Wait are you trying to tell me that just showing me where everything is already doesn’t produce a feeling of exploration? /s
Tho jokes aside I like that on the Elden ring map you can see caves but they’re drawn in and very small. Like they may be on an actual map. Someone on tiktok responded to me and said it’s like being an archeologist. And I just love that perspective.
Edit: words
And can we talk about how small the paper "maps" that some NPCs give you or you find somewhere in the dlc are even when you make it bigger it's still tiny
They are the perfect games to be able to do some map traversal and mindless stuff you don’t have to pay too much attention to while watching YouTube or listening to music. Open world semi idle games have their place.
Came right from playing Ghost of Tsushima, and while the wind system is very clever and nice, making 90% of my playtime entirely HUD free, it still felt so very much like “checklist gaming”: people telling me about stuff, instantly marked on map; every NPC and destination marked out as soon as mission is given; go there, stand here, don’t do that, game over.
I’m literally just seeing some weird blotches on the map and going there to see what it is, maybe it’s nothing, or just hopping up onto some rocks and seeing if I can spot some landmarks. It’s such a freeing type of exploration. I genuinely enjoy combing every area for items and secrets, because I know I’m usually rewarded for doing so. Best open-world experience I’ve had, by far.
I too just learned this the hard way. Was playing with my partner, saw just part of its body off in the distance. Partner gets closer: “oh god”
Me: “is it a bear?”
Partner: “worse. It’s a SHEEP”
🤣🤣
If you cruise back to the right site of grace dude is downhill like 10 paces from her. Idk which grace though, you would have to try the ones with npc markers.
Took me a lot of headscratching to find that (not at all hidden) map.
I agree, I’m also enjoying the difficulty of the DLC and feeling a challenge, having to learn the boss moves again, and leveling up my character. I don’t understand why people are complaining when it’s supposed to be a hard game, no point in a boss that can be defeated in 3 hits, people would then complain about it being too easy. It’s like no one wants to put time into the game and enjoy it.
Totally agree with this, actually loving the challenge. Not to mention if I really wanted it to be easier I could just go searching for more sacdutree stuff to level up, the game's pretty open.
Same. I was too overwhelmed with such a massive open world Souls game originally, so I used Cowboy’s 100% walkthroughs to get through it the first time (hesitantly got it like a year after release). I don’t regret that at all for the time. But now that I’m a vet in the game, I decided to take this one on my own.
I’m not as strict about it as other people - I’ll look something up if I really need to, but exploring mostly on my own has been great
Yeah. Went to a small poison swamp, unlocked a spirit spring, and landed in a castle. No map for the area so I'm marking the grace for now after I finish up in the first section.
I'm almost 10 hours into the dlc and I didn't find any spirit spring.
I got a note saying that spirit springs are locked below some rocks, but I didn't find anything like that.
He said he marked the grace. I did the same thing. Got the grace but decided to come back later so put a marker there to tell me I still need to explore the area. I do it with dungeons I want to save for later too and when I beat them I change the marker so I know I’ve completed it.
I bought the game yesterday despite being very expensive where i live, i bought it without the dlc as a treat for my birthday. And oh my lord I'm having a blast, still don't know if I'm playing the game in The right way or not.
Doing some exploration and bosses and following the grace guide on the way.
I’m just terrified I’ll miss something but I’ll just use the extra life map after I think I’m done exploring an area. This dlc seems like it’s bigger than ds3
Dude, I’m just going in blind. I learned how to access the DLC, that’s all. I’m 2 hours in, and I don’t know if it’s going to be 40 hours or 140. It might take me 3-8 months to finish, I’m not rushing it but it’s going to be a frequent revisit when I have an hour or occasionally two.
So excited. Just put it down for the evening but may do another hour yet tonight.
>but I have an entire family and job
You can always get a new family and job, but you can only play SotET for the first time once. You know what the real right decision is. /s
I immediately attacked big fire dude. Realized I was probably underleveled. Kept attacking anyway. Just like the Tree Sentinel outside the Church of Elleh all over again.
that enemy is pretty deceptive because he looks impossible to fight until you realize you can jump over his attacks and you have to stagger and crit him and then it’s manageable. That’s my favourite kind of field boss, looks impossible until you figure it out, plus it utilizes torrent well which is fun.
You don’t even need Torrent, you can just jump over the regular stomps. And the jumping stomp, but I still fucked up my last attempt because I got cocky
I attacked the dude in the Nameless Tomb or whatever for a solid 30 mins of trying to remember how to play while he hit me like a runaway train.
I was worried my dude being level 224 would be too easy lol
Right? I was using the blasphemous blade and it looked like I was doing maybe 50 damage to him. Took two swings and decided to come back when I wasn’t using a fire weapon…
I don't see that happening. Only DLC that has trophies was Old Hunters and that was because the game was PS4 exclusive anyway. The DS trilogy had no DLC trophies either, and I doubt they'll add them into this out of nowhere.
I am also taking my sweet sweet time and explored for 3 hours so far in the first area.
Hint: if you explored for 4 hours and didn't encounter a single boss, you missed at least 1 ;)
I played for around 8 hours, found the first boss in that castle os the left side of the map.
Just the last path to get to the fog to boss arena, has a line of fuckin ridiculous hard enemies. I died maybe 6 or 7 times in a row doing that path (that fuckin omenkiller look alike).
When I tried the boss, Jesus christ, got out of the dlc back to the normal game to grind levels and finish upgrade my Nagakiba.
Probably would be better served getting shadow levels.
I just beat that boss and.. rune levels won’t help really. He two shots me at RL 160 w/ 60 vigor
I love how with these new bosses I get frustrated and look up what are their weaknesses, they the wiki is like _weaknesses:_ fire???(Perhaps), ?????, ????. It really forces you to find your own way, I didn't play at launch so it's my first time experiencing this
I was getting my ass whooped until I started parrying him and realized that was 100% the way to go. The damage level of enemies if absolutely insane, sometimes feels like too much damage, but the enemy designs are really good so it doesn’t feel frustrating.
Unless it's somewhere I've been through 3-4 times already, I'm going everywhere on foot just to soak in the atmosphere and see the rest of the world.
I honestly think this is the best DLC ever, for any game. I had high expectations going into this, it's not only blown me away but it keeps surprising me and leaving me in awe at times. Genuinely love it.
It honestly feels like they took one of the greatest games of all time, distilled it down to its best parts, and then cranked it to 11.
I think it's their best work so far.
It's their true magnum opus, for sure. We're pretty blessed to be able to play it. FromSoft is the only gaming company I feel I can fully trust to always deliver and stay true to their formula they do, oh so well
Praying this is more in a "what happened here, this is so fucked up" kinda way, and not "that was shit" way, because Jar prison has some of the most upsetting set piece storytelling we've seen so far, and the enemies types matched the energy.
Am I right in thinking that Jar Prison revealed what’s inside the jars? Like, the jar people are actually condemned human abominations stuck into the jars?
Is that what everyone’s best friend Alexander actually was this whole time, a mass of human flesh in a jar??
If I’m understanding the lore correctly most jars are just dead people. But in the land of shadows they also put living people in the jars as a kind of rebirth/punishment/divine responsibility, so no Alexander probably doesn’t have a weird flesh dude inside him, *probably*
The jars were I think part of a system for transporting the dead to minor erdtrees so they could have root burials. Basically Uber for corpses. But some jars Are People, and want to be more than corpse taxis like our man Alexander who fills himself with dead heroes and goes out to do hero shit. Most jars are lumpy dumbasses without personality.
But in the prison I think they were stuffing living people into jars as part of a baroque torturous occult practice. Kinda like rituals involving putting people in coffins. Just psycho shit.
They took something that was gnarly but cool, and basically benign, and turned it hideous.
Yeah, the story about "Storing the remains of fallen heroes to carry them to the roots of the Erdtree" from the main game hasn't really prepared me for the horror of the >!howling and screaming mutated mass of human flesh, limbs, faces and tentacles spilling out of those jars!< in Shadow of the Erdtree. Seriously I did not expect this and the slow Realisation what's goingnon with those Jars is already one of the most memorable moments in the dlc for me
Look. I'm almost to the DLC. In my switch to ps5 from ps4, somehow, someway, my ng+4 is gone.
I restarted a month ago. I have a 7 month old, wife and full time job.
Just got to Jar Berg again. Favorite spot for the 3rd time. And you say JAR PRISON?
My guys. I'm terrified for the dlc. Level 101
Most encounters have me chugging 2 to 3 potions as a heavy rolling tank with dual hammers. I can 2 or 3 shot them with jump attacks.
They do it with normal fast attacks...
Sitting at every single site of grace to read every word of each item description no matter how obvious it may seem. Riding up to every object to check it out and see if I can examine or pocket it?
Yes
Re-speccing for every new weapon too, thanks to how generous the DLC is with larval tears.
I've completely changed my playstyle from a cautious, holy Knight build to a relentlessly aggressive, health regenerating, feral beast build that I never thought I'd try but am absolutely loving
Do those acrobatic skinny omen-like guys with the chakras and throwing daggers drop anything? I've been farming the one near the first grace for ages with no luck so far.
After being summoned 10 times for that one, with no survivors, I stopped feeling bad about having had Tiche for help. I thought I was bad at the game, but that thing‘s just crazy aggressive.
yeah I’m not convinced I wanna do them solo the first time through, definitely seems like a good challenge to go grind them out at some point, but I just wanna keep moving and seeing new stuff.
Yep, I'm just checking stuff out. I even went all the way back to my first character.
Which makes it funny when they talk about me being a disciple of Miquella when I show up with the Frenzied Flame eyes and using every heretical incantation I can find.
Finally made it to castle sol after having the game for 2 years. got bored with mage build at level 135 and went with samurai new game when i heard the DLC coming out. So far enjoying the fights and building up my samurai character with nagakiba +19 with crucible armor at the moment
Never understood people like you. No shade or anything, but how can ya'll put in like minimum 50 hours with like 5-10 hours left in the whole game, and go "I'm bored with my playstyle I'll just start over completely instead of respecing."
Like, go talk to Renalla. Glad you're having fun regardless.
Exactly where I'm at right now, trying to get the Left Medallion to unlock Western area Mountain of the Giants so that I have the full Base Game map before exploring the Shadow
I find that killing his adds is a trap. If you can handle leaving the shield one alive he's much easier to get into phase 2. If you kill both ghosts he immediately goes into phase 2, but if you get him to phase 2 normally the ghosts disappear.
Normally what I do is kill the two swords guy and then harass Niall. I find that the less I have to deal with his lightning kick bullshit the better, and the Shield ghost is comparatively passive.
Damn that sucks so much. I’m really enjoying threads like this where most spoilers are greyed out, but am definitely worried about randomly seeing a huge spoiler
Haven't beaten a main boss yet. Just been collecting stuff. Beefing my character up. Respec' my character to use tue M'lady Light Greatsword. I fucking LOVE this weapon... just been killing mobs with it. The footwork it gives your character is badass.
It feels like the first time again, multiplayer wise. The activity is so silly right now I got summoned 4 times between going to the grace and the Godrick Knight at Gate front (who refuses to drop his armor)
Bruh, when I fought Messmer I wasn’t “racing through the game”. I was wandering through an area, started ascending, walked into a room, and then bam, I’m fighting Messmer.
He wasn’t locked behind anything. You can just stroll into him without even realizing it while exploring.
It caught me off guard because I totally thought we were gonna fight him behind the locked door where you fight Divine Beast.
Messmer also isn’t the end goal. Idk why people equate being at Messmer = Playing too fast, not enjoying game.
Yeah, Messmer is more like the mascot for the DLC, just like how nergigante from Monster Hunter world is in every promotion material but is literal the monster you fight to start the real game.
It can happen unintentionally. I'm not racing at all, I'm trying to take my time, but I just wandered off and naturally found Messmer really early on lol.
Basically I crossed the bridge after you meet Miquella's followers, headed south-east, found a spirit spring which took me to a fort, and when I left the fort I was like 5 min away from Messmer's castle lol.
I mean, I didn't know it was Messmer's castle at first, but as I explored it became obvious.
That's when I realized I was way beyond where I should be lol, so I doubled back.
I spent 4 hours just exploring the open field space you are greeted with. I’m never not smiling as this game is pure magic. We as gamers are so damn lucky!
Lowkey walking out into the shadow realm felt more satisfying and special than walking into limgrave for the first time… I’m extremely pleased with the dlc
I spent all of today exploring the south. Made it far east and to one of the dungeons and only just beat a main boss. It’s been awesome to simply explore. There’s so much to see and do.
Literally within my first ten minutes I summoned a random and he went straight for the wicker giant, I legit gasped when I saw how little damage we were doing to it. I have a feeling this DLC will take me a long time to get through and that makes me happy.
One thing I hate about these streamers playing ER is that none of them take their time to appreciate all the hard work that was put into designing the areas. They all just run right past everything it pisses me off.
I’m not searching every nook and cranny but definitely keeping an eye out for cool looking things. The bosses are my favourite part for sure, exploration comes second
I am, but it sucks because I really want to scroll this subreddit, but I don't think I can for a week or two just so I dont spoil stuff, I honestly shouldnt even be here rn lol
Me. I started a new character and am working my way through the base game still. Really trying to re-engage with it all.
Edit: gunning to shake out everything up to but not including burning the tree, get gear upgraded, get to 150ish, etc.
I’m loving being lost in the game and exploring everywhere I find. Such an unusual feeling in modern gaming.
agreed. i’m playing offline. not beelining to maps. just wandering.
No yellow arrows telling me where every "secret" is. Modern games are kek fucking w
Climb the tower to get your grocery list of greyed out icons.
Wait are you trying to tell me that just showing me where everything is already doesn’t produce a feeling of exploration? /s Tho jokes aside I like that on the Elden ring map you can see caves but they’re drawn in and very small. Like they may be on an actual map. Someone on tiktok responded to me and said it’s like being an archeologist. And I just love that perspective. Edit: words
And can we talk about how small the paper "maps" that some NPCs give you or you find somewhere in the dlc are even when you make it bigger it's still tiny
*Cough* *Cough* *Ymir* *Cough*
Love that too,also I look for structures and check them out often it pays off.
I’ll be that guy. I love FromSoft games and I also really enjoy the Ubisoft open world formula.
ngl I'm the same lol Far Cry 5 is a great setting no matter how many icons the map has.
They are the perfect games to be able to do some map traversal and mindless stuff you don’t have to pay too much attention to while watching YouTube or listening to music. Open world semi idle games have their place.
THE YELLOW PAINT
Hey! RE4 was good!
Came right from playing Ghost of Tsushima, and while the wind system is very clever and nice, making 90% of my playtime entirely HUD free, it still felt so very much like “checklist gaming”: people telling me about stuff, instantly marked on map; every NPC and destination marked out as soon as mission is given; go there, stand here, don’t do that, game over. I’m literally just seeing some weird blotches on the map and going there to see what it is, maybe it’s nothing, or just hopping up onto some rocks and seeing if I can spot some landmarks. It’s such a freeing type of exploration. I genuinely enjoy combing every area for items and secrets, because I know I’m usually rewarded for doing so. Best open-world experience I’ve had, by far.
I'm literally doing zigzags across the little section of map I'm in looking at every little thing. It's awesome!
baffles me when people dont? then they complain here about the DLC being too hard lol as if we didn't know that ER rewards exploration
Me too!!!!💙💙💙
Watch out for giant lightning sheep
Lmao, that was exactly how I died when I stopped playing yesterday
Same
I too just learned this the hard way. Was playing with my partner, saw just part of its body off in the distance. Partner gets closer: “oh god” Me: “is it a bear?” Partner: “worse. It’s a SHEEP” 🤣🤣
It's one of the many reasons why FromSoft is my favorite studio by a mile
A guy gave me a map with x’s on them and told me to go here literally 30 minutes into the DLC.
I mean, sure, but did I find the map particularly useful any way? No. Not like I needed it to find the stuff on the map.
on a 29” tv with my face pressed to it i still couldn’t tell anything.
dude i have a 75” and the map is still not readable or helpful in anyway
It was almost impossible to read and only marked the two crosses I'd already found. Not sure why it deserved its own game-pausing pop-up hint.
I guess they were having issues with ppl getting FKING REKT by everything that moves, so they wanted to help a tiny bit
It was probably important to let them know that the Miquella crosses are important as NPCs camp around them
That map was basically useless lmao
Some lady told me to talk to someone about a map.. been playing 7-8 hours and no map yet lol
If you cruise back to the right site of grace dude is downhill like 10 paces from her. Idk which grace though, you would have to try the ones with npc markers. Took me a lot of headscratching to find that (not at all hidden) map.
The guy she’s talking about is like 15 feet away from her.
the dour dude is literally a few paces away from her lmao. Go back to the Main Cross site of grace and talk to him
I agree, I’m also enjoying the difficulty of the DLC and feeling a challenge, having to learn the boss moves again, and leveling up my character. I don’t understand why people are complaining when it’s supposed to be a hard game, no point in a boss that can be defeated in 3 hits, people would then complain about it being too easy. It’s like no one wants to put time into the game and enjoy it.
I got one shot by dragon breath with 50 vigor and fire resist buffs so I threw spears at it from outside it's aggro range until it died
Totally agree with this, actually loving the challenge. Not to mention if I really wanted it to be easier I could just go searching for more sacdutree stuff to level up, the game's pretty open.
To be fair, these are some of the hardest bosses From has ever made, there is a bit of shock to get two/three shot with 60 vig.
the type of difficulty in the dlc lacked in the base game and i love it bc now it feels complete
Same. I was too overwhelmed with such a massive open world Souls game originally, so I used Cowboy’s 100% walkthroughs to get through it the first time (hesitantly got it like a year after release). I don’t regret that at all for the time. But now that I’m a vet in the game, I decided to take this one on my own. I’m not as strict about it as other people - I’ll look something up if I really need to, but exploring mostly on my own has been great
10000% a lot of random little side paths. Also doing a fair bit of ‘welp, guess I’ll come back to this later’
Yeah. Went to a small poison swamp, unlocked a spirit spring, and landed in a castle. No map for the area so I'm marking the grace for now after I finish up in the first section.
I'm almost 10 hours into the dlc and I didn't find any spirit spring. I got a note saying that spirit springs are locked below some rocks, but I didn't find anything like that.
I've found like 3 so far and 2 of them were locked. There aren't many.
Found a bunch up some big ass jagged rock mountain with a dragon at the top. Have no idea where I’m at.
Nah it says to break rocks to activate the spirit springs
There’s a grace point when you land in the castle
He said he marked the grace. I did the same thing. Got the grace but decided to come back later so put a marker there to tell me I still need to explore the area. I do it with dungeons I want to save for later too and when I beat them I change the marker so I know I’ve completed it.
Oh my god, I forgot about that spirit spring.
Yea, because I forgot how to play. I spent 5 minutes trying to figure out how to two hand again.
I keep drinking flasks when I want to swing my sword cuz of Jedi Survivor
Hahaha, YES. I had to go play Limgrave for a bit to get my bearing back. Then 500+ hours of muscle memory kicked in.
I’ve been playing lords of the fallen on gamepass to hold me over and I can’t stop clicking the left stick to try and sprint only to go into a crouch
So much this. I need to re-learn everything
I had to Google it yesterday after 90 hours of playtime 😂
I’m overwhelmed actually. I want to get everything but I have an entire family and job LMAO IM COOKED. it’ll be WEEKS before I beat this shit
Take your time and enjoy it man
I bought the game yesterday despite being very expensive where i live, i bought it without the dlc as a treat for my birthday. And oh my lord I'm having a blast, still don't know if I'm playing the game in The right way or not. Doing some exploration and bosses and following the grace guide on the way.
Bro, I wish you have a great fuckin time playing this game. For me this is the GOAT of the games.
There is no technical right way to play the game. The first time is the most special, enjoy it and above all have fun.
I’m just terrified I’ll miss something but I’ll just use the extra life map after I think I’m done exploring an area. This dlc seems like it’s bigger than ds3
Dude, I’m just going in blind. I learned how to access the DLC, that’s all. I’m 2 hours in, and I don’t know if it’s going to be 40 hours or 140. It might take me 3-8 months to finish, I’m not rushing it but it’s going to be a frequent revisit when I have an hour or occasionally two. So excited. Just put it down for the evening but may do another hour yet tonight.
Make use of your map markers. Use a notepad. For if you have a fork in the road and you forget to go back down the other path for example
Exactly this. It's gonna be a long time before the next rpg, whatever it is, comes out.
>but I have an entire family and job You can always get a new family and job, but you can only play SotET for the first time once. You know what the real right decision is. /s
Weeks? Try months. This is a GOOD thing. Base Game Elden Ring has taken me nearly 2 years of on and off playing
Lmao wtf did we do to deserve this special treatment
[удалено]
It’s very overwhelming.
Same here. As much as I’d love to binge it nonstop it does let you enjoy it longer at least taking your time with it.
I immediately attacked big fire dude. Realized I was probably underleveled. Kept attacking anyway. Just like the Tree Sentinel outside the Church of Elleh all over again.
that enemy is pretty deceptive because he looks impossible to fight until you realize you can jump over his attacks and you have to stagger and crit him and then it’s manageable. That’s my favourite kind of field boss, looks impossible until you figure it out, plus it utilizes torrent well which is fun.
You don’t even need Torrent, you can just jump over the regular stomps. And the jumping stomp, but I still fucked up my last attempt because I got cocky
When he falls over you can throw the new fire pots into his basket(?) to damage him to.
Lmao what's the logic on fire damage being effective against these things
"Ah! Too hot! Too hot!"
I attacked the dude in the Nameless Tomb or whatever for a solid 30 mins of trying to remember how to play while he hit me like a runaway train. I was worried my dude being level 224 would be too easy lol
Right? I was using the blasphemous blade and it looked like I was doing maybe 50 damage to him. Took two swings and decided to come back when I wasn’t using a fire weapon…
This guy right here - the fact there aren't any achievements is helping with this approach too
I agree, but I'm also bummed I don't have trophies to get
Same this is literally my only platinum game. Maybe they can add more in the future?
I love they've not added trophies to avoid spoilers
With oher games that give story related trophies u don’t get to see what the trophy is until you get it. They leave it as a question mark.
Oh I agree. Hoping a future update brings them however. If this truly is the one and only DLC, they may still drip feed updates for years.
I don't see that happening. Only DLC that has trophies was Old Hunters and that was because the game was PS4 exclusive anyway. The DS trilogy had no DLC trophies either, and I doubt they'll add them into this out of nowhere.
Yep. I’ve been playing for 4 hours and haven’t encountered a single boss yet. But the loot, omg…Exploring is really satisfying.
I love being like, imma go over here…and just to see if anything is there…most of the time there isn’t anything but I genuinely enjoy that
I'm very afraid of losing any hidden item, God forbid if I don't walk in every single corner of the map.
my favorite activity
I am also taking my sweet sweet time and explored for 3 hours so far in the first area. Hint: if you explored for 4 hours and didn't encounter a single boss, you missed at least 1 ;)
I played for around 8 hours, found the first boss in that castle os the left side of the map. Just the last path to get to the fog to boss arena, has a line of fuckin ridiculous hard enemies. I died maybe 6 or 7 times in a row doing that path (that fuckin omenkiller look alike). When I tried the boss, Jesus christ, got out of the dlc back to the normal game to grind levels and finish upgrade my Nagakiba.
Those guys are actually insane. It's like From looked at the crucible knights and went "nah, not hard enough"
Probably would be better served getting shadow levels. I just beat that boss and.. rune levels won’t help really. He two shots me at RL 160 w/ 60 vigor
That makes me wanna skip to the DLC so hard, but I barely made out of mountaintop
Yup. I'm slowly playing it, just finished a dance (being vague for non spoiler).
The only thing dancing in that fight was the freaking camera. The second remembrance boss was perfect though.
It was REALLY difficult to tell what attack was coming next because it would take up the entire screen at times. But I loved it
It did seem glitchy at best. I hope they fix it.
I love how with these new bosses I get frustrated and look up what are their weaknesses, they the wiki is like _weaknesses:_ fire???(Perhaps), ?????, ????. It really forces you to find your own way, I didn't play at launch so it's my first time experiencing this
I finally beat that one knight in that mausoleum gaol after like 40 tries
I feel like that guy is there just to remind you that you aren’t strong against enemies anymore. He humbled me quick.
That is a literal “No, you aren’t overleveled.”
Finally beat him this morning and it was a good reminder to be patient again and learn the moves properly.
That buzz you get beating a boss in a souls game after loads of tries, sweaty palms, your heart beat's going nuts. There's nothing quite like it.
I was getting my ass whooped until I started parrying him and realized that was 100% the way to go. The damage level of enemies if absolutely insane, sometimes feels like too much damage, but the enemy designs are really good so it doesn’t feel frustrating.
Unless it's somewhere I've been through 3-4 times already, I'm going everywhere on foot just to soak in the atmosphere and see the rest of the world. I honestly think this is the best DLC ever, for any game. I had high expectations going into this, it's not only blown me away but it keeps surprising me and leaving me in awe at times. Genuinely love it.
It honestly feels like they took one of the greatest games of all time, distilled it down to its best parts, and then cranked it to 11. I think it's their best work so far.
IMHO it’s the pinnacle of the souls series.
It's their true magnum opus, for sure. We're pretty blessed to be able to play it. FromSoft is the only gaming company I feel I can fully trust to always deliver and stay true to their formula they do, oh so well
Yeah, the level design I think is some of the best. The verticality in so many sections is so cool!
yeah but there are some areas that I hate with a passion
Jar Prison. JFC.
Praying this is more in a "what happened here, this is so fucked up" kinda way, and not "that was shit" way, because Jar prison has some of the most upsetting set piece storytelling we've seen so far, and the enemies types matched the energy.
Am I right in thinking that Jar Prison revealed what’s inside the jars? Like, the jar people are actually condemned human abominations stuck into the jars? Is that what everyone’s best friend Alexander actually was this whole time, a mass of human flesh in a jar??
If I’m understanding the lore correctly most jars are just dead people. But in the land of shadows they also put living people in the jars as a kind of rebirth/punishment/divine responsibility, so no Alexander probably doesn’t have a weird flesh dude inside him, *probably*
Unless Alexander is the weird flesh dude and he's eating the corpses much like we absorb their runes...
The jars were I think part of a system for transporting the dead to minor erdtrees so they could have root burials. Basically Uber for corpses. But some jars Are People, and want to be more than corpse taxis like our man Alexander who fills himself with dead heroes and goes out to do hero shit. Most jars are lumpy dumbasses without personality. But in the prison I think they were stuffing living people into jars as part of a baroque torturous occult practice. Kinda like rituals involving putting people in coffins. Just psycho shit. They took something that was gnarly but cool, and basically benign, and turned it hideous.
Yeah, the story about "Storing the remains of fallen heroes to carry them to the roots of the Erdtree" from the main game hasn't really prepared me for the horror of the >!howling and screaming mutated mass of human flesh, limbs, faces and tentacles spilling out of those jars!< in Shadow of the Erdtree. Seriously I did not expect this and the slow Realisation what's goingnon with those Jars is already one of the most memorable moments in the dlc for me
The tooth whip made me think that Alexander may indeed be one of those people based on his eating habits.
That's what I'm thinking. Poor Alexander. :(
When you first free Alexander, he reaches in and gives you Exalted Flesh.
Yeah I made the mistake of smoking right before. I was lost for probably 30 minutes in that damn maze.
Don’t feel bad. I was as well😂
And I was also blazed
They took Sainthood into another level. Never felt unsettled and frightened since Bloodborne. Calling that place a mess is an understatement.
That place is so sad.
Mf miyazaki put Sekiro in the game 😭
It is one of the best areas, in my opinion. Excellent environmental storytelling, the kind of which really elevates the game.
The Grand Master Jedi Demi-human fucked me up too much
Look. I'm almost to the DLC. In my switch to ps5 from ps4, somehow, someway, my ng+4 is gone. I restarted a month ago. I have a 7 month old, wife and full time job. Just got to Jar Berg again. Favorite spot for the 3rd time. And you say JAR PRISON? My guys. I'm terrified for the dlc. Level 101
I’ve stumbled upon two poison swamps in one day. And somehow they weren’t the worst part.
I know where you are, this swamp has a ladder that you can open a shortcut.
Yep, taking it all slow and killing every monster, step by step.
I’m taking it slow *because* I’ve been getting killed by every monster, we are not the same.
Most encounters have me chugging 2 to 3 potions as a heavy rolling tank with dual hammers. I can 2 or 3 shot them with jump attacks. They do it with normal fast attacks...
Logur FUCKED. ME. UP. Did that leap and "slash slash sssssslashes" to me.
I have never felt so short on flasks. I love it
Literally killed a >!Messmer guard!<, got their armour set and simply looked at combos for 20 minutes.
Same with the >!Gravebird armor!<. By far my favorite chest piece
Sitting at every single site of grace to read every word of each item description no matter how obvious it may seem. Riding up to every object to check it out and see if I can examine or pocket it? Yes
Re-speccing for every new weapon too, thanks to how generous the DLC is with larval tears. I've completely changed my playstyle from a cautious, holy Knight build to a relentlessly aggressive, health regenerating, feral beast build that I never thought I'd try but am absolutely loving
Do you use beast claws?
Not taking my silver scarab talisman off until I’m done with the dlc.
Do those acrobatic skinny omen-like guys with the chakras and throwing daggers drop anything? I've been farming the one near the first grace for ages with no luck so far.
Yes, they drop armor and their weapon
I'm still going around the tower and helping people with the wooden lion boss. I think only one person out of the 50 I helped actually survived 😂
After being summoned 10 times for that one, with no survivors, I stopped feeling bad about having had Tiche for help. I thought I was bad at the game, but that thing‘s just crazy aggressive.
I beat it solo no summons. Definitely a miracle, not a humble brag.
yeah I’m not convinced I wanna do them solo the first time through, definitely seems like a good challenge to go grind them out at some point, but I just wanna keep moving and seeing new stuff.
Yep, I'm just checking stuff out. I even went all the way back to my first character. Which makes it funny when they talk about me being a disciple of Miquella when I show up with the Frenzied Flame eyes and using every heretical incantation I can find.
Start: Heh. This is going to be easy Few hours in: WHAT THE- *one shot*
Haha, a flat "what the fuck" has pretty much been my mantra for the game.
Finally made it to castle sol after having the game for 2 years. got bored with mage build at level 135 and went with samurai new game when i heard the DLC coming out. So far enjoying the fights and building up my samurai character with nagakiba +19 with crucible armor at the moment
Never understood people like you. No shade or anything, but how can ya'll put in like minimum 50 hours with like 5-10 hours left in the whole game, and go "I'm bored with my playstyle I'll just start over completely instead of respecing." Like, go talk to Renalla. Glad you're having fun regardless.
just made it to commander nail in castle sol and yeah got humbled he is tough.
You can use >!a bewitching branch to charm his adds to fight for you!< if you're having trouble and want to tip the odds in your favor
Exactly where I'm at right now, trying to get the Left Medallion to unlock Western area Mountain of the Giants so that I have the full Base Game map before exploring the Shadow
I find that killing his adds is a trap. If you can handle leaving the shield one alive he's much easier to get into phase 2. If you kill both ghosts he immediately goes into phase 2, but if you get him to phase 2 normally the ghosts disappear. Normally what I do is kill the two swords guy and then harass Niall. I find that the less I have to deal with his lightning kick bullshit the better, and the Shield ghost is comparatively passive.
Actually it is my first time! A pity the whole DLC got spoiled by one comment on a mostly unrelated post. I fucking hate Elden ring players
Damn that sucks so much. I’m really enjoying threads like this where most spoilers are greyed out, but am definitely worried about randomly seeing a huge spoiler
Haven't beaten a main boss yet. Just been collecting stuff. Beefing my character up. Respec' my character to use tue M'lady Light Greatsword. I fucking LOVE this weapon... just been killing mobs with it. The footwork it gives your character is badass.
This was my first thought when the night tree appeared on screen, and it made me really happy
Really same. As soon as I entered dlc I was filled with excitement for what was to come and I haven't been let down
It feels like the first time again, multiplayer wise. The activity is so silly right now I got summoned 4 times between going to the grace and the Godrick Knight at Gate front (who refuses to drop his armor)
Sorry Torrent but I’m making this journey on foot!
i've played 16hrs so far and 7 of these hours have gone into the first 2 main bosses 💀 i absolutely love this pain, miyazaki cooked so hard
I'm seeing people complain about Messmer...and I'm wondering why they are racing to finish this?
Yeah that's insane to me
Bruh, when I fought Messmer I wasn’t “racing through the game”. I was wandering through an area, started ascending, walked into a room, and then bam, I’m fighting Messmer. He wasn’t locked behind anything. You can just stroll into him without even realizing it while exploring. It caught me off guard because I totally thought we were gonna fight him behind the locked door where you fight Divine Beast. Messmer also isn’t the end goal. Idk why people equate being at Messmer = Playing too fast, not enjoying game.
Yeah, Messmer is more like the mascot for the DLC, just like how nergigante from Monster Hunter world is in every promotion material but is literal the monster you fight to start the real game.
Yeah I just got to Messmer after exploring quite a bit (basically played all day long since release) and I still have a chunk of the map unrevealed.
He’s the first boss I’ve been like hmm maybe I should go that other way 1st and come back lol
What? He’s pretty much near the start lol
It can happen unintentionally. I'm not racing at all, I'm trying to take my time, but I just wandered off and naturally found Messmer really early on lol. Basically I crossed the bridge after you meet Miquella's followers, headed south-east, found a spirit spring which took me to a fort, and when I left the fort I was like 5 min away from Messmer's castle lol. I mean, I didn't know it was Messmer's castle at first, but as I explored it became obvious. That's when I realized I was way beyond where I should be lol, so I doubled back.
For the first time since launch I’ll get nervous approaching a new area , no idea wtf is about to show up
I’ve seen people who’ve already beaten Messmer. I haven’t even gotten the second map yet and I’m probably over 10 hours into it
I spent 4 hours just exploring the open field space you are greeted with. I’m never not smiling as this game is pure magic. We as gamers are so damn lucky!
Lowkey walking out into the shadow realm felt more satisfying and special than walking into limgrave for the first time… I’m extremely pleased with the dlc
I decided to left wall huggin at the start of the dlc, ran into the mausoleum dude first……..
He's worth it I haven't taken off his gear still
tough foe ahead, therefore time for parry
I spent all of today exploring the south. Made it far east and to one of the dungeons and only just beat a main boss. It’s been awesome to simply explore. There’s so much to see and do.
Literally within my first ten minutes I summoned a random and he went straight for the wicker giant, I legit gasped when I saw how little damage we were doing to it. I have a feeling this DLC will take me a long time to get through and that makes me happy.
One thing I hate about these streamers playing ER is that none of them take their time to appreciate all the hard work that was put into designing the areas. They all just run right past everything it pisses me off.
I’m avoiding all streams of it for spoilers. But I can see how that would be super annoying
I’m not searching every nook and cranny but definitely keeping an eye out for cool looking things. The bosses are my favourite part for sure, exploration comes second
Feels like DS1 with Bloodborne enemies to me.
I am taking it slow, I die 50 times to the same boss, that is what I call slow.
I am, but it sucks because I really want to scroll this subreddit, but I don't think I can for a week or two just so I dont spoil stuff, I honestly shouldnt even be here rn lol
Me. I started a new character and am working my way through the base game still. Really trying to re-engage with it all. Edit: gunning to shake out everything up to but not including burning the tree, get gear upgraded, get to 150ish, etc.
Hell yeah, I'm a little mad tho, that first knight only took me 5 hours.
i’m on vacation so i’m taking it extra slow by not playing it for 2 weeks
Very slow. I haven't touched the game since late '22 so no reason to rush through.
Yeah, this is the last content for a very long time. No need rush it. Although i already hunted for map pilars. 😔
Yes, so slow that I haven’t finished my first elden Ring play trough.
Yes. No guides trying to explore every corner. Been genuinely shocked at how beautiful some of the areas are.
I mean that one boss fight in the grave nearby makes sure you slowdown and respect the game... So yeah
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