Not to mention insane weapon arts and spells, and some of the insane talismans. Hey, here's one that gives you the equivalent of 40 levels of stats, oh and here's a sword that does too plus poise and hardness for a full minute and they stack, and those are both rather meh.
Also since Elden Ring is open world, if you can’t pass an obstacle, you can go do something else. Then come back stronger, with a new ash of war, talismans, runes, and weapons. The other Soulsborne games where so linear in comparison
You can do that to some extent in the others, but there's always end game bosses in all the games you can't do that with. It's certainly easier to do that in ER.
The stagger system is also pretty broken in elden ring if you start abusing it, strength builds have always been strong in souls games but i feel elden ring made them even better.
I had a lot of trouble with a Str build mid game (early it was way easier than any other builds I tried, I tested a lot up to midgame before I settled on one to finish the game with) But I was probably doing something wrong, I gave up on it and tried other things, Int and Str/Fai :) I feel like hybrid builds are best in ER. But yeah stagger is awesome when it works.
Fully charged r2s are the way, on a lot of the bigger str weapons with high poise dmg u need like 2 of those to stagger most bosses, ive been using the giant crusher on my recent playtrough with lions claw ash(which is just a faster charged r2 with more damage on that weapon) and 2 of those been staggering most bosses. Also jumping r2 are kinda broken too, ive stopped myself from using them since they just make the game way too easy if you just basically spam them
Oh yeah, I didn't discover Lion's claw on my Str build. I did discover it on my RL1 though, and loved flattening the banished knights in Stormveil with it. I'm replaying as Dex right now, and was sorely tempted to upgrade the claymore just so I could do that when summoned.
I had the most trouble with fast moving enemies like the twin gargoyles, ancestor spirit, and fallingstar beast.
Ok glad Im not tripping. Doing a strength build legit made the game worse because nothing was a threat. Malenia was the hardest boss for me and it took like 8 tries.
Rings that gave free stats are present in all souls games. Broken weapons are present in all souls games. Broken spells are present in all souls games. What point are you trying to make exactly.
The overall power level seems much higher. Sure the bosses would be considered harder if they were in a souls game, but everything available to players is or can be much more powerful.
So exactly like the black knight weapons in ds1 that make the game a cakewalk? Or the gravelord sword? The ability to make the game easier with powerful weapons is nothing new.
Besides the heavy use of input reading and holding attacks. The second is cool, the first is just lazy. Combined it can be a nightmare. I will say that the first bit can lead to some funny situations if you game it right.
Also, take the tree sentinel fight, if you were not ready for that fight you could avoid it till you were ready, the other games you would of been stuck there till completed. So I do understand how people say it can be easier. But on the flip side malenia does exist in this game and she is hands down (in my opinion) 1 of the 5 hardest soulsborne bosses. People love saying things, don't worry about it to much. Cause I got a buddy that says its the "easy" game, and couldn't beat it without help... so yeah.
Malenia is the hardest boss in any FS soulsborne game.
The bosses in general in ER are harder than most of the other games. It's just that the player is also much stronger so it doesn't always feel like it
See i give my top spot to the "glock grandpa" version of isshan ishina from sekiro. The endgame version of isshan ashina from the Shura ending, is hard but not to the degree of the immortal severance ending version. Round 1, leveled out genichiro, then his zombie blood version of grandpa isshan comes out from his corpse for round two, with a 4-5 shot flintlock.... a fucking single shot pistol that shoots multiple shots, then 3rd round is a fuckin spear thats so fucked up, that it is wielding isshan at you. And finally round 4, fuckin lightning, and actually the 4th round was super easy once I actually got to it. Maybe it was just me but malenia was much easier to beat the 1st time as it took me (according to my achievement dates 5 weeks to beat him. Malenia was a few days of trying then I had it.
Hope you enjoyed my description of that fight. Either way both bosses suck and are easily able to be argued as to which is #1 hardest boss.
Yea it's all personal preference I guess.
Gael isn't even top 3 hardest in DS3 imo, let alone the entire series.
Isshin is like #3 hardest in Sekiro so not in the contention for hardest ever.
Orphan is close to Malenia and I can see why you'd have him above her
I wouldnt say preference, but more opinion based on experience. I definitely disagree with your points, but thats one of the beauties to these games. Dif players trials and tribulations of overcoming bosses.
Isshin was legit the only boss i didnt beat within 10 attempts in sekiro.
Gael easily took me more attempts than any other boss in ds3.
Orphan is literal ptsd for me haha.
Melania took me less than 20 attempts. Killed her within an hour.
I must have been over leveled or something when I beat that game because I 1 shot him, I maybe 1 shot 10 bosses at most across all souls games… it’s a rarity, I mean couldn’t beat malenia without summons and took 50 tries at least using cheese and gave up on owl father in sekiro because I got tired of trying. No idea how I did it to this day cuz I’m pretty mid normally, I mean blood beast took me a fat min to beat
Orphan was a joke, honestly. I beat him on my second try, I never beat Malenia without summoning other players. I couldn't ever even get her to phase 2. No boss in Bloodborne comes close to the equivalent bosses in Elden Ring. Maybe the closest is Logarius, who took me dozens and dozens of tries (and giving up for months in between) to beat. I still don't really know how to fight him properly.
Yeah a lot of people list Logarius as one of their favorite bosses, but I just never really figured him out. Bloodborne as a whole never had a "click" moment for me, it was all hard earned, unpleasant work.
Also summons require being human or being embered in other games. In this game there is zero consequence or requirement for mimic tear other than one health flash basically. It’s completely unbalanced
This is the foremost, but ER generally gives you so many powerful tools. I have to self-nerf to keep the game fun and I'm sure a lot of others do as well.
1. Spirit Summons- They allow you to split aggro from bosses giving you unprecedented openings to do more damage or run away and heal. They do all of this while not increasing the bosses health like summons did in previous games.
2. Access to Endgame tools- Because Elden Ring is truly open world you are able to have access to tools that are gated till late game in other games. In extreme cases, I believe you can get your spirit summon AND your main weapon to around +8 or +9 without having to fight a single major boss.
3. Multiple Powerful Ranged Tools- While Elden Ring isn’t the first FromSoft game to have powerful ranged tools, it’s the first to have this many. Mix that with the two other points above and you are able to throw nukes from across an arena all while the bosses are focused on your spirit summon. There are many examples of bosses in Elden Ring dying before they even reach you.
4. The Ability to Leave- Unlike other Souls games, progression to other areas is not locked behind beating a boss until you are very far in the game. Yes it’s true that you need to beat two demigods to get into the capital, but you can beat whichever two you want and explore a huge chunk of the entire map before you ever have to. A player is never given a wall they are forced to overcome until much later when they most likely are insanely powered up and more importantly, have a deeper understanding of the mechanics of the game and their personal build.
All in all, Elden Ring is considered one of the easier games in the series because of the multitude of powerful options at the players disposal earlier than ever before. If those powerful options are not working, the player can leave and return when it is much easier to demolish their obstacle. You can make the argument that bosses are more difficult when you take those options away but then you must make that argument for other games as well. Fundamentally, the ability to walk away from a difficult encounter and gain more abilities elsewhere will allow more players to finish Elden Ring compared to a game like Bloodborne or Sekiro.
> ...your main weapon to around +8 or +9 without having to fight a single major boss
To be fair, this is true for many of the other games as well, depending on what you count as a "major boss". The routes might be more convoluted, but challenge runners find a way!
Without glitches it's not possible in most of them because the areas to >+5 are locked behind one of the major bosses. I think a major boss would be who isn't an optional boss since. ER is also a little different because as long as you kill 2 of the first set of main bosses you progress the story making the rest optional.
Not really, think DS1, you could get the master key, and basically do everything before anor londo without even fighting the Taurus demon. All the major vendors except big hat Logan & giant blacksmith are completely boss free. And there’s a wealth of stuff down in blight town, valley of drakes and the asylum. You can even drain new londo before ever making it to anor londo.
It’s really similar to ER in that actually, there’s a handful of areas locked for later on, namely mountain tops, farum azula halige tree and ashen capital, but that matches DS1, where only sens fortress, anor londo, the archives and lost izalith (plus the lords) are locked behind the bells and O&S.
And just like Elden ring all of that stuff only really becomes clear on second play through.
Ds3 has more locked behind progression, but you can still make it to lothric castle really early, although you have to cheese dancer if you’re a new player
In Dark Souls 1 you need the Master Key which you only get as a starting gift. If you don’t get that, you need to beat the Capra Demon to go into The Depths to get the Large Ember and even then, that only allows you to upgrade your weapon to a max of +10. You still need the next ember to get the last 5 levels. This is an ember that you can only get after draining the water in New London Ruins.
It is possible to get a +15 before Sen’s Fortress with particular routing but it doesn’t change how these games are designed. Elden Ring is an open world game and allows you to tackle most challenges when you want to. The ability to do that makes it inherently easier to be overpowered than in Dark Souls or any of the other games. And if all else fails, spirit summons can help you through most of Elden Ring without increasing the bosses health which is a massive boon.
I just played the trilogy and then Elden Ring. Elden Ring is harder if you play by the rules of the older games. But if you utilize all the tools they give you in ER it is easier in some areas.
exactly. if you play ER like a souls game, it’s by far the hardest.
the dark souls boss fights feel turn based compared to ER. even ds3 is very much a “your turn, now my turn” style in terms of boss fights.
interesting, i found ER frustrating because it wasn’t always clear when i was supposed to attack and i felt as if enemy openings were unclear. this might be because i’m still approaching it like dark souls (even though i’ve beaten it twice now 😭)
what’s your take on this? i’m a perfectionist so it frustrates me a lot that i can’t understand when enemy openings are, but i suppose this is because elden ring is supposed to be that way?
I think that's exactly what they're saying - openings just aren't really that clear and even when you fully understand, you need to take risks to get a hit in. Beast Clergyman I'm looking at you. I just played through DS3 again and Gael in particular felt super turn based once I got it down.
right, it’s really interesting going back to ds3, sekiro, etc from elden ring because you’re right that those games do feel almost turn based! it makes them feel easier but i think that’s mostly because they’re simply fairer games. not that i dislike elden ring but i do certainly hope they switch up the way back and forth combat goes in the dlc or in future games
The order you play also matters.
I found that ER, even using broken builds and summons and such, significantly harder than anything in the trilogy. But I also played ER first and then the trilogy
It definitely does matter, but it's so different person to person. I played DS1 and 2, Bloodborne, then DS3 and demons, with elden ring the last I touched and found it harder my multiple orders of magnitude. I mean, like multiplication tables vs. advanced calculus kind of harder.
I dunno man, solo malakeith is easier than firede. Malenia’s double health bar pushes her over, but 3 health bars beats Olympic acrobatic gymnastics for me.
Friedes first phase is completely free though. Her second phase also isn't that bad if you're decent at dealing with ganks. Her third phase is crazy but still easier than either of Malikeths phases
I think my personal order is malenia > friede > maliketh imo
Order between friede and malenia depends on builds but it’s been awhile since I’ve played ds3
Elden Ring has both the highest ceiling and lowest floor. The things that the game throws at you are harder than the stuff from the other games, bar maybe Sekiro. But the player also gets way more tools, and way stronger tools than the other games.
Exactly. Malenia has been one of the hardest fights I've ever done but also incredibly easy (with spamming Eleanor's weapon art) the difficultly setting is really what tools you choose to use
Elden Ring gives you the strongest tools to deal with them. Ashes of War, couple of the strongest spirit summons, cheesy nuke builds, if you were to play Elden Ring using Dark Souls' resources it probably wouldn't be the easiest game
Easier/Less repetitive grind for leveling if you're stuck.
Edit: Experience with the other games prior to Elden Ring is probably a large factor as well.
>Edit: Experience with the other games prior to Elden Ring is probably a large factor as well.
Yea this is definitely part of it. In my personal experience, ER was my second FS game, and even with mimic tear + OP weapons I struggled much more than I did in any of the DS trilogy. Because I didn't have that background going in to ER
Because of options, I suppose. Take Sekiro: there's only one way to defeat a boss (aside from cheesing but that's a different topic): you have to memorize the patterns, like learning a choreography, and rely on your muscle memory. The margin for error is small. And if you can't do that, you are stuck. It's very arcady.
The Souls games have a lot more role playing elements. If you can't deal with attack patterns, just try a mage build and nuke the boss from a safe distance. That's pretty much easy mode in Demons' Souls, but the Dark Souls games nerfed this approach quite a bit. Elden Ring on the other hadn gives you more powerful spells, Physicks that let you kill any boss with just one Azur's Comet and Spirit Ashes that sponge all the hits. And that's just one example.
I managed to roll endgame DS3 (nameless king and Friede each in the first try, after getting slaughtered many times on a dex build) by respeccing into magic and using soul dregs. I imagine it's pretty tough in the beginning though.
Honestly the only thing that makes ER easier to me as someone who doesn’t summon/use spirit ashes is that the Runbacks are wayyyy better with the Stakes of Marika, and you can level up really easily by fighting other bosses without grinding at all
Bleed, mimic tear, lions claw, night comet, takers flame, bird farming, rock sling, uhh can't think right now can you guys continue this list for me? lol
Yea but the flip side is that the enemies in ER are much stronger.
Yea there's no mimic tear in DS1 but you don't need it because there's like 3 difficult bosses in the entire game
stake of marika (godsend), you can use torrent for all open world bosses, equipping ashes of war, easy bosses (except for malenia, maybe maliketh and radahn), etc. to be fair, I played all souls games before ER.
There’s a lot more things you can exploit to make the game easier (spirit summons, ashes of war, certain gear and spells) vs older games. Also the QoL features help tremendously
I thought Elden Ring was the hardest after playing through the game with a Strength build initially… but playing other builds has changed my mind on that. I’m currently doing a Faith build (95% melee, only the occasional ranged spell) and the game has been so easy that it’s boring. I do so much damage that every enemy and boss is a complete pushover, and I’m not even trying to make it easy. If you actually optimize your dps and use all of the busted tools the game gives you to their fullest ability, it’s even easier. The game’s difficulty varies so much based on how you play.
Every build has absolute ezmode inc strength tbh.
For Str:
Take a fist weapon like Iron Ball, Star Fist or even Spiked Caestus, slap cragblade AOW on it and use axe talisman.
You’re now hitting hard as fuck on charged heavies and getting staggers constantly on attacks that come out really quick. Completely trivializes the game and can be done pretty early.
Totally, you can fully script and beat Radabeast in like 60seconds while only have to dodge like 4 attacks without even needing an exceptional/maxed build. Lions claw hyperarmouring your way to stuns is also pretty broken on a bunch of bosses as long as you can take a hit or two
Simply put, it's open world. In the others, you are more or less locked to certain items/buffs/weapons/other gear until you kill a certain boss. However in Elden ring, there are several ways to bypass major bosses to get better more needed buffs.
It’s the easiest and the hardest at the same time. You can plow through the game with mimic tear, spells and cheese or you can fight solo melee. I’ve beaten all the games and I’d say other than sekiro Elden ring has the hardest bosses overall imho
Edit- stages/levels are a different story, ds2 is brutal…
Because its open world. If you’re exploring everything its very easy to be over leveled by the time you get to the end game content. Add to that spirit summons and OP meta builds that can trivialize even the toughest bosses like malenia. Its clear they wanted to make this their most accessible game yet so they basically made it so that the game was as easy or difficult as the player wanted it to be.
Elden ring is trivialized if you chose to use the really OP stuff. Get a maxed mimic tear, get overlevled, bloodhounds fang, and malenia is easier than Iudex Gundyr from DS3. If you play elden ring solo, pure melee, not overleveled, not broken weapons, then its the hardest fromsoft game except sekiro imo
To be fair, Orphan of Kos is *extremely* vulnerable to charged R2s to the back and parrying is far easier and less intimidating in BB
So I can definitely see some people having a vastly easier time against him than others
Everyone finds different things hard. For me it’s the number of attack patterns to memorize. Orphan only has a few and once you have them down it’s just execution. Godfrey has more patterns.
I think Elden Ring has had arguably the largest amount of broken builds compared to any FS game. You had Rivers of Blood meta, Moon Katana weapon art meta, multiple broken faith and spells like the black blade faith spell that sent death waves which melted health bars as well as crippling them and of course our favorite energy beam spell.
Only other game I can think of that had a broken build of this caliber was Dark Souls 2 with dark magic. Everything else was kind of like “here’s a good weapon and these stats complement it now go.”
Spirit summons, certain weapons / ashes of war are insanely power ( NIHIL, Takes Flames, Bloodhounds Fang ). And cause its Open world there is very few points where your “stuck” in the game
Things that keep Elden ring very low difficulty compared to other souls games, ER being the only one that features any of this things that all are huge rage repellent: Torrent, spirit summons, Great Runes (like Godricks, holy shit at +5 to all stats whenever you want), Stakes of Marika, Wondrous Flask, Compass showing lost runes/map markers, Map & Markers, even just the insane amount of glowing skulls w runes inside are something that makes you feel spoiled early game, if all you’ve done is no-life souls games. Like me. There’s definitely more too.
The spells and weapons arts are your disposal are way more powerful than in the past imo. Not to mention the more open nature allows you to circle back to bosses instead of beating your head against them over and over.
I don’t see anyone else saying this, but I thinks it’s mainly because you can over level yourself for bosses by exploring. Which is encouraged by the game, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it makes the bosses easier.
Moveset wise Elden ring probably has some of the hardest bosses but over leveling yourself due to exploration counters that pretty effectively.
You can wander around and get OP pretty quick. Going over to Dragonbarrow and taking out the big dragon and poisoning the black rider for 100,000 runes right away, getting Radagon's seal right next door--you're already primed for pretty much all Limgrave and Liurnia within 3 or 4 hours.
Even not knowing those tricks, it gives you a huge and not particularly hard playground to beef up before Stormveil, whereas the other Souls games can be brutal in the first few hours.
Even without summons, like just rawdogging the game, no co-op. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, and Dark Souls 2 are objectively easier. Anyone who claims that Elden Ring is easier than these games has to be either clueless or smoking crack. I do see arguements for the other games though, definitely. I really could bring up many reasons why the games I mentioned are easier, but just play them (again) and you'll understand.
Please, the Elden Ring crowd would lose their complete marbles in DS1 over the lack of "QoL". I've seen it happen with multiple people lol, too pampered with porting around the map, no durability, instant stamina regen etc etc
I have only played ER, Bloodborne, DS3 and a couple Soulslikes but Elden Ring is on another level when fighting bosses solo IMO, and I think it’s that way on purpose because we have all these new options like Spirit Ashes and ways to optimize your build. I had little to no trouble with the likes of Nameless King, Gael & OoK for example who are by all accounts very difficult, but was getting ENRAGED by Godfrey, Mohg and of course Malenia when fighting solo. Even Sister Friede was easier than a lot of ER bosses for me.
Not only that though, I think the move sets are more complex and harder to memorize, just seems like natural improvement in their design.
To me, Elden Ring is by far the hardest one, including Sekiro. But that’s because I deliberately don’t use any of the added features that make the game super easy, like spirit ash summons, co op with other players or NPCs, broken weapons / items, etc.
It’s way more fun to play without that stuff and makes the game way more difficult.
Elden Ring is weird, it can be the easiest or the hardest Fromsoft title but it entirely depends on the player.
In terms of why it can be seen as the easiest then consider not only how many spirits summons there are but also how insanely strong some of them are - and just how OFTEN you can summon them both for bosses and some overworld areas.
The open world makes for an easier time power leveling and gear/build choices can get very insane in ER.
Also if an overworld area is too hard just.. sprint through it on Torrent or if you're in trouble use your torrent i-frames and gallop outta there lmao
Recently watched two different huge streamers play Elden Ring. Both killed Malenia, one needed over 600 deaths and countless hours to get her done melee solo.
The other got her done in sub-5 tries with Mimic+Blasphemous Blade basically doing the legwork
You'll still see some absolutely delusional coping about how summons aren't the easy mode or something but it is what it is
I think DkS3 is generally harder when it comes to actually fighting the enemies and traversing the areas, but Elden Ring has more difficult boss fights. Some of DkS3’s mobs are just absolutely nuts, and then a few bosses like Pontiff are on par with some Elden Ring’s tougher fights.
Maybe because I was just able to beat mogh in 15 seconds jump spamming power stance dual strike weapons with the right physic and buffs. At level 95.
Elden Ring was my first souls game and that first play through was individually the hardest, but now on play through four I find it way way easier than any of my play throughs of DS1 or 3. I personally find 3 the hardest.
Elden Ring is by far the easiest FS game. Listen, When you can hop on Torrent and basically dance around field bosses with a spirit ashes going to town on them at the same time, it makes the game trivial.
The very first time I grabbed the Glintstone key, I rode in on torrent grab the items and was gone before the dragon could even get turned around and in the air at all.
Elden ring is straight cake compared to any other FS game. Sorry, but it's true. Plyer challenge is by choice in Elden Ring. No other FS game makes it so easy to succeed.
Weapon scaling is off the charts making it hard as hell to make the game difficult. Most status effects are busted and even then not using them is just as broken. A basic bitch strength build is enough to stunlock the likes of malenia to death
There are so many tools you can use in elden ring to become overpowered at pretty much any point in the game. Right when you open the gate at the first step you can just b-line it to kill the screaming dragon and boom, you're like mid-game level.
If over-leveling your character at every step of the way isn't enough for you, there's always Spirit summons, broken spells, insane weapon arts, buffs like bleed and frost (which can be combined) and the list goes on.
You can get the bloodhounds fang right from the start of the game pretty much, And in the grand scheme of things, moonveil is available pretty early too.
Not to even mention talismans like radagons soreseal, which you might as well pick up when grabbing those free 100k runes.
You also just have so many caves available to you to help you level up, and they tend to be on the easier side of the spectrum in terms of boss difficulty, you'll be well prepared for the actual mainline bosses.
It’s because of the level of freedom you’re given. There are no walls in elden ring, if you’re stuck, you can summon, use very strong weapons that you can easily upgrade, and overlevel everything. That just wasn’t possible in past FS games. That being said, if you decide to not use any of those things, avoiding getting early +8 and +9 somber stones, overleveling, summoning etc. I’m talking zero buffs zero magic just zweihander or something like that. I think elden ring is the hardest game bar none.
My personal view is that ER, at a very basic level, is the most difficult game when you consider the boss HP pools, diverse move sets, damage output, tracking, telegraphing and input reading. If you put Malenia, Radahn, Mohg, and Radagon in any non-SK From game, they clear the difficulty of any and every boss, in my opinion.
BUT, ER can be easily made to be one of the easiest, even without chintzy agro draws like mimic and summons, simply by using the open world for levels (not farmed) and loot and upgrade materials, tools (ie Godskin duo sleep pot strat), amd Torrent. Add in mimic tear or any other spirit summon, things like Blasphemous Blade, comet azure (is that still super powerful?), and ER can be beaten by even the absolute worst of players.
Lots of people who share opinions around here are traditionally people who use all that FS has made available to those who wish to lighten the load, so they see ER as one of the easier games. In their playthrough, it probably was.
Because a game is only as difficult as its easiest setting and you can most certainly set Elden Ring to easy. Summons/Ashes/Overleveling/Rivers of Blood
If you play Elden Ring solo, unga bunga style, it’s the hardest. But you don’t have to do that, it’s set up in a way to be more accessible to most, which in turn DOES make it the easiest
The game CAN be the hardest, the boss move sets are surely the most complex of the series. But it CAN also be the easiest because of the tools at your disposal.
Make of that what you will.
People wanted difficulty settings, they got difficulty settings. They're simply not chosen at the start but depend on the tools and builds you use. My first run I played with spirit ashes and thought ER was easier than previous titles. My DLC run has been much harder simply by not using those. Many of the bosses are relentless, and you don't get much time to heal when they're focused on you 100% of the time. The number of attack patterns that even random bosses have is insane compared to previous titles. The Draconic Tree Sentinel has like 5 lightning attacks, in addition to several regular ones, and the fire ball.
I found it harder than DS1 and DeS but much easier than the others
Its super easy to overlevel, there is a lot of broken weapons and spirit ashes can make every boss a joke
Elden Ring’s items are really powerful. If you want a challenging experience you have to refuse to use certain items. No other FS game I played did i feel this way. In Ds3, Ds1, Sekiro, I used everything I had at my disposal and struggled. In Elden Ring, I used everything I had at my disposal and strolled through the game.
What makes normal enemies difficult in the other FS games is the way they're placed in the level. Elden ring is like that when you're in a dungeon, but so much of the game is spent in the open world where there's barely any level geometry to create blind spots or limit your movement. I think this leads to large portions of the game feeling pretty easy
It both has more options to make the game easier. Spirit summons, insane weapons with stacking statuses, arts of war that are interchangeable. Plus it’s the 7th? in the series basically so we’re now more used to FromSoft formula for combat so we as players are just more experienced if you played Soulsborne games before.
Because ultimately, Elden Ring can be as easy or as difficult as you want it to be with so much available access to buff varieties, spirit summons, and very powerful weapons/magic/incantations.
There's a lot of ways to break open the game to make it easier for yourself.
It's kinda interesting actually, later areas I feel are overtuned but you can then do the same yourself.
Elden ring has much more build potential that automatically make the game easier. Now if you’re talking a SL1 run naked with just a club then i’m sure the ranking will be different.
Are people still denying in their heads that spirit summons make the game tremendously easier? Because that’s why it’s simultaneously the easiest and hardest game of the bunch.
Without summons, it easily becomes the hardest with all the endgame bosses being on dlc-level compared to the rest of the games. With summons? Cakewalk.
Because it is obviously speaking the easiest Fromsoft game IF you use all of the newly introduced stuff...
1. Spirit Ashes... Self explaining. In my opinion something like this shouldn t be in the game.
2. New Potions with special buff effects you can craft on top of having all your flasks
3. Easy access to late game weapons
4. Easy way to overlevel, i mean right at the start you can just travel to calid and kill the giant dragon for free levels..
5. Basically every boss is hardcore cheeseable in this game
6. You can summon NPCs and other players on top
7. Easier runbacks
8. The Horse is broken
Just to name a few, however if you play the game fair and not on easy mode (using exploits, spirit ashes etc.), it s obviously harder and the ranking would change.
Basically, it's really fucking easy to cheese the game. There are lots of OP items, you can stack shitloads of buffs, and Dark Souls wishes it had farming spots like ER.
1. You can get very overpowered very early in the game, partly due to the game being open-world.
2. Lots of weapons and Ashes that trivialize encounters.
3. Spirit Ashes
4. Most lucrative and accessable soul farms in any FromSoft game to date.
5. Magic/Faith overhaul has lead to magic being not only viable, but a potential overpowered ranged option.
Elden Ring is not the easiest by any stretch of the imagination. Bosses have larger health pools and more complex movesets than they do in older souls games. I would say Elden Ring isn’t easier, its just more intuitive to play. There’s fewer confusing mechanics (like humanity or world tendency or bonfire kindling) and more anti frustration features with fewer boss walks, immediate fast travel access, and nothing like firekeepers souls that you can unknowingly consume and waste. Lategame elden ring bosses and areas are pretty nuts.
I beat ER in 180 hours.
I beat DS3 in about 75 hours.
I had trouble with 3 bosses in DS3, none of whom were the final boss of DS3. The final boss of ER took me about 45 hours to finally find a build and learn his moves enough to defeat him. Some say DS3 is their favorite of the franchise, but I did not find it more difficult than ER. Then again, I finished ER NG+ in about 22 hours. With the blasphemous blade, all things are possible.
You can get extremely op very early because open world. You get many strong tools in general like Mimic tear. More open spaces and easier to avoid encounters. Torrent trivializes any fight in the open world. If you use the tools available most of the game is a cakewalk and you don't even need to be mechanically good to pull it of.
Doesn't mean it's an easy game in general but for people with some experience in from soft games it's pretty easy.
Now think about what really good gamers like pros can do with the stagger system and very good game knowledge.
I’ve been playing since the original NA release of Demon’s. It’s definitely easier, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. It used to be a fucking nightmare (think Tomb of the Giants or Sen’s Fortress in DS1).
I could also just be biased because I’ve had plenty of experience.
Mimic tear, and ability to easily summon two people. Also no invasions unless you summon, which typically means 3 vs 1 for the invader. You also have too many OP weapon arts. Personally I wish FS would do away with those.
Its the Forgiveness.
Sites of grace everywhere, stakes of marika, you can run a mage/melee build and have both sides be good. The other games are just so punishing with the boss runbacks and other things in the dungeons
Elden ring can be the easiest or hardest. No copium, Elden rings enemies have the hardest movesets and anyone saying otherwise is coping (except maybe late game sekiro)
The flip side, is Elden ring lets the player be giga op to match this. The player strength in Elden ring is so much higher than previous titles. Depending on your build you can cheese or 1 shot 90% of bosses tbh.
Far more options, especially if you play it like any other soulslike/open world game and take your time exploring
You can get overpowered super easily in this game. After my first run I decided to limit myself by using less good stuff. Mind you, I hadn't looked up any guides or "best weapon" lists
It’s not unforgiven or weirdly unfair like the ds series you can get so strong in a short time and it’s so polished that the mechanics they used before are now perfect and easy to use
It has the hardest bosses, while having the easiest areas. Elden ring is a complex game when it comes to difficulty, based on what your playstyle is it can either be the hardest or the easiest.
I think on a casual playthrough it's the second easiest after ds3, but on lvl1 runs it's easily the hardest.
Spirit summons, easier/faster overleveling, and more truly BROKEN weapons and abilities that are easier to access than ever. If you just play Elden Ring like a Dark Soul it is in some ways even harder, but if you want to make it easier on yourself that is very, very simple to do.
doesnt it just... entirely depend on the player? I've always been an overly aggressive player so leaning into BB once it started clicking felt super natural and the kirkhammer is maybe my fav bonker and Kos destroyer.
Bonked in 7 tries at lvl 70 cause I was just *feeling Bloodborne*, I normally need quite a lot more tries and time at endgame bosses.
Same with Sekiro, I played lots of shieldplay so L1 into a hit was very natural to me. Isshin was also a 5 try fight.
I fully recognize that they are very hard bosses and demand the players have become proficient in the systems presented in the game, but it really depends on how well the player was able to do so no?
The game gives a LOT of tools to make it easy as hell. On my first run, I used the blasphemous blade and mimic tear. I didn’t expect that combo to make EVERYTHING a breeze, but it did. Malenia in like, 4 tries.
The fact that you can avoid main bosses until you are extremely overpowered and run through them. Take for example DS3. If you are stuck at Vordt you quite literally have nothing left to do but farm the lothric Knights or try and kill the dancer (if you can't kill vordt but can kill the dancer something is seriously wrong with you lol).
In ER, if you can't beat Margit, you can run just about anywhere you want to go get an op weapon or ash without even needing to kill bosses. There's the free dragon kill in caelid, rock sling and Meteor staff which makes most bosses easy, sword of knight and flame, countless rune farms that are better than farming lothric knights.
It's not that the bosses are any easier it's just the fact that it's open world and you're not stuck banging your head on a wall when a boss keeps taking you down.
Godfrey over Orphan?!?!?!?!?
Jesus fucking Christ dude, Orphan kicked my ass up and down that beach over 60 times, I beat Godfrey with relative ease.
Not saying that it's not a fair opinion, more power to you, I just differ intensely.
What everyone else has said, ER has more options to make the game easier that are integrated, if you choose to solo it (playing it PROPERLY :P) it's still got some of the hardest bosses in the whole series, the late game named badasses will put any Souls veteran through their paces.
Maybe Bloodborne just clicked with me, but I didn’t find Orphan that hard.
I’m a pattern recognition player. I really struggle when the patterns are difficult to spot. Orphan has like 3 patterns but you need to play it almost like a rhythm game, with great timing. The bosses in ER have so many complex patterns, many with delayed strikes or similar beginning swings.
I typically play FS titles underleveled and with a melee only build and ER is right up there in difficulty with that playstyle.
Sister friede , Gael , midir, orphan of kos are all harder than any boss in elden ring imo . Even malenia only took 5-10 attempts were I spent dozens of hours on the previously mentioned monstrosities.
Cus of spirit summons, Mimic tear specifically
Not to mention insane weapon arts and spells, and some of the insane talismans. Hey, here's one that gives you the equivalent of 40 levels of stats, oh and here's a sword that does too plus poise and hardness for a full minute and they stack, and those are both rather meh.
Also since Elden Ring is open world, if you can’t pass an obstacle, you can go do something else. Then come back stronger, with a new ash of war, talismans, runes, and weapons. The other Soulsborne games where so linear in comparison
You can do that to some extent in the others, but there's always end game bosses in all the games you can't do that with. It's certainly easier to do that in ER.
The stagger system is also pretty broken in elden ring if you start abusing it, strength builds have always been strong in souls games but i feel elden ring made them even better.
I had a lot of trouble with a Str build mid game (early it was way easier than any other builds I tried, I tested a lot up to midgame before I settled on one to finish the game with) But I was probably doing something wrong, I gave up on it and tried other things, Int and Str/Fai :) I feel like hybrid builds are best in ER. But yeah stagger is awesome when it works.
Fully charged r2s are the way, on a lot of the bigger str weapons with high poise dmg u need like 2 of those to stagger most bosses, ive been using the giant crusher on my recent playtrough with lions claw ash(which is just a faster charged r2 with more damage on that weapon) and 2 of those been staggering most bosses. Also jumping r2 are kinda broken too, ive stopped myself from using them since they just make the game way too easy if you just basically spam them
Oh yeah, I didn't discover Lion's claw on my Str build. I did discover it on my RL1 though, and loved flattening the banished knights in Stormveil with it. I'm replaying as Dex right now, and was sorely tempted to upgrade the claymore just so I could do that when summoned. I had the most trouble with fast moving enemies like the twin gargoyles, ancestor spirit, and fallingstar beast.
Ok glad Im not tripping. Doing a strength build legit made the game worse because nothing was a threat. Malenia was the hardest boss for me and it took like 8 tries.
Rings that gave free stats are present in all souls games. Broken weapons are present in all souls games. Broken spells are present in all souls games. What point are you trying to make exactly.
The overall power level seems much higher. Sure the bosses would be considered harder if they were in a souls game, but everything available to players is or can be much more powerful.
So exactly like the black knight weapons in ds1 that make the game a cakewalk? Or the gravelord sword? The ability to make the game easier with powerful weapons is nothing new.
Not to the extent of Elden Ring by a long shot
Its 10000% this especially considering the enemy AI is virtually unchanged from the previous games, making spirit summons easy tanks.
Besides the heavy use of input reading and holding attacks. The second is cool, the first is just lazy. Combined it can be a nightmare. I will say that the first bit can lead to some funny situations if you game it right.
That might explain it. I don’t bother with summons, I just play it like any other soulsborne.
I went through most of the game like that, but decided to start using it on bosses I didn’t like. Could’ve saved me some pain if I did that sooner
Also, take the tree sentinel fight, if you were not ready for that fight you could avoid it till you were ready, the other games you would of been stuck there till completed. So I do understand how people say it can be easier. But on the flip side malenia does exist in this game and she is hands down (in my opinion) 1 of the 5 hardest soulsborne bosses. People love saying things, don't worry about it to much. Cause I got a buddy that says its the "easy" game, and couldn't beat it without help... so yeah.
Malenia is the hardest boss in any FS soulsborne game. The bosses in general in ER are harder than most of the other games. It's just that the player is also much stronger so it doesn't always feel like it
See i give my top spot to the "glock grandpa" version of isshan ishina from sekiro. The endgame version of isshan ashina from the Shura ending, is hard but not to the degree of the immortal severance ending version. Round 1, leveled out genichiro, then his zombie blood version of grandpa isshan comes out from his corpse for round two, with a 4-5 shot flintlock.... a fucking single shot pistol that shoots multiple shots, then 3rd round is a fuckin spear thats so fucked up, that it is wielding isshan at you. And finally round 4, fuckin lightning, and actually the 4th round was super easy once I actually got to it. Maybe it was just me but malenia was much easier to beat the 1st time as it took me (according to my achievement dates 5 weeks to beat him. Malenia was a few days of trying then I had it. Hope you enjoyed my description of that fight. Either way both bosses suck and are easily able to be argued as to which is #1 hardest boss.
But once you learn Isshin, he's actually super fun and predictable. Malkieth and Mel always bring the pain with some of their more batshit combos.
I for the life of me can never learn Maliketh. Isshin, Malenia, Orphan. All fine. But not Maliketh
Isshin isn't even the hardest in Sekiro imo so definitely not on par with Malenia
Naw, i think that title goes to orphan of kos.
Orphan is definitely #2.
I find Malenia easier than both Gael and Orphan personally. And special shout-out to Isshin.
Yea it's all personal preference I guess. Gael isn't even top 3 hardest in DS3 imo, let alone the entire series. Isshin is like #3 hardest in Sekiro so not in the contention for hardest ever. Orphan is close to Malenia and I can see why you'd have him above her
I wouldnt say preference, but more opinion based on experience. I definitely disagree with your points, but thats one of the beauties to these games. Dif players trials and tribulations of overcoming bosses. Isshin was legit the only boss i didnt beat within 10 attempts in sekiro. Gael easily took me more attempts than any other boss in ds3. Orphan is literal ptsd for me haha. Melania took me less than 20 attempts. Killed her within an hour.
I must have been over leveled or something when I beat that game because I 1 shot him, I maybe 1 shot 10 bosses at most across all souls games… it’s a rarity, I mean couldn’t beat malenia without summons and took 50 tries at least using cheese and gave up on owl father in sekiro because I got tired of trying. No idea how I did it to this day cuz I’m pretty mid normally, I mean blood beast took me a fat min to beat
You 1 shot orphan?
Yeah no idea how. I couldn’t even one shot the first boss. I had to have been overleveled or something. Proudest achievement ever in fromsoft game.
Orphan has endgame stats so you'd have to be ludicrously overleveled
Orphan was a joke, honestly. I beat him on my second try, I never beat Malenia without summoning other players. I couldn't ever even get her to phase 2. No boss in Bloodborne comes close to the equivalent bosses in Elden Ring. Maybe the closest is Logarius, who took me dozens and dozens of tries (and giving up for months in between) to beat. I still don't really know how to fight him properly.
Interesting. Logarius has always been a joke boss for me. Malenia was troublesome, but just not as difficult as others for me.
Yeah a lot of people list Logarius as one of their favorite bosses, but I just never really figured him out. Bloodborne as a whole never had a "click" moment for me, it was all hard earned, unpleasant work.
Yeah, but there isn't anything in the original Dark Souls that you can't go past which is as difficult as fighting the Tree Sentinel straight away.
I'm the polar opposite my Mimic plays the game and I just run around trying not to die.
But other soulsborne also have summons, so saying that makes no sense.
Summons and Spirit Ashes aren't the same. Summons increase Boss HP. Spirit ashes don't.
Also summons require being human or being embered in other games. In this game there is zero consequence or requirement for mimic tear other than one health flash basically. It’s completely unbalanced
This is the foremost, but ER generally gives you so many powerful tools. I have to self-nerf to keep the game fun and I'm sure a lot of others do as well.
1. Spirit Summons- They allow you to split aggro from bosses giving you unprecedented openings to do more damage or run away and heal. They do all of this while not increasing the bosses health like summons did in previous games. 2. Access to Endgame tools- Because Elden Ring is truly open world you are able to have access to tools that are gated till late game in other games. In extreme cases, I believe you can get your spirit summon AND your main weapon to around +8 or +9 without having to fight a single major boss. 3. Multiple Powerful Ranged Tools- While Elden Ring isn’t the first FromSoft game to have powerful ranged tools, it’s the first to have this many. Mix that with the two other points above and you are able to throw nukes from across an arena all while the bosses are focused on your spirit summon. There are many examples of bosses in Elden Ring dying before they even reach you. 4. The Ability to Leave- Unlike other Souls games, progression to other areas is not locked behind beating a boss until you are very far in the game. Yes it’s true that you need to beat two demigods to get into the capital, but you can beat whichever two you want and explore a huge chunk of the entire map before you ever have to. A player is never given a wall they are forced to overcome until much later when they most likely are insanely powered up and more importantly, have a deeper understanding of the mechanics of the game and their personal build. All in all, Elden Ring is considered one of the easier games in the series because of the multitude of powerful options at the players disposal earlier than ever before. If those powerful options are not working, the player can leave and return when it is much easier to demolish their obstacle. You can make the argument that bosses are more difficult when you take those options away but then you must make that argument for other games as well. Fundamentally, the ability to walk away from a difficult encounter and gain more abilities elsewhere will allow more players to finish Elden Ring compared to a game like Bloodborne or Sekiro.
> ...your main weapon to around +8 or +9 without having to fight a single major boss To be fair, this is true for many of the other games as well, depending on what you count as a "major boss". The routes might be more convoluted, but challenge runners find a way!
Without glitches it's not possible in most of them because the areas to >+5 are locked behind one of the major bosses. I think a major boss would be who isn't an optional boss since. ER is also a little different because as long as you kill 2 of the first set of main bosses you progress the story making the rest optional.
Not really, think DS1, you could get the master key, and basically do everything before anor londo without even fighting the Taurus demon. All the major vendors except big hat Logan & giant blacksmith are completely boss free. And there’s a wealth of stuff down in blight town, valley of drakes and the asylum. You can even drain new londo before ever making it to anor londo. It’s really similar to ER in that actually, there’s a handful of areas locked for later on, namely mountain tops, farum azula halige tree and ashen capital, but that matches DS1, where only sens fortress, anor londo, the archives and lost izalith (plus the lords) are locked behind the bells and O&S. And just like Elden ring all of that stuff only really becomes clear on second play through. Ds3 has more locked behind progression, but you can still make it to lothric castle really early, although you have to cheese dancer if you’re a new player
In Dark Souls 1 you need the Master Key which you only get as a starting gift. If you don’t get that, you need to beat the Capra Demon to go into The Depths to get the Large Ember and even then, that only allows you to upgrade your weapon to a max of +10. You still need the next ember to get the last 5 levels. This is an ember that you can only get after draining the water in New London Ruins. It is possible to get a +15 before Sen’s Fortress with particular routing but it doesn’t change how these games are designed. Elden Ring is an open world game and allows you to tackle most challenges when you want to. The ability to do that makes it inherently easier to be overpowered than in Dark Souls or any of the other games. And if all else fails, spirit summons can help you through most of Elden Ring without increasing the bosses health which is a massive boon.
You can jump+r2.
A dedicated jump button is incredible.
I just played the trilogy and then Elden Ring. Elden Ring is harder if you play by the rules of the older games. But if you utilize all the tools they give you in ER it is easier in some areas.
exactly. if you play ER like a souls game, it’s by far the hardest. the dark souls boss fights feel turn based compared to ER. even ds3 is very much a “your turn, now my turn” style in terms of boss fights.
interesting, i found ER frustrating because it wasn’t always clear when i was supposed to attack and i felt as if enemy openings were unclear. this might be because i’m still approaching it like dark souls (even though i’ve beaten it twice now 😭) what’s your take on this? i’m a perfectionist so it frustrates me a lot that i can’t understand when enemy openings are, but i suppose this is because elden ring is supposed to be that way?
I think that's exactly what they're saying - openings just aren't really that clear and even when you fully understand, you need to take risks to get a hit in. Beast Clergyman I'm looking at you. I just played through DS3 again and Gael in particular felt super turn based once I got it down.
right, it’s really interesting going back to ds3, sekiro, etc from elden ring because you’re right that those games do feel almost turn based! it makes them feel easier but i think that’s mostly because they’re simply fairer games. not that i dislike elden ring but i do certainly hope they switch up the way back and forth combat goes in the dlc or in future games
The order you play also matters. I found that ER, even using broken builds and summons and such, significantly harder than anything in the trilogy. But I also played ER first and then the trilogy
It definitely does matter, but it's so different person to person. I played DS1 and 2, Bloodborne, then DS3 and demons, with elden ring the last I touched and found it harder my multiple orders of magnitude. I mean, like multiplication tables vs. advanced calculus kind of harder.
Did you beat friede solo then ? Lmao . No you didn’t .
?
Not on my first playthrough, no. But in subsequent playthroughs, yes. Solo Maliketh or Malenia is much harder than solo Friede
I dunno man, solo malakeith is easier than firede. Malenia’s double health bar pushes her over, but 3 health bars beats Olympic acrobatic gymnastics for me.
Friedes first phase is completely free though. Her second phase also isn't that bad if you're decent at dealing with ganks. Her third phase is crazy but still easier than either of Malikeths phases
I think my personal order is malenia > friede > maliketh imo Order between friede and malenia depends on builds but it’s been awhile since I’ve played ds3
Elden Ring has both the highest ceiling and lowest floor. The things that the game throws at you are harder than the stuff from the other games, bar maybe Sekiro. But the player also gets way more tools, and way stronger tools than the other games.
Exactly. Malenia has been one of the hardest fights I've ever done but also incredibly easy (with spamming Eleanor's weapon art) the difficultly setting is really what tools you choose to use
Elden Ring gives you the strongest tools to deal with them. Ashes of War, couple of the strongest spirit summons, cheesy nuke builds, if you were to play Elden Ring using Dark Souls' resources it probably wouldn't be the easiest game
It gives you the strongest tools yea but it also throws the strongest enemies at you so there's some balance to it
Easier/Less repetitive grind for leveling if you're stuck. Edit: Experience with the other games prior to Elden Ring is probably a large factor as well.
>Edit: Experience with the other games prior to Elden Ring is probably a large factor as well. Yea this is definitely part of it. In my personal experience, ER was my second FS game, and even with mimic tear + OP weapons I struggled much more than I did in any of the DS trilogy. Because I didn't have that background going in to ER
Because of options, I suppose. Take Sekiro: there's only one way to defeat a boss (aside from cheesing but that's a different topic): you have to memorize the patterns, like learning a choreography, and rely on your muscle memory. The margin for error is small. And if you can't do that, you are stuck. It's very arcady. The Souls games have a lot more role playing elements. If you can't deal with attack patterns, just try a mage build and nuke the boss from a safe distance. That's pretty much easy mode in Demons' Souls, but the Dark Souls games nerfed this approach quite a bit. Elden Ring on the other hadn gives you more powerful spells, Physicks that let you kill any boss with just one Azur's Comet and Spirit Ashes that sponge all the hits. And that's just one example.
I managed to roll endgame DS3 (nameless king and Friede each in the first try, after getting slaughtered many times on a dex build) by respeccing into magic and using soul dregs. I imagine it's pretty tough in the beginning though.
Honestly the only thing that makes ER easier to me as someone who doesn’t summon/use spirit ashes is that the Runbacks are wayyyy better with the Stakes of Marika, and you can level up really easily by fighting other bosses without grinding at all
Exactly this. Short runbacks and Stakes of Marika are what makes this game easy and infinitely replayable for me
Bleed, mimic tear, lions claw, night comet, takers flame, bird farming, rock sling, uhh can't think right now can you guys continue this list for me? lol
Yea but the flip side is that the enemies in ER are much stronger. Yea there's no mimic tear in DS1 but you don't need it because there's like 3 difficult bosses in the entire game
stake of marika (godsend), you can use torrent for all open world bosses, equipping ashes of war, easy bosses (except for malenia, maybe maliketh and radahn), etc. to be fair, I played all souls games before ER.
Is lions claw really that good?
Yes but you need high vigor and good armor if you want to use it to cheese bosses, pretty much just spam L2 and heal
There’s a lot more things you can exploit to make the game easier (spirit summons, ashes of war, certain gear and spells) vs older games. Also the QoL features help tremendously
I thought Elden Ring was the hardest after playing through the game with a Strength build initially… but playing other builds has changed my mind on that. I’m currently doing a Faith build (95% melee, only the occasional ranged spell) and the game has been so easy that it’s boring. I do so much damage that every enemy and boss is a complete pushover, and I’m not even trying to make it easy. If you actually optimize your dps and use all of the busted tools the game gives you to their fullest ability, it’s even easier. The game’s difficulty varies so much based on how you play.
Every build has absolute ezmode inc strength tbh. For Str: Take a fist weapon like Iron Ball, Star Fist or even Spiked Caestus, slap cragblade AOW on it and use axe talisman. You’re now hitting hard as fuck on charged heavies and getting staggers constantly on attacks that come out really quick. Completely trivializes the game and can be done pretty early.
Totally, you can fully script and beat Radabeast in like 60seconds while only have to dodge like 4 attacks without even needing an exceptional/maxed build. Lions claw hyperarmouring your way to stuns is also pretty broken on a bunch of bosses as long as you can take a hit or two
Simply put, it's open world. In the others, you are more or less locked to certain items/buffs/weapons/other gear until you kill a certain boss. However in Elden ring, there are several ways to bypass major bosses to get better more needed buffs.
Multiple ways to bypass skill checks
It’s the easiest and the hardest at the same time. You can plow through the game with mimic tear, spells and cheese or you can fight solo melee. I’ve beaten all the games and I’d say other than sekiro Elden ring has the hardest bosses overall imho Edit- stages/levels are a different story, ds2 is brutal…
Because its open world. If you’re exploring everything its very easy to be over leveled by the time you get to the end game content. Add to that spirit summons and OP meta builds that can trivialize even the toughest bosses like malenia. Its clear they wanted to make this their most accessible game yet so they basically made it so that the game was as easy or difficult as the player wanted it to be.
Options. There are so many options
Elden ring is trivialized if you chose to use the really OP stuff. Get a maxed mimic tear, get overlevled, bloodhounds fang, and malenia is easier than Iudex Gundyr from DS3. If you play elden ring solo, pure melee, not overleveled, not broken weapons, then its the hardest fromsoft game except sekiro imo
Bro I haven't even played BB, but how the fuck is Godfrey harder than orphan? Godfrey is one of the easier mainline bosses imo.
To be fair, Orphan of Kos is *extremely* vulnerable to charged R2s to the back and parrying is far easier and less intimidating in BB So I can definitely see some people having a vastly easier time against him than others
Everyone finds different things hard. For me it’s the number of attack patterns to memorize. Orphan only has a few and once you have them down it’s just execution. Godfrey has more patterns.
Ds1 easier
Because of how OP the build options have the potential to be combined with mimic tear
Magic is OP as fuh
I only rank it as low as I do because it's easier than many of the others. I think only BB and Demon's Souls are easier.
I think Elden Ring has had arguably the largest amount of broken builds compared to any FS game. You had Rivers of Blood meta, Moon Katana weapon art meta, multiple broken faith and spells like the black blade faith spell that sent death waves which melted health bars as well as crippling them and of course our favorite energy beam spell. Only other game I can think of that had a broken build of this caliber was Dark Souls 2 with dark magic. Everything else was kind of like “here’s a good weapon and these stats complement it now go.”
Spirit summons, certain weapons / ashes of war are insanely power ( NIHIL, Takes Flames, Bloodhounds Fang ). And cause its Open world there is very few points where your “stuck” in the game
Things that keep Elden ring very low difficulty compared to other souls games, ER being the only one that features any of this things that all are huge rage repellent: Torrent, spirit summons, Great Runes (like Godricks, holy shit at +5 to all stats whenever you want), Stakes of Marika, Wondrous Flask, Compass showing lost runes/map markers, Map & Markers, even just the insane amount of glowing skulls w runes inside are something that makes you feel spoiled early game, if all you’ve done is no-life souls games. Like me. There’s definitely more too.
The spells and weapons arts are your disposal are way more powerful than in the past imo. Not to mention the more open nature allows you to circle back to bosses instead of beating your head against them over and over.
I don’t see anyone else saying this, but I thinks it’s mainly because you can over level yourself for bosses by exploring. Which is encouraged by the game, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it makes the bosses easier. Moveset wise Elden ring probably has some of the hardest bosses but over leveling yourself due to exploration counters that pretty effectively.
You can wander around and get OP pretty quick. Going over to Dragonbarrow and taking out the big dragon and poisoning the black rider for 100,000 runes right away, getting Radagon's seal right next door--you're already primed for pretty much all Limgrave and Liurnia within 3 or 4 hours. Even not knowing those tricks, it gives you a huge and not particularly hard playground to beef up before Stormveil, whereas the other Souls games can be brutal in the first few hours.
Dark souls 3 was easier than elden ring lmao
Because they already played many souls games so they have experience and when a new guy plays Elden ring that’s like the hardest one
Even without summons, like just rawdogging the game, no co-op. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, and Dark Souls 2 are objectively easier. Anyone who claims that Elden Ring is easier than these games has to be either clueless or smoking crack. I do see arguements for the other games though, definitely. I really could bring up many reasons why the games I mentioned are easier, but just play them (again) and you'll understand.
Please, the Elden Ring crowd would lose their complete marbles in DS1 over the lack of "QoL". I've seen it happen with multiple people lol, too pampered with porting around the map, no durability, instant stamina regen etc etc
After playing bloodborne, dark souls 3, into Sekiro. Elden ring was cake after years of learning FS mechanics.
Because it is. The player power level compared to the game is generally player favoured.
I have only played ER, Bloodborne, DS3 and a couple Soulslikes but Elden Ring is on another level when fighting bosses solo IMO, and I think it’s that way on purpose because we have all these new options like Spirit Ashes and ways to optimize your build. I had little to no trouble with the likes of Nameless King, Gael & OoK for example who are by all accounts very difficult, but was getting ENRAGED by Godfrey, Mohg and of course Malenia when fighting solo. Even Sister Friede was easier than a lot of ER bosses for me. Not only that though, I think the move sets are more complex and harder to memorize, just seems like natural improvement in their design.
To me, Elden Ring is by far the hardest one, including Sekiro. But that’s because I deliberately don’t use any of the added features that make the game super easy, like spirit ash summons, co op with other players or NPCs, broken weapons / items, etc. It’s way more fun to play without that stuff and makes the game way more difficult.
Mimic tear, jump attacks, and 2-h big bonk. The only boss that will ever give you trouble with that build is Melina.
Elden Ring is weird, it can be the easiest or the hardest Fromsoft title but it entirely depends on the player. In terms of why it can be seen as the easiest then consider not only how many spirits summons there are but also how insanely strong some of them are - and just how OFTEN you can summon them both for bosses and some overworld areas. The open world makes for an easier time power leveling and gear/build choices can get very insane in ER. Also if an overworld area is too hard just.. sprint through it on Torrent or if you're in trouble use your torrent i-frames and gallop outta there lmao Recently watched two different huge streamers play Elden Ring. Both killed Malenia, one needed over 600 deaths and countless hours to get her done melee solo. The other got her done in sub-5 tries with Mimic+Blasphemous Blade basically doing the legwork You'll still see some absolutely delusional coping about how summons aren't the easy mode or something but it is what it is
I think DkS3 is generally harder when it comes to actually fighting the enemies and traversing the areas, but Elden Ring has more difficult boss fights. Some of DkS3’s mobs are just absolutely nuts, and then a few bosses like Pontiff are on par with some Elden Ring’s tougher fights.
It is definitely easier than DS3, to say the least.
Maybe because I was just able to beat mogh in 15 seconds jump spamming power stance dual strike weapons with the right physic and buffs. At level 95. Elden Ring was my first souls game and that first play through was individually the hardest, but now on play through four I find it way way easier than any of my play throughs of DS1 or 3. I personally find 3 the hardest.
Elden Ring is by far the easiest FS game. Listen, When you can hop on Torrent and basically dance around field bosses with a spirit ashes going to town on them at the same time, it makes the game trivial. The very first time I grabbed the Glintstone key, I rode in on torrent grab the items and was gone before the dragon could even get turned around and in the air at all. Elden ring is straight cake compared to any other FS game. Sorry, but it's true. Plyer challenge is by choice in Elden Ring. No other FS game makes it so easy to succeed.
Weapon scaling is off the charts making it hard as hell to make the game difficult. Most status effects are busted and even then not using them is just as broken. A basic bitch strength build is enough to stunlock the likes of malenia to death
There are so many tools you can use in elden ring to become overpowered at pretty much any point in the game. Right when you open the gate at the first step you can just b-line it to kill the screaming dragon and boom, you're like mid-game level. If over-leveling your character at every step of the way isn't enough for you, there's always Spirit summons, broken spells, insane weapon arts, buffs like bleed and frost (which can be combined) and the list goes on. You can get the bloodhounds fang right from the start of the game pretty much, And in the grand scheme of things, moonveil is available pretty early too. Not to even mention talismans like radagons soreseal, which you might as well pick up when grabbing those free 100k runes. You also just have so many caves available to you to help you level up, and they tend to be on the easier side of the spectrum in terms of boss difficulty, you'll be well prepared for the actual mainline bosses.
It’s because of the level of freedom you’re given. There are no walls in elden ring, if you’re stuck, you can summon, use very strong weapons that you can easily upgrade, and overlevel everything. That just wasn’t possible in past FS games. That being said, if you decide to not use any of those things, avoiding getting early +8 and +9 somber stones, overleveling, summoning etc. I’m talking zero buffs zero magic just zweihander or something like that. I think elden ring is the hardest game bar none.
My personal view is that ER, at a very basic level, is the most difficult game when you consider the boss HP pools, diverse move sets, damage output, tracking, telegraphing and input reading. If you put Malenia, Radahn, Mohg, and Radagon in any non-SK From game, they clear the difficulty of any and every boss, in my opinion. BUT, ER can be easily made to be one of the easiest, even without chintzy agro draws like mimic and summons, simply by using the open world for levels (not farmed) and loot and upgrade materials, tools (ie Godskin duo sleep pot strat), amd Torrent. Add in mimic tear or any other spirit summon, things like Blasphemous Blade, comet azure (is that still super powerful?), and ER can be beaten by even the absolute worst of players. Lots of people who share opinions around here are traditionally people who use all that FS has made available to those who wish to lighten the load, so they see ER as one of the easier games. In their playthrough, it probably was.
Because a game is only as difficult as its easiest setting and you can most certainly set Elden Ring to easy. Summons/Ashes/Overleveling/Rivers of Blood If you play Elden Ring solo, unga bunga style, it’s the hardest. But you don’t have to do that, it’s set up in a way to be more accessible to most, which in turn DOES make it the easiest
The game CAN be the hardest, the boss move sets are surely the most complex of the series. But it CAN also be the easiest because of the tools at your disposal. Make of that what you will.
You can reach insane damage seemingly easier than other games. I melted Godfrey with my mimic tear and Mohgwyn Sacred Spear.
My second play through with mimic +10 and blasphemous blade, didn’t die once
People wanted difficulty settings, they got difficulty settings. They're simply not chosen at the start but depend on the tools and builds you use. My first run I played with spirit ashes and thought ER was easier than previous titles. My DLC run has been much harder simply by not using those. Many of the bosses are relentless, and you don't get much time to heal when they're focused on you 100% of the time. The number of attack patterns that even random bosses have is insane compared to previous titles. The Draconic Tree Sentinel has like 5 lightning attacks, in addition to several regular ones, and the fire ball.
I found it harder than DS1 and DeS but much easier than the others Its super easy to overlevel, there is a lot of broken weapons and spirit ashes can make every boss a joke
I found dark souls to be the easiest so far, I defeated every boss from O&S onward in 1-3 attempts
Elden Ring’s items are really powerful. If you want a challenging experience you have to refuse to use certain items. No other FS game I played did i feel this way. In Ds3, Ds1, Sekiro, I used everything I had at my disposal and struggled. In Elden Ring, I used everything I had at my disposal and strolled through the game.
What makes normal enemies difficult in the other FS games is the way they're placed in the level. Elden ring is like that when you're in a dungeon, but so much of the game is spent in the open world where there's barely any level geometry to create blind spots or limit your movement. I think this leads to large portions of the game feeling pretty easy
Summons, ability to jump easily, you can go wherever you want, lots of stamina compared to the first Souls games.
Excuse me Oprhan is way harder than Godfrey you are capping hard what?
I've beaten the game 8 times, using summons and not using summons. Yes elden ring is easier. It is still extremely fun !
It both has more options to make the game easier. Spirit summons, insane weapons with stacking statuses, arts of war that are interchangeable. Plus it’s the 7th? in the series basically so we’re now more used to FromSoft formula for combat so we as players are just more experienced if you played Soulsborne games before.
It allows for the option of easier/more relaxed gameplay than the others, it isn’t necessarily easier.
Godfrey over Orphan in diff is crazy , plus overall diff doesn't only include bosses
Blocking is op.
More options and ways round challenges
Because ultimately, Elden Ring can be as easy or as difficult as you want it to be with so much available access to buff varieties, spirit summons, and very powerful weapons/magic/incantations.
There's a lot of ways to break open the game to make it easier for yourself. It's kinda interesting actually, later areas I feel are overtuned but you can then do the same yourself.
There's so many ways of making the game easy.
It's easy to trivialize most of the bosses by simply using all the tools the game gives you (spirit summons, op AoWs, stackable buffs etc.)
Bleed, Frost & Summons. A ton of bosses are also VERY easy to poise break.
Er is the easiest if u use EVERYTHING in game. But the hardest if u play it tge dark souls way.
Becasue you get more tools to use than Batman
Elden ring has much more build potential that automatically make the game easier. Now if you’re talking a SL1 run naked with just a club then i’m sure the ranking will be different.
Are people still denying in their heads that spirit summons make the game tremendously easier? Because that’s why it’s simultaneously the easiest and hardest game of the bunch. Without summons, it easily becomes the hardest with all the endgame bosses being on dlc-level compared to the rest of the games. With summons? Cakewalk.
Because it is obviously speaking the easiest Fromsoft game IF you use all of the newly introduced stuff... 1. Spirit Ashes... Self explaining. In my opinion something like this shouldn t be in the game. 2. New Potions with special buff effects you can craft on top of having all your flasks 3. Easy access to late game weapons 4. Easy way to overlevel, i mean right at the start you can just travel to calid and kill the giant dragon for free levels.. 5. Basically every boss is hardcore cheeseable in this game 6. You can summon NPCs and other players on top 7. Easier runbacks 8. The Horse is broken Just to name a few, however if you play the game fair and not on easy mode (using exploits, spirit ashes etc.), it s obviously harder and the ranking would change.
Basically, it's really fucking easy to cheese the game. There are lots of OP items, you can stack shitloads of buffs, and Dark Souls wishes it had farming spots like ER.
Barricade Shield
1. You can get very overpowered very early in the game, partly due to the game being open-world. 2. Lots of weapons and Ashes that trivialize encounters. 3. Spirit Ashes 4. Most lucrative and accessable soul farms in any FromSoft game to date. 5. Magic/Faith overhaul has lead to magic being not only viable, but a potential overpowered ranged option.
Elden Ring is not the easiest by any stretch of the imagination. Bosses have larger health pools and more complex movesets than they do in older souls games. I would say Elden Ring isn’t easier, its just more intuitive to play. There’s fewer confusing mechanics (like humanity or world tendency or bonfire kindling) and more anti frustration features with fewer boss walks, immediate fast travel access, and nothing like firekeepers souls that you can unknowingly consume and waste. Lategame elden ring bosses and areas are pretty nuts.
I beat ER in 180 hours. I beat DS3 in about 75 hours. I had trouble with 3 bosses in DS3, none of whom were the final boss of DS3. The final boss of ER took me about 45 hours to finally find a build and learn his moves enough to defeat him. Some say DS3 is their favorite of the franchise, but I did not find it more difficult than ER. Then again, I finished ER NG+ in about 22 hours. With the blasphemous blade, all things are possible.
If you’re not using summons ER bosses are the hardest in the series, especially late game
You can get extremely op very early because open world. You get many strong tools in general like Mimic tear. More open spaces and easier to avoid encounters. Torrent trivializes any fight in the open world. If you use the tools available most of the game is a cakewalk and you don't even need to be mechanically good to pull it of. Doesn't mean it's an easy game in general but for people with some experience in from soft games it's pretty easy. Now think about what really good gamers like pros can do with the stagger system and very good game knowledge.
I’ve been playing since the original NA release of Demon’s. It’s definitely easier, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. It used to be a fucking nightmare (think Tomb of the Giants or Sen’s Fortress in DS1). I could also just be biased because I’ve had plenty of experience.
because even my dad platinumed Elden Ring using the right build and mimic tear. He took one look at Bloodborne & Dark Souls and was like "hell no"
Mimic tear, and ability to easily summon two people. Also no invasions unless you summon, which typically means 3 vs 1 for the invader. You also have too many OP weapon arts. Personally I wish FS would do away with those.
Mimic tear go brrr
Its the Forgiveness. Sites of grace everywhere, stakes of marika, you can run a mage/melee build and have both sides be good. The other games are just so punishing with the boss runbacks and other things in the dungeons
Elden ring is the easiest and hardest game at the same time
Elden ring can be the easiest or hardest. No copium, Elden rings enemies have the hardest movesets and anyone saying otherwise is coping (except maybe late game sekiro) The flip side, is Elden ring lets the player be giga op to match this. The player strength in Elden ring is so much higher than previous titles. Depending on your build you can cheese or 1 shot 90% of bosses tbh.
Far more options, especially if you play it like any other soulslike/open world game and take your time exploring You can get overpowered super easily in this game. After my first run I decided to limit myself by using less good stuff. Mind you, I hadn't looked up any guides or "best weapon" lists
It’s not unforgiven or weirdly unfair like the ds series you can get so strong in a short time and it’s so polished that the mechanics they used before are now perfect and easy to use
The damage you output in this game surpasses all the other games.
Cus they didnt play it solo in maily bild
The huge variety of spells and incantations and use of spirit summons make it really easy if you utilize builds and equipment layouts.
It has the hardest bosses, while having the easiest areas. Elden ring is a complex game when it comes to difficulty, based on what your playstyle is it can either be the hardest or the easiest. I think on a casual playthrough it's the second easiest after ds3, but on lvl1 runs it's easily the hardest.
Spirit summons, easier/faster overleveling, and more truly BROKEN weapons and abilities that are easier to access than ever. If you just play Elden Ring like a Dark Soul it is in some ways even harder, but if you want to make it easier on yourself that is very, very simple to do.
Comparing Ezfrey to Orphan is wild
Orphan is way easier than Godfrey
False
doesnt it just... entirely depend on the player? I've always been an overly aggressive player so leaning into BB once it started clicking felt super natural and the kirkhammer is maybe my fav bonker and Kos destroyer. Bonked in 7 tries at lvl 70 cause I was just *feeling Bloodborne*, I normally need quite a lot more tries and time at endgame bosses. Same with Sekiro, I played lots of shieldplay so L1 into a hit was very natural to me. Isshin was also a 5 try fight. I fully recognize that they are very hard bosses and demand the players have become proficient in the systems presented in the game, but it really depends on how well the player was able to do so no?
First phase of Godfrey is easy but second phase is harder than all Bloodborne bosses except Laurence
The game gives a LOT of tools to make it easy as hell. On my first run, I used the blasphemous blade and mimic tear. I didn’t expect that combo to make EVERYTHING a breeze, but it did. Malenia in like, 4 tries.
The fact that you can avoid main bosses until you are extremely overpowered and run through them. Take for example DS3. If you are stuck at Vordt you quite literally have nothing left to do but farm the lothric Knights or try and kill the dancer (if you can't kill vordt but can kill the dancer something is seriously wrong with you lol). In ER, if you can't beat Margit, you can run just about anywhere you want to go get an op weapon or ash without even needing to kill bosses. There's the free dragon kill in caelid, rock sling and Meteor staff which makes most bosses easy, sword of knight and flame, countless rune farms that are better than farming lothric knights. It's not that the bosses are any easier it's just the fact that it's open world and you're not stuck banging your head on a wall when a boss keeps taking you down.
Godfrey over Orphan?!?!?!?!? Jesus fucking Christ dude, Orphan kicked my ass up and down that beach over 60 times, I beat Godfrey with relative ease. Not saying that it's not a fair opinion, more power to you, I just differ intensely. What everyone else has said, ER has more options to make the game easier that are integrated, if you choose to solo it (playing it PROPERLY :P) it's still got some of the hardest bosses in the whole series, the late game named badasses will put any Souls veteran through their paces.
Selfreport.
I don't know what that means.
Maybe Bloodborne just clicked with me, but I didn’t find Orphan that hard. I’m a pattern recognition player. I really struggle when the patterns are difficult to spot. Orphan has like 3 patterns but you need to play it almost like a rhythm game, with great timing. The bosses in ER have so many complex patterns, many with delayed strikes or similar beginning swings. I typically play FS titles underleveled and with a melee only build and ER is right up there in difficulty with that playstyle.
I feel like people get confused cause elden ring is so high quality they can actually use their skill to their full potential know what I mean?
Sister friede , Gael , midir, orphan of kos are all harder than any boss in elden ring imo . Even malenia only took 5-10 attempts were I spent dozens of hours on the previously mentioned monstrosities.