Stormveil, I tried going back to the initial area and beating the bosses in the caves and what not to build myself up but pretty much just ned up with a quick death loosing all my runes behind a vail.
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Stormveil, I tried going back to the initial area and beating the bosses in the caves and what not to build myself up but pretty much just ned up with a quick death loosing all my runes behind a vail.
dhodo
Well-Known Member
Man, Stormveil was a huge difficulty spike for me when I tried to do it early. Pretty much all of Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula are easier with a few small exceptions (runebears, dragon). I would work on clearing most of that before you try to clear Stormveil. Did you already do that? The sacred tears in Weeping Peninsula are especially helpful if you can get a decent number of points in vitality.
For struggling with bosses and losing runes, I think the standard expected play style for From games is learning enemy movesets through death, so if I get stuck, I try to forget about runes and just keep learning until I get more confident with the best way to beat the enemies in that area with minimal damage.
To reduce my anxiety about runes locked behind veils, I prefer to either keep beating normal enemies in that location until I can level, or spend them on something useful so that I have a negligible amount before trying to beat the boss, so it doesn't matter if I lose them and then I can focus on learning the boss as well.
All that is assuming you aren't under leveled. I think even if you think you should be able to beat an area, if you get really frustrated, there are so many dungeons that it's worth trying another and coming back later. I think that's a big advantage to Elden Ring over some of the previous games.
wokeupnew
Well-Known Member
Yeah I’d also recommend just doing a little grinding in an area where it’s easy to kill a couple of enemies. Kill, get runes, site of grace, repeat until you have enough to level. I didn’t pass through Stormveil until I was 50~
Are the things I'm calling caves really dungeons? So far I find I can't even come close to beating the boss in every one of them.
dhodo
Well-Known Member
Sorry I just call them that as a way to lump the caves and catacombs and hero's graves together because they are little standalone non-story levels and would be called dungeons in some other games.
You should be able to beat the ones close to the starting point and maybe most of Limgrave. Depends on which ones exactly you mean. Might be worth looking up tips or watching videos for some of those to make sure you're on the right track. Just need to keep dying while learning and figuring out how to (fairly) consistently dodge, block (if applicable), and find an opening when you can attack without getting hurt for each individual enemy/boss.
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What type of build are you using? Having at least 20 vigor is going to help in those areas.
@dhodo and @wokeupnew are correct in trying to clear Limgrave and Weeping Peninsula before really digging into Stormveil.
If you’re able to kill the giant trolls near the warmasters shack that should net you 1000 runes each and might be a good farm.
EDIT: if you are really stuck, I’d be happy to try and help you via co-op if you’re on PlayStation. Not sure if PS+ is necessary.
Fillip J Phry
Well-Known Member
Speaking of giants, I found that early on if you go east of Stormveil Castle, there's an area with a bunch of them wandering around. If you hop on your horse and get them all to chase you, you can bait the group into attacking, and they will damage each other. You still end up fighting a couple of them, but they mostly take themselves out, netting lots of easy runes. Rest and repeat.
Also @RenegadeMonster don't forget to use your golden runes! The skulls on the ground all drop them, and the graveyards that are full of crypts have a lot as well. Great way to pick up some easy runes as you wander around.
Speaking of Golden Runes,
I cashed mine in to buy armor at roundtable hold. But it made no real noticeable difference.
My character is an astrologer mage, and all the 5,000 rune armor did was bust defense a little and kill my magic stats.
Is my choice of being an astrologer why I'm finding the game so difficult early on?
I cashed mine in to buy armor at roundtable hold. But it made no real noticeable difference.
My character is an astrologer mage, and all the 5,000 rune armor did was bust defense a little and kill my magic stats.
Is my choice of being an astrologer why I'm finding the game so difficult early on?
It shouldn’t be. Sorcery builds can be pretty OP. Late game setups can essentially 1-2 shot most bosses. It’s the build I am playing. I did find early on it can be a bit frustrating mainly due to low HP, but with the right stats investment and gear (specifically staff + spells) it gets better.
Armor does surprisingly little in terms of mitigation I’ve found. You typically want to wear gear that gives you high poise without putting your equipment load into heavy stats. Most of the good mage gear is typically “light armor” so you’ll generally not have super high poise.
For early game sorcery you’ll want to rely on glintstone pebble and your summons during boss fights. Getting your vigor to 20 early and endurance to 15 at least will help. Intelligence will be your main stat for increasing damage as you level up your staff. I think getting it to 25-30 is probably safe before going back to boosting vigor.
If you are unopposed to minor spoilers I’d recommend watching the first 3 videos in this series, should get you solid items, spells, runes, etc and a good idea of how to tackle game over all.
Unless there is a fancy looking item you want to wear, I wouldn’t recommend buying armor, especially early on.
Fillip J Phry
Well-Known Member
Not sure on the build, I'm currently running a strength build with enough dex to wield Godrick's axe. As for the armor, I've found it doesn't make much difference overall except for your weight. I just wear what looks cool/funny. You're probably better off putting the runes into your weapons and magic. I've noticed the scaling on the weapons increases as you level them up - for example, the rusty anchor I was using started at D for scaling, but is now at B after level ups, giving a sizeable boost in attack power. I imagine that works similar for leveling magic weapons/focuses, but someone else will have to chime in here. Only magic I ever used in these games was healing magic from the Cleric in DS1.
Fillip J Phry
Well-Known Member
Got a question for everyone, I'm wrapping up at the Academy of Raya Lucaria after some backtracking. Next up would be either go north to Altus Plateau, or go east into Caelid. I've been vaguely into both areas, but haven't explored either yet. Currently level 63, which way would you recommend going first?
Hemotep
Well-Known Member
I would say Caelid is the next best place to go.
dhodo
Well-Known Member
Have you done Ainsel or Siofra River? You could do the beginning parts of those as well. Then Caelid, but I'd probably steer clear of the northern part (Dragonbarrow) until later. I think I did Altus first, which wasn't too bad I don't think but made Caelid seem easier after.
I used this as a rough guide and it worked pretty well for me:
https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Recommended+Level+by+Location
dhodo
Well-Known Member
I'd agree that buying stuff especially early isn't worth it. Armor can make a significant difference on damage but mostly later game and requiring a lot of strength and endurance. Since I was using a shield, endurance was a priority so I ended up using ridiculous sets like the bull-goat set it Lionel's set. That plus some of the talismans equals pretty big damage negation. Obviously the shield made a much bigger difference if I didn't miss a block though.
If I'm not mistaken I think endurance is much less important for sorcerer builds so in that case armor seems likely to be less important for damage reduction.
Fillip J Phry
Well-Known Member
I somehow missed Ainsel, looks like I'll go there next, and then on to Caelid. I have been through Siofra, though I think I saw that area expands later on? There is so much stuff in this game, and a lot of it is easy to miss, even for someone who has just been wandering around trying to find all the little nooks and crannies without looking too much up. I didn't realize I could get into Raya Lucaria either, even though I had the map that points to the key. I was watching GameGrumps play it the other night, and Arin went there instead of north like I did, so I backtracked to there - and the rest of that area, I did a TERRIBLE job exploring, I blame the lobsters. I had just gone through the side path to Altus, but turned around due to that.
I just beat Rennala last night. What a cool fight! Trying not to spoil anything, but just want to say the cutscene there had such a smooth transition. I was mystified. Not a difficult fight at level 65, but from what I saw online the average is 50-60 so not too over leveled. @RenegadeMonster I think this fight will be an easier time as a mage, this boss does a good job of keeping players at a distance, I had to really work to get in close enough to do some damage!
ayayrawn
Well-Known Member
To be fair, there is an INSANE amount of hidden stuff in this game that I would not have found without a guide. There's hidden areas within hidden areas, that give you an item you have to give to a certain character to unlock ANOTHER hidden area. So much stuff like that. It's wild. Huge game. I'm 50 hrs in and feel like I'll be playing it til i die.
wokeupnew
Well-Known Member
I hated Caelid. I tried to avoid that area if I could. Just ugly and the big enemies were vicious. Although I did spent a lot of time in it since there was a great early game rune farm in the north east area of the map. Siofra was interesting.
when going through guides to help with some of the missions I was thinking "someone had to figure this out to make this guide. How did they know this was what to do without a guide?" it's very dense.
dhodo
Well-Known Member
Yeah I think both of them open up to other locations but they are more difficult.
Oh man those lobsters were the worst when you first encounter them, I don't think I killed one until considerably later in the game. Amazing how far way they can snipe you from when you are trying to run away as fast as possible.
The number of times I’ve found myself saying “holy sh!t” as I discover new areas or connecting paths is innumerable. The game really feels endless. I recall spending 20-30 mins in northern caelid trying to figure out how to get to a spec area, only to find a connecting path from a different area of the game hours later 
. It’ll be interesting to see what other secrets people discover in the years to come.
I’m glad I started ER after Forbidden West else I probably never would’ve played it. This game is like my months long experience with Bloodborne all over again.
. It’ll be interesting to see what other secrets people discover in the years to come.I’m glad I started ER after Forbidden West else I probably never would’ve played it. This game is like my months long experience with Bloodborne all over again.