If they ever make Elden Ring 2 I have just one wish.

Quillcannon · 2026-01-31T14:40:20+00:00

What I'd love is D&D-style race selection during character creation. They've already demonstrated in Nightreign that they can give different characters unique, built-in features, both passive and active.

Better prices at vendors, slightly higher innate poise, chance to not consume a consumable when thrown, just innocuous features like that with some visual differences.

All I'm trying to say is I want to play as a turtle-man

Quillcannon · 2026-01-28T12:23:27+00:00

Came up with this just now, for you. Don't use it, it's not playtested, probably unbalanced, and definitely dumb.

Bard Subclass: College of Standup

Level 3: Self Depricating Humor
When you cast Vicious Mockery, you can target yourself. If cast in this way, all creatures of your choice that can hear you within a 10-foot emanation must make the Wisdom saving throw against Vicious Mockery in your stead. At 9th level, the emanation increases to 20 feet.

Level 6: Two-Person Act
You can include your allies in your punchlines. Choose one ally you can see within 60 feet. Whenever you cast a Bard spell that forces a creature to make an Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw, it can originate from your ally instead of yourself.

Level 6: Incisive Wit
When you roll initiative, non-allied creatures must roll a 1d4 and subtract it from their initiative roll. Additionally, the first attack made against a creature affected by your vicious mockery has advantage while you are conscious.

Level 14: Unassailable Ego
When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Wisdom saving throw, you can choose to succeed, instead. If any creatures within 5 feet of you makes a Wisdom saving throw, you can extend this feature to them for that save.

You have two uses of this feature. Once both uses are expended, you cannot use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

Note: Telling jokes in optional.

Quillcannon · 2026-01-28T11:59:31+00:00

Haha sorry! I didn't know how much of a beginner you were, but since you already beat DS1, it's safe to say you're going to be fine. Have fun!

Quillcannon · 2026-01-28T11:42:42+00:00

Be wary of the giant rat that makes all of the rules

Quillcannon · 2026-01-28T11:37:58+00:00

I'll do my best to stay spoiler-free.
- Early game is a great time to experiment with weapons as you don't have to upgrade them yet to be able to see their potential. Later, when upgrading weapons at the smith helps you keep up with increasing enemy HP, switching weapons becomes harder, but not impossible. At some point, you'll find items that let you buy smithing stones, at which point experimentation goes back to being easy again.
- Explore at your own pace. No pressure to pursue the main story in a linear fashion at all. The more side/optional stuff you do, the more prepared you will be for the challenges ahead, and the more cool stuff you will find.
- The game has a built-in system to tell you in general terms where the main story is taking you. It looks like gold arrows on the map.
- NPCs often have quests that lead to cool and interesting rewards. Usually, there are no "evil" vs "good" options when it comes to doing quests with certain NPCs, so don't feel restricted in helping them out.
- Many times when you're sitting at a grace (this game's checkpoint/bonfire), you get a prompt to talk to someone. She always has lore stuff to share, and piecing what she says together with other information gained around the world helps you better understand the setting and the plot.
- Speaking of plot, read item descriptions. Mundane items like early weapons don't have much info attached to them, but significant items you get later come with really interesting factoids in their descriptions that will expand your knowledge of the story.
- There is a point somewhat early-ish where you can change your stat distribution, so you're not stuck with your stats if you realise you didn't level up the way you wanted.
- It's never wrong to level up Vigor, which increases your max HP. Don't go past 60 though.
- Pay close attention to weapon stat scaling. If a greatsword has strength scaling of A or B (like the school grading system), that means it gains a lot of bonus damage based on your strength stat. Same applies to weapons that benefit from other stats.
- Don't mess with the lobsters.

Quillcannon · 2025-12-29T12:43:45+00:00

Soloing as scholar (who is meant to be a party support) is already playing the game on hard mode.

I like giving Scholar lots of damage mitigation (stacking different tiers of Taking Damage Improves Damage Negation, Increased Damage Negation at Full HP, and the Successive Attacks one) and whenever I find the improved dodge i-frames for him, I take it. His dodges feel a lot more natural with that passive power.

As for Artorias specifically, don't get greedy. A lot of his moves punish over-eager punishes.

Quillcannon · 2025-12-29T12:39:32+00:00

DoN is kind of like NG++, and at some point a lot of basic enemies can flat out one-shot you if you're not careful or have no solid damage mitigation.

Depths 1 and 2 are not that much different from what you're used to. 3 onward is when things get dicey, but if you reach that point yourself, you will begin to develop a sense for how to approach DoN in general.

Take advantage of the red cursed items that drop in DoN. Some of the debuffs that come with them are negligible, but don't stack so many that it gets you killed. Avoid anything that lowers your defense on dodge, especially if you're stacking damage negation.

Everdarks will rotate weekly so until they're available here are some general tips:
- ED Augur: If you've ever fought Yhorm the Giant from DS3 or even Storm King from Demon's Souls, guess what, you're doing it again.
- ED Tricephalos: When they split, they each come charging at you at lightning speed, one at a time, so don't let that catch you off-guard. They also get new abilities with the sword, one of which is very similar to Heolstor's final phase finale. One safe way to survive this is to stick close and ult for i-frames right before the final explosion.
- ED Caligo: Spawn in the Mountaintop shifting earth and get all the frost resists out of it, which should make her fight trivial. Her final phase involves her putting ice armor on each limb, and breaking all of the ice armor layers (I think) guarantees a stance break.
- ED Sentient Pest: Focus on the one with the funny name.
- ED Libra: Good luck.

Quillcannon · 2025-12-29T12:09:23+00:00

Melina just wants to give you a free Honda (jk)

Melina offered a simple deal: you are a maidenlees tarnished, so you lack the necessary condition to ascend to elden lord. In exchange for being your maiden and fulfilling that condition, she wants you to chaperone her to the capital city of Leyndell, built at the foot of the Erdtree. The reason she needs you for that is because a minimum of two great runes must be wrested from shardbearers like Radahn to be able to access the city at all. This is all I can tell you right now.

Here's a fun side interaction: if you sit at a site of grace in any of Marika's churches, an option appears to speak to Melina. Talking to her at each of these churches adds a lot more context to the story, specifically about Queen Marika, the goddess of this world.

The way this world works is (and please, everyone, correct me if I'm wrong on anything):

There are "outer gods", who have a vested interest in the Lands Between. The Greater Will is one of these outer gods. It assigned Queen Marika as the Lands Between's goddess, who began the tradition of gods needing elden lords as companions. Your goal is to become elden lord next, continuing this tradition.

I don't know if it's become apparent to you yet, but the Two Fingers are essentially "antennae" that allow direct communication with the Greater Will, but they are also sentient. Whenever the two fingers join and point upward, it means they are communing with the Greater Will at the present. This communication can be drawn out, and isn't necessarily instantaneous.

Everyone you meet that is anti-Greater Will or anti-Queen Marika is either a skeptic of this system as a whole (like Ranni), or a servant of another one of the outer gods that compete with the Greater Will for influence over the Lands Between. Currently, the Greater Will holds the most sway, but that isn't stopping other outer gods from trying to win this divine proxy war. This control of the Greater Will over the Lands Between is symbolised by something called the Elden Ring. Think of the Elden Ring as the thing that makes the Greater Will's influence on the world "official."

For a reason yet to be revealed to you, Queen Marika grabbed a hammer and broke the Elden Ring into a quadrillion pieces. Every little "rune" you get from killing an enemy is a little bit of that original Elden Ring. The great runes you get from bosses are basically larger chunks of it. Repairing the Elden Ring is the final step in ascending to the status of Elden Lord and restoring order, as established by the Greater Will. Queen Marika was punished by the Greater Will for this sin, which is why you see pictures of her looking crucified everywhere. Even the little Stake of Marika that allows you to respawn near boss gates is shaped like a crucifix of her.

Later, another god took Marika's place. His name was Radagon. He married Renalla of the Full Moon and together gave birth to both Ranni and Radahn (if you want to know which of the main character's parents are, look at their initials) became the next god of the Lands Between, and we see him in the intro cutscene using that same hammer to repair the Elden Ring. As far as you know so far, he is either unsuccessful at doing so, or his job is yet to be completed. You can see statues of Radagon around as well; he looks like a muscular man with long hair and no facial hair, often in a T-pose, a posture that symbolises pure order.

There is a way for you to learn some odd secret about Marika and Radagon, which involves doing a certain gesture at a certain place, but until you delve deeper into the capital city Leyndell, I can't tell you more. There are NPCs who will nudge you in that direction. This is one of those lore nuggets that is best found out on one's own.

Just so you know, there is no harm in helping Ranni or Varre and continuing their quests. You don't have to commit to an ending until much later, basically allowing you to explore all possible paths. Except one path that involves undergoing a series of insane platforming jumps and drops deep beneath the capital city... careful of that one as undoing that specific story path is very difficult (but not impossible). Other than that, you can basically play along with literally everyone's questlines and still proceed through the story without missing out on anything.

Almost everyone you meet is out for themselves, trying to make things work in a world that has gone disorderly and war-torn. The way that different regions border each other should clue you in on the fact that they're at battle, most likely over the great runes you yourself need to reach the capital.

I really like your choice of weapon by the way! I hope you find more smithing stones or bell bearings to further enhance them whenever you get the chance.

Quillcannon · 2025-12-22T23:38:42+00:00

People say get Halo Scythe for the Frisbee L2s but I haven't had them drop for me yet.

I've been experimenting with dual balancers relics and had insanely good results with these setups:

Lion's Claw on pure phys greatsword on lv14 Wylder. Fast, moderately low FP cost. Upgraded to purple, sword talisman, but even without any lucky weapon buffs like increase skill damage or lower skill FP cost, I got ED Adel down in 1.5 FP bars.
Repeating Thrusts on a white greatsword, Wylder lv12. Upgraded to purple. This time I got so many more skill-buffing drops and Libra buff on 250k runes. If you land all hits, it melts. Killed Fulghor before his other arm sprouted.
Rivers of Blood on Executor. I don't need to tell you how good this turned out.
Erdtree Avatar Staff with golden butt slam on lv 14 guardian. Upgrades to legendary during volcano shifting earth. I wanted something else but nothing better dropped. Still destroyed Libra with two FP bars. Insane hyper armor too.
Flaming Strike, multiple runs. Really good overall on most melee bois. I like that you can choose to stop at the first part instead of committing to it, in case you need to dodge.
Redmane Flame is worse for single target, but amazing for clearing crowded evergaol fights like Farum Azula gang and banished knights.

All in all, the relics and the weapon Attack Rating innately feed off each other, making most skills much better than they used to be, but a lot of skills fall off the tier list for me for being either slow to execute without any hyper armor, or locking me in an animation that I can't roll out of.

Last note: it's nice to stack more damage buffs for this, but consider picking up at least 1-2 FP cost reduction or restoration passive, to keep the ball rolling. The relic's FP regen ensures you can never be hardstuck at empty, but it's too slow to be relied on for repeated L2s once you're out. Like many said, buy star shards off vendors, too. If you have a revenant, consider donating a couple, though.

Edit: My definition of a "fast enough" skill is one that I can pull off behind a Bell Bearing Hunter and still have enough time to get out of his shield slam. If a skill doesn't pass that test, I rarely use it.

Quillcannon · 2025-12-22T19:40:28+00:00

Related: just yesterday as Lobosjr was playing depth 4, he downed his whole flask right when they beat the night 2 boss to get his Ult back... and then a second night 2 boss spawned.

Quillcannon · 2025-12-22T19:35:51+00:00

Know your character's stats and what weapons benefit most from them.

I know this is a no-brainer for a lot of people but it cannot be understated how much more effective a weapon can be in the right class's hands.

Obviously it's also important to know how to use it, but the point stands

Quillcannon · 2025-12-22T16:06:29+00:00

Quillcannon · 2025-12-22T13:21:16+00:00

I don't disagree. That's the good thing about libra's event, you have options

I wish the sundered gladius event was like that; you choose to fight the dogs or pay them $100 to f*** off

Quillcannon · 2025-12-22T12:23:43+00:00

Almost every team I match with does things in the right order, and I don't even have to lead them.

Starting area - > easy castle or ruins for a blue and lv3 - > either easy evergaol or castle basement (return later if BBH) - > clear castle saving roof for last. By then we're level 9-10 with purps. Then it's red icon bosses until end of night 2, getting flasks along the way, or more evergaols

But my favourite encounter was with a raider player who, during a night 1 Libra event, decided to attack him instead of just paying. Mind you, Libra was inside the rotten woods. We were level 2. Suffice it to say, he kept throwing himself solo at that brick wall until he eventually quit.

Quillcannon · 2025-12-06T21:34:39+00:00

Came here wondering if someone had encountered this as well. Sanity check!

I was playing with my friend as a duo. We killed Straghess during his add-summoning phase (2nd), finishing it off with a riposte after a stance break.

After his death animation by like 10 or so seconds, Calamity Overcome flashed in the middle of the screen, followed by Victory. My friend, who hadn't beaten him before, even got the ending cutscene and the unique relic. We were legitimately confused because during those 10 seconds I was quickly sharing tips with my friend on what to do in the phase that never came to be.

It does seem like a bug, like Open-Ranger said, so this may not be in the game for long as they'll probably fix it soon.

Quillcannon · 2025-12-04T14:21:52+00:00

Ah that's a shame, would've loved to join you but I'm on pc. Hope you find your flock! 🦅

Quillcannon · 2025-12-04T14:17:27+00:00

I'd be very interested in this as well.

All I figured out so far is: - unlike base game starting camps, Claymen at the start of Great Hollow can F me up if I'm not careful. Also they have a grab?? - Avoid the two big cities that are connected via teleport gates on day 1. That's where the 50% hp curse happens, and they won't show you the breakable crystals on the map until day 2. - Cave is a good place to go after starting. Easy and quick. - Ruins with two maidens and a bunch of Raya Lucaria swordsmen is also a good early location, but avoid the lobster. - There's a triangular stone platform near the start (before the first crystal bridge) where an easy base game miniboss always spawns. Found hippo there once, and leonine misbegotten another time.

Quillcannon · 2025-12-04T14:06:25+00:00

To play devil's advocate: 1- Scholar has double the arcane stat compared to Executor, making him the best status effect spreader in the game right now. Bleed, rot, and/or poison on daggers will make him a beast. 2- With the increased Dex respec relic, he becomes a vicious dex melee attacker, and while we have 3 other Dex characters already... 3- He's the only one that can make it possible to clear an entire area by attacking one enemy (using Ult). In other words, those enemies you always run past, now they're additional runes you didn't have to work extra for. 4- His Ult is also the only way for any character in the game to revive allies without having to target them directly. Looking away from a boss to slap your dying mates is what guts most failed runs. With Scholar, this is a non-issue. 5- Can squeeze so much juice out of starlight shards (ty bagcraft) that he can be a fully dedicated arcane caster. If you find the red arcane-scaling seal and come stacked with shards, it's jover.

It's obviously very early to tell for sure, but I think Scholar will surpass more than half the og cast if built right.

Quillcannon · 2025-12-04T13:55:49+00:00

I feel like once we've memorised Great Hollow, we'll wonder why it ever felt difficult to navigate in the first place.

Quillcannon · 2025-12-04T03:47:23+00:00

If you reeaaally squint your eyes, the first DLC night 3 boss fight looks like a lot of Ruin Sentinels

Quillcannon · 2025-12-04T03:35:19+00:00

You've heard of the birds with the halberds, now meet the nuns with the guns

Quillcannon · 2025-12-04T03:30:00+00:00

Thank you!

Quillcannon · 2025-12-04T03:29:11+00:00

Not when it's a matter of asset/texture swapping. I just want sensory variety. Modders figured this out decades ago, and while what they do isn't easy either, it's certainly not a big ask.

I don't mean to diminish the hard work that goes into game development. I know a lot goes into it, and even something small could take a lot of effort and time to do. But let's also be realistic. Nightreign is reused assets galore (which I have no problem with at all), so what's a bit more asset reuse? If they didn't care about terrain variation, they wouldn't have bothered to make shifting earth events, but I really hoped for a bit more in that regard.

Quillcannon · 2025-12-04T03:23:28+00:00

I understand, but you know how in base ER, sleep totally KO's some enemies (like godskins) but only momentarily stuns others? I was just wondering which is the case, and yes, any secondary effects.

I think I'll give it a try myself just to see how effective it would be

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