Elden Ring: Do Players Need To Complete Main Quest Before Entering New Expansion?

Elden Ring was first released in 2022, and it was the first time that Souls series were truly brought from a niche to the masses. Perhaps some people would say that Sekiro is also a work by Hidetaka Miyazaki, and even the game of the year. Doesn’t it count as bringing Souls games to the masses? Let’s be a little more fundamentalist here. Although Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is also full of Souls, the operation method of this game is very different from Souls series, so it is temporarily expelled from Souls series. Elden Ring is undoubtedly a game that inherits the traditional Souls series. From Demon’s Souls to Dark Souls trilogy, our protagonist is a knight wearing Western armor, fighting demons or dragons on a land full of death. In Elden Ring, there doesn’t seem to be much change. So this game has been released for nearly three years, and most of the content has been completely analyzed by strategy on the Internet. So is it still worth playing? My answer is, yes. The Best Soul-like Game After the release of Elden Ring, many Souls-like works have been released one after another, such as Lords of the Fallen, Lies of P, and even Another Crab’s Treasure. These works are all excellent, and some of them are even better than Elden Ring, but they had various problems when they were released. These problems are basically concentrated on the stiff operation feel and unreasonable number of enemies. In addition to the strange rebound feel of Lies of P, another point is that the process is too short. Elden Ring has been excellent in all aspects so far. The only feeling of many players after completing the first round is: I really want to lose my memory and play Elden Ring again. For players, the best Souls series game at present is Elden Ring. Whether it is a new player or an old player, if you want to have the best Souls series game experience, then Elden Ring is his best choice. Graphics From Souls 1 to Souls 3, the picture quality of Souls series games has never been the best, but the art design of Souls Tour has always been the most fantastic. Due to the traditional fragmented narrative method of Souls series, they put all the information of the whole story in every corner of the game. This gives players the intuitive feeling that they seem to have really come to a different world full of heavy history. When the player walks out of Stormveil Castle and rides on a spirit horse to look at Caria Manor Magic Academy hidden in the lake and mist, the shock brought to the player is even greater than when the players of Souls III walked out of the underground cemetery and saw the moonlit Irithyll of the Boreal Valley. And Elden Ring adopts the design of developing a large world map, which allows Hidetaka Miyazaki to let go of his fists and feet. In the game, every time you come to a new area, you will be shocked by the spectacular scenery here. In short, if you are a player who loves scenery, then don’t miss Elden Ring. Combat Tarnished, the protagonist of Elden Ring, has a very powerful performance in Souls series. Because he has knees, he can jump! This has brought many revolutionary changes to Elden Ring in both combat and map design. However, this is a bit lacking compared to other games. As an action game, Tarnished does not have the ability to go to the sky and into the earth like the protagonists of Devil May Cry and God of War series. In fact, Tarnished is more rigid, and often after launching an attack, you have to wait for the enemy’s attack to end before attacking again. Therefore, some players jokingly call this a “round-based” attack. This fighting method is actually quite challenging. Even if the player has defeated the final BOSS, they still have to be vigilant when facing the monsters, otherwise you may be robbed of all your Elden Ring Runes by three dogs that pop out at any time. The battle of Elden Ring is mainly divided into PVP and PVE parts. Most people will only experience the PVE part, which is enough. Because just playing PVE content is enough for you to play for a long time. First of all, Elden Ring has the most content in all soul series, which is the advantage of the open world. You can spend a whole week in Elden Ring, and you may still not be able to pass it. Secondly, after you clear Elden Ring, you have new weapons and new equipment. Don’t you want to go back and take revenge on those elite monsters and bosses who bullied you? Then start the second round. Even if you are an old player, after putting down Elden Ring, you still want to take it back and play it again. Maybe try a new weapon, or change to a new style of playing. Suitable For Playing With Friends The most important thing about playing games is happiness, and Elden Ring can bring happiness to people, whether it is played alone or online. Elden Ring has an online mode. You can explore the castle or dungeon with your friends. If you are an old player, you can get the satisfaction of being a sun knight. If you are a new player, you can feel the joy of growth by getting runes to upgrade or getting new equipment during the game. If you are looking for a game to play with friends, then in addition to It Takes Two, you can also try Elden Ring.  If you are worried that Elden Ring is too difficult, you might as well participate in the giveaway of iGMeet Discord to get some runes to make your pioneering journey easier. Elden Ring will still be relevant in 2025, and it deserves to be the Game of the Year in 2022. It also received a DLC in 2024, which added a lot of new content, such as spells, equipment, and even new types of weapons. Perhaps the only person who can beat Hidetaka Miyazaki is himself. Until his new game is released, Elden Ring will always be the most fun Soul-like game.

In Elden Ring’s most successful Shadow of the Erdtree DLC to date, there are dozens of new bosses. Some of them require you to find them with great effort, but some will quietly meet your challenge there, and Blackgaol Knight Boss is one of them. Although Blackgaol Knight Boss is about the same size as Tarnished, it is difficult to defeat it. You need to develop some combat strategies and learn some combat skills before the battle. In addition, the rewards, for example, Greatsword of Solitude you get after defeating Blackgaol Knight Boss are also very generous, which is worth your time. This guide will introduce you to the various moves you will encounter when fighting Blackgaol Knight Boss and its weaknesses, so that you can develop corresponding strategies for it. Without further ado, bring your weapons and come with me! How To Find Blackgaol Knight Boss? Blackgaol Knight Boss is located in Western Nameless Mausoleum in the game. You need to go through the area northwest of your spawn point in the DLC, where there are Gravebird-infested and gravestone-ridden. Alternatively, you can go southwest of Three-Path Cross site of Grace and find a tunnel near the Tower Settlement Belurat. By riding your Torrent here, you can greatly increase your exploration speed. Eventually you will reach the westernmost entrance of Mausoleum surrounded by cliffs. Once you enter, you will encounter a staircase leading to the bottom, and at the end of the stairs is the door to the arena where you fight the Blackgaol Knight Boss. Once you step in, the battle begins. If you are unfortunate enough to die during the battle, you will not respawn at the original Site of Grace, but at the entrance to the arena. When you’re ready, you can re-enter the arena.  But please note that if you fail the battle, you will not be rewarded with Elden Ring Runes. So before you challenge again, please make your build more powerful. The most important thing is survivability and damage ability. Pre-Battle Preparation With the location of Blackgaol Knight Boss solved, now you need to understand its weaknesses so that you can strengthen them. First, the armor of Blackgaol Knight Boss is very thick, so when choosing a build, you can directly abandon those that rely on melee attacks and choose some that rely on sorcery and incantations. In addition, Blackgaol Knight Boss has a very high resistance to Bleed, Frostbite, or Scarlet Rot, so when choosing weapons, you should avoid damage from these elements. This enemy has no resistance to Magic and Lightning damage, so when choosing a class, you can choose those Sorcerers and Incantation-wielders. In addition, if you don’t want to change builds or classes frequently, you can also directly use spells like Greatblade Phalanx, which can also cause a lot of magic damage to Blackgaol Knight Boss. Blackgaol Knight Boss’s Moves Now you need to know what moves Blackgaol Knight Boss will use, and how to counter them during the fight. These counter-attack strategies are just for reference, and it’s totally fine if you try to find a strategy that suits your own operation habits. Greatsword Attacks Blackgaol Knight Boss will attack you with its Greatsword, and each swing will have a four-hit animation. But whether it is used with one hand or two hands, you can jump to dodge it first, and then use a heavy attack on it. This will effectively prevent Blackgaol Knight from using a combination of attacks on you. If you fail to prevent it, you can hide in a corner for a while and attack again when you have a free time. Storm Blast And Follow-Up After swinging Greatsword, Blackgaol Knight Boss will raise it and then fire a wave of physical damage forward, and finally it will quickly dash forward and attack you. What you need to do is to dodge its physical attack wave first, and then retreat or dodge its sprint continuously. Here you need to remind you that the final sprint attack of Blackgaol Knight Boss will not stop because of your dodge, because it can also be cast at a long distance. So inevitably, you will be injured in this move, and you may need to prepare some healing flasks for emergency use. Crossbow Barrage Besides Greatsword, Blackgaol Knight Boss will also use a crossbow to fight you. It will continue to shoot crossbows at you, and the frequency and speed of the shooting will become faster and faster over time. When you are at a medium or long distance from it, you can move along the side of the arena. Don’t roll or dodge, because the moment you stand up, you are likely to be hit by the crossbow and suffer a lot of damage. Dash Slash When Blackgaol Knight Boss uses a sword with both hands, it will also dash forward and launch a slash after attacking you several times. At this time, you can dodge to ensure your safety. Battle Strategy The above are just the counterattacks you need to do in front of a certain move. But before the battle, your battle strategy is also very important. For example, when Blackgaol Knight Boss is firing and reloading crossbows, it is very vulnerable, so you can attack it immediately at some medium distance. Slowly walk to the boss at medium and long distances to avoid all the fast-firing crossbows. But it should be noted here that the avoidance mentioned here is walking forward, not just walking to the side, because this will make you fall into the barrage when you stand up. Blackgaol Knight boss often attacks the player with weapon skills such as Blasphemous Blade, which will launch a wave of physical damage when it lowers Greatsword. It will always follow up with a charge, so be careful to avoid physical explosions and close-range attacks. If you have trouble with any boss battle in the game, you can always go out and explore other areas to become stronger, and then come back and try again. This is the most effective strategy to defeat any boss in the game. Blackgaol Knight Boss Rewards After you successfully defeat Blackgaol Knight Boss in Western Nameless Mausoleum using the right strategy, you can get Greatsword of Solitude and Blackgaol Knight armor set. The armor set is a very defensive and stylish armor set. Greatsword of Solitude mentioned in the title is one of the most powerful weapons in the DLC. You can use it to replicate Blackgaol Knight Boss’s slam and charge combo in battles with other enemies. In addition, Ash of War of Greatsword of Solitude is also very powerful, which can shoot a beam of physical damage forward. If operated properly, this beam is unavoidable for most enemies and will cause a lot of damage to them. The above are some strategies and tips for defeating Blackgaol Knight Boss in Elden Ring DLC ​​and obtaining Greatsword of Solitude. I hope this guide helps you overcome it. If you have questions about the build in Elden Ring, you are welcome to ask questions in iGMeet Discord. You will also have the opportunity to get some free runes on it. I wish you a happy game!

While Elden Ring isn’t really a game that allows for full player expression and creativity, it does allow you to customize your builds to your liking, giving you a great deal of freedom. The game world and boss fights may play out in much the same way, but you can use different play styles and builds to handle different situations. There are a lot of options for a variety of playability in this game. After the release of Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, things got even better, as the new DLC provides players with a ton of new weapons and amulets that work perfectly with items in the base game, allowing you to achieve extraordinary builds. But if you’ve already tried a lot of ordinary builds, check out this guide to get some new build ideas. It should be noted that these builds may only be suitable for the DLC at the moment, and we will continue to follow up on the builds in the base game later! Perfumer Build Perfumer Build seems to have been nerfed in the latest patch, but this build based on the new DLC can easily reduce the health of the boss. In this build, you can combine the fully upgraded Lightning Perfume Bottle and Rolling Sparks Ash of War to give you huge lightning damage. And add Lightning Shrouding Cracked Tear and Lightning Scorpion Charm to deal even more damage to enemies! Perfumer Build is actually an Arcane spellcaster build, so you don’t need to invest in intelligence and arcane here. In addition, the weapons based on this build do not rely on Ash of War or Spells, so you don’t need a lot of FP. Rakshasa Bleed Build If you want to face the final boss of the DLC and be able to defeat it easily, then you can definitely try Rakshasa Bleed Build. This is a high risk but high reward build that relies heavily on your high mobility. Your rewards will be a large number of Elden Ring Runes and special weapons and armor. In this build, you can use Rakshsha’s Set and Bloodsucking Cracked Tear, trading lower defense for more damage. Secondly, Rakshaha’s Great Katana will also use its own bleed build up to help you end the battle quickly. In combat, if you are used to ranged attacks, you may not be suitable for this build, but if you enjoy the excitement of close combat, you will definitely like Rakshasa Bleed Build. Bloodfiend Bonk Stick Build Next up is a bleed build, and even if you’ve tried many bleed options, Bloodfiend Bonk Stick Build will definitely give you a fresh feel. In this build, Bloodfiend’s Arm is a weapon that can provide you with huge physical damage, and it also bursts out arcane-driven bleed damage when charging attacks. In addition, you equip Two-Handed Sword Talisman and Axe Talisman, plus Viridian Hidden Tear, and you can participate in almost every battle in DLC. As the battle progresses, your bleed effects will also begin, and the enemy’s health will be reduced unknowingly. Ancient Meteoric Build If you use this build during Ruined Forge Starfall Past, it is equivalent to finding a very powerful weapon in the entire DLC. This not only can cause a lot of damage, but it can also extend to your strength and arcane attributes. In addition to this, you can use Solitude Set and Verdigis Discus to give you a little more defense and make you more tanky. Secondly, you can also use White Light Charge Ash of War to give yourself the icing on the cake, which is very useful when you face large enemies. Backhand Blade Dex Build Although you need to start searching for Scorched Ruins as soon as you enter the DLC. Backhand Blade in this area may not look so outstanding, but if you dare to take the risk, you will find that Ash of War of this weapon-Blind Spot, which makes Backhand Blade Dex Build a very interesting build. It should be reminded that in order to avoid excessive use of Blind Spot and over-consume your own stamina, you can use Greenburst Tear or Two-Headed Turtle Talisman to protect your own health. You can also apply some blood fat on the weapon to increase these weapons, and you will have a very fast-paced but smooth build that makes it impossible for the enemy to catch you. Iron Dancer Build Iron Dancer Build is somewhat similar to Backhand Blade Build, in that both builds are meant to hit as many enemies as possible. Unlike Backhand Blade Build, however, this build relies more heavily on the strength and defense provided by Ironjar Aromatic. It may make you heavier overall when you equip these consumables, but you’ll have a delicate balance. You don’t have to worry about your movement speed, though, because Ash of War Unending Dance of this weapon lets you dish out rapid, continuous damage to your enemies. Often you’re only able to whittle down their health bit by bit before they can do the same to you. Sure, it removes any nuance or challenge from combat, but there’s no denying that it’s a satisfying, cathartic structure, save for the novelty of melting away an enemy’s health bar. After reading this guide, open the game and enter the DLC to try out some of these new builds! I believe it will definitely give you a surprise, and I wish you a happy exploration!

Recently, a lot of Elden Ring fans were invited to Paris for a preview of Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. How can you preview an expansion for what is already one of the largest and most flexible games ever? When what players like and dislike is largely dependent on specific choices in terms of builds, an expansion as massive as Shadow of the Erdtree, coming two years after Elden Ring, only makes things more complicated and impossible to describe with any degree of generality. Here, we’ll analyze some reports of players’ preview experiences and discuss some of the weapon arts, environments, bosses and difficulty that will be added to the expansion! Before Entering First, I have to say that it feels almost impossible to effectively preview Shadow of the Erdtree. I’d wager that a large portion of even its most devoted fanbase has yet to personally experience everything that Lands Between has to offer. For example, the parts of the game that people have experienced, which areas they enjoyed, and what problems they may have had in the base game all depend on countless personal choices made in terms of highly specific builds. Now, with Shadow of the Erdtree coming on June 21, 2024, we’ve suddenly expanded that initial dilemma: more zones, tougher bosses, more gear to experiment with, and more variables by which your own experience will subtly change. As a result, you might feel that your personal experience is harder to convey to an audience with any real generalizability. New Content Available For Preview Anyway, let’s take a look at what’s available in Shadow of the Erdtree preview event. We have three classes to choose from: Warrior, Knight, and Sorcerer, and each class is set to level 150. The team says this is just an arbitrary number they settled on for the preview, and that you can access the class after defeating Radahn and Mohg, with different stats prioritized differently for different classes. We have access to two large, separate areas of the huge new world that Erdtree offers: Castle Ensis and Belurat Castle Settlement, and have three hours to do and see what we can. However, this simplified campaign structure does nothing to prepare players for what’s coming. Add to that the inherent weirdness of any preview, you’re in a strange place, aware that you’re being watched. The biggest difficulty is how to begin to convey what actually happened in that narrow preview window. So this preview won’t be a completely comprehensive analysis of everything in the expansion, just an accurate recollection of what players experienced and were impressed by. Still, there’s so much to dig into here! DLC Is Difficult I think one of the first things you notice when jumping into a DLC is that it’s going to be hard for most players. Almost every player in Early Access booted up Elden Ring in the first few days, either to get to DLC access points or just to brush up on the control mechanics. If you haven’t already, I recommend doing so to regain muscle memory of Elden Ring’s unique and sometimes unforgiving pace. It’s also worth stocking up on some Elden Ring Runes and consumables in advance. As we wandered across this vast new plane, it was hard not to be struck by the scenery before us. Ephemeral Graves dotted the landscape, stretching as far as you could see, and the light from the cracks in Erdtree illuminated it. A far cry from the alluring golden glow of the original game, a dreamlike, beautiful, and intimidating picture. But be careful, because just when you’re enjoying all this, an enemy suddenly appears from nowhere and knocks us down with a single fierce attack. Players need to bravely fight this new opponent, but there are dangers all around, and some people were killed before they even reached the two custom areas we were allowed to explore. In short, from the beginning, Shadow of the Erdtree is an experience that requires constant vigilance. The already occasionally unbearable brutality of its base game is increased tenfold, and this brutality has not really weakened in the three-hour preview. Ordinary enemies will increase their own strength and attack you in groups, and the most insignificant enemies will usually punish you quickly because you underestimated them. Seriously, although you can enter DLC after defeating the two must-kill bosses, if you haven’t raised the vigor level to a reasonable level, you’re dying here. Even though Warrior class I’ve been using for most of this has been upgraded to level 55, the highest of all the available builds, it’s still tough. And since we’re heading into the full version of New Game+, things will inevitably get more challenging. New Weapon And Skill Selection Tougher than any of the enemies, however, is the choice paralysis I felt for a while during the preview. While most spells are obviously limited to Sorcerer, there are a number of new weapons for any build to try, including a variety of Axes, Spears and Swords, as well as a host of weapons that are becoming popular favorites in the form of new Martial Art skills. If used correctly, they can quickly wear down an enemy’s stance. Beyond that, the new combat options, such as the wealth of new weapon arts, make me feel like any of them could become a new favorite if we had more time to practice. But unfortunately, we had to look at the class requirements of the available content as much as possible before I could thoroughly master all of this stuff. Given the challenges of the above content, this strategy requires honing in on the builds that work for the time being. For me, that would come in the form of Backhand Blade, as this weapon seems to be the most satisfying choice between damage output, range, and reach, and its associated weapon art, Blind Spot, further enhances this ability. Plenty Of Areas To Explore If you only have three hours to see what’s on offer in DLC, efficiency is important, as the two areas we were allowed into look at least as densely populated as some of the larger castle areas in the base game. Castle Ensis, for example, seems to be the more difficult of the two castles, and it reminded me of Raya Lucaria Academy, with its emphasis on Sorcerers and Magic. The more densely populated Belurat Castle reminded me of the decay and decay of Leyndell. You’ll be carefully examining every visible nook and cranny before moving on, as you can guarantee there’s something waiting to pounce on you compared to the base game. Why The New Expansion Is Worth The Wait? If there’s anything exciting about this preview, it’s not necessarily any single design element, enemy, or gear, but the fact that in a few weeks we’ll suddenly have all new Elden Ring to decipher, a whole new world full of secrets waiting to be uncovered. FromSoftware really seems to have used the two years since the base game’s release to make this happen. While players have three hours to explore two enormous areas of this world, they definitely haven’t seen everything these two areas have to offer. By the end of the preview, you’ll realize that these two areas are just a tiny dot on the much larger map of this expansion. There’s so much more that you can’t even imagine, which is incredibly exciting. What do you think of this new expansion? Are there any other things you’ve discovered that were surprising? Anyway, let’s look forward to Shadow of the Erdtree in a few weeks!