(Not so much) Noob who started again - what have I learned?

[UncivilS3rvant]

OK, I started as a warrior and in my first two hours got killed more than 20 times as didn't have any ranged attack and not quite used to the dance of CQC.

I was also unable to level up due to my not understanding how it worked that well and also my dying.

Started again, this time as a prisoner as a bit of googling led me to discover they started with the magic dagger and that meant I could try a mix of ranged and close combat.

Much more success.

So what have I learned today (first in possibly a long series of lessons)?

I learned to keep an eye on the amount of runes I need to level up and also the rune count in the bottom left corner. I've been farming runes around the first camp and may continue until I actually kill the Captain or what I assume is the Captain. I've now levelled up twice.

I notice that that enemies regenerate once you rest at a Grace point, so sneaking about and whittling the guards down in this location is a good way to pick up enough runes to level up at this point.

The only downside is if I get killed at the far side of the camp, as I did when attacking the Captain, my first task is to recover the lost runes so they'er not lost forever if I die before picking them up.

Baby steps, but that is what I feel this game is all about...

[UncivilS3rvant]

Finally got somewhere with Sellen, I check in every now and again...

Clearly something I've done somewhere has triggered the dialogue, but there's so much here that it's not clear what that may have been, else I'd have been back sooner.

This time she asked me to free Lusat, who was apparently located in Sellia in East Caelid. I hopped back over to the town and had a look around but could find anything. I went round the town twice, went up a level using the branches and then through the gate and looked down on the town but couldn't find anything obvious.

Got frustrated and googled it, but I didn't need the spoilers as the picture that cropped up told me where he was as I recognised the blue mesh from the Sellian Hideaway when I was exploring that. Obviously couldn't get through that time, but now I have the Sellian Sealbreaker.

It took me a while wandering round that cave to find the right spot, but I got there and used the sealbreaker to discover Lusat's body behind me and he gave me something called Stars of Ruin.

Back to Sellen, who was quite grateful and confided that she wasn't actually the real Sellen but some sort of hologram and I should go and see her real body. Well, I already knew where that was, so a quick hop across to the merchant in the Weeping Peninsula and a short hop north to the cellar.

She was pleased to see me and ultimately asked me to remove the primal glintstone from her body, which sounded painful as the mini cut scene unfolded - but I know have it, although it's not clear what on earth I now have to do with it...

[vamirez]

Originally posted by UncivilS3rvant:

She was pleased to see me and ultimately asked me to remove the primal glintstone from her body, which sounded painful as the mini cut scene unfolded - but I know have it, although it's not clear what on earth I now have to do with it...

Well, have you met another wizard-type who was not quite herself anymore?

[UncivilS3rvant]

Off on a quick rune farming expedition today and suddenly the following message appeared in the middle of the screen:

"The primal glintstone shudders.
It seems Sellen's body has died"

That seemed intriguing and ominous, so headed over to the Witchbane Ruins and found Jerren there, who told me that she was just a husk and he thinks she may be alive in another body somewhere.

OK, I get the hint...

Originally posted by vamirez:

Well, have you met another wizard-type who was not quite herself anymore?

Well, the only one I could think of was Ranni, so headed over to Ranni's Rise. Searched her tower but there was nothing there. Decided to look around nearby ruins and got attacked by a lone glintstone wielding enemy.

This was interesting as it's the one that fires and then quickly teleports away before re-attacking. I was rolling to evade his magic attack and fell down a flight of stairs that suddenly appeared.

Hmm, I ended up in a cellar with a lot of bookcases and about half a dozen corpses on their knees with their heads tilted back. Couldn't interact with any of them though, the only prompt appearing with a message not to touch Selluvius' puppet - which I couldn't anyway.

So on reflection, I think that enemy is placed above purely to get you to find the cellar as I've been here before and ran after and killed it rather than rolling, so that's pretty cool. I wonder if I would have found it on another day and how many others have missed this place - not that I seem to be able to do anything in it...

[vamirez]

Originally posted by UncivilS3rvant:

Off on a quick rune farming expedition today and suddenly the following message appeared in the middle of the screen:

"The primal glintstone shudders.
It seems Sellen's body has died"

That seemed intriguing and ominous, so headed over to the Witchbane Ruins and found Jerren there, who told me that she was just a husk and he thinks she may be alive in another body somewhere.

OK, I get the hint...

Originally posted by vamirez:

Well, have you met another wizard-type who was not quite herself anymore?

Well, the only one I could think of was Ranni, so headed over to Ranni's Rise. Searched her tower but there was nothing there. Decided to look around nearby ruins and got attacked by a lone glintstone wielding enemy.

This was interesting as it's the one that fires and then quickly teleports away before re-attacking. I was rolling to evade his magic attack and fell down a flight of stairs that suddenly appeared.

Hmm, I ended up in a cellar with a lot of bookcases and about half a dozen corpses on their knees with their heads tilted back. Couldn't interact with any of them though, the only prompt appearing with a message not to touch Selluvius' puppet - which I couldn't anyway.

So on reflection, I think that enemy is placed above purely to get you to find the cellar as I've been here before and ran after and killed it rather than rolling, so that's pretty cool. I wonder if I would have found it on another day and how many others have missed this place - not that I seem to be able to do anything in it...

Cool, my hint was useful :)

I think you missed something down there ;)

[UncivilS3rvant]

Originally posted by vamirez:

Cool, my hint was useful :)

I think you missed something down there ;)

Aye, cheers.

Not sure I missed anything though as I tried to interact with each of the bodies and there were no prompts as I was supposed to place the glintstone in her body- not even the first body that had glowing eyes, which I was sure would be the one...

[vamirez]

Originally posted by UncivilS3rvant:

Originally posted by vamirez:

Cool, my hint was useful :)

I think you missed something down there ;)

Aye, cheers.

Not sure I missed anything though as I tried to interact with each of the bodies and there were no prompts as I was supposed to place the glintstone in her body- not even the first body that had glowing eyes, which I was sure would be the one...

Did you check the walls? ^^

[UncivilS3rvant]

Originally posted by vamirez:

Originally posted by UncivilS3rvant:

Aye, cheers.

Not sure I missed anything though as I tried to interact with each of the bodies and there were no prompts as I was supposed to place the glintstone in her body- not even the first body that had glowing eyes, which I was sure would be the one...

Did you check the walls? ^^

Oh fgs...that again? No...back soon...

[UncivilS3rvant]

Originally posted by vamirez:

Did you check the walls? ^^

OK, found it and brought Sellen back to life.

She tells me she's off to Raya Academy to rid it of the Carians, so I'll head there tomorrow...

[vamirez]

Originally posted by UncivilS3rvant:

Originally posted by vamirez:

Did you check the walls? ^^

OK, found it and brought Sellen back to life.

She tells me she's off to Raya Academy to rid it of the Carians, so I'll head there tomorrow...

Those were all Seluvis' puppet-collection down there, and that one in the side-room was apparently his very special one or some such (I don't want to know...). When he asked you to give Nepheli that potion he wanted to make her a puppet, too... He also made Ranni's body.

Yeah, Sellen has... plans... ;)

[UncivilS3rvant]

Waltzed across to the Raya Academy and all seemed fine, so had a look around and just outside the door was a summoning sign to help Sellen.

Activating it meant we invaded Jerren's world, and made short work of him.

Got myself a new outfit out of it and then returned to my own world. Sellen was stood in place of Rennala, so she'd clearly vanquished her. After an rhetorical invite to stay at the Academy, Sellen vowed that the Academy would support the new Elden Lord (assuming I make this transition) but I was always welcome back if I failed.

And I got a nice dagger.

[vamirez]

Originally posted by UncivilS3rvant:

Waltzed across to the Raya Academy and all seemed fine, so had a look around and just outside the door was a summoning sign to help Sellen.

Activating it meant we invaded Jerren's world, and made short work of him.

Got myself a new outfit out of it and then returned to my own world. Sellen was stood in place of Rennala, so she'd clearly vanquished her. After an rhetorical invite to stay at the Academy, Sellen vowed that the Academy would support the new Elden Lord (assuming I make this transition) but I was always welcome back if I failed.

And I got a nice dagger.

She will probably be happy if you visit her again at a later time ;)

[UncivilS3rvant]

Originally posted by vamirez:

She will probably be happy if you visit her again at a later time ;)

Not sure happy is the right word.

Headed back to Raya Academy to see what you meant, only to find Rennala in the middle of the room and Sellen turned into a giant ball of glintstone masks, barely able to get out more than two words.

I got a new Glintstone Crown out of it, but seems a rather short-lived victory to me...

[vamirez]

Originally posted by UncivilS3rvant:

Originally posted by vamirez:

She will probably be happy if you visit her again at a later time ;)

Not sure happy is the right word.

Headed back to Raya Academy to see what you meant, only to find Rennala in the middle of the room and Sellen turned into a giant ball of glintstone masks, barely able to get out more than two words.

I got a new Glintstone Crown out of it, but seems a rather short-lived victory to me...

Welcome to the world of FromSoft happy endings ;)

The irony here is that Sellen was into forbidden research that created these balls (schools of graven mages), and that is why she was banned from the academy and tortured in that basement in the first place.

[UncivilS3rvant]

Headed back to the Mountaintops of the Giants as there were some ruins near the new location for Brother Corhyn and Goldmask and I only had a short game time.

Had to fast travel to the Snowy Valley Ruins Overlook SoG and then head SW through a large graveyard. Forgot about the large skeletons rising from the ground whilst the message 'The beast eye quivers' sat in the middle of my screen. I'm sure that means something, but who knows for now?

Found the ruins, guarded by some bats that were easy to rid myself of and then found something unexpected. In the actual ruins was a jellyfish who, presumably telepathically but who knows, lamenting the absence of her sister and promise of seeing the stars together. Just beyond this jellyfish was a white mist that was sealed, so was clear it was linked.

If I'd come across this earlier then this would have baffled me for a while, but the solution was a tad obvious as I had the prompt to summon my spirit ash even though there was zero danger here. Forgetting that I could just change Spirit Ash from the main menu, I just fast travelled back to the SoG, only to find no menu option. Oops...

Changed my spirit ash to the Jellyfish and scurried back through the giant skeletons, and made mincemeat of the bats again.

Summoned the Jellyfish and the two sisters went off to see the stars together, which was a little heartwarming tale in a sea of heartache and misery. Got a fancy spin gesture and the seal was removed, leading me to a chest giving me a Primal Glintstone Blade talisman (although I thought it was a sword/dagger at first).

This talisman is another where the FP cost for magic is reduced but also reduces HP. Not sure if this is of use at the moment as I already have something that reduces FP cost.

Still, it raised a smile after the sadness of Sellen's fate...

[Tom]

You may want to explore around those ruins a bit, there's a gravesite you can interact with that raises some interesting questions lorewise.