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[bitbydeath]

*But you’ll still die 1000+ times.

 

[Barakov]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I still love the game and i do feel rewarded for exploring/finding everything. Being so powerful is my reward, i get it. It's just that the previous games weren't that eager to reward me so generously.

>sorcery user detected

 

[nkarafo]

>sorcery user detected

Str build with shield.

 

[ParaSeoul]

Its alright,the more familiar you are with these games,the easier it is.

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

As far as I can tell, the people who keep whining that the game is too hard almost universally either do not have 60 vigor or are generally underleveled (you should be level 120 or so for endgame bosses if you're exploring reasonably thoroughly).

 

[OOGABOOGA]

Just keep dodging until you land a hit, it's the same damn formula we been playing for more than a decade

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Ok, virgin


j/k /s

Maidenless

 

[drotahorror]

Really? Because i'm melee without frost/bleed and i think the game is still easy. I guess i didn't need the wiki to tell me how to play after all!

I used a colossal greatsword (no frost or bleed) for a lot of the game, then dual wielded colossal greatswords w/no bleed/frost til almost the end of the game.

Anyway, completely agree though. Beginning was kind of hard, I struggled for several hours at first. Then I explored, killed mini-bosses, killed main bosses, I pretty much just stopped exploring after getting to the atlus plateau. Did every main boss achievement in the game, zero sweat, most 1 shotted, with exception of final boss taking me maybe 5 tries at most.

I really enjoyed the game but it was nothing compared to my struggles with some of the previous games.

 

[Keihart]

No, it's not. It usually requires hours upon hours of farming.

Hours of farming? you are trippin'

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

On my first playthrough I thought Maliketh and Malenia in particular were way too hard. On my second playthrough (on ng, not ng+), with a more optimized build and dual wielding instead of sword + board, I absolutely wrecked them (no summons). I do think that the way melee builds work in this game is a bit different from previous Souls games. For both strength and dex/bleed builds, it seems like dual wielding is really the way to go. Your DPS is much, much higher, especially when you factor in bleed/frost procs and posture breaks. Small melee weapons without bleed/frost/rot (straight swords, curved swords, rapiers) don't really seem viable anymore in PvE.

 

[nkarafo]

As far as I can tell, the people who keep whining that the game is too hard almost universally either do not have 60 vigor or are generally underleveled (you should be level 120 or so for endgame bosses if you're exploring reasonably thoroughly).

To be fair, some bosses can still kill you with a single combo even at such high levels.

But with a summon distracting them its far easier to avoid such scenario.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

“I’ve played it for hours upon hours so I’m massively over levelled and have found most of the powerful items, I’m just steamrolling the game.”

Good for you OP, good for you.

But if you’re just playing it casually, it’s still bastard hard. Like, TOO hard for my money, I think it’s by far the most difficult one.

I put it down after 40 hours, I’m not sure if I’ll go back either.

Yes, I could just grind for hours upon hours to level up, but that’s dull and is basically cheating the game.

Nah. DS1-3 is balanced and has a nice difficulty curve. ER is all over the place.

Yup, it’s really poorly balanced. The base mobs are quite a bit easier, but the bosses are just insane unless your’re a massive nerd with way too much time on your hands.

 

[Knightime_X]

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

You absolutely do not need to grind at all in this game. If you haven't been leveling your vigor go respec - put minimum points in str/dex to use your weapon of choice, get up to 25 or so endurance, and dump all your excess points into vigor until you hit 60.

 

[lh032]

Its easy...if you dont solo.

Currently im playing solo, no player/NPC summons.

Still stuck at radahn, not gonna give up.

 

[Hinedorf]

I'm trash, I agree it's easier than any other From game. It's also more fun and more successful than any other From game.

 

[skneogaf]

It's far too easy if you summon anything or anyone to help you.

1 vs 1 or 1 vs 2 is still sometimes hard.

I wish I hadn't use the bell summon and have now stopped until I die at least 30 times on each boss.

Sekiro is the goat for difficulty.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

It's far too easy if you summon anything or anyone to help you.

1 vs 1 or 1 vs 2 is still sometimes hard.

I wish I hadn't use the bell summon and have now stopped until I die at least 30 times on each boss.

Sekiro is the goat for difficulty.

See, I just don’t have the patience for something like that. What’s that, 2 hours plugging away at one boss?

Fuck that…

 

[Calverz]

The mimic tear ash is easy mode basically. Level that up to
+10 and the game becomes way too easy

 

[Fools idol]

I was doing a no-spirit and no-spells on my first playthrough.. pure dex build assassin. Found it quite easy until mid and late game.

Some bosses like Melania are brutal if you aren't using summon spirits to help

The difficulty is perfect because it's as easy or as hard as you want it to be, given the immense freedom with builds. This is what all RPG games should be like - pure freedom and role play with your character and build.

 

[Meicyn]

The mimic tear ash is easy mode basically. Level that up to
+10 and the game becomes way too easy

I gave my mimic tear a Great Stars with the Prayerful Strike ash of war. Every hit inflicts a little bleed and heals by 1%. It’s not a fast weapon as a great hammer, but it comes with fantastic poise damage to stagger enemies with ease.

Prayerful strike heals for 30% of your health bar and has serious hyperarmor, so if you make good use of it, you inflict a shitload of damage, lots of poise damage, heal 31% of your healthbar per target hit, all for the cost of 20 FP which can be reduced with the right talisman. Mimic tear has no FP bar and can do it forever. Lmao.

Malenia was a hilarious cakewalk. My mimic tear and I kept her in near perpetual stagger with me using my greatsword with the bloodhound step ash of war to dodge as much as needed, and any damage he took would get healed back from prayerful strike.

I could have also cheesed her with bloodfly swarm, or used a greathammer with prelate’s charge ash of war for nonstop stagger. Or we could have just prayerful striked her to death, lol.

Elden beast killed me on the first attempt through a one shot I should have dodged, but he got swatted on the second go. Mimic tear is hilariously gamebreaking.

 

[tassletine]

I agree, apart from a few bosses that were bullshit hard.
You should really factor in that almost all of us here know these games inside out and so is probably a lot easier for us, as there's very little here that's new mechanically.

My impressions of the game went from, "this is by far the best open world game ever designed, they put so much care into the design" into ,,, ""this is just like every other open world game now, they really don't seem to care much at all". The first half of the game is by far the best, the end is just a mess. I liked the haligtree, although I found it to be too brutal, but the second snowfield? Garbage.
It's a great game for content, and I hope patches improve the balance, but I don't have much of an urge to go back to it, as the end section is really tedious.

 

[Danjin44]

I think Elden Ring feels easier because you have more tools and overall more options compare other Souls games.
One thing have to say, I was disappointed with final boss and it not really about its difficulty but I just found Elden Beast both virually and actual fight really boring.

I recently finished my 100% run for Kirby and in all honesty it had way more epic final boss than Elden Ring did.

 

[Meicyn]

I agree, apart from a few bosses that were bullshit hard.
You should really factor in that almost all of us here know these games inside out and so is probably a lot easier for us, as there's very little here that's new mechanically.

My impressions of the game went from, "this is by far the best open world game ever designed, they put so much care into the design" into ,,, ""this is just like every other open world game now, they really don't seem to care much at all". The first half of the game is by far the best, the end is just a mess. I liked the haligtree, although I found it to be too brutal, but the second snowfield? Garbage.
It's a great game for content, and I hope patches improve the balance, but I don't have much of an urge to go back to it, as the end section is really tedious.

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

They definitely went for quite a bit of spectacle and my least favorite bosses were the ones that were so large that they were far outside your camera, punishing melee players because all you see are feet, and many attacks are heavily choreographed overhead where you can’t see. Then there are the shit options with regard to target lock. That weird space dragonfly boss is cancer and I ended up not using target lock at all because my character, despite using Guts’ greatsword, was poking and slashing at air half the time when using it.

 

[Zeroing]

Game is hard and unbalanced, I’ve found it hard(er) because most of the moves of the bosses are not predicable and they attack like they belonged in sekiro or in nioh.

I had tons of moments of “I don’t belong” here while exploring, normal on a open world souls game I guess.
Of course the game gets easier if you follow a wiki or a walkthrough but going in not knowing… will definitely make things more complicated.

Love that guy videos. But it’s not natural playing.
That’s just cheesing and research. You can do similar things in all souls.
The game is not easy because cheese.
My +10 mimic didn’t win the game for me. As I said. Have is quite easy now that I finished it but that’s not the point
Watch a proper critique

Yes I’ve seen his video critique and I agree mostly. That guy is a hardcore souls fan.

 

[Majukun]

Just keep dodging until you land a hit, it's the same damn formula we been playing for more than a decade

just keep jumping until you land on something
just keep shooting until you hit something

 

[M1chl]

Maidenless

I fucked up

 

[RoadHazard]

I gave my mimic tear a Great Stars with the Prayerful Strike ash of war. Every hit inflicts a little bleed and heals by 1%. It’s not a fast weapon as a great hammer, but it comes with fantastic poise damage to stagger enemies with ease.

Prayerful strike heals for 30% of your health bar and has serious hyperarmor, so if you make good use of it, you inflict a shitload of damage, lots of poise damage, heal 31% of your healthbar per target hit, all for the cost of 20 FP which can be reduced with the right talisman. Mimic tear has no FP bar and can do it forever. Lmao.

Malenia was a hilarious cakewalk. My mimic tear and I kept her in near perpetual stagger with me using my greatsword with the bloodhound step ash of war to dodge as much as needed, and any damage he took would get healed back from prayerful strike.

I could have also cheesed her with bloodfly swarm, or used a greathammer with prelate’s charge ash of war for nonstop stagger. Or we could have just prayerful striked her to death, lol.

Elden beast killed me on the first attempt through a one shot I should have dodged, but he got swatted on the second go. Mimic tear is hilariously gamebreaking.

How can you "give it" stuff? It just uses what you yourself have equipped right? You mean that you have a "mimic loadout" that you equip before summoning it, and then you switch back to what you want to use yourself?

I just let mine roll with whatever I'm using, it's still way too powerful.

 

[Martinski43]

It's pretty easy if you go by the strong builds and summon ashes route, especially if you are like me used to the formula. It's probably quite hard, evident by souls veterans to go solo. I've seen streamers who are good at these games being stuck at Malenia literally for days.

 

[Meicyn]

How can you "give it" stuff? It just uses what you yourself have equipped right? You mean that you have a "mimic loadout" that you equip before summoning it, and then you switch back to what you want to use yourself?

I just let mine roll with whatever I'm using, it's still way too powerful.

Yeah, I expressed it poorly. I use the equipment myself, but anytime I summon my mimic tear, I make sure I’m holding my great stars on the right hand, and my pulley crossbow on the left. The pulley crossbow fires in sets of three, and I keep coldbone bolts so he can help me drop freeze status and grab hate at a distance. He switches to the great stars at close quarters.

He’s nigh invincible because he can heal 30% of his health bar and attack at the same time at will. So broken. Especially if you have the ironjar aromatic equipped which has limitless uses for a mimic, lol.

 

[SJRB]

>Use item specifically created to help the player if they chose to
>Upgrade item to ridiculous levels so it becomes insanely powerful
>???
>GaMe iS ToO EaSy!!!

 

[The Cartographer]

The few hidden bosses and the last streak of mandatory bosses are inanely aggressive and are by far the hardest bosses in any modern FromSoftware game.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

As far as I can tell, the people who keep whining that the game is too hard almost universally either do not have 60 vigor or are generally underleveled (you should be level 120 or so for endgame bosses if you're exploring reasonably thoroughly).

No way. You should be in excess of level 150 if you’re exploring.

 

[Fully engaged]

All the souls games are like this.. Once you get used to the weapons and you are at the end game level the game is far easier than the beginning.. even sekiro is like that.

 

[thuGG_pl]

It was pretty managable thanks to lots of tools given to you (spirit ashes, other summons etc.).
Also it isgreat that after defeat I spawn near the boss to go at him again.

I'm playing Bloodborne now, and jeez, the fact that I need to farm blood vials because I used them during boss is such a shit mechanic. It discourages me from launching the game, because first I need to farm rather than play.

 

[KungFucius]

(j/k I agree it’s easier than DS3 for example)

That is pretty sick. It is a fucking video game not a real world challenge. I think many soulsbourne fanatics have unchallenging and unfulfilling careers, at least the ones that think like this.

 

[mxbison]

It's not easy. It's medium with lots of difficulty spikes in both ways.

 

[BbMajor7th]

Hard out of the gate for sure - Godrick put my on my arse plenty and I thought it was actually harder than prior games - but as with all Souls games, knowledge is power: early on you'll be punished for ignorance more than anything else, but later on, when you know what to expect and how best to respond, things get much easier. Pair that with the fact that you're constantly increasing in real-terms power and it's honestly to be expected. Elden Ring suffers more severely with this as there is so much more to find than in prior Souls games and much more iteration across the world design and enemies. When the difficult does spike, it tends to be cheap enemies with insane damage output or broken move-sets.

Masterful as Elden Ring's world design is, FROM doesn't escape the common balancing issues with open world games. If you have a very meticulous playstyle and try to clear out everything as you go, learn all the systems and hone your build with care, by the final third, you'll be seriously overpowered and very aware of the repetitive design.

 

[RoadHazard]

>Use item specifically created to help the player if they chose to
>Upgrade item to ridiculous levels so it becomes insanely powerful
>???
>GaMe iS ToO EaSy!!!

But you naturally get enough stuff to upgrade yourself and your equipment (and summons) to OP levels just by playing the game normally (by which I mean exploring and doing side stuff). You don't have to actively grind at all for that to happen.

And how am I supposed to know I'm OP for upcoming areas until I get there? I haven't played the game before. Am I supposed to intentionally nerf myself so I don't risk becoming OP?

 

[Pyral Phoenix]

Yes, it is.

 

[luffie]

People complains about using summons or not, but all of ya use mimic. Use summons, just don't use mimic, that way you are not trying not to use a feature of the game but also don't get roo overpowered.

Let's be honest, mimic is op, for anyone who struggles. Don't tell me it's not.
I'm a mage hybrid, my mimic have unlimited fp, and can shoot the Moon followed by Comet Azur, meanwhile I have only enough fp for 1 moon.

So engage with summons, but don't use the crazy ones like mimic or tiche. And you'll find that the game will be enjoyable without being too easy or deliberately crippling yourself by disabling summons.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Just keep dodging until you land a hit, it's the same damn formula we been playing for more than a decade

Get the red bar at the bottom all the way down without your red bar at the top doing the same.

 

[Interfectum]

Souls games aren't hard... they just require a little thinking and a lot of patience which is outside the norm of most AAA games these days.

 

[fart town usa]

It's definitely difficult but the game is a breeze for the most part. Just depends on how you play.

Strictly solo is definitely going to be a challenge but playing coop makes it pretty chill. I probably put 60 hours in solo and was having a great time, I'm strictly coop now when I play, not because it was getting too hard, it's just too much fun in coop and don't really want to play it solo anymore. I'm at 100 hours now, level 96.

Solo sessions now are just helping people kill Morgott in the capital. Such an easy fight and a good way to get rune arcs and 30k runes. Just sucks when the host dies.

 

[Cyborg]

I don't believe it's a hard game (as long as you level up enough) but there are some tough enemies/bosses.

 

[Fuz]

Souls games aren't hard to begin with.
They are really good at make you think they're hard, though. It's excellent design.

In reality, pretty much everyone can complete them - and they even have little cheese strategies to help - by design.

I can think of thousands of much, much harder games.

 

[TonyK]

Easier than Sekiro doesn't mean easy. In the same way a rhino is smaller than a elephant but that doesn't mean a rhino is small.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Let's be honest, mimic is op, for anyone who struggles. Don't tell me it's not.
I'm a mage hybrid, my mimic have unlimited fp, and can shoot the Moon followed by Comet Azur, meanwhile I have only enough fp for 1 moon.

I think if more people actually went back and did the very first dungeon before getting the mimic; by the time I got mimic, oleg and I were already best friends, and I wasn't impressed by the fact that you need to gear/stat the mimic very specifically to be better than oleg.
Oleg doesn't get enough praise.

 

[Sub_Level]

I found Dark Souls 3 to be the easiest. Elden Ring is kinda all over the place, some areas & bosses absolutely are crushingly difficult depending on your setup and other areas are laughable.

Souls games aren't hard to begin with.
They are really good at make you think they're hard, though. It's excellent design.

In reality, pretty much everyone can complete them - and they even have little cheese strategies to help - by design.

I can think of thousands of much, much harder games.

Yep. Average NES game was waaaaay more mean to the player for example. Then the average game got a little bit easier on SNES. Then a little bit easier on PS1. By the time PS3 arrived people were noticing it.

 

[Stuart360]

I'd say its easier than the past Souls games, but i certainly wouldnt say its easy. With the open world you have more options and room in fights, plus you can litetrally leave fights a lot of times and come back later when more leveled (which you can in Souls games but sometimes you are forced to go in a certain direction).
I have watched Eldern Ring by 3 or 4 streamers and they all died the usual multilple hundred times by the time they finished the game, same as with their Souls playthroughs.