When faced with an overwhelming enemy, sometimes the only option is to fight dirty. In my case, elden ring dev FromSoftware is a giant Goliath and I’m just little David loading up his sling. As such, I felt no shame in using hit-and-run tactics against a formidable enemy after realizing I had no healing options while exploring a daunting stronghold.
Castle Stormveil is the first Legacy Dungeon you can be found in elden ring. These areas play an important role in the overall goal of the game (i.e. defeating all story bosses) while also offering players a bit of old-school, souls– like adventure. Every part of the early game seems designed to lead you to this imposing fortress, and once you get there it acts as a wonderful introduction to the verticality of the environment made possible by the jump button. Just don’t look down while navigating the ledges and parapets found on Stormveil’s various towers.
Continue reading: fuck it all elden ring ‘treasure chest’
Where from elden ringThe open world format of gives you a lot of leeway when it comes to attacking enemies and escaping combat with the horned horse torrent. Legacy dungeons more closely resemble the classic FromSoftware level design in that careful resource management and tracing back to checkpoints via shortcuts is key. Sometimes the smart move is to forgo some progression in hopes of getting your runes, a new commodity for leveling up and buying items that work similarly to souls Dark Souls
But I never claimed to be a smart man.
I was what felt like at the time, hours into my journey through Stormveil. The all-important Flask of Crimson Tears (pronounced Estus Flask), which serves as the primary method of restoring health in elden ring was empty and I was unwilling to expend the magical energy necessary to cast my Prophet’s Healing Summon. My health was decent, but I was still desperate for a shortcut before engaging in more fights. That’s when I encountered a terrifying, multi-armed monster that I knew all too well as a pain in the neck in closed-network testing. But after exhausting all my other avenues, I realized that my only way forward was through the cathedral-like space the creature called home.
I started slowly. I snuck up behind my opponent and used my last bit of magic to cast Flare Slingshot, a long-range fireball summon I learned after defeating Stormveil’s first boss. This, my strongest attack, wiped out less than 1/10th of the monster’s health, prompting me to return to the safety of an adjacent room. I weighed my options. Should I go back to my last checkpoint and see if I can make it here with more resources? No, I thought, that would take far too long. Should I face this guy head-on with my short spear? Hell no, I’m not good enough for that in this game.
Then it hit me: if the monster eventually forgot about me and went back to its designated path, I could stand on tiptoe while it had its back to it, land a couple of hits, run back to my safe zone, and do it again.
At first, I made sure to use up the magic I had left in my reserves for several Flaming Thrower effects before switching to my less powerful weapon. After that, it was all about stabbing the monster once and run away like skeletor. I eventually worked out a system where positioning in a certain spot in the safe room would lure my enemy into the corner of the arena, allowing me to sneak back in and hide behind a pillar to reset his aggro. From there it was just a matter of making sure I didn’t get too greedy and go for a second hit. My patience was my greatest weapon and almost 15 minutes later I was rewarded with the death of the ferocious creature and was able to continue exploring Stormveil Castle.
In many ways elden ring is an evolution of the FromSoftware style. It contains gameplay elements from every previous game in the souls series, eithersouls predecessors like bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows die twice. And while discussions of difficulty often focus on the “achievement” of finally overcoming a difficulty souls Boss, cheesing obstacles like the ones I described above are also deeply woven into the fabric of the genre. Pick up the bull demon Dark Souls, for example. It may serve as this game’s first real test of skill, but the bridge you fight it on is also designed so that you can make the boss jump to his death without a fight.
In fact, players discovered that several Dark Souls bosses can be defeated through careful positioning or exploits. It’s a time-honoured tradition at this point.
This may not be the way FromSoftware intended me to handle it elden ring Monsters, but I’m not sorry that I did what I had to do to survive a small part of this huge, punishing game. If the developers want to be idiots and Teleport me to a far away high rank area, I think finding the cheapest and easiest way to overcome all other hurdles is the best answer. And honestly, I’m just waiting for players better than me, I don’t know, to figure out how to kill the final boss without throwing a single punch or something wild like that.
