Salt and Sacrifice |OT| A New Era of Seasoning

[Digital Dinosaur]

I'm enjoying the game and I don't mind the mage hunts at all so far. That may change later, but right now we're having fun. Playing Salt and Sacrifice in co-op and I recommend it over singleplayer if you're able to.

The multiplayer in this game is so much better than the souls series. It's basically full co-op without any real limitations.

None of that "you can't open chests while in a multiplayer session" nonsense.

None of that getting banished back to your world after a boss fight, ridiculousness.

None of that "you can't use a mount while playing with others" foolery.

Nothing seems to be really barred when you're playing with others, the way it should be.

You can visit each other's hub, go directly to a level with your partner, make progress. It all just seems to work.

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These are all great points. I bet the Monster Hunter aspect demanded the co-op not really work like Souls games. It would have to be more like MH for sure.

I am looking forward to playing through entirely co-op with my SO. Funny if this game ends up being the one that's great for co-op and the original better for single player.

 

[xpownz]

The PVP is insanely good.

Won some 1v3 and 1v4 and had a BLAST

and yes, everytime I invade a blue sentinel comes to add to the fun

 

[Kalentan]

Enjoying the game thus far, though there is little things here and there that have me concerned.

 

[AuthenticM]

I'm enjoying the game and I don't mind the mage hunts at all so far. That may change later, but right now we're having fun. Playing Salt and Sacrifice in co-op and I recommend it over singleplayer if you're able to.

The multiplayer in this game is so much better than the souls series. It's basically full co-op without any real limitations.

None of that "you can't open chests while in a multiplayer session" nonsense.

None of that getting banished back to your world after a boss fight, ridiculousness.

None of that "you can't use a mount while playing with others" foolery.

Nothing seems to be really barred when you're playing with others, the way it should be.

You can visit each other's hub, go directly to a level with your partner, make progress. It all just seems to work.

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does the coop partner retain any progression they do while cooping?

 

[Artorias]

does the coop partner retain any progression they do while cooping?

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Far as I've seen I've retained all of my progression. Like, we opened up the portal to a new area and I have access to it in my main game.

 

[Kalentan]

Question, how do you rechallenge a Mage Hunt? I want to fight the Fire Mage but don't see the option to do so again?

 

[RedMercury]

I really liked the first game, I am bouncing off this one. I am having difficulty with the controls, the art style makes it hard to tell what I am looking at, I can barely do anything without running out of stamina at the beginning of the game, I have all these items I don't know what they are and when I click square for info in the menu it doesn't show me, I have a throwing axe that just sails over the heads of everything. Everything feels sluggish, like getting hit by an enemy and then trying to turn around to hit them quickly.

Anyone have a good alternate control scheme by any chance?

 

[carlsojo]

I really liked the first game, I am bouncing off this one. I am having difficulty with the controls, the art style makes it hard to tell what I am looking at, I can barely do anything without running out of stamina at the beginning of the game, I have all these items I don't know what they are and when I click square for info in the menu it doesn't show me, I have a throwing axe that just sails over the heads of everything. Everything feels sluggish, like getting hit by an enemy and then trying to turn around to hit them quickly.

Anyone have a good alternate control scheme by any chance?

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This is where I'm at.. I was originally gonna bounce after the disconnected world but decided to give it a try. Doesn't feel like the original at all.

 

[Kalentan]

One thing I'm noticing is a lot of enemies have little to no recovery times. So finding a chance to attack can be super hard because they love to instantly follow up all of their attacks.

 

[AuthenticM]

Far as I've seen I've retained all of my progression. Like, we opened up the portal to a new area and I have access to it in my main game.

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wow goddamn. This is awesome.

 

[KCroxtonJr]

Question, how do you rechallenge a Mage Hunt? I want to fight the Fire Mage but don't see the option to do so again?

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All the mages you've defeated just show up randomly in the map after you defeat them the first time. You can't choose to fight one in particular as far as I know, you just have to run around and hope you come across a fire mage

 

[ymgve]

All the mages you've defeated just show up randomly in the map after you defeat them the first time. You can't choose to fight one in particular as far as I know, you just have to run around and hope you come across a fire mage

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too lazy to check, but you get those glyphs to activate a mage hunt, maybe if you enter those again in the portal it activates another?

 

[xpownz]

too lazy to check, but you get those glyphs to activate a mage hunt, maybe if you enter those again in the portal it activates another?

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nope

 

[xpownz]

I really liked the first game, I am bouncing off this one. I am having difficulty with the controls, the art style makes it hard to tell what I am looking at, I can barely do anything without running out of stamina at the beginning of the game, I have all these items I don't know what they are and when I click square for info in the menu it doesn't show me, I have a throwing axe that just sails over the heads of everything. Everything feels sluggish, like getting hit by an enemy and then trying to turn around to hit them quickly.

Anyone have a good alternate control scheme by any chance?

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I dont know what to think about the items. Every single one until now seems pretty straight foward, even the multiplayer ones

 

[BDrummer1606]

I really liked the first game, I am bouncing off this one. I am having difficulty with the controls, the art style makes it hard to tell what I am looking at, I can barely do anything without running out of stamina at the beginning of the game, I have all these items I don't know what they are and when I click square for info in the menu it doesn't show me, I have a throwing axe that just sails over the heads of everything. Everything feels sluggish, like getting hit by an enemy and then trying to turn around to hit them quickly.

Anyone have a good alternate control scheme by any chance?

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I changed over my controls to the souls method and really like it (R1 light attack, R2 strong attack, Square use items, circle dodge, etc)

 

[RedMercury]

I changed over my controls to the souls method and really like it (R1 light attack, R2 strong attack, Square use items, circle dodge, etc)

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What button do you use to pick up items?

I dont know what to think about the items. Every single one until now seems pretty straight foward, even the multiplayer ones

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Is there a way to see a description of them I am missing?

 

[KCroxtonJr]

I really liked the first game, I am bouncing off this one. I am having difficulty with the controls, the art style makes it hard to tell what I am looking at, I can barely do anything without running out of stamina at the beginning of the game, I have all these items I don't know what they are and when I click square for info in the menu it doesn't show me, I have a throwing axe that just sails over the heads of everything. Everything feels sluggish, like getting hit by an enemy and then trying to turn around to hit them quickly.

Anyone have a good alternate control scheme by any chance?

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It's R2/L2 to switch pages for item info, square switches character info(stats) page

edit: just saw your post above, you can pretty much have elden ring controls if you set:
L1 - block
L2 - aim ranged weapon
R1 - light attack
R2 - heavy attack
Cross - jump
Square - use item
Triangle - interact
Circle - dodge

Be careful with circle as dodge, you can easily accidentally dodge when backing out of menus and find yourself at the bottom of a cliff lol

 

[samoscratch]

I liked the first, is this really that different? I was gonna get it but not so sure, reception seems mixed.

 

[Digital Dinosaur]

I liked the first, is this really that different? I was gonna get it but not so sure, reception seems mixed.

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Stuff I see so far:

1. Five "levels" warped to from a hub like Demon's Souls. They are much bigger than DeS levels though - each one has multiple named sub-zones.
2. A mix of souls-like boss encounters, and "hunts" which involve pursuing a boss through the area from spot to spot until the showdown.
3. Gameplay is slower and more deliberate. Feels okay but may seem stiff compared to Sanctuary.
4. Lot of multiplayer stuff, with heavy emphasis on doing the boss hunts multiple times to grind item drops for crafting gear sets - big Monster Hunter feel.
5. Mood is very different from Sanctuary. There's a bit of blood from enemies but it's nowhere near as bleak, dark, gory, and grindhouse. There are however pretty interesting monster designs for the bigger enemies and bosses.
6. Maybe a significant downside for your taste - exploration is gated by locked doors that require the heart of a hunt boss. If you don't have any you have to go do a hunt to proceed through an area.
7. The stunlock enemy design from Sanctuary may be a bit worse in some spots.

The overall flow feels more different the further in I got.

 

[Yam's]

Bought it, but reading some comments here, I'm gonna wait for their first update before diving in.

 

[V has come to]

put a few hours into it, very mixed feelings so far. i'm having some fun but every design change is for the worse imo, and the mage hunts are just bad. i'll give it some more time tomorrow and decide if i care to continue or not then

 

[samoscratch]

Stuff I see so far:

1. Five "levels" warped to from a hub like Demon's Souls. They are much bigger than DeS levels though - each one has multiple named sub-zones.
2. A mix of souls-like boss encounters, and "hunts" which involve pursuing a boss through the area from spot to spot until the showdown.
3. Gameplay is slower and more deliberate. Feels okay but may seem stiff compared to Sanctuary.
4. Lot of multiplayer stuff, with heavy emphasis on doing the boss hunts multiple times to grind item drops for crafting gear sets - big Monster Hunter feel.
5. Mood is very different from Sanctuary. There's a bit of blood from enemies but it's nowhere near as bleak, dark, gory, and grindhouse. There are however pretty interesting monster designs for the bigger enemies and bosses.
6. Maybe a significant downside for your taste - exploration is gated by locked doors that require the heart of a hunt boss. If you don't have any you have to go do a hunt to proceed through an area.
7. The stunlock enemy design from Sanctuary may be a bit worse in some spots.

The overall flow feels more different the further in I got.

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Thank you for that, the multiplayer features definitely make me more interested, some things sound not so good but I think I might try it out.

 

[Captain of Outer Space]

I've beaten the first two mages and am enjoying it a lot so far. The action feels good and the exploration is fun. Loving the grappling hook.

My main issue is a lack of a glossary or means of deciphering info in the menus at any point. Just setting up a character, it presents you with a list of classes to choose from with no way to know what differs each beside inferring from the name and what you can glean from the items, though some you'll have no clue what they are without pulling up a wiki or googling it. Same goes for that item for whatever crime you supposedly committed, which I guess is like the unique item you get before starting any of the Souls games. Then there are some stats that I'm not 100% sure what they mean, but can't highlight them to see what it does like in most of the Souls games. Then there are equip slots that aren't explained why some relics can only be equipped in one slot but not the others. I've had to put about two hours to start to get the hang of the quirks of the menus, but it's still a bit obtuse in some ways. It really feels like the devs didn't let people outside of the their circle that weren't experts play it to maybe get some feedback that it needed some extra info in there.

That stuff is relatively minor in the grand scheme, but it does make the early parts of the game where you want to learn as much as possible a bit more confusing and frustrating than it has to be.

 

[Deleted member 4494]

Done like 4 hunts and 2 regular bosses. My big problem with the game is it feels old — it just seems like they didn't do much on the visual front and it all just feels way less interesting. I remember the first game being pretty exciting with pretty distinct and fun areas — this feels almost… games as a service-y with its focus on hunts and looting and multiplayer. Maybe it'll grow on me as I get further, but so far this is just antiquated and weird.

 

[Morrigan]

I've beaten the first two mages and am enjoying it a lot so far. The action feels good and the exploration is fun. Loving the grappling hook.

My main issue is a lack of a glossary or means of deciphering info in the menus at any point. Just setting up a character, it presents you with a list of classes to choose from with no way to know what differs each beside inferring from the name and what you can glean from the items, though some you'll have no clue what they are without pulling up a wiki or googling it. Same goes for that item for whatever crime you supposedly committed, which I guess is like the unique item you get before starting any of the Souls games. Then there are some stats that I'm not 100% sure what they mean, but can't highlight them to see what it does like in most of the Souls games. Then there are equip slots that aren't explained why some relics can only be equipped in one slot but not the others. I've had to put about two hours to start to get the hang of the quirks of the menus, but it's still a bit obtuse in some ways. It really feels like the devs didn't let people outside of the their circle that weren't experts play it to maybe get some feedback that it needed some extra info in there.

That stuff is relatively minor in the grand scheme, but it does make the early parts of the game where you want to learn as much as possible a bit more confusing and frustrating than it has to be.

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Yeah this is where I'm at too, 3 mages down.

I like the game but I'm not sure how I feel about some of the changes. Also fuck the water mage, what an annoying boss lol

 

[RankFTW]

Played for a couple of hours last night and was finding it really hard to get in to. Played a couple of hours this morning and the combat and mechanics really clicked for me. Off to work now to think about it all day haha.

 

[Menome]

Found a very important tip on Reddit just now:

Hookshot and combat: This is a bit of a small mechanic I found, but when you find hookshot, it can be used in combat in a specific way. I didn't have much time to test this, so I'm not sure how universal this is. When fighting mages, if you stun it with your attacks, it's head will start glittering with particles, like those branches you use your hookshot on. During this, you can use hookshot on boss (jump, then roll button), to initiate short animation for bonus damage, during which you are invincible. Really cool stuff. Further testing to determine which bosses allow this is required

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A few other bits and pieces here:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

 

[Jakenbakin]

Having a lot of fun with it, I picked the ranger class that starts with the twin spear and it's pretty cool, though enemies at a just slightly different height than my thrust can be a pain lol. I'm assuming the beta was overtuned to encourage the co-op because I was getting stomped in the beta, but I'm finding this... pretty easy? Might just gel with the weapon type more than the sword I used back then as well. Mage fights suck, no two ways about it. Just a lot of extra running around for no reason. Especially when random ones appear, I not only feel compelled to chase them of course but seem to lose them easier lol.

I've unlocked level one forbidden glyphs to accommodate my poison spears special, but whatever it costs 5 of to activate I guess I don't have yet. Is this something I unlock via progressing somewhere or am I missing something more obvious?

I've tried a couple of online fights via the warp gate thing itself and haven't won anything yet, but it seems like I could have fun with co-op maybe. I did get this perfect clip of me using a "co-op" buddy during the boss fight animation that I love:

Found a very important tip on Reddit just now:



A few other bits and pieces here:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

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Ah I've seen this and didn't even think of trying that, awesome.

 

[Kalentan]

The more I play, I actually do like it more.

It's for sure different and my love of Monster Hunter is def coming out in this.

My only real problem I have now is simply the repeat Mage Hunts. Not that they are repeating but that they don't fight like the first time.

Like the first time you chase down a Mage they get to an arena and then they fight you with all of their moves. But I find that because they don't lock down to an arena on the 2nd, 3rd, that they spend 99% of the time just running and spawning minions, only using maybe one of their non-minion attacks before dying. I feel like regardless of the place, they need to be able to be locked down to a spot to actually properly fight them after they run a few times.

 

[Menome]

So, if you activate one of the expendable candles for multiplayer, it still gets used up even if there's a connection error and you don't get through.

Considering the ones I'm using are 100 silver each, it was really fricking galling to have that happen on 3 of the candles I used out of 8.

 

[Jamesac68]

Having a lot of fun with it, I picked the ranger class that starts with the twin spear and it's pretty cool, though enemies at a just slightly different height than my thrust can be a pain lol. I'm assuming the beta was overtuned to encourage the co-op because I was getting stomped in the beta, but I'm finding this... pretty easy? Might just gel with the weapon type more than the sword I used back then as well.

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I was actually just coming in to wonder if anyone else noticed this. The beta stomped my head in, but I'm blowing through mages now without too much difficulty. Only had time to play a bit last night so I've cleared the beta area and the poison mage, and am having a blast with pretty much everything.

 

[AStrangerIsHere]

I really liked the first one, so I've decided to watch some streams to have a first impression and it's... different, it feels like a Monster Hunter game.

Aesthetically, it's better and the battles are more fluid but the as for the rest, I'm not sure. Grinding mages for materials seems boring, only saving at the camp seems a bad idea too because of all the backtracking you have to do, the level design from what I've seen so far is more vertical with a lot of platforms everywhere but I find that not very interesting. It's like every zone is similar to the zone just after the village of Smiles and just before the Cyclops and the Alchemist in Sanctuary. Because of the level design the game also feels disjointed and less organic.

And is there anything else than exteriors with a lot of platforms, caves and mines in the game? Because that's all I've seen. Maybe, later there's something else to see but it feels pretty redundant so far.

Edit: and the enemies seems pretty relentless too.

 

[Kalentan]

I do think that the game does need a balance patch. Enemies are often too aggressive. Your constantly out of stamina. You can often be stun locked to death. Bosses and some enemies have incredibly tiny windows where you can attack and if you have a heavier roll, those windows become even harder to hit.

Ultimately I like the game, it has some really neat ideas imho, but I think it needed a balance pass or two before it released.

Edit: Interesting, this patch could be soon actually:

 

[Jakenbakin]

I was actually just coming in to wonder if anyone else noticed this. The beta stomped my head in, but I'm blowing through mages now without too much difficulty. Only had time to play a bit last night so I've cleared the beta area and the poison mage, and am having a blast with pretty much everything.

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Yeah, even the first boss on the bridge took me several upgrades to my weapon and like a dozen tries to kill in the beta, whereas I just... ran up and killed the dude this time, then the next two mages before even having a death lol. Definitely a different experience than I had been having. I think I was heavy rolling in the beta too because of my class and didn't realize though lmao

 

[gothmog]

Anyone get it running on the Steam Deck yet? Any impressions?

 

[Renteka-Bond]

Anyone get it running on the Steam Deck yet? Any impressions?

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Haven't started it yet other than literally making my character, but thanks to this vid I was able to get it to run. You need ProtonGE-7.16

 

[Jamesac68]

Anyone get it running on the Steam Deck yet? Any impressions?

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Hate to say but it's currently EGS-only on OC for now. I'm sure someone with Windows on the Deck has checked it out but mine is still vanilla.

 

[FellowTarnished]

Any quick TLDR on the improvements made from the first game?

 

[Morrigan]

Any quick TLDR on the improvements made from the first game?

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I'm... not sure if there's improvements yet >___>

 

[gothmog]

Haven't started it yet other than literally making my character, but thanks to this vid I was able to get it to run. You need ProtonGE-7.16

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Looks like I am going to have to do some tinkering this evening. Thanks!

 

[Renteka-Bond]

Looks like I am going to have to do some tinkering this evening. Thanks!

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No prob! I wouldn't have grabbed it unless playing it on SD was possible, so it helped me too.

It's not as complicated as I made it out to be when I did it. Assuming you have Heroic already installed, just:

Go to Wine Manager.
Scroll down the list until you find Proton GE 7-16
Install (screen freezes during this)
Go to Salt and Apply the new GE as the Proton Compatibility.
Play

 

[Feenix]

I do think that the game does need a balance patch. Enemies are often too aggressive. Your constantly out of stamina. You can often be stun locked to death. Bosses and some enemies have incredibly tiny windows where you can attack and if you have a heavier roll, those windows become even harder to hit.

Ultimately I like the game, it has some really neat ideas imho, but I think it needed a balance pass or two before it released.

Edit: Interesting, this patch could be soon actually:

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Have they made any mention as to any specifics addressed?

 

[Kalentan]

Have they made any mention as to any specifics addressed?

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I don't think so but I'm guessing stamina is probably the biggest thing. Considering how fast the patch is coming out I wouldn't expect anything overhauled.

 

[Prinny]

Fighting wind mage in a tree sure was fun :(

https://imgur.com/u7h0Jke

Now I know what being a DMC enemy feels like.

 

[Jin]

Anyone get it running on the Steam Deck yet? Any impressions?

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Been playing solely on the Deck so far, heroic games launcher with "Proton-GE7-17" works like a charm for me.
Added heroic games launcher as non-steam game and can start it from gamemode like that.

I gotta say I'm on the edge for the game yet, I quickly left my initial expectation that it is purely a sanctuary sequel behind.
They definitely tried something new here with the gameplay loop, I'm enjoying my time with it and having fun.
Some stuff is very punishing but everything is doable so far.

Stamina shortage makes the game extremely deliberate, I'm playing a sage with staves and a combination of perfect parries, ranged and dodges has been a blast so far.
Went through the first 5 Magehunts and 2 regular bosses pretty easy so far. The water mage has some NASTY juggles with the bubble rain but after learning that, I just spent more time actively looking out for the pattern and handled it pretty okay.

 

[Menome]

Patch notes are up for 1.0.0.2 on PC. Console patch coming after certification:

• Updated Japanese localization.
• The order of runic arts on weapons now matches button order for all weapons.
• Killing a boss as a Dawnlight ally no longer counts as killing the boss in your own world.
• Button reassignment should show the correct button in most (all?) locations.
• Fixed issues when remapping buttons with a mouse.
• Increasing matchmaking success rate.
• Implemeneted ranged aiming with keyboard.
• Games saves when returning to camp from a matchmade session.
• Invasion cooldown adjustments so players aren't invaded immediately after summoning an ally.
• Gray Starstones can be used to refund the current highest level class skill for respecing.
• Performance improvements.
• General game stability fixes.
• Networking stability fixes.

This patch has been released for PC. Console patches will follow soon. Please note that you can only matchmake with players of the same game version.

 

[Deleted member 4494]

I wonder if I just got lucky in my initial character selection (Cleric) because I feel like I can swing for days and generally don't have to be too careful in boss fights. I have only really pumped points into conviction to increase damage and like 1 or 2 stamina upgrades on the way to the Tier 1 light armor.

 

[Kalentan]

Patch notes are up for 1.0.0.2 on PC. Console patch coming after certification:

• Updated Japanese localization.
• The order of runic arts on weapons now matches button order for all weapons.
• Killing a boss as a Dawnlight ally no longer counts as killing the boss in your own world.
• Button reassignment should show the correct button in most (all?) locations.
• Fixed issues when remapping buttons with a mouse.
• Increasing matchmaking success rate.
• Implemeneted ranged aiming with keyboard.
• Games saves when returning to camp from a matchmade session.
• Invasion cooldown adjustments so players aren't invaded immediately after summoning an ally.
• Gray Starstones can be used to refund the current highest level class skill for respecing.
• Performance improvements.
• General game stability fixes.
• Networking stability fixes.

This patch has been released for PC. Console patches will follow soon. Please note that you can only matchmake with players of the same game version.

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Huh no stamina changes. Guessing they might want to do more changes. That Dawnlight change is actually good. It was neat originally when I realized it counted killing a boss in my world… except that since I died at the end of the fight I got no loot or exp…

 

[TFJ]

I'm quite enjoying the game,, but I do agree it needs a balance pass.

I like the heavy stamina consumption myself because I enjoy more methodical and slow paced gameplay.

That said, enemies and bosses are too agressiva with infinite stamina. Increasing the delay between attack strings, making them more passive and reducing their block rate would do wonders for the combat.

There's a lot more tweaks I would do. Maybe I will give some feedback on their Discord.

 

[Jakenbakin]

Finally figured out why I couldn't use my weapon art - it used rage, which builds up over attacking enemies. Having quite a bit of fun, though I got super mad at not beating the Green Huntsman after getting him to a literal sliver, and now I'm discovering how "fun" random mage hunts are since I thought I would hunt for some upgrades. Have tried to co-op some more since it's effectively risk free upgrade grinding, but between it taking forever to find me a game and either me or the hosts dying relatively quickly, that hasn't been super successful.

What is the second currency we have? I need it for the blue runners thing to buy their invasion item but don't even know where to collect it. Was able to buy one candle for now but that's not going to last lol.