Elden Ring - gamertags on first page

To be fair the Twin Maiden Husks are just a hallway over

Exactly. Just let the blacksmith sell them when you get the bell.

I've got Jori's spear maxed, so will give that a go. Likely won't get to use it if I'm hiding behind the shield the whole time, but the Ash on that is incredible. Even against those with holy defense, a good blast of it can see a boss losing 4000+ health (I used it against Bayle and he absolutely melted).

On the same note as the blacksmith selling upgrade stones, I should be able to chug embers from the level up screen.

And, obviously, Ms Spirit Tuning should sell glovewort.

I mean, yeah, it’s not a big deal in isolation but once you get to the point where you aren’t in it for the thrill of progression but GAMING, all these little layers of needless friction start to really grate.

I've recently killed Elden Beast for the first time since that patch, it was over surprisingly quickly, leaving me with little but a shrug. I guess the main reason why it used to be a long and *cough* memorable fight was that without Torrent I spent about 70% of the time just chasing after it.

Well, that and beating all the DLC bosses can make many main game bosses feel trivial in comparison.

Anybody else picking up Volume 3 of the strategy guide despite still not having read the first two?

roundtablehold.net/checklists/tldr_all_npc_quest_stepsin_order.html

Not used it myself, but this looks pretty great, if you want some guidance rather than something that really spells everything out in great detail. In checklist format and think that there might even be an app you can use too.

I managed to miss even more of the NPCs in my second playthrough then I did on my first. Don't think I'll be jumping into another just yet, but will try to remember to use this when I do.

If you like that one, you might like Blood Blade a lot, an Ash of War that you get later* on Altus Plateau. It's a similar skill but you can put it on larger weapons like katanas and twinblades.

If you're planning on using base weapons with ARC-based infusions, a few notes on how that works:
If a weapon has bleed or poison buildup, that will be increased by ARC but only if the weapon has ARC scaling. A bleed/poison weapon without ARC scaling, e.g. a standard katana, won't be affected by ARC at all.
That's where the occult infusion comes in. It adds ARC scaling, so higher ARC will increase its physical damage similar to how DEX increases a keen weapon's one, but on top of that it will increase its innate blood/poison buildup.
A blood or poison infusion will give you even more status buildup, however at the cost of physical damage.

Another important thing to note: if you're going for a bleed build, you might be planning to use weapon buffs like Bloodflame Blade. But sadly you can't put such external (= other than weapon skill) weapon buffs on weapons with an ARC-based infusion like occult or bleed, only on standard/heavy/keen/quality. Just a heads up, I found that out the hard way pretty far into a playthrough.


*technically you can beeline there in the beginning of the game without killing a single enemy, if you know how and if that's how you want to play


edit: arcane scaling is a little weird, especially on status effects, if you want to use it effectively I recommend this deep dive video

I've done all the NPC stuff up to Margit now (don't think I'd missed anything here first time around), so just knocking about in Limgrave for a bit. It's all so carefree with my biggest concern being trying not to confuse the X and Y buttons

What do you do with the statues that have light coming out of them? Never worked it out

Oh that actually leads me on to another question, is there ever anything in those pots around the big tree bosses? Can't be arsed trying to get them to smash them all to find out

Is it necessary to summon NPCs for boss fights (going by the guide JuniorFE linked)? Also, do they have to survive the fight to the end for it to count?

The only one that I think may be necessary is summoning Blaidd for the Bloodhound Knight Evergaol, and even then only for a minor reward right after. I'm fairly certain everyone else's proceed normally regardless. If you do summon they don't have to survive though.

Also, a couple notes on Seluvis' questline:
I wouldn't normally give that many details, but... He's a prick, might as well screw his plans and fleece him

You may be thinking of the hunched-over statues that are sometimes looking towards catacomb dungeons. The glowy statues are a different thing (one is found in the courtyard in Stormveil Castle, for instance) and must indeed be broken by luring a big nearby enemy to smash them, as Vandelay said.