In my first playthrough of Elden Ring, Leyndell Royal Capital was the bane of my existence. I didn’t get there until 100+ hours into the playthrough and–*spoilers abound*–the Draconic Tree Sentinel owned my ass. He could one-hit me with his dreadful lightning strike in the second phase from anywhere on the field. Again, I had 18 Vigor at this time. That’s a miserable amount of health. I just bumped up my Vigor to 30 in my second playthrough, which is what I had at the END of my first playthrough–and what I still have.
Side Note: I took a few days to go back to my first playthrough and clean up any catacombs/caves I had not found before. It’s so much fun to go back to earlier areas and just clean house. Unfortunately, I’m now up to the second-to-last and last area, which means that I’m not just cruising through as I was in the earlier areas. Plus, the latter catacombs are ridiculous in their puzzles and I hate them so very much. Because I have such puny Vigor, the elemental traps (such as flame or ice-blowing vents) could kill me in one go, which is never a fun feeling. Ok, to be fair, it’s two quick blasts, but still. There was a catacomb in the Mountaintop of Giants that had me saying so many bad things. Also, having Erdtree Burial Watchdogs as common enemies…do not like. Same with the Erdtree Avatars. Well, any field boss, really.
The first time I fought the Draconic Tree Sentinel, I would carefully and painfully fight him until the second half of the fight and he would zap me in one hit. I probably did not have my Mimic Tear fully upgraded at this point….hey, wait. Did I even have it? I might not have as I did Ranni’s quest later in the game. I did kill Starscourge Radahn before this point, but I’m not sure I progressed that far into Ranni’s questline. And even if I had, the Mimic Tear is tucked in a chest out of the way and I had to specifically go back to it. Plus, I didn’t have enough health to use it when I first got it because it took HP instead of FP. It cost 660 HP and I had 598 at 18 Vigor. I had to get to 21 Vigor to have 680 HP, which meant I could summon the Mimic Tear at that point if I immediately chugged a Flask of Crimson Tear right after.
I don’t think I had the Mimic Tear at this point in my first playthrough. Well, I had it in my second playthrough and it was fully upgraded. Going into this fight, I hesitated for a few days because of how painful it was the first time around. All of Leyndell Royal Capital was the absolute worst–my most hated area of the game. It’s the one area in which I felt that FromSoft bought into the hype and wanted to provide the quintessential Dark Souls experience. That would include mob enemies, one-shot kills, sketchy platforming, and a sudden ramp up in difficulty. On steroids.
Side Note II: I kept thinking this was the last area of the game before I reached it. I don’t know why. It was just something I erroneously thought. It’s not. It’s definitely in the back half and if you want to stick to the main story, it’s 2/3rds of the way through. If you want to do all the optional stuff, it’s still in the back half, but not quite as far, obviously. Anyway, I did this whole area the first time through, thinking it was the last area. Boy, was I surprised when I discovered it wasn’t.
The Draconic Tree Sentinel is a jerk. But mostly because he could one-hit me. I’ve said often how much I hate that and I get it’s on me because I had such low Vigor in my first playthrough. I was a glass cannon because I wanted all the Int and Faith, but I’m not good enough to play without getting hit. It took me probably two dozen tries to get the Draconic Tree Sentinel (serious attempts. I never count the casual one-shot in the first thirty seconds) and much cursing. In the second phase, he has a lightning bolt that can hit at any point in the arena from any point in the arena, and it one-shot me. I can’t tell you how dispiriting it was to carefully chip away at his health for five minutes or so only to be killed in one hit. And I could not always avoid that hit, even if I tracked what he was doing to perfection. I’m sure it was my shitty reflexes, but not having any grace in the fight really took any joy out of it.
This time around, I was a bit more ready. I had 27 or 28 Vigor and my Mimic Tear fully upgraded. I cannot tell you what a difference it makes to be able to take a hit and not die. I got the Draconic Tree Sentinel in three or four tries and it was no big thing. I strolled into Leyndell Royal Capital like I belonged there and girded my loins to take on the roughest area in the game.
I won’t lie. I still hated it. It still felt full of bullshit, but it was also easier to maneuver through because I knew where I was going. I didn’t have to spend hours hitting dead end after dead end, and I was able to avoid the common soldiers of the area because of my beloved Unseen Form/Crepus’s Vial combo to be semi-invisible and noiseless. I still don’t find it quite as good as the Hidden Body/Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring combo in the Souls games, but it’s better than nothing. I carefully killed all the enemies in the first few rooms and then unwittingly stirred a horde of enemies that had three regular soldiers, three or four of the foot soldiers who explode things in flames, and I instantly died.
It’s so frustrating because that’s ten minutes of careful movement wasted in a second. So, the second time around, I simply raced through the enemies to find the next Site of Grace. In this area unlike any other area in the game, I think you’re more rewarded for zipping through and not killing every enemy. I just couldn’t be fucked, to be honest. There are a million things to do in the capital, but I didn’t want to do any of it. I’ll have to do the sewers at some point to finish *sigh* Dung Eater’s questline so I can get the ending I need for the plat–can I just say that there are two loathsome questlines in this game, one of which is this one? The other is Preceptor Seluvis and I’m so glad he’s dead. I will never, ever, ever do his questline, which means I’ll never see that content–but I’m fine with that. I watched a video of it, which was bad enough. But it’s so against my moral code, I can’t do it, even in a video game.
I made my way up to the final area of the game–just a joke. It IS the final area, but not yet. In this case, I have to fight Godfrey the First Elden Lord (Golden Shade) and I insta-died because I tried to summon my Mimic Tear as he attacked me. I don’t count that and I got him in the first real go–just as I did the first time around. He’s not very hard and that extra bit of health really helped. Then, it was time for Morgott the Omen King. I love everything about this fight. It’s epic and gorgeous and I get to call in Melina to help me fight. I adore her and she’s really good with the holy stuff. I also called in my Mimic Tear, and we demolished him in one go. I was over-leveled for the fight, apparently, as I must have been first time, too, because I beat him in one go that time as well. This is one of my favorite fights in this game even though it’s not that hard. And with that , I was done with Leyndell Royal Capital. In a few hours. What a difference a second playthrough makes!