My name is Alexx and I am addicted to Elden Ring. Following on from my article during the summer about how I was finally going to get my head down and defeat Rennala after being stone-walled by her, I can report that not only have I still not beaten her, I didn’t try to either. Instead, after months away from the game and many fond memories of my 34 hours (wrongly previously reported as 40 hours) with it, as the lion’s share of those were spent grinding and learning the lay of the land, I decided to start a new playthrough with a different class of character to see how I got on. Very well as it turned out.
My last session of my first playthrough saw me arriving in Altus Plateau at level 69. A mere five hours into my new save, following VaatiVidya’s guide on how to become over-powered at the beginning of the game, I have reached level 47. Not only that, I have also re-visited over 90% of the Sites of Grace I had activated earlier in the year, and by the time I hit hour six I will be back in Altus Plateau.
Previously playing as an Astronomer mage, this time I have settled in to playing as a Samurai blood-build. I recently watched Jacksepticeye’s Let’s Play (again) using exactly this, and having seen how well it worked for him I decided to give it a try myself. First impressions are very good, but to be fair after you’ve spent as much time in Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula as I have, there isn’t much around those locales to give any grief. I have bypassed Stormveil Castle, an option I love the game for giving players, and progressed all the way through Liurnia of the Lakes, also bypassing the Academy of Raya Lucaria, for now.
The most important thing to do, which isn’t mentioned in the early game guide videos I have watched, is to visit as many graveyards as possible. Each of them carries at least half a dozen Golden Runes of varying efficiency and are lightly guarded, meaning you can jump several levels at a time if you make a beeline for them in the early game. This can also be recommended as while you drop your stash of Runes when you die, unredeemed Golden Runes always remain in your inventory. While I’m not new to the game myself anymore, if anyone reading this is yet to pick up Elden Ring I found it immeasurably helpful in my first run to Google the locations of all Sites of Grace in the area I was in, so when I inevitably died the back-tracking was kept as brief as possible.
I haven’t met Margit yet, and while I’m fairly confident I am now in a position where I could likely defeat him first try, I am waiting until I am ridiculously over-levelled for him. The dozens of attempts to beat him from my old save still haunt me, and I want him to experience the humiliation he gave me all those months ago. I will be back with another update on my renewed push through Elden Ring very soon, so in the meantime thanks for reading!
Written and edited by Alexx.