Unveiling the Lands Between: An Elden Ring Guide for Tarnished

Welcome, Tarnished, to the vast and unforgiving realm of the Lands Between. Elden Ring, FromSoftware's magnum opus, is a sprawling action RPG that beckons with the promise of adventure, power, and the chance to become the Elden Lord. However, its immense open world, challenging combat, and cryptic lore can be daunting for newcomers and seasoned Souls veterans alike. This comprehensive guide aims to illuminate your path, offering essential tips, strategies, and insights to help you conquer its many trials and triumph over the demigods.

The First Steps: Embracing the Open World

Your journey begins not with a linear path, but with a grand vista and the freedom to explore. Unlike previous FromSoftware titles, Elden Ring encourages immediate exploration of its expansive open world. Don't feel pressured to tackle the imposing main boss right away. Instead, embrace the sense of discovery.

This initial phase is crucial for gathering vital resources, understanding the game's mechanics, and getting a feel for the diverse enemy types you'll encounter. Explore every nook and cranny, activate Sites of Grace, and take on smaller challenges to build your confidence and character strength. The Lands Between is a treasure trove of hidden secrets, crafting materials, and powerful equipment waiting to be discovered.

Character Creation and Initial Build Choices

The journey to becoming Elden Lord begins with character creation. While no choice is truly "wrong" due to Elden Ring's flexible respec system, making informed decisions early on can significantly smooth your initial hours. Consider your preferred playstyle. Do you favor direct melee combat, ranged spellcasting, or a more hybrid approach?

Choosing Your Starting Class

Your starting class provides a baseline distribution of stats and initial equipment. While these can be altered later, they offer a helpful starting point.

• Vagabond: A solid choice for new players, offering good Vigor and Strength, making them durable and effective with melee weapons.
• Warrior: Focuses on Dexterity, excelling with fast, agile weapons and dual-wielding.
• Hero: Prioritizes Strength and Endurance, making them good for heavy weapons and armor.
• Astrologer: Ideal for spellcasters, starting with high Mind and Intelligence.
• Prophet: A faith-based caster, beginning with high Mind and Faith.
• Samurai: A well-rounded melee class with good Dexterity and an excellent starting weapon (Uchigatana).
• Prisoner: A hybrid class with decent Intelligence and Dexterity, suitable for spellswords.
• Confessor: A faith-based melee class, good for those who want to mix offensive spells with combat.
• Wretch: The ultimate blank slate, starting at Rune Level 1 with all stats at 10. Recommended only for experienced players who know exactly what build they want.
• Confessor: A solid choice for a Faith-based build, with good starting stats for both melee and Incantations.

The Keepsake Selection

The Keepsake you choose at the beginning offers a small, immediate advantage. While none are game-breaking, some are more useful than others.

• Golden Seed: Arguably the best choice, as it immediately grants an additional charge to your Flask of Crimson/Cerulean Tears.
• Fanged Imp Ashes: A decent starting Spirit Ash, providing some early combat assistance.
• Stonesword Key: Useful for unlocking Imp Statue seals, but you'll find many more throughout the game.
• Cracked Pot: Used for crafting throwable items, but you can find plenty.
• Bewitching Branch: A consumable that can charm enemies, useful for specific situations.
• Chrysalids' Memento: A lore item with no practical use.
• Lands Between Rune: Provides 3000 Runes, a small boost but easily earned.
• Shabriri's Woe: Causes enemies to target you more often, useful for co-op but potentially detrimental for solo play.
• Scarlet Amber Medallion: Increases maximum HP, a decent early-game boost.

Mastering Combat: Understanding the Fundamentals

Elden Ring's combat system is a refinement of FromSoftware's renowned formula, emphasizing careful positioning, precise dodges, and opportune attacks. Simply button-mashing will lead to swift defeat.

The Importance of Stamina Management

Your green bar represents stamina, consumed by attacking, dodging, blocking, and sprinting. Mismanaging stamina is a common pitfall. Always leave enough in reserve to dodge an incoming attack or get to safety. Consider investing in Endurance, the stat that increases your stamina pool and equip load.

Guard Counters and Poise Breaking

A new addition to Elden Ring is the Guard Counter. After blocking an attack, immediately press Heavy Attack to unleash a powerful retaliatory strike. This can stagger enemies, opening them up for critical hits. Similarly, continuously attacking an enemy can break their "poise," stunning them and allowing for a critical hit. Pay attention to the sound cue and visual stagger.

Status Effects: Your Ally or Your Bane

Elden Ring features a variety of status effects that can turn the tide of battle. Understanding and utilizing them is key.

• Bleed: Builds up on enemies and, when triggered, deals a massive burst of damage. Excellent against many bosses.
• Frostbite: Deals damage and temporarily increases damage taken by the afflicted enemy.
• Poison/Scarlet Rot: Inflicts damage over time. Scarlet Rot is a more potent version of poison.
• Madness: Builds up in both you and enemies, and when triggered, deals damage and stuns.
• Sleep: Puts enemies to sleep, useful for bypassing or getting easy hits on some foes.
• Death Blight: Instantly kills enemies if their Death Blight meter fills up. Extremely potent against humanoids.

The Power of Spirit Ashes

Spirit Ashes are your ethereal allies, summoned using FP to assist you in combat. They can draw aggro, deal damage, and even inflict status effects, making challenging encounters significantly more manageable. Don't view summoning as a crutch; it's a legitimate and often necessary mechanic.

Early on, look for the Lone Wolf Ashes and the Jellyfish Spirit Ashes. As you progress, you'll find more powerful options like the Mimic Tear Ash (which copies your current build) and the Black Knife Tiche Ash. Upgrade your Spirit Ashes using Grave Glovewort and Ghost Glovewort found in catacombs and dungeons.

Exploration and Progression: Maximizing Your Journey

The Lands Between is massive, and efficient exploration is crucial for a smooth progression. Don't be afraid to deviate from the main path.

Unlocking the Map and Sites of Grace

Your map starts largely blank. To reveal sections, you need to find Map Fragments, usually located at pillars marked on your map. Activating Sites of Grace is essential; they serve as checkpoints, allow you to level up, manage your Flasks, and access your chest. You can also fast travel between any activated Site of Grace.

Dungeons, Caves, and Catacombs

The open world is dotted with various smaller dungeons, including caves, tunnels, and catacombs. These offer valuable rewards like Spirit Ashes, crafting materials, unique weapons, and talismans.

• Caves: Often house crafting materials and unique items, usually guarded by a single, smaller boss.
• Tunnels: Typically contain smithing stones for weapon upgrades, culminating in a boss that drops useful crafting materials.
• Catacombs: Feature a more labyrinthine design, often with traps and multiple enemy types, and usually end with a boss that drops Spirit Ashes or talismans.

Crafting and Resources: Self-Sufficiency in the Wilds

Elden Ring introduces a robust crafting system that allows you to create a wide array of consumable items, from healing balms to offensive projectiles and weapon buffs.

The Crafting Kit and Cookbooks

To begin crafting, you need to acquire the Crafting Kit from Kale, the merchant at the Church of Elleh. Recipes are learned by finding Cookbooks scattered throughout the world. These provide instructions for crafting various items, often themed around certain enemy types or regions.

Essential Crafting Materials

Keep an eye out for abundant crafting materials.

• Runebears, Boars, Goats: Provide hides and bones for various consumables.
• Miranda Sprouts, Poisonbloom: For crafting anti-poison items.
• Rimed Crystal Bud, Dewkissed Herba: For crafting frost-related items.
• Golden Sunflower, Fulgurbloom: For crafting lightning-related items.
• Smoldering Butterfly, Mushroom: For various fire and healing items.
• Thin Beast Bones, Arteria Leaf: Crucial for crafting arrows and bolts.

Upgrading Your Armaments: The Path to Power

Your character's stats are important, but a powerful, upgraded weapon can make a significant difference. Don't neglect weapon upgrades.

Smithing Stones and Somber Smithing Stones

Weapons are upgraded using Smithing Stones (for standard weapons) and Somber Smithing Stones (for unique weapons). These can be found throughout the world, dropped by enemies, or purchased from merchants.

• Smithing Stone [1] - [9]: Used for standard weapons, found in increasing tiers as you explore.
• Somber Smithing Stone [1] - [9]: Used for unique weapons, typically found in more challenging areas or as rewards for mini-bosses.
• Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone / Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone: The rarest and most powerful stones, used to upgrade weapons to their maximum level (+25 for standard, +10 for unique). These are usually found in late-game areas or as rewards for major bosses.

Ash of War: Customizing Your Combat

Ashes of War are skills that can be affixed to most weapons, changing their Weapon Art and scaling properties. They offer immense build customization and can drastically alter your playstyle.

• Affinity: When applying an Ash of War, you can also change the weapon's "affinity," which modifies its stat scaling. For example, applying "Keen" to a weapon will increase its Dexterity scaling, while "Heavy" increases Strength scaling.
• Removable: Ashes of War can be freely removed and re-applied to different weapons, encouraging experimentation.
• Duplication: Found "Lost Ashes of War" can be used at a Blacksmith to duplicate an existing Ash of War, allowing you to use the same skill on multiple weapons.

Talismans: Boosting Your Abilities

Talismans are equipable items that provide passive bonuses to your character, ranging from increased damage and defense to improved stamina regeneration and item discovery. You start with one talisman slot and can eventually unlock up to four.

Early Game Talismans to Seek

• Erdtree's Favor: Increases HP, Stamina, and Equip Load. Found in the Fringefolk Hero's Grave, behind a Stonesword Key barrier.
• Radagon's Soreseal/Marika's Soreseal: Greatly boosts several stats but also increases damage taken. Excellent for early-game power spikes, especially for specific builds.
• Green Turtle Talisman: Greatly raises stamina recovery speed. Extremely useful for all builds.
• Blessed Dew Talisman: Slowly restores HP over time. Good for passive healing during exploration.

Rune Farming: Leveling Up Efficiently

Runes are Elden Ring's currency and experience points. You'll need a lot of them to level up your character, upgrade your weapons, and purchase items. While natural progression provides a steady stream of Runes, some efficient farming methods can significantly accelerate your power growth.

Early Game Farming Spots

• Gatefront Ruins (Limgrave): Easily accessible early on, you can repeatedly clear the encampment for a decent amount of Runes.
• South of Agheel Lake (Limgrave): The trolls roaming this area give substantial Runes and are relatively easy to defeat with mounted combat.
• Bestial Sanctum (Caelid, via teleport): While Caelid is a high-level area, a secret teleport near the Third Church of Marika can take you to the Bestial Sanctum. The small, gargoyle-like enemies outside give a good amount of Runes and are susceptible to fall damage if you lure them correctly. Be very careful here, as the larger enemies are extremely powerful.

Mid to Late Game Farming Spots

• Mohgwyn Palace (via White Mask Varre's questline or late-game teleport): This is arguably the best rune farming spot in the game. An area with numerous Albinaurics can be easily cleared, and there's a specific ledge where you can shoot a bird for massive Runes.
• The Haligtree (requires two halves of the Haligtree Secret Medallion): While challenging, the enemies in the Haligtree offer substantial Rune rewards.

Conquering Bosses: Strategies for Victory

Elden Ring's bosses are legendary for their difficulty, but each has a distinct moveset and weaknesses. Patience, observation, and adaptability are your greatest allies.

Learn the Moveset, Observe the Openings

Don't go into a boss fight expecting to win on the first try. Instead, focus on learning their attack patterns. Observe which attacks have long wind-ups, which leave them vulnerable afterward, and which combos you need to fully avoid. Your first few attempts should be less about dealing damage and more about understanding the flow of the fight.

Utilize Your Toolkit

Remember all the resources at your disposal:

• Spirit Ashes: Often the single most impactful tool for boss fights, distracting the boss and allowing you free hits.
• Status Effects: Many bosses are highly susceptible to Bleed, Frostbite, or Poison. Apply them relentlessly.
• Weapon Buffs: Use Greases or Incantations to imbue your weapon with elemental damage or status effects.
• Summon Co-op Partners: If you're truly stuck, don't hesitate to summon other players using Furlcalling Finger Remedy.

Don't Be Afraid to Overlevel

While skill is paramount, sometimes the simplest solution to a difficult boss is to gain a few more levels, upgrade your weapon, or find a better talisman. The open world provides ample opportunities to do so. If you're hitting a wall, take a break from the boss and explore another region or farm some Runes.

Conclusion: Embrace the Journey, Become Elden Lord

Elden Ring is a monumental achievement, offering an unparalleled sense of freedom and discovery. While its challenges can be formidable, the satisfaction of overcoming them is immense. By embracing exploration, understanding its intricate combat mechanics, utilizing your resources wisely, and approaching each obstacle with patience and an open mind, you will undoubtedly grow in power and skill. The Lands Between awaits, Tarnished. Go forth, forge your legend, and claim your rightful place as Elden Lord.