|OT| Elden Ring - Foul Tarnished, in search of the Elden Ring

LEANIJA

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I keep exploring the map as well. Just made it to the capital and killed Godfrey, the First Elden Lord. compared to those weird captain mobs that roam the streets...he was rather easy. oh and i found the "decrepit" version of the Roundtable Hold within the capital, that was quite cool!


edit:

am i dumb or why does it seem like i dont find equipment better than my starting gear (the confessor gear)? im still wearing that, at level 87.
 
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fearthedawn

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there is very little that is just straight up better, it's mostly tons of sidegrades and fashion alternatives

with how long the game is i was switching around all the time anyway to keep things interesting and in the end was respeccing between 4 different builds
 
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LEANIJA

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Yeah I have also been using the same twin blade that I found early on.
Well Ive upgraded my sword but the clothes are the same still. honestly not sure if thats by design?

ah okay fearthedawn that makes sense. bit weird, but ok :)


edit: also killed Morgott the Omen King ... now unsure how to get to the next area, but will find out tomorrow :) (or maybe go back and kill some earlier bosses to level up some more)
 

Avern

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Spent the night exploring the capital and it's blowing me away. So many interconnected paths and the whole place looks amazing.

I also poured a bunch of smithing stones into the Giant-Crusher, and was initially really happy with how massive this thing is... until I realized that not only was it obscuring the scenery, but also the combat. I ate a few explosive crossbow bolts because the hammer completely blocked my view of the enemy. So uh, neat weapon, but I think I may have to wait for NG+ before I use it more.
 

Joe Spangle

Playing....
Apr 17, 2019
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I started a new character, I choose Wretch so it has been an interesting experience starting the game with basically nothing. The only other souls game that I did it was in DS2.
I started as a wretch. Seemed to take forever to get some clothes and gear.

Im still rocking the straight sword i picked up first as its the only weapon i found in the early game and so started upgrading first and just stuck with it. I have the blood letting thing on it so its alright.
 

Panda Pedinte

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I started as a wretch. Seemed to take forever to get some clothes and gear.

Im still rocking the straight sword i picked up first as its the only weapon i found in the early game and so started upgrading first and just stuck with it. I have the blood letting thing on it so its alright.
I've found some other weapons and I was using the Broadsword for a time, though after getting the Claymore I'm not looking back that sword plus the axe talisman makes the enemies staggers so easily with R2.

I'm also using a spike club for enemies that are weak to strike damage.

Edit: new patch ELDEN RING : Patch Notes 1.03.2

Major items included in the latest update

・Fixed a bug that sometime prevented players from advancing NPC Nepheli Loux’s questline

・Fixed a bug that causes the playable character to die when trying to descend from a spot near Bestial Sanctum

・Fixed a bug that prevented Ash of War, Endure from taking effect

・Fixed a bug in multiplayer that allowed players to teleport others to incorrect map coordinates
I wish they listed all changes instead.
 
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EdwardTivrusky

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Dec 8, 2018
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I'm defo OP and loving it. I opened the Sorcery Academy proper and was expecting it to be tough but as i'm something of a mage myself it was pretty straightforward. lol. Got to the mini-boss in a couple of attempts, took me 5 attempts to clear them, ran around and explored and got wrecked a few times before finding the big boss where i messed up and got melted. However... I went back and did some exploring and found two crystal crabs which gave me the two stone masks which was nice, I also found some secret doorways which led me to a second gate key so i was able to give it to Thops but i don't think that will end well, it is a souls game after all. I then explored more and found Azur's Staff which i thought was going to be great buuuuut i think i still prefer my Meteorite Staff due to the S tier INT scaling. I might have to look that up and compare them though.

Miriam, the character you all had issues with... messed me up a TON too! ha. It took me a LOT of attempts to get her and i ended up going away and doing more exploring and thinking and i found a very nice but very dangerous Mist spell which i was able to use to bait her. She still caused me a ton of trouble due to the speed of her great bow and the AOE on it. She even managed to mess me up with freaking melee when i messed up and went down in the lift. When i came back up she was behind me and sliced me up good.

I'll go back to the Academy tonight and explore another path i saw on the rooftops and have another couple of attempts at the big boss but it's a puzzle boss too so it might take me a while.

I've dropped carrying a shield unless necessary so i can have better rolling and my frost/bleed double hook hatchet is NASTY when i can get some hits in. I'm mainly using Meteorite Staff, Rock Sling, Night Comet and the Great Bow spells along side the hook hatchet thingy.

Advanced a couple of side-quests and fought a couple of the Red NPCs so i'm pretty happy with my progress.
 
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Durante

Durante

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I then explored more and found Azur's Staff which i thought was going to be great buuuuut i think i still prefer my Meteorite Staff due to the S tier INT scaling. I might have to look that up and compare them though.
Staves are interesting, especially if you find the Meteorite staff early. That one is so good at early / mid-early game that for the longest time I thought it's a bit of a "spoiler" for all the other cool staves you find.

But the fact that it can't be upgraded at all, while other weapons upgrade to a silly extent in this game (especially regarding scaling) means it's eventually outclassed severely -- at least for a focused INT build like mine. Interesting design decision on the Meteorite staff, especially since there are basically no weapons like that I remember in any of the Souls games.
 

Arc

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Finished. The final boss was extremely difficult and took me about 3 hours of failed attempts to beat. I need some more time digest it, but I think it's a very good game and is the clear frontrunner for GOTY, but probably not the GOAT. I'm hesitant to say it's the best From game, but it's probably the best realization of the Souls formula. Funny thing is, I borderline hated the first 10 hours or so that I played since I kept on trying to play it like Breath of the Wild, but as I calibrated my expectations I come to really like it. I think Breath of the Wild is a better game overall, but I adore its open world and freedom in traversal which I've yet to see any open world game match yet. Elden Ring does best BotW in a variety of other aspects though (primarily level design, variety of locales, quest design and more interesting loot and items).

The nicest thing I can say about the game is that I started Horizon Forbidden West, and within 30 minutes I was thinking "I kind of want to do NG+ in Elden Ring".
 

kio

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One aspect that I think the game excels is the map. Just by eyeing it you can already find various points of interest and it's so easy locate yourself:

I'm not disagreeing with you but I think you picked the worst map to support your point. You can clearly see a couple of PoI like the castle, the tree and a couple of buildings like the churches, but overall it's the less detailed map in the game, especially when compared with zones like Liurnia or Altus.
 
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Panda Pedinte

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I'm not disagreeing with you but I think you picked the worst map to support your point. You can clearly see a couple of PoI like the castle, the tree and a couple of buildings like the churches, but overall it's the less detailed map in the game, especially when compared with zones like Liurnia or Altus.
Good point!

I just choose one of the earlier maps of the game to avoid spoiling too much stuff ;D
 
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sprinkles

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But the fact that it can't be upgraded at all, while other weapons upgrade to a silly extent in this game (especially regarding scaling) means it's eventually outclassed severely -- at least for a focused INT build like mine. Interesting design decision on the Meteorite staff, especially since there are basically no weapons like that I remember in any of the Souls games.
Meteorite Staff is a bit like the Drake Sword in DS1, really good early on but due to no upgrades severely outclassed mid-endgame.
 
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kio

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So I got a knife that has physical and magical damage, do they stack? Because together that damage should be quite something, but when I tried it it was weak sauce.
They stack but they are mitigated by different resistances, meaning, depending on the enemy, they can be weak to one type of damage and very resistant to the other or moderately resistant to both or some other combination.
 
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It is done. Althought I had to use SAM to get one cheevo since it didn't trigger Elemer never gave me the cheevo

With that said I understand the multiple complains about Malenia's fight. I didn't like the fight but it comes down to the life leech, I think that without it I would have enjoyed the fight waaay more. Sure I abused the Mimic Tear but even then it took me a bunch of tries.

There're still some underground dungeons that I could do but I don't think I'll play at least for a while.
 

kio

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Just had my first multiplayer experience. I bought that blue ring that summons you to the world of whoever's being invaded and when I got there I found 2 red phantoms. The first was a somewhat beefy dude with a big hammer and the second an incantation spammer with some fast dex weapon. They had the decency of fighting 1-on-1 at least. The sorcerer got me to half hp when I decided to switch weapon to my uchi and do a quick RT overhead weapon art that basically one-shot him. The tanky guy was tougher but got more or less the same treatment, he liked to jump RT so I decided to stop him mid-air with the uchi art which staggered him and allowed me to finish the job. Not once did I see the host who was doing god knows what.

I'm 80h in and finally going to enter the capital.
Near the entrance I got scared by the reaperance of Margit. I was minding my own business, checking the map or the inventory, when that bastard started his ominous speech. He got his ass handed to him promptly.
 

Panda Pedinte

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Some ramblings about the lore, mainly for the characters from the opening cinematic but will have spoilers about the whole game so be aware.

"The fallen leaves tell a story"

Shows Marika shattering the elden ring, the next scene is alraedy Radagon trying to mend the ring. This foreshadow a later revelation, Marika and Radagon are one.

"The great Elden Ring was shattered."

"In our home, across the fog, the Lands Between"
Where is across the fog? Why is it called the Lands Between? We know the tarnished were banned from these lands and left it by boat it maybe a central continent only accessible by those touched by grace so the fog may act as some kind of gate like the fog gates we traverse to reach a boss room.

"Now, Queen Marika the Eternal is nowhere to be found..."

Shows Marika in position similar to her statues inside the churches dedicated to her. It's already possible to notice some cracks in her body. When you find her inside the Erdtree she's only being held complete by the rune.

"...and in the Night of the Black Knives, Godwyn the Golden was the first to perish"

It shows the the assassins killing Godwyn, they used Black Knife, going by the item description it was imbued with the power of Rune of Death, this rune was stolen previously. All the assassins in the Black Knive group are women as it appears in their armor description. Still according to the set descriptions, they were all Numen (race of humanoids whose Marika is also said to be one) and had close ties to Marika.

"Soon, Marika's offspring, demigods all, claimed the shards of the Elden Ring."

At this moment it shows a Ranni image, doing her quest we discover that she was also killed almost at the same time as Godwyn and her physical death was her plan all along, as she wanted to ditch her body so her soul was transfered to the a doll.

While the narration is still going for that phrase an image despicting Margit fighting against Radhan.

The mad taint of their newfound strenght triggered the Shattering

The image there despicts Mohg abducting Miquella, we can notice Miquella's cocoon behind Mohg. Examining Mohg's robe describe him both as a Luminary and a raving lunatic, his spear serves as a form of communion with an outer god called Formless Mother.

We end discovering that Mohg abducted Miquella because he wanted to create a new dinasty with Miquella being the head of dinasty and him being his consort.

The second imagem shows Rykard being eaten by a serpent, later when fighting him we discover that he was the serpent and is consuming people to be powerful enough to consume the gods.

"A war from which no lord arose. A war leading to abandonment by the Greater Will."

"Arise now, ye Tarnished. Ye dead, who yet live. The call of long-lost grace speaks to us all"

At this moment some images show a mausoleum/crypt with a lot of dead bodies, some kind of priest must be seeking some tarnished who were brought back to life.

From now on important tarnished will be show:

"Hoarah Loux, chieftain of the badlands."

We discover that he was the first tarnished, being previously Godfrey the first Elden Lord and Marika's first consort. The first time you fight Godfrey you're fighting just an illusion with him being in his prime. After burning the Erdtree and going through the Farum Azula, Godfrey/Hoarah Loux can be fought right before the Erdtree entrance. So far I did not find a reason why he was banished

"The ever-brilliant Goldmask"

There isn't much about Goldmask in the game, he's part of Cohryn quest. Goldmask will be killed by Cohryn once help him discovering that Marika and Radagon are one. If the quest is completed he produces a rune that you can use to mend the Elden Ring.

"Fia, the Deathbed Companion"

Fia is an interesting character, initially she says that some circunstances made her stay at the Roundtable Hold, letting her hold you grant a -5% debuff to your health that can be removed by using a blessing that boost your poise for some seconds. When talking to her she says that she used to receive the warmth of champions and she could lay with a dead noble so they could live again. In short she has an ability to steal life from whoever lays with her. Progressing her quest we discover that she is the companion of Godwyn, Prince of Death. At the end she also produces a rune that can be used to mend the Elden Ring.


"The loathsome Dung Eater"

There isn't much about Dung Eater, during the opening cinematic it shows him being hanged so we can guess he has been an asshole for a long time. Interesting to note that the room where he appears as a red spirit has a lot of dead bodies there, when finding him in the sewers he is slamming his head against the wall. His quest involves you defeating him after he kills a NPC and implanting his curses in his body, this thing must hurt because he screams a lot everytime you do it, by the ending of his quest he also produces a rune to mend the Elden Ring.


"And Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-knowing. A tarnished of no renown"

He is shown to be lying in a coffin and is covered in ears and has a box with eyes. He only talks to you after getting a great rune, and I'm almost 100% sure that he's the one responsible to send the assassin to kill you. He's also the only other tarnished in the Roundtable Hold that doesn't create a rune upon the ending of his quest. Talking about his quest he seemed interesting in becoming the Elden Lord or "helping" you became but later changes his opinion and try to stop you.

"And one other. Whom grace would again bless. Cross the fog to the lands between to stand before the Elden Ring and become the Elden Lord."
This is our character, appears to be in an empty place and dead being revived by the grace and describing what is our initial objective. When reaching the Erdtree for the first time, we discover that it rejected us and upon returning to the Roundtable Hold the Two Fingers is trying to contact the Greater Will but it will take a millenia to have the answer.
 

low-G

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Finished the game. For me, I'll have to really wait to see how I feel after several years, but I think it is game of the millennium. The only other games that I felt as much about in recent years is some of the best VR stuff - which isn't nearly as meaty, and all about modal shifting. Throughout the many hours I spent with Elden Ring I was constantly filled with a passion I can only compare to playing the early few Zelda games when I was much younger, or Chrono Trigger for the first time, or I realized even Mario 3 and Mario World. To a degree I don't feel that I can feel like I used to all those years ago, but Elden Ring is the closest I have come.

Elden Ring, of all the many thousands of video games I've played, is the first I've ever felt as if I was losing control of myself. Even Everquest didn't have this power over me. Yes, it affected my quality of work. I don't think it quite affected my family life. But it was getting to the point where it was negatively affecting me as a human, such power it had over me. At least now I can have sympathy for those people who purposefully avoid video games, knowing that they could lose themselves to them. That was not typical for me.

I think on one hand, Elden Ring may have ruined games to a degree for me. I don't think I have the respect for lesser open world games anymore. I felt myself developing a scorn for their worthlessness. On the other hand, it has brought back the magic of video games into my heart. So when it comes to other genres of games, I think I may feel a bit more passion than I had before. I did take breaks from Elden Ring to play classic titles and a little VR, and both felt quite good to me. But your Far Crys and Elder Scrolls? I think I'm just going to uninstall all of those I haven't yet finished because there is no chance I will waste my time on such garbage.
 

QFNS

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Magic just helped me absolutely CRUSH a boss, I got 5 levels afterwards, lmao. I think it had phases and probably had cool attacks based on the stuff I saw streamers doing but I didn't see any of that because a magic lazer beam just nuked it from orbit.

It was Mohg, Lord of Blood-- though he's basically just an upgraded version of Mohg the Omen in the sewers. At least in phase 1.

Cool fight actually. I did end up just using the Kamehameha, but the few times I fought him without it seemed very cool. Lots of blood loss and blood magic, some fire. Definitely felt a lot more fair than some other bosses I've tried. Looking at you, Fire Giant.

The phase 2 thing definitely has a cool gimmick and I understand what to do and how to get around it, but the lazer beam doesn't care about that sort of thing. If you're nuking hard enough it won't get a chance to get the Nihil x3 off and RUIN you with that spell.
 

kio

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I consider myself a thorough explorer that looks at every nook and cranny before moving on to the next area/map/dungeon. The fact I'm finding +2 amulets having never found the +0 or +1 versions is driving me insane... How big is this damn thing?
 

「Echo」

鈴鹿御前。
Nov 1, 2018
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Mt. Whatever
Had my first crash at 111 Hours.
The only thing that's changed about my PC recently is upgrading from 1080ti -> 3070ti.

Didn't change my settings or anything. I noticed less dropped frames since the upgrade. So i'm hoping the freeze is just a one-off.

I'd estimate my journey is about 50% done. I've apparently touched 180 of 308 Grace points.
 
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QFNS

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HELL YEAH. Finally beat Malenia. What an insanely overtuned boss.

I used cheese strats right from the go. Almost 2 full hours of wipes trying to get into a place where I could make a win out of whatever happened in the first phase. Black Knife Tiche put in some really good work for the team, but in the winning run Mimic Tear and dual Katanas won out. I got really lucky on the 2nd phase and a bleed triggered at a really helpful moment and she went for the flower attack on the mimic which gave me time to go for the Kamehameha since she'd be stationary long enough for it to connect.

There's really no cheese for this boss. Its INSANELY overtuned. I think if they removed the health leech on blocked attacked it would go a long way to balancing it. That she heals so damn fast on attacks that do zero damage to me is just bonkers. Can probably remove 1 series on the anime sword attacks too without hurting anyone.

Onward to do some lore stuff!
 

low-G

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Even the jellyfish has a tragic backstory, complete with environmental storytelling. :cryblob:
I was not ready for that... :surrenderblob:
I was so happy they actually followed up on that. Impressed, shocked, satisfied.
 

Stevey

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I've got a feling I've missed loads of NPCs but trying not to look at any guides for the first playthrough
 

Panda Pedinte

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I've got a feling I've missed loads of NPCs but trying not to look at any guides for the first playthrough
It's bound to happen in the first playthrough, even though I found a lot of NPCs I also ended messing various quests.
 

LEANIJA

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I look up stuff specifically when I'm stuck, otherwise avoid guides.
But there's been some quests where i had no idea, not a single clue where to even begin looking.... so I'd rather risk minor spoilers than scour the whole map for a single item i didn't know i needed ;)
 
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Panda Pedinte

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In my second character I'm consulting the wiki, at least in Elden Ring the quests are very lenient allowing you to jump some steps but you may miss some info.
 
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fearthedawn

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I've got a feling I've missed loads of NPCs but trying not to look at any guides for the first playthrough
I did the same except for confirming my assumptions about the end so i knew i could just go ahead and not worry about going past a point and miss the opportunity to get multiple endings with a single save.

Looking it up now, i completely missed one big questline and skipped some smaller parts but other than that i'm proud to say i found most of it (and spent probably 50h of my 200h just running around looking for quest stuff so i understand anybody not wanting to go through that)
 
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Durante

Durante

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I look up stuff specifically when I'm stuck, otherwise avoid guides.
But there's been some quests where i had no idea, not a single clue where to even begin looking.... so I'd rather risk minor spoilers than scour the whole map for a single item i didn't know i needed ;)
My plan for Souls games (including Elden Ring) is always to never read anything on the first playthrough, and then do any questlines I missed and want to complete on NG+.
 

Le Pertti

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My plan for Souls games (including Elden Ring) is always to never read anything on the first playthrough, and then do any questlines I missed and want to complete on NG+.
Yeah this is the first game in a long time where I refuse to look up guides or anything. I want to figure out things myself and if I need help I rely on messages in game or ask here.
 

SaberVS7

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Only true Rick and Morty fans will get this.

Anyway, we running a password or not?
 

yuraya

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Doing my SL1 run and finally beat the sentinel tree in front of the capital. By far n away the hardest so far. Needed like 25 tries because he insta kills you with any of his moves. No room for error and all your moves do so little damage to him. The blood swipe ash helps but he can change direction of his axe attacks so fast and you are fucked. Even if he touches you with his shield a little you are done. It was really a grind.

Gotta say the SL1 run is amazing in this game because the Radagon soreseal talisman along with the faith and dex talismans create so much room for weapons you can use. And you can get all those talismans very early on + a little grind for all the smithing stones until you get the bearings.
 

LEANIJA

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Doing my SL1 run and finally beat the sentinel tree in front of the capital. By far n away the hardest so far. Needed like 25 tries because he insta kills you with any of his moves. No room for error and all your moves do so little damage to him. The blood swipe ash helps but he can change direction of his axe attacks so fast and you are fucked. Even if he touches you with his shield a little you are done. It was really a grind.

Gotta say the SL1 run is amazing in this game because the Radagon soreseal talisman along with the faith and dex talismans create so much room for weapons you can use. And you can get all those talismans very early on + a little grind for all the smithing stones until you get the bearings.
What's a SL1 run?
 

yuraya

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What really blows my mind is you don't have to fight any main bosses at all in this game until your reach the capital. And apparently some speedrunners have glitched their way all the way too Azula without fighting any bosses at all lol.

Also I watched the launch trailer finally since I beat the game and that was sooooo good.

Also I watched some of the recent Vatya videos about the secrets in this game and its absolutely insane wtffff.


What's a SL1 run?
You have to start as wretched class in this game and beat it without leveling up.

In the souls trilogy its the deprived class.
 

sprinkles

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What really blows my mind is you don't have to fight any main bosses at all in this game until your reach the capital. And apparently some speedrunners have glitched their way all the way too Azula without fighting any bosses at all lol.
The Any% record is under 20mins now. More time spent running around for upgrading the weapon than fighting bosses (3 total).
 
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Hektor

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What really blows my mind is you don't have to fight any main bosses at all in this game until your reach the capital. And apparently some speedrunners have glitched their way all the way too Azula without fighting any bosses at all lol.
Don't you have to beat Margit and Godrick? Or are their teleports to bypass Stormveil?