We’re back again to talk about the final boss of Shadow of the Erdtree. I will try to stick to that topic, but I will probably fail. Again, here is the pro forma
*SPOILER WARNING*
I will say that Krupa had the first Lore Masterclass of the second series. This one was on Ranni, and even though I have read all the item descriptions he has and by this point, I’ve done all the NPC questlines that they are now doing, I am not able to quite put it all together. He’s an excellent professor, and I appreciate all the work he puts into the sessions.
He will do one on the DLC at some point. I can’t wait for that because there was so much more lore in the DLC.
Back to Prime Radahn (as I heard him referred to in a podcast). Getting so close to beating him on my second try was the worst thing that could have happened to me. Why? Because it gave me hope that I would get it done rather quickly–even though I knew that the second phase was harder than anything I have ever fought.
Here’s the reason why. The worst thing for me is when I have hope in these games. I suck at them, and it makes it twice as hard for me to beat a boss. Usually. It’s funny because in the video I have included below, it’s the Playstation Access gang talking about Shadow of the Erdtree. They call it spoiler-free, but it’s not. However, I can watch/listen to all the spoilers now!
Anyway, Rob asks Rosie and Amy who the hardest/most accomplished boss fight in the base game was for each of them. They both said Malenia. Amy qualified the answer, but that’s the moss that most people agree is the hardest in the base game. For whatever reason, this has never been a hard boss for me. I have fought her three times–and it hasn’t taken me more than twenty times on any of those tries. Believe me, that’s nothing when it comes to Malenia. The first time I went to fight her, I girded my loins because i had heard so much about her. I knew that she was the hardest boss in the game, and I had been getting beaten up by other lesser bosses.
I walked in with my Mimic Tear and Swarm of Flies (incantation). I knew she was weak to bleed and Swarm of Flies was really good on her. It got nerfed, though, so it wasn’t as good as it used to be. Still. Anything that kept me away from Malenia’s endless combinations was aces in my book.
Side note: There has been discussions in the RKG Discord about how FromSoft nerfs anything that is overpowered. People have pointed out that it’s weird to do in a single player game. Who cares if something is very owerpowered? One of joys is finding ways to break the game. And who is it hurting? No one.
I can’t emphasize this enough. If you want to make the DLC hard, you can. Don’t get the Scadutree Fragments and the Revered Spirit Ash. Go into the game at a deliberately low level. Don’t upgrade your weapons and/or don’t used the overpowered weapons/spells/incantations/armor. I’m sure people have one-bro’ed it (or are doing that), so make your own difficulty!
Look. This is one of my gripes when listening to people (content creators/journalists) talk about the game. And I want to hasten to add that it’s not their fault. This is the second thing Dunning and Kruger found in their infamous study. People who are really good at something drastically underestimate the gulf between them and other people. Because something is easy for them, they assume it’s easy for others. Or, if not exactly easy, then just a bit harder. There are a few people in the RKG Discord who are having trouble with this boss, too. One is having more trouble than I did. Not a caster. But, I also watched the vid of another guy pretty much just tank it, roll a lot, and beat him to death with the Rusted Anchor (a greataxe). He did it in a fairly short amount of time, too.
I know I’m terrible at the games for reasons I have detailed ad nauseam. It seems that there are plenty of people who don’t think the last boss is hot trash, but there are also plenty who do. One of the criticisms I’ve seen with which I heartily agree is that if you have to change your build or use cheese to beat him, then it’s not a great boss design. I had heard complaints of that with other bosses, too. In the base game, I mean.
The ongoing debate of whether the games are too hard is not a productive one. Or, more to the point, FromSoft’s philosophy on that is not going to change. My issue with the DLC is that the bosses weren’t fun to fight for the most part. Not for me, anyway. I don’t know if that’s just because I”m over the whole boss thing or not, but I don’t react with joy or even anticiptation when I come across a boss fight.
If I’m to be honest with you, I never really did. Before my medical crisis, I did consider it a badge of honor to beat the bosses solo. Even if it meant Pestilent Misting their asses into ablivion. Or using Dorhy’s Gnawing the entire fight whilst walking backwards. Which, by the way, begs the question what is ‘cheating’ or ‘cheesing’ a boss.
Bascially, it means not killing a boss the way the person who is saying you are cheating beat the boss. Some people consider magic cheating. Some people consider using strength weapons cheating. Then again, dual-wielding has also been considered cheating. So has using a shield, using certain weapons, and anything other than one-broing it. Any kind of summon? SCRUB!
I have said until I’m blue in the face that using whatever is in the game is valid and viable. The point of the game, of any game, is to have fun. If someone wants to do the whole thing co-op because that’s fun fro them, more power to them! If someone wants to one-bro it, that’s fine, too! What is not fine is when people dismiss other people’s way of playing as being cheesy, cheating, or not playing the ‘right’ way.
There IS no right way. That’s one of the great things about the Souls games (and Elden Ring) in particular. You can make a build that works well for you. One of my biggest issues with the last boss is that I got crushed doing it my way. And by this time, I know how to play FromSoft games. I know what works for me. Hell, I was seriously over-leveled because I wandered around and got all the Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes. Well, almost all. I still have a few, but I’m not raring to go to all 50 locations (for the Scadutree Fragments and 25 Revered Spirit Ashes). I started following a guide, but quickly lost interest. I did get one more Scadutree Fragment, though. I probably only need one more Revered Spirit Ash and one or two more Scadutree Fragments.
I am roughly level 220. I have 60 in Vigor and nearly 70 in Faith. I could use all but the two most powerful incantations, and I was feeling no pain. Or rather, very little pain. I felt lots of pain against that nameless asshole (he has a name, but I refuse to say it) in the first mausoleum. That’s why I added 20 Vigor. That’s why I dawdled on the main storyline. I didn’t think I could take on–well, no. That’s not completely true at first. But this is getting long, so I’ll write more later.