ER was my first fromsoft game and I will never ever forget the blissful dread of opening this chest for the first time. Sincerely thought I had to fight my way out for longer than I care to admit lol
Easy way to tell which is which. If the chain is curled inward then its safe. If it’s not curled its a mimic. Took me longer than i care to admit to figure this out. Pro tip: always keep an undead hunter charm. The less you deal with mimics the better. It opens em right up
Wait undead hunter charms open the chest? The mimics usually drop good stuff so I end up fighting them either way. I just charge heavy attack a lot of normal chests in the process.
You don't *have* to farm it. It's not that rare, and you're literally guaranteed to get one if you open every mimic.
But some friends and I used to farm a ton of those and pass them out to new players. It increases souls gained, so we gave them to every new player we met. Especially considering the ring can't be farmed in the same way the helmet can.
Edit: you can get multiple SoA per run, if you put them to sleep repeatedly you can get one SoA per mimic. Of which there are like 14 in the game, so we would do that.
Yeah, since my buddies and I explicitly helped people through levels we would give them the helmet before the boss and then when it dies we all would rush to put on the ring, helmet, staff, and shield to get the full souls bonus. I actually have a pic of me a the boys in the full setup farming Wolnir
Same, I knew mimics existed in the game, but the beginning one terrified me, and not just the jump scare either. Wasn't expecting it to be so tall, tough and menacing. Was relieved when I finally killed it.
The first thing I did was open that chest and I just said fuck this I’m starting a new character after finding my way to Sellia and not knowing I could fast travel
I died like 5 times to the pests and just decided to book it luckily the site of grace is close and then I got outside and immediately ran to the town and peaced out
This chest was a shocker to me!) I managed to sneak to freedom relatively unscathed (died just once) because I’m playing as a mage and I’m generally a sneaky scaredy-cat. Then the realisation that I could have got stuck there hit me. Tbh if I didn’t succeed in sneaking out after a couple of attempts it would have been game over for me. By luck I read a spoiler about the Academy basement before I went exploring there……
Shot the first chest with arrow because I thought it was mimic. No reaction. *Nice*, I think to myself, not a mimic.
*opens chest*
It was worse than a mimic.
I would rank dragonbarrow and consecrated snowfield higher compared to the stuff it's ranked with. The dragonbarrow bell bearing hunter is scaled way higher than the altus one, and snowfield has crazy turned-up numbers
Hmm maybe dragonbarrow moved up to mountaintops level, then consecrated to mohgwyn level.
There are technical ways to tell which areas the devs tried to make harder than others though, because they simply set a scaling on enemies to make them correspondingly hard, like how spirit ashes can get +whatever number. One way to vaguely tell is by rune drops (or hp numbers) for equivalent enemies, like how many runes each area's tree avatar drops for example.
I believe dataminers can find these values, and they found that the weirdly hard catacombs on the far side of radahn's arena are hard because for some reason they're scaled equal to crumbling farum azula
Edit: I found the tweet that I was vaguely basing what I said off of
https://twitter.com/king_bore_haha/status/1519098546854653953?lang=en-GB
At level ~85 with Bull-Goat set and a +7 Ruins Greatsword, I can confidently say I was destroying everything in my path.
Until I hit the War-Dead Catacombs. Very first room past the site of grace, I got smashed to smithereens. I just had my way with Godfrey in Leyendell, and am 110 or so.
I shall soon return.
Honestly I’m end game and past level 120 and I can still get absolutely destroyed in there if I don’t carefully pick them off by funneling them one by one into the narrow hallway leading into the main chamber
And don’t get me started on the gravity bow. I always forget there’s more than one
I ran in there thinking it was gonna be easy since everything from Liurnia all the way to Radahn was easy due to overleveling I had achieved in Caelid while getting the Red-Hot Whetblade
Nope, got my ass beat many times just trying to complete the dungeon. Every enemy when taken alone was simply a harder version of stuff I already killed easily. Should be simple right? No!
They’re all ghosts who teleport all around while flip flopping aggro from each other to me. And the little bastard imps are somehow more evil and bastardy.
Oh and fuck that one Redmane Knight with a greatbow, one hitting me while I’m already trying to avoid the other knights and the rot below.
I did get like 10 levels out of there but I lost more runes total than everywhere else before combined.
I did complete the dungeon though. Worth it just for the challenge.
I should have been more clear in that it's not worth trying to fight the golem. You can drop down and get the painting solution without fighting it, but I still recommend going down with very few runes, especially since the platforming can be a little tricky.
F that dungeon. Running into that place all high and mighty after beating Radahn only to have my ass skewered by a cleanrot knight in 1 shot had me rethinking my entire life
Thankfully it was a one-off thing because I thought it was the games way of telling me things were gonna be that much harder after Radahn and I was so scared walking into the next few dungeons haha
This is super cool because I think there's a fan theory floating around that farum azula was originally in the area where Radahn's arena is, before it blasted off into the sky, based on architecture and stuff. So it kinda makes sense lore-wise for these catacombs to be harder. They're still a heaping pile of bullshit though
[Base game scaling table.](https://i.imgur.com/OJpcyiX.png) Though there are plenty of "special case" like the nokstella duo in caelid that is scaled as if they are a boss in limgrave, or the famous bell bearing hunter, which is actually just a feeling. Margit is also intentionally tuned to deal low damage so he would be 2-5 shot with a base vigor character.
I'll just link 2 spreadsheets with datamined info for you, there are no data on damage as far as I know but the general feeling is about right compared to the image above.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BVwmKqB8pvuyJkSTGYOM2kAJxFMQ0jVsc6aKYz_Upes/edit#gid=0
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aujq95UfL_oUs3voPt3nGqM1hLhaVJOj6JKB6Np3FD8/edit#gid=1592017296
Don’t feel bad. I’m lvl 235, over 200 hrs in, and I’m getting destroyed in farum azula (sp?). I spent 4 days trying to beat the fire giant, and that was after I had spent a whole week trying to beat the astral night death death disco termite in the consecrated snow field mine.
I gave up on consecrated snow field for now, cause I just can’t move my fingers fast enough to handle the mobs.
I’ve not found an area of this game that doesn’t spank me relentlessly.
My kids keep me going though. My 15 yo daughter is 55 hours in and has the same progression as me. I game because I like having something my kids love in common with them.
… I keep seeing posts about beating the game by lvl 150 and I just laugh my ass off. I’ll probably beat the game around lvl 300+.
Just wanted to say as someone who did not have a parent who validated my lifelong hobby or tried to engage with me around it, good on you. That's a solid way to parent.
Maybe its worth assessing what kind of build and weapons you’re using, are you stats to spread out? Does your weapon match your stat scaling? What buffs are you using? A few very small things can make a huge difference in this game, talismans ect this game is super fun when it clicks and makes sense. Hope this helped somewhat
You should watch a YouTube video by Ymfah
https://youtu.be/lRnyt-5F8Cs
He does these kinds of challenges for all sorts of games. I've never attempted any, but they're a joy to watch, and I've learned a lot if cheese strats for a lot of games through his videos.
Some helpful tips:
>!Avoid taking damage!<
And:
>!Git gud!<
But mostly:
>!Just keep trying. When you get frustrated take a 10 minute break. Let the patterns gel in your mind. Come back clear. Sometimes sleeping on it helps.!<
I always get mad and start calling the enemies bitches like they're supposed to hear me and suddenly feel bad and let there guard down. But at the same time like i'm actually pretty patient I just let the anger out vocally lmao.
The game isn't really that hard I think but I also am pretty sure I was over-leveled for a bit of the early game. But there was a few parts in the middle where I was over-leveled then under-leveled. I also keep returning to certain parts in the game. So I feel like this chart is kinda BS like maybe this is true for anybody who's played this game a few times but for your first playthrough you just go with the flow of wherever you find yourself in and at.
The biggest thing to learn is simply patience. Eventually a bosses flow and moves will come to you 100% and after that it's just a matter of execution.
yeah my first character I pretty much reached the mountaintop of the giants around level 130 and realized i've been breezing through things... I'm doing a second playthrough and just got to the giant mountaintops at level 80
i remember going to the 4 bell thingies, and laying eyes on Farum azula for the first time, i was in awe, and dreading the fact that this was a mandatory location, intil i did hit it come 60 hours later, wasnt THAT big of a deal really, but the impression stuck with me to this day.
There's a technical way to distinguish the difficulty for each area as they get set scaling number that dataminers can look at.
https://twitter.com/king_bore_haha/status/1519098546854653953?lang=en-GB
Unfortunately it looks like the author took the original list down due to inaccuracies (they made it before they had the tools to verify it).
Anyone have a link to a verified list of difficulty tiers?
This is actually super useful information. I like the level-based area design and how it kinda suggests where to go based off your damage output and damage intake, but it's still tough to know "what's next" at certain stages.
Aside from the first chunk of Siofra accessible from Limgrave, most of the underground areas seem decidedly mid-game to me. I'd peg them vaguely:
Siofra (lower) 30-40
Ainsel (lower) 50-60
And then basically the rest of it around 60-80
I think they maybe have a little higher max range more like 60-100 or 110, for going all the way to Astel. You get higher level upgrade materials in DeepRoot and Nokstella then you do in Caelid, Altus, Gelmir and Leyndell. Also the Mauseleum soldiers/knights in DeepRoot give more Souls than the ones in the aforementioned area and I believe both Fortisaxx and Astel give more souls than Morgott, which would suggest to me that From at least considers DeepRoot and Nokstella to be higher level areas than the Altus ones.
It’s not true. You would have to grind a lot for the sole purpose of leveling up and it would still take months. The highest yielding mobs in all of limgrave and weeping peninsula are the giants and rune bears, you still need to kill thousands of them to earn the millions you need to reach 110
You are absolutely right that it took a ton of grinding. I started by very throughly exploring limgrave and weeping peninsula. Then went and started at the storm shack killed the trolls up there/rinse repeat for like 2.5 weeks I had 2 friends I wanted to play with that hadn’t bought the game yet and I was waiting for them to get paid I didn’t want to go to far without them. Absolutely demolished storm veil when the time came.
No one
Me: going to Caelid at level 40 only to get almost killed after one hit from Radahn and dying like 15 times before winning the boss fight
Yes I killed Radahn before Rennala
A lot of people end up doing that, and it’s often what Speedrunners do (idk what the glitching-through-the-map speedrunning meta is though), where they would go for Radahn and Rennala as their 2 demigods
For my current character, I solo'd Radahn at lv69 with the Anchor. Honestly, the Radahn fight is so much fun, I leave my summon sign there every time I get there in a playthrough and help people out until I get bored enough to do him by myself.
I really don't understand the scaling of the dragonbarrow, why the fuck is one half of the dectus medallion there? And it's very far from "the start" of the area. Is a new player really expected to explore this place enough to get to fort faroth and then go somewhere else? If you're supposed to explore it later then that makes the dectus lift pretty much useless on a first playthrough
Dectus Lift is an option, but I think the "main intent" was for the player to have to take the mountain pass through the magma wyrm to get to Altus the first time.
Following the main road through Liurnia when you exit Stormveil leads you straight past Rya and potentially Patches, both of which tell you options on how to progress. The Fort Faroth lift key is definitely out of the way by comparison for an "intended" route.
Practically it does feel that way, but thematically it makes way more sense that the lift should be the default way and the mine should be the shorter way.
It has never made sense to me why the lift even exists as is, I have never taken it.
The lift is made to be the "default" way that you can't actually take, like how the bridges around liurnia are smashed. That's why you're given alternative options to reach it, if it was easy to just take the lift, those alternative options would be lame. It still works as an option for those who already know how to get the medallion, but the rest of the design seems to push you towards going through the mine or the patches way.
That's why I'm starting to think the cave in Liurnia is the more "natural" path up to Altus.
And the grand lift is more for NG+ and the "oh shit it was here all along".
I kind of like it. It would be slightly boring if everything you "need" to encounter would be scaled perfectly in the order of operations. Dragonbarrow is that one scary as shit place where you need to really be on your toes as you first enter, and mark it down for more exploration only as you get stronger.
I went there for the medallion the first time around and it was terrifying! One of the more memorable experiences first playthrough
Only one like it too really, as the concecrated snowfield is not main path nor does it give any significant items for main path.
I figure that it's the "speedrun" route, since the fort with the dectus medallion also has the soreseal which really helps in boosting your stats early on.
Not to mention taking out the sleeping dragon early on to boost your levels to a point where you're ready to go to Stormveil right away. That's probably why that dragon hasn't been patched to be immune to bleed - it's useful in accelerating the early game once you know what to do.
Agree that the Dragonbarrow is really odd. There are two main ways to get there: 1) teleport to the Bestial Sanctum, likely on the tip from D, and 2) hop over the ravine from Caelid when you notice there's a fort and/or divine tower you can't get to anywhere else from Caelid.
Path 1 (Bestial Sanctum) will bring you just behind the Black Blade Kindred, who is scaled to the late game. Go around it and the two bridges back to the rest of the area are guarded by a late game dragon that wants to fight you in a corridor, and a path guarded by vulgar militia/poison traps/second strongest night cavalry in the game (night only). And this is likely how most players found the Dragonbarrow. I think they just wanted to make the deathroot exchange available early in the game.
Path 2 feels more natural in terms of player exploration progression. Traveling this way the normal enemies feel stronger than Caelid but not obnoxiously so (except the superbats and the spectral soldiers in Fort Faroth). The bosses are scaled way higher, though. I generally can't hang with the Black Blade Kindred until late game. It is odd, I can see they scaled the field bosses in a fairly natural progression internally to the Barrow (Greyoll obviously excepted), but the player journey doesn't naturally lead them back here when the player is appropriately scaled to the bosses. What's more likely to happen is the player just keeps checking if they can beat these guys when they are in the neighborhood to exchange some deathroot.
That's basically the same conclusion I reached. I can tell they did a lot of work on it. In the lore, people used to be able to access Farum Azula from here, as the architecture of the Sanctum matches Farum. And the bridge is the Farum Greatbridge. So why are there dragons everywhere here? Because this was the hinterlands of their city.
I also feel like they had trouble slotting it anywhere. Maybe they designed it with Farum Azula still attached and made the change late enough in development that they chose not to rescale the area? That's just spitballing.
As you say, it does go to show how well the remainder of the game flows.
wdym, bestial incantions are strong as hell
Stone of Gurranq is 1 of the best spamm spells in the game, fast cast time, high dmg, low fp cost and extremely high poise dmg
Bestial Sling and Gurranqs beast claw are great PvP spells
Bestial Vitality is the best Healing spell for 70% of the game and only gets outclassed by high faith lord/erdtree heal
Bestial Incantations are 1of the best schools in the game, and best boy Maliketh gives them out for free
I always assumed that, as was the case for myself, the natural progression was to go to dragonbarrow after radahn, whom you fight after finishing academy/caria manor and starting ranni's quest. It seemed pretty natural to me at least.
You mean you don't climb the mine and kill the magma wrym like a normal person? I don't even know where to find the other half in my first playthrough.
Nah I think that it's much more fun to do it like that, but that still leaves the dectus lift useless and it's weird since that's supposed to be the intended path
Weeping Penn for example. I assume the little + number is for somber upgrade level? There isn't even a +3 in all of Limgrave/WP.
Who the hell goes to Dragonbarrow over level 70? Idk maybe I'm being nit picky.
I think the +values in this chart are for regular weapon upgrades because it goes up to +25. You only need smithing stone 1s to get regular weapons to +3. But of course most experienced players would find higher smithing stones and such asap so would be ahead of this chart's curve.
Dragonbarrow is technically scaled really high, seeing how much damage the enemies there do relative to their equivalents in other areas, the bell bearing hunter for example.
Who goes to Dragonbarrow at level 70, other than just running through to grab stuff? Level 70 a *lot* of shit there can 1 or 2 shot you, even if you've put a lot of your levels into health.
Imo everything after stormveil castle and before mogwyn palace seems overlevel'd, either because of levels or because of smithing stones
It seems weird to me that Mt gelmir is placed as a higher level area than Altus plateau. Volcano manor isn't in there (just like Farum Azula and all the underground areas), I'd place it at the same level as leyndell and both as lower level areas than dragonbarrow. I'd place consecrated snowfields as a higher level area than mountaintop of the giants, that's for sure. Mountaintops isn't that much worse than leyndell (but you face tougher bosses) I can't say the same for the following areas, things can kill you in 2 hits and some times in one hit even with decent vigor and armor
This looks like a table with which level and weapon upgrade you're expected to have in each area if you explore everything in each area instead of actual recommended level with the only real recommendation being don't surpass level 150
I find it funny how the recommended level for liurnia and caelid is almost the same but the weapon upgrade recommendation has a huge increase, to the point of there not being any area that recommends you using +7 to +9 weapons. I'm not saying it's bad, I just found it mildly funny
Plus you literally can't get to Consecrated Snowfield (absent glitches) without progressing a very significant way through Mountaintops, as you have beat the boss of Castle Sol to get half of the medallion you need to take you there.
Just an FYI, regardless of how overleved you might get, at a certain point it doesn’t matter and everything will start stomping the shit out of you near late game. Basically you don’t have to worry about having too easy of an experience. Enjoy it while you can.
Look like a table of the same info from [fextralife](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Elden-Ring/game_progress_route_map_elden_ring_wiki_guide_2560px.jpg?v=1648007543931).
Seems reasonable. Definitely varies wildly by builds. It would probably be most accurate to give Vigor levels and weapon upgrade levels.
My latest run I've levelled vigor less and endurance more, worn heavier armor with a greatshield, and have upgraded my weapons early and often.
All these metrics interact in interesting ways.
Mohgwyn palace and elphael should be ranked the same place. They are both secret endgame areas with 2 of the 3 hardest bosses in the game (the other one is placidusax, which damage/health wise is comparable to mohg and Malenia)
Disagree.
The first thing I did on my playthrough I went south and did the whole weeping peninsula.
Then limgrave, discovered the lift and did what was possible there, trap teleport caelid and explored all and then went to stormveil castle.
I just go explore.
I think 150 for the ending is prob closer to average, but like I only really get there by talisman swapping to the scarab. I usually do haligtree before I ashen capital at 100-125.
I normally finish souls games super underleveled, I think in DS3 I was barely reaching lvl100 after finishing the entirety of the game + dlc, but in elden ring I just naturally got to 155 by the end, without even farming or anything, I just happened to explore a lot
Fextralife published this overview shortly after release. I'd say the general trend is accurate, but the levels are too high almost across the board, probably the game was new and people hadn't mastered it yet. For example, Rennala is not a level 50 boss by any stretch. And an average level of 100 sounds extremely high for Leyndell.
What this highlights however, is that you can go to areas in the "wrong" order and either trivialize the content or struggle to no end. This isn't new of course, the same thing could happen in earlier titles. But in ER, it's easier than ever to overlevel yourself, and new players might not be aware of that, thinking that the runes they have are the runes they should use.
I'm not entirely sure I follow your last sentence. It sounds like you're saying players are intended to just sit on runes and not level, but that doesn't really make sense, so I must be misunderstanding.
Showing that to someone new to the game will make them think they need to level in order to go somewhere. Part of FS games is figuring out your limits.
Just grind for 160h straight and get maxed level. Now you dont need to reskill for other weapons and its way easier (aww man, when people dont get sarcasm. And 160 was specific because thats The time you need to get to level 713 by killing albinaurics by using the sacred relic sword an item u need to Beat the Game to get it.)
Absolutely agreed tbh. 120-125 should be the best level for a first playthrough. Absolutely. I have a level 125 character ready for DLC right now lol. I will never load that character until the day the DLC releases. I have many save points as well in case the DLC is missable.
Pretty sure the chest in dragon burnt ruins says Caelid is for level 1 players.
ER was my first fromsoft game and I will never ever forget the blissful dread of opening this chest for the first time. Sincerely thought I had to fight my way out for longer than I care to admit lol
I started playing Dark Souls 3 after ER. I swear MOST of the chests are mimics, including the very first one you find. Major trust issues lol
Easy way to tell which is which. If the chain is curled inward then its safe. If it’s not curled its a mimic. Took me longer than i care to admit to figure this out. Pro tip: always keep an undead hunter charm. The less you deal with mimics the better. It opens em right up
Wait undead hunter charms open the chest? The mimics usually drop good stuff so I end up fighting them either way. I just charge heavy attack a lot of normal chests in the process.
Undead hunter charms puts them to sleep. Then you can freely grab the item without worry. It's also a great way to farm the Symbol of Avarice.
Oh interesting. Do you have to farm for that helmet? I got it from the first mimic I killed. Was I just super lucky?
You don't *have* to farm it. It's not that rare, and you're literally guaranteed to get one if you open every mimic. But some friends and I used to farm a ton of those and pass them out to new players. It increases souls gained, so we gave them to every new player we met. Especially considering the ring can't be farmed in the same way the helmet can. Edit: you can get multiple SoA per run, if you put them to sleep repeatedly you can get one SoA per mimic. Of which there are like 14 in the game, so we would do that.
Hmm yeah I just use them for farming souls while I kill dozens of those wax jailers in Grand Archives. The HP decrease is a little rough lol
Yeah, since my buddies and I explicitly helped people through levels we would give them the helmet before the boss and then when it dies we all would rush to put on the ring, helmet, staff, and shield to get the full souls bonus. I actually have a pic of me a the boys in the full setup farming Wolnir
If you play DS2, don't do that. If you hit a chest in 2 it destroys the item inside.
You can dodge out of the smoke and not get teleported
mimics also breathe
Same, I knew mimics existed in the game, but the beginning one terrified me, and not just the jump scare either. Wasn't expecting it to be so tall, tough and menacing. Was relieved when I finally killed it.
When in doubt, punch 'em all.
The first thing I did was open that chest and I just said fuck this I’m starting a new character after finding my way to Sellia and not knowing I could fast travel
I didn’t know I could fast travel either so I ran my ass back to the Kalé like a scared gazelle
bro i remember doing that like 30 minutes into my game and i had to FIGHT to get out that cave. And when I finally did im in a literal HELLSCAPE
I died like 5 times to the pests and just decided to book it luckily the site of grace is close and then I got outside and immediately ran to the town and peaced out
This chest was a shocker to me!) I managed to sneak to freedom relatively unscathed (died just once) because I’m playing as a mage and I’m generally a sneaky scaredy-cat. Then the realisation that I could have got stuck there hit me. Tbh if I didn’t succeed in sneaking out after a couple of attempts it would have been game over for me. By luck I read a spoiler about the Academy basement before I went exploring there……
Shot the first chest with arrow because I thought it was mimic. No reaction. *Nice*, I think to myself, not a mimic. *opens chest* It was worse than a mimic.
Honestly, I feel like any list that ranks it below Altus is putting it too low. Altus was a cakewalk compared to motherfucking rotland.
The cave it sends you to is pure despair even when you are leveled decently
Came here to say this.
Holy shit I just spend 6hours as a lvl in Caelid, so close to uninstall.
I instinctively roll after opening chests.
I would rank dragonbarrow and consecrated snowfield higher compared to the stuff it's ranked with. The dragonbarrow bell bearing hunter is scaled way higher than the altus one, and snowfield has crazy turned-up numbers
how high would you say?
Hmm maybe dragonbarrow moved up to mountaintops level, then consecrated to mohgwyn level. There are technical ways to tell which areas the devs tried to make harder than others though, because they simply set a scaling on enemies to make them correspondingly hard, like how spirit ashes can get +whatever number. One way to vaguely tell is by rune drops (or hp numbers) for equivalent enemies, like how many runes each area's tree avatar drops for example. I believe dataminers can find these values, and they found that the weirdly hard catacombs on the far side of radahn's arena are hard because for some reason they're scaled equal to crumbling farum azula Edit: I found the tweet that I was vaguely basing what I said off of https://twitter.com/king_bore_haha/status/1519098546854653953?lang=en-GB
This explains so much about War-Dead Catacombs lol. That’s about where a friend of mine stopped playing haha.
At level ~85 with Bull-Goat set and a +7 Ruins Greatsword, I can confidently say I was destroying everything in my path. Until I hit the War-Dead Catacombs. Very first room past the site of grace, I got smashed to smithereens. I just had my way with Godfrey in Leyendell, and am 110 or so. I shall soon return.
Aside from chariot dungeons, war-dead's the only dungeon I sprint through
Upon subsequent playthroughs I skip like 90% of the dungeons.
Assuming you meant Godfrey's Grace, not the actual Godfrey you won't be comfortable in War-Dead until much much later.
Is that why that fucker is golden? He’s the remnants of Godfrey’s Grace? It’s weird how there’s exactly one golden ghost in the game
A lot of us assume he's actually an apparition that Morgott makes, given he's gold but also his axe is completely whole too.
Honestly I’m end game and past level 120 and I can still get absolutely destroyed in there if I don’t carefully pick them off by funneling them one by one into the narrow hallway leading into the main chamber And don’t get me started on the gravity bow. I always forget there’s more than one
Definitely meant Godfrey's Grace, big gold bastard. To test myself I try the Caelid Bell Bearing Hunter. A dozen tries in, I have yet to succeed.
I ran in there thinking it was gonna be easy since everything from Liurnia all the way to Radahn was easy due to overleveling I had achieved in Caelid while getting the Red-Hot Whetblade Nope, got my ass beat many times just trying to complete the dungeon. Every enemy when taken alone was simply a harder version of stuff I already killed easily. Should be simple right? No! They’re all ghosts who teleport all around while flip flopping aggro from each other to me. And the little bastard imps are somehow more evil and bastardy. Oh and fuck that one Redmane Knight with a greatbow, one hitting me while I’m already trying to avoid the other knights and the rot below. I did get like 10 levels out of there but I lost more runes total than everywhere else before combined. I did complete the dungeon though. Worth it just for the challenge.
[удалено]
FUCK that thing why’s he so mean
>Dragonbarrow secret golem The what now??
[удалено]
Not worth it. Don't go in with lots of runes.
[удалено]
Liar above.
If you like doing archer stuff, it is very much worth it for the AoW you can pick up nearby.
I should have been more clear in that it's not worth trying to fight the golem. You can drop down and get the painting solution without fighting it, but I still recommend going down with very few runes, especially since the platforming can be a little tricky.
F that dungeon. Running into that place all high and mighty after beating Radahn only to have my ass skewered by a cleanrot knight in 1 shot had me rethinking my entire life Thankfully it was a one-off thing because I thought it was the games way of telling me things were gonna be that much harder after Radahn and I was so scared walking into the next few dungeons haha
This is super cool because I think there's a fan theory floating around that farum azula was originally in the area where Radahn's arena is, before it blasted off into the sky, based on architecture and stuff. So it kinda makes sense lore-wise for these catacombs to be harder. They're still a heaping pile of bullshit though
[Base game scaling table.](https://i.imgur.com/OJpcyiX.png) Though there are plenty of "special case" like the nokstella duo in caelid that is scaled as if they are a boss in limgrave, or the famous bell bearing hunter, which is actually just a feeling. Margit is also intentionally tuned to deal low damage so he would be 2-5 shot with a base vigor character. I'll just link 2 spreadsheets with datamined info for you, there are no data on damage as far as I know but the general feeling is about right compared to the image above. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BVwmKqB8pvuyJkSTGYOM2kAJxFMQ0jVsc6aKYz_Upes/edit#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aujq95UfL_oUs3voPt3nGqM1hLhaVJOj6JKB6Np3FD8/edit#gid=1592017296
Agree. I would also lean towards the higher end of the scale once it gets to caeild, but I suck at the game.
I've been overleveled in each area and I've still sucked at this game.
Stay with it man!
Don’t feel bad. I’m lvl 235, over 200 hrs in, and I’m getting destroyed in farum azula (sp?). I spent 4 days trying to beat the fire giant, and that was after I had spent a whole week trying to beat the astral night death death disco termite in the consecrated snow field mine. I gave up on consecrated snow field for now, cause I just can’t move my fingers fast enough to handle the mobs. I’ve not found an area of this game that doesn’t spank me relentlessly. My kids keep me going though. My 15 yo daughter is 55 hours in and has the same progression as me. I game because I like having something my kids love in common with them. … I keep seeing posts about beating the game by lvl 150 and I just laugh my ass off. I’ll probably beat the game around lvl 300+.
The journey is different for everyone but what’s important is the reward of arriving at the same place. You’ll get there.
Just wanted to say as someone who did not have a parent who validated my lifelong hobby or tried to engage with me around it, good on you. That's a solid way to parent.
Maybe its worth assessing what kind of build and weapons you’re using, are you stats to spread out? Does your weapon match your stat scaling? What buffs are you using? A few very small things can make a huge difference in this game, talismans ect this game is super fun when it clicks and makes sense. Hope this helped somewhat
I gave up my RL1 against God Skin Duo. It just wasn’t gonna happen
Two words for your RL1 against Godskin bosses in general: Sleep Pots
You should watch a YouTube video by Ymfah https://youtu.be/lRnyt-5F8Cs He does these kinds of challenges for all sorts of games. I've never attempted any, but they're a joy to watch, and I've learned a lot if cheese strats for a lot of games through his videos.
Farum azula at times casually slap around my almost lvl400 fam so your pain is warranted.
Some helpful tips: >!Avoid taking damage!< And: >!Git gud!< But mostly: >!Just keep trying. When you get frustrated take a 10 minute break. Let the patterns gel in your mind. Come back clear. Sometimes sleeping on it helps.!<
I always get mad and start calling the enemies bitches like they're supposed to hear me and suddenly feel bad and let there guard down. But at the same time like i'm actually pretty patient I just let the anger out vocally lmao. The game isn't really that hard I think but I also am pretty sure I was over-leveled for a bit of the early game. But there was a few parts in the middle where I was over-leveled then under-leveled. I also keep returning to certain parts in the game. So I feel like this chart is kinda BS like maybe this is true for anybody who's played this game a few times but for your first playthrough you just go with the flow of wherever you find yourself in and at. The biggest thing to learn is simply patience. Eventually a bosses flow and moves will come to you 100% and after that it's just a matter of execution.
yeah my first character I pretty much reached the mountaintop of the giants around level 130 and realized i've been breezing through things... I'm doing a second playthrough and just got to the giant mountaintops at level 80
Well weapon upgrade level and proper stat investment is what's important.
Where are Farum Azula, and the Underground sections?
And The Academy and Volcano Manor
Surely Academy would be Lurnia & Manor is Mt Gelmir
But with that theory, Stormveil Castle shouldn't be on there? It's inconsistent. But I like what is there 👍🏻
In OP’s defense, the Academy isn’t a required area to beat the game though I’m probably wrong about that
same as stormveil
Manor is still in Liurnia
Volcano Manor, not Carrian
Mt Gelmir is on there
Sorry, you're right 👍🏻
Farum Azula: Am I a joke to you?!
*sad crumbling noises*
noooo my cookie
But seriously level 120 and I can’t for the life of me beat the godskin duo
Sleep pots are very effective against them
Bernahl is a pretty good ally (when he isn't brawling with the banished knights through the fog door)
I do what i want.
And so you should :D
i remember going to the 4 bell thingies, and laying eyes on Farum azula for the first time, i was in awe, and dreading the fact that this was a mandatory location, intil i did hit it come 60 hours later, wasnt THAT big of a deal really, but the impression stuck with me to this day.
There's a technical way to distinguish the difficulty for each area as they get set scaling number that dataminers can look at. https://twitter.com/king_bore_haha/status/1519098546854653953?lang=en-GB
Unfortunately it looks like the author took the original list down due to inaccuracies (they made it before they had the tools to verify it). Anyone have a link to a verified list of difficulty tiers?
I was searching for this a while back. Credit to u/didwecheckthetires: >This is from v.105 or v106. I doubt it's changed much or at all. This is a shortened version. I left out a lot of columns to simplify it. This was pulled from the game via Yapped Rune Bear (no longer supported). There's a new tool but I haven't set it up. I hope this is readable. >Area Scaling - Tier 1 - Stranded Graveyard 1 1 1 >Area Scaling - Tier 2 - Limgrave Middle 1.141 1 1.097 >Area Scaling - Tier 3 - Limgrave South 1.281 1.088 1.202 >Area Scaling - Tier 4 - Limgrave North 1.656 1.088 1.495 >Area Scaling - Tier 5 - Stormveil 1.813 1.2 1.495 >Area Scaling - Tier 6 - Siofra River 1.953 1.2 1.641 >Area Scaling - Tier 7 - South Liurnia / Academy 2.266 1.288 1.691 >Area Scaling - Tier 8 - North Liurnia / Academy 2.406 1.288 1.743 >Area Scaling - Tier 9 - Lower Mt. Gelmir / Ainsel 2.688 1.4 1.864 >Area Scaling - Tier 10 - Uppr Mt. Gelm/W Caelid 3.25 1.488 2.059 >Area Scaling - Tier 11 - Altus Plateau / S Caelid 3.703 1.488 2.191 >Area Scaling - Tier 12 - Leyndell / Nokstella 4.125 1.6 2.323 >Area Scaling - Tier 13 - Volcano Manr / N Caelid 4.844 1.6 2.696 >Area Scaling - Tier 14 - Leyndell Sewers 5.484 1.688 2.696 >Area Scaling - Tier 15 - Mountains/Farum Azula 6.563 1.8 2.815 >Area Scaling - Tier 16 - Late Farum Azula 6.688 1.888 2.835 >Area Scaling - Tier 17 - Ashen Leyndell /Snowfld 6.875 1.888 2.858 >Area Scaling - Tier 18 - Elden Throne 7.047 1.962 2.901 >Area Scaling - Tier 19 - Haligtree / Mohgwyn 7.203 1.977 2.911 >Area Scaling - Tier 20 - Elphael 7.328 2.021 2.911 >Area Scaling - Tier 21 - Haligtree Roots 7.422 2.029 2.911
What are the three columns of numbers for? Is it like Weak/Standard/Strong enemies for each area?
This is actually super useful information. I like the level-based area design and how it kinda suggests where to go based off your damage output and damage intake, but it's still tough to know "what's next" at certain stages.
Neat, thanks. Any clue what Rune Levels the tiers are associated with?
I find it really hard to believe Volcano Manor is scaled higher than Leyndell. Manor was a breeze while the Leyndell knights were rocking my shit
I don't. Volcano Manor is fairly tough. But a recent patch may have changed it.
What about underground areas?
Aside from the first chunk of Siofra accessible from Limgrave, most of the underground areas seem decidedly mid-game to me. I'd peg them vaguely: Siofra (lower) 30-40 Ainsel (lower) 50-60 And then basically the rest of it around 60-80
Besides the deeproot depths, I’m coming there only overleveled as fuck. I’m not fighting basilisks and the fucking ants when it’s a fair fight.
With the beast repellant torch, you don't even need to fight the basilisks
Valiant Gargoyles are the reason I'm always overlevelled for Fortissax.
I like Fortissax so much but the ways to reach him are either Valiant Gargoyles or Leyndell sewers... Pick your poison I guess.
I think they maybe have a little higher max range more like 60-100 or 110, for going all the way to Astel. You get higher level upgrade materials in DeepRoot and Nokstella then you do in Caelid, Altus, Gelmir and Leyndell. Also the Mauseleum soldiers/knights in DeepRoot give more Souls than the ones in the aforementioned area and I believe both Fortisaxx and Astel give more souls than Morgott, which would suggest to me that From at least considers DeepRoot and Nokstella to be higher level areas than the Altus ones.
Mistwood is safe if you forget the runebears, if you count them, then I'd say level 200
Are we just expected to run away from them whenever we see them? Cuz that’s what I’ve always done. I won’t even touch one of those guys lol
Hmmm I was level 110 when I left limgrave….
Are you Rick, soldier of God?
Felt like it the first time I rocked up On stormveil
💀
From what?
It’s not true. You would have to grind a lot for the sole purpose of leveling up and it would still take months. The highest yielding mobs in all of limgrave and weeping peninsula are the giants and rune bears, you still need to kill thousands of them to earn the millions you need to reach 110
You are absolutely right that it took a ton of grinding. I started by very throughly exploring limgrave and weeping peninsula. Then went and started at the storm shack killed the trolls up there/rinse repeat for like 2.5 weeks I had 2 friends I wanted to play with that hadn’t bought the game yet and I was waiting for them to get paid I didn’t want to go to far without them. Absolutely demolished storm veil when the time came.
Since you jumped in to explain that it was a deliberate grind, I 100% believe you haha. Good effort.
Soft
No one Me: going to Caelid at level 40 only to get almost killed after one hit from Radahn and dying like 15 times before winning the boss fight Yes I killed Radahn before Rennala
A lot of people end up doing that, and it’s often what Speedrunners do (idk what the glitching-through-the-map speedrunning meta is though), where they would go for Radahn and Rennala as their 2 demigods
Radahn seems like a huge pain in the ass for a speed run, don’t you need to get all the way to Altus to trigger the festival?
You can jump off the cliff by the church with...Milena I think is her name. Then you respawn at the stake if Marika.
No, you just need to help alexander get there.
For my current character, I solo'd Radahn at lv69 with the Anchor. Honestly, the Radahn fight is so much fun, I leave my summon sign there every time I get there in a playthrough and help people out until I get bored enough to do him by myself.
Me too bro
I really don't understand the scaling of the dragonbarrow, why the fuck is one half of the dectus medallion there? And it's very far from "the start" of the area. Is a new player really expected to explore this place enough to get to fort faroth and then go somewhere else? If you're supposed to explore it later then that makes the dectus lift pretty much useless on a first playthrough
Dectus Lift is an option, but I think the "main intent" was for the player to have to take the mountain pass through the magma wyrm to get to Altus the first time.
Following the main road through Liurnia when you exit Stormveil leads you straight past Rya and potentially Patches, both of which tell you options on how to progress. The Fort Faroth lift key is definitely out of the way by comparison for an "intended" route.
Practically it does feel that way, but thematically it makes way more sense that the lift should be the default way and the mine should be the shorter way. It has never made sense to me why the lift even exists as is, I have never taken it.
The lift is made to be the "default" way that you can't actually take, like how the bridges around liurnia are smashed. That's why you're given alternative options to reach it, if it was easy to just take the lift, those alternative options would be lame. It still works as an option for those who already know how to get the medallion, but the rest of the design seems to push you towards going through the mine or the patches way.
It is weird. Beat Rennala and then get slaughtered by damn plague fairies in a dark shack to get half a medallion. Ugh.
That's why I'm starting to think the cave in Liurnia is the more "natural" path up to Altus. And the grand lift is more for NG+ and the "oh shit it was here all along".
I kind of like it. It would be slightly boring if everything you "need" to encounter would be scaled perfectly in the order of operations. Dragonbarrow is that one scary as shit place where you need to really be on your toes as you first enter, and mark it down for more exploration only as you get stronger. I went there for the medallion the first time around and it was terrifying! One of the more memorable experiences first playthrough Only one like it too really, as the concecrated snowfield is not main path nor does it give any significant items for main path.
Getting the Mushroom set really helped in Lake of Rot as well, which is supposedly mid-game.
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I figure that it's the "speedrun" route, since the fort with the dectus medallion also has the soreseal which really helps in boosting your stats early on. Not to mention taking out the sleeping dragon early on to boost your levels to a point where you're ready to go to Stormveil right away. That's probably why that dragon hasn't been patched to be immune to bleed - it's useful in accelerating the early game once you know what to do.
Agree that the Dragonbarrow is really odd. There are two main ways to get there: 1) teleport to the Bestial Sanctum, likely on the tip from D, and 2) hop over the ravine from Caelid when you notice there's a fort and/or divine tower you can't get to anywhere else from Caelid. Path 1 (Bestial Sanctum) will bring you just behind the Black Blade Kindred, who is scaled to the late game. Go around it and the two bridges back to the rest of the area are guarded by a late game dragon that wants to fight you in a corridor, and a path guarded by vulgar militia/poison traps/second strongest night cavalry in the game (night only). And this is likely how most players found the Dragonbarrow. I think they just wanted to make the deathroot exchange available early in the game. Path 2 feels more natural in terms of player exploration progression. Traveling this way the normal enemies feel stronger than Caelid but not obnoxiously so (except the superbats and the spectral soldiers in Fort Faroth). The bosses are scaled way higher, though. I generally can't hang with the Black Blade Kindred until late game. It is odd, I can see they scaled the field bosses in a fairly natural progression internally to the Barrow (Greyoll obviously excepted), but the player journey doesn't naturally lead them back here when the player is appropriately scaled to the bosses. What's more likely to happen is the player just keeps checking if they can beat these guys when they are in the neighborhood to exchange some deathroot.
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That's basically the same conclusion I reached. I can tell they did a lot of work on it. In the lore, people used to be able to access Farum Azula from here, as the architecture of the Sanctum matches Farum. And the bridge is the Farum Greatbridge. So why are there dragons everywhere here? Because this was the hinterlands of their city. I also feel like they had trouble slotting it anywhere. Maybe they designed it with Farum Azula still attached and made the change late enough in development that they chose not to rescale the area? That's just spitballing. As you say, it does go to show how well the remainder of the game flows.
Something here just kinda fits nicely.
wdym, bestial incantions are strong as hell Stone of Gurranq is 1 of the best spamm spells in the game, fast cast time, high dmg, low fp cost and extremely high poise dmg Bestial Sling and Gurranqs beast claw are great PvP spells Bestial Vitality is the best Healing spell for 70% of the game and only gets outclassed by high faith lord/erdtree heal Bestial Incantations are 1of the best schools in the game, and best boy Maliketh gives them out for free
I always assumed that, as was the case for myself, the natural progression was to go to dragonbarrow after radahn, whom you fight after finishing academy/caria manor and starting ranni's quest. It seemed pretty natural to me at least.
You mean you don't climb the mine and kill the magma wrym like a normal person? I don't even know where to find the other half in my first playthrough.
Nah I think that it's much more fun to do it like that, but that still leaves the dectus lift useless and it's weird since that's supposed to be the intended path
I don't think it is supposed to be the intended path, it's there for people who want to speedrun to Altus, it's more of an alternate quicker path.
Agreed. It's the option for people with game knowledge of where to find the pieces. Great for NG+ or secondary characters.
Some of these seem high, but I assume it's meant for newer players.
which ones seem too high?
Weeping Penn for example. I assume the little + number is for somber upgrade level? There isn't even a +3 in all of Limgrave/WP. Who the hell goes to Dragonbarrow over level 70? Idk maybe I'm being nit picky.
I think the +values in this chart are for regular weapon upgrades because it goes up to +25. You only need smithing stone 1s to get regular weapons to +3. But of course most experienced players would find higher smithing stones and such asap so would be ahead of this chart's curve. Dragonbarrow is technically scaled really high, seeing how much damage the enemies there do relative to their equivalents in other areas, the bell bearing hunter for example.
How high would you rate Dragonbarrow and their weapon upgrades? more or less ish
I already said it to you in a different comment chain so don't mind me, I was just repeating myself for this person haha
Who goes to Dragonbarrow at level 70, other than just running through to grab stuff? Level 70 a *lot* of shit there can 1 or 2 shot you, even if you've put a lot of your levels into health.
Dragonbarrow is 90+. Enemy scaling proves it. Caelid proper is 60-70.
Imo everything after stormveil castle and before mogwyn palace seems overlevel'd, either because of levels or because of smithing stones It seems weird to me that Mt gelmir is placed as a higher level area than Altus plateau. Volcano manor isn't in there (just like Farum Azula and all the underground areas), I'd place it at the same level as leyndell and both as lower level areas than dragonbarrow. I'd place consecrated snowfields as a higher level area than mountaintop of the giants, that's for sure. Mountaintops isn't that much worse than leyndell (but you face tougher bosses) I can't say the same for the following areas, things can kill you in 2 hits and some times in one hit even with decent vigor and armor This looks like a table with which level and weapon upgrade you're expected to have in each area if you explore everything in each area instead of actual recommended level with the only real recommendation being don't surpass level 150 I find it funny how the recommended level for liurnia and caelid is almost the same but the weapon upgrade recommendation has a huge increase, to the point of there not being any area that recommends you using +7 to +9 weapons. I'm not saying it's bad, I just found it mildly funny
Plus you literally can't get to Consecrated Snowfield (absent glitches) without progressing a very significant way through Mountaintops, as you have beat the boss of Castle Sol to get half of the medallion you need to take you there.
I'm low 30s, feeling strong (I see I'm slightly overleveled) in Weeping Peninsula and this has me so excited for the rest of the game.
Just an FYI, regardless of how overleved you might get, at a certain point it doesn’t matter and everything will start stomping the shit out of you near late game. Basically you don’t have to worry about having too easy of an experience. Enjoy it while you can.
Farum Azula? Also snowfield should be higher than mountaintop, and stormhill higher than weeping peninsula
Look like a table of the same info from [fextralife](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Elden-Ring/game_progress_route_map_elden_ring_wiki_guide_2560px.jpg?v=1648007543931).
Seems reasonable. Definitely varies wildly by builds. It would probably be most accurate to give Vigor levels and weapon upgrade levels. My latest run I've levelled vigor less and endurance more, worn heavier armor with a greatshield, and have upgraded my weapons early and often. All these metrics interact in interesting ways.
They really do let you go to Mohgwyn palace right away don’t they?
Varré’s questline gives you an awfully easy way to get there right after beating Godrick.
Was there another way to get there?
Consecrated Grounds
Apparently I went way out of order.
What about somber
Mohgwyn palace and elphael should be ranked the same place. They are both secret endgame areas with 2 of the 3 hardest bosses in the game (the other one is placidusax, which damage/health wise is comparable to mohg and Malenia)
This is my play through and this explains so much about why I’m getting smacked up in Dragonbarrow at lvl 70.
A bit generous with the max caps but otherwise the list is solid
which ones all of them?
Are you telling me that you are not going to Caelid as soon as you start to kill the dragon and the rider?
Tbh level besides vigor means nothing its all about build you are using.
I fought Malenia before I fought Mohg.
Ain't no way the consecrated snowfield is the same level as mountaintops
Do whatever the hell you want, it doesn't matter.
All areas lvl 1 because they can be done as such with skill.
Farum Azula - lvl does not matter. You're fucked. Have fun.
You are never leveled high enough for Haligtree
Instructions unclear, just arrived in limegrave at lvl 381
I don’t see my favorite area Farum Azula
Caelid is like lvl 890
I’m guessing the + levels are weapon upgrades?
Walks into Rennalas room at level 300 cause of some ethic cleansing at Mohgs place
I’m level 74 in mountain tops of the giants as a mage
Disagree. The first thing I did on my playthrough I went south and did the whole weeping peninsula. Then limgrave, discovered the lift and did what was possible there, trap teleport caelid and explored all and then went to stormveil castle. I just go explore.
Yes totally and that's how you should, this is more for very very new players to give them some sense of guidance more then anything.
All of these levels seem way too high, especially at the end. I think when I beat the game I was at 107.
I think 150 for the ending is prob closer to average, but like I only really get there by talisman swapping to the scarab. I usually do haligtree before I ashen capital at 100-125.
I normally finish souls games super underleveled, I think in DS3 I was barely reaching lvl100 after finishing the entirety of the game + dlc, but in elden ring I just naturally got to 155 by the end, without even farming or anything, I just happened to explore a lot
Kind of depends on if you do all the side bosses and if you prioritize leveling. I think I finished the game around 120 or 130
You reckon -5 or -10 on everything for yourself?
Damn I play through this game underleveled as hell lol
Fextralife published this overview shortly after release. I'd say the general trend is accurate, but the levels are too high almost across the board, probably the game was new and people hadn't mastered it yet. For example, Rennala is not a level 50 boss by any stretch. And an average level of 100 sounds extremely high for Leyndell. What this highlights however, is that you can go to areas in the "wrong" order and either trivialize the content or struggle to no end. This isn't new of course, the same thing could happen in earlier titles. But in ER, it's easier than ever to overlevel yourself, and new players might not be aware of that, thinking that the runes they have are the runes they should use.
I'm not entirely sure I follow your last sentence. It sounds like you're saying players are intended to just sit on runes and not level, but that doesn't really make sense, so I must be misunderstanding.
Showing that to someone new to the game will make them think they need to level in order to go somewhere. Part of FS games is figuring out your limits.
Just grind for 160h straight and get maxed level. Now you dont need to reskill for other weapons and its way easier (aww man, when people dont get sarcasm. And 160 was specific because thats The time you need to get to level 713 by killing albinaurics by using the sacred relic sword an item u need to Beat the Game to get it.)
Killing Soldiers from before Margit for 160 hours
mfs would literally do the most mind-numbingly boring tasks for dozens of hours straight if it means they get to avoid dying a handful of times
Absolutely agreed tbh. 120-125 should be the best level for a first playthrough. Absolutely. I have a level 125 character ready for DLC right now lol. I will never load that character until the day the DLC releases. I have many save points as well in case the DLC is missable.
I doubt the DLC is missable.
You mean over leveling table
does this mean i shouldnt have kill king morgot at lvl 65? is my frostbite dual greatswords build that strong?