Oh God, He's Ranking The Elden Ring Caves... 

Accidentally cut off the first .5 seconds of the video. Please forgive my lapse in judgment.

Honestly I was pretty disappointed with the altering armor. I was expecting to add cool pieces to it that add buff but instead all I got was an Edna Mode needle that said "NO CAPES"

The Runebear having almost twice as much hp as Maliketh killed me... In-game too.

The hanging astel in Old Altus Tunnel is the same one as is in the Perfumer's Grotto. Meaning if you kill it in one, it won't bother you in the other. Neat detail

"When the best item in a whole-ass cave is pottery..." That's pretty much the essence of real-life archaeology right there.

Not that the lakeside crystal cave itself is special, but it is the cave that leads you to Latenna, which gives it value. The bloodhound knight is there because it was sent by Gideon to try and get info on the haligtree medallion from her

A fun fact about the cleanrot knight in stillwater cave - the reason he drops the winged sword talisman is because he uses it! all of malenia's cleanrot knights were gifted winged insignias signifying their devotion to her, and you can actually see the attack boost they get from the talisman during gameplay! just a little thing most people wouldn't notice, but it has really fun and interesting lore implications. Classic FromSoft.

One detail I really like is that Altus Tunnel and Perfumer's Grotto actually connect in the middle where the Astel is. Killing him in the Grotto will give you an easier time looting the area in Altus Tunnel. I would have given them both a point for this.

Ruin Strewn Precipice was so good it felt like I walked in to a Zelda dungeon

Worth noting that while the Dark Moon Greatsword is slightly technically different from the Moonlight Greatsword cameo, the Golden Order Greatsword is implied to just straight up be the Moonlight Greatsword as it's a corruption of the sword Rennala gives to Radagon as her consort. Ranni is Dark Moon and Rennala is Moonlight.

18:23 - I actually really like this in conjunction with the rest of the level, because it demonstrates that the Gael Tunnel was built and directed to keep out intruders from Limgrave to the west. Presumably, the Redmanes in Fort Gael had a good hold of that whole western stretch of Caelid before it became Dog Country and losing that hold of it is what allows the Tarnished to slip in through the back entrance. The Redmanes are legitimately fierce unlike how the Godrick and Cuckoo factions have been portrayed to that point, but finding an opportunity to get a leg up on them like that gives the Tarnished the chance they need to take them out and move up in the world.

Of note, for the Flamedrake talisman, it prevents most classes with their base kit from being one shot by Agheel's breath attacks. Not incredible, since those do tend to multi hit, but I like that it works out that way.

I also love the Ruin-Strewn Precipice. The items, the functionality as an alternate path to Altus, the atmosphere, the enemy variety. It feels more like a mini dungeon than just another cave

Cave of the Forlorn is actually one of my favorites, definitely in the top three. I mean, there's a frozen dragon, a FROZEN DRAGON, right there that you can look at to your heart's content to drink in all of the little details that you can't normally notice with it trying to bite your face off and all. How did it wedge itself into this tiny cave? How did it get frozen so suddenly; what kind of meteorological catastrophe happened there? AND THEN. There's the whole second layer under the ice that you can look up or down into and see the other side. How awesome is that? It's just so pretty and almost serene. And then the final boss drops a badass-looking greatsword. But then you look at the greatsword and see, oh, there's some lore attached. Why did Radagon cast it away? How did it end up here? Was this the place Radagon left it at? I dunno, I just love it. I make sure to visit at least once a playthrough. The rest of the drops are meh and I don't ever really use the greatsword, so it's kinda useless, but I just really dig the atmosphere; it raises so many questions and I love trekking through it while I make up theories about it. As for the lack of enemy variation, well, it's the Cave of the Forlorn. The misbegotten seem pretty forlorn to me. It's THEIR cave.

This video does a really good job, because it simultaneously makes me want to explore the caves I never went to, while also making me want to avoid them at all costs.

Patches leaving the Radahn fight for me was one of the most comical things in the game. You summon him, he looks around and just goes "Ah hell no".

Beast Champion Armor getting unaltered is actually fantastic. The cape looks great, and the stat improvements leave it in a pretty good spot.

Oh boy! I can't wait to watch a 40 minute video about ranking things in a game i don't even play! My favourite! (This isn't ironic, i love watching these)

The winged sword insignias are associated with Millicent's questline because Millicent and her questline are related to Malenia. The cleanrot knight is there because Malenia marched her forces through Liurnia on her way to Caelid, which is written about on a nearby sword memorial. There is lots of poison because poison is a lesser type of rot, as stated in the poison mist item description. It's not scarlet rot because it's just some random cleanrot knight, not one of the goddesses.

i know a lot of people hated these and the catacombs and the other dungeons, but in my playthrough i told myself i wouldn't use any metas or grind, so i spent a ton of time in these small dungeons and had a ton of fun.

When they'd initially said you'd be able to alter armor, I had been so *monumentally* hyped at the prospects for fashion, because I thought you'd be able to change colors at the very least. Instead, all I got was "cape or no cape." And everyone knows capes are objectively cooler, so why even add the option?

Funny how you mention that you’re not going to find Blackreach in Elden Ring when the Siofra River valley is literally ER’s version of Blackreach.

Stillwater Cave is actually really well put together in terms of environmental storytelling. The mushroom-head enemies are called Servants of Rot > the Sage Set is worn by Gowry refers to himself as part of the "children of the scarlet rot" > the Winged Sword talismans are connected to Millicent, who is the daughter of Malenia > the Cleanrot Knights are Malenia's army.

Im pretty sure that bear was designed to not be fought on purpose so you engage in sneaking in what feels like a scary movie. I found it quite exciting.

i actually love the cave of the forlorn. the atmosphere is amazing, and a love the way it looks and the enemies all being sitting or floating. the visual design and atmosphere is just outstanding and really shows how all of the residents have given up hope.

So in Dragonbarrow Cave... did... did the Rune Bear with insane stats facing away with a very specific patrol route and with patches of tall grass everywhere NOT tip you off that you're intended to just sneak past it?

My theory for the Beastman in the Groveside cave is that he fell down on one of those giant ruin fragments and somehow survived and his being in the cave is our little foreshadowing of what's to come

12:57 I'm pretty sure Miyazaki has said how much he loves to put poison swamps in his games, despite the fact they're everyone's least favorite areas.

14:00 The Bloodhound Knight in the Lakeside Crystal Cave actually makes a lot of sense. He was likely hired by Gideon to track down Latenna, as she is hiding right behind the boss room. Gideon tips you off to her location if you come back after finding the Albinauric Village and getting the first half of the Haligtree medallion there. The Bloodhound Knights are considered traitorous and can likely be hired by crooked individuals such as Gideon.

“Grab a beer, maybe some Cheetos or even a blanket” Me, with a beer and Cheetos, laying on the couch with a blanket: 😳😳😳

Quality content man...

I played dark souls again recently and it really shows how far elden ring is compared to fromsoft ten years ago. there was hardly any extra areas. we need to be thankful of the diversity and effort that has been put into this game.

The one thing that might make me forgive the second Astel is if instead of him just standing there he does the unused meteor dive animation through the wall at you, which I'm pretty sure isn't even unreasonable since it's by a cliff.

the invisible black knife fight is my most memorable part of my first run through. Was my first ever black knife fight and got insta killed on my first encounter. Couldn't track well in the water. But I killed the npc who gives you the +7 halberd and stood in the middle swinging it around until the assassin died and it filled me with so much joy

After that loving description of the leather armor I would kill for a video where you talk about more armor like that. Give us the elden ring style page!

I actually really like the Gaol Cave. Genuine nice surprise when I discovered it earlier today without even knowing it existed. The implications of zombies being burned in cages is pretty creepy and the presence of the Vulgar Militia further emphasizes that whatever they're up to, it's some nasty shit. Plus, I'm a sucker for the Duelist bosses. Always found em pretty fun.

I keep forgetting how many gosh-darned caves are in this game! Mad props, dude, for how much time you put into this. There's definitely a wide range of pain to be found in these things, and you've managed to perfectly encapsulate them all. Great vid, man!

coastal cave, minimal as it us, really is too good for this game. an attached npc quest line! Hope you don't expect more of that. Two exits vonnecting different areas! Hope you don't expect more of that. A big interesting boss room with multiple bosses and smaller adds that don't all immediately aggro at once so you can make some tactical choices, even utilize a but of stealth, to help divide a potentially overwhelming encounter into manageable chunks! Hope you don't expect more of that! not much treasure, sure, but it's also short & doesn't overstay its welcome.

I appreciated your fond summary of the ruin-strewn precipice

I think Earthbore cave is probably very dull for an old Souls hand, but consider it from a newbie's perspective: You find a strange ghost that slowly leads you to the entrance. You go inside, and there's a ch... oh shit, you've fallen through the floor into a nest of rats in the dark! You flail around, but hey if this is like any other game you're just gonna head back up, right? Oh... there's a boss gate here... and it's a giant bear. If you're new to Souls games, and you're low-ish level (as you might be when you head down south), this is definitely a great intro to FromSoft's sense of humour. YMMV :)

I don’t even play elden ring anymore but I like watching these

Playing through the game, fighting naturalborn astel for the first time, it was one of the coolest fights I've ever seen, and then when i found the yelough anix tunnel, it made the whole experience just feel cheapened.

For Stillwater cave (11:58), Millicent is a clone of Malenia, blade of miquella. So the clean rot knight at the end is ties in because he is one of Melenia's knights. That is also why the poison ties in because it is a lesser version of rot.

I refuse to believe a living breathing human being actually uses knife consumables in this game "hmm yes yes bone darts, quite an useful tool when I'm in a pinch" who says that, ever?

sham-shir (say it like "sham"-"shear"). it's basically translates to sword. the one ingame is staple iranian curved sword. also the reason people struggle with it is cus iranian words have connected letters and depending if it is connected or not you will read that part together or with a pause.

That baby Astel in Perfumers Grotto is actually the same one as in Altus Tunnel. If you kill it in the Grott you can climb the Tree in the Tunnel without getting pelted by rocks.

The worst part of the Dragon Communion altar in Limgrave is that there's a significantly better one in Caelid. You just have to get through Caelid. Sham sheer Rot and poison in Elden Ring(and Dark Souls, excluding Rot) are both representative of still waters in real life. The winged sword insignia itself is not related to Millicent, but Malenia. The Rotten Winged Sword Insignia is similar to the regular one, but I imagine the true insignia is what the Cleanrot Knights are more likely to have, while the rotten ones are related to the Valkyries. How could a Cleanrot Knight be standing in a poison lake? My guess, Malenia is resistant to poison. Maybe her knights are as well.

I went back to watch this for nostalgia, and I realized that the section at around 6:48 has a similar energy to: "Crazy? I was Crazy once. They trapped me in a room. A rubber room. A rubber room with Rats. The rats drove me crazy. Crazy? (You get the idea)"

Ruin-Strewn Precipice is great because it doesn’t have “Tunnel” or “Cave” in its name! 😂 Technically a minor dungeon but nonetheless I also loved it and was very memorable for me

Totally agree about ruin-strewn precipice. Im glad i decided to go that way on my first playthrough. Super difficult but a really majestic and unforgettable experience

"-1 to -10 based on how shit they are" Honestly couldn't have said it any better good job

Great video. I remembered you were the one who brought attention to Waves of Darkness not working. I was so happy when they fixed it

Beastman of Faram Azula likely fell from the sky with the other ruins of Faram Azula that are right next to the cave. It always makes sense with From.

The reason why the Runebear has 18k HP is because while this is technically Caelid, it's actually deep into Dragonbarrow. Caelid (non-Dragonbarrow) is around mid-game (lvl 60+), but Dragonbarrow is end-game (~lvl 120+, managable earlier, but the scaling is actually that high). You can look at it yourself by comparing the Radahn Soliders. The ones in Caelid die quickly by a few hits, but the ones in Divine Tower in Dragonbarrow will take a ton of hits. Also when I was lvl ~90 or so and found that one Bell-bearing hunter he literally two-shots even with good armor, lol.

Don't worry, Rusty. Any kind of jump over a very high gap in a cave just freaks me out to the point where I mess it up at least once, if not three times, too.

Just to comment this, the cleanrot knights are wearing the insignia, if your hit by their rapiers triple stab, they get buffed for each consistent hit.

RUSTY GIVE ME YOUR CHARACTER SLIDERSSSSS😭😭😭

The Runebear was a bane of my existence. I ecnountered it as a farily low level character but I was so hellbent on killing it, I spent like an hour on devising dirty tactics to finally beat it.

Highroad Cave was actually the first cave I encountered in the game, surprisingly

Honestly I didn’t even know Highroad Cave existed until after I’d already beaten the entire game and was going through my mission to get the Blue Dancer talisman for a build I was making (it wasn’t a good one in hindsight), but seriously one of my favorite delves in the game.

14:31 Thank GOD I'm not the only one who thought this. On my first playthrough of Elden Ring I went up until I reached the mountaintops of the giants using a +8 weapon, and frankly that hurt.

Your content is always a treat to watch, keep up the good work man

16:05 I was playing with a buddy when we came across this cave, and I saw those figures in the distance. "Bro, they have fucking Ring Raith's here." My disappointment was immeasurable when they turned out to be the same enemy we had fought through for the past hour.

My goddamn hero. Also i'm generally a big defender of repeat bosses in this game but i do agree about the astel points. That seems a strange boss to reuse in such a seemingly insignificant area.

i particularly like the first cave, because i love the dragon incantations and you can acces them quite early in the game

I feel like "caves" and "tunnels" are pretty different styles of dungeon, both in thematics, drops, and whether or not they can be seen on the map

Fun fact about the Regalia of Eochaid: you don't even need to go through Gaol Cave to get it. There's a way to carefully parkour up the cliff face using Torrent and just barely arrive where the sword is

The worst part of Gael tunnel is when I'm not paying attention (which is always) and drop myself in it when I'm trying to go to Caelid. Now you have to go all the way through the fucking thing to escape since you can't fast travel from inside.

Rusty ahead in short, good content

this take on ruin-strewn precipice resonates so hard with me - still absolutely one of my favorite parts of the game

Somehow, gaming videos are the fastest place to find yugioh jokes recently. As a player, it’s pretty neat.

I'm so upset you didn't give the 3 rotted crystallian cave a -100 because that fight gave me night terrors

Rusty's best intro to date: Helikopter helikopter

Rusty, you become more relatable with every video. Thank you for feeling like a real person

They picked the bloodhound knight for a boss in the cave as they are hunter trackers and it was hunting the NPC on the other side of the fog gate for her half of the medallion

Astels are essentially just cosmic bugs and are the final evolutionary form of the little exploding rock piles and rock worms you find around evergaols and various other places. Second form is the Falling Star Beast. I don't know if there's actually any in game item descriptions that reference this being the case, but I think the visual similarities and fact that they all use gravity magic are too significant to ignore.

On my first playthrough, I loved exploring every single cave exclusively because I am in fact a loot goblin, and just wanted more shiny stuff to add to my inventory. Now they suck. I can appreciate the work FromSoft put into them though, all 2 hours.

I like how he says you get spear7 and then tells you you can spare patches lol. Most people do the opposite that's why I like him

The ruin strewn precipice area is in my top 5 areas of the game. Don't know why I just love it

The reverb through wall jazz guitar in this video drove me more insane than platforming down to the three fingers did.

22:50 the gold scarab is probably THE #1 BEST TALISMAN. Do you like runes? Do you like leveling up and upgrading your gear? Use the gold scarab for 20% more runes! And it stacks MULTIPLICATIVELY with the gold foot! 56% MORE RUNES when combined

Best use of armor tailoring is putting the cape back on the beast champion armor

Rusty i cant explain how amazing your script writing and delivery is, great work man!

Rusty will forever have the BEST commentary 😂

I think this is one of the most unhinged elden ring videos on youtube. I can't stop watching it

after too many hours in elden ring, I am shocked to find out that I did not know that the altars in the duo crystalian fight could be used to block projectiles in the academy crystal cave.

“MEEquella” fucking killed me 😭 I know rusty doesn’t have the best grasp on the ridiculous elden ring names (shamshir is a good example) but damn I went crazy. Hilarious.

Did you really like elden ring?

I liked that you said "what is with fromsoft games and stinky ass floors" when Miyazaki literally said in an interview he loves to make poison swamps.

Honestly I think I could have forgiven the second Astel being in the mountaintops if it was a part of Ranni's questlines. Like some bullshit about how her and Godwyn both died at the same time, and so needing two Malformed Stars to die in order to do some wack shit. I still would have preferred that Astel stay unique to the Lake of Rot though, seeing it in the snowfield was the only time in all my time playing Fromsoft games where I out loud shouted "Are you fucking kidding me"

"Its nothing too shit-encrusted but it IS well within smell range" poetry

Dragon communion church is one place that hasn’t been useful to anyone since their first playthrough. You can get to the cathedral within 5 minutes of spawning in limgrave and have 5 dragon hearts from greyoll plus access to ALL the spells.

I feel like this video shouldve had a small segment at the beginning where you sighed really loudly and then pull out a comedically large sized bottle of vodka and then said "ohh boy im gonna need this!" while frowning and looking into the camera.

Really wished you showed where each one was on map, Rusty! Great video (like always) elsewise tho

I completely forgot about the Dragonbarrow Cave! Worked my way there, made it all the way to the boss fight, and wrote all those runes off as a lost cause after about 10 attempts. I bet that now I'm high enough level to go back for some sweet revenge...

"I'm never going to find Blackreach in here" But... The River Wells are literally that...

There are actually, in fact, several 2400 attack samurai in yugioh which makes that quippy tangent extra funny

Ive spent a lot of this video going, "thats a cave?" And then going back, finishing, and returning.

patches is like that one friend you've known too long to get rid of and they take advantage of that to fuck with you

Somewhere, there's an alternate time line, where he did rewrite that joke to be, "If there was a Shard for every month, we'd need three more egotistical Roman Emperors"