I'm back in the twisted, blood-stained throes of Elden Ring. Truth be told, I've never really left but with news that its Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is officially landing in June, and the fact that you need to have reached Mogwyn Palace and have defeated Mohg Lord of Blood in order to access it, I've returned with work to do.
In my almost-400 hours roving the Lands Between from pillar to post, I've finished the main storyline a few times at this point. But before the Elden Ring DLC was officially unveiled, the character I'd intended on pushing into the game's first slice of added content had only just entered New Game Plus (a warrior mage-faith build with a penchant for dragon incantations, in case you were wondering), meaning I had Renala, Godfrey, Morgott, and a trip to the Mountaintops Of The Giants, and then the Consecrated Snowfield all ahead of me in order to actually reach the house of Mohg. I'd then need to take him on and, of course, defeat him.
All of which I managed to rattle through in one sitting. And I couldn't have done so without… me.
Me, myself and I
This isn't some ego-driven arrogant rant, by the way. Through hours of punishing wins (and many, many losses), I have turned into a fairly decent Elden Ring player, but when I say me, I mean a version of myself. In Elden Ring, I'm referring to my Mimic Tear Ashes +10 summon – whereby a quick ring of my Spirit Calling Bell beckons a stats-matching doppelganger of my aforementioned warrior mage-faith-dragon build, who fights alongside me in the fiercest of forays.
Spirit Ashes in Elden Ring are essentially companions that can be called to aid you in combat, often mimicking the Lands Between's fallen enemies. From Lhutel the Headless to Black Knife Tiche and Redmane Knight Ogha, I've flitted between my favorites at any given time. Since picking up the Mimic Tear Ashes, however – deep within the Night's Sacred Ground in the bowels of Nokron, Eternal City – I haven't looked back, calling on my relentless twin at every opportunity; almost always sending them in first while I analyze the battlefield and watch my pal take a hiding.
This tactic is something I love in action RPGs, and role-playing games in general. After Suikoden, the original Final Fantasy 7 was my favorite role-player in my formative years, and, like most people in the west, was also my introduction to Square's enduring series. The likes of Suikoden boasted an impressive suite of magic options, but FF7 was the first game I'd ever played that employed summons. Being able to call on Ifrit, Shiva, Hades and more to do my bidding in battle blew my mind, and the discovery of Mime in the latter stages of the game (which let you cast the same summon multiple times) made me feel like an absolute god. Combining this with HP Absorb, Counter (Mastered), W-Summon and the Knights of the Round materia, and… well, I'm sure you get the picture.
"And as my sorcery skills grew throughout the Dragonborn's quest in The Elder Scrolls 5, so too did my desire to draught in inter-dimensional daedra to fight on my behalf"
As a Skyrim mage and esteemed College of Winterhold alumni, the Conjuration school of magic was, of course, my area of expertise. And as my sorcery skills grew throughout the Dragonborn's quest in The Elder Scrolls 5, so too did my desire to draught in inter-dimensional daedra to fight on my behalf. I started out small, summoning Familiars, Skeleton Minions and Flame Atronachs. I then began calling on Arvaks and Dark Seducer Warriors, and, after hitting level 100 before long (thanks to the long-since patched Oghma Infinium glitch), I had an Arniel's Shade and an Unbound Dremora by my side. I was virtually unstoppable.
Away from the action RPG space, I've long leapt at the chance to summon creatures to help me out in trying times. Among my favorite examples of this, in fact, is in BioShock 2 where an upgraded Hypnotize Plasmid trait can help you make friends with Splicer enemies and the hulking, dive suit-wearing Little Sister protectors, Big Daddies. There really is nothing like charging up a few Hypnotize Plasmids and taking down gangs of adversaries with your own bad-guys-gone-good army. Of course, you’ll want to stay stocked up on EVE so as to avoid being caught on the back foot when the spells wear off – but a quick rinse and repeat starts the whole process over again.
And so, here I am, counting down the weeks and days until the arrival of Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, having reached where I needed to be in one night, having set myself three months to do so. Part of this is down to the fact my warrior-mage-dragon-lover is level 154 with 60 Vigor, 60 Intelligence, 35 Mind and 35 Faith under the hood – but the main reason I've blasted through this instance of Elden Ring New Game Plus is down to my doppelganger, my backup, my summon, my go-to RPG magic spell. My hero.
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