Elden Ring

[Ne0]

Reached Altus plateau thru that ravine tunnel.  Was exploring and got teleported to volcano manor and accepted the respective quests. Found 3 of the maps and man looks like another huge area.

I’m at level 63 now.  Should I proceed to story area (capital) or are there some cool things to do first ?

[Ne0]

Caelid area is absolutely crazy, not just tough but scary/unsettling and prone to constant anxiety.  I’m at bhf+5/level 68 and still the bosses are damn hard.  Scarlett rot is really deadly.  I need like 27k runes to level up now and considering everywhere there’s danger going from one place to another is a quest in itself 😂 

[hope]

Erdtree worth playing? 

[Ne0]

Man that Radhan boss fight has been the worst so far, I bring him down to 70-80% of his health and he goes all kind of crazy, any tips ? 

[dante77]

On 11/3/2025 at 8:33 PM, Ne0 said:

Man that Radhan boss fight has been the worst so far, I bring him down to 70-80% of his health and he goes all kind of crazy, any tips ? 

Yes. He is the worst. 

[Ne0]

Finally defeated Radahn, and that annoying scarlet rot breathing dragon as well.  Both bosses were quite hard due to their excessive AoE attacks, almost felt like they were cheating at times !  Anyway, the runes I got out of them were totally worth the effort unlike that falling star beast boss, who dropped just 7k runes after all that crap !

[Ne0]

At level 100 now  

 

defeated Astel/void boss, cleared lake of rot and both the eternal cities and siofra/ainsel areas. Yet to explore deep root depths, that looks like even more tough. Now onto finishing ranni’s quest.  Even at level 100, the glintstone dragon is being difficult.  
 

The game is huge. I think I’ve put in some 80-90 hours so far, still there are so many locations in mt gelmir and Aldus plateau that I’ve not yet cleared. Even north caelid is unexplored yet.  I’m yet to move towards leyendell story area.  Looks like another 50-60 hours of game is left out maybe another 100, if the bosses next are more difficult.

[Ne0]

At level 110, entered leyendell.  What a view from the rooftops.  It’s not just the gfx but the art style that’s so breathtaking at places.  Need almost 80k runes to level up now 😂 

 

ps: even at level 110, the putridavatar boss in north caelid still challenging and can defeat in 2-3 hits !

 

btw, any idea if we’re to fight that gurranq guy and that giant gargoyle in the sanctum ?

Edited November 19, 2025 by Ne0

[Ne0]

Spent over 2 hours trying to defeat those knights of great jar, in vain 🤦‍♂️.  Even at level 110, they are too difficult.  The spikes of difficulty against some bosses in this game is unreal !

[Ne0]

Reached mountaintop of the giants, at level 120, I think some 107 hours in.  Right now completing that dragonbarrow region to complete the caelid tower.  The difficulty spikes are all over, some field bosses are extremely tough while some main bosses like morgott was a pushover.  Need like 90k times to level up now 😂 

[Ne0]

Man, that whole consecrated snowfield is one of the worst areas in the game I’ve encountered so far. It’s not that the enemies are tough but the constant blizzard/no visibility makes it unnecessarily harder.  Only saving grace is the unenduring frenzy inctn which I got in one of those ruins , which is like really op.

[Ne0]

Man I thought consecrated snowfield was bad, but haligtree is like a whole new level of crap 😂 

 

Also gameplay wise, it doesn’t make sense that I can take down a giant boss like fire giant but a bunch of ants on a tree branch or a bunch of dudes blowing horn can take me out in 2-3 hits 😂 …. that’s some really bad/frustrating game design right there !

Edited December 8, 2025 by Ne0

[Ne0]

Finally defeated Malenia, what worked for me was to keep spamming with blas blade/l2 while mimic kept her busy.  In the second phase the trick was to remove lock immediately after the cut scenes and run towards the opp wall.  Then again same technique as phase 1.  I think I need to unlock a bunch of runes now.  Will do that before proceeding to the end game area at the forge of the giants.

[Ne0]

Completed the game.  Level 168, ~160 hours spent. 

 

I don’t think I completed 100% as I didn’t want to consult walkthroughs to avoid spoilers and maintain the sense of wonder.  I think I would’ve missed some side quests or optional bosses (maybe 90% completed and some 10% missed ?).

 

I played with melee builds throughout.  Started as a dex + str character mainly using bloodhound fang (+9) + longbow (switched to pulley bow later).  Towards late game, changed to dex/str + fai build once I got the blasphemous blade (+10) (most OP weapon in the game).  It made many of the end game bosses manageable.  For summons, mostly used Mimic tear  (after I got it) and then black knife tiche ashes for some final end game bosses.  Upgraded both to +10.  

 

Hardest bosses fought (in that order) - 

- Elden beast + radagon 

- General Radahn.  

- Malenia 

 

Also, ended up clicking on the blue summon sign and got Ranni’s ending lol. At first, it felt so anti-climatic, I mean I fought the elden beast for over a dozen times and then this ending ? But, after reading the lore, I feel this was perhaps one of the best endings.

 

Pros:

- The game has a brilliant core gameplay loop that pulled me in and kept me engaged through out.

- The art / graphics is truly amazing.  Every region feels different.  The palaces are designed beautifully  and they do feel like grand palaces !

Some of the NPC’s and their side quests are interesting too.

- The world has a nice lore that kept me glued (just like the prev from soft game - blood borne).  I kept reading the flavor text on every item to understand more.

- The open world is brilliantly crafted with enough checkpoints and stuff to do to not feel frustrated / bored.

 

Cons:

- As with other from soft games, there’s little explanation of whats going on and very little assistance in terms of quests / where to go next etc.

- Enemy variety is not that great.  Many enemies repeat in stronger versions in the later areas.

- Boss fights are a hit and a miss

- Catacombs / caves have the same environments repeated with similar enemies over and over.  It got really boring towards the end.

- Weapon switching became a headache as you need smithing stones to level up (irrespective of your level/attributes) and in the early-mid game, you cannot really experiment much (until you find the bell bearings).

 

Overall a brilliant game, I think perhaps one of the few games in which I’ve spent over 150 hours (perhaps only the second one on steam after cyberpunk 2077).    

 

Might do another play through some day with more points in INT/ARC attributes which I never really got to explore.

 

Definitely in my top 10 of all time. 9/10 from my end

Edited December 17, 2025 by Ne0