Posted on by Benjamin Robinson

Elden Ring Beginner’s Guide: Conquer the Lands Between With These Essential Tips

A Comprehensive Elden Ring Beginner’s Guide

Elden Ring, with its expansive world and intricate mechanics, can feel overwhelming for newcomers. While countless guides and tips exist, they often lack cohesion and focus. This guide aims to consolidate the most crucial information, offering a roadmap for new Tarnished to navigate the Lands Between.

This guide primarily uses console controls for clarity, but PC players can find a quick guide to keyboard and mouse keybindings here.

Just Getting Started

  • Character Creation: Don’t overthink your initial character selection. You can respec your stats after defeating Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, and alter your appearance at Fia’s mirror in the Roundtable Hold much earlier.
  • Don’t Skip the Tutorial: After your initial death and awakening in the Cave of Knowledge, descend the hole next to the seated spirit for a valuable tutorial on basic mechanics.
  • Embrace Exploration, Consult Resources Strategically: Elden Ring rewards exploration, but some aspects, like NPC questlines, can be incredibly opaque. Don’t hesitate to consult resources like the Elden Ring Wiki or communities like Reddit for guidance, but prioritize discovering the world organically.

General Tips for Survival

  • Level Up Strategically: Always have a build in mind when allocating stat points. Prioritize Vigor for survivability and your primary damage stat (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith, or Arcane). Familiarize yourself with soft caps to maximize your stat investment.
  • Armor Matters: While not as crucial as Vigor, armor significantly impacts survivability. Endurance increases your equip load, allowing you to wear heavier armor. Aim for medium equip load to avoid hindering your stamina regeneration and movement speed.
  • Retreat and Return Stronger: Don’t be afraid to leave challenging areas or bosses and return later. Exploration often yields upgrades, new skills, and valuable resources to bolster your power.
  • Adapt Your Strategies: Different enemies and bosses are vulnerable to specific strategies and damage types. Experiment with your approach, including utilizing Spirit Summons, which can be acquired from Ranni at the Church of Elleh after obtaining Torrent.
  • Master the Art of Consumables: Cookbooks and crafting materials are plentiful throughout the Lands Between. Experiment with crafting to discover consumables that provide tactical advantages and enhance your build.
  • Practice Makes Perfect: When facing challenging bosses, dedicate time to learning their movesets and practicing your dodge timings. Avoid getting greedy with attacks, especially during a boss’s final moments, as they often unleash more aggressive attacks.
  • Optimize Your Actions: Many actions, like using flasks or casting certain spells, can be performed more quickly by pressing the input again immediately after the initial action.
  • Utilize Target Lock: In areas with low visibility, use target lock (R3) to pinpoint enemies. Be wary of ambushes, as enemies often lurk around corners.
  • Respect the Non-Combatants: Not everyone in the Lands Between is hostile. If an individual doesn’t trigger target lock, they are likely a friendly NPC. Attacking them can have consequences, although the Turtle Pope in Liurnia offers absolution for accidental transgressions.

Navigating the Menus and UI

  • Master Menu Navigation: Important information is spread across various submenus. Use X/Square, Y/Triangle, and R3 to cycle through them efficiently. Hiding the right menu screen with R3 prevents the menu from closing when using an item.
  • Pausing, Elden Ring Style: While the game lacks a traditional pause function, you can achieve a similar effect by navigating to Menu > Equipment > Help > Menu Explanation or Map > Help > Menu Explanation. Note that this doesn’t pause multiplayer functionality.
  • Optimize Your Inventory:
    • Use LB/L1 and RB/R1 to switch between equipment screens without backing out.
    • Use LT/L2 and RT/R2 to navigate menus quickly.
    • From the map menu, press Y/Triangle to return to your last visited Site of Grace or Y>X>A to travel directly to the Roundtable Hold.
    • Customize your pouch and item slots with frequently used items.
    • Sort your inventory using L3 for easier management.
    • Sell excess equipment and store unused items in your Grace chest to reduce clutter.
  • Customize Your Settings: Adjust settings to your preference. Consider disabling camera auto-rotation and auto wall recovery. Increase voice volume for clarity and adjust sound and music levels accordingly. Experiment with control remapping to find what suits you best.
  • Dismiss Message Prompts: Certain prompts, like "Stonesword key was lost with use," require dismissal with the interact button (Y/Triangle by default) before you can perform most actions.

Combat Essentials

  • Avoid Panic Rolling: Master the timing of your dodge rolls to utilize i-frames effectively. Rolling into projectile attacks often proves more effective than rolling away.
  • Magic 101: Equip spells at a Site of Grace under the "Memorize Spell" menu. You’ll need a staff (for sorceries) or a seal (for incantations) to cast them. Experiment with different catalysts, as they offer bonuses to specific spell types.
  • Unleash the Power Stance: Equipping two of the same weapon type in each hand grants access to a unique "Power Stance" moveset, allowing for devastating attacks.
  • Master Your Armaments: Experiment with different weapons and learn their movesets. Utilize crouch-pokes, backstep attacks, jump attacks, and sprinting attacks to diversify your offensive capabilities.
  • Two-Handing for Advantage: Two-handing a weapon increases your effective Strength by 50%, reduces knockback, and often alters the moveset.
  • Understanding Damage Calculation: Weapon damage is determined by upgrade level, stat scaling, and base damage. Utilize online resources like this weapon AR calculator to optimize your weapon choices for your build.
  • Stagger for Critical Hits: Heavy attacks and specific abilities can stagger enemies, leaving them vulnerable to critical hits. Approach a staggered enemy and press R1/RB to execute a critical attack.
  • Shields Up: Prioritize shields with high physical damage negation. Be mindful of your stamina when blocking, as running out leaves you vulnerable. Master guard counters for effective counterattacks.
  • Ranged Combat Tips: Fire bows and crossbows in mid-air or after a roll for increased firing speed. Use L1/LB to aim manually for greater precision.
  • Embrace the Shadows: Utilize stealth to your advantage. Crouch, use cover, and consider talismans, spells, or armor that enhance stealth. Distract enemies with sound to isolate and eliminate them strategically.
  • Torrent, Your Loyal Steed:
    • Hold the strong attack button while mounted to drag your weapon along the ground for a powerful sweeping attack.
    • Jump while charging heavy attacks for devastating aerial assaults.
    • Equip Rowa berries to replenish Torrent’s health and avoid dismounts.
    • Mount Torrent while moving to maintain momentum.
    • Change direction when dismounting by pushing the left stick in the desired direction.
    • Utilize double jumps to maneuver in tight spaces.
    • Spirit Springs provide fall damage protection, allowing for safe descents from great heights.
  • Hidden Mechanics to Master:
    • Chain light attacks for increased damage with each consecutive hit.
    • Spears gain a damage bonus when striking enemies winding up an attack.
    • Curved swords and thrusting swords can cancel charged strong attacks with a quick attack and backstep.
    • Thrusting swords and spears can perform light attacks while blocking with a shield.

Exploration and Discovery

  • Prioritize Map Fragments: Seek out obelisks in unexplored regions to locate map fragments, revealing the area’s topography.
  • Decipher Map Icons: Familiarize yourself with map icons to identify points of interest, including mines, dungeons, graveyards, and more.
  • Unveiling Illusions: Roll into suspicious walls to uncover hidden paths and secrets. Utilize Margit’s Shackle or Mohg’s Shackle to reveal illusory walls and activate pillars within a large radius.
  • Rainbow Stones: More Than Meets the Eye:
    • Throw rainbow stones off ledges to gauge fall damage. A shattered stone indicates a fatal drop.
    • Use rainbow stones to mark your path through looping dungeons.
  • Platforming Techniques:
    • Execute a sprint jump by jumping, holding sprint in mid-air, and jumping again upon landing.
    • Opt for walking jumps or rolls for more controlled platforming.
    • Utilize i-frames when mounting or dismounting Torrent to avoid damage.

Multiplayer: Co-operation and Competition

  • Summoning Allies: Activate summoning pools outside boss arenas and use a Furlcalling Finger Remedy to reveal summon signs from other players. Recent updates allow you to broadcast your summon sign to all discovered summoning pools, making it easier to find assistance.
  • Understanding Summon Signs: Yellow signs represent friendly summons, while red signs indicate hostile summons or duelists.
  • The Importance of Etiquette:
    • When summoned for a duel, engage in a gesture of respect before fighting.
    • Refrain from using Rune Arcs or healing flasks during duels, as it is considered unsporting.
  • Leaving Your Mark: You can leave up to 10 messages for other players. Helpful and entertaining messages often earn appraisals, rewarding you with a significant health boost.
  • Severing Connections: Use the Finger Severer to dismiss unwanted summons, including NPCs, spirits, and players.

Bonus Tips and Tricks

  • Flask of Wondrous Physic: Obtain this invaluable flask from the Third Church of Marika in Limgrave. Experiment with Crystal Tears to customize its effects.
  • Light Your Way: Purchase a torch from Kale early on and upgrade to a lantern as soon as possible. Consider using torches with special properties, like the Beast-Repellant Torch or the Steel-Wire Torch.
  • Exploit Enemy Weaknesses: Research enemy weaknesses to gain an advantage in combat. For example, Royal Revenants are vulnerable to area-of-effect healing spells.
  • Turn the Tide with the Environment: Use enemies and the environment to your advantage. Lure enemies into traps or pit them against each other.
  • Escape Grabs: Rapidly press face buttons or triggers to break free from multi-hit grab attacks.
  • Cleansing Status Ailments: Rolling in poison or rot inflicts the status effect even after leaving the area. Use soap to halt the buildup and boluses to remove existing buildup.
  • Break Through: Roll or jump through breakable objects. Jumping from a distance allows you to land on top of some objects.
  • Weather Matters: Rain amplifies lightning damage and weakens fire damage. Lightning attacks also create shockwaves when striking water.

Most Importantly: Enjoy the Journey

Elden Ring is a game best experienced through personal discovery. Don’t be afraid to experiment, make mistakes, and forge your own path through the Lands Between. Your Tarnished, your story.

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