Elden Ring DLC: How To Completely Explore Temple Town Ruins? - Locations & Rewards

Pickaxe is a very exotic Great Hammer in Elden Ring DLC. It has a very large damage output and scales with Strength and Dexterity. In this guide, we’ll talk about how to farm this Pickaxe in the game, and talk about the characteristics of the weapon itself, which you may find interesting even if you are a veteran player of Elden Ring. To farm this weapon, you obviously need to know which enemy will drop it, and the only one who can do that is Miner who wields them. This is important because there is another type of Miner, called Glintstone Miner, also known as the Sorcerer Miner, and they are equipped with Digger’s Staff. Don’t make a mistake, otherwise you will not only not get Pickaxe you need but also waste your time and hard-earned Elden Ring Runes. Ruin-Strewn Precipice If your character is at an intermediate level, the best place to get Pickaxe is at Ruin-Strewn Precipice Site of Grace, which is located on the map. From this Site of Grace, you’ll want to head back to the tunnel to the southeast instead of taking the lift. There are six Miners in this area. Once you reach the open room here, head left immediately. After you see the first Miner, note that there are three more to the east. Next, you’ll need to head toward another tunnel, ignoring Vulgar Militia in the small room to the right, as they’re not doing anything right now. After killing the three Miners, head up the stairs in the middle of the room, and then don’t go any further. Kill the two Miners that are hanging out there and watch to see if they drop anything. If not, run back to Site of Grace and repeat the process until you get Pickaxe. However, if one of them happens to drop something, quickly grab their body and run back to Site of Grace. There’s an invisible trigger on the wooden platform here that will make all four Vulgar Militia in the area come and attack you. It is highly recommended that you simply ignore them, as they will only distract you from farming Pickaxe. This is a very simple and straightforward farming route. And since there is a Site of Grace nearby, it is very necessary to spend Elden Ring Runes in advance to get some consumables that increase Item Discovery. Limgrave Tunnels If you choose to farm Pickaxe with a newly created character, the best place to farm will be another choice, which is Limgrave Tunnels. There are two areas in this place that can be farmed. If you are going to use any consumables to increase Item Discovery, then you can start from Site of Grace and head to the next area. There are 5 Miners there, 3 on the wooden walkway and 2 on the ground. You need to kill Miner on the walkway, then go down and kill Miner in the alcove on the wall and another Miner resting near some crates. After checking the loot, run back to Site of Grace and repeat this operation until you get Pickaxe. But if you don’t plan on using consumables to increase Item Discovery, then go deeper into the tunnel until you reach the first lift, from which you must jump down to continue through this dungeon. There are also 5 Miners in this area, but they are closer to each other. Kill the first Miner in front of you, then check the other one on the right. After that, go left and kill the remaining three Miners. Once you’ve completed the task, the next thing you have to do is to end your character’s life by jumping into the elevator shaft. After that, choose to respawn at Stakes of Marika, and you will be taken to the same area you just cleared. Repeat the operation until you get Pickaxe you want. Don’t forget to restore your runes on each run. Farming Tips Now let’s recommend a few things that can make this farming process easier. Since Miners are protected by something like a hard stone skin, they are really resistant to physical damage. So obviously, it is extremely unwise to attack them with some melee weapons. In addition, since the most effective physical damage against them is Strike, and they are not very resistant to elemental damage, especially Fire. So we can take advantage of this and deal with Miners faster. If you start with Astrologer or Prisoner, you can rush to the farming site because the two Sorcery that come with them are very effective against Miners, and using Sorcery is the most effective way to eliminate them. Now, if you start with Prophet or Confessor classes, you can use Catch Flame to fight against Miners. Prophet class has this Incantation from the beginning, but Confessor does not. To get it, you need to get it from Brother Corhyn in Roundtable Hold for 600 Elden Ring Runes. Fire is definitely the most effective damage against Miners, but the small disadvantage here is that Catch Flame is a melee range Incantation. So you have to keep an eye on your position at all times, otherwise you will die unexpectedly if you are not careful. Finally, a method that works for all classes and does not require upgrading a single attribute is to use a melee weapon that deals elemental damage and strike damage. There are two weapons to choose from here. The first one is Mace, which you can get from Twin Maiden Husks for 800 runes. The second option is Club, sold by Nomadic Merchant located near Coastal Cave, and is worth 600 runes. About Pickaxe Finally, let’s talk about this Pickaxe itself. First of all, it is the only Great Hammer that can cause Pierce Damage. This is the only type of physical damage it causes. The second thing is that you can’t power stance this Pickaxe with other Great Hammers. We don’t know if this is because Pickaxe is set to the wrong category, or just Greataxe Moveset is more suitable for it, but this is how Pickaxe works in the game. The above is our complete guide to farming this Pickaxe in Elden Ring DLC. You can customize your farming route and method according to your character. If you want to get some special weapons faster, then you can choose to enter iGMeet Discord. There are often some lucky draws in the giveaway channel here. Pay attention and participate in it on time. Maybe you will be the next lucky person!

Spinning Gravity Thrust is one of the craziest newest Ashes of War builds from Elden Ring DLC, and it’s so powerful that I made an OP build specifically centered on it, Berserker Samurai Build. Here I’ll cover the play style for this Berserker Samurai, what gear to use, the best Talismans, helpful gameplay tips, and the pros and cons of this build. So if you’re looking for an effective build for this Ash of War, this guide is for you. Build Basics Berserker Samurai’s insane damage output can instantly break almost any boss in the game, with bleed procs raw firepower. This is a super aggressive build that trades hitting and taking damage to deal as much damage as possible in a short period, so this build theme really matches its playstyle. Berserker Samurai has high Dexterity and Arcane, and a little Faith Stat, with access to attack and defense boosting spells as mentioned above, to improve its overall firepower and survivability. Pros & Cons Speaking of pros to this setup, aside from the insane damage output of this weapon and Ash of War, as mentioned before, Spinning Gravity Thrust makes it like a sitting duck as it makes the target flinch and nearly stuns them. Humanoid Types are pretty much powerless compared to this setup. And giant targets or bosses will definitely die faster than anything because of its jaw-dropping firepower and Bleed procs. However, every setup has its weaknesses and drawbacks, and Berserker Samurai is no exception. The first one I want to talk about is the obvious issue with Ash of War, which is that its long animations make you more vulnerable to attacks. Since you’re already in mid-air, you’ll be dodging ground attacks more often, but you’ll still take damage most of the time, especially if you’re still adjusting to Ash of War’s timing. While the idea is that you will take damage to deal massive damage to your opponent, if you over-abuse Spinning Gravity Thrust, 90% of the time it will result in your death. Ash of War has a very slow acceleration animation, so when you are facing fast-moving targets, you will find yourself often missing a lot of targets or hitting the air. The last thing I want to say about its disadvantages is that Spinning Gravity Thrust consumes a lot of Stamina. This means that you will be using up Stamina most of the time, especially when rushing to the target, which is the regular play style of this build. Gear Now that the basic play style and overview are over, let’s move on to the gear that Berserker Samurai needs. Main Weapon: Great Katana Let’s start with the chief weapon of this build, Great Katana. This Katana requires 14 Strength and 18 Dexterity to use effectively, and this time we will infuse it with Blood. In terms of scaling, it will have D for Strength, C for Dexterity, and lastly D for Arcane. Now this may seem bad, but trust me, this weapon is more than enough to wipe out an enemy in seconds. Weapon Skill: Spinning Gravity Thrust Moving on to the core of this build, Ash of War Spinning Gravity Thrust. This is one of the deadliest Ash of War I have seen so far. What it does is it lifts the user into the air and performs a violent multi-hitting spinning thrust attack that not only does a ton of damage per attack, but it also causes the target to flinch during the attack. In addition to its insane damage multipliers, you also trigger Bleeds when using Ash of War, which makes its damage even more insane. Pressing L2 allows you to fire Ash of War, and pressing L2 again after the first animation finishes will perform another set of animations, but the second set of animations will have a powerful Sweeping Finisher that will knock the target back. Secondary Weapon: Dragon Communion Seal Moving on to the secondary weapon of this build, I am using Dragon Communion Seal here in case we need to slot Arcane Scaling offensive Incantation later. I’m only using Seal for the attack buffs for this build, but you can definitely use any Seal you want as long as you have enough Elden Ring Runes. Spells With the weapons out of the way, let’s move on to the spells I recommend. The first is Flame Grant me Strength, which grants an additional 20% Physical Attack Boost and Stamina Recovery Buff. The second buff is of course Golden Vow. This buff increases overall damage by 15% and adds 10% damage negation, which is very helpful. Talismans Next, let’s look at the best Talismans for this build. The first Talisman on the list is once again Shard of Alexander. This can increase skill damage by 15%, especially when performing Witching Hour Slash skill, so be sure to slot this one. Since we’re dealing with Bleed procs a lot with this build, I recommend using Lord of Blood’s Exultation. It will give you another 20% attack damage if blood loss procs are happening nearby. This happens all the time, so it will help you deal a ton of damage. Of course, since we’re dealing with fast multi-attacks, as usual, slotting in Millicent’s Prosthesis and Rotten Winged Sword Insignia is optimal for this build. You’ll always have the multi-attack buff active when performing Spinning Gravity Thrust, so make sure to prioritize these Talismans. However, I’ll have other Talisman suggestions later that will suit different combat situations. Armor Set Now that the main gear is done, let’s move on to the best Armor Set for Berserker Samurai. For this build, I’m wearing Land of Reeds Helm to preserve the identity of the build, in addition to using White Reed Armor and White Reed Gauntlets, and finally Land of Reeds Greaves. However, you can also choose to wear Rakshasa Set for a higher Attack Rating, as this Armor Set provides a damage boost overall. In summary, you can wear whatever you want, as long as you have about 51 poise, which is enough most of the time. Stats Then, let’s move on to Berserker Samurai’s stats. First, we start with Vigor, which I have assigned 60 points to. Since this build will be engaging enemies in melee combat, you will be taking damage quite often, so having 60 Vigor is essential for this build. Next is Mind, which I have assigned 20 points to. Now, you may find this quite low, especially with 26 FP required to use Spinning Gravity Thrust. However, enemies and bosses usually die quickly after 1 to 4 spins, so I don’t need more than that. In the event that the boss survives after 2 to 4 spins, you can also finish the fight by opening the flask easily. Next, talking about Endurance, I have assigned 30 points to it. Even though Spinning Gravity Thrust will drain your stamina in a few seconds, it’s actually OK to only have 30 points. As mentioned, enemies die very quickly. Then you also need to have at least 14 Strength to effectively wield Great Katana. Since Dexterity is our main stat for this build, I have allocated 75 points in total. And since we have equipped Millicent’s Prosthesis, it can even go up to 80. Next is Intelligence. We don’t need these, so it will be 10 points. Then Faith has been allocated 25 points, giving you access to the previously mentioned Flame Grant me Strength and Golden Vow. Finally, we have allocated 45 points to Arcane so that we can have more Attack Rating, while increasing our blood loss to 132 so that we can ensure that it triggers more often. Gameplay Now that the stats are taken care of, let’s move on to the gameplay and optimization tips for Berserker Samurai. Optimize Your Opener First, you need to optimize your opener as usual. Before or at the beginning of the battle, I usually cast Flame Grant me Strength and Golden Vow, and finally Bestial Vitality. Next, we can turn on Flask of Wondrous Physick for damage reduction and multi-attack boost. With all the buffs active, this build will be super aggressive and do as much damage as possible in this opening. Use Spinning Gravity Thrust Properly I know this build is a Berserker, however, if you miss Ash of War too many times as mentioned before, you will pay the price with death because of its overly long animation. Beyond that, you still need to master the timing of casting Ash of War. Unfortunately, getting good at it requires experience, and its usage varies from boss to boss. However, most of the time you will win the fight because of its damage output. Use Gear Wisely Now for the last tip, I recommend swapping Millicent’s Prosthesis for Crusade Insignia when exploring the overworld or dungeons, so that you can get a lasting buff while you’re on the landscape. Of course, if you think you need more protection, swap the aforementioned Talisman for Dragoncrest Greatshield. Berserker Samurai is a difficult Samurai build to master, and its satisfying violent thrusts can wipe out enemies in seconds. If you want to melt bosses with ease, don’t miss this guide. See you next time!

Golden Hippopotamus is one of the easier bosses to find in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC and has a relatively small set of attacks compared to bosses like Divine Beast Dancing Lion and Rellana. But having a few moves doesn’t mean it’s easy to defeat. During the battle, one slight mistake on your part could put you in trouble. This guide will introduce the steps to defeat Golden Hippopotamus and its location, so that you are prepared for this battle. Locations Of Golden Hippopotamus Golden Hippopotamus is located in the courtyard in the center of Shadow Keep, and you will collide with him head-on if you enter from the southern entrance of Scadu Altus. Technically, this boss is an optional boss, but defeating him will give you two Scadutree Fragments as a reward, so it’s worth fighting him. If you don’t have an NPC ally to help you, you can summon your Spirit Ash companion. Preparation Before The Battle As far as we know, this monster is weak in slashing damage and also has a poor balance. So you can break its balance by using gravity magic or strong attacks. In terms of skills, Rock Sling is recommended. Even if you miss the hitbox that provides you with a critical hit during the fight with it, you can still cause serious damage by attacking its head. In terms of weapons, swords, greatswords, and daggers are all very reliable helpers. Backhand Blade may not have such high scaling, but it provides fast strikes and unique Ash of War that allows you to dodge around the target, so you may also consider bringing it. In addition, Blackgaol Knight’s sword is also a good choice. If you are using a magic build, any Elden Ring Items that can increase Faith or Intelligence can be used for you. If you only want assists, then you need to start Hornsent’s questline first, because they can become your combat allies in this battle. In addition, you can also let your Spirit Ash summon do the work, especially if you have a Mimic Tear. With Mimic Tear at level 6 and above, and Revered Spirit Ash at level 4 and above, Golden Hippopotamus can be defeated entirely with Spirit Ash companions. Besides this, Black Knife Tiche, Nightmaiden and Swordmistress Puppets, and Swordmaster Yosh, can all make you a cup of tea in battle. It is important to note that you must make sure to upgrade your Elden Ring Items. If you run out of Smithing Stones or Glovewort, you need to return to Lands Between and get some Bell Bearings for Maiden Husks for them. Steps To Fight Golden Hippopotamus behaves similarly to Ulcerated Tree Spirits, with most of its lethal damage coming from its head and mouth. It has a long body and neck that stretches far out to prevent you from running away. On the plus side, Golden Hippopotamus is afraid of direct damage because of its enormous size, which means you have more safe attack points to fight it than other bosses, especially since you have Spirit Ash to distract it. Phase 1 Golden Hippopotamus will only attack you a few times in the initial stage, which may sound difficult to deal with, and it is, as these attacks are linked together. Golden Hippopotamus also moves faster than you think, so it is easy to be grabbed and knocked down before you can react. After you fall, it will greet you with its mouth wide open and rush towards you. This attack will knock you to the ground again, leaving you vulnerable to follow-up attacks. Even if your armor is strong, you should try to dodge forward or sideways. You can also avoid its head attacks this way. For example, if it’s running towards you with its mouth open, you can roll forward; when it’s about to bite you, you can dodge sideways. Phase 2 When you get Golden Hippopotamus down to half its health, it will stop for a moment and golden branch-like thorns will grow on its back. You can use this time to perform some additional attacks from time to time, but be careful not to stay too long. At this time, Golden Hippopotamus will send a burst of holy water spikes around, and it will occasionally repeat this attack if you stay close to it for a long time. It will signal this by shaking its body, so you need to be prepared in advance. This attack has a range of about two dodge rolls, so you don’t need to retreat too far. Avoiding the spikes is mainly based on luck, because all the spikes are strewn with sizeable gaps between each spike. Rolling sideways at this time will put you in danger, so the best way to deal with it is to dodge forward. The most dangerous attack is when Golden Hippopotamus jumps into the air and stays there for a few seconds before falling and rolling forward. This move is very powerful and can kill you if you are not at full health. Given the size of Golden Hippopotamus, your best bet for surviving is to dodge forward as it falls, or, if you are far from the impact point, dodge forward as it rolls towards you. At this stage, Golden Hippopotamus will replace the previous head swing with a powerful bite. It will lunge forward to bite, then turn its head to the side, so you need to stay away from its face. In addition, its major method - charging is also used at the same time. Both attacks give you the opportunity to get close to the side or back of Golden Hippopotamus and quickly reduce its health with your melee attacks. If you want to deal more damage, you can use string or charged attacks and powerful weapon skills to break Golden Hippopotamus’ balance. When you defeat Golden Hippopotamus, you will get: Aspect of Crucible: Thorns incantation Inspired form Hippo’s spines Two Scadutree Fragments Hopefully, you can easily defeat Golden Hippopotamus according to the steps in this guide, and have fun exploring Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC!

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!