And we’re back to talk more about Shadow of the Erdtree (which is everywhere, it seems, on YouTube and in the Discord). At the end of the last post, I was talking about the gaol I had just done and my feelings about it. I also mentioned that I was doing some mopping up andjust exploring in general because I was feeling a bit fatigued from how much I was playing the game. I made the deliberate decision to just wander about places I’d already been to see if I’d missed anything.
Hollow laugh at what a massive understatement that is.
I knew I had missed a certain NPC not from spoilers, but because–oh, here’s a spoiler warning of its own. There will be many spoilers ahead. I knew there was supposed to be a way to do martial arts in the game. I knew there was an NPC who taught it to you. And, from a note I found, he was supposed to be to the east of me. I scoured the area, but could not find him. This was a few days ago, by the way. I finally looked it up yesterday and found out that I had missed him near a small campsite that I had rode by to get to something else, but never actually explored.
I swear I should jot things down as I go because my memory is shot. In the Discord, someone was talking about a hostile NPC he was fighting and how hard that NPC was. He mentioned the dungeon he was in, and it reminded me that I ad run into an NPC in that area who I died to. I had gone back to find him, and could not. So I asked the guy in Discord where exactly he was so I could find this NPC and take care of him once and for all! I was wandering around, looking for the NPC, when another guy commented, “Uh, Minna. He’s on the main storyline. You can’t have missed him.”
When they told me who he was, I realized, “Oh, him! Yeah, I did him.” I just hadn’t looked at what he gave me. Also, because I was playing so much, some of it blurred over for me. Honestly, I can’t remember exactly how I got this guy. I do remember running into him and being chased by him and so many enemies until he killed me. In my memory, I went elsewhere because I did not want to deal with him. What actually happened (probably) was that I got killed by him, then went back and l Lightning Speared his ass into oblivion, whilst walking backwards at a brisk pace, of course.
That’s an eternal joke in the Discord, by the way. The fact that walking backwards is a key component of my Elden Ring strategy. I think it’s funny as well. Also, someone mentioned that they were using Swarm of Flies, which was my answer to every boss in the main game. He said that he felt dirty using it, but it was so good for mobs. Which it is! But I am barely using it in the DLC. Someone else mentioned that she was trying out strategies in the DLC that she never used in the main game, and I have to agree with that. I am still using the Lightning Spear as my journeyperson incantation (along with the upgrade I found in the DLC), but the Swarm of Flies does not seem to be as good in the DLC. Maybe I’ve given up on it too soon, but I have found other ways to deal with the difficulties in the DLC.
For example. I do’nt use any of the Holy incantations on the regular. In the first dungeon I explored, the boss was death-related. And completely destroyed me over and over again–with the Mimic Tear. One reason is because if he did his death grab, he regained all of his health (by leaching it from you). I hate that. I hate when a boss regens health by attacking me. Or can use healing potions. Yes, I know I can at least do the latter, but that’s different!
Anyway. Using the Mimic Tear was actually a hindrance in this case because if they were grabbed, the boss would get the same health regen as if he had grabbed me. It’s really disheartening to chip away at the boss’s health, only to see it zoom back up again. Also, this boss flew immediately at me when I entered the arena, which means that I died as my Mimic Tear was spawning in. As I mentioned in the last post, this happened in another dungeon I crawled.
I died to this particular boss several times. Well, four or five. And I knew that my loadout was not going to do it. Which meant going back to the beginning of the dungeon (sigh), retooling my incantations/spells/flasks, etc., and slogging my way through the dungeon again. Which I did. Since the boss was death-based, I loaded up on holy incantations. Plus, I hastily upgraded the spirit ash I had found in the dungeon to +9 (out of 10) because I figured, given his description, he would be good for this.
And, hooo boy, was he. As was my entire loadout. In addition to holy incantations (including Elden Stars, wihch is the most powerful legendary incantation), I wore D’s armor, which is high in Vitality (which, as I understand it, is resistance to Death) and buffed myself with Golden Vow. Black Knight Captain Huw (Spirit Ash), whom I did test out at Gatefront in the main game (an early camp in which it’s easy to test things out). He was such a badass and, apparently, a Crucible Knight–or at least could use aspects of one.
I went back into the dungeon and grimly made my way to the boss. When I got there, I only had 3 healing flasks left. And probably 3 or 4 magicks flasks left. In other words, I had already written off my first attempt and decided just to see how it went with my new best friend. My thinking for using him was that I found him in the gaol, so he might be useful to me? I don’t know if I was actually thinking about it rather than just going on instinct.
We steamrolled the boss. Captain Huw got in there and took the brunt of damage, but did not get grabbed as far as I could tell. I will be honest that I rarely actually remember the boss fights after they are done. I had about an inch of health left and one red flask, but no chance to drink it. I was flabbergasted how quickly the fight went from ‘I will never be able to do this’ and rage to ‘this is completely manageable’. I mean, that’s the way it is with all the fights, but I have never had it go that quickly from one to the other.
Back to yesterday. I really needed to just chill–or as much as it’s possible to chill in the game. And I wanted to find that one NPC I mentioned earlier. So after wandering a bit, I Googled it. I have tried to stay away from that, but I knew I should have seen him by then. He was near that campsite (a ruin, actually) that I had raced by. I had thought I had gone back and explored it, but I had not. I went there and found the NPC. He would not talk to me. I had to use the gesture I got with the missive I had found earlier (again, I had to learn that through Google). That immediately threw me into a PvP situation with the NPC, which meant I could not summon. Which meant I had to fight him one on one. I’ll tell you tomorrow how well that went.