While Elden Ring is definitely FromSoftware’s most accessible game to date, it’s still exceedingly obtuse for newcomers, beginners and series veterans alike. Not only are these games famous for their elaborate lore and labyrinthine story; they are also known for particularly dense mechanics that demand you puzzle out its many intricate systems in order to wrest free a comfortable and fulfilling experience during your adventures in these unforgiving yet fascinating worlds.
There’s a lot of questions you might have delving into the Lands Between for the first time. Now, a lot of the magic of Elden Ring comes from figuring things out on your own. The map doesn’t have markers for a reason, they want you to explore and discover special things for yourself. Therefore, the tips listed in this guide are expressly things that I believe are integral for making the opening hours far more forgiving.
How to play online co-op and PvP in Elden Ring
There is no co-op option in the menu when you start up the game. In fact, it’s better to think of these games as singleplayer first, with some multiplayer features sprinkled in. You have to use items found in the overworld to participate in online multiplayer. You may help your fellow Tarnished in jolly cooperation, or to invade and torment others during their quest to become the Elden Lord.
While you’re running through the linear tutorial area, you’ll find a Tarnished’s Wizened Finger on a corpse. It will enable you to leave helpful messages for other players going through the game. On another corpse later on, you’ll find both a Tarnished’s Furled Finger and a Finger Severer. The former allows you to place down a summon sign, enabling eligible hosts to summon you to their world. You can help them defeat bosses, explore the overworld or delve into dangerous dungeons. The latter allows the host to send a summoned player back to their world.
When you emerge into Elden Ring‘s open world, you find a Site of Lost Grace acting as your checkpoint and a fast travel location (as well as being host to several other integral features that you’ll unlock). Turn to the east and look under the cliff to see a statue with an item atop it. Interacting with the statue grants you the Small Golden Effigy, which allows you to send your summoning sign into nearby summoning pools. Activating the statue after obtaining the item to open up this area for your summoning pool. Be sure to interact with every statue like this that you find. It allows you to be summoned there whenever a player needs help.
Now this is all fine and good, and you may have been able to figure out all of this on your own. But, how do you actually summon other players to your world? Well for that, my dear reader, you need a consumable item called a Furlcalling Finger Remedy. If you make your way over to the Church of Elleh — which you can see from the start, just to the north, following the lines of Golden Grace that extend from that first Site of Lost Grace — you will find this funny Santa Claus-looking dude named Kale who sells you Furlcalling Finger Remedies for 1000 runes each.
Buy the Crafting Kit to make Furlcalling Finger Remedies
There is a much easier way to obtain these coveted items. Instead of buying the Furlcalling Finger Remedies from Kale, pick up the Crafting Kit he sells for just 300 runes. You need recipe books (which you can buy from merchants or find scattered about the open world) in order to make the most of this kit, but it does start out with a recipe for the remedies. You only need two Erdleaf Flowers in order to craft one Furlcalling Finger Remedy, which are the little orange flowers that litter practically the entire map. Before long you’ll have enough that you never need worry about running out of them.
Once you use a Remedy, you can summon up to two others players to visit your world. Either interact with golden summon signs or with one of the aforementioned statues that activates your summoning pool. Be warned, however, that summoning other players or interacting with a red summoning sign will open you up to invaders, who are other players that attack you and try to impede your progress.
There’s also a lot of restrictions applied during online play. For starters, you won’t be able to summon your trusty steed, Torrent. In addition, if you’re in the overworld you won’t be able to enter any caves with you’re coop partners. Instead you’ll have to sever them from your world and resummon them from inside the dungeon. Once you’ve beaten a boss together with your coop partner, they will disappear from your world, and you’ll have to use another Furlcalling Finger Remedy in order to summon other players again. You’ll also need to use another one if you die.
Light is precious in Elden Ring
Kale also sells a torch for 200 runes. Buy it and equip it in one of your left-hand weapon slots. In past Souls games, you could generally get by just fine without any supplementary light. But, there are many areas in the Lands Between where it is nigh impossible to see without a light source. When a torch is held in your left hand, you can press L1/LB to hold up the torch and expand the light radius. Not to mention, the torch can be used as a weapon against enemies that are weak to fire. Cherish your torch.
Choose your starting class wisely
In Elden Ring, you are never locked out of a particular build decision based on which class you start with. The main thing you want to look at when you’re choosing your class is the equipment they start out with. The Lands Between are vast, as a result you may find what you need for your build for dozens of hours. We’re looking at weapons and, far more importantly, spells. If you want to spec into sorceries or invocations at all during your playthrough, I highly recommend starting with the Astrologer or Prophet respectively.
Why? Well in the 18 hours I’ve played so far, I’ve only been able to find one Staff. I haven’t seen a single Finger Seal. I haven’t found a merchant that sells either, despite being able to find both the sorcery and invocation teachers without much trouble. You could consider the Prisoner or Confessor as alternatives to the other classes, but the Astrologer and Prophet both start with more spells, which allows you much needed utility to start while you scour the overworld for teachers so you can learn new spells.
Tips on stat allocation in Elden Ring
After sitting at a few different sites of grace, you’ll unlock the ability to level up (as well as your mount, Torrent). Be mindful when spending your runes on levels, however. It’s very easy to spread yourself too thin and end up weak as a twig. Vigor is a very important stat as it determines your maximum health. If you’re struggling with dying a lot at the start, consider making Vigor your first priority. Go as far as you feel like you need to go; 27 is the first soft cap but many players will feel perfectly comfortable in the 15-20 range.
Mind and Endurance are both very useful stats that increase your Focus (aka Mana) and Stamina bars respectively. If you feel like you need more of either one, pump some points into it, but don’t focus them too hard this early in the game, as you’re going to need to save some points for your main damage stats.
Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Faith are the main damage stats, and you’re going to want to pump most of your points into these early on. I recommend picking one stat and dumping all of your extra levels into it. Only level others as needed to equip the equipment you want to use. At most, choose two. Picking both Strength and Dexterity to make a quality build isn’t a bad choice for your first playthrough. It allows you to play with most of the different types of weapons in the game and get a feel for what you like. Spreading these stats too thin makes progression significantly harder, as many encounters begin to feel like battles of attrition.
Arcane is another stat that also affects your damage with certain weapons and spells. However, it covers a limited and more niche range of equipment and is ill advised for a first playthrough.
Utilize Ashes of War to optimize your damage
You’ll find Ashes of War scattered all throughout the Lands Between. They act as skills that you can put on a weapon to change up it’s L2/LT attack. However, that’s not all they do. Whenever you equip an Ash of War, it also asks if you want to change the scaling of your weapon. There are Ashes that enhance Strength scaling, Dex scaling and Quality scaling. There are also Ashes that will grant other types of damage, like magic, and allow for scaling with Intelligence, Faith or Arcane. Try to find Ashes of War that mesh well with your build and slap them on your weapon at a Site of Lost Grace in order to benefit from some extra damage.
Don’t worry about losing your Ashes of War when you use them, or losing a weapon’s original skill. You can always take it off of the weapon to revert it back to it’s original state and put the ashes on another one.
Go wheresoever your curiosity takes you
I could keep listing out tips all day and not even cover half of everything I think beginners and newcomers should know going into Elden Ring. However, I don’t want to run the risk of spoiling you. It’s truly a wonder to stumble across almost anything in this game, and that would be robbed if I were to just tell you what’s in store.
So reader, I encourage you to get out there and explore the Lands Between to your heart’s content. Don’t do yourself a disservice by only following the Golden Grace down the critical path. There is so much to discover here, and so much to love.
Have fun. Good luck. And don’t give up.
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