Malenia down! Had about 8 tries as a co-op furled finger and only once got her to the second phase. First try with myself as host and got a result \o/. There is a definite art to choosing your co op partners 
Elden Ring
And ā¦ DONE!
Level 171 and over 221 hours on the clock.
Itās a stunning game in so many ways and absolutely firmly atop my list of greatest games of all time.
Looks like I ended up with the same ending as you @Brave. Only trophies Iām missing are two alternative endings, one boss (Mohg lord of blood) and the all legendary weapons/spells/talismans ones.
Apparently there are other games, I may well try one of those.
Congrats!
5 days later
- Edited
So this is one only Elden Ring nerds will understand (truly, if you donāt do Elden Ring this will seem very random). Rachel is one such nerd.
Itās her 51st today. When she came downstairs mildly hungover from a bit of wine drinking last night, she opened the kitchen blinds to be greeted with this sight and nearly ended herself laughing.
Excuse the grass. All the rain this week has seen it get unruly.
It had a bow on its head at the time. 
Edit: quite why the image gets rotated by imgur sometimes I donāt know. Just tilt your noggin.
6 days later
In tears just now. Rachel uses a Wondrous Physick flask that gives you a bubble of invincibility which absorbs the first damage you take.
She was rushing her way to a boss that sheās tried about five times now and is getting quite āanimatedā. She must have missed one enemy on the way to the fog door because just as she took the flask before going in she took one hit.
I was leaving the room and all I heard was āSUNNOVA BITCH! HE JUST SMACKED MA BOTTLE OFF!ā
Nearly ended me.
a month later
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Thatās Rachel now a Elden Lord. Last few boss fights slowed her down a bit but werenāt the road block that I experienced.
Well impressed with the build she had and the sheer amount of people she helped. If half the very obvious edgelords had realised theyād been humbled and helped by a sweary grandma* I think theyād have rethought their world views.
*not actually a grandma, just my nickname for her based on her language during boss fights.
Iāve started out again, was far too long from my last time playing. Feeling much better with it this time round though and actually achieving way more side stuff rather than just wandering and getting killed. Quite a few dungeon/cave bosses defeated and now decided to get back on the main quest. Just finished that silly big dog at the sorcererās area, he was much easier this time with my ancestral follower and a big samurai sword 
- Edited
Gordon canāt remember the exact specifics but she got the Blasphemous Blade after the Rykard fight and loved it so much she based her build on that. Faith was 60 (the first soft cap) plus with a talisman that gives that a boost also. Quite late in she respecced to beat a particular boss who was weak to lightning and discovered that 40 vitality was really good as you can take two, sometimes three heavy hits from some bosses and survive. So when she went back to her Blasphemous build she tweaked it to keep the vitality at 40.
Impressed me so much that Iām respeccing my second playthrough Thor Candles build to take advantage of it. I always get by with a glass cannon, but later game that leads to frustration; eg Iām trying to do the Fire Giant just now, which can one shot even middling vitality and can be very difficult to dodge due to how wide his early attacks can be.
The end result was that with the right talismans and pre fight rituals (potions, buff spells) she was doing 2 - 2.5k per hit with the Blasphemous Blade (the left trigger skill, scales purely on faith). Which is substantial, more than just chip damage on bosses.
She also has Radahnās great bow with Radahnās Rain on the left trigger which MELTS big mobs and the final boss (one of the talismans vastly increases the max range of arrows and a lot of spells) someone aggroed the Elden Beast and from a distance she used Radahnās Rain to take chunks of the health bar. It varies depending on how still the boss is at the time but the best hit took about a sixth off his health bar.
It was quite something to see. 
9 days later
Man, these Valiant Gargoyles are a right bugger when there was only 1, then it dropped a 2nd one inā¦.
6 days later
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Just āsoloedā Hoarah Loux. In quotes because I actually could bring in Shabriri, due to following the Flames of Frenzy ending 
Nearly at the end playthrough two!
So Iām away with work again for 8/9 weeks and couldnāt squeeze the PS5 in the bags with me this time. So Iāve bought Elden ring on Steam (well, cdkeys since itās 15 quid cheaper) and mostly the game runs perfect at maximum quality but it has some crazy random slowdown and catchup moments that make it infuriating to play. Doesnāt matter what graphical setting I use as it does it in all.
I know valve fixed this themselves for steam deck support but canāt find any fix that works for regular PC.
Anyone playing on PC has this and resolved it?
I must say though it looks sweet on my laptopās 2070 at max.
Can confirm it works beautifully on deck. Crazy itās still borked on windows though.
Thor Candles is Lord of the Frenzied Flame!
He went nutnut and set the gaff ablaze in a way that made the previous ending look like a nice family get together. \o/
Definitely taking a break now (370 hours total play time since launch is enough, right?) but Iām also certain that Iām coming back to this at the very slightest excuse. What a game.