That annoyed me, because he *chose* to spend the first hour of the game just running around getting materials instead of buying plenty of arrows and facing margit straight away. It would have been much more fun and interesting as a run if he fought bosses as he came across them naturally, instead of immediately running to Caelid and getting all these runes and upgraded weapons before the first boss. I always dislike when people do that in challenge runs. Upgrading and going out of your way for good talismans when you're facing Beast Cleric/Mariketh? Totally understandable and cool. Doing that same shit before Godrick? Kind of boring.
@@lmack3024 It may be boring, but that's the way the game is designed. The early game areas are pretty much meaningless when you can easily get late game materials elsewhere.
I'm really surprised you didn't use Radahn's Greatbow, it's art of war combined with poison/rot melted Rykard for me in my bow only run, and the AoW itself just destroyed Dragonlord Plassy. That said Melania punished me brutally for being able to cake walk through them, it took me nearly 10 hours of attempts to get my bow only kill of her >.
woha that´s some dedication. It took me like 2hrs to beat her with bow and i felt so great after. Must have been better than sex for you after you beat her. :)
I have some things I want to point out: Latenna does not die after Altus Plato, I think she dies after you reach a grace in Mountaintops of the Giants. edit. There is an easier somberstone 7 on a more lower lvl where lobsters are. It is much easier to get (no fighting). With mimic tear there is a trick to get early bull goat armor and overload yourself and then enter an arena, so he cannot even run))). For Giant and Rykard: There are 2 types of bleed arrows in the game and you can use both of them at the same time. So you get 99(50 blod loss build up) + 99(65 blood loss build up). It is enough for both of them. And for other bosses as well. You really dont have to fight 2 gargoyles, you can fight Mogh instead, who is much easier.
Also, against both Giant and Rykard you can (and should?) bring frostbite arrows. The prog is another max health % type, plus it reduces all absorption by 20% netting you a bit more damage per arrow. The extra damage doesn't amount to *that* much against those massive hp pools, but every bit counts. On a personal note, I genuinely believe the easiest somber [7] is in volcano manor. Yes, the bridge cheese jump has been fixed in 1.05 so no super skip *but* - get sleep pot recipe in Limgrave - get some ~5-8 cracked pots - craft that many sleep pots - take the abductor virgin from the academy - jump into the lake of lava and run past everything to the godskin noble - sleep pot time, for at least the first 3 times you sleep him a single pot is enough to put him into a trance if you take your time and make sure to only throw them when he's going to stay in the mist - you can damage him while he's falling asleep *and* while he's waking up, so you get some 15 seconds of free dps per pot - and that's it, kill him, get 50k "free" runes and then speedrun through the rest of volcano manor until you reached the stonesword key door at the end and the somber [7] behind Sure, the old bridge skip jump made that a lot faster, but it's honestly still way less of a hassle than going to the depth of the shunning grounds imo. And before Leyndell.
Not sure whether you were doing this but there's a trick that makes Aeonian Swamp much more bearable! You know how rolling in poison and rot will continue to build status after leaving the puddle of rot/poison? Well, triggering scarlet rot not by standing in the swamp but rolling around it and then waiting on dry land for rot to trigger will only deal half the damage as usual rot per tick, meaning it's MUCH easier to walk around and outheal the damage
I don’t know about any other ones, but in the cave before Mohg, there is a merchant that sells Bleed bolts infinitely which allows for double bleed stock. More bolts = more bleed procs
I love the style of this with a super convoluted run, and every tedious step narrated and shown. It just really goes to show the depth and freedom you have playing this game
Briar armour would be what people are expecting but I found out something interesting about it It’s damage procs with bloodhound step as well so that suggests it works with other ashes of war as well something to look into to make that challenge easier (or at least more manageable)
17:52 well at least you didn't have 3000 phones out and about 8 million miles of cable you had to check while some guy came to shake your monkey tree again! In other words, I did get the reference to the river of slime scene in the sewers and yes... there's a striking resemblance I must admit.
Honestly this was made waaay harder because of the lack of other arrow types. Dwelling/Golden arrows have much higher damage output, and can take advantage of elemental weaknesses. Sleep arrows could have been nice against the few bosses susceptible to it for good openings, though to that end Stormhawk Arrows are much better due to their ability to break poise.
Stormhawk Arrows are obnoxious to farm, since both Stormhawk types(Normal and flamethrower) will often drop flight pinions instead of Stormhawk Feathers
I haven't finished watching yet but I just wanted to say that Latenna only dies prematurely if you get the second half of the medallion before starting her quest. Anyways I'll continue watching but just wanted to get that out of the way.
21:47 the red Albinaurics can be kited off the edge just as easily as the bird, though it does take a while longer if you're miserly with your arrows. You just need to ride Torrent down the slope, just past all the sitting guys, and then double jump to the big rocks on the left side of the path. Then aggro the red guys and watch them violently cartwheel off the cliff.
About farming flight pinions early, and i know it doesn't matter as much now that the run is done, but you can actually farm them easier from the church with the merchant in it by going towards the cliffs, and downwards. There are a lot of birds along the way, and at ruins on the path, making it more efficient for the amount of time spent.
Holy Crap! He's gonna do the build I ran for my first (Serious) Character? Given that it was also Survival themed and I shifted somewhat as the game went on I'm curious to how a true full arcery build would work? Do Crossbows count? Cuz they are quite good for an archery build thanks to their better range and mobile movement while shooting. (Pro Tip) If you hold the shield button while you fire a crossbow the very instant you are done firing/ reloading you will bring up your shield to block. It has saved me countless times.
Shield block between crossbow shots is a great strategy against certain ranged enemies such as those annoying mini Astels in the underground areas who spam the rocks.
Range has historically been unbalanced/OP against the AI in Souls games. The AI and enemy movesets just aren't often equipped to deal with someone that never tries to hide under its left ankle the entire fight.
He went to late game areas and overbuffed his weapon before a majority of the bosses, to be fair. If you try to go about those fights without the skips they'd be considerably more difficult.
I think you should have kept using the horn bow (or any other bow that could take an ash of war) for the big slow bosses (namely Rykard). You can hit all the arrows easily and get status procs for a fraction of the cost as the black bow.
Man, bows used to be comparable to ranged magic in older souls games. I distinctly remember using a bow as a secondary weapon in Dark souls 1 over magic because I was a quality build, sword and board. AND IT WAS ACTUALLY USEFUL AND GOOD. GOOD!! They desperately need a buff in Elden Ring
Nah they are actually fine, they are just heavily depending on your choice of arrows. In PvP you can really abuse Shortbows and their ability to shoot after rolling and landing. Greatbows can be really strong for PvE but are very unflexible. The only problem is that all bows but one in each category are basically useless and have nothing special about them.
Great video. I think rule 4 of your run can be considered all remembrance. If you want to do the “major” bosses because there are a crap ton of bosses that give achievements
I tried a bow based build. It ended up turning into a hybrid. The constant need to craft/farm for arrows was frustrating. Along with the mobs perfectly timed Neo level dodges. But it’s doable.
Just a little input - if you roll inside the rot and get yourself covered with it, you will build up the rot even after exiting the swamp. This prock however will only deal half the damage, so whenever you have to go into swamp to collect butterflys you could just do that first for double gathering time
As someone who also did this run and didn't know this video existed until afterwards (I highly recommend it, it was very fun), you don't need to go out of your way to farm materials for status effects,, as you only ever need them for Rykard and maybe Godskin Duo and Placideusax.
Radahn great bow and its skill+ ritual sword talisman can make quick work of a lot of big bosses, this is an expensive alternative, but worth it if you wanted to do this yourself
While this challenge has been completed a number of times already by other creators, your video is extremeley entertaining to watch and manages to really stand out. Fantastic editing, fun and well paced commentary, incredible background music choices and you get a truly awesome video overall. Congrats, and keep on the good work
35:00 He was easy with the Lion's bow. Since she's big, the rain did massive damage to her. 3300 per rain. My build was a quality set. Set with 60vigor, 48 endurance and 40 ish dex and strength. I had a greatshield, a beastman's scimitar, black knight's glaive and lion's roar all equip. After killing the Dragonlord, THEN Maliketh, I dropped much of the vigor and dex to get enough faith to deliver DESTINED DEATH to the final segment of the game, including those 3 tree spirits guarding that erdtree's favor talisman.
Small tip for archery builds vs human enemies. Use great bows. Be ready to shoot, and at the moment when they commit to the attack animation - realease your shoot! This will stop attack, deal damage to them and knock them down (or at least stagger) - this will let you draw another arrow and reapeat sequence.
I'm not sure if you'll consider this or anyone really cares, but this is what I'd consider "all notable bosses" in Elden Ring. 1. Bosses that give an achievement for beating them, that's 30 bosses, this also covers remembrance bosses as well. 2. Required bosses that don't give Achievements (Gideon and Fia's Champions) 3. The Final Boss of the game 4. Bosses that don't give achievements but fall into one of these groups; a. Are in important locations b. Are on the path of progress down a certain route c. Are of some importance d. Guard or are in the path on important items (key items) This includes; 1. Abductor Virgins; they guard one of the ways into Altus Plateau, you're intended to go through them to get to Altus instead of jumping down 2. Glintstone Dragon Smarg; guards the key to enter Raya Lucaria, yes you can ignore him, but I'd argue that he's pretty important given that he guards a key item 3. Draconic Tree Sentinel; explains itself 4. Fell Twins; guard the path to being able to use Morgott and Mohg's Great Runes, pretty important items if I do say so 5. Ancient Dragon Lansseax; one of the only named Ancient Dragons in the game 6. Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast; is on the path to Volcano Mannor if you go that way 7. Misbegotten Warrior and Crucible Knight; in Redmane Castle, an important location 8. Godskin Apostle in the Divine Tower of Calied; in a Divine Tower (see point a.) and guards a pretty significant weapon from a lore standpoint, I'm honestly surprised that this wasn't an Achievement boss with his placement. 9. Patches; I don't think that I need to elaborate on this one 10. Grafted Scion (Chapel of Anticipation); first boss of the game If you go by these definitions then there are 42 bosses (only one more than DS2), I don't like the "All Remembrances" mentality because it leaves out 16 bosses that give achievements, which is typically makes them pretty important. Other bosses that could be considered Important; 1. Glintstone Dragon Adula; blocks the path to the end of Ranni's questline and is a pretty important character from a lore standpoint 2. Commander O'Neil; huge part of Millicent's questline at the start 3. Alecto, Black Knife Ringleader; outside of being tied to the Legendary Spirit Ashes achievement (which I didn't count), they are the leader of a pretty big faction in the game's world 4. Misbegotten Crusader; pretty random, however they drop a weapon with HUGE importance and are also distinct from the Misbegotten Warriors with moves that are tied to the weapon. 5. Soldier of Godrick; given that the Cave of Knowledge/Stranded Graveyard is designed as the proper tutorial, he's kind of important.
You triggered a deep nostalgia flash with the music at 7:35 , had to pause the video and listen to that soundtrack again after all these years. Thanks for that my man
dang it ! Since my favorite Souls is Dark souls 2, i hope you will continue and won't forget it QwQ. Anyway, still love to see you play like this. Keep it up !!!!!! love
Dark Souls challenges will return for sure! Elden Ring is probably going to be a major focus but I’ve still got a pretty big list of Dark Souls stuff, *especially* DS2, lined up and ready.
I can't ever imagine hating myself enough to try something like this. You're masochistic journey was enjoyable to watch, however. I literally LOL'ed at Southern Oklahoma, had to have my buddy from work watch that part... and replay it a time or two. Good work, I'll definitely check out more stuff!
While I can't imagine doing "bow only", bows are incredibly useful for many situations. You can pretty much clear the entire Stormvale Castle, for instance, with just a bow.
I picked up the Serpent Bow to save on special arrows since it gives all arrows 15 poison buildup, even serpent arrows. good backup after all special arrows run out
Radahn's bow makes the Elden Beast Cake :D Also if you use unfletched arrows - they group much closer for rain of arrows. Which makes it much easier to zero in on targets even small ones.
Nice run! With Rennala's summons, you can totally just run away from them until they despawn lol. That's what I always do when I fight her with a ranged character.
Amazing. I loved this game and it's my proudest platinum. I also beat every boss and I couldn't even imagine trying to beat with a bow. I will stick with my strength build thanks. Well done.
This run's pretty basic, but seems pretty enjoyable, made me want to try it out myself. Also, love the editing on the intro and some other parts of the video!
I actually was in the middle of my own bow run when I saw this and I must say that it is impressive. And you have earned my sub. Though I am surprised that you didn’t eventually move to Stormwing Arrows, since they have 10 more base damage than regular arrows, but I completely understand if you didn’t want to farm them, since the Storm Hawk Feathers don’t drop super commonly, and the best place to farm them only has 4 hawks there.
How about a Duck Only run? Beat the whole game while permanently crouched, and only using crouching attacks. The exception is Waterfowl Dance, because, as we all know, waterfowl is one way to describe a duck.
Ngl, at the first 1h farm for refreshing arrows I'd have given up and used a cheattool to reset my arrow stocks to full between attempts. Good lord, this must've been a massive undertaking. Well played, respect!
For those of you tempted to try this challenge, do not try it on a new game plus file... Start from new game. Arrow scaling is incredibly limited compared to enemy damage and health scaling. Great video though, made for a good watch.
Thanks for doing this run! I'm planning on doing a challenge run of the game where I only use crossbows and ballistas, so this was good for me to get some ideas that would keep me sane during it! Crossbows are harder than bows for a weapon-only run since there aren't any crossbows that allow ash-swapping, which is a bummer, but I like how it adds a challenge to it Thanks again for giving me something to reference!
Should have named the character Birgitte Silverbow from The Wheel of Time novels. She always uses a bow, and has said that any attempts to use a sword usually end horribly for her.
This is genius, congrats! What i'd say is to use either helm that gives damage with blood procs or poison ones since u use that. What i ABSOLUTLY love about this is that the camera you have is what is suposed to have for giant bosses, instead of not knowing what the hell is going on and rely only on very tuned muscle memory. Congrats
Been watching some over your videos lately. Honestly enjoy them a lot, especially how you still do ds1 content. The KH music definitely made me subscribe though, great music selection.
I am so glad I took up the challenge of trying a Bow-only run. Not only is it my favorite playstyle now, but it gave me a ridiculously in-depth understanding of the crafting system and how to exploit enemy weaknesses. My biggest complaint is Aeonian Butterflies not respawning.
i never do archery builds because of the material cost. i wish there was unlimited arrows or energy arrows because otherwise it's just plainly worse than a melee weapon. i wouldn't have the dedication to do a run like this; good job with the video!
small tip with human a.i fights bow only (gideon might differ lmao) Get very close and do jump shots backwards. Most A.I will dodge ranged projectiles when they are in their "idle" state, but once they attack the, cannot dodge. So single jump attack backwards usually hits them 95% of the time.
If you want a way to label this, it can still be Dark Souls Challenge, seeing as this game has the exact same story as Dark Souls with just a slight green tint. I'd say this is just Dark Souls 4, 5 and 6 made by the FromSoft C team.
Great video! I also did a bow only run so it was fun to see you handle the bosses and your thoughts on them! (Also we ended up using the same weapon and armor lol) Also, I just wanted to say you inspired me to start my runs, so thank you for that, keep making awesome videos!
Quick Tip:When farming the bird for runes,stand behind the grace and cast rock sling looking up at a certain angle and you can rest immediately after then rock sling kills it and you get 11k every like 3-5 secondd
Good work on Melania, I did this exact same challenge a few weeks back and got her on my 12th, which did kind a make some of my friends Mald out after I told them. It's really weird how simple the fight is when you use a bow
I believe any invasion will allow you to complete the bloody figures questioned. So doing volcano manner questline or yura's questline should let you through.
1 year later and after the run, but for anyone attempting a bow only run, the best spot for flight pinions I've found is at the end of the siofra river, theres a site of grace right by the well that goes to the surface that is next to about 6 birds
The Wind Waker theme makes me want to see Toon Tarnished Standing further to the right makes farming the big crows more consistent. Just wait for them to walk towards the tree and aim for the c shape in the branches.
In the Fire Giant fight, the boss's eye is actually a massive weak point (it takes even more damage than the leg in the first phase). By aiming for the eye, it's possible to finish the second phase with just normal arrows, without any poison/rot/bleed shenanigans.
That was very enjoyable. A bow run was one of my absolute favorites personally. They did bows really well in Elden Ring, though the low scaling on all the bows was kinda silly. Great job! Keep up the awesome work!
I think my fav part of this whole challenge is seeing all the arrows stick out of the bosses chest like a pin cushion
I made a bow build and that is indeed very satisfying! They all go down like pun cushions full of arrows
"good god there's so much running around in this game" - I felt that in my soul
Did you feel it in your dark soul?
That annoyed me, because he *chose* to spend the first hour of the game just running around getting materials instead of buying plenty of arrows and facing margit straight away. It would have been much more fun and interesting as a run if he fought bosses as he came across them naturally, instead of immediately running to Caelid and getting all these runes and upgraded weapons before the first boss. I always dislike when people do that in challenge runs. Upgrading and going out of your way for good talismans when you're facing Beast Cleric/Mariketh? Totally understandable and cool. Doing that same shit before Godrick? Kind of boring.
@@lmack3024 It may be boring, but that's the way the game is designed. The early game areas are pretty much meaningless when you can easily get late game materials elsewhere.
After your runs im sure that its a quite spiritual connection
@@FearThePegasus Shame we didnt fill his dark soul with light
everyday we're getting closer to armor of thorns V2.0
Already happened, ingenious clown did it
@@the_monke0302 he's talking about this channel kidboy now scram 🤡
that's kinda funny though, a clown promoting ingenious clown
doesn't mean they can't do it
Oh yeah
I want to watch v2 soooo bad
"We Name our archer Archer after Archer the archer from the Fate series"
🤣🤣🤣
Best part
"The Archer Class is really full of Archers".
I'm really surprised you didn't use Radahn's Greatbow, it's art of war combined with poison/rot melted Rykard for me in my bow only run, and the AoW itself just destroyed Dragonlord Plassy. That said Melania punished me brutally for being able to cake walk through them, it took me nearly 10 hours of attempts to get my bow only kill of her >.
You mean arrow rain aow not raddahn's GREATbow
@@timothylanier1882 Radahn's bow has the rain of arrows AoW on it, it just has a slightly different name.
woha that´s some dedication. It took me like 2hrs to beat her with bow and i felt so great after. Must have been better than sex for you after you beat her. :)
@@greencosmos5835 what is an AoW? do u mean aoe?
edit:
realized afterwards that u mean ash of war, havent played in a while lmao
@@Pralenyth No he means aow which means ash of war aka weapon arts
"He just walks up slowly, but never gets his down smash" big W reference. Respect.
I have some things I want to point out:
Latenna does not die after Altus Plato, I think she dies after you reach a grace in Mountaintops of the Giants. edit. There is an easier somberstone 7 on a more lower lvl where lobsters are. It is much easier to get (no fighting). With mimic tear there is a trick to get early bull goat armor and overload yourself and then enter an arena, so he cannot even run))).
For Giant and Rykard: There are 2 types of bleed arrows in the game and you can use both of them at the same time. So you get 99(50 blod loss build up) + 99(65 blood loss build up). It is enough for both of them. And for other bosses as well.
You really dont have to fight 2 gargoyles, you can fight Mogh instead, who is much easier.
Also, against both Giant and Rykard you can (and should?) bring frostbite arrows. The prog is another max health % type, plus it reduces all absorption by 20% netting you a bit more damage per arrow.
The extra damage doesn't amount to *that* much against those massive hp pools, but every bit counts.
On a personal note, I genuinely believe the easiest somber [7] is in volcano manor. Yes, the bridge cheese jump has been fixed in 1.05 so no super skip *but*
- get sleep pot recipe in Limgrave
- get some ~5-8 cracked pots
- craft that many sleep pots
- take the abductor virgin from the academy
- jump into the lake of lava and run past everything to the godskin noble
- sleep pot time, for at least the first 3 times you sleep him a single pot is enough to put him into a trance if you take your time and make sure to only throw them when he's going to stay in the mist
- you can damage him while he's falling asleep *and* while he's waking up, so you get some 15 seconds of free dps per pot
- and that's it, kill him, get 50k "free" runes and then speedrun through the rest of volcano manor until you reached the stonesword key door at the end and the somber [7] behind
Sure, the old bridge skip jump made that a lot faster, but it's honestly still way less of a hassle than going to the depth of the shunning grounds imo. And before Leyndell.
Not sure whether you were doing this but there's a trick that makes Aeonian Swamp much more bearable! You know how rolling in poison and rot will continue to build status after leaving the puddle of rot/poison? Well, triggering scarlet rot not by standing in the swamp but rolling around it and then waiting on dry land for rot to trigger will only deal half the damage as usual rot per tick, meaning it's MUCH easier to walk around and outheal the damage
just use flame, cleanse me dawg
@@spaghettimaghetti8too much effort for a niche use
@@alyxparker4410 nuh uh
Just use Soap, it does not cleanse rot but it stops the lingering effect where the bar keeps going up
I don’t know about any other ones, but in the cave before Mohg, there is a merchant that sells Bleed bolts infinitely which allows for double bleed stock. More bolts = more bleed procs
They are called Burred Bolt.
Which as the name suggests is a bolt not arrow so sadly that doesn't work here.
I love the style of this with a super convoluted run, and every tedious step narrated and shown. It just really goes to show the depth and freedom you have playing this game
Briar armour would be what people are expecting but I found out something interesting about it
It’s damage procs with bloodhound step as well so that suggests it works with other ashes of war as well something to look into to make that challenge easier (or at least more manageable)
little Ethan lord of death so scary
@@ramrodbldm9876 what
@@LowIntSpecimen
Edge,
Lord
17:52 well at least you didn't have 3000 phones out and about 8 million miles of cable you had to check while some guy came to shake your monkey tree again!
In other words, I did get the reference to the river of slime scene in the sewers and yes... there's a striking resemblance I must admit.
Honestly this was made waaay harder because of the lack of other arrow types. Dwelling/Golden arrows have much higher damage output, and can take advantage of elemental weaknesses. Sleep arrows could have been nice against the few bosses susceptible to it for good openings, though to that end Stormhawk Arrows are much better due to their ability to break poise.
Stormhawk Arrows are obnoxious to farm, since both Stormhawk types(Normal and flamethrower) will often drop flight pinions instead of Stormhawk Feathers
also he didn't use fire arrows to defrost frozen enemies and continually proc frost...
@@CsStrezif you boost arcane then switch back it might help idk
He didn't use Radahn's Rain on larger bosses either. Missed one of the highest damage tricks!
Split damage arrows aren't necessarily better, Guy. They get filtered by defense twice.
I haven't finished watching yet but I just wanted to say that Latenna only dies prematurely if you get the second half of the medallion before starting her quest. Anyways I'll continue watching but just wanted to get that out of the way.
21:47 the red Albinaurics can be kited off the edge just as easily as the bird, though it does take a while longer if you're miserly with your arrows. You just need to ride Torrent down the slope, just past all the sitting guys, and then double jump to the big rocks on the left side of the path. Then aggro the red guys and watch them violently cartwheel off the cliff.
About farming flight pinions early, and i know it doesn't matter as much now that the run is done, but you can actually farm them easier from the church with the merchant in it by going towards the cliffs, and downwards. There are a lot of birds along the way, and at ruins on the path, making it more efficient for the amount of time spent.
I love how your videos double as guides, It's really easy to use these vids as a tutorial of sorts. Super hyped for the rest of the challenges!
Holy Crap! He's gonna do the build I ran for my first (Serious) Character? Given that it was also Survival themed and I shifted somewhat as the game went on I'm curious to how a true full arcery build would work? Do Crossbows count? Cuz they are quite good for an archery build thanks to their better range and mobile movement while shooting. (Pro Tip) If you hold the shield button while you fire a crossbow the very instant you are done firing/ reloading you will bring up your shield to block. It has saved me countless times.
holy crap no one cares!
:D
Lmao this was how I played my very first run too. It actually worked pretty well cuz Radahns Rain is a pretty sick combat art.
Shield block between crossbow shots is a great strategy against certain ranged enemies such as those annoying mini Astels in the underground areas who spam the rocks.
Holy Cow (cow!=crap)
The fact that he breezes through most bosses that I had a really hard time with burns me in my soul! And he is using ONLY A BOW!
Range has historically been unbalanced/OP against the AI in Souls games. The AI and enemy movesets just aren't often equipped to deal with someone that never tries to hide under its left ankle the entire fight.
He went to late game areas and overbuffed his weapon before a majority of the bosses, to be fair. If you try to go about those fights without the skips they'd be considerably more difficult.
I think you should have kept using the horn bow (or any other bow that could take an ash of war) for the big slow bosses (namely Rykard). You can hit all the arrows easily and get status procs for a fraction of the cost as the black bow.
True, arrow rain is more efficient
Man, bows used to be comparable to ranged magic in older souls games. I distinctly remember using a bow as a secondary weapon in Dark souls 1 over magic because I was a quality build, sword and board. AND IT WAS ACTUALLY USEFUL AND GOOD. GOOD!! They desperately need a buff in Elden Ring
Nah they are actually fine, they are just heavily depending on your choice of arrows. In PvP you can really abuse Shortbows and their ability to shoot after rolling and landing.
Greatbows can be really strong for PvE but are very unflexible.
The only problem is that all bows but one in each category are basically useless and have nothing special about them.
Yes! So excited that the challenge content for ER is beginning. Cant wait for each new installment. Good luck Kyle!
Great video. I think rule 4 of your run can be considered all remembrance. If you want to do the “major” bosses because there are a crap ton of bosses that give achievements
I tried a bow based build. It ended up turning into a hybrid. The constant need to craft/farm for arrows was frustrating. Along with the mobs perfectly timed Neo level dodges. But it’s doable.
Just a little input - if you roll inside the rot and get yourself covered with it, you will build up the rot even after exiting the swamp. This prock however will only deal half the damage, so whenever you have to go into swamp to collect butterflys you could just do that first for double gathering time
As someone who also did this run and didn't know this video existed until afterwards (I highly recommend it, it was very fun), you don't need to go out of your way to farm materials for status effects,, as you only ever need them for Rykard and maybe Godskin Duo and Placideusax.
The fact that mimic boss made him burn through 5 flask and hundred arrows makes me happy as it finally dint go without a fight.
I just got done with a bow build and even I had a rivers of blood as a “just in case” back up because of the difficulty, Good job man
You definitely are my archer hero 🤩
I tried this build in NG+ and it was very difficult, I needed a lot of patience to defeat certain enemies lol
Radahn great bow and its skill+ ritual sword talisman can make quick work of a lot of big bosses, this is an expensive alternative, but worth it if you wanted to do this yourself
I clicked the video stoked to watch some arrows to the knees. In 116 minutes.
While this challenge has been completed a number of times already by other creators, your video is extremeley entertaining to watch and manages to really stand out. Fantastic editing, fun and well paced commentary, incredible background music choices and you get a truly awesome video overall. Congrats, and keep on the good work
Great playthrough, very good job maintaining the patience and consistence
Reccomendation: Try Van Helsing double crossbow style playthrough next
Thank you for doing this, GW. I wanted to do it myself, but am now content just living vicariously through your Archer run. Cheers!
This is gonna be a good one
35:00 He was easy with the Lion's bow. Since she's big, the rain did massive damage to her. 3300 per rain. My build was a quality set. Set with 60vigor, 48 endurance and 40 ish dex and strength. I had a greatshield, a beastman's scimitar, black knight's glaive and lion's roar all equip.
After killing the Dragonlord, THEN Maliketh, I dropped much of the vigor and dex to get enough faith to deliver DESTINED DEATH to the final segment of the game, including those 3 tree spirits guarding that erdtree's favor talisman.
Small tip for archery builds vs human enemies.
Use great bows. Be ready to shoot, and at the moment when they commit to the attack animation - realease your shoot! This will stop attack, deal damage to them and knock them down (or at least stagger) - this will let you draw another arrow and reapeat sequence.
I can't believe YOU made the Ghostbusters 2 reference. Now I can't stop thinking about how the statue of liberty is the green goddess of rot now.
I'm not sure if you'll consider this or anyone really cares, but this is what I'd consider "all notable bosses" in Elden Ring.
1. Bosses that give an achievement for beating them, that's 30 bosses, this also covers remembrance bosses as well.
2. Required bosses that don't give Achievements (Gideon and Fia's Champions)
3. The Final Boss of the game
4. Bosses that don't give achievements but fall into one of these groups;
a. Are in important locations
b. Are on the path of progress down a certain route
c. Are of some importance
d. Guard or are in the path on important items (key items)
This includes;
1. Abductor Virgins; they guard one of the ways into Altus Plateau, you're intended to go through them to get to Altus instead of jumping down
2. Glintstone Dragon Smarg; guards the key to enter Raya Lucaria, yes you can ignore him, but I'd argue that he's pretty important given that he guards a key item
3. Draconic Tree Sentinel; explains itself
4. Fell Twins; guard the path to being able to use Morgott and Mohg's Great Runes, pretty important items if I do say so
5. Ancient Dragon Lansseax; one of the only named Ancient Dragons in the game
6. Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast; is on the path to Volcano Mannor if you go that way
7. Misbegotten Warrior and Crucible Knight; in Redmane Castle, an important location
8. Godskin Apostle in the Divine Tower of Calied; in a Divine Tower (see point a.) and guards a pretty significant weapon from a lore standpoint, I'm honestly surprised that this wasn't an Achievement boss with his placement.
9. Patches; I don't think that I need to elaborate on this one
10. Grafted Scion (Chapel of Anticipation); first boss of the game
If you go by these definitions then there are 42 bosses (only one more than DS2), I don't like the "All Remembrances" mentality because it leaves out 16 bosses that give achievements, which is typically makes them pretty important.
Other bosses that could be considered Important;
1. Glintstone Dragon Adula; blocks the path to the end of Ranni's questline and is a pretty important character from a lore standpoint
2. Commander O'Neil; huge part of Millicent's questline at the start
3. Alecto, Black Knife Ringleader; outside of being tied to the Legendary Spirit Ashes achievement (which I didn't count), they are the leader of a pretty big faction in the game's world
4. Misbegotten Crusader; pretty random, however they drop a weapon with HUGE importance and are also distinct from the Misbegotten Warriors with moves that are tied to the weapon.
5. Soldier of Godrick; given that the Cave of Knowledge/Stranded Graveyard is designed as the proper tutorial, he's kind of important.
You triggered a deep nostalgia flash with the music at 7:35 , had to pause the video and listen to that soundtrack again after all these years. Thanks for that my man
dang it ! Since my favorite Souls is Dark souls 2, i hope you will continue and won't forget it QwQ. Anyway, still love to see you play like this. Keep it up !!!!!! love
Dark Souls challenges will return for sure! Elden Ring is probably going to be a major focus but I’ve still got a pretty big list of Dark Souls stuff, *especially* DS2, lined up and ready.
Never played Elden Ring or any Dark Soul game. But it's so super interesting to watch you do that
I can't ever imagine hating myself enough to try something like this. You're masochistic journey was enjoyable to watch, however. I literally LOL'ed at Southern Oklahoma, had to have my buddy from work watch that part... and replay it a time or two. Good work, I'll definitely check out more stuff!
While I can't imagine doing "bow only", bows are incredibly useful for many situations. You can pretty much clear the entire Stormvale Castle, for instance, with just a bow.
I picked up the Serpent Bow to save on special arrows since it gives all arrows 15 poison buildup, even serpent arrows. good backup after all special arrows run out
Yk what's funny Weekend, Archer the Archer from the Fate series doesn't even use a bow as his main weapon xD
Radahn's bow makes the Elden Beast Cake :D Also if you use unfletched arrows - they group much closer for rain of arrows. Which makes it much easier to zero in on targets even small ones.
Nice run! With Rennala's summons, you can totally just run away from them until they despawn lol. That's what I always do when I fight her with a ranged character.
I respect the planning and preparation yall have.
Me: I use daggers this run, let's go!
As the world's biggest Green Arrow fan, I saw this, clicked and subbed and liked before a moment of gameplay. Good luck.
Amazing. I loved this game and it's my proudest platinum. I also beat every boss and I couldn't even imagine trying to beat with a bow. I will stick with my strength build thanks. Well done.
This run's pretty basic, but seems pretty enjoyable, made me want to try it out myself. Also, love the editing on the intro and some other parts of the video!
I actually was in the middle of my own bow run when I saw this and I must say that it is impressive. And you have earned my sub.
Though I am surprised that you didn’t eventually move to Stormwing Arrows, since they have 10 more base damage than regular arrows, but I completely understand if you didn’t want to farm them, since the Storm Hawk Feathers don’t drop super commonly, and the best place to farm them only has 4 hawks there.
How about a Duck Only run? Beat the whole game while permanently crouched, and only using crouching attacks.
The exception is Waterfowl Dance, because, as we all know, waterfowl is one way to describe a duck.
Duck Hunt in Elden Ring sounds hilarious and I am down for it
Ngl, at the first 1h farm for refreshing arrows I'd have given up and used a cheattool to reset my arrow stocks to full between attempts. Good lord, this must've been a massive undertaking. Well played, respect!
For those of you tempted to try this challenge, do not try it on a new game plus file...
Start from new game. Arrow scaling is incredibly limited compared to enemy damage and health scaling.
Great video though, made for a good watch.
Thanks for doing this run!
I'm planning on doing a challenge run of the game where I only use crossbows and ballistas, so this was good for me to get some ideas that would keep me sane during it!
Crossbows are harder than bows for a weapon-only run since there aren't any crossbows that allow ash-swapping, which is a bummer, but I like how it adds a challenge to it
Thanks again for giving me something to reference!
Should have named the character Birgitte Silverbow from The Wheel of Time novels. She always uses a bow, and has said that any attempts to use a sword usually end horribly for her.
Completing the Game using only the Lightning Ram Ash of War for Damage. That’s gonna be a Challenge to Rival NG+ Armor of Thorns.
Not even close. That may be akward to use, but it's actually an attack
Lightning Ram can deal over 150 damage per roll with the right setup though, so it probably won't be nearly as hard.
@@jstar3382That’s correct to be true. It’s still not that much Damage but better than 15 I suppose.
@@mrgamer0841 Still probably gonna be a Good Challenge against Stuff like Malenia and Co.
ruclips.net/p/PL8D9vzRa0u23pErUI-VTCxgu_qNN5YPH9
Or
ruclips.net/video/s8hJsWrOIsY/видео.html
If you want to see it done
This is genius, congrats! What i'd say is to use either helm that gives damage with blood procs or poison ones since u use that. What i ABSOLUTLY love about this is that the camera you have is what is suposed to have for giant bosses, instead of not knowing what the hell is going on and rely only on very tuned muscle memory. Congrats
oh, I really LOVE those silly nicknames you have for the bosses!
DID HE JUST WALK UP? SLOWLY? AND NOT DOWN SMASH?
Man I'm willing to try this build only for those cool jump shots, well done sir
Been watching some over your videos lately. Honestly enjoy them a lot, especially how you still do ds1 content. The KH music definitely made me subscribe though, great music selection.
I am so glad I took up the challenge of trying a Bow-only run. Not only is it my favorite playstyle now, but it gave me a ridiculously in-depth understanding of the crafting system and how to exploit enemy weaknesses. My biggest complaint is Aeonian Butterflies not respawning.
i never do archery builds because of the material cost. i wish there was unlimited arrows or energy arrows because otherwise it's just plainly worse than a melee weapon. i wouldn't have the dedication to do a run like this; good job with the video!
small tip with human a.i fights bow only (gideon might differ lmao)
Get very close and do jump shots backwards. Most A.I will dodge ranged projectiles when they are in their "idle" state, but once they attack the, cannot dodge. So single jump attack backwards usually hits them 95% of the time.
Can't wait to see sorcery only, incantations only, consumables only, and armor of thorns
If you want a way to label this, it can still be Dark Souls Challenge, seeing as this game has the exact same story as Dark Souls with just a slight green tint.
I'd say this is just Dark Souls 4, 5 and 6 made by the FromSoft C team.
Great video! I also did a bow only run so it was fun to see you handle the bosses and your thoughts on them! (Also we ended up using the same weapon and armor lol)
Also, I just wanted to say you inspired me to start my runs, so thank you for that, keep making awesome videos!
@doom_wolf11 Official. I watched that Video
17:55 - How to tell someone you are old without telling you are old.
for some reason nintendo makes some of the most fire soundtracks in the gaming industry and you made very good use of their work
It was I, I got the Ghostbusters 2 reference 17:58
Quick Tip:When farming the bird for runes,stand behind the grace and cast rock sling looking up at a certain angle and you can rest immediately after then rock sling kills it and you get 11k every like 3-5 secondd
"IT'S A RIVER OF SLIME!!"
Everytime I see the Lake of Rot 😂
I love hearing Wind Waker and Mario Odyssey music in the background of an Elden Ring video
You don't have to wait until post-capital for the ancient somber stone. You get one in mohg's Palace which is accessible early
In the subterranean shunting grounds there is a somber 7 you can pick up at the bottom of the area with the prawn enemies.
You can do the Mog palace quest offline. There is a summon sign in a ruin on the Altus Plateau. You invade an npc instead of 3 invasions.
Good work on Melania, I did this exact same challenge a few weeks back and got her on my 12th, which did kind a make some of my friends Mald out after I told them.
It's really weird how simple the fight is when you use a bow
I never knew radagon could deflect. Damn, there’s cool things we learn everyday on this game.
"Golden Corral Noble" had me... rolling 🤣
I believe any invasion will allow you to complete the bloody figures questioned. So doing volcano manner questline or yura's questline should let you through.
Great walked up slowly and downsmash reference
I’m so glad somebody got that one
Before I even start fully watching, I'm hooked just on that intro alone. Well done sire
1 year later and after the run, but for anyone attempting a bow only run, the best spot for flight pinions I've found is at the end of the siofra river, theres a site of grace right by the well that goes to the surface that is next to about 6 birds
21:25 use a bow with mighty shot and lock on to the bird. it will save you a few arrows
Does it usually take you more than one? I simply ping it once and it runs off.
Oh my, this guy's voice is hitting all the right spots in my ears
Thanks a lot man this video has been the Bible for my own bow-only run, except for the whole not going to mohgwyn palace early game thing
36:40, I have never seen that attack before, it's really cool.
“Goodie rick and the grafters” is anazing
Now that you said it, that poison swamp look like from Ghostbusters 2!
The music at the beginning of your video... sounded like music i know and love from Final Fantasy 11 online.
The Wind Waker theme makes me want to see Toon Tarnished
Standing further to the right makes farming the big crows more consistent. Just wait for them to walk towards the tree and aim for the c shape in the branches.
The wind waker music alone prevented me from skipping any part of this video
Briar armour + the Briar shield. Or like a bug build with the poisonous Ant head great shield.
Love the savage vibes with strength. lol
ur ghostbusters 2 joke got a solid chuckle from me my friend lol
In the Fire Giant fight, the boss's eye is actually a massive weak point (it takes even more damage than the leg in the first phase). By aiming for the eye, it's possible to finish the second phase with just normal arrows, without any poison/rot/bleed shenanigans.
That was very enjoyable. A bow run was one of my absolute favorites personally. They did bows really well in Elden Ring, though the low scaling on all the bows was kinda silly. Great job! Keep up the awesome work!
Best hunter-gatherer gameplay I've ever witnessed.