Over the last 4 days I have spent roughly 12 hours a day playing Elden Ring, and as I have explored the map and unlocked a myriad of new weaponry and slain a huge amount of bosses I thought I would turn the game off for a few moments and collate a number of tips that I have picked up during my time with the game.
Starting Builds
If you are absolutely certain you want to go down the magic route for Elden Ring then Astrologer would be your best bet, and whilst people on the internet will tell you this is the best way to play, I have to contest this for new players as you will need to constantly balance your flasks between healing or granting you additional FP (magic bar). If you are reading this, I imagine you are fairly new to Soulsborne games and I would suggest that you begin as a Warrior – this allows you to optimise for melee with a high Dex stat right off the gate – opening the ability to use a lot of weaponry right away.
Worst case scenario you can always re-spec later.
The Map fragments are clearly labelled on your map
As you explore the game you will notice that portions of the map are shrouded with no landmarks to be seen until you find that areas map fragment. This is with the exception of a small glowing tower to be seen on the roadside (if you have cleared the mist) and where you will find the fragments which unlock the map.
The First Area
You might be tempted after the tutorial to run through and explore Limgrave right away and open up as much of the map as you possibly can. However, there are a couple steps you should take before doing anything else. First run through to the church just ahead of the starting area, ignore the boss here as he’s annoying as hell on foot and rest at the Site of Grace within the church.
Next absolutely book it through to the main boss of this area – stopping at the site of grace at a bottom of a hill. This will allow you to speak to an NPC here, unlocking the ability to level up and, most importantly – YOUR HORSE!
Next – fast travel back to the church, make it night and speak to the NPC which appears. This will allow you to summon spirits to aid you in battle. They won’t ever do a ton of damage but they have saved me in boss fights more than once by being a distraction.
Starting Gift
Choose whatever you want, but if in doubt – choose the one that gives you an extra health flask.
Rolling!
This one is just for the new people here. If you are rolling out the way of an attack, where possible, roll towards your attacker. 9/10 times the attack will miss and you will be in a prime position to twat ’em.
You don’t have to kill everything!
The best part about Elden Ring is that it is nigh on impossible to get stuck. Yes it’s quite a tough game but if you are up against a wall and your attacks are barely damaging the boss or the enemy then simply get on your horse and bugger off in a different direction for a bit. Go kill some enemies elsewhere and come back with better levels, weapons and armour to make that boss your bitch.
It’s not shameful to summon
Don’t let Reddit tell you otherwise. If you need help then summon it! Use the other players who want to help you and set up passwords so you can play with friends and engage in Jolly Cooperation.
Use the horse
I have seen a lot of videos of people taking on the games various open world bosses on their feet, ducking and diving around and barely surviving. Those same bosses I just rode around on Torrent and gave the boss a smack upside the head and dashed away. USE THE HORSE IT’S THE NEW MECHANIC!
And finally…
If you are really stuck and want to find everything there is already an interactive map that details where everything is that you can filter and change to your hearts content. This can be found here: https://mapgenie.io/elden-ring/maps/the-lands-between Exploration is the name of the game in Elden Ring but if you want the extra helping hand then use all the tools provided!
So that’s a few tips and tricks that I hope help you along your way to becoming the next Elden Lord. Do you have any specific tips that I missed out? Anything that can help your fellow Tarnished? Let me know in the comments below.