X-SOLDIER
Harbinger O Great Justice
- AKA
- X
The 1.02 update is also launching with massively improved filtering options for the Relics which was a MUCH needed quality-of-life upgrade.
Them choosing to show Wylder & Duchess running together as the main image for duos is particularly poignant (for story reasons). Also, having Revenant & Executor running to an Evergaol but not having a Stonesword Key feels like it's loosely poking fun at the community over the current "Evergaol Meta" (some relics give you a permanent boost for every Evergaol prisoner that you defeat which can help snowball a run particularly well, and since a lot of people are running them that just makes it highly effective to have in your build since most random matches will be going for that anyway right now).
Insofar as gameplay, I really think that duos will be interesting to see how they balance them when it comes to character resurrection. In Single Player you get an auto-revive as single player & the option to purchase several Wending Graces from Merchants for 10k a pop (I think for a max of 3) and there's also a difference in how many Runes drop from enemies, whereas in the standard 3-person party the Wending Grace is only a possible drop from Gold Boss rewards. It's much harder to revive with only one active player because no one can pull aggro, but I've had success on some of the Everdark Sovereign bosses when we've been dropped to a duo midway through the match, so I'm curious how the overall enemy scaling feels when everything is designed around duo gameplay and if the Rune/HP scaling makes that more fun.
It feels like duos are going to be largely used by people who have one friend that they already want to play with & can have direct comms with, so I'm wondering if duos will actually end up noticeably impacting the wait times for trio matches at all, (especially since singleplayer doesn't impact the multiplayer times at all). It'll be interesting to see how that pans out overall. I do think that for a lot of people it'll end up in better match quality since it's a lot harder to coordinate with 2 people than to just grab one friend to dive into a game with you, and sometimes there's just the one random who really makes a run a struggle compared to just going with two people who have direct comms.
Aside from that – what duos will excel at most is helping to introduce new players to the game. It's a LOT easier to just run a match as an experienced player with the one new player to show them the ropes, because you can just go at whatever pace you want. Even when trying out a new character, it's probably a more favorable option for a lot of people than going totally solo (since when I was doing Remembrances I'd run a solo match on the characters I felt least confident with). Overall I think it's likely to be a big positive for the lifespan of the game in the long run, and also help to make players a lot stronger.
Either way, I can't wait for the 30th to dive in on Everdark Gladius, and be able to sort through my sea of relics a bit more efficiently. Mayhaps I'll also find out how duos end up feeling (if I can find someone to coordinate with). The REAL dream world would still be Cross-Platform (since I know a few PC players, but no PS players) – and while THAT'S something that I won't hold my breath for, given how well they've been paying attention to the community it doesn't feel totally impossible for the future now.
Lastly,
Nightreign hitting 5 million is great, and the 10 million gives Shadow of the Erdtree an attachment rate to Elden Ring of ~30%, which is particularly high. It feels like in general this bodes well for Nightreign eventually launching its own DLC to add in all of the Shadow of the Erdtree weapons, spells, etc. at some point later in the year. Most of all, I'm just really glad for everyone on those teams to be in what feels like a really good place where they can make ventures and try out projects like Nightreign as well as give them really solid support without having to cram it into a live service model.
X
Them choosing to show Wylder & Duchess running together as the main image for duos is particularly poignant (for story reasons). Also, having Revenant & Executor running to an Evergaol but not having a Stonesword Key feels like it's loosely poking fun at the community over the current "Evergaol Meta" (some relics give you a permanent boost for every Evergaol prisoner that you defeat which can help snowball a run particularly well, and since a lot of people are running them that just makes it highly effective to have in your build since most random matches will be going for that anyway right now).
Insofar as gameplay, I really think that duos will be interesting to see how they balance them when it comes to character resurrection. In Single Player you get an auto-revive as single player & the option to purchase several Wending Graces from Merchants for 10k a pop (I think for a max of 3) and there's also a difference in how many Runes drop from enemies, whereas in the standard 3-person party the Wending Grace is only a possible drop from Gold Boss rewards. It's much harder to revive with only one active player because no one can pull aggro, but I've had success on some of the Everdark Sovereign bosses when we've been dropped to a duo midway through the match, so I'm curious how the overall enemy scaling feels when everything is designed around duo gameplay and if the Rune/HP scaling makes that more fun.
It feels like duos are going to be largely used by people who have one friend that they already want to play with & can have direct comms with, so I'm wondering if duos will actually end up noticeably impacting the wait times for trio matches at all, (especially since singleplayer doesn't impact the multiplayer times at all). It'll be interesting to see how that pans out overall. I do think that for a lot of people it'll end up in better match quality since it's a lot harder to coordinate with 2 people than to just grab one friend to dive into a game with you, and sometimes there's just the one random who really makes a run a struggle compared to just going with two people who have direct comms.
Aside from that – what duos will excel at most is helping to introduce new players to the game. It's a LOT easier to just run a match as an experienced player with the one new player to show them the ropes, because you can just go at whatever pace you want. Even when trying out a new character, it's probably a more favorable option for a lot of people than going totally solo (since when I was doing Remembrances I'd run a solo match on the characters I felt least confident with). Overall I think it's likely to be a big positive for the lifespan of the game in the long run, and also help to make players a lot stronger.
Either way, I can't wait for the 30th to dive in on Everdark Gladius, and be able to sort through my sea of relics a bit more efficiently. Mayhaps I'll also find out how duos end up feeling (if I can find someone to coordinate with). The REAL dream world would still be Cross-Platform (since I know a few PC players, but no PS players) – and while THAT'S something that I won't hold my breath for, given how well they've been paying attention to the community it doesn't feel totally impossible for the future now.
Lastly,
Nightreign hitting 5 million is great, and the 10 million gives Shadow of the Erdtree an attachment rate to Elden Ring of ~30%, which is particularly high. It feels like in general this bodes well for Nightreign eventually launching its own DLC to add in all of the Shadow of the Erdtree weapons, spells, etc. at some point later in the year. Most of all, I'm just really glad for everyone on those teams to be in what feels like a really good place where they can make ventures and try out projects like Nightreign as well as give them really solid support without having to cram it into a live service model.
X