do remember it is a dlc it’s not meant to be a replacement or a whole new game but for a dlc it’s great

I did actually kind of notice this myself…

Cookbook city

That is true though. It is a little weird how there is so many smithing stone 3’s and just low level smithing stones as loot everywhere in the dlc. I also found that to be a little annoying

Beat the DLC three times now and ya, really just the Midra area was a surprise and interesting which I found on my first playthrough. Used an interactive map my second time in order to ensure I fought every boss and found everything and ya, I only missed the Charros Grave area with all the red flowers. Lots of wasted large space too with nothing in it like the finger ruins

The lore reason for all the smithing stones is the dragon death mountain right there.

The Abyssal Woods is such a dead zone tho, literally only 2 hotspots and ur done there

The only thing I wanted was a larval tear bell bearing 😢

Agree the exploration is a lot less rewarding, mainly because the dlc is endgame content and most players have complete build but it also because the dlc map is too big with a ton of wasted space, didn't improve over the base game in that aspect and a couple of others

I haven't played much of the dlc but i got the impression early on that it was intially intended to be in the game

Yea, cookbooks and smithing were rly frustrating. Even with the push to use crafting, I still only used fire pots for the giants 2 or 3 times for the entire dlc. The dlc is definitely a boss rush type of replay

I absolutely loved the DLC and exploration was fun in the sense of the beauty of the world they created. However, my loot goblin side was frequently disappointed with how many dead ends there were with no items or only smithing stones / gloveworts. I think most of the dlc was amazing, but dead ends and often lackluster loot really were my main issues.

Im still finding new caves and places in the base game being 250+ hours in. DLC has a few nooks and crannies of stuff you can miss but definitely more spaced out and not as much

Nah the DLC content is nearly perfect. Definitely agree with the smithing stones though. Ig its for people who try to emulate the DS experience and run from legacy dungeon to the next. Shit any challenge run actually

“Boss fights are good” My immediate thought: “CURSE YOU BAYLE!!!

100 new weapons, 20 new talismans, 20 new armour sets.

I think the smithing stones are there to help you level the new weapons because let's face it everyone got at least one new favourite weapon from the dlc.

The whole point really just flew over your head..

I thought the same things about the smithing stones at first. But I’m going on a collectathon before I start NG+ and leveling up a bunch of weapons to max levels and tbh on the extra smithing stones are coming in handy. It’s way cheaper than runes. So when I’m farming runes in the dlc enemies drop stones and runes making the process much less arduous.

The amount of times the dlc cock blocks you with legendary items is unreal 😂 Halfway through I stopped getting excited because I knew it was an ancient smithing stone or glovewort 😂

I don’t know. Yeah you find a lot of smithing stones, but I also have found like 50 different weapons and 15 armor sets and a billion talismans and new tears for the physick in 25 hours. I’m not sure what people are talking about with this shit.

Noticing this on my first playthrough. Areas feel vast but empty…

Kind of agree with this. Can’t remember the specific area but I remember killing a kind of difficult enemy who was guarding an item, only for it to be a lump of flesh lol

Yea smithing stones or talismans for stuff I don't do have been kind of a let down. I do enjoy the new weapons. I like how they made most a set when one handing

I don't mind the smithing stones, there is a lot of new equipment to upgrade and it saves me running back and forth between the Smith and the Maiden shop because I only had 11 of Smithing stone 3 or something

i do agree the inclusion of smithing stones as rewards at the rate they give them to us, after giving us bell bearings in the base game is kinda nuts

My biggest gripe is actually the weapons and spells. There are several from each category that are let downs. IE mantle of thorns - could’ve been mage armor. Devonias greathammers AoW could have been that cool stomp that Devonia does. Should have been more light greatswords.. having one ash for one weapon was kind of a let down. The lack of spells was also a kinda eh? But then they give you that one thorn spell that’s just completely broken no matter what build uses. It just feels like more thought could have went in to some of the weapons and spells. Don’t get me wrong, I have over a thousand hours on ER and have been playing the souls games since DS2, I love From and they are leaders of the fantasy action genre - but it can always be refined further.

Agreed I feel like I’ll spend 5 minutes to get to that glowing orb just to get a damn string or flower. 70-80% of the time is pretty accurate it’s kind of disappointing I was wondering if it were maybe intentional to further push the difficulty and unforgiving vibe the game has

It’s just more condensed I found. Like in Elden Ring an area might have like 10 secrets but in the DLC it’ll only have 5. There’s still tons to find and explore tho. There was a lot of stuff that I had missed on my first go. I’ve played it 4 times now and while I’m confident I’ve seen everything at this point, there could still be a few things I’ve missed. But ya there’s a few big areas with only a few things to do, and those things might not even be worth doing for every build. So sometimes areas can feel empty. But they still tend to have at least something. Though the smithing stone thing is weird. Idk why they put so many in the game when I can just go buy them whenever I want. That is definitely odd.

Opposite for me I always loved the more linear designs of the first games since it allowed for way way better level design, I think the dlc was made more for dark souls fans than elden ring fans is the problem some people have with it.

My biggest issue is the dlc entry being after mohg i just want to make a new character and be able to use some dlc stuff through most of the main game. But i guess new game plus exists.

They definitely focused on quality vs quantity. A big criticism I have of ER is the dungeons becoming repetitive, repeated bosses in them, and lackluster rewards, all of which they showed they can fix in this DLC

I actually went almost the whole game without finding commander gias or finding out that the O mother emote opens a hidden door

idk why people dont get it, 1st its a dlc, not Elden Ring 2. 2nd those smithing stones lvl 3 are there because you can access the dlc without being at the end game part of the base game, new players are playing the game too

I agree man the DLC is no where near like that you explained it perfectly

In your opinion is Blood and Wine still a better dlc than this one?

There's alot of areas that just lead to "dead zones"...alot of it does feel very empty sadly. At first, it was great, but now that im trying to get the stuff im missing, im realizing just how empty some areas are.

It's quality over quantity. There's less dungeons and bosses, but the quality is much higher. Also no random 2v1 or 3v1 fights. The minidungeons are far bigger and more interesting as well and the general boss quality is far superior than the base game. The other thing is that the open world itself has some legacy dungeon asoects to it. The ruins of Rauh is peak Elden Ring level design. It has the complexity of a legacy dungeon, but you're exploring it with Torrent. The verticality of the whole map is insane as well. The big legacy dungeons like the shadow keep especially is the best legacy dungeon they have ever done. The remembrance bosses are a big step up from the base game as well.

It’s literal perfection now. The base game already was but these new areas are just …. Well perfect! Lol

That's usually how it is with From. I've only played one but the Old Hunters DLC didn't allow for much exploring either. it was straight up a walled linear experience from one boss to the next. a great experience don't get me wrong but definitely not as free as the base game.

I agree with you. Those smithing stones 😂. But man, i enjoyed the DLC. I wish the ending was better. That was my only issue.

As much as I loved the base game, I feel it had the same issue. I agree that there was more stuff that you probably missed in your first playthrough and you find it in your second playthrough. But at the same time, exploration on a second run was a bit tedious because you knew almost everything that was going to be on the road and the surprise wouldn't be there. If anything, I only di new playthroughs to rush through bosses and do coop with a new build.

The entire point of the items on the ground is to act as markers for areas you havent explored yet, or to guide you towards more content. Its bread crumbs leading you to the bakery.

This is 100% true, the dlc is way more empty than the base game even though its much more dense. There might be a hidden area you havent fojnd yet, but there's nothing else hiding in the areas you've already explored, which is a bummer, since finding new things that were right under your nose happened all the time in the base game

The reason for this is obvious. The map size was predetermined, since if you use pillar of suppression as the midpoint, it perfectly fits in the middle of the lands between like a puzzle piece. They didnt have enough content to fill the massive map

I think the dlc could have done a little more to reward curiosity in some areas, but overall it was very good. I look forward to playing through it again on a new character and maybe finding a couple tidbits that I didn't the first time around.

Though I agree it's a little frustrating that most of the items on the ground are smithing stones, Fromsoft anticipated that people are making new characters. The only requirements are to beat Radahn and Mohg so the minimum furthest they have to go is just reaching the Altus Plateau. I know I'm yapping but essentially, this is a mid-game dlc like Ashes of Ariandel rather than late-game like Ringed City. Or at least that's how I see it.

I agree, the rewards that u get from explorations are pretty underwhelming in my experience as well. Like chests have upgrade stones/crafting items/etc. and some of the hidden areas where i was like “woah” has uninteresting stuff as well

The reason why the dlc has a lot of smithing stones is so you can upgrade the new weapons. and yes everyone playing on their ng+ 100 saves have all the bell bearings but realistically your not gonna have all of them by the time you're able to do the dlc on a fresh save unless you go out of your way to get them first as mogh is only like halfway through the game unless you do varres questline and you can get there before altus. Yes its sad but if you think about it from a game design mindset it makes perfect sense why they have upgrade materials as a lot of item pickups even though this is the case most of the cool now items aren't pickups but enemy drops and i think that is better, a few cool secret items such as the sword of light and a lot of new side bosses and enemies to kill. also its the exact same base game 70% of the item pickups are upgrade or crafting materials.

Guys look around more, like the dlc is far more layered, look over edges for elevator pots to bring up to new areas, drop down random holes, attack suspicions walls, and genuinely spend more time in those areas

Tbh some areas are lackluster but im on my third run at the moment and just realised stuff like the forges exist 😭, i do think theres less stuff compacted into the areas than base game but there still is alot to do and alot you can miss aswell

Dlc's legacy dungeons definitely were on par with the base game in terms of exploration. The open world aspect was significantly less...kind in terms of rewarding exploration.

Hope they add more contents with patches like the base game. Lots of areas are too empty :/

This was my major gripe about the dlc. Horrible exploration rewards

the new weapons and ashes of war have been very satisfying

Agreed. I get that this was more like a dark souls game added onto elden ring. But it wasnt more elden ring really. The reason I have played almost a thousand hours of the base game is because even now there is still stuff I havent discovered.

They could have added more items/fashions/weapons to fill the empty space of dung loot but.. oh well. Its a grand game.

Same problem i had with DLC, i always running through the map and visited every angle of rock, in base game it was satisfiated because i found something almost every few minutes, but in DLC you can riding 15 minutes and you find nothing. Brutal level design on useless big map.

I also don’t like getting smithing stones cause you should be in the dlc with a plus 10 or plus 25 weapon

Na base game was also like this.. lots of dung items. Biggest mistake for the dlc is the last castle thats waaaay to short.

Dude, i completely agree about the smithing stones and gloveworts. It's definitely the thing that annoyed me the most because I love exploring so much.

The reason you find smithing stones is to throw you off there’s usually loot in the area

Do agree about the smithing stones 😂 but the map itself is much more fun to explore with the verticality

Couldn’t disagree more the exploration was wild in that everything was so much more vertical than the base game. You could see the map has layers but figuring out how they connected was the challenge. That said it’s definitely smaller than the base game but being a DLC it would be weird if it wasn’t

They use smithing stones and other “useless” items to lead players to explore places that they may have not explored otherwise

Every cave is either lit or have copious amounts of cages outside it so you see them from miles away, and actually taking the time to scour cliff faces , forests doesn't give any rewards...

Quality over quantity, most of the caves, side dungeons, etc in the base game are boring, and I 100% skip over them when I do replays. There is less stuff to do, but the stuff is way better imo. Let the area serve as mood setting, and a few fun and rewarding dungeons, and put the focus on the legacy dungeons, bosses, and good enemy design. That is the heart of these games.

Maybe the smithing stones are for challenge runs

Yeah i agree they could've gave us more smithscript weapons or better bow and cross bow options...even some bloodborne weapons reskinned to fins around the world

i think people gave me too high expectations, it’s rly not like a new game at all but it is more content for the best game out right now so i’m still happy

Yeah but then there's also like 50 new weapons, 30 new spells, 30 new talismans, 30 new armor sets, etc etc... it's a shit ton in relation to the base game. If every smithing stone and rune on the ground was piece of gear then the DLC would have more than the base game. But yes it did feel like there was some open space that they didn't fully utilize, I care less about the loot though and more about running into dead ends that I felt could have had a cave/dungeon.

There are meaningful less rewards per square inch of DLC than any square foot of base game. There are plenty of interesting rewards, but just fewer than what you'd expect given the sheer mass of map you have to explore.

You know i have played all dark souls besides 3 and bloodborne (Xbox player for life) but honestly i really like the dlc Aesthetic

Amazing dlc but yup definitely agree, doesnt feel like a full game and more exploration and bosses wouldve been nice - a 2nd dlc in the next two years i think would be a smart move but prob wont happen

all the smithing stones are so you can easily level up the new weapons yo uare getting in the DLC. They aren't assume the players have played the hell out of Elden Ring saving up a bunch of stones for the DLC.

I agree with this 100%. Elden Ring base game is a 10/10 for me. The DLC is an 8/10. I enjoyed it, but the exploration was very disappointing after the base game.

DLC felt very empty, especially the abysmal woods. What a snooze

Its 40 dollars. Technically u should get 2/3 of original games content based on the price. But you probably get way less than that for this dlc. Very disapppinting idd

I found close to everything in the normal game in 120 hours. It was packes with stuff and I played for 3 weeks straight. Now in the dlc I'm having fun but it honestly feels like a burnout trying to get everywhere and search every corner. Its just sooo much wasted space and so many areas with extremely little to find, and 90% of what you find is completely useless. The bosses are great (1000x better than base game) and the areas are beautiful but it gets boring when traversing the massive aread without finding anything.

I loved the DLC but there's no excuse for a $40 expansion to have so much empty space in it. They could fix this.

My problem with the dlc is the map, too messy and confusing. Imagine if in the main game the underground didn't have a separate map lol

Hooray first comment, and I agree. Beat the dlc on NG+ 3. I feel like yeah the dlc is challenging which I love and expect from software but very empty.

I swear all Luke does is complain. Like at least 75% of his content.

It’s not meant to be a full replacement it’s a dlc it’s not Elden ring 2

Less secret areas yes but not less secrets still 2 invisible walls doors on falling spikes secret altars to change a sword from light to dark shits kinda dope

Everybody expected from soft to drop Elden ring 2, and they practically did. Do remember this a DLC not a full game, and it gives about as much content as you get from most full games these days. Can’t expect em to just drop the same exact same level and size of content in 2 years as they did when creating Elden ring

i didn't really enjoy it either, which hurts even more because this dlc was gonna be the highlight of this year for me. between the empty world, 90% of the loot you find being smithing stones , some of the bosses rushing you down when you enter the arena without letting you summon and getting locked out of quests early on, the only saving grace for me were the new items. talismans, weapons, etc., every new weapon category felt like it was worth a completely new playthrough

Bummed st exploration? Ive had three runs through the dlc and keep finding new shit. Its true though about the smithing stones. That part kinda sucks

Yes I was used to look at all the walls around the map and finding new dungeons and caves, but this one barely had any, I wasted a lot of time doing that

for 40 bucks a game that's bigger than any of the DS ones. but he does have a point, game has a ton of deserted areas with very little exploration value

Yeah. There is a lot of better hidden loot. But each time I come to some random loot and its a smithing stone its just tiring. If they removed all these and only left intersting stuff I would be much happier.

I felt that it was plenty explorable but the reward for the effort of exploring lead to disappointment quite a few times

Disagree, first playthrough of Elden ring I found everything it was easy. The paths where straightforward. In the dlc however the paths aren’t so straightforward and yes theirs bs fall and you won’t die. However the basegame takes over 100 hours to complete so if you start rushing towards the end goal, that’s why you missed something.

I am bummed at no achievements ):

Yeah, I don't get the smithing stones and gloveworts. Give us the new rare crafting materials instead.

I rushed the dlc on a new playthrough so I actually need the smithing stones 😂

in the dlc if you find the item that powers you up you might aswell immediatly leave, there's nothing else of worth there

Hmm i find the dlc exploration actually better it had alot of secrets too but there were not much running around map trying to find something, the game leads you better to find caves and such. And if you try to explore to your best abilities second playtrought dont really add much to the main game, And once you do like a 4th run you pretty much wiki game half of it. And for smithing stones its actually a way for the game to tell what difficulity the area is

I didn't mind it let me level the new weapons

I'm bummed that it's over.