I think it’s safe to say that I love Elden Ring (FromSoft). I’m still playing the game on a regular basis. I have the first character waiting at the end of the game because I know better than not to have a late-game character in NG ready for the DLC.
Why do you need to do that? I hear you asking. Isn’t accessing the DLC a simple case of going to that option in the menu? Or starting it over from the beginning? Nope. Let me tell you how to get to the DLC in the first Dark Souls, which is the most elaborate one. In order to get tot he DLC, you have to go to the Darkroot Basin and kill the Hydra there. Then, you have to goc the the Duke’s Archives (which is in the mid-game) to kill one specific crystal golem in order to get the Broken Pendant. Then you have to back to the lake where you killed the Hydra–oh, did I not mention it was in a lake?–walk to the back of the lake and kill the golden golem there. A woman will emerge from the golden golem and talk to you about Oolacile where she’s from. Hm. I’m not sure which of these you have to do first or if it doesn’t matter.
After killing the golden golem, you’ll have to rest at a bonfire. Then go back to where you fought him. There should be a black abyss that you get suked into. Bam! You’re in the DLC. How the hell did someone figure that out? I have no idea. I remember watching a vide from Vaati Vidya about The Ringed City DLC for the third game. There’s a puzzle in it that involves using a spell in a swamp of abyss to turn into a humanity and then slowly, agonizingly, make your way to a nearby area where a ladder will suddenly appear. He said he spent about ten houls trying to figure out the puzzle because he didn’t have a, well, Vaati to watch for the solution.
So, yeah. I have her sitting in the late game, frolicking around, waiting for the DLC. I am so excited by it, by the way. There was one still image released, and that was it. so many rumors about what it’ll be. There are leaks taht it’ll be the size of two DLCs, which is very exciting.
My second character is in NG+, ready to go into NG++. She’s my true strengthcaster, and I love her. She’s the one I’ll probably push into NG+++ and beyond just for the LULZ. I had to go into NG++ for the plats of all Souls games, and I’ve gone up to NG+5, I think, for DS III. She’s rocking Blaidd’s weapon and can bonk chonkily with the best of them.
My third character is only mid-game, and she’s a bit of a mess. I was tryng to do a dex character and quickly gave up. I decided to go full Pyro instead, but I have not really embarced the fire life. I have my Lightning Spear that is such a great utily incantation. It’s useful for thinning out mobs with two or three shots.
My last character is the Lone Finch, made to help out for RKG’s journey in the Lands Between. A grizzled veteran who is hard as nails and takes no shit from anyone. I made a dex samurai in honor of the Lone Wolf from Sekiro. and I added a few levels in Faith because I wanted to use the basic incantations. Just the Cure Flame, for example, beacuse it stops poison and/or scarlet rot. The latter is a terrible affliction that depletes your health at an alarming rate. So, yeah. I was going to want to carry Cure Flame with me. Duh! And, you know, just the basic Glintstone Pebble. So maybe a point into Intelligence? And, then, you know, the Bloodhound’s Fang is a really good weapon. it takes 18 strengeth. That was….6 more than I started with. And 17 dex, which was only 2 more than I started with. I already had that dex because I was bumping up dex as part of that character. Once I had everything I needed for the Bloodhound’s Fang, I realized that I was well on my way to being a strengthcaster again.
Now. Krupa has been asking for some help because he does not want to play the whole game again in the ‘pure’ way to see the story beats he needs to see. He wants to gently guide Rory to do certain NPC quests, so he wants to see them again–at least that’s what I’m presuming. To that end, he asked producers (a tier level) to drop runes for him. Apparently, he got invaded when this happened. Exciting! But he got all the runes. Oh, by the way, one QOL From made was to the invasion mechanic. In the previos games, you could be invaded when you were human in Dark Souls, any time in the sequel, and when you were human in the third game. In Bloodborne, you can be invaded at any time when there’s a bell-ringing maiden around. In Elden Ring, From made it so that you could only get invaded when you used the multiplayer system. Which is great! If you don’t co-op, you can’t get invaded. I’m not trying to have the debate about how it makes the game more challenging. The games are hard enough! There’s no reason to make it even harder.
By the way. In the first game, there was another mechanic that was even crueller. It’s part of a covenant, the Gravelord Servant. It’s Gravelord Nito’s covenant, obviously. This can only happen in NG+ and beyond, but you may go into an area and see a white glimmering summon sign. And you might think, “What, pray tell, the fuck is this?” It’s the mark of a Gravelord Servant and it makes the area harder. There will be red enemies that are twice (guessing) as hard as the vanilla version, and they can be all over the place. You may think, “Oh, it’s an online thing” and disconnect from the internet. Nope. It remains even if you go offline.
You may think, “Ah, ha! I’ll rest at a bonfire.” Nope. That won’t work, either. Nor will warping away. When you go back, it’ll still be infected. What are you supposed to do? Find the sign of the guy who is invading your world, enter his world, and then kill him.
Or, and I thank whoever figured this out–you just wait ten minutes, and it’ll end. Ten real minutes, I mean. Yep, that’s right. Just sit there for ten minutes. Browse the net. Read a book. Grab a drink. Go to the bathroom. After the ten minutes are up, the infection will be cleared. That’s a fun thing. (Hint, it’s not). Innovative? Yes. But fun? No.
Anyway. As you can tell, I’m cosplaying as Pyramid Head. I included the video of how to make the build. I don’t have everything needed, but I’m close. I need to upgrad e the weapon and get two more points of dex for that character, but other than that, it’s fun! I love that I’m at the point where I can just fuck around with builds. This is my first character, and I may respec to take full advantage of the build before respec’ing back to where the character is now. Or not. We’ll see.