Please do let me know anything you wanna add or discuss on this!! But please make a separate comment!! don't reply to this i want that haha funni youtube wacky algo
lenny you missed one... once you take the elevator with to the concecrated snowfield you get to the "path to the halligtree" dungeon and at first it seems like there is nothing there but there are invisible bridges and a second mimic tear boss
Fighting the invisible assassin without the torch was honestly sick tho, I summons the wolves and used them to find it like I was hunting it down, it was really fun once I gave up on doing it alone
I played first time with the golden halberd from the first knight of tree or something (killed him after ~30 minutes of trying on my lvl 1 hobo lmao) and only once I switched to claymore and it was with this fucker, cause it’s much easier to hit him with GS than halberd. I knew that there was probably some way to make him visible, but killing him without the torch was kinda satisfying.
Any dungeon that opens up into the overworld in some way tends to be my favourites because they're the most memorable. The Sealed Tunnel and Academy Crystal Cave are great for that reason. Even the Coastal Cave and Gaol Cave, despite not being as grandiose on their own, feel fresh because they lead to secrets and nice views.
I wish this was more prevalent, but also in catacombs etc. where you can see sunlight through a broken ceiling; it would be really cool if you could actually stop in from the overworld/wonderfully trolly if you fall in accidentally to the middle of a catacomb and can't fast travel out because you're underground and the boss is still alive.
@@BeaDSM It would also be cool if the light coming from the surface actually matched the day/night cycle, or if the cracks letting the light in was visible in the actual surface, tiny details like these i live for.
I wish that, especially the catacombs, all sort of linked up underneath the region, so you could go in one catacombs and potentially leave through another one. I know that would be nightmarish to create and balance, but it would have made the sameness of the catacombs worth it to me.
I have to stick up for Dragonbarrow cave here. The bear is so tough because you're meant to avoid fighting it and sneak past, that's why there are bushes everywhere. Not to mention the poise talisman is in there which is super useful.
The narrow pathway that leads to the boss is the perfect cheese spot to kill that bear, the bear can't get through the opening and reach you, and it will only attack you with its roars, just load it up with rot arrows or spells and bam it's dead.
Ok but if your only gimmick is basically just trying to sneak past a bear and fight an annoying duo fight that you will basically undoubtedly be under leveled for, then it still deserves to be trashed on. Shit cave.
Wait.. Why didn't he mention the hidden wall boss in the black knife catacomb? I feel like that could increase the dungeon's point at least a bit. As well as the Fringefolk hero's grave, the fact you can break the chariot to get some cool stuff as well as permanently gimp the dungeon. Its minor things but I feel like they add a lot of fun to it.
Yep. Fringefolk for me is one of the best dungeons in the game. Honestly, I loved all the chariot dungeons, because I'm fond things I can't brute force my way out of in a game. Same thing for Caelid and Leyndell's sewers. Hell, even Lake of Rot.
In Azura's Hero Grave there's a hidden armor set you can get by breaking the chariots by doing the puzzle in shafts below. It's by far the coolest armor set in my opinion. The Tree Sentinel armor(giga chad armor).
You don't even need to get all the way down there, just use Mohg/Margit's Shackle at the beginning of the dungeon (at the hiding spot where you go down to spawn the 3rd chariot), the flame pillar near by will rise up and spawn the 3rd chariot on the path of 1st and 2nd chariot, leading them destroying each other.
@@liamhop6148 bro idk if you still need this, but literally just get to the little opening underneat the 2 chariots ramps and use the morgott's / mohg's shackle, wait like 5-10 seconds, and both the chariots are dead. you dont need a tutorial. even if you dont get it now, pretty much morgott / mohg shackle = big hitbox = everything toggled in catacombs / hero's graves that means lifting statues that spit fire, chariot puzzles, etc. so just spam that shit throughout the dungeon and you'll certainly see the chariot dead pop up with all the gear
Im sad you didnt mention that Altus Tunnel and Perfumer's Grotto are connected. The Malformed Star (the semi Astel) that you found in both caves is the same. I visite the tunnel first and kept exploring it trying to find a way to the big boi, but couldn't. Cut to the next day when exploring the Perfumers Grotto and look who is there! Its a great detail that elevates both in my ranking.
The ruin-strewn precipice is honestly my favorite way to get into altus, the rising tension as you climb through a mine and then along a cliffside is so satisfying, you can feel that you’re getting closer to altus, I like it way more than the lift, and I personally used the magma wyrm greatsword quite a bit it’s a neat weapon
I randomly decided to explore this cave and just kept going w/o knowing where it was leading. I remember thinking that it must be a required path for later in the game because it was much more expansive than any other cave. I got to Altus before I killed Rennala and Makar was tough at that point. I didn't even realize there was a lift I was supposed to be working towards.
@@Awesomeficationify its not worth using the lift tbh. Like Lenny said, you get good crafting mats from the dungeon, and its imo one of the game's better dungeons by far.
I would say it feels like the correct way to do it. It was how I got to Altus in my first playthough, and it had so much impact and made it feel like a real achievement to reach Altus Plateau. The dectus medallions feel ridiculous in my subsequent playthroughs, because you can literally get to Altus within 10 minutes of booting up the game if you know where they are. It makes Altus Plateau go from this amazing place to just another stop off in making a build.
For Perfumer's Grotto, the Malformed Star enemy there can also be an enemy that shoots at you in Altus Tunnel, so if you go there before, it makes Altus Tunnel less painful, and if you go there after, you can get revenge on it. Not super interesting, but the fact that the two dungeons connect with each other is a neat little feature.
That's actually awesome. I saw the ledge across the way in Altus Tunnel but just moved on after and forgot to try to figure out how to get there. That's awesome that it's in another dungeon.
for the impaler's catacombs I think this is where you're meant to use a crystal arrow or dart on the watchdog and make him fight the little goblins, cause if you dont know crystal darts make stone enemies hostile to each other, so it really feels like they wanted you to learn that here but did nothing to teach you; they could've sprinkled in a few of them throughout the catacomb so at least someone might get an idea and go and read the item description to learn that there and not from a vaati video 230 hours and 2 playthroughs into the game like I did
I do know about these extra tips such as the crystal darts or destroying the chariots. But as you say it does nothing to teach the player those so I didn't think it was fair to put in an "as-it-is" review
@@ZeroLenny I guess it makes the point of the review confusing. Like... is this to help new players decide which dungeons to do, and not to spoil them on cool secret stuff (but maybe point them towards it with a wink)? Or for experienced players considering which dungeons they'll visit for their secondary playthrough, where they'd be absolutely interested in the secret stuff? Like this kind of misses both audiences. Seems weird to be absolutely gassed about Dragon Communion spells, but not even mention the Dragon Communion Seal you find in Fringefolk Hero's grave that you'd absolutely want for those spells. You even get to cheese the guy who drops it with the Chariot - which is what I did in my first blind playthrough. The moment my level 10 prophet got that incantation seal - I knew what my first playthrough would be. It just comes off as though you missed these things, or just don't think they're important or interesting...
The Lord of Blood's Exultation is actually one of the best item's in the game for a Arcane/Bleed Build. I hate the dungeon but that talisman is probably the best in the game, helps you do the big game breaking damage with Rivers and Reduvia.
Eyes went wide with disbelief when he said that. It's super strong, and even if you *aren't* a bleed build, you can use it if *any of your summons* are bleed builds. it's pretty well a free 20% damage boost
Throw bleed on the Antspur and you can get a 82 base bleed 50 base rot weapon (before the arcane stat scaling boost). Combo with Lord of Blood tali and either the Kindred or Rot tali or mushroom crown Congrats you just won the Elden Ring
Every veteran knows that all dungeons without a spiritcaller snail boss are in fact immediately disqualified and plunged into F tier, where they very much belong
I loved the godskin duo varient on first encounter, fight through them and wonder whats next then boom, a snail with boss music made me laugh a lil too much
@@punyr I had not found any other spirit calling snails by that point on my first playthrough so it was particularly ridiculous. Just finding a dungeon full of strange magic snails and then one pathetically attacks me with a health bar after a rough fight.
The Onyx lord is a reused enemy you can find in several spots through out the game. From Limgrave, to Raya Lucaria. There is even a mid/late dungeon where there are 2 of them as generic enemies in there.
I was going to say the same but after looking into it the others are Alabaster Lords, there's only 2 Onyx Lord bosses. Doesn't feel much different though so I agree with you.
4:15 That trap is actually in at least one overworld enemy encampment, one of the camps in northern Limgrave has those scattered around the edges to alert all the enemies inside.
You can totally beat the invisible Black Knife Assassin in the Sage's Cave without a torch, it's actually a pretty and unique cool boss mechanic, you have to stay on the center of de puddle and watch out for the steps on the water as she is slowly approaching to see in what direction to attack. In fact, I'm pretty sure she has a different AI to other invisible BNA, for example I can't really pull of the same trick with the ones on Ordina even while looking at the steps in the snow, they are more aggressive and dodge faster.
One thing I'll say on the Sage's Cave: I like it a lot, definite 10/10, but that is if you fight the Black Knife Assassin without the torch. Reason why is that its a very dynamic fight, cause you see the ripples it makes through the water when moving around. Keeping a track of it really swings this fights "prey and predator" feel of the assassin. If you got a torch, this guy is honestly really really easy for most builds.
I do like this too! But as I said the difficulty depends on character builds. With my usual spear builds the narrow attacks really suck at hitting unlockable targets compared to a aoe swing
I love Gelmir Hero's Grave. Two badass armor sets right next to each other, can skip the chariot by dropping down the pit early on and even ride it to the end, two unique weapons, awesome spirit ash for beating the boss. Maybe it's stockholm syndrome but it's nice dreading an area in a Fromsoft game again. I also love the Leyndell sewers for the same reason so yeah I'm probably just messed up mentally by this point
In Gelmir Hero's Grave, you can actually ride the chariots. There's a point where you can drop down on one and it's the way to get over the lave. Rest of the dungeon is still shite but I think being able to stand on a chariot was pretty cool.
That is really cool and I did include those bits originally! But I wanted this review to come across as straight to the point and as it is. Even though those secrets are cool to do, the game doesn't have any in-game tips or indication that you can do that, so I feel like it'd unfair to include due to most players not being walking vaati wikipedias
Even faster, if you go past the first chariot, there's an alcove hidden on the right. Drop down and you're at the end. I always do this one because the whole dungeon takes about 1 minute to do.
funny story, first time in that dungeon i rode that chariot to the bottom & thought "so cool, but let me explore some more up top before i do the boss". so i rode the chariot back up & hopped off, then preceded to get scared shitless by the cemetery shade hiding in the corner. honestly one of the best jump scares in any from soft game ive played & there's been many highlights 😂
@@ZeroLenny But the "secret areas" all contain tangible rewards, the Bloodhound Knight set and the Gelmir Knight set are both 2 great looking sets, the mantis sword is the closest thing to a Bloodborne trick weapon.
If we’re talking about loot in dungeons though, what about the Dragon Communion Seal in Fringefolk Hero’s Grave! It’s such a great deal that scales incantations off of Arcane, letting players know early on that there is some crazy build variety to be had!
This is actually one of the most user-friendly and straight-to-the-point dungeon compendiums available on the internet. And it comes with the benefit of being entertaining as hell, lmao. Edit: worth mentioning that Fringefolk hero's grave includes the incredibly OP dragon communion seal, which is well worth the keysword cost on its own. Or that black knife catacombs also aptly hide a black knife assassin as a side boss, or that you can break/ride/solve the chariot-related puzzles in most hero's graves
That damn seal is so slept on! S scaling for Arcane? With an extra Rot breath buff? And also having B scaling for faith!? *And being a 0 weight talisman!?*
@@Cheerwine091 It was sooooooo good! On my first blind playthrough, my starting gift were the stonesword keys because they reminded me of DS2's Pharros Lockstones. I immediately used mine, and I actually really liked Fringefolk for the fact that most of the challenge isn't from the enemies, so a brand new but creative player can make their way through it. I cheesed the dragon knight spirit with the chariot to get the Dragon Seal, and it was then I instantly knew what my level 10 Prophet was going to become!
@@tatri292 Godslayer’s Seal and Finger Seal are generally what people use, rather than the dragon communion seal. At least, as far as I’ve seen. DCS is only good if you have high arcane, AND decent faith. It doesn’t naturally slot into most faith builds, considering your secondary stats are probably going to be vigor, dex, and mind(not in that order). Adding another stat to that list doesn’t really feel meta to me…
I really value armour as loot, it's one of my favorite things to find because it can be used in any build, and I like fashion souls. So I personally would rank any dungeon which gives armour much higher, even Gelmir's hero grave because it has two armour sets (which are both very nice) as loot in the dungeon would be ranked really highly. Idk maybe 8? I don't mind the rest of the dungeon as much as you did lol. Other comments I would have on the video, you don't usually mention loot in the dungeon unless it is the boss loot, though it would be completely unreasonable to expect you to know every single item in every dungeon, there are a few dungeons which have the best item in them as a random item on the ground which would increase the ranking of a few dungeons. Other note, I very quickly had more stonesword keys then I ever needed and always was able to immediately open up every stonesword gate I found, so I don't put that many expectations on dungeons that require them. It was a really good video thanks for all the effort you took :)
In the black knife catacombs in Liurnia there is another hidden boss behind. A hidden wall after riding the guillotine upwards, it is a repeated boss but it gives the player something needed for a quest, though since Lenny said he doesn’t care much for quests he may have missed it, meaning he may have missed the Fortissax dragon boss.
I wanted to avoid questlines because those are external factors which players who aren't walking Wikipedia's will probably miss. That said it's still there and accessable even without a quest. Maybe bump it up +0.5/1 point
@@ZeroLenny You probably won't miss them if you do what most people do, and play online with messages on. You learn quick which "hidden path" messages are fake and ignored and which ones are absolutely worth checking out.
Ah so Earthbore cave is in the northern section of the weeping penninsular, south of limgrave, on a small ramp down and around a cliffside edge. Love the voice by the way!
In the black knife catacombs there is also a black knife assassin boss after you take a trip up the guillotine, that’s tied to Fia and Rogier’s quest lines. It may have been behind an illusory wall, I forget.
@@tchanthaphaeng No, this is before. You get the black knife print, and I believe once you have it, you talk to Fia and she tells you to find the owner of a broken knife she gives you, which is D. once you give it to him she’ll kill him. It’s just a way of progressing her quest line faster than waiting for her to kill him once you burn the erdtree. It’s useful if you want D’s armour early
From what I can tell, the bell traps are actually used in every military camp you can find in the open world with them being placed in bushes or in gaps in defenses where you could otherwise walk in from unnoticed
I really enjoyed the longer format for a video. I haven’t played much elden ring honestly but I do plan on doing every dungeon and beating every boss and this video has shown me to just enjoy the game instead of getting down on how much of a slog it can be sometimes. Keep on staying epic kid
The Coastal Cave in Limgrave has two things that make it very good imo- 1. There is a summon sign, often the first one players find, so it’s neat to have a 2 on 2 fight + summons and the demihuman mob. 2. Boc!!!
Lenny, In the Fringefold Hero's Grave you forgot to mention the banished knight that drops one of the most useful seals that boosts dragon incantations that can go to S scaling for arcane.
Oleg is a pretty damn good summon imo, i'd put him in like top 5. 2:10 The black knife catacoms has a black knife behind a secret wall and drops a keyitem to progress rogeier, fia and even kicks off raani's questline in a different way. You can ride that chariot in that dungeon 30:30. it's a unique thing they do once. 36:00 in that hero's grave, you can do a little puzzle in a different section and then make all the chariots crash into each other, it is really satisfying and you get the full erdtree armorset and an ash of war.
The rusted anchor in Morne Tunnel is one of the few strength scaling pierce weapons for strength builds trying to take on dragons right away. You also forgot to mention the Tree Sentinel armor set from Auriza Hero's Grave which is drippy as hell.
11:02 Fringefolk: "It's the first dungeon the player sees, and it's a trap." Which I think might actually be good design, the same way the Tree Sentinel just outside also teaches you to move on if something is too hard. It reminds me of running into the graveyard when you first arrive at Firelink, and getting annihilated by the skellingtons.
Yep, I liked this for the same reason I liked the teleporters into late game areas, they gave me glimpses into exciting things I would do later on and made me look forward to them.
@@Erick-tv8oq yeah the teleporter to the capital was a solid "oh shit" moment because of how far off the map it was for me. Made me realize just how much more of the game there was and how big the world was... And then it was even bigger in the end.
@@dekkonot Yep. One of the most awe inspiring moments for me besides the one you just described was the Crumbling Lands teleporter in the Three Belfries. It was my first contact with Farum Azula, and once I used the teleporter I just stood there for what felt like an eternity taking it all in. Then I told my brother to not look towards my screen no matter what because he was playing the game as well and I didn't want him to get spoiled.
@@redgeoblaze3752 I think that adds to the impact actually. 🙂 At the beginning of the game I did worry about running out of keys, but I quickly had an extra two dozen. They're everywhere, and there's way more than you need to open every door.
Wanted to add something special about the Gaol tunnel that wasn't mentioned by Lenny. I think its a rare example where the game finally makes use of the "no teleporting inside the dungeon" mechanic. You start by falling down a hole from which you can't get out of, and from there you are forced to clear it before you can leave. I entered at a very low level and panicked for a sec there. Not even dying will get you out so it was a nice change. In reality its not too punishing; you aren't required to defeat the boss so you don't lose your fun. I don't recall any other dungeon that was like this.
Also overlooks the Dragon communion seal which is arguably one of the better seals in the game in terms of scaling, and pretty much essential for arcane builds.
Fingerfolk Hero’s Grave has: Erdtree Favor talisman, Arcane-scaling seal, Flask upgrade, first Greatbow for player, one of the best Ashes - that’s a lot of rewards for one dungeon! Also you hate the chariot - you get the opportunity to destroy it! It teaches player that there are ways to make things easier and to look for opportunities in Hero Graves. imo you went to harsh on it
that's the only one I thought he was too hard on as well. I felt it was nicely marked as optional by having a cost. Like it gives you a million reasons to leave, and even more not to come back (there is curiosity yes but there is literally so much more out in the world that you've been let loose in to look for the keys). You have to commit to something that is clearly above your level. It does feel a bit cheap cause you lose out on those keys but there are plenty more. and you can always come back and the rewards are good for a long time imo, and even more crazy if you get finish it early
Also, I really love just how many secrets are in this dungeon. I remember coming back on a second playthrough, seeing a ledge above the first landing between the ramps the chariot goes up and down, and noticed that there was an enemy up there. This made me take pause as I realized "Wait, I never figured out how to get up there on my first playthrough." I had to give the place a really thorough search through to finally get up to that ledge. Shooting the pots from up there to destroy the chariot and earn the eardtree greatbow felt so awesome. If you just head straight to the boss you end up missing like half of the dungeon which is hidden away, but that ledge with an enemy on it is enough of a hint that attentive players could realize "There's a secret way to get up there... somewhere".
@@094176 Honestly, it having a cost makes it feel less optional to the player. After spending (likely your first) two Stonesword keys on it, you feel compelled to finish it and get your moneys worth - sunk cost fallacy and all.
I'd actually argue that Groveside is more likely to be a first dungeon in terms of both design and overworld placement. When you go past the tree sentinel to the church, you're soft directed towards a soldier patrolling on the edge of the forest. And the path leading up into the forest. And then midway through there's another soldier off to the side crouching, and then even further off the path in that direction is a little camp and the dungeon entrance.
Lenny delivers a banger AGAIN. I loved every minute of this, and it could be SO helpful for newer players. Despite whether or not anything was overlooked/not mentioned, this is still a really well done video that deserves a FAT FUCKIN LIKE for the effort!
The day elden ring came out me and my friends stayed up up to 4 am just trying to beat fringefolk hero grave before even stepping out into limgrave for the first time, fair to say we died a lot trying to beat the ulcerated tree spirit lvl 1 with basic gear
If you’re bringing rewards into the scoring, shouldn’t you of brought up the fact that Fringefolk’s has the Dragon Communion Seal (arguably the best Seal in the game for non faith builds) and the Erdtree Greatbow, as well as the Erdtree’s Favor which is a fantastic talisman for most of the game? All that on top of the gold seed and Spirit Ashes. Seems odd to not even mention it.
@@ivanvega3405 they’re a pretty useful slot filler if you aren’t relying on all four talisman slots, and especially for how early you can grab the first one it’s a really helpful boost for the early game, not to mention unlike the fap ring you can actually take it off lol, jokes aside, it should’ve been mentioned and accounted into the dungeon’s score along with the other quite solid loot
@@Mi_mcmuffin true, but its nothing special in elden ring, jar talisman and live +2 are much worth it, anyways, if you have a free slot... I supose its cool
@@ivanvega3405 due to the percentage increase it's worth a few levels in vigor and endurance endgame. not as much as crimson amber, but i think that it's one of the best endgame talismans
I spent alot of time exploring as much of the map as I thought was reasonable, really digging around for secrets. The sheer amount of things I still missed makes me feel like I was wearing a blindfold the whole game. What a big video, loved every second!
I ike how he values the dungeons presentation and the "first time experience" doing it. It's a shame the devs didn't thought on NG+ for the dungeons (0 rewards) , some are really fun. Edit: he became more ruthless throught the video haha
I love how this video has just explained to me in excruciating detail that I missed all the good dungeons whilst simultaneously doing all the bad dungeons
I found the spiritcaller cave before I had ever found a godskin apostle so I was so surprised when a noble popped out after because I had struggled quite a bit already
@16:30 For Lakeside Crystal Cave, you may hate quest lines, but the thing with this one is it's barely a quest line and the reward is a Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone. While you only get the stone in Consecrated Snowfield, it's literally just... talk to the NPC here, run to a spot in Consecrated Snowfield, do a simple interaction, and get the stone. Given how few SAD stones there are in the game (only like, 6 total or something per NG cycle) and one of them is gated behind this dungeon and requires basically _only_ this dungeon over the work you'd do in a normal playthrough, I would say it's not unfair to say that this dungeon functionally rewards you with a SAD stone, which makes it a very cool dungeon with an S-tier reward. Also, calling a Bloodhound Knight a "reused enemy" feels slightly unfair; it's a reused _boss_ which appears in one or maybe two other places, and the fact that it jumps you makes it a pretty unique encounter. Thus, between the very cool cave, almost-unique boss in a new environment, and the absolutely top-tier reward, I would give that dungeon a solid 10/10 tbh. @36:30 I think you're being a little uncharitable to the boss fight. Crucible Knights are a reused enemy, sure, but it's not like you've seen tons of them at this point or whatever, and they always have non-respawning miniboss status at least. By the time you're here, you've fought _maybe_ 3 of them, if you've already gone into the Capital itself, found the Spiritcaller Snail Crucible Knight fight, and found the Evergaol. If it were just one of them, then yeah, fair to be unhappy about seeing it for the 4th time, though I think they're always a pretty cool and tough enemy, but they work pretty well as a duo boss and the fact that it is a duo boss makes it a very different encounter, even if the enemies themselves aren't new. Though I dunno, I personally feel relatively charitable to reused bosses as long as it makes sense. Reusing story bosses? Yeah, that's fucking annoying. But reusing non-story bosses, or making enemies from the end game into bosses? I dunno, I don't mind it. It's not realistic, to me, to expect them to have that many unique bosses. That said, every single Catacomb except the first one can go fuck itself, and so can more or less every Hero's Grave. They're all same-y and they all suck. I honestly think the game would have benefited a lot from drastically cutting down the number of dungeons, and just leaving the good ones. The loot and cool elements from the small dungeons could be recycled into other dungeons or just into the open world. Most of the dungeon loot from the mediocre dungeons has no thematic connection to the dungeon itself, so you could just have easily have just slapped it into an evergaol. And like, with an evergaol, there's no build up, there's no expectation. It's just a glorified treasure chest with a boss fight, and so like, I could not care less about reused bosses in evergaols, unless they're fucking Shardbearers (what the fuck, Godefroy?). And a hypothetical contester of my point might say "just don't go into them if you don't like them, they add content to the game" to which I say: fuck no. I _tried_ to play this game blind. I really wanted to. But when there are 700 caves and 90% of them are repeat trash which just might happen to be really cool or contain a really good item, playing blind is just infinitely less fun. I would infinitely prefer that there be like 2 dungeons per region and they both be really good, so that finding them is cool, and when you do, you're not questioning whether this is worth it.
Ruin-Strewn Precipice was one of my favourite highlights of the game. I didn't know about the dectus medallion, so when the lift didn't work I chalked that up to it being too old to function or some other factor. The only other way to the Altus Plateau was via the dungeon. I love how you enter from the bottom of this cliff and occasionally reappear outside to see how far up the cliff you've travelled, it was extremely immersive.
The seethewater cave definitely left you seething. the kindred of rot's exultation is really good though for the builds it applies to. Well for any build you have a pocket +20% damage for 20 seconds which is pretty big.
A lot of people have told me this is a good item! I'm sorry, it's just I didn't know what makes different builds good as I've not really looked into popular online builds/didn't have the time to look into every item possibly having a meta standing
The bonus doesn't go away when you cure poison or take off the talisman so you can just put it on eat a meat dumpling to poison yourself and then take the talisman off.
Leyndell catacombs was my favorite dungeon. I actually liked how it was so twisty and slowly shows what it is. After the first drop down you think more enemies might have spawned but then you start seeing more differences until you figure it out. Helps break up the mundane task of going through catacombs.
While watching this video I remembered one of my favorite dungeons and was so excited for you to get to the point where ya reviewed it. Little did I know that you were gonna roast it to shreds, lol. It was the Leyndell Catacombs dungeon for me, the second looping dungeon in the video. For me, that was my first dungeon I found that looped. And I was so confused at first, but when I discovered things were slightly changing, I got a real kick out of it ^^ Guess I got lucky and discovered that dungeon while the looping mechanic was still novel :P Wish ya had the same fun time as I did, but I definitely loved the video! Really love how ya effortlessly tear up any of the dungeons ya found to be lackluster or boring! Thanks for making the vid, and have a nice day Mr.Lenny!
I didn't find the other looping dungeon, so for me it was probably my favourite dungeon in the game. EDIT: Turns out I did do the other looping dungeon (and pretty sure I did it first), but I didn't even realise it was looping. I just knew it as "trap chest dungeon." Meanwhile the Leyndell Catacombs baits you with a fake boss room, the dead omen, etc. It really made me question what was happening at first.
I also loved leyndell catacombs. At first I thought, oh they’re using the trick where they make it seem like I’m going forward but they’re actually teleporting me back without me noticing, but no they knew that people know that trick so they actually just repeat the rooms with little changes. Such a good puzzle.
You do realize that the "useless" poison talisman is one of the two best talisman in the game, right? Thats 20% AR as long as someone is poisoned or suffers under scarlet rot, including yourself.
that's true but he's absolutely right about the boss being trash. the pest enemies are already annoying as hell. two of them is just dumb and before the patch it was a bunch of really annoying off screen damage from instant spear swipes and tracking needles.
Not everyone uses rot or poison builds throughout their run so many people won’t use it anyways, for 2 stonesword keys and a bad boss fight to get it that has a poison swamp before it, I think he had good judgement on that one
@@cainhurst7546 I don't think he does at all. You can't just say an item is bad because it doesn't work for your build... Otherwise nearly every single dungeon reward can't be ranked because few items work for every build. A really cool dex weapon means nothing for a strength build. Nor does a really cool spell. So if the item is useful for any build, it should be considered a good item. Obviously. Secondly, I feel like a poison swamp is fine for a poison dungeon. If it's a rot/poison based dungeon with rot/poison based enemies and rot/poison based rewards. A rot/poison based environment is a good thing because it works towards the theme of the dungeon. There are items to mitigate it. Items to cure it. And spells to cure it. The "UH HARD GAME WANT TO BE HARD." argument doesn't really work because players who actually went out of their way to craft/buy poison/rot cures, or get a curing spell, will feel rewarded for their preparation. A game that rewards players for their time/planning is a good one.
Don't know if it qualifies in your mind or not, but I really hoped to see the Divine Tower of Calid in this list. It's a one of a kind puzzle getting into the tower to start off, then once you're inside, you can go get Radahn's great rune to the right. But that's not all. You can go left and go through a really unique jumping puzzle down the tower, and at the bottom, you get to fight what is most people's first godskin apostle. After which the reward you get is an amazing colossus sword with some neat lore attached to it. 10/10 for me at least.
The Black Knife's Catacombs is hinted during Rogier/Fia's quest and has actually a secret area with a secret boss (a blacknife assasin) that drops the Black Knifeprint, an item you give to Rogier to progress the quest. It's not anything that crazy, but it makes the dungeon kind of special.
Man you really did Fringefold dirty. You didn't even talk about half the dungeon like the he area where the 2 scions drop down that has a good talisman, the part with the stone guys or the reward you get for destroying the chariot. Definitely worth the 2 keys you need to enter. Really felt like you wanted to give it a bad score from the beginning and ignored everything else that made it enjoyable. But that's just my opinion.
Well it's definitely a very, VERY subjective video. Missed out on a lot of important details such as hidden walls, unique items, and what someone like Patches sells that makes him worth fighting (Margit's shackle for two bossfights and Golden Fowl Foot) and typically just came down to "I like this and didn't like this."
Ngl I loved the invisible black knife fight in sages cave, it felt like a terrifying, actually fun version of priscilla’s fight from dks1. You gotta use the water splashes to see where the boss is and fight them with that, or if you’re feeling lazy, just summon a spirit and they’ll auto target the boss for you. Fun little puzzley boss that really shows how terrifying the black knives were.
For the miner enemies that bounce your weapon, you can two hand to prevent it from happening. Crush weapons, magic and some consumables still do more damage to them, but it's a good budget option and even comes into play for the crystaline dickheads you find in other dungeons/areas.
12:45 It gets a negative 1/100 from me for changing the drop from the awesome hammer (that is now only available as a low, I think 1-2% drop, from a temporary enemy).
To be fair Engval is a really solid summon, but to be frank he ain't as good as the battle hammer. I get they wanted to add Engval but why not just make it drop from the same tree spirit as Oleg considering they were a team an' all.
Ok, I thought I was going crazy. I fucking *knew* it used to be the hammer. I did the dungeon recently and I was like, "Who the fuck is Engval?! Wasn't I supposed to get a weapon?"
as always, I love your videos and it's always interesting to hear another person's POV. I feel like I'm biased in favor of most dungeons since I really like crafting, and most dungeons hold cookbooks or talismans. For example, Tombsward Cave (which admittedly is pretty bad) holds a cookbook that gives you poison grease, which I used throughout most of my 2nd playthrough. Also, the fire/spell talismans are always great to have since you get them super early, probably before doing Stormveil (several fire attack sources) and Liurnia (spells galore). It's literally just free defense. Also, the bells from Patches' cave are used a couple more times in the game, but very very rarely.
Hi lenny i genuinely love long videos. Its honestly so nice to sit down and just watch a video for 1 or 2 hours since i cant really catch your livestreams. Thanks for making me laugh and entertaining me.
It's been a pleasure to watch most of this live, well done! PS: I'm actually glad you showed the tombsward cave location, since I actually missed it. Now I know to never go near it
Honestly, a lot of dungeons are largely interesting for lore. For instance, Groveside Cave is interesting because it shows you that Limgrave used to be part of the dragon/beast empire and that the ruins strewn all over the place fell from Faram Azula in the sky. The beastman is leading a pack of wolves ambushed and killed Godrick's soldiers who were using the cave. You find one of Godrick's Soldiers outside the cave, investigating the wreckage of the cave's camp.
Really interesting to see some of my favourite ones being low ranked. I loved all the Chariot ones, especially the first one. It's an optional challenge you can try at the very start of the game and get a pretty significant early game boost equal to about 8 levels *and* and a seed for beating a pretty good boss. And yes I think the ulcerated tree is a pretty good boss. Also the fact you can destroy the chariot to get some decent gear is also just beautiful. It's easily my favourite.
I like the ulcerated tree spirit as well. I just wish I could see what it does better because half the fight is me hugging its belly. Almost all bigger bosses in this game have run away moves that are meant to reset the pace of the fight, I wish the Ulcerated Tree Spirits had those as well, though I guess they wouldn't be put inside the catacombs if they did.
I was so fascinated with what they did in the Leyndell Catacombs, with placing dead Omens in your way to trick you into believing you’ve already been there… made me feel like I was losing my mind haha. The Omen looking at his buddy’s corpse is such a tiny detail but elevates the dungeon to one of my absolute favourites. Interesting that it scored super low too lol
So the fringefolk hero grave was 1 key on release I think. When I started the game day one I took the stonesword key as a starter gift and actually cleared the dungeon over several hours before I even entered limgrave and got the ability to level up. On the upside I never struggled against that type of boss again.
You know what? I really like the double crucible knight fight. I missed out on it in the first playthrough, but encountered it in the second and by that point, i had already mastered fighting crucible knights, so this duo battle where you had to lure out the one who isnt turtling with a shield and kill him was a breath of fresh air
Man, i finally had timme to watch the first half of the video, cant wait to watch the second half tomorrow! Love this video already so much! Great work my guy!
I thought the assassin in Sage's Cave was one of the best dungeon boss fights tbh. I didn't even know until this video that you could see her with a torch. I honestly love the boss fights that make you lay close attention. The fact you can track her movements by staying in the water is so unique. It only took me 2 attempts to beat her.
Fingefolk hero's grave has the erdtreefavor talisman and the dragon communion sigil. Also you can destroy the chariot. It also contains 2 grafted scions. Would this change your rating?
@@ZeroLenny Secrets are meant to be hidden, and this is an instance of the game rewarding players for being observant. Figuring it out without consulting the wiki is quite satisfying indeed.
I usually go through my favorite creators videos every year and rewatch a good few and I honestly forgot how much I enjoyed this video, It's very chill and engaging.
Wait hold on. At 37:57 you seriously said "Oh yeah this blood talisman is so niche most people don't even know it exists". What. This thing might be one of the most overpowered items in the game. But ok.
Thanks for the vid, man. Between my laptop not being up to spec and the story not being my thing, I haven't really done much of anything personally with Elden Ring so it's been nice to have fun vids from you going about it in your usual style, this one included. Looking forward to seeing what you have planned next.
It's interesting to see a pve perspective on these I agree with most of it except for the kindred of rot talisman being a bad reward that thing is pretty powerful is you use it right.
I liked the dungeons, massive improvement from chalice dungeons sometimes, I just wish there were good or at least decent rewards often not just once every now and then but yeah it wasn't bad at all. Great vid about 1/5 done.
At least bloodborne chalice dungeons were infinite amounts of bloodborne with slight variations and such. The dungeons while i guess kind of similair arent really the same thing neither do they attempt to be. But maybe thats just me.
@@thesaviorofsouls5210 very true yeah, you stated a fact, chalice dungeons were more.....what is the word..... Not the same? Like every dungeon had different routes and such, some were straight up ok. I just think the dungeons in ER weren't as bad just very off, like Lenny mentioned why do certain ones when the rewards aren't worth it. Chalice dungeons in the other hand were improving stuff like bloodgems and stuff.
@@OldHunterLight i suposse chalice dungeons were more of a grind, by design just to be clear. And i think that really turned people off from it because bloodborne itself isnt grindy at all, right? I mean you could farm blood echos but aside from that the only thing youd be grinding is deads. I personally quite enjoy grinding, improving bit by bit with the loot id find stuff like that. Chalice dungeons were interesting enough to me to keep going, because hell yeah its more bloodborne xD However, dungeons, caves etc. In elden ring are, well...more classic dungeons. Theres a route, some loot and it ends in a boss which after beating you return to the overworld. And i think that makes a major difference in gameplay on its own, but then as you and lenny said most of them really arent worth it. Or at least they become a drag after a while. And that makes it a bad dungeon, so the whole dungeon aspect just doesnt work.
@@thesaviorofsouls5210 exactly how you put it but for me chalice dungeons were more of a "farm for X gem" like I remember spending hours to get a 27% more damage gem, never managed to get 1, but I got a few 24% which isn't bad at all. And yeah I agree with you, after a while you just auto pilot on ER dungeons, like just run through everything open door leave, that is why I think if the rewards were better it could've been way better but like Lenny mentioned, the placements of the good rewards being early on is weird. There is no point in doing most dungeons because probably you already have something better than what you are getting example ashes, summons etc.
Guess what? I'm all the way into Mountaintop of Giants, and when watching your video, I only realized I've missed out the very very first dungeon you mentioned in here, went back into the game went straight into the catacombs and destroy everything there. It's things like this that makes Elden Ring an incredible experience.
The dungeons do hurt replayability. I feel like they could have incorporated the blood gem, and chalice dungeon system into the game... hopefully they do it in the future. I think itll make the game soo much better. Itll give people a reason to come back over and over again
I really don't think they do. Once you replay, you just go to the dungeons to get which items you want. You want the golden scarab talisman? Then beeline that dungeon. There's nothing forcing you to go to every single one, nor would you want to. Typically you don't even go to ten dungeons on your subsequnt playthroughs.
Hey Lenny, I’ve been watching your videos for about a month now. They’re really great and I’ve been enjoying your content quite a lot. Just wanted to say you’re doing really well and you make an hour long video easy to watch. Have a good one boss.
Not sure why you were afraid this video weren't going to make it. For me it was one of the most enjoyable ones, really like how you rated them and said what things of interest each dung contains. More stuff like it please! Cheers!
Read the other comments to figure out why he dreads making videos discussing his opinions. This comment section looks like an on the scene text described description of a war.
Don't understand what you were talking about last week, I found the video really entertaining. Do I agree with everything? No. Did you get everything right? No, don't think so. Did I really enjoy your approach to conveying information and your opinion about these countless dungeons that drain your sanity? Absolutely. In summary: Good shit.
This really puts in perspective the nagging feeling I had at the end of my first playthrough: the game could have been 30 to 50% shorter and wouldn't have lost much.
Fringefolk Hero’s Grave has another notable Item! If you want a niche arcane-based incant build, the Dragon Communion Seal is here. It actually has really good scaling, with B faith and S arcane. That thing is no joke, especially if you’re spamming dragon breath weapons(it boosts communion incantations).
Literally every Fromsoft youtuber: "Elden Ring is a masterclass on the open world genre" Those same youtubers: "Ranking all Elden Ring side content from boring to absolute frog vomit"
Please do let me know anything you wanna add or discuss on this!! But please make a separate comment!! don't reply to this i want that haha funni youtube wacky algo
ok
ok
I think you missed the black knife assassin boss in the black knife catacombs unless you just didn’t include it in the video.
ok
lenny you missed one... once you take the elevator with to the concecrated snowfield you get to the "path to the halligtree" dungeon and at first it seems like there is nothing there but there are invisible bridges and a second mimic tear boss
I'm very sorry :------(
@@ZeroLenny don't worry it was not that special besides the invisible floors
:0
@@ZeroLenny missed the gelmir dungeon one with the virgin duo at the end, the 3rd path to altus
@@jacobharper9236 could that be called a dungeon or would it make more sense that it's part of volcano manor?
Fighting the invisible assassin without the torch was honestly sick tho, I summons the wolves and used them to find it like I was hunting it down, it was really fun once I gave up on doing it alone
It also leaves splashes in the water, so you can track it down that way!
I spammed Radhan's weapon ash when I got frustrated and that finally did the trick for me hahahahahha
I played first time with the golden halberd from the first knight of tree or something (killed him after ~30 minutes of trying on my lvl 1 hobo lmao) and only once I switched to claymore and it was with this fucker, cause it’s much easier to hit him with GS than halberd. I knew that there was probably some way to make him visible, but killing him without the torch was kinda satisfying.
I let luleth woman-handle it. Turns out a +9 luleth can kinda solo that prick
I had a friend and used the footsteps in the water to find I'm we stayed back to back and let him come to us.
Any dungeon that opens up into the overworld in some way tends to be my favourites because they're the most memorable. The Sealed Tunnel and Academy Crystal Cave are great for that reason. Even the Coastal Cave and Gaol Cave, despite not being as grandiose on their own, feel fresh because they lead to secrets and nice views.
Agreed
I wish this was more prevalent, but also in catacombs etc. where you can see sunlight through a broken ceiling; it would be really cool if you could actually stop in from the overworld/wonderfully trolly if you fall in accidentally to the middle of a catacomb and can't fast travel out because you're underground and the boss is still alive.
@@BeaDSM It would also be cool if the light coming from the surface actually matched the day/night cycle, or if the cracks letting the light in was visible in the actual surface, tiny details like these i live for.
I wish that, especially the catacombs, all sort of linked up underneath the region, so you could go in one catacombs and potentially leave through another one. I know that would be nightmarish to create and balance, but it would have made the sameness of the catacombs worth it to me.
I have to stick up for Dragonbarrow cave here. The bear is so tough because you're meant to avoid fighting it and sneak past, that's why there are bushes everywhere. Not to mention the poise talisman is in there which is super useful.
The narrow pathway that leads to the boss is the perfect cheese spot to kill that bear, the bear can't get through the opening and reach you, and it will only attack you with its roars, just load it up with rot arrows or spells and bam it's dead.
The beast lure pots are great for rune bears, but nobody ever seems to remember they exist
also the dragonbarrow is scaled for end game (farum azula aka post mountaintops) so he really legit is harder than morgott
@@executioner_ecgbert884 do you know where the book is for that? I don't have it
Ok but if your only gimmick is basically just trying to sneak past a bear and fight an annoying duo fight that you will basically undoubtedly be under leveled for, then it still deserves to be trashed on. Shit cave.
Wait.. Why didn't he mention the hidden wall boss in the black knife catacomb? I feel like that could increase the dungeon's point at least a bit. As well as the Fringefolk hero's grave, the fact you can break the chariot to get some cool stuff as well as permanently gimp the dungeon. Its minor things but I feel like they add a lot of fun to it.
Yep. Fringefolk for me is one of the best dungeons in the game. Honestly, I loved all the chariot dungeons, because I'm fond things I can't brute force my way out of in a game. Same thing for Caelid and Leyndell's sewers. Hell, even Lake of Rot.
Yeah I was starting to wonder these ones too. I was really hyped when I found out the "hidden" boss in black knife.
@@Erick-tv8oq the graves, sewers, and caelid, are ok, but don’t even mention the lake of rot. I don’t want to think of that place ever again.
@@cyb3rspace478 Me neither, and that's exactly why I like it. I love to hate it.
I will never forgive Zerolenny for this
In Azura's Hero Grave there's a hidden armor set you can get by breaking the chariots by doing the puzzle in shafts below. It's by far the coolest armor set in my opinion. The Tree Sentinel armor(giga chad armor).
You don't even need to get all the way down there, just use Mohg/Margit's Shackle at the beginning of the dungeon (at the hiding spot where you go down to spawn the 3rd chariot), the flame pillar near by will rise up and spawn the 3rd chariot on the path of 1st and 2nd chariot, leading them destroying each other.
@@wzx6x6z6w SAY WHATTTTTT SEND A VID LINK TO THIS TUTORIAL
@@liamhop6148 bro idk if you still need this, but literally just get to the little opening underneat the 2 chariots ramps and use the morgott's / mohg's shackle, wait like 5-10 seconds, and both the chariots are dead. you dont need a tutorial.
even if you dont get it now, pretty much morgott / mohg shackle = big hitbox = everything toggled in catacombs / hero's graves
that means lifting statues that spit fire, chariot puzzles, etc. so just spam that shit throughout the dungeon and you'll certainly see the chariot dead pop up with all the gear
Yes this honestly should’ve bumped the dungeon up a point
Im sad you didnt mention that Altus Tunnel and Perfumer's Grotto are connected. The Malformed Star (the semi Astel) that you found in both caves is the same. I visite the tunnel first and kept exploring it trying to find a way to the big boi, but couldn't. Cut to the next day when exploring the Perfumers Grotto and look who is there! Its a great detail that elevates both in my ranking.
Oh wow that is a nice detail I overlooked!
lol I shot that guy to death with a bow on my first blind playthrough. Still was a cool detail finding the other side later!
I was wondering how you killed that guy
That was a really cool thing to figure out during my playthroughs.
The ruin-strewn precipice is honestly my favorite way to get into altus, the rising tension as you climb through a mine and then along a cliffside is so satisfying, you can feel that you’re getting closer to altus, I like it way more than the lift, and I personally used the magma wyrm greatsword quite a bit it’s a neat weapon
I randomly decided to explore this cave and just kept going w/o knowing where it was leading. I remember thinking that it must be a required path for later in the game because it was much more expansive than any other cave. I got to Altus before I killed Rennala and Makar was tough at that point. I didn't even realize there was a lift I was supposed to be working towards.
@@Awesomeficationify its not worth using the lift tbh. Like Lenny said, you get good crafting mats from the dungeon, and its imo one of the game's better dungeons by far.
One of my favorite invasion spots
It’s my favorite because, if you summon Great Horned Tragoth, you get the casual greeting gesture.
I would say it feels like the correct way to do it.
It was how I got to Altus in my first playthough, and it had so much impact and made it feel like a real achievement to reach Altus Plateau.
The dectus medallions feel ridiculous in my subsequent playthroughs, because you can literally get to Altus within 10 minutes of booting up the game if you know where they are.
It makes Altus Plateau go from this amazing place to just another stop off in making a build.
Oh god he did it, the madman. Take a shot every time he says dungeon or catacomb.
Alcohol poisoning for sure
I actually quite like having a liver
Take a shot every time Lenny wants to kill himself
I got one better, take a shot every time he says fuck, you're dead in 5 minutes
Drink every time I say The X is right here in x
For Perfumer's Grotto, the Malformed Star enemy there can also be an enemy that shoots at you in Altus Tunnel, so if you go there before, it makes Altus Tunnel less painful, and if you go there after, you can get revenge on it. Not super interesting, but the fact that the two dungeons connect with each other is a neat little feature.
That's actually awesome. I saw the ledge across the way in Altus Tunnel but just moved on after and forgot to try to figure out how to get there. That's awesome that it's in another dungeon.
for the impaler's catacombs I think this is where you're meant to use a crystal arrow or dart on the watchdog and make him fight the little goblins, cause if you dont know crystal darts make stone enemies hostile to each other, so it really feels like they wanted you to learn that here but did nothing to teach you; they could've sprinkled in a few of them throughout the catacomb so at least someone might get an idea and go and read the item description to learn that there and not from a vaati video 230 hours and 2 playthroughs into the game like I did
I do know about these extra tips such as the crystal darts or destroying the chariots. But as you say it does nothing to teach the player those so I didn't think it was fair to put in an "as-it-is" review
i beat the game before i found out how to get in most of the towers lol
@@ZeroLenny I guess it makes the point of the review confusing. Like... is this to help new players decide which dungeons to do, and not to spoil them on cool secret stuff (but maybe point them towards it with a wink)? Or for experienced players considering which dungeons they'll visit for their secondary playthrough, where they'd be absolutely interested in the secret stuff?
Like this kind of misses both audiences. Seems weird to be absolutely gassed about Dragon Communion spells, but not even mention the Dragon Communion Seal you find in Fringefolk Hero's grave that you'd absolutely want for those spells. You even get to cheese the guy who drops it with the Chariot - which is what I did in my first blind playthrough. The moment my level 10 prophet got that incantation seal - I knew what my first playthrough would be.
It just comes off as though you missed these things, or just don't think they're important or interesting...
The Lord of Blood's Exultation is actually one of the best item's in the game for a Arcane/Bleed Build. I hate the dungeon but that talisman is probably the best in the game, helps you do the big game breaking damage with Rivers and Reduvia.
I was honestly shocked he said that.
@@sablemae8853 same here, absolutely shookth
@@sablemae8853 Same here I was like does he know how stupidly strong bleed builds are on their own don't even get me started with the exultation on.
Eyes went wide with disbelief when he said that. It's super strong, and even if you *aren't* a bleed build, you can use it if *any of your summons* are bleed builds. it's pretty well a free 20% damage boost
Throw bleed on the Antspur and you can get a 82 base bleed 50 base rot weapon (before the arcane stat scaling boost). Combo with Lord of Blood tali and either the Kindred or Rot tali or mushroom crown
Congrats you just won the Elden Ring
Every veteran knows that all dungeons without a spiritcaller snail boss are in fact immediately disqualified and plunged into F tier, where they very much belong
Spirit caller snail is the best boss in the game hands down
I loved the godskin duo varient on first encounter, fight through them and wonder whats next then boom, a snail with boss music made me laugh a lil too much
@@punyr I had not found any other spirit calling snails by that point on my first playthrough so it was particularly ridiculous. Just finding a dungeon full of strange magic snails and then one pathetically attacks me with a health bar after a rough fight.
@@themrrental2509 there's one where the snail is the end boss and there's one where they're just normal enemies where you get the white samurai armor.
@@kril_2945 you forget soldier of god, rick that quickly?
The Onyx lord is a reused enemy you can find in several spots through out the game. From Limgrave, to Raya Lucaria. There is even a mid/late dungeon where there are 2 of them as generic enemies in there.
I was going to say the same but after looking into it the others are Alabaster Lords, there's only 2 Onyx Lord bosses. Doesn't feel much different though so I agree with you.
Yeah, there's like six or seven of those guys, not exactly super rare.
@@PandemoniumGameDev they are the same
@@TheGamerThing Onyx lords have a unique version of gravitas that pushes the player away
@@vmdoesstuff Or do alabaster lords have a unique version of gravitas that pull them in? We will never know.
4:15
That trap is actually in at least one overworld enemy encampment, one of the camps in northern Limgrave has those scattered around the edges to alert all the enemies inside.
You can totally beat the invisible Black Knife Assassin in the Sage's Cave without a torch, it's actually a pretty and unique cool boss mechanic, you have to stay on the center of de puddle and watch out for the steps on the water as she is slowly approaching to see in what direction to attack. In fact, I'm pretty sure she has a different AI to other invisible BNA, for example I can't really pull of the same trick with the ones on Ordina even while looking at the steps in the snow, they are more aggressive and dodge faster.
One thing I'll say on the Sage's Cave: I like it a lot, definite 10/10, but that is if you fight the Black Knife Assassin without the torch. Reason why is that its a very dynamic fight, cause you see the ripples it makes through the water when moving around. Keeping a track of it really swings this fights "prey and predator" feel of the assassin. If you got a torch, this guy is honestly really really easy for most builds.
I do like this too! But as I said the difficulty depends on character builds. With my usual spear builds the narrow attacks really suck at hitting unlockable targets compared to a aoe swing
@@ZeroLenny Which is really fair! Figure that really throws things off, cause difficulty is pretty subjective. Good that you point it out.
I love Gelmir Hero's Grave. Two badass armor sets right next to each other, can skip the chariot by dropping down the pit early on and even ride it to the end, two unique weapons, awesome spirit ash for beating the boss. Maybe it's stockholm syndrome but it's nice dreading an area in a Fromsoft game again. I also love the Leyndell sewers for the same reason so yeah I'm probably just messed up mentally by this point
In Gelmir Hero's Grave, you can actually ride the chariots. There's a point where you can drop down on one and it's the way to get over the lave. Rest of the dungeon is still shite but I think being able to stand on a chariot was pretty cool.
That is really cool and I did include those bits originally! But I wanted this review to come across as straight to the point and as it is. Even though those secrets are cool to do, the game doesn't have any in-game tips or indication that you can do that, so I feel like it'd unfair to include due to most players not being walking vaati wikipedias
@@ZeroLenny Ok but you do get some decent Drip from that Dungeon iirc.
Even faster, if you go past the first chariot, there's an alcove hidden on the right. Drop down and you're at the end. I always do this one because the whole dungeon takes about 1 minute to do.
funny story, first time in that dungeon i rode that chariot to the bottom & thought "so cool, but let me explore some more up top before i do the boss". so i rode the chariot back up & hopped off, then preceded to get scared shitless by the cemetery shade hiding in the corner. honestly one of the best jump scares in any from soft game ive played & there's been many highlights 😂
@@ZeroLenny
But the "secret areas" all contain tangible rewards, the Bloodhound Knight set and the Gelmir Knight set are both 2 great looking sets, the mantis sword is the closest thing to a Bloodborne trick weapon.
If we’re talking about loot in dungeons though, what about the Dragon Communion Seal in Fringefolk Hero’s Grave! It’s such a great deal that scales incantations off of Arcane, letting players know early on that there is some crazy build variety to be had!
Fingerfolk hero's grave also has the erdtree's favor tailsman aka ring of favor and protection that everyone used in dark souls.
it's true; although it isn't the end-of-dungeon reward, it's a really powerful item that arcane builds should grab as soon as they can!
This is actually one of the most user-friendly and straight-to-the-point dungeon compendiums available on the internet. And it comes with the benefit of being entertaining as hell, lmao.
Edit: worth mentioning that Fringefolk hero's grave includes the incredibly OP dragon communion seal, which is well worth the keysword cost on its own. Or that black knife catacombs also aptly hide a black knife assassin as a side boss, or that you can break/ride/solve the chariot-related puzzles in most hero's graves
Straight to the point was my goal here! Glad it came across
That damn seal is so slept on!
S scaling for Arcane? With an extra Rot breath buff? And also having B scaling for faith!? *And being a 0 weight talisman!?*
@@Cheerwine091 It was sooooooo good! On my first blind playthrough, my starting gift were the stonesword keys because they reminded me of DS2's Pharros Lockstones. I immediately used mine, and I actually really liked Fringefolk for the fact that most of the challenge isn't from the enemies, so a brand new but creative player can make their way through it. I cheesed the dragon knight spirit with the chariot to get the Dragon Seal, and it was then I instantly knew what my level 10 Prophet was going to become!
@@Cheerwine091 Slept on? It's literally the meta seal for builds with less than 70 faith. Not exactly what I'd call slept on
@@tatri292 Godslayer’s Seal and Finger Seal are generally what people use, rather than the dragon communion seal. At least, as far as I’ve seen.
DCS is only good if you have high arcane, AND decent faith. It doesn’t naturally slot into most faith builds, considering your secondary stats are probably going to be vigor, dex, and mind(not in that order). Adding another stat to that list doesn’t really feel meta to me…
I really value armour as loot, it's one of my favorite things to find because it can be used in any build, and I like fashion souls. So I personally would rank any dungeon which gives armour much higher, even Gelmir's hero grave because it has two armour sets (which are both very nice) as loot in the dungeon would be ranked really highly. Idk maybe 8? I don't mind the rest of the dungeon as much as you did lol.
Other comments I would have on the video, you don't usually mention loot in the dungeon unless it is the boss loot, though it would be completely unreasonable to expect you to know every single item in every dungeon, there are a few dungeons which have the best item in them as a random item on the ground which would increase the ranking of a few dungeons.
Other note, I very quickly had more stonesword keys then I ever needed and always was able to immediately open up every stonesword gate I found, so I don't put that many expectations on dungeons that require them.
It was a really good video thanks for all the effort you took :)
In the black knife catacombs in Liurnia there is another hidden boss behind. A hidden wall after riding the guillotine upwards, it is a repeated boss but it gives the player something needed for a quest, though since Lenny said he doesn’t care much for quests he may have missed it, meaning he may have missed the Fortissax dragon boss.
I wanted to avoid questlines because those are external factors which players who aren't walking Wikipedia's will probably miss.
That said it's still there and accessable even without a quest.
Maybe bump it up +0.5/1 point
@@ZeroLenny that makes sense. Love the video as always! I liked all the ways you reviewed the dungeons
You can almost completely ignore the questline until Fia naturally kills D and then go fight the dragon, because it's what I did
@@ZeroLenny You probably won't miss them if you do what most people do, and play online with messages on. You learn quick which "hidden path" messages are fake and ignored and which ones are absolutely worth checking out.
he probably didn't finished the questlines in his first playthrough, but did in the second one.
Ah so Earthbore cave is in the northern section of the weeping penninsular, south of limgrave, on a small ramp down and around a cliffside edge. Love the voice by the way!
In the black knife catacombs there is also a black knife assassin boss after you take a trip up the guillotine, that’s tied to Fia and Rogier’s quest lines. It may have been behind an illusory wall, I forget.
Yeah, it is behind an illusory wall
its behind an illusory wail indeed
There’s more to Fia’s quest line after the Lich Dragon??
@@tchanthaphaeng No, this is before. You get the black knife print, and I believe once you have it, you talk to Fia and she tells you to find the owner of a broken knife she gives you, which is D. once you give it to him she’ll kill him. It’s just a way of progressing her quest line faster than waiting for her to kill him once you burn the erdtree. It’s useful if you want D’s armour early
@@homoggaming6312 you don’t have to kill it though, you just need to get to altus to trigger the dialogue
From what I can tell, the bell traps are actually used in every military camp you can find in the open world with them being placed in bushes or in gaps in defenses where you could otherwise walk in from unnoticed
I really enjoyed the longer format for a video. I haven’t played much elden ring honestly but I do plan on doing every dungeon and beating every boss and this video has shown me to just enjoy the game instead of getting down on how much of a slog it can be sometimes. Keep on staying epic kid
The Coastal Cave in Limgrave has two things that make it very good imo- 1. There is a summon sign, often the first one players find, so it’s neat to have a 2 on 2 fight + summons and the demihuman mob. 2. Boc!!!
Lenny, In the Fringefold Hero's Grave you forgot to mention the banished knight that drops one of the most useful seals that boosts dragon incantations that can go to S scaling for arcane.
Wth is a zerolinny
@@Overlapinionur mum
Oleg is a pretty damn good summon imo, i'd put him in like top 5.
2:10 The black knife catacoms has a black knife behind a secret wall and drops a keyitem to progress rogeier, fia and even kicks off raani's questline in a different way.
You can ride that chariot in that dungeon 30:30. it's a unique thing they do once.
36:00 in that hero's grave, you can do a little puzzle in a different section and then make all the chariots crash into each other, it is really satisfying and you get the full erdtree armorset and an ash of war.
Oleg is super great for stun locking some bosses
The rusted anchor in Morne Tunnel is one of the few strength scaling pierce weapons for strength builds trying to take on dragons right away. You also forgot to mention the Tree Sentinel armor set from Auriza Hero's Grave which is drippy as hell.
11:02 Fringefolk: "It's the first dungeon the player sees, and it's a trap." Which I think might actually be good design, the same way the Tree Sentinel just outside also teaches you to move on if something is too hard. It reminds me of running into the graveyard when you first arrive at Firelink, and getting annihilated by the skellingtons.
Yep, I liked this for the same reason I liked the teleporters into late game areas, they gave me glimpses into exciting things I would do later on and made me look forward to them.
@@Erick-tv8oq yeah the teleporter to the capital was a solid "oh shit" moment because of how far off the map it was for me. Made me realize just how much more of the game there was and how big the world was... And then it was even bigger in the end.
@@dekkonot Yep. One of the most awe inspiring moments for me besides the one you just described was the Crumbling Lands teleporter in the Three Belfries. It was my first contact with Farum Azula, and once I used the teleporter I just stood there for what felt like an eternity taking it all in. Then I told my brother to not look towards my screen no matter what because he was playing the game as well and I didn't want him to get spoiled.
I think the issue with it isn't that it's a trap, it's a trap that you need to use up a limited resource to fall into.
@@redgeoblaze3752 I think that adds to the impact actually. 🙂 At the beginning of the game I did worry about running out of keys, but I quickly had an extra two dozen. They're everywhere, and there's way more than you need to open every door.
Wanted to add something special about the Gaol tunnel that wasn't mentioned by Lenny. I think its a rare example where the game finally makes use of the "no teleporting inside the dungeon" mechanic. You start by falling down a hole from which you can't get out of, and from there you are forced to clear it before you can leave. I entered at a very low level and panicked for a sec there. Not even dying will get you out so it was a nice change. In reality its not too punishing; you aren't required to defeat the boss so you don't lose your fun. I don't recall any other dungeon that was like this.
Okay, you missed that you can break the chariot in the hero's grave and get the Erd tree greatbow, so it's a lot higher on the list.
#GamersDontLookUp
Also overlooks the Dragon communion seal which is arguably one of the better seals in the game in terms of scaling, and pretty much essential for arcane builds.
Fingerfolk Hero’s Grave has: Erdtree Favor talisman, Arcane-scaling seal, Flask upgrade, first Greatbow for player, one of the best Ashes - that’s a lot of rewards for one dungeon!
Also you hate the chariot - you get the opportunity to destroy it! It teaches player that there are ways to make things easier and to look for opportunities in Hero Graves. imo you went to harsh on it
that's the only one I thought he was too hard on as well. I felt it was nicely marked as optional by having a cost. Like it gives you a million reasons to leave, and even more not to come back (there is curiosity yes but there is literally so much more out in the world that you've been let loose in to look for the keys). You have to commit to something that is clearly above your level. It does feel a bit cheap cause you lose out on those keys but there are plenty more. and you can always come back and the rewards are good for a long time imo, and even more crazy if you get finish it early
@@094176 Man clearly lost a lot of runes there in his first playthrough
Also, I really love just how many secrets are in this dungeon. I remember coming back on a second playthrough, seeing a ledge above the first landing between the ramps the chariot goes up and down, and noticed that there was an enemy up there. This made me take pause as I realized "Wait, I never figured out how to get up there on my first playthrough." I had to give the place a really thorough search through to finally get up to that ledge. Shooting the pots from up there to destroy the chariot and earn the eardtree greatbow felt so awesome. If you just head straight to the boss you end up missing like half of the dungeon which is hidden away, but that ledge with an enemy on it is enough of a hint that attentive players could realize "There's a secret way to get up there... somewhere".
@@094176 Honestly, it having a cost makes it feel less optional to the player. After spending (likely your first) two Stonesword keys on it, you feel compelled to finish it and get your moneys worth - sunk cost fallacy and all.
I'd actually argue that Groveside is more likely to be a first dungeon in terms of both design and overworld placement. When you go past the tree sentinel to the church, you're soft directed towards a soldier patrolling on the edge of the forest. And the path leading up into the forest. And then midway through there's another soldier off to the side crouching, and then even further off the path in that direction is a little camp and the dungeon entrance.
I cannot tell you how much I just appreciate the fact you took the time to make this video. Thanks for being you Lenny :)
Lenny delivers a banger AGAIN. I loved every minute of this, and it could be SO helpful for newer players. Despite whether or not anything was overlooked/not mentioned, this is still a really well done video that deserves a FAT FUCKIN LIKE for the effort!
The day elden ring came out me and my friends stayed up up to 4 am just trying to beat fringefolk hero grave before even stepping out into limgrave for the first time, fair to say we died a lot trying to beat the ulcerated tree spirit lvl 1 with basic gear
If you’re bringing rewards into the scoring, shouldn’t you of brought up the fact that Fringefolk’s has the Dragon Communion Seal (arguably the best Seal in the game for non faith builds) and the Erdtree Greatbow, as well as the Erdtree’s Favor which is a fantastic talisman for most of the game? All that on top of the gold seed and Spirit Ashes. Seems odd to not even mention it.
Al 3 erdtrees favor are overrated as fuck, any version cant be compared with fap, its a pretty "can be passed talisman"
@@ivanvega3405 they’re a pretty useful slot filler if you aren’t relying on all four talisman slots, and especially for how early you can grab the first one it’s a really helpful boost for the early game, not to mention unlike the fap ring you can actually take it off lol, jokes aside, it should’ve been mentioned and accounted into the dungeon’s score along with the other quite solid loot
@@Mi_mcmuffin true, but its nothing special in elden ring, jar talisman and live +2 are much worth it, anyways, if you have a free slot... I supose its cool
@@ivanvega3405 due to the percentage increase it's worth a few levels in vigor and endurance endgame. not as much as crimson amber, but i think that it's one of the best endgame talismans
@@micahgraff8998 only if you dont have a truly good one and need to fill that gap
yt was playing elden ring videos while i slept all day and you managed to wake me up just before my work shift. thanks bro
For the azurias heros grave, you can kill the chariots, which I think deserves a mention, its easy to do and it gives you another armour set
I spent alot of time exploring as much of the map as I thought was reasonable, really digging around for secrets. The sheer amount of things I still missed makes me feel like I was wearing a blindfold the whole game.
What a big video, loved every second!
I ike how he values the dungeons presentation and the "first time experience" doing it.
It's a shame the devs didn't thought on NG+ for the dungeons (0 rewards) , some are really fun.
Edit: he became more ruthless throught the video haha
I love how this video has just explained to me in excruciating detail that I missed all the good dungeons whilst simultaneously doing all the bad dungeons
I found the spiritcaller cave before I had ever found a godskin apostle so I was so surprised when a noble popped out after because I had struggled quite a bit already
@16:30 For Lakeside Crystal Cave, you may hate quest lines, but the thing with this one is it's barely a quest line and the reward is a Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone. While you only get the stone in Consecrated Snowfield, it's literally just... talk to the NPC here, run to a spot in Consecrated Snowfield, do a simple interaction, and get the stone. Given how few SAD stones there are in the game (only like, 6 total or something per NG cycle) and one of them is gated behind this dungeon and requires basically _only_ this dungeon over the work you'd do in a normal playthrough, I would say it's not unfair to say that this dungeon functionally rewards you with a SAD stone, which makes it a very cool dungeon with an S-tier reward.
Also, calling a Bloodhound Knight a "reused enemy" feels slightly unfair; it's a reused _boss_ which appears in one or maybe two other places, and the fact that it jumps you makes it a pretty unique encounter.
Thus, between the very cool cave, almost-unique boss in a new environment, and the absolutely top-tier reward, I would give that dungeon a solid 10/10 tbh.
@36:30 I think you're being a little uncharitable to the boss fight. Crucible Knights are a reused enemy, sure, but it's not like you've seen tons of them at this point or whatever, and they always have non-respawning miniboss status at least. By the time you're here, you've fought _maybe_ 3 of them, if you've already gone into the Capital itself, found the Spiritcaller Snail Crucible Knight fight, and found the Evergaol. If it were just one of them, then yeah, fair to be unhappy about seeing it for the 4th time, though I think they're always a pretty cool and tough enemy, but they work pretty well as a duo boss and the fact that it is a duo boss makes it a very different encounter, even if the enemies themselves aren't new.
Though I dunno, I personally feel relatively charitable to reused bosses as long as it makes sense. Reusing story bosses? Yeah, that's fucking annoying. But reusing non-story bosses, or making enemies from the end game into bosses? I dunno, I don't mind it. It's not realistic, to me, to expect them to have that many unique bosses.
That said, every single Catacomb except the first one can go fuck itself, and so can more or less every Hero's Grave. They're all same-y and they all suck. I honestly think the game would have benefited a lot from drastically cutting down the number of dungeons, and just leaving the good ones. The loot and cool elements from the small dungeons could be recycled into other dungeons or just into the open world. Most of the dungeon loot from the mediocre dungeons has no thematic connection to the dungeon itself, so you could just have easily have just slapped it into an evergaol. And like, with an evergaol, there's no build up, there's no expectation. It's just a glorified treasure chest with a boss fight, and so like, I could not care less about reused bosses in evergaols, unless they're fucking Shardbearers (what the fuck, Godefroy?).
And a hypothetical contester of my point might say "just don't go into them if you don't like them, they add content to the game" to which I say: fuck no. I _tried_ to play this game blind. I really wanted to. But when there are 700 caves and 90% of them are repeat trash which just might happen to be really cool or contain a really good item, playing blind is just infinitely less fun. I would infinitely prefer that there be like 2 dungeons per region and they both be really good, so that finding them is cool, and when you do, you're not questioning whether this is worth it.
Love how he calls both demihumans and the mini gargoyles as goblins
Ruin-Strewn Precipice was one of my favourite highlights of the game. I didn't know about the dectus medallion, so when the lift didn't work I chalked that up to it being too old to function or some other factor. The only other way to the Altus Plateau was via the dungeon. I love how you enter from the bottom of this cliff and occasionally reappear outside to see how far up the cliff you've travelled, it was extremely immersive.
The seethewater cave definitely left you seething.
the kindred of rot's exultation is really good though for the builds it applies to.
Well for any build you have a pocket +20% damage for 20 seconds which is pretty big.
A lot of people have told me this is a good item! I'm sorry, it's just I didn't know what makes different builds good as I've not really looked into popular online builds/didn't have the time to look into every item possibly having a meta standing
The bonus doesn't go away when you cure poison or take off the talisman so you can just put it on eat a meat dumpling to poison yourself and then take the talisman off.
Leyndell catacombs was my favorite dungeon. I actually liked how it was so twisty and slowly shows what it is. After the first drop down you think more enemies might have spawned but then you start seeing more differences until you figure it out. Helps break up the mundane task of going through catacombs.
While watching this video I remembered one of my favorite dungeons and was so excited for you to get to the point where ya reviewed it. Little did I know that you were gonna roast it to shreds, lol. It was the Leyndell Catacombs dungeon for me, the second looping dungeon in the video. For me, that was my first dungeon I found that looped. And I was so confused at first, but when I discovered things were slightly changing, I got a real kick out of it ^^ Guess I got lucky and discovered that dungeon while the looping mechanic was still novel :P Wish ya had the same fun time as I did, but I definitely loved the video! Really love how ya effortlessly tear up any of the dungeons ya found to be lackluster or boring!
Thanks for making the vid, and have a nice day Mr.Lenny!
I didn't find the other looping dungeon, so for me it was probably my favourite dungeon in the game.
EDIT: Turns out I did do the other looping dungeon (and pretty sure I did it first), but I didn't even realise it was looping. I just knew it as "trap chest dungeon."
Meanwhile the Leyndell Catacombs baits you with a fake boss room, the dead omen, etc.
It really made me question what was happening at first.
I also loved leyndell catacombs. At first I thought, oh they’re using the trick where they make it seem like I’m going forward but they’re actually teleporting me back without me noticing, but no they knew that people know that trick so they actually just repeat the rooms with little changes. Such a good puzzle.
You do realize that the "useless" poison talisman is one of the two best talisman in the game, right?
Thats 20% AR as long as someone is poisoned or suffers under scarlet rot, including yourself.
I didnt even know this, thank you
*inhales for a rotten breath*
that's true but he's absolutely right about the boss being trash. the pest enemies are already annoying as hell. two of them is just dumb and before the patch it was a bunch of really annoying off screen damage from instant spear swipes and tracking needles.
Not everyone uses rot or poison builds throughout their run so many people won’t use it anyways, for 2 stonesword keys and a bad boss fight to get it that has a poison swamp before it, I think he had good judgement on that one
@@cainhurst7546 I don't think he does at all. You can't just say an item is bad because it doesn't work for your build... Otherwise nearly every single dungeon reward can't be ranked because few items work for every build. A really cool dex weapon means nothing for a strength build. Nor does a really cool spell. So if the item is useful for any build, it should be considered a good item. Obviously.
Secondly, I feel like a poison swamp is fine for a poison dungeon. If it's a rot/poison based dungeon with rot/poison based enemies and rot/poison based rewards. A rot/poison based environment is a good thing because it works towards the theme of the dungeon. There are items to mitigate it. Items to cure it. And spells to cure it. The "UH HARD GAME WANT TO BE HARD." argument doesn't really work because players who actually went out of their way to craft/buy poison/rot cures, or get a curing spell, will feel rewarded for their preparation. A game that rewards players for their time/planning is a good one.
Don't know if it qualifies in your mind or not, but I really hoped to see the Divine Tower of Calid in this list. It's a one of a kind puzzle getting into the tower to start off, then once you're inside, you can go get Radahn's great rune to the right. But that's not all. You can go left and go through a really unique jumping puzzle down the tower, and at the bottom, you get to fight what is most people's first godskin apostle. After which the reward you get is an amazing colossus sword with some neat lore attached to it. 10/10 for me at least.
That fucker messed me up
The Black Knife's Catacombs is hinted during Rogier/Fia's quest and has actually a secret area with a secret boss (a blacknife assasin) that drops the Black Knifeprint, an item you give to Rogier to progress the quest. It's not anything that crazy, but it makes the dungeon kind of special.
Man you really did Fringefold dirty. You didn't even talk about half the dungeon like the he area where the 2 scions drop down that has a good talisman, the part with the stone guys or the reward you get for destroying the chariot. Definitely worth the 2 keys you need to enter. Really felt like you wanted to give it a bad score from the beginning and ignored everything else that made it enjoyable. But that's just my opinion.
Well it's definitely a very, VERY subjective video. Missed out on a lot of important details such as hidden walls, unique items, and what someone like Patches sells that makes him worth fighting (Margit's shackle for two bossfights and Golden Fowl Foot) and typically just came down to "I like this and didn't like this."
great video, I was honestly impressed that you managed to make a review of all the dungeons in this game while keeping it fresh and funny!
As someone who loved the chalice dungeons, I’m a sucker for these things, love the challenge of figuring out the puzzle
I cant believe you actually enjoyed the cursed dungeons
@@Archeronus fair, they weren’t my favorite as the defiled watchdog was brutal but I didn’t despise them all to much
@@colorgreen8728 you just reminded me of that charge attack. It gives me conniptions
Ngl I loved the invisible black knife fight in sages cave, it felt like a terrifying, actually fun version of priscilla’s fight from dks1. You gotta use the water splashes to see where the boss is and fight them with that, or if you’re feeling lazy, just summon a spirit and they’ll auto target the boss for you. Fun little puzzley boss that really shows how terrifying the black knives were.
For the miner enemies that bounce your weapon, you can two hand to prevent it from happening. Crush weapons, magic and some consumables still do more damage to them, but it's a good budget option and even comes into play for the crystaline dickheads you find in other dungeons/areas.
A simple club or hammer so much more effective against these and especially against Cristalians, it it is almost cheesy. Absolutely worth switching.
Kinda badass that you grinded that out for us homie. No one else could have made that as enjoyable as you, keep it up big boi❤️
12:45 It gets a negative 1/100 from me for changing the drop from the awesome hammer (that is now only available as a low, I think 1-2% drop, from a temporary enemy).
To be fair Engval is a really solid summon, but to be frank he ain't as good as the battle hammer. I get they wanted to add Engval but why not just make it drop from the same tree spirit as Oleg considering they were a team an' all.
Found it before the changeover. It was my first weapon that replaced my club for my wretched character. Took me through to the mid game.
Ok, I thought I was going crazy. I fucking *knew* it used to be the hammer. I did the dungeon recently and I was like, "Who the fuck is Engval?! Wasn't I supposed to get a weapon?"
Well done Lenny. Enjoyed this way more than I thought I would based on the concept and length. Felt entertaining throughout and didnt feel long at all
You absolute legend, you did it!!!
as always, I love your videos and it's always interesting to hear another person's POV.
I feel like I'm biased in favor of most dungeons since I really like crafting, and most dungeons hold cookbooks or talismans. For example, Tombsward Cave (which admittedly is pretty bad) holds a cookbook that gives you poison grease, which I used throughout most of my 2nd playthrough. Also, the fire/spell talismans are always great to have since you get them super early, probably before doing Stormveil (several fire attack sources) and Liurnia (spells galore). It's literally just free defense.
Also, the bells from Patches' cave are used a couple more times in the game, but very very rarely.
Glad we had the same thoughts on Ruin-Stewn Precipice. That place was awesome
I feel like you do that one and then you go and take the lift. Thats how I did and I felt awesome
Hi lenny i genuinely love long videos. Its honestly so nice to sit down and just watch a video for 1 or 2 hours since i cant really catch your livestreams. Thanks for making me laugh and entertaining me.
It's been a pleasure to watch most of this live, well done!
PS: I'm actually glad you showed the tombsward cave location, since I actually missed it.
Now I know to never go near it
Honestly, a lot of dungeons are largely interesting for lore. For instance, Groveside Cave is interesting because it shows you that Limgrave used to be part of the dragon/beast empire and that the ruins strewn all over the place fell from Faram Azula in the sky. The beastman is leading a pack of wolves ambushed and killed Godrick's soldiers who were using the cave. You find one of Godrick's Soldiers outside the cave, investigating the wreckage of the cave's camp.
Really interesting to see some of my favourite ones being low ranked. I loved all the Chariot ones, especially the first one. It's an optional challenge you can try at the very start of the game and get a pretty significant early game boost equal to about 8 levels *and* and a seed for beating a pretty good boss. And yes I think the ulcerated tree is a pretty good boss. Also the fact you can destroy the chariot to get some decent gear is also just beautiful. It's easily my favourite.
I like the ulcerated tree spirit as well. I just wish I could see what it does better because half the fight is me hugging its belly. Almost all bigger bosses in this game have run away moves that are meant to reset the pace of the fight, I wish the Ulcerated Tree Spirits had those as well, though I guess they wouldn't be put inside the catacombs if they did.
I was so fascinated with what they did in the Leyndell Catacombs, with placing dead Omens in your way to trick you into believing you’ve already been there… made me feel like I was losing my mind haha. The Omen looking at his buddy’s corpse is such a tiny detail but elevates the dungeon to one of my absolute favourites. Interesting that it scored super low too lol
@@koildup One of my favourites as well.
So the fringefolk hero grave was 1 key on release I think. When I started the game day one I took the stonesword key as a starter gift and actually cleared the dungeon over several hours before I even entered limgrave and got the ability to level up. On the upside I never struggled against that type of boss again.
You know what? I really like the double crucible knight fight. I missed out on it in the first playthrough, but encountered it in the second and by that point, i had already mastered fighting crucible knights, so this duo battle where you had to lure out the one who isnt turtling with a shield and kill him was a breath of fresh air
Ah yes the AI Coinflip
Man, i finally had timme to watch the first half of the video, cant wait to watch the second half tomorrow! Love this video already so much! Great work my guy!
I thought the assassin in Sage's Cave was one of the best dungeon boss fights tbh. I didn't even know until this video that you could see her with a torch. I honestly love the boss fights that make you lay close attention. The fact you can track her movements by staying in the water is so unique. It only took me 2 attempts to beat her.
I love the little aesthetic/world details you spot in a lot of the dungeons. Great video Lenny
Fingefolk hero's grave has the erdtreefavor talisman and the dragon communion sigil. Also you can destroy the chariot. It also contains 2 grafted scions. Would this change your rating?
@@ZeroLenny
Not only that, Grafted Scion gank fuck. Make that shit -1
@@ZeroLenny I do think that the hanging pots above it give some indication that you can drop them onto the chariots.
@@ZeroLenny Secrets are meant to be hidden, and this is an instance of the game rewarding players for being observant. Figuring it out without consulting the wiki is quite satisfying indeed.
ruin strewn precipice is more like a reward for not using the grand lift one of my favourite dungeons
I thought the Black Knife Catacombs has 2 bosses and one is behind an illusory wall. Did Lenny miss it or am I thinking of the wrong catacomb?
Yeah, your right. You need to kill the Secret Boss for Fia's Questline
I usually go through my favorite creators videos every year and rewatch a good few and I honestly forgot how much I enjoyed this video, It's very chill and engaging.
Wait hold on. At 37:57 you seriously said "Oh yeah this blood talisman is so niche most people don't even know it exists". What. This thing might be one of the most overpowered items in the game. But ok.
Thanks for the vid, man. Between my laptop not being up to spec and the story not being my thing, I haven't really done much of anything personally with Elden Ring so it's been nice to have fun vids from you going about it in your usual style, this one included. Looking forward to seeing what you have planned next.
It's interesting to see a pve perspective on these I agree with most of it except for the kindred of rot talisman being a bad reward that thing is pretty powerful is you use it right.
This vid is actually so good. Very informative and showing off dungeons I’ve never seen
I liked the dungeons, massive improvement from chalice dungeons sometimes, I just wish there were good or at least decent rewards often not just once every now and then but yeah it wasn't bad at all.
Great vid about 1/5 done.
At least bloodborne chalice dungeons were infinite amounts of bloodborne with slight variations and such. The dungeons while i guess kind of similair arent really the same thing neither do they attempt to be. But maybe thats just me.
@@thesaviorofsouls5210 very true yeah, you stated a fact, chalice dungeons were more.....what is the word..... Not the same? Like every dungeon had different routes and such, some were straight up ok.
I just think the dungeons in ER weren't as bad just very off, like Lenny mentioned why do certain ones when the rewards aren't worth it.
Chalice dungeons in the other hand were improving stuff like bloodgems and stuff.
@@OldHunterLight i suposse chalice dungeons were more of a grind, by design just to be clear.
And i think that really turned people off from it because bloodborne itself isnt grindy at all, right?
I mean you could farm blood echos but aside from that the only thing youd be grinding is deads.
I personally quite enjoy grinding, improving bit by bit with the loot id find stuff like that. Chalice dungeons were interesting enough to me to keep going, because hell yeah its more bloodborne xD
However, dungeons, caves etc. In elden ring are, well...more classic dungeons. Theres a route, some loot and it ends in a boss which after beating you return to the overworld.
And i think that makes a major difference in gameplay on its own, but then as you and lenny said most of them really arent worth it. Or at least they become a drag after a while. And that makes it a bad dungeon, so the whole dungeon aspect just doesnt work.
@@thesaviorofsouls5210 exactly how you put it but for me chalice dungeons were more of a "farm for X gem" like I remember spending hours to get a 27% more damage gem, never managed to get 1, but I got a few 24% which isn't bad at all.
And yeah I agree with you, after a while you just auto pilot on ER dungeons, like just run through everything open door leave, that is why I think if the rewards were better it could've been way better but like Lenny mentioned, the placements of the good rewards being early on is weird.
There is no point in doing most dungeons because probably you already have something better than what you are getting example ashes, summons etc.
Guess what?
I'm all the way into Mountaintop of Giants, and when watching your video, I only realized I've missed out the very very first dungeon you mentioned in here, went back into the game went straight into the catacombs and destroy everything there.
It's things like this that makes Elden Ring an incredible experience.
The dungeons do hurt replayability. I feel like they could have incorporated the blood gem, and chalice dungeon system into the game... hopefully they do it in the future. I think itll make the game soo much better. Itll give people a reason to come back over and over again
I really don't think they do. Once you replay, you just go to the dungeons to get which items you want. You want the golden scarab talisman? Then beeline that dungeon. There's nothing forcing you to go to every single one, nor would you want to. Typically you don't even go to ten dungeons on your subsequnt playthroughs.
Hey Lenny, I’ve been watching your videos for about a month now. They’re really great and I’ve been enjoying your content quite a lot. Just wanted to say you’re doing really well and you make an hour long video easy to watch. Have a good one boss.
Not sure why you were afraid this video weren't going to make it. For me it was one of the most enjoyable ones, really like how you rated them and said what things of interest each dung contains. More stuff like it please! Cheers!
Read the other comments to figure out why he dreads making videos discussing his opinions. This comment section looks like an on the scene text described description of a war.
Don't understand what you were talking about last week, I found the video really entertaining. Do I agree with everything? No. Did you get everything right? No, don't think so. Did I really enjoy your approach to conveying information and your opinion about these countless dungeons that drain your sanity? Absolutely.
In summary: Good shit.
This really puts in perspective the nagging feeling I had at the end of my first playthrough: the game could have been 30 to 50% shorter and wouldn't have lost much.
It's like they had more space than content and had to stretch it out
I had a similar realization like 50 hours into my playthrough unfortunately. It made every following dungeon uninteresting and hollow for me
Did you have fun doing this Lenny? DID YOU!?!?!?!?!
43:15 There is a hidden room in this dungeon with the Bull-Goat's talisman, that should bump it up a point at least
+ you are meant to use stealth for the bear and abuse the bushes
Fringefolk Hero’s Grave has another notable Item!
If you want a niche arcane-based incant build, the Dragon Communion Seal is here. It actually has really good scaling, with B faith and S arcane. That thing is no joke, especially if you’re spamming dragon breath weapons(it boosts communion incantations).
Literally every Fromsoft youtuber:
"Elden Ring is a masterclass on the open world genre"
Those same youtubers:
"Ranking all Elden Ring side content from boring to absolute frog vomit"
yeah lol, theyre really not good, except for like 3 maybe
legit im gonna save the link to this vid somewhere so i can use it as a fun little guide to find all the dungeons, awesome work Lenny!
hello mr blue guy
Big fan of blue, very blue
hello :---)
Your commentary and colorful language is just absolutely amazing. Thanks for the laughs 😂
Love it man, there where a few i missed and i wouldnt of even known without this video. You are awesome Lenny.
Lmao to see you call Lord of Blood's Exultation "kinda shit" is the funniest thing, literally one of the best items in the game