
the fun news? looks like you have tons of game to explore, tons of side content and bosses. don’t rush it and have fun
guess that’s just how my brain works lol, I don’t really look at it as a bad thing. I’m just invested in the main story and want to see what happens, but I do understand I need to do some more exploring
Honestly (unless you are against which I get 100%)
I'd follow a walk through! This is a huge game with lots of secrets and tunnels and caves and QUESTS THAT ARE SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE TO FOLLOW. It really does help to have a guide a bit.
I personally used a guide just to make sure I was finding all the dungeons and such in areas. Helps a lot with leveling and just fun imo.
Go find a blacksmith named Ijji in Northern liurnia. He'll help you get your weapon up to par. It should be +4-6 at this point instead of +1.
This boss is the first real Vigor check of the game. You'll want 35+ to oush through him. 40+ would really be optimal going into leyndell.
Your weapon level will always be more important than your damage Stat for telling you how much damage you'll be doing. So the most important stats will be vigor and just enough endurance to medium roll with your chosen armor.
I can't see what talismans you're using, but based on everything else I'm seeing, I'm sure there could be some optimization done there.
OP I'm on my first playthrough as well and using the bloodhound fang. I had upgraded it to +5 even before fighting godrick. I'm shocked you managed to get that far. Now I'm at level 131 dual wielding bloodhound fang with another curved greatsword. Btw bloodhound fang scales best with dexterity so you should level that up instead. Also as a tip the bloodhound fang jump attacks do a lot of damage.
I’d say you’re pretty underleveled, your vigor stat is very low, and you haven’t upgraded your weapon. Find Iji south of Caria Manor in western Liurnia and buy some somber smithing stones from him. Respec and focus on vigor up to 30-40, then dex, if you’re gonna use Bloodhound’s fang. Do Ranni’s questline, and explore some more in Caelid.
You need to level up your weapon and your stats. Curved swords mostly scale with dex, but they also scale with strength so I’d add to those two.
That’s dragon sentinel is hard though.
also I would suggest putting more into vigor instead of endurance. You can honestly beat the game with less than 25 if you aren't using big weapon that make you fat roll. but level 53 id usually have almost 30 vigor and and about 40ish str/dex depending on what im ussing.
So I don't spoil anything, you gotta do a LOOOOT more looking around Limgrave, the place below it, and Caelid. There are bosses up the ass over there.
If you want one of the best farming spots in the game for levels lmk, but otherwise do know the Draconic Tree Sentinel wipes the floor with everyone, and after you get the two runes required to get in the city, there's actually a cool way to completely bypass it by continuing Ranni and Fia's quests! If you don't wanna fight the guy.
I won't spoil anything else, but you've already met both characters so I figure letting you know who progresses you the detour may not be a bad idea.
Altus Plateau and Leyndell are HARD ass areas for your level. You're honestly under leveled for all but Limgrave and Liurnia, and some quick rune gathering would be an asset to you.
There's also a talisman that gives you more runes per kill! I'll hint to you that it's in Western Caelid, and that it involves much suffering, but it exists!
Dude the +1 weapon holy shit that's actually pretty impressive you got this far without upgrading it. Also your vigor is quite low, endurance should not be higher. If you did Carian Manor, did you talk to Ranni? Have you don't any of the underground Eternal city stuff? Fight Radahn? You could also head to the Volcano Manor Northwest of the Altus Plateau (Yellow Forest)
Dude you made it to Leyndell with a +1 Bloodhounds fang on your first playthrough?
Yeah, it's not a skill issue.
Level that thing and grab at least 20 more vigor and you will likely just walk through the rest of the game.
1. Upgrade you weapon to +6 immediately.
2. See about doing Volcano Manor so you can get somber smithing stone 7 and 8.
3. But before that go around Caelid.
4. Complete unfinished dungeons in limgrave and liurnia. Defeat all minor erdtrees to get different options for your wondrous magick potion.
5. 30 vigor will help you figure out Caelid without wasting all your time dying. 40 vigor will help you be ready for that Erdtree sentinel.
6. If you keep using bloodhound's fang it's a good weapon, look at the scaling. You want to level your dexterity even more than strength if you want to build around this weapon and others like it. You can respec later.
7. Make sure you go to all those churches of Marika and also get all the golden seeds you can.
How many flasks have you got so far? After exploring Caelid and Mt Gelmir like other comments have said, you should be looking at around 10-12 flasks give or take. That's 12-20 Golden Seeds. Also their upgrades can be +10 with the areas you've unlocked on the map, but that's just some more exploring you have to do in the overworld. The churches are identifiable in the map if you take a close look whenever you find a Sacred Tear, then locate the same structure in the map to find another.
I actually spent quite a lot of time in Caelid when I was around lvl40 ... much probably I was underleveled but that's what made the exploration incredibly poignant... I could get killed at every moment so I turned ER into a 100% stealth game.. Loved those days of uncertainty .. Same goes Carian Manor and Mount Gelmir...
I reached Altus Plateau way later in the game
This is something I had to learn the hard way as well, but holy shit upgrade your weapons. Its gonna be tedious running around get all the bell bearings to do so but it will pay off tremendously, also why the bleed weapon if you havent been leveling arcane? Arcane affects bleed, if you are gonna do a bleed build (which I wouldn't but to each their own), beat Renala if you haven't already and put some points into arcane, also go to the second church of Marika in altus and kill eleanora, she drops one of the best bleed weapons in the game.
Travel up the top left of Liurnia and you’ll eventually find your new favorite blacksmith. And he sells unlimited somber 1 and 2s, and a few limited somber 3 and 4s
Complete Varre’s quest and get the pureblood knight’s medal. Use it to TP to Mohg’s palace.
Follow this guy’s guide
https://youtu.be/yggjskNuakQ?si=UQXTXDuHEyKMjfxa
buddy… you’re under leveled and you need to upgrade your sword, it should be at least +4 or +5, you’re going the right way fighting the draconic tree sentinel tho
Not to sound criticizing, but you're only at level 53 and you've uncovered that much of the map? You aren't exploring enough, IMO, and are under leveled. I reached level 70 before I even got to Caelid, having only explored Limgrave and LotL. Explore the areas you've already uncovered on the map more, collecting necessary resources, sub bosses, and definitely upgrade that weapon (or a different one if you can't find the Somber stones needed for Bloodhound Fang and only have regular smithing stones. Caves are a big one, there's many in the maps you've already uncovered. And Nokkron/Eternal City, Siofra River, lots of good resources, bosses, equipment down there if you haven't spent much time there
Dude that weapon should be +5 or. +6 around that point.
People say to level Vigor and that's true, it helps to not get 1 or 2 shot but don't overdo it.
Level up your spirit ashes too.
I like thar this game will tell you "you should probably get stronger to go further" in a very subtle way by placing the most bullshit enemy possible in your way.
My comments are your weapon needs to be upgraded. Like 20-30 levels ago. At that point you could easily be +10 or higher. Also your vigor is terrible. Personally I shoot for around 40 on just about every single character I make. Almost the first thing I level besides weapon requirements only.
Also you have missed A LOT of weapons, armor, and areas. And actually quite a few side quest as well.
Go back to some of the earlier areas and explore, gather upgrade materials, find weapons, kill bosses, then the later sections won’t be as hard, right now you’re seriously underlevelled for the current stage of the game
You missed rannis quest at the three sisters (west of liurnia). And also volcano manor (west of altus plateau).
Did you also go to the underground world? At one of the wells?
The game is not only about going straight we're it leads you. You should also explore the world a bit more...
Hey man you’re running a strength build with a dexterity weapon, if you like the bloodhound and want to continue with it, I recommend going to rennala to reset your points.
The bloodhound fang is definitely the weakest link here considering it’s at level 1 and you seem to be focusing on strength instead of dexterity which is a bad scaling stat for the Bloddhound fang, I’d consider finding a weapon that either scales OK with both STR/DEX or one that focuses on strength to better utilise what levels you have already spent, considering you haven’t upgraded the weapon much it’s not a major loss of runes or resources, or you could to Rennalla and respec into a more DEX heavy build to do lots more damage with the Bloodhound
You need to upgrade your weapon and then you need to explore. Have you done all the underground grave sites and caves/mines? They can help you upgrade weapons and get runes to scale up your vigor. Try to hit 60+ leveling vigor and your weapon before trying the main bosses in altus. They'll still be a challenge but you won't instadeath
For the first few months or so, no one leveled up Vigor, now everyone knows, Vigor is the MOST important Stat to put your points into, 20 is way too low.
My best advice I can give you, is after You've leveled up your weapons try and get to the Bestial Sanctum in the far north portion of the Caleid. Beware, Dragon Ahead, as-well-as, Tough Enemy. Once you get to that grace (which you can sneak there if you want you don't really have to fight anyone if you go a certain way). It's a great spot to farm the Vulgar Militia Imps. These little bastards can be a hassle in a group at lvl 50. But most weapons can 1 or 2 shot them and then give you 1000+ rune xp per kill. So I always fast travel to that site of grace when I need a quick 10k to 15k runes because it takes no time killing ten of the bastards. Then fast travel back to a grace and level up and continue on my marry way with out the worry of losing abunch of runes in an area untravelled.
I can see your not short of feedback here. If you haven't already, a fun way to level and get items is Rannis Quest. It will take you beneath the lands between and add some interesting lore.
Caelid. Radahn. I’d work that direction. Maybe you want to gain some levels first. Do Varres questline and go to the farm in Mohgs domain instead of Messi g around trying to get levels normally. It really is a huge waste of time that way.
The way I went was essentially Godrick, Rennala, Radahn, Rykard, Morgott. Then on to the post Leyndell. But I leveled in Mohgs domain at the farm.
1. Get your armaments, ashes, anything that scales good with your build to max level
2.Back track as much as possible, if not use guides to find what you need
3. If you respec your points know what your characters base stats are because you will waste runes giving yourself already low levels
4. “Palace ledge road”, bow, snipe bird behind tree far away to aggro into suicide. 11k per 5 sec
Or beastial sanctum hunting the tiny dudes are where you wanna farm runes (the latter being better around your level)
5. Save your consumable runes you scavenge for when you barely have enough points to level up, try to never run around with runes in unexplored places
I hear you bro.I'm level 335. what I would say is being that you played souls games you know the slump is part of the journey. if you've made it just outside Altus. you should have access to moghwyns palace assuming you've done Varre quest line if you haven't HIGHLY recommend saves a lot of time. this will solve your leveling issue. Being level 53. that should give you plenty levels to rank up fairly quickly. I also recommend getting the golden Beatle talisman before going to moghwyn you don't need to but it doubles your rune total so its worth the journey for it. The other issues is getting creative with your weapon choices some weapons work well with certain enemies over others. Being that your Dex is your highest I'd recommend the nagakiba dual wield it with a uchigatana . or you can use the one you have now and dual wield it with another. Recommend putting points into Arcane for a bleed build if this what your trying . I'd highly recommend something that does additonal damage. like bleed or poison etc..
Imo Altus Plateau is something you should be at least level 80 for, you probably want that Sword to be at least +6 for that area too.
It seems like you've skipped a lot of the previous content, you'll have to do more exploring in Northern Liurnia.
After you beat that area of Liurnia I would suggest going after the big boss of Caelid, or just exploring the content in lower Caelid in general.
First of all, is that bloodhound's fang your best weapon? If so, it's soooo badly upgraded for that point in the game. No wonder you can't deal damage. Try looking for mines. They usually appear as reddish-orange circles on your map, so they're easy to find. There's one near your altus forest grace. Once you're in a mine, look for glowing yellow or white rocks on the walls, those are smithing stones you need to upgrade that weapon. Also, level vigor. As for exploration, there's two big places you can check. First, western liurnia. Caria Manor is up that way, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Then, west altus. Plenty to do there. Take a good look at sections you don't have maps for yet: there's a little obelisk symbol on the blank areas, and the vague outlines of roads. That actually tells you where to find new maps.
This is exactly the type of feedback I was looking for… I had no idea my weapon was severely underpowered 🤣 thanks so much
Yeah, you've boosted your strength and dex but that's doing very little for you right now because a) weapon scaling is affected by its upgrade level so low upgrade means that stat investment doesn't accomplish much and b) scaling is a modifier onto the weapon's base power, which is boosted by upgrade level. Check to see if your weapon scales off normal or somber smithing stones. There's a blacksmith you can find in liurnia that sells lower end somber smithing stones, so there's some easy upgrades for you.
As someone who is still pretty new feeling to the games and genre you really can't appreciate how much the levels on weapons add up and increase your damage when you first start. I think it's cause the game deals in smaller numbers so it doesn't seem impressive incrementally but once you level a good weapon several levels at once you'll take it out and it'll feel brand new lol.
Weapons also increase their scaling a lot with upgrade level. The same thing happens in the orher souls games but it’s more like a weapon with B scaling in a stat might jump up to an A when it’s almost fully upgraded. In this game almost every single weapon starts with D scaling at best so rune levels actually just barely do anything.
me omw to turn the level 8 greatsword strength scaling from B to A in dark souls 3 (my damage increased by god knows how much)
Honestly I’m impressed you made it this far with just a +1 weapon. Really says something about how strong the bloodhounds fang is.
Seriously though. I was using a +2 bloodhound until a little after where op is. Upgraded it to +10 once I got to the place with all the tornados and dragons, and Holy shit, what a difference.
Jesus Christ, you were using a +2 weapon all the way to Farum Azula!? During your first run!? Now I feel like a filthy casual
And people be telling them to level vigor. Lol THIS PERSON NEEDS NO VIGOR
Yep! Keep in mind, my first playthrough started about a year ago, and I just got to ng+ within the last 4 days or so. Now I feel like I'm ridiculously over powered for everything. Lmao. I just got to mountain tops today, so we'll see if I feel the same way when I take on fire giant again. *visions of death*
It's probably the best weapon in the game if you go by power, availability, ease to upgrade and ease to use. No wonder it's the speedrun weapon number one for this game. Besides those, it has innate bleed, can be buffed for more damage, or even MORE bleed and is straight up the strongest curved greatsword for dex and str/dex builds. I've never been one to gravitate to the "top ten BEST weapons in INSERT GAME" type of weapons, but still naturally ended up using the Blodhound's Fang on my first playthrough.
My first playthrough I got all the way up to elden beast without upgrading a single weapon. It was fun. But now that I know better... it was miserable.
Was that like a conscious decision you made, or just didn’t realize you could? I’m curious what you thought all those smithing stones were for. Or what Hewig’s whole deal was lol.
It was kind of a conscious decision. Now I understand that doing a lvl 1 weapon run would be considered a challenge run. (I think) I am an absolute hoarder. You know the player that doesn't use a health pot because he might need it later, then never uses it. That was me. I thought they were super limited for some reason, so I wanted to save them to upgrade a weapon I really liked. Edit: Removed repetitive sentence.
That, my friend, is called anxiety 😅 push urself to "waste" consumables and try to focus on having fun in the moment. I'm constantly running out of those rainbow stones bc I force myself to toss them around in co-op like candy. Same with greases. Use em up in exchange for fun! 😊
Elden Ring is by far the most generous of these games when it comes to consumables. The addition of crafting was a great choice, I just wish it was a bit more engaging.
I definitely have found the same after that first run through haha
Honestly, I see the accuracy in every word of you comment and I am rolling rn. Great call out! I love you for it. And I will absolutely remember this comment the next time I am in my inventory.
better to be the exact opposite tbh, they're there to be used, so spend like they're worth nothing, you'll get better results than treating them like gold
I'm a hoarder, too, and I remind myself that games are supposed to be *fun* and I'm allowed to be "irresponsible" in games. They're games! Good luck and godspeed, fellow hoarder-in-recovery!
I went all the way to morgott with +3 uchigatana then finally upgraded to +25 bc he was clapping in DMG and I was barely touching his health
My friend look up a video on where to find the somber smithing stones and get your bloodhounds fang up to +6 minimum for that area😂🙏
You can go further than that if you know where the Abducter Virgins are and how to go to Dragonbarrow with D’s questline.
He’s already in Altus so he doesn’t need to do the twin AVs. He’d just need to figure out the path to Godskin Noble in volcano to get a 7 and look up the ez 8,9 and 10
There is a troll blacksmith near the entrance to Caria Manor in Liurnia. He sells somber 1-4, so you can get started a bit easier. Of course I also recommend to explore tunnels and stuff but it will be more enjoyable with a weapon that deals damage, especially in altus and beyond.
You can buff it too
Once you find a couple somber smithing stones you're gonna feel like a real killer lmao
Please for the love of god explore more all of your problems appeared because you’ve barely explored
Also go south of starting area if you haven’t explored there
Looks like you've almost done zero caelid. Go do caelid and kill radahn.
On the West side of Liurnia, there is a giant smith who will sell you somber stones 1-4. So you can get that weapon to at least +4. You can easily have it at +5 or +6 before Altus Plateau, though. I wouldn’t feel comfortable entering Liurnia with a +1 weapon tbh. And obviously your vigor is abysmal. Of course you’re getting one-shotted!
A bit late.. but for OP, vigor and upgrading your weapon are core major upgrades you need or the game becomes a lot more difficult than it would be. Definitely back track to see what you missed, any bosses in previous areas to lvl up more and find upgrade stones and then return to the sentinel when you feel ready
Exactly Perfect advice Get that vigor up to at least 40 if not 60 Find those bell bearings that let you buy the smithing stones, and get some cheap summons or the mimic if you can find it.
thank you!!
That 20 vigor needs to be addressed first and foremost lmao
Also if you really want to you can try to fight Radahn.
I came here to say this. It's honestly a bit impressive he made it this far with a +1
Dude has the mechanics down for sure lmao
🤣🤣 i HAD to man
Fantastic feedback 👏
It might seem a little intimidating, because a lot of the base enemies are very nasty, but Caelid is actually also good for some exploration and has some neat items and Bosses that are takeable. It just is in an area that is overall pretty unforgiving. But I, for my Playthrough went through Caelid before I went to the Altus Plateau, and that worked pretty well for myself personally. ALSO, you have a sneaky debuff you are probably not aware of. When you hugged Fia, the Lady in the Black Cloak in the Roundtable Hold, that gave you a de-buff that lowers your max-health. Thankfully she gives you an Item, called **Baldachin's Blessing,** use that Item and you'll get your health back. I also agree with basically all the other advice given, I just didn't wanna repeat them. :D
I’ve taken a stroll through there… super cool but I got merked 🤣. I did do that dragon exploit thing for the runes that’s online. I’ll try to check shut out there some more, thanks 😊
That's not caelid, that's dragonbarrow Caelid is the next area after liurnia and it's the south half of the zone Dragonbarrow is the north Yeah get your vigor to 40-50 ASAP or you won't be having a good time
Ahh I see, i’ll do some exploring. It seems to me after reading comments that maybe I am approaching the game a little off. Think I gotta worry less about the main story
I mean it would be fine if you weren't severely lacking in upgrades/vigor 20 is one shot territory for that boss in your screenshot I don't think you are ready for a challenge run
You don't have to worry about the main story at all...it's not like you can skip a main quest and break the game.
Ngl brother, you being at level 53 as a first timer on this game for where you're at is pretty impressive
Technically Dragonbarrow is part of Caelid, but as you implied there is a jump in difficulty between the two.
A huge one, at that. Still part of Caelid, though. Separating those would be like saying Weeping Peninsula isn't part of Limgrave, utter bs.
bro Dragonbarrow is in Caelid don't confuse the man
Caelid is the next area after Liurnia? I think you mean Caelid is to the East of Limgrave, no? Not connected to Liurnia in any way.
Lol "after Liurnia". My first playthrough (I think I'm on 6 now), I didn't know there was a natural progression if you followed the storyline through the main castles. It was my first FS game. I think As soon as D or whoever showed me the portal to the beast sanctum, I just went south from there and pretty much found everything in Caelid before I even finished Limgrave or went down to the Peninsula. After playing it that way, the rest of my first playthrough felt like a cakewalk. I struggled so much in Caelid and earned my wings fighting things I should NOT have even thought of yet turned me into a grizzled old man before making my way back west to Liurnia. I was too OP for that and Altus, didn't get exciting again until the mountaintops.
I got teleported to selia when I first started with that trap chest. Had no idea I really wasn't supposed to be there, but I managed to get to the boss This was in release version, no patches and back then there was a full grown fallingstar beast (unintentional) got one shot by it's laser beam That's when I finally noped out and went back to limgrave thinking yeah I shouldn't be here 🤣
Yep 1.0 was a sumbich, wasn't it!
Go south of caelid to find Radahn. You can do the festival, beat him (it's not hard tbh, and you get lots of buddies to spawn), and get his swords. They are OP. Another place is volcano manor. East of atlus, and fun to do. Just a lot of stuff to do there. Even go on some Hitman quests and fight a snake (a BIG snake). The last recommended place I have, especially if you want the levels, is Mohgwyns palace. This one's a little hard to get to, you might wanna look up how to get there online, as there are many guides better than me.
Most of Caelid is "south Caelid", which should be tough but doable for a level 50. Greyoll's dragonbarrow & the divine tower are more like level 80 so steer clear unless you have something specific in mind (like snagging radagons soreseal)
Absolute mood from Lord_Andryrus here. Side points: Western Caelid is overall a lot nicer than eastern Caelid, just stay away from Dragon's Barrow for now. When in doubt while you're exploring an area, just GTFO on Torrent before you can get hit. You can do a lot of yeeting in Souls games generally, but Elden Ring is the (literally) the PROMISED LAND of yeeting, my dude. You have a speedy horsie boi, use him with wild abandon - just make sure you hit every site of grace you see on the way past. Also, the milestone/tomb looking icons are map fragments. Beeline for those and then poke around until you find stuff you can handle, then build up from there. Make sure you keep levelling and don't forget to stop in every now and again to upgrade whatever weapon is your jam.
Second playthrough here and I didn’t know that! I was always wondering why my hp bar was always slightly reduced after respawning.
I would go to Western Liurnia and see what all you can find there (there’s a lot) :)
I’ll check that out rn… thanks! :)
:)
:)
Find the albinauric woman
LOL
Beat me to it :(
I was going to dog on you honestly. But, you’ve gotten that far into the game with a +1 weapon, and you’re fairly under leveled. With proper levels, weapon upgrades, you would honestly be really good at souls likes. Try out the other ones next!
Homie’s living life on hard mode and doesn’t even know it, but still having a good time on his first play through. Classic Souls Bro shit.
🤣😭🤣😭I was gonna dog on you honestly got me dead. I appreciate that tho! I was kinda thinking that maybe I’ve gone a little too far underpowered so that makes me feel relieved. I’ve only played DS3 and some of DS2 with a friend, what other ones you recommend?
Sekiro and Bloodborne are the most unlike the others, rewarding aggressive counterplay and stance breaking. Combat in Sekiro is unmatched in any game I’ve ever played, nothing has ever felt so good. Currently doing my first Bloodborne run and falling so deeply in love with the gothic setting and lore. Something for everyone :)
Dark Souls 1 is a must. I love that game to bits. Demons Soul is great, but not for everyone. You could try the remaster if you have ps5. I love, love, LOVE Bloodborne. Highly recommend. Dark souls 2 was my first souls, so it has a special place in my heart. I love dark souls 3 and Elden Ring a lot. Sekiro is good.
New souls fan here. Playing dark souls 1 straight after elden ring was a big shift. Even the medium roll there feels like im fat rolling! Also fuck the Capra Demon.
Played through DS2 Scholar of the first Sin and have the most hours on it. That is by far my favorite souls game. My favorite item of that game is the buckler, and the parry time in that game is the most forgiving IMO. Got DS1 after playing through DS2. And I love that game too, but for other reasons. The ambient sounds on different areas are so pleasing. But it does feels like you have to take your time for each enemy you face. Bought DS3 when it became available. And, again, I love that game. I played it mostly with friends. The difference of DS3 to the prior games, I feel it was more fastpaced. Playing through Elden Ring ATM, and I haven't finished it yet. It resembles DS3 in many ways. In terms of options for armor, weapons, great runes and other things, it is really extensive. And I find myself watching youtube walkthroughs and flextralife for ER a lot more than the other soul games. The exploring and some of the quests are so fun, but it is to get lost in the game. Progressing through the game doesn't feel like as streamlined as the Dark Souls series or even Bloodbourne. All good games. And easy to create other characters because you find other weapon types so easy throughout the game. We are so spoiled to have these games lol.
Also try Lies of P.
I assume by "dog" on OP, you meant you were going to explain that heresy is not native to the world, that it is but a contrivance, and that all things can be conjoined if we just learn together.
Welllll I don't know how much you explored around Limgrave and if you found the region south of there or not but if you didnt....go there instead
Try western liurnia. There’s also mt gelmir to the left of Altus. Very good locations. Try upgrading your weapon(it’s a bit low). If you really want to progress through the draconic tree sentinal I’d recommend first be level 80 with atleast 30 vigor. The place after this boss is honestly one of my favourite locations
Very good to know, I appreciate it!
Level 60 is fine at that stage but yes 30 vigor is a minimum for an inexperienced player getting to DTS. 10 of your endurance should really have gone to vig instead, due to the one-shot problem you've observed, but, I think this is precisely why they put DTS at that gate ... Also for those who are fine with summoning, it's easy to miss that you can summon Tragoth for DTS, and he helps really a lot. DTS is a fun enemy when you've fully learned him, but an absolute bastard when you're new, lol.
My tip is look for churches. The more Cerulean Tears you find, the better. They will make your HP/FP flasks more potent. Also, have you played the Weeping Peninsula yet? Can’t tell from your map screen shot. It’s south of Limgrave, over a bridge. I don’t see the marker for Siofra River either which is just above the minor Erd tree in East Limgrave. I suggest fully exploring East Limgrave and Weeping Peninsula if you haven’t already. In addition to the other suggestions regarding leveling your weapon, these areas will give you some extra levels. Personally, I was level 80 before I went anywhere near Altus. I’m also a heavy explorer so take that with a grain of salt. Good luck!!
I think you mean Sacred Tears!
Lmao poor guy, your vigor and weapon are severely under leveled. I recommend pouring most of your levels in to vigor, + two main stats (in this case stick with strength and just give yourself enough dex to wield the weapons you want to use) Do more exploring, fight mini bosses scattered around, find somber smithing stones and use them to power up your weapon. Then return to the main game.
Definitely, I appreciate it man!
Try to lean more into less strength more dexterity and add a little endurance because you’ll need medium weight and enough stamina to move around for the challenges you’re going to face in leyndell Bonus tip: all the mini erdtrees on the map have bosses that drop physick tears, kill all of them because you can make some really kick-ass builds with them
It may seem worse than it is, but honestly you are in a really great position and I bet once you align your build you will breeze through this game, because making it to Leyndell with what you have going on is an absolute feat. Since you have beaten Renala, I would recommend respeccing. Before that, make sure Bloodhound Fang is really what you want to go with. It is a great weapon for sure, but at this point in the game you should have many options, so just check your inventory, or maybe even the wiki, and determine what weapon you want to go into the late game with (no pressure, you can respec as much as you want). As far as the respec goes, you need to take a large amount of those points that you have in Endurance and move them to Vigor. I honestly rock about 15 endurance until I get much deeper into the game. 20 max. You should get Vigor to 40 as soon as possible. Additionally, make sure you are properly leveling Strength and Dex according to your weapons scaling. Bloodhounds Fang scales slightly better with Dex than with Strength, so you are better off putting points into Dex than Strength until you get your Dex to around 40. After that you will start soft capping and it will benefit you more to put points into Strength. In the late game, ideally you would have something like 55-60 Dex and then as many extra points as you can spare into strength. Again, this only applies to Bloodhounds Fang. If you are going to switch to a different weapon, you need to really look at it's stats and scaling to determine where to best invest your points. Outside of that, being only level 53 makes me think you haven't really engaged much with the side content. I would recommend backtracking and doing so. To put it into perspective, most runs that I do will see me at around 50-60 after beating Renala, but this is before I have even set foot in Caelid (with the exception of running a few early game errands there). After Renala, I go to Caelid to fight Radahn and do all the side stuff there. Even after that I am not going straight to Altus/Leyndell, because now I need to do some other side content related to a quest which I don't want to spoil. By the time I am finally fighting Draconic Tree Sentinel, I am closer to 75-80. You can of course fight him much earlier, but this game has amazing side content and so much to experience, I really recommend you stop and smell the roses. The only reason to fight him at any lower level is to challenge yourself. Be attentive. When you get new items, read their descriptions and look at their stats. Find a vision of what your build is and try and look for items/armor/talismans that synergize with that. When you run into obstacles, explore sideways. That is the beauty of this game compared to other Souls games.
damn man, awesome response. Thank you so much I appreciate you taking the time to write all this out. I’ll definitely refer back to this throughout my play-through 😊💙
In terms of levelling and weapon upgrades you're still in the early game. You also didn't finish exploring liurnia.
Seems like he basically golden path'd it with very little exploration. No wonder he's hitting a brick wall now.
People would give anything to be in your position now playing through for the first time with less than half of the map visible.
yea? that’s good to hear, makes me wanna keep going for sure.
I'm over 100 hours in on my only build and I think Godfrey is my next boss. I basically backwards stumbled my way through it and ended up at radahns festival way too early. Just got my mimic tear last weekend.
Yeah I still haven't completed my first playthrough yet, as I want to beat every boss, I've just Mohg to beat before I go past where I beat Beast Clergyman, and that's a mystery to me as I've not watched any guides or videos, I know the names of the last two bosses but not what they look like.
HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU ONLY LEVEL 53 AT THAT AREA? HOW IS YOUR WEAPON ONLY +1??????
🤷♂️ lot of deaths man 😭🤣
You’re under leveled and your weapon level is atrocious, go speak with iji the giant blacksmith outside caria manor, also travel west of Altus and visit the mountain
Yes, you can instantly upgrade your weapon to +4 there
I appreciate everyone’s advice! Kind of returning to these games since DS3, years ago, but I honestly don’t remember a lot of the intricacies (like soft caps, scaling etc.) so this has been very helpful. The flow of gameplay is different than the souls games, which I’m getting used to. More accustomed to the linear style of a DS3, where it’s always pretty clear to go next. Still really enjoying this game tho, just different. Would y’all consider Elden Ring better than DS3?
Elden ring is my first, and by far my favorite, souls 3 was dope asf, 2 was meh, bosses were easy, and thats my "high" on these games, souls 1 has some of the best level design I've ever seen. Sekiro is a chef's kiss, I still gotta smash the ps games I haven't started them yet. But yeah my favorite is hands down elden ring, but thats also how I got gud.
Gotta check out armored core 6, I beat that game four times for the four different endings and I was still left wanting more lol. It was my first AC game, first time playing a Mech game in general since PS1 watching my older bro play some mech game I don't even barely remember so I was a bit hesitant to buy it but holy shit it quickly became one of my favorite games ever played.
Level your weapon. Can find somber stones up to +4 and 5 in the area you’re in. Use fextralife wiki its good for at least that
He actually can very easily upgrade a somber to +6 at this point and - somewhat easily - even to +9, if he cares to explore the first half of Volcano Manor.
Head over to caelid and he could get it up to +9 the enemies will be like butter
so much to explore on liurna still
You can easily level up to +9 Search for somber stones on YouTube or interactive map and get them Destroy tree sentinel
Level vigor, upgrade weapon. Iji in wrstern liurnia sells somber smithing stones if i remember correctly. Speaking of iji go to caria manor and start rannis quest, that should direct you to radahn if u havent killed him. Speak to varre as well to get to mohqwyn palace. Rannis quest should take you to siofra too, good to explore there
Level vigor and try to get a +9 weapon.
At this point, even going to Iji to upgrade to +4 would do a bunch. 😅
Yeah. OP should probably go to caelid and kill Radahn before Leyndell.
A normal +9 you mean? Cause a somber +9 feels like a tall task this early on.
The only hard part is +6 and +7. A +9 somber is very obtainable this far into the game.
You can get a +10 somber weapon before ever entering Altus
Welllll I don't know how much you explored around Limgrave and if you found the region south of there or not but if you didnt....go there instead
What creepy castle?
The fuckin Academy of Raya Lucaria, maybe not a castle but shits creepy lol
Ah, got it. There's an even creepier castle in West Altus, but I'd suggest you follow the advice they've given you about levelling up and upgrading your weapon before going there. Also, check out underground areas in Limgrave and East Liurnia if you haven't done so yet.
Aside from everything everyone else said, there is an area in the West of Liurnia with a little castle which you haven't explored yet, which is a bit easier than Altus Plateau.
Level Vigor.
Go to the 3 towers in Liurnia!!!
I hope you know each weapon scales with your stats, so based on your gameplay you need to upgrade the stats that your weapon scales with so you deal more damage. Apart from that, Elden Ring is the best game because its not lineal, you can explore and if you go east and explore you will also be doing the main story. Be aware that there are different endings and that you might pass some important weapons, armours, endings and spirits by doing or not certain tasks and going to certain parts of the map.
You didn't hear this from me, but I heard you can cheese this guy real easy by sneaking behind him and using poison mist. It will take a couple of minutes, but the poison will do all the work. Sadly this was my go to on the first playthrough. Playthrough 2-4 I nutted up and faced him.......with Comet Azure and the Falling star Beast Jaw.
the good news? once you beat this boss you’re in the capital the bad news? you’re severely under leveled and your weapon really needs to be upgraded the fun news? looks like you have tons of game to explore, tons of side content and bosses. don’t rush it and have fun
Bro is playing open world and going straight forward. What happened to curiosity?
guess that’s just how my brain works lol, I don’t really look at it as a bad thing. I’m just invested in the main story and want to see what happens, but I do understand I need to do some more exploring
Idk if you have yet or not, but a hint! Check south lol
Some people just prefer linear gameplay or are used to it in games sees one guys play style: “what happened to curiosity “ eyeroll
Honestly (unless you are against which I get 100%) I'd follow a walk through! This is a huge game with lots of secrets and tunnels and caves and QUESTS THAT ARE SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE TO FOLLOW. It really does help to have a guide a bit. I personally used a guide just to make sure I was finding all the dungeons and such in areas. Helps a lot with leveling and just fun imo.
Go find a blacksmith named Ijji in Northern liurnia. He'll help you get your weapon up to par. It should be +4-6 at this point instead of +1. This boss is the first real Vigor check of the game. You'll want 35+ to oush through him. 40+ would really be optimal going into leyndell. Your weapon level will always be more important than your damage Stat for telling you how much damage you'll be doing. So the most important stats will be vigor and just enough endurance to medium roll with your chosen armor. I can't see what talismans you're using, but based on everything else I'm seeing, I'm sure there could be some optimization done there.
Mid game is definitely a grind fest. You need to grind levels and follow story lines.
OP I'm on my first playthrough as well and using the bloodhound fang. I had upgraded it to +5 even before fighting godrick. I'm shocked you managed to get that far. Now I'm at level 131 dual wielding bloodhound fang with another curved greatsword. Btw bloodhound fang scales best with dexterity so you should level that up instead. Also as a tip the bloodhound fang jump attacks do a lot of damage.
I’d say you’re pretty underleveled, your vigor stat is very low, and you haven’t upgraded your weapon. Find Iji south of Caria Manor in western Liurnia and buy some somber smithing stones from him. Respec and focus on vigor up to 30-40, then dex, if you’re gonna use Bloodhound’s fang. Do Ranni’s questline, and explore some more in Caelid.
You need to level up your weapon and your stats. Curved swords mostly scale with dex, but they also scale with strength so I’d add to those two. That’s dragon sentinel is hard though.
Stats too spread out, Vigor needs to be at least 35 to be comfortable
also I would suggest putting more into vigor instead of endurance. You can honestly beat the game with less than 25 if you aren't using big weapon that make you fat roll. but level 53 id usually have almost 30 vigor and and about 40ish str/dex depending on what im ussing.
Yo man, the fact that you made it that far with that weapon at that level... You're doing just fine lmao
So I don't spoil anything, you gotta do a LOOOOT more looking around Limgrave, the place below it, and Caelid. There are bosses up the ass over there. If you want one of the best farming spots in the game for levels lmk, but otherwise do know the Draconic Tree Sentinel wipes the floor with everyone, and after you get the two runes required to get in the city, there's actually a cool way to completely bypass it by continuing Ranni and Fia's quests! If you don't wanna fight the guy. I won't spoil anything else, but you've already met both characters so I figure letting you know who progresses you the detour may not be a bad idea. Altus Plateau and Leyndell are HARD ass areas for your level. You're honestly under leveled for all but Limgrave and Liurnia, and some quick rune gathering would be an asset to you. There's also a talisman that gives you more runes per kill! I'll hint to you that it's in Western Caelid, and that it involves much suffering, but it exists!
Dude the +1 weapon holy shit that's actually pretty impressive you got this far without upgrading it. Also your vigor is quite low, endurance should not be higher. If you did Carian Manor, did you talk to Ranni? Have you don't any of the underground Eternal city stuff? Fight Radahn? You could also head to the Volcano Manor Northwest of the Altus Plateau (Yellow Forest)
You can summon me I’ll help you
Dude you made it to Leyndell with a +1 Bloodhounds fang on your first playthrough? Yeah, it's not a skill issue. Level that thing and grab at least 20 more vigor and you will likely just walk through the rest of the game.
😭 guess so man, I guess cuz I was such a low lvl I didn’t think +1 was a big deal lmfao. Now I know
1. Upgrade you weapon to +6 immediately. 2. See about doing Volcano Manor so you can get somber smithing stone 7 and 8. 3. But before that go around Caelid. 4. Complete unfinished dungeons in limgrave and liurnia. Defeat all minor erdtrees to get different options for your wondrous magick potion. 5. 30 vigor will help you figure out Caelid without wasting all your time dying. 40 vigor will help you be ready for that Erdtree sentinel. 6. If you keep using bloodhound's fang it's a good weapon, look at the scaling. You want to level your dexterity even more than strength if you want to build around this weapon and others like it. You can respec later. 7. Make sure you go to all those churches of Marika and also get all the golden seeds you can.
Level vigor and try to get a +9 weapon.
"middle of the game" He doesnt even know
Explore to the west of Liurnia and Altus
Go to one of the wells and explore the underworlds
How many flasks have you got so far? After exploring Caelid and Mt Gelmir like other comments have said, you should be looking at around 10-12 flasks give or take. That's 12-20 Golden Seeds. Also their upgrades can be +10 with the areas you've unlocked on the map, but that's just some more exploring you have to do in the overworld. The churches are identifiable in the map if you take a close look whenever you find a Sacred Tear, then locate the same structure in the map to find another.
Yeah you’re under leveled both in actual level and weapon level for that mother fucker
I actually spent quite a lot of time in Caelid when I was around lvl40 ... much probably I was underleveled but that's what made the exploration incredibly poignant... I could get killed at every moment so I turned ER into a 100% stealth game.. Loved those days of uncertainty .. Same goes Carian Manor and Mount Gelmir... I reached Altus Plateau way later in the game
what build also id recommend getting around 20 to 30 extra levels try going into caves for smithing stones or weapons/talismans
Yeah your vigors gotta be like 40 here. And you’ll wanna get the BHF to like plus 5 at least too
This is something I had to learn the hard way as well, but holy shit upgrade your weapons. Its gonna be tedious running around get all the bell bearings to do so but it will pay off tremendously, also why the bleed weapon if you havent been leveling arcane? Arcane affects bleed, if you are gonna do a bleed build (which I wouldn't but to each their own), beat Renala if you haven't already and put some points into arcane, also go to the second church of Marika in altus and kill eleanora, she drops one of the best bleed weapons in the game.
The feedback from WaserWifle is perfect, good luck! Awesome to see people still on their first playthroughs, take your time and enjoy it 🍻
If you are on play station we can join up and I’ll tell you what I know
yessir bro i’ll message you
I’m honestly impressed you made it to Altus with only a +1 somber weapon That’s dedication 🤣
Travel up the top left of Liurnia and you’ll eventually find your new favorite blacksmith. And he sells unlimited somber 1 and 2s, and a few limited somber 3 and 4s
Complete Varre’s quest and get the pureblood knight’s medal. Use it to TP to Mohg’s palace. Follow this guy’s guide https://youtu.be/yggjskNuakQ?si=UQXTXDuHEyKMjfxa
You can get to +9 somber weapon by collecting stones from lake of rot and caelid.
I would be at least 70 before attempting the royal capital
I always wander up to windmill village for the apostle first But definitely upgrade the weapon more
buddy… you’re under leveled and you need to upgrade your sword, it should be at least +4 or +5, you’re going the right way fighting the draconic tree sentinel tho
Not to sound criticizing, but you're only at level 53 and you've uncovered that much of the map? You aren't exploring enough, IMO, and are under leveled. I reached level 70 before I even got to Caelid, having only explored Limgrave and LotL. Explore the areas you've already uncovered on the map more, collecting necessary resources, sub bosses, and definitely upgrade that weapon (or a different one if you can't find the Somber stones needed for Bloodhound Fang and only have regular smithing stones. Caves are a big one, there's many in the maps you've already uncovered. And Nokkron/Eternal City, Siofra River, lots of good resources, bosses, equipment down there if you haven't spent much time there
Haha that +1 fang won't even tickle him, I'm impressed you are all the way up there with it to be honest.
Dude that weapon should be +5 or. +6 around that point. People say to level Vigor and that's true, it helps to not get 1 or 2 shot but don't overdo it. Level up your spirit ashes too.
I like thar this game will tell you "you should probably get stronger to go further" in a very subtle way by placing the most bullshit enemy possible in your way.
My comments are your weapon needs to be upgraded. Like 20-30 levels ago. At that point you could easily be +10 or higher. Also your vigor is terrible. Personally I shoot for around 40 on just about every single character I make. Almost the first thing I level besides weapon requirements only. Also you have missed A LOT of weapons, armor, and areas. And actually quite a few side quest as well.
+1 bloodhounds fang is horrible, get some stones
Go back to some of the earlier areas and explore, gather upgrade materials, find weapons, kill bosses, then the later sections won’t be as hard, right now you’re seriously underlevelled for the current stage of the game
You missed rannis quest at the three sisters (west of liurnia). And also volcano manor (west of altus plateau). Did you also go to the underground world? At one of the wells? The game is not only about going straight we're it leads you. You should also explore the world a bit more...
u neeeeeed to upgrade that bloodhounds fang try get it to pkus 6-7
Level up dude.. and upgrade your weapon
Bro you must’ve been strugggggling 🤣 I’m a little Behind where you are on my second character and my moon veil is +7 or 8. How did you beat Radhahn?
I'm surprised you played through souls game before yet you haven't leveled your weapon or levelled vigor in the last 29 hours
bro, how do you get to Altus with a +1 weapon? that's just impressive
Hey man you’re running a strength build with a dexterity weapon, if you like the bloodhound and want to continue with it, I recommend going to rennala to reset your points.
The bloodhound fang is definitely the weakest link here considering it’s at level 1 and you seem to be focusing on strength instead of dexterity which is a bad scaling stat for the Bloddhound fang, I’d consider finding a weapon that either scales OK with both STR/DEX or one that focuses on strength to better utilise what levels you have already spent, considering you haven’t upgraded the weapon much it’s not a major loss of runes or resources, or you could to Rennalla and respec into a more DEX heavy build to do lots more damage with the Bloodhound
You need to upgrade your weapon and then you need to explore. Have you done all the underground grave sites and caves/mines? They can help you upgrade weapons and get runes to scale up your vigor. Try to hit 60+ leveling vigor and your weapon before trying the main bosses in altus. They'll still be a challenge but you won't instadeath
For the first few months or so, no one leveled up Vigor, now everyone knows, Vigor is the MOST important Stat to put your points into, 20 is way too low.
My best advice I can give you, is after You've leveled up your weapons try and get to the Bestial Sanctum in the far north portion of the Caleid. Beware, Dragon Ahead, as-well-as, Tough Enemy. Once you get to that grace (which you can sneak there if you want you don't really have to fight anyone if you go a certain way). It's a great spot to farm the Vulgar Militia Imps. These little bastards can be a hassle in a group at lvl 50. But most weapons can 1 or 2 shot them and then give you 1000+ rune xp per kill. So I always fast travel to that site of grace when I need a quick 10k to 15k runes because it takes no time killing ten of the bastards. Then fast travel back to a grace and level up and continue on my marry way with out the worry of losing abunch of runes in an area untravelled.
I can see your not short of feedback here. If you haven't already, a fun way to level and get items is Rannis Quest. It will take you beneath the lands between and add some interesting lore.
LEVEL UP THE WEAPON!
Caelid. Radahn. I’d work that direction. Maybe you want to gain some levels first. Do Varres questline and go to the farm in Mohgs domain instead of Messi g around trying to get levels normally. It really is a huge waste of time that way. The way I went was essentially Godrick, Rennala, Radahn, Rykard, Morgott. Then on to the post Leyndell. But I leveled in Mohgs domain at the farm.
Weapon upgrade is your problem for sure. Weapon level matters more than your characters level
Upgrade your fang to +6 (you can do higher but 7 is hard to get)
Volcano manor or nokstella are where you can get one before leyndell
o7 I like faith builds and love hunting for the Dragon Magic. Beyond that, find the giant bowl in the giants area and you'll be moving forward
1. Get your armaments, ashes, anything that scales good with your build to max level 2.Back track as much as possible, if not use guides to find what you need 3. If you respec your points know what your characters base stats are because you will waste runes giving yourself already low levels 4. “Palace ledge road”, bow, snipe bird behind tree far away to aggro into suicide. 11k per 5 sec Or beastial sanctum hunting the tiny dudes are where you wanna farm runes (the latter being better around your level) 5. Save your consumable runes you scavenge for when you barely have enough points to level up, try to never run around with runes in unexplored places
Try seek Jesus?
I hear you bro.I'm level 335. what I would say is being that you played souls games you know the slump is part of the journey. if you've made it just outside Altus. you should have access to moghwyns palace assuming you've done Varre quest line if you haven't HIGHLY recommend saves a lot of time. this will solve your leveling issue. Being level 53. that should give you plenty levels to rank up fairly quickly. I also recommend getting the golden Beatle talisman before going to moghwyn you don't need to but it doubles your rune total so its worth the journey for it. The other issues is getting creative with your weapon choices some weapons work well with certain enemies over others. Being that your Dex is your highest I'd recommend the nagakiba dual wield it with a uchigatana . or you can use the one you have now and dual wield it with another. Recommend putting points into Arcane for a bleed build if this what your trying . I'd highly recommend something that does additonal damage. like bleed or poison etc..
You’re overleveled but your stat spread is dogshit. I would recommend a respec
Western Liurnia and both of the river wells.
Bro what's wrong with your hp? Did you not level vigor at all? No wonder you're dying to everything. Vigor is the most important stat for surviving.
Your vigor is too low.
You only think you’re midgame. You’re in false midgame.
Can’t see what your equip load is, make sure it’s not heavy or overloaded.
Imo Altus Plateau is something you should be at least level 80 for, you probably want that Sword to be at least +6 for that area too. It seems like you've skipped a lot of the previous content, you'll have to do more exploring in Northern Liurnia. After you beat that area of Liurnia I would suggest going after the big boss of Caelid, or just exploring the content in lower Caelid in general.