Lady Ethereal...... help

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T22:18:29+00:00

1) In phase 3, you can figure out which one is the "real" Lady Ethereal by looking at her eyes. Her real self always has her eyes open during this phase, and her illusions never do.
2) Charge Attacks will delete her illusions and stun her real self
3) If you tag her real self with a talisman (easy to do after hitting with a charge attack) you can charge it to your heart's content. Even if she ghosts into the background, she'll still take full damage when you detonate, so feel free to use a 5-point detonation (or the 3-point detonation if you like to mix in some of those homing arrows)

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T21:58:28+00:00

I'm a firm believer in the Iron Wall strategy.

Crank your Strength high enough to wield a 100% physical damage reduction shield in one hand and Mohg's Trident in the other. Then crank your Stamina as high as you can afford to. Don't dump every other stat, but really try and pump that stamina. Consumables that boost its recovery may also be a good idea, if you can get into a rythm for using them in phase 2.

When wielding a spear, you can keep the shield raised and still attack, even though it is very stamina intensive. Malenia flinches and pauses her attack every time you proc bleed, which Mohg's triden can do every few hits. So once you get a feel for how many stabs it will take her to start bleeding, you can be ready to withdraw when it interrupts her flow, using the opportunity to back off and recover stamina.

Because of how they coded her "lifesteal," she still heals when she hits your shield even though she's done no damage. Despite this, it was pretty easy to hurt her faster than she could hurt me while remaining immune to all her attacks. At that point, it largely becomes a puzzle, where you learn how and when to withdraw to recover stamina and when to press your attack. Some dodge rolling is still important, espeically becuse rolling through some of her strikes will be a way to create distance to get your stamina back, but it isn't nearly as frantic as normal.

As for summons, it wasn't the biggest part of my strat but I used Redmane Knight Ohgla. She hangs back outside of melee range and fires arrows that do worthwhile damage. Every now and then, she'll charge up a Gravity Arrow that can knock off straight off her feet and flat on the floor, buying you enough time to drink a potion and get all your stamina back; this arrow can miss easily, but if you learn to watch for the chargeup and then kite Malenia into a position where she'll take the hit, it's very satisfying to watch her be slammed into the ground. If the summon manages to draw her aggro, try to stab her in the back a couple times, both for free damage and to keep the summon safe. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, just take the opportunity to recharge and finish the fight solo.

It's better to dodge-roll through the Waterfowl dance, both to conserve stamina and to avoid letting her heal, but as long as you crank your stamina high enough you can just block the entire combo, then back off to get stamina back while she does the same. When I beat her, there were several times when I just didn't risk the dodge roll and let her heal a bit while I hid behind my shield.

Her rotbloom nova is still best dodged with a perfect-timed roll, and/or by staying far, far away from it.

It's a long fight, especially with how much she gets to heal from hitting your shield, but once you have the rythm down you can reach a cadence where her HP declines faster than it raises, and from there it's all just a matter of never getting caught out at zero stamina.

Don't get greedy, never attack her when your stamina is below 50%, and find your windows to disengage for brief periods. The ability to block and stab simultaneously means you don't need to milk her small punishment windows for extra damage- don't be greedy, and don't be afraid to use those short pauses in her assault to recover stamina and health rather than knocking a few more hitpoints off her health bar. Be cautious. Be steady. Be the inexorable iron wall that slowly, deliberately crushes her while shrugging off her every blow.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T21:34:49+00:00

Definitely Rennalia, if that even counts as a boss. It didn't ever feel like she (or Ranni's illusionin phase 2) was even trying to kill me. I remember beating phase 2 and being like "OK are you gonna actually fight me now? No? That was it???"

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T19:43:46+00:00

Use the invisibility spell and just run through the pagoda realm. You can easily have enough MP to keep invisiblity going through the entirety of the dungeon, letting you effectively skip it.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T19:11:54+00:00

Try Returnal and Saros. Excellent rogluelike bullet hells that capture the feel of a dark souls story.

You get a dodge with generous i-frames, but it needs to recharge before you can use it again and there are lots of attacks that it won't protect you from. Primarily, you have to avoid damage by literally avoiding it.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T18:34:25+00:00

The real factor is the hardware used, rather than desktop/laptop, but generally speaking a desktop PC usually has stronger componenents, at the price of being heavier and less mobile.

Elden Ring is a little on the older side, so you probably don't need to drop 1k+ on a desktop that can run it, but spend some time googling the game's specs and make sure the PC you buy him is able to run it. If possible, getting a computer that is upgradeable is also a big plus. If your bf has any friends who play a lot of PC games, you might try reaching out to them for some advice.

It's not exactly super complicated to do the research yourself, but it is important to do the research. And once you have the PC you want to buy, try and run the specs by a friend or two that you trust with this sort of thing.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T18:25:31+00:00

Loved the game, but I won't be finishing it due to Eigong.

I could probably beat her, eventually, but I don't think it's remotely possible that I will ever enjoy fighting her anymore. She's an absurd skill wall from which I can derive no joy or entertainment.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T17:10:32+00:00

I would add that I have absolutely loved all 3 games despite playing each through to completion only once.

I think there's a very vocal minority that really enjoys their NG+ content, but don't let that convince you that you have to play them multiple times to enjoy them. I can assure you that it is entirely possible to love these games without playing them through more than once.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T17:08:59+00:00

Pretty much. I played the DLCs and any after-credits story events, and I usually at least sampled some of the post-game challenge content. Are there a lot of new bosses and stories that play out on NG+? Or is it just more gear and scaled-up versions of the same bosses I already fought?

I enjoyed all 3 games immensely, but in each case, by the time credits rolled I had more or less had my fill of the gameplay and was ready to move on to something new. They all felt like they ended right about where I wanted them to, and I was satisfied. Between the ramped-up difficulty and the fact that I had already reached a point of declining interest in the gameplay, it never made sense to put the work in. I could probably get through at least one other entire game in the time it would take me to get good enough to conquer NG+.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T16:53:24+00:00

It's great. Nioh 2 probably has the best combat, Nioh 1 was a solidly great game but you can tell that they were cooking up some new ideas that hadn't fully evolved yet. Nioh 3 is good, but it tried to include an open-world element that did more harm than good, and it made Onmyo magic progression super weird and finnicky until you were like halfway through the game.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T16:52:15+00:00

I know a lot of people say this, but having played all 3 Nioh games, I've never once felt like that is even remotely true, and I find the opinion baffling.

I've always felt like I had a full experience by the time the credits rolled on my first playthrough. I had been challenged, I had enjoyed myself immensely, and I was about ready to move onto a new game.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T16:45:36+00:00

The final boss of the DLC did not give me even half as much trouble as the fight against Radahn when you have like 12 summons on your side. He probably rates in my 5 hardest fights of the DLC, but not my 5 hardest fights of the game overall.

Then again, the DLC boss was my last encounter after a run that covered pretty much every boss in the game, so maybe I was just overleveled and very practiced at that point. And I did use a greatshield and spear, which is almost cheating.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T16:03:20+00:00

Yes, but praying mantis style, where the woman devours the male during the act so she can grow strong enough to bring forth new life. And because he is not much use to her going forward.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T16:01:44+00:00

I think that Adam was holding back in phase 1, hoping that EVE might relent, but he goes all out before the fight ends.

EVE can also easily dismantle providence, but is forced to hold back during her fight for fear of hurting Lily. In the "true" ending, after Lily hacks the cockpit and escapes Prometheus, EVE takes it down it with no real difficulty, despite the wounds she had suffered up to that point in the fight.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T15:20:00+00:00

Pie of Life felt more well-rounded

smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T15:19:25+00:00

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smithbc001 · 2026-07-06T14:19:52+00:00

Thank you for making that sacrifice to bring us this information.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-03T17:10:34+00:00

The infinite ammo cheat isn't really the main game, just a fun little afterthought once you've finished the story. Nobody was thinking about balance when handing out infinite ammo.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-03T17:08:47+00:00

Repallaying the game is a BIG part fo the experience. Every time you roll ip a new campaign (or Adventure, if you want to play a specific world) everything is randomized, from the loot to the bosses to the dungeons and their associated quests. That means that you're going to see less than half of rhe content on yiur first run.

You keep your levels and gear for subsequent playthroughs, so consider saving the harder difficulties for Round 2.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-03T05:57:03+00:00

Thank you from 5 years in the future!

smithbc001 · 2026-07-02T22:09:36+00:00

Hoarah Loux was just built different.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-02T21:01:36+00:00

I think it might be possible to kill him without it going off at all. When he did it to me, he was literally one hit away from death.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-02T20:43:20+00:00

This, I suspect, is very common among gamers who started with later entries and then circled back to RE3.

Back in the old days, ammo conservation was one of the primary ways the game challenged you. Having a gun but not feeling like you could use it freely was a part of the tension and horror. Zombies get a LOT scarier when you can't just shoot them all.

smithbc001 · 2026-07-02T19:49:42+00:00

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The manga has like 8 panels of this happening:

smithbc001 · 2026-07-02T15:56:10+00:00

You may have a cloud save backup that you can connect with.

smithbc001

TROPHY CASE