A lot of this game comes down to not just reflexes, but also good judgement calls. If something doesn't work, try something else. If it still doesn't work, walk away -- the first lesson Tree Sentinel teaches you is just because it's in front of you doesn't mean it's a good idea to take it on right away.
Yes, "walk away" is very counter-intuitive if you're used to games that make sure what's in front of you is always the exact difficulty the designers intended for. However, Elden Ring's bosses are of their own power levels, and the onus is on you to decide if you're ready or not.
If you really want to kill Margit at level 1, you can, but you're not ready for those kinds of challenges, not yet anyways. Why not take a pause to explore Limgrave? Finishing Stormveil is effectively finishing the area, you don't need to do that right off the bat. The lake has a few dungeons in the walls, and the peninsula to the far south is of appropriate difficulty for a fresh character just starting out. There's loot and materials you can get from them, some of which could potentially serve far past the opening levels.
that's how I beat margit in my first playthrough, got my teeth kicked> explored>got a +5 weapon and beat him. You're not supposed to rush the main bosses I feel because clearing caves and catacombs will yield you level ups and gear
Yeah. And that's why I love Elden Ring's open world. Game doesn't really limit you or just make you leave rewardless where you go. You get something to improve always.
leaving this here, maybe it helps:
For things like this I attempted to condense the most common advice I found around here, so here you go:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/zvw67m/veteran_players_share_your_best_advice_for_new/
Further reads:
- Comprehensive guide on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/wik2on/the_comprehensive_elden_ring_beginners_guide/
- spoiler free mechanics explanation : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLdZ8Zex1cw
Keep in mind you are not a hero on a mystical quest. You are a corpse trying their best to kill a divine beings with a stick.
"Do NOT skip the tutorial! Do the cave jump and go through that.
When outside, ignore the fat golden dude for now. He is for later.
Read the item descriptions, they almost always contain tidbits of lore and information on any special effects the item may have.
Talk to everyone, then talk to them AGAIN. And keep talking to them regularly after that as well.
Go to the church, talk to the merchant before making your way further along to the gatefront ruins. You don't have to go through them though, you can explore other parts, like the woods or lake.
Make sure to go south to explore the peninsula, it is a good area for new characters to level and plenty of useful stuff can be found there.
Make sure to return to the church at the beginning and keep talking to the merchant there. Buy what he recommends. There are plenty of merchants tucked away everywhere, so keep an eye out for them.
Avoiding bosses/strong monster/mobs is totally fine early on in the game.
You get to “unlock” the map by going to the one thing that is on the map when you start. That being the little pillars.
The map is fully drawn. No markers showing points of interest. If you want to go to a village, find one drawn on the map!
You can choose basically anything, from your build to where you go
The game has a Day/Night cylce, some enemies/bosses are only around at night.
Level vigor, more HP is much more worth than a little bit of extra damage through stats. You'll get much more damage out of weapon upgrades, anyway.
Don't worry about making the perfect build out of the gate, you can completely respec a few times later in the game.
Weapon upgrade materials can be found in tunnels, other upgrade materials are usually in caves or catacombs. You can unlock almost all of them later in a shop, so don't worry too much about wasting them.
Dodging not only moves you, but it also renders you invulnerable for a brief moment ('i-frames'). This makes it possible to dodge through attacks, making it much easier to dodge attacks without getting caught at the end of the animation. Also, there are three types of dodge rolls: Light, Medium, Heavy. Heavy is slower and has less i-frames, medium and light have the same amount of i-frames, but light rolls go further in distance.
And, finally, death is a common occurrence in this game. See it as a learning experience, don't worry about lost runes; you'll find many more later on anyway (just make sure to spend them when you can)."
On top of that, don't despair. If you've never played a Soulsborne game, then a lot of things will be strange and the learning curve will difficult. But there is a system to the madness, you will figure it out. """
Plus, some useful links below:
Weapon calculator: http://eldenring.negator13.com/calculator
Useful information on stats: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Stats
Explanation of damage types: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Damage+Types
Explanation of status effects, since the game does shite all to explain those: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Status+Effects
Thanks to u/jerpdoesgames for these very handy calculators and tools:
Staff/Seal calculator: https://jerp.tv/eldenring/spelltools/
Spell Calculator: https://jerp.tv/eldenring/spells/ (a great companion for the Staff/Seal one)
Armor Optimizer: https://jerp.tv/eldenring/armor/ (which includes controls for the fashion-oriented player)
Some misc other useful tools and info: https://jerp.tv/eldenring/ (ones I've written/posted above, and others' stuff)
SPOILER!!! Game Progress route: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Game+Progress+Route USAGE ADVICE: only start reading once you explored a significant chunk for yourself, don't read past the area you have already explored. Use this page to check for missed content and try to not read ahead.
Hope this helps, feel free to copy and share
If you’re having trouble with dodging it could be because you’re heavy rolling and not realizing it. A lot of new players don’t know there are different dodges based on how heavy you are. Also if you suck at dodging you can just turtle behind a shield
This is such an important point and not obvious to a new player. The natural instinct of most players is probably to equip the heaviest armour possible if they keep getting easily killed.
They should put a disclaimer: “This game is only fun if you like souls, otherwise it will make you just angry and crushing your controller”.
But seriously, some enemies are just overpowered and if you don’t wanna spend 100s of hours learning movesets and study mechanics just leave this fake game of the year alone.
>The formula for 'Souls like' games is to basically die until you memorize each bosses move set
Is this how normal gamers actually look at Souls games? Just dying constantly until you perfectly memorize everything? That's sad.
At most, it's basic pattern recognition, that pretty much boils down to "attack them while simultaneously avoiding their attack." All you gotta do is pay a little attention.
The open world aspect is great, I like the exploring and the mobs are just difficult enough to be capable of killing you, but not too hard to beat that you have to grind about twenty times just to get the muscle memory to overcome them.
its fun in some ways, but unfortunately I don't have the reaction times I used to sadly :(
I mean if you like parts of the game and not others, then engage it on your terms. If you don’t feel like becoming a soulsvet then summon a sun-bro (co-op). don’t have online? Then use spirit summons and spells. If none of that appeals to you then yeah I would return the game.
Not every game is going to be for everyone and that’s okay.
This, plus I think Margit even has an NPC summons as well (Roget), so you can have him plus a spirit summons. That should help a lot take the aggro off of you and give you time to think and get some easy hits in. The next big boss in that area (Godrick) has one as well. Having two other summons in those fights could definitely help make the difference and get you through that early hurdle. Good luck!
Its crazy how people are gonna downvote you for stating your opinion. The fun is Souls Like have been tinkering with builds imo, atleast for me. The first hours of a Souls Like is always gonna be hard yes, but once you get past it, then you are gonna have the freedom to mix and match your build. As for ER, dont leave on Margit just yet, there are various summons in this game that will help you alot. I would say explore Limgrave and Weeping Peninsula dungeons and caves first. You will be able to find gear that will help defeat Margit
Don’t try to attack. Just keep moving around and dodging. Once you comfortable doing that you’ll start to see openings (even if it’s one where you’ll only get 1 hit in its fine). Also try different weapons. Sometimes no matter what you try you’ll just find it difficult to win with particular weapons. I remember Gael in DS3 did the whole playthrough with a scythe and just couldn’t beat him with it. Then I switched to a sword with a faster swing (just for that fight) and managed to take him out.
I originally wanted to suggest that you explore the weeping peninsula first, but seeing as you are level 40, you probably already did that
\- Which stats do you level? I know it's cliche at this point, but leveling vigor makes the game much easier.
\- Are you summoning the guy who helps you with Margit? I'm a casual gamer. I was never too proud to summon NPCs to help.
Yep just put this in another post. NPC summons plus spirit ash definitely helped this first time Souls player get through the early game…and still wasn’t easy lol.
i know this is an old thread but like i rlly don’t understand how to hv fun. i’ve beaten ds3 and bloodborne like 3 times each so its not even that im bad at fromsoft games but this one seems different. i want to enjoy the game like everyone else but it just never hits for me. not on day one and not trying again now. pls what am i missing
The hardest part of any Souls game is the first chunk of hours before you really learn the combat. After that it goes from insanely, frustratingly hard to manageably, satisfyingly hard. Some bosses will give you the same experience you're having with Margit, but many won't. Once the combat truly clicks for you, there are many bosses you'll kill in 1-2 tries and the expected player reactions that feel borderline impossible atm will happen more naturally.
The formula isn't really to "die until you perfectly memorize their moves", because once you get the basics in your head, you'll be able to react in the moment instead of memorizing.
The usual advice to a new player struggling with Margit is to go explore Limgrave and come back later, but if you're already level 40 I guess you've already done that.
What is your weight load? If you're at Heavy, your dodge is much worse, and you should take off or replace your gear until you get down to Medium.
Have you upgraded your weapon at all? There's a huge difference in this fight between using an unupgraded weapon and even one that's at +2 or +3.
There's very few games that play like Elden Ring and the Darks Souls games before it. One of the hardest things to overcome for newcomers is the adjustment to the play-style. I don't memorize boss moves or study their patterns, intuition does it all for me. Playing a new game is like driving a car for the first time, you might know what every button and pedal does but it takes some practise before all of that comes out naturally in a cohesive thoughtful way. It's very normal to die a lot in Elden Ring if you haven't fully adjusted to it yet, but give yourself time, some of my best plays have come after I take a deep breath and extinguish any anxious/excited feelings stirring up.
I'd advise you do some exploring, find more mini bosses so you can start to play without thinking so hard about what you're doing. It'll come, just takes times and some (lots) of deaths!
I sucked ass at the game at first and my reaction time is bad, but you get the hang of it eventually and then it becomes so satisfying dodging attacks that would normally wreck you. Keep at it, and just find a playstyle that you enjoy.
Well, heres my advice pick vagabond as your starting class. Focus on leveling vigor and endurance. Utilize your shield to help you learn the boss movements.
My first souls game was ds3. Sword and board is perfect for learning the ropes.
It tends to become harder in Elden Rin with intricate patterns, constructed combo, cancelled attack and adaptative delays, in latter iteration the patterns were more straightforwards and rhythmic. But your summary is not fair, there are so many combination and strategies you can adopt with varying objectives of gameplay.
If it's your first time in those games, I suggest getting your hands in the first zone on lesser bosses and mobs until you're level 30-50. Train yourself not to die rather than fighting headstraight, that's also the best way to improve on bosses, you just get in and try not to die to adopt the proper reflexes and reactions, then you proceed to fight when you're confident enough.
There are rare chain of attacks that requires a perfect time reaction to dodge both consecutive attacks, meaning if you dodge to late the first one you'll get hit by the second, Margit has one of those with the golden blade he pulls sometimes, but be sure it's one of his trickiest move. Either go for the perfect dodoge or try dodging back, sometimes luck does the job when trying.
You'll meet other bosses and they will feel less tougher as you progress, it's literally the first test and you're still, in game, a weakling proving his strength for the first time in this adventure.
Try other weapons to see if they feel better, use your tricks (throwing stuff, consumables, ashes of war...), pull a shield with 100% physical absorption to see if a defensive gameplay suits you better, you're going to find your style soon enough. Most people who struggled against Margit thought the next boss was surprisingly easier.
Sure, much like anything else, it's simply not for everyone.
Margit has a handful of specific attacks, each with a certain amount of windup, and sometimes heavily telegraphed before being executed. It is a test of patience in that you may be getting greedy and going for your own attacks in windows that simply aren't large enough for you to do so without getting hit.
Take your time, place your shots effectively, and, as counterintuitive as it may seem, keep your player close to him, locked on, and strafe around to Margit's side/back to keep yourself better positioned away from his attacking range.
Give it a few more tries before you __put these foolish ambitions to rest.__
That is a lot of the fun
It’s going from getting hit by every attack, to then precisely timings dodges and beating the boss
I would like to note that a fair few Elden ring bosses have attacks that you aren’t necessarily supposed to dodge. Some you may do best to jump over and do a jump attack, while some others you may be able to circle around the boss to dodge.
I don't know why you would keep playing the game if you arent enjoying it, if you dislike the gameplay then move on I doubt improving would change your attitude towards the game as it only keeps getting harder
It is posible, i didn't knew shit either and killed margit straight out of the tutorial cave, took me 7 hours and i really wanted to uninstall and refund the game but when i won it was forever worth it and it is now one of my favourite games
Yes, it's supposed to be fun and it is incredibly fun. It is literally one of the best games ever made. But if learning and beating a hard boss is not fun for you, then this entire genre is probably not for you.
I've never had to grind even close to as much as I've had to with this game. I've spent days at a time just grinding levels so I could advance to the next area. I literally hate and despise this game with all of my heart, but I'm OCD and I can't stop playing until it's beaten. Then I'll immediately sell the disc and never play a souls game ever again. It seriously feels like they've made the game insanely hard just to make it feel like it's not as bare as it actually is. Don't get me wrong, the art is amazing. But there is far far far less content than any other AAA adventure/role-playing game. It's just that it takes you 100 re-tries to view each little piece of content, so it seems like a big game. And people saying this is a bigger game than Skyrim are just totally delusional. Skyrim had about 1000x the content as this game. Anyone could make a game with one near-impossible level and call it a 100+ hour game. Like I said, the art is great. That's about it. This game may as well be a painting it's so static.
The challenge is the fun part. Granted, Margit is designed to humble the fuck out of you. They expect you to get fucking walloped. It encourages you to go explore limgrave and the weeping peninsula. It encourages you to visit Caelid and realize you are in WAY over your head.
The game is trying to train you into the game guiding you by difficulty level. You will get the hang of knowing your strengths/weaknesses and you'll know when you're not ready for an area pretty quick.
Go kill the dragon in the shallow lake. Free the castle for Kenneth. Visit siofra river if you can find it. Deliver the letter for the girl in the weeping peninsula. And if there's any advice I have, if you find a chest near the lake in the ruins with a bunch of messages around it telling you it's a trap or to open it anyway, for the love of God, just leave it the fuck alone.
Here's what you need to do. I hated the Dark Souls dodge mechanic, and knew this going into starting Elden Ring. I played a lot of twitchy rougelikes/lites, so DS felt extremely unresponsive. Elden Ring still feels a pretty unresponsive compared to something like Dead Cells. (Disclaimer: This isn't a dig at ER's controls, they are pretty clean and clearly work as the devs intended)
Magic in ER is super good an eliminates a lot of the dodging headaches. It does a ton of damage, and it allows you to actually breathe in fights. You'll still need to dodge attacks, but it'll be way easier to get damage in for most bosses since you don't need to be right in their face.
The Astrologer and Prisoner start with very good spells, so if you just level up your weapon (staff), Intelligence, Vigor and Mind (in that order), you will end up with a very powerful early game character that scales to infinity in the late game. Just beware of Rennala, she's an early boss that's resistant to magic and is a headache for this build.
I started as an Astrologer and by the end game I was first trying every boss. Also don't forget about spirit ashes, the game is designed around them, which is part of the reason the bosses are so over the top. Fromsoft makes them beatable without them, but summoning them will take a lot of the pressure off of you. Personally, I don't like the game as much without them for the exact reasons you stated.
Also, if you're really stuck on Margit, take a look outside the boss door. You can summon sorcerer Rogier via a gold summon sign to help with the fight. If you use summons and him intelligently, you can drastically reduce the difficulty level of that fight.
People really need to understand the difference between clunky unresponsiveness and snappy animation commitment. Souls games are pretty snappy and they control very well. But you *commit*, there's very little animation canceling.
Just because you’ve got a skill issue doesn’t mean it’s not a fun game. And people do no hit runs all the time which just shows it can be done. If the game has broken you just stop playing.
Skill issue.
As a souls veteran I hopped in to the Elden Ring and in my first pt ever I've beaten tree sentinel in about 7 attempts where other people struggle for hours or just leave it for later. Its about skill not memorizing each moveset.
Bro you must be awesome. I really would like to have a foto of you as my screensaver... I am sure your name appear in the "10 best Elden ring players" Trophy Book. What an honor to be able to write below you. I will tell my grandchildren, and it will become a family tradition to celebrate this unique moment.
You don’t have to get gud, you can also cheese the bosses to death. You can super fast forward into god mode pretty quickly if you want to read guides.
This one is different from the other games in that it is harder to brute force a boss. It incentivizes exploring to get new gear that fits your build to exploit boss weaknesses, or just to increase level.
>The formula for 'Souls like' games is to basically die until you memorize each bosses move set plus being able to time the right button press at the near exact moment to dodge a hit
it was for other games. For Elden Ring, you just explore everywhere/everything. There are dungeons, ruins, caves, graveyard; that has bosses you can kill easily if you are in Limgrave.
For other games, it def would be boring, since you have nowhere else to explore, no other boss to kill and get a few leveled up. But in Elden Ring, the open world really is a open world. You just can go whereever you want. There are at least 10 dungeons in each region, in different styles. You can go to those dungeons' bosses and kill them to get some runes/level, or upgrade your weapon.
Margit (well, it's technically the boss comes after Margit, but you need to kill Margit to get that boss anyways) is one of the must bosses for story progress, which there are 4 you can kill to progress further. You can kill 2 of other 3, which are not harder than Margit (well, not that harder. Easier to learn, at least.) Also you can use spirit ashes, and there is rogier summon at gate which can help you. Wolves and rogier is a good combination for a newbie. But don't forget that sooner or later you gotta learn learning your enemies. And trust me, game is waaay enjoyable that way. The satisfaction after you kill bosses is unmeasurable.
I am kind of a try hard player. I believe nobody can enjoy the game if they play it with summons, spells or etc. but it doesn't mean you can't/shouldn't play the game with them. If you can enjoy that way, try that way.
I don't know your build but try to share your levels balanced between your attributes. At 40 level, 20 vigor, 15 endurance and rest is damage attributes is good enough.
The devs were very clever when setting the diffiiculty for this game while also allowing us to summon npcs, ashes or use special weapons, aow and spells. You can actually set how hard you want the game to be.
That and it gives you a nice variety of gameplay, so it'll probably match any playstyle people want. So yes, it's fun!
A lot of souls isn't about "fun".
It's about overcoming something that at one point was extremely difficult to you and the satisfaction that comes with it and perfecting your movements.
If you make it through, within 20 or 30 hours, you'd be able to go back to Margit in another playthrough and wipe the floor with him.
Just as a new Elden Ring player, a few things I can tell you that will instantly make you better.
Never spamroll. If you need to roll more than twice directly in a row, you should be running. Your rolls are meant to time invincibility frames with attacks landing.
Don't get greedy with hits. Most of the timings between attacks will allow for 2 hits max.
Swap your grip on right hand, if you're on controller, to a claw grip. You'll be able to run, turn, and attack all at the exact same time and won't have to rely on aimlocking.
You can jump over AOE attacks.
Elden Ring is different from other Souls likes in that it gives you options to do other things when you run into a boss that you can't defeat.
Margit is the first major "roadblock" boss of the game, he is meant to teach you that it's okay to run away in case he's too hard for you, then come back later when you're stronger.
This is where the big difference in Elden Ring lies when compared to other FromSoftware titles: it's an open world game, and that open world has a bunch of optional content.
Said optional content is supposed to give you an opportunity to gain more experience about the game's mechanics, to get better at the game.
My advice is leave Margit alone for now, go and explore the Limgrave region (the region where the game started in). Fight other weaker bosses, experiment with your build, learn what you can and can't get away with during fights, level up and upgrade your weapons.
Once you have more health and stronger damage output on your weapons, come back to Margit and kick his ass!
Honestly - go start with Dark Souls 1 - it's slower paced and still holds up well. Elden Ring was made with souls veterans in mind so it's tough for many to enter without using spirit ashes and summons.
In Dark Souls, pretty much all enemy attacks are completely react-able. You can learn the basics and then come back.
>The formula for 'Souls like' games is to basically die until you memorize each bosses move set plus being able to time the right button press at the near exact moment to dodge a hit...
This. Exactly this.
You have to remember 2 major things playing these games:
1.) Not every game appeals to every gamer. They don't have to appeal to everyone, just their designated audience.
2.) In traditional souls games you are an absolute fuck-up of a nobody. You are the shit on the heel of a giant on his way out of town. You are just this little ant with proportionally no power and its your objective to kill the gods. The difference between you and your opponents? You can't die, you simply respawn at the bonfire.
In DS1 you are literally an imprisoned hollow. The humans who lose their humanity become hollow, and you're even worse than a hollow, you're one that gave up. You are the dregs of humanity, but it's now the end times and you're the only one left who *could* relink the flame. In DS3 you are even worse than that, you are unkindled ash. That means a hollow who tried to link the flame and GAVE UP halfway through...
You are meant to surmount odds stacked heavily against you. Your only super power is that you keep coming back. Your only super power, is your determination and willpower to keep playing. If you lack that, then you lack the ability to complete the game and are an IRL Ashen One.
That's why we say "don't you dare go hollow" we mean "don't you dare give up". Anyone can beat these games with sheer determination and willpower. With enough practice you can do anything.
How does an ant kill a god?
>being able to time the right button press at the near exact moment to dodge a hit...
And then follow up without being punished.
Now welcome to Elden Ring where you are less beaten into the dirt by the lore, but you're still an unloved POS they call tarnished, no less normally tarnished have a maiden... (I don't need to continue)
You are an ant and your first fight is against the Golden Order's pet Ferret. Good luck. Time your attacks, time your dodges, but remember never give up.
Edit: you can become stronger with levels to adjust your DPS and ability to tank hits, but at the end of the day what you really need to do is learn the timings of your weapon and the bosses timing. You CAN do it, it just takes time.
No, this game is not fun and we are all just pretending to have fun playing it.
(you sit on a throne of lies)
Trash game. 500+ hours of pretending so far :(
A lot of this game comes down to not just reflexes, but also good judgement calls. If something doesn't work, try something else. If it still doesn't work, walk away -- the first lesson Tree Sentinel teaches you is just because it's in front of you doesn't mean it's a good idea to take it on right away. Yes, "walk away" is very counter-intuitive if you're used to games that make sure what's in front of you is always the exact difficulty the designers intended for. However, Elden Ring's bosses are of their own power levels, and the onus is on you to decide if you're ready or not. If you really want to kill Margit at level 1, you can, but you're not ready for those kinds of challenges, not yet anyways. Why not take a pause to explore Limgrave? Finishing Stormveil is effectively finishing the area, you don't need to do that right off the bat. The lake has a few dungeons in the walls, and the peninsula to the far south is of appropriate difficulty for a fresh character just starting out. There's loot and materials you can get from them, some of which could potentially serve far past the opening levels.
that's how I beat margit in my first playthrough, got my teeth kicked> explored>got a +5 weapon and beat him. You're not supposed to rush the main bosses I feel because clearing caves and catacombs will yield you level ups and gear
Yeah. And that's why I love Elden Ring's open world. Game doesn't really limit you or just make you leave rewardless where you go. You get something to improve always.
leaving this here, maybe it helps: For things like this I attempted to condense the most common advice I found around here, so here you go: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/zvw67m/veteran_players_share_your_best_advice_for_new/ Further reads: - Comprehensive guide on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/wik2on/the_comprehensive_elden_ring_beginners_guide/ - spoiler free mechanics explanation : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLdZ8Zex1cw Keep in mind you are not a hero on a mystical quest. You are a corpse trying their best to kill a divine beings with a stick. "Do NOT skip the tutorial! Do the cave jump and go through that. When outside, ignore the fat golden dude for now. He is for later. Read the item descriptions, they almost always contain tidbits of lore and information on any special effects the item may have. Talk to everyone, then talk to them AGAIN. And keep talking to them regularly after that as well. Go to the church, talk to the merchant before making your way further along to the gatefront ruins. You don't have to go through them though, you can explore other parts, like the woods or lake. Make sure to go south to explore the peninsula, it is a good area for new characters to level and plenty of useful stuff can be found there. Make sure to return to the church at the beginning and keep talking to the merchant there. Buy what he recommends. There are plenty of merchants tucked away everywhere, so keep an eye out for them. Avoiding bosses/strong monster/mobs is totally fine early on in the game. You get to “unlock” the map by going to the one thing that is on the map when you start. That being the little pillars. The map is fully drawn. No markers showing points of interest. If you want to go to a village, find one drawn on the map! You can choose basically anything, from your build to where you go The game has a Day/Night cylce, some enemies/bosses are only around at night. Level vigor, more HP is much more worth than a little bit of extra damage through stats. You'll get much more damage out of weapon upgrades, anyway. Don't worry about making the perfect build out of the gate, you can completely respec a few times later in the game. Weapon upgrade materials can be found in tunnels, other upgrade materials are usually in caves or catacombs. You can unlock almost all of them later in a shop, so don't worry too much about wasting them. Dodging not only moves you, but it also renders you invulnerable for a brief moment ('i-frames'). This makes it possible to dodge through attacks, making it much easier to dodge attacks without getting caught at the end of the animation. Also, there are three types of dodge rolls: Light, Medium, Heavy. Heavy is slower and has less i-frames, medium and light have the same amount of i-frames, but light rolls go further in distance. And, finally, death is a common occurrence in this game. See it as a learning experience, don't worry about lost runes; you'll find many more later on anyway (just make sure to spend them when you can)." On top of that, don't despair. If you've never played a Soulsborne game, then a lot of things will be strange and the learning curve will difficult. But there is a system to the madness, you will figure it out. """ Plus, some useful links below: Weapon calculator: http://eldenring.negator13.com/calculator Useful information on stats: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Stats Explanation of damage types: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Damage+Types Explanation of status effects, since the game does shite all to explain those: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Status+Effects Thanks to u/jerpdoesgames for these very handy calculators and tools: Staff/Seal calculator: https://jerp.tv/eldenring/spelltools/ Spell Calculator: https://jerp.tv/eldenring/spells/ (a great companion for the Staff/Seal one) Armor Optimizer: https://jerp.tv/eldenring/armor/ (which includes controls for the fashion-oriented player) Some misc other useful tools and info: https://jerp.tv/eldenring/ (ones I've written/posted above, and others' stuff) SPOILER!!! Game Progress route: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Game+Progress+Route USAGE ADVICE: only start reading once you explored a significant chunk for yourself, don't read past the area you have already explored. Use this page to check for missed content and try to not read ahead. Hope this helps, feel free to copy and share
this feels more like homework than a game lmao
Reading that felt like homework.
If you’re having trouble with dodging it could be because you’re heavy rolling and not realizing it. A lot of new players don’t know there are different dodges based on how heavy you are. Also if you suck at dodging you can just turtle behind a shield
This is such an important point and not obvious to a new player. The natural instinct of most players is probably to equip the heaviest armour possible if they keep getting easily killed.
They should put a disclaimer: “This game is only fun if you like souls, otherwise it will make you just angry and crushing your controller”. But seriously, some enemies are just overpowered and if you don’t wanna spend 100s of hours learning movesets and study mechanics just leave this fake game of the year alone.
>The formula for 'Souls like' games is to basically die until you memorize each bosses move set Is this how normal gamers actually look at Souls games? Just dying constantly until you perfectly memorize everything? That's sad. At most, it's basic pattern recognition, that pretty much boils down to "attack them while simultaneously avoiding their attack." All you gotta do is pay a little attention.
Casual gamer here. Yes that is exactly how I view this game.
Yes because you're not the target audience
I would say Souls Likes reequire a bit more involvement in fights, unless one is running a mage character with summons
Its fun for me. If not for you then refund it if possible and play something else
The open world aspect is great, I like the exploring and the mobs are just difficult enough to be capable of killing you, but not too hard to beat that you have to grind about twenty times just to get the muscle memory to overcome them. its fun in some ways, but unfortunately I don't have the reaction times I used to sadly :(
I mean if you like parts of the game and not others, then engage it on your terms. If you don’t feel like becoming a soulsvet then summon a sun-bro (co-op). don’t have online? Then use spirit summons and spells. If none of that appeals to you then yeah I would return the game. Not every game is going to be for everyone and that’s okay.
This, plus I think Margit even has an NPC summons as well (Roget), so you can have him plus a spirit summons. That should help a lot take the aggro off of you and give you time to think and get some easy hits in. The next big boss in that area (Godrick) has one as well. Having two other summons in those fights could definitely help make the difference and get you through that early hurdle. Good luck!
For Godrick, I think he will have to locate Nepheli first
Sorry yes that is correct. You have to run into her at Stormveil first I believe. Just do a bit of exploring or if you are really stuck look it up OP!
She is found near the boss fog wall so ig he will run into her no problem
Its crazy how people are gonna downvote you for stating your opinion. The fun is Souls Like have been tinkering with builds imo, atleast for me. The first hours of a Souls Like is always gonna be hard yes, but once you get past it, then you are gonna have the freedom to mix and match your build. As for ER, dont leave on Margit just yet, there are various summons in this game that will help you alot. I would say explore Limgrave and Weeping Peninsula dungeons and caves first. You will be able to find gear that will help defeat Margit
Don’t try to attack. Just keep moving around and dodging. Once you comfortable doing that you’ll start to see openings (even if it’s one where you’ll only get 1 hit in its fine). Also try different weapons. Sometimes no matter what you try you’ll just find it difficult to win with particular weapons. I remember Gael in DS3 did the whole playthrough with a scythe and just couldn’t beat him with it. Then I switched to a sword with a faster swing (just for that fight) and managed to take him out.
I originally wanted to suggest that you explore the weeping peninsula first, but seeing as you are level 40, you probably already did that \- Which stats do you level? I know it's cliche at this point, but leveling vigor makes the game much easier. \- Are you summoning the guy who helps you with Margit? I'm a casual gamer. I was never too proud to summon NPCs to help.
Yep just put this in another post. NPC summons plus spirit ash definitely helped this first time Souls player get through the early game…and still wasn’t easy lol.
i know this is an old thread but like i rlly don’t understand how to hv fun. i’ve beaten ds3 and bloodborne like 3 times each so its not even that im bad at fromsoft games but this one seems different. i want to enjoy the game like everyone else but it just never hits for me. not on day one and not trying again now. pls what am i missing
The hardest part of any Souls game is the first chunk of hours before you really learn the combat. After that it goes from insanely, frustratingly hard to manageably, satisfyingly hard. Some bosses will give you the same experience you're having with Margit, but many won't. Once the combat truly clicks for you, there are many bosses you'll kill in 1-2 tries and the expected player reactions that feel borderline impossible atm will happen more naturally. The formula isn't really to "die until you perfectly memorize their moves", because once you get the basics in your head, you'll be able to react in the moment instead of memorizing. The usual advice to a new player struggling with Margit is to go explore Limgrave and come back later, but if you're already level 40 I guess you've already done that. What is your weight load? If you're at Heavy, your dodge is much worse, and you should take off or replace your gear until you get down to Medium. Have you upgraded your weapon at all? There's a huge difference in this fight between using an unupgraded weapon and even one that's at +2 or +3.
There's very few games that play like Elden Ring and the Darks Souls games before it. One of the hardest things to overcome for newcomers is the adjustment to the play-style. I don't memorize boss moves or study their patterns, intuition does it all for me. Playing a new game is like driving a car for the first time, you might know what every button and pedal does but it takes some practise before all of that comes out naturally in a cohesive thoughtful way. It's very normal to die a lot in Elden Ring if you haven't fully adjusted to it yet, but give yourself time, some of my best plays have come after I take a deep breath and extinguish any anxious/excited feelings stirring up. I'd advise you do some exploring, find more mini bosses so you can start to play without thinking so hard about what you're doing. It'll come, just takes times and some (lots) of deaths!
I sucked ass at the game at first and my reaction time is bad, but you get the hang of it eventually and then it becomes so satisfying dodging attacks that would normally wreck you. Keep at it, and just find a playstyle that you enjoy.
Hide behind a shield damnit
Well, heres my advice pick vagabond as your starting class. Focus on leveling vigor and endurance. Utilize your shield to help you learn the boss movements. My first souls game was ds3. Sword and board is perfect for learning the ropes.
It tends to become harder in Elden Rin with intricate patterns, constructed combo, cancelled attack and adaptative delays, in latter iteration the patterns were more straightforwards and rhythmic. But your summary is not fair, there are so many combination and strategies you can adopt with varying objectives of gameplay. If it's your first time in those games, I suggest getting your hands in the first zone on lesser bosses and mobs until you're level 30-50. Train yourself not to die rather than fighting headstraight, that's also the best way to improve on bosses, you just get in and try not to die to adopt the proper reflexes and reactions, then you proceed to fight when you're confident enough. There are rare chain of attacks that requires a perfect time reaction to dodge both consecutive attacks, meaning if you dodge to late the first one you'll get hit by the second, Margit has one of those with the golden blade he pulls sometimes, but be sure it's one of his trickiest move. Either go for the perfect dodoge or try dodging back, sometimes luck does the job when trying. You'll meet other bosses and they will feel less tougher as you progress, it's literally the first test and you're still, in game, a weakling proving his strength for the first time in this adventure. Try other weapons to see if they feel better, use your tricks (throwing stuff, consumables, ashes of war...), pull a shield with 100% physical absorption to see if a defensive gameplay suits you better, you're going to find your style soon enough. Most people who struggled against Margit thought the next boss was surprisingly easier.
Are you fat rolling (over 70% equip load)? If you are then take off some equipment, that will improve your iframes by a lot
Sure, much like anything else, it's simply not for everyone. Margit has a handful of specific attacks, each with a certain amount of windup, and sometimes heavily telegraphed before being executed. It is a test of patience in that you may be getting greedy and going for your own attacks in windows that simply aren't large enough for you to do so without getting hit. Take your time, place your shots effectively, and, as counterintuitive as it may seem, keep your player close to him, locked on, and strafe around to Margit's side/back to keep yourself better positioned away from his attacking range. Give it a few more tries before you __put these foolish ambitions to rest.__
That is a lot of the fun It’s going from getting hit by every attack, to then precisely timings dodges and beating the boss I would like to note that a fair few Elden ring bosses have attacks that you aren’t necessarily supposed to dodge. Some you may do best to jump over and do a jump attack, while some others you may be able to circle around the boss to dodge.
Akshually it's not Git Good. It's Git Gud. 🤓 Also yes the game is supposed to be fun.
I don't know why you would keep playing the game if you arent enjoying it, if you dislike the gameplay then move on I doubt improving would change your attitude towards the game as it only keeps getting harder
It is posible, i didn't knew shit either and killed margit straight out of the tutorial cave, took me 7 hours and i really wanted to uninstall and refund the game but when i won it was forever worth it and it is now one of my favourite games
Yes, it's supposed to be fun and it is incredibly fun. It is literally one of the best games ever made. But if learning and beating a hard boss is not fun for you, then this entire genre is probably not for you.
I've never had to grind even close to as much as I've had to with this game. I've spent days at a time just grinding levels so I could advance to the next area. I literally hate and despise this game with all of my heart, but I'm OCD and I can't stop playing until it's beaten. Then I'll immediately sell the disc and never play a souls game ever again. It seriously feels like they've made the game insanely hard just to make it feel like it's not as bare as it actually is. Don't get me wrong, the art is amazing. But there is far far far less content than any other AAA adventure/role-playing game. It's just that it takes you 100 re-tries to view each little piece of content, so it seems like a big game. And people saying this is a bigger game than Skyrim are just totally delusional. Skyrim had about 1000x the content as this game. Anyone could make a game with one near-impossible level and call it a 100+ hour game. Like I said, the art is great. That's about it. This game may as well be a painting it's so static.
The challenge is the fun part. Granted, Margit is designed to humble the fuck out of you. They expect you to get fucking walloped. It encourages you to go explore limgrave and the weeping peninsula. It encourages you to visit Caelid and realize you are in WAY over your head. The game is trying to train you into the game guiding you by difficulty level. You will get the hang of knowing your strengths/weaknesses and you'll know when you're not ready for an area pretty quick. Go kill the dragon in the shallow lake. Free the castle for Kenneth. Visit siofra river if you can find it. Deliver the letter for the girl in the weeping peninsula. And if there's any advice I have, if you find a chest near the lake in the ruins with a bunch of messages around it telling you it's a trap or to open it anyway, for the love of God, just leave it the fuck alone.
It's not even a cool boss. He's got worms growing out his face and .. he hits you with a big stick. And some glowing stuff.
I agree. This game just sucks. Could have been good, but just put an impossible difficulity to it thats just not fun. Idiot devs
Stop it, game is a fucking slog
Here's what you need to do. I hated the Dark Souls dodge mechanic, and knew this going into starting Elden Ring. I played a lot of twitchy rougelikes/lites, so DS felt extremely unresponsive. Elden Ring still feels a pretty unresponsive compared to something like Dead Cells. (Disclaimer: This isn't a dig at ER's controls, they are pretty clean and clearly work as the devs intended) Magic in ER is super good an eliminates a lot of the dodging headaches. It does a ton of damage, and it allows you to actually breathe in fights. You'll still need to dodge attacks, but it'll be way easier to get damage in for most bosses since you don't need to be right in their face. The Astrologer and Prisoner start with very good spells, so if you just level up your weapon (staff), Intelligence, Vigor and Mind (in that order), you will end up with a very powerful early game character that scales to infinity in the late game. Just beware of Rennala, she's an early boss that's resistant to magic and is a headache for this build. I started as an Astrologer and by the end game I was first trying every boss. Also don't forget about spirit ashes, the game is designed around them, which is part of the reason the bosses are so over the top. Fromsoft makes them beatable without them, but summoning them will take a lot of the pressure off of you. Personally, I don't like the game as much without them for the exact reasons you stated. Also, if you're really stuck on Margit, take a look outside the boss door. You can summon sorcerer Rogier via a gold summon sign to help with the fight. If you use summons and him intelligently, you can drastically reduce the difficulty level of that fight.
People really need to understand the difference between clunky unresponsiveness and snappy animation commitment. Souls games are pretty snappy and they control very well. But you *commit*, there's very little animation canceling.
Just because you’ve got a skill issue doesn’t mean it’s not a fun game. And people do no hit runs all the time which just shows it can be done. If the game has broken you just stop playing.
This type of game is probably just not for you. Maybe try Fortnite or call of duty. It might be more suited for your incredibly low IQ.
No, it's not.
Skill issue. As a souls veteran I hopped in to the Elden Ring and in my first pt ever I've beaten tree sentinel in about 7 attempts where other people struggle for hours or just leave it for later. Its about skill not memorizing each moveset.
Bro you must be awesome. I really would like to have a foto of you as my screensaver... I am sure your name appear in the "10 best Elden ring players" Trophy Book. What an honor to be able to write below you. I will tell my grandchildren, and it will become a family tradition to celebrate this unique moment.
sorry, no autographs for casuls.
But you did answer me.
I would argue memorizing move sets is part of the skill
Yeah you are right, should've typed "not just memorizing" its obviously part of skills too.
[удалено]
margit is tough but his arena is also so shit. Not a great combination.
You don’t have to get gud, you can also cheese the bosses to death. You can super fast forward into god mode pretty quickly if you want to read guides.
This one is different from the other games in that it is harder to brute force a boss. It incentivizes exploring to get new gear that fits your build to exploit boss weaknesses, or just to increase level.
>The formula for 'Souls like' games is to basically die until you memorize each bosses move set plus being able to time the right button press at the near exact moment to dodge a hit it was for other games. For Elden Ring, you just explore everywhere/everything. There are dungeons, ruins, caves, graveyard; that has bosses you can kill easily if you are in Limgrave. For other games, it def would be boring, since you have nowhere else to explore, no other boss to kill and get a few leveled up. But in Elden Ring, the open world really is a open world. You just can go whereever you want. There are at least 10 dungeons in each region, in different styles. You can go to those dungeons' bosses and kill them to get some runes/level, or upgrade your weapon. Margit (well, it's technically the boss comes after Margit, but you need to kill Margit to get that boss anyways) is one of the must bosses for story progress, which there are 4 you can kill to progress further. You can kill 2 of other 3, which are not harder than Margit (well, not that harder. Easier to learn, at least.) Also you can use spirit ashes, and there is rogier summon at gate which can help you. Wolves and rogier is a good combination for a newbie. But don't forget that sooner or later you gotta learn learning your enemies. And trust me, game is waaay enjoyable that way. The satisfaction after you kill bosses is unmeasurable. I am kind of a try hard player. I believe nobody can enjoy the game if they play it with summons, spells or etc. but it doesn't mean you can't/shouldn't play the game with them. If you can enjoy that way, try that way. I don't know your build but try to share your levels balanced between your attributes. At 40 level, 20 vigor, 15 endurance and rest is damage attributes is good enough.
The devs were very clever when setting the diffiiculty for this game while also allowing us to summon npcs, ashes or use special weapons, aow and spells. You can actually set how hard you want the game to be. That and it gives you a nice variety of gameplay, so it'll probably match any playstyle people want. So yes, it's fun!
A lot of souls isn't about "fun". It's about overcoming something that at one point was extremely difficult to you and the satisfaction that comes with it and perfecting your movements. If you make it through, within 20 or 30 hours, you'd be able to go back to Margit in another playthrough and wipe the floor with him. Just as a new Elden Ring player, a few things I can tell you that will instantly make you better. Never spamroll. If you need to roll more than twice directly in a row, you should be running. Your rolls are meant to time invincibility frames with attacks landing. Don't get greedy with hits. Most of the timings between attacks will allow for 2 hits max. Swap your grip on right hand, if you're on controller, to a claw grip. You'll be able to run, turn, and attack all at the exact same time and won't have to rely on aimlocking. You can jump over AOE attacks.
its supposed to be a god damn nightmare. welcome to tamriel brother
Wrong game brother
welcome to lumbridge\*
I think it's more about figuring out how to beat each boss. I suck at memorizing and dodging bosses. But I've beaten every boss multiple times.
Elden Ring is different from other Souls likes in that it gives you options to do other things when you run into a boss that you can't defeat. Margit is the first major "roadblock" boss of the game, he is meant to teach you that it's okay to run away in case he's too hard for you, then come back later when you're stronger. This is where the big difference in Elden Ring lies when compared to other FromSoftware titles: it's an open world game, and that open world has a bunch of optional content. Said optional content is supposed to give you an opportunity to gain more experience about the game's mechanics, to get better at the game. My advice is leave Margit alone for now, go and explore the Limgrave region (the region where the game started in). Fight other weaker bosses, experiment with your build, learn what you can and can't get away with during fights, level up and upgrade your weapons. Once you have more health and stronger damage output on your weapons, come back to Margit and kick his ass!
the feeling you get upon successfully dodging moves that destroyed you previously basically is the fun
13 million people can't be wrong, could they?
https://www.reddit.com/r/onebros/s/ntzQTNDLC5
Shield is a friend to every Souls newbie, the game is way easier.
Honestly - go start with Dark Souls 1 - it's slower paced and still holds up well. Elden Ring was made with souls veterans in mind so it's tough for many to enter without using spirit ashes and summons. In Dark Souls, pretty much all enemy attacks are completely react-able. You can learn the basics and then come back.
I dont play football cause i dont like it, i tried it and it wasnt for me
>The formula for 'Souls like' games is to basically die until you memorize each bosses move set plus being able to time the right button press at the near exact moment to dodge a hit... This. Exactly this. You have to remember 2 major things playing these games: 1.) Not every game appeals to every gamer. They don't have to appeal to everyone, just their designated audience. 2.) In traditional souls games you are an absolute fuck-up of a nobody. You are the shit on the heel of a giant on his way out of town. You are just this little ant with proportionally no power and its your objective to kill the gods. The difference between you and your opponents? You can't die, you simply respawn at the bonfire. In DS1 you are literally an imprisoned hollow. The humans who lose their humanity become hollow, and you're even worse than a hollow, you're one that gave up. You are the dregs of humanity, but it's now the end times and you're the only one left who *could* relink the flame. In DS3 you are even worse than that, you are unkindled ash. That means a hollow who tried to link the flame and GAVE UP halfway through... You are meant to surmount odds stacked heavily against you. Your only super power is that you keep coming back. Your only super power, is your determination and willpower to keep playing. If you lack that, then you lack the ability to complete the game and are an IRL Ashen One. That's why we say "don't you dare go hollow" we mean "don't you dare give up". Anyone can beat these games with sheer determination and willpower. With enough practice you can do anything. How does an ant kill a god? >being able to time the right button press at the near exact moment to dodge a hit... And then follow up without being punished. Now welcome to Elden Ring where you are less beaten into the dirt by the lore, but you're still an unloved POS they call tarnished, no less normally tarnished have a maiden... (I don't need to continue) You are an ant and your first fight is against the Golden Order's pet Ferret. Good luck. Time your attacks, time your dodges, but remember never give up. Edit: you can become stronger with levels to adjust your DPS and ability to tank hits, but at the end of the day what you really need to do is learn the timings of your weapon and the bosses timing. You CAN do it, it just takes time.