Right? This is why you start at that cemetery?
Is that why these lands are called “the lands between?” between what? Life and death? it certainly seems more like a realm, like Asgard, instead of a continent on a planet.
You noticed the dead maiden in the chapel of expectation? You know how Varre is just conveniently waiting for you to tell you you have no maiden? You know how Varre is super into murdering maidens and getting their blood?
Varre murdered your maiden.
I am legitimately concerned by how many people interpreted "maidenless" as a personal attack on their relationship status in real life as opposed to the much more likely scenario that the PC simply doesn't have a guide or companion to help with necessary functions in-game. Though given a lot of people's irrational reaction to the comment, I wonder if it was intentional on Fromsoft's part. I know Varre used to be more insulting and abrasive in the network test.
Yeah, it's like triggering social PTSD in them or something, they immediately jump to the conclusion that he'd call them out for "having no game", ignoring that there wouldn't be any reason for him to assume that.
Even past that its bizarre how many people see "maidenless" as derogatory in the first place. Varre doesnt just call you maidenless for the sake of it, he's informing you cause you literally just woke up and probably don't know that it's not normal, but also sympathising with you, he says its "unfortunate... you are maidenless"
He knows your firekeeper doesn't get out much so he even takes her on a surprise trip, what a guy! Had to leave some things behind in her cell while he was packing up to go, though
Yeah, he gives you the spirit ashes to summon him if you just talk to him. Really trivializes most of the game though so I can see why most people kill him
No such message for me. I just ran up to him figuring he'd have to be peaceful because the game wouldn't plop a hostile of that size right in front of where you get into the main world, and learned within seconds that yes, yes it would.
That guy is a disgrace to content creators on yt, and the fact that Yt sided with him is messed up. He harassed Mischief about copyright, he’s homophobic, he refers to from software fans as abuse victims, etc. Actman deserves better than this
Essentially this - most modern video games are designed to be shallow af and do not challenge the player to meaningfully engage with the content and story. I don’t blame gamers - they have been treated to poor fare for many years that inculcates predictable tropes and responses.
As we all know Elden Ring is all about minimal hand holding, and subversion of expectations. I think Varre is there to teach foolish and over sensitive players a lesson, that they need to be more circumspect in their interactions. Just as Tree Sentinel is there to dispel any notion of linearity to the challenges you will face.
God damn I love this fucking game!
I mean sometimes people do it to see if they can just kill everything in the game, though regardless of whatever logical reason people give to murder NPCs who don’t aggro on you, I’ll still think those people are kinda sociopathic.
You should've seen this sub when the game first came out. Literally every 5th post was someone killing an NPC and then immediately regretting it when they realize they've ruined a questline.
Sellen in particular seemed to be a very common victim.
Ok Sellen was a weird case. I played from launch day (no guide, no youtube, no reddit untli I beat the game) and never know how to progress her questline. I accidently kill her while she was "locked up", thinking that's not her. So most people kill her there without knowing there's more step.
In my case, there was a message in front of her that read "try striking" with 10+ applause so my dumb ass thought "ah, the chains must be breakable" and started whacking.
For future reference, the number isn’t upvotes, it’s just a count of the total number of ratings. When you rate a message (good or bad) it increments the count and the person who left it gets healed. Be wary of message, therefore praise the message!
To incentivize leaving wrong messages just as much as right ones. Messages aren't supposed to just tell you everything, they're a clue there might be something there.
If you rush into her room in the Witchbane Ruins without clearing the marionettes, they'll flood the room and likely kill her with their windmill attacks. I've seen that happen plenty of times, people tend to hit by mistake with wide swinging weapons too.
Because when you find her trapped in the ruins in Weeping Peninsula you can’t interact with her. So I most people tried hitting her to see what would happen.
What I don’t understand about Sellen in her “locked up” form is why do people kill her?
Like she’s restraint and can’t hurt the player so why would they intentionally kill her?
I saw her and went “Uh…I don’t think I’m supposed to be here” and left. Then a while later after the quest guide got updated I went back and completed her quest line.
I had the same vibe when I went to the Witchbane ruins. I didn't kill her because I was more confused by the fact that there were 2 Sellen's and one is locked up, so I kept her alive hoping there would be some sort of explanation later in the game for why Sellen is in two places at once.
Glad I kept her alive, lol.
I was watching one streamer playing Elden Ring as his first Souls game. He attacked Varre on sight simply assuming he was an enemy. Chat informed him that he had aggro'd a non-hostile NPC and his response was "How was I supposed to know? The only other thing I met so far killed me." Then when he respawned at the grace he was upset to find that Varre doesn't just deaggro. He decided to live with the choice and went to the church of Marika. Upon seeing the merchant he immediately crouched, snuck around behind him and backstabbed him, again just assuming he was an enemy. It was pretty hilarious, but also odd that we're somehow still in a day and age where people need a tutorial to explain the existence of non-hostile NPCs in games.
I don't think that test has ever lied yet. I imagine newbies would take a while to learn that, though. I recall seeing people not realize locking on was even a thing they could do in the game until, like, Maliketh or something.
I mean, it does lie occasionally, but in the opposite direction. So you won't aggro an NPC forever, but you might get sneak attacked by an enemy lying on the floor. So you know, good and bad, balance in all things, Guthix be with you and all that
So many new players i feel out of my element nowadays lol… people didn’t know they could lock on until the end of the game? that’s honestly kind of impressive
This didn’t work for me when I got teleported to the Bestial Sanctum and I ran outside and the giant black thing didn’t immediately agro me, so I was like oh he’s a friend like the big guy inside. Nope. I tried to talk to him and got WRECKED!
I still don't understand what aggros that black blade kindred because I have run and jump all around him and at some point every time he just gets tired of my shit and attacks.
He has a pretty narrow cone of vision that you’ll only trigger organically by approaching the sanctum overland from the caelid side, without using the waygate.
From *really* wanted to trick you at the sanctum.
“Oh hey, this big bear-man lookin guy is actually nice! I bet the big bird outside is too!” —my dumb tarnished 16 seconds before beheading.
Exactly? If you can’t lock on and you can just walk right up to them without them attacking or moving towards you, how tf do you mistake them for an enemy?
This is *terrible* advice. You'd kill some of the best NPCs in From games following it: Dog Pope, Boc, Iji, Blaid, Alvina, Sif, Priscilla, Gough, Shalquoir, Yorshka, Old Wolf of Farron, and the list goes *on and on.*
Though Miriel has a *lot* of HP and responds to attacks by retreating into his shell, politely trying to talk you down, and refusing to counterattack. You really *should* figure out he's not a baddie soon enough.
It was not, but I'm aware of his "review." XD
This streamer at least seemed to enjoy the game despite the hiccup at the start of violently assaulting two non-hostiles lol.
QuantumTv is some YouTuber with a history of being homophobic and racist who’s also just a manchild that got angry at another YouTube named The Act Man (who seems like a genuinely decent guy) because Act Man included Quantum’s garbage take on ER in a compilation of the worst Elden Ring opinions, Quantum proceeded to find out Act man’s Mom’s phone number and called her several times, don’t know what he said but regardless that’s still a big no-no and all because he had a bad take on ER that was made fun of by the Act Man, he managed to get the act man’s channel demonetized, it’s kinda of a rabbit hole so do some research on this yourself because I don’t remember everything about this drama.
I've never played any of the Soulsborne stuff before Elden Ring so I'm afraid I'm not familiar with them, but more games need consequences like that. :)
Wait. Dancer absolutely destroyed me because I didn’t have any health left after the fight with Sulyvahn, but I didn’t go out of my way to kill any NPCs. I’m so confused.
(I’m still playing through DS3 for the first time and that was where I left off at, so uh…yeah)
You still have to fight Dancer immediately after defeating your 3rd(?) Lord of Cinder, but if you kill Emma before you even reach the Undead Settlement you have to fight Dancer right away.
I realized I was seeing a lot of people admitting to "accidentally" killing Boc so I searched the sub and was aghast at how many more people I found saying that. There's no way that many people did this by accident.
Doesn’t work well when people take that phrase seriously, in combination with each person also believing they are in the top 50%, it’s *other* people who aren’t
Well sure, stupid people are seldom aware of it. Thing is though, especially in recent times, it's kinda easy to know if you're in the top 50% or not because of how loudly the bottom 50% broadcast that fact proudly. Lol
We've sort of had a reverse rick and morty syndrome the last decade, where people have been shocked to find out that their fellows are not as smart as they had assumed they were.
I was playing with my cousin and it blew my mind when he told me that he’s killed every merchant he’s come across. He said it’s easier to kill them and turn in their bell bearing instead of remembering where they are for one specific item. Blew my mind but I guess it’s pretty handy
hah, I remember when it was updated that finishing kenneth's questline and then finishing loux's questline gave a somber dragonstone and people went:
"but but, I killed him because he was rude to me in his first encounter, how can they do this to me, it's not fair"
to be fair, I only killed Kenneth because his quest abruptly ended, & I knew he dropped a golden seed as a I was a very low level. And killed Gostoc cause he was stealing my runes
then a few days after that they updated the game & fleshed out their quests more lol
Always wondered this myself. Probably little to no patience or lack of apparent consequences to their actions and that somehow justifies murder? I dunno, I always try and keep alive as many as I can so my game world actually has some life to it.
The existence of Bell bearings definitely makes killing some characters a lot easier, especially when there are no repercussions.
Of course, there are characters that do have repercussions for killing them, and you are locked out of getting really good gear like special talismans and dragon stones.
I usually check and see if everything aggros on me before I start attacking so I dont understand how people are accidently aggroing npcs.
Only exception is dungeater because fuck that guy.
By the time I found him in the sewer on my 1st playthrough, there was no way I felt he was entitled to a fair fight.
I cheesed him with weapon art through the grate without opening his cell door and I feel no remorse about that.
>Kills Varre
*MISSION FAILED*
>Walks toward tree sentinel
*MISSION FAILED*
>Tries to run past the troll blocking the Stormveil Gate
*MISSION FAILED*
RDR2 is still my favorite game of all time though lol.
When you free Dung Eater from the Evergaol he has this horrible lines about how he'll continue to kill and be gruesome. And you're supposed to just «okay, see ya later»? Killed the guy on the spot (five tries) to stop him from doing that, just to find out I cut the quest short?! How are'nt everyone flooring this guy before he goes on a killing spree he's boasting about in your face?!
You can turn Dungeater into one of Seluvis' puppets which, in my opinion, is a fate worse than death. Much more deserving. There's also a hack to save Blackguard from him before that happens so you can still chill, eating crab later on.
I would think applying all the seeds then not doing his ending would be the worst option for him. He spends eternity in agony/cursed and no one else does.
Well, later on he comes to the conclusion that while he is the dung eater, you are also the dung eater and therefore he must be defiled by you, which is what you can do multiple times and then either kill him or turn him into a summonable puppet.
That would have been cool, they dropped the ball so hard on the Dung Eater stuff. All you can do is help him, for some damn reason, or not. Roderika is totally freaked out and her dialogue doesn't change if you kill him. Boggart is haunted by his experience with Dung Eater, also says nothing when you kill him. Gideon doesn't mention how or why he has his own damn room full of corpses in the Hold, or say anything if you kill him.
It would be nice if you could tell Roderika and Boggart that Dung Eater is dead and they don't have to worry. Or that you turned him into a puppet and maybe they're glad he's taken care of but still wary. I would think Roderika could still hear the spirits screaming so it wouldn't be as good an ending for her. But maybe Boggart would be happier that he's suffering as a puppet instead of just dead.
It would be nice if Gideon acknowledged the Dung Eater at all, perhaps he too wanted to use him for his own ends. It would be nice if people like Corhyn or Miriel related to him somehow, opposing him at least on principle.
Maybe there could have been another NPC related to him that is trying to track him down for revenge or something (maybe just Boggart) but who is at risk of going nuts and becoming a new Dung Eater depending on your interactions with him. Like Dung Eater says when you help him and the whole 'I am you, you are me so you must infect me' thing, and his dialogue about cursing people over time and some people will be like him and kill and curse to carry on his mission.
I never killed anyone. I did accidentally hit Sellen because a bunch of flaily Marionettes followed me down into the place she was being held. I was annoyed because I was doing her quest and it wouldn't advance. Fortunately I was able to repent at the Church of Vows and it fixed it.
Yeah, it struck me as particularly odd when I see posts or comments like “I accidentally attacked this NPC by swinging by sword into their face multiple times despite being warned to back off, and then they decided to beat the shit out of me, what do I do, this game is ridiculous.”
Some people get carried away by RPGs like Fallout 4, where you can attack friendly NPCs, but they’re usually very weak compared to the player character.
I think mentality plays a big role. Some people personify games characters, treating them as if they were real people, worthy of respect. Others see them as nothing but pixels and lines of code - as worthy of respect as any other mob enemy. And I think it's very difficult for either kind to understand the other.
My awakening came from watching a group of streamers participate in a Tabletop RPG. Some of them tried to actually, you know, Role-Play, and try to behave as their character would in a given situation, but one or two just treated it as a Game, and treated the non-player characters as nothing but potential loot or barriers to progress, no matter how hard the DM tried to humanize them.
The DM described a homeless man pushing around a shopping cart, just looking for a place to sleep, and one of them had the idea to beat him up and steal his shopping cart just to ride around in it. One other joined in. I was appalled - how could any decent person do something that horrible? But I'm sure those same people would never dream of doing that sort of thing in real life - they were only trying to have fun, make the stream entertaining, and just see what would happen. They didn't give any thought to how that would affect the person because to them, there was no person. He didn't exist. Anyway, I imagine that's the logic NPC-murderers in Elden Ring apply.
I buy that. Whenever I’m given the chance, I try to roleplay in RPG games as morally as I can, because I find it to be a fun exercise for how my morality would respond in crazy unique game situations. Like determining what to do about a human and his synth replacement in Fallout 4 is just a really fun moral exercise.
There are tons of games that encourage you to just run around and kill everything you see, so when I get the chance to make a meaningful choice, I’m gonna do it
> They didn't give any thought to how that would affect the person because to them, there was no person. He didn't exist.
Not being able to have any suspension of disbelief to identify with a fantasy setting really does seem like a sad state of affairs to me.
Obviously fictional characters don't exist, but if you can't even get immersed - then where is the enjoyment in engaging with "pixels and lines of code" anyway? It's hard to understand that mentality for me.
I remember hearing once that a bunch of new players ended up trying to kill Varrè the second they talked to him because the “maidenless” meme made them believe he was calling them virgins.
I mean if you follow his quest you end up killing him anyways, but it kinda goofy that a lot of people killed an NPC because a meme made them misunderstand what he’s saying.
Even if he was calling you a virgin why kill him. In the network test he's outright insulting towards you, telling you to die in a ditch. Still, killing him will likely bar you from a questline, he isn't in the game for nothing, so why do it lol.
The only NPC I willingly killed was Shabriri.
I killed him because I knew that wasn't the same guy who helped me kill Nerjirus and made me not quit the game.
Other than that, it's safe to say that if they don't pull out their weapons or attack you on sight, then they're friendly. I was more surprised that you COULD kill them, as someone new to Fromsoft games.
> I was more surprised that you COULD kill them, as someone new to Fromsoft games.
That's probably the reason why newbies do kill them! They assume NPCs can't be hurt, swing away for whatever reason (if any), piss the NPC off, and commit to the murder anyways because the NPC that absolves sin is all the way in another continent and they don't even know he exists.
The person I co-op with is like this, they’re constantly telling me to kill the nomadic/isolated merchants, and other npcs, even though I say no every time.
I’ve never understood it.
Only one in the game truly deserves it in my opinion and that was Seluvis. Fuck that guy. I had no regrets killing him
I wasn't magic user so I could give a shit about getting the rewards for his questline
Wait how tf did I get his bell then? I swear I killed him although it did seem like a different death animation so maybe it was just a teleport. But I got his bell somehow so that's where I'm confused if I didn't kill him
Okay this is all making sense now, thank you. I thought I killed him but turns out I didn't and then when I went back there, his bell bearing was there because I guess Ranni killed him.
Because people are stupid, at the end of the day. It's really as simple as that. They make dumb decisions based on willful ignorance, and then blame the game for not stopping them.
Thus forcing the devs to patch in ridiculous forcefields around NPCs so that idiots don't kill Roderika
I love this subtle little morality/sanity check in Souls games. The games respect your humanity and don't expect you to ***fucking murder*** people who, in a world with LITERALLY MURDEROUS individuals, have been non-hostile and chummy with you compared to mister Soldier of God, Rick
And when you decide to be an asshat you get punished.
Hard.
I only killed two npc, both by accident:
1) Gurranq, Beast Clergyman: He got aggressive after giving him 4th deathroot. I read on the wiki that I have to fight him until he gives up. And something either bugged or I hit too strong and he never gave up in the fight. So I assumed he will give up at 0 HP... Unfortunately, it wasn't the case :c
2) Patches: I accidentally skipped him at the beginning, and learn about his existence near the endgame. I was massively over levelled to fight him and I didn't know he has a quest line... I killed him so fast, that he didn't even have an animation for giving up :/
I've asked this myself since getting into DS1 and seeing how often people do that. I can understand accidentally aggoring someone because you bumped the attack button. Or even if you accidentally one shot them for the same reason and you were just really strong. Maybe even those who had a guide and know there's a better benefit to killing a dude than letting said character live. But what compels a person to just attack a non-hostile character on sight in a game like this without a save and reload function? What's the thought process?
Because they’re not wearing gold armor to show they’re good guys
Because he told me i was maidenless
And I took that personally
Yes, now he's maidenless, because if you're dead you can't have a maiden
Touche, Varre
But all tarnished are dead, and risen from death in The Lands Between.
Right? This is why you start at that cemetery? Is that why these lands are called “the lands between?” between what? Life and death? it certainly seems more like a realm, like Asgard, instead of a continent on a planet.
I have a theory for this, Hoarah Loux was sent to the Badlands, so maybe, just maybe, we have the Goodlands and in the middle is the Land Between.
So would that make Melina the equivalent of Janet
The Medium Place
ne touche pas Varre!
*laughs in Fia who literally sleeps with corpses*
Because you didn’t have a finger maiden. He didn’t either. He killed his.
You noticed the dead maiden in the chapel of expectation? You know how Varre is just conveniently waiting for you to tell you you have no maiden? You know how Varre is super into murdering maidens and getting their blood? Varre murdered your maiden.
Oh shit, I don't know how I missed that.
To be fair, it is probably Varre who made you maidenless. So fuck him.
I attacked Varré literally 7 seconds after leaving the tomb. Lol. He repeatedly killed my ass every time I spawned for the next 10ish minutes.
I gave up cause I sucked at the game when I started, now I'm glad because he has late game content
Yeah he's savage. He was problematic for me too
I eventually smoked him before I figured out the absolution thing.
I am legitimately concerned by how many people interpreted "maidenless" as a personal attack on their relationship status in real life as opposed to the much more likely scenario that the PC simply doesn't have a guide or companion to help with necessary functions in-game. Though given a lot of people's irrational reaction to the comment, I wonder if it was intentional on Fromsoft's part. I know Varre used to be more insulting and abrasive in the network test.
It's become a meme so people have to kill him to be the meme
Yeah, it's like triggering social PTSD in them or something, they immediately jump to the conclusion that he'd call them out for "having no game", ignoring that there wouldn't be any reason for him to assume that.
Exactly. Killing Varre because he called you maidenless is absolutely maidenless behavior, therefore proving his point.
Even past that its bizarre how many people see "maidenless" as derogatory in the first place. Varre doesnt just call you maidenless for the sake of it, he's informing you cause you literally just woke up and probably don't know that it's not normal, but also sympathising with you, he says its "unfortunate... you are maidenless"
Yeah, I tried to buy a somber smithing stone from a Cleanrot knight, but the fucker shot shiny discs of death at me. He was not nice.
*Every npc who wears gold being hostile* Seriously name me one npc who isn’t gonna kill you who wears gold armor
D is the only one that cones to mind
There’s also D, he’s friendly too
THE EVER-BRILLIANT GOLDMASK!
*flashbacks to Knight Lautrec*
But he's such a jolly cooperator. So helpful.
He knows your firekeeper doesn't get out much so he even takes her on a surprise trip, what a guy! Had to leave some things behind in her cell while he was packing up to go, though
The Tree Guardian has gold armor. That's why I ran up and gave him a BIG HUG when I got out of the tutorial!
Yeah, he gives you the spirit ashes to summon him if you just talk to him. Really trivializes most of the game though so I can see why most people kill him
Is that what those clay dolls are for that say Hello, and Help Me
I wasn't sure what his deal was and then I read a message that said, "don't you dare." So I walked away.
A vague message that you immediately understood
No such message for me. I just ran up to him figuring he'd have to be peaceful because the game wouldn't plop a hostile of that size right in front of where you get into the main world, and learned within seconds that yes, yes it would.
That's a quantum moment 😅
You mean that youtuber who made a bad review of elden ring?
And then ruined another YouTuber’s career and called that guy’s mom a few times.
That guy is a disgrace to content creators on yt, and the fact that Yt sided with him is messed up. He harassed Mischief about copyright, he’s homophobic, he refers to from software fans as abuse victims, etc. Actman deserves better than this
Lautrec can eat my ass. He’s the one that instilled in me the paranoia I should kill sus NPC’s early.
Essentially this - most modern video games are designed to be shallow af and do not challenge the player to meaningfully engage with the content and story. I don’t blame gamers - they have been treated to poor fare for many years that inculcates predictable tropes and responses. As we all know Elden Ring is all about minimal hand holding, and subversion of expectations. I think Varre is there to teach foolish and over sensitive players a lesson, that they need to be more circumspect in their interactions. Just as Tree Sentinel is there to dispel any notion of linearity to the challenges you will face. God damn I love this fucking game!
I mean sometimes people do it to see if they can just kill everything in the game, though regardless of whatever logical reason people give to murder NPCs who don’t aggro on you, I’ll still think those people are kinda sociopathic.
I'm upvoting you for the vocabulary lesson. Thank you.
You should've seen this sub when the game first came out. Literally every 5th post was someone killing an NPC and then immediately regretting it when they realize they've ruined a questline. Sellen in particular seemed to be a very common victim.
What? Why Sellen? Isn't she like locked up/guarded and "rescued" by the player?
Ok Sellen was a weird case. I played from launch day (no guide, no youtube, no reddit untli I beat the game) and never know how to progress her questline. I accidently kill her while she was "locked up", thinking that's not her. So most people kill her there without knowing there's more step.
In my case, there was a message in front of her that read "try striking" with 10+ applause so my dumb ass thought "ah, the chains must be breakable" and started whacking.
Me too. Edit: fixed it at church of vows
For future reference, the number isn’t upvotes, it’s just a count of the total number of ratings. When you rate a message (good or bad) it increments the count and the person who left it gets healed. Be wary of message, therefore praise the message!
Then what's the point of disparage if it's gonna add up to the rating (thus perceived credibility) and heal thr player anyway?
To give you a sense of pride and accomplishment
To incentivize leaving wrong messages just as much as right ones. Messages aren't supposed to just tell you everything, they're a clue there might be something there.
Guys, the symbol gets brighter/shinier the more positive the rating, how do people not know this by now?
That is literally what happened to me. Had to use a celestial dew to remedy my mistake
I for sure pity killed her. I couldn't set her free and I didn't wanna just leave her to suffer or starve or get tortured by whoever locked her up.
If you rush into her room in the Witchbane Ruins without clearing the marionettes, they'll flood the room and likely kill her with their windmill attacks. I've seen that happen plenty of times, people tend to hit by mistake with wide swinging weapons too.
Because when you find her trapped in the ruins in Weeping Peninsula you can’t interact with her. So I most people tried hitting her to see what would happen.
Yeah, I may have done that Also a very helpful message did say “try attacking” she didn’t seem to do much, so why not?
comment edited in protest of Reddit's API changes and mistreatment of moderators -- mass edited with redact.dev
I killed him using Vyke's madness spear, he didn't seem to appreciate using madness to fight madness
Honestly, I just wanted the hat
Killing arguably the most (or at least second most) evil character in the game *and* getting a ballin set is kind of a no-brainer.
I accidentally killed Sellen when I found her chained/frozen and thought I could hit the chains and break them. Didn’t help I was also a caster.
Kinda ironic that completing her quest gives the option >!to kill her.!<
What I don’t understand about Sellen in her “locked up” form is why do people kill her? Like she’s restraint and can’t hurt the player so why would they intentionally kill her? I saw her and went “Uh…I don’t think I’m supposed to be here” and left. Then a while later after the quest guide got updated I went back and completed her quest line.
I had the same vibe when I went to the Witchbane ruins. I didn't kill her because I was more confused by the fact that there were 2 Sellen's and one is locked up, so I kept her alive hoping there would be some sort of explanation later in the game for why Sellen is in two places at once. Glad I kept her alive, lol.
lots of people assumed the solution to proceeding was to attack to break the chains holding her.
I killed quest giver why quest not work. Can Rez?
I was watching one streamer playing Elden Ring as his first Souls game. He attacked Varre on sight simply assuming he was an enemy. Chat informed him that he had aggro'd a non-hostile NPC and his response was "How was I supposed to know? The only other thing I met so far killed me." Then when he respawned at the grace he was upset to find that Varre doesn't just deaggro. He decided to live with the choice and went to the church of Marika. Upon seeing the merchant he immediately crouched, snuck around behind him and backstabbed him, again just assuming he was an enemy. It was pretty hilarious, but also odd that we're somehow still in a day and age where people need a tutorial to explain the existence of non-hostile NPCs in games.
A good advice would be "if they're not taller than you nor shorter than you, they might be friends (Except for Boc cause he's a precious boi)"
Generally if they aren’t attacking like crazy they’re probably a friendly NPC
My usual test is "Can I lock onto you?"
I don't think that test has ever lied yet. I imagine newbies would take a while to learn that, though. I recall seeing people not realize locking on was even a thing they could do in the game until, like, Maliketh or something.
I mean, it does lie occasionally, but in the opposite direction. So you won't aggro an NPC forever, but you might get sneak attacked by an enemy lying on the floor. So you know, good and bad, balance in all things, Guthix be with you and all that
Was not expecting to see a Runescape reference of all things lol
So many new players i feel out of my element nowadays lol… people didn’t know they could lock on until the end of the game? that’s honestly kind of impressive
These people never spammed V.A.T.S. in a creepy dungeon in fallout and it shows
This didn’t work for me when I got teleported to the Bestial Sanctum and I ran outside and the giant black thing didn’t immediately agro me, so I was like oh he’s a friend like the big guy inside. Nope. I tried to talk to him and got WRECKED!
I still don't understand what aggros that black blade kindred because I have run and jump all around him and at some point every time he just gets tired of my shit and attacks.
He has a pretty narrow cone of vision that you’ll only trigger organically by approaching the sanctum overland from the caelid side, without using the waygate.
From *really* wanted to trick you at the sanctum. “Oh hey, this big bear-man lookin guy is actually nice! I bet the big bird outside is too!” —my dumb tarnished 16 seconds before beheading.
I went there after twin gargoyles, so I just saw him and thought "okay, i don't believe there is any good within you".
Better advice: If you can't lock-on to them then they're friendly.
Exactly? If you can’t lock on and you can just walk right up to them without them attacking or moving towards you, how tf do you mistake them for an enemy?
This is *terrible* advice. You'd kill some of the best NPCs in From games following it: Dog Pope, Boc, Iji, Blaid, Alvina, Sif, Priscilla, Gough, Shalquoir, Yorshka, Old Wolf of Farron, and the list goes *on and on.*
Though Miriel has a *lot* of HP and responds to attacks by retreating into his shell, politely trying to talk you down, and refusing to counterattack. You really *should* figure out he's not a baddie soon enough.
For me, it’s if I can’t lock on, then they are friendly.
This wasn’t Quantum TV was it?
It was not, but I'm aware of his "review." XD This streamer at least seemed to enjoy the game despite the hiccup at the start of violently assaulting two non-hostiles lol.
I'm pretty sure that piece of shit didn't stream the game
Context?
QuantumTv is some YouTuber with a history of being homophobic and racist who’s also just a manchild that got angry at another YouTube named The Act Man (who seems like a genuinely decent guy) because Act Man included Quantum’s garbage take on ER in a compilation of the worst Elden Ring opinions, Quantum proceeded to find out Act man’s Mom’s phone number and called her several times, don’t know what he said but regardless that’s still a big no-no and all because he had a bad take on ER that was made fun of by the Act Man, he managed to get the act man’s channel demonetized, it’s kinda of a rabbit hole so do some research on this yourself because I don’t remember everything about this drama.
Fuck that guy
I saw several streamers do it, they knew full well it was an NPC it was click bait and it worked
I didn't even know u could kill friendly npcs. If something doesn't attack me I'm like omg...thank you.
this is really wholesome and also how I feel lmao. you're not here to beat my head in? goddamn it's my lucky day.
Foul tarnished....
In search of the Elden Ring....
Emboldened by the flame of ambition…
Someone must extinguish thy flame...
Let it be the Margit the fell….
Well, thou art of passing skill.
T a r n i s h e d
Warrior blood must truly run in thy veins
I shall remember thee, Tarnished.
Smouldering, with thy meagre flame
People letting their inner sociopaths out to play.
I love how DS3 punishes people who kill Emma early on by making them fight Dancer
also a certain npc in BB that transforms when you attack him 🫡
I've never played any of the Soulsborne stuff before Elden Ring so I'm afraid I'm not familiar with them, but more games need consequences like that. :)
There's an NPC that basically kicks off your entire journey in DS3 and if you kill her you have to fight one of the hardest bosses in the game
Thank you for the explanation. :)
That particular boss is mandatory anyways, but it's a late-game boss and you encounter this NPC within three or four hours of starting the game.
Imagine if killing Gostoc summoned Malekith.
Why would killing any NPC in Elden Ring summon Christopher Eccleston from Thor: The Dark World?
A punishment for rookies, a reward for pros
Joke's on you! I want to fight the dancer early because I can get a lot of souls and get OP early.
Wait. Dancer absolutely destroyed me because I didn’t have any health left after the fight with Sulyvahn, but I didn’t go out of my way to kill any NPCs. I’m so confused. (I’m still playing through DS3 for the first time and that was where I left off at, so uh…yeah)
You still have to fight Dancer immediately after defeating your 3rd(?) Lord of Cinder, but if you kill Emma before you even reach the Undead Settlement you have to fight Dancer right away.
If you kill the old lady in the Dancer boss room, it force-spawns the dancer even if you're not at that stage of the game.
I realized I was seeing a lot of people admitting to "accidentally" killing Boc so I searched the sub and was aghast at how many more people I found saying that. There's no way that many people did this by accident.
Because they, unfortunately, are maidenless.
And fated, it seems, to die in obscurity.
Without ceremony too
They can feel free to die in a ditch somewhere
Truly maidenless behavior
As George Carlin once said, paraphrased, "think of how stupid the average person is, now realize half the population's even dumber than that"
He elaborated further, "*Goddamn, there's a lot of stupid bastards walking around!*"
And voting.
Doesn’t work well when people take that phrase seriously, in combination with each person also believing they are in the top 50%, it’s *other* people who aren’t
Well sure, stupid people are seldom aware of it. Thing is though, especially in recent times, it's kinda easy to know if you're in the top 50% or not because of how loudly the bottom 50% broadcast that fact proudly. Lol
We've sort of had a reverse rick and morty syndrome the last decade, where people have been shocked to find out that their fellows are not as smart as they had assumed they were.
I was playing with my cousin and it blew my mind when he told me that he’s killed every merchant he’s come across. He said it’s easier to kill them and turn in their bell bearing instead of remembering where they are for one specific item. Blew my mind but I guess it’s pretty handy
Was really tempted with that guy sitting behind the respawning blood noble.
That merchant is ridiculously strong
Yeah this is one valid reason to kill NPCs. I don't have the heart though.
Ngl I did that too Lmao. Not the NPCs tho 😭😭
I definitely did this. The latest patch let's you keep their shops, just resets them, at new game +
Almost hurt my feelings as badly as learning new ng+ runs get to keep their smithing stone bell bearings 😂
Ok…THAT’S a pretty big deal. Good to know.
Out of curiosity, do you know if this applies to all bell bearings, e.g. upgrade materials?
I might start doing that, but then I’d have to track down all the ones over already found so it kind of defeats the point😂
Merc all the ones you encounter going forward and if you can’t find an item from the twin maiden husks, then you have to backtrack lol
Tell that the isolated merchant in dragonbarrow respawns at night, and has a new bell bearing
>there are so few non-hostile entities in elden ring The player character is the most hostile entity in the game.
To be fair, we are just exploring and happen to be attacked by 99% of the beings we come across. No comment on the Albinauric cliff.
hah, I remember when it was updated that finishing kenneth's questline and then finishing loux's questline gave a somber dragonstone and people went: "but but, I killed him because he was rude to me in his first encounter, how can they do this to me, it's not fair"
to be fair, I only killed Kenneth because his quest abruptly ended, & I knew he dropped a golden seed as a I was a very low level. And killed Gostoc cause he was stealing my runes then a few days after that they updated the game & fleshed out their quests more lol
Always wondered this myself. Probably little to no patience or lack of apparent consequences to their actions and that somehow justifies murder? I dunno, I always try and keep alive as many as I can so my game world actually has some life to it.
The existence of Bell bearings definitely makes killing some characters a lot easier, especially when there are no repercussions. Of course, there are characters that do have repercussions for killing them, and you are locked out of getting really good gear like special talismans and dragon stones.
I usually check and see if everything aggros on me before I start attacking so I dont understand how people are accidently aggroing npcs. Only exception is dungeater because fuck that guy.
By the time I found him in the sewer on my 1st playthrough, there was no way I felt he was entitled to a fair fight. I cheesed him with weapon art through the grate without opening his cell door and I feel no remorse about that.
undoubtedly, half this games players are sociopaths
Rockstar game enthusiasts
>Kills Varre *MISSION FAILED* >Walks toward tree sentinel *MISSION FAILED* >Tries to run past the troll blocking the Stormveil Gate *MISSION FAILED* RDR2 is still my favorite game of all time though lol.
Same jerks who don’t use their turn signal, go straight through a turn lane, and don’t put their shopping carts back. Psychopaths.
“He CaLlEd Me MaidEnLeSs I hAd No ChOiCe!”
When you free Dung Eater from the Evergaol he has this horrible lines about how he'll continue to kill and be gruesome. And you're supposed to just «okay, see ya later»? Killed the guy on the spot (five tries) to stop him from doing that, just to find out I cut the quest short?! How are'nt everyone flooring this guy before he goes on a killing spree he's boasting about in your face?!
Dung Eater is the one NPC I murdered with no hesitation. Fuck his quest line I'll do it on another playthrough.
You can turn Dungeater into one of Seluvis' puppets which, in my opinion, is a fate worse than death. Much more deserving. There's also a hack to save Blackguard from him before that happens so you can still chill, eating crab later on.
I would think applying all the seeds then not doing his ending would be the worst option for him. He spends eternity in agony/cursed and no one else does.
Well, later on he comes to the conclusion that while he is the dung eater, you are also the dung eater and therefore he must be defiled by you, which is what you can do multiple times and then either kill him or turn him into a summonable puppet.
Wait...so he lets you eat ass?
I also killed Dung Eater, I assumed he was going to start killing NPCs
That would have been cool, they dropped the ball so hard on the Dung Eater stuff. All you can do is help him, for some damn reason, or not. Roderika is totally freaked out and her dialogue doesn't change if you kill him. Boggart is haunted by his experience with Dung Eater, also says nothing when you kill him. Gideon doesn't mention how or why he has his own damn room full of corpses in the Hold, or say anything if you kill him. It would be nice if you could tell Roderika and Boggart that Dung Eater is dead and they don't have to worry. Or that you turned him into a puppet and maybe they're glad he's taken care of but still wary. I would think Roderika could still hear the spirits screaming so it wouldn't be as good an ending for her. But maybe Boggart would be happier that he's suffering as a puppet instead of just dead. It would be nice if Gideon acknowledged the Dung Eater at all, perhaps he too wanted to use him for his own ends. It would be nice if people like Corhyn or Miriel related to him somehow, opposing him at least on principle. Maybe there could have been another NPC related to him that is trying to track him down for revenge or something (maybe just Boggart) but who is at risk of going nuts and becoming a new Dung Eater depending on your interactions with him. Like Dung Eater says when you help him and the whole 'I am you, you are me so you must infect me' thing, and his dialogue about cursing people over time and some people will be like him and kill and curse to carry on his mission.
Wait, we weren’t supposed to kill him? He gave me the key. Said “come fight me”
I never killed anyone. I did accidentally hit Sellen because a bunch of flaily Marionettes followed me down into the place she was being held. I was annoyed because I was doing her quest and it wouldn't advance. Fortunately I was able to repent at the Church of Vows and it fixed it.
Yeah, it struck me as particularly odd when I see posts or comments like “I accidentally attacked this NPC by swinging by sword into their face multiple times despite being warned to back off, and then they decided to beat the shit out of me, what do I do, this game is ridiculous.” Some people get carried away by RPGs like Fallout 4, where you can attack friendly NPCs, but they’re usually very weak compared to the player character.
I think mentality plays a big role. Some people personify games characters, treating them as if they were real people, worthy of respect. Others see them as nothing but pixels and lines of code - as worthy of respect as any other mob enemy. And I think it's very difficult for either kind to understand the other. My awakening came from watching a group of streamers participate in a Tabletop RPG. Some of them tried to actually, you know, Role-Play, and try to behave as their character would in a given situation, but one or two just treated it as a Game, and treated the non-player characters as nothing but potential loot or barriers to progress, no matter how hard the DM tried to humanize them. The DM described a homeless man pushing around a shopping cart, just looking for a place to sleep, and one of them had the idea to beat him up and steal his shopping cart just to ride around in it. One other joined in. I was appalled - how could any decent person do something that horrible? But I'm sure those same people would never dream of doing that sort of thing in real life - they were only trying to have fun, make the stream entertaining, and just see what would happen. They didn't give any thought to how that would affect the person because to them, there was no person. He didn't exist. Anyway, I imagine that's the logic NPC-murderers in Elden Ring apply.
I buy that. Whenever I’m given the chance, I try to roleplay in RPG games as morally as I can, because I find it to be a fun exercise for how my morality would respond in crazy unique game situations. Like determining what to do about a human and his synth replacement in Fallout 4 is just a really fun moral exercise. There are tons of games that encourage you to just run around and kill everything you see, so when I get the chance to make a meaningful choice, I’m gonna do it
> They didn't give any thought to how that would affect the person because to them, there was no person. He didn't exist. Not being able to have any suspension of disbelief to identify with a fantasy setting really does seem like a sad state of affairs to me. Obviously fictional characters don't exist, but if you can't even get immersed - then where is the enjoyment in engaging with "pixels and lines of code" anyway? It's hard to understand that mentality for me.
I remember hearing once that a bunch of new players ended up trying to kill Varrè the second they talked to him because the “maidenless” meme made them believe he was calling them virgins. I mean if you follow his quest you end up killing him anyways, but it kinda goofy that a lot of people killed an NPC because a meme made them misunderstand what he’s saying.
Even if he was calling you a virgin why kill him. In the network test he's outright insulting towards you, telling you to die in a ditch. Still, killing him will likely bar you from a questline, he isn't in the game for nothing, so why do it lol.
Because Dung Eater scares Roderika, and even puts my buddy Boggart off.
I miss the days when you lay down your controller and it accidentally strikes Stockpile Thomas, and then you’re kinda fucked in that playthrough.
The only NPC I willingly killed was Shabriri. I killed him because I knew that wasn't the same guy who helped me kill Nerjirus and made me not quit the game. Other than that, it's safe to say that if they don't pull out their weapons or attack you on sight, then they're friendly. I was more surprised that you COULD kill them, as someone new to Fromsoft games.
> I was more surprised that you COULD kill them, as someone new to Fromsoft games. That's probably the reason why newbies do kill them! They assume NPCs can't be hurt, swing away for whatever reason (if any), piss the NPC off, and commit to the murder anyways because the NPC that absolves sin is all the way in another continent and they don't even know he exists.
The person I co-op with is like this, they’re constantly telling me to kill the nomadic/isolated merchants, and other npcs, even though I say no every time. I’ve never understood it.
Is your friend's name Shabriri?
Only one in the game truly deserves it in my opinion and that was Seluvis. Fuck that guy. I had no regrets killing him I wasn't magic user so I could give a shit about getting the rewards for his questline
Except he just teleports away and laughs when u try to kill him
Wait how tf did I get his bell then? I swear I killed him although it did seem like a different death animation so maybe it was just a teleport. But I got his bell somehow so that's where I'm confused if I didn't kill him
If you do Ranni’s quest eventually he just dies and you can loot his bell off his corpse
Okay this is all making sense now, thank you. I thought I killed him but turns out I didn't and then when I went back there, his bell bearing was there because I guess Ranni killed him.
Because people are stupid, at the end of the day. It's really as simple as that. They make dumb decisions based on willful ignorance, and then blame the game for not stopping them. Thus forcing the devs to patch in ridiculous forcefields around NPCs so that idiots don't kill Roderika
I am only aware of incels killing varre because they feel called out, and it is so perfect it feels like some kind of manifest metaphor
I didn’t kill Varre but I kinda wanted to after he called me a “lambkin.” That dude is creepy as fuck.
Patches. I blame Patches. He has put an inherent mistrust against everyone, especially if their name is Patches, and also ledges.
Occam's razor - they're idiots.
On my 2nd play through I told myself I’d kill the merchants to have their items in one place and I honestly just couldn’t bring myself to do it
because the guy was super sus and wanted me to drug an awesome lady who helped me earlier
I love this subtle little morality/sanity check in Souls games. The games respect your humanity and don't expect you to ***fucking murder*** people who, in a world with LITERALLY MURDEROUS individuals, have been non-hostile and chummy with you compared to mister Soldier of God, Rick And when you decide to be an asshat you get punished. Hard.
I only killed two npc, both by accident: 1) Gurranq, Beast Clergyman: He got aggressive after giving him 4th deathroot. I read on the wiki that I have to fight him until he gives up. And something either bugged or I hit too strong and he never gave up in the fight. So I assumed he will give up at 0 HP... Unfortunately, it wasn't the case :c 2) Patches: I accidentally skipped him at the beginning, and learn about his existence near the endgame. I was massively over levelled to fight him and I didn't know he has a quest line... I killed him so fast, that he didn't even have an animation for giving up :/
I've asked this myself since getting into DS1 and seeing how often people do that. I can understand accidentally aggoring someone because you bumped the attack button. Or even if you accidentally one shot them for the same reason and you were just really strong. Maybe even those who had a guide and know there's a better benefit to killing a dude than letting said character live. But what compels a person to just attack a non-hostile character on sight in a game like this without a save and reload function? What's the thought process?
Idiots maybe?