@nick You made me want to fire up Elden Ring again.
I have no idea what I’m doing anymore because it’s been over a year since I played, but I just got to a castle area in Caelid. I’m playing with a frost build at the moment and switching out with a secondary light magic build. And it turns out I only played around 48 hours. There’s still so much game left.
Haha, nice! It’s worth spending time to play a GOTY.
There is so much content in Elden Ring, and you can play it freely because it’s open world. The game won’t tell you directly where to go next and there is no quest log. But it’s not difficult to look up for a walkthrough on the internet. An OP build IMO is battle mage.
I’ve played a handful of open world games and Elden Ring is the only one I think does it right. Tons of interesting and unqiue landmarks, and like you said side quests aren’t just a list of activities you check off. The whole world feels deliberately handcrafted and meant to be uncovered through discovery (I mean, all soulsborne games have this essence).
True! Part of the fun for me though is not knowing where to go exactly and just coming upon a new area or boss. The fact that you can aimlessly wander and yet make progress is a testament to its excellent game design. I’ll beat it someday. And then I’ll have to tackle the DLC.
I’ve put down MW3 for a few months now and I’m back to playing Black Ops 4 (the last truly good COD game, MW2 2022 was fun tho) in preparation for Black Ops 6. I think COD is kinda dumb but it doesn’t stop me playing them or enjoying them!
I have been helping people beat the Elden Ring DLC last boss and won around 180 times so far according to the number of Rune Arcs I’ve got. If the hosts hadn’t died easily, I would have got at least 3x more. I have seen all the difficulties from various NG+ in the DLC. NG+7 is the most challenging of course, and it’s an honor to be summoned in such a playthrough. I like how some people named their characters “713” and “level713round18” though.
Lol at least you didn’t play over 300 hours, get right to the final end boss, tried beating it once, and then tap out for Resident Evil 4 
Reaaaaally gotta get back into it and try the DLC but I have no time 
You’re so close! Become the Elden Lord!
RE4make is a good reason to take a break though. I’ve yet to play the whole game, but the demo I tried was really good.
I know, I do this with like, every game for some reason. Get right to the end—and lose interest! Elden Ring just has this amazing mystique that beckons to you though, I can’t wait to get back into it.
But yeah, Re4 Remake was incredible. I don’t regret my decision lol
Finally ran into Ranni the Witch. Never noticed that she has a second spectral face. FromSoft make some of the best female designs.
I have beat Radahn around 260 times as a cooperator. And I just realized what’s harder than NG+7 is NG+7 with the host with low blessing levels. When playing co-op, your character will be scaled down to the host, including the level, weapon upgrade level, and blessing levels.
I haven’t started a DLC+ yet mainly because of still helping people beat Radahn. Next time you start a new game after beating the DLC, the difficulty in the DLC will be slightly harder than the last playthrough and it’s called DLC+ where bosses have more HP. But there won’t be any harder difficulty other than DLC+. It scales with the main game NG+ though.
I kicked Radahn’s scarlett rot ass last week or so. It took me between 10 and 20 tries I think and I used the help of NPCs. Although, they didn’t seem to help much.
Just finished up Nokron, which might be my favorite location so far, and I finally found the key to the Lucaria Academy gate so am planning on hitting that up next. I accidentally found a way up to the Altus Plateau traveling through Liurnia, but want to get there using the dectus lift.
Finished the Xenosaga trilogy with Xenosaga Episode III. I can see why people hail the third entry as the best one. Amazing graphics, fantastic music, great battle system, great mech battles, and it wraps up the story.
I hear this series was meant to be like 9 games or something like that, and you can definitely see that they crammed a lot into this third game. A lot of arcs are resolved too quickly and you can tell they didn’t have as much budget to spend on cutscenes.
Despite that loved the game from start to finish. Xenosaga is now one of my favorite beloved series.
I’m playing cyberpunk 2077. Just bought the expansion. I like games with great plot
I have beat Radahn around 315 times and maxed out the number of Rune Arc one can have (99/600). IMO, Verdigris Greatshield +10 is the best shield for the last boss. With the highest guard boost in the game (90) and perfect stamina management, it’s a lot less tough to solo Radahn in NG+6 and +7.
The amount of Runes you get each time you help a host beat a boss gives you a hint which NG+ they were in. So I know which NG+ I was playing with the hosts additional to the in-game difficulty.
Most of the time, the hosts die at the beginning of the second phase or when Radahn uses Consort’s Meteor Rain at the end where his HP is low which is a one-hit kill. I’d say the success rate to win this fight when playing co-op is only around 25-30% per session because the host can die easily as said. I don’t blame them though because it’s the hardest boss fight to begin with. (I have been summoned over 1000 times to help beat Radahn and got only around 315 Rune Arcs.)
One of the most hilarious moments was when I was tanking, doing most of the damage the entire session and Radahn’s HP was extremely low. The host jumped in after staying distant all the time, expecting to do the last damage and win effortlessly. But without guarding as he jumped, Radahn attacked him and he turned to dust in one hit. But I managed to beat Radahn in time and the word God Slain appeared before I returned to my world. The game was generous enough to reward me with a Rune Arc and some rune even after the host died. It was NG+0.
I didn’t realize there is a tougher Radahn fight. What I fought earlier was Starscourge Radahn. More pain lies in wait for me…
Yes, it’s Radahn in his prime. That’s why you have to beat Radahn in the main game as one of the conditions to enter the DLC. The DLC last boss is Radahn’s soul in Mogh’s body.
Ahh gotcha. Makes sense!
Since you’ve played through multiple NG+, would you recommend tackling the DLC in a first playthrough or a subsequent NG+?
You can play the DLC in the first playthrough as soon as you beat both Radahn and Mogh anyway. Mogh is supposed to be a late game boss according to the difficulty although you can do White Mask Varré’s quest to fight him in the early game. You should have Purifying Crystal Tear activated to negate the curse effect during the boss fight. It will be easier to beat Mogh.
It’s recommended to be around level 150 or even 200 with late game items, such as essential talismans, incantations, and sorceries depending on your build. With the right equipment, it will be helpful in the DLC.
In The Land of Shadow, which is a complete separate world, your character damage dealt and damage taken will be reset to 0 regardless of your rune level. You will have to collect Scadu Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes to level up your character and your summon in the DLC (max 20/10 respectively).
So no need to start the DLC in a NG+ if you’re in the late game where you have got many items to choose from for your build.
Thanks for the super detailed response! I’ve pretty much explored most of the in betweens and have just started the Altus Plateau so I should be fairly ready for Mogh. I’m right around 80 or so, so it looks like I’ve quite a bit of leveling to do. But ok, great. I may end up tackling the DLC on a new game+ anyways so I can view the main ending at least once and finish the story sooner rather than later. Thanks for the tips!
It’s also possible to go into dlc after you’ve beaten the final main boss. You can choose not to go into NG+ right away(the option will always be present at roundtable) and just tackle dlc instead.
As for topic of Promised Consort Radahn, damn, this boss is hard! Never had I thought that in my entire life I’ll have to succumb to use a stupid shield in a souls game. This is truly embarrassing. After around 30 shieldless attempts I had to admit that my typical keep-on-rollin’ strategy is beyond my skills with this boss. Shield is definitely a much safer bet and even though I died like 10 times with it, I did manage to get him down to 25% health, while without the shield even 50% seemed impossible. It’s kinda funny that all the other bosses from dlc took me less that 5 attempts to beat(except Messmier, who took 9) and this one is just insanely harder that the rest.
