Accidentally cut off the first .5 seconds of the video. Please forgive my lapse in judgment.

Honestly I was pretty disappointed with the altering armor. I was expecting to add cool pieces to it that add buff but instead all I got was an Edna Mode needle that said "NO CAPES"

The Runebear having almost twice as much hp as Maliketh killed me... In-game too.

The real reason there's a second Astel (and there's only three caves spread across two endgame regions) is because Elden Ring brings back the time honored From Software tradition in their more ambitious projects: the part of the game where you can tell they started running out of time and money. EDIT: alright. i get it. it's been a year. you don't have to reply the same "well the lore says this" point. it's not convincing. elden ring reuses bosses sloppily. it's a very minor flaw. please get over it.

A fun fact about the cleanrot knight in stillwater cave - the reason he drops the winged sword talisman is because he uses it! all of malenia's cleanrot knights were gifted winged insignias signifying their devotion to her, and you can actually see the attack boost they get from the talisman during gameplay! just a little thing most people wouldn't notice, but it has really fun and interesting lore implications. Classic FromSoft.

The hanging astel in Old Altus Tunnel is the same one as is in the Perfumer's Grotto. Meaning if you kill it in one, it won't bother you in the other. Neat detail

"When the best item in a whole-ass cave is pottery..." That's pretty much the essence of real-life archaeology right there.

Not that the lakeside crystal cave itself is special, but it is the cave that leads you to Latenna, which gives it value. The bloodhound knight is there because it was sent by Gideon to try and get info on the haligtree medallion from her

13:05 Find the Albinauric woman. She hides in a cave to the west of the Laskyar Ruins which jut from the mist-shrouded lake of Liurnia. She knows the location of the medallion’s counterpart, I am sure.

Gowry's set being in the Stillwater Cave is a hint that warns you he's not what he seems. It's probably poison instead of rot because that'd be too intense for Liurnia, and the only areas with Scarlet Rot have lore explanations for why.

3:31 I actually was quite amazed when I found out why the faram azula beastman is down there Y'know all those ruins around limgrave? Well their architecture doesn't look like anything else in limgrave does it? But it does look familiar... It's parts of faram azula that have fallen down to limgrave from the sky, so add two and two together, ruins from faram azula fell and the beastman came with it

One detail I really like is that Altus Tunnel and Perfumer's Grotto actually connect in the middle where the Astel is. Killing him in the Grotto will give you an easier time looting the area in Altus Tunnel. I would have given them both a point for this.

Ruin Strewn Precipice was so good it felt like I walked in to a Zelda dungeon

18:23 - I actually really like this in conjunction with the rest of the level, because it demonstrates that the Gael Tunnel was built and directed to keep out intruders from Limgrave to the west. Presumably, the Redmanes in Fort Gael had a good hold of that whole western stretch of Caelid before it became Dog Country and losing that hold of it is what allows the Tarnished to slip in through the back entrance. The Redmanes are legitimately fierce unlike how the Godrick and Cuckoo factions have been portrayed to that point, but finding an opportunity to get a leg up on them like that gives the Tarnished the chance they need to take them out and move up in the world.

Of note, for the Flamedrake talisman, it prevents most classes with their base kit from being one shot by Agheel's breath attacks. Not incredible, since those do tend to multi hit, but I like that it works out that way.

Extra information: 1:46 You can also just get the better Tailoring Kit from the Church of Vows and never even need to pick up this inferior one (unless you are doing/want to do Boc's Questline). In addition, the Dragon Communion Church there is completely irrelevant in comparison to the one in Caelid which is not even that hard to get to. The main unique thing about this Cave that you didn't mention is that there is a summon available before the Boss Gate. 14:07 This Cave opens up to an area with Latenna (the Albinauric Woman Gideon always mentions after you find one of the Haligtree Medallion pieces). You get her as a Spirit Summon if you have a Haligtree Medallion piece on your person. If you complete her Questline, you get a Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone. However, if you arrive to the area with her past the Cave's exit after you've entered the Consecrated Snowfield, she will be dead and you will be locked out of her Questline (you can still get her as a Spirit Summon, though). 20:32 Fun Fact: On release, the boss for this Cave was the Full-Grown variant of the Fallingstar Beast. 32:50 This Cave also leads to the Divine Tower for activating Rykard's Great Rune. 37:00 This Cave also contains an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone, the amount of Smithing Stone 8s is also pretty good and there's also a Somber Smithing Stone 9. This Cave's Astel also has a unique grab attack.

The sword in Highroad Cave, I pronounced as “Shahm-sheer!” Also, I find it funny how the Shamshir when wielded by Millicent has the Waterfowl Dance skill equipped, but the only weapon we have which utilizes this skill in the base game is the Hand of Malenia.

Worth noting that while the Dark Moon Greatsword is slightly technically different from the Moonlight Greatsword cameo, the Golden Order Greatsword is implied to just straight up be the Moonlight Greatsword as it's a corruption of the sword Rennala gives to Radagon as her consort. Ranni is Dark Moon and Rennala is Moonlight.

Okay so did you actually want the lore for the caves or nah because honestly they're pretty fun (like the Farum Azula Beastmen probably just... falling out of the sky along with those gigantic chunks of scenery that fell from Farum Azula all over Limgrave, and somehow surviving that fall)

The liurnia to Altus cave is the only time the open world format really shined to me, it truly felt like a connection between the two places that felt organic and like it would be there regardless of if the player character existed. Amazing cave

It may be worth mentioning that while the onyx lord in yelough anix tunnel doesn't drop anything, he is guarding an ancient dragon smithing stone that's right behind him

Oh boy! I can't wait to watch a 40 minute video about ranking things in a game i don't even play! My favourite! (This isn't ironic, i love watching these)

Beast Champion Armor getting unaltered is actually fantastic. The cape looks great, and the stat improvements leave it in a pretty good spot.

I also love the Ruin-Strewn Precipice. The items, the functionality as an alternate path to Altus, the atmosphere, the enemy variety. It feels more like a mini dungeon than just another cave

Cave of the Forlorn is actually one of my favorites, definitely in the top three. I mean, there's a frozen dragon, a FROZEN DRAGON, right there that you can look at to your heart's content to drink in all of the little details that you can't normally notice with it trying to bite your face off and all. How did it wedge itself into this tiny cave? How did it get frozen so suddenly; what kind of meteorological catastrophe happened there? AND THEN. There's the whole second layer under the ice that you can look up or down into and see the other side. How awesome is that? It's just so pretty and almost serene. And then the final boss drops a badass-looking greatsword. But then you look at the greatsword and see, oh, there's some lore attached. Why did Radagon cast it away? How did it end up here? Was this the place Radagon left it at? I dunno, I just love it. I make sure to visit at least once a playthrough. The rest of the drops are meh and I don't ever really use the greatsword, so it's kinda useless, but I just really dig the atmosphere; it raises so many questions and I love trekking through it while I make up theories about it. As for the lack of enemy variation, well, it's the Cave of the Forlorn. The misbegotten seem pretty forlorn to me. It's THEIR cave.

This video does a really good job, because it simultaneously makes me want to explore the caves I never went to, while also making me want to avoid them at all costs.

The winged sword insignias are associated with Millicent's questline because Millicent and her questline are related to Malenia. The cleanrot knight is there because Malenia marched her forces through Liurnia on her way to Caelid, which is written about on a nearby sword memorial. There is lots of poison because poison is a lesser type of rot, as stated in the poison mist item description. It's not scarlet rot because it's just some random cleanrot knight, not one of the goddesses.

Earthbore cave, in Italian, is hilariously called "Cave of Profundis". The first time i went there i kinda expected to, sometime in the future, find a "Combed Cats Catacomb"

Funny how you mention that you’re not going to find Blackreach in Elden Ring when the Siofra River valley is literally ER’s version of Blackreach.

So in Dragonbarrow Cave... did... did the Rune Bear with insane stats facing away with a very specific patrol route and with patches of tall grass everywhere NOT tip you off that you're intended to just sneak past it?

When they'd initially said you'd be able to alter armor, I had been so *monumentally* hyped at the prospects for fashion, because I thought you'd be able to change colors at the very least. Instead, all I got was "cape or no cape." And everyone knows capes are objectively cooler, so why even add the option?

i actually love the cave of the forlorn. the atmosphere is amazing, and a love the way it looks and the enemies all being sitting or floating. the visual design and atmosphere is just outstanding and really shows how all of the residents have given up hope.

14:00 The Bloodhound Knight in the Lakeside Crystal Cave actually makes a lot of sense. He was likely hired by Gideon to track down Latenna, as she is hiding right behind the boss room. Gideon tips you off to her location if you come back after finding the Albinauric Village and getting the first half of the Haligtree medallion there. The Bloodhound Knights are considered traitorous and can likely be hired by crooked individuals such as Gideon.

12:57 I'm pretty sure Miyazaki has said how much he loves to put poison swamps in his games, despite the fact they're everyone's least favorite areas.

I think Earthbore cave is probably very dull for an old Souls hand, but consider it from a newbie's perspective: You find a strange ghost that slowly leads you to the entrance. You go inside, and there's a ch... oh shit, you've fallen through the floor into a nest of rats in the dark! You flail around, but hey if this is like any other game you're just gonna head back up, right? Oh... there's a boss gate here... and it's a giant bear. If you're new to Souls games, and you're low-ish level (as you might be when you head down south), this is definitely a great intro to FromSoft's sense of humour. YMMV :)

i know a lot of people hated these and the catacombs and the other dungeons, but in my playthrough i told myself i wouldn't use any metas or grind, so i spent a ton of time in these small dungeons and had a ton of fun.

Im pretty sure that bear was designed to not be fought on purpose so you engage in sneaking in what feels like a scary movie. I found it quite exciting.

Stillwater Cave is actually really well put together in terms of environmental storytelling. The mushroom-head enemies are called Servants of Rot > the Sage Set is worn by Gowry refers to himself as part of the "children of the scarlet rot" > the Winged Sword talismans are connected to Millicent, who is the daughter of Malenia > the Cleanrot Knights are Malenia's army.

Quality content man...

After that loving description of the leather armor I would kill for a video where you talk about more armor like that. Give us the elden ring style page!

Your content is always a treat to watch, keep up the good work man

I keep forgetting how many gosh-darned caves are in this game! Mad props, dude, for how much time you put into this. There's definitely a wide range of pain to be found in these things, and you've managed to perfectly encapsulate them all. Great vid, man!

The sages cave actually has a second, hidden boss fight you didn't mention, and it happens to be a unique boss fight against a necromancer which def makes the cave a bit more interesting. He drops a named flail called Family Heads with a special AoW, and overall its a pretty cool fight where he uses death sorceries and a summoned spiky skeletal version of the crystal snail that rolls around at you like the DS1 pinwheel bone bois. In classic FromSoft fashion though, the boss fight is hidden behind yet another fake wall in the nook to the right of the chest that has the skeletal mask, and the game gives no indication that there is a second boss in the area so it can be super easy to miss if you see the black knight boss door first and just warp out after. Honestly I was surprised to never see him or a reskin of him for the rest of the game, maybe even FromSoft forgot about him lol. No idea why they stick a unique boss fight tucked away behind layers of hidden walls in some random cave where the average person will never see it, yet only have two models for the Erdtree Avatar when we fight it like 7 times.

Patches leaving the Radahn fight for me was one of the most comical things in the game. You summon him, he looks around and just goes "Ah hell no".

I played dark souls again recently and it really shows how far elden ring is compared to fromsoft ten years ago. there was hardly any extra areas. we need to be thankful of the diversity and effort that has been put into this game.

My theory for the Beastman in the Groveside cave is that he fell down on one of those giant ruin fragments and somehow survived and his being in the cave is our little foreshadowing of what's to come

Great video. I remembered you were the one who brought attention to Waves of Darkness not working. I was so happy when they fixed it

I actually really like the Gaol Cave. Genuine nice surprise when I discovered it earlier today without even knowing it existed. The implications of zombies being burned in cages is pretty creepy and the presence of the Vulgar Militia further emphasizes that whatever they're up to, it's some nasty shit. Plus, I'm a sucker for the Duelist bosses. Always found em pretty fun.

The one thing that might make me forgive the second Astel is if instead of him just standing there he does the unused meteor dive animation through the wall at you, which I'm pretty sure isn't even unreasonable since it's by a cliff.

the background footage where you do batshit insane stuff during the intro makes the video wayyyyy better lmao

coastal cave, minimal as it us, really is too good for this game. an attached npc quest line! Hope you don't expect more of that. Two exits vonnecting different areas! Hope you don't expect more of that. A big interesting boss room with multiple bosses and smaller adds that don't all immediately aggro at once so you can make some tactical choices, even utilize a but of stealth, to help divide a potentially overwhelming encounter into manageable chunks! Hope you don't expect more of that! not much treasure, sure, but it's also short & doesn't overstay its welcome.

I always assumed the Bloodhound in Lakeside was there on behalf of Gideon Ofnir, since they have masters and Gideon was on the search for the Haligtree bitcoin to get to that Rotussy, he even did a dope Cop roleplay and shot Lattena’s dog because she wouldn’t tell him the secret password to the femboy tree, and she of course lives behind that very cave so it’d make sense for Gideon to have a sniffy knight skulking about there still

Playing through the game, fighting naturalborn astel for the first time, it was one of the coolest fights I've ever seen, and then when i found the yelough anix tunnel, it made the whole experience just feel cheapened.

the invisible black knife fight is my most memorable part of my first run through. Was my first ever black knife fight and got insta killed on my first encounter. Couldn't track well in the water. But I killed the npc who gives you the +7 halberd and stood in the middle swinging it around until the assassin died and it filled me with so much joy

Rusty i cant explain how amazing your script writing and delivery is, great work man!

Ahhh that sweet ranking goodness. Thank you for following through with the caves too

The worst part of the Dragon Communion altar in Limgrave is that there's a significantly better one in Caelid. You just have to get through Caelid. Sham sheer Rot and poison in Elden Ring(and Dark Souls, excluding Rot) are both representative of still waters in real life. The winged sword insignia itself is not related to Millicent, but Malenia. The Rotten Winged Sword Insignia is similar to the regular one, but I imagine the true insignia is what the Cleanrot Knights are more likely to have, while the rotten ones are related to the Valkyries. How could a Cleanrot Knight be standing in a poison lake? My guess, Malenia is resistant to poison. Maybe her knights are as well.

For Stillwater cave (11:58), Millicent is a clone of Malenia, blade of miquella. So the clean rot knight at the end is ties in because he is one of Melenia's knights. That is also why the poison ties in because it is a lesser version of rot.

This is the first video im seeing from you, only got past the intro and i can tell im gonna like your content. Great work

Totally agree about ruin-strewn precipice. Im glad i decided to go that way on my first playthrough. Super difficult but a really majestic and unforgettable experience

yelough anix tunnel is one of the only places in the game you can actually find smithing stone 8 before getting the bell bearing. I'll go there in every playthrough just for that alone.

Ruin-Strewn Precipice is great because it doesn’t have “Tunnel” or “Cave” in its name! 😂 Technically a minor dungeon but nonetheless I also loved it and was very memorable for me

good video! now i need to play this game again and find the 2 damn caves i missed so far...

Hey Rusty, I'm enjoying your videos very much and for this one, I had to stop at the High road Cave one. It is very funny you said that Fromsoft hid it jejejejejejejeje because my friend I am barely at my 3rd playthrough or 2nd NG+ and yes I took my sweet ass time in my very first one. But I literally just found that cave Highroad cave and I couldn't even believe it. I really thought I had explored 100% of the entire map, but turns out there are tidbits to find stil. Good one there, Rusty, and keep up the amazing work. Also, it is very hilarious how you describe everything, which I keep laughing my ass off jejejejejejejejeje.

sham-shir (say it like "sham"-"shear"). it's basically translates to sword. the one ingame is staple iranian curved sword. also the reason people struggle with it is cus iranian words have connected letters and depending if it is connected or not you will read that part together or with a pause.

26:50 did you not find the secret boss in Sage’s Cave?

Mega excited for this one, keep em coming sir!

“Grab a beer, maybe some Cheetos or even a blanket” Me, with a beer and Cheetos, laying on the couch with a blanket: 😳😳😳

I don’t even play elden ring anymore but I like watching these

I refuse to believe a living breathing human being actually uses knife consumables in this game "hmm yes yes bone darts, quite an useful tool when I'm in a pinch" who says that, ever?

binged 3 of your videos tonight, easily earned a sub :)

Deff dig the background music also hilarious good video!

Beastman of Faram Azula likely fell from the sky with the other ruins of Faram Azula that are right next to the cave. It always makes sense with From.

"-1 to -10 based on how shit they are" Honestly couldn't have said it any better good job

I like Morne tunnel because it shows the enemies not only took over the castle, but also the mine. It showed to me at the beggining that there was something human to these enemies (reinforced it), or that they like shinny things at least lol Gaol Cove is one of the best to me. You see the prison but can't go inside, you are lucky to find the floor breaking. You go through the cages with enemies, find the resting place for the guards. The lever faces directly to the cells, showing what it does, and makes you want to re explore everything again. Then there are guards guarding another section of the cave. You go there and some guards are dead and you see a hidden hole that the guards placed to avoid people going in there. You see a warrior that is corrupted by the root, that killed the guards, and (I think) he was guarding the grave outside. And the grave is at Limgrave which was a nice touch. Not sure if you noticed, but the Perfumer Cave is connected to the cave before, so that huge insect you see is the same from the one from the other cave, that you miss the tree jump at least once.

tbh i love your humor so yeah Rusty thanks for giving me stuff to laugh about for the past 2 or 3 years

RUSTY GIVE ME YOUR CHARACTER SLIDERSSSSS😭😭😭

I appreciated your fond summary of the ruin-strewn precipice

You probably don't even read these, but my god you are one of the most entertaining Elden Ring creators. Your mods are also incredible. Thank you for the content.

I respect and adore your honesty, my guy 🤘🏻 These roasts are quality!

Honestly I didn’t even know Highroad Cave existed until after I’d already beaten the entire game and was going through my mission to get the Blue Dancer talisman for a build I was making (it wasn’t a good one in hindsight), but seriously one of my favorite delves in the game.

I love pots in the early game. You know what enemies are really weak to pots? Putrid Avatars and Deathrite Birds. Getting 100k+ souls in Dragonbarrow or the Deaths Poker is so much easier thanks to these. Much love. Aww, I love the big runebear! It is possible to sneak past, actually. I try to teach the host how every time I get summoned for this cave. And when I'm by myself, it's a really tough enemy that respawns, which means I love using it to test weapons. If I have fun using a weapon to beat the runebear, I might have a good time using it throughout the midgame. ... Yeah, the only good thing about Abandoned Cave is the Gold Scarab. Which means I make a point to go here the very moment I get a second talisman slot every run, because +20% souls means I beat Elden Beast at level 205 instead of the 155 other people seem to. People sleep on the Gold Scarab. It is very good. Cave sucks though.

I went back to watch this for nostalgia, and I realized that the section at around 6:48 has a similar energy to: "Crazy? I was Crazy once. They trapped me in a room. A rubber room. A rubber room with Rats. The rats drove me crazy. Crazy? (You get the idea)"

The Runebear was a bane of my existence. I ecnountered it as a farily low level character but I was so hellbent on killing it, I spent like an hour on devising dirty tactics to finally beat it.

Rusty delivers, I've been asking for this in every comment section

Don't worry, Rusty. Any kind of jump over a very high gap in a cave just freaks me out to the point where I mess it up at least once, if not three times, too.

I was cackling before the intro had even ended, bravo XD I am here for the Peak Unhinged that this channel provides, every goddamn time.

Hi Rusty, great video as always! Would you mind rating the graces also?

Rusty ahead in short, good content

"I have no idea what the lore implications are for how he wound up here, but I know for sure that whatever it is, doesn't make sense." Had me kinda dead ngl-

The ruin strewn precipice area is in my top 5 areas of the game. Don't know why I just love it

14:31 Thank GOD I'm not the only one who thought this. On my first playthrough of Elden Ring I went up until I reached the mountaintops of the giants using a +8 weapon, and frankly that hurt.

boys do we even like elden ring?

My goddamn hero. Also i'm generally a big defender of repeat bosses in this game but i do agree about the astel points. That seems a strange boss to reuse in such a seemingly insignificant area.

The reason why the Runebear has 18k HP is because while this is technically Caelid, it's actually deep into Dragonbarrow. Caelid (non-Dragonbarrow) is around mid-game (lvl 60+), but Dragonbarrow is end-game (~lvl 120+, managable earlier, but the scaling is actually that high). You can look at it yourself by comparing the Radahn Soliders. The ones in Caelid die quickly by a few hits, but the ones in Divine Tower in Dragonbarrow will take a ton of hits. Also when I was lvl ~90 or so and found that one Bell-bearing hunter he literally two-shots even with good armor, lol.

Just found your channel today, and then this gem gets released😱😱

I'm so upset you didn't give the 3 rotted crystallian cave a -100 because that fight gave me night terrors

Rusty, you become more relatable with every video. Thank you for feeling like a real person

The tarnished whipping their white back and forth at the start of the video is me going crazy during finals week. Also I came running when I saw rusty uploaded

Started off with your tear ranking, got yourself a sub, don’t know if you’ve done it but a talisman list would be cool