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- Overview
- Elden Ring’s Story
- Creating Your Character - Choosing Your Class
- Melee Combat
- Spell Casting
- Ranged Combat
- Exploration
- How to Level Up
- Using Torrent
- Summoning Spirit Ashes
The Lands Between Map
Beginner's Guide - Basics and Features
By Brendan Graeber, Hannah Hoolihan, Brian Barnett, +28 more
Elden Ring is an Open World Action RPG from From Software. As a Tarnished, it is your destiny to explore the Lands Between and become an Elden Lord. Elden Ring was released on February 24, 2022. This page covers the basic mechanics of Elden Ring, including creating your character, how combat and exploration works, how to level up, and more.
Other Helpful Pages:
•Essential Tips and Tricks
Elden Ring’s backstory (some of which was built by writer George R. Martin), is intentionally shrouded in mystery and intrigue. A distant place known as the Lands Between was once ruled over by Queen Marika and her offspring, and they drew their powers from the mighty Erdtree and a golden order known as the Elden Ring.
However, things quickly came to ruin as a secret plot was enacted, and mysterious agents stole the Rune of Death, and killed one of Marika’s children - Godwyn the Golden. These events caused Queen Marika to disappear, and in her absence the demigod children waged war upon one another, but no victor emerged, causing the Lands Between to crumble under never-ending conflict, and the Elden Ring and the golden order it upheld to become shattered.
Though the details remain elusive, it will be up to you to hunt them down as one of the Tarnished - a people long since driven from the Lands Between. Only you can stop the demigods, retrieve the Great Runes they carry, and reunite them to become an Elden Lord. How you decide to go about this, and which alliances you may forge or break along the way.
Much of Elden Ring’s lore won’t be told to you outright, and you’ll have to piece together clues from items, characters you meet, places you discover, and bosses you defeat.
Video - Which Class is Best For You?
Upon creating a new character in Elden Ring, you’ll be given a wide range of cosmetic options to choose from in how your character looks. None of these cosmetic options - age, body type, physique, and voice - will affect the gameplay, and you can choose from presets, add facial features, hair styles, and tattoos - even eyepatches.
Note that you will have the opportunity later in the game to completely change how your character looks, free of charge.
This screen will also allow you to choose your character’s starting class. You can think of this as a base origin for your character - an archetype to guide you in a particular playstyle or direction, but it is by no means set in stone. Each starting class excels in a single attribute - or a better spread, and can help you define what kind of Tarnished you want to be: a tried and true heavily armored fighter, a focused sorcerer, or one who is at home swinging swords and invoking faith incantations alike. The full list includes:
•The Vagabond - "A knight exiled from their homeland to wander. A solid, armor-clad origin.” Excels at high starting health, and armed with a halberd and sword
•The Warrior - "A twinblade-wielding warrior from a nomadic tribe. An origin of exceptional technique.” Excels at high dextrous ability alongside formidable stamina, and armed with twin scimitars.
For those new to the series, it’s highly recommended to enter the optional tutorial dungeon at the start of the game, as it will give you an excellent primer on how different attack styles work:
•Light attacks will be your bread and butter if you choose to engage in melee, and each weapon has its own style and chain attacks - and this includes jumping and dashing attacks as well.
•Strong attacks use up much more stamina, but can devastate enemies or knock them off their guard - even more so when used as a jumping strong attack.
•Dodging is crucial to avoiding incoming attacks - even huge crushing blows from giants - due to the limited invulnerability you receive during the dodge animation. Lighter armor means faster and farther rolls, while having your equipment load over a certain threshold will make your rolls slower and less effective - passing 100% you’ll be unable to roll entirely.
•Shield parries can instantly open up an attacker to become vulnerable to a critical strike - but not all enemies are susceptible, and the window is very slim, making it hard to land on unpredictable opponents
•Guard Counters are a safer option to retaliate against a strike, allowing you to soak a blow with your shield and strike back with a strong attack that doesn’t rely on a short window of opportunity. When combined with a shield that absorbs 100% of incoming physical damage, you can brave many attacks and repay them with massive damage that can often break their stance - but you’ll need to ensure the incoming attack is not part of a chain, or you’ll become vulnerable when launching your counter.
If swords and spears aren’t your style, Elden Ring boasts a number of different spells to wield. You’ll have to “equip” a certain number of spells at a time when resting at a Site of Grace using memory slots, but spells can fulfill a wide variety of roles from offense to defense and buffs. Some spells can even summon magical weapons to strike down in place of physical ones, letting you enjoy the benefits of a melee fighter without having to invest in strength or dexterity. However, you must have a staff or catalyst equipped in your hand to cast spells - and you can freely slice with a weapon in one hand while prepping spells in the other.
In Elden Ring, certain spells can be charged by holding down the cast button to increase their effects - but the cost will stay the same. Other spells can be cast while moving, or used near-instantly after performing other actions for quick combo strikes. Some can even be chain-casted, allowing you to fire multiple salvos of magical attacks so long as you have the stamina to keep things rolling.
Aside from swords and spells, Elden Ring also allows you to utilize a variety of bows and crossbows to deal damage at range. Ammo can come in many forms, and can even be crafted to provide effects like bleed, fire, and sleep - and can be helpful for picking off targets before they get close enough to cause trouble.
Bows can be quickly swapped to be held in both hands, and you can either lock onto a target for rapid fire hits, or aim manually by holding down the left bumper, and choosing between two ammo types to snipe with. This can even be done on horseback, but you’ll need to orient Torrent towards your foes, or you’ll likely miss your mark.
Just as important as fighting is discovery, and Elden Ring has plenty of it. As you rest at the various Sites of Grace to replenish your health and recharge your flasks, you may spot the glimmering wisps of gold pointing off in the direction of your next big task. This usually comes in the form of the large Legacy Dungeons in which the demigods of Elden Ring reside, but that doesn’t mean you need to head right for them.
It’s often best to fully explore the region and find the various map fragments that comprise the area before trying to take on the main attraction of each region, as you’ll find countless points of interest worth checking out that can help you in the long run. This can include some of the following:
•Ruins and Encampments where various enemy soldiers are entrenched, and often guard chests of loot
•Mini Dungeons, some easily missed, others with clues to point the way - and each contains an assortment of enemies and its own mini-boss protecting valuable treasure
•Nomadic Merchants found in odd corners of the world resting by bonfires that can sell unique items and hints
•Gusting vortexes known as Spiritsprings that allow you to use Torrent to leap up huge cliffs in a single bound to bypass chokepoints and explore new areas
When you first start your adventure in Elden Ring, you’ll gain Runes from defeating enemies, or even crushing glowing skulls on the ground to loot Golden Runes, but won’t have a way to spend them.
You’ll need to begin exploring the open world, and activate at least three Sites of Grace in Limgrave’s overworld and then rest before the mysterious Finger Maiden Melina will appear before you, offering an accord. At his point, she’ll let you exchange Runes to level up your attributes, and the more you level up, the more it will cost.
Torrent is your trusty steed that will be your main mode of transportation for your entire adventure. He can be summoned with a special item, and it's highly recommended to place this item in your pouch to quickly access Torrent by holding down Y and pressing a D-Pad button. You can also quickly dismount by pressing the crouch button, and doing so while riding will let you perform a leap which you can chain into an attack on unsuspecting enemies.
Torrent moves faster than your Tarnished does, and pressing the sprint button will give you a burst of speed in exchange for a bit of stamina (only in combat - when you're exploring your stamina won't be depleted). You can't exactly defend yourself on horseback, so you'll need to make use of Torrent's speed and agility to evade attacks - and his double jump ability.
Once you've met Melina and gained your trusty spectral mount, you can fast travel back to the Church of Elleh and meet the Snow Witch, who will offer you spirit ashes and a Spirit-Calling Bell.
This this item, you can cast summonable spirits by finding their ashes to assist you in combat. They'll cost FP (or sometimes even HP) that will vary based on how strong the spirit is, how many of them appear, and what their moves are. Spirits generally mimic the enemies you'll face in the Lands Between, so you can use their tactics and abilities to your advantage to overwhelm and redirect the attention of your enemies.
Oct 11, 2021 · If you were wondering how to play Elden Ring, what you should do first when starting the game, or what you should know even before, this beginner’s guide is for you! It will help you out and show you how to get started with Elden Ring.
Jan 17, 2024 · Here is what you should do first in Elden Ring: Visit the Church of Elleh just north of where you begin (be sure to avoid the powerful Tree Sentinel on the way!) to find a merchant, Kale, who...
- Contributor
Jul 1, 2024 · Welcome to the Elden Ring Beginner's Guide! This guide will take you through all the first steps to getting a character started with best practices for the early game so you can quickly be on your way exploring the Lands Between without missing any vital upgrades or features.
Mar 9, 2022 · 1. Pick a good starting class. Veteran Souls players will tell you that starting classes don't matter much. It's true in a sense: you can build your stats in any direction, so the starting...
Mar 22, 2022 · Elden Ring isn't an easy game. If you need some help navigating its high-stakes combat, lack of a quest log, and hostile open-world, here are 12 tips to get you started in the Lands Between. Unraveling mysteries in the Lands Between is half the fun of Elden Ring, but the game doesn't do a great job explaining many of its core mechanics.
