today arrived Elden Ring from FromSoftware to all platforms and players are awaiting the most difficult open world that a video game has presented to us, so many will feel overwhelmed in their first hours of play. For this reason I decided to prepare a list of tips for beginners in Elden Ring, in order to increase your chances of survival in the first hours of the game.
In my Elden Ring review I said that while it’s not an easy game, it is more accessible than other FromSoftware games thanks to its open world nature. However, if you come from playing other open world games, I warn you that Elden Ring does not follow the formula and instead proposes its own way of approaching a huge map. Without further ado, below are my 15 tips to start playing Elden Ring and not die at every step.
Related: Elden Ring already has Ray Tracing mods and 60fps ultrawide resolution on PC.
1. Don’t be desperate. The quickest way to die in combat is by playing the button slam, so take your time learning how to hit, block, and dodge. Each weapon works differently, even those that are similar such as different types of swords, so it is worth experimenting with each one and knowing different ways of attacking, but the most important thing will always be to stay calm and not fall into despair.
2. Take care of your resistance bar. When you are out of combat there is nothing to worry about, because your character does not get tired at all, but once you enter combat you have to pay attention to the resistance bar in the upper left corner. Each action you take consumes stamina, such as hitting and dodging, plus blocking stamina is consumed depending on the strength of the enemy hit and the effectiveness of your parry. If you get excited attacking and run out of your stamina bar, you can leave yourself vulnerable by not being able to dodge until your stamina is restored.
Read more: How to use sorceries and enchantments in Elden Ring by FromSoftware.
3. Learn to fight on horseback. The spectral horse of the Elden Ring is much more than a simple means of transport, because when you are mounted the combat changes completely. It is possible to perform two types of attacks on each side while on horseback, in addition to which your steed performs a dash with the dodge button; however, this rush does not give you immunity, so you must learn how your steed moves in order to attack and move smoothly. Some enemies are easier to defeat on horseback, and if they prove too strong there is no quicker way to escape.
4. Finish off small groups of enemies. In Elden Ring you can carry vials that recover your health or CP, which are fully restored when you rest in grace spots or one by one each time you kill a group of enemies. This also applies to groups of small enemies, so I recommend taking advantage of them to easily recover jars. In the first region of the game it is common to find groups of 3 or 4 enemies that fall easily when you pass on horseback, so take advantage of the few runes they give you and recover a vial of a life at the same time.
What’s more: Bandai Namco boasts perfect marks for FromSoftware’s Elden Ring.
5. Avoid using grace sites to heal yourself. Places of grace work like bonfires in Dark Souls or lamps in Bloodborne, allowing you to replenish your health, fill your flasks, and spend your runes to level up. However, resting on grace spots also revives enemies, so it’s not always a good option. For this reason, I recommend taking advantage of the small groups of enemies that I mentioned in the last point to recover your life with flasks, and only go to the places of grace when you want to level up.
6. Identify stores for supplies. In Elden Ring the “shops” are NPCs that sell you their items or knowledge, and these are not as many as we would find in other games of the genre. For this reason, it is worth noting where the first stores in the game are, such as the one in the church of Elleh, as they are used to buy supplies such as arrows and bolts, as well as recipes for the creation of objects.
7. Take advantage of all the resources. If there’s one thing that Elden Ring shares with other open world games, it’s that you can find ingredients at every turn, whether it’s the variety of plants and vegetables you can collect or the wild animals that run around. Although they do nothing to you and it might seem cruel to disturb them, wild animals give you bones, feathers, and meat that you can use to craft items such as your own arrows, food, and antidotes.
8. No better weapons that you don’t like. This might sound obvious, but Elden Ring has such a huge variety of weapons that you might not find one you like in the first few hours of the game. If you come to like one, then that’s great, but if you don’t, I recommend that you continue experimenting with others before upgrading one just to increase its damage, because at first the smithing stones are not so abundant to improve several weapons at the same time. Still, eventually you start to get enough for various sets, so don’t worry if you upgrade one and eventually don’t like it or find a better one.
9. Take advantage of stealth. The Elden Ring map is full of opportunities to use stealth and go unnoticed, which can come in handy when you don’t feel ready to engage enemies in a certain area. In addition to there being a lot of bushes scattered around to hide you, the enemy AI is very forgiving and you can easily outsmart them if they haven’t spotted you.
10. Use the still camera to spot enemies. Just as you can take advantage of stealth to go unnoticed, enemies often hide in the bushes to make ambushes, so sometimes you will have them on you before you know it to avoid them. Something that can help you is to use the fixed camera button to locate the enemies in front of you, even if they are not fully visible. In this way you can also know if an NPC is an ally or an enemy, since you cannot fix the camera on the allies.
11. Horseback combat is a rhythm game. Treat horseback fighting as a rhythm game, as you need to learn to time how long it takes for light and heavy hits depending on the weapon you’re using, as well as how long it takes to re-attack after a dash. It is possible to charge up the heavy attack for a few seconds, not to make it stronger, but to better time your release and hit enemies next to you.
12. Don’t let the shiny beetles escape. Especially the shiny white and gold beetles, as these give you new combat abilities. The red and blue ones restore your life vials and CP, but the white and gold ones are unique and always appear in the same places. These beetles are quick to escape, so it pays to know how to finish them off on horseback or running.
13. Pay attention to blood stains. It is possible to disable the online multiplayer mode, but if it is active you can pay attention to the blood stains on the floor to know that a danger is approaching. These bloodstains show you how another player died, so sites with lots of bloodstains usually point to a powerful enemy around the corner.
14. Have something to write on. Unlike most open world games, there isn’t a list of your active quests and story details in Elden Ring, so it’s worth having something to write down clues from NPCs and signs of the enemy. play.
15. Take your time. The most important advice, whether it’s fighting or scouting, is to take your time and don’t try to rush things. Although FromSoftware says that it is possible to finish the main story of Elden Ring in 30 hours, it will most likely take up to 50 hours for an average player, so there is no point in trying to rush your time in this world. The Elden Ring map is huge, so it’s worth taking your time in each area before moving on.