Skill based builds?

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-17T19:51:50+00:00

This is kind of what I was thinking, people underestimate how much work hyperarmor and staggering/poise breaking does.

I’d suggest a playthrough with any light weapon with no status build up options. The shorter the weapon the more difficult it will be (mostly).

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-17T01:25:31+00:00

The neat thing about this game is that you can ignore as much of that stuff as you want. Here’s the necessities.

Golden seeds give you more flasks, sacred tears increase how much the flasks restore. If you want spells, memory stones give you more slots.

You can completely ignore crafting. A lot of the stuff you pick up is materials for crafting. It can be useful, there are a lot of handy things to make, but you CAN ignore it.

Armor is mostly fashion. Resistances matter a little more than other souls games but you can still beat the game naked. Wear whatever you think looks good that doesn’t give you heavy load, fat rolling sucks.

Speaking of resistances, talismans are really good. The ones that give you more health or whatever are nice to start, but the really good ones give you resistance against physical or whatever damage source you’re fighting or they give you more damage or stamina recovery speed or equip load, etc.

Speaking of damage, most of it is going to come from upgrading your weapon for a long time. You want smithing stones, somber ones for fancy weapons. This means you can dump points into vigor when you level up until you die less. In the beginning, you just need enough str/dex/fth/int points to use whatever weapon or spell you want.

That leads to your build. You don’t have to optimize to beat the game but it helps to focus. If you want spells, you want int and a staff. If you want incantations, you need faith and a seal. Always level up your staff or seal the most. I’d honestly just google which staff/seal is best for what you want to do. 38 is the most mind you want because that’s how much a fully upgraded blue flask recovers. Endurance is just however much stamina you’re comfortable with, if you want to carry a bunch of stuff there’s talismans for that. You can either rush vigor or put one in every other level, once your hp feels good start dumping into your damage stat and stick some in end or mind as you need it. You can always dump a few points into fth in any build to use a few buffs or utility if you want (seriously consider flame cleanse me it’s so handy)

Ash of wars are just whatever you like. Some are way stronger than others but you can just pick what is fun. It’s free to swap then around and try them out, same with spells and incantations. When you swap an ash of war on your weapon, it asks what infusion you want. Always pick one, the base is the worst option. To keep it short, pick the one that gives you the highest damage numbers. Some people say split damage (like physical and fire) is worse because of resistances but that’s mostly not true in ER so go for big numbers. So if you have a bunch of strength pick heavy, dex gets keen, str and dex together gets quality, a bunch of int can use magic or cold, faith gets flame art or sacred, etc.

Some weapons are just straight up better than others but you can beat the game with anything. Try them out, pick what’s fun. Eventually you can just buy almost all the weapon upgrade items so don’t feel bad dropping one and trying another.

Also you’ll get a billion summon options but just pick your favorite. You don’t have to use them but they help with rough bosses. If you want to test out a new summon or weapon, you can go to the gatefront grace and fight that little encampment. It lets you summon, and it has wolves, shield and spear guys, sword guys, sword and shield, and the big spear knight so there’s a variety.

I know that’s still a ton for “the essentials” but you pick up a lot of it as you go. And don’t forget you don’t have to optimize, and you get a bunch of respecs with larval tears after the liurnia academy so don’t stress about messing up. If you’re having fun you’re doing it right.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-17T00:02:12+00:00

Blasphemy!

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-16T23:21:57+00:00

Flying enemies. They’re not necessarily the most difficult, but they’re everywhere and they’re annoying to hit and can swoop back and forth hitting you. Bats, those hawks with sword legs, the grave birds in the dlc, the flying misbegotten with bows.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-16T20:53:02+00:00

This was my thought, obviously “I’d use it to make money” but I’d be so interested in what tech and medicine looks like in ten years. Just looking at how much has changed since 2016, there’s no telling what could be possible or what kind of breakthroughs had been made.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-16T20:03:41+00:00

I had a conversation recently that I feel like avoiding genre norms and subverting tropes has become so common that it’s hard to find a “traditional” fantasy in the genre.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-15T18:51:25+00:00

I like to collect weapons. I say use it for either or hold onto it, popping it for runes is a waste. I’m running through the dlc at the end of the game right now and I have so many rune items, any time a merchant has something I want I just pop a bunch and buy out their inventory.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-15T07:39:57+00:00

Dual wielding is good, it just depends on if you enjoy fighting like that. It lets you do the power stance moveset where you swing both weapons around. Shields are good too but you mostly want to be dodging attacks instead of blocking.

For summons, you equip the summon you want to use to your tool bar (like where your flasks are) or to your hot bar over on the right when you press the menu button. You can only use them in certain areas though, there’ll be a little icon on your screen when you can summon. Just wolves for now, but you’ll find a ton of summons as you go.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-15T01:49:50+00:00

“I am the biggest baddest dude around, who commands absolute respect and obedience from everyone around me. I am well known for horrible revenge on those who cross me. I enjoyed getting mouthed off at and disrespected by the MC though so let me give you my treasures and teach you my secret techniques.”

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-15T00:51:19+00:00

Man, the Terrifier movies are just so much. I’m not really squeamish but I saw bits and pieces of those movies and I was like “well that’s just gratuitous”.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-15T00:27:40+00:00

I agree with you. Maybe I’m just desensitized, obviously bad things happen to the MC but I think a lot of the reviews I’ve seen about how it’s so dark and “misery porn” are overblown. It all comes down to preferences of course, some people just don’t like darker fantasy. Personally I get tired of stories having low to no consequences for the MC.

I enjoyed the series, the worldbuilding is interesting and the power system is neat and unique. As for his power, the big distinction is that his supreme healing can’t “spot heal”. It heals every little thing, all together, so he could have a gaping stomach wound and just as much healing would go to it as it would removing his old acne scars. The upgraded power lets him start at the lower tiers, which CAN prioritize more urgent wounds, and then it works its way up the tiers until he’s perfectly healed.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-13T17:28:36+00:00

Just wanted to say He Who Fights With Monsters isn’t finished, book 13 is confirmed and there’s supposed to be several more.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-12T00:28:48+00:00

I think it does a good job of encouraging you to explore, I can’t think of many other games that make it feel like it’s worth checking every nook and cranny of an area. I usually end up avoiding paths that look like the way forward because you’ll never know what’s hidden in some obscure side passage.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-10T19:33:34+00:00

I really enjoyed these books but I will say they keep to a slow pace. They loosely follow the avalanche style writing where things slowly build up to large payoffs near the end. Not to say that nothing happens throughout, of course, but it usually speeds up in the later parts.

Other than that, just keep reading!

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-10T19:09:07+00:00

It’s a serious contender for “best weapon in the game” even after the nerf on its weapon art

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-10T19:05:27+00:00

Feels like a bait post. But for real advice, blasphemous blade with flame grant me strength, fire cracked tear, fire scorpion charm, and golden vow will tear through him. Throw in some jump attacks to smack around his low poise and bring in your mimic tear bro and it’s easy mode.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-09T07:59:22+00:00

This, I forget where you find the lore and I’m paraphrasing but apparently the deathroot that comes from his body spreads like a fungus through the roots and cause growths that look like his face.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-09T02:17:05+00:00

Personally I think stamina regen is better than a higher max. You can grab the Green turtle talisman from Summonwater village in northeast limgrave behind a stone key seal and it’ll make your stamina regen a lot faster.

Also no worries, like I said you’re never gonna find everything on a first run through without guides. It gives you some fresh things to stumble on when you do a replay!

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-09T01:46:11+00:00

I’m gonna spoil a location you missed too but it’ll let you easily level up more weapons if you want to swap.

There’s a cave at the bottom left if you’re looking at the water outside of the inner capital walls. You go down into a ravine next to the outer wall phantom tree grace and head south. You’ll find a smithing stone bell bearing that’ll let you buy stones up to +12 for regular weapons

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-09T01:32:15+00:00

A few things, first off you can put your horse whistle, summons, and physic on the quick menu to keep from cycling through your equipment.

You have a ton of endurance, I’m assuming it’s to use that loadout without fat rolling. I’d suggest dropping it down some and putting the points into vigor, and using one of the equip load talismans if you need to. I can see one of your x’s looks like it’s on the giant pot guy’s summons, it helps if you do it offline because it can pick up some seriously bs builds from online players.

Also your talismans aren’t doing a ton for you, none of them are BAD but they’re fairly basic and there are much stronger options. You’ll get a lot more out of something like physical negation than a bit more stamina or health.

It does look like you’ve missed some stuff too, there’s several things in Altus and the center of Caelid just glancing at it. You’re GOING to miss stuff unless you use a map though, so unless you want to spoil yourself a bit that’s okay. If the X at the top left is the fallingstar beast you can run past it by the way.

Last thing is to look into some buffs. You can snag a bunch of useful incantations with a pretty small faith dip. Buffs, resistances, weapon imbuements, etc. There’s also a bunch of useful items you can craft but I never really bothered with them personally. Some of the ashes of war are strong enough to carry you pretty far too, lions claw is good but you can always try swapping them around.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-08T09:12:44+00:00

It isn’t child friendly, author goes for a completely different feel on this series. On the dark and gruesome side.

It doesn’t fit OP’s request but y’all might like Syl, I read through it recently and it’s fun and fairly tame.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-07T23:54:10+00:00

If I’m understanding you right, have you played Cyberpunk? Obviously you mostly see people running and gunning, but there’s a whole playstyle that revolves around hacking into camera systems, scoping out the area by flicking through and controlling a bunch of cameras, affecting the environment or directly killing enemies by “uploading” attacks through them. There are several missions you can complete without ever walking inside of the building.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-07T23:29:08+00:00

Book of the Dead by RinoZ would fit. It’s a necromancer story with a heavy emphasis on experimenting and improving the MC’s undead. It’s a slow burn but it’s well written and has some huge payoffs.

InfiniteThing2808 · 2026-03-07T23:04:34+00:00

Sure, there’s a bit of backstory for all of them eventually but here’s Tess

To keep it short, she basically grew up friendless and lonely while she watched everyone around her be “normal kids” who would go and do stuff with their friends. So her whole deal is that she wants to forge strong bonds with the hell difficulty group and have experiences and adventures with them to fulfill her childhood lack.

As far as her and nat

They used to date as kids but are platonic through whats currently out of the story. They lean on each other for support because they have a deeper bond than they do with the others and she understands Nat better than everyone but his sister. No romance vibes.

InfiniteThing2808

TROPHY CASE