I accidentally killed one of (the?) ladies who wants to see your fingers yesterday. She curses you out as she dies in a very Old Hunters reminiscent way. I was all ready to trek to a certain turtle buddy and spend a celestial dew but apparently they are exceptions in the other direction - they simply revive upon sitting at a grace with no memory of your treachery.
Probably lore implications there
Couple days ago I got this screencap of a group message which I thought was funny:
[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/iZ5F3Yc.jpeg]
Was looking for information because ||the asshole invaded me and got his ass busted|| and I wanted to check if I had broken a quest or something aaaaand surprise:
[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/PuhVhc7.png]
Congrats to the person responsible, they're part of the main wiki now!
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@“fridgeboy”#p62109 Probably lore implications there
[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/Jos22VH.jpeg]
<3
@“treefroggy”#p62161 I’m equally interested in the lore implications of your guy NOT being revivable. His presence in this world is, well, different?
@“fridgeboy”#p62168 Hmmm… could be that the guy is not tarnished! I have found other human npcs that have commented on being human but not tarnished before.
Some stuff, like “returned to their world”, “body type b” “can't revive patches” I personally don‘t care to read into too much. They did a lot of legwork to get the multiplayer mechanics to work with the lore when they made Demon's Souls but after that we all became familiar with asynchronous multiplayer and it became less important, IMHO, you all are entitled to your opinions.
And yeah I’m pretty certain Patches says he's tarnished as well.
>!He doesn't have too huge of a role in this one. Never been so missable, on multiple occasions,!< and it's a huge game with a ton of NPCs, compared to previous games where he's like one of 10 people you meet. >!He's less of a questline and more of a callback, which is fine.!< I'm glad he's here. I'm glad he got invited to the party. >!His boss fight is the most interesting part of his questline in the game,!< I don't feel so bad for killing him now. It gave me quite an emotional experience. In fact I just started a new character where the goal was to speedrun to kill patches and get his loot, to simulate the staple thief starting class from souls that always began with the same leather set as Patches had since demon's souls.
Why they replaced the bandit class' armor with something else that's more masculine in form, I will not understand. Especially when Patches' leather set is perfectly suited for the bandit class. Not to mention all the other starting armors that used to have entirely different styles depending on which body type you have-- the sorcerer set, chain set, leather set, etc. It may be my biggest gripe with this game, but it was true for DS2 and DS3 as well, they stopped having separate models per set for the body binary, and there's tons of armor that basically negate your body choice and just make you look like a football player. Also it would seem that there's more viable and readily available body type B form fitting armor in DS2 and DS3 than in elden ring, but it may only seem that way because of how new elden ring is. Time will tell.
This has been: my main moaning moment with Elden Ring. Good night
edit: protip for anyone asking about stats, the goal is:
VIT: 32-40
END: 32-40
1 main offensive stat, STR, DEX, INT, FAI: 40-50
Weapon levels, +17-20
Besides Rune Arcs, this game throws a lot of stat boosting talismans and armor your way:
the eyeball seal items raise multiple stats in exchange for damage absorption debuff
there is an array of single stat boosting talismans for each stat
I started with a wretch, so my INT and FAI are just level 10, but if I want to use a buff like lightning or holy weapon, I can just equip something that boosts that stat. My STR was merely at 11 the entire game until I finally got the washing pole, then I only boosted it to the necessary amount to wield it while wearing the STR boosting talisman. Now , I guess similar to @Syzygy I am wielding the washing pole in my left hand and uchi in my right.
it appears that talismans have +1 variants, but thank god they didn't oversaturate the market with them like they did in DS2 and DS3, also the +2 variants have different art as well, which is awesome and makes a huge difference in my book. it no longer feels like I have to collect the same ring 3 times per character and the base level ones don't feel nerfed, also it doesn't seem like every single talisman has +1 variants, so far I've only found one.
Also @Syzygy if you want to discuss lore, I'm not past the capital and only have 2 Great Runes still but I've used all three magic stonesword keys and seen things unseen, and gone quite far in the Volcano Manor quest line, >!did the thing with the snake angel!<, >!and found half of the haligtree emblem!<, causing me to imply that >!the haligtree is a subterranean mirror to the erdtree!<, >!the erdtree may actually be disgusting!<, and >!I caught a glimpse of the underground rotten swamp, which I'm very exited about since I found the swamps on the overworld to be quite lacking, of course I should have known the underground map would have it's own swamp.!<
Just got to the end of the capital and ||absolutely chumped Margott on my first try||. I don’t think I was overleveled because getting through the area was quite a challenge. Strange!
Anyone who playing a “Souls” game the first time like I do? Don't wanna get stomped here for being “casual” but I just wanna talk about a game I kinda enjoy but in no way spending a big chunk of my life to “get gud.”
For someone who doesn't have much time and energy to spend on difficult games these days, I've enjoyed Elden Ring more than I expected. I even went back to kill that Tree Sentinel after 16 hours of running around and killing Margit. I love the secretive lore, btw.
@“Fran”#p62193 I am at about 100 hours in. More than any other Souls game, your avatar strength can really shift the balance of play. Grind up enough levels and weapon upgrades and you stand a good chance. Summon any time you feel like it. Use a guide liberally. And never feel like you have to bash yourself against any obstacle. So far there have only been 3 or 4 bosses that have gated my progress. As you come to know your build, look up weapons or trinkets that will support it and make a beeline for those.
@“Fran”#p62193 If I‘ve learned anything in the short amount of time I’ve played some of Demon‘s Souls and now some of Elden Ring, it’s this: being “good” at a Souls game just means engaging with it in a way you personally find enjoyable.
A tough boss is just a puzzle with a potentially infinite number of solutions. Your preferred solution might involve levelling certain stats up heavily, collecting certain items first for buffs, using summons, keeping your distance or playing close and aggressive - some combination of all or none of the above. It flies in the face of the game's design to say that the _only proper way_ to play is to face a boss over and over until you have every parry and dodge perfectly muscle-memorised.
my gf hits “good” on every crude or crass message she's seen in ER.
@“fridgeboy”#p62191 Probably comes down in large part to play style as far as what is and isn‘t challenging. Except for the the end boss I cake walked through most bosses. Show me a pack of dogs or gremlins though, and I’m absolutely doomed. I just started a NG+ using a different play style with a shield and dogs are total non-threats, but bosses are more difficult.
Working away at (secret optional boss) ||Astel, Naturalborn of the Void!|| Wowee! This game continues to surprise and delight in so many ways.
I finally tried to mess around with multiplayer stuff last night and I don‘t know what I’m doing wrong, but I can‘t get it to work. I’ve put down my summon sign and also used the item that says it places multiple summon signs - and nothing. I‘ve used the item that says it reveals other players’ signs several times in the past, but I‘ve never seen another player’s sign. I've also never had another player invade my game.
Do rune arcs have any effect on this? If I'm remembering correctly humanity in DS effected multiplayer.
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@“Herb”#p62211 Do rune arcs have any effect on this? If I’m remembering correctly humanity in DS effected multiplayer.
One thing I'm sure of is that, no, being under the effect of a Rune Arc does not effect multiplayer. Also, yes, you're remembering correctly, using a Humanity and maintaining Human form was a prerequisite for many forms of multiplayer in _Dark Souls._
As for your other concerns... well, honestly, I have not had a whole lot of luck with multiplayer either and am not sure how exactly it's all working or not working. I have seen summon signs, but it's quite rare. I do tend to prefer soloing things for my first playthrough so I'm not looking that often, but even when I have wanted to summon people, I can't seem to find signs where I want/expect them to be. Case in point, I wanted to get some co-op support for that boss I was working on last night but couldn't find any. I have, however, placed my summon sign, specifically right by the grace in front of Margit's boss room, and been summoned consistently for a little while. I've also been occasionally, _very_ occasionally, summoned to help defend against an invader at seemingly totally random times and in random places.
I'm assuming you do know that you need to activate each distinct little effigy statue for each area. It's very good how these statues are small, dull coloured and fade into almost every backdrop, give no indication they have been activated or not, there's no clear distinction between each area governed by each effigy statues, and there's no ongoing list that shows which effigies you've activated or not like there is for sites of grace. Actually, I think you can't place a summon sign unless you've activated the effigy in the area, so, if that's the case that covers that. Huh, now that I think about it, maybe that's why I couldn't find summon signs last night...
In beautiful From Software fashion, they changed how it works, but are unclear and scant on the details of how it works in general, so how I often feel when interacting with multiplayer in these games is that I can't tell if I'm doing something wrong or if I'm just not aware of how the community is generally acting since they may or may not be doing exactly what From intended. Maybe level difference is also a factor too. I don't know!
……………………………………….wait a goddamn minute.
.....what is the damn difference between the Small Gold Effigy and the Tarnished's Furled Finger??
Maybe disregard everything I've said about multiplayer here
@“Gaagaagiins”#p62212 Thanks. Yeah, I‘ve been activating the statues. One thing I have noticed is with the map up hitting L1(I think that’s the button) shows circles on the map I believe that are where the summon statues are activated. I've been trying to put my summon sign in the blue circle areas as indicated on the map.
Looking into it a bit, it seems that the Tarnished's Furled Finger is the location specific summon sign functionality like in the previous games, and Small Gold Effigy is the thing that interacts with the effigy statue summoning pools, which might have more interfacing in the Multiplayer submenu.
[Patrick Klepek has a point here.](https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5qmay/please-elden-ring-let-me-play-multiplayer-like-a-normal-video-game) Surely there has to be a better solution to maintaining the charming idiosyncratic multiplayer interactions than just laterally zigzagging the multiplayer systems between arcane digi-social ritualizing. Although, actually, when I put it like that, I come close to winning myself back over. Anyone else remember playing _Warcraft II_ on dial-up modem??
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@“Herb”#p62216 One thing I have noticed is with the map up hitting L1(I think that’s the button) shows circles on the map I believe that are where the summon statues are activated. I’ve been trying to put my summon sign in the blue circle areas as indicated on the map.
Oh! That's useful information!!! We are performing the arcane digi-social ritualizing! I love it again actually
IMHO the multiplayer has never been simpler, summoning pools make it easier than ever. The summoning pool effigies are pretty hard to miss, even though they‘re just gray sticks they’re always placed prominently as heck.
I have an understanding of pretty much all the mechanics, except while I know to use the Small Gold Effigy to be summoned from the pool, I don‘t know how to summon someone else from the pool. I just activate summon signs the old fashioned way. I like to be selective anyhow and get someone who looks like they know what they’re doing.