Elden Ring: Be wary of invisible sort

[Part of my Elden Ring journal]

Beyond the barnacle folk is a massive and wondrous magical valley of night basking in the stars. I assume those are actually gems since I'm very far underground, but apart from giant crabs, giant octopi and will-o-wisps there are ghost vikings down here who seem to wink in to existence without warning. Luckily they're slow, but when they pull out their bows are so freaking accurate that they might as well be carrying lazer guns. I manage to use trees as cover while lighting some fires down here, only to find that lets me fight a gigantic undead moose. Not happening!

With a warp back it's time to continue my overland scouting until I am forcefully dismounted near a church by the invader Anastasia (apparently my mount doesn't like multiplayer) who proceeds to kick my butt! Melina saves me by bringing me to the Roundtable Hold, a safe location which she conveniently forgot to tell me about until now. There are a number of others here, but most importantly I manage to level up enough to discard my club and use... a large club! Yep, it's just a bigger stick but it hits harder and reaches farther. Anastasia becomes the first victim of it, proving that it's a worthy upgrade.

They shamble along until they decide to sprint... lol

Riding on into plagued lands with slow zombies and giant vermin I am invaded again, this time by Millicent, in a pool of disease which my mount is immune to but being forced to dismount throws me right into the muck! I manage to fight her on a small island and force her to submit before riding on to a ruined town of sorcery, inhabited by ghost mages. Great, more invisible people! Since the path ahead is blocked this is a dead end for me, but at least I find some clothes! No longer naked I return to the gigantic undead moose and large club it into re-death! Patience (and the large club reach) is all that is required.

Enderal: Riverville

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Not far outside the tomb I encountered another mud elemental, and despite my best efforts can't slay the regenerating creature so I'm forced to flee down a waterfall... which happens to also be the front to a hidden pirate base? I decide to take their stuff, and their lives before following the crab filled coast to finally reach the town of Riverville.

Crustaceans grow big in these parts.

Not only is this near the place Jespar wanted me to go, it also has shops to sell items to and even more quests - from bounty hunting and retrieval of stolen property to exposing a rapist hiding in plain sight. I complete them all. Not bad for an outsider.

The pennies I earned are spent on skill books and salt to go with all the raw meat I need to cook. Having cooked food seems to be the best way to regenerate health outside combat. Inside combat, I have to rely on potions or spells - both of which increase Arcane Fever.

Insight: What a great gold sink idea! Earning levels gives a number of "learning points" which are spent in conjunction with consuming a skill book of a particular skill (+1). Lesser books are cheaper but are only effective to a point. Master level books are pricey but are the only ones that can get you to skill level 100.

Dark Souls: Crystal Clear

Tales from Dark Souls - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Oh sh...

After eating some bacon I was one elevator ride up to the grand library guarded by dancing wizards and crystal infected hollows who packed a decent punch, but were quite slow. Climbing up to the top I suddenly came into a room occupied by Seath the Scaleless dragon, and not expecting a boss fight so soon promptly got my ass handed to me. Interestingly I revived in a prison cell, one I could not warp out of so I had to bust my way out past the lizard guards and jellyfish people before returning to the other half of the library proper.

On the other side of it was a field with crystal golems, one of whom contained a person who was freed it shattering against my sword. Ser Chubby popped out! Well, no it's the daughter of Ser Chubby looking for her dad. I tell her to check Blighttown before proceeding on into a large crystalline cave with even more crystal golems, giant moth magi and invisible paths over drops to certain death (because those are always fun).

Running to the end of the cave (literal dead end) on a "suicide scouting run" I am again jumped by Seath, surprising me this time with a lack of a boss fog. At this point I'm also being chased by weird crab things so I just figure I'll try my best since I'm cornered now anyway. Fortunately between my blade and the dragon breath the crabs all die, along with half the decor in the chamber.

Due to Seath's strangely ineffective dragon breath which summons lots of easily avoidable crystal spikes and big gaps to drink from my Estus Flask I'm soon going toe to toe with the overgrown reptile and surprise myself when I finally kill it! One lord soul down. It was even nice enough to spawn a bonfire so I could teleport out of there!

Not this time, dragon!

Skyrim: Monsters of the Northern Sea

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

After unloading the loot from at my estate in Solitude and practicing more smithing, I ventured into the Winking Skeever pub where a bunch of sailors were talking about great monsters in the Northern Sea. One of them, a sombre giant of a man named Captain Guomundr agreed to join me in hunting them. I even knew where to start, as I noticed new nearby islands when previously raiding the Thalmor Embassy.

A giant, talking, crab!

On the first isle we came across large mud crabs crawling along a ship wreck and one HUGE crustacean named Karkinos. The monster was very dangerous in melee so Guomundr and I switched to bows. It took a lot to penetrate the thick shell but with perseverance (and a lot of arrows) we finally killed it.

Nearby was a frozen iceberg full of frost atronarchs and "ice giants", who looked suspiciously exactly like frost atronarchs only twice the size. They made easy prey for sniping, but I couldn't shake the feeling I was being watched the whole time - even after slaying the last one. Then I saw it. The iceberg that wasn't an iceberg...

At least he's easy to hit!

Ymir, the Father of Ice Giants could easily pass for one of the smaller islands. At least that explained all the shipwrecks around him. Such a danger could not be allowed to live and so even more arrows were spent taking him down. Fortunately I think the sharks circling him actually prevented him from getting close, so he turned out to be an easy kill.

Vindictus: Reapers of the Twilight Desert

[This is part of my Vindictus tutorials.]
 
More tips today but these are more for a Kai/ranged type.

If you haven't felt the grind in this game so far, you are certainly going to feel it now with the amount of times you are going to be sent into this otherwise pretty place. If only it wasn't full of undead! For a solo Kai, all the reaper bosses (anything wearing a hood) are easy prey. They move slow, use attacks you've seen many times before, and shooting them in the face does a lot of damage.

I do have to give special mention to the ones that summon other spirits or hell gates which spawn more spirits. Kill the adds (or hell gates themselves) to make it easier. Also the one that summons hell gates has an over hand scythe chop followed by a 360 degree "magic laser". Evade the scythe then evade left as the laser nears you. You can dodge right too, but you'll need to dodge the laser twice that way.

I keep losing my shoes. :/

The crab at the oasis is exactly the same one at the Ship Graveyard. This time you have a huge oasis to run around too, and since the crab gets confused if lured to the South end of it you can dance with it (walk forward, shoot, back off, repeat) or simply magnum it when it gets stuck until it dies.

The circle marks the spot.

The other guardian guys (apart from the rather stout and easy Judge Vakram) pose a harder challenge though, as they can all sprint into melee range quickly and have a range of combos to hack you up with. Fortunately they are all mostly skipable.

Unfortunately the worst of them, Commander Ikrium, is the subject of many quests including the main story. This guy can be annoying with his seemingly undodgable giant seeking ball and equally bad sword combos. Strafe backwards and around to avoid his trinity slash (it's like the pirate captain's one but bigger, faster and more painful),  and dodge FORWARD to avoid his magic missile orb. He also puts sand mines that detonate after awhile - just get distance from them and dodge the blast as it comes. You'll have to use best judgement when it comes to the rest of his melee sword skills.

Vindictus: Pirates of the Graveyard

[This is part of my Vindictus tutorials.]

Happy New Year all! Decided I'm not making another resolution list this year (because we know how the previous one went), so I'm just going to keep trucking on with my regular posts! :)

More Vindictus tips today but these are more for a Kai/ranged type.

After that somewhat tough jungle, you'll be happy to learn that the Ship Graveyard is a cakewalk for Kais. Half the bosses are sirens and they are all stupid, easily read and shouldn't be a problem for any Kai who knows to keep at range at this point. The giant crab would give you more issues (not a lot), so that leaves the pirates.

Barnacle Bill Simmons likes to spit poison on the ground but otherwise is slow with his cutlass. Just watch your step and you will be fine. Mad Willy Flint seems to be the captain and apart from some slash waves and thrown, slow seeking swords, he too is easily strafed. You just have to be a bit careful avoiding all the stuff he sends your way. Just strafe the slashes. Dodge the flying swords.

I defeated him with holy farts. Lol.

Longboot Matty is the most dangerous for me. He fights in a slightly submerged section of a broken ship and has a regular "shoot gun" combo that is painful, but easily strafed or blocked by the mast in the middle. He does have two troublesome moves though: One being that he vomits into the water making all of it poisoned, forcing people to go up onto one of the small box areas and second, he sends out invulnerable wisps that paralyze anyone they touch - long enough for him to pull a full gun combo on them. That mast becomes a life saver at those times so use it!