Elden Ring General DIscussion

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I'm making this thread in order to get the Elden Ring discussion out of the PS deals thread where it has been dominating.

Please keep spoilers tagged.  I would also like to build a spoiler-free (or at least spoiler-light) list of things in the OP that you need to do, or not miss, in order to get all the trophies/achievements. And maybe some general tips too.

Potentially missable legendary weapons:

There are 10 legendary weapons.

One is semi-missable:

Dropped by the NPC “Bernahl” at Warmaster’s Shack when killed. He’s a merchant in knight’s armor. Simply kill him in the Warmaster’s Shack. He will leave later in the game. If you missed him here you can instead find him in Volcano Manor and help him with his quest until he disappears. He will later appear in Farum, down the ladder from Beside the Great Bridge Site of Grace as a phantom and you can kill him there for the Devourer’s Scepter. However, this can be missed if you defeat Shardbearer Rykard before getting the weapon from Bernahl. Alternatively, you can simply do this in New Game+, head straight for Warmaster’s Shack, which you can reach within 10 minutes in NG+. Therefore it’s not a “true” missable because you can very quickly get to it in the 2nd playthrough and everything else carries over.

Another is missable:

From the Erdtree Sanctuary site of grace, go out the west door where there is an elevator you can take to the lower level. Follow the path down, then jump over the railing on the left to where the giant golden spear is sticking out of the wall. Climb a short distance up the spear to find this weapon. THIS IS MISSABLE – The Royal Capital gets destroyed at the end of the game and then the weapon is gone for this playthrough, but if you have a friend with the weapon you can have it dropped to you in co-op. Alternatively, you can rush back there in New Game+.

A third requires a lengthy quest with Renna/Ranni.  See the spoiler below for that specific quest.

Jodou had a tip about summons:
(Io update: this summon has been somewhat nerfed by From, but is still decent)

There is a very good mid-game summons you can get that is well worth saving a set of upgrade items for.  More detail: you won't be able to get this summon until after starting Ranni's quest and progressing to an underground city place.  So start looking for it then - don't think you can find it before beating the first 2 rune bosses at a minimum.  There is also an optional boss tied to it with an achievement/trophy.

You should come across this summon as part of Ranni's quest line (see below), though it is a slight side path when you are in the Nokron portion.  No need to look for it before then though.

This is the list of quest steps for a third legendary weapon you can otherwise possibly miss. It also eventually leads to one of the endings, but you can do all of this and choose a different ending too.  You can safely not look at this list until you have beaten the second main boss, which is in the magic academy ("Hogwarts") place.  It is just a list of steps with no detail, so not super-spoilery, but keeping it hidden just in case:

  • Meet Ranni in Ranni's Rise at Caria Manor
  • Meet Blaid in Siofra River
  • Talk to Seluvis to get his letter of introduction for Selen
  • Talk to Selen to find out about Radahn
  • Talk to Blaidd about Radahn
  • Head to Redmane Castle
  • Defeat Radahn to free the stars
  • Head to East Limgrave and down into the star crater
  • Head to the centre of Nokron to get the Finger Slayer Blade
  • Return and give the blade to Ranni
  • Head to Renna's Rise and go through the portal
  • Collect the Miniature Ranni Doll and talk to it at a grace until it speaks
  • Defeat the shade of Blaidd near the Rot Lake to get the key
  • Head to the Raya Lucaria Grand Library to open the chest and get the ring
  • Head across Rot Lake and descend the ledges to climb inside the coffin
  • Defeat Astel, Naturalborn of the Void
  • Head into the Cathedral of Manus Celes and down through the hole
  • Put the ring on Ranni's finger
  • Claim the Dark Moon Greatsword

Spoiler-light notes on the 3 endings.  There's some stuff you need to do and some stuff you should avoid if you want to get all 3 endings in one playthrough (via save backup).  Steps are taken from: https://www.powerpyx.com/elden-ring-trophy-guide-roadmap/

- Do Ranni's quest line (above) to the end.  That opens up one ending but you aren't forced into it until a choice right near the end (prior to which you should back up your save).

- Once you are in the Royal Capitol, if you head down to the sewers there is a boss called Mohg.  If you go down there and beat him fast travel away immediately afterwards.  DO NOT interact with anything down there as it will lock you into one of the endings! Or simply save this for when you swap save files at the end.  (Edit: Apparently can safely travel down through the platforming section after the boss and sit at the site of grace down below.  Just DO NOT interact with the red door!)

- Then, after a few more areas you need to get through. after defeating the Elden Beast boss, sit at the site of grace but do NOT interact with the statue or markings on the ground yet (doing so triggers ending and locks you out of other endings).

- At this point you must back up your save.  Then you can trigger the 3 different endings. One by going back to where Mohg is, one by doing the thing in red in step 3, and another with Ranni (won't spoil it).  Restore your save each time to get all 3.
 
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Thank you for making this separate thread.

Since I mentioned those missable weapons, I did some more digging and found that the first one is "less" missable than first thought because it's possible to still earn it if the NPC moves on. I'll post more spoilery (in terms of location names) details below which I took from another resource:

If you missed him [at Warmaster's Shack, east-ish of Stormhill Shack] you can instead find him in Volcano Manor and help him with his quest until he disappears. He will later appear in Farum, down the ladder from Beside the Great Bridge Site of Grace as a phantom and you can kill him there for the Devourer’s Scepter.

I'll also provide slightly more detail on the second missable weapon because I think I was too vague:

When exploring a capital city in the late-game, look for a giant spear you can walk on. You might have to jump over a railing to do so.

 
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Can we get a group code going?  Maybe "cag"

There's probably not enough of us to actually run into each other, but you never know.  Can't hurt to set it, since you can have 5 group codes at a time.

 
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Vigilante said:
Thank you for making this separate thread.

Since I mentioned those missable weapons, I did some more digging and found that the first one is "less" missable than first thought because it's possible to still earn it if the NPC moves on. I'll post more spoilery (in terms of location names) details below which I took from another resource:

If you missed him [at Warmaster's Shack, east-ish of Stormhill Shack] you can instead find him in Volcano Manor and help him with his quest until he disappears. He will later appear in Farum, down the ladder from Beside the Great Bridge Site of Grace as a phantom and you can kill him there for the Devourer’s Scepter.

I'll also provide slightly more detail on the second missable weapon because I think I was too vague:

When exploring a capital city in the late-game, look for a giant spear you can walk on. You might have to jump over a railing to do so.
Click to expand...
I looked this up just now too. I was gonna ask if that was the weapon. It seems like maybe it's better to let him move on since he gives you quests later for more items. Then you can still get his stuff from him as you said. But somehow I missed him when I went to Stormhill. I'm going to find him tonight. Also, apparently. at the same shack
there is an invader that only shows up at night
.

Josh1billion said:
Can we get a group code going? Maybe "cag"

There's probably not enough of us to actually run into each other, but you never know. Can't hurt to set it, since you can have 5 group codes at a time.
Click to expand...
Yes, we should. I have no idea how the group thing works. But go ahead and make one if you know how and post it here!

Also, I had something weird happen. I was looking at using another weapon besides my Clayman's spear, and I found that I had a +8 weapon in my inventory. I definitely didn't upgrade it or purchase it. It must have been a drop or something I found? It is a Tarnished Halberd I believe. I'll get the exact name later. I have been using it for horseback battles - much better than the pointy stick I was using before. I just thought that was pretty strange as I hadn't even found a +1 item before.

Also last night as I was exploring some post-Godrick areas I put myself into the summoning pool and kept getting summoned to the
Crystal shack place (where you can get teleport trapped to earlier). I had just run out of there originally and didn't even know there was a boss - but of course all the dungeons have one, so I should have known. Now I'm trying to beat it myself, and, man, that thing is tough. It's like a big rock crystal earwig with a lightning attack!

I also finally found the dungeon with all the illusory walls. For once the messages weren't lying! There's an interesting boss mechanic in there which is super easy if you can get people to help. I helped some guy beat it and then I couldn't find any summons to help me, though. After like 10 tries I finally figured out how to beat it myself.
There is a hidden snail that summons a tough knight who has huge reach with his weapon and this is all in a very small room. You have to find the glowing spots the snail is on and attack him while the knight chases you around and beats on you. I used my wolf summons to distract him for a bit, but he kills them before I have the snail below 2/3 health. After that I just locked on to the knight and dodge rolled from his attacks while backing up the whole time until I came upon the glowing spots. I'd then poke the snail a few times till he teleported. Then rinse and repeat. It is super easy with a human summon because you can just keep the knight's aggro and the summons can go around and beat on the snail

 
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io said:
Yes, we should. I have no idea how the group thing works. But go ahead and make one if you know how and post it here!
Click to expand...
The way to set it up is:

1. press Options

2. go to Multiplayer

3. press Triangle

4. on the right side of the screen, choose one of the five group code slots, and type cag in it

Each player just has to do that individually; there's no one person who has to create a group for everyone else, or anything like that.

Then when you're wandering around in the world and see gold summon signs, the game will prioritize showing ones from other people who typed cag .

 
Josh1billion said:
The way to set it up is:
1. press Options
2. go to Multiplayer
3. press Triangle
4. on the right side of the screen, choose one of the five group code slots, and type cag in it

Each player just has to do that individually; there's no one person who has to create a group for everyone else, or anything like that.

Then when you're wandering around in the world and see gold summon signs, the game will prioritize showing ones from other people who typed cag .
Click to expand...
I’m assuming there is no cross platform multiplayer? I’m playing on my series X, so I’ll do the same for any CAG xbox players.
 
I’m so glad this thread exists because all I want to do is play Elden Ring, or talk about Elden Ring. I just beat Margit last night after spending a while tooling around Weeping Peninsula and gearing up enough to take him on. What a feeling! I’m also on Xbox. Won’t have time to play this weekend (bummer), but I’ll add myself to the group when I can.
 
Playing on Xbox as well, ONE OF US. I may play through again on PS since the CE finally showed up a week late from GS (last time I rely on them) and I'm definitely keeping it. I'll add the group, but TBH I may be too high level to be of any use (not sure if that's still a thing in this one). Plan on stopping around 120 since that tends to be the SL for PvP and only a couple levels off now.

At any rate, I'm actually running into the issue of what I want to do in the game now. I have my build, gear (that I'm aware of), and almost level I want to be. Been kinda aimlessly wandering and checking areas I sprinted through to get whatever item I was after early game, but now most enemies don't stand a chance. I could push NG+ but I also don't want to pass up on anything I could have obtained once per playthrough, so I'd have to look up a guide. This is the same complaint I had with DS3 in that when the game gets too massive, getting to NG+ feels too long-winded for what it is. Couple that with the game being open world and it feels directionless; no real goals for me to chase.

Definitely not burnout, I'd pick this up on PS in a heartbeat to do it all again but once there it just feels empty. Maybe I'm too accustomed to the carrot anymore to just play open world games now.

 
Jodou, I thought I was leveling too fast - I'm at 40 ;).

After Godrick (not marking that as a spoiler since it's apparent early on that this is your first target), the game kind of opens up and I really am not sure where I'm supposed to go next.  I mean there's an area right afterwards, but there's also a couple other areas. And in that first area afterwards there is some sort of key I need but not a lot of direction on how to get that.

So instead I was running around in the areas I opened up a while back.  I got myself into a big tower and found an area that requires platforming.  It's kind of my first complaint about the game - it really isn't suited for platforming, especially once you can no longer use your horse (inside the tower).  But I also think I'm not nearly high level enough.  The normal knights in there one-shot me and take like 10 fireballs to kill.  I'll probably just put that off for a while - but it's always tempting to go into these areas to get items that might be useful.  I think in the area around the tower I found a +8 somber smithing stone which is kind of incredible because the highest I had gotten so far was +4. It's not like I'm going to use that any time soon, but it was a good indication that I probably shouldn't have been in that area yet.  Still, it is fun that you *can* go into those areas and at least make some progress.  For example, I got to a site of grace within that tower.

Earlier I found an entire dungeon/cave hidden by an illusory wall.  It is full of crystals.  It wasn't too hard to make my way through, and it has lots of things hidden all over so it was fun to explore.  But then the boss is some trio thing that I could barely scratch.  I was doing like 10 damage with that +8 halberd I found.  I think maybe it requires magic attacks, which I do not have.

Both of those last things I found after clearing out the town of
Sellia. I also did the quest for the mage there - the one who leaves notes for you to visit his shack.

Oh yeah, I also went back and found that Warmaster's shack.  Man, that thing was hidden in plain site.  It isn't too far off the main path that the light trails send you on.  The thing is when I first went through there the enemies were tough so I sprinted through.  I guess I hadn't explored enough.  I decided to leave him be and get him later as an invader.  I did wait till night though and beat the enemy that spawned then.  I would recommend doing that as it gives you one of the
bearing bells that you can give to the twin merchants at the Roundtable Hold to open them up to selling more items. Does each "shack" have a guy like this?

I think tonight I'll go back and face that initial dragon near the starting area. I am able to take down the giants and golem things in Limgrave and Stormhill pretty easily now, so I can probably manage that.  And given that I've seen lots more dragons in other areas, I'm sure this is the "starter" one and not too tough even though it is meant to terrify you when you first start ;).

 
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^Not sure if it'll help or work with your build, but you might want to have a Strike weapon as an alternate when you fight crystal enemies or living pots--those don't take as much damage from pierce/slash weapons. Personally, I carry a Morning Star as my backup to the Uchigatana I started with (not sure I'll ever find something better, causing Blood Loss seems OP sometimes).

 
Vigilante said:
^Not sure if it'll help or work with your build, but you might want to have a Strike weapon as an alternate when you fight crystal enemies or living pots--those don't take as much damage from pierce/slash weapons. Personally, I carry a Morning Star as my backup to the Uchigatana I started with (not sure I'll ever find something better, causing Blood Loss seems OP sometimes).
Click to expand...
That may be it. I'm about to play now, will give it a shot.

 
io said:
After Godrick (not marking that as a spoiler since it's apparent early on that this is your first target), the game kind of opens up and I really am not sure where I'm supposed to go next.
Click to expand...
I'm in the same boat. I beat Godrick a couple of nights ago, and tried exploring the new landmass, but it seems like enemies are significantly tougher now everywhere I go there (compared to Limgrave's enemies).

Are there any optional bosses that are relatively easy to take on?

 
Josh1billion said:
I'm in the same boat. I beat Godrick a couple of nights ago, and tried exploring the new landmass, but it seems like enemies are significantly tougher now everywhere I go there (compared to Limgrave's enemies).

Are there any optional bosses that are relatively easy to take on?
Click to expand...
I think the Weeping Peninsula, the landmass south of Limgrave across a bridge, is a good second location to go through. That place has a bunch of optional bosses, including one tied to a trophy.

 
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Been playing for 12 hours now and have beaten 3 mini bosses in dungeons and 1 open world boss, the bloodhound guy. My first souls game and it is tough.

I started off as a warrior build and am sort of confused about the ashes of war. I found a couple of them and when I try to add them to my weapon it shows two options, standard and quality. But the stats for quality seem to be lower than the standard. My attack points go from 112 +22 to 95 +25. I don't understand what that +22 or +25 mean and I am not sure I am using them correctly.

Also I see a translucent arch show on ui on the left side of my screen and am not sure what that means.
 
cruxdude said:
Been playing for 12 hours now and have beaten 3 mini bosses in dungeons and 1 open world boss, the bloodhound guy. My first souls game and it is tough.

I started off as a warrior build and am sort of confused about the ashes of war. I found a couple of them and when I try to add them to my weapon it shows two options, standard and quality. But the stats for quality seem to be lower than the standard. My attack points go from 112 +22 to 95 +25. I don't understand what that +22 or +25 mean and I am not sure I am using them correctly.

Also I see a translucent arch show on ui on the left side of my screen and am not sure what that means.
Click to expand...
The +22/+25 reflects how the stat scaling in conjunction with your stats will affect the overall power of the weapon.

 
Yeah, stats and scaling and general crap you learn from the older games is not my strong suit since this is my first one. Confuses me, too.

I don't know which stats I'm supposed to level or what incantations (started as a confessor and I'm sorta sticking with it?) or summons are good. Just kinda guessing as I go.
 
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io said:
Jodou, I thought I was leveling too fast - I'm at 40 ;).
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, the first playthrough is recommended to be 100+ so you're not overleveling at all.

I looked up a guide to see the order of natural progression and while the areas do push you in that direction, I was amazed how many bosses I missed. Even the smallest corners of the world can have a ridiculous amount of content hidden away and you'd never know it from the map. I think the reviewers were right in this aspect, that it's maddening for completionists to find everything without some guidance because they went overboard. What's worse is the map can goad you into wanting to check what's behind the fog of war, yet provides no clear path in getting there. I'm currently stuck trying to get into an area I can clearly see (and this has to be like the 5th or 6th time) and zero clue how to get down to it with no guides online at all.

In fact, I would have been stuck quite a few times with zero guidance online if I hadn't managed to figured it out by complete accident multiple times now. I'd say the hardest part of this game is overcoming the absolute awful breadcrumbing that open world games need. It worked before because progression was fairly linear; doesn't work here.

At any rate, I can definitely help if people get stuck as I'm now right before pushing NG+ and have seen all but one area. Goal today is to get there or die trying. Mainly because I can finally +10 my Dark Moon Greatsword the moment I do and is the whole reason I want in. Speaking of, hope you guys like buying a ton of stones for normal gear since they can go to +25. I'm sticking to special items only because that's ridiculous lol.

 
cruxdude said:
Been playing for 12 hours now and have beaten 3 mini bosses in dungeons and 1 open world boss, the bloodhound guy. My first souls game and it is tough.

I started off as a warrior build and am sort of confused about the ashes of war. I found a couple of them and when I try to add them to my weapon it shows two options, standard and quality. But the stats for quality seem to be lower than the standard. My attack points go from 112 +22 to 95 +25. I don't understand what that +22 or +25 mean and I am not sure I am using them correctly.

Also I see a translucent arch show on ui on the left side of my screen and am not sure what that means.
Click to expand...
In addition to changing the weapon's damage type in some cases, the main change is the guard attack (L2). That's what you want to pay attention to foremost as it can take an excellent weapon and make it shit. Like removing the bleed and unsheate from Uchigatana for example is a horrible trade for anything ashes could offer. However, many medium shields have no guard attack as a blank canvas and you can upgrade those to give them parry or other guard attacks that will benefit you in some way.

As a heads up, modified items can't be enchanted with spells so keep that in mind. So for example taking a rapier and giving it a fire effect from ashes would override the ability to cast magical weapon on it. Bad trade in most cases.

 
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Josh1billion said:
I'm in the same boat. I beat Godrick a couple of nights ago, and tried exploring the new landmass, but it seems like enemies are significantly tougher now everywhere I go there (compared to Limgrave's enemies).

Are there any optional bosses that are relatively easy to take on?
Click to expand...
Vigilante said:
I think the Weeping Peninsula, the landmass south of Limgrave across a bridge, is a good second location to go through. That place has a bunch of optional bosses, including one tied to a trophy.
Click to expand...
In fact, for anyone in the early game I'd suggest doing Weeping Peninsula *before* Godrick. I cleared out all of Stormview castle but couldn't beat Godrick and went down there as a break. Came back and beat Godrick. And as Vigilante said, there's a trophy involved for the boss there so it's worth it for that. Plus you get a cool-looking weapon that you probably won't be able to use for a while (high strength requirement).

cruxdude said:
Been playing for 12 hours now and have beaten 3 mini bosses in dungeons and 1 open world boss, the bloodhound guy. My first souls game and it is tough.

I started off as a warrior build and am sort of confused about the ashes of war. I found a couple of them and when I try to add them to my weapon it shows two options, standard and quality. But the stats for quality seem to be lower than the standard. My attack points go from 112 +22 to 95 +25. I don't understand what that +22 or +25 mean and I am not sure I am using them correctly.

Also I see a translucent arch show on ui on the left side of my screen and am not sure what that means.
Click to expand...
The translucent arch is when you can use summons (the ghost-like helpers). In the early game I'm finding the wolf ones the most useful. They can really take the aggro from a group and let you slaughter them. They can also be handy on dungeon bosses. I bind them to the triangle button/D-pad combo like my horse summons ring. I made triangle/D-pad down is horse, triangle/d-pad right is wolves.

"Quality" I think means it changes your weapon scaling to favor Dexterity. All the + numbers on weapons are scaling based on stats. When you apply ashes you can change the scaling from the default (often strength or a combo of str/dex) to other stats. Since I have a Faith build I tend to make my weapons "Holy" which scales them more to Faith. Just pick whatever one gives you more total attack damage, though holy and magic have their specific uses too. when I use the "Holy" scaling it takes the physical damage down a bit (though it is still there) and adds a holy damage component. The two combined are way higher than just the "Standard" option so be sure you aren't getting a secondary damage source before going back to standard. I think with Quality, though, it just changes the scaling from more str to more dex so it is all physical still.

One really annoying thing that's gotten me killed several times is that you can emote with motion controls. I am often in the middle of the battle and my guy will go into the super slow Elden Ring emote. Then of course I get swarmed and killed. I think when you hold triangle and move the controller certain ways that happens. Of course in the heat of battle that just ends up happening sometimes. The other thing that nearly kills me a lot is in the middle of a pitched horseback battle I will often dismount. If it is an intense fight I think I just push on the left stick too much. I'd really like to disable both of those things!

Jodou said:
At any rate, I can definitely help if people get stuck as I'm now right before pushing NG+ and have seen all but one area. Goal today is to get there or die trying. Mainly because I can finally +10 my Dark Moon Greatsword the moment I do and is the whole reason I want in. Speaking of, hope you guys like buying a ton of stones for normal gear since they can go to +25. I'm sticking to special items only because that's ridiculous lol.
Click to expand...
Well, crap. I assumed weapons stopped at +10 so that +8 Banished Halberd that I found was awesome. Not quite as much as I thought if it goes all the way to 25. Also, I'd love to buy stones but still don't have the bell bearing to do so from the twin merchants. At what point (or what area) can you find that greatsword? I remember using that in other Souls games so I'd like to keep an eye out for that. Do all the special items use the somber stones? There aren't a ton of different stones like in the Souls game I hope? I mean, if there are I haven't even seen them yet.

Jodou said:
In addition to changing the weapon's damage type in some cases, the main change is the guard attack (L2). That's what you want to pay attention to foremost as it can take an excellent weapon and make it shit. Like removing the bleed and unsheate from Uchigatana for example is a horrible trade for anything ashes could offer. However, many medium shields have no guard attack as a blank canvas and you can upgrade those to give them parry or other guard attacks that will benefit you in some way.

As a heads up, modified items can't be enchanted with spells so keep that in mind. So for example taking a rapier and giving it a fire effect from ashes would override the ability to cast magical weapon on it. Bad trade in most cases.
Click to expand...
I have completely ignored the Parry ability - in fact I put the "No Skill" ashes onto my shield so I can use L2 to use my main weapons charge attack. But isn't Guard Counter using normal L1 block and then responding with an L2 attack from primary weapon? I haven't gotten the hang of that either. I'm just now (with this halberd) trying to use more L2 attacks in general. Before with the spear I was always turtling up and poking from behind the shield with L1/R1 combo.

And your last line explains why I haven't been able to use my black fire holy power-up on my weapons as I have them made into "Holy" versions. Damn...

I went back to the dungeon with the trio of crystal type enemies and brought an upgraded Morning Star this time. Instead of doing like 11 damage I now did like 20. Barely made a dent in any of them. I also tried to help some people and we were getting destroyed. I guess this is something for later. I also tried to beat the magma lizard thing in one of the earlier mines (but that you don't get access too unless you go the other way around from Caelid). After several attempts at not getting far, with one guy's help I had it down to 10%, but I dodge rolled into some damn magma before I could heal. That's as close as I've ever come to throwing my controller.

As for where to go after Godrick, well, based on regular enemy toughness I'd have to say they place that opens up right after is where you should be. Caelid and some areas that you can teleport to even earlier are still harder. There are so many mini-bosses and dungeon bosses that it shouldn't surprise me there are some balance issues. I've been discussing these seemingly impossible ones, but last night in the area after Godrick, I found a cave with a ludicrously easy boss. I was shocked it was so easy to beat ;). It was a cave with a bunch of poison flowers and enemies that cast poison blobs at you.

I spent some time last night leveling up and putting most of those points into Vigor, I was only at 20 before and am pushing to get to 30. I read somewhere else that's a good place to go as it gives you 1000 HP. I'm tired of things 1 or 2-shotting me plus having to heal all the time. Next I'll probably raise my Endurance a bit more - not for the stamina, as that seems to be good. But for the increased equipment load. Unlike Bloodborne, different (and usually heavier) armor can be better in all stats.

The thing about leveling up in this game is that as you level up any stat, your physical and elemental resistances will increase, so any stat will help you in the long run.

I beat the starting area dragon and the game told me something to the effect of:
I could get a new dragon upgrade at some shrine or something. Thing is, I have no idea what it is talking about ;). Seems like a little bit of a programming error as it seemed to think I knew about that already.

 
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io said:
The translucent arch is when you can use summons (the ghost-like helpers). In the early game I'm finding the wolf ones the most useful. They can really take the aggro from a group and let you slaughter them. They can also be handy on dungeon bosses. I bind them to the triangle button/D-pad combo like my horse summons ring. I made triangle/D-pad down is horse, triangle/d-pad right is wolves.



"Quality" I think means it changes your weapon scaling to favor Dexterity. All the + numbers on weapons are scaling based on stats. When you apply ashes you can change the scaling from the default (often strength or a combo of str/dex) to other stats. Since I have a Faith build I tend to make my weapons "Holy" which scales them more to Faith. Just pick whatever one gives you more total attack damage, though holy and magic have their specific uses too. when I use the "Holy" scaling it takes the physical damage down a bit (though it is still there) and adds a holy damage component. The two combined are way higher than just the "Standard" option so be sure you aren't getting a secondary damage source before going back to standard. I think with Quality, though, it just changes the scaling from more str to more dex so it is all physical still.



One really annoying thing that's gotten me killed several times is that you can emote with motion controls. I am often in the middle of the battle and my guy will go into the super slow Elden Ring emote. Then of course I get swarmed and killed. I think when you hold triangle and move the controller certain ways that happens. Of course in the heat of battle that just ends up happening sometimes. The other thing that nearly kills me a lot is in the middle of a pitched horseback battle I will often dismount. If it is an intense fight I think I just push on the left stick too much. I'd really like to disable both of those things!
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Thank you! I had the same issue with dismounting when I was fighting the tree sentinel. Still haven't succeeded in beating him.

I still don't understand the stats you explain. Maybe I will take a screenshot when I play next and you would be kind enough to explain.
 
Jodou said:
In addition to changing the weapon's damage type in some cases, the main change is the guard attack (L2). That's what you want to pay attention to foremost as it can take an excellent weapon and make it shit. Like removing the bleed and unsheate from Uchigatana for example is a horrible trade for anything ashes could offer. However, many medium shields have no guard attack as a blank canvas and you can upgrade those to give them parry or other guard attacks that will benefit you in some way.

As a heads up, modified items can't be enchanted with spells so keep that in mind. So for example taking a rapier and giving it a fire effect from ashes would override the ability to cast magical weapon on it. Bad trade in most cases.
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Thanks! I tried parrying but when I am dying in two shots I find it hard to get the timing right!! I thought L2 with a shield was only for parrying. I am still very early in the game so lots to learn and discover!
 
cruxdude said:
Thanks! I tried parrying but when I am dying in two shots I find it hard to get the timing right!! I thought L2 with a shield was only for parrying. I am still very early in the game so lots to learn and discover!
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I think the confusion here is Jodou is probably two-handing weapons (given that he's using the Dark Moon Greatsword). In that case, L2 is the "special" attack you get with the ashes of war. There are lots of them. Some magic type attacks, some spinning attacks, etc. They all take FP (blue bar, magic points) to use.

If you apply the "No skill" ash to a shield, you can then use L2 to use the special attack on your right-hand weapon. I just figured this out the other day!

"Parry" is a the special attack for a shield, but it needs to be applied to it (the shield I've been using had it by default). You see the "special attack" on your interface so should know if you have it or not. I just can't get the hang of parry because it leaves you totally open for an attack. If you whiff on the parry then whatever is attacking you gets a completely open shot on your head ;).

 
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I jumped on for a bit this afternoon (it seems wrong playing this game during the day) to get some screen shots of the ash weapon stuff, and just ran around for a bit.  Found some fire prayerbook which is perfect for me (more fire spells) and an emote (Fire Spur Me) that I remember seeing someone saying you needed to open a door somewhere in a message.  Could have been a troll but problem is I have no idea where that was any more ;).  I may have to look that up because I'll never find it again. Edit: I looked it up and I don't see anyone saying it is used to open anything, just where to find it.

Then I dropped into the Roundtable to turn in the prayer book and
Had an NPC invader there!  That was a surprise.  He was pretty weak though.  I won't say who it is, but I got a bunch of armor afterwards.  I looked this one up and apparently he invaded because I got a certain medallion thingie last night.  He doesn't have any other quest so I guess that was it.  Also, the one guy who keeps asking about his ward or assistant who I never found is now gone.  Never did figure out what he was about.  It wasn't him that attacked me though.  I feel like I definitely missed a quest there somehow.

 
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So I will try to explain the weapon scaling using my Halberd as an example.

[attachment=36754:Elden_Ring_str_1.jpg]

In this case, I am applying the "Sacred Blade" Ash of War.  It is already on my halberd, so that's why it isn't changing the L2 attack.  As an aside, that L2 attack shoots out a holy light thing and then infuses the blade with holy power for a few seconds.  But ignore that and just look at the base stats and passive effects, as that is the way it will behave 99% of the time.  As Jodou said, some Ashes imbue (or remove) passive effects like bleed.  So be sure to keep an eye out for that.  In this case, I neither had one nor added one.

As for the stats, the "standard" stat scaling for this Halberd is D for Str, and C for Dex.  That means the physical damage will scale more with dexterity than strength.  That isn't great for my build, as I am more Str and Faith.

But you see here the stats are 183 base damage + 45 scaling from Str/Dex = 228

When I change it to "Sacred" (which I was already using) I get this:

[attachment=36755:Elden_Ring_fai_1.jpg]

Now you can see that the scaling went down to E for both Str and Dex, but it added C scaling for Faith.  And now my damage is: Physical 136 + 7 = 143 plus Holy damage of 136 + 39 = 175 for a total damage of 318.  That is significantly better than the 228 I had with the standard.  Note that some things may be more resistant to holy damage (and also others may be weaker to it).  So it's not a one-to-one comparison, but in general that overall higher damage number is gonna be better.

I also had the following options:

Heavy  (More Strength scaling) changed Str scaling to B, but dropped Dex to E.  That left me with 167 + 68 = 235.  For a pure strength build you would probably want to do this.

Keen:  (Dexterity Scaling) changed Dex to B, and dropped Str to E.  That left me at 167 + 51 = 218, since my Dex stat is lower than my Str stat.

Quality: I was wrong about this one earlier.  This is a combo Str/Dex enhancement.  It puts both stats at C scaling (from the default D/C), and that results in 152 + 68 = 119.  It decreases the base damage I guess because of both scaling being high.  This results in the worst case for me since neither my Str or Dex are that high (both 20 or less).  Plus it only added one letter grade to one of the stats - not great.  But this maybe is better with weapons that have a higher Str/Dex scaling grade to start with?  Maybe it just makes them both the same as the highest one?

There are other options like Magic, Fire, Cold, etc.  I did pick up an oddball Ash today.  As you can see, this one does add a special effect (freeze build up) in addition to a magic attack component:

[attachment=36756:Elden_Ring_cold_1.jpg]

In this case, it resets the Str/Dex scaling to the default (D/C) but also adds an Int scaling at C.  I'm not sure why this one doesn't punish the Str/Dex scaling like the Sacred one does (it makes both E).  That kind of sucks because my Int will never get that high to scale this thing.  Right now, I'd be getting 138 + 37 physical and 110 + 16 magic damage for 301 total, but also getting the frost buildup effect.  So that is something to consider.  The problem is, as I said, I won't be powering up Int very much so I won't get a ton of scaling benefit at later levels.

I will be looking through the rest of my ashes later though.  If I have any that add Faith scaling and also a special effect, I will definitely give that a shot.

 
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I do like the quality of life thing they did with the ashes: for one thing, you can move them around at will. I feel like if they had these in previous Souls games it would have been a one-time application to any specific weapon.  Also, if you want to apply the same one to another weapon, it simply asks you if it is OK to remove from the first one.  That is awesome UI design - they don't make you go remove it from the other one first.

I admit I didn't apply one for the first several hours I was playing because I wasn't sure they could be re-used ;).

 
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One quick question on the last picture. It has physical damage and magic damage. Am I right in assuming magic damage is only when you actually use magic and regular melee attacks will just have the physical damage? I am excited for when I find my first magic skills!

 
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cruxdude said:
One quick question on the last picture. It has physical damage and magic damage. Am I right in assuming magic damage is only when you actually use magic and regular melee attacks will just have the physical damage? I am excited for when I find my first magic skills!
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Nope, I'm pretty sure the magic damage is applied when you whack something! Same with the Holy damage on my halberd. I sure hope so - otherwise there's no reason to move off the physical-based scaling. Magic damage from your spells is a completely separate thing as you are required to hold a staff/catalyst for that instead of the weapon anyway.

If you want a very minor spoiler about finding some magic spells early on I can let you know where to go.

 
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io said:
Nope, I'm pretty sure the magic damage is applied when you whack something! Same with the Holy damage on my halberd. I sure hope so - otherwise there's no reason to move off the physical-based scaling. Magic damage from your spells is a completely separate thing as you are required to hold a staff/catalyst for that instead of the weapon anyway.

If you want a very minor spoiler about finding some magic spells early on I can let you know where to go.
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Ohh ok. Thanks again for explaining. Ya do tell me where to go. I am fine with minor spoilers!
 
What’s the best katanas for bleed? I have uchigatanas and nagakiba right now. Wondering if I’ll be getting better ones to replace my uchigatana
 
Can someone give me tips to beat crucible knight? He’s the one boss I’ve really struggled with so far. I beat margit and godrick on my first try.

 
NeedleInTheHay said:
Can someone give me tips to beat crucible knight? He’s the one boss I’ve really struggled with so far. I beat margit and godrick on my first try.
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I don't even know what that is so no I've got no tips. If someone answers please spoiler tag it. I'm still exploring everywhere after Godrick and not finding any more of the main bosses. I did beat two optional bosses last night that both gave trophies though - that was somewhat surprising.

I also found a dungeon with TWO bosses. One was in a hidden pathway room that wasn't marked by any messages. Maybe I was the first to find it? (Doubt that, but still, I was surprised).

Hypebeast69 said:
What’s the best katanas for bleed? I have uchigatanas and nagakiba right now. Wondering if I’ll be getting better ones to replace my uchigatana
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Jodou might have some answers there. I don't know of any others.

 
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NeedleInTheHay said:
Can someone give me tips to beat crucible knight? He’s the one boss I’ve really struggled with so far. I beat margit and godrick on my first try.
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When he switches to two-handed and slashes a few times, there's a brief 1-2 seconds after he stops and pulls his shield back out where you can get at least one hit in. At about the halfway-health mark, he gets some more moves that can catch you off-guard if you get greedy when hitting him, so stick to 1 hit at a time.

He took a few tries for me to beat, but if you take him on slow and steady without taking unnecessary risks trading blows, you should get him.

io, this boss is located almost directly south of the Stormhill Shack site of grace, at one of those portals surrounded by rock worms. There's a revival statue in the immediate vicinity, so it's incredibly easy to retrieve runes and try again if beaten.

 
io said:
I don't even know what that is so no I've got no tips. If someone answers please spoiler tag it. I'm still exploring everywhere after Godrick and not finding any more of the main bosses. I did beat two optional bosses last night that both gave trophies though - that was somewhat surprising.

I also found a dungeon with TWO bosses. One was in a hidden pathway room that wasn't marked by any messages. Maybe I was the first to find it? (Doubt that, but still, I was surprised).

Jodou might have some answers there. I don't know of any others.
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I think we’re around the same, I beat godrick and went back to exploring, the next major boss is a surprise to me. Can you share the location of the dungeon with 2 bosses?

 
I started last night and stayed up way too late. Played more before work and I'm thoroughly addicted.

Went with a Confessor for magic and wish I'd done the Astrologer instead. I finally got my Intelligence up high enough to equip some of the earliest staff/spells you can find and now exploring is ever-so-slightly less dangerous. 

Right now I'm in the underground area where
you take the elevator down for what feels like forever and find yourself under a purplish night sky. There's even a giant enemy crab straight from E3 2006. Will add the location name later, I can't risk turning it back on to look it up.
.

 
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Hypebeast69 said:
What’s the best katanas for bleed? I have uchigatanas and nagakiba right now. Wondering if I’ll be getting better ones to replace my uchigatana
Click to expand...
Nagakiba easily because it has longer reach and damage. You may want to consider Moonveil with an INT build as it is overall a better sword and offers more play variety with spells being optional still. Reason being you can unsheathe, stagger, crit, repeat. Certain talismans will allow you to infinite loop this since the critical refunds the cost of the unsheathe. Bosses are extremely vulnerable to this as well, so it can trivialize quite a few of them. Pretty slick.

 
Lol, I’m 16hrs in and I haven’t even bothered to go fight Margit yet. I’ve been bopping around the southern peninsula and took care of the boss behind the castle, only to find out I missed an NPC in the castle to complete a quest for the blind girl near the bridge to the peninsula. So I’ll probably try and complete that next just for completion’s sake. I don’t have diagnosed ADD, but with this game I totally do. I’ve mentally planned to go fight Margit the past few nights and every time I’m like oooh what’s over there? FYI there is a dragon church/temple on that little island near the starting point of the game. There is a cave on the beach that will take you there after you clear the cave of the mini boss. Happy hunting!
 
io said:
Well, crap. I assumed weapons stopped at +10 so that +8 Banished Halberd that I found was awesome. Not quite as much as I thought if it goes all the way to 25. Also, I'd love to buy stones but still don't have the bell bearing to do so from the twin merchants. At what point (or what area) can you find that greatsword? I remember using that in other Souls games so I'd like to keep an eye out for that. Do all the special items use the somber stones? There aren't a ton of different stones like in the Souls game I hope? I mean, if there are I haven't even seen them yet.
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Yeah, special items only use somber up to +10 and they're done, trophy complete. The stones are all the same except their 'level' and the final one needed for +10 is unique, but still of the somber variety. And Dark Moon Greatsword is an entire thing this time, so you'll need a guide 100%. Requires way too many easily missed interactions due to when, where, and even time of day. Easily spent 5-10 hours acquiring it alone.

I finally figured out how to get the stone I needed for my sword, as I was looking for a location instead of how to get into the actual area. Once I figured that out, it was easy finding a guide heh. Got in, got my items, and got out. Now I'm just trying to 100% the map to see everything before pushing NG+, which is probably stupid since I'll lose all that progress in areas but eh. I did find one talisman I didn't know existed and is the equivalent of Havel's Ring, so now I'm having to consider a respec since I was already using a lower-powered version to just keep me at medium weight.

Still shocking how much I missed and is easily missed even when you know where you want to get to. So many gate checks or places that are a pain to get to without a guide. . .

 
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Vigilante said:
io, this boss is located almost directly south of the Stormhill Shack site of grace, at one of those portals surrounded by rock worms. There's a revival statue in the immediate vicinity, so it's incredibly easy to retrieve runes and try again if beaten.
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Oh, an overworld boss. I was thinking this was a main story one. I'll have to look for that - sounds like something else I might have missed in that area. I've been marking the portals to go back and do them (I've only done one so far), and I thought I had been to that one, but I'll check.

NeedleInTheHay said:
I think we’re around the same, I beat godrick and went back to exploring, the next major boss is a surprise to me. Can you share the location of the dungeon with 2 bosses?
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I'd have to be on to see for sure, but I think it's in an upper cliff area of Raya Lucaria (where you go after Godrick). Up above all the
big walking shrine monsters
. One boss is the normal one you get to by opening a door with a lever. But there's another mist entry you can find. I can tell you how to get there once you find it. Just note that there's one room where you can plainly see a ledge and hallway above you but it doesn't look like you can get there. I figured I'd get up there from the other side after exploring further, but, no, you have to get there from the room you see and it is pretty easy, just not obvious. I left a note for it but there were none there telling me what to do otherwise. Then after that there is a hidden path wall. so even if some people got up there they might have just thought it was a dead end room with an item, but it keeps going. Note that you do have to go up there to open the lever for the first boss (you drop from there to where the lever is). So I'm sure a lot of people thought that was all they had to do up there. Very sneaky From. Also note that my Sacred Blade power-up on my Halberd was critical in this dungeon. There are super-skeletons in here that don't die even when you hit their glowing orbs on the ground. You have to kill them with Holy damage, and the base holy damage from the weapon doesn't count - I had to L2 to get Sacred Blade going (the shot from that kills them plus the weapon glows for several seconds and if you hit stuff with that it also kills them). One of the two bosses (I think the main one) has support skeletons with the same thing. The second hidden boss was fairly easy.

gamegirlpocket said:
Right now I'm in the underground area where
you take the elevator down for what feels like forever and find yourself under a purplish night sky. There's even a giant enemy crab straight from E3 2006. Will add the location name later, I can't risk turning it back on to look it up.
.
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Ah, yes, I think you are in the area with one of the optional trophy bosses (that I just beat the other night). Sofria Well I think?

Jodou said:
Nagakiba easily because it has longer reach and damage. You may want to consider Moonveil with an INT build as it is overall a better sword and offers more play variety with spells being optional still. Reason being you can unsheathe, stagger, crit, repeat. Certain talismans will allow you to infinite loop this since the critical refunds the cost of the unsheathe. Bosses are extremely vulnerable to this as well, so it can trivialize quite a few of them. Pretty slick.
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Moonveil is from the magma lizard boss in one of the mine dungeons, right? I *almost* had that bastard beat the other day but dodge rolled into his magma when he was at 10% health. One more health flask and I was set to beat him. Didn't get nearly that close on many other runs. I figured I'd tackle it when I power up a bit more.

Jodou said:
Yeah, special items only use somber up to +10 and they're done, trophy complete. The stones are all the same except their 'level' and the final one needed for +10 is unique, but still of the somber variety. And Dark Moon Greatsword is an entire thing this time, so you'll need a guide 100%. Requires way too many easily missed interactions due to when, where, and even time of day. Easily spent 5-10 hours acquiring it alone.

I finally figured out how to get the stone I needed for my sword, as I was looking for a location instead of how to get into the actual area. Once I figured that out, it was easy finding a guide heh. Got in, got my items, and got out. Now I'm just trying to 100% the map to see everything before pushing NG+, which is probably stupid since I'll lose all that progress in areas but eh. I did find one talisman I didn't know existed and is the equivalent of Havel's Ring, so now I'm having to consider a respec since I was already using a lower-powered version to just keep me at medium weight.

Still shocking how much I missed and is easily missed even when you know where you want to get to. So many gate checks or places that are a pain to get to without a guide. . .
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Well, damn, not sure I want to go through all that for the sword. Is it one of the legendary ones for the trophy though?

As for the Havel's ring item. I found an equip load talsiman last night. That's in addition to the one you told me about earlier that boosts HP, equip weight and something else. This one does equip weight only and I think added 6 or 7 lbs? Is that the lower-powered version?

I discovered a new enemy type sitting outside that cave with 2 bosses. It's a golden knight that guards the entrance (so NeedleInTheHay you will know you are in the right place from that). One time when I killed it I got some gauntlets that are way better than anything I already had, but at the same weight as my other "heavy" armor. Every stat was better. I'd like to farm the whole set but I'd need to increase my equip load to wear it all.

 
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Jodou, have you figured out what the paintings are for?  I keep finding more.

So last night I went into the
Carian study hall tower.  Man, that mage in there is a f!*%ing bastard.  I died so many times trying to take out his teleporting ass. I finally just ran past him and got the items up on the rafters.  Up there were notes saying to use a projectile weapon on the suspended stairs.  It did nothing.  I'm guessing I probably have to kill the mage first.  Like so many other things, I'll head back there later ;).
.

 
Jodou, my son just told me the person who hugs you permanently takes away 5% of your health each time!? Is that remotely true?  I've done that like 4 or 5 times trying to see what she's even there for and so far there's been no interesting dialog.  Maybe it's just the first time (hopefully)?

 
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io said:
Jodou, my son just told me the person who hugs you permanently takes away 5% of your health each time!? Is that remotely true? I've done that like 4 or 5 times trying to see what she's even there for and so far there's been no interesting dialog. Maybe it's just the first time (hopefully)?
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Partially true. You do lose 5% HP but it’s not permanent. As long as you use the item she gives you (can’t remember the name) you will regain the 5%. The item she gives temporarily boosts your poise which is useful to stay on your feet during boss fights.
 
Echotech83 said:
Partially true. You do lose 5% HP but it’s not permanent. As long as you use the item she gives you (can’t remember the name) you will regain the 5%. The item she gives temporarily boosts your poise which is useful to stay on your feet during boss fights.
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I wasn't even aware there was an item that she gave me ;). What's it called?

 
io said:
I wasn't even aware there was an item that she gave me ;). What's it called?
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Baldachin’s Blessing, either use it or remove it to get the 5% back. You’ll notice a red square with a down arrow below your HP bar when the “blessing” is In your inventory. Even hugs hurt in a fromsoftware game.
 
Echotech83 said:
Baldachin’s Blessing, either use it or remove it to get the 5% back. You’ll notice a red square with a down arrow below your HP bar when the “blessing” is In your inventory. Even hugs hurt in a fromsoftware game.
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I noticed the other day I had like 5 things going on there - wasn't sure what they were though I think one was the HP regen from the talisman. So, great, I've been playing with a 5% health handicap the entire time!

Yeah and what she tells me each time I go back there is that the blessing is still active or something - so I thought it was an always-active type buff. Didn't realize I had to use it. She'll continue to hug me anyway ;).

 
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I think I found the 2-boss catacombs with the "super skeletons" that won't die the normal way, but it turns out you can just kill the "summoner" who's usually nearby holding a torch of sorts and all of the skeletons immediately die also.

 
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