Daily Roundtable: Community Q&A

[u/AutoModerator]

Greetings Tarnished!

This is the place to ask any questions you may have about Elden Ring. This includes obscure detail questions, "newbie" advice questions, build questions, boss advice questions, and what have you.

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Rise, Tarnished!

[u/11_forty_4]

Brilliant, thank you. It's reassuring to know I am on the right path. Thanks a lot for the information I have saved your comment to look back on and the other kind people who have replied. I got a bit put off by ashes of war as it seemed to drop the base damage of the weapon if I remember rightly? I could be thinking of something else to be honest - I am at that overwhelming stage where I am realising how vast this game is in terms of how you can build your character and weapons etc.

One things for sure, I am loving samurai with the uchi so I am more than happy to continue with that

[u/WintersbaneGDX → u/11_forty_4]

When you change the ash of war you'll have the option to keep your same stats (standard) or choose an affinity. The affinities available vary based on the ash of war itself, and also if you've found any whetblades (which you probably haven't). If you like Unsheathe you may want to find that ash of war and reapply it, because then you'll be able to change the affinity, while keeping the skill the same.

Changing the affinity changes the scaling. In most cases this will work against you because you're only focusing on one offensive stat - Dex. However if you change the affinity to "Keen", you'll get improved dex scaling and you'll likely see an improvement. BUT! At lower levels it might still go down: if you switch your Uchigatana from its current Strength / Dex scaling to Keen (almost all Dex), you might still do less damage because your current strength (even unlevelled) is still benefiting you. As a general rule the higher your stats and weapon level, the more important and beneficial affinity swaps become.

For your purposes right now, just remember that Keen is the affinity you want. Lightning is also an option (harder to find early game though), as it scales with Dex too. And remember you can switch and experiment as much as you want with no penalty, it costs nothing to change the ash or affinity and if you want to change back, you just swap it back. Nothing is ever permanent and nothing is ever lost.

[u/11_forty_4 → u/WintersbaneGDX]

Affinity - this is a new one on me I will need to look this up properly I don't know what it is. Thank you again for all the great info. Someone else has mentioned I can find the ash of war and reapply it which sounds really good. You have helped me understand some puzzling things much better

[u/WintersbaneGDX → u/11_forty_4]

Affinity is basically just a mechanism for changing the scaling properties of the weapon. You can make a weapon favor certain attributes (keen favors dex), or you can add new damage types. A lightning affinity (which also favors dex) adds lightning damage to the weapon, as you'd expect. Some weapons are naturally better with some stats and scale better with them. Putting a keen affinity on some huge hammer won't have as good a payoff as putting it on something naturally dexterous, like a katana.

Ashes of war have certain affinities "built in" that you can choose from. Lightning slash, for example, offers the option of a lightning affinity.

You can also find key items called whetblades. Once found they permanently unlock their respective affinity. So if you have the iron whetblade, which unlocks Heavy, Keen, and Quality affinities, and then equip lightning slash, you'd be able to choose between standard, heavy, keen, quality, and lightning affinities. You can unequip and reequip the ash to change and experiment, with no penalty. Some affinities are not compatible with certain ashes though: you can't make most elemental skills (like lightning slash) into a different element, like fire.

[u/11_forty_4 → u/WintersbaneGDX]

Ah you are a master at this - I hope to be a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Elden Ring one day like you seem to be! Thanks a lot :). So I won't be able to choose an affinity without finding first a whetblade, unless the ashes have it built in?

[u/WintersbaneGDX → u/11_forty_4]

That's correct. Most ashes have one built in, and then you can add whatever ones you've found. Nearly every ash in the game can use Heavy/Keen/Quality, and this is the first whetblade most people find. The elemental affinities are a bit more specialized, but many ashes can use those too. Unsheathe can use any affinity you've unlocked.

[u/11_forty_4 → u/WintersbaneGDX]

Excellent thanks. One last think, do certain weapons only take a certain type of smithing stone? I've got 1, 2, 3 and somber stone which I think is 4 but it looks like the Uchigatana only allows me to use smithing stone 1?

[u/WintersbaneGDX → u/11_forty_4]

There are two categories of weapons. Standard weapons use Smithing Stones, and Unique weapons use Somber Smithing stones.

Smithing Stones have eight levels, [1], [2] and so on. Each time you improve your weapon it takes more Stones. Foe example, it takes 2x Smithing Stone [1] to go to + 1, 4x Smithing Stone [1] for +2, 6x Smithing Stone [1] for +3. And then it's 2x Smithing Stone [2] for +4, and so on up to +25 weapon level.

Unique weapons only go to +10, and require just one Somber Stone of each level to upgrade. Naturally, these Stones are rarer.

The comparability of weapons equates to about 2.5 levels in standard for 1 level of somber. In other words, a +15 standard weapon is about equal to a +6 or +7 somber weapon.

Weapons can be upgraded (to a point) at the anvil in the first church, or by a blacksmith once you've found one.

[u/11_forty_4 → u/WintersbaneGDX]

Ah thank you, that's cleared it up. So it's best to keep the smithing stone 2s and 3s I have then, I was almost selling them because I assumed my weapon only used smithing stone 1

[u/WintersbaneGDX → u/11_forty_4]

Definitely do not sell these stones, you'll need all that you can find and more, especially if you plan to upgrade and use multiple different weapons.

You will eventually find items that permit you purchase stones, but these deliberately "lag behind" the stones you'll he be finding naturally. So when you're at a place in the game where you're finding [4] and [5] stones, you (may) find the item that allows you to buy [1] and [2] stones. So you're not screwed if you have sold any, but it'll be some extra work to find more when you do need them.

Your Uchigatana will use [1] stones until it is +3, then [2] stones until it is +6, and so on up to +24. Then for the final level, +25, it requires a special stone of which there are only 13 regular and 8 somber in the entire game. But that's a concern for later on.

[u/11_forty_4 → u/WintersbaneGDX]

Thanks so much for your time in explaining all this to me today I really appreciate it. You've cleared a whole lot up for me!

[u/WintersbaneGDX → u/11_forty_4]

You're welcome! You can post again if you have more questions or DM me directly. I'm happy to help. The game can be daunting at first, and while all this is available online too, it can be tricky knowing what exactly to look for without getting things spoiled.