Watchdog's Staff | Elden Ring Wiki

My beloved staff, you served me well. Good bonk with some ranged magic against the late game gigachads.

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So close to being a good RL1 weapon. Haima crown, soreseal, and heirloom raise str to 22 and you need 23 to use this 2-handed. So you also need either physique tear, great rune, or DLC items to get up to required strength. Still good I guess, but annoying to have to swap weapons when physique wears off.

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Aah, the magic bonk stick. The casul's bestie

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Extremely good rl1 weapon. With magic scorpion charm, ritual sword talisman, jar shard, 3 pieces of spell blade set (need headpiece to boost str to wield) and magic shrouded tear, the AOW does 2360 damage at +10 (which Tbf is easy to get since it’s somber). If you wanna swap to shard of Alexander, it does 2467 damage.

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I call this thing the cheese stick

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has anyone else noticed the projectiles just go straight towards the ground below the enemies? it just doesnt even try to go for the feet, it just goes in a straight line downwards.

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completely scrips most bosses on RL1

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Aaaaaaaaaaa, I thought it dropped from the watchdogs in the giant catacombs and farmed for so long !

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At 18/17 STR/DEX and Radagon's seal from the Dragonbarrow fort with the Dectus half, you can use this along with most early game weapons. KGS w/Flame Strike or Dragon Halberd. Two Fingers Medallion and 13 FAI gets Vyke's, Golden Halberd, and Treespear. Rune Arc opens your Talismans up if preferred. Cross Nagi or BHF if you need Blood.

All 4 elements or pure physical, and 2 great status polearms is an excellent box of tricks. Minimum requirements for weapons while leveling VIG/END is still underrated somehow. I see ppl doing the DLC at 50VIG at RL150+.

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Aaahh..the smart Bonk

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my only gripe is that the weapon art doesn’t really scale with anything!

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Cheesed some bosses with this on my first play through in the base game. Was absolutely wonderful backup for my strength build. Was just camping at the back spamming the WA. Wonder how it holds up in the dlc.

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I've heard many negative things about this weapon from various people, but I don't know why. Maybe because it can be slow at times? I have used the Fallingstar Beast Jaw in a previous playthrough, and it feels similar (except glintstone projectiles vs. gravity bolts, and it doesn't scale with Int). Regardless, this thing is plowing through enemies on my current playthrough like none other. WA tracks pretty well, except with fast-moving enemies, but it will hit large flying enemies (read: dragons) with a ton of damage. I suppose my only criticism is that it can be slow, but that seems trivial given the amount of damage it can do.

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Fav strike weapon, it hits hard for strike damage and stance damage and aow is a homing magic attack with great range that hits extremely hard and you doing need a single point in INT

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Absolute beast of a weapon. Completely trivialized my last play through with this. The weapon art does a colossal amount of damage and tracks very well. You can stagger most large enemies and bosses in 3 hits tops. What's not to like?

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Workhorse somber weapon for str builds. Hits hard, strike damage, unique WA, and can find it reasonably early. Even has the benefit of a dignified appearance compared to many colossals that resemble turds on sticks or cover half the screen with a comically oversized model.

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Nah, bro. I'm a strength build. I don't mess around with that magic crap ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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I really like the reason itself, and functionally the WA is passable.
But my God, what a boring animation for a unique WA. It may be the dullest in the game. 6 or 7 blue dots materialize, then float forward. There's not even any other particle effects or a light or anything, it's as if it's unfinished. I feel like the enemies are mocking me inwardly when I use it

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Everyone saying its magic for strength builds but it actually gets more damage on quality builds

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magic for cavemen

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If you're going for a pure unga bunga strength build, this is one of the best options for sure. The Ash of War on this scales entirely with the weapon upgrade level, so at +10 it does actually really good magic damage even tho you have no Intelligence. The range is okay, projectiles are rather slow but have really good tracking.

The Ash of War can also be buffed by anything that boosts magic type damage.

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Pure physical damage? Check. High damage AoW? Check. Includes ranged option for strength builds? Check. High stance damage? Check. Has cool tech (skill can be carian retaliated/golden parried)? Check.

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what a horribly missed opportunity to not have weapon casting tools in this game

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what a horribly missed opportunity to not have weapon casting tools in this game

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me (strength build): hi
my crush: sorry I only date sorcerers
me:

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me (strength build): hi
my crush: sorry I only date sorcerers
me:

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sacred chime hammer's slightly less successful cousin on his dads side

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the game becomes laughable with this weapon

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use this on a strength build to rizz up those raya lucaria girls without having to invest in actual int

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This weapon is bugged against dragons. It can't tack them right and it's very sad

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Fantastic weapon.
More classy than your average bonk stick, lighter than most colossals, and the ranged attack is great for taking out low HP stragglers and annoying mages in PvP.

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bluntstone sorcery staff

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The lack of int scaling kinda makes sense for a weapon designed for a nigh mindless automaton that stands guard on graves.

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Ash of war also boosted by magic cracked tear

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Visually this is one of my favorite weapons in the game. I somewhat which there was perhaps a broken one that could be imbued rather than be stuck with said scaling and AoW, but it's a good weapon regardless

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Be me. See Sorcery Phalanx. See Watchdog Staff. Use them together. Become Gilgamesh. Go go random bullshit, go.

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>called a staff

doesent cast sorceries

>emedded with glintstone

doesent have magic damage or int scaling


this makes no sense

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Both this and frozen needle should scale with intelligence. "BuT nO mAgIc DaMaGe" shut it, erdsteel dagger scales with faith.

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No int scaling?

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The best and most underrated PvP weapon. Don't believe me? Try it out

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Think it's a shame this doesn't have int scaling, could be like an int version of the great club if it did

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Sorcery of the crozier, gatefront spearman: 836 damage. 777 damage after equipping shard of alexander. Full Rogier's set, 900 damage. Rogier's set and alexander's shard, 840 damage. Don't believe me, test it yourself. Shard of alexander is bugged as of 10/19/2023.

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Strength Build(s), wanna be a mage and a pyromancer? Just grab the Watchdog's Staff and the One-Eyed Shield! Now you too can flex on those Scholars and Fire Monks without reading a scroll or prayerbook.

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"Located in Road's End Catacombs in Liurnia of the Lakes"

And i've been trying to farm it from the watchdog that wields it in the consecrated snowfield's cave...

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Seems to scale almost identically to godfrey's axe, making this best on a quality build. The special attack is a huge bonus for a character that can't spare any magic stats, too

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Just like the frozen needle, it does not scale with intelligence despite being a magical weapon.

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That's not a staff, this is a staff! A big manly magic staff for big buff manly chads.

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I know it doesn't scale with intelligence, but i love this thing for my strength/intelligence build, since i always wanted to hit people with a large staff or blow them away with sorcery.

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Malenia's worst nightmare

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Malenia's worst nightmare

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Malenia's worst nightmare

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This thing absolutely wrecks the Gargoyle duo

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For how easy you can get this to +10 it absolutely wrecks bosses with its AOW. Was hybrid str/int but dropped a bunch of int because this nuke blows stuff up and for very little mp too and completely outclassed any other nukes for damage and efficiency. Kinda feels like cheating sometimes. Switch between this and starscourge depending on if I need to dps or blow up a screen. Unga bunga

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You can deflect your own ash of war with an Erdtree Greatshield. It definitely catches people off guard, and is perfect for unga bunga builds with little intelligence and faith. You can deflect while they are spawning in and hovering, or you can follow the projectiles as they track and deflect at any moment you choose.


My build has 20 intelligence and 12 faith. Terra Magica, Magic Scorpion Charm, Shard of Alexander, and Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear boost the Watchdog Staff's AoW to roughly 2,806 damage in PvP across all projectiles before resistances. Holy-Shrouding Cracked Tear and Shard of Alexander boosts the Erdtree Greatshield, too.

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It's not letting me reply to my own comment, but in addition to easily handling every other boss in the game, you can also ace Malenia's first phase by keeping distance and letting her walk into the AOW. Then you can summon omenkiller rollo for phase 2 and beat her down. So you can easily do the whole game with just this weapon.

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The best weapon for SL1 runs. You can use talismans to up your strength and strength tear to buff your strength enough to 2-hand it. Aside from being able to melt stuff with the standard move-set, the AOW makes a ton of bosses trivial. Fights generally shouldn't be lasting past the Strength buff the flask provides anyway. This and the Finger Flick of Doom makes for the best Bonk SL1 combo.

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Sucks in pvp, but bosses don't try to dodge the ranged attack and it staggers well, so you can probably get through everything except Malenia with this. Has to be the best ranged attack for a strength build I"ve seen.

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real fake magic

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The fact a similar Ash of War isn't available for normal Glintstone staves makes me really sad. Like the int equivalent of golden land its marvelous, but I cannot run around with this massive slab of stone on my scrawny sorcerer

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Shard of Alexander and Warrior Jar Shard now buff this weapon, greatest day of my entire life

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Does Terra magical affect the ash of war?

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this thing is some damn fun. the weapon art combos so well into roll R1 or backstep R1

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Basically the you know I'm something of a "sorcerer" myself weapon.

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Why doesn't this have any int scaling

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Perfect weapon for my bootleg sorcery build

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Sorcerers really should have been able to use this as a weapon and staff in one tbh. Compared to incantations, sorcery has little going for it that incantation won't do equally as good or better.

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The projectiles don't target enemies if you're not locked onto them.

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Is it just me who finds it a little funny that you can cast spells with a glint stone staff but not with this staff that contains glint stone

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apparently the ash of war on this completey ignores all magic damage negation, tested with scholars shield on a fingerprint shield and couldnt block any of the damage

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The best early game strength weapon due to easy acquisition and a simple +9 upgrade route that can be done before killing a boss. The (ranged, magic damage) weapon art is dependent entirely upon weapon level, minimal non-str requirements, and STRIKE damage. Having the guaranteed launch attack while riding horseback is incredibly helpful for cheesing any humanoid enemy in the open world.

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saw a dude using this with battlemage hood and champ torso, he sucked doodoo feces but really cool looking either way

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-also boosted with magic-shrouding tear (physic buff)
-carian filigreed crest decrease its fp consumption from (15) to (12)

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also boosted with terra magica (spell)

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Why did I only get a smoldering butterfly from the corpse?

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Why did they make the rod of this and the colossal great horn as skinny as they could? I feel like these weapons are going to break at any moment. Also, they look like brooms.

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I found this a while ago but didn't have the strength to use it, when I did I tried it out on the soldiers in the small encampment that' nearest to the merchant at the Liurnia lake shore site of grace, I hadn't upgraded it so I have no idea if its skill does more damage when the staff is upgraded. All I can say is sorcery of the crozier didn't do much damage to any of the soldiers in that encampment, I don't know if there is something I'm missing though.

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Magic damage physick and Terra Magica do work, going 20-25 int and using demi-human staff on the side might not be too bad an idea

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AoW Boosted by: Ritual Sword Talisman, Magic Scorpion Charm, Golden Vow

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Tested the weapon skill today against the Fire Prelate at Fort Laiedd. 1307 damage consistently.

Did not improve with Shard of Alexander.

Did not decrease with any equipment that lowers AR.

Did not change with Flame Grant Me Strength.

Seems to be 100% flat damage depending on weapon level only.

If anyone has found something that influences the damage, let me know. I’ve found nothing so far.

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Tested the weapon skill today against the Fire Prelate at Fort Laiedd. 1307 damage consistently.

Did not improve with Shard of Alexander.

Did not decrease with any equipment that lowers AR.

Did not change with Flame Grant Me Strength.

Seems to be 100% flat damage depending on weapon level only.

If anyone has found something that influences the damage, let me know. I’ve found nothing so far.

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Tested the weapon skill today against the Fire Prelate at Fort Laiedd. 1307 damage consistently.

Did not improve with Shard of Alexander.

Did not decrease with any equipment that lowers AR.

Did not change with Flame Grant Me Strength.

Seems to be 100% flat damage depending on weapon level only.

If anyone has found something that influences the damage, let me know. I’ve found nothing so far.

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If you're testing the damage at least mention on which enemy you tested it on, "1369 damage" could mean anything since enemy defense varies greatly with each enemy type, especially when it comes to elemental damage

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I began using this late game, as the spell helps to offer a magic/ranged option without the need to invest points outside of str/dex

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I have mild regrets taking this up to +10 on my str build. If you're rolling hard str and want unique options I'd consider serpent hunter and nox flowing over this.

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Honestly, just throw this on a str build and pretend you're a mage.

It's pretty funny.

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pretty good quality weapon

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I saw a video of someone trying to parry this with golden retaliation, but it seemed to be unparryable. Needs further testing, but could be nice to know when using this weapon

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When they say the weapon art scales with only weapon level, they mean it. Nothing boosts the weapon art damage, tested on an omen in the sewers. Exact same damage naked, with shard of alexander, magic scorpion charm, different strength/dex/int amounts, proc'd rotten winged sword, magic damage flask, all the same damage. This weapon seems to be unique in this as I haven't seen anything like that on any other weapon.

That being said, it can be a fun weapon to use still. Decent physical AR and the weapon art tracks okay, has a good range, and even though you can't buff the damage it does a pretty fair amount of damage at +9. Since it is so uncommon it can really catch people off guard in PvP. Not very hard to dodge but if you use the magic bolts to mixup roll timings of your enemy it can make some openings.

Don't discount this thing for sure, I did for most of my playthrough and ended up having a blast with it when I finally found out the weapon art did so much damage with literally 0 investment.

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does the weapon art work with winged sword talisman?

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Honestly not a bad PvP weapon. As the ash of war can be used to cover most of the major weakness of colossal weapons in PvP. The projectiles have incredible tracking and aren't too fast. This is a great pairing as it allows you to cast then rush in along side the magic. Your opponent will have 2 choices, dodge the magic and get hit by the hammer or dodge the hammer and get hit by magic. This allows for a rather large amount of pressure to be placed on them., which is something most colossals can't do. Also kind of works for invasions, lock on to someone and use the ash, then attack a different person. The magic will continue after the guy you first locked on to and now he's busy dodging it while you attack the other. Allowing for surprisingly good 2v1 capability by keeping multiple people busy at once.

A very fun weapon.

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0/10 can't menacingly float into the air, crashing down and wiping every healthbar in a 5 mile radius

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Meow stone cat hammer

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it's like baby mode using this weapon

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Gargoyle Medicine Stick

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if you activate war cry with a different weapon in your right hand then switch to Watchdog's Staff in your left hand and do a charged R2, you'll do an alternate attack where you run forward then do a slam, instead of the regular move where you stand still and do a slam. Tested on 1.04.

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I don't get this one, at all. At MAX upgrade, with 66 strength and 2-handed, this piece of **** only has 480 AR. That's straight sword damage. On a colossal. For reference, Prelate's Inferno Crozier does almost literally twice as much damage with those stats, at 880 AR. What the hell is the point of this weapon if it's not going to do damage at all

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This is making a huge difference in my late game. Doubled up with mimic tear, I'm crushing baddies.

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Cannot use ORDER'S BLADE in this weapon?? what about "can be enchanted with Magic"??

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I love this weapon and it has been great to use for my playthrough, only complain I have is that it should have a B scaling in strength at max. I have no idea why it maxes out at C-D str-dex, that just seems low when you look at comparable colossal weapons.

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Pretty underrated weapon. I know you all in the comments get it, but I don’t see it mentioned much in other places.

Typical big bonk moveset but the fire-and-forget nature of the skill does wonders for a strength build that lacks ranged attack options. I love this weapon.

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