Shadows of the Erdtree

Good DLC.

Do not share the whole current of bad reviews saying "waaaah too hard".

Many casuals just fucking forget the whole scadutree blessing system. Couple that with many of them having only accessed the DLC because they got a coop to rape Mohg for them way before they were prepared for it...

I do agree though that bosses are MUCH more aggressive and have longer combos in SotE, which makes the whole "block and wait" play style that many casuals use fail miserably.

My experience, after 18 months of not playing (I started vanilla new game) was terrible too.

After banging my head for a bit against malenia I got gud again and then it was a cakewalk.

I mean, I beat the trailer boss at blessing level 4, which is by no means high.

Also, if anyone is struggling, and has also played ghost of Tsushima, the two games are polar opposites.

Ghost of Tsushima standoffs require you watching the *feet* of the opponents for the right time to strike, or die.

Elden ring requires you to watch their weapons/arms. If you start panic rolling the moment you see them move, you are gonna be hopelessly trucked.

Same if you just hold block. No build has enough stamina to block whole combos in SotE.

Also, they are way more aggressive so if you are into the unga bunga crowd, you will hardly ever get to do more than one attack in each opening.

That also goes for healing. If you need healing, heal immediately after they truck you and be ready to dodge.

If you try to make any sort of space, their short downtime will end and they will close the gap and murder you while you try to heal.

@CoreFusionX i just started yesterday and DAMN is it hard but im not gonna be a bitch. I know people have been bitching the difficulty but they should already know what to expect from fromsoft.

I was rusty at first so what did I do?? I kept dying countless times until the game clicked. That’s how it’s done!!

Its ridiculous to downrate the game for being too hard! Especially when there’s ways to make the game easy without needing a difficulty setting! There’s summoning pools, mimics, extreme OP god builds, these people have NO REASON to blame the dlc for its difficulty.

@CoreFusionX and yes, regarding panic rolls…one of the fastest ways to lose to a boss is to play scared. If you make frantic jerky movements and roll like sonic the hedgehog, it’s over. I’ve noticed when the adrenaline picks up and I’m on my last flask and the boss is down to a quarter hp, I go from fighting like a pro to wasting that flask bc i was freaking out acting like a chicken with its head cut off and the boss gave me a big wake up whack

@TeachMeCode

I find that I play sharper when I know I'm on my last legs. There's also a talisman in the DLC that massively buffs you if you find yourself often in that situation.

Also, as a big sekiro fan, if you beat the first big flaming boii, you get a 5 min physick tear that enables sekiro-like parrying, which had me trucking that sad excuse for an actual final boss *HARD*.

If only I've had that for the whole game 😂

Edit: not talisman, it's an ash of war.

Thanks.

Ahhh you’re referring to the big walking basketman!! I gotta figure out how to take out the big wickerman boss, when i first saw him it was an instant NOPE!!! Then I grew some balls and made a pathetic attempt at attacking the wickerman and hit him once, taking out maybe 1 millionth of its hp before he grabbed me and threw me in his burning basket head lol.

Please don’t offer any hints, I wanna figure out how to kill basketman on my own! There’s gotta be a way or trick

@TeachMeCode

Sorry, I guess this counts as hint, but it's a hint not only applicable to this boss.

When you see shit spreading on the floor, *JUMP*. In vanilla, it was like, required for awful platforming sections. Here, it's another combat tool.

Think ancient golems, but jump their stomps instead of rolling them.

@CoreFusionX true. in the base game I jumped offensively, not defensively so I can make it to the enemy faster and hit it with a melee move. I rarely used it to dodge except for the occasional ground pound attack (godfrey)

But in the dlc, im noticing “ground it’s dangerous” attacks becoming a lot more frequent and I just barely made it to castle ensis. The hammer knights have this annoying ass move where they pound the ground with a sledge and creates some sort of fire spread kinda like what ratagon does and if you get hit you’re gonna lose a huge chunk of health.

I had to retrain my feel for games mechanics by facing the giant guard at castle ensis. I told myself if i can’t git gud enough to beat him the rest of the bosses are gonna ram their fists up my ass and tear me a new anus

@CoreFusionX Renalla kept destroying me. I think next time I should lighten my build and take armor off. You have to always dodge as she’s fast as hell and you can’t afford to be slow.

@TeachMeCode

As long as you have mid roll you should be fine.

For me sulyvahn 2.0 was about knowing what to block and what to roll. Her combos alternate between weak hits that barely chink stamina and absolute 17 ton freighters.

Also you have to roll slightly to her sides depending on which arm is attacking, or the other sword can nick you.

This strat also prepares you too better handle her fucking moonveil spam combo, which forces to jump or forward roll some of the waves.

I think I need to boost defense or vigor a bit. All her attacks take off close to half my hp, I think.

Is my defense or vigor too low if one blow from a soldier takes 1/2 my hp?

@CoreFusionX this boss ain’t workin out for me. I can dodge but she’s just punishing my ass everytime I attack. I’m a strength endurance build, btw. Maybe boost my dex as my attacks are slow and rellana hates slow. I have to keep a good distance that’s far enough that I’m not sliced into sushi and close enough so I can hit this chrome dome bitch

@CoreFusionX I might take a break from this castle and come back after I’ve explored a bit. I know she’s a mandatory story boss

@CoreFusionX got a new record almost got her down to half hp by keeping a mid range distance, lightish build but some armor and stabbing her with my lance before rolling away when she gets mad

@TeachMeCode

I just know unga bunga really XD.

Giant hammer to the face and poise breaking her like mad.

If you have enough equip load you can shield bunga too, or spear poke.

Me, I just defeated the sorry excuse for a final boss this DLC had.

Pretty underwhelming but overall a good DLC.

@CoreFusionX im a strong build myself! I’ve been thinking about just ditching the halberd and getting a big fred Flintstone stick to whack her unconscious just to shut this dancing and prancing bitch up. I can dodge but she’s just countering my moves like crazy!!!

I think poise break may be the best solution in this case. Where’s the nearest smithy? I have a ghiza wheel that does a damn good job at knocking enemies off their pedestal

@CoreFusionX ooooooh look what I dug up!!! A strong builds best fried-a big ass greatsword!! More specifically, the grafted greatsword! Plus 10! Hopefully not maxed

@CoreFusionX so i find out she’s an optional boss from the wiki…I’ll save her for later then. I’m barely doing damage to her and she’s tanking my attacks and when she’s not tankin then she’s using some 200 iq super counter attack that turns me into Swiss cheese.

@TeachMeCode

You can always try to improve your scadutree blessing of you are having too much trouble. 8-9 should be possible by then and it makes a big difference.

@CoreFusionX thanks. I’m playing ng+ 4 or 5 I forget exactly. It seems this combo of the ng rating and shadows of the Erdtree being a more difficult game is making me die quickly even by Elden Ring standards. Even with heavy duty armor I’m being 2-3 shotted not just by bigass bosses but simple enemies as well.

I have 61 vigor with my armor the crucible knight axe set. It’s the best of both worlds-Youre not doughboy rolling but still offers adequate protection.

Im clearly not ready for the ensis castle boss yet, and thus im doing what im pretty sure most people who bomb the game aren’t doing-switching gears!! That means go elsewhere until either or both of two outcomes happen-a) you boost your character or b) you boost your gameplay and skill.

I don’t get the mentality behind sitting there wacking your head against a boss barely chipping away, not taking a break to explore the land and break the monotony, practice your skills, improve your stats and come back to win.

@TeachMeCode

Good, that's the spirit.

I agree you being on Ng+4 probably worsens the thing (I started a new game for dlc).

I had to beat the final boss hiding under a gigantic shield and poking with a toothpick. No shame in it XD.

@CoreFusionX hey lol I play the same way always dodging and rarely attacking unless I’m super OP! I don’t get how people can unleash crazy combos on these bosses, that’s pretty insane. They’re playing as if it’s a game of street fighter!

@TeachMeCode

It's like playing an instrument. Practice makes perfect until your fingers just react on their own.

In fact, playing an instrument is way harder, mechanics wise, than no-hitting bosses in souls games.

I mean, I did complete an (almost) DS3 no hit run playing with a guitar hero controller xd

Dodging Midir combos became pretty much a riff tempo. I only had to play it (which I can do without thinking) and that was it.

@CoreFusionX you beat ds3 no-hit with a guitar hero guitar??? Props!!

I gotta check out this one other souls like that came out about 2 months ago, its this anime sci fi type game that im trying to remember the name of. Then again I might be kinda burnt out of souls types for a bit after beating the dlc.

@TeachMeCode

Almost. Got hit here and there, but I only died once, and that was too terrible platforming (why, Miyazaki?).

SotE is designed to pretty much punish you for stuff we all did in dark souls, and some other things we did in base ER.

This guy I saw yesterday in a YouTube video went to go test whether jumping would work in vanilla bosses, and it's ridiculous how many things that gave PTSD before are trivially easy by just jumping or even strafing.

Also lock on is a trap, and many times the worst boss is the camera. (Seriously, From, hire the camera guy from Metroid prime or something)

@CoreFusionX i fought the lion last night, didn’t win just yet but that’s a quality boss! I don’t get what people are talking about saying bosses are unfair.

I gotta say the dancing lion is a fucking cool as shit boss!!
It’s easily one of THE most interesting creatures in Elden Ring and that’s saying a lot bc Elden Ring is full of interesting creatures to begin with.

It’s full of gotchas like punishing you when you try to attack after it lunges at you bc it goes into this rolling ball animation and does some counter attacks. I think you have to wait for it to hit a wall or land on the ground.

I still think I’m dying too quickly, even a scrawny praying peasant ghost in that area can take out about 20 percent of my health so maybe I should explore a bit for some armor or boost vigor (does this place even have scarecrow merchants?). I need defense badly. Everything hits like the juggernaut

@CoreFusionX hey have you been hitting performance issues with the game lately?? I’m playing on ps5 for context and even after shutting the game off a bit to cool off it was running slow when I started it back up again.

Right now I’m gettin those blessings. I like a challenge but i also like not dying in 2 hits during a long boss battle lol. I’m up to 9 right now and want to hit 12 when the soft cap hits.

Bosses are well designed, only one that pisses me off and is asinine as fuck is that evil hag Jori who would’ve been ok if not for the doughboy summon. Her spells are easy as hell to dodge, just run behind the tombstones or if you’re light run left when she does that machine gun spell spam. And if you’re fast enough get behind and backstab.

@TeachMeCode

I play on PC and didn't really notice anything (then again my PC could run like 3 instances of the game at once).

Scadutree blessing 12 is bare minimum if you are doing endgame content (such as the witch).

@CoreFusionX then I’ll wait on any significant boss battle outside dungeon mini bosses until I’m at least that level. Thanks for the tip!

@TeachMeCode

Well too be fair jori ain't really endgame but what comes after is.

@CoreFusionX damn I must say they did a brilliant job at making scadutree blessings weak enough as to not break the game to the point where you need no skill to win (ie you can button mash and spam cheap ass moves to victory without any tactical input) but strong enough to make the game playable and you know you’ll eventually beat the boss when you figure out the right tactics without having to be a master of frames.

I’m on ng+4 (at least 4, I forget the exact number) and I noped out of so many boss battles until I got my blessing to 10, then went and killed Jori, golden hippo, and ultimately the dancing lion just now, all three were without anything extra just me and my sword and beast champion armor.

I died a million times to that dancing lion, that boss was no fucking joke. But it feels so damn good to finally take that creature down. It was a cool boss btw, fromsoft really knows how to create cinematic boss fights

@CoreFusionX reached level 12 and kicking so much ass up until Commander Pig started ripping me a new asshole, mostly from that crazy ass charge attack that has no tells and crazy ass hitbox.

I’m trying to do this on horse going forward bc my slow ass strength build can’t outrun the bacon car

@TeachMeCode

Don't give up. Mr Gaius is indeed very bullshit-y with his hit boxes. Thankfully, he actually gives you respite, because he has no bullshit all-across-the-arena gap closers.

So if in doubt, just go poise/hyper armor AoW and trade with him, and you'll win.

@CoreFusionX thanks, that’s a good idea. I went in thinking it would be a simple tree sentinel with a pig but damn.

And nope I don’t quit, I’m the kind of guy who has to beat every boss in every game i play lol

@TeachMeCode I don't know what build you are playing now, but he is, like, super weak to holy. Just slap something like sacred blade, of if you have the FTH, spam discus outta your ass, and you will truck him and his silly pig.

Enjoy the bacon.

@CoreFusionX I BEAT RELLANA!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🎊🎊🎊🎊🍾🍾🍾🍾!!!!!!

WWOOOOO MAAAAN THAT WAS ONE FUCKING BRUTAL BOSS MAN!!!!

I’ll get back to gaius.

Basically I armored up, used a greatsword, used a talisman to boost my stamina, took a wonderus physic to boost strength and stamina and poised broke her twice. Had to armor up with my beast champion to withstand the eventual punishment due to my mostly offensive Strat, and binge out on stamina items so I can still be able to dps her with my greatsword and dodge her attacks without tiring out due to my heavy armor (I wasn’t fat rolling but it was still making me a bit slow)

Beat the bullshit boss senessax, used the ancient dragon katana. Was NOT a fun fight

Well I went back to captain porky just for a few rounds before turning the game off to rest and he seems to follow a similar rule other bosses seem to have-they punish if you’re too evasive, meaning if you try to run too far from them they’ll unleash an attack that isn’t easy to dodge. He seems to do that infamous charge attack more often if you play chicken whereas if you’re close he’ll just do that crazy combo which is more manageable, just a matter of dodging it properly

@CoreFusionX anyway I reached Messemer and pretty fun boss fight, I’m taking a REEEALLLY defensive approach bc he can punish slow attacks and strikes quickly so I’m keeping a huge gap up until he does a dive attack where he’s vulnerable for a whack with my big colossal sword.

@CoreFusionX man I tell ya after almost beating messmer and destroying st romina that damn captain porky is still sweeping my ass under the rug!!