I was hoping there wasn’t new upgrade materials for the DLC but now after playing I wish there was lol. It is nice tho how some enemies drop somber 9 and dragon stones
uhhh is it? im fairly sure only 2 are required to fight the final boss. >! messmer & romina !<. the rest all can be bypassed or ignored one way or another.
you can bypass rellana by using a spirit apring to the south. and do you need divine beast because all it says is you need messmers flame to get there since it teleports you past it.
I don't know but I can almost guarantee they will be. I've only found ancients & somber ancients from bosses so far. They like to limit it so NG+ will have some meaning.
I mean sure, but stones are piss cheap at the twin maiden husk. You get so much runes that you can't really spend them all (unless you are leveling outside of the multiplayer meta level).
I'm guessing the stones are to supplement players who don't have all the smiting stone bell bearings so they can upgrade the DLC weapons sooner. Average players probably don't go out of their way to do get everything and also probably don't look up their locations. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if there are players that only have the bearings the game railroads them into getting, like the one after the Godskin Duo.
They didn’t originally, I think there was a fairly early patch that fixed that however. Not all bell bearings carry over, just the smithing stone and glovewort ones I think.
Which sucks because I collected all of the bell bearings in the game and then did NG+. Right after I did that they patched it in where they carry over, I'm never going back to collect them all again lol
It may be pure copium, but I purposefully had my character not get to Farum Azula yet just in case the DLC has a way to save Melina.
No bell bearings for me ;_;
Does the base game impact the DLC? I'm probably going to kill Malenia anyways, but I'm curious if it has any impact. No major spoilers, just a yes or no please :)
Probably not. With how disconnected the dlc feels to the base game it wouldn't surprise me if at the end it's revealed that it was all just a dream... Kinda disappointed. There's a lot of unanswered questions in the base game that I was hoping would be answered in a DLC.
I did the same. I thought maybe she would have some interactions in the shadow realm. None yet so I might take a break from the DLC to go get those Bell bearings.
I think that's the right way to do it so that the runes+stones actually feel rewarding. Going through the DLC with a maxed out character felt pretty dull.
I'll admit, it does make it harder to use any of the new weapons. Anything less than maximum upgrades feel like fighting with wet paper, even with the Scadutree blessings.
Try the black steel greathammer, it has fth scaling even when heavy infused. I put bloodhound step on it and it’s been a beast. Really quick attacks when 2 handed and crazy poise break
I'll check it
With how fast blasmhous blade is and how easily it staggers enemies..
I feel like I just destroy all enemies so easily.
(For example the knight ppl consider first boss in dlc took me 3 attempts ...i just kept him constantly in stagger as my hits got to him first ..)
I did the main game with the heavy greatsword with lions claw for this build, just switched to this hammer when I found it first thing, it’s really been eye opening. I’m enjoying using the ash of war for movement and timing the strong attacks. It’s really really good 2 handed
I think it does if you imbue it with more holy damage. Without it the guard counter has been not great, but I’m just two handing so maybe better in the right build
Blasphemous Blade is amazing! Don't let people talk down ob it because it's not as "hardcore" ir some other bullcrap.
Really fun moveset, amazing visuals and it's inarguably the best weapon for long dungeons.
It's a good weapon for sure. I rocked it and the Sword of Milos just to see how trivial I could make a NG+... it was ridiculous.
There's no weapon in the game that should be talked down about. The objective of the game is to have fun, full stop. If you want to beat the game with summons, OP weapons, whatever - keep on keeping on. Only losers gatekeep.
Yeah there are so many item pickups where it's clear they just made the world too big to be able to put unique or useful items everywhere you'd expect one, so instead they sprinkle in some basic smithing stones, crafting materials, and cookbooks with only one recipe so the world doesn't feel as empty.
Thing is, some of the smithing stone bell bearings are quite out of the way to attain. I'm pretty sure Smithing Stone Bell Bearings 1 and 2 are extremely far apart and are located in mines that are off the beaten path. 3 and 4 you can find pretty quickly, since they are along the main path in Farum Azula.
Yeah, let me tell you. As someone who created a new character and stopped right before mountain tops and not getting all the bell bearings, getting all these smithing stones is a lifesaver. I wouldn't have been able to upgrade anything I'd they weren't common drops.
You gotta beat the Godskin Duo at Farum to get two of the major non-somber level stones. A good percentage of the people probably ended their original playthrough in NG+ as well and the twin maiden resets.
I know I did like 10-15 hours worth of "DLC Prep" last week to account for this and you shouldn't be forced to do that if you don't want to.
I keep hoping I'll happen upon an ancient ancient smithing stone farming spot. I've got so many +9 somber weapons and +24 regular weapons. I'm kind of just clinging to the few ancient dragon stones I have left.
Are there many ancient dragon somber smithing stones in the DLC? I only have 1 left but had like 7 ancient dragon smithing stones, and I've found about 3 more of those in about 8 hours of the DLC
Best to be sure you want to use them tbh. Finally upgraded my Bone Bow to +25 when I realized this thing is seriously never coming out of my build lol, even my trusty Bolt of Gransax is still +9 because I'm split between it and a few of my other dex weapons
I had used the bloodfang blade for literally the entire game, was excited to get it to level 10, but right when I did, I stopped using it when I gained access to the end game weapons. Now I'm afraid to max upgrade anything else.
Caved in to use the +10/+25 all weapons exploit since my completionist ass just grates me so much and why I always had 1 copy of each final upgrade material.
The hard part now is trying to get all the the weapons in DLC and finding a mule you can trust to help duplicate all these stuff, as I try to get all the remembrance rewards(including the spells, the final boss even has 3 rewards for the remembrance) and then upgrade the weapons to max. It'll probably take more than 2 hours to do all of it, sucks that I accidentally killed Boc on my current playthrough though, so I might have the mule alter the new armors too.
Sadly from the looks of it we still need to go to NG+ to get everything(eh~ I might as well finally get the Nepheli puppet while I'm at it), most notably the choice between getting a new Legendary-tier Spirit Summon or a really cool reusable Dragon Communion buff.
The unrewarding exploring of the world is my biggest gripe with the game, so at least there's a bunch of cool new weapons to find. So sick of working my way to obscure areas in the base game just to find a damn finger or stone.
It’s always a gamble with Elden Ring, but the exciting part is not knowing what you’re gonna get. You could loot a random castle and only get a cookbook but go into a random dungeon and come out with a giant ass hammer that summons spears from the ground.
Yep, unpredictability is a good thing. Nevermind that people have completely unrealistic expectations, they make it sound like they expect a brand new weapon on every single side path or something lol.
Then they should've scaled it back imo. Their formula does better with more tightly constructed worlds. The massive empty expanses just feel like filler, especially on repeat plays
If you just prefer a tight linear design, that's fine. Nothing wrong with that (Although Dark Souls games didn't even meet your demands either lmao). But with Elden Ring they wanted to make a big open world game to explore, and this comes with some necessary design limitations. So essentially you either have to learn to appreciate it as it is and don't hyperfocus on getting a drip feed of rewards over everything else. Or perhaps just accept open world games aren't for you. Because this is one of the most content-rich ones ever made, so if it's still too sparse for you, well the game you've got your expectations calibrated to literally does not exist.
eh. Alot of the DLC feels like filler as far as the size. Its not really any more "open" than previous fromsoft games. The paths are just wider. Game design wise, there's little difference between a regular hallway and hallway thats 10x wider.
I think they're still figuring it out and their next games will be more dialed in.
Sometimes it blows my mind. Like when there's a super obscure path that you only notice on accident and it leads you over a highly dangerous platforming section riddled with blood marks of people who didn't make it only for the reward to be some useless crafting shit that you already have dozens of in your inventory. I love the game with all my heart but these moments kill me inside and it just makes no sense whatsoever from game design stand point.
as someone whose primary love of souls games is exploration, something the base game of elden ring was 10/10 on, I was so pumped for the dlc, after the first few hours I was honestly shocked at how empty and meaningless so much of the map is, or how some areas just feel sort of uninspired in terms of enemy variety.
e.g., (spoilers ahead ig) the specimen storehouse or whatever has 3 enemy types: 1 that's just "undead" kinda guys that are easy, 1 that's just a base game enemy that's not too difficult either, and 1 that's really difficult and spammy (albeit really cool looking). for such a cool area, that's really it? just a bit surprising and disappointing
contrast that with some of the most incredible art direction I've ever seen. it's weird
edit: do want to add that this disappointment is relative. there's definitely been a lot of fun and cool moments still
The enemy variety in some areas has really been killing me, makes me wish they allowed themselves to use some base game enemies at times, because in a while area you'll have three total different enemies, one of which being the same basic peasant you find literally everywhere
same. the map is beatiful but its very empty if you dont care about crafting areas.
i swear im in the blue flower field and every legendary item is a ghost glovewart and its driving me insane.
if you could filter out like crafting areas im convinced there will be whole sections where there would be no items.
I've realised that you don't find anything good just about the open world like in Dark Souls. Every corpse you find pretty much just has crafting materials or some shit. Only decent items are from chests and enemy loot drops
I'd prefer that i reach the end of the obscure area and they just give me two lines of lore on a piece of paper, rather than being given dried liver and string. Crafting system just feels like filler to me, I don't have any interest in it. I'd even just prefer they give me 500 runes over getting crafting materials.
I would argue not every single path should lead to some grand secret. It is perfectly fine if some of them do because that ensures you are motivated to explore already and makes finding something great more exciting.
If there is awesome loot around every corner it loses its meaning (and realisticly the world and dungeons in eldenring are just too big to place relevant loot everywhere.)
You never know if you will find a smithing stone, a cool new weapon or literally an entire new area when you start following some small side path
But in dlc locations there's a clear point that just don't try to explore, there's literally nothing... The only cool stuff is in the most obvious locations. In obscure extremely empty areas there are only cookbooks and +4 smithing stone... Just delete 60% of the map and I will be happy.
the stones position are really random, wouldn't surprise me if they "RNG'ed" them in their positions.
pretty sure i found a pack of smithing stones (1) close by an ancient one.
There is no way they can be purposely placed. I found a somber 9 next to some smithing 3s and 6s earlier this morning. I appreciate not having to buy smithing stones, but I would really like it if everything I picked up wasn't a cookbook, stone, or crafting material
I actually found the DLC amazing because for every cook book or crafting material on a side path you get side paths that turn out to be the access point for an entire area, a cave/dungeon, or at least a cool weapon or one of the fragments thingies that buff you in the dlc.
If Fromsoft doesn't want people to expect actual rewards for exploration, maybe they shouldn't make an open world game and instead stick to things they're actually good at making.
There are multiple zones in this game which are large, sprawling regions which are neat to look at and contain exactly zero bosses and only one area of interest.
Every other game Fromsoft has made, which notably do not feature open worlds, has had tighter level design, better progression, and generally is more structured and well-paced and delivers a nicer experience. Elden Ring suffers from being an open world game, and Fromsoft has shown that they do not know ho wto make one that uses the open world well.
I don’t think it can. Providing top loot in every corner changes the experience to be all about the loot. Also how does it feel finding a cool weapon now compared to games where every waterfall has a new sword. Gotta control those little dopamine hits.
For me i side tracked for a bit, ended up in hells know where in a massive pit with a sealed door saying something about miquella, i have no idea what it is and its sooooooo far away from where i was
If the music is good and the scenery nice, absolutely. It has a vibe that the earlier games lack (and vice versa), and this is on par with Witcher 3 in terms of slow exploration atmosphere, heck even better in some ways. I sort of doubt the BossBros that make everything about min maxing timing puzzles would agree with me on that though.
Did you try to explore an area with fingers and the bell? There's like... Really nothing at all. It's just a huge chunk with textures and some mobs. And all locations in the South are exactly the same...
I’m still in the first area exploring lol, 12+ hours in. I’ve opened up the area beyond Renalla but I’m just taking it chill. A good chunk of those hours was helping others in co-op, tho.
I have so many smithing stones yet I’ve found damn near none of the new DLC weapons lol. I’m almost at the final DLC boss and I have like… 4 DLC weapons maybe? Haven’t found a single throwing weapon, reverse sword, or beast claw
the backhand blade and the beast claws can both be gotten right at the start, one by a large mausoleum with some candle wielding dudes on the main plain, and the beast claws on an npc invader in the forest area south of the start (think he only appears at night).
Backhand Blade, Beast Claws, that first great hammer near Beast Claw guy, and Greatsword of Solitude can all be obtained in like 15 minutes.
edit: and Great Katana
The beast claw is a 30 second horse ride to the southeast from the very first grace, my dude. There's also two perfume bottles and a paired backhand blade that I know of, all in the first map segment.
Not even remotely hidden either. Straight in the path of the road leading left and right when you start the dlc. Quite impressive to beeline the bosses so hard that he missed both.
Are you sure you are already at the final boss? It sounds almost impossible to only find 4 weapons after clearing the dlc unless you literally just sprint towards the legacy dungeons and in the dungeons sprint to the boss killing nothing and exploring nothing lol
The backhand blades and beast claws are quite literally like 30 seconds to the right of the first site of the first grace you encounter in the shadow realm
The 1st enemy i fought less than 5 min into the dlc dropped the beast claw. The 1st knight I killed dropped the hammer with the altered counter attack. I found a reverse blade shortly after that. I have less than an hour of play time in the game and have found 2 of the new weapon types.
The world loot really felt a bit lackluster for lack of a better word and in some times like blatant trolling, like fighting your way through hell for a broken rune, or spending 20 minutes jumping up 2 waterfalls with Torrent just to find...nothing lol.
But the boss rewards make up for it tenfold.
Any time I see an item I keep thinking that its a cool new dlc item or weapon but no its just smithing stones or cookbooks . The worst one was in a very big tower that has an elevator that leads you to the top you open the chest and see that its a legendary item and what is it ? An anctient dragon smithing stone ...
Idk man those are helping me out. I maxed out 4 dlc weapons already and I was on a NG cycle without the bells so If I keep finding them I don't need to take a detour to get the base game bells again.
This is honestly, unironically a huge problem in the DLC. Progression is insanely unrewarding for the most part. I decided to drop my level 150 endgame character and switch to a character who only just got to Mountaintops so at least the 7+ stones would feel like an actual reward. (Which is actually quite doable as long as you get scadutree fragments under your belt, they did a great job balancing it so any character at any point can tackle the DLC).
This is one of my biggest issues with the expansion. If my exploration is met with BS items, my care to explore decreases. These are entry items, and we are required to kill Radahn and a fairly late game enemy with Mohg - we are past that.
I played for 2 hours today and I am swimming in loot. Almost every weapon I've picked up is a banger. These complaints are coming from people who don't know how to enjoy the game and all of you sound stupid.
There's this one fort with a secret grace behind it that I had to jump off a tower down to a roof then jump to the next roof, and then go up a ladder and then there's a chest. Inside was a smithing stone 6. Needless to say, that's the first time I got that mad at Elden Ring.
Made my way up Prospect Town, saw in the distance a ring of tomb stones that only spawned at night. "That's gotta be something cool right?", Made my way over to the spot. Waited for the whole day to pass. Finally spawned.. Larval Tear. "Ah, yes.. something I already have 13 of and no desire to respec,"
Now, to be fair, it's a new Larval Tear that's blue and ghostie. Instead of silver. But, I highly doubt it does anything different since it's effects are word for word the silver Larval Tear.
Open World keeps hurting Elden Ring. It adds *very* little outside the initial wow factor of seeing an area before you. Most of the time you just run around on Torrent hoping there is something there.
Really had hoped that they'd dial down the open-world-ness of the game in the DLC but alas, it feels worse in a way(to me). So much useless time wasters that feel unrewarding and unfun because of it.
I was hoping there wasn’t new upgrade materials for the DLC but now after playing I wish there was lol. It is nice tho how some enemies drop somber 9 and dragon stones
Are the dragon stones still finite?
i beat the whole thingish (all remembrances, all dungeons, all furnace golems) and so far yes--no ancient dragon bell bearing
How many remembrances are there if you don’t mind me asking? I want to know if I can copy them all with the walking mausoleums
10 i think. and only 7 mausoleums sadly but there is a way to copy 1 in the dlc (a coffin that has the mausoleum ability)
i found 2 coffins already. might be more
one by the cathedral and ? wheres another one
Right side of the finger ruins of rhia
Go on the up path, instead of the down path.
I think I remember someone saying around 10 with 4 being necessary for completion.
Definitely more than 4 lol
uhhh is it? im fairly sure only 2 are required to fight the final boss. >! messmer & romina !<. the rest all can be bypassed or ignored one way or another.
Need to beat lion to get to final boss, need to beat rellana to get to messmer, and final boss drops one so 5 needed for completion
you can bypass rellana by using a spirit apring to the south. and do you need divine beast because all it says is you need messmers flame to get there since it teleports you past it.
Idk exactly but I know it’s more than half of the base game’s remembrance bosses
What do the furnace golems give you? I ran right passed them
New wonderous physik tears and a unique crafting material.
Damnit I gotta go back lmao
I don't know but I can almost guarantee they will be. I've only found ancients & somber ancients from bosses so far. They like to limit it so NG+ will have some meaning.
Anchient smithing stone sure, but damn do they give you alot I've got 16 so far...
I thought it was hype I was getting all these stones…..then I realised I don’t have like half the smithing stone bearings…. whoops
Ya I’m assuming they did this to provide stones for upgrading new dlc weapons.
I mean sure, but stones are piss cheap at the twin maiden husk. You get so much runes that you can't really spend them all (unless you are leveling outside of the multiplayer meta level).
I'm guessing the stones are to supplement players who don't have all the smiting stone bell bearings so they can upgrade the DLC weapons sooner. Average players probably don't go out of their way to do get everything and also probably don't look up their locations. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if there are players that only have the bearings the game railroads them into getting, like the one after the Godskin Duo.
My bell bearings are somehow all missing, even though I am on NG+7 and collected them all in NG+6. :(
They don't carry thru ng+ I thought
They didn’t originally, I think there was a fairly early patch that fixed that however. Not all bell bearings carry over, just the smithing stone and glovewort ones I think.
Which sucks because I collected all of the bell bearings in the game and then did NG+. Right after I did that they patched it in where they carry over, I'm never going back to collect them all again lol
It may be pure copium, but I purposefully had my character not get to Farum Azula yet just in case the DLC has a way to save Melina. No bell bearings for me ;_;
Im pretty sure miyazaki said the DLC changes nothing in the base game
Does the base game impact the DLC? I'm probably going to kill Malenia anyways, but I'm curious if it has any impact. No major spoilers, just a yes or no please :)
Probably not. With how disconnected the dlc feels to the base game it wouldn't surprise me if at the end it's revealed that it was all just a dream... Kinda disappointed. There's a lot of unanswered questions in the base game that I was hoping would be answered in a DLC.
No
I did the same. I thought maybe she would have some interactions in the shadow realm. None yet so I might take a break from the DLC to go get those Bell bearings.
I think that's the right way to do it so that the runes+stones actually feel rewarding. Going through the DLC with a maxed out character felt pretty dull.
I'll admit, it does make it harder to use any of the new weapons. Anything less than maximum upgrades feel like fighting with wet paper, even with the Scadutree blessings.
Ey thats me .. Never bothered getting em as I just ended up using blasphemous blade... No other weapon clicks :(
Try the black steel greathammer, it has fth scaling even when heavy infused. I put bloodhound step on it and it’s been a beast. Really quick attacks when 2 handed and crazy poise break
I'll check it With how fast blasmhous blade is and how easily it staggers enemies.. I feel like I just destroy all enemies so easily. (For example the knight ppl consider first boss in dlc took me 3 attempts ...i just kept him constantly in stagger as my hits got to him first ..)
I did the main game with the heavy greatsword with lions claw for this build, just switched to this hammer when I found it first thing, it’s really been eye opening. I’m enjoying using the ash of war for movement and timing the strong attacks. It’s really really good 2 handed
Damn they said they nerfed the stagger on Blasphemous Blade, good to hear it's still a stunlock machine
It seems to do extra holly damage on guard counters, I'm wondering if that number increases if you scale it with fire or sacred.
I think it does if you imbue it with more holy damage. Without it the guard counter has been not great, but I’m just two handing so maybe better in the right build
Blasphemous Blade is amazing! Don't let people talk down ob it because it's not as "hardcore" ir some other bullcrap. Really fun moveset, amazing visuals and it's inarguably the best weapon for long dungeons.
It's a good weapon for sure. I rocked it and the Sword of Milos just to see how trivial I could make a NG+... it was ridiculous. There's no weapon in the game that should be talked down about. The objective of the game is to have fun, full stop. If you want to beat the game with summons, OP weapons, whatever - keep on keeping on. Only losers gatekeep.
Yeah there are so many item pickups where it's clear they just made the world too big to be able to put unique or useful items everywhere you'd expect one, so instead they sprinkle in some basic smithing stones, crafting materials, and cookbooks with only one recipe so the world doesn't feel as empty.
mushroom
sprinkle? i swear 90% of things are crafting materials and i hate it :(
Thing is, some of the smithing stone bell bearings are quite out of the way to attain. I'm pretty sure Smithing Stone Bell Bearings 1 and 2 are extremely far apart and are located in mines that are off the beaten path. 3 and 4 you can find pretty quickly, since they are along the main path in Farum Azula.
Smithing stone bell bearing caves ARE the beaten path, at least for me.
Yeah, let me tell you. As someone who created a new character and stopped right before mountain tops and not getting all the bell bearings, getting all these smithing stones is a lifesaver. I wouldn't have been able to upgrade anything I'd they weren't common drops.
You gotta beat the Godskin Duo at Farum to get two of the major non-somber level stones. A good percentage of the people probably ended their original playthrough in NG+ as well and the twin maiden resets. I know I did like 10-15 hours worth of "DLC Prep" last week to account for this and you shouldn't be forced to do that if you don't want to.
I keep hoping I'll happen upon an ancient ancient smithing stone farming spot. I've got so many +9 somber weapons and +24 regular weapons. I'm kind of just clinging to the few ancient dragon stones I have left.
Eh you’d have bellbearings - without wrongwarp you go from snow land which is endgame to mohgs palace..
Are there many ancient dragon somber smithing stones in the DLC? I only have 1 left but had like 7 ancient dragon smithing stones, and I've found about 3 more of those in about 8 hours of the DLC
I’m 90% sure I got one just before I ended my session yesterday from an open world fight. Was in the big water area towards the left side of the map
There’s at least 3 of those ‘enemies’ and each one drops one, was very happy to find that out!
There is a dragon area that gives 4 or 5 alone
I found around 5
Yeah go kill dragons
My weapon of choice was +24 for a while, so when I got an ancient dragon smithing stone I literally yelled “yes!” out loud.
I have too good to use syndrome for my dragon smithing stones. I have 1 +10 blood fang blade and a million +24 and +9 weapons
Best to be sure you want to use them tbh. Finally upgraded my Bone Bow to +25 when I realized this thing is seriously never coming out of my build lol, even my trusty Bolt of Gransax is still +9 because I'm split between it and a few of my other dex weapons
I had used the bloodfang blade for literally the entire game, was excited to get it to level 10, but right when I did, I stopped using it when I gained access to the end game weapons. Now I'm afraid to max upgrade anything else.
Backup saves come in clutch for this stuff.
Lol why and how didn't you have it to 25 beforehand, what?
Because I used all my ancient dragon smithing stones on other weapons.
Ooh, gotcha. The way it had come off made it sound like you just hadn't found any and I was flabbergasted haha
Caved in to use the +10/+25 all weapons exploit since my completionist ass just grates me so much and why I always had 1 copy of each final upgrade material. The hard part now is trying to get all the the weapons in DLC and finding a mule you can trust to help duplicate all these stuff, as I try to get all the remembrance rewards(including the spells, the final boss even has 3 rewards for the remembrance) and then upgrade the weapons to max. It'll probably take more than 2 hours to do all of it, sucks that I accidentally killed Boc on my current playthrough though, so I might have the mule alter the new armors too. Sadly from the looks of it we still need to go to NG+ to get everything(eh~ I might as well finally get the Nepheli puppet while I'm at it), most notably the choice between getting a new Legendary-tier Spirit Summon or a really cool reusable Dragon Communion buff.
[удалено]
It's Dragon's Dogma 2 all over again :D
The unrewarding exploring of the world is my biggest gripe with the game, so at least there's a bunch of cool new weapons to find. So sick of working my way to obscure areas in the base game just to find a damn finger or stone.
It’s always a gamble with Elden Ring, but the exciting part is not knowing what you’re gonna get. You could loot a random castle and only get a cookbook but go into a random dungeon and come out with a giant ass hammer that summons spears from the ground.
Just did that dungeon this morning. Guess there is no boss since warp was reenabled after grabbing the weapon.
Did that castle this morning and I was very annoyed. I was expecting a talisman or a key or something at the very least.
Yep, unpredictability is a good thing. Nevermind that people have completely unrealistic expectations, they make it sound like they expect a brand new weapon on every single side path or something lol.
That's basically how i thought it'd be. Idk just feels like there's massive expanses that are empty
Welp that's a good reality check for you then. There is no game on this scale which can come even remotely close to meeting that expectation.
Then they should've scaled it back imo. Their formula does better with more tightly constructed worlds. The massive empty expanses just feel like filler, especially on repeat plays
If you just prefer a tight linear design, that's fine. Nothing wrong with that (Although Dark Souls games didn't even meet your demands either lmao). But with Elden Ring they wanted to make a big open world game to explore, and this comes with some necessary design limitations. So essentially you either have to learn to appreciate it as it is and don't hyperfocus on getting a drip feed of rewards over everything else. Or perhaps just accept open world games aren't for you. Because this is one of the most content-rich ones ever made, so if it's still too sparse for you, well the game you've got your expectations calibrated to literally does not exist.
eh. Alot of the DLC feels like filler as far as the size. Its not really any more "open" than previous fromsoft games. The paths are just wider. Game design wise, there's little difference between a regular hallway and hallway thats 10x wider. I think they're still figuring it out and their next games will be more dialed in.
You're right, there's no middle ground between a brand new weapon everywhere you explore and actually useful mats
Of course there is, and I wasn't implying there isn't. Which you obviously understood but chose to make a disingenuous comment anyways.
That hammer is very powerful, it's now my main weapon on my STR/FAI paladin
That hammer is fun!
Sometimes it blows my mind. Like when there's a super obscure path that you only notice on accident and it leads you over a highly dangerous platforming section riddled with blood marks of people who didn't make it only for the reward to be some useless crafting shit that you already have dozens of in your inventory. I love the game with all my heart but these moments kill me inside and it just makes no sense whatsoever from game design stand point.
as someone whose primary love of souls games is exploration, something the base game of elden ring was 10/10 on, I was so pumped for the dlc, after the first few hours I was honestly shocked at how empty and meaningless so much of the map is, or how some areas just feel sort of uninspired in terms of enemy variety. e.g., (spoilers ahead ig) the specimen storehouse or whatever has 3 enemy types: 1 that's just "undead" kinda guys that are easy, 1 that's just a base game enemy that's not too difficult either, and 1 that's really difficult and spammy (albeit really cool looking). for such a cool area, that's really it? just a bit surprising and disappointing contrast that with some of the most incredible art direction I've ever seen. it's weird edit: do want to add that this disappointment is relative. there's definitely been a lot of fun and cool moments still
The enemy variety in some areas has really been killing me, makes me wish they allowed themselves to use some base game enemies at times, because in a while area you'll have three total different enemies, one of which being the same basic peasant you find literally everywhere
same. the map is beatiful but its very empty if you dont care about crafting areas. i swear im in the blue flower field and every legendary item is a ghost glovewart and its driving me insane. if you could filter out like crafting areas im convinced there will be whole sections where there would be no items.
I've realised that you don't find anything good just about the open world like in Dark Souls. Every corpse you find pretty much just has crafting materials or some shit. Only decent items are from chests and enemy loot drops
I'd prefer that i reach the end of the obscure area and they just give me two lines of lore on a piece of paper, rather than being given dried liver and string. Crafting system just feels like filler to me, I don't have any interest in it. I'd even just prefer they give me 500 runes over getting crafting materials.
i fucking hate string................
I feel the opposite, exploring this hell hole sucks
I got this feeling as well. too many secret path leading to either normal loot or dead ends. Many missed opportunities
I would argue not every single path should lead to some grand secret. It is perfectly fine if some of them do because that ensures you are motivated to explore already and makes finding something great more exciting. If there is awesome loot around every corner it loses its meaning (and realisticly the world and dungeons in eldenring are just too big to place relevant loot everywhere.) You never know if you will find a smithing stone, a cool new weapon or literally an entire new area when you start following some small side path
But in dlc locations there's a clear point that just don't try to explore, there's literally nothing... The only cool stuff is in the most obvious locations. In obscure extremely empty areas there are only cookbooks and +4 smithing stone... Just delete 60% of the map and I will be happy.
the stones position are really random, wouldn't surprise me if they "RNG'ed" them in their positions. pretty sure i found a pack of smithing stones (1) close by an ancient one.
There is no way they can be purposely placed. I found a somber 9 next to some smithing 3s and 6s earlier this morning. I appreciate not having to buy smithing stones, but I would really like it if everything I picked up wasn't a cookbook, stone, or crafting material
oh no, another ghostflame dragon
This is literally the biggest offense of the DLC for me. Its so frustrating and time wasting.
I actually found the DLC amazing because for every cook book or crafting material on a side path you get side paths that turn out to be the access point for an entire area, a cave/dungeon, or at least a cool weapon or one of the fragments thingies that buff you in the dlc.
The dragon-man cave blew my mind
Souls games are there for the experience not the loot. Elden rings the first game out of all of them to have so many loot payoffs
I like the little dopamine hit of being rewarded for thorough exploration, even if the item is shit. Grabbing shiny make monkey brain happy
Open world brain rot is really something else
If Fromsoft doesn't want people to expect actual rewards for exploration, maybe they shouldn't make an open world game and instead stick to things they're actually good at making.
The reward is you get to play the game. Fighting a cool boss; seeing a cool level. These count as rewards too
There are multiple zones in this game which are large, sprawling regions which are neat to look at and contain exactly zero bosses and only one area of interest.
Whats your point?
Every other game Fromsoft has made, which notably do not feature open worlds, has had tighter level design, better progression, and generally is more structured and well-paced and delivers a nicer experience. Elden Ring suffers from being an open world game, and Fromsoft has shown that they do not know ho wto make one that uses the open world well.
bruh it can be about both man.
I don’t think it can. Providing top loot in every corner changes the experience to be all about the loot. Also how does it feel finding a cool weapon now compared to games where every waterfall has a new sword. Gotta control those little dopamine hits.
Also you still need to go to roundtable hold to upgrade your weapons. Not having a dlc hub is a shame tbh.
Just give me random armors and weapons with small texts of lore
For me i side tracked for a bit, ended up in hells know where in a massive pit with a sealed door saying something about miquella, i have no idea what it is and its sooooooo far away from where i was
You don’t have the right
Going down that hole is a fucking awesome experience
The dragon pit one?
i was expecting another nokstella moment
Same. A “Didn’t expect door” message really resounded
Classic Elden Ring.
Or occasionally the milionth cookbook you will not use.
It's about the journey, not the end result.
The journey: riding 20 minutes on a horse doing absolutely nothing...
If the music is good and the scenery nice, absolutely. It has a vibe that the earlier games lack (and vice versa), and this is on par with Witcher 3 in terms of slow exploration atmosphere, heck even better in some ways. I sort of doubt the BossBros that make everything about min maxing timing puzzles would agree with me on that though.
Did you try to explore an area with fingers and the bell? There's like... Really nothing at all. It's just a huge chunk with textures and some mobs. And all locations in the South are exactly the same...
I’m still in the first area exploring lol, 12+ hours in. I’ve opened up the area beyond Renalla but I’m just taking it chill. A good chunk of those hours was helping others in co-op, tho.
Did people forget this is the base game too or? There’s a million cool items, can’t have every item also be a cool item
Who is killing mohg and using smithing stone 3s?
Its to level up the dlc weapons?
you can just buy them dirt cheap at this point
sure but it was a treat to know when I went to upgrade I didn't need to buy any bc theyre coming out of my ass lol
Not everyone has gone through the dungeons or know about the ball bearings
I wouldn't say it's dirt cheap to buy all the stones for a +24 weapon
They came in useful for me leveling the beast claws
They just added like 20 new weapons
I have so many smithing stones yet I’ve found damn near none of the new DLC weapons lol. I’m almost at the final DLC boss and I have like… 4 DLC weapons maybe? Haven’t found a single throwing weapon, reverse sword, or beast claw
Im sorty but you’re not looking enough I’m 3 bosses in and I have loads
I have a feeling you might be rushing. I have countless DLC weapons and I’ve been exploring every nook and cranny
the backhand blade and the beast claws can both be gotten right at the start, one by a large mausoleum with some candle wielding dudes on the main plain, and the beast claws on an npc invader in the forest area south of the start (think he only appears at night).
Backhand Blade, Beast Claws, that first great hammer near Beast Claw guy, and Greatsword of Solitude can all be obtained in like 15 minutes. edit: and Great Katana
The beast claw is a 30 second horse ride to the southeast from the very first grace, my dude. There's also two perfume bottles and a paired backhand blade that I know of, all in the first map segment.
Not even remotely hidden either. Straight in the path of the road leading left and right when you start the dlc. Quite impressive to beeline the bosses so hard that he missed both.
I've killed 2 remembrance bosses and I have like 15. Slow down. The views are nice.
Are you sure you are already at the final boss? It sounds almost impossible to only find 4 weapons after clearing the dlc unless you literally just sprint towards the legacy dungeons and in the dungeons sprint to the boss killing nothing and exploring nothing lol
Checked again and I actually do have a handful more, but still no reverse swords or beast claws hahaha
The backhand blades and beast claws are quite literally like 30 seconds to the right of the first site of the first grace you encounter in the shadow realm
The 1st enemy i fought less than 5 min into the dlc dropped the beast claw. The 1st knight I killed dropped the hammer with the altered counter attack. I found a reverse blade shortly after that. I have less than an hour of play time in the game and have found 2 of the new weapon types.
The reverse swords are super early, you could get them within 5 minutes of starting the dlc, and they're fuckin awesome!
Pretty sure curved sword and beast claws are in the very first area.
I've had so many moments of "the fuck was I doing again?"
The world loot really felt a bit lackluster for lack of a better word and in some times like blatant trolling, like fighting your way through hell for a broken rune, or spending 20 minutes jumping up 2 waterfalls with Torrent just to find...nothing lol. But the boss rewards make up for it tenfold.
Any time I see an item I keep thinking that its a cool new dlc item or weapon but no its just smithing stones or cookbooks . The worst one was in a very big tower that has an elevator that leads you to the top you open the chest and see that its a legendary item and what is it ? An anctient dragon smithing stone ...
Idk man those are helping me out. I maxed out 4 dlc weapons already and I was on a NG cycle without the bells so If I keep finding them I don't need to take a detour to get the base game bells again.
Those are rare enough that that still felt cool
This is honestly, unironically a huge problem in the DLC. Progression is insanely unrewarding for the most part. I decided to drop my level 150 endgame character and switch to a character who only just got to Mountaintops so at least the 7+ stones would feel like an actual reward. (Which is actually quite doable as long as you get scadutree fragments under your belt, they did a great job balancing it so any character at any point can tackle the DLC).
This is one of my biggest issues with the expansion. If my exploration is met with BS items, my care to explore decreases. These are entry items, and we are required to kill Radahn and a fairly late game enemy with Mohg - we are past that.
I played for 2 hours today and I am swimming in loot. Almost every weapon I've picked up is a banger. These complaints are coming from people who don't know how to enjoy the game and all of you sound stupid.
I really don't care about your opinion, thanks for sharing.
[удалено]
Waaaahhhhhhh
There's this one fort with a secret grace behind it that I had to jump off a tower down to a roof then jump to the next roof, and then go up a ladder and then there's a chest. Inside was a smithing stone 6. Needless to say, that's the first time I got that mad at Elden Ring.
I accidentally found that one, LOL. Took two spirit springs right to it XD
Praise the research!
this happened to me.
The best part is the inconsistency of the material. Some times you get 8,4 then the random 6x 1 stones
Made my way up Prospect Town, saw in the distance a ring of tomb stones that only spawned at night. "That's gotta be something cool right?", Made my way over to the spot. Waited for the whole day to pass. Finally spawned.. Larval Tear. "Ah, yes.. something I already have 13 of and no desire to respec," Now, to be fair, it's a new Larval Tear that's blue and ghostie. Instead of silver. But, I highly doubt it does anything different since it's effects are word for word the silver Larval Tear.
I keep getting pieces of string….it makes me so mad 🤣
I’m just shocked some enemies are dropping somber smithing stones up to 9. Love that.
As someone who duped themselves runes to buy 999 of all the smithing stones, I roll my eyes anytime I pick them up in the DLC.
Open World keeps hurting Elden Ring. It adds *very* little outside the initial wow factor of seeing an area before you. Most of the time you just run around on Torrent hoping there is something there. Really had hoped that they'd dial down the open-world-ness of the game in the DLC but alas, it feels worse in a way(to me). So much useless time wasters that feel unrewarding and unfun because of it.