Saturday has become a ritual for me. Most of my days are free-form, but Saturdays have an established rhythm. I get up around 10 a.m. (Today, it was later. My sleep has been dodgy the last few days.) I feed my cat (and he’ll eat it or not. He’s been really picky in the last year since he’s been sick), then I brush my teeth, take my meds, and do my Taiji routine. On the day of a class, I don’t do the stretches because I’ll just be doing them an hour later. I do the weapons and the one section of the form. Right now, I’m doing the first section of the fast form on Saturdays.
Then, I watch as much of the Early Access episode of Retry as I can. Right now, the lads are doing Elden Ring, which means stacked episodes.Today’s is 2 1/2 hours, and it’s so juicy. I didn’t get to see much of it before class, but I’m ok with that. I’ve decided that Saturday is delivery/takeout day, and I get at least one dish with shrimp because…
Ok. How do I explain this. The lads always make their character in a From game Finchy after someone in The Office (I’ve never seen that show, but they’ve explained it more than once). The character is always Finchy, but they give an adjective to each one. So the one in Dark Souls is Chimpy Finchy. Dark Souls III (the second game they played) is Froggy Finchy. Bloodborne is Posh Finchy. Dark Souls II was Mama Finchy. Demon’s Souls was Papa Finchy. Sekiro was not Finchy, but they called him Finchy, anyway. Elden Ring is Aunty Finchy.
Chimpy Finchy didn’t really have a personality, but they started to give a voice and personality to Froggy Finchy. Now, each Finchy is their own person.
Separately, in each game, you can choose a starting gift. In this game, you can choose five prawns. They negate damage I think? Anyway, Rory was tickled by it and chose that as his starting gift. What he didn’t know, but Krupa did was that there is an NPC who sells prawns. He lives in the prawn shack in Liurnia of the Lakes. He’s called, ah, Blackguard Big Boggart. Rory and Gav were instantly smitten with him when they met him. Krupa made a rule on the spot that any time they visited him, they had to buy all the prawns they could.
They decided that Annty Finchy (named Tina, loving Tia Marias) had a shellfish allergy, but could not help eating prawns. Anyway, I get something with shrimp every Saturday now in her honor.
I have to say that this weekend is a big RKG weekend. They did their Halloween livestream yesterday (I’ve included it below), then a 2 1/2-hour boss episode today, and then Roundtable Hold tomorrow. That’s their new companion show, every other week, to talk about what they had experienced in the last two weeks. It’s a great show because it gives some insight into how the lads think.
Then, once a month, Krupa does a lore masterclass (which is a great name for it) that is just incredible. I’ts a great time to be a patreon.
Anyway, I watch maybe a half hour of the episode before class. Then, I get my Taiji on for an hour and a half. Then, I order the food and dig in as I watch the rest of the episode. Then I immediately watch it again to see what I’ve missed. I’ve been doing a loose follow playthrough, so I may put it in the background as I play with my Aunty Finchy-like character.
I will say that Rory is just much better at these games than I am. Krupa has said it as well. He is his own worst enemy with his scattered attention. They are jokingly calling his build a smorgasbuild, but it’s true. I can sympathize with him because I alwasy spread my levels as well. I know it’s not a good thing to do, but I can’t help it. He has great twitch reflexes, though. It’s saved him many times.
My point is that I can’t play the way he does. THey have made it a rule (Gav made it a rule. I’m hoping they change it at some point) that Rory can’t summon in a boss fight. I have been summoning andcheesing because I can’t play as well as he can.
So I’ve made different rules for myself in my shadow playthrough. I can use any spell/incantation that Rory has on him. He doesn’t use his magic much, but I rely on it. I will level up once if I have the runes because I have been caught short before I try to keep it within one or two of his levels, though.
Here’s the funny thing. There has been so much shit about him not leveling correctly, especially the vigor. He has been on 14 for some time. People have been saying you cannot play the game with so little health. Lads. He’s in the second major area. I had 18 vigor for the first 100 hours. It wasn’t great, honestly, but it was doable. And the only reason I leveled up my vigor was because I wanted to use the *spoilers* Mimic Tear. It’s the only summon that needs health rather than mana. Er,FP. Tht’s right. My vigor was so shit, I could not use the best spirit ash in the game.
I ended my first playthrough with something like 25 vigor. That’s so laughable small. It was suggested that you should have 60 vigor by the last boss. When I read that, I actually laughed out olud. I was dreaming of having 30 let alone 60! I have never had 60. On my NG++ run, I think I have 45 vigor? Maybe? I don’t know what I would do with 60 vigor.
I have had 70 in intelligence. That’s the most I’ve had in stats. Rennala’s Full Moon takes 70 int. Ranni’s Dark Moon takes 68. The Carian Regal Sceptor takes 60 as does Comet Azur–quite possibly the best spell in the game. In comparison, the most faith-taking incantation, Elden Stars, takes 50 faith.
When you’re putting that much stats into intelligent and/or faith, you gotta skimp on vigor. Especially as you need mind as well to cast the spells.
It’s a good way to past a Saturday, especially now that it’s autumn. The leaves ar echanging colors; the Thai food (this week is Chinese) is getting eaten; and Rory is dying over and over again to a boss. All is well in my world!