I knew that returning to Elden Ring was going to be a big blow, especially since it had been a while since I played a Soulslike game. The +200 hours accumulated, the level 200 of my character, all the knowledge gathered in guides and all the times I have defeated bosses in summons by other players have been of no use.
It wasn’t even enough to install the game days before and knock the rust off while helping other players defeat Mohg, Lord of Blood, which has become the custodian of the entry to the DLC. Nothing has helped and neither would it have done it with more days of training, because Miyazaki has fulfilled his purpose: to give us the beating of our lives… again.
Shadow of the Erdtree: another descent into hell
I’ve spent two years and over 200 hours traversing the Midlands and abusing every boss in the base game alongside other players. Malenia, Radahn and even Radagon ended up becoming jokes after so much repetition and a very beastly build focused on the Wheel of Ghiza and Bleeding. I don’t know how many times I’ve passed over Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon.
I moved forward into the DLC, brave and confident, unaware that I was about to discover a new floor in Miyazaki’s personal hell. Leda, a new NPC, invites me into the Shadow Realm to follow Miquella. I’ve never particularly liked her, though I admit I would have given anything to avoid having to kill her sister, Malenia.
FromSoftware may have many aspects worthy of debate: difficulty and not chasing like maniacs the best graphic section of the video game industry, but I think there are few studios that can overshadow it when it comes to stage design and artistic section. I say this because that is how we all received the Shadow Realm of Shadow of the Erdtree.
Fire Ring It does not need markings on the HUD or a mini-map to show us the path, but instead uses the mapping design to clearly show us the shortest path to the end. You don’t have to have many studies to be very clear about what (at first glance) our main objective is: the piece of castle in the background.
I’d bet money that we all did the same thing when we took our first steps in the Shadow Realm: Gracia, then Monolith with the map of the area and finally Scorched Ruins, our first location in the DLC. In my case it wasn’t as quick as I would have liked, because literally the first enemy I encountered managed to send me to Gracia with astonishing ease. In fact, it forced me to switch to dual katanas to match its speed.
After exploring the Burnt Ruins, I headed east in search of a building I had seen on the map. Its shape was very similar to the chapels dedicated to Marika. The path seemed peaceful. The vegetation moved in the wind, little animals ran around the ghostly graves, and the music conveyed absolute tranquility.
Suddenly, I saw something moving in the vegetation. It was a naked man running at full speed towards me. I thought it was just a bandit, so I climbed down the ravine and prepared to confront him. Imagine my terrified face when I saw that it was an NPC named: Logar, The Beast’s Claw. Another very fast enemy that sent me to the first Grace in record time. Unfortunately, he was not there when I returned.
There was no denying that I was still pretty rusty. And just in case I wasn’t clear enough, the soldiers at the chapel that was my target (Church of Consolation) made it clear to me that the swagger was over. I was killed several times before I was able to collect all the important items in the area. I admit I was a little humiliated, but hey… it’s FromSoftware. I knew what I was getting into when I bought the DLC.
I went back to the initial Grace and explored the northwest of the initial area or the west of the Scorched Ruins. I found the Nameless Western Mausoleum, which had the classic golden fog that hides a boss in Fire RingI prepared my equipment knowing that it was going to go very wrong. If three idiots in the world had killed me easily, whatever was inside was going to split me in two. And so it did!
The Knight of Solitude was killing me over and over again for an hour. He was not willing to take any more abuse, so I looked for the nearest summoning altar, which was next to the mausoleum door, to call other players. However, it had been a while since I saw messages on the ground nor could I summon anyone. Turns out my internet or servers would crash and I was playing in offline mode.
I wasn’t doing anything right. I logged back in and summoned a player. He had a bleed build, like me, so it was clear that the Knight of Solitude’s time was numbered. He took such a beating that he barely lasted a minute alive. I’m sure many of you will look at me with shame for taking the co-op route, but stick around for a couple more paragraphs.
It is true that I use summons (NPCs and players) to overcome most bosses. Fire Ringbut know that I have a self-imposed penance: help other players beat the boss until I at least learn all of the boss’s moves and achieve several consecutive victories. Fails due to the host’s death do not count.
I didn’t advance beyond this point during my first day in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. The next five hours were about fighting the Knight of Solitude over and over again alongside other players, such as Doctor Strange with Dormammu. For so many people in the community who boast about not using summons, I didn’t have to wait a second after putting my summon mark on the ground.
I switched back to the Ghiza Wheel and discovered that each hit with the heavy weapon stunned the knight, so my role during fights was to draw the enemy’s attention (partly thanks to an amulet) and hit him as many times in a row as I could to keep him stunned. This way, the rest could pepper him with blows. So I took the beating of my life, but I gave it back in spades.
In iGamesNews | The design of Elden Ring is more masterful than I imagined: they have opened my eyes with a great detail and I can’t stop thinking about it
At iGamesNews | Elden Ring’s exploration is unrivaled: it’s on par (or even above) Subnautica and The Legend of Zelda
In iGamesNews | Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree was released a few days ago, but its interactive map is now complete so you don’t miss anything
