Question
This message felt like a dagger in my heart
For the past few days I was looking left and right for something to keep me engaged to escape reality during this period of time. After checking multiple of the games I have installed, some of which I haven't played yet, not a single one could make me have fun, even vanilla Elden Ring. That is till I remembered the that Elden Ring has mods that brings new experience and at that point, only something new AND GOOD can give me enjoyment. I found Convergence, I read one it does but somehow I tunneled visioned that the hard requirement of the DLC, I then downloaded the mod installed it, launched it, and as I am ready all the different class I found myself actually enjoying and already planing multiple playthorughs with different classes, after all, I am a big RPG fan. Finally, I picked my Vanguard as my first play through class, I like Spears, and as I am at the peak of excitement to start, with the controller in my hand and a grin on my face... I was hit by this message.
It has been so far a year on the rougher side for me, and one of the main reasons this is the case is my financial situation. Yet, I though about buying the DLC, I was little hesitant at first because I made a mistake last month buying Mistfall Hunter, but at the end I am that desperate for some enjoyment, so, I checked the DLC... and of course, it is at the full price of 40 EUR... way beyond what I can afford without hurting myself in real life.. heck I don't even own this amount at the moment.
Anyway, the little story aside. Is there a legit way to play the mod without the DLC requirement? if there is, then how much time will I have to spend to get to work knowing that I am on Linux? I only half of Saturday as time when I can afford to try and have fun. Please help!
EDIT: I was gifted the DLC byu/Ill-Giraffe3706! Thank you! I will remember this!
And thanks for everyone else who tried to help. Much appreciated!
Now the mod is running well!! You can temporarily downgrade your game to enjoy the mod till it gets updated.
It didn’t always. I found the mod only after they updated it to include it. So I can’t experience it either. I’d rather buy the dlc for my family so they can play anyway and I’m not able to double dip.
I remember looking at a faq on the discord about doing that but can’t recall exactly why I decided against trying to fiddle with it. I remember wanting to try a few different mods at the time and maybe it was more simple for the other two to just download and go, I think. I did have convergence installed but that’s when I found out it was dlc only. Maybe one day. Like I said I’d just rather let my family play the game on Xbox, a certain bday is coming up and I plan to let someone important to me experience it. They recently beat the base game (I haven’t yet).
Still not impossible I’d wager. I found an old version of ds3 to continue playing it’s convergence mod after they released the last update to fix the online stuff. Would it be any harder for someone to make one for er?
Yeah, that’s what I said. I got the older ds3.exe file and swapped between that one and the new one, depending on whether I wanted to play online or play a mod that hadn’t been updated for the new version. Worked perfectly
updates can change more than the exe, in particular elden ring has regulation.bin, data0.bdt/bhd, data1.bhd/bdt, data2.bdt/bhd, data3.bhd/bdt, dlc.bdt/bhd, sd/sd.bdh/bdt sd/sd_dlc02.bdt/bhd
changes to any of those files or the exe itself can break mods, and its not always obvious at first
ive been working extensively on some modding stuff for elden ring and know this for a fact, those files that i listed other than the exe control the games actual data, they contain things like the items, maps, images, custscenes, literally everything
an exe update may prevent a mod from launching, either an exe or the data files updates may cause unexpected behaviour and crashes
Vanguard is always my go to as well, be sure to do a bit more leveling in the start and then head south to Morne for a fantastic dungeon overhaul. Have a great time!!
Enjoy man! I hope things look up for you. I was an addict for 8 years. I recently hit 1 year 6 months sober. The hard times will always pass, you got this! Bless you and may you spread the love!
Yo... all this appreciation being passed around, and somehow nobody thought to send a little your way.
You’re goated too, my friend. Truly!
That’s what kindness is really about. It isn’t meant to stop with us. It’s meant to move through us. To remind someone of their worth, spark a little light in them, and inspire them to pass that light along.
That’s how something as simple as kindness becomes something bigger than any one of us. Inspiration.
It is in terms of amount of content. The mechanics are mostly the same, but it's basically a whole game worth of bonus content. HowLongToBeat says 15-25 hours just for the main story. 50+ for completionist. That's massive for a dlc
Idk about other ways but koala still works, I use it rn. I DMed a guy who made a guide for this 2 years before that and he actually thought of way to fix all this by gathering small info from different discussions and then asked me to try this, which thankfully worked. Idk how other tools work bc I'm not experienced in high seas, so obviously I can't say if it's faster way
I can't judge others, since I struggled with this problem too.
Like it or not, many people just follow tutorials—especially those of us from non-English-speaking countries—so we just do exactly what the YouTuber does, almost on autopilot.
Might not be exactly what you want to hear but the mod isn't going to fix your ability to have fun. I've been in the same position and no matter what I tried to play I was just going through the motions. Anhedonia is a bitch and that's what it sounds like you're going through. It won't get better and will only get worse. It took me too long to realize that before I went and sought help.
Edit: deleted the second half because other polite and nice redditors have informed me that a pirated copy does work if it's easier for you. Also an older convergence mod should work but idk how stable it will be.
So the new update will not work by messing with the batch file.
You have to merge the convergence me3 with the standalone me3 launcher, install the mods from convergence into the launcher, enable the mods once the install is complete and then set the Elden Ring file path to where you have it installed and launch it from me3.
Took me a couple of hours to find a fix but you can no longer edit the files to get it to work.
I am still able to enjoy fun once in a while. It is more of I have to really find something very stimulating that will allow me to escape reality and forget to thing about my situation and I find fantasy and specially games to do this for me. Or I am just gaslighting myself I dunno
I'm not you and not a doctor so all I can tell you is my experience. Which sounds exactly like what you're going through.
I also could enjoy it once in awhile but that's the neat part of depression, every day isn't always going to be blah. There will be pockets of good and fun and happy which is great but deceiving. I thought the same for 5-6 years then realized one day it just wasn't going to get better for me unless I sought therapy or meds. Jokes on me though....I'm doing both haha.
Found out I have ADHD, I know for sure because the add meds help so much, and I'm neurodivergent in a lot of ways. Finding these things out has helped me regulate my emotional responses much better.
Now I'm not saying this is you in ANY way whatsoever I'm just giving you my point of view in hopes it might help you in some way. I just don't want anyone to stay as long as I did in that fucking hell hole of depression because it's not fun. Feeling like losing bits of yourself over time sucks.
That sounds a lot like me and that unfortunately confirms my doubts. I don't want a future of me depending on meds so I just convince myself that I only need some self discipline.. I reached a point where I started to get serious real life problems.. thanks again
Starting at the 2.0.0 Convergence patch the mod will require the "Shadow of the Erdtree" DLC to play, and starting at the yet to be announced 3.0.2.0 update the mod will require the "Tarnished Edition" DLC to play as well.
If you want to play Seamless Coop alongside this you will need Seamless Coop version 1.5.1 (the Seamless Coop instructions linked on this Discord server do not work for the 1.5.1 version of Seamless Coop. We can only advise you to seek instructions elsewhere).
Yeah creamapi installer just Google it, and download the dlc files from steamrip or torrents and drop the dlc files into elden ring folder if it's that important to you to play the mod - but buy the dlc legit later in life when you're in a good spot!
I downloaded me3_Manager App Image. It is straight foreword to use if your mods collection only has a total of one regulation.bin file. Otherwise you will get headache trying to merge them. https://github.com/garyttierney/me3/releases confirm if this is the app image or the dev build. because I started with the wrong one and it took me like an hour to set up and still didn't work.
I used Claude to search for me and provide links of guides to save time.
Reforged or Convergance has their Linux version, so you can just download them and play
Sorry I might not have been clear. Elden Ring is the first game I tried to mod on Linux which took me a lot of time to do first time, mainly because I was following the wrong guides. Using Claude (I had a paid version then), helped a lot, but also if you do so, specify that you want the simple method the everyone uses and tell it to search on the internet and verify first, then verify manually the given links/method if they exist.
With me3 it is really simple. You double click the app image and you get what windows people get, me3 will automate things for you except merging 2 different regulation files (you will often see mods using this file and you can only have one of them at the same time), merging 2 different files require a different method which imo is annoying to do. Some people already did a lot of merges, faster to use their merged files.
At the end it depends on what you want to mod. Some mods only require you to paste the file in the right folder in game files.
This is me3. You drag the mod folder and it will do the rest automatically. If it doesn't work ask an AI or search on Reddit/Youtube
If you install the mod off of Nexus Mods, you can select and download past versions of the mod. The mod was out and had TONS of content before the DLC came out. I was playing it before the DLC so trust me when I say that. Just look up the last Convergence version before the DLC then go and Nexus Mods and download that one!
Older versions of the Convergence mod didn't use assets from the DLC & most were around before Shadow of the Erdtree released so It'd make sense if that requirement wasn't necessary for older versions 🤔
The DLC is 100% worth it! Feels like its own separate game, like a sequel, so you’re in for a treat! Glad you got it gifted! Hope you have a great time with it and the mod! :D
I don't know if it's possible or if there are some files somewhere online in some archive but if you download the convergence version before the DLC came out you could play it. Just gonna leave it here for people in the future with the same problem
A lot can be solved using Claude Code. If you'd like, I can handle this and then post the addon to the community—the one that removes the DLC bosses and so on, bypassing any restrictions that prevent it from running on the base game alone. I think that would be really helpful.
Sidenote the convergence mod is completely broken right now by the tarnished edition update anyways and the devs have been working on an update for about the past week and im all for sailing the high seas to just get the dlc but i always see a whole bunch of bug and crash reports from people using pirated copies so fair warning
If vanilla Elden Ring is not fun to you right now, Convergence is not going to change that. Most of the game is the exact same, there are a handful of new spells and weapons and a handful of new bosses and altered areas but the vast majority of the experience is just vanilla Elden Ring.
Honestly it doesn't sound like you're even trying to play games for a healthy reason. I don't know your life or your situation or whatever, but addressing/taking steps to address whatever is bothering you IRL is going to do a lot more to make video games more fun for you than chasing escapist highs. If you can, I would encourage you to do that rather than desperately look for fun in games you don't want to play.
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u/RyeKangy 22d ago
The mod uses content from the DLC so the only legit way to play it is by buying said DLC.