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

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

Ok. I know it under the name "chromatic aberration".

I don't like it either, and I tend to disable it where possible, along with depth of field, film grain, and other such effects that imitate the limitations of recording instruments.

For some reason, however, its implementation never bothered me in Elden Ring; not beyond the first few minutes anyways.

It's strange that there is no native option to disable it on PC, though; Bloodborne was very heavy-handed with it, and it's hard to find a discussion of Bloodborne that does not bring this up as a negative. It's puzzling that, after all that, From did not get the message that many people intensely dislike that effect.

 

[fearthedawn]

Chroma shift, chromatic aberration, sometimes color fringe, the beast has many names.

...

In my case it can be headache inducing, so I just used mods to disable it and the vignette, the downside being that I had to disable the anticheat and be offline all the time.

You're not alone, I had to do the same, it's like my eyes are constantly trying to comfortably focus on the image but can't. It's straining and prolonged exposure triggers migraines. When I disable chromatic abomination in games it's like putting on glasses and I can finally see properly.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

Ray tracing is here, plus buffs all around except the hitbox reduction in bold.

ELDEN RING update 1.09 is now available.


New feature

Ray Tracing support has been added.

Ray Tracing can be activated in the settings menu:

• PS5 / XSX: Game Options → Ray Tracing
• PC: Graphics → Ray Tracing Quality

Please note that performance - such as frame rate and resolution - may be impacted while playing with Ray Tracing on.

The minimum and recommended technical specification to use Ray Tracing can be found at the end of the patch notes.

PvP-exclusive balance adjustments

The adjustments in this section do not affect single-player or cooperative play.

• The Inescapable Frenzy incantation power and grab angle have been increased.
• The Lifesteal Fist skill power, range and grab angle have been increased.
• Decreased the power of dual wield jumping attacks.
• Decreased the damage motion of heavy and heavy running attacks of Fist and Claw weapon types.
• Decreased the power of the Founding Rain of Stars spell.
• Decreased the spell enhancement effect of the Terra Magica spell.
• Decreased the damage and poise damage of the Wave of Gold skill when hitting an opponent over a certain distance.
• Decreased the effectiveness of the Determination and Royal Knight's Resolve skills.
• Decreased the effects of Contagious Fury skill of the Jellyfish Shield.
• Decreased the effectiveness of the Claw Talisman.
• Decreased the effectiveness of the Lord of Blood’s Exultation Talisman.
• Decreased the attack power buff granted by the White Mask head armor.
• Decreased the jumping attack damage buff granted by the Raptor's Black Feathers armor.
• Decreased the damage buff granted by Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear, Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear, Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear, and Holy-Shrouding Cracked Tear when activated with the Flask of Wondrous Physick.

General balance adjustments

• Added an invincibility window when respawning in the colosseum .
• Increased the scaling of the following attributes when infusing weapons with certain Ashes of War: Magic / Fire / Flame Art / Lightning / Sacred
• Increased the attribute scaling of the following weapon types: Colossal Sword / Great Axe / Hammer / Flail / Great Hammer / Colossal Weapon
• Increased the speed, range and recovery time of some attacks for the following weapon types: Great Hammer / Great Axe / Great Sword / Curved Greatsword
• Flail weapons changes:
  • Increased the speed of some attacks.
  • Reduced attack recovery time.
  • Increased poise when using two-handed attacks.
• Increased running attacks speed and reduced attack recovery time for the following weapon types: Straight Sword / Curved Sword / Katana / Twinblade Sword / Axe / Hammer / Halberd
• Increased the first attack speed for the following weapon types: Straight Sword / Curved Sword / Whip
• Increased the speed of guard counters for the following weapon types: Straight Sword / Great Sword / Colossal Sword / Great Curved Sword / Katana / Twinblade Sword / Axe / Great Axe / Flail / Great Hammer / Spear / Great Spear / Halberd
• Reduced the attack recovery time for Whip weapons.
• Increased the damage of Claw weapons.
• Added Holy damage and Faith scaling to the Great Club.
• Increased damage negation when blocking Holy damage and decreased damage negation when blocking damage from other affinities.
• Increased the effectiveness of the Twinblade Talisman.
• Slightly reduced rolling travel distance for light equipment weights.
• Decreased the hitbox size for some attacks of the following weapon types: Thrusting Sword / Heavy thrusting Sword / Spear / Great Spear / Halberd

Ashes of War adjustments

• Lifesteal Fist
  - Increased target grab range.
• Surge of Faith
  - Increased projectile generation speed.
• Flame Spit
  • Increased the guard speed and blocking amount of the skill.
  • Adjusted the angle of the fireball.
• Tongues of Fire
  - Increased the guard speed and blocking amount of the skill.
• Great Oracular Bubble
  - Increased projectile generation speed and reduced the recovery time.
• Viper Bite
  - Reduced the time before rolling is possible after using the skill.
• Shriek of Milos
  - Increased close range poise damage.
• Spearcall Ritual
  - Increased projectile generation speed.
• Cursed-Blood Slash
  - Increased projectile generation speed and reduced the recovery time.
• Gold Breaker
  - Reduced the recovery time.
• I Command Thee, Kneel!
  - Increased attack generation speed.
• Starcaller Cry
  - Increased the speed of follow-up attacks.
• Spinning Wheel
  • Increased attack generation speed.
  • Added a roll & heavy attack cancel timing while using the skill.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Scarlet rot status buildup was not properly reflected when giving the Antspur Rapier a Cold affinity.
• Fixed a bug where the Scarlet rot status buildup was not properly reflected when giving the Rotten Greataxe a Blood affinity.
• Fixed a bug where some attacks of the Partisan , Death Ritual Spear, and Lucerne had unexpected Physical attack scaling.
• Fixed a bug where the Nightrider Glaive did not increase the damage of horseback attacks.
• Fixed a bug where the Duelist Greataxe and Rotten Greataxe did not increase the damage of charged attacks.
• Fixed a bug where the Roar Medallion Talisman effect didn’t increase the power of some incantations.
• Fixed a bug that reduced the power of some skills while under the Golden Vow effect.
• Fixed a bug that caused the effects the Determination and Royal Knight's Resolve skills when casted from a left-handed weapon to be added to other skills casted with a right-handed weapon.
• Fixed a bug that reduced the critical hit power of right-handed weapons while having Determination or Royal Knight's Resolve active on a left-handed weapon.
• Fixed a bug where status build-ups were unintentionally added to some Weapon Skills.
• Fixed a bug where the power and special effects of a left-handed weapon could be added to a skill cast with a right-handed weapon.
• Fixed a bug that caused an equipped Sacrificial Twig to be consumed when a player died in the Colosseum.
• Fixed the camera positioning when respawning in the Colosseum.
• Fixed a bug where a player could receive credit for a kill in the Colosseum when dying due to the Death status effect, instead of the player who inflicted that status effect.
• Improved stability in Colosseum matchmaking.
• Fixed a bug related to level correction when an invader used the Phantom Bloody Finger.
• Fixed a bug that could cause disconnections with other players in certain locations during multiplayer.
• Improved online multiplayer stability.
• Fixed a bug related to some enemies not rendering or behaving as expected.
• Several performance improvements and other bug fixes.

Ray Tracing Technical Specifications

MINIMUM:

• OPERATING SYSTEM:
  WINDOWS 10
• PROCESSOR:
  Intel Core i5-10600K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT
• MEMORY:
  16 GB RAM
• GRAPHIC CARD:
  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, 8 GB or AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, 12 GB
• RECOMMENDED GRAPHICS SETTING:
  1080p - Low quality – Low Ray Tracing

RECOMMENDED:

• OPERATING SYSTEM:
  WINDOWS 11
• PROCESSOR:
  Intel Core i7-10700K or AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
• MEMORY:
  16 GB RAM
• GRAPHIC CARD:
  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, 8 GB or AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, 16 GB
• RECOMMENDED GRAPHICS SETTING:
  1080p - High quality – High Ray Tracing

Tested quickly on Linux with "PROTON_HIDE_NVIDIA_GPU=0 PROTON_ENABLE_NVAPI=1 VKD3D_CONFIG=dxr mangohud gamemoderun %command%"

Apart from the large dip in perf (3070) from turning in on, I'm barely capable of seeing anything different, let alone better.

 

[Parsnip]

Yeah from what I've seen mentioned online, seems it's some RT shadow stuff, maybe RT ambient occlusion? I haven't looked at it myself since I uninstalled it after I did my dark deeds to my save file.

Would have been nice to have some proper RTGI but expectations were low so can't say I'm terribly surprised in the end.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

I played a little yesterday, and I didn't feel the nerf to my trusty halberd's hitbox, but I do feel a considerable increase speed for guard counters, which is very much appreciated.

LOL at the Twinblade Talisman buff. +20% -> +45% on last hit. From completely, utterly, unadulteratedly useless to just... plain old useless.

• Slightly reduced rolling travel distance for light equipment weights.

Ooops, I didn't see that. Might remove most of the point of light load given there's no extra iframes.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

@LEANIJA and whoever else plays this game on Linux:

I have a new and exciting display glitch: see enclosed video:


Have you seen anything like that? In other games? On Windows?

 

[LEANIJA]

@LEANIJA and whoever else plays this game on Linux:

I have a new and exciting display glitch: see enclosed video:


Have you seen anything like that? In other games? On Windows?

I havent! that looks like heavy video compression (I know it isnt, but it looks like it)... fascinating. I wonder what causes it.

 

[Parsnip]

From the effects alone I would guess it's somehow running at a lower color bit depth, like 8 bit or something.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

From the effects alone I would guess it's somehow running at a lower color bit depth, like 8 bit or something.

I guessed 16bit in the video's description, but yes, something like that

I'm not sure that fully explains the square pixellation around lights in particular...

I can report that I haven't seen that again since switching to Proton Experimental from 7.0-6, even after sleep & wake-up. The last time I solved it also involved that move, so it seems that's the solution. Probably.

_

In RL1 solo run news, I just killed Godfrey. I'll probably redo it because I'm a bit embarrassed at how it was done, and then, before Malenia and Radabeast, I'm thinking of doing an unupgraded run; that is to say, the rules would be:

• I can't use any armament or spirit ash that's +1 or above, whether I upgraded it myself or because I found it that way. (RIP my Cherished Knight Halberd+8 that was the VIP of my RL1 solo run :-( )
• No using the Meteorite Staff for bosses --- it's decent unupgraded, so that would turn the run into a standard slightly-weak-for-endgame-mage spells-only run. I'd authorise its use to clear regular mobs when needed, otherwise that might become tedious.
• That's it; I'm not combining that with RL1 (i.e. RL1+0) because that's for professional streamers, masochists, and especially the intersection of those two groups. I'm authorising spirit ashes only because at +0 they're more of less irrelevant, I think, beyond perhaps applying a status effect.

This should be sort of the anti-RL1 run --- RL1 you're surprisingly powerful but made of tissue paper, so everybody, player and bosses, dies quickly; in the case of Mohg, quickly = 26 seconds ! So you have to learn the fights to an extent, but often it's just a question of doing so much damage the bosses don't have time to do anything really dangerous repeatedly. Or at all. And since you die instantly it would be a pain to learn every move.

Unupgraded, I expect to be quite tanky, and have a very wide weapon selection, but do so very little damage that every fight takes forever; so I'll both need to master the moves for real, and have lower-pressure conditions in which to do so, surviving and learning from many mistakes each fight. Status effects will probably be key to killing anything, though.

It might be harder than RL1 at the very end of the game, though, given how hard the bosses hit. But hopefully I'll come out of this with more endurance and knowledge, and therefore suffer less for the final bosses of the RL1 run. At least that's the idea.

All in all I'm still having a lot of fun in this game Anyway, time to go to work.

 

[LEANIJA]

I guessed 16bit in the video's description, but yes, something like that

I'm not sure that fully explains the square pixellation around lights in particular...

I can report that I haven't seen that again since switching to Proton Experimental from 7.0-6, even after sleep & wake-up. The last time I solved it also involved that move, so it seems that's the solution. Probably.

_

In RL1 solo run news, I just killed Godfrey. I'll probably redo it because I'm a bit embarrassed at how it was done, and then, before Malenia and Radabeast, I'm thinking of doing an unupgraded run; that is to say, the rules would be:

• I can't use any armament or spirit ash that's +1 or above, whether I upgraded it myself or because I found it that way. (RIP my Cherished Knight Halberd+8 that was the VIP of my RL1 solo run :-( )
• No using the Meteorite Staff for bosses --- it's decent unupgraded, so that would turn the run into a standard slightly-weak-for-endgame-mage spells-only run. I'd authorise its use to clear regular mobs when needed, otherwise that might become tedious.
• That's it; I'm not combining that with RL1 (i.e. RL1+0) because that's for professional streamers, masochists, and especially the intersection of those two groups. I'm authorising spirit ashes only because at +0 they're more of less irrelevant, I think, beyond perhaps applying a status effect.

This should be sort of the anti-RL1 run --- RL1 you're surprisingly powerful but made of tissue paper, so everybody, player and bosses, dies quickly; in the case of Mohg, quickly = 26 seconds ! So you have to learn the fights to an extent, but often it's just a question of doing so much damage the bosses don't have time to do anything really dangerous repeatedly. Or at all. And since you die instantly it would be a pain to learn every move.

Unupgraded, I expect to be quite tanky, and have a very wide weapon selection, but do so very little damage that every fight takes forever; so I'll both need to master the moves for real, and have lower-pressure conditions in which to do so, surviving and learning from many mistakes each fight. Status effects will probably be key to killing anything, though.

It might be harder than RL1 at the very end of the game, though, given how hard the bosses hit. But hopefully I'll come out of this with more endurance and knowledge, and therefore suffer less for the final bosses of the RL1 run. At least that's the idea.

All in all I'm still having a lot of fun in this game Anyway, time to go to work.

I quite like your videos when I see then and watch them! I think youre doing amazing and whilst I noticed you got hit a few times in the Godfrey fight (funny video description btw), it was still very well done!

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

I quite like your videos when I see then and watch them! I think youre doing amazing and whilst I noticed you got hit a few times in the Godfrey fight (funny video description btw), it was still very well done!

Hey, thanks I took to doing videos for my mom (she plays DS3 & ER -- with some difficulty -- and is my biggest fan!), and find that it's more fun and helpful as documentation for a run than a Google Doc. Glad somebody else is enjoying it.

I redid Godfrey, with a clean first phase.

 

[prudis]

 

[Panda Pedinte]

 

[LEANIJA]

 

[QFNS]

I won't be able to dog into this until a few weeks away but I am very excited.

 

[Kal1m3r0]

Done

 

[Le Pertti]

I just need to collect 900 points more on Microsoft rewards and I can get the expansion! Not sure I have the nerves for more elden ring, I beat it and life has been such a flowers and rainbows since then!

one question though, I try to avoid reading about it, but the expansion is it open and original elden ring or more linear?

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I just need to collect 900 points more on Microsoft rewards and I can get the expansion! Not sure I have the nerves for more elden ring, I beat it and life has been such a flowers and rainbows since then!

one question though, I try to avoid reading about it, but the expansion is it open and original elden ring or more linear?

Based on the video review I watched it's open like Elden Ring and with more verticality.

 

[Le Pertti]

Based on the video review I watched it's open like Elden Ring and with more verticality.

Going to get it then!

 

[MonthOLDpickle]

Over 2 mill runes, got to figure out how upgrade mats to buy at each rank -.-

 

[Panda Pedinte]

The launch trailer is here




There's also a 6GB patch on Steam you can read the patch notes here

 

[d00d3n]

I am traveling to the countryside today to celebrate Swedish Midsummer, so no 4090 driven 4k Ertree DLC for me until Sunday or so ...

I could play some on my Steam Deck I guess, but those specs would not really do the game justice. On the other hand, farming and exploring a bit could be fun ...

What should I do?!?!

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I am traveling to the countryside today to celebrate Swedish Midsummer, so no 4090 driven 4k Ertree DLC for me until Sunday or so ...

I could play some on my Steam Deck I guess, but those specs would not really do the game justice. On the other hand, farming and exploring a bit could be fun ...

What should I do?!?!

Enjoy your time on the countryside and once you're back dive in the game!

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

Seems wrong.

Steam tells me the DLC unlocks in 4 hours; I'm on PC in France, on the 20th @ 1400. So unlock on 1800. Doesn't match 21th @ 1200. Not that I'm complaining, assuming Steam is correct

____

Note: GitHub - gurrgur/er-patcher: Elden Ring enhancement patches (ultrawide support, custom frame rate limits and more) seamlessly integrated with steam. (frame unlock etc) has been updated a few minutes ago. The frame unlock now works on the current version; tested on Linux.

I'd rant about about the utter insanity of devs/publishers artificially locking FPS down (the binary fix boils down to just changing the value of one variable in the code somewhere, there is no technical difficulty to it whatsoever when you have full source access), but I don't want to spoil the mood.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

Seems wrong.

Steam tells me the DLC unlocks in 4 hours; I'm on PC in France, on the 20th @ 1400. So unlock on 1800. Doesn't match 21th @ 1200. Not that I'm complaining, assuming Steam is correct

21th should be the console releases. Steam is also showing me 4 hours until to unlock and if it unlocks earlier we're lucky though I'm still waiting for Nuuvem to send my key.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

21th should be the console releases.

Yep, but the map explicitly gives PC dates as well, and that's the one that doesn't match for me, hence my confusion

Anyway, I'm in no rush, I need to rebuild some muscle memory.

All my characters are either Rune Level 1 challenge chars, Unupgraded (+0) challenge, or NG+...6, I believe, for my main, so pain is on the menu when you mess up, and I played Lords of the Fallen recently so I'm a bit off

 

[Kal1m3r0]

I know that Steam timing is wrong but nonetheless I'm pissed cause they're giving me false hopes for an early release

 

[MonthOLDpickle]

Alright spent all 2 mill runes, well down to 17K. I got enough reg upgrades to use all 10 of the +25 and enough to get 4 somberings to +10.

But I also made a backup before all that so safe to say I am g2g.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

I know that Steam timing is wrong but nonetheless I'm pissed cause they're giving me false hopes for an early release

Why would Steam automatically be wrong, rather than the map?

Easier for whatever underpaid intern made the map to have messed it up than for Steam to mess up a timedelta computation to whatever date the publisher -- I assume -- entered in the "release on" field on their end.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

Hum, it's 1803, and Steam still says "This game plans to unlock in approximately less than an hour", so it appears I was wrong

 

[Kal1m3r0]

Hum, it's 1803, and Steam still says "This game plans to unlock in approximately less than an hour", so it appears I was wrong

Cause it happened other times I don't know for what reason, but those timers are busted sometimes

 

[Panda Pedinte]

LET ME PLAYYYYYYY

 

[Hektor]

THEY CHANGED THE RELEASE DATE

FUCK YOU BUMCOFUCK YOU FROMSOFTWARE FUCK YOU MIYAZAKI FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

 

[moemoneyb1]

Got my Shadow of Erdtree key from 2game. It's been awhile since I seriously played Elden Ring. I started playing the game at release and finished one play-through with the Rivers of Blood build. I'll be going into the DLC with this same build. I haven't looked at any of the previews but I'm sure that I'll end up changing my build to suit any new weapons that I may end up liking.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

DLC is up.

It's updating, though at a snail's pace...

 

[Alextended]

I haven't finished ER so Idk if I'll play it. Got burnt out and not in the BOTW way where going back was fun so I finished it later. At least so far.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

Well, I already got squished twice by the first big fire boy I met, and I have no idea how to even damage it.

Not sure if it's NG+7 or the special scaling that was mentioned, of if there is just a trick to it.

I'm feeling right at home

 

[Parsnip]

I'm still debating whether to start right away or clean up lotf first. Maybe I'll wait a few days or something in case it comes in hot hot hot.
I'm guessing they haven't added a chromatic aberration toggle with the dlc patch.



I think I'll try to play vanilla first and see if I can tolerate it, we'll see how that shakes out. But in case I can't, is the er-patcher the best way to mod out vignette and ca these days? I assume achievements work just fine with it too?
I bet the method/mods I grabbed from nexus back when I played haven't been updated.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

But in case I can't, is the er-patcher the best way to mod out vignette and ca these days? I assume achievements work just fine with it too?

As far as I know it's the best method to remove these effects and if I'm not mistaken it doesn't mess the achievements.

 

[MonthOLDpickle]

I assume achievements work just fine with it too?

If you got all the base achievements, then no need to worry becuase the DLC has no added achievements.

 

[fearthedawn]

I'm still debating whether to start right away or clean up lotf first. Maybe I'll wait a few days or something in case it comes in hot hot hot.
I'm guessing they haven't added a chromatic aberration toggle with the dlc patch.



I think I'll try to play vanilla first and see if I can tolerate it, we'll see how that shakes out. But in case I can't, is the er-patcher the best way to mod out vignette and ca these days? I assume achievements work just fine with it too?
I bet the method/mods I grabbed from nexus back when I played haven't been updated.

very little changed for mods/hacks with the dlc, there is a good chance your mods still work and if not, flawless widescreen, er-patcher or a different mod from nexus still do

 

[Parsnip]

Thanks all.

If you got all the base achievements, then no need to worry becuase the DLC has no added achievements.

Oh!
Well I guess I didn't need to worry about that then.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I'm loving it so far! Before venturing in the first legacy dungeon I went around exploring a bit and I found a Light Greatsword called Milady and it rocks, fast movements and nice combos, even it's jump heavy attack hits two times.

 

[Joe Spangle]

I'm trying to get back into Elden Ring with a view to pick up the DLC but man, its such a massive game.

I had about 120 hours on my save but haven't played for ages and so have no idea where i am, what im doing, skills are rusty as can be. Thought id start a new game and its just dawning on me the sheer scale of this game, let alone adding a massive DLC to it.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

The new weapons are great.

The backblade is also made of awesome. (It's very close to the start). I haven't tested the Great Katana I just found (edit: Ichimonji...)

The level design is fantastic !

Example: I attack a soldier near a locked gate, he falls; I follow him, he falls again, I kill him, and immediately fall in a hole I hadn't noticed when I was there previously. That reveals a path that leads me... behind the locked gate. I'm 90% sure that exact sequence of events was entirely deliberate on the dev's part.

On the minus side, having met (and killed) Rellana (not a typo), it seems their boss design (gameplay wise) doubles down on the worst aspects of Elden Ring, with a ridiculously fast poise monster gap closer (with ranged attacks to boot). The RL1 is going to be brutal. At least you have windows to heal.

Of course, playing on NG+6, where everything that does not one-shot* two-shots, does not help at all. For a NG character I'm sure you could survive many, many, attacks and muddle through, but that's not how I like my boss design.

* (one-shots? one-shoots ? How do you re-verb an already nominalized verb?)

edit: and I just found a weapon/catalyst hybrid

 

[Panda Pedinte]

On the minus side, having met (and killed) Rellana (not a typo), it seems their boss design (gameplay wise) doubles down on the worst aspects of Elden Ring, with a ridiculously fast poise monster gap closer (with ranged attacks to boot). The RL1 is going to be brutal. At least you have windows to heal.

So far that was the hardest fight even though I died only two times.. There's no way I could have beat her solo because her attacks were so fast and she just tanked every attack.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

oh man the lore that's been dropped with that DLC

 

[Joe Spangle]

I did start a new game. Here we go!

Manged to beat Margit after about 5 tries so the old muscle memory is kicking in (with help from Rogier). I'm level 13 so pretty chuffed i got him beat.

Hope to get to the dlc this side of christmas.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

The DLC made me learn how to parry because one annoying optional boss lol

For those curious it was against Rakshasa. She uses a huge katana with bleed and just face tank your attacks, after getting her weapon the description even says it makes you jard to stagger so at least it makes sense lore wise.

I also found a catacomb but I cant remember what it was called but imo it was the best catacomb in the hole game. Nice level design, some secrets and new enemies.

Other improvement over the base game is how the legacy dungeons fit so seamlessly in the the world.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

Sooo... about only having NG+6 and challenge characters...

I tested the DLC with my RL1 character and it's more or less the same difficulty as in NG+6 --- a few more attacks one-shot in RL1 (which is going to be a huge issue when and if I get into it seriously), but NG+6 enemies feel much tankier, which tracks with how the scaling is supposed to work (RL1 does 2/3 the damage of a normal char for lack of levels, whereas NG+6 enemies are about 6x tankier, before higher resists, and much higher stance).

As much as I like challenge runs, discovering the DLC in NG+6 was seriously interfering with the fun. So I used Cheat Engine to reset my main char to NG+0

Suddenly the balancing makes a lot more sense, and I can actually use the cool new weapons without handicapping myself now --- high NG+ balancing is such that only a few builds are practical (mostly fast consecutive hits + bleed monsters; giant hunt spam for NPCs).

I also found a catacomb but I cant remember what it was called but imo it was the best catacomb in the hole game. Nice level design, some secrets and new enemies.

I found an underground forge with "smithing golems" with weak points in their buttocks. It seems there are several like that. Not sure that qualifies as "catacombs", though.