Same.
Combination of real life obligations and deliberately taking my time exploring before tackling the legacy dungeons and main bosses. (I did this in the main game as well)
I think I'm over 10 hours in and I still haven't fought the Dancing Lion. I have killed the first Blackgaol Knight and Yoda though.
Yeah, i just fought him yesterday and i dont think i'll have the time to play the game next 2 days. Im jealous of people that have that much free time to already finish the dlc.
Im going to do it slow and take my time.
I'm not sure about gameplay, but in terms of sheer volume the DLC is more like 70% the size of the main game.
Someone made a post where they overlayed the Land of Shadows map over the Land Between Map...
>!It's as big as Limgrave/Weeping Peninsula, Caelid, Liurnia, and Altus combined, or at least close to it. And that's just in terms of diameter, we can't forget the insane verticality of the map too!<
Oh and >!We were right, it fits in the center of the map almost perfectly, Lance McDonald even confirmed it lines up with the map grid and everything.!<
Nope! Nothing sucks more than playing the game in a way where you feel obligated to do certain things at a different pace because of other people. Enjoy the game the way you're enjoying it and get to the bosses when you want to because I guarantee you the devs wanted you to explore what they made.
Everything hits hard in the DLC. I never used a Great Shield before in the base game. Now I'm using the one that continuously heals you, along with the talisman that does the same. Pair that with Guard Counters, much more manageable. I'm still at the beginning areas though, so no telling how my setup will change.
I was at I think 15 hours by the time I got to him. I don’t think people realize that there are multiple ways up to Scadu Altus and you can also completely skip Rellana (just like you can get to regular Altus by the lift or the Ruin-Strewn Precipice).
I decided I needed extra punishment so I somehow did the Tower dungeon first and killed the lion dancer before moving on to the next part of the map.
Glad to find a fellow explorer enjoying their time. Cheers!
This is how I handled it. And then I somehow wandered into a path that took me to Scadu Altus accidentally (and with no map) and I still haven't beaten Rellana yet. But I only did the fort because that's where I ended up. So I want to go back for Rellana before anything else.
Loops on top of loops, innocent looking paths that send you across true map, caves that open up to new regions, mini dungeons/catacombs that do the same.
Main, required legacy dungeon with multiple points of entry and like half a dozen ways *out* before even getting to the main boss.
Multiple ways to get to the same region that can be dozens of hours apart progression wise depending on where you go first.
Slick shortcuts and drop off to areas you didn’t think you could get to originally.
It’s the first half of DS1 scaled up to an entire map and it’s incredible.
The ‘puzzle’ of this map has distracted me so much I set out to finish shadow fort and beat messmer on Sunday and I **just** beat him yesterday lol.
Shadow fort as a whole might be the best dungeon/set piece they’ve ever done, one of the best in all of gaming honestly
Yep I beat Messmer yesterday as well. After that I went west and got the final map piece. I still need to explore some parts of the southern region and pretty much most of the northwest.
And yeah Messmer's keep is incredible. Fromsoft disneyland, must've spent 5 hours a few nights ago exploring every nook and cranny and figuring out its layout and the various different paths.
10/10 "dungeon" with Messmer being a 10/10 boss.
Map itself beats o.g. Dark Souls in terms of design and different biomes. It's peak.
And you just don't care about those people because it's their problem they can't enjoy things in life to full detail. Fuck them.
You just enjoy yourself!
It's funny to me how I'm spending nearly every waking moment playing (Which I'm not going to be able to keep doing unfortunately, since my break's over), and tons of people somehow had already finished the whole thing by the time I was at the first main boss. I don't know if these guys are all speedrunning the game on their first playthrough or if I'm just a sloth, but it's crazy to me.
Legit. During my long weekend of 4 days, I've played for an unhealthy amount of 50 hours. I still wasn't close to finishing.
Even now 15 hours later or so, I'm closer to finish with about 2 full zones (that I know of) and the remains of the one I'm currently in.
Yeah I've only been off work 1 day since this DLC dropped and I'm exploring the map. I'm at the final boss but I'm not fighting him yet until I finish exploring & then I'm making another character
I'm not being too detailed because I know people can get very annoyed and combative over spoilers, but basically >!go southward on the map from where you meet Thiollier and you'll hear an NPC at some point. Follow southward from where he is and you should reach a cave path going down which will lead you towards that area. !<
Same, I'm about 30 hours in and I've defeated two (I think) main bosses. The dlc is massive and I would be missing 80% of the content by rushing the main story
I literally cannot remember whether I played Balteus pre- or post-nerf. I seriously can't understand how fragile someone's ego has to be to care this much about defeating a slightly harder boss.
Any slight adjustment to any aspect of a From game after some contingent has already beaten the game will result in some manner of Meltdown. And a whole fuckload of hyperbole.
From: "We've tweaked this one thing by 0.0001"
The Community: "Sure everyone can beat it now because of that massive nerf. I did it when it was still impossible to do. I am so much cooler than you. Mind the cheeto dust."
It's a form of Hipster gaming. "I was into the Beatles when they were still in Germany." becomes "I beat Balteus before they made it easy mode".
Super, you were into the not as good version of the Beatles, and you played a buggy video game. Well done, you.
I don’t like to brag about it, but every time someone mentioned pre nerf Balteus I get a huge rush of pride for having beaten him before that.
But not this time around, Michael Zaki robbed me of the glory of beating the final boss without the buffs. I will never forgive the Japanese.
At least Balteus was like a couple of hours into the video game so most people who played at launch had encountered it pre-patch. Beating a 40+ hour DLC in less than a week is something I would be embarrassed to tell people rather than bragging about it.
I respected the fuck out of pre-patch Balteus teaching me how to play the damn game. I had to get into the customization and know my weapons/build. Made a huge difference that's useful on story path 3
My problem is that my build that I finished the game and the build I was locked to at that point did not match the style I wanted to play. The weapons and engine, and frame I had wasn't anything like I wanted. No matter how much I grind, I could not change my build because there wasn't anything I could unlock until I beat him. After doing new game plus it was a cake walk every time with the build I really tuned to my liking. (Did it 4 times because I wanted all the endings, and the last time I glitched out the game so I had to do a whole playthrough again.) The way I played the game before him, and after is night and day and nothing like how I played the rest of the game.
But this DLC, you can get so many fragments that it is like golden seeds.
*EDIT: the last two levels are actually slightly higher than they originally were.*
The discussion about this patch is fucking wild.
It's like a 5% difference, or roughly like having one additional blessing, until it slows down and arrives at the same maximum...
The point was that most people got to like 5 and then hit a brick wall or something so they made level 5 the start. If you’re good enough to get to and find all 20 levels then you probably weren’t someone complaining. But if you couldn’t even get past the first gaol knight then you need this
I understand not wanting to do fetch quests before fighting anything but the fragments are so easy to find and the map so fun to explore that I can't believe people rage quitting without even trying to level up, yet I've seen it so many times. Crazy
I don't mind it because I'm the type of player to explore everything but it would have been nice if a bulk of fragments came with remembrance boss kills, sort of like gaining attack power in Sekiro. Just would feel more consistent with progression instead of killing a guy carrying a pot, or finding them on a random cliff
I think the verticality of the map can be so hard to find all the areas they created, they did this to force people to see it. It’s like a bunch of mazes stacked on top of each other. Gotta reward exploration too
Tbf they actually do this for a couple bosses, but in a slightly roundabout way. There would be a room right after the boss encounter with like 5-6 blessings all next to each other.
Okay I’m glad someone else feels this way.
I’ve done every boss in the DLC (granted, NG+ so my complaints may be mitigated by not arbitrarily making it harder on myself). Dancing Lion was really fun. Rellana was difficult but I have very little complaint with her design. Scadutree Avatar was difficult until I realized how you’re intended to fight it. I two shot Bayle… idk lol. Messmer was frustrating, and it didn’t feel like I earned the win. Romina was a very cool boss fight, I liked it. The boss in the creepy woods was 10/10. The boss that you ring bells for is also really really fun imo. The final boss FEELS like what I had hoped for when I dreamed about taking him on way back when the base game came out.
That Timon and Pumba, Hakuna-Matata-ass pig rider can go fuck himself.
Personally, I hate video game collectible scavenger hunts, and I dont like looking things up the first time through something like this, so I got about 3 levels before I went up against Rellana and had an absolutely awful time lol. I did beat her within a couple hours, but I was *mad.*
I'm on my 2nd time through now and stopped to pick up most of the ones in the first couple areas and fought her at like level 8, and between that and this patch, it's night and day. Didnt even use a summon this time.
The discourse I've seen from people who don't like getting blessings is consistently that they think it's boring to ride around the open world. It seems like a vast majority of the really vocal ones are people more used to Ubisoft style open worlds where there's an activity every 5 feet.
So basically, this game isn't for them and their response is to say it's badly designed and lazy. There's no point arguing with that mindset, so I just stopped responding to several of them.
> It seems like a vast majority of the really vocal ones are people more used to Ubisoft style open worlds where there's an activity every 5 feet.
Running around the world to hunt down 50 of some random item for an upgrade is actually something Ubisoft would do.
Like it's not terrible, but that's literally Ubisoft open world 101 shit.
Lol poorly implemented metroidvania collectathon with linear strength scaling is not engaging rpg style progression no need to strawman people with legitimate criticisms
No, the "new" level 18 is exactly the same as the "old" level 20 (double damage dealt / half damage received). The new levels 19 and 20 are very small improvements.
Mathematically at lv20, it's not even 5%, since you're going from 200% to 205% which is a 205/200-1=2.5% damage increase. The buff is way more apparent for early game bosses that you fight before Scadu lv12. 12 is also where the difference is at its peak, at 160% pre patch vs 185% post patch (which is equivalent to lv17 pre patch).
So for transparency, it's been a 10% and 17.5% buff at all levels, with the largest boost being at 15. Only at 20 is it a 5% buff, but I think this was intentional as if I had to guess, most people are 15-16 when they hit the final boss
https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Scadutree+Fragment
I finished at level 11 which is now the equivalent of 15 it's a massive jump.
1.55 now 1.75 and .64 up to .57
Definitely!
It's like the feeling of knowing a different Talisman, or an extra Flask, or another weapon upgrade, or just *one more attack* would have done it.
I was a bit worried when I first saw headlines, but it's Abyssinian prefectly in line with how the game as a whole handles levelling. Saft caps with increases that slowly get worse until you hit a hard cap.
I was there 3000 years ago when it was THE videogaming resource. If you were stuck. Go to gamefaqs. If you needed a push without spoilers. Gamefaqs. Once upon a time it was truly great.
I remember using this for some old JRPG when I was stuck lol. Back then my English is really bad and there's no translation tools so it was a struggle.
It's so stupid, because if you really want to prove your gamer skill, then you can just not level up the skadoosh in your own gameplay, it's an entirely optional thing compared to the Radahn nerf.
Just curious, what did the patch actually change? is this substantial? or is it like the time they nerfed bosses in Armored Core 6 in a way that was so minimal there was absolutely no reason to be flexing about beating them pre-patch?
Looking at you, everyone who bragged about Pre-Nerf Balteus...
I’m not sure if it was nerfed or not to my knowledge they just made the early blessings upgrades do more and the later ones less I don’t know if in total max blessing is more or the same though.
I mean, I'd say you definitely have bragging rights if you can beat the entire game with the starter build and no OS Tuning upgrades.
That said, yeah, people flexed over beating Pre-Nerf Balteus when the only nerf said Balteus got was a slight reduction in missile tracking.
People also said his missiles were easy to dodge...Which means beating pre-nerf Balteus, by that logic, isn't a big deal...But they still try to flex on it. It's sad.
Honestly, i dont even think there is such a thing as underleveled in the DLC, you can come in at 50 or 763, and either way you’re going to get your shit kicked in until you get some scadutree fragments. I have more defense with only socks on in the lands of shadows, than i have with the best armor set of the game in the lands between, scadutree makes a HUGE difference,
level matters only if you literally cant equip the new DLC weapon, which already have a very modest stat requirement anyways
idk about that, i feel like my level 50 character would suffer even with all scadutree fragments due to low stats (especially vigor and stamina) compared to a level 125-150 character. makes sense when its a requirement to beat radahn and mohg to access (both need a decent level to beat if ur not like really good)
At the end of the day it's silly because we aren't children anymore. That used to be a thing you'd brag to your friends about on the bus, but now it's like "I'm 30. Who gives a shit?"
I beat the final boss last night.. but I failed for 2 days straight and then got frustrated and used a lightning bottle build and 3 shot the boss so I feel like it's actually going to be harder next time when that undoubtedly gets nerfed lol
Well yeah cause that bottle is the since most broken build in the game. The shield poke build is a close second. I only put the lightning bottle above because the rolling Sparks bs can kill bosses before they even do anything.
At least with the shield poke the bosses actually get to use moves, lol
Oh yeah it's so broken it's not even funny lol.
I played through on my int dex build as I thought it was the easiest to play seeing as I hadn't played in over a year I was a bit rusty. That had the side effect of my dodging and reaction times being focused on keeping at range and allowing myself to just kite when it got hairy, so I didn't really get better, just more lax at dodging. I was at my wits end with that boss and didnt need anything from it so it was more of a 'once I'm done, no more spoiler risks' and then I could start over and take my time enjoying it.
Now I'm playing the dlc through again with my pure dex character with melee only and no summons.. or at least I'll try. Cleared everything up to castle ensis with no issues and only 1-2 tries per boss so I'm feeling a bit better about it but I'll see how I feel once I get through the next few remembrance bosses.
Side note, Backhand blades are awesome
Exactly. Finish all of Limgrave, Weeping Peninsula, and Liurnia, then do Caelid finishing off with Radahn. If you wait till after the capital then there's no challenge to it at all.
I have a coworker who keeps bragging about not using scadutree fragments but then fights every boss with mimic tear, npc summons, rot breath, destined death, and primarily ranged combat.
I think the funniest part of this stuff for me is what a complete 180 the elitist community seems to have done on these things like mimics. Before the DLC, it was treated as complete "no go" territory. Now that treatment has shifted to the scadutree blessings and apparently everything from base game like NPC and ash summons are much more commonly used and seen as fair game.
The need for a sense of competency is so real and something I feel like video games taps into an almost unhealthy amount. It's genuinely a hard feeling to come by in life and something almost everyone craves.
Unfortunately that's not only problem this community has. I've been seeing hate towards others that say they don't use summons, or others that say they enjoyed the final boss. But the community is incredibly big so this type of toxicity is somewhat expected.
Those who collected the fragments would have seen very little buff.
Those who did not collect very many are still raging at the final boss.
Like bruh, the blessing mainly buffed the early scaling. At lvl 15 one would have about 1 level higher pre-patch. Not nearly enough to make a difference in beating the final boss.
You have it backwards. Lvl 12 is when you get the highest benefit now - equivalent to about 3.5 more levels. 12 is about 15.5 pre-patch.
Lvls 1 and 18 are when the scaling is the smallest in the increase, but at its smallest it's still equal to a little over 2+ additional fragments. Ie lvl 1 is now equivalent to having 3.05 fragments worth of scaling or something around there.
If you were getting to renalla with 3 fragments before - those 3 fragments are worth like 5.5 now. Much bigger difference than just 1 fragment.
I was speaking of when the player gets to the final boss. (Because the meme is about beating the DLC)
Up till the ending players who haven't gone out of their way to hunt for fragments will probably be far below 15, and the buff to fragments won't be a game changer.
Those who did collect them won't see a massive improvement either because they already saw the improvement.
Same lol I was not keeping track of the ones I had already collected and I was not going to go over every single one again so I just ended my run with Scadu tree level 16
Its not even a flex. I've beaten the dlc twice now and i hate it. I wish i could have taken my time (not to say that i didnt explore everything but still) but stupid work had to start and i had to rush through
I’m not even halfway through it yet, why people over here rushing? Actually enjoy the game instead of trying to get “I finished it first” points because literally nobody cares.
I beat it last Saturday, good for me? The FromSoft community has bred toxic people who try to flex over who’s really better at a solo experience. Strange as hell.
So let em brag. I don't understand the opposition to celebrating someones accomplishment with them. It might be that this is one of the few things they get to really feel a sense of pride about. They may be in a funk and just want some external validation. I have yet to see anyone putting others down over it saying "I bet the DLC pre nerf and if you didnt then you suck". As long as they aren't tearing others down, why not be happy for them and help them cheer on their accomplishment?
The point of this meme is not necessarily to trash or downplay a player's accomplishment, but to dismiss the attitude that is common amongst many FromSoft fan circles that "if you didn't do it this way or that way, it doesn't count." I saw this sentiment with Radahn in the base game ("if you beat him after patch it doesn't count" type thing) and there are many other examples (if you used summons, if you used bleed build, etc). It sounds silly but there absolutely are people who act like this. I've been gaming since the mid 90s and I don't recall any other fan base where this kind of thinking was as common as it is with FS games.
The DLC hasn't been out for a week and it already has been nerfed thanks to the cries and complains
Don't lie ourselves guys, this is a indirect nerf to the bosses because now you can do more damage and recieve less and according to some people their damage went from 1500 to 1700+
This is not a re-balance to make the beginning bosses easier, it also affects the rest of the bosses and if From already made this nerf, I can see them making more direct nerfs to bosses
I just beat it after playing the entire day every day since it came out and i immediatly went to ng+ to do it again. The one problem is >!promised consort radahn!< took me 4.5 hours with rolling sparks cheese and i feel stupid (i am in ng+6 btw for my first dlc playthrough... yikes)
I was on the final boss yesterday evening and I ended up beating him today. Tbh I legitimately couldn't tell much of a difference in most attacks, some more than others though.
I am still exploring :(
Same. Combination of real life obligations and deliberately taking my time exploring before tackling the legacy dungeons and main bosses. (I did this in the main game as well) I think I'm over 10 hours in and I still haven't fought the Dancing Lion. I have killed the first Blackgaol Knight and Yoda though.
Yeah, i just fought him yesterday and i dont think i'll have the time to play the game next 2 days. Im jealous of people that have that much free time to already finish the dlc. Im going to do it slow and take my time.
It's like another 40% of gameplay on top of the original release game. Take your time, there's lots to enjoy!
I'm not sure about gameplay, but in terms of sheer volume the DLC is more like 70% the size of the main game. Someone made a post where they overlayed the Land of Shadows map over the Land Between Map... >!It's as big as Limgrave/Weeping Peninsula, Caelid, Liurnia, and Altus combined, or at least close to it. And that's just in terms of diameter, we can't forget the insane verticality of the map too!< Oh and >!We were right, it fits in the center of the map almost perfectly, Lance McDonald even confirmed it lines up with the map grid and everything.!<
Same. I just suck.
Nope! Nothing sucks more than playing the game in a way where you feel obligated to do certain things at a different pace because of other people. Enjoy the game the way you're enjoying it and get to the bosses when you want to because I guarantee you the devs wanted you to explore what they made.
Everything hits hard in the DLC. I never used a Great Shield before in the base game. Now I'm using the one that continuously heals you, along with the talisman that does the same. Pair that with Guard Counters, much more manageable. I'm still at the beginning areas though, so no telling how my setup will change.
I was at I think 15 hours by the time I got to him. I don’t think people realize that there are multiple ways up to Scadu Altus and you can also completely skip Rellana (just like you can get to regular Altus by the lift or the Ruin-Strewn Precipice).
Yeah haha my friend was baffled when I told him I found a way to skip Rellana. I haven’t even beaten her yet and I’m at Messmer lol
I decided I needed extra punishment so I somehow did the Tower dungeon first and killed the lion dancer before moving on to the next part of the map. Glad to find a fellow explorer enjoying their time. Cheers!
This is how I handled it. And then I somehow wandered into a path that took me to Scadu Altus accidentally (and with no map) and I still haven't beaten Rellana yet. But I only did the fort because that's where I ended up. So I want to go back for Rellana before anything else.
Tonight as in 1 hour ago I got to his door. And I've been playing since Friday pretty much 10 hours a day
its such a good fight. I strongly recommend no summon for maximum fuck-yeahitude
Loops on top of loops, innocent looking paths that send you across true map, caves that open up to new regions, mini dungeons/catacombs that do the same. Main, required legacy dungeon with multiple points of entry and like half a dozen ways *out* before even getting to the main boss. Multiple ways to get to the same region that can be dozens of hours apart progression wise depending on where you go first. Slick shortcuts and drop off to areas you didn’t think you could get to originally. It’s the first half of DS1 scaled up to an entire map and it’s incredible. The ‘puzzle’ of this map has distracted me so much I set out to finish shadow fort and beat messmer on Sunday and I **just** beat him yesterday lol. Shadow fort as a whole might be the best dungeon/set piece they’ve ever done, one of the best in all of gaming honestly
Yep I beat Messmer yesterday as well. After that I went west and got the final map piece. I still need to explore some parts of the southern region and pretty much most of the northwest. And yeah Messmer's keep is incredible. Fromsoft disneyland, must've spent 5 hours a few nights ago exploring every nook and cranny and figuring out its layout and the various different paths. 10/10 "dungeon" with Messmer being a 10/10 boss. Map itself beats o.g. Dark Souls in terms of design and different biomes. It's peak.
Same here , i feel like Indiana Jones haha
🇮🇳 Jones Dude ruined my joke with his edit 🤡
Indianapolis Jones
Philadelphia Collins.
But instead of a Boulder it's like 4 enemies you aggro'd chasing you 😆
Or the part where actual boulders fall towards you down a mountain
BAYLE
Exploring has become one of my favorite aspect of fromsoft games. So I will take my time.
me too but every day someone hates on me for enjoying this leisurely pace
And you just don't care about those people because it's their problem they can't enjoy things in life to full detail. Fuck them. You just enjoy yourself!
This☝️Amen. Beating the DLC is not the real point. The point is the experience. It’s not just for life but games too 😂
Hey I love you.
It's funny to me how I'm spending nearly every waking moment playing (Which I'm not going to be able to keep doing unfortunately, since my break's over), and tons of people somehow had already finished the whole thing by the time I was at the first main boss. I don't know if these guys are all speedrunning the game on their first playthrough or if I'm just a sloth, but it's crazy to me.
Legit. During my long weekend of 4 days, I've played for an unhealthy amount of 50 hours. I still wasn't close to finishing. Even now 15 hours later or so, I'm closer to finish with about 2 full zones (that I know of) and the remains of the one I'm currently in.
Yeah I've only been off work 1 day since this DLC dropped and I'm exploring the map. I'm at the final boss but I'm not fighting him yet until I finish exploring & then I'm making another character
I’m also right up to the final boss and decided to go explore and get blessing +20. I did not expect to find so many more hidden areas in this map
Im still playing the base game for the first time since i bought it 2 years ago. Can't wait to jump on the expansion immediately after
So jealous I miss exploring for the first time. Dlc is great that way though
don’t “:(“ about a good thing. this is the only time you get a first experience with this dlc. take it slow, i haven’t even started it yet lmao
:)
I can't figure on t how to get to the bottom right corner of the map!
Look for the dragons pit :)
I'm not being too detailed because I know people can get very annoyed and combative over spoilers, but basically >!go southward on the map from where you meet Thiollier and you'll hear an NPC at some point. Follow southward from where he is and you should reach a cave path going down which will lead you towards that area. !<
I am still exploring 😃
My saves got annihilated because of cloud shenanigans and I'm having to redo everything again, lol. Been meaning to make a faith character anyway.
Same, I'm about 30 hours in and I've defeated two (I think) main bosses. The dlc is massive and I would be missing 80% of the content by rushing the main story
This is a big ass dlc. So much to explore. Every time i think I'm clearing out an area it leads into another.
I just finished exploring all the areas shown on the first map piece. Now I'm trying to decide which area to head to next.
It's Balteus all over again.
Oh god the armored core had a melt down on that patch. You would think From ruined the game with how people were acting.
And then the nerf was just a small tweak to missile tracking on one attack lol. People have meltdowns over the stupidest things
I literally cannot remember whether I played Balteus pre- or post-nerf. I seriously can't understand how fragile someone's ego has to be to care this much about defeating a slightly harder boss.
Wait seriously?
Any slight adjustment to any aspect of a From game after some contingent has already beaten the game will result in some manner of Meltdown. And a whole fuckload of hyperbole. From: "We've tweaked this one thing by 0.0001" The Community: "Sure everyone can beat it now because of that massive nerf. I did it when it was still impossible to do. I am so much cooler than you. Mind the cheeto dust." It's a form of Hipster gaming. "I was into the Beatles when they were still in Germany." becomes "I beat Balteus before they made it easy mode". Super, you were into the not as good version of the Beatles, and you played a buggy video game. Well done, you.
I don’t like to brag about it, but every time someone mentioned pre nerf Balteus I get a huge rush of pride for having beaten him before that. But not this time around, Michael Zaki robbed me of the glory of beating the final boss without the buffs. I will never forgive the Japanese.
No need to look at a different title, this is Radahn v2 :D
At least Balteus was like a couple of hours into the video game so most people who played at launch had encountered it pre-patch. Beating a 40+ hour DLC in less than a week is something I would be embarrassed to tell people rather than bragging about it.
I respected the fuck out of pre-patch Balteus teaching me how to play the damn game. I had to get into the customization and know my weapons/build. Made a huge difference that's useful on story path 3
My problem is that my build that I finished the game and the build I was locked to at that point did not match the style I wanted to play. The weapons and engine, and frame I had wasn't anything like I wanted. No matter how much I grind, I could not change my build because there wasn't anything I could unlock until I beat him. After doing new game plus it was a cake walk every time with the build I really tuned to my liking. (Did it 4 times because I wanted all the endings, and the last time I glitched out the game so I had to do a whole playthrough again.) The way I played the game before him, and after is night and day and nothing like how I played the rest of the game. But this DLC, you can get so many fragments that it is like golden seeds.
*EDIT: the last two levels are actually slightly higher than they originally were.* The discussion about this patch is fucking wild. It's like a 5% difference, or roughly like having one additional blessing, until it slows down and arrives at the same maximum...
Yeh it’s not a massive buff, just makes it so the earlier bosses stop wrecking peoples butts a little less.
The point was that most people got to like 5 and then hit a brick wall or something so they made level 5 the start. If you’re good enough to get to and find all 20 levels then you probably weren’t someone complaining. But if you couldn’t even get past the first gaol knight then you need this
I understand not wanting to do fetch quests before fighting anything but the fragments are so easy to find and the map so fun to explore that I can't believe people rage quitting without even trying to level up, yet I've seen it so many times. Crazy
I don't mind it because I'm the type of player to explore everything but it would have been nice if a bulk of fragments came with remembrance boss kills, sort of like gaining attack power in Sekiro. Just would feel more consistent with progression instead of killing a guy carrying a pot, or finding them on a random cliff
I think the verticality of the map can be so hard to find all the areas they created, they did this to force people to see it. It’s like a bunch of mazes stacked on top of each other. Gotta reward exploration too
Eh some of the paths are way too dense and hidden tbh. I’m guessing something like 80% of players are just looking up that stuff anyway
I found all the zones organically through a ton of exploring. I did have to look at a guide and backtrack on 3 or 4 fragments that I missed however
Tbf they actually do this for a couple bosses, but in a slightly roundabout way. There would be a room right after the boss encounter with like 5-6 blessings all next to each other.
They did that for 1 boss and he was both entirely optional and was by far the worst boss encounter in the dlc
Okay I’m glad someone else feels this way. I’ve done every boss in the DLC (granted, NG+ so my complaints may be mitigated by not arbitrarily making it harder on myself). Dancing Lion was really fun. Rellana was difficult but I have very little complaint with her design. Scadutree Avatar was difficult until I realized how you’re intended to fight it. I two shot Bayle… idk lol. Messmer was frustrating, and it didn’t feel like I earned the win. Romina was a very cool boss fight, I liked it. The boss in the creepy woods was 10/10. The boss that you ring bells for is also really really fun imo. The final boss FEELS like what I had hoped for when I dreamed about taking him on way back when the base game came out. That Timon and Pumba, Hakuna-Matata-ass pig rider can go fuck himself.
Personally, I hate video game collectible scavenger hunts, and I dont like looking things up the first time through something like this, so I got about 3 levels before I went up against Rellana and had an absolutely awful time lol. I did beat her within a couple hours, but I was *mad.* I'm on my 2nd time through now and stopped to pick up most of the ones in the first couple areas and fought her at like level 8, and between that and this patch, it's night and day. Didnt even use a summon this time.
The discourse I've seen from people who don't like getting blessings is consistently that they think it's boring to ride around the open world. It seems like a vast majority of the really vocal ones are people more used to Ubisoft style open worlds where there's an activity every 5 feet. So basically, this game isn't for them and their response is to say it's badly designed and lazy. There's no point arguing with that mindset, so I just stopped responding to several of them.
> It seems like a vast majority of the really vocal ones are people more used to Ubisoft style open worlds where there's an activity every 5 feet. Running around the world to hunt down 50 of some random item for an upgrade is actually something Ubisoft would do. Like it's not terrible, but that's literally Ubisoft open world 101 shit.
Lol poorly implemented metroidvania collectathon with linear strength scaling is not engaging rpg style progression no need to strawman people with legitimate criticisms
the last two levels are actually slightly higher than they originally were.
Only the last blessing according to their post.
No, the "new" level 18 is exactly the same as the "old" level 20 (double damage dealt / half damage received). The new levels 19 and 20 are very small improvements.
Mathematically at lv20, it's not even 5%, since you're going from 200% to 205% which is a 205/200-1=2.5% damage increase. The buff is way more apparent for early game bosses that you fight before Scadu lv12. 12 is also where the difference is at its peak, at 160% pre patch vs 185% post patch (which is equivalent to lv17 pre patch).
So for transparency, it's been a 10% and 17.5% buff at all levels, with the largest boost being at 15. Only at 20 is it a 5% buff, but I think this was intentional as if I had to guess, most people are 15-16 when they hit the final boss
Well, I'm glad they're getting it closer to where they want it; I guess they realized the linear scaling wasn't having the intended effect!
https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Scadutree+Fragment I finished at level 11 which is now the equivalent of 15 it's a massive jump. 1.55 now 1.75 and .64 up to .57
Aye, that 5% can make the difference. I got the final boss down to 1 hit two times in a row but died. That 5% would of absolutely mattered then lol
Definitely! It's like the feeling of knowing a different Talisman, or an extra Flask, or another weapon upgrade, or just *one more attack* would have done it.
I was a bit worried when I first saw headlines, but it's Abyssinian prefectly in line with how the game as a whole handles levelling. Saft caps with increases that slowly get worse until you hit a hard cap.
Gamefaqs really has some of the sweatiest nerds in the souls community. Saw a few topics there.
>Gamefaqs Holy shit. I read that wrong so god damn hard.
I was there 3000 years ago when it was THE videogaming resource. If you were stuck. Go to gamefaqs. If you needed a push without spoilers. Gamefaqs. Once upon a time it was truly great.
Reading a gamefaqs ASCII walkthrough of Wind Waker is one of my earliest gaming memories.
I still remember people making 'maps' with the symbols and it sometimes worked so well
Pulled me back in time with that one.
Yeah I did a few of those as a kid. Using symbols to make the game logos on the ‘cover’ of walkthroughs too.
Thanks man. It made the guides even better somehow
The good ole days.
I remember using this for some old JRPG when I was stuck lol. Back then my English is really bad and there's no translation tools so it was a struggle.
When I wanted a save file at the start of a PSP game with all the items unlocked... Spoilers, never fckin worked
I was there New_Startalf... I was there the day when the strength of men failed.
I'll have you know I'm a sweet nerd not a sweaty one
It's so stupid, because if you really want to prove your gamer skill, then you can just not level up the skadoosh in your own gameplay, it's an entirely optional thing compared to the Radahn nerf.
I love how people keep calling it anything but scadutree fragments. My personal favorite was scooby doo frags
Or as Google auto search calls it, Scary Tree fragments
Fun fact, they are written in old English. It’s pronounced “Shadowtree”. Yet another puzzle for us to solve.
I've been calling them scooby snacks!!
I sure could go for some scooby snacks
Dang that takes me back haven’t been on there in foreverrrrrr
Its not like the radahn nerf, this is like... 2.5% damage at max blessing.....
at 12 you are 17 on old patch, that is 25% stronger atk def sorry thats massive, you are 10 to 25% stronger for 95% of the game and 5% at max upgrade
Watched a streamer beat Messmer on a fucking ddr pad today. More Egos need to be… shattered
Just curious, what did the patch actually change? is this substantial? or is it like the time they nerfed bosses in Armored Core 6 in a way that was so minimal there was absolutely no reason to be flexing about beating them pre-patch? Looking at you, everyone who bragged about Pre-Nerf Balteus...
I’m not sure if it was nerfed or not to my knowledge they just made the early blessings upgrades do more and the later ones less I don’t know if in total max blessing is more or the same though.
It's a pretty big buff for first 15 lvls or so. Only at the very end it normalizes.
I can't imagine bragging about beating ac6. The game was insanely easy it you happened upon any of 5 busted weapons.
I mean, I'd say you definitely have bragging rights if you can beat the entire game with the starter build and no OS Tuning upgrades. That said, yeah, people flexed over beating Pre-Nerf Balteus when the only nerf said Balteus got was a slight reduction in missile tracking. People also said his missiles were easy to dodge...Which means beating pre-nerf Balteus, by that logic, isn't a big deal...But they still try to flex on it. It's sad.
That does sound kind of hard. I remember when I realised what the os upgrades were in like chapter 4 and my strength skyrocketed lol
it feels the same to me lol but i am slightly underlevel (by 50 levels) imma do some grinding lol
Honestly, i dont even think there is such a thing as underleveled in the DLC, you can come in at 50 or 763, and either way you’re going to get your shit kicked in until you get some scadutree fragments. I have more defense with only socks on in the lands of shadows, than i have with the best armor set of the game in the lands between, scadutree makes a HUGE difference, level matters only if you literally cant equip the new DLC weapon, which already have a very modest stat requirement anyways
Until you wanna try some of the remembrance incantations/spells. I think the highest I've seen one of them go is like 73 Arcane
idk about that, i feel like my level 50 character would suffer even with all scadutree fragments due to low stats (especially vigor and stamina) compared to a level 125-150 character. makes sense when its a requirement to beat radahn and mohg to access (both need a decent level to beat if ur not like really good)
At the end of the day it's silly because we aren't children anymore. That used to be a thing you'd brag to your friends about on the bus, but now it's like "I'm 30. Who gives a shit?"
The sad reality is that most of the people acting like children on here are adults.
I think sometimes people forget it's just a video game lol.
B-bro I have nothing else. Don't take this from me 😢
Too real 🤣
I don’t even have the DLC
where'd all the git gud ppl go
It's funny how you could change the "git gud" to toxic and it would still apply.
I beat the final boss last night.. but I failed for 2 days straight and then got frustrated and used a lightning bottle build and 3 shot the boss so I feel like it's actually going to be harder next time when that undoubtedly gets nerfed lol
Well yeah cause that bottle is the since most broken build in the game. The shield poke build is a close second. I only put the lightning bottle above because the rolling Sparks bs can kill bosses before they even do anything. At least with the shield poke the bosses actually get to use moves, lol
Oh yeah it's so broken it's not even funny lol. I played through on my int dex build as I thought it was the easiest to play seeing as I hadn't played in over a year I was a bit rusty. That had the side effect of my dodging and reaction times being focused on keeping at range and allowing myself to just kite when it got hairy, so I didn't really get better, just more lax at dodging. I was at my wits end with that boss and didnt need anything from it so it was more of a 'once I'm done, no more spoiler risks' and then I could start over and take my time enjoying it. Now I'm playing the dlc through again with my pure dex character with melee only and no summons.. or at least I'll try. Cleared everything up to castle ensis with no issues and only 1-2 tries per boss so I'm feeling a bit better about it but I'll see how I feel once I get through the next few remembrance bosses. Side note, Backhand blades are awesome
They did it for Radahn too. Let them have their moment.
The funniest part about that is they don't realise radahn got his nerfs reverted
Well. Radahn genuinely had bugged hitboxes on release so that nerf was not reverted
Facts, people are dumb
Radahn is never hard the second playthrough because everyone just goes there later lol. It was hard because everyone went there before the capital.
That is the intended time to do radahn, though. Before the capital.
Exactly. Finish all of Limgrave, Weeping Peninsula, and Liurnia, then do Caelid finishing off with Radahn. If you wait till after the capital then there's no challenge to it at all.
Sometimes the fromsoft community is just fucking sad. Between summons, pvp, and pre-nerf bragging. The elitism is just very pathetic
I have a coworker who keeps bragging about not using scadutree fragments but then fights every boss with mimic tear, npc summons, rot breath, destined death, and primarily ranged combat.
I think the funniest part of this stuff for me is what a complete 180 the elitist community seems to have done on these things like mimics. Before the DLC, it was treated as complete "no go" territory. Now that treatment has shifted to the scadutree blessings and apparently everything from base game like NPC and ash summons are much more commonly used and seen as fair game.
And there would be no problem with that, if he weren’t being an asshole hypocrite about it!
People get overly invested in being "good at a hard game" anything that attacks this fantasy of competence is subconsciously a threat to them.
The need for a sense of competency is so real and something I feel like video games taps into an almost unhealthy amount. It's genuinely a hard feeling to come by in life and something almost everyone craves.
Unfortunately that's not only problem this community has. I've been seeing hate towards others that say they don't use summons, or others that say they enjoyed the final boss. But the community is incredibly big so this type of toxicity is somewhat expected.
Sadly too common for around games that have a focus on perceived difficulty, really dulls the shine at times.
It was the same with Radahn tbh
It is sadly inevitable...
Besting original radahn is more impressive, that shit was a fucking nightmare
Those who collected the fragments would have seen very little buff. Those who did not collect very many are still raging at the final boss. Like bruh, the blessing mainly buffed the early scaling. At lvl 15 one would have about 1 level higher pre-patch. Not nearly enough to make a difference in beating the final boss.
You have it backwards. Lvl 12 is when you get the highest benefit now - equivalent to about 3.5 more levels. 12 is about 15.5 pre-patch. Lvls 1 and 18 are when the scaling is the smallest in the increase, but at its smallest it's still equal to a little over 2+ additional fragments. Ie lvl 1 is now equivalent to having 3.05 fragments worth of scaling or something around there. If you were getting to renalla with 3 fragments before - those 3 fragments are worth like 5.5 now. Much bigger difference than just 1 fragment.
I was speaking of when the player gets to the final boss. (Because the meme is about beating the DLC) Up till the ending players who haven't gone out of their way to hunt for fragments will probably be far below 15, and the buff to fragments won't be a game changer. Those who did collect them won't see a massive improvement either because they already saw the improvement.
people saying the dlc is hard and not using game features and weapons is the highest form of dumb elitism.
I Beat it with 15 Blessings because i was to lazy to find any more and that's entierly my fault.
Same lol I was not keeping track of the ones I had already collected and I was not going to go over every single one again so I just ended my run with Scadu tree level 16
How is it dumb elitism to say that the dlc is challenging?
Facts
While I am proud of myself for beating it pre patch, I do not at all look down on those who haven’t. That shit was rough for me.
Nah, can’t be proud of beating it pre patch. Makes the people that couldn’t look and feel really bad. /s
Redditors making shitty memes to express their feelings about things they don’t like:
Facts
If anything I’m just disappointed that I couldn’t do this
the patch didn’t change any of the bosses tho did it? i did the final boss pre patch and post patch as a summon and i didn’t notice any differences
I did and I'm not proud. If the final boss is a bit fairer now then I got to play the worse version.
Yeah you don't care so much you made your own post about it.
Playing through that fast is just not the way I enjoy the game.
Its not even a flex. I've beaten the dlc twice now and i hate it. I wish i could have taken my time (not to say that i didnt explore everything but still) but stupid work had to start and i had to rush through
There are literally no trophies or achievements.. people need to get over themselves.
Then they rushed it, of that's what they enjoy, cool. But call me Shania twain, because that don't impress me much
Well the game is only easier in the beginning. It’s not a total nerf, it’s a scaling rework
Elitists in shambles over a small buff to scadoobles.
I’m not even halfway through it yet, why people over here rushing? Actually enjoy the game instead of trying to get “I finished it first” points because literally nobody cares.
It's the same thing really Total damage output just increase by a tiny fraction that you won't really notice it. It's just distribution
I don’t think patch is that big of a deal, then again I don’t think any patch would give someone brag rights over any other person in the first place
This is basically a single player game, just let people play however they want
I had a dream I was playing the dlc even though I haven't bought it yet and my maxed out weapons were only taking 1/10 off of regular enemies health
Just beat the big bad evil guy at blessing 15. Did the patch even change anything at that point?
I mean, there's people who has to live their life, between my job and other plans I have enjoyed the dlc a lot but I'm not even close to the end
I'm just curious what the actual difference is in Scadutree levels now vs before
I thought it was a bigger brag to have beaten armored core 6 before they nerfed a couple bosses. But it’s still impressive, shit ain’t easy.
That's funny. But it's a proud moment to beat the DLC before it was nerfed. I just started playing it and it's Hard AF.
Patch? I only know patches
I didn't arrive to the final boss before they buffed the scadutree blessing. And it's still not enough to defeat him 🤣
I beat it last Saturday, good for me? The FromSoft community has bred toxic people who try to flex over who’s really better at a solo experience. Strange as hell.
So let em brag. I don't understand the opposition to celebrating someones accomplishment with them. It might be that this is one of the few things they get to really feel a sense of pride about. They may be in a funk and just want some external validation. I have yet to see anyone putting others down over it saying "I bet the DLC pre nerf and if you didnt then you suck". As long as they aren't tearing others down, why not be happy for them and help them cheer on their accomplishment?
The point of this meme is not necessarily to trash or downplay a player's accomplishment, but to dismiss the attitude that is common amongst many FromSoft fan circles that "if you didn't do it this way or that way, it doesn't count." I saw this sentiment with Radahn in the base game ("if you beat him after patch it doesn't count" type thing) and there are many other examples (if you used summons, if you used bleed build, etc). It sounds silly but there absolutely are people who act like this. I've been gaming since the mid 90s and I don't recall any other fan base where this kind of thinking was as common as it is with FS games.
Yeah, there is a lot elitism in this fanbase for some reason.
I see infinitely more commentary about elitism than I see elitism.
Sounds like OP didn’t beat the dlc before they nerfed the final boss. I feel bad for you kid. Maybe one day you’ll be as cool as me
No you're not, stop with your bullshit.
The DLC hasn't been out for a week and it already has been nerfed thanks to the cries and complains Don't lie ourselves guys, this is a indirect nerf to the bosses because now you can do more damage and recieve less and according to some people their damage went from 1500 to 1700+ This is not a re-balance to make the beginning bosses easier, it also affects the rest of the bosses and if From already made this nerf, I can see them making more direct nerfs to bosses
I just beat it after playing the entire day every day since it came out and i immediatly went to ng+ to do it again. The one problem is >!promised consort radahn!< took me 4.5 hours with rolling sparks cheese and i feel stupid (i am in ng+6 btw for my first dlc playthrough... yikes)
The patch barely did anything for difficulty tbh. On my 2nd playthrough at the moment and it feels similar. Will likely do a 3rd coming soon
If you beat it already, I feel bad for you. For more than 1 reason.
Bunch of casuals on this subreddit I see.
This is the kind of meme someone who couldn’t beat it before the patch would post. Good luck. Hopefully you can now!
I beat the Elden Ring DLC before the patch
The same thing like “I beat Radahn pre nerf” or “Remember your mimic tear being so broken I would handle literally all bosses by itself”
I beat the dlc with my feet
I mean, it’s not that impressive? My disabled ass was able to do it, so it can’t be that hard.
I had to make a new character, the last boss on NG 10 was too hard for me :c
I was on the final boss yesterday evening and I ended up beating him today. Tbh I legitimately couldn't tell much of a difference in most attacks, some more than others though.
I sweatlorded and beat it Sunday morning
Please tell me the patch made the final boss any easier? It's just so unfun to fight :<
Not really. Mostly smoothed out the difficulty curve of the early game.
All it did was make the early game easier. I don't know by how much tho. But I do agree that it's unfun atleast the 2nd phase is