Elden Ring

[apsham]

I've been playing it since yesterday (consoles, it came out midnight and so my Xbox moved to New Zealand temporarily...) and it's pretty great to be back in this world again. I had a character that was pretty setup to get to the DLC, but I still had a few things to tie-up... but now I'm feeling more prepped for how it works.

There's a bit of a mechanic in there that makes it hard even as an over levelled character but you should be able to overcome some of that with exploration. New weapon types (including the hand-to-hand combat one that I tracked down) are wild, and some of the enemies... well I still have no clue how I'm going to beat some of them at this point, but it's going to be fun trying to figure it out.

[King Ellis]

I won't have a chance to look at this this weekend anyway but I haven't done the prep on this in the first place. My main character I think would be right of the start of NG++ or +++ so I figure that's not a good way to do it. I was playing a new character a few months back that hasn't even beaten the first of the two bosses needed to trigger the DLC so I have my work cut out for me. 

I think there might be a workaround to get to the second area though as I seem to recall seeing something about it as I know it's a popular farming area.

[apsham]

27 minutes ago, King Ellis said:

I think there might be a workaround to get to the second area though as I seem to recall seeing something about it as I know it's a popular farming area.

If you follow White Mask Varre's questline, you can get there very early indeed - that's where I farm the bird for runes on new characters when I want to try new builds.

[Schlitzbrille]

 

[gunnar hendershow]

I am so comically out of practice, trying my hardest to remind myself of certain mechanics. Getting absolutely smoked in the DLC.

[Bobfoc]

I've heard that it's considerably harder than the main game.

[apsham]

Going in at suggested levels, you're still likely going to be 1-2 shotted by most enemies even if you're 1-2 shotting them for sure. There's a mechanic in the DLC where you find certain items and use them to up all your stats ONLY for the DLC. It allows you to go even further past your power level, while still levelling up like normal without being CRAZY overpowered for the main game (as those buffs are only in the Shadow Lands).

The good I've found so far is that very few of these are gated behind bosses - I've only beat a few bosses myself, only one of them (hardest I've fought so far) had some of those items behind it and I've seen a MASSIVE chunk of the map without beating bosses - regular enemies are fine to deal with for the time being. For sure there are some wild bosses in there that I am wondering how I'll ever beat 'em but I beat one of them earlier so there's hope so far.

[apsham]

Patch landed today to make the Scadutree shards more powerful in general, and specifically more powerful earlier in the game - which should be a help.

I also finished the main story of the DLC tonight as well. The end boss is probably one of the hardest I've ever come across in a FromSoft game - I could've had some more buffs on me, but it's pretty relentless.

[gunnar hendershow]

Honestly I found the first boss in the story very easy. Getting to him less so. But with Mimic Tear it wasn't a big challenge. Buffing the scadutree shards is interesting, will see how easy/difficult it makes getting through the rest of the story.

[gunnar hendershow]

I forgot how much fun it was to just go up to my wife unprovoked and say sentences, completely steiaghtfaced, like "I forgot to tell you. Last night I slayed the Golden Hippopotamus."

[King Ellis]

The Golden Hippopotamus sounds like something you should be heavily judged on for killing, like the Tortoise Pope.

[apsham]

Naw, hippos are kind of dicks in this world.

[gunnar hendershow]

Hippos are dicks in our world as well.

Anyway, got to the end of that particular dungeon and got absolutely thrashed by the boss. Like comically so, despite having a ton of enemies put on the path through to train me for that fight. Gonna need to revisit my build and figure out what's needed I suspect.

[King Ellis]

3 hours ago, apsham said:

Naw, hippos are kind of dicks in this world.

If they're anything like those giant bears then I'm not looking forward to them.