Strength Guy Getting Strong - Elden Ring

 So, my Wretched character is now working on clearing out everything I can find in Liurnia of the Lakes, as I am reasonably confident I've gotten almost everything out of Limgrave (and the Weeping Peninsula, which I think counts as part of Limgrave). I guess the exception is that I haven't fought the ulcerated tree spirit in the basement of Stormveil Castle and witnessed Rogier's bloodstain and infection with deathroot.

I'm not sure what ending I'm shooting for on this character, but the Mending Rune of Death is a contender.

Anyway, I believe I have actually managed to screw up one thing, which is that I progressed Nepheli Loux's quest line before getting to Renna's Rise and getting Selivus' potion. It's really not obvious. It seems so odd to me that you'd want to get all the way through Caria Manor before doing that stuff with Nepheli, but oh well.

Anyway, I've befriended the guy at the shrimp shack and gotten Fya her necklace back. I'm given to understand Hyetta's quest can be progressed quite quickly here, and I actually got ahead of myself and have the Fingerprint Grape to give to Hyetta. Man, the first time I encountered a Shabriri Grape I did not read the description and genuinely thought it was a fruit. I also found out that apparently Shabriri is a kind of demon from Jewish folklore that causes blindness. I know that when you get to the Mountaintop of the Giants, a being called Shabriri has taken over Yura's body, so I'm curious to see where that leads.

One thing I find really shocking is that there's no hint I've been able to find as to where the hell you get the other half of the Dectus Medallion (it's Fort Faeroth in the Dragonbarrow in northeast Caelid). But characters have told me about the bypass that I stumbled upon in my first playthrough.

Going through the Raya Lucaria Tunnels, where you get the bell bearing that lets you by tier 2 and 3 smithing stones, I had finally gotten 31 strength and could use the Brick Hammer, which is fantastic against all the crystalline enemies in there. Even as it's caught up with by Rusted Anchor in terms of upgrades, the anchor's still doing more damage I think just because the Brick Hammer's scaling isn't yet making up for the lower base damage. So, for now, I'm still swinging around the big anchor with the War Cry ash of war giving it heavy attunement (also, the charged R2 after using War Cry gives you great poise and amazing damage).

So far, my stats other than Strength, Vigor, and Endurance are still all at just 10. My general intention with this character is to wield the most ridiculous colossal weapon I can find. I guess I should figure out what that will be and then bump up supplementary stats in anticipation.