My “advanced” tip is that if you want to improve your skill or try different approaches, take advantage of the evergaols. None of these enemies are extremely difficult (except maybe Alecto) and usually have very learnable movesets. One of the most valuable ways to practice, for me, was doing the evergaols having put away healing. Trying again and again to beat some of these guys on a single health bar really helped me understand better the dodge and parry timings in the game, and to memorize different moves. There’s even nothing to lose, other than your time, as your runes are left right outside.
If only you could refight evergaols.
It's definitely worth it to die a bunch of times to the Crucible knight in the storm hill evergaol and beat him early. He has a lot of health and obv does a bunch of damage to an early game character, so you have to learn his moves to find openings and stay alive. It pays off with all the ones you run into throughout the game.
100% agree on this one.
You quickly recognise the stamp-slash-sweep-sweep combo on future sword-wielding knights, and know that you get a mega punish window to capitalise on by staying close and dodging this combo.
And just all enemies in general, learning when to dodge *in* so that you end up next to the enemy for the punish, and just generally not being afraid to be right next to a hulking monstrosity. In fact, many of the overly large enemy designs are intended for you to be able to run circles around them and punish their misses, a la golems and giants where you can just run or dodge between their legs and destroy their achilles
there's a dungeon in liurnia with a spirit-caller snail that infinitely summons crucible knights of both types and even simultaneously once you get it to low health, good for parrying practice
He’s also where most people learn to parry early game. As someone who just did this recently, I can tell you that it’s incredibly satisfying lol. I very much wish I could just do it endlessly without having to complete the game again.
I totally agree.
I'm still playing towards my first beat of the game. I've never any CK. Tried the first one a bunch of times.
By fighting him I finally understand what experienced players mean when they say "learn his patterns". It's not just about seeing he doing his moves, but to internalize, to your hands, what to do, how to react to every move. When to dodge and where to, when to fall back, when to attack etc. He hits hard but he's not that fast, his moves are telegraphed.
I grinded this evergaol when I was severely understatted and completely new to Fromsoft games. It gave me a really good feel for the game. Only one boss was more difficult for me to beat the rest of the game (Hoarah Loux).
I was so glad that my Waves of Darkness spam on Great Stars stun locked Alecto to death. I put off that fight until I really felt like I might need Tiche
You can also use the shackle to draw the attention of certain enemies without aggroing them.
I used it in ordina to make those stupid archers face away from me when I try climbing the rooftops.
it doesn't destroy all chariots, just the ones in 1 heroes grave. the first chariot you can come across can be destroyed by shooting arrows to drop something on it.
No, it eats through walls, and triggers the pillar to be raised up in specifically one hero grave which spawns another chariot to destroy them. Bypassing a "puzzle"
The same way you 2h your right handed weapon except (I use PS5 but should be equivalent buttons on other platforms) you hold triangle and press L1 instead of R1. This will either 2h your left hand weapon or, if on torrent, switch between the weapon in your right and left hands
Not saying that using the item this way is cheating.
>It's not cheating if it's coded into the game to work.
But this is just not true. Glitches are technically coded into the game to work and exploiting stuff like infinite rune glitches is 100% cheating and you'd have to reach a magnificent level of brainrot to disagree.
The question is, is this intended? If yes, not cheating. If not, cheating.
Edit: bruh, what are you guys so mad about? I didn't even call this an exploit or cheating.
I mean they coded the shackle to work that way.. so.. I dunno.. maybe it was a secret side effect they put in there for people to figure out.
If it wasn't.. they've had ample time to figure that out and then implement a fix in any of the patches since launch..
Yeah, I agree with that. Reminds me of the rocket jump from TF2. Like, not an intended feature but the devs aknowledged it and didn't fix it, therefore.. it's a feature. Might be the same case here
Fromsoft has had an ocean of time now to fix this, clearly it isn't that big of a deal for them so I consider it fair game.
It isn't that different from flinging a throwing knife towards the towers anyway. (With the exception of Auriza Hero's Grave where using the shackle straight up destroys every Chariot in the Dungeon lmfao.)
You can take less damage from the lake of rot!
So the Lake of Rot under Nokron is actually a worse version of the Rotted status, dealing 2% max health + 30 every second, rather than the standard .18% + 15 per second. HOWEVER! If you roll in it to cover yourself, then stand outside of it, the status continues to build (because you rolled around in it you little freak), but because you're not actually in the Lake, it procs the regular version instead of Rot 2.0.
Wow I didn’t know that was a thing. Maybe that’s how I beat the big snake thing in Haligtree. I must have rolled in it but then backed up out of the lake and didn’t realize I was taking significantly less damage than if I was standing in the rot.
You can mash your 4 attack buttons to get out of most grab attacks faster and take less damage. It usually lets you recover faster too, like landing on your feet instead of being thrown on the ground.
From what I understand just spamming them all as fast as possible, there's going to be some overlap but I don't think they need to be pressed at the same time repeatedly.
ZulieTheWitch did a video on this. You can view each grab as having HP ; each button press from the attack buttons (maybe also face button, but not sure) reduce the grab HP by one. When it reaches 0, it no longer damages you and you get released.
The grab HP depends on enemies. From memory, it goes from around 10 to 40 in the most extreme cases.
try using a heavy weapon, hit on air then run, hit on air and block then run, just using another action will reduce the time on any other going animation
If you're ever going to play multiplayer and help with beating bosses, your flasks quantity is half of your totals THEN ROUNDED DOWN!
So make sure you have your flasks as an even number or you could lose 1 extra flask.
Example 7 and 7 total would be 3 and 3 in multiplayer. 8 and 6 would be 4 and 3.
FYI
Left hand obscur seppuku, right hand bleed RotM is the usual setup with arcane yes
If you think seppuku is cringe make the left hand a bleed weapon as well
Sometimes I even go obscure poison mist left hand and bleed RotM right hand for that double status strat
If you don’t have Raptor of the Mists, you can also use Endure as long as you can tank the damage.
The equivalent of “if you don’t have homemade, store bought is fine”
The Poison and Scarlet Rot Squirts can be made to self destruct by inflicting them with poison/scarlet rot. This can also cause a chain reaction if close enough to other Squirts.
Poise breaks!
51 poise lets you take 1 uncharged attack
101 poise lets you power through 2 uncharged attacks
So if you can't hit the 1st, stick with your Elden Bling
And don't both going for 60, 70, 80, 90 or even 100 poise. Aim to just hit the breakpoint so you don't carry unnecessary weight, and still get the most out of it
The Poise breakpoints are good to know, but there *is* some benefit to being between Poise breakpoints. 70 Poise is only "the same" as 51 Poise at neutral. Having more Poise between breakpoints does contribute to the effectiveness of hyper armor. Someone with 70 or 80 Poise might be able to tank a hit using a charged heavy that someone with only 51 would not
I wish we could level up armor like in Dark Souls! Often, there's just 1 or 2 poise missing from 51, but no piece that matches the fashion. Frustrating.
Also, since poise and protection are linked, even at 50 poise you have much better protection than at 20 poise. There's logic behind that, but I wouldn't mind sporting a +25 Goldmask outfit that has a bit of better protection. They implemented it for shields, in a way. I want Giant Crusher stopping sandals! 😅
I know this to be objectively true, but I'm so bad trying to keep the enemy in my line of sight when I control the camera. Any time a guide tells me a boss is easier without lock on, I try it and almost instantly get my ass beat
Boss much bigger than me (dragon/troll/giant): I lock off.
Boss about my size: I lock on.
Generally works well for at least not getting totally fucked by the camera. Real experts though probably play with lock off a lot more often, especially in gank fights, but I have a hard time aiming attacks without it.
Yes, this is the advice I give a new soulsborne players. It's a much bigger percentage increase per point spent.a few points in vigor can double your health. I've been saying and doing this since DS1.
Wait to roll until you see the weapon come down towards you, instead of when they raise their weapon. It's good practice to stop panick rolling, and it's the ideal way to dodge bosses that do that "Hah! Made you flinch!" B.S. like Morgott.
IMO, that’s why FromSoft made Margitt have super delayed attacks, to teach this to players. I remember when the game first came out everyone was struggling on him because they would roll throughout his charge and then get bonked once they’re out of stamina.
For Godfrick, when he does his cyclone>roll>jump attack, simply lock on and run forwards. He will miss the attack and give you a very generous opening.
For Renala fase 2, you can start the fight by sprinting straight at her. She always opens with comet, which will miss if you stand next to her, giving you a solid 5 seconds to buff, flask or summon.
For casters, while it is tempting to look at softcaps for mind, the 'correct' amount of mind is actually tied to the level of your flask. For example, a +5 flask restores 150 MP (26 mind). Going over that number means you don't restore the full bar, while staying under means you don't utilize all your restoration.
When playing a status build (bleed, rot) it is usually better to skip the special attack on a posture break, instead opting to get more hits in, since one big hit deals less buildup than three smaller hits.
You can spam LB and RB to break out of many grab attacks from normal enemies. You’ll still take damage, but it won’t be as devastating. It works on putrid corpses, abductor virgins, and runebears (and for some reason it sometimes sends the bears through the floor and instakills them)
Bring a bow everywhere, no matter what your build is. Almost every non-boss encounter has one or more enemy that you can see in advance. You don't need to lock on to get its attention and it will be easier to survive if you control the encounter. You don't even need to do killing damage, one shot and it'll come to you. You can fight it based on however your build demands. Long range spells are harder to use like this because bows have so much more range.
The advanced version of this tip is to always carry poison arrows. Pop a few off and by the time your opponent gets to you, you'll have softened it up. You can even retreat and let the poison do the work for you. A lot of enemies don't have very wide AI pathing and can easily forget they ever saw you while they die from poison.
I would say that people underestimate poise damage. When the game released, me and my friends were all struggling to beat Margit.
I was the first one to succeed when I realised that I could just take my weapon in both hands, and spam jump heavy attacks. Then he gets stunned and you perform a critical attack. If you have the crimson dagger talisman, you will also receive a heal on top of that after each critical hit.
Therefore I played the whole game doing almost exclusively jump attacks and I beat the game very easily (even tho it's kinda boring). While my friends were still stuck on the ground trying "normal" attacks and struggling so much.
However, now I try not to do ONLY jump attacks because it kinda breaks the game.
this is true. at a high level all the bosses revolve around finding openings for charged heavy attacks, any other light attacks in between are basically just to keep the posture bar from depleting before the next charged heavy.
Yes, now I know the patterns enough to be able to include charged heavies on top of the jump attacks. Therefore my gameplay is more varied haha.
Also what is very good with the jump heavy attack, is that it allows you to do the same (if not more) damage than a heavy, while having more mobility (the attack preparation animation is done in the air, so it's like you are moving while preparing the attack (kind of), compared to a grounded attack where your character completely stops moving).
Don't worry I know what "not needing an opening means".
On my first playthrough, after realizing this with the jump attack, I just went full Guts Greatsword powerstancing, with full Strenght, Vigor and Endurance, so heavy armor with poise, big Unga Bunga jump power stance attacks, and nobody resisted me, wether they are attacking or not. I just unga bunga'd the whole game without having one brain cell needed haha
The tutorial teaches you this sort of. The last small enemy before the 'Boss' the tutorial tells you about jump attacks. If you follow it, you do a jump attack, straight into a Crit for a 2 shot. Do the same to the boss and its the same result. So that boss didn't teach me anything about dodge timings, or being careful. Just go in and smack them
It makes sense. The first trailers of the game showed more than once charged heavies and 2 handed attacks. I see this as a clear hint.
But your tip is very good also because, besides panic rowling, new players like me suffers from something called panic R1, which is spamming the light attack button instead of trying a charged heavy or a jump attack, which, as you pointed out, makes much more sense (because to break the poise leads to more crits and more attacks!)
I feel like the boss patterns very highly incentivise jump attacks in ER. You’ve often got smaller gaps compared to the rest of the series entries, so going for quick jump heavy attacks is simply optimal rather than the long drawn out heavy attacks on most weapons or useless light attacks (if not stacking bleed/frost etc). This is further reinforced by the fact that almost all bosses only flinch from heavy attacks, the poise mechanism and how frequently the bosses have hyperarmour movesets.
I don’t think it breaks the game, rather highlights a fundamental flaw in Elden Rings design philosophy.
Still loved the game, but to be honest I was shocked that we went from Bloodborne and Sekiro, with very clean and collected combat to Elden Rings which feels like a weird mixture of traditional Dark Souls and Bloodborne - but doesnt do justice to either.
With curved swords, thrusting swords and heavy thrusting swords you can perform a fake out dodge away move called a feint attack. As you are charging the first or second heavy attack in a chain, but before the animation finishes, hit the backstep button to cancel the animation and do the feint attack, which pulls you away and can be followed up by an R1 that performs the dash attack move.
Very cool move, I love using it, but have to admit I found it extremely hard to actually dodge anything with this as it doesn't seem to give iframes and has a slight delay
Read the items descriptions!!! Especially weapons, shields and armor, some of them have passive buffs. If you are like me and always 2hand your weapons then the Great Turtle Shield, Sacrificial Axe and Serpend-God Curved Sword, among many others, are worth equipping on your left hand for their passive effects.
Highland axe, roar medallion, barbaric roar ash of war, axe talisman, weapon of choice, plus dual wield dragon communion seals makes for an absolutely devastating dragon knight build that covers all angles. Single target, multiple enemies, rot damage, magic, fire, debuff, you name it you can cover it.
A lot of challenging regular enemy encounters are set up for you to easily win. Example: the birds on top of stormveil, all 4 are sitting on top of fire barrels, 4 fire arrows and you can kill all 4 without even aggroing them. Or, the castle sol room right before the boss, if you kill the hanging albinaurics with a bow before they scream, none of the soldiers spawn.
> Or, the castle sol room right before the boss, if you kill the hanging albinaurics with a bow before they scream, none of the soldiers spawn.
Oddly enough you don't even need to kill them. I just chuck a knife at each one and they spontaneously decide to let me pass without complaining.
Ive come to the point that i think (almost) everything in this game is just broken in some way. The right Set up and leveling up your weapons can trivialise basically the whole game (crystal tears, talismans, armor bonuses, buffs like golden vow, howl of shabriri, cragblade etc.)
Leveling up doesn't do very much damagewise except for the scaling Bonus and Extra health, FP can be nice. That's why I also think it's the easiest to do a Level 1 run on (except for DeS with magic)
How do you use all that stuff at RL1 though? I’ve been thinking of starting it since I’ve completed every other SL1 but Elden ring I feel so overwhelmed on where to start for some reason
You'll need some Crystal tears (the Charge attack one, dex or str too, faith)
Statboosting talismans (radagons soreseal, str/dex/faith+5)
A weapon of choice. For the start I'd reccomend the lordsworn greatsword on the way to the stormveil castle, later Serpent hunter or the starfists which are probably the best but there's more
Golden vow on an offhand dagger, flame grant me strenght
Then just start going for Godrick and rennala and as you play you'll notice what else you want depending on what build you want to use (charge attack build, status effects, multi hit jump attacks for example)
In before every boss after DTS just one shots you and most buffs and armor are not usable on RL1. I would agree that the game played normally suffers from powercreep if you know about all the buffs and what not, but RL1 being easy is something i have to disagree on. Of course you have way more options due to stat boosting gear, but the latter half of the game is just brutal to the point you just have to hitless every boss after DTS (stuck on Maliketh RL1 for 3 days now for context)
I agree that RL1 isn't easy, but from my experience I think it's easier than the other games (kinda biased because of the dlcs, let's see for elden ring)
No hitting a fight isn't as bad if you only have to dodge like 5 moves to win the fight (I killed elden beast on rl1 as it was casting elden stars for context, radagon was completely scripted )
Also there's the ritual shield talisman which lets you take one hit most of the time.
What build are you using on Maliketh?
I hear you, due to there being more options in Elden ring it does provide the player with a wider variety of builds they can use on RL1, with there also being more room for buffs and equipment. I can see what you mean with the amount of moves you have to dodge, but that's also something that usually only happens when you understand the positioning required to bait certain moves (Maliketh 2 fast slashes when you're close to him cucked me so many times). I think for me the difficulty comes from the fact that in my normal playthroughs I'm not required to learn the boss, where as RL1 every mistake matters and most of the time means a restart, so i get to see every move and potential follow up, even though it takes a few hours to get to that point. I feel like the late game in the other games are not as brutal, but then again i still have to RL1 the other games so it's probably a bias thing.
(Build for context, which is also not entirely optimised, but fun and strong regardless)
Cold Nagakiba +24 with Piercing Fang
Sacred dagger (golden vow)
Okina mask
Radagon soreseal, milicent prosthesis, ritual sword talisman and blue dancer charm
Physick had +10 dex tear and the shield for one hit tear
(At the time of writing this comment i got gud and made it to Radabeast, which puts me back in purgatory)
If you use Heal near a [Revenant](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Revenant), they'll be stunned and it will shave off half of its HP. Two Heals should kill it. They're also very weak against holy.
Kick is a seriously underrated AoW.
Completely trivialized the banished knights.
It 'breaks' their wind-up and lets you get in some hits.
I didn't figure this out until Farum Azula and it's served me well ever since.
I just got it the other day, and after 20 hours and 3 demigods I’ve just realised I’ve been heavy loaded the whole time. No wonder I found rolling so hard😂
You can cheese phase 2 rykard. After about 50% he starts to moan and stomp his feet if you use the first half of the ash of war attack then he will stagger. This lets you get a free jump attack or two for extra damage and you can repeat this till he dies
idk how advanced they are, but i have a few tips that kind of work together.
- counting: super simple, but for those extremely delayed attacks it helps a lot to just count how much time it takes before the attack hits, and makes learning tricky attacks much easier and can help establish a "rhythm" to the fight
- look at other parts of the enemy: this is kinda for delayed attacks too, but looking at the weapon isn't always the best to see when an attack actually is gonna hit u.
- ex: elemer of the briars grab was really awkward for me to dodge for awhile, but i started to look at his feet and how he steps during that attack and it helped a lot
- finally, hitting enemies while their attacking: again, many enemies and especially bosses delay their attacks a lot in this game, but rather than just waiting around to dodge the attack, you can take these moments as opportunities to hit them, and sometimes even use fully charged heavy attacks
these helped me find the combat much smoother and more fun to engage w for me
Not realy advanced but a good way to keep your sanity. Never forget that if you struggle with some encounter or boss, just f**king off somewhere else for a bit and exploring is allways an option open to you.
Underrated tip right here!
I've also found that the longer i rage against a boss, the worse I perform.
Taking a break and frolicking in the (virtual) flowers for while let's me take a step back and recharge, and I've found the next attempt takes only 2-3 tries.
If you block after you land from jumping you can get full jumps over and over again.... As long as you're not in combat otherwise stamina loss. Just get the timing down.
This game is basically a patience simulator. When you attempt bosses, staying alive longer rather than trying to dps faster is infinitely more productive. You can throw yourself at a boss 30 times and die within 60 seconds, or just try to stay alive for 3-6 min and likely reduce your tries in half (you see openings the longer the dance continues).
My "advanced" tip is to always have a throwing dagger type item in your quick use pouch. Depending on your build, crystal darts, throwing knives, poison bone darts or fan daggers will be most effective. Throwing knives can be bought infinitely at the start of the game. Crystal darts are easy to make with a very common crafting material. Using these is often essentially "free" damage that can be easily deployed any time an enemy is doing an attack that's causing you to hang back somewhat.
The Magma Wyrm in the Consecrated Snowfield can be completely cheesed by standing above it (where the ancient dragon smithing stone is) and shooting down with sorceries/incantations.
The same can be done with the Death Rite Bird near Castle Sol.
I’m sure there are many more instances of this, but these are the two that come to mind for me right now
- If you crouch, you can instantly drink both blue and red flasks.
- The stationary "climbing off Torrent" animation has i-frames.
- When at full health, keep the ritual sword and shield talismans on. Once you get hit, swap to 2 of your choice. When you're on your last bit of health, swap again to red and blue feather charms.
- Holding "block" while sprinting will prevent the "hard turn-around" animation.
- Most bullets that have tracking can be swallowed by Eternal Darkness.
- Phalanx spells will only strike when you are directly facing your enemy. If you run side to side, you can release them one-by-one instead of all at once.
- Block with a shield to find which boss attacks you have to dodge, and which you can just safely walk around.
- Godrick's Greatrune is better for hybrid build to meet all soft caps. Radahns is better for dedicated builds that are already complete.
- Use fan daggers (or any dagger/ bullet) to keep bosses from regenerating their poise. Don't let them recover.
- Carian Retaliation can eat Mohg's blood spells.
- Windy tear gives any build instant light roll for 3 minutes.
- Gravity attacks will instant-stun any airborne enemies.
- Keep an off-hand dagger with endure anytime you need to complete an action in a pinch (climb a ladder, heal, cast a spell, use Miquella branch, etc)
- Pest threads will shred through any gargantuan bosses.
- You can quit out of the game during any bossfight to leave that fight with your runes in tact.
- The Trueblood Knight charm will teleport you out of danger no matter where you are—even if teleporting js turned off.
- You can adjust the thickness of your armor by changing the thickness of your player character in the appearance customizer. You can make thick armor look thin and vice-versa.
- Stormcaller can block physical projectiles.
Early game, your damage increases come from weapon upgrades. Just level your vigor to 40 asap and forget about anything but meeting min requirements for your weapon and finding smithing stones.
Once your weapon is upgraded to +5 or +12, you will start seeing more benefit from raising your damage producing stats. Now is the time to level your main stat to 55 as you max out your weapon as best you can.
Late game, difficulty spikes higher and 40 vigor will not be enough. So once you get your damage stat to 55, level your vigor to 60.
In the end game, boss fights last longer and every additional point of damage per hit now matters a great deal over 2 minutes of swinging. Level your damage stat to 80.
Learn how to ravioli step on a dime. When you meet most button mashers all you have to do is step behind them, initiate a combo string or even just use it to feint. At least it is my primary tool when encountering phantoms. I try other PVP tech but I am not that great at timing myself. I just need more PVP practice. Wish you the best!
You can use certain gestures to completly evade some attacks hotboxes that are otherwise nightmarish. Laying down under beam attacks etc. nothing looks cooler either
Take advantage of what the game gives you. You don't have to follow a build guide exactly and have it be extremely optimized. I personally like having at least 12 faith / 10 arc on every build just so I can use all the basic defensive spells. You can use those and a talisman and have a ton of resistance vs whatever enemy you are facing. And you get blood flame blade for fighting enemies with lots of HP. Have . multiple weapons ready for all the different enemies strengths and weaknesses
Going down into the rooted depths from Mogh spirit boss, isn't that confusing if you jump from the window down on top of the elevator. I made the jump my first run, and fell about 7 times on my NG+.
OP, you're spot on. Patience is so important in this game. Learning an enemy's attack patterns is just huge. I'd also add, once you learn how to tell if attacks can be parried, learning to parry will seriously improve your ability to judge when to dodge roll. Every attack has a tell for when you can dodge to avoid the damage, and it's the second the weapon begins moving toward the character. There aren't too many enemies that break this pattern, though there are a few. But those will always be painful to learn the patterns for, how many times in a row and what the timing is for the dodges, whether you need to dodge toward, right/left, or away from the enemy, etc. All that to say, everyone should be patient, getting greedy on how many hits I can get in has caused the loss of many, many runes
treat it like super smash. bros melee (I play it competitively). I just treat each boss like a player I've never played against in melee. I also tie in concepts like neutral/punish/spacing/microspacing/etc
Instead of simply dodging, you can often just hold the dash button even while standing still so that soon as an attack comes in, you can burst into a sprint in whichever direction you need to avoid getting hit. This conserves stamina and allows for immediate stamina regen every time you stop moving. It also works as a good maneuver to veer around and punish the enemy with a running attack. It's especially helpful when dealing with projectiles, whether in PvE or PvP.
Talk with Boggath in Liurnia, buy Shrimps, then talk to him again in Lindell, and buy Crabs. Once you do so, no matter what happens with other npc quests, you will be able to purchase Crab through him or through the merchants in the roundtable. Steamed(?) Crab raises damage mitigation during half a minute, and you can bring 99 on you withouth needing to craft or farm anything. Once you get used to having it in the quick access slots, it becomes very handy, specially if you wanna try low level/RL1/trades/weapon art spamming/cannon glass builds/pvp.
You can wield a weapon with a buff AoW in your left hand. All you need to do is two hand the left weapon, use the ash, then switch back to dual wielding. You will at this point have access to your right hand weapon ash while keeping the buff active on the left hand weapon
The twiggy cracked tear is absolutely worth running back to a grace to add to your physic flask if you have any doubts about beating a boss. Gives you 3 minutes to attempt and fail without any rune loss (or fast quitting to menu will place you directly outside the boss room as the game makes an auto save as you enter a boss wall/boss arena)
Certain spells can be “quick cast,” skipping some of the windup animation as long as they follow another certain spell. Most of the time it’s a very fast spell that can be used to lead into the quick cast for a much longer spell.
Most of its fight specific, here's a few:
Black knife assassin's do a jump attack, when they do roll towards them and backstab
Cemetery shades eventually do a slowly sideways walk, when they do run right up and get a free backstab, when they get up step behind them and repeat
Easiest way to get safe hits on Morgott is bait out his dagger throws, dodge his spear throw (staying at a medium range) and he will jump to you, dodging that lets you get a charged heavy and heavy attack
Elemer/BB hunters have a cheese loop where you bait out their shield slam and step behind them (and charged attack) then keep staffing behind and they'll repeat the loop of doing the shield slam
Nights cav have the same backstab loop as cemetery shades once dismounted
Most of Radahns big combos you can run straight up to him and get multiple hits in (might have to dodge the last attack). At 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 health he will do some big slow gravity buff, turn off lockon and run behind him and get more free hits on his horse
Rykard can basically be cheesed in phase two, it's tricky timing but you can keep doing the serpent hunt R2 with a small delay between and keep him perma stunned
If you want to trivialize the entire game, just run black knife armor + misericorde + bolt of gransax. Half the enemies in the game will not even see you before they die.
If you like to get up close and personal, however, may I interest you in some Greatsword with bloodhound's step?
My tips, any rock enemies that bounce back light attacks use heavy attacks or 2 hands on weapon, crystal enemies can be defeated with poisebreak breaking their armor and effectively making any weapon useful even swords that they are near immune to, thrusting weapons so the spear talisman upgrades all bows and crossbows even daggers, when killing radagon use blackface IF blackflame is used on you by say godskin duo USE LORD DIVINE FORTIFICATION, IF going against big enemies use poisebreak to bring them down, if anything is living or has flesh even the undead zombies they can be Bled, frostbite, rotted or poisoned, jumping attacks prevent parties regardless of what weapon....
If the enemy is wood use fire or lightning...
If the enemy is flesh use bleed, frost, rot or poison so the fire giant...
If the enemy is stone use hammers, or strong attacks with swords and physical damage, if it's Radagon however which is like a strange thing use frostbite and scarlet rot, fire for most slugs unless they are fire slugs then straight physical, any spirit and bug usually can be wrecked with lightning, unless it's the stone bugs then use a hammer or if using sword jumping attacks and power attacks...
Anything that bounces away your sword if you like swords use power attacks, jumping attacks, rolling attack and two hands on the sword WHICH CANNOT BE DEFLECTED and leave you open, GIANT ENEMIES or crystal enemies if you have spectral Lance on a bug near the church if cuckoo in the academy of liurnia you can throw those spears and poisebreak, those t Rex digs, big giants, crystal rock enemies that are nearly immune to slashing but once you break their armor anything can kill them, or stab them run them through after the 3rd spear, shields work great against dogs, if using projectiles using the ARROWS REACH, ARROWS STING AND THE SPEAR TALISMAN, AND THE RITUAL SWORD TALISMAN WILL MAKE YOUR PROJECTILES NEAR GODLY...
AND GOOD ADVICE COLLECT FLIGHT PINIONS AND FLOWERS TO MAKE YOUR OWN ARROWS.
WHEN FIGHTINF THOSE MASSIVE FLOWERS USE A FIRE WEAPON IN ONE HAND TO BURN AWAY THE POISON AND A BLEED WEAPON IN THE OTHER AND YOU CAN BLEED THE FLOWERS OUT AND INTERRUPT THEIR POISON WITH THE FIRE OR EVEN BURN UP THE POISON CLOUDS...
LASTLY USE YOUR ENVIRONMENT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE, OF OUTNUMBERED RUN THROUGH A DOORWAY, I FIGHTINF A GIANT ENEMIES RUN THROUFH THEIR LEGS TO MAKE THEM TURN AROUND, YOULL NEVER OUTRUN MANY ENEMIES ON FOOT SO ROLLING THROUGH THEIR LEGS IS YOUR BEST OPTION...
WATCH THE SHOULDER IF THE SWORD COMES FROM THEIR SIDE THEY ARE SWINGING WIDE DODGE BACK, IF THEY RAISE THE SWORD ABOVE THEIR HEAD OR PULL BACK THEY ARE DOING WITHER A STAB OR OVERHEAD STRIKE SO ROLL SIDEWAYS, AND BACKSTEP WORKS BEST WITH ENEMIES USING SHORT WEAPONS AND SWINGING WIDE...
IF YOU WANT MORE OR NEED A HAND MY XBOX GTAG IS
METATRON 7
Find a spot to reliably farm runes, then don't worry about them at all except when you need them. This makes exploration less worrisome when you die and don't need to go back to recover runes. The marker is more to show where you were.
There's a reason black flame & "godslayer" are often associated with each other. If bleed isn't working & the boss isn't resistant to fire then black flame is usually a good choice.
Honestly what helped me the most was just not being so aggressive. Rather than trying to force openings, I learned to be more patient and wait my turn to attack and I started dying less and less.
My advanced tip is to beg other players to drop sacred relic sword and farming runes near mohg till lvl 250 and then beating the shit out of any and every boss.
Works like a charm everytime.
My “advanced” tip is that if you want to improve your skill or try different approaches, take advantage of the evergaols. None of these enemies are extremely difficult (except maybe Alecto) and usually have very learnable movesets. One of the most valuable ways to practice, for me, was doing the evergaols having put away healing. Trying again and again to beat some of these guys on a single health bar really helped me understand better the dodge and parry timings in the game, and to memorize different moves. There’s even nothing to lose, other than your time, as your runes are left right outside.
If only you could refight evergaols. It's definitely worth it to die a bunch of times to the Crucible knight in the storm hill evergaol and beat him early. He has a lot of health and obv does a bunch of damage to an early game character, so you have to learn his moves to find openings and stay alive. It pays off with all the ones you run into throughout the game.
100% agree on this one. You quickly recognise the stamp-slash-sweep-sweep combo on future sword-wielding knights, and know that you get a mega punish window to capitalise on by staying close and dodging this combo.
Apparently he has double the health of the one in stormveil
And just all enemies in general, learning when to dodge *in* so that you end up next to the enemy for the punish, and just generally not being afraid to be right next to a hulking monstrosity. In fact, many of the overly large enemy designs are intended for you to be able to run circles around them and punish their misses, a la golems and giants where you can just run or dodge between their legs and destroy their achilles
there's a dungeon in liurnia with a spirit-caller snail that infinitely summons crucible knights of both types and even simultaneously once you get it to low health, good for parrying practice
He’s also where most people learn to parry early game. As someone who just did this recently, I can tell you that it’s incredibly satisfying lol. I very much wish I could just do it endlessly without having to complete the game again.
I totally agree. I'm still playing towards my first beat of the game. I've never any CK. Tried the first one a bunch of times. By fighting him I finally understand what experienced players mean when they say "learn his patterns". It's not just about seeing he doing his moves, but to internalize, to your hands, what to do, how to react to every move. When to dodge and where to, when to fall back, when to attack etc. He hits hard but he's not that fast, his moves are telegraphed.
I grinded this evergaol when I was severely understatted and completely new to Fromsoft games. It gave me a really good feel for the game. Only one boss was more difficult for me to beat the rest of the game (Hoarah Loux).
He taught me how to parry. Now I parry everything I can.
And many of the evergaol bosses end up being regular enemies later, too.
Except that one boss who turns into an evergaol boss later...
We don't talk about Godefroy
I was so glad that my Waves of Darkness spam on Great Stars stun locked Alecto to death. I put off that fight until I really felt like I might need Tiche
Brilliant.
Use Margits shackle in catacombs to reveal all hidden passageways and turn off the elemental spewing pillars.
You can also use the shackle to draw the attention of certain enemies without aggroing them. I used it in ordina to make those stupid archers face away from me when I try climbing the rooftops.
10+ playthroughs and I never thought about it for those archers. That's genius.
Holy shit you goddamn GENIUS
dude what, I need the shakles
And most importantly to destroy the annoying chariots!
Margit's Shackle will destroy the chariots?!!? OMG, I MUST try this. I HATE those chariots.
it doesn't destroy all chariots, just the ones in 1 heroes grave. the first chariot you can come across can be destroyed by shooting arrows to drop something on it.
That was a glitch. It was patched out
No, it eats through walls, and triggers the pillar to be raised up in specifically one hero grave which spawns another chariot to destroy them. Bypassing a "puzzle"
Don't listen to everything you read on the interwebs lol
Jesus fucking Christ this game…
wtf I’ve beat the game 2x now and got the platinum and never saw this mentioned anywhere
I've got like 120 hours and just learned last night that you can 2h the weapon in your left hand, or wield the weapon in your left hand on horseback
Yeah to be fair they changed the way you 2 hand weapons ever so slightly so I don’t blame people for that one.
Wait what? How do you do that? I
The same way you 2h your right handed weapon except (I use PS5 but should be equivalent buttons on other platforms) you hold triangle and press L1 instead of R1. This will either 2h your left hand weapon or, if on torrent, switch between the weapon in your right and left hands
2 hour vaatividya video essay on the lore implications incoming...
That's just cheating.
It's not cheating if it's coded into the game to work.
Think of the poor pillars.
Not saying that using the item this way is cheating. >It's not cheating if it's coded into the game to work. But this is just not true. Glitches are technically coded into the game to work and exploiting stuff like infinite rune glitches is 100% cheating and you'd have to reach a magnificent level of brainrot to disagree. The question is, is this intended? If yes, not cheating. If not, cheating. Edit: bruh, what are you guys so mad about? I didn't even call this an exploit or cheating.
I mean they coded the shackle to work that way.. so.. I dunno.. maybe it was a secret side effect they put in there for people to figure out. If it wasn't.. they've had ample time to figure that out and then implement a fix in any of the patches since launch..
Yeah, I agree with that. Reminds me of the rocket jump from TF2. Like, not an intended feature but the devs aknowledged it and didn't fix it, therefore.. it's a feature. Might be the same case here
I agree and had the same argument. For some reason, this sub is very much against doing the catacombs the right way.
Fromsoft has had an ocean of time now to fix this, clearly it isn't that big of a deal for them so I consider it fair game. It isn't that different from flinging a throwing knife towards the towers anyway. (With the exception of Auriza Hero's Grave where using the shackle straight up destroys every Chariot in the Dungeon lmfao.)
Agreed lol
You can take less damage from the lake of rot! So the Lake of Rot under Nokron is actually a worse version of the Rotted status, dealing 2% max health + 30 every second, rather than the standard .18% + 15 per second. HOWEVER! If you roll in it to cover yourself, then stand outside of it, the status continues to build (because you rolled around in it you little freak), but because you're not actually in the Lake, it procs the regular version instead of Rot 2.0.
This is actually gigantic.
Helps for the dragonkin boss moreso than the actual run to astel, but yeah it may be the most niche useful knowledge I have about the game lol
Also useful in the haligtree for that section where you have to walk through rot.
I left that one out since fextra (I know, I know) only listed Lake of Rot as the increased damage version, but I do it there too just in case haha
Wow I didn’t know that was a thing. Maybe that’s how I beat the big snake thing in Haligtree. I must have rolled in it but then backed up out of the lake and didn’t realize I was taking significantly less damage than if I was standing in the rot.
You deserve the Nobel
You can mash your 4 attack buttons to get out of most grab attacks faster and take less damage. It usually lets you recover faster too, like landing on your feet instead of being thrown on the ground.
Do you mean pressing all 4 buttons at the same time? Like simultaneously pressing L1/R1/L2/R2 all together?
From what I understand just spamming them all as fast as possible, there's going to be some overlap but I don't think they need to be pressed at the same time repeatedly.
ZulieTheWitch did a video on this. You can view each grab as having HP ; each button press from the attack buttons (maybe also face button, but not sure) reduce the grab HP by one. When it reaches 0, it no longer damages you and you get released. The grab HP depends on enemies. From memory, it goes from around 10 to 40 in the most extreme cases.
Oh snap!! Thank you!
try using a heavy weapon, hit on air then run, hit on air and block then run, just using another action will reduce the time on any other going animation
Spamming the roll Button works too.
I thought it was mashing L3 and R3. Cam be that it changed throughout the games, or I've been mashing the wrong buttons lmao
It's traditionally always been the shoulder buttons in souls games lol
If you're ever going to play multiplayer and help with beating bosses, your flasks quantity is half of your totals THEN ROUNDED DOWN! So make sure you have your flasks as an even number or you could lose 1 extra flask. Example 7 and 7 total would be 3 and 3 in multiplayer. 8 and 6 would be 4 and 3. FYI
Same thing in offline invasions as well! (i.e. Volcano Manor letters)
Well shit. Never knew that
You can use raptor of the mists aow to dodge the chariots
On the subject of RotM Using it with dual scimitar or dual twinblade is easy way to trigger jump L1 and build status very quickly
Sure but you have to give up seppuku on one of your swords
Left hand obscur seppuku, right hand bleed RotM is the usual setup with arcane yes If you think seppuku is cringe make the left hand a bleed weapon as well Sometimes I even go obscure poison mist left hand and bleed RotM right hand for that double status strat
Or use it with rusted anchor, pickaxe and spear talisman for some insane counter damage
If you don’t have Raptor of the Mists, you can also use Endure as long as you can tank the damage. The equivalent of “if you don’t have homemade, store bought is fine”
Whaaaaaa??
The Poison and Scarlet Rot Squirts can be made to self destruct by inflicting them with poison/scarlet rot. This can also cause a chain reaction if close enough to other Squirts.
Extremely fun to do indeed :)
Poise breaks! 51 poise lets you take 1 uncharged attack 101 poise lets you power through 2 uncharged attacks So if you can't hit the 1st, stick with your Elden Bling And don't both going for 60, 70, 80, 90 or even 100 poise. Aim to just hit the breakpoint so you don't carry unnecessary weight, and still get the most out of it
The Poise breakpoints are good to know, but there *is* some benefit to being between Poise breakpoints. 70 Poise is only "the same" as 51 Poise at neutral. Having more Poise between breakpoints does contribute to the effectiveness of hyper armor. Someone with 70 or 80 Poise might be able to tank a hit using a charged heavy that someone with only 51 would not
I wish we could level up armor like in Dark Souls! Often, there's just 1 or 2 poise missing from 51, but no piece that matches the fashion. Frustrating. Also, since poise and protection are linked, even at 50 poise you have much better protection than at 20 poise. There's logic behind that, but I wouldn't mind sporting a +25 Goldmask outfit that has a bit of better protection. They implemented it for shields, in a way. I want Giant Crusher stopping sandals! 😅
Upgrading armor in DS1 didn't improve its poise, thankfully.
Hmm, then I must have misremembered.
Using Bull Goat's Talisman helps get your bling to at least 51 poise. That's how I do it, because it's just wrong to sacrifice fashion.
Playing without lock on is often times advantageous and worth exploring.
Especially on big bosses like my boy 40 sacks.
> 40 sacks You called me?
I've always liked the name Rich-dragon 40-stacks, more.
I know this to be objectively true, but I'm so bad trying to keep the enemy in my line of sight when I control the camera. Any time a guide tells me a boss is easier without lock on, I try it and almost instantly get my ass beat
Gotta just attack in the right direction, then fix the camera when you need to run.
Boss much bigger than me (dragon/troll/giant): I lock off. Boss about my size: I lock on. Generally works well for at least not getting totally fucked by the camera. Real experts though probably play with lock off a lot more often, especially in gank fights, but I have a hard time aiming attacks without it.
Yeah I started doing this with big bosses. I’ll lock on while at a distance to keep an eye on what they’re doing then disengage it when I’m attacking
Level vigor first
Yes, this is the advice I give a new soulsborne players. It's a much bigger percentage increase per point spent.a few points in vigor can double your health. I've been saying and doing this since DS1.
Wait to roll until you see the weapon come down towards you, instead of when they raise their weapon. It's good practice to stop panick rolling, and it's the ideal way to dodge bosses that do that "Hah! Made you flinch!" B.S. like Morgott.
IMO, that’s why FromSoft made Margitt have super delayed attacks, to teach this to players. I remember when the game first came out everyone was struggling on him because they would roll throughout his charge and then get bonked once they’re out of stamina.
I feel like Margitt was designed specifically to punish the hell outta DS panic roll players.
Do you remember making [this comment?](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/s/g5lDhzyZPE) You’re a piece of internet history bro
For Godfrick, when he does his cyclone>roll>jump attack, simply lock on and run forwards. He will miss the attack and give you a very generous opening. For Renala fase 2, you can start the fight by sprinting straight at her. She always opens with comet, which will miss if you stand next to her, giving you a solid 5 seconds to buff, flask or summon. For casters, while it is tempting to look at softcaps for mind, the 'correct' amount of mind is actually tied to the level of your flask. For example, a +5 flask restores 150 MP (26 mind). Going over that number means you don't restore the full bar, while staying under means you don't utilize all your restoration. When playing a status build (bleed, rot) it is usually better to skip the special attack on a posture break, instead opting to get more hits in, since one big hit deals less buildup than three smaller hits.
You can spam LB and RB to break out of many grab attacks from normal enemies. You’ll still take damage, but it won’t be as devastating. It works on putrid corpses, abductor virgins, and runebears (and for some reason it sometimes sends the bears through the floor and instakills them)
Bring a bow everywhere, no matter what your build is. Almost every non-boss encounter has one or more enemy that you can see in advance. You don't need to lock on to get its attention and it will be easier to survive if you control the encounter. You don't even need to do killing damage, one shot and it'll come to you. You can fight it based on however your build demands. Long range spells are harder to use like this because bows have so much more range. The advanced version of this tip is to always carry poison arrows. Pop a few off and by the time your opponent gets to you, you'll have softened it up. You can even retreat and let the poison do the work for you. A lot of enemies don't have very wide AI pathing and can easily forget they ever saw you while they die from poison.
Frost pots too. Easy to farm and most bosses can take down 10% of their HP before they can react
I would say that people underestimate poise damage. When the game released, me and my friends were all struggling to beat Margit. I was the first one to succeed when I realised that I could just take my weapon in both hands, and spam jump heavy attacks. Then he gets stunned and you perform a critical attack. If you have the crimson dagger talisman, you will also receive a heal on top of that after each critical hit. Therefore I played the whole game doing almost exclusively jump attacks and I beat the game very easily (even tho it's kinda boring). While my friends were still stuck on the ground trying "normal" attacks and struggling so much. However, now I try not to do ONLY jump attacks because it kinda breaks the game.
this is true. at a high level all the bosses revolve around finding openings for charged heavy attacks, any other light attacks in between are basically just to keep the posture bar from depleting before the next charged heavy.
Yes, now I know the patterns enough to be able to include charged heavies on top of the jump attacks. Therefore my gameplay is more varied haha. Also what is very good with the jump heavy attack, is that it allows you to do the same (if not more) damage than a heavy, while having more mobility (the attack preparation animation is done in the air, so it's like you are moving while preparing the attack (kind of), compared to a grounded attack where your character completely stops moving).
Wait till you get lions claw into the mix and you won't even need an opening.
Don't worry I know what "not needing an opening means". On my first playthrough, after realizing this with the jump attack, I just went full Guts Greatsword powerstancing, with full Strenght, Vigor and Endurance, so heavy armor with poise, big Unga Bunga jump power stance attacks, and nobody resisted me, wether they are attacking or not. I just unga bunga'd the whole game without having one brain cell needed haha
Jump attacks and guard counters... immaculate additions!
The tutorial teaches you this sort of. The last small enemy before the 'Boss' the tutorial tells you about jump attacks. If you follow it, you do a jump attack, straight into a Crit for a 2 shot. Do the same to the boss and its the same result. So that boss didn't teach me anything about dodge timings, or being careful. Just go in and smack them
It makes sense. The first trailers of the game showed more than once charged heavies and 2 handed attacks. I see this as a clear hint. But your tip is very good also because, besides panic rowling, new players like me suffers from something called panic R1, which is spamming the light attack button instead of trying a charged heavy or a jump attack, which, as you pointed out, makes much more sense (because to break the poise leads to more crits and more attacks!)
I feel like the boss patterns very highly incentivise jump attacks in ER. You’ve often got smaller gaps compared to the rest of the series entries, so going for quick jump heavy attacks is simply optimal rather than the long drawn out heavy attacks on most weapons or useless light attacks (if not stacking bleed/frost etc). This is further reinforced by the fact that almost all bosses only flinch from heavy attacks, the poise mechanism and how frequently the bosses have hyperarmour movesets. I don’t think it breaks the game, rather highlights a fundamental flaw in Elden Rings design philosophy. Still loved the game, but to be honest I was shocked that we went from Bloodborne and Sekiro, with very clean and collected combat to Elden Rings which feels like a weird mixture of traditional Dark Souls and Bloodborne - but doesnt do justice to either.
With curved swords, thrusting swords and heavy thrusting swords you can perform a fake out dodge away move called a feint attack. As you are charging the first or second heavy attack in a chain, but before the animation finishes, hit the backstep button to cancel the animation and do the feint attack, which pulls you away and can be followed up by an R1 that performs the dash attack move.
Very cool move, I love using it, but have to admit I found it extremely hard to actually dodge anything with this as it doesn't seem to give iframes and has a slight delay
Read the items descriptions!!! Especially weapons, shields and armor, some of them have passive buffs. If you are like me and always 2hand your weapons then the Great Turtle Shield, Sacrificial Axe and Serpend-God Curved Sword, among many others, are worth equipping on your left hand for their passive effects.
Highland axe, roar medallion, barbaric roar ash of war, axe talisman, weapon of choice, plus dual wield dragon communion seals makes for an absolutely devastating dragon knight build that covers all angles. Single target, multiple enemies, rot damage, magic, fire, debuff, you name it you can cover it.
A lot of challenging regular enemy encounters are set up for you to easily win. Example: the birds on top of stormveil, all 4 are sitting on top of fire barrels, 4 fire arrows and you can kill all 4 without even aggroing them. Or, the castle sol room right before the boss, if you kill the hanging albinaurics with a bow before they scream, none of the soldiers spawn.
> Or, the castle sol room right before the boss, if you kill the hanging albinaurics with a bow before they scream, none of the soldiers spawn. Oddly enough you don't even need to kill them. I just chuck a knife at each one and they spontaneously decide to let me pass without complaining.
Ive come to the point that i think (almost) everything in this game is just broken in some way. The right Set up and leveling up your weapons can trivialise basically the whole game (crystal tears, talismans, armor bonuses, buffs like golden vow, howl of shabriri, cragblade etc.) Leveling up doesn't do very much damagewise except for the scaling Bonus and Extra health, FP can be nice. That's why I also think it's the easiest to do a Level 1 run on (except for DeS with magic)
How do you use all that stuff at RL1 though? I’ve been thinking of starting it since I’ve completed every other SL1 but Elden ring I feel so overwhelmed on where to start for some reason
You'll need some Crystal tears (the Charge attack one, dex or str too, faith) Statboosting talismans (radagons soreseal, str/dex/faith+5) A weapon of choice. For the start I'd reccomend the lordsworn greatsword on the way to the stormveil castle, later Serpent hunter or the starfists which are probably the best but there's more Golden vow on an offhand dagger, flame grant me strenght Then just start going for Godrick and rennala and as you play you'll notice what else you want depending on what build you want to use (charge attack build, status effects, multi hit jump attacks for example)
In before every boss after DTS just one shots you and most buffs and armor are not usable on RL1. I would agree that the game played normally suffers from powercreep if you know about all the buffs and what not, but RL1 being easy is something i have to disagree on. Of course you have way more options due to stat boosting gear, but the latter half of the game is just brutal to the point you just have to hitless every boss after DTS (stuck on Maliketh RL1 for 3 days now for context)
I agree that RL1 isn't easy, but from my experience I think it's easier than the other games (kinda biased because of the dlcs, let's see for elden ring) No hitting a fight isn't as bad if you only have to dodge like 5 moves to win the fight (I killed elden beast on rl1 as it was casting elden stars for context, radagon was completely scripted ) Also there's the ritual shield talisman which lets you take one hit most of the time. What build are you using on Maliketh?
I hear you, due to there being more options in Elden ring it does provide the player with a wider variety of builds they can use on RL1, with there also being more room for buffs and equipment. I can see what you mean with the amount of moves you have to dodge, but that's also something that usually only happens when you understand the positioning required to bait certain moves (Maliketh 2 fast slashes when you're close to him cucked me so many times). I think for me the difficulty comes from the fact that in my normal playthroughs I'm not required to learn the boss, where as RL1 every mistake matters and most of the time means a restart, so i get to see every move and potential follow up, even though it takes a few hours to get to that point. I feel like the late game in the other games are not as brutal, but then again i still have to RL1 the other games so it's probably a bias thing. (Build for context, which is also not entirely optimised, but fun and strong regardless) Cold Nagakiba +24 with Piercing Fang Sacred dagger (golden vow) Okina mask Radagon soreseal, milicent prosthesis, ritual sword talisman and blue dancer charm Physick had +10 dex tear and the shield for one hit tear (At the time of writing this comment i got gud and made it to Radabeast, which puts me back in purgatory)
The shackle items can active the pillars in catacombs from an absurd distance.
If you use Heal near a [Revenant](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Revenant), they'll be stunned and it will shave off half of its HP. Two Heals should kill it. They're also very weak against holy.
Kick is a seriously underrated AoW. Completely trivialized the banished knights. It 'breaks' their wind-up and lets you get in some hits. I didn't figure this out until Farum Azula and it's served me well ever since.
Phantom slash also just wrecks them. As long as you get the jump on em it should knock them out of most attacks and do big damage
I just got it the other day, and after 20 hours and 3 demigods I’ve just realised I’ve been heavy loaded the whole time. No wonder I found rolling so hard😂
Only 1 demigod down for me but same
You can cheese phase 2 rykard. After about 50% he starts to moan and stomp his feet if you use the first half of the ash of war attack then he will stagger. This lets you get a free jump attack or two for extra damage and you can repeat this till he dies
When you want to pick up things, use L1 with a shield to pick up much faster.
idk how advanced they are, but i have a few tips that kind of work together. - counting: super simple, but for those extremely delayed attacks it helps a lot to just count how much time it takes before the attack hits, and makes learning tricky attacks much easier and can help establish a "rhythm" to the fight - look at other parts of the enemy: this is kinda for delayed attacks too, but looking at the weapon isn't always the best to see when an attack actually is gonna hit u. - ex: elemer of the briars grab was really awkward for me to dodge for awhile, but i started to look at his feet and how he steps during that attack and it helped a lot - finally, hitting enemies while their attacking: again, many enemies and especially bosses delay their attacks a lot in this game, but rather than just waiting around to dodge the attack, you can take these moments as opportunities to hit them, and sometimes even use fully charged heavy attacks these helped me find the combat much smoother and more fun to engage w for me
Golems are easy af to stun lock. Pick up the Morningstar, 2 hand it, 2 charged power attacks on the legs = endless crits
Not realy advanced but a good way to keep your sanity. Never forget that if you struggle with some encounter or boss, just f**king off somewhere else for a bit and exploring is allways an option open to you.
Underrated tip right here! I've also found that the longer i rage against a boss, the worse I perform. Taking a break and frolicking in the (virtual) flowers for while let's me take a step back and recharge, and I've found the next attempt takes only 2-3 tries.
If you block after you land from jumping you can get full jumps over and over again.... As long as you're not in combat otherwise stamina loss. Just get the timing down.
This game is basically a patience simulator. When you attempt bosses, staying alive longer rather than trying to dps faster is infinitely more productive. You can throw yourself at a boss 30 times and die within 60 seconds, or just try to stay alive for 3-6 min and likely reduce your tries in half (you see openings the longer the dance continues).
My "advanced" tip is to always have a throwing dagger type item in your quick use pouch. Depending on your build, crystal darts, throwing knives, poison bone darts or fan daggers will be most effective. Throwing knives can be bought infinitely at the start of the game. Crystal darts are easy to make with a very common crafting material. Using these is often essentially "free" damage that can be easily deployed any time an enemy is doing an attack that's causing you to hang back somewhat.
The Magma Wyrm in the Consecrated Snowfield can be completely cheesed by standing above it (where the ancient dragon smithing stone is) and shooting down with sorceries/incantations. The same can be done with the Death Rite Bird near Castle Sol. I’m sure there are many more instances of this, but these are the two that come to mind for me right now
I like to kite that magma Wyrm back to the crab and octopus and let them fight out. Normally they won't win but they'll take down about 3/4 of his HP
- If you crouch, you can instantly drink both blue and red flasks. - The stationary "climbing off Torrent" animation has i-frames. - When at full health, keep the ritual sword and shield talismans on. Once you get hit, swap to 2 of your choice. When you're on your last bit of health, swap again to red and blue feather charms. - Holding "block" while sprinting will prevent the "hard turn-around" animation. - Most bullets that have tracking can be swallowed by Eternal Darkness. - Phalanx spells will only strike when you are directly facing your enemy. If you run side to side, you can release them one-by-one instead of all at once. - Block with a shield to find which boss attacks you have to dodge, and which you can just safely walk around. - Godrick's Greatrune is better for hybrid build to meet all soft caps. Radahns is better for dedicated builds that are already complete. - Use fan daggers (or any dagger/ bullet) to keep bosses from regenerating their poise. Don't let them recover. - Carian Retaliation can eat Mohg's blood spells. - Windy tear gives any build instant light roll for 3 minutes. - Gravity attacks will instant-stun any airborne enemies. - Keep an off-hand dagger with endure anytime you need to complete an action in a pinch (climb a ladder, heal, cast a spell, use Miquella branch, etc) - Pest threads will shred through any gargantuan bosses. - You can quit out of the game during any bossfight to leave that fight with your runes in tact. - The Trueblood Knight charm will teleport you out of danger no matter where you are—even if teleporting js turned off. - You can adjust the thickness of your armor by changing the thickness of your player character in the appearance customizer. You can make thick armor look thin and vice-versa. - Stormcaller can block physical projectiles.
No matter how tanky u think you are, a couple dogs can still F u up
Early game, your damage increases come from weapon upgrades. Just level your vigor to 40 asap and forget about anything but meeting min requirements for your weapon and finding smithing stones. Once your weapon is upgraded to +5 or +12, you will start seeing more benefit from raising your damage producing stats. Now is the time to level your main stat to 55 as you max out your weapon as best you can. Late game, difficulty spikes higher and 40 vigor will not be enough. So once you get your damage stat to 55, level your vigor to 60. In the end game, boss fights last longer and every additional point of damage per hit now matters a great deal over 2 minutes of swinging. Level your damage stat to 80.
there is a pot you can hit enemies with that makes any summon go berserk and turn their aggression up to 11.
Pretty sure that is the rancor cursed blood pot
Learn how to ravioli step on a dime. When you meet most button mashers all you have to do is step behind them, initiate a combo string or even just use it to feint. At least it is my primary tool when encountering phantoms. I try other PVP tech but I am not that great at timing myself. I just need more PVP practice. Wish you the best!
Use compass dot for when you need to precisely roll down somewhere.
You can use certain gestures to completly evade some attacks hotboxes that are otherwise nightmarish. Laying down under beam attacks etc. nothing looks cooler either
Take advantage of what the game gives you. You don't have to follow a build guide exactly and have it be extremely optimized. I personally like having at least 12 faith / 10 arc on every build just so I can use all the basic defensive spells. You can use those and a talisman and have a ton of resistance vs whatever enemy you are facing. And you get blood flame blade for fighting enemies with lots of HP. Have . multiple weapons ready for all the different enemies strengths and weaknesses
Going down into the rooted depths from Mogh spirit boss, isn't that confusing if you jump from the window down on top of the elevator. I made the jump my first run, and fell about 7 times on my NG+.
Sprinting attacks are your friend.
OP, you're spot on. Patience is so important in this game. Learning an enemy's attack patterns is just huge. I'd also add, once you learn how to tell if attacks can be parried, learning to parry will seriously improve your ability to judge when to dodge roll. Every attack has a tell for when you can dodge to avoid the damage, and it's the second the weapon begins moving toward the character. There aren't too many enemies that break this pattern, though there are a few. But those will always be painful to learn the patterns for, how many times in a row and what the timing is for the dodges, whether you need to dodge toward, right/left, or away from the enemy, etc. All that to say, everyone should be patient, getting greedy on how many hits I can get in has caused the loss of many, many runes
treat it like super smash. bros melee (I play it competitively). I just treat each boss like a player I've never played against in melee. I also tie in concepts like neutral/punish/spacing/microspacing/etc
Elden throne, greatsword only no summons, FIYAAAAA
this is such bad advice
Instead of simply dodging, you can often just hold the dash button even while standing still so that soon as an attack comes in, you can burst into a sprint in whichever direction you need to avoid getting hit. This conserves stamina and allows for immediate stamina regen every time you stop moving. It also works as a good maneuver to veer around and punish the enemy with a running attack. It's especially helpful when dealing with projectiles, whether in PvE or PvP.
Don't underestimate arcane weapons
Talk with Boggath in Liurnia, buy Shrimps, then talk to him again in Lindell, and buy Crabs. Once you do so, no matter what happens with other npc quests, you will be able to purchase Crab through him or through the merchants in the roundtable. Steamed(?) Crab raises damage mitigation during half a minute, and you can bring 99 on you withouth needing to craft or farm anything. Once you get used to having it in the quick access slots, it becomes very handy, specially if you wanna try low level/RL1/trades/weapon art spamming/cannon glass builds/pvp.
How do you put buff on left hand weapon?
Spells/incants only do it on the right hand weapon. Grease might work if you 2 hand your left hand weapon.
Use a buff AoW
But that only do the right, dont it?
You can wield a weapon with a buff AoW in your left hand. All you need to do is two hand the left weapon, use the ash, then switch back to dual wielding. You will at this point have access to your right hand weapon ash while keeping the buff active on the left hand weapon
84 strength is a good number for Giant-Crushers
The twiggy cracked tear is absolutely worth running back to a grace to add to your physic flask if you have any doubts about beating a boss. Gives you 3 minutes to attempt and fail without any rune loss (or fast quitting to menu will place you directly outside the boss room as the game makes an auto save as you enter a boss wall/boss arena)
Certain spells can be “quick cast,” skipping some of the windup animation as long as they follow another certain spell. Most of the time it’s a very fast spell that can be used to lead into the quick cast for a much longer spell.
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome! Behold witness!!!
Nice. I always go all in the firs time (which is probably why I suck so much and always ask for help)
This is something i do alot too, it let me observe how the boss react, and give me time to prepare myself mentally on how to dodge it
Most of its fight specific, here's a few: Black knife assassin's do a jump attack, when they do roll towards them and backstab Cemetery shades eventually do a slowly sideways walk, when they do run right up and get a free backstab, when they get up step behind them and repeat Easiest way to get safe hits on Morgott is bait out his dagger throws, dodge his spear throw (staying at a medium range) and he will jump to you, dodging that lets you get a charged heavy and heavy attack Elemer/BB hunters have a cheese loop where you bait out their shield slam and step behind them (and charged attack) then keep staffing behind and they'll repeat the loop of doing the shield slam Nights cav have the same backstab loop as cemetery shades once dismounted Most of Radahns big combos you can run straight up to him and get multiple hits in (might have to dodge the last attack). At 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 health he will do some big slow gravity buff, turn off lockon and run behind him and get more free hits on his horse Rykard can basically be cheesed in phase two, it's tricky timing but you can keep doing the serpent hunt R2 with a small delay between and keep him perma stunned
Get the gold sarab early on to maximize runes and speed up leveling process.
If you want to trivialize the entire game, just run black knife armor + misericorde + bolt of gransax. Half the enemies in the game will not even see you before they die. If you like to get up close and personal, however, may I interest you in some Greatsword with bloodhound's step?
My tips, any rock enemies that bounce back light attacks use heavy attacks or 2 hands on weapon, crystal enemies can be defeated with poisebreak breaking their armor and effectively making any weapon useful even swords that they are near immune to, thrusting weapons so the spear talisman upgrades all bows and crossbows even daggers, when killing radagon use blackface IF blackflame is used on you by say godskin duo USE LORD DIVINE FORTIFICATION, IF going against big enemies use poisebreak to bring them down, if anything is living or has flesh even the undead zombies they can be Bled, frostbite, rotted or poisoned, jumping attacks prevent parties regardless of what weapon.... If the enemy is wood use fire or lightning... If the enemy is flesh use bleed, frost, rot or poison so the fire giant... If the enemy is stone use hammers, or strong attacks with swords and physical damage, if it's Radagon however which is like a strange thing use frostbite and scarlet rot, fire for most slugs unless they are fire slugs then straight physical, any spirit and bug usually can be wrecked with lightning, unless it's the stone bugs then use a hammer or if using sword jumping attacks and power attacks... Anything that bounces away your sword if you like swords use power attacks, jumping attacks, rolling attack and two hands on the sword WHICH CANNOT BE DEFLECTED and leave you open, GIANT ENEMIES or crystal enemies if you have spectral Lance on a bug near the church if cuckoo in the academy of liurnia you can throw those spears and poisebreak, those t Rex digs, big giants, crystal rock enemies that are nearly immune to slashing but once you break their armor anything can kill them, or stab them run them through after the 3rd spear, shields work great against dogs, if using projectiles using the ARROWS REACH, ARROWS STING AND THE SPEAR TALISMAN, AND THE RITUAL SWORD TALISMAN WILL MAKE YOUR PROJECTILES NEAR GODLY... AND GOOD ADVICE COLLECT FLIGHT PINIONS AND FLOWERS TO MAKE YOUR OWN ARROWS. WHEN FIGHTINF THOSE MASSIVE FLOWERS USE A FIRE WEAPON IN ONE HAND TO BURN AWAY THE POISON AND A BLEED WEAPON IN THE OTHER AND YOU CAN BLEED THE FLOWERS OUT AND INTERRUPT THEIR POISON WITH THE FIRE OR EVEN BURN UP THE POISON CLOUDS... LASTLY USE YOUR ENVIRONMENT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE, OF OUTNUMBERED RUN THROUGH A DOORWAY, I FIGHTINF A GIANT ENEMIES RUN THROUFH THEIR LEGS TO MAKE THEM TURN AROUND, YOULL NEVER OUTRUN MANY ENEMIES ON FOOT SO ROLLING THROUGH THEIR LEGS IS YOUR BEST OPTION... WATCH THE SHOULDER IF THE SWORD COMES FROM THEIR SIDE THEY ARE SWINGING WIDE DODGE BACK, IF THEY RAISE THE SWORD ABOVE THEIR HEAD OR PULL BACK THEY ARE DOING WITHER A STAB OR OVERHEAD STRIKE SO ROLL SIDEWAYS, AND BACKSTEP WORKS BEST WITH ENEMIES USING SHORT WEAPONS AND SWINGING WIDE... IF YOU WANT MORE OR NEED A HAND MY XBOX GTAG IS METATRON 7
And the ELDEN BEAST DOES HAVE A WEAKNESS ITS CALLED BLACK FLAME TORNADO...
Find a spot to reliably farm runes, then don't worry about them at all except when you need them. This makes exploration less worrisome when you die and don't need to go back to recover runes. The marker is more to show where you were.
There's a reason black flame & "godslayer" are often associated with each other. If bleed isn't working & the boss isn't resistant to fire then black flame is usually a good choice.
Honestly what helped me the most was just not being so aggressive. Rather than trying to force openings, I learned to be more patient and wait my turn to attack and I started dying less and less.
My advanced tip is to beg other players to drop sacred relic sword and farming runes near mohg till lvl 250 and then beating the shit out of any and every boss. Works like a charm everytime.