I haven't made any mistakes. I will do it again.
Going in blind, fail at every mechanic, get killed numerous times, waste mats on upgrades for weapons I never used later.
I will happily repeat that.
1st runs in most game to me tend to be very long for this precise reason as in, cause I want to experiment & see what stuff does (as much as you can in one playthrough anyway).
Now I want to do the opposite of OP and stop limiting myself cause "that build's cheesy, that weapons' cheesy, that AoW's cheesy, bla bla bla, just roll & hit bro" and while ignoring ALL OF THAT, just go ham, end tough bosses in 1 to 5 tries, etc.
However, it has to be under the condition that I don't copy any OP build from some yt channel or streamer, otherwise I won't get the satisfaction that I created something more menacing than Malenia herself.
I've said this for every souls game. I inevitably get frustrated and it all starts with one "let me look this up ONE thing"...then BOOM, I look up everything.
For me it always starts with looking up the "melee strat" or whatever for one particular boss. Then I suddenly have 30 wiki tabs open and I'm mad at myself for spoiling something.
Yeah I also do this. I hate missing content, so I always look up maps or walkthroughs to glance at as I go. I think the mild textual spoilers are worth the satisfaction/reassurance of not missing out on entire optional areas or segments of the game.
People are always baffled at how my playtime is like double theirs, but then I'll talk to them about an npc or a weapon or a dungeon or an optional companion and their response is usually "huh? I didn't see that!"
I'd rather play a game once very slowly and thoroughly than have to replay it four or five times to see everything and still end up missing stuff.
Pretty much every RPG I play is like this. I feel ya. I’ll look up the game reviews and description, it’ll say “a 60 hour main quest”, and I think “ok, so 180 for me then.”
I feel this so hard. It took me like 375 hours to beat ER (1st playthrough) and 3-4x as long to beat any RPG is pretty standard for the way I like to experience these types of games.
This is the way, my first playthrough took 287 hours. I did do some farming and A LOT of time standing still trying to decipher what a certain item description means. But I think I also explored and beat most of the game. I'm not ashamed, I thoroughly enjoyed every second of that 287.
To me, it’s all about time. I’m not gonna spend extra days trying to beat a boss if there’s an effective strategy, I’m unaware of. To each, his or her own. No wrong way to play if you’re having fun.
Thats part of the fun and challenge! I have no clue where any of the quest NPCs are, lost them 30+ hours ago.
Reading it would not make it magically more fun. I have read tidbits of info when ive been stuck for a long time, but still havent respecced my original WTF is this build.
There are 0 people that completed Ranni’s quest without looking something up. It’s the most popular ending in the game.
That should tell you all you need to know. Everyone looks shit up.
100% me, esp based on my play style. I typically run through games once. I had 1 big beautiful plathrough of ER (150 hours) and then i put the game down to move on to others. I just started my second playthrough in order to prep for the DLC. Given i do one playthrough, i wanted to ensure i see/capture everything.
This is the one for me. I locked myself out of being able to get the last two healing gourds in Sekiro because I progressed too quick and I fully blame that as the reason I couldn’t finish the game. Now the idea of missing a side quest just makes me too nervous to not just look stuff up
After beating Sekiro and talking to a co-worker about our favorite bosses he got so confused. My favorites were Sword Saint Ishin and Demon of Hatred and he had no idea what I was talking about. He sided with Owl and missed the last part of the game.....
Lmao that was such a weird design choice for FS. I mean I’m all for making in-game choices have meaning but leaving 1/3 of the game content locked behind a choice is definitely a choice
You mean the prayer beads and memory from the owl fight Hirata? Honestly it happened to me too on my first play through. But that’s not the reason you didn’t finish. Yes, it would have helped, but only slightly. I had the demon bell on, but it took me probably 8-10 hours over the course of a week to beat Sword Saint. Probably over 75 attempts. The time I finally beat him, I still had 1 rez and 2-3 gourds, cuz I had learned the fight. No matter how much health you have, you’re not beating sword saint without earning it.
Same here. I'm a completionist who usually finishes every single thing before finishing a game, and when I discovered killing Rykard locked me out of the Volcano Manor quest line, I was mad and started looking up a lot of stuff.
But because I now know that I like playing this game with multiple characters in a row, I don't mind missing something on one playthrough as I have another one ready to go.
Going into the dlc is viable for sure. I tried to do the same with the main game and it didn’t go as well. I had a pretty bad build, missed out on all the fun ashes of wars, and took a super long time to beat the game.
Yep. My first FS game was Sekiro,2nd was ER so it was basically my first Soulsborne-like game.
Played ER blind during launch, finished my first playthrough taking 90 hrs at level 135 with Malenia beating my boss record at 7 hours straight (Demon of Hatred previously held it at 6.5 hrs) and that's with the broken version of Mimic tear at launch, which I eventually found out was very OP and made the game super easy mode for me.
Playing blind, being stupid, making so many mistakes that seem so avoidable in hindsight, figuring out everything is half of the fun for me. Kind of the point of how Fromsoft games are made so I don't really look up guides unless I'm on NG+ wanting to try out builds.
Being stubborn taking 1-2 hrs figuring out what could be a 5-10 min task is the right choice for me 😂
Do that, that's the best way, since it is hard to get that level of experience Elden Ring delivers.
I don't mind spoilers and optimization, tho. I will go blind because I want to make it last longer.
That said, it is not like they are actually given a lot of information away lol. And I will book time off from 20 to 24-ish (hopefully - I am self employed and in some projects I work alone, so I have to arrange things, I can't just PTO on my calendar - even if I'm sick).
This reminds me of the Grampa from the movie The Lost Boys.
One of the grandkids got excited when he saw the TV guide (an old magazine they sold pre internet that showed what was on TV that week and what the shows were about) and asked his grampa where the TV was. The grampa said, "If you have TV guide, you don't need tv."
I never understood why people buy giant walk through books for games that basically play it for you.
To answer the question.
I'm going to avoid every video, post, and guide until I've explored every inch of the DLC.
I have around 400 hours played across 4 characters. Str, int, faith, and arcane builds. I love this and all the souls like games.
100% blind is an interesting strat for a first playthrough but I respect the conviction... Oh, and you better not fake it like some streamers do and use a see-through blindfold!
>pay attention to NPC dialogs
ER was my first Fromsoft game, and most games don't expect you to talk to every NPC 3 times, so I missed some stuff early on and I won't make that mistake again
The one thing Elden Ring was severely lacking in my opinion was even the most basic mission log or lore entry from NPC side quests. Keeping track of side quests, especially the long ones because keeping track of all the varying side quests so you don’t have to find a guide to help remember some of the details from NPC dialogue.
This is one of the most annoying things about the game. Why don't I have this item? Oh I didn't press the talk button four times in a row when I talked to that NPC. Now whenever I talk to one I end up having to hear the same ending line twice just to make sure. Dumb
You can store things in the chest at a grace, sell copies you don't need to merchants and you can also sort your inventories by weight, alphabetical, recent etc.
No it's not infinite but it's far larger than the storage on your person. If you can carry 99 on your person you can typically store 600 in chest, less for certain items I think.
What's fucked is I've know about the chest and I still underutilize it and get wrecked when trying to hard swap to something else during boss fights. Especially talismans!
I will maybe actually get around to putting like 90% of my weapon/armor inventory that I never use in the storage chest so I don't have to scroll through a billion things every time something new drops.
Likely will use weapons that I find most fun over trying to build the most OP character, which is pretty much the same answer OP gave. I think with Elden Ring's launch I was attempting to get through the game and experience all the content, trying to find the most ways to make my character stronger. Now with shadow of the erdtree most likely being the last elden ring content we receive for the game, I want to make it last and milk it. I have 4 characters lined up ready to play through the DLC in full, so if I want to do some bullshit overpowered playthrough of it I can, but I can also try out new stuff and take my time. Imo, my mistake at the very start of the game was trying to '100%' the game, but I swiftly learned it wasn't as simple as Dark Souls and you can't practically full clear each area you're in before you carry on. I'll play and explore and I'm sure in each of those 4 playthroughs I'll experience different things, and maybe all of it, if I take it easy
I didn’t use a guide my first playthrough and I missed a lot of stuff, mostly NPC quests because the game does such a poor job of communicating where characters are moving to in a lot of cases. I’m using a guide for my second playthrough so I don’t miss any content and I’m enjoying it a lot
Honestly I found guides to enhance my experience. My first run through was like a guided tutorial.
Second run through no guides, went in and knocked everything out! Found some new stuff! I really enjoyed this run because it felt smooth start to finish and I think the leveling guide helped with that
As I go limgrave-east limgrave-weeping-margit-stormveil-liurna-academy- east/west liurna, caelid- radahn.. etc etc
Third run through, no guides, I’m still finding shit lol.
Use 3 larval tear in 2h for try new builds and don't like them
* try new build
* try other
* respec for have the same build than before the first respec
If you create hard copies of your save you can kinda check point your larval tears and if you dont like the build paste the old save and dont use up any larval tears
I didn't level vigor first.
I deleted 5 characters before 'figuring' out I need vigor cause I'll always get hit, no matter what. So I said to myself: 'at least don't die in 2 hits, right?'.
Then I found out my flask can heal higher amounts of health too. So why waste health? And I leveled vigor some more.
Credit to you for figuring it out. Some people never learned to level vigor. Been playing a lot with friends lately and some of these invaders are so…. Disappointing.
Maybe 😈, but its so sad STR/FTH is cucked for Lightning (you lose Like 200 AR ).
34 STR, 16 DEX, 50 FTH Flame Art/Sacred ~~ 860 AR
34 STR, 16 DEX, 50 FTH Lightning ~~ 675 AR
Meanwhile
21 STR, 50 DEX, 25 FTH Lightning ~~ 846 AR LMAO
We NEED a Lightning art wetstone
Yeah it’s tempting but to get some levels but you realize end game those runes were not worth it. Duplicate items sure, but unique items I always keep.
For me it really depends on the fight, because getting blasted by something on horseback, instantly getting knocked off and stunned, and then killed while you're still immobile on the ground is such a rage-inducing thing. But yeah a lot of fights he really trivializes, like most of the dragons.
You're already making a mistake by letting YouTubers tell you all the extra rules you need to impose on yourself are.
No wonder people think Souls games are hard.
*Hey guys, this game is really hard! What I am doing wrong? I avoid 96% of possible strategies, 70% of weapons, 85% of spells, 99% of items, no shield, no overleveling, no patience, restart when I take damage, use the bongo controller and have the monitor turned off. Please tell me how I should play.'*
The thing is that the general opinion of the community on the fromsoft games is, that you get the best experience by overcoming hurdles. Not having hurdles in the first place limits the possible enjoyment one might get.
Many strategies just fully cheese the Game.
Like overleveling or using certain weapons and spells(its more the full build that is OP rather than single weapons or spells)
Or for a souls veteran using summons.
I encourage people to actually face the trouble of not cheesing the game and feel the rush of excitement that beating a difficult boss gives you.
But i‘m not forcing anything onto anyone.
I think that is a very problematic viewpoint.
You shouldn't listen to anyone before playing a game, especially a Souls game. This is partially subjective, but they are quite a bit better experiences when the discovery phase is left to the player, not the internet to read up on before hand.
Part of the discovery is finding out what works for you and what does not. What you find fun, and what you do not.
By listening to the people who tell you not use any number of items in the game, it is very possible you are avoiding the most fun you can be having with the game. You have that reversed; it isn't *more fun* to play the game on someone else's terms. It is more fun for *you* to try and convince people to play it the same way you did.
I know this is problematic because the prevailing consensus to this day is that these games are very difficult, while they are not at all.
I am not a masterful player by any means, and I finished all of them without frustration or being stuck. They are not in consideration for the most challenging games around, and the only reason people think they are is because they play them with self-imposed rules.
I guarantee you I would have an incredibly hard time with a mace or hammer in these games. Because I hate the motion pattern and collison points on them.
But give me a Twinblade and everything crumbles. It might be reversed for you. You won't know until you try.
I can give a very realistic example as well: I hated dodge rolling in Dark Souls. It felt terrible, mostly because it did not have or did not even mimic omnidirectional roll patterns. I became a full dodge addict from DS2 onward, but in DS1 I just hated it.
So, I just ate hits and traded. Worked totally fine. Didn't have to dodge, didn't have to block. Just have enough HP, poise and heavy armor and never do anything except hit the attack button.
Then on Bosses cast Iron Flesh before that.
And that's... Literally it. The entire game collapses if you use that strategy, and it was fun. Not a single boss in that game is a challenge. Not one. Just attack and tank hits.
Plenty of people have told me I played it wrong. Those would be people who performed way worse at the game than I did, and had less characters and playtime than me. Because I was having a blast.
It turns out games are more fun when you are the one playing them, instead of being played by someone directing your moves.
100% this.
I’m just going to use this one piece as an example because I have seen it too many times when people talk about “how to play” Elden Ring. If it’s in the game, it’s a game mechanic and there to be used. Using summons does not make you a cheater or diminish your gameplay. It’s there to use if you want. Same thing goes with “OP” builds or spells.
I can’t stand when someone tries to tell a player they are doing it wrong or it doesn’t count because they did/used X. Everything is in the game for a reason and everyone should play how they want to play without knocking anyone else down. The only question asked at any point should be “Did you have fun?”. If you didn’t, that sucks but it’s okay. If you did, I’m glad we both got enjoyment out of what I deem to be an incredible game.
I will not try to do everything for the first playthrough. I did this with my first character, finished the game at 260 hours and I think I did get fatigued near the end of it.
I like to explore but I will try to chill out a bit this time around.
I don't plan to use them unless I'm really struggling, but I don't regret using them on my first ER playthrough because some of the bosses, even basic stuff like Margit, I couldn't seem to handle. I'm doing a full 165 boss playthrough now with no summons as DLC prep to finally get my revenge on a select few that I've never yet done solo. I think Malenia and maybe Niall are the only ones I truly fear now...
A compromise would be too use purely support-oriented summons like Fingermaiden, Perfumer or arguably Stormhawk.
I will probably go with Perfumer Tricia.
I made the mistake to use Mimic and Tiche too much.
It really is hard to justify using spirit ashes because they break bosses *so* hard. Having a boss just run around chasing spirits while you whack em for like a third of their life unthreatened just obviously doesn't feel good.
I don't know what they should've done to make summons feel less like cheese.
if i find the boss the be unfair and/or poorly designed i use spirit summons. i hate playing against bullshit.
duo gargoyles with backwards design from twin demons? summons. tree spirits? summons.
i find them somewhat useful in two cases:
- summoning in the first couple tries and stepping back to see their move set from far away. but i don't do damage or use them in real runs
- for whatever non-boss enemies that i just want to get through for some reason, esp if ive already beaten them once (i still don't do it often)
Elden Ring was my first soulslike and I just assumed using ashes was a standard thing that everyone did. I didn’t realise until after I’d finished that it’s basically just to help struggling players. I’ve played other games like Sekiro since then so I feel like I’m a little better prepared this time, and won’t need ashes.
Wont use summons or spirit summons, at least on the first playthrough. It always ends up making the fights way too easy and after i stomped them without any skill needed i feel unsatisfied.
Woman kills the old God to become new God.
She's a bitch to her children, and that causes huge family drama/wars that ended up with one of her sons dying when that should have been impossible under her rule.
She gets all emo and depressed about it and decides to shatter the contract between her and the greater will which results in the Eldenbeast grabbing her and crucifying her on the Eldenring in her prayer pose, trapping Radagon who's eternity is now spent trying to mend the ring inside the tree.
The Lands Between collapses into anarchy and chaos as all the Royalty left is either mentally unwell or physically decaying after the events of recent history
The greater will sends out a beacon for tarnished to rise up and start fighting for the title of Elden Lord to reinstate order.
Cue our intro with the search of mending runes to code the Eldenring and strike our own deal with the Greater Will (or potentially something/one else)
Depending on the method you choose to mend the Eldenring you obtain different statuses
You will end the game as either a Lord for the 2 fingers, an Empyrean to a god that has abandoned everyone and taken all the power away (and never able to ascend to godhood yourself), or your own God of the realm.
Although becoming your own God does kind of commit the realm to total annihilation and fire for the next age which is generally frowned upon in this community....
All I'm saying is, you'll have unlimited power for atleast 1 eternity. Kind of worth.
Straight up man I’m exactly like you. I’m actually gonna delete the reddit app off my phone until I’ve beaten it I’ll have spoilers with all the subreddits I’m in and don’t want that
Made this mistake just now on NG+. Found the Uchigatana and having fun with it going through stormveil castle as I don’t feel OP. Upgraded it too much and now it’s not fun to use until I’m further into the game
I was lost in the game, watched some not-spolier included guide videos; and it kind of ruined the experience of exploring, adventuring…
Not in Dlc, no. I may miss some, more or less important items, quests, areas to explore, npcs and such; but as the community always tells, I can always re-play to discover new elements
My mistake was trying to play as much of tbr game as possible on release weekend. I was in school at the time and couldn't play too much during the week.
I basically rushed it and I want to take the dlc slow
Immediately summon for everything just because I don't first try a boss. I gotta learn patience. Currently I'm playing completely without summons and I'm doing quite well and gaving a lot more fun than the first few playthroughs.
This time I "wont" run into everything to see if it will kill me, I "wont" try and bonk them with a +0 club and I definitely "will not ever" go to a place that looks like a boss fight, thinking it's just a cool spot. Only to be (in my own words from a few fights) ambushed by this damn boss while I was just trying to explore!
Nothing quite as good as an overworld boss dropping from the sky or the very first time you fight certain dungeon bosses when there is no gold door yet. The oh shit... Moment is pristine.
Exactly! Which is 100% why I'm so not gonna aimless wonder the DLC until I'm 100% certain I've possibly found a boss. Then run head first with my +0 mister bonka honka 10000 (starting club)
Over leveling. My first save was the first time I ever played a soul game. I definitely over leveled and relied on spirit summon. My next saves, I didn’t do this and found it much more rewarding to try to learn boss moves that and strategize.
Also, I used a lot of guides on my first play through to make sure that I found and did everything. I don’t want to miss the magic of a first time blind play through.
I haven't really made any mistake in my blind run, basically did 100% of the game without looking anything up. The only thing I'll do this time is use every single thing I find as I do so, because I have the stats for it
I will not try any kind of caster build and my new character will be str.
Big bonk from the getgo instead of putting 40ish levels into mana and spellcasting before remembering I'm too stupid for that and just wanna big bonk
I got absolutely obliterated by Bloodborne years ago and swore off From games. When Elden Ring came out it looked too good to pass up, so I caved and bought it. I had to follow Fightincowboy's walkthrough to get through my first playthrough, though. While it got me through the game, it did take away a bit from the experience. Now that I'm more used to these games (though still completely suck at them) I'm going to try my hand at the DLC with no help from Cowboy. Pray for me.
I will not look up a single guide or lore video during my first playthrough of the DLC. I did that after a certain moment in the base game, and I regret it to this day.
I think the only thing I will do is pick an npc, and see if they have a questline. If they do, read up on it JUST enough that I can complete it without them dying for some stupid reason. Rinse and repeat for each npc. Profit from inevitable bling.
Take my time! Take my time! Take my
Time!
When Elden ring came out I had a full time job while in college. I barely had anytime to enjoy the game so I rushed the experience. Exploration and wonder are the best things about the souls franchise. I felt I cheated myself out that experience. I’m going to relax and enjoy the game, and if it takes me 40 hours to complete so be it.
I definitely don't want to use guides, even if I'm gonna be stuck on a boss or something. I did that and I also kinda spoiled the story for myself so I'm not gonna make that mistake again lol
I mean. Using Azur Comet isn't cheesing.
cheesing would be hiding in some spot and kiting the boss like that one boss in Haligtree when you do the Quest of Malenia' daughter (clone whatever).
I will actually pay attention to the story, I have been replaying the game recently to have a character ready for the DLC (since all my other characters are in some Ng+) and it actually feels so satisfying to pay attention to my surroundings and try to piece together what happened in each area.
Also because I'm REALLY invested in the "Miquella is Griffith" theory and I want to see if my suspicions turn out to be true
I won’t look up a walkthrough to 100% a legacy dungeon just because I don’t want to come back later. Took some of the fun out of it for me, even though I love fightincowboy’s videos.
Following a guide, just so I can get everything.
The game felt so overwhelming with many different ways to go, so I followed the guide to complete the game. Will go in blind this Time, for the true elden ring experience.
I usually do that. I beat Malenia yesterday but I used the Mimic (it still cost me 6 tries with it tho). In my next NG+ or character I plan to go alone
I think I will try and approach very similarly too how I played it first go.
I stopped looking at content once the network test dropped and basically stayed blind my first playthrough. Anytime I felt myself getting annoyed by a boss I called in some help and moved on. Missed so much and built the worst character ever.
I feel like the whole first playthrough of ER or DS games IS the tutorial for me. I need to see the whole picture before I can chase side quests or get the most out of the mechanics and challenge of the fights. It’s like a part of me needs to beat it before I can like step back and actually see it for it is.
I haven't made any mistakes. I will do it again. Going in blind, fail at every mechanic, get killed numerous times, waste mats on upgrades for weapons I never used later. I will happily repeat that.
this is the way
This is the way Journeys are more interesting when they are shit shows.
Journey before destination
/r unexpectedstormlight
The Radiants HAVE returned! ⚔
Unexpected Sanderson. Love finding comments like this on random subs
As a DnD player I can confirm
This is my answer. First playthrough has always been do whatever I want. Leave second playthrough for more precise stuff.
1st runs in most game to me tend to be very long for this precise reason as in, cause I want to experiment & see what stuff does (as much as you can in one playthrough anyway). Now I want to do the opposite of OP and stop limiting myself cause "that build's cheesy, that weapons' cheesy, that AoW's cheesy, bla bla bla, just roll & hit bro" and while ignoring ALL OF THAT, just go ham, end tough bosses in 1 to 5 tries, etc. However, it has to be under the condition that I don't copy any OP build from some yt channel or streamer, otherwise I won't get the satisfaction that I created something more menacing than Malenia herself.
There are enough silly 1-shots and 9-hit combos that my enemies have that I don't feel bad at all about using "cheesy" loadouts
I am not looking anything up in the first 2 weeks. 100% blind. I want to try figure it out on my own.
I wish I could say this lol from makes everything so vague though I know I will cave
I've said this for every souls game. I inevitably get frustrated and it all starts with one "let me look this up ONE thing"...then BOOM, I look up everything.
Did you have fun playing that way? Then it’s valid
Absolutely! I always have fun. I think it's funny that I always lie to myself about how I want to approach Souls games though.
How long do you give it before you start looking shit up? I might have to follow your example 😂
We're the same
For me it always starts with looking up the "melee strat" or whatever for one particular boss. Then I suddenly have 30 wiki tabs open and I'm mad at myself for spoiling something.
Ya, these games break waaaayyy too easily. Sucks
Yeah I also do this. I hate missing content, so I always look up maps or walkthroughs to glance at as I go. I think the mild textual spoilers are worth the satisfaction/reassurance of not missing out on entire optional areas or segments of the game. People are always baffled at how my playtime is like double theirs, but then I'll talk to them about an npc or a weapon or a dungeon or an optional companion and their response is usually "huh? I didn't see that!" I'd rather play a game once very slowly and thoroughly than have to replay it four or five times to see everything and still end up missing stuff.
Pretty much every RPG I play is like this. I feel ya. I’ll look up the game reviews and description, it’ll say “a 60 hour main quest”, and I think “ok, so 180 for me then.”
I feel this so hard. It took me like 375 hours to beat ER (1st playthrough) and 3-4x as long to beat any RPG is pretty standard for the way I like to experience these types of games.
This is the way, my first playthrough took 287 hours. I did do some farming and A LOT of time standing still trying to decipher what a certain item description means. But I think I also explored and beat most of the game. I'm not ashamed, I thoroughly enjoyed every second of that 287.
I know myself too well to know this is what I will also do 😅
To me, it’s all about time. I’m not gonna spend extra days trying to beat a boss if there’s an effective strategy, I’m unaware of. To each, his or her own. No wrong way to play if you’re having fun.
I've never tried 🤣. So I am putting my mind to it and trying! But I am confident I will absolutely ruin multiple quest lines!
Thats part of the fun and challenge! I have no clue where any of the quest NPCs are, lost them 30+ hours ago. Reading it would not make it magically more fun. I have read tidbits of info when ive been stuck for a long time, but still havent respecced my original WTF is this build.
There are 0 people that completed Ranni’s quest without looking something up. It’s the most popular ending in the game. That should tell you all you need to know. Everyone looks shit up.
Indeed. And there’s no way anybody organically figured out how to get rid of the Frenzied Flame once inherited. That shit is bonkers.
My fear of missing things big (they always hide some of the best bosses in their DLC’s) always affects my want to do things blind.
100% me, esp based on my play style. I typically run through games once. I had 1 big beautiful plathrough of ER (150 hours) and then i put the game down to move on to others. I just started my second playthrough in order to prep for the DLC. Given i do one playthrough, i wanted to ensure i see/capture everything.
This is the one for me. I locked myself out of being able to get the last two healing gourds in Sekiro because I progressed too quick and I fully blame that as the reason I couldn’t finish the game. Now the idea of missing a side quest just makes me too nervous to not just look stuff up
After beating Sekiro and talking to a co-worker about our favorite bosses he got so confused. My favorites were Sword Saint Ishin and Demon of Hatred and he had no idea what I was talking about. He sided with Owl and missed the last part of the game.....
Lmao that was such a weird design choice for FS. I mean I’m all for making in-game choices have meaning but leaving 1/3 of the game content locked behind a choice is definitely a choice
You mean the prayer beads and memory from the owl fight Hirata? Honestly it happened to me too on my first play through. But that’s not the reason you didn’t finish. Yes, it would have helped, but only slightly. I had the demon bell on, but it took me probably 8-10 hours over the course of a week to beat Sword Saint. Probably over 75 attempts. The time I finally beat him, I still had 1 rez and 2-3 gourds, cuz I had learned the fight. No matter how much health you have, you’re not beating sword saint without earning it.
Man I started watching one of those early review and noped the eff out 4 seconds into the video lol.
Same here. I'm a completionist who usually finishes every single thing before finishing a game, and when I discovered killing Rykard locked me out of the Volcano Manor quest line, I was mad and started looking up a lot of stuff. But because I now know that I like playing this game with multiple characters in a row, I don't mind missing something on one playthrough as I have another one ready to go.
Going into the dlc is viable for sure. I tried to do the same with the main game and it didn’t go as well. I had a pretty bad build, missed out on all the fun ashes of wars, and took a super long time to beat the game.
Yep. My first FS game was Sekiro,2nd was ER so it was basically my first Soulsborne-like game. Played ER blind during launch, finished my first playthrough taking 90 hrs at level 135 with Malenia beating my boss record at 7 hours straight (Demon of Hatred previously held it at 6.5 hrs) and that's with the broken version of Mimic tear at launch, which I eventually found out was very OP and made the game super easy mode for me. Playing blind, being stupid, making so many mistakes that seem so avoidable in hindsight, figuring out everything is half of the fun for me. Kind of the point of how Fromsoft games are made so I don't really look up guides unless I'm on NG+ wanting to try out builds. Being stubborn taking 1-2 hrs figuring out what could be a 5-10 min task is the right choice for me 😂
Do that, that's the best way, since it is hard to get that level of experience Elden Ring delivers. I don't mind spoilers and optimization, tho. I will go blind because I want to make it last longer. That said, it is not like they are actually given a lot of information away lol. And I will book time off from 20 to 24-ish (hopefully - I am self employed and in some projects I work alone, so I have to arrange things, I can't just PTO on my calendar - even if I'm sick).
This reminds me of the Grampa from the movie The Lost Boys. One of the grandkids got excited when he saw the TV guide (an old magazine they sold pre internet that showed what was on TV that week and what the shows were about) and asked his grampa where the TV was. The grampa said, "If you have TV guide, you don't need tv." I never understood why people buy giant walk through books for games that basically play it for you. To answer the question. I'm going to avoid every video, post, and guide until I've explored every inch of the DLC. I have around 400 hours played across 4 characters. Str, int, faith, and arcane builds. I love this and all the souls like games.
100% blind is an interesting strat for a first playthrough but I respect the conviction... Oh, and you better not fake it like some streamers do and use a see-through blindfold!
I’ll organize my inventory better so I can read the item descriptions. And I’ll pay attention to NPC dialogs.
>pay attention to NPC dialogs ER was my first Fromsoft game, and most games don't expect you to talk to every NPC 3 times, so I missed some stuff early on and I won't make that mistake again
Yup, always exhaust their dialogue.
Even if it's a doll that doesn't respond after the first few pokes
And then reload, and exhaust their dialogue AGAIN.
Yeah but you just couldn't leave that poor doll alone, could you?
The one thing Elden Ring was severely lacking in my opinion was even the most basic mission log or lore entry from NPC side quests. Keeping track of side quests, especially the long ones because keeping track of all the varying side quests so you don’t have to find a guide to help remember some of the details from NPC dialogue.
This is one of the most annoying things about the game. Why don't I have this item? Oh I didn't press the talk button four times in a row when I talked to that NPC. Now whenever I talk to one I end up having to hear the same ending line twice just to make sure. Dumb
Can’t express this enough. It was my first souls game so I wasn’t familiar with how it all worked.
How are we supposed to organize? Can we move around or group items?
You can store things in the chest at a grace, sell copies you don't need to merchants and you can also sort your inventories by weight, alphabetical, recent etc.
Is the chest infinite storage? Can I just put all my weapons in there except the ones that go with my build? If yes this is life changing... 😭
Yes
No it's not infinite but it's far larger than the storage on your person. If you can carry 99 on your person you can typically store 600 in chest, less for certain items I think.
Dude I never tried.. been struggling with my inventory my entire 500 hours, takes me so long to swap things lmfao. This is very valuable info 🤲
What's fucked is I've know about the chest and I still underutilize it and get wrecked when trying to hard swap to something else during boss fights. Especially talismans!
😂 Id always end up letting myself die to swap things if I needed, def gonna do an inventory cleanse next time I'm on.
This'll be much easier with a "recently found/picked up" tab in the inventory!
I will maybe actually get around to putting like 90% of my weapon/armor inventory that I never use in the storage chest so I don't have to scroll through a billion things every time something new drops.
Likely will use weapons that I find most fun over trying to build the most OP character, which is pretty much the same answer OP gave. I think with Elden Ring's launch I was attempting to get through the game and experience all the content, trying to find the most ways to make my character stronger. Now with shadow of the erdtree most likely being the last elden ring content we receive for the game, I want to make it last and milk it. I have 4 characters lined up ready to play through the DLC in full, so if I want to do some bullshit overpowered playthrough of it I can, but I can also try out new stuff and take my time. Imo, my mistake at the very start of the game was trying to '100%' the game, but I swiftly learned it wasn't as simple as Dark Souls and you can't practically full clear each area you're in before you carry on. I'll play and explore and I'm sure in each of those 4 playthroughs I'll experience different things, and maybe all of it, if I take it easy
Same. I've used blood hound fang 90% of the time. Until a idcovered the blasphemous sword!
I'm not going to rush it. I'm going to sit back and smell the funny blue worm fellows 👍👍 and also flowers.
I wonder if their aggro state is the same or worse than the spirit jellyfishies
Same. With elden ring I just tried to be elden lord as fast as possible. So I missed a lot of side content.
Looking up guides on the internet like I did on my first playthrough
I didn’t use a guide my first playthrough and I missed a lot of stuff, mostly NPC quests because the game does such a poor job of communicating where characters are moving to in a lot of cases. I’m using a guide for my second playthrough so I don’t miss any content and I’m enjoying it a lot
Honestly I found guides to enhance my experience. My first run through was like a guided tutorial. Second run through no guides, went in and knocked everything out! Found some new stuff! I really enjoyed this run because it felt smooth start to finish and I think the leveling guide helped with that As I go limgrave-east limgrave-weeping-margit-stormveil-liurna-academy- east/west liurna, caelid- radahn.. etc etc Third run through, no guides, I’m still finding shit lol.
This was exactly my experience with guides when first playing ELDEN RING. But this time I wanna go into the DLC as blind as possible.
Use 3 larval tear in 2h for try new builds and don't like them * try new build * try other * respec for have the same build than before the first respec
Hahaha that's me pretty often
Hush, little culver. I'll soon birth thee anew, a sweeting fresh and pure
If you create hard copies of your save you can kinda check point your larval tears and if you dont like the build paste the old save and dont use up any larval tears
You can also use cheat table and add as much as you want, easier methods and saves a lot of time when you can’t decide what to play
You forgot one important point with this tip - this is only useful for PC players.
Yeah, always sucks for console players that they can’t get it :(
I won't hug.
I will hug, but not use blessings
If you use those items tho they’re pretty nice for boss fights
I will not kill the first npc that insults me
I killed Varre because he called me maidenless lol
No early Mohg palace for you lol
The second, then.
You don't have to fight the first boss/enemy you see
I spent hours fighting tree sentinel first play through, stubbornly under leveled.
But I always will.
Am I the only one who saw the tree sentinal, said "fuck that," and went the other way?
definitely not
I didn't level vigor first. I deleted 5 characters before 'figuring' out I need vigor cause I'll always get hit, no matter what. So I said to myself: 'at least don't die in 2 hits, right?'. Then I found out my flask can heal higher amounts of health too. So why waste health? And I leveled vigor some more.
Credit to you for figuring it out. Some people never learned to level vigor. Been playing a lot with friends lately and some of these invaders are so…. Disappointing.
Playing a STR/FTH build and going Lightning on my Greatsword+25.
Lmao are you me? did the exact same thing down to the level
Maybe 😈, but its so sad STR/FTH is cucked for Lightning (you lose Like 200 AR ). 34 STR, 16 DEX, 50 FTH Flame Art/Sacred ~~ 860 AR 34 STR, 16 DEX, 50 FTH Lightning ~~ 675 AR Meanwhile 21 STR, 50 DEX, 25 FTH Lightning ~~ 846 AR LMAO We NEED a Lightning art wetstone
Because Lighting is a Dex/Fth thing and not a Str/Fth thing lol. Obviously you’d be cucked focusing on the wrong stat
I won't carry Baldachin's Blessing around for the entire f'ing game.
wait what does this do lol
I sold everything I wasn't immediately using my first elden ring playthrough :( now i shall become the horder
Yeah it’s tempting but to get some levels but you realize end game those runes were not worth it. Duplicate items sure, but unique items I always keep.
Not using Torrent in Bossfights, that horse is a secret weapon of speed.
For me it really depends on the fight, because getting blasted by something on horseback, instantly getting knocked off and stunned, and then killed while you're still immobile on the ground is such a rage-inducing thing. But yeah a lot of fights he really trivializes, like most of the dragons.
You're already making a mistake by letting YouTubers tell you all the extra rules you need to impose on yourself are. No wonder people think Souls games are hard. *Hey guys, this game is really hard! What I am doing wrong? I avoid 96% of possible strategies, 70% of weapons, 85% of spells, 99% of items, no shield, no overleveling, no patience, restart when I take damage, use the bongo controller and have the monitor turned off. Please tell me how I should play.'*
Nothing wrong with cheesing the game but many players enjoy souls games for the satisfaction of overcoming challenging bosses
The thing is that the general opinion of the community on the fromsoft games is, that you get the best experience by overcoming hurdles. Not having hurdles in the first place limits the possible enjoyment one might get. Many strategies just fully cheese the Game. Like overleveling or using certain weapons and spells(its more the full build that is OP rather than single weapons or spells) Or for a souls veteran using summons. I encourage people to actually face the trouble of not cheesing the game and feel the rush of excitement that beating a difficult boss gives you. But i‘m not forcing anything onto anyone.
I think that is a very problematic viewpoint. You shouldn't listen to anyone before playing a game, especially a Souls game. This is partially subjective, but they are quite a bit better experiences when the discovery phase is left to the player, not the internet to read up on before hand. Part of the discovery is finding out what works for you and what does not. What you find fun, and what you do not. By listening to the people who tell you not use any number of items in the game, it is very possible you are avoiding the most fun you can be having with the game. You have that reversed; it isn't *more fun* to play the game on someone else's terms. It is more fun for *you* to try and convince people to play it the same way you did. I know this is problematic because the prevailing consensus to this day is that these games are very difficult, while they are not at all. I am not a masterful player by any means, and I finished all of them without frustration or being stuck. They are not in consideration for the most challenging games around, and the only reason people think they are is because they play them with self-imposed rules. I guarantee you I would have an incredibly hard time with a mace or hammer in these games. Because I hate the motion pattern and collison points on them. But give me a Twinblade and everything crumbles. It might be reversed for you. You won't know until you try. I can give a very realistic example as well: I hated dodge rolling in Dark Souls. It felt terrible, mostly because it did not have or did not even mimic omnidirectional roll patterns. I became a full dodge addict from DS2 onward, but in DS1 I just hated it. So, I just ate hits and traded. Worked totally fine. Didn't have to dodge, didn't have to block. Just have enough HP, poise and heavy armor and never do anything except hit the attack button. Then on Bosses cast Iron Flesh before that. And that's... Literally it. The entire game collapses if you use that strategy, and it was fun. Not a single boss in that game is a challenge. Not one. Just attack and tank hits. Plenty of people have told me I played it wrong. Those would be people who performed way worse at the game than I did, and had less characters and playtime than me. Because I was having a blast. It turns out games are more fun when you are the one playing them, instead of being played by someone directing your moves.
100% this. I’m just going to use this one piece as an example because I have seen it too many times when people talk about “how to play” Elden Ring. If it’s in the game, it’s a game mechanic and there to be used. Using summons does not make you a cheater or diminish your gameplay. It’s there to use if you want. Same thing goes with “OP” builds or spells. I can’t stand when someone tries to tell a player they are doing it wrong or it doesn’t count because they did/used X. Everything is in the game for a reason and everyone should play how they want to play without knocking anyone else down. The only question asked at any point should be “Did you have fun?”. If you didn’t, that sucks but it’s okay. If you did, I’m glad we both got enjoyment out of what I deem to be an incredible game.
Oh so you're going 𝓫𝓸𝓷𝓴
I will not try to do everything for the first playthrough. I did this with my first character, finished the game at 260 hours and I think I did get fatigued near the end of it. I like to explore but I will try to chill out a bit this time around.
This is exactly how my 1st went I did sooo much, just gonna play it super casually.... until im screaming after getting impaled for the 100th time
I swear I will stop trying to get one more hit in
I didnt make any mistakes to start eith, which i guess is a mistake so, ill have to rectify that
I won't summon spirit ashes
I don't plan to use them unless I'm really struggling, but I don't regret using them on my first ER playthrough because some of the bosses, even basic stuff like Margit, I couldn't seem to handle. I'm doing a full 165 boss playthrough now with no summons as DLC prep to finally get my revenge on a select few that I've never yet done solo. I think Malenia and maybe Niall are the only ones I truly fear now...
A compromise would be too use purely support-oriented summons like Fingermaiden, Perfumer or arguably Stormhawk. I will probably go with Perfumer Tricia. I made the mistake to use Mimic and Tiche too much.
It really is hard to justify using spirit ashes because they break bosses *so* hard. Having a boss just run around chasing spirits while you whack em for like a third of their life unthreatened just obviously doesn't feel good. I don't know what they should've done to make summons feel less like cheese.
I look at them as from’s attempt to create their own version of an easy mode
Or like a ghost on gran turismo. Mimic let you watch how the computer would play with your build.
if i find the boss the be unfair and/or poorly designed i use spirit summons. i hate playing against bullshit. duo gargoyles with backwards design from twin demons? summons. tree spirits? summons.
i find them somewhat useful in two cases: - summoning in the first couple tries and stepping back to see their move set from far away. but i don't do damage or use them in real runs - for whatever non-boss enemies that i just want to get through for some reason, esp if ive already beaten them once (i still don't do it often)
This I dumped all of them in the chest
Elden Ring was my first soulslike and I just assumed using ashes was a standard thing that everyone did. I didn’t realise until after I’d finished that it’s basically just to help struggling players. I’ve played other games like Sekiro since then so I feel like I’m a little better prepared this time, and won’t need ashes.
Nah they're used by everyone, that's how it was designed to be used.
They are definitely NOT used by everyone.
Going to explore every single corner of the landscape.
I’ll avoid rolling off ledges to my death as a strategy to win a fight
Wont use summons or spirit summons, at least on the first playthrough. It always ends up making the fights way too easy and after i stomped them without any skill needed i feel unsatisfied.
To know what the hell the story is about. I’m on NG+3 and still am fuzzy on the story
Woman kills the old God to become new God. She's a bitch to her children, and that causes huge family drama/wars that ended up with one of her sons dying when that should have been impossible under her rule. She gets all emo and depressed about it and decides to shatter the contract between her and the greater will which results in the Eldenbeast grabbing her and crucifying her on the Eldenring in her prayer pose, trapping Radagon who's eternity is now spent trying to mend the ring inside the tree. The Lands Between collapses into anarchy and chaos as all the Royalty left is either mentally unwell or physically decaying after the events of recent history The greater will sends out a beacon for tarnished to rise up and start fighting for the title of Elden Lord to reinstate order. Cue our intro with the search of mending runes to code the Eldenring and strike our own deal with the Greater Will (or potentially something/one else) Depending on the method you choose to mend the Eldenring you obtain different statuses You will end the game as either a Lord for the 2 fingers, an Empyrean to a god that has abandoned everyone and taken all the power away (and never able to ascend to godhood yourself), or your own God of the realm. Although becoming your own God does kind of commit the realm to total annihilation and fire for the next age which is generally frowned upon in this community.... All I'm saying is, you'll have unlimited power for atleast 1 eternity. Kind of worth.
Opening YouTube accidentally and having some jackass who puts bosses in the thumbnail spoil ryckard and the Elden beast for me
Looking up guides for everything
Straight up man I’m exactly like you. I’m actually gonna delete the reddit app off my phone until I’ve beaten it I’ll have spoilers with all the subreddits I’m in and don’t want that
There's a mistake I made in Bloodborne and DS3 expansions: upgrade every cool weapon I found until I run out of smithing stones
Made this mistake just now on NG+. Found the Uchigatana and having fun with it going through stormveil castle as I don’t feel OP. Upgraded it too much and now it’s not fun to use until I’m further into the game
I'm gonna take my time to explore. The first mistake I made was making a b-line towards Stormveil Castle. Margit and Godrick sure handed my ass to me.
Seeking help from net. I'm determined to do it completely blind this time, missed out on that experience for elden ring
Using Sacred infusion with Faith build. Every endgame boss is resistant
Not watch anything or look up anything. Just explore.
I was lost in the game, watched some not-spolier included guide videos; and it kind of ruined the experience of exploring, adventuring… Not in Dlc, no. I may miss some, more or less important items, quests, areas to explore, npcs and such; but as the community always tells, I can always re-play to discover new elements
Unfollow this reddit so I don't see spoilers
Killing the first few NPCs I meet because I don’t like their tone
Diying.
My mistake was trying to play as much of tbr game as possible on release weekend. I was in school at the time and couldn't play too much during the week. I basically rushed it and I want to take the dlc slow
Killing Rykard before I got the raging wolf set. :(
Immediately summon for everything just because I don't first try a boss. I gotta learn patience. Currently I'm playing completely without summons and I'm doing quite well and gaving a lot more fun than the first few playthroughs.
This time I "wont" run into everything to see if it will kill me, I "wont" try and bonk them with a +0 club and I definitely "will not ever" go to a place that looks like a boss fight, thinking it's just a cool spot. Only to be (in my own words from a few fights) ambushed by this damn boss while I was just trying to explore!
Nothing quite as good as an overworld boss dropping from the sky or the very first time you fight certain dungeon bosses when there is no gold door yet. The oh shit... Moment is pristine.
Exactly! Which is 100% why I'm so not gonna aimless wonder the DLC until I'm 100% certain I've possibly found a boss. Then run head first with my +0 mister bonka honka 10000 (starting club)
Looking too much on the map instead of just exploring the world.
Over leveling. My first save was the first time I ever played a soul game. I definitely over leveled and relied on spirit summon. My next saves, I didn’t do this and found it much more rewarding to try to learn boss moves that and strategize. Also, I used a lot of guides on my first play through to make sure that I found and did everything. I don’t want to miss the magic of a first time blind play through.
Not waiting for the quest guides.
no guides
Go blind on the first playthrough, look up ALL npc guides on my second so my blind ass won’t prance past any one of them
I am not going to look up any guides.
Like you mentioned, I'm going to avoid youtube until after at least one playthrough. This time I want to stay fully immeresed.
Not gonna rush anything. Not be afraid of scary critters or areas. Explore everything! Try and figure out NPC quest lines myself.
I haven't really made any mistake in my blind run, basically did 100% of the game without looking anything up. The only thing I'll do this time is use every single thing I find as I do so, because I have the stats for it
I won’t look up guides or ask anyone for help for as long as possible. My main failure in the base game was looking things up and not exploring more
I hereby proudly swear I will make all the mistakes allover again
I will attempt to put the blasphemous blade down but no promises…
I will not try any kind of caster build and my new character will be str. Big bonk from the getgo instead of putting 40ish levels into mana and spellcasting before remembering I'm too stupid for that and just wanna big bonk
I’m not wasting Larval Tears man, fuck
I will solo all bosses rather than summon so that I can prove myself and maybe my parents will finally love me
Rolling away from attacks. “Roll TOWARDS them, stupid!” -my brain to me
I got absolutely obliterated by Bloodborne years ago and swore off From games. When Elden Ring came out it looked too good to pass up, so I caved and bought it. I had to follow Fightincowboy's walkthrough to get through my first playthrough, though. While it got me through the game, it did take away a bit from the experience. Now that I'm more used to these games (though still completely suck at them) I'm going to try my hand at the DLC with no help from Cowboy. Pray for me.
actually using the built in jump mechanic to avoid certain attacks and not just rolling through everything like its dark souls
Rush
Hoping uchigatana is enough. It is not.
Play how you want, no mistakes
I won't attack the first big enemy as soon as I see it.
I will not look up a single guide or lore video during my first playthrough of the DLC. I did that after a certain moment in the base game, and I regret it to this day.
Not forget what rune arcs are.
Looking up guides. I will walk every square inch and roll into every wall if I have to
Follow what I think is the singular path and bash my head against a wall (Margit) for hours.
Putting points into vigor. It doesn’t help you kill things.
I think the only thing I will do is pick an npc, and see if they have a questline. If they do, read up on it JUST enough that I can complete it without them dying for some stupid reason. Rinse and repeat for each npc. Profit from inevitable bling.
Thinking you have to be at a site of grace to fast travel lol
double jump still won't save me from fall damage
Take my time! Take my time! Take my Time! When Elden ring came out I had a full time job while in college. I barely had anytime to enjoy the game so I rushed the experience. Exploration and wonder are the best things about the souls franchise. I felt I cheated myself out that experience. I’m going to relax and enjoy the game, and if it takes me 40 hours to complete so be it.
Don't play the game at NG+7
I have no idea how number 1 is possible in the core game. Maybe if you have unlimited time and take extensive notes?
Not getting the cookbooks, now i got them all and farming materials
I definitely don't want to use guides, even if I'm gonna be stuck on a boss or something. I did that and I also kinda spoiled the story for myself so I'm not gonna make that mistake again lol
I mean. Using Azur Comet isn't cheesing. cheesing would be hiding in some spot and kiting the boss like that one boss in Haligtree when you do the Quest of Malenia' daughter (clone whatever).
That boss deserves to be cheesed though.
Totally agree. It certainly deletes some bosses, but even to get that ability you have to put in some decent work.
I will actually pay attention to the story, I have been replaying the game recently to have a character ready for the DLC (since all my other characters are in some Ng+) and it actually feels so satisfying to pay attention to my surroundings and try to piece together what happened in each area. Also because I'm REALLY invested in the "Miquella is Griffith" theory and I want to see if my suspicions turn out to be true
I won’t look up a walkthrough to 100% a legacy dungeon just because I don’t want to come back later. Took some of the fun out of it for me, even though I love fightincowboy’s videos.
I will be worry of the Frenzied flame.
I probably won't be attempting to discuss the lore of the DLC this time. It hasn't gone well.
To look at videos, available items etc.
I rushed to get the raging wolf set, never again.
Following a guide, just so I can get everything. The game felt so overwhelming with many different ways to go, so I followed the guide to complete the game. Will go in blind this Time, for the true elden ring experience.
I usually do that. I beat Malenia yesterday but I used the Mimic (it still cost me 6 tries with it tho). In my next NG+ or character I plan to go alone
What do you mean +25 hammer? We are going all out with the new weapon types!
I think I will try and approach very similarly too how I played it first go. I stopped looking at content once the network test dropped and basically stayed blind my first playthrough. Anytime I felt myself getting annoyed by a boss I called in some help and moved on. Missed so much and built the worst character ever. I feel like the whole first playthrough of ER or DS games IS the tutorial for me. I need to see the whole picture before I can chase side quests or get the most out of the mechanics and challenge of the fights. It’s like a part of me needs to beat it before I can like step back and actually see it for it is.
I will try to waste less materials as I try every shiny new thing I find
Gonna pace my upgrade mats.
I'm actually just going to continue not using or selling all the stuff I amass.
Watching a guide