Kalé is the first merchant you stumble across in your adventures in the Lands Between – essentially, if you recall an NPC with Santa Claus-like garb, that’s our guy. Aside from selling valuable items and offering some lore titbits in exchange for chatter, you don’t get much else from Kalé as he remains rooted to the spot. 

According to newly surfaced content from Sekiro Dubi (thanks, PCGamer (opens in new tab)), the merchant was once tied to a tragic subplot of the game. Speaking to Kalé further would have led to them mentioning The Great Caravan, which was once home to merchants like Kalé and something he yearns to find – imagine the treasure, after all. Defeating Godrick at Stormveil Castle would have sent Kalé on a quest to find the Great Caravan, with certain clues left behind to help you find the merchant’s following location. 

This theme would have repeated throughout Elden Ring’s storyline until you reached the Subterranean Shunning Grounds beneath Leyndell. The place is eerie enough, with corpses in no short supply, though Kalé’s scrapped quest implies that those are their people and, in turn, the final resting place of the Great Caravan. 

The Subterranean Shunning Grounds is also home to the Three Fingers, which relates to one of Elden Ring’s bad endings. Essentially, its teachings are considered sinful as opposed to the Two Fingers, and choosing to embrace the Flame of Frenzy ties you to that. 

Upon discovering the fate of his people, Kalé swears revenge and cuts all ties with you. You can somewhat reconcile by embracing the Flame of Frenzy, though that doesn’t end well for Kalé either.

If you’re keen to check out more of Elden Ring’s content, Sekiro Dubi has recently found some that relate to Vyke – another minor character who holds prominence as they appear on the game’s cover art. 

Here are more games like Elden Ring, ye tarnished. 

The post Cut Elden Ring quest ties early-game merchant to a tragic subplot appeared first on Game News.

Earlier this week, a moderator on the Elden Ring subreddit posted the information just below, revealing that the official fashion showcase for the community would be taking place later this week. Top entries for the Knights and Cosplay categories have now been assembled, and voting will be commencing June 3 – 5.

Right now, there are ten contestants from both categories entering the Elden Ring fashion extravaganza. When voting kicks off later this week, however, there’ll be five contestants from both categories entering the first round on Friday, and five contestants entering the second round on Saturday. Two victors from each round will move onto the grand final on Sunday, where a winner will be determined.

And oh my god, the contestants here are enough to turn heads at New York Fashion Week. First up, we’ve got the contestants from the Knights category, which is basically challenging people to dress up as extravagantly as possible with in-game gear, combining different armor and weapons from various sets to make one gorgeous look.

There are the likes of our feathered friend Bird Knight (opens in new tab), the imposing Leper Queen (opens in new tab), and the fiery Varos, Banished Dragonslayer (opens in new tab) to contend with in the Knights category. Meanwhile, in the Cosplay category, entrants are tasked with dressing up as real-life or fictional characters, but only using in-game gear from the vast world of Elden Ring. There’s no cheating with mods here.

We’ve got entrants including massive man Moses (opens in new tab) with two big stone tablets, a picture-perfect Witch Queen (opens in new tab) from The Lord of the Rings, a very honorable player as Knight Solaire (opens in new tab), and even a duo dressing up as Kratos and Atreus (opens in new tab) from 2018’s God of War. There’s a brilliant and bizarre bunch of creations on offer here, and we can’t wait to see who emerges as the victor this weekend. 

Check out our guide to the best Elden Ring armor locations and sets if you’re looking to take your drip up a level.

The post Elden Ring fashion show blends brilliant and bizarre this weekend appeared first on Game News.

It’s not complely easy though, because this is a FromSoftware game after all. The Swamp of Aeonia where it’s located is a poison swamp that inflicts Scarlet Rot whenever you touch it, and if that maxes out you’ll die in seconds. So, while you can technically just go to its location and pick it up, you still need to be careful. Stocking up on plenty of Scarlet Rot cures is essential, for example. The enemies in this area can also be a tough – they favor poison attacks and can be hard to take on if you’re a lower level. 

However, while there are risks, it’s more than possible to get Elden Ring Meteorite Staff as a priority for all your magicking needs. It’ll be worth using these Elden Ring Rune farming locations to get a few levels under your belt to make things easier, though before you set off.

Where to find the Elden Ring Meteorite Staff

You’ll find the Meteorite Staff location in a ruined tower marked on the map, in the Swamp of Aeonia. The easiest way to get there is either via the Sellia Crystal Tunnel Site of Grace, which you’ll probably have been teleported to at some point early on thanks to booby trap. If that hasn’t happened yet then you’ll can try and ride out there from Limgrave (or find the basement area in the Dragon-Burnt Ruins in Limgrave and open the chest for a surprise). The actual closest Site of Grace is Aeonia Swamp Shore to the South, but it doesn’t make too much of a difference.

However you reach it, make sure you stock up on Preserving and Neutralizing Boluses to deal with Scarlett Rot and poison respectively. The Swamp is full of red water that will inflict Scarlett Rot on you – when the status bar fills you’ll take constant damage until you cure it, rest at a Site of Grace, or die. A lot of enemies in this area will use poison based attacks as well, hence preparing for both. 

There are plenty of islands and small land masses however, and you can use these to prevent Rot build up. Plus you can ride Torrent across the water as well, although it will take damage and eventually die if it experience too much rot. Worst case, you can run between land on foot, waiting for the build up to subside before carrying on. 

You’ll need to get into the dark recessed area on the map and hug the cliff face until you see this building: 

There will be a body hanging out one of the windows with an item visible on it. That, when you get there, will be the Meteorite Staff. Be careful when you approach as there are fungus priests and flowers that all throw poison attacks at you. If you have any ranged options, now’s the time to use them. 

Once inside the small tower’s base (which is full of poison flowers so beware) you’ll find a Golden Rune 4 on a body just inside the door, and the meteorite staff on the body in the window. 

Elden Ring Meteorite Staff scaling, abilities and requirements

The key thing about the meteorite staff is it has an S scaling with Intelligence, and only needs an 18 Int requirement, which most sorcery users should reach fairly soon. It also boosts any gravity sorceries you might be using.

The downside is that this staff can’t use Ashes of War, or be upgraded in anyway. It’s as good as it’s ever going to get. So, while it’s a great early game get, you’ll want to replace it with something else later that you can level up and improve.

Elden Ring weapons | Elden Ring armor locations | Elden Ring Smithing Stones | Elden Ring Somber Smithing Stones | Elden Ring Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones | Elden Ring best builds | Elden Ring weapon scaling explained | How to strengthen weapons in Elden Ring | Elden Ring Ashes of War | How to get the Elden Ring Golden Scarab | Elden Ring Stonesword Keys | Best Elden Ring early game weapons | Elden Ring Sacred Relic Sword | Elden Ring Mimic Tear

The post Where to find the Elden Ring Meteorite Staff appeared first on Game News.

Elden Ring took the gaming world by storm when it launched back in February. Even those with no interest in the Souls series couldn’t help but be intrigued by The Lands Between. Its vast popularity has led to Elden Ring swiftly becoming From Software’s best-selling game ever, with 13.4 million sales in little over a month. As such, you might expect Elden Ring to be among the ten most-played titles of the year. But if you do, then you’d be wrong. 

Spotted by ResetEra (opens in new tab) user Sullivan, Mat Piscatella, executive director and video game industry advisor for analyst firm The NPD Group, shared the ten most played games of 2022 on Twitter according to its long-running PlayerPulse survey. The list shows the most played console and PC games in the US during the year’s first quarter.

As Piscatella points out, half of the games included weren’t launched in this decade. Sorted by release year, the top ten features Minecraft, GTA 5, The Sims 4, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and both Call of Duty Warzone and Call of Duty: Vanguard.

Here are the top 10 most played games of Q1 2022 in the U.S. ranked by year of initial release. (Source: The NPD Group’s PlayerPulse)Half of the top 10 weren’t launched this decade. Elden Ring ranked 20th. Ahead of it were games like Rocket League, World of Warcraft and Skyrim. pic.twitter.com/eWXKVMFHZjMay 24, 2022

See more

But where does this leave Elden Ring? Amazingly, From Software’s latest came in at number 20. According to Piscatella, Skyrim, Rocket League, and World of Warcraft all placed higher. One reason for Elden Ring’s surprisingly low ranking could be that this list accounts for Q1 2022, which covers the period of January to March. So while most tiles will have had three months to increase that player count, Elden Ring’s launch at the end of February means it was available for just over a third of that time.

Check out our guide to the new games 2022 and beyond for all the best titles coming to PS5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch and PC.

The post Elden Ring is nowhere near the most-played game of 2022 appeared first on Game News.

As well as these freely adaptable classes, the Elden Ring respec and Larval Tears system lets you complely repec your Elden Ring character. Once you unlock the ability you can reallocate all your skill points to try new builds, or fine tune the one you have. 

As we briefly mentioned earlier, picking a starting class in Elden Ring can also get you certain weapons and armor. That can actually be more important than the points to start with, giving you a choice of some gear that can carry you through quite a lot of the game. You can get a lot of this stuff, later from merchants or by finding it in the world, but picking it as class gear will see you start with some incredibly useful tools from the get go in Elden Ring.

All Elden Ring classes

These are the all the Elden Ring classes in the game. 

• Elden Ring Vagabond
• Elden Ring Warrior
• Elden Ring Hero
• Elden Ring Bandit
• Elden Ring Astrologer
• Elden Ring Prophet
• Elden Ring Samurai
• Elden Ring Prisoner
• Elden Ring Confessor
• Elden Ring Wretch

What Elden Ring Attributes mean and how classes work

Each class comes with a loadout of weapons and pre-levelled with an emphasis on certain character statistics known as Attributes. Each Attribute affects certain things about your character and gameplay in Elden Ring. Defeating enemies will give you Runes you can use to level up your character and boost Attributes letting you hone your build and play to its strengths.

You can start spending points in different Attributes to diversify your character’s abilities whenever you want due to an uncapped levelling system. For example, if you’ve been using a melee weapon-focused build, you might decide you want to get into Sorceries, so you’ll need to start spending points on boosting your Intelligence Attribute. Be aware that this is something you should only consider later in the game once you’ve already considerably levelled a few other stats.

Here are all the Elden Ring Attributes as well as what they affect:

• Vigor: Increases your character’s Health Points (HP, the red bar).
• Mind: Increases your character’s Focus Points (FP, the blue bar).
• Endurance: Increases your character’s Stamina (the green bar), and their maximum Equip Load, allowing your character to hold heavier items or more at once.
• Strength: The damage modifier and usage requirement for heavy, Strength-based weapons.
• Dexterity: The main damage modifier and usage requirement for lighter, Dexterity-based melee weapons and some ranged weapons. It’s also the secondary damage modifier and requirement for most other weapons, and slightly increases the speed at which you can cast Sorceries and Incantations.
• Intelligence: The damage modifier and usage requirement for Sorceries, but also a few Incantations.
• Faith: The damage modifier and usage requirement for Incantations, but also a few Sorceries.
• Arcane: The damage modifier and usage requirement for certain Sorceries and Incantations. Also boosts the rate at which you discover items out in the world.

All Elden Ring classes

Vagabond

• Beginner Friendly
• Highest starting Vigor/HP
• Good all-rounder for melee builds

The Vagabond is a very beginner-friendly, basic Elden Ring class that can be specialized for Strength or Dexterity to craft strong and relatively simple melee builds. You’ll start with a standard Longsword, Halberd, and a Heater Shield, although we reckon it’s best to stick with the Longsword and shield for relatively fast attacks and good blocking capabilities. The shield is a great defensive tool but is also good to practice parrying with on the low-level soldiers that you’ll find early.

With the highest starting Vigor (health) of any Elden Ring class, Vagabond players will be able to take more hits from the start, and receive a nice set of armor for decent protection. Although, you’ll have to remove some of this armor to get your weight below the 70% equipment load threshold to have a medium roll speed – above that and you’ll do a ‘fat’ (or slow) roll. Dedicate a good amount of your levels to boosting your Endurance to increase that equipment load, and you’ll be able to fully gear up for maximum protection and still roll at medium speed.

Warrior

• Agile melee class
• Highest starting Dexterity
• Good for weapon skills

The Warrior is the Dexterity-focused melee class of Elden Ring, so lighter melee weapons that require a bit of finesse, or ranged weapons such as bows will be your go-to armaments. You’ll start with two scimitars and a shield, so you can use the Warrior more defensively like the Vagabond or go all out with dual-Scimitars. 

A base Dexterity of 16 will set you up nicely in terms of early melee damage with those Dexterity damage scaling Scimitars, allowing you to focus your first few levels on boosting Endurance for more dodge rolls and attacks with your Stamina. This will also mean you can avoid using your shield and will get you into the habit of dodging effectively and parrying, rather than just blocking and taking hits.

Hero

• Highest starting Strength
• Heavy melee class
• Tanky with high Vigor and Endurance

Choosing the Hero means you’ll be focusing on all-out strength with this Elden Ring class. Serving as the opposite to the Warrior class, Hero players will use heavier weapons with slow attacks that deal massive damage. Starting off, you’ll be doing this with 16 points in Strength and a big axe, but putting even more points into Strength will help you meet the requirements of some truly hefty Strength-based weapons early on.

Elden Ring Heroes start off with good Vigor and Endurance, so more HP and Stamina, meaning they’re at least a little tanky and agile too. You can boost these Attributes more in the early levels to make the Hero more balanced or can focus purely on Strength to up your damage as much as you can.

Bandit

• Highest starting Arcane
• Good up close and at range
• Stealth is essential

The Bandit class is Elden Ring’s stealth assassin. With a dagger and a small shield, Bandit players need to avoid direct conflict with groups of enemies and should instead focus on critical hits with backstabs or sniping with the starting Short Bow.

If things do go loud, you’ll have to rely on your dodging abilities and parrying as the Bandit has pretty low stats in all things except for Arcane, giving this class a decent item discovery rate for new gear – much like the Luck in Dark Souls. However, the Bandit’s stats are generally low and balanced enough that re-specializing into a different playstyle shouldn’t be too difficult, provided you can also find the right gear.

Astrologer

• Highest starting Intelligence and Mind
• Powerful magic user
• Fragile glass cannon class

The Elden Ring Astrologer class is one of the few options built for magic from the start, with an impressive 15 Mind and 16 Intelligence stats. Astrologers will be able to cast many powerful Sorcery spells for single and multiple targets, making it quite a destructive ranged magic class.

However, all its other stats are quite low, so it might be a good idea to spend your first Runes on boosting Vigor and Endurance to boost HP and Stamina to make the Astrologer less squishy and more agile. Then you can focus on bringing up your Intelligence even more to meet the higher Attribute requirements for better spells, making your older ones more powerful in the process.

Prophet

• Highest starting Faith
• More balanced stats compared to Astrologer
• Incantations focus less on dealing damage

The Elden Ring Prophet class is the other side of the magic coin, focusing instead on Faith and casting Incantations, which are generally more supportive than offensive. This will allow you to fulfill a holy warrior role, backing up yourself and any allies with healing Incantations, and smiting your foes with Fire and Holy damage if you can find the right Incantations. So long as you have good access to healing spells, focusing your Runes on the Mind Attribute will increase your available FP and therefore how many Incantations you can cast.

Samurai

• Highest starting Endurance
• Very good Strength and Dexterity
• Versatile melee and ranged build

The Samurai class in Elden Ring is a sort of hybrid of the Vagabond and Bandit. Combining good Strength, the highest base Endurance of any class, and great Dexterity, the Samurai is all about Dexterity-focused melee, with ranged sniping as a secondary option. Players should focus on mastering dodges, parrying, and the two-handed weapon stance to deliver precise strikes and attack combos. The starting Long Bow adds extra versatility to the Samurai too, allowing this class to dominate at close and longer ranges.

Prisoner

• High starting Dexterity and Intelligence
• Rapid spellcasting and melee attacks
• Heavily relies on Dexterity

Sitting between the Warrior and Astrologer, the Prisoner Elden Ring class, combines both good Dexterity-based melee with Intelligence-based Sorceries to deal a range of damage. The high Dexterity has the added bonus of quickening the casting of spells, so Prisoners have the potential to deal a lot of damage very rapidly.

This class is let down by its lower Vigor and Endurance, so boosting HP and Stamina should definitely be a focus for leveling up when it feels necessary. However, putting a lot of points into Dexterity is going to improve your melee and magical capabilities, so that should be a priority.

Confessor

• High starting Faith but balanced Attributes across the board
• Good for beginners interested in magic
• Doesn’t excel in anything particular

Similar to the Prisoner, the Elden Ring Confessor class blends the balanced melee capabilities of the Vagabond with the Faith-focused Incantations of the Prophet. Base Strength and Dexterity stats of 12 mean there’s a lot of freedom in which weapons Confessor players can specialize in, so we recommend pooling your Runes into either Strength or Dexterity initially to give you more of an advantage in close-quarters. Balance this with levels in Faith, Vigor, and Endurance to keep your Incantations up to speed and your Confessor healthy, and you should have a relatively balanced character competent in both martial and magic attacks.

Wretch

• Total build crafting freedom
• Extremely vulnerable when starting
• Do not choose this unless you are very experienced

The most basic, blank-slate Elden Ring class there is. Wretches start with 10s across the board in all Attributes and almost no equipment. This allows players to fully build up their character, but it means having to start from scratch, while finding your own weapons and armor – wretch players will start with a measly club and nothing else – not even clothes. This class is only recommended for players with a lot of experience with previous FromSoftware games, and even then, it would be a better pick for a second playthrough of Elden Ring once you’ve become properly acquainted with it.

Best Elden Ring classes for beginner players

• Vagabond: The Vagabond is arguably the best Elden Ring classes for beginners. Melee builds are generally easy to pick up without having to familiarize yourself with loads of in-game systems, making them great for players unaccustomed to FromSoftware gameplay. The Vagabond’s high Vigor makes it forgiving, and the good Strength and Dexterity gives players the freedom to try all sorts of melee armaments.
• Hero: Similar to the Vagabond, the Hero class in Elden Ring is a starting point for melee-focused builds. With Strength as its best starting Attribute, this class is all about dealing lots of damage with each hit. If you’re not interested in experimenting with magic or more complex Dexterity-scaling weapons, choose the Hero for a pure melee-combat experience.
• Confessor: If you’re on the fence about committing to magic or weapons-based combat, the Confessor is a good Elden Ring class to start with. It allows players to dip into the complexities of Incantations without fully sacrificing too much in terms of melee capabilities for a balanced build early on.

Best Elden Ring class for experienced players

• Prophet or Astrologer: If you’re a fan of magic from previous FromSoftware games, you should definitely start with either the Prophet or Astrologer Elden Ring classes depending on which flavor of magic takes your fancy.
• Samurai: If Dexterity, agility, and parrying are for you, the Elden Ring Samurai class is definitely one of the best for experienced players. The starting Katana and Long Bow make it a versatile class that’ll see you through all kinds of encounters early on in the game.
• Wretch: As previously mentioned, this is the sort of Elden Ring class for highly-skilled Soulsborne players who want to have total control over their build. This is still something that even the top players should consider for a second playthrough, but the fact that you have a totally blank slate to work with gives the Wretch undeniable potential.

Elden Ring tips | Elden Ring secrets | Elden Ring Keepsakes | Elden Ring PS4 and PS5 comparison | How to get the Elden Ring horse | Elden Ring Rune farming locations | Elden Ring Summons | Elden Ring stats explained | Elden Ring Great Runes and Rune Arc farming | How to level up in Elden Ring | Elden Ring map fragments | Elden Ring merchants | Elden Ring Golden Seeds | Elden Ring Bell Bearing locations | Elden Ring Deathroot locations | How long is Elden Ring? | Elden Ring cheats  | Elden Ring coop and multiplayer 

The post Elden Ring classes appeared first on Game News.

There’s little doubt in my mind that we’ve recently seen the latest addition to that exclusive club. Elden Ring launched into an unprecedentedly busy spring, and proceeded to suck all of the oxygen out of the rest of the room. At another time, any of the glut of major titles that launched between January and April might have been the biggest game of their moment; Pokemon Legends Arceus, Horizon Forbidden West, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Dying Light 2, and plenty of others. All seem to have performed well but, regardless of their critical or commercial success, were simply drowned out by the cacophonous noise of The Lands Between. 

For all of Elden Ring’s success so far this year, however, its path to outright domination has long been beset with potential obstacles. The first of those was Horizon Forbidden West, which might have claimed the lion’s share of attention from PlayStation fans, but Aloy has already been swept aside. Next up on Sony’s slate is God of War: Ragnarok, but console exclusivity has already proved to be no challenge for FromSoftware. Elsewhere, Nintendo’s next major offering is Pokemon Scarlet and Violet – another console exclusive following hot on the heels of two recent entries in the same franchise – while legions of Harry Potter fans could turn Hogwarts Legacy into a smash hit, if its massive scope doesn’t push it into 2023.

Plenty of potential obstacles remain, but Elden Ring has arguably already seen off two of its biggest challengers. Both Starfield and the Breath of the Wild sequel were likely to be among the biggest games of whichever year they released, but after delays for both titles, that year will no longer be 2022. Those two massive holes in the schedule are good news for other projects hoping to launch towards the end of the year, but they’re also great news for Elden Ring – having established itself as the biggest game of the first half of the year, it’ll now presumably get to ride that train through to December, whether or not it gets any DLC some time over the next few months.

 The Elden Scrolls 

A smash-hit so assured that you can see the end of year headlines more than six months in advance doesn’t come along very often. The cadence isn’t exactly perfect, but I reckon it’s around every other year – the last time we got a hit this all-consuming was arguably Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which seemed all-but untouchable in the early days of the pandemic in 2020. Before that, it was Fortnite, which was all I seemed to write about for vast swathes of 2018. 2014’s Destiny is the next most likely contender, with Skyrim unquestionably dominating the early years of the 2010s.

But while Tom Nook and co were the perfect antidote to early 2020, it was The Last of Us 2 that eventually walked away with the bulk of that year’s Game of the Year awards. Fortnite might have hopped on the battle royale bandwagon in 2017 and helped kickstart the metaverse in 2018, but it was the original Breath of the Wild and God of War that claimed those respective top prizes. For almost any game that you might think of as the biggest of its year, there’s at least one major challenger to its title. Even Skyrim, which walked away with more than half of all of the GOTY awards given out in 2011, had to contend with the likes of Portal 2, and, ironically, Dark Souls.

Realistically, it’s far too early in the year to be genuinely discussing Game of the Year. When it comes to quality, there’s a lot I’m yet to play, plenty more that’s yet to launch, and a summer conference season formerly known as E3 2022 that’s sure to reveal great games that haven’t even been announced yet. But there’s an important distinction to be drawn between the best game of the year and the biggest game of the year. The noise surrounding Elden Ring has been deafening, and with Starfield and Breath of the Wild 2 out of the picture, the few games currently left to stand against it might well struggle with console exclusivity or further release date woes. There’s always a chance FromSoft’s latest won’t sweep the Game of the Year lists, but that’s unlikely to stop 2022 from being the Year of Elden Ring regardless.

Want to make sure you keep up to date with all of this summer’s announcements? Here’s our guide to the E3 2022 schedule.

The post With Starfields delay, 2022 is set to be the Year of Elden Ring appeared first on Game News.

Elden Ring is by far From Software’s biggest game to date. You can literally spend hundreds of hours wandering around the Lands Between, exploring dungeons, battling enemies, completing quests for NPCs or simply admiring the scenery from atop your trusty steed Torrent.

Unlike Dark Souls, From Software has added a map this time around, and while it doesn’t provide a ton of information, it certainly helps you get your bearings in Elden Ring’s enormous open world. But just how much of this sprawling land do you actually need to explore if your only goal is seeing the game’s ending credits? Well, wonder no more, as one Elden Ring player has answered that very question. So if you’re not one for spoilers, avert your peepers now.  

As evidenced by this image from Spicy_Slice (opens in new tab), shared on the Elden Ring subreddit (opens in new tab), you actually need to explore very little of the Lands Between to beat the game. Surprisingly, it’s little more than a straight walk through the middle of the map to the handful of bosses that you need to beat to reach the end of the story, and you can even use some teleport shortcuts to cut the journey even further. 

the_minimum_possible_amount_of_the_map_that_you from r/Eldenring

Not that we would recommend this hasty approach, mind you, as hightailing it to the end means that you’d not only miss out on loot, memorable optional bosses, and basically, the majority of one of the year’s best games, but you might find yourself rather underleveled for Elden Ring’s tough final stretch. But it is nonetheless interesting to visualize just how small the game’s critical path really is.

Since the game’s release, Tarnished have been flocking to the Lands Between in record numbers, making Elden Ring easily From Software’s best-selling game ever. 

With Elden Ring doing so well, we wonder will any other 2022 release be as dominant as Elden Ring?

The post Elden Ring player proves how small the map really is when you cut optional content appeared first on Game News.

The key thing here is that you need Smithing Stones to progress. The general recommendation is that you need certain weapon levels for certain areas, and while there’s nothing stopping you going anywhere at anytime, if you try your luck in a +10 area with a +3 weapon, you are going to feel it. The good news is that there are places brimming with each level of stone if you know where to look. Plus you can buy them and unlock unlimited purchases eventually. To help, we’ll explain below where to find all the Elden Ring Smithing Stones you could ever need, including how to farm and buy them.

Smithing Stones in Elden Ring

Tier 1 Smithing Stones in Elden Ring will allow you to reinforce your weapons up to +3 with just a Smithing Table, but you’ll need the help of a blacksmith and higher tier stones to go beyond. Smithing Master Hewg in the Roundtable Hold, for example, offers such a service. Thankfully, using just a Smithing Table, such as the one next to Kale in the Church of Elleh, to upgrade a weapon to +3 should be enough to see you through a lot of the early game bosses.

But where do you find Elden Ring Smithing Stones, and is their location hard to pin down? And how do you get the rarer Somber Smithing Stones for special weapons? We’ll show you how to find Elden Ring Smithing Stones and a way to farm the lower level ones below.

Elden Ring Smithing Stone locations in the early game

Elden Ring Blaidd quest

Want a free Somber stone? There’s one early in the Elden Ring Blaidd questline by finding him at the Mistwood Ruins!

For those starting out looking for Elden Ring Smithing Stones, we recommend heading straight away to an area called Limgrave Tunnels. It’s very close to the beginning of the game, Northwest of the optional boss fight dragon Agheel where the cliffs taper to a point. At the bottom you’ll see the entrance to the tunnels itself.

Limgrave Tunnels is a mid-sized dungeon with a boss at the bottom – the Stonedigger Troll – but you don’t have to fight him for your valuable Smithing Stones. Instead, the area is full of enemies mining the walls – look for the gold outcroppings and interact with them to get the Smithing Stones you’re looking for! They’re not unlimited, but you’ll find of a decent number of tier 1 Smithing Stones, so you’ll be able to upgrade your weapon to +3 at a Smithing Table if you get enough – we’ve got you covered if you need to know how to strengthen weapons in Elden Ring too.

The miner enemies in the tunnels also have a small chance of dropping level 1 Smithing Stones, so you can farm them to try and get a few more. Although there are plenty of other farming locations that are easily accessible out in Limgrave.

There’s a toppled statue on the cliffs directly North of the Stormgate with a light-filled crack running down it. Aggro one of the giant trolls nearby and lure it over – if it hits the statue it’ll break, giving you five tier one Elden Ring Smithing Stones and a single tier 2 stone to boot!

Once you’re done with that, the best place to find tier 2 Smithing Stones to get your regular armaments up to is inside Stormveil Castle itself. They’re lying around everywhere, though not especially common – we actually struggled to find tier 2 Smithing Stones more than any other kind – but once you get through Stormveil Castle you can start getting them a lot easier.

Where to farming Elden Ring Smithing Stones

Once you’re through Stormveil Castle and make your way into Liurnia, you can start getting Elden Ring Smithing Stones a lot easier. Take the following steps:

1. Head to the location marked above: the Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel. It’s a mine at the bottom of the cliff with the entrance partially concealed by shrubbery, but once you know where to look it should be fine.
2. The Tunnel is full of Stones (and enemies), but keep pushing downwards until you find the boss, a blue, spinning figure made of blue rock called the Crystalian.
3. Kill the Crystalian. He has a lot of health and tends to be very floaty, sending out discs that return to his hand. Play defensively and make use of the fact that he can be backstabbed like a regular person – use summons to keep his attention, then get behind him and go for the kill. 
4. Once killed, the Crystalian drops an item called the Smithing Stone Miner’s Bell Bearing [1].
5. Take this back to the Twin Maiden Husks at the Roundtable Hold and give it to them.
6. From that point on, you’ll be able to buy Tier 1 and 2 Smithing Stones from them indefinitely, as long as you have the runes.

This marks a good starting point for Smithing Stone farming, but you can farm every tier of stone provided you find the corresponding Bell Bearing, including the Somber ones! To get the entire lot, check out the Elden Ring Bell Bearing locations guide we’ve put together. You’ll be very glad you did.

Tier 1 Smithing Stones locations

Tier 1 Smithing Stones are quite abundant in the West Limgrave starting area of Elden Ring and nearby places, but only if you know where to look. We’ve detailed a few good spots already but here’s a map with plenty of locations that should easily net you over 40 tier 1 Smithing Stones in total, which is enough to get three weapons reinforced to +3.

1. West of Agheel Lake – A Smithing Stone can be found on a dead body in this part of the lake near the Stranded Graveyard
2. Church of Elleh – You’ll find a shard on the Smithing Table next to Kale in the church.
3. Stormhill – Three tier 1 stones can be found on a dead body lying with a bunch of knocked over chairs and other bodies. It’s east-southeast of the Stormhill Shack near a large ruin.
4. Stormhill Graveyard – In the forest graveyard up towards Stormveil Castle, you’ll find one tier 1 Smithing Stone on a corpse.
5. Glowing Statue – Lure a nearby Troll over to smash the glowing statue southeast of the Warmaster’s Shack. You’ll get five tier 1 Smithing Stones.
6. Saintsbridge – You can find two tier 1 Smithing Stones from a corpse on the bridge but watch out for the Pumpkin Head.
7. Summonwater Village – You can find one tier 1 Smithing Stone on a corpse in the graveyard on the north side of the village ruins.
8. Artist’s Shack – There is one tier 1 Smithing Stone lying on the ground just outside the shack.
9. Bridge near Agheel Lake – You can find one tier 1 Smithing Stone on a corpse very near the edge of the bridge.
10. Fort Haight – There is a corpse on the battlements of the fortress with one tier 1 Smithing Stone on it.
11. Bridge of Sacrifice – There’s a corpse hanging off the east side of the bridge that you can loot to get three tier 1 Smithing Stones
12. Castle Morne – Three stones can be found on a corpse near a tree at the far end of the main castle courtyard. There is a Pumpkin Head very close by!
13. Limgrave Tunnels – There are plenty of tier 1 Smithing Stones for you to collect in these mine tunnels. Search thoroughly to find as many as you can. Some are hidden behind obstacles or in small gaps that don’t look accessible but are.
14. Highroad Cave – There are three tier 1 Smithing Stones inside this cave for you to loot. All three are found on a single corpse on a ledge high up in the main flooded chamber area.
15. Morne Tunnel – Like the Limgrave Tunnels, this is another mine area full of tier 1 Smithing Stones.

Tier 2 Smithing Stones locations

Elden Ring Nepheli Loux quest

If you’re knocking about in Stormveil Castle, look out for the warrior Nepheli Loux. You can start the Elden Ring Nepheli Loux questline here, and there’s even a Smithing Stone [2] in the same room as her!

Elden Ring tier 2 Smithing Stones are functionally the same as the lesser tier 1 stones except they allow you to upgrade your weapon up to +6. However, you will need the help of a blacksmith to reinforce your weapons from now on. Clearly your Tarnished wasn’t given much in the way of smithing lessons before their quest. 

Tier 2 Smithing Stones are significantly rarer in Limgrave compared to tier 1 stones, but you can still find a few early on to help you out. They are more common in Liurnia and you’ll be able to find a few of them out in gazebos and other spots in the wetlands. We’ve got 11 areas covering Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula that provide a total of 15 tier 2 Smithing Stones – enough to bring one +3 weapon up to +6, which is more than adequate for early-game bosses.

1. Glowing Statue – Lure a nearby Troll over to smash this. You’ll get one tier 2 Smithing Stone.
2. Highroad Cave – There is one tier 2 Smithing Stone inside this cave. You’ll find it at the back of a cave that forms the mouth of a waterfall. Watch out for giant bats!
3. Ravine south of Summonwater village – There’s a wet ravine south of the ruined village where you’ll find lots of wolves fighting a Runebear. There’s also a corpse with a tier 2 Smithing Stone on it.
4. Mistwood Ruins – There’s a chest within the ruins that you’ll be able to loot to get one tier 2 Smithing Stone.
5. Church of Dragon Communion – If you haven’t been to this island already, you can only reach it through the Coastal Cave. Once there, head to the rocky shore on the south of the island to get one tier 2 stone.
6. Weeping Peninsula main path – after crossing the Bridge of Sacrifice into the Weeping Peninsula, you’ll reach an area with a lots of broken wagons and a giant Troll. There is a  tier 2 Smithing Stone waiting for you on a corpse next to one of the wagons at the far end of the area.
7. Castle Morne – There are three tier 2 Smithing Stones in Castle Morne. The first is available by turning left as you reach the castle’s main courtyard and going up some stairs to find a corpse. Look out for the ravenous dogs.
8. Castle Morne – Progress through the castle and climb up the ladders to reach the ramparts. You’ll find one with a Misbegotten eating a corpse, and the next tier 2 stone is on that corpse.
9. Castle Morne – Once you’ve reached the back of the castle, you can drop down some rock ledges to reach the roof of the Rampart Gaol, which has a big, square hole on it. Jump in but land on the wooden beam to reach a corpse with a tier 2 stone on it.
10. Stormveil Castle outer wall – If you choose to find the secret back entrance via the outer wall, you’ll be able to find a hidden Smithing Stone [2] on a corpse high up on a rocky ledge that you access by climbing along a broken wall section.
11. Stormveil Castle – Five more tier 2 Smithing Stones can be found within the castle’s walls. Explore every rooftop, room, and rampart you can reach to get them.

Tier 3 Smithing Stones locations

Elden Ring tier 3 Smithing Stones can be used to reinforce your weapons up to +9 with the help of a blacksmith. You’ll be able to tackle some really tough enemies with weapons rated this highly, but you’ve still got a way to go before they’re maxed out.

Tier 3 Smithing Stones are non-existent in West Limgrave, so you will have to venture out to find a few. You can press on with the story path or explore aimlesssly beyond Limgrave, though these stones appear to be commonly found in and around the Raya Lucaria Academy north of Stormveil Castle. Here’s where you can find some Tier 3 Smithing Stones:

1. Stormveil Castle – After clambering around the rocky path on the side of the castle, you’ll eventually reach a cliff area covered in trees and shrubs. Some warhawks will also be in this area, with one of them picking at a body that holds one Smithing Stone [3]. Get rid of the hawks to safely grab the stone.
2. Laskyar Ruins – You can find one tier 3 Smithing Stone in these ruins in the forest just north of Stormveil Castle in Liurnia of the Lakes.
3. Raya Lucaria Academy – There is a tier 3 Smithing Stone on a corpse in the plaza between the Academy and the nearby ruins of the Academy Gate Town.
4. Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel – Roughly northeast of the academy, you can find the Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnels which contain numerous tier 3 Smithing Stones.

Tier 4 Smithing Stones locations

At this point in the game you should’ve left Limgrave well behind, and wrapped your head around a lot of Caelid and Liurnia – which is good, because there’s enough Tier 4 smithing stones to upgrade at least a couple of weapons to +12 between them. We’ve homed on on these hotspots if you want to find a Smithing Stone [4] – or more.

1. Gael Tunnel – There’s seven Smithing Stones [4] inside this mini-dungeon, marked as the usual golden protuberances on the walls. They’re not hidden particularly, though they are guarded by miners, soldiers and even a few octopi in there. There’s also a boss Magma Wyrm, but you don’t need to engage with it to get the stones.
2. Ruin-Strewn Precipice – There’s even more Smithing Stones [4] inside the dungeon at the end of the river ravine that links Liurnia to the Altus Plateau. You’ll find 9-13 of them as wall pickups, looted bodies, and enemy drops along the way.
3. Artist’s Shack – The little abandoned shack Northeast of the Carian Study Hall has a body sitting nearby on a chair, with a Smithing Stone [4] on it.
4. Four Belfries – Down West below the Four Belfries is an enemy outpost with a chest inside it that holds another Smithing Stone [4].
5. South Aeonia Swamp – On the Swamp’s Southern bank is another body in a chair – this one has three Smithing Stones [4] for you to grab!

Tier 5 Smithing Stones locations

Want to take your weapons to +15? You’re into the second half of upgrades now and will be escalating towards creating some real superweapons that’ll help you master the Altus Plateau and all the areas around it. That’s why you need at least 10 Smithing Stones [5] to reach the next phase.

1. Sellia Crystal Tunnel – The mine to the Northeast of Sellia has about 8 Smithing Stones [5] inside, in a variety of locations (you must know how it works by now).
2. Altus Tunnel – There’s another tunnel with another 6 Smithing Stones [5] South of the Minor Erdtree in the area.
3. The Shaded Castle – There’s another 5 Smithing Stones [5] in this toxic castle to the North of Altus.
4. Old Altus Tunnel – About 8 more Smithing Stones [5] are inside this abandoned Tunnel on the route up to the Shaded Castle.
5. Sealed Tunnel – Inside the moat around Leyndell at the Southernmost point is another Tunnel with 5 more Smithing Stones [5] inside for you to get.

Elden Ring tips | Elden Ring secrets | Elden Ring Classes | Elden Ring Keepsakes | Elden Ring PS4 and PS5 comparison | How to get the Elden Ring horse | Elden Ring Rune farming locations | Elden Ring Summons | Elden Ring stats explained | How to level up in Elden Ring | Elden Ring respec and Larval Tears | Elden Ring merchants | How long is Elden Ring? | Elden Ring cheats | Elden Ring coop and multiplayer | Elden Ring endings | Everything to do in Elden Ring before NG+ | Elden Ring DLC

The post Where to find Elden Ring Smithing Stones appeared first on Game News.

That artist would go by the moniker “JiroSu,” and their work is nothing short of brilliant. For example, just below you can check out a modern twist on the character of Melina from Elden Ring, the stoic maiden who guides you through The Lands Between in FromSoftware’s latest game.

No maidens???? // artstation –> https://t.co/cIuJRdkPuy // insta –> https://t.co/FCCuzUOlev // #fashionredesign #ELDENRING #fashionillustration #fashionsouls #melina #DarkSouls pic.twitter.com/SmtlhpZaZ5March 11, 2022

See more

Elsewhere, the artist’s Instagram page reveals they’ve conjured up modern interpretations and other Elden Ring characters, like the one just below of Ranni. We’re not quite sure Ranni’s four arms would’ve translated over quite so well into her modern interpretation, so fair play to JiroSu for leaving them behind.

A post shared by Jiro (@atamagaitaizzz) (opens in new tab)

A photo posted by on

It’s not just Elden Ring characters who’ve had a modern twist put on them by this artist, as just below you can check out what would happen if Bloodborne’s helpful doll was suddenly transported over alternate realities and into a world where everyone and everything wasn’t constantly devouring each other.

A post shared by Jiro (@atamagaitaizzz) (opens in new tab)

A photo posted by on

These are some brilliant recreations from JiroSu, and we commend their commitment to the modern bit. We can’t help but wonder from these artistic interpretations if developer FromSoftware would ever leave their fantastical trappings behind for a more modern setting. Considering how well Elden Ring has performed since it launched earlier this year though, it’s looking like a no.

Elden Ring main bosses | How to beat Margit in Elden Ring | How to beat Godrick in Elden Ring | How to beat the Red Wolf of Radagon in Elden Ring | How to beat Rennala in Elden Ring | How to beat Godfrey in Elden Ring | How to beat Morgott in Elden Ring | How to beat the Fire Giant in Elden Ring | How to beat the Godskin Duo in Elden Ring | How to beat Maliketh in Elden Ring | How to beat Sir Gideon Ofnir in Elden Ring | How to beat Radagon in Elden Ring | How to beat the Elden Beast final boss in Elden Ring 

The post Elden Ring fan reimagines key characters as that cool kid you meet at college appeared first on Game News.

In reality, the poisonous wall seems to be a glitch, but it sure does sound like something FromSoftware and Miyazaki would add deliberately. After all, Soulsborne games are known for their poisonous swamps. But as Elden Ring hacker Zullie the Witch explains in a YouTube video, this otherwise inconspicuous poisonous wall is likely the result of misplaced coding known as “hit material.”

Hit material is used to define various surfaces in video games with effects specific to each one, like sounds and damage. For example, if the floor of a fancy castle is made up of granite tile, the developers would likely add hit material to that surface that makes a muffled tapping sound when players walk across it. With a lava pool, hit material is what would make your character’s feet make an awful sizzling sound as they presumably melt into the ground (unless you’re wearing Breath of the Wild’s Flamebreaker armor, of course).

In the case of this poisonous cliffside wall, which is located below the Temple of Eiglay in Volcano Manor, it seems FromSoftware simply goofed and applied the wrong hit material, making it coat players in deadly poison. But also… that’s a likely excuse, no? We’re on to you Miyazaki.

In all seriousness, this seems like an easy fix and it’s likely to be patched out in a future update. The latest micro-update addressed Malenia’s lifesteal attacks, which were accidentally broken in a previous patch. 

Elden Ring tips | Elden Ring secrets | Elden Ring Classes | Elden Ring Keepsakes | Elden Ring PS4 and PS5 comparison | How to get the Elden Ring horse | Elden Ring Rune farming locations | Elden Ring Summons | Elden Ring stats explained | How to level up in Elden Ring | Elden Ring respec and Larval Tears | Elden Ring merchants | How long is Elden Ring? | Elden Ring cheats | Elden Ring coop and multiplayer | Elden Ring endings | Everything to do in Elden Ring before NG+ | Elden Ring DLC

The post Elden Ring has a random poisonous wall and somewhere Miyazaki is laughing appeared first on Game News.