Soo after a marathon session yesterday, I am almost back where I was.
I did it all in a sprint, basically. Got the items I had, explored the areas I had been to (except most of Caelid), did the few quests I had done... and cheesed my way through the castle to murder Godrick*. Its funny how he seemed easier than the castle gates area where the ballistas wreck you if youre not careful.
As I mentioned, I used cheats (namely, Game Conqueror – which is a Linux equivalent to CheatEngine, but less capable) to get the runes needed to level back up quickly, but by a calculation error I had too much and overlevelled by around 15 levels – Im now 65 I think, while I was around 50 before "the incident". But let me assure you, without proper equipment, it doesnt feel that powerful. A bunch of random rats can still kill you if youre 65 and have no good gear.
Anyway, I still didnt feel to great about it (I never really feel great about cheating in a game I feel I can beat on my own) – but my justification is that I probably wouldve rune-farmed my way to 65 anyway (probably with this method:
Link to Youtube ) and it wouldve taken less time than I spent yesterday getting everything back.
I did the rune farming approach because Im still not too keen on the "lose all runes on death" mechanic, tbh. Wish there was a way to bank them to safety. My approach to exploration can be a bit reckless and therefore prone to losing lose.
Well, theres the golden runes at least
~
In other news;
I noticed the
hoarfrost stomp is overpowered. Someone recommended it so I got it ...and now I can recommend getting it
but an interesting thing: when I went to this elden ring wiki to locate it, there's an
interactive map.
I used it for a short while to find stuff I had forgotten where it was, but then realised this map full of icons is just what makes Ubisoft open world games so boring. It becomes a checklist (like "oh I should get another golden seed for the flask").
Yeah the world is full of stuff, but its a LOT more fun just exploring it – and finding this stuff – on your own. A lot of the magic gets lost otherwise. I closed the map after half an hour or so.
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regarding the save file loss;
I found this post on Reddit :
PSA – Elden Ring & Proton GE
this
might be what happened. When I lost my save, I assumed it was just a generic thing, but I had switched to Proton GE just then, because the game was having troubles starting up (which are probably EACs fault)
So thats when my character vanished (or better: reset to a starting template at the beginning of the game).
I didnt really connect the two because switching between Proton versions never game me any trouble with any game, and I did read that several people on Windows, Xbox and PS also lost their saves randomly (meanwhile, on ProtonDb, people suggesting using Proton GE because of the startup issues).
But yeah, who knows? I dont wanna replicate it right now in fear of having to start over again, but if you play on Proton (via the Steam Deck, for example), keep it in mind. Might be something to watch out for, might be nothing – really hard to say.
~
* whats your opinion, guys (and
Mor ), is that valid for the monthly challenge? Im sure I wouldve beaten him anyway without restarting, no doubt about it. but if you think its not admissible, i understand.