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Elden Ring is easy.

Draugoth

Gold Member
Since everybody is discussing this, how can i convice my brother that spending $70 on the game just to cheat for 99 stats and max runes is cringe and he should play like a normal human being?
 
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Reizo Ryuu

Member
Why not let your bro play the way he wants.
Jake Gyllenhaal No GIF
 

Urban

Member
Or at least it is compared to all other Souls games. A LOT easier.

Like the others, it's hard early on and gets easier as you progress. This is something all Souls games have, they are harder at the beginning, maybe because your character gets stronger at a faster rate compared to later enemies/bosses. But in Elden Ring this is much more unbalanced in favor of the player.

First of all, the "bonfires" are plentiful and usually close to each other. The process of getting to the closest one in order to use your souls/runes is also easier/safer. I remember this being one of the most nerve-racking things in Dark Souls 1. Finding the next bonfire was like finding an oasis in the desert after days of thirst. This got easier in later games with the bonfires being more plentiful and closer to each other but in Elden Ring they went one step further allowing you to teleport to one without even needing to be resting in one. If it wasn't for the catacombs where you aren't allowed to teleport, the item that sends you to the last used bonfire in exchange for your souls/runes (in case you got stuck) wouldn't need to exist.

As a result, it's far easier to level your character. In my 150h playthrough so far i don't think i lost more runes than i'm comfortable with, more than a couple of times. And those couple times were because i let my guard down and died for stupid reasons. Or because of some stupid platforming jankiness.

Speaking of runes, the game has too much to find, it has a ton of mini-bosses that give many runes and offers a shit tone of golden rune items to use/sell. For someone like me who explores every corner i can, there are a lot more opportunities to gather a lot of runes without ever needing to farm them, compared to the previous games. I still haven't finished the game (i should be close though since i uncovered the whole map) and i'm a level 171 freak. That's without farming or trying to level my character to become stronger. I reached the point where i don't really know what stat to increase anymore. And i always have so many runes on me regardless. "I have way too many runes" is something i never thought in a Souls game. And even now, the last boss i killed offered me 400K runes, which is enough to level up twice, even at such high level. Guess i'll get vigor to 60 or something. Or increase my INT (on a strength build), for some extra magic resistance, dunno.

Then you have the summons. That's literally an easy mode build in the game. Especially the mimic tear. So not only i'm an over-leveled beast, now there are two of us. Every new boss i find is demolished in less than a minute, without even needing to learn it's... tactics? What is even that? After, what, 100+ encounters there was a single one where i had to be patient and use proper tactics, only because it's one of those few ones where you can't summon and because the boss had a grappling move and a kill combo where my OP shield was useless. Other than that i just brute force any boss in my path, without caring about whatever they unleash on me and i usually beat them first try. I actually feel sorry for them, they have their fancy intros, do their fancy moves and screen filling spells, with their huge swords and the epic music in the background thinking "Durr, i'm a Souls game Boss, i'll punish this mofo like we always do"... Only for me to roflstomp them first try.

Not sure if it's my fault or my build. I always play tanky builds (except in Bloodborne and Sekiro ofc) that allow me to absorb a lot of hits later on in PvE (i only play offline) but i don't remember my build being so cheesy in the previous games without even trying to cheese the game. I'm pretty sure i'm playing the game the way it's intended, yet i feel like i should hold back because it offers me way too many tools and goodies to beat it.

I still love the game and i do feel rewarded for exploring/finding everything. Being so powerful is my reward, i get it. It's just that the previous games weren't that eager to reward me so generously.
man you take every thing that the game offers to make the game easier and than complain that the game is too easy
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
I think if more people actually went back and did the very first dungeon before getting the mimic; by the time I got mimic, oleg and I were already best friends, and I wasn't impressed by the fact that you need to gear/stat the mimic very specifically to be better than oleg.
Oleg doesn't get enough praise.
Oleg was awesome but once I started using the mimic, Oleg was retired! I did on occasions use Black Knife Tische.
 

nkarafo

Member
man you take every thing that the game offers to make the game easier and than complain that the game is too easy

I always took everything every Souls game offered. And they were still challenging.

This one offers you too much, which makes the game easier than it should IMO.
 

nkarafo

Member
Yep. Average NES game was waaaaay more mean to the player for example.
The sole reason these old games were so hard was the lack of checkpoints/saves in most of them and how you had to re-do levels every time you lost a life.

If you play any of these games with save states, they become trivial. But that's natural. You can take the hardest gaming challenge in this world, like reaching the PacMan glitch screen with a perfect score and anyone will be able to do it with save states. Because the shorter a challenge lasts in between them, the more doable it becomes because you don't have to keep it up for longer than you can.

In Souls games, the bonefires act like save states/checkpoints. Dark Souls 1 is harder than the others mostly because the bonefires are fewer and further between each other. That makes the trip between them longer, which automatically makes the game harder (everything else being equal) because you have to keep up for longer between resting/saving. You have more chances to get killed and when you do it's more tedious to retry because you have more shit to re-do.

In Elden Ring, these safe/save spots are denser than ever. Not to mention you don't even have to use one in order to teleport to another. So you don't even have to risk making the trip to one when you decide to level up. The moment you got the runes you need you can instantly level, as long as you are not in battle mode. In comparison Dark Souls should feel like those NES games.
 
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Draugoth

Gold Member
The sole reason these old games were so hard was the lack of checkpoints/saves in most of them and how you had to re-do levels every time you lost a life.

If you play any of these games with save states, they become trivial. But that's natural. You can take the hardest gaming challenge in this world, like reaching the PacMan glitch screen with a perfect score and anyone will be able to do it with save states.

The reason is simple: Checkpoints/saves makes the challenges between them require less time to complete. The less time a challenge needs, the easier it gets. Because it's not just a matter of being able to do something, most of the times you fail to do it is because you can't keep up for long enough. Plus, as something needs less time to be achieved, the less boring it gets to repeat which also means the more retries you are willing to do, thus increasing the chances of achieving it.

Dark Souls 1 is harder than the others mostly because the bonefires are fewer and further between each other. That makes the trip between them longer, which automatically makes the game harder (everything else being equal) because you have to keep up for longer between resting/saving. You have more chances to get killed and when you do it's more tedious to retry because you have more shit to re-do.

In Elden Ring, these safe/save spots are denser than ever. Not to mention you don't even have to use one in order to teleport to another. So you don't even have to risk making the trip to one when you decide to level up. The moment you got the runes you need you can instantly level, as long as you are not in battle mode. In comparison Dark Souls should feel like those NES games.


Sekiro is considerably harder than Elder Ring, all because there is no way to cheese the game. Elden Ring give you multiple options to obliterate enemies.
 

Rodolink

Member
I envy you guys, saying this is easy. I am struggling at Lyndell capital and im lvl 70. Was lvl 60 without tricks and cheated to reach lvl 70( killing that bloody swamp bird)
Also how the heck you manage yo lvl up so much? when I kill bosses in caves they leave a miserable amount of runes 9k is nothing and no way i can survive with 9k on my pocket while hunting for the next boss.
 

Raven117

Gold Member
I envy you guys, saying this is easy. I am struggling at Lyndell capital and im lvl 70. Was lvl 60 without tricks and cheated to reach lvl 70( killing that bloody swamp bird)
Also how the heck you manage yo lvl up so much? when I kill bosses in caves they leave a miserable amount of runes 9k is nothing and no way i can survive with 9k on my pocket while hunting for the next boss.
Just go grind some levels somewhere (google has plenty of suggestion of good grind spots), check out some builds, and go do that.

Game is much easier when you do that.

I was bashing my head against the wall for awhile until I got on top of my build...now, its much better with still a good amount of challenge but I'm alot less frustrated. Nothing irritates me more when I get to a boss by playing cautiously and smart, to then just tickle the effer with my attacks because my build is off.
 
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Urban

Member
I always took everything every Souls game offered. And they were still challenging.

This one offers you too much, which makes the game easier than it should IMO.
naa ma boy. You went beyond that.

Is it more accessible than ever? Yes
Is it easy? No
Does it give you way to many options to make it easy? Yes

Elden Ring can be the hardest or the easiest souls game. Its the players choice
 

nkarafo

Member
I envy you guys, saying this is easy. I am struggling at Lyndell capital and im lvl 70. Was lvl 60 without tricks and cheated to reach lvl 70( killing that bloody swamp bird)
Also how the heck you manage yo lvl up so much? when I kill bosses in caves they leave a miserable amount of runes 9k is nothing and no way i can survive with 9k on my pocket while hunting for the next boss.
I was around lvl 80 something when i reached the capital.

All i did was trying to explore every part of the map. I never farmed once. I dont play MP so i couldn't reach the bird area early anyway.

And i also use all the golden runes i can find. There are A LOT of golden runes in this game. Got quite a few levels just from that. I also don't care that much about trying a boss with a bunch of runes on me as it got easier and i have more confidence.
 

Reizo Ryuu

Member
I envy you guys, saying this is easy. I am struggling at Lyndell capital and im lvl 70. Was lvl 60 without tricks and cheated to reach lvl 70( killing that bloody swamp bird)
Also how the heck you manage yo lvl up so much? when I kill bosses in caves they leave a miserable amount of runes 9k is nothing and no way i can survive with 9k on my pocket while hunting for the next boss.
You probably missed a whole lot of high rune dropping bosses in dungeons, optional places, and in the open world; there's a night's cavalry in caelid for instance that drops like 40k runes, even more if you have a fowl foot active.
 

nkarafo

Member
Is it more accessible than ever? Yes
Is it easy? No
Does it give you way to many options to make it easy? Yes

1 and 3 automatically makes the game easier than before. Its not as easy as your average AAA game but its a lot easier than DS1/3.
 
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luffie

Member
I envy you guys, saying this is easy. I am struggling at Lyndell capital and im lvl 70. Was lvl 60 without tricks and cheated to reach lvl 70( killing that bloody swamp bird)
Also how the heck you manage yo lvl up so much? when I kill bosses in caves they leave a miserable amount of runes 9k is nothing and no way i can survive with 9k on my pocket while hunting for the next boss.
Don't be too hasty to grind & lvl up, there's really a lot of runes later on that you don't have to grind at all.

Levelling up too much makes the challenge go away. I finished the game at 153, and I have to control myself not to level up while carrying nearly 3m runes. Lvl 100 is that sweet spot where enemies are still challenging but not too tough.

Certain areas give you 2000 runes per mob.
 

Rodolink

Member
I was around lvl 80 something when i reached the capital.

All i did was trying to explore every part of the map. I never farmed once. I dont play MP so i couldn't reach the bird area early anyway.

And i also use all the golden runes i can find. There are A LOT of golden runes in this game. Got quite a few levels just from that. I also don't care that much about trying a boss with a bunch of runes on me as it got easier and i have more confidence.
I suppose you also try to kill every enemy you see?
 

dDoc

Member
I would say over all it's not too difficult, especially if you level up more.

However there are parts that are very tough, like the death bird and just encountered the Godskin duo. Summons aren't much use against them seems like as well. So need to get down there attack patterns.
 

Rodolink

Member
Just go grind some levels somewhere (google has plenty of suggestion of good grind spots), check out some builds, and go do that.

Game is much easier when you do that.

I was bashing my head against the wall for awhile until I got on top of my build...now, its much better with still a good amount of challenge but I'm alot less frustrated. Nothing irritates me more when I get to a boss by playing cautiously and smart, to then just tickle the effer with my attacks because my build is off.
I'm at 40vigor 20 str 20 dex 20 int not sure where to go next, was thinking just strength and vigor from now on but not sure
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
The bonfires in Dark Souls 1 weren’t THAT spread out. Very few of them required too much difficulty to get to and you could often run from one to the other if things got too crazy. DS1 also had the advantage of significantly less aggressive enemies.
 

arvfab

Banned
I envy you guys, saying this is easy. I am struggling at Lyndell capital and im lvl 70. Was lvl 60 without tricks and cheated to reach lvl 70( killing that bloody swamp bird)
Also how the heck you manage yo lvl up so much? when I kill bosses in caves they leave a miserable amount of runes 9k is nothing and no way i can survive with 9k on my pocket while hunting for the next boss.

You should get the Golden Scarab talisman.

Also many areas are optional. If you go for the catacombs or explore Caeid fully, you will get tons of runes.

PS: grinding is not cheating.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
I would say over all it's not too difficult, especially if you level up more.

However there are parts that are very tough, like the death bird and just encountered the Godskin duo. Summons aren't much use against them seems like as well. So need to get down there attack patterns.
Or just put them to sleep. No joke it makes that fight hilariously easy.
 

Raven117

Gold Member
I'm at 40vigor 20 str 20 dex 20 int not sure where to go next, was thinking just strength and vigor from now on but not sure
Yeah, you aren’t getting a whole lot of weapon scaling with that, but you are in a position to pick where you want to go.

I’d highly suggest taking a look at some builds (and their weapons) to work towards. Run around, get those, upgrade them. Grind and level up to meet their requirements, go wreck.
 
I'm at 40vigor 20 str 20 dex 20 int not sure where to go next, was thinking just strength and vigor from now on but not sure

Grab Moonveil from Gael Tunnel (between Limgrave and Caelid) if you don't have it already, it's the meta weapon for int builds. You can also get the meteorite staff and Rock Sling from the Caelid swamp, that will carry you through a lot of the game
 

Alphagear

Member
I envy you guys, saying this is easy. I am struggling at Lyndell capital and im lvl 70. Was lvl 60 without tricks and cheated to reach lvl 70( killing that bloody swamp bird)
Also how the heck you manage yo lvl up so much? when I kill bosses in caves they leave a miserable amount of runes 9k is nothing and no way i can survive with 9k on my pocket while hunting for the next boss.

Get to Mohgwyn palace. It's an optional area where enemies give you tons of runes and very quickly too.

Before this the best place is the The War-Dead Catacombs north of the Grace after defeating Radahn.
 
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Rodolink

Member
Grab Moonveil from Gael Tunnel (between Limgrave and Caelid) if you don't have it already, it's the meta weapon for int builds. You can also get the meteorite staff and Rock Sling from the Caelid swamp, that will carry you through a lot of the game
oh i have those actually 👌😎
 

Rodolink

Member
Yeah, you aren’t getting a whole lot of weapon scaling with that, but you are in a position to pick where you want to go.

I’d highly suggest taking a look at some builds (and their weapons) to work towards. Run around, get those, upgrade them. Grind and level up to meet their requirements, go wreck.
lordsworn great sword +14 maybe that's why I feel im just "chipping" at bosses health.
 

tassletine

Member
It’s obvious the mountaintops were the section that had the least content, everything is so sparse compared to the density of things to do elsewhere like in Limgrave or Liurnia. Honestly I expect whatever DLC they have planned to fill in those gaps and simultaneously add some more underworld stuff. The underworld areas were the best looking areas, partly because the lighting was static and their engine didn’t spend time redrawing foliage every time you moved the camera.

They definitely went for quite a bit of spectacle and my least favorite bosses were the ones that were so large that they were far outside your camera, punishing melee players because all you see are feet, and many attacks are heavily choreographed overhead where you can’t see. Then there are the shit options with regard to target lock. That weird space dragonfly boss is cancer and I ended up not using target lock at all because my character, despite using Guts’ greatsword, was poking and slashing at air half the time when using it.
Horses for courses I guess, I found that dragonfly easy (1st go) but I understand the problem, the game is horrifically unbalanced at the end, and it depends on your build.

The most disappointing thing about the last overground area is that it's the same as the last, but with fog. The way I look at it, they just ran out of time so went Fuck it, didn't bother (as there are loads of glitches in that area) but seeing as they'd designed the Halegtree, they just put a warp point there. Really cheap.

If Halegtree was introduced properly, it could have been spectacular, but it just felt like an afterthought, as the enemies were far tougher there.

In a similar fashion I got the impression that Godskin duo were put there purely because the last bosses had already been designed and levelled so they just threw something in to get the player up to that level, so the end bosses wouldn't be so tough. Again, it felt cheap and messy.
 

ZoukGalaxy

Member
Or at least it is compared to all other Souls games. A LOT easier.

Like the others, it's hard early on and gets easier as you progress. This is something all Souls games have, they are harder at the beginning, maybe because your character gets stronger at a faster rate compared to later enemies/bosses. But in Elden Ring this is much more unbalanced in favor of the player.

First of all, the "bonfires" are plentiful and usually close to each other. The process of getting to the closest one in order to use your souls/runes is also easier/safer. I remember this being one of the most nerve-racking things in Dark Souls 1. Finding the next bonfire was like finding an oasis in the desert after days of thirst. This got easier in later games with the bonfires being more plentiful and closer to each other but in Elden Ring they went one step further allowing you to teleport to one without even needing to be resting in one. If it wasn't for the catacombs where you aren't allowed to teleport, the item that sends you to the last used bonfire in exchange for your souls/runes (in case you got stuck) wouldn't need to exist.

As a result, it's far easier to level your character. In my 150h playthrough so far i don't think i lost more runes than i'm comfortable with, more than a couple of times. And those couple times were because i let my guard down and died for stupid reasons. Or because of some stupid platforming jankiness.

Speaking of runes, the game has too much to find, it has a ton of mini-bosses that give many runes and offers a shit tone of golden rune items to use/sell. For someone like me who explores every corner i can, there are a lot more opportunities to gather a lot of runes without ever needing to farm them, compared to the previous games. I still haven't finished the game (i should be close though since i uncovered the whole map) and i'm a level 171 freak. That's without farming or trying to level my character to become stronger. I reached the point where i don't really know what stat to increase anymore. And i always have so many runes on me regardless. "I have way too many runes" is something i never thought in a Souls game. And even now, the last boss i killed offered me 400K runes, which is enough to level up twice, even at such high level. Guess i'll get vigor to 60 or something. Or increase my INT (on a strength build), for some extra magic resistance, dunno.

Then you have the summons. That's literally an easy mode build in the game. Especially the mimic tear. So not only i'm an over-leveled beast, now there are two of us. Every new boss i find is demolished in less than a minute, without even needing to learn it's... tactics? What is even that? After, what, 100+ encounters there was a single one where i had to be patient and use proper tactics, only because it's one of those few ones where you can't summon and because the boss had a grappling move and a kill combo where my OP shield was useless. Other than that i just brute force any boss in my path, without caring about whatever they unleash on me and i usually beat them first try. I actually feel sorry for them, they have their fancy intros, do their fancy moves and screen filling spells, with their huge swords and the epic music in the background thinking "Durr, i'm a Souls game Boss, i'll punish this mofo like we always do"... Only for me to roflstomp them first try.

Not sure if it's my fault or my build. I always play tanky builds (except in Bloodborne and Sekiro ofc) that allow me to absorb a lot of hits later on in PvE (i only play offline) but i don't remember my build being so cheesy in the previous games without even trying to cheese the game. I'm pretty sure i'm playing the game the way it's intended, yet i feel like i should hold back because it offers me way too many tools and goodies to beat it.

I still love the game and i do feel rewarded for exploring/finding everything. Being so powerful is my reward, i get it. It's just that the previous games weren't that eager to reward me so generously.
If it's not a clickbait title, I'm your daddy and you should go back clean your room, son.
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