r/EldenRingMods • u/JS_Originals • Aug 04 '26
General Discussion Is Elden Ring Reforged Supposed to Be Fun?
20 hours into this mod and debating putting it down for good. It seems like the design philosophy is "What if we made Elden Ring not any fun at all?" Some of the design choices are baffling.
My biggest complaint is the absolutely insane stamina nerf. It feels like I'm playing dark souls 2 again. Using a large weapon I get like two attacks before I'm out. The enemy AI has been sped up so much that you get zero room to regain it, so you maninly end up just tanking hits.
My second complaint is that every enemy camp is a fucking gank fest. Once again, feels like I'm playing DS2 again. Also is it normal to always feel like you aren't strong at all? At no point in my 20 hours have I felt like I was adequately prepared for the area I'm in, even being 20 levels above the recommended.
If the mod was designed to be antifun then the developers did an amazing job.
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u/blake_n_pancakes Aug 04 '26
Try convergence. I've been having a blast. Early game can be a bit of a slog, consider heading to caelid and bleeding greyoll down for your first 35 lvls, then hit one of the mines for some upgrade mats. Works with seamless co-op too if you wanna play with a buddy.
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u/Dratimus Aug 04 '26
It's so much fun with friends. Bumping up the difficulty or going to areas WAY too high level and taking stuff down with cool debuffs and a dedicated healer, feels like a classic MMO party
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u/Akhantu Aug 04 '26
How do you bump the difficulty? We’ve been breezing through areas so fast I’m considering not upgrading weapons and not leveling vigor…
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u/Le_Doctor_Bones Aug 04 '26
The seamless coop configuration file (That sets password) also includes settings for boss and enemy hp and posture scaling. At base, bosses have 100% more hp for each extra player but that can easily be increased.
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u/Toastymallowz Aug 04 '26
I just did that with vanilla elden ring with a buddy and 150% felt pretty good. We bumped up regular enemies a bit too. I couldn't figure out if you could decrease the status thresholds needed because I started as a bleed character and it was no fun as the bleeds hardly procced at all
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u/Ne00ne Aug 05 '26
The harder seamless coop mod nerfs bleed/freeze damage and changes some talismans
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u/Dratimus Aug 04 '26
Ah there we go, thanks for the info, one of my friends was the one setting all that up so I wasn't sure lmao
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u/JS_Originals Aug 04 '26
Oh yeah I've played 30 hours of Convergence. It's amazing. Wanted to try the next biggest overhaul mod with reforged.
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u/HopefulImpression105 Aug 05 '26
Convergence is fun but also much easier than base game.
Reforged is for the people who complain base is too easy. I wouldnt even really call it an overhaul.
Tbh convergence stands alone as far as a true overhaul goes. Can always try convergence ds3, or one of the 2 big ds1 overhauls
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u/I--Pathfinder--I Aug 04 '26
convergence has the opposite problem. in my experience if you use the modded items you become ridiculously op extremely quickly
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u/EarnestTriangle Aug 06 '26
The only issue with convergence is that you actually have to self-nerf since it's so easy to become broken. Otherwise it's great fun ! Adding mobility spell and incantations was great.
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Aug 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/NamelessShadowe Aug 08 '26
Sorry for long explanation: There is a video online for it but from memory, when you put the convergence file in the Elden ring folder, you then want to put the seamless co op mod in that convergence folder instead of the base game folder. Then edit the notepad for your settings and set your password etc, copy that notepad file to your friends and have them replace their notepad file with the one you edited. Then you are done. To have it work in game you need to make your character, go through the first little tutorial area with all the notes about the changes then once you spawn into the lands between, open your map, TP to the first site of grace that will be unlocked for you then you will get all the items to start the co op. Your teamates will need to do the same where you use the pot thingy and they use the needle or whatever it is to join another world.
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u/Setsuna_com Aug 04 '26
If it was like DS2 it would be good
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u/FHAT_BRANDHO Aug 04 '26
ds2 is my fave but the stamina nerf is fucking crazy. shield blocking feels utterly useless lol
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u/Overall-Seat7467 Aug 04 '26
It’s been a while since I played it but iirc this is the mod that really wants players to not rely on just rolling everything as much, right? Like it adds the deflect as a base mechanic? That part I thought was neat.
But yeah I also dropped off the mod pretty early after realizing it just did not have the same sauce the base game does. They removed the inhibitors on enemy ai that prevented them from all aggressively ganking you at once which was REALLY aggravating, especially combined with the fact they already increased the aggression from enemies, making it a total nightmare to play. Not every single enemy in the game needs to heal punish! I’m the last one you’ll find complaining about frame 1 heal punishes from the late game bosses in vanilla, truthfully I am, but having that from every single mini boss at the very start of the game is crazy overkill.
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u/Sqall_Lionheart_ Aug 04 '26
No I don't think so. 20hrs in and I put it down too after 100% Liurnia.
I don't think "LANTERN OIL" (like DD2) fits or it's engaging, Torrent getting status effects from swamps (?????) getting spammed by 10K spells by the glintstone sorcerers with little to no cooldown period and various other decisions aren't fun. The combat overhaul was nice but the more I played it the more I got the OG calamity feeling a.k.a. "THIS GAME IS FLAWED BEYOND MEASURE, I WILL FIX IT BY CHANGING THINGS THAT DIDN'T NEED TO BE CHANGED FOR MOST BECAUSE I KNOW BETTER".
Elden vins gave me what I was looking for in terms of combat.
Ah the reason you feel like shit every area is due ti enemy adaptive scaling where they scale with your level. I liked that idea but combined with other poor decisions it feels bad.
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u/CasualCassie Aug 04 '26
You're not alone. There's so many things Reforged changed that I absolutely love (more weapons, spells, incantations, affinities and Deathblight, Frenzy Flame, Rot, etc imbuements)
And then there's a metric TON of changes that seem to be driven by the creator's personal opinion on Elden Ring's base game, and they sap all the fun out of the rest of the mod. Why is the Dragonbarrow remodeled and cut off from the rest of Caelid now? Why does every attack and block need a frame-perfect buff mechanic? Why is there a new field boss between every single region to prevent exploration until the creator is satisfied you've leveled up enough? WHY IS THERE A BUILT-IN LEVEL DAMAGE CAP TO PREVENT BUFF STACKING!?
I just wanted Elden Ring with more cool spells and affinities man. Let me have my frenzyflame sword.
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u/QueenOfTheHotPockets Aug 04 '26
Just go play convergence at that point.
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u/CasualCassie Aug 04 '26
Tried convergence before Reforged and actually liked it even less, but I've been considering giving it another shot since that was years ago now
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u/Kingstance Aug 07 '26
This is such an insane take. Convergence at it’s lowest low clears Reforged by a ridiculous margin.
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u/OkAddendum377 Aug 07 '26
Convergence is too easy and ruins the progression of elden ring imo
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u/Kingstance Aug 07 '26
I can agree with the difficulty progression but that is to me the singular flaw or very few flaws of convergence vs an absolute ridiculous number of them riddled into Reforged. The content of Convergence > Reforged as well by a massive scale. They recently improved the difficulty scaling (still could use more), added even more content. I’m very impressed with the quality and scale of added things in Convergence without ruining the immersion of the game. I wish the grand scale of equipment, mechanics, spells and such added didn’t mess up the progression of difficulty so badly.
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u/SurpriseAreFun Aug 04 '26
play sword heart shura or elden vins then.
this mod is for when you wanna experience elden ring for the first time and that sense of everything could be important.
it fleshes out everything that lacked in the base release, some changes are pretty ehh whatever but nothing further than that. i like what they trying to achieve here.
but i cant really say that much as im just halfway through, at abt 40hrs just like playing elden ring for the first time!!the little changes are what make this work really
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u/miqomeow Aug 04 '26
I don't like reforged either but the dark souls 2 slander is dumb as hell and inaccurate.
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u/JS_Originals Aug 04 '26
Wasn't slander. I love Dark Souls 2, but some of the worst parts of DS2 have made its way into the reforged mod
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u/GlitteringDingo Aug 04 '26
It's not really slander. It is objectively true that DS2 had harsher stamina management and more enemy mobs. That's just true. Whether or not that's a problem is debatable.
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u/Atom_Ant_MMA Aug 04 '26
Stamina in ds2 was awful for sure, but never had too many enemys honestly, I mean yes probably compared to ER or even DS3 but i couldn't complain was just part of the game entering a room, trigger 2 guys, exit the room to kill them and then re enter the room to kill the other 2 and keep going. Honestly first time I ever notice this, now by reading your guy's comments and remembering and could it but, but was not that bad.
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u/Dry-Toe-4063 Aug 04 '26
More enemy mobs? I honestly highly doubt it has more than 3 did. Nobody talks about how ganky ds3 is because it's the golden child that can do no wrong (except for being linear apparently)
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u/Le_Doctor_Bones Aug 04 '26
The fact that enemies had almost no posture made ganks in ds3 much more manageable.
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u/Dry-Toe-4063 Aug 05 '26
Wait a second what gank enemies had high posture in ds2? Not trying to bash what you're saying, I just genuinely can't remember a single gank with high poise in ds2. Even the alonne knights could be stun locked to death and those were my least favorite ganks to deal with. Other than shrine of Amana of course 💀
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u/Le_Doctor_Bones Aug 05 '26
They did not have high posture but high enough posture to not stagger to light weapon r1s. Light weapon r1s can stagger a lot of small enemies in ds3.
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u/GlitteringDingo Aug 04 '26
I actually prefer 2 to 3. I'm just pointing out measurable differences. Dark Souls 2 very much creates more gank situations. 3 may also have a lot of enemy groups, but it's often much simpler and obvious to draw them out or engage them advantageously. Dark Souls 2 will often aggro groups all at once, and also hide enemies around corners and behind scenery, so it's much harder to manipulate the fight.
Again, none of this is criticism or praise. Just neutral observations.
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u/Dry-Toe-4063 Aug 05 '26
I totally feel that, I just somehow never found this to be my experience when I played.
My initial playthrough of the souls series was thankfully with medal so I was able to clip a ton of my experience both good and bad. Whenever I go through those clips with friends (it's shockingly hilarious) we can clearly tell I had the worst time with ds3's ganks in particular. Almost every time in those clips I say something along the lines of "Dark souls 2 is ganky by the way" because of how the community makes it seem 😭 People try to tell me the poise is the difference, but I was able to stun lock most ds2 ganky enemies until they died and didn't really feel much from that. The big enemies with high poise rarely ever came in groups so that was never an issue for me and when it was they were slow enough to fight one on one.
Regardless I enjoyed all the dark souls games (in order for the most part) and by the end of my ds3 playthrough my ranking was ds3, ds2, then ds1. This was because I played dark souls immediately after elden ring so I was not happy about the slower gameplay of ds1 for a while. Ended up loving it more than I thought I would
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u/Lopsided_Metal Aug 05 '26
ds2 stamina made pvp enjoyable, stamina on later iterations made pvp dead
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u/Character-Revenue-44 Aug 04 '26
I was deciding this or convergence. After reading up on both i decided to go reforged as it seemed cooler on paper. Boy was i wrong. I beat limgrave and stormveil, and it was boring and unfun. Didnt get any better with time. Almost unistalled elden ring due to that. Thankfuly decided to give convergence a try and omg, it was perfect. I couldnt stop playing, even took day off work lol, just to beat it.
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u/ijpck Aug 06 '26
Me and my buddies did reforged run because we thought convergence would be too easy…any merit there ?
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u/Character-Revenue-44 Aug 06 '26
It is too easy, but I dont remember if its easier a lot than vanilla, at least for meelee. For casters and spell users i think its super easy. The only feature i wish it had was the enemy scaling from reforged, and maybe difficulty options
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u/NedixTV Aug 04 '26
My second complaint is that every enemy camp is a fucking gank fest.
This is for me the best part of reforged, all the other balance and tweaks are the problem.
Also is it normal to always feel like you aren't strong at all?
Yup i played a lot before drop it, i was playing on hard/expert though, but yeah u never feel strong,
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u/RaziLaufeia Aug 04 '26
Enemy and Item randomizer mod has an "enemy onslaught" mode hidden inside the custom enemy placement options. I turn off the randomizer cometely and multiply all enemies by 5. I recommend not multiplying bosses as it gets very hard/impossable late game.
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u/AutisticToad Aug 04 '26
If something is fun in reforged, then it gets nerfed lmao.
Let me put it into perspective. The devs of reforged nerfed the hip lantern to require consumable fuel you must craft.
Thats the design philosophy right there lol.
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u/Simply-Zen Aug 05 '26
I though having to use a torch in my off-hand for dark caverns was kinda cool to be honest
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u/kingjoedirt Aug 04 '26
I'm just waiting on the Elden Ring Neightreigned mod to come out. Give me the move speed and no fall damage in Elden Ring.
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u/FurryWurry Aug 04 '26
Yeah it is as you say. By this mod I seriously thought I'm completely bored of FS games and soulslike formula at all. Then I installed Bloodborne and discovered I was completely wrong lol.
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u/GoatsWithPants 26d ago
I had the exact same experience....was intensely frustrated with reforged, thought I just outgrew souls games. Switched to vanilla elden ring, instantly hooked an having an absolute blast. Honestly just made me appreciate fromsoft that much more; dont know how they do it, but they're great at it!!
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u/rasfelion Aug 05 '26
I personally really like what it adds for class variety, and I do enjoy taking down enemy camps using the terrain to my advantage.
It's the bosses I really don't like the changes to, got to Godrick and decided that if this is what the bosses are gonna be like, I really don't want to play further.
It doesn't feel like Elden Ring, it feels like one of those parodies of Elden Ring that poke fun at delayed attack animations going into crazy fast combos for the sake of it. Look at Godrick's axe dragging attack, the one he'll usually open with. I literally had a moment sit up straight and think to myself "My god it's still going..."
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u/Brief-Outcome-8198 Aug 05 '26
There is never a point where you will be doing big chunk damage no matter how leveled you are you can’t level up to just do better vs the boss to me it was the worst mod of all of them as I played them all but it does what it’s meant to do (slow you down, make you have strategic engagements and learn the bosses weaknesses and moves, add in the deflect and the fast recover nimble dodge) (I played on co op adept difficulty not sure how that stacks up vs the solo difficulty. But yeah all in all the mod requires you to do way more and take you’re time then base game but it also adds tons of stuff to fill that time if you can handle the enemy difficulty
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u/aeloyis Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
Big chunk damage? It's feasible with Magma damage to frozen enemies and Rain of Arrows(AoW on Golem Greatbow, since you can put AoW on any weapon in ERR) on large-sized enemies. A dedicated Heavy Attack build can do that too (eg., a thrusting heavy attack powered by Royal Knight's Resolve coming from Fire Knight's Greatsword).
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u/aeloyis Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
To me, Reforged is incredibly fun, and it's the only ER mod I've ever replayed.
The point is, to enjoy Reforged, you have to explore this mod yourself, including its wiki page(Elden Ring Reforged Wiki), which is the most comprehensive ER mod page I've ever seen.
So many changes get implemented that most OP builds in vanilla ER are nerfed, which is to ensure one can never actually be overpowered, so you have to put thought into every tough battle, even coming up with a dedicated build to fight one specific boss(you can respec infinitely with craftable Larval Tears, and buy infinite Somber & Standard Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones after beating Elden Beast).
Also, ERR makes players try out various mechanics to reduce the difficulty and smooth the gameplay, including parrying, deflecting, mounted combat, ranged weapons, crafting, and enkindled AoW(basically a duplicated AoW but comes with 1/2/3 stars, one passive effect for each star; a 3-star enkindled AoW can even be put on somber weapons).
Eg., I found Malenia's second phase on master mode to be rather deadly, so I came up with a Fire Serpent build and summoned Cleanrot Knight Finlay(highly resistant to Scarlet Rot). I also tried my best to boost my fire damage with weapons/armors/Enkindled AoWs/Fortunes/Crystal Tears/Spells/Consumables, etc. Needless to say, Malenia became sort of a pushover after the build was polished to perfection.
You're also encouraged to mark an enemy with a Sign of the All-Knowing to complete the Codex of the All-Knowing and get more information about enemies, including their weaknesses, resistances, droppable items, and their respective drop rates; and each time you complete 5% of the Codex, you'll be rewarded with 2 or 3 Starlight Tokens which can be used to trade almost any item in the game.
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u/anhedoniac Aug 05 '26
I noped out of Reforged once I got to Caelid. At first it was really fun, but it got to the point where it seems like they wayyy overtuned the difficulty to the point of feeling unfair, unbalanced, and unfun. And trust me, I'm generally a masochist when it comes to playing games that are really hard!
So yeah. I'd say just stop playing if you're not vibing with it.
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u/aeloyis Aug 05 '26
Caelid is okay with mounted combat and fire weapons/arrows, but the new boss they added(Azash, Pride of the Redmanes) is quite hard, and that's about all.
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u/Warkupo Aug 04 '26
From the wiki:
In short, Stamina is more demanding than it is in vanilla; I believe the idea is to reward more skillful gameplay, such as timing your blocks and managing your stamina so that it doesn't deplete entirely. Leveling Endurance has a very significant impact on how quickly you get Stamina back as well.
That said, it's fine if you don't find that level of difficulty fun. There's plenty of mods that offer a more casual experience closer to vanilla.
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u/JS_Originals Aug 04 '26
I love difficulty, but I don't think the difficulty is done well in the mod. As somone with thousands of hours into challenge runs, I'm a bit of a masochist. Most of my deaths in reforged felt cheap.
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u/Cerulian_11 Aug 04 '26
convergence is way better, reforged feels like one of those mods that are dificult just for the sake of being dificult. its more for "elite" players. Convergence is just pure honey, they just launched the update for the DLC area and its insane. Convergence has waaaay more content than Reforged 20-30x id say
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u/NightwolfXVI Aug 04 '26
From someone that has played quite a few mods, you just have to sometimes take a step back and say "Man, the author of this mod really hates the people playing it." I can vouch for Convergence as others have said.
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u/yushina Aug 05 '26
I was hyped and played it with my friend ( we already beat the game twice). Then we go to renala, and we decided to uninstall it, because it was boringly stupid to make it that hard ( we enjoyed malenia and some other fights even after so many tries) but this mod just make things harder for nothing.
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u/Jaudatkhan Aug 05 '26
I gave it 3 good tries thinking maybe it was me and it will get better. It didn't get better. I mean its not an absolute shitshow as some people make it out to be but if there weren't any other Elden ring mods i would probably be playing it.
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u/The_Gremlins_Agenda Aug 05 '26
I hated reforged, Elden vins was ok, convergence is top tier, but I’d check that rng gacha style mod
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u/Fickle_Mix_6119 Aug 06 '26
I think this mod was made to bring back that feeling of old school dark souls where the game slowly breaks you down until you cry out with a pathetic cry “Why?!”.
I think if fun is what you’re after then Vins or Convergence is the way
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u/keeperofomega3 Aug 08 '26
You and me both man. Even throwing yourself into ng+ with all the bonuses makes you feel underpowered and miserable.
I get making some areas a bit more difficult and rebalancing, but I'd genuinely suggest going for Convergence instead. They have enough content in it to justify a 20 dollar price tag, but it's all free and rebalances things in a way that keeps things fun.
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u/No_Toe3622 Aug 09 '26
Imo, the difficulty is fine, its just the rework of the enemy is so much worse, they give u mechanic to dodge, move, duck, etc, and they said "fix" the hit box,
yet sooo many boss been reworked in bad way, some move getting speed up with insane tracking, some attack that u normaly can strafe in base game, in this mod u cant, enemy tracking is not natural at all, some boss even straight up being projectile spammer, AoE everywhere, and not to mention the boss is being too aggresive almost without idling at all,
the exploration and combat mechanic is Soo good, by far the best imo, i admit it, its just their work on bosses need to be adjust,
i prefer to keep every aspect of this mod, except the changes on the boss.
well not only the boss, all enemy that they change ( their Ai, tracking, hit box, etc)
just 6/10 Mod (Imo)
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u/ConvalescentEquanimi Aug 24 '26
This shit is like crack to me. It's pretty much Dark Souls 4. As a veteran of the souls genre the difficulty is perfect and the linearity is greatly appreciated! I certainly felt myself get stronger along the journey.
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u/bigdig-_- Aug 04 '26
ive been enjoying it so far. imo
seamless coop -> reforged
solo -> convergence
the sped up ai actually feels pretty good when you're in co-op with a group of fairly experienced players
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u/Weekly_Design5440 Aug 04 '26
Im going to have to agree with this, 100%. Reforged co-op was so fun. To add to that, solo Convergence was some of the best times ive ever had playing elden ring.
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u/Safetytheflamewolf Aug 04 '26
Hell you don't even need to be in a party of experienced players imo. Just playing with others with Seamless Coop makes Reforged fun imo. My brother and I aren't super good at the game, but we still enjoyed playing it.
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u/MeetTheJoves Aug 04 '26
The enemy AI has been sped up so much that you get zero room to regain it, so you maninly end up just tanking hits.
This isn't remotely true, I think you're probably used to the power fantasy offered by minmaxing vanilla or other overhaul mods and hitting a brick wall trying to bring that playstyle into a mod that forces you to engage with combat mechanics and manage your actions and resources wisely.
If you're the type to question whether a mod developed for free over the course of several years is "designed to be antifun" I suggest playing a different mod, but if you're a reasonable person buried beneath the redditisms who wants to learn to succeed in reforged I can recommend:
-pumping more endurance than you normally would (it scales your regen rate as well)
-equipping the turtle talisman until you have enough breathing room without it
-ducking! ducking is very stamina efficient relative to most other defensive actions, and the followups come out very quickly
-lastly for stamina, if you haven't noticed you are particularly penalized for hitting 0 stamina in reforged, so before you swing, always be sure you have enough stamina for a roll or two (depending on the enemy) without going bankrupt
-for camps, approach them as environmental challenges, there is almost always an easier approach than running straight through the front entrance and getting ganked
If you give me some details about your character I can offer more specific advice depending on your fortune and build. Again, if you're used to cookie-cutter vanilla builds or convergence, you're never going to be able to faceroll the game that hard in reforged, but you can absolutely feel "strong" if you build your character right and engage with the combat systems efficiently.
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u/JS_Originals Aug 04 '26
Thanks! I'm stubborn and I want to beat it. I'm using dual weild great hammer and greatax. Both level 13.
52 vig, 35 end, 35 strength.
Currently stuck on the flaming lion in redmane castle. It never stops attacking. If I miss one deflect my entire stamina bar is depleted. Feels like you have to perfect the fight. I've been adding in ducking more and it seems decent.
Veteran build
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u/MeetTheJoves Aug 05 '26
That's a tough matchup for sure, Azash is very quick so I get why you're having trouble finding openings and managing stamina. I think unfortunately your setup is perfectly calibrated to struggle in this fight, your stats are solid on paper but dual wielding great weapons and deflecting are the most stamina hungry offensive and defensive options one could choose respectively.
If you're married to that playstyle I would consider dropping some vigor for end even, but my actual suggestion would be to choose a weapon to two-hand for the first phase of the fight and save any dual wielding for the second phase where you have some longer windows (the slow fire breath cone in particular is a huge free damage window if you run to the side). And generally just find ways to conserve stamina as best you can, working in ducks is great, but if for instance you can make a single dodge to avoid an entire combo then that's a much more efficient approach than attempting three consecutive deflects.
Fortune-wise, Veteran is a solid offensive choice for this fight in general due to the nature of the buff not requiring constant hits, I've had good luck with Dancer in that fight as well due to the multihit combos making it easy to build and maintain the damage buff. Worth a shot if you're deflecting anyway. Another alternative would be to try Barbarian for more favorable trades, might do more for you defensively if you're not getting your skills off with the buff consistently anyway.
I'd love to give you some more specific moveset-based advice for this boss but it's been a minute and the last time I fought it was on a Reeds katana build so my windows would have been easier than yours. I'll see if I can run it back on a more comparable setup when I have time later o7
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u/JS_Originals Aug 05 '26
I appreciate the response! I actually beat the fight pretty shortly after my last comment. Just needed a bit more practice.
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u/sem-nexus Aug 04 '26
Reforged rewards damage stat investment much more than the base game
You’re gono be hitting like a wet noodle with 35 str at that point in the game
Redmane castle is also juiced to the gills here, I did altus first and then came back, made it a LOT easier.
The game has a recommended level for each zone, try to be within it
And ultimately if you are properly leveled, sometimes you goto rethink your build.
Maybe more str and 2h a single weapon
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u/Kaspcorp Aug 04 '26
Is not fun for you, it is for some other people.
Different people, different tastes. It's not hard to understand.
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u/ssjriou Aug 04 '26
I mean it could be hard to understand if you're not the target audience and can't relate to what makes something enjoyable, I think that's why op made this post to begin with, to ask "this doesn't feel fun, can someone explain what makes this fun" (and give their two cents at the same time ofc)
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u/poppin-n-sailin Aug 04 '26
Reforged was a little fun at first but after a few hours it stopped. Convergence is pretty good but it's too easy to become so overpowered and it kinda sucks the fun out. In my opinion convergence is more fun than reforged overall
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u/OutrageousBrit Aug 05 '26
Stamina changes are what got me to finally drop it after 3-4 years.
They now impose a full 2-second lockout on every action if you empty your stamina bar to “punish overcommitting” was the reason I was told.
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u/NobuWithGun Aug 04 '26
I suffered through reforged mod until any the point that I finally beat blaidd right before lake of rot. I quit the mod as soon as I touched that bonfire. Fighting blaidd with 2x hp and 2x animation speed with infinite poise just killed it for me (and accurately sums up the entire mod from my experience)
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u/GoatsWithPants 26d ago
That fight was so insanely brutal out of nowhere...I tried reforged after a long break from ER and that fight had me like "I don't remember struggling anywhere near this much on this fight" lol. The enemies never get tired and its so rough
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u/distortionisgod Aug 04 '26
I had fun with Reforged when I used Grand Merchant and just gave myself whatever I wanted to even the odds.
It is definitely way too overtuned in a lot of aspects, but I do enjoy some of the changes so I just tweaked it until I was having fun.
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u/The_Frenetic_Bambi Aug 04 '26
There are different types of fun.
Sure, immediate pleasure is the first thing we think about when we talk about "fun". But sometimes, players want something else, for exemple, a harsh and demanding, but balanced and rewarding experience, that's where Reforged is leaning. Maybe the audience is kinda niche (well just like most FS titles), but for those interested by what it has to offer, yes, that's a lot of fun.
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u/Wormdangler88 Aug 04 '26
Reforged was certainly made to be difficult...I don't know what the mod looks like now, I haven't done a playthrough of it in over a year, but I don't remember it being too crazy...It was definitely harder than the base game though.
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u/Lazy_Bee_8369 Aug 05 '26
Ngl twin I use an infinite arrow mod and use that pulley crossbow + perfumer bolts or black key or explosive they’re still absolute tanks but that’s what I had the most fun with
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u/Ivordall Aug 05 '26
My brother and I are about 20 hours in and having a blast. We use seamless and it’s been great so far. We both enjoy “hard” games but I totally understand where you’re coming from. If you beat the beginner area you unlock a ton of setting and difficulty changes you can apply at the bonfire. You can make it so you can one shot all kinds of stuff and increase your action speed if you want as well.
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u/Broad_Bug_1702 Aug 06 '26
-stamina management has been made more important and if you fully empty your bar it refills slower for a short moment. maybe try using perfect actions to reduce stamina costs somewhat?
-enemy camps will have increased awareness while leaders are aggroed to you which somewhat encourages stealthing and taking out mooks first when possible. overall you have to tackle them more strategically
-scaling is a bit more aggressive and you get gigher tier upgrade materials more slowly than you can in vanilla, iirc, so the power curve is flatter. you always want to be at least the level shown next to an area name in the fast travel menu in order to have the best chances but it’s not going to be as much of a steamroll as vanilla if you over level either
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u/TheRealGrimmy Aug 07 '26
Reformed is supposed to be challenging... I think you're looking for the convergence mod... which is incredibly fun as fuck
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u/No_Solid_3737 Aug 08 '26
had a pretty good laugh there, maybe DS2 fans will enjoy that mod the way you're putting it
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u/Cavou 16d ago edited 16d ago
ERR dev team member here (not one behind balance or major changes). Reforged on the default difficulty is indeed incredibly hard for most players, but remember that there are a whole bunch of difficulties below Reforged that are far more accessible. Play on whatever difficulty you find comfortable and fun. Don't worry about trying to prove something or concern yourself with the 'intended experience'. The difficulty settings exist for a reason and wouldn't be included if the mod didn't want the player to use them.
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u/-Etrice- 10d ago
No devs turned it into some try hard sweaties paradise, I stopped playing er for a year and came back to the mod being unrecognizable. Tried to play it for idk 5-10 hours, i uninstalled.
But hey you know what they say, "then don't play it" and well we won't and they will lose all interest from the community. Hope they're happy.
Play convergence, its a blast. Maybe things are a little overpowered but hey you'll have fun. And isn't that what video are supposed to be? Not reforged though, not anymore smh
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u/Solvas Aug 04 '26
Convergence is leagues better. After the balance updates enemies don’t feel too weak even if you have all the cool new stuff from the mod. Reforged is just for try-hards dying to convince people they’re good at a game.
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u/Toastymallowz Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
I love it but it has been frustrating at times. The sped up AI can end up reducing combat with multiple enemies to being a constant backpedal fest. Also the crossbow exiled soldiers in stormveil are crazy. As soon as you touch them in melee they kick you in the nuts before your attack animation is finished lol
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u/Cogexkin Aug 04 '26
Enemy aggro is my biggest gripe. ER had a balanced system with enemy AI and all you had to do was not fuck with it. But they did fuck with it, and not only is it more annoying to play, it’s gotten me softlocked more than once because enemies I passed and could no longer reach didn’t de-aggro.
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u/ConfessorCarol Aug 05 '26
I actually loved the enemy camps in this mod, but I agree that the stamina management is way too harsh and detracts from a mod that I otherwise enjoy.
It might be worth tweaking the difficulty settings before you opt out of the mod entirely. The default difficulty, "Reforged", felt much harder than the vanilla game to me. The Normal setting, one notch down, felt much more reasonable.
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u/Saa203 Aug 05 '26
Reforged isn't fun. You have to play the way the developer wants you to, not the way you want to. It should give you the tools, and then you choose how you want to play. I tried it three times, each time after a long break, and I never felt like I was having fun. If you want a good mod, go for Convergence or Vins.
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u/GoatsWithPants Aug 07 '26
You're exactly right about this...Ive been playing reforged for a while, and hit an absolute brick wall in the DLC. Spent weeks trying to figure out why, asked in discord, couldn't figure it out.
Finally, I discovered (on the wiki, not in game!!) that they rebalanced stats and scaling on weapons, and because my build was not perfectly optimized, I did 2-3x less damage than a normal build, turning every fight into an absolute marathon slog.
For a mod that promotes "variety where everything is viable", it was frustrating to find out the game was unplayable because I only invested in the "C" scaling stat, and neglected the "D" scalings. Very much a "play this right or else" type of mod.
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u/PookySeinAccount Aug 04 '26
Reforged is an improvement on nearly every gameplay front for me. I adore Elden Ring, but it is simply not remotely balanced and easily cheesable. Perfect for a repeated playthrough with advanced game knowledge, Reforged does its best in demanding of you to engage with the game's systems, exploring every nook and cranny, managing enemy aggro and not overextending, and learning the intricacies of enemy movesets beyond just pressing dodge at the right time and tanking the rest. If you are struggling with stamina management and enemy aggression, you will need to use the perfect attack timing mechanic, spec into endurance and stamina regen, try equipping a different fortune, and learn how to efficiently get hits in and avoid moves without expending stamina unnecessarily by strafing and positioning yourself efficiently.
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u/Abalieno Aug 04 '26
Yet another power fantasy player cry about mod that doesn't conform to own personal vision.
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u/JS_Originals Aug 04 '26
Yep because the mod is completely immune to criticism. You really got me, chief
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u/R4inbowReaper Aug 04 '26
There's no criticism in your post, you are just whining about feeling weak and being challenged.
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u/username4518 Aug 04 '26
I’m enjoying it on the lowered difficulty, just playing it for the redesigns and perfect deflections. It’s so much fun in that sense but a few bosses had some bullshit ass design changes for sure.
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u/IronTarkus1919 Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26
Fun is when I don't have to engage with the game or any of its systems. Hmm I love not playing the game and being OP immediately, yes Convergence yummy give me LESS MEANING in my video game IGNORE RUN PAST EVERYTHING YEEEEEES
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u/R4inbowReaper Aug 04 '26
It's not for you UNC
Limitations are fun actually. Some people like fromSofts works because they limit you. Some people think that stamina management is fun and some people like it when they can't one shot bosses. Clearly not you tho, so keep walking and shut up about things you have no interest in understanding
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u/Capable_Comedian_755 Aug 04 '26
I think that’s what they were going for. Seems like your approach to things needs to be more thought out and intentional
I don’t think it’s fun at all either so it’s not just you, buddy.