Elden Ring (Part 1)

King of Posters
1005

I’m still sitting on a ton of Somber stones and Grave Gloveworts. Might be around time to experiment and commit to some kind of use for them. It’s partly that given I can switch up my primary weapon damage type to Fire/Lightning/Holy or back at any time, I haven’t felt as much need for a backup weapon as I did in the Souls games.

I’ve just learned that Slash/Thrust/Strike damage is a thing too, and that can’t be changed with AoW. I think my Grande Epee R1 is a thrust and R2 is a slash, so I guess a Somber-upgraded giant club might come in handy

1006

nothing more sombering than a giant club

5 Likes
1007

I have some sick greatswords and sort of regret going dex, although attacking fast enough to dodge is also good

1008

I just had a Big Gamer Brain idea to buy up 4 longswords and 4 clubs and equip fire, lightning, holy and neutral AoW on them. When I run into a new boss, I would equip 4 swords in right-hand and 4 clubs in left-hand. I’d hit the boss once with each weapon and make note of the one with the highest damage number.

(Normally I’d just look at fextralife but contrary to my prediction last week, there’s little useful information there yet)

7 Likes
1009

yeah you’re making me realize the dragons in elden ring have sent me into a lowkey spiralling crisis of self-doubt about my relationship with these animals in these games. I’ve always filed away my thousands of murdered dinosaurs in MH as some kind of… sportsmanlike contract between humans and the monsters (one where they die of course, and I just get tossed amusingly into a cart driven by cats, lets RP a caste system, weeee) but I’ve been avoiding the dragons in elden ring because, well, what you said - they’re clearly not involved, why would I kill them? for a spell? seems so unfair

I think these irreconcilable notions (ahem, rationalizations) are attempting merger in my sleep and

help

(dont @ me about killing wolves theyre little shit starters ok)

PS: no I dont always project my beliefs so heavily onto Video Amusements but MH and souls games have seen me through some great and/or dark times and they are almost, like, dear old friends to me

7 Likes
1010

I have not touched a single dragon. I’ve probably run away from at least a half dozen

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1011

what’s everyone’s stance on killing random wildlife that doesn’t attack you

i killed one sheep and felt terrible so i don’t think i’ve killed anything that wasn’t directly attacking me.

well…anything nonhuman, i guess the wandering nobles are fair game in my minds

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1012

It’s supposed to feel awful but at the same time hilarious. Galloping up to a noble eagle and hearing it squawk like a chicken as I club it off the cliff edge will never get old

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1013

i’d be lying if I said I didnt take a few swings at a couple on instinct. didnt seem to bother them much, these dragons got some real beef

on the “maybe overthinking about not-real animals” note, oh my god radahn’s poor horse, I giggled so hard when I saw how he was virtual-on thrust vectoring around then immediately felt like a shit

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1014

Is there a big club? I killed a minor boss early on that had a pretty big club but he didn’t drop it. If someone has a big club I would like to know if it still makes pancakes.

1015

this is how they used to make strategy guides in medieval times

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1016

Relevant quote from a recent Miyazaki interview:

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1017

for me there’s a constant nagging in the back of my head to the tune of “I obviously wouldn’t actually murder a sheep nonchalantly from horseback because I had a twitchy R1 finger and could always use 23 runes, and obviously this is just a representation of a sheep, but it still feels representative of some unidentifiable part of me”

so I dont know that I have a stance but with every nonchalant murder of a bystander I feel a vague unease with myself grow ever-so-minutely

feels very personal and YMMV etc, would never judge someone based on their take on this

1 Like
1018

I avoided hurting animals but now I’m wearing a skull, which has turned Greedy Gus (me) pure rudo, and I have no problems slaughtering anything

I’m terrified of bears though I don’t wanna be anywhere near those fucking bears

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1019

yeah some animals are just jerks, they made their bed

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1020

kind of wasted a respec to find out weapons with arcane scaling are bugged and don’t scale

1 Like
1021

I played Monster Hunter World with some friends a couple years ago but had to quit because I just wanted to explore the world and not kill majestic wildlife for no reason (though I seem to remember the story tried to provide some flimsy reason). I was okay with doing it in Shadow of the Colossus, on the other hand, because that game was “saying something.”

Well, the other reason I had to quit Monster Hunter World was because I couldn’t stand the animation when your character ate a meal.

I’m ambivalent about the animals in Elden Ring. I started hunting the small ones a little to make arrows early on, but then I started instead just buying a large number of arrows sometimes instead of gaining a level.

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1022

I’ve found a large club near the start in some woods alongside a cliff, southeast from the starting point IIRC

I haven’t tried it since I still have like 8 str but it looked like the same old Dark Souls pancake machine

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1023

I’ve enjoyed peacefully watching the wildlife in this game. There are a few surprises to be found that way namely that goats roll around like Katamari enemies

I like wildlife around enemy camps, they mess up R3 targeting and get in the way during fights, but it’s not their fault. I’ve begun trying not to hurt them once I realized that I will probably not craft a single item ever

2 Likes
1024

I definitely felt Moral Ambiguity when I got that southern quest to quash a servant rebellion in a fortress on behalf of a noble. But then the servants all turned out to be fucked up animal chimeras who attacked me without asking questions, and then I didn’t actually take back the fortress, and the nobleman’s daughter got merked thanks to his hubris, so I guess all’s well that ends well.

3 Likes