Elden Ring: Breath of the From Software

Had my first encounter with an invading player. This same asshole invaded me 5 times while I was trying to explore an area I had never been before. It's like he was just camping out this region.

That aspect of the game adds zero fun for me. There is enough shit here trying to murder me, I don't need players doing it too.

Yeah, I've never been a fan either.

Some of those are AIs who look like other players, btw, so that is possible too. You'll usually know if it's a real opponent based on their behavior, of course, as well as their name (animelover69 or whatever).

I want to get this game because it sounds amazing but stuff like not being able to turn it off on a moments notice or learning by dying can REALLY bug me or are incompatible with a family driven household, so I'm gonna have to hold off until I have a week alone or something.

To clarify: "Not turn it off," does that mean, "Even if I hit the Escape key, the fight's still happening," or does it mean, "No saves until I hit a save point."

For me, I'm tempted right up until I see stuff that looks like, "You can usually tell the real griefers from the AI griefers." Cool! Sign me up for some of that!

Only partly joking above. So I can't lock other folks out of a game/shard/instance that I'm playing in?

Mainly the first---the game constantly runs, even in menus.

It autosaves constantly and pretty reliably wherever you left off. So that means you can't reset your way out of bad situations.

You can turn off the online features, fwiw. You're missing out on some real fucking wizard help but the AI summon help is still helpful enough that it isn't a big loss.

Turning off the multiplayer features would be a literal death sentence, unless you are some dodge rolling prodigy. Co-op help for bosses is essential. And well worth the cost of some dickhead who thinks it's fun to invade worlds.

Not being able to pause while you are just out in the world is shitty, but I assure you I have had full phone conversations while hiding in a bush.

hotseatgames wrote: Had my first encounter with an invading player. This same asshole invaded me 5 times while I was trying to explore an area I had never been before. It's like he was just camping out this region.

That aspect of the game adds zero fun for me. There is enough shit here trying to murder me, I don't need players doing it too.

As Gary said, it was probably an AI enemy. There are set ones that spawn in certain locations as minibosses. Real invasion in this one is mostly opt in. When you're cooping it opens you up to invaders, but outside of that you will never just be randomly invaded. You need to equip certain items etc to get random invaders showing up.

I bet I know the AI invader he’s talking about. That was a grade a asshole right there, it took me several attempts to out him down. If you hang in there long enough, help arrives.

Did some grinding today. Started with the ghost Minotaurs in my favorite area of the game so far and it was cool but the. I realized that the crabs nearby had a better yield. But then I realized that felling giants to the east of the Warmaster’s shack was an even better deal- and easier. I am a giant killing machine.

I’ve been trying off and on to kill Agheel…I can get him really low but he manages to somehow toast me right before I’m on the home stretch.

Right now I’m in that mine I was looking for, lots of smithing stones and these fucking mage miners that can, if you aren’t careful, one shot you with magic missile. My magic defense is total shit, which doesn’t help.

Got a Shotel and went though it’s not as good as my +8 Keen Flail, I’m still using it because it looks bad ass.

Per Gary Sax’s spoiler…I -loved- that! I laughed and then sweated the whole way out of that area. And into the creepiest and grossest area of the game.

I found the Great Epee and fucking love it. I played a rapier build in DS3 and its like that... only it's big and does damage.

Can someone clear something up for me? Does adding an ash of war make the weapon do less damage? Is it the equivalent of like adding a special move AND enchanting? They seem fun but I don't want to decrease my damage.

Sometimes it does decrease a weapon’s base damage but it may also add heavy/keen/quality. More significantly, it can also change a weapons’s stat affinity and thus the scaling. There is a degree of trade off- and really you don’t HAVE to use the abilities. I have the ash off my shield so I can use the quick str input on the flail.

I utilized two co-op buddies to defeat Margit this evening. There is no way I would have taken him down on my own. Then I ended up losing 2000 runes to some giant hawks with knives on their legs.

Warning to those entering the Roundtable Hold: do NOT drop down off the balcony to the lower level unless you want to fight a VERY strong AI invader. I didn't spoiler that because it's bullshit and they literally tell you that you are safe there. You are not safe there.

I wish this system was better explained. They did a quite nice job beefing up the tutorial for other elements but this one remains unclear to me.

Gary Sax wrote: I wish this system was better explained. They did a quite nice job beefing up the tutorial for other elements but this one remains unclear to me.

If you mean ashes, the quick version is changing a weapon's stat scaling type (heavy=str, keen=dex etc) to match your primary damage stat will increase it's damage. You can see the before and after numbers in the screen where you're choosing ashes. The actual weapon skills are whatever. I basically didn't use them ever until I found Quickstep to add a Bloodborne style dash to my heavy STR weapons. There are tons of different ones and some of them are very good depending on your build/playstyle. You can also eventually find an item that will let you use any stat scaling type with any ashes, instead of their inherent one. It's an iron whetstone if memory serves, if you wanna Google it.

I just think it's kind of weird to do both things with one system, but I think I understand it now.

I wish the abilities were decoupled from changing scaling, it doesn't make much sense to me.

Gary Sax wrote: I just think it's kind of weird to do both things with one system, but I think I understand it now.

I wish the abilities were decoupled from changing scaling, it doesn't make much sense to me.

Get thee an iron whetstone