Elden Ring: 10 DLC Enemies That Piss Me Off...

[@AzraelSoulHunter]

The most insulting thing about Curseblades is that those respawning mini bosses give less runes than f*cking albunarics.

[@lharsay]

I think they drop more if you unlock DLC+.

[@slavthesage5661]

@@lharsay But then... so do Albunarics...

[@lharsay]

@@slavthesage5661 NG+ and DLC+ are independent, if you go to the DLC with a NG+ character you will see everything dropping very low amounts of runes relative to the base game but DLC+ changes that.

[@_NutcasE_]

@@lharsay Independent? what you yappin. I went to DLC in NG+5 and everything in there was indeed NG+5.

[@danielwoods3896]

@@lharsay wtf are you talking about

[@DankSouls37]

11:14 "I hate how much I miss fighting Erdtree Avatars for Crystal Tears now" 💀💀💀

[@plansix9688]

This is how I knew Rusty truly hated them.

[@EL-BAB]

6:15 the best part is that bloodfiend cave DOES exist, but its not a named cave dungeon area, its literally just a hole in the wall with a non-boss chief bloodfiend in it

[@Dan_d00d]

the one to the side of the forest near Taylew forge?

[@Knivess0]

People just love to shit on Fextra, as if they could make a better, fan based website.

[@bretth342]

​@@Dan_d00d yup

[@raccoon-p9h]

wow that's crazy, imagine how angry it must be to hear rusty crying about it, though they could've named it better ig, they're a wikipage after all so it must include everything

[@abcdefghijlkmn1794]

There is also one of those base game dogs that prock bleed on you in that cave

[@vengertheforceofinconvenie7377]

I love how the fire knights are designed like weak mage type spammers except they just delete you in melee when you finally close the distance

[@blakeisthebeast]

I found out the hard way how strong they can be when I tried anything besides just 2H stunlocking them

[@ALaz502]

Colossal plus Savage Lions Claw. Too easy.

[@sunshineandrei2569]

​@@ALaz502if you need one specific strategy to beat a non gimmick enemy, that's not an easy enemy.

[@ALLMINDmercenarysupportsystem]

​@sunshineandrei2569 Any great weapon or collosal bullies their poise, and parrying is fairly easy against Fire Knights.

[@sunshineandrei2569]

@@ALLMINDmercenarysupportsystem yeah I agree, but poise being the only counter is a big sign of inherent weak design. Big reason I love Nioh

[@hoodiiguy]

seriously, it feels like the gravebirds have such crazy aggro that from just forgot to give them a maximum chase distance or something

[@AtomicZamurai]

Or for the sake of pissing you off 🙄

[@SolaScientia]

They give me the same vibes as the giant rune bears do. I ran into 1 of them Liurnia way back when and the damn bear chased me well into the lake and then killed me far after I thought I'd escaped his aggro, and I was riding on Torrent as fast as possible.

[@inanefabas4402]

Michael Zealand is really desperate to make us block under the guise of "using the game's mechanics" when in reality the enemy in question is dogshit.

[@gre2060]

those things are just aggro by default period I have seen them just aggrochilling charging ghostflame shits when I tilt the camera far too many times

[@OrlandoOrtiz570]

It's times like these that I'm glad I never stopped using throwing items. A throwing knife or fan daggers will knock them out of flight. If you can't beat them on the ground, I can't help you.

[@thesavagegummybear7341]

I m so pissed there wasn’t some amygdala style nightmare creature crawling through the tree tops on the abyssal woods that would reach down and grab you if it saw you

[@STARS7112]

This is a great idea

[@river7874]

I was hoping for a Madness Dragon that stalked you through the area.

[@gavinhazan1415]

@@river7874dude I originally thought Bayle was gonna be a madness dragon from the trailer. I was disappointed ab that

[@enterusername6953]

@@river7874 That was a missed opportunity because the Abyssal Woods are near Jagged Peak.

[@colossaltitan3546]

Exactly, the stone tablets on the ground warning you not to let "it" see you made me think there was gonna be some major stalker enemy you had to avoid through the entire area like Mr X or something. I appreciate the Bloodborne callback but a reskin of winter lanterns just felt underwhelming. At least their LOS isn't as broken as Bloodborne's

[@PrecludeLP]

"These guys chain attacks together like a hivemind of Tekken players" one of your best lines.

[@ivrgn1720]

Divine warriors being unable to be backstabbed while having infinite stamina and poise feels so fkin wrong.

[@kdubsea]

More poise than Radahn lol, I'll have whatever dewkissed herba they're smoking

[@ALaz502]

Sounds like a skill issue. Git gud.

[@madkoala2130]

Something, something... rushed development.

[@matalden9363]

Yes diffuclty in a very, very boring way. Wtf 🤦‍♂️

[@viljamtheninja]

@@matalden9363 All I'm hearing is "I can no longer smash everything with my big sword so enemies can't move and I'm suddenly getting hit again, I don't like it." They're tough and frustrating for a reason, there are only a few of them at key areas, you can't cheese them, they're supposed to be intimidating fights. They're the Hornsent's greatest soldiers. Personally I loved fighting them, they were one of honestly pretty few moments in the DLC's overworld where I felt genuinely challenged.

[@mrtguero]

5:06 Face only formless mother could love

[@doctorsnakeeater1997]

Take my like damn it.

[@AnakinTheWeird]

aaaaaand cue the Seinfeld music

[@davidm9442]

Here is your well deserved like, good sir

[@colindupee]

Honorable mention: those casters in the catacombs that -- like the tower priests -- continue to cast shit at you long after you've broken LoS.

[@Alenbh4g]

Not to mention they do a trillion damage

[@hungcuong606]

Remind me of dark souls 3 ring city dlc Those bastard keep casting while i have to fight a ring knight

[@zachbaker2051]

@@hungcuong606 Scorpion River Catacombs... After I saw that this kind of enemy had been brought back, I decided I wouldn't buy these games anymore if Miyazaki is still directing them. Have him on the team, value his input, but somebody else needs to have the last word.

[@keysersoze198]

Another honorable mention: The laser firing ball snake c@nts in Coffin Fissure...

[@YoshisVinyl]

​@@hungcuong606 they were annoying but luckily there's like 1 or 2? In the gaols I believe?

[@devilmancries9617]

They didn't even put a cave or a Catacomb or literally anything in the Abyssal Woods, it almost annoyed me as much as the even EMPTIER Finger Ruins

[@HellecticMojo]

I'm very annoyed that it's still just rats. I was expecting more weird things with glowing yellow eyes to fight

[@sebastianmorin9780]

Ain’t no way you’re trying to say the Abyssal woods has less inside of it than the finger ruins, at least I’m rewarded with cook books and Scadutree fragments for exploring the woods, what do you get from the ruins? They’re empty, and I’m not including the grassy area before you get to the actual ruins as part of the section which are just filled with fingercreepers leading to a hole with a giant fingercreeper and a gesture that does nothing but make you miss Bloodborne. Edit: and no I don’t like the Abyssal woods anymore than anyone else does.

[@forecastlotus3899]

I love the abyssal woods for the vibe, but Jesus, I wish we had more in there, what makes it worse is that now we have 2 FRENZY THEMED WEAPONS AND ONE OF THEM IS A LITERAL HAND

[@lordhelmchen3154]

@@forecastlotus3899 Yeah they are, everything taken into account, one of the most infuriating areas purely due to wasted potential. When I first entered the Abyssal Woods and I saw the "Torrent is scared" message I was shitting bricks. The ominous messages made my bad feeling even worse... but then... nothing happened. 70% of the area contains neither items nor enemies. The only interesting area besides the Manse is the winter lantern area... but that also quickly became boring. Especially since the only reason you sneak past them is because you want to 100% explore the map. In Bloodborne they were more of a intermission/blocker for your progression, and you had to stealth past them. But here they block you from exploring the open area that also barely contains any loot, which makes it just annoying. After reading the "don't let it see you, you have no chance, hide!" messages I also fully expected a hige scary madness creature to roam around. Something similar to the flame of frenzy orb on the tower in the village near the Grand Lift. Or the big snake from Sekiro. Or the frenzy light in the Bloodborne nightmare... An actual new scary big area threat. But instead we got a bunch of winter lanterns, surrounded by space more open and devoid of things than the Saharan desert. And once online messages tell you to parry, their whole scariness is instantly gone. If they hadn't run out of development time, this area could have been insane (hehe), but we are left with the unfinished first draft.

[@EnergyBurst2]

@@sebastianmorin9780 Well it has the Manus Metyr Quest thing which gives you a really good talisman or a really meh one depending on the ruin, so there's that for both of them, plus the first one by cerulean coast has a remembrance dupe coffin thing.

[@cannedyams9977]

Furnace Golems are the only enemy that actually upset me. I get that the game is hard, but it also has to be fun. I wasn’t having fun for a single second fighting those things.

[@patrickramos1748]

Just throw hefty fire pots on the basket. Turns the boring ah fight into a small puzzle that just needs a bit of crafting and a high ground

[@Z3d195]

@@patrickramos1748based

[@dhuntermg]

Agreed. Just going from leg to leg doing jumping or charged attacks and jumping to evade the fire stomps until it stunlocks 3 times and falls for a crit hit is literally the most mind-numbing thing this DLC had.

[@devildante9]

@@patrickramos1748 does that make fighting them fun? Also not all of them have a high ground to throw a pot at them, and the pots are limited in number

[@henrryeaeaea]

​@@devildante9They aren't supossed to be a fight on itself but puzzle encounters to make you think and find the spots from where throw the pots to damage them (Wich in reality almost all of them does indeed have + the fact that they are not only heavily damaged by the hefty ones but also just heavy fire ones, and yet there's plenty of crafting materials for the hefty ones in certain spots). If you are trying to make it into a normal fight... Well, that's up to you.

[@umarthdc]

Turns out those crazy dancing dudes have 0 sleep resistance or something

[@Вейн-э5б]

But they can only be staggered for a short time after that thay continue spin to win.

[@davidhong1934]

"With great power, comes great need to sleep" _--Nico di Angelo_

[@somebody4094]

​@@davidhong1934 I thought the Percy Jackson fandom was completely extinct

[@Rusty_Spy]

@@Вейн-э5бjust charge your strongest heavy. They get knocked down when they're staggered

[@moka8601]

Powerstanced sleep swords can stunlock them really well

[@HellecticMojo]

I'm getting sick of "just use this specific thing" answers in the comments as if having kryptonite doesn't mean fighting Superman an issue 99% of the time. "Revenants aren't bad, just dedicate stats and carry an item that you likely won't have use for." "Just use sleep, you know the thing that's either on weapons that you likely didn't upgrade, or limited pot slots that you are using for other specific encounters" "Just use a consumable, the thing that you cannot craft in combat and is only comfortable to use if you already had it equipped somewhere."

[@venandisicarius32]

In some cases, using a consumable being the answer is fine enough because to me that fits the vibe of a FromSoft game. Especially when the resource in question is relatively easy to get and manage. Like for sleep? In most cases where sleep is an option, even an un-upgraded St. Trina's sword (a weapon that is incredibly easy to get) will do the job since all you need is the Sleep proc, not the damage. And 95% of consumables you NEED are easy to get ahold of generally. Revenants on their own actually aren't all that hard to deal with, but it does depend on your build. Holy, healing, and bleed will straight up just undo them no matter what and their teleport always follows a consistent pattern of attempting to appear out of line of sight so you can punish that pretty easily. The problem is when it's multiple Revenants like in the Haligtree Revenant Alleyway. Now there's like three or four of them and unless you have an utterly massive AoE heal, you are probably about to get fucked royally. And then we have Furnace Pots... Rare material used to kill the creature that drops the material... Some real Ouroboros type shit. And there's no one weapon that's just good against them either save the heaviest of weapons on the planet and god forbid you're a Dex build.THEN that's just to knock them down. There's no easy to grab consumable to make this swifter, no easy to grab weapon to make this go by faster. Afaik, there's not too many spells that can make this easier either which even then, you still have to deal damage via a crit. And if you just so happen to be passing by? Pray they don't seend the hellfire meteor barrage after you, holy shit.

[@Takato2527]

"the game gives you the solution, so use it, or just git gud, scrub" Just because there's a solution to the problem, doesn't mean it's a cakewalk.

[@venandisicarius32]

@@Takato2527 Most *are* a cakewalk to get though. The ones that aren't are usually the problem

[@Takato2527]

@@venandisicarius32 I used to have problems with knights, but when I know how poise and stance-breaking work, they're not really painful to deal with, which is why I have no issue with Fire Knight and Crucible Knight. Except Horned Warriors, f*&^ them to hell.

[@devilmancries9617]

The only thing that annoyed me about Furnace Golems was how they would constantly do their rain of fire, you have to pretty much run away but somehow get close enough to make them not do it again.

[@lukegonzalez4893]

The furnace golem with the iron shackles and a super obvious place to throw the pots from is just so bad. It's so painfully bad. That's all it does. Rain of fire that will 100% kill you if you don't run away. But, if you run too far away, you won't have enough time to get back to throw a pot because of the rain of fire. It's not fun. It's not even a "puzzle encounter" like so many people say they are. It's stupid obvious what to do. Instead, the encounter is just hoping the RNG doesn't screw you over with fire spam.

[@yeahnahmate7]

Very much agreed

[@Jacobliterator]

Ok so Divine Warriors just have infinite poise. That explains why I kept fighting these guys and thinking “I Palm Blasted you like 7 times, how the hell are you not stance-broken yet?!”

[@kennethbryant5819]

Not infinite just instantly recharging. When hackers put divine warriors against other OP enemies and bosses they somehow do get poise broken eventually.

[@Jacobliterator]

@@kennethbryant5819 So you CAN stance-break them, you just need to do enough poise damage in one hit to do it before their poise instantly regenerates?

[@novaplex3624]

Divine Warriors and Curseblades were definitely the two enemies I had the least fun fighting, the fact the curseblade is wearing nothing but a gimp mask and a filthy loincloth and can still poise tank through a colossal sword hit is just the worst...

[@christianrose9166]

Honestly, it feels like they gave everything in the DLC that isn't a Shadow Undead or Gravebird way too much poise. If two hits from a colossal is not staggering it, it should be a boss... So why does it take five hits from a colossal to stagger a Divine Warrior?

[@lax9586]

That poise tanking is BS. I hit them with my strongest stance breaking spells and they danced through them like I had thrown pillows at them.

[@anonisnoone6125]

@@triggerIV The problem is that the Divine warriors didn't. They still feel like mini bosses.

[@foreverie2626]

@@christianrose9166 feels more balanced, colossal weapons and poise abusing are way too strong in the base game. they trivialize like 95% of enemies

[@WildBandit300]

Its because the curse blades get hyper armor during some of their moves, and I'm pretty sure some even have super armor like Malenia's Waterfowl.

[@OYME13]

Fromsoft's stupid idea of making an enemy challenging is to give it more poise than God.

[@exploertm8738]

Given some bosses that you can poisebreak that sentence is very literal 💀

[@Gojira_uz]

They even went so far as to make Consort's poise reset timer like 6 seconds so you literally cannot poise break him unless you brute force trade with lions claw or something similar. Even then if he does the flying boulder attack you're screwed out of it anyway since he stays in the air for long enough for it to replenish.

[@tiacool7978]

@@Gojira_uz In the case of Consort Radahn, I don't mind as much. Since he's supposed to be the hardest fight in the dlc. But some of these other non-boss enemies feel a bit too much.

[@knivy6160]

@@Gojira_uz I think it's the opposite actually, because it refreshes quickly you want fast weapons to reset the timer as often as possible. Rapiers/straight swords seem like the go to for PCR, you have a lot of opportunities to sneak in a light attack, while still having decent poise damage options with ashes of war (mainly square off), or you can just maximize damage with charged rapiers r2s. That seems to be the strat with low level runs.

[@thegamingaristocrat7615]

The most immediate way to fix this game is to halve the health and poise of all the later-game enemies.

[@hoodiegal]

I'm surprised the Smith Golems didn't make it onto the list; "Hey lets make an enemy that you have to strike from behind to kill!" "okay, that could be an interesting design" "and lets make the angle that counts as 'behind them' really narrow!" "...what?" "and lets give them a fast turn ratio" "what are you-" "and lets give them an attack that punishes players for trying to strafe around them!" "are you on drugs?"

[@SolaScientia]

That's when I stopped trying to kill them. I think I killed a couple in the first location I found them, but then in the second one I gave up and just ran around grabbing items before getting out of there. It's also odd that neither location has a boss, but I'm not really complaining about that at this point.

[@patrickramos1748]

Grafted dragon fist makes them a joke. A single charged r2 stuns them, then critical strike, go behind them while they're standing up and repeat. Only problem is when there's more than one of them. But running is a lot faster tbh lol

[@Thompsoncs]

@@patrickramos1748 crystal darts is your solution to the smith golem x2 problem. 1 on 1 they're fine, as long as your using something that can stance break easily, or a shield + guard counter

[@_SUPERN0VA_]

Try killing one, then I began to run past them. Not point in killing them.

[@TheSergio1021]

"And lets put 2 of them in this tiny hallway so you literally cant reach that spot"

[@icetide9411]

The worst part about the Divine Beast Warriors is that for some ungodly reason the games treats them like normal enemies. They have two separate farmable armor pieces associated on enemies that aren't far off from being minibosses.

[@Zayd-bg1pt]

They’re decently squishy for how strong they are, so just fight them like you would any boss and it’ll be fine since I don’t think you have to fight them with any additional enemies at any point, so just enjoy the most cinematic enemies from has ever made

[@Cynsham]

They're pretty squishy but yeah the amount of poise they have is absolutely ridiculous

[@bwhere45]

@@Cynsham oh come on, all it takes is two fully charged Ordovis greatsword vortex skills, a charged heavy, and using the poise breaking flask. No trouble at all.

[@kennethbryant5819]

Just like when I said when I met the albinauric archers on their direwolves, when I fought the beast warriors and curseblades, I was like "yeah, they deserved to be annihilated". Team Gideon/Messmer ftw.

[@Zayd-bg1pt]

@@bwhere45 I’m pretty sure greatsword r1s make them flinch so maybe use something other than l2 spam

[@CassianBlank]

the most annoying enemies in this game are the ones who can do a crap ton of damage while moving at the speed of Sonic on speed, while a rusted pipe is 6 inches deep in his ass while his head is on fire and his eyes are melting, and dodging every attack you can send then the moment you think you have a moment to heal they SOMEHOW HAVE A FUCKING RANGED ATTACK THAT CAN DO JUST ENOUGH DAMAGE TO FORCE YOU OUT OF THE HEALING ANIMATION.

[@leonardo9259]

Now pvers now what invasions are like lol

[@I-ONLY-BUILD-MECHS-AND-DUSTERS]

The very first enemy you might run into sets the tone for the entire DLC: a friggin beyblade teleporting on top of you with a 50 hit combo spinning attack while you just wait for any opening to get a single light hit in.

[@Dubstikz]

Fax

[@Yoshyguy21]

@@I-ONLY-BUILD-MECHS-AND-DUSTERS That's rather exaggerated I'd say. Horned Warriors and some Fire Knights are the only ones I think kind of fit that, and even then their combos aren't THAT long (though I find it funny that the greatsword Horned Warrior has longer combos than the variant with two swords)

[@Mr_Fish10]

​@@Yoshyguy21 A way to think about it is that dual wielding burns more stamina, idk.

[@Liaaa667]

I hope I wasn’t the only one who killed the Bigmouth Imp with spells, only to find out that doing so makes a legendary item drop too high for you to reach it. (then reloaded the area and killed it again, found out the legendary item dropped was only a Great Ghost Glovewort)

[@bmprojects3235]

Dont worry, happened to me as well😂

[@blakeisthebeast]

I threw boulders at him and same. Time to start a club

[@falcoon_f_zero9450]

My game's imp probably started wandering and fell to the Abyss cause when I reached that spot the platform was empty. And I was wondering why the area was filled with bloodstains. Good to know the legendary item is another pretty pointless one 😂

[@emytzu]

Same here, and im not even a mage....i just used the crossbow...

[@dr.jasepain5944]

And me as well. I'm mad you can't summon a BIG big mouth and no big mouth head piece

[@wilhelm100]

I'm just here to remind everyone that the laser rock constructs in the Stone Coffin Fissure exist

[@Yoshyguy21]

I mean they're pretty easy to deal with though, they have a very consistent rhythm and they don't move from their spot so

[@SolaScientia]

@@Yoshyguy21 I ran into them last night for the first time. I made the mistake of thinking I'd have an easy time since it's just them and the birds. I saw the clumps of exploding ones and ran past them. I was not expecting to suddenly get sniped by purple lasers. I'm nearly 100% sure the standing ones have never had lasers before. The ones in the main game are mainly around the evergaols and if they shoot purple lasers, then I've never triggered it. Regardless, I was not expecting that and they brought back bad memories of the angels in the Dreg Heap of the Ringed City DLC for DS3. I've opted to leave that place and do some other stuff instead for a bit.

[@devildante9]

@@Yoshyguy21 not when 3 of them are firing at you at the same time with different timings, while fighting 2 or 3 birds

[@Yoshyguy21]

@@devildante9 The birds are so easy to kill you, even with a short ranged weapon like the Backhand Blades I didn't struggle too much, they have very low health too

[@tiacool7978]

My bigger issue was the small jumps in this cave. I unintentionally kept missing them.

[@Alandil101]

I adore the fact that anyone who plays the DLC immediately agrees with Marika's genocidal rage.

[@MarcellusMaize]

Dealing with those fucking curseblades was enough to make me support Messmer’s crusade alone.

[@dekkan_0771]

Fire knights are the most annoying if you fighting them with anything smaller than a greatsword, is like the have infinite poise but as soon as you bring a bigger sword you stun lock them to death, it’s so weird the balance there’s not in between.

[@Rusty_Spy]

And then they jump back out of melee range and cast a fire serpent which gives them poise so you can't interrupt it which throws your offense out the window and forces you to dodge around their follow up attacks.

[@leonardo9259]

That's the underlying concept for elden ring

[@SolaScientia]

@@leonardo9259 It's why I've stuck with the Bloodhound's Fang since I got it; it's tough to beat a solid quality melee weapon. I have the Godskin Peeler as back up with its Black Flame Tornado thanks to how fast it shreds health bars (most of the time). Even on my faith-based build I'm playing around with on a second save I've got the Bloodhound's Fang equipped until I make it to the Godslayer's Greatsword and then I'll switch to that one. Greatswords have been my go-to weapon type in the Souls games as well. Really, really hard to go wrong with one.

[@thegamingaristocrat7615]

I'm sorry, but I shouldn't need to wield a hunk of metal the size of a sofa to make fighting something bearable.

[@Z3d195]

@@thegamingaristocrat7615 so you could learn the moveset and punish accordingly? Treating them like mini bosses helped me understand them far better

[@sandisliker]

Fun tip for dunking on furnace golems: Right after a critical hit, you can run to the basket-head side and throw a furnace pot into their head while they’re still down. This is usually enough damage to one-cycle them. Really wish visages were farmable though, furnace pots are way too fun to be non-renewable :(

[@jaketinsley1987]

They are farmable . The fallen Furnace Golem outside of the Shadow Keep has Messmers soldiers patrolling the fallen golem. Kill the soldiers and hope they drop them. Rare drop rate. Similar to rune arc drop rate.

[@enjoyerofcontent]

There are some soldiers outside Shadow Keep around a dead golem that have a small chance of dropping them. Bit like rats and rune arcs, you can do it but settle in for some farming even with gear that maxes discovery :\

[@AlexanderShamov]

Fire pots work too. But seriously, fuck rare consumables.

[@jaketinsley1987]

@@enjoyerofcontent Dude we had almost the same reply. You even mentioned the similarity to rune arc drop rate. That's insane my guy. Great minds think alike. I learned from a Vaati 10 things you missed video.

[@enjoyerofcontent]

@@jaketinsley1987 I think you might be onto something. Vaati is clearly plagiarising us!

[@Guanjyn]

Furnace Golems have to be one of the most disappointing enemies they've made. Who wants to just hit an ankle for 10 minutes? And then when you zone out too much and get one shot by accident you have to restart it all.

[@EnergyBurst2]

Just find a high up spot to lure them to and throw big fire pots or Furnace pots into their baskets when they look like they are winding up a vortex attack, actually makes them a bearable and somewhat interesting fight since it means you gotta look around and utilize your environment and every golem to my recollection has such a spot, though some are trickier to find, get to, or lure to than others. I have fought them without that though and indeed it sucks so I pretty much only do the pot method now unless I really want to 'dance' with a golem or challenge myself.

[@paha4209]

Personally i think the Golems are fine however i don´t think making them a replacement for the Tree Sentinels was a good idea. They are way to many of the golems runing around. Reduce their numbers to like 2-4 and it would´ve been fine (same with the Ghostflame Drakes btw.)

[@disnark]

@@EnergyBurst2 or just skip them because they drop almost enough runes to buy 10 kukris, there's exactly one crystal tear in the DLC worth using and it drops from the very first golem you see.

[@EnergyBurst2]

@@disnark I did that at first, but wanted the other tears there were for completion's sake and wanted them gone anyway since they can be annoying.

[@Nightmare_52]

I consistently get surprised just how much damage the wandering shadows do if you get caught in their slapping combo, bonus points because it stunlocks torrent and only knocks you off at the end of the combo when both you and torrent are way below half health, this is with lvl 14 scadutree blessing btw

[@SolaScientia]

I try to steer clear of them since they viscerally remind me of hollows and how annoying it is to get stunlocked by the most common Dark Souls enemy. Same with if you get stunlocked by any version they've ever done of the damn dogs. Not the wolves (those are more predictable and seem to be done differently), but the damn dogs.

[@Nightmare_52]

yeah, and ofcourse they just had to bring in the overworld dogs into the shadow realm, just that they are now shadow dogs, someone bought the battlepass and unlocked the shadow skin for them fucks so they are even harder to spot before they bite your ass off

[@SolaScientia]

@@Nightmare_52 I'm finally diving back into the DLC this week after a bit of a break from gaming in general. I was finishing exploring in Bonny Village before making my way to Ymir and rounded the corner of what I guess were once stables and got jump-scared by a shadow dog I really wasn't expecting there. That's par for the course when it comes to the dogs in these games. I will say that the crows and dogs (and dog-crows and crow-dogs) in Bloodborne are probably the worst of all their games. The crows are especially bad since they blend in almost perfectly and do not move until you get too close to really get away from them. And I jump every single time.

[@Nightmare_52]

fromsoft always finds a way to put horror aspects in their games, whether it be jumpscares, out of sight enemies that only activate once you are already fighting something else, disturbing scenery/enemy designs and more, but it all just makes me want to play further tbh, even if its bullshit lol

[@YellowYeti21]

Trying to fight a Fire Knight with a weapon that can't flinch them is the most cancer experience I've had in this game.

[@Z3d195]

Skill issue, apart from the dash dealing damage, fire knights are peak

[@ghoulbuster1]

Not even heavy attacks? Heavy attacks can stun them, I think guard counters too.

[@Gojira_uz]

I remember playing with the Milady before they buffed the poise damage on Light Greatswords and it was positively terrible, not even a charged heavy could interrupt them so they were basically a boss encounter lol

[@knivy6160]

Parrying seems better than it was in the base game, if you ever do boot up the game again try parrying them. Except the dagger one, that guy's fucked up

[@piraka_mistika]

@@Gojira_uz I'm pretty sure guard counters still stunned them but wow that is good to know that they buffed it, I really struggled against them with the Milady

[@Tarnishedwarrior124]

Revenants will no matter what enemy fromsoft create always be the worst and most stressful enemy

[@Punishthefalse]

They scream in my face, jump on my ass from all the way over there and slap me around like a drunk asian mother. Put them in a FNAF game and they will fit right in!

[@davidandrus323]

Heal from Afar was hands down my favorite new addition for exactly this reason. Fuck those guys and fuck their bloodline.

[@enjoyerofcontent]

I actually did a decent chunk of the DLC on my most recent playthrough before the Haligtree (went back to get the dragon greatshield talisman for Messmer) and I swear the Curseblades made dealing with Revenant Avenue like a dream. Like a gentle stroll with my mimic tear just casually shaking hands with all the nice, yet odd, folks we met on the way.

[@doitfaster9553]

Nah, heal from afar exists now it's a tactical nuke towards revenants

[@OFSheep]

Revenants aren't nearly as bad as Divine Warriors. If only a 12 faith spell could invalidate those unflinching 10-week-long swing session jerks.

[@tortue_]

1:52 I was like "this ain't even bad, i play Overwatch almost everyday" then a few seconds proved the game's reputation lmaooo

[@Alex_Aramayo]

Nah this is way better, iv been enjoying not playing Overwatch just to play this & explore

[@walternunez4118]

6:00 the Fextra wiki being inaccurate? Nooooo, that couldn't possibly be true

[@thomasdevlin5825]

There's a classic elden ring meme about the Raya Lucaria sorcerers guarding the front gate in a sniper nest, and at the time it was like "Haha, that's relatable" but that is actually just an accurate representation of the pink lampreys. They WILL see you before you see them

[@obi2cups]

The finger snipers better be on the list. They got the accuracy of legendary Halo 2 jackal snipers

[@LAK_770]

Bruh the lampreys appear literally 45 seconds into the video, did you furiously type this the second you opened the video

[@danielhyde3215]

​@@LAK_770the fact ge likely did that actually makes me chuckle

[@yuruclip]

lmaooooo these things always get me

[@MrRobot-xs5jf]

Bro took no chances and had to give his peace lmfao

[@geordiejones5618]

God that area sucked so much on my no scadutree fragments run which was also my first time going through everything. That area, Bayle, Metyr, Gaius, Enir Ilim and Radahn were brutal, but everything else felt the same as Haligtree/Farum. Once you get the timing down though you can get through pretty easy without even using ranged you just got not stop moving and have a path in your head.

[@papanurgle8393]

Lampreys made the finger ruins go from the coolest exploration site to the most boring slog in the DLC. I foud it especially weird given that the same "concept" was approached with the abyssal woods, I thought it was pretty great despite the emptiness of the area.

[@disnark]

Which works, accidentally, since it turns out that there's almost literally nothing in either finger ruin so exploration is a waste of time.

[@spsawyer22]

​@disnark I mean there is a coffin for duplication and a few decent items but yeah

[@_ikako_]

god it feels so good to have someone agree with my take on the abyssal woods. i entered it at the end of one of my play sessions, got the jumpscare and the spooky messages before the first grace and then quit for the night. i was so excited, despite being someone who doesn't like horror, because the tone and atmosphere of the area was so incredibly unique to these games and i couldn't wait to experience a stealth-horror experience inside of elden ring. then i played it the next day and was very let down by the fact that it's like 3 stealth puzzles with one enemy, no way to reenable torrent and no area-wide threat to deal with. i was expecting a giant red light green light version of the tower in liurnia, where there was this big overseeing eye that you had to stealth around, with other threats along the way to it, and defeating the area boss would disable the eye and reenable torrent, expanding the area you could explore and opening whole new paths to get to the legacy dungeon. instead, there's 1 singular threat that has 1 approach to deal with it (on a blind playthrough) and nothing else making it interesting. plus the legacy dungeon was super short with not much in it but at least the boss was cool.

[@purnalvid1627]

It is indeed a drag but it makes a lot of sense whithin whole lore of the frenzied flame. Would highly recommend VaatiVidya's and/or Hawkshaw's vid on the topic :)

[@tortyreus2384]

​@purnalvid1627 using lore to justify shit design has to be the worst tendency fromsoft fanboys have, and thats saying a lot.

[@purnalvid1627]

@@tortyreus2384 labelling the only area of its kind as "shit design" while ignoring WHY it's made that way, in a game that has literal archeological evidence buried in it as part of its environmental storytelling, is just plain wannabe-edgy brainrot. If you don't like it don't play it, and kindly STFU.

[@hallo-mt5tx]

yeah i hated that area because its 99% empty with a few rats and you cant use torrent

[@Spooky_Spookerson]

This list perfectly encapsulates the power creep of designing common enemies. "Well they have to be harder than the base game" logic of development means every enemy has infinite poise and 99 attack combos. And if the answer to any of those is "just use a greatshield" then you have failed to see the problem.

[@Z3d195]

Or you could, you know, learn their moveset and exercise good roll discipline? Serious skill issue on your end my friend

[@SolaScientia]

It's a problem I noticed first with both Dark Souls 3 DLCs. The Millwood Knights, Ringed City Knights, and Harald Knights all are way too tanky for no good reason and I ended up just running past them. I feel like the last DLC that felt properly balanced, fair, and really fun is Bloodborne's Old Hunters DLC. Laurence is the biggest and basically only problem I have with it. DS3's DLCs and now this one just make me feel like they upped the difficulty just for the sake of it and it's less fun on the whole. I mean, I'm still playing it and it is pretty fun, just less fun than the main game. It's difficult to describe the feelings I have about it.

[@thewolfking3054]

​@@Z3d195still no excuse for the massive poise these dlc enemies are given. Trying to break any enemy poise with anything smaller than a greatsword in this dlc feels like it takes way too long to do. Saying skill issue is no excuse for bad design

[@christianlangdon3766]

​@Z3d195 oh that's a bad opinion must be a brain issue.

[@Z3d195]

@@christianlangdon3766 serious skill issue on your end bro do better

[@kennethbryant5819]

One redeeming thing about the lampreys is they feel like the redemption of the witches of hemlock because that was the weakest part of Bloodborne. I hate the curseblades because they are as tanky and strong as the horned warriors but fight like they should be a lot squishier than that.

[@thewolfking3054]

Those damn flies better be on this list. Nothing is worse than fighting a pack of them and then having two of them get you in an infinite grab stunlock. They drive me crazy

[@spsawyer22]

The area before the fly village where there are like 10 in the path and a hidden curseblade killed me like 5 or 6 times AFTER I beat PCR. So yeah

[@sierraandrews9921]

I found the untouchables REALLY underwhelming. They built up some invincible horror hiding between the trees. I was expecting to see some giant frenzy serpent or something (Since Mesmer's snake is the abbysal serpent) but instead we got, knock off winter lanterns? That are no where near as scary? eh,

[@SolaScientia]

Yeah, I'm disappointed that there's no haunting singing to preface their appearance. Even though I know when and where to expect Winter Lanterns I still get anxious as soon as I hear the singing. Fighting those 2 shark dudes in the well all while hearing that 1 lantern singing above us really made that fight even worse than it is already.

[@falcoon_f_zero9450]

The whole time I was slogging through the abyssal woods I was cursing to myself: "out of all the fun enemies in Bloodborne they had to bring back the most infuriating ones, winter lanterns. Why?!"

[@philmillspaw6657]

Unfortunately the soapstone messages in the Abyssal Woods write a check the asses of the Winter Lanterns/Aging Untouchables can't cash

[@SolaScientia]

@@philmillspaw6657 It's honestly a bit strange just how many messages they put around to help players this time. The main game has some in certain locations, but both of the forges had messages about hitting the enemy in its weak spot as if it's not glaringly obvious where the weak spot is. I mean, I know I can be a bit dense sometimes when trying to figure stuff out, but that's usually in terms of working out their NPC questlines to keep said NPC from dying (a la Greirat) or aggroing on me (a la Eileen), not just regular game mechanics.

[@rogalcorn734]

​@@SolaScientiaGame is trying to appeal to a more casual audience.

[@HateSonneillon]

I hate the fire knights. As for big mouth imps, I love the way you have to run into several small annoying ones and they make you hate them. Then when you see the giant one its such an "Oh shit!" moment.

[@kennethbryant5819]

I got stuck in a loop of climbing over the spike trap only to get shot back down by that imp asshole for far longer than I expected. Fromsoft are assholes for that one.

[@HateSonneillon]

@@kennethbryant5819 Evil genius assholes, and I love them for it.

[@willowpayne5343]

Good news! Nectarblood Burgeons drop from the beasts sleeping before the Putrecense Knight boss, found quite a few of em while farming for flight pinions.

[@maximedaunis8292]

You monster

[@bartendingcrow6497]

@@maximedaunis8292 They were trying to be helpful! Why are they a monster? XD

[@maximedaunis8292]

@@bartendingcrow6497 Well there are animals like deers and owls etc that are gathered before the boss i think he's talking about them, either them or the bloodfiends that are sleeping at the very beginning of the area...

[@Tarnished270]

8:24 Malenia would TOTALLY agree with you there😂

[@meandeverything9513]

The three lion warriors in Enir-Ilim still keep me awake

[@AlexanderShamov]

The amount of runes furnace golems drop iis an absolute insult. You can easily get more from regular mobs their AOE attacks kill than from the golems themselves.

[@hamsterc6448]

Catching a rusty video in the minute it comes out feels like a great honor

[@ramofeldduckington6257]

The fact that the laser rock things from the Stone Coffin Fissure aren’t on here is making me wonder if I’ve been doing that area wrong this entire time…

[@justanotherLunny]

It's mostly just rythm-dodging until you get close to them and then you destroy them.

[@SolaScientia]

Same. I got back into the DLC a couple of days and finally made my way there last night. I saw them and was pleased to see that the descent wouldn't be too bad outside the stupid birds. Boy was I mistaken when they suddenly started shooting purple lasers at me when I'm nearly 100% certain they've never done that before. I mean, they're only really around the evergaols in the main game and the only hostile ones have been the clumped up exploding versions. If the tall versions are hostile in the main game I've never triggered them to do anything. I just stared my screen as I died to purple lasers before deciding to go and explore some place else for a bit. I got flashes back to the damn angels in the Dreg Heap of DS3's Ringed City.

[@BasicBas]

I guess nobody uses shields? any shield with 100% physical makes these guys a cakewalk. Just put up your shield for 0 damage each time. I use the serpent or wolf crest shields for drip :D

[@SolaScientia]

@@BasicBas Likely not. I don't, lol. I haven't used a shield much at all after about my first two hours in the game. Jump + heavy attack usually sorts out most of the problems. I think I caved and used one in Raya Lucaria only because of how much spell spamming the mages did and I absolutely hate fighting mages in any of their games. My Bloodborne muscle memory of just playing aggressively has gotten me into trouble more than once but not enough to make me start using a shield. It did occur to me when I was getting sniped that maybe I needed to bring a shield back out for them. That or I can put on the archer talisman and try sniping them with my greatbow.

[@gavinhazan1415]

I mean personally I didn’t have a problem with them at all. Ran up to them then dunked on them with a heavy weapon

[@entroponetics]

Death's Poker L2+R1 combo makes quick work of furnace golems. Stonebarb has no effect on them because they stagger from damage thresholds rather than poise. So just use your most damaging attacks on them.

[@evanbaxter7356]

Yeah once you understand how golem stance break works they're never that tedious again, but granted the game does a terrible job of explaining that mechanic to you, the furnace pot gimmick is explained better, even though it should be the more niche secret

[@entroponetics]

@@evanbaxter7356 Yeah, I figured it out totally by accident, because I had the wrong weapon equipped lmao.

[@devildante9]

@@evanbaxter7356 The game in fact does not explain it at all, and you have no way of know that, specially considering they are the only enemy in the game that functions that way. It's just bad design.

[@entroponetics]

@@devildante9 Nah, being able to figure that kind of thing out for yourself is fun.

[@maximedaunis8292]

I used pots on all of them, that's what made the most sense to me, i'm not going to hit that thing with a toothpick for hours on end. Their "leash" was a problem though

[@Mr.Skeleton-El]

Bro i can’t belive he didn’t list those stupid fucking wizards in the catacombs that shoot bouncing projectiles. The one on top of the arch with the stairs going down killed me too much.

[@iroveashe]

I think the fact that you can pounce around with torrent might circumvent some of that. When I saw them I thought they'd be annoying but I just never really got hit by them. Maybe I was just lucky.

[@Mr.Skeleton-El]

@@iroveashe Idk if we’re thinking of the same enemy because my wizards only appear in the catacombs, no torrent allowed in there.

[@iroveashe]

@@Mr.Skeleton-El I seem to recall it being one of those weird areas where it's like a catacomb but also part of the open world. Maybe my dodging/running intuition was just right.

[@blazefoster5845]

The fire golems were so bs that I just straight up ignored them throughout the entire DLC

[@forecastlotus3899]

I killed maybe 5 and only 5 because the rest i could not be bothered

[@valkyrie4855]

​@@forecastlotus3899I killed all of them but I hate the amored ones those suck the worst.

[@chemicallylemon]

The thing that pissed me off about the untouchables was finding out using impaling thrust twice also knocks them down AFTER I tried to parry about 4,000 times

[@SolaScientia]

Even after a number of Soulsborne games and well over 100hrs in Elden Ring, I'm still trash at parrying. To the point that I haven't bothered with a shield in Elden Ring after my first 2 hours in the game. I run with the Bloodhound's Fang as my main even in the DLC (yes, I know it's predictable, but even DLC enemies don't like it), so it's second nature for me to do the slash and backward dash and then the forward slash with the R2. Even really pain in the ass enemies don't handle it too well, so I guess I'll see soon how the Winter Lantern knockoffs handle it.

[@Knivess0]

Totally didn't even know about the parry thing, this is such great news.

[@tiacool7978]

I successfully parried them once, missed the stab window. And just started panic swinging until it died.

[@valkyrie4855]

​@tiacool7978 happened to me too but aleast when you kill them they stay dead I'm terrible st parrying too.

[@williamjamesayers7719]

I tried parrying which didn't work for me. So as soon as I arrive I want to get the hell out of there. I don't care what's there for treasure. Get me the fuck out. Lol.

[@vortex_1911]

As somebody who has only just started the DLC, this video will be a good warning of who to stab the hardest.

[@bubbajoe117]

As someone who has finished this DLC, you'll be lucky if you can find the time to pull off a hard stab.

[@Knivess0]

As someone who just restarted the DLC, you'll be fine.

[@Scowleasy]

It’s incredible how many SotE enemies just aren’t fun to fight.

[@kennethbryant5819]

I will say that fighting them and then going back to the main game is godlike because base game enemies and bosses are a breeze compared to them.

[@Z3d195]

Scrub

[@Scowleasy]

@@Z3d195 lmao you’re so lame

[@Z3d195]

@@Scowleasy you’re complaining about a game because you can’t play it correctly😂 keep coping scrub

[@williamjamesayers7719]

But it is so true. Melania was more fun to fight than the dlc.

[@yousaidthusly461]

3:23 that you actually modded the name into the game I’m dying 😂

[@RealEnderman562]

0:55 “But with more dragons and less talking fruit” lol Annoying Orange reference 😂

[@Cyanosis132]

"Head canons are the best kind of canons" that's a good pun (I'm hoping that was intentional)

[@Youngsickbacchus]

2:38 I will now be imagining the Roman reigns “OOOOOOOOH AHHHHHH” he does before a spear every time they start floating and screaming

[@acejustin3438]

the lamprays are way less annoying if you bring mimic tear along with you, your ghostly buddy will defend your captured self and hunt down mobs making it easier to rush the spell casters. anytime I see that I CAN summon mimic tear, I take it as the game telling me I probably SHOULD summon

[@NottSaying]

good advice, unfortunately half of the souls community will hunt you down and kill you for so much as MENTIONING that you use summons.

[@StrunDoNhor]

​@@NottSaying and fortunately, none of those people matter, and you should just play _the single player game_ however you want.

[@Punishthefalse]

I just...take cover and sneak towards the bastards.

[@SolaScientia]

I've gotten that way with my main quality melee character save. I play offline only and I don't mind summoning in the Mimic to clear areas. I've been trying to avoid using it for boss fights in the DLC but that went out the window with the Dancing Lion when it was basically input reading my heals. I decided it didn't deserve the honor of a solo fight, lol. Same for Rellana after her damn twin moon attack killed me before I even really saw what did it. I will say that I'm amused by how stupid the Mimic can be at times depending on the situation. I do have a second save with a faith-based build I'm messing with and for that one I'm seeing how far I can go without using summons beyond just clearing out camps of enemies (basically not using them for boss fights). It's more just an exercise in seeing how I handle a faith-build given I usually avoid magic of any sort in these games.

[@lavishlyvice]

@@StrunDoNhor You're completely right, but it does get really tiring to see the same hostility towards players who use summons whenever they are mentioned literally anywhere. Seen several instances where people can't even talk about it without the same discussion being regurgitated all over again.

[@Ahsan_31]

Honorable mention to the putrescence Sorcerers (the dead sorcerers in catacombs that spam weird magic at you which keeps bouncing around)

[@piraka_mistika]

they aren't called putrescence sorcerers, that's an inaccurate fan name

[@MoonDisast]

I like how one of them can cast a comet shard that comes from beneath you without them needing to see you, like they have xray vision

[@Viperacrx600]

Dude the Furnace Golems. My least favorite of their attacks is when they get dizzy and spew endless amounts of tracking fire from their heads that MUST be respected, and ran from on torrent, or get lucky with cover placement. One of those 100 bolts of fire does almost half your health if not more, and they can get in a loop where they ONLY use that attack, which makes ever killing then an impossible task. I often have to save quit next to them over and over to get a chance to actually hit them one time

[@grip7777]

I honestly thought I missed something when I encountered the first furnace-golem, because there is no way that the introduction to the DLC was to manicure a golem until it got tired and allowed you to stab it in the face and then doing the same thing again. I thought there HAS to be a consumeable that puts them to sleep, maybe throwing oil on them would have them detonate. Maybe I hoped that anything would happen besides a fight with two legs that lulls you into a rhythm of jumpattacks until it suddenly does something different and kills you, meaning you have to do it again. The enemy is so profoundly awful that it baffles me that they thought it was a good idea to put them fucking everywhere. I would not have been suprised if miquellas consort turned out to be a furnace golem.

[@MiguelRodriguez-gd5ut]

nah that one Hornsent aesthetic right before you find the euporia deserves his own spot

[@jaketinsley1987]

Yeah he jumped grabbed me and threw me off the broken bridge to me death.

[@demirie385]

6:11 most correct information on Fextra

[@johannes3645]

I'd like to see Fromsoft focus more on improving and properly implement enemies like lampreys instead of making more big-knight-guy type enemies. The lampreys could've been something really fun and interesting and I hope that Fromsoft won't abandon more unconventional enemy-types

[@tiacool7978]

They wouldn't be so bad if they didn't snipe you from afar for their buddy. Not to mention the tracking on it as well. The only upside for me, was by the time I got there, they didn't feel tanky.

[@DepressedWolverine]

To this day I haven't killed either of the furnace golems that have their ankles covered. cause like... HOW? "Throw a giant pot into their head!" HOW??? Both locations have high up cliffs to toss em but they're attacking 100% of the time. Just insane.

[@The_Number1Candyman]

The furnace golems really felt like someone at FromSoft thought the DLC was too fun and had to bring it down a notch, these enemies aren't difficult by any means, they are just tedious time wasters, too much health, far too much aggro range, and spams attacks that are designed to waste your time, it's especially BS when they spam the seeking fireballs and you're just forced to run around and wait for them to go away... only for the bastard to do it again 5 more times in a row... This enemy was so boring and stupid that I got actively disappointed whenever I saw one, and in a FromSoft game, you should NEVER see a big cool looking enemy and be disappointed

[@vondawson7530]

Honestly my least favorite is the Manflies. Specifically the 5 grabbers who stunlock you right before the midway grace near the spiral seal. At least divine warriors have the courtesy to stand still for Expecto-a Sawblade

[@daral9217]

My experience with divine warriors is best summed up when I went "Oh no" as I recognized the hip check animations and realized I was going to be fighting Cut Rate Gundyr as a casual enemy with even less chill. Joy.

[@okillydokilly6274]

I accidentally had my playback speed set to .75x and it made this video so much better. It sounded like you were super drunk rambling in the middle of the street about annoying elden ring enemies and how often you make videos about them. 10/10 highly recommend.

[@Ralphopotamus]

Can we have a boss guide on Ludwig Von Dutchoven, Exalted Knight of the Horde? Hes a pretty tough fight

[@patinthesnow752]

Fun Fact: When I found the giant cannon imp, I just stopped and put my controller down. I then said out loud “Miyazaki… wtf?! Wtf is that?”

[@josephurbanich7344]

There are really only 3 enemies that I can’t stand: Lampreys, because I like being able to play the game. Gravebirds, because they abuse the camera and hover out of reach. And smithing golems, for being a chore to fight that respawns. The curse blades, fire knights, and horned warriors are difficult, but completely fair(except for the one that summons a blizzard) The bigmouth imps are very manageable once you know where they are. Bloodfiends are easy Furnace golems are a nice, slow paced fight but they should drop more runes, and there weakness to hefty fire pots makes no sense.

[@Z3d195]

@@josephurbanich7344 based

[@RelativelyBest]

General advice for anyone having trouble with these guys: Lampreys are best dealt with through stealth. It's possible to sneak around and deal with all of them in both finger ruins without ever getting hit by their stun spells as long as you're patient. Sniping with a bow also works very well if you don't think you can get near one. But in general, if they can't land their spells or grabs they're actually very wimpy. The trick is seeing them before they see you. Divine Warriors (and also regular Horned Warriors) seem weak to holy attacks like Sacred Blade but generally any strong mid-range projectile attack (Moonlight Greatsword, Taker's Flames, etc) should be favored since these guys excel at close combat. They don't really bother to dodge anything so try to get a free hit in when they're rushing you, then try to break away from close range while landing what hits you can. The Divine Beast Warriors are clearly the worst and it's always going to suck to fight them. Just spam the most damaging AoW you can and try not to let them close. For Curseblades, same thing: Try to keep your distance and hit them with some anime bullshit. I think they're actually even more annoying to fight up close since they're so mobile that even if you poise through their attack you'll tend to just miss them. It's better to just try to tank them with a strong shield. They're vulnerable to projectiles while doing their backflip shuriken move and on the rare occasions they stand still after finishing a combo. Gravebirds are easy to deal with as long as you kite them individually with a bow and have a good shield that can stand up to their flying combo. They're weak to guard counters, fairly easy to stance break and don't have a lot of health. The best way to deal with the ghostflame variant is to sideroll the flame attack. For the spectral ring attack, hide behind the wall to your right or run around the bird if you're close. For the poison ones, best thing it just to dodge but if you don't mind spending some boluses just use a shield. Otherwise, all of them can be dealt with the same way you do the normal ones. Gravebirds are only really dangerous if you fight multiple at a time, which shouldn't happen if you're careful. Blood Fiends, similarly, are nowhere near as tough as they look and very easy to stance break and crit. It's fairly simple to just sneak up on them for a backstab. Otherwise: Kite, block and guard counter. The ones with the arm-club can sometimes launch into a berserk combo that might eat through your guard and bleed you if you take too many hits, but this is rare. The congregation in the cave can easily be dealt with one at a time via kiting as long as you're patient. I'm pretty sure this is trickier but still doable for the group on top of Prospect Town but I usually just summon for that fight. Fighting Fire Knights is similar to fighting most other knight enemies except they don't carry shields for some reason, so getting close and either stun-locking them or guard countering them into a stance break is ideal. (Also backstabs if possible, obviously.) Their primary strength is dealing damage and the range on their spells if they see you from a distance, so try to get close and hit them more than they can hit you. Having a shield is very recommended. For the Tower Priests, the only tactic I've found is sniping them a few times with a bow, with two or three shots being possible before they start throwing spiral spells at you. Then run back until they stop, heal and do it again until they die. Fortunately you only have to do this once. After getting to the grace you just need to sneak up behind them and backstab if you want to farm them or need to backtrack. The giant Bigmouth Imp can actually be sniped to death with a bow without entering its aggro range at all, so it's nothing to be afraid of. It does drop a special item that can't be accessed if it's killed before lowering the platform it's standing on (the drop will just hang in the air) which can only be done after passing by it, but you can just reload after lowering the platform and it will drop the item again when you kill it a second time. The smaller ones are actually more annoying to me and you really just have to anticipate them. Shooting them with bow sometimes works, other times you might just need to dodge well. No real advice for the Untouchables/Frenzied Elders/Winter Lanterns. I just sneak passed them and once I get to Midra's Manse I never go near them again. If you want to fight them, well, just have high Focus be good at parrying, I guess. Furnace Golems, sheesh, I dunno. I've only managed to kill three of them - the Gravesite Plain one, the Highroad one, and the one in Charo's Hidden Grave. For the Charo golem you're supposed to spirit-jump up on the nearby cliff and throw furnace pots into it from above. For the other ones, have lots of fire protection and hit the legs until it falls over, then either crit the face or throw pots into it. By the way, I tried fighting the one in Ruins of Unte that you need to wake up to get the Sword of Darkness, but for some reason it seemed completely immune to furnace pots. I don't know if that's a bug or something. Ultimately the fight dragged out too long, my Mimic Tear died and then I died because I ran out of healing. So, I ended up just running past it to get to the altar. (Oh, and for those who don't know, you can farm Furnace Visages from the soldiers by all the dead golems to the side of Shadow Keep. The drop rate isn't even especially terrible.)

[@cpnquack]

now look at that, most of these I can 100% relate with. Horned Warriors suck, and I’m not ashamed to say it.

[@bubbajoe117]

None of the DLC enemies are worth fighting honestly, especially the Horned Warriors, if it doesn't lead to a skibidi fragment or a boss I don't have time for it. It's funny I remember a time when mini-boss tier enemies like the Horned Warriors and Cursed blades were one and done style enemies that didn't respawn when you killed them, if they'd kept that at least it would have been worthwhile to fight them once just to get them out of the way.

[@Knivess0]

​@@bubbajoe117While you're at it, none of the DLC bosses are worth fighting honestly, if it doesn't lead to a fragment or have time for it.

[@bubbajoe117]

@@Knivess0 You're right.

[@justsumrandum3288]

So real. The best way I learned to kill them (at least with my semi-bleed dex build) is to just run around just out of their range until you can roll into one of their long wind down attacks and get a few hits off, but misjudging the timing and distance still gets me killed like, 40% of the time Though that’s just because I find they just DONT STOP CHASING ME until they’re dealt with and I don’t want to deal with the one in front of the casters chasing me up that hellscape stairway Fuck the blizzard guy tho. That’s just some bull.

[@devinnix9071]

@@bubbajoe117 This is honestly a very big issue I've noticed, playing previous souls games the challenging and bullshit parts were the most rewarding (For example the area before Ocieros is dogshit but it gives a shit ton of materials) but in ER it's missing the equal reward for the effort put in. Honestly all I'd like is some more runes from the enemies that are hella unbalanced

[@pewpewplasma3793]

Furnace Golems are so great to look at. Which makes me hate them even more because they are so fucking boring. You saw one in the trailer and you think “wow, that boss is gonna go crazy”, then you see one for the first time and after you get over the initial shock of their range you realize their shallow, one-note fights that offer you basically nothing and are fucking boring. I nearly fell asleep fighting them in Unte ruins. No, that’s not a joke or an exaggeration. The first enemy in a game to nearly put me to sleep. Amazing

[@John_Notmylastname]

One of the biggest gripes I have about the DLC is the amount of enemies and bosses that knock you down. It happens so often it gets annoying and eventually acceptance. Either way I’ll standby my statement that Divine Warriors are dope especially the elemental ones.

[@tiacool7978]

Being knocked down didn't bother me so much until I encountered Gauis. The guy staggered me off Torrent, stabbed me while I was down, then ran over me before I could even get up. That literally killed me, and it was there that I knew using Torrent was pointless.

[@John_Notmylastname]

@@tiacool7978 it really bothered me for some reason. It kinda felt like a cheap way to keep you off the boss or enemy and force a “reset”. It just felt like there was too many enemies doing it. If it didn’t happen so much I wouldn’t mind it but nearly every boss in the DLC has those attacks.

[@PANCAKEMINEZZ]

Okay but like, I genuinely would love to hear Rusty's gripes with Elden Ring after hearing this. The game has been praised to high heaven, and I'd like for someone to finally rip into its flaws unabashedly without having to merely proclaim every few seconds "no but I love the game

[@100StepProgram]

I would also add those stone caterpillars with the lasers, annoying asf especially when you get invaded in that area

[@jasruss989]

9:33 maybe a hidden colony of elves somewhere bashed a gong hard enough to create a sonic wave powerful enough to stance break torrent and jumpscare the player with how loud it is.

[@aragornarathorn3299]

That's 90% of the DLC enemies lol

[@BigSadSky]

7:42 "You have created something truly rotten." I lost it.

[@Phanthion]

The issue with Fire Knights is their spam, both fireballs from afar and their comically long combos up close that cannot be interrupted with anything less than a high poise-damage weapon, despite being just a bunch of skinny Messmer cosplayers. When all you can do is roll back far enough to escape their combo spam, only to get fireballed in the face, it becomes pretty tedious. They just feel like they require one specific kind of build to be beaten, that being focused around heavier weapons.

[@Z3d195]

@@Phanthion you’re just going about it wrong

[@Phanthion]

@@Z3d195 What's the right way?

[@Z3d195]

@@Phanthion if at long distance just wait for them to cast fire serpent, then roll forward to cover the distance. Once in melee range they’ll try frame trap you( especially the dagger and dual dagger ones), for that you wait for the fire serpent to be cast and as you see them load their attack, roll forward and into their left. This sets you up for a back stab. After that you can experiment which combos to weave attacks in of your own, however you can’t mindlessly mash as they will use hyper armour to dash away. This is one method of dealing with them, there’s countless ways.

[@Killer_Draco]

I went through the DLC with a strength build using Colossal Weapons, and I felt like most of the DLC was designed to rail me. The one exception? Fire Knights. I found myself able to stunlock them to death with jump attacks pretty consistently. It wasn't until after clearing the DLC that I realized other people hated Fire Knights. Just goes to show the value of different experiences.

[@Christian-je7fj]

No.1: Promise consort Radahn.

[@Crabbattles]

This falls in line with what drives me crazy about this dlc overall and not in a good way. Fromsoft wanted to drive up the difficulty as much as possible and while I don’t have a problem with that, I have problem with HOW they decided to do it. It was to give nearly every enemy ridiculous poise with the longest attack chains imaginable. Sure, that does make things difficult but it becomes dull when you realize they applied that formula across the board. It becomes very artificial because this also means your attack opportunities are pretty limited which also prolongs the fights as well. Wait & attack Wait & attack This is just boring when you’re doing it for every enemy and lacks creativity.

[@PrapalyFree]

Ngl I understand why people don’t like the abyssal woods but I didn’t mind it. The castle and the horror aspect made me aspect nothing to be in that area but as stated once you learn about the parry mechanic, they become instantly underwhelming. Would have been cool if they had like 4 of these guys you had to sneak across where nothing, not even parrying, could harm them and then have it end to a boss right before you enter the castle.

[@adog8811]

That and there should’ve been more enemy variation other than just Frenzy goats and rats.

[@PrapalyFree]

@@adog8811 yea a missed opportunity for a lot of new frenzy incants or spells&Items as well as enemies

[@disnark]

They don't like it because it's empty and boring. the big spooky winter lantern clones are scary for like two encounters, then at worst you figure out you can dodge their bullshit and run away easily. If you figure out they can be parried, then their threat just completely drops out the bottom of the barrel and you wonder why anyone bothered trying to hype this zone up as some kind of tense or unsettling experience. But, to be frank, "Empty and boring" is a valid criticism for the overwhelming majority of the DLC that isn't directly on the main story path.

[@fernandofaria2872]

An "enemies that piss me off in SOTE" video should be at least 3 hours long, because its basically all of them

[@baconberries8097]

I hate gravebirds because their asses are just everywhere. It's literally Elden Ring: Shadow of the Gravebird

[@emilywalla8958]

The only reason furnace golems didnt make me kms is because shard spiral absolutely obliterates them LOL. really agreeable list captain.

[@balaclavakid3905]

Lack of enemy variety was one of the biggest disappointments of the dlc. Gravebirds, bloodfiends and shadow old men for miles...

[@Ghorda9]

how is there no enemy variety? pretty much each area has something different

[@balaclavakid3905]

In the dungeons I would agree, but I'm more talking about in the open world. Not a single unique enemy in cerulean coast, charo's hidden grave, stone coffin fissure, the best we get in ruins of rauh are recolored kindreds of rot. It's not even that there weren't enough enemies overall, it's that they're distributed very unevenly. The lampreys are cool, but they're only in the finger ruins which are almost completely empty, so you have no incentive to engage with them. They made three new enemies just for the catacombs and a unique crucible knight varient which you only find one of, but almost the entire south of the map gets nothing. It just feels odd.

[@Ghorda9]

@@balaclavakid3905 stone coffin fissure has the laser rock worms and rock worms that actually attack you for the first time ever, Cerulean coast has the demihuman sages that you only see one other some where else, Ruins of Ruah has the flying scorpians and the devine bird warrior, lampreys you have to engage with thanks to their magic snipers.

[@balaclavakid3905]

@@Ghorda9 I like the rockworms, but I feel like stone coffin fissure should have had a sleep or putrescent enemy, apart from the boss there's only the slimes which were in the base game and previous fromsoft games. If you mean the demi-human queen, there were 3 boss versions in the base game already and at least 1 non boss version which I can remember. The scorpion variants are very similar to each other, but I do like them. The divine bird warriors are variations of the other horned warriors which are found in several places. The best way to deal with the lampreys is to try and run past them to the center of the ruins, because there's almost nothing else there. If they had been in a dungeon or guarding items, you would have a reason to fight them. I don't think the dlc needed a ton more enemies, just more of the lesser used enemies, less of the overused enemies, and then maybe like 1 new enemy for the southern regions which could be recolored to match the flowers, because those areas are painfully boring.

[@Ghorda9]

@@balaclavakid3905 i wasn't talking about the queen, i'm talking about the sage, the yoda imitator

[@honeybadgerzombie1159]

The reason the frenzied elders were so disappointing for me is because the messages in the abyssal woods that foreshadow them were so bleak, and I had already fought so many other huge awful shadow realm creatures, the I expected some titan monster to lurch around a corner and scare me shitless to traverse the place in any meaningful way other than painstakingly crawling my way through every section of tall grass in the play space. And boy would I have done all that, but no they’re just skinny assholes barely taller than me that you either parry or die to. Next time I’ll take the Goliath horror from my nightmares personally

[@fuzzyface4515]

People defending Abyssal Woods are straight up on copium. The zone was cool for maybe 10 minutes max and then it was just annoying. It's gigantic and basically nothing to do there. I'm so glad I spent like 2 hours trying to explore every nook and cranny of Eye-Strain Woods on foot just to find out it has like four items because god forbid I didn't want to just google the zone.

[@Lucifer-hq5pe]

Agree. It looks amazing, but that is the only positive. It's huge, empty, super boring to run through, no Horse available, and the worst - it is required to get to Midra, one of the best Elden Ring bosses...

[@mojotheaverage]

honestly, it could have been cool as just a connecting stretch of land between the catacomb to get there and the manse, just a straight route. Making it an entire open map area was just pointless.

[@EldenRingPlayer-q7c]

An obvious sign that someone looked up guides or spoilers and ruined the fear

[@Lucifer-hq5pe]

@@EldenRingPlayer-q7c What kinda BS are ya spoutin'? A grown person can not get scared by a video game, unless braindead. What exactly is there to be afraid of? It ain't real. And no, i did not look for guides and shit, so i ended up bored due to exploring this huge empty area in hopes of finding something good. The only reason to go there is Midra. Area itself is just a boring walking simulator. The manse should have been bigger and the forest path shorter and more linear instead.

[@EldenRingPlayer-q7c]

@@Lucifer-hq5pe sorry, phrasing. Tension

[@thomasphillips2017]

I felt really good about curse-blades for a long time b/c the one at the start dropped his weapon the very first time I killed him but the ones in the ruins completely ruined it.

[@xerosthemonk]

Missed opportunity for a new weapon made of one of the Goatse Imps' heads. Finally, a way for someone not building for any magic has a way to say "Fuck that guy in particular; over there; with a ball of my own insecurities."

[@HellecticMojo]

I mean, jar cannon already exists.

[@piraka_mistika]

@@HellecticMojo and the new Rabbath's Cannon, which does split physical/magic damage but only requires strength and dex and doesn't scale on stats

[@kellbyb]

6:44 the saving grace on those greatsword knights is that if you have the patience to farm them you can pick up the sword yourself and swing it around just as illogically fast.

[@thomaspraisewater6101]

those frost divine warrior guys...fuck me. i dont understand what my counterplay is when he busts out the sword combo with the blizzard. it does so much fuckin damage and easily procs frostbite, even as you dodge each attack. all you can do is hope to notice it in time and then run away until its over.

[@pouyathedestroya9095]

Use armour with high robustness and use the stalwart horn charm +2 talisman. Helps avoid cold proc

[@aftertone3146]

I ended up sneaking up to him, climbing the tower that is behind him through a path and detonating his asshole with Impenetrable Thorns

[@tiacool7978]

The blizzard alone was taking me out of the fight. I just started running past him. He even chased me into the next area. x_x

[@wheatleythebrick2276]

That enemy was not playtested lol. I don't even need a source for that, it's self evident

[@Lucifer-hq5pe]

Yes. The Blizzard attack from this enemy is utter garbage. Luckily, all other Horned Warriors are super fun to fight, very difficult at first, but extremely fun once learned. I wish there were more of them in different areas, instead of old enemies from base game. I love fighting them. The Blizzard attack sucks super hard though. Storm guy is fun, Lightning guy even more fun, just like the normal versions.

[@TengouX]

The divine warrior with the curved swords can be pretty decently countered by spreadeagling. When you hunker down, I swear like 80% of their attacks fly over you. I just spammed them to death with Burn O Flame while they blendered the air above me and gave me a haircut.

[@FireFox64000000]

One of the things that hurts me most about the nerf for rolling sparks is those damn fire knights. Because that's what I use to deal with those damn sons of bitches.

[@MergonTheShade]

I have a smile on my face and tears in my eyes and I just want to thank you for giving a harsh and cathartic voice to my own very similar feelings about these enemies. This is a worthwhile video.