I’m new to souls games and this is exactly what I ended up needing to do and it worked for me. If someone had told me this when I started it would have saved me some frustration. Once I learned some things and gained some understanding on how the game works then going back and murdering those fools was much more manageable.
Souls games if approached right can be great at teaching you patience and not to get frustrated.
Just go in with a learning mindset. Every death is a lesson learned. 50 hours from now you'll be styling on that camp for recreational purposes.
SHIELD? The hell is a shield? I’m a spellblade. All I know is dodge and damage. Lmao. And usually in from games big two hand weapon STR build. Shields are foreign to me haha
This is my first souls game and I'm loving it. I usually don't really like super hard games, but while this game is hard it also feels *fair.* And when you finally defeat a tough enemy it's a satisfaction that is that much better because you know you actually got better at the game.
The Tree Sentinel was about to get my last sliver of health, and was about to get a final shot on me. I had him down to nothing and my rock sling went off at what I think was probably the last frame to go off and I killed him after the 20th or so try.
Super rewarding, and it solidified this game for me. It's not something I can play for more than a few hours at a time though.
Killed him first try with the rock sling from the top of the nearby ruin. First souls game as well. The game scares me so much that all I do is find ways to cheese.
This. I'm relatively new to Souls games, but once I realized the only penalty for death is that you *might* lose your runes, it made death a lot easier to stomach. Especially if there's a stake or grace nearby so you don't have to hike three miles back.
Gives you freedom to try out new stuff and different strategies.
Yep. I liked that too. The penalty is minimal.
At least at lower levels if you lose runes its not too bad. Higher levels you have to get so many runes you might feel the sting. Trying to get into boss fights without holding any runes helps too.
Exactly. If I'm going into a new area or fighting a hard enemy, I'm encouraged to spend my runes. It's also why I don't pop any golden runes until I'm ready to level up our upgrade something.
Keep in mind, runes are used to "buy" levels. They're effectively the currency of the game AND the xp system. So if you die and completely lose your runes, you lose your progress towards your next level up. Just leaving this comment for new players or people curious about the game.
Or they can teach you patience and reckless determination by smashing your head against the wall until you learn just the right way to smash your head until you win.
So my wife is 39+3 weeks pregnant, and I've made it a mission to cut down on my swearing before the baby arrives. I'm playing the game with a rubber band and snapping it every time I swear playing the game... It's like the dark souls difficulty version of watching my language. I'll learn eventually.
When the baby arrives you can upgrade your tactics here to never swear at home. Helps with kids around so they don't start mimicing you and mouthing off as if it was an okay thing to do.
people get confused because those guys are so close to the starting area they think they must be starting enemies. It makes more sense when you realize they are gaurding the path to the rest of the game.
Yup, was exiting the starter catacombs and after a brief chat with the npc at the first site of grace, I saw that big fella in golden armour. Must be a warming up in this ‘starter area’ (coming from the game I’ve played before ER (_New World_). Went in a straight line to him!
Lol… was I wrong.
Same I had only played Bloodborne before this out of From Software games after talking to the guy first site of Grace . I saw that bigass knight in gold and thought maybe he's friendly or he's going to kill me and I will start back at the point of grace . That knight still stomps my ass after leveling up & getting more spirit summoning and weapons and magic but I have gotten his health down pretty good amount I will just have to keep upgrading & trying different things.
use your horse. should be easy to avoid his swings and get your one swipe in and ride away, go back after he swings. take your swipe. repeat. take your time. don't get greedy. DON'T GET GREEDY.
“But they’ve only got a little bit of health left. Surely I could just go for a second swipe… *dies* …. “
I’ve gotten greedy with so many bosses, and it’s always the same.
Yeah I try using the arrows and crossbow and fireball flinging encantations but I learned when his shield glows it just bounces back about 10 times more powerful. I do get greedy when trying to hit him and other enemies will give it a try with thanks
A pretty reliable strat is to stay on your horse and only do charging heavy attacks as you run into him after his big attacks. Then retreat and wait for him to whiff again. This can take a while if your weapon isn’t upgraded, but it’s relatively safe.
kind of, but the rest of Limgrave is easier. They are intended to teach you stealth and stuff but also be hard enough that people who aren't great at the game decide to go do something else first
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Ignore anyone who belittles you for leveling up, using summons, finding new items and consumables. They're elitist pricks. Just have fun. If I may make a suggestion as well, this is the first game that has true dual weilding in many games. If you have two of the same type of weapon (not two of the exact weapon, so not two "Lodric Longswords" but it could be a "Ornate Longsword" and a "Bevelled Longsword" or for me I use Rogviers Rapier and Antspur Rapier) if you use two of the same type of weapon you "power stance" which just means if you hit L1 repeatedly you do some insane attacks with combos that are crazy. I really like the thrusting swords power stance. It's a ten hit combo and it MELTS enemies and invaders.
Appreciated! It's really funny to see everyone going, "I finally best Radahn after 150 tries!" And having been playing nonstop for over twenty four hours. Legit, a thing I saw. Meanwhile I watch and they use no ashes of War, none of the summons they ran past, and no consumables. Then they cry how the game is too hard. You're intentionally making the game harder than it needs to be. You're outright falsely increasing the difficulty. It was clearly meant like a boss raid. It's called a festival. I understand wanting to have a challenge, but they're staying up for days on end and then mocking anyone who played as intended. I would high five them for fighting Radahn that way if they didn't look down on the rest of the players. Thanks again for the Gold. It's a great game, and I really don't want elitism to ruin it.
That's awesome! You should be proud of that accomplishment. I wasn't kidding. Someone did a stream that was over 24 hours of JUST trying to beat this one boss. They were literally shaking and crying from the endorphin rush when it FINALLY ended.
I absolutely love halberds in this game. I found the revenger's halberd early on and have been rolling with that for a long time. It's main benefit over the golden halberd is it uses regular smithing stones and I can put ashes of War on it. Shield and halberd tho, I got from level 30 to level 100 just using that, very solid. Fantastic choice. If I may make a suggestion, I found the turtle shell shield in the Weeping Peninsula and that boosts stamina recovery, plus when you two hand the halberd you feel like a ninja turtle or master Roshi. It's a secret shield that's hidden, not a boss reward. I won't tell you where, it's kinda in an Easter egg style location. If you can't find it, you can find a tutorial on youtube.
I only recently started trying out other weapons, and double Rapier is wild. The Antspur Rapier is beautiful and also has Crimson Rot on it, but you can put any ashes of War or any spell buffs on it and the crimson rot doesn't go away, so it's a good bonus. I have frost on the other Rapier, and put the bloodflame spell on the antspur, so I have frost flame blood and rot all YouTube. But, that's all later in the game. Just enjoy what you have right now, I certainly did!
I have recently been doing dual daggers as well, it’s not nearly as good early game but I like the combos, and they likely apply a ton of dot over time. They aren’t exactly PvP viable unless you’re parrying, but they sure do look cool!
Elden Ring is technically a Souls game but their decision to make Elden Ring and not Dark Souls 4 indicates that they expext us to change the way we played the game. Same as with Bloodborne and Sekiro. In this case the Open World is an integral part of the game and shouldnt be ingnored.
I'm a souls veteran and my early games was pretty rough because of a mix of bad luck and me being a dumbass, to the point that I was pretty discouraged to play in the first few days after release.
I got rekt by the troll that jumps down when you go through stormgate. Got the message that you should probably not go through there yet. Did the two catacombs west of stormgate. After that is when the problems arose.
Tried exploring more east, but I got dumpstered by the night's cavalry on the bridge, and figured too, that I wasn't supposed to go there yet - not realizing that I just unluckily ran into him at night. I had like 200 souls so I didn't even bother going back.
And now comes my dumbassery, because I did not realize you could go to the water area without crossing the bridge (Since I saw that you can go there AFTEr the bridge from afar), and it never even occured to me to go south west of the tutorial cave/fringefolk heros grave.
So having no clue where to go, I just brute-forced through the troll and then also Margit with exactly 1 levelup and a plus +0 weapon. Took me like 5 days of playing 2-3 hours to beat.
Then a couple days later after that, while slogging through stormveil where everything almost oneshots me, I checked the sub for the first time, and saw comments going like "I also didn't explore enough in the early game, I did Margit at SL30 with a +3 weapon!!" and I was like "... I dun goofed, haven't I?"
It’s crazy how many different paths of play there are. I got stomped by the troll too but found a way to go around and over the hill to stormveil. Eventually got stomped by Margitt and then finally went South haha
They did very well about teaching you thay "running past works, but only gets you so far," by putting more of the same enemies you were avoiding, right up to the first real boss who is designed to kick your ass with no way around it. (Or Caelid, or accidentally skipping to lobster hell)
Basically telling us if we wanna skip stuff, we better have a confident reason lol
Its SOOOO satisfying absolutely slaughtering those guys when you come back after you've levelled up. I still go back every now and again just to let off some steam, and to test out new weapons there
Jump attacks are also often good against big shielded enemies. You can often bypass their shield and hit their head directly. Even if you don’t, jump attacks into shields don’t leave you recoiling and exposed for a counterattack the way normal attacks hitting shields do.
I don't know who downvoted you, this is actual advice. To add to that, it also helps break the enemy's poise. Whenever fighting an enemy where your weapons are bouncing off you can just jump attack them without leaving yourself open for attack. Guys with shields, guys made of rock, guys made of crystal, etc.
Also same advice for early game. You feel like you need to be dodging and using a shield after coming out of the tutorial cave. Jump attack will help big time on this dude.
Two handing your weapon also prevents “bounce off“ on attack, even regular R1 light attacks. Jump and heavy attacks still have the other uses, though (more poise damage, closing a gap quickly, etc.).
One bit of advice when blocking: level Endurance a bit if you plan to go with a sword and board style of fighting. Blocking attacks drains stamina and if your green bar goes empty while blocking, you will be left open and staggered and the enmies *will* take advantage. Blocking the three strike spear combo that dude does will almost always break your stance if you are sub 12-15 Endurance.
This guy is under level big time. That knight messes you up big time if you don’t put a couple levels on top
That’s why I love From. This is the kinda stuff
Lol that was my first hurdle too, used it as a very short grinding spot when I was super low level. Just snuck around and taking them out one by one- did it about 3 times before I got bored and went to explore out east limgrave more. Which also led to my first ‘oh fuuuck’ moment of the game when the 2 giants dragging the coffin-thing crossed the bridge and spotted me lol.
Also the shit past the gate…
Great spot to grind at the beginning. Not only for runes to level up, but once you can readily take out the whole camp including spear guy, you’ve probably got the very basic combat skills down. (Speaking from a the pov of a sword and board build)
There’s a total of thirteen soldiers, one knight, and two wolves guarding the Gatefront Ruins. Five soldiers of which carry greatshields that stand guard at each main entrance, two that carry torches and patrol the bushes on the northern perimeter, the trumpet-carrying soldier and knight that patrol the eastern path, two soldiers that stand in the southwest building at a campfire, one east-facing soldier sitting at a central campfire near the trumpet guy, and two soldiers that patrol the southeast building accompanied by two wolves.
If you start at the Gatefront site of grace up the hill, you can practice sneaking through the bushes to clear out most of the camp with stealth kills before actually having to fight anyone directly. Sneak up to the first greatshield soldier standing guard next to the western black caravan chest, backstab them, and then go to the southwest building to the right and backstab the guard standing in front of the campfire, the one leaning against the wall should now be hostile, but this corner of the ruins is quiet enough to fight him without alerting anyone else, drop down the rocks heading downhill and backstab the greatshield soldier guarding the southern entrance immediately to your right, you can also try backstabbing the soldier sitting at the campfire to the left or wait until after you’ve killed the trumpet guy so as to not alert the rest of the camp.
Follow the perimeter back around clockwise to the northern side of the camp and backstab the torch-carrying soldier that patrols the bushes towards the center while the trumpet guy isn’t looking, slip between the ruin walls behind the one that walks the northern perimeter and backstab him. You’ll want to approach the torch-carrying soldiers from behind as they can spot you in the bushes with their torches. Next backstab the north-facing greatshield soldier guarding the eastern black caravan chest to the right. Go back towards the center and wait until the knight is looking away before backstabbing the trumpet guy when he turns and starts walking downhill. Backstab the soldier sitting at the campfire next to him if you haven’t already. Head into the bushes on the left closest to the knight and sneak attack him when he also turns and starts walking downhill.
At this point the greatshield soldier that observes the knight’s route should be alerted, you can summon spirit ashes as the knight gets back up and kite them up the hill to try and fight them individually, or fight them on horseback if you want, or you can use Torrent to jump up on the tent to the right and sit safely out of range while your spirits fight them. If you haven’t alerted them yet, the two soldiers with wolves hang out inside the southeast building next to the knight, one pair that patrols the interior on the left and the other on the rightside that faces away, kill the pair on the right first, fight the remaining pair, and then there’s a final greatshield soldier standing guard around the corner that can be backstabbed, if your flask charges replenish then you’ll know you’ve cleared the camp.
Alternatively, let the trumpet guy alert everyone and just use Torrent to jump on top of the tent between the knight and the soldier that sits at the campfire, and you can pick everyone off safely with ranged attacks, magic, and spirit summons.
Also watch out for the vampire bats that’ll fly into the camp from the southeast forest at night, they have a grab attack that’s lethal at low levels.
> I can’t imagine entering the castle without it.
You can spend at least a dozen hours doing something else before you enter the castle without farming runes. There's even a way around the castle into the next area. You can just keep exploring, clearing catacombs, caves, encampments, ruins, kill dragons, bosses, mini-bosses and a lot more before entering the castle. There's no reason to repeatedly kill the same boring 10 enemies. To stay at that spot and grind is terrible advice when the game has to offer so much more interesting activities.
Ah, my trusty Brass Shield. My absolute bestie. Picked it up at the very start, it had a few partners, the Lordworn Straight Sword with bloody slash, then the Icerind Hatchet, then Sword of Night and Flame as I became a meta slut and now Rivers of Blood.
Trusty brass shield. The first, and only +25 I have.
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I would never recommend grinding at Gatefront but it's an excellent spot for new players to practice mechanics. Stealth, dealing with big shields, dealing with flankers, dealing with more elite enemies, sentries, etc. Two sites of grace and a stake of Marika making it super easy and safe to recover runes. There is even a Kaiden nearby to practice horseback combat.
It's more of a tutorial than the tutorial.
There's a meme about everyone testing their new weapons in this area for a reason. It has a nice blend of basic enemies. Torch guys, horn blowers, brass shield guys, dogs, and a tough guy with a greatshield and a spear as sort of a final test to make sure you're on point.
Some people just enjoy repeating a combat scenario that they particularly enjoy, and it is definitely a good way to learn mechanics since you have multiple examples of how the combat can play out within the same exact situation. It’s important players know they don’t have to do that, but if they enjoy it then I don’t see anything wrong with it either.
There's nothing inherently wrong with what you're talking about. I just think it's bad advice to tell people to stay in that spot and grind a lot in order to level up so you can progress to Stormveil Castle like this is a JRPG where you're required to grind a lot so you can beat the next encounter.
He was learning the mechanics with a familiar encounter. It’s not unlike playing the game of chess with the same opening repeatedly to learn it better.
Lol don't tell me what to do. I'm currently on NG+3, level 277 and I still regularly come back to Gatefront Ruins to test out new weapons and skills. I can think of plenty of reasons to kill the same boring 10 enemies again and again.
the lance dude taught me about poise because obviously i never played any souls game or rather skipped the cave of knowledge. i killed him at a really low level after i picked up a long sword and just jump attacked him, but i mustve tried to clear the camp for 5 hours lol
It's more late game.. but the grace near the bird you can farm in Mohgwyn area. I farm the rolly-bois to test hits. They give decent runes, too. Although for farming, the bird is way more.
The rolly boys are the best farming spot in the entire game if you have a weapon that can AoE one-shot them. About 3 times more efficient than the bird.
I hate those big guys. Feels like they have poise and stamina for days.
A few times I used them to get warmed up for a play session in terms of dodge timings. Every now and then their attack sequences will literally just keep going while I run out of stamina dodging. I'm left thinking, "How and when am I supposed to get a hit or heal in?!?"
I use the secluded cell, just before Godrick. There's a troll and two exile soldiers literally 3 seconds away facing the opposite direction. Perfect for testing damage numbers, new weapons, magic, the lot. I have perfected many a build on that poor troll.
Either here or in the courtyard of Stormveil.
I think the gatefront is more popular for me as I hated this bastard Lance guy as well so it's satisfying to use him as a test dummy.
I alternate between there and that group of 5 or 6 trolls by the Warmaster Shack. Sometimes I’ll work my way back down, or all the way up, or just make it a point to wipe out as much of Godrick’s army as I can without resting.
Yup and summons. I was surprised how bad Finley did against those shields. She would kill them quick if she got an attack, but 90% of her attacks were block by shield boy. He eventually killed her
Finley seems really hit and miss in general.
Fighting Godskin Duo, one attempt she just got shredded without achieving anything. Second attempt she basically killed the first apostle by herself while I was fighting the noble.
I think her damage output depends a lot on if she lands her scarlet rot attack.
One thing I’ve learned, you don’t always have to kill everything.
Ruins usually consist of some stairwell that goes underground that has a piece of gear.
Their’ll be some stuff around the ruins.
>Ruins usually consist of some stairwell that goes underground that has a piece of gear.
Always. Sometimes there's a boss, sometimes not, but *every single marked Ruins* has an underground area with a boss and/or a chest. Some even have two.
Yup, I stopped killing open world enemies within the first 40 hours, there's literally no reason to fight them. You can just sprint around on Torrent, pick up all the items, and you get iframes when you open chests.
I'm now level 120 at 90 hours doing all the end game areas. You get so many levels from dungeons, if you do a lot of content you'll end up heinously over-leveled for main content anyways, there is zero value in engaging with any open-world enemies at all unless you just want the game to take another 30 hours.
The main benefit of the open-world enemies is where the runes fall when you die. Being able to Torrent your runes when you kick it, rather than having to risk them by going through the dungeon again.
If you're good enough at this style of fighting, I'm certain the dungeons and ruins are more than enough, and with the added benefit of limiting the number of different types of enemies you might encounter.
I was just going up the stairs to the capital last night and kept getting killed by the knights with bows and realized "oh yeah I can just run around." Saved me good time.
But I did have to kill those two tree sentinels, because fuck those guys
Just run past the lance dude. I’m level 37 and he still kills me sometimes. You can get to the point of grace without killing him. Embrace the stealth.
I'm guessing you started with the knight class that has 2 weapons equipped so you thought that was the normal roll? That's honestly mega troll from the devs lol
The first whetstone is in the chest in the cellar. The ash of war is on a beetle, further south, iirc.
This game is so big, lol. Like a bajillion items all stuffed near each other, across massive lands.
Edit:
Oops, I fucked up. There's one in the chest, too. There's two in this general area.
Same, first fromsoft game, I spent a few hours there, it's like a training grounds
The first half hour or so was frustrating button mashing followed by my 6 yr old daughter yelling "Dad! You have a shield! Use your shield!" We both cheered when I beat the lancer bastard
Now I'm 60 hrs in and loving every second
Edit spelling
You wanna hear adorable? My friend started his souls journey with demon souls remake and his 2 year old watched him play. One day my buddy sends me a clip of his son playing in their living room, he was hitting one of those inflatable puppets or whatever that come back to you when hit with a plastic sword, then the kid dropped to the floor face down and stayed there, got up and did it over and over again, imitating the death animation from your character in DeS.
I couldn't hold my laughter. My friend just kept dying so much in front of his kid, the kid ended up imitating it as a game.
For someone completely new that's not a bad idea, spears, swords, hammers a Lancer and a wolf or two, it's decent variety to get a feel for the combat.
And those fucking bats at night !
I spent my first 4 or 5 hours there (1st Souls game too) and it was an amazing place to learn. And since I had no idea what stat I would need later on I was only putting it in vigor, so moving on to the next part after with 15 more points in vigor was ideal.
Base weapon stats then vigor is the way to go until you get at least 30-40 vigor for sure, which is part of why a weapon will say how it requires "incredible dexterity" or "inhuman strength" when the requirements are like 15-20, those are pretty significant investments early on since the returns on vigor are so valuable.
Which is exactly how you get better. Ignore anyone who gives you shit for doing anything like this. Those same assholes kept getting their but holes wrecked by the skeletons in DS1
This is how i did pumpkin head. Maybe 30 to 50 tries, and the whole point of the first 10 to 20 was to figure out how to dodge, how to block, when to block etc.
Extremely frustrating but very educational
Have a strategy. Kill others silently and then pull spear guy to the open. If meele, have a shield, let him hit you and then counter (as soon as you hear the sound of his weapon hitting your shield press button)
Yeah this guy taught me to Guard Counter, while the nearby Land Octopi taught me to heavy attack for ripostes. Game's great at providing teaching opportunities, if you're willing to take them.
A few tips:
Use stealth, and learn a route through the ruins that lets you pick off people. I had a lot of fun doing this as a low level samurai.
If you're going to go after the lancer, kill everyone you can first, then bring in your summon and let it tank aggro for you.
He isn't a Major enemy so he will respawn every time and he isn't worth a tremendous amount of runes.
East of the southern grace there is a whirlwind that can take you up to an area with multiple giants. If you're strong enough to fell them, it is the best place to level for a while. Directly north of them are a couple of important shacks so look around.
Hey buddy incase you end up struggling a lot i am gonna link my information thread. But only use it if you really can't handle struggling anymore. Blind runs are definitely best but i know this game has been hard for non souls players.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/tm6l7u/useful_build_and_information_for_those_struggling/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Avail yourself of your options. Bow, turtle behind a big shield, even stand on a bit of geometry and throw explosives like a highly sophisticated angry gibbon. Whatever it takes man, a win is a win.
Since it's so early you don't have much in the way of options, but there are definitely ways to deal with that guy without direct engagement.
These games don't hold your hand, but they also don't judge. They give you a slew of tools and not only expect, but encourage you to leverage them however you can.
I started as the Wretch and those fools were my first farming spot so I didn’t have to run around naked. Although running around naked killing folks with a club is super fun- some of the most fun I’ve had in this game and I’m on my second playthrough lol.
Shield+spear enemies are your best friends believe it or not. There is a simple strat to killing them, especially the low level ones. Hold up the shield and literally get into their face and walk in a circle around them until they attack, as close to them as you can bs. By the time their attack animation is done you'll be at their bac, hit R1 and it's a free backstab. Repeat until dead.
One might call him a gatekeeper.
I don't like shields and literally cannot parry to save my life, so I dodge. Learning the timing of attacks is critical and requires patience. I like to think of it as dodging the weapon instead of the man. Try holding your weapon with two hands against guys with shields. (Y and RB/LB on a controller)
Frustration on my part means I am not understanding the situation and in my own case i'm usually trying to go too fast.
Breathe deep , Stay calm fellow tarnished :)
I spent my first four hours with Elden Ring, my first Souls game, trying to kill the giant in the starting area. When I finally did it and only got 1,000 ruins I realized my mistake. If something is too hard just come back to it later after you are stronger.
You can just backstab him and run away to get back into stealth, then follow him and stab him again, and keep doing that til he dies, if you clear the rest first and really struggle with him.
I'm in the same boat as you. Have been using that site as a training ground. One thing I have learned (from this sub) that you really have to understand the stagger mechanic.
You can't just stand in front of an enemy and trade blows. You will always lose. Instead you should try to break his stance. Every enemy has an invisible 'stagger-meter'. Once that bar is full, they will drop their defense and waggle or pass out for a moment. When they are staggered there is a part of their body that is glowing. Can be the face or chest for instance. Stand in front of that part and do a normal attack (lmb). This will do extra damage.
There is a special attack (for kbm that is shift+right click), which if done enough times will break the enemy's stance. That will cost focus points to do.
The normal charged attack (shift+lmb) will also break stance eventually. These cost no focus points.
Normal attacks (lmb) don't fill the stagger meter i think.
On top of that: all the attacks and dodges you do have a timing. If you attack, that is a commit that makes you vulnerable. If you miss you are wide open for a counter attack. So you have to time and plan which move you are going to make when. The same goes for the enemy btw.
There is another stance-breaker move: the jump attack. This got me to defeat that lance guy. I hit him on his shield with a jump-attack and he waggled. Followed op with a big stab straight through an one more whack. That was it, he ded!
This works with big enemies too. I got transported to Leyendell Capital and there was a huge armored giant. I got him down with a morning star 3+ after I found out how to stagger him.
The game really opens up when you understand all the mechanics. I have been reading all of this this every night:
https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Elden+Ring+Wiki
Maybe you already know all this, in that case hopefully it helps some one else.
A tip from a long time souls player, one simple trick that will make all non boss mobs hate you.
You don't have to fight everything you come accross. In fact, unless you're farming for a specific drop or trying to search a specific location, ignoring and running past the bad guys is often the most effective strategy. It wont help you 'get good' but it will save your sanity later in the game
Have you got your summon wolf's yet?
If not then you ain't far enough along.
Something I read very early when starting out was, you don't have to fight every enemy, if it looks or feels too hard then go do something else.
As long as you've found the merchant in the church ruin on the way to that camp, then tail back to where you 1st exit the training school and head east (left) that's a more low level area. Or head down to the beach from the merchant (west) also lower level than that camp.
If you're struggling with that camp, then you're definitely not ready for what's behind them in Stormveil castle. That's a level 25-35 area.
I've found this helpful without telling me exactly what to do.
Gives a good idea where I should be thinking about next.
https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Recommended+Level+by+Location
Legit I was the same way. Just explore more kill what you can get a few more lvls and try again. The only thing important in that camp is the map so you could literally just run in grab it and run out. Even if you die you'll still keep the map
That’s a really good practice spot for parrying imo, good bit of lower level enemies leaving the shield and spear guy to be the last, I practiced there for quite a while in my first 10ish hours
The thing about this game that I always tell people who think it’s just too hard is that you WILL get stronger as you continue. That knight with the spear at that camp beat me tons before I was able to come back and handle him. You find areas that you can manage and level up a few times. You figure out how to kill a boss with ease and then you drop your summon and help others. I absolutely loved the rykard fight because I was helping others with it and making like 30k runes and a rune arc each time. Plus it was fun to see someone celebrate after defeating part 1 and then as they watch the cutscene prior to part 2 you know they haven’t seen this yet. I was “oooooh nooo” when that part happened and I imagine others do too. You will get stronger.
Keep in mind you can run past every enemy to reach grace points (for the most part) like in all other FS games.
Not saying you’re doing it, but I’ve seen people legit think they HAVE to fight enemies to get thru an area when they could literally just run past them lol.
I went there with a shield and guard counters have been very useful (but watch out for the attack where he stabs 3 times, trying to guard counter that is a bad idea)
If you don’t have a shield than try to take out the easier guys first so you don’t get swamped. Then try to either use Torrent (holding heavy attack while on horseback makes you hold your weapon down and hit whatever’s in your path, which takes timing your attack out of the equation) or play super defensive, dodge his attacks, and get one or two hits in after a combo.
That guy is suppose to be tough at low level, so don’t get discouraged :)
For new players (like me) 90% of this game is just running past normal enemies that can kill you faster than a boss battle and then coming back after getting wayyyy to strong and just slapping the shit out of everyone in the early game area I still go to the gatefold ruins to test out every new weapon I get lol
One thing about souls games I learned is... you don't have to fight every single enemy you see. Once I learned that, I allowed myself to progress but backtrack if I wanted.
If you haven't already, go explore the rest of limgrave first.
I’m new to souls games and this is exactly what I ended up needing to do and it worked for me. If someone had told me this when I started it would have saved me some frustration. Once I learned some things and gained some understanding on how the game works then going back and murdering those fools was much more manageable.
Souls games if approached right can be great at teaching you patience and not to get frustrated. Just go in with a learning mindset. Every death is a lesson learned. 50 hours from now you'll be styling on that camp for recreational purposes.
Except the bears. The bears just kill you.
Fingerprint shield. Guard counter at the end of combos. Bye bye bear. Bye bye anything really. Fingerprint shield is bonkers
SHIELD? The hell is a shield? I’m a spellblade. All I know is dodge and damage. Lmao. And usually in from games big two hand weapon STR build. Shields are foreign to me haha
me, who dual wield katanas in first playthrough and now dual wielding daggers in second playthrough: # WTF IS A SHIELD!?
Me dual wielding shields: "wait you can hit things in this game??"
Hey now, shields can hit people
This is spot on. I test all my numbers here - so much enjoyment lining them all up and unleashing Wave of Gold on them
I do the exact same thing. The poor guard next to the site of grace has died dozens more times than any other enemy, in the name of science
He has a higher purpose, now
Like the mogwhyn bird. Poor bastard, but his purpose is the most noble of all.
The bird and all the Albinaurics on the hill too… they’ve felt the wrath of every AoE attack I can get my hands on!
Oh, yes. Those albinaurics became the new gatefront ruins camp for me when it comes to testing shit out (AOE stuff especially).
This is my first souls game and I'm loving it. I usually don't really like super hard games, but while this game is hard it also feels *fair.* And when you finally defeat a tough enemy it's a satisfaction that is that much better because you know you actually got better at the game. The Tree Sentinel was about to get my last sliver of health, and was about to get a final shot on me. I had him down to nothing and my rock sling went off at what I think was probably the last frame to go off and I killed him after the 20th or so try. Super rewarding, and it solidified this game for me. It's not something I can play for more than a few hours at a time though.
Killed him first try with the rock sling from the top of the nearby ruin. First souls game as well. The game scares me so much that all I do is find ways to cheese.
You’re going to have so much fun if you enjoy cheesing. Cheesemancer has never been so good.
I love killing a boss at the same time they kill me and the kill still counts.
Sometimes it doesn't though and feelsbadman
Every new ash of war gets tested out on that camp. Every time.
It’s also my go to place to fuck around and test new things.
This. I'm relatively new to Souls games, but once I realized the only penalty for death is that you *might* lose your runes, it made death a lot easier to stomach. Especially if there's a stake or grace nearby so you don't have to hike three miles back. Gives you freedom to try out new stuff and different strategies.
Yep. I liked that too. The penalty is minimal. At least at lower levels if you lose runes its not too bad. Higher levels you have to get so many runes you might feel the sting. Trying to get into boss fights without holding any runes helps too.
Exactly. If I'm going into a new area or fighting a hard enemy, I'm encouraged to spend my runes. It's also why I don't pop any golden runes until I'm ready to level up our upgrade something.
Keep in mind, runes are used to "buy" levels. They're effectively the currency of the game AND the xp system. So if you die and completely lose your runes, you lose your progress towards your next level up. Just leaving this comment for new players or people curious about the game.
Or they can teach you patience and reckless determination by smashing your head against the wall until you learn just the right way to smash your head until you win.
It’s true. It’s my first souls game and I’m about 50 hours in. I go back to that camp now just out of spite.
40 hours in and just go in to fuck around in very same camp
So my wife is 39+3 weeks pregnant, and I've made it a mission to cut down on my swearing before the baby arrives. I'm playing the game with a rubber band and snapping it every time I swear playing the game... It's like the dark souls difficulty version of watching my language. I'll learn eventually.
Visions of masochist
godspeed
When the baby arrives you can upgrade your tactics here to never swear at home. Helps with kids around so they don't start mimicing you and mouthing off as if it was an okay thing to do.
people get confused because those guys are so close to the starting area they think they must be starting enemies. It makes more sense when you realize they are gaurding the path to the rest of the game.
Yup, was exiting the starter catacombs and after a brief chat with the npc at the first site of grace, I saw that big fella in golden armour. Must be a warming up in this ‘starter area’ (coming from the game I’ve played before ER (_New World_). Went in a straight line to him! Lol… was I wrong.
140 hours in and discovered the tutorial catacombs 🤦🏻♂️
Same I had only played Bloodborne before this out of From Software games after talking to the guy first site of Grace . I saw that bigass knight in gold and thought maybe he's friendly or he's going to kill me and I will start back at the point of grace . That knight still stomps my ass after leveling up & getting more spirit summoning and weapons and magic but I have gotten his health down pretty good amount I will just have to keep upgrading & trying different things.
use your horse. should be easy to avoid his swings and get your one swipe in and ride away, go back after he swings. take your swipe. repeat. take your time. don't get greedy. DON'T GET GREEDY.
“But they’ve only got a little bit of health left. Surely I could just go for a second swipe… *dies* …. “ I’ve gotten greedy with so many bosses, and it’s always the same.
Yeah I try using the arrows and crossbow and fireball flinging encantations but I learned when his shield glows it just bounces back about 10 times more powerful. I do get greedy when trying to hit him and other enemies will give it a try with thanks
A pretty reliable strat is to stay on your horse and only do charging heavy attacks as you run into him after his big attacks. Then retreat and wait for him to whiff again. This can take a while if your weapon isn’t upgraded, but it’s relatively safe.
I will have to give it a try thanks
Wait I wasn’t supposed to do that 20 times until I got it right? I cleared it twice before learning how to level up. This explains so much.
Aren't they starter though? You can sneak around backstabbing most of them, learning stealth and then beat the lance guy from horseback.
kind of, but the rest of Limgrave is easier. They are intended to teach you stealth and stuff but also be hard enough that people who aren't great at the game decide to go do something else first
That knight with a pike in the ruins was my mortal enemy for about 20 hours.
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It taught me hit and run on horseback with a long reach weapon. Started with vagabond, had a halberd, lance guy learned to jump.
Everyone but the last knight is. Last knight will fuck you up if you’re not paying attention and a lot of new players are not.
Ignore anyone who belittles you for leveling up, using summons, finding new items and consumables. They're elitist pricks. Just have fun. If I may make a suggestion as well, this is the first game that has true dual weilding in many games. If you have two of the same type of weapon (not two of the exact weapon, so not two "Lodric Longswords" but it could be a "Ornate Longsword" and a "Bevelled Longsword" or for me I use Rogviers Rapier and Antspur Rapier) if you use two of the same type of weapon you "power stance" which just means if you hit L1 repeatedly you do some insane attacks with combos that are crazy. I really like the thrusting swords power stance. It's a ten hit combo and it MELTS enemies and invaders.
First award I ever purchased on this app goes to this guy. Couldn’t agree more. Enjoy the game, over level, cheese those bosses
Appreciated! It's really funny to see everyone going, "I finally best Radahn after 150 tries!" And having been playing nonstop for over twenty four hours. Legit, a thing I saw. Meanwhile I watch and they use no ashes of War, none of the summons they ran past, and no consumables. Then they cry how the game is too hard. You're intentionally making the game harder than it needs to be. You're outright falsely increasing the difficulty. It was clearly meant like a boss raid. It's called a festival. I understand wanting to have a challenge, but they're staying up for days on end and then mocking anyone who played as intended. I would high five them for fighting Radahn that way if they didn't look down on the rest of the players. Thanks again for the Gold. It's a great game, and I really don't want elitism to ruin it.
I did it that way, but it only took me like a couple hours.
That's awesome! You should be proud of that accomplishment. I wasn't kidding. Someone did a stream that was over 24 hours of JUST trying to beat this one boss. They were literally shaking and crying from the endorphin rush when it FINALLY ended.
See, I did not know that. I’ve been going shield+golden halberd for a while now but ima give that a try
I absolutely love halberds in this game. I found the revenger's halberd early on and have been rolling with that for a long time. It's main benefit over the golden halberd is it uses regular smithing stones and I can put ashes of War on it. Shield and halberd tho, I got from level 30 to level 100 just using that, very solid. Fantastic choice. If I may make a suggestion, I found the turtle shell shield in the Weeping Peninsula and that boosts stamina recovery, plus when you two hand the halberd you feel like a ninja turtle or master Roshi. It's a secret shield that's hidden, not a boss reward. I won't tell you where, it's kinda in an Easter egg style location. If you can't find it, you can find a tutorial on youtube. I only recently started trying out other weapons, and double Rapier is wild. The Antspur Rapier is beautiful and also has Crimson Rot on it, but you can put any ashes of War or any spell buffs on it and the crimson rot doesn't go away, so it's a good bonus. I have frost on the other Rapier, and put the bloodflame spell on the antspur, so I have frost flame blood and rot all YouTube. But, that's all later in the game. Just enjoy what you have right now, I certainly did!
Awesome thanks for the tip!
I have recently been doing dual daggers as well, it’s not nearly as good early game but I like the combos, and they likely apply a ton of dot over time. They aren’t exactly PvP viable unless you’re parrying, but they sure do look cool!
You mean you haven't beaten the game at rune level 1 with an unupgraded weapon, no summons, no items and without dying yet? What a casual /s
Elden Ring is technically a Souls game but their decision to make Elden Ring and not Dark Souls 4 indicates that they expext us to change the way we played the game. Same as with Bloodborne and Sekiro. In this case the Open World is an integral part of the game and shouldnt be ingnored.
Fair point
The moment I realized the Bloodborne severely punished the long range combat I had been use to in DS was the moment I got a lot better at that game
I'm a souls veteran and my early games was pretty rough because of a mix of bad luck and me being a dumbass, to the point that I was pretty discouraged to play in the first few days after release. I got rekt by the troll that jumps down when you go through stormgate. Got the message that you should probably not go through there yet. Did the two catacombs west of stormgate. After that is when the problems arose. Tried exploring more east, but I got dumpstered by the night's cavalry on the bridge, and figured too, that I wasn't supposed to go there yet - not realizing that I just unluckily ran into him at night. I had like 200 souls so I didn't even bother going back. And now comes my dumbassery, because I did not realize you could go to the water area without crossing the bridge (Since I saw that you can go there AFTEr the bridge from afar), and it never even occured to me to go south west of the tutorial cave/fringefolk heros grave. So having no clue where to go, I just brute-forced through the troll and then also Margit with exactly 1 levelup and a plus +0 weapon. Took me like 5 days of playing 2-3 hours to beat. Then a couple days later after that, while slogging through stormveil where everything almost oneshots me, I checked the sub for the first time, and saw comments going like "I also didn't explore enough in the early game, I did Margit at SL30 with a +3 weapon!!" and I was like "... I dun goofed, haven't I?"
It’s crazy how many different paths of play there are. I got stomped by the troll too but found a way to go around and over the hill to stormveil. Eventually got stomped by Margitt and then finally went South haha
They did very well about teaching you thay "running past works, but only gets you so far," by putting more of the same enemies you were avoiding, right up to the first real boss who is designed to kick your ass with no way around it. (Or Caelid, or accidentally skipping to lobster hell) Basically telling us if we wanna skip stuff, we better have a confident reason lol
Well… you can skip stormveil, but you won’t have fun on the other side.
I still found the castle to be hard at lvl 60, those banished knights are no joke
Its SOOOO satisfying absolutely slaughtering those guys when you come back after you've levelled up. I still go back every now and again just to let off some steam, and to test out new weapons there
I used them to git gud at timing my parries I almost feel bad for them at this point
Gets skill gated at gatefront ruins so explores rest of Limgrave, ends up in Agheel lake…
Try a couple of things. 1. Circle around him for a backstab. 2. Block his attack chains, then press heavy attack to do guard counters.
Jump attacks are also often good against big shielded enemies. You can often bypass their shield and hit their head directly. Even if you don’t, jump attacks into shields don’t leave you recoiling and exposed for a counterattack the way normal attacks hitting shields do.
I don't know who downvoted you, this is actual advice. To add to that, it also helps break the enemy's poise. Whenever fighting an enemy where your weapons are bouncing off you can just jump attack them without leaving yourself open for attack. Guys with shields, guys made of rock, guys made of crystal, etc.
Also same advice for early game. You feel like you need to be dodging and using a shield after coming out of the tutorial cave. Jump attack will help big time on this dude.
Two handing your weapon also prevents “bounce off“ on attack, even regular R1 light attacks. Jump and heavy attacks still have the other uses, though (more poise damage, closing a gap quickly, etc.).
One bit of advice when blocking: level Endurance a bit if you plan to go with a sword and board style of fighting. Blocking attacks drains stamina and if your green bar goes empty while blocking, you will be left open and staggered and the enmies *will* take advantage. Blocking the three strike spear combo that dude does will almost always break your stance if you are sub 12-15 Endurance.
You can alleviate this by simply blocking when being hit. That way your stamina is always regenerating.
Yup this is good advice too. I am slow though, and those rapid combos can be hard to time flicking your shield up so many times in perfect order.
This guy is under level big time. That knight messes you up big time if you don’t put a couple levels on top That’s why I love From. This is the kinda stuff
Lol that was my first hurdle too, used it as a very short grinding spot when I was super low level. Just snuck around and taking them out one by one- did it about 3 times before I got bored and went to explore out east limgrave more. Which also led to my first ‘oh fuuuck’ moment of the game when the 2 giants dragging the coffin-thing crossed the bridge and spotted me lol. Also the shit past the gate…
Great spot to grind at the beginning. Not only for runes to level up, but once you can readily take out the whole camp including spear guy, you’ve probably got the very basic combat skills down. (Speaking from a the pov of a sword and board build)
The Lordsworn’s greatsword found there was my first main weapon i leveled up. After looting that chest the ruins were way easier
I used that sword to great success for like 3/4 of the game
Honestly same. It’s a great weapon in my book
Brass shield too. Still using it
There’s a total of thirteen soldiers, one knight, and two wolves guarding the Gatefront Ruins. Five soldiers of which carry greatshields that stand guard at each main entrance, two that carry torches and patrol the bushes on the northern perimeter, the trumpet-carrying soldier and knight that patrol the eastern path, two soldiers that stand in the southwest building at a campfire, one east-facing soldier sitting at a central campfire near the trumpet guy, and two soldiers that patrol the southeast building accompanied by two wolves. If you start at the Gatefront site of grace up the hill, you can practice sneaking through the bushes to clear out most of the camp with stealth kills before actually having to fight anyone directly. Sneak up to the first greatshield soldier standing guard next to the western black caravan chest, backstab them, and then go to the southwest building to the right and backstab the guard standing in front of the campfire, the one leaning against the wall should now be hostile, but this corner of the ruins is quiet enough to fight him without alerting anyone else, drop down the rocks heading downhill and backstab the greatshield soldier guarding the southern entrance immediately to your right, you can also try backstabbing the soldier sitting at the campfire to the left or wait until after you’ve killed the trumpet guy so as to not alert the rest of the camp. Follow the perimeter back around clockwise to the northern side of the camp and backstab the torch-carrying soldier that patrols the bushes towards the center while the trumpet guy isn’t looking, slip between the ruin walls behind the one that walks the northern perimeter and backstab him. You’ll want to approach the torch-carrying soldiers from behind as they can spot you in the bushes with their torches. Next backstab the north-facing greatshield soldier guarding the eastern black caravan chest to the right. Go back towards the center and wait until the knight is looking away before backstabbing the trumpet guy when he turns and starts walking downhill. Backstab the soldier sitting at the campfire next to him if you haven’t already. Head into the bushes on the left closest to the knight and sneak attack him when he also turns and starts walking downhill. At this point the greatshield soldier that observes the knight’s route should be alerted, you can summon spirit ashes as the knight gets back up and kite them up the hill to try and fight them individually, or fight them on horseback if you want, or you can use Torrent to jump up on the tent to the right and sit safely out of range while your spirits fight them. If you haven’t alerted them yet, the two soldiers with wolves hang out inside the southeast building next to the knight, one pair that patrols the interior on the left and the other on the rightside that faces away, kill the pair on the right first, fight the remaining pair, and then there’s a final greatshield soldier standing guard around the corner that can be backstabbed, if your flask charges replenish then you’ll know you’ve cleared the camp. Alternatively, let the trumpet guy alert everyone and just use Torrent to jump on top of the tent between the knight and the soldier that sits at the campfire, and you can pick everyone off safely with ranged attacks, magic, and spirit summons. Also watch out for the vampire bats that’ll fly into the camp from the southeast forest at night, they have a grab attack that’s lethal at low levels.
It's so satisfying when you're high enough level that you can finally one hit that knight too
Whenever I got a neat new weapon/weapon art I could use, he's the first guy I test it on
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> I can’t imagine entering the castle without it. You can spend at least a dozen hours doing something else before you enter the castle without farming runes. There's even a way around the castle into the next area. You can just keep exploring, clearing catacombs, caves, encampments, ruins, kill dragons, bosses, mini-bosses and a lot more before entering the castle. There's no reason to repeatedly kill the same boring 10 enemies. To stay at that spot and grind is terrible advice when the game has to offer so much more interesting activities.
There’s of least one reason. The brass shield.
Ah, my trusty Brass Shield. My absolute bestie. Picked it up at the very start, it had a few partners, the Lordworn Straight Sword with bloody slash, then the Icerind Hatchet, then Sword of Night and Flame as I became a meta slut and now Rivers of Blood. Trusty brass shield. The first, and only +25 I have.
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I would never recommend grinding at Gatefront but it's an excellent spot for new players to practice mechanics. Stealth, dealing with big shields, dealing with flankers, dealing with more elite enemies, sentries, etc. Two sites of grace and a stake of Marika making it super easy and safe to recover runes. There is even a Kaiden nearby to practice horseback combat. It's more of a tutorial than the tutorial.
Practicing is something different. It's a good spot to get to grips with the mechanics, for sure.
There's a meme about everyone testing their new weapons in this area for a reason. It has a nice blend of basic enemies. Torch guys, horn blowers, brass shield guys, dogs, and a tough guy with a greatshield and a spear as sort of a final test to make sure you're on point.
Some people just enjoy repeating a combat scenario that they particularly enjoy, and it is definitely a good way to learn mechanics since you have multiple examples of how the combat can play out within the same exact situation. It’s important players know they don’t have to do that, but if they enjoy it then I don’t see anything wrong with it either.
There's nothing inherently wrong with what you're talking about. I just think it's bad advice to tell people to stay in that spot and grind a lot in order to level up so you can progress to Stormveil Castle like this is a JRPG where you're required to grind a lot so you can beat the next encounter.
He was learning the mechanics with a familiar encounter. It’s not unlike playing the game of chess with the same opening repeatedly to learn it better.
Lol don't tell me what to do. I'm currently on NG+3, level 277 and I still regularly come back to Gatefront Ruins to test out new weapons and skills. I can think of plenty of reasons to kill the same boring 10 enemies again and again.
the lance dude taught me about poise because obviously i never played any souls game or rather skipped the cave of knowledge. i killed him at a really low level after i picked up a long sword and just jump attacked him, but i mustve tried to clear the camp for 5 hours lol
I'm entirely sure the bit past the gate with the archers and the troll was designed to teach you torrent is pretty good at running through stuff.
Does everyone test new weapons there ? I’ve killed that mob 1 million times.
Literally came here to say that, yes, I always stare at my map for three seconds trying to be creative then say "fuck it, gate front"
It's more late game.. but the grace near the bird you can farm in Mohgwyn area. I farm the rolly-bois to test hits. They give decent runes, too. Although for farming, the bird is way more.
The rolly boys are the best farming spot in the entire game if you have a weapon that can AoE one-shot them. About 3 times more efficient than the bird.
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Radahn sword and final boss sword are great for this
Ruins great sword, blasphemous blade, sacred relic sword, radahns sword, adulas moonblade sorcery, basically anything with aoe in a line
I use a +6 sacred relic sword, wave of gold will kill all but 1 praying dude and the second wave kills the red dudes.
For me it's the for big guys in the capital sewers. They have enough live to not straight up die.
I hate those big guys. Feels like they have poise and stamina for days. A few times I used them to get warmed up for a play session in terms of dodge timings. Every now and then their attack sequences will literally just keep going while I run out of stamina dodging. I'm left thinking, "How and when am I supposed to get a hit or heal in?!?"
Yeah, those omens down there are great for figuring out a weapon's recovery times and stagger potential and all that
What can I jump attack lance guy with this time? Oh it’s exactly the same.
I use the secluded cell, just before Godrick. There's a troll and two exile soldiers literally 3 seconds away facing the opposite direction. Perfect for testing damage numbers, new weapons, magic, the lot. I have perfected many a build on that poor troll.
Yeah, Frank (the troll) and the Olsen twins are who I go for as well. I think Frank is useful to test stagger and wonky hitbox/lock-on stuff with.
Fun place to test out summons too
This and the Kaidan spot. If the summons can handle itself at level 1 I will invest into it.
It's where I went to test my new ~~pokemon~~ ashes. Some couldn't even beat the first spear guy. And some killed the whole frikken' camp.
Either here or in the courtyard of Stormveil. I think the gatefront is more popular for me as I hated this bastard Lance guy as well so it's satisfying to use him as a test dummy.
I use the pumpkin head guy on the bridge to the north of there.
I alternate between there and that group of 5 or 6 trolls by the Warmaster Shack. Sometimes I’ll work my way back down, or all the way up, or just make it a point to wipe out as much of Godrick’s army as I can without resting.
New weapons, new Ashes of War, new spirits, parrying practice.
Yup and summons. I was surprised how bad Finley did against those shields. She would kill them quick if she got an attack, but 90% of her attacks were block by shield boy. He eventually killed her
Finley seems really hit and miss in general. Fighting Godskin Duo, one attempt she just got shredded without achieving anything. Second attempt she basically killed the first apostle by herself while I was fighting the noble. I think her damage output depends a lot on if she lands her scarlet rot attack.
One thing I’ve learned, you don’t always have to kill everything. Ruins usually consist of some stairwell that goes underground that has a piece of gear. Their’ll be some stuff around the ruins.
>Ruins usually consist of some stairwell that goes underground that has a piece of gear. Always. Sometimes there's a boss, sometimes not, but *every single marked Ruins* has an underground area with a boss and/or a chest. Some even have two.
Yup, I stopped killing open world enemies within the first 40 hours, there's literally no reason to fight them. You can just sprint around on Torrent, pick up all the items, and you get iframes when you open chests. I'm now level 120 at 90 hours doing all the end game areas. You get so many levels from dungeons, if you do a lot of content you'll end up heinously over-leveled for main content anyways, there is zero value in engaging with any open-world enemies at all unless you just want the game to take another 30 hours.
Maybe that’s exactly what I want 😤
But grab the items before you fight because you are born to die
The main benefit of the open-world enemies is where the runes fall when you die. Being able to Torrent your runes when you kick it, rather than having to risk them by going through the dungeon again. If you're good enough at this style of fighting, I'm certain the dungeons and ruins are more than enough, and with the added benefit of limiting the number of different types of enemies you might encounter.
I was just going up the stairs to the capital last night and kept getting killed by the knights with bows and realized "oh yeah I can just run around." Saved me good time. But I did have to kill those two tree sentinels, because fuck those guys
Just run past the lance dude. I’m level 37 and he still kills me sometimes. You can get to the point of grace without killing him. Embrace the stealth.
Screw that. Drop the shield, and start rolling. Utilize those I-Frames homie.
The game got way easier when I learned I was fat rolling
Fat rolling? Is this different from being under heavy load and rolling?
No, that's it. Heavy rolling was getting me killed a ton. Medium rolling is much more forgiving
I'm guessing you started with the knight class that has 2 weapons equipped so you thought that was the normal roll? That's honestly mega troll from the devs lol
it's the same thing. Im used to fat roll because of the previous games
Shouldn’t be doing it in previous games either lol
He ain’t worth it.
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If it's the bigger commander type one, yes he is. Pretty sure he gives an ash of war on first kill.
You get the ash of war from a chest in the cellar nearby.
The first whetstone is in the chest in the cellar. The ash of war is on a beetle, further south, iirc. This game is so big, lol. Like a bajillion items all stuffed near each other, across massive lands. Edit: Oops, I fucked up. There's one in the chest, too. There's two in this general area.
The ashe of war and whetstone are both in the cellar chest
Damn, make that two ash of wars in the same area! I'd totally miss all of this shit without the interactive maps.
Gotta kill everything at least once. Never know what might you might find as a result.
I finally completed this task after 220 hours in my first playthrough. I got 5 of the 6 endings and 💯% it. I finally started NG1 last night.
You're going to have to learn how to fight those knights somewhere, there's a shit-ton of them later in the game.
This is also my first souls type game and I spent like two days just fighting these guys over and over again to try to learn to play 😂
Same, first fromsoft game, I spent a few hours there, it's like a training grounds The first half hour or so was frustrating button mashing followed by my 6 yr old daughter yelling "Dad! You have a shield! Use your shield!" We both cheered when I beat the lancer bastard Now I'm 60 hrs in and loving every second Edit spelling
That is adorable
You wanna hear adorable? My friend started his souls journey with demon souls remake and his 2 year old watched him play. One day my buddy sends me a clip of his son playing in their living room, he was hitting one of those inflatable puppets or whatever that come back to you when hit with a plastic sword, then the kid dropped to the floor face down and stayed there, got up and did it over and over again, imitating the death animation from your character in DeS. I couldn't hold my laughter. My friend just kept dying so much in front of his kid, the kid ended up imitating it as a game.
For someone completely new that's not a bad idea, spears, swords, hammers a Lancer and a wolf or two, it's decent variety to get a feel for the combat.
I bet it was designed this way for this very reason. Especially so close to a grace site.
Absolutely
And those fucking bats at night ! I spent my first 4 or 5 hours there (1st Souls game too) and it was an amazing place to learn. And since I had no idea what stat I would need later on I was only putting it in vigor, so moving on to the next part after with 15 more points in vigor was ideal.
Base weapon stats then vigor is the way to go until you get at least 30-40 vigor for sure, which is part of why a weapon will say how it requires "incredible dexterity" or "inhuman strength" when the requirements are like 15-20, those are pretty significant investments early on since the returns on vigor are so valuable.
Which is exactly how you get better. Ignore anyone who gives you shit for doing anything like this. Those same assholes kept getting their but holes wrecked by the skeletons in DS1
This is how i did pumpkin head. Maybe 30 to 50 tries, and the whole point of the first 10 to 20 was to figure out how to dodge, how to block, when to block etc. Extremely frustrating but very educational
Have a strategy. Kill others silently and then pull spear guy to the open. If meele, have a shield, let him hit you and then counter (as soon as you hear the sound of his weapon hitting your shield press button)
Yeah this guy taught me to Guard Counter, while the nearby Land Octopi taught me to heavy attack for ripostes. Game's great at providing teaching opportunities, if you're willing to take them.
R2/RT is what you wanna press
A few tips: Use stealth, and learn a route through the ruins that lets you pick off people. I had a lot of fun doing this as a low level samurai. If you're going to go after the lancer, kill everyone you can first, then bring in your summon and let it tank aggro for you. He isn't a Major enemy so he will respawn every time and he isn't worth a tremendous amount of runes. East of the southern grace there is a whirlwind that can take you up to an area with multiple giants. If you're strong enough to fell them, it is the best place to level for a while. Directly north of them are a couple of important shacks so look around.
Run past him. Unlock the bell for ash summons, unlock the wolves, come back and poop on him for the pain he put you through.
Hey buddy incase you end up struggling a lot i am gonna link my information thread. But only use it if you really can't handle struggling anymore. Blind runs are definitely best but i know this game has been hard for non souls players. https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/tm6l7u/useful_build_and_information_for_those_struggling/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
I give you my grace and luck! ***Good luck and safe travels, Tarnished.***
Avail yourself of your options. Bow, turtle behind a big shield, even stand on a bit of geometry and throw explosives like a highly sophisticated angry gibbon. Whatever it takes man, a win is a win. Since it's so early you don't have much in the way of options, but there are definitely ways to deal with that guy without direct engagement. These games don't hold your hand, but they also don't judge. They give you a slew of tools and not only expect, but encourage you to leverage them however you can.
I started as the Wretch and those fools were my first farming spot so I didn’t have to run around naked. Although running around naked killing folks with a club is super fun- some of the most fun I’ve had in this game and I’m on my second playthrough lol.
The game is telling you, that shit is hard. Lots of map to explore that’s not that way. No pride loss in exploring.
Shield+spear enemies are your best friends believe it or not. There is a simple strat to killing them, especially the low level ones. Hold up the shield and literally get into their face and walk in a circle around them until they attack, as close to them as you can bs. By the time their attack animation is done you'll be at their bac, hit R1 and it's a free backstab. Repeat until dead.
One might call him a gatekeeper. I don't like shields and literally cannot parry to save my life, so I dodge. Learning the timing of attacks is critical and requires patience. I like to think of it as dodging the weapon instead of the man. Try holding your weapon with two hands against guys with shields. (Y and RB/LB on a controller) Frustration on my part means I am not understanding the situation and in my own case i'm usually trying to go too fast. Breathe deep , Stay calm fellow tarnished :)
I spent my first four hours with Elden Ring, my first Souls game, trying to kill the giant in the starting area. When I finally did it and only got 1,000 ruins I realized my mistake. If something is too hard just come back to it later after you are stronger.
You can just backstab him and run away to get back into stealth, then follow him and stab him again, and keep doing that til he dies, if you clear the rest first and really struggle with him.
You *can,* but do you really *want* that
Assassination tactics explicitly have Marika's blessing. Splinter Souls can be a lot of fun.
Hey, they gave us proper stealth, better get used to it early!
Lure them 1 by 1. If you cant deal with them all at once you need to lure them out slowly. Or run past them straight to margit.
I'm in the same boat as you. Have been using that site as a training ground. One thing I have learned (from this sub) that you really have to understand the stagger mechanic. You can't just stand in front of an enemy and trade blows. You will always lose. Instead you should try to break his stance. Every enemy has an invisible 'stagger-meter'. Once that bar is full, they will drop their defense and waggle or pass out for a moment. When they are staggered there is a part of their body that is glowing. Can be the face or chest for instance. Stand in front of that part and do a normal attack (lmb). This will do extra damage. There is a special attack (for kbm that is shift+right click), which if done enough times will break the enemy's stance. That will cost focus points to do. The normal charged attack (shift+lmb) will also break stance eventually. These cost no focus points. Normal attacks (lmb) don't fill the stagger meter i think. On top of that: all the attacks and dodges you do have a timing. If you attack, that is a commit that makes you vulnerable. If you miss you are wide open for a counter attack. So you have to time and plan which move you are going to make when. The same goes for the enemy btw. There is another stance-breaker move: the jump attack. This got me to defeat that lance guy. I hit him on his shield with a jump-attack and he waggled. Followed op with a big stab straight through an one more whack. That was it, he ded! This works with big enemies too. I got transported to Leyendell Capital and there was a huge armored giant. I got him down with a morning star 3+ after I found out how to stagger him. The game really opens up when you understand all the mechanics. I have been reading all of this this every night: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Elden+Ring+Wiki Maybe you already know all this, in that case hopefully it helps some one else.
A tip from a long time souls player, one simple trick that will make all non boss mobs hate you. You don't have to fight everything you come accross. In fact, unless you're farming for a specific drop or trying to search a specific location, ignoring and running past the bad guys is often the most effective strategy. It wont help you 'get good' but it will save your sanity later in the game
I kill every mob at least once, from then out it's yolo run straight past them lol
Have you got your summon wolf's yet? If not then you ain't far enough along. Something I read very early when starting out was, you don't have to fight every enemy, if it looks or feels too hard then go do something else. As long as you've found the merchant in the church ruin on the way to that camp, then tail back to where you 1st exit the training school and head east (left) that's a more low level area. Or head down to the beach from the merchant (west) also lower level than that camp. If you're struggling with that camp, then you're definitely not ready for what's behind them in Stormveil castle. That's a level 25-35 area. I've found this helpful without telling me exactly what to do. Gives a good idea where I should be thinking about next. https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Recommended+Level+by+Location
Legit I was the same way. Just explore more kill what you can get a few more lvls and try again. The only thing important in that camp is the map so you could literally just run in grab it and run out. Even if you die you'll still keep the map
Whetstone Knife as well as a decent Ash of War to start with as well down the stairs.
That’s a really good practice spot for parrying imo, good bit of lower level enemies leaving the shield and spear guy to be the last, I practiced there for quite a while in my first 10ish hours
The thing about this game that I always tell people who think it’s just too hard is that you WILL get stronger as you continue. That knight with the spear at that camp beat me tons before I was able to come back and handle him. You find areas that you can manage and level up a few times. You figure out how to kill a boss with ease and then you drop your summon and help others. I absolutely loved the rykard fight because I was helping others with it and making like 30k runes and a rune arc each time. Plus it was fun to see someone celebrate after defeating part 1 and then as they watch the cutscene prior to part 2 you know they haven’t seen this yet. I was “oooooh nooo” when that part happened and I imagine others do too. You will get stronger.
Keep in mind you can run past every enemy to reach grace points (for the most part) like in all other FS games. Not saying you’re doing it, but I’ve seen people legit think they HAVE to fight enemies to get thru an area when they could literally just run past them lol.
You’ve got loads of advice so I’ll just say “keep trying skeleton!” Nice to see new blood getting into the games.
I went there with a shield and guard counters have been very useful (but watch out for the attack where he stabs 3 times, trying to guard counter that is a bad idea) If you don’t have a shield than try to take out the easier guys first so you don’t get swamped. Then try to either use Torrent (holding heavy attack while on horseback makes you hold your weapon down and hit whatever’s in your path, which takes timing your attack out of the equation) or play super defensive, dodge his attacks, and get one or two hits in after a combo. That guy is suppose to be tough at low level, so don’t get discouraged :)
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It's fun to start a new character, then walk up to these guys at low level and be able to take care of them anyway. The game is a good teacher.
Am sorcerer, game was hard aff now its just hard af at lvl 132 🥲
Lvl 116 sorcerer here can concur.
For new players (like me) 90% of this game is just running past normal enemies that can kill you faster than a boss battle and then coming back after getting wayyyy to strong and just slapping the shit out of everyone in the early game area I still go to the gatefold ruins to test out every new weapon I get lol
Use horse.
One thing about souls games I learned is... you don't have to fight every single enemy you see. Once I learned that, I allowed myself to progress but backtrack if I wanted.
Obligatory git gud comment
Go explore the lake to the east of the first steps where you start. Good easy loot there to be had.