Spoilers for the Frenzied Flame ending and the possible identity of the Gloam-Eyed Queen.
The side room in the foyer of the Auriza hero's grave contains basilisks, who appear to be guarding the Golden Epitaph and likely killed the person whose corpse it's found on. Godwyn's corpse has a number of basilisk traits, which along with the basilisks' deathblight makes me think they have alliegance with him. So, by guarding the Epitaph they could be trying to prevent the true death of their master that Miquella wants to grant him. Or, since the basilisks are kind of like mini-Godwyns, this scene could be read as Godwyn trying to cling to what remains of his life.
The Auriza hero's grave contains torches which have the same fundamental design as the candelabras in upper Leyndell.
One of the Leyndell candelabras can be seen in the back corner.
I believe the Auriza hero's grave is the only location where this design actually contains fire, because as I talked about in an older post, the candelabras in Leyndell contain artificial flame. The fake candles were probably devised as a way to bypass the stigma associated with fire, and likewise reflect Morgott's hatred of the smoldering flame of ambition.
Curiously, all of the lit torches in the Auriza's hero's grave, despite containing real flame, also have the same artificial fire as Leyndell's candelabras. The fake fire is fairly conspicuous, but if you position the camera close enough, the real flame will disappear and you'll see the basic structure of the torch underneath, with just the artificial flame.
I find it funny that FromSoft's apparent laziness with its assets is reflected by the in-game, canonical laziness of whoever constructed the tomb.
I argued in the aforementioned post that the post caps in upper Leyndell symbolize the grafting of the Erdtree onto the Crucible. In a later submission that was also about these post caps, I proposed that the caps also represented urns, thereby subverting the orthodox intentions of Leyndell's architects (because urns contain ash, i.e. a burnt tree). I believe something similar could be going on with the rot sigil hidden in the door to the Erdtree, which was pointed out by ImportantDebateM8. In both these cases, I believe the architecture contains omens of the Erdtree's eventual destruction.
This could also be true of the Auriza/Leyndell torch designs. To me, the six prongs resemble the four triangular protrusions of the Crucible in the Frenzied Flame ending. Both flare out at similar angles, giving the impression that the pressure of the rising flame bent them outwards. I suppose if this connection was intentional, the number of protrusions should match. However, I'd also like to note that these torches in the Auriza hero's grave have a unique golden hue that isn't found in any other torches: it's a more yellowish flame, which sort of resembles the yellow of Frenzy. With this is mind, the Crucible in the Frenzied Flame ending could be compared to a torch.
Sidenote: I think this scene is referencing Mordor from The Lord of the Rings. The protrusions of the Crucible look like the spikes on Barad-dûr, which is the tower the eye of Sauron sits upon.
Six-pointed shapes, as argued by Sinister Stromboli in his stars video, are often associated with the Blood Star or Crucible. So even though the number of protrusions doesn't match, the six-pronged torches could still be symbolizing the Crucible in this way. More evidence is that the bosses of the Auriza hero's grave are two Crucible knights. Along with this, the grave is narratively associated with Godwyn, who in taking on his scaled merman form, becomes something like an Omen—a being who is close to the Crucible. So the torches could be symbolizing Godwyn's dual status as one who is "golden", but also tied to the Crucible. Note that the Crucible talismans, including the Crucible scale talisman, are all found near Omens or Omen killers; and as I'll mention again shortly, the Crucible feather talisman is found in the Auriza hero's grave.
Finally, one could make the silly but potentially valid argument that by containing both artificial and actual fire, the torches exhibit the convergent properties of the Crucible. If the Crucible association is intentional, this would be a third example of cryptic sacrilegious imagery in Leyndell.
The most likely alternative to the Crucible theory is that each segment of gold and its spikes is meant to resemble a leaf—perhaps a maple leaf. This would make sense for Leyndell and its surroundings, since Altus is always autumn, which is a season associated with maple leaves in the West. (Then again, I can't find any maple trees in Altus.) If the torches and candelabras are meant to be leaves, the result would be "gold leaf", which is the term for thin sheets of gold.
As mentioned, the Crucible feather talisman is found in the Auriza hero's grave. The user cheese_dogg wrote a great post ("Odd Leaves, Chimeric Plants, and Some Connections to the Crucible") showing how the leaves growing from the vines by the Erdtree Sanctuary, as well as some of the leaves in Deeproot Depths, appear to have the same shape as the Crucible feather talisman. I think this could explain why the talisman is found here, since the grave is right outside Leyndell and directly above Deeproot Depths.
another example of \"gold leaf\"
To the right of Godwyn's corpse is a tree with particularly bright golden leaves. There are other leaves with this color in Deeproot, but not in the same area near the Nameless Eternal City. Using the telescope, I was able to determine that many of these leaves are the same type found on the Leyndell vine-trees. Presuming this, and that the feather theory is correct, the leaves on this tree must also be the feather type, and match the shape of the Crucible feather talisman. (Personally I think it would have made more sense to put the Crucible scale talisman in the Auriza hero's grave instead, since Godwyn has scales, but I digress.)
Within the Auriza hero's grave is a sculpture of a person holding a golden spear. In front of the statue is a basilisk. This statue is also found throughout the Altus Plateu, in Leyndell, and at the Grand Lifts.
basilisk and the statue holding a spear
Some have theorized the figure is Marika, but the placement of the statue in this hero's grave leads me to think it could be Miquella or Godwyn—with the latter being more likely. Miquella uses gold needles, and like the golden spear held by the statue, the Golden Epitaph—also found near basilisks—has been theorized to be a kind of gold needle. As confirmation, the Golden Epitaph does in fact have gold needles attached to its hilt. On the other hand, Miquella's (St. Trina's) adult form is said to be unnerving, which this depiction is not.
I think it's possible Miquella journeyed through the Auriza hero's grave, potentially lending credence to this interpretation. First, as mentioned, the Golden Epitaph is here. To add to this, the roots we find in this location are likely connected directly to Godwyn's corpse, because the minor erdtree nearby has been shown to be the same tree that Godwyn's corpse is grafted into in Deeproot Depths. The roots are particularly concentrated in the boss room, as is typical for the catacombs. And the boss rooms of both the Auriza hero's grave and side tomb are "aimed" at the minor erdtree.
The skull marker is placed right over the boss room of the Auriza side tomb, and the sword is over the boss room of the Auriza hero's grave.
The reason this is important is that Miquella's needles might be usable on the tree's roots. The sources I'm finding on copper nails (which the gold needles were based on) say they should be hammered into the base of the tree, but it's possible they could be effective on the roots as well. So if Miquella didn't have access to Godwyn's corpse in Deeproot Depths, he might have used the Auriza hero's grave to get closer to it. If true, it would make sense for the figure holding the golden spear (needle) to be Miquella.
Then again, the true base of the tree is in fact in Deeproot Depths, so if the nail technique requires access to the base, this would be ineffective—something which, as the most intelligent demigod, Miquella would probably know.
The theory that the figure is Godwyn can be put more succinctly: the basilisk seems to be showing reverence to the statue—and as stated earlier, the basilisks might view Godwyn as their lord. Plus, the figure's wavy hair kind of looks like the hair of the figure hugging Malenia and Miquella in the statue at the Haligtree, which, based on analysis of the game's cut content, many have concluded to be Godwyn. If the figure holding the spear is Godwyn, perhaps this is where Miquella got the idea of the gold needles from. There might also be a connection with Vyke the Dragon Spear, since like Godwyn, Vyke was involved in the Dragon Cult.
Returning to the possibility that the figure is Marika, I could understand this being the case if the scene is meant to get us to associate Marika with death. Again, the basilisk seems to be facing the statue reverentially, and basilisks are creatures linked with death. The intention behind this arrangement might be to hint at a darker side to Marika—who, based on a variety of evidence, could very well be the Gloam-Eyed Queen. Recall that gloam is dusk, and Godwyn's ending is called the "Age of the Duskborn".
At this point I'll start to talk more about the Auriza side tomb.
The side tomb has blue torch flames, while the Auriza hero's grave has golden flames. Thus, the colors of the two Auriza graves are blue and gold, which are colors associated with the Golden Lineage, Farum, Farum Azula, and the Stormveil-associated churches (e.g. Castle Sol) which have primarily blue and gold stained glass windows. These two colors also predominate some of the stained glass in Raya Lucaria, which could represent the union of Radagon (gold) with Rennala (blue).
blue torches in the Auriza side tomb
This is likely what the word 'Auriza' refers to. 'Au' is the chemical abbreviation for gold, and is included in words like 'auric' (which means "golden") and 'Albinauric'. The letters 'za' are like an abbreviation of 'Azula', which refers to azure, or blue. Furthermore, since 'Auriza' starts with the letter 'a' and has three syllables, it sounds a lot like 'Azula'. If this interpretation is right, 'Auriza' would mean "blue and gold".
The Auriza side tomb is the only catacombs dungeon or hero's grave I know of that has pots and jars in its walls. This is probably because it is one of two dungeons, along with the Giant-Conquering hero's grave, that contains the soldjar enemies (the mini-warrior jars). The Giant-Conquering hero's grave has the same alcoves in the walls as the Auriza side tomb, but these alcoves do not contain pottery. Perhaps the implication is that the alcoves were inhabited by the soldjars, before they climbed down and started guarding the hero's grave.
jars in the Auriza side tomb
The combination of the pots in the walls and the soldjars confirms to me the idea that M00n_Slippers had, of the warrior jars being like urns. The placement of the pots in the side tomb look a lot like urns, largely because of the environmental context.
The unique placement of pottery in the Auriza side tomb, along with the soldjars, is interesting because the minor erdtree above Godwyn's corpse is one of the few that is not surrounded by cracked warrior jars. The tree has no leaves, but is distinct from the other two leafless minor erdtrees in the Mountaintops and Consecrated Snowfield. Quelaag posited that the tree's sickliness is why it's not guarded by an Erdtree avatar, and why it's not being cultivated with warrior jars.
Yet, despite this, there are indeed warrior jars and pots in the walls of the Auriza side tomb, which again is right next to and aimed at Godwyn's minor erdtree. The idea I had is that the tree might still be getting fed by the warrior jars and urns from below. Some evidence against this is that the alcoves and roots are far removed from each other, and that the jars in these alcoves are empty.
Part of my reasoning for this theory is that Godwyn's minor erdtree is not simply dead—it is more specifically living in death. The tree is the same one that Godwyn's corpse is grafted into in Deeproot Depths. So if the tree is neither dead nor alive, it would kind of make sense for the tree to still be half-fed by warrior jars, surreptitiously. This even aligns with how the true nature of the minor erdtree—the fact that it's half-alive—is only made apparent when looking underground at Godwyn's corpse.
Actually, the base of the aboveground part of the tree does have ivy growing on it. Similarly, there are a few leaves on the lower half of the aboveground part. This could be communicating the same idea: that the lower part of the tree is alive, while the top is dead. Now that I think about it, this is the same pattern manifested by the Erdtree itself. The upper part of the Erdtree is dead, while the lower part still lives.
You can see the ivy and small clusters of leaves on the lower part of the tree, while the top part has none.
A final thought: I think it's interesting how the invented words used to express color in Elden Ring, such as 'yelough', 'rold', and 'auriza', are kind of like Elden Ring's great runes. Runes are language, and all of the great runes are physically imbued with a unique colotint, ranging from red to gold. Similarly, the letters used to construct the color-linked words above could be compared to runes, since letters are also linguistic symbols. In this way, the word 'yelough' could be described or visualized as a collection of yellow runes; 'auriza' as a collection of blue and gold runes, and so on.
Links and references:
-Thumbnail: https://imgur.com/a/bOHxoFj
-ImportantDebateM8's post on the rot sigil: "Massive in-game DLC hint on Erdtree 'door' - The Haligtree of Rot!"
-cheese_dogg's post on leaves: "Odd Leaves, Chimeric Plants, and Some Connections to the Crucible"
-Sinister Stromboli's video: "Elden Ring Symbology - Stars"
-My post on Leyndell's fake candles: "Counter-fire symbolism in Leyndell: fake candles and torch snuffers"
-Post on Leyndell's post caps and urns: "Cross-symbolism between urns and Leyndell's bannisters, and a look at other post cap designs"

Honestly I've memorized Radagon's moveset but between bad rng and the monotony of having to fight him again and again when the Elden Best cheeses me to death I can't be bothered to best this solo...what a shitty final boss.

This is more or less a “connect the dots” of Melina’s Swiss cheese ass lore, breaking up into 4 sections, disgusting what I know and what is yet to be answered, the 4 sections being, Melina’s connection to Marika and the Demi god family, Melina’s connection to the frenzied flame, what the Gloam eyed queen might be/is Melina the gloam eyes queen, and the final section will be a jigsaw puzzle esque attempt to put all non contradictory confirmed statements aswell as a Healthy amount of guesswork, to create a theory surrounding just what the fuck is going on with Melina.
Right away, almost as soon as we meet her she establishes a connection to her “mother” inside the Erd Tree, several other dialog statements heavily imply that Marika is her mother, in game dialog files confirm this by having her labeled as “the daughter of Marika” So it’s not hard to claim that she is the daughter if Marika. The the question really is who is her father? There are really only 2 answers to this question, and it’s very easy to rule out Godfrey, leaving Radagon as the only answer that we could guess at, it seems to make sense, her red hair, amber eyes and name that begins with M all seem to point to her direct sibling ship to Melenia and Miquella, I speculate that she is the youngest of the demigods, possibly born post Shattering. Another possible answer to her origins helps to explain her almost mirrored identity to that of Ranni, Ranni was once red haired and fair skinned like her siblings before casting out her physical form, the reason why Ranni and Melina may look identical could be that Marika repurposed her body to use as a host for a soul, creating a new “daughter” from her own daughters body, this could help explain a few things, and would aid in any timeline problems with her conception and birth.
Next we go to the more in the dark parts of her lore, her purpose that she was given in the Erd tree by her mother, seems to be to stop the spread of madness and the frenzied flame, but why? Perhaps Marika knew of the threat sooner than previously thought, and raised a child that could stop the spread, but it doesn’t seem to be an endless goal as she rather easily sacrifices her life to the burning of the Erd tree, so her goal is somehow tied to the claiming of the elden ring, as she wouldn’t sacrifice herself if she didn’t think that we the player could claim the throne.
So the topic of “the gloam eyed queen” is a iffy one, things we know about her are, she’s most likely numen, she is a queen or god of the black flame in a similar way that how Marika is the queen of the greater will, she led/was the ruler of the Godskin cult, she was beaten and/or killed by Maliketh the black blade in some form of war or conflict. The question arise when Melina opens her closed eye after we do the frenzied flame, her eye looks cloudy… gloomy even, this has led people to speculate that she is somehow the Gloam eyed queen, reborn or otherwise reincarnated, I say reborn because there is almost 100% no way that she could be the same Gloam eyed queen that lead the godskins all the way back in th ancient times. It’s possible that the Gloam eyed queen was in some way at odds with fhe frenzied flame, and that she was reborn via Marika purposefully so that she could combat the flame and make sure that it doesn’t get control of the lands between.
So to recap:
Melina is: -the daughter of Marika -a Demi god -probably the Gloam eyed queen -opposed to the frenzied flame
This being said, let’s make some shit up shall we?
Weeks or months prior to the shattering, Marika is warned or otherwise made aware that fhe 3 fingers are back on their bullshit, and are posing a potential threat to the lands between, Marika begins planning to have a 3rd child, one that she could empower and send on a mission to both choose a worthy Elden lord and keep that chosen one away from the frenzied flame. After the night of black knives and the shattering, Marika flees inside the Erd tree to give birth to her child, the Erd tree having the property to reclaim dead souls, lends the soul of the Gloam eyed queen, the queen of the god skins has a long standing conflict with the frenzied flame, she is reborn as Marika’s daughter and is sent away with a subconscious goal, but has her memories somehow wiped so she can be without outside biases when choosing a new potential lord, she either willingly sacrifices her life to aid the Tarnished, or becomes antagonistic to the tarnished depending on if they accept the 3 fingers and the frenzied flame.

[Xbox] I have beaten ALL other bosses but radagon and Elden beast are too much. I’m over it and finally just want the achievement.
I’m RL1 No upgrades. I’m still on 1.8.01 and I need to know if there is a way to cheese this man. I’ve tried the “move swap deload” but the MS was patched ig. I’ve already tried 250+ times.
Anyways if anyone really wants to help. I’ll be online on this Sunday if that’s a good time if you want to try and co-op

It feels amazing doing stuff like this and then remember the struggle it was to kill him the first time.

1. Started as a wretch
2. Got Torrent
3. Ran to the river to get invaded and get Reduvia (with Yura's help you can basically AFK here)
4. Picked a Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot close by
5. Ran to Caelid
6. Killed Greyoll with Reduvia + the Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot (~100k runes)
7. Dumped everything into INT
8. Picked Radagon's Soreseal + Meteorite Staff + Rock Sling
9. Got a few golden seeds and sacred tears along the way and allocated all my flasks to FP
10. Then took the teleporter at the bridge of Redmane Castle and ran straight to fight him
11. Summoned all the npcs I could and just rock slinged him from a distance while on torrent
12. Killed him first try, even broke his instance haha.

And to think how I tried to cheese him the first time I played by using Rotten Breath and running away, trying to climb the hill to the west of the arena so he won't reach me (which didn't work btw).
And honestly, I think Radahn is a gimmick boss. It's the only battle that you can summon multiple NPCs and if you're patient enough, they will kill him for you.
And I think you can still beat him with easy without even leveling up like I did (just enough so you can use the staff + rock sling).
If fact, Meteoric Staff + Rock Sling got to be one the most OP stuff in the early game, and it's just there for you to pick it up out in the open, no need to kill anything. It just transforms the game into absolute easy mode, I think it's even better than the sword of night and flames!

Everything up to the point where you beat Morgott in this game, is a 10/10. Leyndell, Altus Plateau, Liurnia, Limgrave. All exceptional areas with a great variety of enemies that are not only difficult but very, very fair.
You ride into the Forbidden Lands for the first time, and you get that wow factor again. Riding that thin bridge into the Mountaintops was one of the best moments of the game. I wonder what new enemies could be here?
NONE. Everything is reused and scaled up to the point of it being unfun to play. And the Fire Giant fucking sucks too.
Crumbling Farum Azula is another beautiful, yet flawed area. More reused enemies that are so much stronger than you, although this area was probably the best of the endgame, since the enemies are a little, little fair and Maliketh is the best boss in the game. The Godskin Duo is ass though and the run between graces are very bad sometimes.
Leyndell, Ashen Capital is unfathomably bad, we dont even get a new area to explore after CFA because everything is off limits and covered in ash. So there is no exploration but only 4 bosses consecutively (!). Sir Gideon is pathetic, Godfrey is very cool but has a bad fight, Radagon is decent but there was NO reason for him and Elden Beast to come back to back. Dissapointment.
Might cheese the endgame, im not having fun anymore and why play then? Its really sad to see because the start of the game to Morgott is a 9-10/10, but the endgame is a 4-5/10.

Well, I made it to the final boss. Aside from that, all I have left is Malenia (for trophy bosses at least) and I've been stuck on her for like 2-3 days now. I mainly focused on leveling strength in the beginning but slowly transitioned to a mage build. But I kind of just upgraded what I felt that I needed at that point in time. Im level 150 now, and here's what my stats are currently:
Vigor 42, Mind 30, Endurance 16, Strength 35, Dex 18, Intel 73 (normally -5 but Im using one of those medallions to give +5), Faith 12, Arc 8
Im also using the Crystal Sword +10, Carian Knight Shield +1, and the [EDIT: Carian Regal Scepter +7]. My spells are Rock Sling, Loretta's Mastery, Ranni's Darkmoon, Comet Azur and Unseen Form. I have 9 healing flasks and 3 magic ones. My Mimic Tear is +10.
I am having a hell of a time with this. The Mimic does seem to do enough damage and distract her enough to warrant summoning it. I've been summoning it right away, then using my mixed potion with 1/2 health replenish and a boost in magic damage. Then I (carefully) spam Rock Sling and dodge when needed or heal etc. This doesnt really seem to be cutting it anymore mostly because I run out of magic after a few mins in phase 2 and she usually ends up taking out the Mimic at this point. . The water dance attack she does is pretty hard to dodge but I am getting the hang of it slowly. Where I really have trouble is phase 2. After finally learning how to dodge that first dive flower attack, the best Ive done is gotten her to slightly past half health in phase 2. The Mimic is usually still alive then but at about half health or a little more. I also feel like casting spells is still kinda slow, even with the Radagon Icon but maybe thats just how this game is.
I made it this far without another person (I dont have PS +) or respeccing, and I really dont wanna pay $10 just to call someone to help beat this one boss. I know I can do this, I've clearly gotten better at it if I can get her to half health in her second phase now, but I feel like Ive hit a wall. Is it worth respeccing or should I just use a different weapon, staff, spell or something else? Coming from someone that has only played this and Bloodborne, the latter of which I got the platinum trophy, I'm not necessarily opposed to cheesing, Ive done that on just a couple other bosses like the one you get Black Knight Niche summon from, but that fight felt really unfair whereas this one just feels really hard. So if theres a really easy to set up cheese that would just require getting a weapon or spell or something Id be willing to try it.
Also her character design is amazing deff my fav character so far despite how difficult this is lol

(Spanish talker, sorry if my english isn't really good)
So, I will be as clear as possible : When I say "scrub", Im talking about a person that don't wants to engage with the game, blaming the game for it's own mistakes and saying that "x" mechanic or part of the game is broken or not well made. You can be a bad/mid player (like I am), but still avoid bitching because you didn't grasp "x" mechanic.
What happens with ER is that almost anything in this game can be treated like this. Ost, design, openworld, combat/bosses, and lore, and I've never seen something like this, this is probably the game with the most misinformation and hot takes I've ever seen, it's crazy man
For example, let's take the lore. I've already seen a lot of people not understanding things about how a lot of things work. Take the whole "gurrank/Maliketh" shit, for example
Some people say that only Placidusax arena is affected by this strange time shits; therefore, Gurrank and Maliketh being alive if you kill the other one would make no sense
The thing is that... this is wrong. You have a lot of reasons to think that the entire Farum Azulla is trapped is this strange "time cage". First, how the fuck would you explain, if it wasn't like this, the LITERALLY FROZEN IN TIME PILLARS AND PLATFORMS ALL OVER THE PLACE? It would make sense if they were moving and levitating because of the big storm, but they aren't, they are literally frozen in place, like If Farum had been destroyed and paralyzed in time when it was falling to the Lands Between. Not only that, but you can find Placidusax body buried on the ruins. If only the closest terrain to the storm was being affected by this time thing, how the fuck would we be able to make Placidusax alive, if he should be out-of-range? Not to say that, indeed, this game cares about this kind of things, making Margit not appear if the player has already beated Morgott. All what you see in the game clearly shows how this isn't an error, but an intended part of the lore and of the worldbuilding.
The same goes with "fake Mogh not dissapearing", all what you see about him is 100% different to "Margit" : One can talk, the other just makes guttural noises, one can use his entire moveset with almost all his damage while the other can't, one seems to use an enemy/mob to spawn, the other doesn't. They clearly don't follow the same rules and talking about how one dissapears and the other don't when killing their owners makes no sense
I should say that there are some parts of this game's lore that REALLY seem strange, like all the shit about Iji being killed with black flames while being surrounded by literal "destined death" users. Who knows what the fuck is that supposed to mean, maybe it has an explanation, maybe it just doesn't. But people really don't understand a lot of parts of the lore and just say "oh sure, this doesn't makes sense, seems like I discovered that this games lore is shit", and, no. Even the white water in Deeproot Depths has an explanation related to the lore ( It is water mixed with adipocere, which is produced by dead bodys, and Leyndell has normalized death so much that they use it for sealing doors/windows, repairing weapons, etc. Adipocere makes water grey/white under certain conditions, conditions that Deeproot Depths fulfill. That is why this is the ONLY place in the game with this water color, making this entire zone bathed in literal corpse fat. What fucking game has such unique details so well explained? Saying that a game with things like this "has bad lore" is ridiculous. And, source where I learned this : The Spanish youtuber "Joseju" in his video called "El descenso en Elden Ring" or "The descent in Elden Ring" )
That was only about the lore, so, let's begin with the worst part... the gameplay/bosses :
First, about the gameplay itself, the combat
Not only it has been said that Elden Ring is played exactly like DS3, but also, a lot of people suggested that "Enemies on this game have speeded up, while you didn't receive the tools to counter them"
Let's name some differences made in Elden Ring :
---- A lot of AoW that let you move and dodge much better
---- Your stamina regeneration is almost double than in previous games (You can go with base stamina the entire game and it will only be a problem one or 2 times in the 80, 90 or more than 100 hours of all your run. This is one of the biggest changes)
---- Knowing that one of the hardest parts of the combat in souls games was to approach the enemy safely to hit him, the JUMP not only is important AF to the other 2 main mechanics in the combat, but also lets you do safe AND quick attacks to enemies, specially if they stagger when they get hit
---- You can jump a LOT of the enemies attacks, giving you much bigger and safer attack windows than if you only roll, which also has a good sinergy with the powerstancing, which is super good to deal good damage when jumping
---- The posture break system. If you are going to break the posture of the enemy, you can literally go and attack the him with, for example, a jumping heavy attack. Then, the majority of the times, you will be able to hit him again. Then, do the riposte/critic, and while he is recovering from the animation, hitting him with a heavy charged attack
If you play this game like DS3, it is NORMAL that you think is bad designed, designed around summons, to hard, etc etc. But you are much more deadly if you use all the new systems. If you don't, for example, you will be able to just roll 2 Godfrey attacks and hit afterwards, dealing only some damage. If you learn how to counter him, you can, in the same time, make several jumping attacks (because Godfrey uses a lot of stomp attacks), both light and heavy, hit him with light attacks and even hit him with some charged attacks, which will break his posture and let you do what I've already described earlier to optimice the breaking posture damage. In general, you could go from, maybe, 1000 damage to him in 10 seconds, to dealing 4000 or even MORE in the same time, using the same weapon. If that isn't rewarding the player who plays well and who understands the new combat while giving him enought tools to fight the bosses, I don't know what it is.
Also, all of this is ignoring the crafting system, which, even if I could agree that takes too much time to use, if you are patient, you can get some of the best items in the game (sleeping/bleed/scarlet rot pots, damage buffs, defense buffs, etc)
Now, we could talk about how people say that "enemies do too much damage", but, honestly, this is too easy to counter. You have armors that reduce all the damage by big amounts, talismans that reduce your elemental of phisical damage by a lot, tears that also make you much more tanky, a talisman with a whopping 30% reduction to all the damage taken while being at full health, which will make almost impossible to get one shot by ANY attack. Ah, you also have literally a INFINITE SOURCE of boiled prawns to have 15% damage reduction all the times you want. And, also, you have much more runes and levels to level up vigor, and if you are a cleric, you can use a lot of incantations that buff a lot your damage negation. So, if you just ignore all of this, it isn't the games fault, it's yours. Brandon Sanderson showed in his videos talking about Elden Ring a glass-cannon build, where he was fighting endgame enemies and bosses without being oneshotted by anything thanks to all of this.
About bosses... Im really bored of this shit : Random guy says "x" attack from "x" boss is undodgeable. 99% of the times it's false and even sometimes it's even easy to dodge. Another random guy says in a youtube video that bosses do not have punish windows, while showing clips of their combats where they LITERALLY IGNORE EVERY FUCKING PUNISH WINDOW THAT THE BOSSES HAVE, ALL OF THEM. (Yes, Im looking to you, Joseph Anderson). I won't talk more about this, but you can find THOUSENDS of no-hit videos or guides where people use intended dodges or mechanics to be super agressive with almost any boss, being able to kill them even with really low damage, so you can just search that. I suggest to all of you "LupineOs" channel, and, being more specific, his responde video to Joseph Anderson critic to Elden Ring. It's funny, well made, easy to watch and showcase a lot of what Im saying about the bosses and combat, the video is called "What Joseph Anderson got wrong about Elden Ring". (Not posting links here to avoid being taken down because of links itself. I think it is just fair to say who Im refering to when I talk about certain topics, tbh.)
The "nihil" attacks aren't bullshit because they are just the same as saying at the beggining of the bossfight "hey, this combat will be made with 3 less healing flask, ok?", but in a much more cool and spectacular way.
Godrick's storm assault not only is dodgeable in ANY circumstances (if you are not greedy while using super slow weapons), but also, it is necessary to make the combat work, because a lot of his moves can be easily countered by running to his back. This move, along with his "roll" makes you unable to cheese him this way, and makes you learn his patterns to win, at least with a low damage build. Also, it makes almost no damage, so you could even accept the damage to be much more agressive if you want.
Malenia's clones are 100% dodgeable in any situation with mid roll, and a lot of the times, you can just run away and spam roll, and you won't get hit. Also, she doesn't heal with every hit, which makes it much better than Waterfowl
And I could be talking about this aaaaaaalll the day. If you want to know what attacks I really consider shit, here they are, if Im not forgetting something
---- Gargoyles poison. Almost invisible and makes 0 noise, too much range and all of this in a dual bossfight. Straight up bullshit attack.
---- Waterfowl dance. At this point, I don't think I need to explain myself. The way to dodge this when you are close to her, not only wasn't intented and is too hard for ONE attack, but also looks bad and breaks the flow of the combat, which is sad, because I LOVE all about Malenia, all her other attacks, music, lore, design, voice, etc, but she had to use one of the most bullshit attacks I've ever seen.
---- Commander Nialls "snow storm assault", the one that he uses by hitting the ground with his standart. It builds up frost, makes much more damage than Godrick's attack, doesn't have a purpose in his bossfight (because he is already hard enought and can't be "cheesed" by going to his back). So annoying.
---- Sometimes, Godrick's flamethrower (the one that he aims to the ground), because the fire sometimes goes nuts and bounces in the graves, making it hit you in a 100% unfair way while you punish him. At least, you can dodge this in a consistent way by just running, but still, not cool.
---- Both Astel grabs. I mean, they literally make you teleport 2 entire fucking GALAXIES to go to their hands even if you dodge far away, so I suppose that the grab is lore/ambientation accurate, LMAO. Really bullshit knowing that is one of those "one-shot" attacks
---- Edit : Fire Giant's flmaethrower attack which has almost no range limitation and does a TON of damage
About the artistic design, I know that almost anyone denies how outstanding this game's artistic design is, so even if some weird persons do hate the art of the world and the enemies, I will just skip this. But man, really, if you see Stormveil Castle, Ray Lucaria, Renalla's arena, Rykard's arena, Caelid, Altus, Leyndell, Farum Azulla, Nokstella, Miquella's Halightree, Mogh's arena and a lot of other places and say "yeah, this is ugly/not some of the most beautiful and cool things I've ever seen", I have to tell you that you are just 100% crazy and probably blind, lol.
And about the ost... I have to star saying all the incredible boss tracks this game has? Fortissax, Placidussax, Godrick, Godfrey, Radagon/Elden Beast, Malenia, Mogh, Rykard and much more are total BANGERS, and all of the important bosses themes are, at their lowest, really REALLY good and fitting. I mean, sure, the mini-boss themes aren't that good (Black Knives theme is fire tho), but that is totally normal and it is like that in any game. And the calm themes are also super good, specially the ones like Altus, Round table, and the best of them, Leyndell theme, which is straight up too beautiful and goes perfectly with the city state of mixed decay and past glory/divinity. Probably, a lot of people were expecting ds3 part 2 with the ost. And I get it, I also love ds3 ost. But not only this is new and fresh, but, also, I think it fits the bosses perfectly, and experts/musicians agree with me. Elden Rind ost, like almost all in this game, is a fucking masterpiece
About enemy variety... just fucking look at any other open world, my boy, this is probably the open world with the most original design and unique enemies in history. That the is one region in the map that reuses them a lot doesn't mean that there are hundreds and hundreds of them, man.
So, in conclusion, I want to make it clear : Elden Ring does have some big flaws and a lot of little flaws or errors. But not only a lot of people cry about things that are well made because they are bad at the game or they just don0t care enought. Also, the best moments in this game (which can be counted as HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS) are some of the best moments I had ever in my entire life, period. This game is too good to keep shitting about it just because you didn't get what you wanted of because you didn't waste enought time learning the combat/understanding the lore, etc
So, I think that is all the important things I had to say. Thanks for reading and have a great day :)

I've gone through Godrick, Rennala, Radahn, every mandatory boss in Leyndell and more without any trouble until Fire Giant. No matter my knowledge of his attacks he still gets me, and he just does so much damage to where just 1 mistake kills me. I have Radagons Soreseal so that might explain the high damage but that's still ridiculous. I go through his first phase easily almost no hit until 2nd phase where I know his first 2 attacks but after that I can barely ever get a hit in before having to prepare for the next move. I try to target his hands since that seems to do more damage than his legs, but on top of what I said before his hands are almost always moving. I want to progress farther so bad to the point I'm considering just cheesing him. He's a recommended level 100-110 fight and I'm currently level 81 with Radahns set and the Grafted Blade Greatsword +9 with 12 Crimson Tears +9. I do roughly 1k damage per hit and a 3 light attack combo does around 4k. Am I doing something wrong or is it just a skill issue? I'm on my 12th attempt now.

Hi there, I'm doing my first playthrough of the game and want to build a strength/faith character.
Strength mostly because I like seeing big pieces of health bars disappear in one hit and faith for buffing and a cool ranged option.
I just entered Liurnia, though I did everything there is (to my knowledge, though I'm pretty sure I got everything) on the peninsula to the south of Limgrave and got the map parts, some Sites of Grace and the bigass dragon for some levels in Caelid - stupid chest trap sending you into stupid literal hell. I also did everything I know of in Siofra River - praise the ledge.
I am now level 51, bit high for where I'm at I think, but that's besides the point. My stats right now are:
Vigor 23 (20)
Mind 16
Endurance 18 (15)
Strength 33 (30)
Dexterity 17 (14)
Intelligence 9
Faith 17
Arcane 9
That's on Confessor as starting class and with Radagon's Scarseal equipped. I'm currently using the Golden Halberd as a weapon. And whatever mostly collection of armor I can wear before getting fat.
I brought strength up to 30 so I can use a shield again and I heard the turtle shell one is quite good for bosses with Barricade Shield, though I haven't tested that yet and am mostly running around with a No Skill Kite Shield in hand for the 100% physical negation.
What sorceries I have are either the ones you get from the dude in Roundtable Hold or hopelessly out of reach in terms of faith requirement, the latter being Aspects of the Crucible Tail and Horns as well as Flame of the Fell God. 27 Faith for the Aspects is doable but I don't really need melee options when I'm already running a strength build and 41 for the Fell God is just way in the future if I ever get the stat that high. That leaves me with Catch Flame and Flame Sling for damaging options, only the latter of which is viable in combat if I'm not missing something big (though there was something about canceling casting animations with Catch Flame?).
Which brings us to why I am making this post. This being my first playthrough and wanting to avoid spoiling myself too much I haven't done too much research into what my type of build looks like in practice. Most YouTube videos are only one specific setup and how to cheese it early on anyway. Hence the question on what I best focus on for my 52nd level and onward.
Do I just pump faith for some time? But I don't have any sorceries as a target for how high I need and is practical.
At some point I will need more health, but do I do that now while leveling is still somewhat quick and neglect the faith half of my build or later and maybe end up having to tread on my toes while farming because I keel over after the second hit?
Should I raise my mind some more? I got it to where it is now so I can summon Banished Knight Engvall and getting it a little higher is something I will probably do at some point, but do I need significantly more to not need to jug a flask after three casts of some higher incantations?
Same goes for Endurance. I'll pump some more levels in at some point, but do I need a lot more? Is everybody just running around with all talisman slots used for equip load because even with Great-Jar's Arsenal I can't wear all my best armor without getting fat.
Do I keep my strength where it is or should I go higher with it at some point? Am I going about my weapon choice wrong and should rather use something like the winged scythe instead of a weapon with a high strength requirement (in which case: should I respec my stats)?
Given that apparently you can bring every stat to 99 I don't have to manage with some max level after which I can't raise any stats anymore, but since the cost per level will probably go through the roof at some point, 15k a level is already quite hefty, and I don't think I'd enjoy that much dedicated farming the question is what should I focus on in which order?
Any other relevant tips and tricks are welcome too.
I hope this sort of post isn't against the rules and thank you all for your help :)

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRcBEaNC/
While not the most impressive way to go about it, it can be done.
This is a +9 poker, I used the club to kill all main bosses up to pee boy Godfrey, but then grabbed this to help with Margot and I don’t think I’ll be able to put it down…
Poker can be grabbed anytime by cheesing the death bird off the ledge
Then you need 3 talismans to meet weapon reqs
Radagon’s Soreseal Marika’s Scarseal Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom
I am also using a strength knot crystal and green spill crystal
I would love to learn to do this guy with the club start to finish but that’s a battle for another day. I just want to get a level 1 no summons run complete

In response to those who question what the golden rays are that can be seen seemingly propping up the Erdtree.
The golden rays of light are actually a reference to Golden Freddy from the series Five nights at Freddys.
​
The series begins with the first game, where you play as a night guard at a childrens pizza place called Freddy Fazbears pizza, similar in theming to Chuck E Cheeses, with the glaring difference that the animatronic characters are walking around and attempting to stuff the player character into an animatronic suit, that is full of electronic devices that would spell the death of the player character if they were shoved inside it. The reason for this as explained by in game dialogue is that the animatronics are set to be in a "free roaming mode" at night, to keep their servos from locking up. But this explanation is revealed to be a falsehood through newspaper clippings that can be found throughout the game, revealing that Freddy Fazbears was the site of a gruesome set of child murders, where an unnamed individual had lured five children into the back room and killed them, and while the children were obviously missing and security footage confirmed that the individual had led them into the back room, their bodies were never found and this individual was thus not convicted. However due to the fact that there are five animatronics (Freddy the bear, Chica the Chicken, Foxy the pirate fox, Bonnie the Bunny, and Golden Freddy, the latter of which is a mysterious apparition can appear in this game, that is a golden version of Freddy that lies limply on the ground, and has no eyes), and also further clippings that suggest the animatronics developed a "Foul odor" it can be easily inferred that the childrens bodies were hidden in the animatronic suits, and they are now possessing them. It can also be inferred due to their animosity towards you and anyone else who wears the security guard uniform that the murderer was a security guard as well, or at least posed as one.
​
The game series then continues with Five nights at Freddys 2, a sequel that seemingly takes places after the events of the original game, where you are a security guard working at a revamped Freddy Fazbears location, featuring new animatronics, with the old animatronics being shoved in the back room and used for spare parts. However, through events that transpire over the course of the five nights you are there, it is revealed that this location actually directly predates the Freddy Fazbears that is in the first game, this is confirmed when the paycheck your character gets at the end of the week is dated at a much earlier date than the paycheck received in the first game, in addition, ingame dialogue infers that the murder of the five children occurs during the week you work at the new and improved location. It is also revealed through ingame dialogue that the newer animatronics will be scrapped, and the older ones will likely be retrofitted when the restaurant eventually re-opens, explaining why the older animatronics are extremely similar to the ones encountered in the first game. This game is also the first to feature simple minigames, that act as a sort of cutscene, revealing events that take place in the games world through strange and often metaphorical displays. The information to take away from these minigames is that a puppet (Which is another animatronic introduced in this game.) is the one that gave the murdered children the ability to possess the animatronic costumes that their bodies were hidden in. The minigames also tell us that the murderer is a tall man in a purple uniform, often referred to as the purple guy. It is also revealed that this purple guy had at least one more victim, that he killed outside of the Freddys location, this will be important later. This game is also the first to mention a place called Fredbears family diner, which it implies to be the location that the establishment is renovated from. The name of this location is very important and will become relevant later on. Another important thing to note is that ingame dialogue references the fact that the murders involved a yellow suit in the back.
​
The third game takes place after the first, and is inside an attraction called Fazbears fright, a carnival house of horror that is based off of the old Freddy Fazbears Pizza locations and the rumors of murder and hauntings that have apparently become local legend. the location is decorated with relics from the old restaurants. The first night is uneventful as no animatronics from the old locations have been found but then the people running the haunt locate a rotten animatronic and place it in the location, it immediately begins trying to track you down and kill you, just like all the others in the series so far. This particular animatronic is a rotten version of Bonnie, the rabbit character, known in the game as springtrap. Through minigame cutscenes, we learn that the abandoned Freddy Fazbears location (The one that we looked over in the first game) was home to a series of events that occured, where the purple man from the 2nd game dismantled the animatronics, inadvertently releasing the spirits inside of them. The spirits eventually confront the purple man in the back room, possibly the same back room where he originally killed them, he panics, but hides inside an animatronic suit that is stored inside the backroom. A quick description of these suits is that they are what is known as springlock suits, springlock suits differentiate from normal mascot costumes, because while they can hold a metal endoskeleton like the other costumes, they can also be deactivated and worn by human employees. One glaring issue with the springlock suits is that they operate using the aforementioned springlocks, and thus can possibly spring back into place, impaling the person wearing the suit with the metal implements that would normally be used to hold the endoskeleton in place. These failures are caused by damp conditions, which were definitely the conditions of that abandoned pizzeria. As the purple guy hid in the suit, the springlocks failed, impaling him and leaving him to bleed out in the back room. Through this we learn that the springtrap animatronic is actually possessed by the purple guy himself, and also contains his still rotting corpse. The game ends with the Fazbears fright location burning down, and the implication that Springtrap survives the fire. Something we should note is that the springlock suit is yellow, implying that the yellow suit that was used in the perpetration of the murders is likely the same suit that the purple guy died in.
​
The fourth game takes place before any of the others, and focuses around the nightmares of child who is deathly afraid of animatronics. This child is accompanied by a plush of Fredbear that speaks to him, and is also tormented by his older brother who wears a Foxy the pirate mask. we also learn through the minigame cutscenes that this game takes place during the era in which Fredbears Family diner was still open. The dreams in question involve the child alone in their room at night, plagued by horrifically nightmarish versions of the animatronics from the other games. Eventually the bullying of the older brother comes to a head on the childs birthday, which takes place oddly enough at Fredbears Family Diner, despite the childs noted fear of animatronics. The older brother and his friends force the child to approach the Fredbear animatronic, despite the childs clear fear, they then say "Hey, I think he wants to give Fredbear a kiss!" and cruelly lift him up to Fredbears face, but the prank goes wrong and the child falls into the animatronics mouth, which crushes his skull. As the child is dying in the hospital, we see his comatose state represented by him sitting in a void, being spoken to by his brother as a disembodied voice, who apologizes for what he did, and begs for forgiveness. The fredbear plush is also in this void with the child, and says that he will "Put you back together"
​
The fifth game has a different naming scheme, being called "Five nights at Freddys: Sister location", taking place in a sister location to the Freddy Fazbears Pizza brand, known as Circus Babys pizza world. Circus Babys pizza world is home to four animatronics, Funtime Freddy, Circus baby the clown, Bellora the Ballerina, and Funtime foxy. The main character is once again an adult, who is led through the complex by an automated voice that guides them to complete a series of maintenance tasks. Through ingame dialogue and events, we learn that these animatronics were made by the purple guy, who is finally named ingame as William Afton, and these animatronics are explicitly designed to capture and kill children who are alone and unsupervised. We also learn that the main character of this game is Michael Afton, the son of William Afton, and the brother of the child who died in the fourth game. Circus Baby is yet another member of the Afton family, being possessed by the spirit of Emily Afton, Michaels younger sister who died when she tried to play with Circus baby alone, despite her fathers warnings. Circus Baby manipulates Michael afton, tricking him into helping her and the other animatronics escape, they do this by combining all their parts into a single entity known as Ennard, which leads Michael into a room designed to scoop endoskeletons out of animatronic suits, and instead use it to scoop Michael, leaving him an empty husk, which Ennard crawls inside and uses as a skinsuit to sneak out of the facility. Eventually as Michaels body begins to rot, Ennard flees into the sewers, leaving Micheals empty husk on its own, which through supernatural means, gets up and continues walking around on its own. Through hidden dialogue, we learn that Michael Afton was sent to the sister location by William, with the express purpose of releasing Circus Baby and the others, so despite the fact that he too is now undead, he has succeed in his goal, and he now says that his next goal is to track down William.
​
The sixth game is called Five nights at Freddys: Pizzeria simulator, and at first it appears to be a humourous side game, where the player is given the task of running their own Fazbear franchise location. But as the player is tasked with salvaging animatronics, and finds themselves beset by the animatronics, they realize that this game is not only canon, but very important to the lore of the series. The animatronics salvaged are Scraptrap (An even more decayed version of springtrap), Molten Freddy (Ennard after Circus Baby leaves the collective to venture out on her own, and after Freddy becomes the face of the incoherent mass), Scrap Baby (A version of Circus Baby constructed from scrap metal.), and Lefty (A previously unknown bear animatronic with a soulless black eye). Eventually we learn that this whole operation was a plot by Henry Emily to get all the possessed animatronics in one place, before burying the entire restaurant and burning it down, in an attempt to free the spirits that are trapped inside the animatronic husks.
​
The seventh game is called Ultimate custom night, and is an expanded version of the custom night for previous games, where the player is able to control the levels of aggression for all the animatronics in the game, to create a more tailored experience to them. The difference is that ultimate custom night features every character in the series, plus a few extras. The twist is that these events are not part of a silly side game, but are instead William Afton living through his own personal hell, that is being Orchestrated by Golden Freddy, as they are both trapped in the buried pizzeria simulator location, and after all the other spirits have passed on. The game seemingly ends with Golden Freddy, after an unknown span of time, finally leaving Afton to his fate, and passing on themselves. This only happens after Golden Freddy is convinced to do so by an enigmatic figure known as Old Man Consequences, who says to "Leave the demon to his demons"
​
During the events of the series we learn that Golden Freddy is possessed by the kid brother of Michael Afton, but we also learn that Golden Freddy is possessed by a girl named Cassidy, who was one of Williams five victims. Is this an error on the part of the series developer? An oversight perhaps? No, this was a concious decision, and loops back to Elden ring.
​
Golden Freddy is possessed by both the youngest Afton and also Cassidy, these two spirits become one animatronic, and they possess a golden suit. This is clearly a direct parrellel to the golden order and one of its core tenants, of two things becoming one. This nod is furthered by these golden beams, which obviously reference Golden Freddy by their color alone, but also reference the series by the fact that there are 4 major beams along with the Erdtree, references the 4 main animatronics and Golden Freddy at the center. Golden Freddy is also known to be limp and lifeless most of the time, likely due to the fact that it is a springlock suit, and thus needs supports in order to be able to move or stand upright, the golden beams represent these supports. These Parrelels become even more obvious when we think of Radagon of the Golden order, and Marika, who are as one in the Erdtree, similar to how the youngest Afton and Cassidy are as one in Golden Freddy. This all clearly boils down to one, undeniable fact, that Golden Freddy and the Erdtree are direct comparisons to one another, implying that the series are directly linked in some way. This is further proven by the fact that both series feature a guide who is killed by someone who is seemingly harmless (Phone guy being killed by the animatronics parrelels D being killed by Fia.) Both games feature a puppet or doll that is attempting to complete some grand and unknown goal (The security puppet and Ranni the witch.) Both games feature a main character who is unable to die (Michael Afton, who is believed to be the security guard in most of the games, and the tarnished lord.) Both games feature a character that is consumed by something only to become stronger (William afton into springtrap, Rykard into the God devouring serpent.)
​
I think with all that established, the question only becomes what does this all mean? I personally believe that the lands between are a distant future of the personal hell of William Afton, where this world of eternal torment has gone on so long that it has become a real place with its own culture and history, even though its true goal is to be a conduit for the Greater Will (Golden Freddy) to torment the scarlet rot (William Afton) which is why the scarlet rot is sealed away, and represents something that is eternally rotting and suffering. Eventually Marika (Cassidy) begins to believe the Three Fingers (Old Man Consequences) that the world must be destroyed, and they must leave the demon to his demons, and attempts to destroy the elden ring to end the cycle, but Radagon (Aftons youngest) has still not forgiven his father, and attempts to restore it, their conflict leads to the Greater Will (Golden Freddy) losing its influence, and the people of the lands between believing that it has abandoned them because their queen betrayed it, not knowing that their Queen and King are themselves the true embodiment of the Greater Will.
The funny part is that this whole shitpost has about the same level of media literacy and lore relevance as anything the Tarnished archaeologist posts, dont @ me

So I recently had the idea to create an account were i can fight (almost) all the bosses when I want on ps5, basically I go to NG+ kill just godrick rennala and morgott so I can fight all the remaining bosses (Godfrey and radagon I’ll be able to fight them after cheesing Maliketh) when I want, and when I’m done I reset the save (All of this on ps5 cloud with Ps plus)
I had this idea from seeing the possibility to do all the endings in one playtrough
So do you know if this is possibile and if it is is there a tutorial online or any tips to do it? I’m honestly kinda scared to lose all of my progress

It has been a lot of fun playing, but there were a lot of quests I messed up. I wanted to start over, but didn't know if there was a specific point to new game + or if I should start a new game altogether. I thought it would be fun to start again as a wretch and build my character up from nothing. Also, is level 150 too high for Malenia, cause I had a harder time with Radagon. There were two enemies I did cheese though. The wyrm/dragon for Millicent, and the dragoncrest tree sentinel before maliketh.

@Reddit, read this first

Someone's probably done this already, but I started writing down a generic path that I see many content creators (e.g. vswed, gino, etc) take and make variations on, regardless of objectives or constraints. This was originally just for my own notes, so there's a lot that's incomplete or possibly just wrong. As such, I'm offering it both as a decent reference as-is, as well as to pretty please ask for edit suggestions. There's a lot more setup that depends on build, but this is pretty universal. This path gives you a +9 somber weapon, at least 132,000 runes (if you cheese both bosses mentioned), both halves of the Dectus Medallion, entrance to Raya Lucaria, and access to Rykard, all with minimal combat.

Starting

Class

• Samurai for Uchigatana bc Unsheathe ash of war + good base armor
• Mercenary for Buckler Parry
• Wretch for extra challenge (why would you tho tbh)

Items

• Cracked Pot is usually good
• Golden Seed if you're more casual
• Lands Between Rune for some immediate runes-- definitely consider taking this if you pick Wretch as your starting class.

Cosmetics

• utterly cursed facial structure and/or utterly inhuman skin color for +1 inspiration

The Path

Limgrave

1. Run to the Church of Elleh and grab the grace. Make sure to come back some time when you have runes so you can purchase the Crafting Kit and Cracked Pot x3.
   
2. Run straight to Gatefront site of grace to talk to Melina and get Torrent
   
   • (optional, but recommended) on your way to Gatefront, head into the Groveside Cave a little ways to pick up another Cracked Pot from a corpse lying just past the grace.
3. Run up to Stormhill Shack site of grace, grabbing the Golden Seed on the way, sit to reset wolves, Grab the Stonesword Key on a corpse directly above the grace.
   
   • (optional) If using a strength build, run north to grab the Strength-Knot Crystal Tear.
4. Run slightly northeast and around the two Kaiden Sellswords that are roaming the road as they can be aggressive, over to the Beastmaster's Shack site of grace. Sit to reset the wolves.
   
   • Buy any relevant ash of war from Bernahl if you wish.
5. Run east, through the camp and over Saintsbridge. The merchant just past the east end of it sells you another Cracked Pot.
   
6. Instead of going into the Summonwater Village, go south to a lower level of the plateau, picking up the Fevor's Cookbook [1] from the graveyard. This is for the Sleep Pot, which you'll craft and use to cheese the Godskin Duo later on.
   
   • Be careful when jumping down the cliff, there are plenty of drops in this run that are just barely past the 16m/20m thresholds. Keep in mind that jumping adds height to your fall, so try to walk off of cliffs carefully.
   • While running around Limgrave, be sure to pick up mushrooms, as you'll need them to craft the Sleep Pots. You can find Trina's Lily at locations mentioned later.
7. Head east to the cliff, and jump down on the gravestones jutting out from the side of the cliff. Run over to the Third Church of Marika and grab the sacred tear, crimson crystal tear, Flask of Wondrous Physick, and grace.
   

Dragonbarrow

1. Run behind the church into the water and take the waygate to Bestial Sanctum.
   
2. Upon arriving, run directly south past the Black Blade Kindred (try not to aggro it), and over to the south-east corner of the plateau, past the stone astrolabe. You can carefully run off the edge of the cliff here and proceed south past the Vulgar Militia, staying very close to the cliff edge so as to not run over the poison traps.
   
3. Assuming you haven't died or spent a lot of time since talking to Melina, it will still be night. Upon getting to the bridge at the bottom of this path, there will be a Night's Cavalry patrolling the bridge. Either way, go past it, making sure to dodge its extremely aggressive attacks. (see below for cheese directions)
   
4. Continue past Lenne's Rise to the spiritspring behind it. Keep running towards the minor erdtree, and take the spirit spring behind it. Keep running straight until you get to the Fort Faroth site of grace. Grab the grace.
   
   • (optional) kill Elder Dragon Greyoll for some easy cash. Make sure to use a bleed weapon if you don't want to be there for literal ages.
5. Sneak into the fort, making roughly a counter-clockwise arc towards the ladder. Take the ladder up to claim the Dectus Medallion (Right)
   
6. Heading north towards the Caelid Divine Tower, chase the scarab off of the cliff to get a +8 Somber Smithing Stone. Jump down the branches off the edge of the cliff down to a group of corpses sitting in chairs to grab a +9 Somber Smithing Stone as well.
   

• (optional) Head far west to the Isolated Merchant to purchase the Beast-Repellent Torch, to make certain sections easier later on (e.g. anywhere with wolves or dogs, Volcano Manor snails and slugs)

(optional) Radagon's Soreseal within Fort Faroth

1. After grabbing the medallion, jump down to the roof, run around the scaffolding in the middle of the area and drop into the far hole.
   
2. Run around to the right and jump across the small gap to the other area of this suspended ceiling area.
   
3. Run around the large rat, dropping into the lower area.
   
4. Grab Radagon's Soreseal and crouch in the far corner to drop aggro, then open your map and warp out to the Fort Faroth site of grace.
   
5. If you can't do it because you didn't drop aggro, or if the rat jumped down to follow you, don't be afraid to quit out quick to reset the area.
   

(optional) Night's Cavalry cheese for Bloodhound's Step ash of war + 42,000 runes

1. (optional) If aggro'd from running across the bridge, rest at Lenne's Rise site of grace.
   
2. Run up behind him, aggro him without getting hit. Turn around and run back towards Lenne's Rise.
   
3. Bait him AROUND the roots with rot shrooms on them, and onto the rocky ledge just to the outside-west side on that south end of the bridge.
   
4. Jump off of Torrent, and run onto the outside ledge of the bridge.
   
5. This is an incredibly small strip to stand on, so make sure to always be holding sideways running into the outside wall of the bridge, so you can look at him.
   
6. His moves are pretty slow, so just keep rolling through all of his moves until he ends up going over the edge. If he hits you, there's a good chance you'll fall, so it's imperative that you roll perfectly.
   

- It's for this reason that it's easiest in my experience to do all of this at light equip load. 

Mistwood

1. Warping back to the Third Church of Marika site of grace, head south through the mistwood, making sure not to aggro the runebear. Grab the Fort Haight site of grace.
   
2. Head to the mistwood ruins, carefully run around the sleeping runebear to grab 5x Trina's Lily.
   
   • (optional) Descend to the cellar and grab the Axe Talisman.
3. Head up the hill to the fort, making sure not to get hit by the crossbow aimed down at the area. If you run straight through you should be fine. Grab the Golden Seed. Run up the stairs to the fort and double jump around the mad pumpkin head.
   
4. Upon entering the fort, run straight a bit and then curve left to run up the stairs. Juke around the flaming pot throwers and up the ladder to grab the Dectus Medallion (Left). Warp out to Stormhill Shack site of grace, ok to crouch/quitout to drop aggro if necessary.
   
   • (optional) kill the Godrick Knight to get the Bloody Slash ash of war.

Liurnia

1. Head north by the secret path to Liurnia. Head to the Laskyar Ruins site of grace.
   
2. Go just a little bit north to Rya, buy her necklace from Boggart, as well as buy any boiled prawn if desired. Head east-northeast from Boggart's site of grace to pick up several Trina's Lily. Go back to Rya to grab the Volcano Manor invitation.
   
3. Head back to the Laskyar Ruins and take the waygate to the South Raya Lucaria Gate site of grace.
   
4. Head south to the lowest flat portion of the ramp that looks closest to the rock spire just to the west, and sprint-jump on Torrent over the railing, doing a delayed double jump to land on the spire. If you mess this up you will die so make sure to aim it correctly. It might take a try or two, watch a video if you're not sure how to do it.
   
5. Run around to the north, and grab the Academy Glinstone Key from behind Smarag. Quit out or run north to the Crystalline Woods site of grace, and warp back to the South Raya Lucaria Gate.
   
6. Jump down to the rock spire again but this time run east-northeast to the waygate that takes you to Iji. Buy Somber Smithing Stone +1-4 from him and upgrade your weapon.
   
7. Head through the academy gates to Bellum Highway, grabbing the grace just to your left upon emerging from the second gate seal.
   
   • (optional) Go north past Bellum Church, down the slanting path in the ravine to the merchant to purchase 5x Bewitching Branch (1600r each)
8. Veer way off to the right side of the highway so you avoid enemies, grabbing the rune arc from a corpse in a chair just shy of the bluff with all of the catapults. If you stay off to the right as long as possible, you should be able to completely avoid the catapults. Sprint up past the mobs on the road, and grab the Grand Lift of Dectus site of grace.
   

Altus Plateau

1. Take the lift up to Altus. Head almost directly north and slightly east of the lift to grab the Altus Plateau site of grace.
   
2. Go back to the lift platform and talk to Rya to go to Volcano Manor.
   

Volcano Manor

1. Grab the Volcano Manor site of grace, talk to Tanith, and open the doors down the hallway.
   
2. Open the first door on your right and jump at the illusory wall, head through the secret tunnel to the Prison Town Church and grab the grace.
   
3. Going into the collapsed prison town, there's a lot you can grab. The fastest and most essential path takes you straight east to jump off the cliff to the lower rock platform. Make a running sprint down onto the broken stairs and grab the item.
   
4. Jump down into the lava, backstepping through it towards the far building, making sure to heal on the way.
   
5. Run up around on to the roof of the sunken building just east of you, and grab the +6 Somber Smithing Stone. Run east and up the curving stairs to the platform with the cage that takes you up. Be mindful of the man serpent; it is possible to sneak by him if you let him walk to one edge of the area he's patrolling. Take the cage up.
   
6. Instead of running straight towards the Black Flame Monk on the stairs ahead of you, head to the right and grab the +5 Somber Smithing Stone from a corpse hanging over the edge.
   
7. Now run back past the Black Flame Monk to push the giant lever and bring up the lift bridge from under the lava. Rest at the newly accesible Prison Town Church grace if you need to.
   
   • (optional) Upgrade your somber weapon to +6 now that you have the stones.
8. Cheese the Godskin Noble with sleep pots and grab the Temple of Eiglay site of grace.
   
9. Head out, up, and around to the lava field with the Abductor Virgin that wheels over to you, jumping in through the window, going right through the door, and running all the way down this hallway to open the door to the room of The Egged One™.
   
10. Run up the stairs and then back behind you to open the Stonesword Key door. Jump down these platforms to exit onto the balcony with the Abductor Virgin to grab a +7 Somber Smithing Stone.
    

Upgrade your weapon to +9 now, and go rip Margit a new one. Have fun!
Edit 1: Reformatted a lot bc Reddit killed my nice markdown formatting I had in my notes app >:(