[Serenity]

Traveller, on 28 February 2022 - 10:49 AM, said:

But then I won't be able to parry...

There is that

After work I'll pinpoint the guy on the map, if you want.

[Serenity]

This is the guy

Spoiler

He's located at the Warmaster's Shack

[Traveller]

Oh I know this guy, I bought something from him already. Just didn't notice the blank one.

I've now levelled my uchi to a +4, and headed into the SE region. Got the flask strength boost, some spirits to summon, and gone up a few levels so spoiling for a fight now.

I only just realised there are map pieces after finding two and making the map all pretty.

[Morgoth]

where do you find the second map piece?

I got past the first proper boss, and man has the difficulty spiked. I am stuck in a room with a knight, I'll need to find some other paths for a while I think.

[Serenity]

Morgoth, on 01 March 2022 - 08:18 AM, said:

where do you find the second map piece?

Look for this symbol:

[Serenity]

I visited the Dragon Burnt Ruins last night, sneaked into an underground area, fought a bunch of rats, died, went back killed them all, found a chest in the room beyond. Aha! I thought. Opened the chest and it was a transportation trap, sent me miles away to some crystal mine where I instantly died at the hands of some undead wizard type thing. Revived in the same place, couldn't fast travel as I'd activated a trap, was not happy


I don't know whether to upgrade my starter weapon or try and find a better one first.

[Morgoth]

Serenity, on 01 March 2022 - 08:50 AM, said:

I visited the Dragon Burnt Ruins last night, sneaked into an underground area, fought a bunch of rats, died, went back killed them all, found a chest in the room beyond. Aha! I thought. Opened the chest and it was a transportation trap, sent me miles away to some crystal mine where I instantly died at the hands of some undead wizard type thing. Revived in the same place, couldn't fast travel as I'd activated a trap, was not happy


I don't know whether to upgrade my starter weapon or try and find a better one first.

hah yeah I stumbled into that trap too. At way too low level. Ended up legging it in the end.

[Traveller]

Serenity, on 01 March 2022 - 08:50 AM, said:

I don't know whether to upgrade my starter weapon or try and find a better one first.

I started with a knife, found a shortsword I upgraded once to beat the early mini-bosses, then found an uchi.
I love a katana, so I used my found stones to upgrade to +4. I hope I haven't wasted them - it's such early game I'm hoping to get a dex based boss sword at some point; but I'll need to beat some big guys first.

[Slow Ben]

Morgoth, on 01 March 2022 - 09:25 AM, said:

Serenity, on 01 March 2022 - 08:50 AM, said:

I visited the Dragon Burnt Ruins last night, sneaked into an underground area, fought a bunch of rats, died, went back killed them all, found a chest in the room beyond. Aha! I thought. Opened the chest and it was a transportation trap, sent me miles away to some crystal mine where I instantly died at the hands of some undead wizard type thing. Revived in the same place, couldn't fast travel as I'd activated a trap, was not happy


I don't know whether to upgrade my starter weapon or try and find a better one first.

hah yeah I stumbled into that trap too. At way too low level. Ended up legging it in the end.

That’s where I left it last night. Got trapped,so let’s see how tough these guys are? Turns out very.

[Serenity]

I now have a Great Epee +2 sword, spectral wolves and jellyfish, 5 flasks and a special flask that heals and gives extra strength, and I'm still rubbish. I think at this stage, having played (but nowhere near finished) the original Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne, if I was going to 'git gud' it would've happened by now

[Traveller]

Those wolves are great. Because they're actually effective. I boosted them to +1 along with the jellyfish.

I found a big castle with fighting in it, summoned wolves and walked through the courtyard killing while my wolves took out everything else on my flanks. Worked through to a miniboss on a beach. Used jellyfish and got him on second try. Went round looking for bigger boss but I think that's it for that one.

Walked into forest, found a well with a lift, and went down into some spectral weird realm with glowing plants and beautifully lit ruins. It's just mindblowing how much detail has gone into these areas you might not even find, and each one is like a whole area from DS.

Love my wolves. They follow me like Hounds of Shadow.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 02 March 2022 - 12:08 PM

[Serenity]

https://www.nintendo...-fit-controller

[Dadding]

Now about 50 hours in, around level 70. I've pretty much completely cleared the first couple areas (Limgrave & Weeping Peninsula) from what I can see, and I'm almost done with the third area (Liurnia). This is the most fun I've had gaming in a long time.

Stuck with a scythe I found for a long time, but I've now switched over to a colossal-type big whacky hammer thing, still split fairly evenly between Strength and Faith - there are some really cool miracles to discover. Boss fights are hitting the perfect zone between challenging and frustrating (probably because I'm out levelling things by exploring too much), and with a little bit of googling I've managed to find enough upgrade materials to try out a big variety of weapons. I'm curious to see somebody crunch all the numbers to find out what the "best" combination of weapons and buffs and upgrades are. I've been waffling back and forth between faith scaling, strength scaling, and some miracles that add buffs to your weapons. Disappointed that you can't use a faith scaling weapon and also use the miracles to give it elemental effects - makes playing melee+faith less satisfying.

[Traveller]

So in addition to the enormous map, I'm underground in some spirit realm and I have another map... beneath the other...

Ash Lake in DS was memorable, but this is a whole new level of jaw drop

[Morgoth]

Yeah, I stepped on an elevator and travelled down down and down. That was quite the neat surprise.

Right now I'm running around with dual claws. It's actually really fun! They're so fast and brutal and force me to get very close all the time. No chance of defensive play with these, it's massive aggression all the way.

[Dadding]

Finally found a faith-based spear that can accept incantation elemental buffs too, so I'm a happy camper. Gotta say, the third main story boss in Caelid... he's tough. First boss I've died to more than a couple times in a row. But man, you guys are right about Siofra River underground, it's pretty.

[Traveller]

Dadding, on 04 March 2022 - 07:57 AM, said:

Finally found a faith-based spear that can accept incantation elemental buffs too, so I'm a happy camper. Gotta say, the third main story boss in Caelid... he's tough. First boss I've died to more than a couple times in a row. But man, you guys are right about Siofra River underground, it's pretty.

Also tough. I can see how to wake the boss there but since I'm getting shot by spirits I've noped out of there for now.

Does anyone else feel that if the items and place names were changed this could be Malazan? I could totally make a Kallor character. Strolling into forts, killing weird demons, falling down wells into different realms... there are a lot of similarities here.

[Dadding]

Traveller, on 04 March 2022 - 10:21 AM, said:

Does anyone else feel that if the items and place names were changed this could be Malazan? I could totally make a Kallor character. Strolling into forts, killing weird demons, falling down wells into different realms... there are a lot of similarities here.

Definitely! I've always pictured Kallor as a sort of Dark Souls boss. I've been drawing a lot of similarities between Malazan and Elden Ring's approach to world building, plot, and difficulty. I've had friends complain that Elden Ring needs a quest log or lower difficulty settings, but I think the subtlety and challenges in the game are really part of the vision for the game that the creators intended, and making it more accessible like that would really ruin that. Same reason why Erikson appeals to me, and someone like Sanderson makes me roll my eyes.

[Traveller]

Yeah the whole 'easy mode' arguement.

It would change the point of the game imo. There are plenty of accessible games out there - take away the challenge of this one just to make them the same?

Seems to miss the experience the creators are trying to give the gamer. If people don't like Malazan books and find them difficult, they don't demand SE changes them, they just read something else.

I'm not having a problem with difficulty. I finally went to the big castle and beat a big guy called Margit on my second go.
The castle is amazing to explore.
Found another big slimy boss in the dungeon I'm totally not ready for, and a melded weirdo called Godrick who I reduced to a literally non-existent sliver of health before I died, which was annoying but I know I can beat him next time.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 05 March 2022 - 09:54 AM

[Serenity]

I haven't even got to Margit yet. I found a portal behind the Third Church of Marika which teleported me to a place way over to the east where there's a mahoosive dragon stomping around on a bridge. But the area near that has these weird little guys patrolling around who're giving over 1,000 runes each, so I've been killing them to level up.