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

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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And yeah, ONE specter summoning per encounter. No summoning other specters or even the same one again.
 

Panda Pedinte

Best Sig Maker on the board!
Sep 20, 2018
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There was some prisoner that I don't know how to free.
Do you mean the prisoner in the cell with the rats?

My speculation bellow:

While he asks to be saved so he is not eaten by the monsters he may as well have already been eaten, but his spirit never returned to the Erdtree
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
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Just beat Godric. Game keeps getting weirder and more Souls-like. But it's good I spent ages exploring the starting regions and side progression, it hit different.

I've got all sorts of new weapons and shit and I'm not sure which to go for after investing so much of my stats and stones for plain old swords and greatswords.

It sucks there's no way to test ashes, I've not switched around any because I don't wanna waste them on a weapon I'lll change or end up removing a better one.
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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You make me second guess myself but I‘m pretty sure you can retrieve an ash you used on a weapon. You only need a rare item to duplicate an ash in case you want to use it on multiple weapons.
 

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
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How do you remove it? Can you transfer an ash that wasn't added by you but came with the weapon?

What happens to the original special if you do change the ash?
 

Stevey

Gromlintroid
Dec 8, 2018
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Not sure of all the details but I know when you go to add Ashes to a weapon that doesn't have any at the blacksmith, there's an option to remove from a weapon that has it.
 
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Panda Pedinte

Best Sig Maker on the board!
Sep 20, 2018
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How do you remove it? Can you transfer an ash that wasn't added by you but came with the weapon?

What happens to the original special if you do change the ash?
You can remove it by sitting on a site of grace, the option should appear in the menu. If it doesn't appears then it means you do not have a whetstone knife, there is one hidden in the camp near the Gatefront Ruins site of grace, it's inside a chest downstairs.
 

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
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I have a knife, I thought it's permanent, not consumable :x

I've not used any ashes yet like I mentioned for fear of wasting them so I guess that's why it's not an option, if it doesn't work on the inherent gear specials.
 

Dandy

Bad at Games.
Apr 17, 2019
1,656
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I have not been great at playing Elden Ring. After playing through the tutorial for the 3rd or 4th time to try out different classes, I explored a tiny bit outside, went to the church and quit. I haven't played since! :LOL:
 

LEANIJA

MetaMember
May 5, 2019
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I have not been great at playing Elden Ring. After playing through the tutorial for the 3rd or 4th time to try out different classes, I explored a tiny bit outside, went to the church and quit. I haven't played since! :LOL:
Ive spent some time in that first enemy camp I encountered getting to grips with all the gameplay system – and a friend of mine gave me some tips which made everything a bit easier :D
gonna explore a bit now, dodging anything that looks nasty and trrying to gain levels

~
weirdly btw, ingame screenshots (ie pressing F12 to make a screenshot via Steam) dont work for me, not sure why – using the KDE tool Spectacle for screenshots for now.
 

「Echo」

Reaper on Station。
Nov 1, 2018
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Mt. Whatever
Mhm, many people are saying the newest Steam patch makes things even worse. And introduces problems/crashing to people who previously had none.

Makes me worried. I will test it myself soon, but anyone else experience new issues?
 

Valdien

✵ Chaos! ✵
Mar 26, 2020
1,256
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Toronto
Mhm, many people are saying the newest Steam patch makes things even worse. And introduces problems/crashing to people who previously had none.

Makes me worried. I will test it myself soon, but anyone else experience new issues?
I played about 2-ish hours last night after the patch hit and did not have any issues. Although, my info might not be the most reliable here since I use Special K which means playing offline without EAC.
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,697
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To counter with the shield (or whatever has the counter skill) at what part of the animation does the hit have to be timed to? Before the beginning of the swing? The middle? The end? Wherever? I don't think I've managed to do any counters but just put the storm wall skill on my otherwise empty shield (which was handy to do the weapon skill with without switching to two handed mode) and I'm not sure I did good. I also only really managed the guard retaliation thing like twice...

Game just crashed for me again (first time on latest patch, it's been hours though, also as I mentioned it crashed once before the patch as well, in more hours).

Also, does the game use variable rate shading or something? Distant stuff can look really fuzzy and I don't think it's aliasing shimmering on things like grass.
 

Derrick01

MetaMember
Oct 6, 2018
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I finally was able to do some actual dungeon diving late last night and today. Did a smaller mini dungeon in the southern peninsula and cleared it in maybe an hour tops and earlier today I finally made my way to stormveil and was surprised that I killed the first boss there on my first try (though I imagine by now I'm over leveled for the place, like ~37). I'm eager to see how involved this place is after hearing a lot of hype for it.

I found the open world in ER to be more captivating than in BOTW. Took me longer time to get "into" the world in BOTW than in ER.
Even though I still find ER to be a bit too empty, it does have a solid number of places to visit and in those places you never really know what you're going to find. And unlike in BOTW weapons you may find in a cave or camp are useful in this and more importantly won't break in 5 hits. I found a pair of claws and even though the damage output is worse than my main weapons I'm tempted to slap them on and run around cutting fuckers up like Zhang He just for fun.
 
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Durante

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
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Mhm, many people are saying the newest Steam patch makes things even worse. And introduces problems/crashing to people who previously had none.

Makes me worried. I will test it myself soon, but anyone else experience new issues?
The only notable change in behaviour for me (good or bad) was that blood stains now work. (From launch until the patch I couldn't get a single one to work; today all the ones I tried did)
 

「Echo」

Reaper on Station。
Nov 1, 2018
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Mt. Whatever
I can report now. For myself the new patch has introduced stuttering even when just scrolling around the map screen. It's really unfortunate. Previously I was among those who had a relatively hassle and problem free experience despite modest hardware. :anguished-face:
 

LEANIJA

MetaMember
May 5, 2019
3,229
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Austria
Discovered the Siofra River and every enemy here is wrecking me
I just arrived there. Probably shouldn't be there yet but I like exploring. And I cheese encounters by using the mount.. ride up and down, wiggle them down slowly and safely
Totally how's it meant to be played 😅
 

「Echo」

Reaper on Station。
Nov 1, 2018
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Ha! Fringefolk Heroes Grave finally cleared! (Still haven't visited Godrick lol) :longswordblob::longswordblob::longswordblob:

That stupid chariot!! Omg it felt so good to smash it at the end. Also, a really powerful charm is here, so be sure to explore this place folks.
 
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Prodigy

Sleeper must awaken
Dec 9, 2018
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Do you mean the prisoner in the cell with the rats?

My speculation bellow:

While he asks to be saved so he is not eaten by the monsters he may as well have already been eaten, but his spirit never returned to the Erdtree
Yeah, I thought knowing this game there would be some sort of lantern or something that free them.

Now I just found someone else, a woman stuck to a wall who looks like a sister to the other woman who provides sorceries. Thought i could maybe use a bow and arrow but that just injures her. Second playthrough will definately be done with a walkthrough. First playthrough I want to discover and do everything on my own.
 
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Joe Spangle

Playing....
Apr 17, 2019
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Mhm, many people are saying the newest Steam patch makes things even worse. And introduces problems/crashing to people who previously had none.

Makes me worried. I will test it myself soon, but anyone else experience new issues?
Mine crashed on loading up the game three times. I verified Steam files which seemed to fix it, then ive had one crash in about 3 hours play, previously hadnt crashed at all

The only notable change in behaviour for me (good or bad) was that blood stains now work. (From launch until the patch I couldn't get a single one to work; today all the ones I tried did)
Yeah the blood splats are working for me too now which is good

I can report now. For myself the new patch has introduced stuttering even when just scrolling around the map screen. It's really unfortunate. Previously I was among those who had a relatively hassle and problem free experience despite modest hardware. :anguished-face:
Yep same, getting a bit more stutter than before, at least thats how it seems.
 
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Panda Pedinte

Best Sig Maker on the board!
Sep 20, 2018
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I have a knife, I thought it's permanent, not consumable :x

I've not used any ashes yet like I mentioned for fear of wasting them so I guess that's why it's not an option, if it doesn't work on the inherent gear specials.
It's not consumable it's a permanent item, my bad I wasn't very clear. :face-with-open-mouth-and-cold-sweat:

If you played DS3 before think about it as being the coals you gave to Andre to allow for new infusions. There are other whetblades you'll find in the game, and they unlock different kinds of affinities for your weapons after putting an ash of war.

The ashes also aren't consumable at all, you can change them between weapons, though some ashes may be restricted to certain types of weapons and for some unique weapons you cant customize it
Now I just found someone else, a woman stuck to a wall who looks like a sister to the other woman who provides sorceries. Thought i could maybe use a bow and arrow but that just injures her. Second playthrough will definately be done with a walkthrough. First playthrough I want to discover and do everything on my own
I also foun her, still unsure what needs to be done as the sorcery vendor lady doesn't even aknowledge her, maybe it is part of a quest.
 

kio

MetaMember
Apr 19, 2019
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I just found out last night you can completely bypass the castle and the first 2 major bosses. Sometimes it's amazing what "where does this path go?" leads to.
I was also wondering how many people will replay the game once they finished it. There's a ton of replay value with different builds and weapons but given the size of the whole thing I have to wonder who will be able to put in the effort to go through it again. I'm ~30h in and I don't think I'm close to the midway point let alone the end and in previous games this amount of time was enough for a full first-time playtrough or a couple NG+ ones.

Even though I still find ER to be a bit too empty, it does have a solid number of places to visit and in those places you never really know what you're going to find. And unlike in BOTW weapons you may find in a cave or camp are useful in this and more importantly won't break in 5 hits. I found a pair of claws and even though the damage output is worse than my main weapons I'm tempted to slap them on and run around cutting fuckers up like Zhang He just for fun.
The first area (Limgrave) isn't that representative of how densely packed the rest of the world is. Just visiting the southern peninsula you can clearly see the difference and it get's more noticeable on other mid-game zones.


It's not consumable it's a permanent item, my bad I wasn't very clear. :face-with-open-mouth-and-cold-sweat:

If you played DS3 before think about it as being the coals you gave to Andre to allow for new infusions. There are other whetblades you'll find in the game, and they unlock different kinds of affinities for your weapons after putting an ash of war.

The ashes also aren't consumable at all, you can change them between weapons, though some ashes may be restricted to certain types of weapons and for some unique weapons you cant customize it


I also foun her, still unsure what needs to be done as the sorcery vendor lady doesn't even aknowledge her, maybe it is part of a quest.
Can you elaborate a little? I'm still confused how the whole ashes blacksmithing works...
For instance, I have a +7 katana with C scalling in Dex and the Unsheathe weapon art and I can upgrade it with a second Unsheathe ash to raise the Dex scale to B. Is that it? Also isn't the ashe consumed in this process? If not, what's the point of ash duplication?
 

「Echo」

Reaper on Station。
Nov 1, 2018
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Mt. Whatever
what's the point of ash duplication?
Because when you equip an Ash to something it is bound to that Weapon/Shield until you unbind it. So duplication allows you to have another of the same Ash in case you wanted to put the same enchantment on multiple items.
 

Panda Pedinte

Best Sig Maker on the board!
Sep 20, 2018
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Can you elaborate a little? I'm still confused how the whole ashes blacksmithing works...
For instance, I have a +7 katana with C scalling in Dex and the Unsheathe weapon art and I can upgrade it with a second Unsheathe ash to raise the Dex scale to B. Is that it? Also isn't the ashe consumed in this process? If not, what's the point of ash duplication?
For the first question, yes you can put an Unsheathe ash o war on your katana it should increase the DEX scalling but in counterpart the STR scalling will be reduced.

As Echo said above you can duplicate the ashes so you have another one free to equip without thr need to unequip it.
 

Joe Spangle

Playing....
Apr 17, 2019
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Anyone got any tips on settings so i get a steady 60fps? I never know which options make much difference. Getting a lot of drops into the 50s. Gives me a bit of a headache.
 

didamangi

Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit.
Nov 16, 2018
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Anyone got any tips on settings so i get a steady 60fps? I never know which options make much difference. Getting a lot of drops into the 50s. Gives me a bit of a headache.
You really can't get a steady 60 fps in this game because of what seems like a load streaming and shader caching issues.

From PCGW: "Forcing Vsync off in the GPU control panel for the game or globally, substantially reduces stutters at the cost of introducing tearing. Setting Vsync to fast turns it off and reduces tearing to imperceptible levels."

Maybe that can help but it doesn't stop the stuttering from load streaming/shader caching though.


If you are GPU limited than shadows are the biggest gain fps wise from max to high, but anything other than max shadows looks pretty iffy for me.

These are Digital Foundry settings from their video.
 
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xinek

日本語が苦手
Apr 17, 2019
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You really can't get a steady 60 fps in this game because of what seems like a load streaming and shader caching issues.

From PCGW: "Forcing Vsync off in the GPU control panel for the game or globally, substantially reduces stutters at the cost of introducing tearing. Setting Vsync to fast turns it off and reduces tearing to imperceptible levels."
What I found strange is that I got horrendous screen tearing, even with gsync. I usually disable vsync if the game has that option, but enabling it on this game solved the tearing. Never saw that before. I wonder if messing with the Nvidia control panel vsync settings will still help with some of the stutter? I don't actually find it too terrible -- I don't have the long freezes that a lot of people are reporting, just an occasional fps drop, usually at predictable times.
 
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Joe Spangle

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I think i've got it about as stable as its going to be. Just disappointing to not even get a steady 60fps.

Otherwise enjoying it a lot. Feels like a real mix of all the previous souls games. I find myself thinking 'hey, thats like Demon's' or 'DS2 mechanics here'
 

didamangi

Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit.
Nov 16, 2018
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What I found strange is that I got horrendous screen tearing, even with gsync. I usually disable vsync if the game has that option, but enabling it on this game solved the tearing. Never saw that before. I wonder if messing with the Nvidia control panel vsync settings will still help with some of the stutter? I don't actually find it too terrible -- I don't have the long freezes that a lot of people are reporting, just an occasional fps drop, usually at predictable times.
The game forces 60 hz refresh rate on fullscreen mode. That's probably why the tearing is more noticeable. Change it to borderless, since it's a dx12 game, gsync still works fine without having to enable gsync windowed mode and the refresh rate stays at native.

Might be my specific monitor response time but I found when games force my monitor to 60hz fullscreen, it feels laggier than native 144hz, even though the game itself is capped at 60 fps (so the monitor refresh rate will also go down to 60hz) and tearing is also more noticeable.
 

Valdien

✵ Chaos! ✵
Mar 26, 2020
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Toronto
What I found strange is that I got horrendous screen tearing, even with gsync. I usually disable vsync if the game has that option, but enabling it on this game solved the tearing. Never saw that before. I wonder if messing with the Nvidia control panel vsync settings will still help with some of the stutter? I don't actually find it too terrible -- I don't have the long freezes that a lot of people are reporting, just an occasional fps drop, usually at predictable times.
Yeah, the reason why you saw screen-tearing is because FromSoftware's engine is forcing your display to run at 60hz, which is also effectively changing your g-sync range. And since you disabled V-Sync, you're going to see tearing whenever the FPS limit breaks (for example, it goes up to 60.1 for a split second). This is when V-Sync kicks in and stops it from happening. G-Sync + Vsync (NVCP) is always the preferable option to avoid situations like this. In my case, I just force it to run at my native hz via Special K and cap it at 90 FPS. :p
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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I’m spoiling myself on the different endings because I’m at a point when ending requirement were implied to me and… sorry to be that guy but I still think ER narration is a shambolic mess. When I can’t decide about which ending to aim for because I have fucking no idea about how the world works, and thus can’t choose the best ending, I’m sad.
There seems to be an evil ending, but the others are… equally cool ?

That being said I missed that you can speak to Melina at certain sites of grace, maybe the wordbuilding is there.
 

fearthedawn

MetaMember
Apr 19, 2019
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60 hours into the game now and i think about a third of the way through as i take my time with it.

In previous From Software games truly understanding what the endings are and do requires lore hunting and some are left up to interpretation even then. Curious to find out how they handle it in Elden Ring when i eventually get there :)
 
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Le Pertti

0.01% Game dev
Oct 10, 2018
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Finally tried the first boss Margit and first time I got his health down to like 20% and then every try since then has been a variation of disaster. I both summon some wizard by the gate and then even summon the wolfs but still can't get past 20% health. Because its around then I am alone with him and I just can't get an opening to hit him.
 
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Durante

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
4,045
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This is getting a bit silly. My friend is doing incantations/faith build and I'm doing a sorcery/int build, and I feel like we've found 5 incantations for every sorcery.
Now going towards the academy, hopefully that will change the situation.

At least I just found a 48 int requirement staff; that seems like it should be good

I just found out last night you can completely bypass the castle and the first 2 major bosses. Sometimes it's amazing what "where does this path go?" leads to.
I bypassed it before going in :p
 

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
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I have tons of faith stuff and I'm a str/dex build, can't use most of it. I def have access to way less sorcery stuff. Either you're not very far in or missed some stuff.
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,697
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Hm, I'm kinda miffed I triggered some progression with only having beat one major boss (Godric) seemingly just for reaching a certain place after what seemed like any other dungeon area rather than some important thing (I beat it while testing summons for the first time ever, or I wouldn't). I reached the site of grace where the maiden says it's close to the tree and when I went back to the council pretty much everybody left/stuff happened. I'll definitely go back and explore the rest of the world and do bosses etc., before moving on but I wish I could undo this and progress more slowly and naturally.
 

Joe Spangle

Playing....
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I haven't beaten Godric yet but have explored loads of the map.

Today got to that misty swampy foresty part and got to the sunken Academy area

What level are people getting to when you beat Godrick? Coz i find it very tough at around level 20.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,870
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Did the third boss after... 30 attempts ? I'm unfortunately near the point were I will have to call it quit. Jesus.
So hard.

Now I'm chilling in a 3-4 hits mob zone, but this won't last I'm sure :cryblob:

On a far more positive note, I will insist on the fact that if technically it's an industrial fire on my PC, the art direction regularly hits something fierce.